With the rising of the sun next day the caravan, numbering about three thousand souls, defiled confusedly out of the town. The Prince, who might have been first, of choice fell in behind the rest.
"Why dost thou take this place, O Prince?" asked the Shaykh, who was proud of his company, and their comparative good order.
He received for answer, "The blessings of Allah are with the dying whom the well-to-do and selfish in front have pa.s.sed unnoticed."
The Shaykh repeated the saying to his men, and they replied: "Ebn-Hanife was a Dervish: so is this Prince--exalted be his name!"
Eulogy could go no further.
CHAPTER IV
EL ZARIBAH
"I will be their Arbiter in Religion," said the Indian Mystic in his monologue.
This is to be accepted as the motive of the scheme the singular man was pursuing in the wastes of Arabia.
It must be taken of course with his other declaration--"There can be no reform or refinement of faith except G.o.d be its exclusive subject; and so certainly it leads to lopping off all parasitical worships such as are given to Christ and Mahomet."
Fifty years prior, disgusted with the endless and inconsequential debates and wars between Islam and Christianity, he had betaken himself to c.i.p.ango, [Footnote: Supposably j.a.pan.] wherever that might be. There, in a repentant hour, he had conceived the idea of a Universal Religious Brotherhood, with G.o.d for its accordant principle; and he was now returned to present and urge the compromise. In more distinct statement, he was making the pilgrimage to ascertain from personal observation if the Mohammedan portion of the world was in a consenting mood. It was not his first visit to Mecca; but the purpose in mind gave the journey a new zest; and, as can be imagined, nothing in the least indicative of the prevalent spirit of the Hajj escaped him. Readers following the narrative should keep this explanation before them.
From El Derayah the n.o.ble pilgrim had taken the longer route by way of Medina, where he scrupulously performed the observances decreed for the faithful at the Mosque of the Prophet. Thence he descended with the caravan from Damascus.
Dawn of the sixth of September broke over the rolling plain known as the Valley of El Zaribah, disclosing four tents pitched on an eminence to the right of a road running thence south-west. These tents, connected by ropes, helped perfect an enclosure occupied by horses, donkeys, camels and dromedaries, and their c.u.mbrous equipments. Several armed men kept watch over the camp.
The Valley out to the pink granite hills r.i.m.m.i.n.g it round wore a fresh green tint in charming contrast with the tawny-black complexion of the region through which the day"s journey had stretched. Water at a shallow depth nourished camel gra.s.s in patches, and Theban palms, the latter much scattered and too small to be termed trees. The water, and the nearness of the Holy City--only one day distant--had, in a time long gone, won for El Zaribah its double appointment of meeting place for the caravans and place of the final ceremony of a.s.sumption of the costume and vows _El Ihram_.
The Prophet himself had prescribed the ceremony; so the pilgrims in the camp on the eminence, the better to observe it and at the same time get a needful rest, had come up during the night in advance of the caravans.
In other words, the Prince of India--the t.i.tle by which he was now generally known--might, at the opening hour of the day, have been found asleep in the larger of the four tents; the one with the minaret in miniature so handsomely gilded and of such happy effect over the centre pole.
Along the roadsides and on the high grounds of the Valley other tints were visible, while faint columns of smoke arising out of the hollows told of preparations for breakfast. These signified the presence of hucksters, barbers, costume dealers, and traders generally, who, in antic.i.p.ation of the arrival of the caravans, had come from the city to exercise their callings. Amongst them, worthy of special attention, was a mult.i.tude of professional guides, [Footnote: _Mutawif_.] ready for a trifling hire to take charge of uninitiated pilgrims, and lead them regardfully through the numerous ceremonies to which they were going.
Shortly after noon the Prince called in a guide, and several barbers, men with long gowns, green turbans, bra.s.s basins, sharp knives, and bright bladed scissors. The a.s.sumption of the real pilgrimage by his people was then begun. Each man submitted his head, mustaches, and nails to the experts, and bathed and perfumed himself, and was dusted with musk. Next the whole party put off their old garments, and attired themselves in the two white vestments _El Ihram_.[Footnote: A mantle and skirt of white cloth unsewn.] The change of apparel was for the better.
Finally the votaries put on sandals peculiar in that nothing pertaining to them might cover the instep; then they stood up in a row faced toward Mecca, and repeated the ancient formula of dedication of the _Ihram_ to the Almighty slowly intoned for them by the guide.
The solemn demeanor of the men during the ceremony, which was tedious and interspersed with prayers and curious recitals, deeply impressed the Prince, who at the end of the scene retired into his tent, with his three mute attendants, and there performed the vows for himself and them. There also they all a.s.sumed the indispensable costume. Then, as he well might do, the law permitting him to seek the shade of a house or a tent, he had a rug spread before his door, where, in the fresh white attire, he seated himself, and with a jar of expressed juice of pomegranates at his side made ready to witness the pa.s.sing of the caravans, the dust of which was reported visible in the east.
