Nubk were frequent; and occasionally there was a stunted palm. With the exception of a few naked strips along brackish drains, the whole breadth of the Ghôr was here occupied with this species of verdure. Around these and all the other fountains we passed in the Ghôr, were many tracks of wild swine; they were said to abound in the region, though we saw none.

Our path lay along the very base of the cliffs, between them and the jungle, above the fountains, in order to avoid the marshy ground. One of the fountains, to which we came at 112 o'clock, sends forth a fine gushing stream of limpid water, very nearly pure, or at least only slightly brackish. A broad tract of jungle lies below. It is called 'Ain el-'Arûs, "the Bride's Fountain," and gives its name to all the others. Here we halted for nearly two hours, for rest, and in order to fill the water-skins for the day and night. We sought the shade of the bushes; but found the heat very oppressive; the thermometer standing at 92° F. Indeed we were now exposed to the full influence of the scorching climate of the Ghôr.1

Here we could see the Wady Ghŭründel already mentioned, which comes down from the eastern mountains, and enters the Ghôr just at its southeast corner. It takes its name, according to our Arabs, from a ruined place called Ghŭründel near its head. This was doubtless the ancient Arindela, an episcopal city of the Third Palestine, mentioned along with Areopolis and Charak Moab. The names of its bishops appear in the signatures of councils; and it is found still marked as a bishop's see in the latest Notitia before the time of the crusades.2 Both the site and the valley escaped the notice of Burckhardt, as he passed through the mountains. Irby and Mangles visited the site, but do not mention the valley. The ruins are situated on the slope of a hill near a spring of water, and are of considerable extent.3

While we rested at 'Ain el-'Arûs, our Haweitât took the opportunity of preparing a warm breakfast. They had brought along some flour, or rather meal, of wheat and barley filled with chaff; of which they now kneaded a round flat cake of some

The following bearings are from the fountain 'Ain el-'Arûs: Southeast angle of Usdum N. 20° E. Peak of the mountains of Moab near Khanzîreh, N. 75° E. Wady et-Tûf leh, mouth, S. 60° E. Wady Ghůrundel, mouth, S. 35° E.

2 Reland Palæst. p. 581. Compare ibid. pp. 215, 217, 223, 226, 533. Le Quien Oriens Christ. III. p. 727.

3

Irby and Mangles p. 376 [115], "Towards the centre of the ruins are the remains of two parallel rows of columns, of which three are standing in one row and

two in the other; their diameter is two feet; none have capitals. There are also near to this spot, fragments of columns of three feet diameter; the capitals appear to be bad Doric."-Burckhardt found only the southern Wady Ghŭrundel, beyond Wady Mûsa; but was the first to suggest the identity of this name with Arindela; Travels p. 441. The northern Ghŭrundel was inserted on the map accompanying his work, from the information of Irby and Mangles.

thickness. This they threw into the ashes and coals of a fire they had kindled; and after due time, brought out a loaf of bread, as black on the outside as the coals themselves, and not much whiter within. After breaking it up small in a dish while still warm, they mixed with it some of the butter they had stolen, and thus made their meal. Such is the manner of life among these sons of the desert; though the butter was a luxury by no means common. On their journeys, coarse black unleavened bread is the Bedawy's usual fare.'

At 1.35, we were again upon the way, keeping still along the base of the cliffs on a general course S. S. E. but with many curves. At 2.10 there was a sort of angle in the line of cliffs; where they trend in general more towards the southeast, but yet with a hollow sweep towards the south. Their tops continued serrated and jagged, from the beds of little torrents coming down from the 'Arabah above. We crossed at 2.20 a Wady of this kind, of some size, called el-Kuseib.

At length at 2.50, we reached the opening of the long expected Wady el-Jeib, through which we were to ascend. To our surprise, it turned out to be, not the mere bed of a torrent descending from the higher plain of the 'Arabah, but a deep broad Wady issuing from the south upon the Ghôr, and coming down as far as the eye could reach between high precipitous cliffs, like those along which we had passed. It is indeed the vast drain of all the 'Arabah; which has thus worn for itself in the course of ages a huge channel, through the upper plain and the offset of cliffs, to the level of the Ghôr below.2

We found here the peculiarity, that the eastern bank of this great Wady el-Jeib terminates nearly an hour further south; from which point the offset, or line of cliffs, then runs north of east to the eastern mountains at the mouth of Wady Ghŭrundel, leaving before us a wide open tract belonging to the Ghôr. The water-courses from the Wady come down across this tract, and pass on through a space without shrubs and trees to the marshy flats nearer the sea.

