CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS

TO THE ARTICLE ON PALESTINE.

Received chiefly from Rev. S. WOLCOTT after the article was printed.

Page 21. note. It is there stated, that the room in question had been used as a stable for horses or mules; but it seems that it is entered by steps. Mr. W. writes: "I noticed that the owner of the ground one night led his mule up the steps into the western room, which he could easily do; but I have correctly stated the elevation of its floor at ten or twelve feet above the ground outside."-" This exterior building is divided into apartments above and below. Between the lower western and eastern rooms is a doorway, which has been walled up; and the orifice through which I passed, was I think formerly a circular window, which had also been closed."

Page 24. 1. 11. Read: 'We ascended to it, in all our visits, by a flight of steps from a court connected by a short street with the Haram.' By turning to the Plan it will be perceived, that south of the covered street leading to the principal entrance of the Haram, directly west of the Mosk itself, there is a court entered from the covered street and from the Haram, with the word 'Bath' upon its south side. The bath itself is on its northern side; and so is the flight of steps ascending to the mouth of the well. That is, the street to which I referred, is the narrow passage between the court and Haram; and we entered it from the covered street. Mr. Wolcott discovered a more private approach, over the adjoining

terraces.

Page 24. 1. 3 from bott. Read: 'evening of the 5th of January.' Page 32. 1. 10 from bott. Dele the sign: (?). The course had been west of north; and the aqueduct soon after turns N. and then E. Page 34. 1. 8 from bott. The subterranean passage there mentioned has been traced about three hundred feet, and runs from West to East. Page 35, bott. Read: 'We accordingly had the rubbish again cleared away from the opposite end of the portico, which was done in a few hours. We found the block which the first party describe, over the supposed entrance, etc.'-Mr. Tipping was not present. Mr. Wolcott supposes, that their excavation was not deeper than that made under our directions.

Page 65, 1. 14. The Roman camp on the S. E. quarter of Sebbeh (Masada), was on the flat below, towards the sea.

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Page 77. 1. 3-8, and note 2. Mr. Wolcott writes as follows: "The allusion to the olive groves' around el-Lejjûn (Bibl. Res. III. p. 178), and your silence respecting the place named to me as Sâlim, led me to think that the two were confounded by your guide; and such was probably the case. Your description of the appearance of el-Lejjûn as seen from Zer'in (ib. p. 167), which I afterwards observed, is so correct, as to lead me to believe, that from that point you saw the true site.”

RAMAH OF SAMUEL.

Page 46 sq. Since the article was printed, I have learned the new and fanciful hypothesis of Gesenius as to the position of this city; see his Thesaurus, p. 1276, art. 7. He places it upon the Frank Mountain! and assumes that the Ramathaim-Zophim of 1 Sam. i. 1 was merely the native place of Elkanah, and different from the Ramah of verse 19, where he dwelt and where Samuel was born.-All this of course is mere conjecture; and against it there are two insurmountable considerations. One is, that no man who has himself seen the Frank mountain, could for a moment entertain the idea that a city ever lay upon it; and the other is, that in 1 Sam. i. 3 Elkanah goes up out of his city to worship at Shiloh, and in verse 19 returns again" to their house, to Ramah ;" both of which specifications can refer only to the city just before mentioned, RamathaimZophim. On this last ground Prof. Roediger also rejects the hypothesis. Allgem. Lit. Zeitung 1842. No. 72.

ELEUTHEROPOLIS.

In adducing evidence to sustain the identity of this metropolitan city with the ancient Betogabra, now Beit Jibrîn, it may be recollected that I was not able to find any historical testimony on which this point could be distinctly rested; Bibl. Res. II. p. 408 sq. There was still wanting some indubitable evidence of this kind, out of a period when a knowledge of the identity in question could be presupposed, as a matter of common notoriety. Such a testimony appears to have been discovered by Prof. Roediger of Halle. In the Acta Sanctor. Martyrum published by Assemani, it is related in the Syriac account, that the martyr Peter Abselama was born in Anea, which lies in the district of Beth-Gubrin,; while the Greek and Latin accounts both read, in the district of Eleutheropolis. See Assemani Acta Sanctor. Martyr. Oriental. Tom. II. p. 209, comp. p. 207. Allgem. Lit. Zeit. 1842. No. 72.

BIBLIOTHECA SACRA.

I.

THE DRUZES OF MOUNT LEBANON.

BY THE EDITOR.

