BEN HUR
By Lewis Wallace
CHAPTER IX
To understand thoroughly what happened to
the Nazarene at the khan, the reader must be reminded that Eastern inns were
different from the inns of the Western world. They were called khans, from the
Persian, and, in simplest form, were fenced enclosures, without house or shed,
often without a gate or entrance. Their sites were chosen with reference to
shade, defence, or water. Such were the inns that sheltered Jacob when he went
to seek a wife in Padan-Aram. Their like may been seen at this day in the stopping-places
of the desert.
On the other hand, some of them, especially
those on the roads between great cities, like Jerusalem and Alexandria, were
princely establishments, monuments to the piety of the kings who built them. In
ordinary, however, they were no more than the house or possession of a sheik,
in which, as in headquarters, he swayed his tribe. Lodging the traveller was
the least of their uses; they were markets, factories, forts; places of
assemblage and residence for merchants and artisans quite as much as places of
shelter for belated and wandering wayfarers. Within their walls, all the year
round, occurred the multiplied daily transactions of a town.
The singular management of these hostelries
was the feature likely to strike a Western mind with most force. There was no
host or hostess; no clerk, cook, or kitchen; a steward at the gate was all the
assertion of government or proprietorship anywhere visible. Strangers arriving
stayed at will without rendering account. A consequence of the system was that
whoever came had to bring his food and culinary outfit with him, or buy them of
dealers in the khan. The same rule held good as to his bed and bedding, and
forage for his beasts. Water, rest, shelter, and protection were all he looked
for from the proprietor, and they were gratuities. The peace of synagogues was
sometimes broken by brawling disputants, but that of the khans never. The
houses and all their appurtenances were sacred: a well was not more so.
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| ABOUT THE AUTHOR: U.S. Civil War general Lewis Wallace is pictured here in his backyards in the late 1870s writing Ben Hur, which went on to become the most popular novel in America (until Gone with the Wind). |
The khan at Bethlehem, before which Joseph and
his wife stopped, was a good specimen of its class, being neither very
primitive nor very princely. The building was purely Oriental; that is to say,
a quadrangular block of rough stones, one story high, flat-roofed, externally
unbroken by a window, and with but one principal entrance--a doorway, which was
also a gateway, on the eastern side, or front. The road ran by the door so near
that the chalk dust half covered the lintel. A fence of flat rocks, beginning
at the northeastern corner of the pile, extended many yards down the slope to a
point from whence it swept westwardly to a limestone bluff; making what was in
the highest degree essential to a respectable khan--a safe enclosure for
animals.
In a village like Bethlehem, as there was
but one sheik, there could not well be more than one khan; and, though born in
the place, the Nazarene, from long residence elsewhere, had no claim to
hospitality in the town. Moreover, the enumeration for which he was coming
might be the work of weeks or months; Roman deputies in the provinces were
proverbially slow; and to impose himself and wife for a period so uncertain
upon acquaintances or relations was out of the question.
So, before he drew nigh the great house,
while he was yet climbing the slope, in the steep places toiling to hasten the
donkey, the fear that he might not find accommodations in the khan became a
painful anxiety; for he found the road thronged with men and boys who, with
great ado, were taking their cattle, horses, and camels to and from the valley,
some to water, some to the neighboring caves. And when he was come close by,
his alarm was not allayed by the discovery of a crowd investing the door of the
establishment, while the enclosure adjoining, broad as it was, seemed already
full.
"We cannot reach the door,"
Joseph said, in his slow way. "Let us stop here, and learn, if we can,
what has happened."
The wife, without answering, quietly drew
the wimple aside. The look of fatigue at first upon her face changed to one of
interest. She found herself at the edge of an assemblage that could not be
other than a matter of curiosity to her, although it was common enough at the
khans on any of the highways which the great caravans were accustomed to
traverse. There were men on foot, running hither and thither, talking shrilly
and in all the tongues of Syria; men on horseback screaming to men on camels;
men struggling doubtfully with fractious cows and frightened sheep; men
peddling bread and wine; and among the mass a herd of boys apparently in chase of
a herd of dogs.
