Studies in a Mosque - The Search For Mecca

36 STUDIES IN A MOSQUE.
and he was sent to pasture tlie sheep of the Kureysh
on the hills and valleys round Mekka ;
and though the
people despised the shepherd's calling, he himself was
wont to look back with pleasure to these early days,
saying that God called never a prophet save from
among the sheep-folds. And doubtless it was then
that he developed that reflective disposition of mind
which at length led him to seek the reform of his
people, whilst in his solitary wanderings with the
sheep he gained that marvellous eye for the beauty
and wonder of the earth and sky which resulted in
the gorgeous nature-painting of the Koran. Yet he
was glad to change this humble work for the more
lucrative and adventurous post of camel-driver to the
caravans of his wealthy kinswoman Khadija ; and he
seems to have taken so kindly to the duty, which
involved responsibilities, and to have acquitted him-
self so worthily, that he attracted the notice of his
employer, who straightway fell in love with him, and
presented him with her hand. The marriage was a
singularly happy one, though Mohammad was scarcely
twenty-five and his wife nearly forty, and it brought
him that repose and exemption from daily toil which
he needed in order to prepare his mind for his great
work. But beyond that, it gave him a loving woman's
heart, that was the first to believe in his mission,
that was ever ready to console him in his despair
and to keep alive within him the thin flickering
flame of hope when no man believed in him—not
even himself—and the world was black before his
eyes.