ern part of the same wide tract, which we had formerly beheld from the mountain south of Carmel ;1 and that same mountain-ridge was now directly before us, terminating towards the left in a low bluff; and forming, as it were, another step in the whole ascent. The high encampment of the Jehâlîn was visible bearing about N. N. E.-Descending very gradually towards the N. for an hour, we again struck Wady 'Ar'ârah at 4 o'clock, here running N. W. and then W. N. W. to join Wady es-Seba', of which it is one of the main branches. Here in the broad Wady are many pits for water (Themâil), which are called 'Ar'ârah, and give name to the valley. The water is good; but most of the pits were now dry. In the valley and on the western hill are evident traces of an ancient village or town; consisting only of foundations of unhewn stones now much scattered, but yet sufficiently in place to mark them as foundations. Small fragments of pottery are also everywhere visible. In this instance, the name leaves little room to question, that this is the site of the ancient Aroer of the South of Judah; to which David sent presents after the recovery of the spoil of Ziklag.2 -This water is frequented chiefly by the Dhŭllâm. On the west side of the bed of the Wady is a buryingplace belonging to the Sa'idiyeh; in which were several fresh graves. The dead are brought from a great distance to this cemetery. We had come thus far upon the Gaza road in order to visit the site of Aroer. After a stop of ten minutes, we now struck across the country N. E. towards Milh, without a path, in order to regain the Hebron road. The land was undulating, with gentle swells and broad vallies. Here we fell in with another stray camel, which joined company with ours, although the Arabs 1) See p. 466, 467. 2) 1 Sam. xxx. 26, 28. tried to drive it away. At 6 o'clock we encamped in a retired valley, hid from all view; and felt ourselves now out of the reach of all marauders, whether real or imaginary. Monday, June 4th. We rose early, and found ourselves enveloped in a thick fog, the first we had yet felt in Palestine; once before, when at Beit Nettîf, we had seen the mists in the vallies below. The strange camel was still with us; while the dromedary of my companion had strayed away during the night, and was nowhere to be found. It was the property of Sheikh Hussân, who now went in search of it. As however we no longer needed to fill the water-skins, we were able to get on with four camels; and accordingly set off at 5 o'olock, leaving Hussân to overtake us. Our track was N. E. over a country still undulating; and after an hour we reached the wells el-Milh at 6 o'clock. Here we stopped for breakfast, and to wait for Hussân; but we saw no more of him to-day; and afterwards learned, that having sought long and in vain for his camel, he had despaired of overtaking us, and had gone directly to the encampment of his tribe. At Milh are two wells, measuring about forty feet in depth, and walled up round with good mason-work ; one of them is seven and a half, and the other, five feet in diameter. The water seemed not to be good, and the Arabs said it was acid; but we had no rope or bucket to draw any. The Arabs of the Tiyâhah water here; they come hither early in autumn; and after the rains commence, send their camels to the Ghôr es-Sâfiel for the winter, and go themselves to sow in the Sheri'ah south of Gaza.'-The broad shallow Wady close by which the wells are situated, 1) In this connection it was told us, that the Kudeirât water at Beersheba; and that the Terâbîn live chiefly in the Fâri’a. Wady el-Milh, comes from the N. E. and continues on W. S. W. to unite with the 'Ar'ârah, and so to Wady es-Seba'. It passes around the southwestern extremity or bluff of the ridge before us, (that S. of Kurmul,) which was now not far distant in the same direction. Here and on our way, great numbers of the bird called Kutâ by the Arabs, a large species of partridge, were flying about very low in all directions; our Egyptian servants, being used only to water-fowl, mistook them for ducks, and fired among them repeatedly, though without success. This species of bird has often been supposed to be the quails, that came up and covered the camp of the Israelites; but there seems to be no other ground for this opinion, than their present abundance in regions not very far remote from the route of that people.' On the plain adjacent to the wells on the South, the stones of a ruined town, or extensive village, are scattered over a space of nearly half a mile square, all unbewn. Just by the wells is a round hill like a high tumulus, upon which the foundations of a wall are visible, running in the form of a square around the whole top. On this hill is now an Arab cemetery, where the Dhullâm bury. From this spot we saw Tell el-Kuseifeh, a hill about an hour distant, having upon it what appeared to be a considerable ruin. Tell 'Arâd 1) Ex. xvi. 13. Num. xi. 31, 32. Ps. cv. 40.