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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 Small capitals have been
replaced by full capitals.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 we proposed to ourselves both pleasure and
profit we took no servants—still less a dragoman. Our portable food had
been very carefully selected, and was the best obtainable. Bread, eggs,
chickens, grapes, and lemons we could count upon getting as we went
along.

Each member of the party had clothing and a blanket in a pair of
saddle-bags—mostly of goats' hair or camels' hair, gaily decorated with
 tassels—and these, with an extra pair for the baskets of food,
spirit-lamps, plates, knives, and tin cups, were distributed among the
three baggage animals, who also carried, in turn, the two mukaris,
perched on the top of the pile, but capable of climbing up and down with
incredibly rapid agility.

At length the cavalcade was ready, and we turned our faces towards
Jericho. First came the Professor, on a tall, white Circassian horse,
with a tail which almost swept the ground, and was dyed with henna for
protection from the Evil One, who was further defied, by each of us, by
means of a large blue bead hanging round the neck of every horse on a
 worsted rope. The Professor himself exhibited five foot of
humanity, mostly brains; a personality which consisted, to the eye, of a
large scarlet and gold silk _keffeeye_ (head covering) with a goats'
hair _akal_ (rope to keep it in place) and an elaborate silk fringe,
below which emerged a pair of black leggings, into one of which a whip
was jauntily stuck. He was mounted on a peaked, military saddle, and he
alone of all the party refused to be separated from his saddle-bags,
which contained an assortment of cigars, cigarettes, tobacco, and the
long wooden pipe, for use in the saddle, such as is in favour with the
Bedu.

Next came the Lady, mounted on a long-legged Arab steed, several sizes
too large for her, but selected for her use mainly because he could do
the _rahwân_, the light canter special to the desert horses, and which
reduces fatigue to a minimum. It was discovered, later in the day, that
he was also capable, apparently, of running for the Derby, an incident
which may as well be recorded at once, as it resulted in his banishment
to the second class, and the society of the mukaris.

The road from Jerusalem to Jericho still retains the character recorded
some two thousand years ago, but the thieves among whom you inevitably
fall are now licensed by the Government. There is a whole village full
of them, called Abu-dis, and they have the privilege of protecting
travellers from Bethany to Jericho—that is, of enforcing payment for
preventing anyone else from robbing you. It is but some few years ago
that an Englishman, suspected of seeking to dispense with this
advantage, had his donkey shot under him. At Bethany, accordingly, we
were joined by our escort, but, as became our dignity, he was an
officer, picturesquely attired, and mounted, unfortunately, on a
beautiful Arab mare. The misfortune lay in the fact that all our horses,
with one exception, were stallions, most of whom became restless and
uneasy, that of the Professor so