THRILLING ALARM IN JERICHO. 379 
the Sheiks, numbering five, with this guard for their protec¬ 
tion, and as an equivalent had caused them to enter into stip¬ 
ulations for the safe conduct of all travelers to those places, 
holding them responsible for any loss by robbery or plunder, 
and allowing them to exact a hundred piasters from each 
traveler in payment of their services. This tariff upon pil¬ 
grims affords the Sheiks and their dependents their princi¬ 
pal means of support. The guards are not very expensive, 
in point of equipment, as may be seen from the specimens 
with which we were favored ; nor does it appear that they 
exercise any very salutary effect upon the Bedouins, since 
there appear to be quite as many robberies committed now 
as there were before this arrangement. It is essential to 
have them, nevertheless, for depending as they do chiefly 
upon Frank pilgrims for their support, they contrive when 
cheated of their profits by a refusal to take advantage of their 
protection, to do the robbing themselves ; and this being re¬ 
garded by the Turkish authorities as a matter between them¬ 
selves and the Franks, it is seldom noticed. Each of the five 
Sheiks, belonging to the different villages on the Jericho side, 
takes his turn in furnishing a guard, and receiving the emol¬ 
uments, so that the profits are pretty equally distributed. In 
addition to the sum of a hundred piasters to the Sheik (about 
four dollars American money), there is, as before stated, the 
further sum of forty piasters to the men, for a sheep that is 
never either killed or roasted ; which I shall ahvays regard 
in the light of a gross imposition upon the credulity of stran¬ 
gers. Besides this, there is there an unlimited amount of hack - 
shish to be paid to the guard individually at the end of the 
journey, for taking good care of the Howadji. I paid the 
backshish without reluctance, because I felt extremely grate¬ 
ful in being permitted to reach Jericho without being shot 
through the head—-not by the Bedouins but by the guard ; 
and I could not but feel sensible of their kindness and discre¬ 
tion in keeping away on the distant hills when we were down 
by the Jordan, and thereby exposing us to but one danger at 
a time—that from the guns of the Bedouins on the other side 
of the river. 
