smoke the spirit of the dead prophet rose up and confronted him. Saul

had crept to this place in the darkness, while his army slept, to learn

what fate awaited him in the morrow's battle. He went away a sad man, to

meet disgrace and death.

A spring trickles out of the rock in the gloomy recesses of the cavern,

and we were thirsty. The citizens of Endor objected to our going in

there. They do not mind dirt; they do not mind rags; they do not mind

vermin; they do not mind barbarous ignorance and savagery; they do not

mind a reasonable degree of starvation, but they do like to be pure and

holy before their god, whoever he may be, and therefore they shudder and

grow almost pale at the idea of Christian lips polluting a spring whose

waters must descend into their sanctified gullets. We had no wanton

desire to wound even their feelings or trample upon their prejudices, but

we were out of water, thus early in the day, and were burning up with

thirst. It was at this time, and under these circumstances, that I

framed an aphorism which has already become celebrated. I said:

"Necessity knows no law." We went in and drank.

We got away from the noisy wretches, finally, dropping them in squads and

couples as we filed over the hills--the aged first, the infants next, the

young girls further on; the strong men ran beside us a mile, and only

left when they had secured the last possible piastre in the way of

bucksheesh.

In an hour, we reached Nain, where Christ raised the widow's son to life.

615

The Innocents Abroad