face to the south. On your left hand, you have the lovely city of Damascus, famous in all times for its bigotry, its well-watered gardens, and its delicious climate. Before and immediately below your feet lies Canaan, the land of the patriarchs, of David and 'David's greater Son,' the Lord Jesus Christ.

CHAPTER III.

PALESTINE; PERE A IN ITS ACTUAL CONDITION.

Palestine, lying between, 31o and 33° 25′ N. lat. and 34° 20′ and 36o 25' E. long., is contained within two lines of country divided by the valley of the Jordan. Mount Hermon (Jebel esSheik), on which you stand, sends out a long spur (Jebel Heish), which, running down on the eastern side of that river, leads to what in general may be called Pere'a, or, speaking as if on the western side, the land beyond the Jordan (trans-jordanic or eastjordanic Palestine). The country consists of high flat pasture lands, which, assuming a more mountainous character as they proceed southwardly, form, one after the other, Bashan, Gilead, Moab, and Edom, till they sink at Elath on the eastern arm of the Red Sea, on the western side of which they are continued, and at length rise into the lofty summits of Sinai. Pere'a has at different times borne different names. When it was taken possession of by the invading Hebrews, its northern portion fell to the lot of the half tribe of Manasseh, which settled on the east of the Jordan; the middle of the country was occupied by the tribe Gad; and the southern became the dwelling of Reuben. Under the Romans, the north received the name of Gauloni'tis (Jaulan), which had on its eastern side Iture'a and Trachoni'tis. After Gaulonitis, in a south-easterly course came Batane'a, with Aurani'tis (the Hauran). Then succeeded Galaaditis (Gilead), and the whole district southward to the Dead Sea was specially known under the name of Pere'a. East of the Dead Sea, the country was called Moabi'tis, and farther south dwelt the Nabathe'i. The district extending from the southern base of Hermon and the Dead Sea is divided into three chief portions by rivers. In the north, the Hieromax (Sheriat el-Mandhur), drawing its supplies from the wide north-eastern uplands of Iture'a, Aurani'tis, and Trachoni'tis, falls into the Jordan just above Gadara (Omkeis). Passing some inconsiderable streams, you come to the Jabbok, (the upper or Nahr Amman, and the lower or Zerka), which, draining the lofty regions of Galaaditis,

issues in the Jordan at a point about midway between the Lake of Galilee and the Dead Sea. Thence going southward, you cross several small streams, till you reach the Arnon (Wady Modsheb), which sends its waters into the Dead Sea near the middle.

Entering into a more particular account of the natural features of this country, we find, in beginning at its northern limit, the snow-covered Jebel es-Sheik, the Hermon of Scripture. From it in a south-westerly line runs Jebel Safed on the west of the Jordan, and Jebel Heish on the east. These two mountain ranges comprise the sources of the Jordan. With the hill Tell el-Faras, which sinks near the north-eastern end of the Lake of Galilee, Jebel Heish comes to a termination. From its foot there spreads out a large elevated plain, of which the districts Jedur, Jaulan, and Hauran, are portions. The waters of the whole region flow on the western side down into the Jordan, in whose deep fields the harvest takes place a fortnight earlier than on the colder uplands of the Hauran. The western side of this great plateau, which terminates at the Sea of Tiberias and the Jordan, is the ancient Gaulonitis, corresponding with the modern Jaulan; the northern part stretching along the eastern side of Mount Heish, formerly bore the name of Iture'a, and is now called Jedur; the eastern is the Hauran (Aurani'tis). The south end of the Hauran sinks away into the open wilderness; Remtha and Bozra are here the last inhabited places. Eastward it is bordered by a hill-country, which begins with Mount Hauran, and extends in a northerly course through the stony district Ledjah to Jebel Kessue', which stands on the south before the plains of Damascus. This lofty region itself has on its eastern border the wide desert which stretches to the Euphrates.

