tern*, passing in the days of Moses, and among the Jews in Egypt in the time of Pharaoh (a slight anachronism it must be admitted), for half a piastre of Turkey; and various causes were assigned for its having gradually risen from that time onward to its present exorbitant value (as they considered it) of six piastres and a half; at which rate, they calculated, that it would rise to be twenty piastres at least before the world came to an end.

We continued up until a late hour; and I was much amused, as indeed I have always been in parties of this kind, by the earnestness of conviction with which the most extravagant stories were related, and the easy credulity with which they were received. I had also occasion to regret the impossibility of remembering and noting much that passed respecting the positions and names of places, which are far more difficult to retain in the memory than a connected story; and though more desirable to possess, from their utility to geography, become, if numerous, so confounded together, as to be soon forgotten altogether.

* Aboo Tope, literally the Father of the Cannon, the pillars of the dollar being considered by the Arabs to represent two great guns.

FRIDAY, March 2. We left the camp at daylight, while the ground was covered with a thick hoar frost, and although we put ourselves at once into brisk exercise I suffered much from the cold. As we advanced to the southward the soil became more mixed with clay, and the face of the country more unequal and broken by greater elevations and depressions than it had hitherto been; silicious stones became also more abundant, though there was still a green turf covering the surface of the earth.

In about an hour after we set out, we passed a ruined town called El Hherry, of the general size and character of those already described; and in two hours more, after going over steep but low hills, gradually becoming more and more stony and barren, we came

to the valley called Wadi-el-Themed. This is one of the principal places of resort for the Arabs of Belkah, as the stream which comes from the eastward and runs through this valley westerly is never dry throughout the year. It has worn its bed here through a chalky rock, and continues through a similar channel, by the report of the Arabs, till it empties its stream into the Dead Sea. Along its banks are many wells of a moderate depth, with hewn cisterns and drinking troughs for cattle, which in the present day, as they did in the patriarchal ages, form the principal strength as well as the wealth of a tribe, the possession of these securing the necessary supplies, without which no Arab camp, with their numerous flocks and herds, could long exist. On many of the wells and cisterns I observed the following characters, £#, which are said to be the work of Arabs, but whether for mere pastime, or with a view to mark the property of particular tribes, or of individuals belonging to such tribes, I could not learn. The first of these characters is one very commonly seen among the hieroglyphic signs of Egypt, and generally thought to mean the key of the waters of the Nile, being generally held in the right hand by Isis; the second and last are similar to some of the old and unknown characters found in the caves of India, both at Salsette and in the southern part of the Peninsula. It would be worth an enquiry to ascertain whether any of the sculptures on the Jebel Mokattub, or Written Mountain, near Mounts Horeb and Sinai, supposed at one time to have been the work of the Israelites during their forty years of wandering in the Desert, and to be in the lost Hebrew character, resemble in any manner the marks scattered about on the wells and cisterns of these parts; as they might then be considered the work of the same people and the same age. The wells here must have been nearly coeval with the earliest occupation of this tract of country by the several tribes among which it was divided, and may have formed the portion of several successive races, as well as the bone of contention between opposing tribes, from the days of Abraham and Lot up to the present period; and the characters on them, which belong to no

known language, may be nearly as ancient as the wells themselves; since there is nothing in their appearance that would indicate a more recent date.

We ascended the hill to the southward of this stream, and passing for half an hour over a chalky and barren soil, we obtained a distant view of Oom-el-Russās, about eight or ten miles off, to the southward of us. The only conspicuous object which presented itself to our view at this distance was a high tower, looking like a monumental column standing alone. We continued our way towards it in nearly a straight line, over a gently rising ground, with an improving soil, and reached it about noon.

On entering the site of this ruined town we came first to some smoothly hewn cisterns in the rock, with marks of a large quarry from which abundance of stone had been taken away for building. Beyond these, and on a higher level, we found a portion of a square building, resembling the remains of a small fort, the walls of which were pierced with long and narrow loop-holes for arrows or musketry. A few paces south of this stood the tower which had shown itself so conspicuously at a distance. * This tower was not more than ten feet square at its base, and from thirty to forty feet high; the masonry in it not being remarkable either for its strength or elegance. On the shaft of this square pillar, for so it might well be called, was a sort of square capital, cut off from the body of the tower by a shelving moulding, raised at the corners like the covers of the Roman sarcophagi scattered so abundantly over the country. At each corner of this square capital was a plain Doric column, small size, supporting a florid cornice, sculptured with an arabesque pattern, and curved outwards at the corners in the most fanciful manner. On the north, the east, and the west sides of this tower, and about midway between its base and summit, a Greek cross was sculptured in relief, and contained within a circle; but on the south side this emblem was not to be

* See the Vignette at the head of this Chapter.

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found. In various parts of it were many marks like those already described on the wells and cisterns of El Themed; and as this tower is unquestionably of a date much posterior to the days of the Israelites sojourning in these parts, and of Greek or Roman work, in the decline of these empires, the marks are most probably those of the Arabs. The enquiry suggested would still be useful, however, inasmuch as if the characters on the Written Mountain were found generally resembling these, it might be concluded that they also were the work of Arabs, and not of the Jews during their wandering in the Desert of Sin.

To the eastward of this tower, a few paces only, are remains of ruined buildings, and to the southward are seen foundations, with broken pottery, and other vestiges of former population, extending for more than half a mile to the first division of enclosed dwellings belonging to the town. This is about 200 yards square; the walls are low, but are constructed of large stones, and the interior of this space is filled with ruined buildings, the arched doorways of which are the only parts remaining perfect. These arches are all of the Roman shape; and I observed amongst the ruins, in several places, appearances of stone beams having been laid on the walls, so as to reach from side to side and support entirely the roof of the dwelling.

Close to this first division of enclosed dwellings, and on the south of it, is the second division, the wall of enclosure remaining quite perfect all around. Its shape is nearly an oblong, and the space occupied by it not more than half a mile. Like the former, the interior of this is filled with ruined buildings, all, however, of a small size, and unadorned by architectural ornament of any kind, though constructed of very large stones. In many instances, where all the rest of the building is quite destroyed, the Roman arch of the door of entrance continues quite perfect; and here the stone beams that extended from wall to wall, and sometimes wholly formed the roof of the dwelling, are distinctly seen. The streets,

though at right angles with each other, were extremely narrow, and the whole appearance of the buildings was small and unimportant,