In ten minutes we came to a sort of well with a little water, where women were thumping clothes upon stones; this is called washing in the East. Magnificent view westwards of the great plain, the Great Sea, Jaffa, Ramlah, etc.
We wandered about hills and among vineyards, and came to a small village named Doorah, in good condition, with water, and excellent cultivation of garden vegetables in small patches, similar to those of Selwan (Siloam) and Urtâs; then turning a corner saw Jifna at some distance, in the midst of a plain enclosed by hills; and there it must have been that the manipulus with S.P.Q.R. was posted in front of Italian tents, and the soldiers bustling about or jesting in Latin or British language, before their retiring to rest, in the spring season of the year A.D. 70.
Becoming entangled among a long belt of vineyards between us and it, and time passing away while our luggage was far on the road to Nabloos, we turned aside and regained the high-road at ’Ain Yebrood. Reluctantly I retreated from Jifna,
for I had wished to discover the precise road upon which Titus and his army marched towards Jerusalem. Passing Sinjil, Lubbân, and Sâwîyeh, we rested just beyond Sâwîyeh under the great oak, at the divergence of the valley of Laithma. Beneath its wide-spreading branches a flock of sheep was resting at noon (Cant. i. 7.) From these we got good draughts of fresh milk.
As evening approached, we were passing within the huge shadow of Mount Gerizim; and in Nabloos I remained till Monday morning,—this being the end of Thursday.
28th. Preparing for descent into the Jordan valley, I engaged, in addition to the usual servants, a horseman of the Bashi Bozuk, recommended by the local governor, Suliman Bek Tokân. It seemed prudent to obtain this man’s attendance, as he might be known and recognised by disorderly persons throughout the turbulent and unknown country before me, whatever might be his character for valour or discretion. Two of the native Protestants of Nabloos accompanied me also for about four hours on the way.
Passing Joseph’s sepulchre and the village of Asker, (is not this Sychar? it is near the traditional Jacob’s Well,) we went northwards over the plain of Mukhneh, equivalent to Makhaneh, “camp,” in Hebrew, (the Moreh of Gen. xii. 6, Deut. xi. 30, and Judges vii. 1) having left the eastern valley with Salem (Gen. xxxiii. 18) on our right.
To my surprise the plain was soon and abruptly terminated at the foot of a very lofty mountain, and we commenced a descent among chasms of great convulsions of nature, displaying remarkable contortions of geological strata. This brought us into the Wadi En-Nab, so called from the growth there of a fruit-tree, (the Jujube,) bearing that name, better in quality than anywhere else in Palestine; and, indeed, the tree is found in but few other places. At the confluence of this valley with the Wadi Bedân there are several fragments of ancient columns remaining, quite four feet in diameter.
Hitherto we had met many more peasants travelling with merchandise than I had expected. They were all going in one direction, namely, towards Nabloos, and therefore from Es-Salt in Gilead, beyond Jordan.
These, however, ceased after we had crossed the water of Wadi Bedân into the larger Wadi Fara’ah,—which is, however, the high-road to Es-Salt.