DEEP TRAVEL- WORN TRAILS. 17 



Palestine "into the wilderness," much as we in Eng- 

 land might talk of going out for a walk in the fields. 



In the present day such are the actual conditions 

 of life in many of the cities of these countries. Im- 

 mediately outside the walls are probably cemeteries, 

 where in the open plain, from age to age, the ashes 

 of successive generations of the inhabitants have been 

 interred; marked in most cases, when marked at all, 

 simply by rough stones set at the head and foot. * 

 Beyond this rude city of the dead, seamed with 

 numerous trails, worn by the feet of animals, which 

 form the only highways of issue from the city, we 

 very generally come upon a zone of cultivated gardens, 

 encircling the walls for a more or less considerable 

 distance. 



If we follow one of these beaten trails towards the 

 open country, we sometimes find the road passing 

 between high banks on either side; but these cuttings 

 have not been excavated by human labour; for roads 

 in these countries have not been laid out by engineers 

 or surveyors. They have been worn away by the feet 

 of many generations of men and animals which have 

 constantly passed along that same well-worn path, and 

 thus, combined with the action of the winds and rains, 

 in the course of ages these channels have been cut 

 as they are now seen to exist, f In the old road leading 

 from Jerusalem to Jericho, for example, we can still 



* As a type of a city thus circumstanced we may cite the instance 

 of Jerusalem, as seen now. Cairo in the same way is situated in the 

 midst of a vast Necropolis. 



-j- Deep travel-worn trails of this kind are common in many parts of 

 India, but excellent examples of such sunken paths may be seen much 

 nearer home, in the vicinity of the Field of Waterloo, where many 

 of the cross roads and country lanes are thus sunk below the general 

 level of the country. 



VOL. I. 2 



