p! What multitudes of people here have
drunk from the days before Israel down to the present time--the hunter,
the tiller of the soil, the grape-gatherer, the shepherd with his
flocks, the warrior and his chief,--all rejoiced and rested here, and
were refreshed and strengthened by the water.

Almost with reverence we drink again; then we remount our horses and
proceed along the wady past the village of Ajlun where an Arab joins us
and guides us on over fertile patches of ground and through olive
groves until we reach the modern town of Coefrinje, a town that
probably contains several thousand inhabitants. It is in the midst of
an olive grove well up on the side of the mountains. Here, although it
is scarcely past the middle of the afternoon, we stop for the night. It
is too far to the next village to risk going ahead--the way is none too
safe, even by day.

Several times to-day I could clearly distinguish the remains of old
Roman roads, well paved, and with curbing arrangement excellently
preserved. What vast sums of money and what great amount of labor must
have been expended on these old high-ways of the time when this
territory was occupied by the Romans! And where Rome walked she left
her path well made, and she left the impress of her thought in
rock-paved road, or in the lasting marble of her pillared temples and
carven tombs.

"By the Watch-Tower"

CHAPTER VI.

Soon after entering the village of Coefrinje my dragoman had the rare
good fortune to find a former acquaintance, but whom he did not know to
be in those mountains. His name was Elias Mitry, who, with his wife,
had come up from Jerusalem to do missionary work under the auspices of
the Church of England. Although he was a native of Palestine and talked
very poor English, yet he offered us a welcome to his humble home than
which no more royal was accorded us anywhere. The meeting with my
dragoman was an exhibition of genuine joy, and he seemed equally
pleased to have me in his home; especially did he consider it an honor
to be my host when my dragoman told him that he was escorting a
"school-master" through the land. In that land it seems that the
teacher is almost reverenced because of his profession, while, it may
be said by way of contrast, in some sections of my home land he is
scarcely respected because of his profession. Indeed, I was treated as
a guest of honor; the best that the home afforded was at my service.
Stuffed cucumbers, figs,