up the rear, pausing only to drink at the little shallow pools of water which rested in natural and stony basins in the middle of the valley, bordered with fresh green grass and flowers. The tinkling of the camel bells, and the wild, plaintive, monotonous song of the women, rang in our ears long after the primitive procession had passed out of our sight. No doubt those wanderers pitched their tents and made themselves at home by sunset, near to some stream or fountain of sweet water. Their dusky dwellings up they quickly rear, and build a village in an hour's space.
When we reached the bottom of the valley, and had passed a bold, projecting, and caverned rock which causes an abrupt turn in its course, I was startled with delight and surprise at the picture before us—the loveliest I had seen in the East.
No wonder that Biblical topographists agree in calling Urtâs the site of the gardens of Solomon, and no wonder if Solomon selected this valley for his especial retreat, and made this part of it his pleasure-ground. It may have been more magnificent in his time, when the now fallen and shattered columns supported stately buildings, and the terraces were paved with the now scattered tesseræ; but it could not have been more beautiful and refreshing even in those golden days; for here the pomegranates still yield their pleasant fruit; the vine flourishes; the fig-trees put forth their green figs around the fountain of gardens—the well of living water. Vegetable marrows, cucumbers, melons, and tomatoes carpet the bed of the valley with their broad leaves and glossy fruits, and fields of lentils, beans, potatoes, millet, and patches of golden maize, blossoming tobacco and sesame in excellent order, proclaim the agricultural skill of the successor of Solomon. Higher up in the valley is a splendid orchard, where peach, apple, pear, and plum-trees flourish side by side with the more common fruits of the country, watered by sparkling streams which intersect the gardens and orchards like silver threads.
