Part 19 (1/2)
Near this we saw squatted on the ground a family of three generations, almost entirely naked; they had a fire lighted, and the women were was.h.i.+ng clothes in the water heated by it, a great rarity in Palestine, for they usually wash with cold water at the spring. Some Metawaleh peasants ran away from our party when we wished to make some inquiries of them.
From an eminence we saw before us a flat plain inundated like a lake, left by the wintry floods. This occurs there yearly around the flouris.h.i.+ng village of _'Arabet el Battoof_, at which we soon arrived, after which we galloped for miles over green pastures of gra.s.s interspersed by trees.
In three quarters of an hour further we came to _Sukhneen_, a large village with good cultivation extending far around. Still traversing green undulations with wooded hills to the right and left, in another hour we were at a small place called _Neab_, where the scenery suddenly changed for stony hills and valleys. In a little short of another hour we saw _Damooneh_ at half an hour's distance to the left. In twenty minutes more we stopped to drink at the well _Berweh_, then pressed forward in haste to arrive at Acre before the gates (being a fortification) should be closed. We got there in fifty minutes' hard riding from _'Ain Berweh_.
II. THE REVERSE WAY FROM WEST TO EAST.
1. ACRE TO TIBERIAS.
_March_ 1850.
Crossed the river Naaman, and paced slowly over the extensive marshes, making for _Shefa 'Amer_.
Among these marshes was a herd of about two hundred horses at free pasture upon the gra.s.s, weeds, and rushes, so succulent at that season of the year; these were on their way from Northern Syria, and were intended for sale.
Also among the marshes was a temporary village of tabernacles or huts made of plaited palm-leaves, and papyrus canes or reeds, such as one sees on the line of the Jordan or about the lake Hhooleh, with the same cla.s.s of proprietors in both cases, the Ghawarineh Arabs. Strange that this race of human beings should prefer to inhabit feverish marshes.
We came upon a paved causeway (called the _Resheef_) leading from a large mill towards the sea, but only the portion nearest to the mill now remains entire. Probably this was turned to some account during the French military operations against Acre in 1799.
At Shefa 'Amer we had _'Ebeleen_ in sight. Both places are conspicuous over the district around. At some distance from the town is a large well for its supply, and along the broad road between the well and the town, the Druse women are constantly pa.s.sing with their horns over the forehead and their jars on the shoulders.
Shefa 'Amer is crowned by the remains of the Palace Castle erected by Shaikh Daher, (celebrated in Volney's ”Syria,”) and the sh.e.l.l of a large old Christian church; near these are some very ancient wells cut into solid rock, but now containing no water.
The majority of the inhabitants are Druses. There are a few Moslems and a few Christians; but at that time there were thirty Jewish families living as agriculturists, cultivating grain and olives on their own landed property, most of it family inheritance; some of these people were of Algerine descent. They had their own synagogue and legally qualified butcher, and their numbers had formerly been more considerable. {243}
I felt an especial interest in these people, as well as in the knowledge of a similar community existing at a small village not far distant named _Bokea'h_.
Upon the road that day, and in half an hour from the town, I met a couple of rosy-faced, strong peasant men, with sparkling Jewish eyes, who set to speaking Hebrew with some Rabbis in my company. It was in a scene of woodland and cornfields under the blue canopy of heaven; their costume was that of the ordinary Metawaleh peasantry, _i.e._, a scarlet and embroidered short coat with large dark blue trousers. I shall never forget this circ.u.mstance, of finding men of Israel, fresh from agricultural labour, conversing in Hebrew in their own land.
Our road then led through glades of exceeding beauty: an English park backed by mountains in a Syrian climate. The gently undulating land was clothed with rich gra.s.s, and sprinkled (not thronged) with timber, chiefly terebinth. Linnets and thrushes were warbling among the trees.
_Cuf'r Menda_ was on our left; _Sefoorieh_ at a distance on the right; _Rumaneh_ and _'Azair_ before us. Then we entered upon the long plain of _'Arabet el Battoof_, and rested a short time before sunset at _'Ain Bedaweeyeh_ for refreshment. Carpets were spread upon long gra.s.s which sank under the pressure. The horses and mules were set free to pasture, and we formed ourselves into separate eating groups; one Christian, one Jewish, and one Moslem. Some storks were likewise feeding in a neighbouring bean-field, the fragrance of which was delicious, as wafted to us by the evening breeze.
On remounting for the road to Tiberias, several hours beyond, we put on cloaks to keep off the falling dew, and paced on by a beautiful moonlight, at first dimmed by mist or dew, which afterwards disappeared; the spear carried by one of the party glimmered as we went on; and the Jews whiled away the time by recitation of their evening prayers on horseback, and conversing in the Hebrew language about their warrior forefathers of Galilee.
2. CAIFFA TO NAZARETH.
_July_ 1854.
Pa.s.sing through the rush of _'Ain Saadeh_ water as it tumbles from the rocky base of Carmel, and by the _Beled esh Shaikh_ and _Yajoor_, we crossed the Kishon bed to take a road new to me, namely, by _Damooneh_, leaving _Mujaidel_ and _Yafah_ visible on our right, upon the crests of hills overlooking the Plain of Esdraelon. We pa.s.sed through a good deal of greenwood scenery, so refres.h.i.+ng in the month of July, but on the whole not equal in beauty to the road by Shefa 'Amer.