ch she would give to them when it was accomplished. The eyes of these
simple folk glistened at the prospect of so much wealth, and they agreed
readily, promising also to stay three months by Jericho, if need were,
till the child could be weaned. So a man was hired to guard the house
and vines, and they started in the late autumn, when the air was cool
and pleasant.

Of their journey nothing need be said, save that they accomplished it
without trouble, being too humble in appearance to attract the notice of
the thieves who swarmed upon the highways, or of the soldiers who were
set to catch the thieves.

Skirting Jerusalem, which they did not enter, on the sixth day they
descended into the valley of the Jordan, through the desolate hills by
which it is bordered. Camping that night outside the town, at daybreak
on the seventh morning they started, and by two hours after noon came to
the village of the Essenes. On its outskirts they halted, while Nehushta
and the nurse, bearing with them the child, that by now could wave its
arms and crow, advanced boldly into the village, where it would appear
men dwelt only--at least no women were to be seen--and asked to be led
to the Brother Ithiel.

The man to whom they spoke, who was robed in white, and engaged in
cooking outside a large building, averted his eyes in answering, as
though it were not lawful for him to look upon the face of a woman.
He said, very civilly, however, that Brother Ithiel was working in the
fields, whence he would not return till supper time.

Nehushta asked where these fields were, since she desired to speak with
him at once. The man answered that if they walked towards the green
trees that lined the banks of Jordan, which he pointed out to them, they
could not fail to find Ithiel, as he was ploughing in the irrigated land
with two white oxen, the only ones they had. Accordingly they set out
again, having the Dead Sea on their right, and travelled for the half of
a league through the thorn-scrub that grows in this desert. Passing the
scrub they came to lands which were well cultivated and supplied with
water from the Jordan by means of wheels and long poles with a jar at
one end and a weight at the other, which a man could work, emptying the
contents of the jar again and again into an irrigation ditch.

In one of these fields they saw the two white oxen at their toil,
and behind them the labourer, a tall man of about fifty years of age,
bearded, and ha