GAMALIEL.-SIMEON.-THE VALLEY OF ELAH.

157

tudes must have escaped, not only in this region but elsewhere, or the college and the Sanhedrim at Yebna are mere fables. In the interest of humanity, I am glad to believe that the slaughter of the Jews was mainly limited to Jerusalem and a few other places, and that, as in most modern massacres, the larger part of the population did not perish.

Was this Gamaliel the celebrated teacher at whose feet Paul says he was brought up, "and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God?""

This is the common opinion; and it was he also who gave the cautious and humane advice to the Sanhedrim in Jerusalem, recorded in the fifth of Acts, whereby the apostles were "let go" after they had been beaten. The tradition is more doubtful that his father Simeon was that just and devout man who took up in his arms the infant Jesus, and said, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.” Even this may be true, for Simeon, son of Hillel, must have then been an old man. We have now said enough to invest Yebna with more interest than its present tumble-down appearance would entitle it.

The Peutingerian Tables make the distance between Yebna and Esdûd, the ancient Ashdod, to be ten miles, and we shall find it two hours and a half fair riding over the level plain. Here is a deep channel coming down towards the sea, with a bridge over it, for which I have no name but that of Wady Esdûd. In the plain above it has various branches, one of which passes down by a ruin called Mukhazin, and another comes from el Mesmiyeh, two hours east of Esdûd. Where it enters the plain from the hills of Judæa it is called Wady es Sŭnt, and is supposed to be the valley of Elah, in which David slew Goliath. Sunt means the acacia, and Elah the terebinth; and both names were probably given to the valley on account of the number of these trees that grew in it.

I am glad the day's ride is nearly over, and hope our tent will be under the shady trees near the large ruined khân of Esdûd, on the west of the village, for there alone we shall find refuge from this persecuting wind.

Acts xxii. 3.

? Acts v. 34-40.

3 Luke ii. 29.

ESDED-ASH DOD.

There seem to be extensive orchards and large groves of sycamore about Esdûd, but the sand from the shore comes quite up to the town.

Yes; and at no distant day it will entirely overwhelm it, and Ashdod will then be nothing but a heap of barren moving sand. The site, however, is protected by those groves, which break the course of the wind, and is further sheltered by an artificial tell, on the eastern side of which most of the houses are built. The tell was probably the acropolis of the old city.

Hot as it is, I must take a stroll round this ancient capital of the Philistines.

As you like; but I have seen enough of it on former occasions to dispense with a further survey in such air as this.

April 14th. Evening.

Well, you are soon satisfied. Did you find the marble columns of the temple of Dagon, or the grassy hill mentioned by Volney?

I saw nothing ancient, and think there is nothing of the kind to be seen except a few old stone buildings stowed away amongst the wretched mud hovels, so as not to be easily examined. The people,

ASHDOD.-EXTERMINATION OF THE PHILISTINES.

159

too, are so rude, that I was glad to escape from their impertinent curiosity. The village is surrounded by impenetrable hedges of cactus, and overshadowed by sycamores and other trees, which impart to it a singular aspect. I saw, also, camels drawing up water from deep wells with the Persian water-wheel. The plain eastwards seems boundless, and well cultivated. This is the extent of my discoveries; and there is more evidence of antiquity at this old khân than anywhere else about Ashdod.

You have enumerated nearly everything that is to be seen, and we cannot do better just now than discuss our dinner, which has been waiting this last half-hour.

What does Zechariah mean when he says that a bastard shall dwell in Ashdod?

Complete the quotation, and the idea becomes sufficiently evident" and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines." No stronger expression of contempt could be selected by the prophet, for a law of Moses declares that "a bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the Lord." Zechariah, in the ninth chapter, to which your allusion refers, foretells the utter extinction of the Philistine people and their power. "The king shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited;" and Ekron shall be as a Jebusite. That is as one of those tribes doomed to extermination for their iniquities. The present condition of these cities fulfils, in a remarkable manner, these inspired predictions. The king has long since perished from Gaza, Ashkelon is not inhabited, and the pride of the Philistines has been utterly cut off from Ashdod. And yet I would not imply that Ashdod, even in ruins, is destitute of interest. This high and ample mound, I suspect, constituted that impregnable acropolis which it took Psammetichus of Egypt twenty-nine years to subdue. Herodotus says this was the longest siege that any city ever sustained. Ashdod, like Jamnia, had a port, which, like that also, has entirely disappeared. The sea is some three miles distant, and the intervening space is a desert of moving sand, which has now reached the outskirts of the town. If you are anxious to see what vicissitudes this city of Dagon has passed Zech. ix. 5-73 Her. II. 157.

