town called Yubba. In this place were vestiges of walls and buildings apparently of an ancient date, but the peasants of the neighbourhood knew nothing of its history.

Soon after this we passed under a small village seated on the summit of a hill on the left of our road. It was called Ooom-elRussās, or "The Mother of Lead," but we could learn no assignable cause for this appellation. The village was full of inhabitants, and the rugged and stoney plain at the base of the hill on which it stood abounded with more cattle than there appeared pasture to feed on the spot. This place was under the government of the good and benevolent Hadjee Ahmet Jerar, of Sanhoor, of whom I had before occasion to speak*; and the blessing of whose paternal care seemed to extend over all the villages subject to his power.

We travelled on in a direction seldom varying from southeast, and going, on an average, about four miles an hour, when, at five o'clock, we came to a torrent called Waadi-el-Hhesh. On the left of this stream, at a short distance to the northward, stood Kafera and Jabool, two Mahommedan villages, which my guide assured me were once Christian towns of note, and were acknowledged by all to be very old. We saw, encamped on the banks of this torrent, several parties of Bedouin Arabs, who fed their flocks on the neighbouring hills, and brought them to water and to shelter near their tents at night. The source of the stream is at a short distance from hence, to the north-west, and it winds down in an easterly direction till it discharges itself into the Jordan.

At five o'clock we reached a narrow pass, between two approaching hills, and entered from thence into the valley of the Jordan. On the left of the pass were the ruins of a fortress which had once probably guarded the passage, and formed an important military post.

We continued our course about south-east across the plain, which was well cultivated on the west side of the Jordan, and looked beautifully verdant on the east; when, in about an hour after our first entering the valley, we came to the banks of the * See Travels in Palestine, 4to edition, p. 498.

river. We found here a number of Arab tents scattered along its edge, and from the dwellers in them we received the accustomed salutation of peace as we passed through the encampment. We had some difficulty, indeed, in resisting their entreaties to halt at their tents for the night; but as we were informed that the Sheikh of this tribe was encamped with another portion of his people on the east bank of the river, and were equally sure of a welcome reception there, we passed on, returning thanks to those whose solicitations we found it so difficult to refuse.

In fording the Jordan at this spot, which was at a distance of two hours, or about four miles to the southward of its outlet from the lake of Tiberias, we found it so deep near the banks of the stream as to throw our horses off their legs for a few minutes, and oblige them to swim; but they soon regained their footing as they approached the middle of the stream, and in the very centre we found it quite shallow. It still appeared rather as a brook or torrent, than a river, being no where more than one hundred feet wide, as far as we could observe it from hence; and the water, which was clear and sweet, winding slowly over a sandy and pebbly bed at about the rate of a mile and a half per hour.

After going up on the eastern bank of the river, and proceeding for a league onward, we came to the principal encampment of the Arab tribe whom we had first met with on the opposite bank of the Jordan. The name of the tribe we learnt to be Beni-Ameer-elGhazowee, and that of the place of their encampment, Zubbah. Their tents were very numerous, and larger than usual; and there were an abundance of fine horses, camels, and flocks, betokening great wealth among them in property of this description.

We alighted at the tent of the Sheikh or Chief, by whom we were well received, and invited to take shelter with him for the night. Immediately after our halting a meal was prepared for us, the principal dish of which was a young kid seethed in milk. Many of the Arabs encamped around us came to pay their visits to the strangers, and some few ate with us as they came, and then retired; but the

greater number of the visitors made their suppers of bread and oil alone. I had already had occasion to perceive that my Nazarene guide, Georgis, was one of the most loquacious of his race that I had ever before met with; and mingling, as he did, a large portion of good humour with his talkativeness, he was often highly entertaining. The present was an occasion well calculated to draw him out, and, accordingly, his long and well-told stories contributed greatly to the amusement of the chief, and all who came to share his hospitality with us.

