old." One Winter's night, as he slept alone in his cave, he felt something soft and warm crouching by his side. He found it was a young leopard or panther: he gave it food and made friends with it, so that it would follow him about like a pet cat. For a long time Erinna and his four-footed favorite were the lions of Mount Tabor.
Erinna, like Robinson Crusoe, after years of solitude, found "his man Friday;" a fellow-countryman, a sturdy-looking, rather silent, middle-aged man, who volunteered to superintend the little field of wheat and barley, to cut wood for firing, and to fetch water from the rock cisterns. He called himself the hermit's servant, and hoped to inherit the hermitage, the sheepskin cap, the ragged mantle, and the reputation of Erinna.
The priests of Nazareth, especially the Latins, were very jealous of the influence of this anchorite, for he was regarded by Christian Arabs as a man of peculiar sanctity, and was supposed to enjoy the especial favor of God and his angels. Many people believed that he had the power of performing miracles, though he did not profess it. He told us that the Latins so strongly and perseveringly intrigued against him—representing him as a Russian spy—that he feared he should be banished from the country. He occasionally visited the sick at Nazareth and the neighboring villages: once he came to see us at Hâifa. He never tasted meat; his chief food was rice and oil, of which he purchased a store once a year. He kept a few goats for the sake of their milk; cultivated a little garden of herbs and vegetables; gathered wild fruit, and took "honey out of" the nests in "the rocks;" see Psalm lxxxi, 16. He made us some excellent coffee, of which he generally had a supply, chiefly for guests, that is, Christian pilgrims and travelers. He did not make the slightest attempt to render his cave clean or comfortable. Rude niches in the rocky walls served to hold his few books and a little red earthenware lamp. A mat of reeds, some heavy clothing and sheepskins on a stone ledge formed his bed. His com-
