seized upon these tidings to assure Milcah, with great
vivacity and warmth, that if the tribes moved eastward they would surely
pass the mines and release the Hebrews imprisoned there.

These were welcome words, and Milcah, who nestled to her comforter's
breast, would gladly have heard more; but great restlessness had seized
upon the people gazing into the distance from the roof of Amminadab's
house; a dense cloud of dust was approaching from the north, and soon
after a strange murmur arose, then a loud uproar, and finally shouts and
cries from thousands of voices, lowing, neighing, and bleating, such
as none of the listeners had ever heard,--and then on surged the
many-limbed and many-voiced multitude, the endless stream of human
beings and herds, which the astrologer's grandson on the observatory of
the temple at Tanis had mistaken for the serpent of the nether-world.

Now, too, in the light of early dawn, it might easily have been imagined
a host of bodiless spirits driven forth from the realms of the dead;
for a whitish-grey column of dust extending to the blue vault of heaven
moved before it, and the vast whole, with its many parts and voices,
veiled by the clouds of sand, had the appearance of a single form.
Often, however, a metal spear-head or a brazen kettle, smitten by a
sunbeam, flashed brightly, and individual voices, shouting loudly, fell
upon the ear.

The foremost billows of the flood had now reached Amminadab's house,
before which pasture lands extended as far as the eye could reach.

Words of command rang on the air, the procession halted, dispersing as
a mountain lake overflows in spring, sending rivulets and streams hither
and thither; but the various small runlets speedily united, taking
possession of broad patches of the dewy pastures, and wherever such
portions of the torrent of human beings and animals rested, the shroud
of dust which had concealed them disappeared.

The road remained hidden by the cloud a long time, but on the meadows
the morning sunlight shone upon men, women, and children, cattle and
donkeys, sheep and goats, and soon tent after tent was pitched on the
green sward in front of the dwellings of Amminadab and Naashon, herds
were surrounded by pens, stakes and posts were driven into the hard
ground, awnings were stretched, cows were fastened to ropes, cattle and
sheep were led to water, fires were lighted, and long lines of women,
balancing jars on their heads, with their slen