ok refuge from the sun in the house of a Christian named Ibrahim
Hhanna, and after an hour's sleep rose up to a feast of eggs, olives,
bread, and cream cheese, after sharing in which our guides from Rumaish
took their leave, with kindly wishes on both sides.

Next we hired a guide for our crossing the plain to 'Arabeh el Battoof on
the way to Nazareth, and travelled over alternate corn stubble and
balloot underwood. In one short valley that we crossed there were six
_jeldeh_ or short aqueducts to water-mills.

The weather was still extremely hot.

Passed near _Dair Hhanna_, a large ruin of a fortification upon a hill
rising out of the plain; probably, as the name would seem to intimate, an
old castle of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem. A few poor people
here have built huts for themselves within the great walls, in the manner
of the Italian peasants in Goldsmith's "Traveller," who do the same
within the confines of a Caesar's palace--

"And wondering man can want the larger pile,
Exult and own their cottage with a smile."

Two small towers, now also in ruin, flank the castle at short distances.
These were erected by Shaikh Daher about eighty years since, who employed
the whole for military defence in his revolt against the Turks.

Near this 'Arabeh lie some time-eaten fragments of large old columns.
There we dismissed the guide, as he wished to be at home again before
dark, and we traversed the plain of _Sefuriyeh_, the celebrated Sepphoris
of Josephus' wars.

It is to be observed that in that afternoon we had crossed three narrow
but long parallel plains, all running east and west, and divided from
each other by lines of rocky hills. The northern one contains _Rama_ and
_'Arabeh_; the middle one has _Sefuriyeh_; and the southern one has
_Tura'an_ and _Cuf'r Cana_, the place of the miracle at the marriage in
St John's Gospel.

Hoping to reach our destination by a shorter track, after passing
_Rumaneh_ and Jerjer we mounted a hill to _Mesh-had_, that was in sight,
but as darkness came on, lost our way for a considerable time; rain
threatened and fell a short time. Once we came near a large cattle-fold,
which we afterwards learned belonged to the Latin Convent of Nazareth,
but no people appeared to answer us; then we got a gloomy view of Mount
Tabor; at length, however, we were cheered with discovering the window
lights of Nazareth, after being fourteen hours in the saddle, omitting
the two hours'