1 Deut. xxiii. 2.

through, and on what occasions it has played a part in the great drama of history, you can consult Joshua, and 1 Samuel, and 2 Chronicles, and Nehemiah, and Luke, who calls it Azotus in the eighth chapter of Acts,' and the Maccabees, and Josephus, who often mention it. The Greek and Roman historians and geographers speak of it, as do also Eusebius, Jerome, and other Christian fathers, under the same name. It figures largely in the Crusades, and, indeed, in nearly all other wars that have ever desolated the country. of the Philistines. This long and eventful story proclaims its inherent importance and the tenacity of its life; but it has finally fallen under, the heavy "burden" of prophecy, and sunk to the miserable village from which you have just escaped.

The statements of Herodotus appear to me somewhat perplexing, if not incredible. The site has no natural defences, nor are there any visible traces of those fortifications which so long resisted the attacks of Egypt's military power and skill. Besides, Uzziah conquered Ashdod in a single campaign, broke down her walls, and built cities in the surrounding territory nearly two hundred years before the time of Psammetichus. It was again captured by the Assyrians, B.C. 710, as we learn from the twentieth chapter of Isaiah, during that invasion, I suppose, when Tartan, Rabsaris, and Rabshakeh were sent from Lachish to deliver the haughty and blasphemous message of their master to King Hezekiah, as recorded in the eighteenth chapter of 2 Kings. In view of these facts, I find it difficult to believe that in less than a hundred years after this last invasion the city had again become so wealthy, and the fortifications so impregnable, as to sustain the longest siege on record, conducted by one of the greatest conquerors of that age.

I am not "careful to answer thee in this matter," nor to defend all the anecdotes and fables of that chatty, very entertaining, and generally accurate historian. But the walls of Ashdod were probably made of crude brick. They may have been enormously thick, and have included a considerable area of this fertile plain, so that the besieged could not only obtain abundance of water from their wells, but even raise large quantities of fruit and vegetables. Such walls, when neglected, would, of course, soon crumble back to dust 'Josh. xv. 46, 47; 1 Sam. v., vi. ; 2 Chron. xxvi. 6; Neh. xiii. 23, 24; Acts viii. 40.

DENSE FOG IN HARVEST.

161 and disappear. What other circumstances there may have been which could render so protracted a resistance possible I know not, nor need we stop to inquire. The surrounding country is not only fertile, but is, even now, crowded with flourishing villages, more so than any part of Philistia. I once came from Lâtrôn diagonally across the country to this place in a little more than six hours. The whole distance must be about twenty-five miles, for I rode fast. For the first hour and a half the country was diversified by alternate fat valleys and low rocky spurs from the mountains west of 'Ain esh Shems. Leaving Khŭlda on a high hill a little to the right, I crossed the brook Marûba—a name for that part of Wady Sărâr — and, after following down its reedy bank for a mile, I left it where it inclines to the north-west, and, riding nearly two hours farther, through an ocean of ripe wheat, came to el Mesmîyeh just as the sun set. There I pitched for the night. It is a large agricultural village of mud hovels, packed together like stacks in a barn-yard, and nearly concealed by mounds of manure on all sides of it.

During the night a dense fog settled down flat upon the face of the plain, through which you could not see ten steps; and the scene in the morning was extraordinary and highly exciting. Before it was light the village was all abuzz, like a beehive. Forth issued party after party, driving camels, horses, mules, donkeys, cows, sheep, goats, and even poultry before them. To every body and thing there was a separate call, and the roar and uproar were prodigious. The parties separated in all directions out on the plain, shouting, for the same reason that steamers whistle, blow horns, and ring bells in foggy weather. Ere long all disappeared in the dense mist, and the thousand-tongued hubbub died away in the distance. Taking a guide from el Mesmîyeh, we set out for Esdûd, directing our course a little north of west. It was a strange ride, for, during the gray and misty dawn, we saw camels in the air, and "men as trees walking," and often heard all sorts of noises about us without seeing anything. At length, a seabreeze coming to the assistance of the sun, the fog began to rise and wheel about hither and thither in fantastic evolutions, until, at the end of an hour, we came out into the clear light of day near