THE CARAVAN.
The slaves halted before the gate with the camels and the horses. The
camels bore the travelling equipage, provisions, clothes, and presents
for the hosts. Sallu when weary was to find a seat upon the one which
was most lightly loaded. Elisama and Helon mounted two stately Egyptian
horses, which they designed to sell again at Gaza. Egypt abounds with
beautiful horses, and supplies the neighbouring country with them.
They had arranged their journey so well, that, by joining a Tyrian
caravan from Pelusium to Gaza, they would be able to arrive in Judea
time enough to accompany the pilgrims from Hebron on their way to
Jerusalem. From Alexandria to Pelusium their road lay through Egypt, and
they might venture to make it alone.
Alexandria lies upon a tongue of land, between the Mediterranean sea on
the north, and the lake Mareotis on the south. Their journey at first
lay between these two, affording them views first of one and then of the
other. The shore of the lake was covered with palm trees and papyrus,
canals united it with the Nile, and splendid buildings rose on every
side of it. Helon, in spite of his longing for the Holy Land, was
compelled to confess, that Alexander had chosen a spot to bear his name,
not only preeminently convenient for trade, but delightfully situated.
The places through which they passed, being well known to both our
travellers, offered nothing to divert the course of their thoughts. They
halted one day, because it was the sabbath, on which the law did not
permit them to travel more than a thousand paces. The whole journey
lasted nine days, in the course of which they ferried over several
branches of the Nile, crossing both the great and the little Delta. They
passed through Naucratis, celebrated for several centuries past, as the
first emporium of Grecian commerce with Egypt; Sais, with its temple of
Neitha; Busiris, with the ruins of the largest temple of Isis in Egypt;
and Tanis, anciently the royal residence. This land of wonders, however,
had little other effect upon Helon, than to make him often repeat—
Blessed is the man who puts his confidence in thee,
And thinks of the way to Jerusalem!
His uncle sometimes smiled at him, and observed that it was well that
they had left the elder behind at Alexandria. For the rest but little
conversation passed. Elisama was wearied by the journey, and Helon and
Sallu were silent, or repeated passages from the Psalms.
At length they came in sight of Pelusium, where they were to meet the
Phœnician caravan; and Helon rejoiced that he should leave the
country of the grave and gloomy Egyptians, to penetrate into the desert
that conducted him to the land of his forefathers.
As they made a circuit round the city, they saw outside one of the gates
a promiscuous assemblage of men, goods, camels, and horses. The neighing
of the Egyptian and Arabian steeds pierced through the hoarser cry of
the camels. Egyptians, Phœnicians, Syrians, Romans, and swarthy
Ethiopians, were hurrying in every direction, between the piled up heaps
of merchandise; Greek, Aramaic, and Latin, were blended in one confused
murmur. The main part of the caravan consisted of Phœnicians from
Tyre, who, according to the custom which then prevailed, had carried
wine in earthen jars to Egypt, where little wine was produced. They had
gone through Alexandria to Memphis, and as they passed, Elisama had
agreed with them to be conducted from Pelusium to Gaza. They had just
arrived from Memphis, and this was the rendezvous for all who wished to
accompany them in their journey through the desert. They had purchased,
to carry back with them, horses, cotton and embroidered cloths, and the
fine and costly linen of Egypt. The leader of the caravan, busied with a
variety of cares, briefly saluted Elisama and Helon, and informed them
that he should depart on the following morning at daybreak, and that the
camels should be arranged four and four. Half the inhabitants of
Pelusium had come out, to traffic or to gaze, and the tumult and bustle
were indescribable.