We now turned up along the western bank on a course S. S. W. and at 3 o'clock, were opposite the angle of the eastern

1. Burckhardt travelled from beyond Wady Mûsa across the western desert, with Haweitât apparently from the same tribe as ours. "The frugality of these Bedawîn," he says, "is without example; my companions, who walked at least five hours every day, supported themselves for four and twenty hours with a piece of dry black bread, of about a pound and a half weight, without any other kind of nourishment." Travels p. 439.

2 From the point where we now stood, viz. the western angle of the cliffs at the entrance of Wady el-Jeib, we took the following bearings: 'Ain el-'Arûs about N. 30° W. Southwest end of Usdum N. 15° W. Southeastern angle of Usdum at the corner of the sea, N. 15° E. Peak in the mountains of Moab N. 65° E. Wady etTufîleh, mouth, N. 85° E. Mouth of Wady Ghŭrundel and southeast corner of the Ghôr S. 40° E.

bank; whence the line of cliffs runs nearly east by north to the foot of the mountains, about an hour distant. Here we entered the Wady itself, in this part not far from half a mile broad, shut in between perpendicular walls of the same chalky earth or marl, from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet high, which exclude all view of the country and of every object around. The banks indeed are so entirely perpendicular, that it would be next to impossible to ascend out of the valley on either side. The broad bed of the Wady is very level, and has to the eye but a slight ascent towards the south; yet it bears traces of an immense volume of water, rushing along with violence and covering the whole breadth of the valley. At its mouth and below, the bed is covered with Tamarisks (Tŭrfa), and another shrub resembling the Retem, but larger, called elGhudhâh.' These bushes soon become fewer, and gradually disappear.

We travelled on along this remarkable chasm; which was now heated both by the direct and reflected rays of the sun, to the temperature of 88° F. The direct rays were scorching; but we avoided them by keeping within the shadow of the high western bank. At 4.40 the course of the valley became south; and looking up it, we could distinguish the lone peak of Mount Hor in the distance, bearing also south. At 5 o'clock a branch Wady came in from the west, similar in its character to el-Jeib, though much smaller. The Arabs called it Wady Hasb; and said it had its head in the plain of the 'Arabah, at a place where there is a natural pool filled with sweet living water, surrounded by much verdure, and, as the Arabs said, with some traces of ruins. Beyond this point, we began to find stones and blocks of porphyry scattered along the water-course of the Jeib, brought down by the torrents from the mountains further south. Till now the cliffs on each side had been so high and unbroken, that we had seen nothing whatever of the features of the country round about; but here those on our left became occasionally lower, and we could perceive the eastern mountains, and in them the large Wady el-Ghuweir described by Burckhardt. At 6 o'clock we halted, still in the shade of the high western bank. Here Mount Hor bore south, and the high peak we had before noted in the mountains of Moab, N. 54° E.

2

The heat in the Wady was so great, and the prospect of the country so very limited, that we concluded to travel during a part of the night; stopping now to dine and rest, and intending to set off again at midnight. The evening was warm and still;

1 "Nomen arboris. Kam. Aptissimi ad ignem et prunas ligni; in arenis præcipue provenit. Gol." Freyt. Lex. III. p. 281.

2 Travels in Syria and the Holy Land, pp. 409, 410.

we therefore did not pitch our tent, but spread our carpets on the sand, and lay down, not indeed at first to sleep, but to enjoy the scene and the associations which thronged upon our minds. It was truly one of the most romantic desert scenes we had yet met with; and I hardly remember another in all our wanderings, of which I retain a more lively impression. Here was the deep broad valley in the midst of the 'Arabah, unknown to all the civilized world, shut in by high and singular cliffs; overagainst us were the mountains of Edom; in the distance rose Mount Hor in its lone majesty, the spot where the aged prophet-brothers took of each other their last farewell; while above our heads was the deep azure of an oriental sky, studded with innumerable stars and brilliant constellations, on which we gazed with a higher interest from the bottom of this deep chasm. Near at hand were the flashing fires of our party; the Arabs themselves in their wild attire, all nine at supper around one bowl; our Egyptian servants looking on; one after another rising and gliding through the glow of the fires; the Sheikh approaching and saluting us; the serving of coffee; and beyond all this circle, the patient camels lying at their ease, and lazily chewing the cud.

