self in the day and traveling only at night, lest he should fall into the hands of the Koreishites. He arrived weary and wayworn, his feet bleeding with the roughness of the journey. Within a few days more came Ayesha, and the rest of Abu Beker's household, together with the family of Mahomet, conducted by his faithful freedman Zeid, and by Abu Beker's servant Abdallah. Such is the story of the memorable Hegira, or "Flight of the prophet"-the era of the Arabian calendar from which time is calculated by all true Moslems: it corresponds to the 622d year of the Christian era.-W. IRVING. |