sun-dried brick of earth, in a very
primitive fashion. We seemed to be transported as by magic to the Holy
Land as it was in the lifetime of our Saviour. The architecture of the
buildings, the habits and raiment of the people, the stony soil of the
hills, covered by a thorny and sparse vegetation, the irrigated fertile
land of the valleys, the small fields surrounded by adobe walls--all
this could not fail to remind one vividly of descriptions and pictures
of Old Egypt and Palestine. Here you saw the same dusty, primitive
roads and quaint bullock carts, that were hewn out of soft wood and
joined together with thongs of rawhide and built without the vestige of
iron or other metal. There were the same antediluvian plows, made of
two sticks, as used in ancient Egypt at the time of the Exodus, when
Moses led the Jews out of captivity to their Promised Land. The very
atmosphere, so dry and exhilarating, seemed strange. In this
transparent air, objects which were twenty miles distant seemed to be
no farther than two or three miles at most. In such a country it would
not have surprised anyone to meet the Saviour face to face, riding an
ass or burro over the stony road, followed by His disciples and a
multitude of people, who, with the most implicit faith in the Lord's
power to perform miracles, expected Him to provide them with an
abundance of loaves and fishes. Here we were in a country, a territory
of the United States, which was about eighteen hundred years behind the
civilization of other Christian countries.

As we passed through the many little hamlets and towns, the male
population, who were sitting on the shady side of their houses,
regarded us with lazy curiosity. They were leaning against the cool,
adobe walls, dreaming and smoking cigarettes. The ladies seemed to
possess a livelier disposition and emerged from their houses to gossip
and gather news. They viewed me with the greatest interest and
curiosity and, shifting the mantillas, or rebozos, behind which they
hid their faces after the Moorish fashion, they gazed at me with
shining eyes. And I believe that I found favor with many, for they
would exclaim, "M'ira que Americanito tan lindo, tan blanco!" (What a
handsome young American. See what beautiful blue eyes he has and what a
white complexion.) And mothers warned the maidens not to look at me, as
I might have the evil eye. I heard one lady tell her daughter, "You may
look at him just once, Dolores; oh, see how