The great feature of our journey to day, was the Wady elJeib. The mountain of salt, however remarkable and important, had in part been known before. But this deep Wady was wholly new to us and unknown to the world; the great water-course of all the valley or plain of the 'Arabah; a Wady within a Wady. Our Arabs of the Haweitât were acquainted with it throughout its whole length; and assured us, that it has its commencement far south of Wady Mûsa; and that in the rainy season, the waters of the southern Wady Ghŭrundel flow off northwards through the Jeib to the Dead Sea. Further north, they said, it receives the great Wady el-Jerâfeh from the western desert.

Another remarkable feature of the region is the line of cliffs crossing the whole Ghôr, and constituting merely the ascent to the higher plain of the 'Arabah. From the southwest corner of the Ghôr to the mouth of Wady el-Jeib we travelled two hours; and from thence to the southeast corner is an hour or more further. The cliffs thus form an irregular curve, sweeping across the Ghôr in something like a segment of a circle, the chord of which would be about six or seven geographical miles in length, extending obliquely nearly from northwest to southeast.-This remarkable line of cliffs, in the absence of any better suggestion, I am inclined to regard as the "Ascent of Akrabbim ; " to which the southeastern border of Judah was to be drawn from the Dead Sea," from the bay that looketh southward," and was thence to pass on to Zin and Kadesh-Barnea.1

1 Num. 34, 3. 4. Josh. 15, 2. 3.

Wednesday, May 30th. Ten minutes after midnight we were again upon our camels. The moon had set, and all was dark the night-breeze cool and refreshing. All was still as the grave; nor did the noiseless tread of the camels in the sand, break in at all upon the silence. As we advanced, the banks of the Wady became gradually lower; and at two o'clock the country apparently opened around. I watched with interest the dawning of the morning star; at length about 3 o'clock it burst at once over the eastern mountains, radiant with brightness. We now seemed to be leaving the bed of Wady el-Jeib; and fearing to lose some important observation, we halted and waited for daybreak. Lying down upon the sand, we slept sweetly for an hour; and at 4.20 proceeded on our way.

The bed of the Jeib, where we thus left it, was still large; but the banks were of moderate height; the eastern indeed had nearly disappeared. The Wady here came down from the southwest while our course was now nearly S.W. Mount Hor bore at first due south, and then gradually S. E. We were now upon the plain, or rather the rolling desert of the 'Arabah; the surface was in general loose gravel and stones, everywhere furrowed and torn with the beds of torrents. A more frightful desert it had hardly been our lot to behold. Now and then a lone shrub of the Ghudâh was almost the only trace of vegetation. Looking across the 'Arabah towards the west, the prospect was not more cheering, except the small spots of verdure around two fountains ; one el-Weibeh1 at the foot of the western mountains; and the other, el-Hufeiry more in the plain further north. The mountains beyond presented a most uninviting and hideous aspect; precipices and naked conical peaks of chalky and gravelly formation, rising one above another without a sign of life or vegetation.

On our left, as we proceeded, a long low range of reddish rocks, called Humra Fedân, ran parallel to the eastern mountains in front of the Wady el-Ghuweir. These rocks are at some distance from the mountains, and a large tract of the plain lies behind them. We could look over them, and see the break formed by the Ghuweir. The waters of this Wady issuing upon the plain behind the Humra Fedân, do not run to the Jeib; but were said to form another similar channel nearer to the mountain, called el-Butâhy, which enters the Ghôr near its southeast corner.

As the sun rose over the eastern mountains, the two Arabs (Jehâlin) who were walking by our side, repeated a few words of prayer, consisting of little more than the ordinary Muhammedan confession: "God is most Great, and Muhammed is his pro

1 This fountain is on the direct road between Wady Mûsa and Hebron. We visited it on our return, June 2d.

VOL. II.-11