LAKE HULEH. none of them have left results so deep and lasting as when, eighteen hundred years ago, Saul of Tarsus, "breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, I journeyed to Damascus," little thinking, as he crossed this bridge, that he should return to preach the faith he now sought to destroy. Of Lake Hûleh little was known until it was explored by Mr. Macgregor in his canoe voyage on the Jordan. It is a triangular sheet of water, about four and a half miles in length by three and a half in its greatest breadth, surrounded by an impenetrable morass covered with tall canes and papyrus reeds, through which, as the Arabs declare, it is impossible even for a wild boar to make its way. It could not be surveyed from the shore, and until Mr. Macgregor's adventurous expedition no boat had ever floated on its waters. The additions which he has made to our knowledge of the hydrography of the district are of the highest value; and his vigorous narrative of the difficulties he surmounted, and the perils he escaped amongst the wild Bedouins of the district is familiar to all our readers. It was in this hot, seething, pestilential, but fertile plain that Joshua, after the subjugation of central and southern Palestine, fought his third and last 1 Acts ix. 1-3. great battle with the hosts of Canaan. Jabin, king of Hazor, rallied round him all the chiefs who had not yet yielded. They came from "the plains south of Chinnerôth," the Jordan valley south of the sea of Galilee, the Jebusite from the fortress of Benjamin, the Hittite and the Amorite from the far south, to "the Hivite under Hermon," in the north. "And they went out, they and all their hosts with them, much people, even as the sand that is upon the sea shore in multitude, with horses and chariots very many. And when all these kings were met together, they came and pitched together at the Waters of Merom to fight against Israel." It was doubtless the multitude of their horses and chariots, a force not possessed by Israel, which induced them to select this long plain as their battle-field. Suddenly Joshua and his men fell upon them from the heights above, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Israel, who smote them and chased them far to the west, across the hills and valleys of Galilee, where their horses and chariots could only encumber them, right across the land to Zidon, utterly destroying them in the long pursuit, houghing their horses, and burning their chariots. Northward and eastward, too, Joshua chased the Hivites even to the valley of Mizpeh, the plain of Cole-Syria, which extends to the entering in of Joshua xi. 1 THE NORTHERN SHORES OF LAKE HÛLEH. Hamath. So utter was the rout, so complete the victory, that no cities. attempted further resistance, as they had done in the south. Hazor, the capital, and probably the stronghold of king Jabin, was the only place which Joshua burned with fire when he turned back from the pursuit. The whole land was now secured to Israel to the base of Lebanon, and the four northern tribes were settled in their allotted possessions. Soon after passing the northern end of the lake the snowy summit of Hermon, which has been previously visible at intervals for some days, comes full into view, and forms a fine feature in the landscape. A cool, refreshing breeze flows down from its glittering heights, and is doubly welcome in the sultry plain over which we are toiling. The contrast between the near and the distant landscape is very striking. The plain of Hûleh might be a portion of tropical Africa. Droves of black, hairless buffaloes wallow in the swamps. The Gawarineh Arabs, almost black and quite naked, live in reed huts like many negro tribes, and twist their hair into a tuft like the inhabitants of the Gold Coast. The intense heat produces a semi-tropical vegetation. But we have only to turn our eyes to the northern horizon to see a long stretch of snow as bright, and clear, and cold as that of Switzerland. We cross a fine old Roman bridge which spans the picturesque gorge of the Hasbany, and soon reach a remarkable mound or tell, from the foot of which gushes out a stream of water so broad and deep that we may almost call it a river. This is one of THE SOURCES OF THE JORDAN. The mound above it is called the Tell-el-Kadi (the Mound of the Judge), a rare instance of a name being retained not in sound but in meaning. "Dan" in Hebrew, like "Kadi" in Arabic, means judge; and here stood the CITY OF DAN. The history of the conquest is graphically told in the book of Judges.' The tribes, 1 Chapter xviii. |