From this place the river flows through a tortu ous bed to a narrow pass between the base of Carmel and a projecting spur from the hills of Galilee, where it passes from the plain of Esdraelon to that of Acre. Here was the scene of another of the most memorable incidents in sacred history. High up on the brow of Carmel, above the stream, is a spot called Ilfuhrakah, the sacrifice' (Ti , Holocaustunt ; Freitag, Lex. Arab.); it is the place where Elijah offered his sacrifice ; and on the banks of the Kishon beneath, the eight hundred and fifty prophets of Baal were slain by bis command (i Kings xviii. ; Handbook, ii. 371 ; Van de Velde, Travels, i. 321 ; Stanley, S. and P., 347) The river continues to flow close along the rocky base of Cannel, in a tortuous bed, cut to tbe depth of fifteen or twenty feet in the loamy soil. The writer forded it in the month of May, on his way from the convent to Nazareth ; the stream was about three feet deep and thirty wide, with a very easy current, but the soft mud made passage difficult (cf. Robinson, ii. p. 365). The largest
perennial source of the Kishon is the fountain of Saadiyeli, which springs from thc base of Carmel, about three miles east of Haifa (Thomson, p. 435 ; Handbook, ii. 383). From this point to the sea the river winds through marshes. At its mouth are banks of fine sand, which any unusual swell in the river converts into dangerous quicksands (Van de Velde, i. 289).
Such is the river Kishon, that ancient river.' Its modern name is Nahr el-Mizkutta, which some have thought means the river of slaughter,' in allusion to the slaughter of the prophets of Baal on its banks. It may have this meaning, from the root to cut,' or slay ;' but the name may L_ also sionify river of the ford,' from another mean oethe same root (Freytag, Lex. Arab., s. v..; cf.'P.obinson, ii. 365) ; the latter is the interpre tation given of the name by the people of the country (but see Schwarze, pp. 49, seq. ; Stanley, S. and P., p. 347 ; Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. 86).—J. L. P.