CHAPTER VI.
THE HILL-COUNTRY OF PALESTINE.
Leaving Jerusalem — The Tombs of the Kings — El Bireh — The Hill-Country — First View of Mount Hermon — The Tomb of Joseph — Ebal and Gerizim — The Gardens of Nablous — The Samaritans — The Sacred Book — A Scene in the Synagogue — Mentor and Telemachus — Ride to Samaria — The Ruins of Sebaste — Scriptural Landscapes — Halt at Genin — The Plain of Esdraelon — Palestine and California — The Hills of Nazareth — Accident — Fra Joachim — The Church of the Virgin--The Shrine of the Annunciation — The Holy Places.
"Blest land of Judea! thrice hallowed of song,
Where the holiest of memories pilgrim-like throng:
In the shade of thy palms, by the shores of thy sea,
On the hills of thy beauty, my heart is with thee!"
We left Jerusalem by the Jaffa Gate, because within a few months neither travellers nor baggage are allowed to pass the Damascus Gate, on account of smuggling operations having been carried on there. Not far from the city wall there is a superb terebinth tree, now in the full glory of its shining green leaves. It appears to be bathed in a perpetual dew; the rounded masses of foliage sparkle and glitter in the light, and the great spreading boughs flood the turf below with a deluge of delicious shade. A number of persons were reclining on the grass under it, and one of them, a very handsome Christian boy, spoke to us in Italian and English. I scarcely remember
