ASSYRIA 
 - SADDLL - 
 
 A-GOODBitaiiEREEF
 
 Ex Libris 
 ISAAC FOOT 
 
 ''^mijy Of cMim,^,
 
 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE
 
 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 BY 
 
 A. GOODRICH-FREER 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 "inner JERUSALEM," "OUTER ISLES," ETC. 
 
 METHUEN & CO 
 
 36 ESSEX STREET W. C. 
 
 LONDON
 
 
 First Published in igo^
 
 This record is dedicated 
 
 BY THE LADY 
 TO THE DOCTOR 
 
 On the eve of starting together upon a 
 longer journey
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 IN MOAB 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. Going to Jericho 
 
 PAGE 
 I 
 
 II. Stepping Eastward . 
 
 20 
 
 III. Madaba .... 
 
 51 
 
 IV. Mshatta .... 
 
 64 
 
 V. Amman .... 
 
 93 
 
 VI. Jerash, and the Fords of Jabbok . 
 
 . 116 
 
 VII. Es-Salt .... 
 
 • 145 
 
 VIII. The Jordan Valley . 
 
 161 
 
 IN GALILEE AND SAMARIA 
 I. To Nablus 
 II. To Samaria . 
 
 III. To Taanak and Megiddo 
 
 IV. Haifa and Carmel . 
 V, Nazareth and Tabor 
 
 VI. The Sea of Galilee 
 VII. Tiberias and Besan . 
 VIII. West of the Jordan 
 INDEX . 
 
 178 
 194 
 217 
 344 
 258 
 277 
 302 
 
 323 
 347
 
 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 IN MOAB 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 GOING TO JERICHO 
 "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho" 
 
 T IFE is, in many respects, made very easy 
 in the Holy Land. You can return home 
 in the afternoon with no anxious forebodings 
 as to how much waste of time is awaiting you 
 in the shape of cards and notes on the hall 
 table ; you may wear clothes for covering, you 
 may eat for nourishment ; without taking thought 
 for fashion in the one case, or of competition 
 with your neighbour's cook or gardener in 
 the other. But — according to our Occidental 
 standards — you cannot consistently indulge any 
 taste you may happen to have for being grand. 
 Your attempts at a London , or shall we say a 
 suburban, drawing-room, your "At Home" days, 
 your Europeanised service, the dress of your
 
 2 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 womankind — distantly reminiscent of the ladies* 
 papers and of Answers to Correspondents — are 
 certain to be complicated by some contretemps 
 provocative only of mirth. The Oriental him- 
 self makes no attempt at being consistent. 
 When you arrive at his house he spreads a 
 priceless carpet, but omits to remove last week's 
 dust from off the furniture ; he gives you 
 perfumed coffee, which is like a dream of 
 Olympus, and his servant brings you a piece 
 of bread in his fingers. 
 
 These reflections, and many more, were 
 
 suggested during the waiting which accompanied 
 
 our start in the early sunrise at half-past five 
 
 on Saturday, 3rd October 1903. No one could 
 
 have guessed how grand we really were, and 
 
 there were moments then, and later, when 
 
 the fact escaped even our own notice. We 
 
 four, the Lady, the Doctor (of various forms 
 
 of scholarship) and the two Sportsmen, were 
 
 the chosen and proud companions of the 
 
 Professor ; and the Professor, besides being 
 
 the greatest epigraphist in Europe, was the 
 
 representative of a Royal Personage, and armed 
 
 with all the permits and safe - conducts and 
 
 special privileges useful in a land of cholera, 
 
 quarantine, and backsheesh. Our eight horses
 
 GOING TO JERICHO 3 
 
 were innocent of grooming, and their equipment 
 was fastened together mainly with tin tacks, 
 pieces of rope, and bits of string ; but it 
 would have been difficult to find in England any 
 animal to whom you could have proposed, still 
 less with whom you could have carried through, 
 one tithe of what our ragged regiment accom- 
 plished. Our two grooms, fjiukaris, appealed to 
 certain senses as vaguely horsey, though they sug- 
 gested nothing more distinguished than stable- 
 helps ; but their management of eight animals, 
 under conditions which seemed especially designed 
 for their destruction, when there was not a blade 
 of grass, perhaps for a whole day not a drop of 
 water ; when they were ridden for ten, twelve, 
 or even fourteen hours at a stretch with merely 
 an hour's rest — without forage — at noon, would 
 have done credit to any groom at Badminton 
 or Berkeley. As we proposed to ourselves both 
 pleasure and profit we took no servants — still 
 less a dragoman. Our portable food had been 
 very carefully selected, and was the best ob- 
 tainable. Bread, eggs, chickens, grapes, and 
 lemons we could count upon getting as we 
 went along. 
 
 Each member of the party had clothing and 
 a blanket in a pair of saddle-bags — mostly of
 
 4 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 goats' hair or camels' hair, gaily decorated with 
 coloured tassels — and these, with an extra pair 
 for the baskets of food, spirit-lamps, plates, 
 knives, and tin cups, were distributed among 
 the three baggage animals, who also carried, 
 in turn, the two mukaris, perched on the top 
 of the pile, but capable of climbing up and 
 down with incredibly rapid agility. 
 
 At length the cavalcade was ready, and we 
 turned our faces towards Jericho. First came 
 the Professor, on a tall, white Circassian horse, 
 with a tail which almost swept the ground, 
 and was dyed with henna for protection from 
 the Evil One, who was further defied, by each 
 of us, by means of a large blue bead hanging 
 round the neck of every horse on a coloured 
 worsted rope. The Professor himself exhibited 
 five foot of humanity, mostly brains ; a person- 
 ality which consisted, to the eye, of a large 
 scarlet and gold silk keffeeye (head covering) 
 with a goats' hair akal (rope to keep it in place) 
 and an elaborate silk fringe, below which emerged 
 a pair of black leggings, into one of which a whip 
 was jauntily stuck. He was mounted on a peaked, 
 military saddle, and he alone of all the party re- 
 fused to be separated from his saddle-bags, which 
 contained an assortment of cigars, cigarettes,
 
 GOING TO JERICHO 5 
 
 tobacco, and the long wooden pipe, for use in 
 the saddle, such as is in favour with the Bedu. 
 
 Next came the Lady, mounted on a long- 
 legged Arab steed, several sizes too large for 
 her, but selected for her use mainly because he 
 could do the rakzudn, the light canter special to 
 the desert horses, and which reduces fatigue to 
 a minimum. It was discovered, later in the 
 day, that he was also capable, apparently, of 
 running for the Derby, an incident which may 
 as well be recorded at once, as it resulted in his 
 banishment to the second class, and the society 
 of the mukaris. 
 
 The road from Jerusalem to Jericho still re- 
 tains the character recorded some two thousand 
 years ago, but the thieves among whom you in- 
 evitably fall are now licensed by the Government. 
 There is a whole village full of them, called 
 Abu-dis, and they have the privilege of pro- 
 tecting travellers from Bethany to Jericho — that 
 is, of enforcing payment for preventing anyone 
 else from robbing you. It is but some few 
 years ago that an Englishman, suspected of 
 seeking to dispense with this advantage, had 
 his donkey shot under him. At Bethany, ac- 
 cordingly, we were joined by our escort, but, 
 as became our dignity, he was an officer.
 
 6 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 picturesquely attired, and mounted, unfortun- 
 ately, on a beautiful Arab mare. The mis- 
 fortune lay in the fact that all our horses, with 
 one exception, were stallions, most of whom 
 became restless and uneasy, that of the Professor 
 so unmanageable that our escort was compelled 
 to leave us, and to take to bypaths from which 
 he could, more or less, keep us in sight. Never- 
 theless, even the temporary companionship had 
 somewhat excited the entire cavalcade. We 
 were all in good spirits, and it must be con- 
 fessed that there was a certain amount of what 
 may be called "fooling" — of what we would 
 not for worlds describe as "showing off," but, 
 rather, as trying the paces of our steeds — an 
 amusement which the Professor saw reason, 
 later, to forbid entirely. 
 
 The road to Jericho is a descent of over three 
 thousand feet, but at a point nearly half way, a long 
 and steep climb brings you from the transverse 
 valley Sa'b-el-Meshak to the Khan of the Good 
 Samaritan. At this point it occurred to the Lady's 
 horse to have a private exhibition on his own 
 account, and to set off at a truly breakneck gal- 
 lop, with which no other animal in the party could 
 possibly compete, even had it been wise to follow, 
 except at a considerable distance. Her strength
 
 GOING TO JERICHO 7 
 
 was quiteinadequate to check him, but in the length 
 and steepness of the hill lay promise of safety, 
 and it was with infinite relief that he was seen 
 to pull up at last. He had no vice, but the 
 occasion was not one for a steeplechase, and it 
 was decided that, on the morrow, there should 
 be a "general post" of horses, the mukari being 
 made responsible for his Derby winner, and the 
 Professor arranging, by exchange with one of the 
 Sportsmen, to ride an animal which would admit 
 of conversation with the officer, for such attain- 
 ments as our leader's have not been achieved 
 by sitting in a library, or by confinement to the 
 professorial chair of his university, but rather 
 by personal intercourse with the Arabs in the 
 various dialects of their own clans, by life in 
 the desert, and association with wandering 
 tribes in the unexplored districts of the Persea 
 Hauran and of Central Arabia. 
 
 The Sportsmen carried guns, the Doctor a 
 notebook — though he was more than suspected 
 of yearning for a rifle, — the revolver which he 
 carried at his belt being better adapted for 
 the murder of man than of beast — not that the 
 murder of man, to judge from the experiences 
 of earlier travellers, was a wholly improbable con- 
 tingency. Our road led us along almost the entire
 
 8 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 length of the north and east wall of Jerusalem ; 
 we then crossed the bridge over the Kedron 
 valley — the brook, if any exist, is now far 
 below the surface ; we passed the Garden of 
 Gethsemane, skirted the southern slope of the 
 Mount of Olives, hastened past the filthy hovels 
 of the little village of Bethany, crowned by the 
 so-called Castle of Lazarus, probably the remains 
 of a pre - crusading Benedictine convent, and 
 finally, about seven o'clock, pulled up at what 
 is known as the Inn of the Apostles' Fountain, 
 just such a building as a child might draw 
 upon a slate. As this is the only well between 
 Bethany and Jericho it may be safely assumed 
 that the apostles, coming up to Jerusalem, 
 would drink here, though it is to be hoped that 
 it was less contaminated than at present ; for 
 even the careless natives strain the water through 
 a sieve before allowing their animals to drink, 
 though, nevertheless, they still acquire leeches, 
 as the bleeding mouths of the camels and 
 donkeys one meets along the road frequently 
 betray. The spot has been marked by a 
 succession of buildings ; a little white dome over 
 the well, and some hewn stones and the ruins 
 of an aqueduct in the hill across the road, being 
 all that now remains of its old dignity.
 
 GOING TO JERICHO 9 
 
 Passing the Khan of the Good Samaritan — a 
 modern inn and curiosity shop, at which you 
 can, at your leisure, renew "a certain man's" 
 experiences — we paused at the top of the last 
 hill before descending towards the Jordan valley. 
 Here the entire neighbourhood was once com- 
 manded by a strong mediaeval castle, intended, 
 like many all over the country, for the defence 
 of the district. The tribal marks of the Bedu 
 to be found on its walls are of extreme interest. 
 The hill upon which it stands is known as 
 Tel'at ed-Dam, the hill of blood, probably from 
 the red colour of the rock, though some have 
 sought to identify it, by reason of the sound of 
 the name, with the Adummim of Joshua xv. 7. 
 
 The view from this point is, in certain details, 
 absolutely unique. You look down at the lowest 
 spot upon the earth's surface — the hollow of 
 the Dead Sea, blue as the sky in the morning 
 sunshine, flecked with cloudlike wavelets, beauti- 
 ful, gay and smiling, but bitter, treacherous, and 
 the home only of mystery and death. The water 
 contains about twenty-five per cent, of solid sub- 
 stances ; no organism higher than such microbes as 
 the bacilli of tetanus can live in it ; even swim- 
 ming is almost impossible ; neither shells nor coral 
 testify to any happier past. The water boils
 
 10 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 ait 22 1 degrees Fahrenheit, but the presence of 
 chloride of magnesium makes it incredibly 
 nauseous, while the oily quality, which it derives 
 from chloride of calcium, makes any accidental 
 splash upon the garments very destructive. We 
 gratefully take in long breaths of air which, 
 hot and dry as it is, are, we are well aware, 
 more fresh and sweet than any we are likely 
 to obtain during the next twenty-four hours, for 
 only personal experience of the stifling heat 
 of that unrivalled hollow can make it possible 
 to realise that six and a half million tons of 
 water which fall into the Dead Sea — a basin 
 about the size of the Lake of Geneva, but with 
 no outlet — have to be daily evaporated. Far 
 away southward is the great salt district, where 
 the salt deposit, coated with chalky limestone 
 and clay, takes many weird forms, among which 
 the Arabs point out Bint Shech Luth — the woman 
 of Shech Lot. 
 
 *' Of whose wickedness, even to this day, the 
 waste land that smoketh is a testimony, and 
 plants bearing fruit that never come to ripeness, 
 and a standing pillar of salt is a monument of 
 an unbelieving soul " (Wisdom x. 7). 
 
 "The waste land that smoketh" is a touch of 
 Eutopic description which one remembers when,
 
 GOING TO JERICHO 11 
 
 towards sunset, great wreaths of white mist lie 
 low in the mountain hollows, as nowhere else in 
 Judaea. Eastward, the horizon is bounded by 
 the long chain of the mountains of Moab, which, 
 ever since our arrival in the country, have seemed 
 a sort of mysterious dreamland, a limit of know- 
 ledge, the gate of fairyland, the nightly stage 
 of the great pageant gilded and painted by the 
 sunset. How often have we longed, like the 
 youngest brother of the fairy tale, to ride across 
 the wide plain, and to wander forth for a year 
 and a day into that dim Unknown ! We could 
 hardly realise that at last the time had come 
 and we were stepping eastward. 
 
 Below us, in the great plain, a meandering 
 green track shows where the banks of the Jordan 
 are offeringr shade and refreshment. In the 
 nearer foreground the scanty hovels and many 
 hotels of modern Jericho lie, embowered in 
 tropical vegetation, and we remember with an 
 added interest that, within even the next day or 
 two, we shall pass through districts of three 
 distinct flora and fauna, and, leaving behind the 
 oaks and pines, the familiar sparrows and 
 starlings of our Jerusalem environment, we shall 
 rest to-night among palms and bananas, we shall 
 hear the cry of the jackal, and smell the tracks
 
 12 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 of the hysena, and again, in a couple of days, find 
 ourselves in desert surroundings, the nursery of 
 the camel and home of the gazelle, with the scanty 
 herbage and stalkless flora of an Alpine world. 
 
 Looking down upon the Jericho plain we note 
 various points of interest. We distinguish the 
 sites of three Jerichos. 
 
 First we notice, to the south, the kraal-like 
 village of to-day, on the site of a castle and 
 church of the Crusaders, afterwards a flourishing 
 Moslem town, plundered by Egyptian soldiers 
 in 1840, and subsequently destroyed by fire in 
 1 87 1. It seems unlikely that it will ever 
 recover its former position ; for, apart from 
 apparent absence of all ability for initiation on 
 the part of the Arabs, the climate seems to have a 
 degenerating effect upon the inhabitants. Even 
 German perseverance, which has made habitable 
 spots in the low maritime plains of Judaea where all 
 other colonists had failed, could not suffice to 
 render life here endurable, and an agricultural 
 settlement organised within the last few years 
 has literally died out. The Latins — or, as we 
 say in England, the Roman Catholics — have also 
 failed to establish themselves, and the Russian 
 and Greek settlements find existence possible 
 only under conditions of frequent change, and
 
 GOING TO JERICHO 13 
 
 the stimulus of the profits to be made out of the 
 thousands of Russian pilgrims who come, every 
 year, at Epiphany, for baptism in the Jordan. 
 Last year, however, the Jordan was held to 
 have acquired so large a proportion of cholera 
 bacilli on its way from Tiberias, where there 
 was a great outbreak of disease, that approach 
 was justly forbidden by the authorities. To the 
 west lie the remains of the Jericho of Bible 
 history, of which, from earliest childhood, most 
 of us have had a mental picture — the great town 
 enclosed by walls enwreathed with vegetation, 
 "that ancient city of palm-trees," few of which 
 still remain, though they were abundant as late 
 as the seventh century ; and in Jewish amulets, 
 and marriage or divorce documents, which are 
 commonly decorated with allegorical pictures, 
 Jericho is still represented by a group of palms. 
 South of the Israelitish town, and west of modern 
 Jericho, are the remains of the Roman Jericho, 
 which, it is interesting to remember, was pre- 
 sented by Anthony to Cleopatra, who, character- 
 istically, promptly sold it to Herod for a winter 
 home. He made of it a beautiful city, adorned 
 with palms and gardens, and scented with the 
 balsams for which it was long famous as an 
 article of commerce, but which are no longer
 
 14 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 to be found in Syria, and where, in the time 
 of Christ, the roadsides were shaded with 
 sycamores — not ihe psettdo-platamis with which we 
 are famihar, and which is not a sycc'more at all, 
 but the Jicus sycomorus, the mulberry fig, which, 
 often attaining the proportions of a handsome 
 forest tree, still yields its wholesome and re- 
 freshing fruit among the humbler surroundings 
 of to-day. The remains of a pool, five hundred 
 and sixty-four feet long, part of an immense 
 system of conduits still visible, which was the 
 immediate cause of the fertility and beauty of 
 the Roman Jericho, is said to indicate the 
 whereabouts of Herod's palace. 
 
 The Jericho of crusading times was, probably, 
 supplied with water from what is now locally 
 known as the Ain es- Sultan (the Sultan's Spring), 
 although its more suggestive name of Elijah's 
 Fountain is still in use among the Christian 
 population. Pilgrims of the fourth and fifth 
 centuries record the tradition that it was here 
 that the prophet healed the bitter water with 
 salt. Salt is still thrown into a pool or cistern 
 which, toward the end of the dry season, is found 
 to be impregnated with noxious matter, animal 
 or vegetable. As, before the time of the Roman 
 water system, there was no other means of supply
 
 GOING TO JERICHO 15 
 
 it is almost certain that the ancient town must 
 have stood near this, the only natural spring, 
 and the site of the house of Rahab, still shown, 
 may quite well have been in the neighbourhood 
 indicated. 
 
 Rising almost perpendicularly a short distance 
 beyond the Fountain of Elijah, is the Quarantana 
 Mountain, first so called by the Crusaders, in 
 memory of the forty days of the Temptation, 
 although it seems to have been held sacred 
 from a much earlier period, as there are re- 
 mains of many hermitages, one of which is 
 said to have been occupied by S. Chariton 
 about 400 A.D. 
 
 It is a panorama wonderful not only in extent 
 but in the amount of detail, which, in the cloudless 
 air of the East, we are enabled to distinguish, 
 and we would willingly pause longer, but the 
 sun is high in the heavens, we have been six 
 hours in the saddle, and, leaving our horses to 
 follow, we find a pleasant relief from the glare 
 in descending an almost perpendicular path into 
 the Wady Kelt, the deep gorge of the brook 
 Cherith, where a monastery marks the site of 
 the alleged hiding-place of the prophet Elijah. 
 It is perched on a narrow shelf, high up on the 
 perpendicular rock wall of the ravine, and can
 
 16 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 only have acquired its present resemblance to 
 domestic architecture by slow and painful labour. 
 The lower storey, of rough massive stones, appar- 
 ently designed for a fortress, is all that remains 
 of an ancient monastery, founded in 535, possibly 
 upon the site ofan earlier habitation of the Essenes, 
 an esoteric sect of Jews, whose life somewhat 
 resembled that of the religious Orders among 
 Christians. The cave, high up in the face of 
 the rock, alleged to have been occupied by 
 Elijah, is now an oratory for the Greek monks, 
 who, in 1880, returned to an old foundation of 
 Koziba, and built an upper storey, with projecting 
 balconies, from which one has a wonderful view 
 of the gorge below. 
 
 We left our horses upon a little bridge, which 
 spans the bed of the brook — where they found 
 welcome shelter, after their giddy descent, under 
 a vine-covered pergola — and then, following a 
 zigzag path, we made our way within the doors 
 of one of the many hospitable monasteries which, 
 all over the Holy Land, are ready to offer at 
 least shade and water, the two great boons of 
 a hot country, to the weary and thirsty traveller. 
 No question was made as to creed, even as to 
 that of our officer, a Moslem, and we were 
 allowed to spread the meal we had with us, with
 
 GOING TO JERICHO 17 
 
 kindly additions of water for drink and ablution, 
 coffee, liqueur, and fresh green lemons. 
 
 Ignoring all question as to whether the prophet 
 were fed by Arabs or by orabs (ravens) it is 
 at least a pleasing sight to watch the rela- 
 tions of the wild birds of the gorge with his 
 modern representatives. The old superior of 
 the convent, silent, calm, with an expression of 
 infinite resignation to the poverty, in every sense, 
 of his ascetic life, seemed to recover some faint 
 and passing interest in the beautiful world about 
 him as, bidding us be silent within the window, 
 he stepped out on to the balcony, and produced 
 from his pocket some dried figs. Scarcely rais- 
 ing his voice, he called gently, Idoo sudar I Idoo 
 sudar ! — or such his cry sounded — Russian, as 
 we understood, for "Come along, sir!" The 
 blue air was flecked with gold, a morsel of the 
 fruit was seized as it was thrown into the air, 
 there was another flash of golden wings, and 
 on the head, shoulders, and the extended arms 
 of the old man there perched the exquisite 
 blackbirds of the district — the "Tristram's 
 grakle " of the Dead Sea. The sheen of the 
 deep purple wing, with its orange lining, was 
 wonderfully rich, and the creatures themselves 
 were, in every movement, graceful as swallows.
 
 18 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 The dainties finished, there was an instant flutter, 
 and not a sign remained in all the clear, blue 
 heaven of our visitors of a moment ago ; only 
 a shimmer of silver on the opposite cliff showed 
 where a cloud of rock pigeons had descended 
 to inquire into the cause of excitement among 
 their neighbours. 
 
 After a couple of hours' rest we went on our 
 way, following the narrow path which crept 
 along the precipice, and looking with equal 
 wonderment at the rocky hermitages above our 
 heads and at those beneath our feet ; some which 
 seemed to be accessible only to birds, while 
 others were so deep down in the narrow gorge 
 that the necessaries of life have to be lowered 
 to them from a roughly-formed crane upon a 
 narrow shelf of level ground above. 
 
 It was interesting to notice that, even among 
 men of similar religious impulses, and identical 
 occupations and opportunities, individual char- 
 acter nevertheless finds occasion for expression. 
 While some dwelt in holes in the rock, ac- 
 cessible only by a ladder, sometimes of rope, 
 and in one case, by a voluntary asceticism, only 
 by a pole, others showed a tendency to make 
 the best of the situation — two or three had 
 constructed gardens, verandahs, or porticos ; one
 
 GOING TO JERICHO 19 
 
 dwelling at least would have been described 
 by an auctioneer as a cottage orn^^ and some 
 had even shown an aesthetic realisation of what 
 was befitting the situation, and had sought 
 after effects of colour and form as well as of 
 convenience. Not a human being was to be 
 seen, but we wondered how many pairs of eyes 
 were watching our movements ; whether it were 
 possible that the sound of our cheery voices, 
 and the sight of our enjoyment, may not have 
 touched some heart to sense of loss, have 
 sounded some chord of regret, or even of re- 
 morse, have recalled memories of other days, 
 when friendship and anticipation and sympathy 
 and glad companionship were theirs, and life 
 was other than the awaiting of death, and the 
 setting sun brought a sense of something added 
 to the days that were gone as well as of some- 
 thing subtracted from such as might — in God's 
 providence — remain. 
 
 Our horses followed slowly down the glen, 
 and the afterglow was beautifying even the 
 desolate village of Jericho as we finally re- 
 mounted and rode in among the groves of 
 orange and banana.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 STEPPING EASTWARD 
 
 " The dewy ground was dark and cold ; 
 Behind all gloomy to behold ; 
 And stepping eastivard seemed to be 
 A kind of heavenly destiny." 
 
 W. Wordsworth 
 
 nr^HE Jericho hotels were closed for the season, 
 but with the connivance of the negro care- 
 taker and of an Arab in charge of the adjoining 
 orange-gardens we obtained entrance at one, 
 and managed to provide ourselves with firing 
 and an excellent supper, and, subsequently, with 
 beds. The Lady, who alone of the party carried 
 a watch, heard the negro awakening the Professor 
 next morning with the information that it was 
 three o'clock, and added greatly to her popularity 
 by being in a position to call out an assurance 
 that it was only one, and that two hours' further 
 repose was permissible. The building, it should 
 be mentioned, being constructed mainly of wood 
 and of mud bricks was well adapted for distant 
 
 conversation. 
 
 ao
 
 STEPPING EASTWARD 21 
 
 Three o'clock, however, duly arrived, all too 
 soon, and by four o'clock we had breakfasted 
 and were on our way across the sandy plain 
 which stretches for about two hours between 
 Jericho and the Jordan. A few faint streaks in 
 the east promised the coming day, but it was 
 still so dark that our horses required all our 
 attention, as the plain is full of holes ; twice 
 over a silver gleam ahead warned us of fords 
 to be crossed, and from time to time dark 
 masses rose up before us, and those riding in 
 advance called to the others to avoid the spreading 
 branches of the jujube-tree, zizyphits lotus and 
 zizyphus spina Christi, called by the Arabs 
 nebk and sidr, which are the octopods of veget- 
 able life, sending out long tentacles armed with 
 fierce thorns, capable of subtracting your head- 
 gear, entering your saddle, and imprisoning your 
 horse. 
 
 The ride across the plain of Jordan, interesting 
 at any time to persons of imagination, was un- 
 speakably weird and suggestive in the morning- 
 twilight, but we differed as to whether the 
 world in which we found ourselves was one 
 in course of construction or of disintegration. 
 Some of us were of opinion that the giant sand- 
 hills — a labyrinth of marl and salt deposit, worn
 
 22 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 by winds and washed by winter torrents, an old 
 sea bottom — which crumble at a touch, and which 
 resemble castles,churches, towers, domes, minarets, 
 whole towns of every variety of architecture, 
 suggested an artist's dream of a world to be ; 
 while others maintained that they were the 
 images, in the mind of a philosopher, dwelling 
 upon the past. There was no limit to the tricks 
 which fancy might play in such surroundings, 
 a nearer fata morgana ; a dream materialised 
 as it created itself; a poem precipitated as it 
 was sung : castles in Spain in which each of us 
 saw some reminder of his personal aspirations : 
 the land of By-and-by ; the ruins of Yesterday ; 
 the house of Never, according to our individual 
 temperament and faculty. 
 
 Riding was not very rapid during the first 
 hour and more, so that it was nearly seven 
 o'clock when we reached the Jordan bridge — 
 the Rubicon between Palestine and Moab, an 
 exceedingly rickety wooden structure, of which 
 the only effective part is the door at either end, 
 designed for the enforcement of backsheesh. 
 The river is embowered in trees, a variety of 
 willow known as the safsaf, various acacias, 
 the farnesia7ia, not yet filling the air with its 
 delicious scent, the tortilis, and seyal — with the
 
 STEPPING EASTWARD 23 
 
 long spines, which are found even on many- 
 plants innocent as lambs elsewhere, but fully- 
 armed in this land of thorns and thistles — the 
 zakkum, resembling a large box -tree, also pro- 
 vided with strong thorns, the inevitable jujube 
 zizyphus, the crimson -flowered oleander, which 
 is as seldom out of blossom as is the gorse on 
 our English moors, above all, the Jordan tamarisk, 
 inseparable in one's memory from this river and 
 its surroundings, green, graceful, and, in com- 
 parison with its many -armed and aggressive 
 neighbours, gentle and friendly. 
 
 We had plenty of leisure to observe these 
 details, for our arrangements with the guardians 
 of the bridge involved not only inquiry, discussion, 
 and the gratification of considerable curiosity 
 but also consumption of coffee and distribution 
 of backsheesh. The scene about us was ani- 
 mated and full of variety. The bridge may 
 not be crossed before sunrise, and our arrival 
 was timely, for types of the whole desert popu- 
 lation seemed to have just arrived, and were 
 pausing to reorganise their caravans. A group 
 of fellahin, the agricultural labourers of the 
 country, were bargaining with the Bedu, whose 
 lands they are employed to cultivate at a wage 
 of one-third of the profits, for the Bedu toil
 
 24 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 not neither do they spin. They are the sons 
 of the desert, freedom is their birthright, and 
 the fellah, compared with them, is as the "linnet 
 born within the cage " to one who has always 
 " known the summer woods." With his scanty 
 white robe, his black head-cloth or keffeeye, his 
 huge akal of camels' hair, he is probably not less 
 ragged than the blue-robed fellah, but he has 
 an air of indescribable dignity. Utterly inde- 
 pendent of his surroundings, he is as unaffected 
 by hunger or the absence of all the necessaries 
 of life, as a Highland chief, and, like him, is proud 
 not of the mere outside conditions of life but, 
 literally, of the blood in his veins. " I suppose 
 you are descended from Abraham ? " someone 
 remarked to an old Bedawin of this district. 
 
 " Oh no ; Abraham was not at all of good 
 family," he replied. 
 
 The Circassians, too, are there, with wide- 
 skirted coats and astrachan caps ; the Turcomans, 
 with flashes of scarlet and yellow where Arabs 
 would be wearing white or blue — to say nothing 
 of certain Government officials, savouring of 
 town life, in tarbush and European boots. 
 
 Various animals of the desert are there : 
 camels that are graceful and asses that are 
 intelligent ; horses with the manes and tails
 
 STEPPING EASTWARD 25 
 
 which Nature intended for them ; stallions of the 
 fellahin and mares of the Bedu ; oxen and goats 
 and sheep and, as link with the wilder creatures, 
 the pariah dog and the feral cat. There is a 
 whole armoury of weapons, mostly of the kind 
 adapted for a provincial museum, from a match- 
 lock to a modern breech-loader, from a two-edged 
 dagger to a cavalry sabre, from a horn-handled 
 kitchen knife to the dainty instrument with 
 which, with some futility, one of the party is 
 manicuring his nails. 
 
 We begin to realise that we have said good- 
 bye not only to roads, and sheets and table- 
 cloths, but almost to humanity, for it seems 
 as if the entire population were leaving the 
 country towards which our faces are set. There 
 is shouting in half-a-dozen languages — our own 
 little party habitually provides five — there is the 
 utter disorder combined with the perfect courtesy, 
 which contrasts so strongly with the general 
 order and personal indifference, of what we of 
 the West suppose to be a higher civilisation. 
 
 The Lady showed her sense of the new order 
 of things by betaking herself to a second stirrup ; 
 for, when you have to hang on to precipices 
 by your eyelids, climb pathless mountains in 
 the dark, descend over solid rock, slippery and
 
 26 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 defenceless, or over shale which disappears be- 
 neath your horse's feet ; when you may expect 
 to be ten, twelve, or even fourteen hours a day 
 in the saddle — and such a saddle as one is 
 likely to obtain in the East — a Hyde Park seat 
 does not afford all the security and conveni- 
 ence which anxious friends can desire. There 
 was not enough leather in our outfit to go round, 
 and as that second stirrup hung on by a piece 
 of strino^ it afforded an excellent measure of 
 temperature, distance, and individual mood. 
 "When in doubt" upon any question — if some- 
 one were desperate for a halt, when the party 
 became scattered and consequent waiting pro- 
 vided a few odd minutes of spare time, when 
 conversation failed or anyone were aching for 
 occupation, if any member of the party had a 
 sudden access of politeness and wished to ex- 
 hibit interest or pay a little attention to the 
 suddenly - remembered female sex — there was 
 always that second stirrup to fall back upon. 
 In the morning the string had lengthened with 
 the night-dews, but as the day went on and 
 each cavalier had added an attentive knot, 
 the rider would allege that she had become as 
 lopsided as a London milkwoman. By-and-by 
 the knots tautened, the perpetual pull of a
 
 STEPPING EASTWARD 27 
 
 thousand feet of ascent or descent, as the case 
 might be, strained the string to its utmost, and 
 the stirrup became inaccessible ; after dusk she 
 was suspected of dispensing with it altogether. 
 The whole position was an excellent illustration 
 of the misfit of the privileges claimed as 
 " women's rights ! " Nevertheless, it said some- 
 thing for the worth of the compromise, that 
 she never once dismounted on account of the 
 nature of the ground, that she brought home 
 her animal with sound knees, that both horse 
 and rider came back as fresh as they started, 
 and that the company were loud in declaring 
 that their patience was unexhausted and that 
 they were ready, if any shred survived, to begin 
 operations again upon that string to-morrow. 
 
 The Professor and the Lady had both changed 
 horses ; he for one which, however much elated 
 by his position, could yet be induced to behave 
 discreetly in the neighbourhood of the Bedawi 
 mare ; she for one which, although incapable of 
 the much-vaunted rahivdn, could nevertheless 
 be kept within such bounds as befitted ascent 
 of pathless precipices, and progress over the 
 dry beds of mountain streams. It was probably 
 owing to the superior lightness of the burden 
 he had to carry that her new steed, Sadowi, a
 
 28 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 light-limbed grey, was, like his predecessor, gener- 
 ally ahead of all the party. The Professor's long- 
 legged mount and the active wide-flanked slender- 
 headed mare of the officer, were of course 
 the official leaders of the expedition, and the 
 Lady did her utmost to sustain a modest re- 
 tirement into the background. But her task 
 was not easy, not only because of the personal 
 ambitions of Sadowi, but on account of certain 
 human vices on the part of the Professor's 
 horse, for which the usual cherchez la femme 
 was the occasion. The Bedawy beauty, with 
 whom he carried on an active flirtation, was, 
 on Oriental principles, haram (forbidden) to 
 anyone else, and he refused to tolerate the 
 neighbourhood of any other horse, looking 
 round perpetually with an evil expression of 
 suspicion and hatred, worthy only of his human 
 superiors. When Sadowi passed him he turned 
 aside to bite him in the act ; when the Lady 
 succeeded in keeping in the rear he kicked 
 out at irregular intervals, on the chance of the 
 proximity of his rival. 
 
 The coffee served to us pending our arrange- 
 ments at the Jordan bridge was more than 
 welcome, for we had almost forgotten our half- 
 past-three-o'clock breakfast, and the feast of the
 
 STEPPING EASTWARD 29 
 
 eye ceased, after a time, to suffice the appetite. 
 Some of us had built our hopes on private stores 
 of chocolate ; but chocolate, in the East, even 
 in October, has its drawback, from a tendency 
 to trickle out of the corners of one's pockets in 
 tell-tale streams which are not appetising. The 
 humble peppermint, of the quality stamped 
 " Extra Strong," reminiscent of the smell of after- 
 noon church in the country, may rather be recom- 
 mended, as allaying both hunger and thirst, the 
 latter probably by stimulus of the salivary gland. 
 Meat lozenges and other devices of the amateur 
 traveller share the fate of the chocolate ; bread 
 becomes rusk and, like biscuit, is provocative of 
 thirst ; raisins, except of the kind which at home 
 we dedicate to puddings, are, strange to say, 
 unknown ; and figs and dates with no water 
 to wash them in, are — here where we know 
 their antecedents — for most of us out of the 
 question. One of our mukaris went about 
 with a necklace of figs threaded on a string, 
 from which he subtracted as occasion sug- 
 gested. He had learned the art of the simpli- 
 fication of life : he drank almost anything that 
 was wet, ate as has been described, never, so 
 far as was known, undressed, and slept any- 
 where except, apparently, in a bed, but for choice
 
 30 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 on the top of one of the baggage animals when- 
 ever the road in any degree approached the 
 horizontal. His only luxury was his water-pipe, 
 which he produced at every moment of leisure, 
 trusting to his companion to keep it alight 
 without any unnecessary expenditure of to7nbak, 
 the special tobacco used for the narghile, when- 
 ever duty called him away. He was to such a 
 degree a man of resource and expedient that 
 a story which the Professor told us, though, as 
 a matter of fact, observed elsewhere, might 
 just as well have been applied to him. Some 
 mukari in the Professor's employ had also a 
 water-pipe, but seems to have been fastidious, 
 which Khalil was not, and on one occasion was 
 seen looking around for something- which might 
 be conveniently inserted into the bottle-shaped 
 vase which holds the water, and in which a 
 ring of scum had formed upon the glass. His 
 eye fell upon a neighbouring donkey. He 
 seized the beast's tail, twisted it into a con- 
 venient bottle brush, performed the required 
 ablution, and returned it to the astonished 
 owner, who, however, with the usual intelligence 
 of the Palestine ass, made no remark upon the 
 subject. 
 
 In Syria the greatest difficulty in locomotion,
 
 STEPPING EASTWARD 31 
 
 except backsheesh, for which it is the pretext, 
 is quarantine. It is easy enough to cross the 
 Jordan bridge eastward on payment of a toll 
 of three piasters (about yd.), for man and beast, 
 but it may not be so easy to get back again, 
 as quarantine may be imposed at any hour, and 
 may last for any length of time. It was necessary, 
 therefore, to make it clear to the official mind 
 that, by special favour, we were to be allowed 
 to return without let or hindrance, whatever 
 might have occurred in the interval. That, in 
 the name of Allah, would be as Allah and 
 certain exalted persons willed, we were piously 
 assured, and finally, with much hand-shaking 
 and invocation — May peace go with you ! May 
 your path be broad ! May your day be blessed ! — 
 the gates were opened, and in a few minutes 
 we were east of the River Jordan, which in the 
 rainy season is at least one hundred feet wide, but 
 was now only one-third of that distance. 
 
 A plain some four or five hours broad — for 
 here all measurement is by time, at the rate of 
 three or four miles an hour, according to the 
 nature of the country — lay between us and the 
 foot of the hills, although during all the months 
 we had looked longingly at them from the 
 hills of Judaea they had seemed to rise almost
 
 32 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 perpendicularly from the banks of the Jordan 
 and of the Dead Sea, 
 
 Our destination before nightfall was Madaba, 
 which lies 2940 feet above sea level. Starting 
 from the valley of the Dead Sea, 1292 feet 
 below the Mediterranean, and with the wide 
 plain of the Jordan valley to cross before the 
 ascent could begin, it was evident we must re- 
 serve our force for the precipitous climb of over 
 4000 feet which awaited us, and we accordingly 
 kept our horses in check, although the sandy 
 plain offered temptation for a canter. We had 
 abundance of interest. The Sportsmen hardly 
 expected to meet with the lions which formerly 
 infested the thickets of the Jordan, but traces 
 of wild boar might be looked for, also hyaenas, 
 jackals, and foxes (which it is considered 
 legitimate to shoot) both the desert fox, canis 
 niloticus, and the canis variegatus, smaller than 
 the English fox, with a grey back, black 
 breast, and a large bushy tail. Cheetahs are 
 occasionally found in the district we were 
 approaching, the wild cat, felis caligata, though 
 rare, is not unknown, of gazelles we should 
 doubtless see plenty in the mountains, the ibex, 
 with huge horns, might be expected among the 
 rocks of the highest points ; and the sight of
 
 STEPPING EASTWARD 33 
 
 a wolf was not wholly impossible. However, 
 the immediate expectation, considering the 
 hour, the place, and the sounds which accom- 
 panied our cavalcade — for nothing short of 
 personal danger can silence an Arab — was 
 rather of bird than of beast. The first prize 
 in the mind of the Sportsmen was the franco- 
 lin, much valued in Syria as a pot-shot. It is 
 something between a pheasant and a partridge, 
 of dark grey plumage, very strong both to run 
 and fly, and with a powerful call. Partridges, 
 too, came within their ambitions, and the 
 partridge of Syria is indeed game worth the 
 powder. Down here, in the plains, the Hey's 
 partridge, ammoperdix keyi, with its delicate 
 plumage, a soft grey touched with richest blue, 
 is the most common ; but as we advance the 
 larger Greek partridge, the caccabis saxatilis, 
 awaits us, among the rocks and boulders of 
 the mountain passes. Pigeons and sand-grouse, 
 and the large Indian turtle-dove, turtur risorius, 
 were abundant, but the wedge-tailed raven, 
 corutis affinis, with his whistling cry and jack- 
 daw-like air of gaiety, did not show until we 
 reached the cliffs of a higher district. 
 
 The Lady openly exulted in the lack of acces- 
 sible game, and grudged even the occasional
 
 34 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 shots fired, as disturbing to the smaller creatures 
 in which she found delight — the grakle, the 
 blackbird with orange under wings with whom 
 we had already made friends by the brook 
 Cherith, whose bell-like note sounded from tree 
 to tree, the dainty sun-bird, cinnyris osecs, whose 
 metallic sheen flashed in and out of the tamarisk- 
 trees, the delicate - hued Moabite sparrow, the 
 aristocrat of his family, who ran up reeds and 
 tree trunks like the familiar tits at home. We 
 were too early to see the flights of birds of 
 passage on their way south to warmer climes, 
 and which, before and after the winter months, 
 pause in the thickets of the Jordan basin, and 
 fill the air with music, which includes the notes 
 of the cuckoo and the nightingale, and recalls, 
 however irrelevantly. Browning's " Oh, to be 
 in England, now that April's here ! " We had 
 hoped to see the busy little jerboa, a jumping 
 mouse with long hind legs, like a microscopic 
 kangaroo, but circumstances were, for the pre- 
 sent, against us, chiefly the noise of our caval- 
 cade. He is a friendly little beast, and easily 
 tamed, and though familiar with him in confine- 
 ment we should have liked to see him under 
 happier conditions. 
 
 We could not have happened on a more
 
 STEPPING EASTWARD 35 
 
 unfortunate season for flowers ; the wonderful 
 flora of the Jordan valley was now at rest, and 
 even the autumn squills, the delicate muscari, 
 and a few lingering silenae had been left behind 
 on the higher ground the other side of Jericho. 
 The only feast of colour was the oleander, 
 familiar to most of us as a greenhouse shrub, 
 and which here rose with its rich crimson or 
 pure white flowers, single or double, wherever 
 a little water remained to keep the earth moist 
 about its roots. We speculated as to what might 
 be its nearest cousin in our northern latitudes, 
 and the wildest guesses were made, including the 
 rhododendron, mezereum, daphne, and syringa, 
 but no one thought of the familiar periwinkle, 
 with its shining trails and sapphire blooms, in 
 habit and appearance so utterly dissimilar, but 
 which also belongs to the family of apocynacea, 
 or dog-bane. In spite of its rich colouring and 
 welcome beauty, the oleander bush is highly 
 poisonous, affecting even the water in which it 
 grows. A story is told of some French soldiers 
 in the Peninsular War who utilised some of its 
 twigs to serve as spits for roasting meat, with 
 the result that seven out of twelve who ate of 
 it shortly died. 
 
 We knew better than to expect to find "Jericho
 
 36 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 roses" in the Jericho district, although this 
 curious and interesting crucifer anastatica exists 
 in considerable quantities about Masada, towards 
 Engedi, some twenty hours south. It is an 
 annual, and its curious blossoms are formed in 
 the spring. We found, however, many speci- 
 mens of the Dead Sea fruit, though still green 
 and unripe. It is an asclepiad, calotropis procera, 
 called by the Arabs oshr, and is strictly sub- 
 tropical. The fruit, the ** apple of Sodom" of 
 Josephus, has an inflated, leathery skin, which, 
 when crushed, leaves in the hand only fibres 
 and bits of rind. The stalk has a strong milky 
 juice. The name is also given to the solanum 
 sanctum, of the family of the potato, which also 
 resembles an apple, and is red, with black seeds. 
 
 Tristram has happily described the high 
 lands above the Jordan valley as a "watershed 
 . . . the fruitful mother of many infant wadys," 
 a wady being a river bed, and as we made our 
 way along the Wady Heshban, almost due east, 
 turning southward later in the day, we had 
 glimpses of many of these glens, and we even 
 forded a couple of streams on their way down 
 to the Jordan before, towards noon, we found 
 ourselves at the foot of the mountains. A clear 
 running stream, a little grove of trees, were a
 
 STEPPING EASTWARD 37 
 
 temptation not to be resisted. In a moment 
 we were off our horses, although, unfortunately, 
 not in time to prevent the baggage animals — 
 left for an instant by the mukaris, who hastened 
 to receive our weary steeds — from refreshing 
 themselves in their own fashion, by a roll in 
 the cool water, oblivious of their encumbrances, 
 or, possibly, possessed of some vague notion of 
 debarrassing themselves of a superfluity. They 
 had been travelling between seven and eight 
 hours, and for the last two in intense heat, not 
 only overhead but, from radiation of the light 
 sandy soil, underfoot. We could not feel angry 
 with them, and all cheerfully helped the Lady 
 to hang her entire wardrobe and personal be- 
 longings upon the projecting branches of the 
 jujube - trees, useful for once, as it was her 
 saddle-bags which had suffered most, although 
 a supply of cake, gingerbread, and chocolate was 
 reduced to a condition uneatable by any but the 
 mukaris, who considered the incident an ac- 
 ceptable dispensation of Providence, or, in their 
 own phrase, maktoub — " it is decreed." 
 
 A few Bedu under the farther trees were 
 the first human beings we had met since leav- 
 ing Jericho except some camel - drivers who, 
 silent and statuesque, their flocks of many scores
 
 38 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 of stately camels equally silent and pictorial, 
 had seemed rather to be a part of the landscape 
 than to have any human relation with ourselves. 
 One of the group came forward, and greeted us 
 in such fluent German that we at first took him 
 for some agricultural speculator buying seed or 
 seeking labourers from among the fellahin ; for 
 the agriculture — that is the organised, not to 
 say scientific, agriculture of Palestine — is practic- 
 ally in the hands of Germans and Jews. How- 
 ever, he turned out to be a native, educated at 
 one of the many German schools of Jerusalem, 
 or elsewhere, at one time an employe of the 
 Austrian post office, on his way, alone, with a 
 dagger and a revolver for sole companions, to 
 visit some property at Madaba. On hearing 
 that this was our destination he begged per- 
 mission to join our cavalcade, which the Professor 
 readily granted, as the remaining journey, among 
 the mountains, was especially solitary. We were 
 very grateful for coffee and an excellent lunch 
 of sausage, potted meat, and jam, with white 
 bread, brought from Jerusalem, the last European 
 bread we were likely to see. We ate our dainties 
 with some sense of guilt, and a shamefaced 
 sensation of geographical and historical ana- 
 chronism, as the Professor, without waiting for
 
 STEPPING EASTWARD 39 
 
 our feast to be unpacked and spread, produced 
 from some secret recess three parcels, one of 
 which was laid aside for the moment, though 
 with a promissory glance at the Lady, which she 
 knew denoted instruction in view. The other 
 two proved to be bags, one containing dates, 
 the other figs, " Dates and figs," we were 
 informed, "were the natural food of desert 
 wanderers, sufificing to the body, stimulating to 
 the mind ; the wheat, the fiesh, above all the 
 alcohol, of civilisation, were mere irrelevancies." 
 Here some of us sought to conceal our sand- 
 wiches and withdraw our anticipations from private 
 flasks. "Was it not diet such as this," and he 
 waved a pair of sensitive hands over his ascetic 
 larder, " which had enabled him to reply to the 
 inquiry of a Personage as to how many hours 
 a day he could ride in the desert — ' Twenty- 
 four, your Majesty, since the day does not 
 contain twenty-five, and a man will endure any- 
 thing for the sake of his miserable life ' ? For 
 was it not on a diet of figs and dates that he 
 had ridden sixty hours without dismounting, 
 resting only for two hours, when he dropped 
 out of the saddle, just one hour's ride from 
 friends and safety ? Was it your meat-eater, 
 your wine - drinker, who remained sound and
 
 40 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 wholesome when necessity obHged him to refrain 
 from ablution for twenty-one days? * If a man 
 must be a pig or die of thirst, your Majesty,' 
 he had submitted to the Personage in question, 
 * will he not rather be a pig ? ' a sentiment with 
 which even royalty heartily concurred." At this 
 point he carefully counted his date stones, ob- 
 served that two more were yet due to his appetite, 
 and, having finished his frugal luncheon, drew 
 from the saddle-bag deposited beside him his 
 native pipe, some eighteen inches long, of which 
 the clay head and wooden stem were carefully 
 and separately wrapped in paper, filled it with 
 strong tobacco, and lighted it with a mysterious 
 paper match, laid atop, which smouldered for a 
 perceptible time, and set fire to the precious fuel. 
 Someone, anxious, perhaps, for the just distribu- 
 tion of human praise and blame, unwisely mur- 
 mured that " tobacco was a luxury." The Pro- 
 fessor withdrew his pipe to describe the less costly 
 "smokes" of desert life. The paths across the 
 desert of Central Arabia have been the same, 
 probably, since the earliest ages. Man, camel- 
 mounted, with the same dress, food, purpose, 
 habits, has crossed those golden sands for seons 
 as, and where, he crosses them now. The living 
 of to-day are treading the dust of yesterday,
 
 STEPPING EASTWARD 41 
 
 and amid that dust we may look not only for 
 bleached bones and hypophosphates, but even 
 for the decomposed dust of camel droppings. 
 These, dried and purified, it may be, by centuries, 
 are the substitute for tobacco of desert life. The 
 Professor would not acknowledge any ability 
 to give a personal opinion of its quality, but the 
 Sportsmen, adventurous in this as in all else, 
 were suspected later, when we reached the camel 
 district, of making a personal experiment in the 
 interests of science, with what results it was 
 never revealed. 
 
 The Professor emptied his pipe, and, calling 
 the attention of the Lady, opened his third parcel, 
 which proved to contain a large square of white 
 net. "Such a treasure as this," he admonished 
 her, "you would do well to acquire. It is a 
 luxury of travel. When I wish for repose I 
 envelop myself. It averts flies and mosquitoes, 
 and is a hint to my companions that I do not 
 desire conversation." So saying, he modestly 
 withdrew into its folds, and only a neat little 
 pair of black boots emerging from — apparently 
 — a bridal veil, remained to indicate his per- 
 sonality. 
 
 The rest of us drew our keffeeyes before 
 our eyes, laid our heads upon any sloping sub-
 
 42 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 stance that offered itself, and neither man nor 
 beast needed further inducement to enter into 
 the land of dreams. 
 
 At two o'clock we were again in the saddle, 
 conscious of between 3000 and 4000 feet to 
 climb. Our faces were set eastward, but we 
 knew that we had to reach a point above and 
 beyond Mount Nebo, which lay immediately 
 south, "to climb where Moses stood, and view 
 the landscape o'er." Very soon the shrubs, 
 which had hitherto been at least our occasional 
 companions, were left behind, and, perpetually 
 climbing, we began to realise that we had 
 entered a new world. The limestone, dolomite, 
 and gravel limestone of Judaea had largely given 
 place to a formation different alike in colour 
 and outline — mainly red sand-stone, often of 
 very fantastic features, and a certain amount 
 of basalt — later, as we came still farther south, 
 masses of green-stone and boulders of pudding- 
 stone. The green-stone is embedded in and 
 streaked with a deep olive grey, but in places 
 is as green as malachite. Tristram points out 
 that a dip in the strata brings the limestone 
 again in places to the surface, which probably 
 accounts for the varied colouring of the cliffs — 
 black, red, and white — which, in the clear, brilliant
 
 STEPPING EASTWARD 43 
 
 sunshine, is dazzling in its effect. The great 
 tableland of Moab lies about 4000 feet above 
 the Dead Sea valley, and slopes gently eastward 
 for some twenty-five miles, beyond which rises 
 another range of hills (limestone), the water- 
 shed of Moab, and the frontier of Arabia, whose 
 blue distances we afterwards came to feel as a 
 new limitation, which we longed to cross, as 
 formerly we had longed to cross the hills of 
 Moab. 
 
 For miles we saw no sign of human life, 
 no cultivation, no domestic animal, only wide 
 stretches of bare rock and a scant vegetation, 
 which seemed, although so burnt as to be 
 difficult to distinguish, mainly sandwort and 
 soapwort. Now and then a flash of shadow 
 showed that a lizard had darted away, but even 
 small birds were rare. When the wide zigzag, 
 which always seemed to turn horizontally just 
 as we had begun to make advance, allowed us, 
 from time to time, to cast glimpses westward 
 at the mountains of Judaea, we were much aston- 
 ished at their height and grandeur. A prophet 
 has no honour in his own country, and we had 
 no conception that the familiar range would have 
 so much dignity from afar. Finally, we reached 
 a tableland, a wide terrace, before arriving at
 
 44 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 the foot of the farther range of mountains, which 
 we must still pass. 
 
 We halted beneath a solitary tree, and were 
 thankful for the contents of our water-bottles. 
 Glass bottles cased with straw and packed in 
 saddle-bags were almost hot enough to make 
 tea from, whereas the German military flasks of 
 the Sportsmen, with felt coverings damped before 
 starting, and hooked to the saddle, provided a 
 deliciously cool drink. Mount Nebo, which had 
 all day dominated the landscape southwards to 
 our right, had much dwindled in importance, 
 and indeed the end of our journey would bring 
 us to an elevation 600 feet its superior ; and 
 there are indeed many points from which Moses 
 might have had a much finer panorama of the 
 promised land than that conventionally pointed 
 out. 
 
 Very soon we begin to climb the farther and 
 final range, and to enter into a district in which 
 the human interest aoain awoke, not the less 
 strongly that it was connected with a past which, 
 in England, we should consider remote, but 
 which we describe here as "merely Roman" — 
 that is to say, not quite two thousand years ago. 
 The Roman road, which we followed for some 
 distance, is in much better condition than, for
 
 STEPPING EASTWARD 45 
 
 example, the road between Jerusalem and Jaffa, 
 or Jerusalem and Bethlehem, in spite of the heavy 
 road tax which, theoretically, keeps them in order, 
 and the milestones, though prostrate, are still of 
 imperial dignity — massive columns some six or 
 eight feet in height. 
 
 Other columns and great hewn stones are 
 scattered here and there by the roadside, telling 
 of a grandeur that is past, of a civilisation with 
 which we have nothing to compare. Another 
 chapter in human history had been recently 
 suggested by a great dolmen, worthy of Stone- 
 henge ; some of us longed to turn aside to 
 examine it more closely, as it was the first we 
 had seen in this country, although they are very 
 abundant east of Jordan, especially in the dis- 
 trict lying between Heshbon and the hot springs 
 of Callirhoe. 
 
 An almost perpendicular climb, which the 
 heavier among the party thought it only merci- 
 ful to accomplish on foot, brought us to the 
 summit of the farther range, the Tell el Mataba, 
 marked by an extensive stone circle, from whence 
 we practically looked down on Mount Nebo, and 
 soon found ourselves in entirely changed sur- 
 roundings. Here and there signs of cultivation, 
 a couple of fellahin carrying a plough, a donkey
 
 46 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 bearing a sack of grain and driven by women, 
 all spoke of the neighbourhood of human habi- 
 tation. A great plateau gently sloping upward 
 to the east, the fertile Ard Abdallah, lay open 
 before us, and we knew that beyond the gentle 
 slopes lay the city of Madaba, of which, at 
 present, there was no indication, except that 
 of the industry of its inhabitants — or at least 
 the industry which its neighbourhood made pos- 
 sible. On a slight eminence stood the tomb of 
 Abdallah, of whom we could learn only that 
 he was a great shech, as was testified by the 
 symbols displayed upon his tombstone : a mortar 
 for preparing, an iron spoon for roasting, a pot for 
 boiling, and a cup for drinking, the coffee, which 
 was the symbol of his unlimited hospitality. 
 
 Thoughts crowded into our minds with rapid 
 confusion. We had seen too much ; disentangle- 
 ment was difficult. The stone circle, the dolmen 
 burial monument of some primeval race, may 
 have been looked upon by Moses in those sad, 
 closing hours of a disappointed life — by Balaam 
 and Balak wandering from point to point, from 
 one high place of Baal to another, among these 
 hills, seeking for some spot whence the prophet 
 might feel himself inspired to curse the tents of 
 Israel, who had made such havoc up yonder in
 
 STEPPING EASTWARD 47 
 
 Heshbon, and along the very wady we had 
 crossed. We remembered how the cities of 
 Moab were described by Ezekiel as "the glory 
 of the country," and yet how her inhabitants 
 were warned by Jeremiah "to flee and get away, 
 for the cities thereof shall be desolate." We 
 saw, in fancy, the Roman soldiers of the tenth 
 legion, the military colonies, the Graeco- Roman 
 culture, the Christian, the Persian influence ; 
 finally, in strange rivalry with powers so strong, 
 so highly developed, the Arab, who for thirteen 
 hundred years has lived among the ruins of the 
 past, not, on the whole, actively destructive but 
 living only for each day's need ; initiating 
 nothing, saving nothing from decay, not even 
 seeking to preserve a tree or repair a cistern, 
 and whose finest monument, among all these 
 ruins of the past, is that of a shech who dis- 
 pensed much coffee ! He has held the country 
 longer than anyone else, as the eagle his eyrie 
 or the wolf his lair, and as we advanced each 
 day farther and farther into the desolation of 
 the present, more and more closely in touch 
 with the traces of the grandeur of the past, we 
 felt that here, at least, was a race perfectly 
 adapted to the environment it had, in great 
 degree, created for itself.
 
 48 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 Our tired horses, conscious of twelve hours 
 of work already past, were thankful for level 
 ground, and took fresh heart as we pursued 
 a fairly good path, between wide expanses of 
 fields, in which the harvest was not yet entirely 
 over ; that wonderful Syrian harvest, which seems 
 to be going on continuously, here or there, 
 during quite half the year, from May to October. 
 We, also weary, let the reins fall loose and 
 wandered on thus meditating, the Professor and 
 our officer to the front, the mukaris bringing 
 up the rear. Suddenly we were conscious of 
 a slight shock to our body corporate, and, looking 
 up, perceived that the Professor and the officer 
 were in colloquy with a body of some six or 
 eight wild-looking Arabs, their swarthy coun- 
 tenances looking the darker and more savage for 
 their black keffeeyes and akals. 
 
