About a mile northwest of RÂm AllÂh on the JÂnyeh road is a region which goes by the name of e?-?Îreh, a name commonly met in Syria. There is a question as to what it may mean. If the localities thus named were always, as they more usually are, lofty places, the suggestion has been made that e?-?Îreh might be derived from the root meaning to fly, and so such a place might be dubbed The Flyer, in the sense of a high place, but Prof. E. H. Palmer derives the name from a root meaning fort.^[201] At this e?-?Îreh there are many remains of former buildings, the central one being the ?alÂ't e?-?Îreh, the ruin of a Christian church. A large tract of ground including it has been walled in by the ecclesiastical owners. The oil of the olive-trees in the enclosure is said to be used for church purposes. The remains of the old church are very scanty compared with those at el-BÎreh, Burj BaytÎn, e?-?ayyibeh or even at Khurbet el-Mo?Â?ir. Some of the remaining stones have been reset in an attempt to restore the line of the wall, and the result is a smaller space enclosed than originally. At present the main enclosure is roughly fifty-two feet long by twenty-six feet wide. The line of the apse is marked by one course of stones standing loosely together. Plenty of tiny white cubes, remains of tessellated pavement, are scattered around. There are bases of four columns, many blocks and some pieces of columns.

Northeast of the ruin is a little inclined path that leads underground, where there is a fine old olive-press. It is of the kind generally used, though recently some screw-presses have been introduced into RÂm AllÂh.

There are two sorry-looking fig-trees in the grounds, the fruit of which is said to be free to all comers. Here and there in the country these traditionally free fruit-trees are seen. I remember one on the valley road to Bayt 'Ur et-Ta?tÂ. The whole property, otherwise, is ?arÂm, that is, sacrosanct. The dwellers in Palestine have a very vivid sense of that ecclesiastical or religious quality that attaches to a place once acknowledged as devoted to religious purposes. Despite all encroachments, persecutions of hostile governments or religions, the mind of the people persists in returning again and again to the subject of the sacred nature of any such spot, and this obstinate tradition sooner or later gets that piece of property back under the care of the church. The RÂm AllÂh people tell a story which illustrates how the powers assist in preserving devoted things. “One day a man was digging in the ground when his pickaxe (fass) struck against the lid of a copper vessel (?unjereh) containing treasure,^[202] but as he began to clear away the soil so as to come at the find, his hands became, as it were, bound together with cords and his feet were likewise powerless.”

Out beyond the enclosing walls of the Greek property are fine olive-trees and many heaps of old building stone, with other evidences of a former habitation of men. The land and olives west of the ?alÂ't e?-?Îreh are owned by a well-to-do RÂm AllÂh family, DÂr Abu Firmand. The view of RÂm AllÂh from this place is very good, impressing one with the fact that it is indeed situated on a rise of ground, which effect one does not get in coming to it from the higher ground to the south and east of the village. A vague story is told of a former prosperous settlement of Christians at e?-?Îreh and of their massacre.

The road from RÂm AllÂh toward the northwest runs just under one of the walls of the enclosure at ?alÂ't e?-?Îreh, having that wall for its left-hand boundary. After passing the walled grounds thus on the left a little valley begins, branching off from the main path and running down to the right. It is called the Khullet el-'Adas and in the late winter is well filled with varicolored anemones. On the right side of the valley, up in the terraces, are tombs, five or six of which I have seen and three of which I have measured. The first one is the farthest from the path that runs down into the Khulleh, but it is not more than two stones’-throw from the nearest corner of e?-?Îreh enclosure. About the entrance to the tomb the rock has been scarped to a width of eight feet two inches and to a height of five feet. There is the usual low entrance to the tomb-chamber. In this case the doorway is about two feet high. It is eighteen inches wide and is bordered with a cut facing five inches wide. The inner chamber, ten feet wide and eight feet eight inches deep, has five vaulted niches, one opposite the chamber entrance and two on each side. Just within the chamber, at the right of the entrance, in the corner, is a tiny niche, like those in a columbarium, probably for a lamp. The second of these tombs is nearer the path, a little way down the valley. Its door measurements are similar to those given for number one, except that the width is one inch more. The inner chamber has but three niches, each one with rounded top as before, but with a squared facing at the entrance. The third tomb is yet nearer the path. The facing, cut about the entrance to the chamber, is seven inches on each side. The width of the entrance is eighteen inches. In the chamber, as in those mentioned above, there are three vaulted niches, but they are very high and considerably deeper than in tombs numbers one and two. The remaining tombs mentioned are higher up the hillside and still farther away. Numbers two and three of those described are easily seen from the valley path.

