, our youngsters awakened us and hurried us to get ready to
start, as if we should not have quite enough of their pranks even if we
left a few hours later. As we have to form ourselves into large groups,
we arrange these a day or two beforehand, for there are a great number
of Arabs and Turks about, and many of them are very wild. If you go
alone, or even in pairs, they are often known to attack you, especially
in the case of a girl or a woman. At first I laughed at the girls
fearing to go alone when in the country, but, after having had an
unpleasant adventure myself, I determined to be more careful and obey
those who knew better than I did as to what was safe and what not.

"It happened in this way. One Sabbath afternoon I went out of the suburb
with a few girls, who, like myself, had the spirit of adventure. As we
went along chatting merrily together, we felt ourselves caught from
behind by some Turks. Fortunately we had not got far, so that when we
shrieked out our cries were heard in the town, and to our great relief
we soon heard a horse galloping in our direction. We kept on screaming,
and one Turk put his hand over my friend's mouth; but she bit and
scratched his hand. Then, suddenly, we were let loose, and the Turks
took to their heels, for they saw Europeans galloping up to us. Two of
them jumped off their horses and asked if we were hurt, for we had been
so frightened that we could not quickly leave off crying. They kindly
brought us home, and after that experience I never wanted to go out
without enough men in our party to guard us.

"Now this Lag B'Omer a number of girls wanted to go to see some special
places, so we formed ourselves into a large party and started very
early, for you rarely get such an outing. It was a most glorious spring
morning, and a few of us had donkeys to ride. To do so is not as much
pleasure as you might think, for the donkeys in Palestine stop every few
minutes, and, unless you beat them cruelly, which we did not like doing,
they will not budge an inch. Sometimes they consent to be led, but they
will not be driven, and you have a weary time of it. Now and then a
donkey will suddenly start off on a quick trot, and, being thus taken
unawares, the rider often falls off. You can imagine the laughter of
your friends and how stupid the girl feels, but somehow it is always
taken in good part.

"Our visit first was to David's Tomb, but we were not allowed to go in.
Next we walked round