UC-NRLF
B M DflT 033
HARRY W FRENCH
ABD EL AiBAVAN
CDUC.
LIBRARY
THE LANCE OF KANANA
A STORY OF ARABIA
eouc.-
PSYC'l
THE
LANCE OF KANANA
A STORY OF ARABIA
BY
HARRY W. FRENCH
("ABD EL ARDAVAN")
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY QARRETT
BOSTON
LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.
COPYRIGHT, 1892, BY
D. LOTHROP COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD Co
COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY GEORGE A. FRENCH
THE LANCE OF KANANA
P»INTEB TN tT.S.A.
If 1^7
ENCIRCLED by the fiery, trackless sand,
A fainting Arab halted at a well
Held in the hollow of the desert's hand.
Empty! Hope vanished, and he gasped and
fell.
At night the West Wind wafted o'er the land
The welcome dew, a promise to foretell:
Hers this result, for which she bade him stand.
M723812
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE COWARD OF THE BENI SADS . . 11
II. THE OLD SHEIK'S PROMISE .... 20
III. AT THE FOOT OP MOUNT HOR ... 27
IV. THE PROMISE 38
V. LED BY A WHITE CAMEL 52
VI. KANANA AND THE CALIPH .... 61
VII. A PRIZE WORTH WINNING .... 74
VEIL To SEEK THE BENI SADS 86
IX. FOR ALLAH AND ARABIA 100
X. KANANA'S THIRD MISSION .... 115
XI. THE SACRED GIRDLE 125
XII. KANANA'S MESSENGERS 135
XIII. THE LANCE OF KANANA . . 147
THE LANCE OF KANANA
THE COWAED OF THE BENT SADS
KANANA was an Arab — a Bedouin
boy of many years ago, born upon
the desert, of the seed of Ishmael, of the
tribe of Beni Sad.
It seems well-nigh impossible that the
Bedouin boy could have lived who was not
accustomed to the use of the sword and
lance, long before he reached the dignity
of manhood.
The peculiar thing about Kanana was
that he never held a lance in his hand but
once; yet many a celebrated sheik and
powerful chieftain of his day lies dead,
buried, and forgotten long ago, while the
name of Kanana is still a magic battle-
11
12 THE LANCE OF KANANA
cry among the sons of Ishmael, and his
lance is one of the most precious relics of
Arabia.
The old mothers and the white-haired
veterans love to tell the story of the lance
of Kanana ; their black eyes flash like coals
of fire when they say of it that it rescued
Arabia.
The Beni Sads were a powerful tribe
of roving Bedouins. Kanana was the
youngest son of the venerable chief; the
sheik who in the days of his strength was
known from the Euphrates to the sea as
the " Terror of the Desert."
By a custom older than the boyhood of
King David it fell to the lot of the young-
est son to tend his father's sheep. The
occupation was not considered dignified.
It was not to Kanana 's liking and it need
not have lasted long ; for the Terror of the
Desert thought more of making warriors
than shepherds of his sons, but greatly to
his father's disgust Kanana refused to ex-
change his shepherd's staff for a warrior's
KANAMA STOOD UPOiN THE VERY EDGE OF THE WHITE
PORCH.
THE COWARD OF BENI SADS 13
lance. It was not that he loved the staff,
but that he objected to the lance.
The tribe called Kanana effeminate be-
cause he was thoughtful and quiet, where
other boys were turbulent, and as he grew
older and the boyish fancy became a de-
cided conviction against the combats con-
stantly going on between the different
tribes, they even called him a coward and
said that he did not dare to fight.
There is but one name more bitter than
" co ward" to the Arab. That name is
" traitor, " and after being called a coward
almost all his life, the very last words
which Kanana heard from the lips of his
countrymen came in frantic yells, calling
him a traitor.
To-day, however, it is always with throb-
bing hearts and flashing eyes that they re-
peat the story of the Lance of Kanana that
rescued Arabia.
Until he was five years old, Kanana
rolled about in the sand and sunshine, like
the other children, with nothing on him
14 THE LANCE OF KANANA
but a twisted leather cord, tied round Ms
waist.
Then, for five years, according to the
custom of his people, he helped the women
of his father's tent; shaking the goat-skin
filled with cream till it turned into butter ;
watching the kedder upon the fire, drying
the buttermilk to be ground into flour, and
digging kemma, which grow like truffles,
under the sand.
After he was ten, for three years he
watched the sheep and goats and the she-
camels. That was the regular course of
education through which all Bedouin boys
must pass.
When he reached the age at which Ish-
mael was sent away with Hagar by
Abraham, he was supposed to drop all
menial labor and take his place among
men; making a position for himself accord-
ing to the fighting qualities which he pos-
sessed.
Kanana's fighting qualities, however,
only exhibited in the warfare which
THE COWAED OF BENI SADS 15
now began between him and his father.
There were at that time very few oc-
cupations open to the Bedouin boy. The
tribe was celebrated for its men of learn-
ing and boasted the most skillful physicians
in all Arabia; but they had all won their
first laurels with the lance, and none of
them wanted Kanana.
Three times his father came to him with
the question: "Are you ready to be a
man?" and three times Kanana replied,
"My father, I can not lift a lance to take
a life, unless it be for Allah and Arabia."
How he came by a notion so curious no
Arab could tell. The lad well knew the
old decree that the hand of the Ishmaelite
should be against every man, and every
man's hand against him. He knew that
every Arab of the desert lived by a war-
fare that was simply murder and robbery.
Was he not an Arab, and an Ishmaelite?
Alone, among the sheep and camels, he
had thought out his own theory. Kanana
said to himself, "I am taught that Allah
16 THE LANCE OF KANANA
created these animals and cares for them,
and that I cannot please him if I allow
them to suffer ; it must be surely that men
are more precious to Allah than animals.
Why should we kill one another, even if
we are Arabs and Ishmaelites ? "
The menial tasks still allotted to Kanana
grew more and more irksome. His pun-
ishment was far more keen than the tribe
supposed; no one dreamed of the sharp
cringe of pain with which he heard even
the children call him a coward.
There were some faculties which Ka-
nana possessed that made the war-
riors all envy him. He had a remarkable
power over animals. No other Beni Sad
could ride a camel or a horse so fast as
Kanana. The most refractory creature
would obey Kanana. Then, too, Kanana
was foremost in the games and races. No
other shepherd's eye was nearly so quick
as Kanana 's to detect an enemy approach-
ing the flocks at night. No other young
Bedouin, watching the ripening grain,
THE COWAED OF BENI SADS 17
could throw a stone from his sling so far
and so accurately at the robber birds.
These -accomplishments, however, only
made his father the more angry that Ka-
nana would not turn his gifts to some more
profitable end.
Every year for three months — from
planting to harvest-time — the Beni Sads
encamped upon a river bank, on the out-
skirts of the Great Desert.
The encampment numbered nearly five
hundred tents set in four rows as straight
as an arrow flies.
These tents, of black goats '-hair cloth,
were seven feet high in the center and five
feet high on the sides. Some of them were
twenty feet broad, and each was divided
by a beautiful hanging white Damascus
carpet. The men occupied one side, and
the women and children the other. The
favorite mare and the most valuable of the
camels always slept by the tent, and the
master's lance stood thrust into the ground
at the entrance.
18 THE LANCE OF KANAKA
Far as the eye could reach, up and down
the sluggish river, a field of ripening grain
filled the narrow space between the yellow
water and the silver-gray of the desert
sand.
Here and there, through the grain-field,
rose curious perches — platforms, con-
structed upon poles driven into the ground.
Upon these platforms watchers were sta-
tioned when the grain began to head, and
there they remained, night and day, till it
was harvested, frightening the birds away.
Once a day the women brought them
food, consisting of buttermilk, dried and
ground and mixed with melted butter and
dates; these same women renewed the
supply of stones to throw at the birds.
The watchers were old men, women who
were not needed in the tents, and little
children; but all alone, this year, upon the
most distant perch, sat Kanana.
There was not one of the tribe but felt
that he richly deserved this disgrace; and
Kanana could see no way to earn their re-
THE COWARD OF BENI SADS 19
spect, no way to prove "himself a brave
fellow. He was glad that they had given
him the most distant perch, for there he
could bear his hard lot, away from jests
and jeers.
The women who brought the food stopped
for a long time at some of the perches,
reporting all the news, but they never
troubled themselves to relieve Kanana's
solitude. The perches were too far apart
for conversation. Kanana had always
time enough to think, and as the grain
grew yellow this year, he came to two posi-
tive conclusions. He firmly resolved that
before the reapers entered that field he
would do something to convince his people
that he was not a coward ; failing that, he
would hang his head in shame, acknowledge
that they were right, and fly forever from
their taunts.
n
THE OLD SHEIK'S PEOMISE
THE sun was beating fiercely down
upon Kanana's perch, but he had not
noticed it. The stones piled beside him
for his sling were almost hot enough to
burn his hand, but he did not realize it, for
he had not touched them for a long time.
The wooden dish of paste and dates stood
in the shadow of the perch. He had not
tasted them.
The pile of stones grew hotter and hot-
ter. The hungry birds ate and quarreled
and ate with no one to disturb them. The
Bedouin boy sat cross-legged on his perch,
heedless of everything, twisting and un-
twisting the leather cords of his sling,
struggling to look into the mists that cov-
ered up his destiny.
"Hi, there! you slothful son of a brave
20
THE OLD SHEIK'S PEOMISE 21
father! Look at the birds about you!
Are you dead, or only sleeping!" sounded
the distant but shrill and painfully distinct
voice of an old woman who, with two chil-
dren much younger than Kanana, occupied
the next perch.
Kanana roused himself and sent the
stones flying from his sling till there was
not a bird in sight. Then he sank into deep
thought once more; with his head resting
upon his hands he became oblivious to
everything.
Suddenly he was roused by the sound of
horses' hoofs upon the sandy soil, a sharp
rustling in the drying grain. He looked
up, as thoroughly startled as though he
had been sleeping, to see approaching him
the one person than whom he would rather
that any or all of the tribe of Beni Sad
should find him negligent at his post of
duty.
It was his father.
"Oh, Kanana! oh, Kanana!" cried the
old man, angrily. "Thou son of my old
22 THE LANCE OF KANANA
age, why didst thou come into the world
to curse me? When thou shakest the
cream, the butter is spoiled. When thou
tendest the sheep, they are stolen ! When
thou watchest the grain, it is eaten before
thy face ! What shall a father do with a
son who will neither lift his hand among
men nor bear a part with women? And
now, when all the miseries of life have
taken hold upon me and the floods cover
me, thou sittest at thine ease to mock me I"
Kanana sprang down from his perch.
Kneeling, he touched his forehead to the
ground.
"My father, slay me and I will take it
as a mercy from thy hand. Or, as I am
fit for nothing here, bid me go, and among
strangers I will beg. But thou shalt not,
my father, speak of me as ungrateful, un-
filial. I know of no flood of sorrow that
has come down upon thee. ' '
' ' Thou knowest not what they all know ? ' '
exclaimed the old man fiercely.
"I know of nothing, my father. Since
THE OLD SHEIK'S PEOMISE 23
I came into the field, three weeks ago, no
one has spoken to me but to chide me."
"Then know now," replied the sheik re-
proachfully, "that of thy two brave broth-
ers who went with the last caravan, one
has returned, wounded and helpless, and
the other, for an old cause of blood be-
tween our tribes, has been made a prisoner
by Raschid Airikat. The whole caravan,
with the white camel at its head, Raschid
has taken, and he has turned with it to-
ward Damascus."
"Thy part of the caravan was very
small, my father," said Kanana. "Only
four of the camels were thine, and but for
the white camel they were all very old.
Their burdens, too, saving my brothers,
were only honey and clay-dust, of little
value."
This was the simple truth, and evinced
at least a very practical side to Kanana 's
mind ; but it was not the kind of sympathy
which the sheik desired, and his anger
burst out afresh against Kanana.
24 THE LANCE OF KANANA
"Ay, them tender of flocks, and sleeper!"
he cried. "Wouldst thou teach me the
value of camels and merchandise to com-
fort me? And hast thou fixed the price of
ransom which Airikat will demand, or slay
thy brother? And hast thou reckoned up
the value of the white camel which could
not be bought for gold, as it brought to
thy father and thy father's father all their
abundance of good? Answer me, if thou
art so wise. Oh, that I had a son remain-
ing who could lift a lance against this
Airikat as bravely as he hurls his empty
words at an old father ! ' '
"My father," said Kanana earnestly,
"give me a horse, a sack of grain, a skin
of water, and I will follow after Easchid
Airikat. I will not slay him, but, by the
help of Allah, I will bring back to thee thy
white camel with my brother seated upon
his back."
The old sheik made a gesture of derision :
"Thou wisp of flax before a fire! Thou
reed before a whirlwind! Get thee back
THE OLD SHEIK'S PROMISE 25
to thy perch and thy birds, and see if thou
canst keep awake till sundown. Harvest-
ing will begin with the daylight to-mor-
row. See that thou workest then."
Kanana rose to his feet. Looking
calmly into the old sheik's angry face, he
replied;
" My father, I will watch the birds till
sundown. Then let others do the reaping.
Kanana, whom thou scornest, will be far
away upon the desert, to seek and find his
brother."
"Did I not say I would not trust a horse
to thee?" exclaimed the old man, looking
at him in astonishment.
"These feet of mine can do my bidding
well enough," replied Kanana. "And by
the beard of the Prophet they shall do it
till they have returned to thee thy son and
thy white camel. I would do something,
oh, my father, that I, too, might have thy
blessing and not thy curse. It is the voice
of Allah bids me go. Now say to me that
if I bring them back then thou wilt bless
26 THE LANCE OF XANANA
me, too, ay, even though still I will not lift
a lance, unless it be for Allah and Arabia. ' '
The aged warrior looked down in a sort
of scornful pity upon his boy, standing
among the stalks of grain; half in jest,
half in charity, he muttered, "Yes, then I
will bless thee," and rode away.
The harvesting began, as the old sheik
had said, with the next daylight, but Ka-
nana was not among the reapers.
Few so much as missed him, even, and
those who did, supposed that he had hidden
himself to avoid their jests.
Only the sullen sheik, bowed under his
affliction, thought often of Kanana as he
rode up and down the line. He remem-
bered his looks, his words. He wondered
if he could have been mistaken in the boy.
He wished he had given him the horse and
that he had blessed him before he went
away.
m
AT THE FOOT OP MOUNT HOB
THE moment the sun sank into the
billows of sand Kanana had left his
perch.
From the loaded stalks about him he
gathered a goafs-hair sack of grain and
fastened it upon his back. There was no
one to whom he need say farewell, and,
armed only with his shepherd's staff, he
started away upon the desert, setting his
course to the north and west.
Before he had gone far he passed a lad
of about his own age who had come from
the encampment to hunt for desert-rats.
Had Kanana seen him he would have made
a wide detour, but the boy lay so still upon
the sand that the first Kanana knew of his
presence was when a low sarcastic voice
uttered his name.
27
28 THE LANCE OF KANANA
' ' Kanana ! ' ' it exclaimed. * ' Thou here \
Dost thou not fear that some rat may bite
thee? Whither darest thou to go, thus, all
alone, and after dark, upon the sand?"
Fire flashed from Kanana 's eyes. His
hand clutched his shepherd's staff and in-
voluntarily he lifted it ; but the better coun-
sel of his curious notions checked the blow.
It was so dark that the boy upon the sand
did not notice the effect of his taunts and
knew nothing of his narrow escape. He
only heard the quiet voice of Kanana as
presently it meekly replied to his question :
"I go to Mount Hor."
