FROM THE DEAD SEA TO THE JORDAN, JERICHO, AND JERUSALEM.—THE VALLEY OF THE JORDAN.
REEDS AND RUSHES ON THE JORDAN.
It was a ride of less than two hours from the Dead Sea to the Jordan; the ground was level and the horses in good spirits, so that the whole party indulged in the luxury of a gallop. The course of the Jordan was indicated by trees and great masses of reeds, but the stream was so completely concealed by them that its waters were not revealed until rein was drawn at the bathing-place of the pilgrims.
The boys could hardly restrain their impatience to reach the waters of the river that is so intimately connected with the history of Christianity. Of course they made immediate preparations for a bath, according to the custom of the great majority of visitors; the water was so cold that they remained in it only a few minutes, and were glad to resume their clothing and make a calm study of the scene.
"The river at this point," wrote Frank in his journal, "is about a hundred feet wide, and flows with a current so swift that we could hardly stand against it. We waded and swum to the other side; swimming was preferable to wading, as the bottom is composed of sharp stones, which are very disagreeable to walk upon. The guide said the stream was swollen by recent rains, and at least a foot deeper than at its ordinary stage.
"There is a ford at this bathing-place, and another higher up. Caravans and single travellers going from the east to the west bank, or vice versa, usually pass by one of these fords, and sometimes a large party may be seen here. It is not safe to venture on the other side without a strong guard, as the Arabs are far worse than those between here and Jerusalem, probably because they are not under so much restraint by the government.
AN ARAB SKIRMISH IN THE LAND OF MOAB.
"Several explorations have been attempted of the Land of Moab, as the country east of the Jordan is called, but only a few of them have succeeded. In most instances parties have been compelled to return just after crossing the border, and before they had accomplished anything of what they went to see. The Arabs are treacherous, and often violate their promises after they have received heavy backsheesh to permit travellers to go on without disturbance. If you want to know more of this region we advise you to read 'The Land of Moab,' by H. B. Tristram, one of the few travellers who has explored it. Another interesting work on this subject is 'The Desert of the Exodus,' by E. H. Palmer, and don't forget 'The Land and the Book,' which we have already mentioned.
"Mr. Tristram tells in his book how narrowly he escaped being robbed, and perhaps murdered, by one of the tribes that roam over the country. It often happens that there is a quarrel between two tribes, and when any parties from one encounter the other there is certain to be bloodshed. If strangers happen to be under the escort of the defeated party they must share its fate, and consequently it is not an easy matter to select a guard that can carry you through safely.
"When Mr. Tristram's party started from Hebron there were two tribes from which it was necessary to choose an escort, or rather to whom to pay black-mail. The choice fell upon the Jehalin tribe, and, after a good deal of negotiation, a contract was made and signed with them.
"Hardly had they entered the Land of Moab when they met a large band of the Beni Atiyeh, a tribe with a very bad reputation, and the number was so great that it was nonsense to think of fighting them. The dragoman went forward to parley with them, and was stripped of his outer garments, satchel, money-bag, and belt, before he could speak a word; the sheik of the escort went at the same time and with better success, as he managed to get the ear of the chief of the Atiyeh. Two or three of the men of the escort who ventured to the front were knocked down, and for a little while there was a good prospect of a very serious result to the travellers.
"It turned out that the Beni Atiyeh were on good terms with the Jehalin, and on the payment of a heavy backsheesh they allowed the party to go on. It would have been far otherwise if Mr. Tristram had chosen his escort from the other tribe that offered its services, as there was a bitter quarrel between it and the Beni Atiyeh, and there would have been no chance of an escape. No mercy would have been shown to the travellers, and possibly the Arabs would have justified their cruelty by referring to the old adage, 'A man is known by the company he keeps.'
BATHING-PLACE OF THE PILGRIMS (FROM THOMSON'S "THE LAND AND THE BOOK").
