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Source:Nibley:CW06:Ch18:6:Dangers to the solo desert traveler
Dangers to the solo desert traveler
Parent page: Book of Mormon/Anthropology/Culture/Old World
Dangers to the solo desert traveler
- Nephi mentions in passing the carnivora of the desert, which were one of the standard terrors and dangers of the way to the lone traveler. His brothers, he says, "sought to take away my life, that they might leave me in the wilderness to be devoured by wild beasts" (1 Nephi 7:16). Whether he was to be left living or dead (and both practices were followed),35 the danger would be the same, for in any case he would be left alone. Thus we read in the ancient inscriptions of the desert of one who "encamped at this water-place; then the lion wounded him."36 Another reports that he "came from perilous places in the year in which Ahlan was ripped!"37 Others tell of having their animals attacked by lions.38 Another tells how "there pursued him a wolf that continued a year to assault him from a hiding-place." 39 All these were lone victims, and it is being alone that Nephi says would expose him to the beasts.[1]
Notes
- ↑ Hugh W. Nibley, An Approach to the Book of Mormon, 3rd edition, (Vol. 6 of the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley), edited by John W. Welch, (Salt Lake City, Utah : Deseret Book Company ; Provo, Utah : Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1988), Chapter 18, references silently removed—consult original for citations.