Harat el-Arman (the Armenian street), on the East of the Castle;
Harat el-Yahud (the Jews' street) is situated on the Eastern slope of Mount Sion;
Harat bâb Hotta, the street that runs parallel to the Temple in the central valley;
And many others, which are little frequented, and are not worthy of mention.
NOTES ON CHAPTER II.
Note I. The drainage system of the city is divided into the Southern, Northern, and Eastern sections, the division of the two former being marked by the street called the Street of David. The keeping in repair of the Southern section is the business of the local governor, and in consideration thereof he receives a fixed annual sum from the Armenians and the Jews, as inhabitants of that quarter. The Northern section as far as the central valley is kept in repair by the Latin and Greek convents, this district containing the quarters of their respective nations. All the drainage on the Eastern side is under the sole charge of the governor. The Arabs very seldom take the trouble to look after their own sewers, but are zealous enough in enforcing the execution of repairs which belong to the Christian communities; and since the latter have them executed with an ill-will, and employ men of no experience for the direction of the works, the drains are choked and flooded almost every year, and are constantly being opened for repairs; a cause of no slight annoyance in the city. It was during these works that, for eight successive years, I had the opportunity of examining their formation, their respective inclines, and directions, from which I found that they all run into the central valley (the Tyropœon Valley of my map), and thence drain away to the S.E. outside the city, as far as the large pool, now filled up, below the fountain of Siloam.
The Christians have been obliged to accept the performance of these and other foul works since the commencement of the supremacy of the Arabs and Turks, who have submitted them to the most severe humiliations, and to the most vile and oppressive tasks.
Note II.On the subject of "cubits" and stadia, I transcribe the remarks of M. Munk, in his book entitled "La Palestine," subjoining an account of my own special observations on the subject.
"The measures of length, called Middoth, are generally referred to the hand and arm; the following are mentioned: (1) Eçba (Jer. lii. 21), the finger, i.e. the breadth of the finger or thumb; (2) Tephach (1 Kings vii. 26), or tophach (Exodus xxv. 25), the hand-breadth, i.e. the breadth of four fingers; (3) Zereth (Exodus xxviii. 16), the distance between the tips of the thumb and little finger, or the span; (4) Ammah, the whole length of the fore-arm, or cubit. The relative value of these measures is not indicated in any part of the Bible; to fix it, we must consult Josephus and the Rabbinic traditions. In Exodus xxv. 10, the dimensions of the ark are stated as follows; length 2-1/2 cubits, breadth 1-1/2 cubits, height 1-1/2 cubits. Josephus, in the Antiquities (III. 6, § 5), represents the 2-1/2 cubits by 5 spans, and for 1-1/2 cubits puts 3 spans: hence the span was the half of the cubit. The Rabbins agree with Josephus; according to them the zereth is half a cubit, referring to the mean cubit[A] which contained six hand-breadths, each hand-breadth being equivalent to four fingers. These data may be adhered to as exact, because the same proportions recur in other ancient systems. Thus for example the Greeks had their cubits of 1-1/2 feet, which made six hand-breadths or 24 fingers; Herodotus (II. 149) speaks of a cubit of six hands in use amongst the Egyptians. We have then for the relative values of the Hebrew measures the following table: