Weekly Trinity journal., 1858-01-23
THE STAR OF LOVE.
AN EGYPTIAN LEGEND.

nv GN'' Ian '~i@pi-4'bs
The following story or legend of the young
Sheik Houssein, is one of the most beautiful bits
Of Eastern felton, and well worth preserving:
There is moment in every mans existence on
which turns lis future destiny. There are many
such moments, for often life hangs on thread,
and if the thread is not cut, it requires but a
touch to change the whole direction of the future
But in every mans life there is at least one, and
in that of young Houssein it occurred thus
1t 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 time when Houssein was called to
Cairo to meet a noble party of Western travel
lers, a gentleman and two ladies. who were max
ing pilgrimage to Sinai and the Holy Land
and who wished his protection in crossing the
desert. He saw but the gentleman, and readily
engaged to perform the desired service.
1t was not till the party had left the Birket-e-
Hal that he met them, when they were encamped
by moonlight, on the sand that stretches to Suez.
As he sprang from bis mare, before the tent door,
be was startled by such vision as he had never
before seen, but thought he had dreamed of in his
waking dreams
She was slight, fair, and in the moonlight pale
as a creature of dreams. Was this one of the
houris of this fabled paradise? No he rejected
the thought, if it rose. There was no spot in all
the heaven of Mohammed ft for an angel like
this Away, like the sand on the whirlwind like
the clouds before the sun, like the stars al day
break-away swept all his faith in Islam and in
an instant the Sheik Houssen was an idolator
worshipping, as thousand greater than lie have
done, the beauty Of woman. Perhaps he might
have quenched his thirst for the unknown at some
other fountain but this was enough now. lie
had found that wherewith to fill the void, and he
was content.
Love was q new emotion-a sensation he had
never before experienced and it satisfied him.
Did she love him? That was the question which
never occurred TO him. What did he care for
that? He was not seeking to be loved. lie was
looking for employment for bis own soul, and he
had found it, and thet vas enough.
The tradition goes to describe his long crossing
Of the desert-how he fingered among the hills
OF Sinai how he had led them by Akaba and
PETRA aud detained them many weeks in the city
of Rook 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 tents by the
mountain of Ascension And all the time he
watched over her with the Jealous care of a fa-
ther or brother, and the quick heart of the lady
saw 1T and understood ii ALL And sometimes be
would try in broken words, to tell her of bis
old belief and his ideas of immortality, and she
would read in his hearing sublime promises and
glorious hopes that were i'll language he knew
nothing of, but which he half understood from
her uplifted eye and eountenance.
How he worsbipped that matehess eve lie
1t was noon of night under the walls Of Jeru-
salem and, in a 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, with
eyes fixed ou the everlasting stars, lay group of
Bedouips, and, apart from them little way their
chief, silent, m0tionless-to all that was earthly
dead. A low voice within the tent broke the
stiffness of the night, but he did not move. A
xynin
the sound had become familiar to him already
the Christian prayer.
Sheik Heussen.1
lie sprang TO his feet. 1t was her voice faint,
Tow, butslfery. The tent-door was thrust aside,
and hand motioned him to enter : he obeyed
She lay on the cushions, her head lifted some
what from the pillow by the arms of her sister
her brother, who spoke the language of the des-
ert well, stood by her as the young Shiek APP
preached. His eoolea was gathered around his
head only bis dark eye flashing gloriously, was
visible. She looked up into it aud whispered
he half understood her before the words came
through her brothers lips, she told him the
story of Calvary and Christ, and the clouds that
received the King and Saviour returning to his
throne.
1t was in vain to say he understood all this
lie only knew she was telling him of her hope
ere long, to be above him, above the world and
the sky and his active but bewildered mind in
wrought all this with his ancient traditions and
having long neglected the creed that did not
teach him that she was immortal, as he fell back
on the idea that .immortals had somewhat to do
with the stars as he lay down on the ground
close by the side of the tent listening for every
sound from within, he fixed his eyes on the ze-
NTH, and watched the passing of the hosts of
night, until she died. There was a rustling Of
garments, a voice of ineXpressible sweetness sud
denly silent, low, soft sigh, the expiration of
saint, and at that instant far in the depths of the
meredian blue a clear star flashed on his eye for
the first time, its silver radiance and he believed
that she was there.
For three score years after that, there was on
the desert, near that group of palm trees and
lovely spring, small turret, built of stones
brought a long distance, stone by stone on cam
els. And In this hut, or on its summit lived
good, wise man, beloved by all the tribe, who
with him, rejected Mahommed and worshipped
an unknown God through the medium Of the stars
and especially one star which he had taught
them TO reverence above all others.
And at length there came night when the
wind was abroad on the desert, and the voice of
the tempest was fierce and terrible But high
over all the sand hills, and over the whirling
storms of sand, sedate, calm, ma estic, the immu-
table stars were looking down on the plain, and
the old man and his tower behind them, and went
forth on the wind to search their infinite dis
tances.
That night, saith the tradition, another star
flashed out of heaven besides the star that the
Arabs worshipped, and the Sheik Houssein was
young again in the heaven Of his beloved
Let us leave him to the mercy of the tradition,
nor seek to know whether he reached that bless
ed abode.