 At this moment our Sportsmen rode up, one 
 of whom spoke Arabic like a native, and the 
 Professor, waving a dignified negative, rode 
 ahead. We joined him, and turning our horses 
 looked back at the scene in progress. The 
 leader of the attacking party was in hot argu- 
 ment with the Sportsman, who responded to 
 his shouts and gestures with the cool imper- 
 turbability which, of all European characteristics.
 
 STEPPING EASTWARD 49 
 
 is most surprising to the Arab, while our 
 mukaris, hastily collecting the baggage animals, 
 and casting an anxious glance ahead at the 
 horses we were riding, hovered timorously in 
 the rear. As a mere accidental coincidence we 
 observed that another of the band had fallen 
 upon an unlucky fellah, who rode up at the 
 moment, knocked him off his donkey, and was 
 beating him — casually as it appeared — but prob- 
 bably pour encoit-rager les atitres — namely, our 
 mukaris. They demanded, as we afterwards 
 learnt, a tax upon every horse in our company 
 before permitting us to enter the town of 
 Madaba, which they represented. "If you be- 
 long to Madaba then accompany us to Madaba, 
 where we will pay any tax which appears to be 
 just," replied our Sportsman calmly, "but it 
 seems to me you are highwaymen," and so 
 saying he, with our other Sportsman, our second 
 mukari with two baggage animals, and our 
 German - speaking Arab companion, rode on, 
 and joined our distant group, Khalil, our chief 
 mukari, who was held responsible for all the 
 horses, being retained as hostage. With the 
 usual cowardice of an Arab, in spite of the 
 Sportsman's assurances that he would " see him 
 through," he very foolishly produced his purse,
 
 50 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 satisfied their demands, and rode on triumphant. 
 The chatter that ensued among our three Arab 
 companions — for nothing in the world excites 
 an Arab like a question of money — can only 
 be compared to a rookery at sunset. One had 
 a rare opportunity of appreciating the alleged 
 variety of the Arabic vocabulary ; its adaptation 
 to utterances of anger, vituperation, and regret. 
 " They claimed, they got, fifty-nine piasters " was 
 the burden of the song, and we had it in solo, 
 antiphon, chorus, refrain, with a hundred varia- 
 tions, all the rest of the way to Madaba. On 
 our arrival we found that our brigands belonged 
 to Es-Salt, a town eight hours N.E. of Jericho 
 (Madaba being a good ten hours S.E.), and 
 entirely unconnected with this district ; that the 
 tax which they claimed was a war tax, just now 
 enforced by the Government upon every man 
 in his own town, so that our poor Khalil would 
 have to pay it over again on his return to 
 Jerusalem. With this fact, however, we did 
 not at present acquaint him.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 MADABA 
 
 "Who fished the niurex up? 
 What porridge had John Keats?" 
 
 R. Browning 
 
 A FTER fourteen hours in the saddle we were 
 thankful to dismount at the friendly door 
 of the presbytery at Madaba, where, by kind 
 permission of the Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem, 
 we were admitted to enjoy the hospitality of the 
 parish priest, a Piedmontese, and his assistant, 
 an Arab, both speaking excellent French, as 
 well as Italian, the official language of the 
 patriarchal clergy. 
 
 We found their reception room crowded with 
 a group of some dozen villagers, prominent 
 among whom was a dignified - looking shech, 
 who at once claimed acquaintance with the 
 Professor, and proved to have been his guide 
 in this district upon a former occasion. He 
 was engaged in a discussion with the priests, 
 which we had evidently interrupted, and the 
 moment opportunity permitted he returned to 
 his point. There was nothing discourteous in 
 51
 
 52 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 his persistence, he was obviously attempting to 
 make a bargain, and the price offered had 
 already, we were told, reached 200 francs. 
 The priest met all his advances with a decided 
 negative, which grew more and more imperative 
 as time went on, but time is of no value to an 
 Arab, and we could not but be reminded of the 
 parable of the importunate widow. After a time, 
 at the express desire of our hosts, they all 
 withdrew into an outer room while we enjoyed 
 our much - needed refreshment, but when we 
 afterwards went out to look about us they re- 
 turned to the charge, and we even found them 
 still at it next morning. The very delicate 
 point at issue was afterwards explained to us. 
 The man, a member of the Eastern branch of 
 the Church, desired to marry his niece, and 
 having failed — after perhaps equal pertinacity in 
 enforcing his point — in obtaining permission from 
 his own priest had come to see whether it might 
 be worth his while to change his religious views, 
 in hope of receiving the sanction of the Latins. 
 Apparently he thought the real question at issue 
 was "How much?" — and from time to time, 
 after consultation with his companions, he would 
 raise his bid by a few piasters. Again and 
 again the priests roundly assured him it was
 
 MADABA 53 
 
 of no avail ; he was not to be convinced, and 
 when we finally rode away he was sitting on 
 a stone by the door of the presbytery. It would 
 have been interesting to know what were the 
 special attractions of the lady for whom he was 
 willing to venture so much. 
 
 Madaba may best be described as a village 
 of what, in England, we should call "squatters." 
 They are Christian exiles from the Moslem town 
 of Kerak, who, about 1880, took possession of 
 a city which had been in ruins some thirteen 
 hundred years, having been devastated, accord- 
 ing to a learned monograph upon the subject 
 by the Dominican Pere Sejourne, most probably 
 by Chosroes, in his destructive march to or 
 from the north. The present population, of 
 some 900, of whom about two - thirds are 
 Greeks, the rest Latins, occupies a small hill 
 about 100 feet in height, of which almost a 
 third is debris. The new residents, in digging 
 for foundations, have brougrht to lieht a sfreat 
 deal that is of extreme interest and, as naturally 
 follows, have destroyed still more. Dr Bliss, 
 referring to the article of Pere Sejourne, and 
 describing the town in 1895, observes that 
 certain ruins have disappeared in the meantime, 
 and we, in turn, failed to find others which
 
 54 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 appear in the sketches of Professor Brlinnow, 
 also of 1895. 
 
 Madaba is undoubtedly a place very precious 
 to the archaeologist ; to the merely aesthetic it 
 is disappointing and sad. The ruin, the debris, 
 the desecration, the filth of the last quarter of 
 a century force themselves upon our conscious- 
 ness to a degree difficult to overcome, and it 
 requires an effort, of which we were little con- 
 scious elsewhere, to realise its former dignity. 
 When Joshua was old and well stricken in 
 years it must have been a little discouraging 
 to him to learn that, besides other large tracts of 
 country in this district, "all the plain of Madaba 
 unto Diban " remained to be possessed. Mesha, 
 King of Diban, over six hours' ride to the 
 south, mentions upon the famous Moabite stone 
 (897 B.C.) that it belonged to the Israelities in 
 his period, the reign of Omri, but it afterwards 
 passed into the possession of the Moabites, and, 
 still later, into that of the Nabateans, who came 
 hither from the south of Arabia. Madaba with- 
 stood Hyrcanus during a siege of six months 
 about a century before Christ, and, during the 
 Christian era, was the seat of a bishopric. 
 Early in the seventh century, like many places 
 on this side of Jordan, it disappears from history.
 
 MADABA 55 
 
 Madaba must have been a town of some im- 
 portance, although the space enclosed within its 
 walls was barely a quarter of a mile square. 
 Pere Sejourn^, the Dominican archaeologist, saw 
 gates on the north and east which have dis- 
 appeared, but indications remain of the exist- 
 tence of four. The population was well provided 
 for as to water, for, in addition to two smaller 
 reservoirs, a pool at the S.W. angle measures 
 1 08 yards long, by 103 yards wide, and 13 feet 
 deep. It is now used as a field for the cultiva- 
 tion of tobacco, for as long as it served its 
 original purpose it was the cause of constant 
 feuds with the Bedu. There was a street of 
 columns 1 50 yards in length. Bliss and Baedeker 
 mention five churches, the Pere Cur6 told us 
 he had evidence of the existence of eight, for 
 which almost disproportionate number the 
 bishopric may account. The piety of to-day 
 takes another form. Schumacher, in a valuable 
 monograph (1895), relates that the former cure, 
 Pater Biever, describing his ten years' experi- 
 ence among the people, related that the hardest 
 things to teach them had been not to bring 
 their sabres and other weapons into church 
 and not to greet him, if they chanced to arrive 
 while service was proceeding, with the usual
 
 56 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 respectful but loud-voiced, Marhabd ja chure ! 
 — "May thy path be broad, O priest!" 
 
 When he enunciated the teaching, " Love 
 your enemies, do good to those that hate you," 
 an old shech called out : " Halt, priest ! you 
 can preach that to the old women." In certain 
 respects the people of Madaba stand higher 
 than the Christians west of the Jordan, and 
 offences against morality are very rare — among 
 the genuine Bedu they are almost unknown. 
 Monogamy is the rule in Madaba, though in 
 Kerak, whence the people come, polygamy is 
 found even among Christians, and among others 
 is quite usual. 
 
 In matters of peace and warfare they observe 
 the rules of the Bedu, and Schumacher quotes 
 interesting examples of what he truly calls the 
 sound views of honour and manliness, to be 
 noticed even among the wild customs of these 
 children of nature. 
 
 Their absolute disregard of the beautiful, their 
 indifference to the abominations of their sur- 
 roundings, is almost incredible. Chickens and 
 goats defile the most exquisite mosaics ; a 
 Corinthian capital, picked up by chance, is 
 inserted between an unhewn stone and a slab 
 of marble ; a squalid hut has a carved lintel.
 
 MADABA 57 
 
 Pere S^journ^ points out that in a small church, 
 which Bliss describes as the most interesting 
 which he visited, an inscription reveals the age 
 of the building, and serves, so to speak, as a 
 point de repere for others. It recites that "the 
 mosaic work of this sanctuary and of the holy 
 house of the altogether pure Sovereign Mother 
 of God has been made by the care and the 
 zeal of this town of Madaba ... in the month 
 of February of the year 674, indication 5 " — that 
 is, 362 of our present era. Another church, 
 portions of which have to be sought for in 
 several different dwellings, has been regarded 
 as the cathedral; it is 125 feet long, with aisles 
 twice the breadth of the nave, which is 29 feet, 
 all in Corinthian style. 
 
 But the piece de resistance at Madaba, the goal 
 of the savant's pilgrimage, is the celebrated 
 mosaic — the Madaba map — which, discovered in 
 1884, was not known to the public till 1897. 
 We were armed with a letter from the Greek 
 patriarch desiring that the Professor and his 
 party might have every assistance in their in- 
 vestigations. We accordingly made our way to 
 the Greek church at the foot of the rising 
 ground upon which the town is built. They 
 had not been aware of our coming, and
 
 58 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 suggested that, in order that suitable prepara- 
 tions might be made, we should return next 
 day, which was, unfortunately, impossible. By 
 the time that a solid mass of dust and dirt 
 had been laboriously removed (for the means 
 taken for the preservation of the mosaic, render 
 it accessible only in detached sections, each 
 covered by glass) the twilight was so far ad- 
 vanced that we saw it very imperfectly, and 
 are glad therefore not to depend upon our own 
 impressions for a description. It is a map, in 
 fine mosaic, of Palestine, including a part of 
 Lower Egypt, much broken and injured at the 
 edges, and, obviously, reduced in extent. It 
 serves, at present, as part of the flooring of 
 the Greek church, but, on account of its value, 
 as possibly the oldest map of Palestine in exist- 
 ence, it is, very properly, covered in with glass, 
 on a principle strongly resembling a cucumber 
 frame. 
 
 The colours, which are various, and arranged 
 with a view to science rather than to art, are 
 as fresh as the day they were laid, and the 
 mosaic is a combination of a map, a picture, 
 and a ground plan. 
 
 Pere Cleopas, a Greek priest, who is spoken 
 of as the discoverer, although it had been
 
 MADABA 59 
 
 locally known for thirteen years, thus describes 
 it: "The artist was not content to give simply 
 the names of the towns, but, moreover, with 
 careful pains, he shows the form, size, and plan 
 of any town of importance ; and further how 
 many doors and gates it has, whether these lie 
 to east or west, what important buildings it 
 contains, what is their style, and what is the 
 old name of the town, as well as that in use ; 
 where hills are found and where plains ; where 
 rivers and brooks and forests ; where springs 
 and where hot springs ; where ponds and lakes ; 
 where boats and ships ; where palms and where 
 bananas ; all these, in their natural colours, are 
 exactly indicated upon the map." 
 
 It is worth while to give some short account 
 of the Madaba map, not only because the 
 history is interesting in itself, but because it is 
 thoroughly typical of much which happens in 
 this country. The facts are taken from a 
 Mdmoire presented by Mons. Clermont- Ganneau 
 to the French Academy, and subsequently 
 published in the Recueil d' Arch^ologie Orientale. 
 
 The discoverer of the mosaic was a Greek 
 monk, of whom the very name has been for- 
 gotten, and who, in 1884, communicated the fact 
 to the Greek Patriarch, who took no notice what-
 
 60 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 ever. One feels little regret that this worthy 
 ecclesiastic was, later, exiled to Constantinople, 
 and succeeded by the patriarch Gerasimos, who, 
 in 1890, six years after the original discovery, 
 found the letter, and immediately sent off an 
 architect with orders that the mosaic should be 
 included in the church about to be erected at 
 Madaba. We have the testimony of four monks 
 that, at this time, the mosaic was almost com- 
 plete, but the intelligent workman destroyed 
 much of it in order to lay the foundations of the 
 church, sacristy, and out-buildings ; broke up 
 part to insert a pilaster, and left much of the 
 bordering, with its decorations of biblical imagery, 
 outside. He then returned, with the assurance 
 that the mosaic was unimportant. 
 
 Another six years elapsed, and Father Cl^opas, 
 librarian of the Greek patriarchate, who chanced 
 to be arranging a visit to Jericho, was prevailed 
 upon by Monsignor Gerasimos, who had never 
 lost interest in the reported discovery, to con- 
 tinue his journey as far as Madaba, in order 
 to report upon it. He returned in January 
 1897, thirteen years after the original discovery, 
 bringing with him a sketch of the map, and 
 some notes. M. Arvanitaki, a professional 
 map-maker, was at once despatched to make a
 
 MADABA 61 
 
 drawing. He was a Greek, a member of the 
 Astronomical Society of France, and an accom- 
 plished linguist, a matter of great importance 
 when abbreviations and contractions had to be 
 correctly rendered. Before his work could be 
 finished the patriarch died, and the geometer, 
 not being new to the little ways of Jerusalem, 
 was about to abandon an undertaking which any 
 succeeding patriarch might possibly repudiate, 
 but was, fortunately, encouraged by the Fran- 
 ciscans, who undertook to translate the MS. of 
 Pere Cleopas into French, and to publish the 
 work of the artist in twelve sheets of half-a-metre 
 square. This was successfully accomplished by 
 means of Lumiere's orthochromatic plates, and 
 was forwarded to the Academy of France on 
 the 1 6th of March. The story of the misfortunes 
 of the map was, however, not yet complete. The 
 Greek patriarchate claimed the original drawings, 
 and the negatives were broken on their way 
 to Paris. M. Clermont-Ganneau, however, 
 succeeded in reproducing them, and made them 
 the basis of a communication to the Institute, 
 and so of introducing the valuable "find" to 
 the archaeological world. 
 
 Meantime, Pere Vincent, of the Dominican 
 Order in Jerusalem, had made another drawing.
 
 62 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 which was pubHshed in pamphlet form with a 
 monograph by his learned colleague, Pere 
 Lagrange, collaborating with Pere Cleopas him- 
 self. A further record was made, also early in 
 March, by Pere Germer Durand, of the Assump- 
 tionist Order, who also laid a complete photograph 
 before the Academy of France, consisting of ten 
 sheets, taken from above, a light scaffolding 
 having been erected for the purpose, an experi- 
 ment pronounced in the Mdmoire as having been 
 "carried out in the most satisfactory manner 
 possible." Within two months, therefore, of the 
 visit of Pere Cleopas, the mosaic, neglected for 
 thirteen years, had been the subject of three 
 separate monographs. The representative of the 
 English Palestine Exploration Fund made a 
 visit to Madaba which was wholly unsuccessful, 
 but the German architect, Paul Palmer, of 
 Jerusalem, assisted by a couple of artists, suc- 
 ceeded in triumphing over many difficulties, 
 political as well as mechanical, and has made a 
 reproduction of the map, of the original size and 
 colouring, which now hangs, by the desire of the 
 patriarch, in the Greek School at Jerusalem, 
 where it is accessible to all comers, an object of 
 permanent value to scholars and archaeologists. 
 The discovery has naturally given rise to a
 
 MADABA 63 
 
 vast amount of discussion, and has involved much 
 reconsideration of earlier topographical con- 
 clusions. We can never sufficiently regret all 
 that has been so gratuitously lost, although, in 
 Palestine, one necessarily becomes somewhat 
 hardened to losses of the kind. Trustworthy 
 witnesses who saw the map before the mutila- 
 tion recently inflicted concur in testifying that 
 it originally recorded the position of Ephesus, 
 Smyrna, and Constantinople, showing that it 
 must have included Asia Minor and the 
 Bosphorus. 
 
 And so we wrangle and regret ; we take long 
 journeys to see this marvel of the science of at 
 least thirteen hundred years ago ; we dispute who 
 shall be accounted the first to perceive its worth ; 
 what nation first presented the facts to the world ; 
 what bearing they have upon the learning of to-day ; 
 and, meantime, the name of the discoverer, though 
 he may still be living, is never mentioned, and 
 no one thinks of the human soul that imagined, 
 the human hands that wrought — the nameless 
 Byzantine priest into whose labours we have 
 entered ! 
 
 " Nokes outdares Stokes in azure feats. 
 Both gorge. Who fished the murex up? 
 What porridge had John Keats?"
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 MSHATTA 
 
 " Thou still unravished bride of quietness, 
 Thou foster-child of Silence and slow Time, 
 Sylvan historian, who canst thus express 
 A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme." 
 
 Keats 
 
 ' I ""HERE was so much of interest at Madaba, 
 that we did not succeed in accomplishing 
 the early start we had intended, and even after 
 we were in the saddle, and had picked our way, 
 not without difficulty, among the scattered stones, 
 the middens, the children and dogs and chickens 
 which occupy such open spaces as serve for paths, 
 a native, speaking excellent German, came out of 
 a house to suggest a visit to yet another mosaic 
 pavement. This, however, we reluctantly de- 
 clined, for, although we had a journey of but five 
 hours in view, the sun was already high, and we 
 had a bare plateau to traverse. 
 
 We soon left all traces of town life behind, and 
 in little more than an hour came upon a scene 
 which was, to many of us, a new delight : that 
 of many hundreds of wandering camels in their 
 
 64
 
 MSHATTA 65 
 
 native surroundings — we had almost said their 
 native element, so different are these creatures 
 from the suffering, melancholy, over-worked, evil- 
 smelling, grumbling brutes to which we are 
 accustomed in Jerusalem. A camel to be seen 
 to advantage requires the primeval spaces for 
 which he was originally designed. He should 
 stand clear against the horizon, however bound- 
 less ; the background of narrow streets, the human 
 brutality and noise, the mud beneath feet in- 
 tended for desert sands, are an injustice for which 
 we, and not they, are to blame. Bewildered, 
 tortured, over-driven, he acquires that air of 
 abject dejection which he shares with the London 
 cab-horse, that habit of futile remonstrance which 
 we learn to associate with him, to the entire 
 exclusion of that dignity — an undoubted part of 
 the freedom which is his birthright — that grace, 
 which is inseparable from the surroundings that 
 were his when the original type, never yet 
 adapted to human environment, was first devised. 
 Camels of all shades of brown and grey were 
 there ; camels that had never had their coats 
 disfigured by clipping nor galled with burdens ; 
 white camels, almost dazzling against the sapphire 
 sky, the golden plain, the purple hills; baby camels, 
 playful as kittens but with a puppy-like air of
 
 66 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 solemnity, and more graceful than young colts, 
 because better proportioned as to legs. The 
 Bedu speak of the white camels as "blue," 
 possibly for the same reason that an inhabitant 
 of the Hebrides, when on the sea in stormy 
 weather, will speak of his island by a fictitious 
 name or, after dark, will whistle to his dogs 
 rather than call them by name, for fear of at- 
 tracting the attention of the Evil One. Many 
 superstitions among Arabs are associated with 
 blue, as again, the Highlander associating them 
 with green, the colour of the fairies, will 
 avoid naming the hue of the grass, calling it 
 blue if adjective be necessary. The Arab puts 
 a blue bead on his horse, a blue necklace on 
 his child ; his wife carries blue beads on her 
 market-basket, and one is often hung over the 
 door of the house, especially a new house. So 
 Caliban, in the Oriental story which Shakespeare 
 preserves for us in "The Tempest," speaks of 
 his mother Setebos, the witch, as "a blue-eyed 
 hag" (not "blear-eyed" into which certain com- 
 mentators have corrected the original) ; and in 
 a commentary upon an Arabic poem by Al 
 Chirnik, sister of Tarafah, belonging to the 
 early part of the seventh century, a seeress is 
 described as " Hy, the blue-eyed one, from
 
 MSHATTA 67 
 
 the notorious people of the time of ignorance " 
 — i.e. the period before the revelation of the 
 Moslem faith. 
 
 Here and there the vast plain was dotted 
 with the black temporary villages of the Bedu, 
 generally arranged in a circle or square, dooah, 
 around a central space upon which all the tents 
 open, although, with some instinct of sanitation, 
 the drapery was generally raised, both "but 
 and ben," as they say in Scotland. The popu- 
 lation seemed to be largely abroad, and every 
 half mile or so we came upon a little group, 
 more or less keeping an eye upon the herds, 
 visible for miles, even to the farthest horizon, 
 where they made long dados of themselves 
 against the cloudless sky. Almost due south 
 of us, each on its own hill, overlooking a Roman 
 road running north and south, are two important 
 ruins — Um Weleed (mother of children) and 
 Um el Kuseir. They are only about half-an- 
 hour apart, and we longed to make the short 
 detour necessary to visit them, but the Pro- 
 fessor's face was turned where duty called and 
 we did not venture to propose the expenditure 
 of time. Tristram describes these cities, and 
 others lying along the same route, and thinks 
 they may have been at least Maccabean, for
 
 68 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 they are obviously much older than the 
 Saracenic khans and the Roman forts, which 
 are alike numerous in the district. He says 
 that in all he looked in vain for any traces of 
 Christian worship but that in each case there 
 were the ruins of a temple, always outside the 
 city, with the entrance to the east, and, where- 
 ever the architecture could be determined, of 
 Doric origin ; and he speculates as to whether 
 these High Places may have originally served 
 for Baal-worship. Another point which he 
 notes, and which we, later, had opportunities 
 of verifying, is the immense number of cisterns 
 and underground storehouses, still in use by 
 the Bedu for storage of grain and protection of 
 flocks. It is interesting to recall that one of 
 the commands given upon the Moabite stone, 
 which was found but a few hours' journey south 
 west, was " Make for yourselves every man a 
 cistern in his house." The present names of 
 these ruined towns, Um Weleed, Kirbet el-Herri, 
 Zebib, Um er-Resas, Um el-Kuseir, and others, are 
 all Arabic, and do not help us in identification, and 
 trace of any other name seldom remains. They 
 must, nevertheless, have been important; Um We- 
 leed, for example, measures half-a-mile in length 
 within the walls, and has suburbs in addition.
 
 MSHATTA 69 
 
 Of Zlza, however, where we halted for a 
 short time about four hours after leaving 
 Madaba, we find a clear record in the Roman 
 Notitia, where the name occurs, unchanged by 
 a single letter, as an important military station, 
 "■ Equites Dalmatici Illyriciani Ziza. Here 
 we found traces of what must have been one 
 of the largest towns of Roman Arabia, the 
 most prominent feature being a great tank of 
 solid masonry, 420 by 330 feet, still larger than 
 that at Madaba, and, although the dry season 
 was far advanced, and the reservoir is much 
 reduced in available extent by debris, contain- 
 ing still a good supply of water. Steps, so 
 wide and shallow as to be accessible even to 
 horses, lead down to the water ; many of the 
 single stones are over six feet in length, and the 
 reservoir was fed by an ingenious contrivance 
 which, aided by two sets of strong sluice gates 
 and an embankment of earth and masonry, 
 formerly economised all the water which, in 
 the heavy winter rains, would come rushing 
 along the valley and down the hill side, upon 
 which the town was built. In various parts of 
 the valley there are embankments, to turn the 
 water from other gorges and depressions into 
 this central reservoir, which is also provided
 
 70 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 with dams in the event of flood, floods being 
 frequent and dangerous in this country, where, 
 in the early rains, the water rushes in torrents 
 alonor the surface of the baked and hardened 
 earth. In the neighbourhood of such provision 
 for a large population one naturally looks for 
 buildings of importance. Tristram observes that 
 the tank, though of such infinite consequence 
 as is barely conceivable to those who do not 
 know the East, is not defended, pointing to a 
 period of security, when the Dalmatian cavalry 
 swept the surrounding plains and made their 
 headquarters here and, possibly, at Castal. 
 Against the horizon, on the crest of the ridge, 
 are two castles, which we were unable to visit 
 but which were described by Tristram : one a 
 solidly-built fort, apparently Saracenic, although 
 constructed of older materials, which, to judge 
 from the sculpture remaining upon them, may 
 have been the ruins of Byzantine churches, the 
 other, to the east, is, he tells us, in a much 
 more ruinous condition. The present remains 
 seem to be Roman, but show traces of use as a 
 mosque, and among the material are sculptured 
 stones, possibly Byzantine, according to some 
 Persian, as well as fragments of cufic inscrip- 
 tions. Eastward, again, is the Roman town of
 
 MSHATTA 71 
 
 Ziza, which includes a strange aggregation 
 such as is found in no country other than 
 Syria. There is a fine Saracenic building, said 
 by the Arabs to have been perfect until the 
 Egyptian invasion of 1832 ; there are cufic 
 inscriptions and sculptured crosses ; an olive 
 mill of basalt ; remains of sarcophagi ; and a 
 large Christian church, of which one apse still 
 remains standing. All these ruins suffered con- 
 siderably from the wanton destruction wrought 
 by the Egyptian troops, who, it is said, threw 
 down a very perfect building in the town, and 
 several entire Christian churches. Tristram 
 was the first European to visit Mshatta and 
 Castal as well as Ziza ; the last, at the suggestion 
 of Zadam, the son of the great shech of the 
 Beni Sakr, the local tribe of Bedu, who, by 
 the intervention of Klein, the German mis- 
 sionary famous for the discovery of the Moabite 
 stone, accompanied Tristram as companion, 
 and protector of the expedition. The ruins 
 appear to have been previously pointed out 
 to Captain, now Sir Charles, Warren, the re- 
 presentative of the Palestine Exploration Fund, 
 who, however, made no investigation, so that 
 it fell to the share of Tristram to be the 
 discoverer of Mshatta, one of the most re-
 
 72 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 markable architectural monuments in the 
 world. 
 
 It was with ever-increasing eagerness of 
 expectation that we hastened on, after asking 
 our way from some railway workmen — Europeans 
 — who were living in tents among the ruins, and 
 who spoke a polyglot of Arabic, French, and 
 Italian. Within a few minutes we crossed the 
 line upon which they were engaged, intended 
 — strange anachronism ! — to connect Damascus 
 with Mecca, an undertaking for which the 
 Turkish Government deserves the credit of 
 immense perseverance under very difficult con- 
 ditions. It may be mentioned, in passing, as 
 also to their credit, that they are now rapidly 
 carrying out the line from Haifa northwards, 
 undertaken some years ago by the English, and 
 which — after the whole district had been sur- 
 veyed, the line planned by the skill of Dr 
 Schumacher, the German-American Vice-Consul 
 at Haifa, and the work, in the hands of 
 an English engineer and English foreman, 
 had made some progress — was mysteriously 
 abandoned, to the serious loss of many of the 
 employes. 
 
 It is of this railway that Professor George 
 Adam Smith prognosticated so hopefully, as being
 
 MSHATTA 73 
 
 the most important material innovation from 
 the West. "... Not only will it open up the 
 most fertile parts of the country, and bring bax:k 
 European civilisation to where it once was 
 supreme — on the east of Jordan — but, if ever 
 European arms return to the country — as in a 
 contest for Egypt or for the Holy Places when 
 may they not return ? — this railway, running 
 from the coast across the central battlefield of 
 Palestine, will be of immense strategic value " 
 (" Hist. Geog. of the Holy Land," p. 20). 
 
 At the point where we cross the line the rails 
 are not yet in place, but the iron monster will 
 soon be here — fit symbol of an age which mocks 
 the time that is, but creates few monuments 
 which shall defy the time that shall be ; which 
 enables the curious to gaze at the wonders of 
 the past, but leaves him no leisure to initiate 
 what may survive our race, and speak, as do 
 the ruins of Moab, to an age and a people of a 
 distant future. We come on the wings of steam, 
 and with all the miracles of science, but we 
 leave no trace but unsightly heaps and a scar 
 upon the face of the landscape. We were glad, 
 some of us, when we had reached and crossed the 
 unshamed anachronism, and, forgetting the noise 
 that would break the silence of the plain, the
 
 74 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 smoke that would soil its purity, the advertise- 
 ment, the competition, with their attendant 
 vulgarity and vice, we could throw ourselves 
 again into the arms of Nature, and listen to the 
 voices of our Mother Earth. 
 
 It seemed far more in keeping with our mood 
 of the moment when, an hour or so later, we 
 crossed the Haj (pilgrim) Road from Damascus 
 to Mecca ; the road, or rather aggregation of 
 paths, some hundreds of parallel tracks, dispersed 
 over a width of looo yards, alternately dividing 
 and amalgamating, over which, for some twelve 
 hundred years, the followers of the Prophet have 
 passed to the visible centre and cradle of their 
 faith. It is possible that the sons of Isaac may 
 have trodden this very path on their way from 
 the desert to the land of promise, for here there 
 can be little variation in roadways, as they are 
 determined not by mountain passes or choice of 
 gradient, but by the presence of water, llie 
 shech of the district is responsible for the safe 
 conduct of the pilgrimage across his territory, 
 and it is at their own risk that any wander from 
 the caravan. It is not many years since a body 
 of pilgrims, tempted by some vision of a nearer 
 route, had to be followed up when they did not 
 reappear. A few only were saved, but two
 
 MSHATTA 75 
 
 hundred perished from thirst, and one shudders 
 
 to think of the possible animal suffering involved, 
 
 although, happily, most would be mounted on 
 
 the long-enduring camel. The Professor told us 
 
 that at times, when his caravan had lost its way 
 
 in the desert at night, his mukaris would stoop 
 
 down and scoop up a handful of sand some two 
 
 or three inches deep, which they would smell for 
 
 traces of camel droppings, showing, when they 
 
 were deeper than a possible surface accident, 
 
 that the travellers were on the timeworn track. 
 
 Almost involuntarily we drew rein, and 
 
 paused, with mingled feelings, before this record 
 
 of human emotions. Five times a day every 
 
 good Moslem must turn toward Mecca, and once 
 
 in a lifetime, if possible, he must journey thither 
 
 in pilgrimage, either personally or by proxy. 
 
 The road is strewn with the bones not only of 
 
 animals but of men, who have fallen by the way, 
 
 from thirst or exhaustion, it may be, or from 
 
 plague and the cholera, which so constantly 
 
 dog their footsteps. The Arabs have a story 
 
 that a good Derwish in Mecca begged the 
 
 leader of the pilgrimage to take the cholera 
 
 away with him from a place where so many 
 
 holy men were daily perishing. " But," said the 
 
 Haj, "there are many good men in Jerusalem,
 
 76 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 whom we can ill spare!" "Well," said the 
 Derwish, " take it, anyway, and if Allah does 
 not want it in Jerusalem He will send it on 
 elsewhere " ; and that, says history, as well as 
 tradition, has happened annually ever since, for 
 though Jerusalem is left untouched, the dread 
 cholera accompanies the returning pilgrims 
 almost every season, and is seldom far away 
 from the track which lay before us. 
 
 Although many now avail themselves of the 
 steamers on the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, 
 thousands assemble every year at Damascus, 
 where the holy tent of the caravan is kept, and 
 large numbers still come, even from Circassia, 
 Central Asia, and Northern Africa, in order to 
 make the orthodox journey in its entirety. 
 Formerly it was reckoned as lasting twenty- 
 seven days but, owing to various mitigations in 
 the difficulty of travel, the time tends, every 
 year, to become shorter. Nevertheless, the 
 Arabs have a saying which expresses a journey 
 of indefinite length (much as we say "to go to 
 Jericho ") : " To go to the gate of God " ; (Bab-el 
 Allah) the gate that is. at the end of the 
 Meidan, the suburb of Damascus, where the 
 pilgrimage assembles, known as Bawabet Allah. 
 
 Though, in these days when, even among
 
 MS H ATT A 77 
 
 Moslems, the tendency shows itself to minimise 
 the duties of life, and many only contribute to 
 the cost of the general pilgrimage, and com- 
 promise with conscience by a mere payment 
 in money, nevertheless, even yet, custom, super- 
 stition, temporary advantage, hereditary con- 
 ventionality or, it may be, pious instinct, religious 
 fervour, cosmic yearning, avail now, as in all 
 ages, to the direction of human conduct, and 
 the parallel tracks are still well trodden. To 
 us, who can enter in part only into the spirit 
 of the East — its absolute faith in predestination, 
 in the predetermination of salvation or per- 
 dition, in the irrelevance between religion and 
 conduct, in the resignation which seems to us 
 so utterly without hope, in its limitation of the 
 relations between Man and God, its perpetual 
 ascription of praise with but little margin for 
 intercession — the whole position is a great 
 mystery, and in the tramp, tramp of thousands 
 of feet, which seems to us to echo wearily through 
 vast avenues of time, we find it difficult to catch 
 any note of love, or hope, or aspiration. They 
 carry an inevitable burden of human sorrow, which 
 is no fit offering at such a shrine as theirs ; they 
 have hopes and fears and human longings 
 which they may confide to none but human
 
 78 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 hearts : God is great ; there is no god but God ; 
 all that befalls them is already decreed ; and 
 the pilgrimage is to His glory and in no sense 
 for their own consolation. Browning's Epistle 
 of an Arab Physician recurred to the mind of 
 some among us, with the startled utterance of 
 the Syrian contemporary of Jesus of Nazareth : 
 
 "... think, Abib ; dost thou think? 
 So, the All-great were the All-loving too ! 
 So through the thunder comes a human voice 
 Saying: "O heart I made, a heart beats here!" 
 
 Thus dreaming, we journeyed on, still over 
 vast spaces with dim horizons, bounded by low 
 ranges of hills, showing in deep purple against 
 the cloudless, sapphire sky. 
 
 Suddenly all was changed ! We were no 
 longer among the unsatisfied yearnings of pil- 
 grimage but the companions of that youngest 
 brother in the fairy tales, whose long journeyings 
 had so often entered into our dream of the distant 
 lands, for were we not drawing up at the gate 
 of the Enchanted Palace, more beautiful than 
 any dream, more deeply mysterious than the 
 wonders of the Arabian Nights } 
 
 " Here all things in their place remain, 
 As all were ordered, ages since. 
 Come, Care and Pleasure, Hope and Pain, 
 And bring the fated fairy Prince ! "
 
 MSHATTA 79 
 
 Truly the place was under a spell — here in 
 this wide wilderness, an unfinished dream of 
 the sculptor of a giant age, stood the Castle of 
 Mshatta ; far exceeding any description which 
 we had read or heard ; paralysing us with such 
 awe of its beauty and mystery as seldom seizes 
 one before the work of Man ; its immensity, 
 its majesty, the unique perfection of its work- 
 manship, above all, its silence, its absolute 
 mystery, seeming in unison with the vast works 
 of Nature all around, rather than with any con- 
 ception of a merely human mind. 
 
 We were speechless in presence of this 
 monument of a race to which we could give no 
 name, of a purpose at which we could not even 
 guess, of aspirations never fulfilled, hopes never 
 realised. 
 
 "Titanic forces taking birth 
 In divers seasons, divers climes. 
 For we are Ancients of the earth 
 And in the morning of the times." 
 
 Tristram, after his second visit in the year 
 1872, returned to England, declaring that the 
 whole question continued to be an insoluble 
 mystery. " Even the name gave no clue, and 
 such meaning as it may even have had as Um 
 shita, " mother of winter," presumably so called as
 
 80 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 affording winter shelter for the flocks, is now 
 subtracted, for although the spelling of Mashita or 
 Meshita has been employed up to the present, 
 even by the precise Baedeker in his English 
 edition of 1900, the derivation is now declared 
 fanciful, and Mshatta the more accurate ren- 
 dering of the name. 
 
 That the problem is a difficult one is the more 
 obvious from the very fact that it has none of 
 the complications which beset the archaeologist 
 elsewhere. There have been no subtractions, no 
 accretions, no changes. Hardly a ruin remains 
 in Syria where Moslem zeal has not destroyed 
 its sculptured imagery. Here all is perfect as 
 when the artist laid down his chisel. Not a 
 detail is defaced ; the few stones which may have 
 been removed have in no degree marred its 
 completeness ; its position has been its protec- 
 tion ; far alike from the ignorant zeal of the 
 fellahin Moslem, from the misdirected industry 
 of the town Christian, it has inherited none of 
 the blessings of civilisation. It is still the 
 " unravished bride of quietness." As Tristram 
 has well said : " Too proud to cultivate, happily 
 too careless to destroy, the incurious Bedawin 
 has roamed over its rich pasture lands : never 
 tempted to loosen a stone, for he needs no
 
 MSHATTA 81 
 
 building materials, and content if the old cisterns 
 and arches afford a shelter in winter for his flocks." 
 
 In the wonderful fa9ade upwards of fifty animals, 
 exquisitely sculptured, in every variety of attitude, 
 still quench their thirst in pairs, bending opposite 
 each other, over a graceful vase ; their outline, 
 their very motion perfectly rendered ; lions, lynxes, 
 panthers, gazelle, buffaloes ; here is a man with 
 a dog, there a man carries a basket of fruit ; birds 
 hover ; peacocks, storks, partridges, parrots, vaunt 
 their beauty, with the grace of the models from 
 which they were drawn, in days when we were 
 living in wattled huts. The more conventional 
 outlines — the cornices and mouldings, the con- 
 tinuous Vandyke, with a great rose boss at every 
 angle — although strikingly unfamiliar, are emin- 
 ently satisfying to the eye, and the wonderful 
 realism of the flowers, grapes, and vine-leaves, 
 which fill up every remaining inch of the fa9ade, 
 is like a dream of Grinling Gibbon carved out 
 in massive stone. 
 
 Where, unless in the Alhambra, or (as we learn 
 from Fergusson, De Vogiie, Dieulafoy, and other 
 authorities on Persian art) in remote parts of 
 Persia, can we find anything in the least com- 
 parable to the bewildering richness of the designs 
 which have blossomed for us here in the wilder-
 
 82 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 ness ? — far, not only from mankind, but from such 
 gifts of nature as would make possible the presence 
 of mankind ; where, for lack of water, even the 
 rich soil of the great tableland cannot be culti- 
 vated, and the district must for ever remain, 
 as it has ever been, a desert ! The Arabs have 
 no traditions of this place, as they have of so 
 many other ruins, and they do not even ascribe 
 its foundation to Saladdin or the Khalifs, to 
 whom all that is great is almost invariably 
 assio^ned. Can a buildinor covered with human 
 and animal designs owe its origin to the Moslem, 
 to whom all such representations were forbidden ? 
 Although Thompson, the author of " The Land 
 and the Book," proposed to consider the ruins as 
 those of a church and convent, there is, apart 
 from all other difficulties as to size, plan, and 
 position, no single indication of Christian work- 
 manship or symbol. Were the Romans likely 
 to build a sumptuous Oriental palace in a lonely 
 desert, far from any military road ? If the 
 Bedawy, the wandering Ishmaelite, sole denizen 
 of deserts such as this, were for once to depart 
 from his normal style of architecture — two or 
 three poles and a piece of cloth — is it likely that 
 his descendants would have preserved no tradition 
 of so extraordinary a deviation ?
 
 MSHATTA 83 
 
 One solution offered is, nevertheless, that it 
 was the work of Byzantine architects, employed 
 by the desert tribes, notably the Beni Sakr, 
 in the days when they were rich with the sub- 
 sidies paid to them by the Romans for protection 
 of their colonies and forts and roads from the 
 encroachments of other enemies of the desert ; 
 that it was never intended as a place of residence 
 but merely for the reception of ambassadors, 
 who were to be over-awed, partly by the miracle 
 of this rose of the wilderness, partly by the skill 
 shown in the triumph over niggard Nature ; or, in 
 the event of this being insufficient, were to be 
 separated from their steeds, and presented with 
 free house room until hunger, thirst, and loneliness 
 should make them amenable. Whether the work 
 remained incomplete from paucity of money or 
 of ambassadors, is not revealed. 
 
 Another solution, of which Fergusson is the 
 originator, is that it was the work of the Persian 
 king, Chosroes II., who, between the years 6i i and 
 614, overran the whole of Northern Syria and Asia 
 Minor. Gibbon's enumeration, gathered from con- 
 temporary authors (Gibbon's "Decline and Fall," 
 Chap. X. 701), of his 20,000 camels and 3000 
 concubines, his 960 elephants and 6000 horses, 
 suggests, at least, that he had the money for the
 
 / 
 
 84 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 building of artistic palaces, and the fact that 
 he spent the years of his youth at Hierapolis, 
 where he had ample opportunity for studying 
 the art and culture of Asia Minor, may suggest, 
 further, that he possibly had the taste. These 
 kings of the Sassanian dynasty were, indeed, 
 noted for their love of architecture, and the 
 Court favourite of Chosroes IL, Ferhad, was an 
 architect. A drawing of an ancient bas - relief 
 at Shiraz, to be seen at the Institute of British 
 Architects, presents Chosroes as slaying a lion, 
 while his fair favourite, Shireen, watches Ferhad 
 sculpturing birds and foliage upon a rock. Some 
 forty or fifty Sassanian bas-reliefs, sculptured 
 pictures such as those at Mshatta, still remain 
 in various places. Moreover, we learn that 
 Chosroes II. had thousands of Greek and 
 Syrian slaves, whom he employed in the con- 
 struction of sumptuous buildings. The site of 
 Mshatta might well lie in his route between 
 Damascus and the Nile. (See Chap. iii. p. 53.) 
 The sudden arrest of the work — one stone 
 west of the entrance gate has been just laid down 
 beside the place prepared for it, many stones 
 have the sculpture incomplete, or merely indicated, 
 we saw slabs upon which tentative sketches of 
 horses had been made — might be accounted for
 
 MSHATTA 85 
 
 by the fact that, in 623, the Emperor HeracHus, 
 " the Roman eagle swooping magnificently in her 
 dying throes," compelled Chosroes, after only, 
 at the utmost, fourteen years of power in Syria, 
 to recall his troops from Egypt, Syria, and Asia 
 Minor, and though, for four years, the strife was 
 fierce between Persian and Roman, the latter 
 ultimately triumphed, and Chosroes died miser- 
 ably in a dungeon. Barely ten years later the 
 Romans were banished by the Saracens. 
 
 The learned Professor Briinnow has made the 
 suggestion that this building originated with the 
 Ghassanides, the Beni Jafn, who migrated from 
 Yemen in the first Christian century and, having 
 been made, by the Romans, wardens of the marches 
 of the Empire, developed later into an important 
 dynasty ; submitting even to the civilising influ- 
 ences of Christianity, for, in 180, Amir I. founded 
 a monastery in Hauran. Briinnow observed the 
 same vandyke pattern, which, however, is in itself 
 a somewhat elementary design, upon a water 
 jar in Jaulan, a district considerably north of 
 Mshatta, but where, he observes, the Ghassanides 
 were at home. Although the jar was modern 
 it was conceivably copied from an ancient design, 
 as was, undoubtedly, another standing beside it. 
 Moreover, he found a pattern of double Vandykes
 
 86 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 — that is, of squares joined at the corners, upon a 
 frieze in the same district. Other archaeologists 
 object that certain details cannot be older than 
 Justinian, when Arabian kings held no sway near 
 the Jordan, others doubt whether the Arabian 
 kings ever extended their power into this 
 unquestionably Roman province. To the mere 
 layman it seems so probable that a row of 
 Vandykes was the first thing that Adam drew 
 with a stick upon the sand, that he fails to find 
 in it anything distinctive enough to form the 
 basis of a historical or architectural theory. 
 
 The entrance, with its magnificent fagade, is 
 to the south, the sculpture, extending over 156 
 feet in the centre of the face, is broken by a 
 gateway, and rises to the height of 18 feet. 
 Behind this is a quadrangle, 170 yards square, 
 at each angle a round bastion, and five others, 
 semicircular, between them. On the south 
 front alone there are six, the central gateway 
 being flanked by two, boldly octagonal, and 
 magnificently sculptured. The interior is best 
 described as being divided into three portions, 
 by parallel lines running north and south, the 
 side ones about 46, the centre about 66, yards 
 in width. The centre one has been divided into 
 three sections ; that nearest the gate, which is
 
 MSHATTA 87 
 
 portioned into many chambers, was probably 
 intended for a guard house ; the second may 
 have been an open space, with a fountain, and 
 the third or northernmost was the palace itself. 
 This consists of brick walls, resting on three 
 courses of stone, the bricks, of somewhat curious 
 form, resembling, it is said, those of no known 
 building, except a ruined palace north-east of 
 Damascus, described by Tyrwhitt Drake and 
 Sir Richard Burton. They are like Roman 
 tiles, but larger and thinner, 3 inches thick and 
 about 18 inches square. The palace is divided 
 into twenty-four rooms, the entrance hall being 
 about 50 feet square, four others being perhaps 
 two-thirds of that size. The entrance is through 
 a wide doorway, with massive pilasters and 
 elaborate capitals, with ornamentation, possibly, 
 of Persian or Egyptian — certainly not of Greek — 
 design. Architects have perplexed themselves 
 over the problem, still unsolved, as to how the 
 palace was lighted, as there is not a single 
 window from without, and within only a few 
 small round openings over the doors. Bliss, of 
 Beirut, the distinguished American archaeologist, 
 conjectures that the large halls were unroofed, 
 and that the smaller rooms opened upon them, 
 a plan quite consistent with the Oriental con-
 
 88 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 ception of a house, originally derived from tents 
 opening into a central space, and developing, 
 first into rooms opening into a court, and, 
 later, into the modern house, in which all 
 rooms on both floors open into a leewan, or 
 central apartment. 
 
 Naturally, all these observations were made 
 later, for it was our privilege to remain for 
 some nights within the palace walls, where, 
 amid kind and hospitable friends, and in com- 
 fortable tents, bearing the familiar initials 
 T. I. W. (Thames Iron Works), relics of the 
 abandoned English railway, we found leisure 
 to rest and to dream. Some of us found the 
 spell of fairyland so strong that little else than 
 dream seemed possible. Never, perhaps, so 
 loud as here, did we "hear the East a-calling," 
 
 "something which possessed 
 The darkness of the world, delight, 
 Life, anguish, death, immortal love 
 Ceasing not, mingled, unrepressed 
 Apart from space, withholding time. 
 But flattering the golden prime 
 Of good Haroun Alraschid." 
 
 It was, perhaps, bathos, on our part, but we 
 wished Tennyson had known enough Arabic to 
 write Er-Rashid ! 
 
 How far it all seemed from the littlenesses
 
 MSHATTA 89 
 
 we have learned to confuse with realities — "the 
 greeting where no kindness is," "the dreary 
 intercourse of daily life " ! 
 
 "We grew in gladness, till we found 
 Our spirits in the golden age." 
 
 Our thoughts turned to dear ones far away 
 
 as, we may fancy, do those of some who have 
 
 gone from among us, so far removed we seemed 
 
 even from those nearest in spirit ! We were 
 
 ready 
 
 "To pass with all our social ties 
 To silence, from the paths of men, 
 And every hundred years to rise 
 And learn the world, and sleep again." 
 
 Towards evening, when the golden light was 
 fading from over the wide plain, we turned our 
 steps towards the eastern hills, a long, low, lime- 
 stone range, a day's ride distant, although, in 
 the clear atmosphere, it seemed as if we might 
 almost reach their foot in time to see the sun 
 set. One of the soldiers in charge of our party 
 kept us in sight all the time ; for away in those 
 dim recesses are wild tribes, who submit to no 
 government but that of their own chief, Ibn 
 Rashid, the great Arabian potentate, whose 
 stronghold is far away beyond the hills, in the 
 city of Hayil, and whom all other shechs hold
 
 90 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 in awe. Our host, Dr Schumacher, told us that 
 not even his Circassian soldiers, fierce and fear- 
 less as they are, would consent to accompany him 
 beyond that plain into the district of Hadramat, 
 and it was still with the sensation of being in 
 touch with fairy lore that we listened while the 
 Professor told us stories of his sojourn in that 
 distant land, of hospitality received in that far- 
 away stronghold, and of personal and friendly 
 intercourse with the great chief himself. We 
 were interested later to note the anachronism of 
 the two cairns, on widely distant hills, remains 
 of Dr Schumacher's survey for the great German 
 map of East Jordan. 
 
 As our shadows lengthened we stood to watch 
 the herds of gazelle descending into the plain ; 
 the graceful creatures, secure in their swiftness, 
 coming so near that we could watch their move- 
 ments even without our field-glasses. We had 
 already learnt that they came down daily, towards 
 sunset, often close to the palace walls, and our 
 Sportsmen had long lain in wait for them there 
 in the hope of game, but the news of the human 
 invasion, the profane breaking of the silence, 
 had gone forth, and the gentle creatures, having 
 little reason to feel confidence in the lords of 
 creation, had turned away elsewhere.
 
 MSHATTA 91 
 
 As we retraced our steps we lingered, picking 
 up here a flint arrow-head, gift of a distant past, 
 there a bleached snake-skin, perfect as though 
 worn but yesterday. Other treasures, too, we 
 found : wonderful velvety arums, crimson, purple, 
 and black, not the large aruvi palcestinum of the 
 spring, but a minute, dainty, fairy-like copy of 
 it, fitly adorning this dream world ; crocuses, 
 leafless, almost stalkless, white, mauve, and pink, 
 rich relations of the "naked ladies" of our home 
 meadows, and tiny pink geraniums, the lingering 
 guests of summer. 
 
 Scarcely were we again at home, when Nature 
 endowed us with another, and truly royal, 
 spectacle. As the full moon rose, above our 
 palace walls, she was eclipsed, and we stood 
 long, watching alternately the western miracle 
 of sunset and the eastern pageant of the slow 
 and, as it seemed, reluctant moonrise. Some 
 of the Arab servants watched with us, but they 
 were of so superior a class that they showed 
 but the faint, unimaginative interest of average 
 civilised man elsewhere. They told us, however, 
 of the superstitious practices still pursued by 
 those "who knew no better" — the singing and 
 beating of tom-toms and sacrifice of a cock. 
 They were wonderful servants, or seemed so
 
 92 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 to us, the slaves of the kitchen of the West. 
 The cook produced excellent dinners, of three 
 hot courses, upon a box of charcoal embers 
 he could lift with one hand, and the waiters, 
 summoned with a hand-clap, not only brought 
 but ran to bring whatever you might want. 
 Everything was spotlessly clean, and the wait- 
 inor at table would have done credit to an Enor- 
 lish "Jeames." They all spoke at least three 
 languages, and they amused our leisure moments 
 with games and songs. The native, however, 
 must come out somewhere, and we are bound 
 to record that, when an imprisoned cock crowed 
 from a small wooden box, these Arabs, who are 
 never quiet one second themselves, took him 
 out and whipped him ! 
 
 We went to rest early in our luxurious tents, 
 and woke next morning to find, among other 
 miracles, that the water in our jugs was barely 
 above freezing point.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 AMMAN 
 
 " Lost Echo sits amid the voiceless mountains." 
 
 Shelley 
 
 TT was with something like the pain of a per- 
 sonal parting that we bade farewell to Mshatta. 
 Our friends, too, were breaking up camp this 7th 
 of October, and as the German flags were saluted 
 before being taken down, we realised to the full, 
 as sometimes happens, that here was one of 
 those moments in life which could never recur ; 
 that our joy in the marvellous beauty of the 
 spot, in the indefinable fusion of Art and Nature, 
 was such as we could never repeat. The 
 swallows, who had made their home in the 
 ruined palace, would soon dart and skim in con- 
 sciousness of sole possession ; the lizards, when 
 the sun became hot, would bask upon the 
 wall as they had basked a thousand years ; the 
 gazelles would wander fearlessly around at sun- 
 set, all would be as before, except where man 
 had left his imprimahir, the scar of death and de- 
 struction that follows his tracks across the face of 
 93
 
 94 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 Nature. The very dogs had gone already : the 
 foolish puppy, with its woolly coat, the beautiful 
 tawny deerhound, more light limbed, more fleet 
 than ours, in proportion as the gazelle, his prey, 
 exceeds our moorland deer in swiftness and in 
 grace. The dream was past, "so sleeping, so 
 aroused from sleep," we were on one of those 
 tablelands of life from which no change was 
 possible but descent to the common-place of 
 every day. We had seen the pale moonlight 
 on the palace walls, the purple hills we might 
 never hope to cross ; we had had visions of 
 an enchanted world we might never see ; we had 
 had glimpses of a page we might never hope 
 to turn. 
 
 "Under the arch of Life where love and death, 
 Terror and mystery, guard her shrine, I saw 
 Beauty enthroned ; and though her gaze struck awe 
 I drew it in as simply as my breath." 
 
 We were bound for Amman, not more than 
 between five and six hours' ride away, and our 
 horses, refreshed by their rest, went gaily along 
 the gently undulating plain. Somewhat north 
 we came in sight of Castal, a Roman fortress, 
 on a hill westward, which some of the party — 
 the Sportsmen, and the Doctor — had visited 
 yesterday, and which Tristram, its discoverer,
 
 AMMAN 95 
 
 considered different in character, as well as 
 superior in size, to the usual castle of look-out 
 and defence to be found all over districts where 
 Roman colonies and roads may have needed 
 protection and supervision. Although the place 
 is not mentioned in Eusebius, either in the 
 Itineraries or the Notitia, its name is obviously- 
 Roman, and its size, for it is capable of accom- 
 modating some twelve hundred cavalry, speaks 
 for its importance. It contains many fragments 
 of fine white marble, not indigenous. There 
 appear to have been two castles : the main 
 building, on the crest of the hill, 84 yards square, 
 of which only the lower storey remains, and a 
 smaller building, northward, of superior workman- 
 ship, with a balustrade of fluted Corinthian squared 
 pilasters. The ancient city, which includes re- 
 mains which may be Greek, stands N.W. of 
 the castle. During the last five years it has been 
 occupied by Bedu, very greatly to its injury. 
 
 We had exchanged our escort, as the officer 
 granted by the Pasha for our safe conduct was 
 not responsible for us after we had reached 
 Madaba. We had, accordingly, bidden him fare- 
 well before leaving, and had been touched by 
 the fact that he had positively declined to receive 
 a present, alleging that to do so would detract
 
 96 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 from the honour which he had enjoyed in being 
 permitted to accompany so distinguished a person 
 as the Professor. The member of our party who 
 best knew the country, cynically observed that 
 he must have seen more profit in refusal than 
 in acceptance! He had a good voice, and, 
 though Arab music is certainly an acquired 
 taste, had given us pleasure, and contributed 
 variety to the al-fresco concerts we occasionally 
 enjoyed. Among other songs had been one 
 composed by a certain poet Nimr, whose grave 
 we were to visit later. Silence is impossible 
 to an Arab, and when they are not talking they 
 sing. Our mukaris also sang, the words often 
 being improvised out of some passing circum- 
 stance, and with nonsense rhymes. 
 
 Whether the following was the actual air or 
 only another exactly like it, it would be impos- 
 sible to say. For this we are indebted to Dr 
 Schumacher, who found it among the Anazeh 
 tribe of Bedu, said to be especially fond of both 
 music and poetry, and who relates that, "walk- 
 ing in the caravan of camels, his mantle or 
 sheepskin thrown over one shoulder and an old 
 musket or a huge stick carried on the other, 
 the Bedawin is heard continually chanting the 
 following monotonous song " : —
 
 AMMAN 97 
 
 . rr\ A iv^ . ^ /T\ A IT" 
 
 Ya ya - b a ah yeh | ya h - al - a a - leh 
 
 -- A ^^ A A 
 
 Ya ya - b a ah y - eh I ah ya ha la leh | o - o - o - h ! 
 
 When the Arab sings he shuts his mouth, and, 
 very Hterally, " sings through his nose," four notes, 
 or rather tones, amply sufficing for a melody. 
 When we sang they seemed vastly amused, and 
 our younger mukari was caught more than once 
 mimicking our gestures, beating time, and open- 
 ing his mouth ; while the other was in fits of 
 laughter. 
 
 The successor of our officer was a Circassian, 
 and, though equally picturesque, of quite a 
 different type. In place of the flowing robe 
 and floating keffeeye of the Bedu he wore an 
 astrachan cap, close-fitting coat, leggings tucked 
 inside low shoes with heels, and the military 
 cloak of the Turkish cavalry. His horse was 
 very powerful, and always well groomed, and, 
 what is more unusual in the Turkish army as 
 represented in Syria, his accoutrements and 
 harness — silver-mounted, with enamel decoration 
 — were bright and well kept. He had all the 
 apparent moroseness characteristic of his race,
 
 98 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 and never spoke except under pressure ; but the 
 Lady reported that he was kindly in rendering 
 small services unasked, would always ride up 
 to her if she became accidentally separated from 
 the party, especially if she were any distance 
 in advance, and was expert in mounting and 
 dismounting her, although never obtruding his 
 assistance. 
 
