Page:On the Desert - Recent Events in Egypt.djvu/339

Rh like a pair of wings, and saddle-bags on his lank beast, looking like a country doctor. I think he is a German professor. Russians are here in great numbers. The costumes and the languages of the East mingle with those of the West. Thus the pilgrims move forward, a promiscuous crowd, yet all with one destination — "going up to Jerusalem."

Half way up the ascent is laid the scene of the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Although Christ merely supposed a case for illustration, jet tradition could not miss such an opportunity, and accordingly it is accepted as a veritable occurrence, and we have even pointed out to us the place of the inn to which the Good Samaritan conveyed the poor wayfarer, and left him to be cared for. One thing strikes us in this as in other parables of our Lord — the felicity and aptness in the choice of illustrations. "A certain man went down to Jericho and fell among thieves." Why to Jericho rather than to Joppa? It seemed to me, while riding over it, as if this were a road for highwaymen, as it is a lonely mountain road, with deep glens by the wayside where robbers might lurk, and wait the approach of the unsuspecting traveller. Indeed I fear if a lonely wanderer were to go down to Jericho to-day, unarmed and unprotected, he would meet the same fate.

But all the pilgrims are not going one way: as some are going up, others are coming down. We met great numbers of Moslems on their way to the tomb of Moses. They came, not in a long procession, but in families, or in little companies of friends, decked out in their finery, like Italian peasants for a festa, and driving before them sheep and goats for sacrifices and for food during the three days of their festival. Here and there a booth served the purpose of a wayside inn, and invited pilgrims of all races and all creeds. We declined their alluring temptations,