[Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace]@TWC D-Link bookBen-Hur: A Tale of the Christ CHAPTER XIII 8/13
And from that green isle went forth all the horses of the earth; even to the pastures of Nesaea they went; and northward to the dreadful vales perpetually threshed by blasts from the Sea of Chill Winds.
Doubt not the story; or if thou dost, may never amulet have charm for an Arab again.
Nay, I will give thee proof." He clapped his hands. "Bring me the records of the tribe," he said to the servant who responded. While waiting, the sheik played with the horses, patting their cheeks, combing their forelocks with his fingers, giving each one a token of remembrance.
Presently six men appeared with chests of cedar reinforced by bands of brass, and hinged and bolted with brass. "Nay," said Ilderim, when they were all set down by the divan, "I meant not all of them; only the records of the horses--that one.
Open it and take back the others." The chest was opened, disclosing a mass of ivory tablets strung on rings of silver wire; and as the tablets were scarcely thicker than wafers, each ring held several hundreds of them. "I know," said Ilderim, taking some of the rings in his hand--"I know with what care and zeal, my son, the scribes of the Temple in the Holy City keep the names of the newly born, that every son of Israel may trace his line of ancestry to its beginning, though it antedate the patriarchs.
<<Back Index Next>> D-Link book Top TWC mobile books
|