HEBRON AND BEERSHEBA.
On the 20th of September, 1874, I once more landed in Palestine, having
been absent for nearly five months, four of which were spent in England,
where I was detained on account of my health. During this period the
party had been engaged, under charge of Sergeant Black, in office work
and survey, in the vicinity of Jerusalem.
On the 5th of October we camped at ’Ain Dhirweh, just by Hŭlhûl. This
village stands on the watershed of the Hebron hills, 3300 feet above the
sea, and only three miles north of Hebron itself. My object was to avoid
camping at the latter town, and thus to escape the suspicion of wishing
to attempt an entrance into the Hebron Haram.
The fountain of Dhirweh is traditionally that at which St. Philip
baptised the Eunuch, and traces of an old chapel are visible above it;
but it seems improbable that chariots could ever have travelled along
these stony mountain paths, and the road to Gaza by which the Apostle
was travelling on that occasion should rather be sought in the plain.
Opposite to our camp was Bethsur, famous in Maccabean times--a stony
hill with a ruined tower on the top. To the north we discovered a ruin
called Kueizîba, perhaps Chozeba, the home of Bar Cochebas; and near it
we found the head of Pilate’s great aqueduct to Jerusalem, never before
traced to its real commencement, which is thirteen miles from Jerusalem
as the crow flies, and forty-one and a half by the aqueduct, the fall
being 365 feet in that distance.
Riding on the 10th of October to the hill above Dûra, we obtained a
glimpse of the extreme southern boundary of the Survey. The view was
fine; to the east was the great ridge on which stands the traditional
tomb of Lot; on the west the Philistine plain lying in a hot haze which
towards Gaza hid it entirely; on the south were rolling hills, isolated
mounds, and a broad plain, with a dark patch near the Beersheba wells;
and yet farther were grey misty ridges, the land appearing to descend in
steps towards the Desert of Wanderings.
In returning to camp we passed through the luxuriant vineyards of the
supposed Vale of Eshcol, carefully enclosed between dry-stone walls. The
grapes, mellowed by the autumn mists, were in full beauty; the rich
amber-green foliage covered the whole of the open valley; beyond was a
stone town, and a fortress gleaming with a recent coating of whitewash,
having a tall minaret above. A barren hill and a few grey olives rose
behind. Such was our first view of Hebron, the ancient city which, as
the Bible tells us, “was built seven years before Zoan (or Tanis) in
Egypt” (Num. xiii. 22).
The results of the fuller acquaintance which we gained with the town, in
three subsequent visits of several days’ duration, may here be gathered
up. Hebron is a long stone town on the western slope of a bare terraced
hill; it extends along the valley, and the main part reaches about 700
yards north and south, including the Mosque Quarter, and the Quarter of
the Gate of the Corner. On the north is a separate suburb, named from
the mosque of ’Aly Bukka, who died in 670 A.H.; on the south also, and
west of the road, is another small suburb. The Haram stands above the
middle of the main Quarter. The Sultan’s Pool--a large well-built
reservoir, occupies part of the valley. West of the city is an open
green below the Quarantine, surrounded by hills which are covered with
olives.
The contrast between Hebron and Bethlehem has been already noticed; the
town has a dead-alive appearance, and the sullen looks of the Moslem
fanatics contrast with the officious eagerness of the Bethlehem
Christians. There are some 17,000 Moslems in Hebron, according to the
Governor’s account; and about 600 Jews are tolerated in the Quarter of
the Corner Gate. The town is the centre of commerce for the southern
Arabs, who bring their wool and camel’s-hair to its market. It has also
a sort of trade in glass ornaments and in leather water-buckets, but the
bustle and stir of Bethlehem are not found in its streets; the
inhabitants seem wrapped in contemplation of the tombs of their
forefathers, and boast that no pagan Frank has yet desecrated the holy
shrines with his presence, or built his house in the town.
The place of chief interest in Hebron is the Cave of Machpelah
containing the tombs of the Patriarchs. There seems no reason to doubt
the genuine character of the site now surrounded by the Haram, and here
again we have that valuable consent of traditions--Jewish, Christian,
and Moslem, which seems to distinguish the true sites, from those less
genuine concerning which two or more discordant traditions have arisen.
