DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0036
28
INCIDENTS or TRAVEL.
sembling large scales, which on his legs, and par-
ticularly over his knees, stood out like the greaves
of an ancient coat of mail; and he looked like one
who literally crawled on his belly and licked the
dust of the earth. He reminded me of the wild
hermit of Engaddi, who came out upon the Sara-
cen emir when he journeyed with the Knight of the
Leopard on the shore of the Dead Sea. And this
man was a saint, and my Arabs looked on him
with respect and reverence; and when he died a
public tomb would be erected over him, and they
upon whose charity he now lived would resort to
it as a shrine of prayer. We gave him some
bread, and left him in his solitary den; and, be-
fore we had got out of sight, he had crawled back
under his palm-leaves, and was again resting upon
his pillow of stone. In our busy and stirring
world, we cannot imagine the possibility of ex-
isting in such a dronish state; but, in all probability,
that man would lie there till the bread we gave
him was exhausted, and when he had taken his
last morsel, again lie down in hope that more
would come.
About an hour afterward we came upon a
fisherman stealing along the shore with his net
in his hand, looking into the sea, and ready to
throw it when he saw any fish. The process, like
every thing else that one sees here, is perfectly
primitive, and carries the beholder back to the
early days of this ancient country. Carrying the
net on his left arm crooked, cleared and prepared
INCIDENTS or TRAVEL.
sembling large scales, which on his legs, and par-
ticularly over his knees, stood out like the greaves
of an ancient coat of mail; and he looked like one
who literally crawled on his belly and licked the
dust of the earth. He reminded me of the wild
hermit of Engaddi, who came out upon the Sara-
cen emir when he journeyed with the Knight of the
Leopard on the shore of the Dead Sea. And this
man was a saint, and my Arabs looked on him
with respect and reverence; and when he died a
public tomb would be erected over him, and they
upon whose charity he now lived would resort to
it as a shrine of prayer. We gave him some
bread, and left him in his solitary den; and, be-
fore we had got out of sight, he had crawled back
under his palm-leaves, and was again resting upon
his pillow of stone. In our busy and stirring
world, we cannot imagine the possibility of ex-
isting in such a dronish state; but, in all probability,
that man would lie there till the bread we gave
him was exhausted, and when he had taken his
last morsel, again lie down in hope that more
would come.
About an hour afterward we came upon a
fisherman stealing along the shore with his net
in his hand, looking into the sea, and ready to
throw it when he saw any fish. The process, like
every thing else that one sees here, is perfectly
primitive, and carries the beholder back to the
early days of this ancient country. Carrying the
net on his left arm crooked, cleared and prepared