Syrian horses are small, but active and hardy. They generally go on a walk, but step more quickly than camels, and accomplish a greater distance in the day. They are also very sure-footed — a matter of great importance in going up and down the mountains.
Thus mounted, our cavalcade of horses and mules, though less picturesque than a caravan of camels, presented quite a brave show the next morning as we filed out of the missionary compound, where we had said good-bye to our kind friends, and set out for Jerusalem. The mules of the country, though not so tall as camels, are still very large and strong, and will carry about as heavy loads. The number of animals for our pack train was diminished as their burdens were lightened. Having left the desert, it was no longer necessary to carry the heavy casks of water. Our provisions, too, could be reduced, as we had only to lay in a store for a few days, instead of weeks. Six mules carried our tents with their furniture, and the necessary provisions. Dr. Post and I had a couple of gray ponies that bore us so lightly that we rode with little fatigue. Another horse was for the dragoman. After this file of horses and mules came a very small donkey, which brought up the rear. This was for the captain of the muleteers, who was a large man, and his proportions being swelled out by his turban and his baggy trousers, he looked like the Grand Turk; and as he bestrode his little beast, he made a comical figure waddling along behind the huge mules, that kept up a constant jingling of bells as they swung along the road.
In the vicinity of Gaza are some majestic olive trees, which, by their age (for they must be centuries old) and their gnarled and knotted limbs, remind us of the ancient oaks of England. Skirting the road for a mile or two, they form a kind of fringe or border for the fields of