-The Kutâ is the Tetrao alchata of Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. Tom. I. P. II. p. 745. No. 11. Hasselquist calls it "Tetrao Israelitarum," and describes it fully, Reise pp. 331-333. But the Hebrew name of the bird of the Isra elites is Selav () quail; and the present Arabic name for the quail is Selwa. The ancient versions also understood here the quail; Sept. oorvɣountoa, Vulg. coturnix. There would therefore seem to be no sufficient reason for laying aside this coincidence, and adopting another explanation on mere conjecture. See Gesenius' Anmerk. zu Burckhardt p. 1067. Comp. Niebuhr's Beschr. von Arabien p. 176. Rosenmüller's Bibl. Archaeol. IV. ii. p. 346, seq. 2) From the summit of this Tell at Milh, we took the following bearings: Encampment of the Jehâlîn about N. 38° E. Tell elKuseifeh N. 54° E. Tell 'Arâd N. 59° E. lies somewhat more remote; and, as we have seen, probably marks the site of the ancient Arad.' The Arabs said indeed, that no ruins exist there; but they had said the same thing of 'Ar'ârah and Milh. Two other places, Rūkhama and 'Aslûj were mentioned as lying S. W. of Milh on the way to 'Abdeh. These wells and ruins at el-Milh, I am disposed to regard as marking the site of the ancient Moladah of the Old Testament, the Malatha of the Greeks and Romans. There is at first sight an apparent resemblance in the names; but I am able to make out no etymological affinity; and if there be a connection, it can be only because the Arabic, in the popular pronunciation, has corrupted the last letter, so as to obtain a usual and significant form. But the testimonies of ancient writers as to the position of Malatha are tolerably definite. Moladah was situated in the extreme South of Judah towards Edom; it was afterwards assigned to Simeon; and was again inhabited after the exile.3 Josephus also mentions Malatha as in his day a castle of Idumea. Eusebius and Jerome speak of it several 1) See above, p. 473. 2) The form Milh has no etymological affinity with Moladah (i) nor Malatha (Malaa). There is no known instance of a change of or into the Arabic Ha. If possibly it be a corruption from the Greek, (Milh for Mal9,) we must regard it as an instance of the usual tendency of popular pronunciation, to reduce foreign proper names to a significant form; as in German, Mailand (i. e. May-land) for Milan; and as in English the plant Asparagus is mostly known. among the common people only as Sparrow grass. At any rate, Milh (salt) and its derivatives furnish among the Arabs many names for places; thus besides Milh, we have in several instances, Mâlih, Mâlihah, Muweilih, and Mawâlih. -But even to the supposition of such a corruption from the Greek, there is this objection. In all other cases where the present Arabic name of a place owes its origin to a Greek name, that Greek name was wholly different from the original Hebrew one; as in Nâbulus and Sebŭstieh for the ancient Shechem and Samaria. But here the Greek form itself is a mere corruption of the Hebrew; and the Arabic would more naturally follow the latter. 3) Josh. xv. 26, comp. vs. 21. xix. 2. 1 Chr. iv. 28. Nehem. xi. 26. See generally Reland Palaest. pp. 885, S86. 4) Antiq. XVIII. 6. 2. times, and place it four Roman miles from Arad, on the way from Hebron to Aila by Thamara; Arad itself being according to them twenty miles from Hebron.' Still later, Malatha is noticed as the station of a Roman cohort. To all these circumstances, as it seems to me, the situation of el-Milh very exactly corresponds. We have here the vestiges of an extensive town with important wells, on the great route from Hebron to the Red Sea through the 'Arabah; and in the N. E. by E. we still find Tell 'Arâd, about an hour and a half from Milh, and some eight hours distant from Hebron on a different route.3 According to Eusebius and Jerome, Thamara was a town and fortress one day's journey from Malatha on the way from Hebron to Ailah, and in their day was held by a Roman garrison. It is likewise mentioned in the same quarter by Ptolemy and in the Peutinger Tables; and seems to have been the Thamar of the prophet Ezekiel, from which the southern border of the land was to be measured, on one side to Kadesh, and on the other to the western sea. If we assume, as above, that Malatha was situated at el 1) Onomast. arts. Arath (Agaμá), Hazazon-Thamar. See note 4, below. 2) Notitia Dignitatum ed. Panciroli pp. 217, 219. Reland Pal. p. 231.-The Notitia reads Moleaha, and another manuscript has Moleathia. 3) To judge merely from the name, el-Milh might well be the "City of Salt" (b) mentioned Josh. xv. 62. That city however lay, not in the South of Judah, but in the desert near the Dead Sea (comp. vs. 21, 61); and I have already spoken of it as probably situated in or near the valley of Salt, at the south end of that lake. See above, p. 483. 4) Onomast. art. Hazazon-ThaThe text of both authors is mar. 6 here singularly corrupted in this Comp. Le Clerc in loc. 5) Ptolem. IV. 16. Reland Pal. p. 462. 6) Ezek. xlvii. 10. xlviii. 28. |