this task-a union sufficiently comical. Black goats, on the steep sides of the ravine, were feeding on the gnarled dwarf-oak scrub, a few feet high, the dwarf-pistachio and arbutus, with tufts of aromatic herbs, some especially fragrant beds of thyme, myrtle-bushes, and the like, which were springing out of the countless fissures of the rocks. Such a region was, in fact, a paradise for goats, which delight in leaves and twigs, and care little for grass. Their milk in every form-sour, sweet, thick, thin, warm, or cold-forms, with eggs and bread, the main food of the people, a state of things illustrating very strikingly the words of Proverbs: "Thou shalt have goats' milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy household, and for maintenance for their maidens." Shepherds, with long flintguns, were watching the flocks. There could be no hunting-ground for robbers more suitable than these lonely hills, and it was well for us that we had the soldiers in our company. As we advanced, the path led over a broad desolate plateau, the watershed of the district; streams moving on one side towards the east, and on the other towards the west. Gradually descending, we reached, at last, the wide skirt of vineyards which borders Hebron for miles. The ground was very stony, but had been cleared partly to get materials for walls five or six feet thick, which were in every direction; and partly to form paths, a few feet broad, between these ramparts. The name for such walls, in Palestine, is "yedars;" the Hebrew counterpart of which, "gadair," often occurs in the Old Testament. Thus Balaam is said to have been riding in just such a narrow " path between vineyards, with a 'gadair' on this side, and a 'gadair' on that side," 2 so that it was no wonder the ass crushed his foot against one of them. Ezra uses the "gadair" as a symbol of the peaceful enjoyment of the land, when he thanks God for having given his people "a gadair' in Judah and Jerusalem." These rough constructions of dry, unmortared stones of all sizes are the fences of gardens, orchards, vineyards, sheepfolds, and all other enclosures, and are therefore employed as a symbol of rural life. Such masses of loose stones, however, are not so stable as they look. Rising gradually, after each clearing of the surface inside, to a height of from four to six feet, they readily give way, more or less, if one attempt to climb them, while the swelling of the ground by rain oftens throws them off the perpendicular, or they bulge out in the middle from the pressure of the mass of stones against an ill-built portion of the outer coating. At Hebron, I came frequently upon a "gadair" which, from some of these causes, had rushed in promiscuous ruin into the path, and left hardly any space to get past its confused heaps. The Psalmist, therefore, used a telling illustration of the ruin awaiting his enemies when he said, "as a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering'gadair.' Of the vineyard of Israel, the Northern Kingdom, the inspired writer of the 80th Psalm cries, "Why hast thou then [O God] broken down her 'gadairs,' so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? The boar out of the yaar' doth waste it, and the wild beast of the open country doth devour it.” 3 Ezekiel compares the lying prophets of his day to the foxes or jackals which hid in the gaps of the "gadair" of Israel, helping to throw them down, when it should have been the duty of true men to repair them, that Israel might stand safely behind them in the day of battle. With a like familiar knowledge of these structures, Ecclesiastes tells us that "whoso breaketh a 'gadair,' a serpent shall 3 Ps. lxxx. 13; see also Isa. v. 5. see also xxii. 30. 92 1 Ezra ix. 9. 2 Ps. lxii. 3. bite him; " 1 many kinds of serpents delighting in the crevices of such open walls as their lurking-place. The sheepfold of loose stones, so common in many parts of the country, is called a gedairah," a feminine form of "gadair," so that we can understand what the tribes beyond the Jordan meant when they said, "We will build 'gideroth' for the flocks." They had stone in their territory, while the shepherds of the stoneless plains do not use this word, but substitute for it another. 1 Eccles. x. 8. See ante, p. 246. 2 Num. xxxii. 16. CHAPTER XV. HEBRON, THE vineyards of Palestine disappoint those who have poetical ideas of spreading branches and hanging clusters. The vines are planted in wide rows, and are simply so many single stems, bent at a sharp angle with the ground, and cut off when four or five feet long, the end being supported by a short forked stick, so that the shoots may hang clear of the soil. A vineyard is as prosaic a matter at Hebron as on the Rhine; the vines looking like so many dirty sticks, with a few leaves on the shoots from the top or sides. There are towers for the "keepers of the vineyards; "1 stone buildings, of no great size, by which a look-out can be kept on all sides; there is also a shelter for the husbandmen, the vineyards in many parts being far from any village. In Canticles, Sulamith has the task of caretaker assigned to her, so that women, at times, did this duty among the ancient Hebrews; but it is a hard and menial task, exposing one to the fierce sun, which, in Sulamith's case, burned her " black." In most cases, the protection for the watcher is only a rude wooden hut, covered with boughs, so that Job could say of the frailness and instability of the hopes of the wicked, "He buildeth his house as a moth, and as a booth that the 1 Cant. i. 6. 8 2 The word for "keeper " in this case is feminine. keeper maketh," and Isaiah could compare Jerusalem, made desolate by war, to a "booth in a vineyard." The watchmen employed are generally armed with a club, and are very faithful, often risking their lives in the protection of the property they are set to guard. But it is not always easy to get men to undertake the task, since it not only involves danger, but requires wakefulness through the whole night, making even the most loyal weary for the light. It is to this that the Psalmist refers when he says that "his soul looketh out for the Lord, more than watchmen [or keepers] for the morning." To guard against drowsiness and to frighten away thieves, they call out from time to time through the darkness: a practice to which the prophet refers when he describes the Chaldæans as encamped round Jerusalem, and calling out like keepers of a field." Cain insolently asks, "Am I my brother's keeper ? "5 So it is said that "the Lord keepeth all the bones of the righteous, not one of them is broken; He keepeth the souls of His saints; He keepeth the simple;' and, unlike keepers among men, "He that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps."6 The wine of Hebron is still famous, and is very cheap, a bottle costing about sixpence. On the hill-side, among the vineyards, an ancient wine-press fortunately stood near the road, so that I was able to inspect it at leisure. It consisted of two troughs, hewn out of the rock, one higher than the other, and both well cemented on the sides and at the bottom. The grapes are cast into the upper one, and trodden with the feet, so that the juice flows out into the lower; the old practice, so often introduced in Scripture, being followed at this day. The 1 Job xxvii. 18. 2 Isa. i. 8 (Heb.). 4 Jer. iv. 16. 5 Gen. iv. 9. 3 Ps. cxxx. 6. • Ps. xxxiv. 20; xcvii. 10; cxvi. 6; cxxi. 4 |