SZAFFAD [P.317] With Very Little Basalt Or Tufwacke.

At the end of three hours and a half, after a short descent, we reached Szaffad (Arabic), the ancient Japhet; it is a neatly built town, situated round a hill, on the top of which is a castle of Saracen structure.

The castle appears to have undergone a thorough repair in the course of the last century, it has a good wall, and is surrounded by a broad ditch. It commands an extensive view over the country towards Akka, and in clear weather the sea is visible from it. There is another but smaller castle, of modern date, with halfruined walls, at the foot of the hill. The town is built upon several low hills, which divide it into different quarters; of these the largest is inhabited exclusively by Jews, who esteem Szaffad as a sacred place. The whole may contain six hundred houses, of which one hundred and fifty belong to the Jews, and from eighty to one hundred to the Christians. In 1799 the Jews quarter was completely sacked by the Turks, after the retreat of the French from Akka; the French had occupied Szaffad with a garrison of about four hundred men, whose outposts were advanced as far as the bridge of Beni Yakoub. The town is governed by a Mutsellim, whose district comprises about a dozen villages. The garrison consists of Moggrebyns, the greater part of whom have married here, and cultivate a part of the neighbouring lands. The town is surrounded with large olive plantations and vineyards, but the principal occupations of the inhabitants are indigo dyeing, and the manufacture of cotton cloth. On every Friday a market is held, to which all the peasants of the neighbourhood resort. Mount Tabor bears from Szaffad S.S.W.

June 22d.--As there is no Khan for travellers at Szaffad, and I had no letters to any person in the town, I was obliged to lodge at the public coffee house. We left the town early in the morning, and descended the side of the mountain towards the lake; here the

AIN TABEGHA

[p.318] ground is for the greater part uncultivated and without trees. At two hours and a quarter is Khan Djob Yousef (Arabic), or the Khan of Joseph’s Well, situated in a narrow plain. The Khan is falling rapidly into ruin; near it is a large Birket. Here is shewn the well into which Joseph was let down by his brothers; it is in a small court-yard by the side of the Khan, is about three feet in diameter, and at least thirty feet deep. I was told that the bottom is hewn in the rock: its sides were well lined with masonry as far as I could see into it, and the water never dries up, a circumstance which makes it difficult to believe that this was the well into which Joseph was thrown. The whole of the mountain in the vicinity is covered with large pieces of black stone; but the main body of the rock is calcareous.

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