The day was hazy and sultry, but the panoramic view from Mount Tabor was still very fine.  The great Plain of Esdraelon lay below us like a vast mosaic of green and brown—­jasper and verd-antique.  On the west, Mount Carmel lifted his head above the blue horizon line of the Mediterranean.  Turning to the other side, a strip of the Sea of Galilee glimmered deep down among the hills, and the Ghor, or the Valley of the Jordan, stretched like a broad gash through them.  Beyond them, the country of Djebel Adjeloun, the ancient Decapolis, which still holds the walls of Gadara and the temples and theatres of Djerash, faded away into vapor, and, still further to the south, the desolate hills of Gilead, the home of Jephthah.  Mount Hermon is visible when the atmosphere is clear but we were not able to see it.

From the top of Mount Tabor to Tiberias, on the Sea of Galilee, is a journey of five hours, through a wild country, with but one single miserable village on the road.  At first we rode through lonely dells, grown with oak and brilliant with flowers, especially the large purple mallow, and then over broad, treeless tracts of rolling land, but partially cultivated.  The heat was very great; I had no thermometer, but should judge the temperature to have been at least 95 deg. in the shade.  From the edge of the upland tract, we looked down on the Sea of Galilee—­a beautiful sheet of water sunk among the mountains, and more than 300 feet below the level of the Mediterranean.  It lay unruffled in the bottom of the basin, reflecting the peaks of the bare red mountains beyond it.  Tiberias was at our very feet, a few palm trees alone relieving the nakedness of its dull walls.  After taking a welcome drink at the Fountain of Fig-trees, we descended to the town, which has a desolate and forlorn air.  Its walls have been partly thrown down by earthquakes, and never repaired.  We found our tents already pitched on the bank above the lake, and under one of the tottering towers.

Not a breath of air was stirring; the red hills smouldered in the heat, and the waters of Genesareth at our feet glimmered with an oily smoothness, unbroken by a ripple.  We untwisted our turbans, kicked off our baggy trowsers, and speedily releasing ourselves from the barbarous restraints of dress, dipped into the tepid sea and floated lazily out until we could feel the exquisite coldness of the living springs which sent up their jets from the bottom.  I was lying on my back, moving my fins just sufficiently to keep afloat, and gazing dreamily through half-closed eyes on the forlorn palms of Tiberias, when a shrill voice hailed me with:  “O Howadji, get out of our way!” There, at the old stone gateway below our tent, stood two Galilean damsels, with heavy earthen jars upon their heads.  “Go away yourselves, O maidens!” I answered, “if you want us to come out of the water.”  “But we must fill our pitchers,” one of them replied.  “Then fill them at once, and be not afraid; or leave them, and we will