"You must know there are two bathing-places on the Jordan; one is visited by the Latins and the other by the Greeks, and each Church claims that its bathing-place is the spot where Christ was baptized by John. Mr. Thomson thinks that neither is correct, and that the scene of the baptism was considerably farther up the river than any of the present sites. He argues that, according to the historical record, Christ came from Galilee, and was baptized by John, and then returned to Galilee; the road from Galilee reaches the Jordan much farther north than the present bathing-places, and though it is possible he came to this point it is hardly probable.
SOURCE OF THE JORDAN.
"The bank of the river is fringed with willow, tamarisk, and other trees and bushes, and there are several pretty spots here for forming a camp. We wanted to stay here for the night, but our guide had sent the tents by a short route from Mar Saba to the neighborhood of the ancient Jericho, and after a halt of an hour or so we mounted our horses and rode away from the river.
"Doctor Bronson says it is quite probable that the passage of the Jordan by the Israelites, described in Joshua iii. and iv., occurred at the bathing-place we have visited, or certainly not far from it. According to the biblical account they passed the river 'right against Jericho,' and this expression is supposed to mean that they crossed the Jordan at the point nearest to that city.
PASSAGE OF THE ISRAELITES.
"During our halt one of our party read the account of this interesting event while the rest listened. It was not at all difficult for us to imagine the scene when the Israelites came down from their camp in the hills of Moab, and took their position on the banks of the Jordan. Here they halted for the night, and on the next day, when all was ready, the ark of the covenant, borne on the shoulders of the priests, was advanced to the edge of the river; as the feet of the bearers touched the water it receded, and in a few minutes the bed of the stream was dry. Then the ark was carried to the middle of the channel, and it remained there in charge of the priests till the whole host had gone over.
"When the last of the procession had passed, Joshua called to the priests to bring the ark from the bed of the river, and they did so. The waters at once resumed their course, and the Jordan flowed on as before. Of course the monuments of stones which were erected by the Israelites to commemorate their crossing disappeared hundreds of years ago, and we have only the geographical localities to guide us; but, as we heard the description of the event, and looked around us, we felt certain that the spot where the Israelites crossed over Jordan, after their escape from Egypt, and their wanderings in the wilderness, could not be far away.
"Before we go on to Jericho let me say something about the famous river we have just visited.
"The Jordan is about a hundred miles long in a direct line, but its course is so crooked that the actual length of the stream is a great deal more; nobody has ever measured it accurately, and therefore I can't say how much it winds about. One authority says it is sixty-four miles in a direct line from the Dead Sea to the Lake of Tiberias, and two hundred miles by the windings of the river. The head-spring of the Hasbany (the parent of the Jordan) is seventeen hundred feet above the level of the Mediterranean; the mouth of the Jordan, where it enters the Dead Sea, is, therefore, about three thousand feet lower than its source, so the Jordan has a great fall for so short a river.
"The Hasbany and several other streams unite in the Lake of Hooleh, and from the outlet of that lake the river is called the Jordan. It has a rapid fall to the Lake of Tiberias; and as it goes out of that lake it begins its tortuous course, which can be surpassed by very few rivers in the world. Between the Lake of Tiberias and the Dead Sea there are twenty-seven cascades or rapids; all of them are so great that it is quite impossible for boats to make the ascent, and it is not by any means safe to attempt to descend them. Lieutenant Lynch started with three boats, one of wood and the others of iron. The wooden boat was bought in the Lake of Tiberias, while the iron ones were brought from the United States. The iron boats were a good deal battered by the thumps they received during the voyage, but the exploring party brought them to the Dead Sea, and used them for completing their work. The wooden boat was ruined, and abandoned before half the journey had been accomplished.
"The Valley of the Jordan is called the 'Ghor' by the natives. The word means a depression or hollow, and the valley may be regarded as a plain sixty miles long, and from five to ten miles wide, enclosed by mountains. The mountains on both sides are very steep, and the Valley of the Jordan is not unlike some of the deep gorges or ravines in our Western States and Territories. It is broader near the Dead Sea than farther up. The land is generally fertile, and capable of supporting a larger population than it contains at present. According to the accounts in the Old Testament, it was far more productive in ancient times than it is to-day. It contains ruins of cities that once were populous, and it is very certain that the land of Canaan has greatly diminished in importance since the children of Israel came to it and settled.
