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whole region did not possess a navigable river, mentions, however, that there were a number of places within it which were celebrated for their natural hot springs, whose waters were considered favourable to the cure of many maladies, and of which this of Tiberias was then probably one of the most celebrated. *

At this bath, we met with a soldier whom they called Mohammed Mamlouk, and I learnt that he was a German by birth, having become a Mamlouk and Mohammedan when a boy. He was now the hasnadar or treasurer to the Agha of Tabareeah, and was so completely a Turk as to profess that he would not willingly return to his native country, even if he could do so under the most favourable circumstances. He spoke the Turkish and Arabic languages equally well; and it was in the latter that we conversed, as he had entirely forgotten his native tongue, though not more than thirty-five years of age.

Besides the spring which supplies the present baths, there are several others near it, all rising close to the edge of the lake, and all equally hot, finely transparent and slightly sulphureous, resembling exactly the spring at El-Hamé. There are also extensive ruins around, which are most probably the remains of Roman edifices,

VOL. II.

* Ammianus Marcellinus, 1. xiv. c. 8.

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though that which has been taken for the remains of a theatre appears rather to have been the choir of an early Christian church. Among them all, there is nothing, however, either interesting or definite. We quitted this spot to return to the town, and in our way by the bath saw a party of Jewish women just coming out from the female apartment. Their conversation was in German; and, on enquiry, they said that they had come from Vienna with their husbands, to end their days in the land of their fathers. In our way back from hence we were met by a party of Moslems, who conceiving me, from my dress and white turban, to be of their faith, gave us the usual salute, which I returned without scruple; but our guide was so shocked at the interchange of forbidden salutations between a Christian and a Mohammedan, that he expressed his confidence in its ending in some unlucky accident to us. To avert this, however, from his own head, he took a large stone from the road, and after spitting on it, turned that part towards the north, repeating a short Arabic prayer at the same time. Besides the present incident, I had observed on several other occasions that, in this country, set forms of expressions are regarded as appropriate to men of different faiths, and even different ranks in life, and that therefore nothing is more necessary for

a traveller than to acquaint himself with those minute shades of difference; as they serve, like the watch-word of an army, to distinguish friends from foes, and any errors therein might produce the most alarming consequences.

Our route of return was along the beach of the lake, leaving the tree of relics and Setty Skené on our left. Vestiges of ancient buildings still continued to be seen, close to the water's edge; but nothing of architectural beauty or of grandeur presented itself to our notice.

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On our way we met a Jewish funeral, attended by a party of about fifty persons, all males. group of half a dozen walked before, but without any apparent regard to order, and all seemed engaged in humming indistinctly hymns, or prayers, or lamentations; for they might have been either, as far as we could distinguish by the tone and the manner of their utterance. The corpse followed, wrapped in linen, without a coffin, and slung on cords between two poles borne on men's shoulders, with its feet foremost. A funeral service was said over it at the grave, and it was sunk into its mother earth in peace.

On our return to the town, we found an early dinner of fish prepared for us, and thought it excellent; a person had been employed all the morning with his line expressly for the purpose of procuring them, and we very gladly rewarded

his industry by a suitable present. We were joined at our meal by a man from Ispahan, who had been settled here for some time as a merchant, and as he understood a little Hindoostanee, having been in several parts of India, we conversed together in that language, which to me was a very unexpected event in a town of Palestine.

It was past noon when we quitted Tabareeah, and in our way through the streets toward the gate, we met a Frank doctor in his European dress, who had come from Acre to bleed a rich Jew. The figure and costume of the man was in itself highly ridiculous, and this effect was increased by his being so intoxicated at this early hour of the day, that he reeled from side to side, in constant danger of falling off his horse. Besides a musket, a sword, and a powder-pouch, he wore, slung around his neck, a small canteen for spirits, which accounted for the state in which we saw him. In his way through the town, he was followed by a crowd of children, and laughed at by the women and the men; so that the Frank character was likely to gain nothing by such a disreputable exhibition.

For our return to Nazareth, we took a shorter route than that by which we came, according to the advice of our guide, though the distance seemed to me at least equal. Ascending the

hill to the north-west, we passed several flocks of ghazelles, from six to eight in number in each of them, and after reaching the summit of the mountains there, enjoyed again a commanding view of the lake below. We found the heat, even here, oppressive, though it was tempered by a light air from the north-west. The surface of the water was still, however, like a mirror, and a dead calm reigned in the hollow basin beneath us. The lofty summit of Libanus, covered with an unbroken sheet of snow, was still a conspicuous object in the picture, and is seen, indeed, from almost every point of view below, excepting only near the northern edge of the lake. From this edge a series of hills rise one over the other, until the highest point of the third or fourth range forms the foundation of the base of the Gebel-el-Thelj; and, from observations which I had an opportunity of making, when seeing the summit of that mountain from the water-line of the sea's level, I should conceive it to be at least from ten to twelve thou. sand feet in elevation above that point, though perhaps not even half that height from its own base.

About two hours after our leaving Tabareeah, we passed a rocky spot, with heaps of stones scattered around, called "Khamsi Khabshaat," or the place of the "five loaves," from a belief