the weekly market at
Bint el Jebail.

At Cuf'r Bera'am we inspected the ancient buildings now bearing Hebrew
inscriptions, and I was more than ever convinced in my own mind, that
neither these nor any edifices at Kadis have any relation to the Jewish
people, in their origin or intention. The Hebrew writing is of inferior
style, and very modern character, far, far unequal to the beauty of the
architecture; besides having evident traces of animal figures which have
been hastily chiselled off.

The sun set, and a bad road had to be traversed in order to reach our
destination at Safed.

PART III.

In my two journeys just described, the route was over the southern part
of the long Lebanon range, not only on the main ridge, but crossing some
of the innumerable spurs thrown out towards the sea. This time, however,
we have to deal with a more northerly and higher region; and it is
because of its being in a different direction from those of 1849 and 1855
that I have not observed the consecutive order of date--this was in 1853.
We shall start from the coast, where the most projecting and western spur
subsides into Ras Bayroot, and the climbing begins almost immediately
after leaving deep yellow sands and the pine forest.

The object was to reach Mokhtarah, perched high in the heart of the Shoof
or central ridge of Lebanon, like an eyrie, as it was then, for the
princely house of Jonblat. Mokhtarah lies S.-E. from Bayroot, and to
arrive there we had to cross the intervening spurs, climbing as we went.

The town of Dair el Kamar and the palace of Beteddeen, formerly the
headquarters of the house of Shehab, lay upon the road. The remainder of
the journey after Mokhtarah consisted in a rapid descent to Sidon, the
great port in antiquity for Damascus, Phoenicia, and the Lebanon.

This tour comprised the finest range of the territory occupied by the
Druse nation.

1853. _July_.--From Bayroot, with its bewitching scenery and its
gorgeous colouring of mountains and the sea, we went to _'Abeih_, the
best known of the American missionary stations in the Lebanon.

Through the woods of pines, with their reviving fragrance, and through
_El Hadeth_, an entirely Christian village, where the bell of the
Maronite convent was ringing as we passed, we came to _Shuwaifat_, and
rose still higher towards the mountain pines and the breezes so desirable
in Syria in the month of July, leaving below the olive in abundance, the
mulberry an