7. CHAPTER VII.
THE STADIUM IN THE GROVE.
IN front of Ben-Hur there was a forest of cypress-trees, each a
column tall and straight as a mast. Venturing into the shady precinct,
he heard a trumpet gaily blown, and an instant after saw lying upon
the grass close by the countryman whom he had run upon in the road
going to the temples. The man arose, and came to him.
"I give you peace again," he said, pleasantly.
"Thank you," Ben-Hur replied, then asked, "go you my way?"
"I am for the stadium, if that is your way."
"The Stadium!"
"Yes. The trumpet you heard but now was a call for the competitors."
"Good friend," said Ben-Hur, frankly, "I admit my ignorance of the
Grove; and if you will let me be your follower, I will be glad."
"That will delight me. Hark! I hear the wheels of the chariots. They
are taking the track."
Ben-Hur listened a moment, then completed the introduction by laying
his hand upon the man's arm, and saying, "I am the son of Arrius,
the duumvir, and thou?"
"I am Malluch, a merchant of Antioch."
"Well, good Malluch, the trumpet, and the gride of wheels, and the
prospect of diversion excite me. I have some skill in the exercises.
In the palaestrae of Rome I am not unknown. Let us to the course."
Malluch lingered to say, quickly, "The duumvir was a Roman, yet I
see his son in the garments of a Jew."
"The noble Arrius was my father by adoption," Ben-Hur answered.
"Ah! I see, and beg pardon."
Passing through the belt of forest, they came to a field with a
track laid out upon it, in shape and extent exactly like those of
the stadia. The course, or track proper, was of soft earth, rolled and
sprinkled, and on both sides defined by ropes, stretched loosely
upon upright javelins. For the accommodation of spectators, and such
as had interests reaching forward of the mere practice, there were
several stands shaded by substantial awnings, and provided with
seats in rising rows. In one of the stands the two new-comers found
places.
Ben-Hur counted the chariots as they went by-nine in all.
"I commend the fellows," he said, with good-will. "Here in the
East I thought they aspired to nothing better than the two; but they
are ambitious, and play with royal fours. Let us study their
performance."
Eight of the fours passed the stand, some walking, others on the
trot, and all unexceptionally handled; then the ninth one came on
the gallop. Ben-Hur burst into exclamation.
"I have been in the stables of the emperor, Malluch, but, by our
father Abraham of blessed memory! I never saw the like of these."
The last four was then sweeping past. All at once they fell into
confusion. Someone on the stand uttered a sharp cry. Ben-Hur turned,
and saw an old man half-risen from an upper seat, his hands clenched
and raised, his eyes fiercely bright, his long white beard fairly
quivering. Some of the spectators nearest him began to laugh.
"They should respect his beard at least. Who is he?" asked Ben-Hur.
"A mighty man from the desert, somewhere beyond Moab, and owner of
camels in herds, and horses descended, they say, from the racers of
the first Pharaoh-Sheik Ilderim by name and title."
Thus Malluch replied.
The driver meanwhile exerted himself to quiet the four, but
without avail. Each ineffectual effort excited the sheik the more.
"Abaddon seize him!" yelled the patriarch, shrilly. "Run! fly! do
you hear, my children?" The question was to his attendants, apparently
of the tribe. "Do you hear? They are desert-born, like yourselves.
Catch them-quick!"
The plunging of the animals increased.
"Accursed Roman!" and the sheik shook his fist at the driver. "Did
he not swear he could drive them-swear it by all his brood of bastard
Latin gods? Nay, hands off me-off, I say! They should run swift as
eagles, and with the temper of hand-bred lambs, he swore. Cursed be
he-cursed the mother of liars who calls him son! See them, the
priceless! Let him touch one of them with a lash, and"-the rest of
the sentence was lost in a furious grinding of his teeth. "To their
heads, some of you, and speak them-a word, one is enough, from the
tent-song your mothers sang you. Oh, fool, fool that I was to put
trust in a Roman!"
Some of the shrewder of the old man's friends planted themselves
between him and the horses. An opportune failure of breath on his part
helped the stratagem.
Ben-Hur, thinking he comprehended the sheik, sympathized with him.
Far more than mere pride of property-more than anxiety for the result
of the race-in his view it was within the possible for the patriarch,
according to his habits of thought and his ideas of the inestimable,
to love such animals with a tenderness akin to the most sensitive
passion.
They were all bright bays, unspotted, perfectly matched, and so
proportioned as to seem less than they really were. Delicate ears
pointed small heads; the faces were broad and full between the eyes;
the nostrils in expansion disclosed membrane so deeply red as to
suggest the flashing of flame; the necks were arches, overlaid with
fine mane so abundant as to drape the shoulders and breast, while in
happy consonance the forelocks were like ravellings of silken veils;
between the knees and the fetlocks the legs were flat as an open hand,
but above the knees they were rounded with mighty muscles, needful
to upbear the shapely close-knit bodies; the hoofs were like cups of
polished agate; and in rearing and plunging they whipped the air,
and sometimes the earth, with tails glossy-black and thick and long.
The sheik spoke of them as the priceless, and it was a good saying.
