There are two sorry-looking fig-trees in the grounds, the fruit of which is said to be free to all comers. Here and there in the country these traditionally free fruit-trees are seen. I remember one on the valley road to Bayt ‛Ur et-Taḥtâ. The whole property, otherwise, is ḥarâm, that is, sacrosanct. The dwellers in Palestine have a very vivid sense of that ecclesiastical or religious quality that attaches to a place once acknowledged as devoted to religious purposes. Despite all encroachments, persecutions of hostile governments or religions, the mind of the people persists in returning again and again to the subject of the sacred nature of any such spot, and this obstinate tradition sooner or later gets that piece of property back under the care of the church. The Râm Allâh people tell a story which illustrates how the powers assist in preserving devoted things. “One day a man was digging in the ground when his pickaxe (fass) struck against the lid of a copper vessel (ṭunjereh) containing treasure,[[202]] but as he began to clear away the soil so as to come at the find, his hands became, as it were, bound together with cords and his feet were likewise powerless.”
Out beyond the enclosing walls of the Greek property are fine olive-trees and many heaps of old building stone, with other evidences of a former habitation of men. The land and olives west of the Ṣalâ‛t eṭ-Ṭîreh are owned by a well-to-do Râm Allâh family, Dâr Abu Firmand. The view of Râm Allâh from this place is very good, impressing one with the fact that it is indeed situated on a rise of ground, which effect one does not get in coming to it from the higher ground to the south and east of the village. A vague story is told of a former prosperous settlement of Christians at eṭ-Ṭîreh and of their massacre.
The road from Râm Allâh toward the northwest runs just under one of the walls of the enclosure at Ṣalâ‛t eṭ-Ṭîreh, having that wall for its left-hand boundary. After passing the walled grounds thus on the left a little valley begins, branching off from the main path and running down to the right. It is called the Khullet el-‛Adas and in the late winter is well filled with varicolored anemones. On the right side of the valley, up in the terraces, are tombs, five or six of which I have seen and three of which I have measured. The first one is the farthest from the path that runs down into the Khulleh, but it is not more than two stones’-throw from the nearest corner of eṭ-Ṭîreh enclosure. About the entrance to the tomb the rock has been scarped to a width of eight feet two inches and to a height of five feet. There is the usual low entrance to the tomb-chamber. In this case the doorway is about two feet high. It is eighteen inches wide and is bordered with a cut facing five inches wide. The inner chamber, ten feet wide and eight feet eight inches deep, has five vaulted niches, one opposite the chamber entrance and two on each side. Just within the chamber, at the right of the entrance, in the corner, is a tiny niche, like those in a columbarium, probably for a lamp. The second of these tombs is nearer the path, a little way down the valley. Its door measurements are similar to those given for number one, except that the width is one inch more. The inner chamber has but three niches, each one with rounded top as before, but with a squared facing at the entrance. The third tomb is yet nearer the path. The facing, cut about the entrance to the chamber, is seven inches on each side. The width of the entrance is eighteen inches. In the chamber, as in those mentioned above, there are three vaulted niches, but they are very high and considerably deeper than in tombs numbers one and two. The remaining tombs mentioned are higher up the hillside and still farther away. Numbers two and three of those described are easily seen from the valley path.
The little village of ‛Ayn ‛Arîk, about an hour and a quarter north-of-west of Râm Allâh, is occupied by a mixed population of Greek Christians and Moslems. The situation is on the side of a very fertile valley amply supplied with water. Pomegranate orchards in abundance, gardens and a few olive, fig and lemon-trees make a running patch of green for about a mile down the valley. Our first visit to the village was on September 26 in 1901. We passed on the way the ruined village called Kefr Shiyân or Kefr Shiyâl. Probably the older form is the one with l, the later usage favoring the ending in n. This place is mentioned by Dr. J. P. Peters in the Journal of Biblical Literature as a Byzantine ruin. Some of the ‛Ayn ‛Arîk people have sufficient antiquarian interest to try to make out that this ruin represents ancient Shiloh. One path to ‛Ayn ‛Arîk goes to the right of Kefr Shiyân and keeps to the left of the venerable tree called Abu ‛Aynayn (father of two fountains), which is perched on a hilltop. Another path to ‛Ayn ‛Arîk goes to the left of Kefr Shiyân, between that ruin and another smaller ruin on an opposite hillside, the ruin of ‛Ayn Ṣôba. Down this path we have seen camels, loaded with boxes of raisins from Râm Allâh, making their way towards Jaffa via ‛Ayn ‛Arîk. The more usual route to Jaffa, however, leaves the ‛Ayn Ṣôba ruin on the right instead of on the left, as we do now in going on down to ‛Ayn ‛Arîk. Before reaching this latter place we pass a spring with a reservoir to catch its overflow. It is about fifteen minutes this side of the village, in the valley, near the beginning of the olive-grove. The spring and place about are called Umm el-Khuruḳ (the mother of rags). From here to the village the path runs through olive orchards. The pomegranate orchards begin below the village. The other springs which may be said to be at or near ‛Ayn ‛Arîk are:
‛Ayn el-Jâmi‛ (The Spring of the Mosk), in the village;
‛Ayn Râs el-Bîr (The Spring, the Head of the Well), near the village;
‛Ayn[‛Ayn] esh-Shaykh (The Spring of the Shaykh), near the village;
‛Ayn eṭ-Ṭoreh, near the village;
‛Ayn el-‛Azâb, ten minutes away from the village;
‛Ayn el-‛Aṣfûr (The Spring of the Bird), fifteen minutes’ distance.