She is near seventy, and for thrice seven years she has gone by the name of grave-haunting Kusaja.

It was in sooth a foolish thing to do; yet perhaps that was why she found it all the harder to give it up, and go she would not, but hid herself among the bushes.

When Ahieser, the overseer, dragged her out, her wailing made one's heart sore, yet when the time for departure came, the longing to go seized upon her also, and she found it as hard to resist as the others." "What had happened to the poor creatures, what possessed them ?" asked Hosea, interrupting the old wife's speech; for in imagination he again beheld the people he must lead, if he valued his father's blessing as the most priceless boon the world could offer, and beheld them in all their wretchedness.
The startled dame, fearing that she had offended her master's first-born son, the great and powerful chieftain, stammered: "What possessed them, my lord?
Ah, well--I am but a poor lowly slave-woman; yet, my lord, had you but seen it....

" "Well, even then ?" interrupted the warrior in harsh, impatient tones, for this was the first time he had ever found himself compelled to act against his desires and belief.
Eliab tried to come to the assistance of the terrified woman, saying timidly, "Ah, my lord, no tongue can relate, no human mind can picture it.
It came from the Almighty and, if I could describe how great was its influence on the souls of the people...." "Try," Hosea broke in, "but my time is brief.

So they were compelled to depart, and set forth reluctantly on their wanderings.