Everybody and everything seemed to be in
motion at the same time. Possibly the fair spectator was too weary to be long
attracted by the scene; in a little while she sighed, and settled down on the
pillion, and, as if in search of peace and rest, or in expectation of some one,
looked off to the south, and up to the tall cliffs of the Mount of Paradise,
then faintly reddening under the setting sun.
While she was thus looking, a man pushed
his way out of the press, and, stopping close by the donkey, faced about with
an angry brow. The Nazarene spoke to him.
"As I am what I take you to be, good
friend--a son of Judah--may I ask the cause of this multitude?"
The stranger turned fiercely; but, seeing
the solemn countenance of Joseph, so in keeping with his deep, slow voice and
speech, he raised his hand in half-salutation, and replied,
"Peace be to you, Rabbi! I am a son of
Judah, and will answer you. I dwell in Beth-Dagon, which, you know, is in what
used to be the land of the tribe of Dan."
"On the road to Joppa from
Modin," said Joseph.
"Ah, you have been in
Beth-Dagon," the man said, his face softening yet more. "What
wanderers we of Judah are! I have been away from the ridge--old Ephrath, as our
father Jacob called it--for many years. When the proclamation went abroad
requiring all Hebrews to be numbered at the cities of their birth-- That is my
business here, Rabbi."
Joseph's face remained stolid as a mask,
while he remarked, "I have come for that also--I and my wife."
The stranger glanced at Mary and kept
silence. She was looking up at the bald top of Gedor. The sun touched her
upturned face, and filled the violet depths of her eyes, and upon her parted
lips trembled an aspiration which could not have been to a mortal. For the moment,
all the humanity of her beauty seemed refined away: she was as we fancy they
are who sit close by the gate in the transfiguring light of Heaven. The
Beth-Dagonite saw the original of what, centuries after, came as a vision of
genius to Sanzio the divine, and left him immortal.
"Of what was I speaking? Ah! I
remember. I was about to say that when I heard of the order to come here, I was
angry. Then I thought of the old hill, and the town, and the valley falling
away into the depths of Cedron; of the vines and orchards, and fields of grain,
unfailing since the days of Boaz and Ruth, of the familiar mountains--Gedor
here, Gibeah yonder, Mar Elias there--which, when I was a boy, were the walls
of the world to me; and I forgave the tyrants and came--I, and Rachel, my wife,
and Deborah and Michal, our roses of Sharon."
The man paused again, looking abruptly at
Mary, who was now looking at him and listening. Then he said, "Rabbi, will
not your wife go to mine? You may see her yonder with the children, under the
leaning olive-tree at the bend of the road. I tell you"--he turned to
Joseph and spoke positively--"I tell you the khan is full. It is useless
to ask at the gate."
Joseph's will was slow, like his mind; he
hesitated, but at length replied, "The offer is kind. Whether there be
room for us or not in the house, we will go see your people. Let me speak to
the gate-keeper myself. I will return quickly."
And, putting the leading-strap in the
stranger's hand, he pushed into the stirring crowd.
The keeper sat on a great cedar block
outside the gate. Against the wall behind him leaned a javelin. A dog squatted
on the block by his side.
"The peace of Jehovah be with
you," said Joseph, at last confronting the keeper.
"What you give, may you find again;
and, when found, be it many times multiplied to you and yours," returned
the watchman, gravely, though without moving.
"I am a Bethlehemite," said
Joseph, in his most deliberate way. "Is there not room for--"
"There is not."
"You may have heard of me--Joseph of Nazareth.
This is the house of my fathers. I am of the line of David."
These words held the Nazarene's hope. If
they failed him, further appeal was idle, even that of the offer of many
shekels. To be a son of Judah was one thing--in the tribal opinion a great
thing; to be of the house of David was yet another; on the tongue of a Hebrew
there could be no higher boast. A thousand years and more had passed since the
boyish shepherd became the successor of Saul and founded a royal family.
