We were riding across a heavy ploughed field, when I heard cries of “There they are!” and looking back I saw the main road occupied by a band of about twenty horsemen, half hidden by a swell of the ground. They were all well mounted, and armed with swords, guns, and pistols, and with great lances of cane with long iron heads and tufts of ostrich feathers. As I looked six spearmen started out and spurred full speed at our Bashi-Bazouk, who was some two hundred yards behind us. They came down like a whirlwind, shaking their lances horizontally, and kicking up a great cloud of dust. It was an awkward moment, for we were out-numbered, and flight or resistance would have been equally vain. I resolved to face it out, and turning back we also galloped up towards the six champions, who drew up round our soldier, and dug their spear-butts into the ground, then suddenly wheeled round and cantered back to the main body, which, to my great relief, filed slowly away eastwards. It appeared that they had mistaken us for Terabîn Arabs, but, finding that we were English, and protected by the Gaza government, they had been afraid to interfere with us.
This little adventure gave us a good idea of the tactics of the Bedawîn in warfare. The military advantage of superior numbers is thoroughly recognised by these wary and pretentious warriors.
From Gaza we also visited Deir el Belah, the Crusading Darum fortified by King Amalrich in 1170 A.D.—a village with remains of a Greek Church of St. George and numerous date-palms, whence its present name “Convent of Dates” is derived. From Darum we also went to Umm el Jerrâr, the site identified by Vandevelde with the Gerar of Abraham and Isaac. A large Tell exists here, but no ancient wells like those of Beersheba, and I was thus led to the conclusion that Abraham’s wells, which the Philistines filled up, and which Isaac is said to have dug again, were probably similar to the pits which the Arabs still dig near this site, to reach the water flowing beneath the surface in the shingly bed of the great trench which runs through the flat alluvial plain of Gerar.
News of a serious fight near Beersheba, in which 700 Arabs were killed and wounded, determined us to set our faces northwards, leaving the district north-west of Beersheba to be finished during the autumn of 1877. On the last day of April we left our Gaza camp, and marched back to Mejdel, and thence, on the following day, to Yebnah, the ancient Jamnia, famous as the seat of the Sanhedrim after the fall of Bether.
The great Valley of Sorek, which rises north of Jerusalem, and runs down by Zoreah (Sŭr’ah) and Beth Shemesh (’Ain Shemes), reaches the sea north of Yebnah. It is here called “Reuben’s River,” from the little enclosure sacred to the “Prophet Reuben,” which, from the middle ages, has been a Moslem shrine for pilgrimage. The harbour north-west of Yebnah is known also as Mînet Rubîn.
The district round Yebnah is full of sacred shrines. Neby Shît or Seth, Neby Yûnis or Jonah, and Neby Kunda, probably “the Chaldean,” with many minor saints, have domes within a few miles of one another. The mosque of Yebnah, with its little minaret, was a Christian church, which was partly rebuilt and altered in 673 A.H. There are three other sacred places near it, one being a mosque dedicated to Abu Harîreh, Companion of the Prophet.
The town of Yebnah stands on an isolated hillock, with olives to the north, and it is supplied by wells with water-wheels, or Sâkia, as at Ashdod. There is nothing of great antiquity at the place, and even the walls of the Crusading fortress of Ibelin, built at Yebnah in 1144 A.D., have disappeared. The Crusaders considered Yebnah (or Jamnia) to be the site of Gath; but, as usual, their views are not supported by the facts of earlier history.
Three miles east of Jamnia the Valley of Sorek passes through a defile, having a hill on either side; on each hill a village stands above the rich corn-land, and each village is an ancient site. The southern—now Katrah—is supposed to be Gederoth; the northern, El Mŭghâr (“the Cave”) is the site which Captain Warren proposes for Makkedah.
This latter is a remarkable place, and one of the most conspicuous sites in the plain. A promontory of brown sandy rock juts out southwards, and at the end is the village climbing up the hillside. The huts are of mud, and stand in many cases in front of caves; there are also small excavations on the north-east, and remains of an old Jewish tomb, with Kokim. From the caves the modern name is derived, and it is worthy of notice that this is the only village in the Philistine plain at which we found such caves. The proximity of Gederoth (Katrah) and Naamah (Na’aneh) to El Mŭghâr also increases the probability that Captain Warren’s identification of El Mŭghâr with Makkedah is correct, for those places were near Makkedah (Josh. xv. 41).
North-east of Makkedah, Ekron still stands, on low rising ground—a mud hamlet, with gardens fenced with prickly pears. There is nothing ancient here, any more than at Ashdod or Jamnia, but one point may be mentioned which is of some interest. Ekron means “barren,” yet the town stood in the rich Philistine plain. The reason is, that north of the Sorek Valley there is a long sandy swell reaching to the sea-coast—an uncultivated district, now called Deirân, the Arabic name being equivalent to its old title, Daroma; Ekron stands close to this dry, barren spur, and above the fertile corn-lands in the valley.