While Elisama and Helon endeavoured to find themselves a suitable
lodging-place for the night, in the marshy land around this city, which
borders on the vast sandy desert of Arabia, and Sallu was following them
with the slaves, a well-known voice exclaimed, “Welcome Elisama and
Helon! Are ye also for Tyre?” It was Myron, the young and handsome Greek
from Alexandria, Helon’s early friend, who had introduced him to the
knowledge of Platonism, and studied Plato with him in the Museum. Since
his return to the law, Helon had purposely avoided him, and would
willingly not have encountered him here, just as he was entering on his
journey to Jerusalem. Myron was going to Damascus, and meant to
accompany the caravan to Tyre; and although they told him that their
intention was only to go as far as Gaza, this did not prevent his
offering to join company with them to that place; and he made his
proposal with so much of Greek urbanity, that they knew not how to
refuse. The pleasure of their society, he said, would save him from
dying of tedium; which, if he kept company any longer with the
Phœnicians, who could talk of nothing but their merchandise,
threatened to be more fatal than thirst to him in crossing the desert.
“Your oriental gravity,” said he, “will be enlivened by my Grecian
levity, and together we shall form the most agreeable party in the whole
caravan.” He took the hand of Elisama with a smile, and the bargain was
concluded.
Long before sunrise on the following morning, the tumult of the caravan
began again. Helon’s camel was bound behind the three camels of Elisama:
Sallu led them, the slaves urged them on, and the three travellers
mounted their horses. The trumpet sounded a second time, as the signal
of departure. The camels were arranged four together, and our party
endeavoured to place themselves as near as possible to the head of the
line of march, to avoid the clouds of sand which were raised in the
middle and near the end. Between every fifty parties, came a horse with
a guide, and a man bearing a kettle of pitch, raised on a pole, which
was to be kindled during the night. The principal guide, who had the
superintendence of the whole caravan, rode usually in front, on a horse
richly caparisoned, and accompanied by a camel which carried his
treasure. He was the absolute master of the whole train; at his nod the
blasts of the trumpet were given, and every one set forward or halted. A
litter was borne behind him, in which he occasionally reposed.
It was an hour after sunset before all was arranged and the third blast
of the trumpet was given. The guide mounted his Arabian horse, and the
march began. Thousands of persons from Pelusium and the neighbourhood,
stood by the road-side, and saluted them as they departed. The slaves
began to sing, and the bells on the necks and feet of the camels chimed
between. Every thing in the caravan was performed in measured time, the
step of the camels, the jingling of the bells, and the song of the
slaves. Both men and beasts were full of alacrity, and thus, even in the
desert, one portion of the dreary way after another is performed without
tediousness.
Helon’s heart beat high with the thought that he had entered on the road
to Jerusalem; and he could not refrain from exclaiming, when the signal
for the march was given, “Happy are the people that know the sound of
the trumpet.” To Myron his exclamation was unintelligible, and he
continued to exercise his Attic raillery upon every thing around him;
but Helon was too much absorbed in his own thoughts to notice him.
The first day’s journey, as is usual with caravans, was very short; and
they halted, after a march of an hour and a half, at Gerrha, where there
was a fountain, by which they encamped. All the press and tumult was
renewed. The beasts and the merchandise were placed in the middle, and
tents were erected all around, as a shelter from the burning heat of
noon. Myron’s slave went to fetch wood and water: Sallu unpacked the
travelling equipage from the camel, and the three travellers helped him
to set up the tent. He then spread a carpet, on which Elisama seated
himself; coverlets and mattresses were brought out for sleeping; and a
round piece of leather, having rings at the circumference which can be
drawn together like a purse by a string which runs through them. This
was to be laid on the ground before the meal, that the dishes might be
placed upon it. The slave had brought the wood—a fire was made in the
sand, and the camp kettle placed upon it.
While Sallu and the slave were preparing the meal, Helon and Myron
joined Elisama in the tent. Myron’s slave brought a hare which he had
purchased of an inhabitant of Pelusium, and was about to dress it.
Elisama observed it, and joined with Sallu, who thrust the slave away,
exclaiming, “that the animal was unclean, and must not be dressed for
food for his masters.”
“Nay, what is this?” said Myron; “the game is excellent, and I meant it
to do honour to my introduction into your society.”
“We may not eat of it,” replied Elisama; “it is unclean. It is forbidden
in the law to eat any animal, which ruminates without dividing the
hoof.”[22]
Footnote 22:
Deut. xiv. 7.
