south, as el-Kubeibeh, where it has formerly pleased the monks to fix the site of the village Emmaus of the New Testament; whither the two disciples were going from Jerusalem, as Jesus met them and went with them. According to Pococke, who visited the spot, it lies about an hour in a westerly direction from Neby Samwil; and in travelling to it from the latter place, he left the village of Biddu on the right, and Beit Sûrîk on the left; further west and more towards the north he saw Beit 'Enân, which we also could now see.'

To this hypothesis of the monks there is the objection, that its position is not in accord with the language of Luke, whether the latter ought to read sixty stadia, or more probably one hundred and sixty; el-Kubeibeh being at least three hours, or more than seventy stadia distant from Jerusalem. To this we may add, that there never was the slightest ground for connecting elKubeibeh in any way with Emmaus; nor is there any trace of its having been so connected, before the fourteenth century.'

The bearings of these and other places, as seen from the upper Beth-horon, are given in the note below."

The land around upper Beth-horon is exceedingly rocky, affording little opportunity for tillage. We left the place at 12 o'clock, and continued to ascend gradually among rocky and desolate hills, having all the characteristics of a desert. The ground was in general so strewed with rocks, that it was sometimes difficult to find the way; once we missed the path, and

1 Luke 24, 13-35. Descr. of the East. II. i. Pococke says "three miles," usual reckoning for an hour. Nau, Voyage p. 502 sq.

3

pp. 49, 50. which is his Comp. also

See more in connection with 'Amwas, in Vol. III. Sect. III, under Apr. 27th, 1852.

The crusaders and the pilgrims of the following centuries, appear to have fixed Emmaus and Nicopolis at Lâtrôn, on the way from Ramleh to Jerusalem; near the church dedicated to the Maccabees, which may not improbably mark the traditional site of Modin; see above, p. 232; also pp. 6, 7. So Fulcher Carnot. 18, p. 396. Will. Tyr. 7. 24. Jac. de Vitry, c. 63. p. 1081. Brocardus, c. 10. p. 186. Marin. Sanut. pp. 146, 249. Tucher in Reissb. p. 658. Breydenbach ibid. p. 105.-Yet in the fourteenth century there are traces, as if a new hypothesis had already begun to transfer the site up the mountain to Kubeibeh. Thus Ludolf de Suchem seems to speak of Emmaus as in the region of Neby Samwil; Itin. p. 92. Reissb. p. 850. So too Tschudi in 1519 places it expressly two hours from Jerusalem; p. 115. St.

Gallen, 1606. In the course of the sixteenth century, the transfer became complete; Kubcibch appears henceforth as Emmaus, and the place at the foot of the mountain took the name of "Castellum boni Latronis;" whence the present Arabic name Lâtrôn. So Zuallart, p. 242, comp. p. 113. Cotovicus, p. 315, comp. p. 143. Quaresmius II. p. 719 sq. comp. p. 12 sq.-All these writers and travellers, wherever they may place Emmaus, regard it as Nicopolis; making no distinction between the village and the city Emmaus, nor even inquiring whether it was 60 or 160 stadia from Jerusalem.

6

Bearings from upper Beth-horon, beginning in the southeast and proceeding towards the right: Biddu S. 24° E. (?) et-Tîreh S. 10° E. Beit 'Enân S. 11° W. Yâlo S. 66° W. Beit Nûbah S. 70° W. el-Kubáb W. Khurbata N. 85° W. Ramleh N. 71° W. Ludd N. 64° W. Beit 'Ûr the lower, N. 60° W. Sŭffa N. 57° W. Deir Kadis N. 30° W. Deir Abu Mesh'al N. 10° W. Râs Kerker N. Beit Ellu N. 8° E. Deir Bezi'a N. 10° E. Jânieh N. 12° E. Abu Zcitûn, a Wely, E.

lost ten minutes in finding it again. Add to this, the way was winding, and our horses wearied; so that from Beth-horon to elJib our rate of travel was not greater than with camels. At 1.50, we came out upon the top of the whole ascent, and reached the edge of the plain on the west of el-Jib. Here we had Beit 'Ûr, el-Jib, and Neby Samwil, all in sight at once. At this spot too was the site of a former village, the name of which we could not learn, as we had no guide and met no peasants. We could here look down into Wady Suleiman on our right, which begins to descend directly from the western end of the plain; and could perceive the other road as it comes up that valley.

1

We kept on our way towards el-Jib; and at 2.25 turned out of our path into the fields on our right, to visit the neglected well already mentioned, Bir el-'Özeiz. It is nineteen feet in diameter, and nearly filled up with earth; being only eight feet to the water, which also is very scanty. Losing ten minutes by this detour, we proceeded along under the northern side of the hill of el-Jîb; and at 2.50 stopped for a few minutes at the fountain in the cavern."

From el-Jib to Jerusalem, our horses felt the impulse of travelling towards home; and were somewhat more active, though still jaded. We did not care this time to climb the steep ascent to Neby Samwil; and therefore took the road by Beit Hanîna, which passes down the valley at the northeast end of the ridge of Neby Samwil. This is the drain of the whole plain around el-Jib, except at its western extremity; and forms one of the heads of the great Wady Beit Hanina. Leaving the fountain at 3 o'clock, we soon entered and proceeded down the valley, which is narrow, rocky, and rugged. The path keeps along the bottom nearly to Beit Hanîna, where it gradually ascends to the village. We reached this place at 3.50; it stands upon the rocky ridge running down between the Wady we had descended, and another similar one coming from the tract around er-Râm. The village is not large, and is tolerably well built of stone. The land around is exceedingly rocky, affording little room for tillage; but there are many olive trees round about, which seemed flourishing. Neby Samwil here bore N. 72° W.

