was supplied by tanks and cisterns, which abound in and near all the old towns. The " pools of Heshbon" are still there (Cant, vii, 4; see Murray's Handbook for S. and P. p. 298j. But the cities and villages are now deserted. Moab has no settled inhabitants. From Am- man to Kerak there is not a single village or house. Large tribes of Bedawin roam over its splendid pastures ; and a few poor nomads, with the warlike people of Ke- rak, cultivate some portions of its soil; but all the rest is desolate.
The elevations of Eastern Palestine have not been taken with" accuracy. Some of those collected bj^ Van de Velde appear to be mere estimates. They may be given, however, in the absence of better :
Kuneiterah, at the southern base of Hermou (v. '^*^'-
Schubert) 303?
Phite;ui, southward (v. Scluiliert) 3000
Plain of Ilanrau, approximntion (Russegger). . . 2650 Knleib, highest summit of llauran mountains
(Hussecrgei) C400
Jebel Ajliiu, highest point in noiili Gilead (much
too higli), approxiniiition (Russegger) C500
Jebel O.-ha (much too high), about 5000
The following books contain all the information yet given to the public regarding the plain of Moab : Burckhardt, Travels in Syria, p. 364 sq. ; Irby antl jMaii- gles, Travels in £fft/pt, etc., p. 456 sq., 1st ed. ; Seetzen, Reisen, i, 405 sq. ; ii, 324 sq. ; De Saulcy, Voyage Round the Dead Sea, i, 329 sq. ; G. Robinson, Travels in Pales- tine, ii, 179; Porter, Handbook Jhr Sy?-ia and Palestine, p. 297 sq. ; Tristram, Laml of Moab (Lond. and N. Y. 1873). See Moab.
2. General Features. — It may be well now to group together a few of those characteristics of Palestine em- bodied or referred to in the preceding sketch of its phys- ical geography, and which tend to illustrate some of the statements and incidental notices of the sacred writers.
(1.) To an Occidental Palestine does not appear either rich or beautiful. Calling to mind the glowing descrip- tions of the Bible, the Eastern traveller is apt to feel grievous disappointment, and even to accuse the sacred writers of exaggeration. They speak of the land as "a land flowing with milk and honey" (Exod. iii, 8 ; Lev. XX, 24 ; Deut. vi, 3 ; Josh, v, 6) ; " a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills ; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates ; a land of oil olive, and honey ; a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness" (Deut. viii, 7-9); "a land of hills and valleys, and that drinketh water of the rain of heaven; a land which the Lord thy God caretli for: the eyes of the Lord thy God are always u])on it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year" (xi, 11, 12). Those accustomed to Western verdure, and the full glory of Western harvests, can see little fer. tility in the naked hills and bare plains of Palestine. A thoughtful consideration of the whole subject, how- ever, and a careful survey of the country, prove that the words of the sacred penmen were not exaggerated.
{(I.) In the first place, it rnust be borne in mind that they were describing an Eastern, not a Western land. When IMoses addressed the above words to the Israel- ites, he was accustomed, and so were they, to the flat surface, and cloudless, rainless sky of Egypt, and to the stern desolation of the Sinaitic desert. Compared with these, Palestine was a land of hills and valle3'S, of rivers and fountains, of corn and wine.
[1.] After the "great and terrible wilderness," with its "fiery serpents," its "scorpions," "drought," and " rocks of flint" — the slow and sultrv march all day in the dust of that enormous procession — the eager looking forward to the well at which the encampment was to be pitched— the crowding, the fighting, the clamor, the bitter disappointment around the modicum of water when at last the desired spot was reached— the " light bread" so long " loathed"— the rare treat of animal food when the {[uail descended, or an approach to the sea permitted the "fish" to be caught; after this daily
PALEbTINE
5G9
PALESTINE
struggle for a painful existence, how grateful must have been the rest atforded by the Land of Promise! — how delicious the sliade. scanty though it were, of the hills and ravines, the gushing sjjrings and green plains, even the mere wells and cisterns, the vineyards and olive- yards and " fruit-trees in abundance," the cattle, sheep, and goats, covering the country Avith their long black lines, the bees swarming around their pendent combs in rock or wood ! Moreover they entered the country at the time of the Passover, when it was arrayed in the full glory and freshness of its brief sjiringtide, before the scorching sun of summer had had time to wither its flowers and embrown its verdure. Taking all these circumstances into account, and allowing for the bold metaphors of Oriental speech — so different from our cold depreciating expressions — it is impossible not to feel that those wayworn travellers could have chosen no fitter words to express what their new country was to them than those which they so often employ in the ac- counts of the conquest — "a land flowing with milk and honc\', the glory of all lands."