it at a rapid pace in a
circle, shouting merrily or singing as they go,--a totally different
operation from the drowsy creeping of the oxen or other animals for
threshing in our Southern Palestine.

In due time we crossed the bed of the Kishon, which was quite dry in that
part above the _Sa'adeh_, except where some green stagnant puddles
occurred at intervals.

We passed a herd of camels belonging to the Turkomans, walking
unburdened, whereas all other animals that we met were laden with grain
for the port of Caiffa. At the commencement of the ascent on the
opposite hills we rested under the _Tell el Hharatheeyeh_, beneath a
noble tree of the evergreen oak; and near there we passed alongside of a
camp of degraded Arabs called _Beramki_, in a few tattered tents, but
they had some capital horses picketed around them. The villagers regard
these people with ineffable disdain, as "cousins of the gipsies." It
seems that they subsist by singing songs among real Arab camps, and by
letting out their horses as stallions for breeding, with variations of
picking and stealing. We saw some of their women and children, filthy in
person, painfully employed in scraping away the ground wherever black
clay showed itself, in the hope of reaching water, however bad in
quality.

There was threshing at _Jaida_ as we passed that village. We halted at
the spring of _Samooniah_, and at _Ma'alool_; the priest of the village
was superintending the parish threshing: his reverence was covered with
dust from the operation.

4. CAIFFA TO SHEFA 'AMER.

_June_ 1859.

From _Beled esh Shaikh_ and _Yajoor_, across the Kishon channel, upon the
plain of Acre, and rested a short time at the _Weli of Jedro_, (very like
a Hebrew name,) and then near us, all close together were the three
villages of _Cuf'r Ita_, _Ja'arah_ and _Hurbaj_. Thence to Shefa 'Amer,
first diverging somewhat to _'Ebeleen_.

III. SOUTH SIDE OF ESDRAELON.

1. PLAIN OF SHARON TO CAIFFA.

_Oct._ 1849.

At _Baka_ we leave the plain of Sharon, at its northern end, if indeed
the extensive level from the Egyptian desert up to this point, may come
under this one denomination; and we enter upon the hilly woodlands of
Ephraim and Manasseh, so clearly described in Joshua xvii. 11, 17, 18.

In mounting to the higher ground, there is obtained