place of his sacrifice, nor does it probably pretend to be so. Once the neighbourhood of the scene to be commemorated had been reached, the chapel would be built simply on the most convenient spot. The probable real scene of the famous contest was shown to us a little farther on, when we had begun the descent. Here there is a great green amphitheatre, where a vast multitude of people might be assembled. On one side is a fountain which is believed never to run dry, the reader will remember that in spite of the great drought there appears to have been no difficulty in finding the water which Elijah asked for. The steep slope, down which we had to make our way to the plain, might very well have been the scene of the desperate flight of the priests of Baal, pursued by the mob of Israelites in all the ardour of a very new conversion, burning to expiate their backslidings by the slaughter of somebody else, and the river Kishon would naturally be the first barrier to their escape. The sea is not in sight from the place mentioned, indeed we had turned our backs upon it; but Elijah's servant could easily have run up to the top

of the ridge, from which he could see over the Mediterranean far away to the westward. I have rarely, even in the Holy Land, been brought so perfectly face to face with a scene from any history, as in that dell of Carmel.

From the heights we thus traversed a really magnificent view was obtained, both of what we were leaving behind us and of the country we had yet to travel through. Coming suddenly upon the landscape, as we did at the summit of the ridge, there was something very striking in the aspect of the great plain of Esdraelon below us. There is an air of peace and prosperity about the broad level expanse, checkered with the various colours of the different crops, with the little river Kishon winding its way through the midst of it. Yet it has been known as a battle-field for more than three thousand years, and all its memories are of blood. It was from that queer round hill of Tabor over against us, that Barak and his host dashed down upon the army of Sisera as they laboured through the partly inundated plain, which made their dreaded chariots a mere encumbrance: here, many centuries later, was the scene of one of the last

combats of Christian and Moslem; and here, too, after a lapse of five hundred years more, the Mohammedans had to encounter a very different enemy in the rough French heroes, who questioned each other on the march (as one of their number relates),—" Qu'est-ce-que c'est que la Terre Sainte? Pourquoi ce nomlà ?” The country where the new Gospel of peace and love has left its traditions lies among the hills beyond. The glimpse of white on the two-peaked hill to the east of Mount Tabor is the end of the village of Nain; and another white building to the west we were told was above Nazareth, which was to be our haltingplace for that night. It seemed discouragingly far away from us.

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VI.

GALILEE.

THE road across the plain of Esdraelon was not an interesting one, except for the as yet novel incident of fording the Kishon; but when we got among the small hills about Nazareth, the scenery became less monotonous. We were rather late on the road, having started late, and were constantly coming upon groups of picturesquely attired country people returning from their work in the fields to one of the many villages we passed on the way. Nazareth itself was reached just before nightfall. Turning the corner of one of the hills, we came suddenly upon it, a rather ghostly-looking mass of white buildings staring out in the waning light from their background of dark trees. Lights were beginning to flash out at

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various points along the hillside, and at one place a broad glare marked the scene of a wedding-feast, which was carried on to a late hour with much shouting and discharging of guns the usual sign of rejoicing in these parts. It was quite dark by the time we arrived at our camp, and there was nothing to be seen for that night but the stores of a few merchants of native metal ornaments, who made their way to our tents; while our dragoman, who was a Nazarene by birth, gave audience to flocks of cousins outside. In the morning we made the little round of visits to the various spots connected with the sacred story. They are not very striking. The sanctity of the house of the Virgin and the scene of the Annunciation, in the crypt of the Latin church, was somewhat spoiled for us by the appendage of the Loretto legend; but the kind of cavedwellings shown to us might possibly have been what they pretend to be. In another Latin church we were shown a great block of stone supposed to have served as a table for our Lord and His disciples, which is perhaps also within the bounds of possibility. I am