Arizona weekly citizen., 1888-04-28
GOING DOWN TO JERICHO.
rbo Rocky Road from JerusaIsm-Pictur-

|
 ssque BedOuin Guidss-Grand View.
 The thieves hereabOuts, namely the Bed
 ouius, arc not all done away with yet. At all
 events, people going from Jerusalem Dead Seawards must be provided with guards,
 wno, on the principle that it takes thief to
 catch a thief, are also BedOuins Picturesque | looking fellows, too, they are, in their long, two foot wide, striped in black and white ulster cloaks, and their silken, tasseled head | gegr, with a long, brass bound gun slung
 acrosS the back, a big revolver in the belt,
 and a curved Damascus sword swinging
 yauntily from one side. Picturesque indeed your Eedouin is, as be moves along in never
 so stately fashion on his Arabian horse,
 yOuchsating once in while to turn his
 bronzed, black whiskered face around to see
 how you are getting on. But of thieves we saw none, though the shepherds along the
 road glared meaningly once in a while. In deed, news has just come of an intrepid Amer
 ican proceeding alone to the Jordan having an ugly encounter.
 We read the expression sdOwn to Jericho, p down indeed, from an altitude of 2,5OO feet above to depth of 1000 feet below. You pass around Olivet by the supposed triumphal path of our Lord, and then in half an hours experience with the meanest of stone heaps, find yourself at Bethany, where of course lhey are ready to show you hut called "the mousse of Martha and Mary" while the tomb of Lazarus is as assuredly not lacking-in country where the slightest shreds of not only Scripture but tradition are made of accOUZt u the manufacture of holy O places. Then follows siege of saddle work, one could hardly call it riding, of going down into the valleys by the stOniest of roads, and of ascending Of hills by the same sort It is little consolation to bruised bones that it is the brook Cherith at the valley of Achor that you see. This up and down process, if well kept up for six hours. brings one 10 a grand view, namely that of this wide plain through which flows the Jordan to the Dead Sea lying large and blue seemingly at our feet. ami bOrdered on the opposite shore by the steep Nebo mountains, indistinct toward the south from the mist which the remarkable eyapOra- ton of water causes tO form over the surface Of the lake. Over there, among those high. lauds is Moab, not a village, or even a dwell. ing, in sight to break its vast rnOnotonv. Behind that desollte shore and land of Noah Is Arabia, and when one thinks of the i'm mense stretch of desert to where water in the shape of the Persian gulf can break upon tbe | sight. this lack of life seems not an uniting introduction.
 Slowly the caravan desccnds into the plain ~Where is Jericho.r says some one, hardly thinking that the handful of huts just Leyond l the orange trees can b. the modern represent | alive of the proud old city whose walls be- | hlved in such an unnatural way when the | intrepid Joshua marched Lis forces against | them, and the priests blew their trumpets | Stiil, man whom God delegatcd Co control | tle sun and moon might well be left to take l care of city. Two hours away lies the Dead | city of Eljah's later life. the city where Saul came % be made king, where Da- vii returned from exile. the then @city Of palms, now not a single one left-approach- Ing the water as near Gs possible, but no palm city could be built ou shores which were blighted with sa!r-E. J Baldwin's Letter in Cleveland Leader