Page:Domestic Life in Palestine.pdf/88

Rh were of conflicting creeds, they fraternized very well on the way.

We did not pause till we came to the Fountain of Birds, where a peasant boy brought us fine grapes, and helped us to give our animals water. The orchards around were now in their full beauty, bright with pomegranate fruit and blossom. The rich green fig-trees, wet with dew, smelt like heliotropes, and were garlanded and interlaced with richly laden vines. Little birds were rustling the silvery leaves of the olive-trees, and they now and then swarmed forth in cheerful chirruping flight.

At eight o'clock we reached Abu Ghôsh, and while we waited for Katrîne and the muleteer—who lagged behind—I sketched the old church, and then hastened onward. At ten we rested and lunched under a tree by a well-side near to Latrone, and the kawass contrived to make us some coffee. I was astonished to find that I had traveled through the hill-country of Judea, without fear and without fatigue, by the same road which a short time before had appeared to me so full of danger and difficulty. The hills seemed to me to have been made low, and the "rough places plain." When we entered the level country, the sun was shaded every now and then by quickly-moving clouds, and a breeze sprang up from the west, pleasantly fanning our faces.

We cantered over the plain till we reached a village called Kubâb, a poor, straggling place, with a few gardens fenced with yellow-blossoming cactus hedges. We paused by a well, in a sort of farm-yard, and a lame girl handed us some water in a red jar. She made curious signs and gestures, and we soon saw that she was deaf and dumb. We gave her a backshîsh, and she limped away well pleased. A boy followed us, noisily demanding money as we rode on, but we did not give him any thing; so he ran back to the poor lame girl, threw her down, and snatched her treasure from her. She rose with difficulty, and with silent and impotent rage threw handfuls of dust after him,