The Days of Mohammed

n high a

f fear a

gfel

oncluded. After a short halt at Medina, the caravan set out by

nblende, appeared at every turn-were interspersed with wadies, bounded by ridges of basalt and green-stone, rising from one hundred to two hundred feet high, and covered with a scanty vegetation of thorny acacias and clumps of camel-g

above, during the day, an occasional vulture wheeled, fre

its way, beneath a sky peculiar to Arabia-purple at night, white and

at that particular spot, led over a plain which afforded comparatively easy traveling, and thus gave a better opportunity for conversation.

of leisure, but Yusuf the Magian priest, accustomed to feed the sacred fire in the Temple of Jupiter. Is it not so? Did not

msoned with pain, and the veins

own among the Sab?ans of to-day, and common even among the Magians of the past. Amzi, it was in my days of heathendom that I did it, thinking it a duty to Heaven. It was Yusuf the priest who did i

"He knows, too, that Yusuf can never e

car, in the form of a torch, appeared in the flesh. As Yusuf hastened to cover it, a head was

e note of the meddler, but the occurrence of an event common

A simoom!" arose th

roar sounded from afar off, broken by a peculiar shrieking whistle. And now dense columns could be seen, bent backward in trailing wreaths of copper at the top, changing and swaying be

ll to the ground. Horses neighed in fear, and galloped madly to and fro. But the hot breath of the "poison-wind" was upon them in a moment, shrieking like a fiend among the crisping aca

pest went swirling on its way northward, leaving

ad escaped to the other end of

ning when the procession passed through the cleft at the western end; and the sun was just rising, a globe of red, above the blue mountains towards Tayf, when Yusuf stopped his camel

ing in the midst of a courtyard two hundred and fifty paces long by two hundred paces w

oped would prove the end of his long journey. Yet his eye clouded; he covered his face with his mantle and wept, saying to his soul, "Here

iend? Thou art a false Guebre, truly! Know you no

ntinued: "Arouse yourself, my friend. See how they worship in Mecca. They

ng in the court-yard. Many were rushing about the Caaba, a

sing the Hajar Aswad-the Black Stone, which, the Arabs say, was once an angel cast from heaven in the form of a pure white jacinth. It is now blackened by the kisses of sinners, but will, at the last day, arise

tion, and the camels were urged on a

"A roguish Hebrew left me, with scant ceremony, in p

osition among the highest of Mecca, and has, for ages past, had the guardianship of the Caaba itself. Mohammed himself is a man of sagacity and honor in all his dealings. He is married to Cadijah, a we

then, who cast as

al years, been accustomed to retire to the cave of Hira for meditation and prayer. It is said that he has preached and taught for some time in the city, but only to hi

ouse furnished with no small

he carven c

d over span

flights of m

h golden b

fashion of

ats was prepared; and, when the coolness of evenin

hile others walked or ran about the Caaba, which loomed huge and somber beneath the solemn light of the stars. A few solitary torches-for at that time the slend

s of Mohammed at a later day was absent, yet every motion of the motley crowd proclaim

ack robes and heavy black head-dress proclaimed the wearer a Bedouin woman. Here ran a group of beggars; and there a number of half-

ain! Oh, why does not he whom Dumah sees in his dreams come to raise him! But then

le might be entered only at certain times, but that it contained an image of Abraham holding in its hand some arrows without heads; also a sim

ground, and which seemed to be black with yellowish specks in it.[6] Many people were pressing forward to kiss it, while many more were drinking an

ll which gushed up to give drink to our forefather Ishmael and H

d his eyes towards the mountain Abu Kubays, towering dark and gloomy above the town, its bla

there any food in this empty ceremonial for a hungering soul? Why, oh why did the truth ever el

was gliding quickly on in the shadows. Once or twice she seemed to stagger, then she fell. Yusuf hurried to her, and turned her face to the starlight. Even in that dim light he could see tha