The little village of 'Ayn 'ArÎk, about an hour and a quarter north-of-west of RÂm AllÂh, is occupied by a mixed population of Greek Christians and Moslems. The situation is on the side of a very fertile valley amply supplied with water. Pomegranate orchards in abundance, gardens and a few olive, fig and lemon-trees make a running patch of green for about a mile down the valley. Our first visit to the village was on September 26 in 1901. We passed on the way the ruined village called Kefr ShiyÂn or Kefr ShiyÂl. Probably the older form is the one with l, the later usage favoring the ending in n. This place is mentioned by Dr. J. P. Peters in the Journal of Biblical Literature as a Byzantine ruin. Some of the 'Ayn 'ArÎk people have sufficient antiquarian interest to try to make out that this ruin represents ancient Shiloh. One path to 'Ayn 'ArÎk goes to the right of Kefr ShiyÂn and keeps to the left of the venerable tree called Abu 'Aynayn (father of two fountains), which is perched on a hilltop. Another path to 'Ayn 'ArÎk goes to the left of Kefr ShiyÂn, between that ruin and another smaller ruin on an opposite hillside, the ruin of 'Ayn ?Ôba. Down this path we have seen camels, loaded with boxes of raisins from RÂm AllÂh, making their way towards Jaffa via 'Ayn 'ArÎk. The more usual route to Jaffa, however, leaves the 'Ayn ?Ôba ruin on the right instead of on the left, as we do now in going on down to 'Ayn 'ArÎk. Before reaching this latter place we pass a spring with a reservoir to catch its overflow. It is about fifteen minutes this side of the village, in the valley, near the beginning of the olive-grove. The spring and place about are called Umm el-Khuru? (the mother of rags). From here to the village the path runs through olive orchards. The pomegranate orchards begin below the village. The other springs which may be said to be at or near 'Ayn 'ArÎk are:

'Ayn el-JÂmi' (The Spring of the Mosk), in the village;

'Ayn RÂs el-BÎr (The Spring, the Head of the Well), near the village;

'Ayn'Ayn esh-Shaykh (The Spring of the Shaykh), near the village;

'Ayn e?-?oreh, near the village;

'Ayn el-'AzÂb, ten minutes away from the village;

'Ayn el-'A?fÛr (The Spring of the Bird), fifteen minutes’ distance.

The people of 'Ayn 'ArÎk are greatly favored with the natural conditions of prosperity and ought to develop considerably. The most helpful influence exerted in the village is that of the day-school for children maintained as an out-station of the RÂm AllÂh Friends’ Mission and taught by one of their trained native women.

From el-BÎreh to BaytÎn (Bethel) the distance is about two miles. The path leaves the carriage road a little north of the former village and strikes off to the right through a small patch of boulders, stirrup high, to a level stretch of ground that rises a little as one comes to an interesting group of remains clustered about a spring, 'Ayn el-Kusa'.^[203] Some well-worn rock-cut steps lead up to a rock-platform seven or eight feet above and alongside the bridle-path. The spring starts from the hillside, a little distance away, the outlet being artificially improved and a connection made with a system of trenches and pan-shaped hollows cut in different places over the top of the rock platform. Down by the path-side, under this platform, is a rock-cut chamber or cave with two heavy supporting columns hewn from the rock. The water system above is connected with it. All around the interior walls and clustering at the foot of the columns are beautiful maidenhair ferns growing out of the ooze in the bottom of the cave. A few yards farther on is another smaller cavelike room or reservoir which was never finished or connected with the spring and chamber above. Between these two caves there is a connection by a sort of trough cut in the wall-side. The intention may have been to connect the two caves as catch-reservoirs with a lower cistern or pool. This latter is suggested by a circular-shaped line of dressed stone in the very path. Many have asked what it was, whether a former pool, the top of a cistern or a shallow basin trough. The path must once have avoided it, though it now stumbles over it. Below the path little gardens catch the drainings of the spring.

