friends and benefactors who are suffering in the prison of purgatory. Has it been so with you ? Pray every day for the holy souls, and especially for your relations and benefactors.
Chapter XXI.
JOSEPH’S EXALTATION.
[Gen. 41, 1 — 52.]
After two years, Pharao had a dream. He thought he stood by the river Nile[1] out of which came seven cows, very beautiful and fat; and they fed in marshy places. After them came also seven others that were lean and ill-favoured, and they devoured the fat ones. Then the king awoke.
He slept again and dreamed another dream in which he saw seven ears of corn growing upon one stalk; and the ears were full and fair. After these came up seven other ears, thin and blighted, devouring all the beauty of the former. Pharao awoke the second time and, morning having come, he sent for all the soothsayers[2] and wise men of Egypt, and related to them his dreams. But no one was found who could interpret them.
Then the chief butler remembered Joseph, and was sorry[3] that he had so long forgotten him. He told the king that there was in the prison a Hebrew[4] youth who had interpreted dreams for him and the chief baker, and that all had come to pass just as he said.
The king’s curiosity being excited, he ordered the youth to be brought before him. Then he addressed him, saying: “I have dreamed dreams, and there is no one that can expound them.
- ↑ Nile. This is the only river in Egypt, and the lower part of it is divided into many branches and channels. It is to this river that Egypt owes its fertility. In the summer (from August to October) the Nile overflows its banks, and inundates the whole plain with its slimy waters (Fig. 14). This water provides the sandy plain with necessary moisture, and the slime, left behind by the inundation, acts as a powerful manure. The crops are sown after the annual overflow, and the ground produces corn in abundance, each stalk bearing from three to seven ears. When the Nile does not overflow, nothing grows, and there is a famine.
- ↑ Soothsayers . The men who gave themselves out as capable of interpreting dreams and foretelling the future.
- ↑ Was sorry. The duty of gratitude ought to have made him think of Joseph as soon as ever he had received his pardon.
- ↑ Hebrew. He called Joseph a Hebrew, because the descendants of Abraham were known by that name.
