Near this 'Arabeh lie some time-eaten fragments of large old columns.
There we dismissed the guide, as he wished to be at home again before
dark, and we traversed the plain of _Sefuriyeh_, the celebrated Sepphoris
of Josephus' wars.
It is to be observed that in that afternoon we had crossed three narrow
but long parallel plains, all running east and west, and divided from
each other by lines of rocky hills. The northern one contains _Rama_ and
_'Arabeh_; the middle one has _Sefuriyeh_; and the southern one has
_Tura'an_ and _Cuf'r Cana_, the place of the miracle at the marriage in
St John's Gospel.
Hoping to reach our destination by a shorter track, after passing
_Rumaneh_ and Jerjer we mounted a hill to _Mesh-had_, that was in sight,
but as darkness came on, lost our way for a considerable time; rain
threatened and fell a short time. Once we came near a large cattle-fold,
which we afterwards learned belonged to the Latin Convent of Nazareth,
but no people appeared to answer us; then we got a gloomy view of Mount
Tabor; at length, however, we were cheered with discovering the window
lights of Nazareth, after being fourteen hours in the saddle, omitting
the two hours' rest at Rama, and the half-hour at Rumaish.
The whole country we had traversed is particularly interesting; but at
the close of the day the company were all too tired to sing aloud, as
might have been performed under other circumstances, that Arab song well
known over the country, with its wild high note (not cadence) at the end
of each line:
"If thy horse be indeed
A creature of speed
Thou wilt lodge for the night in Nazareth."
In December of the next year (1854) I traversed the Rama plain
lengthwise, that is to say, from Tiberias to the plain of Acre.
After _Mejdal_ and the _Wadi el Hamam_, or "Valley of the Doves," we soon
struck out due westwards, and passed under a hill with ruins on its top
called _Sabaneh_; then some more considerable ruins in a similar position
called _Memileh_. At a good way to our left a small village was pointed
out called _'Ailabool_, containing, among other inhabitants, a few
Christians, who have their chapel and a priest.
The whole road was extremely picturesque--the scenery consisting of
broken rocks of ochreous tinge and shoots of balloot oak; and for a long
distance at every turn, in looking backwards, there showed itself the
still lovely lake of the Gospel narratives--that object which no one can
ever forget who has had once the privilege to be near it.
We kept _Mansoorah_ steadily before the eye, but on arriving at the hill
upon which this stands, the road deviated a little, and rose over an
eminence side by side with the village. Here we got a view of those
several separated objects--Tabor; the Sea of Galilee; and Dair Hhanna.
We were accosted by some Druse peasantry when the village of _Moghar_ was
somewhat on our left.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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