Christ that we never once hear of His having visited it. If, as was most probable, it was here that Herodias danced before the King when she demanded John the Baptist's head in a charger, we can well understand why the associations connected with Tiberias furnished an additional reason to repel a visit.

It would be interesting, were it not beyond the scope of this article, to trace the history of Tiberias for the next thousand years. How from having been one of the most essentially Roman cities in Palestine, it became one of the most exclusively Jewish; to narrate the vicissitudes through which it passed during the Jewish war; to describe its sieges and popular tumults so far as materials are furnished to us by historians;

to note the change it underwent when in the second century, the Jewish Sanhedrin was transferred here from Sepphoris, and it became a centre of Talmudic learning-and the residence of some of the most celebrated Jewish Rabbis who have ever lived, many of whose tombs are still shown in the neighbourhood of the town; the most noted of these are still the scene of nocturnal ceremonies of the most curious description, at some of which I was upon one occasion present. No one can spend any length of time in Tiberias without feeling a strange fascination in the place; and though the present population cannot be called sympathetic, and the climate, except in winter, is detestable, it is not possible to listen to the rippling under the Convent windows of that

lake to which the most sacred associations are attached, or to gaze at the steep cliffs on the opposite shore, intersected with deep wadies concealing a mysterious and little known region, or to wander over the ruinstrewed tracts beneath the cliffs, and wonder what the caves above contain, without being sensible of a desire stealing over one to prolong one's stay, and steep oneself thoroughly in the indefinable charm which attaches to the spot.

On the occasion of one of my visits to Tiberias I had occasion to go a good deal among the Jewish population, and to compare the two great Hebrew divisions of Ashkenazim, and Sephardim, of which it consists, and I reluctantly came to the conclusion that the effects of Mohammedanism upon the national character were not so demoralising as those of Christianity. It is true that the Ashkenazim of Tiberias have nearly all come from Poland, Roumania, or Russia, where Christianity can only be said to exist in a very debased form, and that a Whitechapel Jew might be superior to one from a Roumanian Ghetto; but even I think he would compare unfavourably with the Sephardim, whose ancestors had lived for some time under Moslem influence, and who so far as language, dress, and ordinary manner of living were concerned, had adopted those of the country in which they were born. Certainly the descendants of old Tiberias families are superior in look, habits of cleanliness, and personal dignity-I was even going to say honesty, but I do not think there is much to choose on that score,-to their immigrant co-religionists from Eastern Europe.

Visiting the house of an Askenaz one day, I found his entrance flanked by a couple of stone doors 5 feet 8 inches in height, by 3 feet in width, ornamented with panels and bosses, and with a stone knocker. He told me he had found them while digging the foundations of his house, several feet below the surface of the ground. They are most interesting as indicating an historical period long anterior to that of the founding of Tiberias, and suggesting very unsettled social conditions. This is confirmed by a letter from Mr. Simpson, the Artist of the Illustrated News, who found while travelling on the Persian frontier that the inhabitants are to this day in the habit of using doors of this description to protect themselves against raids of the Turcomans. This would rather point to their being of a pre-Jewish period, for it is hardly conceivable that during the occupation of Canaan by the Jews

the inhabitants on the Sea of Galilee could have been exposed to any such predatory incursions. Prior to that time, however, and before the country on the other side of the lake was in possession of the half tribe of Manasseh, it was quite possible that the wild tribes on the East of Jordan may have raided across, and rendered such defences necessary; at all events they are highly interesting as indicating a state of domestic insecurity in this part of the country of which the Bible does not furnish us any record.

