PART II. churning. and, indeed, it is never good. I believe it was always so; and thus, too, I suppose they made butter in olden times. Solomon says, "Surely the churnSolomon's ing of milk bringeth forth butter, and the wringing of the nose bringeth forth allusion to blood."1 But the word for "churning" and "wringing" is the same in the Hebrew. It is the wringing of milk that bringeth forth butter, just as these women are squeezing and wringing this milk in the "bottle." There is no analogy between our mode of churning and pulling a man's nose until the blood comes, but in this Arab operation the comparison is quite natural and emphatic. The Arabic translation of this proverb is curious, and very far from the original: "He that wrings the dug violently that he may bring out milk, brings forth butter, and he who milks harder still will bring out blood." Haleh lily. This little brook we are crossing comes from Ijon, by Abel. It is associated in my experience with the beautiful Hûleh lily, the flower, as I believe, mentioned by our Lord in that delightful exhortation to trust in the kind care of our heavenly Father: "Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not, and yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."2 This Hûleh lily is very large, and the three inner petals meet above, and form a gorgeous canopy, such as art never approached, and king never sat under, even in his utmost glory. And when I met this incomparable flower, in all its loveliness, among the oak woods around the northern base of Tabor and on the hills of Nazareth, where our Lord spent his youth, I felt assured that it was to this he referred. We call it Hûleh lily because it was here that it was first discovered. Its botanical name, if it has one, I am unacquainted with, and am not anxious to have any other than that which connects it with this neighbourhood. I suppose, also, that it is this identical Scripture flower to which Solomon refers in the Song of Songs: "I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters." The bride, comparing her beloved to a roe or a young hart, sees him feeding among the lilies.3 Our flower delights most in the valleys, but is also found on the mountains. It grows among thorns, and I have sadly lacerated my hands in extricating it from them. Nothing can be in higher contrast than the luxuriant, velvety softness of this lily, and the crabbed, tangled hedge of thorns about it. Gazelles still delight to feed among them, and you can scarcely ride through the woods north of Tabor, where these lilies abound, without frightening them from their flowery pasture. allusions. Sinselet el Hieyeh. This long volcanic hill, running up north, is called Sinselet el Hîeyeh—chain of the serpent-from its serpentine shape; and the brook in the wady between it and Hunîn comes from a large fountain about two miles up it, called 'Ain et Dahab-gold fountain. Our road now turns south between the mountains of Kudes and this vast marsh which here comes up to the foot of the cliffs. I Prov. xxx. 33. 2 Luke xii. 27. 3 Song ii. 1, 2, 16. MARSH OF THE HULEH-CROWS. 257 XVIII. This fountain is called 'Adely, and a much larger one ahead of us is named CHAPTER Yes, and a wall with a ditch was once carried from the marsh to the mountain, and thus effectually commanded the road toward the south. Here is another pool crowded with buffaloes wallowing in swinish felicity, with only the tip of the nose above the muddy water. When en trable jungle. From our present position we can look over the entire marsh north of the Marsh of lake. If you are fond of solving geological problems, you may calculate the the Hûleh time it has taken to fill up this spongy plain to its present level and consistency. The great fountains of Banias, Tell el Kâdy, and all the rest, are clear as crystal the year round, and would not deposit slime enough in a million of years to fill an acre of this ten-mile marsh. But the Saary, the Hasbāny, the Derdara from Ijon, and many small torrents from the mountains, are quite muddy during the winter rains, and their contributions have slowly gained upon the lake through past ages, crowding it southward into narrow and still narrower limits, and the time may come when it will be entirely obliterated. The infant Jordan seems in danger of suffocation in this tangled jungle of cane and bushes. I once asked an Arab if I could not penetrate through it to the lake. Looking at me keenly to see if I were not in joke, he slowly raised both hands to his head, and swore by "the great-the Almighty," that not even a wild boar could get through. And he spoke the truth. It is an Impeneutterly impassable