JILJÛLIEH, GILGAL.-ER RAS, ANTIPATRIS.

51 My guide greatly amused me with his account of Abuna Barte's march through this valley en route for Acre. The Moslems from Nâblus and the surrounding mountains were continually fighting the French soldiers, and he himself, then a mere lad, participated in these skirmishes. There is no reason to doubt that Bonaparte's army did actually follow this route, which is shorter, safer, and infinitely easier than the one along the sea-shore. But my hero must have confounded the doings of his father with his own achievements, for it is eighty years since Napoleon passed this way.

What is the name of that respectable-looking village ahead of us?

Jiljûlieh; and it is supposed to mark the site of that Gilgal whose king was slain by Joshua's army, as mentioned in chap. xii. ver. 23, with the curious addition that he was "king of the nations of Gilgal." It appears to have been a place of considerable importance in former times, and no doubt occupies the site of an ancient city. The great road from the north still passes through it. Those Moslem tombs and this dilapidated khân remind one of the times when this highway was frequented by the caravans that carried down to Egypt the merchandise of the East.

Kefr Sâba, April 7th. Evening.

It seems to me that no one who has visited the two localities of er Râs and Kefr Sâba, and compared what they are now with the description given by Josephus, can hesitate for a moment in regard to its site as being at er Râs.

Nearly all our information on the subject of Antipatris is derived from Josephus, who mentions it several times both in his Antiquities and in his Jewish Wars.' In one place he tells us that "Herod erected another city in the plain called Capharsaba, where he chose out a fit place, both for plenty of water and goodness of soil, and proper for the production of what was there planted; where a river encompassed the city itself, and a grove of the best trees for magnitude was round about it. This he named Antipatris, from his father, Antipater." Again, "Herod built a city in the finest plain that was in his kingdom, and which had rivers and 1 Ant. 13, 15, 1; 16, 5, 2: B. J. 1, 4, 7; 1, 21, 9.

trees in abundance, and named it Antipatris." The only difficulty in the question is the name Kefr Sâba, which is no doubt identical with the Capharsaba of Josephus; and if the character of this place could be made to correspond to the description, it would be accepted by all as the true site of Antipatris. This, however, is quite impossible. There are here no remains of an ancient city such as Herod erected. No Roman road passes through it or near it; and there is not at or anywhere in the neighborhood a river of water, or even a brook, and, from the nature of the position occupied by this village, there never could have been. All the three essential conditions, therefore, are wanting at Kefr Sâba. The only supply of water for the village is from two deep wells below it on the east, and a small pool south of it. Neither is the land immediately about it particularly fertile, while back of it commence those sandy downs which extend westward to the sea. But the plain around and north of er Râs may fairly be called the most fertile in Herod's kingdom. I once rode directly from Kefr Sâba to er Râs through a veritable sea of the tallest and most luxuriant wheat that I have seen in Palestine. The grove mentioned by Josephus has disappeared; but this can easily be explained.

How do you account for the transfer of the name Capharsaba to this place from er Râs?

Two possible explanations occur to me. The first is based upon the statement of Josephus, made more than once, that Antipatris was built in the plain of Capharsaba, which may have been the name of a district that included the whole region from er Râs to this village. Palestine is even now divided up into similar districts. Herod changed the name of that part of the plain on which he built the city, and called it Antipatris. Another supposition I think more probable: Capharsaba was originally at er Râs; but when the inhabitants found that Herod was determined to transform their village into a government station, they voluntarily removed from it to this place, and transferred the name to their new home. If they were in his way, Herod would not have hesitated to remove them by force. Thus there came to be two Capharsabas; and, by a confusion quite natural to persons not acquainted with the local circumstances, both places might be occasionally called Antipatris.

ANCIENT ITINERARIES.-TENT LIFE.

53

This supposition will best account for the singular discrepancies in the ancient Itineraries. The Jerusalem Itinerary places Lydda ten miles from Antipatris, which answers well enough for er Râs, but not at all for Kefr Sâba, which is sixteen miles distant. In the Onomasticon, Antipatris is said to be six miles south of Gilgal, which is also sufficiently accurate, whether the site of Gilgal be at Jiljûlieh or at Kilkîlieh, but cannot apply to Kefr Sâba, which is north of er Râs and west of either of the supposed sites of Gilgal. Nor are these the only discrepancies in those ancient documents. According to one, Cæsarea is forty miles from Lydda; and another makes the distance fifty-nine miles.

næus.

