WE left the village of Oom Kais about four o'clock, and descended by a winding path down the steep hill on whose summit it stood. In about half an hour we reached its foot, and seeing some Bedouin tents near, our guides determined on halting here for the night.

We had arranged amongst ourselves, to reach, if possible, the small village of Sumuk, in the southern bight of the lake, and after sleeping there, to proceed to Tiberias, on its western edge, in the morning; but we now learned that there was an affair of

blood between the people of that neighbourhood and our guides; and that, therefore, they could not enter either the one or the other. They professed their willingness to go to Nazareth, but no further; and Mr. Bankes, not having seen that neighbourhood, or the coast to the northward of Jaffa, agreed to go directly thither with them.

It was to me as painful a circumstance to lose such an agreeable companion, as it was disadvantageous to abandon so safe a protection as our party had hitherto afforded to us all; but I felt the call of duty as imperious, and determined to proceed alone to Sumuk, and from thence, on the following morning, through Tiberias, straight to Damascus, as the nearest road to Aleppo.

In the midst of the dispute, while we were yet endeavouring to prevail on the Arabs to continue on our original route, and before we had entered this Bedouin camp below, my horse fell, in crossing a ravine, and crushed my right leg and foot between the saddle and the rugged rock of the valley. As the horse rose nimbly, it was without difficulty that I was extricated from this situation, and placed again on my seat, the pain being violent but not excruciating at first, and, as I then thought, by no means alarming.

We continued towards the tents, which were pitched on the banks of the Nahr-el-Hami; but as the sun was yet a full hour high, we determined, instead of alighting, to cross the river and visit the hot springs on the other side, which were close by.

We accordingly forded the Hieromax with some difficulty, as its stream was here broader, deeper, and more rapid than the Jordan at the time and place of our first crossing that river above Jericho. Reaching safely the opposite bank, we found a black sail, with some little cultivation; and a few yards up from the stream, on the north-western side, we came to the ruins of a Roman building, enveloped in the steam of the springs on which it

stood.

On approaching nearer, we found the edifice to be an ancient

bath; the great hall, the cisterns, the private chambers, the recesses, and narrow stairs of which still remained, with several arches on the north, that either inclosed a court for horses, or belonged to some outer building attached to the establishment.

The whole of this edifice was constructed of the black stone, of which we had lately seen so much, and which appeared to us to be volcanic; and we could now perceive, that in the cliffs above, through which the Hieromax made its way, as well as on the upper part of the opposite hills, this stone formed a deep layer on a basis of white soil almost like chalk. The whole bed of the river was one singular mixture of these black rocks, worn smooth and round by the passage of the water, but still as porous as pumice-stone, and equal masses of the white stone, which was nearly of as hard but smoother surface.

The spring which rose here presented to us a deep and сараcious basin of beautifully transparent water, of the colour of those precious stones called aqua-marines, and more purely crystal-like than any fountain I had ever beheld. It rose in bubbles from the bottom; but though deeper than the height of a man, a pin might have been distinguished at the bottom, or the inscription of a medal read, so unusually clear was the whole mass. The odour emitted in its steam was highly sulphureous, but its taste was considerably less so. Its heat at the fountain-head was such as to render it painful to the hand, if immersed beyond a few seconds; but a fact, for which we could not account, was, that at a few yards distant from its source it was sensibly hotter.

From the fine transparent green of its central and deepest parts, the shade grew lighter as it approached the edges, and around the immediate rim of this natural basin, as well as on a little cataract formed by fallen masses of the ruined bath, the water had deposited a coating of the purest white, which gave an additional beauty to the appearance of the whole. The quantity of the water, and the force of its stream was sufficient to turn the largest mill; and it

made a sensible addition to the waters of the Hieromax, where it joined that river only a few yards below.

As we found, that by gradual immersion the heat of the water could be borne, one of our old Arabs, Abu-Fatheel, and the Albanian Mohammed stripped and bathed in the upper basin, but described it as hotter than the hottest cistern of a modern Turkish bath. As I was lifted off my horse, while Mr. Bankes had his feet washed, I was glad to follow his example, and to bathe my bruised leg therein under the hope of some relief.

