The Red Cloud chief., 1881-09-22
The Dead Sea.

Our afternoon 5 march Overthe bleak,
t~reeless aud brown mountains OF the
wilderness wa, inexpres.ibly tire,ome
until we came I'm sight oi the Dead Sea.
IL lay 1900 feet below ns-a mirror of
silver, set among the violet mount Iins
OF Moab. More preciDitous DIES ents
over rocks and sand brought us. by
shutdown. to the two towers of the most
unique monastery on the globe. The
famous convent of Mar Saba is worth a
journey TO Palestine. For thirteen cen
turtles that wonderful structure has
hung AGAINST the walls of the deep. aw-
full gorge of the kidron. IL isl co osssl
swallows nest of stone, built 10 the
height of three hundred feet against the
precipice, and inhabited by sixty monks
of the Greek Church Mani
cheans, AID followers Of ST. Saba and
st. John of Damascus. No woman 5
foot has I'VE entered the convent walls.
Instead of women : society they make
love to the birds. who come and feed
off the monks hands. Every evening
they toss meat down to the wild jackals
in the gorge below. At sunset 1
climbed over the extraordinary building
was shown into the rather handsome
church. and into the chapel or cave of
st. Nicholas. which. contains the ghast
" skulls Of the monks who were
slaughtered by Chosrocs and his Per-
sian soldiers and gazed down into the
awful ravine beneath the convent walls.
Some monks in black gowns were
perched as watchmen Oh the lofty tow
ers; Others wandered over TIE stone
pavement in a sort of aimless vscuity.
What an attempt TO live in an exhausted
receiver.
The monks gave us hoSpitable well
come. sold us canes and wood-work, and
furnished US lodgings on the divans of
two large stone parlors. One of the re-
ligiOus duties of the brotherhood is to
keep vigils, and through the night bells
were ringing and Changing to call them
in to their devotions. The vermin in
the lodging-rooms have learned To keep
up their vigils also; and as the result
our party-with one exception-had a
sleepless night. have such n talent
for sleeping, and like Pat "pay atten-
ton to it" so closely. that l was abe to
defy even the tleas and mosquitoes of
Mar Saba By daylight the next morn
ing we heard the great iron door of the
convent clang behind us like the gate
of Bunvan's 'Doubting Castle and
for five hours we made a tOilsome de-
cent of the desOlate cliffs of the shore
of the Dead Sea. That much maligned
sea has n weird and wonderful beauty.
We took a bath in its cool. clear
waters, and detected no difference
from q bath ut Coney Island. except
that the water has such density that we
floated on it like pine shingles. No fish
from the salt ocean can live in it; but
it is very attractive to the eve on a hot
MONDAY. A scorching ride WE had
across the barren plain of the sacred
Jordan-which disappointed me sadly.
At the place were the Israelites crossed
and our Lord was baptized it was about
one hundred and twenty feet wide; it
flows rapidly and in a turbid current Of
light tone color. In size and appear
ancc 1t is the perfect counterpart o the
MnSkingum, a few miles above Isnes-
vile. It's useless waters ought to be
turned off to irrigate its barren valley.
which might be changed into a garden.
For beauty the Jordan will not compare
with Elijah's brook Cherith, whose
bright, sparkling stream went flowing
past our lodging place at jericho. We
lodged over night in a Greek convent
VERY small). and rode next morning to
see the ruins of the town made lannon's
by Joshua. Elijah. Zaccheus and the
restoration of Bar,imeus to sight.
Squalid Arabs haunt the sacred spot
7heO. Cuyter, in the Neso Iork Erdn-
gclist.