set; and finding a small encampment of a friendly tribe of Bedouins there, we alighted at their tents to pass the night. Our reception here was as warm and cordial as if we had been members of the same community, or friends of long standing. Our horses were taken from us by the young men of the tribe, and furnished with corn from the sacks of the sheikh. We were ourselves conducted to his tent, and were soon surrounded by the elders, who sat in a half circle before us on the ground. A substantial meal, though rudely prepared, was set before us; and by dint of perseverance, aided by the courtesy of gratitude to our entertainers, and a wish to avoid detection as strangers, we contrived to surmount those revolting sensations which our stomachs often experienced, before we could eat cordially and heartily of the messes of an Arab tent . . .

"We quitted our station in the valley at sun-rise, and, after continuing to travel for about two hours, in a north-east direction, always ascending by winding paths, we came to the summit of the second range of hills on the east of Jordan. The first of these that we had crossed was generally of white limestone, but this last had a mixture of many other kinds of rock. Among these was a dark red stone, which broke easily, and had shining metallic particles in it, like those of iron ore. It is probable, therefore, that this is the range which is called by Josephus the Iron Mountain . . . for he describes this as being only one of the ridges of the eastern hills which bounds the Jordan on that side, and runs in length as far as Moab. Both of these ranges are barren throughout, excepting only in some little dells near their feet, where the rain-water lodges and favours vegetation. The first, or western one, is a little higher than the second; but, in all other respects, except these enumerated, their general character is alike, and they both run in the same direction of nearly north and south. We had no sooner passed the summit of the second range, going down a short distance on its eastern

side, by a very gentle descent, than we found ourselves on plains of nearly as high a level as the summits of the hills themselves. . . The character of the country, too, was quite different from anything that I had seen in Palestine. . . we were now in a land of extraordinary richness, abounding with the most beautiful prospects, clothed with thick forests, varied with verdant slopes, and possessing extensive plains of a fine red soil, now covered with thistles as the best proof of its fertility, and yielding in nothing to the celebrated plains of Zabulon and Esdraelon, in Galilee and Samaria.

"We continued our way to the north-east, through a country, the beauty of which so surprised us, that we often asked each other what were our sensations; as if to ascertain the reality of what we saw, and persuade each other, by mutual confessions of our delight, that the picture before us was not an optical illusion. The landscape alone, which varied at every turn, and gave us new beauties from every different point of view, was, of itself, worth all the pains of an excursion to the eastward of Jordan to obtain a sight of; and the park-like scenes that sometimes softened the romantic wildness of the general character as a whole, reminded us of similar spots in less neglected lands.

"It was about noon when we reached a small encampment of Arabs, who had pitched their tents in a most luxuriant dell, where their flocks fed on the young buds of spring, and where they obtained for themselves an abundant supply of wood and water.

"Near to this camp, we found a place on which were the ruins of former buildings, with a large mill-stone, of a circular form, with a square hole for an axle in its centre, and at least six feet in diameter. The name of this place, we were told, was Zerkah. It was seated in a beautiful valley; and on the hills around it were an abundance of wild olives, oaks, and pine-trees, of a moderate size. . . After smoking a pipe, and taking coffee with the Arabs, we quitted them about one, and

soon after saw a smaller party, consisting of about a dozen families only, halting to pitch their tents in a beautiful little hollow basin, which they had chosen for the place of their encampment, surrounded on three sides by woody hills. The sheikh was the only one of the whole who rode; the rest of the men walked on foot, as did most of the women also. The boys drove the flocks of sheep and goats; and the little children, the young lambs, the kids, and the poultry, were all carried in panniers or baskets, across the camels' backs. The tents, with their cordage and the mats, the cooking utensils, the provisions and furniture, were likewise laden upon these useful animals. As these halted at every five steps to pull a mouthful of leaves from the bushes, the progress of their march was very slow; but the patience of all seemed quite in harmony with the tardy movements of the camel, and it was evidently a matter of indifference to every one of the group whether they halted at noon or at sunset, since an hour was time enough for them to prepare their shelter for the night.

