;lO$ANGFtj> .^ x-Xf <&m-$OV< ? %aMIM-3V^ ^KHnW-JO^ %OJiTCHO^ ^OF-CAIIFO^, ^OF-CAIIFOJ^ IIL^I iiL^I ^UONV-SOl-^ ^rUNlYERJ^. f i. $? 2 I I >i?Aman-i^ 1 3 I ; T C ! V HASSAN. A VISION OF THE DESERT. BY JOHN RITCHIE. CHICAGO : F. J. SCHULTE & COMPANY; PUBLISHERS, 298 DEARBORN ST. Copyright, 1892, By FRANCIS J. SCHULTE. All rights reserved. PS aOD REIGN'S ! In desolate splendor lay the waste That, like a fiery scar seared wantonly By errant sun, lies broad across the brow Of Africa. Amid the yellow silence, A withered fig tree thrust its shriveled limbs Aloft, and into the scant umbrage crept, From the full flush of noonday's fervid glow, A wounded Arab. Round the shrunken stem His tawny body sinuously curled, And harshly, from between white teeth in agony Unlipped, his wild thanks dragged their guttural course For this poor shelter. Not for self alone. Muffled by swathing folds of burnous, torn And stained, that ever in tender clasp he bore, A puling cry uprose, and, in his pain, "With rueful joy his swart face overshone ; For sweeter savor than the parent love Immortal never knew. Out where the glare In snaky coils writhed up, his horse, with flank Collapsing, flaccid neck outstretched, and by Eternal numbness smit, the tongue, that lolled Unshrinking on the burning sand. No more In wing6d flight was he from fell pursuit To bear his periled lord no more forever ! 759833 Eons agone; before the Prophet aye! Ere Father Ishmael, Abraham's sinister seed, O'er thirsty Paran roamed so ran the old Legend among the Shaanbah lived a Sheikh Of courage high and valor so approved, The desert-dwellers of twin continents His glorious deeds in sounding rhythm sang From Western Syrtis to the farthest lunge Of Ras el Hada. At his death 'twas when "With sinewy hands he rived a lion's jaws That, sanguine, trapped his eldest born, nor recked The stealthy mate the hoary tribal seers Foretold the coming of a greater Hassan. In the sonorous stillness of the night, Through sequent generations, their wise men, Wandering, scanned the planetary aspects In practice of a rude astrology That, oft deceiving, of b renewed their hope. Nor unattended was their patient watch With dim foreboding and psrplexity, For in the theme were Lords of houses Eight And Three in- mystic union joined. At last The glittering oracles of the sky proclaimed The time was full. In expectation mute, His swarthy bandits, closer circling, drew About their leader's tent, and ere the line Meridional was passed, glad cries announced The hero's birth. For him the sapient elders chose a bride With lineage that shamed not his own. He loved her as the tiger loves his barred And supple mate ; and she, in turn, loved him fyassan. With reverence, meek, submissive as becomes An Arab's consort. Time flowed on, and soon His sire, in course of nature ripe in years, Followed his fathers to their humble tomb. Hassan, in uncontrolled authority, Set out to prove by deed his star-sworn fortune. Fierce as the simoon's whirling blast, he scourged The desert routes, and, ever leading on His truculent followers, swept with grim Destruction through the Tuareg country, where The Tibbou cringed before his battle-yell, And once, by shifting dune, o'er mountain range, Plateau eroded, e'en to far Soudan. Gauging all greatness by heroic feat Of arms, as is the custom of his race, He inward knew that, swol'n as was his fame, It failed achieving aught that by compare O'ertopped the towering glory of his great Ancestor ; and, not meanly envious, Though by a generous emulation fired, He feared he his high destiny in some Particular betrayed. Rapine and war His recreation were, but, lofty aim Inspiring him, he strove with none save man Grasping his arms, or riotous beast that sheared Its bloody swath athwart the tribal flocks. Infant, the helpless spawn of foe, with him "Was safe, and round his helpmeet's dandling knees A fringe of captive children grew. For this, When urged by murderous kinsmen to destroy, He brief excused himself with haughty claim Devout, that "Blindness still their eyes obscured." tjassan. Islam for mercy the pretext gave undreamed By him what his spouse knew, that in his soul, Ungerminate, lay the seed of sacrifice. To them a man-child came. Him the proud Sheikh AVorshiped with an idolatry that rose To equal stature with his Meccan faith. When, in the languorous tropic day, supine, He throned the palpitating minim on His breast, and felt about his pliant face The velvety touch of pulpy fingers, hotly Engaged in puny conflict with his beard, And listened to its inarticulate purl Of human accents the earliest, and nearest To the unvoiced melody of voiced words Then was the red light in his eye seduced To softer radiance, and the witching unrest That haunted him retired. Hassan loved him So strong that, breaking usage of the tribe Who, bent on robbery, leave their broods intrenched By vastnesses of arid sand he, when On distant razzia, took his heir and mate. One woeful night may it ever stand accurst ! Ke turning slackly, eastward of Ghadames, Laden Avith plunder seized in mid-Fezzan Among the living spoils a child that slept And suckled with his own Hassan drew rein On laboring barb and patient mahry, pitching His sable hair-tents where the Hammada El Homra spreads its dolorous bosom. Darkness, immeasurable and starless, clothed The isolated camp in ebon fog, ijassan. And voice of Jinn, elusive, calling hoarse To answering Jinnee, echoed hollow through The gloom. On even poise the eerie night Hung trembling to its lapse toward dawn, when hark ! Was it mere rustle of the desert air ? Or monstrous flight of monstrous birds ? No ! No ! " The Tuareg ! The Tuareg ! " Shrill pealed th' alarm, And quick from ruffled tents the shrill response. First of his people, Hassan sprang from sleep Full-armed and furious as a lioness New-ravened of her whelps. 