A few rods beyond this the bridle-path to Dayr DÎwÂn and Jericho diverges to the right (east) from the main caravan road to BaytÎn and NÂblus. This main road continues to the 'Ayn el-'A?abeh (The Spring of the Descent, or, of the Steep Place) and on up the steep path to the top of the hill before BaytÎn (Bethel). There are small gardens near the spring and a few old tombs in the vicinity. The people of BaytÎn are Moslems. They are apt to be rude to small parties of foreigners. Though few, about half as many as in el-BÎreh, they have a name among the near-by villages for strength and fearlessness. In going into the village one passes the cemetery and the large ancient pool. North of the village is a field of large rocks that have never lacked notice since the records of history began. Shortly beyond the big rocks, which lie in the road to NÂblus, a branching path takes one towards e?-?ayyibeh, seen at good advantage from this fork in the paths on a prominent hill a little north of east. Due east from BaytÎn is Burj BaytÎn, five minutes away, a picturesque ruin among some fig-trees.

From Burj BaytÎn we may bear to the right to Dayr DÎwÂn, going through the extensive fig-orchards of the latter or take a straighter road which leads one by a very rocky hill Tell el-?ajar (right) and another (left) that looks like a rampart of pebble with flattened top, called et-Tell and identified by some with ancient Ai. West of Dayr DÎwÂn are a lot of boulders with flat table tops that would be the delight of picnickers desirous of a place to spread a cloth. The distinguishing thing about the appearance of Dayr DÎwÂn is that the houses stand quite apart from each other, one story high, each with its own little space about it. The entrance to the village from the west is a little precarious for horses because of the slippery rock surface that abounds. The people of the place are Moslems. They are quiet folk. A while ago a RÂm AllÂh man (Christian) kept a grocery shop in the village.

From Jifn to e?-?ayyibeh the way leads by DÛrah and through 'Ayn YebrÛd. Part of the route is low and hot, so that the natives have dubbed it the GhÔr. DÛrah is a small, healthfully located Moslem village. Its inhabitants have a good reputation for peaceful relations with the Jifn Christians. The DÛrah people raise many vegetables. A little beyond DÛrah the path goes by the sacred oak-trees, Umm BarakÂt. Here one turns to the left (north),—in the distance are the brown cliffs and cave holes of the WÂdy Khulleh; also the village of 'Ayn SÎnyÂ,—then up a steep hill path to 'Ayn YebrÛd (a Moslem village) and past the little mosk and more big ballÛ? (oak) trees to the NÂblus-Jerusalem road.

From the south side of the village 'Ayn YebrÛd, near its spring, there is a way through the WÂdy 'ArÂ? el-KharÛf (Valley of the Sheep Rocks) which comes out on the BÎreh-BaytÎn path just a little southwest of the pillared cave mentioned on page 217. The end of the valley nearer 'Ayn YebrÛd has ancient tombs. The deepest part of the valley is bordered with pinnacled cliffs. Where the way broadens out toward the south we once saw a mile of dhurah (millet) under cultivation. Thence the path leads over a little tableland to the road from el-BÎreh.

As we proceed easterly from 'Ayn YebrÛd across the NÂblus road we go through a very stony, sunken, basin-like piece of ground called WastÎyeh, between the stones of which some rich soil seems to lie. The path through here may be easily lost. There are some old cisterns along the way. Into the big one north of the path they say that a murdered man was once thrown, and so a fear has been cast over the neighborhood. Beyond the WastÎyeh the road goes across the WÂdy Sha'b el-?assÎs. Thereafter one is soon at e?-?ayyibeh.

