PART IV.-SOUTHERN PALESTINE.

[In this, the concluding section of the journey, our travellers advance by Hebron, through the hill-country of Judea, to the northern angle of the Dead Sea, visiting the localities of Gilgal and Jericho; then proceed westward to Jerusalem, and devote the closing portion of their tour to the Holy City and places around.-ED.]

Road from OWING to the wretched headache which tormented me all day, our ride from Beit Jibrîn to this city has left no distinct trace on my memory, except that of a very fatiguing ascent from Idna toward Taffuah.

Beit Jibrîn to Hebron.

I can readily refresh your memory this morning by passing in review yesterday's journey, which was one of great interest to me. While the muleteers were packing up and loading, I rode out and again examined the excavations on the south-east of Beit Jibrîn. My guide led me on horseback through a Caverns. long succession of caverns, all dug out of the white cretaceous rock of the hill above the city. They closely resemble ancient cisterns, having a hole at the top as if to draw water from; but their number and vast size fill the mind with astonishment, and suggest doubts with regard to the original purpose for which they were made. They, however, were hewn out of the rock precisely as cisterns were, and the mark of the pickaxe is distinctly seen on the sides of those that are tolerably perfect. Multitudes of them, however, have fallen in from above, and the partition-walls of others have dissolved by time, thus throwing many into one. Indeed, they appear to have been originally con nected by doors and galleries cut through the rock. But it would require a separate memoir adequately to describe these remarkable caverns, and this I certainly have no disposition to write, nor would you have patience to hear. They are all circular, and I measured one which was sixty-five feet in diame

ter, and ninety-one to the top of the dome from the rubbish which covered the CHAPTER floor, ten feet deep at least. The entire height of this cistern must therefore XXXVIII. have been more than a hundred feet. On the north side, and about midway to the top, are several figures of idols cut in the rock-rude images of Dagon Idols. himself perhaps. In several of the caverns further south are inscriptions very high up, in a large and mixed Cufic and Phoenician character. I have copies of them, and also of the images, kept rather as curiosities than for any light which they shed upon the mysteries of their location. The only theory I can Immense entertain in regard to these gigantic excavations is, that they were cisterns of old Gath, made thus numerous, and on such an immense scale, to secure a supply of water against all emergencies of drought or of war; and this idea is corroborated by the existence, at the present day, of similar cisterns in more than one of the neighbouring villages. At Zikrîn, some six miles north-west of

cisterns.

Beit Jibrin, are vast excavations beneath a broad platform of hard rock which covers several acres, and it is pierced by forty openings or doors-babs in Ara

PART

IV.

Valley of
Senaber.

'Ain el Kuf

Leather bottles.

Mandrakes.

bic-through which water is drawn up by the villagers. The excavations underneath this flooring closely resemble these of Beit Jibrîn both in shape and size, and the separate cisterns are so connected by galleries and doors that the water passes from one to the other, and stands in all at the same elevation. The overlying rock at Zikrîn is so hard that the roof has nowhere caved in, and the cisterns are therefore in good preservation, and afford an inexhaustible supply of water. This is all I have to suggest on the subject, and now for the ride to Hebron.

I overtook you at Deir en Nukhaz, slowly sauntering up the pretty valley of Senaber, which village we reached in an hour from our camp-ground. The valley, you remember, was broad and fertile, and the ascent for the first three hours very gradual. As we advanced, side valleys came in from the right and left, opening long vistas into the bosom of the surrounding country. In the mouth of the wady which descends from the vicinity of Turkumieh (Tricomia) we saw a large and picturesque encampment of Arabs, with whose goats, and dogs, and naked children we were highly entertained.

Escaping from the half-begging, half-plundering importunity of these Ishmaelites, we rode another hour, and stopped to lunch at 'Ain el Kuf, which is

the only fountain in this entire valley. Here we saw many people coming and

going with pitchers and jars, and not a few with large "bottles" of skin,an unmistakable evidence that good water is very scarce in that region; and had we not filled our own "bottles," we should have suffered no slight inconvenience in the long ascent, for we found no water from that on to this vale of Hebron.

I remember that ascent with sufficient distinctness, and also that we stopped to rest about half way up Wady 'Ain el Kuf, at a sheep-fold under the southern cliff of the ravine; and there,for the first time, I saw the mandrake, with

its broad leaves and green "apples," and my curiosity was excited by the dis

cussion which followed about the singular contract between Rachel and Leah CHAPTER for Reuben's mandrakes.1

XXXVIII.

