The Name.-According to a tradition at least as old as St. Jerome (400 A.D.), the Jordan derived its name from the two streams which rise at Banias and Tell el Kady, the former being called Jor, the latter Dan. This tradition is, however, erroneous, for it would appear from Genesis xiii. 10 that the river was known to Abram as the Jordan long before the Danites settled at Laish, and "called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father." The true derivation of the name would seem to be from Yared, "to descend," and, except in two instances, it is always written in the Bible with the definite article, the Jordan, that is, "the descender," possibly in allusion to its

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glen of Wady et Teim to the plain of El Huleh, cutting for itself a deep chasm in the rock; the second flows from the fountain at Tell el Kady, 701 feet above the sea; and the third derives its supply of water from the springs which well up at the foot of a mound in front of the great cavern at Banias, at the base of Mount Hermon, and 1,140 feet above the sea. three streams run together at the lower end of the plain El Huleh, and shortly afterwards the Jordan loses itself in a morass, and spreads ont into the lake El Huleh, the "waters of Merom" of the Bible; this lake is four and a quarter miles long, two and threequarter miles wide, and 373 feet above the sea. For two miles after leaving the lake the river runs with

a sluggish current, but it then enters a narrow gorge, with high and somewhat precipitous hills on either side, and for the next nine miles is a foaming torrent descending nearly 900 feet to the level of the Sea of Galilee, which lies 626 feet below the Mediterranean. The Sea of Galilee is a pear-shaped sheet of water, the broad end being towards the north; the greatest width is six and threequarter miles, and the extreme length twelve and a quarter miles; the lake is almost surrounded by hills, from 1,000 to 1,500 feet high, that occasionally recede from the shore, giving place to small plains, one of which is the Plain of Gennesareth. Between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, a distance of 66 miles, the Jordan valley, or, as it is here called, the "Ghor," is from one to twelve miles wide; the valley is in some places exceedingly fertile, in others perfectly barren; it is bounded on the west by the mountain system of Palestine, and towards the sunrising by the edge of the great eastern plateau. plateau. The river descends with innumerable windings through a lower valley of its own, from 40 to 100 feet below the level of the Ghor, and along its margin there is a belt of tropical jungle, which is frequently alluded to in the Bible as the "excellency" or "pride". of Jordan, usually in connection with the lions that were wont to dwell in it. So tortuous is the course of the river, that though the two seas are only 66 miles apart, its actual length is about 200, and in this distance there is a fall of 666 feet. Dead Sea, which receives the waters of the Jordan, is 1,292 feet below the Mediterranean, and is about 46 miles long, its greatest width being ten and a half miles. On the east and west the lake is shut in by the barren hills which rise abruptly from its shores, but at its southern end there is a level

plain-and then the ground rises to the ridge 787 feet above the sea-which separates the waters of the Dead Sea from those of the Red Sea. The shores of the Dead Sea are generally barren, but there are not wanting little oases, the luxuriant vegetation of which has frequently called forth the admiration of travellers.

There are two points connected with the Jordan which may be mentioned here-its overflow and its importance as a boundary. In Joshua iii. 15, we are told that Jordan "overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest," April and May; and in 1 Chron. xii. 15, that Jordan had "overflown all his banks" in the first month-that is, in the month Nisan, which commenced with the new moon of March or April. The water in the Jordan is at its highest level in March, April, and May, after the cessation of the rainy season, but the physical features of the country are such that no sudden rise of the river would be likely to cause a large inundation, the Sea of Galilee acting as a regulator to the flow of water, and the terraced banks of Jordan preventing the spread of its waters over any large portion of the valley. A more correct rendering of the original would be that Jordan "is full up to all his banks" or runs with full banks, and this is true at the present day, the river rising to the level of its banks after the rains, and only overflowing them to a short distance in exceptional places. The great depressed valley of the Jordan formed a natural division of the country, dividing it sharply into two regions, and this separation was the more strongly marked by the difficulty of crossing the river at certain seasons of the year, and also of obtaining access to it, the only roads to the valley being rough paths down a few steep waterThe isolation of the two and a half tribes on the east of Jordan was in some measure due to this feature, and we find the sacred writers, who for the most part lived on the west, continually alluding to the eastern districts as "beyond Jordan," or " on the other side of Jordan."

courses.

The Jordan Valley is naturally divided into three sections; from the sources of the river to Lake Huleh, from Lake Huleh to the Sea of Galilee, and from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea, and in the remarks that follow it will be well to consider each of these sections separately.

1.-FROM THE SOURCES OF THE JORDAN TO LAKE HULEH.