 About half-an-hour from Mshatta the Sportsmen 
 sighted a herd of gazelle, and, still sore from 
 previous disappointments, dismounted to stalk 
 them — as usual, in vain. They vanished like 
 smoke round the base of a low hill, which one 
 of the party climbed, in search rather of informa- 
 tion as to their habits, than in hope of a kill. 
 He came back with the report that even a gun- 
 shot had failed to break up their ranks, and that 
 they went on their way in perfect order. 
 
 The road, still over a wide plain, with occa- 
 sional undulations, might have been considered 
 barren of interest by those who could not find 
 delight in the wonderful gradations of colouring, 
 dun against the cloudless sky ; the sensation of 
 infinite space ; the crocuses and minute arums, 
 dainty jewels set in golden sands ; the darting 
 lizards, distinguishable only in motion from their 
 surroundings ; the tiny white shells of the land-
 
 AMMAN 99 
 
 snails ; the scent of the wormwood artemisium 
 when crushed beneath our horses' feet ; the 
 myriads of larks, including the exquisite crested 
 lark — the Mary-lark of the Highlands of Scotland; 
 while now and then a deep purple shadow cross- 
 ing our path told of a griffon-vulture or lanner- 
 falcon swooping over the plain, to the terror of 
 bird and beast. 
 
 From time to time the Professor would break 
 out into song, not the irritating snatches which 
 are an insult alike to silence and to conversation, 
 but a consistent and complete rendering, as 
 careful as if in any drawing - room, of some 
 quaint old folk - song picked up in his many 
 wanderings — and which, sung with an artistic 
 verve in a mellow tenor, others uniting in bass 
 or alto in a harmonised refrain, filled the air 
 with a melody not unworthy of the surrounding 
 silence. 
 
 Suddenly we were startled by a sound so 
 unwonted, yet so strangely familiar, that we 
 could hardly believe in its reality — the shriek 
 of the railway whistle ! We were again nearing 
 the Haj railway, at a point where it is actually 
 in use, for 300 kilometres, out of the 2000 pro- 
 jected, are already complete. A little farther 
 and we came across quite a village of the tents
 
 100 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 of the workmen, the engineers and foremen 
 being mainly German. The Turkish flag was 
 floating, and Turkish soldiers were in charge, 
 for the protection of the undertaking, which 
 seems to be regarded by the Bedu rather with 
 a sad apprehension than with active opposition. 
 Dr Schumacher relates that, when surveying for 
 the English upon the line afterwards abandoned, 
 he discussed the matter with the friendly shech 
 of the 'Anazeh — a superior tribe, said to number 
 300,000 — who is the official protector of the Haj 
 road. Shech Muhammed realised that the 
 presence of the iron monster must rob him of 
 much grazing ground ; but he resigned himself, 
 in Moslem fashion, to the inevitable. 
 
 " I see well that with the great iron road 
 we cannot remain long in Hauran ; but we know 
 that this country is not for ever to be ours, for 
 we have heard how the descendants of those 
 whose bones lie under the ruins of this land 
 are to come back, and rebuild once more its 
 cities, even as they were in the times of their 
 forefathers " ; adding, after a pause : " But we 
 will retire to the Ajlun [the district farther 
 north], where there is place yet enough for our 
 tribe. Allah yebdrikV ("May Allah's blessing 
 be upon it ! "), The Bedu hold the tradition that
 
 AMMAN 101 
 
 the frenjy (Franks) originally possessed the 
 country, and will one day return ; that all over 
 the land are indications, marked upon stones, 
 of treasure to be recovered ; and that the visits 
 of archaeologists are for the purpose of so 
 chang-ine these marks as to confuse the Arabs, 
 who are beginning to understand them too ; for 
 have they not their museums in Constantinople 
 and Jerusalem, and are they not making in- 
 vestigations and excavations of their own ? 
 
 We crossed the railway, a point where it had 
 reached 200 kilometres south of Damascus, and 
 very soon afterwards began to feel that we 
 were once more in the world of man, however 
 remote may have been the date of his occupa- 
 tion. Caves and grottoes in the hillside showed 
 traces of adaptation to his needs ; hewn stones 
 lay about in piles ; what looked like the remains 
 of a cenotaph attracted our attention ; and we 
 dismounted to examine a group of sarcophagi — 
 some but lately exposed to view, others which 
 had long lain upon the surface. Most had a 
 resting-place for the head and a groove for 
 the lid. 
 
 A sudden turning at the ford of a rapid stream 
 revealed the town of Amman, lying in a narrow 
 valley between low but precipitous hills. Most
 
 102 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 of us were utterly unprepared, after six hours 
 of riding across a lonely tableland, to find an 
 orderly town of 10,000 inhabitants, of an aspect 
 so superior to anything we had seen since 
 leaving Jerusalem, or even, so far as the actual 
 town is concerned, to Jerusalem itself, that an 
 explanation seemed necessary, and the statement 
 that the population was Circassian was, geo- 
 graphically, an added perplexity. The houses, 
 built partly of mud brick and partly of ancient 
 material like those of Madaba, were well placed, 
 most had porticos and balconies, and some were 
 enclosed with well - swept yards. It was not 
 immediately that we realised to the full the 
 causes of a certain sense of unfamiliarity, of 
 having passed into another country, with other 
 conditions. The ear was, perhaps, the first 
 sense conscious of change. The town was silent. 
 There was none of the shrieking, none of the 
 high-pitched voices, none of the singing of an 
 Arab entourage — not only because we were 
 among Circassians, but also because we were 
 in a place where not a woman, not even a young 
 girl, was to be seen ! There were men in plenty, 
 silently stalking about, like shabby ghosts of the 
 Prince Regent, in tight-waisted coats, high vests, 
 a display of silver buttons and braid, full skirts,
 
 AMMAN 103 
 
 and high boots. Instead of the dangling sword 
 proper to the rest of their historic effect, all 
 carried a revolver at the side, as well as a long 
 dagger upright in the girdle. All were armed, 
 and a row of cartridges across the breast was 
 as much de rigueur as the low astrachan cap 
 which completed the costume. There were no 
 cafes ; no dice - boards at street corners ; no 
 lounging, screaming, idling; no "making kafe " 
 — the Arabic phrase for doing nothing, in com- 
 pany with others similarly employed, and a row 
 of water-pipes. 
 
 These Circassians have an interesting history. 
 In spite of all that is said of " the unspeakable 
 Turk," perhaps few rulers have so many varieties 
 of voluntary immigrants within their domains. 
 The Circassians of East Jordanland seem to 
 have first left their home in the Caucasus, Kam- 
 nimotsk, or Kakupschi, about the year i860, 
 and to have wandered in search of a home where 
 they might be privileged to live under Moslem 
 rule. Their leader, the Emir Nuh Bey, a major 
 in the Russian army, conducted them first into 
 Asia Minor, and finally, after many difficulties 
 and disappointments, about 1878, to this district, 
 which they call "the edge of the desert" — pos- 
 sibly with some personal intention on the part
 
 104 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 of their leader, who, as his son, 'Abd el hamid 
 Bey, informed Dr Schumacher, was descended 
 from a family named Hush or Hushi, who came 
 originally from Ramleh (by some identified with 
 Arimathea) in the plain of Sharon, and fought 
 against the Crusaders. Their crest, which they 
 bear upon their weapons, and which, in the 
 Caucasus, they branded upon their cattle, was 
 a mace. The same, with the addition of the 
 letters alef within the head of the mace, was 
 also branded upon their slaves. These Hushi 
 travelled from Jerusalem into Anatolia, and 
 thence into the Caucasus, and now, as it would 
 seem, were, after the lapse of centuries, on the 
 way back to the cradle of their race. They 
 arrived in the Jaulan, the district which, with 
 the Belka, they have since colonised, about 1880, 
 and in less than a quarter of a century have 
 changed the face of the district which they 
 inhabit. They are frugal and industrious, and 
 have some knowledge of agriculture. Unfor- 
 tunately, their industry has, in one respect, been 
 misdirected, and they are the acknowledged 
 purveyors of tree trunks for roofing and other 
 architectural purposes, which they convey all 
 over the district in two-wheeled carts drawn by 
 a team of oxen. As the wheels are guiltless of
 
 AMMAN 105 
 
 grease, as roads, as we understand them, are 
 practically unknown, and the loads heavy, the 
 approach of these vehicles is known half-a-mile 
 in advance. The melancholy result of their 
 timber trade is that the surrounding hillsides 
 have, within the last twenty years, been almost 
 denuded of their oaks and pines. It is some 
 slight mitigation, however, that the Circassians 
 plant as well as destroy, and promising fruit 
 gardens follow the banks of the stream, especi- 
 ally at Jerash, but also at Amman and elsewhere. 
 In many respects they are very different from 
 the Arabs : in their industry, their settled homes, 
 their power of initiation, their habits. They 
 have superior agricultural instruments ; they do 
 not look upon the camel and the ass as the sole 
 possible means of transportation ; but, alone in 
 Syria, until the recent establishment of Jewish 
 and German colonies, employ carts, those for 
 lighter purposes being made of wattles. They 
 preserve their national dress, and neither the 
 tarbush of the Arab of the towns, nor the aba 
 or mantle, common to all, have ever been 
 adopted. Many speak Turkish fluently, the 
 elder ones some Russian, most a little Arabic 
 with a bad accent, but their ordinary tongue 
 continues to be Circassian. The Turkish
 
 106 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 Government has permitted them to repopulate 
 various ruinous towns — Nawa, Amman, Jerash, 
 and various villages — for a given period, without 
 paying any taxes, and, in spite of certain incidents 
 of attack and reprisal between themselves and 
 the Bedu, fierce enough for the time, they have 
 succeeded in inspiring their neighbours with 
 respect or, perhaps, awe. They themselves, it 
 is said, are perfectly fearless in attack or defence, 
 and extremely severe in exaction of vengeance. 
 Whereas the fellahin fear to attract attention by 
 successful crops of fruit or grain, lest they should 
 be called upon to feed the Bedu and the tax- 
 gatherer, the Circassians fear no one, and at 
 present pay no taxes. Hence, as well as from 
 superior capacity and industry, they effect, as 
 no fellah may venture to do, improvements of 
 a kind which are permanent ; they make walls 
 and roads, they devise systems of irrigation, 
 they plant hedges and trees. 
 
 In Amman, as we came to know later, 
 their industry had very unfortunate effects upon 
 the glorious ruins which adorn the hills on 
 either side : the basilica has wholly disappeared, 
 and one apse of the thermse ; but the Muchtar, 
 who may, perhaps, be likened to the mayor of 
 the town, has forbidden further depredations,
 
 AMMAN 107 
 
 and, happily, the new population has not chosen 
 to establish itself among the ruins. 
 
 We had made no arrangements for our accom- 
 modation in Amman — a visit which had not 
 been included in the original programme. How- 
 ever, we had been assured there was a "locanda" 
 — it is curious how many Italian words have 
 been accepted into Arabic — and as we had not 
 yet lunched we made our way thither without 
 loss of time. It was in the hands of Christians, 
 and, from the point of view of domestic arrange- 
 ments, Christianity is not a success among 
 Arabs ; and, without entering into details, it 
 suffices to say that life can now hold no mysteries 
 for us in the matter of inns, nor, it may be 
 added, of domestic entomology. 
 
 Its full horrors were not revealed until we 
 went inside, and, in our circumstances, to go 
 indoors while we could remain without would 
 have shown a singular lack of imaorination and 
 
 o o 
 
 of the spirit of psychological inquiry. There 
 were two courts, an inner and an outer, and 
 those who had investigated certain obvious 
 details decided at once upon the outer, and, 
 accordingly, chairs were arranged round a deal 
 table under a vast apricot-tree — our eight horses, 
 with several other horses and donkeys, being
 
 108 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 under a neighbouring apricot-tree. We then col- 
 lected our saddle-bags, and spread our luncheon, 
 after which we drank coffee for the good of 
 the house. 
 
 By-and-by a very smart young officer, speak- 
 ing French and German — educated at a military 
 academy in Austria — came to call upon the 
 Professor, and again we all had coffee. He 
 came as the representative of the officials of the 
 railway line. We were interested in the fact that, 
 unlike most other Arabs of our acquaintance, 
 he did not smoke, and said that he came of a 
 family of non-smokers. 
 
 His visit finished, we went off to see the ruins, 
 which lie on the hills on either side of a stream, 
 which we crossed on stepping-stones, though it is 
 said to be not fordable, even on horseback, in the 
 winter. Burckhardt, who was here in 1810, 
 speaks of the elaborate arrangements made for 
 the benefit of this water-supply, a rare natural 
 gift in the Belka. Not only the banks, but 
 the bed of the river was paved, in the manner 
 we had seen ourselves at Ba'albek and else- 
 where ; and the water was full of fish, probably 
 the chub, which still exist here, and in the 
 Jabbok and Arnon, though ignored by the 
 Arabs, who do not care for fish, and who when
 
 AMMAN 109 
 
 they do kill them, with a view of selling them to 
 Europeans, pursue the wasteful and unsports- 
 manlike method of a discharge of gunpowder ! 
 
 The most impressive of the ruins, perhaps 
 because the least interfered with by modern 
 buildings, is the theatre. The stage has been 
 destroyed, but some forty tiers of seats still 
 remain visible, as well as about twenty-four 
 boxes, each capable of holding a dozen persons 
 — traces in all of places for some 3000 spectators. 
 Voices on the stage are still distinctly heard on 
 the farthest tier, although the acoustic properties 
 have probably suffered from the removal of parts 
 of the building. A fine colonnade, of which 
 several Corinthian columns, 15 feet high, still 
 remain, stood in front of the building, leading 
 to the river on the one hand and to a small 
 odeum on the other. Burckhardt was at a loss 
 to conjecture the nature of the latter building, 
 of which much more existed then than now : 
 the roof had fallen in, and made entrance diffi- 
 cult, but the wall of the semicircular area was, 
 he says, richly decorated. The theatre is built 
 into the side of the hill in such a way that the 
 third tier of boxes is excavated in the solid 
 rock. 
 
 On the opposite side the ruins are more
 
 110 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 numerous, but less impressive. A mosque, said to 
 be of the time of the Abbasides (eighth century), 
 stands almost side by side with a Byzantine 
 church ; and a little to the north-east are the 
 remains of thermae, which received water by 
 means of a conduit from the river. A street 
 of columns on the left bank of the stream, and 
 parallel with it, indicates the direction of the 
 high street of the town, nearly a thousand yards 
 long ; while north of this stood a forum (by 
 some thought to be a temple) of a late Roman 
 date. The town was evidently walled, and 
 the street of columns was closed by gates 
 towards the east. We heard of many tombs, 
 sarcophagi, and remains of dwellings worth 
 seeing behind the town, but we had little 
 enough time to look at even what was of 
 primary interest. We were, however, thanks 
 to Circassian civilisation, more fortunate than 
 Burckhardt, whose guides forsook him, alarmed 
 by the sight of fresh horse-dung near the ruins, 
 and fearful of falling into the hands of the 
 Bedu. When reproached, they replied that they 
 did not see why they should expose themselves 
 to the danger of being stripped and robbed of 
 their horses, because of his foolish caprice of 
 writing down the stones !
 
 AMMAN 111 
 
 Burckhardt was not the first visitor. He 
 had been preceded by Seetzen in 1805-6, who, 
 however, left very Httle record of his travels in 
 Hauran and the Belka. 
 
 It was necessary to cut short our investiga- 
 tions while enough daylight remained to allow 
 the Professor to pay a visit to the muchtar — a 
 visit worth recording on account of the extreme 
 contrast between our experience here and every- 
 where else upon our journey. While we were 
 seeking for his house he seems to have had 
 intimation of our approach, for he received us 
 in the road, and, although he once uttered a 
 half-hearted tfaddalu, an invitation to enter 
 which we did not accept, contrary to all 
 Oriental custom and tradition, he showed no 
 desire whatever to entertain us. Elsewhere, to 
 turn away without coffee, repose, and cigarettes 
 would have been a mutual insult. He was 
 civil enough, but of the typical Circassian 
 moroseness, and his small, meaningless features, 
 which, despite its reputation for beauty, were 
 characteristic of the race, never once lighted up 
 with even a passing gleam of sunshine. 
 
 It was dark under our apricot trees, when we 
 regained the courtyard of the inn, and while 
 we waited for supper we watched with interest
 
 112 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 the scene around us, again struck by the con- 
 trast with our accustomed Arab surroundings. 
 Where there are Arabs there are all the 
 elements of a comic opera : the bright colour, 
 the laughter, the ever-changing groups, the per- 
 petual singing — not individual egotistic singing, 
 but chorus, harmony, antiphon, with hand-clap- 
 pings and merry shouts. There are sudden, and, 
 apparently, inconsequent dances, and equally 
 sudden and inconsequent changes of mood, 
 drawing of knives, quarrels, embraces, and hand- 
 shakings, such as exist nowhere but among 
 Arabs, and on the lyric stage. Here, however, 
 it was no comic opera, but a transpontine drama 
 of the good old-fashioned sort — a novel by 
 " Monk " Lewis, or Thomas Love Peacock. 
 Men in long, dark drapery glided in and out 
 by the imperfect light of the single lantern 
 hung beneath the trees ; they pulled their caps 
 low on their foreheads, and veiled their faces 
 with a cloak thrown over the left shoulder ; 
 all carried arms, and seldom spoke, and then 
 only in low voices ; the few Arabs present 
 were of the upper class, officers mainly, and 
 they seemed affected by the general depression, 
 and drank coffee and smoked their water-pipes 
 in silence. A single interruption served but to
 
 AMMAN 113 
 
 accentuate the prevailing mood. A drunken 
 man, a very rare spectacle in a Moslem country — 
 a Christian, of course — had reached the voluble 
 and affectionate stage, and assured us all, in a 
 variety of languages, of his perfect readiness 
 to oblige us in any direction. The audience 
 silently ignored his existence, and it was in vain 
 that our host led him again and again to the 
 gate : our polyglot friend invariably took affec- 
 tionate leave, and promptly returned. We felt 
 persuaded that the audience considered his 
 conduct merely another form of the Christian 
 eccentricity, of which our presence had already 
 supplied a curious example. We were all crazy 
 Franks — some drank wine, and others "wrote 
 down stones." Relief came at last, in the 
 person of the only woman we caught sight of 
 in Amman, a stout Italian of determined aspect, 
 who withdrew her lord and master, not without 
 a certain amount of discussion, which must have 
 further enlightened our companions as to the 
 manners and customs of the superior races. In 
 spite of his irregularities the wretched creature 
 was not friendless. He was a wandering con- 
 tractor and builder, and possessed, we were 
 told, of some fifteen helpmates dispersed over 
 various parts of the country ! Even our own
 
 114 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 mukaris were silent for once : Khalil slept 
 over his water-pipe, and the boy was at his 
 usual evening task of patching the cloths which 
 hung beneath the horses to protect them from 
 the flies, and which they generally kicked into 
 rags in the course of the day. The beasts 
 themselves seemed asleep after their meal — the 
 only one, according to Arab custom, in the 
 twenty-four hours. Dogs and chickens stirred 
 now and then in dark corners, and cats crept 
 about with a fitting air of silence and mystery. 
 Presently our supper arrived : good bread, 
 good soup, good rice — one may always count on 
 good cooking among Arabs in this country — 
 and a fowl good to eat, although, to the eye, 
 too much au naturel, too suggestive of a boiled 
 corpse with wagging head, and legs so much in 
 their normal position as to be somewhat surpris- 
 ing upon the dinner-table. Our host offered us 
 beer, and arrived with bottles and glasses in 
 hand, well knowing that at the end of a long, 
 hot day, and in our present surroundings with, 
 the dust and smell of a stable, a couple of 
 bottles cooled in running water, even at the 
 price of a franc and a half each, might be hard 
 to resist ; but even the Sportsmen nobly looked 
 the other way, in the probably futile hope of a
 
 AMMAN 115 
 
 classification apart from our fellow-Europeans, 
 who could be still heard carrying on a polyglot 
 exchange of compliments at the farther end of 
 the village. We solaced ourselves with tea, 
 and retired early, in the expectation, entirely 
 unfulfilled, of a long night's rest.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 JERASH, AND THE FORDS OF JABBOK 
 
 " Once more to distant ages of the world 
 Let us revert, and place before our thoughts 
 The face which rural solitude might wear 
 To the unenlightened swains of pagan Greece." 
 
 Wordsworth 
 
 'TpHERE was no lingering in Amman next 
 morning. From sheer habit of historic 
 reference we speculated as to whether it were 
 Ptolemy Philadelphus who, having rebuilt the 
 ancient city of Rabbath Amman, and bequeathed 
 to it the name of Philadelphia, still used among 
 the Arabs, may have endowed it, moreover, so far 
 as our locanda was concerned, with one of the 
 most offensive of the ten plagues of his native land, 
 after which we did our best to forget our recent 
 experiences. We may remark in passing, how- 
 ever, that traces, painful traces, lingered till later 
 in the day, when they were finally removed by 
 a dip in the strong current of the Jabbok, for 
 it had been in very mournful Gregorian cadence 
 that some of us had chanted " Moab is my wash- 
 pot " while a little water was poured on to our 
 hands out of a bottle by way of morning ablution. 
 
 ii6
 
 JERASH 117 
 
 However, it was a privilege worth paying for 
 to be able to sing the Psalms in Moab under 
 any conditions ; and whatever else may have 
 failed the party, it was never the spirit of cheer- 
 ful resignation. 
 
 We have not yet sung the praise of the early 
 start ! One must come to the East to learn 
 to the full the beauty of the morning and of 
 the night, as well as, inter alia, of life without 
 fogs and coal fires and bad cooking ; of life 
 where houses are spacious and servants serve, 
 and a napoleon goes further than a sovereign, 
 and the post comes but once a week or so, 
 and newspapers are not. 
 
 There is here none of the discomfort of the 
 early start at home — no shivering over ice-cold 
 water, no closed shutters, no bolted front door, 
 no makeshift breakfast brought by the wrong 
 servant in incomplete toilet. No matter how 
 early you rise the world is up before you ; you 
 can have as much at five o'clock as at nine. 
 Your horse is a little stable stiff; but he is as 
 pleased with the early start as you, and he 
 snuffs the dewy air with aesthetic enjoyment. 
 In the hollows of the mountains a mist wreath 
 is lying ; here and there a few clouds even may 
 hang low to the west — but you know they are
 
 118 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 only dew, and that even now In October we 
 are perfectly certain of a fine day, with at 
 least another thirty to follow. You are in- 
 vigorated, encouraged in mind and body for the 
 whole day, even when, as in our case, you know 
 that the day will last for ten or twelve hours. 
 Almost immediately on leaving the village 
 we began to climb — for, although Amman is 
 2747 feet above sea-level, the town itself is in 
 a hollow — and soon found ourselves on an ex- 
 cellent Roman road. The particular pleasure 
 which the Professor had promised us for this 
 day's journey was that we should do homage at 
 the tomb of Abdel Azziz en-Nimr Shech Ad wan, 
 more often spoken of as Nimr, a great poet, of 
 the Bedu tribe of the Adwan, who addressed 
 a great number of poems to Watka, his twenty- 
 fourth wife. We had heard one of his poems 
 recited by our Bedawy escort, and we were 
 willing to take the Professor's word for the rest ; 
 for the poet's works have been collected by but 
 one editor, who has not yet published them, 
 and the two or three writers who mention 
 the spot at all do so mainly in connection with 
 a certain Shech Goblan, who, before Jerash 
 and Amman were given over to the Circassians, 
 was much feared throughout the district.
 
 JERASH 119 
 
 About two hours after leaving Amman we 
 reached the Wady el-Hammam, and, a Httle later, 
 Yajuz, a large Bedu cemetery on the side of a 
 hill, strewn with columns, capitals, and hewn 
 stones, obviously the remains of a Roman town. 
 Some great stone troughs, which may have been 
 sarcophagi, attracted the attention of our horses 
 on account of the water they contained, and we 
 gladly dismounted, and left them to such refresh- 
 ment as was provided by the very muddy spring, 
 while we climbed the hill a short distance to the 
 tomb of our laureate, who may certainly be 
 regarded as having an experimental knowledge 
 of what characteristics were most acceptable in 
 a wife, and whose eulogy of Watka should at 
 least have the merit of discrimination. 
 
 The whole hillside was covered with graves, 
 and some curious combinations presented them- 
 selves. There the tomb of some landowner was 
 marked by a plough, the inconceivably primitive 
 instrument with which the fellah scratches the 
 surface of the fertile soil ; there a fragment of the 
 blue cotton, which is the inevitable dress of the 
 Bedu, twisted round a stick, shows where some 
 woman has been laid to rest ; farther again, a 
 stone, roughly sculptured with the instruments of 
 coffee-making, celebrates the hospitality of some
 
 120 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 unnamed shech ; and, in strange contrast with 
 the savagery of to-day, we step over a sculptured 
 capital or carven pillar, memorial of the art and 
 culture of nigh two thousand years ago ; while, 
 reminder that " extremes meet," our thoughts 
 are carried back yet another thousand years at 
 sight of the welys — tombs of Moslem saints — 
 standing apart on mounds, shadowed with ancient 
 oaks, where the pious come to worship to-day, 
 to the Israelites who did so of old time, "upon 
 every high hill and under every green tree." 
 
 Around the spring were groups of women, with 
 the tattooed faces, hanging veils, and curious 
 long, narrow dresses of the East Jordan Bedu, 
 barely wide enough to stride in, but lying at least 
 a yard upon the ground, front and back, so that 
 when they walk the skirt has to be kilted, often 
 to the entire violation of such ideas of modesty 
 as may have originally dictated its design. They 
 had taken much interest in the Lady, and, as usual, 
 had speculated as to which of her companions 
 might be her proprietor — always the first point to 
 ascertain — the remaining matters of curiosity in 
 regard to a woman being: What did she cost? 
 and How many boys has she .'* — after which they 
 frankly discuss her "points," and express surprise 
 at the smallness of her waist.
 
 JERASH 121 
 
 Suddenly there was an instant's silence ; all 
 eyes were turned southward, where a procession 
 had just come into sight winding up the valley. 
 A weird, melancholy song broke out, the women 
 pressed forward, and we realised that a funeral 
 was advancing. We had already observed a 
 newly-made grave ; but the procession passed it 
 by, and halted beside the nearest wely, under a 
 group of trees. The four men who carried the 
 bier laid it gently down, and the women, with 
 loud cries, gathered about it on the ground. The 
 body was that of a woman, so closely wrapped in 
 her dress and veil that we could only perceive 
 that she was slender. All joined in the loud wail- 
 ing, led, apparently, by a professional mourner, 
 who sat beside the corpse, beating her breast, and 
 throwing dust upon her head. It was a pathetic 
 evidence of the homogeneousness of human- 
 kind, despite differences of custom, that those 
 who really wept, silently and apart, were, we 
 understood, the mother and mother-in-law of the 
 dead, while a young man who leant alone against 
 a tree trunk was the newly-married husband 
 of a three days' bride. She had died, they said, 
 of a sudden illness, the description of which 
 suggested measles or small-pox. We could not 
 but think of the little home made desolate, of
 
 122 m A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 plans and hopes never to be realised, of the 
 bereaved husband — for here, among the Bedu, 
 marriage is a matter of choice and not of 
 compulsion, as among the Arabs of the towns — 
 of the poor girl herself, who, having reached 
 what is the main object of existence among the 
 Orientals, had been called away just as life was 
 opening. Our point of view may have been a 
 little too Occidental, or it may have been another 
 case of "extremes meet," the mean being repre- 
 sented by the higher civilisation of Khalil, a true 
 Jerusalemite, for his one remark was : "It was a 
 pity the bridegroom had had no use out of his 
 bargain when he had paid so much for her ! " 
 
 The young man was presented to the Professor, 
 who expressed our respectful sympathy, and we 
 turned away after a last glance at the loud- 
 wailing group of the indifferent, the silent sadness 
 of those most concerned. Whatever the age 
 or race, " Light sorrows speak, great grief is 
 dumb." 
 
 When we left the wady we climbed a pre- 
 cipitous hill, and found ourselves overlooking a 
 deep gorge to our left — the Wady er-Rumman — 
 where abundant verdure showed the presence of 
 water — a rare sight to our eyes, habituated to 
 the aridity of Jerusalem, where running water
 
 JERASH 128 
 
 is so utterly unknown that if for a few hours 
 once a year, after exceptionally heavy rain, it is 
 reported that the Kedron flows, the whole popu- 
 lation turns out to witness so extraordinary a 
 phenomenon. As a matter of fact, moreover, 
 the Kedron does not flow, unless far under- 
 ground, and only a spring — the well of Job or 
 Joab — overflows into the Kedron bed, but the 
 fact is always thus described. Further, we 
 crossed a small tributary stream, where we 
 found a number of shepherds and herdsmen, 
 with camels and sheep and goats. By this 
 time our horses were hot with the climb, and we 
 were forced to deny them the desired refresh- 
 ment, and hastened on, already somewhat occu- 
 pied with thoughts of the luncheon promised 
 to us at the fords of Jabbok. When we came 
 — some of us riding in advance with the officer 
 — to a pleasant stream shaded by oleanders we 
 thought he must be mistaken in riding resolutely 
 forward, for we were not yet used to a district 
 in which two streams might be passed in a single 
 day, and were half inclined to wait for those 
 behind. However, we pressed on, and, as no 
 shouts followed us, were glad to have made so 
 much way that it was possible to dismount and 
 rest our horses for a few moments, for the
 
 124 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 Jabbok, it appeared, was still distant — "over 
 two hills," declared Khalil, when he at last over- 
 took us. They were somewhat stiff hills both 
 to climb and to descend, and not Jacob -himself, 
 with his two wives and two women-servants 
 and eleven sons, and all his other anxieties, 
 could have been more glad than we, when, from 
 our last ascent, we saw beneath us a wide 
 expanse of fresh green, showing that we had 
 reached the fords of Jabbok, The river, rising 
 from streams in the hills above Amman, and 
 sweeping round by the north-west before taking 
 a sudden turn towards the Jordan, accomplishes 
 a journey of sixty miles, not counting its wind- 
 ings, to reach the point which, at starting, was 
 only eighteen miles away. In its descent of 
 some three thousand feet its current gains great 
 swiftness, and it rushes with considerable 
 violence over its rocky bed, as the widely- 
 scattered pebbles — white and water-worn — 
 abundantly testify. Two roads follow its course ; 
 and though but a couple of distant villages were 
 in sight, the cultivated land all along its banks 
 showed the near presence of active humanity : 
 a deserted mill among the bushes, and a few 
 fellahin watering their cattle, were, however, 
 our only reminder of human life. We were
 
 JERASH 125 
 
 free to picture any chapter in its history which 
 might strike our imagination — Jacob, occupied 
 with all his family cares and apprehensions, 
 suddenly called upon in the darkness to re- 
 member the world of the Unseen ; Gideon 
 pursuing the Midianites ; the hosts of Chosroes 
 marching from Damascus to the Nile ; the 
 Roman legionaries constructing the very road 
 which we have followed to-day ; Galilean pil- 
 grims coming up to the Jerusalem feasts by 
 way of Peraea ; the propagandists of the Prophet 
 hastening to the north ; and lastly, and more 
 enduring than all, the fellahin, with their elemen- 
 tary agriculture, seeking their daily bread like 
 the swallows that are darting overhead or the 
 rat that splashes into the stream, oblivious and 
 indifferent to all other life, and, therefore, per- 
 manent and persistent in their own. 
 
 For ourselves, however, the fords of Jabbok 
 represented primarily the means of taking a bath, 
 and secondarily, those of making tea. The sun 
 was still hot ; we had descended considerably 
 since leaving Amman, and the bushes offered 
 welcome shade. The Circassian soldier brought 
 the Lady a handful of ripe blackberries — the first 
 we had seen in Syria, where blackberries are 
 abundant enough, but for lack of moisture never
 
 126 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 seem to ripen. The oleanders, with their rich 
 crimson ; the rare feast of abundant verdure ; the 
 grey water rushing upon its white bed, with the 
 effect of blue which gives to the Jabbok its 
 modern name of Ez-Zerka — "the Blue"; the 
 contented horses cooling their limbs in a deep 
 pool, made a vision we were loth to disturb ; but 
 we were already late, and after an hour's repose 
 were bidden to mount once more. When we 
 had crossed the rushing ford and regained the 
 plateau we realised that our shadows were 
 already lengthening. 
 
 We had now crossed an important political 
 boundary, for the Jabbok is one of the three 
 rivers at right angles with the Jordan — the 
 Arnon, Jabbok, and Yarmuk — which divide 
 Eastern Palestine into three provinces ; physic- 
 ally, as well as, for the most part, politically, 
 though their disentanglement is difficult, distinct. 
 Behind us was the Belka, the land of Ammon 
 and Moab, practically the Persea of ancient 
 history, in the time of the Herods politically 
 associated with Galilee, and always regarded 
 by the Jew as being as much a Jewish province 
 as Judaea or Galilee. The climate of the Belka 
 is temperate, and in spite of insufficient water at 
 its highest points the treeless plateau is ever
 
 JERASH 127 
 
 fresh and breezy, providing pasture for innumer- 
 able herds. It is but seventy miles from the 
 orange gardens of the Philistine plain, but eight 
 hours' direct ride from the palms of Jericho, and 
 yet the Arabs have a proverb : " They said to 
 the Cold : ' Where shall we find thee ? ' And he 
 answered: 'In the Belka.' 'And if not there?' 
 'In Baalbek is my home.'" Now Baalbek, as 
 we saw it in August, lies under the shadow of 
 snowcapped mountains. 
 
 Now we were coming into 'Ajlun, the land 
 of Gilead, "the region of Decapolis," a district 
 of forests — falling, alas ! before the axe of the 
 Circassian — of springs and streams, tributaries of 
 the Jordan as well as of the Jabbok and the 
 Yarmuk ; the land whence " a company of 
 Ishmaelites came with their camels, bearing 
 spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it 
 down to Egypt." There is still "balm in 
 Gilead." We had scarcely crossed the river 
 when our soldier, stooping from his saddle, 
 snatched a handful of deliciously fragrant herbs, 
 which he presented to the Lady, who had no 
 opportunity of verifying their species, but was 
 quite prepared to believe that she had enjoyed 
 the sweetness of the balsamuTu Gileadense, though 
 with suppressed misgivings that it might be
 
 128 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 only the melissa officmalis. Indeed, the low 
 growth of artemisia and other herbs throughout 
 this region is so sweet that, in the wilder parts 
 of the Belka frequented by gazelle, which feed 
 upon it, the Arabs constantly pick up their 
 droppings for the pleasure of the fragrance. 
 
 Low ranges of hills to the east lay between 
 us and that far-away fascination of the desert 
 of which we had first, and most fully, realised 
 the spell at Mshatta, making us feel that we 
 were, in some degree, coming once more into 
 touch with humanity and the commonplace of 
 life, and farther away from that dim region 
 known to so few, and which throughout history 
 has always been the great source of danger, 
 the check upon the civilisation of East Jordan, 
 ever open to the great hungry desert, whence 
 in all ages wild tribes have come forth to seek 
 sustenance from the fertile tablelands of Bashan, 
 Gilead, and Moab. 
 
 Here not Nature and the desert but Art 
 and Greece were the prominent facts in the 
 minds of some among us. Amman, fresh in 
 our memory, had been already an important 
 stronghold two hundred years before Christ, and, 
 later, a member of the Decapolis, although, alone 
 of the ten cities, lying south of the Jabbok.
 
 JERASH 129 
 
 Here, as never before, were we able to realise 
 something of the nature and meaning of that 
 mysterious alliance of the Decapolis, of which 
 the origin is unknown, but which we had seen 
 represented in miniature in the present - day- 
 policy of playing off the Circassians against the 
 Bedawy tribes of that same district, which, even 
 two thousand years ago, was then, as now, the 
 check upon all prosperity and progress. There 
 seems little doubt that this confederacy — like 
 the Arab dynasty of the Ghassanides at a later 
 date under Trajan — was intended to balance 
 these Semitic influences ; and these cities were 
 thoroughly Hellenic, not only in art and 
 culture, but, unlike other parts of Eastern 
 Palestine, in religion also, the cult of Astarte 
 alone being borrowed from their surroundings. 
 Most of them were placed, like Amman, on 
 either side of a stream, with fertile land all 
 round about, not on a hill, as was the Semitic 
 custom, to judge from the positions of most of 
 the villages one sees west of the Jordan. Their 
 pastimes, too, were Greek — the theatres, the 
 bath, the circus. All had the street of columns, 
 the forum, the temples such as we had seen 
 at Amman ; each was approached by just such 
 a road as we were treading now.
 
 130 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 While we talked and mused the sun had 
 set, the short evening glow was in the west, 
 and we were soon cautiously walking our horses 
 in the dim twilight. Suddenly a stately arch 
 reared itself against the fading sky ; while beyond, 
 far as the eye could reach, dusky columns arose 
 against the background of the dark hillside. 
 Before we could take in the scene the veil of 
 night had fallen, for here in the East " with 
 one stride comes the dark." We could see no 
 longer ; but wc knew we were descending into 
 a valley, for the sound of the rushing stream at 
 the bottom seemed to get nearer, till at last 
 we felt that our horses' feet were in the water. 
 The village was asleep, but few lights shone 
 from the windows of the frugal Circassian in- 
 habitants, and we could only trust to our kindly 
 animals, who were taking their lead from that 
 of the officer, who rode in advance. We were 
 ascending a very steep hill ; soon we had 
 reached level ground, and we awaited the coming 
 of the responsible members of our party. Look- 
 ing back we could see the great lordly columns 
 standing out snow-white in the starlight, monu- 
 ments of a race, an age, a system, a religion 
 that had perished like last year's snow, leaving 
 not a link with to-day, except that common
 
 JERASH 131 
 
 aspiration after happiness, present and future, 
 which had inspired the existence of the Past, 
 as it still inspires those who gaze upon its 
 monuments. Never had the Past seemed to 
 stoop towards us as now in this eastern star- 
 light, and it seemed as if we might almost 
 hope for answer when we asked : 
 
 "Gods of Hellas, gods of Hellas, 
 Can ye listen in your silence. 
 Can your mystic voices tell us 
 Where ye hide?" 
 
 Surely somewhere in the Past there must be 
 a voice ; the intense Life which had created 
 yonder city could not be wholly dead ; all that 
 was beautiful and true must somewhere, some- 
 how, be living still ! We were roused from 
 our meditations by the cheery voice of the 
 Professor callingr out of the darkness to know 
 whether any were missing among us. We were 
 close by the house of the mudir, and could 
 even see the g-uards and servants assembled in 
 the lighted portico. It was an anxious moment, 
 for it depended upon the nature of his recep- 
 tion whether we had hospitable entertainment or 
 were cast adrift upon the resources of the village, 
 as had been the case last night in Amman. 
 We rallied our forces, dismounted from our
 
 132 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 horses, and presented ourselves and our cre- 
 dentials. 
 
 We were very thankful when the door was 
 at once unlocked, and we were admitted into 
 the guest-room, a large apartment, with a high 
 divan running its entire length provided with 
 cushions, a few chairs, a round table in one 
 corner, and on the deep window - ledges great 
 piles of very official-looking papers. We were 
 too tired to criticise our accommodation, which 
 was, at all events, infinitely superior to that of 
 the night before, and thankfully seated ourselves. 
 Meantime the news of the Professor's arrival 
 had evidently reached the mudir himself, for 
 in a few minutes the scene was changed : three 
 or four servants appeared, the floor was spread 
 with two magnificent carpets, either of which 
 would have been the pride of any London 
 drawing-room, additional lights and some extra 
 chairs were brought in, and nothing was needed 
 but a duster, which, however, did not appear. 
 The Lady surreptitiously cleaned the table, the 
 carpets having stirred the aestheticism which 
 our Amman experiences had put to sleep, and 
 we deposited our head-gear. The men removed 
 their shoes, and placed themselves on the high 
 divan ; the Lady, unable to emulate so lofty an
 
 JERASH 133 
 
 example, seized some cushions, and established 
 herself upon the floor, secure of violating no 
 Oriental etiquette, and, by the Professor's direc- 
 tion, covered her head with her keffeeye, which 
 was, he said, more distinguished under the 
 circumstances. 
 
 Next the mudir himself appeared — 'Abd el- 
 hamid Bey, son of Nuh Bey, already mentioned — 
 a fine-looking man in European dress, who shook 
 hands cordially with all the party, and assured 
 us of our welcome, and coffee was at once served. 
 To say that it was coffee with hehl conveys 
 nothing to the Occidental understanding, and 
 mere words fail to express all that hehl can add 
 to a cup of coffee. It is nectar and ambrosia 
 brewed in Olympus ; it is a taste and a perfume, 
 a stimulus and a sedative. For centuries we 
 have been drinking coffee — unimaginative Occi- 
 dentals that we are ! — and nobody has taught us 
 the virtues of hehl. It is only a bean, portable, 
 one would suppose, conceivably an article of 
 commerce, or which might be cultivated or 
 otherwise introduced, although how, on second 
 thoughts, it would combine with the beverage 
 we profanely call "coffee" is another matter. 
 Coffee worth the drinking must be roasted, 
 crushed (in Heaven's name not ground!), and
 
 134 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 made while you wait, not brought in paper bags 
 from the grocer, and kept for weeks. It is 
 brought to the door of the room in the brass 
 pot in which it was made, and poured out 
 tenderly as a butler pours out a perfumed wine, 
 leaving space at the top of the cup. small as it 
 is, for the aroma. 
 
 After coffee we entered into conversation — 
 that is to say, the Professor did — with the mudir, 
 the Arabic-speaking Sportsman being occasion- 
 ally called in when their Arabic vocabulary ran 
 short ; for to both it was a foreign language, the 
 mudir, as has already been seen, being a Cir- 
 cassian. He remembered the names of the few 
 savants and other travellers who had passed 
 that way, and inquired after all, asked particulars 
 as to our journey and as to the personality of 
 each, exhibited some polite surprise at the pres- 
 ence of the Lady in these distant regions, and 
 still more that she was not the property of any 
 of her fellow-travellers. He showed great con- 
 cern as to her comfort, sent for additional 
 cushions, and several times personally addressed 
 her. He is known as a man of exceptional 
 intelligence and breadth of mind, and of a 
 friendly and amiable disposition, in striking con- 
 trast to the average Circassian, who is said to
 
 JERASH 135 
 
 be treacherous and morose. He is quite an 
 important person, having at his command from 
 ten to fifteen mounted gens-d'armes, and when 
 he goes eastward among the neighbouring tribe 
 of the Beni Hasan for the collection of taxes is 
 accompanied by as many regular soldiers, with 
 their officer. He settles small differences and 
 disputes, and, says Dr Schumacher, carries a few 
 bullet-holes in his coat as token of his office of 
 peacemaker. More serious cases are taken by 
 both Bedu and fellahin before the Mutesarrif 
 (Governor) of Hauran. 
 
 While conversation proceeded we could hear 
 most welcome sounds without — chopping, frying, 
 beating of eggs ; and, after a second edition of 
 coffee, two servants entered, carrying a large 
 cotton drugget, which was spread over the 
 carpet, and upon which was set the Saniye, a 
 large round tray, placed upon an X-shaped stand, 
 which raised it several inches from the ground. 
 We all seated ourselves on the floor, as well as 
 our host and another guest, a very intelligent 
 man, and a great talker, but less adapted than 
 the mudir to polite society. 
 
 Each guest had a large slice of excellent 
 wholemeal bread, and each had a spoon and a 
 towel. There were two dishes of meat, with
 
 136 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 vegetables, two of rice, two of fried eggs, and 
 two basins of pomegranate juice, exquisite in 
 colour and delicious to the taste. Everything 
 was very good, well cooked, and neatly served. 
 It was etiquette to help yourself to any dish, 
 and in any rotation you fancied, putting in your 
 spoon, and conveying the food direct to your 
 mouth — a custom which had its drawbacks, as 
 the Lady found when she fixed her affections on 
 pomegranate juice, and found it becoming gradu- 
 ally impregnated with onions, as her neighbour, 
 the Bey, our fellow - guest, was alternating it 
 with mouthfuls of stewed mutton. The hospit- 
 able mudir constantly pressed us to eat, inquiring, 
 when the Lady's appetite failed, whether there 
 were anything else she would prefer. Finally 
 we all adjourned to the doorstep to have water 
 poured upon our hands. Then followed more 
 coffee, always with hehl, cigarettes, and, after 
 half-an-hour, the samovar. If the coffee had 
 been worthy of the Bedu the tea was worthy 
 of Russia. We drank it, of course, in tumblers, 
 with crystallised sugar and floating slices of 
 lemon, and we stirred it with spoons of heavy 
 silver, beautifully chased and enamelled. 
 
 Then came more conversation, mainly political, 
 and it was very interesting to hear the mudir's
 
 JERASH 137 
 
 emphatic repudiation of prejudice, national or 
 religious, especially since the Circassians are 
 accused of fanaticism and of hatred of Europeans. 
 " It was all one to him," he averred — " Moslems, 
 Jews, Nazarenes ! " Two or three servants 
 stood by the whole time, and one could not 
 but contrast the perfection and apparent readi- 
 ness of their service with that of the superior 
 domestics at home. They perceived your needs 
 before you could find them out yourself, and tea, 
 or bread, or sugar, or a match, as the case 
 might be, was ready to your use before you 
 were aware that you needed it. Bread or sugar 
 was brought in the fingers, it is true ; but knives 
 there were none, and spoons were scarce. 
 
 The Lady gave the signal for retirement by 
 frankly falling asleep among her cushions. Re- 
 tirement, as a matter of fact, there was none ; 
 but mattresses, pillows, and lehafs (wadded 
 coverlets) were brought in, and laid side by 
 side upon the floor. The Lady's bed, lehaf, and 
 cushions were covered with rich crimson satin. 
 An ornamental sheet of white cotton, with a 
 coloured design, was spread upon the mattress ; 
 the silk cushions, as is the cleanly Eastern 
 custom, had an embroidered breadth of cotton 
 down the centre, and the lehaf had a sheet
 
 138 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 of fine cotton tacked to it upon the under side. 
 Thus luxuriously accommodated we all slept so 
 comfortably that we were able to think of 
 Amman next morning as a nightmare of the 
 past. We must, however, acknowledge that 
 during the early part of the night we were 
 occasionally awakened by the conversation out- 
 side the door, probably of our escort and the 
 servants ; for in this country, where men rise at 
 dawn, sleep odd half-hours anywhere, and at 
 any time in the day, they may or may not go 
 to bed at night if they should happen to find 
 anything more amusing to do. However, when 
 at last the Professor went outside to suggest 
 silence and the extinction of lights, thev most 
 obligingly met his views at once. 
 
 Next morning we rose about six from our 
 silken couches, and went outside the door in 
 search of towels and a piece of soap, and poured 
 water into each other's hands wherewith to make 
 such ablution as was possible under very public 
 conditions ; for, though there was none of the 
 ill-mannered starinor and crowdinor around of 
 
 o o 
 
 the Madaba Christians, the Circassians con- 
 descended to a little distant curiosity, and 
 even a couple of women appeared upon an 
 opposite housetop.
 
 JERASH 139 
 
 We knew that a very long day was before us, 
 and we had hoped to start early, but our host 
 detained us with kindly importunity. When he 
 appeared upon the scene our bedroom had once 
 more become a drawing-room, and we had taken 
 our early cup of coffee. Then followed more 
 coffee, and then the samovar, with bread and 
 excellent goat's-milk cheese ; and finally the 
 mudir's son, a fresh, open-faced, young man, 
 appeared, mounted on a beautiful mare, to ac- 
 company us across the valley to the ruined city 
 on the western side. 
 
 From the terrace outside the mudir's house 
 we had already taken in the general effect — all 
 the more striking and wonderful that the old 
 town has not been defaced by a single modern 
 building, and hence is far more easily recon- 
 structed by the imagination than Madaba, or 
 even Amman — a fact for which the history of 
 the settlement, rather than any aesthetic per- 
 ception, accounts. When the followers of the 
 Emir NiTih Bey arrived at Jerash he took 
 possession of the east side of the valley for the 
 use of his Immediate family and attendants, 
 reserving the opposite bank for relatives who 
 were to follow. For various reasons — possibly 
 the accounts of discord with the Bedu, possibly
 
 140 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 even some diplomacy on the part of the family 
 here — they have not, so far, arrived, and some 
 two hundred immigrants who came in 1895 were 
 passed on southward. There seems to be some 
 difference of opinion as to the extent of the 
 population, Baedeker giving it at three hundred ; 
 Schumacher, whose very interesting monograph 
 is the only other available source of information, 
 at between fifteen and sixteen hundred souls, 
 including some score of fellahin, who serve as 
 labourers and ploughmen, and a few Moslem 
 shopkeepers. Here, as in Amman, we saw not 
 a sinofle woman in the streets. 
 
 The ruins are so extensive, and stand out so 
 clear against the hillside, that, with the Pro- 
 fessor's help in identifying the buildings, it was 
 easy, from the east side of the valley, to recon- 
 struct in imagination a town which imagination 
 only can picture, so utterly different is it from 
 the banalities and vulgarities of modern utili- 
 tarianism. 
 
 Owing to the harder qualities of the stone 
 the ruins are better preserved than those at 
 Amman, have lost less of their original sharp- 
 ness, and have the freshness so remarkable 
 at Pompeii. And yet an Arabic writer of the 
 thirteenth century, Yakut, describes it even then
 
 JERASH 141 
 
 "as a great city now a ruin." In the ninth 
 century it was mentioned with admiration by 
 the earher writer, Yakubi, although its decline 
 probably began with the expulsion of the 
 Byzantines. 
 
 The most striking features of the scene before 
 us are its highest point, the Temple of the Sun ; 
 its most southern point, the triumphal arch 
 leading towards the Roman road to Amman ; 
 and the great colonnade, of which over a hun- 
 dred pillars are still standing, running from 
 one end to the other of the city. There are 
 two large theatres, two temples, a great oval 
 forum, four bridges, and at each of the two 
 points at which the main street, with its 
 propylaea, is intersected by side streets, there 
 is a tetrapylon, a rotunda, square on the exterior 
 and once decorated with statues. The town was 
 pear-shaped, and enclosed by walls 3552 metres 
 long, having at least three, probably six or 
 seven, gates. 
 
 This is a mere enumeration ; of such a feast 
 of beauty for the lover of form it is almost 
 hopeless to attempt description. As we de- 
 scended, and took a few points in detail, we 
 realised that, with the amount of time at our 
 disposal, even to catalogue such a scene was
 
 142 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 an impossibility. At the utmost we could but 
 note a few of the more obvious features, and 
 we longed for a few days to dispose of. 
 
 Crossing the main street with its great 
 colonnade, many of its splendid pillars lying 
 on the ground, overthrown by earthquakes, we 
 pass the ruins of grand propyleea and of a 
 ruined palace, and, climbing an almost per- 
 pendicular ascent, reach the great Temple of 
 the Sun, enclosed by a colonnade, with a portico 
 approached by steps, consisting of three rows 
 of immense Corinthian columns, 38 feet high 
 and 6 feet thick, the acanthus leaves of the 
 capitals being of rare perfection of workmanship. 
 Smaller temples have stood around it, and, 
 descending again, turning our horses' heads a 
 little northward, we find a theatre with sixteen 
 tiers of seats, and a proscenium strikingly low, 
 intended, it is said, for gladiatorial combats and 
 exhibitions of wild beasts. This theatre, like the 
 temple, is joined to the main street by a colon- 
 nade and tetrapylon, the rotunda of which was 
 once decorated with statues. The forum next 
 attracted us. It is of oval shape, 120 paces in 
 length, and fifty-five of its columns are still 
 standing, all having Ionic capitals. Another 
 temple, smaller than the first, lies near the south
 
 JERASH 143 
 
 gate. Its massive walls, 7| feet thick, contain 
 many niches and windows ; the double Corinthian 
 colonnade is scattered far and wide, though the 
 bases are easily traced, and the little that remains 
 testifies to the former grace of the building. 
 
 Close beside this is a large theatre facing 
 towards the north, so that the spectators must 
 have had a magrnificent background of their 
 familiar public buildings. Twenty - eight tiers 
 of seats are visible, but probably others lie 
 buried in the debris. It is estimated that the 
 acoustic properties of the building must have 
 been excellent, and that at least 5000 spectators 
 could enjoy the spectacle. We observed an 
 arrangement upon the pillars for the hanging 
 of garlands. Beyond the south exit in the 
 town wall is the Triumphal gateway ; according 
 to some the two gateways were alike, forming 
 a splendid vista as one approached the town, 
 each being of triple construction — the central 
 arch 29 feet in height, the total width 82 feet. 
 There are considerable remains of an interest- 
 ing building, thought by some to be a naumachia, 
 or theatre for the representation of naval 
 battles. That there exists a circus, of which 
 many rows of seats still remain, cannot be 
 doubted ; but recent authorities are of opinion
 
 144 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 that the adjoining basin, 230 yards in length 
 by 100 yards in width, into which well-pre- 
 served channels lead the water from the brook 
 below, must have served some other purpose. 
 
 We could not but regret that the lateness of 
 our start cut short our opportunity for further 
 enjoyment of the scene ; but a day of ten or 
 twelve hours was before us, and we soon found 
 ourselves once more upon the Roman road, 
 with our horses turned towards the south.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 ES-SALT 
 "And fade into the light of common day." 
 
 TTT'E knew, when we had lost sight of Jerash, 
 that the romance of our journey was 
 over, although we had still before us three days 
 of the happiness of an open - air life, and of 
 being face to face with Nature in her wilder 
 utterances. We were bound for Es-Salt, across 
 the fertile land of Gilead, and over some of 
 the highest ground east of the Jordan ; but we 
 could not but feel that, having looked upon 
 "the giant forms of empires on their way to 
 ruin," all else must seem commonplace, so far, 
 at least, as it was associated with humanity. 
 The land had relapsed into the hands of a 
 people perhaps even more rudimentary than 
 that from which it had been wrested, or, so far 
 as the city of Es-Salt was concerned, into the 
 worse savagery of a veneer of Europeanism. 
 We were not sorry to have to retrace, for 
 
 K MS
 
 146 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 some two hours, our steps of last night, and 
 so recover some of the impressions which we 
 had lost in the gathering twilight. We halted, 
 for a short time only, at the fords of Jabbok, 
 after which we followed a steep path for about 
 half-an-hour, and then began to descend into 
 the Wady El-Mastaba, a desolate gorge, shade- 
 less and hot, from whence we were glad to 
 escape again into the open, passing a few huts, 
 which constitute the village of Mastaba, which 
 owes its existence to the spring Ain El-Mastaba. 
 Again another gorge, the Wady Umm Rabi, 
 also with its spring ; and a third, and more im- 
 portant wady and spring, with its village of 
 some thirty huts, Er-Rummana, which yesterday 
 we had seen only in the distance. It is in- 
 habited almost entirely by Turcomans, who, as 
 usual, betray their nationality by the scarlet 
 and orange touches in their dress — an agreeable 
 change from the perpetual blue of the Arab. 
 These nomadic tribes are to the settled Turks 
 as the Bedu to the fixed population of the 
 Arabs. They are fair, of less pronounced 
 features than their Semitic neighbours, and 
 most numerous in the north of Syria. They 
 are occupied partly in agriculture, but more 
 especially in cattle and camel rearing. We
 
 ES-SALT 147 
 
 passed some women at a spring, and their 
 manners struck us as having something of 
 Circassian moroseness. 
 
 Just beyond the village the horizon widened, 
 and showed, away to the west, the distant 
 Samaritan hills, half way between us and the 
 Mediterranean. 
 
 Presently we came to the edge of the table- 
 land, and saw far below us the fertile gorge 
 of Wadi Salihi. Here, we had been assured, 
 we should find a beautiful waterfall, 60 feet in 
 height, and embowered in creepers — a pheno- 
 menon almost unknown in Palestine. We never 
 saw that waterfall ; and we had a secret theory, 
 some of us, that " Someone had blundered," 
 for we were, moreover, required to descend a 
 precipice calculated to disturb the nerves of 
 even such experienced travellers as we con- 
 sidered ourselves to be. Some traces of a 
 passing donkey were the only argument which 
 — about half way down — seemed to be in favour 
 of a prospect of ever reaching the bottom, 
 which, however, was in course of time safely 
 achieved. We were much impressed by the 
 agility of the baggage animals, which clumsily, 
 rather than heavily, laden, and wisely abandoned 
 by the mukaris, picked their way as skilfully
 
 148 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 and daintily as cats, although it would be 
 difficult to say whether the loose shale that 
 crumbled beneath one's feet, or the polished 
 rock, which offered no foothold at all, was the 
 more disconcerting. 
 
 Down in the valley we found abundant shade, 
 and the bushes were fresh and green, but the 
 water in the wady was so low and muddy that 
 we were the more convinced that we had en- 
 tirely missed all traces of the waterfall. The 
 horses, after the recent excitement, were thank- 
 ful to drink, and we gladly spread our luncheon 
 and made some coffee. In missing our water- 
 fall we had also missed an interesting cromlech, 
 said to be 13 feet in diameter. 
 
 About seven hours after leaving Jerash we 
 entered the Wady Er-Rumemin, where we forded 
 a brook which serves to turn two or three mills, 
 and waters the small plain into which the valley 
 finally opens. Here we found the first traces 
 of Christianity since leaving Madaba, always 
 excepting the locanda at Amman : an orderly 
 village with a Latin and a Greek church, 
 school, and presbytery, well - planted olive 
 grounds and neatly - kept vegetable gardens. 
 We were already late, and dared not stay 
 to examine a group of ruins to the west of
 
 ES-SALT 149 
 
 the Latin church, still less others which, we 
 were told, lay at a little distance. 
 
