th-east on the usual road leading into Syria, and then turning
towards the south, at length arrived at Sinai. It was a moment when
the nations of Asia were stirring. To proceed straight to Canaan by
the beaten track would have been to run the risk of encountering their
moving hordes, or of jostling against the Egyptian troops, who still
garrisoned the strongholds of the She-phelah. The fugitives had,
therefore, to shun the great military roads if they were to avoid coming
into murderous conflict with the barbarians, or running into the teeth
of Pharaoh's pursuing army. The desert offered an appropriate asylum to
people of nomadic inclinations like themselves; they betook themselves
to it as if by instinct, and spent there a wandering life for several
generations.*

* This explanation of the wanderings of the Israelites has
been doubted by most historians: it has a cogency, once we
admit the reality of the sojourn in Egypt and the Exodus.

The traditions collected in their sacred books described at length their
marches and their halting-places, the great sufferings they endured, and
the striking miracles which God performed on their behalf.*

* The itinerary of the Hebrew people through the desert
contains a very small number of names which were not
actually in use. They represent possibly either the stations
at which the caravans of the merchants put up, or the
localities where the Bedawin and their herds were accustomed
to sojourn. The majority of them cannot be identified, but
enough can still be made out to give us a general idea of
the march of the emigrants.

Moses conducted them through all these experiences, continually troubled
by their murmurings and seditions, but always ready to help them out of
the difficulties into which they were led, on every occasion, by their
want of faith. He taught them, under God's direction, how to correct the
bitterness of brackish waters by applying to them the wood of a certain
tree.* When they began to look back with regret to the "flesh-pots
of Egypt" and the abundance of food there, another signal miracle was
performed for them. "At even the quails came up and covered the camp,
and in the morning the dew lay round about the host; and when the dew
that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay
a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. And when
the children of Israel saw it,