Morning journal and courier., 1884-08-02
AROUND THE WORLD.

! 1ebSSsSS "Sh6Ss
 l Bathing in Gal1Iee by Moonlight l ssMussy'' Arabs BIuHed-An Early l Morning Ride-BeautifuI Wild Ole sAfda and Chorazin-Some Theories | Dfscussed-Ffg Fountain-On the | Way to Nazareth-Cana of GalfIee. NAZARETH, Palestine, June 30. | To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER
 Bathing in the muddy Jordan is merely
 nominal enjoyment, and never cleansed any 1 body yet that I know of except Captain Naa-
 man. Bathing in the Dead Sea is dangerous
 to the eyes and mouth; if you have any cuts 1 or sores on your body, exceedingly unpleas- i ant But bathing in Gali1ee by moonlight l I am prepared to vote a success The convent where we stopped at Tiberias abuts upon the l lake near one of the beaches most frequented I by modern Rebekahs. On both of the nights | which we passed on the lake shore we took 1 occasion to prove this. Only one thing | marred the perfect enjoyment, and that was I the nature of the beach, which was pebbly | instead of sandy. It was evidently rare | treat for the Rebekahs to witness our ab1u- tions, as they increased rapidly in numbers when it became noised about town that 'real l white men" were in the water, and they tar ried obviously longer than was necessary in order to fill their jars They would come close to us, remark "Marhabarl'' (the univer- l sal Arabic salutation, signifying "welcome') and then litter us we answered back courte- otlsly "Marhabar teen" ('Welcome to you, also.'O As l have intimated, we only held the boards there for two nights; but l am confident that our audiences would have comprehended all the people in the region round about if we had remained week.
 The second night an incident occurred which serves admirably to illustrate Arab (not Bedouin) character. man threw n stone at us from the beach after our audience of maidens had reluctantly retired. Don't mind it," said Mir. Floyd; "he's trying to pick up fuss with us after Il characteristic fashion. Let him go to the end of his rope" :" Pretty soon another stone followed, and then another and another the last in rather dan gerous proximity to us At this MT. Floyd said the time ripe, and going up out of the water, stood on the beach facing the mis- sile-thrower and the crowd of allies which had by this time gathered about the latter. Advancing brusquely he then demanded in Arabic, "Impudent brute, who are you, I'd like to know?' He's a great sheik, :" chorused the crowd, land you don't want to touch him or we'll make you sorry" ''Very well," returned MT. Floyd; ''Pm ready to fight the whole crowd of you, though naked and unarmed. Many time I've annihilated dozen men at once, all stronger than any of you, and Pm just itching to make mince meat out of you babies. Look" and with stick he rapidly drew circle around the spot where he stood. 1.-The first man who crosses that line I'll grind to powder!" A moments silence followed and then the lead CT skunk off, followed by his brave cohorts One or two remained behind to try and patch up truce by pretending that the great sheik" was only mailman; but Mr Floyd was too familiar with Arab tricks to swallow that, and told them he'd rather they'd throw stones than to try to make him out fool by passing off such fiInsy explanation upon him. Of course it was all done by means of bluff, and we had hearty laugh afterwards to think how ridiculously absurd it was for one naked man to face semi-armed crowd in this way. MT Floyd's last words were
 ''Great heavens! Why, your Sultan would not dare to treat me in this way!'
 The following morning at an early hour we mounted our horses for Nazareth, via Caper- naum, etc. The only way of getting any comfort in this intolerably hot fea-infested region is by rising at three o'clock and riding in the cool @ of the early morning. This we did and accordingly I shall remember the ride which I about to describe as the pleasantest of all my Palestine rides. We rode along narrow donkey trail close to the lake shore, now where the water Tapped the hoofs of our horses, and now some fifty or seventy-fve feet above it on 8 rocky ledge. Just as moonlight melted into dawn the scene was really charming. The blank, homely hills that had looked so unattractive when we surveyed them with infiamed eyes under the full glare of a monday sun now had softened, subdued aspect. The shore was rocky like that of the Mediterranean from Jaffa north to Beirout, and where the brT711 1nrc fr77I IaIf c1a1 of the lifeless lake, it seemed as if the water had actually frozen around them. The shore was made gloriously lovely by thickets of wild oleander, varying in height from three feet to twenty Each bush was loaded with gorgeous blossoms. How I longed for the ''Great Eastern" that ship which has never yet found it's mission, in order that might load it to the mainmast top with blossoms and send them to friends at home. These wild oleanders are the one floral pride of the Holy Land. They border the Jordan essen tial1y to it's mouth, and l even saw them ringing the Dead Sea in some places So all the streams of Syria, which are ''better than all the waters of Israel" are glorifed with the same growth of wild oleanders Besides the oleanders there were wild hollyhocks, mountain pinks, great quantities of mustard and numerous other familiar and unfamiliar faces belonging to the floral world.
 The stars twinkled reluctant good bye"
 
 the hills beyond the lake, and peeped over at us with too-friendly smile. The moon paled mournfully as if to say, 'fI go, but you will remember me pleasantly ere long. Yon- der orb is timid and gentle now, but he will grow rude and bold in a few hours D A score of larks sprang up to dip their dusty wings in the azure below, ere they scared away to the azure above, enrolling their Gal i1ean mathis A thousand sparrows-I had almost written English sparrows-then came from their low hiding places, also in search of the indiscreet ''early worm" Are these not the sparrows to which Christ alluded when he stood on the shore of the same lake? They multitudinous throughout the country. It may be of interest to state that they are snared in great numbers, sold two or three for farthing and actually used for food, although not popular!
 To the left on the ridge above us ran the telegraph line which connects Nazareth, Ma b1ons, Jerusalem and other points with Da- mascus. It is the only modern improvement in the country.
 Two or three miles from Tiberias we paused to look at the tamest f'wild' ducks I ever saw They were disporting in the lake after a stupidly daring fashion, but MT. Floyd said it was very hard to shoot them, phlegmatic as they appeared to be. To our left were pfecipitous rocks, perhaps thousand feet high the rear of which were said to be full of deep caverns. It was in these caverns that robbers were wont to hlde III defods day: but that indefatigable Roman managed to exter1ninate them by rigging up gigantic elevators and lowering armed men down to the caves These robbers seem to have dwelt there for Josephus tells how they killed their own families rather than fall into the hands of the Romans. More than one of them cast their children down the gorge to instant death one by one, and then hTIrling the mother after them, leaped over the preci- pice themselves. In one instance Herod's fiinty heart seems to have been touched, and he offered certain compromise terms; but these were scornfully rejected, the man in question splitting defantly at the king,
 Just beyond these famed rocks we entered he wretched little town of Magdala, the ear tly home of Mary Magdalane, the place whith- CT Christ proceeded after feeding the four and popularly supposed to be the Dalmanutha of Mark 8:10 Marks geogra- phy of these parts seems to be handled pret- ty roughly by the commentators They say he meant Magdala when he said Dalmanutha, and Gerpesanes when he said GazaraDaS