"There were then as now wandering tribes of shepherds, and their customs have changed very little in all the centuries that have passed; but there were more people living in settled places, and the biblical story shows that Jericho was a walled town with gates, which were shut at night. The flax drying on the roof of Rahab's house shows that that plant was cultivated, and the cord by which she let down the spies tells us very plainly that the people understood the art of spinning. We read the Bible very carefully while in the Jordan Valley, and have derived a great many useful hints from it, and much information.
"We wished we could have been here at the time of the annual visit of the pilgrims, which occurs at Easter, and is a curious sight. There are pilgrims here in fair numbers through the whole year, and they all consider it a religious duty to bathe in the Jordan. The great festival is in April, and at that time several thousand pilgrims leave Jerusalem immediately after the close of the Easter festivities and come down to the Plain of Jericho, where they encamp for the night. They come from all parts of Europe, and there is a good representation from Asia as well. You can see many varieties of costume, and hear a jargon of languages that might remind you of the Tower of Babel.
"The camp is a scene of confusion, and long before morning a disorderly procession is formed, thousands of torches are waved, and the great crowd presses forward in order to enter the sacred stream at daybreak. Hundreds of people are in the river at the same moment, and not a year passes without some of them being swept away and drowned in the swift current. Men, women, and children are crowded together indiscriminately, and the wonder is that so few accidents occur. The whole ceremony is over in two or three hours, and then the pilgrims turn back from the Jordan and return to Jerusalem.
RECENT ASPECT OF THE PLAIN OF JERICHO.
"Just as we left the Jordan it began to rain, and we had a disagreeable ride to Riha, which some writers consider the site of Gilgal; others think it marks the position of ancient Jericho; but the general opinion is that Jericho was farther to the west. The modern Jericho is a village of fifty or sixty houses, and its inhabitants are a degenerate race of people, who live by a little agriculture and by what they can beg or steal from visitors. We found our tents pitched a little out of the village, and were a good deal annoyed by the natives, who crowded around us and could not be driven away. The children begged for backsheesh, and the men wanted to amuse us with a 'fantasia,' or dance, but we had been told it was a stupid performance, and declined to witness it.
AIN-ES-SULTAN, OR FOUNTAIN OF ELISHA (FROM THOMSON'S "THE LAND AND THE BOOK").
"There is a tower near the village, which is called by some 'The House of Zaccheus,' but the indications are that it was not built till the time of the Crusades, long after Zaccheus was laid in his grave. We did not have time to visit it, nor did we go to the Ain-es-Sultan, or Sultan's Spring, which is also known as the Fountain of Elisha. It is a fine spring, the water rather warm in temperature, as we are told, and varies but little in volume throughout the year. Biblical students who have been here say there can be no doubt it is the very fountain which was healed by the prophet Elisha, and is therefore well entitled to bear his name. There are several aqueducts by which the water was once carried over the plain, and used for irrigating the fields, but they are now so much ruined as to be of little consequence.
"What a night we had in our camp! The rain ceased about sunset, but during the night it came on again, and fell as though a thunder-cloud had burst above us. It poured and poured, and not only did it rain, but the wind blew like a gale at sea. Fred and I remembered what we had said at Bethlehem the first night we slept in the tents. We concluded we were going to have all the storm we wanted, and more than once wished ourselves safely lodged in a solid house.
"The ground was soaked with water, and became so soft that it would not hold our tent-pegs against the wind. The rain came in through the canvas, the pegs gave way, and about midnight down came the cold and sloppy cloth in our faces.
"We shouted for help, and the dragoman came with his men and managed to fix things up a little, but it was slow and disagreeable work with the heavy rain falling, and the night as black as the inside of an ink-bottle. They had one miserable lantern that did little more than enable us to see the darkness, and by the time they had the tent arranged so that we could crawl under it we were wet nearly to the skin.
"We tried to laugh it off, but 'twas no use trying. We couldn't either of us see the fun of it, and couldn't get to sleep again. There we lay till morning wondering what would happen next.
