midday
When Osiris embraced the goddess of the desert -- so runs the Egyptian myth -- he left his green wreath on her couch . But at the time and in the sphere where our history moves the old legends are no longer known or are ignored . We must carry the reader back to the beginning of the thirtieth year of the fourth century after the birth of the Saviour , and away to the mountains of Sinai on whose sacred ground solitary anchorites have for some few years been dwelling -- men weary of the world , and vowed to penitence , but as yet without connection or rule among themselves . Near the spring in the little ravine of which we have spoken grows a many-branched feathery palm , but it does not shelter it from the piercing rays of the sun of those latitudes ; it seems only to protect the roots of the tree itself ; still the feathered boughs are strong enough to support a small thread-bare blue cloth , which projects like a penthouse , screening the face of a girl who lies dreaming , stretched at full-length on the glowing stones , while a few yellowish mountain-goats spring from stone to stone in search of pasture as gaily as though they found the midday heat pleasant and exhilarating . From time to time the girl seizes the herdsman 's crook that lies beside her , and calls the goats with a hissing cry that is audible at a considerable distance . A young kid comes dancing up to her . Few beasts can give expression to their feelings of delight ; but young goats can .