SCRIPTURE ALLUSIONS.

181

The scarcity of springs and running streams in this part of Palestine, and the great labour and expense required to collect and preserve rain-water, gave a peculiar value to this element, so abundant and free in most other countries, which was still farther enhanced by a thirsty soil, whose fertility greatly depended upon plenteous irrigation. A proper consideration of these circumstances is necessary to enable us more fully to appreciate the beauty and force of many allusions and figures employed by the sacred writers, both in the Old and New Testaments. In the churlish answer returned by Nabal to the messengers of David, water is enumerated with bread and meat as too precious to be bestowed upon one whose claims upon his hospitality were so slight. "Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men whom I know not whence they be ?"* Edom was probably even worse provided in this respect than the land of Judah, and the necessity of resorting to similar expensive means for supplying the natural deficiency imparted a high value to water. Moses, in applying for a passage through their territories, was no less careful to guaranty the safety of their water than to quiet their apprehensions with regard to other kinds of property. "Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country. We will not pass through the fields, or through the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of the wells. And Edom said unto him, Thou shalt not pass by me, lest I come out against thee with the sword. And the children of Israel said unto him, We will go by the highway; and if I and my cattle drink of thy water, then I will pay for it."†

This scarcity of so indispensable an article, and the facility with which the wells and cisterns could be rendered unfit for use, must have placed great obstacles in the way of the movement and subsistence of large armies, and limit* 1 Sam., xxv., 11.

VOL. II.-Q

+ Num., xx., 17, 18, 19.

182

GROTTO OF JEREMIAH.

ed their march to routes upon which the supply would be most abundant and sure. The same cause rendered it necessary, where multitudes were to be assembled and remain together for some length of time, to resort to such places as were able to furnish a plentiful supply of water for a great number of men and animals. There were but few such places in the land of Judah, and John, apparently for this reason, prosecuted his ministry at Enon, where there was "much water," and upon the banks of the Jordan, where "Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, went out to him, and were baptized in Jordan." Our Saviour, also, whose preaching was attended by immense crowds of people who came from great distances, and remained with him several days at a time, seldom departed from the shores of the Sea of Galilee.

In traversing the Valleys of Jehoshaphat and Hinnom, which nearly surround Jerusalem, I have called the attention of the reader to nearly every interesting object in the neighbourhood of the holy city. A short excursion beyond the Damascus Gate will complete the survey outside of the walls. I have already referred to the grotto to which tradition has given the name of the prophet Jeremiah, a few rods northeast of that gate. It is situated under the brow of a perpendicular cliff, which looks to the south or towards the north wall of the city. A high wall has been built in front, which conceals the entrance and encloses a small garden. This is entered by a gate, which was shut on the two occasions when I visited this spot. The keeper, too, was absent, so that I was unable to obtain admittance. was, therefore, obliged to be content with such a view as I could obtain from the top of the wall, which I reached by first ascending to the summit of the mount above the grotto, and proceeding thence along the front enclosure. The face of the rock has the appearance of having been fashioned by art; and the grotto, so far as it was visible from the posi

I

THE DAMASCUS ROAD.

183

tion which I occupied, seemed rather to be an ancient quarry than a natural cavern. It is, at least, probable that it has been enlarged by human industry, either to obtain building stone, or to adapt it better to the purposes to which it was destined-perhaps those of superstition or idolatry. The interior is described, by persons who have examined it, as an irregular, though nearly circular area, about a hundred feet in diameter by twenty-five or thirty in height, and supported by two huge columns. The garden contains a lodge or cottage for the residence of the keeper, and several fig and olive trees. Some portions of it are occupied with shrubbery, which seemed to be cultivated with care, as well as some small patches of very thrifty-looking vegetables. The summit of the mount declines gradually to the north and east, and is covered with a Turkish burying-ground, not so large as the one near the Upper Pool, or as that under the eastern wall of the city, but still of considerable

extent.

