if not beyond them; and that if we encountered the Bedawins we had a fair chance to be plundered. As we surmounted the last spur of the mountain we looked anxiously over the broad level expanse lying before us; but we sought in vain for the black tent, or the wide-spreading flock, or the roving cavaliers. There was the ploughman with his oxen, and the village shepherd with his few goats, and the peasant with his hoe, all peacefully following their several avocations. Our guide was pleased, and we were disappointed, perhaps agreeably. No matter. Maksûra was now before us, the road straight, and the way clear. We paid off our guide, and he returned in peace; while we set forward at a brisk pace to the village.

Our road was now south-east, over a flat and fertile plain. On our left, as we advanced, the mountains receded, and decreased in altitude. A Wady of some breadth completely intersects the whole range; and on each side of it the mountains rise up again with a gradual slope. At 10.20 we reached Maksûra.

Our attention, as we approached this place, had been for some time drawn to a large and heavy building, rising high above the flat roofs of the village houses; and which, from its position on the summit of a gentle eminence, is a conspicuous object for many miles around. To this we at once directed our horses; and on reaching it were no little astonished at the size, beauty and completeness of the structure. It is a temple of Corinthian architecture, oblong in form, and having a large door at both east and west end. At each end are pilasters supporting a rich entablature and pediment. A deep cornice was carried round the whole exterior of the building, supported by pilasters at the angles and along the sides. The lofty arched doorways admit to small vestibules; and from these doors open to the body of the building. These doorways being all in a line, there was thus a clear passage through the temple from east to west. The interior is nearly square; on each side are three pilasters, and a very rich cornice runs round the whole. The walls are almost perfect, though they have been disfigured by an attempt to convert it into a fortification. With the exception of the temples at Ba'albek and Palmyra, I have seen none in this country in such good preservation; and there are few that could be compared with it for beauty of design, though the architecture is not in the best style.

On the west end, near the north-east corner, about ten feet

from the ground, we found the following inscription; the first part in very large characters, but the remainder much smaller.

YIIEPC THPIAC T∞NKY PION
Η ΜωΝ ΑΥΤΟΚΡΑΤΟΡωΝ KAI C
ΑΡωΝ ΜΑΡΚ ΝΙΟΥΛΙω Ν

:CT∞: :: ΑΦΙΕΡω

OHKAICYNETEA ECOHNAO CAEIXA

AACEПIT∞ NIEPIN|||| APKONAYPHAI ON ANEONTA POYKAITA PONO4(?) CIM(?) ΘΟΥ ΒΟΥ | ΛΕΥΤΟΥΕΙΡΟΤΑΜΙω

From the top of the temple, to which I ascended by a staircase at the south-east angle, I had a commanding view of the vast plain. In the distance, south by east, I saw three largelooking buildings, called the Diûra, the "convents." I was informed they were large castles, but could not get any minute description of them. The people informed me that they lie between the lakes and the group of hills to the east, called the Tellûl. This, from their position, I deemed correct; and it afterwards proved to be so. At the distance of about an hour south-east I saw a small ruined building, apparently a tower; and perhaps intended as a watch tower, as well as to guard a stream of water that flows past it. A broad Wady divides the mountain ridges opposite to Maksûra, running up due north into the plain of Jerûd at Ruhaibeh; and down this, from a fountain at the latter village, flows a fine stream, which passes through Maksûra and waters the plain beyond. It is called Nahr elMukubrit, the Sulphurous River. The water, however, is sweet and good. This is an important stream; and, if the water were properly managed, would irrigate a large extent of the plain. During winter it falls into the Bahret esh-Shurkiyeh.

We were informed, just as we were about to mount our horses, that ruins of an extensive city lay about half an hour eastward on the borders of the desert. It was now past noon, and we had a long journey before us; but still we did not wish to leave such a place unexplored. So, accompanied by the Sheikh and a

number of the villagers, we set off. As we left the gardens, in which are good vineyards, we observed a number of large sarcophagi of white limestone, and likewise many sepulchral caves, hewn out in the conglomerate rock of the plain. In twenty-two minutes we came to a subterranean canal, which brings a fine stream from the base of the lofty mountains on the left, called Jebel el-Kaus, or Jebel Abn el-Kaus. A few hundred yards on our right, the water flows out over the surface, and part of it runs past the tower above mentioned.

