"My son," said the old man, "how canst thou believe with all thine heart? No Philip has preached Jesus unto thee."
"What need?" exclaimed Abdullah. "Can a man"s belief need preaching to in such a case as this? How long must I believe a religion that saves her I love? A month, a year, until it avails nothing, and she is gone?
This eunuch was a blacker man than I; like me, he was a man of the desert. He did not ride with Philip long. I have not only heard what Philip said to him, but I have also heard what you have said to me.
Both of you have preached unto me Jesus. What right have you to doubt my belief in a G.o.d who will save my love to me? Again, I ask you, what doth hinder me to be baptized?"
"Nothing," said the old man, and they went out both to the well, sparkling beneath the palms, both Abdullah and the Man who Keeps Goats; and he baptized him.
When Abdullah rose from his knees, his forehead dripping, he drew his hand across his face and asked, "Am I a Christian?"
"Yes," said the priest, "so far as I can make you one."
"Thank you," said Abdullah; "you have done much, and in the morning you shall do more, for then you shall baptize the damsel and shall marry us according to your--pardon me--our religion."
They entered the hut, and the priest, pointing toward the chamber-door, asked: "Does she believe?"
"She believes what I believe," said Abdullah.
The priest shook his head. "You speak," he said, "not as a Christian, but as a Moslem. You were brought up to look upon woman as a mere adjunct, a necessary evil, necessary because men must be born into the world. A female child, with you, was a reproach; she was scarcely seen by her parents until she was brought out to be sold in marriage. With Christians it is different. A woman has a soul--"
"Hush," said Abdullah, "or you will awaken the camels with that strange doctrine. A woman has a soul, has she? You read me no such proposition from your prophets, a half-hour ago. Woman was not mentioned by Philip or by the Ethiopian in what you read to me. Is there aught in your book that argues that woman has a soul?"
"Doubtless," said the priest, "but I do not recall it."
He caught up his Bible. He opened it unluckily, for the first words that met his eye were these, and he read them: "Woman, what have I to do with thee?" and he paused, embarra.s.sed.
"Whose words were those?" asked Abdullah.
The priest hesitated, crossed himself, and answered: "They were the words of Jesus."
"To whom were they spoken?" asked Abdullah.
The answer lagged. Finally, the priest said, "To His mother."
"Master," said Abdullah, "the more I learn of my new religion, the more I am enamoured of it;" and he went to the chamber-door and knocked.
"Beloved," he said, and waited.
He knocked again, and again he said, "Beloved."
"Who art thou?" came a voice.
""Tis I, Abdullah," he said.
"Enter," said the voice.
"Not so," said Abdullah; "but come you out."
"Art thou alone?" asked the voice.
"No," replied Abdullah, "the man who keeps goats is here."
"I have no light," said the voice.
Abdullah took the taper from the table, opened the door six inches, felt a warm soft hand meet his own, pressed it, left the taper in it, closed the door, and groped in darkness to his seat.
"Father," he said, after some moments of silence, "_have_ women souls?"
"Doubtless," answered the priest.
"G.o.d help them," said Abdullah; "have they not trouble enough, without souls to save?"
The two men sat silent in the darkness.
The door creaked, a line of light appeared; the door swung wide out, and on the threshold stood Nicha, the taper in her hand.
The two men sat silent, gazing.
She had put off her outer costume of white linen and stood dressed for the house, the seraglio. Upon her head was a _chachia_, a little velvet cap, embroidered with seed-pearls. Her bust was clothed with a _rlila_, or bolero of brocaded silk, beneath which was a vest of muslin, heavy with gold b.u.t.tons. About her slim waist was a _fouta_, or scarf of striped silk. Below came the _serroual_, wide trousers of white silk that ended mid-leg. Upon her feet were blue velvet slippers, pointed, turned up at the toes and embroidered with gold. About her ankles were _redeefs_, or bangles of emeralds, pierced, and strung on common string. At her wrists hung a mult.i.tude of bangles, and on her bare left arm, near the shoulder, was a gold wire that pinched the flesh, and from it hung a filigree medallion that covered her crest, tattooed beneath the skin. It is always so with the tribe of Ouled Nail.
This was the costume of the woman, but the woman herself, as she stood in the doorway, the taper in her hand, who may describe her? Tall, lithe, laughing--her black hair, braided, tied behind her neck, and still reaching the ground; her eyebrows straight as though pencilled; her ears small and closely set; her nose straight and thin, with fluttering nostrils; her shoulders sloping; her bust firm and pulsating beneath her linen vest; her slender waist; her little feet, in the blue velvet slippers; the charm of breeding and of youth; the added charm of jewels and of soft textures; what wonder that the two men sat silent and gazing?
Abdullah spoke first. "Beloved," he said, "I have broken your night"s rest that you may have eternal rest."
The girl laughed. "That is a long way off," she said. "The cemetery, with the cypress-trees, is beautiful, but this hut, with thee, is better. Why did you wake me?"
"Because, since you slept," said Abdullah, "I have changed my religion."
"Good," exclaimed the girl; "then I change mine. I am tired of a religion that makes me plait my hair for eight hours of the day and sends no man to see it."
"What religion do you choose?" asked Abdullah.
"Yours," said the girl, seating herself and dropping her hands, interlaced, and covered with turquoise rings, about her knees; "why should a woman question anything when her husband has pa.s.sed upon it?"
"Did I not tell thee?" said Abdullah.
"Yes," said the priest, "but I waited for her own words."
"You have them now," said Abdullah, and they went out to the spring.
"I name thee Marie," said the priest, "since it is the name borne by the Mother of our Lord."
"Ah," said the girl, "I was baptized Fathma, after the Mother of the Prophet. There seems to be not so much difference thus far."
When the sacrament had been administered and they had returned to the hut, the priest addressed his converts. "My children," he said, "in order to do a great right I have done a little wrong. I have baptized you into a religion that you know nothing of. How should you? You, Abdullah--I beg your pardon, Philip--that was the name I gave you, was it not?"
Abdullah bowed.
"You, Philip," resumed the priest, "have changed your religion to win a woman whom you love; and you, Marie, have changed yours because the man you love bade you. Neither of you knows anything of the faith you have adopted. I have had no chance to instruct you; but one thing I declare to you, the Christian religion tolerates but one husband and one wife."