On the following day I undertook a few hours’ excursion to Kadis (Kedesh Naphtali), where Barak, son of Abinoam, and Deborah, collected the forces of Zebulun and Naphtali, for marching to Mount Tabor against Sisera. It was also one of the six cities of refuge for cases of unintentional homicide, (Josh. xx. 7;) it lies to the N.N.E. from Safed.
In an hour we obtained a grand view of Hermon just opposite to us, and never lost sight of it till our return. Passed between the villages of Dilâthah on the right, and Taitaba on the left; the country is all strewn with volcanic basalt. In another
half-hour we had Ras el Ahhmar on our left. Then Fârah and Salhhah at some distance to the left, and Alma just before us. The volcanic brown stones had on them occasionally a thin lichen of either orange colour, or a sour pale green, like verdigris.
About this village were women and children gathering olives from the trees—first beating the boughs with poles, then picking up the fruit from the ground.
The small district around here is named “the Khait,” and the people boast of its extraordinary fertility in corn-produce.
Down a steep descent of white limestone, where it is said the torrents are so strong in winter that no one attempts to pass that way. Rising again, we found near the summit of the opposite hill a spring of water, from which some Bedaween women were carrying away water in the common fashion, in goat-skins upon their backs. They were young, pretty, dirty, and ragged. Of course their rags were blue, and their lips were coloured to match.
Pleasant breeze springing up after the heat of the day. Corn stubble on the fields, and fine olive plantations, as we got near to Kadis, our place of destination; with such a wide clear road up to it, as might seem to be traditionally preserved as such from ancient times, if the Talmud be relied upon when it gives the legal width of various kinds of
roads, and prescribes twice as much for a highway towards the cities of refuge, as for any other description of road. [109]
The scenery around Kadis is cheerful, but the village itself consisted of only about half-a-dozen wretched houses. In passing by these, towards an orchard at the farther side, we saw some large ancient sarcophagi,—three of them lying side by side, but broken, and some capitals of columns.
After selecting our site for the tents, and setting the cook to work in his peculiar vocation, not forgetting to see that the horses were being attended, we procured a guide to conduct us down the hill to the antiquities.