From Beit Hanîna we again descended gradually into the valley; and having passed the fork where the eastern branch comes in, after a while ascended obliquely the eastern hill, in order to cross over it in the direction of Jerusalem. This brought us to the upper part of the branch Wady, up which

They bore as follows: Beit 'Ur, N. 65° W. el-Jib, S. 27° E. Neby Samwil, S. 5° E.

See Vol. I. p. 455.

For our former visit to el-Jib, see Vol. I. pp. 454-457.

See above, Vol. I. p. 455.

the road from Neby Samwil leads; and falling into this road we ascended the rocky slope to the tombs of the Judges, which we passed at 4.50, and reached our tent before the Damascus gate at twenty minutes past 5 o'clock. Komeh had pitched the tent, according to our directions, not far from the gate, under the shade of the olive trees; but in the midst of a ploughed field. Yet after long search, we too could find no better place. The owner of the horses was awaiting our arrival before the gate; but the refractory Mukâry did not make his appearance.

Here we were soon joined by Mr Lanneau and our companion in travel, who had put off coming out of the city until our arrival. They now came with bag and baggage, their own and ours; Mr Lanneau intending to go down to Yâfa. They had kept a strict quarantine of a week in his own house, under the charge of a guardiano, or health officer of the government. This man, as we learned later at Beirut, was himself a few days afterwards taken with the plague and died.

'See Vol. I. p. 461.

VOL. II.-22*

iii. 68, 69

-SECTION XIV.

FROM JERUSALEM TO NAZARETH AND MOUNT TABOR.

WE spent three days in our tent before the gates of Jerusalem. The first was the Christian Sabbath; which was never more welcome to us than now, after three and a half weeks of constant travel and exposure, accompanied often by high excitement and consequent exhaustion. It was to us a day of rest greatly needed; and we passed it in recalling the thrilling associations, and renewing and fixing the impressions, connected with the consecrated scenes around us. It was our last Sabbath at Jerusalem.

The situation of affairs in the Holy City had not improved during our absence. It had been shut up the day after our departure; and now, for more than three weeks, all direct communication with the country had been cut off. Ten thousand persons were thus confined within the narrow streets and their own still narrower and filthy dwellings, without fresh air and without fresh provisions or vegetables, except so far as a scanty supply of the latter was to be obtained at the gates. Under such circumstances the wonder was, not that the plague did not abate, but that it had not increased its ravages. Yet this seemed not to have been the case; the instances of contagion were scattered and occasional, as before; and the disease continued to exhibit the same character for some weeks longer; the city not having been again thrown open until July.'

A Hakim Bashi, a physician of the government, had arrived from Alexandria soon after the shutting up of the city; to whom the management of the health department was intrusted. As a special favour, our friends had been permitted by him to perform the necessary quarantine in their own house, instead of the wretched public establishment; and had thus escaped many

The plague has since prevailed in Jerusalem, both in 1839 and 1840. In the former year at least, as I am informed, the

city was again shut up during the month of March.

of the privations and annoyances, to which they must otherwise have been subjected. We were struck with the pallid hue of the inhabitants whom we saw, and of our friends in particular. The latter presented a strong contrast to our own dark visages; which, after so long an exposure to the burning suns of the 'Arabah and the glowing winds of the Sephela, had become scorched to a bronze, deeper even than the ordinary Arab complexion.

In the city, of course, all business was at a dead stand; the stranger merchants had departed, and none could come in from abroad, either to buy or sell. The labours and schools of our missionary friends were wholly interrupted. Many of the inhabitants had preferred to quit the city, and were living in the fields or wandering among the villages. The evils attendant upon such a state of things may be imagined better than described; they have already been sufficiently alluded to.' The Mutesellim, Sheikh Mustafa, who was absent at Dura and Hebron when Jerusalem was shut up, had pitched his tent just outside of the Damascus gate, where he transacted all his business without entering the city. The markets too were held at the Damascus and Yâfa gates. A double fence, having an interval of six or eight feet, was erected around the gate on the outside, enclosing a considerable extent of ground. To this fence the inhabitants of the city could come on the inside, and the people of the country on the outside; while health officers walked to and fro in the intervening space, each equipped with a stout staff. All the traffic was carried on through the lines of this fence and across the intervening interval of six or eight feet. Here the provisions brought by the country people were first handed in, and then passed to the other side by the guardiano; and the money in like manner transferred from the city to the country side, after being dropped into water or vinegar. But, wo to the hands or fingers, on either side, that ventured too far within the pale! The attendants were ever on the watch as to this point; and a no very gentle thwack with the staff, seemed to be not less a matter of zest to them, than of pain to the offending party.

How it was possible for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and especially for the numerous poorer classes, to hold out under such a state of things, I am unable to conceive. The city had been shut up on a single day's notice, and for an indefinite time; so that no one, of course, could make preparation for such an emergency. Nothing could come into the city but provisions, and little or nothing passed out except money; and

1 See Vol. I. p. 248 sq. Vol. II. pp. 1, 80, 211.