people yet lived there in miserable dwellings scattered in the valley, partly within and partly without the ruins of the former walls. Yet Benjamin of Tudela, aster A. D. 1660, affirms, that the ancient city was situated on a mountain, and was then desolate and deserted; the city of that day being in the valley. Brocardus, a century later, repeats this account, with more particulars; according to him, the ancient city was on the hill north of the slope on which we encamped, three bow-shots West of North from the modern town, where nothing was then visible except large ruins. This story is copied by writers of the following centuries; and the idea seems to have become current, that the ancient city lay upon the hill. Yet none of the travellers of the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, speak of any ruins there on their own knowledge.

We were not aware of this old report at the time of our visit; and therefore did not examine the hill in question. My companion has since informed me, that according to his impression, the site of a former village was spoken of on that hill, similar to several others in the neighbourhood of Hebron ; but with the remark that there were no remains there of importance. Had we then known the circumstances above related, we should certainly have gone upon the hill, and ascertained the facts for ourselves. It is a point deserving the attention of future travellers; though I do not anticipate any result, which will counterbalance the mention of

1) Adamnanus ex Arculfo II. 8.
2) Voyages, par Baratier p. 99.
3) Brocardus c. IX. p. 185.

4) By Marinus Sanutus, p. 248. Breydenbach in Reissb. p.133. Quaresmius II. p. 771, seq. Zuallardo p. 233. Von Troilo p. 321, Dresd. 1676. The site upon the hill is alluded to (but not ruins) by F. Fabri in Reissb. p. 287; and also by Baumgarten p. 78.-But Maun

deville, Rud. de Suchem, and William of Baldensel, who all passed through Hebron in the fourteenth century; as well as Stephen von Gumpenberg, F. Fabri, and Mejr ed-Din, who minutely describe it near the close of the fifteenth; and also Belon who was here about the middle of the sixteenth; make no allusion to any other site than that of the present town.

"the valley of Hebron" in the book of Genesis, and the strong evidence of the ancient pools.'

In the fourteenth century, pilgrims passed from Sinai to Jerusalem directly, through the desert by Beersheba and Hebron.2 In the following century, this route was abandoned for that by Gaza; yet the pilgrims sometimes took Hebron in their way, or visited it from Jerusalem.3 Writers of that period describe here an immense charitable establishment or hospital, situated near the Haram, where twelve hundred loaves of bread, besides oil and other condiments, were daily distributed to all comers, without distinction of nation or religion. The annual expenses were said to amount to twenty-four thousand ducats; of which two thousand were derived from the village of Summeil in the western plain." Hebron continued to be occasionally visited by travellers, down to the latter part of the seventeenth century; although, before that time, it seems no longer to have been generally resorted to by pilgrims. But from that period onward until the pre

1) See pp. 454, 455. A remark of Jerome may seem at first to favour the site upon the hill, and perhaps gave rise to the story; Quaest. in Gen. xxxv. 27, "pro Arbee in Septuaginta campum habet, quum Chebron in monte sita est." But this expression "in monte" stands here by way of antithesis to a plain, and is therefore equally applicable to a high hill-side; in which sense it would also be true of the present town. The ancient city was doubtless larger and extended further up the sides of the valley.

2) So Maundeville, R. de Suchem, W. de Baldensel.

3) Gumpenberg was here in A. D. 1449; Breydenbach and F. Fabri in 1483, on their way to Gaza; Baumgarten in 1507, coming from Gaza; Belon about 1548; etc.

4) Gumpenberg's Journal in

Reissb. p. 445. F. Fabri ib. pp. 288, 289. Mejr ed-Dîn in Fundgr. des Orients II. p. 377. This last writer says there were three distributions of bread and the like daily; in the morning and at noon to the inhabitants only; and in the afternoon to all comers.

5) F. Fabri 1. c.-For the error which converts Summeil into St. Samuel, and the greater blunder of Breydenbach, see above p. 368, and Note XXIX.

6) Zuallardo speaks of Hebron, probably without having seen it; p. 233. So too Cotovicus, p. 241, seq. Quaresmius appears to have been there, II. p. 769, seq. Von Troilo visited it in 1666, p. 319, seq. But both Surius and Doubdan, who were earlier than he, and strictly pilgrims, make no mention of Hebron.

sent century, no Frank traveller appears to have found his way to the city of the patriarchs.

