CHAPTER III.
The warriors arose from their place of brief rest and simplerefreshment, and courteously aided each other while they carefullyreplaced and adjusted the harness from which they had relieved for thetime their trusty steeds. Each seemed familiar with an employment whichat that time was a part of necessary and, indeed, of indispensable duty.Each also seemed to possess, as far as the difference betwixt the animaland rational species admitted, the confidence and affection of the horsewhich was the constant companion of his travels and his warfare. Withthe Saracen this familiar intimacy was a part of his early habits; for,in the tents of the Eastern military tribes, the horse of the soldierranks next to, and almost equal in importance with, his wife andhis family; and with the European warrior, circumstances, and indeednecessity, rendered his war-horse scarcely less than his brother inarms. The steeds, therefore, suffered themselves quietly to be takenfrom their food and liberty, and neighed and snuffled fondly aroundtheir masters, while they were adjusting their accoutrements for furthertravel and additional toil. And each warrior, as he prosecuted his owntask, or assisted with courtesy his companion, looked with observantcuriosity at the equipments of his fellow-traveller, and notedparticularly what struck him as peculiar in the fashion in which hearranged his riding accoutrements.
Ere they remounted to resume their journey, the Christian Knight againmoistened his lips and dipped his hands in the living fountain, and saidto his pagan associate of the journey, "I would I knew the name of thisdelicious fountain, that I might hold it in my grateful remembrance; fornever did water slake more deliciously a more oppressive thirst than Ihave this day experienced."
"It is called in the Arabic language," answered the Saracen, "by a namewhich signifies the Diamond of the Desert."
"And well is it so named," replied the Christian. "My native valley hatha thousand springs, but not to one of them shall I attach hereaftersuch precious recollection as to this solitary fount, which bestowsits liquid treasures where they are not only delightful, but nearlyindispensable."
"You say truth," said the Saracen; "for the curse is still on yondersea of death, and neither man nor beast drinks of its waves, nor of theriver which feeds without filling it, until this inhospitable desert bepassed."
They mounted, and pursued their journey across the sandy waste. Theardour of noon was now past, and a light breeze somewhat alleviatedthe terrors of the desert, though not without bearing on its wingsan impalpable dust, which the Saracen little heeded, though hisheavily-armed companion felt it as such an annoyance that he hung hisiron casque at his saddle-bow, and substituted the light riding-cap,termed in the language of the time a MORTIER, from its resemblancein shape to an ordinary mortar. They rode together for some time insilence, the Saracen performing the part of director and guide of thejourney, which he did by observing minute marks and bearings of thedistant rocks, to a ridge of which they were gradually approaching. Fora little time he seemed absorbed in the task, as a pilot when navigatinga vessel through a difficult channel; but they had not proceeded halfa league when he seemed secure of his route, and disposed, with morefrankness than was usual to his nation, to enter into conversation.
"You have asked the name," he said, "of a mute fountain, which hath thesemblance, but not the reality, of a living thing. Let me be pardonedto ask the name of the companion with whom I have this day encountered,both in danger and in repose, and which I cannot fancy unknown even hereamong the deserts of Palestine?"
"It is not yet worth publishing," said the Christian. "Know, however,that among the soldiers of the Cross I am called Kenneth--Kenneth ofthe Couching Leopard; at home I have other titles, but they would soundharsh in an Eastern ear. Brave Saracen, let me ask which of the tribesof Arabia claims your descent, and by what name you are known?"
"Sir Kenneth," said the Moslem, "I joy that your name is such as my lipscan easily utter. For me, I am no Arab, yet derive my descent froma line neither less wild nor less warlike. Know, Sir Knight of theLeopard, that I am Sheerkohf, the Lion of the Mountain, and thatKurdistan, from which I derive my descent, holds no family more noblethan that of Seljook."
"I have heard," answered the Christian, "that your great Soldan claimshis blood from the same source?"
"Thanks to the Prophet that hath so far honoured our mountains as tosend from their bosom him whose word is victory," answered the paynim."I am but as a worm before the King of Egypt and Syria, and yet in myown land something my name may avail. Stranger, with how many men didstthou come on this warfare?"
"By my faith," said Sir Kenneth, "with aid of friends and kinsmen, I washardly pinched to furnish forth ten well-appointed lances, with maybesome fifty more men, archers and varlets included. Some have desertedmy unlucky pennon--some have fallen in battle--several have died ofdisease--and one trusty armour-bearer, for whose life I am now doing mypilgrimage, lies on the bed of sickness."
"Christian," said Sheerkohf, "here I have five arrows in my quiver,each feathered from the wing of an eagle. When I send one of them to mytents, a thousand warriors mount on horseback--when I send another, anequal force will arise--for the five, I can command five thousand men;and if I send my bow, ten thousand mounted riders will shake the desert.And with thy fifty followers thou hast come to invade a land in which Iam one of the meanest!"
"Now, by the rood, Saracen," retorted the Western warrior, "thoushouldst know, ere thou vauntest thyself, that one steel glove can crusha whole handful of hornets."
"Ay, but it must first enclose them within its grasp," said the Saracen,with a smile which might have endangered their new alliance, had he notchanged the subject by adding, "And is bravery so much esteemed amongstthe Christian princes that thou, thus void of means and of men, canstoffer, as thou didst of late, to be my protector and security in thecamp of thy brethren?"
