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, The gates of Zion, Jehovah loves More than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious is it to speak of thee O City of God! Of Zion it is said, This and that man was born in her. He, the Most High buildeth her. When God reckoned up the people He wrote, This man was born there.—Ps. lxxxvii. Thus the train quitted the smiling fields of Jericho, and entered on the wilderness, which they crossed by a nearer way than that which led by the Oasis of the Essenes. By mid-day they had reached a verdant spot, shaded with palm-trees, and, encamping beneath them, opened their wallets, and distributing their provisions, endeavoured to exhilarate themselves amidst the desolation which surrounded them. Sulamith, sitting between her father and her bridegroom, had taken her sister’s first-born from her arms and playfully placed it on her lap, when a Galilean approached them and asked Selumiel, if Elisama and Helon from Alexandria were with him. Selumiel having pointed them out to him, he informed them that he was charged with the salutations of a young Greek of Alexandria, of the name of Myron, whom he had recently seen in his visit to Damascus. Myron had commissioned him at the same time to say, that his affairs would not allow him to come to Jerusalem at Pentecost. He regretted that he must thus lose their society on his return to Egypt, which had been a source of so much pleasure to him on his journey thence. If, however, they could wait, he requested to be informed by this Galilean, who was about to return to Damascus immediately after the feast.