At first, the whole six hundred sat down upon the ground and cried. Then they got up with stones in their hands, and began to mutter something about throwing them at David’s head. But Abiathar, the priest said: “The thing to do is to follow the Amalekites. Quick! let us pursue and overtake them!” So off they started on the run, and never stopped till they came to the bank of the brook Besor. And then two hundred men lay down and declared that they could go no further. But the others pushed still forward over the brook. By and by, in a field, they found a man who, at first sight, seemed to be dead. But they raised him up, and gave him bread and he did eat, and they made him drink water, and they gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. And when he had eaten, his spirit came to him again. For he had eaten no bread, nor drunk any water three days and three nights. And David said, “To whom belongest thou? and whence art thou?” And he said, “I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite, and my master left me, because three days ago I fell sick. We had been on a raid, and had burned Ziklag.” And David said, “Canst thou bring me down to this company?” And after David had promised neither to kill him nor to give him up to his master, the man agreed to act as guide. As the sun was setting, they came in sight of the Amalekites, eating and drinking and dancing like wild Indians, because of the great spoil which they had taken. And David smote them so suddenly and fiercely that they were surprised and overcome. Four hundred of them, young men on swift camels, escaped, but all the spoil remained. There was nothing lacking, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters: David recovered all. But meanwhile, in the north, along the Great Plain, the army of the Philistines was marching day and night to give battle to the army of King Saul. XL THE WITCH OF ENDOR In the old days, almost everybody believed in witches. Even wise men thought that there were old women who had made a bargain with the Prince of Evil: the old women had sold their souls, and in return had been given power to see into the future, to hurt their enemies without touching them, and to talk with those who had been long dead. This strange belief, which is now held only by ignorant or superstitious persons, came from two facts.