that I ought to have taken to _Bait Nateef_, our place for the night, but
being considerably ahead of our baggage mules, I had ridden on with a
kawwas, under _Hhusan_ and _Ras abu 'Ammar_; by our wayside lay a defaced
Roman milestone.

A solitary peasant youth, from whom I inquired the names of the villages
about us, was so alarmed at the appearance of a European with a Turkish
attendant, in a place so remote from common high-roads, that he ran off;
but finding our horses keeping up with his fleet pace, he dropped behind
a large stone and levelled his gun at us in sheer terror; it was
difficult to get a rational reply from him.

Before us, a little to our left, was _Hhubeen_, half down a hill, at the
foot of which was a valley green with waving crops of wheat and barley.

In ten minutes more there opened a fine view of _Bait 'Atab_, in which
were some good new buildings. Before arriving at this village, which is
the chief one of the _'Arkoob_ district, ruled by _'Othman el Lehham_, I
dismounted for rest beneath a gigantic oak, where there were last year's
acorns and their cups shed around, and half a dozen saplings rising from
the ground, sheltered from the sun by being all within the shadow of the
parent tree; with arbutus bushes in every direction, wild thyme and other
fragrant herbs serving as pasture for numerous humming bees, bright
coloured bee-eaters were twittering in their swallow-like flight, and
under the soothing influence of the whole, I fell into a pleasant
slumber.

Some boughs of "the huge oak" were decorated with bits of dirty rags
hanging upon the boughs as votive memorials of answers to prayers.
Probably the site was that of a burial-place of some personage of ancient
and local celebrity; but my attendant was positive in affirming that the
people do not pray at such stations more than at any other spot whatever.
There are many such venerated trees in different parts of the country. I
believe that the reason as well as the amount of such veneration is vague
and unsettled in the minds of the peasantry, yet the object remains a
local monument from generation to generation, honoured now, as were in
the Bible times--the oak of Deborah (Gen. xxxv. 8), the oak of Ophrah
(Judges vi. II), for instance, with others.

"Multosque per annos
Multa virum volvens durando saecula vincit."

By and by the groom overtook us on foot, having scoured about the
neighbourhood in search of us. After anoth