Only two trustworthy witnesses--Dean Stanley and Mr. Fergusson--have had
the opportunity of describing the interior of this sanctuary; and it
seems very doubtful if any living being has ever descended into the
mysterious cavern beneath the floor since the Moslem conquest of
Palestine; nor will it be possible to explore this cave so long as the
Moslems have possession of the place, unless unexpected changes occur in
their religious feelings. One curious story was, however, told me. It is
said that when Ibrahim Pacha threatened the town, the inhabitants
carried their property to the cave for safety. If this be true the area
must be considerable, and the iron door on the north-west, mentioned by
Captain Warren, may perhaps be the same iron door mentioned by Benjamin
of Tudela as leading into the cave in the twelfth century.
The surrounding wall is one of the mysteries of Palestine, and a
monument inferior only to the Temple Enclosure, which it resembles in
style. It measures about 112 feet east and west, by 198 feet north and
south, and has eight pilasters on the short sides, and sixteen oh the
long, resembling those which I found, as before noticed, at the
north-west corner of the Jerusalem Haram. The stones also are scarcely
inferior in dimensions, and one is said to be thirty-eight feet long,
and three and a half feet high; they are all drafted with the real
Jewish draft, broad, shallow, and beautifully cut, as at Jerusalem.
Judging from the similarity of style, one is led to ascribe the building
to the Herodian period--a view supported by Mr. Fergusson in his able
paper on the subject, his opinion being based on historical grounds.
Josephus speaks of monuments of the Patriarchs as existing in his day
(B. J. iv. 9, 7), but is silent as to the enclosure. Had it, however,
existed in the Old Testament times, we should surely find some record of
its origin in the Bible; nor does it seem likely that it was built later
than Herod’s time, for the earliest Christian pilgrim in 333 A.D. found
it already standing.
The great walls are surmounted by two high white minarets on the
south-east and north-west. The southern portion of the area is occupied
by a Gothic twelfth-century building, presumably a church; the nave has
a pointed roof and clerestory windows, the aisles are lower and their
roofs rest against the fortress wall. Within are the cenotaphs of Isaac
and Rebecca, supposed to stand above their true graves in the cavern.
Outside the building, in separate chambers, are the tombs of Abraham and
Sarah, flanking the entrance. On the north side of the open court Jacob
and Leah have similar cenotaphs, covered, like the rest, with richly
embroidered green cloths. A modern building is erected against the
western fortress wall on the exterior. This is called the Tomb of
Joseph, whose bones are said, by Josephus, to have been removed hither
from Shechem--a story no doubt due to Jewish jealousy of the shrine at
Shechem, which was in the hands of the Samaritans.
Cenotaphs like those in the present building are mentioned as early as
700 A.D. Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela states, however, that Jews were able
in his days to descend, through an iron door, into the cavern, which was
in three compartments, and where the real tombs were shown. The
twelfth-century writers, in describing the fortress, which they quaintly
name the “Castle of St. Abraham,” also call the cavern Spelunca Duplex,
“the double cave”--a title probably derived from the Hebrew Machpelah,
signifying “the place divided”: Sir John Maundeville, in 1322, states
that one chamber was above the other.
An idea appears to have existed at an early period that Hebron was not
originally built on its present site, but on the hill north-west of the
modern town. Arculphus mentions this in 700 A.D., and Marino Sanuto in
the fourteenth century says the same, both apparently referring to
ancient ruins then visible in the direction of the present site of
Abraham’s Oak. There are traces of the same theory in the writings of
many intermediate visitors, and the Bible narrative itself seems to
require a position opposite the Haram, if the true Machpelah be beneath
that enclosure, for the cave was not in Hebron, but in a field “before
Mamre--the same is Hebron” (Gen. xxiii. 19). Thus, though a new city may
have grown up around the sacred tombs, even in Jewish times, the
original Hebron, Mamre, or Kirjath-Arba of Abraham, must have had a
different site; and it may be noted, that the principal springs, and
many of the rock-cut tombs dating from the Jewish period, are now found
north-west of Hebron.
