ssed their days in asceticism and contemplation; others gained their
livelihood by plaiting palm fibre, or by working at harvest-time for
the neighbouring farmers. The Gentiles wrongly suspected some of them
of living by brigandage, and allying themselves to the nomadic Arabs
who robbed the caravans. But, as a matter of fact, the monks despised
riches, and the odour of their sanctity rose to heaven.

Angels in the likeness of young men, came, staff in hand, as travellers,
to visit the hermitages; whilst demons--having assumed the form of
Ethiopians or of animals--wandered round the habitations of the hermits
in order to lead them into temptation. When the monks went in the
morning to fill their pitcher at the spring, they saw the footprints
of Satyrs and Aigipans in the sand. The Thebaid was, really and
spiritually, a battlefield, where, at all times, and more especially at
night, there were terrible conflicts between heaven and hell.

The ascetics, furiously assailed by legions of the damned, defended
themselves--with the help of God and the angels--by fasting, prayer,
and penance. Sometimes carnal desires pricked them so cruelly that
they cried aloud with pain, and their lamentations rose to the starlit
heavens mingled with the howls of the hungry hyaenas. Then it was that
the demons appeared in delightful forms. For though the demons are, in
reality, hideous, they sometimes assume an appearance of beauty which
prevents their real nature from being recognised. The ascetics of the
Thebaid were amazed to see in their cells phantasms of delights unknown
even to the voluptuaries of the age. But, as they were under the sign
of the Cross, they did not succumb to these temptations, and the unclean
spirits, assuming again their true character, fled at daybreak, filled
with rage and shame. It was not unusual to meet at dawn one of these
beings, flying away and weeping, and replying to those who questioned
it, "I weep and groan because one of the Christians who live here has
beaten me with rods, and driven me away in ignominy."

The power of the old saints of the desert extended over all sinners and
unbelievers. Their goodness was sometimes terrible. They derived from
the Apostles authority to punish all offences against the true and only
God, and no earthly power could save those they condemned. Strange tales
were told in the cities, and even as far as Alexandria, how the earth
had opened and swallowed up certain wicked perso