How I Spent My Five Weeks' Leave.

their shrouds . I take my " seven dips " in the shape of as many " headers ; from the bank , and fill my bottle with water to take away as a curiosity . It must have been somewhere near here that the Israelites passed over , as ive are told that

it was " right against Jericho . " ( See Joshua III . and IV . ) Here were these rapid waters thrice divided ; 1 st when the Israelites passed over ; 2 nd when Elijah passed over , and was taken up to Heaven ; 3 rd when Elisha returning , smote the

waters with the mantle of Elijah , saying-, " Where is the Lord God of Elijah . " Somewhere near this place was our Lord baptised . Here was Naaman cured . This is the harvest season , and as we are told that" iu time of harvest , Jordan overfloweth

all his banks , " so it has been doing very recently , as some foot ' s depth of alluvial mud over all the ground near the banks can testify ; this mud gets dried and cracked all over at the top , and thus forms a treacherous crust , which will bear your

weight for some time , and on a sudden let you in when you least expect it . I got thus caught in a deep place , and floundered out in an awful mess , having been up to my knees in soft ooze , and one spur lost ! I am wonderfully refreshed by my

Dath , which was delightful after the intense heat . The stream is so rapid that we cannot swim across , and there is a strong back-water near the shore , as the river takes a sharp bend here . We mount ancl ride at a sharp canter over the plain to

Jericho . It is so hot that the perspiration drops off my face . We see a good many partridges , doves , aud other birds , and soon find the plain studded with bushes and trees of the thorny kind , of which , it is said , our Lord ' s crown of thorns

was made . I taste the little apples that grow on them , aud which are by no means bad in appearance and flavour , resembling baked apples of an infmitessimally small kind . We pass the site of ancient Jericho , of which nothing remains but a

few mounds . Here some sickly looking Fellahim Arabs are reaping their corn , while at the same time the women are busy threshing it , which they do by squatting on a stone pavement , and beating the ears with a stone which they carry in

one hand , holding the corn with the other . We see women grinding corn by hand in couples in the most primitive manner , reminding one of the " two women grinding at the mill . " Crossing a babbling stream we reach our camp , which is close to the ruins of Herod ' s palace , and and is on the site of new Jericho , of which

however no more remains than of the ancient one . I get my sponge and towel , and go and sit in the stream to cool . After dinner , our Arab Guards entertain us with a heathenish sort of dance and a chant , monotonous and wearying . Rising- at 5

next morning ( May 9 ) , I have a charming bath , finding a waterfall in the stream , under which I sit in the basin it has formed in the rock , and let the water pour over me . At 7 . 30 punctually we are in the saddle and immediately commence

mounting the hills , and very glad we are to breathe the fresh mountain air again ancl leave the stifling plain . Oue of the camp followers has been bitten by a venomous snake which he found under his pillow , and foolishly handled . His arm swelled so

badly that he had to be sent off to Jerusalem , and we heard afterwards that the poor fellow died . An uninteresting clamber

brings us to Deir-Duwan , a flourishing village , about two miles from Bethel . Here we lunch under the shade of a large olive . The villagers cluster round us as we lie smoking under the tree . They are good-looking men enough , but do not

seem overburdened with brain . The women are all at work out in the fields . These fellows are all busy twisting queer balls of wool , suspended by a string ; a mode of spinning , I believe , and this appears to be their only amusement or work .

These athletic fellows doing such effeminate work reminded me of Hercules when enslaved by Omphale . We noticed one who did nothing , and were told he was the priest , so we told him to read the Koran . Off he goes , returning with an

old tattered book , and squatting down and swaying his body to and fro , he commences to intone it in a clear voice , giving us a whole chapter , after which he receives a Bakshish .

When the baggage comes up , we give ithal an hour ' s start , and then follow . We soon get to Bethel , now only a group of mud huts among * old ruins . We encamp close to the well , out of which Abraham and Jacob must have so often

drunk , and Sarah and her maidens drawn . Our camp is on a charming piece of green turf , and within the walls of what must once have been a large reservoir . I go to visit the remains of a Christian church , which had two small towers ,

and was built within the foundations of a larger building . This was probably some sacred site , possibly that of the sanctuary . Here was it that Jacob slept , when fleeing' from Esau , with a stone for his pillow , when he dreamed his well-known