Volume 2

352 Life of Jesus Christ
daughter of Aminadab of the tribe of Juda. The repudiated
wife also was connected in some way with
Aminadab, but how I do not now know. She had by her
mother Segola, as well as by Aaron himself, been richly
dowered. Taking with her large treasure, she accompanied
the Israelites on their departure and married a
second time during their stay in the desert. She afterward
attached herself to the Madianites, especially to the
family of Jethro. Her descendants settled near Abila
where they dwelt under tents, and it was here that she
was buried. After the time of the Prophet Elias, Abila
was built, and it was then that those descendants settled
there. I did not see the city in Elias's time; it may have
been destroyed before him. There were still three families
of those descendants in Abila, and they were celebrating
today the anniversary of the death of their ancestress,
Segola's daughter, whose mummy had been transported
hither from the desert and entombed. The women made
an offering of their earrings and other trinkets to the
Levites in memory of their deceased relative. Jesus
praised her from the pulpit of Elias and spoke of the
goodness of Segola, her mother. The women listened attentively
from where they stood behind the men. There
were numbers of poor at the banquet in the bathing
garden, and every guest was obliged before partaking of
the viands to give something from his own plate to his
poor neighbor.
I saw the Levites conducting Jesus next day into a
great court all around which were cells. Here were found
about twenty patients, some of them deaf and dumb,
others blind from their birth, who were cared for by attendants
and two physicians. It was a kind of hospital.
The deaf and dumb were exactly like children. Each had
a little garden in which he amused himself and raised
flowers. Soon all gathered around Jesus, laughing and
pointing with their finger to their mouth. Jesus stooped