THE PRINCE OF INDIA (Historical Novel). Lew Wallace

merely had the latter been in her mind; she wished to know more about him. On his part, the story-teller arose from his servile posture, and asked with the animation of one to whom a favorite theme is presented:

      “Noble lady, know you aught of the desert?”

      “I have never been there,” the Princess answered.

      “Though not beautiful, it is the home of mysteries,” he said, with growing enthusiasm. “When he whom in the same breath you worship as God and the Son of God— an opposition beyond the depth of our simple faith—made ready to proclaim himself, he went for a time into the Wilderness, and dwelt there. So likewise our Prophet, seeing the dawn of his day, betook himself to Hivá, a rock, bleak, barren, waterless. Why, O Princess, if not for purification, and because God of preference has founded his dwelling there, wasting it indeed the better to nurse his goodness in a perfected solitude? Granting this, why may I not assert without shocking you that the sons of the desert are the noblest of men?—

      “Such was Hátim!

      “In the Hijaz and the Nejd, they tell of him thus:

      “In the day the Compassionate set about world-making, which is but a pastime with him, nor nearly so much as nest-building to a mother-dove, he rested. The mountains and rivers and seas were in their beds, and the land was variegated to please him, here a forest, there a grassy plain; nothing remained unfinished except the sand oceans, and they only wanted water. He rested.

      “Now, if, with their sky, a sun-field in the day, a gallery of stars at night, and their winds, flying from sea to sea, but gathering no taint, the deserts are treeless, and unknowing the sweetness of gardens and the glory of grass, it was not by accident or forget-fulness; for with him, the Compassionate, the Merciful, there are no accidents or lapses of any kind. He is all attention, and ever present. Thus the Throne verse— ‘Drowsiness overcomes him not nor sleep. His firmament spans the Heaven and the Earth, and the care of them does not distress him.’

      “Why then the yellowness and the burning, the sameness and solitude, and the earth intolerant of rain and running stream, and of roads and paths—why, if there was neither accident nor forgetfulness?

      “He is the High and the Great! Accuse him not!

      “In that moment of rest, not from weariness or overburden, but to approve the work done, and record the approval as a judgment, he said, speaking to his Almightiness as to a familiar: ‘As it is it shall stay. A time will come when with men I, and the very name of me, shall go out utterly like the green of last year’s leaf. He who walks in a garden thinks of it only; but he who abides in a desert, wanting to see the beautiful, must look into the sky, and looking there he shall be reminded of me, and say aloud and as a lover, ‘There is no God but him, the Compassionate, the Merciful…. The eyes see him not, but he seeth the eyes; and He is the Gracious, the Knowing.’ … So also comes a time when religion shall be without heart, dead, and the quickening of worship lost in idolatry; when men shall cry, God, my God, to stones and graven images, and sing to hear their singing, and the loud music it goes with. And that time shall be first in lands of growth and freshness, in cities where comforts and luxuries are as honey in hives after the flowering of palms. Wherefore—Lo, the need of deserts. There I shall never be forgotten. And out of them, out of their hardness and heat, out of their yellow distances and drouth, religion shall arise again, and go forth purified unto universality; for I shall be always present there, a life-giver. And against those days of evil, I shall keep men there, the best of their kind, and their good qualities shall not rust; they shall be brave, for I may want swords; they shall keep the given word, for as I am the Truth, so shall my chosen be; there shall be no end to charity among them, for in such lands charity is life, and must take every form, friendship, love of one another, love of giving, and hospitality, unto which are riches and plenty. And in their worship, I shall be first, and honor next. And as Truth is the Soul of the World, it being but another of my names, for its salvation they shall speak with tongues of fire, this one an orator, that one a poet; and living in the midst of death, they shall fear me not at all, but dishonor more. Mine are the Sons of the Desert—the Word-Keepers!—the Unconquered and Conquerless! For my name’s sake, I nominate them Mine, and I alone am the High and the Great … . And there shall be amongst-them exemplars of this virtue and that one singly; and at intervals through the centuries standards for emulation among the many, a few, in whom all the excellences shall be blent in indivisible comeliness.’

      “So came Hátim, of the Bene-Tayyi, lustrous as the moon of Ramazan to eager watchers on high hilltops, and better than other men, even as all the virtues together are better than any one of them, excepting charity and love of God.

      “Now Hátim’s mother was a widow, poor, and without relations, but beloved by the Compassionate, and always in his care, because she was wise beyond the men of her time, and kept his laws, as they were known, and taught them to her son. One day a great cry arose in the village. Everybody rushed to see the cause, and then joined in the clamor.

      “Up in the north there was an appearance the like of which had never been beheld, nor were there any to tell what it was from hearsay. Some pooh-poohed, saying, contemptuously:

      “‘Tis only a cloud.’

      “Others, observing how rapidly it came, in movement like a bird sailing on outspread motionless wings, said:

      “‘A roc! A roc!’

      “When the object was nearer, a few of the villagers, in alarm, ran to their houses, shrieking:

      “‘Israfil, Israfil! He is bringing the end of time!’

      “Soon the sight was nearly overhead; then it was going by, its edge overhead, the rest of it extending eastwardly; and it was long and broad as a pasture for ten thousand camels, and horses ten thousand. It had no likeness earthly except a carpet of green silk; nor could those standing under describe what bore it along. They thought ‘they heard the sound of a strong wind, but as the air above far and near was full of birds great and small, birds of the water as well as the land, all flying evenly with the carpet, and making a canopy of their wings, and shade deeper than a cloud’s, the beholders were uncertain Whether the birds or the wind served it. In passing, it dipped gently, giving them a view of what it carried—a throne of pearl and rainbow, and a crowned King sitting in majesty; at his left hand, an army of spirits, at his right, an army of men in martial sheen.

      “While the prodigy was before them, the spectators stirred not; nor was there one brave enough to speak; most of them with their eyes devoured it all, King and throne, birds, men and spirits; though afterwards there was asking:

      “‘Did you see the birds?’

      “‘No.’

      “‘The spirits?’

      “‘No.’

      “‘The men?’

      “‘I saw only the King upon His throne.’

      “In the passing, also, a man, in splendor of apparel, stood on the carpet’s edge and shouted:

      “‘God is great! I bear witness there is no God but God.’

      “The same instant something fell from his hand. When the marvel was out of sight in the south, some bethought them, and went to see what it was which fell. They came back laughing, ‘It was only a gourd, and as we have much better on our camel-saddles, we threw it away.’

      “But the mother of Hátim, listening to the report, was not content. In her childhood she heard what was tradition then; how Solomon, at the completion of his temple in Jerusalem, journeyed to Mecca upon a carpet of silk wafted by the wind, with men, spirits, and birds. Wherefore, saying to herself, ‘It was Solomon going to Mecca. Not for nothing threw he the gourd,’ she went alone, and brought it in, and opened it, finding three seeds—one red, like a ruby; a second blue, like a sapphire; the third green, like an emerald.

      “Now she might have sold the seeds, for they were beautiful as gems cut for a crown, and enriched herself; but Hátim was all the world to her. They were for him, she said, and getting a brown nut such as washes