"We now went up from hence by gradual but gentle ascents, over still more beautiful and luxuriant grounds than those which we had passed before. In our way, we left two ruined buildings on our right. . . (which) seemed to be either large caravanseras, or very small villages recently deserted. After ascending these hills until three o'clock, pursuing, generally, a north-east direction, we came to a high plain, and going about a quarter of an hour over this, we came to a deep ravine, which looked like a separation of the hill to form this chasm, by some violent convulsion of nature.

(The

cliffs on each side were nearly perpendicular, and their height not less than five hundred feet,) while the breadth from cliff to cliff was not more than a hundred yards. The plains on the top, on both sides, were covered with a light red soil, and bore marks of high fertility; but the dark sides of the rocky cliffs that faced each other

412

BROOK JABBOK-GILEAD AND BASHAN.

in this hollow chasm, were, in general, destitute of verdure. We descended into this ravine by winding paths, since it was everywhere too steep to go directly down; and found at the bottom of it a small river, which flowed from the eastward, appearing here to have just made a sharp bend from the northward, and from this point to go nearly west, to discharge itself into the Jordan. The banks of this stream were so thickly wooded with oleander and plane trees, wild olives, and wild almonds in blossom, pink and white cyclamen flowers, and others, the names of which were unknown to us, with tall and waving reeds, at least fifteen feet in height, that we could not perceive the waters through them from above; though the presence of these luxuriant borders marked the winding of its course, and the murmur of its flow was echoed through its long deep channel so as to be heard distinctly from afar. (Mr. Buckingham regards this stream as the Jabbok of the Scriptures, which was the northern boundary of the Amorites, as the stream of Arnon was their southern one.) . . . As it ran in a rocky bed, its waters were clear, and we found their taste agreeable . . .

"We ascended the steep on the north side of the Zerkah, and on reaching its summit, came again on a beautiful plain, of an elevated level, and still covered with a very rich soil. We had now quitted the land of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and entered into that of Og, the king of Bashan . . . The mountains here are called the land of Gilead in the Scriptures and in Josephus. . . We continued our way over this elevated tract, continuing to behold, with surprise and admiration, a beautiful country on all sides of us; its plains covered with a fertile soil, its hills clothed with forests, at every new turn presenting the most magnificent landscapes that could be imagined. Among the trees, the oak was frequently seen, and we know that this territory produced them of old. In enumerating the sources from which the supplies of Tyre were drawn

2

in the time of her great wealth and naval splendour, the prophet says, 'of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars The expression of the fat bulls of Bashan, which occurs more than once in the Scriptures, (had) seemed to us. . . inconsistent, as applied to the beasts of a country generally thought to be a desert ... but we could now fully comprehend, not only that the bulls of this luxuriant country might be proverbially fat,' but that its possessors too might be a race renowned for strength and comeliness of person. In our way, just as we came out from a thick wood, and opened on an extensive view, we were surprised by a party of peasants on foot, to the number of thirty at least, all armed with muskets slung across their shoulders. These were Arabs, though they possessed scarcely anything but the language in common with the Arabs whom we had been accustomed to see... They were generally taller, more robust, and of finer forms and fairer complexions. Some of them had even light eyes, and many of them brown and auburn hair, which they wore in tresses hanging over their shoulders. The dress of these men

differed also, both from that of the desert Arabs, and of the Syrian peasants. They wore long white shirts girded round the loins, but neither turbans, nor other coverings for their heads. From retaining the beard while the hair was suffered to hang in long and curling locks over the neck, they resembled the figures which appear in the scriptural pieces of the great masters . . . These men were cultivators of the earth, and had been occupied in the tillage of their lands, from which labour they were now returning. As they live in a state of complete independence. there are no boundaries that mark any peculiar portion of the earth as private property. Rich land is so abundant in every direction

1 It was because the tribes of Reuben and Gad possessed a multitude of cattle, that they entreated Moses to give them this land for their portion, as it was a land of rich pastures, and not to take them over Jordan. 2 Deut. iii. 12, 13. 1 Kings iv. 13.