CARAVAN ( is the name given to a body of merchants or pilgrims as they travel in the East. A multitude of people, of all ages and con ditions, assembling to undertake a journey, and prosecuting it en masse for days and weeks toge ther, is a thing unknown in Europe, where, from the many facilities for travelling, and a well organ ized system of police, travellers can go alone and unprotected along the highways to any distance with the most perfect security. But troops of people on march are a common spectacle along the roads of Eastern countries ; and, indeed, the na ture of the countries in many places, as well as the disorderly state of society, points out the only practicable way of travelling to be in large cara vans.
The earliest caravan of merchants we read of is the itinerant company to whom Joseph was sold by his brethren (Gen. xxxvii.) Here,' says Dr. Vincent, 'upon opening the oldest history in the world, we find the Ishmaelites from Gilead, con ducting a caravan loaded with the spices of India, the balsam and myrrh of Hadramaut, and in the regular course of their traffic proceeding to Egypt for a market. The date of this transaction is more than seventeen centuries before the Christian era, and notwithstanding its antiquity, it has all the genuine features of a caravan crossing the desert at the present hour' (Conzmerce and Navig. of the An cients, vol. ii. p. 262). This caravan was a mixed one, consisting of three classes, Ishmaelites (ver. 25), Midianites (ver. 28), and Medanites, as the Hebrew calls the last (ver. 36), who, belonging to the mountainous region of Gilead, would seem, like the nomade tribes of Africa in the present day, to have engaged themselves as commercial travel lers, and were then, in passing over the plain of Dothan, on the high caravan-road for the market of Egypt.
Besides these communities of travelling mer chants in the East, there are caravans of pilgrims, i.e., of those who go for religious purposes to Mecca, comprising vastly greater multitudes of people. These Hadj caravans that travel yearly to Mecca, bear so close a resemblance to the jour ney of the Israelites through almost the same ex tensive deserts, that, as the arrangement of those vast travelling bodies seems to have undergone no material alteration for nearly four thousand years, it affords the best possible commentary illustrative of the Mosaic narrative of the Exodus. Like them, the immense body of Israelitish emigrants, while the chief burden devolved on Moses, was divided into companies, each company being under the charge of a subordinate officer, called a prince (Num. vii.) Like them the Hebrews made their first stage in a hurried manner and in tumultuous disorder (Exod. xii. I 38, 39); and, like them, each tribe had its respective standard, the precise form and device of which, amid the conflicting accounts of the Rabbins, it is not easy to determine [STAND ARDS] ; but which, of whatever description it was, was pitched at the different stages, or thrust per pendicularly into the ground, and thus formed a central point, around which the straggling party spread themselves during their hours of rest and leisure (Num. ii. 2). Like them, the signal for starting was given by the blast of a trumpet, or rather trumpets (Num. x. 2, 5) ; and the time of marching and halting was regulated by the same rules that have been observed by all travellers from time immemorial during the hot season. Like theirs, too, the elevation of the standard, as it was borne forward in the van of each company, formed a prominent object to prevent dispersion, or en able wanderers to recover their place within the line or division to which they belonged. Nor was
there any difference here, except that, while the Israelites in like manner prosecuted their jouniey occasionally by night as well as by day, they did not require the aid of fires in their standards, as the friendly presence of the fiery pillar superseded the necessity of any artificial lights. One other point of analogy remains to be traced in the cir cumstance of Hobab being enlisted in the service of the Hebrew caravan as its guide through the great Arabian desert. At first sight, the extreme solicitude of Moses to secure his brother-in-law in that capacity may appear strange, and not easily reconcilable with the fact that they enjoyed the special benefit of a heavenly guide, who had guaranteed, in a supernatural manner, to direct their progress through the wilderness. But the difficulty will vanish when it is borne in mind, that although the pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night sufficed to regulate the main stages of the Hebrews, foraging parties would at short intervals require to be sent out, and scouts to reconnoitre the country for fuel, or to negotiate with the native tribes for provender and water. And who so well qualified to assist in these important services as Hobab, from his intimate acquaintance with the localities, his influence as a Sheikh, and his family connection with the leader of Israel ? The nature and economy of the modern Hadj caravans might be applied also to illustrate the re turn of the Hebrew exiles under Ezra from the land of their captivity ; and the bands of Jewish pilgrims that annually repaired from every corner of juda to attend the three great festivals in Jeru salem. On such occasions the inhabitants of the same village or district would naturally form them selves into travelling parties, for mutual security as well as for enjoying the society of acquaintance. The poorer sort would have to travel on foot, while females and those of the better class might ride on asses and camels. But as their country was divided into tribes, and those who lived in the same hamlet or canton would be more or less con nected by family ties, the young, the volatile, and active among the Jewish pilgrims had far more in ducements to disperse themselves amongst the crowd than those of the modern processions, num bers of whom are necessarily strangers to each other. In these circumstances it is easy to under stand how the young Jesus might mingle succes sively with groups of his kindred and acquaintance, who, captivated with his precocious wisdom and piety, might be fond to detain him in their circle, while his mother, together with Joseph, felt no anxiety at his absence, knowing the grave and sober character of their companions in travel ; and the incident is the more natural that his parents are said to have gone one day's journey' from Jerusalem before they missed him ? since, accord ing to the present and probably the ancient, prac tice of the East, the first stage is always a short one, seldom exceeding two or three hours. Mic mash—the modern El Vyra, where Mary's dis covery is reputed to have been made--is, accord ing to Mr. Munro (Summer Ramble, voL i. p. 265), scarcely three miles from Jerusalem, where the caravan of Galilean pilgrims halted.—R. J.