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JANUARY 11. 1816. The morning was still lowering, and detained our muleteer for some time beyond the appointed hour of departure. Having at length found him out, and brought his animals to the okella, we took leave of Signore Malagamba, our consul, with thanks for his civilities during our stay, and having the wishes of the European gentlemen for our safe journey, we mounted and left the gates of Accha about nine o'clock.

After riding for nearly an hour by the sea-side, passing in the

way the apparent outlet of a small stream, which may, perhaps, be the river Belus of Maundrell, Pococke, and Clarke, we struck off to the eastward. Here we crossed a space of at least a mile, formed of sand-hills, and long grass, like those which border the southern shore of the Delta, and like those, no doubt, thrown up by the constant action of the sea blown by a prevailing wind on the coast, and occasioning a continually agitated surf on the beach.

Strabo, Pliny, Tacitus, Josephus, and many other writers, mention the river Belus, as famous for producing the sand of which glass was first made. Fable has assumed that Hercules, being sent to seek for some herb whose virtues might heal his wounds, found on the banks of this river the colocasia, the juices of which effected it. Some ancient writers, indeed, derived the oldest names of Accha from this circumstance related of its neighbouring river, as 'Axas in the Greek language, signifies cures. Even more sober details of history, regarding this discovery upon its banks, have an air of fable in them, as the Roman naturalist ascribes it to the accidental combinations of the necessary materials for the fusion of the sand, while some mariners were preparing a meal on it, their cauldron being supported by blocks of nitre as it stood over the fire. The Greek geographer remarks, however, that this property is not peculiar to the sands of Belus, but is found in those of the whole coast, from Ptolemais to Tyre, and that it was chiefly at Sidon that the art of making it into glass was known. ‡

The Jewish historian, though he speaks of the river incidentally only, in describing the situation of Ptolemais, could not omit the stories which were current in his own times regarding it, though

• Pococke's Description of the East, vol. i. part i. c. 14. p. 55.

Bochart ridicules this fable, and objects to the derivation. - Phaleg et Canaan, pars prior, l. i. c. 5. p. 377. E.

+ Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. xxxvi. c. 26-65.

↑ Strabo, Geog. lib. xvi. p. 758. Cellarius, Geog. Ant. lib. iii. c. 13. p. 295. 4to. Reland. l. i. c. 45. p. 289.

equally fabulous with that of Hercules curing his wounds. "The very small river Belus," says he, in speaking of Ptolemais, “runs by it, at the distance of two furlongs *; near which there is a Memnon's monument; and hath near it a place no longer than a hundred cubits, which deserves admiration; for the place is round and hollow, and affords such sand as glass is made of; which place, when it hath been emptied by the many ships there loaded †, is filled again by the winds, which bring into it, as it were on purpose, that sand which lay remote, and was no more than bare common sand, while this mine presently turns it into glassy sand. And what is to me still more wonderful, that glassy sand which is superfluous, and is once removed out of the place, becomes common sand again. And this is the nature of the place we are now speaking of." +

We saw nothing that could even warrant a conjecture of its being the monument to Memnon spoken of by Josephus, nor could we learn any thing explanatory of the singular properties of the round and hollow pit which he describes as giving to the sand of the river all its virtues. Tradition does not even preserve a faint remembrance, either of the tale of Hercules wounded and wandering along its banks, or of the Phoenician mariners preparing their their food by its stream.

It was eleven o'clock before we quitted the sand and came on a soil of earth, when we passed over a paved causeway raised above a low spot on the plain, and continued our course to the southward and eastward. This road led us, by a gentle ascent, into a beautifully fertile expanse of land, now lying waste, and covered

This river is still very small, and, as may be seen from the time of our passing it, is little more than two furlongs from the present town of Accha, where Ptolemais stood.

+ It was not only carried to Sidon on ship-board for the manufactories there, in the time of Strabo, but afterwards furnished those of Italy, as late as the 17th century, though there is now no demand for it.-Doubdan's Voyage.

Josephus, Wars of the Jews, b. ii. c. 10. s. 10. Cluverius, 1. v. c. 21. Note σ (g) p. 730. 4to..

with thistles, but having an abundance of olive-trees scattered over its surface.

Still gradually ascending, and passing, at intervals, round some stoney eminences that broke the general level of this plain, we arrived, at one o'clock, in sight of Shufammer, which opened itself suddenly upon us from behind a rocky hill. The approach to this village is interesting, from the woody clothing of the valley below, contrasted with the bare and rugged face of the elevated lands above.

Shufammer is a village, built on a hill, and is distinctly visible both from Accho and from the road to the northward of it. It is composed of sixty or eighty white stone dwellings, rising above each other in stages, like the houses in the steep streets of Malta, or those of Milo in the Grecian archipelago; and has, towering up from its centre, a large square enclosure, resembling a castle, giving to it the appearance of a fortified post. *

On ascending the road which led up by the side of the village, we noticed a well at the foot of it, which was ascended to by steps, and its square brink of masonry supported by four arches. It appeared of considerable depth from the length of the cord used for the bucket, and there was here a party of women drawing water. We met also females to the number of forty or fifty, laden with pitchers on their heads and shoulders, going down to the well, and learned from them that it was the only source of supply for the town, as there was no water to be found within it.

Above this, we saw a party of men and boys playing at cricket, using a round staff for a bat, and a ball neatly covered with goat's skin, and tolerably elastic. The dresses of both men and women were similar to those described at Soor; and the soldiers, of whom

This place corresponds with the distance given by Benjamin of Tudela, to a place called Caphur Nahum, which he says was distant from Accho four leagues, retained its ancient name in his time, and was seated on a still higher aspect than Mount Carmel.

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thirty or forty are stationed here within the central inclosure of the town, wore also the garments of Arabs rather than of Turks. The inhabitants are chiefly Christians and Mohammedans, but there are also some Druses, and a few Jews among them.

At the south-east end of the town, we noticed a modern cemetery, and a fragment of some ancient vaulted building of excellent masonry, part of the wall of which, and three arched windows, were all that now remained.

From hence the road was chiefly over rugged hills of lime-stone rock, with here and there only patches of soil, until at two o'clock we reached a place called Beer-el-Jahoush. On the brow of the hill, near the road by which we passed, were fragments of pillars and large hewn stones; and in the valley beneath were four wells giving name to the place, and probably of ancient structure.

From this eminence we saw the sea in the bay of Accho; and descending, passed in half an hour afterwards the bed of a torrent, now dry, although it had rained violently on the preceding day. It was merely called a Waadi* by our guide, and was therefore not likely to have marked the passage of any large river. Our road now began to be more barren and rocky throughout, until at four we reached a small cluster of cottages, scarcely distinguishable from the grey stones of the hill on which they stood; and there being here a brook, at which females were washing, both we and our animals drank of its waters.

From hence we continually ascended over lime-stone hills, until the prospect became one unbroken scene of sterility as far as the eye could reach, and presented not only uncultivated, but uncultivatable lands all around us. We left the village of Sepphoury a little on our left, behind a rising ground; and learned, that, as all its inhabitants are Mohammedans, the very ruins which remained of the house of St. Anna had been entirely demolished,

* An Arabic word, applied equally to a narrow valley and to the bed of a stream.

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