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Transcriber's Note.

Apparent typographical errors have been corrected. The use of hyphens has
been rationalised. Variations in the use of accents have been retained.

Italics are indicated by _underscores_. Small capitals have been
replaced by full capitals. Two lines in blackletter font are indicated
by +plus signs+.




IN A SYRIAN SADDLE

BY

A. GOODRICH-FREER

 AUTHOR OF
 "INNER JERUSALEM," "OUTER ISLES," ETC.

 METHUEN & CO
 36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
 LONDON


_First Published in 1905_


 THIS RECORD IS DEDICATED

 BY THE LADY
 TO THE DOCTOR

 ON THE EVE OF STARTING TOGETHER UPON A LONGER JOURNEY




CONTENTS


 CHAPTER                                                       PAGE

 IN MOAB
    I. GOING TO JERICHO                                           1
   II. STEPPING EASTWARD                                         20
  III. MADABA                                                    51
   IV. MSHATTA                                                   64
    V. AMMÂN                                                     93
   VI. JERASH, AND THE FORDS OF JABBOK                          116
  VII. ES-SALT                                                  145
 VIII. THE JORDAN VALLEY                                        161

 IN GALILEE AND SAMARIA
    I. TO NABLUS                                                178
   II. TO SAMARIA                                               194
  III. TO TAANAK AND MEGIDDO                                    217
   IV. HAIFA AND CARMEL                                         244
    V. NAZARETH AND TABOR                                       258
   VI. THE SEA OF GALILEE                                       277
  VII. TIBERIAS AND BESAN                                       302
 VIII. WEST OF THE JORDAN                                       323

 INDEX                                                          347


IN A SYRIAN SADDLE


IN MOAB




CHAPTER I

GOING TO JERICHO

 "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho"


Life is, in many respects, made very easy in the Holy Land. You can
return home in the afternoon with no anxious forebodings as to how much
waste of time is awaiting you in the shape of cards and notes on the
hall table; you may wear clothes for covering, you may eat for
nourishment; without taking thought for fashion in the one case, or of
competition with your neighbour's cook or gardener in the other.
But—according to our Occidental standards—you cannot consistently
indulge any taste you may happen to have for being grand. Your attempts
at a London, or shall we say a suburban, drawing-room, your "At Home"
days, your Europeanised service, the dress of your womankind—distantly
reminiscent of the ladies' papers and of Answers to Correspondents—are
certain to be complicated by some _contretemps_ provocative only of
mirth. The Oriental himself makes no attempt at being consistent. When
you arrive at his house he spreads a priceless carpet, but omits to
remove last week's dust from off the furniture; he gives you perfumed
coffee, which is like a dream of Olympus, and his servant brings you a
piece of bread in his fingers.

These reflections, and many more, were suggested during the waiting
which accompanied our start in the early sunrise at half-past five on
Saturday, 3rd October 1903. No one could have guessed how grand we
really were, and there were moments then, and later, when the fact
escaped even our own notice. We four, the Lady, the Doctor (of various
forms of scholarship) and the two Sportsmen, were the chosen and proud
companions of the Professor; and the Professor, besides being the
greatest epigraphist in Europe, was the representative of a Royal
Personage, and armed with all the permits and safe-conducts and special
privileges useful in a land of cholera, quarantine, and backsheesh. Our
eight horses were innocent of grooming, and their equipment was fastened
together mainly with tin tacks, pieces of rope, and bits of string; but
it would have been difficult to find in England any animal to whom you
could have proposed, still less with whom you could have carried
through, one tithe of what our ragged regiment accomplished. Our two
grooms, _mukaris_, appealed to certain senses as vaguely horsey, though
they suggested nothing more distinguished than stable-helps; but their
management of eight animals, under conditions which seemed especially
designed for their destruction, when there was not a blade of grass,
perhaps for a whole day not a drop of water; when they were ridden for
ten, twelve, or even fourteen hours at a stretch with merely an hour's
rest—without forage—at noon, would have done credit to any groom at
Badminton or Berkeley. As