CHAPTER X
Beyond the village the country was undulating and cultivated; in fact,it was the garden-land of Antioch, with not a foot lost to labor.The steep faces of the hills were terraced; even the hedges werebrighter of the trailing vines which, besides the lure of shade,offered passers-by sweet promises of wine to come, and grapes inclustered purple ripeness. Over melon-patches, and through apricotand fig-tree groves, and groves of oranges and limes, the white-washedhouses of the farmers were seen; and everywhere Plenty, the smilingdaughter of Peace, gave notice by her thousand signs that she wasat home, making the generous traveller merry at heart, until he waseven disposed to give Rome her dues. Occasionally, also, views werehad of Taurus and Lebanon, between which, a separating line of silver,the Orontes placidly pursued its way.
In course of their journey the friends came to the river, which theyfollowed with the windings of the road, now over bold bluffs, and theninto vales, all alike allotted for country-seats, and if the landwas in full foliage of oak and sycamore and myrtle, and bay andarbutus, and perfuming jasmine, the river was bright with slantedsunlight, which would have slept where it fell but for ships inendless procession, gliding with the current, tacking for the wind,or bounding under the impulse of oars--some coming, some going, andall suggestive of the sea, and distant peoples, and famous places,and things coveted on account of their rarity. To the fancy thereis nothing so winsome as a white sail seaward blown, unless it bea white sail homeward bound, its voyage happily done. And down theshore the friends went continuously till they came to a lake fedby back-water from the river, clear, deep, and without current.An old palm-tree dominated the angle of the inlet; turning to theleft at the foot of the tree, Malluch clapped his hands and shouted,
"Look, look! The Orchard of Palms!"
The scene was nowhere else to be found unless in the favored oasesof Arabia or the Ptolemaean farms along the Nile; and to sustain asensation new as it was delightful, Ben-Hur was admitted into a tractof land apparently without limit and level as a floor. All under footwas fresh grass, in Syria the rarest and most beautiful production ofthe soil; if he looked up, it was to see the sky paley blue throughthe groinery of countless date-bearers, very patriarchs of their kind,so numerous and old, and of such mighty girth, so tall, so serried,so wide of branch, each branch so perfect with fronds, plumy andwaxlike and brilliant, they seemed enchanters enchanted. Here wasthe grass coloring the very atmosphere; there the lake, cool andclear, rippling but a few feet under the surface, and helpingthe trees to their long life in old age. Did the Grove of Daphneexcel this one? And the palms, as if they knew Ben-Hur's thought,and would win him after a way of their own, seemed, as he passedunder their arches, to stir and sprinkle him with dewy coolness.
The road wound in close parallelism with the shore of the lake;and when it carried the travellers down to the water's edge,there was always on that side a shining expanse limited not faroff by the opposite shore, on which, as on this one, no tree butthe palm was permitted.
"See that," said Malluch, pointing to a giant of the place."Each ring upon its trunk marks a year of its life. Count themfrom root to branch, and if the sheik tells you the grove wasplanted before the Seleucidae were heard of in Antioch, do notdoubt him."
One may not look at a perfect palm-tree but that, with a subtletyall its own, it assumes a presence for itself, and makes a poet ofthe beholder. This is the explanation of the honors it has received,beginning with the artists of the first kings, who could find no formin all the earth to serve them so well as a model for the pillarsof their palaces and temples; and for the same reason Ben-Hur wasmoved to say,
"As I saw him at the stand to-day, good Malluch, Sheik Ilderimappeared to be a very common man. The rabbis in Jerusalem wouldlook down upon him, I fear, as a son of a dog of Edom. How camehe in possession of the Orchard? And how has he been able to holdit against the greed of Roman governors?"
"If blood derives excellence from time, son of Arrius, then is oldIlderim a man, though he be an uncircumcised Edomite."
Malluch spoke warmly.
