two hours after noon
So a man was hired to guard the house and vines , and they started in the late autumn , when the air was cool and pleasant . Of their journey nothing need be said , save that they accomplished it without trouble , being too humble in appearance to attract the notice of the thieves who swarmed upon the highways , or of the soldiers who were set to catch the thieves . Skirting Jerusalem , which they did not enter , on the sixth day they descended into the valley of the Jordan , through the desolate hills by which it is bordered . Camping that night outside the town , at daybreak on the seventh morning they started , and by two hours after noon came to the village of the Essenes . On its outskirts they halted , while Nehushta and the nurse , bearing with them the child , that by now could wave its arms and crow , advanced boldly into the village , where it would appear men dwelt only -- at least no women were to be seen -- and asked to be led to the Brother Ithiel . The man to whom they spoke , who was robed in white , and engaged in cooking outside a large building , averted his eyes in answering , as though it were not lawful for him to look upon the face of a woman . He said , very civilly , however , that Brother Ithiel was working in the fields , whence he would not return till supper time .