CHAP. IV. FROM DAMASCUS TO TIBERIAS. WEDNESDAY, the 12th of April, was a fine morn ing, with a clear delicious air, such as the East seems only to afford in perfection; and we were marshalling our train of mules, and men, and horses, through the long "straight street" of Damascus. Many a swart Arab glowered at us from under his striped head-covering, and seemed to measure the power of his gaily ornamented firelock or long quivering spear with the more sober but surer Europeans arms of our cavalcade. Adieu, then, to the minarets and motley crowds of ElShâm, its shades, and its waters! We yearn to tread the soil hallowed by no inferior footstep than that of the Redeemer; we long for the land so loved by God incarnate, oft dreamt-of Galilee! Our road lay all day along a level plain, grassy, and badly cultivated: a few rising rocky hills were covered by ruined khans, built by some kind hand to shelter travellers, and numberless camels were to be seen grazing about the plain. Large flocks of black sheep and goats, too, intimated to us the fact that the tents of the Bedouin were in some adjacent though hidden nook; and an occasional dark half-naked figure, starting suddenly into view from behind the brushwood to gaze with scornful air upon the passing "cawadjees," confirmed this impression. After five hours' riding, and crossing several streams (wherein were many shells*), we halted and lunched by the side of a small river, under the shade of a few willows. A ruined building here is honoured in the maps with the name of Khan Sheikh, owing to its being immediately opposite to Djebel Sheikh. This mountain, which is (as I before observed) the Greater Hermon of Scripture, presented here a very noble appearance, rising from the plain, with its majestic peak, which was more acutely conical than most of the mountains of this country, and appears from hence the most lofty: it was covered with snow, which descended in long streaks down the sides of the mountain, as it lay in the depressions more sheltered from the rays of the sun. In two hours more we arrived before the village of Sassa. We pitched our tents in an enclosure at some distance west of the place, * Melania, Neritina, Unio, and Cyclas. The town nearly encircled by a little stream. lies chiefly within a square, surrounded by walls about fourteen feet high, and flanked at each corner by a round tower, in height not much superior to the wall. The area of the town is not exactly square, being broader from east to west than from north to south. The only gate is towards the west, and the outer wall is supported by buttresses.* I walked with my friends into the town, which seemed a miserable filthy heap of ruins, having suffered terribly in a great fire, the evidences of which were to be seen on every side. There seemed to be nothing of more remote antiquity than the times of Saracenic rule: the ruined mosque, with its tower, alone made it picturesque. I have no doubt the tower was made available as "the tower of a watchman ;" and I saw here a curious illustration of this practice of noting, from an eminence, the passage of travellers through the country. This was a young Arab, who sat so immoveably peering over the plain on the roof of a house which was situated on an eminence, that I took * Nine on the north and south, and six on the east and west. There is a strong resemblance between the walls of the mosque with its tower to the enclosure and tower at Ramlah, the tower of the latter being much larger. him for some time to be a great piece of dark stone. Next morning, soon after starting, we came upon a pool of water, where four or five of the very graceful white herons which I frequently observed afterwards flew up. Saloom shot one of them. Some of the feathers of the tail were exquisitely light: I think I have seen them worn by ladies in Europe. Leaving this rocky and barren valley, where I observed some traces of an old road, probably the road from Damascus to Jerusalem, along which St. Paul was travelling at the time of his conversion, we passed next a rising ground, covered with bushes of white thorn, and enlivened by the flowers of a scarlet poppy, a blue geranium, and the showy little Vantol tulip. Many large hawks were hovering about this tract, and flocks of storks were to be seen busily hunting for their prey among the grass and brushwood. At the foot of a lofty hill we came near the village of Natron, six hours from Sassa; and here the great valley seemed to end, and a richly-wooded country commenced, like the less cultivated portions of an English park. Our muleteers here wished to stay for the night; but as we found they were bent upon making us do as they wished, and it was only two o'clock in the day, we insisted upon their proceeding. I enjoyed the latter part of that ride very much, although I was much fatigued by the heat of the sun. We caught several distant views of the long looked-for sea of Galilee, lying far away embosomed in the mountains; and the delightful wood through which we were travelling, with its thick and rich pasturage of grass, formed a most welcome foreground to a heated traveller. Through the trees we caught occasional glimpses of the camels of those Bedouins who here employ themselves in burning the wood, with which this part abounds, into charcoal.* As the evening advanced, darkening and lengthening the grateful shadow of the trees, a less tired passer-by would have found great enjoyment in the loveliness of the scene; and I shall not easily forget that three hours' ride through the vales and rich pastures of Bashan, the ancient kingdom of Og. We rested on the margin of a pool, around whose banks was heard the mournful note of a hoopoe, while he skipped gaily along the ground in amusing contrast to his melancholy song. From some hidden glade came up the chatter of the little pied woodpecker; and the night overtook * We met many of these wretched looking men carrying their charcoal in sacks on their camels to Damascus. |