Artaban answered: "It has been shown to me and to my three companions
among the Magi--Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar. We have searched the
ancient tablets of Chaldea and computed the time. It falls in this
year. We have studied the sky, and in the spring of the year we saw two
of the greatest stars draw near together in the sign of the Fish, which
is the house of the Hebrews. We also saw a new star there, which shone
for one night and then vanished. Now again the two great planets are
meeting. This night is their conjunction. My three brothers are
watching at the ancient Temple of the Seven Spheres, at Borsippa, in
Babylonia, and I am watching here. If the star shines again, they will
wait ten days for me at the temple, and then we will set out together
for Jerusalem, to see and worship the promised one who shall be born
King of Israel. I believe the sign will come. I have made ready for the
journey. I have sold my house and my possessions, and bought these
three jewels--a sapphire, a ruby, and a pearl--to carry them as tribute
to the King. And I ask you to go with me on the pilgrimage, that we may
have joy together in finding the Prince who is worthy to be served."

While he was speaking he thrust his hand into the inmost fold of his
girdle and drew out three great gems--one blue as a fragment of the
night sky, one redder than a ray of sunrise, and one as pure as the
peak of a snow mountain at twilight--and laid them on the out-spread
linen scrolls before him.

But his friends looked on with strange and alien eyes. A veil of doubt
and mistrust came over their faces, like a fog creeping up from the
marshes to hide the hills. They glanced at each other with looks of
wonder and pity, as those who have listened to incredible sayings, the
story of a wild vision, or the proposal of an impossible enterprise.