GHUSAM. 53 



' Saba,' a brancli of the great Anazeb. tribe. The gist of 

 their parley with Khasini was, that they requested him 

 and his soldier to stand by while we were plundered — an 

 offer which brought down on them such indignant menaces 

 from our men, that having reckoned our force, and seen 

 that, though superior in numbers, they were far inferior in 

 weapons, they deemed it prudent to let us go our way in 

 peace. 



We recrossed to the left bank of the river by a Roman 

 bridge in good preservation. The country was now more 

 undulating, and exceedingly well-cultivated, great pains 

 having been expended in irrigating the soil thoroughly, 

 by means of a complicated system of water-channels. We 

 had some difficulty in persuading our men to push on to 

 Ghusam. Mohammed, the second Bashi-Bazouk, was 

 anxious to turn off the road to some village with which 

 he was acquainted ; but we persisted in riding on, and in 

 course of time Ghusam appeared, though not in the posi- 

 tion assigned to it on Van de Velde's map. The view 

 from our camping-ground was magnificent. We were in 

 the centre of a vast plain, bounded on the west and north 

 by the mountains of Gilead and Hermon, on the east by 

 the Jebel Hauran, and stretching on the south into the 

 ' vasty wilds ' of Arabia. In the distance the black walls 

 of Bozrah glittered in the evening sunshine, like some 

 enchanted city of the 'Arabian Nights.' In our walk 

 round the place, we noticed the remains of a Christian 

 church, with the cross carved on the walls, some re- 

 servoirs, and an old stone house, answering better than 

 anything we had yet seen to Mr. Porter's descriptions. 

 A fine pair of folding stone doors, which were thrown 

 wide open at our approach, gave access to the Sheikh's 

 courtyard, into the walls of which were built well-executed 

 carvings of a vine and grapes, the common Christian 



D 



