March 1850.
From Hhatteen to ’Eilaboon, a quiet and pretty village, after which we had a long stretch of “merrie greenwood” with furze in golden blossom, birds singing, and the clucking of partridges. At one place where the old trees echoed the shouts of country children at their sports, there rose above the summits a bold round tower, which on nearer approach we found to be an outwork of the fortification of a venerable convent called Dair Hhanna, which in comparatively recent times had been converted into a castle, but convent, castle, and tower are now become a picturesque ruin.
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 Metâwaleh 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 ’Arâbet el Battoof, at which we soon arrived, after which we galloped for miles over green pastures of grass 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 Neâb, 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 Naamân, 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 grass, weeds, and rushes, so succulent at that season of the year; these were on their way from Northern Syria, and were intended for sale.