The Prince of India, Volume I

is known amongst Arabs

talked in low voices. Presently the cry of a muezzin, calling to prayer, flew in long, quavering, swelling notes through the hushed air. Others took up the call, clearer or fainter according to the distance; and so was it attuned to the feeling invoked by the conditions of the moment that no effort was requi

rude employes were absorbed in their devotions,

pe of death. I have come up from the sea, and the end was not there; now I will go into the Desert in search of it. Or if I must live, Lord, give me the happiness there is

the rik'raths so essential by the Mohammedan code, he did the same. When they were through the service, he went on with it that they might see him.

ts; still the melancholy Indian walked before his tent, his hands clasped behind

l but me. Lord, how heavy is t

ong breath,

ne, let those mourn to whom ti

e retros

ons about religion. I wearied of them also. My curse is to weary of everythin

ght awhile, finishi

r yet the mother of my Lael, though I did not understand t

then to the

s a natural impulse, and pure rel

apse in his mind, the better apparently to

entioned God as a principle broad and holy enough for them to stand upon in compromise of their disputes; they may not be better disposed now, yet I will try them. If I succeed I will not be a vulgar monument builder like Alexander; neither will I divide a doubtful fame with Caesar. My glory will be unique. I will have restored mankind to their

, like a man driven. When he stopped

to go on thus cheating myself? If thou wilt not pardon me, how can I

clinched

hey were debating, Was Mahomet a Prophet? Was Christ the Messiah? And

sionate, at times prayerful, then exultant. As he proceeded, he seemed to lose sight of his pre

decision of the sword, Mahomet was the Prophet of God, and Christ but the carpenter's son.... By permission of the Kaliphs, the Christians might visit Jerusalem as pilgrims. A palmer's staff in place of a sword! For shield, a beggar's scrip! But the bishops accepted, and then ushered in an age of fraud, Christian against Christian.... The knoll on which the Byzantine built his church of the Holy Sepulchre is not the Calvary. That the cowled liars call the Sepulchre never held the body of Christ. The tears of the millions of penitents have but watered a monkish deceit.... Fools and blasphemers! The Via Dolorosa led out of the Damascus gate on the north. The skull-shaped hill beyond that gate is the Golgotha. Who should know it better than I? The Centurion asked for a guide; I walked with him. Hyssop was the only green thing growing upon the mount; nothing but hyssop has grown there since. At the base on the west was a garden, and the Sepulchre was in the garden. From the foot of the cross I looked toward the city, and there was a sea of men extending down to the gate.... I know!-I know!-I and misery know!... When I went out fifty years ago there was an agreement between the ancient combatants; each vied with the other in hating and persecuting the Jew, and there was no limit to the afflictions he endured from them.... Speak thou, O Hebron, city of the patriarchs! By him who sits afar, and by him near unto thee, by the stars this peaceful night, and by the Everlasting who is above the stars, be thou heard a witness testifying! There was a d

oaching through the du

Hadji," said the

thou, S

er's son. I have

ngs of priceless worth, sayings of

returned, "The caravan will

ll designate our place in the

I have more

or

Hormuz on the eastern shore,

herd of camels, and loaded them with foo

kh shook

als are his, and must be fed. For this perhaps the unfortunates were blown here by the ang

t the plague will go with us to the Kaaba. Co

men are

their lips, and bring them safe through,

Prince, shrewdly suspecting it w

e afternoon pra

As

thou when it

a believer

t heard the A

so, O

nd all with thee shalt see the Khatib on his dromedary, and

said the Shay

r prayer is the

s comforted,

three thousand souls, defiled confusedly out of the town. The Pri

" asked the Shaykh, who was proud of his

llah are with the dying whom the well-to-do

and they replied: "Ebn-Hanife was a Dervi

uld go no