 Leaving the village by the right bank of the 
 wady, now called El-Hor, we climbed a steep hill, 
 and found ourselves in a beautiful oak wood. 
 
 As over a score of varieties of oaks are found 
 in Palestine they are somewhat difficult to dis- 
 tinguish, but some at least of these were of the 
 species quercus csgilops, having acorns with scales, 
 the cups of which may be familiarly described 
 as looking like miniature pineapples. They are 
 used in tanning, and, as they form quite an 
 important article of commerce, the trees are 
 treated with more respect than is usual among 
 the destructive fellahin. 
 
 During the winter one meets, coming into 
 Jerusalem, whole caravans laden with great 
 roots of trees, dug up for sale by the peasants 
 of the mountains, and from this, as well as 
 from tradition, we may well suppose that whole 
 districts have been denuded of their forests. 
 We are told, however, by various authorities 
 that woods as we know them, lofty, as well as 
 thick with undergrowth, have never existed here, 
 and that such wood as we were now passing 
 through is of the normal type, the growth open 
 and scattered, and the trees thick rather than
 
 150 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 high. The undergrowth seemed to consist 
 largely of dwarf oak and terebinth, and as we 
 progressed farther, and the wood became thicker, 
 of pine and thorn. 
 
 With thick foliage on either side, and lofty- 
 hills before us, we hardly realised that the sun 
 was setting when it was suddenly night. Our 
 cavalcade closed up together, and those in front 
 were constantly calling back to others to beware 
 of stretching branches or other difficulties of the 
 path. The very horses, with the instinct of 
 self-protection, in a country where other protec- 
 tion does not exist, kept close to each other. 
 Our officer hurried to the front at sound of voices 
 and movement, the mukaris brought up the rear, 
 and the Lady's horse was secured by a rope to 
 that of one of the men. An opening in the 
 trees revealed a camp of charcoal-burners, and 
 as we once more began to ascend we could see 
 the lurid flames of others of the same trade, 
 lighting up the surrounding hilltops, and making 
 the darkness around seem all the more substan- 
 tial. It was a darkness which miorht be felt We 
 
 o 
 
 knew, from occasional contact with the branches, 
 that we were still in thick woodland, and as we 
 began to climb once more, the path was so 
 narrow and so perpendicular that our horses
 
 ES-SALT 151 
 
 could go only in single file. All but the Professor 
 and the Lady dismounted, rather from humanity 
 than for safety, for the animals' sense of direction 
 was better than ours. As usual on occasions of 
 anxiety, no one spoke. Suddenly a shout arose 
 out of the darkness, and the horses halted ; while 
 those on foot pressed on to know the cause, and 
 the Professor, who was in advance, sent back 
 his electric lantern. One of the baggage horses 
 had found his bulk too great for the narrow 
 passage, and the way was blocked by his en- 
 tanglement. It took some time to set him free 
 and to ascertain that nothing was lost from 
 his various burdens. As we waited in the dense 
 blackness of the wood, the poor animals strug- 
 gling for foothold on the steep ascent, the smell 
 of the hyaenas was almost nauseating, and the 
 cries of troops of jackals, answering each other 
 out of the darkness, lent a weird touch to our 
 surroundings. 
 
 Presently the obstacle was removed, and we 
 were able to continue in the direction of our 
 oriflamme — the spark of light which showed that 
 the Professor, with his lantern, had reached a spot 
 where he could safely await our arrival. A fer- 
 vent Alhamdul-Illah ! (" God be thanked ! ") from 
 one of our mukaris bringing up the rear, showed
 
 152 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 that the horses at least were safe ; and in a few 
 minutes the stragglers on foot had joined the 
 group, one at least having special cause for 
 thankfulness, as he had had a very narrow escape 
 from a fall over an unsuspected precipice. To 
 see each other was still impossible, and a startled 
 wai7t es-Sitt ? (Where is the Lady ?") uttered close 
 beside her, almost gave her pleasure, not from 
 any desire to give trouble to her friends, but 
 rather as assurance that she had not already 
 done so, for there had been moments of which 
 some of us hardly yet felt competent to give 
 an account. 
 
 The look backward, from the high ground we 
 had reached, was a spectacle not to be forgotten. 
 Three huo-e fires flamed higrh against the ereat 
 dome of night, which, now that we were out 
 in the open, was perceptible in the clear starlight, 
 and no longer the wall of dense blackness which 
 had seemed to press against our very eyeballs. 
 Moreover, behind us, to the north-east, the moon 
 was rising from behind the Jebel Osha, a 
 mountain 3595 feet high, associated with the 
 prophet Hosea, said to have been born and 
 buried here. The Bedu have a wely containing 
 his grave, about 16 feet long, for all the great 
 men of old were giants, and here they annually
 
 ES-SALT 153 
 
 sacrifice sheep in his honour. We felt, as we 
 heard the story, that a sacrifice to the rising 
 moon would be less of an anachronism than we 
 were accustomed to . suppose, so thankful were 
 we to have some notion of where the next step 
 would lead us. 
 
 It seemed as if Es-Salt were extraordinarily 
 remote, and we asked Khalil if we were not near, 
 with a faint hope that a light we could see away 
 down in the valley might represent the windows 
 of the convent upon whose hospitality we 
 counted, and when he replied : " After two hills," 
 we were even inclined to suppose it a fafon de 
 parler, equivalent to "by-and-by." However, 
 he was rigfht enough, and we had to descend 
 and climb, and again to descend and climb 
 before, below, up the valley to our left, the town 
 became visible. The light we had counted upon, 
 proved to be again that of charcoal-burners, and 
 a most Satanic spectacle it was, for we came near 
 enough to see a group of figures dancing and 
 leaping against the flaming background. 
 
 The last descent was somewhat of a pendant, 
 except that it was on open ground and by moon- 
 light, to our perpendicular ascent in the wood, 
 and a row of telegraph posts at the bottom 
 seemed to add insult to our injuries : the affec-
 
 154 IX A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 tation of an effort at civilisation which we felt 
 had been better expended in the clearing of a 
 few rocks and the construction of, let us say, 
 some kind of path. Again, most of the party 
 dismounted, and it was interesting to observe 
 how cleverly the animals picked their way, even 
 the laden baggage animals. When now and 
 then they went, for convenience, a little wide 
 of the ultimate point, we noted with interest 
 how they came at a call from the mukaris — each 
 animal having his own name, to which he readily 
 responded. It may be mentioned in passing 
 that, so willing and intelligent were our friendly 
 quadrupeds, that the only whip in the cavalcade 
 was never used during the whole expedition 
 but to reprove the moral obliquities of the Pro- 
 fessor's horse, who took long to recover from 
 his jealousy. 
 
 It was some consolation, in riding through 
 the long town of Es-Salt, to find that its in- 
 habitants were still up. They were, in fact, 
 celebrating a festive occasion — the engagement, 
 or, perhaps, more correctly, the sale, of the 
 daughter of some prominent townsman. We 
 could learn no particulars of the transaction, 
 but to judge from the extreme gaiety of the 
 groups gathered about a flaming bonfire in an
 
 ES-SALT 155 
 
 open space, it would seem to be satisfactory to 
 both parties— meaning, of course, the bridegroom 
 and the nearest male relatives— father, uncle, and 
 brothers— of the bride, for she herself was not 
 likely to be consulted in the matter. 
 
 The kindly parish priests of the patriarchate, 
 like those at Madaba, received us with ready 
 hospitality ; one of them even vacated his own 
 room for the use of the Lady when it was 
 ascertained that the Sisters of the Rosary, who 
 could more conveniently have accommodated 
 her, had closed their doors for the night. 
 
 We had time next morning to make some 
 
 small acquaintance with Es-Salt. Although it 
 
 is a town having a large fixed population 
 
 (10,000, which includes 3000 Christians) we 
 
 were struck by the anomalous fact that a large 
 
 number of the people looked like Bedu. The 
 
 men had the slender build and finer features 
 
 we had met so universally since crossing the 
 
 Jordan, and the women had the much-tattooed 
 
 faces, and even the long, trailing skirts, we had 
 
 met all over the Belka. Although it is the 
 
 seat of a kaimmakam (governor), and has a 
 
 Turkish telegraph office, it seems to be still 
 
 in spirit, as until recently it was in fact, in 
 
 opposition to the Government. Burckhardt,
 
 156 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 who was here nearly a century ago, speaks 
 warmly of the hospitality of what he calls the 
 " Szaltese," who were then Bedu at heart, and 
 even in dialect. He says their public hospi- 
 tality may be estimated at about ;^iooo a year, 
 collected from the people, and adds that were 
 they subject to the Turks more than that 
 would be extorted from them for forced enter- 
 tainment. They had lately withstood a three 
 months' siege by the Pasha of Damascus. Then, 
 as now, they were engaged in three branches 
 of commerce : the collection and sale for export 
 of sumach leaves, used largely for dyeing pur- 
 poses ; the weaving of carpets from the wool 
 of their own flocks ; and above all, the pre- 
 paration of raisins. 
 
 It was quite a useful enlargement of notions 
 to most of us to find that the familiar raisin 
 used in puddings is not, as the grocers spell it, 
 " Sultana," with some vague notion of an 
 Oriental association with the Sultan, but Salt- 
 ana, and that it comes almost entirely from Es- 
 Salt. The fruit used for the purpose is a 
 small grape without seeds. They are spread 
 out as soon as picked, and then turned over 
 and over, with fingers dipped in olive oil until 
 they are all impregnated in every part. They are
 
 ES-SALT 157 
 
 then dried on wood ashes, — the wood employed 
 being the oak or terebinth — collected in baskets, 
 and then spread out to dry on a well-trodden 
 earthen floor. Two and a half kilogrammes 
 (a kilogramme is about two pounds and a fifth 
 avoirdupois) cost, on the spot, twelve piasters, 
 or about two shillings, less, in large quantities. 
 
 Another article of commerce is a very strong 
 tobacco known as "heesh," from the Arabic 
 word for the forests where it is cultivated. 
 It burns so badly as to have given rise to a 
 proverb applied to a man or a subject which 
 puts a stop to conversation : " It is heesh 
 tobacco ; do not speak ! " 
 
 A minor industry, the manufacture of rosaries, 
 has originated in the abundance of certain 
 kinds of hard wood. 
 
 The situation of Es-Salt is 2740 feet above 
 sea-level ; but the town itself lies in so deep a 
 gorge, the mountains rising like a perpen- 
 dicular wall on either hand, that we asked 
 the padre whether the place were healthy, and 
 he pointed out that the town extended, in fact, 
 along two valleys — the Wady Osha, and a 
 narrower wady, much less airy, and consequently 
 less sanitary, as had been proved again and 
 again in times of epidemic, when cholera and in-
 
 158 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 fluenza have lingered and recurred loner after 
 they had ceased in the town itself. 
 
 The water is good, and very abundant, the 
 town spring being the finest we had seen in 
 the country. 
 
 Es-Salt, the seat of a bishopric, was not 
 important till the Crusades. A fine mausoleum, 
 known as Sara, is said to be of Christian origin ; 
 and there are the remains of a church, hewn 
 in the rocks, with many scattered rock tombs. 
 The castle dates only from the thirteenth 
 century, when it was rebuilt after destruction 
 by the Mongols of the ancient fortress, which 
 may have withstood Saladdin. 
 
 We were quite sorry to take leave here 
 of our silent Circassian, who had always shown 
 himself kindly and capable, but it seemed 
 that his duty ended at Es-Salt — and, indeed, 
 his services were no longer requisite. We 
 noticed several Europeans in the town, probably 
 merchants bringing raisins for export, or possibly 
 grapes — for we had had some for breakfast of 
 very unusual quality, and what a gardener would 
 call "well grown," which seldom happens in this 
 country, where the vines are most often not 
 raised from the ground, so that the under 
 side of the bunch, though well ripened by
 
 ES-SALT 159 
 
 the warm, dry earth, is flat, and not always 
 well coloured. 
 
 Considering the amount of commerce with 
 other places it seemed to us to show an almost 
 insolent — perhaps it was only an ignorant — in- 
 difference on the part of the inhabitants that 
 they should make no effort whatever to improve 
 the approach to Es-Salt. We left the town by a 
 track but little better than that by which we 
 had approached it — a track which would have 
 spoilt the business of any decent stone quarry. 
 The immediate exit was over a series of ash- 
 heaps and middens, across which the women 
 were trailing their long skirts with entire com- 
 posure. Next we mounted a steep ascent over 
 polished rock or scattered shale, just as it 
 happened, and then, after a short distance on 
 level ground, we began a long and difficult 
 descent into the deep gorge, which more or 
 less we followed all the way to the plain, that 
 of the Wady Shaib, now absolutely dry, but 
 which must be in winter, judging from the 
 nature of its bed, a rushing torrent, losing itself 
 finally in the Jordan. 
 
 About an hour from Es-Salt we met a boy 
 with a laden donkey, which we passed with 
 some difficulty, and a little farther observed a
 
 160 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 spring of water and a khan. There was some 
 question as to whether we should meet with 
 any water in the only other spring upon our 
 route ; but it was obviously too early for 
 luncheon, and we continued our way, passing 
 on a hill, to our left, a wcly dedicated to Shu'aib, 
 diminutive of Shaib, the Arabic name (used in 
 the Koran) for Jethro, who gives his name to 
 the wady — why is not obvious. 
 
 About noon we reached the A in Rs-Shech, 
 and our horses were not slow in discovering 
 that water of a kind was to be had. There 
 was, at all events, welcome shade from a magni- 
 ficent, wide -spreading fig-tree, the branches of 
 which, growing close to the side of the hill, 
 were available as couches and resting - places 
 for half of its hcii^ht. We boiled the water 
 again and again, and fished out all its most 
 striking disadvantages, though some were, un- 
 fortunately, less obvious than the microbes 
 during a recent cholera scare at Bethlehem, 
 which were reported by those personally in- 
 terested in the quarantine question to be "as 
 large as a napoleon."
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE JORDAN VALLEY 
 "Jordan past" 
 
 '^JOTHING during the rest of that day's 
 ride contributed so much to our entertain- 
 ment as the conduct of the white baggage-horse. 
 He was the pair of Sadowi, and of very similar 
 appearance, but had not been selected to carry 
 the Lady because he was, like most Arabs, and 
 some Arab horses, blind of one eye. It had not 
 at first dawned upon him that his companion 
 had received promotion, but the fact had been 
 lately revealed by some accident, and had been 
 working in his mind ever since. To-day things 
 had come to a climax, and he now perceived 
 that not only had Sadowi escaped from the 
 hateful and galling pack-saddle — in itself a pre- 
 posterous load — not only had he a much lighter 
 burden to carry, but he was giving himself airs 
 of superiority, and travelling, as a rule, the fore- 
 most of the entire cavalcade. Such autocracy 
 was not to be endured, and could and should 
 be put a stop to ; if he reigned he should not 
 reign alone. The creature, a worthy and ex- 
 
 L l6l
 
 102 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 cellent baggage horse, doing his duty in his 
 own state of life, now became self-willed and 
 persistent under the overmastering influence of 
 this dominant idea. We called him the 
 "majnoon," the name which the Arabs give to 
 the half-crazy men, generally derwishes, who 
 wander about, living u{:)()n tlu- alms of the 
 benevolent. He insisted on keeping u[) with 
 his comrade. In spite of all inconveniences 
 occasioned by his imperfect sight, his clumsy 
 burden, he generally succeeded in remaining 
 side by side with, or immediately behind, the 
 Lady. If driven back he would persistently 
 push his way past all the rest in turn, till he 
 regained his position, loudly grunting dissatis- 
 faction and determination. As we descended to 
 the plain, and the broad caravan road allowed 
 room for any number to ride abreast on the 
 wide sands, the horse most accustomed to go 
 beside Sadowi made several efforts to take 
 up his usual position, always repulsed by the 
 "majnoon." Sadowi himself, who received an 
 occasional push from the unwieldy heap of 
 baggage, especially when on the blind side of 
 his companion, was not wholly pleased with 
 the arrangement ; but whenever the Lady tried 
 to give a wider berth to her inconvenient
 
 THE JORDAN VALLEY 163 
 
 attendant, the "majnoon" always followed, dis- 
 contentedly grunting at the extra strain of the 
 additional pace he compelled himself to assume. 
 We had become, by this time, exceedingly 
 conscious of the change of climate, which had 
 occurred even since the morning, and much 
 more so since we left the Belka. The gorges 
 had been hot and close, the sands of the plain 
 seemed to radiate heat, and the level rays of 
 the sun, as we rode westward, produced to- 
 wards evening, that sense of brain fatigue in- 
 describable to those who do not know their 
 effect in an Oriental climate — to many far more 
 exhausting than the direct heat and glare of 
 midday. The moment, however, that the great 
 god sank to rest behind the hills of Judaea, we 
 luxuriated to the full in the wonderful beauty 
 of the brief twilight. Away to the east, almost 
 without our perceiving it, the purple hills arose 
 once more to shut out from us that enchanted 
 world of which we had taken one brief glimpse. 
 A distant flame, lurid against the pearly sky, 
 showed us that the charcoal-burners were still 
 at work. Wreaths of white mist lay in the 
 hollows of the mountains ; while the clear mirror 
 of the Dead Sea, stretching far as the eye could 
 reach, reflected the hills of Judaea, dark masses,
 
 101 IX A sviu.w SAnni.K 
 
 looking across the wide plain to the evening 
 glow beyond. A single line, standing up like a 
 needle against th(.' west, showed us the Russian 
 tower on the Mount of Olives, reminder of all 
 that world of politics, and rivalry, and ambition, 
 of which for a few days we had so gladly lost 
 sight. V.vcn our old friend the jujube - tree, 
 zizyphns, was here again, reminding us that we 
 wer(-' (^nce more in subtropical surroundings, 
 and several times we had to stoop to the horses' 
 necks to avoid its unwelcome embraces. 
 
 It was some hours since we had met with 
 anything human ; but, as the darkness gathered, 
 the glare of camp fires broke out here and there, 
 among the bushes, and, far away, tlie lights of 
 Jericho seemed to beckon us to the repose we 
 were beginning to need. Suddenly we came 
 upon a weird scene — an assembly of the black 
 tents of the Bedu. a bright fire in the midst. 
 Quite a large number of men were gathered about 
 the flaming pile, some preparing supper, others 
 tending the animals — horses, asses, camels — 
 tethered beside the tents or left free to wander 
 in search of food among the undergrowth of 
 scrub. "Waiting to cross the Jordan Bridge," 
 it was whispered among us. together with a 
 warning that we must approach this Rubicon
 
 THE JORDAN VALLEY 165 
 
 as silently as possible, lest we should provoke 
 the jealousy and rivalry of others less fortunate 
 than ourselves, and cause superfluous discussion, 
 and delay — for even those who had fulfilled 
 the necessary conditions of a now practically 
 unlimited quarantine, might not cross the river 
 after sunset. 
 
 We rode on silently to the water's edge, and 
 drew rein while Khalil went forward, barefoot, 
 to secure the opening of the gates before we 
 ventured in the darkness upon the slippery and 
 rotten planks. There was a cautious knocking, 
 a long, low-toned parley. Our mukari returned, 
 and there was more parley among our leaders, 
 and a suggestion made of "a few napoleons," 
 emphatically negatived by the Professor. Khalil 
 returned to his conference, and came back with 
 a request for papers. The Arabic - speaking 
 Sportsman, armed with a portentous sheaf of 
 teskerys (local passports) and permits, went 
 forward, soon returning, for an instant, to tell 
 us to get off our horses, for the poor beasts, 
 becoming resdess, were making too much noise. 
 This, we felt, implied that we must be resigned 
 to further delay, and we stretched ourselves 
 upon the sand, each securely holding the tether 
 of his own horse, which would otherwise have
 
 ir,r, IN A SVIUAN SADDLE 
 
 been off in an instant in search of food ; for their 
 supper hour was already past, and they had had 
 nothing since yesterday. 
 
 Entertainment did not fail us. In the camp 
 we had passed, the Bedu had finished their 
 supper, and were now amusing themselves about 
 the camp fire, which flared high, and showed 
 every detail more clearly than daylight. First 
 there was dancing and singing, both of the kind 
 which seems to us so singularly uninspiring — 
 the tunes moving over about four notes, the 
 dance of about, perhaps, as many steps, accom- 
 panied by shouts and hand - clappings ; men 
 dancing with each other, of course, or rather 
 opposite to each oth.er, each occasionally resting 
 his hands upon his neighbour's shoulders. When 
 this amusement palled, each kilted his kumbaz 
 into his waistband as one has seen a Blue-coat 
 School boy dispose of his very similar garment for 
 precisely the same amusement, of playing — leap- 
 froQ^ ! With longr, bronzed limbs, clean cut as 
 those of a race-horse, with not a superfluous 
 pound of flesh and not an ounce that was not 
 muscle, it was really exciting to see these chil- 
 dren of the desert vying with each other in the 
 familiar game, after a fashion which would be 
 edifying at Eton or Harrow.
 
 THE JORDAN VALLEY 167 
 
 No ; it was not amusement that lacked, it was 
 water! It was nearly eight hours since we had 
 had those precious cups of tea at Ain es-Shech, 
 and what we had brought away with us was, 
 for the most part, finished. One member of the 
 party, an especially thirsty soul, whose supply 
 had long been exhausted, looked with ever- 
 increasing longing at the flask of the absent 
 Sportsman. It was one of those admirable 
 aluminium flasks, covered with felt, which kept 
 the liquid exquisitely cool and sweet, and it had 
 been hanging all day at the saddle-bow, and must 
 now be ice cold. The very thought added to 
 his sufferings, as the beauty of that luscious apple 
 on a hot Oriental noontide may have increased 
 the longing of our mother Eve. "Water, water 
 everywhere, and not a drop to drink ! " The 
 Jordan murmured sweetly at our feet, rippling 
 gently, and shining silver clear in the starlight ; 
 but the cholera about the Lake of Galilee, whence 
 came that tempting stream, was a real and mortal 
 disease, and not the "backsheesh cholera" pre- 
 valent elsewhere. But that flask ! He knew it 
 to be half full — a fact which in itself showed 
 that the Sportsman was not in thirsty mood : 
 no man who knew anything of thirst — thirst such 
 as this — thirst which made one indifferent to all
 
 1G8 IN A SVIUAX SADDLE 
 
 else — would carry ah(^ut with hini a supply of 
 delicious, reviving nectar, medicine alike for body 
 and soul — a pint of ice-cold tea! No; it was 
 absolutely certain that were he here, that kindly 
 Sportsman, he would press the gift upon him, 
 insist upon his acceptance. Here in the East 
 are there any laws so binding, are there any 
 rules of honour, of generosity, so inflexible as 
 those which concern the question of water ? The 
 most niggardly will give, the most selfish will 
 share, the most churlish will not refuse. How 
 long will that worthy Sportsman tarry ? 
 
 There was a slight, a very sh'ght. rustle in the 
 darkness ; something moved beside that treasured 
 flask, truly " the cynosure of neighbouring eyes" ; 
 there was the suppressed sound of the withdniwing 
 of a cork, and the whole of the precious liquid 
 went down the throat of the younger mukari ! 
 It was impossible to move, to speak ; and if there 
 be any test of endurance worse than thirst it is 
 that, under certain circumstances, of compulsory 
 self-suppression ! 
 
 After that the return of this longed-for friend 
 was a matter almost of indifference, and the 
 information he brought was but unimportant 
 in the presence of that mighty thirst. The 
 guardians of the bridge returned our papers,
 
 THE JORDAN VALLEY 1G9 
 
 which they probably could not read ; they knew 
 nothing of the Professor's special privileges, or 
 considered them a mere pretext for the avoid- 
 ance of backsheesh ; there was cholera in Kerak ; 
 who was to say that we had not spent these 
 ten days in Kerak ? — quarantine was compulsory ; 
 no one crossed the bridge after sunset ; they 
 were heartless, relentless, immovable, deaf to 
 explanation. The hasty return of some Bedu, 
 who had also striven to enter with a caravan 
 of laden asses, and who, probably having some 
 personal reason for travelling at this hour, would 
 have no conscientious scruples in offering back- 
 sheesh, confirmed the report of the guardians' 
 inflexibility. 
 
 To pass the night, weary as we were, upon 
 this dry sand, beside a cool, murmuring stream, 
 with waving branches overhead, would be no 
 special hardship. The camp fires about us would 
 keep off the jackals, which were answering each 
 other's cries across the plain ; we had blankets, 
 we had even food. Alas ! however, we had no 
 drink, and then, our poor horses ! — kind, patient 
 servants that they were : to - day, at the end 
 of, in some respects, the hardest day's work of 
 the whole expedition, for, although they had 
 done little climbing, their long twelve hours'
 
 170 IN A SVIUAX SADDLK 
 
 steady work had been endured in burning sun 
 and without the refreshing breezes of the Belka. 
 The three baggage animals had not even had 
 the relief of nearly an hour's freedom from their 
 burdens, such as the others had enjoyed, during 
 tlie long conference. And again, for ourselves, 
 how were we, some of us especially, U) endure 
 the continued thirst ? 
 
 " Bonsoir, madame, bonsoir, messieurs! je re- 
 grette — ^je vous en prie — venez prendre un peu 
 de caf^ chez nous — vous reposer un peu!" 
 
 This messenger of mercy was a charming 
 young man, beautifully dressed, smiling, debon- 
 nair, shaking hands with all of us in turn. In 
 a few minutes we had walked across the bridge ; 
 the tramp behind us of our horses' feet was con- 
 vincing that it was not all a dream ; in a few 
 minutes more we were seated about the door of 
 a comfortable tent, carpets were under our feet, 
 the Lady had an easy-chair, the men had stools ; 
 the light of a lantern showed comfortable domes- 
 ticity within ; we were drinking sherbet, we were 
 revived with cognac, we were refreshed with fruit, 
 and the preparation of coffee was in rapid pro- 
 gress. 
 
 By degrees we understood what had happened. 
 The wardens of the bridge, after the fashion of
 
 THE JORDAN VALLEY 171 
 
 subordinates "clothed in a little brief authority," 
 had taken our affairs into their own hands, and 
 turned a deaf ear to all explanation. Somehow, 
 however, the matter had finally come to the ears 
 of the superior officer, an important functionary, 
 who at sunset, his duty done, had retired to his 
 tent at some little distance. The name of the 
 Professor, carried to intelligent ears, had had its 
 immediate effect — and here we were, relieved of 
 all apprehension, and luxuriously awaiting the 
 moonrise for the accomplishment of our journey. 
 Nothing could exceed the kindness of our 
 welcome. Our new friend presented his card to 
 each of us, and we in turn wrote down our names 
 on paper, that all might feel friendly and at home. 
 We discussed common acquaintances among the 
 Jerusalem effendis, promised exchange of visits, 
 sympathised as to the monotony of a solitary 
 existence on the banks of the Jordan, and were 
 interested in hearing — from a Moslem — that such 
 things were all very well for John the Baptist or 
 Elijah, but now one's ideas were different. When 
 conversation failed we ate nuts, almonds, delicious 
 salted pistachios : an Arab, even in the wilderness 
 of Judaea, is certain to be not far from nuts. The 
 spirit of hospitality was so diffused that when the 
 Lady was about to reject one she was unable to
 
 172 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 crack in her fingers, the negro servant gently 
 took it, cracked it with his own gleaming teeth, 
 and returned it to her. 
 
 He was one of those big negroes common in 
 this country and known as haji (pilgrims), prob- 
 ably because they often arrive with the Mecca 
 caravan, or even come on their own account to 
 the mosque at Jerusalem, the secondary pilgrim- 
 age of the Moslem faith. They are employed 
 as guardians of property, much as, at home, we 
 employ watch-dogs, and may be seen everywhere, 
 sitting at the doors of public buildings or at the 
 gates of enclosed spaces. If you wish to enter 
 a courtyard you knock at the door, and call out 
 *' Haj ! " certain that a giant negro will appear 
 upon the scene. They are said to be extraordin- 
 arily faithful, allowing themselves to be misused 
 and beaten rather than depart from the strict 
 letter of the commands they have received from 
 their employers. The negro in question was 
 clad in snow-white robes, and as he leaned up 
 against the door of the tent in the starlight, 
 absolutely motionless when not employed, the 
 intense blackness of his countenance showing 
 between his white turban and white kumbaz, it 
 was difficult to realise that he was of ordinary 
 humanity and not a picture in a fairy-tale book.
 
 THE JORDAN VALLEY 173 
 
 Presently the moon looked over the heights 
 of the mountains of Moab, just as last night she 
 had arisen above the Jebel Osha, and, if only 
 for the sake of our famishing steeds, we felt we 
 must not delay. Our host insisted upon sending 
 an escort with us, alleging the difficulty of finding 
 the way among those weird hills and along the 
 trackless sands. On being assured that our men 
 were competent to conduct us he still most 
 courteously insisted, and finally a sufficient 
 reason transpired which, out of kindness, he 
 had so far withheld. It appeared that soldiers 
 were secreted in the wilderness on the lookout 
 for criminals, of some nature not specified, who 
 were expected to attempt to escape by night into 
 the border country at the south end of the Dead 
 Sea, the city of refuge for the desperate and 
 lawless, and it was just possible we might have 
 some inconvenience. 
 
 We gratefully accepted his kindness, and took 
 our leave. We had already received a lesson 
 in hospitality, now we were to have one in de- 
 portment. We could not but feel that our own 
 adieux were lacking in grace, in gratitude, in 
 dignity, when compared with those of our friend ; 
 so gracious without empressement, so respectful 
 without servility — in short, so entirely all that is
 
 174 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 most attractive in the higher-class Oriental. The 
 Professor, who had learned much in the school 
 of Bedu, alone showed to advantage, and seemed 
 to possess a courtesy not wholly graceless and 
 European. 
 
 Our next lesson was in horsemanship. Our 
 escorting soldier was as nearly ubiquitous as it 
 was in the nature of man and horse to be. A 
 distant caravan of camels showed sharp against 
 the sky. He had flashed up to them, interrogated 
 them, and was back, beating up our rear, and 
 again in front, indicating the track we were to 
 pursue ; for Khalil had abandoned responsibility, 
 and was frankly asleep on the top of a pile of 
 baggage. Even the " majnoon " had wearily 
 desisted from his ambitions, and had retired to 
 the rear with his humbler companions. 
 
 If that strange world had seemed weird and 
 visionary in the morning twilight, it was even 
 more so under the moon, where the silent sand 
 cities cast long shadows of a blackness so intense 
 as to be comparable only to those of electric light. 
 Indeed, this Oriental moonlight has nothing of 
 that quality of softness — the half-revealing, half- 
 concealing gleams, to which we are accus- 
 tomed in the West. It is hard, clear, metallic. It 
 is a peculiarity, perhaps, of this Syrian atmosphere
 
 THE JORDAN VALLEY 175 
 
 that outlines appear so sharp that they lose, 
 apparently, in solidity ; in what artists call " the 
 round," so that the distant view of Jerusalem, for 
 example, has the effect of stage scenery, of an 
 absolute lack of perspective, which makes it ex- 
 traordinarily difficult to compare distances. To- 
 night, for instance, when a vista between the 
 sand hills allowed us to perceive the village of 
 Jericho, it seemed inconceivable that we should 
 not reach it in a few minutes, and yet it was 
 already after eleven o'clock before the splash of 
 our horses' feet in the water, told us that we 
 were crossing the brook Cherith. 
 
 At this point our soldier disappeared, flashed 
 out of sight — his kind intention, as we soon found, 
 being to arouse the haj, the solitary occupant of 
 the hotel, and apprise him of our arrival. We 
 had not to wait long before the gates were opened 
 and the barking of the dogs exchanged for a 
 kindly welcome. They were old friends, de- 
 generate descendants of some far-away mastiff, 
 and still more distant collie, who had made 
 misalliances with some son or daughter of the 
 soil, and left traces of another race, much as 
 we trace the Crusader in the blue eyes and fair 
 hair, of which specimens remain, here and there, 
 in almost every village in Syria.
 
 176 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 There was naturally no fire, and dreams of 
 tea were destined to disappointment ; but there 
 were other combinations obtainable where water 
 was good and abundant, from which we were 
 not averse. Have we not, some of us, drunk 
 " Ben Nevis " on Mount Lebanon and " Talisker " 
 in glens other than those of Skye ? We had food 
 with us, though our friends' hospitalities had left 
 us little appetite, and we made no complaint — 
 having water and towels — that sheets were not 
 forthcoming. All that lacked, in this semi-tropical 
 atmosphere, was a sweet-scented breeze from off 
 the Belka. 
 
 We rose somewhat sadly next morning, and 
 compared our twilight start with that of nine 
 days ago — sad, not as so often happens, from 
 any consciousness of anticipations unfulfilled, of 
 hopes disappointed, but only because those 
 golden days were now buried with the past. 
 
 We rested for some time at the Good Samaritan 
 Inn, and wrote some picture postcards, to be 
 stamped — strange anachronism — with the post- 
 mark Bon Samaritain ! Perhaps twopence was 
 a large sum in New Testament days, or it may 
 be that good man had a long bill when he " came 
 again " ; or, still more likely, the progress of 
 civilisation and of religion has relegated hospit-
 
 THE JORDAN VALLEY 177 
 
 ality and trustworthiness to the ignorant and 
 savage Bedu. Anyway, the shilling demanded 
 seemed to us a good deal to pay for a cup of 
 tea and a biscuit. 
 
 We had no further adventure, and stopped but 
 once, to photograph the stone which Abraham 
 brought on his back from some distant place — 
 variously stated as Hebron and Damascus. Who- 
 ever shall place his back under that stone will 
 be reinforced for carrying his own especial burden. 
 We looked back now with a sense of familiar 
 friendship at those grey hills, which had so lately 
 been among the limitations of life, with a realisa- 
 tion of widened knowledge and added sympathies, 
 which, on our return to the commonplace burdens 
 of every day, should move us to thankfulness 
 and not to regret. Each evening now the sunset 
 glow would seem to smile to us from the faces of 
 old friends, telling of a country beyond — fairer, 
 purer, it may be, than ours, but in its friendships, 
 its loves, its presentation of the beautiful, not 
 very different from this. 
 
 We reached home in time for luncheon, and 
 it is fair to record that the " majnoon," grunting 
 and breathless, was in at the death.
 
 IN GALILEE AND SAMARIA 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 TO NABLUS 
 
 "And then men go to Shiloh, where the ark of God with the 
 relics were long kept . . . and after men go to Shechem, formerly 
 called Sichar . . . and there is a fair and good city, called 
 Neapolis, whence it is a day's journey to Jerusalem." 
 
 Sir John Maundeville, 1322 
 
 '"T^HOSE who have undertaken the educa- 
 tion of the tourist have instilled into him, 
 among other irresponsible statements, the super- 
 stition that one can travel in the Holy Land 
 only during the three spring months of the year, 
 thus leaving the far more agreeable season from 
 September to March for the delectation of the 
 serious student. This conviction, and the ab- 
 sence from our party of pith helmets, white 
 umbrellas, hats invested with floating veils, 
 blue spectacles, superfluous luggage, broken- 
 kneed horses, dragomans, and other impediments 
 to comfort and convenience, made possible the 
 unsportsmanlike start which otherwise might have 
 caused a careless observer to mistake us for the 
 
 " Personally Conducted." 
 
 178
 
 TO NABLUS 179 
 
 To drive in a carriage as far as El Bireh, 
 sending our horses in advance, was however a 
 venial sin ; for the ride to Nabliis was before us, 
 the first three or four hours being along a 
 highroad of very moderate interest ; and, at 
 best, we could not hope to get in before night- 
 fall, in spite of our start at six o'clock on a 
 December morning. 
 
 We were a very attenuated party — only the 
 Lady and the Doctor remaining of our former 
 group. We were reinforced, however, by the 
 Artist, a lady whose saddle-bags were weighty 
 with cameras and sketching-blocks ; and by 
 another learned doctor, who, on account of his 
 association with a celebrated guide-book, we 
 designated " Baedeker." Sitting in a carriage 
 is not inspiriting, and even the sight of the 
 Holy City in the sunrise, viewed from Mount 
 Scopas, as purple in the morning as it is pink 
 in the evening, failed to arouse our conversa- 
 tional powers. The tribe of Benjamin welcomed 
 us coldly on the broad plain assigned to it, and 
 we could think only with some dejection, of the 
 bygone days when this plucky little people 
 could afford to lose twenty-five thousand men in 
 a single battle (Judges xx.), and when the six 
 hundred who held out on yonder hill of Ramah,
 
 180 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 repudiated by all their neighbours, possessed 
 themselves of wives in the good old Sabine 
 fashion, and made a fresh start in their frontier 
 colony. Fifteen Moslem families now inherit 
 the traditions of former glory ; and, indeed, the 
 population hereabouts is very thinly scattered. 
 It is whispered that some of the villages have 
 so evil a reputation that the neighbouring 
 districts now, as two or three thousand years 
 ago, are wont to say : " There shall not any 
 of us give his daughter unto Benjamin to 
 wife " — the women already established there not 
 being desirable associates for those otherwise 
 brought up. 
 
 At El Bireh our vehicle drew up in front of 
 the khan or village inn, where there is a good 
 deal of accommodation for horses, and a single 
 small room for man. There we breakfasted, 
 while our steeds were collected and our saddle- 
 bags dispersed. We had no baggage - horses, 
 and had all our personal belongings, as well 
 as fodder for the beasts, to distribute as best 
 we could, so that we were unable to accede to 
 the characteristically Oriental request of a Greek 
 priest that we would relieve him and his horse 
 of a part of their burden. We had been at El 
 Bireh before, and so did not linger to see the
 
 TO NABLUS 181 
 
 ruins of the very fine Church and Hospice of 
 the Knights of St John, which testify to its 
 former renown. The church, which is of the 
 same ground-plan as that of St Anne at Jeru- 
 salem and that of St Cleophas at Qoubeibeh 
 (probably Emmaus), had three naves, terminating 
 in a triapsidal chancel. It was rebuilt by the 
 Crusaders, who had here a fortress and strong- 
 hold. The tradition which it commemorates, is 
 that it was here, a day's journey from Jerusalem, 
 that the child Jesus was missed by His parents, 
 who returned to seek Him. There is also a 
 further tradition that it was here that, seated 
 under a palm-tree, the prophetess Deborah 
 judged Israel. The palm-trees remain, with 
 many other signs of the fertility produced by 
 the presence of an excellent spring. 
 
 No horses were visible, although we were 
 assured that they had left Jerusalem at two 
 o'clock — a statement we ventured to doubt when 
 they were at length produced, still perspiring, 
 and obviously overdriven. The Arab has little 
 idea of time, and, indeed, Khalil's sense of 
 veracity never permits him to make a promise 
 more definite than : fiimkin inshallah — " Perhaps, 
 if God will " ; and his idea of futurity is limited 
 to bookra or bdadbookra — literally, "to-morrow,"
 
 182 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 or "after to-morrow," but used as equivalent 
 to " by-and-bye," near or remote. The Arab 
 has no compunction in keeping you waiting ; 
 but is equally indifferent to losing time himself, 
 and cheerfully sits down on your doorstep 
 until you are ready to give him attention. 
 " Baedeker," much experienced, had carefully 
 selected his own saddle and bridle, sound ones, 
 the pride of their owner, who had naturally re- 
 served them for the decoration of his stables, 
 and had sent the usual aggregation of unrelated 
 straps, patched leather, and rotten string. Our 
 friend had a fluent command of Arabic and 
 some half-dozen other languages, and he ex- 
 pressed his views on the manners and customs 
 of the country at considerable length to Abdallah, 
 who was no further moved than to ejaculate : Ana 
 bm^af? Allah baraf — " Do I know ? God knows " 
 when his patron's breath was exhausted, and 
 to pass the palm of his left hand over the back 
 of his right, the palm of his right over the back 
 of his left, in testimony of his personal innocence 
 and irresponsibility. 
 
 The Lady was, of course, faithful to her old 
 friend Sadowi ; but the horses all knew the 
 Nablus road, and, having no desire to better 
 their acquaintance, professed disinclination in
 
 TO NABLUS 183 
 
 various forms. Somewhere about 1900 it was 
 decided to make a road between the capitals 
 of Judaea and Samaria — Jerusalem and Nablus — 
 and all the beasts of both towns are well aware 
 of the undertaking, which has been finished 
 only as far as El Bireh, the remainder, some 
 nine hours' journey, being in various stages of 
 that incompleteness which is so infinitely more 
 discouraging than no road at all. As, however, 
 we could see for some miles ahead of us what 
 bore the aspect of a Sultaniyek, the Turkish 
 equivalent for the king's highway, some of us 
 weakly proposed to take the carriage farther. 
 This, however, we found impossible, as the road 
 at present is only to be looked at — a wise pro- 
 vision, as we later discovered. 
 
 At Beitin, about half -an -hour farther, we 
 passed from the territory of Benjamin to that 
 of Ephraim, from Judsea into Samaria, from 
 the arid and treeless Jerusalem district into the 
 verdure, the colour, the obviously greater pros- 
 perity which one finds anywhere else. Surely 
 every traveller who permits himself to think, 
 unfettered by conventionality and tradition, must 
 continually ask himself why the Jewish people 
 should have taken for their capital a site which, 
 however "beautiful for situation," was, from the
 
 184 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 point of view of milk and honey, of vineyards 
 and olive-yards, of corn and wine, inferior to 
 almost any other in Palestine ; where water 
 must always have been scarce, and the hill- 
 sides bare, though, undoubtedly, less arid and 
 desolate than now ; where the winter winds 
 and the summer siroccos were more pitiless 
 than anywhere else ; where the soil was 
 shallow, and the season of possible cultivation 
 short. So long as one is in the Holy City, 
 under the spell of its influences, of its as- 
 sociations, sacred and profane, its interests, 
 literary and archaeological, its Babel of tongues, 
 its cosmopolitan population, its immigrants 
 from every corner of the world, so long as 
 one hears the music of its place-names, as 
 one feels the enchantment of its moonlight, 
 sunlight, starlight, of its colouring, of its life — 
 so long is one prepared to echo the vauntings 
 of the Psalmist and the prophets ; but one has 
 only to visit almost any other spot in Palestine 
 to ask, from the point of view of common-sense 
 and the practical, why Joshua did not settle in 
 Shechem, or David in his native town of 
 Bethlehem ; why Abraham was not satisfied with 
 Hebron, or Solomon with the plain of Sharon ; 
 or here at Beitin, assuming it to be Bethel, why
 
 TO NABLUS 185 
 
 Samuel did not remain permanently, instead of 
 returning from his annual visits to his shelterless 
 home, perched on the arid hilltop, north-west of 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 In the Middle Ages Bethel was located farther 
 north, near Nablus, but later historians identify 
 it with Beitin. It is a miserable village, with 
 only the remains of a crusading church — said to 
 be on the site of Jacob's vision, now a mosque — 
 to recall past prosperity ; but there is abundance 
 of water, and everything was looking green and 
 fresh after the early rains. The associations, 
 Jacob's dream, the burial of Rebecca's nurse, 
 Jeroboam's golden calf, Elisha's bears, seemed 
 to diminish in historical perspective when we 
 heard of a circle of stones of probable religious 
 significance and extreme antiquity, and very rare, 
 west of the Jordan ; but time would not permit 
 us to examine them. There is a fine reservoir, 
 300 by 200 feet, which has a spring in the 
 middle ; and all about were scattered hewn stones 
 and remains of columns, which one is free to fancy 
 may have belonged, as is said, to the temple 
 of the golden calf. A little beyond lie the 
 pleasant little villages of Jifna and Bir es Zet, 
 occupied by Christians, with churches belonging 
 to both Greek and Latin Catholics, some English
 
 186 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 missionaries, and a school supported by the 
 American Quakers of Ramallah, about an hour 
 away, who, here and elsewhere, have excellent 
 institutions of a really useful and practical kind. 
 
 Ruins on various hilltops remind us that the 
 district was of importance in Roman times, that 
 Jifna was the capital of one of the ten toparchies 
 into which the Romans divided Judaea, and that, 
 probably on account of its importance as the 
 great north road, several points of vantage were 
 fortified by the Crusaders — a stronghold known 
 as Casale Saint Giles, after Count Raymond of 
 Saint Giles, having its special significance for the 
 English. 
 
 The Lady was particularly interested in a hill 
 lying to the south, as being associated with a 
 piece of folklore of which a close variant is 
 found in the Outer Hebrides. An inhabitant of 
 Jifna, returning home from fulfilling his Passover 
 obligations in Jerusalem, was recounting the 
 wonders which had lately taken place in the Holy 
 City — the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth. 
 His friends were quite disposed to believe in 
 the miracles of healing related, but when he 
 concluded with the account of the Resurrection 
 his wife, who was plucking a fowl for supper, 
 observed : " Your story is just as probable as that
 
 TO NABLUS 187 
 
 this cock should fly out of my hands and escape " ; 
 upon which the bird returned to Hfe, and, flying 
 through the door of the house, ahghted upon 
 the opposite hill, which is called Jebel ed deek — 
 Hill of the Cock — to this day (cf. Goodrich- Freer 
 " Outer Isles," Chap. x.). According to some, the 
 village of Et-tayyibeh, which fronted us as we 
 left Beitin, is "the city called Ephraim," where 
 Jesus retired after the miracle of the raising 
 of Lazarus, so that something of His fame 
 was, perhaps, already known in the neighbour- 
 hood. 
 
 Truly, the tribe of Ephraim had a beautiful 
 inheritance ! All the way we go are signs of 
 a rich abundance such as our eyes are little 
 accustomed to ; fig-trees, whose wide-spreading 
 branches sweep the ground ; olive-trees, whereof 
 the young shoots, the biblical "olive branches," 
 have grown into veritable individual trees, and 
 each hoary veteran stands king in a little grove 
 of his own kindred. In a narrow valley, where 
 there is only just room for the new road above 
 the bed of what must be at times a torrent, we 
 noticed many Jewish tombs cut into the rocks 
 on our left, and stopped to examine one, of more 
 elaborate workmanship than the others, having 
 the seven-branched candlestick sharply cut into
 
 188 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 the rock to the left of the entrance, three pairs 
 of branches turning upward and four downward. 
 
 Two of the party turned aside to visit the 
 village of Seilun, lying about half-an-hour east 
 of the road — a scene of manifold interest. The 
 view alone is worth the detour, affording the 
 first glimpse of Hermon, the great landmark of 
 Palestine and Syria — a chain extending for about 
 twenty miles, and averaging over 9000 feet in 
 height. The identification of Seilun with Shiloh,^ 
 at once brings to the mind a crowd of associa- 
 tions — the resting-place, from the time of Joshua 
 to that of Solomon, of the Ark of the Covenant ; 
 the scene of the prayer of Hannah, and of the 
 dedication of Samuel ; of the life and tragic death 
 of Eli ; of the visit, in disguise, of the wife of 
 Jeroboam. 
 
 Nothing is more tiresome than the conven- 
 tionality which obliges a tourist, at sight of a 
 bat or an owl, to recall some quotation or apply 
 a prophecy, as if bats and owls were never found 
 unannounced by the minor prophets ; but the utter 
 desolation of Seilun, ruined even in the time of 
 
 1 One can hardly feel doubt as to the identification, the biblical 
 description being so very exact : " Shiloh, which is on the north 
 side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from 
 Bethel to Shechem [t.e. Nablus], and on the south of Lebonah 
 [i.e. Lubban]."
 
 TO NABLUS 189 
 
 St Jerome, can hardly fail to remind the spectator 
 of the words in Jeremiah, although we do not 
 know the nature of the catastrophe referred to : 
 " Go ye now unto My place which was in Shiloh, 
 where I set My name at the first, and see what 
 I did to it for the wickedness of My people 
 Israel." The mound is covered with debris of 
 buildings, hewn stones, broken columns, and 
 fragments of carving. One of the more com- 
 plete among the ruins is evidently built of frag- 
 ments from some earlier structure, the lintel of 
 the door, now fallen, being a monolith covered 
 with beautiful sculpture. The main building, a 
 mediaeval fortress church, is some 33 feet square, 
 the roof having been supported by four columns 
 with Corinthian capitals. A small mosque has 
 been added on the east side at some later period, 
 and is known as Jdnit el Arbd in — the forty 
 companions of the Prophet. These forty saints 
 turn up in various forms in Palestine — Jewish, 
 Christian, and Moslem ; and at Ramleh 
 (Arimathea, probably) the same tower has done 
 service in honour both of the forty Christian 
 martyrs and of the forty companions of the 
 Prophet. An exceedingly realistic picture in 
 the Armenian cathedral at Jerusalem supplies 
 full details of the martyrdom. Upon Mount
 
 190 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 Carmel we have a sacred grove known as " the 
 trees of the forty " (i.e. martyrs), and near 
 Nablus we passed a chapel known as Rijal el- 
 'Amud — " Men of the Columns " — the burial-place 
 of forty Jewish prophets. The new road came 
 to an end at the thirty-fifth kilometre, just after" 
 the separation of our party. It had passed 
 through various stages illustrative of the history 
 of road-making, and had lately been reduced to 
 the merest anatomy, wholly destitute of covering. 
 It now reverted to the piles of rocks which, 
 under the name of roads, are to be so carefully 
 avoided in the East — at best resembling the 
 bed of a mountain torrent, but more often the 
 wreck of a Yorkshire wall. The riders naturally 
 made their way across the nearest ploughed 
 fields, and finally, by a precipitous descent, found 
 themselves in the small plain or wide valley of 
 the Lubban, where a busy scene presented itself. 
 In a corner of the triangular plain, or at the 
 mouth of the valley, as one prefers to regard it, 
 an abundant spring takes its rise beside the ruins 
 of an ancient khan, and here large numbers of 
 fellahin and Bedu had paused to water their 
 cattle, horses, and camels. Here our party 
 reunited once more, and here we lunched, to 
 the great amusement of a large audience, who
 
 TO NABLUS 191 
 
 were particularly entertained with our spirit- 
 lamps. A testimony to the greater fertility of 
 this district was afforded by the immense flocks 
 of birds passing over our heads eastwards, prob- 
 ably to the newly-sown fields, and by the rooks 
 following the plough. 
 
 It was after three o'clock before we were 
 again on our way, and the twilight soon over- 
 took us, although we did our best to push on, 
 warned of a very bad descent before we should 
 reach the great plain framed by the hills of 
 Samaria. Just below this descent, and before 
 coming into the Plain of El-Makhna, we met 
 the other end of the new road coming out from 
 Nablus to meet that from Jerusalem. We avoided 
 it with much care, grateful to the whiteness of 
 its newly-macadamised surface for warning us, 
 in the darkness, where not to go. For some- 
 thing like three hours the great hills of Ebal 
 and Gerizim loomed vast before us ; while far 
 away we knew the great snow crown of Hermon 
 must be looking down upon us ; but we had little 
 pleasure in our ride, for the darkness had already 
 descended, and from lack of interest we were 
 all tired. Even the Arab servants, Khalil 
 and Abdallah, did not talk, and only from time 
 to time broke out into song. So many persons
 
 192 m A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 of all kinds must traverse this road from 
 Jerusalem to Nablus, and so few but tourists 
 must trouble themselves to carry tents, that 
 one wonders someone does not establish a 
 decent khan to serve as half-way house in the 
 twelve or thirteen hours' ride — though it might 
 be difficult to say where, as the Christian 
 villages of Bir es Zet and Jifna occur too early 
 in the day's march from Jerusalem. However, 
 when the new road is once opened, some of 
 the neighbouring villages, El Lubban, for instance, 
 may send out feelers in the direction of the 
 highway of commerce. 
 
 The stars, of a brightness of which we know 
 nothing in the West, came out suddenly, as if 
 a curtain had been withdrawn, not piercing the 
 darkness one by one, as with us ; and soon a 
 radiant moon looked over the top of the great 
 screen of mountains on our left ; and when, 
 by-and-bye, we turned, somewhat suddenly, 
 west, we had sufficient light to be conscious 
 of the great hills of Ebal and Gerizim on 
 either hand, and to catch a glimpse of the 
 enclosure around Joseph's Tomb and, a little 
 farther on, Jacob's Well. Our horses, who had 
 been dejected and uninterested all day, seemed 
 to be aware that the worst was over, and, sud-
 
 TO NABLUS 193 
 
 denly reviving, were soon clattering over the 
 cobble-stones of Nablus. At every turn we 
 expected to be stopped by a demand for our 
 teskerys (passports), or some other formality, 
 as in no town in Palestine is the traveller so 
 subject to demands for backsheesh as here, and 
 it was with some surprise, as well as relief, 
 that we found ourselves in the spacious re- 
 ception-room of the convent. By a kindly 
 provision of the patriarchate in Jerusalem, here 
 and at certain other places, one can obtain very 
 comfortable sleeping accommodation and the 
 means of preparing food.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 TO SAMARIA 
 
 "What these rites [i.e. of the Samaritans] are, I could not 
 certainly learn, but that their religion consists in the adoration 
 of a calf, as the Jews give out, seems to have more of spite than 
 of truth in it." — HENRY Maundrell, 1697 
 
 TX7E rose early next morning, in order to 
 view the sights of Nablus, and returned 
 in a couple of hours, in entire sympathy with 
 the desire of the Jews to have no dealings with 
 the Samaritans — not that we found the Jews 
 themselves particularly attractive, for they are 
 here of that type of feature, so rarely seen in 
 the East, which we habitually associate with a 
 Cockney accent. 
 
 The town lies in a long, narrow streak between 
 Ebal and Gerizim, the sole pass in the central 
 mountain range of Palestine, the farthest north 
 of the line of cities — Shechem, Shiloh, Bethel, 
 Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and Hebron — long com- 
 mercially important, and, from the abundance 
 of water and surrounding fertility, capable of 
 becoming what it perhaps once was — a really 
 
 beautiful city. It contains the ruins of many 
 
 194
 
 TO SAMARIA 195 
 
 churches, now all converted into mosques ; one, 
 known as the Great Mosque, having been 
 originally built by Justinian, and restored in 
 1 167 by the canons of the Holy Sepulchre 
 of Jerusalem, with much resemblance to their 
 own church. Another mosque of interest, 
 probably originally a hospital of the Templars, 
 is now devoted to the lepers, who here present 
 a miserable spectacle, practically uncared for, 
 in strikino' contrast to all that is done for 
 
 O 
 
 them in Jerusalem, where there are two lepers' 
 homes — one supported by the Government, and 
 nursed by the Soeurs de Charit6 ; the other, and 
 larger, by the German Moravians. 
 
 From the aspect of the Jewish and Samaritan 
 inhabitants one may gather that the soap pro- 
 duced in fifteen factories is mainly an article of 
 export. The Moslem population, which amounts 
 to over 20,000, is more prosperous in appearance ; 
 and, indeed, Nablus is a somewhat thriving 
 centre of trade in wool and cotton. There are 
 about 700 Christians, mainly of the Greek 
 Church. The Franciscans, as well as the Jeru- 
 salem patriarchate, have churches and schools ; 
 and there is a small Protestant community, now 
 in the hands of the C.M.S., originally founded, on 
 very different lines, by Bowen, afterwards Bishop
 
 196 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 of Sierra Leone, who was a practical philan- 
 thropist and who established looms, gave techni- 
 cal instruction in various arts, instilled cleanliness 
 and sanitation, and taught his flock to earn an 
 honest living ; after which, by degrees, and having 
 spent himself and his substance, he gave them 
 religious instruction. The Moslems have a girls' 
 school and college, and several elementary schools. 
 We picked our way to the Jewish quarter 
 through heaps of decaying vegetable matter and 
 along roofed passages, dark as a cellar, and where 
 only in the middle could one walk upright, into 
 the Samaritan settlement, which was decidedly 
 cleaner and more airy, but where the inhabitants, 
 spoilt by the tourists, were clamorous for back- 
 sheesh. At every step we were tormented by 
 would-be vendors of antiques, mainly cufic coins, 
 the very school children bringing torn pages from 
 their copy-books for sale to the Frenjy who 
 were known, by experience, to be ready to buy, 
 irrespective of the value of the articles of com- 
 merce. As a matter of fact, we did buy, from a 
 member of the high priest's family, an Arabic 
 seal, a silver medal of some Roman Catholic 
 community, and some models of the rolls of the 
 Law ingeniously made out of kerosene tins ! 
 What Palestine did before Russia and Asia Minor
 
 TO SAMARIA 197 
 
 sent her kerosene in cubical tins, known as " gas- 
 boxcs," it is difficult to imagine — not on account of 
 the "gas," which is, however, cheap and good, but 
 on account of the tins, which are, in their natural 
 state, the water-cans, flower-boxes, general re- 
 ceptacles, and even wine and spirit barrels, for 
 every household. With slight additions and a 
 little manipulation they become garden watering- 
 pans, dust-pans, sieves, culinary vessels of various 
 kinds, lamps, lamp-shades, reflectors, stoves, 
 baths, musical instruments, spoons, forks, and 
 brush handles. They serve the errand-boys for 
 baskets, and the children for toys ; they supply 
 material for buildings, from a dog-kennel or 
 stable up to an entire suburb of Jerusalem, known 
 as the Box Colony — the houses, constructed out of 
 miscellaneous materials, being entirely faced with 
 "gas-tins"; they are raw material for the tin- 
 smith, the gunsmith, and, in some degree, for the 
 leather trade, as we found traces of them in our 
 harness. And here, in Nablus, they turned up 
 afresh, effectively modelled into the likeness of 
 some of the oldest bookbinding in the world. 
 
