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Then there was much trouble because some members were discovered to
be ingratiating themselves with Miriam by secretly presenting her with
gifts of playthings, some of them of great beauty, which they fashioned
from wood, shells, or even hard stones. Moreover, they purveyed articles
of food such as they found the child loved; and this it was that led
to their detection, for, having eaten of them, she was ill. Thereupon
Nehushta, enraged, disclosed the whole plot, using the most violent
language, and, amidst murmurs of "Shame on them!" designating the
offenders by name. They were removed from their office, and it was
decreed that henceforth any gifts made to the child must be offered to
her by the committee as a whole, and not by a single individual, and
handed over in their name by Ithiel, her uncle.
Once, when she was seven years old, and the idol of every brother among
the Essenes, Miriam fell ill with a kind of fever which often strikes
children in the neighbourhood of Jericho and the Dead Sea. Among the
brethren were several skilful and famous physicians, who attended her
night and day. But still the fever could not be abated, and at last,
with tears, they announced that they feared for the child's life.
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