Blessed is the man who puts his confidence in thee,
And [thinks of the way] to Jerusalem.
No farewell to home is ever less painful than the first.
CHAPTER III.
THE CARAVAN.
The slaves halted before the gate with the camels and the horses. The camels bore the travelling equipage, provisions, clothes, and presents for the hosts. Sallu when weary was to find a seat upon the one which was most lightly loaded. Elisama and Helon mounted two stately Egyptian horses, which they designed to sell again at Gaza. Egypt abounds with [beautiful horses], and supplies the neighbouring country with them.
They had arranged their journey so well, that, by joining a Tyrian caravan from Pelusium to Gaza, they would be able to arrive in Judea time enough to accompany the pilgrims from Hebron on their way to Jerusalem. From Alexandria to Pelusium their road lay through Egypt, and they might venture to make it alone.
Alexandria lies upon a tongue of land, between the Mediterranean sea on the north, and the lake Mareotis on the south. Their journey at first lay between these two, affording them views first of one and then of the other. The shore of the lake was covered with palm trees and papyrus, canals united it with the Nile, and splendid buildings rose on every side of it. Helon, in spite of his longing for the Holy Land, was compelled to confess, that Alexander had chosen a spot to bear his name, not only preeminently convenient for trade, but delightfully situated.
The places through which they passed, being well known to both our travellers, offered nothing to divert the course of their thoughts. They halted one day, because it was [the sabbath], on which the law did not permit them to travel more than a thousand paces. The whole journey lasted nine days, in the course of which they ferried over several [branches of the Nile], crossing both the great and the little Delta. They passed through Naucratis, celebrated for several centuries past, as the first emporium of Grecian commerce with Egypt; Sais, with its temple of Neitha; Busiris, with the ruins of the largest temple of Isis in Egypt; and Tanis, anciently the royal residence. This land of wonders, however, had little other effect upon Helon, than to make him often repeat—
Blessed is the man who puts his confidence in thee,
And thinks of the way to Jerusalem!