Chapter 45 Summary

After all the quarantines for fear of cholera, Twain contracts it. He blames himself for eating unlimited amounts of snow on Mount Herman (later, he says he got cholera from bathing in the River of Damascus). Twenty-four hours later and four hours away from Damascus, Twain and his friends are camping in the Arab village of Jonesborough, which has been conveniently renamed by the group even before anyone could memorize the real name. Jonesborough is what Twain calls a nasty place, but he wants it clear that it is the stereotype of several other Syrian villages he's seen. The people are starved, bony, half-dressed and sickly. But he mentions it because of the mighty hunter, Nimrod, who was said to be buried here. He says that Nimrod founded the city that would later be replaced by Babylon, and Twain wanted readers to know...