“I know enough,” said he, “I will call my wife and daughter—follow me to the large saloon of the Armon.”
He led them from the Alijah through the outer and inner court to the Armon, which no foot of a male stranger had ever trodden before. He left them standing in the richly adorned saloon, and went to call Sulamith and her mother. They came with him, and the brother also made his appearance. The mother was in tears: Sulamith stood with her face completely veiled. Elisama then came forward and said, “If ye will deal kindly and truly with my nephew Helon, tell me, and give him this your daughter Sulamith to wife; and if not, tell me, that I may turn to the right hand or to the left.”[[92]] Then Selumiel and Abisuab answered, “The thing proceedeth from the Lord, therefore we cannot speak unto thee bad or good. Behold Sulamith is before thee; take her and go thy way, that she may be the wife of thy nephew Helon.” Elisama and Helon bowed themselves to the earth; and Elisama said, “I will pay thee for thy daughter 10,000 shekels.” “I give them to her for her dowry,” said Selumiel, “and add to them 10,000 more.” Then Selumiel, turning to Sulamith, said, “Wilt thou go with this man into the land of Egypt, or remain with him in Jericho, as Jehovah shall appoint?” Sulamith, sobbing, answered, “Yes.” Then the mother led her daughter to Helon, whose joy was without bounds; she bowed down before him, and he took her by the hand and raised her up. The father, the mother, and the brother of the bride, along with Elisama, then drew near to them, and blessed them both, and said, “May ye grow and multiply a thousand times, and may your seed possess the gate of your enemies!”
The company which had assembled on the preceding day was again invited, and Selumiel said to his astonished guests, “Rejoice with me, my friends, and bless the God of our fathers. I have received from Jehovah two children, a grandson and a son-in-law.”
Elisama remained in Selumiel’s house. Helon, so propriety required, took up his abode in a neighbouring house; but through the day he was chiefly in the Armon of his Sulamith. The more intimately he became acquainted with her, the higher his love and admiration rose. Every day discovered to him some new excellence, her deep piety, her gentle temper, her quick sensibility, her sound understanding, and playful, harmless wit. He looked on with delight when, in the course of her daily occupations, she prepared the meal for bread, kneaded it in flat round cakes, and baked it in the deep oven. He stood beside her when, as became a female, she wove cloth for the garments of the men. He lent his aid when she prepared the perfumed ointments, and rubbed upon a smooth marble stone the sandalwood, the juice of the date-palm, the kernel of the Behen-nut from Egypt, oil of sesame, fragrant reed from Lebanon, oil of myrtle, cypress, and mastix, and the juice of the pomegranate-rind. In whatever occupation he had seen her, whatever had been the subject of their conversation, he always returned home at evening more grateful to God. The sabbath and the new moon, all[all] the solemnities of religion had become more interesting to him, and his confidence revived that with such a daughter of Israel by his side, he should be able to keep the whole law, and perhaps even become a Chasidean.
CHAPTER VII.
THE FEAST OF PENTECOST.
The feast of Pentecost drew near. It derived this name, which is Greek, and its Jewish name of the Feast of Weeks,[[93]] from [the circumstance that seven weeks or fifty days] elapsed between it and the day after the Passover, on which the first-fruits of barley were offered, so that it was the fiftieth day from that time. It fell on the sixth day of the third month Sivan, and the days between the offering of the sheaf and it were solemnly reckoned every evening, at the time of supper. The master of the house, rising up with the rest of the company, said, “Blessed be thou, O Lord our God, king of the world, who hast sanctified us with thy precepts, and commanded us to count the days of harvest,” adding, this is the fifth day, or one week, and the third day, and so on. In this way they thought that they were fulfilling the command of the law, “Seven weeks shall ye reckon; begin to reckon the seven weeks from the time when thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn; and thou shalt keep the Feast of Weeks to the Lord thy God.”[[94]]
Helon wished, in virtue of his priestly office, to travel to Jerusalem; Abisuab and his wife were going up to present their new-born child before Jehovah; Sulamith was glad to join herself to her brother and sister-in-law; and Selumiel and Elisama had to comply with the law, which enjoins that all males should appear, thrice in the year, at each of the great festivals, before Jehovah. The preparations were already made, and the day of the pilgrimage was very near.
On the forty-seventh day Helon was sitting with Sulamith beside the fountain in the inner court of the Armon. They were conversing on the office of the priest: Sulamith expressed her joy in the thought that she should see her betrothed husband ministering at the altar of Jehovah; and Helon declared what increased delight he should have in every service, when he reflected that the eyes of his Sulamith accompanied him from place to place. As he spoke he saw in imagination her cedar-form, conspicuous among all who filled the court of the Women, and her dark eye watching him as he moved. As they conversed thus together, the well-known sound of cymbal and flute was heard, accompanied by more than a thousand[more than a thousand] human voices. “It is the Galileans going up to the festival,” said Sulamith, listening as the sacred sounds seemed to descend from heaven into the court where they were sitting. Helon hastened forth to greet them. Although Samaria was destroyed, they still took their ancient road by Bethabara and Jericho, in preference to that by Sichem, especially as in the former track their train was swollen by accessions from every village through which they passed. They were now about to pass through Jericho, and to encamp at the western gate. Welcomes and greetings met them from every house.
On the following morning, when the pilgrims from Jericho were going to unite with them, the long-standing hatred between the Jews and the Galileans displayed itself. [The Galileans], who occupied the country which had formerly made a part of the kingdom of Israel, had adopted many customs from the heathens among whom they lived; inhabiting a fertile region they lived in the possession of many physical comforts, but neglected the cultivation of literature and knowledge, and their uncouth pronunciation, by which the guttural letters were confounded, bore witness to the low state of refinement among them. Their Jewish brethren were proud of superior knowledge, as the Galileans of superior wealth, and they seldom came together without some explosion. The present dispute was about precedence in the march. The men of Jericho claimed it, as genuine Jews and inhabitants of a city of priests, reproaching the Galileans that their ancestors were only the common people of the land, left behind when the great and noble were carried into captivity. The men of Jericho at length prevailed: Selumiel, as elder of the city, led the march with the heads of the courses of priests; the Levites struck up their music, and all the people sung together.
The city whose foundation is in the holy mountains,