of treacherous sand were
heaped like tombs along the horizon. By day, the fierce heat pressed its
intolerable burden on the quivering air. No living creature moved on
the dumb, swooning earth, but tiny jerboas scuttling through the parched
bushes, or lizards vanishing in the clefts of the rock. By night the
jackals prowled and barked in the distance, and the lion made the black
ravines echo with his hollow roaring, while a bitter, blighting chill
followed the fever of the day. Through heat and cold, the Magian moved
steadily onward.

Then I saw the gardens and orchards of Damascus, watered by the streams
of Abana and Pharpar, with their sloping swards inlaid with bloom,
and their thickets of myrrh and roses. I saw the long, snowy ridge of
Hermon, and the dark groves of cedars, and the valley of the Jordan,
and the blue waters of the Lake of Galilee, and the fertile plain of
Esdraelon, and the hills of Ephraim, and the highlands of Judah. Through
all these I followed the figure of Artaban moving steadily onward, until
he arrived at Bethlehem. And it was the third day after the three Wise
Men had come to that place and had found Mary and Joseph, with the young
child, Jesus, and had laid their gifts of gold and frankincense and
myrrh at his feet.

Then the Other Wise Man drew near, weary, but full of hope, bearing his
ruby and his pearl to offer to the King. "For now at last," he said, "I
shall surely find him, though I be alone, and later than my brethren.
This is the place of which the Hebrew exile told me that the prophets
had spoken, and here I shall behold the rising of the great light. But I
must inquire about the visit of my brethren, and to what house the star
directed them, and to whom they presented their tribute."

The streets of the village seemed to be deserted, and Artaban wondered
whether the men had all gone up to the hill-pastures to bring down their
sheep. From the open door of a cottage he heard the sound of a woman's
voice singing softly. He entered and found a young mother hushing her
baby to rest. She told him of the strangers from the far East who had
appeared in the village three days ago, and how they said that a star
had guided them to the place where Joseph of Nazareth was lodging with
his wife and her new-born child, and how they had paid reverence to the
child and given him many rich gifts.

"But the travellers disappeared again," she continued, "as suddenly
as they had come. We were afrai