He

Balaam, who lived in the mountains of the east, to come and curse Israel for him and drive them out of his land. The king's messengers rode into the east till they came to Balaam's house, which stood by a river in the mountains. lodged them for the night, and the next morning saddled his ass and set out to go back with them. As he rode along a narrow lane among the vineyards with a wall on each side, he met an angel, who was standing in the path with his drawn sword in his hand. Balaam did not see the angel; but the ass saw him, and swerved aside; and when Balaam struck her with his staff to make her go on, she thrust herself to the wall and crushed Balaam's foot against it. He struck her again and made her go past on the other side. But the angel went back a little and stood in a narrow place of the path where there was no room to pass on right or left; and when the ass came up and saw him, she fell down on the path under her master. Balaam, who still did not see the angel, grew very angry, and struck her a third time. Then the ass opened her mouth and said, "What have I done, that you have struck me these three times ?" Balaam said, "You have made a fool of me; I wish I had a sword,

that I might kill you." She answered, "You have ridden on me ever since I was yours until to-day; have I ever done so to you before?" "No," he said; and his eyes were suddenly opened, and he saw the angel with his drawn sword standing in the path, and fell down on his face before him. Then the angel rebuked Balaam for striking the ass, "For your journey is evil in my eyes," he said; "and if she had not turned out of the way, I would have slain you and saved her alive." Balaam said, "I did not know, my lord; if it displease you, I will go back." The angel answered, "You may go on now; but you must only speak what God shall put in your mouth to say." So they all went on; and the king of Moab went out to his border to meet Balaam, and brought him home to the royal city. The next morning, the king took Balaam up to a mountain-top from which they looked down on the camp of Israel. It lay in the plain by the river below them, and the long rows of tents were like avenues of trees planted by the water; and the king pointed to it and said to Balaam, "Curse Israel for me." Then the Spirit of God came upon Balaam; he fell into a trance with his eyes open, and saw the

vision of God; and instead of cursing Israel he blessed them, and foretold that they should grow greater and greater, and that out of them should arise a Star and a Sceptre against which no enchantments could prevail. So the king of Moab sent Balaam away in great anger, and he returned to his own land. But afterwards the Spirit of God left him, and he went with the tribes of the eastern desert to fight against Israel, and was killed in battle.

G

CHAPTER LXIX

THE HIDDEN GRAVE

OD said to Moses in the plain of Moab by

Jordan, "The time is come for you to die; you shall not live to see the entry into the promised land, or to go over Jordan: only from the top of the mountains of Abarim I will shew you the land afar off.” So Moses gathered the people together, and gave them his last counsel, and blessed them, and appointed Joshua the son of Nun to be captain of the people after him, and to lead them into the land of Canaan. Then he went up alone to the mountain-top, and from there God shewed him all the length and breadth

of the land, hill and valley and plain, the fields and the cities, from Mount Lebanon to the southern desert, and from the river to the great

sea.

When he had looked his fill, the glory of God descended upon him and kissed him, and the kiss of God drew his spirit up to Paradise ; but his body was buried by the four archangels in a valley under the mountain, where until this day no man knows the place of his grave. He was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eye was not dimmed nor his strength abated; and no such prophet ever arose after him; and all the children of Israel mourned for him thirty days.

CHAPTER LXX

THE SCARLET RIBBON

HEN the mourning for Moses was finished,

WHEN

Joshua prepared to go over Jordan; but first of all he sent two men across to spy out the land secretly. They crossed the river and came at evening to the city of Jericho, which lay opposite the camp of the children of Israel; and they looked over the town, and lodged with a woman called Rahab, who had a house on the

The

town wall. But some one saw them in the city, and brought word to the king of Jericho, who sent men to Rahab's house at night to seize them and kill them. Rahab took the spies up to the flat roof of the house and hid them under a heap of flax that was spread out there to dry; and when the king's men came and asked for them she said, "There were two men here, but they left when it grew dark, about the time of shutting the city gate for the night; if you make haste after them you will overtake them." king's men went off in haste to set guards at the fords of the river, and the town gates were shut after them as they went out, that if the spies were still in the city, they might not be able to escape. But Rahab went up to the spies and told them how she had saved their lives, and took an oath from them in the name of their whole people to spare her and all her family if the children of Israel took the city. They swore to this; then she let them down by a rope from one of her windows on the town wall, bidding them hide among the hills for three days till the guards were taken off the fords; and they gave her a scarlet ribbon and told her to tie it in her window, that her house might be known and no