Emerging on the great plain, we had to wade monotonously through an ocean of wheat. How
I longed to have with me some of the blasphemers of the Holy Land, who tell us that it is now a blighted and cursed land, and who quote Scripture amiss to show that this is a fulfilment of prophecy. [155]
In many places, however, we saw how the rich produce had been trampled down and rolled upon by camels, or by Bashi-bozuk soldiers on their travels, after their horses were gorged to the full with gratuitous feeding. We met a black slave of ’Othman el Lehhâm of Bait ’Atâb, a fine fellow, well mounted and armed, and he told us that a large part of this wheat was his master’s property. He had been travelling from village to village upon business. His noble bearing, and his being thus confidentially employed, reminded me of the Arabic proverb, that “Even a Shaikh’s slave is a Shaikh.”
In one place I remarked some hundred yards square of fine oats. This was surprising, as I knew that oats are not cultivated in Palestine. The people assured me that they were of wild growth, but they were of excellent quality; and as the name (Khafeer) seemed to be well known, it seems difficult to understand that oats have not been at some time cultivated in that part of the country. With respect to its Arabic name, it is worth notice
how near it is to the German name (Hafer) for oats. Wetzstein has since found wild oats growing on the N.E. of the Haurân.
Arrived at ’Ain Shems, the Beth Shemesh of the Bible, (I Sam. vi. 9, passim,) where, instead of the large population of ancient times, we found nothing but a weli and some fragments of peasant houses.
Due north from us as we rested, lay on the summit of a hill, Sora’â, which is Zorah, the birthplace of Samson, where the angel appeared to Manoah and his wife. The people told us of Amoorîah to the left, but we could not quite see it, and the same with respect to Tibneh, or Dibneh, the Timnath of Samson’s history.
All the plain and the low hills formed one waving sheet of corn, without divisions or trees; and often, as we had no tracks for guidance, we had to take sight of some object on the horizon, and work straight forward towards it. It was amid such a wonderful profusion that Samson let loose the foxes or jackals with firebrands, taking revenge on the Philistines, and he called it “doing them a displeasure!” I have seen from Jerusalem the smoke of corn burning, which had accidentally taken fire in that very district.
On the summit of a hill, where were good square stones of old masonry, I got into a sheepfold of stone walls, looking for antiquities; but, alas! came out with my light-coloured clothes
covered with fleas; fortunately the clothes were not woollen.