'Twas fate ! As when Great Ocean in his crested anger shoots A green and shaggy hand o'er Guinea's coast In chaos drear, a strident front, incurved, Tumultuous, surged through the waking camp, To burst in percolating spray, whose each And every horrid point was nimble murder ! Ferociously, the braver few fought on Till death their limbs relaxed. The hero saw Them fall, and cravens fly, as fly sere leaves Before Sirocco's lash. Alone he stood, Dim focus of a hundred hungry spears, Undaunted. "Yield, Arab, and mercy take I" Scornful and proud, the answer came : "Never, From Tuareg dogs ! " Ere the wild death-scream chilled The listening night, a timorous plaint struck down The valorous warrior in him and awoke His father heart. With instant plunge he shattered The bristling hedge, and from a level tent Drew out the wailing infant. Prompt to call, His murmuring steed responded, and, red-carved With many a gash, he rode away. The tribe Yet tell with pride and sadness how he rode : Out of the noxious fumes of fight, over The Hammada, shimmering red from pent-up glare Of day released ; swift as Al Borak in flight Through the blue, into the murky distance far, Into the cavernous West ; league into league Gliding continuous, through night's last hours, Through iridescent dawn, through gathering glow Of Afric's torrid morn like ride ne'er held Sahara's marvelous story. And, with voice Fall'n low and soft which, to their ruthless hearts, Can never be explained they tell how, grimed With curdled gore, and every membrane shrunk And fiercely clamorous from scourging thirst, He smote back pleading nature and denied The prayers of his own grievous hurts, but, when The babe its weak remonstrance urged, he, from A timely water-vessel, laved its chapped And grumous lips until the whistling gourd Confessed it held no more. And now, in utmost loneliness, and sore Anguish, he, lovingly and covetous, Threw back the clinging folds to glad his eyes With sight of his first-born. Beard of Allah ! 'Twas the captive ! Before him passed a vision That wrung his savage heart. He saw his own Sweet innocent, foul-spiked on griding spear, Each severed artery spouting crimson sap, And all the little fingers intertwined In agony a grisly apparition Burning through shuddering mist that drifted by In separate particles ! Sick with heart-pain And gluttonous of blood, his ranging eye ijassan. Fell on the child. Hot as hell's lava, hate In whitest fury fused his soul. As on A quailing hare the red-eyed eagle swoops, He seized and swung on high the gasping victim, And, with a rasping utterance that tore His crusted throat, h3 raised the terrible cry "Kevenge !" such awful joy vibrating him As shook the mighty Danite when, within His lethal arms, he gathered the deep-sunk Pillars of Gaza's temple, and whelmed Her multitudes in shrieking ruin he Content with death thereat. Yet once again, Shrill as triumphant yell of wallowing fiend Forever damned clutching a fresh-won soul, Into the tremulous ether soaring, rushed The far-flung scream " Revenge ! " In bitter glee He laughed and never lank hyena, squat Low at Algerian funeral gate, Such dismal ululation dragged from his Foul pipe laughed horribly, so horribly That in the stress and throe of it he oped The undiscovered founts that fed his wounds, And, gurgling, blew, full in the infant's face, A ruddy spume, which, wrung by sorest thirst, It eager lapped, and, pursing its poor mouth, Upraised a feeble wail, as to its dam, For more of the scarlet nourishment. The cruel Barbarian stayed his hand, and curiously Surveyed the piteous tragedy for even Scowling Doom hath a speculative vein ; And as he gazed upon the writhing face, By some mysterious transmutation, it, To his delirious eye, the semblance took That graced his own lost floweret. Swift passed The image, yet, when he again essayed The vengeful act, his arm refused its office. A soul in wrestle with Omnipotence ! For, at command of Infinite Pity, from Sweet Mercy's chalice flowed a pregnant drop, That, by the unsearchable alchemy Divine, Straightway so leavened his torpid heart with sense Of older brotherhood, that Love reclaimed The throne usurped by racial hatred love So rich it well-nigh cloyed. He saw, and saw But darkly yet, like one new-come to Truth And by her gleaming purity dazzled. This He knew : With love ineffable was all His soul enrapt. Sharper than sharpest pang That lanced his lacerated body, pierced The husky rattle of the infant's breath. For friend, for foe, he sought, to hold the young Life in. From near to far far out where crouched The dim horizon over all the vast And undulating solitude, naught moved. In him, in him alone, was