A short distance south of the city id' Damascus flows
the river Awaj, [I has two principal sourer- one high it]) on the eastern side of Hermon,jusl beneath the cen- tral peak: the other iii a wild glen a tew miles south- ward, near the romantic village of licit Jann. The streams unite mar Sasa, and the river flows eastward in a dep rocky channel, and fall- into a lake, or rather large mar-h. called Uahrot Hij&neb, about four miles
south ofthe lake into which tin' Barada falls. Although
the Awaj i- eight mihs distant from the city, yet it (lows across the whole plain of Damascus: and large
ancient canals drawn from it irrigate the fields aid gar- dens almost up to the wall-. The total length ofthe Awaj is neatly forty miles; and in volume it i- about one fourth that ofthe Barada. The Barada and Awaj are the only rivers of any importance in the district of Damascus; and there can he little doubt that the for- mer is the Ahana. and the latter the l'harpar. The identity of the Awaj and Pharpar was suggested hy Miuiro in 1838 (Summer Ramble, ii, 54 I, and confirmed by Dr. Robinson (Bibliotheca Sacra, May. 1849 hut its sources, course, and the lake into which n falls,
were first explored by Dr.Porter in the year iv
dan. 1854, and April, 1854, p. 329). lie then heard, for
PHARR
77
PHASIRON
the first time, the name Barbar applied to a glen on the east side of Hermon, which sends a small tributary to the Awaj; and it seems highly probable that we have in this name a relic of the ancient Pharpar. The Arabic may be regarded as equivalent to the Hebrew (see Five Years in Damascus, i, 299; Biblioth. Sac. I.e. p. 54). The mountain region round the sources of the river was occupied in a remote age by the warlike Ma- achathites (1 Chron. xix, G, 7; Josh. xii, 5). Subse- quently it formed part of the tetrarchy of Abilene (Luke iii, 1; Josephus, Ant. xix, 5, 1). Farther down, the river Pharpar divided the territory of Damascus from Ituriea (q. v.). The whole district through which the river flows is now called Wady el-Ajam, " the valley of the Persians;" the scenery is bare and mountainous. I nit some parts of it are extremely fertile, and it contains upwards of fifty villages, with a population of 18,000 souls (see Jour, of Sac. Li/. 1853; Hitter, Pal. und Syr. iv. 132 sq.). — Kitto. See Damascus.
. The tradition of the Jews of Damascus, as reported by Schwarz (Palest, p. 54, also p. "20, 27), is curiously subversive of our ordinary ideas regarding these streams. They call the river Fijeh (that is, the Barada ) the Phar- par, and give the name Amana or Karmion (an old Tal- mudic name) to a stream which Schwarz describes as running from a fountain called el-Barady, a mile and a half from Peth Djana (Beit Jenn), in a north-east di- rection, to Damascus (see also the reference to the Nu- bian geograph.er by Gesenius, Tkesaur. p. 1132 a). — Smith.
Pliarr, Waltek Smiley, a Presbyterian minister, was born in Cabarras County, N. C, April 28, 1790. He was educated at Hampden Sidney College, Prince Ed- ward ( '<>.. Va.; studied theology under the care of Moses Hoge, D.D.; was licensed by Hanover Presbytery, and ordained by Concord Presbytery Nov. 18, 1820. His first charge was Waxhaw Church, S. C. and he subse- quently preached for Prospect, Kama, and Mall ird Creek churches, in North Carolina, all within the bounds of Concord Presbytery. He died Dec. 27, 18G6. Mr. Pharr was a sound theologian, a plain and successful preacher and pastor, much beloved and confided in by all who knew him. See Wilson, Presb, Hist. A Imanac, 1867, p. 450. (J. L. S.)
Phar'zits (Heb. with the art. Jiap-Partsi' ', ''S'nSft ; Sept. (I $>apiai v. r. $npi r), the patronymic of a family among the Hebrews (Numb, xxvi, 20), the descendants of Pharez (q. v.).
Pliasaelis (<i>aaa)]\ic, Josephus, <I>«it?/\i'c, Ptole- my, v, 16, 7; Phaselis, Pliny, xiii, 4, 111; xxi, 5, 11), a city in the plain of the Jordan, built by Herod the Great in honor of his brother Phasaelus (Josephus, Ant. xvi, 5. 2; xvii. 8, 1; xviii, 3, 2; 11"-//'. ii. 9, 1). It is now Tell Fusail, a small hill with ruins at its base. The site is inhabited by a few people who cultivate their gardens. These are irrigated by a brook, the fountain of which is an hour more to the west, hidden as it were under the high cliffs below Daumeh,and under the shade of a dense jungle (see Robinson, Researches, ii, 305). Brocardus and Mar. Samedo (Seer. Fide!. Cruc. Ill, xiv, 3) identify this little stream, now called Ain Fusail, with the brook Cherith (see Reland, Palcest. p. 953 ; Bachiene, /A il. Geof/r. I, i, 126-130).— Van de Yeklc, Memoir, p. 339.
Phase'all [some Pha'seah~] (Neh. vii, 51). See Paseah.
Phase'lis (<I>a<T>)\ic), a town on the coast of Asia Minor, on the confines of Lycia and Pamphylia. and consequently ascribed by the ancient writers sometimes to one and sometimes to the other. It was one of the towns to which the Romans wrote commanding all Jewish exiles who had taken refuge there to be given up to Simon the high -priest (1 Mace, xv, 23). Its commerce was considerable in the 6th century B.C., for in the reign of Amasis it was one of a number of Greek towns which carried on trade somewhat in the manner