The Crusaders had other traditions connected with this neighbourhood.
The grave of Abner was then shown within a church in Hebron, probably
the same place now found in the house of a Moslem. The grave of Esau was
fixed in a suburb of the town, as also those of Adam and Judah, which
have now disappeared. The open green, west of the town, was known as the
“Field of Damascus,” apparently because owned by the Sultan of Damascus.
The place where Cain killed Abel was a little farther south, and on the
north was the cave in which Adam and Eve lived for a century, which
appears to have been the modern rock-hewn spring called
’Ain-el-Judeideh, “the excavated fountain,” which is covered by an arch
and reached by steps. Here Adam mourned for Abel, and hence the spot is
called by some chroniclers the Vale of Tears; here also Adam was made of
the red earth of the place. Hebron was considered to have obtained its
name Kirjath-Arba, “city of four,” from the four patriarchs, including
Adam--an explanation derived from the Rabbinical commentators, but not
in accordance with the reason given in the Bible, “And the name of
Hebron before was Kirjath-Arba, which Arba was a great man among the
Anakim” (Josh. xiv. 15).
On our last visit to Hebron we were shown an ancient Jewish tomb with
nine graves, or _kokim_, close to ’Ain-el-Judeideh, and to this we
obtained the curious name Kabr Hebrûn, “the grave of Hebron.” We did
not, however, learn the origin of the title, or the source of the
tradition. A little higher up the hill is a ruined monastery, in a
corner of which the tomb of Jesse is shown.
The Oak (or plain, as our version renders it) of Mamre has been shown at
various times in different directions. Jerome places it at the modern
Râmeh, where is a fine unfinished stone enclosure with a large well. The
walls measure 162 feet north and south by 214 east and west, and one
stone is fifteen feet long. A little farther east the remains of
Constantine’s basilica are distinguishable, and the great enclosure may
perhaps be the market where the Jews were sold by Hadrian, after the
fall of Bether.
The present site of the Oak is farther south, and the magnificent tree
stands among the vineyards north-west of Hebron. It is called Ballûtet
Sebta, “the oak of rest,” and has branches fifty feet long, one of which
was broken by the snow in 1857. This Oak is thought to be more than two
hundred years old, but cannot be the one seen by Sir John Maundeville,
for it is covered with leaves, whereas that which was shown to Sir John
he calls “the dry tree.” “They say,” he continues, “that it has been
there since the beginning of the world, and that it was once green, and
bore leaves till the time that Our Lord died on the Cross, and then it
dried, and so did all the trees that were then in the world.” Jerome,
however, is more moderate in his assertions, and speaking of the
northern site of Mamre at Râmeh, distant two miles from modern Hebron,
and now called “Abraham’s House” by the Jews, he says that the Oak was
still visible, and worshipped by the peasantry in the days of Hadrian,
but disappeared during his own time. We have thus no certainty as to the
position of Mamre or of the Oak, which Josephus places only six furlongs
from Hebron (B. J. iv. 9, 7).
There are two other springs near Hebron which deserve notice; one is
east of the “Oak of Rest,” and is called ’Ain Kheir ed Dîn, “Spring of
the chosen of the faith,” perhaps in connection with Abraham’s history.
The second is more important, because almost undoubtedly a Biblical
site.
After his interview with David, Abner set out on his way to Jerusalem,
and had gone as far as the Spring of Sirah, when Joab’s messengers
overtook him and brought him back to Hebron, where he was murdered in
the gate (2 Sam. iii. 26). Now on approaching the modern town by the old
paved road to the north, the first spring beside the way is called
Sârah. Like the Hebrew Sirah, the word means “withdrawn,” and the title
is, no doubt, due to the fact that the spring is under a stone arch, at
the end of a little alley with drystone walls, and is thus withdrawn
from the high-road. This place may therefore be considered as one of the
few genuine sites in the neighbourhood of Hebron.
On the 22nd of October we marched south, to camp at Yuttah, the ancient
Levitical town of Juttah, five miles south of Hebron.
