<A JOURNEY IN THE EAST: 337 



terribly heavy air of the valley of the Jordan is quite 

 perceptible. 



We walked back to the castle with our Arab, and on 

 arriving there he was entertained with food and drink, but at 

 the same time deprived of his freedom for twelve hours in a 

 closely-barred room. We, too, had a capital supper, the 

 Count's servants who waited on us being dressed in the 

 costume of the country. I then hurried back to lie in wait 

 for the Hysenas. 



Meanwhile night had fallen, and the darkness ^vvhich enve- 

 loped the country was unfortunately made still more intense 

 by the gathering clouds. Hodek, whom we found crouching 

 in the ambush, said that some jackals had appeared soon after 

 sunset. 



With iron endurance we lay waiting in our hiding-place 

 until midnight, but as we could then hardly make out the 

 place where the dead donkey was lying, we saw the hopeless- 

 ness of the business. Had the ground been bare rock or the 

 desert- sand of Egypt, our chances would have been better, 

 but here, as throughout the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, it 

 was covered with flat rocks and loose stones, mixed with dark 

 grass. Our pleasant anticipations were thus destroyed, and 

 we were moreover enduring perfect torments in this dark 

 confined place of concealment, for the wind being good for 

 our sport blew straight from the carrion, sending the most 

 horrible stench through the loop-holes. Sometimes we 

 thought that we heard beasts prowling round, while several 

 people passed along the road singing, and the watch-dogs of 

 the monastery and the castle howled piteously in the true 

 Eastern fashion ; but at midnight, as already said, I lost 

 patience, and we all cautiously groped our way back to the 

 castle. 



On the 1st of April I was called at sunrise and went 

 out to see how the strychnine had worked ; great was my 



z 