It was an answer so absurd that the boy
gave it no second thought and by the time
that the f oosteps of Kanana had died away
the rat-hunter had as utterly forgotten him
as though he had never existed.
To Mount Hor?
Kanana had only the most imperfect in-
formation to guide him. He knew that the
Beni Sad caravan had been for some days
upon the road southward, to Mecca, when
AT THE FOOT OF MOUNT HOR 29
it was captured by Baschid Airikat and
turned at an angle, northward, toward Da-
mascus.
Seen from a great distance, over the sea
of sand, the solitary peak of old Mount
Hor, where Aaron, the great high priest of
Israel, was buried, forms a startling bea-
con. By day or night, it rises clear and
sharp against the sky, guiding the caravans
northward, from Arabia to Jerusalem and
Damascus, and southward from Syria to
Medina and Mecca; while the fertile oasis
about it is the universal resting-place.
Kanana was not at all sure that the cara-
van would not have passed Mount Hor
long before he could reach it; but if so, it
must in time return that way, and, in any
case, of all Arabia Mount Hor was the one
spot where he could be sure to gather fur-
ther information from passing caravans.
He knew his path upon that shifting sand
as well as an Indian knew his way through
the trackless forests of New England.
With the sun and stars above him, any
30 THE LANCE OF KANANA
Arab would have scorned the idea of being
lost in Arabia, and through the long night
with strong and steady strides Kanana
pressed onward toward Mount Hor.
As the harvest moon rose above the des-
ert, behind him, the Bedouin boy was softly
chanting from the second sura of Al Ko-
ran:
' ' God, there is no God but him ;
The Living ! The Eternal.
Slumber doth not overtake him,
Neither Sleep.
And upholding all things,
To him is no burden.
He is the Lofty and the Great."
His long, black shadow fell over the sil-
ver sand, and, watching it, he chanted the
Koran again :
"God is God. Whatever of good betideth thee
cometh from him.
"Whatever of evil is thine own doing."
Suddenly a speck appeared upon the dis-
tant horizon. None but the keen eye of a
shepherd would have seen it, in the night,
AT THE FOOT OF MOUNT HOE 31
but Kanana watched it as it quivered and
wavered, disappearing as it sank into a
valley in the rolling sand, appearing again,
like a dory on the ocean, each time a little
nearer than before.
Kanana noted the direction the speck was
taking, and he made a wide path for it ; he
crouched among the sand-shrubs when it
came too near.
First a small party of horsemen passed
him, the advance guard of a moving tribe.
Then came the main body of men upon
camels and horses; but the only sounds
were made by the feet of the animals and
the clanking of the weapons. The she-
camels with their young followed ; then the
sheep and goats driven by a few men on
foot; next, the camels laden with the tents
and furniture; last of all the women and
children of the tribe accompanied by an-
other armed escort.
From all that company there was not a
sound but of the sand and the trappings.
There was nothing but shadows, swinging,
32 THE LANCE OF KANANA
swaying shadows, moving like phantoms
over the white sand, as the trailing train
went gliding on, in that mysterious land of
shadows and silhouettes.
There was nothing in it that was weird
to Kanana, however. He hid himself sim-
ply as a precaution. He had often been a
part of such a caravan, and he knew from
experience, that if a solitary Arab were
found upon the desert, he would very
quickly be forced to help drive the sheep
and goats, and kept at it until he could
make his escape. Any Arab boy would
have hidden himself.
Long before Kanana 's next halt the sun
was pouring down his furious heat. To
his great good fortune he came upon a
bowlder rising out of the sand; there he
quickly made a place for himself where the
sun could not reach him and lying down
slept until night.
Only one who has walked upon a desert,
hour after hour, parched with thirst and
utterly exhausted in the fierce glare and
AT THE FOOT OF MOUNT HOE 33
heat can properly appreciate the Bible pic-
ture of "the shadow of a great rock in a
weary land.' '
Had he not found this rock Kanana
would simply have dug a hole in the sand
and forced himself into it.
Here and there as he pressed on, Kanana
saw grim skeletons of men and animals as
they lay whitening among the sand-shrubs,
but he paid them little attention. Before
the sun had set, upon the second day, he
beheld the distant summit of Mount Hor
cutting sharply into the blue sky.
The sight renewed his strength. Hour
after hour he pressed onward, with his
eyes fixed upon the tomb of Aaron, a white
monument upon the summit of the moun-
tain, flashing like snow as the moon rose
in the clear, blue-black sky.
Kanana did not pause again until he fell
upon his knees beside the stream which
rises in a spring upon Mount Hor, to die in
the sand, not far from its base. He
plunged into the water ; then, dressing him-
34 THE LANCE OF KANANA
self again, lie lay down upon the bank to
sleep. He awoke with the first gray light-
ing in the east, when the air of a desert is
almost cold enough to freeze.
He had now nothing more to do till he
could obtain some information from pass-
ing caravans. It would soon be sunrise,
the hour for morning prayer, and, to warm
himself while he waited, he walked along
the banks of the stream. They were blue
as the very sky, with masses of forget-me-
nots.
Suddenly Kanana paused. He started
back. His eyes dilated, and his hand trem-
bled till the shepherd's staff fell, unheeded,
to the ground. The next moment he
dropped to the ground to examine the place
more carefully.
What was it? Only some marks upon
the grass where a caravan had camped.
The herbage was matted here and there
where the camels lay, and cropped short in
little circles about each spot where they
had eaten it as far as they could reach.
AT THE FOOT OF MOUNT HOE 35
Caravans were continually resting for
the day under the shadow of Mount Hor.
There was nothing remarkable in the fact
that a caravan had camped there, and had
gone. They always move at night ; not so
much because it is cooler as because a
camel will not eat at night, no matter how
hungry he may be, and must be given the
daylight or he will deliberately starve.
A moment later Kanana was upon his
feet again with a triumph in his eyes which
clearly indicated his satisfaction.
The grass about the spot was unevenly
cropped; there were straggling spears of
green left standing in the center of each
mouthful which the camel had taken.
Upon one side the bees were clustering on
the matted grass. A multitude of ants ap-
peared upon the other side. The imprint
left by the forefoot of the camel showed
that it had been extended in front of him,
instead of being bent at the knee and folded
beneath him.
All this meant to the young Arab that
36 THE LANCE OF KANANA
the camel was old, that it was lame in the
left knee, that it had lost a front tooth, that
is burden on one side was honey, on the
other the dust of river clay, to be used in
the manufacture of stucco.
Had one of his father's camels stood be-
fore him Kanana could not have been more
sure. Nothing more was needed to assure
him that Easchid Airikat, with the stolen
camels, had left Mount Hor the night be-
fore, upon the trail leading southward into
Arabia.
His eyes flashed with excitement. "My
brother and the white camel are not ten
hours from here, and they are on the road
to Mecca or Medina," he exclaimed as his
fingers tightened about the staff.
His white teeth glistened in a smile, as
he added, ' ' They are mine, or I am a cow-
ard!"
He stood there, motionless, for a mo-
ment, his dark eyes instinctively turning
southward. The magnitude of his task lay
vividly before him. He recalled his fa-
AT THE FOOT OF MOUNT HOR 37
ther's words: "Thou wisp of flax before
a fire! Thou reed before a whirlwind!"
They served to strengthen him.
The first step which lay before him was
enough to test the courage of a brave man,
and yet it was only a step toward a grand
destiny.
Suddenly starting from his revery, Ka-
nana exclaimed:
"I will do it! or I will consent to be
known forever as the coward of the Beni
Sads!" and turning he ran up the rocky
sides of old Mount Hor, toward the white
tomb of Aaron, whence he knew he could
see far away over the great ocean of sand.
It might be there would yet appear a
speck upon the distant horizon, to guide
him toward the retreating caravan.
IV
THE PKOMISE
UP the steep sides of Mount Hor, Ka-
nana climbed, without waiting to
look for a path. He saw nothing, heard
nothing. He was all eagerness to reach
the summit, in the faint hope that it might
not be too late to see the departing cara-
van of Easchid Airikat.
Unless a camel is fresh, unusually large
and strong, or constantly urged, it rarely
makes more than two miles an hour. It
was not over ten hours since the robber
sheik had left the oasis, and some of the
camels were very old and exhausted. It
was a foolish hope, no doubt, and yet Ka-
nana hoped that anything so large as a
great caravan might still be distinguish-
able.
Up, up, up he climbed — as fast as hands
38
THE PROMISE 39
and feet could carry him. He no longer
felt the cool air of early morning. He no
longer looked about him to see the new
sights of a strange oasis.
He did not even pause to look away over
the desert as he climbed. The highest
point was none too high. He did not care
how far he could see until he had gained
the white tomb of Aaron, upon the very
crest.
Had he not been too thoroughly occupied
with what was above him to notice what
transpired about him and down below, he
would have seen five Arab horsemen reach
the stream by which he slept, almost as he
began to climb.
They were Mohammedan soldiers, thor-
oughly armed for war, and had evidently
come from the northern borders of Arabia,
where the victorious Mussulmans were tri-
umphantly planting the banner of Islam.
They had been riding hard, and both
men and horses were exhausted. They
hurried to the water. The men hastily ate
40 THE LANCE OF KANANA
some food which they carried, and tethered
their horses in Arab fashion, by a chain,
one end of which is fastened about the
forefoot of the animal and the other end
about the master, to prevent their being
stolen while the master sleeps.
The moment this was accomplished, the
five men rolled themselves in their man-
tles, covering their faces, as well as their
bodies, and lay down upon the grass to
sleep.
They were skilled in the art of making
long journeys in the shortest possible time,
and were evidently upon important busi-
ness ; for an Arab is never in haste unless
his mission is very important.
Before Kanana reached the temple the
men were soundly sleeping, and the horses,
lying down to rest themselves, were still
eating the grass about them, as a camel
eats.
Panting for breath, and trembling in his
eager haste, Kanana reached the tomb of
Aaron: an open porch, with white pillars
THE PROMISE 41
supporting a roof of white, like a crown of
eternal snow upon the summit of Mount
Hor.
Between the snowy pillars Kanana
paused. One quick glance at the sky gave
him the points of the compass, and shading
his eyes from the glowing east, he looked
anxiously to the south and west.
Sand, sand, sand, in billows like great
waves of an ocean, lay about him in every
direction. Far away there were low hills,
and a semblance of green which, to his
practiced eye, meant a grove of date palms
upon the banks of a stream. But nowhere,
search as he would, was there the faintest
speck to indicate the caravan.
He was still anxiously scanning those
distant hills when the first rays of the ris-
ing sun shot from the eastern horizon,
flashing a halo of glory upon the snow-
white crown of old Mount Hor, before they
touched the green oasis lying about its
base.
Never, in all the ages, had the sun come
42 THE LAN.CE OF KANANA
up out of the Arabian desert to see such a
tableau as Ms first bright beams illumined
Aaron's tomb.
All absorbed in his eager search, Kanana
stood upon the very edge of the white
porch. One hand was extended, grasping
his shepherd's staff, the other was lifted to
shade his eyes.
In his eagerness to reach forward, one
foot was far before the other, and the knee
was bent, as though he were ready to leap
down the steep declivity before him.
His turban, a large square piece of cloth,
was bound about his head with a camel 's-
hair cord; one corner was thrown back
over his forehead, and a corner fell
over each shoulder, like a cloak. His coat
was sheepskins stitched together. Sum-
mer and winter, rain and sunshine, the
Bedouin shepherd wears that sheepskin
coat, as the best protection against both
sun and frost.
His bare feet rested firmly upon the
white platform, and the arm that held the
THE PROMISE 43
shepherd's staff was knotted with muscles
which a strong man might have envied him.
His beardless face was dark, but not so
dark as to hide the eager flush which
heightened the color in his cheeks, and his
chest rose and fell in deep, quick motions
from his rapid climb.
His lips were parted. His dark eyes
flashed, while the hand which shaded them
stood out from his forehead as though try-
ing to carry the sight a little farther, that
it might pierce the defiles of those distant
hills and the shadows of the date palm
groves.
The sun rose higher, and its full light
fell across the young Ishmaelite. It was
the signal for the morning call to prayer,
and from the minaret of every mosque in
the realm of Islam was sounding La Illaha
il Allah Mahamoud rousol il Allah. Ka-
nana did not need to hear the call, how-
ever. He instantly forgot his mission,
and, a humble and devout Mohammedan,
laid aside his staff and reverently faced
44 THE LANCE OF KANANA
toward Mecca to repeat his morning
prayer.
Standing erect, with his open hands be-
side his head, the palms turned forward,
he solemnly began the Nummee Allah voul-
hamda. With his hands crossed upon his
breast he continued. Then he placed his
hands upon his knees, then sat upon the
floor. Then with his open hands upon the
floor he touched his forehead to the plat-
form as he repeated the closing words of
the prayer.
In this position he remained for some
time, whispering a petition of his own for
strength and courage to carry out the task
which he had undertaken.
There was something so solemn and im-
pressive in the death-like stillness of the
early morning, upon that solitary peak,
that it almost seemed to Kanana that, if
he listened, he should hear the voice of Al-
lah, answering his prayer.
Suddenly the silence was broken by a
sharp cry, and another and another in
THE PROMISE 45
quick succession mingled with savage yells.
It was not the voice of Allah, for which
he had been waiting, and Kanana sprang
to his feet and looked anxiously about
him.
The mountains of Arabia are not high.
Among real mountains, Mount Hor would
be but a rocky hill. Looking down, for the
first time, Kanana saw the stream below
him, in its border of blue forget-me-nots,
and could clearly distinguish the five sol-
diers who had so quickly fallen asleep upon
its banks.
It was a fearful sight which met his eyes.
The five men were still lying there, but they
were no longer sleeping. They were dead
or dying ; slain by three Bedouin robbers,
who had crept upon them for the valuable
prize of their horses, and who did not dare
attempt to steal the animals while the mas-
ters were alive.
It was almost the first time that Ka-
nana's eyes had rested upon a scene of
blood, common as such scenes are among
46 THE LANCE OF KANANA
his countrymen, and he stood in the porch
benumbed with horror, while the robbers
tore from the bodies about them such gar-
ments as pleased them; then took their
weapons, mounted three of the horses, and
leading two rode quickly away to the north.
There was no assistance which Kanana
could render the unfortunate men. The
caravan was already a night's march ahead
of him and every moment that he lost must
be redeemed by hurrying so much the
faster under the burning sun, over the
scorching sand, when, at the best, it was
doubtful if flesh and blood could stand what
must be required of it.
With a shudder he turned from the terri-
ble scene and began to descend the moun-
tain. Soon he was upon the banks of the
stream and passing close to the spot where
the five bodies were lying. He would not
run, but he hurried on, with his eyes fixed
upon the ground before him.
A faint sound caught his ear. He
started, clutched his staff, and turned
THE PKOMISE 47
sharply about, thinking that the robbers
had seen him and returned. It was only
one of the unfortunate soldiers who had
been left for dead. He had raised himself
upon his elbow, and was trying to attract
Kanana's attention.
' t Water ! water ! In the name of Allah,
give me water!" he gasped, and fell back
unconscious.
For a moment Kanana was tempted to
hurry on. He did not want to go there,
any more than he wanted to delay his jour-
ney; but something whispered to him of
the promises of the Koran to those who
show mercy to the suffering; that Allah
would reward even a cup of water given to
the thirsty.
