aroundworldortra00peebiala-1

FROM ALEXANDRIA TO JOPPA AND JERUSALEM. 319
mingled fragrance of apricot and orange, lemon and quince,
plum and china tree blossoms. During the dry season, lasting
from May till November, these gardens are kept fresh
and green by irrigation.
" In Eastern land they talk in flowers,
And tell in a garland their loves and cares
Each blossom that blooms in their garden-bowers
On its leaves a mystic language bears."
But we are galloping away from garden and grove over
vast plains, the biblical plains of Sharon. How flash upon
the mind now the poetical phrases, " Carmel and Sharon,"
" the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valley " ! Who are
these ? " Pilgrims," says SeUm, " coming back from Jerusalem
and the Jordan."- Some were Catholics, some Greek
Christians, and others Mohammedans, all either riding camels,
donkeys, or afoot, weary and dusty. Most of the traveling
at this season is done in the night-time. Syrian, like Egyptian
women, veil their faces. It is said that when the Sultan
of Turkey was at Paris, in 1867, Louis Napoleon inquired
of him, " Why don't you have roads in your country ?
adding, " The empress wishes much to visit Jerusalem."
" There shall be a road within a year," was the Sultan's
reply ; and so there was, a handsome carriage-road, twentyfive
or thirty feet in width, the work of forced labor.
Sharon has not, as Isaiah prophesied, become a " howling
wilderness." Its extensive plains, rounding up now and
then into swells and long ridges, are very fertile, judging
from the cultivated fields we passed, covered with corn and
wheat stubble. Reapers and gleaners gather the harvests in
June, or early in July. These plains, so eminently fertile,
constantly reminded me of Sacramento and other rich valleylands
in California.
On this route from Jaffa to Ramleh, three hours distant,
there are several little villages in orchards of olives, figs,
pomegranates, and mulberries. These mulberry-trees, like