strength of its eddies. To some, and especially to those who cannot swim, the women and children, the peril is not slight, for losing their footing they get thrown into these eddies and washed down by the rapidity of the stream to the Dead Sea, where they are soon swept beyond the reach of help, and perish amidst those briny waves.

The reason why custom clings so tenaciously to this one spot, notwithstanding the risk described, for an opening might be cut elsewhere, is because tradition gives it to be the precise locality where the baptism of our Saviour took place; John being engaged at the time in preaching at Bathabara, the ruins of which is pointed out to the traveller beyond the river.

The Jordan, after passing the spot where the pilgrims bathe, has apparently eaten for itself (perhaps of late years) a passage through a loose sandy soil, to a depth of about forty to fifty feet, for these embankments, formed by the action of the water, are constantly changing and giving way piecemeal below.

Pisgah or Nebo, the mountain consecrated by

the death of the great law giver, Moses, Deut. xxxiv. 1., is seen distinctly in the distance to the south-east, it being a part of that chain of mountains where dwelt the tribes of Moab, whose name is now the only inheritance belonging to that land.

Pisgah forms one of the highest peaks in the range of the Moab-hills, from whose summit, as scriptural authority will testify, a most extensive view is afforded of the surrounding country, even to the utmost sea, Deut. xxxiv. 2. This of itself proclaims a superior elevation to the mountains westward, which, together form the basin of the Dead Sea, and encompass these waters; and it was from the height of the Moab-hills, eastward of the Dead Sea, that the promised land of Canaan lay before Moses like

a map.

The pilgrims in their equipment for the ceremonial of baptism in the Jordan, have a shirt prepared for the occasion. No order is observed in their bathing, not even so much as decency and decorum would enjoin, for they all rush en masse and plunge into the water, men,

women, and children indiscriminately; even babes at the breast, carried by their mothers, are immersed in the stream. The bathers mostly forming parties, or circles, fours or fives, or more together, so to assist each other, or guard against accident from the violence of the current. They dip themselves three times consecutively, pronouncing the requisite formula each in his respective tongue, and the confusion and jargon of sounds are inconceivable.

Some of my readers will be also more surprised than edified, perhaps, at learning that a latitude is enjoyed by certain churches to the effect that the benefits of baptism in the Jordan may be obtained even by proxy. For instance, it is not at all uncommon for the pilgrim, besides the burden of his own sins, and his own duties, to be also commissioned to effect a corresponding baptism on the behalf of a constituent, friend, or countryman; generally some person of rank or influence, who may have engaged his proxy, although the former may reside a thousand miles from the spot. The Russians seem to profit the most by this church indulgence in such particular.

RETURN OF THE PILGRIMS.

281

The ritual or ceremony having been completed, the pilgrims then dress on the bank of the river, and retire again to Jericho for the remainder of the day, where they hang up on the branches of the trees to dry, the shirts they bathed in, and spend the rest of their time in merry-making, till the drums beat to warn them of the time to depart again for Jerusalem. They return by the same road they came on the third day from that of their departure, for the pilgrims must be in Jerusalem to attend the important festival of the Holy-fire on Easterday.

CHAPTER XVI.

The Dead Sea-Its Utter Sterility-Azure Colour of its Waters-Theory that it had a Subterranean Communication with the Red Sea-Situation of the Cities of the Plain-Atmosphere of the Dead Sea-Buoyancy of its Water-The Road from the Dead Sea to Mar-SabaMeeting between Arab Shiechs-The Convent of Mar-Saba -Hospitality of its Monks-Their Sympathy with the Russians-From Mar-Saba to Jerusalem.

THE party with whom I travelled, instead of returning with the pilgrims made a tour in the direction of the Dead Sea, which is about four to five hours' ride from that part of the Jordan where the pilgrims bathe. We travelled to the south over a dry alluvial soil, chiefly sand,