494 ANNIVERSARY OP THE SAVIOUR'S BAPTISM. [1848. 



over the hills. Striking our tents with precipitation, we 

 hurriedly removed them and all our effects a short distance 

 to the left. We had scarce finished, when they were upon 

 U s: — men, women, and children, mounted on camels, horses, 

 mules, and donkeys, rushed impetuously by towards the 

 bank. They presented the appearance of fugitives from a 

 routed army. Our Arab friends here stood us in good stead ; 

 - — sticking their tufted spears before our tents, they mounted 

 their steeds and formed a military cordon round us. But for 

 them we should have been run down, and most of our effects 

 trampled upon, scattered and lost. Strange that we should 

 have been shielded from a Christian throng by wild children 

 of the desert, — Muslims in name, but pagans in reality. 

 Nothing but the spears and swarthy faces of the Arabs saved 

 us. I had, in the meantime, sent the boats to the opposite 

 shore, a little below the bathing place, as well to be out of 

 the way as to be in readiness to render assistance, should 

 any of the crowd be swept down by the current, and in 

 danger of drowning. While the boats were taking their 

 position, one of the earlier bathers cried out that it was a 

 sacred place ; but when the purpose was explained to him, 

 he warmly thanked us. Moored to the opposite shore, with 

 their crews in them, they presented an unusual spectacle. 



'•The party which had disturbed us was the advanced 

 guard of the great body of the pilgrims. At 5, just at the 

 dawn of day, the last made its appearance, coming over the 

 crest of a high ridge, in one tumultuous and eager throng. 

 In all the wild haste of a disorderly rout, Copts and Russians, 

 Poles, Armenians, Greeks, and Syrians, from all parts of 

 Asia, from Europe, from Africa, and from far distant Amer- 

 ica, on they came; men, women and children, of every age 

 and hue, and in every variety of costume; talking, scream- 

 ing, shouting, in almost every known language under the 

 sun. Mounted as variously as those who had preceded them, 

 many of the women and children were suspended in baskets 

 or confined in cages; and with their eyes strained towards 

 the river, heedless of all intervening obstacles, they hurried 



