ountry!' And when
the poor man complained, the Mighty One pitied him, and said again,
'Be of cheer! for I will twice bless thee above other men.' The Arab
heard, and gave thanks, and with faith set out to find the blessings.
He travelled all the boundaries first, and failed; then he made a path
into the desert, and went on and on--and in the heart of the waste
there was an island of green very beautiful to see; and in the heart
of the island, lo! a herd of camels, and another of horses! He took
them joyfully and kept them with care for what they were--best gifts
of God. 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. My fathers--may the recollection of them be
green forever!--did not think it sinful to borrow the idea, and apply
it to their dumb servants. See these tablets!"

Ben-Hur took the rings, and separating the tablets saw they bore
rude hieroglyphs in Arabic, burned on the smooth surface by a
sharp point of heated metal.

"Canst thou read them, O son of Israel?"

"No. Thou must tell me their meaning."

"Know thou, then, each tablet records the name of a foal of the
pure blood born to my fathers through the hundreds of years passed;
and also the n