and the difficulties likely to be encountered, in endeavouring to transport them whither they might shine with advantage. Mr. Buckingham next relates the accommodation they received, and the whole appears to us to be intelligent and deserving of quotation. He says,

"Our horses were taken care of, and we were conducted into a large room of about forty feet long by fifteen broad, and twelve feet high, with a raised space at one end about fifteen feet square, as if for the accommodation of beds, and the lower part of the room set apart for animals, as there were troughs for food and water on each side. The whole of the masonry of this edifice was extremely solid, the stones being in general five and six feet in length, squarely hewn, and closely united, and the posterns and architraves of the doorways were each of one solid stone hewn into a square form. It was evident, too, that the door itself had once been of stone, as the marks of the pivots for hinges, and the aperture for receiving the bolt, exactly as those at the tombs of Oom Kais, still remained; the original door had been removed, however, and its place was now supplied by a wooden one. The whole of the roof or ceiling was constructed of stone, the largest of the beams being of one solid piece, stretching across from wall to wall, and of corresponding thickness, as in the colossal temples of Egypt, and the intervals filled up by shorter stones like rafters and planking, making the whole one solid mass of stone. It appears to have been the same cause that led to this mode of building both in Egypt

and the Hauran, namely, the total absence of good building timber in both these countries; for in all our route of to-day we had not seen in any point of direction a single tree, nor even a bush of any size upon the ground. In its general character, the plain of the Hauran resembles those of Belkah to the south-east of Assalt, and Esdraelon in Galilee, in having gentle elevations, the same level being no where of long continuation, though still not so much above or below each other as to destroy its general character of an irregular and undulating plain, in which there is nothing that deserves to be called a hill on its whole surface. The eminences that here and there break its continuity are mostly small veins of rock projecting above the surface, and these appear to have been selected in all cases for the sites of towns, for the sake of securing a commanding position, a freer air, a dryer soil, and convenient access to the materials of building, which, indeed, were thus close at hand. Of towns on eminences like these we saw at least thirty, in different points of bearing on our way from El-Hhussen to El-Gherbee, and particularly to the eastward of the latter.

"When our fire was lighted, the want of wood was supplied by using the dried dung of animals, which, with a small portion of charcoal, was the only kind of fuel procurable here. At sun-set the camels of our host entered the room in which we were seated, and ranged themselves along, to the number of eight on each side, at the stone troughs before described. The height of the door of entrance, which was about seven feet, had

struck

struck me at first as something unusual, since, in most of the towns to the westward, the height of the door is rather below than above the human stature, and passengers are generally obliged to stoop before they can enter in. Here, however, the motive for increasing the height became evident, as in it present state it just admitted the entrance of the camels, and was no doubt originally constructed for that purpose, so as to admit them under shelter at night, and secure them from the incursions of the neighbouring Arabs. This flat country must always have been a country of camels, from the earliest ages and these rooms for their reception might have been of very high antiquity, for the nature of the materials of which they were built (there being no wood whatever, and nothing else of a perishable nature used in their construction) made them in a manner indestructible.

"During our journey through the hills, we had seen only horses, mules, and asses, used as beasts of burden; but since we had entered the plain of the Hauran, we had met only camels, and these to the number of several hundreds in the course of one day. If this were really the land of Uz, and the town in which we now halted the place of Job's residence, as tradition maintained, there could be no portion of all Syria or Palestine, that I had yet seen, more suited to the production and maintenance of the 7000 sheep, 3000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 she asses, which are enumerated as forming the substance of this greatest of all the men of the East. (Job. i. 3.) At the present day, there is no man, probably,

with such herds and flocks for his portion; but these are still, as they were in the earliest times, the great wealth of the men of substance in the country; and it is as common now as it appears to have been when the history of Job was written, to describe a man of consideration in these plains by the number of his flocks and herds rather than by any other less tangible indication of wealth."

This plain is, indeed, the granary of Syria; and its population a ruddy, fresh, cleanly, and fine

race.

"I learnt that there was not a single town of all the many to the eastward of us (of which those named were but a small portion) which was now peopled, the only inhabitants of this deserted region being the birds of the air, and the beasts of the field; among which, lizards, partridges, vultures, and ravens were all that I saw, but the wolf, the hyena, and the jackall are said to abound. Some of the Great Desert tribes of the Arabs occasionally visit this country to the eastward, for the sake of the water and verdure which they occasionally find for their camels and flocks after the rains; and then, as I was assured, it often happens that a person might, in peaceable times, go right across the whole country from west to east, passing from tribe to tribe without danger, provided he were well assured of protection from the first tribe, from whom he might obtain his safe conveyance to the next beyond it, and so on; a journey that would well reward the enterprise of any European traveller who might have the inclination, the means, and the power to accomplish it.

