shapes his sandals; the flax spinner is winding his thread; the
scribe sits on his mat, and is ready for his writing. In the shops
they see costly merchandise for sale--silks and jewels, fine linens
and perfumes, delicious foods and drinks. These have been imported
from far Arabia and India; they have been brought from distant
Persia and Media. With all their variety, no taste, however
fitful, need go unsatisfied.

What a motley crowd is on the streets! They hear the Aramaic
speech of Palestine, which Quintus has been taught by his Athenian
tutor, and their ears also catch the accents of other foreign
tongues. They meet traders from western Zidon, sailors from Crete,
bearded Idumaeans from beyond Judaea, and scholars from far
Alexandria. Magnificent Jerusalem it is! Yet destined soon to
fall. For the day draws near when the Roman Titus shall weep on
Scopus over its fading splendors and then shall smite it to the
dust.

One purchase only does Quintus make. In a shop where Egyptian
wares are sold he says to Aulus:

"Look on this scarab, this sacred beetle, which has been shaped by
some workman down in Thebae on the Nile. We may be sure that no
people believes more intensely in a future life. What compliment
they pay this physical frame of men when they hold that embalmment
restores to the soul its former body! After the judgment of
Osiris, if their lives be true, the worthy shall enjoy the
companionship of the great god forever. No other people wears such
a visible emblem of their faith in another life. I will buy this
scarab for an amulet against accident and evil."