all the characteristics of a desert. The ground was in general so strewed with rocks, that it was sometimes difficult to find the way; once we missed the path, and lost ten minutes in finding it again. Add to this, the way was winding, and our horses wearied; so that from Beth-horon to el-Jib our rate of travel was not greater than with camels. At 1h 50', we came out upon the top of the whole ascent, and reached the edge of the plain on the West of el-Jîb. Here we had Beit 'Ur, el-Jîb, and Neby Samwîl, all in sight at once. At this spot too was the site of a former village, the name of which we could not learn, as we had no guide and met no peasants. We could here look down into Wady Suleiman on our right, which begins to descend directly from the western end of the plain; and could perceive the other road as it comes up that valley.

We kept on our way towards el-Jib; and at 2h 25' turned out of our path into the fields on our right, to visit the neglected well already mentioned, Bîr el"Özeiz. It is nineteen feet in diameter, and nearly filled up with earth; being only eight feet to the water, which also is very scanty. Losing ten minutes by this detour, we proceeded along under the northern side of the hill of el-Jîb; and at 2h 50′ stopped for a few minutes at the fountain in the cavern.3

From el-Jîb to Jerusalem, our horses felt the impulse of travelling towards home; and were somewhat more active, though still jaded. We did not care this time to climb the steep ascent to Neby Samwîl; and therefore took the road by Beit Hanîna, which passes down the valley at the N. E. end of the ridge of Neby Samwil. This is the drain of the whole plain around

1) They bore as follows: Beit 'Ûr, N. 65° W. el-Jîb, S. 27° E Neby Samwil, S. 5° E.

2) See Vol. II. p. 135.

3) For our former visit to elJib, see Vol. II. p. 135, seq.

el-Jîb, except at its western extremity; and forms one of the heads of the great Wady Beit Hanîna.1 Leaving the fountain at 3 o'clock, we soon entered and proceeded down the valley, which is narrow, rocky, and rugged. The path keeps along the bottom nearly to Beit Hanîna, where it gradually ascends to the village. We reached this place at 3h 50'; it stands upon the rocky ridge running down between the Wady we had descended, and another similar one coming from the tract around er-Râm. The village is not large, and is tolerably well built of stone. The land around is exceedingly rocky, affording little room for tillage; but there are many olive-trees round about, which seemed flourishing. Neby Samwil here bore N. 72° W.

From Beit Hanîna we again descended gradually into the valley; and having passed the fork where the eastern branch comes in, after a while ascended obliquely the eastern hill, in order to cross over it in the direction of Jerusalem. This brought us to the upper part of the branch-Wady, up which the road from Neby Samwîl leads; and falling into this road we ascended the rocky slope to the tombs of the Judges, which we passed at 4h 50', and reached our tent before the Damascus Gate at twenty minutes past 5 o'clock. Komeh had pitched the tent, according to our directions, not far from the gate, under the shade of the olive-trees; but in the midst of a ploughed field. Yet after long search, we too could find no better place. The owner of the horses was awaiting our arrival before the gate; but the refractory Mukâry did not make his appearance.

Here we were soon joined by Mr. Lanneau and our companion in travel, who had put off coming out of the city until our arrival. They now came with bag

1) See above, Vol. II. p. 136.

2) See Vol. II. p. 145.

and baggage, their own and ours; Mr. Lanneau intending to go down to Yâfa. They had kept a strict quarantine of a week in his own house, under the charge of a guardiano, or health-officer of the government. This man, as we learned later at Beirût, was himself a few days afterwards taken with the plague and died.

SECTION XIV.

FROM JERUSALEM TO NAZARETH AND MOUNT TABOR.

We spent three days in our tent before the gates of Jerusalem. The first was the Christian Sabbath; which was never more welcome to us than now, after three and a half weeks of constant travel and exposure, accompanied often by high excitement and consequent exhaustion. It was to us a day of rest greatly needed; and we passed it in recalling the thrilling associations, and renewing and fixing the impressions, connected with the consecrated scenes around us. It was our last Sabbath at Jerusalem.

The situation of affairs in the Holy City had not improved during our absence. It had been shut up the day after our departure; and now, for more than three weeks, all direct communication with the country had been cut off. Ten thousand persons were thus confined within the narrow streets and their own still narrower and filthy dwellings, without fresh air and without fresh provisions or vegetables, except so far as a scanty supply of the latter was to be obtained at the gates. Under such circumstances the wonder was, not that the plague did not abate, but that it had not increased its ravages. Yet this seemed not to have been the case; the instances of contagion were scattered and occasional, as before; and the disease continued to exhibit the same character for some weeks

longer; the city not having been again thrown open until July.'

A Hakim Bashi, a physician of the government, had arrived from Alexandria soon after the shutting up of the city; to whom the management of the health department was intrusted. As a special favour, our friends had been permitted by him to perform the necessary quarantine in their own house, instead of the wretched public establishment; and had thus escaped many of the privations and annoyances, to which they must otherwise have been subjected. We were struck with the pallid hue of the inhabitants whom we saw, and of our friends in particular. The latter presented a strong contrast to our own dark visages;, which, after so long an exposure to the burning suns of the 'Arabah and the glowing winds of the Sephela, had become scorched to a bronze, deeper even than the ordinary Arab complexion.

In the city, of course, all business was at a dead stand; the stranger merchants had departed, and none could come in from abroad, either to buy or sell. The labours and schools of our missionary friends were wholly interrupted. Many of the inhabitants had preferred to quit the city, and were living in the fields or wandering among the villages. The evils attendant upon such a state of things may be imagined better than described; they have already been sufficiently alluded to.2 The Mutesellim, Sheikh Mustafa, who was absent at Dûra and Hebron when Jerusalem was shut up, had pitched his tent just outside of the Damascus gate, where he transacted all his business without entering the city. The markets too were held

1) The plague has since prevailed in Jerusalem, both in 1839 and 1840. In the former year at least, as I am informed, the city

was again shut up during the month of March.

2) See Vol. I. p. 367, seq. Vol. II. pp. 320, 441, 636.