 We found ourselves, finally, in a small square 
 or court inhabited by the Samaritan community, 
 where climbing a few stairs, we reached a sort 
 of balcony, in which a score of children were
 
 198 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 receiving instruction, their feet tucked up in front 
 of them, their shoes piled together in the door- 
 way. We followed two good-looking young 
 men into a small, whitewashed room, the floor 
 of which was covered with matting, and which 
 contained, for all furniture, a sort of reading- 
 stand, upon which were placed, for our inspection, 
 the scrolls of the Law. Of course, we did not see 
 the famous Samaritan Codex — who does? — but that 
 exhibited was of sufficiently venerable appearance 
 to appeal to our imagination, and, in a certain 
 sense, to our reverence. It was soiled and worn, 
 in the part exposed, from the frequent handling 
 and kissing of many generations ; and the elaborate, 
 gilt cylinders, so often portrayed, might be, for all 
 we knew, of considerable antiquity, although Sir 
 George Grove, who described then nearly fifty 
 years ago, concluded, after careful and expert ex- 
 amination, that the oldest could not claim to be 
 earlier that the fifteenth century. Even had we 
 been privileged to see the celebrated Codex itself 
 we should not have believed that it was written by 
 Abisha, the son of Phinehas, nor even — the alter- 
 native tradition — by Manasseh, the high priest 
 in the time of Ezra. The Samaritans keep all 
 the Jewish festivals, but sacrifice only at the 
 Passover. They ignore all the traditional litera-
 
 TO SAMARIA 199 
 
 ture, and teach only the Pentateuch, and, accord- 
 ing to many travellers' tales, and even a popular 
 guide-book, the " Book of Joshua," which, how- 
 ever, is not a sacred volume but a mediaeval MS., 
 written in Arabic, with proper names in Samaritan, 
 and describing the adventures of their race from 
 Moses to Alexander. This, with a few prayers 
 and hymns, constitutes all their literature. 
 
 No one can feel indifferent to this little com- 
 munity, "sent to Coventry" some two thousand 
 five hundred years ago, when the Jews refused 
 to allow them to share in the rebuilding of the 
 Temple on the ground that they were mere 
 colonists, destitute of genealogy, and that no one 
 knew who they were, or where they came from. 
 No wonder that the Samaritans, under the cir- 
 cumstances, should have set up rival Holy Places, 
 like the Greeks and Latins, respectively, in 
 Jerusalem to-day. Here they are still, however, 
 on the same spot ; while the Jews, who despised 
 them as a mushroom population, are wanderers 
 over the face of the earth. They are said to be 
 decreasing in numbers, and amount now to only 
 about one hundred and sixty. Benjamin of Tu- 
 dela estimated them in the twelfth century as only 
 one hundred in Nablus ; but in those days they had 
 adherents in Ascalon, Caesarea, and Damascus—
 
 200 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 amounting to one thousand in all. Now, this is 
 their only settlement ; the little, whitewashed 
 synagogue the sole outward and visible sign 
 of their race, their faith, and even their dialect, 
 for in the ordinary affairs of life they use 
 Arabic. 
 
 The office of high priest is hereditary in the 
 tribe of Levi, and it is interesting to note 
 that he holds, in addition, the secular dignity of 
 president of the community, and is, moreover, 
 one of the district authorities. Jerusalem has 
 some personal acquaintance with his son and heir- 
 apparent, who makes occasional visits to the 
 Holy City for various purposes, including the 
 sale of manuscripts, not, perhaps, quite convincing 
 as to their antiquity or value ; but the scion of a 
 high priest must live, even if the methods should 
 bring him occasionally within the arm of the 
 Law. The official stipend is derived from tithes 
 paid by the faithful, who, unfortunately, have 
 litde to tithe. 
 
 Their festivals have been often described ; and 
 the Samaritan Passover has become a common- 
 place of tourists, though, happily, there are still 
 some to whom the slaughter and disembowelling 
 of half-a-dozen poor little lambs, which have been 
 tamed and kept as domestic pets, is not a pleasing
 
 TO SAMARIA 201 
 
 sight at close quarters. One feels especially 
 thankful for the Gospel dispensation on reading 
 in the twentieth century such details as the 
 following : — " Whilst the six lambs were thus lying 
 together, with their blood streaming from them, 
 and in their last convulsive struggles, the young 
 shochetim (five lads, who acted as butchers) dipped 
 their fingers in the blood, and marked a spot on 
 the foreheads and noses of the children. The 
 same was done to some of the females." 
 
 Importunate Jews and Samaritans followed 
 us back to the convent, their numbers increased 
 by inquisitive Moslems coming to see the Frenjys 
 fleeced, and a few especially impudent girls, who 
 demanded backsheesh on the ground that they 
 "sat down in the English school." We speedily 
 convinced the entire crowd that we were not 
 tourists, much to the satisfaction of the officers 
 of the convent, who suffer much from the visitors 
 of their guests. 
 
 "Baedeker" was on business, and we were 
 obliged to postpone, to some future occasion, 
 several visits we would have gladly paid ; above 
 all, the ascent of Mount Ebal, whence one has 
 a view practically over the whole of Palestine — 
 a country, be it remembered, however, contain- 
 ing no more square miles than that of Wales.
 
 202 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 Gerizim is, historically, the more famous of the 
 two, and that most frequented, as by far the easier 
 climb ; but a view from Carmel to Jaffa, from 
 the Mediterranean to the mountains of Moab, 
 would have been to some of us more suggestive, 
 and of deeper significance, than the Moslem 
 wely alleged to contain the skull of St John 
 the Baptist, or even the church, possibly of 
 the Justinian period, which may be on the site of 
 the Temple of Gerizim destroyed by Hyrcanus, 
 rival to that at Jerusalem. At Jacob's Well also 
 we would have willingly lingered, grateful to 
 Professor G. A. Smith for leaving us still in 
 possession of the traditional site, which he 
 maintains against many opponents. (" Historical 
 Geography," xviii.) Another site offered for con- 
 sideration, as that where Abraham prepared for 
 the sacrifice of Isaac, we summarily condemned 
 without trial. Some of us had ridden to Beer- 
 sheba, which we knew to be a good sixteen hours' 
 ride south of Jerusalem, Nablus being equally 
 a good twelve hours' north, and we failed to 
 understand how an old man and a boy, with an 
 ass heavily burdened, could have made the 
 journey on foot in a period of less than three 
 days ! The acoustical properties of the valley 
 between the two mountains need astonish no
 
 TO SAMARIA 203 
 
 one who has seen the position, or indeed many 
 other places in Palestine, where the nature of 
 the limestone formation, the innumerable caves, 
 and the intense clearness of the atmosphere, 
 carry sound to inconceivable distances, and many 
 times we have carried on conversation with 
 persons visible only as a distant speck. On one 
 occasion the Lady, who had left the Artist 
 sketching on some rising ground, and had her- 
 self crossed a valley, and climbed a Tell beyond, 
 mindful, though somewhat incredulous, of tradi- 
 tions on the subject, addressed her friend, whose 
 whereabouts she knew, but who otherwise was 
 too distant to be easily visible. To her intense 
 surprise she was promptly answered, and the 
 two were able to carry on conversation without 
 even raising the voice. 
 
 We were soon on our way north, anxious to 
 have time to visit Sebaste, the city of Samaria, 
 on our way to Jenin, our next halting-place for 
 the night. The scenery of this district, if pleas- 
 ing, is as unexciting as the county of Yorkshire. 
 There are bare spaces, rocky and sterile, slop- 
 ing down into fertile plains. There are pleasant 
 fields and fruitful gardens, and we gathered our 
 first anemones of the season, scarlet and purple 
 and white, and noted that the mandrakes were
 
 204 TN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 coming into bloom — rich, compact masses of 
 violet in their crumpled, primrose-like leaves. 
 Here and there were trickling rills, which, 
 although the season was dry and the early 
 rains had been a disappointment, had enough 
 life left in them to produce bright ribbons of 
 verdure across the plains, which opened out 
 amid detached hills to right and left. Not only 
 the familiar olive-trees scattered over wide tracts 
 of land, but oaks and carobs, and even gardens 
 of fruit-trees — apricots, pears, apples— give to 
 the scenery a homelike air, which to our eyes, 
 long used to the sepias and vandyke-browns of 
 Judaea, was reposeful and refreshing. 
 
 We were able to appreciate the observation of 
 Professor G. A. Smith {pp. cit. Chap, xvi.), that 
 Samaria is the scene of all the long drives of 
 Old Testament history — a fact due to the open- 
 ness of the country, and the possibility of 
 practicable roads passing among, rather than 
 over, the mountains. It was here that Ahab 
 raced the rain-storm coming up from the 
 Mediterranean- — well do we know the tearing, 
 raging " latter rains " of Palestine ; here that 
 Jehu drove furiously ; here that Naaman came 
 with his horses and with his chariot to visit 
 Elisha ; here that Jehu gave a lift to Jehonadab,
 
 TO SAMARIA 205 
 
 the son of Rechab ; here that Ahab, who had 
 at least the virtue of courage, was propped up 
 to lead the battle while his life-blood streamed 
 into the midst of his chariot, to be licked by 
 the dogs when it was washed in the pool at 
 Sebaste, whither we were hastening in the morn- 
 ing sunshine. 
 
 We passed through two or three villages, each 
 with its gardens and springs, and noted the 
 beauty of the women — a rare sight here, where 
 a woman is a grandmother before thirty and a 
 withered hag at thirty-five. They are more 
 graceful, more shapely of limb, with better-set 
 heads than in Judaea, where a woman's comeli- 
 ness is measured by weight, especially among the 
 so-called beauties of Bethlehem. We turned 
 out of a well-wooded valley into a wide basin, 
 where a rounded hill, some 300 feet high, rose 
 suddenly in front of us, like an island in a lake, 
 which, in days when it was crowned with a 
 stately city of Greek architecture, and surrounded 
 at the base by a noble colonnade nearly 2000 
 yards in length, must have been, indeed, an 
 imposing spectacle. 
 
 Few spots in the whole of Palestine are pos- 
 sessed of associations more varied and interest- 
 ing than those of Sebaste, though its history
 
 206 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 may be less familiar than that of other cities. 
 Always strategically important, protected by 
 mountains on three sides, looking clear out to 
 the Mediterranean on the fourth, one cannot 
 wonder that Omri should have recognised its 
 value as a stronghold ; nor that it should have 
 withstood several prolonged sieges, one lasting 
 until one mother said to another : " Give thy 
 son that we may eat him to-day, and we will 
 eat my son to-morrow," and till an ass's head 
 was sold for fourscore shekels. It must have 
 been down below, in the plain across which we 
 are riding, that a curiously dramatic scene was 
 enacted when the lepers, obliged, even in times 
 of siege, to sit in the gate, argued among them- 
 selves that they might as well die by the hand 
 of the enemy, with a chance of food, as sit where 
 they were, with the certainty of starvation — and 
 so ventured into the camp of the Syrians, to 
 find that an aural hallucination of the sound of 
 horses and chariots had caused their flight, so 
 that the poor pariahs "went into one tent, and 
 did eat and drink, and carried thence silver and 
 gold, and raiment, and went and hid it ; and 
 came again, and entered into another tent, 
 and carried thence also, and went and hid it." 
 Even the Assyrians blockaded Samaria for
 
 TO SAMARIA 207 
 
 three years before they could possess it. 
 Alexander the Great, Ptolemy Lagos, John 
 Hyrcanus — each in turn invested this little 
 hill rising before us, so green and smiling in 
 the midday sunshine, always an enviable pos- 
 session. Picture after picture rose before our 
 minds as we rode across the fertile plain, but 
 none more vivid than that of the days of its 
 Greek grace, its Roman luxury, as interpreted 
 by Herod, who named it Sebaste — Greek for 
 Augusta — in honour of his patron, Augustus, who 
 had bestowed upon him the site of the city 
 demolished by Hyrcanus over a century before, 
 though to some degree restored by Gabinius, 
 the successor of Pompey. 
 
 Herod it was, who raised the colonnades and 
 gateways which we were approaching ; who built 
 a city, according to Josephus, two miles and a 
 half in circumference ; who beautified it with 
 palace and theatre and hippodrome ; who made 
 it a recruiting centre whence his veterans could 
 collect mercenary troops ; who substituted the 
 worship of Caesar for the worship of Baal, in a 
 temple, whereof the ruins lie a few score yards 
 beyond those of the great Gothic cathedral of 
 the Crusaders, now turned into a mosque — the 
 site having been originally chosen as that of a
 
 208 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 basilica, in honour of the tradition that the body 
 of St John the Baptist was here buried, a tradi- 
 tion dating, at least, from St Jerome. The 
 tombs of Obadiah and Elisha are also shown in 
 the same rock-hewn chamber. 
 
 Well might Isaiah call such a spot " The 
 pride of Ephraim, the flower of his glorious 
 beauty, which is on the head of the fat 
 valley ! " and when, in addition to all the gifts 
 of Nature, we add all that wealth and art could 
 command, we cannot help reflecting, as on a 
 score of occasions during our journey, here and 
 in Moab, upon the persistent fashion in which 
 history and fact are falsified by conventionality. 
 The literature and art of a thousand years, the 
 teaching of one's childhood, the wilful misappre- 
 hension of modern travellers, the conventional 
 treatment of works of devotion, have combined 
 to impress a great number of sincere and devout 
 persons with the general idea that the surround- 
 ings of our Lord somewhat resembled those of a 
 Highland fishing village; whereas — in Jerusalem, 
 in Jericho, along the shores of Gennesaret, in 
 Tyre and Sidon, in Caesarea Philippi, in the 
 cities of the Decapolis, and here in Sebaste — His 
 eyes must have rested upon architecture and 
 sculpture which, even in decay and ruin, are still
 
 TO SAMARIA 209 
 
 a revelation of beauty to such as ourselves, 
 accustomed to the ineffectiveness of the Thames 
 Embankment and the trivialities of Trafalgar 
 Square. Here in this little country of Palestine, 
 two thousand years ago, were palaces and for- 
 tresses, theatres and hippodromes, temples, baths, 
 colonnades, porticos, triumphal arches, forums, to 
 which Europe, in this twentieth century, with all 
 her boasted science, her educated " masses," her 
 "art for the million," is at least wise enough to 
 attempt no rivalry. In a Bedawin tent we may 
 recreate the life of the patriarchs, and realise that 
 Abraham was but a wealthy shech ; in many 
 a fellah village we may find such kings as 
 the thirty - two who reinforced Benhadad ; we 
 may find everywhere types of half the characters, 
 of most of the manners and customs, of the New 
 or Old Testaments. The everlasting hills re- 
 main ; the stars, as the sand of the sea, still shine 
 out in millions, which in the West the ordinary 
 observer can never look upon ; the flowers 
 spring up for us as for Solomon ; the patient 
 beasts are but intermittently remembered now 
 as in Holy Writ ; the dog is still the victim and 
 not the friend of man ; the sheep follow their 
 shepherd — at his voice they separate from the 
 goats ; the poor are always with us — but only a
 
 210 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 strong effort of imagination, only familiarity with 
 traditions of classic art and luxury, can revive 
 for us the glory of the cities, "over whose acres 
 walked those blessed feet." 
 
 On this subject at least may we here enlarge 
 our notions, and " divest our mind of cant ! " May 
 we realise something of the glory of the Tempta- 
 tion-vision of our Lord, something of the aesthetic 
 beauty over which He, beholding, wept ; may 
 imagine somewhat of the stones and the buildings 
 which were there ; may conceive the contrast 
 between the cave - stable of Bethlehem and 
 Herodium, the castle of the Herods, which 
 frowned down upon the Jewish village ; between 
 the little group which surrounded the Master 
 when He paused to heal the blind beggars of 
 Jericho, and the sensuous beauty of the city, 
 with its subtropical vegetation, and its luxurious 
 winter homes. 
 
 Even Jerash, more perfect in its remains, im- 
 pressed us less than Sebaste, so unique as to 
 beauty and dignity of position. The mosque, 
 although rich in frag'ments of what must have 
 been a grand cathedral in the days when Sebaste 
 was a bishopric — the title is still owned by the 
 Greek Church — has been too recently restored, 
 after destruction by fire, to be very interesting.
 
 TO SAMARIA 211 
 
 Our attention was, in fact, somewhat diverted 
 by some handsome Arab boys playing unmiti- 
 gated hockey within the precincts. On the north 
 sides are the outlines of a square fortress, with 
 corner towers, probably a home of the knights 
 of St John. Mutilated remains of the Maltese 
 cross are still to be traced on many of the stones 
 scattered about Sebaste. M. de Vogue, who 
 seems to have been the first to show, in plan, a 
 restoration of the buildings, considers that, next 
 to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, this was 
 the most important reconstruction of crusading 
 times. The length is almost 165 feet, the breadth 
 75. The decoration of the capitals is of the 
 beautiful palm pattern, the arches of the apse 
 are pointed. 
 
 " Baedeker," to whom all this was already 
 familiar, proceeded with the horses to the top 
 of the hill to superintend the servants' preparation 
 for luncheon, as time was precious. We found 
 him, half-an-hour later, sitting in the midst of 
 a group of shechs — young men, women, and 
 children hovering in the background. With their 
 usual absorbent interest in politics — the greater 
 for the rarity of its gratification — they had 
 assembled to hear the latest news, and had 
 worked backwards from the new railway and the
 
 212 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 troubles in Macedonia — which had called into 
 service Arab soldiery from all parts of Palestine, 
 and had been the excuse for special taxation — 
 to the Boer War, the Armenian question, and 
 the visit to Palestine of the German Emperor, 
 — the great epoch of the modern history of 
 Syria — the occasion of new buildings, new roads, 
 new uniforms, new trade, and a general clean- 
 ing-up along the line of route, with which only 
 the orders issued during the cholera scare of 
 1903 could in any degree be compared. 
 
 With the usual courtesy of the Moslem 
 Oriental, so different from the unabashed curiosity 
 of Europeans and the Europeanised, they with- 
 drew when we made preparations for food, the 
 two or three actually engaged in conversation 
 too important to interrupt, emphasising the 
 occasion for discretion, by throwing stones at 
 others who approached too closely. Some 
 children, many of singular beauty, retired behind 
 a neigrhbourinor wall, and for some time lacked 
 courage to pick up the dainties we threw to them. 
 When we made our final move numbers came 
 up to offer coins, fragments of carving and 
 specimens of carnelian, lapis-lazuli, and crystal. 
 One especial treasure was an abominable bracelet, 
 of the type of art sold at exhibitions, and lost —
 
 TO SAMARIA 213 
 
 to her advantage — by some tourist — not, fortun- 
 ately, that many tourists visit Sebaste, as was 
 shown by the superior manners of the people 
 and the absence of demand for backsheesh. The 
 village is entirely Moslem, and all behaved with 
 self-respecting" dignity, if we except, perhaps, one 
 boy who pulled gently at the Doctor's blond 
 locks, to see if they grew upon his head ; and 
 some men who, greatly interested in our spirit- 
 lamps, put a match to the weeds upon which we 
 emptied one before packing, with a childish 
 pleasure in, as he said, "setting fire to water." 
 One of the many cheap conveniences of this 
 country is the fact that one gets an imperial pint 
 of spirits of wine — no miserable " methylated " 
 substitute — for about eightpence ; but we have 
 never found it in a Moslem village, where the 
 use of alcohol is, of course, forbidden by religion. 
 With much hesitation and politeness some of 
 the men asked leave to examine a small revolver 
 belonging to one of the party, which excited 
 great admiration, the firearms of the country 
 places being often of a very primitive description, 
 sometimes of such a size that one wonders how 
 they are carried. It is very rare, however, to 
 meet an Arab, beyond the towns, who is not fully 
 armed, even if his weapon be a flintlock six feet
 
 214 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 in length. It was a curious conjunction of the 
 new and the old, when Khalil stopped a shepherd 
 one day to ask for a light for his cigarette, a 
 dainty Egyptian, which we had given him. The 
 peasant produced a piece of a table-knife, picked 
 up a flint off the roadside, tore a scrap of blue 
 cotton from his ragged garment, and in an instant 
 Khalil was made happy as only tobacco in any 
 form could make him. 
 
 A self-constituted guide dispersed the crowd, 
 and conducted us round the hill, that we might 
 more closely observe the colonnade, some 20 
 yards wide, and originally over 1800 yards long. 
 All the columns have lost their capitals and 
 architraves, but are still 16 feet high, some being 
 monoliths. Besides, perhaps, over a hundred 
 still standing, columns and fragments of columns 
 are scattered in all directions — a lesson in the 
 history of Tells and the exaltation of the valleys 
 of Palestine. Many were still on the surface of 
 the ground, still more were half buried, of others 
 only the projecting stones of the base remained 
 visible ; while here and there the observant, or 
 rather, perhaps, the experienced, eye, could 
 perceive by the contour of the ground that 
 hidden treasure of sculpture lay concealed. The 
 soil is deep, and, for the most part, cultivated ;
 
 TO SAMARIA 215 
 
 for the hill of Sebaste is no rocky scarp, and 
 in ten years much of all this will have disap- 
 peared. A separate mound, a little away to the 
 west, is said by some to be the site of Ahab's 
 ivory palace, and might repay exploration. 
 Happily, the Germans seem able to obtain fir- 
 mans at will, having probably inspired confi- 
 dence, even in a suspicious Government, by the 
 liberality and thoroughness of their excavations. 
 
 We longed to linger among so much that was 
 beautiful both in art and nature — the green hill 
 sloping gently to the wooded plain, the hills eight 
 miles away opening towards the west, where the 
 intensely blue waters of the Mediterranean, 
 though distant a score of miles, sparkled gaily 
 in the sunshine. Little wonder that the sun- 
 worshipping peoples should have here erected 
 temples to the great god, whose majesty was 
 shown to them in the smile of the sea and the 
 glory of the sunset ! Little wonder that the great 
 Syrian princess, Jezebel, should have rejoiced in 
 the ivory palace looking across to the northern 
 shore she had known in her childhood's home. 
 
 One parts so reluctantly from what is beautiful 
 that some of us resented almost angrily a re- 
 minder that it was possibly at yonder gateway 
 that the dogs licked up the blood of Ahab ; that
 
 216 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 on this smiling plain Jezebel slew the prophets 
 of Jehovah ; and Jehu, with still greater brutality, 
 the priests of Baal and the family of the king ; 
 that here also Herod murdered Mariamne, 
 strangled his sons, and, possibly, beheaded John 
 the Baptist. 1 
 
 Our last visit was to the hippodrome, lying in 
 a bay of the hill to the north-east — a fine natural 
 position for such a purpose (480 by 60 yards). 
 Many fragments of columns yet remain, appar- 
 ently belonging to this noble circus, but which 
 some have alleged to belong to a second colon- 
 nade at right angles to the first, such as we saw 
 at J crash. Finally, as we descended to the 
 bottom of the valley to the north-east, we passed 
 another plateau, strewn with massive columns, 
 but a few of which remain upright, probably the 
 forum of the Herodian city, and noted here and 
 there some fine sarcophagi. A ride of four and 
 a half hours was still before us, some of which 
 was over paths of a nature to be traversed, if 
 possible, by daylight, and we might not linger. 
 
 ^ Another tradition, more probable, though with less dramatic 
 fitness, places the scene of the execution at Machcerus, east of the 
 Dead Sea.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 TO TAANAK AND MEGIDDO 
 
 " Consider with me that the individual existence is a rope which 
 stretches from the infinite to the infinite, and has no end, and no 
 commencement, neither is it capable of being broken. This rope, 
 passing as it does through all places, suffers strange accidents." 
 
 17^0 R the first fifty minutes our road lay, for 
 
 the most part, upward, constantly offering 
 
 glorious views, especially in retrospect, and then, 
 
 after crossing a green and wooded plateau, we 
 
 began once more to descend to the north-east, 
 
 and at the village of Jeba, after passing through 
 
 a pleasant district, well covered with fruit gardens, 
 
 found ourselves, about an hour later, once more 
 
 on the ordinary highroad from Nablus to Jenin. 
 
 We looked with interest at the village of Saniir, 
 
 with its ruined fortress, monument to '' Some 
 
 village Hampden that with dauntless breast The 
 
 petty tyrant of his fields withstood," some eighty 
 
 years ago. The petty tyrant was the Pasha of 
 
 Acre, who besieged, and with difficulty captured, 
 
 the fortress manned by the independent villagers, 
 
 whose courage must have impressed the authorities, 
 
 for they had the cowardice to destroy the fortifica- 
 217
 
 218 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 tion entirely. A little farther on we rode across 
 a low plain which resembled the bed of a large 
 lake, perfect in islands and peninsulas, and 
 which bore the descriptive name of the Meadow 
 of Sinking In — Merj-el-Gharak. Fortunately for 
 us it was fairly dry, and we were able to press 
 forward over its green surface, urged on by 
 " Baedeker," who assured us of two bad descents 
 which would be trying to the nerves and, what 
 mattered more, the riding powers of the Artist, 
 who was somewhat inexperienced in horseman- 
 ship, and, on the theory that December was a 
 cold month, so encumbered with clothing that 
 she had no seat whatever, and who having been 
 unwillingly persuaded to emulate the Lady's habit 
 of riding en cavalier courageously faced diffi- 
 culties by standing in her stirrups and balancing 
 herself upon the pommels. Of course, the stirrup 
 straps broke at frequent intervals, not having 
 adapted themselves to their new uses ; but the 
 accident was soon repaired, and the interval of 
 repose was good for the horse, happily as gentle 
 as a sheep, but who suffered also from the un- 
 wonted arrangement. 
 
 Fortunately, nothing more serious occurred to 
 detain us as we resisted the temptation to turn 
 aside to inspect Dotan, probably the Dothan
 
 TO TAANAK AND MEGIDDO 219 
 
 where poor little Joseph, after passing through 
 Shechem, fell into the hands of the Midianites, 
 who carried him into Egypt. Nablus, as we have 
 seen, being the only pass through the mountain 
 range of Central Palestine, and Samaria being 
 an open country of good roads, this district must 
 have been the great highway from north to 
 south, from the coast to the Jordan, from Europe 
 and Asia to Africa. It is easy enough to imagine 
 the caravan of Midianites winding southward 
 along yonder ridge, laden with spices for em- 
 balming, and visible from far by the sons of 
 Jacob as they sat about the well at the foot of 
 the hill, now crowned with terebinths, and well 
 aware that the travellers would probably turn 
 aside for water. Many ancient, empty, bell- 
 shaped cisterns are to be found in this district 
 such as that into which Joseph was let down. 
 
 We surmounted a stony ridge, where the path 
 was in such good condition (not being slippery, 
 as we had feared, after the early rains) as to 
 give us confidence in regard to the worse which 
 was to come, but which, in fact, turned out to 
 be all the better for such dampness as there 
 was, as the horses were less liable to slip on the 
 polished rocks ; and, indeed, these creatures are 
 as surefooted as donkeys.
 
 220 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 We were glad that the dayHght sufficed to 
 show us, as we descended into a narrow valley, 
 before reaching the village of Kubatiyeh, a 
 sacred tree adorned with rags, standing by the 
 wayside on our right — the first we had seen on 
 our journey, though we afterwards met with 
 many, especially in Galilee. 
 
 Such trees exist all over the country, both east 
 and west of the Jordan, except where the presence 
 of Europeans has taught the people to disguise 
 their beliefs, which even then, however, appear 
 in other forms ; as, for example, in Jerusalem, 
 where the faithful tie rags to the framework of 
 windows in the mosque and elsewhere, instead 
 of, as here, in the Temple of Nature. The 
 theory of such veneration seems to be much 
 the same as that of the Old Testament saints, 
 who left stones at Bethel, and Ebenezer, on the 
 banks of the Jordan, and so on, "which remain 
 there," say the chroniclers, " to this day " — 
 evidently indicating that they are a monument 
 to record, a witness to testify, an outward and 
 visible sign to excite inquiry, to serve as evi- 
 dence of some special visit, to demonstrate to 
 God and man that such an one was there in 
 person, from such and such motives, and with 
 such and such intentions.
 
 TO TAANAK AND MEGIDDO 221 
 
 The tree itself, with its quaint decorations, 
 torn from the apparel of the faithful, is not 
 always the direct object of veneration. It is 
 often accompanied by a wely or grave of a 
 saint, and though at times the cause of the 
 selection of such a place of interment, is some- 
 times only the accidental consequence, having 
 grown up beside the tomb ; whence it is held 
 to be under the saint's protection, just as other 
 objects — ploughs, timber, grain, and vessels of 
 various kinds — are left there, safe from thieves. 
 Christian or Moslem. Sometimes such a wely 
 is surrounded by a whole grove of trees, which 
 may be sacred for either reason, and may be the 
 cause or effect of the presence of the saint. We 
 always behold them with satisfaction, as assuring 
 the continuance of vegetation here and there, 
 which would otherwise, at least in Judaea, in- 
 evitably be destroyed. 
 
 Another use of such a spot is for the cure 
 of diseases. This may . be by means of self- 
 suggestion, the disease being transferred to the 
 tree with the fragment of the dress of the patient, 
 making much the same demands upon the imagina- 
 tion as the Christian science, the hypnotic sug- 
 gestion, the bread-pill, of modern therapeutics. 
 Another method of cure — also a question of the
 
 222 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 dominance of mind over matter — is that of taking 
 from the tree the morsels attached to it, which 
 are then worn like the scapulars from Lourdes or 
 St Winifred's, just as, long ago, the sick carried 
 from St Paul "handkerchiefs or aprons, and the 
 diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits 
 went out." Truly, there is nothing new under the 
 sun ! Often, especially on Thursdays, the eve of 
 the Moslem Sabbath, these trees have been seen 
 in flames, which, however, do them no injury, 
 just as Moses saw " the bush which burned and 
 was not consumed," Sometimes voices speak in 
 them, just as David waited for " the sound of the 
 going in the mulberry-trees." Sometimes they 
 are held sacred as having served as resting-place 
 for some holy man, just as the oak of Abraham 
 at Hebron is, as such, still a place of pilgrimage 
 for Christian, Moslem, and Jew, 
 
 We could ascertain nothing concerning the 
 history of the sacred tree of Kubatiyeh ; and, 
 indeed, it is but rarely that the people are able to 
 relate the history of their shrines, although their 
 faith in them must be strong, as it suffices, as we 
 have seen, for the protection of articles deposited 
 there for safe-keeping. Men — Christians or 
 Moslems — ready to swear anything by the 
 Almighty, will hesitate at a false oath by the
 
 TO TAANAK AND MEGIDDO 223 
 
 shrine of a saint. In some places they hang frag- 
 ments of meat upon the trees, just as the Israelites 
 offered "shewbread," and Jotham talked of "the 
 wine which cheereth God," the anthropomorphic 
 conception of the Deity being nearly as strong 
 now as when the Israelites were still wanderers 
 in the desert. Such ideas are racial rather than 
 religious. Professor Curtiss (" Primitive Semitic 
 Religion To- Day") demonstrates effectively that 
 such beliefs are common to Christians and 
 Moslems and, in places, even to Jews ; he men- 
 tions, however, one shrine at least which, on 
 account of the more than doubtful character of its 
 orgies, the more fastidious Moslems have aban- 
 doned to those of other creeds. Still, as in the 
 time of Hosea, "they sacrifice upon the tops of 
 mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under 
 oaks and poplars and terebinths, because the 
 shadow thereof is good." The shadow, by the 
 way, has a direct effect of healing upon the 
 really sick, but is dangerous for the malade 
 imaginaire. We would commend it to the 
 attention of fashionable physicians. 
 
 The discussion of sacred shrines and trees lasted 
 us during our long and steep descent to the 
 bottom of the valley, where the sight of the 
 telegraph wires recalled us to the realities of life.
 
 224 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 and it was with great satisfaction that we found 
 ourselves farther descending, through a Moslem 
 cemetery, into the town of Jenin. Here, as else- 
 where, we noticed the entire absence of the out- 
 skirts and suburbs to which one is used in a 
 different civilisation. One enters directly into 
 a city or village without any intervention of 
 scattered domesticity to indicate what is coming. 
 We were at once in the main street, substantial 
 houses two storeys high on either side of us ; here 
 a large serai (court-house), there a gaily-lighted 
 coffee-house thronged with guests ; gardens and 
 palm-trees among the houses ; obvious well-being 
 everywhere. We stopped at the village khan, 
 and were at once conducted to our resting-place. 
 In old schoolroom days, when we used to read 
 the long lists of places the Israelites conquered or 
 did not conquer, we little thought that one day 
 we should take an active and personal interest 
 even in the order of their arrangement. Issachar, 
 we learn in Joshua xix., had assigned to them 
 sixteen cities, which included En-gannim and 
 Tabor, "and the outgoings of their borders to 
 Jordan," and here, for the first time in our lives, 
 we were not bored by Issachar, and were 
 delighted to be at En-gannim, which is Jenin, 
 and means " the garden spring " — a fact impressed
 
 TO TAANAK AND MEGIDDO 225 
 
 upon us as we were ushered between long garden 
 borders, hardy herbaceous of aspect, overshadowed 
 by rose-bushes, into two deHghtful Httle stone 
 summer-houses at the bottom, with a fountain — 
 now, alas ! dry — between. The men took posses- 
 sion of one house, the ladies of the other, and in 
 the latter, as the larger and pleasanter, we pre- 
 prepared our supper. There were mats on the 
 floor, some stools, two chairs, a table with a 
 patchwork cover, and three of the deep window- 
 seats which, in the East, are generally large 
 enough to count as fittings. A clay stove, with 
 glowing charcoal, was prepared for us outside the 
 door, plenty of water was placed at our service, 
 and we were soon feasting on soup, tinned meats, 
 preserves, white bread, and, of course, tea. At 
 intervals servants came across from the khan to 
 attend to our needs ; and finally all was cleared 
 away, and comfortable mattresses, pillows, and 
 wadded quilts, all in freshly-washed covers, were 
 spread upon the floor. It may be worth while to 
 mention, once for all, that, despite the presence 
 in our little company of some supersensitive 
 souls, we never had occasion to unpack our 
 precious '* Keating." 
 
 To awake in a rose garden on a December 
 morning, to go out of doors to wash, to take our
 
 226 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 breakfast at an open door, are sensations to 
 remember. Khalil was late in bringing the 
 horses, ordered for seven o'clock, and so sleepy 
 that we more than suspected he had assisted at 
 ih.Q fantasia, the sounds of which had reached us 
 far into the night. He was, however, less inclined 
 than usual to resent having to stay behind the 
 rest of the party, in order to lead the Artist's horse, 
 at the pace which alone was possible under the 
 circumstances. It probably gave him the oppor- 
 tunity of a good nap. 
 
 Jenin is surrounded by gardens, and dominated 
 by palms and minarets. It is a seat of govern- 
 ment, has a bazaar, and two Moslem schools. 
 One of its mosques may have been the church 
 which was seen by Boniface of Ragusa, a 
 Franciscan writer, as late as 1555, erected to 
 commemorate an early tradition that this was 
 the scene of the healing of the ten lepers, one of 
 whom was a Samaritan — a fact, however, which, 
 by the light of nature, one would not expect to 
 be specially mentioned in Samaria. 
 
 Passing over a little stream, and among cactus 
 hedges, we soon left the ordinary route northward 
 on our right, not only from our usual desire to 
 avoid the beaten track, but because it was to 
 be our special privilege, under the leadership of
 
 TO TAANAK AND MEGIDDO 227 
 
 " Baedeker," to visit two spots practically un- 
 known to ordinary travel — Taanak and Megiddo — 
 at both of which very extensive excavations are 
 in progress, the one under Austrian, the other 
 under German auspices. Very soon after leaving 
 Jenin we had made a still farther descent, and 
 found ourselves at the entrance of the plain of 
 Esdraelon or Jezreel, the greatest in Palestine, 
 which, roughly speaking, extends from the 
 Mediterranean to the Jordan, although inter- 
 rupted by certain undulations. Esdraelon, the 
 great battlefield of the country, was commanded 
 by a strategical line of fortresses, Taanak, 
 Megiddo, Bethshan, and Dor, the first three of 
 which we hoped to visit. 
 
 Our road was, for the most part, just such as one 
 finds in the neighbourhood of an English agri- 
 cultural village — a well-trodden path between 
 cultivated lands — where, however, among corn 
 already springing green, crocuses, white, yellow, 
 and purple, pink cranes' bills, and yellow daisies, 
 the weeds of Galilee, turned the whole into the 
 aspect of a garden. Plovers wheeled overhead, 
 rooks followed the ploughs, dainty chats watched 
 us but a few feet away, chiff-chaffs and corn-crakes 
 and starlings and sparrows and skylarks talked 
 English, and only when we passed a sacred tree
 
 228 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 hung" with rags, or the eye was caught by the 
 colocynth fruit, or by anemones, scarlet, purple, 
 or white, were we reminded that this was Galilee 
 and December, but that, being some two hundred 
 and fifty feet below sea-level, we had no right to 
 feel surprised at hot sunshine and the flora of 
 spring. 
 
 The plain widens as we advance, and as here 
 and there some distant spot is pointed out upon 
 the wide horizon, our hearts thrill at the mention 
 of names of lifelong familiarity, glorious in asso- 
 ciation of the past, but which we realise with 
 difficulty as being before us here and now. Be- 
 hind us are the hills of Samaria, to our left the 
 country slopes gradually upward into the low hill 
 oi Belad-er-Ruah (the Breezyland), the wall which 
 separates the plains of Esdraelon and Sharon, 
 hiding the Mediterranean, and ending, far ahead, 
 in the great precipice of Carmel, where we know 
 the blue waters are lapping gently this soft, warm 
 morning. To our right are the hills of Gilboa ; 
 while farther, where peninsulas of mountain step 
 out into the plain, we are bidden to look here 
 and there ; while the name of Nain, Endor, and, 
 above all, Nazareth, bring before our minds 
 pictures imagined in childhood, and which it may 
 be difficult, though not unwelcome, to supplant.
 
 TO TAANAK AND MEGIDDO 229 
 
 The great round island of Mount Tabor serves 
 as centre from which to calculate the whereabouts 
 of this place and that. 
 
 Our party had been reinforced by the addition 
 of a practical excavator, whose presence was 
 specially valuable to us, not only for his know- 
 ledge of the country, but because he had done 
 active work on both of the Tells we were about 
 to visit. We commonly called him "the Italian," 
 although he spoke Italian, German, French, and 
 Arabic with equal facility, and, having been 
 associated with the abandoned English railway, 
 was even capable, at need, of falling back upon 
 English. 
 
 At the end of two and a quarter hours we drew 
 up at the foot of Tell Taanak. No one who has 
 even seen a Tell could fail to recognise another 
 wherever he met it, and no one who has not seen 
 one would be quite easily convinced of its nature. 
 In Europe, where, if we destroy a house, we 
 use the material for something else, where we 
 reckon in centuries where the East reckons in 
 cycles, where smoke and damp and frost, to 
 say nothing of utilitarianism, are for ever laying- 
 waste, it is difficult to conceive of a city abandoned 
 thousands of years ago, and buried, by the hand 
 of Time, as gently as the Babes in the Wood by
 
 230 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 the robin-redbreast. Imagine the city of York 
 (to take as an example one which stands upon a 
 plain) forsaken of its inhabitants, gently dropping 
 to pieces as it stands, and, finally, neatly covered 
 up, in the course of ages, in a grave-shaped 
 mound, leaving plenty of room for the cathedral 
 towers, and grown over with flowers and grass ; 
 then suppose that a party of New Zealanders, 
 visitors to Harrogate, about the fortieth century, 
 should make a vertical shaft straight through the 
 middle, and, somewhat disdainful of vestiges so 
 modern as the county capital, should work their 
 way down to Eboracum, and (but here the 
 analogy of the English town ceases) to two or 
 three cities below that. The specialty of the 
 methods of the German excavators is that speci- 
 mens of all that is met with are, if by any means 
 possible, preserved as the investigation proceeds, 
 so that you may reconstruct for yourself the life of 
 York, as well as of Eboracum, and of any Scandi- 
 navian or British predecessors below both. 
 
 The contrary method, of destroying one city 
 to arrive at another, and hastily covering up what 
 remains of both, has however, certain advantages, 
 as it enables excavators to dogmatise without 
 possibility of contradiction from succeeding archae- 
 ologists, and so saves much of that discussion
 
 TO TAANAK AND MEGIDDO 231 
 
 which, while it establishes knowledge and elicits 
 facts, is a weariness to the amateur public of sub- 
 scribers and contributors. The German (and, of 
 course, Austrian) excavations are conducted by 
 groups of savants, and not by individuals. Each 
 has his own specialty ; and as there are several of 
 such groups now at work in Palestine each, at need, 
 can be reinforced from elsewhere ; results can be 
 considered from various standpoints, and opinions 
 exchanged. No ad interim reports are presented 
 to the public ; the excavators are not obliged to 
 have something to say at stated intervals ; and 
 when the results finally appear they are in a form 
 which leaves nothing to be desired from the point 
 of view of art production. Teutonic thorough- 
 ness, frugality, and self-dedication can never be 
 more admirably exhibited than in the prosecution 
 of knowledge in this form ; and the German 
 expenditure, as compared with the result, is, in 
 Palestine, as surprising in scientific research, as 
 in their philanthropic institutions. 
 
 We rode as far as a terrace more than half way 
 up, and then dismounting were soon absorbed in 
 the excavation, on our own account, of a rubbish 
 heap close by, where we filled our pockets with 
 fragments of painted pottery and iridescent glass, 
 with jar handles and broken lamps. " That is
 
 232 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 Cypriote," "that Phoenician," "that pre- Amoritic," 
 " that merely Arabic," pronounced our experts. 
 " Merely Arabic " might be earlier than the 
 foundation of Westminster Abbey, or the days 
 of Charlemagne, but we were willing to hold it 
 cheap when we could have for the stooping, let us 
 say, the fragment of a water-bottle, still fresh as to 
 its ornamentation, pleasing as to its colouring, 
 which had long been buried when the nomadic 
 tribes of the Israelites first settled in Canaan ; or 
 a lamp which may have burned when " fought the 
 kings of Canaan in Taanak by the waters of 
 Megiddo " — celebrated in the savage war-song of 
 Deborah the prophetess, which, in its geographical 
 allusions, is a mine of wealth to the archaeologist. 
 
 Exploring a Tell must be wonderfully exciting 
 work, even when one has rewards less immediate 
 than the results at Taanak, which is the first 
 Canaanite site ever excavated. Think of finding 
 oneself face to face with the remains of the in- 
 fants offered up on yonder rock-cut altar — jars 
 and jars full of the bones of poor little Canaanitish 
 babies who might otherwise have lived to play 
 with the little Manassehites who came to settle 
 among them, whose fathers could not drive out 
 the people of Taanak from their own strong- 
 hold. Or imagine the sensation of finding, two
 
 TO TAANAK AND MEGIDDO 233 
 
 metres deep under the soil, the only Israelitish 
 altar of incense ever discovered ! Although 
 broken into forty pieces, Dr Sellin contrived to 
 put it together, when it was found to be exactly 
 in accordance with the prescribed Mosaic measure- 
 ments, decorated with rams' horns, with carvings 
 of six cherubs and four lions, and with representa- 
 tions of the Tree of Life and the struggle of a 
 man with the serpent. Dr Sellin ascribes it to 
 the period when the Samaritan influence was 
 strong in Israelitish worship, and thinks it may 
 be as late as from five hundred to one hundred 
 years before Christ. It is to be observed, how- 
 ever, that the German specialists hesitate to claim 
 the very remote periods assigned by other 
 excavators to similar discoveries, often differing 
 from them by as much as a thousand years. 
 
 Here we came across the massive wall of a 
 Canaanitish building of a period some eighteen 
 hundred years before Christ ; there what was 
 possibly the house of Baana, the governor of the 
 fortress in the time of Solomon ; here an Arabian 
 castle of the times of Haroun-er-Raschid ; here 
 was found an imao-e of Baal, there of Astarte, 
 here a head of J ah we, the god of whom it was 
 forbidden to make any graven image. The 
 variety of the commercial relations of Taanak is
 
 234 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 shown by Mykenaean pottery from the JEgea.i\ 
 scarabs from Egypt, seal cyHnders from Babylon. 
 Four thousand years at least passed in review 
 before us as we clambered among the ruins ; we 
 ran down an inclined plane into a city which was 
 ancient when the child Joseph passed under its 
 walls, a trembling little slave, on his way down 
 from Dothan into Egypt ; or, perching on a stair- 
 case, looked into the homes of those citizens whom 
 Joshua failed to subdue. Here we mount a few 
 steps, and find ourselves in the fortress which 
 guarded the plain when Israel and Sisera were 
 struggling on the banks of the Kishon ; or, wan- 
 dering outside, we rest beneath the city walls 
 
 " Graven with emblems of the time, 
 In honour of the golden prime 
 Of good Haroun Alraschid." 
 
 No Story of the Arabian Nights which may 
 have been related here could have for us half the 
 glamour, the enchantment, of those we may make 
 for ourselves here and now. A fragment of 
 iridescent glass, of an ivory handle, of a water- 
 jar — here are charms enough to weave the magic 
 spell ! And here, to exorcise all, comes the rain, 
 and we find ourselves again amid the petty cares 
 of to-day, and hasten back to the terrace where 
 our horses are patiently waiting.
 
 TO TAANAK AND MEGIDDO 235 
 
 We were quite ready to accept the alleged 
 Megiddo as such, on the authority, among others, 
 of Robinson among older geographers, and of 
 Professor G. A. Smith among the new, and, per- 
 haps still more, of those who had turned the site, 
 as well as the question, inside out. 
 
 Tell el - Mutesellim lies just beyond Lejjun, 
 which corresponds with the Legio of Eusebius. 
 The great plain is called by St Jerome by the 
 name of Campus Legionis, as well as the plain 
 of Megiddo. " The waters of Megiddo," of which 
 we read in Judges, are represented by the 
 abundant streams, tributaries of the Kishon, 
 which the Arabs call the Muqutta. At Lejjun 
 one at once observes a very fine aqueduct, and 
 a large mill, both Roman, and some tentative 
 excavation, which promises good results later, has 
 revealed a theatre and some bricks stamped with 
 the cognisance of the sixth legion. Megiddo and 
 Taanak are always named together in Bible 
 history, and we learn that both were fortified 
 towns before the Israelitish occupation ; that the 
 tribe of Manasseh failed to drive out the in- 
 habitants ; that Solomon fortified Megiddo ; and 
 that two kings of Judah — Ahaziah and Josiah — 
 died there, far from their own royal city — a fact 
 which testifies to its continued consequence.
 
 236 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 Excavation at Tell el-Mutesellim has revealed 
 a strongly-fortified city of obvious importance, 
 which seems to fulfil all required conditions. 
 Conder, however, identifies Megiddo with a 
 distant town near the Jordan, far from Taanak, 
 the Kishon, and the great plain, which there was 
 no particular reason for fortifying, but which 
 is called Mujedda, which sounds rather like 
 Megiddo. 
 
 We reached Lejjun in bright sunshine about 
 an hour after leaving Taanak, and Tell el-Mute- 
 sellim rises somewhat abruptly beyond. On an 
 intervening hill, separated from the Tell by a 
 narrow valley, stands a row of corrugated-iron 
 huts, neatly lined with wood, surmounted by the 
 German flag, and bearing the familiar legend, 
 "Thames Iron Works," another reminder that 
 the abandoned English railway, making such 
 rapid progress but a few miles away, must 
 henceforth be put to the credit of Turkish 
 finance and German perseverance. 
 
 One large hut served as reception-room, and 
 later as bedroom for the ladies, a second as 
 storeroom and bedroom for the men, and a third 
 was divided into stable, kitchen, and sleeping- 
 place for the servants. A drawing-room was 
 arranged for us in the open air, where deck-chairs
 
 TO TAANAK AND MEGIDDO 237 
 
 were placed so as to be sheltered by huts on both 
 sides, with a glorious view over the Tell beyond 
 to Carmel, Tabor, and the mountains of Gilboa ; 
 while the fertile plain stretched like a great sea 
 all around, and behind us we could look over 
 Lejjun, in the near distance, to our old friends 
 the hills east of the Jordan. 
 
 " Baedeker " and the Italian had been greeted 
 by half the inhabitants of the district, all old 
 friends and co-workers in the excavation of the 
 Tell, glad just now of a vacation, which gave them 
 leisure to cultivate their fields, but quite ready 
 to return to the work promised them in a few 
 weeks. We met a man with a gun, who had 
 wandered far, in vain, in search of game for our 
 table, and another who mourned that only a 
 couple of eggs had been forthcoming when our 
 somewhat sudden arrival was announced ; but the 
 cook, pro te77i, was in good spirits at having at 
 an early hour secured five chickens, which had 
 been simmering ever since. One of the Arab's 
 many virtues is that his soups are strong and 
 he never gives you underdone meat. If this 
 were true at lunch it was still more so at dinner, 
 after seven hours' additional cooking, and the 
 liberal allowance of material, all served in the 
 same pot-d-feti, gave everyone the chance to
 
 238 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 select his favourite portion. The Italian, who 
 had made a shorter journey than we, had brought 
 us some extra luxuries, and we found ourselves 
 in very comfortable quarters. 
 
 After luncheon we visited the Tell, and, with 
 plenty of time before us, enjoyed a detailed in- 
 spection, and the opportunity of pausing, wherever 
 we felt disposed, for discussion and examination. 
 The amount of excavation already accomplished 
 was just enough, like the index of an interesting 
 book, to indicate what might be expected, and 
 to rouse, without exhausting, our interest. Here 
 we were shown what seemed an extraordinary 
 extent of surface excavated in proportion to the 
 short period — about four months — of work. 
 " Baedeker" had himself had charge of the work, 
 with the Italian as foreman, and so we were able 
 to follow in detail the plan of operation, and to 
 learn how to dissect a Tell. They had begun at 
 the eastern edge because, as it was the highest 
 point, they expected to find an acropolis, as was, 
 in fact, the case. The city to which it belonged 
 had, apparently, been destroyed by fire, as the 
 great beams which served as supports were con- 
 siderably charred. The fortress, of Jewish work- 
 manship, was built of great stones, but the 
 buttresses were of brick. There was an outer
 
 TO TAANAK AND MEGIDDO 239 
 
 wall, and an aqueduct of later, but also of Jewish, 
 construction. 
 
 We were even more interested in a temple of 
 pagan cult, where, not in the open air, as usual, 
 but inside a square chamber, were found a rock- 
 cut altar, and on either side a mazeba, or stone 
 pillar, such as Solomon set up before the Temple, 
 with the names of Jachin and Boaz, and such as, 
 under the name of menhirs, we find in Scotland 
 and the west of England, and, in fact, all over 
 the world — relics of a cult associated with the 
 most elementary" principles of nature worship. In 
 horribly suggestive proximity were sacrificial jars 
 containing the bones of infants, head downwards. 
 
 South of the walls of the fort were many small 
 rooms, possibly barracks ; while a tomb near was 
 crowded with the bodies of men, and in another 
 tomb were found ten skulls, of which many 
 showed cuts or holes, evidently relics of a siege. 
 One imcomplete shaft, but a few feet wide and 
 seventeen metres deep, not yet reaching rock, 
 showed us the method of beginning operations. 
 Here we could see sections of a wall of unburnt 
 brick, and of two others of unhewn stone, and 
 we longed to return to see these indications 
 followed up. Among the most precious portable 
 finds were an idol and a terra-cotta head, prob-
 
 240 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 ably Egyptian, a seal with letters in an unknown 
 script, a bowl for libations, a painted censer, and 
 several enamelled gods. Shortly before our 
 arrival, during the last days of work before 
 pausing for the winter rains, some large tombs 
 had been opened, and found to contain some 
 beautiful and unique painted jars, as well as 
 other jars, bowls, and lamps in large quantities. 
 No description of these excavations had as yet 
 been published, and we thought ourselves very 
 fortunate in being able to study and inquire at 
 first hand. It is almost equally interesting to 
 listen to an explanation of work accomplished, 
 and to speculate as to the results of work only 
 begun. 
 
 After dinner we were tempted by the notion 
 of visiting these cities of the dead by moonlight, 
 and were well repaid for the ejffort of crossing 
 the rough ground of the intervening valley. 
 There were no sensuous triumphs of Greek or 
 Roman art, no glories of column and capital, 
 but, perhaps still more impressive, the homes 
 of peoples who had passed away when Greece 
 and Rome were yet unborn. Here were streets 
 trodden by men of like passions with ourselves : 
 hastening to business or pleasure, meeting their 
 brides or burying their dead. Here were
 
 TO TAANAK AND MEGIDDO 241 
 
 chambers in which the drama of Hfe had been 
 played out over and over again — comedy as 
 well as tragedy, birth and death ; here the altars 
 where vows had been fulfilled and the gods 
 propitiated ; gardens sanctified by the games of 
 children, the laughter of youth ; where ambitions, 
 hopes, affections had been born — to die, or to 
 live for ever. All around us spoke of the eternity 
 of all but man — the stars, the hills, the flowers 
 which return to us year by year — Carmel out- 
 living its tragedies, Tabor its miracles ; beyond 
 the hills that ancient river, the River Kishon, 
 hastening to the eternal sea. Man alone had 
 passed away, leaving only the wreck of his labour, 
 the ruin of his homes, to show where he had 
 been. But yet another thought came to us. In 
 a fold of yonder hills, where the moonlight rested 
 tenderly, lay the little village of Nazareth, where 
 long ago there dwelt a Man who 
 
 " Wrought 
 With human hands the creed of creeds 
 In loveliness of perfect deeds, 
 More strong than all poetic thought," 
 
 We carried our discussion no further. Surely 
 here, as in that little village, had been men into 
 whose lives had entered the beautiful and the 
 
 Q
 
 242 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 true — which, in proportion as they resembled the 
 life of that Man of Nazareth, must endure for 
 ever. 
 
 It was the last night of the old year, and in 
 each heart were memories and longings which 
 mioht not be revealed. We walked back througrh 
 the soft night air, each thinking of friends far 
 away, gathered about winter fires, and speculating, 
 perhaps, as to the whereabouts of their wanderers. 
 When we had once more assembled in our 
 friendly hut, and, thanks to " Baedeker's" kindly 
 forethought, had drunk together of an excellent 
 punch of tea and red wine, with a dash of 
 kirsch-wasser, we felt constrained to go forth 
 once more into the wide space beyond. Not 
 a solitary light twinkled on the hillside ; 
 the village of Lejjun was sleeping : we were 
 the centre of our world. The horses were 
 tethered before our doors, and we were 
 amused to observe that the force of habit 
 persisted even in sleep, and that, so used 
 were they to travelling en quezie that, even 
 in repose, they stood in a single row, head 
 to tail. 
 
 " The shadows flicker to and fro : 
 The cricket chirps : the light burns low, — 
 'Tis nearly twelve o'clock.
 
 TO TAANAK AND MEGIDDO 243 
 
 Shake hands before you die, 
 Old year, we'll dearly rue for you. 
 What is it we can do for you? 
 Speak out before you die ! " 
 
 Each of us had our special regret as we stood 
 beside that grave, each our special hopes as, 
 only a few minutes later, we greeted the stranger 
 guest and wished each other A Happy New 
 Year!
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 HAIFA AND CARMEL 
 
 " Traversing this fertile country one is more and more impressed 
 with the incorrectness of the judgment of the ordinary tourist who, 
 confining himself to the route prescribed by Cook, is taken through 
 the barren hills of Judaea and to one or two holy places in Galilee, 
 and then goes home and talks about the waste and desolation of 
 Palestine."— Laurence Oliphant 
 
 ' I 'HE early hours of the next morning were 
 devoted to sketching and photography, 
 and after a midday lunch we mounted for 
 a ride, of some nine hours, to Haifa. We soon 
 found ourselves back in the plain, with the great 
 precipice of Carmel before us for our goal. The 
 general features of the country were the same 
 as yesterday, except that we had the River Kishon 
 for our companion. Even the slight amount of 
 rain which had fallen had had its effect here, 
 and the road in parts was heavy enough to 
 disconcert the horses, who picked their way as 
 daintily as if they remembered nothing of the 
 fact that it had rained, with considerable mud as 
 a result, even in their own royal city of Jerusalem, 
 only nine months ago. We could not wonder, 
 
 244
 
 HAIFA AND CARMEL 245 
 
 however, that the River Kishon should have 
 swept away the hosts of Sisera, for on ground 
 such as this the horse - hoofs might well be 
 "broken by means of the prancings," and nine 
 hundred chariots of iron, hemmed in between 
 the river and the steep hillside, would have a 
 very poor chance, especially in the rainy season, 
 which one may imagine it to have been, as Jael, 
 whom one thinks of as of the Medici, or the 
 knitting- women of the Fronde, "brought forth 
 butter in a lordly dish " ; and butter, except at 
 a prohibitive price, at a convent or two in 
 Jerusalem, is not to be had in the summer 
 months. Surely so vile a woman was never 
 celebrated in song ! 
 
 The flowers were an endless feast ; never 
 had we seen anemones of so many shades, and 
 perhaps the greatest event of the day was the 
 finding of the first jonquils, narcissus tazetta. 
 We had been watching their deep green homes 
 for the last three days, but this was the first 
 time we had been rewarded. Both the Doctors 
 contrived to possess themselves, upon an island 
 in the river, although with some difficulty, of 
 a great handful of the sweet-smelling blooms, 
 the firstlings of our New Year's Day. A few 
 minutes later we came to a couple of bridges,
 
 246 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 one for the railway and one for the road, and 
 from that point we were more or less in sight 
 of the railway all the time. Some of the horses 
 made a great fuss about the passing of a train, 
 for, although the line is not yet formally open 
 for passenger traffic, a train runs every day in 
 each direction for the convenience of the 
 engineers. Just at sunset, after about eight 
 hours' travelling, we came in view of the lights 
 of Haifa, twinkling along the shore, with only 
 the palms and minarets to dispel the illusion 
 that it might be Brighton or Hastings. Carmel 
 was before us, the orreat landmark of the Palestine 
 coast, boldly leaping out into the sea, its light- 
 house throwing out a friendly welcome, rather, 
 perhaps, than a warning, to those who go down 
 to the sea in ships. This is the one spot on all 
 the Syrian coast remotely resembling a harbour ; 
 elsewhere are only ledges for sea-birds, rocks 
 inviting to wreckage, and Nile sand brought up 
 by the currents flowing north. The Phoenicians, 
 of whom alone among all the inhabitants of Syria 
 we can think as a seafaring people, traded from 
 farther north. Little wonder that the people of 
 such a land should welcome the promise, so 
 strange to other ears: "There shall be no more 
 sea ! " For many months in the year the in-
 
 HAIFA AND CARMEL 247 
 
 habitants of Judaea can count on letters only 
 " if they can land at Jaffa," and constantly, even 
 when mail-bags can be tossed into the small 
 boats, which alone can come ashore, passengers 
 are carried past, northward to Beirut, or south 
 to Egypt, to make a fresh attempt, often two 
 or three times repeated ; and every year has 
 its record of drowning and disaster. 
 
