Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1902-10-31
ON THE ROAD
TO MECCAH
By EDGAR n. BACON

rind tree in the garden of Josef
Wali-e1-Din, the dealer in girls at
Shiraz:
It was after the fast of Ramazan,
that makes all men weak and thin,
and the suns heat at midsummer
was like fire to waste the substance
of mans body. That is why the
sand of the desert was red as blood
to my eyes and my head swayed from
side to side as I rode.
Sheyck Sulyman, my neighbor,
prated night and day of Utaiba rob-
bers-a plague to him-and I knew
that he feared for the safety of the
epearls that were hidden in the folds
of his turban; yes, 1 knew that his
daughter had been the price of them;
yet he broke off his lamentations to
recite the prayers when we halted.
When I bowed I could not remember
a prayer, and the sound of the peo-
pie and the beasts was afar off.
Also, when the rest had completed
their prayers, I forgot to raise my
head FROM my mat.
At last some one took me by the
shoulders, shaking me till I awoke.
ton: Mailman" / tried to answer:
"As'salem alaykum," but my tongue
was too thick for speech, and my will
was weak.
Then an arm as strong and gentle
as my mothers lifted me. Slowly
opened my eyes, though at first
distinguished nothing but the motion
of all about me, but at last I under
stood that the host was astir and
passing by.
My mare stood near, and the WON
an helped me to mount, but, as I
turned to bless her. I saw that she
wass daughter of the Wahhabis,
whom my soul loathes; so my heart
was hardened against her.
Fleet as an antelope. she ran to-
wards the company of her own peo-
pie, and lost sight of her; neverthe-
less, could not forget, my heart be-
ing sore because 1 had been helped
by one of that tribe.
The night was not dark. This
Syrian moon is a softer daylight, and
l saw that I was among a party of
Alexandrian pilgrims, hail, and
dervishes from the Upper Nile. But
the fever had hold of me again. and
the things that moved around me
faded. I rode like a drunken man,
with my hands buried in the shaggy
hair of my horse, for the hot wind on
my cheek was famed by the wing of
Azrael, the Angel of Death.
They were lifting me from my
maze. Who? I knew nothing at all,
cared for nothing except that they
had destroyed my rest in the valley
of lines, and that the spreading
wings of Azrael darkened the sky
where the dawn should have been.
Then the stupor fioated away for
q little while, as mist is blown, 60
ing and returning, drifting, always
drifting.
. 1T seemed that there are two of
enc. one that looked down upon the
otser and pitied. L saw how. they
poured upon the wasted body of that
Sother the drops of precious oil and
wrapped it in the shroud that /, like
all pilgrims to Meccah, had provided
before setting out. 1t had been
sprinkled with holy water from the
prophets we'll of Zemzem, against
that day,
They laid me IN the sand, cover
ing my limbs with the shroud and
reciting prayer from the Koran.
Then 1 was left alone with Azrael;
for the caravan never waits.
The desert was vast and empty. I
alone in the omidst of it under the
lowering wing of the shadow. I
turned my head to the right; there
were specls in the distance; they
were iackals. Overhead there were
seeks in the sky-they were vul-
lures.
Then Fear came and sat beside me
on the sand, and whispered that the
jackals and the vultures would gath
err nearer, that the fever would burn,
and the thirst torment, that my
tongue would -thicken and my blood
turn to fire, and I would cry to
Azrael TO strike. lest the jackals and
the vultures forgot to wait.
But I was a martyr. What a com
fort there is in pride. AS truly was
/ martyr as if I fell in battle
for Islam, and alb the benefits that
could come to those who marched
about the Kaabah or listened to the
sermon an Arafat-escape from the
demons and speedy entrance into
Paradise-would be mine.
For an hour L comforted my SOU
with these reflections; then I buried
my face in the folds of my Shrouo
and fear whispered: 81 am here"
Allah! 1t is a frightful thing tc
lie alone, weak and helpless as e
babe. in the middle of the desert, be
tween the burning of the fever and
the chill of the shadow, and to know
that the specl1s in the distance come
nearer and nearer.