stream was bordered by
reeds and a profusion of tall oleander in gorgeous pink flower.

In this neighbourhood, the Turkomans had commenced reaping their grain.
They are a race of people not to be mistaken for Arabs, men of strong
build, and with a smiling expression on their clear, ruddy countenances.
Besides Arabic, they speak their own coarse dialect of Turkish--several
of them came running to us with handfuls of wheat from their harvest.
They possess large herds of oxen with good horses.

In another half hour we were at _'Ain el Sufsafeh_, (the "fountain of the
willow-tree,") where the water issues from a rock, and in its bed are two
willow-trees; upon the bank were plenty of blackberry bushes.

Just before this we had by the roadside a common looking Arab
burial-place, named _Shaikh Sad_; probably from some Mohammedan devotee
of that name interred there; and among the stones about the graves is a
fragment of an ancient cornice, deeply sculptured in the pattern here
shown.

[Picture: Fragment of Sculpture at Shaikh Sad]

In a quarter of an hour further we passed _Wadi Keereh_, with its full
stream of water, and plenty of oleander for adornment.

Thence in about half an hour we arrived at _Wadi Mel'hh_ ("Salt valley,")
with its rivulet and wild holly-oaks, in which is a great highway leading
southwards. This separates the Samaria ridge and Kaimoon from the
extremity of the long Mount Carmel.

Having thus passed from one end to the other along the side of the hill
of Kaimoon, we turned aside from the road, for taking refreshment under a
large oak halfway up that hill, where wild holly-oaks were springing from
the ground to mingle with the sombre yet shining boughs of the tree.
This was at the sudden contraction of the country into a narrow neck
leading to the Plain of Acre. This strait is bounded on one side by
Carmel, and on the other by the Galilean hills, both sides clothed with
abundance of growing timber; and through its midst is the channel of the
Kishon, deeply cut into soft alluvial soil, and this channel also is
bordered with oleander and trees that were enlivened with doves,
thrushes, linnets, and gold-finches. The modern name of the river is the
_Mokatta_ (the ford,) and that of the valley _El Kasab_, derived from the
spring and valley before-mentioned.

At the narrowest part of this "Kasab" stands a hill, forming a serious
impediment to the progress of armies, named _Tell el Kasees_ (Hill of the