At pre

sent,

sent, however, the great body of the Wahabees of Nejed had so spread themselves from the borders of the Hedjaz up to the highest parts of the desert beyond Palmyra, and close to the cultivated country on the edge of Asia Minor, that there was no security for any one; the whole Desert, as it might be called, being in a state of war. It is to be hoped, however, that on the first favourable occasion, some intelligent traveller will be induced to make the attempt, in the course of which he would be able to explore every part of the celebrated dominions of Og the king of Bashan, of which this place of Salghud was one of the principal, and do much to elucidate the early books of Scripture, by an examination of the ruins of the threescore cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan,' which cities were fenced with high walls, gates, and bars, besides unwalled towns a great many.'(Deut. iii. 1 to 10.)

"As this has been named in Scripture as the land of the giants, and even the dimensions of the iron bedstead of their king have been given, which was kept in Rabbath of the children of Ammon, as a memorial, and was there referred to by the writer of Deuteronomy (iii. 11.), there is no part of the country wherein this inquiry as to the probable stature of man in the early ages of which the Scripture speaks, could be carried on with greater probability of success than here*; where the proverbial expression of there being 'three hundred

and sixty-six ruined towns,' now commonly used by the natives of these parts when speaking of many other districts of the country beyond Jordan, may be uttered with less exaggeration than in any other quarter to which I had yet heard it applied; so thickly strewed is every part of this interesting region with the vestiges of former strength and abundant population."

Having traced his steps back to Gheryeh, the author gives other curious particulars relating to this ancient site of human existence and effort.

"In the course of the evening we removed from the house in which our party first assembled, to the one adjoining it, which was larger, without an occupant. This gave me an opportunity of observing that the folding stone door of the first house, which was of the same description as those seen in the most ancient buildings, and at the entrance of Roman tombs, was fifteen inches thick, from which some idea may be formed of these ponderous masses, how unwieldy they must be to open and shut, and with what propriety they might be enumerated under the terms of 'gates and bars,' when speaking of the strength of the three-score cities of Og the king of Bashan; as these ponderous doors of stone were all closed on the inside with bars going horizontally or perpendicularly across them, and the whole edifice even to the beams and roof being of stone also, must have rendered them almost inaccessible to any but the battering-ram or

cannon.

saw

cannon. This also appeared to me as another proof of the very high antiquity of most of the towns and buildings as we now them (notwithstanding the peculiar marks of Roman and Saracenic work about them which might well be subsequently added), from their accurate correspondence with the descriptions in the earliest books of the Scriptures for such buildings must have been impossible to be destroyed and swept away entirely to give place to others, without infinitely more labour and cost than it would take to make them the abodes of all future successors; while each race of their occupiers might make such additions, improvements, and ornaments, as suited their own style of taste, leaving the more solid parts of the structure just as they found them, and as they are likely to endure, as memorials of the highest antiquity for ages yet to come. In the house adjoining us, to which our party retired, I remarked a central fire-place, with massy stone beams forming the roof, pointed arches, and extremely solid masonry throughout.

Among other matters related during the evening, I learnt that the seven largest towns of the Hauran were appropriated to the seven days of the week, and that each bore the name of the day on which it held a market or fair; the round of the week being completed by each town holding a market once in seven days; so that during every day of the week there was a market or fair in some one or other of the seven, which being regularly observed was accurately known and attended as occasion required."

Ezra is full of the monuments of old times. One is a curious old mosque:

"Some of the arches rest on square pillars of masonry, and others on small circular columns of basalt. One of these pillars is formed wholly of one piece of stone, including pedestal, shaft, and capital: and near it is a curious double column, the pedestals of which are in one piece, the shafts each composed of two pieces, and the two capitals with their plinths all formed out of one block. These pillars are not large, and are only distant from each other, as they stand, about a human span. They are right opposite to the door of entrance into the mosque, and we were assured that it was a general belief among the Mohammedans here, whoever could pass through these pillars unhurt, was destined for heaven, and whoever could not, might prepare either to reduce his bulk, or expect a worse fate in hell. The pieces forming the shaft are united by a layer of melted lead used as a cement, and now visible.

that

"This is another instance to add to the several others already enumerated in the Travels in Palestine,' of the prevalence of a notion, probably founded on a literal interpretation of what must have meant in a figurative sepse by Christ, who says, Christ, who says, Straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.' Mat. vii. 14. But the notion is not exclusively christian: it appears to be common to all religions.

"It may not be unworthy of remark, that in Ezra, all the dwellings of the christians are marked