Morison relates, in A. D. 1698, that a few years before, a French (Frank ?) merchant on a visit to Hebron, being mounted on a spirited horse, rode over and killed a child in the streets. Although he made shift to escape the rage of the people by flight, yet such was the excitement and the hatred caused by this accident against the Christians, that from that time no traveller had ventured to approach the place.' It is not unlikely that some accident of this kind may have alarmed the fears of the monks, and led them to dissuade travellers from going thither; but their timidity was probably still more wrought upon, by the restless and warlike disposition of the people of Hebron, and their continual feuds with the inhabitants of Bethlehem and other neighbouring villages; they being of the Keis party, and the latter of the Yemen.2 Hasselquist in 1751 mentions, that five or six years before, "the inhabitants of Bethlehem and Hebron carried on such a war as destroyed the greatest part of the best inhabitants of both villages; and the neighbourhood of Bethlehem was entirely laid waste." Even so late as 1807, Ali Bey fell in with "a band of Christian shepherds, who were going to Jerusalem, to lay a complaint against the Mussulman shepherds of Hebron, who had carried off a part of their cattle. They had with them two camels, which they had taken from the Mussulmans as reprisals."4 Under such circumstances, it is not surprising, that the influence of the monks should have been successfully exerted, to

480.

1) Relation Historique etc. p.

2) See pp. 344, 345. Quaresmius relates, that in his day (about 1620) Tekoa was seldom visited for a

similar reason: CC Non facile possu

mus Thecuam ire, propter ibi et in
via inhabitantes et discurrentes
Arabes." Vol. II. p. 687.

3) Reise nach Paläst. p. 170.
4) Ali Bey's Travels, etc. II.

p. 230.

restrain travellers from extending their excursions towards the South beyond the pools of Solomon.

In the present century, Seetzen was the first to lay open again the way to Hebron in 1806; he travelled from here to Mount Sinai through the desert, making however a circuit almost to Gaza.1 He was followed the very next year by Ali Bey. Then another interval of eleven years elapsed, before the visit of Irby and Mangles and their party in 1818, as they passed this way on their route to Wady Mûsa.3 Thirteen years later, in 1831, Poujoulat made an excursion hither from Jerusalem, as did Monro in 1833.1 Then came the rebellion of 1834; in which the people of Hebron and the whole region round about bore a conspicuous part, and brought down upon themselves a heavy retribution. They were among the last to hold out; and when, after quelling the disturbances at Nâbulus, Ibrahim Pasha marched southwards with his troops, the rebels gave him battle not far from Solomon's Pools, and were defeated. They retired and entrenched themselves in Hebron; but Ibrahim pressed forward, carried the place by storm, and gave it over to sack and pillage. Many were slain; and the Jews especially are reported to have suffered the most cruel outrages from the brutal soldiery. Many of the rebels escaped and fled to Kerak on the East of the Dead Sea; they were pursued by Ibrahim and his troops; and that place too was taken and laid in ruins. These events inflicted a heavy blow on Hebron, from which it had not yet recovered.'

1) See his letter in Zach's Monatl. Corresp. XVII. p. 132, seq. 2) Travels II. pp. 230, 231. 3) Travels p. 342, seq. Legh, May 7, 8. Bibl. Repos. Oct. 1833, p. 619, seq.

p.

4) Correspond. d'Orient V. 211, seq. Summer Ramble etc. I. p. 232, seq.

5) See above, Vol. I. p. 321.

6) Stephens' Incidents etc. II. p. 165. Paxton's Letters from PaPest. p. 142. Lond.

7) See some notices of this war in Mengin's Histoire Sommaire de P'Egypte etc. de l'an 1823 à l'an 1838, Paris 1839. pp. 73-85. The narrative is written in an Egyptian spirit, with several topographical blunders.

This war removed all obstacles in the way of travellers. My companion was at Hebron in 1835, with other American friends; and since that time, the city has every year been more or less visited by travellers, with as much facility as any other part of Palestine.— In 1839, Hebron was for a short time in the possession of the rebel Abd er-Rahmân of Dûra.