SKETCHES OF PALESTINE. 405 



color, no doubt the offerings of those who either expected or had 

 received benefit from the springs in the road to which it lay. 

 Throughout the cliffs of the overhanging mountain on the west, 

 are rude grottoes at different heights ; and opposite to the tree are 

 two arched caves, one of them having a square door of entrance 

 beneath the arch, and both of them being apparently executed with 

 care. We had not time to examine them, though we conceived 

 them to have been most probably ancient sepulchres. 



' In less than an hour after our leaving the town, we arrived at 

 the baths. The present building, erected over the springs here, is 

 small and mean, and is altogether the work of Mahommedans. It 

 is within a few yards of the edge of the lake, and contains a bath 

 for males and a bath for females, each with their separate apartment 

 annexed. Over the door of the former is an Arabic inscription ; 

 ascending to this door by a few steps, it leads to an outer room, 

 with an open window, a hearth for preparing coffee, and a small 

 closet for the use of the attendant. Within this is the bath itself, a 

 square room of about eighteen or twenty feet, covered with a low 

 dome, and having benches in recesses on each side. The cistern 

 for containing the hot water is in the centre of this room, and is 

 sunk below the pavement; it is a square of eight or nine feet only, 

 and the spring rises to supply it through a small head of some ani- 

 mal ; but this is so badly executed, that it is difficult to decide for 

 what it was intended. My thermometer rose here instantly to 130, 

 which was its utmost limit ; but the heat of the water was certainly 

 greater. It was painful to the hand as it issued from the spout, and 

 could only be borne gradually by those who bathed in the cistern. 



' There is here only an old man and a little boy to hold the horses, 

 and make coffee for the visitors ; and those who bathe, strip in the 

 inner room, and wash themselves in the cistern, without being fur- 

 nished with cloths, carpets, cushions, or any of the usual comforts 

 of a Turkish bath. The whole establishment, indeed, is of the 

 poorest kind, and the sight of tfee interior is rather disgusting than 

 inviting. 



' At this bath we met with a soldier whom they called Mahom- 

 med Mumlouk, and I learnt that he was a German by birth, having 

 become a Mamlouk and Mahommedan when a boy. He was now 

 the basuadar or treasurer to the Agha of Tabareeah, and was so 

 completely a Turk as to profess, that he would not willingly return 

 to his native country, even if he could do so under the most favor- 

 able circumstances. He spoke the Turkish and Arabic languages 

 equally well ; and it was in the latter that we conversed, as he had 

 entirely forgotten his native tongue, though not more than thirty - 

 five years of age. 



'Besides the spring which supplies the present baths, there are 

 several others near it, all rising close to the edge of the lake, and all 

 equally hot, finely transparent, and slightly sulphureous, resembling 

 exactly the spring at El-Hame. There are also extensive ruins 

 around, which are most probably the remains of Roman edifices ; 



