now, inhabited by shepherds, who feed their flocks on the neighbouring hills, and retire to these caves for shelter at night.

On turning to the south, in which direction we soon proceeded, the valley became more fertile, and appeared to be well wooded and watered throughout its extent, being capable of a much higher degree of cultivation than it is likely to enjoy for a long time to come, and of sustaining five times the population that now inhabit the town and neighbourhood. From the eastern extremity of this valley we ascended a steep hill, from the summit of which we enjoyed a fine view of the castle and town of Assalt to the westward. Our course from this lay south-east for the first hour, on a rugged and stony road. In our way over this we saw the Dead Sea, about five leagues distant to the south-west, and the town of Bethlehem in the mountains of Judea, bearing by compass W. S. W., distant, perhaps, in a straight line, about thirty miles.

On reaching the end of this elevated and stony plain, we descended over the brow of the hill in which it terminated, and alighted at a place called Anab -no doubt the same as that enumerated among the various cities and towns in Joshua (chap. xv. v. 20.). The word itself signifies "grapes," a fruit with which the whole of this region abounds, and which it appears to have possessed in the earliest ages; for this is the part of the country into which the spies were sent by Moses, when encamped in the wilderness of Paran, to spy out the land, and from whence they brought back a branch with a cluster of grapes, as a proof of the fertility of the soil, or, in the figurative language of those days, of its " flowing with milk and honey." (Numbers, xiii. 23. 27.)

Anab is still inhabited by about one hundred persons, but these all live in grottoes or caves excavated in the rock, which were probably more ancient than any buildings now existing. Their preservation, however, offers the strongest proof that the very earliest of their occupiers must have been men of the ordinary size of the present generation, and not giants, as described by these

emissaries from the camp. Their exaggeration of the size of the cities, which were said to be "walled and very great," might be pardoned in those who were born during the forty years' wandering in the wilderness, in which they had never seen any towns ; though such a description could not have been given of any of the places of the Amorites, by those who had seen Memphis, and others of the many really "great" cities in Egypt. But their exaggeration with respect to the men is not so easily accounted for, as they must have seen men of as good stature among their own race

as any that inhabited the land of Canaan. As the men who related these extraordinary facts respecting the country they had been sent to examine were condemned to die of the plague because of the "evil report" which they brought up of the land, it is fair to infer, that this evil report was a false one, as death would be an inappropriate reward for fidelity of description; and there is, therefore, reason to believe that there was no truth whatever in their assertion, that the people of the country were giants, in whose presence they themselves (the spies) appeared but as grasshoppers. (Numbers, xiii. 33.)

The size of the caves now inhabited here, and which are undoubtedly of very high antiquity, confirm the opinion that their original occupiers were of the same size as their present possessors. These are chiefly shepherds, whose flocks browse on the steep sides of the hills near them, and who, in the severe nights of winter, take shelter in the caves, with their attendants. Some of the inhabitants of the caves are, however, cultivators of the earth, and till and plant such detached plots and patches of the soil, among the least steep parts of the ascent, as may be most favourable for the fruits or grain. The grottoes themselves are all hewn out by the hand of man, and are not natural caverns; but, from their great antiquity, and the manner in which they were originally executed, they have a very rude appearance. Nevertheless, the persons who occupy them fortunately deem them far superior to buildings of masonry, and consider themselves better off than those who live in

tents or houses, so that they envy not the dwellers in camps or cities. They are certainly more durable and less likely to need repair than either; and, with the exception of a chimney, or some aperture to give an outlet to the smoke (a defect existing in all the buildings of these parts), they are very comfortable retreats, being drier and more completely sheltered from wind and rain than either house or tent, besides being warmer in winter and cooler in summer than any other kind of dwelling-place that could be adopted.

We found none of the milk and honey with which this land is said to have flowed; and were, accordingly, regaled with less agreeable food, the dish from which we made our dinner being composed of boiled wheat, mixed up with sour milk and oil, a mess to which nothing but excessive hunger could reconcile an English appetite, and of which I made a show of eating, though it was impossible to do more.