We were now entering on a new district, differing in character from the
rest of the Judean hills. In the neighbourhood of Yuttah, Dûra, and
Yekîn, the country descends by a sudden step, and forms a kind of
plateau, divided into two by the great valley which runs from north of
Hebron to Beersheba, and thence west, to Gerar, and the sea. The plateau
is about 2600 feet above sea-level, and 500 feet below the general level
of the Hebron watershed. It consists of open wolds and arable land, the
soil being a white soft chalk, geologically a later formation than the
hard limestone of the hills. There are no springs in this region, but
the water, where not contained in tanks and cisterns, sinks through the
porous rocks, and runs in the valleys below the surface of the ground.
On the south another step leads down to the white marl desert of
Beersheba; on the west are the Philistine plains; on the east, 300 feet
below, is the dreary Jeshimon, or “solitude.” The plateau has only two
inhabited villages on it, but is covered with ruins. It is dry and
treeless, but rich in flocks and herds. It seems to have been the
country of the Horites, for the place is riddled with caves intended for
habitations, and the name of this troglodytic race is preserved in the
titles of two of the ruined towns.
The plateau formed part of the district called Negeb, or “dry land,” in
the Bible; and here, in the southern part of the possessions of Caleb we
should seek for Debir, which he gave to his daughter; for the Choresh
Ziph, where David and Jonathan met; and for the hill of Hachilah, where
David hid from Saul.
One is at once struck with the fitness which the plateau presents for
the adventures of the fugitive bandit chief who was destined to become
the king of Israel. The inhabitants, like Nabal of Carmel, are rich in
sheep and oxen. The villagers of Yuttah owned 1700 sheep, of which 250
belonged to the Sheikh. All along the borders of the Jeshimon and
Beersheba deserts there is fine pasturage, to which the peasants descend
in spring-time, having made some sort of agreement with the neighbouring
Bedawîn to protect them from other tribes. Thus we find perpetuated the
old system under which David’s band protected the cattle of Nabal.
The story of David’s wanderings is one of the most interesting episodes
of the Old Testament, and we have now so recovered its topography, that
the various scenes seem as vivid as if they had occurred only yesterday.
First we have the stronghold of Adullam, to be described later, guarding
the rich corn valley of Elah; then Keilah, a few miles south, perched on
its steep hill above the same valley. The forest of Hareth lay close by,
on the edge of the mountain chain where Kharas now stands, surrounded by
the “thickets” which properly represent the Hebrew “Yar,”--a word
wrongly supposed to mean a woodland of timber trees.
Driven from all these lairs, David went yet farther south to the
neighbourhood of Ziph (Tell Zîf); and here also our English version
speaks of a forest--the “Wood (Choresh) of Ziph,” where David met with
Jonathan. A moment’s reflection will, however, convince any traveller
that as the dry, porous formation of the plateau must be unchanged since
David’s time, no wood of trees could then have flourished over this
unwatered and sun-scorched region. The true explanation seems to be that
the word Choresh is a proper name with a different signification, and
such is the view of the Greek version and of Josephus. We were able
considerably to strengthen this theory by the discovery of the ruin of
Khoreisa and the Valley of Hiresh (the same word under another form),
close to Ziph, the first of which may well be thought to represent the
Hebrew Choresh Ziph. Should this word appear as a proper name in the new
English Version, a very marked improvement will be made in what might be
called the orientalising of the Bible, substituting the actual language
of the land, for that essentially English tone which has been imparted
to the narrative by the expressions of translators to whom the East was
less familiar than their own fair country.
The treachery of the inhabitants of Ziph, like that of the men of
Keilah, appears to have driven David to a yet more desolate district,
that of the Jeshimon, or “Solitude,” by which is apparently intended the
great desert above the western shores of the Dead Sea, on which the Ziph
plateau looks down. As a shepherd-boy at Bethlehem, David may probably
have been already familiar with this part of the country, and the caves,
still used as sheepcotes by the peasant herdsmen, extend all along the
slopes at the edge of the desert.
East of Ziph is a prominent hill on which is the ruined town called Cain
in the Bible; hence the eye ranges over the theatre of David’s
wanderings.
