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Dead 



Higher up the river there was drift wood in the stream, and 

 bushes and branches were lodged high up in the trees which lined 

 the banks. The bounding hills \v"ere immense masses of silice- 

 ous conglomerate with occasional limestone, this being the geo- 

 logical formation of the Ghor from Lake Tiberias to the Dead 

 Sea. Rapids were still of frequent recurrence. 



They arrived at El Meshra, the bathing place of the Christian 

 pilgrims. Tradition assigns this as the place where the Israelites 

 passed over with the ark of the covenant, and where our Savior 

 was baptized by John ; and near it, is supposed to have been Beth- 

 abara, the Savior's place of refuge. Here also is said to have 

 been the scene of the Savior's temptation, and the fountain healed 

 by Elijah. Near by was Jericho, and fourteen miles on the other 

 side was Heshbon where Sihon, the king of the Amorites, dwelt. 

 The water and land parties united in pitching their tents just at 

 the spot where the pilgrims passed. 



April 18. — The pilgrims arrived at 3 a.m. Thousands of torch- 

 lights with a dark mass of human beings, were seen moving rap- 

 idly over the hills, and they were on the ground almost before the 

 tents could be struck and the place cleared. Men, women, and 

 children, mounted on camels, horses, mules and donkeys, rushed 

 impetuously down the bank as if they had been fugitives from a 

 routed army. The Bedawin guard formed a cordon of defense, 

 sticking their spears in the ground and mounting their horses, 

 to prevent the American party from being run down — -Mos- 

 lems shielding one Christian band against another! The party 

 which had arrived was only the van guard ; at 5 o'clock a.m. the 

 main body came over the crest of a high ridge in one tumultuous 

 eager throng: " Copts, Russians, Poles, Armenians, Greeks, and 

 Syrians from all parts of Asia, Europe, Africa and America. 

 Many of the women and children were suspended in baskets or 

 confined in cages : they dismounted, hurried forward, disrobed 

 in haste, and threw themselves into the stream, regardless of ob- 

 servers. They took that plunge in honor of the Trinity and 

 then filled a bottle from the river. They cut branches of the 

 willow, dipped them in the consecrated stream and bore them 

 away as memorials of their visit. The pageant disappeared as 

 rapidly as it had approached and left the small party to their 

 solitude. The number was said to be 8000, but probably this 

 was an over estimate. All bathed, except a few Franks,— most 

 of them reverentially, but a few with levity. 



The course of the Jordan had been so tortuous, that in sixty 

 miles of latitude, and four or five of longitude, the party had 

 traversed at least 200 miles ; and as they had descended twenty- 

 seven threatening rapids besides many smaller ones, and at all 

 times found a rapid current, it is not surprising that the Dead Sea 

 is 1300 feet below the level of the Mediterranean. As they ap- 



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