"We wished we could have been here at the time of the annual visit of the pilgrims, which occurs at Easter, and is a curious sight. There are pilgrims here in fair numbers through the whole year, and they all consider it a religious duty to bathe in the Jordan. The great festival is in April, and at that time several thousand pilgrims leave Jerusalem immediately after the close of the Easter festivities and come down to the Plain of Jericho, where they encamp for the night. They come from all parts of Europe, and there is a good representation from Asia as well. You can see many varieties of costume, and hear a jargon of languages that might remind you of the Tower of Babel. "The camp is a scene of confusion, and long before morning a disorderly procession is formed, thousands of torches are waved, and the great crowd presses forward in order to enter the sacred stream at daybreak. Hundreds of people are in the river at the same moment, and not a year passes without some of them being swept away and drowned in the swift current. Men, women, and children are crowded together indiscriminately, and the wonder is that so few accidents occur. The whole ceremony is over in two or three hours, and then the pilgrims turn back from the Jordan and return to Jerusalem. [Illustration: RECENT ASPECT OF THE PLAIN OF JERICHO.] "Just as we left the Jordan it began to rain, and we had a disagreeable ride to Riha, which some writers consider the site of Gilgal; others think it marks the position of ancient Jericho; but the general opinion is that Jericho was farther to the west. The modern Jericho is a village of fifty or sixty houses, and its inhabitants are a degenerate race of people, who live by a little agriculture and by what they can beg or steal from visitors. We found our tents pitched a little out of the village, and were a good deal annoyed by the natives, who crowded around us and could not be driven away. The children begged for backsheesh, and the men wanted to amuse us with a 'fantasia,' or dance, but we had been told it was a stupid performance, and declined to witness it. [Illustration: AIN-ES-SULTAN, OR FOUNTAIN OF ELISHA (FROM THOMSON'S "THE LAND AND THE BOOK").]