"Know, Saracen," said the Christian, "since such is thy style, that thename of a knight, and the blood of a gentleman, entitle him to placehimself on the same rank with sovereigns even of the first degree, inso far as regards all but regal authority and dominion. Were Richardof England himself to wound the honour of a knight as poor as I am, hecould not, by the law of chivalry, deny him the combat."
"Methinks I should like to look upon so strange a scene," said the Emir,"in which a leathern belt and a pair of spurs put the poorest on a levelwith the most powerful."
"You must add free blood and a fearless heart," said the Christian;"then, perhaps, you will not have spoken untruly of the dignity ofknighthood."
"And mix you as boldly amongst the females of your chiefs and leaders?"asked the Saracen.
"God forbid," said the Knight of the Leopard, "that the poorest knightin Christendom should not be free, in all honourable service, to devotehis hand and sword, the fame of his actions, and the fixed devotion ofhis heart, to the fairest princess who ever wore coronet on her brow!"
"But a little while since," said the Saracen, "and you described love asthe highest treasure of the heart--thine hath undoubtedly been high andnobly bestowed?"
"Stranger," answered the Christian, blushing deeply as he spoke, "wetell not rashly where it is we have bestowed our choicest treasures. Itis enough for thee to know that, as thou sayest, my love is highly andnobly bestowed--most highly--most nobly; but if thou wouldst hear oflove and broken lances, venture thyself, as thou sayest, to the camp ofthe Crusaders, and thou wilt find exercise for thine ears, and, if thouwilt, for thy hands too."
The Eastern warrior, raising himself in his stirrups, and shaking alofthis lance, replied, "Hardly, I fear, shall I find one with a crossedshoulder who will exchange with me the cast of the jerrid."
"I will not promise for that," replied the Knight; "though there be inthe camp certain Spaniards, who have right good skill in your Easterngame of hurling the javelin."
"Dogs, and sons of dogs!" ejaculated the Saracen; "what have theseSpaniards to do to come hither to combat the true believers, who, intheir own land, are their lords and taskmasters? with them I would mixi
n no warlike pastime."
"Let not the knights of Leon or Asturias hear you speak thus of them,"said the Knight of the Leopard. "But," added he, smiling at therecollection of the morning's combat, "if, instead of a reed, you wereinclined to stand the cast of a battle-axe, there are enough of Westernwarriors who would gratify your longing."
"By the beard of my father, sir," said the Saracen, with an approach tolaughter, "the game is too rough for mere sport. I will never shun themin battle, but my head" (pressing his hand to his brow) "will not, for awhile, permit me to seek them in sport."
"I would you saw the axe of King Richard," answered the Western warrior,"to which that which hangs at my saddle-bow weighs but as a feather."
"We hear much of that island sovereign," said the Saracen. "Art thou oneof his subjects?"
"One of his followers I am, for this expedition," answered the Knight,"and honoured in the service; but not born his subject, although anative of the island in which he reigns."
"How mean you? " said the Eastern soldier; "have you then two kings inone poor island?"
"As thou sayest," said the Scot, for such was Sir Kenneth by birth. "Itis even so; and yet, although the inhabitants of the two extremities ofthat island are engaged in frequent war, the country can, as thou seest,furnish forth such a body of men-at-arms as may go far to shake theunholy hold which your master hath laid on the cities of Zion."
"By the beard of Saladin, Nazarene, but that it is a thoughtless andboyish folly, I could laugh at the simplicity of your great Sultan, whocomes hither to make conquests of deserts and rocks, and dispute thepossession of them with those who have tenfold numbers at command, whilehe leaves a part of his narrow islet, in which he was born a sovereign,to the dominion of another sceptre than his. Surely, Sir Kenneth, youand the other good men of your country should have submitted yourselvesto the dominion of this King Richard ere you left your native land,divided against itself, to set forth on this expedition?"
Hasty and fierce was Kenneth's answer. "No, by the bright light ofHeaven! If the King of England had not set forth to the Crusade tillhe was sovereign of Scotland, the Crescent might, for me, and alltrue-hearted Scots, glimmer for ever on the walls of Zion."
Thus far he had proceeded, when, suddenly recollecting himself, hemuttered, "MEA CULPA! MEA CULPA! what have I, a soldier of the Cross, todo with recollection of war betwixt Christian nations!"
The rapid expression of feeling corrected by the dictates of duty didnot escape the Moslem, who, if he did not entirely understand allwhich it conveyed, saw enough to convince him with the assurance thatChristians, as well as Moslemah, had private feelings of personal pique,and national quarrels, which were not entirely reconcilable. But theSaracens were a race, polished, perhaps, to the utmost extent whichtheir religion permitted, and particularly capable of entertaining highideas of courtesy and politeness; and such sentiments prevented histaking any notice of the inconsistency of Sir Kenneth's feelings in theopposite characters of a Scot and a Crusader.
Meanwhile, as they advanced, the scene began to change around them. Theywere now turning to the eastward, and had reached the range of steep andbarren hills which binds in that quarter the naked plain, and varies thesurface of the country, without changing its sterile character. Sharp,rocky eminences began to rise around them, and, in a short time, deepdeclivities and ascents, both formidable in height and difficult fromthe narrowness of the path, offered to the travellers obstacles of adifferent kind from those with which they had recently contended.
