andy fog of the Khamsin, made its
contemplation a physical enjoyment. On each side of the lane along which
the travellers proceeded, a tall fence of cactus separated them from
verdant plantations of mulberry trees, orchards, and gardens. The creaking
of water wheels, and the splashing of the water from the revolving
buckets, were sounds which, if not musical to the ear, were delightful to
the sense of hearing, from the ideas of coolness and cleanliness they
suggested. Those only who have wandered in the desert under a burning sun,
or sailed for days and nights in a crowded Levantine caick, can conceive
the exquisite sensation that the sight of an old black bucket of fresh
water conveys to the human soul. The sense of coolness indicated by the
dark stain of constant immersion, and the liberality of wealth testified
by the leaky stream flowing from the ill connected staves, have given many
a traveller in the "gorgeous east" greater pleasure than he could have
derived from an invitation to a banquet with Lucullus.

Beyond the wave of the corn fields the verdure of the gardens, and the
shade of the trees, rose the little city of Gaza,--a small and picturesque
spot, with a few minarets and towers, and ruined walls rising above the
houses. It crowns a moderate elevation, once occupied by a strong citadel,
so well fortified by nature and art as to have merited emphatically the
appellation of "the strong." It stands a monument of the glory of the
Israelite warrior Sampson, and a proof of the ease with which heroic
valour, in a petty fortress commanded by a Persian eunuch, could arrest
the progress of the Macedonian hero, Alexander the Great. At the entrance
of the town our travellers stumbled over some ruins, which they were
gravely informed marked the remains of the gateway from which Sampson had
carried away the gates. Beside it, a small building with a low dome has
been constructed by the Mohammedans, and is shown as the tomb of Sampson.

Before this tomb, a considerable number of people, and a guard of Albanian
soldiers, was now stationed. They soon brought our travellers to a halt,
and compelled them to dismount in order to undergo an examination as long
and inquisitorial as that to which poor foreigners are subjected at the
police office of Vienna. Their motives for visiting Gaza, were inquired
into, and particularly their connexion with the party they had just
quitted. The result of the examination did not appear to be pe