aiz, so I took my leave,
riding towards Cocab. At an Arab encampment we got some _Leben
Sheneeni_, (soured fresh milk, most delicious in hot weather,) and drank
almost a pailful of it between myself, the kawwas, and the muleteer. The
heat was prodigious. In the camp were only women and children at home:
the former employed in weaving and dyeing woollen trappings for
horses,--serving to keep off the plague of flies,--of which articles we
bought two.

'Akeeli had sent an escort to accompany us as far us the castle. One of
the men was a care-worn old fellow from the far north, wearing a very
heavy sheepskin coat with wide sleeves, to keep out the scorching heat of
the sun, and his face covered with a _mandeel_ or cotton handkerchief, to
protect him from reflection from the ground; his venerable musket
terminated in a rusty bayonet.

We went southwards until opposite the bridge, then turned westward to the
hills, and forded the water of _Wadi Berreh_. The ascent was difficult
and long, during which our escort carried on a conversation in the
Arnaout language.

At the summit I sent on the servants and baggage to Jeneen, there to
pitch the tents for us--the sheepskin man, the kawwas, and I turned aside
to survey the old castle at Cocab el Hawa. It has been a large and noble
erection in a strong natural position; the trench and sloping walls are
pretty perfect, the stone-work being still sharp-edged; the portion of
the defences looking towards the Jordan consists of large stones
rabbeted, equal to any work in Jerusalem or elsewhere, which must be an
indication of a fortress long before the time of the Crusaders--though
the stones are not of dimensions equal to those of the Jerusalem Temple
wall.

All the masonry, except the rabbeted work, is constructed from the dark
basalt which abounds in that district. All the space within walls, not
remaining entire, and part of the trench, is occupied by miserable
hovels, forming a sort of village, with patches of tobacco cultivation
attached to the dwellings.

But what can one say in description of the glorious prospect from that
eminence? It seemed to me to exceed the wonders of Nebi Osha: the
principal objects in view being the Lake of Tiberias, the river Jordan,
Tabor, Duhy, Beisan, Carmel, Hermon, a stretch of the Hauran, and the
cleft of the Yarmuk. One thing surprised me, which was to see how far
South Cocab is from Tabor, it had never appeared so before from the
di