t last the guide fell on his
knees and confessed that he knew nothing of the country. Thrown upon my
own resources, I concluded that the Dead Sea must be near, and in the
afternoon I first caught sight of those waters of death which stretched
deeply into the southern desert. Before me and all around as far as the
eye could follow, blank hills piled high over hills, pale, yellow, and
naked, walled up in her tomb for ever the dead and damned of Gomorrah.

The water is perfectly bright and clear, its taste detestable. My steps
were reluctantly turned towards the north. On the west there flowed the
impassable Jordan, on the east stood an endless range of barren
mountains, on the south lay the desert sea. Suddenly there broke upon my
ear the ludicrous bray of a living donkey. I followed the direction of
the sound, and in a hollow came upon an Arab encampment. Through my Arab
interpreter an arrangement was come to with the sheikh to carry my party
and baggage in safety to the other bank of the river on condition that I
should give him and his tribe a "teskeri," or written certificate of
their good conduct, and some baksheish.

The passage was accomplished by means of a raft formed of inflated skins
and small boughs cut from the banks of the river, and guided by Arabs
swimming alongside. The horses and mules were thrown into the water and
forced to swim over. We camped on the right side of the river for the
night, and the Arabs were made most savagely happy by the tobacco with
which I supplied them, and they spent the whole night in one smoking
festival. I parted upon very good terms from this tribe, and in three
hours gained Rihah, a village said to occupy the ancient site of
Jericho. Some hours after sunset I reached the convent of Santa Saba.

_IV.--Jerusalem and Bethlehem_

The enthusiasm that had glowed, or seemed to glow, within me for one
blessed moment when I knelt by the shrine of the Blessed Virgin at
Nazareth was not rekindled at Jerusalem. In the stead of the solemn
gloom, and a deep stillness which by right belonged to the Holy City,
there was the hum and the bustle of active life. It was the "height of
the season." The Easter ceremonies drew near, and pilgrims were flocking
in from all quarters. The space fronting the church of the Holy
Sepulchre becomes a kind of bazaar. I have never seen elsewhere in Asia
so much commercial animation. When I entered the church I found a babel
of worshippers. Greek, Roman,