The Country People Relate
That The Tears Of Jacob Dropping Upon The Ground While He Was In Search
Of His Son Turned The White Stones Black, And They In Consequence Call
These Stones Jacob’S Tears (Arabic).
Joseph’s well is held in veneration
by Turks as well as Christians; the former have a small chapel just by
it, and caravan travellers seldom pass here without saying a few prayers
in honour of Yousef.
The Khan is on the great road from Akka to
Damascus. It is inhabited by a dozen Moggrebyn soldiers, with their
families, who cultivate the fields near it.
We continued to descend from Djob Yousef; the district is here called
Koua el Kerd (Arabic), and a little lower down Redjel el Kaa (Arabic).
At one hour and a half from the Djob Yousef we came to the borders of
the lake of Tiberias. At a short distance to the E. of the spot where we
reached the plain, is a spring near the border of the lake, called Ain
Tabegha (Arabic), with a few houses and a mill; but the water is so
strongly impregnated with salt as not to be drinkable. The few
inhabitants of this miserable place live by fishing. To the N.E. of
Tabegha,
HOTTEIN
[p.319] between it and the Jordan, are the ruins called Tel Houm
(Arabic), which are generally supposed to be those of Capernaum. Here is
a well of salt water, called Tennour Ayoub (Arabic). The rivulet El Eshe
(Arabic) empties itself into the lake just by. Beyond Tabegha we came to
a ruined Khan, near the borders of the lake, called Mennye (Arabic), a
large and well constructed building. Here begins a plain of about twenty
minutes in breadth, to the north of which the mountain stretches down
close to the lake. That plain is covered with the tree called Doum
(Arabic) or Theder (Arabic), which bears a small yellow fruit like the
Zaarour. It was now about mid-day, and the sun intensely hot, we
therefore looked out for a shady spot, and reposed under a very large
fig-tree, at the foot of which a rivulet of sweet water gushes out from
beneath the rocks, and falls into the lake at a few hundred paces
distant. The tree has given its name to the spring, Ain-et-Tin (Arabic);
near it are several other springs, which occasion a very luxuriant
herbage along the borders of the lake. The pastures of Mennye are
proverbial for their richness among the inhabitants of the neighbouring
countries. High reeds grow along the shore, but I found none of the
aromatic reeds and rushes mentioned by Strabo.[Greek. l.16, p.755] The
N.W. and S. shores are generally sandy, without reeds, but large
quantities grow at the mouths of the Wadys on the E. side.
In thirty-eight minutes from Khan Mennye we passed a small rivulet,
which waters Wady Lymoun. At about one hour’s distance from our road, up
in the mountain, we saw the village Sendjol (Arabic), about half an hour
to the west of which lies the village Hottein (Arabic). In forty-five
minutes we passed the large branch of the Wady Lymoun.
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