The Mineral argus., 1884-08-14
TIE FAR EAST.

grims-The Mount of o1ives-An inter-
esting Supposition-The Valley of Je-
hosaphat-
The journey from Jaffa to Jerusalem,
writes a correspondent of the New
Haven Journal and Courier, has dis
guste1 many an ardent searcher of the
word who came to Palestine to strength
en- his faith. Having arrived at a state
of mind, by reason of my Oriental ex-
p~eriences, whereby 1 was prepared for
anything, and having been forewarned
as to the disappointing nature OF the
country, I was able to endure with con-
siderable composure the discomforts of
the journey. At this time Of the year
most people make the trip of forty miles
during the night; but 1 wanted to see
the country, whatever tine heat of the
sun, and so went in the day. The
trip has to be made in a rickety, un-
covered wagon, drawn by three horses
harnessed abreast. Emerging from the
orange and lemon groves of Jaffa we
proceeded to cross the Plain of Sharon,
the greatest plain in all this country,
im~measurably superior to the plains of
Tyre, Sidon and even Esdraelon. The
plain appeared to be quite fertile, and
wheat and barley fields stretch ON eth
er side of the road as far as the eye
could reach. As the country grew more
hilly we could see large hocks of sheep,
goats, camels, asses and COWS grazing
In the pastures, just as they are repre-
scented as doing in 1. Chronicles, xvii,
90. In some places the fellahin were
ploughing. A single man can carry on
his shoulders a whole set of those ma
tive farming utensils, including plough,
yoke, bows and ox-goad. The plough
is wooden, with the exception of a sin
gle iron point like the fluke of a small
anchor. It has but M handle, as an
ancient times Luke, tx, 62), and if the
man who is guiding the plough looks
around for a moment the whole thing
hops over. The yoke is a small,
straight, round pole, with straight
sticks in each end, which go down on
each side of the neck of the OK, and are
tied with a small string under the throat.
TIE ox-goad is from eight to ten feet
long, armed with a sharp piece of iron
at one extremity which is used for
cleaning the plough, and a spear at the
other extremity for prodding the OK.
In time of riots the natives use the OK
goad as a weapon just as they did in the
time of Shamgar; but / have not heard
of anybody's doing as much mischief
with the goad in these modern times as
Shamgar did.
We met great cavalcades of ragged
looking camels on the way, and over
took some bound for Jerusalem loaded
with American coal-oil. I saw oue poor
camel loaded with heavy stoves. For
the frsttwelve miles l counted the cam
els, and then stopped because it was too
hard work. The numberwas above 300.
Twelve miles out of Jaffa we reached
Ramleh, an enterprising modern village
of about 1000 inhabitants, by all odds
the largest town between Jaffa and Je-
rusalem. Owing to the constant inter-
course with pilgrims and European
travellers, the village has assumed a
more modern metropolitan aspect than
any other town of its size in Palestine.
Most of the European countries have
consular agents stationed there. New
ertheless, there is a tremendous amount
of filth lying about in the blind alleys,
lust as there is in all these cities of the
Holy Land. In the suburbs l inspected
some miserable mud novels, and won
dered If it were such as those in which
the apostles were won't to dwell. Each
house consisted of one room, made out
of plaster and sticks, without windows,
The whole family dwells, eats, cooks
and sleeps in this single unsavory apart
ment. In winter n is heaped
about the hut to keep it warm, and the
cattle are admitted to the interior. The
floor which the family then occupies is
something like two feet higher thar
that upon which the cattle stand, the
hangers being constructed along the
separating line. 1t thus happens thai
q manger is a very convenient place IL
which to cradle an infant, and people
here tell me hat it is quite a common
things to see infants thus Graded.
At regular intervals on either side o
the road, perhaps three or five mile
apart, we're barracks where Turkish sol
diers we're stationed to guard the high
way. Palestine is full of robbers. TIL,
Bedouins, or wandering Arabs, are pro
fessionals. The Turkish soldiers an'
officials are worst OF all.
We rode on through a country bar
rem of everything except s%criptural as
sociations, though rich indeed In them
Our last halt for resting the horses wa
made in q valley at the foot of the las
mountains prior to reaching Jerusalem
The remaining distance was about NV
miles, but the climb was a severe Oh
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