after it as pleases you—­to the end of your probationship and after, if you prove yourself worthy of admission.  Meanwhile you will be given a girdle, a white garment and a little axe.  You will sleep in one of the outlying huts.  Come with me and I will take you round our village.  We shall meet on our way some of the brothers returning from their daily tasks, for we all have a craft:  many of us are husbandmen; the two coming towards us carrying spades are from the fields, and that one turning down the lane is a shepherd; he has just folded his flock, but he will return to them with his dogs, for we suffer a great deal from the ravages of wild beasts with which the woods are thronged, wolves especially.  In our community there are healers, and these study the medicinal properties of herbs.  If you resolve to remain with us, you will choose a craft.

Joseph mentioned that the only craft he knew was dry-salting, and it was disappointing to hear that there were no fish in the lake.

There is a long time of probationship before one is admitted, the president continued, and when that is concluded another long time must pass over before the proselyte is called to join us at the common repasts.  Before he breaks bread with us he must bind himself by oath to be always pious towards the Divinity, to observe justice towards men, and to injure no one voluntarily or by command:  to hate always the unjust and never to shrink from taking part in the conflict on the side of the just; to show fidelity to all and especially to those who rule.  Thou’lt soon begin to understand that rule doesn’t fall to anyone except by the will of God.  I have never deserved to rule, but headship came to me, he added half sadly, as if he feared he had not been sufficiently exacting.  After asking Joseph whether he felt himself strong enough to obey so severe a rule, he passed from father to teacher.  Every one of us must love truth and make it his purpose to confute those who speak falsehood; to keep his hands from stealing and his soul from unjust gain.  He must never conceal anything from a member of the order, nor reveal its secrets to others, even if he should have to suffer death by withholding them; and above all, while trying to engage proselytes he must speak the doctrines only as he has heard them from us.  Thou’lt return perhaps to Jerusalem....

He broke off to speak to the brothers who were passing into the village from their daily work, and presented Joseph as one who, shocked by the service of the Sadducees in the Temple, had come desiring admission to their order.  At the news of a new adherent, the faces of the brothers became joyous; for though the rule seems hard when related, they said, in practice, even at first, it seems light enough, and soon we do not feel it at all.