On the south are the wolds of the Negeb plateau, with the plains of
Beersheba beyond. On the east is the “Solitude,” with white peaks and
cones of chalk, and deep, narrow watercourses, terminated by the great
pointed cliff of Ziz, above Engedi, and by the precipices over the Dead
Sea, two thousand feet high. Here, among the “rocks of the wild goats,”
the herds of ibex may be seen bounding, and the partridge is still
chased on the mountains, as David was followed by the stealthy hunter
Saul. The blue sea is visible in its deep chasm, and is backed by the
dark precipice of Kerak, “scarred with a hundred wintry watercourses.”
The great hump of rock on which Maon--the home of Nabal--stands, is seen
to the south, and rather nearer is the Crusading castle at Carmel, where
were Nabal’s possessions; the ruined mound of Ziph is to the west, and
Juttah among its olives. Thus the whole scenery of the flight of David,
and of Saul’s pursuit, can be viewed from this one hill.
The stronghold chosen by the fugitive was the hill Hachilah, in the
wilderness of Ziph, south of Jeshimon. This I would propose to recognise
in the long ridge called El Kôlah, running out of the Ziph plateau
towards the Dead Sea desert, or Jeshimon--a district which, properly
speaking, terminates about this line, melting into the Beersheba plains.
On the north side of the hill are the “Caves of the Dreamers,” perhaps
the actual scene of David’s descent on Saul’s sleeping guards.
Pursued even to Hachilah, David descended farther south, to a rock or
cliff in the wilderness of Maon, which was named Sela Ham-mahlekoth,
“Cliff of Divisions” (1 Sam. xxiii. 2-8). Here he is represented as
being on one side of the mountain, while Saul was on the other.
Now between the ridge of El Kôlah and the neighbourhood of Maon there is
a great gorge called “the Valley of Rocks,” a narrow but deep chasm,
impassable except by a detour of many miles, so that Saul might have
stood within sight of David, yet quite unable to overtake his enemy; and
to this “Cliff of Division” the name Malâky now applies, a word closely
approaching the Hebrew Mahlekoth. The neighbourhood is seamed with many
torrent-beds, but there is no other place near Maon where cliffs, such
as are to be inferred from the word Sela, can be found. It seems to me
pretty safe, therefore, to look on this gorge as the scene of the
wonderful escape of David, due to a sudden Philistine invasion, which
terminated the history of his hair-breadth escapes in the South Country.
On the 5th of November we moved once more south, and encamped at
Dhâherîyeh, a village which, there seems to me to be every reason for
supposing to be the ancient Debir, a place not identified before the
Survey. The name has the same meaning, derived from its situation on the
“back” of a long ridge; and the position between Shochoh (Shuweikeh),
Dannah (Idhnah), Anab (’Anâb), and Eshtemoa (Es Semû’a), seems very
suitable (Josh. xv. 48). The place, moreover, is evidently an ancient
site of importance, to which several old roads lead from all sides. The
springs near Debir given to Achsah (Judg. i. 15) might well be the
beautiful springs of Dilbeh, about seven miles north of the town, and
the identification seems to me to be amongst the most valuable of those
due to the Survey.
On the 10th of November I proceeded, accompanied by Sergeant Armstrong,
to Beersheba, to complete the south boundary of the map. We had with us
only one servant, one groom, the scribe, a guide, and the Sheikh of
Dhâherîyeh, for whom I had a great liking. We took two tents, five
mules, and three horses, carrying also provisions for three days and one
theodolite. The rest of the expedition remained at the village.
Following a long valley, we arrived at a broad undulating plain, grey
and dry, like the muddy basin of a former sea. The hills end very
suddenly, and the boundary is thus sharply defined between the lands of
the settled population and the district of the Bedawîn, who, though
nomadic, cultivate a little tobacco and barley round Beersheba.
The scenery was tame and featureless, with a single dark Tell in front,
and white marl peaks capped with flint to the west. The heat and glare
were oppressive, and we were glad at noon to rest under a white chalk
cliff, and were able to realise the force of the poetic language of
Isaiah, “The shadow of a great rock in a weary land” (Isaiah xxxii. 2).
