42

PROPHECY OF ISAIAH.

quoted, are remarkable: "In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign and a witness unto the Lord of Hosts in the land of Egypt: for they shall cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a Saviour, and a great one, and he shall deliver them.” Who this

Saviour would be, has been a question of much dispute among the commentators. One of them, Doctor Gill, supposes that our blessed Lord is here alluded to. Without expressing an opinion upon this point, however, we are assured that THE SAVIOUR was once bodily present in Egypt. We believe that he passed over this region, which was once so extensively peopled by his brethren after the flesh; and although it had already greatly declined from its ancient prosperity, it had not yet become the barren and desert land which it now appears. Indeed, we have every reason to believe, that, about the time of our Saviour's birth, the journey from Bethlehem down into Egypt, and back again, was accomplished with far less danger and privation to the poor wayfarer, than in our day. Numerous towns and villages then existed, the very sites of which can no longer be traced; and there was, doubtless, a highway from place to place, much frequented, in consequence of the intercourse between the Jews in Egypt and those

who remained in their native land. Many of the former must have been passing upon that highway, especially on the return of the great festivals, which summoned them to Jerusalem.

One portion of that highway, however, was then, as it always had been, and always must remain,

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a wild, waterless, howling wilderness." At the entrance to this is Salahéëh. Here the traveller is obliged to lay in his supply of water for four days' journey; as none but bitter, brackish water, which the camels alone will drink, can be found beyond, and even that in but few places. At this station we arrived on the 23d, having travelled between seventy and eighty miles in three days; and here we halted for a while, just outside of the village. Our attendants were sent some little distance to fill our water-casks; and the inhabitants of the village came out in numbers, with eggs, poultry, and dates, to sell. Some of the leading men, also, urged us to pitch our tents there for the night, as we should then be more safe from an attack by some tribe of Arabs. But we had something of the day left: the danger of an attack we had to encounter sooner or later; and our past experience had taught us, that it was more in talk than in reality.

After obtaining our supplies, we took up our line of march, and plunged at once into the desert. For some two or three miles, a noble grove of palm-trees appeared in the distance, on our left,

44

DESERT SOLITUDE.

indicating that the influence of the Nile waters was still felt there; but, in an hour, it had disappeared; and we were now, for the first time since leaving Cairo, utterly out of sight of the evidences of man's cultivating hand. The land of Goshen was all behind us, and we were surrounded by the barren sands. Our prospect was bounded by the sky and the desert; but, to my surprise, the latter had not the appearance of a wide, yellow-coloured waste, nor did our camels find a wearisome footing in a soft sand. The whole surface was firm, and gravelly rather than sandy, covered, moreover, with small clumps of dwarf shrubs; and as the eye looked across the somewhat undulating surface, it presented the appearance of a sea of brownishgreen on every side.

Having selected our place for encamping, on a gently rising ground, the clumps of bushes were dug up, and a smooth space made for our tents. While thus employed, the sun set, beautiful and cloudless, behind the margin of an unbroken horizon the twilight was soon gone: the stars came out in their clearest lustre; and we could see them all around, from the top to the very edge of the blue concave the air was salt and bracing, like that of ocean; and, to complete the illusion, as we looked up from our sandy footing, the sense of motion left by our day's sail on our ship of the desert, put us once more at sea.

TRACKS IN THE DESERT.

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The next day we pursued our march for some time over the barren waste, our course tending more to the east. How to keep the true path would be a mystery to one inexperienced in desert life, especially without the aid of a compass; which I never saw used by the Arabs. Their general direction, however, they take from the sun and the stars; and the track is sometimes, though not often, marked by the footprints of caravans that have gone before. But these are easily obliterated. A surer indication is found in the whitened bones of camels which have fallen and died, and in the traces which the living animal leaves behind it. These marks, however, are sometimes slight, and separated by considerable spaces; and occasionally, when the sand is loose, they are covered up altogether. The camel leader (for each party of camels travels in single file, each tied by the halter to the trappings, and sometimes to the tail of the one before) follows his course without hesitation; and only once did I see the men at fault, and that was while crossing some hills of deep sand.

1

We now struck into a wide road, banked with sand on each side, and said to have been constructed by Ibrahim Pasha, to facilitate the march of his army into Syria. Probably, however, he only restored an old road, by digging out the sand; for I have seen a description of this road, from the pen of a

46

THE ANCIENT RIVER SIHOR.

traveller long before Ibrahim's day. Following this road for some time, we gradually lost trace of it, and passed, on our left, what seemed to be an inlet of the sea. The ground beneath us also began to be marsh-like, with here and there ponds of salt water; and, in places where the water had evaporated, the ground was covered with a white efflorescence like fine salt; but it was of an acrid taste, more like the carbonate of soda than the muriate, or common salt. We had next to cross what appeared to be the sandy bed of a river, with a bridge thrown over it, of very ancient structure, and now almost in ruins. There were also, near by, the remains of two other bridges, which are supposed by some to indicate the place where the Pelusiac branch of the Nile emptied itself into the "great sea." By some it has been supposed that this is the deserted bed of the ancient river Sihor, mentioned by the prophet Jeremiah, when he rebukes Israel for their perverse ingratitude in forsaking the "fountain of living waters," and putting their trust in idols. "And now, what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor?" Jer. ii. 18. Others, however, contend that the Sihor of the prophet is the Nile itself. But, if I may venture an opinion, it would rather coincide with that of those who place the Sihor farther north, and make it the southern boundary of the land of Canaan. This opinion