Two small towers, now also in ruin, flank the castle at short distances. These were erected by Shaikh Daher about eighty years since, who employed the whole for military defence in his revolt against the Turks.
Near this ’Arâbeh lie some time-eaten fragments of large old columns. There we dismissed the guide, as he wished to be at home again before dark, and we traversed the plain of Sefurîyeh, the celebrated Sepphoris of Josephus’ wars.
It is to be observed that in that afternoon we had crossed three narrow but long parallel plains, all running east and west, and divided from each other by lines of rocky hills. The northern one contains Rama and ’Arâbeh; the middle one has Sefurîyeh; and the southern one has Tura’ân and Cuf’r Cana, the place of the miracle at the marriage in St John’s Gospel.
Hoping to reach our destination by a shorter track, after passing Rumâneh and Jerjer we mounted a hill to Mesh-had, that was in sight, but as darkness came on, lost our way for a considerable time;
rain threatened and fell a short time. Once we came near a large cattle-fold, which we afterwards learned belonged to the Latin Convent of Nazareth, but no people appeared to answer us; then we got a gloomy view of Mount Tabor; at length, however, we were cheered with discovering the window lights of Nazareth, after being fourteen hours in the saddle, omitting the two hours’ rest at Rama, and the half-hour at Rumaish.
The whole country we had traversed is particularly interesting; but at the close of the day the company were all too tired to sing aloud, as might have been performed under other circumstances, that Arab song well known over the country, with its wild high note (not cadence) at the end of each line:
“If thy horse be indeed
A creature of speed
Thou wilt lodge for the night in Nazareth.”
In December of the next year (1854) I traversed the Rama plain lengthwise, that is to say, from Tiberias to the plain of Acre.
After Mejdal and the Wadi el Hamâm, or “Valley of the Doves,” we soon struck out due westwards, and passed under a hill with ruins on its top called Sabâneh; then some more considerable ruins in a similar position called Memileh. At a good way to our left a small village was pointed out called ’Ailabool, containing, among other inhabitants, a few Christians, who have their chapel and a priest.
The whole road was extremely picturesque—the scenery consisting of broken rocks of ochreous tinge and shoots of balloot oak; and for a long distance at every turn, in looking backwards, there showed itself the still lovely lake of the Gospel narratives—that object which no one can ever forget who has had once the privilege to be near it.