We ascended the Tell or mound of Seb’a, which is two and a half miles
east of the Wells of Beersheba, and thence we had a fine view of the
great boundary valley which limited our work on the south, joining the
long ravine which comes down from Hebron, and running west in a broad,
flat, gravelly bed, between high walls of brown earth. The pebbles were
white and dry, yet water-worn, for, as we found in the following spring,
a river will occasionally flow for hours along the Wâdy bed. East of us
there were remarkable white chalk hills called El Ghurrah, and on the
west a low ridge shut out the maritime plain. To the north were the
hills of Judah, dotted with lotus-trees, and to the south stretched the
endless Desert of Wanderings.
No mules appeared, and we therefore rode down towards the wells, passing
by innumerable burrows of the jerboa, and by numerous herds of camels,
with a distant view of black “houses of hair.” At length we spied a
tent, and our servants talking with mounted Arabs near the principal
well. At the same moment I saw a pigeon by one of the wells, and fired,
killing it on the spot. I noticed that the Arabs rode away immediately
after, and I found that they had been insolent, and had ordered the
servants to take down the tent, but, seeing a well-armed party
approaching, and conceiving a great respect for a gun that could kill at
such a distance, with characteristic Bedawîn caution, they made off
before we came up.
The desert of Beersheba is a beautiful pasture-land in spring, when the
grass and flowers cover the grey mud, as in the Jordan Valley; but in
November it is very desolate; not a tree exists near the wells, and only
the foundations of a flourishing fourth-century town remain.
Our tents were by the principal well, which is twelve feet three inches
in diameter, and over forty-five feet deep, lined with rings of masonry
to a depth of twenty-eight feet. A second well, five feet in diameter,
exists about 300 yards to the west, and on the east is a third, which is
dry, twenty-three feet deep, and nine feet two inches in diameter. The
sides of all the wells are furrowed by the ropes of the water-drawers;
but we made one discovery which was rather disappointing, namely, that
the masonry is not very ancient. Fifteen courses down, on the south side
of the large well, there is a stone with an inscription in Arabic, on a
tablet dated, as well as I could make out, 505 A.H., or in the twelfth
century. This stone must be at least as old as those at the mouth, which
are furrowed with more than a hundred channels by the ropes of seven
centuries of water-drawers.
The wells have no parapets, and I nearly fell into the dry one, so
little was it visible until quite near; round the two which contain
water there are rude stone troughs, which may be of any age--nine at the
larger, five at the lesser well.
The sun began to set, and we hurried back to observe the pole-star from
the Tell, but were foiled by a rising bank of clouds. Returning to camp,
we secured our horses with fetters and tethers, so that they could not
be stolen, and then retired to sleep in peace.
We now found how useful dogs may be in camp. In the spring our colley
had saved the horses at Sulem, and I had intended to take him on our
rather risky visit to Beersheba, but somehow he was left behind, and
thus not one of our faithful guards was with us. During the night a
thief came into the tents: he ripped up the saddle-bag containing our
provisions, and took them all with him, and he even came to the head of
my bed and stole Bulwer’s “Disowned,” but only took it about a hundred
yards from camp. It is evident that he must have crept on his stomach,
since he only took what was near the ground and left my watch lying on
the table, and (which was for the moment more important) he also left me
my boots, though he removed the tin washing-basin. Our plates, bread,
chickens, and some barley in a nosebag, he (or they) stole from the
servants’ tent, all this being nearly accomplished in about ten minutes.
After taking some observations from near the well, we started for Tell
el Mihl, fourteen miles east of Beersheba. Our faces were turned
towards the road by which Rebecca had come to Beersheba: like Isaac we
lifted up our eyes, and “behold the camels were coming.” As far as the
view extended the plain was covered with hundreds of them, each moving
alone towards the wells, each casting before it a long shadow in the
light of the rising sun. Dusky, half-naked boys sat on the humps, and,
arriving at the well, they stripped off what clothes they had on, and
let down to the water the goat-skin bags which served them as buckets,
drawing them up with great rapidity in time with a rude chant, and
evidently vying in the rate of watering their herds; both the wells were
besieged, and a thick crowd of camels had collected before we left.
We once more passed the Tell and found another smaller well near it.
