328 
A CHUSADE IN THE EAST. 
and stunted oxen. On the left, two hours from Tiberias, we 
passed the village of Lubieh, pleasantly situated on a mount¬ 
ain slope, and surrounded by groves of olives. Sometime 
during the forenoon, we passed through the famous plain of 
Kurim Hatin, where was fought one of the bloodiest of the 
battles between the Christians and the Saracens that occurred 
during the Crusades. Saladin, the hero of the Saracen hosts, 
here added to his fame by deeds of bravery scarcely paral¬ 
leled in the history of those sanguinary wars. It was on the 
plain of Kurin Hatim, according to some writers, that Christ 
fed the five thousand with the loaves, and on one of the neigh¬ 
boring heights preached his Sermon on the Mount; but the 
best authorities deny that there is any satisfactory evidence of 
this. 
In the valleys that swept down on the left, we saw a num¬ 
ber of Bedouin encampments ; and on the road met straggling 
parties of ragged and suspicious-looking fellows, armed with 
guns, who eyed us scowlingly, but always passed on when 
they caught sight of Yusef. The missionaries in Damascus 
had advised us to take a guard from Baneas to Nablous, as 
that was the most dangerous part of the road. We had heard 
a good many stories, especially of the dreadful state of things 
between Tiberias and Nazareth, where, it was said that it 
was an every-day occurrence to be knocked on the head and 
beaten within an inch of one’s life, if not killed outright, by 
the banditti who infested that region. Confident, however, 
that Yusef would slay them all if they attacked us, we dis¬ 
pensed with the guard, and encountered every risk, under a 
most agreeable sense of security. 
Early in the afternoon we passed through the village of 
Ker Kenna or Cana, and stopped at the lower part, near a 
fine grove of pomegranates, where we found excellent water. 
It was here that Christ turned the water into wine, and we 
could not but feel as we drank from the flowing spring, that 
there was something in its scriptural associations to make it 
a memorable event in our journey. There was a luxury in 
sitting here by the fragrant pomegranates smoking our pipes 
after our morning’s ride, and watching the children as they 
