PART TWO Summary (continued)

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Summary

The following day, Santiago and the alchemist are stopped by three armed tribesmen, who insist they must be searched. They question why Santiago has so much money with him and the boy honestly answers that he needs it to get to the pyramids. When they search the alchemist, they find a small flask filled with a clear liquid and a yellow glass egg. When they ask what they are, the alchemist truthfully answers that they are the Philosopher's Stone and the Elixir of Life. Whoever swallows the elixir will never be sick again and a fragment from the stone can turn any metal into gold. The Arabs just laugh at him and then allow the two to proceed with all their belongings. When Santiago wonders if the alchemist isn't crazy for showing them all those things and explaining them that way, the alchemist replies that when you possess great treasures within you, and you try to tell others of them, seldom are you believed.

They continue on in silence while the boy continues to listen to his heart. His heart tells him that his strongest qualities are: the courage to give up his sheep and fulfill his Personal Legend and his enthusiasm during the time he had worked at the crystal shop; it also tells him of the personal dangers he had faced in his life of which he was unaware. The heart does what it can to protect us, especially if we are in pursuit of our Personal Legends.

Later, they are stopped once again by armed tribesmen, but they let them go when the alchemist tells them he is not going very far. Santiago comes to know that the men let them go, because the alchemist's eyes showed the strength of his soul. After this, Santiago asks the alchemist how to turn metal into gold. The alchemist tells him how gold became the basis of conflict rather than a symbol of evolution or change. He says that he has known many alchemists, some of which locked themselves into their laboratories and found the Philosopher's Stone, because they understood that when something evolves, everything around it evolves, too.

Other alchemists were so rare as to already be prepared when they just stumbled upon the stone. Others were only interested in the gold and so they never found the secret. They interfered in the Personal Legends of the metals and so they never discovered their own. Then, he gives the boy a fossilized shell which indicates that the desert was once an ocean. He tells him to put it to his ear to hear that the sea lives on in the shell, because that's its Personal Legend. It will never cease doing so until the desert is once again covered by water.

Notes

The first idea of interest in this section has to do with the alchemist's comment that when you tell someone about your personal treasure, they seldom believe you. This lesson for Santiago is very clear: truth is often not recognized. The second idea of interest concerns how our heart tells us what our strongest qualities are and how it often protects us from danger, if we listen to it while on the journey to our treasure. The third idea of interest involves those who are true within their hearts - the alchemists who succeed in finding the Philosopher's Stone had this quality while those who were only interested in the gold failed. This tells us to be pure of heart and seek our treasures with the best of intentions. Finally, this section presents the idea that all things created by God have their own Personal Legends and they will never cease to exist because of it.

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Summary

At sunset one day, the boy's heart sounds a danger signal - a hundred horsemen appear ahead of them with everything on their face, but their eyes, covered with blue veils. The boy senses that their eyes, like the alchemist's, convey the strength of their souls and their eyes speak of death.

Notes

Listening to his heart allows the boy to be prepared when the dangerous men appear ahead of them. He must be aware that their eyes signal death and be ready to face whatever his journey is now bringing him. It is another trial that God has placed before him.