第31章

Israel lit upon the Mahdi at last in the country of the verbena and the musk that lies outside the walls of Fez.The prophet was a young man of unusual stature, but no great strength of body, with a head that drooped like a flower and with the wild eyes of an enthusiast.His people were a vast concourse that covered the plain a furlong square, and included multitudes of women and children.

Israel had come upon them at an evil moment.The people were murmuring against their leader.Six months ago they had abandoned their houses and followed him They had passed from Mequinez to Rabat, from Rabat to Mazagan, from Mazagan to Mogador, from Mogador to Marrakesh, and finally from Marrakesh through the treacherous Beni Magild to Fez.At every step their numbers had increased but their substance had diminished, for only the destitute had joined them.Nevertheless, while they had their flocks and herds they had borne their privations patiently--the weary journeys, the exposure, the long rains of the spring and the scorching heat of summer.But the soldiers of the Kaids whose provinces they had passed through had stripped them of both in the name of tribute.The last raid on their poverty had been made that very day by the Kaid of Fez, and now they were without goats or sheep or oxen, or even the guns with which they had killed the wild bear, and their children were crying to them for bread.

So the people's faces grew black, and they looked into each other's eyes in their impotent rage.Why had they been brought out of the cities to starve? Better to stay there and suffer than come out and perish!

What of the vain promises that had been made to them that God would feed them as He fed the birds! God was witness to all their calamities;He was seeing them robbed day by day, He was seeing them famish hour by hour, He was seeing them die.They had been fooled!

A vain man had thought to plough his way to power.Through their bodies he was now ploughing it."The hunger is on us!" "Our children are perishing!" "Find us food!" "Food!" "Food!"With such shouts, mingled with deep oaths, the hungry multitude in their madness had encompassed Mohammed of Mequinez as Israel and his company came up with them.And Israel heard their cries, and also the voice of their leader when he answered them.

First the young prophet rose up among his people, with flashing eyes and quivering nostrils."Do you think I am Moses," he cried, "that I should smite the rock and work you a miracle? If you are starving, am I full? If you are naked, am I clothed?"But in another instant the fire of anger was gone from his face, and he was saying in a very moving voice, "My good people, who have followed me through all these miseries, I know that your burdens are heavier than you can bear, and that your lives are scarce to be endured, and that death itself would be a relief.Nevertheless, who shall say but that Allah sees a way to avert these trials of His poor servants, and that, unknown to us all, He is even at this moment bringing His mercy to pass! Patience, I beg of you;patience, my poor people--patience and trust!"At that the murmurs of discontent were hushed.Then Israel remembered the presents with which the Kaid of El Kasar and the Shereef of Wazzan had burdened him.They were jewels and ornaments such as are sometimes worn unlawfully by vain men in that country--silver signet rings and earrings, chains for the neck, and Solomon's seal to hang on the breast as safeguard against the evil eye--as well as much gold filagree of the kind that men give to their women.Israel had packed them in a box and laid them in the leaf pannier of a mule, and then given no further thought to them; but, calling now to the muleteer who had charge of them, he said, "Take them quickly to the good man yonder, and say, 'A present to the man of God and to his people in their trouble.'"And when the muleteer had done this, and laid the box of gold and silver open at the feet of the young Mahdi, saying what Israel had bidden him, it was the same to the young man and his followers as if the sky had opened and rained manna on their heads.

"It is an answer to your prayer," he cried; "an angel from heaven has sent it."Then his people, as soon as they realised what good thing had happened to them, took up his shout of joy, and shouted out of their own parched throats--"Prophet of Allah, we will follow you to the world's end!"And then down on their knees they fell around him, the vast concourse of men and women, all grinning like apes in their hunger and glee together, and sobbing and laughing in a breath, like children, and sent up a great broken cry of thanks to God that He had sent them succour, that they might not die.At last, when they had risen to their feet again, every man looked into the eyes of his fellow and said, as if ashamed, I could have borne it myself, but when the children called to me for bread.I was a fool."