aid in him And God ! Love called to consecration. Nature, yet strong within him, at the last Awoke, and the hot love he bore the desert Swelled to fiery speech and passionate gesture : " Ye naked rocks ! Ye sun-kissed sands ! I loved thee ! Ye isles of green ! Ye fountains of sweet waters ! Allah Taala ! how I loved thee ! In life, In death aye ! know that in the world of shades I loved thee ! Allah is great ! It was predestined ! " Then, in the brooding stillness, the sacrament Was wrought. In the spirit of Him who suffered The tender buds of Jewry on His breast To lie, he took the drooping lamb within His arms, and from his wasting channels gave It life. On him the hollow void came down, And, rending, lifted, rolling its yellow shell In distant scroll, receding ; and he, merged In the mingling eternities, scarce knew Whether the lapping of the little tongue Were joyous plash of fountain flowing cool In palm-tree shade, or music of choral reeds By the rivers of Paradise, that on his ear Fell soft as echo of an evening prayer. Gently as summer cloud in crystal sky Dissolves, the soul of Hassan passed ; nor knew This thing that he had done was greater far Than aught, or all, the elder Hassan did ! Lone atom drowned in starved immensity ! Desert deserted nay ! on every hand, As by the Heavenly choir, eternal, ranged In rank on rank around the Throne, the air Thrilled sweetly resonant with countless flight Of seraphim on silvery pinion borne ; That sudden ceased, as if all, listening, heard The Voice Omnipotent, from measureless deep To deep, roll in reverberations large : "Fate, Providence, Condition, Race, are mere Titles of My will I, even I, am All ; And like to these, My children, all are linked In everlasting kinship ; not on earth Alone, but through the rimless space, where suns Hassan. And worlds innumerable obedient heave Their heavy globes. Nor do I hold in scorn Small creed or thought, for each exists in true Adjustment to allotted nature I, And I alone, am lastly Judge ! " A silent shadow, ever-wheeling, swept Its growing longitude in august march O'er drifted sands around the lonely Sanctuary ; round blasted tree and round The human mold, within whose rigid palm Lay one brown hand of the babe who slept beside His elder brother. Through unchanging calm Full-rounded Hours in still procession one The other trailed, and Day, grown old, drew nigh To Evening. Wrapped in coronal robes of fire Voluminous, the Sun yet lingered, loth To leave with dim-eyed Night his sacred ward. Out of the East a band of warriors came Sahara's human wolves. All day they followed The slot o'er crumbling rock and yielding sand, And now, with grating crush of horses' hoofs, TVith rattle of spear and clash of scimetar, Circling the small God's-acre, grimly viewed The ruin sublime. Unto their desert sense, As it were writ in letters of living fire, The dire recital glowed ; and they, who came "With furious hate to slay, felt moving at Their hearts a strange compassion. Rarely touched, "With reverent hands they gave him sepulture, That, in accordance with their faith, his soul Might know the fullness of immortal joy. tjassan. Where he lay they buried him, wondering With equal wonder that their rancorous foe Should for an enemy lay down his life, As well that they, who never pity gave, Gave pity unto him. While they at one Another gazed, a solemn hush on them Descended, and unseen, save by Its work, Before their starting eyes the awful Hand Creative moved. The leprous bark with new Life thrilled ; along its ancient conduits coursed The singing sap, and trunk and branch and twig Their cylinders in fullest contour drew. In emerald beauty nascent foliage sprang To view, bending in graceful homage before The God who called it into being. Buds, New-born, expanding, burst, unfolding blooms That wide diffused their balmy redolence, And withered but to herald pendent fruit Which riped its purple succulence, embossed On shield of green. From a perennial fount A tinkling rivulet ran o'er pebbly reach, Bubbling its joy in liquid melody, Ee-echoing sweet from guardian banks fresh-draped With trailing vines in tangled maze enmeshed, And starred with flowers that shyly blushed, or blazed In haughty splendor on the beryl slopes. Against the glowing sky, in outer range, Were lofty palms, rearing their burnished crowns In simple majesty, about whose knees Dew-jeweled grasses clustered thick, curling Their delicate lengths luxuriant, and all The moist interstices exhaled the breath Of humid earth ; while from the tabernacle Cjassan. Above floated the rippling song of birds, Where song of bird was never heard before. As Moussa from the burning bush retired, The Imoshagh drew back, and, with new thoughts, In meditation went their way in peace. Years trod on years, and now, at even-tide The straggling caravan finds there the rest It seeks, and bearded merchants on their mats, Praying with grave faces to the East, give thanks To Allah for the sacrifice. And when The night-wind from the desert gently blows, Stirring the tree to murmurous speech, among The world of voices, one, that none but true Believer hears, will softly whisper, " I AM HASSAN ! " I I I S 2 E2 = 3 = I 1 3 ^ ^ ^-J I B cu >- I I ^UBRARY/7/- I g 1 i i 3 1158013194005