[1] The latitudes and longitudes given by Ptolemy (see Reland’s Palestina Illustrata, p. 456-466) are not reliable. Those nearest the coast are the most correct; those farther east are very wild. The little sketch given above sufficiently illustrates this.

[2] Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society, No. V., translated by Aubrey Stewart, M.A., annotated by Sir C. W. Wilson.

[3] Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society, No. II., translated by Aubrey Stewart, M.A., 1887.

[4] See the Latin edition of TÖbler. These are not yet published in English translation.

[5] Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society, No. III., annotated by Professor Hayter Lewis.

[6] Ibid., No. I., translated by Aubrey Stewart, M.A., annotated by Sir C. W. Wilson.

[7] Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society, No. X., translated and annotated by Rev. J. R. Macpherson, B.D.

[8] See Early Travels in Palestine, Bohn’s Series.

[9] See Early Travels in Palestine, Bohn’s Series.

[10] Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society, No. IV., “El Mukaddasi,” translated by Mr. Guy Le Strange, 1886; No. IX., “NÂsir i Khusrau,” by the same translator, 1888.

[11] These works, with Jaques de Vitray (1220 A.D.) and Marino Sanuto (1321 A.D.), I studied in the great collection of Latin Chronicles, also containing William of Tyre, by Bongars, called Gesta Dei per Francos, Hanover, 1611.

[12] See Early Travels in Palestine, Bohn’s Series.

[13] Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society, No. VI., annotated by Sir C. W. Wilson.

[14] Fetellus in Latin is given by De VogÜÉ, Églises de la Terre Sainte, p. 410. This account was republished by Leo Allatius, under the name of Eugesippus, in the thirteenth century. He dates it 1040, but the true date appears to be 1151-57 A.D.

[15] See the Latin version, TÖbler’s edition. Neither are yet published in English.

[16] Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society, No. XI., translated by Aubrey Stewart, M.A. This, like Fetellus, was recovered in MS. by Leo Allatius.

[17] Cartulaire de l’Église du S.S. de Jerusalem, E. de RosiÈre, Paris, 1849.

[18] See E. Rey’s Colonies Franques de Syrie, Paris, 1883. The work, however, remains to be further perfected by aid of the Survey map. I find some 700 places mentioned in all in Western Palestine.

[19] Early Travels in Palestine, Bohn’s Series.

[20] E. Carmoly, ItinÉraires de La Terre Sainte, Paris, 1847.

[21] Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society, No. VIII., translated from the old French (edition of SociÉtÉ de l’Orient Latin), by Major Conder, and annotated by him with map of Jerusalem in 1187 A.D.

[22] See Chronicles of the Crusades, Bohn’s Series, for both these works. Other accounts of the thirteenth century, which, however, are less valuable, are those by Willibrand of Oldenburgh, Tetmar, Epiphanius of Hagiopolis, and Brocardus.

[23] Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society, No. VII.

[24] For these two, see Early Travels in Palestine, Bonn’s Series.

[25] See the Latin text, Tobler’s edition.

[26] The best and most recent translations are by Mr. Guy Le Strange.

[27] Early Travels in Palestine, Bonn’s Series.

[28] Memoirs of the Survey of Western Palestine, Jerusalem volume. Tent Work in Palestine, vol. i. chaps. xi., xii. See also Conder’s Handbook to the Bible, Part II. chaps. vii., viii. Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society’s publications; and Picturesque Palestine (edited by Sir C. W. Wilson.)

[29] For those who are unfamiliar with the methods of professional surveyors, it is perhaps well here to state distinctly that the professional opinion as to the level of the rock throughout the city and the Temple area does not depend on “imaginary contours,” but on a large number of observations of level. The rock base of the mountains is fixed in seventy-five places throughout the Temple area, and in more than 120 other places in the city by excavations, where it is not seen on the surface. In some of the most important parts long sections were visible in the great reservoirs recently excavated. On the little Ophel spur alone fifty such measurements were taken by Sir Charles Warren, besides the 200 above mentioned. There is thus no doubt in the mind of any one who knows these facts as to the position of the hills and depth and width of the ancient valleys; and the imaginary gully which some theorists have drawn on their maps to suit the requirements of their version of Josephus’ account has decidedly no existence.

The south-east corner of the Temple was the most important to fix, in view of conflicting theories. It was at this corner that the Ophel wall joined the “eastern cloister of the Temple” (Josephus, V. Wars, iv. 2). Sir Charles Warren found this wall joining the east wall of the Haram at the present south-east angle of the Haram, and thus appears to have set the question at rest, if Josephus’ account is to be received. This question is fully treated in Conder’s Handbook to the Bible, pp. 366-368, third edition.

