New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-07-20
lam NETWORK TO NINEvEH'
XIII.
mn pyAp SEA AND THE RIVER JORDAN

rre,urned this afternoon from an eAcur-
N. Dead Sea, the River Jordan and the
~" - ,sleho. Owing to the approaching heats,
SIC " III, was deemed de sirable, and the shekhs
% :. have charge OF the road we're summoned the
W" .e,, our arriving here. There are two OF
." no,,lemen: the Shtkh ei-Arab tot the Bed
aa;o,l and the Shesh el-Fe'laheen lo' the 'as;
hushaodmen,) to whom each traveller Is
'r,rad 20 nav one hundred pastres for an escort
= eet. sort Of compromise, by which the
-. .yree not to rob the traveller, and to pro-
,s.t m against other shekhs. If the road Is "o'
.,r.lv safe. the Turkish garrison here Is mere
s,.s Init the arrangement is wihNeu ~ " oro
p..h. who Of course gets his share Oh tl'e ioVV'V
.h;ch the two scamps yearly levy upon
P''ss ,.s The latter came to eur rooms and al
A. ,r,;rg 70 postpone our departure IN order 10
-, tourists TO the same escort, ana thus
- E,,le expense, took half the pay and agreed
."'. ...d, the next morning. Unfortunately for
my original plan, the Convent oil san SABA mas
Lee, closed within two or three weeks, ana no
Granger il now admitted. This unusual step was
-.,.sd nv the disorderly conduct of some French
,nsp who visited san Saba. we sent 10 'he
R;shop Of the Greek Church, asking a simple per
,.;.s;o, 10 view the interior of the Converts but
without effect CT
We left the city Yesterday morning by st. Ste
..,s Gate. descended to the Valley Of Jehosa
,h.t rode under the stone wall which incloses tn
suruosed Gethsemane, and took path leadn
.,aos the Mount Of Olives, toward the Hill of Or
f.use which stands over against the southern en-
ofthe city, opposite the mouth OF the Vale OF lin
nam. Neither Of the shekhs made hs appear
80 lint sent in their stead three Arabs, two
,bom were mounted and armed with sabers an
,o,s puns. Our man Mustapha had charge of tn
bssesee mule, carrying our tent and the provisions
Ear the tIip. IL was dull, sutry morning
darn Ieaden haze hung over Jerusalem, and the
Ihamseen or siroccO-wlnd, came from the south
wsst. out of the Arabian Desert. We had again
resumed the Oriental costume, but in spite OF an
ample turban, my face soon began to scorch in the
div heat. From the crest of the Hill of Ofense
there is a wide view over the nights on both sides
ofthe valley of the Brook Kedron. Their sides
are worked into terraces, now green with spring
ing grain, and near the bottom planted with olive
and fg trees. The upland ridge or watershed or
Palestine is cultivated for considerable distance
around Jerusalem. The soil is light and stony,
vet appears to yield good return for the little
labor bestowed upon it.
Crossing the southern flank of Mount Olivet, in
haitian hour we reached the village of Bethany,
hanging on the side of the hill 1t is a miserable
cluster Of Arab huts, with not building which
,ppears to be more than a century old. The
(rotto of Lazarus is here shown, and of course we
stopped to see it. 1t belongs to an old Mussul-
man, who came out of his house with piece of
waxed rope, to light us down. An aperture opens
from the roadside into the hil and there is barely
room enough for a person to enter. Descending
about twenty steps at a sharp angle, we landed in
snail damp vault, with an opening in the floor,
communicating with a short passage below. The
ysut was undoubtedly excavated for sepulchral
purposes, and the bodies were probably deposited
las in many Egyptian tombs) in the pit under it.
Our guide, however, pointed to a square mass OF
masonry in one corner as the tomb OF Lazarus
whose body, he informed us, was still walled up
there There was an arch in the side of the vault,
once leading TO other chambers, but now closed
up, and the guide stated that seventy'iour
PROPHETS we're inferred therein. There seems to
b. no doubt that the present Arab village occu-
pes the site of Bethany; and fit could be proven
that this pit existed at the beginning OF the
Christian Era, and there never had been any
other, we might accept it as the tomb of Lazrls
On the crest Of high hill, over against Bethany,
is an Arab village on the site Of Bethpage.
We descended into the valley of a winter
stream, now filed with patches of sparse wheat,
just beginning to rpen. The mountains grew
more bleak and desolate as we advanced, and as
there is a regular descent in the several ranges
over which one must pass, the distant hills OF the
lands of Moab and Ammon were always in sight,
rising ike high blue wall against the sky. The
Dead Sea is 1000 feet below Jerusalem, but the
general slope of the intervening district is so regu
lar that from the spires of the city and the Mount
OF Olives, one Gun look down directly upon its wa
tiers. This deceived me as to the actual distance,
and could scarcely credit the assertion of our
Arab escort, that it would require six hours to
reach it. After we had ridden nearly two hours
Eve left the Jericho road, sending Mustapha and
staunch old Arab direct to our resting place for
Inc n'ght, IN the valley oil the JOIda1' inc V"o
mounted Bedouins accompanied us across the rug
ged mountains lying between us and the Dead
Sea.
At first, we were on the way to the Convent OF
Mar Saba, following the course of the Brook
kedron down the Wady en.Nsr, VALLEY OF flre'l
In half an hour more we reached two large tanks,
hewn out under the base Of limestone Gill; ana
nearly filled with rain. The suffice was coVe'eu
with gretpish vegetable scum, ana three VIII"
and dirty Arabs of the hills were Washing '"''"-
selves in the principal one. Our Bedou'ns lmmo-
.diateIy dismounted and followed their example,
and after we had taken some refreshment, we had
the satisfaction Of filing our Watering from the
same sweet pool. After this, we left the san
Saba road and mounted the hight east OF the
IL - .c "a. III 80