“Ye are then worse off even than the Egyptians,” said Myron, “who are
only forbidden to eat their sacred animals. We Greeks are wiser than
either: we eat what we like.”
“And _do_ what ye like;” interposed Helon. “But we have the law.”
“And what need,” said Myron, “of any other law than that which is
written in the hearts of all men?”
“Yet that this law, written in the heart, is not of itself sufficient,
and does not supersede the necessity of a revealed law, you might have
learnt from your own Socrates. Remember what he says of his dæmon.”
“If the Jew attempts to turn the weapons of the heathen against himself,
let us see if the heathen cannot do the same with those of the Jew. Ye
call Abraham the progenitor of your people.”
“Undoubtedly,” said Elisama.
“Did he not live many hundred years before the law was given by Moses?
If so, which you cannot deny, this progenitor, whom ye prize so highly,
and exalt above all men that ever lived, had not even heard of the law,
and was no better than one of us.”
Helon was for a while silent and perplexed. At length he replied, “The
example of our father Abraham urges us to obedience to the law: for
circumcision, which is a leading part of it, was commanded to him, and
he performed it on all his house on the same day on which Jehovah made a
covenant with him and changed his name.”[23]
Footnote 23:
Gen. xvii. 23.
“I will give thee a better answer,” interposed Elisama. “It is true,
that Abraham had not the law of Moses, and could not, in our sense of
the word, exhibit the righteousness of the law. He received the commands
of the Lord immediately from himself, and therefore needed not that they
should be engraved on tables of stone. And for the same reason he was
permitted to sacrifice elsewhere than in Jerusalem, though his greatest
and most costly sacrifice, that of his son, was appointed to be
performed on Moriah, the hill where our temple stands. The Lord, who
himself gave him the law, was every where with him, in Egypt as in
Mamre. But now, since Israel has been stained with sin, the glory of
Jehovah will dwell only on his own holy hill; and it is our duty to
repair to Jerusalem and bring thither our offerings.”
A new view of the subject opened itself to Helon’s mind, and Myron
listened with great attention; Elisama continued:
“Obedience to the law presupposes three things. First, that a law is
given. Secondly, that external circumstances are so disposed that the
observance of the law is practicable; and, thirdly, that there be
willingness to obey. The two first existed in Abraham, as perfectly as
in his descendents. The third could only be formed in the people of
Israel, by the events of several centuries, confirming the promises to
the obedient and the threats denounced against the disobedient. Israel
is at length grown wise by experience, and the time draws near, when the
Messiah shall come to deliver his people from oppression, and bless all
nations of the earth by means of the law. But Abraham needed no such
discipline—he practised voluntary obedience.”
“By Apollo,” said Myron, “thou speakest wisely!”
“Such a man,” pursued Elisama, “do we venerate in our great progenitor.
Is there any people that can produce one like him? In him every thing
was united essential to that happiness which is attainable only by the
law. For this reason also he received the promise from Jehovah, that in
his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed. Abraham was to
become a people, and that people must attain the righteousness of
Abraham. But with a people such a change must be progressive: Israel
first of all received the law on Sinai, then the promised land and a
temple; and only through a long course of discipline learnt to obey the
law willingly. These three periods, together with the end which is yet
to come, and the beginning in Abraham, form the series of Jewish
history. You Greeks like to have things presented to you in such
arranged and comprehensive views.”
“With good reason,” exclaimed Myron, who had all that curiosity for
knowledge of every kind, which was the characteristic of his nation.
“And now, my venerable Elisama, I would fain hear from thee the whole
history of thy people, arranged according to the plan which thou hast
traced. Ere we reach Gaza, we shall pass many an hour together, at the
places of encampment, which might be so employed, agreeably to us all.
You will delight in an opportunity of relating what redounds so much to
the honour of your people; Helon will listen as gladly as you will
relate; and I shall rejoice in an opportunity of hearing a connected
narrative of your history.”
