told that they were Druze women. They wore tubular horns, from one to two feet in length, bound firmly on their foreheads, supporting heavy black or white pails, which almost shrouded the wearers, producing a very ungraceful outline. (Of these strange people I hope to speak more fully on a future occasion.) Presently we came to a rocky district, overgrown with dwarf oaks, thorns, and thistles, and then reached the fertile plain of Akka, traversed by the blue winding Kishon and its many tributaries.
The large fields of cotton had a very pretty effect, for they were in their full beauty. The bushes are about two feet high, the stems are reddish, the leaves are of the color of the maple in the Spring-time, the blossom looks as if it were made of butterflies' wings, white and spotted. When these white wings fall, a green bulb, in a triangular cup, is exposed; this grows to about an inch in diameter, and changes to a rich, glossy, chestnut color, and, gradually becoming harsh, splits into three parts, when soft downy cotton bursts from it. Saleh gathered a branch for me, including specimens of the plant in these three distinct stages. My brother told me that the Arabs do not cultivate the long-staple cotton—which is most valued in England—because it requires so much care in picking; for the pods must be gathered as soon as they ripen, and as they do not ripen all at once, the harvest necessarily extends over two or three weeks; whereas the short-staple cotton gives the cultivator very little trouble, for the pods are not injured by being left on the tree after they are ripe, and the harvest does not commence till nearly every pod is ready for picking; the consequence is that it is very soon over. This inferior cotton does very well for native use, and to fill the Arab mattresses, and lehaffs, or quilts; but it is not of much commercial value.
If the plain of Akka were cultivated with skill and energy it would yield abundantly. Under the present system the soil produces, in Winter, wheat, barley, beans, lentils, peas, and tobacco; and in the Summer-time cotton,