Afterwhile the cloud of dust momentarily deepening over in that direction was enlivened by a clash of cymbals and drums, blent with peals of horns, the fine, high music yet cherished by warriors of the Orient. Presently a body of hors.e.m.e.n appeared, their spear points glistening in the sunlight. A glance at them, then his gaze fixed upon a chief in leading.
The sun had been hot all day; the profiles of the low hills were dim with tremulous haze lying scorchingly upon them; the furred hulks of the camels in the enclosure looked as if they were smoking; the sky held nothing living except two kites which sailed the upper air slowly, their broad wings at widest extension; yet the chief persisted in wearing his arms and armor, like the soldiers behind him. Ere long he rode up and halted in front of the Prince, and near by.
His head was covered with a visorless casque, slightly conical, from the edge of which, beginning about the temples, a cape of fine steel rings, buckled under the chin, enveloped the neck and throat, and fell loosely over the neck and shoulders, and part way down the back. A shirt of linked mail, pliable as wool, defended the body and the arms to the elbows; overalls of like material, save that the parts next the saddle were leather, clothed the thighs and legs. As the casque and every other link of the mail were plated with gold, the general effect at a distance was as if the whole suit were gold. A surcoat of light green cloth hung at the back half hiding a small round shield of burnished bra.s.s; at the left side there was a cimeter, and in the right hand a lance. The saddle was of the high-seated style yet affected by hors.e.m.e.n of Circa.s.sia; at the pommel a bow and well-filled quiver were suspended, and as the stirrups were in fact steel slippers the feet were amply protected by them.
At sight of the martial figure, the Indian, in admiration, arose to a sitting posture. Such, he thought, were the warriors who followed Saladin! And when the stranger, reaching the summit of the eminence, turned out of the road coming apparently to the door of the tent, he involuntarily sprang to his feet ready to do him honor.
The face, then plainly seen, though strong of feature, and thoroughly bronzed, was that of a young man not more than twenty-two or three, dark-eyed, mustached and bearded, and of a serious though pleasant expression. He kept his seat with ease and grace; if he and the broad-chested dark-bay horse were not really one, they were one in spirit; together they wrought the impression which was the origin of _majesty_, a t.i.tle for kings.
While the Prince was turning this in his mind, the soldier pulled rein, and stopped long enough to glance at him and at the camp; then, turning the horse, he looked the other way, making it apparent he had taken position on the rise to overlook the plain, and observe the coming and dispersion of the caravans.
Another mounted man ascended the hill, armed and armored like the first one, though not so richly, and bearing a standard of dulled yellow silk hanging from a gilded staff. The ground of the standard was filled with inscriptions in red lettering, leaving the golden crescent and star on the point of the staff to speak of nationality. The bearer of the flag dismounted, and at a sign planted it in the ground.
Seeing his Shaykh, the Prince called him:
"Who is the warrior yonder?--He in the golden armor?"
"The Emir El Hajj, [Footnote: Chief officer of the Pilgrimage. The appointment was considered the highest favor in the Sultan"s gift.] O Prince."
"He the Emir El Hajj!--And so young?--Oh! a hero of the Serail. The Kislar Aga extolled him one day."
"Thy remark and common report, O excellent Prince, could not journey together on the same camel," said the Shaykh. "In the Khan at Medina I heard his story. There is a famous enemy of the Turks, Iskander Bey, in strength a Jinn, whose sword two men can scarcely lift. He appeared before the army of the Sultan one day with a challenge. He whom thou seest yonder alone dared go forth to meet him. The fought from morning till noon; then they rested. "Who art thou?" asked Iskander. "I am a slave of Amurath, the Commander of the Faithful, who hath commissioned me to take thee to him dead or alive." Iskander laughed, and said, "I know by thy tongue now thou art not a Turk; and to see if the Commander of the Faithful, as thou callest him, hath it in soul to make much of thy merit as a warrior, I will leave thee the honors of the combat, and to go thy way." Whereat they say he lifted his ponderous blade as not heavier than the leaf of a dead palm, and strode from the field."
The Prince listened, and at the end said, like a man in haste:
"Thou knowest Nilo, my black man. Bring him hither."
The Shaykh saluted gravely, and hurried away, leaving his patron with eyes fixed on the Emir, and muttering:
"So young!--and in such favor with the old Amurath! I will know him. If I fail, he may be useful to me. Who knows? Who knows?"
He looked upward as if speaking to some one there.
Meantime the Emir was questioning the ensign.
"This pilgrim," he said, "appears well provided."
And the ensign answered:
"He is the Indian Prince of whom I have been hearing since we left Medina."
"What hast thou heard?"
"That being rich, he is open-handed, making free with his aspers as sowers with their seed."
"What more?"
"He is devout and learned as an Imam. His people call him Malik. Of the prayers he knows everything. As the hours arrive, he lifts the curtains of his litter, and calls them with a voice like Belal"s. The students in the mosque would expire of envy could they see him bend his back in the benedictions."
"_Bismillah!_"
"They say also that in the journey from El Katif to Medina he travelled behind the caravan when he might have been first."
"I see not the virtue in that. The hill-men love best to attack the van."
"Tell me, O Emir, which wouldst thou rather face, a hill-man or the Yellow Air?"