slough, worse than Bunyan ever dreamed of. camped, two years ago, at this village which we have passed, I was tempted down to the verge of the jungle by a flock of ducks. With gun in hand and eye on the game, and not upon my footsteps, I cautiously advanced, when suddenly I was in oozy mud that seemed to have no bottom. Flinging the gun back and struggling desperately, I regained the bank, and ever after kept a sharp and suspicious eye upon its treacherous depths. But this very impenetrability to man and beast makes it the favourite retreat of crows and Crows and rooks; there they breed, and thither they return at night from their rambles over the country. Upon the mountain above Hunîn I have watched them at early dawn rising in clouds from this jungle. On they came, like wild pigeons in the West, only their line was not across the horizon, but like the columns of an endless army, stretching from the Hûleh up Wady et Teim farther than the eye could follow them; the column, however, grows less and less dense by the departure in every direction of small squadrons, according to some social regulations known only to themselves, until the whole is dissipated. These birds are the plague of the farmer. They light by thousands on his fields, and Their dedevour so much of the fresh-sown seed that he is obliged to make a large allowance for their depredations. It is utterly useless to attempt to frighten them away. They rise like a cloud at the crack of your gun, wheel round and round for a few minutes, cawing furiously at you, and then settle down rooks. structive ness. ᏢᎪᎡᎢ II. The field- Fountain again to their work of robbery as if nothing had happened. They fly to an immense distance in their foraging excursions. I have met them at least fifty miles from this their roosting-place. It is curious to see them in the afternoon preparing to return hither from the wadies around the north end of Hermon. They assemble in groups, caw and scream, and wheel round and round in ascending circles, until almost lost in the blue depths of the sky; then they sail in a straight line for this marsh, chattering to each other all the way. Assembled in the evening, they report the adventures of the day in noisy conclave, loud as the voice of many waters. But, lunch over, we must be on the march, for the sun will set ere we can visit the shore of the Hûleh and return to Kŭdes, on this high mountain west of us. Do you notice anything peculiar in this clump of thorn-trees on our left? Nothing, except that they seem to be stuffed full of dry stubble. That is the deserted nests of the field-sparrow. The tree is called sidr, and abounds all over Palestine, but I have nowhere seen it so large as around the Hûleh. I passed this way last year on the twenty-first of May, and these trees were covered with those birds. There were literally thousands of them, and they were holding an angry and troubled consultation as to the safest means of expelling a couple of hawks that had called there for their breakfast. I drove away their enemies, and they speedily calmed down into comparative silence, though they are never absolutely quiet except when asleep. This white-domed mazar above us, on our right, is Neby Hûshâ-Prophet Joshua-and is a place of great resort. A little farther on, the Wady el Mûaddumîyeh comes precipitately down from the mountains. Notice the Boulders. immense quantity of boulders which this impetuous torrent has brought hither in the winter, and spread far and wide over the plain. We shall cross this wild wady to-morrow on our road to Safed. From this to el Mellâhah is forty minutes; there the marsh ends, and the splendid plain of the Ard el Kheît begins. We have been more than two hours coasting the west side of the marsh, and have ridden hard; it cannot, therefore, be less than ten miles long. Here is the celebrated fountain of el Mellâhah. The water is brackish and slightly tepid, and this is the reason why it is so crowded with fish. It is only a mile from the north-west corner of the lake, and from it, in cold weather, come up an incredible number of fish. The pool is about four hundred feet in circumference, and from it the whole country round is supplied with fish. The water is led directly from the pool on to these mills, which are now the only houses in this neighbourhood, although there was once a considerable town here, as appears from the foundations of old buildings, and from the rocktombs in these cliffs above the fountain. Let us hasten down to the shore of the lake, for time is precious, and the neighbourhood is anything but safe. What a splendid plain! and evidently as fertile as it is beautiful. of el Me! 18hah. Plain of 'Ard el Kheit. I saw it last May covered with golden harvests ready for the sickle. There were then many tents pitched here and there for the reapers, who come from BABEER CANE-COURSE OF JORDAN. 