path. We learned from a shepherd, that it is called Nunkur, and gives its name to the valley. The way continued along the high ground on the south of this Wady; and at a quarter past three, we passed another place of springs at the head of a small branch of the same. Proceeding across some hills, we came upon the fine plain which extends for half an hour on the east of Dura. It was now covered with fields of wheat, which the peasants were busily engaged in reaping; the wheat harvest having just begun.

Crossing this plain, we reached at 4 o'clock the large village of Dúra, situated on the gradual eastern slope of a cultivated hill, with olive groves and fields of grain all around. On the top of the hill, not far off, is the Mukâm or Wely of Neby Nûh (Noah), which we had formerly seen from Dawâimeh. The village is one of the largest in the district of Hebron, and is properly the chief place; being the residence of the Sheikhs of the house of Ibn 'Omar, who are the head of the Keisîyeh of the mountains, and formerly ruled over the villages.' We found here a party of Egyptian soldiers; but saw no traces of antiquity; unless perhaps in a large hewn stone over a doorway, with an ornamental figure cut upon it. Here too we were able to obtain no guide in the village itself; but having rode through it, we found one of the principal Sheikhs with a number of the inhabitants sitting in an olive grove; and laid our request before him. He treated us with great civility; and politely invited us to remain over night; repeating the usual story of the insecurity of the way; but on our declining, he immediately sent with us the servant of his brother, the head Sheikh, who was absent. This man was a Nubian slave, jet black, of a tall commanding figure; he proved a very intelligent and faithful guide, and was of great service to us. He told us, that his master, the chief Sheikh, was the owner of five male and six female slaves, two hundred sheep, three hundred goats, twenty-one neat cattle, three horses, and five camels.

Dûra had recently been the seat of a violent quarrel, in which the inhabitants, although nominally disarmed, seized their weapons and went to killing each other. This of course drew upon them the notice of the government; and it was here that the three governors, whom we had recently met in Hebron, had been for some weeks occupied in compelling the people a second time to deliver up their arms. They had in this way collected from the one party about two hundred guns, and from the other nearly a hundred more, which we had seen brought into Hebron upon camels. The origin of the quarrel was related to us, as

See above, p. 27.

See above, p. 80. Comp. p. 57.

follows. A family of Sheikhs, not of the house of Ibn 'Omar, was in power; and one of them was Mutesellim at the time of the last conscription; in which he and his followers so managed, as to take all the men required for soldiers from the opposite party. In consequence of the ill will which thus arose, he caused also the head of the house of 'Omar, 'Abd er-Rahman, to be imprisoned. Upon this, the brother of the latter, the Sheikh whom we saw, went to Damascus to Sherif Pasha, governor of all Syria, and obtained from him the release of the prisoner. The chief himself now repaired to Damascus; and returned as Mutesellim in place of his enemy. In the broils which ensued, the parties took arms; and six men were killed, all of the party now in disgrace. The people of Yütta also entered into the quarrel. The government interfered with stern severity; gathered up the arms of both parties; and the followers of the deposed Mutesellim withdrew to el-Burj and other places in the plain. It was probably for this reason, that the Sheikh represented the way to el-Burj as insecure.'

Although we saw no special traces of antiquity among the buildings in Dûra, yet the general aspect of the village and of the adjacent country testifies, that the place is one of long standing. There is indeed little reason to doubt of its being the Adoraim of the Old Testament, enumerated along with Hebron and Maresha as one of the cities fortified by Rehoboam. Under the name Adora it is mentioned in the Apocrypha, and also often by Josephus; who usually connects the two places Adora and Maressa as cities of the later Idumea. At the same time with Maressa, it was captured by Hyrcanus, and again built up by Gabinius. After Josephus, there seems to be no mention of the place, either by Eusebius or Jerome or any other writer, down to the present day. Yet the name is quite decisive. The dropping of the first feeble letter is not uncommon; and appears also to have been partially current in this name, even in the days of Josephus; in whose writings we find it in several instances in the form of Dora.