Wars, calamities, other kings, and the
countless obscuring processes of time had, as respects fortune, lowered his
descendants to the common Jewish level; the bread they ate came to them of toil
never more humble; yet they had the benefit of history sacredly kept, of which
genealogy was the first chapter and the last; they could not become unknown,
while, wherever they went In Israel, acquaintance drew after it a respect
amounting to reverence.
If this were so in Jerusalem and elsewhere,
certainly one of the sacred line might reasonably rely upon it at the door of
the khan of Bethlehem. To say, as Joseph said, "This is the house of my
fathers," was to say the truth most simply and literally; for it was the
very house Ruth ruled as the wife of Boaz, the very house in which Jesse and
his ten sons, David the youngest, were born, the very house in which Samuel
came seeking a king, and found him; the very house which David gave to the son
of Barzillai, the friendly Gileadite; the very house in which Jeremiah, by
prayer, rescued the remnant of his race flying before the Babylonians.
The appeal was not without effect. The
keeper of the gate slid down from the cedar block, and, laying his hand upon
his beard, said, respectfully, "Rabbi, I cannot tell you when this door
first opened in welcome to the traveller, but it was more than a thousand years
ago; and in all that time there is no known instance of a good man turned away,
save when there was no room to rest him in. If it has been so with the
stranger, just cause must the steward have who says no to one of the line of
David. Wherefore, I salute you again; and, if you care to go with me, I will
show you that there is not a lodging-place left in the house; neither in the
chambers, nor in the lewens, nor in the court--not even on the roof. May I ask
when you came?"
"But now."
The keeper smiled.
"'The stranger that dwelleth with you
shall be as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself.' Is not
that the law, Rabbi?"
Joseph was silent.
"If it be the law, can I say to one a
long time come, 'Go thy way; another is here to take thy place?'"
Yet Joseph held his peace.
"And, if I said so, to whom would the
place belong? See the many that have been waiting, some of them since
noon."
"Who are all these people?" asked
Joseph, turning to the crowd. "And why are they here at this time?"
"That which doubtless brought you,
Rabbi--the decree of the Caesar"--the keeper threw an interrogative glance
at the Nazarene, then continued--"brought most of those who have lodging
in the house. And yesterday the caravan passing from Damascus to Arabia and
Lower Egypt arrived. These you see here belong to it--men and camels."
Still Joseph persisted.
"The court is large," he said.
"Yes, but it is heaped with
cargoes--with bales of silk, and pockets of spices, and goods of every
kind."
Then for a moment the face of the applicant
lost its stolidity; the lustreless, staring eyes dropped. With some warmth he
next said, "I do not care for myself, but I have with me my wife, and the
night is cold--colder on these heights than in Nazareth. She cannot live in the
open air. Is there not room in the town?"
"These people"--the keeper waved
his hand to the throng before the door--"have all besought the town, and
they report its accommodations all engaged."
Again Joseph studied the ground, saying,
half to himself, "She is so young! if I make her bed on the hill, the
frosts will kill her."
Then he spoke to the keeper again.
"It may be you knew her parents,
Joachim and Anna, once of Bethlehem, and, like myself, of the line of
David."
"Yes, I knew them. They were good
people. That was in my youth."
This time the keeper's eyes sought the
ground in thought. Suddenly he raised his head.
"If I cannot make room for you,"
he said, "I cannot turn you away. Rabbi, I will do the best I can for you.
How many are of your party?"
Joseph reflected, then replied, "My
wife and a friend with his family, from Beth-Dagon, a little town over by
Joppa; in all, six of us."
"Very well. You shall not lie out on
the ridge. Bring your people, and hasten; for, when the sun goes down behind
the mountain, you know the night comes quickly, and it is nearly there
now."
"I give you the blessing of the
houseless traveller; that of the sojourner will follow."
So saying, the Nazarene went back joyfully
to Mary and the Beth-Dagonite. In a little while the latter brought up his
family, the women mounted on donkeys. The wife was matronly, the daughters were
images of what she must have been in youth; and as they drew nigh the door, the
keeper knew them to be of the humble class.
"This is she of whom I spoke,"
said the Nazarene; "and these are our friends."