Into that we shall not now enter, nor will we pry with curious eye into the motives which urged Rachel to make the purchase. I, for one, don't know. As to the mandrakes themselves something may be said. Reuben gathered them in wheat-harvest, and it is then that they are still found ripe and eatable on the lower ranges of Lebanon and Hermon, where I have most frequently seen them. The apple becomes of a very pale yellow colour, partially soft, and of an insipid, sickish taste. They are said to produce dizziness; but I have seen people eat them without experiencing any such effect. The Arabs, however, believe them to be exhilarating and stimulating even to insanity, and hence the name tuffah el jan-" apples of the jan;" but we may safely leave the disputed questions concerning mandrakes to those who have time and inclination for such inquiries, and hasten on to our camp-ground in Vale of the pretty valley of Mamre, here on the hill side, near the quarantine of Mamre. Hebron.

Hebron.

Whatever may be true in regard to the road hither, the appearance of Heb- Appearron itself, lying in deep repose along the vale of Mamre, was quite beautiful. ance of The time of our visit is doubtless most favourable, for nature upon these mountains is now in her holiday dress; and when we began to descend toward the city, the lengthening shadows of the western hills had just dropped their sober curtains over the scene, softening its somewhat rugged features, thereby greatly enhancing its charms. Seen under circumstances not so favourable, the impression might be much less agreeable; but, apart from natural scenery, no intelligent traveller can approach Hebron with indifference. No city in Palestine so carries one back to earliest patriarchal times. Manners and customs, and modes of action, and even idioms of speech, have changed but little since the Bible was written, or from what they were when Abraham dwelt here among "the sons of Heth." Take the account of the death and burial of Sarah, as it is found in the 23d chapter of Genesis, as an example: "Sarah died Mourning in Kirjath-arba; the same is Hebron: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, for the and to weep for her." There is something formal in this remark, but it is in perfect accordance with present customs. Should such a person die here tomorrow, there would be a solemn public mourning and weeping,-not as indicating the grief of the family so much as in honour of the dead. The customs of the people demand that there should be loud, boisterous, uncontrollable weeping, mourning, beating of the breast, and every other external manifestation of great sorrow. Such was this funeral mourning of the great emeer Abraham; but, besides this public tribute to the memory of Sarah, he, no doubt, sincerely lamented her death in the privacy of his own tent.

dead.

Abraham's negotiation for a sepulchre is also very Oriental and striking. Purchase Such a purchase was quite necessary. There has always been in this country of tombs.

1 Gen. xxx. 14-16.

PART

IV.

Eastern

Belling

and buy

ing.

the utmost exclusiveness in regard to tombs; and although these polite Hittites said, "Hear us, my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us; in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead," Abraham was too experienced an Oriental not to know that this was merely compliment. The thing was quite out of the question; nor would Abraham himself have consented thus to mingle his dead with the dust and bones of strangers, even if they had been willing. He knew well how to understand the offer, and therefore pressed his request to be allowed to purchase. Nor is such a negotiation easily arranged. If you or I had occasion to make a similar contract to-day from these modern Hittites, we should find it even more delicate and tedious than did Abraham. I do not believe we could succeed, even with the aid of all customs in the mediators we could employ. In concluding the purchase with Ephron, we see the process of a modern bargain admirably carried out. The polite son of Zohar says, "Nay, my lord, hear me: the field give I thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it thee. In the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee; bury thy dead." Of course! and just so I have had a hundred houses, and fields, and horses given to me, and the by-standers called upon to witness the deed, and a score of protestations and oaths taken to seal the truth of the donation; all which, of course, meant nothing whatever, just as Abraham understood the true intent and value of Ephron's buksheesh. He therefore urged forward the purchase, and finally brought the owner to state definitely his price, which he did at four hundred shekels of silver. Now, without knowing the relation between silver and a bit of barren rock at that time and in this place, my experience of such transactions leads me to suppose that this price was treble the actual value of the field. "But," says the courteous Hittite, "four hundred shekels! what is that betwixt me and thee!" Oh, how often you hear these identical words on similar occasions, and yet, acting upon their apparent import, you would soon find out what and how much they meant. Abraham knew that too; and as he was then in no humour to chaffer with the owner, whatever might be his price, he proceeded forthwith to weigh out the money. Even this is still common; for, although coins have now a definite name, size, and value, yet every merchant carries a small apparatus by which he weighs each coin, to see that it has not been tampered with by The speci- Jewish clippers. In like manner, the specifications in the contract are just such as are found in modern deeds. It is not enough that you purchase a wellknown lot; the contract must mention everything that belongs to it, and certify that fountains or wells in it, trees upon it, etc., are sold with the field. If you rent a house, not only the building itself, but every room in it, above and below, down to the kitchen, pantry, stable, and hen-coop, must be specified. Thus Abraham bought the field, "and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, and that were in all the borders round about, were made sure." I see this negotiation in all its details enacted before me, and hear the identical words that passed between the parties. The venerable patriarch,

fications.