keep their part of the engagement?" But Joseph explained to me that
their part of the engagement really amounted to this,--that we
should ride into their country without molestation, provided that
such and such payments were made.

It was the period of Easter, and Jerusalem was full of pilgrims.
Even at that early hour of the morning we could hardly make our way
through the narrow streets. It must be understood that there is no
accommodation in the town for the fourteen or fifteen thousand
strangers who flock to the Holy Sepulchre at this period of the
year. Many of them sleep out in the open air, lying on low benches
which run along the outside walls of the houses, or even on the
ground, wrapped in their thick hoods and cloaks. Slumberers such as
these are easily disturbed, nor are they detained long at their
toilets. They shake themselves like dogs, and growl and stretch
themselves, and then they are ready for the day.

We rode out of the town in a long file. First went the groom-boy; I
forget his proper Syrian appellation, but we used to call him
Mucherry, that sound being in some sort like the name. Then
followed the horse with the forage and blankets, and next to him my
friend Smith in the Turkish saddle. I was behind him, and Joseph
brought up the rear. We moved slowly down the Via Dolorosa, noting
the spot at which our Saviour is said to have fallen while bearing
his cross; we passed by Pilate's house, and paused at the gate of
the Temple,--the gate which once was beautiful,--looking down into
the hole of the pool in which the maimed and halt were healed
whenever the waters moved. What names they are! And yet there at
Jerusalem they are bandied to and fro with as little reverence as
are the fanciful appellations given by guides to rocks and stones