we saw at Zîf. A similar artificial cave, about twenty feet square, is seen just east of the castle.

The castle itself is a remarkable ruin, standing on a swell of the ground in the midst of the town. It is quadrangular, the sides measuring sixty-two feet by forty-two, and facing towards the cardinal points. The height now remaining is about thirty feet. The external wall is evidently ancient; and has on the northern and western sides a sloping bulwark, like the citadel in Jerusalem. The stones are bevelled; and though not so large as those of the tower of Hippicus, yet the architecture is of the same kind; leaving little room for doubt that it is the work of Herod or of the Romans. There is a lower and an upper story, both once arched; but the upper arch is gone. The walls are nine feet ten inches thick. On entering the building, the first thing which struck me was the pointed arches, indicating a later and Saracenic architecture, utterly inconsistent with the external appearance. But on looking further and examining particularly the windows, it was obvious, that the interior part had been built up at a later period within the more ancient exterior walls.-On the north side of the castle, at the distance of a few feet, are the foundations of what would seem to have been a round tower, measuring twenty-eight and a half feet in diameter from outside to outside, with a wall six feet thick. There would seem to have been a subterranean, or at least a covered, passage from this building into the castle. Adjacent to the castle on the East was also a small church.

On the eastern side of the valley, opposite to the castle, was apparently a less important part of the town, perhaps a suburb. There is here also a small tower on the brink, with a like sloping bulwark rising up out 1) See above, Vol. I. p. 454.

of the valley. On the point of a hill about one third of a mile N. E. from the castle, are the ruins of another large church and of a few other buildings.'

I have already used the names Kurmul and Carmel interchangeably; because there is no room for question, that this is the Carmel of the mountains of Judah; where Saul set up the trophy of his victory over Amalek, and where Nabal was shearing his sheep when the affair took place between him and David, in which Abigail bore so conspicuous a part.2 No further mention of this Carmel occurs in the Scriptures; but Eusebius and Jerome describe it in their day as a village ten miles from Hebron, verging towards the East, with a Roman garrison.3 From that time onward we hear no more of Carmel until in the year 1172; when Saladin invaded the country on the East and South of the Dead Sea, where the crusaders had fortresses; and king Amalrich, having marched against him without effect, at length drew back and encamped at Carmel. Here he found a pool, and water in plenty for his army. Whether the place was then in ruins, we are not informed. That it had been of old, and even not long before, a place of importance, is manifest from the Roman garrison, and from the rebuilding of the castle by the Saracens; if indeed the latter did not occur at a still later period. When and how Carmel became desolate, no record tells; and its name was again forgotten until the present century. Seetzen, as we have seen, has given its position upon his

1) From the castle of Kurmul we obtained the following bearings: Beni Na'îm N. 23° E. Hebron N. 5° W. Yutta N. 48° W. Mejd el-Ba'a N. 80° W. 'Anâb W. Shuweikeh S. 87° W.

2) Josh. xv. 55. 1 Sam. xv. 12. XXV. 2, seq.

3) Onomasticon, art. Carmelus.

The distance of ten miles here assigned is too great. We afterwards travelled from Hebron to Carmel with camels in three hours, which gives at the most a distance of about 8 Roman miles. See May 26th.

4) Will. Tyr. XX. 30. Wilken Gesch. der Kreuzz. III. ii. p. 151.

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map, and wrongly assigned its name to the mountainridge upon the South; but since his day no travellers appear to have recognised it.'

We were here in the midst of scenes memorable of old for the adventures of David, during his wanderings in order to escape from the jealousy of Saul; and we did not fail to peruse here, and with the deepest interest, the chapters of Scripture which record the history of those wanderings and adventures. Ziph and Maon gave their names to the desert on the East, as did also En-gedi ;3 and twice did the inhabitants of Ziph attempt to betray the youthful outlaw to the vengeance of his persecutor.* At that time David and his men appear to have been very much in the condition of similar outlaws at the present day; for

every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them; and there were with him about four hundred men." They lurked in these deserts, associating with the herdsmen and shepherds of Nabal and others, and doing them good offices, probably in return for information and supplies obtained through them.