"The Doctor's tent went down like ours, but he had a thick water-proof coat and a large wrapper of the same material, so that he was not so badly off as we were. He didn't escape, though, nor did any of the others, and when daylight came we all looked as if the best thing would be to wring us out and hang us up to dry. We were a sorry looking breakfast-party, but pulled ourselves together and managed to eat something. Fortunately the rain stopped, but there came a new trouble.
"When we went into camp there was a little brook close by us which we were to cross in the morning. The heavy rain swelled this brook into a small torrent that was absolutely dangerous to ford, as one might easily be swept down with the current and drowned.
"So we went up the bank about a mile, and while the horses were driven through the water our party walked over an old aqueduct which wasn't the safest bridge in the world, but a great deal better than no bridge at all. The channel of the aqueduct was about a foot wide, and the sides eighteen or twenty inches high; the whole structure was at least fifty feet above the torrent that dashed below us like the rapids of Niagara. We walked very carefully, as the least misstep might have sent us tumbling over the side, with an excellent prospect of being killed by the fall or drowned in the roaring water. It is hardly necessary to say we were all heartily glad to be on the safe side of the stream.
"We had a ride of five hours from this bridge to the gates of Jerusalem, and such a five hours we do not care to have again.
"Before the end of the first hour it came on to rain, and by the middle of the second hour the rain had changed to snow. And with the rain and snow there was a high wind, and as we wound among the hills we had it in all directions, now in our faces, and a few minutes later blowing at our backs.
"The guide repeatedly called our attention to places of scriptural or other interest. We tried to look at them, but I fear we were more concerned about the weather than with what lay around us. But we remember among other things that the route from Jerusalem to Jericho has the same character now that it had eighteen centuries ago, and we had an escort to protect us from falling among thieves. We halted a few minutes at the ruined khan which is said to be the site of the inn to which the good Samaritan carried the wounded and plundered traveller whom he found by the way-side.
"The guide told us that a few years ago an English traveller was robbed by the Arabs at this very spot, and the scriptural description will exactly cover his case: 'They stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.'
THE VILLAGE OF BETHANY.
"Our road was steadily upward, as Jerusalem is nearly three thousand seven hundred feet higher than the Dead Sea, and we were not far above the level of that body of water when we started from Jericho. At several points we were on the old road built by the Romans; we went by Bethany, which we did not stop to look at, and wound around the Mount of Olives, and down through the Valley of the Brook Kedron, which we crossed near Gethsemane. Then we entered Jerusalem by the Gate of the Tribes, and rode along the nearly deserted streets to the door of the hotel.
"We were all so benumbed and stiff with the cold that we needed assistance to descend from our horses, and we could not keep our steps straight as we entered the building. A good fire and a hot dinner brought us to ourselves again, and we laughed over our troubles and began to think they did not amount to much, after all.
"It is very unpleasant to be soaked with rain and chilled with the cold, but somehow when you get dry and warm again you don't feel so badly. We shall forget all about the storm and its disagreeable features, but we'll remember the Dead Sea, the Valley of the Jordan, the site of Jericho, Bethany, the inn of the good Samaritan, and a dozen other historic things we have seen since we left our camp at Mar Saba and descended into the deepest valley in the world. Anyway we'll try to forget the storm, but I can't help shuddering just a little when I think of it—it was so cold, and the rain was so wet!
"The rain and snow are still falling as I write in my journal in the public room of the hotel at Jerusalem. We've sent our clothes to the kitchen to be dried, and we're dressed in such things as we've been able to borrow in the house, and a funny-looking group we are. The Doctor has put on a coat much too short in the sleeves, and says he feels as though he had gone into a ready-made clothing store and been served with the first garment that came to hand. Fred is nicely gotten up in an Arab costume, fez and all; he's trying to speak the language, but isn't very successful. I'm in part of a suit belonging to one of the gentlemen of the Palestine Exploration Fund, who happens to be stopping here; but the most conspicuous garment of my wardrobe is a large blanket, with the word 'Tigre' on the outside in big letters. It once belonged to the French steamer of that name, and was left here by a traveller; I may be placarded as a tiger while wearing this blanket, but feel very far from what that beast is supposed to be."