‘A JOURNEY IN THE EAST’ 367 
model of a true Arab. At first we rode along the edge of 
the vegetation at the base of the mountains, through thick 
bushes and low trees, which were literally covered with Storks 
just awakening from their slumbers; but after a while the 
shrubs and the garden-like country round the springs of 
Ain-es-Sultan came to an end, and we again entered the true 
steppe. It was good riding-ground on the whole, and, ex- 
cepting where the stony tracts and the dry watercourses near 
the mountains had to be crossed, one could always gallop. 
After a ride of two hours there opened on our left a tolerably 
wide mountain valley, far away up which lay the spring of 
El-Audje, while along it ran a fertilizing stream, which after- 
wards traversed the plain beyond down to the Jordan. 
Through the low trees and scrub of this narrow strip of 
vegetation we had to pass, and on the other side found Salim 
and his men awaiting us, keen for sport and ready to show 
us ground well stocked with game. 
The large caravan with most of the gentlemen turned to 
the left up the valley to the springs of El-Audje, but the 
Grand Duke, Hoyos, and I followed the Bedouins. Here we 
found great numbers of birds of prey sitting on the trees, and 
I killed a Short-toed and a Pygmy Eagle within a few minutes, 
while the patches of wild oats and high grass among the 
bushes were swarming with Quails; they rose at every step, 
and if we had taken with us enough ammunition we might 
have made a splendid bag of these birds. Red-legs, however, 
were scarce, and there were no Hey’s Partridges at all. 
After shooting a long way eastwards, well into the plains 
of the Jordan, we again returned to the edge of the steppe, 
and having rested in the shade of a tree for half an hour we 
mounted our horses and rode over the yellowish grassy plains, 
the Bedouins running behind us on foot. 
In about half an hour we came to the edge of a deep rift 
in the elevated plateau, where far below us a stream was 