Hence, when Nabal held his annual sheep-shearing in Carmel, David felt himself entitled to share in the festival; and sent a message recounting his own services, and asking for a present: "Wherefore let the young men find favour in thine eyes; for we come in a good day; give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants, and to thy son David."

1) See above, pp. 194, 195. Bertou passed this way a few weeks before us, and saw Carmel and Tell Ziîf.

2) 1 Sam. xxiii. 13, seq. xxiv, XXV, xxvi.

3) So Ziph as a desert, 1 Sam. xxiii. 14. xxvi. 2. Maon as a des

ert, xxiii. 25. En-gedi as a desert, xxiv. 1.

4) 1 Sam. xxiii. 19. xxvi. 1.
5) Ibid. xxii. 2. These were
afterwards increased to six hun-
dred, xxiii. 13.

6) Ibid. xxv. 7, 14-16.
7) Ibid. xxv. 8, 9.

In all these particulars we were deeply struck with the truth and strength of the biblical descriptions of manners and customs, almost identically the same as they exist at the present day. On such a festive occasion near a town or village, even in our own time, an Arab Sheikh of the neighbouring desert would hardly fail to put in a word, either in person or by message; and his message, both in form and substance, would be only the transcript of that of David.

We left Carmel at ten minutes past 7 o'clock, following down at first the small valley, but soon leaving it and passing more to the right on a general course E. by S. The ruins of et-Tawâneh were soon seen on the side of a hill not far distant on the right, and at 7h 40' bore S. 20° W. The Wady from Carmel, and others on the right and left, go to form the Khubarah, which runs down to the Dead Sea not far south of 'Ain Jidy. Our road for a great distance was along these Wadys; sometimes in one, sometimes in another, and sometimes on the ridges between. At 7h 55' the small ruin Deirât appeared on the left, bearing N. 10° W. On a ridge at 84 o'clock we stopped for about ten minutes, and took bearings to ascertain our course.1

The country continued to be cultivated and fertile. Our Arabs, as we passed among the fields of wheat, were constantly "plucking the ears of grain, and eating, rubbing them with their hands." The tillage, however, soon became less frequent. At 9 o'clock we passed near a large encampment of the Arabs elKa'âbineh, situated in a broad open valley on our left. Their black tents, to the number of twenty or thirty, were pitched in a large oval. They were said to number about one hundred men; and occupy in part

1) These were as follows: Ma'in S. 72° W. Kurmul S. 87° W. Beni Na'im N. 4° W.-At VOL. II.

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8h 30' the small ruin of Zurtût bore N. 5° W.

2) See above p. 192.

the same territory with the Jehâlîn (Jehâlîyeh), whose encampment at present was nearly two hours S. E. of Carmel. These Arabs also usually encamp further South; but they were now pasturing in this vicinity, and we found their flocks and camels among the hills and vallies for a long distance as we advanced.

Our descent was constant; and in proportion to it, the heat increased, and the country began to assume more the appearance of the desert. We had left the grass green at Carmel; by 9 o'clock it was dried up. At 9h 20' we came upon two deep cisterns in the rock, with rain-water, directly in the path, belonging to the Jehâlîn and Ka'âbineh. By 11 o'clock we were completely in the midst of the desert. The country is everywhere entirely of limestone formation; but the rocks contain a large mixture of chalk and flint, alternating with the limestone of the region above. All around were naked conical hills, and also ridges from two hundred to four hundred feet high, running down mostly towards the sea. At first the hills as well as the vallies were sprinkled with shrubs; but further down these disappeared from the hills; and only a dry stinted grass remained, the growth of winter. We recognised among the shrubs many old acquaintances of the southern desert, the 'Ajram, the Retem, and several others; and found ourselves thus in an hour transported back into the scenes of our former journey.

At 11 o'clock we reached another cistern, or rather reservoir of rain-water by the side of a water-course. It was originally hewn out under a rock with a roof and a column to support it; but the roof is now broken away. It is called Bîr Selhûb. Before we were aware, our Sheikh and two of his men were plunging into the water to cool themselves. Three or four precipitous hills around are called es-Sufra.

We