90 PRIMITIVE INHABITANTS OF ARABIA. 



female and her child, who were accordingly sent 

 forth to seek their fortune in some of the surround- 

 ing unoccupied districts. A small supply of provis- 

 ions, and a bottle of water on her shoulder, was all 

 she carried from the tent of her master. Directing- 

 her steps towards her native country, she wandered 

 with the lad in the wilderness of Beer-sheba, which 

 was destitute of springs. Here her scanty stock 

 failed, and it seemed impossible to avoid famishing 

 by hunger or thirst. She resigned herself to her 

 melancholy prospects ; but the feelings of the mother 

 were more acute than the agonies of want and de- 

 spair. Unable to witness her son perish before her 

 face, she laid him under one of the shrubs, took an 

 affecting leave of him, and retired to a distance. 

 " And she went, and sat her down over-against him 

 a good way off, as it were a bowshot ; for she said, 

 Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat 

 over-against him, and lift up her voice, and wept." 

 —(Genesis xxi. 16.) At this moment an angel di- 

 rected her to a well of water close at hand,— a dis- 

 covery to which they owed the preservation of their 

 hves. A promise formerly given was renewed, that 

 Ishmael was to become a great nation,— that he was 

 to be a wild man, — his hand against every man, and 

 every man's hand against him. The travellers con- 

 tinued their journey to the wilderness of Paran, and 

 there took up their residence. In due time the lad 

 grew to manhood, and greatly distinguished himself 

 as an archer ; and his mother took him a wife out 

 of her own land. Here the sacred narrative breaks 

 off abruptly, — the main object of Moses being to 

 follow the history of Abraham's descendants through 

 the line of Isaac. The Arabs, in their version of Ish- 

 mael's history, have mixed a great deal of romance 

 with the narrative of Scripture. They assert that 

 Hejaz was the district, where he settled ; and that 

 Mecca, then an arid wilderness, Avas Hie identical spot 

 where his life was providentially saved, and where 

 Hagar died and was buried. The well pointed out 