 Sir John Maundeville, who is never at a loss 
 to account for anything that comes in his way, 
 gravely assures us that there was here formerly 
 "a good city of the Christians called Caiphas, 
 because Caiaphas first founded it." The town of 
 Haifa (the Arabic name being variously trans- 
 literated Haifa and Caifa) is the old Sycaminum ; 
 the modern town, however, stands farther within 
 the bay than the old, the ruins of which are 
 still visible at the foot of Mount Carmel. It was 
 built in the middle of the eighteenth century 
 by Dhaher, a famous governor of the neighbouring 
 Acre or Akko, which is the old Ptolemais. 
 
 Our quarters at Haifa were at the farther end 
 of the town, and after passing through streets 
 which, though better than in many places, are 
 decidedly Oriental as to width, paving, and dirt, 
 it was reposeful to find ourselves in the German 
 colony — a picturesque European village : wide
 
 248 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 streets planted with trees, well-kept roads, gardens 
 gay with flowers, and houses which seem to have 
 been transported from some quaint, old country- 
 town, each with its text in "black letter" over 
 the door. One, above all others, was to some 
 among us almost a place of pilgrimage, with all 
 its associations of a man of genius unappreciated, 
 misunderstood — one of the many messengers who, 
 with hands laden with gifts, sought to come unto 
 his own, and his own received him not ! 
 
 Mobl delicti, Me bas (Bcbot baltcii unO 
 tbun immert)ar IRecbt. 
 
 Ibans ©lipbant. 
 
 Not England, and not America, carry on his 
 work of — literally — sweetness and light, but the 
 Germans. Haifa is practically a German town 
 so far as its trade, agriculture, and property are 
 concerned. Even the Russian, American, and, 
 till lately, the English consuls are Germans, and 
 most officials, of whatever nationality, reside in 
 the colony. The hotels, shops, and banks are 
 German. The Roman Catholic hospital and 
 hospice are in the hands of a German sister- 
 hood ; the sanatorium on Mount Carmel, with its 
 luxurious accommodation and extensive grounds,
 
 HAIFA AND CARMEL 249 
 
 rendezvous of English missionaries, is conducted 
 by Germans. 
 
 The Scottish medical mission, here as elsewhere 
 preaching- the Gospel of good deeds, has an 
 admirable hospital. The Jerusalem and the East 
 Mission has a chaplain. The great hospice 
 on Mount Carmel is maintained by the Carmelite 
 Fathers. Out of 12,000 inhabitants half are 
 Moslems, sixteen hundred Jews, and about a 
 thousand Greek, Orthodox, and Latins. Of the 
 six hundred Europeans, five hundred are 
 Germans ; the rest of the population is mainly 
 Maronite and Greek Catholic. 
 
 Plain living and high thinking are, of course, 
 the ideal of life, but there is a joy in unpacking, 
 in a hot bath, in a white table-cloth. Our com- 
 panions at table were mainly German engineers 
 and contractors, at work on the new railway. 
 We regretted that we were too late to see the 
 opening ceremony of a few days before, which 
 seems to have presented some interesting features, 
 and was certainly a triumph for the Turkish 
 Government. In spite of its execution having 
 been German — for even when in Eno^lish hands 
 its surveyor was Dr Schumacher, the German- 
 American Vice-Consul — the Moslem ownership 
 of the railway has not been lost sight of, and
 
 250 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 it is an interesting anomaly that its inauguration 
 was accompanied by the sacrifice of several sheep. 
 Their throats were cut, the blood poured upon 
 the soil, and the flesh roasted and given to the 
 poor. This is done "for a blessing." How far 
 this savage ceremony is a perpetuation of the 
 Old Testament idea of propitiating the Deity, 
 how far it is done to avert the attention of the 
 jinn, it is impossible to say. Similar ceremonies 
 are performed, both by Moslems and Christians, 
 at the initiation of any undertaking,^ from the 
 opening of public works to the building of a 
 dwelling-house, the anointing with blood being 
 a necessary element. 
 
 To our great regret we were now to lose our 
 friend " Baedeker," to whom we owed so much 
 of pleasure and information. We had given him, 
 in return, much valuable advice on how to con- 
 struct a guide - book, framed on the analogy 
 of certain specimens beloved of tourists, from 
 which we had culled choice extracts for frequent 
 quotation, the general principles of which 
 seemed to be hasty generalisation and the 
 inculcation of moral lessons. We may inci- 
 dentally mention that the longer and better 
 one knows Syria the more one learns to ap- 
 
 ^ Curtiss, op. cit. Chap. xiv.
 
 HAIFA AND CARMEL 251 
 
 preciate the blessings of Baedeker, and to 
 value its extreme accuracy, even in the smallest 
 particulars. 
 
 We devoted the next day to renewing our 
 stock of provisions at the excellent shops, 
 visiting friends, and, finally, to a ride up Mount 
 Carmel. Last year an Austrian boat, the 
 Posseidon. came ashore in this very treacherous 
 harbour, and among other passengers rescued 
 from the wreck were a cat and kittens, belonging 
 to the son of the captain. These kittens found 
 a kindly welcome among the German population, 
 and in two houses were introduced to our notice 
 with much pride. They were evidently ac- 
 customed to attention, for their self-esteem 
 exceeded that of even other cats "subject to 
 vanity," and their Angora lineage, short faces, 
 tufted ears, bushy tales, and black toes justified 
 their claim to admiration. The Arab cat leaves 
 little to be desired as to pelage, but, as a rule, 
 his markings, black on white, would disgrace a 
 fox-terrier. He is, for the most part, well treated 
 in Palestine, and, in consequence, extremely in- 
 telligent ; but, like the Arabs themselves, and the 
 Arab donkeys, is too much en evidence for perfect 
 good breeding, and his " flashes of silence" are very 
 occasional, and generally due to sleep or food.
 
 252 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 The ride up Mount Carmel was an occasion 
 never to be forgotten. The new carriage road 
 cHmbs the four hundred and eighty feet which 
 lead to the convent in wide sweeps, and is very 
 easy ; but the direct ascent is abrupt, and the 
 views proportionately impressive. Northward, the 
 crescent-shaped bay terminated in Acre, with 
 all its associations of crusading times ; while 
 far below us Haifa, and all its gardens, offered, 
 perhaps, the most smiling and prosperous picture 
 which Palestine had ever shown us. The de- 
 tached houses, buried in trees ; the unwonted 
 completeness and order of the cultivation ; the 
 miles of terraced vineyards, parents of the excellent 
 Haifa wine ; the picturesque German colony ; 
 the estates of Selim Effendi Khuri — the million- 
 aire of a district in which are many rich men, 
 mainly Germans ; the orange and lemon gardens, 
 with their wealth of fruit, here a flame of bou- 
 gainvilea, there a bower of fragrant jessamine, 
 at intervals a group of stately palms — where else 
 can we find a prospect such as this ? 
 
 And then, when we reached the top, was there 
 ever such a rock garden as extends for miles 
 along the summit of Carmel, the mountain which 
 travellers abuse, and for which guide-books 
 apologise? Did ever a January sky shine over
 
 HAIFA AND CARMEL 253 
 
 a more marvellous wealth of beauty and of 
 promise ? Rocks of limestone and hornstone ; 
 a general effect of greenness, kept fresh at all 
 times of the year owing to the neighbourhood of 
 the sea and the constant dews ; scattered shade 
 of sapling oaks, of carobs, hawthorns, elders, 
 Guelder-roses, pomegranates, acacias, almonds 
 now laden with bloom, arbutus, and tamarisks ; an 
 undergrowth of azalea, genista, rock-rose, juniper, 
 a tangle of the glorious clematis cirrhosa, with 
 its delicate greenish blossom; myrtles, and "the 
 slender galingale " ; ferns in every shady nook — 
 xhefeh's-mas, asplenumi-trichomanes, the scented 
 fern ; ckeilantkes-fragrans, the waving maiden- 
 hair — a feast of colour and sweetness ; cyclamen, 
 crimson, pink, and white ; hyacinths, blue ; chrys- 
 anthemuns, golden ; mandrakes, royal purple ; 
 periwinkle, sapphire ; anemone coronaria, scarlet, 
 purple, pink, white ; the stately narcissus and 
 sweet jonquils ; crocuses, golden, purple, and 
 white. And then the promise! How we longed 
 to wait a week or two, as we watched the strong 
 green swords of the bulbous and tuberous plants 
 preparing to defend their coming treasure ; the 
 irises, great and small ; the gladioli, the squills, 
 the star of Bethlehem, the hyacinths, the arums, 
 the orchises. Soon, too, there would be adonis,
 
 254 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 red and yellow ; scarlet ranunculus, chrysan- 
 themums, and later, asphodels, lupins, scented 
 stocks, lychnis, geraniums of many kinds, cent- 
 aureas, valerian and a hundred other blooms, which 
 had sent no word of their coming, and at which 
 we could only guess. To catalogue only seems 
 a sort of profanation. 
 
 "I touch, 
 But cannot praise; I love too much." 
 
 There, for the first time, we saw the beautiful 
 little sun-bird, although it is said to be common 
 in the Jericho district. To the uninstructed it is 
 a humming-bird, although one is assured that 
 they exist only in the New World. It is little 
 over four inches long, radiantly attired in purple, 
 green, and blue, with brilliant orange tufts upon 
 his shoulders, a wonderful metallic sheen over 
 all, and a long, curved bill. The little lady 
 who accompanies him, though far more humbly 
 dressed, is also dainty and fascinating in brown 
 shot with green. Another tiny bird which gave 
 us much delight was the long-tailed wren, drymoeca 
 gracilis, which runs up tamarisk-trees like a tit, 
 with a little fan spread open behind it. 
 
 The scene gave a new meaning to familiar 
 words : " The desert shall rejoice, and blossom as 
 the rose. It shall blossom abundantly : the glory
 
 HAIFA AND CARMEL 255 
 
 of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency 
 of Carmel and Sharon." The flowers of Lebanon 
 and Sharon are also a joy and delight to the 
 beauty-loving eye, but to our fancy the excellency 
 of Carmel is supreme. The mountain at its 
 highest point is less than two thousand feet, but, 
 rising sheer from the sea, is more imposing than 
 many mountains of greater elevation. The entire 
 length of the range does not exceed fifteen miles ; 
 but as only two villages, occupied mainly by 
 Druses and Greek Catholics, occur to break its 
 solitude, wild beasts — jackals, hysenas, wild boars, 
 and even occasional panthers — are still more or 
 less in possession, although the cultivation of 
 vines for the famous Haifa vintage, has carried 
 civilisation and humanity to a considerable 
 distance. 
 
 Of course, we visited the convent, with all its 
 hospitalities and its interesting historical associa- 
 tions : its memories of pious anchorites, of their 
 union, in the fifth century, with one of the earliest 
 religious orders ; of the Benedictines who, early 
 in the ninth century, built the Church of St 
 Margaret ; of St Louis ; of massacres which laid 
 desolate the convent ; of the church turned into 
 a mosque ; and finally of the restoration of 
 the order, with permission to rebuild. The
 
 256 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 monastery was used as a hospital when Napoleon 
 besieged Acre, and the wounded, murdered by 
 the Turks, lie under a small pyramid in the 
 convent garden. Destroyed once more by the 
 Pasha of Acre in 1821, the buildings have been 
 again restored on a scale to accommodate the 
 large pilgrimages which come every year from 
 Europe. Even more humble pilgrims, natives 
 or Hindoos — for "the grotto of Elijah" and the 
 " school of the prophets " are venerated also by 
 Moslems — are not forgotten, and a special build- 
 ing is provided for them at the base of the light- 
 house, which is under the care of the monastery. 
 It is said that an Italian, Brother Giovanni of 
 Frascati, is the real author of the reconstruction 
 of the Carmelite prosperity, for, sent by the 
 general of the order to inquire into the condition 
 of things, he found only wrecked walls, and, as 
 sole survivor of the order, a single brother, who 
 had taken refuge in Haifa. A firman was 
 obtained from Constantinople, and the two 
 brothers devoted themselves to the collection of 
 funds, with such results that in 1827, six years 
 after its destruction, a new foundation stone was 
 laid by Giovanni himself. Liberal gifts must 
 have followed, for, though severe in style, the 
 buildings are very spacious and solid, and include
 
 HAIFA AND CARMEL 257 
 
 a good library, very handsome church, oratory, 
 and chapter-house. 
 
 A small chamber, little more than a cave, said 
 to have been the habitation of the three poor 
 Carmelites who inaugurated the return of the 
 order in 1636, has been recently converted into 
 a chapel dedicated to St Simon Stock, the 
 Kentishman who was gfeneral of the order in 
 Palestine in 1245. 
 
 We linorered to see the sunset clouds oather 
 above the Mediterranean, and then rode over the 
 top of the ridge, and so back to the town, almost 
 grudging to go indoors as the stars sprang out 
 and the red roofs and green palms and olives of 
 the German village faded away into greys and 
 purples. After dinner we had the privilege of ex- 
 amining Dr Schumacher's precious little museum 
 at the American consulate, and of seeing the 
 map of his survey of the East Jordanland, the 
 first that has yet been completed.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 NAZARETH AND TABOR 
 
 " From thence men go to Nazareth, of which our Lord beareth 
 the surname . . . because our Lady was born at Nazareth, there- 
 fore our Lord bare His surname of that town." 
 
 Sir John Maundeville, 1322 
 
 " Mount Tabor in Galilee ... is of a remarkably round shape, 
 and covered in an extraordinary manner with grass and flowers." 
 
 ArCULF, 700 A.D. 
 
 /^UR departure next morning — our little party 
 reduced to three and one mukari — was 
 somewhat delayed by the conduct of Sadowi, 
 who, brought up in Moslem surroundings, firmly 
 protested against being ridden past a pig in the 
 streets of Haifa. If it had been a lion he could 
 not have objected more strongly, and as the 
 movement of a pig is not rapid our progress, for 
 the length of an entire street, was a work of time. 
 We were bound for Nazareth, only some twenty- 
 four miles distant, along a fairly good road, but 
 this was, on the whole, the most wearisome day 
 of our journey. A chain is no stronger than its 
 weakest link ; Khalil had to lead the Artist's 
 horse at a walk, our second servant had gone,
 
 NAZARETH AND TABOR 259 
 
 and even if we had known the way, or if it had 
 seemed prudent to divide our forces, our horses 
 had no confidence in Frenjy, and so firmly refused 
 to separate from their stable companions — human 
 and equine — that, after disputing the question 
 with them until we were tired, we abandoned 
 ourselves to the dragging pace which is so wear- 
 ing to horse and rider, and which protracted our 
 journey till late in the afternoon. 
 
 Descending after three miles into the fertile 
 plain of the Kishon we retraced our road towards 
 Megiddo for some miles, and then climbed to 
 higher ground, and passed through a succession 
 of beautiful groves of oak, very rare in this 
 country, and which, we regretted to see, had 
 been partially destroyed in the construction of 
 the new carriage road from Haifa to Tiberias. 
 Once more descending we reached, about fifteen 
 miles from Haifa, the village of Semuniyeh, 
 historically interesting as being the first settle- 
 ment in Palestine of the German Society of 
 Templars, who have done so much for commerce 
 and agriculture, and have demonstrated, as no 
 other Europeans have done, by their well-built, 
 well-arranged colonies, the fact that it is possible 
 to live a domestic life under conditions of order, 
 beauty, and sanitation even in Palestine. This
 
 260 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 first site, however promising and pleasing to 
 the eye, was not, however, well chosen, for the 
 spring, bordered with flowers and shaded with 
 maiden-hair, turned out to be very unwholesome. 
 We passed, just below, the little village of Yafa, 
 where since 1641 the Franciscans have possessed 
 a small chapel, on the alleged site of the house of 
 Zebedee. The villagers are mainly Latins and 
 Greek Orthodox. 
 
 The town of Nazareth is so buried in a cleft 
 of the hills that it came into sight quite suddenly, 
 lying to the left of the road, with a few separated 
 buildings, mostly modern institutions, the most 
 striking of which is the immense orphanage of 
 the Salesian Fathers, with its long arcades and 
 its exalted position. A convent of Poor Clares 
 is the only building noticeable to the right of the 
 road ; on the left we pass a pleasant - looking 
 hotel (German) and some half-dozen houses, and 
 we are at the gates of the Franciscan hospice, 
 a handsome building, capable of accommodating 
 over two hundred guests, with spacious reception- 
 rooms and every modern convenience, built 
 mainly by the liberality of Americans, and known, 
 in consequence, as Notre Dame dAmerique. Its 
 hospitality, like that of all the Franciscan hos- 
 pices, is open to all, rich and poor, irrespective
 
 NAZARETH AND TABOR 261 
 
 of sex, creed, or nationality. Guests are at 
 liberty to leave a gift for the maintenance of 
 the house ; but nothing is asked, and the Lady 
 related several instances, personally known to 
 her, in which it had been declined owing to 
 the circumstances, known or suspected, of the 
 visitor. 
 
 One's emotions on finding oneself in Nazareth 
 are, like so many of the most sacred things in 
 life, "nothing to speak of." Easier is it to dwell 
 upon our hearty welcome and kindly companion- 
 ship, upon the refreshment of comfortable rooms 
 and an excellent table, upon the unattractive- 
 ness of the modern town and the superfluous 
 philanthropy and multiplication of benevolent 
 institutions. 
 
 After "the cup that cheers," and which a 
 Franciscan hospice anywhere in Palestine may 
 be warranted to produce at sight of an English- 
 woman, we wandered forth, rather rashly, in the 
 twilight. The Lady alleged that the ground- 
 plan of the town could only be compared with 
 Clovelly — each house looks down the next-door 
 chimneys, or would if chimneys there were. 
 The streets appeared to be about nine feet wide. 
 On either side is a pavement wide enough for 
 one person ; the middle is a water -course, a
 
 262 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 drain, or a depository for decaying vegetable 
 matter according to the character of the quarter. 
 If you meet a donkey your conversation with 
 your companion across the street is interrupted 
 till it has clattered past ; if it is loaded you 
 flatten yourself against the wall ; if you meet a 
 camel you step inside the nearest house. The 
 people have the manners of those accustomed 
 to tourists and to superfluously benevolent in- 
 stitutions : the women stare boldly, the children 
 demand backsheesh, the men have lost the 
 Oriental courtesy so welcome in less frequented 
 places. 
 
 The population is about ten thousand, of whom 
 thirty-five hundred are Moslems, and thirty-five 
 hundred Greeks ; about twenty - eight hundred 
 Catholics, Latin, Greek, and Maronite, and 
 about two hundred and fifty Protestants. The 
 people are prosperous, mainly as agriculturists, 
 but there is also some commerce in cotton and 
 grain. 
 
 The Franciscans, besides their own college for 
 novices, have a school for boys ; the Salesians an 
 orphanage for boys ; the Christian Brothers a 
 school for boys, with higher grade as well as 
 elementary teaching ; the Dames de Nazareth 
 an orphanage and school for girls ; the Sisters of
 
 NAZARETH AND TABOR 263 
 
 St Joseph a school for girls and a dispensary ; 
 the Brothers of St John the Divine a hospital 
 and dispensary ; the Sisters of Charity all the 
 miscellaneous works of care for young and old, 
 for homeless and infirm, with which everywhere 
 they fill up the gaps left by others. The Greeks; 
 Russians, Maronites — all have their own institu- 
 tions ; the Russians a very large hospice for 
 pilgrims. The Edinburgh Medical Mission has a 
 church and hospital, and the English have a small 
 orphanage for girls, founded by the Society for 
 Female Education, which, despite its unattractive 
 title, has done some excellent work in Palestine. 
 How, out of a Christian population of about three 
 thousand (exclusive of Greek Orthodox, and in 
 a well-to-do town), enough material is collected 
 to furnish occupation to so many societies, and 
 the means of spending so much money as is here 
 represented, is beyond the understanding of the 
 mere layman ! 
 
 Darkness fell suddenly, and in the narrow, un- 
 lighted streets we — to our own self-contempt at 
 so unusual a circumstance — lost our way, got 
 mixed with a long train of camels which, whether 
 standing or sitting, barricaded our steps in all 
 directions, and were finally rescued by a lad 
 speaking very good French, who lifted the Lady
 
 264 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 bodily over pack-saddles and humps of camels, 
 drove her under arches formed by the front and 
 hind legs of camels, held aside for her the in- 
 vestigating muzzles of camels, defended her from 
 the hind legs of camels, and finally, to her great 
 surprise, delivered her safe at the convent door, 
 and disappeared into the dark. 
 
 Next day we visited all the traditional sites, 
 known by description to all the world. The 
 great Church of the Annunciation, rich with 
 costly gifts of marbles, and silver, and pictures, 
 on the site of that built by Constantine, is the 
 parish church of the Franciscans. The present 
 building is not older than the beginning of the 
 eighteenth century ; its immediate predecessor 
 having been burnt and pillaged by the Bedu 
 from beyond the Jordan. A very simple chapel 
 covers a part of the foundations, still visible, of 
 a crusading church, on ground bought by the 
 Franciscans a hundred and fifty years ago, and 
 which they hope some day to restore. The 
 time-worn arches, the fragments of masonry 
 standing silent and solitary in a walled garden, 
 among well-ordered flower-beds — the tradition 
 that this was the site of the workshop of Joseph, 
 the village carpenter, impressed us more than 
 all the wealth, the multiplied legends of the
 
 NAZARETH AND TABOR 265 
 
 handsome Church of the Annunciation.^ The 
 Franciscans have also a chapel covering the 
 rock said to be the scene of one of the occasions 
 when our Lord, after His resurrection, was 
 known in the breaking of bread. The Greek 
 Catholics are in possession of the church which 
 is associated with the synagogue in which Jesus 
 is said to have preached, and from which He 
 was cast out ; the Greek Orthodox of a chapel 
 which covers one of the springs of the village 
 well. Here, as in many other places where 
 only one well exists, we may feel certain of at 
 least one scene of many sacred associations. 
 
 Later in the day the Lady and the Doctor rode 
 up to the top of one of the many hills, which 
 stand out like islands or peninsulas in the plain, 
 and from which, but a mile or two beyond the 
 village, one has a view which is an epitome of 
 Old and New Testament history. It is said that 
 one may see thirty miles in three directions : 
 east to the valley of the Jordan and the hills 
 of Gilead beyond, west to the Mediterranean, 
 and in the nearer foreground one may look 
 
 ^ "English readers may be interested to know that it was by the 
 intercession of the Bishop of SaHsbury that Salah ed-din in 1192 
 permitted the restoration of divine worship in this church. The 
 bishop himself selected the priests and deacons for this office. 
 — MiCHAUD, "Croisades" II. p. 724.
 
 266 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 upon the battlefields of Esdraelon, on Carmel 
 and Tabor, on the scenes of the history of 
 Elijah, Barak, Gideon, of the death of Saul, 
 of the struggles of the Maccabees, of the life 
 of Jesus of Nazareth. 
 
 Here, once more, one cannot fail to be struck 
 by the falsity of conventional teaching. No 
 meditation on the boyhood of Jesus is com- 
 plete without its paragraph as to the ob- 
 scurity of His home, the remoteness of this 
 Galilean village, its aloofness from the life and 
 history of the times. The very phrase " Can 
 any good thing come out of Nazareth ? " is taken 
 in support of its insignificance, instead of evi- 
 dence of the well-known character for turbulence 
 of its inhabitants — a character said, by those in 
 political authority, to be still prominent to-day. 
 
 Apart, however, from the stimulus of its 
 surrounding scenery it is obvious to the most 
 elementary student that Nazareth was very 
 little removed from the most crowded highway, 
 from the centre of the busiest life of Palestine ; 
 that — to speak it with reverence — an intelligent 
 boy, wandering about the neighbourhood as boys 
 will, would bring in every day news of all the 
 activities, the competitions, the commerce, the 
 politics of the times. Midianite caravans mak-
 
 NAZARETH AND TABOR 267 
 
 ing their way to the fords of the Jordan would 
 tell of all the wealth and learning of Egypt, and 
 reflect somewhat of its contact with Europe ; 
 Damascus caravans coming south or returning 
 home from trading expeditions ; pilgrims going 
 up to Jerusalem to the feasts, and bringing 
 back news of the capital, the rendezvous of all 
 Jewry ; lords and princes with their retinues 
 travelling from the Greek cities of the 
 Decapolis to the Greek city of Tiberias, but a 
 few hours distant ; Roman legions marching 
 south ; luxurious ladies going down to winter 
 among the palm gardens of Jericho ; learned men 
 travelling from one city to another ; peripatetic 
 teachers as the fashion was ; Herod and his 
 Court removing from Tiberias to Sebaste, to 
 Jericho, to Jerusalem — all such spectacles would 
 be of daily occurrence, a part of that human 
 training which made the Master, perfect Man ; 
 which taught Him sympathy not only with 
 those who frequented the carpenter's workshop 
 and the fisherman's hut, but with a learning, a 
 civilisation, a life, which brings Him nearer to 
 us and to our own temptations and interests 
 than some would have us think ; which made it 
 necessary that His teachings should be repre- 
 sented not only by the Synoptic gospels but
 
 268 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 by the author of the fourth gospel, by the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, by the philosophy of 
 St Paul. 
 
 Looking down from our elevation at a scene 
 which showed the ploughman with his yoke, 
 the sower with his basket, the busy little town, 
 the many schools, hospitals, orphanages ; the 
 hospitalities of the Franciscans and the Russians, 
 frequented, later in the year, by persons of every 
 class and nationality ; the buildings in progress, 
 the vehicles and laden beasts travelling sea- 
 wards to Haifa, in touch with all the commerce 
 of the age, we turned for one moment to the 
 convent of Poor Clares at our feet, with the 
 passing thought that asceticism, inactivity, con- 
 templation such as this, was an anomaly com- 
 pared not only with our own life but with that 
 of Him whom they would serve. 
 
 The Artist's horse required an off day or two, 
 and the roads were in such good condition that 
 it was arranged that the Artist should follow in 
 a carriage, as the rest of the party had a long 
 day in prospect. The Church of the Annuncia- 
 tion had been crowded every evening with 
 village people, singing special litanies, and pray- 
 ing for rain. " I thought of your long ride, and 
 prayed with mixed feelings," said a kindly
 
 NAZARETH AND TABOR 269 
 
 Father ; " but the majority are against you, and 
 you had better make the most of the time. I 
 saw ' as it were a man's hand ' over Carmel ! " 
 
 Accordingly we set off at twilight next morn- 
 ing, and saw the sun rise over the hills of 
 Galilee. The little town had not yet awakened 
 to life, and not a sinole woman waited with 
 her pitcher at the well which yesterday had 
 been a scene of so much activity. We had 
 planned to visit the Austrian hospital, where so 
 much science and surgical skill are devoted to 
 the poor by the Brothers of St John the Divine, 
 but the early start and a change in our route 
 made this impossible. The country hereabouts 
 is not in itself interesting, except for the beauty 
 of colourinor which is never wanting; in Palestine, 
 and for the associations of which we were every- 
 where reminded. We looked back at the Mount 
 of Precipitation, with its sheer precipice of looo 
 feet, at the range of Carmel, at Tabor and 
 Hermon, at the wide plain to the south and the 
 rising ground beyond, where, in Nain and Endor 
 and Shunem, men and women were still perplexed 
 by the mysteries of life and death. 
 
 Khalil chose to conduct us off the highroad, 
 which seemed to us better adapted to the im- 
 perfect light, and over some very rough ground
 
 270 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 through the village of Gath-Hepher, birthplace 
 of Jonah, and where, as may be gathered from 
 the presence of his tomb, he was also buried. 
 He was, additionally, buried near Jaffa, and 
 somewhere in the direction of Hebron — circum- 
 stances of a nature not unusual in the case of 
 saints and heroes popular among the faithful of 
 more than one confession. This, we gathered, 
 was his Moslem burial-place. 
 
 About twenty minutes later we reached the 
 spring of Kefr Kenna, probably the Cana of 
 the New Testament, and, if so, the source of the 
 water that was made wine. The women, some- 
 what wild-looking and unkempt at this early 
 hour, were filling their jars from the sarcophagus 
 into which the water runs ; but they offered no 
 discourtesy, and made no demands for backsheesh. 
 It was barely seven o'clock when we rode into 
 the courtyard of the little Latin church built 
 over the alleged site of the first miracle of Jesus. 
 The Franciscans in charge of the mission were 
 in church, we were told, and we made our 
 way in, and found the father (with the single at- 
 tendant brother) saying his office by the light 
 of a solitary candle. When he had finished he 
 hastened to place himself at our disposal, showed 
 us the church, and afterwards invited us to take
 
 NAZARETH AND TABOR 271 
 
 refreshment. The church is a Httle gem, both 
 as to architecture and decoration. It is seldom 
 one can honestly admire a modern church in 
 this country, as, however good the building may 
 be, it is generally hideously disfigured by the offer- 
 ings of the faithful. However, at Cana there 
 are no nuns to make crochet and paper flowers, 
 no opportunities for grateful Arabs to testify 
 piety by Christmas-tree balls. All is of rich sim- 
 plicity, and the Pere Cur6 is too good an archae- 
 ologist to allow of the usual glaring anomalies. 
 The church, built in 1880, stands on the site of 
 an older one, visible below the present flooring 
 at various points where trap-doors are open to 
 exhibit, here an inscription in mosiac, there a 
 fragment of wall or of carving ; but it may be 
 doubted whether these belong to the church 
 built by Helena and described by Paula in the 
 fourth, Antoninus Martyr in the sixth, and 
 Willibald in the seventh century ; and visited, 
 according to Michaud, by St Louis, in May 1251, 
 with his wife, Margaret of Provence. A large 
 earthenware jar is shown in the church, of antique 
 desien and of local manufacture, in illustration of 
 those in use in the time of our Lord. The 
 amount of wine that six such water-pots would 
 contain was, indeed, a princely wedding-gift.
 
 272 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 In the simple little presbytery, at right angles 
 with the church, curiously reminiscent of many an 
 one in the Highlands of Scotland, we tasted the 
 wine of Cana of Galilee, the red wine of the dis- 
 trict, pure and refreshing, with the cordial quality 
 of Burgundy rather than the acidity of claret. 
 
 A little Franciscan oratory, built upon the 
 foundations of an ancient chapel, which, in its 
 turn, became a mosque, marks the traditional site 
 of the house of Nathaniel. The adjoining ground 
 now serves as a cemetery. We retraced oar steps 
 to the entrance of the village, and returned once 
 more to the Great Plain, where, as we passed by 
 the village of Nahallal, the conviction was forced 
 upon us that the praying agriculturists were 
 about to meet with the fulfilment of their hopes. 
 We had talked of the great black clouds which 
 had been gathering ever since our departure as 
 "fine atmospheric effects," and had refused to 
 listen to the kindly warnings of our good friends 
 at Cana, but we looked with some dismay at 
 the wide, shelterless valley we must cross before 
 reaching the foot of Mount Tabor, where pro- 
 tection among the trees might be hoped for. 
 Fortunately, there was no wind, so the horses 
 made no objection to the rain, although the 
 abrupt, rocky descent into the valley was very
 
 NAZARETH AND TABOR 273 
 
 slippery. The climb beyond we made on foot, 
 partly out of regard for our horses and partly 
 for the pleasure of delaying at will to enjoy 
 the views and examine the flora. 
 
 The flowers and shrubs were very interesting, 
 but less varied than on Carmel ; and the clouds 
 somewhat obscured the view until we reached 
 the top, when a grand panorama burst upon us. 
 It was a steep climb, for the mountain is two 
 thousand and eighteen feet, and the plain can be 
 very little above sea-level. However, the road 
 is good, and we were rewarded by the discovery 
 of a dolmen, of which we have not been able to 
 find any record, the more interesting in that they 
 are exceedingly rare west of the Jordan. Frag- 
 ments of walls and heaps of stones, at various 
 levels, show traces of earlier habitation ; and, 
 indeed, it has been lately maintained that, at the 
 time of our Lord, the mountain was too thickly 
 populated for such a scene as the Transfiguration 
 to be at all possible. The evidence on this point 
 is very conflicting, and the authorities at variance 
 have been carefully discussed by P. Barnabe d'Al- 
 sace, who, unlike many critics of Holy Land sites, 
 is familiar with the locality under consideration. i 
 
 1 5^<? " Le Mont Thabor : Notices Historiques et Descriptives," 
 Paris, igcx).
 
 274 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 Lightfoot was the first to express, in 1675, doubt 
 on the subject, mainly on the ground that a friend 
 of his who had dimbed the mountain said that it 
 did not tally with the description of Josephus. 
 Granted, for the sake of argument, that the 
 village of the time of Josephus was equally large 
 in the time of our Lord, the existence of an 
 ancient cemetery sets a limit to its eastern exten- 
 sion, as a burial ground could never have been 
 included within a Jewish city. The distance 
 from the cemetery to the edge of the plateau 
 exceeds the distance from the walls of Jerusalem 
 to the Garden of Gethsemane, and the solitude 
 of the Agony has never been called in question. 
 
 When we reached the top of the mountain 
 we found ourselves facing a substantial gateway, 
 worthy of the entrance to a park, and with a good 
 carriage drive beyond. Arguing, from force of 
 habit, that a desired end is never approached in 
 this country by a straightforward path, and being 
 wet, hungry, and tired, we reflected that to climb 
 two or three walls, drop into a kitchen garden, and 
 then across a long, ploughed field with no visible 
 means of exit, was the most likely method to 
 bring us quickly within reach of food and shelter. 
 Accordingly we arrived, in time, at a group of 
 buildings, defended by a number of indignant
 
 NAZARETH AND TABOR 275 
 
 dogs, from whom we were happily separated by a 
 locked gate. Their remonstrances brought forth 
 assistance, and we were finally rescued by a 
 Greek monk, who welcomed us kindly, although 
 to the wrong convent. The Doctor made a rush 
 at some Arabic inscriptions leaning against the 
 west wall of the church ; and, of course, we paid 
 a visit to the church itself, within which some 
 remains of an ancient building are preserved, 
 consisting of two apses and part of a mosaic pave- 
 ment, possibly belonging to the Church of St 
 Elias, and probably of the fourth or fifth century. 
 A little boy led us finally into the right path, and 
 in a few minutes we were within the kindly hospice 
 of the Franciscans, and, but little later, in the pres- 
 ence of a breakfast which we felt we had, for 
 once, earned in the sweat of our brow. A German 
 father and a Dutch brother supplied all our needs, 
 and refreshed us, moreover, with much pleasant 
 talk, reminding us that our climb had been 
 accomplished by the Empress Helena " in her 
 eighties." 
 
 The plateau is covered with ruined churches 
 and convents, as the mountain has been held 
 sacred from a very early period — the earliest 
 known mention of it as the site of the Transfigu- 
 ration being in the Apocryphal gospel according
 
 276 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 to the Hebrews, the exact date of which is not 
 established more precisely than that it was known 
 to St Ignatius, who died in 107. The moun- 
 tain is mentioned by Origen and St Jerome, and 
 was visited by several early pilgrims — Paula, 
 Antoninus Martyr, our English Willibald, and 
 others. The earliest convent was established by 
 the Benedictines in 1 100 ; but as early as the sixth 
 century the three tabernacles, desired by St Peter, 
 were already built. 
 
 The Franciscan buildings, which are very 
 simple, date only from 1873, when the Friars 
 Minor first obtained a footing on the mountain, 
 the Greeks (Orthodox) having preceded them by 
 five or six years. 
 
 Climbing on to a platform of masonry, at the 
 western end of the plateau, we were much en- 
 couraged, on looking N.-E. towards Tiberias in 
 the direction in which we were going, to observe 
 a blue sky, and the hoary head of Hermon gleam- 
 ing bright in clear sunshine. 
 
 It was a hint to depart, and we hastened, 
 despite intermittent "April showers," to begin 
 our descent, which, to our regret, had to be made 
 by the same path by which we had ascended. 
 We had hoped to have enjoyed the variety of 
 examining the northern or eastern slope.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE SEA OF GALILEE 
 
 " We go to the Sea of Galilee . . . and although they call it a sea, 
 it is neither a sea nor arm of the sea ; for it is but a stank of fresh 
 water . . . and it hath in it great plenty of good fish, and the River 
 Jordan runs through it." — Sir John Maundeville, 1322 
 
 TT was a glorious ride from Tabor to Tiberias. 
 The rain clouds hastened westward, and, as 
 we heard later, gratified the thirsty souls at 
 Nazareth, and left us to a thorough enjoyment 
 of our day. We were delighted to find our- 
 selves off the beaten track, for the carriage road 
 to Tiberias was considerably to our north. We 
 had been told, to our satisfaction, that the alterna- 
 tive road by way of Tabor, as it lay a little low, 
 did not give us such frequent glimpses of parts 
 of the lake, but that we should come upon the 
 glorious prospect all at once, and the expecta- 
 tion kept us constantly on the watch. Our road 
 lay for the most part through well-cultivated 
 country, belonging partly to the Bedu and 
 partly to the Circassians, and the wide fields, in 
 
 which the corn was springing, were a delightful 
 277
 
 278 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 and refreshing sight. We pictured what it would 
 be later in the year to ride, as we were assured 
 we might, through vegetation up to the saddle 
 — barley, maize, sesame, doura, with yellow 
 marguerite and blue eryngo, and campanulas 
 of every shade, raising proud heads above the 
 golden wealth. We were, however, quite con- 
 tent with the garden which had been prepared 
 for us — such an one would be, indeed, difficult to 
 find anywhere else, in such combination, and in 
 the first week of January. Perhaps one great 
 charm of it all was that it was just such a day, 
 and such a spectacle, as one might enjoy, three 
 months later in parks and gardens at home — only 
 glorified as to colour, size, and fragrance, and that 
 here all the flowers were the wild children of 
 Mother Nature. Capers, fennel, asparagus, and 
 scores of balsamic herbs, in which the bees were 
 gaily humming, took us, in thought, into the 
 kitchen gardens of home, now lying under a 
 white coverlet in winter sleep. Here all was 
 so warm in the sunshine that lizards, and even 
 chameleons and tortoises, had wakened up to 
 greet the glad new year. 
 
 We passed the immense ruins of a fine khan 
 of fifteenth-century workmanship, and those of 
 an Arab castle on a height beyond, both now
 
 THE SEA OF GALILEE 279 
 
 serving only as refuge to the flocks of the Bedu, 
 who, on account of the presence of an excellent 
 spring, seek shelter about its walls. Circassian 
 and Bedawy cultivation we had seen, wide tracts 
 in possession of the Jews were pointed out to 
 us at a distance, and at Kafr Sabt we found 
 a village of peasantry from Algeria. Somewhat 
 to the north, the twin peaks of Karn Hattin 
 looked down upon this aggregation of race and 
 creed — the scene, according to a tradition (not, 
 however, older than the sixteenth century), of 
 the Sermon on the Mount. The same mountain 
 has another association, that of the battle in July 
 1 187, in which Salah ed-din totally defeated the 
 Franks, and gave the death-blow to their power 
 in Palestine. King Guy de Lusignan was taken 
 prisoner, the knights were sold as slaves, the 
 Templars and Hospitallers executed, on the very 
 site where, perhaps, the Master, looking down 
 the avenue of centuries, had said : " Blessed are 
 the merciful, the peacemakers, the pure in heart." 
 Whether the blessings were any more applic- 
 able to the Christian Crusader than to the 
 Moslem conqueror is a point upon which the 
 testimony of history leaves one somewhat in 
 doubt. 
 
 At the bottom of the valley, into which we soon
 
 280 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 descended, followed close by a family party of 
 Jews, who seemed glad of the protection of our 
 presence, we found ourselves upon a wide, fertile 
 plain bounded by a water-course ; — that we noted 
 the water-courses is a sign that we have been 
 living in arid Judaea ; — and then we rose once 
 more, and for the last time, reaching the plateau 
 of Ard el Hamma, when the promised view 
 burst upon us. Our Jews were actually alarmed 
 by our simultaneous shout of delight : Khalil 
 only smiled sardonically, quite inured to the 
 unaccountable pleasure which the Frenjys ex- 
 hibited over what not even an Armenian or a 
 Government official could turn into so much as 
 a bishlik (value 6d.). 
 
 The Sea of Tiberias is about thirteen miles 
 long by five to eight wide ; its proportions much 
 those of Windermere ; its form an irreofular oval ; 
 indeed, it is said that its ancient name of Kinnerot 
 is derived from Kinnor, a lute, in allusion to its 
 shape. It lies 68 1 feet below the Mediterranean, 
 so that it has an almost subtropical, and very 
 abundant, vegetation. The steep hills are of 
 moderate height ; but great Hermon, looking 
 over their shoulders at the northern end, dwarfs 
 all else into insignificance. There is, for the 
 most part, but a ribbon of coast, green with
 
 THE SEA OF GALILEE 281 
 
 herbage and trees, and bordered with glistening 
 sand and shells. It is like a bonnie Highland 
 loch, not wooded like Loch Lomond, nor, on 
 the other hand, bare like Coruisk, but smiling, 
 peaceful, inviting to repose. The very sight of 
 such a quantity of water was refreshing to us, 
 coming, as we did, from a city where it is often 
 cheaper to drink a bottle, or even two, of wine, 
 than to take a bath. In little villages dotted 
 along the shore we could fancy that we might 
 hear the kindly Gaelic instead of the Arabic, 
 which has, however, many similar sounds ; the 
 laddie herding on yonder hill is playing an 
 instrument "own brother" to the chanters, and 
 snow-crowned Hermon dominates his world like 
 Cruachan or Schiehallion. The extreme southern 
 end is hidden from us, and we must advance to 
 the very edge of the cliff to see Tiberias 
 lying at our feet — a long line of houses, 
 varied by palms and minarets. At this dis- 
 tance, and before bettering our acquaintance 
 with details, it is not difficult to reconstruct in 
 imagination the city which must have been, in 
 the time of Jesus, one of the many glories of 
 Galilee. To realise the sheen and consistency 
 of its beauty we have to remember that the 
 whole had been newly built by Herod upon a
 
 282 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 long-deserted site ; that palace and race-course 
 and citadel and forum, a great synagogue for 
 the Jews (who refused, however, to enter the 
 city), a wall three miles long, were all new, and 
 all part of an artistic plan. We must remember 
 that this was only one of nine cities, all more 
 or less Greek in architecture and customs, said 
 to have contained each, at least, fifteen thousand 
 inhabitants — an almost unbroken chain around 
 the lake, now so solitary that one's eye finds 
 with difficulty traces of humanity otherwhere 
 than in and about Tiberias, now a squalid town- 
 let of four thousand inhabitants. As Sebaste 
 was called after Augustus, so the name of 
 Tiberius was given to this city — perhaps the 
 old Rakkath. When the foundations were laid, 
 quantities of human bones were laid bare, and 
 the Jews refused to dwell in a city ceremonially 
 unclean, so that Herod was driven to populate 
 his new possession with the scum of the 
 country. To judge from our later acquaintance 
 with the manners and customs of the inhabi- 
 tants their descendants are still in possession, 
 reinforced by a still larger number of Jews, of 
 whom, indeed, two-thirds of the population now 
 consists. Rich gardens once existed where now 
 are only swamps, beautiful to the eye, but breath-
 
 THE SEA OF GALILEE 283 
 
 ing out malarial fever ; and fleets of sails met 
 the eyes of Jesus and His fishermen friends 
 where now we can discover but two little 
 rowing-boats, Khalil pointed out the spot 
 where, as he said, Jesus had made forty loaves 
 of bread, and was much hurt that we did not 
 take a note of the story, as we had done of 
 other traditions. The story was true, he affirmed, 
 and the company had eaten them with their fish. 
 
 Our horses were in good mood to-day, and we 
 made them descend the steep hillside above 
 Tiberias, by which we not only cut short the 
 tortuous windings of the road but obtained a 
 quick series of points of view, which furnished a 
 panorama wonderful in colour and outline. The 
 approach has still a certain grandeur. The wall 
 and gateway, probably entirely ineffective as such, 
 are picturesque in their decay. They are, indeed, 
 of no great age, and may even belong only to 
 the eighteenth-century restoration, when the town 
 was refortified, to be again destroyed by an earth- 
 quake in 1837. We passed some modern Euro- 
 pean buildings, including a small but inviting 
 little German hotel, and the hospital and manse 
 of the mission of the Free Church of Scotland, 
 and, still descending, paused before the gate of 
 the Franciscan hospice. The rain which we
 
 284 TN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 had seen ahead of us in the morning had fallen 
 in Tiberias, and the streets were simply ditches 
 of dirty water, with occasional islands, upon one 
 of which we descended, and then, with a spring, 
 found ourselves in the orderly courtyard. 
 
 A hearty welcome awaited us from the Brother 
 in charge, an old friend, formerly gardener in the 
 Garden of Gethsemane, and still practising his 
 art, as the neat flower - beds and well - trained 
 creepers testified. 
 
 The Arabs say that the king of fleas lives at 
 Tiberias ; if so, he holds his court elsewhere than 
 at the hospices — here and at Et Tabigha, where 
 next day we were kindly and comfortably enter- 
 tained. After dinner we climbed to the roof, and 
 had a glorious view of the lake, and of Mount 
 Hermon, and of the tall palms waving in the 
 moonlight. An epidemic of cholera in 1903 pro- 
 duced a fearful mortality, amounting, it is said, to 
 one-fourth of the population, and of these over 
 three-fourths were Jews, probably owing to the 
 extreme filth of their surrounding^s. 
 
 Next morning we set off, after an early break- 
 fast, to ride up to the north end of the lake. Our 
 farther journey, to Besan, would take us south- 
 ward, and we were warned not to attempt the 
 eastern shore without an escort, as the Bedu there
 
 THE SEA OF GALILEE 285 
 
 are very wild. We passed the neat hospital and 
 manse, covered with a crimson flame of bougain- 
 vilea, and shaded by pleasant trees, with gardens 
 sloping down to the water, and in a few minutes 
 were out of sight of the town, with only the blue 
 lake, with its green margin and surrounding hills, 
 to feast our eyes upon. Ruins, wells with stone 
 enclosures, rock tombs — all speak of a past popula- 
 tion. The first sign of present habitation was 
 a miserable village, said to be Magdala. Even 
 here some massive fragments of wall testify to 
 earlier prosperity. Here the shore widens out 
 into the plain of Gennesaret, bounded towards 
 the south-east by a rugged hill, in which are many 
 large caves, formerly the stronghold of robbers, 
 which were fortified without, and adapted for 
 residence by long connecting galleries, and by 
 cisterns, which collected water for the occupants. 
 These bandits gave much trouble to Herod the 
 Great, as they were practically unassailable, the 
 only access to their homes being in the face of 
 a rock eleven hundred feet high. They were 
 finally reached by means of lowering soldiers 
 from the top in cages, and were ultimately over- 
 powered. At a later date these fortified caverns 
 were utilised by Josephus in his struggle with the 
 Romans, and still later they served as hermitages.
 
 286 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 According to some authorities, Tarichese is to 
 be identified with Magdala, though others place 
 it farther south. Its associations are historical 
 and commercial, not religious. The name signi- 
 fies " pickling-place " ; and the salt fish of Galilee 
 were known throughout the Roman Empire — 
 large quantities were taken up to Jerusalem at 
 feast-times, and barrels exported to the shores of 
 the Mediterranean. The grreat drautjhts of fish 
 such as we read of in the gospels must have 
 been brought to Taricheae for preservation, other- 
 wise they would have been wasted in this sub- 
 tropical climate. 
 
 A little past Mejdel our road led us down to the 
 very edge of the lake, where we were tempted to 
 dismount to gather shells, which are very beautiful 
 and varied. The shore is fringed all the way with 
 oleander-bushes, "the blossoms red and bright" 
 of Keble's poem — one of those touches of realism 
 in his verses which are the more remarkable that 
 he was never in Palestine. Khalil thougflit our 
 occupation very childish, and never could under- 
 stand why we should want to walk when we were 
 paying for horses to ride upon. Before long we 
 were forced to mount again by the necessity of 
 having to cross several streams making their way 
 down to the lake. The path gradually ascended
 
 THE SEA OF GALILEE 287 
 
 till we found ourselves following an aqueduct 
 along a very narrow ridge at some height above 
 the water, just after passing the ruins of the large 
 Khan Minyeh, to which it had served to conduct 
 water in the days of Salah ed-din. We had 
 forcible illustration of the sudden storms for which 
 this lake has been always known, for just as we 
 were carefully picking our way along our precarious 
 path a sudden squall arose, and in a moment the 
 wind was whistling about us, rain was dashing in 
 our faces, and the lake was beating angrily upon 
 the shore. There was an instant's question of 
 sheltering among the fig-trees below or of going 
 back ; but we would not give in, and after some 
 twenty minutes of discomfort, we came suddenly 
 upon a little group of buildings, obviously Euro- 
 pean. The Doctor dismounted to beg shelter, 
 and in a very few minutes we found ourselves 
 within the hospitable walls of the hospice of the 
 German Catholic Palaestina Verein. This was a 
 welcome surprise ; we had heard of this mission 
 and its hospitalities, but had not realised that we 
 were already at Ain et Tabigha (possibly Beth- 
 saida). and actually under the roof of the well- 
 known Father Biever, of whom we had heard 
 so much at Madaba. 
 
 The house was in course of structural altera-
 
 288 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 tion, a good deal of furniture encumbered the 
 wide piazza, workmen were sheltering from the 
 rain, the Father himself was absent, but none of 
 these difficulties subtracted from the cordiality 
 of our welcome. Our horses were stabled, and 
 we, laying aside our wraps, prepared to stay to 
 luncheon. It was an ideal spot : the house built 
 upon a narrow terrace, the bank laid out in 
 gardens sloping down to the water's edge, the 
 arcade covered with roses, among which the 
 Mardchal Niel was conspicuous ; abundance of 
 flowers of various kinds, and a friendly family 
 of cats, dogs, ducks of the handsome Aleppo 
 breed, and some fine poultry and pigeons, added 
 to the attractions. 
 
 Our vice-host. Father Biever's companion and 
 assistant priest, made us soon feel at home, and 
 we were not difficult to persuade that the rain was 
 far too persistent to make our return possible, 
 and that we had better take up our quarters 
 in the hospice till the morrow. Khalil was de- 
 spatched back to Tiberias to relieve the anxieties 
 of the Artist, and we settled down, very thankful 
 to be out of the storm. 
 
 We were greatly interested in our passing 
 glimpse of a life which seemed to us to have 
 something of the practical usefulness, the self-
 
 THE SEA OF GALILEE 289 
 
 renunciation, of real mission work. Here were 
 two highly-cultivated men deliberately and per- 
 manently establishing themselves in a spot where, 
 for three hours' north and but little less south, 
 they had no single neighbour except the Bedu, 
 and one solitary Franciscan, whose acquaintance 
 we were to make next day. Their own im- 
 mediate household includes some four or five 
 Arabs who serve the hospice, and assist in the 
 labour of the well-kept fields and gardens, by 
 which the house is largely supported, and lessons 
 of practical utility taught to the surrounding 
 natives. One of these was pointed out to us 
 as the best fisherman on the lake, and we asked 
 him to explain the use of the nets, which were 
 lying under the wall of the house. He proceeded 
 to collect one, which seemed to be circular, per- 
 haps twenty feet in diameter, into large folds 
 with his left hand. The mesh was fine, and the 
 net, in spite of its size, easily grasped. Trans- 
 ferring it to his right hand, with a quick move- 
 ment he threw the net from him, when it ex- 
 panded into a large circle, so that one easily 
 understood how the casting of such a net might 
 include "a multitude of fishes." 
 
 Tristram says : " The lake swarms with fish as 
 I could not have believed water could swarm " ;
 
 290 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 but though fourteen species are reckoned as 
 inhabiting the lake only four or five are ordinarily 
 on the market. There are some, however, of 
 exceptional interest, not only to the learned in 
 such matters, but also to the merely observant 
 like ourselves. 
 
 These include two species found nowhere else 
 outside of the tropics — one the ckromis simonis, 
 of which one species, the chromis paterfamilias, 
 for several weeks carries the eggs and the young, 
 to the number, it is said, of two hundred, in his 
 mouth ; the other, the clarias tnacr acanthus, 
 which emits a sound : it was known to Josephus 
 as the coracinus. Several varieties of the capodta 
 Damasc^na, the luminous fish, are also found 
 here. 
 
 There was so much to hear of interest that 
 we were almost thankful to the rain for keeping 
 us indoors. These solitary priests have adapted 
 themselves to their environment in a manner 
 which, were it more customary among religious 
 teachers, would be of infinite value not only to 
 religion but to science. One cannot think without 
 regret of the wealth of information lost to the 
 archaeologist, anthropologist, philologist by the 
 neglect of those who might secure unrivalled 
 opportunities of intercourse with the people, but
 
 THE SEA OF GALILEE 291 
 
 many of whom after years in this country, leave 
 it as ignorant as when they came, of all that lies 
 beneath the surface. Our friends here, though 
 able to converse in, at least, three or four Euro- 
 pean languages, use Arabic as their vernacular, 
 speaking it even between themselves, the better 
 to enter into the life of the people ; they are good 
 horsemen and good shots, two qualifications ab- 
 solutely necessary for friendship with the Bedu.^ 
 They possess, in addition to the animals necessary 
 to the hospice, a beautiful Arab mare, the gift 
 of one of the Madaba flock, and a very fine 
 specimen of the Arab deerhound, not unlike an 
 
 ^ As an illustration of the esteem in which these acquirements 
 are held we were told elsewhere the following incident : — A 
 Franciscan friar, accustomed to ride between the widely-scattered 
 convents of the order, was, on one occasion, traversing the desert 
 on a very powerful young horse not yet properly disciplined. The 
 party met with some Bedu belonging to a rich and powerful tribe, 
 the shech of which was present. The young horse, possibly taking 
 fright, or excited by the presence of the Arab mares always ridden 
 by the Bedu, became violent, and tore off across the sands. The 
 Franciscan, a very small man, and hampered by his habit, never- 
 theless retained his self-possession and his seat, and, in course of 
 time, brought the animal back to obedience. The shech watched 
 every manoeuvre with the deepest interest, and when the priest 
 returned to the party congratulated him very cordially, and offered 
 him his daughter in marriage. It was explained that he was a 
 priest. "I don't mind that," said the shech ; "he is just the son- 
 in-law for me." But the priest was poor. " No matter, he shall 
 have her without payment of so much as a single camel. I have 
 two daughters ; he shall choose between them : he shall be to me 
 as a son." History goes no further.
 
 292 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 Irish deerhound in appearance, but swift as the 
 gazelle which it hunts, and so exquisitely light 
 of limb, without the hideous attenuation of the 
 English greyhound, that such a dog is almost 
 invariably known as "Rischan " (feather), feminine, 
 " Rischi." Father Biever was originally an officer 
 in the German army ; hence, probably, his power 
 of organisation. He has also a natural capacity 
 for architecture, as is testified by the very large 
 and handsome Convent of St Pierre, perhaps the 
 most effective modern building in Jerusalem, of 
 which he was the architect and practical builder, 
 in addition, it is said, to his having collected a 
 part of the cost in America, where he had some 
 experience of life among the cowboys. He made 
 a very large collection of the flowers of the 
 country, which, unfortunately, was lost with the 
 vessel in which it was sent to Europe. It is to 
 be earnestly hoped that his unique collection of 
 the folklore of the Bedu and fellahin may be 
 criven to literature. 
 
 We were fortunate in happening to be present 
 at an interesting little social ceremony. Our 
 visit fell on Epiphany, and all the neighbours, 
 Bedu and Druse, came in the eveninof to celebrate 
 the visit of the Three Kings. The long hall 
 was simply furnished with a table, moved aside
 
 THE SEA OF GALILEE 293 
 
 for the occasion, and a divan running round the 
 walls. It was brightly lighted, and the household 
 servants presided over the refreshments, which 
 consisted of tea and some confectionery, specially 
 made for the occasion, of very rich and sweet 
 pastry, some of it in the form of puffs containing 
 honey, and the rest in narrow rolls, which are 
 known as "the fingers of Mary." 
 
 The company arrived all together, men and 
 boys (the women, of course, being left at home), 
 all dressed alike in the long robe, shawl, girdle, 
 white keffeeye, kept in place on the head by a 
 double rope of goats' hair, and camels' hair 
 mantle, which many removed. Some came 
 barefoot, others removed their shoes on entering, 
 and all sat cross-legged on the divan. The 
 household servants were Arab peasants (fellahin), 
 and regarded by the others as of a lower class — 
 tillers, rather than owners, of the soil. They 
 were differentiated by wearing turbans, made of 
 large, coloured handkerchiefs twisted round the 
 red tarbush, which is of different shape and 
 manufacture from those worn in the towns. 
 Two Arab women and the Lady were the sole 
 representatives of their sex. The guests were 
 perfectly self-possessed, with none of the mauvaise 
 honte of such a gathering at home. They were
 
 294 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 perfectly easy to entertain, and ready to converse 
 upon any subject, although, we were assured, 
 less Interesting than the natives east of the 
 Jordan. The Bedu smoked when invited — the 
 Druses add the prohibition of tobacco to the 
 Moslem prohibition of wine. 
 
