AN OUT OF THE WAY TRACK.

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Beit-Jebrîn; but don't press me recklessly to imperil your own life and the lives of your conductors."

Thus far I had found the old Saleh so discreet and accommodating, that I did not think it advisable to insist on the journey from Beer-Sheba to Gaza. The way, too, which he proposed, to Beit-Jebrîn, was new; no traveller had as yet taken it, and I should thus, while relinquishing Gerar, be compensated by other discoveries. Forward we advanced, accordingly, in all haste, in order, besides, to get rid of half-a-dozen mendicant Arabs, who had long followed us in the hope of possessing themselves of something or other, at least of a baksheesh. Our course now lay north-north-east by the still remanent foundations of the city of BeerSheba, which had last year been used as threshingfloors, in consequence of which some part of the grains of corn that had been left had sprung up of themselves, and were already come into ear. The fields where this corn had previously been grown lay along our line of road.

For another hour and a half nothing new presented itself. The common caravan road from Egypt to Hebron lay more and more to our right, or east side, the further we travelled. Ere long we came to the entrance into the hill country of Judea. It forms a gradual ascent, with broad valleys, which here seem surrounded rather by hills than by mountains, grassy covering of the wilderness still uniformly prevails, and some remains of ancient buildings lying on the north side of a wadi were not known to Saleh. I have once and again remarked that he never puts me off with false names when he does not know the right ones.

The

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EL-LECHIËH, THE ANCIENT

About ten minutes further on we passed along a flattened rocky hill, where one recognises at once the site of an old fortress, called el-Lechiëh, or Lekiëh. To quiet Saleh I refrained from climbing to the top of it; but contented myself with his assuring me that there were to be found there a number of ancient, but now driedup wells. The sides of the hill are full of holes and caves. The peculiar form of this high, strong eminence at the entrance of the hill-country of Judea, and its position as the outermost frontier stronghold towards the south, arrested my attention; and a sober examination of Scripture has since led me to the gratifying conviction that el-Lechiëh can be no other than the Bealoth of Joshua xv. 24, and of the list of cities "against the south," of Judah's tribe, yet afterwards assigned to Simeon, in whose register of cities (Josh. xix. 8) it is called "Baalath-beer, Ramath of the south,' that quite agrees with the position of this stronghold. See also 1 Sam. xxx. 27.

*

a name

This city again occurs in Scripture, at 1 Kings ix. 18, and 2 Chron. viii. 6, as one of Solomon's storecities, which, on account of the importance of their position, he strongly fortified. The expression, "And all their villages that were round about the same cities unto Baal" (on the margin, Baalath-beer)-1 Chron. iv. 33-shews withal the position of the place on the frontier, and also the different ways in which this name appears in Scripture. The most important circumstance, however, in connexion with this Ramath of the south, is that mentioned in Judges xv. The Philis

*The Dutch version has Báalath-Beer, which is Ramath against the south.

tines, enraged at Samson, on account of the " great slaughter" wherewith he had revenged himself on them, “pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi." Samson, that he might not expose his own people to the revenge of the Philistines, submitted to be bound by his fellow-countrymen. He was taken from the rock Etam to Lehi. The Philistines now concluded they were sure of having their great enemy in their power. They shouted with joy as they went to meet him. But the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon Samson. He found a moist (or new) jaw-bone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith, and "he called that place, Ramath-lehi," that is Ramath of the jaw-bone. In the el-Lechiëh of the Arabs it is not difficult to find the Lehi of Scripture. I much regretted afterwards that the identification had not struck me as I rode along the hill, so that I might have looked about for the spring that God clave in the rock to revive Samson, when, after the slaughter of the Philistines, he was ready to die with thirst, and called upon God in his distress. Noble passage in Samson's history! How delighted should I be to exchange thoughts with you on the subject, were I not so pressed for time, that I must leave it to yourself to dig the gold out of this mine.

Fully an hour and a quarter beyond the tell of elLechiëh we passed another not less considerable ancient stronghold on a hill, standing like Lechiëh on the west side of the way, and called Hhora, while, hardly twenty minutes further, two more such tells stood close to each other, a valley running between them towards the west.

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HHORA-CHEWÈLFEH.

The two last tells seem to have but one name, that of Chewèlfeh, in which I recognised the Kuweilifeh of Robinson (Bib. Res. vol. i. p. 306, and vol. iii. p. 8). Between Hhora and Chewèlfeh there is to be seen a large ancient well, half fallen in, but the huge building stones of which appeared to belong to a very early period of Israelitish history. I am still in the dark as to the places represented by Hhora and Chewèlfeh. In the former I should be inclined to look for the Horma of Joshua xv. 30 and xix. 4; but then that must have been a different Horma from that on the hill Seir, spoken of in Numbers xiv. 45; xxi. 3; and also in Deut. i. 44, and Judges i. 17. If this conjecture be right, then I believe Hhora to be the same Horma, one of the thirty-one royal cities which Joshua smote, as that mentioned in Joshua xii. 14. The Hebrew M, as is sometimes the case, may be left out in the Arabic form of Horma.*

But what double stronghold was it, whose ruincovered knolls are now called Chewèlfeh?

Had we followed the way through the broad grassy valley which we had entered on leaving el-Lechiëh, we should have reached el-Burj some hours afterwards, and could then have proceeded due northwards to Beit-Jebrîn. I perceived, from the many traces of camels and horses on the road, that this is the principal road from Beit-Jebrîn to the places in the south. But Saleh was not conscious of there being any other ruins on this road than those of es-Zàâk, lying, as he indicated to me, a quarter of an hour to the south of

* Were Hhora not at so great a distance from el-Lechiëh, I should feel tempted to think it identical with En-Hakkore of Judges xv. 19.

ANNOYED BY BEDOUÏNS.

143

el-Burj. We struck, accordingly, into the valley of Chewèlfeh, and found there, a few hundred yards from the entrance, a water-tank, quadrangular in form, and of an ancient style of construction, surrounded by a multitude of Bedouïns, both men and women, and some with their herds. It was now one o'clock. With the exception of our halt at Beer-Sheba, we had been in the saddle without intermission since day-break. I could sit no longer on horseback from sheer fatigue; and so it was also with the other members of my small caravan. I wished, therefore, to pitch the tent at this pond, all the more as the glen seemed to shelter us from the mass of the Bedouïns, who were prevented from seeing us by a rising ground quite close to us on the west side. But I was hunted on from place to place. Even here we found we could not pitch the tent, for we were surrounded by a crowd of Bedouïns, who, although of a neutral tribe, still would not have respected Abû Dahûk's guide. Their camp lay half an hour to the west of the pond, behind yonder hill, and to tarry at such a spot was sure to bring upon us the whole hive. Exhaustion and hunger compelled me, however, to rest here for two hours; the mules were unladen, to be sure, but all remained as it had been packed up, with the exception of the canteen, for I had the last partridge, which Peter had shot yesterday, cooked on the open ground with the utmost despatch, and with it the last of the macaroni that remained, and which to-day was substituted for rice, our usual everyday food. While this was going on I had a crowd of the curious about me, who could with difficulty keep their fingers off the cooking and eating