On this occasion I had an opportunity of seeing how the Arabs can manage their horses, and how they can throw their spears and lances in full career, and pick up the lances as they fly by.  The horses, too, appear quite different to when they are travelling at their usual sleepy pace.  At first sight these horses look any thing but handsome.  They are thin, and generally walk at a slow pace, with their heads hanging down.  But when skilful riders mount these creatures, they appear as if transformed.  Lifting their small graceful heads with the fiery eyes, they throw out their slender feet with matchless swiftness, and bound away over stock and stone with a step so light and yet so secure that accidents very rarely occur.  It is quite a treat to see the Arabs exercise.  Those who escorted us good-naturedly went through several of their manoeuvres for our amusement.

From the valley of the Jordan to the “Sultan’s Well,” in the vale of Jericho, is a distance of about six miles.  The road winds, from the commencement of the valley, through a beautiful natural park of fig-trees and other fruit-trees.  Here, too, was the first spot where the eye was gladdened by the sight of a piece of grass, instead of sand and shingle.  Such a change is doubly grateful to one who has been travelling so long through the barren, sandy desert.

The village lying beside the Sultan’s Well looks most deplorable.  The inhabitants seem rather to live under than above the ground.  I went into a few of these hollows.  I do not know how else to designate these little stoneheap-houses.  Many of them are entirely destitute of windows, the light finding its way through the hole left for an entrance.  The interiors contained only straw-mats and a few dirty mattresses, not stuffed with feathers, but with leaves of trees.  All the domestic utensils are comprised in a few trenchers and water-jugs:  the poor people were clothed in rags.  In one corner some grain and a number of cucumbers were stored up.  A few sheep and goats were roaming about in the open air.  A field of cucumbers lies in front of every house.  Our Bedouins were in high glee at finding this valuable vegetable in such abundance.  We encamped beside the well, under the vault of heaven.

From the appearance of the valley in its present state, it is easy to conclude, in spite of the poverty of the inhabitants and the air of desolation spread over the farther landscape, that it must once have been very blooming and fertile.

On the right, the naked mountains extend in the direction of the Dead Sea; on the left rises the hill on which Moses completed his earthly career, and from which his great spirit fled to a better world.  On the face of the mountain three caves are visible, and in the centre one we were told the Saviour had dwelt during his preparation in the wilderness before undertaking his mission of a teacher.  High above these caves towers the summit of the rock from which Satan promised to give our Lord the sovereignty of all the earth if He would fall down and worship him.