About four hours south of the lower Mandhur, and south of the country now described, rise the high lands of Gilead, which comprise the districts Ajelun and Mœrad, and extend southwards beyond wady Zerka, the Jabbok of the Old Testament, as far as Rabbath Ammon. Mounts Gilead and Osha lie on the south of the Jabbok. Southwards from Rabbath Ammon, as far as the Arnon, the country is for the most part a plateau, or flat upland, which spreads out without a tree, or is covered with ruins of destroyed cities. Eastwards, this table-land runs into the Arabian Desert; on the west, it falls towards the Jordan. Then in a southern direction comes, on the east of the north end of the Dead Sea, Jebel A'ttarus, the Nebo of the sacred Scriptures. The country between the Jabbok and the Arnon has the general name of Belka. Southwards from the Arnon the tableland continues to the Kerek, where it ends. An elevated hilly region succeeds. From the Arnon to the stream el-Ahsa, which flows into the southern end of the Dead Sea, the district bears the name Kerek. At Ahsa there begins a mountainous region

on a larger scale, which runs towards the south to the vicinity of the Elanitic Gulf: here are found Jebel and Shera, formerly Mount Seir, the rocky abodes of the Edomites.

Only small streams with a short course intersect the land east of the Jordan. The Barra'da (in Scripture, 'Aba'na and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus,' 2 Kings v. 12), famous since the days of Elijah, which springs from the eastern side of Antile'banon, extending eastwardly beyond Damascus, flows into the Bahr elMarj (Lake of the Meadow). With this exception, all the water south of Antilebanon runs westwardly into the Jordan and the Dead Sea. Among the trans-jordanic rivers, the most considerable and the most northern is the Sheriat el-Mandhur, called also the Jarmuk and the Hieromax. Springing in the Hauran, it reaches the Jordan at a spot about two hours south of Lake Tiberias. On its banks near Ga'dara are several very famous sulphur baths. This river is not mentioned in the Bible. Less than thirty miles south of the mouth of the Mandhur is the Zerka, the Jabbok of the Old Testament. Pursuing a nearly straight course and in a deep rocky bed, it forms the dividing line between Morad on the north and the Belka on the south, and, after running for about an hour and a half, falls into the Jordan at a point nearly midway between the Lake of Gennesareth and the Dead Sea. According to Buckingham, the river has its source in the Nahr Amman, on which lies Rabbath Amman, formerly the capital of the Ammonites. This view corresponds with that of the Scriptures, which make the Nahr Amman or upper Jabbok the western boundary of the Ammonites (Numb. xxi. 24; Deut. ii. 37, iii. 16; Josh. xii. 2; Judg. xi. 13, 22). The lower Jabbok was the northern boundary of the kingdom of Sihon. The Jabbok divided Mount Gilead in such a manner, that the southern half belonged to Sihon, and at a later period to the tribe Gad, while the northern belonged to King Og of Bashan, and afterwards to Manasseh. Jacob crossed this river when he came with his family out of Mesopotamia (Gen. xxxii. 22, 23). South of this river lie a few inconsiderable wadys or watercourses, which send their tributes to the Jordan. Still more to the south, the country is drained by streamlets, which find a bed in the Lacus Asphalti'tis, or Dead Sea.

Let us cast a general glance on the whole habitable transjordanic Canaan. Its western boundary is the Jordan, from its source in Mount Hermon to the southern end of the Dead Sea. The northern boundary runs from the sources of the Jordan to the sides of Jebel Heish, south of Damascus, to the most northern point of the Ledja. Thence the boundary-line runs to the east of the Ledja and Jebel Hauran, turns at Salcha westward to the sources of the Zerka, and pursues the pilgrim road which passes on the east of the Dead Sea. Numberless ruins of ancient and very ancient cities cover the country, especially the Hauran.

Ledja is a dry district of basalt, a labyrinth of rocks, in part full of oaks. Jebel Hauran is covered with forests of oaks, which are interchanged with excellent pasture grounds. The plains of the Hauran are very fruitful, rich in corn and covered with crops of grass, so luxuriant that horses can hardly make their way through them. They are, however, destitute of trees. From the absence of timber, the houses are built of stone. Its rank grass makes it a place of resort, of which the Bedouins, or Arab shepherds, are very fond. Its wheat produces from sixty to a hundred and twenty times the quantity sowed.

