"Surely the journey
will be their death," I said to Joseph. "Yes it will," he replied,
quite coolly; "but what matter how soon they die now that they have
bathed in Jordan?" Very many rode on donkeys; two, generally, on
each donkey; others, who had command of money, on horses; but the
greater number walked, toiling painfully from Jerusalem to Jericho
on the first day, sleeping there in tents and going to bathe on the
second day, and then returning from Jericho to Jerusalem on the
third. The pilgrimage is made throughout in accordance with fixed
rules, and there is a tariff for the tent accommodation at Jericho,-
-so much per head per night, including the use of hot water.
Standing there, close by the wayside, we could see not only the
garments and faces of these strange people, but we could watch their
gestures and form some opinion of what was going on within their
thoughts. They were much quieter,--tamer, as it were,--than
Englishmen would be under such circumstances. Those who were
carried seemed to sit on their beasts in passive tranquillity,
neither enjoying nor suffering anything. Their object had been to
wash in Jordan,--to do that once in their lives;--and they had
washed in Jordan.
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