In this second and closer look at the horses, Ben-Hur read the story
of their relation to their master. They had grown up under his eyes,
objects of his special care in the day, his visions of pride in the
night, with his family at home in the black tent out on the
shadeless bosom of the desert, as his children beloved. That they
might win him a triumph over the haughty and hated Roman, the old
man had brought his loves to the city, never doubting they would
win, if only he could find a trusty expert to take them in hand; not
merely one with skill, but of a spirit which their spirits would
acknowledge. Unlike the colder people of the West, he could not
protest the driver's inability, and dismiss him civilly; an Arab and a
sheik, he had to explode, and rive the air about him with clamour.
Before the patriarch was done with his expletives, a dozen hands
were at the bits of the horses, and their quiet assured. About that
time, another chariot appeared upon the track; and, unlike the others,
driver, vehicle, and racers were precisely as they would be
presented in the Circus the day of final trial. For a reason which
will presently be more apparent, it is desirable now to give this
turnout plainly to the reader.
There should be no difficulty in understanding the carriage known to
us all as the chariot of classical renown. One has but to picture to
himself a dray with low wheels and broad axle, surmounted by a box
open at the tail-end. Such was the primitive pattern. Artistic
genius came along in time, and, touching the rude machine, raised it
into a thing of beauty-that, for instance, in which Aurora, riding in
advance of the dawn, is given to our fancy.
The jockeys of the ancients, quite as shrewd and ambitious as
their successors of the present, called their humblest turnout a
two, and their best in grade a four; in the latter, the contested
the Olympics and the other festal shows founded in imitation of them.
The same sharp gamesters preferred to put their horses to the
chariot all abreast; and for distinction they termed the two next
the pole yoke-steeds, and those on the right and left outside
trace-mates. It was their judgment, also, that, by allowing the
fullest freedom of action, the greatest speed was attainable;
accordingly, the harness resorted to was peculiarly simple; in fact,
there was nothing of it save a collar round the animal's neck, and a
trace fixed to the collar, unless the lines and a halter fall within
the term. Wanting to hitch up, the masters pinned a narrow wooden
yoke, or cross-tree, near the end of the pole, and, by straps passed
through rings at the end of the yoke, buckled the latter to the
collar. The traces of the yoke-steeds they hitched to the axle;
those of the trace-mates to the top rim of the chariot-bed. There
remained then but the adjustment of the lines, which, judged by the
modern devices, was not the least curious part of the method. For this
there was a large ring at the forward extremity of the pole;
securing the ends to that ring first they parted the lines so as to
give one to each horse and proceeded to pass them to the driver,
slipping them separately through rings on the inner side of the
halters at the mouth.
With this plain generalization in mind, all further desirable
knowledge upon the subject can be had by following the incidents of
the scene occurring.
The other contestants had been received in silence; the last comer
was more fortunate. While moving towards the stand from which we are
viewing the scene, his progress was signalized by loud demonstrations,
by clapping of hands and cheers, the effect of which was to centre
attention upon him exclusively. His yoke-steeds, it was observed, were
black, while the trace-mates were snow-white. In conformity to the
exacting canons of Roman taste, they had all four been mutilated; that
is to say, their tails had been clipped, and, to complete the
barbarity, their shorn manes were divided into knots tied with flaring
red and yellow ribbons.
In advancing, the stranger at length reached a point where the
chariot came into view from the stand, and its appearance would of
itself have justified the shouting. The wheels were very marvels of
construction. Stout bands of burnished bronze reinforced the hubs,
otherwise very light; the spokes were sections of ivory tusks, set
in with the natural curve outward to perfect the dishing, considered
important then as now; bronze tires held the fellies, which were of
shining ebony. The axle, in keeping with the wheels, was tipped with
heads of snarling tigers done in brass, and the bed was woven of
willow wands gilded with gold.
The coming of the beautiful horses and resplendent chariot drew
Ben-Hur to look at the driver with increased interest.
Who is he?
When Ben-Hur asked himself the question first, he could not see
the man's face or even his full figure; yet the air and manner were
familiar and pricked him keenly with a reminder of a period long gone.
Who could it be?
Nearer now, and the horses approaching at a trot. From the
shouting and the gorgeousness of the turnout, it was thought he
might be some official favourite or famous prince. Such an
appearance was not inconsistent with exalted rank. Kings often
struggled for the crown of leaves which was the prize of victory. Nero
and Commodus, it will be remembered, devoted themselves to the
chariot. Ben-Hur arose and forced a passage down nearly to the railing
in front of the lower seat of the stand. His face was earnest, his
manner eager.
And directly the whole person of the driver was in view. A companion
rode with him, in classic description a Myrtilus, permitted men of
high estate indulging their passion for the race-course. Ben-Hur could
see only the driver, standing erect in the chariot, with the reins
passed several times round his body-a handsome figure, scantily
covered by a tunic of light-red doth, in the right hand a whip; in the
other, the arm raised and lightly extended, the four lines. The pose
was exceedingly graceful and animated. The cheers and clapping of
hands were received with statuesque indifference. Ben-Hur stood
transfixed-his instinct and memory had served him faithfully-the
driver was Messala!
By the selection of horses, the magnificence of the chariot, the
attitude, and display of person-above all, by the expression of the
cold, sharp, eagle features, imperialized in his countrymen by sway of
the world through so many generations, Ben-Hur knew Messala unchanged,
as haughty, confident, and audacious as ever, the same in ambition,
cynicism, and mocking insouciance.