Syria from the saddle . used for Christs crown, — a sacredversion of The House that Jack built that finds muchfavor among devotees, many of whom bear away boughsof the tree as relics. After the pile of thorn-bushes was lighted at the khan,our host produced a bottle of good French brandy whichwas kept here for the use of travelers. Under the com-bined influences of brandy and fire, the tumble-downkhan, with streams of water pouring through the ill-thatched roof, became quite a cheerful place in contrastto the outer torrent of rain and the flooded road. Luncheon over, we started on the last stag
Syria from the saddle . used for Christs crown, — a sacredversion of The House that Jack built that finds muchfavor among devotees, many of whom bear away boughsof the tree as relics. After the pile of thorn-bushes was lighted at the khan,our host produced a bottle of good French brandy whichwas kept here for the use of travelers. Under the com-bined influences of brandy and fire, the tumble-downkhan, with streams of water pouring through the ill-thatched roof, became quite a cheerful place in contrastto the outer torrent of rain and the flooded road. Luncheon over, we started on the last stage of ourjourney, Massouds gaudily-dyed wet saddle cloth im-printing, en route, beautiful patterns on my mackintoshand riding trousers. I was fated, it seemed, to enter the Holy City at alltimes in some bizarre fashion. To-day, fortunately, therain kept all tourists in-doors; and, drenched, cold, andtired, but unobserved, I gained the hotel and my ownroom. CHAPTER XXXI. MAR SABA — GREEK CHRISTMAS AT BETHLEHEM HEN the skies cleared once more westarted on a pilgrimage to Mar Saba. We traversed, after leaving Jerusa-lem, some miles of regulation valley,closed in on either side by stony grayhills; then we came to rising groundand soon struck a mountain road thatled upward by a succession of step-likeledges. Rocks overhung our road onone side, and shadows from high moun-tains darkened it. On the other sidewas a deep gorge or chasm; a sheerdrop for hundreds of feet. Across the gorge, formingone of the walls, and higher than that on our own side,rose a precipice brown and somber, and honeycombed bytens of thousands of caves. Somewhere in this hideouswilderness, in one of the caves, John the Baptist oncelived, sleeping among the rocks, wearing the hide ofbeasts, and eating Avild honey and locusts. He certainlychose a fitting spot for meditation and quiet, for little ofthe outer world could penetrate here or distract the evidently thought other men, and, following Jo
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