After a delay of forty minutes we left Dûra at 4.40, proceed

' In 1839, this chief of Dûra, 'Abd erRahman, rose in rebellion against the government; and with his followers got possession of Hebron, and held it for a time. The governor of Damascus marched against him; and compelled him to abandon Hebron and retire to the desert towards 'Ain Jidy. Here he was surrounded by a circle of 2000 men upon the watch; through which he at last cut his way, and escaped to the country east of the 'Arabah. 22 Chron. 11, 9.

ib. 13. 6. 4. ib. 13. 9. 1. ib. 13. 15. 4. ib. 14. 5. 3. B. J. 1. 2. 6. ib. 1. 8. 4.

Jos. Ant. 13. 9. 1. ib. 14. 5. 3. B. J. 1. 8. 4. Comp. above, p. 67.

Aapa Dóra, Ant. 13. 6. 4 in all Mss. Ant. 14. 5. 8 in the text. Awpeds Doreus, B. J. 1. 2. 6, and ib. 1. 8. 4 in the Mss. See generally Reland Palæst. pp. 547, 739. -Josephus scoffs at Apion for placing the Dora (Dor) of Phenicia in Idumea; which at least serves to show that Apion might have heard of this name there; c. Apion

' 1 Macc. 13, 20. Joseph. Ant. 8. 10. 1. 2. 5.

ing on a southwest course, passing around the head of a Wady which runs off west on the south of Dûra, and crossing a low ridge beyond. Here we had a view of the western sea. At 5 o'clock there was a site of foundations on our left called Khŭrsah; and at the same time Dhoheriyeh was visible, bearing S. 35° W. The hills around us were now green with bushes, and the trees higher than we had usually seen. At 5.35, we were opposite to other ruined foundations, called el-Hadb, at the foot of a hill on our left. At 5 o'clock, we passed between two higher hills on the brow of the steep descent of the mountain, into the head of a Wady called el-Keis, which runs down nearly west into the lower region.'

We followed down Wady el-Keis, descending very gradually on a western course. The adjacent hills were decked, as before, with bushes and large trees. This proved to be the least steep and rugged, and therefore the most feasible, of all the passes that we travelled up or down the mountains. The path continued all the way in the Wady; which brought us out at 6.40 into the region of lower hills, and valleys, intermediate between the mountains and the great plain, similar to that which we had formerly traversed further north. The hills, where not tilled, were bushy and green, and sprinkled with numerous flocks; the valleys broad and covered with a rich crop of wheat; the fields full of reapers and gleaners in the midst of the harvest; with asses and camels receiving their loads of sheaves, and feeding unmuzzled and undisturbed upon the ripe grain. These peasants were mostly from Dûra, belonging to the party which had fled, and was now scattered at different places in this region.

Our path led us southwest across a broad basin or plain; around which many of the hills were marked by ruins, showing that this tract of country was once thickly inhabited. Of these, one called Deir el-'Asal was on our right at 6.55; another named Beit er-Rûsh, on the left ten minutes beyond; at 7.30 we had Khurbet en-Nüsrâny on the same side; and at 7.40 some foundations called Beit Mirsim occupied a Tell on our left.

Here we ascended from the plain, and crossed a ridge running north from this Tell. It was now quite dark. In going up the ascent the guide suddenly demanded a pistol, and running forward fired at an animal, which he supposed to be a hyæna; but without effect. We now came into another valley running about S. by W. and at 8 o'clock reached el-Burj, situated on a very rocky promontory, or long point of a hill project

1 From the top of the southern hill I took the following bearings: Yutta S. 70° E. Semu'a S. 36° E. Dhoheriyeh S. 23' W.

Ps. 65, 13, "The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing."

ing towards the west. The ground was so rugged and so strewn with rocks, that it was with great difficulty we could find a place for our tent in the dark. It was a full hour before the tent could be made ready, or anything obtained from the peasants who were sojourning here, but who had not yet returned from the fields. Here our faithful Nubian showed himself active and useful.

