Page:Domestic Life in Palestine.pdf/309

302 ing herdsmen, well armed. I was informed that we were traversing a district celebrated, from time immemorial, for the lawless and daring character of its inhabitants. The pleasant sound of falling water attracted my attention. It was trickling down the side of the cliff, amid ferns, mosses, liverwort, and tiny wild-flowers with blue and yellow blossoms. It splashed into reservoirs, hollowed out one below the other in the native rock, at the foot of the cliff. This pretty water-fall is appropriately called "Ain-el-Harâamiyeh," or the "Fountain of the Robbers," for it is often the scene of violence, and travelers are frequently waylaid by bandits in this wild glen.

At three o'clock we were about half-way on our road to Jerusalem, at the entrance of "Wady-el-Tîn," that is, the "Valley of Figs." It is well named, for it is a long wide grove of trees. But it was then so early in the Spring that the fig-trees were not sufficiently advanced to be beautiful, and though some of them had "put forth their green figs," and on others a few tender leaves appeared, they were for the most part almost bare. They gave me the idea of a petrified leafless forest, for the tortuous trunks and branches were almost as white as the rocks and stones amid which they grew. This valley in the Summer-time is a lovely place, for then the large green leaves form a perfect shade, the ripe and abundant fruit cools the lips of the thirsty traveler, and the air is filled with a sweet odor exactly like that of the heliotrope. The road led us over an extensive plateau, where hollyhocks and anemones, and other bright blossoms, grew among thorns, while here and there patches of cultivated land appeared. On the hills around we could see solitary villages perched on rocky terraces, in the midst of orchards and vineyards.

The way was easy for the horses, and the sun had lost its power, so I urged the kawass to ride forward more quickly, and I followed him, cantering between the corn fields, and among the thorns and Spring flowers. But I soon found that Simeon could not keep up with us. I