The Pillar of Fire

Joseph Holt Ingraham’s The Pillar of Fire; or, Israel in Bondage carries a line naming the men of Israel, sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, kindred of Moses, the great lawgiver. A letter-writer addressing dear mother says, as I promised to write you an account of my voyage hither, with the adventures and scenes thereof worthy of your notice, I will devote the remainder of my letter to this subject. The letter-writer describes a man in his thirty-fourth year, in the full glory of manhood, skilled in all the arts of war, and not less celebrated for his learning in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.

A woman asks Why should the Hebrew wish to prolong life? in a tone of deep emotion, while copying a leaf of brilliantly colored hieroglyphic inscriptions into the sort of running-hand the Egyptians make use of in ordinary intercourse. The text says we heard, even in Goshen, a cry as from the living heart of Egypt, as if every mother in the vast cities of On and Memphis, and the hundred surrounding villages, had lifted her voice in one prolonged, dreadful wail of woe.