allegiance. With all respect for those ancient Israelites, I can not

overlook the fact that they were not always virtuous enough to withstand

the seductions of a golden calf. Human nature has not changed much since

then.

Some forty centuries ago the city of Sodom was pillaged by the Arab

princes of Mesopotamia, and among other prisoners they seized upon the

patriarch Lot and brought him here on their way to their own possessions.

They brought him to Dan, and father Abraham, who was pursuing them,

crept

softly in at dead of night, among the whispering oleanders and under the

shadows of the stately oaks, and fell upon the slumbering victors and

startled them from their dreams with the clash of steel. He recaptured

Lot and all the other plunder.

We moved on. We were now in a green valley, five or six miles wide and

fifteen long. The streams which are called the sources of the Jordan

flow through it to Lake Huleh, a shallow pond three miles in diameter,

and from the southern extremity of the Lake the concentrated Jordan flows

out. The Lake is surrounded by a broad marsh, grown with reeds. Between

the marsh and the mountains which wall the valley is a respectable strip

of fertile land; at the end of the valley, toward Dan, as much as half

the land is solid and fertile, and watered by Jordan's sources. There is

enough of it to make a farm. It almost warrants the enthusiasm of the

spies of that rabble of adventurers who captured Dan. They said: "We

have seen the land, and behold it is very good. * * * A place where

544

The Innocents Abroad