The path from Dayr DÎwÂn to e?-?ayyibeh takes one out through the northeast part of the former village and then in about ten minutes to one of the sheerest descents attempted by a Palestinian bridle-path. It zigzags down into a deep valley, faced by WÂdy el-'Ayn, which leads up towards e?-?ayyibeh, and is crossed (left to right) by the long wÂdy that comes down from the north of BaytÎn and extends towards the GhÔr (Jordan and Dead Sea region). Going up or down this steep hill one usually prefers to walk, seeing to it that one’s animal takes no unnecessary risks, for there are many little deviations from the plainer path which a donkey may attempt but a horse had better leave untried. The natives sometimes help a loaded donkey going down such paths as this by holding on to the animal’s tail and allowing it to balance itself by the help of the caudal tug. But beware of offering such help to Palestine mules. I believe they could kick at any angle.

Once at the bottom of this hill one goes right on up the valley facing northward, past the little spring, crossing the brook bed again and again to keep the path. There is one corner where one had better walk if on a horse which is afraid of smooth rock. Sometimes this part of the valley is called WÂd e?-?ab'a (the valley of the hyena). Half-way up the valley there joins it on the left (west) another valley, with a path which is the more usual one from RÂm AllÂh or BaytÎn to e?-?ayyibeh, and which may be used in returning. Just at the junction of these valleys we saw once on the hillside four gazels together. On up the valley to its head one goes under some sheer straight cliffs. Arrived at the head of the valley, e?-?ayyibeh is at the right.

The Christian village of e?-?ayyibeh, three hours northeast of RÂm AllÂh, is perhaps a little less than half the size of RÂm AllÂh but exhibits similar marks of advantage over its Moslem neighbors. The village is on the back (east) of the central ridge of Palestine and its lands slope, in consequence, towards the warm regions of the GhÔr. This situation also tends to place it on the frontier between the hill villages and the BedawÎn tribes. The people are a jaunty, fine-looking set. The men wear the BedawÎn head-dress and, in general, the population seems to combine some characteristics and manners of both the nomads and villagers. Robinson visited e?-?ayyibeh in 1838. The population was then between three and four hundred souls belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church. It has probably increased fourfold since his day and the allegiance of part of the people is now given to the Roman Catholic faith. The English Church Mission holds Sunday services and maintains a day-school for boys. The RÂm AllÂh Friends’ Mission sustains a day-school for girls.

After Dr. Robinson’s visit to the village he met some of the inhabitants with their wives and children and their priest down in the GhÔr near Jericho, where they were gathering in the wheat-harvest on shares with the inhabitants of the low country. The ?ayyibeh people had sown the crop as partners of the Jericho folk. The custom then mentioned continues to this day. Every year large numbers of the villagers of e?-?ayyibeh go down into the GhÔr and work the fertile lands on shares with the lowlanders. Some of them even penetrate the east-Jordan country and make similar arrangements with the nearer BedawÎn. I have in mind one family from e?-?ayyibeh that goes on this business as far as 'AmmÂn, Jerash and es-Sal?.

The views from e?-?ayyibeh are extensive. The east-Jordan hills confront one there. On the south is the little Moslem hamlet RammÛn (Rimmon) and, far away, Frank Mountain. A sweep of olive-trees to the southeast leads the eye on down to the Dead Sea, which shines, when the air is clear, like silver. Often a haze disguises it. Hard desert hills, hot and bare, fall away to the east towards the Jordan.

The tendency to perch villages on hills had full effect in the placing of e?-?ayyibeh, for it has one of the most picturesque of the many hill sites. It is easily seen from the roads north of Jerusalem. In times of country feuds an enemy would have to fight the entire village at once, so compactly are the houses coned over the hilltop and so narrow are the streets. The finest possible watch-tower is provided by the old castle on the summit. The village has its cisterns within itself, where the rain-water from the roofs is caught. Of course, whenever feasible, spring-water is brought from a distance for drinking. The winds are sometimes very strong in this region and in summer there is very little defense against the beating rays of the sun.