The remotest perennial source of the Jordan is the great fountain of Fuarr, in the bed of Wady et Teim, not far from Hasbeya, which gives birth to the Hasbany stream. Higher up the valley there are several springs on the slopes of Anti-Lebanon, but their waters do not form any continuous stream, except perhaps those from Ain Ala, in the Wady Sefineh; in the rainy season, however, and during the melting of the snows on Mount Hermon, a great body of water descends from the heights above Rasheya. In the pool of Fuarr, at

1 This stream has not been thoroughly examined during the dry season.

the foot of a bold cliff, the water bubbles up in twenty different fountains, and almost immediately falls over a weir some ten feet high. A little lower the infant Jordan is spanned by its first bridge, and the river then bends "with all the waywardness of a Highland trout stream; thick trees hang over its clear surging waters, and reeds fill the bays twenty feet high, while rocks and a thousand hanging straggling creepers on them, tangle together over silent pools."2 About six miles below Hasbeya, a large stream comes in from Ain Seraiyib, at the foot of Mount Hermon, and shortly afterwards the river issues on the volcanic plain of Huleh, running in a narrow chasm from fifty to sixty feet deep; on its way it receives the waters from the fountain of Luweizeh, near El Ghujar, and a stream from the plain of Ijon; at El Ghujar there is a bridge, and a mile below this the gorge ends abruptly. At Hasbeya the custom of cooling the drinking water with snow, which seems to be alluded to in Prov. xxv. 13, still exists, but it is curious that this, the largest branch of the river, is not mentioned in the Bible or by any ancient writer as one of the sources of Jordan.

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The plain of Huleh, which descends in a series of terraces to the lake of the same name, is remarkable for its exuberant fertility, and is the granary of the surrounding country; the climate is hot and enervating. and the people live in huts composed of the long babeer canes that grow in the neighbouring swamps to a height of fifteen feet. It is this district, with its rich basaltic soil, irrigated by a thousand rills drawn off from the sources of the Jordan, of which the Danite spies reported that it was very good, a place where there is no want of anything that is in the earth,” and in its centre rises the mound that marks the site of Laish, where the Danites settled themselves after driving out the little Phoenician colony from Sidon. On the Huleh plain, too, the forces of Chedorlaomer were signally defeated by Abram; it would appear that Sodom, Gomorrah, and the other cities of the plain, after having paid tribute to the King of Elam3 for twelve years, had revolted and been defeated in the vale of Siddim by Chedorlaomer, and the kings who had accompanied him from Mesopotamia. Loaded with booty and prisoners, amongst whom was Lot, the army on its homeward march halted on the rich plain round the fountain of Dan, and here it was surprised by Abram, who, on hearing of the capture of Lot, hastily gathered his servants together, and, advancing northwards from Hebron by forced marches, fell upon the invaders during the night, and "before they could arm themselves, he slew some of them as they were in their beds, before they could suspect any harm; and others who were not yet gone to sleep, but were so drunk they could not fight, ran away." "4 After pursuing the enemy for two days, as far as Hobah, near Damascus, Abram returned laden with spoil, bringing back with

On the right or western bank of the Hasbany, near the foot of the hills, there is a curious isolated hill on which stands the modern village of Abil; traces of old foundations and buildings can still be seen on the mound, the remains of Abel of Beth-Maachah, where Sheba, the son of Bichri, was besieged by Joab. A mound had been cast up against the city, and "it stood in the trench," when the remarkable scene occurred which is described in 2 Samuel xx. 15, ending in the murder of Sheba, whose head was cast out of the city to Joab.

The mound that marks the site of Laish has already been alluded to as rising in the centre of the Huleh plain; this mound, now called Tell el Kady (the hill of the judge), an Arabic translation of the old name Dan (the judge), is the birthplace of the largest source of Jordan. On this hill the wandering colony of Danites set up the graven image which they had stolen from Micah on their journey northwards, and instituted an order of priesthood which lasted till the ark was captured by the Philistines at the battle of Aphek. Of the nature of this irregular worship we know nothing, but it was probably owing to its previous sanctity as a "holy place" that Dan was selected by Jeroboam as one of the sites on which to set up the worship of the golden calf; in the reign of Baasha, Dan was taken by Ben-Hadad, King of Syria; and after this we hear no more of it in the Bible, though it appears to have existed as a village down to the time of St. Jerome. The mound is an irregular cup-shaped oval, 300 yards long and 250 yards wide, elevated from twenty-five to thirty feet above the plain; the entire surface is covered with ruins, in which the plan of no single building can be traced. There are two springs, the principal one, rising at the north-west end of the mound, forms a small pool of purest crystal water, and then rushes off, a full-grown stream, to the lake below; the second bubbles up in the midst of a tangled thicket in the centre of the enclosure, and flows past the tomb of Sheikh Hazraik and a magnificent oak tree, to join the larger branch. Following down the western bank of the united stream, we soon come to a little mound which marks the site of Daphne, a point mentioned by Josephus as the northern limit of the Lake Samachonitis (Huleh); beyond are some curious caverns excavated in the limestone rock, and lower still the stream joins with that coming from Banias.

