Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1857-11-21
THE STAR OF LOVE.

lue Ely ptHhu sIuTJ VI IHSohu u III JouhE
Sheik IIoussein, is one of those beautiful bits of
Eastern fiction that are we'll worthy Of preserva.
ton. We give it entire
There is a moment in every mao's existence
on which turns his future destiny. There are ma
ny such moments. for ofttimes life hangs on a
single thread, and if tho thread is not cut, it re.
quires but a touch to change the whole direction
Of the future. But in every mans lie there is at
least one, and in that of young Houssein it &C.
ours t.us:
/, was not often in those days that travellers
crossed the great desert. Few Europeans came to
Egypt, and fewer still went to Sinai. But there
was q time when Houssein was called to Cairo to
meet a noble party of western travellers, consisting
of n gentleman and two ladies, who were making a
pilgrimage to Sinai and the Holy Land, and who
wished his protection in crossing the desert. lie
saw but the gentleman. and readily engaged to
perform the desired service.
1t was not until the party had left the Birketel-
Hag that he had met them, where they were en-
eamped by moonlight on the sand that stretches
away to Suez. AS he sprang from his mare, be-
fore the tent door, he was startled by such a Wis
ion rs he had never before seen, but thought lie |.
had dreamed of in his waking dreams.
She was slight, fair, and in the moonlight,
pale rs o creature in dreams. Was this one Of
the hours of his tabled paradise? There was no
spot in all the Heaven of Mohammed fit for an an
gel like this. Away, like the sand on a whirl-
wind, like the clouds before the sun, ike the stars
at daybrenk-away swept all his faith in Islam,
and in an instant the Sheik IIoussein was an idol
alter w0rshipping, as a thousand greater than he
have done, the beauty ofa woman. Perhaps he
might have que1ched his thirst for the unknown
at some other fountain but this was not enough
now. lie had found that wherewith to fill the
void, and he was content.
Love was a new emotion-a sensation he had
never before experienced and it satisfied him.
Did she love him That was a question which
never occurred to him. What did he care for that.
He 1nnkipn for amplnvmnnt fnr HIS own SOul.
and he had found it and that was enough.
The tradition goes onto describe his long eros
sing of the desert-how he fingered among the
hills of Sinai; how he led them by Aksba and
Petra, and detained them many weeks at the city
of Rocok how the fair English girl faded slowly
away, for she was dying when she came to Egypt;
and how weary, well nigh dead, he carried her to
the Holy City, and pitched their tent by the noun
tain of the ascension. And all this time he watch
ed over her wi tn the Jealous care of a father or
a brother, and the quick heart of the lady saw it
and understood it all. And sometimes he would try
in broken words to tell her of his old belief, and
she would read in his hearing sublime promises
and glorious hopes that were in a language he
knew nothing of, but which he half understood
from her upllfted eye and countenance.
How he worshiped that matchless eye!
He w~orshiped nothing else on earth or in
Heaven.
1t was noon of the night under the walls oil
Jerusalem; and in the white tent close by the hill,
on which the last footsteps of the ascending Lord
left their hallowing touch, an English girl was
waiting his bidding to follow him.
Outside the tent, prone on the ground, lay
groop of Bedouins, and apart from them a little
way. their, chief silent, motiouless, to all tina
was earthly, dead. A low voice within the ten
broke the stiffness Of the night, but he did no
-move.-A vol Sc was uttering again those words
Of which the sound has become to him NOR
familiar already, the Christians prayer.
"Sheik Houssoin!"
lie sprang TO his feet. 1t was her voice, faint
low, but silvery. The tent door was thrust asid
and as a hand motioned to him to enter, h
obeyed.
She lay on the cushion, her head lifted some
what from the pillow by the arms of her sister
her sister who spoke the language of the deser
well, stood beside her as the young Sheik ap
preached. His coofta was gathered around hi
head only his dark eye flashing gloriously wa
visible. She looked up into it and whispered: h
half understood her before the words cam
through her sisters lips, as she told him tn
story of Calvary and Christ. and the cloud tina
received the King aud Savior returning to hi
throne.
1t were vain to say he understood ell this. II
only knew that she was telling him Of her hop
ere long to be above him. above the world, aboy
the sky; and his active but bewildered mind, IL
wrought all this with his ancient traditions. an
having long ago rejected the creed that did ne
Z teach him she was immotal, as he fell back on tn
" 1uch tlDl Nnt uHiDf va u OmC ia W up wa
81 the stars :as he lay down on the ground close by th
side of the tent listening to every sound from with
in, he fixed his eyes on the zenith. and watche
the passing Of the hosts of tue night until she dice
There was a rustling of garments, q voice Of il
expressable sweetness Suddenly sighed a low, sol
sigh, the expiration of a saint; and at that instan
far in the depths Of the meridian blue, a clea
star flashed on his eye for the fret time, its silvs
radiance, and he believed that she was there.
For three score years after that, there WAS O
the dessrt, near the group of palm trees, and Il
lonely spring, a small turret built Of stone
brought a long distance, stone, by stone, on car
els. And in this hut, or on its summet, lived
good. wise man. beloved by all tho tribes, and e
pecially followed by bis own immediate trib
who with him, rejected Mohammed, and worshi
fs ped an unknown God, through the medium
the stars. and especially one star. which he ha
a., taught them to reverence above all others.
And at length there cam a night VIXEN Il
d wind was abroad on the desert, and the voice
or the desert was fierce and terrible. But high ov,
all the sand hills, and over the whirling storms
sand; sedate, calm. majestic, the immutable sta
were looking down on tho plain, and the old ms
ON his tower baheid them and went forth on Il
wind TO search their infinite distances.
That night, said the tradition, another st
10 flashed out 0f heaven. besides the star that Il
Arabs worshipped, and tho Sheik IIoussein "
young again in the heaven Of his beloved.
Jat ms Lava him 10 the mercy of his traditiC