Here the antiquities of Ammân commenced; and remains of considerable buildings continually solicited our attention, as we passed on for quarter of an hour more to our tents, which we found
already pitched and waiting for us among a crowd of ancient temples and baths and porticoes,—in a forum between a line of eight large Corinthian columns and the small river; in front too of a Roman theatre in good condition. Some of the party, who were familiar with the ruins of Rome and Athens, exclaimed aloud, “What would the modern Romans give to have so much to show as this, within a similar space!”
This was Saturday afternoon; and we had already resolved to spend our Sabbath in this wonderful and agreeable place, so remarkable in Scripture history, and so seldom visited by Europeans.
I climbed up the seats of the theatre, and rested near the top, enjoying the grand spectacle of luxurious architecture around; then descended, and walked along its proscenium; but neither reciting passages of Euripides nor of Terence, as some enthusiasts might indulge themselves in doing, before an imagined audience of tetrarchs, centurions, or legionaries, or other
“Romanos rerum dominos, gentemque togatam.”
Close to this theatre was a covered and sumptuous building, which I could not but suppose to be a naumachia, from its having rising rows of seats around the central space, with a channel leading into this from the river. As the shadows of evening lengthened, the heat of the day was moderated,
and I sauntered along the bank of the stream till I came to a large headless statue of a female figure lying in the water. Some men lifted it upon the green bank for me; but it was far too heavy to be transported to Jerusalem for the Literary Society’s Museum.
The swift-flowing rivulet abounded in fish, some of which the Arabs killed for us, either by throwing stones or shooting them with bullets, having no other means of getting at them; but the latter of these methods was too costly to be often adopted. However, we had some fish for dinner in “Rabbah, the city of waters.” This stream is the commencement of the Zerka, which we were to meet afterwards, after its course hence N.E. and then N.W.
I feasted a dozen Arabs at my tent-door. Shaikh ’Abdul ’Azeez laughed when I remarked that this place was better worth seeing than Heshbon, and said, “This is a king’s city. It was the city of King Ghedayûs; and Jerash, which is still more splendid, was built by Sheddâd, of the primitive race of the Beni ’Ad.” Beyond this, of course, it was impossible for him to imagine anything in matters of antiquity.
In my evening’s Scripture reading, I was much struck with the opening of the 65th Psalm: “Praise waiteth for Thee, O God, in Zion,”—which passes over all the examples of human achievement