March 5th
Our camp-ground tonight is at Kŭdes, the Kedish-Naphtali of the Jews, and we are again favored with a superb day. It might have been otherwise, as I know by sad experience, and then the ride round this marsh is gloomy and disagreeable, as it is now bright and cheerful.
Nature at Worship
From the plateau south of the Sāāry I saw the world wake up this morning about old Hermon, and it was an hour never to be forgotten—universal nature at worship, harping on ten thousand harps the morning psalm.
Banias and her surroundings do in fact form one of nature's grandest temples, in whose presence those made by men's hands are a mere impertinence.
Temple of Nature
These oak glades and joyous brooks, these frisking flocks and happy birds, all bear their parts in the service; and so, also, the mountains preach, the hills and valleys sing, and the trees of the field clap their hands. Thus the ancient prophets heard and interpreted the manifold utterances of nature; “Praise the Lord from the earth ... mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars: beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl: kings of the earth, and all people ... both young men and maidens, old men and children: let them praise the name of the Lord: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven” (Psalm 148:7-137Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps: 8Fire, and hail; snow, and vapor; stormy wind fulfilling his word: 9Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars: 10Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl: 11Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth: 12Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children: 13Let them praise the name of the Lord: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven. (Psalm 148:7‑13)). In these scenes and scenery of Hermon, there is not only poetry, but solemn mystery and suggestive types, and rich spiritual adumbrations; and he that hath an ear for such heavenly discourse may ever hear with ravishing delight.
Tell El Kady — Dan
And now we are at Tell el Kady — Hill of Dan — the Judge — to translate both the Hebrew and the Arabic names at once.
And is this circular, semi-concave mound the site of that famous city? How utterly desolate!
Josephus calls it the source of the Lesser Jordan, with reference to others more distant, I suppose, for this is far the largest of them all. Look southward, and you see that the river runs in a straight course through marsh, and lakes, and sinking plain, quite down to the dark and bitter sea in which it is finally lost. Dan and the Dead Sea—the cradle and the grave—the birthplace and the bourne! Men build monuments and rear altars at them, and thither go in pilgrimage from generation to generation. Thus it has been and will ever be. It is a law of our nature. We ourselves are witnesses to its power, drawn from the distant New World to this lonely spot, where the young Jordan leaps into life, by an influence kindred to that which led the ancients to build temples over it.
The Young Jordan
The young Jordan! type of this strange life of ours! Bright and beautiful in its cradle, laughing its merry morning away through the flowery fields of the Hûleh; plunging, with the recklessness of youth, into the tangled brakes and muddy marshes of Merom; hurrying thence, full-grown, like earnest manhood with its noisy and bustling activities, it subsides at length into life's sober midday in the placid lake of Gennesaret. When it goes forth again, it is down the inevitable proclivity of old age, sinking deeper and deeper, in spite of doublings and windings innumerable, until finally lost in the bitter Sea of Death—that melancholy bourne from which there is neither escape nor return.
Its Lessons
But surely the Jordan can teach other and happier lessons than these. It speaks to me and to all mankind of forgiveness of sin, of regeneration by the Spirit of God, and of a resurrection to everlasting bliss. Must this dear type of life and immortality be swallowed up forever by the Dead Sea?
Far from it. That is but the Jordan's highway to heaven. Purified from every gross and earthly alloy, it is called back to the skies by the all-attracting sun, emblem of that other resurrection, when Christ shall come in the clouds, and all the holy angels with him. May we be thus drawn from earth to heaven by the mighty attraction of that glorious Sun of righteousness!
More than three thousand years ago a vast and mingled host encamped on the eastern bank of this river. There was the mailed warrior with sword and shield, and the aged patriarch trembling on his staff. Anxious mothers and timid maidens were there, and helpless infants of a day old. And there, too, were flocks and herds, and all the possessions of a great nation migrating westward in search of a home. Over against them lay their promised inheritance,—
“While Jordan rolled between,”
full to the brim, and overflowing all its banks.
The Passage of Joshua
Nevertheless, through it lies their road, and God commands the march. The priests take up the sacred ark, and bear it boldly down to the brink; when, lo! “the waters which came from above stood and rose up upon an heap very far from the city Adam, which is beside Zaretan; and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, were cut off; and the people passed over right against Jericho” (Josh 3:16). And thus, too, has all-conquering faith carried ten thousand times ten thousand of God's people in triumph through the Jordan of death to the Canaan of eternal rest.
“O could we make our doubts remove—
Those gloomy doubts that rise—
And see the Canaan that we love
With unbeclouded eyes;
Not Jordan's stream, nor death's cold flood,
Should fright us from the shore.”
I shall not soon forget this birthplace of the Jordan, nor the lessons which it can teach so well. But it is time we were prosecuting our long ride.
As we pass round this singular mound, you see that it resembles the rim of a crater. The fountain rises among those briers and bushes in the center—at least that portion of it does which passes by this ancient oak, and drives these mills below it. Most of the water, however, glides through the volcanic wall, at the northwest corner of the Tell, into the pool beneath those wild fig-trees. If this be really the mouth of an extinct crater, it is probable that the water from the slopes of Hermon, following the line of the inclined strata, met, far below, this obtrusion of trap, and, being cut off by it, rose to the surface in this volcanic shaft or chimney. At any rate, it first appears in the center of the mound, and, of course, old Dan had an inexhaustible supply of excellent water within her walls.
I see very little evidence of the ancient city, unless the houses were built out of this shapeless lava over which we have been stumbling.
No doubt they were, in the main; and as basalt never disintegrates in this climate, we have them before our eyes just as they were three thousand years ago. Limestone exposed melts back to dust in a few generations. I was once here, however, when men were quarrying well-cut limestone from the rubbish on the north side of the Tell.
Fall of Dan.
