gedi, where fresh water flows from fountains; but, generally speaking, it is as lonely as the grave. The remains of the town of Zoar are still visible on the Eastern hills, among which the race of Moab sprang from the daughters of Lot. It seems that there are whole tracts of hills composed of fossil salt to the southeast of this extraordinary lake; and they say that, when the riven soil gaped into fissures with the heat of the conflagration, a mass of this salt was revealed to Lot, who took it for his missing wife! Towards evening, I strolled into the courtyard of the old castle, where a Turkish garrison is quartered, to protect the pilgrims, and check the inroads of the Bedouin from beyond the Jordan. There was a marble fountain and reservoir of water here, at which the village girls were filling their jars. A range of stables occupied one side of the courtyard, and a shade of trellised vines hung over another. Beneath this, the Aga was sitting on his carpet with two or three of his officers, whilst others moved about in their wild, martial garb, with pistol in belt, and sword by side, as if momentarily expecting the trumpet's call. Such a scene unchanged might that old Crusader-castle have witnessed six hundred years ago, when the Crescent had just displaced the Cross; and its fierce soldiery then, as now, were lounging about, or burnishing their arms beneath the shade of the forbidden vine. I did not visit the Aga, being rather tired of governors, and pipes, and coffee, and common-places about England, and fine brandy; I presume he was equally tired of Europeans, for he did not invade my solitude, or vouchsafe me any notice. At night, the aspect of my bivouac was very picturesque; the watch-fire blazing among the dark green shrubs, gleamed now upon the water, now upon the gay caparisons of the horses that remained standing and saddled all night. The Arabs slept round my tent, wrapped in their striped bernouses; nightingales were thrilling the dark groves with their song; and from the top of the tower came sounds of music and laughter, as the ladies of the Aga's harem were enjoying the moonshine, and the cool air of night. The Arab ladies of Jericho are said to be very fond of strangers' society, but St. Senanus might have been contented with the distant carriage they assumed in my case. About three in the morning I roused my sleeping people, who sprung to their feet with alacrity. In a few minutes a little fire was made with dried leaves and twigs, ignited by tinder and a pistol-flash then the coffee steamed and bubbled; and this, with a roll of bread, constituted our morning's repast. We seldom tasted any other food till sunset; but a cup of coffee always presented itself when we halted for half an hour throughout the day. The good-humoured Bedouin vied with each other in loading the horses, and gratefully received a thimbleful of coffee as reward. We were in motion while the moon still threw our shadows Eastward. I passed through some glades and groves of great beauty on my way to the adjoining mountains, but could detect no traces of where Jericho once stood, with her temples, palaces, and theatres. A curious mound, and a large tank-like excavation, were the only disturbance of Nature's order of things that I observed. At the approach of morning, the stir of life that seemed, like leaven, to ferment the surface of the world round, was very striking; first, the partridge's call joined chorus with the nightingale, and soon after their dusky forms were seen darting through the bushes, and then bird after bird joined the chorus; the lizards began to glance upon the rocks, the insects on the ground and in the air; the jerboa* peeping from its burrow, fish glancing in the stream, hares bounding over the dewy grass, and—as more light came the airy form of the gazelle could be seen on almost every neighbouring hill. Then came sunrise, first flushing the light clouds above, then flashing over the Arabian mountains, and pouring down into the rich valley of the Jordan: the Dead Sea itself seemed to come to life under that blessed spell, and shone like molten gold among its purple hills. I lingered long upon that mountain's brow, and thought that, so far from deserving all the dismal epithets that have been be * A pretty little animal, something between a rat and a rabbit, in appearance and habits. stowed upon it, I had not seen so cheerful or attractive a scene in Palestine. That luxuriant valley was beautiful as one great pleasure-ground-its bosks and groves of aromatic shrubs, intermingled with sloping glades and verdant valleys: the City of Palms might still be hidden under that forest whence the old castle just shows its battlements: the plains of Gilgal might still be full of prosperous people, with cottages concealed under that abundant shade; and the dread sea itself shines and sparkles as if its waters rolled in pure and refreshing waves "o'er coral rocks and amber beds" alone. The road from hence to Jerusalem is drear and barren, and nothing but Bethany occurred to divert my thoughts from dwelling on the beautiful Dead Sea. PART II. CHAPTER XII. THE ARAB AND HIS HORSE. And he will be a wild man; his hand shall be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.-Gen. xvi. 12. Gli Arabi avari, TASSO. Ladroni in ogni tempo, e mercenari. With a champing bit, and an arching crest, And an eye like a listening deer, And limbs that mock at fear: Fit slave for a lord whom all else refuse To serve at his desperate need; By my troth, I think one whom the world pursues Has a right to a gallant steed. BULWER LYTTON. THE Arab is the hero of romantic history; little is known of him but by glimpses; he sets statistics at defiance, and the politi cal economist has no share in him, for who knows where the Arab dwells, or who has marked out the boundaries of his people?* Since Abraham drove forth Hagar to the desert, his descendants have clung to their barren inheritance with a fierce fidelity. While the Israelite has tasted the luxury and the bitterness of all nations triumphing and trampled on in turn-the Ishmaelite has gone down to his desert grave, generation after generation, unchanging and unsubdued. We are told that Arabia is enclosed by the Euphrates, Ormuz, and the Persian gulf; by Diarbeker, Irak, and Khuzestan; but this scarcely renders his locality less vague. The Bedawee roams as freely over his boundless deserts as the winds that sweep them; the only barriers he knows are civilization, and its settled habitations. Tribes sunder and join, as pastures become scarce or abundant; an oasis is to-day peopled with thousands, and covered with flocks and herds; to-morrow it is as lonely as the sea. And thus it has been with the Arab for three thousand years. The Arab is so reverential towards antiquity of descent, that he sacrifices his own pride of birth to the abstract principle. He admits that he is but a parvenu, as only claiming origin from Ishmael, and calls himself "El Arab el Mosta reba"-the naturalized Arab. The genuine ancient tribes are characterized as "El Arab”—par excellence, and were denominated Ad, Thamud, Tasm, and Amalek. Zarab, the grandson of Eber, the great grandson of Shem, gave his name to Yemen, over which country he was king; and his posterity continued to rule there until conquered and expelled by Ishmael. This patriarch married the daughter of Modad, one of the native princes; and his son Kedar obtained peaceable possession of the throne. After the expulsion of the ancient dynasty, the kingly spirit seems gradually to have given way to the patriarchal rule which the invaders had introduced; and the system of independent tribes soon universally prevailed. At Mecca, the management of affairs appears to have been vested in an aristocracy of the tribe of Koreish, who strengthened their authority by the prestige attendant on their being "the Guardians of the Caaba."* The name of Saracen has been absurdly derived from their implacable stepmother Sarah, and also from the great desert, the Sahara; it was an epithet of one of their most distinguished tribes, and adopted by the rest. During the stirring times of the Crusades, this name was almost exclusively applied to the Arab, and with it are connected some of the brightest associations that shine over war's dark annals in the times of chivalry. That chivalry was an earnest, solemn, absorbing feeling-almost a religion in itself. Its kindred spirit influenced the hostile arma. * See note D, in Appendix. |