Byeways in Palestine Part 19

Near this we saw squatted on the ground a family of three generations, almost entirely naked; they had a fire lighted, and the women were washing clothes in the water heated by it, a great rarity in Palestine, for they usually wash with cold water at the spring. Some Metawaleh peasants ran away from our party when we wished to make some inquiries of them.

From an eminence we saw before us a flat plain inundated like a lake, left by the wintry floods. This occurs there yearly around the flourishing village of _'Arabet el Battoof_, at which we soon arrived, after which we galloped for miles over green pastures of gra.s.s interspersed by trees.

In three quarters of an hour further we came to _Sukhneen_, a large village with good cultivation extending far around. Still traversing green undulations with wooded hills to the right and left, in another hour we were at a small place called _Neab_, where the scenery suddenly changed for stony hills and valleys. In a little short of another hour we saw _Damooneh_ at half an hour's distance to the left. In twenty minutes more we stopped to drink at the well _Berweh_, then pressed forward in haste to arrive at Acre before the gates (being a fortification) should be closed. We got there in fifty minutes' hard riding from _'Ain Berweh_.

II. THE REVERSE WAY FROM WEST TO EAST.

1. ACRE TO TIBERIAS.

_March_ 1850.

Crossed the river Naaman, and paced slowly over the extensive marshes, making for _Shefa 'Amer_.

Among these marshes was a herd of about two hundred horses at free pasture upon the gra.s.s, weeds, and rushes, so succulent at that season of the year; these were on their way from Northern Syria, and were intended for sale.

Also among the marshes was a temporary village of tabernacles or huts made of plaited palm-leaves, and papyrus canes or reeds, such as one sees on the line of the Jordan or about the lake Hhooleh, with the same cla.s.s of proprietors in both cases, the Ghawarineh Arabs. Strange that this race of human beings should prefer to inhabit feverish marshes.

We came upon a paved causeway (called the _Resheef_) leading from a large mill towards the sea, but only the portion nearest to the mill now remains entire. Probably this was turned to some account during the French military operations against Acre in 1799.

At Shefa 'Amer we had _'Ebeleen_ in sight. Both places are conspicuous over the district around. At some distance from the town is a large well for its supply, and along the broad road between the well and the town, the Druse women are constantly pa.s.sing with their horns over the forehead and their jars on the shoulders.

Shefa 'Amer is crowned by the remains of the Palace Castle erected by Shaikh Daher, (celebrated in Volney's "Syria,") and the sh.e.l.l of a large old Christian church; near these are some very ancient wells cut into solid rock, but now containing no water.

The majority of the inhabitants are Druses. There are a few Moslems and a few Christians; but at that time there were thirty Jewish families living as agriculturists, cultivating grain and olives on their own landed property, most of it family inheritance; some of these people were of Algerine descent. They had their own synagogue and legally qualified butcher, and their numbers had formerly been more considerable. {243}

I felt an especial interest in these people, as well as in the knowledge of a similar community existing at a small village not far distant named _Bokea'h_.

Upon the road that day, and in half an hour from the town, I met a couple of rosy-faced, strong peasant men, with sparkling Jewish eyes, who set to speaking Hebrew with some Rabbis in my company. It was in a scene of woodland and cornfields under the blue canopy of heaven; their costume was that of the ordinary Metawaleh peasantry, _i.e._, a scarlet and embroidered short coat with large dark blue trousers. I shall never forget this circ.u.mstance, of finding men of Israel, fresh from agricultural labour, conversing in Hebrew in their own land.

Our road then led through glades of exceeding beauty: an English park backed by mountains in a Syrian climate. The gently undulating land was clothed with rich gra.s.s, and sprinkled (not thronged) with timber, chiefly terebinth. Linnets and thrushes were warbling among the trees.

_Cuf'r Menda_ was on our left; _Sefoorieh_ at a distance on the right; _Rumaneh_ and _'Azair_ before us. Then we entered upon the long plain of _'Arabet el Battoof_, and rested a short time before sunset at _'Ain Bedaweeyeh_ for refreshment. Carpets were spread upon long gra.s.s which sank under the pressure. The horses and mules were set free to pasture, and we formed ourselves into separate eating groups; one Christian, one Jewish, and one Moslem. Some storks were likewise feeding in a neighbouring bean-field, the fragrance of which was delicious, as wafted to us by the evening breeze.

On remounting for the road to Tiberias, several hours beyond, we put on cloaks to keep off the falling dew, and paced on by a beautiful moonlight, at first dimmed by mist or dew, which afterwards disappeared; the spear carried by one of the party glimmered as we went on; and the Jews whiled away the time by recitation of their evening prayers on horseback, and conversing in the Hebrew language about their warrior forefathers of Galilee.

2. CAIFFA TO NAZARETH.

_July_ 1854.