Dan never became an important place after Benhadad smote it, nearly a thousand years before Christ (1 Kings 15:2020So Ben-hadad hearkened unto king Asa, and sent the captains of the hosts which he had against the cities of Israel, and smote Ijon, and Dan, and Abel-beth-maachah, and all Cinneroth, with all the land of Naphtali. (1 Kings 15:20)). When Tiglath-Pileser took Ijon, and Abel, and all this region, some two hundred years later, this place is not even mentioned (2 Kings 15:2929In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abel-beth-maachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria. (2 Kings 15:29)). It may have sunk, by that time, to an unimportant village, known merely as a mazar, sacred to religious purposes.
The Buffalo
This pool is crowded with buffaloes; and how oddly they look, with nothing but the nose above water!
Yes; and observe that their mouths are all turned up stream toward the fountain, and on a level with the surface, as if, like Job's behemoth, they trust that they can draw up Jordan into their mouths. (Job 11:15-23).
Do you suppose that the buffalo is the behemoth of the Bible?
Probably the Behemoth of Job
It is not easy to adjust Job's magnificent description in all the details to the buffalo, yet I am inclined to believe that these black, hairless brutes are the modern, though immensely belittled representatives of that chief of the ways of God, who “eateth straw like an ox, who lieth under the shady trees in the covert of the reeds and fens. The shady trees cover him with their shadow,
ILLUSTRATION
the willows of the brook compass him about” (Job 40:15,21-2215Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox. (Job 40:15)
21He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens. 22The shady trees cover him with their shadow; the willows of the brook compass him about. (Job 40:21‑22)). All these particulars are exact enough, and, indeed, apply to no other known animal that can be associated with the Jordan. Large herds of buffaloes lie under the covert of the reeds and willows of the many brooks which creep through this vast marsh, and we shall see them all day, as we ride round it, wallowing in the mire like gigantic swine. They are larger than other cattle of this region. Some of the bulls are indeed rough and monstrous fellows, with bones black, and hard “like bars of iron.” With the aid of a little Oriental hyperbole I can work up these buffaloes into very tolerable behemoth. And in justification of our version of Psalm 50:1010For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. (Psalm 50:10) may be cited the fact, that the general word for cattle in the dialect of this country is behîm or behaim, evidently from the same root as the Hebrew behemoth.
Habits of the Buffalo
These circumstances and characteristics render it probable that these very unpoetic animals are the identical behemoth of Job. Buffaloes are not only larger, but far stronger than the ordinary cattle of Syria, and a yoke of them will carry a plow through tough sward or stiff soil which utterly balks the tiny ox. At times, too, they are unruly, and even dangerous. A friend of mine, near this village below us, saw a cow rush at a woman, knock her over, and then throw herself upon her with such fury that the poor creature was instantly crushed to death. The cow had been alarmed and maddened by the seizure of her calf; and, unless greatly provoked, they are quiet and inoffensive.
Land of Uz—Where?
The fact that the region east of the Hûleh was the land of Uz—the home of Job—coincides, at least, with the idea that the buffalo is the behemoth of his most ancient poem.
Is this an admitted geographical fact?
The tradition of antiquity was to that effect, and I see no reason to question it. To ridicule the extravagant mania for pilgrimages in his time, Chrysostorn says that many people made long journeys into the Hauran to visit the dunghill upon which the patient patriarch sat and scratched himself with a potsherd. This shows the opinion of that early day in regard to the land of Uz, and modern research confirms the tradition.
Sons of Aram
With a little antiquarian generosity to assist me, I can locate the whole family of Aram. This Hûleh may have derived its name from Hal, the brother of Uz. If so, then they and their descendants must have been familiar with the reeds, and fens, and brooks of this great marsh, the chosen resort of the buffalo, and had often seen them, as we today, lying at the birthplace of the young Jordan, as if they could draw him into their open mouths (Job 11:23).
Gether—Gesher
Geller, the next brother, was probably the Gesher from whom the district immediately around the eastern side of this lake took its name. Maacah, wife of David and mother of Absalom, was from this little kingdom, and hither that wicked son fled after the murder of his brother (2 Sam. 13:3737But Absalom fled, and went to Talmai, the son of Ammihud, king of Geshur. And David mourned for his son every day. (2 Samuel 13:37)). As for Mash, or Mas (Gen. 10:2323And the children of Aram; Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Mash. (Genesis 10:23)), his name may be perpetuated in that Mais or Mais el Jebel, which we passed the other day on our way to Hûnîn. It is proper to inform you, however, that these locations are somewhat hypothetical, and even similarity of names is no Job very safe basis for such theories. The word Hûleh, for example, is now applied to any low, marshy plain, like this on our left.
I thought that critics were pretty nearly agreed that the buffalo is the reem the unicorn of the Bible?
The Unicorn
And this may be so, though I have my doubts. The description of the unicorn in Job 39 does not suit the buffalo: “Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee? Wilt thou trust in him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labor to him? Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?” (Job 39:9-129Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? 10Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee? 11Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labor to him? 12Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn? (Job 39:9‑12)). Now, it is implied by all this that the reem is a wild, stubborn, untamable animal, that utterly refuses the yoke and the service of man. This is inapplicable in every item to the buffalo, a patient servant of all work. Other references to the reem or unicorn speak of the horn in a way equally inapplicable to that of the buffalo. He has two instead of one, and they are ill-shaped, point backward and downward in an awkward manner, and are not particularly formidable as weapons, either offensive or defensive. They would hardly be selected for the poetic image of strength.
If, therefore, the reem be the buffalo, it must have been some other species than the one known in Egypt and this part of Syria. As to the unicorn, I think it more than doubtful whether there ever was such a beast, although there is a vague tradition of this kind among the Arabs of the Desert, and in some other parts of the East, and even in Africa.
