“They are going to the Temple of Belus,” explained Salome, as Rachel stood still to look at them. She turned round and pointed with her little brown forefinger to a great building at the other end of the bridge. “Later, if there is still time, you shall see the temple of the great God. But let us hasten now towards the gardens, for there, in the cool of the day, the queen walks with her maidens, and I must be in attendance.” Rachel was torn between her longing to be actually within the wonderful Hanging Garden and her desire to linger on the bridge which afforded such a magnificent view. She gazed with delight upon the broad shining river which divided the city, and upon the ships with gracefully curved sails which, rowed by almost naked slaves, moved to and fro over its surface. Some of these ships were drawn up against the quays which lined the river, as far as eye could reach, and Rachel saw a swarming multitude of men staggering under corded chests of wood which the ships had brought to be unloaded. Salome stopped to watch the slaves at their work. “That is merchandise for the palace, I trust,” she observed. “We have awaited it too long, and the queen grows angry.” “What sort of things are in those boxes?” Rachel asked. “Ivory and ebony for the thrones, and for the couches and the chariots, emeralds and fine linen, and coral and agate. Spices from Arabia and precious stones and gold,” answered Salome, in a sort of chanting voice. [Illustration] Rachel gasped. It sounded like a fairy tale. Yet she remembered something like it—Where was it? In the Bible, surely! Just as the thought of the Bible crossed her mind, a group of men passed close to her. They were dressed rather differently from the other people around her, their faces, too, looked different, and their eyes were very sad. “Who are those men?” she enquired, looking back over her shoulder. “They look so unhappy—and _homesick_, somehow.” Rachel knew what it was to be homesick! Salome glanced at them carelessly. “They are Hebrews who call themselves the Children of Israel. Our king, the great Nebuchadnezzar—may he live for ever—conquered their country and took their treasures from Jerusalem, their chief city, and brought many of them here to Babylon to live. They hate us, and we despise them.” Rachel started as the words of the psalm darted into her mind. “_By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down.... We hanged our harps upon the willows_....” She had heard this sung in church, and it had meant nothing to her but just “a psalm.” Yet, here before her very eyes now, was one of “the rivers.” There were “the willows” fringing streams which flowed through the innumerable gardens, and she had just met some of the captive Jews! Rachel gasped again as all these things became “real” to her—something that had actually happened—was, in fact, happening before her eyes.