On my present journey I passed round the outer line of Tell Kaimoon, having Kishon on the right. In so doing we crossed various tributary streams—the first one, in quarter of an hour from ’Ain Kaimoon, was in Wadi el Kasab, (valley of reeds or canes)—the stream was bordered by reeds and a profusion of tall oleander in gorgeous pink flower.
In this neighbourhood, the Turkomâns had commenced reaping their grain. They are a race of people not to be mistaken for Arabs, men of strong build, and with a smiling expression on their clear, ruddy countenances. Besides Arabic, they speak their own coarse dialect of Turkish—several of them came running to us with handfuls of wheat from their harvest. They possess large herds of oxen with good horses.
In another half hour we were at ’Ain el Sufsâfeh, (the “fountain of the willow-tree,”) where the water issues from a rock, and in its bed are two willow-trees; upon the bank were plenty of blackberry bushes.
Just before this we had by the roadside a common looking Arab burial-place, named Shaikh Sâd; probably from some Mohammedan devotee of that name interred there; and among the stones about the graves is a fragment of an ancient cornice, deeply sculptured in the pattern here shown.
In a quarter of an hour further we passed Wadi Keereh, with its full stream of water, and plenty of oleander for adornment.
Thence in about half an hour we arrived at Wadi Mel’hh (“Salt valley,”) with its rivulet and wild holly-oaks, in which is a great highway leading southwards. This separates the Samaria ridge and Kaimoon from the extremity of the long Mount Carmel.
Having thus passed from one end to the other along the side of the hill of Kaimoon, we turned aside from the road, for taking refreshment under a large oak halfway up that hill, where wild holly-oaks were springing from the ground to mingle with the sombre yet shining boughs of the tree. This was at the sudden contraction of the country into a narrow neck leading to the Plain of Acre.
This strait is bounded on one side by Carmel, and on the other by the Galilean hills, both sides clothed with abundance of growing timber; and through its midst is the channel of the Kishon, deeply cut into soft alluvial soil, and this channel also is bordered with oleander and trees that were enlivened with doves, thrushes, linnets, and gold-finches. The modern name of the river is the Mokatta (the ford,) and that of the valley El Kasab, derived from the spring and valley before-mentioned.