Midnight approached before our visitors retired, and, as we proposed starting early in the morning, it was very desirable that we should enjoy some rest; but this was a blessing not destined for us. The first and most powerful cause that prevented it, was a dreadful tempest, which gathered up in pitchy darkness, and descended in a torrent of thunder, lightning, and rain. The tents were thus beaten down, and the affrighted flocks and herds flying to them for shelter, increased the general confusion; while, amid the awful darkness which succeeded to the lightning's glare, and the deluge of rain that swept every thing before it, the mingled cries of terror uttered by the women, the children, and the cattle, added only to the horror of the scene.

Thursday, February 22.-We continued in this situation until the day broke upon us, and displayed a perfect wreck, as not a tent throughout the whole encampment was left standing. And many of the young infants, as well as the tender kids and lambs which had been exposed to the storm without shelter, were dead and dying around us: in short, the devastation was more marked and more extensive than I should have thought it possible for such a storm to have occasioned on shore.

When the sun rose, the rain abated, and the sky cleared up; but being unable to render any assistance to those with whom we had shared the common evils of the tempest, we mounted our horses without a dry thread in our garments, and entered on our journey

before we had broke our fast, so that we were wet, weary, and hungry, even at the beginning of the day.

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We now directed our course nearly S. S. E., keeping along the foot of the hills that border the valley of Jordan on the east; and about seven o'clock, or within an hour after setting out, we passed under the village of Arbagheen or Forty," but could learn no reason for its numerical name. On the opposite side of the river, in a direction of nearly west from this, we could perceive the town of Beisan, the ancient Scythopolis, where there is a large population, and a general mart for the supply of the Bedouin Arabs of these parts. There are several remains of antiquity at this place, particularly the vestiges of a theatre, and many marble columns erect and fallen; but as we did not visit the spot in our way, I had no opportunity of ascertaining minutely what else it might have contained.

Continuing our course about S. S. E. parallel to the stream of the Jordan, and near the foot of the hills on the east of it, we came at eight o'clock to a station called Maka, where we found an encampment of Arabs of the tribe of Beni Sheikh Hussein, who, though they had pitched their tents so near to those of Beni Ameer Ghazowee, were on terms of deadly hostility with them. We were called upon to pay a tribute to this chief as we passed; which, as it was a small sum, we did not dispute, though it is contrary to the Arab custom to demand money as tribute from single travellers, as they content themselves in general, when at peace, with exacting a fixed duty on goods carried as merchandize or traffic, and let the mere journeyer pass free. We found an extensive burying-ground at this place, the most conspicuous object of which was the tomb of Sheikh Hussein, from whom the tribe derived its name. There were a few palm trees near this, and pits in the earth for preserving corn; the Arabs of this tribe being partly cultivators and partly shepherds, and consequently of that mixed character which partook equally of the manners of the

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Fellahs or agricultural peasantry, and the Bedouins or wanderers of the Desert.

We quitted Merkah soon after nine o'clock, and about ten passed under a spot on the hills on our left, which by some was called Tabakat Fehhil, and by others Jerim Mooz. As it was on an eminence difficult of access, we did not go up to it; but my guide, who had been frequently there in his journeying through these mountains, described it as containing tombs with massy stone doors, like those at Oam Kais or Gamala, and other remains of ancient works, in columns and large blocks of hewn stone.

Soon after leaving this spot, we passed two ruined and deserted villages in the hills on our left, called Hejeja and Soolikhat, both of which, like the former, were thought to be ancient stations; and, indeed, from the number of old fortresses that were seated among the hills on each side of the Jordan, nothing is more probable than that each of these marked the position of some ancient place.

At noon we were opposite to Jebel Adjeloon, a lofty mountain on our left, covered with snow. At its base, on the western side, we saw a number of ruined buildings, with appearances of aqueducts leading along the uneven parts of the hill. This place was called Fakāris, and was thought to be the site of an ancient town. Its position is marked by a stream of water, descending from hence into the Jordan.

We had been anxiously on the look-out ever since our leaving the Arab camp, as this valley is so notoriously infested with robbers, that persons scarcely ever pass through it even in large parties without being attacked, and it was thought madness for single travellers like ourselves to attempt it. Our expectations were soon realised, as we met here a party of eight men, two of whom were on horseback and six on foot; the former armed with lances and sabres, the latter with large bludgeons; but not one among them having fire-arms.