I told you not to go.

Why did you go ?" She spoke in accents of tender reproach, and there were tears in her eyes.
"I did not think of anything so hideous as that," said I."I thought that there might be a sacrifice, but nothing worse." I now learned that when I fainted I had been raised most tenderly, and the Kohen himself came with me as I was carried back, and he thought that Almah would be my most agreeable nurse.

The Kohen was most kind and sympathetic, and all the people vied with one another in their efforts to assist me--so much so that there was the greatest confusion.

It was only by Almah's express entreaty that they retired and left me with her.
Here was a new phase in the character of this mysterious people.
Could I ever hope to understand them?
Where other people are cruel to strangers, or at best indifferent, these are eager in their acts of kindness; they exhibit the most unbounded hospitality, the most lavish generosity, the most self-denying care and attention; where others would be offended at the intrusion of a stranger, and enraged at his unconquerable disgust, these people had no feeling save pity, sympathy, and a desire to alleviate his distress.

And yet--oh, and yet!--oh, thought of horror!--what was this that I had seen?
The abhorrent savages in the outer wilderness were surely of the same race as these.