When they began to look back with regret to the “flesh-pots of Egypt” and the abundance of food there, another signal miracle was performed for them.  “At even the quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay round about the host; and when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground.  And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, ’What is it? ’for they wist not what it was.  And Moses said unto them, ’It is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.’"**

* Exod. xv. 23-25.  The station Marah, “the bitter waters,” is identified by modern tradition with Ain Howarah.  There is a similar way of rendering waters potable still in use among the Bedawin of these regions.

     ** Exod. xvi. 13-15.

“And the house of Israel called the name thereof ’manna:  ’and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey."* “And the children of Israel did eat the manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat the manna until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan."** Further on, at Eephidim, the water failed:  Moses struck the rocks at Horeb, and a spring gushed out.*** The Amalekites, in the meantime, began to oppose their passage; and one might naturally doubt the power of a rabble of slaves, unaccustomed to war, to break through such an obstacle.  Joshua was made their general, “and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill:  and it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed, and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.  But Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side, and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.  And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword."****

* Exod. xvi. 31.  Prom early times the manna of the Hebrews had been identified with the mann-es-sama, “the gift of heaven,” of the Arabs, which exudes in small quantities from the leaves of the tamarisk after being pricked by insects:  the question, however, is still under discussion whether another species of vegetable manna may not be meant.

     ** Exod. xvi. 35.

     *** Exod. xvii. 1-7.  There is a general agreement as to
     the identification of Rephidim with the Wady Peiran, the
     village of Pharan of the Graeco-Roman geographers.

     **** Exod. xvii. 8-13.