upied, and the travellers walked
through byeways." Yet though chased away from their homes, the
populations returned, whenever possible, with pertinacious attachment to
their devastated dwellings, and hence we have still the very names of the
towns and villages perpetuated by a resident people after a lapse of
almost thirty-three hundred years since the allotment made by Joshua,
(xiii.-xxi., etc.,) and the names were not then new.

I have myself known villages on the Plain of Esdraelon to be alternately
inhabited or abandoned. At one time Fooleh was a heap of ruins, while
its neighbour Afooleh had its residents; on my next visit it was Fooleh
rebuilt, and the other a heap of overthrown stones, or next time both of
them lying in utter silence and desertion. The same with _Mekebleh_,
sometimes inhabited, but more frequently a pile of broken-down houses,
with some remains of antique sculpture lying on the surface of its hill;
and the same occasionally, though not so frequent in vicissitude, with
_Iksal_.

From this exposure to invasion of royal armies or of nomad tribes,
("children of the East," Judges vi. 33,) it has always been the case that
no towns were built in the central parts of this plain; and even when the
kings of Israel had their country residence at Jezreel, that situation
was selected because it was nestled close to the hills, and had ravines
on two sides of it, serving as fortifying trenches made by nature.

At the present time there are no trees upon that broad expanse, not even
olives, to furnish lights for dwelling, either of villages or tents. The
wretched people grow castor-oil plants instead for that purpose, sown
afresh every year, because these afford no temptation to the hostile
Arabs.

That year, however, of 1851, and probably for some time previous, the
plain (Merj ibn Amer is its Arabic name,) had been at peace, unmolested
by strangers; consequently I saw large crops of wheat there, and fields
of barley waving in the breeze. These were mostly the property of a
Turkoman tribe, who, like the Kenites of old, reside there in tents,
neither building houses nor planting vineyards, though to some extent
they sow seed. They have been long upon that ground, but move their
tents about, according to the exigencies of pasture for their flocks and
herds. I believe, however, that they pay "khooweh" (brotherhood,) _i.e._
tribute and military aid, to the Sukoor Arabs for protection and peace
under com