Though the Roman edifice that accommodated here both the victim of luxury, and the less sensual invalid, was now deserted and destroyed, the fountain which furnished its healing waters to the bath is still visited in search of restoration to health, by those who suffer an interruption of the enjoyment of that blessing; and though among them there are none perhaps sufficiently wealthy to build temples to Hygeia, yet none seem to have departed without leaving some humble offering, either propitiatory or grateful, as in front of the southern wall are about a thousand relics of hair, and nails, and teeth, and rags of every kind and colour, deposited by Arab visitors of the present day.

Josephus, in his account of the building of Tiberias, at the Lake of Gennesareth, says, that there were warm baths at a little distance from it, in a village called Emmaus.* These were distinct from the hot baths at Tiberias itself, which are mentioned in another place † ; but whether the hot spring here on the banks of the Hieromax was one of those that belonged to Emmaus, we could not determine, though its vicinity to Tiberias led us to suppose that it was. †

There appear, indeed, to have been several places of this name,

Antiq. of the Jews, b. xviii. c. 2. s. 3. + Jewish Wars, b. ii. c. 21. s. 6. † Αμμαούς. Ubi thermæ sunt, prope Tiberiada. Jos. Ant. 233. Reland. Palæst. Illust. 1. iii. de urbibus et vicis Palæstinæ, p. 560.

and situated in different parts of Palestine. * In the march of Vespasian's army, after passing from Cæsarea to Antipatris, and from thence to Lydda and Jamnia, he came to Emmaus. This was evidently in their neighbourhood, and to the westward of the Jordan; for, after returning again to the same place from an excursion into Idumea, the army came down from thence to Neapolis or Siehem, and from thence to Jericho.† This may probably be the same with that Emmaus, which Titus assigned to the eight hundred of his veterans, whom he dismissed honourably from the army, and gave this place to them for their habitation, when he ordered all the rest of Judea to be exposed to sale. It is there said to be distant from Jerusalem threescore furlongs, or little more than six miles, which is too near for the Emmaus by the Lake of Tiberias. § There was still another city of this name, which was the place of the government of Julius Africanus, in the beginning of the third century, and which he then procured to be rebuilt, after which rebuilding, it was called Nicopolis, or the City of Victory. || The village of Emmaus, mentioned by St. Luke, is evidently the same with that assigned to the soldiers of Titus, since both of them are stated to be at the same distance of threescore furlongs from Jerusalem, and might have been the Emmaus at which Vespasian's army halted, but could not be that which was celebrated for its baths near the Lake of Tiberias. There were no remains near the bath described, which indicated a ruined town, nor could we trace

Vide Reland. 1. ii. c. 6. " de intervallis locorum in sacro codice notatis, situ Emmauntis, Bethaniæ, aliisque." p. 425 ad 430; and again in l. iii. de urbibus et vicis Palæstinæ," Tria loca sunt nomine Emmauntis nota in Palæstina; 1. Urbs hæc, Nicopolis dicta postea. 2. Vicus in Evangelio Lucæ memoratus. 3. Locus vicinus Tiberiadi, qui à thermis nomen videtur traxisse." p. 758.

Jewish Wars, b. iv. c. 8. s. 1.

Jewish Wars, b. vii. c. 7. s. 6.

§ Emmaus, upaoùs; timens consilium, vel matris augentis consilium, seu populus abjectus. D. nomen castelli distantis ab Jerusalem stadiis 60. Luc. xxiv. 13. Onomasticum Sacrum, p. 115.

|| Emmaus notabilem victoriâ Maccabæi, et facto Servatoris quo se discipulis duobus aperuit, eo ipse die, quo à mortuis resurrexerat. (Luc. xxiv. 13.) Postea, hoc oppidum dicta Nicopolis. Cluverius, 1. v. c. 20.