Probably a Species of Rhinoceros
It may be a species of rhinoceros. If not altogether fabulous, such reports probably refer to some animal yet unknown to modern discovery. Certainly the fierce-looking monster on Her Majesty's escutcheon was never copied from these sluggish and disgusting friends of the marsh and the mud. If the Hebrew word translated kine in Pharaoh's dream will include the buffaloes, I should not hesitate to render it thus, because these animals are very common in Egypt, and delight to bathe and wallow in the Nile. It would be altogether natural, therefore, that the king should see them coming up out of the river; and certainly, when old and lean, they are the most “ill-favored” brutes in the world. The original word, however, is the name for ordinary cattle; and in these hot countries all kinds delight to stand in the rivers, not only to cool themselves, but also to keep off the swarms of flies which torment them. The conditions of the dream do not require that the kine should be buffaloes.
You say that these different branches of the Jordan unite into one river about five miles south of us.
Union of the Jordan Streams
I rode from Tell el Kady to the junction with Doctor Robinson in an hour and forty minutes. If it were not too muddy, and the streams too full for a pleasant excursion, we would have included it in our program for today; instead of that, I can give you some account of that ride as we pass along. It was on the 26th of May, 1852. The first thing that struck me, on descending south of the Tell, was, that the trap formation ceased at once, and we came upon limestone. At that season, too, the bottom was firm and the road good, whereas I had expected to flounder through deep mud. The time, however, was particularly favorable; the harvest was just ripe, and there was no irrigation. I never saw heavier crops of wheat than those on this plain, and particularly those about the site of Difneh, the ancient Daphneh of this neighborhood, twenty minutes south of the Tell. Passing some magnificent oaks, with countless birds' nests on the branches, we came, in fifty minutes, to Mansûra, a mill, with magazines for grain and straw (tibn) near it. Crossing the Baniasy at a well-wooded place called Sheikh Hazeîb, we came, in fifteen minutes, to the main branch of the Leddan, and in ten minutes more to another branch, with the name of Buraij. Half a mile from this all the streams unite with the Hasbāny, a little north of Sheikh Yusuf, a large Tell on the very edge of the marsh. Of these streams, the Leddan is far the largest; the Baniasy the most beautiful; the Hasbāny the longest.
The Leddan, Baniasy and HasbāNy
The Baniasy is clear, the Leddan muddy; the Hasbāny, at the junction, muddiest of all. Thus far the branches all flow, with a rapid current, in channels many feet below the surface of the plain, and concealed by dense jungles of bushes and briers. After the junction, the river meanders sluggishly through the marsh for about six or seven miles, when it blends insensibly with the lake. All ancient maps of this region and river are consequently incorrect.
Produce of the Plain of HûLeh
The soil of this plain is a water deposit, like that of the Mississippi Valley about New Orleans, and extremely fertile. The whole country around it depends mainly upon the harvests of the Hûleh for wheat and barley. Large crops of Indian corn, rice, and sesamum (simsum), are also grown by the Arabs of the Hûleh, who are all of the Ghawaraneh tribe. They are permanent residents, though dwelling in tents. All the cultivation is done by them. They also make large quantities of butter from their herds of buffalo, and gather honey in abundance from their bees. The Hûleh is, in fact, a perpetual pasture-field for cattle, and flowery paradise for bees. At Mansûra and Sheikh Hazeîb I saw hundreds of cylindrical hives of basket-work, pitched, inside and out, with a composition of mud and cow-dung. They are piled tier above tier, pyramid fashion, and roofed over with thatch, or covered with a mat. The bees were very busy, and the whole region rang as though a score of hives were swarming at once. Thus this plain still flows with milk and honey, and well deserves the report which the Danite spies carried back to their brethren: “A place where there is no want of anything that is in the earth” (Judg. 18:1010When ye go, ye shall come unto a people secure, and to a large land: for God hath given it into your hands; a place where there is no want of any thing that is in the earth. (Judges 18:10)).
Number of Village
I have the names of thirty-two Arab villages, or rather permanent encampments, in this flat plain, and this is not a complete list; but, as there is not a house in any of them, and all except Difneh are unknown to history, you can feel no interest in them.
Those white domes to the south, about three miles, are called Seîd Yehûda, and the place is worth visiting. There are three conspicuous domes over as many venerated tombs.
SeîD YehûDa
That of Seîd Yehûda is in a room about eight feet square, and is covered with a green cloth. By the Arabs he is believed to be a son of Jacob, and all sects and tribes make vows to him, and religious pilgrimages to his shrine. A few rods south of this is an oblong room, whose dome, still perfect, is the best specimen of Roman brick-work I have seen.
Ruins of Temples
But the most remarkable remains are the ruins of ancient temples on a bill called 'Amery, about sixty rods east of these tombs. They are utterly demolished, and the columns and capitals lie scattered about the base of the bill on which they originally stood. Across a small wady directly north of them is a square building of very large well-cut stone, the object of which I was not able to make out. It may have been a temple; but if so, it was after a very antique and unique model. Farther north, on a high natural mound, are the ruins of 'Azeizat, once a very considerable place; and all about are manifest indications of a former dense population. The Baniasy meanders through the plain directly below Seîd Yehûda, and upon it are situated the Towahîn Difneh—mills of Daphneh. The site of the ancient city is farther west.
