[p.318] ground is for the greater part uncultivated and without trees.
At two hours and a quarter is Khan Djob Yousef (Arabic), or the Khan of
Josephs Well, situated in a narrow plain. The Khan is falling rapidly
into ruin; near it is a large Birket. Here is shewn the well into which
Joseph was let down by his brothers; it is in a small court-yard by the
side of the Khan, is about three feet in diameter, and at least thirty
feet deep. I was told that the bottom is hewn in the rock: its sides
were well lined with masonry as far as I could see into it, and the
water never dries up, a circumstance which makes it difficult to believe
that this was the well into which Joseph was thrown. The whole of the
mountain in the vicinity is covered with large pieces of black stone;
but the main body of the rock is calcareous. The country people relate
that the tears of Jacob dropping upon the ground while he was in search
of his son turned the white stones black, and they in consequence call
these stones Jacobs tears (Arabic). Josephs well is held in veneration
by Turks as well as Christians; the former have a small chapel just by
it, and caravan travellers seldom pass here without saying a few prayers
in honour of Yousef. The Khan is on the great road from Akka to
Damascus. It is inhabited by a dozen Moggrebyn soldiers, with their
families, who cultivate the fields near it.
We continued to descend from Djob Yousef; the district is here called
Koua el Kerd (Arabic), and a little lower down Redjel el Kaa (Arabic).
At one hour and a half from the Djob Yousef we came to the borders of
the lake of Tiberias. At a short distance to the E. of the spot where we
reached the plain, is a spring near the border of the lake, called Ain
Tabegha (Arabic), with a few houses and a mill; but the water is so
strongly impregnated with salt as not to be drinkable. The few
inhabitants of this miserable place live by fishing. To the N.E. of
Tabegha,