high wave safely on to the shore, where a number of wreckers were assembled to watch the fate of the vessel. They took up the young child wonderingly. A small party of Bedouins, who were passing by at the time, offered to take charge of him, and bring him up as one of their own children, saying, "Do no harm to him, for it is the will of God that he should live." So the wreckers gave him up to them, and the little Hebrew boy was carried away I know not where. Some peasants who were on their way to Hâifa witnessed this singular transaction, and through them I heard of it. They said that the boy was fair, strong, and healthy, and they would themselves have taken him if the Bedouins had not done so. This boy has perhaps been nursed by a Bedouin mother, and will learn to live a wandering life in the land of his forefathers, in utter ignorance of his real origin. It would be very interesting, if it were possible to watch his career, to see how far he will retain his national characteristics, physical and moral, and what influence he will have on the little tribe with which he will no doubt at an early age incorporate himself by marriage. I should like to meet him when he has arrived at manhood, if I could be convinced of his identity.
Bedouins frequently name their children after some circumstance connected with their nativity, or some contemporary event; but there is every reason to expect that this little Hebrew boy, like Moses, is called by a name having some allusion to his strange history. For instance, "Ebn el Bahr"—Son of the Sea, or "Minbahr"—From the Sea, would be natural Bedouin names for him. It would be difficult but not impossible, I think, to trace him out now. My first impulse, on hearing of the circumstance, was to try to recover the boy, and restore him to the Hebrew community, but it was not in my power to do so.
It was said that his parents were Algerine Jews, who were about to settle in Palestine. The wrecked vessel had conveyed them from Egypt to their untimely graves on the shores of the land which they so longed to see, but which