It required no little courage of the Bed-
ouin boy, all alone under Mount Hor, but he
resolutely turned back, filled with water the
wooden cup which a shepherd always car-
ries at his girdle, and poured it down the
parched throat of the almost insensible
man.
48 THE LANCE OF KANANA
4 'Bless God for water !" he gasped
"More! give me more!"
Kanana ran to the brook and filled the
cup again, but the poor man shook his head.
It was too late. He was dying.
Suddenly he roused himself. He made
a desperate struggle to call back his failing
senses, and, for a moment, threw off the
hand of Death.
He had almost given up, forgetting
something of great importance. Steady-
ing himself upon his elbow, he looked into
Xanana's face and said:
"You are a beardless youth, but you
are an Arab. Listen to me. The mighty
Prince Constantine, son of the Emperor
Heraclius, is soon to leave Constantinople,
at the head of a vast army of Turks and
Greeks and Eomans, like the leaves of the
forest and the sand of the desert. He i»
coming to sweep the Arab from the face of
the earth and the light of the sun. We
were bearing a letter to the Caliph Omar,
who is now at Mecca, telling him of the
THE PROMISE 49
danger and asking help. If the letter does
rot reach him Arabia is lost and the Faith-
"ul are destroyed. Would you see that
happen?"
Too frightened to speak and hardly com-
prehending the situation, Kanana simply
shook his head.
The man made another effort to over-
come the stupor that had almost mastered
him. He succeeded in taking from his
clothing a letter, sealed with the great seal,
and gasped:
"In the name of Allah, will you fly with
this to the great caliph? "
Hardly realizing what he said, Kanana
solemnly repeated: "In the name of Allah,
I will."
He took the letter and was hiding it in
his bosom when the soldier grasped the
cup of water, drank ravenously, and, with
the last swallow, let the cup fall from life-
less fingers.
Minute after minute passed, but Kanana
did not move a muscle. His hand still
50 THE LANCE OF KANANA
touched the letter which he had placed in
his bosom. His eyes still rested upon the
lips that would never speak again.
His sacred promise had been pledged to
fly with that letter to the great caliph at
Mecca. It had been made in the name of
Allah. It had been given to the man now
lying dead before him. There was no
power that could retract it. It must be
performed, and until it was performed no
other consideration could retard his steps
or occupy his thoughts.
His lips parted and he muttered, angrily :
"Is this my reward for having given a cup
of water to the thirsty!" Then it sud-
denly occurred to him that the caravan
which he longed most of all to follow was
also upon its way southward, and that, for
the present at least, for either mission the
direction was the same, and the demand
for haste was great.
He caught his staff from the ground and
set his face toward Mecca, pondering upon
the dying statement of the soldier till word
THE PROMISE 51
for word it was fastened in his memory,
and the thought that his mission was for
Allah and Arabia urged him on.
It was an easy task to follow the trail
of the caravan. The Bedouin would be a
disgrace to the desert who could not recog-
nize in the sand the recent footprint of one
of his own tribe or of a camel with which
he was familiar, and who could not tell by
a footprint whether the man or camel who
made it carried a burden, often what that
burden was, always whether he was fresh
or exhausted, walking leisurely or hurry-
ing.
So Kanana hurried on, daily reading
the news of the caravan before him as he
went, testing his strength to the utmost
before he rested, and starting again as soon
as he was able ; over the sand and over the
hills, through groves and villages and over
sand again ; always toward Mecca.
LED BY A WHITE CAMEL
IN the world-famous city of Mecca, two
men stood by the arch that leads to the
immortal Caaba.
They were engaged in an earnest con-
versation, heedless of everything about
them, when the distant cry of a camel driver
sounded on the still air.
Both of the men started and looked at
each other in surprise. One of them said :
"A caravan at the gate at this time of
day!" for it was several hours past mid-
day and a caravan, in the ordinary course
of things, reaches a city gate during the
night or very early in the morning.
Arabia was seeing troubled times, and
every one was on the alert for anything out
of the accepted rule.
LED BY A WHITE CAMEL 53
The camel-driver's cry was repeated.
The first speaker remarked:
"They have left the burdened camels at
the Moabede gate and are entering the
city."
With an anxious look upon his face the
elder of the two replied, "Either they
have been hard pressed by an enemy or it
is important news which brings them over
the desert in such haste, in this insuffer-
able heat."
The two men were evidently of great im-
portance in the holy city. They were sur-
rounded by powerful black slaves, who had
all that they could do to keep the passers-by
from pressing too close upon the elder man,
in a desire to touch the hem of his garment.
Many, in passing, knelt and touched their
foreheads to the ground. Thus they
waited the coming caravan.
The first camel of an important caravan
is led by a man who walks before it, through
the narrow streets of a city, and his cry
is to warn the crowd to clear the way;
54: THE LANCE OF KANANA
there being no sidewalks, and, indeed, but
very little street.
"There it comes,'* said the younger of
the two, as the long line of drowsy camels
appeared, swinging, swinging, swinging
along the narrow street.
"Led by a white camel," added the elder,
and they both looked down the street.
The lead-camel was larger than the rest
— much larger, and very much lighter col-
ored; a sort of dingy white, like a sheep
before shearing. The chief of the caravan
sat upon his back, as unmindful of every-
thing as though he were still upon the
trackless sand.
It is not impossible that the sheik was
really sleeping, and unconsciously grasping
his ugly lance, while his Damascus blade
hung ready by his side.
He roused in a moment, however, for
with many a grunt and groan the great,
ungainly, and yet very stately, ships of the
desert came slowly and drowsily to anchor
in the court before the Caaba.
LED BY A WHITE CAMEL 55
"Haji," a naked little urchin muttered,
looking up from his play; but he should
have known better. Haji means pilgrims,
and these were no pilgrims.
There are seasons when this city is one
mass of humanity. Haji by hundreds and
thousands throng the narrow streets, but
these are Bedouins of the desert, bound
upon some other mission than worshiping
before the Caaba, kissing the Black Stone,
or drinking the holy water of Zemzem.
The leader of the white camel gave a
peculiar pull to the rope hanging over his
shoulder, attached to the animal's bridle,
and uttered a short, sharp word of com-
mand.
Slowly, very slowly, the dignified, dingy
creature, towering high above him, ac-
knowledged the receipt of the order, but he
gave no evidence that he was making any
arrangements to obey.
His response was simply a deliberate
grunt and a weird and melancholy wail that
came gurgling out of his long, twisting
56 THE LANCE OF KANANA
throat. He would not have hurried him-
self one atom, even for the sheik upon his
back.
A white camel is to the Arab what a
white buffalo is to the Indian and a white
elephant to the Ceylonese, and he fully ap-
preciates his importance.
He deliberately turned his woolly head
quite about till his great brown eyes, with
the drooping lids almost closed over them,
could most conveniently look back along
the line of lank, inferior camels, and gaunt
and weather-beaten dromedaries, which
had patiently followed him, day after day,
to the temple court of immortal Mecca.
He was so long about it that the leader
repeated the command and very slowly the
camel brought his head back again, till his
languid eyes looked drowsily down, in a
sort of scornful charity, upon the insignifi-
cant mortal at the other end of his
halter.
He had stood in the court of Mecca long
before that man was born and would doubt-
LED BY A WHITE CAMEL 57
less guide caravans to the same spot long
after he was buried and forgotten.
"You may be in haste, but I am not," he
seemed to say, and dreamily turned his eyes
toward the black-curtained Caaba, as if to
see how it had fared since his last visit.
That Caaba, the Holy of Holies of the
Mussulman, is the most revered and pos-
sibly the most venerable of all the sacred
buildings on the earth; but the gentle, wist-
ful eyes of the white camel were more prac-
tically drawn toward two or three date-
palm-trees then growing beside it. When
he had satisfied himself that the only green
thing in sight was quite beyond his reach,
he deliberately lowered his head, changed
his position a little, and with another grunt
and another melancholy wail sank upon his
knees, then upon his haunches. With a
deep sigh he lifted his head again still high
above the head of his driver, and his drowsy
eyes seemed saying to him:
"Poor man! I kept you waiting, didn't
58 THE LANCE OF KANANA
Then he quickly turned his head to the
opposite side, deliberately poking his nose
into the passing throng, till, with a grunt
of recognition, it touched the garment of
one who was hurrying on among the crowd.
It was evidently a Bedouin, but the wings
of his turban were drawn together in front,
so that no one could see his face. He re-
sponded to the greeting of the white camel,
however, by laying his hand upon the crea-
ture's nose as he passed. It was a motion
which no one noticed, and a moment later
he was out of sight.
He was following a boy who had led him
directly to the arch, where the boy paused,
pointed to the elder of the two men stand-
ing there, briefly observing :
"It is he."
The Bedouin paused for a moment, as if
struggling to collect his thoughts, then
hurrying forward was the next to prostrate
himself before the venerable man. As he
rose he handed him a package, simply ob-
serving :
LED BY A WHITE CAMEL 59
"A message to the Caliph Omar."
The great caliph quickly broke the seal
and read ; then, turning to the bearer, asked
sharply, "And who art thou?"
"I am Kanana, son of the sheik of the
Beni Sads," replied the Bedouin boy, let-
ting the wings of his turban fall apart that
Omar might see his face.
"A beardless youth !" exclaimed the
caliph. < ' And dost thou know aught of the
import of this letter I"
Kanana repeated the dying words of the
Arab soldier, which had so often escaped
his lips as he urged his weary feet toward
Mecca.
"'Tis even so," replied the caliph.
"And how came living man to trust a boy
like you to come alone, through the streets
of Mecca, with such an errand?"
"I came alone with the letter from the
oasis at Mount Hor," replied Kanana,
straightening himself up, with very pardon-
able pride, before the astonished eyes of
the great caliph.
60 THE LANCE OF KANANA
Then lie related, briefly, how the letter
came into his keeping, and the dangers and
escapes of the three long weeks during
which he carried it in his bosom ; each ris-
ing and setting sun finding it a little nearer
to its destination.
"Thou art a brave youth/' said the
caliph, "a worthy son of the Terror of the
Desert. Would to Allah that every Arab
had thy heart, and Heraclius himself, with
all the world behind him, could not move
the Faithful from their desert sands. And
they shall not be moved! No! By the
beard of the Prophet, they shall not be
moved. Hear me, my son ; I will see more
of thee. This is no place for conversation,
where the wind bloweth into what ears it
listeth. One of my slaves shall conduct
you to my house. There I will meet you
presently. Go, and Allah go with you. ' '
Indicating the slave who should take Ka-
nana in charge, the Caliph Omar turned ab-
ruptly away and showed the letter to the
man with whom he had been conversing.
VI
KANANA AND THE CALIPH
GUIDED by the black slave, Kanana
passed out again under the arch, and
walked the streets of Mecca, caring less and
thinking less concerning what transpired
about him than any one, before or since,
who for the first time stood in the holy
city.
He found the narrow streets densely
crowded. Soldiers and merchants, Bedou-
ins and city Arabs mingled with an array
of every tribe Arabia could furnish. There
were venders of all things pertaining to the
necessities or luxuries of life; water-car-
riers with goatskins on their shoulders;
fruit-criers with wooden trays upon their
heads; donkeys laden with cumbersome
baskets, beneath which they were almost
lost to sight; camels carrying packs of a
61
62 THE LANCE OF KANANA
thousand pounds weight upon their backs,
as though they were bundles of feathers;
everything hustling and jostling, men and
boys shouting and pushing for the right of
way.
They all turned out as best they could,
however, for the savage black slave of the
great caliph, and by keeping close behind
him Kanana always found an open space
where he could walk without fighting for
room.
It was almost the first experience of the
Bedouin boy in real city life, and the very
first time that his bare feet had ever
touched the beaten sand of the unpaved
streets of his most sacred Mecca.
He turned from the arch, however, with-
out once glancing at the black-curtained
Caaba, the Beitullah, or House of God, to-
ward which three times a day he had turned
his face in reverent devotion, ever since he
had learned to pray.
He followed the black slave onward
through the streets, without so much as
KANANA AND THE CALIPH 63
looking at the walls of the houses that
crowded close on either hand.
He had fulfilled his vow. The packet he
had sacredly guarded through many a
hardship and danger and narrow escape
was safely delivered. Now he was free to
carry on the work for which he left the
perch and the birds in the grain-field of the
Beni Sad.
Sometimes he thought of the black slave
before him, and wondered if, after all, he
was quite free. And the thought troubled
him.
It seemed as though long years had
passed since the day when his father met
him with the news of Easchid Airikat's
capture of his brother. He had suffered
privations enough for a lifetime since then.
More than once his life had hung by a
slender thread. He could hardly imagine
himself again sitting up on the perch,
frightening the birds away, his life had so
entirely changed ; his determination to keep
the vow he made his father had grown
64 THE LANCE OF KANANA
stronger every day; only lie realized more
the magnitude of the task he had under-
taken; and he appreciated his father's
words : ' ' Thou wisp of straw before a fire 1
Thou reed before a whirlwind !" Still he
gathered hope, because he was beginning
to understand himself.
The dangers and hardships of one enter-
prise he had met and overcome, and under
the very shadow of the Caaba, the great
caliph of Mecca had called him brave.
Now he was eager for the next. There
was no vital need of another interview with
the caliph, and Kanana thought that if he
could only escape from the black slave, by
darting into a crowded alley, he could go
at once about his own important business.
For the first time Kanana looked about
him. At the moment there was no oppor-
tunity, and while he watched for one, the
slave turned suddenly into a great gate,
crossed a court paved with limestone, lifted
a reed curtain, entered one of the most sub-
stantial stone structures of Mecca, and in-
KANANA AND THE CALIPH 65
dicated to Kanana the apartment in which
he was to wait for the caliph. It was too
late to escape. With all the patience and
dogged submission to destiny so strongly
developed in the Bedouin, Kanana sat down
upon a rug. There were luxurious otto-
mans about the room, and divans taken
from the palaces of Persian princes, but
the Bedouin boy preferred the desert seat.
Much as though he were still upon the
perch, he laid his staff beside him and
buried his face in his hands. The magnifi-
cence in this chamber of Omar's official resi-
dence only disturbed his thoughts.
He became so deeply buried in his plans
that he had entirely forgotten where he
was, when the rattle of the reed curtain
roused him and, starting from his dream,
he found the great caliph entering.
Eeverently touching his forehead to the
floor, Kanana remained prostrate until the
caliph was seated. Then he rose and stood
leaning upon his staff while the old ruler
silently surveyed him. It seemed to Ka-
66 THE LANCE OF KANANA
nana that his very heart was being searched
by those grave and piercing eyes.
Upon the shoulders of the Caliph Omar
rested the fate of Islam for future ages;
his word was law wherever Mohammed
was revered. He could have little time to
waste upon a shepherd boy ; yet he sat for
a long while, silently looking at Kanana.
When he spoke, it was only to bid him re-
peat, at greater length, the story of how he
came by the letter and how he brought it
to Mecca.
"My son," he said, when Kanana had
finished, "thou hast done what many a'
brave man would not have ventured to at-
tempt. Ask what reward thou wilt of me. ' '
"I would have the blessing of the Caliph
Omar," Kanana replied.
"That thou shall have, my son; and
camels, or sheep, or gold. Ask what thou
wilt."
"I have no use for anything. I ask thy
blessing, my father, and thy word to bid me
go."
KANANA AND THE CALIPH 67
"Thou art a strange lad," replied the
caliph. "Thou art like, and yet unlike the
Terror of the Desert. I command thee,
my son, say what I can best do for thee."
"Give me thy blessing, then let me go,
my father," repeated Kanana, kneeling.
