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u8 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
thirty feel in height, formed of rubble faced with stone. The lower part is crumblin
It was the er block of a fortress built here by the Crusaders (see page 105). This place
is now quite abandoned, its walls have fallen, and the cliffs are giving way. The modern
village of Tanturah is about half a mile farther south, and stands on the site of the ancient
I i.ianitish city of Dor (see Joshua xvil 11), but all along the shore there are columns
capitals, partly embedded in the ground, slabs of marble, and hewn stones, remains of the
Roman city Dora. Women and children maybe seen collecting in large baskets the CO
rusted salt, which settles in the natural hollows and artificial basins of tin on the
h below. Herds of cattle and goats, the chief wealth of Tanturah, graze on ti
plain, which is here overgrown with thorns and thistles, dwarf mimosas, and low brushwood.
The village of I anturah consists of about forty or fifty rudely built houses, made of irregularly
piled blocks of anciently hewn stone, fragments of broken columns, and masses of mud and
clay. < h\ one occasion, in the month of September, when we were on our way from Jafl
to Haifa (see page 83) in an Arab sailing boat, we landed at Tanturah to pursue
journey by land, because ,l the winds were contrary." It was at the same time of the year
(after the Fast of ihe Atonement, which is kept on the tenth day of Tishri,or towards the end
September), that St Paul was tossed about by " contrary winds" on this sea, and whei
he .u'd, "sailing was dangerous" (Acts xxvii. 9).
We were assured that the voyage from Jaffa to Haifa by sea would not occupy more than
1 or ten hours, and as we were extremely anxious to arrive then! as quickly as possible
my brother made arrangements with the owner of a little Arab sailing-boat to conve) us there,
with our servants and baggage. We were ready and waiting, when at midnight he sent word
to us that 'the wind was favourable," and that he was ready to sail. We hurried down to
the dark wharf accompanied by our kawass and my servant Katrine, a woman oi Bethlehem,
and two Carmelite monks who had requested permission to travel with us. The great water-
was opened for US, and I was somehow dropped gently into a little rowin-bo.it
far down in the darkness below, where I was taken charge of by two sturdy boatmen. After
much shouting ami jolting we were all huddled together, and the boat skimmed rapidly 1
the water to the sailing vessel which awaited us outside the shallow rock-encircled harl
and to which with some little difficulty we were transferred. It was divided into three parts
the central portion being like an uncovered hold, four feet deep and eight feet square. Ihe
deck a\\A aft, wore encumbered with ship's tackle and crowded with sailors, who v
singing lustily. Ihe hold, lighted by two lanterns, was matted and set apart for pass<r
and lu ( )ur portmanteaus and carpet bags served us for a couch, and the monks sat on
their saddle bags, wrapped in their comfortable looking hooded robes. boor Katrine, who
had never been on th before, was verj much alarmed She rolled herself up in her cl<
stretched herself full length by my side, and was happily soon fast asleep. < hit* kaw >ked
pipe in company with the captain above, and an Italian, who had smuggled himself and his
OB board in the hurry and darkness, kept aloof with the sailors. The sky Was bflgW |
