which were no gods, think how they were erecting monuments to the true and only One!"-FISK's Pastor's Memorial.

BEYROUT.

"THE plain of Beyrout commences at the foot of Lebanon, about four miles from the town. It is the eastern part of the promontory on which Beyrout is situated. There is a very large olive-grove in it, and also a grove of pines. The road to Beyrout, after leaving the groves now mentioned, leads through plantations of mulberry trees, and the gardens in the vicinity of the town, which add so much to the beauty of the place. On each side of the road there are high hedges, principally of the Cactus Indicus. . . The town is much crowded with houses, and the streets are narrow. In the suburbs there are many fine gardens, and orchards, and groves, surrounded generally by hedges of the prickly pear, and containing great numbers of mulberry, and flowering, and fruit trees. In the midst of these gardens there are many commodious houses, with flat roofs. The place is beautiful in itself, and the view from it of Lebanon is grand and magnificent. Jebel Sannín, one of the highest parts of the range, particularly attracts attention, with its snow-covered peaks. Beyrout is reckoned the healthiest town on the coast of Syria; it has every appearance of being a thriving place. The cultivation of silk is rapidly increasing in its neighbourhood, and the town contains many silk and cotton weavers, and manufacturers of gold and silver thread. The grape is abundant in the parts of Lebanon contiguous to it; and considerable quantities of red and white wine, with a comparatively small portion of alcohol, are produced from it, which are sold in the bazaars of Beyrout at a low price, and which, as generally used by the people without intoxication, forms to them a great blessing. Beyrout is a sort of rendezvous to travellers in Syria. It is the landing place, indeed, of

most persons of this description who visit the Holy Land. The only remains of antiquity connected with Beyrout are to be found on the shore. They consist of a few pillars. . . traces of baths, &c. . . The place is one of olden celebrity. Bochart imagines that Baal-berith, of Judges viii. 33, was connected with this town."WILSON'S Lands of the Bible.

GEBAL, BYBLUS, OR JEBEIL.

SCRIPTURE NOTICES.

"AND the land of the Giblites, and all Lebanon," &c. -Joshua xiii. 5.

"The ancients of Gebal and the wise men thereof were in thee thy calkers."-Ezek. xxvii. 9.

We

"Jebeil was our resting-place for the night. pitched our tents on the rising ground a little to the south-east of the houses and ruins, for they are sadly commingled together. The place has evidently been one of great consequence. Numerous pillars of red and grey granite are seen strewn about, and built in the walls, houses, and even terraces in the fields; and a large khán, outside the walls, has its corridor supported by them. There is a high tower, the lower parts of which are bevelled in the Phenician form, and evidently extremely ancient. One of the old cut stones we found to be sixteen feet in length, five feet nine inches in depth, and four feet in breadth. The length of another which we measured is eighteen feet . . . The harbour of Jebeil is small, and only boats at present can enter.

...

"Jebeil was the Byblus of the Greeks, and, according to Philo, the first city of the Phenicians. Speaking of it, Maundrell says, 'Gibyle is probably the country of the Giblites, mentioned in Joshua xiii. 5.' King Hiram made use of the people of this place in preparing materials for Solomon's temple, as may be collected from

1 Kings v. 18, where the word which our translators have rendered stone-squarers, in the Hebrew is Giblim, or Giblites.”1—WILSON's Lands of the Bible.

HAMATH, RIBLAH, ZEDAD.

THE ORONTES GEORGIAN SLAVES.

SCRIPTURE NOTICES.

"FROM Mount Hor ye shall point out your border unto the entrance of Hamath; and the goings forth of the border shall be to Zedad." Numb. xxxiv. 8. (Ezek. xlvii. 15, 16.)

"Solomon held a great feast, and all Israel with him ... from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt."-1 Kings viii. 65.

"Where is the king of Hamath?”—2 Kings xix. 13. “Pharaoh-nechoh put (Jehoahaz) in bands at Riblah, in the land of Hamath."-2 Kings xxiii. 33; xxv. 21.