"More than that, if I took it, I should leave
at thy gate. ' '
Omar smiled gravely at the boy's ob-
stinacy.
"If I can do nothing for thee, there is
yet something which thou canst do for me.
Kahled is the greatest general who fights
for the Prophet. He will soon reach
Bashra, with thirty thousand warriors.
He will turn to enter Persia, but these let-
ters must reach him, with my orders that
he go again to Syria. Bashra is three
weeks from here, and a company of sol-
diers will start to-night to carry the mes-
sages, while I send far and wide for the
Faithful to join him. It would be well, my
son, for thee to go with the soldiers, to give
the story to Kahled by word of mouth."
68 THE LANCE OF KANANA
"The way is hard. The sand is deep
and dry between Mecca and Bashra," said
Kanana. The caliph looked in some sur-
prise upon the hardy Bedouin boy.
"Hardship should not be hard to thee;
but thou shall be carried as one whom the
caliph would honor."
"The way is dangerous. Bobbers and
hostile tribes are like the sand about Ba-
shra, " added Kanana, who had often heard
of the countries along the eastern borders
of Arabia.
Surprise became astonishment. The
caliph exclaimed :
"Thou! son of the Terror of the Desert,
speaking of danger?"
"My father, I spoke for thy soldiers,"
replied Kanana, quickly. "Before they
reach the sands of Bashra they will be with
the five who started with this letter. Dost
thou believe that Kanana spoke in fear or
cowardice? If so, give him the letters, and
with thy blessing and the help of Allah, he
will deliver them to thy Kahled, though
KANANA AND THE CALIPH 69
every river run with fire, and the half of
Arabia stand to prevent him!"
" Beardless youth!" cried the caliph.
"I am too old for mockery."
"My father, without a beard I brought
that letter here, and He who guarded me
will guard me still."
"Wouldst thou dare to go without an
escort?"
"I would rather have a sword I could
not lift than have an escort," replied Ka-
nana.
"By the beard of the Prophet, my son,
there is both foolishness and wisdom in
thy words. Thou shall take the messages
by one route, and by another I will send
the soldiers with copies. It may be that
Allah guides thy tongue. When wilt thou
start!"
"Now," replied Kanana.
"That was well spoken," said the caliph.
"What camels and servants shall be pro-
vided?"
"My father," said Kanana, "as I came
70 THE LANCE OF KANANA
a little way with the caravan which arrived
to-day, I noted the white camel that took
the lead. I never saw so great power of
speed and endurance in a camel of the plain.
The man who led him knew him well and
was easily obeyed. I would have the two,
none other, and the swiftest dromedary in
Mecca, with grain for fourteen days."
The caliph shook his head: "It will be
twenty days and more/'
"My father, the burden must be light
that the sand lie loose beneath their feet,
and small, that it tempt no envious eye."
Then, in the direct simplicity resulting
from his lonely life, Kanana added, "If
it is a three weeks' journey for others, in
fourteen days thy messages shall be de-
livered."
The caliph summoned an officer, saying,
"Go to the caravan at the Moabede Gate.
Say that Omar requires the white camel
and the man who leads it ; none other. Bid
Ebnol Hassan prepare my black drome-
dary and food for the two for fourteen
KANANA AND THE CALIPH 71
days. Have everything at the gate, ready
to start, in half an hour/' Then to a
slave, he added, "Give to the son of the
Terror of the Desert the best that the
house affords to eat and drink."
Without another word the caliph left the
room to prepare the messages. The slave
hurried to produce a sumptuous feast.
The officer left the house to execute the
orders of the man whose word was law.
Alone, Kanana sat down again upon the
mat and buried his face in his hands, as
though he were quietly preparing himself
to sleep.
Only a whisper escaped his lips. The
words were the same which he had angrily
spoken under the shadow of Mount Hor,
but the voice was very different: "This is
my great reward for giving a cup of water
to the thirsty. La Illaha il Allah!" The
slave placed the food beside him, but he
did not notice it Not until the caliph en-
tered again did he suddenly look up, ex-
claiming, "This shepherd's coat would
72 THE LANCE OF KANANA
not be fitting the dignity of the white
camel. I must have an abbe to cover it,
and a mantle to cover my face, that Mecca
may not see a beardless youth going upon
a mission for the great caliph.''
They were quickly provided. The camel
and its driver were at the gate, with the
black dromedary. All was ready, and with
the mantle drawn over his beardless face,
and the abbe covering his sheepskin coat,
Kanana knelt and received the blessing of
the Caliph Omar.
As he rose from his knees, the caliph
handed him, first the letters, which Kanana
placed in his bosom, and next a bag of gold
which Kanana held in his hand for an in-
stant; then, scornfully, he threw it upon
the mat, remarking, "My father, I have
already received a richer reward than all
the gold of Mecca."
The caliph only smiled: "Let each one
dance according to the music which he
hears. My son, I see the future opening
before thee. This is not thy last mission.
KANANA AND THE CALIPH 73
I read it in thy destiny that thou wilt suc-
ceed, and succeed again, until the name of
Kanana be written among the greatest of
those who have lift ad the lance for Allah
and Arabia. Go now, and God go with
thee."
VII
A PRIZE WORTH WINKING
THERE was a group of several people
standing about the caliph's gate as
Kanana emerged. They were apparently
waiting, in careless curiosity, to see the
white camel start, and learn what they
could of what was going on in official de-
partments.
The information they received was very
meager, yet it proved sufficient for more
than one. They saw the white camel rise,
with the veiled messenger of Omar upon
its back. As the driver looked up to re-
ceive his first command their necks were
bent in a way that betrayed their eagerness
to hear. Only one word was spoken, how-
ever. It was "Tayf," the name of a city
a short distance to the east of Mecca.
74
A PRIZE WORTH WINNING 75
The camel-driver's cry sounded again
through the streets, but the twilight
shadows were gathering. There were few
abroad, and the cries were not so loud or
so often repeated as in the afternoon.
When they ceased altogether, Kanana had
turned his back upon Mecca forever.
The night wind blew cool and refreshing
from the surrounding hills as the little
caravan moved out upon the plain, but Ka-
nana was ill at ease.
It was still as death in the valley. Far
as the eye could penetrate the darkness
they were all alone, except for five horse-
men who left the gate of Mecca not long
after the white camel, and were now rid-
ing slowly toward Tayf, a short distance
behind it.
Ever and again Kanana looked back at
them. The faint shadows, silently moving
onward through the gloom, were always
there ; never nearer ; never out of sight.
Leaning forward, he spoke in a low voice
to the driver, "You walk as though you
76 THE LANCE OF KANANA
were weary. The dromedary was brought
for you. Mount it, and follow me,"
"Master," replied the driver, "the white
camel is obstinate. He will only move for
one whom he knows well. ' '
"You speak to the wind," muttered Ka-
nana. ' ' Do as I bid thee. Hear my words.
Yonder black dromedary has the fleetest
foot in Mecca, He is the pride of the
Caliph Omar. Mount him, and if you can
overtake me while I drive the white camel,
you shall throw the dust of the desert in
the face of Baschid Airikat, and have the
white camel for your own."
The driver started back, and stood star-
ing at the veiled messenger of Omar. The
word, "Mount!" was sternly repeated.
Then he quickly obeyed, evidently bewil-
dered, but well satisfied that he would have
an easy task before him, from the moment
the white camel realized that a stranger
was in command.
Kanana spoke, and the camel started.
A PRIZE WORTH WINNING 77
The dromedary moved forward close be-
hind it without a word from the driver.
The horsemen had approached no nearer
while they waited, though Kanana had pur-
posely given them time enough to pass, had
they not halted when he halted. They
were still five silent shadows upon the dis-
tant sand.
"Faster," said Kanana, and the long
legs of the white camel swung out a little
farther over the sand and moved more rap^
idly, in response.
The dromedary immediately quickened
its pace without urging, and, a moment
later, from far in the distance, the night
wind brought the sound of horses' hoofs
through the silent valley. It was very
faint, but distinct enough to indicate that
the shadows behind them had broken into
a canter.
The camel-driver gave little heed to his
surroundings. He was too thoroughly
engrossed in the prospect of owning the
78 THE LANCE OF KANANA
white camel to care who might be coming
or going in a way as safe as that from
Tayf to Mecca.
Kanana, however, who could walk
through the streets of the holy city with-
out so much as knowing what the houses
were made of, would have heard the wings
of a night-moth passing him, or seen a
sand-bush move, a quarter of a mile away.
His life as a shepherd had, after all, not
been wasted.
"Faster," said Kanana, touching the
camel's neck with his shepherd's staff, and
without even the usual grunt of objection,
the animal obeyed. The sand began to fly
from his great feet as they rested upon it
for an instant, then left it far behind; the
Bedouin boy sat with eyes fixed on the path
before him, and his head bent so that he
could catch the faintest sounds coming from
behind. The mantle that had covered his
face fell loosely over his shoulder.
The dromedary lost a little ground for a
moment, but gathering himself together,
A PEIZE WORTH WINNING 79
easily made it up. The driver was too sure
of the final result to urge him unduly at the
start. Soon enough the white camel would
rebel of his own accord, and till then it
was quite sufficient to keep pace with
him.
The sound of horses' hoofs became
sharper and more distinct, and Omar's
messenger knew that the five shadows were
being pressed to greater speed, and were
drawing nearer.
" Faster !" said Kanana, and the white
camel broke into a run, swinging in rapid
motions from side to side, as two feet upon
one side, then two on the other were thrown
far in front of him and, in an instant, left
as far behind.
Still the dromedary made light work of
keeping close upon his track, evidently re-
alizing what was expected of him; but the
driver saw with dismay how quickly the
camel responded to the word of his rider,
how easily the man sat upon the swaying
back — how carefully he selected the best
80 THE LANCE OF KANANA
path for the animal, and how skillfully he
guided him so that he could make the best
speed with the least exertion.
Many a night Kanana had run unsad
died camels about the pastures of the Beni
Sads, guarding the sleeping sheep and
goats, little dreaming for what he was be-
ing educated.
The sound of horses • hoofs grew fainter.
They were losing ground, but now and
then the listening ear caught the sharp cry
of an Arab horseman urging his animal to
greater speed.
"They are in earnest," muttered the
Bedouin boy, "but they will not win the
race."
"Faster!" said Kanana; the camel's
head dropped till his neck lost its graceful
curve, and the great white ship of the des-
ert seemed almost flying over the billowy
sand.
For a moment the dromedary dropped
behind. The driver had to use the prod
and force him to the very best that was in
A PRIZE WORTH WINNING 81
him, before lie was able to regain the lost
ground.
The sound of hoofs could no longer be
heard, and Kanana was obliged to listen
with the utmost care to catch the faintest
echo of a distant voice.
"They are doing their best and are
beaten, but we can do still better," he said
to himself with a deep sigh of relief, as he
watched the desert shrubs fly past them in
fleeting shadows, scudding over the silver-
gray sand.
The music of the sand, as it flew from
the camel's feet and fell like hail upon the
dry leaves of the desert shrubs, was a de-
lightful melody, and hour after hour they
held the rapid pace; over low hills and
sandy plains ; past the mud village and the
well that marks the resting-place for cara-
vans, a night's journey from Mecca, with-
out a sign of halting; and on and on, the
dromedary always just so far behind,
always doing his best to come nearer.
If by urging he was brought a little closer
82 THE LANCE OF KANANA
to the camel, the driver heard that low
word, " Faster !" and in spite of him the
camel gained again. "Would he never
stop?
The sounds from behind had long been
lost when, far in advance, appeared the
regular caravan from Tayf. They ap-
proached it like the wind. Only the mystic
salaam of the desert was solemnly ex-
changed, then, in a moment, the trailing
train as it crept westward was left, disap-
pearing in the darkness behind them.
When it was out of sight the white camel
suddenly changed its course, turning
sharply to the north of east and striking
directly over the desert, away from the hills
and the beaten track to Tayf which he had
been following.
The driver could not imagine that such a
man as sat upon the white camel had lost
his way. He silently followed till they
passed a well that marked the second
night's journey from Mecca toward Persia.
The driver and dromedary would very
A PEIZE WORTH WINNING 83
willingly have stopped here ; but the camel
glided onward before them through the
changing shadows of the night, as though
it were some phantom, and not a thing of
flesh and blood.
By dint of urging, the driver brought the
dromedary near enough to call :
" Master, we are not upon the road to
Tayf."
"No," said Kanana, but the camel still
held his course.
Driven to desperation, as the eastern sky
was brightening, the driver called again:
"Master, you will kill the camel!"
"Not in one night," said Kanana; "but
if you value your own life, come on!"
Faster still and faster the white camel
swept toward the glowing east, but the
dromedary had done his best. He could
not do better.
More and more he fell behind, and in
spite of every effort of the driver, the pride
of the caliph was beaten.
Fainter and fainter grew the outline of
84 THE LANCE OF KANANA
the white camel against the morning sky,
ever swinging, swinging, swinging, over
the silver-gray sea, with a motion as regu-
lar and firm as though it had started but
an hour before.
As the red disc of the fiery sun rose out
of the desert, however, the driver saw the
camel pause, turn half about, till his huge
outline stood out in bold relief against the
sky, and then lie down.
Quickly Kanana dismounted. He ca-
ressed the camel for a moment, whisper-
ing, "We are two days and a half from
Mecca! Thou hast done better than I
hoped. Thou didst remember me yester-
day in the temple court. To-night thou
hast cheerfully given every atom of thy
strength to help me. To-morrow we shall
be far apart. Allah alone knows for what
or for how long ; but if we ever meet again
thou wilt remember me. Yes, thou wilt
greet thy Kanana."
The boy's dark eyes were bright with
tears as he gave the camel the best of the
A PRIZE WORTH WINNING 85
food provided for him; then, with sand in
stead of water performing the morning ab-
lution, he faced toward Mecca.
When the dromedary and his rider
reached the spot, the veiled messenger of
Omar was solemnly repeating his morning
prayer.
vm
TO SEEK THE BENI SADS
ALL in vain the camel driver sought to
obtain one glimpse beneath the man-
tle, to see the face of the caliph's messen-
ger or to learn anything of their destina-
tion.
He prepared their very frugal breakfast
without a fire, and, when it was eaten, in
the humble, reproachful tone of one who
felt himself unjustly suspected, he said:
"My master, why didst thou deceive me,
saying we should go to Tayf ? Didst thou
think that I would not willingly and freely
lead the white camel anywhere, to serve
the great caliph? "
"There were other ears than yours to
hear," replied Kanana.
"There were only beggars at the gate,
my master. Dost thou believe I would be
86
TO SEEK THE BENI SADS 87
treacherous to a servant of Omar and the
Prophet?"
"I believe that every child of Ishmael
will serve himself," replied Kanana; "but
that had nothing to do with what I said.
Before we start to-night, I will lay out
your path before you, to the very end. As
for the beggars, where were your senses?
For three days, in disguise, I journeyed
with the caravan of Raschid Airikat, as it
came to Mecca. I saw in him a treacherous
man, and when he yielded to a command
he must obey and gave me the white camel
and his driver, I knew that he would take
them back again by stealth and treachery,
if he were able to. Have I no eyes, that
I should spend three days with the cara-
van and then not recognize the servants of
Airikat, though they were dressed as beg-
gars and slunk away, with covered faces,
into the shadows of the caliph's gate?