 When tea was handed round, the fun of the 
 evening began. Two of the cakes contained 
 each a bean, and those who found themselves 
 possessors of the beans were king and queen 
 for the evening ; obviously a variant of an 
 original three beans and three kings. The queen 
 was a young Druse, tall and slim, with good 
 features, and long, narrow eyes, which gave him 
 an expression of sleepy good nature ; the king- 
 was a much quicker-witted fellah, thick-set, with 
 a certain piquant ugliness, and bearing the name 
 of Dieb, which, in Arabic, means "wolf," and 
 which, whether in Arabic or in German, was, 
 we were told, equally appropriate. 
 
 In true Oriental fashion, the king issued 
 commands through his wife, and required services 
 of various kinds from the assembled company, 
 who cheerfully complied, filled his drinking-bowl 
 with tea or water as he might desire, fetched 
 his tobacco, sang to him, and danced for him. 
 The climax was reached when two of the men
 
 THE SEA OF GALILEE 295 
 
 were required to serve the queen for a horse, 
 and the tall Druse had to proceed up the room 
 leaning on the shoulders of the two. The 
 Oriental is a born mime, and the ridiculous 
 situation was carried off with a savoir /aire 
 which only an entire lack of self-consciousness 
 could account for. No musical instrument was 
 at hand, but a little boy, of perhaps twelve, evi- 
 dently a known expert, produced an excellent 
 imitation of the shepherd's pipe by blowing into 
 his fingers. We were sorry to get none of the 
 characteristic singing, in which, as in the Hebrides, 
 a motif is announced by one, and taken up in 
 chorus by the rest ; but the guests came from 
 different villages, and, therefore, did not know 
 the same songs — a fact which speaks volumes 
 for the wealth of folk-songs — a wealth as yet 
 very imperfectly estimated. 
 
 Nothing could have been more orderly and 
 well mannered ; the only exception was one of 
 those which prove the rule. A boy, of perhaps 
 sixteen, probably from shyness, refused to sing, 
 upon which he was told to go. "You have had 
 your Kuchen " (it was quaint to hear the Arab 
 adoption of the word used among ourselves) ; " you 
 have had your tea; you will do nothing — go!" 
 And go he did, though we were pleased to see
 
 296 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 him slip in, half-an-hour later, by another door. 
 When the king- became impatient of his consort's 
 inertness he started to his feet, tore off his head- 
 dress, distorted his features, producing the most 
 entire change in his appearance, and performed 
 a whole drama in dumb show, which, even to 
 the uninitiated, was extremely comic, and which 
 produced shouts of laughter among the Arab 
 element of the party — the Druse and Bedu 
 dignity being less easily disturbed. 
 
 Arab entertainments are very long drawn out : 
 when we retired to our rooms, adjoining the 
 chapel, the party showed no intention of breaking 
 up. The long - desired rain was a source of 
 satisfaction, which added to the general placidity, 
 if not hilarity. 
 
 Next morning we awoke to a world of intense 
 green and blue, glistening with raindrops and 
 glad with the singing of birds, the bulbul among 
 the loudest, though it must be owned that, apart 
 from association, he is much overrated, being 
 vastly inferior to the nightingale or, to our ears, 
 the thrush or the blackbird. After an early 
 breakfast we remounted our horses, and, accom- 
 panied by our host, proceeded upon our inter- 
 rupted journey northward. 
 
 We noted the little landing-stage, one of those
 
 THE SEA OF GALILEE 297 
 
 reminiscences of the visit of the German Em- 
 peror to be found all over Palestine — sole repre- 
 sentative of the busy wharves and boat-builders' 
 yards of the time of our Lord, to which time 
 belong also the tanneries, potteries, and dyeing- 
 sheds, the remains of which are scattered around 
 Et Tabigha. Farther on we came upon hot 
 springs, and the, to us, novel sight of a hot 
 waterfall, with the remains of mills, aqueducts, 
 and, possibly, baths. 
 
 In about half-an-hour we were at Tell Hum, 
 which, although no systematic excavation has 
 yet been possible, is by many authorities assumed 
 to be identical with Capernaum, and which, 
 in this belief, was acquired in 1890 by the 
 Franciscans, who, however, dare not, for political 
 reasons, call attention for the present to the 
 elaborate ruins which exist not far beneath the 
 surface, and the workmanship of which appears 
 to be Roman. Meantime the soil is under culti- 
 vation for the use of the convent at Tiberias, 
 a solitary brother remaining there to direct the 
 labours of the Arabs. The low, swampy ground 
 is unwholesome for Europeans, and it is necessary 
 to replace the lonely Franciscan every few months. 
 The authenticity of the site has been much dis- 
 puted ; but the cautious Baedeker regards it as
 
 298 m A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 "as good as certain," largely on the authority 
 of the old itineraries of pilgrims. Whatever its 
 name, it was undoubtedly a sacred spot to the 
 early Christians. The remains include the 
 foundations of a building of unusual beauty, 
 constructed of immense blocks of white lime- 
 stone, so fine as to resemble marble, which 
 must have been 75 feet long by 54 wide. The 
 bases of columns and some very ornate Corinthian 
 capitals are still visible, and it is not impossible 
 that we may have here the synagogue built by 
 the centurion, of whom it was said : "He loveth 
 our nation ! " The ruins, probably of a Christian 
 church, which were seen here in 600 are not 
 far distant, and it is evident that a considerable 
 town once stood here — if not Capernaum then 
 some other — upon which Romans and Christians 
 have, in turn, expended wealth and interest. 
 
 On our way back to Tiberias, we listened to 
 many stories illustrating the psychology and beliefs 
 of the people ; of, among other things, the science 
 and superstitions in regard to the horse — traditions 
 which deserve to be preserved. In this country, 
 except where civilisation has introduced bearing- 
 reins, tail-docking, and other deformities, it is 
 assumed that Nature understood her own busi- 
 ness, and that, for example, the object of a tail
 
 THE SEA OF GALILEE 299 
 
 was for the relief of a horse when tormented by- 
 flies, for which purpose, as well as for beauty, 
 the longer and fuller it is the better. They judge 
 of a horse's age not only by the teeth but by the 
 tail, which takes some years to bring to perfection. 
 The first year it is kept bare, the second thinned, 
 after which it is allowed to grow. The Arabs 
 preserve the genealogies of all their horses, many 
 of them up to hundreds of generations, and their 
 classification is very elaborate. There was a 
 time when only one horse existed in the country, 
 and he was the property of Solomon, who, 
 however, seems to have been imperfect in horse- 
 manship, as he was, on a certain occasion, 
 thrown, for which offence against imperial dignity 
 the horse was condemned to death. He was 
 ridden down from Jerusalem to Jaffa, weighted 
 with stones, and sunk into the sea. As he was 
 in his death agony, five bubbles rose to the 
 surface, which developed into five horses, each 
 the ancestor of a separate type (details, as in 
 the Genesis account of the ancestry of the human 
 race, not explained). Each of these stems 
 furnished five sub-families, and from one or 
 other of these, every pedigree horse is de- 
 scended. 
 
 Another story which illustrated certain char-
 
 300 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 acteristics of native life, and the possibility of 
 making the most of occasion, related to a couple 
 of shechs who came from a great distance to 
 consult a certain priest in a very delicate matter. 
 As is the custom of the country, they talked of 
 irrelevant matters for about four hours, and then 
 submitted their difficulties. Neither of them 
 had any children — i.e. possessed no son, but 
 merely "a piece of a daughter." The phrase 
 is equivalent to our use in referring to "a head 
 of cattle." The priest was well known for his 
 power and benevolence ; surely he would exercise 
 both in so worthy a direction ! With char- 
 acteristic presence of mind he seized the occasion 
 for a moral lesson, and represented that certain 
 changes of habit might be rewarded by the 
 desired result. The shechs promised obedience, 
 and departed. A year afterwards, when the 
 incident was forgotten, the priest called to his 
 servant one morning to remove a sheep which 
 had trespassed into his garden, and was informed 
 that this was a valuable present brought by 
 one of the shechs upon the occasion of the 
 arrival of a son and heir. Whether the other 
 was less fortunate or less grateful history does 
 not relate. 
 
 On our return, we visited the Khan Minyeh,
 
 THE SEA OF GALILEE 301 
 
 and a little east of it a small Tell, by some identi- 
 fied with the site of Bethsaida, which, however, 
 is by other authorities located on the east side 
 of the lake. The towns on the shore of Tiberias 
 have been destroyed, to a degree surprising 
 when we compare them with contemporary cities 
 in the Decapolis. In J crash, in Amman we were 
 able to reconstruct the life of the people — their 
 homes, their temples, their amusements ; in 
 Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum, Magdala we 
 found, at the best, heaps of stones, and mounds 
 grown over with grass and flowers. 
 
 In the absence of Khalil, Dieb, our friend of 
 the night before, rode back with us to Tiberias, 
 as, without a local guide, we might have found 
 it difficult to know whereabouts to ford the many 
 streams, which a twelve hours' downpour had 
 swollen to considerable size. He was very 
 useful and kindly, and filled the Lady's pockets 
 with pretty shells from the lake, some of which 
 must have been occupied, as she found two of 
 them walking about, a month afterwards, in her 
 hotel in Jerusalem.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 TIBERIAS AND BESAN 
 
 The River Jordan boils out from two foundations, of which one 
 is called Jor and the other Dan, the streams of which, joining in 
 one, become a very rapid river, and take the name of Jordan." 
 
 S/EWULF, 1 103 
 
 /^F the town of Tiberias the less said the 
 better, though it should be admitted that 
 we saw it under exceptional circumstances — 
 after twelve hours' steady rain, for which it is 
 certainly not adapted. Most of the streets are 
 stone tunnels, where, when it once enters, the 
 water stands in large pools unaffected by sun 
 or wind, and with only islands of decaying 
 matter, animal and vegetable, to serve as steps 
 for hapless pedestrians. In the open streets the 
 inhabitants, with a view to protection from sun, 
 have rigged up coverings of old mats, old carpets, 
 old clothes, which, naturally, shed unsavoury 
 drippings upon our heads as we passed beneath. 
 The exquisite cleanliness and brightness of our 
 convent quarters tempted us to stay within, and 
 enjoy the glorious view of lake and mountain 
 from the roof; but we resisted, and were well 
 
 302
 
 TIBERIAS AND BESAN 303 
 
 rewarded for our walk up to the Scottish 
 hospital by the sight of good work well and 
 scientifically done, of missionaries who follow 
 in the footsteps of their Master, who has left 
 us but one sermon, and countless instances of 
 work among the sick and the needy. Of the 
 Scottish and American missions in Palestine 
 the English visitor can feel justly proud, if not 
 of his race, at least of those who speak his 
 tongue. 
 
 The remainder of our time in Tiberias was 
 spent, not in the world of the Old or New 
 Testaments, or even of the Crusaders, but in the 
 first six centuries a.d., when the Jews had for- 
 gotten their original hatred of its novelty and its 
 ceremonial uncleanness, and had accepted it, with 
 Jerusalem, Safed, and Hebron, as one of their 
 four holy cities ; had established a theological 
 university, and built over a dozen synagogues. 
 As at the universities of Europe in the Middle 
 Ages, students would come and attach themselves 
 to this or that teacher, sitting at his feet in his 
 own house, or listening to his discussions with 
 other Gamaliels in public places. It is probable 
 that Christ never came to this city ; and, indeed, 
 all its personal associations are of a later period. 
 Here Josephus had a powerful stronghold during
 
 304 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 the Jewish wars ; here, after the destruction of 
 Jerusalem, we find the Sanhedrin ; here, testify- 
 ing to the strength and progress of Christianity, 
 the opposition school of the Talmud was 
 established ; here the Mishna, the collection of 
 ancient tradition, was published in 200 a.d. ; here, 
 some four hundred years later, the so-called 
 Jerusalem Talmud ; here the now accepted 
 pointing of the Hebrew Bible came into existence 
 — in fact, it is the cradle of Jewish literature and 
 learning. Its Christian associations are few. 
 There were bishops of Tiberias in the fifth 
 century ; but their flocks must have been small, 
 and the bishopric died out, to be revived by the 
 Crusaders. It was here that St Jerome learned 
 Hebrew, in preparation for his work upon the 
 Vulgate. 
 
 We picked our way among the pools, as best 
 we could, to the outside of the city, and up the 
 hill westward, asking our way to the tombs of 
 various learned rabbis from the Jews whom we 
 met on the road, but who, unless they were 
 silent from suspicion, seemed but little acquainted 
 with the shrines of Maimonides, the philosopher, 
 Rab Jochanan Ben Sakai, or even with the cele- 
 brated Rabbi Akiba, who took so prominent a 
 part in the revolt of Bar Cochba, whose claims
 
 TIBERIAS AND BESAN 305 
 
 to be the Messiah he supported with a zeal which 
 led to the ultimate destruction of the last remnant 
 of the Jewish kingdom in 135. 
 
 We found the graves of the great Talmudist 
 Rabbi Meir and two of his pupils in a school of 
 the Ashkenazim, which, for the nonce, was serving 
 a very useful purpose as hospice for a number of 
 German Jews travelling to a new colony farther 
 south. They had spread their mattresses all over 
 the dais, and were eating a meal which had the 
 characteristic Jewish smell of fish and onions. 
 
 Of course, also, we visited the celebrated hot 
 baths, which lie about a mile to the south of the 
 town, in the neighbourhood of the old city, as is 
 testified by the columns, capitals, and hewn stones 
 scattered in every direction. The road seems to 
 follow the lines of an old colonnade, to judge from 
 the numerous bases of pillars gradually wearing 
 away under the friction of carriage wheels. The 
 water has a temperature of 143 degrees Fahren- 
 heit, and even in the open air we found it im- 
 possible to endure the warmth of a little spring 
 which gushed out from the hillside with a very 
 unpleasant sulphurous smell. There are two 
 general bath-houses, in one of which private baths 
 may be had. These are much frequented, and 
 seem to be very effectual in cases of rheumatism 
 
 u
 
 306 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 and cutaneous disease, though, perhaps, less so 
 than those at CalHrhoe, east of the Jordan, of 
 which marvellous, and apparently authentic, cures 
 are related. 
 
 After one more night in Tiberias we set out 
 at an early hour next morning on our way to 
 Besan, from whence we proposed to visit Pella, 
 and, crossing the Jordan, return down its eastern 
 bank. It was a very easy ride, of about eight 
 hours, along a good road, with fertile fields, green- 
 sward, and abundant trees and bushes to refresh 
 the eye ; but as it lies, for the most part, six 
 hundred feet below sea - level, one may well 
 imagine that it is, as reported, later in the 
 season intolerably hot. In strange contrast to 
 the almost tropical vegetation, the palms and ban- 
 anas, the oleanders and azaleas, were the great 
 snow-covered shoulders of the Jebel es - Shech, 
 the Mountain of the Shech, the highest point 
 of Mount Hermon, dominating the landscape, 
 and visible, whenever we looked backward, for 
 the greater part of the day. 
 
 We were much interested in a Jewish family 
 which accompanied us for some distance on their 
 way to the colony. The mother, grasping an 
 infant, was perilously balanced upon the top of 
 the family bedding, beneath which the legs of a
 
 TIBERIAS AND BESAN 307 
 
 mule were barely visible ; while an older child, of 
 perhaps three, hung in a wooden box, accompanied 
 by several gas-tins, on one side of a donkey, 
 balanced on the other by the family wardrobe. 
 The men were afoot, and generally in the rear, 
 unless some displacement of the baggage or a 
 specially deep ford seemed to require some atten- 
 tion on their part. The child seemed quite confi- 
 dent and happy, although the donkey, less heavily 
 weighted than the mule, was generally far ahead, 
 with the object of accumulating leisure for the 
 snatching of a meal wherever specially tempting 
 thistles invited. 
 
 We lunched at Jisr el Mujamia, where a tem- 
 porary village of tents and wooden huts had been 
 erected for those employed on the new railway — 
 engineers, fellahin, workmen, and soldiers. The 
 River Jordan, which we had been following almost 
 ever since we left the Lake of Tiberias, here 
 divided into several parallel streams, leaving a 
 number of islands, now grown over with bushes 
 and herbage, but probably covered when the 
 river is full. A quaint stone bridge, with very 
 acute arches, leading to a village, lent human 
 interest to the scene ; and on the hills beyond we 
 were shown the site of the town of Gadara, just 
 south of the Yarmuk, one of the principal tribu-
 
 308 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 taries of the Jordan. Here, also, are hot springs, 
 much visited in the season, and the ruins of 
 another of the Grseco- Roman cities which encircle 
 the lake, although considerably older than the 
 Herodian city of Tiberias. We were constantly 
 brouoht face to face with anomalies and ana- 
 chronisms ; but it is, nevertheless, a shock to 
 one's preconceived ideas to turn from the busy 
 scene in the immediate foreground — the skilful 
 engineering of the new railway — to cross, in 
 Imagination, the Roman bridge, to pass the poor 
 fellahin village, type, with its contrasting railway, 
 of the civilisation of to-day, up to where, on 
 yonder height, it is not difficult to call up, on their 
 old sites, the amphitheatre of Gadara looking 
 up the lake, the acropolis above, the triumphal 
 archway, the Greek villas scattered on the hills 
 to catch the breeze, the barracks of the Roman 
 legions, whence the troops descended daily to the 
 cities around. These were what met the eyes 
 of Jesus when He wandered among yonder 
 tombs and met the poor madman whose diseased 
 imagination conceived himself to be one of the 
 legions whom he daily looked upon in all their 
 bravery of sheen and colour. And now the 
 fellahin are storing their grain in sculptured 
 sarcophagi ; for the grave outlasts all, even its
 
 TIBERIAS AND BESAN 309 
 
 occupants, and the graceful wreaths which did 
 honour to some centurion over two thousand 
 years ago still bloom immortally among the haste 
 and squalor, the railways, the canvas tents, the 
 wooden huts, the crumbling villages, the com- 
 petition of to-day. Beyond the Jordan, with all 
 its associations, at the foot of the hills which 
 have looked on at so many cycles of change, the 
 wounded earth yawned and gaped, awaiting the 
 iron road which was to carry her children yet 
 more rapidly to the end, which now, as of old, 
 awaits us all. This eastern Nature, so full of the 
 past, is seldom glad — has, except in her wildest 
 utterances, little of the joy which Wordsworth 
 found in the simpler revelations of our English 
 hills — but the complication of ancient leisureliness 
 by modern haste, of cycles of repose by the scars 
 of modern science, is to add irony to melancholy, 
 cynicism to meditation, to exhibit decay where 
 she reveals only repose, to force utterance where 
 she has offered us the music of songs unsung. 
 
 We were almost glad to turn away ; and soon 
 the scene was changed. As we continued our 
 way due south we only now and then caught 
 glimpses of the Jordan, although we crossed 
 many streams hastening down with their little 
 contributions to the historic whole. All was
 
 310 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 fresh and green ; we mounted, perhaps, some 
 300 feet, and the plain widened out into the 
 valley of Jezreel, and we found the air fresh 
 and pleasant, although when we reached Besan 
 we were still 320 feet below sea-level. We 
 were free to enjoy the green earth and the blue 
 sky without complication of historical associations, 
 except when, about two hours after leaving our 
 halting-place, we saw on a hill to our right a 
 village now known as Kokab el-Hawa, where 
 King Fulke built a castle, known by the familiar 
 name of Belvoir, and which was taken by Salah 
 ed-din in 1188. We resisted the temptation to 
 climb, although there are ruins to photograph, 
 and it is said that the outlook deserves its name. 
 The approach to the town of Besan is truly 
 surprising ; and, indeed, the appearance of the 
 whole neighbourhood is unique in Palestine, owing 
 to the taste and activity of the mudir, who, it is 
 whispered, remains here for political reasons, and 
 who has had the good sense to make his exile 
 as attractive as possible. The town lies in a 
 green hollow, sloping westward towards the 
 low-lying plain of Jezreel, some 300 feet below. 
 The winding stream of the Jalud waters it on 
 the north, and streams flow abundantly in all 
 directions. The hills to the north appear to be
 
 TIBERIAS AND BESAN 311 
 
 of volcanic formation ; and, indeed, most of the 
 rocks scattered about, seemed to be basalt. An 
 excellent road approaches the town, bordered for 
 some distance by well-planted trees, though we 
 could not help observing what must be very 
 discouraging to the aesthetic mudir, that, despite 
 all pains taken for their security, they had been 
 wantonly mishandled. The main street might 
 well be called a boulevard. It is wide, planted 
 mainly with acacias and the graceful azedarach 
 (Pride of India), and the houses are stone, and 
 mainly of two storeys. A great archway, flanked 
 on either side by magnificent ancient Corinthian 
 pillars, leads into the village khan, a large open 
 space, surrounded on three sides by stables and 
 outhouses ; while on the fourth is the inn itself, 
 the upper storey, reserved for guests of the better 
 class, being approached by an outside staircase. 
 Here we found a large hall, furnished only by 
 low stools, and some cupboards containing the 
 wine and arak, theoretically eschewed by Moslem 
 guests ; while various sleeping-rooms opened into 
 a corridor beyond. Here we immediately se- 
 cured the requisite accommodation, which was 
 so far of a superior kind that it included bed- 
 steads, as well as a table and a couple of chairs. 
 Experience led us at a later hour to reject
 
 312 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 bedsteads, curtains, and bedclothes, and to sleep 
 upon a mattress and lehaf (wadded cotton quilt) 
 upon the floor, supplemented by our own wraps. 
 
 We snatched a hurried meal, for we were 
 occupied with certain ambitious projects, which 
 absorbed our attention. Our dream — or, at 
 all events, that of the Lady and the Doctor 
 — the Artist preferred highroads and hotels — 
 was to descend down the east bank of the Jordan, 
 crossing the fords of Bethabara, and lunching at 
 Pella, and thence to make our way through the 
 desert to Jericho, a two days' journey, but a far 
 more attractive prospect than a commonplace 
 return via Nablus, along a road we already knew, 
 and which had long been vulgarised by the 
 " Personally Conducted." The greatest attraction 
 of all was, that, in the absence of villages, and 
 having no tents, we should have to pass a night 
 with the Meshalcha Bedu, who, we were told, 
 were at this time encamped north of the Jabbok. 
 They are a rich and powerful sept, belonging to 
 the Beni Hasan, and their district lies about the 
 tomb of the great Moslem general, Abu Obeidah 
 Ibn el Jerrah, of the time of Omar {c. 650). We 
 were so very fortunate as to carry introductions 
 from Dr Schumacher, who is, perhaps, better 
 known east of the Jordan than any other Euro-
 
 TIBERIAS AND BESAN 313 
 
 pean, and whose relations with the Bedu, as well 
 as with the fellahin, are very different from those 
 of the many who have been only unfortunate in their 
 dealings with the natives. We were delighted 
 at our prospects, and pictured ourselves listen- 
 ing to songs and folklore, gathered round a camp 
 fire in the moonlight, pouring libations of coffee 
 to the spirit of Shech Shadli, the originator of 
 the beverage, giving up our revolvers in token 
 of confidence in our hosts, looking on at the sword- 
 dances of the young men, exchanging confidences 
 with the women, and finally sleeping under a 
 roof of camels' hair, upon priceless carpets and 
 under silken coverlets. 
 
 To achieve this we must go in state, and the 
 main thing was to enlarge our retinue, which 
 consisted at present of the somewhat ragged 
 Khalil, by the addition of a soldier, who would 
 receive orders to make all the demands which 
 were in accordance with our dignity — a fact not 
 patent to the naked eye, but which the mudir 
 instructed by our kind friend the American 
 Consul, would doubtless accept. First we had 
 to find the mudir, who was not at his own house, 
 a fine modern building with large garden adorned 
 with antique busts, and not at the serai (court- 
 house), but who was finally discovered making
 
 314 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 his afternoon devotions at the mosque. He 
 was good enough to emerge with a train of at- 
 tendants, a dignified man of middle age, carefully 
 read the letter addressed to him, and assured 
 us, in passable French, that our request should 
 receive attention, and that the soldier would be 
 at our service at six o'clock next morning. 
 
 We were then free to visit the sites which were 
 the main object of our journey to Besan. The 
 name Besan, which we now associate with the 
 most beautiful city in Palestine, had for us at 
 first no associations, and we did not feel any 
 great excitement even when told that it was a 
 strong and walled city in the time of Joshua, 
 that the inhabitants had chariots of iron, which 
 might well be used on the surrounding plain, 
 nor even that it was to the wall of Beth-shean, 
 as it was then called, that the bodies of Saul 
 and his three sons were nailed, his armour being 
 hung up as an offering in the temple of Astarte. 
 But as we pursued our inquiries, the story of 
 the city gained in interest. Thothmes III. must 
 have passed through it when he overthrew one 
 hundred and eighteen cities in Palestine, as it 
 stands on the highway between Egypt and 
 Damascus ; it is mentioned in Egyptian literature 
 in the fourteenth century B.C. ; the Israelites found
 
 TIBERIAS AND BESAN 315 
 
 it impregnable ; Holofernes, Pompey, Salah 
 ed-din, occupied it, possibly also Tiglath-pileser 
 and Sargon. Josephus calls it the richest city of 
 the Decapolis, the only one west of the Jordan. 
 In his time it was called Scythopolis, and it is 
 one of the very few examples of reversion from 
 the Greek to the older name. On the coins 
 (Nero to Gordian), and by classical authors, the 
 town is called Nysa, and the effigy on the coin 
 is that of the nymph suckling Bacchus ; but the 
 present name, corrupted from Beth-Sha'an, pos- 
 sibly the house {beit) of some pagan divinity, has 
 been used since the Crusades. 
 
 Lastly, for the Christian, Besan has its special 
 interest, as having been one of the places where, 
 under Decius and Diocletian, the amphitheatres 
 were used for the cruel slaughter not of wild 
 beasts alone, but of the confessors of Christ. 
 When we stood gazing at the majestic amphi- 
 theatre, with its twelve basalt benches for spec- 
 tators, nearly two hundred feet in diameter, we 
 imap"ined the Christian Radiator looking; over the 
 sea of heads which surrounded him to where 
 the blue sky, and the blue hills of Gilead, gave 
 promise of something which should endure when 
 even yonder citadel, frowning to the north, had 
 crumbled in decay. Delicate ferns and flowers
 
 316 m A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 now shroud the entrance to the dark passages 
 leading to the dens, where one may still see the 
 iron rings to which the beasts were chained ; 
 and in the recesses in which brass sounding-tubes 
 facilitated the hearing of the roar of anger and 
 the shriek of pain, swallows are darting in and 
 out to chirping nestlings, impatient for their food. 
 We failed to find the hippodrome, said to lie 
 west of the village, but now concealed by vegeta- 
 tion. The lines of a fine colonnade are easily 
 traced, leading along the brook to an ancient 
 bridge, beyond which is a street, and near by 
 a massive fort ; north of this a reservoir, known 
 as El Hammam, obviously the site of Roman 
 baths. Everywhere are columns, capitals, hewn 
 stones. North of the great amphitheatre a Tell 
 cries out for excavation, the massive wall and 
 the great portal which once enclosed its summit 
 being clearly traceable. Everywhere, in the hills 
 beyond, are tombs, many with fine painting and 
 sculpture. Where can the archaeologist find richer 
 promise ? There is, happily, a rumour that it is 
 one of the many sites likely to be taken in hand 
 by German skill and perseverance. The very 
 fact that Besan is, at least for the present, well 
 out of the tourist track has preserved the ancient, 
 perhaps also the modern, city, from exploitation.
 
 TIBERIAS AND BESAN 317 
 
 Unfortunately, the railroad will soon be here, 
 and who knows how long this beautiful city 
 may escape all the influences which have cor- 
 rupted and vulgarised Jerusalem ? 
 
 Besan is at present purely Moslem : there are 
 a few Christian inhabitants, mainly of the Greek 
 Church, who seek occasional spiritual pabulum in 
 Tiberias, only eight hours away, and who seem 
 to enjoy equal rights with, and even to share 
 some of the beliefs of, their neighbours. We saw, 
 for example, a very interesting wely, which, like 
 so many, if not most, in Syria, is resorted to by 
 those of all creeds. It was, as usual, very diffi- 
 cult to obtain any exact information as to its 
 history and origin. The tomb, apparently of a 
 giant of ten feet or so, is a massive stone structure 
 enclosed with a rough stone wall and surrounded 
 by trees. The derwish in charge lives close by. 
 The tomb and enclosure are decorated with 
 numerous small flags, mainly white, the offerings 
 of the faithful. We managed — not without diffi- 
 culty — to photograph it secretly, both from within 
 and without. We could only ascertain that it 
 was sacred to a certain Bishop Jochanan, who, 
 although our informants were somewhat confused 
 as to details, seems to have been an apostate 
 from Christianity, and a miracle-worker. The
 
 318 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 wely serves purposes other than reHgious. It is 
 much resorted to for the heahng of the sick and 
 for obtaining special boons ; but it is also supple- 
 mentary to the serai, and saves many a lawsuit, 
 as an oath made upon the tomb must be accepted 
 as final, and he would be a very foolhardy man 
 who would lie to the saint, whatever might be 
 the degree of his reverence for the Almighty ! 
 Every Moslem tomb (exclusive, naturally, of 
 those of women, who are a mere accident in the 
 course of nature) is surmounted by two stones, 
 for the accommodation of the good and bad 
 angels respectively, who testify as to his conduct ; 
 one at least of these is of the shape of the i^ez or 
 tarbush, which was the characteristic sign of faith 
 and nationality during life. In the present case 
 this feature is exaggerated in proportion to the 
 size of the tomb, so that the whole roughly 
 resembles the outline of a horse, the tarbush 
 being taken for the head. The suspected culprit, 
 or other person about to swear, sits astride, and 
 makes oath accordingly. The saint is, moreover, 
 the peacemaker in feuds, and the most persistent 
 cases of blood-revenge must be abandoned when 
 the opponents have shaken hands across the 
 tomb. A man who here denies or confesses a 
 crime receives judgment accordingly, without
 
 TIBERIAS AND BESAN 319 
 
 further evidence. There seemed to be traces 
 upon the doorposts of recent sacrifices, with 
 the usual accompaniment of anointing with 
 blood. 
 
 Perhaps nothing that we saw upon our ride 
 surprised us more than the information that a 
 large and handsome stone house in the town 
 belonged to a Bedawy shech — a shech of shechs. 
 One would have supposed that such a possession 
 violated every instinct and tradition of his race, 
 for we had once been present when an elderly 
 Bedu, who had been forced by politeness to 
 accept hospitality in a house for the first time, 
 had sat in terror of what might happen, gun in 
 hand. We sought in vain to account for such an 
 anomaly. "Is he very rich?" we inquired, on 
 the hypothesis that some crisis of agricultural 
 depression had driven him to a more permanent 
 investment. "Rich?" said our informant; "he 
 can be as rich as he likes. Is he not the shech 
 above all other shechs of the district? He 
 wants a house, a camel, a tent? He takes it. 
 He wants a wife — he may have had already 
 twenty-nine. He takes my sister, my daughter, 
 but he does not pay for her. It is not difficult 
 for him to be rich." 
 
 Nay, truly,
 
 320 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 "The good old rule 
 Sufficeth him, the simple plan, 
 That they should take who have the power 
 And they should keep who can." 
 
 It was the rule of David, of Solomon, of the 
 nomadic Israelites wandering" like the Bedu in 
 the desert. 
 
 "Then rents and factors, rights of chase. 
 Sheriffs, and lairds and their domains, 
 Would all have seemed but paltry things, 
 Not worth a moment's pains." 
 
 But, of course, this is quite another matter from 
 the oppression of the poor, the rack-renting, the 
 evictions, the unequal taxation, the results of free 
 trade, the hunger and misery of great cities, the 
 depopulation of villages, which are carried on 
 in an orderly and properly organised fashion 
 farther West. 
 
 We would have gladly lingered in this beautiful 
 spot, surely the garden of Palestine, so great a 
 contrast to the aridity of Judaea, which Mark 
 Twain has somewhat severely described as 
 "leagues of blighted, blasted, sandy, rocky, sun- 
 burnt, ugly, dreary, infamous country." We are 
 apt to look upon the Jews as a utilitarian and 
 money - loving people. Surely, however, no- 
 where on earth can we find a race whom senti-
 
 TIBERIAS AND BESAN 321 
 
 ment and religion have so influenced in the 
 choice and love of home. We Europeans do 
 not realise that the great King Solomon, who 
 reigned over a people "like the dust of the 
 earth in multitude," and whose wealth made 
 "silver to be nothing accounted of," had for 
 empire part of a kingdom the size of Wales ; 
 and that, allowing all that one may for change 
 of agricultural conditions, his capital was situated 
 in its most unprofitable and one of its least 
 attractive districts — six hours' ride from the 
 nearest river, of which the average width was 
 eighty feet ; a district without a harbour, on 
 the way to nowhere, out of reach of all the 
 great roads of commerce and intercommunica- 
 tion of nations. Jerusalem owes her origin and 
 continuance entirely to the heart and not the 
 brain of man. She is the creation of the 
 prophet, the priest, the dreamer. The mere 
 statesman, agriculturist, sanitarian — humanitarian, 
 even — would have none of her. Even to-day 
 she survives only as a matter of sacred associa- 
 tion. Take away her sanctuaries, her convents, 
 and her tourists, and nothing would be left but 
 the German colony — which could not remain 
 without customers for its shops, or even main- 
 tain its institutions — and the Jews, who live 
 
 X
 
 322 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 mainly on the charity of Europe. Agriculture, 
 Jewish and German, would continue in the 
 plains ; philanthropy, Scottish and American, in 
 Galilee and Syria ; education and culture, 
 American and Jesuit, in Beirut ; commerce, 
 German and Jewish, in Jaffa and Haifa ; but all 
 these exist independently of, almost in spite of, 
 Jerusalem, and have been created for the ad- 
 vantage of mankind.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 WEST OF THE JORDAN 
 
 "Yet who would stop, or fear to advance, 
 Though home or shelter he had none. 
 With such a sky to lead him on?" 
 
 W. Wordsworth 
 
 T rERY few things In the East fulfil adequately 
 the purposes for which they are intended, 
 and we were not at all surprised when the soldier, 
 who arrived punctually at six o'clock next morning, 
 and who had many graces, and possibly all the 
 virtues, appeared mounted on a horse utterly 
 unfit for the fatiguing journey we contemplated. 
 We accordingly despatched him back to the serai, 
 with thanks and compliments, and a message to 
 the effect that we should prefer a better article. 
 These little matters consume a great deal of time, 
 and a proportionate amount of bad language, and 
 to economise the one, and avoid the other, we 
 went for a walk. Our kindly companion, who had 
 been for some years a dispenser in the Scottish 
 hospital in Tiberias, seemed to think there would 
 be no objection to a trespass into the grounds of 
 the mudir's private house, and obligingly lent a 
 323
 
 324 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 hand while we collected the antique busts which 
 were dispersed about his garden, and arranged 
 them on garden seats with a view to photography. 
 It is not every day one comes across half-a-dozen 
 perfect specimens of Greek art never photo- 
 graphed before ; and so obliging an amateur of 
 beauty as the mudir had proved himself, w^ould 
 assuredly have understood and pardoned our 
 temptation had he been up, which (perhaps 
 happily, as some element of doubt remained) 
 he was not. We then walked somewhat farther, 
 feasted our eyes once more upon all the pleasant 
 things of Besan, classical and modern, and when 
 on our return we still found the incompetent 
 steed tied up at the entrance to our khan, we 
 wandered off to the serai, and finally possessed 
 ourselves of an alternative soldier, although with 
 some suspicion that this time it was the man, and 
 not the horse, who was incompetent. 
 
 Neither Khalil nor the Artist had a high 
 opinion of the plan cherished by the Lady and 
 the Doctor — one feared scarcity of barley for 
 the horses, the other of the amenities of civilisa- 
 tion for herself. The Artist, however, could not 
 speak Arabic, so if there were any collusion with 
 the officer it could only have been on the part of 
 Khalil. We had not, however, gone far from
 
 WEST OF THE JORDAN 325 
 
 Besan, only far enough to be beyond reach of 
 appeal, when we were presented with a series 
 of pictures of the impossibilities ahead. No 
 one knew where the Meshalcha Bedu were at 
 present encamped — the place where they would 
 undoubtedly be found was quite beyond a day's 
 journey ; we had started too late (it was already 
 eight o'clock) to venture on so great a risk ; it 
 was not certain how we should be received. 
 The consequences to ourselves were painted in 
 vivid colours, but all these observations had for 
 us an interest that was merely psychological and 
 linguistic, as exhibiting the way in which the 
 Arab mind worked. The Arab imagination was 
 not daunted, however, and the next shot told. 
 The fords of the Jordan would be impassable — 
 had we not seen how full the Jalud was, had 
 not the little stream we had even now crossed 
 reached to the knees of the horses, had not all 
 the streams been drinking away there up in the 
 hills, where Allah had so lately sent us the bless- 
 ing of rain ? The Lady and the Doctor looked 
 guiltily at each other. The one put confidence 
 in Sadowi, the other in his own inches ; but if 
 they should find they had inveigled the Artist 
 into floating down the Jordan with not so much 
 as an insurance upon her kodak! The Lady,
 
 326 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 somewhat disingenuously, began to enlarge 
 upon the prospect of visiting Pella, in hope of 
 extracting an expression of desire, which might 
 be quotable in case of emergency ; but her friend 
 showed no enthusiasm for Greek cities, declined 
 to endorse ravings over early Christian refugees, 
 and asked if any other way were shorter. 
 Khalil's honour was appealed to, as to the 
 veracity of the soldier's allegations. He swore 
 upon his beard, which he did not possess, and 
 upon his eyes, of which only one was in working 
 order, upon his head and his heart, that the thing 
 was impossible. 
 
 What were we to do ? Go meekly back to 
 Besan, abandon all our prospects, our tent of 
 many poles (we had been assured that we must 
 not think of entering one with less than three, 
 and that our dignity really required even more), 
 our tattooed ladies with the trains of their dresses 
 in front, our stately shech, who would undoubtedly 
 kill a sheep and bake cakes for us, like the 
 patriarchs did when they had guests — return to 
 the banalities of Nabliis, where children asked 
 for backsheesh, and finally ride home along a 
 commonplace highroad to Jerusalem ? 
 
 " When the tale of bricks is doubled Moses 
 comes," say the Arabs — and the soldier had
 
 WEST OF THE JORDAN 327 
 
 an idea. We were to descend the banks of the 
 Jordan on the west side. We had been assured 
 that no one ever did this, that the district was 
 very wild, and even lawless, and that the few 
 Bedu we might chance to meet were such as we 
 should not care to house with. However, we 
 had our soldier, who looked effective (at a 
 distance), and was bristling with weapons, and 
 it would be quite interesting to sleep in the 
 desert, light a fire to keep off wild beasts, and 
 take turns to mount guard, like a boys' story book. 
 Apparently, however, it need not come to this. 
 Somewhere in the wilderness was a serai, a 
 little fortress or Government building, which 
 existed for the accommodation of tax-collectors, 
 and there we could, no doubt, find shelter. We 
 were somewhat inclined to believe that the 
 whole thing was "a put-up job," arranged before 
 we left, and that our soldier's journey was being 
 utilised for conveying despatches, or more, prob- 
 ably, messages, from the parent Government 
 establishment in Besan. However, we could 
 only submit ; had we persisted, our leader was 
 not so unintelligent as not to see that his 
 prophecies were fulfilled, and we wheeled round, 
 and turned off to the south-east, fairly content 
 with our prospects after all.
 
 328 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 We had followed the west side of the Jordan 
 from the Sea of Tiberias to Besan, and now we 
 were to follow it down to its fall into the Dead 
 Sea — 65 miles in all. Our path lay in the deep 
 valley between the hills of Gilead on the east 
 and the hills of Samaria and Judaea on the west — 
 a valley which the Arabs very suitably call El- 
 Ghor — i.e. The Rift. It varies in width from 6 
 or 7 miles in the district of Besan to about 3 
 for some 1 3 miles alongside the hills of Samaria, 
 widening by slow degrees till near Jericho, 
 when it stretches out into a plain, as at Besan. 
 The river winds and twists deep down at the 
 bottom, its course marked all the way by an 
 exuberant fertility, often extending for some 
 distance east and west, showing where tributary 
 streams are hastening down from the watersheds 
 above. We rode, for the most part, upon 
 somewhat higher ground, on terraces of land at 
 the foot, or on the side of, the hills, as the case 
 might be, and were often able to look down into 
 this deep hollow of vivid green, reminding us, 
 in exaggerated form, as so much in this land 
 is exaggerated, of a north country ghyll. To 
 realise its depth one has to remember that it is 
 deeper below the earth's surface than an average 
 coal mine, that it is really an old sea-bottom.
 
 WEST OF THE JORDAN 329 
 
 and that the rapidity of the stream, falling at 
 first 40 feet in a mile, accounts for the weird 
 forms of washed-out mounds of earth, for the 
 exposed tree roots, for the heaps of debris of all 
 kinds. The name of the Jordan is not composed 
 of the two names J or and Dan, as the early 
 pilgrims so ingeniously conjectured, but means, 
 appropriately, the "downcomer." 
 
 For some distance, all around and below 
 Besan, there are abundant signs of extreme 
 fertility. In ancient times it was noted for 
 corn, dates, balsam, flax, and sugar-cane. The 
 edicts of Diocletian refer to its trade in linen, 
 and Vespasian settled his troops in this district 
 as one capable of bearing a large additional 
 population. In the course of the morning we 
 crossed over a score of streams, and many 
 remains of aqueducts showed how, in old days, 
 they had been turned to the utmost account 
 for irrigation. When we had passed but a few 
 miles beyond Besan, we lost all traces of human 
 habitation, although not of human handiwork, 
 for wide patches of well-cultivated land testified 
 that, like the Israelites of old, the hill population 
 only comes down to sow, guard, and reap its 
 harvests. Indeed, for the greater part of the 
 year the Ghor would be uninhabitable. Its
 
 330 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 hothouse vegetation implies also a hothouse 
 climate ; its swamps are beautiful but malarious ; 
 its streams are valuable for irrigation but death- 
 dealing to drink, impregnated with chlorides and 
 sodium, and rank with decaying vegetable matter. 
 
 From time to time we came across small 
 groups of Bedawy tents, mainly of a humble 
 kind, although now and then a tent of three 
 poles, with a lance planted at the doorway, 
 testified to the presence of a shech. Within 
 but a short distance we were certain to find 
 large flocks of lambs, white and woolly, a rare 
 sight to us, accustomed only to the goats capable 
 of enduring the aridity of the Jerusalem district, 
 and familiar with sheep only as household pets, 
 sharing equally with the cat and the water- 
 pipe. The problem which at first presented 
 itself was : What had become of all the mothers ? 
 The answer was generally found a mile or so 
 farther on, in some green spot, whither they had 
 been driven for pasture, to be brought back 
 later, to the safety of the camp, and the needs of 
 their nurslings. 
 
 It seemed to us that we now and then climbed 
 hills for the sake of descending them, and that 
 more than once we went across country to return 
 to the neighbourhood of the point from which
 
 WEST OF THE JORDAN 331 
 
 we started ; but, after all, it is difficult to judge 
 of distances with only distant mountains for 
 landmarks, and one part of such a valley as the 
 Ghor is very much like another. We were to 
 lunch beside the Wady Malih, the first stream 
 on this part of our journey suitable alike for 
 horse and man, but the wady was long in 
 coming. At intervals we inquired as to its 
 whereabouts, and were always told it was baad 
 wahad saar — "after half-an-hour " — and after 
 about four half-hours, when the horses were getting 
 somewhat weary, and our eyes ached from the 
 glare of the sand, we entered a narrow valley, 
 a wonderful garden of loveliness. For some 
 time we had seen no animal life except lizards, 
 an occasional jerboa (a pretty little miniature 
 kangaroo), and occasional birds of prey-cravens, 
 eagles, and griffon-vultures — flying high in the 
 heavens towards some horse or camel, dead or 
 dying. Here, at the very entrance of the valley, 
 we disturbed innumerable pairs of busy little 
 chats, among the daintiest of the bird creation 
 {saxicola libanoticd) ; and, almost equally graceful 
 as to outline, although of a reddish-brown colour, 
 like a robin, the little desert larks, which chattered 
 rather than sang, as they hovered over the 
 tangle of bulrushes and sedge-grass.
 
 332 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 Now and then we saw a gorgeous kingfisher, 
 blue as sapphires, turquoises — blue as the sky it- 
 self. A little later we should probably have 
 found storks, "the father of legs" as the Arabs 
 call them, who arrive in the early spring in im- 
 mense numbers, and add to the general fairy-tale 
 effect of this country. The stream was con- 
 cealed by a thicket of verdure, bordered, on 
 slightly higher ground, by oleanders and willows, 
 above them a belt of white poplars and tamarisks ; 
 while the steep, sloping banks were clothed with 
 the bushes of the graceful capers, just coming 
 into leaf, rival, in Palestine, of our own wild 
 rose ; while everywhere chrysanthemums, ornitho- 
 galums, scented stocks, hawkweeds, and cen- 
 taureas promised abundance of colour if we 
 would but await their coming. 
 
 We clamoured for an immediate halt — where 
 could we find so inviting a spot } — but our at- 
 tendants turned a deaf ear, and pressed on, 
 gradually mounting to higher ground, and leaving 
 our beautiful, but probably malarious, swamp be- 
 hind. We dismounted finally on a little knoll 
 crowned with trees, the stream, now clear of 
 foliage, and accessible for the horses, winding 
 about its foot, and a gay little waterfall making 
 music for us beyond. Here we lunched and
 
 WEST OF THE JORDAN 833 
 
 rested, and then we had an illustration, charac- 
 teristic of this country, of the wild-beast habits 
 of the Arab. We are well accustomed to the 
 fact that real solitude is here, in an ordinary- 
 way, impossible. You may scan the horizon, 
 and see no sign of humanity for miles, but with- 
 in a few minutes a picturesque Arab is beside 
 you, asking impudently for backsheesh, in- 
 sinuating that the hour is propitious for the 
 smoking of tobacco, or offering you water or 
 milk, according to the degree of his association 
 with the improving influences of European civilisa- 
 tion. In the desert the Arab is still a gentleman, 
 and the little group which suddenly appeared 
 within a few feet of us — though for a dozen 
 miles at least we had not seen so much 
 humanity as might be implied by the presence 
 of a single goat — offered no incivility, although 
 they were mainly women, and therefore, as a 
 rule, inferior in courtesy to the men. They did 
 not even stare unduly ; in fact, not half so much 
 as we did at them. It is a curious and invariable 
 fact that here, Arabs spring out of the earth, like 
 London boys at an accident. 
 
 We did not feel entire confidence in our 
 cicerone, as such ; and as it was already late we 
 dared not linger, and by three o'clock we had
 
 834 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 mounted our horses, forded the Malih, and, 
 mounting the steep acdivity beyond, found our- 
 selves on high ground, which is the watershed for 
 the innumerable wadys which wander down to 
 the sinuous Jordan on our left. Hence we could 
 look back to the hoary head of the Jebel es- 
 Shech, of Mount Hermon, and forward to the 
 Jebel Osha in the Belka ; while on the hither 
 side a break in the hills showed where the river 
 Jabbok, another old friend of our last ride, was 
 working its winding way down to the Jordan. 
 If we had but known it — such information being 
 far from the thoughts and interests of our escort, 
 even had they known it themselves — we ought 
 to have turned aside some four hours later to 
 see the caverns of Makhrud, which are, so far 
 as we can learn, valuable alike to the geologist, 
 and to the student of natural history. 
 
 However, we kept on our way, on somewhat 
 high ground, till we entered a fertile valley, tend- 
 ing gradually to the south-east, and which our 
 escort saluted with joy as the Wady Faria, in 
 which our quarters for the night were situated. 
 Here, bet ad wahad sda — "after one hour" — we 
 should be at the end of our journey. Well-culti- 
 vated fields surrounded us, and even climbed 
 the hill beyond, evidences of the existence of a
 
 WEST OF THE JORDAN 335 
 
 population which remained invisible : not a tent, 
 not a single human being was in sight. We 
 descended yet deeper, the hour passed, and yet 
 another, and we found ourselves in a wide plain, 
 which we crossed to the eastward. " Ba'ad nus 
 saa " was now the promise — " after half-an-hour " ; 
 varied after yet another hour by "ba'ad cham- 
 seh saa" — "after a quarter of an hour." Our 
 guide had clearly gone too far west, and had 
 struck the wady at the point farthest from our 
 destination. The twilight fell, and it was then 
 clearly evident that we had lost our way. The 
 soldier had the sense to follow the stream, as 
 likely to conduct us ultimately to our destina- 
 tion ; but we had lost the path, and it was sorely 
 rough riding. Darkness descended with true 
 Oriental abruptness ; moon there was none, and 
 clouds obscured the stars. Suddenly Sadowi, 
 who was foremost, declined to move, and the 
 Artist's horse stumbled ; the men got off, and felt 
 the ground. We were on the edge of a preci- 
 pice, the horses were already entangled in the 
 rough brushwood, a perpendicular wall rose to 
 our right — to turn back was impossible. The 
 ladies dismounted, and placed themselves on a 
 ledge of rock, out of the way of the uneasy 
 horses. Khalil, afraid for the safety of his
 
 836 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 animals, broke forth into violent abuse of the 
 soldier, whose curses, in return, were not loud 
 but deep. The Doctor commanded silence, some 
 of which he utilised for the expression of his 
 own opinions. After much searching, in all the 
 wrong places, some candles were produced, and 
 lighted, upon which the rain most unexpectedly 
 descended in torrents, and put them out. Any- 
 thing, however, seemed better than inaction : two 
 of us finally contrived, by means of holding the 
 candles within our cloaks to shed enough light 
 in front of us, to make some kind of progress ; 
 while the soldier with another went ahead. 
 Khalil followed with the five horses, who picked 
 their way with their usual cleverness, unencum- 
 bered except by saddle-bags, which now and 
 then caught upon the bushes, and were disen- 
 gaged with a jerk which would have reduced 
 anything, but goats' hair, to rags. We contrived, 
 somehow, to reach the top of the bank, and were 
 much cheered to see, a mile or so ahead of us, 
 a flickering light, and to hear the barking of 
 dogs — always a welcome sound when one is in 
 the dark and far from shelter. After half-an- 
 hour of very rough scrambling we found our- 
 selves again upon a path, which conducted us 
 direct to the welcome lic/ht. This we found
 
 WEST OF THE JORDAN 337 
 
 to proceed from a great fire in the midst 
 of a Bedawy camp — a weird spectacle in such 
 surroundinofs. We were challeno;ed at various 
 points by their scouts: shislu? — "Who goes 
 there"; but, fortunately, the reply: sahib — "A 
 friend " — appeared to be satisfactory. When we 
 came into the camp we were immediately sur- 
 rounded by the inquiring population, who offered 
 no discourtesy ; all the same, we considered it 
 wise to keep an eye upon the contents of our 
 saddle-bags. The open space was encumbered 
 with cows and sheep, and the glare of an im- 
 mense bonfire added to our bewilderment. The 
 children and women gathered round us, and 
 touched our clothes, though with far more gentle- 
 ness than would be shown in London to, say, 
 a group of Australian natives — and we must 
 have seemed not less strange to our new- 
 friends. The serai was yet far, they averred, 
 the night was dark, the road was rough ; would 
 we not remain with them } We escaped their 
 kindly importunity with what grace we could, 
 and left Khalil to bargain for a guide — a process 
 quite as characteristically grasping as their would- 
 be hospitality was characteristically liberal. Khalil 
 offered a bishlik (6d.) ; they held out for four 
 piasters (8d.) ; finally a compromise was effected
 
 338 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 upon a bishlik and a packet of tobacco. We 
 may remark that when, at the end of the drama, 
 we produced the tobacco from our stores KhaHl 
 intercepted the gift, and stipulated that it should 
 not be bestowed till the Bedu, whose activity had 
 been stimulated at the sight of so unwonted a 
 luxury, had helped him to water the horses. We 
 were soon picking our way among ruins too dark 
 to distinguish, but which we believe to have been 
 those of the ancient Archelais, erected by Herod 
 Archelaus, the son of Herod the Great. Before 
 long we were on a good path ; the rain stopped, 
 the stars came out, the Lady remounted her 
 horse, and the spirits of the party rose again. 
 Soon we were cheered by the steady gleam of 
 a stationary light, and finally we clattered over 
 a bridge and under a great gateway, and found 
 ourselves in the court of the serai. 
 
 We received a friendly welcome from a 
 gigantic negro, and were at once shown into 
 a large room, with windows high up near the 
 roof, and a door opening into the courtyard, 
 around three sides of which the house was 
 built ; while the fourth was enclosed with a 
 wall the height of the building, with a strong 
 iron-clad door — everything, apparently, being 
 arranged with a view to security. An official,
 
 WEST OF THE JORDAN 339 
 
 said to be the lawyer or secretary of the es- 
 tablishment, politely vacated the guest-room on 
 our behalf. Our saddle-bags were brought in, 
 and, well content with shelter and the prospect 
 of food, we prepared to make our arrangements 
 for the night, our room being already not ill- 
 furnished, all things considered, with a large 
 rush mat and a lamp. Our host, however, 
 proposed further hospitalities. We were well 
 supplied with water, then with a charcoal stove 
 for heating our soup, and finally with excellent 
 and spotlessly clean bedding. The arrival of 
 guests at so late an hour proved somewhat 
 disturbing to the domestic animals housed in 
 the courtyard, who crowed, and quacked, and 
 barked, and mewed, according to their nature. 
 Khalil came in to say good-night, the Bedu 
 to be paid, the gigantic negro to inquire after 
 our comfort, various black and white cats to 
 solicit alms ; but finally all was quiet, and we 
 had not long to wait for sleep. 
 
 We were up betimes next morning, and en- 
 joyed an early toilet beside the Faria, not 
 without a passing thought of pity for friends 
 in England, and the different conditions which 
 would make it less attractive there to rise at 
 half-past five on the loth of January, and bathe
 
 340 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 in a mountain stream. We were in the rich 
 oasis of Karawa, the Koreae of Josephus, famous 
 in ancient times for the finest sugar-canes 
 known. Westward rose the great peak of the 
 Karn Sartabeh, towering 2227 feet above us, 
 ahhough only 1243 feet above sea-level. This 
 was one of the chain of peaks upon which, in 
 old times (according to the Talmud), beacon 
 fires were lighted at the time of the new 
 moon, especially to proclaim the harvest and 
 thanksgiving festivals. The top is covered with 
 ruins, which, with much else in this practically 
 unknown district, we hope some time to explore 
 thoroughly. 
 
 Khalil, who had slept out all night, to take 
 care of his horses, complained loudly of the 
 cold ; but our soldier, whom everyone here ad- 
 dressed as " Haj," denoting that he had made 
 the Mecca pilgrimage, was quite cheery and 
 unashamed, probably much relieved that we had 
 entered no complaint of his incompetence at 
 the serai. Khalil assured us of his own entire 
 ability to take charge of the party ; but as the 
 infallible Baedeker says that for the journey in 
 the west Jordan valley "an escort is indispen- 
 sable," we decided to take our soldier on to 
 Jericho. His weapons, though rust - eaten,
 
 WEST OF THE JORDAN 341 
 
 looked quite effective, and for anything we 
 knew his gun might really have gone off in 
 an emergency, or as the kind friend in Jerusalem 
 who provided part of our own armoury had ad- 
 vised, when a good echo made it " worth while 
 to bang away." 
 
 The greatest interest to-day lay in the number 
 of Tells, which might well repay more careful at- 
 tention than has yet been bestowed upon them, 
 and which indicate that, in spite of the forcing- 
 house temperature of this district, it must have 
 been at one time fairly well populated. 
 
 Our curiosity was aroused by a group of large 
 birds perched on a rock at some little distance, 
 and apparently motionless. We shouted at them, 
 but they declined to rise. We discovered through 
 our field-glasses that they were vultures, at least 
 a score in number, and included a pair of 
 young ones, no bigger than hens, and of a 
 creamy white. 
 
 We were not long in reaching the pleasant 
 Ain Fesail, the head of the Wady Fesail, which 
 runs down into the Wady el Abyad, and meets 
 the Jordan in the valley some two or three miles 
 below. Here were wide green meadows, shady 
 trees, and abundance of water, which, for the 
 first time since last night's adventures, incited
 
 342 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 our horses to some return of cheerfulness. We 
 had time to linger and to explore the adjacent 
 ruins of Phasaelis, and the animals were relieved 
 of all their encumbrances that they might enjoy 
 a roll in the fresh grass. The Lady rejoiced 
 especially on behalf of Sadowi, who had been 
 lately so much depressed that she had conceived 
 the theory that the journey, which, owing to 
 circumstances, had been slow, and therefore in 
 some respects tedious, had been too much for 
 him. She had even shown a sentimental desire 
 to walk up hills, had not the Doctor sternly refused 
 to remount her should she carry it into effect. 
 Whether a whole field of grass all at once had 
 the effect of intoxication upon a Jerusalem horse 
 — the chance of a lifetime — or whether it suddenly 
 dawned upon him that yonder were the hills of 
 Judaea, and that he was, therefore, within twenty- 
 four hours of home, we shall never know, but 
 the steady Sadowi suddenly threw care, not to 
 say respectability, to the winds, and started on 
 2. fantasia of his own. He tore off like a war- 
 horse at sound of the trumpet, a hunter at sight 
 of the hounds, a saucy colt in the meadows. The 
 other horses, stimulated by evil example, ex- 
 ecuted minor interludes ; Khalil and the haj 
 scampered right and left, and one by one brought
 
 WEST OF THE JORDAN 343 
 
 in the truants, all but the ringleader, Sadowi, 
 who entirely refused to be caught, and we advised 
 Khalil to desist, in the hope that he would 
 return of his own accord. Some time later, a 
 shout from Khalil roused our attention, and we 
 saw him leading in a sedate and repentant 
 Sadowi by the halter. "He ran and ran from 
 me like the devil himself," explained his master, 
 with some confusion of ideas, " when all at once 
 he became afraid, and stood and trembled." 
 The Lady seized the occasion to express a hope 
 that this came from no recollection of previous 
 ill-treatment, upon which Khalil threw his arms 
 round the creature's neck, and kissed him 
 passionately. He kicked and swore at him a 
 few minutes later, but the horse seemed equally 
 indifferent to both processes. 
 
