THREE BATHS IN SYRIA.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3472, 28 April 1920, Page 6

THREE BATHS IN SYRIA.

FROM THE DEAD SEA TO JERICI-10, = The Jericho region is supplied with three kinds of water, and this prodigality, coupled with the historic fame of the Jordan Valley, has furnished :1 regular formula of bathing, for pilgrims of this hot depression nearly a quarter of a mile below the level of the sea.

;' Of course, every tourist has to ‘bathe tin the Dead Sea; it is the thing to do (writes Maynard 0. Williams in the National Geographic Magazine). Lucky is the man whose skin doesnot crack in the heat of the valley, for Dead Sea water on a cracked skin or the film of the eye reminds one of boiling oil and the Spanish inquisition. Having performed the necessary rite and dutifully completed an ex-i perience Which’ can be recorded in the diary of the trip, the poor pilgz-Sm,‘ laved with a tenacious’ fluid that

seems to be composed of salt, kerosene, and lye, drives off tn Jordan and seeks relief in the muddy’ water of that river. Then, as night rapidly settles in the deepest Wrinkle on the face of Mother Earth, the tired traveller ricles between the miserable

‘Jericho and dismounts at the Sultan’s Spring, once sweetened by‘ Elisha.

Here the water is collected in a large pool, both cold and clear, and few, indeed, resist the temptation to plunge into it and remove forever any lingering signs of the holy but muddy waters of the Jordan.