The 'Adwan Arabs were now again our guides, the Saltiyeh having returned home; but for some distance the guides were few and without firearms, only armed with spears, and the common peasant sword called _khanjar_; perhaps this was by compact with the Saltiyeh, as in about an hour's time we were joined by a reinforcement with a few matchlock guns. On we went through corn-fields, which are sown in joint partnership with the Arabs and the Moslems of the town; then doubled round a long and high hill with a ruin on it, called _Jela'ad_. This I have since suspected to be Ramoth-Gilead. We descended a hill called _Tallooz_; forward again between hills and rocks, and neglected evergreen woods, upon narrow paths. A numerous caravan we were, with a hundred animals of burden, bright costumes, and cheerful conversation, till we reached a large terebinth-tree under a hill called _Shebail_; the site is called _Thuggeret el Moghafer_, signifying a "look-out station" between two tribes. There we rested a while, till the above-mentioned reinforcement joined us. From this spot we could just discern _Jerash_, on the summit of a huge hill before us. We now had one long and continued descent to the river Zerka. Passed through a defile, on issuing from which we observed a little stream with oleander, in pink blossom, thirty feet high, and in great abundance. Halted again at a pretty spring, called _Ruman_, where the water was upon nearly a dead level, and therefore scarcely moving; then another small spring, called _Bursa_, and also _'Ain el Merubb'a'_. Evergreen oak in all directions, but with broader leaf than in Palestine; also some terebinth-trees and wild holly-oaks. All the scenery now expanded before us in width and height and depth. We took notice of several high hills with groves of evergreen oak on their summits; detached hills, which we could not but consider as remains of the ancient _high places_ for idolatrous worship. Still descended, till on a sudden turn of the road came the rushing of the _Zerka_, or Jabbok, water upon our ears, with a breeze sighing among juniper-bushes, and enormous and gorgeous oleanders, together with the soft zephyr feeling from the stream upon our heated faces--oh, so inexpressibly delicious! I was the first to get across, and on reaching the opposite bank we all dismounted, to drink freely from the river--a name which it deserves as at that place it is about two-thirds of the width of the Jordan at the usual visiting-place for travellers. Some of the party went bathing. We all had our several luncheons, some smoked, all got into shady nooks by the water-side; and I, with my heart full, lay meditating on the journey we had hitherto made.