fish or flagstones, with chunks of
wood and gnarled roots, with bags of grain and crates of vegetables,
each camel carrying a quantity about equal to a one-horse wagon load.
From a hill-top we caught a glimpse of the Dead Sea lying far below us
in the valley twenty miles away. We met women on their way to market
with heavy baskets of cauliflower and other vegetables poised on their
heads, men bending under distended goat-skins filled with water or wine
strapped to their shoulders, donkeys bearing basket-panniers filled with
produce or laden with bags of grain heaped on their backs, Greek priests
in black robes and high hats carrying white umbrellas for protection
from the sun, and turbaned Arabs in brown robes plodding along with
staves in their hands.

The mountainous suburbs of the city are composed of limestone, and the
limestone rocks cropped out on every side. The rocks protruding from the
soil were of a light gray color, but the broken rocks, the fences, and
the houses built of stone had changed to a light yellow shade from
exposure to the weather. The fields were covered with stones except
where little patches had been cleared with great labor and the stones
built into fences surrounding the small plots. The hill-sides were
almost bare of soil. Where the stones had been cleared away, the soil of
decomposed limestone produced a luxuriant growth. The cauliflower
carried to market was the finest we had ever seen. The few scattered
olive trees in the valleys appeared strong and healthy in their light
green foliage. The fig trees were bare, but occasional groups of almond
trees were covered with pink bloom.

[Illustration: IN THE NARROW STREETS OF BETHLEHEM.]

During our drive we saw peasants plowing little plots with single
donkeys and crooked wooden plows, or digging between rocks and around
grape vines with clumsy, heavy-looking hoes. The grape vines were
trimmed back to within three or four feet of the ground and were not
supported or trellised. Women gathered the trimmings of the vines, bound
them into fagots, placed the fagots on their heads, and carried them
away to the city for firewood. Not a sprig was wasted. The old roots
that were dug out of the ground were borne away in the same manner. In a
country without forests and without coal everything that will burn is
utilized. We saw girls carrying flat baskets on their heads and the
guide satisfied our curiosity by explaining that the baskets contained
dried