During the ride forward the old shaikh kept close to me, narrating incidents of his life,--such as his last year's losses by the Beni Sukh'r, who plundered him of all his flocks and herds, horses, tents, and even most of his clothing,--then described the march of Ibrahim Pasha's army in their disastrous attempt upon Kerak: also some of the valiant achievements of his kinsman Gublan; and then proceeding to witticism, gave me his etymological origin of the name of Hhesban--namely, that, on the subsiding of the great deluge, the first object that Noah perceived was that castle, perched as it is upon a lofty peak; whereupon he exclaimed, _Hhus'n ban_--"a castle appears!" I wish I could recollect more of his tales. After passing through romantic scenery of rocks and evergreen trees, at a sudden turn of the road we came to large flocks and herds drinking, or couched beside a copious stream of water gushing from near the foot of a rocky hill. This they called _'Ain Hhesban_; and told us that the Egyptian army above alluded to, twenty thousand in number, passed the night there before arriving at Kerak. To many of them it was their last night on earth. There were remains of large masonry lying about, and the scene was truly beautiful--to which the bells of the goats and cows added a charming musical effect. I asked an Arab, who was bathing in a pool, where he had come from, and he sulkily answered, "From t'other end of the world!" And I suppose he was right in saying so, for what meaning could he attach to the designation, _the world_. He must have meant the world of his own experience, or that of his tribe, or his parents--probably extending to the end of the Dead Sea in one direction, to the Lake of Tiberias in another; to the Mediterranean in the west, and in the east to the wilds unknown beyond the road of the Hhaj pilgrimage. "From the other end of the world," quoth he, the companion of a shepherd boy with his flute, at a mountain spring, pitching pebbles at the sheep of his flock to keep them from wandering away over their extent of "the world." As we proceeded, there were several other streams issuing from the hills, some of them falling in pretty cascades into thickets of oleander below. All these meeting together, formed a line of river flowing between grassy banks--near which we saw considerable remains of water-mills, not of great antiquity. Next we reached two small forts: the one upon our side the stream they called _Shuneh_, (the usual name used for that kind of building;) the other was across the water, and they called it _Shefa 'Amer_. I should wonder if our guides knew the existence of the town called _Shefa 'Amer_, near Caiffa. They told us that both these forts had been erected by Deab's grandfather, but this is incredible.