They did not cover their feet, and by their
feet I knew them, even when they deceived
you, one of their own. To them I said,
88 THE LANCE OF KANANA
'Go, tell your master that his white camel
is on the way to Tayf.' "
"My master," said the driver, respect-
fully, "the sheik Airikat is as devout as he
is treacherous and brave. He gave the
sacred camel and thy servant willingly, at
the command of Omar, for the service of
Allah and Arabia. I do not think he would
deal treacherously/'
Kanana did not reply, for far away over
the desert, to the east, there was a little
speck of dark, like a faint shadow, upon
the sand. He sat in silence watching it
through the folds of his mantle, as it grew
larger and larger, and a long caravan ap-
proached.
The camels were worn out from a long
journey. Their heads hung down, and
their feet dragged languidly over the sand.
Their slow progress had belated them, and
the sun would be several hours above the
desert when they reached the oasis by the
well, which the two had passed before day-
light.
TO SEEK THE BENI SADS 89
As they drew nearer it could easily be
seen that the camels bore no burdens but
necessary food, in sacks that were nearly
empty, and that their riders were savage
men from the eastern borders of Arabia.
" Master, do they see us?" muttered the
driver.
"They have eyes," replied Kanana.
And they had. A fresh dromedary and a
white camel alone upon the desert, were a
tempting prize.
They evidently determined to appro-
priate them ; for, leaving the main body of
the caravan standing in the path, twenty
or more turned suddenly, and came directly
toward them*
"Master, we must fly from them," whis-
pered the driver.
"If they were behind us I would fly,"
replied Kanana, "for every step would be
well taken; but my path lies yonder." He
pointed directly toward the caravan.
"And I would not turn from it though
devils instead of men were in the way."
90 THE LANCE OF KANANA
"It is the will of Allah. We are lost,"
muttered the camel-driver, and his arms
dropped sullenly upon his knees, in the
dogged resignation to fate so character-
istic of the Bedouin.
Kanana made no reply, but, repeating
from the Koran, " * Whatever of good be-
tideth thee cometh from Him,' " he rose
and walked slowly to where the white camel
was lying.
Upon the high saddle, which had not yet
been removed, hung the inevitable lance
and sword, placed there by the officer of
the caliph.
Leaning back against the saddle to await
the approach of the caravan, the Bedouin
boy threw his right hand carelessly across
the hilt of the Damascus blade, exposing,
almost to the shoulder, the rounded muscles
of the powerful arm of — a shepherd lad.
The caravan drew nearer and finally
halted when the leader was less than ten
paces from the white camel.
His envious eyes had been gloating over
TO SEEK THE BENI SADS 91
the tempting prize as he approached; but
gradually they became fastened upon that
hand and arm, while the fingers that were
playing gently upon the polished hilt
seemed to beckon him on to test the gleam-
ing blade beneath.
He could not see the beardless face, pro-
tected by the mantle. How could he
know that that hand had never drawn a
sword?
The whole appearance indicated a man
without one thought of fear, and the savage
chief realized that, before the white camel
became his prize, some one beside its pres-
ent owner would doubtless pay a dear price
for it.
He was still determined to possess it, but
the silent figure demanded and received re-
spect from !rim.
Instead of the defiant words which were
upon his tongue, he pronounced the desert
greeting.
Kanana returned the salutation, and im-
mediately asked, "Did the dust from Kah-
92 THE LANCE OF KANANA
led's host blow over you when your foot
was on the sand of Bashra?"
The sheik drew back a little. It was a
slight but very suggestive motion, speaking
volumes to the keen eye of the Bedouin
boy. He had been leaning forward before,
more than is natural even to one tired out
with sitting upon a camel's back. It was
as if in his eagerness he was reaching for-
ward to grasp the prize. Now he seemed
suddenly to have lost that eagerness.
Quickly, Kanana took advantage of the
hint. He drew from his bosom the letter
of the caliph, sealed with the great seal of
Mohammed, which every Mussulman could
recognize, and calmly holding it plainly in
view, he continued:
"The beak of the vulture has whitened,
instead of the bones he would Lave plucked.
The tooth of the jackal is broken, and not
the flesh he would have torn. Easchid
Airikat is neither at Damascus nor Mecca.
To-morrow morning he will be at Tayf.
He would have you meet him there. Say
TO SEEK THE BENI SADS 93
to him, 'The fool hath eaten his own
folly. The veiled messenger of the
Prophet, sitting upon the sacred camel,
glides with the night wind into the rising
sun ; for the fire is lighted in Hejaz that at
Bashra shall cause the camels' necks to
shine.' "
A decided change came over the savage
face of the Arab sheik. He sat in silence
for a moment, then, without a word, drove
the prod into his cameL
There was a grunt and a gurgling wail,
and the tired animal was moving on, fol-
lowed by all the rest.
Kanana and his camel-driver were left
alone. When they were well out of hear-
ing the driver prostrated himself before
Kanana, touching his forehead to the
ground, and asked :
" Master, who was that sheik, with all
his warriors, and who art thou that they
should cower before thy word?"
"I am no one to receive your homage.
Stand upon your feet!" almost shouted
94 THE LANCE OF XANANA
Kanana. "I never saw nor heard of them
until to-day."
He breathed a deep, quivering sigh, and
leaned heavily upon the saddle; for every
muscle in his body shook and trembled as
the result of what had seemed so calm and
defiant. He tried to replace the letter in
his bosom, but his hand trembled so that
he was obliged to wait.
"Thou knewest that he was of the tribe
of Easchid Airikat, and that he came from
Bashra," said the driver.
"I knew nothing," replied Kanana, petu-
lantly, in the intense reaction. ' ' How long
have you been a man, well taught in killing
other men, not to see what any cowardly
shepherd boy could read? Were not their
lances made of the same peculiar wood;
and their camel saddles, were they not the
same, stained with the deep dye of Bashra ?
Who should come out of the rising sun> with
his camel licking the desert sand, if he came
not from Bashra? Who should be going
toward Mecca at this season, without a bur-
TO SEEK THE BENI SADS 95
dened camel in his caravan, if he went not
to meet his chief for war? Why did Air-
ikat crowd his caravan, day and night, if
he expected no one?"
"But, master, Airikat is at Mecca, not
at Tayf," said the camel-driver.
"Bedouin, where are your eyes and
ears!" exclaimed Kanana, scornfully.
"Your paltry beggars at the caliph's gate
carried my message swiftly. We had not
left the gate of Mecca out of sight when on
the road behind us came Airikat and four
followers. While you were struggling to
reach the white camel, they did their best
to overtake us both, but we outstripped
them. We kept upon the way till we had
passed the nightly caravan. They would
have to rest their horses at the well, and
the caravan would halt there, too. They
would inquire for us, and the caravan would
answer, 'We passed the white camel run-
ning like the wind toward Tayf . ' Enough,,
Airikat with his horsemen cannot reach
there before the next sunrise, and when he
96 THE LANCE OF KANANA
learns the truth he will be five days be-
hind us. From him and yonder caravan
by the help of Allah we are safe. If you
would learn a lesson, by the way, let it be
this : that man can conquer man without a
sword or lance. Sleep on it."
Setting the example, Kanana removed
the camel's saddle, fastened his hind foot
to his haunch with the twisted rope so that
he could not rise, and sank upon the sand
beside him, laying his head upon the crea-
ture's neck.
The last words which he heard from his
driver were: " Master, thou art mightier
than Airikat and all his warriors."
The sun beat fiercely down all day upon
his resting-place; but Kanana 's sleep was
sweeter than if the cool starlight had been
over him, or a black tent of the Beni Sads ;
because, for that one day at least, his head
was pillowed upon the white camel's neck.
It was late in the afternoon before he
woke, and the sun was setting when the lit-
tle caravan was again prepared to start.
TO SEEK THE BENI SADS 97
They were ready to mount when the
driver came to the white camel. He laid
his hand upon the dingy haunch, and said,
in a voice that was strangely pleading for
a fierce Bedouin:
" Master, do not crowd him over-hard to-
night. He obeys too willingly. He is tired
from a long journey. It is four weeks
since he has rested. I would rather you
would kill me than the white camel."
Kanana thought for a moment, then tak-
ing his shepherd's staff from the saddle,
he replied:
"You can tell better than I how he should
be driven. Mount him, and I will ride the
dromedary."
To the driver this was only Arab sar-
casm, and he hesitated till Kanana silently
pointed his staff toward the saddle, and the
driver was more afraid to refuse than to
obey.
Kanana turned and mounted the drome-
dary.
As the camel rose to his feet, a strange
98 THE LANCE OF KANANA
temptation sent the blood tingling to the
driver's finger-tips.
The dromedary was unarmed. The mes-
senger of Omar held only a shepherd's
staff. Almost unconsciously his hand
clutched the hilt of the Damascus blade,
betraying the fact that it was better used
to holding such a thing than the rope that
led the white camel through Mecca.
Quickly the driver looked back, to see
Kanana quietly watching him. Instantly
his hand dropped the hilt, but it was too
late. Scornfully Kanana said:
"Lo! every child of Ishmael, from the
devout Easchid to the faithful camel-
driver, will serve himself. Nay, keep the
hand upon the sword. Perchance there
will be better cause to use it than in defy-
ing me. From here our paths must sep-
arate. I promised that to-night I would
lay out your course for you. It is north-
ward, without swerving, for ten nights, at
least."
, "And whither goest thou, my master?"
TO SEEK THE BENI SADS 99
"That only Allah can direct, from day
to day. La Illaha il Allah!"
"And what is my mission to beH" asked
the driver, anxiously.
"It is to seek the Beni Sads; to find the
aged chief, the Terror of the Desert ; to say
to him, 'Kanana hath fulfilled his vow.'
He hath not lifted the lance against Airi-
kat; but thy white camel is returned to
thee, bearing thy first-born upon his back.
Go, and God go with thee ! ' '
6 ' Who art thou f ' ' cried the man upon the
white camel, starting from his seat as the
dromedary gave the usual grunt, in answer
to the prod, and moved away.
The Bedouin boy turned in the saddle,
tore off the abbe and the mantle that cov-
ered him, and clad in the sheepskin coat
and desert turban answered:
"I am thy brother Kanana, the coward
of the Beni Sads V9
IX
FOB ALLAH AND ABASIA
"IT" AN AN A! our Kanana!" cried the
M\> brother, striking the camel's neck.
The dingy dignity of the great white camel
was ruffled by the blow received, and he
expressed his disapproval in a series of
grunts before he made any attempt to start.
"Kanana! Kanana!" the brother called
again, seeing the dromedary already merg-
ing into the shadows ; but the only response
he received was from the shepherd's staff,
extended at arm's length pointing north-
ward.
"My young brother shall not leave me in
this way. He has no weapon of defense
and only a little of the grain."
Again he struck the camel a sharp blow
as the animal began very slowly to move
forward. The black dromedary was hardly
100
FOE ALLAH AND ARABIA 101
distinguishable from the night, and was
rapidly sinking into the deepening shadows
before the camel was fairly on the way.
"Go!" cried the rider savagely, striking
him again, and the camel moved a little
faster; but he made slow and lumbering
work, for he was not at all pleased with his
treatment.
The rider's eyes were fixed intently upon
the dim outline sinking away from him.
The last he saw of it was the hand and arm,
still holding the extended shepherd's staff,
pointing to the north. Then all was lost.
He kept on in that direction for an hour,
but it was evident that he had begun in the
wrong way with the camel, and that he was
not forcing him to anything like his speed
of the night before.
It was beyond his power to overtake the
dromedary, and doubly chagrined he gave
up the race and turned northward.
The path before Kanana was the high-
way between Persia and Mecca. At some
seasons it was almost hourly traversed, but
102 THE LANCE OF KANANA
at midsummer only absolute necessity
drove the Arabs across the very heart of
the desert.
In the height of the rainy season there
were even occasional pools of water in the
hollows, here and there. Later there was
coarse, tough grass growing, sometimes for
miles along the way.
Little by little, however, they disap-
peared. Then the green of each oasis
shrank toward the center, about the spring
or well, and often before midsummer was
over, they too had dried away.
The prospect of loneliness, however, was
not at all disheartening to Kanana. He
had no desire to meet with any one, least
of all with such parties as would be apt
to cross the desert at this season.
If a moving shadow appeared in the dis-
tance, he turned well to one side and had
the dromedary lie down upon the sand till
it passed.
The black dromedary was fresh, and the
Bedouin boy knew well how to make the
FOE ALLAH AND AKABIA 103
most of his strength while it lasted ; but it
was for Allah and Arabia that they crossed
the desert, and Kanana felt that neither
his own life nor that of the dromedary could
be accounted of value compared with the
demand for haste.
He paid no heed to the usual camping-
grounds for caravans, except to be sure
that he passed two of them every night till
the dromedary's strength began to fail.
Each morning the sun was well upon its
way before he halted for the day, and long
before it set again he was following his
shadow upon the sand.
More and more the dromedary felt the
strain. When twelve nights had passed,
the pride of the caliph was anything but a
tempting prize, and Kanana would hardly
have troubled himself to turn out for a
caravan even if he had thought it a band
of robbers.
The Bedouin boy, too, was thoroughly
worn and exhausted. For days they had
been without water, checking their thirst
104 THE LANCE OF KANANA
by chewing the prickly leaves of the little
desert vine that is the last sign of life npon
the drying sand. No dew fell at this sea-
son, and Kanana realized that it was only
a matter of hours as to how much longer
they could hold out.
Morning came without a sign of water
or of life, as far as the eye could reach.
The sun rose higher, and Kanana longed
for the sight of a human being as intensely
as at first he had dreaded it.
Nothing but the ghastly bones of men
and animals bleaching among the sand-
shrubs showed him that he was still upon
the highway to Bashra.
Out of the glaring silver-gray, the fiery
sun sailed into the lusterless blue of the
dry, hot sky, leaving the two separated by
the eternal belt of leaden clouds that never
rise above a desert-horizon and never dis-
perse in rain.
Kanana halted only for his morning
prayer, and, when it was finished, the peti-
tion that he added for himself was simply
FOE ALLAH AND ARABIA 105
" Water! water! 0 Allah! give us water.''
Each day the heat had become more in-
tense, and to-day it seemed almost to burn
the very sand. As Kanana mounted again
and started on, his tired eyes sought anx-
iously the glaring billows for some sign of
life ; but not a living thing, no shadow even,
broke the fearful monotony.
There were gorgeous promises, but they
did not deceive the eyes that had looked so
often along the sand. There were great
cities rising upon the distant horizon, with
stately domes and graceful minarets such
as were never known throughout the length
and breadth of Arabia. And when the
bells ceased tolling in Kanana 's ears, he
could hear the muezzin's call to prayer.
Then the bells would toll again and he
would mutter, " Water! water! 0 Allah!
give us water."
He had no longer any heart to urge the
tired dromedary to a faster pace. He
knew that it would only be to see him fall,
the sooner, upon the sand. The tired crea-
106 THE LANCE OF KANANA
ture's head hung down till his nose touched
the earth as he plodded slowly onward.
The sun rose higher. It was past the
hour when they always stopped, but
neither thought of stopping. Waiting
would not bring the water to them, and the
Bedouin boy knew well that to lie on the
desert sand that day meant to lie there for-
ever.
The dromedary knew it as well as his
master, and without a word to urge him, he
kept his feet slowly moving onward, like
an automaton, with his nose thrust for-
ward just above the sand, as though he too
were pleading: " Water! water! 0 Al-
lah! give us water."
His eyes were closed. His feet dragged
along the sand. Kanana did not attempt
to guide him, though he swayed from side
to side, sometimes reeling and almost fall-
ing over low hillocks which he made no ef-
fort to avoid.
Kanana could scarcely keep his own eyes
open. The glare of the desert was blind-
FOB ALLAH AND AEABIA 107
ing; but their last hope lay in his watchful-
ness.
