Transcribed from the 1868 James Nisbet and Co. edition by Les Bowler. [Picture: Frontispiece] BYEWAYS IN PALESTINE BY JAMES FINN, M.R.A.S., AND MEMBER OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETY OF FRANCE, LATE HER MAJESTY'S CONSUL FOR JERUSALEM AND PALESTINE. "The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land."--NUMB. xiv. 7. LONDON: JAMES NISBET & CO., 21 BERNERS STREET. MDCCCLXVIII. _To His Excellency_ _Right Hon. Francis Lord Napier_, _K.T._, _etc. etc. etc._, _Governor of the Presidency of Madras_, This little Volume _is inscribed_, _in grateful acknowledgment of kindness_ _received in_ _Jerusalem and elsewhere_, BY THE AUTHOR. _London_, 1867. PREFACE. These papers on "Byeways in Palestine" are compiled from notes of certain journeys made during many years' residence in that country; omitting the journeys made upon beaten roads, and through the principal towns, for the mere reason that they were such. Just what met the eye and ear was jotted down and is now revised after a lapse of time, without indulging much in meditation or reflection; these are rather suggested by the occurrences, that they may be followed out by the reader. Inasmuch, however, as the incidents relate to out-of-the-way places, and various seasons of the year, they may be found to contain an interest peculiar to themselves, and the account of them may not interfere with any other book on Palestine. I may state that, not being a professed investigator, I carried with me no scientific instruments, except sometimes a common thermometer: I had no leisure for making excavations, for taking angles with a theodolite, or attending to the delicate care of any kind of barometer, being employed on my proper business. Riding by night or by day, in the heat of Syrian summer, or through snows and piercing winds of winter on the mountains, I enjoyed the pure climate for its own sake. Moreover, I lived among the people, holding intercourse with peasants in villages, with Bedaween in deserts, and with Turkish governors in towns, or dignified Druses in the Lebanon, and slept in native dwellings of all qualities, as well as in convents of different sects: in the open air at the foot of a tree, or in a village mosque--in a cavern by the highway side, or beneath cliffs near the Dead Sea: although more commonly within my own tent, accompanied by native servants with a small canteen.