churches of Russia, excepting that, instead of Greek, they exhibited Arabic inscriptions. They had been found by the Arabs in moving a heap of rubbish in part of the church. One, which is painted on wood, is supposed to represent Christ making himself known to the two disciples at Emmaus. The second, which is the most ancient, is a picture of the Virgin and infant Jesus. The third has been painted upon an Arabic manuscript, which appears to be the leaf of an old copy-book, as the same line occurs repeatedly from the top to the bottom. The subject of the painting is the Virgin and her Son. These tablets are supposed to have belonged to some church of Malkite Greeks, but their antiquity cannot be precisely determined. Their being found here would lead one to suppose, that the ruined church had at some period been converted into a chapel by Greek Christians; and probably, the temporary altar was erected by the same parties that brought the pictures here. Their pretension to be considered as original decorations of the church, are very equivocal.

Perhaps, a sufficient reason may be found for the neglected and desolate state of this ancient capital of Galilee, in its proximity to Nazareth, which, during the short-lived kingdom of Jerusalem, became the chief city of the district, and was made an archiepiscopal see, having under it the bishoprick of Tiberias, and the priory of Mount Tabor. And ever since that period, Nazareth has been held in the highest estimation, as, next to the Holy City, the chief resort of Christian pilgrims. The jealousy of the monks would lead them to regard with no friendly eye a rival establishment in their immediate neighbourhood; and thus, Sepphoury appears to have been abandoned by the orthodox Latins to the schismatical Greeks. Has

selquist states, that the modern village was inhabited by Greeks. Dr. Clarke, however, says, that they now consist principally of Maronites, with a few Druses. Pococke says: "Here the Greeks have a small chapel, and there are several broken stone coffins about the village."

The castle, 66 once the acropolis of the city," stands on the top of the hill, nearly half a mile above the village, and has an imposing appearance. There is a fine tower of hewn stone; but neither Pococke nor Clarke gives any description of it, that might enable us to form a conjecture as to its probable date. An ancient aqueduct still serves to supply several small mills.

The plain of Zabulon, on which the traveller now enters, Pococke says, is called Zaal-hatour. He notices a well at the foot of a beautiful hill on the left, called by the monks the well of Zabulon. On the hill is a village named Bedoui. Van Egmont and Heyman notice apparently the same spring, at the foot of an eminence on which they observed a ruined village, about a mile and a half from the hill of Sepphoury. Directly opposite to it, they saw, "at the foot of a mountain, a walled village called Kaffer Mender, defended by several forts." Beyond this, the road taken by Pococke leads through "the pleasant, narrow vale of Abylene, having low hills on each side covered with trees, chiefly the carob-tree and a sort of oak with whitish leaves,"— to a village of the same name, at that time the residence of a great sheikh. Two miles further is another well, at the foot of a hill, on which is a village called Pere. Soon after, the traveller enters upon the plain of Acre. To the north of Pere, Pococke was informed that there was a village called Damora, which Van Eg

No

mont and Heyman refer to as the residence of a sheikh, who had at the time the whole of the surrounding plain under his jurisdiction, with several villages, residing himself "in a very large mansionhouse." To the south of this, is a village which, about three months before, the said sheikh had assaulted and plundered, the inhabitants not having shewn any great readiness to execute an order he had sent them. Its name they write Chafamora. place occurs in Pococke's route, that comes nearer this name than Swamor. But D'Anville notices a village, the name of which he writes Shafa Amre, which Dr. Clarke supposes to be the Chafamora of Van Egmont: he himself writes it Shefhamer and Cheffhambre. But, it seems, times had changed; the aga of this village appears to have then been the chief of the district. It is about seven miles from Sepphoury, and "stands upon the western declivity of a ridge of eminences rising one above another in a continuous series, from Libanus to Carmel." We look in vain, throughout the accounts respectively given by these learned travellers, for any name that might seem to indicate the site of the ancient strong city of Zabulon, which, Josephus says, was called the city of men, and divided the country of Ptolemais from their nation. "It was of admirable beauty, and had its houses built like those in Tyre, and Sidon, and Berytus." But Cestius plundered and set fire to it. Maundrell's account of his route from Sepphoury to Acre is unusually meagre. "We were an hour and a half," he says, "in crossing the plain of Zabulon; and, in an hour and a half more, passed by a desolate village on the right hand, by name

Josephus, Wars, book ii. chap. 18.

Satyra. In half an hour more we entered the plains of Acre, and in one hour and a half more arrived at that place. Our stage this day was somewhat less than seven hours (from Nazareth): it lay about west and by north, and through a country very delightful and fertile beyond imagination." This, on the usual computation of three miles an hour, makes the distance from Nazareth to Acre about twenty miles.

ROUTE FROM TIBERIAS TO DAMASCUS.

FROM Acre, there is a route along the coast and across the mountains, to Damascus; but, though the pashalic of Acre extends as high as Djebail, including the mountains inhabited by the Druses, this part of the coast was never considered as belonging to the kingdom of Israel or the Holy Land. It will, therefore, more properly fall within our notice in the description of Syria.

There is a route from Jerusalem to Damascus on either side of the Sea of Galilee. From Tiberias, the most direct road is that which lies through the ancient Saphet, and crosses the Jordan at Jacob's bridge. This route has been already described as far as Khan Mennye. Pococke, however, seems to have deviated further from the line of the lake. Ascending the hill to the north of the vale of Hottein, he descended into the valley beyond, and came to the place which, he says, still bears the name of Baitsida; he then, by the Pass of Doves (Wady Hymam), entered the Vale of Gennesareth. "We viewed," he says, 66 Magdolum (Medjdel) on the lake, and then went to the round fountain, where we reposed awhile, and took some refreshment; and going north, passed by a spring called Moriel, and began to ascend the hills

towards Saphet, which I take to be the eastern end of that chain of hills which runs from the sea, northward of the plain of Acre. There are several summits, separated from one another by small valleys. One of the first of these is called Rubasy. On the top of the northern summit we passed by Aboutbesy: in the valley beneath it, is a bridge, called Geser Aboutbesy. Here there is a stream which runs to the plain that is to the west of the Lake of Tiberias."

It is difficult to make any thing of these names, which appear to be modern; but the stream is probably that which Burckhardt notices under the name of El Eshe, as emptying itself into the lake near Ain Tabegha. It was nearly opposite to this spring that he descended to the coast from Khan Djob Yousef, the Khan of Joseph's Well, which he makes two hours and a quarter from Saphet, and one hour and a half from the borders of the lake. In the time of Van Egmont and Heyman, this khan was called the Khan of Cuperli," from its being built, together with several other structures of the same kind in Turkey, by a grand-vizier of that name.” They make it less than an hour from the point at which they began to ascend the mountains by a very troublesome road, and describe it as 66 an excellent baiting-place both for man and beast." "The khan has on the outside the appearance of a castle. You enter through a large gate into a spacious area, round which are arched piazzas serving for stables, and over them apartments with terraces near it is a mosque with a minaret, and a large cistern, generally full of rain-water; but, at the time we visited the khan, it was dry. On the left side of this khan is also a small mosque, and a pit covered with a cupola. The Turks will have this to be the pit into which Joseph was thrown, before