Waterbury Democrat., 1902-12-11
ON I lE ROAD
 TO ME CCAH
By EDGAR R1. BACON

TlnQ, tree Tn the garden O1 JOsc1 Wali-el-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.
 SReycl sulyman, my neighbor, prated night and day of Utaiba rob- bers-a plague to hin,-and knew that he feared for the safety of the pearls that were hidden in the folds of his turban; yes, knew that his daughter had been the price of them; yet he broke off his lamentations to recite the prayers when we halted. When bowed 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, forgot to raise my head from my mat.
 At last some one took me by the shoulders, shaking me till I awoke. I heard a woman's voice in sallta- tion: Mailman" I 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 I opened my eyes, though at first l distinguished nothing but the motion .,,% a% I~~ stood that the host was astir and passing by.
 My mare stood near, and the wom- an helped me to mount, but, as I turned to bless her, l saw that she was a daughter of the Wahhabis, whom my soul lcathes; so my heart was hardened against her.
 Fleet as an antelope, she ran to- wards the company of her own pco- pie, and I lost sight of her; neverthe- less, could not forget, my heart be- ing sore because I had been helped by one of that tribe.
 The night was not dark. This Syrian moon is a softer daylight, and I 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 Azrae1, the Angel of Death.
 They were lifting me from my mare 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. E Then the stupor foated away for little while, as mist is blown, go- ing and returning, drifting, always drifting.
 It seemed that there are two of me, one that looked down upon the other and pitied. I saw how they poured upon the wasted body of that other the drops of precious oil and wrapped it in the shroud that I, like all pilgrims to Meccah, had provided before setting out. It 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 I was left alone with Azrael; for the caravan never waits.
 The desert was vast and empty. I alone in the midst of it under the 1 lowering wing of the shadow. I l turned my head to the right; there were specks in the distance; they were iackals. Overhead there were specks in the sky-they were vul- 1 lures.
 Then Fear came and sat beside me on the sand, and whispered that the 1 iackals and tl1e vultures would gath CT nearer, that the fever would burn, and the thirst torment, that my tongue would thicken and my blood l turn to fire, and I would cry to Azrael. to strike, lest the jackals and 1 the vultures forgot to wait. But I was martyr. What a com fort there is in pride. As truly was I [ a martyr as if I fell in battle 1 for Islam, and all 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 I comforted my soul i with these reflections; then I buried my face in the folds of my shroud and fear whispered: T am here"
 Allah! It is 8 frightful thing to lie alone, weak and helpless as a 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 specks in the distance come ] nearer and nearer.
 I lifted my voice, weak as a babes in that solitude, and cried in despair: "Labbaykl" and an answering cry came from the distance: s'Labbayk!' I Alhamdu lillal I was not deserted Some one came swiftly across the sand of the desert, alone and on foot. ] could see.by the light lisam that covered her mouth that it was a wom- an. hut my heart sank and turned my