Account of a Short Journey East of thb Jordan

THE impediments which, at the present time, the Turkish Government almost invariably throw in the way of anyone who attempts a journey into the country across the Jordan, and having heard of the large sums usually demanded of travellers by the Sheikhs of the Belka under plea of escort dues-emboldens me to offer this present account of a hurried trip through 'Ajltln and the Belka, successfully carried out during the month of November, 1884, without Government permission, tents, baggage-mules, or blackmail.We left Nazareth on the morning of Tuesday, the 11th of November, but, as is often the case on the first day of a journey, the start was delayed by reason of trifles forgotten till the last moment, and, in consequence, the sun was already two hours on its course before we lost sight of the white houses of Nazareth and threaded the ravines down into the plain of Esdraelon.Pella was to have been the end of the first stage, but the sky was clouding up and threatening a deluge; hence even before we had passed the villages of N ain and Endor it ooemed hopeless to attempt getting across the Jordan that day.The rain, however, held off till after lunch, which was discussed on the green bank of Goliath's river, the Nahr Jaltld, which runs into the Jordan after watering Beisan, and then we walked our horses through the ruin of the beautiful Saracenic Caravanserai overhanging the streanl which is known as the Khan el Ahmar, or "the Red."But an hour later, while passing through the squalid village of Beisan, and casting a hurried glance at the imposing and widespread ruins of the ancient Scythopolis of the Decapolis, down came the rain in torrents; and the sky at the same time displayed such sure tokens of something more than a pa.l:;singshower, that by 4 o'clock it was determined to seek shelter and a night's lodging in the hospitable tent of an Arab whonl we found camped below in the valley of the Jordan.For about ten houl'S the rain continued with but little abatement, soaking through the hair walls, and dripping fronl the roof of our host's abode, and further causing the sheep and goats to be disagreeably anxious to participate with us in. the comparative shelter which the same afforded.However, by a couple of houf"3past midnight the sky was again clear, and I may add that duriug the remainder of the trip as far as Jerusalem, the state of the atmosphere was everything that could be desired.The late autumn in Palestine, as a season for journeying and exploration, has perhaps some advantages over the spring, if only the traveller be sufficiently fortunate to happen on the six weeks or two months which generally intervene between the early autumn showers and the steady rains of winter, which last do not, as a ntle, begin much before Christmas

Ancient history · Palestine · Political science · African history and culture analysis · Archaeology and Historical Studies · History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies