needed for his comfort, and then relapsed into his former melancholy
until his uncle roused him with farther explanations.

As soon as the baggage train had passed, the commander of the band of
prisoners wished to set off, but the "openers of the way," who preceded
the archers, forbade him, because it was not seemly for convicts to
mingle with soldiers. So they remained on their hillock and continued to
watch the troops.

The archers were followed by heavily-armed troops, bearing shields
covered with strong hide so large that they extended from the feet to
above the middle of the tallest men, and Hosea now told the youth that in
the evening they set them side by side, thus surrounding the royal tent
like a fence. Besides this weapon of defence they carried a lance, a
short dagger-like sword, or a battle-sickle, and as these thousands were
succeeded by a body of men armed with slings Ephraim for the first time
spoke without being questioned and said that the slings the shepherds
had taught him to make were far better than those of the soldiers and,
encouraged by his uncle, he described in language so eager that the
prisoners lying by his side listened, how he had succeeded in slaying not
only jackals, wolves, and panthers, but even vultures, with stones hurled
from a sling. Meanwhile he interrupted himself to ask the meaning of the
standards and the names of the separate divisions.

Many thousands had already passed, when another troop of warriors in
chariots appeared, and the chief warder of the prisoners exclaimed:

"The good god! The lord of two worlds! May life, happiness, and health
be his!" With these words he fell upon his knees in the attitude of
worship, while the convicts prostrated themselves to kiss the earth and