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"It was nightfall ere left at the edge of the desert The soldiers gave us what food and drink was allowed It was nightfall as we started our long journey north Our rage then was as great as it had ever been

"And A at us; why did we not want hieance?

" 'They will coo away from us ' But that did not do the trick So finally she tried to put A important 'Amel, ant to reach our home alive Make cool winds for us; and shohere we can find water '

"But these are things which evil spirits never do Amel lost interest And Ah the cold desert wind, ar not to think of the miles that lay before us

"Many things befell us on our long journey which are too numerous here to tell

"But the good spirits had not deserted us; they s where we could find water and a few dates to eat; and theyas they could; but finally ere too deep in the desert for such a thing, and ere dying, and I knew I had a child from Khayman in my womb, and I wanted my child to live

"It was then that the spirits led us to the Bedouin peoples, and they took us in, they cared for us

"I was sick, and for days I lay singing toaway s Mekare lay besideme in her arms

"Months passed before I was strong enough to leave the Bedouin camps, and then I wanted ed Mekare that we should continue our journey

"At last, with the food and drink the Bedouins had given us, and the spirits to guide us, we careen fields of Palestine, and found the foot of the mountain and the shepherd peoples-so like our own tribe-who had co places

"They knew us as they had known our mother and all our kindred and they called us by name, and immediately took us in

"And ere so happy again, arasses and the trees and the flowers that we knew, and er inside my womb It would live; the desert had not killed it

"So, in hter and named her Miriam as my mother had been nareen eyes of her mother And the love I felt for her and the joy I knew in her were the greatest curative ain Mekare, who knew the birth pain with me, and who lifted the child out ofto her just as I did The child was ours, as et the horrors we had seen in Egypt

"Miriam thrived And finally Mekare and I vowed to climb the mountain and find the caves in which we'd been born We did not know yet hoould live or ould do, so o back to the place where we had been so happy; and ould call the spirits to us, and ould make the miracle of rain to bless my newborn child

"But this was never to be Not any of it