The road to Damascus runs a few rods west of the Grotto of Jeremiah. It was, doubtless, the ancient as well as the modern thoroughfare between these two great capitals, which both belonged to the kingdom of David. There is no appearance of art or labour in its construction. The feet of asses and horses, aided by the rains, have worn a deep track in the hard soil, and, in some places, in the scarcely harder rock, from five or six to a dozen feet in breadth. It has occasionally the appearance of the dry bed of a torrent, being full of small stones, which form a sort of rough, rolling pavement, that would be thought all but impassable in any civilized country. The region on this side of Jerusalem spreads out into an extensive table-land, which, though uneven and a good deal broken by rocks, the traveller, long conversant with precipitous, bare mountains, and deep, straitened ravines, does not hesitate to call a fruitful plain. Here are the largest olive plantations in the

184

REGION NORTH OF THE CITY.

vicinity of Jerusalem; and small patches of wheat, of a very meager, unpromising appearance, are scattered over a region a mile and a half in length from east to west, and extending from near the city wall quite across the plain northward to the upper part of the Valley of Jehoshaphat. This valley here pursues a direction nearly from west to east, parallel with the northern wall of the city, from which it may be distant, at the point where the Damascus road crosses it, three quarters of a mile. After keeping this course a quarter of a mile or more below the road, it turns towards the south, and becomes a deep ravine along the eastern wall of the city.

A considerable portion of this level tract was included within the ancient wall, which is still traceable, near the northwest angle of the present enclosure, by a line of rubbish and ruins which I often passed, and to which I have already adverted. The vestiges disappear farther east ; but we are informed by Josephus, that, of the three walls which were constructed for the defence of this side of Jerusalem-the only approach which was not rendered nearly impracticable to an invading army by the deep ravines of Hinnom and Jehoshaphat-the outer or northern one extended eastward by the Monument of Helena and the Tombs of the Kings, and joined the old wall in the Valley of Cedron.* The extent of the ancient city in this direction is well marked, even where the old wall has left no traces, by a great number of cisterns, some excavated in the rock, others built of masonry, which also demonstrate that the former inhabitants of Jerusalem, as well as the present, received their supply of water from the clouds. Following these indications, in connexion with the vestiges of the old wall and the testimony of Josephus, we are led to the conclusion that a tract now subject to the plough, about a quarter of a mile in width, stretching from west to east the whole length

* Wars, book v., ch. iv.

TOMBS OF THE KINGS.

185

of the city; and equal in extent at least to one half of the area included within the present walls, was once covered with human habitations.

TOMBS OF THE KINGS.

More than half a mile north of the city, and just east of the Damascus road, is one of the most interesting monuments near the holy city. It is usually called the Tombs of the Kings, though it is doubtful if it is not rather the Monument of Helena, queen of Adiabene. Both are referred to in the passage just cited from Josephus, in such a manner as to show that they existed near to each other, in this immediate locality, but without determining to which appellation the magnificent excavations in question are entitled. Pococke decides in favour of Helena, against the prevailing tradition, which, I believe, is uniform in calling these sepulchres the Tombs of the Kings. What kings were buried here, we are left to conjecture. David and the most of his successors were interred on Mount Zion; and of the two or three kings of this dynasty who were excluded from the sepulchre of their fathers in the royal city, intimations, though not very distinct, are given, which render it improbable that they were buried here. Josephus mentions "Herod's Monument" as situated in this neighbourhood, which may possibly be identical with the sepulchres in question.*

Leaving the question about the proper name, which must, perhaps, remain in doubt, I proceed to give some description of this sumptuous, if not royal sepulchre. It is not, like the other tombs about Jerusalem, excavated in a perpendicular cliff. The ground is level, though formed of solid limestone, and the work was commenced by hewing

* Dr. Robinson adopts the opinion of Pococke, and the reasons which he assigns seem to me to be nearly conclusive.—Researches, vol. iii., p. 535, 536, 537.