"Hardly had they entered the Land of Moab when they met a large band of the Beni Atiyeh, a tribe with a very bad reputation, and the number was so great that it was nonsense to think of fighting them. The dragoman went forward to parley with them, and was stripped of his outer garments, satchel, money-bag, and belt, before he could speak a word; the sheik of the escort went at the same time and with better success, as he managed to get the ear of the chief of the Atiyeh. Two or three of the men of the escort who ventured to the front were knocked down, and for a little while there was a good prospect of a very serious result to the travellers. "It turned out that the Beni Atiyeh were on good terms with the Jehalin, and on the payment of a heavy backsheesh they allowed the party to go on. It would have been far otherwise if Mr. Tristram had chosen his escort from the other tribe that offered its services, as there was a bitter quarrel between it and the Beni Atiyeh, and there would have been no chance of an escape. No mercy would have been shown to the travellers, and possibly the Arabs would have justified their cruelty by referring to the old adage, 'A man is known by the company he keeps.' [Illustration: BATHING-PLACE OF THE PILGRIMS (FROM THOMSON'S "THE LAND AND THE BOOK").] "You must know there are two bathing-places on the Jordan; one is visited by the Latins and the other by the Greeks, and each Church claims that its bathing-place is the spot where Christ was baptized by John. Mr. Thomson thinks that neither is correct, and that the scene of the baptism was considerably farther up the river than any of the present sites. He argues that, according to the historical record, Christ came from Galilee, and was baptized by John, and then returned to Galilee; the road from Galilee reaches the Jordan much farther north than the present bathing-places, and though it is possible he came to this point it is hardly probable. [Illustration: SOURCE OF THE JORDAN.] "The bank of the river is fringed with willow, tamarisk, and other trees and bushes, and there are several pretty spots here for forming a camp. We wanted to stay here for the night, but our guide had sent the tents by a short route from Mar Saba to the neighborhood of the ancient Jericho, and after a halt of an hour or so we mounted our horses and rode away from the river. "Doctor Bronson says it is quite probable that the passage of the Jordan by the Israelites, described in Joshua iii. and iv., occurred at the bathing-place we have visited, or certainly not far from it. According to the biblical account they passed the river 'right against Jericho,' and this expression is supposed to mean that they crossed the Jordan at the point nearest to that city. [Illustration: PASSAGE OF THE ISRAELITES.]