File:Syria from the saddle (1896) (14777109452).jpg

Identifier: syriafromsaddle00terh (find matches)
Title: Syria from the saddle
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Terhune, Albert Payson, 1872-1942
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Publisher: New York : Silver, Burdett and Co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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mited and compact, since the eye from such 278 SYEIA FROM THE SADDLE. a height can cover a radius of little more than fiftymiles. We read of the solemn desolation of the Dead Sea; ofits dismal, poisonous waters, and the power of the fumesto kill the very birds that try to fly over it. My ownimpression of the place was different. The water, deep-blue in the sun, is as clear as any I have ever seen, andbeing open on three sides, the bright surface is con-stantly ruffled by a breeze. The land immediately aboutit is barren, for no crops can be raised in the salt-strewnground; but it is hemmed in by one of the richest val-leys and by the most stately hills in all Palestine. Most hymn-writers who have described it — and fromwhom we draw more largely than we realize for ourideas of the Holy Land — have never visited the East.Hence their descriptions are purely imaginary and basedon the seas name alone, — a name which I admit doesnot promise much in the line of cheerfulness or ofbeauty.
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CHAPTER XXX. AROUND THE CAMP-FIRE — TALES AND SONGS OF THE CAMP. AVID had ordered a gigantic camp-fire to be built on our last night atJericho. I was still lingering overmy coffee that evening when thedragoman appeared at the dining-tent door. Serkeese has been moved to tella story, sir, he said, laughing. Heis in the middle of it now. Shouldyou like to hear him? Looking out I saw a crowd of menseated about the roaring fire,—muleteers and other servants, John,Imbarak, an old Bedouin (poet of his tribe), the youngSheik who escorted us, and two guards. All were look-ing toward the head of the ring, where the redoubtableSerkeese, having installed himself on a heap of saddlesand blankets, was holding forth in what seemed, tojudge from his gestures and occasional howls, to benothing less than a tale of war and murder. As we lay back in our sea-chairs just outside the circle,I asked David how many enemies the hero of the storyhad killed thus far.

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