of her cries, we observed an enormous serpent, which she CHAP. XIII. had found near her infant, and had completely dispatched --before our arrival. Never were maternal feelings more strikingly pourtrayed than in the countenance of this woman. Not satisfied with having killed the animal, she continued her blows until she had reduced it to atoms, unheeding any thing that was said to her, and only abstracting her attention from its mangled body to cast, occasionally, a wild and momentary glance towards her child. the town. In the evening we visited the environs, and walking to Environs of the brow of a hill above the town, were gratified by an interesting prospect of the long valley of Nazareth, and some hills between which a road leads to the neighbouring Plain of Esdraelon, and to Jerusalem. Some of the Arabs came to converse with us. We were surprized to hear them speaking Italian: they said they had been early instructed in this language, by the friars of the Convent. Their conversation was full of complaints against the rapacious tyranny of their Governors. One of them said, "Beggars in England are happier and better than we poor Arabs." "Why better?" said one of our party. "Happier," replied the Arab who had made the observation, "in a good Government: better, because they will not endure a bad one." The plants near the town were almost all withered. We found only four of which we were able to select tolerable specimens. These were, the new species of Dianthus mentioned in the account of our Journey from Sephoury, the Syrian Pink, or Dianthus Monadelphus (493); the Ammi Copticum (494); and the Anethum graveolens (495); these we carefully placed in our herbary, as memorials of the interesting spot whereon they were collected. We observed the manner of getting in the harvest: it is carried on the backs of camels; and the corn being afterwards placed in heaps, is trodden out by bullocks walking in a circle; something like the mode of treading corn in the Crimea, where horses are used for this purpose. Penance of The second night after our arrival, as soon as it grew Ordinary dark, we all stretched ourselves upon the floor of our apartment, not without serious alarm of catching the plague, the Holy Land. but tempted by the hope of obtaining a little repose. This we had found impracticable the night before, in consequence of the vermin. The hope was however, vain ; not one of our party could close his eyes. Every instant it was necessary to rise, and endeavour to shake off the noxious animals with which our bodies were covered. In addition to this penance, we were serenaded, until four o'clock in the morning, the hour we had fixed for our departure, by the constant ringing of a chapel bell, as a charm against the plague; by the barking of dogs; braying of asses; howling of jackals, and the squalling of children. CHAP. XIV. THE HOLY LAND. NAZARETH TO TIBERIAS. The Author leaves Nazareth, to visit Galilee-RaniChapel of the Village Reliques-Turan-Caverns Intense Heat-Basaltic Phænomena-their Origin explained Plants Geological Features of Galilee View from the Kern-el-Hati-Libanus-Village of HatiDruses-Antalopes--Sea of Galilee, or Lake Gennesareth-Tiberias Baths of Emmaus-Capernaum-Soil and produce-Castle House of Peter Adrianæum-Description of Tiberias Antiquities-Minerals of the Lake Non-descript Shells-River Jordan-Hippos→→ Dimensions of the Sea of Galilee Singular Fishes Antient Naval Engagament-Slaughter of the JewsSupposed Miracle caused by the French-Population of Tiberias, A FTER a sleepless night, rising more fatigued thanwhen we retired to rest, and deeming a toilsome jour Rapi. ney preferable to the suffering state we had all endured CHAP. XIV. we left Nazareth at five o'clock on Sunday morning, July The Author the sixth. Instead of proceeding to Jerusalem, (our inten- leaves Naza reth, to visit tion being to complete the tour of Galilee, and to visit the Galilee. Lake of Gennesareth,) we returned by the way we came,' until we had quitted the valley, and ascended the hills to the north of the town. We then descended, in the same, northerly direction, or rather north-east, into some fine val. leys, more cultivated than any land we had yet seen in this country, surrounded by hills of limestone, destitute of trees. After thus riding for an hour, we passed the village of Rani, leaving it upon our left, and came in view of the small village of Cana (496,) situated on a gentle eminence, in the midst of one of these valleys. It is difficult to ascertain its exact distance from Nazareth (497). Our horses were never out of a foot's pace, and we arrived there at half past About a quarter of a mile before we entered the village, is a spring of delicious limpid water, close to the road, whence all the water is taken for the supply of the village. Pilgrims of course halt at this spring, as the source of the water which our Saviour, by his first miracle, converted into wine(498). At such places it is certain to meet either shepherds reposing with their flocks, or caravans halting to drink. A few olive-trees being near the spot, travellers alight, spread their carpets beneath these -trees, and, having filled their pipes, generally smoke and take some coffee; always preferring repose in these places, to the accommodations which are offered in the villages. Such has been the custom of the country