heliopolis -1-

I saw the Holy Family on their way to Heliopolis. 

From their last night lodgings [nachtverblijf], they were accompanied thither [daarheen] by a good man who I think was one of the workmen on that canal over which they had been ferried. They now crossed a long and very high bridge over a wide river [the Nile], which appeared to have several branches, and came to a place before the city gate, which was surrounded by a kind of promenade. 

Here on a tapering [spits toelopend] pedestal, stood a great idol with the head of an ox, and in its arms something like the figure of a swathed [omzwachteld] child. The idol was encompassed by a circle of benches, or tables of stone, upon which the worshippers laid their sacrifices. 

Not far off was a very large tree... 

under which the Holy Family sat down to rest. 

They had scarcely seated themselves, when the earth began to quake, the idol tottered, and tilted over. A hue and cry instantly arose from the people, and many of the workmen on the canal in the neighborhood came rushing up. But the good man who had accompanied the Holy Family started with them for the city. 

They were already at the opposite side of the idol place... 

when the terrified crowd, with menacing and abusive words, angrily surrounded them. 

Suddenly the earth heaved, the huge tree fell, its roots breaking up out of the ground, and there arose a lake of muddy water into which the idol splashed. It sank so deep, that one could scarcely see its horns, and some of the most wicked of the bystanders sank with it. 

~bron~