[30] The Jewish tradition was first published in “Tent Work in Palestine” in 1878. The account of this question, given by Mr. L. Oliphant in “Haifa,” is abstracted from my later paper in the Jerusalem volume of the Survey Memoirs, published in 1881, and again in 1883, where I have given the Talmudic passages in full. Many other writers have also copied my account since.

[31] See Early Travels in Palestine, Bohn’s Series, p. 86.

[32] See the full account in the Memoirs of the Survey, vol. iii.

[33] Something of the kind, but better drawn, exists on the walls of the Lady Chapel at Winchester, the work, I believe, of Flemish artists of the fifteenth century, representing the miracles of the Virgin. Those at Mar Marrina are probably not later than the thirteenth century.

[34] Judas MaccabÆus. Marcus Ward, 1879.

[35] This is usually written Nablous, but the accent is on the first syllable.

[36] I have published a paper on this subject in the Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement for July 1889.

[37] See Memoirs of Palestine Survey, Vol. Special Papers. This chronicle was edited and published by Dr. Neubauer in 1869. The Samaritan Book of Joshua was published by Juynboll in 1848.

[38] The following are the Kings said in the Book of Kings to have been buried at Samaria:—Omri, Ahab, Ahaziah (probably), Jehu, Jehoahaz, Joash, Jeroboam II., Menahem (probably).

[39] Conder’s Handbook to the Bible (3rd edit.), p. 310.

[40] The fallacy of this scheme I pointed out in a well known magazine in 1883. My arguments are also reproduced by Mr. L. Oliphant in “Haifa.”

[41] The details of this discovery are recorded in the “Memoirs of the Survey,” vol. ii. pp. 90-99.

[42] The question is worked out in detail in the Survey Memoirs. See my note, vol. i. p. 367, and cf. p. 392. The Crusaders called Kefr Kenna the Casale Robert, from its owner.

[43] Sinnabris I recovered, in 1872, from a list of ruins kindly prepared by a resident. It was afterwards fixed by the surveyors. The identity of Hippos and Susieh was suggested by Dr. Neubauer in 1868, and the site has been recently discovered by Herr Schumacher.

[44] The Druzes took from the older Ismailiyeh sect the words Natek and Asas, which are not Semitic words. They represent the two powers in Nature. The first might be connected with the Mongol word Natagai for the chief deity, and the latter with the word Asa for “god” in the same language.

[45] The immorality of the Palestine peasantry, though hidden by their decent manners, is, I have been assured by respectable residents, very great. Their vengeance on women who have gone astray is often very savage. I have visited a cavern in the Judean hills with a deep pit in it, down which such unfortunate women used to be thrown, and I believe there is another in the Lebanon.

[46] This theory I put forward in 1883. The late Dr. Birch held the same view. Dr. Isaac Taylor in 1887 published his belief that the Hittites were Mongolians. Mr. G. Bertin, the Akkadian scholar, favours the same conclusion. At the British Association, 1888, Professor Sayce admitted that the general opinion favoured this view.

[47] See “Heth and Moab,” chaps, vii., viii.

[48] An antiquary familiar with Indian and British stone monuments, writing from Edinburgh, tells me that “cups and smoothed sloping hollows are common enough in Keltic standing-stones. The best I have seen,” he adds, “are the two on the menhirs east and west of the Frodart parish church, Strathpeffer. I think they were swearing-holes, in which the vower placed his fingers, for they are worn as smooth as glass.”

[49] See a detailed note, Pal. Expl. Quarterly Statement, January 1885.

[50] This curious connection between churches and rude stone monuments, also remarked in Britain and in France, is no doubt explained by Pope Gregory’s letter (Greg. Pap. Epist., xi. 71), advising the early missionaries not to suppress the rites and sanctuaries of the Saxons, but to reconsecrate them to Christian use.

[51] The practice has also been noted at Kerlescant in Brittany, at Rollrich, and at Ardmore. There is a similar rite in China of “passing the door” to cure sickness. In Cornwall, the Men-an-tol, or “holed-stone,” near Morvah, is a stone ring two feet in diameter, flanked by two menhirs in a line which passes through the hole.—Dymond, Journal, Brit. Arch. Assoc, June 30, 1877.

[52] The following are the principal groups which I drew and measured:—

In some cases rows of these monuments exist almost touching each other on the hillsides.

[53] The Rev. E. B. Savage, writing to me from the Isle of Man, says, “These cup-hollows are used to the present day in remote parts of Norway for making offerings to the spirits of the departed, such as lard, honey, butter, &c.”

