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the walls of the city. The castle which he mentions on the south of the village, with its bridge across the Wady el-Kid, is still there, and the inscription and granite columns; but then, instead of its being a separate castle, as he says, like that on the mountain, it is one of the four towers which defend the southern wall of the city. This mistake Dr. Robinson has copied into his noble Researches; and also, that the ancient city was on the north of the stream, while it is in reality and necessarily on the south.1

Tell el-Kády. From Bâniâs to Tell el-Kâdy, it took us forty-five minutes of brisk riding; and the distance, therefore, is not far short of three miles. The course is west, or perhaps a little south of west; and most of the intervening plain is densely covered with oak and other trees, having a thick undergrowth of various kinds of bushes. From this point to the western mountain, the plain is altogether destitute of trees. The Tell (or hill) is elevated about forty or fifty feet, and its figure is circular or rather oval, being longest from east to west. One part of it is covered with oak trees, and another part with thick brush-wood and briars. It is evidently an extinct crater, about half a mile in circumference. On the south-western side, the wall of this crater has been partly carried away by the action of the great fountain, which gushes out all at once a beautiful river of delicious water, several times larger than the stream at Bânias. The fountain in reality first appears in the centre of the crater. The great body of water, however, glides underneath the lava boulders, and rushes out at the bottom of the Tell on the west. But a considerable stream rises to the surface within the crater, and is conducted over its south-western margin, and drives a couple of flouring mills, which are overshadowed by some magnificent oak trees, and almost buried beneath the luxuriant vegetation of the place. The two streams unite below the mills, forming a river forty or fifty feet wide, which rushes very rapidly down into the marsh of the Hûleh. There were a multitude of turtles sunning themselves on the rocks around.

The miller, with whom I happened to be acquainted, pointed out to me a clump of trees, about three miles to the south-west, where, he assured me, the stream from Bâniâs unites with this from the Tell. This juncture is in the marsh, a short distance to the north of a huge mound, very similar to the Tell el-Kâdy, and which, in all probability, is also an extinct crater. My informant had often been there, and I understood him to say, that the river, after the junction, flowed along on the north of the mound until it fell into the Hasbâny, which I have before mentioned as the main stream of the Jordan. I thought also that I could trace the

1 Comp. Burckhardt's Syria, 4to. p. 39, 40.

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Tell el-Kády.

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course which he pointed out, through the tall reeds of the marsh, down to the point where these two main streams come together.

On the south-western corner of the Tell are the ruins of a few Arab tents, evidently quite modern; but there are no visible traces of any ancient city or temple in this vicinity. Nor is the place adapted for such a purpose. It is so near the marsh, and so entirely exposed to its poisonous miasma, that even the poor Arabs do not venture to pitch their tents there. And I find it difficult to believe, that this was the site of that famous Laish, which the Danites conquered. The report rendered by the spies, is altogether inapplicable to Tell el-Kâdy; while their account applies admirably to Bàniàs. Josephus calls this place Daphne, and also Dan. But he and Jerome and Eusebius, seem to blend the two places together in their occasional notices. The fact appears to be, that they are so near together, have both great fountains, sources of the Jordan, and probably have always followed the fortunes of each other so closely, that their names have thus become inextricably blended together by ancient historians. The editor of Burckhardt and most of the maps make Bâniâs the site of Dan. If I might venture a conjecture, it would be, that the two places have always been regarded as in a certain sense identical. The Tell is not more than two miles from the ancient suburbs of Baniâs; and it is highly probable that country-seats were built as far down on the plain, as the necessary regard to health would allow.

