was apt to be saluted with
a shower of stones.

One afternoon I happened to be riding by myself along a so-called road
in the bare mountain country round Jerusalem, wearing a hat, when I
came on a pedestrian resting in the shadow of a rock by the wayside.
He was a native Christian--that much could be detected at a glance;
but of what peculiar brand I could not guess from his costume, which
consisted of a fez; a clerical black coat and waistcoat, quite of
English cut, but very much the worse for wear; a yellow flannel shirt,
and a red cord with tassels worn by way of necktie; baggy Turkish
pantaloons; white stockings, and elastic-sided boots. Beside him, a
long staff leaned up against the rock. He sprang upon his feet at my
approach, and, with an amiable smile and bow, exclaimed:

'Good afternoon. I think you are an English gentleman?'

I pleaded guilty to the charge, and he asked leave to walk beside me
until past a certain village, not far distant, of which the people, he
assured me, were extremely wicked and averse to Christians. I readily
consented, and he took his staff and walked beside me, pouring out his
soul in fulsome flattery.

The village which he dreaded to approach alone was the abode of
Muslims, devilish people who hate the righteous Christians and
persecute them when they get the chance. He said that he looked
forward to the day when the English would take over the whole country
and put those evil-doers in their proper place, below the Christians.
It would be a mercy and a blessing to the human race, he gave as his
mature opinion, if the English were to conquer the whole world. They
were so good and upright and so truly pious. He did not think that any
wrong was ever done in England. And then:

'You are a Brutestant?' he asked.

I answered that I was a member of the Church of England.

'Ah, thank God!' he cried. 'I also am a Brutestant--a Babtist.' He
seemed to think that my avowal made us brothers.

It seemed, from the account he gave me of himself, that he was an
evangelist, working to spread the truth among his wicked
country-people; for the Christians of the Greek and Latin Churches
were both wicked and benighted, he informed me, and would persecute
him, like the Muslims, if they got the chance. It was hard work, he
told me, turning up his eyes to heaven. He grieved to say it, but
there seemed no other way to purge the land of all those wicked people
save destruction. He wondered that the L