Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1860-01-19
5 .Ss|elsttea S|,lll1: !: ! 4e,eet!rg,
(Erom Tie Atlantic Monthiy.)
'p Abdel-Hassan.

|
Aide Hassan DER the Desert journeyed
| with his carsvan,-
Many richly laden camel, many a faithful!
serving.man.
And before the naughty master bowed alike
the man and beast; .........
For the power Of Abdel. Hssssn was the
wonder of the East.
1t was now the twelfth days journey but it's
closing did not bring ...
Abdel-Hasssn and his servants to the long
expected spring.
From the ancient line Of travel they wand
cred far away,
And at evening. faint and weary, on a waste
Of Desert lay.
Painting men aud famshed camels stretched
them round the masters tent; t.
For the gater.skins were empty, and the
dates were nearly spent. ....-
Al the night, as A5del. Hassun on the Des.
ert lay apart, ...
Nothing broke the ireless silence but the
lhrobbing. of his heart; b. ........
All the night he heard it beating, while his
s!eepless, anxious eyes b
Watched the shining consultations wheel
ing Onward through the skies. HH
When tho glowing orbs, receding, palsd be-
fore the coming day,
Abdel. Hassan called his servants and de-
voutly knelt to pray.
Then his words were few and solemn to the
leader Of his train:--
"Thirty men and eighty csmels, Haroun, in
thy care remain.
Keep the beasts an guard the treasure ill
the needed aid bring.
God is great! His name is mighty!-I, alone,
will seek the SPRING"
Mounted on his strongest camel, Abdel. Has
san rode away,
While his fsithlu lul followers watched him
passing, in the blaze OF day.
Like a speck upon the Desert, like moving
human hand, ...s-
Where the fiery skies were sweeping down
to meet the burning sand.
fasseu ne tnen their 'ar horizon. ana Oe-
yond it rode slpne;-
They alone, with Arab patience, lay within
its flaming zone.
Day by day the servants waited, but the
master never came
Day by day, in ieebler accents, called on
Aliuh's holy name.
One by one they killed the camels, loathmg
still the proifered food,,
But in weakness or in frenzy slaked their
burning thirst in blood.
On UNDECIDED heaps of treasure rested each
unconscious head;
While, with pious care, the dying struggled
to entomb the dead.
So they perished. Gaunt with famine, still
did Harour's trusty hand
For his latest dead companion scoop 'epul-
ture in the sand.
Then he died; and pious Nature, where he
lay SO gaunt and grim,
Moved by her divine compassion, did the
same kind thing for him.
Earth upon her burning bosom held him in
: his final rest.
While the hot winds Of the Desert piled the
sand above his breast
Onwsrd in his fiery travel Abdel. Hassan
held his way,
Yielding to the cumel's instinct, halting not,
| by night or day,
Till the faithful beast, exhausted n her fear
iul journey, fell,
With her eye upon the palm-trees rising
o'er the loney well:
With fhint, convulsive struggle, and a
feeble moan, she died, I...t
While her still surviving master lay uncon.
scious by her side. -.......
So he lay until the evening, when passing
caravan
From the dead incumbering camel brought
to life the dying man.
bathed his fantng head,
"All is lost, for all have pershed!-they are
numbered with the dead!
~, who had such power and treasure but a
/ o'uSic moou obo,
Now my lite and poor subsistence to a
strangers bounty owe.
"God is great! His name is mighty! He is
victor in the strife!
Stripped of pride and power and substance
He hath left me faith and life."-
Sixty years had Abdel. IIassan, since the
strangers friendly hand
Saved him from the burning Desert, lived
and PrgsPered in the land;
And his life of peaceful labor. in its pure
and simple ways,
For his loss fourfold returned him, and q
mighty length of days,
| Sixty years of faith and patience gave him
wlsdoms moral crown;
Sons and daughters brought him honor with
his riches and renown.
Men behold bis reverend aspect, and reyer.
ed his blameless name;
And In peace he dwelt with strangers, in
the fulness of fame. r
But the heart of Abdel- -Hassan yearped. ss