The Arabs now went to work in right earnest to effect the passage
of the river. They had brought with them a great number of the
skins which they use for carrying water in the desert; these they
filled with air, and fastened several of them to small boughs which
they cut from the banks of the river. In this way they constructed
a raft not more than about four or five feet square, but rendered
buoyant by the inflated skins which supported it. On this a
portion of my baggage was placed, and was firmly tied to it by the
cords used on my pack-saddles. The little raft with its weighty
cargo was then gently lifted into the water, and I had the
satisfaction to see that it floated well.
Twelve of the Arabs now stripped, and tied inflated skins to their
loins; six of the men went down into the river, got in front of the
little raft, and pulled it off a few feet from the bank. The other
six then dashed into the stream with loud shouts and swam along
after the raft, pushing it from behind. Off went the craft in
capital style at first, for the stream was easy on the eastern
side; but I saw that the tug was to come, for the main torrent
swept round in a bend near the western bank of the river.
The old men, with their long grey grisly beards, stood shouting and
cheering, praying and commanding. At length the raft entered upon
the difficult part of its course; the whirling stream seized and
twisted it about, and then bore it rapidly downwards; the swimmers,
flagged and seemed to be beaten in the struggle. But now the old
men on the bank, with their rigid arms uplifted straight, sent
forth a cry and a shout that tore the wide air into tatters, and
then to make their urging yet more strong they shrieked out the
dreadful syllables, "'brahim Pasha!" The swimmers, one moment
before so blown and so weary, found lungs to answer the cry, and
shouting back the name of their great destroyer, they dashed on
through the torrent, and bore the raft in safety to the western
bank.
Afterwards the swimmers returned with the raft, and attached to it
the rest of my baggage. I took my seat upon the top of the cargo,
and the raft thus laden passed the river in the same way, and with
the same struggle as before. The skins, however, not being
perfectly air-tight, had lost a great part of their buoyancy, so
that I, as well as the luggage that passed on this last voyage, got
wet in the waters of Jordan. The raft could not be trusted for
another trip, and the rest of my party passed the river in a
different and (for them) much safer way. Inflated skins were
fastened to their loins, and thus supported, they were tugged
across by Arabs swimming on either side of them. The horses and
mules were thrown into the water and forced to swim over. The poor
beasts had a hard struggle for their lives in that swift stream;
and I thought that one of the horses would have been drowned, for
he was too weak to gain a footing on the western bank, and the
stream bore him down. At last, however, he swam back to the side
from which he had come. Before dark all had passed the river
except this one horse and old Shereef. He, poor fellow, was
shivering on the eastern bank, for his dread of the passage was so
great, that he delayed it as long as he could, and at last it
became so dark that he was obliged to wait till the morning.
I lay that night on the banks of the river, and at a little
distance from me the Arabs kindled a fire, round which they sat in
a circle. They were made most savagely happy by the tobacco with
which I supplied them, and they soon determined that the whole
night should be one smoking festival. The poor fellows had only a
cracked bowl, without any tube at all, but this morsel of a pipe
they handed round from one to the other, allowing to each a fixed
number of whiffs. In that way they passed the whole night.
The next morning old Shereef was brought across. It was a strange
sight to see this solemn old Mussulman, with his shaven head and
his sacred beard, sprawling and puffing upon the surface of the
water. When at last he reached the bank the people told him that
by his baptism in Jordan he had surely become a mere Christian.
Poor Shereef! - the holy man! the descendant of the Prophet! - he was
sadly hurt by the taunt, and the more so as he seemed to feel that
there was some foundation for it, and that he really might have
absorbed some Christian errors.
When all was ready for departure I wrote the teskeri in French and
delivered it to Sheik Ali Djoubran, together with the promised
baksheish; he was exceedingly grateful, and I parted in a very
friendly way from this ragged tribe.
In two or three hours I gained Rihah, a village said to occupy the
site of ancient Jericho. There was one building there which I
observed with some emotion, for although it may not have been
actually standing in the days of Jericho, it contained at this day
a most interesting collection of - modern loaves.
Some hours after sunset I reached the convent of Santa Saba, and
there remained for the night.
