All normal vegetation gradually disappeared as He pressed further and
further into this terrible place, until naught remained but the
scraggy vegetation peculiar to these waste places--those forms of
plant life that in their struggle for existence had managed to survive
under such adverse conditions as to give the naturalist the impression
that the very laws of natural plant life have been defied and
overcome.

Little by little the teeming animal life of the lower lands
disappeared, until at last no signs of such life remained, other than
the soaring vultures overhead and the occasional serpent and crawling
things under foot. The silence of the waste places was upon the
traveler, brooding heavily over Him and all around the places upon
which He set His foot, descending more heavily upon Him each moment of
His advance.

Then came a momentary break in the frightful scene. He passed through
the last inhabited spot in the approach to the heart of the
Wilderness--the tiny village of Engedi, where were located the ancient
limestone reservoirs of water which supplied the lower regions of the
territory. The few inhabitants of this remote outpost of primitive
civilization gazed in wonder and awe at the lonely figure passing them
with unseeing eyes and with gaze seemingly able to pierce the
forbidding hills which loomed up in the distance hiding lonely
recesses into which the foot of man had never trodden, even the
boldest of the desert people being deterred from a visit thereto by
the weird tales of unholy creatures and unhallowed things, which made
these places the scene of their uncanny meetings and diabolical
orgies.

On, and on, pressed the Master, giving but slight heed to the desolate
scene which now showed naught but gloomy hills, dark canyons, and bare
rocks, relieved only by the occasional bunches of stringy desert grass
and weird forms of cacti bristling with the protective spines which is
their armor against their enemies.

At last the wanderer reached the summit of one of the higher
foot-hills and gazed at the scene spreading itself before Him. And
that scene was one that would have affrighted the heart of an ordinary
man. Behind Him was the country through which He had passed, which
though black and discouraging was as a paradise to the country which
lay ahead of Him. There below and behind Him were the caves and rude
dwellings of the outlaws and fugitives from justice who had sought the
doubtful advantage