“As thou wilt, Myron,” said Elisama, “in the hope that you Greeks may
also learn to value duly the chosen people of Jehovah. It is only of the
history of such a people as Israel, that such an orderly developement
can be made: it is necessary for this purpose that God himself should
have taught us what plan of his he designs a nation to fulfil. Of Israel
he declared this, even when he had no political existence; and we need
only open our eyes upon his history, in order to perceive the
progressive accomplishment of the promise. The Messiah, when he comes,
will perhaps teach us to what purpose Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians have
existed. I know not what it may be, but this I know, that theirs must be
a subordinate part, and an inferior destination to that of Israel. This
I tell you frankly, and you will see the proofs of it still more
strongly in the history itself. Are you satisfied with it?”
“Only begin your discourse,” said Myron, “and I promise you to listen,
as the Hellenic nation listened to Herodotus, when he recited his
history at the Olympic games. A Greek of Athenian blood, a pupil as I
boast myself to be of the Alexandrian philosophy, knows no greater
pleasure than to acquire knowledge, wherever he may find it. Pythagoras
travelled into the east, and Plato visited Egypt and Italy. Conversation
is the life of life; and a discourse which is regularly renewed should
have some fixed object, by which it may be resumed at each successive
opportunity. Do us then this favour, and relate the history of your
nation.”
Helon had been sitting absorbed in thought on what he had heard from his
uncle. “What a noble subject,” he now exclaimed, “for our conversation
on our pilgrimage to the Passover! What an excellent preparation for the
momentous times which are approaching! Truly, ‘days should speak and
length of years give understanding.’ How profound is the discernment of
those ‘whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditate upon it
day and night!’ Begin then, dearest uncle, and speak of the glories of
our forefathers.”
“Youths,” said Elisama, “I will not refuse your request, though ye
praise me too much. I call to mind the psalm of Asaph, which I will
rehearse to thee, Myron:
Give ear, O my people, to my teaching!
Incline your ears to the words of my mouth!
I will open my mouth in parables;
I will declare the histories of old,
Which we have known and heard,
Which our fathers have told us
That we might not hide them from their children,
Showing to the generation to come the praise of Jehovah,
His strength, and the wonders he hath done.
He established a testimony in Jacob,
And appointed a law in Israel,
Which he commanded our fathers
That they should make known to their children;
That the generation to come might know them, the sons which should be
born;
That when grown up they might declare them to their children,
That they might set their hope in God,
And not forget the works of God,
And keep his commandments.—Ps. lxxviii.
“Israel is rich in such psalms as this. The history of our nation lives
in their poetry, it is interwoven with their prayers, it is the
groundwork of doctrine and the theme of narrative; all our festivals
rest upon it as their basis, and nothing great or important can take
place in Israel, which has not an historical reference. The cause of
this lies in the promise of Jehovah and in its fulfilment. We seek our
wisdom in the revelation which God has given us—ye seek it in your own
reflections: hence our wisdom is historical, yours speculative. What we
know of God and of his law, was communicated to us through the
discourses of God to our fathers, or derived from the observation of his
dealings with them. It is therefore a bold undertaking in which I
engage, to relate the history of our nation, and I must stipulate
beforehand that you will not expect from me any thing like a perfect
view of it, in the halts of a caravan. You must also permit me, Myron,
to go on, after the oriental manner, in an unbroken narrative, which
besides better suits a history, than that dialogue form, interrupted by
question and objection, in which you Greeks so much delight. There will
be time for these when my narrative is ended.”
“Make what stipulations thou wilt,” said Myron, “only begin.”
“For to-day,” said Elisama, resuming, “I must confine myself to the
patriarchs, not only because our discourse has been accidentally led to
them, but because the knowledge of their history is absolutely necessary
to understand what follows.