Dark caverns and chasms amongst the rocks--those grottoes so oftenalluded to in Scripture--yawned fearfully on either side as theyproceeded, and the Scottish knight was informed by the Emir that thesewere often the refuge of beasts of prey, or of men still more ferocious,who, driven to desperation by the constant war, and the oppressionexercised by the soldiery, as well of the Cross as of the Crescent, hadbecome robbers, and spared neither rank nor religion, neither sex norage, in their depredations.
The Scottish knight listened with indifference to the accounts ofravages committed by wild beasts or wicked men, secure as he felthimself in his own valour and personal strength; but he was struckwith mysterious dread when he recollected that he was now in the awfulwilderness of the forty days' fast, and the scene of the actual personaltemptation, wherewith the Evil Principle was permitted to assail the Sonof Man. He withdrew his attention gradually from the light and worldlyconversation of the infidel warrior beside him, and, however acceptablehis gay and gallant bravery would have rendered him as a companionelsewhere, Sir Kenneth felt as if, in those wildernesses the waste anddry places in which the foul spirits were wont to wander when expelledthe mortals whose forms they possessed, a bare-footed friar would havebeen a better associate than the gay but unbelieving paynim.
These feelings embarrassed him the rather that the Saracen's spiritsappeared to rise with the journey, and because the farther he penetratedinto the gloomy recesses of the mountains, the lighter became hisconversation, and when he found that unanswered, the louder grew hissong. Sir Kenneth knew enough of the Eastern languages to be assuredthat he chanted sonnets of love, containing all the glowing praisesof beauty in which the Oriental poets are so fond of luxuriating, andwhich, therefore, were peculiarly unfitted for a serious or devotionalstrain of thought, the feeling best becoming the Wilderness of theTemptation. With inconsistency enough, the Saracen also sung lays inpraise of wine, the liquid ruby of the Persian poets; and his gaiety atlength became so unsuitable to the Christian knight's contrary train ofsentiments, as, but for the promise of amity which they had exchanged,would most likely have made Sir Kenneth take measures to change hisnote. As it was, the Crusader felt as if he had by his side some gay,licentious fiend, who endeavoured to ensnare his soul, and endanger hisimmortal salvation, by inspiring loose thoughts of earthly pleasure, andthus polluting his devotion, at a time when his faith as a Christian andhis vow as a pilgrim called on him for a serious and penitential stateof mind. He was thus greatly perplexed, and undecided how to act; and itwas in a tone of hasty displeasure that, at length breaking silence, heinterrupted the lay of the celebrated Rudpiki, in which he prefers themole on his mistress's bosom to all the wealth of Bokhara and Samarcand.
"Saracen," said the Crusader sternly, "blinded as thou art, and plungedamidst the errors of a false law, thou shouldst yet comprehend thatthere are some places more holy than others, and that there are somescenes also in which the Evil One hath more than ordinary powerover sinful mortals. I will not tell thee for what awful reason thisplace--these rocks--these caverns with their gloomy arches, leading asit were to the central abyss--are held an especial haunt of Satan andhis angels. It is enough that I have been long warned to beware of thisplace by wise and holy men, to whom the qualities of the unholy regionare well known. Wherefore, Saracen, forbear thy foolish andill-timed levity, and turn thy thoughts to things more suited to thespot--although, alas for thee! thy best prayers are but as blasphemy andsin."
The Saracen listened with some surprise, and then replied, withgood-humour and gaiety, only so far repressed as courtesy required,"Good Sir Kenneth, methinks you deal unequally by your companion, orelse ceremony is but indifferently taught amongst your Western tribes.I took no offence when I saw you gorge hog's flesh and drink wine, andpermitted you to enjoy a treat which you called your Christian liberty,only pitying in my heart your foul pastimes. Wherefore, then, shouldstthou take scandal, because I cheer, to the best of my power, a gloomyroad with a cheerful verse? What saith the poet, 'Song is like thedews of heaven on the bosom of the desert; it cools the path of thetraveller.'"
"Friend Saracen," said the Christian, "I blame not the love ofminstrelsy and of the GAI SCIENCE; albeit, we yield unto it even toomuch room in our thoughts when they should be bent on better things.But prayers and holy psalms are better fitting than LAIS of love, or ofwine-cups, when men walk in this Valley of the Shadow of Death, full offiends and demons, whom the prayers of holy men have driven forthfrom the haunts
of humanity to wander amidst scenes as accursed asthemselves."
"Speak not thus of the Genii, Christian," answered the Saracen, "forknow thou speakest to one whose line and nation drew their origin fromthe immortal race which your sect fear and blaspheme."
"I well thought," answered the Crusader, "that your blinded race hadtheir descent from the foul fiend, without whose aid you would neverhave been able to maintain this blessed land of Palestine against somany valiant soldiers of God. I speak not thus of thee in particular,Saracen, but generally of thy people and religion. Strange is it to me,however, not that you should have the descent from the Evil One, butthat you should boast of it."
"From whom should the bravest boast of descending, saving from him thatis bravest?" said the Saracen; "from whom should the proudest tracetheir line so well as from the Dark Spirit, which would rather fallheadlong by force than bend the knee by his will? Eblis may be hated,stranger, but he must be feared; and such as Eblis are his descendantsof Kurdistan."
Tales of magic and of necromancy were the learning of the period, andSir Kenneth heard his companion's confession of diabolical descentwithout any disbelief, and without much wonder; yet not without a secretshudder at finding himself in this fearful place, in the company ofone who avouched himself to belong to such a lineage. Naturallyinsusceptible, however, of fear, he crossed himself, and stoutlydemanded of the Saracen an account of the pedigree which he had boasted.The latter readily complied.
