<A JOURNEY IN THE EAST: 357 



woods, and across several of the mountain torrents which 

 hurry down to the Jordan through crumbling hanks big 

 stones and rich vegetation, till we came to the village of 

 Jericho. 



Wretched and decayed is now the place where in ancient 

 days stood a city which flourished even down to the times 

 of the Crusaders. We rode by the hovels on its outskirts, 

 and after passing through really garden-like vegetation, fields 

 of wild oats and flowering shrubs, we reached the ba'se of the 

 western mountains, where before us lay the large and famous 

 spring of Ain-es-Sultan, our present goal. From this point 

 the real expedition up the valley of the Jordan was to begin. 



Just at the edge of the vegetation, where the sharply 

 defined line of bushes gives place to the stony mountains, a 

 spring of great volume bubbles up from the ground and flows 

 into an ancient stone basin. Near this spring our camp had 

 been pitched, at the foot of the mountain. We had a hasty 

 lunch, but no one could eat much, for the oppressiveness of 

 the air was terrible in the middle of the day, and the insatiable 

 thirst which one feels in these regions below the level of the 

 sea does away with all one's appetite. 



After an hour's rest some of the party again set out to 

 spend the afternoon and evening in shooting. Salim, the 

 leader of a band of hunting Bedouins, was to show us a 

 locality well stocked with game. He was a fine plucky 

 fellow, whom I soon grew to like and to appreciate as a sports- 

 man. Accustomed as he had been from his youth to ride, 

 hunt, and fight, he might have served as the model of a 

 genuine absolutely free Arab. His frame was slight, but 

 sinewy, and his face, with its energetic features, short beard, 

 and falcon eyes, was exceptionally dark for this part of the 

 country, and resembled the complexion of an African Arab. 

 His attire consisted of a white burnous tucked high up and 

 a little turban, while his skinny legs terminated in yellow 