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On the occasion of my last visit to Tiberias it was my purpose to make the circuit of the Lake, with the view of exploring some wadies at its north-east extremity which had long excited my curiosity, and the incidents of this trip I now propose to narrate. book which I have recently published I have given some of my previous explorations in the neighbourhood of the Sea of Galilee; I shall therefore confine myself to new ground, and to any fresh light that has since been thrown upon that which I had already visited. The accompanying sketches were taken either by my companions or myself on the spot. As, apart from the trouble attendant on the formalities of obtaining the necessary permission, the escort which then becomes indispensable, is generally more annoyance than protection, I determined to dispense with it, and to trust the party to the guidance of an Arab friend, who was familiar with the country, and in the habit of dealing with the Bedouin tribes to the east of the Jordan. We took a couple of camels to carry our tents and baggage, and as our first day's march gave directions to our servants to proceed direct to Tabgah and form our camp there, while we left the lake-shore at Magdala and turned sharp to the left with the view of visiting the Wady el Hamman, a gorge I had long been anxious to examine. Magdala itself, which has given its name to Mary Magdalene, but is now called El Mejdel, consists of a small group of squalid hovels which I could not but contrast with the Magdalen Tower at Oxford, and other of the beautiful churches in Europe which have been called after them. I found that it was owned, together with a part of the plain of Gennesareth which belongs to Ur, by a rich man at Acre. Riding near the edge of the lake at this point I came upon a pelican, so tame that I thought it must be a wounded bird, and was making preparations to try and effect its capture. I was not more than a dozen yards off when it slowly flapped its huge wings and soared away to join a compact

mass of companions who were formed in a solid square, and looked as if a white sheet had been spread over that part of the lake. I have heard it doubted whether pelicans ever visited the Lake of Tiberias, but this is not the first time I have seen them there.

It is about half an hour's ride to the point in the gorge where the ascent of the steep slope begins, at the top of which is situated the Fortress of Kal'at ibn Ma'ân. The cliffs here rise on either side to a height of a thousand and twelve hundred feet respectively, and the scenery is very grand. On the southern side a scramble up a slope of

probably Arabic. Indeed, it is evident that the more recent additions to the fortress have been made by Arabs at a comparatively late date, probably not more than four or five hundred years ago, for the side caverns are provided with loopholes for musketry with pointed arches, and the walls are masoned after the Arab style. These face many of the caverns, or are built upon the edges of the terraces which run along the external face of the rock connecting the caves with each other. These latter, however, also communicate interiorly by means of tunnels, corridors, and staircases; many of

débris for five or six hundred feet, so steep that the latter part is not practicable for horses, brings us to the entrance of this singular cavernous stronghold, which is flanked by two round towers, and leads into a large natural cave; on a slab over the entrance is carved a representation of two lions facing each other, and each with an uplifted forepaw resting on what seemed an urn, or vessel of some sort. It was impossible in the absence of a ladder to measure them accurately, but I judged the whole length of the carving to be between six and seven feet. The workmanship was rude and

these have fallen in, so that it is rather difficult to find the way to the upper tiers. Indeed, it is not possible to get beyond the second storey, but the whole face of the cliff is honeycombed with these singular rockhewn chambers, forming an inaccessible stronghold, some idea of the vastness of which may be gathered from the fact that it was said to furnish accommodation for six thousand men. Water was conducted to the principal cistern by an earthenware conductor, but I observed one or two other smaller ones which were fed by runnels cut in the face of the rock. It is impossible to

say from what period of antiquity this place was used as a fastness, but we know from his own account that it was fortified by Josephus, and that it was here that Herod had his remarkable battle with the robbers, who at one time made it their headquarters, and whom he could only attack by letting down his soldiers in baskets from above to wage a most unpleasant combat in mid-air. Sir Charles Wilson, in his Recovery of Jerusalem, tells us that they attacked the robbers with fire and sword, and tried with long hooks to pull them over the precipice, while the latter tried to break the chains by which their assailants were suspended, but without avail. When escape became impossible a remarkable incident is narrated: "A father stands at the mouth of his rock-cut home, and orders his seven children to come out one by one; as each appears a sword is thrust into his side and he falls headlong over the precipice; then follows the wife, and last the stern parent, after upbraiding Herod with his low origin, springs forward and is dashed to pieces, rather than surrender to the victor."

Altogether, this Wady Hammam is one of the most picturesque and interesting spots in this part of the country. As, after our fatiguing scramble through the corridors choked with débris, and up steep stone steps and occasionally along rock ledges requiring a steady head, we grouped for luncheon on the bank of the purling brook that runs through the Wady, it was strange to think that we were only half an hour distant from the beaten track of tourists who flock like sheep from Jerusalem by way of Tiberias to Damascus, not one of whom has the slightest idea of the wonders of nature and of antiquity that he is passing almost within a rifle-shot of him-for the gorge is so hidden that unless his attention was specially directed to it, he would not remark anything unusual in the configuration of the neighbouring hills. As the dragoman considers his function to be to get his party to their night quarters with the least possible trouble to himself, and is probably as ignorant as to the Wady Hammam as they are, there is no use expecting information from that quarter. Even the guide-books are superficial in their notice of this region, Baedeker making the mistake of putting Kal'at ibn Ma'an on the opposite side of the valley to Irbid, instead of below it on the same side. The opposite or northern side of the gorge culminates in a peak, most picturesque in shape, also honeycombed with caves, which have never, so far as I know, been examined, but which were

