CHAPTER VIII.
Bethlehem--Rachel's grave--Convent at Bethlehem--Beggars--Grotto of the Nativity--Solomon's cisterns--St.John's--Franciscan church at Jerusalem--Mourning women--Eastern weddings--Mish-mish--Excursion to the Jordan and the Dead Sea--Wilderness near Jerusalem--Convent of St.Saba.
On the 2d of June I rode, in the company of Counts Berchtold and Salm Reifferscheit and Pater Paul, to Bethlehem.

Although, on account of the bad roads, we are obliged to ride nearly the whole distance at a foot-pace, it does not take more than an hour and a half to accomplish the journey.

The view we enjoy during this excursion is as grand as it is peculiar.

So far as the eye can reach, it rests upon stone; the ground is entirely composed of stones; and yet between the rocky interstices grow fruit-trees of all kinds, and grape-vines trail along, besides fields whose productions force their way upwards from the shingly soil.
I had already wondered when I saw the "Karst," near Trieste, and the desert region of Gorz; but these sink into insignificance when compared to the scenery of the Judean mountains.
It is difficult to conceive how these regions can ever have been smiling and fertile.

Doubtless they have appeared to better advantage than at the present period, when the poor inhabitants are ground to the bone by their pachas and officers; but I do not think that meadows and woods can ever have existed here to any extent.
On the way we pass a well, surrounded by blocks of stone.