Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 April 1877 — The Wilderness of Juden, Where John Preached and Jesus Fasted. [ARTICLE]

The Wilderness of Juden, Where John Preached and Jesus Fasted.

We criu| OTS&^ Jordan, tororfr Ayes in%foakspf eparse camel’s-hair. You ‘"would have thought uWsmdtoerihjf in’the voluminous folds of this Bedouin garment,- but the truth is, we were comparatively Comfortable, for the sun cannot penetrate the thick ta§b of femely homespun, and your Bedouiq scout Will brave ( the fierce fuknaeetoeat of toe i\ desert ' under the shelter and the ahadovy Qf hja,one clumsy robe. We warenoUipug inthe bed of the valley till we started the partridge; the wild pigeon and the hare in the brush, and had a shot or two, that brought* us nothing more substantia} than a sharp echo, shattered to fragments » the gbrges of the mountains close at hand. If a curse hangs over the plains of Jericho, withering the roses thereof, and stuffing the Slump apples with dry dust, it is pothtqg i comparison with the eternal blight that sears the Judean wilderness as WTto.flre,, Nqver so inqcb a$ blade of grass starts from the parehsd; rod gaping drqst that crumbles under the hoof like piaster. Mountains of chalk, sand, gypsum, chert and tufa, gashed and scarred, cut down to ten but tenribleiQcmvulmons *of Nature j deserted by,every loveliform of lifee tbs haunt of the fox, tod 'Vulture, the hyena, leopard and woifetbepnake coiling into# sun hnd hissing ill-roe shadow of the caves that everywhere perforate the Abrupt wallsof the is the wilderness of Bt. John. Haiu fief ad on locusts and wild honey, and, dwelt anart among the caves clad in q. shirt of camel s-hair — the very garment' that' is worn to- »& SgW4 of Judea the tribes of the desert pilch their black tents. They nourish their scanty flocks upon such' edible ,Utter as fails m toe tracked the caravans stealing noiselessly in and btit among The stifling ravines, creeping slowly and suspiciously over the ridges, 'watching every rock that, is big enough to shelter * robber, mid keeping a nefvous flflger on the clumsy trigger ot an antique musket with a bar-, rel seven feet long. ’' >i 1 Up, dp,, my. Flat Stepping-Stones afford As insecurWfitoting, for they are as srnppth as glass, and our animals are beginning to flag in the relentless heat. It i# hot only the flame of the Sun that pours down upon us from dawn to dark, but the ovenlike crust under foot, sending up s glow so intense that objects a little distant seem to dmice in it, and toe eyes shut agaiuat it, stung with a sharp agony. We follow the painful track of toe Kidrtin. Had the valley or gap’beeotbarnt out by a torrent of fire, instead of 1 water, it would gorge and folkrtiynß bed for Seme dto raanvat iraa feet deep apa Very narrow! Dali teen the .hgapf of ,erotaiUaT and pious many- centuriaet. Theyiil have fallowed •clonefy ua toe footsteps qt-«t. John; add the nwudtoqf Mar Sabq are| as ft-uaal and thc yonng man who.went dow sq Jericho to preabh the Word seme eighteen hundred-years agp, and who seemed totoave hgd n cfed itable success Aom islhe beginning. As we climbed oven the mountains at ,the wilderbass we twice or thrice caught glimpses of the.Daad tteU fanJaetnw us, glimpsethat Were like visions of Paradise, fatal to th# joy of him who m denied admittance. Then came a distant qiew of a imuffl tomb on the ridge,over the Kidron, very sacred in the eyes of the Mohammedan*, for Bis their tomb of Moses. Christians doubt it and trjrto prove their geography by Holy Writ; but of toe two sites this of the Mohammedans is the more popular.

1 By and by obr tritofc, Ts to’ HmaDwy:* course may be called, » tuck, toy over a inked shield. The air vu clu*rged w(ih llaine, it flashed in our faces like powder,’ it shone through oar shut eyelids—a crimson light that blinded us and half consumed our eyes in their sockets. Dark suioked glasses afforded little relief, but through the clouded glass I saw away off .in Uie midst of thig blaz|ng desert a cluster of black tents, stretched lightly bver •lender poles, like so many spuier-webs, coated thick with dust. It was the Bedoilin. at home, the peat of the wildernt«s, for he alpne is the unconquerable piaster of all this desolation. He knows the uudischambers'beneatlt the cliff}, out of tfidsgarish light, beside a livingspringV wherp he may gather his tribe ana he file the most vigilant pursuers. He cm starve you out of his realm, ciioko thu springs, assault you fn narrow passes, wherp escape to utterly impossible. He sits in this UPnce heat and hrayes the terrible light v/ith the quick and unerring eye of the camd ; , J he basks like a lizard in the sun; and lives on air and goats’ milk- He is a salamander and a fatalist, and bears a charmed life. I don’t And his grave by the way-side, this flre-.bcd Bedouin; I believe that he is hatched in the sand like an ostrich; that he lives a thousand years on the chameleopdish, and is thenxpp-, summed away, being at wnitoheat; an d out' of his aeheß springs htophenix-soa ! Son of tjie sun, wedded to the daughter of the moon, begetting tribes as sum and ‘ as swift-footed as lizards, and holdiog forever the unlovely wilderness of five and famine! That is the sum and substance of the tribe of Esau, for Esau was a hairy man and as unpopular as a goat! —Charles W. Stoddard, , in San Francisco Chronicle.