from time immemorial (499). seven. We entered CANA, and halted at a small Greek chapel, Cana. in the court of which we all rested, while our breakfast was spread upon the ground. This grateful meal consisted of about a bushel of cucumbers, some white mulberries, a very insipid fruit, gathered from the trees reared to feed silk worms; hot cakes of unleavened bread, fried in honey and butter; and, as usual, plenty of fowls.. We had no reason to complain of our fare, and all of us ate heartily. We were afterwards conducted into the chapel, in order Chapel of the to see the reliques and sacred vestments there preserved. Village. When the poor priest exhibited these, he wept over them Reliques. CHAP. XIV. with so much sincerity, and lamented the indignities to which the holy places were exposed in terms so affecting, that all our pilgrims wept also. Such were the tears which formerly excited the sympathy, and roused the valour of the Crusaders. The sailors of our party caught the kindling zeal; and little more was necessary to incite in them a hostile disposition towards every Saracen they might afterwards encounter. The ruins of a church are shewn in this place, which is said to have been erected over the spot where the marriage-feast of Cana was held (500). "It is worthy of note, that, walking among these ruins, we saw large massy stone water-pots, answering the description given of the antient vessels of the country (501); not preserved, nor exhibited, as reliques, but laying about, disregarded by the present inhabitants, as antiquities with whose original use they were unacquainted. From the appearance, and the number of them, it was quite evident that a practice of keeping water in large stone pots, each holding from eighteen to twenty-seven gallons, was once common in the country. Turan. Cavers. About three miles beyond Cana, we passed the village of Turan: near this place they pretend to shew the field where the Disciples of Jesus Christ plucked the ears of corn upon the Sabbath-day (502). The Italian Catholics have named it the field "degli setti spini," and gather the bearded wheat, which is annually growing there, as a part of the collection of reliques wherewith they return burthened to their own country, The heat of this day was greater than any to which we had yet been exposed in the Levant; nor did we afterwards experience anything so powerful. Captain Culverhouse had the misfortune to break his umbrella; a frivolous event in milder latitudes, but here of so much importance, that all hopes of continuing our journey depended upon its being repaired. Fortunately, beneath some rocks, over which we were then passing, there were caverns (503), excavated by primeval shepherds, as a shelter from scorching beams, capable of baking bread, and actually of dressing meat(504): into these caves we crept, not only for the purpose of restoring the umbrella, but also to profit by the opportunity thus offered of unpacking our thermometers, and ascertaining the Intense heat. temperature of the atmosphere. It was now twelve o'clock. CHÁP. XIV. The mercury, in a gloomy recess under ground, perfectly shaded, while the scale was placed so as not to touch the rock, remained at one hundred degrees of Fahrenheit. As to making any observation in the sun's rays, it was impossible; no one of the party had courage to wait with the thermometer a single minute in such a situation. nomena. Along this route, particularly between Cana and Turan, Basaltic Pha we observed basaltic phænomena. The extremities of columns, prismatically formed, penetrated the surface of the soil, so as to render our journey rough and unpleasant. These marks of regular, or of irregular crystallization, Their Origin explained. generally denote the vicinity of a bed of water, lying beneath their level. The traveller, passing ever a series of successive plains, resembling, in their gradation, the order of a staircase, observes, as he descends to the inferior stratum whereon the water rests, that where rocks are disclosed by the sinking of the soil, the appearance of crystallization has taken place; and then the prismatic configuration is vulgarly denominated basaltic. When this series of depressed surfaces occurs very frequently, and the prismatic form is very evident, the Swedes, from the resemblance such rocks have to an artificial flight of steps, call them Trap; a word signifying, in their language, a staircase. In this state Science remains at present, concerning an appearance in Nature which exhibits nothing more than the common proeess of crystallization, upon a larger scale than has hitherto excited attention (505). Nothing is more frequent in the vicinity of very antient lakes, in the bed of considerable rivers, or by the borders of the ocean. Such an appearance therefore, in the approach to the Lake of Tiberias, is only a parallel to similar phænomena exhibited by rocks near the lakes of Locarno and Bolsenna in Italy; by those of the Wenner Lake in Sweden; by the bed of the Rhine, near Cologne in Germany (506), by the Valley of Ronca, in the territory of Verona (507); the Giant's Causeway of the Pont du Bridon, in the State of Venice (508), and numerous other examples in the same country; not to enumerate instances which occur over all the islands between the north coast of Ireland and Iceland, as well as in Spain, Portugal, |