Dumaneer_, with a ruin named _Khirbet Saleekhi_.

The 'Adwan Arabs were now again our guides, the Saltiyeh having returned
home; but for some distance the guides were few and without firearms,
only armed with spears, and the common peasant sword called _khanjar_;
perhaps this was by compact with the Saltiyeh, as in about an hour's time
we were joined by a reinforcement with a few matchlock guns. On we went
through corn-fields, which are sown in joint partnership with the Arabs
and the Moslems of the town; then doubled round a long and high hill with
a ruin on it, called _Jela'ad_. This I have since suspected to be
Ramoth-Gilead. We descended a hill called _Tallooz_; forward again
between hills and rocks, and neglected evergreen woods, upon narrow
paths. A numerous caravan we were, with a hundred animals of burden,
bright costumes, and cheerful conversation, till we reached a large
terebinth-tree under a hill called _Shebail_; the site is called
_Thuggeret el Moghafer_, signifying a "look-out station" between two
tribes. There we rested a while, till the above-mentioned reinforcement
joined us. From this spot we could just discern _Jerash_, on the summit
of a huge hill before us.

We now had one long and continued descent to the river Zerka. Passed
through a defile, on issuing from which we observed a little stream with
oleander, in pink blossom, thirty feet high, and in great abundance.
Halted again at a pretty spring, called _Ruman_, where the water was upon
nearly a dead level, and therefore scarcely moving; then another small
spring, called _Bursa_, and also _'Ain el Merubb'a'_.

Evergreen oak in all directions, but with broader leaf than in Palestine;
also some terebinth-trees and wild holly-oaks. All the scenery now
expanded before us in width and height and depth.

We took notice of several high hills with groves of evergreen oak on
their summits; detached hills, which we could not but consider as remains
of the ancient _high places_ for idolatrous worship.

Still descended, till on a sudden turn of the road came the rushing of
the _Zerka_, or Jabbok, water upon our ears, with a breeze sighing among
juniper-bushes, and enormous and gorgeous oleanders, together with the
soft zephyr feeling from the stream upon our heated faces--oh, so
inexpressibly delicious! I was the first to get across, and on reaching
the opposite bank we all dismounted, to drink freely from the river--a
name which it deserves as