. With the Beduins, a narrative of journeys and adventures in unfrequented parts of Syria . t place,wherever the water is carried the vegetation is mostabundant. And yet there is, speaking practically, noirrigation throughout this great depression of theJordan valley, which has an almost tropical climate, andwould return to the cultivator a thousand-fold. Nearlythe whole of the land is said to be the private propertyof the Sultan ; and the story goes that some years agoa French company offered to buy it from him, that theprice was agreed upon, but that the bargain went off,because the company
. With the Beduins, a narrative of journeys and adventures in unfrequented parts of Syria . t place,wherever the water is carried the vegetation is mostabundant. And yet there is, speaking practically, noirrigation throughout this great depression of theJordan valley, which has an almost tropical climate, andwould return to the cultivator a thousand-fold. Nearlythe whole of the land is said to be the private propertyof the Sultan ; and the story goes that some years agoa French company offered to buy it from him, that theprice was agreed upon, but that the bargain went off,because the company made a stipulation that theTurkish Government should keep a thousand soldiersin the valley to keep off the Beduins ; for it is uselessto sow if the marauder is to reap. The basin of the Sea of Galilee is another barren 54 WITH THE BEDUINS. place, which must once have been extremely fertile andcould readily be made so again. But the insecuritycaused by a weak and inert government dulls theedge of husbandry throughout Syria, except in theLebanon where a different state of things MASHITA. CHAPTER IV. MASHITA, My name is Ozymandias, King of kings ;Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair ;Nothing else remains. Round the decayOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,The lone and level sands stretch far away. Shelley FROM Mount Nebo a very pleasant journey of anhour and a halfs duration over uplands whichreminded us much of the country about Stone-henge, brought us to the little town of Madeba ; andfrom Madeba we were to visit Mashita. 56 WITH THE BEDUINS. Mashita, or Umshetta, as we have always heard itcalled by the Arabs, is a very extensive ruin which wasfirst discovered by Canon Tristram in 1872 ; and is sup-posed to be the remains of a Persian palace of theseventh century , built by Chosroes II., of the Sas-sanian Dynasty. It is not in the territory of the Adwan,but in that of Beni Sokr Beduins. We were, however,very anxious to visit it, and had had it specially
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