ahead of us to brandish rusty guns, and shout and brag, and carry on like

lunatics, and thus scare away all bands of marauding Bedouins that might

lurk about our path. What a shame it is that armed white Christians must

travel under guard of vermin like this as a protection against the

prowling vagabonds of the desert--those sanguinary outlaws who are always

going to do something desperate, but never do it. I may as well mention

here that on our whole trip we saw no Bedouins, and had no more use for

an Arab guard than we could have had for patent leather boots and white

kid gloves. The Bedouins that attacked the other parties of pilgrims so

fiercely were provided for the occasion by the Arab guards of those

parties, and shipped from Jerusalem for temporary service as Bedouins.

They met together in full view of the pilgrims, after the battle, and

took lunch, divided the bucksheesh extorted in the season of danger, and

then accompanied the cavalcade home to the city! The nuisance of an Arab

guard is one which is created by the Sheiks and the Bedouins together,

for mutual profit, it is said, and no doubt there is a good deal of truth

in it.

We visited the fountain the prophet Elisha sweetened (it is sweet yet,)

where he remained some time and was fed by the ravens.

Ancient Jericho is not very picturesque as a ruin. When Joshua marched

around it seven times, some three thousand years ago, and blew it down

with his trumpet, he did the work so well and so completely that he

hardly left enough of the city to cast a shadow. The curse pronounced

against the rebuilding of it, has never been removed. One King, holding

673

The Innocents Abroad