Mary's veil was raised.
"Blue eyes and hair of gold,"
muttered the steward to himself, seeing but her. "So looked the young king
when he went to sing before Saul."
Then he took the leading-strap from Joseph,
and said to Mary, "Peace to you, O daughter of David!" Then to the
others, "Peace to you all!" Then to Joseph, "Rabbi, follow
me."
The party were conducted into a wide
passage paved with stone, from which they entered the court of the khan. To a
stranger the scene would have been curious; but they noticed the lewens that
yawned darkly upon them from all sides, and the court itself, only to remark
how crowded they were. By a lane reserved in the stowage of the cargoes, and
thence by a passage similar to the one at the entrance, they emerged into the
enclosure adjoining the house, and came upon camels, horses, and donkeys,
tethered and dozing in close groups; among them were the keepers, men of many
lands; and they, too, slept or kept silent watch. They went down the slope of
the crowded yard slowly, for the dull carriers of the women had wills of their
own. At length they turned into a path running towards the gray limestone bluff
overlooking the khan on the west.
"We are going to the cave," said
Joseph, laconically.
The guide lingered till Mary came to his
side.
"The cave to which we are going,"
he said to her, "must have been a resort of your ancestor David. From the
field below us, and from the well down in the valley, he used to drive his
flocks to it for safety; and afterwards, when he was king, he came back to the
old house here for rest and health, bringing great trains of animals. The
mangers yet remain as they were in his day. Better a bed on the floor where he has
slept than one in the courtyard or out by the roadside. Ah, here is the house
before the cave!"
This speech must not be taken as an apology
for the lodging offered. There was no need of apology. The place was the best
then at disposal. The guests were simple folks, by habits of life easily
satisfied. To the Jew of that period, moreover, abode in caverns was a familiar
idea, made so by every-day occurrences, and by what he heard of Sabbaths in the
synagogues. How much of Jewish history, how many of the many exciting incidents
in that history, had transpired in caves!
Yet further, these people were Jews of
Bethlehem, with whom the idea was especially commonplace; for their locality
abounded with caves great and small, some of which had been dwelling-places
from the time of the Emim and Horites. No more was there offence to them in the
fact that the cavern to which they were being taken had been, or was, a stable.
They were the descendants of a race of herdsmen, whose flocks habitually shared
both their habitations and wanderings. In keeping with a custom derived from
Abraham, the tent of the Bedawin yet shelters his horses and children alike. So
they obeyed the keeper cheerfully, and gazed at the house, feeling only a
natural curiosity. Everything associated with the history of David was
interesting to them.
The building was low and narrow, projecting
but a little from the rock to which it was joined at the rear, and wholly
without a window. In its blank front there was a door, swung on enormous
hinges, and thickly daubed with ochreous clay. While the wooden bolt of the
lock was being pushed back, the women were assisted from their pillions. Upon
the opening of the door, the keeper called out,
"Come in!"
The guests entered, and stared about them.
It became apparent immediately that the house was but a mask or covering for
the mouth of a natural cave or grotto, probably forty feet long, nine or ten
high, and twelve or fifteen in width. The light streamed through the doorway,
over an uneven floor, falling upon piles of grain and fodder, and earthenware
and household property, occupying the centre of the chamber.
Along the sides were mangers, low enough
for sheep, and built of stones laid in cement. There were no stalls or
partitions of any kind. Dust and chaff yellowed the floor, filled all the
crevices and hollows, and thickened the spider-webs, which dropped from the
ceiling like bits of dirty linen; otherwise the place was cleanly, and, to
appearance, as comfortable as any of the arched lewens of the khan proper. In
fact, a cave was the model and first suggestion of the lewen.
"Come in!" said the guide.
"These piles upon the floor are for travellers like yourselves. Take what
of them you need."
Then he spoke to Mary.
"Can you rest here?"
"The place is sanctified," she
answered.
"I leave you then. Peace be with you
all!"
When he was gone, they busied themselves
making the cave habitable.
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| Poster from the play, Chicago, 1901 |
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