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 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] ----- Footnote 93: Exod. xxxiv. 22. Footnote 94: Deut. xvi. 9. -----