After this the peculiar stone of Malta, (the cream-colored soft limestone,) very similar to the carbonate of lime and magnesia found in other places, appears everywhere. An ammonite of this appearance1

-Twenty-five minutes before seven o'clock, leave Jenin, travelling regularly south. Fifteen minutes after seven, the view above described. Halfpast seven, Mt. Hermon still seen. At eight, come to village (in map after Dr. Smith) Kubatiyeh, but a guide called it Abarkia, or Abarkieh; olivegroves. At five minutes after nine, plain two miles long. Half-past nine, see them sowing wheat, and after three miles come to Sanûr, (on the map,) -guide said Tanûr,-a thickly-settled village on a hill. At five minutes before ten, a large well on the left,-water within seven feet of the srfuace, about eight feet across, well stoned, but apparently deserted. Twenty-five minutes after ten, Jeba: here the road leads off to Nablous. We took the right at twenty-five minutes before eleven. At eighteen minutes before eleven, lunch at Fendekumieh, (of the map,) pronounced there Fundakaumieh. At twenty minutes after eleven, start westerly; and thirty minutes after ascend a ledge and gain a view of the Mediterranean, with village Esséyeh in front. Sun under cloud, and thermometer 67°; in defile, a few minutes after, 76°. At five minutes after twelve, soil white.

1 Casts are seen frequently. The specimen above represented is not a cast, but a shell, and appears to be A. Syriacus with a Nerinea Syriaca turreted shell on the side, and a Natica Syr. or Turritella Syr. on the end.

322

ASCENT OF HILL OF SAMARIA.

is found among the broken fragments, and casts of the following, which are representations of the fossil shell.'

Passing down a valley toward the Hill of Samaria, we see two additional varieties of birds. One seems entirely alone, and of the linnet kind and size, but with a black head, a white band around its neck, a russet or brown breast, and dark back; the other, of the size of the sparrow, of a dark-brown color, forming the shade of the entire bird, which has a little top-knot. This is the nineteenth variety we have noted.

As we ride to the base of the hill, flints and flinty rocks again appear, and we commence the ascent on horseback. Pottery and architectural fragments make their appearance; and, when near the summit, we pass around by the side of shafts ten to twelve feet high, without any capitals, apparently of the stone just described, of which the hill seems to be composed. Sixty or seventy are almost perfect among one hundred and ten which we counted. Ascending still higher and farther east, fifteen or sixteen are standing as if they once formed part of a temple; and not far off, before

1 Venus Syriaca,-probably from the eocene. This is also a shell, and

not a cast.

SINGULAR COLONNADE.

323

reaching the temple, is a base or plinth closely resembling the one seen at Sarepta, both in moulding and size. My friend suggests with plausibility that it formed an altar, though it is but two feet in height. We afterward met with several other bases; but with no capitals. These colonnades seem to be similar to those at Baalbek and Palmyra; but the columns appear as if they had been removed from some building and placed up here. Several are of a size and shape so different from others immediately adjoining as to forbid the idea that they were placed here originally in this form. Descending slightly on the east end of this hill, we came to a ruined apsis of an early church of the following appearance:

The impost to the arch, which runs off to the right, was singular; but the ruins around it were in such a position that we could not immediately remove them to examine it. There was probably an arched recess commencing at that place, instead of another apsis, as

324

2

TOMB OF ST. JOHN.

at Tyre.1 The prickly-pear grows thickly amid the ruins; and the walls are falling to pieces, though they are in places seven feet six inches or nearly eight feet thick. This church is reported to contain the burial-place of St. John the Baptist, and a little tomb within the walls is shown as his. The tradition can scarcely be traced farther back than the time of Jerome; and, if true, and not understood as in contradiction to Josephus, then his disciples brought his body from the castle of Machærus, on the east of the Dead Sea, (where he was beheaded, according to Josephus,) to this distant place. There are crosses-evidently of the Order of St. John-carved on marble tablets, but of a later date than that of the erection of the church. We left the spot, which is near the modern Sebaste, (Samaria,) and, riding through barking dogs, much mud, and begging Arabs, we left the hill at twenty minutes after one o'clock, and in forty minutes pass under some arches, just after taking the view on the following page of the whole scene we had left. The observer, looking due north, has on the right the ruins spoken of, and halfway up, on the left, the colonnade.

The columns, and perhaps all the remains, are those of the buildings which Herod erected with great magnificence and called Sebaste, the Greek for the Latin

1 The three apses are characteristic of the early Byzantine architecture, which Eusebius amply describes, though there are few remains. The pendants in the apsis in this case do not appear plain enough to aid any conjecture as to style. The building shows decided Byzantine traits commingled with a later style.

2 Antiq. xviii. 5, 2.

1

EARLY ASSOCIATIONS.

325

title Augusta. In the earliest times this was the site of the city of Omri, King of Israel, who bought the whole of this fruitful hill from Shemer for about three thousand five hundred dollars, and built a city, (925 B.C.,) naming it, after Shemer, Samaria. It became the capital of the kingdom of the ten tribes and a city associated with many historical facts. The names of Ahab, son of Omri, of Jezebel the Zidonian, of Elijah and Elisha the prophets, appear in connection with it. Here was the house and "altar" of Baal; here his grove. Around this hill the bold Benhadad, King of Syria, and his thirtytwo companions gathered with their chariots and were routed. Here Jehu "served Baal much," so much

1 Joseph. Antiq. xv. 7, 3; Strabo, xvi. 2, 34.

2 Two talents, which at £375 each-the pound sterling being equal to $4.84-would be $3630. 1 Kings xvi. 24.