"Know, brave stranger," he said, "that when the cruel Zohauk, one of thedescendants of Giamschid, held the throne of Persia, he formed a leaguewith the Powers of Darkness, amidst the secret vaults of Istakhar,vaults which the hands of the elementary spirits had hewn out of theliving rock long before Adam himself had an existence. Here he fed,with daily oblations of human blood, two devouring serpents, which hadbecome, according to the poets, a part of himself, and to sustain whomhe levied a tax of daily human sacrifices, till the exhausted patienceof his subjects caused some to raise up the scimitar of resistance, likethe valiant Blacksmith and the victorious Feridoun, by whom the tyrantwas at length dethroned, and imprisoned for ever in the dismal cavernsof the mountain Damavend. But ere that deliverance had taken place, andwhilst the power of the bloodthirsty tyrant was at its height, the bandof ravening slaves whom he had sent forth to purvey victims for hisdaily sacrifice brought to the vaults of the palace of Istakhar sevensisters so beautiful that they seemed seven houris. These seven maidenswere the daughters of a sage, who had no treasures save those beautiesand his own wisdom. The last was not sufficient to foresee thismisfortune, the former seemed ineffectual to prevent it. The eldestexceeded not her twentieth year, the youngest had scarce attained herthirteenth; and so like were they to each other that they could nothave been distinguished but for the difference of height, in which theygradually rose in easy gradation above each other, like the ascent whichleads to the gates of Paradise. So lovely were these seven sisters whenthey stood in the darksome vault, disrobed of all clothing saving acymar of white silk, that their charms moved the hearts of those whowere not mortal. Thunder muttered, the earth shook, the wall of thevault was rent, and at the chasm entered one dressed like a hunter, withbow and shafts, and followed by six others, his brethren. They were tallmen, and, though dark, yet comely to behold; but their eyes had more theglare of those of the dead than the light which lives under the eyelidsof the living. 'Zeineb,' said the leader of the band--and as he spokehe took the eldest sister by the hand, and his voice was soft, low, andmelancholy--'I am Cothrob, king of the subterranean world, and supremechief of Ginnistan. I and my brethren are of those who, created out ofthe pure elementary fire, disdained, even at the command of Omnipotence,to do homage to a clod of earth, because it was called Man. Thou mayesthave heard of us as cruel, unrelenting, and persecuting. It is false. Weare by nature kind and generous; only vengeful when insulted, only cruelwhen affronted. We are true to those who trust us; and we have heard theinvocations of thy father, the sage Mithrasp, who wisely worships notalone the Origin of Good, but that which is called the Source of Evil.You and your sisters are on the eve of death; but let each give to usone hair from your fair tresses, in token of fealty, and we will carryyou many miles from hence to a place of safety, where you may biddefiance to Zohauk and his ministers.' The fear of instant death, saiththe poet, is like the rod of the prophet Haroun, which devoured allother rods when transformed into snakes before the King of Pharaoh; andthe daughters of the Persian sage were less apt than others to beafraid of the addresses of a spirit. They gave the tribute which Cothrobdemanded, and in an instant the sisters were transported to an enchantedcastle on the mountains of Tugrut, in Kurdistan, and were never againseen by mortal eye. But in process of time seven youths, distinguishedin the war and in the chase, appeared in the environs of the castle ofthe demons. They were darker, taller, fiercer, and more resolute thanany of the scattered inhabitants of the valleys of Kurdistan; and theytook to themselves wives, and became fathers of the seven tribes of theKurdmans, whose valour is known throughout the universe."
The Christian knight heard with wonder the wild tale, of which Kurdistanstill possesses the traces, and, after a moment's thought, replied,"Verily, Sir Knight, you have spoken well--your genealogy may be dreadedand hated, but it cannot be contemned. Neither do I any longer wonderat your obstinacy in a false faith, since, doubtless, it is part of thefiendish disposition which hath descended from your ancestors, thoseinfernal huntsmen, as you have described them, to love falsehood ratherthan truth; and I no longer marvel that your spirits become high andexalted, and vent themselves in verse and in tunes, when you approach tothe places encumbered by the haunting of evil spirits, which must excitein you that joyous feeling which others experience when approaching theland of their human ancestry."
"By my father's beard, I think thou hast the right," said the Saracen,rather amused than offended by the freedom with which the Christian haduttered his reflections; "for, though the Prophet (blessed be his name!)hath sown amongst us the seed of a better faith than our ancestorslearned in the ghostly halls of Tugrut, yet we are not willing, likeother Moslemah, to pass hasty doom on the lofty and powerful elementaryspirits from whom we claim our origin. These Genii, according to ourbelief and hope, are not altogether reprobate, but are still in the wayof probation, and may hereafter be punished or rewarded. Leave we thisto the mollahs and the imauns. Enough that with us the reverence forthese spirits is not altogether effaced by what we have learned from theKoran, and that many of us still sing, in memorial of our fathers' moreancient faith, such verses as these."
So saying, he proceeded to chant verses, very ancient in the languageand structure, which some have thought derive their source from theworshippers of Arimanes, the Evil Principle.
AHRIMAN.
Dark Ahriman, whom Irak still Holds origin of woe and ill! When, bending at thy shrine, We view the world with troubled eye, Where see we 'neath the extended sky, An empire matching thine!