"All his fathers before him were sheiks. One of them--I shall notsay when he lived or did the good deed--once helped a king who wasbeing hunted with swords. The story says he loaned him a thousandhorsemen, who knew the paths of the wilderness and its hiding-placesas shepherds know the scant hills they inhabit with their flocks;and they carried him here and there until the opportunity came,and then with their spears they slew the enemy, and set him uponhis throne again. And the king, it is said, remembered the service,and brought the son of the Desert to this place, and bade him set uphis tent and bring his family and his herds, for the lake and trees,and all the land from the river to the nearest mountains, were hisand his children's forever. And they have never been disturbed inthe possession. The rulers succeeding have found it policy to keepgood terms with the tribe, to whom the Lord has given increaseof men and horses, and camels and riches, making them masters ofmany highways between cities; so that it is with them any time theyplease to say to commerce, 'Go in peace,' or 'Stop,' and what theysay shall be done. Even the prefect in the citadel overlookingAntioch thinks it happy day with him when Ilderim, surnamed theGenerous on account of good deeds done unto all manner of men,with his wives and children, and his trains of camels and horses,and his belongings of sheik, moving as our fathers Abraham andJacob moved, comes up to exchange briefly his bitter wells forthe pleasantness you see about us."
"How is it, then?" said Ben-Hur, who had been listening unmindfulof the slow gait of the dromedaries. "I saw the sheik tear hisbeard while he cursed himself that he had put trust in a Roman.Caesar, had he heard him, might have said, 'I like not such afriend as this; put him away.'"
"It would be but shrewd judgment," Malluch replied, smiling."Ilderim is not a lover of Rome; he has a grievance. Three yearsago the Parthians rode across the road from Bozra to Damascus,and fell upon a caravan laden, among other things, with theincoming tax-returns of a district over that way. They slew everycreature taken, which the censors in Rome could have forgiven ifthe imperial treasure had been spared and forwarded. The farmersof the taxes, being chargeable with the loss, complained to Caesar,and Caesar held Herod to payment, and Herod, on his part, seizedproperty of Ilderim, whom he charged with treasonable neglect ofduty. The sheik appealed to Caesar, and Caesar has made him suchanswer as might be looked for from the unwinking sphinx. The oldman's heart has been aching sore ever since, and he nurses hiswrath, and takes pleasure in its daily growth."
"He can do nothing, Malluch."
"Well," said Malluch, "that involves another explanation, which Iwill give you, if we can draw nearer. But see!--the hospitalityof the sheik begins early--the children are speaking to you."
The dromedaries stopped, and Ben-Hur looked down upon some littlegirls of the Syrian peasant class, who were offering him theirbaskets filled with dates. The fruit was freshly gathered, and notto be refused; he stooped and took it, and as he did so a man in thetree by which they were halted cried, "Peace to you, and welcome!"
Their thanks said to the children, the friends moved on at suchgait as the animals chose.
"You must know," Malluch continued, pausing now and then to disposeof a date, "that the merchant Simonides gives me his confidence,and sometimes flatters me by taking me into council; and as Iattend him at his house, I have made acquaintance with many ofhis friends, who, knowing my footing with the host, talk to himfreely in my presence. In that way I became somewhat intimatewith Sheik Ilderim."
For a moment Ben-Hur's attention wandered. Before his mind's eyethere arose the image, pure, gentle, and appealing, of Esther,the merchant's daughter. Her dark eyes bright with the peculiarJewish lustre met his in modest gaze; he heard her step as whenshe approached him with the wine, and her voice as she tenderedhim the cup; and he acknowledged to himself again all thesympathy she manifested for him, and manifested so plainly thatwords were unnecessary, and so sweetly that words would have beenbut a detraction. The vision was
exceeding pleasant, but upon histurning to Malluch, it flew away.
"A few weeks ago," said Malluch, continuing, "the old Arab calledon Simonides, and found me present. I observed he seemed muchmoved about something, and, in deference, offered to withdraw,but he himself forbade me. 'As you are an Israelite,' he said,'stay, for I have a strange story to tell.' The emphasis on theword Israelite excited my curiosity. I remained, and this isin substance his story--I cut it short because we are drawingnigh the tent, and I leave the details to the good man himself.A good many years ago, three men called at Ilderim's tent outin the wilderness. They were all foreigners, a Hindoo, a Greek,and an Egyptian; and they had come on camels, the largest he hadever seen, and all white. He welcomed them, and gave them rest.Next morning they arose and prayed a prayer new to the sheik--aprayer addressed to God and his son--this with much mystery besides.After breaking fast with him, the Egyptian told who they were,and whence they had come. Each had seen a star, out of whicha voice had bidden them go to Jerusalem and ask, Where is hethat is born King of the Jews?' They obeyed. From Jerusalem theywere led by a star to Bethlehem, where, in a cave, they found achild newly born, which they fell down and worshipped; and afterworshipping it, and giving it costly presents, and bearing witnessof what it was, they took to their camels, and fled without pause tothe sheik, because if Herod--meaning him surnamed the Great--couldlay hands upon them, he would certainly kill them. And, faithful tohis habit, the sheik took care of them, and kept them concealed fora year, when they departed, leaving with him gifts of great value,and each going a separate way."
