Adventure, February 20, 1922 — page 27: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Seventeen Thieves of El-Kalil But at the top of the steps we were met by the Sheikh of the mosque, who had eyes that could cut through the dark and a nose begotten out of criticism by mistrust; a lean, long-bearded man so steeped in sanctity and so alert for the least suspicion of a challenge to it that I don’t believe a mouse could have got by uninvestigated. You could guess ~ what he was the moment his eye fell on. you and even by the dim light cast by an iron lantern on a chain above him his cold stare gave me the creeps. It was_baleful and made more so eenice he wore a turban in place of the usual Arab head-dress that frames and in that way modifies the harshness of a man’s face. His beard accentuated rather than softened the pugnacious angle of his jaw, and if I am any judge of a man’s temper his was like nitroglycerin, swift to get off the mark and _to destroy. But explosives, too, are forbidden things. If you mean to handle them the simplest way is best. Grim walked straight up to him. “Allah ybarik fiki* I bring news,” he announced. 1 “Every alley-thief brings tales tonight!” the other answered. ‘Who are your ead who are these?” “T bring word from Seyyid Omar, the | Sheikh of the Dome of the Rock of El Kudz.” “Allah! At this time?” “What does necessity know of time? How many ears have your” It was pretty obvious that there were thirty pairs of ears straining to catch the conversation. “You may follow me alone then,” But Grim knew better than to leave sus two on the steps at the mercy of questioners. At the outer gate he had said we were from Beersheba in order to avoid the honor of an escort to the Sheikh. Now he claimed herald’s honors for all three of us, for the same purpose of avoiding close attention. _ “Three bore the news, not one,” he an- swered. “One is enough to tell it. I have not three sets of ears,” snapped the Sheikh. “Then you wish me to leave these two outside to gossip with the crowd?” ‘Allah! What.sort of discreet ones has Seyyid Omar chosen! Let them follow then.” *God preserve you. 25 So we fell in line behind him and passed through the curtains hung to shield from infidel eyes an interior that in the judgment _ of many Moslems is nearly as sacred as the shrine at Mecca. Like so many of the Moslem sacred — places it was once a church, built by the crusaders on the site of earlier splendor that the’ Romans wrecked—a lordly building, the lower cotirses of whose walls are all of | ten-ton stones—a place laid out with true eye for proportion by men who had no. doubt of what they did. For that has always been known as the veritable tomb of Abraham; no one has ever doubted it until these latter days of too much unbelief. The higher critics will deny one of these days that Grant’s body was ever buried in Grant’s Tomb; but the lower critics, who are not amused by proof that twice two isn’t four, will read of Grant and go and see and be convinced. “And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron: and Abraham weighed unto Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with c* the merchant. And the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, and the cave which was therein, and all the trees which were in the field, that were in all the borders — round about, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of the city. “And after this Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre: the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan. . Then Abraham died in a good old age and his sons _ Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Mach- - pelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre; the field which Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth: there was Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife.” You don’t have to believe that straight- . forward account, of course, if you don’t want to. And if you care to imagine that the Jews and Arabs, who set so much store by Abraham, would ever have forgotten the exact site of his burial-place, so that later arrivals on the scene could not identify | it, Imagination, even of that sort, does not have to be assessed for income tax. Goto |. it. es But you can’t pass through those curtains into the mosque and not believe. Not more than twenty non-Moslems in a thousand years have been in there, and each has told_ the same tale of calm commetion afterward. I heard Cohen catch his breath. The whole place was full of men, who a S EP y / Gomichbooks-co > INF Se