MY HOME IN PALESTINE. 129 



which the ridge may be traversed, and we may drop 

 down upon the plain near Haifa on the opposite side 

 of the mountain. The native name for this spot is 

 Ain Siah ; and according to tradition, it was on the 

 coast opposite the gorge that the crusading king, 

 Saint Louis of France, was wrecked when the monks 

 gave him shelter and hospitality, and in return for 

 it he helped them at a later period to collect funds 

 for the construction of a larger building, which was 

 afterwards erected on the site where the present 

 monastery now stands. Not one, probably, in a 

 hundred tourists who visit that monastery have ever 

 heard of, much less explored, the romantic glen, 

 scarcely an hour's ride distant from it, whose rocky 

 recesses gave birth to the now celebrated order of the 

 Carmelite monks. 



Emerging once more on to the plain of Sharon, and 

 continuing southward, we presently find ourselves 

 entering extensive olive -groves. The country we 

 have been traversing is somewhat stony, but so fer- 

 tile as to have tempted the German colony to pur- 

 chase a considerable tract of land. They were, 

 however, soon compelled to abandon the attempt 

 to cultivate it themselves, owing to the turbulent 

 character of the population of the village of El Tireh, 

 to which the gardens we are now entering belong. 

 In spite of every effort to conciliate them, it was 

 found impossible to overcome their unruly and thiev- 

 ish propensities ; and rather than risk collisions, the 



VOL. I. I 



