as I am told, form part of the river which, at the sea south of Cæsarea, is called Abu Zabûra.

The view from the topmost terrace of Samaria over the rich plains and hills around it, and far away to the blue Mediterranean, is truly magnificent. The remains of the ancient city consist mainly of colonnades, which certainly date back to the time of the Herods, and perhaps many of the columns are much older. There is a group of sixteen standing in a recess low down on the northeast side of the hill, and a similar group of sixteen on the top, though these last are larger; and there are many lying prostrate. The grand colonnade, however, runs along the south side of the hill, down a broad terrace, which descends rapidly toward the present village. The number of columns, whole or broken, along this line is nearly one hundred, and many others lie scattered about on lower terraces. They are of various sizes, and quite irregularly arranged, but when perfect it must have been a splendid colonnade. The entire hill is covered with rubbish, indicating the existence and repeated destruction of a large city. The modern village is on the southeastern slope, adjacent to the ruined church of St. John. You have seen so many views of what these ruins are not, that I despair of giving an accurate idea of what they are. The church, however, is an interesting specimen of medieval architecture, which all look at with respect, and many with deep emotion. This is natural, though the tradition that associates the martyrdom of the Baptist with this spot is sufficiently doubtful, yet it augments the reverence with which one explores the vaults of this fine old ruin.

Nearly every thing that is known about ancient Samaria is derived from the Bible and Josephus. This latter historian mentions it very often, and from him we learn that it derived its present name, Sebastia (or Sebustia, as the Arabs call it), from Herod, and in honor of Augustus. Herod rebuilt it after some one of its many overthrows, and most of the columns now visible are supposed to be remains of his edifices; but, as it was celebrated a thousand years before

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his time, and was for centuries the capital of a kingdom, I think it not unlikely that he built with the ruins of castles and temples much older than himself. It is remarkable that this place took its original name, Samaria, from the man who owned the hill, and not from Omri, the king who built the city. It continued to be the capital of the "Ten Tribes," until they were carried captive into Assyria; and during the twenty-five centuries which have passed since that event its fortunes have been very various; often destroyed and again rebuilt, growing smaller by degrees, though not beautifully less, until it finally subsided into the insignificant village which now clings to the name and the site.

Like many other visitors, I have uniformly found the inhabitants of Sebustia rude, insolent, and sometimes even dangerous. They seem never to have had a good character, if we form our opinion from the language of the prophets. Many of the wonderful passages in the lives of Elijah and Elisha are connected with Samaria and her idolatrous and bloody rulers. I imagine that the level space on the topmost terrace of the hill, where are the sixteen large columns, marks the site of the great temple of Baal, which Jehu utterly "broke down," after that treacherous slaughter of Baal's priests and worshipers recorded in the tenth chapter of 2 Kings. It was to Samaria that Naaman, the Damascene leper, came to be healed—a very remarkable narrative, and very suggestive. This terrible disease still cleaves to Damascus, and is now, as it was then, incurable by man. It was this latter fact that alarmed the King of Israel in regard to the motive of Benhadad. See how he seeketh a quarrel against me; am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy ! exclaimed the perplexed king. One is tempted to inquire why this power of healing the leprosy, which so signally honored the God of Israel in the eyes of all nations, should have been so rarely exercised. There were other lepers at that very time in Samaria under the eye of Elisha, as we learn from the next chapter. Indeed, Christ 22 Kings v. 15.

1 Kings xvi. 24.

says there were many of them, and of the children of Israel, too, and yet none of them were cleansed except Naaman the Syrian. It is obvious, however, that this reserve in putting forth divine power is in strict accordance with the entire economy of miraculous manifestation. Gehazi, for his cupidity, had this terrible disease laid upon him, with the fearful doom added that it should cleave unto his seed forever; and who can tell but that the victims of this horrid plague, now seen about this city and at Nablûs, the present home of all the Samaritans, may be the heirs of this heritage of Gehazi.

The lepers mentioned in chapter vii. seem to have been shut out of Samaria even when it was closely besieged by Benhadad. Is it common now to compel lepers to dwell outside of the city?

Not in all places, but they are every where regarded as unclean, shunned as dangerous, and obliged to live by themselves. Where there are considerable numbers of them, as at Jerusalem, there is a separate quarter to which they are confined, just at the gate, though within the walls of the city. At Samaria they were outside, and I have seen them thus cast out of the villages where they resided.

What have you to say about that extraordinary article of food called "doves' dung," which was sold at a high price during that terrible siege of Benhadad?

I believe that the Hebrew Chirîyonim, or Khir yonim, was a name for a coarse and cheap sort of food, a kind of bean, as some think, to which this whimsical title was given on account of some fancied resemblance between the two. Nor am I at all surprised at it, for the Arabs give the most quaint, obscure, and ridiculous names to their extraordinary edible mixtures. I would, therefore, not translate at all, but let the passage read thus, A fourth part of a cab of Khir yonim for five pieces of silver; and be content with that, until we know what Khir yonim really is. From Samaria to Nablûs is two hours' easy riding, first south, over the shoulder of the mountain, and then east22 Kings v. 27.

1 Luke iv. 17.

!