If the Benigner Power can yield A fountain in the desert field, Where weary pilgrims drink; Thine are the waves that lash the rock, Thine the tornado's deadly shock, Where countless navies sink!
Or if he bid the soil dispense Balsams to cheer the sinking sense, How few can they deliver From lingering pains, or pang intense, Red Fever, spotted Pestilence, The arrows of thy quiver!
Chief in Man's bosom sits thy sway, And frequent, while in words we pray Before another throne, Whate'er of specious form be there, The secret meaning of the prayer Is, Ahriman, thine own.
Say, hast thou feeling, sense, and form, Thunder thy voice, thy garments storm, As Eastern Magi say; With sentient soul of hate and wrath, And wings to sweep thy deadly path, And fangs to tear thy prey?
Or art thou mix'd in Nature's source, An ever-operating force, Converting good to ill; An evil principle innate, Contending with
our better fate, And, oh! victorious still?
Howe'er it be, dispute is vain. On all without thou hold'st thy reign, Nor less on all within; Each mortal passion's fierce career, Love, hate, ambition, joy, and fear, Thou goadest into sin.
Whene'er a sunny gleam appears, To brighten up our vale of tears, Thou art not distant far; 'Mid such brief solace of our lives, Thou whett'st our very banquet-knives To tools of death and war.
Thus, from the moment of our birth, Long as we linger on the earth, Thou rulest the fate of men; Thine are the pangs of life's last hour, And--who dare answer?--is thy power, Dark Spirit! ended THEN?
[The worthy and learned clergyman by whom this species of hymn has been translated desires, that, for fear of misconception, we should warn the reader to recollect that it is composed by a heathen, to whom the real causes of moral and physical evil are unknown, and who views their predominance in the system of the universe as all must view that appalling fact who have not the benefit of the Christian revelation. On our own part, we beg to add, that we understand the style of the translator is more paraphrastic than can be approved by those who are acquainted with the singularly curious original. The translator seems to have despaired of rendering into English verse the flights of Oriental poetry; and, possibly, like many learned and ingenious men, finding it impossible to discover the sense of the original, he may have tacitly substituted his own.]
These verses may perhaps have been the not unnatural effusion of somehalf-enlightened philosopher, who, in the fabled deity, Arimanes, sawbut the prevalence of moral and physical evil; but in the ears of SirKenneth of the Leopard they had a different effect, and, sung as theywere by one who had just boasted himself a descendant of demons, soundedvery like an address of worship to the arch-fiend himself. He weighedwithin himself whether, on hearing such blasphemy in the very desertwhere Satan had stood rebuked for demanding homage, taking an abruptleave of the Saracen was sufficient to testify his abhorrence; orwhether he was not rather constrained by his vow as a Crusader to defythe infidel to combat on the spot, and leave him food for the beasts ofthe wilderness, when his attention was suddenly caught by an unexpectedapparition.
The light was now verging low, yet served the knight still to discernthat they two were no longer alone in the desert, but were closelywatched by a figure of great height and very thin, which skipped overrocks and bushes with so much agility as, added to the wild and hirsuteappearance of the individual, reminded him of the fauns and silvans,whose images he had seen in the ancient temples of Rome. As thesingle-hearted Scottishman had never for a moment doubted these gods ofthe ancient Gentiles to be actually devils, so he now hesitated notto believe that the blasphemous hymn of the Saracen had raised up aninfernal spirit.
"But what recks it?" said stout Sir Kenneth to himself; "down with thefiend and his worshippers!"
He did not, however, think it necessary to give the same warning ofdefiance to two enemies as he would unquestionably have afforded to one.His hand was upon his mace, and perhaps the unwary Saracen would havebeen paid for his Persian poetry by having his brains dashed out on thespot, without any reason assigned for it; but the Scottish Knight wasspared from committing what would have been a sore blot in his shieldof arms. The apparition, on which his eyes had been fixed for some time,had at first appeared to dog their path by concealing itself behindrocks and shrubs, using those advantages of the ground with greataddress, and surmounting its irregularities with surprising agility. Atlength, just as the Saracen paused in his song, the figure, which wasthat of a tall man clothed in goat-skins, sprung into the midst ofthe path, and seized a rein of the Saracen's bridle in either hand,confronting thus and bearing back the noble horse, which, unable toendure the manner in which this sudden assailant pressed the long-armedbit, and the severe curb, which, according to the Eastern fashion, wasa solid ring of iron, reared upright, and finally fell backwards on hismaster, who, however, avoided the peril of the fall by lightly throwinghimself to one side.
The assailant then shifted his grasp from the bridle of the horse to thethroat of the rider, flung himself above the struggling Saracen, and,despite of his youth and activity kept him undermost, wreathing hislong arms above those of his prisoner, who called out angrily, and yethalf-laughing at the same time--"Hamako--fool--unloose me--this passesthy privilege--unloose me, or I will use my dagger."
"Thy dagger!--infidel dog!" said the figure in the goat-skins, "hold itin thy gripe if thou canst!" and in an instant he wrenched the Saracen'sweapon out of its owner's hand, and brandished it over his head.
"Help, Nazarene!" cried Sheerkohf, now seriously alarmed; "help, or theHamako will slay me."
"Slay thee!" replied the dweller of the desert; "and well hast thoumerited death, for singing thy blasphemous hymns, not only to the praiseof thy false prophet, who is the foul fiend's harbinger, but to that ofthe Author of Evil himself."
