They were made most savagely happy by the tobacco with
which I supplied them, and they soon determined that the whole
night should be one smoking festival. The poor fellows had only a
cracked bowl, without any tube at all, but this morsel of a pipe
they handed round from one to the other, allowing to each a fixed
number of whiffs. In that way they passed the whole night.
The next morning old Shereef was brought across. It was a strange
sight to see this solemn old Mussulman, with his shaven head and
his sacred beard, sprawling and puffing upon the surface of the
water. When at last he reached the bank the people told him that
by his baptism in Jordan he had surely become a mere Christian.
Poor Shereef! - the holy man! the descendant of the Prophet! - he was
sadly hurt by the taunt, and the more so as he seemed to feel that
there was some foundation for it, and that he really might have
absorbed some Christian errors.
When all was ready for departure I wrote the teskeri in French and
delivered it to Sheik Ali Djoubran, together with the promised
baksheish; he was exceedingly grateful, and I parted in a very
friendly way from this ragged tribe.
In two or three hours I gained Rihah, a village said to occupy the
site of ancient Jericho. There was one building there which I
observed with some emotion, for although it may not have been
actually standing in the days of Jericho, it contained at this day
a most interesting collection of - modern loaves.
Some hours after sunset I reached the convent of Santa Saba, and
there remained for the night.
CHAPTER XVI - TERRA SANTA
The enthusiasm that had glowed, or seemed to glow, within me for
one blessed moment when I knelt by the shrine of the Virgin at
Nazareth, was not rekindled at Jerusalem. In the stead of the
solemn gloom and the deep stillness that of 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. The
pilgrims were flocking in from all quarters; and although their
objects were partly at least of a religious character, yet their
"arrivals" brought as much stir and liveliness to the city as if
they had come up to marry their daughters.
The votaries who every year crowd to the Holy Sepulchre are chiefly
of the Greek and Armenian Churches. They are not drawn into
Palestine by a mere sentimental longing to stand upon the ground
trodden by our Saviour, but rather they perform the pilgrimage as a
plain duty strongly inculcated by their religion.