"It is, indeed, a most wonderful story," Ben-Hur exclaimed atits conclusion. "What did you say they were to ask at Jerusalem?"
"They were to ask, 'Where is he that is born King of the Jews?'"
"Was that all?"
"There was more to the question, but I cannot recall it."
"And they found the child?"
"Yes, and worshipped him."
"It is a miracle, Malluch."
"Ilderim is a grave man, though excitable as all Arabs are. A lieon his tongue is impossible."
Malluch spoke positively. Thereupon the dromedaries were forgotten,and, quite as unmindful of their riders, they turned off the roadto the growing grass.
"Has Ilderim heard nothing more of the three men?" asked Ben-Hur."What became of them?"
"Ah, yes, that was the cause of his coming to Simonides the day ofwhich I was speaking. Only the night before that day the Egyptianreappeared to him."
"Where?"
"Here at the door of the tent to which we are coming."
"How knew he the man?"
"As you knew the horses to-day--by face and manner."
"By nothing else?"
"He rode the same great white camel, and gave him the samename--Balthasar, the Egyptian."
"It is a wonder of the Lord's!"
Ben-Hur spoke with excitement.
And Malluch, wondering, asked, "Why so?"
"Balthasar, you said?"
"Yes. Balthasar, the Egyptian."
"That was the name the old man gave us at the fountain today."
Then, at the reminder, Malluch became excited.
"It is true," he said; "and the camel was the same--and you savedthe man's life."
"And the woman," said Ben-Hur, like one speaking to himself--"thewoman was his daughter."
He fell to thinking; and even the reader will say he was havinga vision of the woman, and that it was more welcome than thatof Esther, if only because it stayed longer with him; but no--
"Tell me again," he said, presently. "Were the three to ask,'Where is he that is to be King of the Jews?'"
"Not exactly. The words were BORN TO BE KING OF THE JEWS. Those werethe words as the old sheik caught them first in the desert, and hehas ever since been waiting the coming of the king; nor can any oneshake his faith that he will come."
"How--as king?"
"Yes, and bringing the doom of Rome--so says the sheik."
Ben-Hur kept silent awhile, thinking and trying to control hisfeelings.
"The old man is one of many millions," he said, slowly--"one ofmany millions each with a wrong to avenge; and this strange faith,Malluch, is bread and wine to his hope; for who but a Herod maybe King of the Jews while Rome endures? But, following the story,did you hear what Simonides said to him?"
"If Ilderim is a grave man, Simonides is a wise one," Malluch replied."I listened, and he said-- But hark! Some one comes overtaking us."
The noise grew louder, until presently they heard the rumble ofwheels mixed with the beating of horse-hoofs--a moment later SheikIlderim himself appeared on horseback, followed by a train, among whichwere the four wine-red Arabs drawing the chariot. The sheik's chin,in its muffling of long white beard, was drooped upon his breast.Our friends had out-travelled him; but at sight of them he raisedhis head and spoke kindly.
"Peace to you!--Ah, my friend Malluch! Welcome! And tell me youare not going, but just come; that you have something for me fromthe good Simonides--may the Lord of his fathers keep him in lifefor many years to come! Ay, take up the straps, both of you, andfollow me. I have bread and leben, or, if you prefer it, arrack,and the flesh of young kid. Come!"
They followed after him to the door of the tent, in which, when theywere dismounted, he stood to receive them, holding a platter with threecups filled with creamy liquor just drawn from a great smoke-stainedskin bottle, pendent from the central post.
"Drink," he said, heartily, "drink, for this is the fear-naughtof the tentmen."
They each took a cup, and drank till but the foam remained.
"Enter now, in God's name."
And when they were gone in, Malluch took the sheik aside, and spoketo him privately; after which he went to Ben-Hur and excused himself.
"I have told the sheik about you, and he will give you the trialof his horses in the morning. He is your friend. Having done foryou all I can, you must do the rest, and let me return to Antioch.There is one there who has my promise to meet him to-night. I haveno choice but to go. I will come back to-morrow prepared, if allgoes well in the meantime, to stay with you until the games areover."
With blessings given and received, Malluch set out in return.