At night there were flickering lights and varieties of human voices below; the frogs croaking loud near the rivulet; and the rooks, whom I had dislodged from their home within the Roman bath, had taken refuge on the trees about us, unable to get to rest, being disturbed by our unusual sights and sounds. _Wednesday_, 16_th_.--A visitor came early--namely, Shaikh Yusuf--with two of his people from _Soof_. The old man exhibited numerous certificates given by former travellers--all English--whom he had accompanied as guide either to Beisan or Damascus. He offered his services to take us even, if we pleased, as far as Bozrah. Then came Shaikh Barakat el Fraikh with a large train. He is ruler over all the _Jebel 'Ajloon_, and has been residing lately on the summit of a high hill rising before us to the east, where there is a weli or tomb of a Moslem saint, the Nebi Hhood, who works miraculous cures. Barakat is in delicate health, and has twenty wives. His metropolis, when he condescends to live in a house, is at a village called _Cuf'r Enji_; but his district comprises fifteen inhabited villages, with above three hundred in ruins,--so it is said. As for the saint himself, he has a very respectable name for antiquity, too ancient for regular chronology to meddle with--it is only known that he preached righteousness to an impious race of men previous to their sudden destruction. The circumstance of his tomb being on the summit of a high hill is perfectly consonant with the sentiments of great heroes and chiefs, as frequently expressed in poems of the old Arabs. The restoration of health which he is supposed to bestow, must be that effected by means of the fine mountain air at his place. At 'Amman, old 'Abdu'l 'Azeez had said that Jerash was built by the Beni 'Ad, a primitive race mentioned in the Koran. A ridiculous figure appeared of a Turkish subaltern officer, who has come into this wild desert to ask the people for tribute to the Porte. A Turkish kawwas in attendance on him, I observed to shrug up his shoulders when he heard nothing but Arabic being spoken among us. They arrived here in the company of Shaikh Yusuf, whose son is nominally a Turkish military officer, commanding three hundred imaginary Bashi-Bozuk, or irregular cavalry. By means of such titles they tickle the vanity of the Arab leaders, and _claim_ an annual tribute of 218 purses, (about 1000 pounds,) and are thus enabled to swell out the published army list, and account of revenue printed in Constantinople. {58} So that next to nothing is in reality derived from these few sparse villages; and from the tent Arabs less than nothing, for the Turks have to bribe these to abstain from plundering the regular soldiers belonging to Damascus. The 'Anezi Shaikh Faisel was encamped at only fourteen hours' distance from us.