Mahommedan structure, differing little in exterior appearance from the reputed tomb of Rachel, between Jerusalem and Bethlehem ; but we did not go near enough to examine it closely.'

Whether this be Mount Nebo or not, it is certainly no part of Mount Ephraim, and therefore has no pretensions to the honour of containing the bones of the successor of Moses. But Nebby Osha is the prophet Hosea, and the blunder is in this case chargeable on the Traveller. All sorts of tombs, however, Roman, Saracen, and Turkish, are objects of veneration among the Arabs, under the name of some Jewish patriarch or Mahommedan sheikh. Not the slightest dependence can be placed on their traditions. In fact, no structure of any kind can claim the character of a Hebrew monument, as it is clear from the sacred records, that the primitive places of sepulture were caves.

The town of Szalt (certainly not "the city of Salt," Josh. xv. 62, as Mr. Buckingham imagines) has a very imposing appearance, surmounted by a large castle, as old, probably, as the time of the Crusades, but which is said to have been almost rebuilt by the celebrated Sheikh Dahher, whose history is given by Volney. Much of the original pile is in ruins, but a portion of a square tower remains. In different parts of the motley building, the Roman and the Saracen arch are seen together; but both appear, Mr. Buckingham says, to be modern additions to the original building. Within the castle is a fine spring of water. Near a small mosque at one corner of the citadel are two small European swivels, apparently not more than fifty years old.

So rapidly, however, are things and events forgotten in countries where no written or printed records of them are kept, that no person at Assalt knew any thing of the history of these guns; although, from the difficulty of bringing such articles to an isolated spot like this, and from their being probably the only cannon that were ever known here, the circumstance of their first arrival at the town must have been an event of great importance at the time, and have been talked of for months and years afterwards.'

They were probably transported here by Dahher. Burckhardt says, that this place sustained a siege of three months. from a pasha of Damascus ; but the Arab sheikh who governs here, still maintained his independence. The population consists partly of Arabs, partly of Greek Christians, refugees originally from Nazareth. They mix together on the most friendly terms, and the one class are quite as good Christians as the other. Their dress, their mode of salutation, and their exterior appearance are the same, and, in return for this un

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usual tolerance on the part of the Moslems, the Greeks abstain from pork, wine, and spirits, for which they indemnify themselves by eating flesh and butter in Lent. Though free from all burdens, and in the full enjoyment of civil and religious liberty, the people of Assalt, however, are excessively rude, ignorant, and idle, as fond of gossip as the ancient Athenians, but, in their manners, ruder than even the modern Egyptians. The Christians, being all of the Greek Church, consider the Russians as the first people in the world, and Bonaparte as the greatest of heroes; but the English, it seems, were allowed to be a very superior race of infidels. Many of the inhabitants, Mr. Buckingham says, have lightcoloured eyes, soft auburn hair, and fair complexions. The women would be pleasing if they did not follow the Arab fashion of staining their lips and marking other parts of the face with a deep indigo blue! They dress like the Syrians, but are more profuse in their display of strings of gold and silver coin. Their language, Burckhardt says, is the true Bedoween dialect. Mr. Buckingham attended the service of the Greek church on the Sunday. It is a vaulted room, about thirty feet by fifteen, and between twelve and fifteen feet high, resembling the House of Peter at Tiberias. The altar, which stands at the east end, is separated by a screen with two arched door-ways closed by sliding curtains. Empty ostrich eggs suspended on cords from the roof, and glass tumblers serving for lamps, are among the ornaments; while three small pictures of Greek saints, containing more gilding than painting, and a large wooden cross, complete the ecclesiastical fur

niture.

• At our first entrance,' says our Traveller, we found the room so crowded that it was difficult for us to make our way in. There were assembled at least a hundred persons, which was a large congregation for so small a church: the men were placed in front, with the women behind them; and every individual, whether old or young, was seen standing. When we got near the altar, we were presented with crutches; and as the service is extremely long, and all are required to stand during its performance, we found them very acceptable. The service appeared to me nearly the same as I had before witnessed in the Greek churches of Asia Minor, and differed only in being performed in the Arabic, instead of the Greek language. The priest wore a coat of many colours,-a garment apparently as much esteemed throughout these parts in the present day, as it was in the days of the patriarch Jacob, or in the time of Sisera. In the exercise of his functions, the priest remained mostly at the altar, while young boys, bearing censers, were constantly waving them round his sacred person. On the outside of the screen were two side altars, at each of which a person repeated passages of the Psalms to another

near him, who sung them. The congregation criticised the faults of these singers as they proceeded, without scruple or reserve, sufficiently loud to be heard by every one in the room; and the noise and confusion arising from this general conversation, was such as to take away from the scene all appearance of an assembly met to worship. When the priest came to the door of the screen to read aloud some portion of the service, a number of men who had bared their heads and shoulders, pressed around him, and bowed down their necks to make of them a resting-place for the large book from which he read the service of the day. When this ceremony was ended, the priest walked through the body of the church with the sacramental cup elevated, and a silk covering on his head; those of the congregation who were nearest to him, falling on the earth, and kissing his feet and the hem of his garment; while those who were not near enough to pay him this mark of homage, stretched forth their hands to touch some part of his robes, kissing their own fingers afterwards with great reverence, and even communicating the benefit of this holy touch to those who were behind them and could not come in direct contact with the priest's person. On our quitting the church, all the men of the congregation saluted each other by kissing on the cheek and forehead; and I came in for a large share of this, being saluted by upwards of twenty of my guide's friends, some of whom were smooth-faced boys, and others bearded elders.

