File:Image from page 400 of "Syria and the Holy Land - their scenery and their people - incidents of travel, &c. from the best and most recent authorities" (1844) (14799073193).jpg

Identifier: syriaholylandthe00kell Title: Syria and the Holy Land : their scenery and their people : incidents of travel, &c. from the best and most recent authorities Year: 1844 (1840s) Authors: Kelly, Walter Keating Subjects: Publisher: London : Chapman and Hall

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Text Appearing Before Image: eries of rocky hills, valleys, and ravines, its line may be estimated at morethan twice that length. A little to the east of the pools, towards the region of the Dead Sea, is avery large grotto, supported by great pillars of the natural rock, perfectlydry, without petrification or stalactites: it is a complete labyrinth within,and, as in many of the ancient catacombs, a man might easily lose himselffor ever in its windings. It lies in the mountainous wilderness of Engaddi,and is supposed to be the Cave of Adullam, where David received themutinous and discontented spirits of his days, and where, when Saul was inpursuit of him, he cut off the skirts of his garment, and suffered him to goaway unharmed. Hebron, one of the oldest cities of Canaan, Davids capital before heconquered Jerusalem, is now a small town, containing seven or eight hun-dred Arab families. The present inhabitants are the wildest, most lawless,and desperate people in the Holy Land ; and it is a singular fact, that they

Text Appearing After Image: Mosque of Hebron. sustain now the same mutinous character with the rebels of ancient dayswho armed with David against Saul, and with Absalom against David.The place bears no traces of the glory of its Jewish king: earthquakes, 390 SYRIA AND THE HOLY LAND. wars, pestilence, and famine have passed over it, and a small town of whitehouses, compactly built on the side of the mountain, a mosque and twominarets, are all that mark the ancient capital of Judea. There is little to detain the traveller at Hebron. The great mosque issaid to cover the site of the cave of Machpelah, nor does there appear to beany reason for doubting this tradition. In different parts of the inclosurethe Mohammedans have built tombs for the patriarchs, while their actualplace of sepulture is held to be in a cavern below, which even the faithful arenot permitted to enter. The Muslims of Hebron are exceedingly bigoted ;and when, with a Jewish companion, I stopped for a moment to look up atthe long marble staircase le

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