259 XVIII. Kudes and other villages on the mountains. There is not an inhabited house CHAPTER, on all this plain, and this is entirely owing to insecurity, not insalubrity. 'Ard el Kheît, as the district is called, is peculiarly exposed to incursions Liability from the desert east of the Jordan. I came near being plundered by Bedawîn to plunfrom the Ghor the first time I visited the lake. Here we are at the shore, and, though somewhat soft, it is as well defined as that of any other lake, and there is no difficulty whatever in reaching it. There are also many fresh-water shells along the bank. derers. Though the reports on this subject are great exaggerations, still it is quite impossible to get to the lake except on the east side and along this southwestern shore. From the utter desertion of this region, it has become the favourite resort of water-fowl, and they have it all to themselves. No boat is ever seen on the tranquil bosom of the Hûleh-no hunter disturbs them here. The plain down to the exit of the Jordan is level as a floor, and much of it is carpeted with the softest, richest sward in all the East. One feels tempted to leap from the saddle, and gambol and roll about on it like a little child. The lake ends in a triangular marsh, the largest part of which is on the eastern bank of the river. It is an impenetrable jungle of ordinary cane, mingled with that peculiar kind called babeer, from whose stems the Arabs make coarse mats Babeer for the walls and roofs of their huts. This cane is the prominent and distinc- cane. tive production of these marshes, both at the north and south end of the lake. I have seen it also on the banks of brooks in the plain of Sharon, north of Jaffa. The stalk is not round, but triangular. It grows eight or ten feet high, and ends above in a wide-spreading tuft of stems like broom-corn, shooting out in every direction with surprising regularity and beauty. It imparts a BABEER CANE. Course of singular appearance to the whole marsh,—as if ten thousand thousand brooms the Jorwere waving over it. Through this jungle the Jordan creeps sluggishly for dan. РАКТ II. Bridge of Jis Benat Yacobe. Wild aninals of the Hulch. The peli сап. half a mile, and then glides tranquilly between green sloping banks for another mile to Jisr Benat Yacobe. Thence it commences its headlong race over basaltic rocks down to the Lake of Tiberias, a distance of about six miles, and the distance, according to my aneroid, is ten hundred and fifty feet. Of course it is a continued repetition of roaring rapids and leaping cataracts. I once rode, walked, and scrambled from the bridge down to the entrance into the lake-a wild, stern gorge, fit haunt for robbers, from whom it is never free. The bridge is concealed from our view by that projecting hill on the south corner of this plain. It is not ancient--at least not in its present form-but is a very substantial affair, having three broad arches. A guard is always stationed at it, and a few Arabs generally pitch their tents near, to profit from the passing traveller by selling eggs and lebn, and by pilfering as occasion offers. On the east of the bridge are the remains of an old khan, with a beautiful cistern of well-cut stone in the centre of the court. It had handsome basaltic columns at the corners, and was supplied with water by a canal from the mountains above. The whole road from the bridge to the khan, and thence up the eastern mountain, was once paved with large basaltic slabs. The road from Jerusalem to Damascus passes up it and out on to the wild rocky region of the Jaulan. About a quarter of a mile south of the bridge are the ruins of a large castle, called now Kusr'Atra. It is on the west bank, and was evidently built to command the ford at that place and above it. This Hûleh-plain, marsh, lake, and surrounding mountains-is the finest hunting-ground in Syria, and mainly so because it is very rarely visited. Panthers and leopards, bears and wolves, jackals, hyenas and foxes, and many other animals, are found, great and small, while it is the very paradise of the wild boar and the fleet gazelle. As to waterfowl, it is scarcely an exaggeration to affirm that the lower end of the lake is absolutely covered with them in the winter and spring. Here only have I seen the pelican of the wilderness, as David calls it. I once had one of them shot just below this place, and, as it was merely PELICAN. 1 l's. cii. 6. |