Here you saw
the same dusty, primitive roads and quaint bullock carts, that were
hewn out of soft wood and joined together with thongs of rawhide and
built without the vestige of iron or other metal. There were the same
antediluvian plows, made of two sticks, as used in ancient Egypt at
the time of the Exodus, when Moses led the Jews out of captivity to
their Promised Land. The very atmosphere, so dry and exhilarating,
seemed strange. In this transparent air, objects which were twenty
miles distant seemed to be no farther than two or three miles at
most. In such a country it would not have surprised anyone to meet
the Saviour face to face, riding an ass or burro over the stony road,
followed by His disciples and a multitude of people, who, with the
most implicit faith in the Lord's power to perform miracles, expected
Him to provide them with an abundance of loaves and fishes. Here we
were in a country, a territory of the United States, which was about
eighteen hundred years behind the civilization of other Christian
countries.
As we passed through the many little hamlets and towns, the male
population, who were sitting on the shady side of their houses,
regarded us with lazy curiosity. They were leaning against the cool,
adobe walls, dreaming and smoking cigarettes.
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