But no answer to the question rose in my mind.
Very soon I began to understand.

It appeared that at length the Israelites were leaving Egypt, a vast horde of them, and with them tens of thousands of Arabs of various tribes who worshipped their god and were, some of them, descended from the people of the Hyksos, the shepherds who once ruled in Egypt.

That this was true was proved to us by the tidings which reached us that all the Hebrew women who dwelt in Memphis, even those of them who were married to Egyptians, had departed from the city, leaving behind them their men and sometimes their children.

Indeed, before these went, certain of them who had been friends visited Merapi, and asked her if she were not coming also.

She shook her head as she replied: "Why do you go?
Are you so fond of journeyings in the desert that for the sake of them you are ready never again to look upon the men you love and the children of your bodies ?" "No, Lady," they answered, weeping.