water with an island in the middle of it, and the beasts of the desert used to drink therefrom, and I saw in the midst of the beasts two naked men; then fear took up its abode in my limbs, and I thought that they were perhaps spirits. Now when they saw that I was afraid they spoke unto me and said, ‘Fear not, we also are men.’ And I said unto them, ‘Whence are ye? And how have ye come to this desert?’ And they said unto me, ‘We were once in a large monastery, and the desire of both of us was the same, and we went forth and came here, where we have been for forty years. One of us is an Egyptian and the other is a Libyan.’ And they also questioned me, saying, ‘What news is there in the world? Do the waters of the river come as usual? And is the world flourishing?’ And I said unto them, ‘Yes,’ and I also asked them, ‘How can I become a monk?’ And they said, ‘Except a man make himself to be remote from everything which is in this world he cannot be a monk.’ And I said unto them, ‘I am feeble and I am not able to do as ye do’; and they said unto me, ‘If thou canst not [do as we do] sit in thy cell, and weep for thy sins.’ And I asked them, ‘When it is winter are ye not frozen? And in the season of the heat are not your bodies consumed?’ And they answered me, saying, ‘God in His Providence hath made us to be so that in the winter we do not freeze and in the summer we are not burnt up.’ And it was because of this that I said, ‘I am not yet a monk, but I have seen monks.’ Permit me [to be silent].”
Chapter xvja: Of a certain Old Man who went naked
AND they used to speak of a certain solitary monk who went out unto the desert carrying his apparel on his shoulder, and having gone a journey of three days, he climbed a rock, and saw below him an old man who was grazing like the beasts, and he came down secretly and gave chase to him. And the old man was naked, and his soul had diminished to such a degree that he could not bear the smell of men, and he was able to remove himself from them and to make his escape by flight. And having taken to flight that brother pursued him, and he cried out to him and said, “I am following after thee; for God’s sake wait for me.” Then the old man answered and said unto him, “And I, for God’s sake also, am fleeing from thee”; and finally, casting away from him the garment which was on his shoulder, he pursued him with all his might. Now as soon as the old man saw that he had cast away his garments he waited for him, and when the brother came up with him the old man said,. “As thou didst cast away from thee the things of the world I waited for thee.” Then that brother entreated him, saying, “Speak to me a word [of advice] that I may be redeemed thereby”; and the old man said unto him, “Flee from the children of men, and keep silence, and thou shalt live.”
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