Marching east, we came on flocks of sheep, with a few goats among them,
driven mostly by girls under twelve years of age--the age no doubt of
Leah when Jacob first came to Haran. As is still the custom of the
Bedawîn, the girls over fourteen were no doubt, in Jacob’s time,
withdrawn to the privacy of the women’s apartments in the tents, and
this seems to agree with the account of Jacob’s kissing his cousins, for
if they were more than children such a salute would surely have been
quite contrary to Eastern ideas of propriety. Small as the flocks
appeared, from the great extent of the plain, the smallest contained at
least twenty head, and the average was over one hundred, so that we came
across at least eight hundred in all. This gives an idea of the immense
number of the flocks which exist in this apparently sterile desert,
where it seems impossible that they can find anything to eat in autumn.
We also saw large coveys of the sand-grouse or pintail, which is not
found in the hills of Palestine, though in summer it comes up the Jordan
Valley; the crops of those we shot were full of hard round seeds and of
small pebbles.
The journey was tedious, and the scenery very monotonous. Ten miles from
Beersheba we came upon another ruined town with two wells, also
containing water. The place has lost its old name, and is now only known
as El Meshâsh, “the water-pits.” It must have been a very important
town, yet hitherto it has escaped notice, other travellers having gone
by routes east and west of the place, and never across country; thus the
discovery was left for us, and the utility of systematic survey once
more exemplified.
After travelling for miles without seeing a living thing, we came
suddenly on this site, with brown ruins, and a crowd of dusky naked men
drawing water in a frenzied manner, and a few women in sweeping
garments, driving diminutive donkeys laden with black water-skins.
Tell el Milh is a third site of character similar to the last; it is the
Malatha of the fourth century, and possibly the “City of Salt” (as the
modern name signifies) noticed in the Bible (Josh. xv. 62). There is
here a great hillock with Arab graves on the top, ruins of an extensive
town, and on the north two wells, just like those at Beersheba. Crowds
of horses, goats, sheep, and camels surrounded them, and the song of the
water-drawers was loud and wild.
We sat down under the steep bank of the valley, north of the wells, and
very soon a crowd of naked savages collected above us. They demanded
“bucksheesh,” and made rude remarks as to our being Christians. “Look at
the big watch,” said one, observing our aneroid; “Look at the guns and
pistols,” said another. Some of the chiefs (who wore clothes) came down
to talk to our Sheikh, and, putting their foreheads against his, made a
sound representing the kiss of peace. The Sheikh, though not a Bedawî,
seemed not at all afraid of the crowd, and abused the wild Arabs
roundly, telling them to be off. As for us, we turned our backs on them
and smoked in peace.
I ordered all the provisions we had left to be served out to the party,
for the natives had eaten no breakfast. Just as darkness came on we
heard the song of the messenger from our main camp, and he came in dead
tired, after trotting for eleven hours on a rough mule: with him came
one of our soldiers on his mare, followed by its colt, which was also
much fatigued.
We made great preparations in the shape of traps for thieves, but none
came. That evening, the 11th of November, 1874, nearly proved the close
of my existence, for I was seen, in the dusk, at some little distance,
and my servant fired, mistaking me for a Bedawî robber, the ball passing
very near my head. During the night we slept but little, being in
constant fear of losing the horses, or of a night attack from the
Arabs.
By seven next morning we had set off for the hills, and passed by the
ruined towns of Ghurrah, S’awi (perhaps the ancient Jeshua), and Haura,
which are noticeable for the walls of flint-conglomerate, possibly very
ancient, surrounding their sites; in the afternoon we reached
Dhâherîyeh, and found all well except Sergeant Black, who was suffering
much from dysentery. Sheikh Hamzeh, the well-known guide from Hebron,
and Abu Dahûk, chief of the Jâhalîn Arabs, were in camp. I had arranged
with them to start for Beersheba on the 10th, and had gone without them
as they did not come on that day. This lesson in punctuality was very
useful when I again required their services.
On the 19th of December, Lieut. Kitchener joined the Survey party. The
work was then interrupted by violent gales, and subsequently by illness
in the party which wintered in Jerusalem, whence Sergeant Black was
invalided home early in January.