In this valley of Nakhla, too, so runs the tale, he was consoled by
genii, who refreshed him, after the fashion of angels upholding the weary
prophets in the wilderness. Mahomet was now in dire straits; he could not
return to Mecca at once, because the object of his Taif journey was
known; as Taif had spurned him, so he was forced to halt in Hira until he
obtained the protection of Mutaim, an influential man in Mecca, and after
some difficulty made his way back to the city, discredited and solitary,
except for his former followers. For some months he rested in obscurity
and contempt at Mecca, gaining none to his cause, but still filled with
the fervent conviction of his future triumph, which neither wavered
nor faltered. The divine fire which upheld him during the period of
his violent persecution burned within his soul, and never was his
steadfastness of character and faith in himself and his mission more
fully manifested than during these despondent months.

He now began to seek in greater measure the society of women, although
the consuming sexual life of his later years had hardly awakened. While
Khadijah was with him he remained faithful to her, but her bright
presence once withdrawn, he was impelled by a kind of impassioned seeking
to the quest for her substitute, and not finding it in one woman, to
continue his search among others. He now married Sawda, a nonentity with
a certain physical charm but no personality, and sued for the hand of
Ayesha, the small daughter of Abu Bekr.

Mahomet at this time was not blessed with many riches. His frugal,
anxious life led him to perform many small duties of his household for
himself. His food was coarse and often scanty, and he lived among his
followers as one of themselves. It is no small tribute to his singleness
of mind and lofty character that in the "dreary intercourse of daily
life," lived in that primitive, communal fashion, which admits of no