Out-of-Doors in the Holyland . ird and most impressive of the sources ofJordan is at Baniy^s, on one of the foothills of Her-mon. Our path thither leads us up from Dan,through high green meadows, shaded by oak-trees,sprinkled with innumerable blossoming shrubs andbushes, and looking down upon the lower fields bluewith lupins and vetches, or golden with yellowchrysanthemums beneath which the red glow of theclover is dimly burning like a secret fire. Presently we come, by way of a broad, naturalterrace where the white encampment of the Moslemdead hes gleaming beneath the shade of mightyoaks and
Out-of-Doors in the Holyland . ird and most impressive of the sources ofJordan is at Baniy^s, on one of the foothills of Her-mon. Our path thither leads us up from Dan,through high green meadows, shaded by oak-trees,sprinkled with innumerable blossoming shrubs andbushes, and looking down upon the lower fields bluewith lupins and vetches, or golden with yellowchrysanthemums beneath which the red glow of theclover is dimly burning like a secret fire. Presently we come, by way of a broad, naturalterrace where the white encampment of the Moslemdead hes gleaming beneath the shade of mightyoaks and terebinths, and past the friendly ohve-grovewhere our own tents are standing, to a deep ravinefilled to the brim with luxuriant verdure of trees andvines and ferns. Into this green cleft a little river,dancing and singing, suddenly plunges and disap-pears, and from beneath the veil of moist andtrembling leaves we hear the sound of its wild joy,a fracas of leaping, laughing waters. An old Roman bridge spans the stream on the276. THE SPRINGS OF JORDAN brink of its downward leap. Crossing over, we ridethrough the ruined gateway of the town of Baniyas,turn to right and left among its dirty, narrowstreets, pass into a leafy lane, and come out infront of a cliff of ruddy limestone, with niches andshrines carved on its face, and a huge, dark caverngaping in the centre. A tumbled mass of broken rocks lies below themouth of the cave. From this slope of debris, sixtyor seventy feet long, a line of springs gush forth insinging foam. Under the shadow of trembhng pop-lars and broad-boughed sycamores, amid the lushgreenery of wild figs and grapes, bracken and bri-ony and morning-glory, drooping maidenhair andflower-laden styrax, the hundred rills swiftly runtogether and flow away with one impulse, a full-grown little river. There is an immemorial charm about the placeMysteries of grove and fountain, of cave and hilltop,bewitch it with the magic of Natures life, everspringing and passing, flo
Size: 1260px × 1983px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidoutofdoorsinholy00regi