We set out from Anab about noon, and descended into the valley below it, called Wadi Lizerack; passing over the bed of a torrent, now dry. On the banks of this bed were sloping moles of masonry, and vestiges of ancient work, similar to those seen on the banks of the Zerkah, and described in the journey from Jerusalem to Jerash. Both are considered to be remains of ancient works existing in the earliest ages of the Jews; but whether the brook that ran here was the Eshcol of the Scriptures, from whence the grapes were taken by the spies of Moses, and these buildings were meant to commemorate that event, or not, we could not learn; nor could we, indeed, from the vagueness of the historical account, easily fix on any features by which to identify it.

The hill that rises above this, to the eastward, is so steep, that we were obliged to dismount and lead our horses up its side. The dress of mounted Arabs is so unfavourable to freedom of motion in the limbs, that walking a very short distance in it is fatiguing. I was extremely tired, therefore, on reaching the summit of this hill, but was amply repaid by the fine wooded scenery,

with large masses of rock, and spots of grass and turf, through which we passed.

In about an hour after leaving Anab we arrived at Fahaez, a ruined town, said to have been formerly peopled by Christians. In this place we observed the remains of at least a hundred dwellings, all built of stone. In their construction the Roman arch was very prevalent, which induced a conjecture that it might have been a settlement of Roman colonists, or of original Greek Christians of the Lower Empire, who lived separate and apart from the native Syrians, or the Arabs of the country. It must, however, have been merely a private and obscure station, as there were no traces of any public buildings remaining; and neither columns, sculpture, nor any other mark of architectural care, were to be seen among the ruins.

From Faháez we proceeded in a more easterly direction than before, and again ascended a rising ground, which was covered with a fine red soil, and exhibited every where traces of former cultivation and great fertility. On the summit of this hill the wood scenery was beautiful; and the fresh and full foliage of evergreen trees, contrasted with the snowy beds out of which their trunks sprung, was at once new and striking. In the open grounds below we had seen several herds of gazelles; and here, from among the woody thickets by which we were surrounded, rushed forth two large boars, nearly black, and seemingly ferocious. Their appearance was as wild as I ever remember to have seen any before, so that we were pleased at their dashing across our path without attempting a stand; particularly as our horses, untrained to the sport of hunting the mountain boar, were evidently much terrified at the sudden and unexpected sight of these animals.

In our way from this place onward we passed four ruined villages, the names of which were mentioned to me at the time, but soon forgotten; and about two o'clock we reached a place called Deer-el-Nassara, or the Convent of the Christians. This is a ruined town of greater extent than Fahaez, and apparently of greater

antiquity. I should infer this from the larger size of the stones of which the buildings were constructed, and the general appearance and deeper hue of age spread over every part; but even still more from the circumstance of its earlier and more complete destruction. No one edifice among the whole remains perfect; and in some the dilapidation is so complete, that soil has collected over and between the fallen heaps of stones, in which large trees have taken root, and nearly the whole of the site is now covered with wood. There were no fragments of columns among the fallen heaps, but the stones were smoothly hewn, the masonry of the best kind, and the work bearing all the usual appearance of being Roman in its construction.

From Deer-el-Nassāra we soon entered a thick forest of large trees, the greatest number of which were evergreens: one of these, the most numerous of the whole, was as tall as an English elm, of equal girth to full grown trees of that kind, with crooked branches and small leaves; it was called, by Abu Farah, my guide, Sedjerel-Finjan, or the Finjan tree. Among those which had cast their leaves, there was one whose branches were covered with thick brown moss; this he called Sedjer-el-Fush, or the Fush tree. Another kind, of a smaller sized trunk and branches, with a beautifully large and light-green glossy leaf, and the bark of a red colour, he called Gaegob. All of these were in great abundance, besides which, were a variety of smaller trees and shrubs, presenting every shade of colour and hue, from the palest yellow to the deepest green.

We proceeded through this forest in an easterly direction for about a mile; this being its breadth in the part in which we crossed it, though its length from north to south was evidently much greater. On clearing it, we came out on a fine plain covered with rich green turf, and passed by a ruined town on our right. The name of this place was Daboak; but as we did not halt to examine it, I had no opportunity of judging whether it was ancient or

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