Jifn (Gophna), about an hour and a half north of RÂm AllÂh, is a Christian village of about six hundred people. The place is full of evidences of ancient structures, old dressed stones, columns, rosettes and carving. The locality is fertile and orchards and vineyards are cultivated. The vinedressers here stake up the grape-vines, contrary to the general fashion in Palestine. There are day-school privileges provided by the Friends for girls, and by the English Church Mission for boys.

The path from RÂm AllÂh to JifnÂ, goes near the wily Shaykh YÛsuf and past the little Moslem village of ?urdeh (Zereda), where there is a large sacred tree. In the hill south of Shaykh YÛsuf, within a few feet of the path through the olive-trees, is a large ancient tomb, the vestibule being thirteen and a half feet wide by nine and three-quarters deep and six feet high. The door leading from the back of the vestibule into the tomb-chamber measures five feet six inches in width and, so far as visible, measures five feet high. It is choked with earth. The view of the valley filled with olive-trees as it falls toward the Mediterranean is very pleasant.

The tiny Moslem village of 'Ayn SÎnyÂ, is about a mile due north from JifnÂ. It will be well served by the new carriage road, which sweeps around here in one of the prettiest stretches on the route. Indeed, the section from the hills above Jifn to 'Ayn SÎny is one of the pleasantest which the new Jerusalem-NÂblus road provides. The village of 'Ayn SÎny is practically the property of an influential native official in Jerusalem. It is said that his influence prevailed to have the carriage road constructed this way, north from el-BÎreh, instead of by the more usual tourist route via Bethel and 'Ayn YebrÛd. There is consolation in the thought that the ancient Bethel country is left to be reached by the ancient paths and its modernizing may be delayed a century more, so far as roads are concerned. 'Ayn SÎny is a natural garden spot. Mulberry and walnut-trees are plentiful about it. Its natural advantages, reenforced by the government road, may now be more fully developed than in the past.

In the country near Jifn and BÎr ez-Zayt are quite a number of old tombs. One leaves Jifn on the right in going to BÎr ez-Zayt. The two places are near, and in plain sight of each other. There is a small community of Moslems in BÎr ez-Zayt, but most of its people are Christians. The English Church Mission is represented by a good work, a boarding-school for girls and a church whose congregation has a native Protestant pastor. The ruins on top of a high hill to the west of the modern village are supposed to be those of old BÎr ez-Zayt. The olive-trees of the village are very fine and, what is more rare, pear trees of considerable size, in the season so loaded with blossoms as to look like huge bouquets, are to be seen north of the place.

Two hours and a half northwest of BÎr ez-Zayt is the little village of 'ÂbÛd, with four hundred Christians and three hundred Moslems. The English Church Mission sustains work there. The road thither passes the tiny hamlet of Umm ?uffah, the houses of which seem to be made with a core of tiny stones and cement, faced with larger stones. The ruin Khurbet JÎbya is near by. The road then passes near Neby ?Âli?, where it enters the little WÂdy RayyÂ, following which one comes to the tombs of Tibneh within forty minutes of 'ÂbÛd.

Northwest of 'ÂbÛd is a place called Mu?Â?'a, evidently an old quarry, the working of which had disturbed a still older cemetery of rock-cut tombs, some of them painted. The carving in some of these is elaborate. One tomb, with a vestibule twenty-one and three-quarters feet wide and ten feet deep is ornamented at the top with a grape cluster suspended between two wreaths. Another vestibule twenty-six feet two inches wide shows gate sockets on each side. This vestibule served two tomb-chambers, one directly in front as one enters and the other in the right wall. The entrance to the former has been crushed open, leaving a large irregular hole. Within are nine full-sized kokim with smaller, shallow cuttings in the tier above them which looked like embryo kokim. The right-hand tomb-chamber has three kokim on the left side and three opposite the entrance, one of the latter having been broken or cut through to the daylight, probably in the process of quarrying from the other side. This smaller tomb shows a fresco in black and red and perhaps yellow paint. The design is in large, diamond-shaped figures, with a rope border over it. There are many scratchings on the walls.