Byeways in Palestine

Among our gentlemen we had a man of fortune and literary attainments, who had been in Algiers, and now amused himself with dispensing with servants or interpreters--speaking some Arabic. He brought but very light luggage. This he placed upon a donkey, and drove it himself--wearing Algerine town costume. The Bedaween, however, as I need scarcely say, did not mistake him for an Oriental.

Moving forward in the afternoon, we were passing over the Plains of Moab, "on this [east] side Jordan by Jericho"--where Balaam, son of Beor, saw, from the heights above, all Israel encamped, and cried out, "How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob! and thy tabernacles, O Israel! As the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the river's side, as the trees of lign-aloes which the Lord hath planted, and as cedar-trees beside the waters. . . . Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that cu