DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0152
135
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
old man one meets in the East, he looked exactly
the patriarch of the imagination, and precisely as
we would paint Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. He
rose as we approached, and gave us the usual Be-
douin invitation to stop and pass the night with
him ; and, leading us a few paces to the brink of
the mountain, he showed us in the valley below the
village of his tribe.
The valley began at the foot of the elevation on
which we stood, and lay between ranges of broken
and overhanging rocks, a smooth and beautiful
table of green, for perhaps a quarter of a mile, and
beyond that distance broke off and expanded into
an extensive meadow. The whole of this valley,
down to the meadow, was filled with flocks of
sheep and goats; and, for the first time since I left
the banks of the Nile, I saw a herd of cows. I did
not think I should ever be guilty of a sentiment at
beholding a cow, but so it was; after my long
journey in the desert, my feelings were actually ex-
cited to tenderness by the sight of these old ac-
quaintances.
But where were the dwellings of the pastors, the
tents in which dwelt the shepherds of these flocks
and herds ? In Egypt I had seen the Arabs living
in tombs, and among the ruins of temples; in
the desert I had seen them dwelling in tents; but I
had never yet seen them making their habitations
in the rude crevices of the rocks. Such, however,
were their habitations here. The rocks in many
places were overhanging; in others there were
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
old man one meets in the East, he looked exactly
the patriarch of the imagination, and precisely as
we would paint Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. He
rose as we approached, and gave us the usual Be-
douin invitation to stop and pass the night with
him ; and, leading us a few paces to the brink of
the mountain, he showed us in the valley below the
village of his tribe.
The valley began at the foot of the elevation on
which we stood, and lay between ranges of broken
and overhanging rocks, a smooth and beautiful
table of green, for perhaps a quarter of a mile, and
beyond that distance broke off and expanded into
an extensive meadow. The whole of this valley,
down to the meadow, was filled with flocks of
sheep and goats; and, for the first time since I left
the banks of the Nile, I saw a herd of cows. I did
not think I should ever be guilty of a sentiment at
beholding a cow, but so it was; after my long
journey in the desert, my feelings were actually ex-
cited to tenderness by the sight of these old ac-
quaintances.
But where were the dwellings of the pastors, the
tents in which dwelt the shepherds of these flocks
and herds ? In Egypt I had seen the Arabs living
in tombs, and among the ruins of temples; in
the desert I had seen them dwelling in tents; but I
had never yet seen them making their habitations
in the rude crevices of the rocks. Such, however,
were their habitations here. The rocks in many
places were overhanging; in others there were