WOMEN AT A WELL.
Until they got clear of the town the road was anything but agreeable, as it was paved with mud and otherwise encumbered. Orange groves were all around them for quite a distance, and the general aspect of the place was pleasing. They passed near a well where several women were engaged in filling their water-jars, after the manner recorded in Scripture. The boys realized the fidelity of the descriptions they had read in their Sunday-school days, and Frank remarked that evidently the East had changed very little in many of its features since the time of Christ.
Frank thought the dress of the women was very picturesque, and the flowing robes reminded him of the outer garments of the women of Japan. Fred said he could understand why the women of Syria had such graceful figures; there could be no stooping or bending forward when one was carrying a jar of water on her head. He thought it would not be a bad plan if some of the American schools for young women would adopt the plan of having their pupils walk with slight weights on their heads, so as to teach them the value of an erect position.
From Jaffa to Ramleh the country is flat or slightly undulating; most of it appears quite fertile, but there are numerous spots so deeply covered with sand that they are unfit for cultivation. There are some villages along or near the road; but, on the whole, the population is quite scattered, and the country could support more inhabitants than it has at present.
A couple of miles out from Jaffa the party halted a few minutes in order to tighten some of the saddle-girths, which had worked loose, and to arrange a few other matters about the travelling-gear. As the incident of the well was fresh in the minds of the youths they spoke of it, and the time of the halt was utilized by the Doctor in a short lecture upon the wells of the Holy Land.
"In most parts of Palestine," said he, "the water is very scarce, and the possession of a spring or permanent stream is a matter of great importance. Fierce fights have occurred for the ownership of springs, and sometimes the feuds that have arisen from this cause have lasted hundreds of years. The existence of a fine spring has often determined the site of a town or village, and every precaution is exercised to prevent the waste of the precious liquid.
PUBLIC FOUNTAIN AT JERUSALEM.