pleasure as you might think, for the donkeys in Palestine stop every few
minutes, and, unless you beat them cruelly, which we did not like doing,
they will not budge an inch. Sometimes they consent to be led, but they
will not be driven, and you have a weary time of it. Now and then a
donkey will suddenly start off on a quick trot, and, being thus taken
unawares, the rider often falls off. You can imagine the laughter of
your friends and how stupid the girl feels, but somehow it is always
taken in good part.

"Our visit first was to David's Tomb, but we were not allowed to go in.
Next we walked round the walls of Jerusalem, climbed up the Mount of
Olives, then rested under the shade of a large olive-tree, where we
spread out our table-cloth and arranged on it all the good things we had
brought with us. The long walk had given us good appetites. After we had
finished our meals, other groups of friends came close to us, and then
some of the men in turns told us tales of our nation's ancient glory,
and each one had something interesting to relate. Then a middle-aged man
with a group of boys came near us. I think he must have been a teacher,
for he started telling the boys about Bar Cochba and his struggle with
the Romans.

"'Fierce struggles for Jewish freedom went on for three years, and the
Jews were proving so successful under the leadership of Bar Cochba that
the Romans thought it necessary to bring their greatest general, Julius
Severus, from Britain to command the Roman Army in Palestine. At last
the Samaritans betrayed our people: our last remaining fortified city,
Bethar, fell, and Bar Cochba died in defending it on 9th of Ab, 135 C.E.

"'The Jews were the last people under Roman rule in those days to fight
for freedom, and over half-a-million of them lost their lives in this