trees and other fruit-trees. Here, too, was the first spot where
the eye was gladdened by the sight of a piece of grass, instead of
sand and shingle. Such a change is doubly grateful to one who has
been travelling so long through the barren, sandy desert.

The village lying beside the Sultan's Well looks most deplorable.
The inhabitants seem rather to live under than above the ground. I
went into a few of these _hollows_. I do not know how else to
designate these little stoneheap-houses. Many of them are entirely
destitute of windows, the light finding its way through the hole
left for an entrance. The interiors contained only straw-mats and a
few dirty mattresses, not stuffed with feathers, but with leaves of
trees. All the domestic utensils are comprised in a few trenchers
and water-jugs: the poor people were clothed in rags. In one
corner some grain and a number of cucumbers were stored up. A few
sheep and goats were roaming about in the open air. A field of
cucumbers lies in front of every house. Our Bedouins were in high
glee at finding this valuable vegetable in such abundance. We
encamped beside the well, under the vault of heaven.

From the appearance of the valley in its present state, it is easy
to conclude, in spite of the poverty of the inhabitants and the air
of desolation spread over the farther landscape, that it must once
have been very blooming and fertile.

On the right, the naked mountains extend in the direction of the
Dead Sea; on the left rises the hill on which Moses completed his
earthly career, and from which his great spirit fled to a better
world. On the face of the mountain three caves are visible, and in
the centre one we were told the Saviour had dwelt during his
preparation in the wilderness before undertaking his mission of a
teacher. High above these caves towers the summit of the rock from
which Satan promised to give our Lord the sovereignty of all the
earth if He would fall down and worship him.

Baron Wrede, Mr. Bartlett, and myself were desirous of seeing the
interior of one of these caves, and started with this intention; but
no sooner did one of our Bedouins perceive what we were about, than
he came running up in hot haste to assure us that the whole
neighbourhood was unsafe. We therefore turned back, the more
willingly as the twilight, or rather sunset, was already
approaching.

Twilight in these latitudes is of very short duration. At sunrise
the shades o