up; but it was thirsting for rain. We rose high on to the Carmel range, overlooking the plain of Esdraelon, and sometimes catching glimpses of the great sea on our right. We rode for a considerable distance without seeing any towns, or villages, or even tents, or the slightest indication of a road or track; so that I could fancy that I was traveling in an uninhabited country, except when we saw a long string of camels laden with charcoal, or a line of donkeys carrying such large burdens of thorns and brush wood that they looked just like hedges moving briskly along. They were evidently conveying fuel from a well wooded district to towns and villages in the treeless plains. We were in a part of Palestine rarely, if ever, trodden by strangers, where the peculiarities of Eastern traveling are more apparent than in the more frequented roads. We discovered that our guide, who had been directed to conduct us toward Arrabeh, had misled us, and was taking us by a circuitous and unmarked route in order to avoid passing near to certain villages, where his life would have been in danger, for a price was set upon his head by his enemies in that district. He led us into the fertile plains west of the Carmel range.
Rain began to fall in torrents. Mohammed, our groom, threw a large Arab cloak over me, saying, "May Allah preserve you, O lady, while he is blessing the fields." Thus pleasantly reminded, I could no longer feel sorry to see the pouring rain, but rode on rejoicing for the sake of the sweet Spring flowers and the broad fields of wheat and barley.
For two or three hours we had not seen a building of any kind, not even a ruined khan in a valley, nor a watchtower on the hill-sides. At last we passed a small walled town, built on a low rounded hill, the eastern slope of which was dotted with white grave-stones. Olive-trees, fruit gardens, and plowed land encircled it. In a quarter of an hour we came to a little village, where the rude dwellings were crowded closely together, as if for safety,
