PART Tribes of acy, quite able to protect themselves from their neighbours. This seems to The border over against Jaffa was assigned to Dan, and Ephraim was north of it. The 'Aujeh may have been the boundary betwixt them. The Jews do Ephraim. not seem to have obtained possession of this neighbourhood, at least not until the time of David. There, to the south of us, on the road from Jaffa to Lydd, is Beit Dujan, "the house of Dagon," which was probably held by the Philistines, and named from their famous god. Beit Du jan. Silk gar dens. Jiljulieh Gilgal? Within the last fifteen years certain persons from Beirût planted along this fertile valley of the 'Aujeh large mulberry orchards which are succeeding well, and the cultivation of silk is extending rapidly to many other parts of this plain. The attempt was made to introduce this valuable crop many years ago, but for some reason or other failed. The fountains here at the Ras rise low in the earth, and the engineers of Ibrahim Pasha decided that the water could not be carried to Jaffa at a sufficient elevation to irrigate the gardens; and the project was therefore abandoned. If it could be achieved, such a canal would relieve the farmers from a very large part of the expense of cultivating their orchards, and would irrigate them much more thoroughly. I think it by no means fully ascertained that the water could not be elevated at this great source, as it is at Ras el 'Ain, near Tyre, and at other places, by building strong cisterns. They would, of course, be very large and expensive; but then the supply of water, greater than even that near Tyre, would be invaluable, and convert the whole of Sharon into a paradise. Let us ride up to that mosque, and take a bird's-eye view of the country. About an hour to the north is Jiljulieh, probably the site of that Gilgal whose king is called "king of the nations" in Joshua (xii. 23). If this is the Gilgal of the "Onomasticon," there seems to be a mistake of south for north in that invaluable work, because Gilgal is placed six Roman miles north of Antipatris, whereas it is that much south of it. The latter place, now called Kefr Saba, is seen beyond it on the edge of the plain. It is useless to endeavour to remember these non-historic names which our guide is rattling off at such a rate, so we will turn our horses southward, and pursue the regular old Roman road toward Lydd. It was along this route, doubtless, that Paul was brought by the soldiers who guarded him to Cæsarea. Here we have the village Renthieh before us, and, as Dr. Robinson remarks, CHAPTER it is sufficiently like Arimathea to be assumed as the site of that place; and, XXXIV. from what Jerome says, it seems to me quite probable that this was really the Renthiel city of that "honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of -ArimaGod," who "went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus."1 thea? The map of Dr. Robinson has some mistakes in this region which deserve to be corrected.* The situation of Lydd is correctly laid down with respect to Jaffa and Ramleh, but Kubab is where Beit Dujan should be, and Safuriyeh is too near Lydd. Kubab is between Ramleh and Latron; Amwas (Emmaus, Nicopolis) is half an hour north, not south of Latron. On the north of Beit Dujan is a village called Yafa; and south of Safuriyeh, a little off the road to Ramleh, is Sarafend, the third of the name between this and Sidon. We are now approaching the orchards of Lydd, that village where Peter was Orchards when summoned to Jaffa on account of the death of Dorcas. Its greatest of Lydd. celebrity, however, is derived from St. George, who is said to have been both Church of born and buried there. Dr. Robinson has given an excellent description of St. George the church as its ruins now are, and a rapid sketch of the long and somewhat eventful history of the city. No one will examine the remains of the church without being impressed with a certain air of grandeur which it wears. The arch of the south aisle is particularly fine and striking. The edifice is at the south-west corner of the village, and it seems always to have been outside the ancient city, or on its wall. It was a little more than seventy feet wide, and one hundred long, though it is impossible to get the exact length on account of a mosque which is built on the corner of it. The material is a pale yellow rock, cut from quarries on the road to Jerusalem. It takes a good polish, and is very hard and durable. Lydd is a flourishing village of some two thousand inhabitants, embosomed in noble orchards of olive, fig, pomegranate, mulberry, sycamore, and other trees, and surrounded every way by a very fertile neighbourhood. The inhabitants are evidently industrious and thriving, and the whole country between this and Ramleh is fast being filled up with their flourishing orchards. Rarely Prohave I beheld a rural scene more delightful than this presented in early har sperity. vest, when I rode from Ramleh hither through the fields on the east of the common path. A thousand reapers, gleaners, and carriers were abroad and busy when the morning sun shot his first rays down through the olive-trees upon the animated groups. The wheat and barley grew among the olive-trees, which half hid, half revealed the merry harvesters-men, women, and children -the first reaping, the second gleaning and guiding the loaded camels, and the children at play, or watching the flocks and herds, which were allowed to follow the gleaners. But no description can reproduce such a tableau. It must be seen, heard, and enjoyed to be appreciated. 1 Mark xv. 43. [Some of these have been corrected in the second edition of Robinson.