428 SCRIPTURAL ALLEGORY OF THE DESERT GRASS. 



Thus, in the numerous allusions to the frailty of human 

 existence which we meet with in the Sacred Writings, 

 we often find the state of man likened to that of the 

 grass of the field; and there can be little doubt that 

 the Psalmist makes direct allusion to this well-known 

 phenomenon of the disappearance of the desert grass, 

 when he says, 



"As for man, his days are as grass: 



As a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. 



For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; 



And the place thereof shall know it no more." * 



Most of the scenes of Biblical History are, as we 

 know, laid in lands either within, or else bordering 

 upon, the Desert Zone: and thus we find nearly all 

 the leading natural phenomena treated of in this 

 section, more or less frequently alluded to throughout 

 the Scriptures, in word pictures of exceeding beauty. 



Thus the effects of prolonged drought are exactly 

 described by the Psalmist when he says 



" He turneth the rivers into a wilderness, and the 

 water springs into dry ground." f 



In every part of the Desert Zone this phenomenon 

 may be observed. Rivers of considerable volume flow 

 into it, but gradually their streams become less and 

 less, until at last they become altogether lost in the sands : 

 and instances are not uncommon where travellers have 

 lost all their cattle, and sometimes their lives, in South 

 Africa, and elsewhere, when attempting to return across 

 dry districts, or "THIRSTS," as they are there called, 

 after the springs have become dry. Then there is a 

 beautiful description given in the Psalms of the awakening 



* Psalm ciii., verses 15 and 16. 

 t Psalm cvii., verse 33. 



