So too

spots only are cultivated by the Bedawîn." in the southern part, where similar rivulets or fountains exist, as around Jericho, there is an exuberant fertility; but these seldom reach the Jordan, and have no effect upon the middle of the Ghôr. Nor are the mountains upon each side less rugged and desolate than they have been described along the Dead Sea. The western cliffs overhang the valley at an elevation of a thousand or twelve hundred feet; while the eastern mountains are indeed at first less lofty and precipitous, but rise further back into ranges from two thousand to twenty-five hundred feet in height.

Such is the Jordan and its valley; that venerated stream, celebrated on almost every page of the Old Testament as the border of the Promised Land, whose floods were miraculously "driven back," to afford a passage for the Israelites. In the New Testament it is still more remarkable for the baptism of our Saviour; when the heavens were opened, and the Spirit of God descended upon him, "and lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son!" We now stood upon its shores, and had bathed in its waters, and felt ourselves surrounded by hallowed associations. The exact places of these and other events connected with this part of the Jordan, it is in vain to seek after; nor is this necessary, in order to awaken and fully to enjoy all the emotions, which the region around is adapted to inspire.

As to the passage of the Israelites, the pilgrims of course regard it as having occurred near the places where they bathe, or not far below. Mistaken piety seems early to have fixed upon the spot, and erected a church and set up the twelve stones near to the supposed site of Gilgal, five miles from the Jordan. This is described by Arculfus at the close of the sev1) Travels, etc. p. 344. 2) Matt. iii. 13, seq.

enth, and by St. Willibald in the eighth century; and the twelve stones are still mentioned by Rudolph de Suchem in the fourteenth. In later times, Irby and Mangles remark, that "it would be interesting to search for the twelve stones" near the ford where they crossed, some distance above Jericho.2 But the circumstances of the scriptural narrative, I apprehend, do not permit us to look so high up; nor indeed for any particular ford or point, unless for the passage of the ark. "The waters that came down from above, stood, and rose up upon a heap....and those that came down toward the sea.... failed and were cut off; and the people passed over right against Jericho."3 That is, the waters above being held back, those below flowed off and left the channel towards the Dead Sea dry; so that the people, amounting to more than two millions of souls, were not confined to a single point, but could pass over any part of the empty channel directly from the plains of Moab towards Jericho.

We quitted the banks of the Jordan at 2h 35' on a course N. W. N. for Jericho, intending to visit a fountain on the way, and also the ruin which the Arabs called Kŭsr Hajla. Some of our younger Arabs had affected great fear in remaining so long at the river, as wandering robbers sometimes lie in wait there for travellers. But the Khatîb, who seemed not to know fear, rebuked them, exclaiming: "Let come who will, we will all die together." He was indeed a fine specimen of a spirited Arab chief.

Crossing the desert tract for half an hour or more, we came upon a broad shallow water-bed extending

1) Adamnanus ex Arculfo II. 14, 15. St. Willibaldi Hodoep. 18. Rud. de Suchem in Reissb. des h. Landes p. 849.

2) Travels, p. 326. So too Buckingham, p. 315.

3) Josh. iii. 16.

from North to South, covered with a forest of low shrubs. Fifteen minutes further we reached another low tract running from West to East towards the former, and occupied by a fine grove of the Rishrâsh or willow (Agnus castus). Most of the trees were young; but some of them old and very large. Within this grove at the upper or western end, we came at 3 o'clock to the source of all this fertility, a beautiful fountain of perfectly sweet and limpid water, enclosed by a circular wall of masonry five feet deep, and sending forth a stream which waters the tract below. It is regarded as the finest water of the whole Ghôr; and bears among the Arabs the name of 'Ain Hajla.

This fine fountain I have not found mentioned by any traveller. From it the tower of Jericho bears N. W. W. and Kŭsr Hajla S. W. by W. The name Hajla is identical with the ancient name Beth-Hoglah, a place on the boundary-line between Judah and Benjamin; which, commencing at or near the mouth of the Jordan, and passing by Beth-Hoglah, went up through the mountains to En-Shemesh and so to En-Rogel and the valley of Hinnom.2 The position of this spot accords well with such a course; and as fountains are one of the permanent and most important features of this region, and of course least likely to lose their ancient names, I am disposed to regard this as the site of the ancient Beth-Hoglah. We sought however in vain for traces of ruins in the vicinity of the fountain. Jerome places Beth-Hoglah at two miles from the Jordan towards Jericho; although he at the same time confounds it with the threshing floor of Atad beyond the Jordan. The name was then extant; but is not

1) Vitex agnus Castus. Hasselquist Reise p. 555.