Thursday, June 7th. On examining the ruins of el-Burj this morning, our expectations were disappointed. The Arabs had told us much of them; but had given an exceedingly exaggerated report. Indeed, it is impossible to know, in ordinary cases, how much credit is to be attached to their accounts; and the truth often turns out to be as much beyond their reports, as in this instance it fell short of them. The ruins here consist of the remains of a square fortress, about two hundred feet on a side, situated directly upon the surface of the projecting rocky hill above described. On the eastern and southern sides a trench has been hewn out in the rock, which seems once to have extended quite around the fortress. The walls are mostly broken down, and there remain no arches; nor indeed is there any thing to mark distinctly its probable age, or even the character of its architecture. The stones which compose the wall, are not large; and were laid up with small intervening stones to fill out the crevices; or possibly these latter may have been driven in at a later period.'

Yet the general appearance of the ruins is decidedly that of a Saracenic structure; and I am disposed to regard it as one of the line of strong Saracenic or Turkish fortresses, which appears once to have been drawn along the southern frontier of Palestine. Of these we had now visited four, viz. at Kurmul, Semu'a, Dhoherîyeh, and this at el-Burj. When or for what specific purpose those fortresses were erected, we have no historical account. They would seem, at first view, not improbably to have had their origin perhaps in the centuries before the crusades, during the long feuds and bloody wars between the various parties of the Muhammedan empire, or between the rulers of Syria and Egypt. Yet I have been able to find no allusion to any one of them in any writer, whether Christian or Arabian; and it is possible that they may have been constructed even after the Ottoman conquest in the sixteenth century; when we know that the fortress at Beit Jibrîn was again built up.'

We could hear of no other fortress or ruins in all these parts. There was said to have been formerly a tower or castle at elKhuweilifeh, a place which we could see in the S. S. W. at the 1 Compare the similar walls at Teffüh, 2 See above, p. 25. p. 71, above.

distance of about an hour or an hour and a half, in the edge of the great plain; but the fortress is now level with the ground, and only a few loose stones and foundations mark its former existence. The place is known, at the present day, chiefly as a well on the road between Dhoherîyeh and Gaza, where the Tiyâhah Arabs water their flocks. It seems however to have ever been a watering-place of importance; and as such is mentioned in connection with the movements of Saladin's troops south of el-Hasy, near the close of the twelfth century.' We would gladly have gone thither; but our time did not permit the excursion.

The ruins of el-Burj are situated very near the border of the hilly region towards the western plain; which latter we could here overlook to a great distance. Around the castle are some remains of huts, and many caves in the rocks, which seem once to have been inhabited as a sort of village; and were now usually occupied by a few poor families from Dûra, who come hither to pasture their flocks and raise tobacco. At the present time, other families of the defeated party in Dûra had also taken up their quarters here. The men gathered about us this morning, and were friendly in their demeanour.

Just as we were setting off, however, a great clamour arose, in consequence of the disappearance of one of our pistols. It had been yesterday in the care of our servant Ibrahim, and was now missing; and our servants and muleteers charged the people, and particularly one man, with having stolen it. This was not improbable; for these Fellâhîn covet nothing so much as arms; and especially now, when they had been so recently again disarmed. The noise became very great; and ended at length in a determination on the part of our followers, to take the Sheikh and the suspected person before a higher Sheikh, at the distance of an hour. As however this waste of time would have been a greater loss to us than both the pistols; and there was moreover no proof, that the one in question had not been lost by Ibrahim himself; we interfered to stop the quarrel, and proceeded on our journey. Our plan was to keep among the hills as far as to 'Ain Shems, visiting on the way Terkumieh and Beit Nüsib.

Leaving el-Burj at 6.40, we returned on our road of last evening, for twenty minutes, to the ridge connected with the Tell of Beit Mirsim. Here we diverged from the former path more to the left, going N. N. E. through a region of swelling hills and open Wadys covered with grain. At 7.40 we reached

p.

1 Bohaeddin Vita Salad. pp. 231, 233. Comp. Vol. I. 207. 2 From el-Burj we got but few bearings,

viz. el-Khuweilifeh about S. 25° W. Um er-Rumanin about S. 25° W. Za'k S. 60 W. Beit Mirsim N. 15° E.