If this is the source of what Josephus calls the lesser Jordan, and Bànias, of the greater, there is but little foundation in nature for the distinction. I feel disposed to make the Hasbâny the greater, and both these united, the lesser or shorter Jordan. It seems very unreasonable to allow to these two fountains, which rise close together, and the entire length of whose streams is but five or six miles, the whole honor of giving name to the Jordan; while the Hasbâny, commencing twenty or five and twenty miles more distant, preserves the direct and natural course of the Jordan; receives large tributaries from mount Hermon on the east and Merj 'Ayûn on the west, before entering the marsh; and then, dividing the marsh in its progress, draws into its controlling channel the great fountains of Derakit or Belât and el-Mellâhah from the west, and those of Bâniâs and Tell el-Kady from the east. Why should the Hasbany, therefore, which absorbs not only these two streams, but many similar ones from the right hand and from the left, be deprived of its natural prerogatives, and not even mentioned? I can scarcely believe that antiquity is justly chargeable with such singular partiality.1

* See note at the end of the Article.-E. R.

In a few minutes after leaving the Tell, we encountered a broad marsh, caused by a number of fountains or rills running amongst volcanic rocks, over and through which we waded and floundered for nearly a mile. These taken together would make a large fountain; and they creep through the long grass into the marsh below. I noticed some fields of rice growing luxuriantly along the edge of the marsh, and watered by these many rills. In half an hour from the Tell, we crossed the Hasbâny, now greatly augmented, on a bridge called el-Ghŭjar. The stream runs in a deep fissure or channel of volcanic tuf, and the descent and ascent to and from the bridge is very steep. Turning to the left, we now descended some fifty or sixty feet, to the level of the marsh, and followed the windings of a little canal, by which a portion of the Hasbâny is carried along the upper margin of the marsh for several miles towards the western mountains, until it meets a considerable stream which comes down from Merj 'Ayûn. A short distance west of the bridge is a small brook; and on the flat below a miserable half-ruined village of Ghawârineh Arabs, called ez-Zûk.

Region of the Huleh. About twenty minutes from the western mountains, there rises abruptly from the edge of the marsh a sharp high hill of basalt, which runs almost due north for many miles parallel to the mountains, and forms the eastern wall of the district of Merj 'Ayûn. The waters from the Merj make a considerable stream; which passes out between this hill and the mountains, and enters the marsh. In this brook, and all along the small canal above mentioned, were herds of buffaloes wallowing in the mire. With black hairless hides plastered all over with mud, lank skeletons, slouched ears, lazy gait, sinister sulky looks, and wheezing, disgusting snore, they are certainly the least poetic of all animals. If the buffalo is the Reem of Scripture, as many of the learned assert, it is difficult to sympathize with Job and David and Isaiah in their magnificent descriptions of him.1

From Bâniâs to the bridge el-Ghŭjar, is one hour and a quarter; and from the bridge to the western mountains, an hour and three quarters; which, at our rate of riding, would make the whole distance about twelve miles. The width of the plain itself, immediately above the marsh, therefore, cannot be less than ten miles.

Having reached the western mountains, we sent forward our baggage directly to Hûnîn, and set off to visit the lake Hûleh. We rode rapidly two hours and three quarters along the edge of the marsh, (which

1 Those who hold that by the Hebrew Reem is meant the buffalo of the east, do not suppose the animal to have been at that time domesticated, but still wild, or partially so; as is the case at the present day in Abyssinia. See Bibl. Res. III. p. 306.-E. R.

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Region of the Hüleh.

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stretches up, in most places to the mountains,) and reached the lake fifteen minutes south-east of the great fountain el-Mellahah. We must have ridden about ten miles; which is therefore nearly the length of the marsh. As the lake narrows towards the outlet, the plain on the west widens, forming a beautiful and very fertile champaign called Ard elKhait. The lake itself is also called el-Khait by the Arabs. The water is clear and sweet, and the shore muddy where we visited it. But a little further south, as the Arabs informed us, it is abrupt and stony; and such was its appearance. Its surface is, in many places, covered with a marsh plant, having very broad leaves. On its bosom were sporting a variety of water-fowl. By our estimate the lake may be about seven miles long, and its greatest width six. But it very rapidly narrows on the western side towards the outlet of the Jordan. On the north, the lake and the marsh blend and intermingle; but on all the other sides, the Huleh is as well defined as any other lake. The land is in fact ploughed quite down to the edge of the water.

