beautified with purplish streaks; a circumstance which may instruct us, that the inhabitants were pregnant with juices productive of such tinc

tures*.

There is nothing remarkable betwixt this place and Mount Carmel, but what has been taken notice of by Mr Maundrell. In travelling under the S. E. brow of that mountain, I had an opportunity of seeing the sources of the river Kishon; three or four of which lie within less than a furlong of each other, and are called Ras el Kishon, or the head of Kishon. These alone, without the lesser contributions nearer the sea, discharge water enough to form a river half as big as the Isis. During likewise the rainy season, all the water which falls on the eastern side of the mountain, or upon the rising ground to the southward, empties itself into it in a number of torrents, at which conjunctures it overflows its banks, acquires a wonderful rapidity, and carries all before it. And it might be at such a conjuncture as this, when the stars (Judg. v. 21.) are said to fight against Sisera, viz. by bringing an abundance of rain, whereby the Kishon was so unusually high and rapid, as to sweep away the host of Sisera, in attempting to ford it. But these inundations are extemporaneous only, without any duration; for the course of the Kishon, which is only about seven miles in length, runs very briskly till within half a league of the sea. When the Kishon therefore

* Nunc omnis ejus nobilitas conchylio atque purpura constat. 1. v. c. 19.

therefore is not augmented by these accidental torrents, it never falls into the sea in a full stream, but insensibly percolates through a bank of sand, which the north winds throw up against the mouth of it. In this manner I found it, in the middle of April 1722, when I passed it. Mr Sandys and others have been mistaken, in making the Kishon flow from the mountains of Tabor and Hermon, with which it has no communication.

Beyond the sources of the Kishon to the S. E. and along the banks of it to the N. E. there are several hillocs, which separate the valley through which it runs, from the plains of Acre and Esdraelon. The river Belus, now called the Kar-danah, has its sources about 1v M. to the eastward of the Ras el Kishon, on the other side of these hillocs, where there are several ponds; the largest whereof may be the Cendevia* of Pliny, who derives the river Belus from it. And as this river waters the plains of Acre and Esdraelon, such brooks as arise from Mount Tabor, as well as others (if there be any in this neighbourhood) may possibly communicate with it; whereas the Kishon cannot, for the reasons already given. Neither indeed does the Kishon run in the direction that has been hitherto assigned to it by geographers; its true course lying from S. to N. after which it falls into the gulf of Kaifah.

VOL. II.

E

The

* Rivus Pagida sive Belus, vitri fertiles arenas parvo litori miscens. Ipse e palude Cendevia a radicibus Carmeli profluit. Plin. 1. v. c. 19.

The remarkable ponds above mentioned, from their near situation to the Kishon and Jezreel, may be well taken for the waters of Megiddo; as Megiddo itself, together with Taanach, in the neighbourhood of it, might have been built near, or upon their banks. And in this situation was Sisera discomfited by Deborah and Barak, Judg. v. 19. Josh. xvii. 11. 1 Kings iv. 12.

Leaving Mount Carmel to the N. W. we pass over the S. W. corner of the plain of Esdraelon, the lot formerly of the tribe of Issachar. This is the most fertile portion of the land of Canaan, where that tribe might well be supposed to have rejoiced in their tents, Deut. xxxiii. 18. To the eastward, our prospect is bounded at about fifteen miles distance, by the mountains of Nazareth, and Hermon; with the pointed Mount Tabor, standing apart before them. Advancing farther into the half tribe of Manasseh, we have still a fine arable country, though not so level as the former; where the landscape is every hour changed and diversified by groves of trees, or by the ruins (which are very numerous) of ancient villages. In deviating here from the beaten path, (which we generally did to avoid the Arabs) we were sometimes obstructed, or at least had difficulty enough to force our way through this rich champain; which, through neglect and want of culture, was so thickly planted with the more luxuriantly growing plants, such as teasels, mullein, charlock, (Mark iv. 31.) thistles, and the like, that we had much ado to defend our faces

from

from being every moment offended by them. The country begins to be rugged and uneven at Samaria, the N. boundary of the tribe of Ephraim; from whence, through Sichem, all the way to Jerusalem, we have nothing else but mountains, narrow defiles, and vallies of different extents. Of the mountains, those of Ephraim, the continuation of Gerizim and Ebal, are the largest; the most of them being shaded with forrest trees, whilst the vallies below, particularly the plains of Morch, Gen. xii. 6. Deut. xi. 30. where Gideon put to flight the princes of Midian, Judges vii. 1. are long and spacious, not inferior in fertility to the best part of the tribe of Issachar. The mountains of the tribe of Benjamin, which lie still further to the southward, are generally more naked than those of Ephraim, having their ranges much shorter, and consequently their vallies more frequent; in one of which, vi. M. to the eastward of Jerusalem, is the village Jeremiah, formerly Anathoth, with the ruins of a convent and a small brook running by it. The tribe of Judah were possessed of a country much like that of Benjamin or Ephraim; though the mountain of Adummim* and Quarantania, those of Engaddi, and others that border upon the plains of Jericho and the Dead Sea, are as high, and of as great ex

tent,

*This joins to the mountain of Quarantania; and through it the road is cut that leads from Jerusalem to Jericho ; a difficult pass, the mountain of blood, or the bloody road, as the name may import; where probably it was, from the very nature of the situation, that the man fell among thieves, &c. Luke x. 30.

tent, as those of the two other tribes, though much more barren, and with fewer trees growing upon them. Some of the vallies likewise that belong to Judah, such as Rephaim, Eshcol, and others, merit an equal regard with the plains of Moreh, or that parcel of ground which Jacob gave to his son Joseph, Gen. xlviii. 22. But the western district of the tribe of Ephraim, at Ramah and Lydda, is nearly of the same arable and fertile nature, with that of the half tribe of Manasseh; as it is likewise equally plain and level. The latter of these circumstances agrees also with the tribe of Dan, though their country is not so fruitful, having in most parts of it a less depth of soil, and borders upon the sea coast at Joppa, and a great way on each side of it, in a range of mountains and precipices. And it is, for the most part, in these high situations that we meet with the dens, the holes, or caves, so frequently mentioned in Scripture; formerly the lonesome retreats of the distressed Israelites, Judges vi. 2. 1 Sam. xiii. 6. and persecuted prophets, 1 Kings xviii. 4. Heb. xi. 38. Strabo tells us, (lib. xvi. p. 760.) that the port of Joppa and Jerusalem, , were in sight of one another; but the many high intervening mountains will admit of no such prospect. From the mountain of Quarantania, the very same perhaps where the two spies concealed themselves, (Josh. ii. 16.) we have a distinct view of the land of the Amorites, of Gilead, and of Basan, the inheritance (Deut. iii.) of the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and of the half