MINOR INTERESTS 287 



Not far from Haifa, on the other bank, is the rock 

 of Abusir overhanging the second cataract. That 

 indefatigable traveller. Lady Louisa Magennis, missed, 

 in her short visit here, seeing the name of her grand- 

 father. Lord Belmore, who scratched it there in the 

 early days of the nineteenth century. The rock is 

 covered with names, mostly put there by guides ; 

 among the latter that of His late Majesty, King 

 Edward VII. 



Among minor interests were the school, very ably 

 conducted, the hospitals, the walks and talks in the 

 markets, and so on. Further north was the native 

 village. The plate or round piece of looking-glass 

 inserted over the door of each house kept away the 

 evil eye. 



In a couple of forts lived some Dervish emirs, 

 political prisoners. Most of them were veritable 

 patriarchs ; and many were the attempts made by 

 British officers, but frustrated by Slatin, to repatriate 

 them. 



Haifa could with justice be called a prison. Within 

 ten yards of the river the real desert begins, and 

 extends for hundreds of miles. One or two European 

 tramps have come to grief owing to their ignorance 

 or disregard of this fact. 



As the crops ripened the locusts appeared. Every 

 day wires, requesting relief from taxation, arrived. A 

 good test of the genuineness or otherwise of the state- 

 ment of damage done was to offer a loan of grain at a 

 low price to the soi-disant sufferers. It is difficult to 

 estimate damage in these parts. The land is made 