[54] One of these places visited by Balaam was called Bamoth Baal, and appears to be a hill now covered with dolmens. The word Bamah (plural Bamoth) is rendered “high place,” and is sometimes connected with sepulture (Ezek. xliii. 7; Isaiah liii. 9). Gesenius compares the Greek Bomos, a sepulchral mound or an altar. On the Moabite Stone the word occurs as meaning the stone itself. It seems probable, therefore, that the Bamoth were rude stone monuments.

[55] The height of Mount Nebo is 2643.8 feet above the Mediterranean. The western watershed is from 3000 to 2500 feet above the same level.

[56] Sir C. Wilson, however, places these in the Jordan Valley.

[57] Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement, September 1870, October 1882, April 1883. I find that my copy supplies a few words not in the earlier copies, and is deficient in some letters previously visible.

[58] The letters are Greek capitals, written on the stylobate of the southern temple. Pertinax was a Piedmontese. He was prefect of a cohort in Syria during the Parthian war, when he may very well have visited Gerasa. He was afterwards consular legate of Syria, and Emperor from 1st January to 29th March 193 A.D.

[59] See Schrader, Cuneiform Inscriptions and Old Testament, pp. 25 and 50. Pinches’ Proc. Bib. Arch. Soc, November 1885.

[60] See George Smith’s Account. Quarterly Statement Pal. Expl. Fund, October 1872.

[61] The confusion of chronology, due to the hasty identification of this prince with Ahab of Israel, has led scholars of late to replace Sirlai in the Lebanon.

[62] The Turkic princes used armorial bearings before they came into use in Europe.

[63] Native Syrians state that the MetÂwileh (who are of Persian origin) are usually blue-eyed. They inhabit Upper Galilee and the hills east of Sidon.

[64] The so-called “Hittite” system. The monuments in this character as yet found in situ occur in Armenia, Asia Minor, and Northern Syria. The most southerly sculpture of the kind yet known was discovered in a mound near Damascus excavated by Sir C. W. Wilson. The earliest found examples were five stones at Hamath, one of which Buckhardt saw. Other examples were discovered at Aleppo, and by George Smith at Carchemish. The system as at present known includes about 130 signs, some fifty of which are very frequently repeated. There is no doubt that these read (like the early Akkadian texts) in lines with syllables arranged in columns. Some of the emblems resemble those found in the earliest examples of other Asiatic systems (Egyptian, Akkadian, and Old Chinese), and by analogy it is probable that each emblem represents a word—noun, verb, or other grammatical form. My reasons for supposing the language to be a Turkic or Mongolic dialect are simple. 1st, The names of Hittites and Hittite cities known to us appear to be in such a dialect; 2nd, the short bilingual agrees with this view; and 3rd, the commonest signs (of which we know the sound through later hieratic forms) can be shown to represent common Mongolic words, such as pronouns and case-endings, &c. Many other suggestions have been made for comparing with Hebrew, Georgian, Armenian, and Egyptian, but in no case has it been shown that these languages supply a key to the sounds or to the bilingual. Take, for instance, the Hittite royal title Tarku. It exists only in the Turanian languages—Turkic Tarkan, Mongol Dargo, Cossack Turughna, Etruscan Tarchu and Tarquin, all meaning “a chief.” The number of words which I have so compared now amounts to a hundred in all, and I believe it places the character of the language on a sound and scientific basis.—See Journal Anthropological Institute, August 1889.

[65] Proverbes et Dictons du Peuple Arabe, vol. i. Saida. Carlo Landberg. Leyden, 1883.

[66] As an example of the inexactitude of Josephus’ measurements, I may instance the length which he gives for the Samaria colonnade (Ant., XV. viii. 5). He gives 20 furlongs or 12,000 feet, the real length being 5500 feet. Again, he says that the harbour at CÆsarea equalled the PirÆus (Ant., XV. ix. 6). The PirÆus was twenty times as large as the CÆsarea harbour. He makes the third wall of Jerusalem 8000 yards long, yet he gives the total circuit of the city as 6600 yards long in the same account (Wars, V. iv. 3). He places Gabaoth Saule four miles from Jerusalem in one passage (Wars, V. ii. 1), and nearly double that distance in another (Wars, II. xix. 1), the real distance being 5½ miles. It has long been known that the chronological calculations of Josephus do not agree together, either through his own inaccuracy or through the corruptions of copyists (see the foundation of the Temple in the eighteenth year of Herod, Ant., XV. xi. 1; or in the fifteenth, Wars, I. xxi. 1), and the comparisons which Josephus gives between Jewish and Greek weights in eight different passages do not agree in any one instance. The historian wrote in Rome in 75 and 93 A.D. Such is the accuracy of the author whom a critic like Dr. Robertson Smith is disposed to quote against the results of actual measurements of walls and rock, which are exact within the decimal of a foot. The general statements of Josephus are very valuable, but his measurements are quite unreliable.