Pa.s.sing through the rush of _'Ain Saadeh_ water as it tumbles from the rocky base of Carmel, and by the _Beled esh Shaikh_ and _Yajoor_, we crossed the Kishon bed to take a road new to me, namely, by _Damooneh_, leaving _Mujaidel_ and _Yafah_ visible on our right, upon the crests of hills overlooking the Plain of Esdraelon. We pa.s.sed through a good deal of greenwood scenery, so refreshing in the month of July, but on the whole not equal in beauty to the road by Shefa 'Amer.

3. CAIFFA TO NAZARETH.

_Sept._ 1857.

By _Beled esh Shaikh_ and _Yajoor_, where threshing of the harvest was in progress in the Galilean fashion by means of the _moraj_, (in Hebrew the _morag_, Isa. xli. 15 and 2 Sam. xxiv. 22,) which is a stout board of wood, with iron teeth or flints on the under surface. The plank turns upward in front, and the man or boy stands upon it in exactly the att.i.tude of a Grecian charioteer: one foot advanced; the head and chest well thrown back; the reins in his left hand, and with a long thonged whip, he drives the horses that are attached to it at a rapid pace in a circle, shouting merrily or singing as they go,--a totally different operation from the drowsy creeping of the oxen or other animals for threshing in our Southern Palestine.

In due time we crossed the bed of the Kishon, which was quite dry in that part above the _Sa'adeh_, except where some green stagnant puddles occurred at intervals.

We pa.s.sed a herd of camels belonging to the Turkomans, walking unburdened, whereas all other animals that we met were laden with grain for the port of Caiffa. At the commencement of the ascent on the opposite hills we rested under the _Tell el Hharatheeyeh_, beneath a n.o.ble tree of the evergreen oak; and near there we pa.s.sed alongside of a camp of degraded Arabs called _Beramki_, in a few tattered tents, but they had some capital horses picketed around them. The villagers regard these people with ineffable disdain, as "cousins of the gipsies." It seems that they subsist by singing songs among real Arab camps, and by letting out their horses as stallions for breeding, with variations of picking and stealing. We saw some of their women and children, filthy in person, painfully employed in sc.r.a.ping away the ground wherever black clay showed itself, in the hope of reaching water, however bad in quality.

There was threshing at _Jaida_ as we pa.s.sed that village. We halted at the spring of _Samooniah_, and at _Ma'alool_; the priest of the village was superintending the parish threshing: his reverence was covered with dust from the operation.

4. CAIFFA TO SHEFA 'AMER.

_June_ 1859.

From _Beled esh Shaikh_ and _Yajoor_, across the Kishon channel, upon the plain of Acre, and rested a short time at the _Weli of Jedro_, (very like a Hebrew name,) and then near us, all close together were the three villages of _Cuf'r Ita_, _Ja'arah_ and _Hurbaj_. Thence to Shefa 'Amer, first diverging somewhat to _'Ebeleen_.

III. SOUTH SIDE OF ESDRAELON.

1. PLAIN OF SHARON TO CAIFFA.

_Oct._ 1849.

At _Baka_ we leave the plain of Sharon, at its northern end, if indeed the extensive level from the Egyptian desert up to this point, may come under this one denomination; and we enter upon the hilly woodlands of Ephraim and Mana.s.seh, so clearly described in Joshua xvii. 11, 17, 18.

In mounting to the higher ground, there is obtained a fine view of the sea, and the oak and karoobah trees were larger as we advanced; from certain stations we obtained a totally unexpected prospect of a stretch of large forest scenery below us, extending towards _Sindianeh_ in the west.

At one spot we pa.s.sed among scattered stones of excellent masonry, large and rabbeted at the edges, lying confusedly about, enough for a small town, but evidently belonging to a period of ancient date; a few mud huts were adjoining these.

Thence we descended into a long valley, several miles in extent, called _Wadi 'Arah_, fully occupied with cotton crops, and stubble of the last harvest of grain. The valley was bounded on either side by well timbered hills, and its direction was N.E. by E.

After an hour in this long enclosure, the pleasing features of the scene became less defined in character, and, uncertain of our way, we climbed up to a village called _'Ararah_, where, after an hour's trouble, we got a guide at high price for the rest of the day's journey. The evening was then advancing, and the gnats from the trees and shrubs plagued the horses. Among these trees were grand old oaks of a kind that bear gigantic acorns with mossy cups. At length the verdure ceased, and we had only stony hills. There was, however, a weli with a spring of water, and fruit trees by the roadside, crowded with a shoal of singing birds all rustling and chirping at once among the boughs as the sun was setting, and throwing a glorious red over the clouds which had been gradually collecting during the afternoon.

We left the village of _Umm el Fahh'm_, ("Mother of Charcoal"--a name significant of a woodland district) upon the right, and night closed in; our old guide on his little donkey singing cheerily in front, till darkness reduced us all to silence.

We crossed the small rivulet at _Lejjoon_ by starlight; and the rest of the journey in the night was not only monotonous, but even dangerous, over marshes and c.h.i.n.ks in the Plain of Esdraelon. Our course was in a direction N.E. to Nazareth, which we reached in sixteen hours from the morning's starting at _Cuf'r Saba_.