The Christian Knight had hitherto looked on as one stupefied, sostrangely had this rencontre contradicted, in its progress and event,all that he had previously conjectured. He felt, however, at length,that it touched his honour to interfere in behalf of his discomfitedcompanion, and therefore addressed himself to the victorious figure inthe goat-skins.
"Whosoe'er thou art," he said, "and whether of good or of evil, knowthat I am sworn for the time to be true companion to the Saracen whomthou holdest under thee; therefore, I pray thee to let him arise, else Iwill do battle with thee in his behalf."
"And a proper quarrel it were," answered the Hamako, "for a Crusader todo battle in--for the sake of an unbaptized dog, to combat one of hisown holy faith! Art thou come forth to the wilderness to fight for theCrescent against the Cross? A goodly soldier of God art thou to listento those who sing the praises of Satan!"
Yet, while he spoke thus, he arose himself, and, suffering the Saracento rise also, returned him his cangiar, or poniard.
"Thou seest to what a point of peril thy presumption hath brought thee,"continued he of the goat-skins, now addressing Sheerkohf, "and by whatweak means thy practised skill and boasted agility can be foiled, whensuch is Heaven's pleasure. Wherefore, beware, O Ilderim! for know that,were there not a twinkle in the star of thy nativity which promises forthee something that is good and gracious in Heaven's good time, wetwo had not parted till I had torn asunder the throat which so latelytrilled forth blasphemies."
"Hamako," said the Saracen, without any appearance of resenting theviolent language and yet more violent assault to which he had beensubjected, "I pray thee, good Hamako, to beware how thou dost again urgethy privilege over far; for though, as a good Moslem, I respect thosewhom Heaven hath deprived of ordinary reason, in order to endow themwith the spirit of prophecy, yet I like not other men's hands on thebridle of my horse, neither upon my own person. Speak, therefore, whatthou wilt, secure of any resentment from me; but gather so much senseas to apprehend that if thou shalt again proffer me any violence, I willstrike thy shagged head from thy meagre shoulders.--and to thee, friendKenneth," he added, as he remounted his steed, "I must needs say, thatin a companion through the desert, I love friendly deeds better thanfair words. Of the last thou hast given me enough; but it had beenbetter to have aided me more speedily in my struggle with this Hamako,who had well-nigh taken my life in his frenzy."
"By my faith," said the Knight, "I did somewhat fail--was somewhat tardyin rendering thee instant help; but the strangeness of the assailant,the suddenness of the scene--it was as if thy wild and wicked lay hadraised the devil among us--and such was my confusion, that two or threeminutes elapsed ere I could take to my weapon."
"Thou art but a cold and considerate friend," said the Saracen; "and,had the Hamako been one grain more frantic, thy companion had been slainby thy side, to thy eternal dishonour, without thy stirring a finger inhis aid, although thou satest by, mounted, and in arms."
"By my wo
rd, Saracen," said the Christian, "if thou wilt have it inplain terms, I thought that strange figure was the devil; and being ofthy lineage, I knew not what family secret you might be communicating toeach other, as you lay lovingly rolling together on the sand."
"Thy gibe is no answer, brother Kenneth," said the Saracen; "for know,that had my assailant been in very deed the Prince of Darkness, thouwert bound not the less to enter into combat with him in thy comrade'sbehalf. Know, also, that whatever there may be of foul or of fiendishabout the Hamako belongs more to your lineage than to mine--this Hamakobeing, in truth, the anchorite whom thou art come hither to visit."
"This!" said Sir Kenneth, looking at the athletic yet wasted figurebefore him--"this! Thou mockest, Saracen--this cannot be the venerableTheodorick!"
"Ask himself, if thou wilt not believe me," answered Sheerkohf; andere the words had left his mouth, the hermit gave evidence in his ownbehalf.
"I am Theodorick of Engaddi," he said--"I am the walker of the desert--Iam friend of the Cross, and flail of all infidels, heretics, anddevil-worshippers. Avoid ye, avoid ye! Down with Mahound, Termagaunt,and all their adherents!"--So saying, he pulled from under his shaggygarment a sort of flail or jointed club, bound with iron, which hebrandished round his head with singular dexterity.
"Thou seest thy saint," said the Saracen, laughing, for the first time,at the unmitigated astonishment with which Sir Kenneth looked on thewild gestures and heard the wayward muttering of Theodorick, who, afterswinging his flail in every direction, apparently quite reckless whetherit encountered the head of either of his companions, finally showedhis own strength, and the soundness of the weapon, by striking intofragments a large stone which lay near him.
"This is a madman," said Sir Kenneth.
"Not the worse saint," returned the Moslem, speaking according tothe well-known Eastern belief, that madmen are under the influenceof immediate inspiration. "Know, Christian, that when one eye isextinguished, the other becomes more keen; when one hand is cut off,the other becomes more powerful; so, when our reason in human thingsis disturbed or destroyed, our view heavenward becomes more acute andperfect."
Here the voice of the Saracen was drowned in that of the hermit, whobegan to hollo aloud in a wild, chanting tone, "I am Theodorick ofEngaddi--I am the torch-brand of the desert--I am the flail of theinfidels! The lion and the leopard shall be my comrades, and draw nighto my cell for shelter; neither shall the goat be afraid of their fangs.I am the torch and the lantern--Kyrie Eleison!"