It is not necessary to analyze all the variations in the Itineraries, or to discuss certain historical notices, which show that the position at er Râs was availed of for strategical purposes by Alexander JanThe trench dug and the line of fortifications erected by him, from the mountain to the sea, must have been connected with er Râs and the 'Aujeh, and not with this Kefr Sâba. On the whole, therefore, it seems safe to accept of er Râs as the site of Antipatris, to which Paul was brought by the Roman soldiers. Major Wilson, of the Palestine Exploration Fund, was the first, I believe, to locate Antipatris at er Râs, and all the gentlemen connected with the same expedition to this country have acquiesced in the identification.

tent.

But there comes the call for dinner, and we must return to the

What an abundant table the Lord, by the ministration of this lively cook of ours, has spread for us here in the wilderness! Neatly got up, too, and nothing seems wanting. Do you know, I looked on during those days of preparation at Jaffa with wonder and alarm at the hundred and one things which you were gathering around you. I could not conceive where they were to be stowed away, or how they were to be carried on the mules. Now I find that everything has a place, and an office to discharge. It is said that Bonaparte never spent more than fifteen minutes at the table. However that may be, I have no inclination to devote much time at present to this “vulgar function of eating." Dinner over, I cannot abide in the tent; for, though it has somewhat the shape, it has

none of the glory of this starry canopy above. As to sleep, the very idea seems absurd. Boyhood's possible and impossible fancies gather thick about me in living realities. I was ever given to reverie, and many a day have lain and dreamed of this land of the sun, its mysteries and its miracles, and longed to be there, and wondered if I ever should. And now here am I— But you smile, and I do not choose just now to furnish food for your mirth. You have been dreaming with Longfellow, who

Used to lie

And gaze into the summer sky,

Where the sailing clouds went by

Like ships upon the sea.

At that re

All this is half a century behind my experience. mote date I might have understood you, but not now. From this on waste no more breath in rhapsodies. A pilgrimage to Palestine has too much of the real in it to permit us to expire in the romantic. We had better prepare to imitate this muleteer, that we may be ready for the early dawn, and the bustle of a new day.

The fellow is sound asleep on the bare ground, and, like Jacob at Bethel, he has actually got a stone for his pillow.

You will often see that in this country. I have tried it myself, but could never bring sleep and stone pillows together. I suspect Jacob was not used to it, for he was disturbed with extraordinary dreams; but to Abd Allah, with his hard head and stuffed cap, this stone is soft as a cushion of down.

You do not mean that he will sleep all night on this sandy soil, and with no covering but his old cloak?

This

Certainly; and if he were at home he would do the same. custom of sleeping in their ordinary clothes is the basis of that humane law of Moses for the protection of the poor: "If thou at all take thy neighbor's raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down: for that is his covering only, it is his raiment for his skin: wherein shall he sleep?" I envy him. his slumbers; they are the sweet ones of the laboring man. And now come in; let us consult the "best of books," and then com1 Exod. xxii. 26, 27.

KEFR SÂBA TO CÆSAREA.-KILKÎLIEH, GILGAL.

55

mend ourselves and all we love to that good Shepherd who slumbers not nor sleeps.

April 8th.

We make an early start this morning, for there is nothing here to detain us, and Abd Allah is anxious to get to our camping-place at Tawâhîn ez Zerka, near Cæsarea, in good time, more especially because the last half of the distance is infested by the worst class of Bedawîn Arabs in the country. Indeed, the entire route leads through a region without villages or inhabitants; and it appears always to have had this character-a region simply to be passed through without delay or description. There is not one Biblical or historic site between this and Cæsarea, at least not on the road we shall travel. So it was when Paul came this way; and thus all the armies, ancient and modern, that must have traversed this long valley, appear to have merely passed through it, as a ship does over the sea, leaving no trace behind.

Though the path may lead us through no historic sites, the whole land is Biblical, and, therefore, full of interest to me. What is the name of that large village to the east of us, and in the middle of the plain?

Kilkîlich; and some locate Gilgal there, instead of at Jiljûlieh. The name favors the latter, but the position agrees better with Kilkilieh. It has some good houses, and a few shops, to which the surrounding villagers resort for the simple requirements of their domestic life. That village at the foot of the mountains to the south-east of it is called Hableh. I once spent two nights there during my rambling about this region of country.

There seems to be a castle at the village.

Like many others in this region, this village is so constructed as to resemble a castle, and the entrances and lanes are so narrow that they can be easily closed up in case of danger. Hableh, no doubt, occupies the site of an ancient city, as indicated by old cisterns hewn in the rock, and sepulchres, and by many of the stones built into the walls of the miserable hovels of the inhabitants. The place was overrun by droves of small donkeys that roamed round. the tents, which were pitched on the threshing-floor. They seemed to exist by fighting and braying, and kept up both all night long.