THE JORDAN.
167
rude the scene may be called, but there is no indecorum or irreverence, and very little super-
stition—nothing like the ceremonies of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Who that has
stood by the brink of that river could have turned back without having washed in Jordan ?
Who is so utterly devoid of sentiment as not to sympathize with that pilgrim multitude ?
and who can look on the Eastern baptism without feeling how he has reproduced before his
own eyes the scenes and the surroundings that accompanied the preaching and the baptism
on this river-bank of the great fore-
runner, St. John Baptist.
The ceremony is not a long one.
BIT ON THE .PLAINS OF JERICHO.
After it is over every one cuts a stick or
bough to preserve in memory of the visit (a
palmer's staff); and most come provided
with a bottle, which is filled from the sacred
stream. Silently the crowds remount and
gradually depart ; the last Turkish fez has closed the rear-guard two hours before noon.
The camp of the previous night is reoccupied, and the pilgrims rest and sleep till sunset,
when they eat their evening meal. At dead of night they set out, roused by the kettledrum,
and in silence resume their march back to Jerusalem. The last act of the great pilgrimage
has been completed, and every one of the caravan is now a true " palmer."
167
rude the scene may be called, but there is no indecorum or irreverence, and very little super-
stition—nothing like the ceremonies of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Who that has
stood by the brink of that river could have turned back without having washed in Jordan ?
Who is so utterly devoid of sentiment as not to sympathize with that pilgrim multitude ?
and who can look on the Eastern baptism without feeling how he has reproduced before his
own eyes the scenes and the surroundings that accompanied the preaching and the baptism
on this river-bank of the great fore-
runner, St. John Baptist.
The ceremony is not a long one.
BIT ON THE .PLAINS OF JERICHO.
After it is over every one cuts a stick or
bough to preserve in memory of the visit (a
palmer's staff); and most come provided
with a bottle, which is filled from the sacred
stream. Silently the crowds remount and
gradually depart ; the last Turkish fez has closed the rear-guard two hours before noon.
The camp of the previous night is reoccupied, and the pilgrims rest and sleep till sunset,
when they eat their evening meal. At dead of night they set out, roused by the kettledrum,
and in silence resume their march back to Jerusalem. The last act of the great pilgrimage
has been completed, and every one of the caravan is now a true " palmer."