cate the former existence, in this place, of a considerable town. The most beautiful feature of the plain of Jericho is the extensive grove-it would more properly be called forest-that borders upon the western side of the modern village, and stretches northward to the distance of, I should think, two miles or more. Near our camp, and upon the banks of the stream, it is an absolute thicket, in many places impenetrable by man or beast. Farther from the water-course, and north of the ravine, the trees are more scattering, standing singly or in small clumps, and resembling in places an orchard thickly planted with fruit-trees. Seen, however, at some distance, the whole region has the aspect of an unbroken forest, more extensive and luxuriant than any of natural growth which I have before seen in the East, where, indeed, there is nothing deserving the name of forest or woodland, either in Egypt or Arabia. This verdant and beautiful tract, so grateful to the eye accustomed for a long time only to waste, arid deserts and bare mountains, is indebted for its luxuriance to the moisture diffused, by means of the brook and the aqueduct, from the Fountain of Elisha. The thorny tree already mentioned is much more frequent than any other, or than all others. It grows to the height of a large apple-tree, though much more slender, and it has a broad, spreading top, sometimes resting upon a single stem, but more commonly formed by a cluster of smaller shoots springing from one root. The trunk and limbs are rather flat than round, being, I should conjecture, about twice as wide as they are thick. I never saw a tree so abundantly and powerfully armed with thorns. After several unsuccessful attempts to cut a walking-stick, I was compelled to abandon the design, with both hands pierced and bleeding, though 212 TREES AND PLANTS. they were protected by thick gloves. I was equally unsuccessful in my endeavours to pass through the thicket to the village, which was only a few rods from us, but which I was unable to reach. Wherever the trees do not stand thick enough to form a line of defence, a few branches are thrown down in the gap, and they form together a formidable barrier to the approach of man and beast, as effectual as a wall of adamant. This tree, which is called the Doum or Dom, bears a small, sour fruit, resembling the plum or apple of the wild thorn. It is not unpleasant to the taste, and was eaten freely by the common people. Another thorny tree, called the Zockum, less abundant than the dom, though still quite common, bears a larger fruit or nut, of a green colour and thick skin, from which the natives extract an oil reputed to possess valuable medicinal properties. It is applied to wounds, as well as taken for internal maladies. The pilgrims seek for it with great avidity, attaching to it a factitious value from its accidental relation to places and traditions by them deemed sacred. This thorn is believed to be identical with the trees "that bear myrobalanum," mentioned by Josephus as among the valuable products of this fruitful plain. He distinguishes the myrobalanum from the balsam, which he denominates "the most precious of all the fruits of the place." Several creeping plants and vines grow among these thorns, helping to make the thicket impervious and to increase its tangled appearance. The nightshade, laden with its yellow apples, is abundant. Like all travellers, I looked diligently, but without success, for the apples of Sodom, which "have a colour as if they were fit to be eaten; but, if you pluck them in your hands, they dissolve into smoke and ashes."* *Josephus, Wars, book iv., chap. viii., sect. iv. Irby and Mangles, and, PRODUCTS OF THE PLAIN. 213 The zockum, if that is, indeed, the myrobalanum-tree of Josephus, is, so far as can now be known, the only tree remaining of those which formerly covered this beautiful plain, and enriched its opulent inhabitants with their precious fruits. So abundant was the palm, that Jericho was known in the Scriptures as "the city of palm-trees." ." Josephus says it produced many species of palms, the best of which yielded a kind of honey, so rich and delicious was its fruit. Still more precious was the balsam-tree, which was, indeed, the great and peculiar source of wealth to the people of this region. The cypress and the sycamore also flourished here. Honey was produced from bees as well as from the palm; and it was on their obtaining possession of this most fruitful plain that the Israelites first found a supply of corn equal to the demands of so vast a multitude, and the manna, on which they had subsisted during forty years, ceased.