was very welcome, and the water of the river very refreshing. Moreover, we were sheltered here from the sirocco, and the river was clear and fordable, not muddy and deep, as at the Bathing-place of the pilgrims. One quality only it did not possess: it was not cool, but rather lukewarm, as you may imagine from the high temperature of the air. Still, I believe that half an hour's bathing in the river preserved me that day from the consequences of the extraordinary heat. Never was water of greater service to me than now. As we returned home-to the tent of Shech Abdeh, namely I felt already its beneficial effects. My spirits seemed to return, and my companions experienced the same beneficial effect.

We remained that night in the camp of the Bedouïns; of course I had my own tent, as to sleep under the goat's-hair tent-cloth of Shech Abdeh would have caused me intolerable suffering from vermin, a plague which I could not even escape entirely, in consequence of my conversation with these filthy people. There was much to remind me of what I had experienced in the south of Judea; and here, as well as there, I was perfectly safe. Two Bedouïns kept guard at my tent, after the Shech had left me at an advanced hour of the night. I gave him a baksheesh of twenty piastres for his guidance to the Jordan, and for his hospitable reception—a sum quite out of proportion with the handfuls that travellers generally throw away, but quite satisfactory to Shech Abdeh. In this I followed Daoud's advice, and now mention it to you, that you may thereby measure your generosity if ever you take up the pilgrim's staff to go on a tour to the Holy Land.

THE SIROCCO CEASES--NATURE REVIVES.

325

My intention was next morning to ascend Mount Sartabeh, which is not more than an hour from Kerawa. It would have been an interesting point for my measurements. But unfortunately, or I should rather say, happily, during the night the wind changed, the sirocco had ceased, and a cool atmosphere came in the morning, rolling down the mountain, in the form of large dense clouds, to the yet glowing plain of the Jordan. The clouds completely obscured the view, and I therefore had to leave Sartabeh unvisited.

And how shall I describe the feeling of refreshment which the morning brought with it? It was, indeed, a change from death to life, not only figuratively, but even literally—a rising out of the atmosphere of a furnace to the invigorating air of the mountains. I need not assure you how all nature revived and came forth with new charms. At an early hour the reapers were in the field gathering in the remainder of their crops, their faces brightened with the pleasant change. The birds, too, seemed with new voices to chant their praises from among the thorny sidr-trees; the oleander bushes flowered with renewed splendour; and in the melon and cucumber gardens the broad, green leaves had spread upon them a new tinge of life. Everything was charming; the "Lord was renewing the face of the earth."* The loving-kindness of the Lord met me from all his works. Ah, thought I, if man would only consider! How does he trample upon his own happiness, by not devoting attention to God's works! How much enjoyment is there in observing and meditating upon them! True, the Lord's works

* Psalm civ. 20.

in nature do not shew us all that His heart contains with regard to man; but so much they declare to us of God's glory and loving-kindness, omnipotence and benevolence, that we cannot possibly look upon them with any degree of attention without exclaiming with the Psalmist, "I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being: my meditation of Him shall be sweet; I will be glad in the Lord "*

The oasis of Kerawa is full of the remains of houses and mills; of the latter, some are still used. These ruins, however, have no particular name; but after passing from the oasis through the narrow and picturesque Wadi-Zeika into another mountain basin to the north of Kerawa, through which flows the chief stream of Wadi-Ferra', one meets with the remains of buildings at the foot of a large tell called el-Bassariëh. Robinson writes this name el-Bassaliah, and supposes them to be identical with Archelaus. † Irby and Mangles passed by this locality in 1818, but seemed not to have noticed the ruins. The plain of el-Bassariëh is much less cultivated than the oasis of Kerawa, though the brook Ferra' (not Feria, as the maps have it) affords here the same opportunity of irrigation as in the latter.

An hour and a half to the north of Shech Abdeh's camp, we crossed the brook, and now began to ascend the mountains, leaving Wadi-Ferra' with its beautiful oleander-trees on the left. Our way gradually ascended between isolated mountains, without meeting with anything like those steep precipices which one has to + Ritter, vol. xvi. p. 457.

* Psalm civ. 33, 34.

ascend or descend in Wadi-Fasaël and Wadi-el-Ahmar. The whole country, the mountains as well as the valleys, was covered with the richest vegetation.

It struck me that there was grass enough here to feed all the cattle of Palestine; but, alas! such blessings are lost as long as the land remains trodden down as it is

in the present day. Except a few fellahîns at the Ferra' brook, I saw not a single vestige of human habitation all the way from Kerawa to Tamûn. Having passed a tell with ruins, called Thala, at two and a half hours' distance from Kerawa-probably the Thella of Josephus, "a village in the vicinity of the Jordan," and possibly, too, the Taanath-Shiloh of Josh. xvi. 6—we came on a broad plain gradually ascending to the north-west, and there, at the foot of a mountain, we halted to breakfast. And why there? Because we found water in the ancient wells of a deserted village, called 'Atûf, the large hewn stones of which convinced me at the same time, that this village was chiefly built from the remains of an ancient town. In turning up that portion of the Scriptures which refers to this district, I have little hesitation in recognising in 'Atûf the frontier town " Tappuah, on the borders of Manasseh and Ephraim."* How that city because of the richness of its fountains was called En-Tappuah, I could easily understand, as also how the city itself was given to Ephraim, whilst " the land of Tappuah," the very plain which slopes to the south-east, was apportioned to Manasseh. Tappuah is also mentioned as one of the thirty-one royal cities which were conquered by Joshua. † Two more places mentioned in

* Josh. xvi. 8; xvii. 7, 8.

+ Ib. xii. 17.

328

*

RETURN TO SHECHEM.

Scripture lay on my road-Tamûn and Tûbas, two villages to the north-west of 'Atûf,—the former at an hour and a quarter's distance, and the latter three quarters of an hour to the north of Tamûn. Tûbas has already been mentioned by others as identical with Thebez, where Abimelech was slain by the hand of a woman, and Tamûn appears to me to be the Tabbath of Judges vii. 22. Had I been allowed to have it all my own way, I should have gone on from Tamûn to Beisan; but Daoud most strenuously refused to accompany me thither. He pretended not to know the land or its inhabitants, and to have been peremptorily charged by the Metzellim of Nablous to go no further to the north than Tamûn. All the arguments I brought against his determination, were to no purpose. In order to proceed on my journey to the north, I had first to return to Nablous to ask the Governor for a new guide. The return occupied four hours' travelling, but I had to exercise patience. It is scarcely two hours since I arrived here. You perceive, my friend, I have at once taken up the pen to safe return. I must now go to

tell

you

all about my the governor.

Farewell.

* Judges ix. 53, 54.