Iddo, Elisama, and Selumiel accompanied Helon. Leaving the city by the Water-gate, they turned to the south-east and kept along the brook Kedron. Willows and tall cedars threw their shadows upon the graves. They wandered silently along the Kedron, till they saw a large stone, such as the Jews are accustomed to place upon every grave, as a warning rather than a monument, to prevent the passers-by from defiling themselves unawares. To-day especially, it was necessary for them to keep at a distance of several paces from it, if they would not render themselves so far unclean, as to incapacitate them for taking any part in the religious rites of the day. Helon felt an irresistible impulse to throw himself upon the grave, but the others forcibly held him back. Tears streamed from his eyes as he incessantly exclaimed, “My father! my father!” With head and breast inclined forward he was supported by his companions, scarcely conscious what he did, to the Horse-gate, where they set him down. They spoke to him of the virtues of his father, of his surviving parent at Alexandria, of the happiness of being buried in the valley of Jehoshaphat. By degrees he became more calm; his tears continued to flow, but they were rather the effusion of tenderness than of sorrow, and he seemed to have found his father, rather than to have lost him. Iddo, whose manner was somewhat abrupt, reminded him of his obligations to them for having prevented him from making himself unclean by throwing himself on the grave, which would have compelled him to keep the feast, with the rest of those who were unclean, in the following month. “Bethink thee, too, that Jehovah himself has commanded that we should be cheerful on this day. Thou shalt rejoice before Jehovah thy God, at the place which the Lord thy God has chosen that his name should dwell there.”[108] Footnote 108: Deut. xii. 18. They now made a circuit round the city, from the Horse-gate, which lies northward from the Water-gate, till they came to the Water-gate again. The whole circuit might be as much as five sabbath-days’ journies. Their object in making it was rather to give Helon a general view of the different quarters of the city, and divert his thoughts by variety of scene, than to examine any part minutely, which indeed would now have been impracticable, the whole ground being covered with tents.