William Francis Lynch

“ The stream sometimes washed the bases of the sandy hills, and at other times meandered between low banks, generally fringed with trees and fragrant with blossoms. Some points presented views exceedingly picturesque — the mad rushing of a mountain torrent, the song and sight of birds, the overhanging foliage and glimpses of the mountains far over the plain, and here and there a gurgling rivulet pouring its tribute of crystal water into the now muddy Jordan. ”

“ A low, pale, yellow ridge of conical hills marked the termination of the higher terrace, beneath which swept gently this lower plain, with a similar undulating surface, half redeemed from barrenness by sparse verdure and thistle-covered hillocks.
VEGETATION ON THE JORDAN
Still lower was the valley of the Jordan — The sacred river! Its banks fringed with perpetual verdure; winding in a thousand graceful mazes; its pathway cheered with songs of birds and its own clear voice of gushing minstrelsy; its course a bright. ”

“ The loud report of a carbine presently echoed among the cliffs, and a flock of storks rose from the margin of the river, and flew past us. The Sherîf had wounded one poor fellow, and his leg hung shattered and dangling, as he strove to keep up with his frightened companions. His efforts were unavailing; the movement of his wings was but a spasm of his agony, and he fell in the water before us. The stream carrying him down, threw him on a low marshy bank, where the poor creature was making desperate efforts to drag himself from the water, as we dashed by on the rapid out of sight. ”

“ Our Arab scouts were posted on the hills which overlooked the camp, and our own guards, with glittering carbines and long, keen bayonets, were pacing in front and rear of the baggage and the tents. The scene was wild and picturesque.
Around the blazing fires, which shot long, flickering tongues of flame into the night, and seemed to devour darkness, were gathered in circles, groups of Franks and wild Bedouin, solemnly smoking the chibouque, drinking coffee, or listening eagerly, as, with wild gesticulations, one related an adventure of the day, or personal incident of times gone by. ”

“ The scene of camping for the night is ever a busy one. The uprearing of tents, the driving of the tent-pins, the wearied camels standing by, waiting to be disburdened, all remind one forcibly of the graphic descriptions of the Bible. There are other features, too, illustrative of our brotherhood with the children of the desert-Sherîf , seated beneath a tree, or under the shadow of a rock, issuing commands to his immediate followers, and ’Akil reconnoitering from the summit of a hill, or scouring about the plain, stationing the outposts. ”

“ Before the blue tent of Sherîf were gathered our Arab friends, a large circle of swart faces, illuminated by the light of a crackling fire, listening to ’Akil’s bard, who sang Arabic love-songs, to the accompaniment of his rebabeh, or viol of one string. ”

“ In the neighbourhood of towns, where it cannot graze, straw is given to it; but in the desert it must crop the thistle or the parched herbage as it passes, straying from side to side in its march, like the yawing of a stately ship before the wind. At night, if it be necessary to keep the camels within the encampment for security, the mukris gather thistles, herbage, and dwarf bushes for them, but otherwise turn them loose to graze. There is no question that if the camel were well fed and gently treated, it would sustain the character ascribed to it by partial writers. ”

“ Heretofore, we have been lulled to sleep by the hoarse sound of a rapid; all, except those who, having to encounter it, felt naturally solicitous for the result. The noise of a rapid is much louder by night; and one a mile off, sounds as if it were madly rushing through the camp. ”

“ The prevailing rock seen has been siliceous limestone and conglomerate, — much of the last lying in fragments in the river, covered with a black deposit of oxide of iron and manganese. Towards the latter part of the day, rock was less abundant, alluvion began to prevail, and pebbles, gravel, and sand, were seen beneath the superincumbent layers of dark earth and clay. Just above where we had secured the boats, were large blocks of conglomerate in the stream.
The prevailing trees on the banks have been the willow, the ghurrah, and the tamarisk; the last now beginning to blossom. ”

“ At 9:28 A.M., we passed Wady el Hammam (ravine of the bath) , with a small stream coming down on the right or western side. It is a slender thread of water finding its way down a chasm, a world too wide for its little stream; but, joined here and there in its meandering descent by tiny tributaries, it comes rattling down its pebbly bed, with the brawling joyousness of a mountain stream. At 9:34, came to a rather ugly rapid, — by Wady el Malakh (ravine of salt) , with a small stream of clear but brackish water running down from W.N.W. Beheld ’Akil and some of the scouts upon a hill beyond it. ”