Juda on Jordan
Who was this Lord Judah—for such is the signification of the name — and what place is this? That it marks some very ancient site is unquestionable; and I believe it is that “Judah upon Jordan, toward the sun-rising,” which Joshua mentions as the extreme northeastern point in the boundary of Naphtali (Josh. 19:3434And then the coast turneth westward to Aznoth-tabor, and goeth out from thence to Hukkok, and reacheth to Zebulun on the south side, and reacheth to Asher on the west side, and to Judah upon Jordan toward the sunrising. (Joshua 19:34)). If this identification be correct, it solves one of the greatest geographical puzzles in the Bible. It always seemed to me impossible that the border of Naphtali could touch that of Judah anywhere, certainly not “upon Jordan toward the sun-rising.” But here we have an important ancient site called Judah, on this most eastern branch of the Jordan, at a point which must have marked the utmost border of this tribe eastward, if we admit that it came up to it, and I see no valid objection against this admission. Naphtali possessed the western side of this plain, and, if able, would certainly have extended their border quite across it to the foot of the mountains, just where this Seîd Yehûda stands. I have great confidence in this identification, and regard it as another evidence that, as our knowledge of this country becomes more extensive and accurate, difficulty after difficulty in Biblical topography will vanish away until all are solved.
Before leaving this interesting neighborhood, I wish to call your attention to another question in Biblical geography. As stated in our conversation at Hunîn, I am inclined to place Beit Rehob in this vicinity. In Judges 18:2828And there was no deliverer, because it was far from Zidon, and they had no business with any man; and it was in the valley that lieth by Beth-rehob. And they built a city, and dwelt therein. (Judges 18:28), it is said that Laish, alias Dan, alias this Tell el Kady, “was in the valley that lieth by Beth-Rehob.” Now, it is scarcely possible that Hunîn, high on the mountains, and many miles west of this, should be Beit Rehob. But this shallow vale, which comes down to our very feet from the mouth of Wady el 'Aril, northeast of us, is called Rûheîb—a name having all the radicals of Rehob in it; and upon the mountains above Banias, and near the castle, is a ruin named Deir Rahba, which also contains the radicals of Rehob. May not either Banias itself, or some other town in this immediate vicinity, have been the ancient Rehob? Banias is a foreign word of Greek extraction; and it is not improbable, to say the least, that the city, which certainly stood there long before the Greeks entered this country, had an Aramaic name, which was exchanged, in process of time, for the foreign one, as has happened in a few other cases. And as Rûheîb and Rahba are found still clinging to sites both above and below Banias, may not this have been the true seat of the old Rehobites? And now let us ride.
Beauty of the HasbāNy
It is twenty minutes to Jisr el Ghŭjar, over the Hasbāny. You will be struck with the picturesque beauty of the rocks, the river, and the bridge, and wish for a drawing of them to carry home with you.
It is much more charming, however, in May, when these magnificent oleanders are all in a glow of rosy blossoms. I have spent hours here, gazing into the pools of the pretty Hasbāny, and watching the innocent sports of the fish, with which it at times is over-crowded. They come up from the marshes of the Hûleh in numbers almost incredible. But we have no time to waste on them now. Have you any curiosity to see a real Arab village?
By all means. That is one of the points which I have yet to make.
Turn down, then, to the left, and we will soon reach that encampment of Ghawaraneh, on the edge of this wet plain. You need not be alarmed by that troop of noisy dogs charging down upon us with open mouths. Their bark is worse than their bite—genuine Arab bluster, and nothing more.
Will these coarse mat walls and roofs shed rain and defend from cold?
Better than you imagine; still, they are a miserable abode for rational beings. These tribes are stationary fellaheen or farmers, and are therefore regarded with sovereign contempt by the true Bedawîn.
Character of the BedawîN
They are the most sinister, ill-conditioned race I have ever seen, and do not begin to fill my beau ideal of the free, proud denizen of the desert.
Like most other beau ideals, this in regard to tent-dwelling Arabs would flatten down sadly by close acquaintance. Pshaw! the Bedawîn are mere barbarians—rough when rational, and in all else coarse and vulgar.
What are these women kneading and shaking so zealously in that large black bag, suspended from this three-legged crotch?
A Bottle Churning
That is a bottle, not a bag, made by stripping off entire the skin of a young buffalo. It is full of milk, and that is their way of churning. When the butter “has come,” they take it out, boil or melt it, and then put it in bottles made of goats' skins. In winter it resembles candied honey, in summer it is mere oil. This is the only kind of butter we have.
Do you mean to say that our cooking is done with this filthy preparation?
Butter
Certainly; and this Hûleh butter is the best in the country. Some of the farmers have learned to make our kind of butter, but it soon becomes rancid, and, indeed, it is never good. I believe it was always so; and thus, too, I suppose they made butter in olden times.
Solomon's Allusion to Churning
Solomon says, “Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood” (Prov. 30:3333Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood: so the forcing of wrath bringeth forth strife. (Proverbs 30:33)). But the word for “churning” and “wringing” is the same in the Hebrew. It is the wringing of milk that bringeth forth butter, just as these women are squeezing and wringing this milk in the “bottle.” There is no analogy between our mode of churning and pulling a man's nose until the blood comes, but in this Arab operation the comparison is quite natural and emphatic. The Arabic translation of this proverb is curious, and very far from the original: “He that wrings the dug violently that he may bring out milk, brings forth butter, and he who milks harder still will bring out blood.”
HûLeh I Suppose, Also, That Lily
This little brook we are crossing comes from Ijon, by Abel. It is associated in my experience with the beautiful Hûleh lily, the flower, as I believe, mentioned by our Lord in that delightful exhortation to trust in the kind care of our heavenly Father: “Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not, and yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Luke 12:2727Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. (Luke 12:27)). This Hûleh lily is very large, and the three inner petals meet above, and form a gorgeous canopy, such as art never approached, and king never sat under, even in his utmost glory. And when I met this incomparable flower, in all its loveliness, among the oak woods around the northern base of Tabor and on the hills of Nazareth, where our Lord spent his youth, I felt assured that it was to this he referred. We call it Hûleh lily because it was here that it was first discovered. Its botanical name, if it has one, I am unacquainted with, and am not anxious to have any other than that which connects it with this neighborhood.
