Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
by Lew Wallace
to THE WIFE OF MY YOUTH who still abides with me
BOOK FIRST
CHAPTER I
The Jebel es Zubleh is a mountain fifty miles and more in length, and so narrow that its tracery on the map gives it a likeness to a caterpillar crawling from the south to the north. Standing on its red-and-white cliffs, and looking off under the path of the rising sun, one sees only the Desert of Arabia, where the east winds, so hateful to vinegrowers of Jericho, have kept their playgrounds since the beginning.
- P11