Eight minutes afterward we reached a large reservoir filled with pure delicious water, supplied by a canal similar to the former. A large stream flows from it and is carried in little channels over the fields. Beside this reservoir are many hewn stones. Five minutes beyond this we reached the commencement of extensive ruins extending away to the right. Riding through these we reached in ten minutes further the foundations of a large and strong fortress, or citadel, of a rectangular form, about three hundred yards long by some two hundred and fifty broad. In the centre of each side is a gate with flanking towers; and there were heavy towers at the angles. The whole is now almost completely prostrate; but the immense heaps of hewn stones and fragments of columns, both along the walls and within the inclosure, bear ample testimony to its former importance. On the western side of it are the ruins of the city, covering a space more than a mile and a half in circumference. We were told that another stream descends from the mountains a little further east, and that there is a Diwûn, or theatre, near it. We had no time to visit them.

For these ruins we could get no other name than Khureibeh. The reservoir and water the Sheikh called Duratîyeh. We could see no inscriptions; but our search was not at all minute, and I doubt not inscriptions exist.

We galloped back to Maksûra, feeling sorry we had no time to spend among the ruins. On our way we saw on our left a

large and deep canal, now dry. This, we were informed, is the continuation of the canal called Yezîd, which is taken from the Barada near Hâmy, and runs through Salahiyeh. This, however, is not correct. This canal is the continuation of a great subterranean aqueduct, which commences near the village of Kossair, about three hours north-east of Damascus. That great work was no doubt intended to supply this city with water.

We left Maksûra at 3.10. As we emerged from the village, we met a small party of Arabs, splendidly mounted. They were the chiefs of a neighboring tribe who had come to trade. In the gardens around the village we saw large quantities of hewn stones strewn over the ground. Our road was now like an ave nue; and led across a plain with a good soil, perfectly flat, but uncultivated. Our direction was a few points south of west. On our right, at the distance of less than an hour, was the range of naked hills that here bound the plain. At 4.25 we saw an old Khân at the foot of the hills; and below it the last of the little mounds that mark the openings of the subterranean aqueduct. From hence eastward it flows in an open channel. At 5.40 we reached the village of 'Adrah, and forty minutes after, struck the Aleppo road. The daylight was now gone, but the road was good, the moon bright, and nothing to fear. So we spurred our horses toward the city. At 6.48 we passed Khân Kossair; at 7.30 we had Dûma on our right; and at 9.15 we entered Bâb Tûma.

We were thus six hours and five minutes from Maksûra to Damascus; and, considering the pace at which we rode, I would estimate the distance at not less than twenty-six miles. The Bahret esh-Shurkîyeh was some distance on our left as we rode from Maksûra to 'Adrah. At the latter village, the Nahr Taura, a branch of the Barada, turns south-east and flows into that lake.

ARTICLE II.

DRUIDISM.

By Rev. Edward D. Morris, Auburn, N. Y.

MOST of those errant tribes who at the beginning of the Christian era inhabited the northern and north-western portions of the continent of Europe, were distinguished by striking similarities of language, of institutions, and of character. Such resemblances plainly lead to the conclusion, that these numerous tribes, scattered over the wide regions from the shores of the Atlantic to the Baltic Sea, were the disparted offshoots of some common oriental stock. During those long periods which lie beyond the limits of authentic history, they probably migrated at intervals from the sunny lands of Central Asia to the plains of Germany and Gaul; constantly pressed onward, partly by necessity, and partly by the larger hordes which followed them, till at last, they found their devious course obstructed by the waters of the But, through all their long and frequent wanderings, and in spite of mutual diversities and conflicts, they carefully preserved the prominent peculiarities of that common stock from which they sprang. Their numerous dialects are manifestly the kindred scions of some generic root. Their social and civil institutions have many curious and striking points of similarity. Their religious sentiments, and their varied modes of worship, appear like fragments of some ancestral system, such as may in some past age have flourished along the banks of the Euphrates and the Indus.

western ocean.

None of these points of resemblance is more obvious or more remarkable than DRUIDISM. From that period in which the regions of Northern Europe were first subdued by Roman power, to that in which the advancing influences of Christianity had rooted out most of the prominent characteristics of Celtic barbarism, this peculiar institution is known to have held an important position, and wielded a commanding influence, among nearly all the Indo-Germanic tribes. As a social system, at once civil and religious, it entered into all departments of society; and left its distinct impression on all the prominent features of individual