380 
A CRUSADE IN THE EAST. 
It was a mild pleasant evening as we reined up our horses 
before the palace of his highness the Sheik of Jericho. The 
sun was in the act of setting, and to do him justice he did it 
as well as ever I saw it done. The whole valley of the Jor¬ 
dan was steeped in a glowing atmosphere of purple ; and the 
mountains beyond the Dead Sea were admirably finished off 
on top with cities of gold made out of naked rocks and sun¬ 
shine ; and the Bedouin country, take it altogether, to its 
most distant point of view looked very much like a land of 
wild, undefinable beauty, and glowing romance. 
Regarding the palace of the Sheik of Jericho, of which I 
have made mention, it was a mud hut about thirty feet in 
length, ten feet high, and roofed with a combination of bushes, 
straw, manure, mud, gravel, and old rags. It had three walls 
altogether—the back wall and the two end walls. The 
whole of the front part was open, or rather would have been 
open, had not the Sheik with a degree of shrewdness and in¬ 
genuity very characteristic of the citizens of modern Jericho, 
placed some bushes in a pile there, with an inside partition 
of the same, and formed a sort of connection between them 
and the roof by another pile on top, so that in point of fact 
he had a front wall and porch at the same time, where he 
could sit in warm weather, and smoke the pipe of content. 
This was to be our lodging-place for the night; it was the 
best and only lodging-place we could find. The Sheik and 
his family lived in one corner of the bush part, which was 
the part of which he seemed to be most proud; and some cows, 
goats and chickens lived in the main or mud part. The only 
remaining part, being the other corner of the bush-work, 
which, in the absence of any tourists from foreign countries, 
was temporarily occupied by an ass, we had to wait awhile 
till the Sheik and the ass came to an understanding in regard 
to the right of possession. The Sheik in order to make room 
for us, was in favor of removing the ass to that part of the 
house which was occupied by the goats and chickens. The 
ass was in favor of staying where he was. The Sheik en¬ 
deavored to remove him by force. The ass being the heavier 
body, stood his ground and wouldn’t be removed by force. In 
