The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-03-14

sleepless night between solemn hills that
shut out Jerusalem on the west and the
dark rampant of the Moabitish mountains
on the east. had become popular with the
Arabs by reason of having rebuked
my Bashi-B azouks for tearing down
the thorn fence of their village
to make a fire. l had compelled
my armed escort of rascals to pluck a
carload of thorns and repair the damage,
and the desert people, unused to justice,
were anxious to show me good sport with
''the accursed beast" We sailed forth in
single file silently under the bright moon
light and brought up in an open space
with the Arabs in company and eight or
ten NANCY, prick-eared dogs, which did
not appear very likely to tackle such
boars as [ had known in India l carried
a double gun loaded with buckshot and
nay cooks green-handled knife. in my
belt. My dragoman had his saber only,
and the Arabs their matchlocks and
spears We souatted long time on the
sand, every dog receiving instantly ire
mendous blow with cudgel If he fought
his fellows or barked, for it was to be es-
sentially still hunt.
What do we wait for?" presently
asked, and the answer given was, I'VE are
waiting for El-Nlmr." This I supposed
would prove some doughty hunter, styled
'the tiger" for his personal qualities, but
it turned out to be a famous dog infailible
at scenting and lighting pigs. which pres
sently came up in the society of master
as ugly as himself. A one-eared. SCARED,
cock-eyed mongrel dog it was, but Ell Nimr
knew his business thoroughly, and being
by and by ordered to seek for game dis
appeared in the thick bushes, we silently
following.
The method of the strange chase turned
out to be this: Everybody, including the
dogs, had to attend patiently and respect
fully upon the tiger" who again and
again emerged from the cover, mute and
wistful, without any results; but after two
miles of wandering we heard low yelp
from HIM at a distance and Immediately
all the other dogs sprang silently into the
thicket, going off, Uentre q terre, toward the
sound. Soon El-Nimr raised short,
sharp howl of certainty and my dragoman
exclaimed, 'Now we shall get wild pork !"
The rest of the scratch pack joined here
the wandering jackals yell and fly,
and we all ran hard in the direc-
ton of the clamor. to find the center
of it dense clump of prickly thorns and
nebbuk, where apparently a pig had taken
refuge Animated by our approach, 1.-The
tiger" went boldly into the darkness and
soon ont into the moonlight jumped the
unhappy hog, which fell to an easy double
shot at close quarters from my gun. How
ever. as nearly every Arab blaZed off his
matchbox and madiy danced in the wav
of his fellows, l saw there would be man
slaughter as well as wild pork" if we
continued such a wild, illegitimate pas
time, and gave the word to 60 to camp,
especially as we had already obtained a
pair of tusks and forbidden meat enough
for all the Christians in our Camp. Need
less to say the Arabs and Turks would
not touch the unclean creature, which
nevertheless affords no bad food when
young.
On our way back to the encampment FL
Nimr had three or four other dlertes, one
of which was due to a rowing jackal and
the other to wandering Bedouin proba
bly, bent on no honest errand, whom We
saved with difficulty from the dogs which
had encircled him. But the chief attrac-
ton of that singular nocturnal chase was
the scene itself The deadly pallid sheet
of the sea of Lot stretching away to
Petra and Egypt; the hills so full of his
tory and religion, this side and that; the
dark patches of bitter thorn glittering in
the moonlight. with here and there a
whispering palm tree standing high
among them. suggesting Zacchaeus and
the days of the journey to Jericho, and
close at hand "Bethabara, beyond Jor-
dan," and the very pool of the ancient
self underwent baptism. What locality
for hunting party! We were too rugged
and irregular lot in aspect to apply to US
that verse
Oh, why so bold,
In steel and gold,
On the paths that Christ has trod
But it did seem ridiculous and well-nigh
irreverent to be chasing wild hogs in such
a sporting ground.
Riding back next day to Jerusalem we
stayed to lunch at the khan built near the
traditional spot where the parable of the
Good Samaritan had its happening. There
is beautiful blue lily with small, dark
blossoms which grows in early spring
along this dry, steep road, albeit it was
too soon in the year for the real lily of the
"Sermon on the Mount" the scarlet mar
tagon, which
Decks herself, still
Mindful of His high words, in red and gold
To meet the step of summer.
At the little spring near the khan an
Arab of good dress and breeding sat
down with us, and after salutations and
little talk calmly offered to buy my
sister for his wife at the price of all his
string of camels. The offer was meant
kindly and respectfully but the lady, on
being acquainted with her conquest,
abruptly declined it, whereupon the
young sheikh gravely removed the silk
and gold rope from his haick and laid
that small offering at the feet of the
English "sittina" who had charmed him.
EDWIN ARNOLD.