THE whole eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea is skirted by a chain of mountains, which, branching off from the great ranges of Asia Minor, extends from north to south with slight interruptions and at various elevations, through all Syria and Palestine quite to the Red Sea. This chain is broken through on the west of Antioch by the river Orontes. Further south, it bears the name of Jebel en-Nusairîyeh, as being the chief seat of that singular people the Nusairîyeh; and terminates for a time in the conspicuous bluff occupied by the strong fortress el-Husn, nearly on a line between the inland city of Hums and the island Ruwâd, the ancient Arvad and Aradus. Then comes a broad plain, extending from the sea-coast far into the interior; and afterwards the mountain range again lifts up its head into the loftier summits of Lebanon. Here the chain is cleft into the two parallel ridges of Lebanon and AntiLebanon, with the noble valley of the Bukâ'a between. Towards the south these ridges converge and spurs close up the valley; and then Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon sink down into lower hills or high table-land. But the same general feature of a double range continues, shutting in the great valley of the Jordan with its three lakes, el-Hûleh, Tiberias, and the Dead Sea, and further south the desert plain el-'Arabah in its whole length; until, having enclosed likewise the Gulf of 'Akabah in their deep bosom, the eastern chain ends at the Red Sea, while the western terminates in the hoary and desolate peaks of the peninsula of Sinai. This great Jordan-valley, as is now known, is what geologists denominate a fissure or fault; and its bottom, as represented by the surNo. II.

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face of the Dead Sea, is depressed to the enormous depth of 1337 feet below the level of the Red Sea and Mediterranean.

The chain of Lebanon proper, then, may be said to spring up from the plain opposite to, or rather south of, the island Ruwâd. Its lofty ridges extend southwards as far as to Sidon, where they terminate; although the range may be said to run on in lower hills and as a broad ridge of table-land, as far as to Tyre; beyond which it spreads out into the hills and highlands of Galilee. These again, for a time, are interrupted by the great plain of Esdraelon; but once more rise up in Mount Gilboa, succeeded by the hills of Samaria, and the mountains of Ephraim and Judah.-The appearance of Lebanon proper to the mariner or from the coast, is that of a long unbroken ridge, rising at two points into loftier summits; one near the celebrated cedar grove S. E. of Tripolis, and the other Jebel Sunnîn, N. E. from Beirût. The height of these summits has never been measured; and the estimates respecting them vary between nine and twelve thousand feet.

The northern end of the great eastern range, or Anti-Lebanon, disappears in spurs and ledges which run out and lose themselves in the vast desert plain stretching between the cities of Damascus and Hums. So far as the ridge of Anti-Lebanon continues parallel to the higher parts of Lebanon, it is more even and less lofty; and and it is only further south, where Lebanon has already sunk to lesser hills, that Anti-Lebanon towers into the gigantic masses of Jebel esh-Sheikh, the ancient Hermon, opposite to a point considerably south of Sidon. This is the loftiest and most beautiful of all the mountains of Syria and Palestine; it rises as a majestic pyramid, not covered indeed with eternal snows, but with ravines of ice around its summit, which reflect the beams of the summer's sun and thus form for it a glittering crown. This noble mountain overhangs the sources of the Jordan and the plain of Paneas; and is visible far down the Jordan valley, even from Nebo, where Moses stood, over against Jericho. We first saw it on our journey, when about five and twenty miles north of Jerusalem, at the distance of nearly a hundred miles from the mountain in a right line, —a fine blue cone towering in beauty on the northeastern horizon. Well did the Hebrew poets select Hermon as the fit representative of their most majestic mountains

The great valley el-Bükâ'a between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, is the ancient Coele-Syria proper, i. e. Hollow Syria; but this name was afterward extended so as to include the surrounding district and even the city of Damascus. In its middle part, opposite Beirût, the valley is ten or twelve miles broad, exceedingly fertile and well watered with large fountains and running streams. Some miles north of the direct road from Beirût to Damascus are situated in this valley the wonderful ruins of Ba'albek. This is near the dividing line of waters in the valley. Not much further north are the sources of the river el-'Asy, the ancient Orontes, which flows off northwards by Hums, Hamah, and Antioch; and the valley in that direction spreads out into the vast plain beyond the northern end of Anti-Lebanon.

The waters rising at and around Ba'albek go to form a stream running southwards through the valley. It is called el-Lîtâny, in which we may recognize the ancient Leontes. Opposite to a point nearly midway between Beirût and Sidon, a low spur branches off from the western side of Anti-Lebanon at a small angle, and runs very diagonally southwestwards until it unites with the last higher ridges of Lebanon, and terminates the valley el-Bŭkâ'a. The river here breaks through the opposing ridges by a narrow rocky chasm, through which it continues to flow on southwards and then westwards, until it issues upon the narrow Phenician plain, and enters the sea a few miles north of Tyre.

Where the spur above described branches off from Anti-Lebanon to form a diagonal connexion with the ridge of Lebanon, another valley takes its rise, on the east of that spur, between it and AntiLebanon. This valley too is fertile and populous; it is indeed crowded with villages, of which the chief are Râsheiya and Hâsbeiya; over them impend on the east or rather southeast the magnificent heights of Jebel esh-Sheikh or Hermon. A stream too waters this valley, which flowing out into the plain of Bâniâs, and the lake el-Hûleh, constitutes the remotest source of the Jordan. This valley is called the Wady et-Teim; and I have thus particularly described it here, because it is connected with the earliest, as well as with the latest history of the Druzes.'

1 See the Map in No. I. of this Work.