Page:The lives of celebrated travellers (Volume 2).djvu/75

 height to a Norway pine, grew in a garden directly opposite his window. On the evening of the 20th of March it had not yet put forth its blossoms; but when he rose next morning before the sun, he found it had flowered during the night, and saw the gardener climbing up to its summit with a handful of the male flowers in his hand, which he scattered over those of the female tree. This was done while the dew was yet falling; and our enthusiastic naturalist regarded the sight as one of the most delightful in nature.

He set sail from Damietta on the 1st of April, and in four days arrived at Jaffa, in the Holy Land. Here he was entertained at a convent of Catholic monks, the principal of whom, a Spaniard by nation, was greatly scandalized at learning that motives foreign to devotion had directed his steps to Palestine. Next day, however, he escaped from their impertinent inquiries, and set out for Jerusalem. The country from Jaffa to Rama consists of a succession of small hills alternating with narrow valleys and wide plains, some cultivated, others barren. The soil was a light reddish sand, and so filled with moles that there was scarcely a yard of ground in which there was not a molehill.

On arriving at Jerusalem he visited all the holy places usually shown to strangers, and then set out with the other pilgrims for Jericho and the Dead Sea. Descending along the banks of the Jordan, the waters of which he found very inferior to those of the Nile, he arrived on the barren shores of the Asphaltic Lake, consisting of a gray sandy clay, so extremely soft that their horses often sunk in it up to their knees. The whole plain was covered with salt like the soil of Egypt, and various kinds of plants and flowers were found growing on it. The apples of Sodom, those

Dead Sea fruits that tempt the eye, But turn to ashes on the lips,—