1848.] pilgrim's ford. 493 



miles east of a line drawn from Jerusalem to Nabulus, they 

 rob and plunder without fear or favor, except when intimi- 

 dated by a display of superior strength, or when their good 

 offices and their countenance and protection are secured 

 beforehand by hiring them as an escort. The fellahin, or 

 peasantry, are miserable creatures. When it is stated that 

 the poor fellah is the slave of the Bedawi or Turk, and that 

 the fellaha, his wife, is also his drudge, nothing more need 

 be added in regard to their condition. They live in filthy 

 mud hovels, and subsist mainly on pilau, or boiled rice, which 

 they eat by scooping it up and conveying it to their mouths 

 in the hollow of their hands. 



It is much the safest for travellers to pass down or ascend 

 the Jordan, along its eastern bank, as the Arabs on the op- 

 posite shore are famed for their treacherous and cruel dispo- 

 sitions, and a score of other bad qualities ; but on either 

 route, a liberal distribution of presents or money can alone 

 insure safety. The good will of the Sheikhs of the different 

 tribes it is also important to secure, unless the escort is 

 sufficiently strong' to set at defiance the perils of the road. 



(6.) In their descent of the river, the American boats 

 passed safely over twenty-seven important rapids and cas- 

 cades, besides a number of smaller ones. The voyage was 

 not wanting, of course, in excitement ; and whenever there 

 was a lack of incident, the ruins of some old Roman bridge, 

 or some locality celebrated in Scripture history, or an Arab 

 village of mud houses, or goat's hair tents, filled with un- 

 kempt and unwashed children and slatternly Bedawiyeh, 

 would be discovered, and suggest a hundred topics for discus- 

 sion or reflection. Late in the evening of the 17th of April, 

 they arrived at El-Meshra'a, the Pilgrim's Ford, but a few 

 miles distant from the Dead Sea. 



The morrow was the anniversary of the baptism of the 

 Saviour. At three o'clock in the morning, says Lieutenant 

 Lynch, " we were aroused by the intelligence that the pil- 

 grims were coming. Rising in haste, we beheld thousands 

 of torchlights, with a dark mass beneath, moving rapidly 



