Ben-Hur; a tale of the Christ Read online

  Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

  by Lew Wallace

  to THE WIFE OF MY YOUTH who still abides with me

  BOOK FIRST

  CHAPTER I

  The Jebel es Zubleh is a mountain fifty miles and more in length,and so narrow that its tracery on the map gives it a likeness toa caterpillar crawling from the south to the north. Standing onits red-and-white cliffs, and looking off under the path of therising sun, one sees only the Desert of Arabia, where the eastwinds, so hateful to vinegrowers of Jericho, have kept theirplaygrounds since the beginning. Its feet are well covered bysands tossed from the Euphrates, there to lie, for the mountainis a wall to the pasture-lands of Moab and Ammon on the west--landswhich else had been of the desert a part.

  The Arab has impressed his language upon everything south andeast of Judea, so, in his tongue, the old Jebel is the parent ofnumberless wadies which, intersecting the Roman road--now a dimsuggestion of what once it was, a dusty path for Syrian pilgrimsto and from Mecca--run their furrows, deepening as they go, topass the torrents of the rainy season into the Jordan, or theirlast receptacle, the Dead Sea. Out of one of these wadies--or,more particularly, out of that one which rises at the extreme endof the Jebel, and, extending east of north, becomes at lengththe bed of the Jabbok River--a traveller passed, going to thetable-lands of the desert. To this person the attention of thereader is first besought.

  Judged by his appearance, he was quite forty-five years old.His beard, once of the deepest black, flowing broadly over hisbreast, was streaked with white. His face was brown as a parchedcoffee-berry, and so hidden by a red kufiyeh (as the kerchief ofthe head is at this day called by the children of the desert)as to be but in part visible. Now and then he raised his eyes,and they were large and dark. He was clad in the flowing garmentsso universal in the East; but their style may not be describedmore particularly, for he sat under a miniature tent, and rodea great white dromedary.

  It may be doubted if the people of the West ever overcome the impressionmade upon them by the first view of a camel equipped and loaded forthe desert. Custom, so fatal to other novelties, affects this feelingbut little. At the end of long journeys with caravans, after years ofresidence with the Bedawin, the Western-born, wherever they may be,will stop and wait the passing of the stately brute. The charm isnot in the figure, which not even love can make beautiful; nor inthe movement, the noiseless stepping, or the broad careen. As isthe kindness of the sea to a ship, so that of the desert to itscreature. It clothes him with all its mysteries; in such manner,too, that while we are looking at him we are thinking of them:therein is the wonder. The animal which now came out of the wadymight well have claimed the customary homage. Its color and height;its breadth of foot; its bulk of body, not fat, but overlaid withmuscle; its long, slender neck, of swanlike curvature; the head,wide between the eyes, and tapering to a muzzle which a lady'sbracelet might have almost clasped; its motion, step long and elastic,tread sure and soundless--all certified its Syrian blood, old as thedays of Cyrus, and absolutely priceless. There was the usual bridle,covering the forehead with scarlet fringe, and garnishing the throatwith pendent brazen chains, each ending with a tinkling silver bell;but to the bridle there was neither rein for the rider nor strapfor a driver. The furniture perched on the back was an inventionwhich with any other people than of the East would have made theinventor renowned. It consisted of two wooden boxes, scarce fourfeet in length, balanced so that one hung at each side; the innerspace, softly lined and carpeted, was arranged to allow the masterto sit or lie half reclined; over it all was stretched a greenawning. Broad back and breast straps, and girths, secured withcountless knots and ties, held the device in place. In such mannerthe ingenious sons of Cush had contrived to make comfortable thesunburnt ways of the wilderness, along which lay their duty asoften as their pleasure.

  When the dromedary lifted itself out of the last break of the wady,the traveller had passed the boundary of El Belka, the ancientAmmon. It was morning-time. Before him was the sun, half curtainedin fleecy mist; before him also spread the desert; not the realmof drifting sands, which was farther on, but the region where theherbage began to dwarf; where the surface is strewn with bouldersof granite, and gray and brown stones, interspersed with languishingacacias and tufts of camel-grass. The oak, bramble, and arbutuslay behind, as if they had come to a line, looked over into thewell-less waste and crouched with fear.