Josephus calls this lake Semechonitis; and says that it is sixty furlongs in length and thirty wide; which is a little longer, but not so wide, as our estimate. The relation of the numbers, sixty and thirty, shows that he did not aim at minute accuracy. His description is not a little curious from its obscurity:1 "Selucia was situated at the lake Semechonitis, which lake is thirty furlongs in breadth and sixty in length. Its marshes reach as far as the place Daphne, which in other respects is a delicious place, and hath such fountains as supply water to what is called little Jordan under the temple of the golden calf; where it is sent into great Jordan." And the translator adds in a note: "Here we have the exact situation of one of Jeroboam's golden calves, at the exit of little Jordan into great Jordan near a place called Daphne, but of old called Dan." Now this description is so exact, that no place answering to it can be found. I cannot ascertain with any certainty which is little and which great Jordan. If greater and lesser refer to length, there is but little foundation for the claim of preeminence between Bâniâs and Tell elKady, the difference being only a mile or two. If we estimate by volume of water, the shorter is by far the greater stream. If, as intimated above, Bânias and Tell el-Kâdy be regarded as identical, and the Hasbâny be the greater Jordan, some of the difficulties are considerably relieved.

We reached the edge of the lake at a small encampment of Arabs, and took lunch under one of their tents. In the same tent were a number of horsemen from the desert of Haurân, a sinister, cut-throat looking company. Having seen some sugar amongst our articles, they ve

1 Josephus B. J. IV. 1. 1.-See Note at the end of the article.-E. R.

hemently demanded it. I gave each a little; but one of them was determined to have more. Being absolutely and sternly refused, he came to me with his hand on his sword, and demanded very roughly, why I dared to come into such a place without arms; said it was very wrong; this was Belâd ed-dushman (land of strife), and I would certainly be killed. Though I did not believe they would rob us while in an Arab's tent, yet we felt a little relieved when finally out of their society.

We stopped on our way back to examine the fountain el-Mellâhah. It rises under the mountain a few rods west of the road, and is immediately conducted upon the wheels of a couple of mills. The fountain forms a pool of about twenty rods in circumference, and two feet deep. Like the Hasbany, it swarms with fish. The water is tepid and insipid. Below the mills it forms a shallow stream forty or fifty feet wide, and glides sluggishly across the plain towards the lake. A little to the north of this stream, and about half a mile down in the plain, is an artificial mound with some ruins about it; and north of this is a large encampment of Ghawârineh Arabs, amongst the very reeds of the marsh. There are two or three companies of the same tribe farther north; one near the large fountain called Derakit or Belât. At this latter fountain, are traces of considerable ruins; and perhaps one of these names belongs to the fountain and the other to the ruins. There is still another fountain about half an hour farther north, with marks of ancient buildings around it; but there happened to be no one present from whom we could ascertain its name.

During the dry season of the year the Arabs pasture their cattle on the northern part of the marsh; and appear to penetrate as far down as the great mound already mentioned. Below this it is wholly an impassable swamp. I asked an Arab, if I could not reach the lake through the marsh. He regarded we with surprise for some time, as if to ascertain whether I was in earnest, and then lifting his hand, he swore by the Almighty, the Great, that not even a wild boar could get through. This is probably correct. The whole taken together is the largest marsh I have seen. It is perfectly level, and covered with flags and reeds and rushes. Flocks almost innumerable of white sheep and black goats, each with its shepherd before and dogs behind, are seen from early dawn till evening, sauntering lazily along the eastern, northern, and western shores of the marsh. Droves of camels, and herds of cows and buffaloes also enliven every part of the plain; whilst low ranges of tents, here and there, stretch their black curtains along the reedy marsh, and associate what is everyday and common place, with the ancient and the patriarchal.

The ascent to Hûnîn is very steep, and the elevation above the plain

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