Near Rama, and north-west of it, stands Gibeon, the city of the ancient Gibeonites, who made peace with Israel under Joshua, and practised a deception on them. (Joshua ix.) It stands on the top of a small sugar-loaf hill, and is capable of being made a strong place. It is now a poor village—several other villages lay to our left, the names of which I do not now recollect.
To our right we passed several villages, but most of them lay at some little distance from the road—as Anathoth, the town of Jeremiah, now a poor Mohammedan village—Geba, and Gibeah of Saul—Michmash, where Jonathan defeated the garrison of the Philistines—Rimmon, in which the Benjamites found refuge when Gideon was destroyed. (Judges xx. 45.)
At the distance of ten or twelve miles from Jerusalem we came to Beer, the town to which Jotham is supposed to have fled from his brother Abimelech. In approaching it, we passed over a fine plain, a part of which was under cultivation; near the town were orchards of olive and other fruit trees.
We had intended to spend the night here, but we found several thousand Turkish horsemen encamped on the plain near the town. They were spread over the whole district adjoining the springs; and men, horses, camels, and donkeys, mixed together in the most irregular manner. Some of the officers and men had tents, but the majority of the army either had none or did not think it necessary to pitch them. The town, which is not large, was overrun with troops. We thought it, on the whole, not best to lodge with such company, and passed on to Ain-Brood. This led us past ancient Bethel,—there is now a small village there, and many ruins that show that it has once been a place of considerable size. It stands near the top of the ridge, and commands a fine view of the adjacent country. It was here that Abraham pitched his tent soon after entering the land of Canaan—and from this place he was made to look north and south, and east and west; and was assured that all the land he saw should be given to him and his seed. (Gen. xii. 8, and xiii. 3-14.) And here Jeroboam set up one of the golden calves, and induced Israel to worship before it. (1 Kings, xii. 29.)
The precise situation of it, which lies a little to the east, is not known. There are ruins in several places, but a doubt remains as to which is the site of the city first taken by the Israelites on the hill country.
The country about Bethel is slightly diversified with small plains and ridges; it is fertile, and well adapted to tillage—olive orchards, fruit trees, and vineyards are more numerous than in most parts of Palestine—the country is, moreover, better watered than the parts of the hill country that lie more to the south.
It became dark before we reached Ain-Brood (Cold Spring). The village of that name stands a little off the road, on the top of a hill. It is a small place, and has nothing that distinguishes it, unless it be the excellent vineyards, and olive-orchards, and fruit trees with which it is surrounded: to which may be added that a good deal of labour has been expended in gathering off the stones, which abound on the surface, and forming low walls around these vineyards. In some places the rock had been broken up about as fine as would suit for a Macadamized road, and earth mixed with it, and thus lots are prepared that produce fine grapes and fruit trees.
As the night was clear, which is always the case in Palestine during the summer, we did not take the trouble to hunt for lodgings; but getting over one of these low stone fences with our horses, we spread our carpets, and made our beds under a large fig-tree, and there spent the night.
Knowing that the company of troops that we had left at Beer were moving northward, we concluded we would make an early start, and try and keep before them. In this, however, we were disappointed. We had not gone many miles before we saw some horsemen not far behind. We whipped up our animals, but it would not do; they gained on us continually: and in a few hours we had them pouring by us in all the confusion of the Turkish march. They, however, were perfectly civil, and some of their officers entered pleasantly into conversation with us.