The whole of Lower Galilee, Samaria, and Gilead, was laid like a map at
our feet; and from so great an elevation the Mediterranean and the Sea of
Galilee were brought close together. Among the most conspicuous
geographical points were Tabor, a very small object beneath; then the
line of Carmel; and Ebal in Samaria; there was Hhatteen, the last
battle-field of the Crusaders; King Baldwin's castle of Cocab; the
entrance of the Jordan into the lake, and both the supposed sites of
Capernaum; also Acre with her blue bay, and a small amount of shipping
off Caiffa. Pity that I had no aneroid barometer for ascertaining the
elevation of that site.
The map-like appearance of the wide panorama suggested to memory the song
of Deborah the prophetess, with her recapitulation of the succours
furnished or omitted by the several tribes of Israel at the battle of the
Kishon and Harosheth of the Gentiles. From such a site she would turn to
the left hand for expostulation with Reuben, and to the right for
rebuking Dan and Asher upon the sea-coast, after that the Lord had
defeated the national foe without them, and sold Sisera into the hands of
a woman.
Our descent was by a narrow path of zig-zags, veering alternately towards
Acre or Tiberias, although those towns were soon concealed by intervening
hills; the plain below was a large dark patch of olive plantation.
In an hour and ten minutes of wearisome toil in leading the horses down,
with no possible interval of rest, we came to the village of _Rama_;
having long before lost sight of the Mediterranean.
We took refuge from the sun in the house of a Christian named Ibrahim
Hhanna, and after an hour's sleep rose up to a feast of eggs, olives,
bread, and cream cheese, after sharing in which our guides from Rumaish
took their leave, with kindly wishes on both sides.
Next we hired a guide for our crossing the plain to 'Arabeh el Battoof on
the way to Nazareth, and travelled over alternate corn stubble and
balloot underwood. In one short valley that we crossed there were six
_jeldeh_ or short aqueducts to water-mills.
The weather was still extremely hot.
Passed near _Dair Hhanna_, a large ruin of a fortification upon a hill
rising out of the plain; probably, as the name would seem to intimate, an
old castle of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem. A few poor people
here have built huts for themselves within the great walls, in the manner
of the Italian peasants in Goldsmith's "Traveller," who do the same
within the confines of a Caesar's palace--
"And wondering man can want the larger pile,
Exult and own their cottage with a smile."
Two small towers, now also in ruin, flank the castle at short distances.
These were erected by Shaikh Daher about eighty years since, who employed
the whole for military defence in his revolt against the Turks.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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