urable monuments! There is but one safe repository for
the decaying part of man, and that is what the Almighty Maker at first
decreed--namely, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, and dust to dust. The
poorest slave, buried in a hole within the ground, is safer from man's
greed and violence than the mightiest conqueror; for the massive porphyry
sarcophagus of Alexander was rifled by Caligula, and after that by
others, in Egypt. And the same fate has befallen the tombs of Cyrus and
Darius in Persia, for the sake of the riches entombed with them.

Some copper coins were brought to us, but of no particular value: they
were either corroded or broken, and of no remarkable antiquity.

As twilight faded away we returned to the tents, and had the evening
meal. The wind rose considerably, so that we lighted a fire on the lee
side of my tent, and gazed round upon the strange and noble scene around.
There was Hermon just before us, seen indistinctly by starlight; and
there was sufficient novelty and non-security in the place to keep
attention awake.

The shaikh of the village came and assured us that in the Lebanon (not
far distant) the Druses were up; that the convent at Maaluleh had been
sacked, and twenty-two Emirs had been seized by the beastly Turks (as he
denominated them); that Abu Neked was up in arms, and even the villages
in the south, about Nazareth, were fighting. Of course there was
considerable exaggeration in all this, but our muleteer began to pray
that he might be soon safe again in Jerusalem.

The shaikh informed us that in the happy time of the Egyptian rule, under
Ibrahim Pasha, his village was so populous that they cultivated fifty
feddans of land, whereas now they could only work six; that then property
was so safe that Arab marauders were always caught and punished, (he had
himself had Bedaween kept prisoners in his house,) whereas now, under the
Turks, they come into his house to steal.

While he was relating this, a man came running from the village to
announce that neighbouring Arabs were just before carrying off some of
their cows in the dark, but on being pursued, had made off without them.

After I got to bed, one of our people shot at a hyaena, and the villagers
shouted from the roofs of their houses to know if we were attacked. In
the morning they told us that they had seen the hyaena, big enough to eat
a man, and that their attention had been attracted to it by the cry of an
owl.

_Saturday_