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too difficult of access for me to attempt. A year previously, while exploring Irbid, the ancient Arbela, where the remains of a handsome synagogue still stand, I had looked across at them with curiosity. The stream which flows through this valley rises at Hattin, at the foot of the twin-peaked mountain called usually the "Mount of the Beatitudes -a lovely spot among the orange groves of which I had once before spent a couple of days, and which was only about three miles distant from our present resting place. In fact, the whole of this ground is both classical and biblical, and could be explored at leisure by any one making Tiberias his head-quarters, from which it is distant about seven miles. caravan road from Nazareth to Damascus passes down this valley. If tourists, instead of wasting their time looking at imaginary sites, or attending ecclesiastical ceremonies degrading to Christianity at Jerusalem, and then scampering "like dumb driven cattle' through the least interesting part of the country in a beaten track, as the humble servants of an ignorant dragoman, were by previous reading and investigation to find out for themselves before coming here what part of the country was most full of interest, and then come, with two or three months at their disposal, to look at it, they would go away with a very different idea of Palestine from that which they carry back with them now, and reap a far greater amount of profit and enjoyment from their trip; but in order to do this they must sacrifice the first month ΟΙ two of the London season, and this perhaps is too much to expect.

Our way now led us diagonally across the plain of Gennesareth. The excellent maps

of the Palestine Survey enable me always to dispense with a guide while travelling through the country, as on an emergency one can generally pick up a peasant to go a mile or two with one, but this is rarely necessary. It certainly was not so as we made for the point where I knew Khan Minyeh to be situated, in as direct a line as possible. In December the swamps which hamper the unwary traveller who may be following his nose in spring, are dried up, and our only difficulty is to cross the deep intersecting ditches, or force our way through the tangled brushwood of reeds, nebk, doum, and other undergrowth, which proves by its luxuriance the fertile nature of the soil. former days the plain was covered with handsome groves of trees and magnificent fruit orchards-not one of these remain, scarcely an acre of the ground is cultivated,

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though it is watered by numerous abundant streams, and the rich alluvial soil is teeming with wild vegetation, which affords pasture to large herds of cattle. It is about three miles long, and from one to one and a half broad, and could probably easily be acquired were it not for the obstructions placed by the Government in the way of the transference of land to foreigners. These are entitled by treaty to become purchasers, but woe to the native who dares to sell to them. Otherwise, I do not know a better speculation from an agricultural point of view than the purchase of the plain of Gennesareth.

nourishes different sorts of autumnal fruits beyond man's expectations, but preserves them a great while. It supplies men with the principal fruits, with grapes and figs, continually during ten months of the year, and the rest of the fruits as they become ripe through the whole year; for besides the good temperature of the air, it is also watered from a most fertile fountain. The people of the country call it Capernaum. Some have thought it a vein of the Nile, because it produces the coracin fish, as well as that lake which is near Alexandria." This mention by Josephus of Capernaum, being the

Josephus says of it: "Its nature is wonderful as well as its beauty. Its soil is so fruitful that all sorts of trees can grow upon it, and the inhabitants [of whom there is not one now] accordingly plant all sorts of trees there, for the temperature of the air is so well mixed that it agrees very well with these several sorts; particularly walnuts, which require the coldest air, flourish there in vast plenty. One may call this the ambition of Nature, when it forces those plants, which are naturally enemies to one another, to agree together. It is a happy conjunction of the seasons, as if every one laid claim to this country, for it not only

name of a fountain in which the coracinus is found, in the plain of Gennesareth, has given rise to great confusion. The only fountain answering to the description is that called Mudawareh, which is situated near the centre of the plain, and which is a circular basin, about thirty yards in diameter, which I have visited. It is connected with the lake by a brook, and Canon Tristram was so fortunate as to capture a number of the singular Egyptian fish called coracinus, on their way up to spawn. On the whole plain of Capernaum there is no other fountain, and there are no traces of ruins near this one, which would have been the