Scripture Allusions
I suppose, also, that it is this identical flower to which Solomon refers in the Song of Songs: “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.” The bride, comparing her beloved to a roe or a young hart, sees him feeding among the lilies (Song of Sol. 2:1-2,161I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. 2As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. (Song of Solomon 2:1‑2)
16My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies. (Song of Solomon 2:16)). Our flower delights most in the valleys, but is also found on the mountains. It grows among thorns, and I have sadly lacerated my hands in extricating it from them. Nothing can be in higher contrast than the luxuriant, velvety softness of this lily, and the crabbed, tangled hedge of thorns about it. Gazelles still delight to feed among them, and you can scarcely ride through the woods north of Tabor, where these lilies abound, without frightening them from their flowery pasture.
Sinselet El Hieyeh
This long volcanic hill, running up north, is called Sinselet el Hieyeh-chain of the serpent — from its serpentine shape; and the brook in the wady between it and Hunîn comes from a large fountain about two miles up it, called 'Ain et Dahab — gold fountain. Our road now turns south between the mountains of Kŭdes and this vast marsh which here comes up to the foot of the cliffs.
This fountain is called 'Adely, and a much larger one ahead of us is named Amûdîyeh, where is the village, or, rather, encampment of Boizîyeh. From this to Blâtâ is half an hour, and there we shall rest and lunch.
There are traces of large buildings about this fountain.
Yes, and a wall with a ditch was once carried from the marsh to the mountain, and thus effectually commanded the road toward the south. Here is another pool crowded with buffaloes wallowing in swinish felicity, with only the tip of the nose above the muddy water.
Marsh of the HûLeh
From our present position we can look over the entire marsh north of the lake. If you are fond of solving geological problems, you may calculate the time it has taken to fill up this spongy plain to its present level and consistency. The great fountains of Banias, Tell el laxly, and all the rest, are clear as crystal the year round, and would not deposit slime enough in a million of years to fill an acre of this ten-mile marsh. But the Sāāry, the Hasbāny, the Derdara from Ijon, and many small torrents from the mountains, are quite muddy during the winter rains, and their contributions have slowly gained upon the lake through past ages, crowding it southward into narrow and till narrower limits, and the time may come when it will be entirely obliterated. The infant Jordan seems in danger of suffocation in this tangled jungle of cane and bushes. I once asked an Arab if I could not penetrate through it to the lake. Looking at me keenly to see if I were not in joke, he slowly raised both hands to his head, and swore by “the great—the Almighty,” that not even a wild boar could get through.
Impenetrable Jungle
And he spoke the truth. It is an utterly impassable slough, worse than Bunyan ever dreamed of. When encamped, two years ago, at this village which we have passed, I was tempted down to the verge of the jungle by a flock of ducks. With gun in hand and eye on the game, and not upon my footsteps, I cautiously advanced, when suddenly I was in oozy mud that seemed to have no bottom. Flinging the gun back and struggling desperately, I regained the bank, and ever after kept a sharp and suspicious eye upon its treacherous depths.
Crows and Rooks
But this very impenetrability to man and beast makes it the favorite retreat of crows and rooks; there they breed, and thither they return at night from their rambles over the country. Upon the mountain above Hunîn I have watched them at early dawn rising in clouds from this jungle. On they came, like wild pigeons in the West, only their line was not across the horizon, but like the columns of an endless army, stretching from the Hûleh up Wady et Teim farther than the eye could follow them; the column, however, grows less and less dense by the departure in every direction of small squadrons, according to some social regulations known only to themselves, until the whole is dissipated.
Their Destructiveness
These birds are the plague of the farmer. They light by thousands on his fields, and devour so much of the fresh-sown seed that he is obliged to make a large allowance for their depredations. It is utterly useless to attempt to frighten them away. They rise like a cloud at the crack of your gun, wheel round and round for a few minutes, cawing furiously at you, and then settle down again to their work of robbery as if nothing had happened. They fly to an immense distance in their foraging excursions. I have met them at least fifty miles from this their roosting-place. It is curious to see them in the afternoon preparing to return hither from the wadies around the north end of Hermon. They assemble in groups, caw and scream, and wheel round and round in ascending circles, until almost lost in the blue depths of the sky; then they sail in a straight line for this marsh, chattering to each other all the way. Assembled in the evening, they report the adventures of the day in noisy conclave, loud as the voice of many waters.
But, lunch over, we must be on the march, for the sun will set ere we can visit the shore of the Hŭleh and return to Kŭdes, on this high mountain west of us. Do you notice anything peculiar in this clump of thorn-trees on our left?
The Field Sparrow
Nothing, except that they seem to be stuffed full of dry stubble.
That is the deserted nests of the field-sparrow. The tree is called sidr, and abounds all over Palestine, but I have nowhere seen it so large as around the Hŭleh. I passed this way last year on the twenty-first of May, and these trees were covered with those birds. There were literally thousands of them, and they were holding an angry and troubled consultation as to the safest means of expelling a couple of hawks that had called there for their breakfast. I drove away their enemies, and they speedily calmed down into comparative silence, though they are never absolutely quiet except when asleep.
This white-domed mazar above us, on our right, is Neby Hûshâ—Prophet Joshua—and is a place of great resort. A little farther on, the Wady el Mûaddumîyeh comes precipitately down from the mountains.
Boulders
Notice the immense quantity of boulders which this impetuous torrent has brought hither in the winter, and spread far and wide over the plain. We shall cross this wild wady tomorrow on our road to Safed. From this to el Mellâhah is forty minutes; there the marsh ends, and the splendid plain of the And el Kheît begins. We have been more than two hours coasting the west side of the marsh, and have ridden hard; it cannot, therefore, be less than ten miles long.
