petty spring of water, where there were some dirty, but otherwise
good-looking women, who pointed out our path towards the castle at the
top of the hill.

The _Ibn Simhhan_ people (being the great rivals of _Abu Gosh_) had often
invited me to visit them at this castle,--describing with ardour the
abundance and excellence of its springs of water, and the salubrity of
its atmosphere.

On arriving at the "_Ras_," after a tedious and very wearisome
journey,--difficult as the place is of access,--I found it to fall far
below those promises. There are no springs near it. The only water is
brought up by the women from the one which we had passed far below. Only
within the castle (which was begun while building forty-four years
before) some old wells, with good masonry stones, were discovered. These
are now put into good order, and kept full, probably in readiness at any
time against a siege by the faction of Abu Gosh. Many battles and sieges
take place in these remote places that the Pasha of Jerusalem never hears
of.

Although of modern origin, much of the earliest part of the castle is
already falling to decay--such as gates, steps, etc. It was a melancholy
spectacle to walk about the place, reminding one of some small
middle-aged castles that I have seen in Scotland, burnt or destroyed
during old times of civil warfare; or resembling my recollection, after
many long years, of Scott's description of the Baron Bradwardine's castle
in its later period. And the same melancholy associations recurred
yesterday at Mejdal Yaba.

The people assured us that the tortuous and rocky road that we had taken
from Ras el 'Ain was the best and nearest that we could have taken.

We were received by a couple of relatives of Ibn Simhhan, who is now
Governor of Lydd; but they conducted us to the next village, _Janiah_, to
be entertained there by the rest of the family. On our descent to the
village, we met our hosts coming to meet us.

_Janiah_ is a poor place; and we had glimpses of curious groups and
scenes within the best one of the wretched houses. We were received in a
large room, to which the access was by a steep and broken set of steps
outside of the house. In the street below was a circle of the elders of
the village; and at the time of sunset, one of them mounted on the corner
of a garden wall to proclaim the _Adan_, or Moslem call to prayers. I
did not observe that he was at all attended to.

A good number of the l