The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-10-09

it exhibit one of the original "waterpots
of stone from which the miraclous wine
was drawn. The Latins formerly con-
trolled most of these venerated sites about
Cana, but the Greeks, according to Father
Alphonse, have recently taken possession
of the most desirable of them by force.
Just after passing the outskirts of the
town my attention was attracted to a
large crowd of natives that blocked the
roadway, and in response to my inter-
ested inquiries, | was informed by Sasoor
that it was wedding procession engaged
in celebrating the nuptial event. There
were several hundred of them in the
party. and just as we came up, quite a
number had clasped hands across the
road and were engaged in singing a rude
wedding chant, while they swayed their
bodies TO and fro IN harmony. While
l was musing on the strange coin
cidence OF wedding party at Cana, and
longing for an opportunity of performing
the feat of turning a little of the wine of
the marriage feast into thirsty man
from Indiana, my Syrian horse, "Aman,"
apparently objected to something in the
proceedings and made sudden and vio-
lent lurch forward that almost threw
me from the saddle. Whether he resented
not having been invited to the festivities
his own accord, or whether he objected to
the painful attempt at singing that he was
compelled to listen to, he didn't give me
time to inquire, but he certainly did do
his level best to make that particular mar
riage failure. He danced about on his
hind legs and jumped into the midst of
the singers, knocking them over and
scattering them right and left. He
seemed to have an especial erudge against
the bridegroom, who was gorgeously
mounted on horseback, and after two rear
ing, vaulting efforts succeeded in tumb-
ling him ingloriously in the dust In the
excitement some one had made frantic
grab at my bride reins, the only result
being that one of them was jerked clean
out of my hands. After that | was, OF
course, pOwerless to control him TO the
slightest degree, but managed to retain
my seat, notwithstanding his mad plunges
and cavortings, and after he had
succeeded in scattering the entire
procession to his complete satisfaction,
he galloped of madly down the road.
| was rather glad to be run away with in
this John Gilpin manner than otherwise,
as fear that | would have been inconti-
nentlv hung, drawn and quartered had that
Moslem mob ever been permitted to get
possession OF me. / have no doubt that
they looked upon it as a scheme OF the
Christian opposition gotten up to break
off the marriage, carry the election, or
thing equally vicious. Ny fiery, I'M
tanned steed finally exhausted himself
after an exciting run of about a mile,
when he kindly stopped and a.
lowed my retinue to overtake me,
but have never yet been able to under
stand the cause of his malevolent out
break unless it was that singing. Anyone
who has ever heard an Arab sing can
comprehend how even a horse might OBJ
ject TO it. However, for the rest of the
days ride white-winged peace spread her
wings over us and l fell upon his neck
tagainl and forgave him, and we reached
Nazareth early in the afternoon without
any other lively experiences, and without
seeing anything further of especial inter
est beyond passing in sight of the hamlet
of ''Meshhad," supposed to be ancient
"Gath-hepher," the birthplace of Jonah
the prophet. WILL f. ENGLISH.