Page:Folk-lore of the Holy Land.djvu/52

28 In the meantime, however, when Nimrûd found that he could do no harm to Ibrahim, and that many people were being converted to his faith, he banished the prophet from his dominions. But hardly had he taken this step ere he regretted it, and sent a troop of soldiers, mounted on the mules which had been used to carry fuel to the furnace, in order to recapture him. When the Patriarch, who was riding a donkey, saw the soldiers at a distance, he realised that, unless he abandoned his beast and found some hiding-place, there was no hope for him. So he got off and took to his heels. After running for some time he came across a flock of goats, and asked them to protect him. They refused and he was obliged to run on. At last he saw a flock of sheep, which, at the same request, at once agreed to hide him. They made him lie flat on the ground, and huddled together so closely that his enemies passed him by. As a reward for the sheep, Ibrahim asked Allah to give them the broad and fat tails for which Eastern sheep are remarkable; and, to punish the goats, he procured for them little upright tails, too short for decency; while the mules, which till then had been capable of bearing young, were now made barren, because they willingly carried fuel to the furnace, and bore the soldiers of Nimrûd swiftly in pursuit of El-Khalil.

After this, Ibrahim had various adventures both in Egypt and at Bir-es-Seba, following which came events which I cannot do better than tell in the words of one of the sheykhs of the great