The representative of the Divinity from the Burning Bush commanded Moses to persuade the elders of Israel to bring forth the people out of Egypt, in order to serve God on the mountain, going three days into the wilderness in order to sacrifice to the Lord, the women bringing with them all available jewels of silver and jewels of gold (Exod. xi. 2, xii. 35). The pilgrimage is called a feast (Exod. v. 1, x. 9), which may have been similar to the modern Arab _hadj_, a word which signifies an encampment or erection of tents. This term, and the general claims that were advanced, show that it was question of a pilgrimage to a well-known centre, the thought of which caused no surprise to the Egyptians. One of its features was the offering of animals. Such offerings among the Hebrews were made to keep off the plague; they forestalled the sacrifice of the first-born, which was the means they used to stay the plague once it had begun. The Pharaoh, who was anxious to prevent the Israelites from going the pilgrimage, proposed that they should sacrifice in Egypt instead. Moses refused on the plea that their doing so might be interpreted as sacrificing the “abomination,” _i.e._ tampering with a sacred-nome animal of Egypt (Exod. viii. 26). When the Pharaoh, further wrought upon, said that the people alone might go, Moses insisted that they must have wherewith to sacrifice, and that there must be cattle, since “we know not with what we must serve the Lord until we come thither” (Exod. x. 26). [Illustration: Fig. 14.—Men in Burning Bush.] This serving the Lord with animals shows that a holocaust was in contemplation, and bears out the belief that the objective of the pilgrimage was a High Place of Burning. The pilgrimage as planned would have been undertaken in spring, for the plagues carry us through a year’s course in Egypt, with the Nile running red when it is at its lowest in April; with frogs abounding when the inundation comes in July; with darkness and sandstorms in the month of March. Springtime came round again before the Israelites left, after sacrificing the lamb of the Passover. Rallying in the city of Rameses, probably at the present Tell er Rotab, in a marshy valley, they moved to Succoth, the Thuku of the ancient Egyptians, and encamped at Etham (LXX, Othom), being led by a pillar of cloud in the day and by a pillar of smoke at night (Exod. xiii. 20-22). Doughty describes how on the _hadj_ of the Moslim, “cressets of iron cages are set up on poles, and are borne to light the way upon serving-men’s shoulders in all the companies.”[101] The burning fire at night would naturally take the appearance of a pillar of smoke in the daytime.