noon
The next time I come this way I 'll ask for Hosea ; I shall want to know what has become of this bull of a man . The strongest and the most resolute succumb the most quickly . '' Then , like a driver urging an unharnessed team forward , he swung the lash over the prisoners , but without touching them , and pointing to a column of smoke which rose behind a cliff at the right of the road , he exclaimed : `` There are the smelting furnaces ! We shall reach our destination at noon . There will be no lack of fire to cook lentils , and doubtless you may have a bit of mutton , too ; for we celebrate to-day the birth of the good god , the son of the sun ; may life , health , and prosperity be his ! '' For the next half-hour their road led between lofty cliffs through the dry bed of a river , down which , after the last rains , a deep mountain torrent had poured to the valley ; but now only a few pools still remained . After the melancholy procession had passed around a steep mountain whose summit was crowned with a small Egyptian temple of Hathor and a number of monuments , it approached a bend in the valley which led to the ravine where the mines were located .