sea.

to Jebâl, esh-Sherah, and Máan (see p. 86). Abulfeda also refers (p. 48) the situation of it at the Dead Sea to a single locality; and Kazwini, in the Athar el-Bil. (MS.), expresses himself still more circumstantially to this effect:-Zoghar is a hamlet three days' journey from Jerusalem, at the extremity of the stinking It is in an unhealthy, bad valley, in a district very inconvenient, inhabited by a population who are visited by the plague in many years, and who remain there only by virtue of attachment to their native country.' Should we recognise in this language the characteristics of the Ghor, as Robinson (iii. 31) also touches on them, Istakhri (p. 35) says, 'At Zoar there are dates, in Irak are none sweeter and finer than they;' and we know, from Edrisi, p. 2, that they were once exported from Zoghar by ship to Jericho and other places. From them 'Segor' got among the Crusaders the name villa palmarum, and is celebrated for its fine dates. Thus, there is no doubt that Arabs and Crusaders, notwithstanding the name vallis illustris given by the latter, which forms so strong a contrast to the description of Kazwini, mean the same place. But this productiveness belonging to the locality, is only met with at the mouth of Wadi el-Karahi, which in the so-called Ghor ess-Safieh makes the cultivation of wheat, barley, and dhurah possible (Robinson, ii. 489); and in the plain Ghor el-Mezraah, fructified by the Wadi Kerak, with fruit-trees and corn-fields (Robinson, ii. 467), the scanty remains of the Jordan meadow, once so well cultivated in consequence of its copious springs that have not yet disappeared (Gen. xiii. 10), in contrast with the salt desert of the central and western el-Ghor, which is destitute of all living plants, and of whose frightful desolation older, as well as recent travellers, speak with horror. In proportion as the improbability increased of ever finding the name or remains of Zoghar, at the present southern extremity of the Dead Sea, after all the inquiries hitherto made to discover them, and as the idea of the mountain-path to the plain of Ghor ess-Safieh, described by Seetzen, being that road into which Baldwin's army struck, becomes less and less probable, because Wadi Kerak formed the proper gate of Moab, and still does so; the more likely is Robinson's view, founded on Irby and Mangles' observations (Palestine, iii. 164, 754), that the remains of Zoar must be looked for in the not unimportant ruins at the running out of Wadi Kerak into the plain (comp. with this Kazwini's words). Hence the part of the sea lying south of the peninsula, which stretches out westwards far into the

i Von Raumer, Palæstina, p. 222.

k Zach's Monat. Correspond., xviii. 438.

sea

sea like a protecting bulwark, must be reckoned the vale of Siddim, which sank in Abraham's time, in that catastrophe, with its fruitful meadows and populous cities (ch. xix.), being ever after overwhelmed by the Dead Sea.

m

The fortune of war decided in favour of the allies (v. 10), so that all the Pentapolitan fugitives that did not fall in the slimepits (which, once visible, still throw up at the present day, from the bottom of the sea, their asphaltum, equivalent to the 7), sought for safety in the ravines of the Moabite mountains. The conquerors plunder (v. 11) Sodom and Gomorrah, the former of which, as has been shown above, lay near Zoar. Of course, they march across the plain, and reach at Zoar the eastern bank of the sea, at that which was then the south-east point. This is decisive respecting the direction of the way back, that cannot have been up to Canaan along the western bank, which is in various ways shut up through the steep pass Engedi (Robinson, ii. 438), but along the east bank of the Dead Sea, probably on the road from Jericho to Zoghar, mentioned above by Istakhri. Certainly, however, the march of the army in the Jordan valley continues upwards, till it (v. 14) reaches the extreme point at the well-known Dan; and in proof of our standing here on purely historical ground, the remark may be made, that Hobah (v. 15), which is not elsewhere mentioned except in Judith iv. 4, xv. 4, lies to the left, i. e. northward of Damascus. But the great continental roads to Nineveh and Babylon came down from the north to Damascus; and we see, from this short account, that those smitten by Abraham fled thither, whence they had come. For the rest see p. 83.

If we have thus far found the narrative faithful in all its parts, and very accurate where the relative localities have been sufficiently known before, the right acceptation of the whole solves, in conclusion, the disputed question of the position of Shalem. According to v. 14, sq., the victor, laden with booty, returns from Damascus, as we suppose, along the great road which reached the Jordan valley on the south, at the sea of Tiberias. Those freed by Abraham from their oppressors, and among them Melchizedek, king of Salem, come forth (v. 17, sq.) welcoming, wishing prosperity to, and blessing their rescuer, at the place afterwards called The King's Vale. But the more certain it is that the land west of the Jordan was wholly untouched by the march of the army here described, the less reason is there for regarding Melchizedek's Shalem, in violation, at the same time, of the firmly esta