“Our father Abraham is at once, the last star in the night of primeval
history, and the morning star which announces the approaching day. The
history of the creation and the fall you have doubtless heard already in
the Bruchium; for I am told that both your philosophers and our
Hellenists employ themselves very diligently upon it; and I must lament,
that, leaving the true path of knowledge, they should prize the
interpretations of the heathens above the genuine word of Jehovah. But
enough of these men.
“Notwithstanding the fall of our first parents, they had still a just
knowledge of God and of his will, connected with his promise, that the
seed of the woman should bruise the head of the serpent. But when Cain
was compelled to flee from his father’s house, unwilling to relate to
his children the story of his own fratricide, he represented himself as
the origin of the human race, on which account his descendants, who had
been brought up in his sins, called themselves the _Sons of Men_; in
contradistinction to which, the children of the other sons of Adam, who
were acquainted with the history of the creation, called themselves
_Sons of God_. By the sins of these sons of men, and their mixture with
the sons of God, iniquity became so prevalent upon the earth, that
Jehovah sent a deluge, in which only Noah and his family were saved. In
him and the descendents of his son Shem alone, was the true knowledge of
God preserved, when the former iniquities again obtained the ascendency
among other nations and they fell into idolatry. When the true religion
began to give way before the false, even in Ur of the Chaldees, where
Abram the son of Terah lived, Jehovah bade him leave his native country
and his father’s house, to go to a land which the Lord should show him.
That land was Canaan. This Abram is our father Abraham, who, when he
arrived at Bethel, erected a tabernacle there, and built an altar, and
proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord appeared often unto him and
proved his faith: ten of these trials are recorded in scripture. The
severest of them was that in which he was commanded to offer up his son
Isaac, in whom the promise was to be fulfilled. But his steadfastness in
all these trials made him worthy that on him all these promises should
rest. God promised him, in the person of his descendents, the land of
Canaan, which on this account we still call the Land of Promise. The
Lord made him to come forth from his tent, and said, ‘Look towards
heaven, and see if thou canst count the stars thereof—such shall thy
seed be.’[24] On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham, and
said, ‘To thy seed will I give this land from the river of Egypt unto
the great river Euphrates.’ But these promises, to make his posterity a
mighty nation and to give them a fair country for their inheritance, had
their motive in a yet higher promise. After he had endured, with such
noble firmness and resignation, the most grievous of all his trials, God
said unto him, ‘In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be
blessed.’[25] This prophecy is the radiant point of Jewish history,
never obscured through all the vicissitudes of our condition, nay,
wonderful to relate, shining most brightly in the very circumstances
which seemed most unauspicious for its fulfilment. The promise was
renewed to his son Isaac, and his grandson Jacob; its import involves
the history of the whole human race. Abraham stood alone in his
knowledge and his worship of the one true God; except indeed that he
found at Salem, the present Jerusalem, a single priest of the Most High,
the king Melchisedec. It was necessary therefore that the people of the
promise should separate themselves from all other nations, even from the
rest of Abraham’s descendents. In Isaac they separated themselves from
Ishmael and his children; in Jacob from Esau and his children, the
Edomites: for thus only could they continue to be the people of the
promise.
Footnote 24:
Gen. xv. 5.
Footnote 25:
Gen. xxii. 18.
“How great and dignified does the patriarch appear, in whom were united
all those qualities, to which his descendents could only be formed by
the lapse of a thousand years—the knowledge of the will of Jehovah from
his own immediate communication; in his own house, and its precincts, a
temple; unlimited faith and unreserved obedience!
