in towns and
villages, wherever man is seen. A whole flock of these little
twittering birds woke me every morning.

I was as yet much less troubled by insects than I had anticipated.
With the exception of the small flies on the plain of Sharon, and of
certain little sable jumpers which seem naturalised throughout the
whole world, I could not complain of having been annoyed by any
creature.

Our common house-flies I saw every where; but they were not more
numerous or more troublesome than in Germany.

EXCURSION TO THE RIVER JORDAN AND TO THE DEAD SEA.

To travel with any degree of security in Palestine, Phoenicia, etc.,
it is necessary to go in large companies, and in some places it even
becomes advisable to have an escort. The stranger should further be
provided with cooking utensils, provisions, tents, and servants. To
provide all these things would have been a hopeless task for me; I
had therefore resolved to return from Jerusalem as I had come,
namely, via Joppa, and so to proceed to Alexandria or Beyrout, when,
luckily for me, the gentlemen whom I have already mentioned arrived
at Jerusalem. They intended making several excursions by land, and
the first of these was to be a trip to the banks of the Jordan and
to the Dead Sea.

I ardently wished to visit these places, and therefore begged the
gentlemen, through Father Paul, to permit my accompanying them on
their arduous journey. The gentlemen were of opinion that their
proposed tour would be too fatiguing for one of my sex, and seemed
disinclined to accede to my request. But then Count Wratislaw took
my part, and said that he had watched me during our ride from
Bethlehem to Jerusalem, and had noticed that I wanted neither
courage, skill, nor endurance, so that they might safely take me
with them. Father Paul immediately came to me with the joyful
intelligence that I was to go, and that I had nothing to do but to
provide myself with a horse. He particularly mentioned how kindly
Count Wratislaw, to whom I still feel obliged, had interested
himself in my behalf.

The journey to the Jordan and the Dead Sea should never be
undertaken by a small party. The best and safest course is to send
for some Arab or Bedouin chiefs, either at Jerusalem or Bethlehem,
and to make a contract with them for protection. In consideration
of a certain tribute, these chiefs accompany you in person, with
some of their tribe, to your place of destination and back again.
The