Gilead, both on the north and the south of the Jabbok, is a pre-eminently beautiful land. Noble oak-groves cover the greater part. Bankes, who had travelled through England, France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, remarks, that, excepting some parts of the north of Portugal, he knew no country comparable in beauty with that which lies between the Jabbok and the Mandhur. In the hills of the Belka, or Gilead south of the Jabbok, the eminent traveller Burckhardt found a lovely shade of fine oaks and wild pistacio trees, as well as a more European character of country. The pasture grounds of the Belka are said to be the best in all southern Syria. The Bedouins are wont to declare that no land equal to Belka can be found. The oxen and sheep of this district are accounted very superior (comp. Numb. xxxii. 1-4). Ancient Gilead, indeed, has called forth from travellers the warmest praise. The whole country east of the Jordan,' says Buckingham, is exceedingly fruitful; scarcely can the woody districts of Belka and Ajelun be surpassed in beauty by any other. The valleys have a superfluity of corn and olives, the hills are covered with vines. The climate is lovely.' Southward from Fekeis and Rabbath Amman as far as the Arnon, and beyond the Arnon to Kerek (the Zared of the Old Testament), there extends a high table-land, cut through by deep brooks, like the northern Hauran, fruitful but without forests. Here is found a multitude of ruins of considerable cities, some of which are of very great antiquity. From an elevation in southern Ammon, Buckingham saw in every direction ruined towns, which bore marks of having once been of importance. He adds, 'As far as the eye could reach there was not a tree to be seen.'

A new country begins further south, beyond the Kerek. The deep rocky vale Ahsa separates what was once the land of Moab and that of Edom. At the point where the rivulet falls into the south-east end of the Dead Sea, Leigh found, rolled down from the steep heights, bolders of granite, porphyry, and serpentine, species of rocks which are to be seen neither in Lebanon nor in Eastern and Western Palestine from Lebanon to the Mare Mortuum, or Vale of Siddim. These rocks are here the extreme northern outposts of Sinai, which run northwards along the western shore of the Elanitic Gulf (Gulf of Akabah), and under

the name of Mount Edom extend from Aila to the Dead Sea. These mighty aud precipitous masses of granite, porphyry, and sandstone, rise out of the horizontal chalk formations of Arabia Deserta and Petre'a, and are here and there covered by the same. Hor, on which Aaron died, belongs to the mountains of Edom. In the vicinity of Hor lie the recently discovered ruins of the wonderful city, Petra, enclosed within lofty sandstone rocks, out of which it was itself partly hewn. It is a beautiful, but for the most part waste land of mountains. The air is pure, and though in summer the heat is very great, yet, as cooling winds prevail, the temperature is not oppressive. In no part of Syria did Burckhardt find so few sick persons. These qualities of the climate appear to have been well known to the ancients, who called the country Palestina Saluta'ris, or 'Healthful Palestine.' The winters are very cold. Much snow falls, and the frosts last till the middle of March. Near the city Tafyle', Burckhardt found cultivated in great abundance apples, apricots, figs, oranges, and pears of a very large kind. Of an excellent quality are also the pears, apricots, and oranges of Maan (Maon).

This fine transjordanic district, extending from the sources of the Jordan to Palestina Salutaris, appears a paradise when compared with the barren Syrian and Arabian desert, which stretches from the Nile to the Euphrates, and from Palmy'ra far into the peninsula of Sinai. This widely-extended waste has neither hill, mountain, nor valley, except that in a few depressed spots rainwater collects itself, which, however, sometimes quickly disappears under the influence of dry winds. The traveller finds no trace of towns or villages. In order to form an idea of the desert, you must conceive of immeasurable plains stretching out as far as the eye reaches on every side, without houses, trees, brooks, or hills, beneath an almost constantly glowing and cloudless sky. Here and there hills and crags rise out of the flat surface which runs away to the horizon. The all but bare and sterile earth offers to the eye nothing beyond here and there a stunted tree, a bush, or a patch of scanty vegetation; and the solitary stillness is broken only by the infrequent rustle of a gazelle, a hare, a grasshopper, or a rat.

The Eastern desert lies high. In proceeding from the foot of Mount Seir westwardly across the Ghor (the valley of the Jordan), the traveller ascends to the desert et-Tyh, which is lower than the Eastern desert, and forms the southern limit of west-jordanic Palestine. In both deserts, chalk and lime formations prevail, commonly besprinkled with flints and sand. The strata lie horizontally, and so cause the flat even surface of the country. On such plains there is no fall for the water; consequently there are no brooks and no rivers to receive, nor hills to attract, the rain. Their absence occasions the absence of human dwellings. What little water may be found has for the

C