“While I mention these three distinguishing characteristics of the
patriarch, I cannot help dwelling more particularly on the second, of
which I am reminded by the contrast of our life in Egypt; and because
our present situation, living in tents and caravans in the desert, has
some analogy with his. His whole dwelling, and the region in which for
the time he had his abode, were consecrated as a temple by the
manifestations of Jehovah. The manifold complexity of relations and
collision of interests, which are so burdensome in the life of men in
cities, were unknown to him, in the simple grandeur of his pastoral
state. His days flowed on in intercourse with God, amidst the groves,
the hills and the plains of the finest countries of the east. Now he
dwells upon the lofty sides of Lebanon, near the cedars that pierce the
heavens; on the approach of the rainy season, he drives his herds to the
warmer plains of Jordan. He is in the fields with the earliest glow of
morning, and his simple tent is designed only for shelter at night, and
during the rain. Three hundred and eighteen servants, born in his
house,[26] feed his countless flocks of sheep and goats, his herds of
cattle, asses and camels. In the fairest part of the pasture the dark
brown tents are pitched, and in the midst of them the tent of the
patriarch. Seldom does he come into a city; for they are the abodes of
corruption. If a stranger makes his appearance, he is hospitably
received, the fatling of the flock is killed, and while the patriarch’s
own hands prepare it for food, Sarah bakes cakes upon the hearth; the
guest is feasted, and not till he has eaten and been satisfied is he
asked who he is. Benevolence guides all his actions. If he falls in with
another body of roving shepherds, he says to Lot, ‘Why should there be
strife betwixt me and thee; if thou wilt go to the left hand, I will go
to the right; or if thou wilt go to the right hand, I will go to the
left.’ Independent of all without, he rules as a king in his own house:
but his highest dignity is that he is also a priest there. He walks
before God with a perfect heart: to him he repairs in danger and in joy,
to him he offers thanks, to his command he is ready to sacrifice his
dearest hopes: to him he erects altars, raises memorials of his
providential guidance, and proclaims his name. And Jehovah dwells with
his servant Abraham, he appears to him, and blesses him in all things;
he discloses the future to him, and says, ‘Shall I hide from Abraham
that which I am about to do, seeing that he shall become a great and
mighty nation; and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.
For I know him that he will command his children and his household after
him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, and do what is just and
righteous, that the Lord may accomplish unto Abraham that which he hath
spoken of him.’[27]
Footnote 26:
Gen. xiv. 14.
Footnote 27:
Gen. xviii. 17.
“Thus he lived a complete century in Canaan; he came thither not as an
old man, but in the prime of life, in his seventy-fifth year, and in his
hundred and seventieth year he died, in a good old age, and was gathered
to his people.
“His son Isaac and his grandson Jacob led the same patriarchal life.
Both took to themselves wives from the native country of Abraham, that
they might form no connection with the Canaanites. Jehovah appeared to
both of them, and their lives throughout, in an equal degree, were
simple and happy, like that of Abraham.
“Such was the origin of our nation, and half the world joins with us to
extol our great progenitor. The Magi of Persia; the Arabs, the sons of
Ishmael, and the Edomites, the children of Esau, even Egypt itself
celebrates the wisdom of Abraham, and the whole east praises his name.
“But the sun is already high in the heavens, the slaves are waiting for
us with the food, and an old man needs rest before he undertakes a
further journey.”
The slaves brought the victuals prepared in the Jewish fashion, the
round piece of leather was spread upon the ground; they sat around it,
ate, and were satisfied. Myron often wished to renew the conversation,
but Elisama did not speak during the meal, and Helon was lost in
reflections on the glory of his nation, and in anticipation of the
delight of soon standing where Abraham and Isaac had talked with God.
After the meal they all laid themselves down during the heat of noon.
The evening came—but hardly had the night begun, when, at the fourth
hour, (about ten of our reckoning) the trumpets sounded for the first
time. The tent was struck, the camels loaded, the travellers mounted
their horses, each party resumed their former station in the line, and
about midnight, after the third blast, they broke up from Gerrha. On
account of the heat, caravans travel chiefly at night, and halt during
the hottest time of the day. The march was now more orderly and
peaceable. The flames flashed from the burning pitch-kettles which were
borne aloft, and threw their light over the desert. It was an attractive
sight, to behold them like scattered suns, along a line of march
extending for several thousand paces, and to see men and beasts
travelling onward through the night by their ruddy gleam. Their journey
lay this night and every night, as far as Gaza, along the sea, whose
distant thunder was occasionally heard, mingling with the songs of the
slaves and the bells of the camels.