He dismounted and, leading his horse some distance from the road, into
the fringe of water-sprouts which lined the canal, picketed him within
shade, out of view from the highway. Usually the meadow growth within
reach of the seepage from the canals was most luxuriant, and here the
flocks of the Israelites had come for sweet grass. They had kept the
underbrush down, and the herbage closely cropped. But for two months
Israel had been near Pa-Ramesu with its cattle, and the canal-borders
were again riotous with growth. The place Kenkenes came upon was most
tempting, odorous and cool. He rolled his mantle for a pillow and
flung himself into the grass, where he lay, half-buried in green, and
slept.
The April sun, hot as a torrid July noon in northern lands, discovered
the sleeper and stared into his upturned face. He flung his arm across
his eyes and slept on. Shadows fell and lengthened; the afternoon
passed, and still he slept.
Mounted couriers riding at a dead gallop, passed over the road, toward
Tanis. Following them, war-chariots thundered by with a castanet
accompaniment of jingling harness and jarring armor. Kenkenes stirred
during the tumult, but when it had receded he lay still again.
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