He struggled hard to keep back the
treacherous drowsiness, but his head would
drop upon one shoulder, then upon the
other. He could have fallen from the sad-
dle and stretched himself upon the sand to
die without a struggle, had it not been for
the caliph's letter in his bosom. Again
and again he pressed his hand upon it to
rouse himself, and muttered, "By the
help of Allah, I will deliver it. ' '
Each time that this roused him he
shaded his eyes and sought again the sand
before him; but glaring and gray it
stretched away to the horizon, without one
shadow save that of the forest of low and
brittle sand-shrubs.
The burning sky grew black above him,
and the desert became a fiery red. The
dromedary did not seem like a living thing.
He thought he was sitting upon his perch
in the harvest field. The sun seemed cold,
as its rays beat upon his head. He shiv-
108 THE LANCE OF KANANA
ered and unconsciously drew the wings of
his turban over his face. No wonder it
was cold. It was the early morning under
Mount Hor. Yes, there were all the blue
forget-me-nots. How the stream rippled
and gurgled among them !
He started. What was that shock that
roused him? Was it the robbers coming
down upon him? He shook himself
fiercely. Was he sleeping? He struggled
to spring to his feet, but they were tangled
in something.
At last his blood-shot eyes slowly opened
and consciousness returned. The drome-
dary had fallen to the ground, beside — an
empty well.
Kanana struggled to his feet and looked
down among the rocks. The bottom was
as dry as the sand upon which he was
standing.
He looked back at the dromedary. Its
eyes were shut. Its neck was stretched
straight out before it on the sand, its head
rested upon the rocks of the well.
FOB ALLAH AND AEABIA 109
"Thou hast given thy life for Allah and
Arabia," Kanana said, "and when the
Prophet returns in his glory, he will re-
member thee."
He took the sack of camel's food from
the saddle and emptied the whole of it
where the dromedary could reach it. Then
he cut the saddle-straps and dragged the
saddle to one side. It was all that he could
do for the dumb beast that had served
him.
Suddenly he noticed that the sun was set-
ting. All the long day he must have slept,
while the poor dromedary had crept on-
ward toward the well. It had not been a
healthful sleep, but it refreshed him, and
combined with the excitement of waking
and working for the dromedary, he found
his tongue less parched than before.
Quickly he took a handful of wheat and be-
gan to chew it vigorously; a secret which
has saved the life of many a Bedouin upon
the great sea of sand.
For a moment he leaned upon the empty
110 THE LANCE OF KANANA
saddle chewing the wheat, watching the sun
sink into the sand and thinking.
"Thirteen days7' he muttered. "I said
fourteen when I started, but we have done
better than three days in two. If we did
not turn from the way to-day, this well is
but one night from Bashra. 0 Allah!
Mahamoud rousol il Allah! give thy serv-
ant life for this one night."
The dromedary had not moved to touch
the food beside him, and there was no hope
of further help from the faithful animal.
Kanana stood beside it for a moment, laid
his hand gratefully upon the motionless
head, then took up his shepherd's staff and
started on.
Sometimes waking, sometimes sleeping
as he walked, sometimes thinking himself
far away from the sands of Bashra, some-
times urging himself on with a realization
that he must be near his journey's end, he
pressed steadily on and on, hour after
hour.
Sometimes he felt fresh enough to start
FOB ALLAH AND ARABIA 111
and run. Sometimes he wondered if lie
had the strength to lift his foot and put it
forward another time. Sometimes he felt
sure that he was moving faster than a cara-
van, and that he should reach Bashra be-
fore morning. Sometimes it seemed as
though the willing spirit must leave the
lagging flesh behind as he had left the
dromedary, and go on alone to Bashra.
Then he would press the sacred letter
hard against his bosom and repeat, "By
the help of Allah I will deliver it!" And
all the time, though he did not realize it, he
was moving forward with swift and steady
strides, almost as though he were inspired
with superhuman strength.
Far away to the east a little spark of
light appeared. It grew and rose, till
above the clouds there hung a thin white
crescent; the narrowest line of moonlight.
Kanana gave a cry of joy, for it was an
omen which no Arab could fail to under-
stand.
Then the air grew cold. The darkest
112 THE LANCE OF KANANA
hour before the dawn approached, and the
narrow moon served only to make the earth
invisible.
The dread of meeting any one had long
ago left Kanana's mind. First he had
feared it. Then he had longed for it.
Now he was totally indifferent. He looked
at the sky above him to keep his course.
He looked at the sand beneath his feet ; but
he did not once search the desert before
him.
Suddenly he was roused from his leth-
argy. There were shadows just ahead.
He paused, shaded his eyes from the sky
and looked forward, long and earnestly.
' 'It is not sand-shrubs," he muttered.
"It is too high. It is not Bashra. It is
too low. It is not a caravan. It does not
move. It has no beginning and no end,"
he added, as he looked to right and left.
"It is tents," he said a moment later,
and a frown of anxiety gathered over his
forehead. "Have I missed the way? No
tribe so large as that would be tented near
FOE ALLAH AND AEABIA 113
Bashra. If I turn back I shall die. If I
go on — La lllaha il Allah!" he murmured,
and resolutely advanced.
As he drew nearer, the indistinguishable
noises of the night in a vast encampment
became plainly audible, but he did not hesi-
tate.
Following the Arab custom for every
stranger in approaching a Bedouin camp,
he paused at the first tent he reached, and
standing before the open front repeated
the Mussulman salutation.
Some one within roused quickly, and out
of the darkness a deep voice sounded in
reply.
Then Kanana repeated :
"I am a wanderer upon the desert. I
am far from my people." And the voice
replied :
"If you can lift the lance for Allah and
Arabia, you are welcome in the camp of
Kahled the Invincible."
"La lllaha il Allah!" cried Kanana.
"Guide me quickly to the tent of Kahled.
114 THE LANCE OF KANANA
I am a messenger to him from the great
Caliph Omar."
The earth reeled beneath the feet of Ka-
nana as the soldier led the way.
The general was roused without the for-
mality of modern military tactics or even
Mohammedan courtesies. A torch was
quickly lighted. Kanana prostrated him-
self; then rising, he handed the precious
packet to the greatest general who ever led
the hosts of Mohammed.
Kahled the Invincible broke the seal, but
before he had read a single word, the Bed-
ouin boy fell unconscious upon the carpet
of the tent.
As the soldiers lifted him, Kanana
roused for an instant and murmured :
"By the dry well, one night to the south-
west, my black dromedary is dying of
thirst. In Allah's name, send him water!
He brought the message from Mecca in
thirteen days!" Then the torch-light
faded before his eyes, and Kanana 's lips
were sealed in unconsciousness.
X
KAN ANA'S THIRD MISSION
AVAST Mohammedan army, with its
almost innumerable followers, was
marching towards Syria, to meet the hosts
of the Emperor Heraclius.
Like a pillar of cloud the dust rose above
the mighty throng.
Armed horsemen, ten thousand strong,
rode in advance.
A veteran guard of scarred and savage
men came next, mounted upon huge camels,
surrounding Kahled the Invincible and his
chief officers, who rode upon the strongest
and most beautiful of Persian horses.
A little distance behind were thousands
of fierce warriors mounted on camels and
dromedaries. Then came another vast de-
tachment of camels bearing the tents, fur-
niture, and provisions of the army; these
115
116 THE LANCE OF KANANA
were followed by a motley throng, com-
prising the families of many of the tribes
represented in the front, while still another
powerful guard brought up the rear.
Behind the body-guard of Kahled and be-
fore the war-camels rode a smaller guard,
in the center of which were two camels,
bearing a litter between them.
Upon this litter lay Kanana, shielded
from the sun by a goafs-hair awning; for
almost of necessity the army moved by
daylight. It started an hour after sun-
rise, resting two hours at noon, and halt-
ing an hour before sunset. It moved more
rapidly than a caravan, however, and av-
eraged twenty-five miles a day.
Close behind Kanana 's litter walked a
riderless dromedary. At the start it was
haggard and worn. Its dark hair was
burned to a dingy brown by the fierce heat
of the desert; but even Kahled received
less careful attention, and every day it
gathered strength and held its head a lit-
tle higher.
KANANA'S THIRD MISSION 117
The black dromedary was not allowed to
carry any burden, but was literally covered
with gay-colored cloths; decorating the
pride of Omar the Great, that had brought
the good news from Mecca to Bashra in
less than thirteen days.
Nothing pleasanter could have been an-
nounced to that terrible army of veterans
surrounding the valiant Kahled, than that
it was to face the mightiest host which the
Emperor Heraclius could gather in all the
north.
There was not one in all that throng who
doubted, for an instant, that Kahled could
conquer the whole world if he chose, in the
name of Allah and the Prophet.
Many of the soldiers had followed him
since the day, years before, when he made
his first grand plunge into Persia. They
had seen him made the supreme dictator of
Babylonia. They had seen him send that
remarkable message to the great monarch
of Persia :
" Prof ess the faith of Allah and his
118 THE LANCE OF KANANA
Prophet, or pay tribute to their servants.
If you refuse I will come upon you with a
host that loves death as much as you love
life."
Once before had they seen him sum-
moned from his triumphs in Persia, be-
cause all of the Mohammedan generals and
soldiers in Syria were not able to cope with
the power of Heraclius. They had seen
him invested with the supreme power by
the Caliph Abu-Bekr, Omar's predeces-
sor, and watched while, single-handed, he
fought and conquered the great warrior,
Eomanus.
Most of them had been with him before
the walls of Damascus, when he besieged
that magnificently fortified city upon one
side, and fought and conquered an army of
a hundred thousand men upon the other
side, sent from Antioch, by Heraclius, for
the relief of the great city. Then they wit-
nessed the fall of Damascus, and followed
Kahled as he attacked and put to flight an
army outnumbering his by two to one, and
t
KAN ANA'S THIED MISSION 119
equipped and drilled in the most modern
methods of Roman warfare.
They had fought with him in the fiercest
battles ever recorded of those desert lands,
and they only knew him as Kahled the In-
vincible.
After Abu-Bekr had died and Omar the
Great had taken his place, the proud sol-
diers saw their general unjustly deposed
and given such minor work as tenting about
the besieged cities, while others did the
fighting, until he left Syria in disgust.
No wonder they were glad to see him re-
called to take his proper place. They
jested without end about the cowards who
were frightened because Heraclius had
threatened to annihilate the Mussulmans.
And the march was one grand holiday, in
spite of heat and hardships.
As Kanana lay in his litter and listened
to these bursts of eloquence in praise of
the general, he was often stirred with ar-
dent patriotism and almost persuaded to
cast his lot among the soldiers; but the
120 THE LANCE OF KANANA
same odd theories which before had pre-
vented his taking up a lance, restrained
him still.
On the fourth day he left the litter and
took his seat upon the black dromedary.
Kahled directed that costly garments and
a sword and lance be furnished him, but
Kanana prostrated himself before the gen-
eral and pleaded: "My father, I never
held a lance, and Allah knows me best in
this sheepskin coat."
Kahled frowned, but Kanana sat upon
the decorated dromedary precisely as he
left the perch in the harvest-field. He ex-
pected to take his place with the camp-fol-
lowers in the rear, but found that he was
still to ride in state surrounded by the vet-
eran guard. Indeed, he became a figure so
celebrated and conspicuous that many a
warrior in passing, after prostrating him-
self before the general, touched his fore-
head to the ground before Kanana and the
black dromedary.
KANAKA'S THIKD MISSION 121
It might have made a pleasant dream,
while sitting upon the perch in the harvest-
field, but the reality disturbed him, and
again he began to plan some means of es-
cape.
He carefully computed the position of
the Beni Sad encampment, and determined
the day when the army would pass but a
few miles to the east of it.
One who has not lived upon the desert,
and seen it illustrated again and again, can
scarcely credit the accuracy with which a
wandering Bedouin can locate the direc-
tion and distance to any point with which
he is familiar; but even then Kanana was
at a loss as to how to accomplish his pur-
pose when the whole matter was arranged
for him, and he was supplied with a work
which he could perform for Allah and Ara-
bia, still holding his shepherd's staff and
wearing his sheepskin coat.
The army halted for the night upon the
eve of the day when it would pass near the
122 THE LANCE OF KANANA
encampment of the Beni Sads. The tent
which Kanana occupied was pitched next
that of Kahled.
He sat upon the ground eating his sup-
per. All about him was the clatter and
commotion of the mighty host preparing
for the night, when he heard an officer re-
porting to the general that in three days
the supply of grain would be exhausted.
"My father," he exclaimed, prostrating
himself before the general, "thy servant's
people, the Beni Sads, must be less than a
night's journey to the north and west.
They were harvesting six weeks ago, and
must have five hundred camel-loads of
grain to sell. Bid me go to them to-night,
and, with the help of Allah, by the sunrise
after to-morrow it shall be delivered to thy
hand."
Kahled had formed a very good opinion
of the Bedouin boy. He had noticed his
uneasiness, and, suspecting that he would
make an endeavor to escape, he had been
searching for some occupation that should
KANANA 'S THIED MISSION 123
prevent it by rendering him more content
to remain. He felt that a time might come
when Kanana, with his sheepskin coat and
shepherd's staff, might be of greater value
to him than many a veteran with costly
abbe and gleaming sword.
The result was an order that, one hour
after sunset, Kanana should start, at the
head of a hundred horsemen, with ten cam-
els laden with treasure for the purchase
of grain, with twenty camels bearing grain-
sacks, and one with gifts from Kahled to
the Terror of the Desert, in acknowledg-
ment of the service rendered by his
son.
When he had purchased what grain the
Beni Sads would sell, he was to continue
in advance of the army, securing supplies
to the very border of Syria.
Kanana was no prodigy of meekness
that he should not appreciate this distinc-
tion. A prouder boy has never lived, in
Occident or Orient, than the Bedouin shep-
herd who sat upon the black dromedary
124 THE LANCE OF KANANA
and publicly received the general's bless-
ing and command of the caravan.
In any other land there might have been
rebellion among a hundred veteran horse-
men, when placed under command of a boy
in a sheepskin coat, armed only with a shep-
herd's staff, but there was no man of them
who had not heard wonderful tales of Ka-
nana's courage; and the shepherd who had
left the harvest field six weeks before,
known only as the coward of the Beni Sads,
set his face toward home that night, fol-
lowed by a hundred savage warriors who
obeyed him as one of the bravest of all the
Bedouins.
As the caravan moved rapidly over the
plain, bearing its costly burden, it is hardly
surprising that the beardless chief recalled
his last interview with his angry father,
when that veteran sheik refused to trust
him with a single horse to start upon his
mission; but he was none the less anxious
to reach his father's tent and receive his
father's blessing.
XI
THE SACKED GIEDLE
SHORTLY after midnight five horsemen
who rode in advance returned to report
a large encampment, far away upon the
left. Then Kanana took the lead as a
brave Bedouin chieftain should, and, fol-
lowed by the caravan, approached the smol-
dering fires which betrayed the location of
the camp.
He rode directly toward the tent of the
sheik, which always stands in the outer
line, farthest from a river or upon the side
from which the guests of the tribe will be
most likely to approach.
As he approached, a shadow rose silently
out of the shadows. It sniffed the air.
Then there was a faint grunt of satisfac-
tion and the shadow sank down into the
shadows again.
Kanana slipped from the back of the
125
126 THE LANCE OF KANANA
dromedary without waiting for him to lie
down, and, running forward to the white
camel, whispered, "I knew that thou
wouldst know me. ' '
The Terror of the Desert appeared at the
tent door with a hand raised in blessing.
