d, "lest he
should convey to her any sickness, or impure substance, or odour."
Then there was much trouble because some members were discovered to
be ingratiating themselves with Miriam by secretly presenting her with
gifts of playthings, some of them of great beauty, which they fashioned
from wood, shells, or even hard stones. Moreover, they purveyed articles
of food such as they found the child loved; and this it was that led
to their detection, for, having eaten of them, she was ill. Thereupon
Nehushta, enraged, disclosed the whole plot, using the most violent
language, and, amidst murmurs of "Shame on them!" designating the
offenders by name. They were removed from their office, and it was
decreed that henceforth any gifts made to the child must be offered to
her by the committee as a whole, and not by a single individual, and
handed over in their name by Ithiel, her uncle.

Once, when she was seven years old, and the idol of every brother among
the Essenes, Miriam fell ill with a kind of fever which often strikes
children in the neighbourhood of Jericho and the Dead Sea. Among the
brethren were several skilful and famous physicians, who attended her
night and day. But still the fever could not be abated, and at last,
with tears, they announced that they feared for the child's life. Then
indeed there was lamentation among the Essenes. For three days and three
nights did they wrestle in constant prayer to God that she might be
spared, many of them touching nothing but water during all that time.
Moreover, they sat about at a distance from her house, praying and
seeking tidings. If it was bad they beat their breasts, if good they
gave thanks. Never was the sickbed of a monarch watched with more
care or devotion than that of this little orphan, and never was
a recovery--for at length she did recover--received with greater
thankfulness and joy.

This was the truth. These pure and simple men, in obedience to the
strict rule they had adopted, were cut off from all the affections of
life. Yet, the foundation-stone of their doctrine being Love, they
who were human must love something, so they loved this child whom they
looked upon as their ward, and who, as there was none other of her age
and sex in their community, had no rival in their hearts. She was the
one joy of their laborious and ascetic hours; she represented all the
sweetness and youth of this self-renewing world, which to them was so
grey and sapless. Moreover,