of the Jordan being in sight. On the right were some Mohammedan buildings on the sides and at the foot of Mount Gerizim, either mosques or tombs, now called Mahmoodeea, and said to stand over Joseph's sepulchre. On the left, at the foot of Mont Ebal, were several well-hewn grottoes in the rock; some with arched and others with square doors, most probably ancient sepulchres, without the old city of Sychem or Sychar. These grottoes were called here Khallat Rowgh-ban*, but we had no time to examine them.

From hence, in another quarter of an hour, we reached the Well of Samaria. It stands at the commencement of the round vale, which is thought to have been the parcel of ground bought by Jacob for a hundred pieces of money, and which, like the narrow valley west of Nablous, is rich and fertile. Over this well stood anciently a large building, erected by St. Helena, of which there are now no other remains than some shafts of granite pillars; all the rest lying in one undistinguished heap of ruins. The mouth of the

*Rowghwan or Rowghban is a name given in Syria to monks, and more particularly to those who live in convents and other dwellings, remote from towns, and from society; and though Kallah means generally a castle, yet here it would imply only "the retreats of hermits," a purpose' to which these caves were very probably at one time or other applied.

well itself had an arched or vaulted building over it, and the only passage down to it at this moment is by a small hole in the roof, scarcely large enough for a moderate-sized person to work himself down through.

We lighted a taper here, and taking off my large Turkish clothes, I did not then get down without bruising myself against the sides, nor was I at all rewarded for such an inconvenience by the sight below. Landing on a heap of dirt and rubbish, we saw a large flat oblong stone, which lay almost on its edge across the mouth of the well, and left barely space enough to see that there was an opening below. We could not ascertain its diameter, but by the time of a stone's descent, it was evident that it was of considerable depth, as well as that it was perfectly dry at this season; the fall of the stone giving forth a dead and hard sound.

Not far from the well of Samaria is the "Bir Yusef," over which is a modern building; and it is said to be, even at this day, frequented for water from Nablous. The well of Samaria might also have been so, therefore, from Sychar, although that city should not have extended farther east than the present town; and indeed it is no uncommon thing in Syria, as I myself have often witnessed, for water to be brought from a much greater distance. It is highly pro

bable, therefore, that this is the identical well at which the interesting conference of Jesus with the woman of Samaria really happened.

I could find nothing of the old wall mentioned by Maundrell, and as the sepulchres of Khallat Rowgh-ban are much nearer the town than the well, though they must have been without the city from the nature of the cliffs there, the wall did not probably extend more easterly than the site of the present town. Near the well of Samaria, and at the end of the narrow valley, or where it opens into the broader plain, are several round towers on the hills on each side, of an unknown date, probably watch-posts to guard this passage to the city.

One of the chief differences between the Jewish and the Samaritan pentateuch being the transposition of the names of Gerizim and Ebal, I had taken particular notice of these two mountains, or rather hills, both in going out and coming in. But it unfortunately happens, that neither relative positions nor local features are given of these in the sacred records, by which the point at issue might be decided. Josephus, however, is more explicit; for in his version of that command of Moses which has given rise to the dispute in question, he says, "Their leader ordered that, when they had got possession of the land of the Canaanites, and when they had de

troyed the whole multitude of its inhabitants as they ought to do, they should erect an altar that should face the rising sun, not far from the city of Shechem, between the two mountains, that of Gerizim situate on the right hand, and that called Ebal on the left; which, with reference to the sun-rising, fixes the former indisputably on the south, and the latter on the north. *

In the commands of Moses, delivered to the Israelites while yet on the other side of Jordan eastward, he expressly names Gerizim as the mountain from which the blessings are to be pronounced on the congregation, and Ebal as the one from which the curses are to be uttered† ; yet, in a subsequent chapter, the same lawgiver is made to order that an altar of unhewn stones, over which no iron was to pass, should be raised to the Lord, and the great stones set up plastered with plaster, on which the law was to be written ; and those reared on Mount Ebal, which had before been made the mountain of cursing. ‡ Joshua, his successor, is afterwards represented as setting up the altar on Ebal, and offering burnt-offerings and peace-offerings to the Lord, and inscribing on the plastered stones, as directed, the law which Moses had left to the children of Israel. §

*Joseph. Ant. Jud. 1. iv.
Deut. xxvii. 1—4.

c. 8. s. 44. + Deut. xi. 29.
§ Joshua, viii. 30-32.

The Samaritans have, in these places, substituted Gerizim for Ebal, and they accuse the Jews of having maliciously altered their text, out of odium to the Samaritans, putting for Gerizim, Ebal, upon no other account but only because the Samaritans worshipped in the former mountain, which they would have, for that reason, not to be the true place appointed by God for his worship and sacrifice. Such was the account of the chief priest of these people to Mr. Maundrell, who questioned him on the subject. To confirm this, says the same traveller, he pleaded that Ebal was the mountain of cursing, as we have seen before, and in its own nature an unpleasant place; but, on the contrary, Gerizim was the mountain of blessing by God's own appointment, and also in itself fertile and delightful; from whence he inferred a probability that this latter must have been the true mountain appointed for these religious festivals, and not, as the Jews have corruptly written it, Hebal. *

Mr. Maundrell thought that there was some truth in the Samaritan priest's observations on the superiority of Gerizim to Ebal; for, says he, though neither of the mountains has much

* Maundrell's Journey, p. 81. 8vo.