The Haj - Leon Uris [179]
‘Ishmael is ready to answer everything truthfully,’ Haj Ibrahim said. This boy is wiser than his thirteen years would indicate. He is my confidant and rarely lies. He knows everything, including my search for Gideon Asch. It was Ishmael who figured out that you, as an archaeologist, might have access to the Jewish side.’
‘You realize the importance of our secret, Ishmael?’ he asked.
‘Yes, sir,’ I said.
‘You are right. The Jews are the most prodigious explorers of the past. They have an insatiable devotion to their roots.’
He laid out aerial maps and photographs of the wadis and cliffs behind Qumran. ‘We must study these closely and see if we can locate both the cave you lived in and the one where you found the treasure.’
I felt extremely important but deflated as I looked at the maps and photographs. I was completely puzzled. As Professor Doctor Mudhil explained their meaning, I became less confused.
‘Here,’ I pointed tentatively.
My father looked but could not understand and nodded cautiously in agreement.
‘So you saw an opening above your cave and were taunted into climbing up to it?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘You went up alone?’
‘He went with a boy named Sabri, whom we took into our family at Nablus. Sabri is working in Jericho, but I can arrange a meeting with him,’ Ibrahim said.
‘Well, answer the professor. You went up together,’ my father insisted.
‘Sabri did not go all the way with me. He became frightened of the height and quit.’
‘You went the rest of the way alone?’ Professor Mudhil asked.
‘No, sir. I did not tell you, Father, because I was afraid you would be displeased, but I went up with Nada. It was Nada who found the objects.’ I tried to look at Haj Ibrahim and knew the only reason he did not beat me on the spot was because we were in Professor Doctor Mudhil’s presence, but the rage in his eyes told me it would be very bad later. Of course I said nothing about Nada taking her skirt off.
‘Then bring her here,’ the archaeologist said.
‘It cannot be arranged,’ my father said sharply.
I should have lied. Sabri would have supported my story. I was crazy to tell Father about Nada.
Professor Doctor Mudhil looked from me to my father knowingly. ‘Well, let us go on,’ he said.
Under his questioning, I drew a crude map of the cave of the treasure showing its three rooms and the secret crevice of the discovery. He took notes of my every word.
‘Were there skeletons?’
‘Yes, they were the first things we saw. They frightened us.’ The fact that we found children’s bones inside a large jar indicated to Professor Doctor Mudhil that the ones who had buried the child believed in a god or gods. The child was ensconced in the jar for a journey to heaven—of sorts. Other children’s bones near a burned-out stone altar indicated that some had been sacrificed.
He asked me many questions about the cloth wrappings, grain, evidence of fire, and other objects.
‘There were many pots, broken and unbroken. We did not take them because the trip down the cliff was very difficult and we feared they would be dropped and smashed.’
Professor Doctor Mudhil mumbled that the Bedouin had probably looted the cave by now. He made a note to contact the sheik of the Ta’amira Bedouin who scavenged for antiquities in the area. They knew to bring evidence of weaving and potsherds. He explained to me about layers and strata.
‘We have proof that the caves between here and the Masada were used by Bar Kochba, a Hebrew revolutionary after the time of Christ. His rebellion against Rome signaled the end of the Jews in Israel for the first time. No doubt some of the strata were from Bar Kochba and maybe even the Essenes, who were involved with Jesus and John the Baptist in that area.’
The reason he explained strata to me was to try to establish that the Bar Kochba warriors and their families could have lived in the cave without being aware of the treasure trove.
‘Yes, it is very possible,’ I reckoned. ‘The objects were extremely well hidden in a crevice deep into the smallest of the rooms. The room itself was not fit for