extended enumeration of things clean and unclean, of what might be eaten and CHAPTER what not: are these laws and customs still in force in this country to any XIII. - considerable extent ?

unclean.

practice.

Those distinctions are still kept up among various classes of people, but not Animals exactly as Moses ordained. The camel was forbidden to the Jews, and it is clean and still rejected by all except the wild Arabs. The cony is so rare that I have not heard of its being eaten, but suppose it would be allowed, as it resembles the rabbit, which few, except Jews, hesitate to eat. Swine are still held in abomination by Moslems, Jews, Druses, and most Orientals. Even some Christians refuse swine's flesh. Except by the Jews, there is no attention, apparently, paid now to the distinction between what has and what has not Modern scales, but anything from the sea fit to eat is used without hesitation. The Jewish eagle, ossifrage, and osprey, vultures, hawks, kites, owls, ravens, and crows, after their kinds, are all rejected. The stork is sometimes eaten by Druses. Swans, geese, ducks, snipes, and all kinds of pigeons, doves, partridges, quails, larks, and an endless variety of small birds, are highly prized. The locust is still eaten by Bedawin Arabs; so is the snail; but I have never heard that beetles were used for food, and suppose it to be a mistranslation in Leviticus xi. 22. Bats, rats, mice, the tortoise, hedgehog, squirrels, ferrets, and lizards of all varieties, are rejected. "Whatsoever goeth upon his paws, among all manner of beasts that go on all four, those are unclean ;" and they are generally so to this day.

We have one curiosity of Old Tyre yet to examine, and had better devote Walls of this fine morning to it. I wish to show you some of her most ancient walls. Tyre. They lie buried beneath those sand-heaps where the causeway is joined to the island. The workmen sent to open the entrance for us say they have found the place; and while they are clearing away the sand we will trace the line of the wall from sea to sea. This large mass of old rubble-work marks the southeast angle, and from it the direction of the original wall along the margin of the island, toward the north, is easily followed to the opposite bay; and by descending into this vault we can see what sort of workmanship it was. Take off your coat, and slide down after me, crab-fashion, and with as much caution as you have at command; and now you stand beneath the most ancient vault that ever spread its arch over your head. Stop a moment until we light our tapers, for the interior is as dark as the centre of a tar-barrel.

We are nearly on the water-line, and are passing along the extreme eastern ledge of the island. The main wall is on our left, protected outside by this strong arched culvert, which rests against it, forming a vast vault, which probably extended the whole length of the island from south to north. In it thousands of soldiers could stand in safety and shoot through these lancet How deloop-holes. Here were congregated those bold Tyrians who so long and so des- fended. perately resisted the fierce Macedonian, and so often thwarted his efforts by destroying his works. Give your particular attention to the bevel of these great stones in the main wall. Let your eye become familiar with it, for you

PART

I.

Fosse of Tyre.

will learn to look with the respect due to most venerable antiquity upon every stone that has this mark upon it.

It would be easy to open a ditch along the line of this wall from south to north, and thus again make Tyre an island. Indeed, William of Tyre says that in his time this was actually done. He calls the ditch a "vallum late patens,”—something more than an ordinary fosse; and into it the sea could be introduced from both sides. I regard this section of the old wall as by far the most interesting relic of ancient Tyre.

PART II.-NORTHERN PALESTINE.

[Our travellers now cross the Scriptural boundary of the tribe of Asher, the northernmost of the twelve tribes, and enter the land of Israel. The tour through northern Palestine may be divided into two parts, in each of which the country is crossed from west to east, and from east to west.

In the first of these journeys, setting out from Tyre, we traverse the territories of Asher and Naphtali, abounding in picturesque highland scenery. Among other places we visit Dan, now Tell el Kady; Banias, anciently called Panias, and afterwards Cæsarea Philippi; and KedeshNaphtali, one of the cities of refuge. Few of the other places in this district are celebrated in Bible history. The chief interest of this excursion is in connection with the sources of the Jordan, which are in this district. The Jordan has several sources, the longest of its streams being the Hasbâny, but the most interesting that which gushes out of the rock at Banias. A very full account is given of the Lake Hûleh, called in the Bible the Waters of Merom, and of the country around. Leaving the Haleh, we come by Kedesh-Naphtali, Safed, and other places, in a zigzag direction to the sea at Acre.

excursion.

In the second excursion through northern Palestine, our route lies chiefly through the tribes of Zebulun, Naphtali, and Issachar. The Lake of Galilee is the great centre of interest in this Striking eastward from Acre (after visiting Carmel), we reach the Lake of Galilee by el Mughar, and traverse its whole margin. Leaving it at Magdala, we come in a southwesterly direction to Nazareth. The mountains on the east of the plain of Esdraelon, and the plain itself are then visited, and we again return to the sea at Cæsarea Palestina, once the Roman capital of Palestine, now an utter ruin.- ED.]