m See Istakhri, p. 35; Abulfeda, Geogr., p. 228.
H 2

blished

Jebus,

Jerusalem,

blished historical usus loquendi ( not being poetically abbreviated into □ Salem, till Ps. lxxvi. 3), as Jerusalem, which lies entirely out of the reach of the narrative, and for transplanting the King's Vale into the neighbourhood of the metropolis. This combination, moreover, becomes an impossibility, from the fact that Abraham, who did not undertake the expedition for his own personal advantage, but nobly gave to every one a share of the booty (v. 22, sq.), could not take the way from Scythopolis through Samaria, but must rather have followed the Jordan valley to Sodom, in order to bring back thither the captives, among whom were his nearest relatives (v. 12), who are also represented at a subsequent time (ch. xix. 1) as still dwelling there. Even this leads to the Jordan valley, as the locality of Shalem and the King's Vale; and if we combine this with the accounts of Jerome, that the Eaλsip, mentioned in John iii. 23, in the avλ Eaλnu, i. e. in the Jordan meadow (Judith iv. 4), and which still later, under the names Salem, Salumias, at least according to a partial tradition, was connected with Melchizedek," lay eight Roman miles south of Scythopolis, consequently on the way which Abraham must have traversed, then all the marks of the identity of our Salem (D) with that (Zaλɛíu) agree so well, that there cannot be any longer a doubt on the point. The mention of the King's Valley (2 Sam. xviii. 18), where Absalom erects his monumental pillar, is not opposed to this; for Absalom had his possessions beside Ephraim.

" See the passages in Rosenmüller, Antiq. ii. 2. 184, sq.; Von Raumer, Pal. p. 156, sq.

RECOLLECTIONS

RECOLLECTIONS OF THE EAST,

ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE PENTATEUCH.

BY MRS. POSTANS.

THE subject of the present paper is one on which, I believe, that too much cannot be said, nor to which remark and observation of the most serious kind can be too frequently drawn. The value of all illustrations of Sacred History, as collected from the exhaustless sources of Eastern custom, must depend of course on the truthfulness of the facts, and their intimate connection with ancient and holy record; therefore the kind of evidence afforded by an eye-witness should have pre-eminent authority: for, however useful in their way, this authority cannot, in full force, attach to gleanings from the works of travellers not having this especial object in view, nor being, perhaps, very intimately conversant with the domestic manners of the people among whom they journey.

While myself approaching this very interesting and important subject, I do so in all humility, yet with an earnest desire to bring to the ever-increasing mound of human knowledge such grains of experience as I have garnered during a long residence in the East; and, whether my journeyings have been on the banks of the Nile, in the city of Rameses, whence with a strong hand' God brought forth his people Israel, or on the shores of the Indus; whether wandering on desert plains or residing in Oriental cities, the same fact has ever in its full power constrained my earnest observation -the fact that, however the East may have been affected by changes of religion and dynasties, however it may have been rifled and enslaved by stranger powers, however its features of government and social ordinances may have been altered or modified by external and extraneous circumstances, yet that, to a very remarkable and interesting degree, the manners and customs of the people remain unchanged during a period of more than three thousand years, so that, even as in our day, the summit of Mount Sinai may still be noted by the pilgrim traveller to the convent of St. Catherine, and the great wilderness may now be trodden by the foot of the Gentile whereon the rebellious children of Israel murmured and wept, the traveller in the East may yet note in the ordinary life about him, acts, customs, manners, and prejudices, in no way altered from what they were when Abraham fed his flocks on Mamre, when Shimei cursed David at Bahurim, and when the Saviour and his disciples walked with men in the holy city.

The

The intelligent reader, seeking the instructive evidence as such experiences may aid him in obtaining, will not deem a fact trivial or unimportant which tends to illustrate any of the interesting portions of the sacred Scriptures: and in truth it is on those facts likely to escape the casual observer of Eastern manners that I am disposed to lay most stress, from their peculiarly interesting character if considered in reference to their prototypes in Holy Writ, these passages also being little likely to arrest the attention of a careless reader. It may be the result of natural association while writing on this subject, but I feel that my desire to awaken interest in the comparison between ancient and modern times in the East would be materially assisted by the reader's endeavouring to form, as a groundwork, some general idea of Eastern scenes, climate, and costumes; to imagine its vast deserts, trodden only by the camel's foot, and producing but the camel's food; to imagine the deep blue canopy of heaven, shining forth with the glorious lights that gave their earliest worship to the simple shepherds watching their flocks by night, in the vast plains of Chaldea; to imagine the burning heats of day, all nature stilled in languid rest; the evening hour with its refreshing breeze, its purple shadowings; the flat-roofed houses, crowded by a turbaned population; the kine returning to the city, the maidens filling their vessels at the wells; the luxuriant foliage of a tropic clime; the simple life of the peasant tribes-with their little tent of goat's-hair, their loins girded, their staff in their hand; and this done, I would at once and with increased confidence proceed to draw attention to such facts as appear to me to be worthy of remark.

In the 12th chapter of the book of Genesis, from the 4th to the 10th verses, we read of the journeying of the patriarch Abram from Chaldea to Canaan-And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered.' The people of the East ever thus travel, they and their families, with their substance. It has frequently occurred to me to see movements of a similar kind, sometimes the result of scarcity, when men have travelled from a province devastated by famine, to eat bread; sometimes the effect of political agitation, when the possessors of great flocks and herds among the pastoral tribes feared foray from their own military chiefs, or attack from bodies of horse sweeping down upon them from the enemy. This was particularly the case in Beelochistan, during the period of the late Cabul campaign, and the Kujjuck and other shepherd tribes of the hills brought their families down to the plains and villages of Cutchee for protection. While travelling, the head of the family commonly rode upon a camel, his sons and brethren, armed with sword and matchlock, following on foot and guarding the

women,