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tombs of Deborah and Jael. Brocardus speaks of Kedesh in terms appropriate to the present day. I am not aware that it has since been visited by Frank travellers, until the present century. We heard of it in 1838, when at Benît; and were told, that it had been visited by Lady Hester Stanhope a few years before.3 Bertou was there the same year, soon after we left Syria. Major Robe passed this way in 1841, and Dr Smith in 1844.5 But none of these, except the latter, have given any description of the place.

Setting off from the fountain of Kedes at 2.20, we went north through the low plain, by a road much obstructed by thistles. We came at 2.40 to the hills, among which we entered by a Wady coming from a little west of north. Five minutes within the Wady was a well with water. At 2.55 the main branch of the valley came down from the left; and at a bend, on its high western side, facing us, was the village of Buleida. This branch was said to drain the whole tract lying east of the valley descending from 'Atherûn. We now ascended out of the valley, very steeply, on the west of a smaller branch; and came out at 3.05 upon a fine arable tract of table land, near to several very large and fine Butm trees. We continued ascending gradually through this tract towards the north; and then descending a little came at 3.40 to the extensive village of Meis, called also Meis el-Jebel. The road from 'Akka to Hâsbeiya passes through this place, falling into ours a little on the south of the village.

The village is separated into two parts, west and east, by a shallow depression, in which we pitched our tent. Southwest of the village was a fine pond of rain water, at which the herds. were drinking. This water is used also by the inhabitants; though there was said to be a good fountain in a valley north of the village. The whole region is a beautiful tract of country, lying east of the district around Tibnîn, and connected with it. The village too is large, and looked thrifty; and the people seemed comparatively comfortable.

Thursday, May 20th.-We left Meis at 6.10, going down immediately into a small plain or basin on the north, extending from west to east; which was said to have no outlet, and to become a lake in winter. It was now under cultivation. The

The

region here is high, and too cold for the raising of cotton. hills before us were covered with oak trees. At 6.30 and 6.35 we passed the heads of two Wadys, going westward to another, called Wady el-Jemal, which runs to the Litâny. At 7 o'clock we had an extensive prospect towards the west, including the fortress of Tibnîn. Continuing to ascend, we came at 7.15 to the brow south of Hûnîn, commanding a wide and noble view of the Hüleh below us on the right."

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The prospect was a splendid one. In the far distance Jebel Sunnîn was visible, with much snow still upon it. Near at hand, overagainst us in the northeast, was Jebel esh-Sheikh, having strips of snow and ice running down from the summit, apparently in ravines.

The whole plain of the Hûleh was before us, cultivated quite down to the marsh; and more extensive than both marsh and lake together. We thought we could here trace clearly the various streams flowing through the plain, and distinguish accurately their points of junction. These I carefully noted; but the subsequent result taught me a lesson in respect to judgments formed under such circumstances; I mean, when looking down from a lofty point of view upon an extensive tract of country below. A few days afterwards, when I came to traverse the Huleh, and follow the streams to their junction, most of my notes proved to be entirely wrong. Here too, Hûnîn, Âbil, and Mutulleh, were in sight before us on the western hills.

Setting off again at 7.30, and descending, we reached Hûnîn at 8 o'clock. Here are the ruins of a large fortress, with a poor village adjacent to it on the south. The place is in a notch of the mountain, running northwest and southeast, and cleaving the mountain nearly half way to its base. In this notch is a low and broad Tell, on which the ruins and village are situated. The narrow valley towards the northwest runs to the Lîtâny. On the east there is a small shallow Wady descending steeply towards the Hûleh. Hûnîn belongs to the district of Belâd Beshârah; and a branch of the family of the ruling Sheikhs formerly resided here. But since the great earthquake of January 1837, no part of the castle has been habitable; and these feudal chiefs have all settled in and around Tibnîn.3

The more ancient fortress occupied a large area, including the greater part of the ground now covered by the village on the south. The later Turkish fortress, also now in ruins, with nine or ten round towers, took in only about a third part of the

1 Bearings at 7: Tibnin 274°. Mârôn 225°. Muheibîb 219°. el-Malîkîyeh 200°. Meis 211°.

2 Bearings at 7.15: Hûnîn 5°. el-Mu

tulleh 25°.
niâs, 74°.

Kûl'at es-Subeibeh, near BâÂbil 32°.

3 W. M. Thomson in Biblioth. Sacra, 1846, p. 203.

same area on the north. At the northwest corner and along the whole of the northern side, the solid rock of the foundation is cut away, forming a fosse in some parts twenty feet deep and nearly as many broad; close upon the inside of which the wall is built. On the east the wall is carried along the brow of the Tell. In this northern and later portion no remains of antiquity are visible, except a few small bevelled stones on the eastern side, and also near the Turkish portal in the south side. Here is a bevelled stone of larger dimensions. A few other bevelled stones are found in different parts; and some are built into the walls of the houses of the village. In the village, outside of the later fortress, is a fine ancient portal nearly complete, built of large bevelled stones still in their place, with grooves for the doors; it is the finest fragment among all the remains. A peculiar feature of this ruin consists in several pieces of ancient wall built of unhewn stones; that is, of stones broken to a smooth face, but not squared, and laid up in this rude irregular manner. Such fragments of wall are found in several parts of the fortress. I do not remember to have seen the like elsewhere. The fortress must anciently have been a place of great strength; but its present appearance disappointed us, as not equal to the reports we had heard respecting it. From it the northeastern part of the lake is visible. The place was visited in 1843 by the Rev. W. M. Thomson.*