Fountain of El MellâHah
Here is the celebrated fountain of el Mellâhah. The water is brackish and slightly tepid, and this is the reason why it is so crowded with fish. It is only a mile from the northwest corner of the lake, and from it, in cold weather, come up an incredible number of fish. The pool is about four hundred feet in circumference, and from it the whole country round is supplied with fish. The water is led directly from the pool on to these mills, which are now the only houses in this neighborhood, although there was once a considerable town here, as appears from the foundations of old buildings, and from the rock-tombs in these cliffs above the fountain. Let us hasten down to the shore of the lake, for time is precious, and the neighborhood is anything but safe.
Plain of and El KheîT
What a splendid plain! and evidently as fertile as it is beautiful.
I saw it last May covered with golden harvests ready for the sickle. There were then many tents pitched here and there for the reapers, who come from Kŭdes and other villages on the mountains. There is not an inhabited house on all this plain, and this is entirely owing to insecurity, not insalubrity.
Liability to Plunders
'And el Kheît, as the district is called, is peculiarly exposed to incursions from the desert east of the Jordan. I came near being plundered by Bedawîn from the Ghor the first time I visited the lake.
Here we are at the shore, and, though somewhat soft, it is as well defined as that of any other lake, and there is no difficulty whatever in reaching it. There are also many fresh-water shells along the bank.
Though the reports on this subject are great exaggerations, still it is quite impossible to get to the lake except on the east side and along this southwestern shore. From the utter desertion of this region, it has become the favorite resort of water-fowl, and they have it all to themselves. No boat is ever seen on the tranquil bosom of the Hûleh—no hunter disturbs them here. The plain down to the exit of the Jordan is level as a floor, and much of it is carpeted with the softest, richest sward in all the East. One feels tempted to leap from the saddle, and gambol and roll about on it like a little child. The lake ends in a triangular marsh, the largest part of which is on the eastern bank of the river. It is an impenetrable jungle of ordinary cane, mingled with that peculiar kind called babeer, from whose stems the Arabs make coarse mats for the walls and roofs of their huts.
Babeer Cane
This cane is the prominent and distinctive production of these marshes, both at the north and south end of the lake. I have seen it also on the banks of brooks in the plain of Sharon, north of Jaffa. The stalk is not round, but triangular. It grows eight or ten feet high, and ends above in a wide-spreading tuft of stems like broom-corn, shooting out in every direction with surprising regularity and beauty. It imparts a singular appearance to the whole marsh,—as if ten thousand thousand brooms Course were waving over it.
Course of the Jordan
Through this jungle the Jordan creeps sluggishly for the dam half a mile away, and then glides tranquilly between green sloping banks for another mile to Jisr Benat Yacobe. Thence it commences its headlong race over basaltic rocks down to the Lake of Tiberias, a distance of about six miles, and the distance, according to my aneroid, is ten hundred and fifty feet. Of course it is a continued repetition of roaring rapids and leaping cataracts. I once rode, walked, and scrambled from the bridge clown to the entrance into the lake—a wild, stern gorge, fit haunt for robbers, from whom it is never free.
Bridge of Jisr Benat Yacobe
The bridge is concealed from our view by that projecting hill on the south corner of this plain. It is not ancient—at least not in its present form—but is a very substantial affair, having three broad arches. A guard is always stationed at it, and a few Arabs generally pitch their tents near, to profit from the passing traveler by selling eggs and lebn, and by pilfering as occasion offers. On the east of the bridge are the remains of an old khan, with a beautiful cistern of well-cut stone in the center of the court. It had handsome basaltic columns at the corners, and was supplied with water by a canal from the mountains above. The whole road from the bridge to the khan, and thence up the eastern mountain, was once paved with large basaltic slabs. The road from Jerusalem to Damascus passes up it and out on to the wild rocky region of the Jaulān.
About a quarter of a mile south of the bridge are the ruins of a large castle, called now Kusr 'Atra. It is on the west bank, and was evidently built to command the ford at that place and above it.
This Hûleh-plain, marsh, lake, and surrounding mountains is the finest hunting ground in Syria, and mainly so because it is very rarely visited. Panthers and leopards, bears and wolves, jackals, hyenas and foxes, and many other animals, are found, great and small, while it is the very paradise of the wild boar and the fleet gazelle. As to waterfowl, it is scarcely an exaggeration to affirm that the lower end of the lake is absolutely covered with them in the winter and spring.
The Pelican
ILLUSTRATION
I once had one of them shot just below this place, and, as it was merely wounded in the wing, I had a good opportunity to study its character. It was certainly the most sombre, austere bird I ever saw. It gave one the blues merely to look at it.
Its Melancholy
There is an easy ascent to Safed from this plain of el Kheît. It is half an hour to a large winter torrent called Hendâj, and forty minutes farther to Wady el Wŭlkkâs, at the foot of the mountains, where is a large Tell of the same name, more than seven hundred paces long and about one hundred feet high, with a miserable village on the east end of it. Thence the path ascends by Kûbbaah to Ain 'Askûl and upward toward the southwest, till, at the end of three and a half hours from el Mellahah, you are at Safed.
Way to KŭDes
Our present business, however, is to reach Kŭdes yonder in that recess of the mountain to the northwest of us. It will take an hour of busy, earnest climbing; and the long ride and brisk mountain air will sharpen our appetites for dinner, which will no doubt be waiting.
It seems that we have rather suspicious neighbors; such, at least, is the apprehension of the muleteers. Kŭdes has, in fact, a bad reputation in more respects than one. It is so unhealthy that the Metāwely lords of these mountains find it difficult to get people to live here and cultivate the lands. They constantly leave, and it has then to be colonized anew.
French Algerian Colony
Those now here are strangers from the French colony of Algeria. Several thousands of the Algerines, to whom the French yoke was intolerable, obtained permission to settle in Syria, and a small body of them came here under the direction of Tamar Beg. I never saw a more forlorn band of pilgrims than they appeared to be when they landed at Beirut, and I fear this lilies will prove but a poor city of refuge to them.
