‘A JOURNEY IN THE EAST,’ 351 
Hawks, and Pigeons flew to their holes, and only now and 
then the short song of a bird was to be heard. 
It now began to get dark, and the clear sounding bells 
were calling to prayer. Hardly had the last sound died away 
when a piece of bread fell close beside me, and a jackal 
appeared within twenty paces. 
Iwas glad to get out of this terrible place, which lies at 
the level of the Mediterranean, for in it a leaden atmosphere, 
such as I had never before felt, seemed to check my breathing 
and to weigh down my whole frame—a feeling of lassitude 
which we experienced in a still greater degree in the lower 
levels that we frequented during the next few days. 
Having taken leave of the pious monks, we clambered 
through the domains of the monastery right up to the tower, 
and then hurried off to the camp, which we did not reach until 
it was quite dark. We then dined, sketched out our plans 
for the morrow, and by ten o’clock all was again quiet in the 
desolate valley. 
At sunrise the party assembled to breakfast, and we were 
sitting at table when an Egyptian Vulture had the impudence 
to fly into the camp and settle among the tents to devour 
some of the kitchen scraps. The Grand Duke, however, 
quickly fetched his gun and shot the audacious bird. 
During the early hours of the morning we separated our 
forces, the Grand Duke and I ascending one of the highest 
of the hills that enclosed the valley, in order to expose our 
kid on its summit, while the other gentlemen went off to 
shoot pigeons in the Mar-Saba ravine. 
We had a long fatiguing climb, for the slopes were smooth 
and slippery, and we had to clamber over flat rocks and 
reddish flinty steeps; the heat, too, was already rather op- 
pressive. Onreaching the summit we found a capital hiding- 
place, which had been yesterday made by my jiger. There 
we watched for two hours, grievously tormented by insects, 
