CHAPTER LII

OF CHRONIUS WHO WAS FROM THE VILLAGE OF PHŒNIX

THERE was a certain man whose name was Chronius, who came from the village which was called Tomârtâ (i.e., Phœnix) which was nigh unto the desert; and when he had gone away a little distance from human habitations, and had departed from his village, having measured out along the road with his right foot about fifteen thousand paces, he prayed and dug in that spot a pit, and he found [therein] good and sweet water. Now the well was about seven fathoms in depth; and he built there a little habitation wherein to dwell, and from the day wherein he shut himself up in that place, he prayed to God that he might never return to a region inhabited by men. Now when he had dwelt there some few years, he was esteemed worthy to become a priest unto the brotherhood, for there were gathered together unto him about two hundred brethren. And these excellent things are said concerning him: that during the whole of the period of sixty years, wherein he was performing the ministrations of the altar, he never once went out of the desert, and that he never ate bread which he had not [earned by] the labour of his hands.