IT is delightful to be again on our journey, and the more so that the region Boundary into which we are about to penetrate is absolutely unknown to me.

We are now crossing the territory of Asher toward the Kanah which belonged to that tribe; but it is not probable that the Jews ever had possession of this plain, nor even certain that Kanah itself was inhabited by them. East of it lies the country of the warlike tribe of Naphtali, where Jews always resided from the days of Joshua until several centuries after the destruction

* [Kanah, the name of the first place in Palestine proper of which notice is taken in this hapter, is not to be confounded with Cana of Galilee. The present Kanah was in the tribe of Asher, and is probably the Kanah mentioned by Joshua (xvi. 8), as belonging to that tribe.— ED.]

of Asher.

PART

II.

Want of historic interest.

Hiram's tomb.

of Jerusalem; and even yet they cling to certain places in it with invincible tenacity. How beautiful the sea, the city, and the plain, from these hills! and as the eye runs along the sloping declivities north and south, it rests on many a ruin which bears indubitable marks of Phoenician origin. I have wandered from place to place among them, hoping to find inscriptions in that ancient language, but in vain; and since they have no historic interest, it is useless to load the memory, or cram one's note-book with long lists of unpronounceable names. Here, however, is something which merits attention. That singular structure is called Hiram's Tomb,-upon what authority, except native tradition, I know not. But as there is nothing in the monument itself inconsis

tent with the idea that it marks the final resting-place of that ancient king of Tyre, I am inclined to allow the claim to pass unquestioned. It bears about it unmistakeable marks of extreme antiquity. The base consists of two tiers of great stones, each three feet thick, thirteen feet long, and eight feet

XIV.

eight inches broad. Above this is one huge stone, a little more than fifteen CHAPTER feet long, ten broad, and three feet four inches thick. Over this is another, twelve feet three inches long, eight broad, and six high. The top stone is a little smaller every way, and only five feet thick. The entire height is twenty-one feet. There is nothing like it in this country, and it may well have stood, as it now does, ever since the days of Solomon. These large, broken sarcophagi scattered around it are assigned by tradition to Hiram's mother, wife, and family. Concerning them nothing need or can be said. This whole neighbourhood abounds in Phoenician remains, and it is quite natural that it should be so. The situation is beautiful; near enough, and sufficiently high, to command the then glorious prospect of plain, city, and crowded harbour; and no doubt the summer seats and summer residences of Tyre's "merchant princes" crowned these hills. This village of Hanaweih is built out of the ruins of such palaces, and similar remains lie scattered over all the neighbourhood.

Are there any of the cedar-trees which Hiram transported by sea to Joppa still found on these mountains?

I do not suppose there ever were any, for Lebanon terminates with Jebel Locality of Rihan, far to the north-east of Tyre. These lower mountains, comprising the the cedars. territories of Asher and Naphtali, are the favourite zone of the oak and the terebinth. Even the pine is rarely seen, and the cedar never. It is only on the loftier ranges of Lebanon that they flourish, and the true Biblical cedar is now confined to a single locality.1 Hiram, I suppose, had the control of these mountains, and brought the cedar-tree to the coast at Tripoli, Batrone, Jebail, or Beirût.

Have you ever visited these cedars?

the neigh

Many times. They are situated high up on the western slope of Lebanon, ten hours south-east from Tripoli. Besherrah is directly west, in the romantic gorge of the Khadîsha, two thousand feet below them, and Ehden is three hours distant on the road to Tripoli. In no other part of Syria are the mountains so Alpine, the proportions so gigantic, the ravines so profound and awful. You must not leave the country without visiting the cedars. There are several Romantic routes to them, and all wild, exciting, delightful. One of the most romantic scenery of is to climb Lebanon from Beirût quite to the base of Jebel Knîseh, then wind bourhood. northward around the heads of the stupendous gorges made by the rivers of Beirût, Antelîas, Dog River, Nahr Ibrahim, Nahr el Jous, and the Khadîsha. I have repeatedly followed that wildest of routes, with or without a path, as the case might be, clinging to the shelving declivities midway to heaven, with a billowy wilderness of rocks and ravines sinking away westward down to the sea. The very thought of it at this minute is positively intoxicating. The

1 Those travellers who speak of finding these cedars in abundance on other parts of Lebanon, are simply mistaken in the tree. There are considerable groves of cedar in various places, generally along the very highest range,-for example, north of Tomat Niha, above Barûk, Aplicah, and other similar localities; but they are quite different from the cedar of Lebanon.