UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 67 



that God would fix his sanctuary ; and which is 

 prophetically spoken of here as already com- 

 pleted. 



te The whole army seem to have joined with 

 one voice in this song ; and Miriam and all the 

 women re-echoed it with equal rapture ; yet 

 while almost in the very act of expressing their 

 gratitude, this capricious people began to mur- 

 mur because there was a scarcity of water in the 

 wilderness through which it was necessary to 

 pass ; and, because when they did come to a 

 spring, the water was bitter. What a beginning 

 for the new life on which they were entering! 

 Let us act more wisely, my dear children ; and, 

 grateful for the blessings of the past, let us 

 endeavour to deserve their continuance through 

 the new year on which we are entering." 



We endeavoured to trace the march of the 

 Israelites, on the map. My uncle shewed us 

 that the wilderness of Shur was a part of that 

 great sandy desert which divides Egypt from 

 Palestine ; and which stretches from the Medi- 

 terranean to the head of the Red Sea on both 

 sides. It is supposed by the late celebrated 

 traveller Burckhardt, that the place called Marah, 

 from the bitterness of its water, is the present 

 Howara. Its distance from the Red Sea cor- 

 responds with the three days' march of the 

 Israelites ; and there is a well there, of which he 

 says, "the water is so bitter, that iijen cannot 



