1848.] TIBERIAS. 483 



upon the Sabbath day ; and on that tufted hillock, where the 

 hedda* makes its nest, stood their Master, after his glorious 

 triumph over death and the grave, when he bade them cast 

 their net on the right side of the ship, and they should find.t 



With the exception of Tiberias, there are no towns of partic- 

 ular importance on the banks of the lake, except as connected 

 with the localities of Scripture. A short distance north of 

 the former is the miserable village of Mejdel, the ancient 

 Magdala, and the birth-place of Mary Magdalene ; but all 

 the other places of interest are in ruins, and in some cases it 

 is difficult even to ascertain their sites with any degree of 

 precision. Tiberias is a walled town, and contains from fif- 

 teen hundred to two thousand inhabitants ; one thousand of 

 whom are Jews, and the remainder are Mussulmans. It 

 contains two synagogues, and a dilapidated fortification usu- 

 ally tenanted by a few Turkish soldiers. The private houses 

 are built in the same manner as those of the villages in the 

 interior, though they often have several rooms, and occa- 

 sionally stone floors. The streets are crooked and narrow ; 

 and, as the owners of the fields lying in the immediate vicin- 

 ity all reside within the walls, they are often obstructed with 

 loaded camels, mules, and donkeys. Great numbers of 

 swallows have their nests amid the ruins, and sometimes they 

 are allowed to build their habitations inside of the occupied 

 houses. Cleanliness is not one of the cardinal virtues of the 

 inhabitants ; vermin are pretty abundant ; and Tiberias might 

 be appropriately called, " the Paradise of Fleas." 



(2.) Throughout Palestine, the condition of the Jews, as a 

 general rule, is miserable in the extreme. In Tiberias, how- 

 ever, it is somewhat mollified ; and though they are often 

 made to feel the heaviness of the Turkish yoke, they are less 

 exposed to indignities than in many of the other cities and 

 towns in Palestine. This is one of the holy cities of the 

 Jews, and is held in peculiar veneration by them. Accord- 

 ing to their traditions, Jacob resided here, and the advent of 

 the expected Messiah is to take place on the shores of the 



* The heron, or king-fisher. t J° nn xxi , 6 



