not
numerous, and are situated far up the slopes, or even on the tops of
the ridges. These villages are clusters of squalid huts constructed of
stone and mud, and can afford no accommodation such as an American
might desire. But, in many instances, they occupy sites identified with
places and events noted in Bible story.

These mountains were given to Gad in the allotment of Joshua and
Eleazar. Surely at that time the prospect must have been much more
pleasing than at present, or the Gadites would not have been so anxious
to receive this district as a permanent possession. True, even now, a
few narrow valleys, or wadies, show signs of great fertility, but the
greater part is quite uninviting. Yet to the tourist there is much of
interest in this region.

My way to the Jordan lay over these mountains, especially that part
known as the Jebel Ajlun. Sometimes it seemed impossible to proceed
because of rocks and underbrush. The mountain sides were so steep in
some places that we were barely able to climb them; many of the wadies,
washed by winter torrents, were next to being impassable; and when our
way led along the sides of precipitous slopes I shuddered to think of
the consequences of a misstep upon the part of my horse. The course I
had chosen through this East-Jordan country was an unusual one (as
already noted)--one over which my dragoman had never gone, and one over
which, he said, not one in a thousand tourists to Palestine ever asked
to go,--a statement corroborated by the United States Consul at
Jerusalem, who has written extensively on the trans-Jordanic highlands.
This statement was not very encouraging to me, but I had set my heart
on reaching the Jordan by this route, so simply said, "Lead on."
Several times I feared I had made a serious mistake, but having come
thus far I could not go back. After we had passed through the old
cemetery our ascent was gradual until we reached the modern village of
Suf, three miles northwest of Gerasa. Here we see "two women grinding
at the mill." The mill consists of two circular stones about fourteen
inches in diameter, the one stone rests upon the other, and the grain
to be crushed between them is supplied by one of the women while the
other turns the upper stone round and round, thus grinding the meal for
the uninviting bread of their less inviting floor-table.

This place has been suggested by Major Condor as the probable site of
Mizpah in Gilead. A group of fine stone m