-ED.] PART III.. Ancient trade. Historical interest. Women grinding at the miil. Mode of working Lydd, like most other towns in this country, has seen better days, and that, too, in times not very remote. There are remains of large and well-constructed buildings mingled with the modern huts, and several extensive soap factories are now also deserted and falling to decay. These times of recent prosperity were probably when Jaffa was abandoned on account of the pirates; for in those days the trade of Syria and Palestine was carried on over land. Large caravans came from Aleppo through the Bŭk'âh, and down Wady et Teim to Khan Minieh; from Bagdad and Damascus across the Jaulan, by Jisr Benat Yacobe, to the same place; and from the Hauran by Beisan and Zer'in. All these lines, meeting near Lejjun, passed down by Antipatris to this place, and thence, by Ramleh and Gaza, to Egypt. That was the time when the long lines of khans, caravanserais, and castles were needed and maintained. But no sooner did the sea, freed from pirates, offer a cheaper conveyance, than this entire system was abandoned. Commerce sought the nearest ports along the coast, and was thence shipped to its destination. Hence all these khans have gone to ruin, and those great highways are deserted. Many other towns besides Lydd and Ramleh have lost by this change of route, and the cities on the coast have gained in equal if not greater proportion. Let us ride through the village, to get a better idea of a place which has figured so largely in Jewish, Macedonian, Roman, Saracenic, Frank, Arab, and Turkish dynasties. From the earliest ages of the Church to the present hour it has been frequented by pilgrims, and during the Crusades it was specially honoured on account of St. George. This little circuit has afforded me a beautiful illustration of Scripture. Two women are sitting before the door of their house, upon a large piece of sackcloth, grinding on a hand-mill. I heard the ring of this apparatus some time before I saw it, and I now understand what is meant by the preacher when he says, "The sound of the grinding is low, because the grinders are few.”1 Jeremiah also saddens his picture of Israel's desolation by Nebuchadnezzar, by adding that the sound of the mill-stones should cease.2 And upon Babylon, whose king thus stilled the voice of the grinding in Jerusalem, John, with apocalyptic thunders, denounces the like desolation: "The sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee."3 From this on southward through Philistia there are no mill-streams, and we shall not cease to hear the hum of the hand-mill at every village and Arab camp morning and evening, and often deep into the night. I like it, and go to sleep on it as a child to its mother's lullaby. It is suggestive of hot bread and a warm welcome when hungry and weary. You observe that two women sit at the mill facing each other; both have hold of the handle by which the upper is turned round on the "nether" mill-stone. The one whose right hand is disengaged throws in the grain as occasion requires through the hole in the upper stone, which is called the rekkab (rider) in Arabic, as it was long ago in 1 Eccles. xii. 4. Jer. xxv. 10. Rev. xviil 22. Hebrew. It is not correct to say that one pushes it half round, and then the CHAPTER other seizes the handle. This would be slow work, and would give a spasmodic XXXIV. motion to the stone. Both retain their hold, and pull to, or push from, as men do with the whip or cross-cut saw. The proverb of our Saviour1 is true to life, for women only grind. I cannot recall an instance in which men were at the mill. It is tedious, fatiguing work, and slaves, or lowest servants, are slaving set at it.2 From the king to the maid-servant behind the mill, therefore, work. embraced all, from the very highest to the very lowest inhabitants of Egypt.3 This grinding at the mill was often imposed upon captives taken in war. Thus Samson was abused by the Philistines, and, with Milton for his poet, bitterly laments his cruel lot : "To grind in brazen fetters, under task, 1 Matt. xxiv. 41. 2 Isa. xlvii. 2. 3 Exod. xi. 5. 4 Judges xvi. 21. PART III. "Nether" What is the foundation for the comparison, “Hard as the nether millstone ?" Is the lower harder than the upper? Not always. They are often both of the same porous lava, brought from the millstone. Hauran; but I have seen the nether made of a compact sandstone, and quite thick, while the upper was of this lava,—probably because, from its lightness, it is the more easily driven round with the hand. Damascus What tree is this mingled with the olive and the almond, and loaded with a pale green berry? That is the tût shamy-the Damascus mulberry. It is grown for its fruit, mulberry. not for the silk-worm. Pass this way in the middle of May, and you will find these trees bending under a load of berries so exactly resembling our largest blackberries in America that you cannot distinguish them from each other. There are more of these Damascus mulberry-trees here than all I have seen elsewhere in my life, and they yield their glossy black fruit more abundantly than in other places. It has a sharper acid than that of the ripe blackberry, and when eaten in large quantities is unhealthy. It is one of those fruits, now found all over Palestine, which are not mentioned in the Bible; and the same remark applies to the prickly pear, which flourishes in such impenetrable thickets around these villages. Ramleh. Let us incline a little to the right, pass round to the west of Ramleh, and examine that tower which overlooks the whole country. Here we cross the road from Jaffa, and you observe this large open cistern in ruins to the south of it. There are many vaulted cisterns between this and the tower, and other indications that this vicinity was once either the seat of Ramleh itself, or of some more ancient town. These cisterns may be almost of any age, and a city at this place would have them, of course. In Mohammedan times we can find an adequate cause for them in the fact that there were here large khans for the accommodation of the trading caravans which passed this way into Egypt. This noble tower is generally believed to be a minaret, but the style of architecture differs from that of any minaret known to have been erected by the Moslems, at least so far as I have seen. There are a few minarets in some of the cities of Syria which resemble this, but they are in every case attached to mosques which were originally Christian churches. In my opinion this tower is one of them, and was the campanile of a magnificent church. Of its age I know nothing. That there is an Arabic inscription over the entrance to the interior stairway, bearing date A.H. 710, A.D. 1310, establishes only the fact that this record was placed there at that date, for Mohammedan rulers often insert slabs with pompous inscriptions over entrances to buildings which they did not erect. There are scores of such vaunting records on castles, temples, and churches which are much older than the era of Mohammed. The nature of those ancient buildings renders this matter quite easy, and the architects 1 Job xii. 24. |