JENIN-NATIVE NOBILITY.

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gardens and orchards. Both they and the town owe their flourishing character to the fountain which bursts out in the centre of the valley; and this, again, received its Hebrew name (En Gannim)-Fountain of Gardens-from the flourishing orchards which anciently, as well as now, distinguished the place. This is the most distant permanent source of the Kishon, but during summer and autumn the water is all exhausted by irrigation, and none of it reaches beyond the margin of these green fields.

Is Jenîn mentioned in the Bible?

It is, as I already remarked, the En Gannim which was given to Issachar.1 Gannim is near enough to Jenîn, and the En is for the fountain. As the place grew in importance the prefix of Ain was dropped, and it became simply Gannim. Josephus calls it Ginnea, and the Arabs Jenîn. It is now the chief town between Nazareth and Nablus, contains about two thousand inhabitants-nearly all Moslems; has a governor, secretaries, and a custom-house posse. It deals largely in all the products of the country, and with the Bedawîn on the east of Jordan; but the people are fanatical, rude, and rebellious. They are almost always fighting among themselves, or with their neighbors. There are three leading families who keep up perpetual strife and bloodshed throughout all this region-the 'Abd el Hâdy, and Beit Tokân of Nablûs and 'Arrâby, and the Beit Jerrar of this place. They are now actually fighting with each other between this and Nablûs, and the travelers whom we met this morning assert positively that we shall not be able to pass through the country in that direction. We shall know more about this to-morrow.

1 Joshua xix. 21.

XXXI. JENIN TO SINDIANY.

April 1st. What does all this uproar mean? We have had a most unquiet night.

I have been out to ascertain the cause, and it seems that the various parties that passed through in the evening with such barbarous uproar were Bedawîn from the ghor, and from Jebel 'Ajlûn, east of the Jordan. They have been brought over by the Beits Jerrar and Tokân to aid them against 'Abd el Hâdy; and there has been a skirmish during the night, near Jeb'a, with the partisans of the latter from 'Arrâby. The people of Jenîn, who are of the Jerrar party, say that 'Abd el Hâdy was beaten; but the bloody work is still going on, and the smaller villages are being deserted. If you look out along the paths down the mountains, you will see women and children hastening hither with their miscellaneous furniture on donkeys, mules, and camels. This place is safe only because 'Akil Aga, who refuses to join in this war, lies encamped out on Esdraelon, and our guard is one of his relatives. I once before had to pass this plain when the Arabs were up in arms, when my own horse was seized by a robber; and I shall long remember the cool way in which my guard (also a cousin of the aga) told that party of marauders that if they touched any thing or person under his protection there would be no more khubs (bread) for them on this side the Jordan. The same assurance will protect us to-day, but we shall have to make a long detour to get round the places where the people are actually fighting. They are divided among themselves. For example, one half of Seely-that village on the edge of the plain-is for 'Abd el Hâdy, and the other is for Beit Jerrar; and you can see the flash of their guns at this moment, as they fire at each other from their houses.

The women about us are terribly enraged against 'Abd el Hâdy. Some of his party not long ago attacked the villages in the district of Er Rohah, killed some of the people, burned their houses, and drove off their cattle and flocks.

CIVIL WAR-TREATMENT OF WOMEN.

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But what most excites their wrath is that these wretches maltreated, and even killed women and children. This is an enormity which they loudly declare has never been known among them before, and, so far as my knowledge extends, they are correct. During the civil wars that desolated Lebanon in 1841 and in 1845, the women were not molested even in battle. I have repeatedly seen them on both sides running with water to their friends who were hard pressed with thirst, and I never knew any of them to be injured or insulted. The same deference to the women has always been shown in this region until the present outbreak, and hence the extreme exasperation of the different parties. If any of 'Abd el Hâdy's men fall into their hands, these women have vowed to roast them alive! This universal exasperation renders it more than ordinarily dangerous to travel through this district, and our wisest policy is to get beyond the range of their bloody quarrel as soon as possible. Hassein is hurrying the muleteers, and now summons us to mount and be off.

He is leading us directly back over our route of yesterday. Would it not be much nearer and more interesting to pass down the southern side of the plain, past Taannach and Megiddo?

Certainly it would; but the people are fighting with one another all along that line, and it would not be safe. We shall have a good view of these places and of many others by the longer route, and there are no antiquities at any of them to exaggerate our regret. Seely, where they are shooting each other, is surrounded by splendid groves of the "peaceful olive;" but neither the whispers of the groves, nor the innocent cultivation of the soil, nor the kindly offices of the shepherd can subdue the innate ferocity of these barbarians. Alas! that such a country should be wasted by wild Arabs, and consumed by the fires of domestic war. But thus it has been for ages, and I fear it will continue thus for ages to come. In fact, this plain has always been a great battle-field. The Canaanites and Philistines, Jews and Egyptians, Chaldeans and Persians, Greeks and Romans, Moslems and Christians,

of almost every age and nation, have encamped around Megiddo, because of its commanding position, its abundant supply of water, and its rich pastures. There Ahaziah, who fled from Jehû, died of his wounds; and there, also, the good king Josiah was defeated and slain by Pharaoh Necho. Under the name of Legio it is mentioned very often by the classic historians and geographers, and its modern name Lejjûn is merely the Arabic form of the same word. Of the many villages on the neighboring mountains of old Samaria, the only ones of much importance are Kefr Kûd, the Capercotia of the Greeks; 'Arrâby, the original seat of the 'Abd el Hâdy family; and Em el Fahm, on this side of it. 'Arrâby is a large place, and capable of sending out a thousand guns, as they say in this country, and there is the centre of the present war.

I greatly regret that we have not been able to pass through these hills to Samaria and Nablûs.

We may yet visit those places from Jerusalem, if this feud quiets down as rapidly as they generally do. In the mean while I will give you an account of them as we ride over this uninhabited plain. I have traveled the route from Jenîn to Samaria many times, but it is almost always disturbed by just such quarrels as the present. On leaving Jenîn, the road follows the Wady Bel'amy for the first half hour, passing on the right an ancient ruin of the same name. This wady is full of fountains in winter, and very muddy, but hot as a furnace in summer. Rising out of this, over a long hill, you come down again to a considerable town called Kubatîeh. The hills about this place are covered with groves of flourishing olive-trees, and the net-work of vales and plains west of it is extremely pretty and fertile. In one of them is the site of Dothan, called now Tell Dothaim. This tell was once inhabited, and at its base is a fountain where the brethren of Joseph may have watered their flocks. The neighborhood affords the very best pasturage, and this was the reason, no doubt, why they came to it from Nablûs.1 I am not aware that there still exist old

1 Gen. xxxvii. 14-17.