By the way, this is one of the cities of refuge. No better proof of antiquity and past importance could be desired.
Kedesh Naphtali
Yes, this is that Kedesh in Galilee, in Mount Naphtali, which was given to the Levites of the family of Gershon (Josh. 20:7; 21:327And they appointed Kedesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount Ephraim, and Kirjath-arba, which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah. (Joshua 20:7)
32And out of the tribe of Naphtali, Kedesh in Galilee with her suburbs, to be a city of refuge for the slayer; and Hammoth-dor with her suburbs, and Kartan with her suburbs; three cities. (Joshua 21:32)), and then selected to be the most northern city of refuge.
I somewhere read, when young, that these cities were seated on commanding heights, so as to be visible at a great distance; but this one, at least, is hid away under the mountain, and cannot be seen until one is close upon it.
The idea, though common and even ancient, is certainly a mistake. Nablûs and Hebron, the other two cities west of the Jordan, lie low in valleys, and it is evident that the selection was made without reference to elevation; they were central, however, this for the north, Nablûs for the middle, and Hebron for the south of Palestine, A few hours' rapid flight would bring the unhappy man-slayer to one or other of these asylums.
Cities of Refuge
The Jewish writers affirm that it was the duty of the Sanhedrin to keep the roads to the cities of refuge in good repair, and to have guide-posts wherever needed, with the words Refuge! Refuge! written upon them, that there might be no mistake, no delay. If these things were not so, they ought to have been; and although we never read of any instance in which this provision for safety was embraced, yet no doubt it was; and whether or not, still, as good old Henry says, there is a great deal of excellent gospel taught or implied in this institution. The account of it is very fully given in Numbers 35 and Deuteronomy 19.
Land of Fountains
Our ride for the last two days around the sources of the Jordan has reminded me of the words of Moses to the children of Israel in regard to this country: “The Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land; a land of brooks of water, of fountains, and depths that spring out of the valleys and hills” (Deut. 8:77For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; (Deuteronomy 8:7)). Certainly this is a good land. I have never seen a better; and none where the fountains and depths that spring out of the valleys and hills are so numerous, so large, and so beautiful.
Climate
And then remember that this is a climate almost tropical, where water is fertility and life, and the absence of it sterility and death, and the greatness of the blessing is vastly enhanced. The number of these fountains and depths is prodigious. Many of those whose united contributions make up the Jordan, we have looked into during these last few days; but the whole land is full of them; those of the Dog River; of the River of Beirût; of the Damûr; the Owely; the Zahrany; those of the Litany at Baalbek; Zahleh, 'Ainjar, and Mushgarah; the great Ras el 'Ain at Tyre; those of Kahery and the Naamany, on the plain of Acre; and of the Kishon at Jenîn, Lejjum, and Wady Kŭsahy; of the Zerka, near Cæsarea; and those of the Aujeh at Antipatris, and the Ras in Sharon. And thus we might go all through Palestine, on both sides of the Jordan, and enumerate hundreds of them — powerful fountains — the permanent sources of every river in the country. I have visited them often, and always with admiration and astonishment. Nor need we wonder that so much is made of them in the Bible: they are the glory and the life of the land, and they abound to an extent almost incredible.
Fountains Everywhere
Many single villages in the mountains have scores of smaller springs, which run among the valleys, and give drink to every beast of the field. Some even boast of hundreds of these little sources of fertility.
Peculiarities of Some
Many of these fountains have some peculiar characteristic about them. Some are tepid, as those along the shore of Tiberias; many are slightly brackish, and not a few are remittent or wholly intermittent. Of this latter class is Neb'ah Ran., the source of the Sabhatic River; the Menhej, east of Beit Jenn, the head of the second river of Damascus. The main source of the Litany at 'Anjur is a remitting fountain of a very extraordinary kind. But we must not make a pleasant subject tedious by too much detail. Enough has been said to justify the declaration of Moses that this is eminently the land of fountains.
The Sabbatic River
You mentioned the Sabbatic River just now, and I should like to know something about this rather apocryphal stream.
Account of It by Josephus
That of the Jews is, indeed, sufficiently apocryphal, but that of Josephus is not, though the phenomenon on which it is based is somewhat exaggerated in his hands. In book seven of his “Wars,” he says: “Now Titus tarried some time in Berytus, as we told you before. He then removed, and exhibited magnificent shows in all the cities of Syria through which he went, and made use of the captured Jews as public instances of the destruction of that nation. He then saw a river as he went along, of such a nature as deserves to be recorded in history. It runs in the middle, between Arca, belonging to Agrippa's kingdom, and Raphanea. It hath somewhat very peculiar in it; for when it runs its current is strong and has plenty of water, after which its springs fail for six days together, and leave its channel dry, as any one may see; after which days it runs on the seventh as it did before, and as though it had undergone no change at all. It has also been observed to keep this order perpetually and exactly, whence it is that they call it the Sabbatic River, that name being taken from the sacred seventh day of the Jews.” So much for Josephus. Pliny also, in his “Natural History,” very likely refers to the same river: “In Judeah rivus, Sabbatis omnibus siccatur.” This makes it rest every seventh day, according to the fourth commandment. Pliny, however, knew less of the actual phenomena of the river than Josephus; and, in order to make it a consistent Jew, required it to rest on the seventh day.
The translator of Josephus says that this famous river is extinct, and in this opinion the learned Reland concurs. Niebuhr, the celebrated Danish traveler, having discovered an independent tribe of Jews residing in Arabia, says, “The circumstances of this settlement have perhaps given rise to the fable of the Sabbatic River.” What those circumstances were he does not mention, nor is it easy to understand how he could venture to write such a sentence. He may have had some fable of the Talmud in his mind at the time.