On the eastern side of the Huleh plain, a triangular terrace rises 500 feet above the general level of the valley, and at its innermost angle, at the foot of a cliff fifty feet high-the root, as it were, of Mount Hermon-wells up the fountain of Banias, the most celebrated and picturesque of the three sources of Jordan. Josephus describes the water as in his day issuing from a dark cavern full of still water of unfathomable depth, and says that Herod adorned the place, called Panium, with a beautiful temple of the whitest stone; now, however, the water breaks through

in front of the cavern in numberless tiny rills, which, almost immediately uniting, flow off towards the west. Some of the water is carried by conduits into the village of Banias, some is led away for irrigation, but the main stream rushes down through tangled thickets and park-like scenery to join the Leddan from Tell el Kady— and lower down the Hasbany from Hasbeya—and forms with them the great river of Palestine, the Jordan. By a tradition as old as the first century, the water of the Banias fountain is said to come through a subterranean passage from Lake Phiala, the modern Birket er Ram, a circular lake, with no visible outlet, situated in a mountain bowl about five miles south-east of Banias. The account given by Josephus is that when Philip was Tetrarch of Trachonitis he had chaff thrown into Phiala, and that it was found afterwards at Panium; a similar story is still told and believed by the Arabs, but no such communication can possibly exist, for the fountain would exhaust the lake in a few days, and the water of both would be the same, instead of one being bright and sparkling, the other impure and stagnant; there is also a deep valley, Wady Em Keib, which effectually separates them. Eusebius gives a marvellous legend connected with the fountain, that towards the close of the third century it was the custom on certain occasions to throw a victim into the water, and that the body always disappeared spirited away by the demon of the fountain, till one day Astyrius, a Roman senator and Christian, taking pity on the people, prayed God, through Christ, to remove the demon, on which the victim at once floated, and the fountain was not troubled again. The cavern, the entrance of which is shown on the left side of the illustration on page 56, is now half filled with the débris of its own roof, and its mouth almost closed with the rubbish of centuries; of Herod's temple there is no trace, but like the temple at Ain Fijeh, the great fountain of the Barada, it may possibly have stood on the level space at the top of the cliff. On the face of the rock, however, five niches remain-three of which are shown in the illustration— and beneath these are some mutilated inscriptions, dedicated to Pan, and containing a pro salute" for the reigning authorities.

The situation of Banias (Cæsarea Philippi) is one of the most beautiful and charming in all Palestine; spreading over the level terrace alluded to above, the town commands an extensive view over the rich district of Huleh, whilst its elevation above the valley places it beyond the influence of the fever-breeding swamps below; the oak, terebinth, and fig-tree give a welcome shade on the hottest summer's day, whilst everywhere the sound of running water falls pleasantly on the ear, and the eye is delighted with the park-like verdure, the open glades, and that combination of rock and grove, of cavern, fountain, and cascade which has earned for Banias the name of the Syrian Tivoli.

The environs have, however, greater attractions than those derived from their natural beauty; it was into the "coasts" or "towns" of Cæsarea Philippi that our

Lord came shortly before His last journey to Jerusalem, and in this neighbourhood occurred the events recorded in Matt. xvi. 17; the memorable words, "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church" were possibly uttered at the foot of Mount Hermon, the very type of all that is solid and enduring, and one of the many lonely peaks around may have been the high mountain to which Jesus took Peter, James, and John apart, and was transfigured before them.

It was currently believed in the fourth century that the woman cured of an issue of blood (Luke viii. 43)

theatre in which Titus celebrated the birthday of his brother Domitian, by forcing the Jews taken prisoners at Jerusalem to fight with and kill one another, by throwing some to wild beasts, and by burning others, but the exact site has yet to be identified.

The authentic history of Banias dates from its mention by Josephus as a place called Panium, at which Herod the Great erected a temple in honour of Augustus Cæsar. Long before this, however, Panium must have risen to importance, and though the name itself does not occur in the Old Testament, Dr. Robinson

was a native of Cæsarea Philippi; and Eusebius states that he had himself seen her house, and that in front of it were brazen images said to represent our Saviour and the woman, the former standing, the latter in the attitude of a suppliant; these statues, according to Theophanius, were afterwards destroyed by the Emperor Julian.

Many an acre of the terrace is now covered with ruins, broken shafts and capitals, and the foundations of buildings so completely destroyed, that hardly one stone remains on another; the ruins also extend far up the wooded slope beyond the deep ravine of Wady Zaʼarch, and in this direction there is a fine fragment of the old wall of the Roman city. Some of these shapeless ruins must have formed part of the great amphi

has, with some probability, identified it with Baal Gad under Mount Hermon, the limit of Joshua's conquests towards the north. The town was enlarged by Philip, Tetrarch of Trachonitis, and called by him Cæsarea Philippi, by which name it was known to our Lord and His disciples; large additions were also made by King Agrippa II., who, out of compliment to the Emperor Nero, changed the name to Neronias. Neither of these names adhered to the place any length of time, for Eusebius, early in the fourth century, calls it Paneas, and of this, Arab pronunciation has made the modern Banias. The town was taken by the Crusaders in 1129 A.D., and given as a fief to Rayner Brus; but during the stormy period that followed it was taken and retaken several times by the contending parties.