WE left Bethlehem about ten o'clock, and directing our course still to the southward, inclining easterly, through a stony valley, and over the barest and most rugged hills, we came, in about an hour, to the large reservoirs, which are called the Cisterns of Solomon. It is thought that these pools were the work of that king, and that they are the places alluded to by him, when he says, "I made me great works: I builded me houses: I planted me vineyards: I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted

trees in them of all kinds of fruits: I made me pools of water to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees.'

Maundrell's description of them is so accurate, that nothing can be added to it. They are seated in a valley, and are three in number, each occupying a different level, and placed in a right line with each other, so that the waters of the one may descend into the next below it. Their figure is quadrangular; the first, or southern one being about three hundred feet long, the second four hundred, and the third five hundred, the breadth of each being about two hundred feet. They are all lined with masonry, and descended to by narrow flights of steps at one of the corners; the whole depth when empty, not exceeding twenty or thirty feet. They were, at the present moment, all dry; but though they may be considered useful works in so barren and destitute a country as Judea, yet they are hardly to be reckoned among the splendid monuments of a luxurious sovereign's wealth or power, since there are many of the Hindoo tanks in Bombay, the works of private individuals, in a mere commercial settlement, which are much more elegant in their design, and more expensive in their construction than any of these. *

Near these reservoirs there are two small fountains, of whose waters we drank and thought them good. These are said to have originally supplied the cisterns through subterranean aqueducts, but they are now fallen into decay from neglect, and merely serve as a watering-place for cattle, and a washing stream for the females of the neighbouring country.

To the northward of the cisterns, the valley closed in so as to form a narrow ravine at the foot of the two opposite hills, and this is pretended to be the place meant by the enamoured monarch, when he exclaims, "A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed;" and to be alluded to also by the spouse who had ravished his heart with one chain of her neck,

* See the Vignette at the head of this chapter.

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when she replies, " Awake, O! north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant * fruits." Whether these luxurious and enamoured descriptions be not wholly figurative might admit, however, of some question.

We quitted the cisterns about noon, seeing nothing of the aqueduct by which the waters were said to have been conveyed from this place to Jerusalem †, and passed, at a few yards' distance, an old Saracen castle. It is a square building of considerable size, having battlements on its walls, and Arabic inscriptions over its door of entrance. The masonry of this edifice appeared to be of the same age as the lining of the reservoirs themselves; and I was induced to think the whole rather the work of the Mohammedan conquerors of Judea than of the Jewish monarch, who, in constructing gardens and vineyards, and works of magnificence and pleasure, could not have selected a more unfit spot in all the country around his capital, than this stony valley for such a purpose. The preservation of the water of these fountains, as a work of public utility, and military importance, in a country whose possession was disputed, might, however, have made both the cisterns, and the castle to guard them, a work worthy the attention of the Saracens of a later age. Within this enclosure is now a small village, consisting only of a few Arab families of the Mohammedan faith, who are rather shepherds than cultivators.

* Canticles, iv. 12.; ix. 16.

This place is thought to be the Etham, very pleasant for fine gardens, and abounding in rivulets of water, mentioned by Josephus as the favourite morning-ride of Solomon the king. The heights above it have been for this reason thought to be the Etam of the Scriptures, to which Samson retired after he had burned the corn of the Philistines (Judges, xv. 8.), particularly as it is said that Rehoboam built Bethlehem, Etam, and Tekoa, this being in the neighbourhood of both these places. Pococke has observed, that an aqueduct from these cisterns to Jerusalem would be useless, as they could always be cut off by an enemy; and regarding the site, as one fit for a house of pleasure, he has remarked, that it is a very bad situation, and there is no prospect from it, but of the dismal hills on the other side. - Pococke, vol. ii. part. i. p. 43. + Joseph. Antiq. Jud. l. viii. c. 7. 3.

See the Vignette at the head of this chapter.

From hence we returned by another route to within sight of Bethlehem, when we turned off to the westward, on our way to the village of Ain Kareem. Our road was still over a bare and rocky country, in some places almost impassable on horseback; and on our way we passed the village of Beit Jallah, inhabited by Christians. Soon afterwards we came to a spring, in which it is pretended that Philip baptized the Ethiopian eunuch, who had the charge of Queen Candace's treasure, and was coming from Gaza to Jerusalem to worship. The whole of the country here was such, however, that chariots could certainly not travel through it* ; nor are there at this moment any visible marks of better roads in ancient days than exist now across those mountains. This spring indeed must always have been distant from the more frequented and great public roads on which the eunuch is represented as travelling.

The country, for some miles before our reaching the village, bore marks of a higher state of cultivation than the lands near Jerusalem; and besides the olive in abundance, we saw large portions of the land appropriated to the culture of vines. There was a part of the road which was called "Belled-el Melhhe," or the country of salt, for which our guide could assign no reason. It was the more remarkable that such a name should be given to it, inasmuch as on this spot were grown all the roses which supplied the sanctuaries and altars both of Jerusalem and of the holy places in its neighbourhood.

We passed also, in the course of our route, the village of Beit Safafa, where the inhabitants consist of both Mohammedans and Christians; but from the ignorance and stupidity of our guide, our road was altogether "a wandering," and not followed in the common track.

Our approach to the village of Ain Kareem, was from the eastward, and over a steep descent, where we were obliged to dismount,

* Acts of the Apostles, viii. 26. et seq.

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and go down on foot. We proceeded to the Latin convent of St. Giovanni, which occupies nearly the centre of the town, and here we were well received. After the refreshment of a cup coffee, we walked on the terrace, to enjoy a more commanding view of the surrounding scenery.

*

The village is seated in the hollow of a deep valley, and has on all sides some portions of cultivated and garden land. To the north is seen the village of Kalioon, through which we passed on our road from Jaffa to Jerusalem. From thence to this village there is a deep ravine, through which runs the torrent or brook of Elah, giving its name to the valley. It was here that David is thought to have gathered the pebbles with which he slew the great Goliath, as the valley of Elah was the scene of that event. The village of Kalioon stands on the west, and Ain Kareem on the east of this stream, the bed of which was now dry. Mudden, or Modin, a small town on the summit of the south-western hills, was seen from hence, and pointed out to us as being the spot which contained the tombs of the heroical Maccabees. † The house and grotto of Elizabeth were also shewn to us, on the opposite southern hill, but we did not visit them.

After enjoying the evening air of this delicious climate, beneath the clearest sky, in half an hour's walk upon the terrace, we descended into the convent, which appeared to be superior in comfort

* See 1 Samuel, xvii.

+ The magnificence of the sepulchres of these Maccabees may be judged of from the "Then sent Simon, and took the description given of them in the apocryphal books. bones of Jonathan his brother, and buried them in Modin, the city of his fathers. And all Israel made great lamentation for him, and bewailed him many days. Simon also built a monument upon the sepulchre of his father and his brethren, and raised it aloft to the sight, with hewn stone behind and before. Moreover, he set up seven pyramids, one against another, for his father, and his mother, and his four brethren. And in these he made cunning devices, about the which he set great pillars, and upon the pillars he made all their army for a perpetual memory, and by the armour ships carved, that they might be seen of all that sail on the sea. This is the sepulchre which he made at Modin, and it standeth yet unto this day." - Macc. xiii. 25-30.