In what dialect is this Arabic service book?-for such we presume this. large book' to have been. The vernacular idiom, it has been already mentioned, is the Bedoween Arabic; and Mr. Buckingham found it differ so much from the language of Cairo, that he had often great difficulty in understanding it. Was the service then intelligible to the congregation? In what character was the book written? Had the people of Szalt seen an Arabic Bible? These are inquiries which will naturally occur to the reader, but we must look to future travellers to resolve them. Among these poor ArabGreeks at all events, the Arabic Version of the Scriptures, if they can read it, might be circulated with the happiest effects, without danger of their being too fastidious to look at a volume printed with metal types or written in any dialect less classical than that of the Koran.

In a valley which runs eastward of the town are grottoes, many of which are inhabited by shepherds. The hills which enclose this valley, are laid out in vineyards. On the other side of the steep hill which closes its southern extremity, is a place still called Anab, which is plausibly conjectured to be the place referred to, Josh. xi. 21; xv. 50.

The word itself signifies grapes, a fruit with which the whole of this region abounds, and which it appears to have possessed in the earliest ages; for this is the part of the country into which the spies

were sent by Moses, when encamped in the wilderness of Paran, to spy out the land, and whence they brought back a branch with cluster of grapes, as a proof of the fertility of the soil. Anab is still inhabited by about one hundred persons; but these all live in grottoes or caves excavated in the rock, which are probably more ancient than any buildings now existing.......... They are all hewn out by the hand of man, and are not natural caverns, but, from their great antiquity, and the manner in which they were originally executed, they have a very rude appearance. Nevertheless, the persons who occupy them (chiefly shepherds) fortunately deem them far superior to buildings of masonry. With the exception of a chimney, (a defect existing in all the buildings of these parts,) they are very comfortable retreats, being drier and more completely sheltered from wind and rain, than either house or tent, besides being warmer in winter and cooler in summer than any other kind of dwelling-place.'

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About six hours S.E. of Assalt, are the ruins of Amman, the ancient Philadelphia, of which Burckhardt has given a brief description. Here are remains of a grand theatre, superior, Mr. Buckingham says, in size and beauty, to either of those at Djerash, and built, like most of the Roman amphitheatres, against the side of a hill: the Arabs call it Serait-el-Sultaun, the king's palace. Burckhardt describes it as the largest he had seen in Syria. The other principal ruins consist of the acropolis, a very extensive building, enclosing deep cisterns; two or three temples; an odeum; a high arched bridge; some colonnades; and Burckhardt mentions a spacious church. The architecture is for the most part Corinthian No inscriptions were detected by either of these travellers, except a few Greek letters transcribed by Mr. Buckingham. Captain Mangles, who visited Amman in 1818, in company with the Hon. Captain Irby, Mr. Legh, and Mr. Bankes, says, We did not find any inscriptions.' In the side of the hill, without the city, are several grottoes, and near them some sarcophagi, indicating the ancient burying-place. The valley is traversed by a fine, clear brook of excellent water, containing abundance of fish, which issues from a pond at a few hundred paces from the south-western end of the town, and falls into the nahr-el-Zerka. Yet, this beautiful situation is without an inhabitant! Other ruins, excavated tombs, and sarcophagi, are found at Gherbet el Sookh, Yedoudy, and Mehanafish, (so Mr. Buckingham writes the words,) which appear highly to deserve examination. The whole of this elevated region, the plain of Belkah, would admit of cultivation.

Our Author proceeded on the road to Kerek, as far as the ruined town of Ooom el Russas (written by Burckhardt, On el Reszasz, i. e. Mother of Lead), where the only remarkable

remain is a tower, ten feet square at its base and from thirty to forty feet high, and fantastically ornamented. It is evidently of the times of the lower empire; but its design it is difficult to conjecture. It is seen at a distance of between 15 and 20 miles. Here our Traveller fell in with some Arabs, from whom he obtained the unwelcome information, that the road to Kerek was unsafe, and the idea of crossing the desert to Bagdadt absolutely chimerical. Not an individual in Kerek, he was assured, would, under the existing circumstances, of the country, accompany him as a guide on such a journey. He had no choice, therefore, but to return to Assalt. In his way back, he passed the ruins of Huzbaun or Heshbon, which occupy a commanding elevation. Captain Mangles, speaking of them, says: We found the ruins uninteresting, and the only pool we saw, was too insignificant for one of those mentioned in Scripture.' Mr. Buckingham describes the heaps of ruins as occupying an area of about a mile in circuit, and some of the masonry appeared to him very ancient. On the north, are many grottoes in the side of a hill.

On the low ground to the south of the town, and about half a mile from the foot of the hill on which it stands, is a large reservoir, constructed of good masonry, and not unlike the cisterns of Solomon near Jerusalem, to which this is also nearly equal in size. If Huzbhan be the Heshbon of the scriptures, of which there can be little doubt, as it agrees so well, both in name and local position, these reservoirs may probably be the very fish-pools of Solomon, to which that monarch compares the eyes of his love in the Canticles, ch. vii. ver. 4.'

We do not quite comprehend how the reservoir mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph, acquires its right to the plural number at the close. Nor does Mr. Buckingham let us know, what ground of comparison he imagines to have existed between this cistern and the eyes of a beautiful woman. If, as we apprehend, the allusion referred to the brightness and clearness of the water, a reservoir of standing water would ill correspond to the fish-pools in question. Moreover, we should very much doubt that this reservoir was ever designed to contain fish. It has been supposed that the city called Caspis, 2 Macc. xii, 13, was Heshbon. If so, the fish-pools are probably alluded to in ver. 16. Judas, having taken the city, is said to have made unspeakable slaughter, insomuch that a lake two furlongs broad, near adjoining thereunto, being filled full, was seen running with blood." Of the identity of this site with the ancient Heshbon, we entertain little doubt. If so, there may possibly be found some traces of a

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