 The ruins close by are those of Phasselis, a 
 town which Herod the Great named after his 
 brother Phasselus, and which he presented to his 
 sister Salome, who left it to her friend, Julia Livia, 
 the wife of the Emperor Augustus. It stood 
 beside the excellent highroad which we had for 
 some time been following, and which seems to 
 have extended the whole way from Jericho up 
 to Csesarea Philippi, at the foot of Mount 
 Hermon, and near the source of the Jordan,
 
 844 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 probably bordered by a forest of palms, at one 
 time extensively cultivated here. The town has 
 no architectural beauty, but, like the twin town 
 of Archelais, is delightfully situated. 
 
 It was unfortunate that we had not been ad- 
 vised to make the slight detour up to the foot 
 of the hills to visit the ruins of El Aujeh, and 
 still more that we missed the caverns of Es 
 Sumrah, some ten miles south, described by 
 Tristram. They are sandstone quarries, re- 
 sembling those known as Solomon's quarries in 
 Jerusalem, and have been worked so as to re- 
 semble huge grottoes. Tristram counted fifty- 
 four pillars still left, and gives an interesting 
 description of the traces of the wild beasts by 
 which they are at present tenanted, and of the 
 bones of camels, oxen, and sheep, which had 
 been their victims. 
 
 The ride over the wide plain was exhilarating. 
 Some of the party could now press forward, as 
 we were nearing a more frequented district, and 
 even the Lady was convinced that there was no 
 need to spare the horses. As we neared Jericho 
 we found ourselves enveloped in a sudden dust- 
 storm, and had to give up certain schemes for 
 botanising in the neighbourhood. Even next 
 morning we were warned to be off without delay,
 
 WEST OF THE JORDAN 345 
 
 in order to secure orood weather for the ride to 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 The last scene of our drama reminded us, 
 effectually, that we had got back to "the cab- 
 shafts of civilisation," as represented by the 
 Turkish Government. We found the court- 
 yard of the Inn of the Good Samaritan crowded 
 with soldiers, and the level ground all about 
 with laden donke3^s ; while excited fellahin 
 shouted and cursed and quarrelled, or — a sight 
 rare and pathetic among Arabs — sat still. They 
 were peasants from the village of Bethany, re- 
 turning home with corn from Moab, and inter- 
 cepted by the tax - gatherers, who saw an 
 excellent opportunity for their business. One 
 poor wretch who had sought to escape them by 
 making his way round through the hills had 
 been seized, and was now in custody in the inn- 
 yard. The worthy host was absent, but was 
 efficiently represented by his two little boys, who 
 ought to have been playing marbles or whipping 
 tops, but were, instead, keeping up the character 
 of the establishment, and perfectly capable of deal- 
 ing with the problems before them, even to catch- 
 ing the chickens and turkeys, and shutting them 
 up that they might not be robbed by the soldiers, 
 who were here to see that the peasants were
 
 346 IN A SYRIAN SADDLE 
 
 effectually robbed by the tax - gatherers, while 
 they, the little boys, in turn showed considerable 
 experience in robbing their guests. 
 
 From the point of view of the continuity of 
 history and the homogeneousness of humanity it 
 is at least interesting to know that even now, 
 with all modern improvements of robbers licensed, 
 uniformed, and salaried, one may still go down 
 from Jerusalem to Jericho and be quite certain 
 of falling among thieves. 
 
 But the storm did not come. The sun was 
 bright, the air was clear, kind friends awaited us 
 in Jerusalem, and we were content to believe 
 that the desert of life has many oases : 
 
 "Is not the pilgrim's toil o'erpaid 
 By the clear rill and palmy shade ! "
 
 INDEX 
 
 Abbasides, no 
 
 'Abd el hamid Bey, 104, 133 
 
 Abdallah, 182, 191 
 
 Abisha, 198 
 
 Abraham, 24, 177, 202, 209, 222 
 
 Abu-dis, 5 
 
 Acacias, 22, 253, 311 (faruesiana, 
 
 tortilis, seyal) 
 Academy of France, 61, 62 
 Acre or Akko, 247, 252, 256 
 Acropolis, 238, 308 
 Adam Smith, Professor George, 72, 
 
 202, 204, 235 
 Adonis, 253 
 Adummim, 9 
 Adwan, 118 
 yEgean, 234 
 Agriculture, elementary, 125, 146 
 
 — English, 227 
 
 — German, 248 
 
 — scientific, 38 
 Ahab, 204, 205, 215 
 Ahaziah, 235 
 
 Ain Es-Shech, 160, 167 
 
 Ain Es-Sultan, 14 
 
 Ain El-Mastaba, 146 
 
 Ain et Tabigha, 287 {see Bethsaida) 
 
 Ain Fesail, 341 
 
 'Ajlun, 100, 127 
 
 Akal, 4, 24, 48 
 
 Al Chirnik, 66 
 
 Alexander, 199 
 
 Alexander the Great, 207 
 
 Algeria, 279 
 
 347 
 
 Allah, 31, 76 
 
 Almonds, 171, 253 
 
 Altar, 232, 233, 239 
 
 Amman, 94, loi, 105, 106, 107, 113, 
 116, 118, 119, 124, 125, 12S, 
 129, 131, 132, 138, 139, 140, 
 141, 148, 301 
 
 Ammon, 126 
 
 Ammoperdix heyi, 33 
 
 Amphitheatre, 308, 315, 316 
 
 Amulets, Jewish, 13 
 
 Anastatica, 36 
 
 Anatolia, 104 
 
 'Anazeh, 96, 100 
 
 Anemones, 203, 228, 245, 253 
 
 Angel, 318 
 
 Animals, wild, 32, 33, 255 
 
 Anthony, 13 
 
 Antiques, 196, 231, 239, 240, 324 
 
 Antoninus Martyr, 271, 276 
 
 Apocy7tacea, 35 
 
 Apostles' Fountain, 8 
 
 Apples, 204 
 
 "Apple of Sodom," 36 
 
 Apricot-tree, 107, 108, 204 
 
 Aqueduct, 8, 235, 239, 286, 297, 
 
 329 
 Arabia, 43, 54 
 
 — Central, 7, 40 
 
 — Roman, 69 
 Arab steed, 5, 6 
 Arabs, 17, 48, 66 
 
 — characteristics, 112, 181, 182, 
 
 213, 251, 325, 333
 
 348 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Arabs, customs, 122, 296, 299 
 
 — effect of climate upon, 12 
 
 — good cooking among, 1 14, 
 
 237 
 
 — superstitions of, 66 
 
 — their dress, 24 
 
 — their indifference to surround- 
 
 ings, 47 
 
 — their lack of initiation, 12 
 
 — traditions and sayings of, 71, 75, 
 
 76, 82, 127, 284, 326, 332 
 Arak, 311 
 Arbutus, 253 
 Archaeologist, 54, 55, 62, So, 86, 
 
 loi, 230, 232 
 Archelais, 338, 344 
 Archelaus, 33S 
 Architecture, domestic, 16 
 
 — ecclesiastical, 68, 72 
 
 — Byzantine, 83 
 
 — Greek, 205, 282 
 
 — Sassanian, 84 
 Arculf, 258 
 
 Ard' Abdallah, 46 
 Arimathea, 104 
 Ark of the Covenant, 1S8 
 Arnon, 108, 126 
 Arrow-head, 91 
 Artemesium, 99 
 Artemisia, 128 
 Artist, the, 179 
 Arums, 91, 98, 253 
 Arvanitaki, M., 60 
 Ascalon, 199 
 Ashkenazim, 305 
 Asia Minor, 63, 84, 103 
 Asparagus, 278 
 Asphodel, 254 
 Asplenium-trichomanes, 253 
 Asses, 24 
 
 Assumptionist Order, 62 
 Assyrians, 206 
 Astarte, 233, 314 
 Augusta, 207 
 
 Augustus, 207, 343 
 
 Azalea, 253, 306 
 
 Azedaiach (Pride of India), 311 
 
 Baal, 46, 68, 207, 216, 233 
 
 Ba'albek, 108, 127 
 
 Baana, 233 
 
 Bab-el Allah, 76 
 
 Babylon, 234 
 
 Bacilli (of tetanus), 9 
 
 — (cholera), 13 
 
 Backsheesh, 2, 22, 23, 31, 169, 193, 
 
 196, 201, 213 
 Baedeker, 55, 80, 140 
 " Baedeker," 179 
 Balak, 46 
 Balaam, 46 
 Balm, 127 
 Balsams, 13, 329 
 Balsam Hf/i Gileadense, 127 
 Bananas, 11, 19, 306 
 Baptism, 12 
 Barak, 266 
 Bar Cochba, 304 
 Barley, 278 
 
 Barnabe d'Alsace, P., 273 
 Basalt, 42, 71, 311 
 Bashan, 128 
 Basilica, 106, 208 
 Bas-reliefs, 84 
 
 Baths, 129, 209, 297, 305, 316 
 Battlefields, 227, 266, 279 
 Bawabet Allah, 76 
 Bean, 294 
 Bears, 185 
 Bedu cemetery, 119 
 
 — characteristics of, 23, 24, 55, 56, 
 
 67, 80, 164, 177, 291, 294, 
 296 
 
 — verstts Circassians, 106, 129 
 
 — customs, 135, 166 
 
 — funeral, 121, 122 
 
 — and Hosea, 152, 153 
 
 — pipe, 5
 
 INDEX 
 
 349 
 
 Bedu songs, poems, and folklore, 
 96, 97, 118, 292 
 
 — stories of, 291, 319 
 
 — superstitions among, 66 
 — - traditions, loi 
 
 — women's dress, 120 
 
 {See also Beni Sakr, Shech 
 Muhammed, Beni Hasan) 
 Beersheba, 202 
 Beitin, 1S3, 185, 187 
 Belad-er-Ruali, 228 
 Belka, 104-108, iii, 126, 127, 128, 
 
 155, 163, 170, 176, 334 
 Benedictine convent, 8, 255, 276 
 Beni Hasan, 135, 312 
 Beni Jafn, 85 
 Beni Sakr, 71, 83 
 Benjamin, 179, 183 
 
 — of Tudela, 199 
 
 Besan, 284, 306, 310, 314, 315, 316, 
 317, 324, 325, 326, 327, 328, 
 
 329 
 Bethabara, 312 
 Bethany, 5, 8 
 Bethel, 185, 194, 220 
 Bethlehem, 45, 160, 194 
 Bethsaida, 287, 301 
 Bethshan, 227 
 Beth-shean, 314, 315 
 Biever, Father, 55, 287, 288, 292 
 Bint Shech Luth, 10 
 Birds, II, 17, 18, 33, 34, 43, 191, 
 
 227, 246, 254, 296, 331, 332, 
 
 341 
 Bir es Zet, 185, 192 
 Bishlik, 337 
 
 Bishopric, 54, 55, 158, 210, 304 
 Blackberries, 125 
 Blackbirds, 17, 34 
 Bliss, Dr, 53, 55, 57, 87 
 Blue (colour used as protection 
 
 against Evil One), 4, 66 
 Boar, 32, 255 
 Boaz, 239 
 
 Bones of babies, 232, 239 
 
 Boniface of Ragusa, 226 
 
 Bosphorus, 63 
 
 Bougainvilea, 252, 285 
 
 Bowen, 195 (Bishop of Sierra Leone) 
 
 Box Colony, 197 
 
 Box-tree, 23 
 
 Bridge, 22, 23, 28, 31, 141, 164, 
 
 168, 170, 307 
 Brook Cherith, 15, 34, 175 
 Brothers of St John the Divine, 
 
 263, 269 
 Browning, 51, 78 
 Brlinnow, Professor, 54, 85 
 Bulbul, 296 
 Bulrushes, 331 
 Burckhardt, 108, 109, no, in, 
 
 155 
 Burial monument, 46 
 Burton, Sir Richard, 87 
 Byzantine architecture, 83 
 
 — churches, 70, no 
 
 — priest, 63 
 
 Caccabis saxatilis, 33 
 
 Cactus, 226 
 
 Caesar, 207 
 
 Caesarea, 199 
 
 Caifa, 247 
 
 Cairns, 90 
 
 Calcium, 10 
 
 Calf, 185 
 
 Callirhoe, 45, 306 
 
 Calotropis procera, 36 
 
 Camels, 12, 24, 38, 64, 66, 146, 263 
 
 — in their natural surroundings, 65 
 
 — droppings, 41, 75 
 Camel's hair, 4, 24, 293 
 Campanulas, 278 
 Campus Legionis, 235 
 
 Cana, 270, 271, 272 {see Kefr 
 
 Kenna) 
 Canaan, 232 
 Canaanites, buildings of, 233
 
 350 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Candlestick, seven-branched, 187 
 Capernaum, 297, 298, 301 
 Capers, 278 
 Capitals, 56, 87, 119, 120, 142, 
 
 189, 211, 214, 298, 305, 316 
 Capoc'/a, 290 
 
 Caravans, 23, 74, 75, 76, 149 
 Carmel, Mount, 190, 202,228, 237, 
 
 244, 246, 247, 248, 249, 251, 
 
 252, 255, 266 
 Carmelites, 249, 257 
 Carnelian, 212 
 Carobs, 204, 253 
 Carpets, 156 
 Carts, 104, 105 
 Casale St Giles, 186 
 Castal, 70, 71, 94 
 Castle, Arab, 278 
 
 — Arabian, 233 
 
 — Bel voir, 310 
 
 — at Castal, 95 
 
 — of Crusaders, 12, 185, 264 
 
 — of Es-Salt, 158 
 
 — mediaeval, 9 
 
 — of Mshatta, 79 
 
 — of Lazarus, 8 
 
 — Saracenic, 70 
 Cat, 25, 32, 251 
 Cathedral, 57, 207, 210 
 Caucasus, 103, 104 
 Cave, 16, loi, 203, 285 
 Cemetery, 119, 224, 272, 274 
 Cenotaph, 10 1 
 
 Censer, 240 
 
 Centaureas, 254, 332 
 
 Central Arabia, 7, 40 
 
 Central Asia, 76 
 
 Central Palestine, 219 
 
 Chameleons, 278 
 
 Chapel (Rijal el-'Amud), 190 
 
 — of St Simon Stock, 25 
 Charcoal-burners, 150, 153 
 Chariot, 205, 314 
 Chariton, St, 15 
 
 Chats, 227, 331 (saxicola libano- 
 
 tica) 
 Cheetahs, 32 
 Cherith, 15, 34, 175 
 CJieilanthes-frai^rans, 253 
 Chiff-chaffs, 227 
 Chlorides, 330 
 Chloride of calcium, lo 
 
 — of magnesium, 10 
 
 Cholera, 2, 13, 75, 76, 157, 160, 
 
 169, 212, 284 
 Chorazin, 301 
 
 Chosroes II., 53, 83, 84, 85, 125 
 Christian Brothers, 262 
 Chromis paterfamilias, 290 
 Chromis simonis, 290 
 Chrysanthemum, 253, 254, 332 
 Chub, 108 
 Church, Christian, 71, 158, 298 
 
 — Greek, 57, 58, 148, 195, 210 
 
 — Latin, 148, 149, 270, 271 
 Churches, 55, 60, 195, 202, 275 
 
 — Byzantine, 70, 1 10 
 
 Church of the Annunciation, 264, 
 265, 268 
 
 — of Mount Carmel, 257 
 
 — of Crusaders, 12, 264 
 
 — of St Elias, 275 
 
 — mediaeval fortress, 189 
 
 — of Knights of St John, 181 
 
 — of St Louis, 255 
 
 — of St Margaret, 255 
 
 — of the Sovereign Mother of God, 
 
 57 
 
 — of the Holy Sepulchre, 211 
 Cinnyris osea, 34 
 
 Circassians, 24, 76, 90, 97, 102, 
 103, 105, no, III, 118, 125, 
 127, 129, 134, 137, 138, 147, 
 158, 277 
 Circle, stone, 45, 46 
 Circus, 129, 143, 216 
 Cistern, 14, 68, 81, 219, 285 
 Cities, 67, 23s, 236, 238,282
 
 INDEX 
 
 351 
 
 Civilisation, 45, 80, no, 176 
 
 Clay, 10 
 
 Clarias inacracanthiis, 290 
 
 Clematis cirrhosa, 253 
 
 Clermont-Ganneau, Mons, 59, 61 
 
 Cleopas, Pere, 58, 60, 61, 62 
 
 Cleopatra, 13 
 
 Climate, 12 
 
 Cock, 187 
 
 Codex, Samaritan, 198 
 
 Coffee, III, 133, 136 
 
 Coins, 196, 212, 315 
 
 College, 196 
 
 Colocynth, 228 
 
 Colonies, 47, 83, 95, 104 
 
 Colonists (German), 12, 105, 247, 
 
 252, 259 
 Columns, 45, 109, no, 119, 129, 
 
 130, 141, 142, 143, 185, 189, 
 
 205, 207, 209, 216, 298, 305, 
 
 316, 344 
 Commerce, 13, 159 
 Conder, 236 
 Conduits, 14, no 
 Confessors, 315 
 Constantinople, 63 
 Constantine, 264 
 Consuls, 248, 257, 313 
 Convent, Benedictine, 8 
 
 — at Mount Carmel, 252, 255 
 
 — at Es-Salt, 153 
 
 — at Nablus, 193, 201 
 
 — at Nazareth, 260 
 
 — of St Pierre, 292 
 Tiberias, 297 
 Coracinus, 290 
 
 Corinthian architecture, 56, 95, 109, 
 
 142, 143, 189, 298, 3n 
 Corn, 329 
 Corn-crakes, 227 
 Corvtcs affinis, 33 
 Cotton, 195 
 Cranes' bills, 227 
 Crocuses, 91, 227, 253 
 
 Cromlech, 148 
 Crosses, 71, 2n 
 Crusades, 158, 315 
 Crusaders, 12, 15, 104, 175, 181, 
 186, 207, 2n, 252, 264, 303, 
 
 304 
 Crystal, 212 
 Cuckoo, 34 
 
 Cufic inscriptions, 70, 71 
 — coins, 196 
 
 Cultivation, 43, 45, 55, 252, 279 
 Curtiss, the late Professor, 223 
 Cyclamen, 253 
 
 Daisies, yellow, 227, 278 
 Daniascena, capocta, 290 
 Damascus, 72, 74, 76, 84, 87, 1 01, 
 
 125, 177, 199, 314 
 Dames de Nazareth, 262 
 Dancing, 166, 294 
 Dates, 29, 39, 329 
 David, 222 
 Dead Sea, 9, 10, 17, 32, 163, 173, 
 
 216, 328 
 Dead Sea fruit {calotropis procera), 
 
 36 
 Dead Sea valley, 43 
 Deborah, 181, 232 
 Decapolis, 127, 128, 129, 301, 
 
 315 
 Decius, 315 
 
 " Decline and Fall," 83 
 Deerhound, 291 
 Derwish, 75, 76, 162, 317 
 Dhaher, 247 
 Dieb, 294, 301 
 Diocletian, 315, 329 
 Diseases, 221, 306 
 Divorce (documents of), 13 
 Doctor, the, 2 
 Documents (divorce), 13 
 Dog, 25, 94, 205 
 Dog-bane {apocynacea), 35 
 Dolmen, 45, 46, 273
 
 352 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Dolomite, 42 
 
 Dominican, 53, 55, 61 
 
 Donkey, 5, 8, 30, 45, 49, 107, 159 
 
 Dor, 227 
 
 Doric origin, 68 
 
 Dotan, 218 
 
 Dothan, 218 
 
 Doura, 278 
 
 Dove, Indian turtle-(/«r/«;-r/j.w/«j), 
 
 33 
 Drake, Tyrwhitt, 87 
 Droppings, 41, 75, 128 
 Druses, 255, 292, 294, 295, 296 
 Durand, Pere Germer, 62 
 Dyeing-sheds, 297 
 
 Eagles, 331 
 
 Ebal, Mount, 191, 192, 194, 201 
 
 Ebenezer, 220 
 
 Edinburgh Medical Mission, 263 
 
 Egypt, Lower, 58 
 
 El Aujeh, 344 
 
 El Bireh, 179, 180, 183 
 
 Elders, 253 
 
 El-Ghor, 328, 329, 331 
 
 El Hammam, 316 
 
 Eli, 188 
 
 Elijah, 17, 171, 256, 266 
 
 — Fountain of, 14, 15 
 
 — hiding-place of, 15, 16 
 Elisha, 185, 204, 208, 275 
 El Lubban, 192 
 
 Emir Nuh Bey, 103, 139 
 
 Emperor, German, 212, 297 
 
 Emperor Heraclius, 85 
 
 Endor, 228, 269 
 
 En-gannim, 224 
 
 Engedi, 36 
 
 Ephesus, 63 
 
 Ephraim, 183, 187, 208 
 
 Epiphany, 13, 292 
 
 Epistle of an Arab Physician, 78 
 
 Er-Rashid, 88 
 
 Eryngo, 278 
 
 Escort, 5, 6, 95, 118, 138, 340 
 
 Esdraelon, 227, 228, 266 
 
 Es-Salt, 50, 14s, 153, 154, 155, 
 
 156, 157, 158, 159 
 Essenes, 16 
 Es Sumrah, 344 
 Et Tabigha, 284, 297 
 Et-tayyibeh, 187 
 Eusebius, 95, 235 
 Evil One, 4, 66 
 Excavation, 236, 238, 297, 316 
 
 — Austrian, 231 
 
 — German, 230, 231 
 Excavations, 215, 227 
 Ezekiel, 47 
 
 Ezra, 198 
 Ez-Zerka 126 
 
 Falcon, Lanner-, 99 
 
 Farnesiaiia, 22 
 
 Fauna, 11 
 
 Fe/is caligata, 32 
 
 Feiis-mas, 253 
 
 Fellahin, 23, 24, 49, 80, 106, 119 
 
 13s, 140, 292, 293 
 Fennel, 278 
 Feral cat, 25 
 Fergusson, 83 
 Ferhad, 84 
 Yexns, 253 
 
 Ficiis sycomonts, 14 (mulberry fig) 
 Figs, 17, 29, 39, 287 
 Fig-tree, 160, 187. 
 Firearms, 213 
 Fish, 108, 286, 289, 290 
 Flax, 329 
 
 Flint arrow-head, 91 
 Flintlock, 213 
 Flora, II, 12, 35, 43, 91, 98, 99, 
 
 203, 227, 228, 24s, 252, 253, 
 
 273, 278, 288 
 Folklore, 186, 292 
 Fords, 21 
 Forests, 127, 149
 
 INDEX 
 
 353 
 
 Fortress, 158, 209, 211, 217, 227, 
 234, 238, 239, 316, 327 
 
 Forts, Roman, 68, 83, 94 
 
 Forum, no, 129, 141, 142, 209, 
 216, 282 
 
 Fountain, Apostles', 8 
 
 — Elijah's, 14, 15 
 
 Foxes, 32 (cam's ni/oiicus, cam's 
 
 variegatus) 
 Franciscans, 61, 195, 226, 260, 262, 
 
 264, 265, 268, 270, 272, 275, 
 
 276, 289, 291, 297 
 Francolin, 33 
 
 Frenjy, the, 196, 201, 259, 280 
 Fruit, 125, 156, 170, 204, 228 
 Fruit, Dead Sea {calotropis proco-a), 
 
 36 
 
 Fulke, King, 310 
 Funeral, I2I 
 
 Gabinius, 207 
 
 Gadara, 307, 308 
 
 Galingale, 253 
 
 Galilee, 126, 167, 220, 227, 228, 
 
 269, 281, 286 
 Gardens, 20, 204, 205, 217, 224, 
 
 225, 226, 252, 264, 288 
 Gazelle, 12, 32, 90, 93, 98, 128, 
 
 292 
 Genista, 253 
 
 Gennesaret, plain of, 285 
 Geraniums, 91, 254 
 Gerasimos, Patriarch, 60 
 Gerizim, Mount, 191, 192, 194, 202 
 
 — Temple of, 202 
 Germans, 215, 248 
 Gethsemane, Garden of, 8, 284 
 Ghassanides, 85, 129 
 Gibbon, 83 
 
 Gideon, 125, 266 
 Gilboa, 228, 237 
 Gilead, 127, 128, 145, 265, 315, 
 
 328 
 Giovanni of Frascati, Brother, 256 
 
 Z 
 
 Gladioli, 253 
 
 Goats, 25, 56, 123 
 
 Goat's hair, 4, 293 
 
 Good Samaritan, Khan of, 6, 9, 
 
 176, 345 
 Gorge of brook Cherith, 15, 16 
 
 17, 18, 146, 147, 159 
 Gothic cathedral, 207 
 Government, the, 195 
 Grakle, 17, 34 
 Grapes, 156, 158 
 Gravel limestone, 42 
 Graves, 119, 152, 221 {see also 
 
 Wely) 
 Great Plain, 272 
 Greeks, 53, 199, 249, 260, 262 
 Greenstone, 42 
 Griffon-vulture, 99, 331 
 Grottoes, loi, 344 
 Grouse, sand, 33 
 Grove, Sir George, 198 
 Guelder-roses, 253 
 Guide, 51, 214, 323, 324, 326, 327 
 Guy de Lusignan, King, 279 
 
 Hadramat, 90 
 
 Haifa, 72, 244, 246, 247, 248, 252, 
 
 255, 256, 258, 259 
 Haj, 75, 99, 100, 175, 340, 342 
 Haji, 172 
 Haj road, 74 
 Hannah, 188 
 Haram, 28 
 
 Haroun-er-Raschid, 233 
 Harvest, 48 
 
 Hauran, 7, 85, 100, in, 135 
 Hawkweeds, 332 
 Hawthorns, 253 
 Hayil, 89 
 
 Hebrides, Outer, 1S6, 295 
 Hebron, 177, 194, 222, 270, 303 
 Heesh, 157 
 Hehl, 133, 136 
 Helena, 271, 275
 
 354 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Henna, 4 
 
 Heraclius, Emperor, 85 
 
 Herbs, balsamic, 278 
 
 Hermitages, 15, 18, 285 
 
 Hermon, 188, 191, 280, 281, 284, 
 
 306, 334 
 Herod, 13, 126, 207, 216, 281, 282, 
 
 285. 338, 343 
 
 — palace of, 14 
 Heshbon, 45, 47 
 Hierapolis, 84 
 High places, 68 
 Highwaymen, 49 
 
 Hill of the Cock {Jehel ed deck), 187 
 
 Hill— Tel'at ed-Dam, 9 
 
 Hills, 31, 43, 128, 147, 163, 191, 
 
 228, 265, 269, 310, 328 
 Hippodrome, 207, 209, 216, 316 
 " Historical Geography^'''' 202, 204 
 Holofernes, 315 
 Hornstone, 253 
 Horses, 4, 6, 24 
 Hosea, 152, 223 
 Hospice, Franciscan, 283 
 
 — German Catholic Palaestina 
 Verein, 287, 289 291 
 
 — at Haifa, 248, 249 
 
 — of the Knights of St John, 181 
 
 — Nazareth, 261, 263 
 Hospital, Austrian, 269 
 
 — at Carmel, 256 
 
 — at Haifa, 248 
 
 — Nazareth, 263 
 
 — of the Templars, 195 
 
 — at Tiberias, 283, 303, 323 
 Hospitality, 51, 119, 131, 153, 156, 
 
 171, 173, 176, 255, 260, 287 
 Hospitallers, 279 
 Hotels, 20, 260, 283 
 Hftsh or Hiishi, 104 
 Hyacinths, 253 
 Hysena, 12, 32, 151, 255 
 Hyrcanus, 54, 202, 207 
 Hypnotic suggestion, 221 
 
 Ibex, 32 
 
 Ibn Rashid, 89 
 
 Idol, 239 
 
 Ignatius, 276 
 
 Incense, Israelitish altar of, 233 
 
 Indian turtle - dove, 33 (turtur 
 
 risorius) 
 Inn of the Apostles' Fountain, 8 
 — of the Good Samaritan, 9, 176 
 Inscription, 57, 70, 71, 275 
 Institute of British Architects, 84 
 Institutions, 186, 263 
 Invocation, 231 
 Ionic capitals, 142 
 Irises, 253 
 Isaac, 74, 202 
 Isaiah, 208 
 Ishmaelites, 127 
 Israel, 46, 189 
 Israelites, 54, 223, 224, 235 
 Issachar, 224 
 
 "Italian, the," 229, 237, 238 
 Itinerai-ies, 95 
 
 Jabbok, 108, 116, 123, 124, 125, 
 126, 127, 128, 146, 312, 334 
 
 Jachin, 239 
 
 Jackals, il, 32, 151, 255 
 
 Jacob, 124, 125, 185, 192 
 
 Jael, 245 
 
 Jaffa, 45, 202, 270 
 
 Jahwe, 233 
 
 Jaiad, 310, 32s 
 
 Jar, 85, 240, 271 
 
 Jaulan, 85, 104 
 
 Jeba, 217 
 
 Jebel es-Shech, 306, 334 
 
 Jebel Osha, 152, 173, 334 
 
 Jehonadab, 204 
 
 Jehu, 204, 216 
 
 Jenin, 203, 217, 224, 226, 227 
 
 Jerash, 105, 106, 1 18, 139, 145, 
 148, 210, 216, 301 
 
 Jerboa, 34, 331
 
 INDEX 
 
 355 
 
 Jeremiah, 47, 189 
 Jericho of crusading times, 14 
 Jericho, 8, 11, 13, 19, 20, 50, 127, 
 164, 175, 312, 344 
 
 — plain of, 12, 21 
 
 — road to, 5, 6 
 
 — Roman, 13, 14 
 Jericho-roses, 35 (anastatica) 
 Jeroboam, 185, 188 
 
 Jerome, St, 189, 208, 235, 276, 304 
 Jerusalem, 5, 11, 45, 102, 122, 175, 
 
 183, 194, 197, 303, 304 
 Jessamine, 252 
 Jezebel, 215, 216 
 Jezreel, 227, 310 
 Jifna, 185, 186, 192 
 Jisr el Mujamia, 307 
 Job or Joab, 123 
 Jochanan, Bishop, 317 
 John the Baptist, 171, 202, 208, 
 
 216 
 Jonah, 270 
 Jonquils, 245, 253 
 Jordan, II, 13, 31, 32, 45, 56, 124, 
 
 126, 127, 145, 165, 167, 171, 
 
 220, 307, 308, 325, 329 
 
 — East, 90, 103, 120, 128, 257, 
 
 294, 312 
 
 — valley, 9, 21, 32, 35, 36, 265 
 Joseph, St, 264 
 
 Joseph, 192, 219 
 
 Josephus, 36, 207, 274, 285, 290, 
 
 303. 315 
 Joshua, 54, 188, 199, 314 
 Josiah, 235 
 Jotham, 223 
 Judah, 235 
 
 Judsea, 11, 12, 163, 328 
 Jujube-tree 21, 23, 37, 164 [zizyphus 
 
 lotus) 
 
 — zrzyphus spina Chrisfi, 21 
 Julia Livia, 343 
 
 Juniper, 253 
 Justinian, 86, 195, 202 
 
 z2 
 
 Kafr Sabt, 279 
 
 Kaimmakam, 155 
 
 Kamnimotsk or Kakupschi, 103 
 
 Karawa, 340 
 
 Karn Hattin, 279 
 
 Karn Sartabeh, 340 
 
 Keats, 64 
 
 Keble, 286 
 
 Kedron, valley of, 8, 123 
 
 Keffeeye, 4 
 
 Kefr Kenna, spring of, 270 
 
 Kerak, 53, 56, 169 
 
 Kerosene, 196, 197 
 
 Khalil, 30 
 
 Khan, 160, 180, 190, 224, 225, 278, 
 
 287, 300, 311 
 Khan of the Good Samaritan, 6, 9 
 Ivhans, Saracenic, 68 
 Kings, Three, 292, 294 
 Kingfisher, 332 
 Kinnerot, 280 
 Kinnor (a lute), 280 
 Kirbet el-Herri, 68 
 Kishon, 235, 244, 245, 259 
 Klein, 71 
 
 Knights of St John, 181, 211 
 Kokab el-Hawa, 310 
 Koziba, 16 
 Kubatiyeh, 220, 222 
 Kumbaz, 166, 172 
 
 Lady, the, 2 
 
 Lagos, Ptolemy, 206 
 
 Lake of Galilee, 167, 284, 286, 289 
 
 Lagrange, Pere, 62 
 
 " Land and the Book" 82 
 
 Language, 25, 51 
 
 Lanner-falcon, 99 
 
 Lapis-lazuli, 212 
 
 Larks, 99, 237, 331 
 
 Latin Patriarch, 51 
 
 Latins, 12, 52, 53, 199, 249, 260 
 
 Law, 196, 198 
 
 Lazarus, Castle of, 8
 
 356 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Lebanon, 255 
 
 Leeches, 8 
 
 Lehaf, 137, 312 
 
 Lejjun or Legio, 235, 236, 237, 242 
 
 Lemons, 3, 17, 252 
 
 Lepers, 195, 206, 226 
 
 Levi, 200 
 
 Libations, 240 
 
 Lightfoot, 274 
 
 Limestone, 10, 42, 43, 203, 253, 298 
 
 Linen, 329 
 
 Lintel, 56, 189 
 
 Lions, 32 
 
 Lizard, 43, 93, 98, 278, 331 
 
 Looms, 196 
 
 Lot, Shech, 10 
 
 Louis, St, 255, 271 
 
 Lower Egypt, 58 
 
 Lubban, 190, 192 
 
 Lupin, 254 
 
 Lusignan, King Guy de, 279 
 
 Lychnis, 254 
 
 Maccabees, 266 
 
 Machaerus, 216 
 
 Madaba, 32, 38, 46, 49, 50, 51, 53, 
 54. 55. 56, 57, 60, 62, 95, 102, 
 138, 139, 148, 287, 291 
 
 Magdala, 285, 286, 301 
 
 Magnesium, 9 
 
 Maiden-hair, 253, 260 
 
 Maimonides, 304 
 
 Maize, 278 
 
 " Majnoon," 162 
 
 Makhrlld, 334 
 
 Maktoiib, 37 
 
 Malih, 334 
 
 Manasseh, 198, 232, 235 
 
 Mandrakes, 203, 253 
 
 Manuscripts, 200 
 
 Map, mosaic, of Madaba, 57, 58, 59, 
 60, 62, 63 
 
 Marble, 56, 95, 264, 298 
 
 Mares, 25, 27, 291 
 
 Margaret of Provence, 271 
 
 Margaret, St, 255 
 
 Mariamne, 216 
 
 Marl, 21 
 
 Marriage, 13, 52 
 
 Martyrs, 189, 190 
 
 Masada, 36 
 
 Mastaba, 146 
 
 Maundeville, Sir John, 178, 247, 
 
 258, 277 
 Maundrell, Henry, 194 
 Mausoleum, 158 
 Mezeba, 239 
 Meadow of Sinking In (Merj-el- 
 
 Gharak), 218 
 Measurement (by time), 31 
 Mecca, 72, 74, 75, 172 
 Medal, 196 
 
 Mediterranean, 32, 202, 204, 280 
 Megiddo, 227, 232, 235, 236, 259 
 Meidan, 76 
 Mejdel, 286 
 Melissa officinalis, 1 28 
 Mimoire, by Mons. Clermont-Gan- 
 
 neau, 59 
 Menhirs, 239 
 Merj-el-Gharak, 218 
 Mesha, 54 
 
 Meshalcha, Bedu, 312, 325 
 Michaud, 265, 271 
 Midianites, 125, 219 
 Milestones, 45 
 Mill, 71, 124, 148, 235, 297 
 Minaret, 226, 246, 281 
 Minyeh, Khan, 287, 300 
 Mishna, 304 
 
 Missionaries, 186, 249, 289 
 Missions, Scottish and American, 303 
 
 — medical, 249, 263, 287 
 
 — JeriisalejH and the East, 249 
 Moab, II, 22, 43, 47, 116, 117, 
 
 126, 128, 173, 202, 208 
 Moabite sparrow, 34 
 Moabite stone, 68, 71
 
 INDEX 
 
 357 
 
 Moabites, 54 
 
 Monaster)', 15, 16, 85, 256 
 
 Monks, Greek, 16, 59 
 
 Monogamy, 56 
 
 Monograph, by Pere Sejourne, 53 
 
 — by Schumacher, 55, 140 
 
 — by Pere Lagrange and Pere 
 
 Cleopas 
 Mongols, 158 
 Monolith, 189, 214 
 Monument, burial, 46, 72, 130 
 ' ' Le I\Iont Thabor : Notices His- 
 
 toriques ei Descriptives,^^ 273 
 Morality, 56 
 
 Moravians, German, 195 
 Mosaics, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 62, 64, 
 
 271, 275 
 Moses, 42, 44, 46, 199, 222 
 Mosque, 70, no, 172, 189, 195, 
 
 207, 210, 255 
 Mshatta, or Mashita, or Meshita, 
 
 71, 79, 80, 84, 93, 98, 128 
 Mount Ebal, 191, 192, 194, 201 
 Mount Gerizim, 191, 192, 194, 202 
 
 — Gilboa, 228, 237 
 
 — of Moab, 202 
 
 — Nebo, 42, 44, 45 
 
 — of Olives, 8, 164 
 
 — of Precipitation, 269 
 
 — Scopas, 179 
 Mountain of the Shech, 306 
 Mountains of Es-Salt, 157 
 
 — Quarantana, 15 
 Mourner, 121 
 Muchtar, 106, ill 
 
 Mudir, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 
 136, I39> 310, 311, 313, 323, 
 324 
 
 Mulberry fig, 14 
 
 Mulberry-trees, 222 
 
 Mujedda, 236 
 
 Mukaris, 3 
 
 Muqutta, 235 
 
 Muscari, 35 
 
 Museum, 257 
 Music, 96, 295 
 Mutesarrif, 135 
 Mykenaean pottery, 234 
 Myrrh, 127 
 Myrtle, 253 
 
 Naaman, 204 
 Nabateans, 54 
 Nablus, 179, 183, 190, 191, 193, 
 
 194. 195. I97» I99> 202, 217, 
 
 219, 312 
 Nahallal, 272 
 Nain, 228, 269 
 Napoleon, 256 
 Narghile, 30 
 Nathaniel, 272 
 Nawa, 106 
 Naumachia, 143 
 Nazareth, 228, 258, 260, 261, 262, 
 
 266 
 Nebk, 21 
 
 Nebo, Mount, 42, 44, 45 
 Negro, 20, 171, 338, 339 
 Nets, 289 
 Nightingale, 34 
 Nile, 84, 125, 246 
 Nimr, 96, 118 
 Notitia, Roman, 69, 95 
 Notre Dame d'Amerique, 260 
 Nysa, 315 
 
 Oaks, ii, 105, 120, 149, 150, 157, 
 204, 222, 223, 253, 259 
 
 Obadiah, 208 
 
 Odeum, 109 
 
 Officials, 24, 248 
 
 Oleander, 23, 35, 123, 126, 286, 
 306, 332 
 
 Oliphant, Hans, 248 
 
 Oliphant, Laurence, 244 
 
 Olives, 148, 187, 204 
 
 Olives, Mount of, 8 
 
 Omar, 312
 
 358 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Omri, 54, 206 
 Grabs, 17 
 
 Orange, 19, 20, 127, 252 
 Orchis, 253 
 Origen, 276 
 Ornithogalums, 332 
 Orphanage of Dames de Nazareth, 
 262 
 
 — English, 263 
 
 — Salesian Fathers, 260 
 Oshr, 36 
 
 Oxen, 25, 104 
 
 Palace, 86, 87, 88, 142, 215 
 Palace of Herod, 14, 207, 282 
 Palestine, 58, 63, 219 
 
 — Eastern, 126, 129 
 
 — Exploration Fund, 62, 71, 87 
 Palmer, Paul, 62 
 
 Palms, II, 13, 127, 181, 224, 226, 
 
 246, 252, 2S1, 284, 306 
 Panther, 255 
 Pariah dog, 25 
 Partridge, 33 
 
 — (Hey's) ammoperdix keyi, 33 
 
 — (Greek) caccabis saxatilis, 33 
 Pasha, the, 95 
 
 — of Acre, 217, 256 
 
 — of Damascus, 156 
 Passover, The, 198, 200 
 Patriarch, Gerasimos, 60 
 
 — Greek, 57, 59, 60, 61, 62 
 
 — Latin, 51, 155 
 
 Patriarchate in Jerusalem, 193, 195 
 
 Paul, St, 268 
 
 Paula, 271, 276 
 
 Peacock, Thomas Love, 112 
 
 Pears, 204 
 
 Pella, 306, 312, 326 
 
 Pentateuch, 199 
 
 Peraea, 7, 125, 126 
 
 Periwinkle, 35, 253 
 
 Pere Cleopas, 58, 60, 61, 62 
 
 Pere Germer Durand, 62 
 
 Perc Sejourne, 53, 55, 57 
 Pere Vincent, 61 
 Persian art, 81 
 Persian Gulf, 76 
 
 — king, 83 
 
 Personage, the Royal, 2, 40 
 Peter, St, 276 
 Phasaelis, 342, 343 
 Philadelphia, 116 
 Phinehas, 198 
 Phoenicians, 246 
 Piasters, 31, 50, 52, 157, 337 
 Piedmontese, 51 
 Pigeons, 33 
 
 — rock, 18 
 Pilasters, 87, 95 
 
 Pilgrims, 13, 14, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 
 
 256, 263, 298 
 Pillar, 120, 239 
 Pines, II, 105, 150 
 Pipes, native, 5, 40 
 Pistachios, 171 
 Plague, 75 
 Plain of Esdraelon or Jezreel, 227, 
 
 228 
 
 — of Sharon, 228 
 
 — of Gennesaret, 285 
 
 — of EI-Makhna, 191 
 Plateau, 64, 126 
 
 — of Ard 'Abdallah, 46 
 
 — of Ard el Hamma, 280 
 Plough, 45, 119, 191, 221, 227 
 Plovers, 227 
 
 Poem, 66 
 
 Poet, 96, 118 
 
 Polygamy, 56 
 
 Pomegranate, 253 
 
 Pompey, 207, 315 
 
 Pool, 14, 55, 205 
 
 Poor Clares, 260 
 
 Poplars, 223, 332 
 
 Population, 23, 107, 155, 195, 249 
 
 Potteries, 297 
 
 Pottery, 234
 
 INDEX 
 
 359 
 
 Presbytery, 51, 53, 148, 272 
 Pride of India, 311 
 Priest, high, 200 
 
 — Byzantine, 63 
 
 — Greek, 58, 180 
 
 — parish, 51, 55, 56, 155, 157 
 Priests, 51, 52 
 
 ''^Primitive Semitic Religion To- 
 
 day" 223 
 Professor, the, 2 
 Prophet, the, 74, 125, 189 
 Prophets, Jewish, 190, 256 
 Propylaea, 141, 142 
 Proscenium, 142 
 Psalms, 116, 117 
 Pseudo-platantis, 14 
 Ptolomais, 247 
 Ptolemy Lagos, 207 
 Ptolemy Philadelphus, 116 
 Pudding-stone, 42 
 
 Quakers, 186 
 Quarantana mountain, 15 
 Quarantine, 2, 31, 160, 165, 169 
 Quercus czgiiops, 149 
 
 RAB JOCHANAN BEN SaKAI, 304 
 
 Rabbath Amman, 116 
 Rabbi Akiba, 304 
 
 — Meir, 304 
 Rags, 220, 228 
 Rahab, 15 
 
 Railway, 72, 73, 88, 99, 108, 211, 
 
 229, 236, 246, 249, 307, 308 
 Raisins, 29, 156, 158 
 Rakkath, 282 
 Rahwan, 5, 27 
 Ramah, 179 
 Ramleh, 104, 189 
 Ranunculus, 254 
 Rat, 125 
 Ravens, 17, 33i 
 Raven, wedge-tailed {corvus affinis), 
 
 33 
 
 Rebecca, 185 
 
 Rechab, 205 
 
 Recueil d Archiologie Orientale, 59 
 
 Red Sea, 76 
 
 Reservoirs, 55, 69, 185, 316 
 
 " Rischan " or " Rischi," 292 
 
 Road, 44, 67, 74, 83, 95, 118, 141, 
 
 183, 186 
 Robinson, 235 
 Rocks, 42, 43, 253 
 Rock garden, 252 
 
 — rose, 253 
 
 — pigeons, 18 
 
 Rolls of the Law, 196 
 Roman Catholics, 12, 196 
 
 — colonies, 83, 99 
 
 — Arabia, 69 
 
 — forts, 68, 83, 94 
 
 — forum, no 
 
 — marches, 85 
 
 — Notitia, 69 
 
 — province, 86 
 
 — remains, 70, nv. 235, 297, 308, 
 
 316 
 
 — road, 44, 67, 83, 95, 118, 125, 
 
 141, 144 
 
 — soldiers, 47 
 
 — tiles, 87 
 
 — toparchies, 186 
 Rooks, 191, 227 
 Roots, 149 
 Rosaries, 157 
 
 Rose bushes, 225, 288 
 
 Roses, Jericho- {anastatica), 36 
 
 Rotunda, 141, 142 
 
 Ruins, 53, 54, 67, 68, 71, 106, 108, 
 109, 140, 141, 148, 181, 186, 
 207, 247, 273, 27s, 278, 297, 
 298, 338, 340 
 
 Sa'b-el-Meshak, 6 
 Sacrifice, 91, 250, 319 
 Sadowi, 27, 28, 161, 162, 182, 258, 
 32s. 335. 342, 343
 
 360 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Saewulf, 302 
 Safsaf, 22 
 
 Saint, 221, 223, 318 
 Saint Chariton, 15 
 
 — Moslem, 120, 189 
 
 — Old Testament, 220 
 Saladdin, 158 
 Salesians, 260, 262 
 Salisbury, Bishop of (i 192), 265 
 Sallah ed-din, 279, 287, 310, 315 
 Salome, 343 
 
 Salt, 10, 14, 21 
 
 Saltanay 156 
 
 Samaria, 191, 203, 204, 206, 219, 
 
 22S, 328 
 Samaritan, Good, Khan of, 6, 9, 
 
 176, 345 
 Samuel, 188 
 Samovar, 136, 139 
 Samaritans, 198, 199, 201, 226 
 Sanatorium, 248 
 Sand-grouse, 33 
 Sand-stone, 42, 344 
 Sanhedrin, 304 
 Sandwort, 43 
 Sanlye, 135 
 Sanur, 217 
 Sara, 158 
 Saracens, 85 
 Saracenic khans, 68 
 Sarcophagi, 71, loi, no, 119, 216, 
 
 270, 308 
 Sargon, 315 
 
 — bas-reliefs, 84 
 Sassanian dynasty, 84 
 Saul, 266, 314 
 Saxicola Hbanotica, 331 
 Scarabs, 234 
 
 Schools, 195, 196, 226, 262, 263, 
 
 305 
 Schumacher, 55, 56, 72, 90, 96, 
 
 100, 104, 13s, 140, 249, 257, 
 
 312 
 Scopas, Mount, 179 
 
 Scrolls of the Law, 198 
 Sculpture, 70, 71, 81, 142, 189, 
 
 211, 214, 316 
 Scythopolis, 315 
 Sea-birds, 246 
 Sea, Dead, 9, 10, 17, 32 
 Seal, 196, 234, 240 
 Sebaste, 203, 205, 207, 210, 211, 
 
 213,215 
 Sect, esoteric, 16 
 Sedge-grass, 331 
 Seetzen, lii 
 
 Sejourn^, Pere, 53, 55, 57 
 Selim Eftendi Khuri, 252 
 Sellin, Doctor, 233 
 Semuniyeh, 259 
 Sepulchre, Holy, 195 
 Serai, 224, 313, 318, 327, 337, 
 
 338 
 Sesame, 278 
 Settlements, Greek, 12 
 
 — Russian, 12 
 
 — Samaritan, 196, 197 
 Seyaly 22 
 
 Sharon, 104, 228, 255 
 
 Shech, 51, 56, 71, 74, 120, 209, 
 
 211, 291, 300, 319, 330 
 Shech Abdallah, 46 
 Shech Goblan, 118 
 Shech Lot, 10 
 Shech Shadli, 313 
 Shech Muhammed, 100 
 Shechem, 194, 219 
 Shelley, 93 
 Shiloh, 188, 189, 194 
 Shiraz, 84 
 Shireen, 84 
 Shop, curiosity, 9 
 Shrine, 223 
 Shunem, 269 
 Sidr, 21 
 Silence, 35 
 
 Simon Stock, St, 257 
 Singing, 96, 97, 99, 166
 
 INDEX 
 
 361 
 
 Sisera, 245 
 
 Sisters of Charity, 263 
 
 — of St Joseph, 263 
 
 — of the Rosary, 1 55 
 Skylarks, 227 
 
 Smith, Prof. G. A., 72, 202, 204, 
 
 235 
 Smyrna, 63 
 Snails, land-, 99 
 Soap, 195 
 Soapwort, 43 
 Sodom, apple of, 36 
 Sceurs de Charite, 195 
 Solanuni sanctum, 36 
 Soldiers, Circassian, 90, 135 
 
 — Egyptian, 12 
 
 — Jewish, 285 
 
 — Roman, 47 
 Solomon, 188, 235, 239 
 Sparrows, 11, 34, 227 
 Sportsmen, 2 
 
 Spring, 158, 181, 185, 190, 205, 
 
 270, 279 
 Springs, hot, 45, 297, 308 
 Squills, 35, 253 
 Stallions, 6, 24 
 Star of Bethlehem, 253 
 Starlings, II, 227 
 Statues, 142 
 Stocks, 254, 332 
 Stones, 220, 318 
 Stone of Abraham, 177 
 Stone circle, 45, 46, 185 
 Stone, Moabite, 54, 68, 71 
 Storks, 332 
 Sugar-cane, 329 
 Suggestion, hypnotic, 221 
 "Sultana," 156 
 Sultan's Spring, 14, 15 
 Sumach, 156 
 
 Sun-bird, citinyris osece, 34, 254 
 Superstitions, 66, 77, 298 
 Swallows, 17, 93, 125, 316 
 Sycaminium, 247 
 
 Sycomore, 14 
 
 Synagogue, 200, 298, 303 
 
 Syrians, 206 
 
 Syria, 14, 30, 80, 105, 125, 246, 
 
 250 
 Szaltese, 156 
 
 Taanak, 227, 229, 232, 233, 23s, 
 
 236 
 Tabor, 224, 229, 237, 266, 274, 
 
 277 
 Talmud, 304, 340 
 Tamarisk, 23, 34, 253, 332 
 Tank, 69, 70 
 Tanneries, 297 
 Tarafah, 66 
 Tarbush, 24, 293, 318 
 Taricheae, 286 {see Magdala) 
 Tax, road, 45 
 
 — war, 50 
 
 — Tel'at ed-Dam, 9 
 Taxes, general, 106, 135 
 
 — horse, 49 
 
 Tell, 203, 214, 229, 232, 301, 316, 
 
 341 
 
 — Hum, 297 
 
 — el Mataba, 45 
 
 — el-Mutesellim, 235, 236, 237, 
 
 238 
 Templars, 195, 259, 279 
 Temple, 68, 129, 141, 142, 185, 
 
 199, 202, 207, 209, 239, 314 
 Temptation, 15 
 Terebinth, 150, 157, 219, 223 
 Teskerys (local passports), 165, 193 
 Tetanus, 9 
 Tetrapylon, 141, 142 
 T/addalu, iii 
 Theatre, 109, 129, 141, 142, 143, 
 
 207, 209, 235 
 Thermae, 106, no 
 Thieves, 5 
 Thistles, 23 
 Thompson, 82
 
 362 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Thorns, 21, 23, 150 
 Thothmes III., 314 
 Three Kings, the, 292, 294 
 Tiberias, 13, 259, 277, 280, 281, 
 
 282, 283, 284, 323 
 Tiglath-pileser, 315 
 Tithes, 200 
 Tobacco, 5, 30, 40, 41, 55, 157, 
 
 294. 338 
 Tomb of 'Abdallah, 46 
 
 — of Abdel Azziz en-Nimr Shech 
 
 Adwan, 118, 119 
 
 — of Abu Obeidah Ibn el Jerrah, 
 
 312 
 
 — of Jonah, 270 
 
 — of Joseph, 192 
 
 Tombs, no, 119, 158, 187, 192, 
 
 239. 285, 304, 317, 318 
 Tomoak, 30 
 Tort His, 22 
 Tortoises, 278 
 Town of Nabhls (see NabUls) 
 
 — of ancient Jericho, 15 
 
 Towns in ruins, 67, 68, 106, 141, 
 
 301 
 Traditions, 298 
 Tradition, re church at el Bireh, 181 
 
 — re Elijah's Fountain, 14 
 
 — re the horse of Solomon, 299 
 
 — re St John Baptist, 208 
 
 — re ten lepers, 226 
 
 — re the Miracle of turning Water 
 
 into Wine, 270 
 
 — re Nathaniel, 272 
 
 — re Sermon on the Mount, 279 
 
 — re workshop of St Joseph, 264 
 Trajan, 129 
 
 Transfiguration, the, 273, 275 
 Tree (sacred), 190, 220, 221, 222, 
 
 223, 227 
 Trees, 21, 22, 23, 149, 150, 204, 
 
 253. 259, 306, 311 
 Tristram, 17, 36, 42, 67, 70, 71, 79, 
 
 80, 94, 289, 344 
 
 Troughs, stone, 119 
 Turtur risorius, 33 
 Turban, 293 
 Turcomans, 24, 146 
 Turtle-dove, Indian, 33 (fitrfiir 
 riso7-ius) 
 
 Um el-Kuseir, 67, 68 
 Um er-Resas, 68 
 Um Weleed, 67, 68 
 Umshita, 79 
 University, 303 
 
 Valerian, 254 
 Valley, Dead Sea, 43 
 
 — Jezreel, 310 
 
 — Jordan, 9, 36 
 
 — Kedron, 8 
 
 — of the Lubban, 190 
 
 — of Sa'b-el-Meshak, 6 
 Vegetation, tropical, 11, 306 
 Vespasian, 329 
 
 Village of Abu-dis, 5 
 
 — of Amman {see Amman) 
 
 — of Bir es Zet, 185 
 
 — of Et-tayyibeh, 187 
 
 — of Gath-Hepher, 270 
 
 — of Jenin, 203, 217, 224, 227 
 
 — of Jerash, 130, 131 
 
 — of Jifna, 185, 186 
 
 — of Kafr Sabt, 279 
 
 — of Kubatiyeh, 220, 222 
 
 — of Madaba, 53 
 
 — of Mastaba, 146 
 
 — of Er-Rummana, 146 
 
 — of Sebaste, 213 
 
 — of Seilun, 188 
 
 — of Yafa, 260 
 Villages of Bedu, 67 
 
 — of Circassians, 106 
 Vincent, P^re, 61 
 Vineyard, 252 
 Vogiie, M. de, 211 
 Vulture, 99, 331, 341
 
 INDEX 
 
 368 
 
 Wadi Salihi, 147 
 VVady, 122, 334 
 
 — el Abyad, 341 
 
 — Faria, 334, 335, 339 
 
 — Fesail, 341 
 
 — el-Hamman, 119 
 
 — Heshban, 36, 47 
 
 — el-Hor, 149 
 
 — Kelt, IS 
 
 — Malih, 334 
 
 — el-Mastaba, 146 
 
 — Osha, 157 
 
 — er-Rumemin, 148 
 
 — er-Rumman, 122 
 
 — Shaib, 159 (see also 160) 
 
 — Umm Rabi, 146 
 Wages, 23 
 
 Warren, Sir Charles, 71 
 Water, 14, 16, 55, 74, 108, 122, 
 126, 144, 168, 194 
 
 — of Dead Sea, 9 
 
 — Roman system, 14, 69 
 
 — bottles, 44 
 Waterfall, 147, 297, 332 
 Water-pipe, 30, 112, 114, 330 
 Watka, 118, 119 
 Weapons, 25, 55 
 Wedge-tailed raven {corvus affitiis), 
 
 33 
 Well of Jacob, 192, 202 
 
 Well of Nazareth, 265 
 
 — of Tiberias, 285 
 
 Welys, 120, 121, 152, 160, 202, 
 
 221, 317, 318 
 Willibald, 271, 276 
 Willow, 22, 332 (safsaf) 
 Wine, 252, 271, 272, 294, 311 
 Wolf, 33 
 Women, 205 
 Wool, 195 
 
 Wordsworth, 20, 116, 323 
 Wormwood, 99 {aitemesiitni) 
 Wren, long - tailed, 254 {drymaca 
 
 g7-acilio) 
 
 Yafa, 260 
 
 Yakubi, 141 
 
 Yakut, 140 
 
 Yarmuk, 126, 127, 307 
 
 Yemen, 85 
 
 Yujftz, 119 
 
 Zadam, 71 
 
 Zakkum, 23 
 
 Zebedee, 260 
 
 Zebib, 68 
 
 Ziza, 69, 71 
 
 Zizyphus lotus, 21, 23, 164 
 
 Zizyphus spina Christi, 2 1
 
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