He closed his song by a short race, and ended that again by threeforward bounds, which would have done him great credit in a gymnasticacademy, but became his character of hermit so indifferently that theScottish Knight was altogether confounded and bewildered.
The Saracen seemed to understand him better. "You see," he said, "thathe expects us to follow him to his cell, which, indeed, is our onlyplace of refuge for the night. You are the leopard, from the portraiton your shield; I am the lion, as my name imports; and by the goat,alluding to his garb of goat-skins, he means himself. We must keep himin sight, however, for he is as fleet as a dromedary."
In fact, the task was a difficult one, for though the reverend guidestopped from time to time, and waved his hand, as if to encourage themto come on, yet, well acquainted with all the winding dells and passesof the desert, and gifted with uncommon activity, which, perhaps, anunsettled state of mind kept in constant exercise, he led the knightsthrough chasms and along footpaths where even the light-armed Saracen,with his well-trained barb, was in considerable risk, and where theiron-sheathed European and his over-burdened steed found themselves insuch imminent peril as the rider would gladly have exchanged for thedangers of a general action. Glad he was when, at length, after thiswild race, he beheld the holy man who had led it standing in front ofa cavern, with a large torch in his hand, composed of a piece of wooddipped in bitumen, which cast a broad and flickering light, and emitteda strong sulphureous smell.
Undeterred by the stifling vapour, the knight threw himself fromhis horse and entered the cavern, which afforded small appearance ofaccommodation. The cell was divided into two parts, in the outward ofwhich were an altar of stone and a crucifix made of reeds: this servedthe anchorite for his chapel. On one side of this outward cave theChristian knight, though not without scruple, arising from religiousreverence to the objects around, fastened up his horse, and arranged himfor the night, in imitation of the Saracen, who gave him to understandthat such was the custom of the place. The hermit, meanwhile, was busiedputting his inner apartment in order to receive his guests, and therethey soon joined him. At the bottom of the outer cave, a small aperture,closed with a door of rough plank, led into the sleeping apartment ofthe hermit, which was more commodious. The floor had been brought to arough level by the labour of the inhabitant, and then strewed with whitesand, which he daily sprinkled with water from a small fountain whichbubbled out of the rock in one corner, affording in that stiflingclimate, refreshment alike to the ear and the taste. Mattresses, wroughtof twisted flags, lay by the side of the cell; the sides, like thefloor, had been roughly brought to shape, and several herbs and flowerswere hung around them. Two waxen torches, which the hermit lighted,gave a cheerful air to the place, which was rendered agreeable by itsfragrance and coolness.
There were implements of labour in one corner of the apartment, inanother was a niche for a rude statue of the Virgin. A table and twochairs showed that they must be the handiwork of the anchorite, beingdifferent in their form from Oriental accommodations. The former wascovered, not only with reeds and pulse, but also with dried flesh, whichTheodorick assiduously placed in such arrangement as should invite theappetite of his guests. This appearance of courtesy, though mute, andexpressed by gestures only, seemed to Sir Kenneth something entirelyirreconcilable with his former wild and violent demeanour. The movementsof the hermit were now become composed, and apparently it was only asense of religious humiliation which prevented his features, emaciatedas they were by his austere mode of life, from being majestic and noble.He trod his cell as one who seemed born to rule over men, but who hadabdicated his empire to become the servant of Heaven. Still, it mustbe allowed that his gigantic size, the length of his unshaven locks andbeard, and the fire of a deep-set and wild eye were rather attributes ofa soldier than of a recluse.
Even the Saracen seemed to regard the anchorite with some veneration,while he was thus employed, and he whispered in a low tone to SirKenneth, "The Hamako is now in his better mind, but he will not speakuntil we have eaten--such is his vow."
It was in silence, accordingly, that Theodorick motioned to the Scot totake his place on one of the low chairs, while Sheerkohf placed himself,after the custom of his nation, upon a cushion of mats. The hermit thenheld up both hands, as if blessing the refreshment which he had placedbefore his guests, and they proceeded to eat in silence as profoundas his own. To the Saracen this gravity was natural; and the Christianimitated his taciturnity, while he employed his thoughts on thesingularity of his own situation, and the contrast betwixt the wild,furious gesticulations, loud cries, and fierce actions of Theodorick,when they first met him, and the demure, solemn, decorous assiduity withwhich he now performed the duties of hospitality.
When their meal was ended, the hermit, who had not himself eaten amorsel, removed the fragments from the table, and placing before theSaracen a pitcher of sherbet, assigned to the Scot a flask of wine.
"Drink," he said, "my children"--they were the first words he hadspoken--"the gifts of God are to be enjoyed, when the Giver isremembered."
Having said this, he retired to the outward cell, probably forperformance of his devotions, and left his guests together in the innerapartment; when Sir Kenneth endeavoured, by various questions, todraw from Sheerkohf what that Emir knew concerning his host. He wasinterested by more than mere curiosity in these inquiries. Difficult asit was to reconcile the outrageous demeanour of the recluse at his firstappearance with his present humble and placid behaviour, it se
emed yetmore impossible to think it consistent with the high consideration inwhich, according to what Sir Kenneth had learned, this hermit was heldby the most enlightened divines of the Christian world. Theodorick, thehermit of Engaddi, had, in that character, been the correspondent ofpopes and councils; to whom his letters, full of eloquent fervour,had described the miseries imposed by the unbelievers upon the LatinChristians in the Holy Land, in colours scarce inferior to thoseemployed at the Council of Clermont by the Hermit Peter, when hepreached the first Crusade. To find, in a person so reverend and somuch revered, the frantic gestures of a mad fakir, induced the Christianknight to pause ere he could resolve to communicate to him certainimportant matters, which he had in charge from some of the leaders ofthe Crusade.
