FROM ACRE TO NAZARETH. 125 
as an article of elesrance and of luxury, than of chap. 
IV. 
comfort or of utility, we can perhaps only s. ,.. ./ 
explain the history of its introduction by 
reference to events, which, for more than two 
centuries, enabled the inhabitants of such distant 
countries to maintain an intercourse with each 
other. 
In the beginning of our journey, several of 
the escort amused us by an exhibition of the 
favourite exercise called Djerid: also by an 
equestrian sport, resembling a game called 
* Prisoner's Base ' in England. In the plain near 
Acre w^e passed a small conical hill, upon which 
we observed a ruin and several caverns : this 
answers to the situation assigned by Josephus for 
the Sepulchre ofMemnon". We crossed the sandy 
bed of the river Belus, near to its mouth, where River 
the stream is shallow enough to allow of its 
being forded on horseback : here, it is said, 
Hercules found the plant Colocasia, which effected 
the cure of his wounds. According to Pliny, 
the art of making glass was discovered by some 
mariners who were boiling a kettle upon the 
sand of this river ^: it continued for ages to 
(2) Joseph. De Bell. Jnd. lib. ii. c. 9. 
(3) Hist. Nat. lib, xxxvi. uti^. 56. 