Kanana ran to his father with a cry of
joy, and the white-haired sheik threw his
arms about the neck of his son and kissed
him, saying:
" Forgive me, Kanana, my brave Ka-
nana! I said that thou hadst come to
curse me with thy cowardice, and lo ! thou
hast done grander, braver deeds than I in
all my years ! Verily, thou hast put me to
shame, but it is with courage, not with
cowardice."
Kanana tried to speak, but tears choked
him. All alone he could calmly face a
score of savage robbers, armed to the
teeth, but suddenly he discovered that he
was only a boy, after all. He had almost
forgotten it. And in helpless silence he
clung to his father's neck.
THE SACEED GIRDLE 127
The old sheik roused himself.
' 'Kanana," he exclaimed, "why am I si-
lent? The whole tribe waits to welcome
thee. Ho! every one who sleepeth!" he
called aloud, " awake! awake! Kanana is
returned to us ! ' '
Far and near the cry was repeated, and
a moment later the people came hurrying
to greet the hero of the Beni Sads.
Not only had the brother returned with
the white camel and a glowing account of
his rescue by the veiled messenger of the
caliph, but a special officer had come, by a
passing caravan, bearing to the Terror of
the Desert a bag of gold and the congratu-
lations of Omar the Great, that he was the
father of such a son.
Now the gifts from Kahled the Invinci-
ble arrived, and the hundred horsemen
obeying the voice of Kanana. The Beni
Sads could scarcely believe their eyes and
ears.
Torches were lighted. Fires were re-
kindled and, before sunrise, the grandest
128 THE LANCE OF KANANA
of all grand Bedouin feasts was in full
glory.
Vainly, however, did the old sheik bring
out the best robe to put it on him; with
a ring for his hand and shoes for his feet ;
in a custom for celebrating a son's return
which was old when the story of the Prod-
igal was told.
Kanana only shook his head and an-
swered, "My father, Allah knows me best
barefooted and in this sheepskin coat."
The Bedouin seldom tastes of meat
except upon the occasion of some
feast.
When a common guest arrives, unleav-
ened bread is baked and served with ayesh,
a paste of sour camePs milk and flour.
But Kanana was not a common guest.
For one of higher rank coffee and
melted butter is prepared, but these were
not enough for a welcome to Kanana.
For one still higher a Md or lamb is
boiled in camePs milk and placed in a great
wooden dish covered with melted fat and
THE SACEED GIEDLE 129
surrounded by a paste of wheat that has
been boiled and dried and ground and
boiled again with butter.
Twenty lambs and kids were thus pre-
pared, but the people were not satisfied.
Nothing was left but the greatest and
grandest dish which a Bedouin tribe can
add to a feast in an endeavor to do honor
to its noblest guest. Two she-camels were
killed and the meat quickly distributed to
be boiled and roasted. All for the boy
who had left them, six weeks before, with
no word of farewell but the parting taunt
of a rat-catcher.
While the men were eating the meat and
drinking camel's milk and coffee, the
women sang patriotic songs, often substi-
tuting Kanana's name for that of some
great hero ; and when the men had finished
and the women gathered in the maharems
to feast upon what was left, the Terror of
the Desert, roused to the highest pitch of
patriotism, declared his intention to join
the army of Kahled, and nearly two hun-
130 THE LANCE OF KANANA
dred of the Beni Sads resolved to follow
him.
It was nearly noon when Kanana and
those who were with him went to sleep in
the goat's-hair tents, leaving the whole
tribe at work, packing the grain-sacks,
loading the camels, and cleaning their
weapons for war.
Kanana performed his mission faith-
fully, little dreaming that Kahled's one de-
sign in placing it in his hands was to keep
him with the army for services of much
greater importance.
The time which the general anticipated
came when the hosts of Kahled, joined by
the Mohammedan armies of Syria and
Arabia, were finally encamped at Yermonk
upon the borders of Palestine.
Kanana was summoned to the general's
tent and, trembling like the veriest coward
in all the world, he fell upon his face be-
fore the man to whom was entrusted the
almost hopeless task of rescuing Arabia.
THE SACRED GIRDLE 131
To Kahled alone all eyes were turned and
Kanana trembled, not because he was
frightened, but because he was alone in the
tent with one who seemed to him but little
less than God himself.
Kahled 's words were always few and
quickly spoken.
"Son of the Terror of the Desert," said
he, "many conflicting rumors reach me
concerning the approaching enemy. I
want the truth. I want it quickly. What
dost thou require to aid thee in perform-
ing this duty?"
Kanana 's forehead still touched the
ground. Overwhelmed by this sudden
order, an attempt to obey which, meant
death, without mercy, without one chance
in a hundred of escape, he altogether for-
got to rise.
Kahled sat in silence, understanding hu-
man nature too well to disturb the boy, and
for five minutes neither moved. Then Ka-
nana rose slowly and his voice trembled a
132 THE LANCE OF KANANA
little as he replied, "My father, I would
have thy fleetest horse, thy blessing, and
thy girdle."
Kahled the Invincible wore a girdle that
was known to every soldier and camp-fol-
lower of the army. It was of camel's-skin,
soft-tanned and colored with a brilliant
Persian dye, which as far away as it
could be seen at all, no one could mis-
take.
It was part of a magnificent curtain
which once hung in the royal palace of
Babylon. It pleased the fancy of the fierce
warrior, and he wore it as a girdle till it
became his only insignia. There was not
a color like it within hundreds of miles at
least, and when the people saw it they knew
that it was Kahled.
"Take what horse thou wilt," replied
the general. "I give thee, now, my bless-
ing." Then he hesitated for a moment.
Had Kanana asked a hundred camels or
a thousand horsemen he would have added,
"Take them." As it was, he said, a little
THE SACEED GIRDLE 133
doubtfully, "What wouldst thou with my
girdle 1"
In all the direct simplicity which clung
to him in spite of everything, Kanana re-
plied: "I would hide it under my coat; I
would that it be proclaimed throughout the
army that some one has fled to the enemy
with the sacred girdle, and that a great re-
ward be offered to him who shall return
to Kahled any fragment of it he may find/'
Without another word, the general un-
wound the sacred girdle, and Kanana,
reverently touching it to his forehead,
bound it about him under his sheepskin
coat.
Kneeling, he received the blessing, and
leaving the tent, he selected the best of
Kahled 's horses and disappeared in the
darkness, alone.
The next morning an oppressive sense
of inaction hung about the headquarters.
The only order issued accompanied an
announcement of the loss of the sacred
girdle.
134 THE LANCE OF KANANA
Every soldier was commanded to be on
the watch for it, to seize and to return at
once to Kahled, even the smallest fragment
which might be found. For this the fortu-
nate man was promised as many gold
coins as, lying flat, could be made to touch
the piece which he returned.
XII
KANAKA'S MESSENGERS
FAB and wide the impatient soldiers
asked, "Why is the army inac-
tive ?"
"Is not the motto of Kahled ' Waiting
does not win7?"
"Has he not taught us that action is the
soul and secret of success?"
"Does he not realize that the hosts of
Heraclius are bearing down upon us, that
he leaves us sitting idly in our tents?"
"Is Kahled the Invincible afraid?"
Such were the questions which they put
to their officers, but no one dared carry
them to the general, who sat in his tent
without speaking, from sunrise to sunset,
the first day after the girdle disappeared.
"Is it the loss of his girdle?"
"Did he not conquer Babylonia without
it?"
135
136 THE LANCE OF KANAKA
"Does he not fight in the name of Allah
and the Prophet? Could a bright-colored
girdle give him strength?"
Thus the second day went by.
Kahled the Invincible was silent and sul-
len, and the impression grew and grew that
in some way the safety and success of the
whole army depended upon the recovery
of that girdle.
So intense was this sentiment, that when
at midnight, after the third day, it was re-
ported that a fragment of the girdle had
been captured by some scouts, and was
then being taken to the general's tent, the
whole army roused itself and prepared for
action.
Not an order had been issued, yet every
soldier felt instinctively that the coming
morning would find him on the march.
It was midnight. For a day Kahled had
not even tasted food. He sat alone in his
tent upon a Persian ottoman. A bronze
vessel from Babylonia, filled with oil, stood
near the center of the tent. Fragments
KANANA'S MESSENGERS 137
of burning wick, floating in the oil, filled
the tent with a mellow, amber light.
There was excitement without, but Kah-
led did not heed it till a soldier unceremo-
niously entered, bearing in his hand a part
of the curtain from the palace of Baby-
lon.
With a sudden ejaculation Kahled caught
it from the soldier's hand, but ashamed of
having betrayed an emotion, he threw it
carelessly upon the rug at his feet, hand-
ing the soldier a bag of gold, and bidding
him see how many pieces, lying flat, could
touch it.
The soldier worked slowly, carefully
planning the position as he laid the pieces
down, and Kahled watched him as indif-
ferently as though he were only moving
men upon the Arab's favorite checker-
board.
When every piece that could was touch-
ing the camel skin, the soldier returned the
bag, half -emptied, and began to gather up
his share.
138 THE LANCE OF KANAKA
Rallied deliberately emptied the bag,
bidding Mm take the whole and go.
He was leaving the tent when the gen-
eral called him back. He had picked up
the skin, and was carelessly turning it over
in his hand. It was neatly cut from the
girdle, in the shape of a shield, a little over
a foot in width.
"How did you come by it?" Kahled
asked indifferently.
"We were searching the plain, a day's
journey to the north," the soldier an-
swered. "We were looking for travelers
who might bring tidings of the enemy.
We saw four strangers, Syrians, riding
slowly, and a shepherd who seemed to be
their guide. Upon his horse's front, hung
like a breastplate, where every eye could
see, was yonder piece of the sacred girdle.
We dashed upon them, and the cowards
ran. The shepherd was the last to turn.
I was ahead, but not near enough to reach
him, so I threw my lance. He fell from
his horse and — "
KANAKA'S MESSENGEES 139
"You killed him?" shrieked the gen-
eral, springing to his feet and dropping
the camel skin.
"No ! no I" gasped the frightened soldier.
"I only tried to. He wore a coat of sheep-
skin. It was too thick for my lance. He
sprang to his feet, tore the lance from his
coat, and ran after the rest, faster even
than they could ride, leaving his horse be-
hind. "
"'Tis well," muttered the general, and
he devoutly added, "Allah be praised for
that sheepskin coat!"
The soldier left the tent, and going
nearer to the light, Kahled examined the
fragment of the sacred girdle. It was
double. Two pieces had been cut and the
edges joined together.
He carefully separated them, and upon
the inner side found what he evidently ex-
pected.
These words had been scratched upon
the leather, and traced with blood:
"Sixty thousand, from Antioch and
140 THE LANCE OF KANANA
Aleppo, under Jababal the traitor, encamp
two days from Yermonk, north, waiting
for Manuel with eighty thousand Greeks
and Syrians, now six days away. Still
another army is yet behind. Thy servant
goes in search of Manuel when this is
sent."
" Allah be praised for that sheepskin
coat!" Kahled repeated, placing the frag-
ment in his belt, and walking slowly up
and down the tent.
"Jababal is two days to the north," he
added presently. "A day ago Manuel was
six days behind him. He will be still three
days behind when I reach Jababal, and
while he is yet two days away, the sixty
thousand in advance will be destroyed."
An order was given for ten thousand
horsemen and fifteen thousand camel riders
to start for the north at once. The soldiers
expected it, and were ready even before
the general.
Four days and a night went by, and they
were again encamped at Yermonk; but
KANAKA'S MESSENGERS 141
Jababal's army of sixty thousand men, was
a thing of the past.
Again a strip of the girdle was discov-
ered. This time it hung upon the neck of
a camel leading into the camp a long cara-
van laden with grain and fruit.
The camel-driver reported that one had
met them while they were upon the way to
supply the army of Manuel. He had
warned them that Manuel would simply
confiscate the whole and make them pris-
oners, and had promised that if they turned
southward instead, to the camp of Kahled,
with the talisman which he hung about the
camePs neck, they should be well received
and fairly treated.
From this talisman Kahled learned that
the army of Manuel was almost destitute
of provisions, and that a detachment with
supplies was another five or six days be-
hind.
The general smiled as he thought how
the Bedouin boy had shrewdly deprived the
hungry enemy of a hundred and fifty camel-
142 THE LANCE OF KANANA
loads of food, while lie secured for him-
self an excellent messenger to his friends.
During the night Manuel's magnificent
army arrived, and encamped just north of
the Mohammedans. Manuel chose for his
citadel a high cliff that rose abruptly out
of the plain between the two armies, and
ended in a precipitous ledge toward Ara-
bia.
Standing upon the brow of this cliff, a
little distance from the tent of Manuel, one
could look far down the valley, over the
entire Mohammedan encampment.
When morning dawned, the prince sent
for the leading Mohammedan generals to
confer with him concerning terms of
peace. He offered to allow the entire army
to retire unmolested, if hostages were
given that the Arabs should never again
enter Syria.
The Mohammedan generals, who had
been thoroughly dismayed at the sight of
the Grecian phalanx, thanked Allah for
such a merciful deliverance, and instantly
XANANA'S MESSENGERS 143
voted to accept. The real authority, how-
ever, rested with Kahled, who replied,
"Remember Jababal!"
With so many in favor of peace, Ma-
nuel hoped for an acceptance of his terms,
and proposed that they consider the matter
for a day.
Kahled, with his hand upon the camel-
skin in his belt, replied again: "Remem-
ber Jababal!"
He realized that his only hope of victory
lay in striking a tired and hungry enemy,
and that each hour's delay was dangerous.
Less than half an hour later he was rid-
ing along the line of battle shouting the
battle cry:
"Paradise is before you! Fight for
it!"
The soldiers were ready, and there be-
gan the most desperate struggle that was
ever waged upon the plains of Syria.
All day long the furious conflict raged.
Three times the Bedouins were driven
back. Three times the cries and entreaties
144 THE LANCE OF KANANA
of their women and children in the rear
urged them to renew the fight, and again
they plunged furiously upon the solid Gre-
cian phalanx.
Night came, and neither army had gained
or lost, but among the Bedouin captives
taken by the Greeks were several who rec-
ognized Kanana. They saw him moving
freely about the enemy's camp. They
learned that he was supposed to be a serv-
ant who had fled, with other camp-follow-
ers, at the time of the slaughter of Ja-
babal's army. They could see in it nothing
but cowardly desertion. They said:
"He was afraid that we should be con-
quered, and instead of standing by us to
fight for Arabia, he ran to the enemy to
hide himself;" and in their anger they be-
trayed him. They reported to the Greeks
that he was a Bedouin, of the army of
Kahled, not a Syrian servant of Jababal.
Kanana was quickly seized, bound and
dragged into the presence of the prince.
Manuel had suspected that some one had
KANANA'S MESSENGERS 145
betrayed both Jababal and himself to
Kahled, and chagrined at the result of the
first day's battle, he fiercely accused Ka-
nana.
Calmly the Bedouin boy admitted that
it was he who had given the information,
and he waited without flinching as Manuel
drew his sword.
"Boy, dost thou not fear to die?" he
exclaimed, as he brandished his sword be-
fore Kanana.
"I fear nothing V9 replied Kanana
proudly.
"Take him away and guard him care-
fully," muttered the prince. "Dying is
too easy for such as he. He must be tor-
tured first."
The second day and the third were like
the first. The army of the Prophet fought
with a desperation that never has been
equaled. The Ishmaelite counted his life
as nothing so that he saw a Greek fall with
him. It was the fate of Allah and Arabia
for which they fought, and they stood as
146 THE LANCE OF KANANA
though rooted to the ground, knowing of
no retreat but death.
