DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0293
A PERILOJS ASCENT.
-277
SainS) slipped, faltered, and completely failed. Our
guide told us that he had never ascended with
horses before; and looking forward, the attempt
seemed utterly impossible ; but the noble animak
climbed with the , intelligence of men, holding on
with their fore-feet as if they were hands, and the
Arabs above pulling them by the mane, or push-
ing from below. One of them, in climbing an al-
most perpendicular height, fell over backward. I
thought he was killed ; and my Arabs, irritated by
toil, thirst, and the danger to their horses, sprang
•upon the guide, and I believe would have killed
him if Paul and I had not interfered. Taking off
"the enormous saddle, we all joined above and be^
low, and hoisted and pushed him up almost bodily.
It was nearly dark when we reached the top of
the mountain, and I sat down for a moment to take
a last look at the Dead Sea. From this distance'
its aspect fully justified its name. It was calm,
motionless, and seemingly dead; there was no
wave or ripple on its surface, nor was it hurrying
on, like other waters, to pay its tribute to the
ocean ; the mountains around it were also dead,;
no trees or shrubs, not a blade of grass grew on
their naked sides ■ and, as in the days of Moses,
*' Brimstone and salt, it is not -sown, nor bearet-h,
•nor any grass grow eth thereon."
One thing had especially attracted my attention
ia ascending the mountain-, on attaining a particu-
lar point, we had a clear view of the whole ~seas
and at the extreme end we saw distinctly whal
2
-277
SainS) slipped, faltered, and completely failed. Our
guide told us that he had never ascended with
horses before; and looking forward, the attempt
seemed utterly impossible ; but the noble animak
climbed with the , intelligence of men, holding on
with their fore-feet as if they were hands, and the
Arabs above pulling them by the mane, or push-
ing from below. One of them, in climbing an al-
most perpendicular height, fell over backward. I
thought he was killed ; and my Arabs, irritated by
toil, thirst, and the danger to their horses, sprang
•upon the guide, and I believe would have killed
him if Paul and I had not interfered. Taking off
"the enormous saddle, we all joined above and be^
low, and hoisted and pushed him up almost bodily.
It was nearly dark when we reached the top of
the mountain, and I sat down for a moment to take
a last look at the Dead Sea. From this distance'
its aspect fully justified its name. It was calm,
motionless, and seemingly dead; there was no
wave or ripple on its surface, nor was it hurrying
on, like other waters, to pay its tribute to the
ocean ; the mountains around it were also dead,;
no trees or shrubs, not a blade of grass grew on
their naked sides ■ and, as in the days of Moses,
*' Brimstone and salt, it is not -sown, nor bearet-h,
•nor any grass grow eth thereon."
One thing had especially attracted my attention
ia ascending the mountain-, on attaining a particu-
lar point, we had a clear view of the whole ~seas
and at the extreme end we saw distinctly whal
2