It was a matter of much interest to Major Conder to find out if possible where the mountain of the scape-goat was situated. According to the Law of Moses the scape-goat was led to the wilderness, and there set free. “This was not, however, the practice of the later Jews. A scape-goat had once come back to Jerusalem, and the omen was thought so bad that the ordinary custom was modified, to prevent the recurrence of such a calamity. The man who led the goat arrived at a high mountain called Sook, and there was at this place a rolling slope, down which he pushed the unhappy animal, which was shattered to atoms in the fall.” The district where this was done was called Hidoodim, and the high mountain Sook. Sook was 6½ English miles from Jerusalem, as reckoned by the ten tabernacles which divided the messenger’s path into stages of 2000 cubits. Conder identifies the place in the neighbourhood of the convent of St Saba. At the required distance from Jerusalem is the great hill of El Muntâr, the highest point of a ridge of mountains running north and south. The rest of the ridge is called El Hadeidûn; and beside the ancient road from Jerusalem is a well called Sûk. From this high ridge the victim was yearly rolled down into the narrow valley beneath, at the entrance of the great desert, which first unfolded itself before the eyes of the messenger as he gained the summit half a mile beyond the well of Sûk.
[Authorities and Sources:—Colonel Warren, Colonel Wilson, &c., in the Quarterly Statements, P. E. Fund. “Tent Work in Palestine.” Major Conder. “Sinai and Palestine.” Dean Stanley.]
10. The Method of the Survey, and Incidents of the Work.
At the commencement of the Triangulation Survey a base line was measured, near Ramleh, on the Jaffa plain, and this was afterwards checked by a second line measured on the Plain of Esdraelon. The method of work employed is described by Major Conder, both in his “Tent Work” and in his volume called “Palestine.” The camp, consisting of three or four tents, was pitched in some convenient central position, by a town or village. Thence the surveyors were able to ride 8 or 10 miles all round, and first visited a few of the highest hill-tops. As each was found satisfactory, or one near it preferred, they built great cairns of stones, 8 or 10 feet high, and whitewashed them to make them more conspicuous. This work took about five days. When the points were chosen, five more days were consumed in revisiting them with the theodolite, which travelled in its box bound to the back of a mule, the muleteer perched behind it; and with it went the saddle bags, holding lunch, the chisel and hammer for cutting the broad arrow on the summits of the hills, the hatchet for hewing down trees and copses. From two to four hours were spent at each point, fixing the position of every prominent object, tree, village, white dome or minaret visible within 10 miles. “The names were collected” (says Conder) “from the peasant who accompanied the party, and as the afternoon shadows began to lengthen, we slowly wound down the hill-side, a rough-looking cavalcade, preceded by our Bashi-bazouk in his red boots, armed to the teeth, and followed by the non-commissioned officers, who had become well accustomed to their stout little Syrian ponies, whilst the pack-mule and guide came last. We all wore revolvers and the native head-dress, the Bedawin Kufeyeh or shawl, a sure protection from sun-stroke and substitute for an umbrella. Our appearance was therefore an extraordinary compound of European and Bedawin, which is often, however, assumed by the Turkish officials in travelling, and thus attracted less attention.”
The theodolite work over, and the fixed points laid down, the filling in of the detail followed. The two non-commissioned officers divided the work between them, and Major Conder took alternate days with each, to enable him to do the hill sketching and examine the geology. In open country they found the daily riding pleasant, but when the hills were precipitous and the valleys deep and stony, the labour was very severe. Starting at eight, resting at noon, returning at sunset, and sleeping immediately after dinner, the days sped by with wonderful rapidity, and the Survey spread gradually over the country.
The old cultivation was traced by the wine-presses, olive-presses, ruined terraces, and rude garden watch-towers. Ancient sites were recognised by their tombs, cisterns, and rocky scarps. In seeking to identify sites the greatest care was exercised: it was laid down that the site must show traces of antiquity; it must be known to the natives under its original name, or a modification of that name; its position must suit the known accounts of the place; and the measured distances must lend confirmation.
The new map was to include every object that has a name, and the name itself was to be correctly given. But here was a difficulty. How are names to be accurately ascertained in Palestine? The natives are perverse, or they suspect you of designs against their country, and they purposely mislead you. On the other hand, they are obliging, and if you express a hope that you have found a Scripture site, which you name, they will confirm your impression that it is so. Or it may be that you yourself are deficient in Arabic, and after being at the greatest pains to inquire the name of a site, find that the name you have noted down signifies “a heap of stones.” A story is told of a European traveller who asked his guide the name of a place, and received the reply—Mabarafsh. Carefully marking it on the sketch-map of his route, he by-and-bye inquired concerning a second site which he did not recognise, and received the same reply—Mabarafsh! Of course it is possible that names should be repeated, as in England we have several Newports, Nortons, and Hamptons; but Mabarafsh actually means, “I don’t know!” A wise suggestion was made that travellers and surveyors should always get the sheikh of the village to write down the name correctly in Arabic; but, unfortunately, only one sheikh in ten can write at all, and he cannot spell correctly.
The plan adopted by the Survey party was one which guarded as far as possible against all mistakes. It is described by Major Conder in “Tent Work,” where he speaks as follows of his inquiries in the neighbourhood of Hebron. “My party now consisted of three non-commissioned officers; and Lieutenant Kitchener was expected to join me in about a month. We had with us eleven natives, including Habib the head man, a scribe, a second valet, two grooms, the cook (a villain who only sat and watched his boy cooking), two muleteers, and two Bashi-bazouks; the party was thus at its full strength composed of only sixteen persons, with nine horses and seven mules.... By night a guard was provided by the sheikh of the village. Four guides were hired, who received a shilling a day, a mule to ride, and breakfast. The information which they gave the Surveyors was written down from their mouths by the scribe, an intelligent young Damascene recommended by Mr Wright. Thus correctness, both of pronunciation and of locality, was ensured, and the names were checked by every means in our power. Besides obtaining names from the local guides, inquiry was made of peasants, and generally of several peasants separately. No leading questions were put, nor were either guides or peasants allowed to suppose that one name would be more acceptable than another. Such was the daily routine. The parties left by eight a.m. and returned by five p.m.; dinner was at sunset, and from about eight to eleven, or even until midnight, I studied, after the day’s work, the topography of the district. This labour was not unrewarded, for one might easily have passed over many places of interest had one not known the points to which Mr Grove and other scholars required special attention to be directed.”
Fortunately in Palestine the ancient names retain their hold very tenaciously, and reassert themselves after all the efforts of conquerors to displace them. Thus the town of Bethshan (or Bethshean) which in Greek and Roman times became Scythopolis, is to-day again known to the natives as Beisan. Tell-el-Kadi, at the foot of Mount Hermon, signifies in Arabic the “heap of the Judge;” but in Hebrew the word for judge is Dan, and this is the mound of Dan, the northern extremity of the land whose length was measured “from Dan to Beersheba.” Shiloh is now called Seilun, and no site is more certain. Almost every important site retains its Biblical name. The pretentious titles, Eleutheropolis, Nicopolis, &c., have quite vanished, and the old native names of these cities, Beth Gubrin, Emmaus, &c., are those by which they are now again known. An important exception, however, is Nablous (corrupted from Neapolis) for the ancient Shechem—a change which may perhaps be traced to Jewish hatred of the name of Shechem.