† Even under the wretched cultivation at present bestowed upon this neglected soil, it produces good crops of grain. I saw only some small fields of wheat, which looked very well. The barley harvest was already over, and I did not observe any evidences of the cultivation of doura, which is enumerated among the products of the soil. I have already referred to the numerous aqueducts as evidence of a former prosperous and highly productive agriculture; and nothing but security of life and property, and the revival of industry, are wanting once more to endow this noble plain more recently, Dr. Robinson, found what they believe to be the Sodom apples upon the shores of the Dead Sea, south of Jericho. They grow on trees ten or fifteen feet high, similar in rind, leaves, and flowers, and in the fluid which they exude when bruised, to the New-England milkweed. The fruit, which resembles an orange, and grows in clusters, is filled with air, and explodes when pressed. It is called the osher or okser.—Researches, vol. ii., p. 236. * Deut., xxxiv., 3. Joshua, v., 12. 214 OUR ENCAMPMENT. with teeming fertility and to repeople its desolations. The climate and soil are as favourable as possible to almost unlimited productiveness, if the requisite diligence and capital were employed to restore the aqueducts, and convey to the parched, forsaken fields, the water which now runs to waste. Josephus, with probable truth, states that the area irrigated from the Fountain of Elisha was seventy furlongs in length by twenty in breadth; and there are other extensive tracts which were formerly watered, and might be again, from other sources already mentioned. Under these Eastern skies, irrigation always produces the greatest fertility. The most desolate spots in the Desert are at once converted into blooming gardens, wherever a good supply of water can be obtained. Many instances of this sort are seen in Egypt at the present time. Two were particularly mentioned in speaking of the environs of Cairo. THE ENCAMPMENT. I estimated the number of persons encamped upon the plain before Jericho at 2500, including a singular variety of languages and costumes. There was scarcely a people under heaven among whom Christianity is professed, without its representatives here. There were Copts, Greeks, Armenians, Catholics, Protestants, from Abyssinia, Egypt, Asia Minor, Turkey, Greece, Malta, Italy, France, Spain, Austria, Poland, Prussia, Russia, Great Britain, America, and I believe all, or nearly all other Christian lands. Cossacks were very numerous, and were distinguished for their equipages and personal bearing among a motley assemblage, which could hardly claim to be less than semi-barbarous. Greeks, chiefly from Syria and Asia Minor, constituted the most numerous class. Armenians were also very numerous, and they were by far the most respectable in their appearance of any portion of the company. Several of them were rich merchants from Con MIXED MULTITUDE. 215 stantinople and Smyrna. Here, as everywhere else, the Armenians are grave and decent in their deportment and general appearance, unostentatious, unobtrusive, and quiet. It is only in the performance of their religious ceremonies that they seem to be as frivolous and irreverent as the other Oriental Christians. With a very few exceptions, the whole multitude were provided with beasts of burden, and there were nearly as many horses and asses as men and women. A good many were hired for this excursion at Jerusalem; but a great number of pilgrims make their journey to the holy city in this way from the remote parts of Turkey, and, I believe, even from some portions of the Russian dominions. It was remarkable that the pedestrians were mostly from the highly civilized portions of Europe, Italians, Germans, &c., while the wild Cossacks and savage Abyssinians were well-mounted. The animals were led out upon the plain to graze in the daytime, but as darkness came on they were all brought for safety within the area of the camp. Here they were tethered to long ropes, stretched upon the ground, and secured by passing them through the perforated heads of short iron bars or pins, forced into the hard earth by sledge hammers. A large part of the pilgrims slept in the open air, upon carpets, mats, blankets, &c. The forest of thorns was all alive with them, and almost every clump of trees gave shade in the heat of the day and shelter from the dews at night to a pilgrim group. This was no mean opportunity to study customs and costumes, when a walk of two or three minutes brought under your inspection the Egyptian dining upon an onion and a doura cake, the Syrian with his hands full of curds, the Armenian feasting on pickled olives or preserved dates, the Cossack devouring huge pieces of boiled mutton, and the European and American seated around a box, serving the purpose of a table, covered with the usual variety of meats and drinks |