artichokes. The villages are seen in the far distance near the
mountains. This plain forms part of Canaan.

We pitched our camp for the night beside a little cistern, near the
wretched village of Lagun; and thus slept, for the third night
consecutively, on the hard earth.

June 14th.

To-day we rode for an hour across the plain of Esdralon, and once
more suffered dreadfully from the stings of the minute gnats which
had annoyed us so much on our journey from Joppa to Ramla. These
plagues did not leave us until we had partly ascended the mountains
skirting the plain, from the summit of which we could see Nazareth,
prettily built on a hill at the entrance of a fruitful valley. In
the background rises the beautiful Mount Tabor.

From the time we first see Nazareth until we reach the town is a
ride of an hour and a half; thus the journey from Lagun to Nazareth
occupies four hours and a half, and the entire distance from
Jerusalem twenty-six or twenty-seven hours.

CHAPTER X.

Arrival at Nazareth--Franciscan convent--Tabarith--Mount Tabor--Lake
of Gennesareth--Baths--Mount Carmel--Grotto of the prophet Elijah--
Acre--The pacha's harem--Oriental women--Their listlessness and
ignorance--Sur or Tyre.

It was only nine o'clock when we reached Nazareth, and repaired to
the house for strangers in the Franciscan convent, where the priests
welcomed us very kindly. As soon as we had made a short survey of
our rooms (which resulted in our finding them very like those at
Jerusalem, both as regards appearance and arrangement), we set forth
once more to visit all the remarkable places, and above all the
church which contains the Grotto of Annunciation. This church, to
which we were accompanied by a clergyman, was built by St. Helena,
and is of no great size. In the background a staircase leads down
into the grotto, where it is asserted that the Virgin Mary received
the Lord's message from the angel. Three little pillars of granite
are still to be seen in this grotto. The lower part of one of these
pillars was broken away by the Turks, so that it is only fastened
from above. On the strength of this circumstance many have averred
that the pillar hangs suspended in air! Had these men but looked
beyond their noses, had they only cast their eyes upwards, they
could not have had the face to preach a miracle where it is so
palpable that none exists. A picture on the wall, not badly
executed, represents the Annunciat