‘A JOURNEY IN THE EAST’ 357 
woods, and across several of the mountain torrents which 
hurry down to the Jordan through crumbling banks 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 base 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 ot 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 
