So he would sleep until the
cavalcade came up, when his horse would awake him by a kick, and he
would remount.' [Footnote: Phelps, pp. 31, 32.]
In fact, in his youth he was fond of riding, and there was a time when
he thought that he would like hunting, but 'when I saw them killing
birds and animals, I thought that this could not be right. Then it
occurred to me that better than hunting for animals, to kill them, was
hunting for the souls of men to bring them to God. I then resolved
that I would be a hunter of this sort. This was my first and last
experience in the chase.'
'A seeker of the souls of men.' This is, indeed, a good description of
both father and son. Neither the one nor the other had much of what
we call technical education, but both understood how to cast a spell
on the soul, awakening its dormant powers. Abdul Baha had the courage
to frequent the mosques and argue with the mulla?„s; he used to be
called 'the Master' _par excellence_, and the governor of Adrianople
became his friend, and proved his friendship in the difficult
negotiations connected with the removal of the Bahaites to Akka.
[Footnote: Ibid. p. 20, n.2.]
But no one was such a friend to the unfortunate Bahaites as Abdul
Baha. The conditions under which they lived on their arrival at Akka
were so unsanitary that 'every one in our company fell sick excepting
my brother, my mother, an aunt, and two others of the believers.
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