At each verse a knot in the bow string came loose and a needle slipped from the waxen figure, and at the end of the recitation, Mahomet arose, a strong and whole man once more. Of course, it is a story like so many more. We remember the glance of Medusa that turned men to stone; we recall Ulysses, the hair of Samson, the cup of Circe and even our own Nathaniel Hawthorne, suspicious that the misfortunes of his own family were due to some curse laid upon his ancestors for their activity in the Salem persecutions. The incident of the wax image has very little to do with the activities of the man Mahomet, but casts a strong side light upon his character.
Being well again, Mahomet undertook a religious pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca, and, in the holy month of Doul Kaada, set forth with a band of fourteen hundred men. At first the men of Mecca were suspicious of a ruse, but, examining and finding that the mission was peaceable, all went well and there was made between Mecca and Medina a truce of ten years, during which time all Mahometans were to have free access to Mecca as pilgrims, with the privilege of a three-day stay unmolested. The arrangement gave satisfaction to the people of Medina, and Mahomet was still further endeared to them because of his frequent expeditions to outlying castles and villages from which much plunder was gained. Meanwhile, there were missions to neighboring princes, to such as the king of Persia and the Roman emperor at Constantinople as well
