There is still a well of good water, from which travellers draw their supply, and there seem to have been many others that are now choked up: but the ancient city was supplied from a shallow river that empties itself into the sea, a mile and a-half north of the ruins. This river goes at present by the name of Ma el Zerka,[39] or the Blue waters, and flows winter and summer. The arcades that supported the aqueduct are still standing, but are almost covered by the sand, which shelves against them from the sea-side; they run parallel with the shore and with the road that travellers generally take going or coming from Cæsarea. Owing to the shelving sand, the traveller is not aware, unless at intervals, of the nature of the mound which he observes by the side of him, and fancies it to be a sand-bank. Hence, those who take pleasure in examining similar antiquities ought (the moment they arrive at Ma el Zerka, if coming from the north, or else on quitting the gates of Cæsarea in coming from the south) to follow the track that turns somewhat inward, and they will find themselves close to the aqueduct through its whole length.
To the east of the ruined city, which is walled in, are other ruins said to be still more extensive, and to have formed a part of the Roman Cæsarea. Being in a great measure ignorant of the existence of these several heaps of stones, which were now so overgrown with grass and weeds as not to be visible, we did not chance to hit upon them; but there exist, among other vestiges of ancient edifices, those of an amphitheatre which are perfectly distinct. The dreariness of the place, the fear of robbers and of wandering Arabs, are the causes that have deterred many from going far out of their path to examine them. Here and there may be seen a Bedouin shepherd tending a flock of sheep; and, if properly questioned, such a person is more capable of giving information where fallen pillars, sculpture, or inscriptions are to be found than he would at first be supposed to be; for his habits of life lead him from spot to spot in search of pasture, and he knows every foot of ground for miles, and perhaps leagues, around.[40]
Our conductor, Yusef, in the mean time, continued very ill. He had taken several remedies with very little benefit. He was placed on his horse; and, had not his situation, coupled with ours, called for great exertions on his part, he would not have been able to support himself. We, however, pursued our journey, and followed the line of the sea-coast, having close to our right what (as has been before said) seemed to be a sand-bank, but which was no other than the ancient aqueduct, covered by drifted sand. After an hour and a half, we arrived at Ma el Zerka. Lady Hester here rested under a small tent, which was carried with her generally for that purpose, and where she proposed remaining until the evening. This river, of which a few words have been said above, has the remains of a bridge over it, about a furlong from the sea; and, at the very mouth, on a rocky eminence, there appears to have been a tower. Somewhat east of this ends Gebel Nablûs, the ancient Samaria.
We continued our road with the camels, and in two hours and a half more, reached Tontûra, which was in sight at quitting Ma el Zerka. As water was the main object to be secured in making our encampment, it was the thing always first inquired for; and we were directed to a spot about half a-mile north of the village, close to the sea. We there found a circular basin, hewn out of the rock within about twelve feet of the water’s edge, from the bottom of which bubbled up a crystal spring. The spray of the sea (as there was a fresh breeze) occasionally broke into it; but the villagers told us that, at sunset, when the wind had sunk, we should find it to be limpid and sweet, which proved to be the case. Close to this spring the tents were pitched upon a crisp turf; whilst a delicious breeze from the sea recruited our spirits, and prevented the lassitude which great heat so generally produces.
Tontûra is the ancient Dora. Here the flat land, extending from the coast east to the mountains, narrows to the width of half or three quarters of a mile. The foot of the mountain is quarried considerably, which evidently demonstrates the greater extent of the ancient than of the modern town. Tontûra, in its present state, is a village of stone cottages, no better than cow-lodges, as in fact they are. The inhabitants are Mahometans. It has a building, constructed of stone, which goes by the name of a castle; a very rude and modern edifice. The environs of the village are totally bare, neither beautified by trees nor gardens, the want of which gives them a desolate and forlorn appearance. There is a large pool of water not far from the back of the town. The ancient city stood a few hundred yards to the north of the present village, if we may judge from a wall yet standing, seemingly the portion of an old castle, and from a column or two lying about. The port, if it deserves that name, is formed by two or three islets, between which and the main land a masted boat of twenty tons could barely float, inasmuch as I observed fishermen wading across it with ease, not having the water above their waists.
The bucket and lever, a mode by which the land is irrigated from Egypt up to Tontûra, are used no farther; in their stead, the peasants substitute a rude kind of wheel, which we shall find, on reaching the Orontes, to be in its turn replaced by the true Persian wheel. Lady Hester arrived in the cool of the evening. Guards were placed round the encampment; supper was served, and the season of the year rendered the tents much more agreeable than houses.
Towards the close of the day, the women, taking advantage of the coolness of the evening and the stillness of the sea,[41] came down, with their jars borne on their heads, to fetch water. As our people had nothing particular to do, they very naturally amused themselves in observing the women pass; but still in that discreet manner which is peculiar to the Levant when other persons are within hearing; and, at the utmost, hazarding an ogle, or a question respecting the goodness of the water. However, a young girl, of about fourteen, loitered behind at the spring, and showed herself to be, although not very pretty, yet very frolicsome. Her light behaviour made her pass, in the eyes of all those who observed her, for a girl of bad morals, and yet the utmost she said and did would not amount to half what an English or French maid-servant considers herself permitted to do every hour of her life.
Nothing contributes so much to the uprightness and elegance of figure so remarkable in the peasant-women of Syria and Egypt as the common practice of carrying water on their heads. So far from giving a curve to the spine, depressing the neck, or in any wise shortening the growth of the body, the resistance of the muscles seems to increase in proportion to the pressure, and much elasticity of action is the result. In some places, the springs are often a quarter of a mile from the villages, and much below them, so as to render the ascent very toilsome: yet every day in the week may be seen girls and women carrying these jars, containing not less than fifteen quarts of water, on their heads, with a natural grace not exceeded by the studied walk of a stage dancer. A favourite manner with them, when seen by men and when wishing to be coquettish, is to place both thumbs through the jar handles, which has a very statue-like appearance. When unobserved, they generally tuck up their gowns all round, showing their pantaloons. If in their best clothes, they are seen with silver bracelets instead of glass ones, and with similar rings round their ancles; with a silver relic case hanging at their bosom; with long sleeves to their gown; and over it, if in winter, a cloth vest, if in summer, one of bombazeen; with earrings; and with a species of ornament not known in England or France, silver rims of mail or of coins which take in the oval of the face from the temples to the chin, and have a very pretty effect. The girdles are fastened by two silver bosses as large as the bottom of a tumbler, and they wear on their feet a pair of yellow slippers.
We passed the following day at Tontûra. I amused myself in walking over the rubbish of the ancient Dora. There is a part of it which seems to have been built on a rocky projection into the sea. Much industry is exhibited in the levelling of the surface of the rock for foundations to some superstructures that once stood there. To the east of the spring, near the burying-ground of the village, I likewise discovered a sepulchral vault with cells on either side for the sarcophagi; and these sepulchral chambers will be found to exist, wherever the soil in a large neighbourhood is rocky, throughout Syria.
A very fine chestnut stallion was brought to me for sale by one of the inhabitants. The horse was made to exhibit his different paces before me, and I was willing to purchase him at the price at which he was offered, which was 315 piasters, or about £15: but Hadj Mohammed, the janissary, considered it too much, and I therefore declined the offer.