[753] Est., ll. 5751-95; Itin., 249-51; cf. Bohadin, 244-5.
[754] Itin., 251.
[755] Est., ll. 5800-60; Itin., 251-2.
[756] The difficulty is complicated by the contradictory descriptions of the site in Est., ll. 5889-90, and 5935, and in Itin., 253, 254. The present native name of Athlit is Khirbet Dustrey. One is tempted to suggest that “Destreitz” might be an attempt to reproduce the sound of, and give a meaning to, this native appellation; but as an Arabic scholar has been good enough to answer a question on the subject by informing me that “it is quite impossible to trace the word Dustrey” in that language, one is driven to conclude that the corruption has taken place in the opposite direction, and that “Dustrey” is a modern Arab form of the old French “Destreitz” (Latin “Districtum).”
[757] Est., ll. 5863-92, 5935-42; Itin., 253, 254.
[758] Bohadin, 245, 246.
[759] Its Arabic name is Nahr es Zerka, “blue” or “grey river.”
[760] Bohadin, 247-50.
[761] Est., ll. 5981-4; Itin., 256.
[762] Est., ll. 5944-6004; Itin., 255-6. The date of the arrival of the host at Caesarea has to be made out by counting the days’ marches and halts, as given by these two writers, since the departure from Acre. A question arises whether Ambrose’s “deus jours de sejour” (l. 5936) at Casal des Destreitz means two whole days and three nights, i. e., August 27-30, or two nights and one whole day besides the day of arrival there, i. e., August 27-29. The word in the Itinerarium—“biduo”—does not help to a decision; but Bohadin does help, though indirectly. He says (250) the Franks reached Caesarea on “Friday 6 Jaban.” This date is self-contradictory; the 6 Jaban (= August 29) was Thursday, and from this point to 14 Jaban (= September 6) all Bohadin’s days of the week are one day in advance of his days of the month. On reaching the last date of the series, however, we shall find from other evidence that the day of the week, not that of the month, is the correct one all through; therefore the “two days” are to be taken in the widest sense, and the entry into Caesarea was on Friday, August 30.