CLARKE'S TRAVELS. 
tiding aloof, and sulky, holding no communication even with 
Ills own countrymen and companions; until at length, having 
advanced to a considerable distance into the plain of Esdrae- 
lon, we espied a large camp ; this our conductors recognized 
as consisting of cavalry belonging to Djezzar. We therefore 
directed our course toward the tents. 
As we crossed this immense plain to the camp, we had a fine 
view of Mount Thabor ,* standing quite insular, toward the 
east. The Arabs were said to be in great number upon all 
the hills, but particularly upon or near to that mountain. We 
found Djezzar’s troops encamped about the centre of this vast 
plain, opposite to some heights where the French were strongly 
fortified during their last campaign in Syria. The camp con¬ 
tained about three hundred cavalry, having more the appear¬ 
ance of banditti than of any regular troops; and indeed it was 
from tribes of rovers that they were principally derived. Two 
days before our arrival, upon Sunday, July the fifth, they fell 
upon the Arabs who were teuding their numerous herds of cat¬ 
tle, seized their property, and killed many of them. They 
justified themselves, by urging that these Arabs never pay the 
tribute due to Djezzar, unless it be exacted by force ; and up¬ 
on such emergencies all is confiscated that falls into the hands 
©f the conquering party. Their battles exactly resemble those 
recorded in Scripture. A powerful prince attacks a number 
of shepherd kings, and robs them of their possessions ; their 
a flocks and herds, and silver and gold, and men servants, and 
maid servants, and camels and asses” In the earliest ages of 
history, we find such wars described as they happened in the 
same country, when “ Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were 
with him, smote the Rephaims in Ashteroth Ka.rn.rim, and the 
Zuzirns in Ham, and the Emiros in the plain of Kiriatlmim, and 
the Horites in their mount Seir, unto the plain of Paran, which 
Is b) the wilderness.” In the battle of July the fifth, after a 
skirmish, wherein forty Arabs were killed, and many wounded, 
* Reland writes this word Tabor ; but I have preferred following th e orthography 
of Eusebius (in Onomasl.) as cited by him, and of the other Greeks, who wrote ©a(3w£; 
because this exactly agrees with the name of the mountain as it is now pronounced ia 
the Holy Land. It is somewhat singular, that Relam:, who cites Adamnanus (dr. Lo- 
cis Sanctis) should have omitted to notice the following passage; because it occurs 
immediately after the extract he has inserted from that author, in his chapter Li Da 
Tab ore.” (Vid. Falsest! Iilust. lib. i. c. 51.) “ 8e<] inter haec et hoc est notandurm 
quod illius famosi montis nomen, Graacis litteris sic opnrteat scribi per 8 et to Iongum, 
©aBwy : Latinis vero’itteruiis cum asperatione Thabor, producta 6 littera. Hujus 
•orthographia vocabuli in Hbris Grsecitatis est inventa.” (Vide Mafiillon. tom. iv. Actor. 
Sanctor. Orb. Beneriicti. p. 517. A. Par. 1672.) A philologist in the seventh century, 
y P°n a rock ih the Hebrides, is a curious circumstance in history ; yet this is the fact, 
.for, in this instance, it is evidently the Abbot of Iona, and act Arcalfus the Freiack 
%shop f who makes the observation* 
