strong and vivid presentation.

Ridicule and persecution ceased for a time, and at last, when the decree
was removed, Mohammed and his followers returned in triumph to Mecca.

Once again he was obliged to fly for his life. Accompanied by Zeid, he
went to Tayf, and there spent a month in its perfumed vales, wandering
by cooling streams, meditating beneath the waving fronds of the
palm-trees, or resting in cool gardens, lulled by the rustling leaves of
the nebeck (the lotus-tree), and inhaling the fresh perfume of peach and
apple blooms.

But the inhabitants of Tayf grew hostile, and the prophet again set out
on foot for Mecca. He sat down to rest in an orchard. There he dreamed
that a host of genii waited before him, begging him to teach them El
Islam.

In the night[8] he arose and proceeded, with renewed courage, on his
journey. On the way he fell in with some pilgrims from Yathrib, or
Medina, and to them he unfolded his revelations. They listened
spell-bound as he preached from Al Akaba, and besought him that he would
come or would send disciples with them to their northern town.
Accordingly, Mohammed chose several converts to accompany them upon this
first mission, and a time was set for their going.

On the evening preceding this appointed time, Yusuf sat in a hanging
balcony of Amzi's house. The pink flush of the setting sun was over the
sky; the murmur of the city arose with a subdued hum--"the city's stilly
sound"; a parchment containing a part of the Scriptures was on the
priest's knee, but he stopped reading and gave himself up to meditation,