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SYCHAR-FOUR JEWS.

We were in the act of preparing to mount our horses. when the four interesting Jews with whom we had sailed from Syra to Alexandria,1 arrived at the very spot of our encampment. We could scarcely believe our eyes; but so it was. They were mounted on horses, and had proceeded thus far on their pilgrimage to Jerusalem. After we left them in Egypt, they had sailed from Alexandria to Beyrout, endured the sixteen days' quarantine there, and were now accomplishing the object of their journey. We met like old friends; they all saluted us with great heartiness, and were willing ere we parted to receive Hebrew tracts from us. We delayed a short time conversing with them, and then about one o'clock bade farewell to them and to Sychar.

The road from this to Samaria is perhaps the best we travelled in all Palestine. It is a level, broad highway at the base of hills-no doubt once much frequented by the kings of Israel, who would keep the highway to their capital in good repair. The direction it takes is north-west for about one hour, and then over a ridge which may be regarded a continuation of Ebal. The vale down which we rode was well watered everywhere; a fine stream meanders through it, and there are many wells; forming a complete contrast to the south part of the land." The gardens on every hand are very luxuriant, the trees wearing their richest foliage; the fig, olive, and orange trees laden with fruit. We observed gardens of onions which seemed to rival those of Egypt. Many villages embosomed in trees also came in sight. A small village on the left was called Bet-Ouzin. Another on the hill Bet-Iba. Below this an old aqueduct having eleven arches crosses the valley, the water of which turns a mill. Before leaving the Valley of Nablous, we looked back and obtained a view of Ebal, strikingly rocky and sterile.

Our route now lay north-west over a considerable ridge, during the ascent of which we obtained a view of many distant villages; and among others Ramia, on an eminence. When we had gained the summit, the hill of Samaria came in sight, rising out of the plain to the height of about four hundred feet. It is an oblong hill sloping up toward the west, and has a considerable extent of table-land on the top. The plain, near the head of which it stands, stretches far to the west, and the mountains that enclose it are lofty. It is a

RUINS OF SAMARIA.

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hill in the midst of higher hills; a noble situation for a roya city. A grove of olives covers the plain, and the lower part of the southern side of the hill. On the mountain to the right stands a picturesque village called Nakoura, and on the summit a white tomb of a Moslem saint. We read over the prophecy of Micah' regarding Samaria as we drew near to it, and conversed together as to its full meaning. We asked Dr Keith what he understood by the expression "I will make Samaria as an heap of the field?" He replied, that he supposed the ancient stones of Samaria would be found, not in the form of a ruin, but gathered into heaps in the same manner as in cleaning a vineyard, or as our farmers at home clear their fields by gathering the stones together. In a little after we found the conjecture to be completely verified. We halted at the eastern end of the hill beside an old aqueduct, and immediately under the ruin of an old Greek church which rises on this side above the miserable village of Subuste." The ruin is one of the most sightly in the whole of Palestine. We ascended on foot by a narrow and steep pathway, which soon divides into two, and conducts past the foundations of the ruined church to the village. The pathway is enclosed by rude dykes, the stones of which are large and many of them carved, and these are piled rather than built upon one another. Some of them are loose and ready to fall. Many are peculiarly large, and have evidently belonged to ancient edifices. Indeed, the whole face of this part of the hill suggests the idea that the buildings of the ancient city had been thrown down from the brow of the hill.

Ascending to the top, we went round the whole summit, and found marks of the same process everywhere. The people of the country, in order to make room for their fields and gardens, have swept off the old houses, and poured the stones down into the valley. Masses of stone, and in one place two broken columns, are seen, as it were, on their way to the bottom of the hill. In the southern valley, we counted thirteen large heaps of stones, most of them piled up round the trunks of the olive trees. The church above mentioned is the only solid ruin that now remains, where the proud city once stood.

1 Micah 1. 6.

2 Herod rebuilt the city and called it Sebaste, which means "august, or venerable," in honour of Augustus Cæsar but God had written its doom cen. turies before.

In the houses of the villagers, we saw many pieces of ancient columns, often laid horizontally in the wall; in one place, Corinthian capital, and in another, a finely-carved stone. Near the village, and in the midst of a cultivated field, stood six columns, bare and without their capitals, then seven more that appear to have formed the opposite side of the colonnade; and at a little distance about seventeen more. Again, on the north-east side, we found fourteen pillars standing. But the greatest number were on the north-western brow. Here we counted fifty-six columns in a double row at equal distances, all wanting the capital, many of them broken across, and some having only the base remaining. These ruins may be he remnant of some of Samaria's idolatrous temples, or more probably of a splendid arcade, which may have been carried completely round the city. And these are all that remain of Samaria, the crown of pride!" The greater part of the

top of the hill is used as a field; the crop had been reaped, and the villagers were busy at the thrashing-floor. Part of the southern side is thickly planted with figs, olives, and pomegranates. We found a solitary vine, the only representative of the luxuriant vineyards which once supplied the capital. At one point, a fox sprang across our path into the gardens, a living witness of an unpeopled city.

It was most affecting to look round this scene of desolation, and to remember that this was the place where wicked Ahab built his house of Baal, where cruel Jezebeel ruled, and where Elijah and Elisha did their wonders. But above all, it filled the mind with solemn awe to read over on the spot the words of God's prophet uttered 2500 years before-" I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard; and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof."" Every clause reveals a new feature in the desolation of Samaria, differing in all its details from the desolation of Jerusalem,2 and every word has literally come to pass. We had found both on the summit and on the southern valley, at every little interval, heaps of ancient stones piled up, which had been gathered off the surface to clear it for cultivation. There can be no doubt that these stones once formed part of the temples, and palaces, and dwellings of Samaria, so that the word is *fulfilled, "I will make Samaria as an heap of the field." See pages 130, 145.

1 Mic. 1. 6