It had been a main object of Sir Kenneth's pilgrimage, attempted bya route so unusual, to make such communications; but what he had thatnight seen induced him to pause and reflect ere he proceeded to theexecution of his commission. From the Emir he could not extract muchinformation, but the general tenor was as follows:--That, as he hadheard, the hermit had been once a brave and valiant soldier, wise incouncil and fortunate in battle, which last he could easily believe fromthe great strength and agility which he had often seen him display; thathe had appeared at Jerusalem in the character not of a pilgrim, but inthat of one who had devoted himself to dwell for the remainder of hislife in the Holy Land. Shortly afterwards, he fixed his residence amidthe scenes of desolation where they now found him, respected by theLatins for his austere devotion, and by the Turks and Arabs on accountof the symptoms of insanity which he displayed, and which they ascribedto inspiration. It was from them he had the name of Hamako, whichexpresses such a character in the Turkish language. Sheerkohf himselfseemed at a loss how to rank their host. He had been, he said, a wiseman, and could often for many hours together speak lessons of virtue orwisdom, without the slightest appearance of inaccuracy. At othertimes he was wild and violent, but never before had he seen him somischievously disposed as he had that day appeared to be. His rage waschiefly provoked by any affront to his religion; and there was a storyof some wandering Arabs, who had insulted his worship and defaced hisaltar, and whom he had on that account attacked and slain with theshort flail which he carried with him in lieu of all other weapons.This incident had made a great noise, and it was as much the fear of thehermit's iron flail as regard for his character as a Hamako which causedthe roving tribes to respect his dwelling and his chapel. His fame hadspread so far that Saladin had issued particular orders that he shouldbe spared and protected. He himself, and other Moslem lords of rank, hadvisited the cell more than once, partly from curiosity, partly that theyexpected from a man so learned as the Christian Hamako some insight intothe secrets of futurity. "He had," continued the Saracen, "a rashid, orobservatory, of great height, contrived to view the heavenly bodies, andparticularly the planetary system--by whose movements and influences,as both Christian and Moslem believed, the course of human events wasregulated, and might be predicted."
This was the substance of the Emir Sheerkohf's information, and it leftSir Kenneth in doubt whether the character of insanity arose from theoccasional excessive fervour of the hermit's zeal, or whether it was notaltogether fictitious, and assumed for the sake of the immunitieswhich it afforded. Yet it seemed that the infidels had carried theircomplaisance towards him to an uncommon length, considering thefanaticism of the followers of Mohammed, in the midst of whom he wasliving, though the professed enemy of their faith. He thought also therewas more intimacy of acquaintance betwixt the hermit and the Saracenthan the words of the latter had induced him to anticipate; and ithad not escaped him that the former had called the latter by aname different from that which he himself had assumed. All theseconsiderations authorized caution, if not suspicion. He determined toobserve his host closely, and not to be over-hasty in communicating withhim on the important charge entrusted to him.
"Beware, Saracen," he said; "methinks our host's imagination wandersas well on the subject of names as upon other matters. Thy name isSheerkohf, and he called thee but now by another."
"My name, when in the tent of my father," replied the Kurdman, "wasIlderim, and by this I am still distinguished by many. In the field, andto soldiers, I am known as the Lion of the Mountain, being the name mygood sword hath won for me. But hush, the Hamako comes--it is to warn usto rest. I know his custom; none must watch him at his vigils."
The anchorite accordingly entered, and folding his arms on his bosom ashe stood before them, said with a solemn voice, "Blessed be His name,who hath appointed the quiet night to follow the busy day, and the calmsleep to refresh the wearied limbs and to compose the troubled spirit!"
Both warriors replied "Amen!" and, arising from the table, prepared tobetake themselves to the couches, which their host indicated by wavinghis hand, as, making a reverence to each, he again withdrew from theapartment.
The Knight of the Leopard then disarmed himself of his heavy panoply,his Saracen companion kindly assisting him to undo his buckler andclasps, until he remained in the close dress of chamois leather, whichknights and men-at-arms used to wear under their harness. The Saracen,if he had admired the strength of his adversary when sheathed in steel,was now no less struck with the accuracy of proportion displayed in hisnervous and well-compacted figure. The knight, on the other hand, as, inexchange of courtesy, he assisted the Saracen to disrobe himself of hisupper garments, that he might sleep with more convenience, was, on hisside, at a loss to conceive how such slender proportions and slimness offigure could be reconciled with the vigour he had displayed in personalcontest.
Each warrior prayed ere he addressed himself to his place of rest. TheMoslem turned towards his KEBLAH, the point to which the prayer of eachfollower of the Prophet was to be addressed, and murmured his heathenorisons; while the Christian, withdrawing from the contamination of theinfidel's neighbourhood, placed his huge cross-handled sword upright,and kneeling before it as the sign of salvation, told his rosary witha devotion which was enhanced by the recollection of the scenes throughwhich he had passed, and the dangers from which he had been rescued, inthe course of the day. Both warriors, worn by toil and travel, were soonfast asleep, each on his separate pallet.