  And now there was an end of path or road. More than ever the camelseemed insensibly driven; it lengthened and quickened its pace, itshead pointed straight towards the horizon; through the wide nostrilsit drank the wind in great draughts. The litter swayed, and roseand fell like a boat in the waves. Dried leaves in occasional bedsrustled underfoot. Sometimes a perfume like absinthe sweetened allthe air. Lark and chat and rock-swallow leaped to wing, and whitepartridges ran whistling and clucking out of the way. More rarelya fox or a hyena quickened his gallop, to study the intruders ata safe distance. Off to the right rose the hills of the Jebel,the pearl-gray veil resting upon them changing momentarily intoa purple which the sun would make matchless a little later.Over their highest peaks a vulture sailed on broad wings intowidening circles. But of all these things the tenant under thegreen tent saw nothing, or, at least, made no sign of recognition.His eyes were fixed and dreamy. The going of the man, like that ofthe animal, was as one being led.

  For two hours the dromedary swung forward, keeping the trotsteadily and the line due east. In that time the traveller neverchanged his position, nor looked to the right or left. On thedesert, distance is not measured by miles or leagues, but by thesaat, or hour, and the manzil, or halt: three and a half leaguesfill the former, fifteen or twenty-five the latter; but they arethe rates for the common camel. A carrier of the genuine Syrianstock can make three leagues easily. At full speed he overtakesthe ordinary winds. As one of the results of the rapid advance,the face of the landscape underwent a change. The Jebel stretchedalong the western horizon, like a pale-blue ribbon. A tell, or hummockof clay and cemented sand, arose here and there. Now and then basalticstones lifted their round crowns, outposts of the mountain against theforces of the plain; all else, however, was sand, sometimes smooth asthe beaten beach, then heaped in rolling ridges; here chopped waves,there long swells. So, too, the condition of the atmosphere changed.The sun, high risen, had drunk his fill of dew and mist, and warmedthe breeze that kissed the wanderer under the awning; far and nearhe was tinting the earth with faint milk-whiteness, and shimmeringall the sky.

  Two hours more passed without rest or deviation from the course.Vegetation entirely ceased. The sand, so crusted on the surfacethat it broke into rattling flakes at every step, held undisputedsway. The Jebel was out of view, and there was no landmark visible.The shadow that before followed had now shifted to the north, and waskeeping even race with the objects which cast it; and as there wasno sign of halting, the conduct of the traveller became each momentmore strange.

  No one, be it remembered, seeks the desert for a pleasure-ground.Life and business traverse it by paths along which the bones of thingsdead are strewn as so many blazons. Such are the roads from well towell, from pasture to pasture. The heart of the most veteran sheikbeats quicker when he finds himself alone in the pathless tracts.So the man with whom we are dealing could not have been in searchof pleasure; neither was his manner that of a fugitive; not oncedid he look behind him. In such situations fear and curiosity arethe most common sensations; he was not moved by them. When men arelonely, they stoop to any companionship; the dog becomes a comrade,the horse a friend, and it is no shame to shower them with caressesand speeches of love. The camel received no such token, not a touch,not a word.

  Exactly at noon the dromed
ary, of its own will, stopped, and utteredthe cry or moan, peculiarly piteous, by which its kind always protestagainst an overload, and sometimes crave attention and rest. The masterthereupon bestirred himself, waking, as it were, from sleep. He threwthe curtains of the houdah up, looked at the sun, surveyed the countryon every side long and carefully, as if to identify an appointed place.Satisfied with the inspection, he drew a deep breath and nodded,much as to say, "At last, at last!" A moment after, he crossedhis hands upon his breast, bowed his head, and prayed silently.The pious duty done, he prepared to dismount. From his throatproceeded the sound heard doubtless by the favorite camels ofJob--Ikh! ikh!--the signal to kneel. Slowly the animal obeyed,grunting the while. The rider then put his foot upon the slenderneck, and stepped upon the sand.