"The Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people . . . from Hamath.” -Isa. xi. 11.

"Hamath the great.”—Amos vi. 2.

The kingdom of Hamath is often alluded to in Scripture, as in 2 Kings xvii. 24; 2 Chron. viii. 3, 4; 2 Sam. viii. 9; &c. &c.

"Hamah is situated on both sides of the Orontes; a part of it is built on the declivity of a hill, and a part in the plain. The town is of considerable extent; in the middle of the city is a square mound of earth, upon which the castle formerly stood; there are four bridges over the Orontes in the town. The river supplies the

1 In Joshua xiii. 5, the Giblites are mentioned in connexion with Lebanon in the description of the country remaining to be possessed by the Israelites, proceeding from south to north, and agreeing with Jebeil or Byblus.

upper town with water by means of buckets fixed to high wheels, which empty themselves into stone canals, supported by lofty arches on a level with the upper parts of the town. There are about a dozen of the wheels; the largest of them is at least seventy feet in diameter. The town, for the greater part, is well built, although the walls of the dwellings, a few palaces excepted, are of mud; but their interior makes amends for the roughness of their external appearance. The principal trade of Hamah is with the Arabs, who buy here their tent furniture and clothes. The abbas, or woollen mantles, made here, are much esteemed. Hamah is the residence of many opulent Turkish gentlemen. The government of Hamah comprises about 120 inhabited villages, and seventy or eighty which have been abandoned. The western part of its territory is the granary of northern Syria.

The

"From a point on the cliff above the Orontes, the traveller enjoys a beautiful view over the town. Orontes irrigates a great number of gardens belonging to Hamah, which in winter time are generally inundated. Whenever the gardens lie higher than the river, wheels like those already mentioned are met with in the narrow valley, for the purpose of raising up water to them."-BURCKHARDT.

"The approach to Hamah for the last hour was pretty enough, descending into a vale through which the Orontes takes a winding course, the banks of which are cultivated, wooded, and laid out occasionally in gardens on one side, with perpendicular chalky cliffs in some parts on the other. Here are immense wheels or sackeys, turned by the stream of the river, to raise the water for the irrigation of the soil. Hamah is the Epiphania of the Greeks and Romans, though it is, no doubt, the site of the ancient Hamath mentioned in various parts of Scripture, together with Damascus, Lebanon, and other contiguous places. It took its name from the sons of 1 Gen. x. 18.

Canaan, the fourth son of Ham, the son of Noah, which makes it of very high antiquity.

"Hamah is delightfully situated in a hollow, between and on the sides of two hills, near the west bank of the Orontes, but in itself presents nothing worthy of notice at this day. We took up our quarters in a khan ... we paid one shilling and five pence for admittance, and one penny per day for the lodging... As for provision, we always got that from the market, and cooked it in our own room, making excellent soup, roast, &c. Our principal meat was mutton . . . We witnessed a melancholy scene the few last days we were here. There arrived one evening, four shabby-looking, ill-dressed Turks, and an elderly knave better clad... These people brought with them eleven Georgian girls, the remnant of between forty and fifty, as we were informed, whom they had stolen or kidnapped from their parents on the confines of Georgia; they were brought to be sold to wealthy Turks ... These poor girls were lodged in the cells contiguous to ours; they were mostly between fifteen and twenty years of age; two were younger, being about twelve. They were all exceedingly pretty, with black sparkling eyes, rosy cheeks, long black hair, and very fair complexions ... They were taken out and conducted through the town to the rich Turkish houses, to be viewed and bid for, the same as any other merchandise; and on two occasions parties of the principal inhabitants came to our khan, and examined and bid for the unhappy creatures at the door of their cells, they being obliged to stand in a row, while their several merits were discussed by the rival bidders."—IRBY and MANGLES.

It

"Hamah is well known as the ancient Epiphania. is of more importance to notice it as the Hamath so often mentioned in Scripture, in connexion with the northern boundary of the territory allotted to the tribes. Its neighbourhood is remarkably fertile, though by no means so well cultivated as it ought to be."-Lands of the Bible.