It was bare and rocky from top to bottom, and deep clefts divided it in its whole length, so that the mountain seemed to be formed of upright blocks of stone, which looked like the fingers of two giant hands placed one on the other.

A hermit was feeding his goat in the meadow, and Joseph went up to him and asked the name of the remarkable mountain.
"You are travelling through the district, and you don't know the mountain ?" said the hermit.

"If you are a Jew, incline your face to the earth and kiss it.

It is the spot where eternity floated down from Sinai." "That--the Mountain of the Law ?" "See how it stretches forth its fingers swearing.

As true as God lives!" Joseph bowed down and kissed the ground.