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this request, coming though it did from a Maho

metan.

We parted from our friend and returned to the house of Mr. Floyd. As a night's journey was before us, we were glad to pass an hour on bed and sofa.

Soon after we had re-assembled, two christian teachers, and five of the children, from Miss Arnott's Mission Schools came to visit us. They sang some Arabic hymns very sweetly, and I think all felt we had a very happy meeting. The simplicity of the children's cheerful faces and native dress, the christian demeanour and conversation of their teachers, the sweetness of the singing, and withal, the happy surprise of having Sunday school come to you, contrasting with the previous Lord's day's experience in Brindisi, where you could not even go to school, produced a happy impression that will not easily be forgotten.

After they had left, and while we were taking tea, at the moment the sun was setting, the muleteer announced himself, bringing the luggage mule and my horse, and attended by his master's son, riding upon an ass. He was directed to the American Consulate for the luggage, and while he was loading the mule, we found opportunity to read to

gether Psalm cxxi., in which are these words of happy assurance, "The Lord is thy keeper; the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out, and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore,” and we commended ourselves in prayer to Him who is there set forth as the help of those who put their trust in Him.

Through the day thy love hath spared us,

With thy presence we are blest;
Through the silent watches guard us,

Let no foe our peace molest.

Jesus, thou our guardian be,

Sweet it is to trust in Thee.

Pilgrims here on earth and strangers,
Dwelling in the midst of foes;

Us and ours preserve from dangers,
In Thine arms may we repose.
And when life's short day is past,
Rest with Thee in heaven at last.

CHAPTER IV.

JAFFA TO JERUSALEM.

WE were on the point of starting, when it occurred to me that, although sufficiently clad for the temperature at the moment, I should find my brownholland coat an inadequate defence against the colder air of night. In this opinion I was supported by others, whereupon the mule had to be partly unladen, as the tweed coat could not otherwise be obtained.

At length, an hour after sunset, we got upon the road. Our course first lay between the extensive gardens of Jaffa, but it was already too dark for me to form a very distinct idea of their luxuriance. The moon, which was near her first quarter, had set early in the night, and, as many clouds were in the sky, it was a decidedly dark season.

A short distance beyond Jaffa, a'sycamore tree by the roadside was pointed out to me, and, as we did not meet with the sycamore afterwards, this was my only opportunity for observing its characteristics.

E

Dr. Kitto cautions us against

confusing it with the sycamine tree, both being mentioned by the same evangelist. (Luke xvii. 6, xix. 4.) The Doctor and other writers identify the sycamine with the black mulberry (σvкaμevía), while all are agreed that the sycamore is the Ficus fatuus (wild fig). The tree still abounds in Egypt; and, in Palestine, it used often to be planted by the roadside, in which situation we found this specimen. The prophet Amos says (chap. vii. 14), "I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son ; but I was an herdsman, and a gatherer (dresser) of sycamore-fruit;" referring, no doubt, to the practice of cutting or scraping the fruit and letting out the watery matter, without which operation it will not ripen. Its frequent location by the roadside, and its wide-spreading branches render very natural and easy to be imagined, the circumstance of Zaccheus climbing into its top (Luke xix. 4); while from his elevated retreat, as Nathaniel from his beneath the fig-tree (John i. 48), each found his blessing in coming out to Him who is the true Vine. (John xv. 1.)

Our little party sometimes straggled and sometimes held together; of course I kept near to Mr. El Karey, whom, to avoid so frequent a repetition of his name, I will also call "my companion."

My companion, then, and I kept as well together as the disparity in mettle of our horses would allow. The one he rode was, in this respect, much superior to mine, which was with difficulty kept from dropping to the rear. Having neither spurs nor whip, I asked the muleteer to furnish me with a substitute, which he soon did, in the shape of a reed from the roadside.

Thus we kept our way along the Ramleh road, passing now and then another traveller, till presently we came to where a little group had halted, and having lit a fire, were preparing coffee.

They proved to be Jewish pilgrims, one or two of whom had been deck passengers on board my steamer. They were on their way to Jerusalem, and, one of their number falling ill, they were making the coffee for his comfort.

I had no remedies accessible without unloading the mule, so (as on reflection it appears to me) we acted an intermediate part between those of the Priest and Levite on the one hand, and the Samaritan on the other, toward the man who had fallen among thieves. (Luke x.) We consulted as to whether there was anything we could do, and decided to continue our course; so, expressing our hopes for the success of the coffee, we passed on.

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