The ancient Philistines were not only exceptionally, but generally, a large race of people, and the population there are to this day remarkably tall; they are, even amid disadvantages, (that especially of want of water,) much more cleanly in their persons and clothing than the peasants of the hills, and many of their habits of life are modified by their circumstances, such as the pressure of their wild Arab neighbours from the southern desert that lies between them and Egypt. Over this plain I have made several journeys at different periods, and now proceed to put down my jottings of an excursion in the spring of 1849. * * * * * _May_ 1_st_.--"Sweet May-day" in the Holy Land as well as in England. At Rachel's sepulchre, "in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem," we parted from a company of friends who had ridden with us from Jerusalem, and passed along the valley _Duhheish'mah_ to the Pools of Solomon, then turned aside by the convent and village of _El Khud'r_ (or St George), surrounded by flourishing vineyards. Then mounting up a stony ridge, we came in view of the wide Philistine plain, the hills falling in successive gradations from our feet to the level of the plain, but separate objects could scarcely be distinguished on account of the thick air of the prevailing Shirocco; green bushes, however, and abundant wild flowers, including the red everlasting, pheasant's eye, cistus, and some late anemones, were about us; the larks and the linnets were singing with delight. In front was the village of _Hhusan_, and two roads led forward, that on the left to _Nahhaleen_, _Wad Fokeen_, and _Jeba'_; this was the road that I ought to have taken to _Bait Nateef_, our place for the night, but being considerably ahead of our baggage mules, I had ridden on with a kawwas, under _Hhusan_ and _Ras abu 'Ammar_; by our wayside lay a defaced Roman milestone. A solitary peasant youth, from whom I inquired the names of the villages about us, was so alarmed at the appearance of a European with a Turkish attendant, in a place so remote from common high-roads, that he ran off; but finding our horses keeping up with his fleet pace, he dropped behind a large stone and levelled his gun at us in sheer terror; it was difficult to get a rational reply from him. Before us, a little to our left, was _Hhubeen_, half down a hill, at the foot of which was a valley green with waving crops of wheat and barley.