2) Josh. xv. 5, 6. xviii. 19, 20. See above, Vol. I. p. 493.

3) Onomast. art. Area Atad.

Comp. Gen. 1. 10, 11. Whatever may be the meaning of the phrase

beyond Jordan," in this passage of Genesis, there can be no doubt that the "trans Jordanem" of Je

fifteenth, Tucher and then Breydenbach found it in ruins; and such it has continued ever since.1

To which of the other convents above named the ruins of the present Kŭsr Hajla may have belonged, or whether to any of them, I am not able to determine. It would seem to have borne among the Arabs the name of Hajla (from the fountain) as early as the fifteenth century; for Breydenbach speaks of Bethagla as a place where Greek monks had formerly dwelt.2 It was of course already in ruins; though B. de Saligniaco in 1522, says it was then inhabited (perhaps temporarily) by monks of the order of St. Basil. In the same age it was known also to the Latins as the convent of St. Jerome, and was coupled with a legendary penance of that father in the adjacent desert. Under this name it is mentioned by Tucher in 1479; and is also described by Boniface and Quaresmius, as a ruin with pictures of Jerome and other saints upon the walls.1

We left Kusr Hajla at 44 o'clock for Jericho, over a beautiful and perfectly level plain of more than an hour in breadth. The whole tract might be tilled with ease; as the soil is light and fertile, like that of Egypt, and needs only the surplus waters around Jericho in order to become exceedingly productive. At present it is merely sprinkled with shrubs like the desert, and with occasional patches of wild grass, now dry and parched. Here we saw tracks of wild-swine, and multitudes of holes of the Jerboa.

At 5 o'clock, being still in the plain half an hour from the village, we came suddenly upon the remains of a former site, exhibiting the foundations of thick

1) R. de Suchem in Reissb. p. 849. Tucher ibid. p. 670. Breydenbach ibid. p. 116.

2) Reissb. des h. Landes p.

3) Tom. IX. c. 5.

4) Tucher in Reissb. p. 671. Quaresmius II. p. 752. Adrichomius p. 153.

Through the break a low conical peak was pointed out, bearing S. 58° W. which was said to be the site of a ruined town called Mird. The town of Jericho bore N. 38° W.

These ruins belong doubtless to one of the many monasteries, which once stood in the plain of Jericho; most of which have been so utterly destroyed as to leave no trace behind. The earliest and most important of all, appears to have been that of St. John the Baptist on the banks of the Jordan, the ruins of which are now called by the Arabs Kusr el-Yehûd. It existed before the time of Justinian; for Procopius relates, that this emperor caused a well to be constructed in it, and built also another convent in the desert of Jordan, dedicated to St. Panteleemon.' The pilgrims of the subsequent centuries speak only of the former and its church; and describe it as large and well-built. In that age the annual throng of pilgrims to bathe in the Jordan took place at the Epiphany; nothing is said of Easter.3 The monk Bernard in the ninth century says there were here many convents.1 In the twelfth century Phocas speaks of the convent of St. John as having been thrown down by an earthquake, but rebuilt by the liberality of the Greek emperor; while at the same time two other monasteries, those of Calamon and Chrysostom, existed in the vicinity; and a fourth, that of St. Gerasimus, had been undermined and thrown down by the waters of the Jordan. In the fourteenth century, when Rudolf de Suchem visited the monastery of St. John, it was still inhabited by Greek monks; but near the close of the

1) Procop. de Ædif. Just. V. 9. 2) Adamnanus II. 16. St. Willibald Hodoep. 17. Bernard 16. 3) Antoninus Mart. 11. Willibald ib. 17.

St.

4) Bernard de Loc. Sanct. 16, "In quibus quoque locis multa consistunt Monasteria."

5) Joh. Phocas de Loc. Sanct. 22-24.