Again and again their general's voice
rang loud above the clashing arms :
"Paradise is before you if you fight!
Hell waits for him who runs !" And they
fought and fought and fought, and not a
man dared turn his back.
Again and again the Grecian phalanx
advanced, but they found a wall before
them as solid as the cliff behind them.
When a Bedouin lay dead he ceased to
fight, but not before; and the moment he
fell, another sprang forward from behind
to take his place.
xin
THE LANCE OF KANANA
THE army of the Prophet had not re-
treated one foot from its original
position, when night brought the third
day's battle to a close.
Kahled sank upon the ground among his
soldiers, while the women from the rear
brought what refreshment they could to
the tired warriors.
All night he lay awake beside his gray
battle-horse, looking at the stars and think-
ing.
Flight or death would surely be the re-
sult of the coming day. Even Kahled the
Invincible, had given up all hope of victory.
He was too brave a man to fly, but he
was also too brave to force others to stand
and be slaughtered for his pride.
It was a bitter night for him, but as the
147
148 THE LANCE OF KANANA
eastern sky was tinged with gray, he at
last resolved to make the sacrifice himself,
and save such of his people as he could.
The women and children, with the
wounded who could be moved, must leave
at once, taking all that they could carry
with them, and scatter themselves in every
direction. •
When they were well away, he, with such
as preferred to stand and die with him,
would hold the foe in check while the rest
of the army retreated, with orders to
march at once to Mecca and Medina, and
hold those two sacred cities as long as a
man remained alive.
He breathed a deep sigh when the plan
was completed, and rising, mounted his
tired charger, to see that it was properly
executed.
It was the first time in his career that
Kahled the Invincible had ordered a re-
treat, and his only consolation was that he
was neither to lead nor join in it.
In the camp of Manuel the same dread
THE LANCE OF KANANA 149
of the coming day clouded every brow.
Food was entirely exhausted. Horses and
camels had been devoured. They had
neither the means with which to move
away, nor the strength to stand their
ground.
Their solid phalanx was only what the
enemy saw along the front. Bank after
rank had been supplied from the rear till
there was nothing left to call upon.
All that remained of the eighty thousand
iron-hearted fighters — the pride of the Em-
peror Heraclius — as they gathered about
the low camp fires, confessed that they
were overmatched by the sharper steel of
Mohammedan zeal and Bedouin patriot-
ism.
Manuel and his officers knew that for at
least three days no relief could reach them ;
they knew, too, that they could not endure
another day of fighting.
"If we could make them think that their
men are deserting and joining us, we might
frighten them," suggested an officer.
150 THE LANCE OF KANANA
"Send for the spy," said Manuel quickly,
"and let it be proclaimed to the other pris-
oners that all who will join us shall be set
free, and that those who refuse shall be
slaughtered without mercy. "
Haggard and worn Kanana stood before
him. For fifty hours he had lain bound,
in a cave at the foot of the cliff, without a
drop of water or a morsel of food.
"I am about to torture thee," said the
prince. "Thou hast wronged me more
than thy sufferings can atone, but I shall
make them as bitter as I can. Hast thou
anything to say before the work begins ?"
Kanana thought for a moment, then,
hesitating as though still doubtful, he re-
plied :
"When the tempest rages on the desert,
doth not the camel lay him down, and the
young camel say to the drifting sand,
'Cover me; kill me, I am helpless'? But
among the captives taken by the prince, I
saw an old man pass my cave. He is full
of years, and for him I would part my lips.
THE LANCE OF KANANA 151
I hear that the prince will have the prison-
ers slain, but it is not the custom of my
people to make the women, the old men, and
the children suffer with the rest. May it
please the prince to double every torture
he has prepared for me, and in exchange
to set that old man free?"
"Who is he?" asked the prince.
"The one with a long white beard.
There are not two," replied Kanana.
"And what is he to you?"
Kanana hesitated.
"He shall die unless you tell me," said
the prince, and Kanana 's cold lips trem-
bled as he whispered:
"He is my father."
" 'Tis well, ' ' said Manuel. ' < Let him be
brought. ' '
The old man entered, but paused at the
opposite side of the tent, looking reproach-
fully at his son. He had heard from the
other captives how they had discovered
Kanana, a deserter in the hour of danger,
living in the tents of the enemy. Even he
152 THE LANCE OF KANANA
had believed the tale, and he was enough
of a patriot to be glad that they betrayed
his son.
"Is this thy father?" asked the prince.
"He does not look it in his eyes."
Kanana, simply bowed his head.
That look was piercing his heart far
deeper than the threats of torture; but
Manuel continued:
"You have offered to suffer every tor-
ture I can devise if I will set him free.
But you have not compassed your debt to
me. You gave to Kahled the information
by which he conquered Jababal. You gave
him information which prevented his mak-
ing terms of peace with me. But for you
I should be on my way to Mecca and Me-
dina, to sweep them from the earth. But
I like courage, and you have shown more
of it than Kahled himself. It is a pity to
throw a heart like yours under a clod of
earth, and I will give you an opportunity
to save both yourself and your father.
Stand upon the brow of the cliff yonder,
THE LANCE OF KANANA 153
as the sun comes up. There, according to
the custom of your people, wave this lance
above your head. Shout your own name
and your father's, so that all of your
people can hear, and tell them that in one
hour thirty thousand Arabs will draw the
sword for the cause of Heraclius. Then
throw the lance, and if your aim be good,
and you do kill an Arab, that moment I
will set thy father free, and thou shalt be
made a prince among my people. Do not
refuse me, or, after I have tortured thee,
with red-hot irons I will burn out thy
father's eyes, lest he should still look
savagely upon thy corpse ! ' '
He had scarcely ceased speaking when
the old sheik exclaimed :
"My son! My Kanana, I have wronged
thee! Forgive me if thou canst, but let
him burn out my eyes ! Oh ! not for all the
eyes that watch the stars would I have a
son of mine a traitor. Thou wouldst not
lift a lance before. I charge thee now, by
Allah, lift it not for any price that can be
154 THE LANCE OF KANANA
offered thee by this dog of an infidel !"
Kanana did not look at his father. His
eyes were fixed on Manuel, and when all
was still, he asked:
"Will the prince allow his captive to sit
alone till sunrise and consider his offer?"
"Take him out upon the cliff and let him
sit alone," said Manuel; "but have the
irons heated for his father's eyes."
Kanana chose a spot whence he could
overlook the valley, and whatever his first
intentions may have been, he changed them
instantly, with his first glance. He started,
strained his eyes, and looked as far as his
keen sight could pierce the gray light of
early morning.
Then his head sank lower and lower over
his hands, lying in his lap, till the wings of
his turban completely covered them. He
did not move or look again.
In that one glance he had recognized the
result of Kahled's last resolve. In the
gray distance he saw that laden camels
were moving to the south. He saw the
THE LANCE OF KANANA 155
dark spots, most distant in the valley, sud-
denly disappear. They were folding their
tents ! They were moving away! Kahled
the Invincible had ordered a retreat.
Kanana knew that to retreat at that mo-
ment meant death to Arabia, but he did not
move again till an officer touched him on
the shoulder, and warned him that in a mo-
ment more the sun would rise.
With a startled shudder he rose and en-
tered Manuel's tent.
"Is the word of the prince unchanged?"
he asked. "If I speak the words and
throw the lance and kill an Arab, that mo-
ment will he set my father free!"
"I swear it by all the powers of earth
and heaven!" replied the prince.
"Give me the lance," said Kanana.
His father crouched against the tent,
muttering: "For such an act, Kanana,
when I am set free I will find first a fire
with which to heat an iron, and burn my
own eyes out."
Kanana did not heed him. He took the
156 THE LANCE OF KANANA
lance, tested it, and threw it scornfully
upon the ground.
' * Give me a heavier one ! ' ' he exclaimed.
"Do you think me like your Greek boys,
made of wax! Give me a lance that, when
it strikes, will kill."
They gave him a heavier lance.
"The hand-rest is too small for a Bed-
ouin," he muttered, grasping it; "but
wait! I can remedy that myself. Come.
Let us have it over with. ' '
As he spoke he tore a strip from beneath
his coat, and, turning sharply about,
walked before them to the brink of the cliff,
winding the strip firmly about the hand-
rest of the lance.
Upon the very edge he stood erect and
waited.
The sun rose out of the plain, and flashed
with blinding force upon the Bedouin boy,
clad in his sheepskin coat and desert tur-
ban, precisely as it had found him in the
porch of Aaron's tomb, upon the summit
of Mount Hor.
THE LANCE OF KANANA 157
His hand no longer held a shepherd's
staff, but firmly grasped a Grecian lance,
that gleamed and flashed as fiercely as the
sun.
Upon Mount Hor he was bending for-
ward, eagerly shading his eyes, anxiously
looking away into the dim distance, search-
ing the path of his destiny.
Now there was no eagerness. Calmly
he stood there. Vainly the sun flashed in
his clear, wide-open eyes. He did not even
know that it was shining.
Not a muscle moved. Why was he wait-
ing?
"Are you afraid?" muttered the prince,
who had come as near as possible without
being too plainly seen from below. " Re-
member your old father's eyes."
Kanana did not turn his head, but calmly
answered :
"Do you see yonder a man upon a gray
horse, moving slowly among the soldiers?
He is coming nearer, nearer. That man
is Kahled the Invincible. If he should
158 THE LANCE OF KANANA
come within range of the lance of Kanana,
I suppose that Manuel would be well
pleased to wait?"
"Good boy! Brave boy!" replied the
prince. "When thou hast made thy mind
to do a thing, thou doest it admirably.
Kill him, and thou shalt be loaded down
with gold till the day when thou diest of
old age."
Kanana made no reply, but standing in
bold relief upon the cliff, watched calmly
and waited, till at last Kahled the Invin-
cible left the line of soldiers, and alone
rode nearer to the cliff.
i ( Now is your chance ! Now ! now ! ' ' ex-
claimed the prince.
Slowly Kanana raised the lance. Three
times he waved it above his head. Three
times he shouted:
"I am Kanana, son of the Terror of the
Desert!" in the manner of the Bedouin
who challenges an enemy to fight, or meets
a foe upon the plain.
For a moment, then, he hesitated. The
THE LANCE OF KANANA 159
next sentence was hard to speak. He knew
too well what the result would be. It
needed now no straining of the eyes to see
his destiny.
All the vast army down below was look-
ing up at him. Thousands would hear his
words. Tens of thousands would see what
followed them.
"Go on! go on!" the prince ejaculated
fiercely.
Kanana drew a deep breath and shouted :
"In one hour thirty thousand Arabs will
draw the sword in the army of Heraclius I"
Then gathering all his strength, he
hurled the lance directly at the great Mo-
hammedan general, who had not moved
since he began to speak.
Throughout those two great armies one
might have heard a sparrow chirp, as the
gleaming, flashing blade fell like a meteor
from the cliff.
The aim was accurate. The Bedouin
boy cringed, and one might have imagined
that it was even more accurate than he
160 THE LANCE OF KANANA
meant. It pierced the gray charger. The
war-horse of Kahled plunged forward and
fell dead upon the plain.
A fierce howl rose from the ranks of the
Ishmaelites. Men and women shrieked
and yelled.
"Kanana the traitor! A curse upon
the traitor Kanana!" rent the very air.
Such was the confusion which followed
that, had the Greeks been ready to ad-
vance, a thousand might have put a hun-
dred thousand Bedouins to flight. But
they were not ready.
Kanana stood motionless upon the cliff.
He heard the yells of "Traitor!" but he
knew that they would come, and did not
heed them.
Calmly he watched till Kahled gained
his feet, dragged the lance from his dying
horse, and with it in his hand, hurried to-
ward the soldiers.
Only once he turned, and for an instant
looked up at the solitary figure upon the
cliff. He lifted his empty hand, as though
THE LANCE OF KANANA 161
it were a blessing and not a malediction, he
bestowed upon the Bedouin boy; then he
disappeared.
With a deep, shivering sigh, Kanana
pressed one hand beneath his sheepskin
coat. A sharp contortion passed over him,
but he turned about and stood calmly, face
to face with Manuel.
"You did well/' said the prince, "but
you did not kill an Arab. It was for that
I made my promise. ' '
" 'And if you kill an Arab,' " gasped
Kanana, " 'that moment I will set your
father freeM Those were the prince's
words ! That was his promise, bound by all
the powers of earth and heaven! He will
keep it ! He will not dare defy those pow-
ers, for I have killed an Arab !"
Clutching the sheepskin coat, Kanana
tore it open, and, above a brilliant girdle,
they saw a dagger buried in his bleeding
breast. He tottered, reeled, stepped back-
ward, and fell over the brink of the cliff.
"You may as well go free," said Man-
162 THE LANCE OF KANANA
uel, turning to the sheik. "A monstrous
sacrifice has just been made to purchase
your liberty.''
Turning abruptly he entered his tent to
consider, with his officers, the next result.
6 'I think they are flying," an officer re-
ported, coming from the cliff. ' ' The horse-
men and camels are hurrying into the hills.
Only foot soldiers seem remaining in the
front."
"Let every soldier face them who has
strength to stand!" commanded the prince.
"Put everything to the front, and if they
fly give them every possible encourage-
ment."
The order was obeyed, and the fourth
day of battle began; but it was spiritless
and slow.
The Bedouins, with their constantly
thinning ranks, stood with grim determina-
tion where their feet rested, but they made
no effort to advance.
The wearied out and starving Grecian
phalanx simply held its ground. The
THE LANCE OF KANANA 163
prince was not there to urge his soldiers
on. The voice of Kahled did not sound
among the Mussulmans.
An hour went by.
Suddenly there was an uproar in the rear
of the army of Heraclius. There was a
wild shout, a clash of arms, and the watch-
word of Islam rang above the tumult, in
every direction.
Ten thousand horse and twenty thou-
sand war-camels poured in upon that de-
fenseless rear, and, even as Kanana had
declared, in just one hour there were thirty
thousand Arabs wielding their savage
swords in the army of Heraclius.
Another hour went by. The battle cry
of Kahled ceased. The shout of victory
rang from the throats of the Mussulmans.
Manuel and all his officers were slain. The
magnificent army of Heraclius was literally
obliterated.
Treasure without limit glutted the con-
quered camp. Arabia was saved.
Quickly the soldiers erected a gorgeous
164 THE LANCE OF KANANA
throne and summoned Kahled to sit upon
it, while they feasted about him and did him
honor as their victorious and invincible
leader.
The veteran warrior responded to their
call, but he came from his tent with his
head bowed down, bearing in his arms a
heavy burden. Slowly he mounted the
platform, and upon the sumptuous throne
he laid his burden down.
It was the bruised and lifeless bqdy of
Kanana.
With trembling hand the grim chief drew
back the sheepskin coat, and all men then
beheld, bound about the Bedouin boy, the
sacred girdle !
"I gave it to him," said Kahled sol-
emnly; "and upon the fragments you have
returned to me, he wrote the information by
which we conquered Jababal and Manuel.
You saw him throw this lance at me ; you
called him 'traitor!' but about the hand-
rest there was wound this strip. See ! In
blood — in his blood — these words are writ-
THE LANCE OF KANAKA 165
ten here: 'Do not retreat. The infidels
are starving and dying. Strike them in the
rear.' It was his only means of reaching
me. It was not the act of a traitor. No I
It was the Lance of Kanana that rescued
Arabia."
THE END
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