Forwards we went through a village called _Kifereh_. As usual the ride over the plain is very tedious and tiring to the limbs--a hilly country in moderation is much more comfortable. We reached _Shutta_, then the tents of the Shiukh Arabs close under hills, and beneath a hill called _Nooris_, and at a mill called _Jalood_, we were overtaken by rain late in the year, being the 19th of May. The sun set a good while before our arriving at Zer'een (Jezreel); the road was not straight, for a _detour_ was necessary in order to ensure firm ground among the marshes; stagnated water abounds, that has been poured down from the hills of Gilboa. We passed the natural cavern from which the Jalood water issues on the side of a hill. A large cistern is formed at the place. The inhabitants--such as we saw occasionally--were very unhealthy in appearance. Night came on, and dew with it, to which we had been long unaccustomed. The storm cleared off, and we travelled several hours by moonlight. Then we saw abundance of fire-flies flitting across our way. Overtaking our luggage, we all jogged on slowly together, very tired and silent, till a horseman appeared, who galloped off on our inquiry, "Who goes there?" At length we heard the welcome sounds of frogs croaking, then dogs barking, then saw the lights of Jeneen, and being Ramadan the minaret there was illuminated with festoons of lamps. Then we reached the appointed well-known grove of olive trees. Our day had been very long and fatiguing--the cattle exhausted. It was Saturday night, and the week ended with the intelligence that Shaikh Barakat el Fraikh had declared war against the Beni Sukh'r, so that we had just passed through the Over-Jordan country in time to be able to do so. At Jerash I had met Barakat, and at 'Akeeli's camp had met his adversary Fendi el Faiz. II. NORTHWARDS TO BEISAN, KADIS, ANTIPATRIS, etc. October 23, 1850. Leaving Jerusalem upon the Nabloos road, and crossing the upper portion of the valley which, lower down, after a curve becomes the valley of Jehoshaphat, we passed almost directly over the sepulchre of Simon the Just, of whom such "excellent things are spoken" in the books of the Maccabees, and in whose memory an annual festival is kept by the Jerusalem Jews on this spot on the day called [Hebrew text] rather more than a month after the passover. Two other saints are celebrated on the same day of the calendar--viz., R. Simeon bar Jochai, the cabbalist of Safed, author of _Zohar_, and R. Akiva of Tiberias.