TO JERICHO. 129 
Jatter I found a very curious and new Cimex, or bug. 
f had time enough to view the mountain and ad- 
jacent country, when we broke up at nine o’clock, 
and continued our journey to Jericho, and travelled 
tjfer a part of its large plain, which was entirely 
hcfart and uncultivated, bringing forth a number 
^ the trees that afford the oil of Zacchaeus, and fome 
oiamnus call’d Chrift’sThorn. We came, after a little 
t!m e,to the fountain of El ilha, which is the name of 
a fine fpring of frefh water, fituated in a vale, and 
grounded with divers fine trees, viz. Salix fafsaf, 
honicerce affinis floribus coccineis ; and, amongft the 
re ff fome Fig-trees, which grew there wild. We 
Continued our journey over a vale of this plain, in 
; v hich the Arabians had fown barley for their 
l0 rfes ; and this was the only cultivated fpot of 
S'ound I had feen between Jerufalem and Jericho, 
a country of a good day’s journey in extent. We 
Puttie towards noon to Jericho, or two ftones caft 
r °'n the place where they fliew fome remains in 
Memory of this famous town. At this time there is 
v 0t the lead building, except the walls of an old 
'° u fe, which the Monks, who are apt to fanclify 
^’ er y thing, have called the houfe of Zacchaeus, 
ho, as they fay, climbed up in a Sycamore tree, 
Rowing on this road, to fee Chrift. But the Chrif- 
^jtns of the Eaft fay that he climbed up in a different 
' n d of tree, which now grows common here, and of 
r; ;°fc fruit the Arabs exprefs an oil, which the Pil- 
'l' ms purchafe under the name of Zacchaeus’s oil. 
t | e Grecian text plainly calls i t Sycomorus ; which in 
c ^ ® We dilh tranflation.and by Luther, is erroneoufly 
& !e d a Mulberry tree. The Sycamore does not 
t>r°\v near this place at prefent, but is to be found 
^ other parts of Judea nearer the fca; and might 
Ve been planted here when the country was in- 
K habited 
