But the ferryman told me that John gathered many together and was baptizing in Jordan?  Joseph inquired.  To which Banu answered naught, but stood looking at Joseph, who could scarce bring himself to look at Banu, though he felt himself to be in sore need of some prophetic confirmation of the date of the judgment.  Is John the Messiah, come to preach that God is near and that we must repent in time? he asked; to which the hermit replied that the Messiah would have many fore-runners, and one of these would give his earthly life as a peace-offering, but enraged Jahveh would not accept it as sufficient and would return with the Messiah and destroy the world.  I am waiting here till God bids me arise and preach to men, and the call will be soon, Banu said, for God’s wrath is even now at its height.  But do thou go hence to John, who has been called to the Jordan, and get baptism from him.  But John is not baptizing these days, the river being in flood, Joseph cried after him.  That flood will pass away, Banu answered, before the great and overwhelming flood arises.  Will the world be destroyed by water?  At this question Banu turned towards the hillside, like one that deemed his last exhortation to be enough, and who desired an undisturbed possession of the solitude.  But at the entrance of the cave he stopped:  the track is easy to lose after nightfall, he said, and panthers will be about in search of gazelles.  Thou wouldst do well to remain with me:  my cave is secure against wild beasts.  Look behind thee:  how dark are the rocks and hills!  Joseph cast his eyes in the direction of Jericho and thanked God for having put a kind thought into the hermit’s mind, for the landscape was gloomy enough already, and an hour hence he would be stumbling over a panther in the dark, and the sensation of teeth clutching at his throat and of hind claws tearing out his belly banished from his mind all thoughts of the unpleasantness of passing a night in a narrow cave with Banu, whom he helped to close the entrance with a big stone and to pile up other stones about the big stone making themselves safe, so Banu said, from everything except perhaps a bear.

The thought of the bear that might scrape aside the stone kept Joseph awake listening to Banu snoring, and to the jackals that barked all night long.  They are quarrelling among themselves, Banu said, turning over, for the jackals succeeded in waking him, quarrelling over some gazelle they’ve caught.  A moment after, he was asleep again, and Joseph, despite his fear of the wild beasts, must have dozed for a little while, for he started up, his hair on end.  A bear! a bear! he cried, without awakening Banu, and he listened to a scratching and a sniffling round the stones with which they had blocked the entrance to the cave.  Or a panther, he said to himself.  The animal moved away, and then Joseph lay awake hour after hour, dropping to sleep and awakening again and again.