k trees. The banks of the river are bordered
with thickets, now overgrown with wild vines, and fragrant with flowering
plants. Birds sing continually in the cool, dark coverts of the trees. I
found a singular charm in the wild, lonely, luxuriant banks, the tangled
undergrowth, and the rapid, brawling course of the sacred stream, as it
slipped in sight and out of sight among the trees. It is almost impossible
to reach the water at any other point than the Ford of the Pilgrims, the
supposed locality of the passage of the Israelites and the baptism of
Christ. The plain near it is still blackened by the camp-fires of the ten
thousand pilgrims who went down from Jerusalem three weeks ago, to bathe.
We tied our horses to the trees, and prepared to follow their example,
which was necessary, if only to wash off the iniquitous slime of the Dead
Sea. Francois, in the meantime, filled two tin flasks from the stream and
stowed them in the saddle-bags. The current was so swift, that one could
not venture far without the risk of being carried away; but I succeeded in
obtaining a complete and most refreshing immersion. The taint of Gomorrah
was not entirely washed away, but I rode off with as great a sense of
relief as if the baptism had been a moral one, as well, and had purified
me from sin.

We rode for nearly two hours, in a north-west direction, to the Bedouin
village of Rihah, near the site of ancient Jericho. Before reaching it,
the gray salt waste vanishes, and the soil is covered with grass and
herbs. The barren character of the first region is evidently owing to
deposits from the vapors of the Dead Sea, as they are blown over the plain
by the south wind. The channels of streams around Jericho are filled with
nebbuk trees, the fruit of which is just ripening. It is apparently
indigenous, and grows more luxuriantly than on the White Nile. It is a
variety of the _rhamnus_, and is set down by botanists as the Spina
Christi, of which the Saviour's mock crown of thorns was made. I see no
reason to doubt this, as the twigs are long and pliant, and armed with
small, though most cruel, thorns. I had to pay for gathering some of the
fruit, with a torn dress and bleeding fingers. The little apples which it
bears are slightly acid and excellent for alleviating thirst. I also
noticed on the plain a variety of the nightshade with large berries of a
golden color. The spring flowers, so plentiful now in all other parts of
Palestine, have alr