de through the camp to
stop their influx, had been wrought under the superintendence of
Bezaleel and Aholiab, who were divinely inspired for the task; and the
Tabernacle was now completed, with the exception of some of the finest
needlework, which had not yet received the finishing touches.

But what was already done bore ample testimony to the skill, the
taste, and the industry of the "wise-hearted" daughters of Israel. The
outer covering of the Tabernacle, or that which lay directly over the
framework of boards of which it was constructed, and hung from the
roof down the sides and west end, was formed of tabash skins; over
this was another covering of ram-skins dyed red; a hanging made of
goats' hair, such as is still used in the tents of the Bedouin Arabs,
had been spun and woven by the matrons of the congregation, to hang
over the skins; and these substantial draperies were beautifully
concealed by a first or inner covering of fine linen. On this the more
youthful women had embroidered figures of cherubim in scarlet, purple,
and light blue, entwined with gold. They had made also sacerdotal
vestments, the "coats of fine linen" worn by all the priests, which,
when old, were unravelled, and made into wicks burnt in the feast of
tabernacles. They had made the "girdles of needlework," which were
long, very long pieces of fine twined linen (carried several times
round the body), and were embroidered with flowers in blue, and
purple, and scarlet: the "robe of the ephod" also for the high priest,
of light blue, and elaborately wrought round the bottom in
pomegranates; and the plain ephods for the priests.

But now the sun was declining in the western sky, and the busy
artificers of all sorts were relaxing from the toil of the day.

In a retired spot, apart from the noise of the camp, paced one in
solitary meditation. Stalwart he was in frame, majestic in bearing; he
trod the earth like one of her princes; but the loftiness of his
demeanour was forgotten when you looked on the surpassing benignity of
his countenance. Each accidental passer hushed his footstep and
lowered his voice as he approached; more, as it should seem, from
involuntary awe and reverence than from any understood prohibition.

But with some of these loiterers a child of some four or five summers,
in earnest chase after a brilliant fly, whose golden wings glittered
in the sunlight, heedlessly pursued it even to the very path of the
Solitary, and to the