“ Day after day, there is no change. Nature, which elsewhere makes a shifting kaleidescope with clouds, and sunshine, and pure azure, has here the curse of sameness upon her, and wearies with her monotony. ”

“ Unable to obtain one alive, we startled the solitude of the wilderness with a gun-shot, and secured the body of a brown-breasted, scarlet-headed and crimson-winged bird, the eastern bulbul. The Arabs call a pretty bird a bulbul, but Sherîf , who was with me in the boat, insisted upon it that it was the specific name of the bird we had killed. ”

“ The steady little donkey, with preposterous ears and no perceptible hair on his hide, that leads the trudging caravan, and eats his peck of barley, and travels stoutly all day long, is a model for him in endurance ”

“ The swift current, as we sometimes turned a point of land, would seize us and send us off at a salient angle from our course, as if it had been lurking behind that point like an evil thing, to start out and clutch us suddenly and dash us upon the opposite bank, or run us under the low hanging boughs, as if for the purpose of rubbing ua all out, or injuring us against the gnarled and projecting roots, where skulked the long clammy earth-worm and the green lizard. ”

“ It is a pity to contradict the pleasing accounts given of this friend of the wandering Bedouin, but our opinions have been formed after close observation of its manners and habits in the desert. Much of the ill nature and obduracy of the camel is doubtless attributable to the almost entire neglect of its owner in providing food and cleansing its hide, so subject to cutaneous diseases. ”

“ Except during the heat of mid-day, when every living thing but ourselves had sought refuge in the thicket or in the crevices of the banks, there were birds flying about in all directions.
At 12:42, we saw the mountains of Salt and Belka ahead, from a turn of the river.
At 1:32 P.M., we stopped to take a sketch of the extraordinary appearance of the terraces of the Jordan. At 2:23, Wady Ajlun in sight on the left. The land of Faria begins here. The tribe El Firia numbers 100 fighting men. Their territory was on both sides of the river, for one hour in extent. ”

“ The “zukkum” is little more than a shrub in height, and its branches are covered with thorns.
One of the land party brought in a leaf of the osher plant, which bears the Dead Sea fruit. It is oval, thick, and of a deep green colour, very much resembling that of the caoutchouc or India-rubber plant; the flower a delicate purple, growing in pyramidal clusters. The fruit was not yet formed. The centre of the stalk is pithy, like the alder, and discharges a viscous milky fluid when cut or broken. ”

“ The streams have all names given them by the Arabs, but the islands are nameless and unknown.
The course of the river, to-day, has varied from northwest to south, and from thence to east; but the prevailing direction has been to the southward and westward. The velocity of the current has ranged from two to eight knots per hour; the average about three and a half knots. The depth has been in proportion to the width and velocity of the stream. ”

“ The tribe musters 300 fighting men. His territory, in size and fertility, surpasses some of the petty kingdoms of Europe.
The Emir and some of his people have wiry hair and very dark complexions, but no other feature of the African. His brother and some of the tribe are bright, but less so than ’Akil and his followers. The darker colour of the skin may, perhaps, be attributed to the climate of the Ghor.
The hills, forming the banks of the upper terrace, have, to-day, assumed a conical form, with scarped and angular faces, marked with dark bands, and furrowed by erosions. ”

“ This course was adopted; and it was agreed that ’Akil and his scouts should keep along the western, while the caravan took the eastern side, thus having the boats between, so that one or other of the land parties might be within hearing, and hasten to their rescue, if attacked. It was further agreed, that whenever, by the intervention of the mountains, the land parties were long out of sight of the boats, scouts should be sent to the summits to look out for them, and that two gun-shots, in quick succession, should be the signal, if attacked. ”

“ In the strict sense of the term they are all Unitarians, and hold Christians as idolaters, for their belief in and worship of the divinity of the Saviour and the Paraclete. They believe in the interposition of angels in human affairs, and in the resurrection and final judgment. ”