riches and honor. Alas! that such a glorious beginning should have ended in foul disgrace and apostasy! Solomon loved many strange women, and when he was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon, and Chemosh, the abomination of Moab,' whose temples he reared "On that opprobrious hill Right against the temple of God- After lunching at the Fountain of Gibeon, we took over the country to the east, sometimes without any road, and always along most rocky paths, leaving Ramah on our left, and also Jîb'a, the ancient Gibeah, which we could see from different points, and descended to "poor Anathoth," the city of Jeremiah. There is no reason to question the identity, and I am always pleased to find certainty when I am groping about among these ancient ruins. The prospect east and southeast toward the Dead Sea and the lower Jordan is one of the most dreary that my eye ever rested on, and again and again it reminded me of the author of "Lamentations," who gazed upon it with tearful eyes two thousand five hundred years ago. 'Anātā is a small, half-ruined hamlet, but was once much larger, and appears to have had a wall around it, a few fragments of which are still to be seen. It took us just one hour to reach our cottage from the hill above the village. Several wadies along the path run down to the valley of the Jordan, and the road sometimes keeps round the head of them, and at others passes through them. I did not note their names. All those places which you passed without visiting are mentioned in the 10th chapter of Isaiah, with several others to the north of them. The prophet is describing the approach of Sennacherib's army. He is come to Aiath, he has passed to Migron; at Michmash he has laid up his carriages. They have gone over the passage, they have taken up their lodging at Geba. Ramah is afraid, Gibeah of Saul is fled. Lift up the voice, O daughter of Gallim, cause it 1 1 Kings xi. 1-7. BIBLICAL SITES-BARN-DOOR FOWLS. 551 to be heard unto Laish, O poor Anathoth. Thus one can follow, step by step, the invading host of Assyria, until they reach "poor Anathoth," and shake their hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, from Nob, which was at the north end of this Mount of Olives. No neighborhood in Palestine is more crowded with interesting Biblical associations than this over which you have passed so hastily. I should like to spend a day wandering over the rough hills between Er Ram, Gibeah, Michmash, Rimmon, Bethel, and Beer. Perhaps we might stumble upon the site of Ai, which Joshua's curse has hidden from all the world, for he burned Ai, and made it a heap forever, even a desolation unto this day.2 It must be somewhere between Michmash and Rimmon, a region greatly cut up with gorges and ravines; and as I passed from Beit-în toward Michmash, I could easily understand how Joshua's ambush of five thousand men could lie hid between Ai and Bethel. Some of our Jerusalem friends identify Ai with a conspicuous mound which I saw from a distance. It bears now no other name than tell, which you may translate "heap," and as for "desolation," it remains complete unto this day. No doubt traces still remain, could we but find them, of that great heap of stones which Joshua raised over the carcass of Ai's hapless king.* May 14th. Is it not remarkable that there is no allusion to the common barn-door fowl in the Old Testament, and that in the New they are only mentioned in connection with Jerusalem? In Matthew Christ thus addresses this wicked city: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not !5 Matthew, Mark,' and Luke refer to the crowing of the cock when Peter denied his Lord, and Mark mentions cockcrowing as one of the watches of the night in connection Isa. x. 28-32. Josh. viii. 29. 7 Mark xiv. 30. 2 Josh. viii. 3. 1. Josh. viii. 12. Matt. xxvi. 34. with Christ's prophecy concerning the destruction of Jerusalem1. I have often thought of this remarkable silence in regard to one of man's most common associates and greatest comforts, especially in this country. The peasants, not to say citizens in general, would scarcely know how to live without fowls. Their eggs, and they themselves, answer the place of meat for most of their meals. They swarm round every door, share in the food of their possessors, are at home among the children in every room, roost over head at night, and, with their ceaseless crowing, are the town-clock and the morning bell to call up the sleepers at early dawn. If they were thus common among the ancient Hebrews, it seems strange that they should never have been mentioned. Is not the cock-crowing a very indefinite division of time? I have noticed throughout our wanderings that they seem to crow all night long. That is true, particularly in bright warm nights; and what is curious too, I have heard a single cock crow so often and continue so long that I gave over counting from mere weariness. It is, however, while the dawn is struggling into day that the whole band of chanticleers blow their shrill clarions with the greatest energy and emulation. It seems to be an objection to the sign given to Peter that a thousand cocks in Jerusalem might crow at any hour. For him, however, it was sufficient that in the house of Caiaphas there was but one which gave forth its significant note in immediate response to his cruel and cowardly denial of his Lord, and it answered the purpose intended perfectly. Peter heard, and then went out and wept bitterly. We must not be very severe upon the Armenians for attempting to preserve the identical spot where this incident occurred, since the Evangelists record the fact with so much particularity. CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE. When you were laying down rules for visiting these sacred localities with safety and advantage, I felt and remark 1 Mark xiii. 35. |