D JENIN. 
345 
Our own experience in Djenin was not quite so bad as this, 
though bad enough. Upon entering the town we rode up to 
a fountain, where we waited nearly an hour, while our drag¬ 
oman went in search of some lodging-place. He had a niece 
here whose husband was a Christian; but he feared they 
were not at home, having heard that they were on a visit to 
Jerusalem. While we were waiting at the fountain, a great 
many ragged children and women came to get water and 
stare at us ; and before long, a number of cadaverous and 
thievish-looking men began to gather around us, smoking 
their pipes, and remarking upon all our peculiarities of cos¬ 
tume and manners. It was a great comfort to think that we 
had near us the means of striking terror into the hearts of 
these lazy vagabonds, in case they should undertake to treat 
us with any sort of disrespect. In all truthfulness, they were 
the most squalid, miserable, scowling set of villains it was 
ever my fortune to behold; ragged to the very extremity of 
raggedness ; dirty to the foundation of dirtiness ; smoked and 
smoky to the essence of smokiness ; and beastly in all respects 
to the lowest pitch of beastliness. 
Yusef returned in due time, bringing tidings that his niece 
had really gone to Jerusalem; but that he had, after great 
difficulty, obtained lodgings for us at the house of a Christian 
Arab from Nazareth. 
Djenin afforded us a fair example of the extent to which 
mental and physical persecution may be carried without abso¬ 
lutely producing insanity. Expecting every moment to be 
robbed by the natives, who are the worst in all Palestine, we 
lay in the hut of a Christian Arab, where we were literally 
in danger of being devoured by asses, cows, goats, and smaller 
animals, such as cats, dogs, rats, and lizards, as well as by the 
vermin, which completely obliterated all my remembrances of 
South America and California. Never before had I been con¬ 
quered by annoyances of this kind; I had always slept through 
them, and laughed at my companions next morning for being 
troubled about such trifles. But, 0 Lamartine ! Lamartine ! 
if thou hast tears to shed—-and I know thou hast yet a few 
more left—in the name of humanity, shed them now ! It was 