Discovered in 1840
I discovered this river and its source in 1840. Let us return to and examine the quotation from Josephus. From Beirût, Titus marched northward to Zeugma, on the Euphrates. On his march he saw this river running between Arca, in the kingdom of Agrippa, and Raphanea. The mention of Agrippa's kingdom probably induced most travelers to look for the Sabbatic River somewhere in the south of Palestine, where it is not to be found, although there are traces of ancient cities in that region with names similar to those of Arca and Raphanea, But the kingdom of Agrippa did actually extend, at one time, as far north, I believe, as the River Eleutherus, and therefore included Arca. At any rate, the account requires that we search for the Sabbatic River between Arca and Raphanea; and there I found it. Arca, the capital of the Arkites, lies about half a day's ride to the northeast of Tripoli; and between it and Hamath, on the east of Jebel Akkar, is the site of Raphanea. A short distance west of Kŭlaet Hŭsn is the great convent of Mar Jirius, and in the wady below it is a fountain called Nebâ el Fûârr which throws out, at stated intervals, an immense volume of water, quite sufficient to entitle it, in this country, to the dignified name of river. This site answers to the description of Josephus in all respects; but there are some discrepancies between the actual phenomena of this fountain and his Sabbatic River which require explanation.
Nebâ El FûÂRr
In the first place, this Nebâ el Fûârr is now quiescent two days, and active on a part of the third. The account which the monks gave me of the matter was, that every third day St. George descends and forces out the water with great violence and loud noise, to irrigate the extensive plantations of this richest Syrian convent. The cave out of which the river flows is at the base of a hill of limestone, entangled in a vast formation of trap-rock. It was a day of rest when I examined it, but evidently a large volume of water had rushed along the bed of the river only a few hours before. Now, Josephus says that it rested six days and ran on the seventh; but Pliny makes it run six and rest on the seventh. At present it rests two days and runs on the third. These discrepancies admit of a probable explanation. Both historians appear to have depended upon report, and did not carefully examine the facts of the case for themselves. The numbers in both versions of the story were adopted in order to connect this singular phenomenon with the Sabbatic division of time, and it is not necessary to suppose that either of them was strictly accurate; if, however, we must admit that one or other was literally exact, the difference between the periods of resting and running eighteen hundred years ago and at present may still be accounted for.
Principle of the Siphon
Explanation of it. The account of Josephus was strictly the phenomenon.
It is well known that these intermitting fountains are merely the draining of subterranean reservoirs of water, on the principle of the siphon. Let A in our diagram represent such a reservoir, filled by the veins D E F. Let S be the siphon, which, of course, must begin at the bottom of the pool, rise over the elevation at C, and end in the wady at B, lower than the bottom of the pool. Now, the condition necessary to make the stream intermit is, that the capacity of the siphon be greater than the supply from D E F. If the supply were greater, or exactly equal to this capacity, the pool would be always full, and there could be no intermission. The periods of intermission and the size of the stream depend upon the size of the pool A, the supply from D E F, and the caliber of the siphon S. If it required six days for D E F to fill the pool, and the siphon could exhaust it in one, we have the conditions required by the statement of Josephus — a river running only on the seventh day. On the other hand, if D E F fill the pool in one, and their continued supply is so nearly equal to the draining power of the siphon that it requires six days to draw off all the water, then it will run six days, according to Pliny, and rest on the seventh. The fact now is, that the supply ordinarily fills the reservoir in about two days and a half, and the siphon drains it off in half a day. It results, of course, that the reservoir under the mountain of Mar Jirius must be very large to contain the vast amount of water that issues at B.
ILLUSTRATION
Change Since Time of Josephus and Pliny
If the account of Josephus was strictly true when he wrote, one of the following changes must have taken place during the eighteen hundred years which have since elapsed: Either the supply from D E F has increased so as to fill the pool in two days and a half instead of six, and the capacity of the siphon so enlarged as to exhaust this treble supply in half the time he mentions; or, the supply and the siphon remaining the same, the reservoir itself must have been reduced to about one-third of its former capacity. The former supposition is not probable in itself, and is discountenanced by the fact that the amount of water was then so great that Josephus calls it a river, and it can only obtain that title now by courtesy. But we can readily admit that the pool may have become partly filled up by the falling in of its superincumbent roof of rock.
If Pliny was correct, then either the supply must be greatly diminished, or the reservoir much enlarged; for, according to his statement, it required but one day of rest to fill it, while now it takes two days and a half. Either of these hypothetical changes is possible, but none are very probable, nor are we obliged to resort to any of them. I suppose the Sabbatic River was always nearly what we find the stream below Mar Jirius now to be. The vagueness of general rumor, the love of the ancients for the marvelous, and a desire to conform this natural phenomenon to the Jewish division of time, will sufficiently account for the inaccuracies of these historians.
Similar Fountains
This account of the Sabbatic River furnishes the explanation of many similar fountains and streams in Syria. As stated above, the source of the Litany at 'Anjur is a remitting fountain of a very peculiar character. A constant stream issues from the pool, but there are frequent and vast augmentations in the volume of water, occurring at irregular periods, sometimes not more than twice in a day, while at others these augmentations take place every few hours. So, also, one of the largest fountains of the 'Aujah (the second rivet of Damascus) has singular intermissions, accompanied by loud noises, and other strange phenomena, on the return of the water. In Lebanon there are likewise fountains which either entirely intermit at stated periods, or are subject to partial remissions. Such, too, is the Fountain of the Virgin, in the valley of Jehoshaphat. All such instances can be explained by supposing either that the entire stream is subject to this siphonic action, as at the Sabbatic River and at Menbej, or that the constant regular stream is at times augmented by tributary intermitting fountains, as at Anjar and Siloam.