KANANA'S MESSENGERS
Far and wide the impatient soldiers asked, "Why is the army inactive?"
"Is not the motto of Kahled 'Waiting does not win'?"
"Has he not taught us that action is the soul and secret of success?"
"Does he not realize that the hosts of Heraclius are bearing down upon us, that he leaves us sitting idly in our tents?"
"Is Kahled the Invincible afraid?"
Such were the questions which they put to their officers, but no one dared carry them to the general, who sat in his tent without speaking, from sunrise to sunset, the first day after the girdle disappeared.
"Is it the loss of his girdle?"
"Did he not conquer Babylonia without it?"
"Does he not fight in the name of Allah and the Prophet? Could a bright-colored girdle give him strength?"