to] imands a fine view of the mediterranean through
a gap in the mountains towards the north-west. Ibis Ramah the .lews call the •• House of Abraham." where. they say. Abraham lived when he dwelt at Mamre. lint the ''plain of Mamre," with the great Sindian, or evergreen oak in the middle of it (if not the same, the offspring, most probably, of the tree i. under which Abra- ham entertained the angels, would seem to have an- ciently lain to the west of Hebron, a- Machpelah, which i- ai Hebron, is said to be before, i. e. to the east of. Mamre. Ii is very possible, however, thai Abraham may have had his habitation or tent at Ramah tor a part of the time be was al .Mamie or ihmi Hebron, or.
which is still more probable, the altar which he erect- ed i ton. xiii. 1M. Ids high-place, or place ot worship, ma\ have been at er-Rameh, or Ramel el-Khalil, " the bigh-place ol the Friend," i. e. of Abraham the friend
of God, while be dwell or had hi- lent in the ] lain of Mamre.
Some suppose that ibis Ramah may he the Ramah of Samuel ami the pla.e where Saul wa- anointed. Wolcott and Van tie Velde contend for this. But ibis place i- far too distant from Rachel's tomb to admit of the supposition, not to speak of other insuperal le diffi-
oullies. '1'be place where SiiMiiul was w ben he anoint- ed Saul was evidently near or not far from Rachel's
tomb ( 1 Sam. x. 1-1 1 i. Il is much more prof, able that
Bethlehem, or the high-place at or mar Bethlehem,
RAMANANDIS
895
RAMATHAIM-ZOPHIM
was the place where Samuel anointed Saul. The name of Ramet el-Khalil implies that that place had to do with Abraham the friend of God, and not with Sam- uel.— Fairbairn.
Ramanandis, a Hindu sect which addressed its devotions particularly to Ramachandra, and the divine manifestations connected with Vishnu in that incarna- tion. The originator of this sect was Ramanand, who is calculated by Prof. H. H. Wilson to have flourish- ed in the end of the 14th or beginning of the 15th century. He resided at Benares, where a mat'k, or monastery, of his followers is said to have formerly ex- isted, but to have been destroyed by some of the Mus- sulman princes. The Ramanandis reverence all the incarnations of Vishnu, but they maintain the superi- ority of Kama in the present age or Kali-Yug, though they vary considerably as to the exclusive or collective worship of the male and female members of this incar- nation. The ascetic and mendicant followers of f!ama- nand are by far the most numerous sectaries in Gan- getic India. In Bengal they are comparatively few; beyond this province, as far as to Allahabad, they are probably the most numerous, though they yield in in- fluence and wealth to the Saiva branches. From this point they are so abundant as almost to engross the whole of the country along the Ganges and Jumna. In the district of Agra they constitute seven tenths of the ascetic population. The numerous votaries of the Ramanandis belong chiefly to the poorer classes, with the exception of the Rajputs and military Brahmins.— Gardner, Faiths of the World, s. v.
Ra'mathite (Heb. Ramathi', ">? pQ""l, an inhabitant of Raviah ; Sept. 6 PafXaSraloc), an epithet of the Shimei (q. v.) who was over the vineyards of king Da- vid (1 Chron. xxvii, 27). The name implies that he was native of a place called Ramah, but of the various Ramahs mentioned none is said to have been remarka- ble for vines ; nor is there any tradition or other clue by which the particular Ramah to which this worthy be- longed can be identified. See Ramah.
Ra'math-le'hi (Heb. Ramath' Lechi', ifth Pixn, craggy height [see below J; Sept. 'Avaipeaic aiayovoc; Vulg. Ramathlechi, quod interpretatur elevatio maxilla ). The origin of this name, which occurs only in Judg. xv, 17, forms one of the most romantic episodes in Scripture history. Samson, having been bound with two new cords, was given up to the Philistines at a place called Lehi, a name which signifies "jawbone." When the enemy attacked him, he burst his bonds, seized the jawbone (lehi) of an ass that lay upon the ground, and with this odd weapon slew a thousand of them. Then he threw away the jawbone, and, as a memorial of the event, and by a characteristic play upon the old name, he called the place Ramath-lehi — that is, the lifting (or wielding?) of the jawbone; and so it is interpreted in the Vulgate and in the Sept. See Samson. But Gesenius has pointed out (Thesaur. p. 752 a) that to be consistent with this the vowel- points should be altered, and the words become flB*] Tib; and that as they at present stand they are ex- actly parallel to Ramath-mizpeh and Ramath-negeb, and mean the " height of Lechi." If we met with a similar account in ordinary history, we should say that the name had already been Ramath-lehi, and that the writer of the narrative, with that fondness for parono- masia which distinguishes these ancient records, had indulged himself in connecting the name with a possi- ble exclamation of his hero. But the fact of the posi- tive statement in this case may make us hesitate in coming to such a conclusion in less authoritative rec- ords. For the topography of the place, see Lehi.