BEING furnished with an armed guide by the friars of Nazareth to conduct us by the way proposed for our journey toward Jerusalem, we mounted, and took leave of them with a warm sense of their hospitality, their meekness, and the affability of their manners.

It was nine o'clock when we left the foot of the hill to cross the valley, passing by some wells there, and in less than half an hour we ascended the hills on the south-east, again observing that there was no outlet of a long valley in that direction, nor at all near it.

Having reached the summit of these rocky and barren eminences, we began at ten to descend on the other side of them, leaving on the left a small village called Shaayn. Arriving at their feet, we passed through a narrow defile, leading easterly between two steep hills; and again going up a rocky ascent, we reached its summit at eleven, having the high round eminence of Mount Tabor before us, rearing itself abruptly from the plain of Esdraelon.

In our approach to the foot of this mountain, while passing through a rocky bed covered with thickets, a large black wild boar rushed from them across our path, and so alarmed our mules, that one of the riders was thrown. Our guide discharged his musket, and a shout of pursuit was instantly set up; when presently some dogs sprung barking from the bushes, and a cry of voices was heard, which grew louder and louder, until we saw before us about a dozen Arabs, each with his gun prepared to fire.

We mutually halted to regard each other, and not knowing whether this was an ambush lying in wait for us, or for the boar, we unslung our muskets for defence. We remained for some minutes in this hostile attitude, until one of our party accosted the band which had so suddenly appeared, and received such insolent answers as to induce us to look upon them rather as enemies than friends. As we kept together, however, and preserved a tone of firmness, this, added to the sight of our arms, induced them to retire murmuring; and as we ascended on higher ground, we saw three or four low brown flat-roofed tents, in which they were apparently encamped; but for what purpose we knew not, as there were no flocks in the neighbourhood, and they were accompanied only by the dogs which we had seen.

It was about noon when we reached the small village of Deborah, where we alighted to refresh, not suspecting that the treachery for which it is traditionally infamous both in holy*

* Judges, iv.

and profane* records, was still to be found here at so distant a period.

This village is said to retain the name of the famous prophetess and judge of Israel, who dwelt under the palm-tree of Deborah, between Ramah and Bethel, in Mount Ephraim, where the children of Israel came up to her for judgment, and is thought to be the same with Daberath, on the borders of the tribes of Issachar and Zabulon. †

After the celebrated destruction of the hosts of Sisera, on the plains of Esdraelon, at the foot of Mount Tabor, where this village now stands, it was on this spot, as tradition relates, that the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite stood, when the defeated fugitive sought a refuge there.

We entered into this village, and, like the unfortunate Sisera, demanded only a little water to drink, for with every thing else our scrip was well provided. It was furnished to us, as we desired, with provender for our beasts, and the offer of all that the village possessed.

While the animals were feeding, I was desirous of ascending to the summit of Mount Tabor, for the enjoyment of the extensive view which it commands. Our guide from the convent offering to accompany me, we took with us a man from the village, who promised to facilitate our ascent by directing us to the easiest paths; and taking our arms with us, while my servant and the muleteer remained below to take care of the beasts, we all three set out together.

By forced exertions we reached the summit in about half an

There was a village called Dabaritta near to Esdraelon, and probably the present Daberah. Some young men of this place who kept guard in the Great Plain, laid wait for one Ptolemy, who was the steward of Agrippa and Bernice, and plundered him of all that he had with him, namely many costly garments, a number of silver vessels, and six hundred pieces of gold. Josephus, de Bello, 1. ii. c. 21. s. 3.

+ Joshua, xix. 12.

hour, having ascended on the north-west side, directly upward from the village, and through paths well worn by being frequently trodden, though here and there obstructed by the numerous trees and thickets which clothe its brow.

Arriving at the top, we found ourselves on an oval plain, of about a quarter of a mile in its greatest length, covered with a bed of fertile soil on the west, and having at its eastern end a mass of ruins, seemingly the vestiges of churches, grottoes, strong walls, and fortifications, all decidedly of some antiquity, and a few appearing to be the works of a very remote age.

First were pointed out to us three grottoes, two beside each other, and not far from two cisterns of excellent water; which grottoes are said to be remains of the three tabernacles proposed to be erected by St. Peter, at the moment of the transfiguration, when Jesus, Elias, and Moses, were seen talking together. *

In one of these grottoes, which they call more particularly "the Sanctuary," there is a square stone used as an altar; and on the 6th of August, in every year, the friars of the convent come from Nazareth with their banners and the host to say mass here, at which period they are accompanied by all the Catholics of the neighbourhood, who pass the night in festivity, and light large bonfires, by a succession of which they have nearly bared the southern side of the mountain of all the wood that once clothed it.

Besides these grottoes, no particular history is assigned to any other of the remains, though among them there seem to have been many large religious buildings.

The whole of these appear to have been once enclosed with a strong wall, a large portion of which still remains entire on the south side, having its firm foundations on the solid rocks; and this appeared to me the most ancient part. In the book of Judges, where the story of Deborah is related †, Barak is commanded to

* St. Luke, ix. 30. 33. See the vignette at the head of this chapter. + Judges, iv.

draw toward Mount Tabor; and afterwards it is said that he went up there with ten thousand men, accompanied by the prophetess.* Again, it is repeated that they who were encamped with Heber the Kenite in the plain of Zaanaim, showed Sisera that Barak, the son of Abinoam, was gone up to Mount Tabor. † And, lastly, it is said, that when Sisera gathered all his hosts together, with his nine hundred chariots of iron, to the river Kishon, Barak went down from Mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him. ‡ From this one might infer that the summit was even then used as a military post: for there is no other part of the mountain on which half the number could stand. § It was even then, perhaps, walled and fortified as belonging to Barak; and as its natural position would always preserve its consequence, so these walls and fortifications would be strengthened by each new possessor.

The Scriptural references to Tabor or Itabyrius, may be found at length in Cellarius ; and it is mentioned in all the pilgrimages to the Holy Land, as containing one of the sanctuaries usually visited in these pious journies. But Josephus furnishes us, in his details of the Jewish wars, with a remarkable instance of its having been resorted to as a place of security, and encompassed with a wall by himself in a short space of time, to resist the Roman army. "But now," says this historian, after describing the siege and capture of Gamala, "Vespasian went about another work independent on the former, during this siege; and that was to subdue those that had seized upon Mount Tabor; a place that lies in the middle between the great plain and Scythopolis, whose top is elevated to the height of thirty furlongs ¶, and is hardly to be

+ ver. 12.

‡ ver. 14.

• Judges, c. iv. ver. 10. The top of Mount Tabor was described to Dr. Clarke, “as a plain of great extent, finely cultivated, and inhabited by numerous Arab tribes." Vol. ii. p. 484. This traveller must have had very inaccurate notions of Arab tribes to suppose, however, that many, or even one of them, could occupy so confined a range as this hill only. Geographiæ Antiquæ, lib. iii. c. 13. p. 306. 4to.

¶ These numbers, in Josephus, of thirty furlongs' ascent to the top of Mount Tabor, says his commentator Whiston, whether we estimate it by winding and gradual

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