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It is difficult to account for the position of this ancient fortress, except as commanding the plain of the Hûleh below. That it must have existed in the days of the Israelites, seems hardly to admit of question. Yet I am not aware of any place named in the Old Testament, with which it can be regarded as corresponding, with any degree of probability; unless it be Beth Rehob, called also Rehob, a city and perhaps a district not far from the city Dan. Six hundred Danites, it is said, came to Laish, to a people quiet and secure," far from Sidon, and in the valley (deep plain) "that is by Beth-Rehob;"3 there they built a city and called it Dan. But the city Dan, as we shall see, was situated at Tell el-Kâdy.' The same Rehob is probably meant, when it is said of the spies sent from Kadeshbarnea, that they searched the land "unto Rehob, as one goeth to Hamath." It is hardly probable that the spies went beyond the usual northern limit of Palestine at Dan; and from that point the direct way to Hamath is up through the Wady et

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Teim and the Bŭkâ'a.1 To all these circumstances the position of Hûnîn well corresponds; and we shall perhaps not greatly err, if we regard it as representing the ancient Beth-Rehob.2

We set off again from Hûnîn at 8.35; and crossing a depression we struck up northeast between the mountain and a lower hill on the right through a wooded tract. We came at 8.50 to the top of the ascent; and then descended for a time in the same direction, through a narrow valley with green bushes and strips of wheat not yet ripe. Afterwards we kept on at the same level along the declivity, considerably above the plain; the trees having ceased as we descended. We crossed several spurs and Wadys; one of the latter descending towards Âbil, to the Derdarah. Climbing the steep northern declivity, we had Abil on our right at 9.30, a little below us. It lies on a marked Tell; which, below the summit, has an offset towards the south. It is situated upon the east side of the Derdârah, the stream coming from Merj 'Ayûn. Abil is inhabited by Christians. We could here see the chasm by which the stream comes down, very narrow and deep, almost as if artificial. It issues from the Merj on the east of el-Mutülleh; then makes a deep turn westward between the two villages; and continues down on the west of Abil. The latter is called also sometimes, on account of its fine wheat, Åbil el-Kamh.

This Abil may well be regarded, as representing the ancient Abel or Abel Beth Maachah of this region, known to us in Scripture. It probably had the latter name, as lying near Beth Maachah; from which it is also distinguished. Once it is called Abel-maim. It is twice mentioned with other places in the order from north to south; once, "Ijon (Heb. 'Iyôn, Arab. 'Ayûn), Dan, Abel, and all Cinneroth;" and again, “Ijon, Abel, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead." These notices all correspond well to the position of Abil.-That this place is the true Abel of Scripture, rather than Ibl el-Hawa, situated on the ridge between Merj 'Ayûn and Wady et-Teim, is probable for two reasons. The former lies on a Tell like most of the ancient strong cities; and, further, its situation is such, that the series Ijon, Dan, Abel," as above, is not unnatural; which would

not be the case with Ibl el-Hawa, lying as it does northeast of Ijon.'

The village el-Mutulleh is inhabited by Druzes; and is the most southern spot occupied by that portion of the sect which clusters around Jebel esh-Sheikh. Ít and Âbil are also the most southern villages of the district Merj 'Ayûn. Mutulleh lies upon the hill bordering upon the Merj, through which the Derdârah breaks down; and enjoys a commanding view of the great basin of the Hûleh. Hence its name, which signifies 'a look out,' or rather 'a look down.' But from most of the Merj itself the village is not visible. Its site is more than two hundred feet above the Merj.

While thus in view of Abil and el-Mutulleh, we were upon a small elevated plain, drained towards the northwest by a Wady in that quarter. We were now approaching the end of the mountain on our left, and at 9.40 could look across the Litâny and up Wady Jermuk to the high region around Jerjû'a. Very soon also the castle esh-Shukîf came out from behind the mountain, perched high upon what appeared from this side like a lofty wall. The Wady which drains the little plain soon opens out into a broad valley or cultivated tract, extending to the Lîtâny at a point not far south of the castle. It was full of wheat fields and olive groves; and in it on the southern side was the large village of Kefr Kily, which at 9.50 bore N. 35° W. half a mile distant. Further down, on the same side, where the higher ground descends towards the Lîtâny, stands the larger village of Deir Mîmâs, which we had before seen from the castle. At this valley the mountains on the south terminate; further north are only the lower hills around the Merj.

There was now a gentle descent; and at 10 o'clock we reached the brow of the Merj, and looked down upon it in its whole extent. It is a beautiful oval plain, surrounded by not high hills; its longest diameter being from N. N. W. to S. S. E. about three miles, with a breadth of about two miles. It is separated from Wady et-Teim on the east, and from the valley of the Lîtâny on the west, only by these lines of hills. The whole plain is level like a floor; and is well watered and mostly under cultivation. A portion of it is pasture ground, to which we came afterwards; and beyond the middle is a grove of trees and bushes. Here we stopped some twenty minutes for rest.

We now, at 10.25 descended into the Merj; and at 10.40 crossed the great road leading from the Huleh by Mutulleh to the Jisr el-Khurdela near the castle. The road we were following led directly to Khiyam on the northeastern hills. At 10.55

The like view is given by W. M. Thomson, in Biblioth. Sacr. 1846. p. 204, Vol. III.-32

comp. 213, 214. E. Smith in Ms. Jour. April 25, 1844. Ritter Erdk. XV. p. 241.