AN IDEA WORKED OUT. 9 



through Palestine, so little realising the common idea of 

 Eastern travel, and were eager to seize the first favour- 

 able opportunity to escape from the beaten track 

 between Jerusalem and Damascus. When, therefore, the 

 map was produced, and the du-ectness of a route via 

 Jerash, Bozrah, and the ' Giant Cities ' of Bashan was 

 pointed out, my proposal to take that course was una- 

 nimously adopted. We had read Mr. Tristram's most 

 interesting description of Jerash, and we purchased, at 

 Jerusalem, Mr. Porter's sensational account of the ruins of 

 the Hauran. We knew, therefore, something of the 

 country we proposed to visit, and were aware that to pass 

 from Jerusalem to Damascus by the east side of the Jordan, 

 with all the impedimenta of a dragoman, was not a matter 

 to be lightly undertaken. Travellers who, like Mr. Tristram, 

 have of late years visited Jerash and Amman, have 

 almost invariably paid large sums of money as ' backsheesh ' 

 to the Adwan and other Bedouin tribes of the Jordan 

 valley ; while those who, like Mr. Porter and Mr. Cyril 

 Graham, have explored the wilds of Bashan have generally 

 been Arabic scholars, and have travelled with little baggage. 

 We could find no record of any traveller since Lord Lind- 

 say, in 1837, who had gone through to Damascus by this 

 route, although several had penetrated eastward from the 

 Jordan valley as far as Bozrah. 



Our dragoman, greatly to his credit, at once entered 

 into and heartily furthered our plans, although he warned 

 us of a fact we already knew, that an Arab escort was 

 both an expensive and unsatisfactory luxury. An alterna- 

 tive, however, suggested itself. During the past year (1867) 

 the Pasha of Damascus had made an expedition against 

 the Trans-Jordanic Arabs, had thrashed them soundly, and 

 taken prisoner one of the Adwan Sheikhs, who was now in 

 durance at Nablous. The Arab power was in consequence 



