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CHARACTER OF OUR GUARDS.

procured from the village of Beit Tamar, near Bethlehem, through the agency of their Sheik Hamdeh. The British Consul told me that my very guards were habitual robbers, who maintained a monopoly of guiding pilgrims to the Jordan. But in this one circumstance he said lay our safety, as these Jephthahs were respected for their calling by all the marauders of the district, and he held them answerable for the consequences of every party of Englishmen intrusted to their charge. The remuneration to be paid to them was also fixed by Mr. Phin at a general rate for every journey, and on terms satisfactory to both parties.

CHAPTER XI.

JERICHO, JORDAN, AND THE DEAD SEA.

I LEFT Jerusalem for the Jordan with my armed cavalcade at daybreak. When I came out of my bed-room with my candle in my hand, I found my two guards squatted on the floor of my breakfast parlour, and turning up, as I spoke to them, their bleared wild dark eyes, twinkling with delight and deceit. Their robe was coarse wove, and without a seam, but ample in its folds. When I reached the street, I found everything adjusted, and the long-tailed Arabians, adorned with trappings and tassels, ready to start. I was warned that the journey would not be easily accomplished, even whether mounted on horses, mules, or dromedaries. The roads every where are almost impassable; and however excessive the heat may be in other portions of Palestine, it is still more overpowering in the valley of Gilgal. I was warned that in going through this desert there would be every variety of sameness travellers have to encounter in the Holy Land. On these occasions the path is either through cultivated valleys in the midst of vineyards, all similar in every respect, along the sides of hills which are either bleak and bare or verdant with evergreens and olive yards, or the path leads the face of a steep rock, and winds round jutting pro

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234

GENERAL ROUTINE OF TRAVELLING.

montories and among huge broken boulders, and up like the steps of a stair in which small holes have been hollowed for the feet of the mules. But whether it be over or round a difficulty in the path, the mules overcome it with the activity of cats, while the rider is in danger of slipping off behind should he not hold fast with his feet in the stirrups, with his hands by the mane, and his knees pressing on the ribs of the animal. But it is in coming down these steep stairs or slopes, that difficulties and dangers are more likely to be encountered. The mule, when left to itself, is sure to select the safest path and to take the best way of stepping it. It seldom commits a mistake, and sets down its feet with perfect confidence. The round smooth iron-plated hoofs clank and clatter, slide and paw, and prance and strike fire, and stumble and trot, and stand still, showing that the animal has a sagacity in reconnoitering such points even more than human. Nay, when the mule finds itself decidedly checkmated, no thumping or kicking, however continued or cruel, will induce it to move an inch. But it will turn its eye back, and up to that of its rider, plainly to indicate that he must either dismount or make up his mind to sit still on the spot. When freed from the burden of its rider, however, the animal gets down on its side and sputters itself onward till it reaches a rideable tract, when it rises and stands stockstill till the rider mounts again. And this is the general routine of travelling in Palestine.

Not only are the roads and scenery very much the same in the Holy Land, but the dress and manners in the East are still exactly what they are described to have been when Abraham sat at the door of his tent four thousand years since. The descendants of Ishmael seem as little likely to

DRESS AND MANNERS UNCHANGED.

235

change as the Pyramids themselves. The hand of Ishmael's descendants is still against every man's hand, and everybody dreads the ravages of these Bedouin Arabs. Now, as in the earliest times, they sow not, neither do they reap, or gather their own crops into barns, but they pilfer and plunder, and roam with their flocks and herds, ever restless, and never abiding anywhere. As of old, the women walk erect with pitcher on head, and children sitting stride-legs on both shoulders, coming to draw water at the deep draw-well; or to wash themselves, or fill their kid-skins with the sweet waters of the Jordan; or they are grinding at the mill while their husbands are winnowing barley at the thrashing-floor; or they are gleaning like Ruth among the reapers at the harvest field, or driving their flocks to the fountain ;—all in exact identity with the descriptions given in Scripture of the remotest times. The oxen still tread out the corn, unmuzzled as ever, according to the command of Moses, and reaching down their necks for a mouthful of the best of it. Often did I notice the wandering Arab of this desert lay himself down after sunset on his bed of sand, like Jacob in the wilderness of Padan-aram, with a stone only for his pillow. During the heat of the day there still sits everywhere the Sheik of the village, as Abraham did in the plains of Mamre, ready to receive the stranger, to bring him a little water that his feet may be washed, to bake bread for him, and to bid him tarry for the night. And to the purpose in hand, the traveller, in going down to Jericho from Jerusalem, is still as liable to fall among thieves, or even to be shot by the deadly aim of the robber's musket from behind a rock, as he was in the days of our Lord, when Jesus spoke his parable. And for anything I know, there may be priests in these dis

236

BENI SAKHERS, SONS OF THE DESERT.

tricts to pass by on the other side, and good Samaritans too to bind up his wounds, to set him on his ass, and to care for him at the inn. To the Biblical student all this is instructive as affording so many explanations of Holy Writ, and to the general traveller, these pleasing incidents of his journey bring back to his eyes illustrations of the very days even of Melchizedek, king of Salem.

Our attendants on this occasion were swarthy, sinewy, well-mounted and well-armed sons of the desert, shaking their long lances and careering around in their journey at the full speed of their Arabian charger in all the fiery life and joy of Bedouin freedom. I never saw finer men of their kind, and no Christian saint could have been kinder to me in my sickness upon this occasion than these marauders of the wilderness. Their features were full of energetic expression, and ever their bleared eyes flashed like diamonds. Their long black wiry hair swung about their neck, with the yellow ends of their turban hanging down over their shoulders, adding still more to the wildness of their tawny countenances. They wore a rope twisted twice round their head, which, after all, I thought may at times be more usefully employed round their neck; for these fierce lords of the desert are thieving and murdering vagabonds. One of them, who had paid me no little kindness, had the audacity to take me round a corner and show me a place where he said he had killed a man: and he dashed his spear on the rock so as to suit the action to the word. Being alone with him for the moment, I scarcely can say that I felt gratified at his politeness and candour in confessing this crime. They sneer at agriculture, and despise the luxury of houses, preferring to live in dingy

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