We rode up the street of Remmoon, and found the shaikh and principal men of the town lazily smoking in the shadow of a house.
My object was of course to inquire for a cavern that might be capable of containing six hundred men during four months. The people all denied the existence of such a cavern, but after some parley I was conducted to two separate caverns on the west side of the hill, then to two others on the eastern side which are larger, and to each of which we had to arrive through a house built at its opening. They told me of two others upon the hill, but of much inferior size. Those that I entered were not remarkable for dimensions above the many that are to be found over the country. It is probable that the whole of the refugees might sleep in these several places, if there were no village there at the time, which seems probable; but it was merely my own preconceived notion that they all lived in one vast cavern. The text of Judg. xx. 47 does not say so.
The village is in good condition, and the cultivation excellent in every direction around it. On leaving it for the return to Jerusalem I proceeded due southwards. In the fields the people were industriously clearing away stones—a sure symptom of peace, and consequent improvement.
Crossed a valley named Ma’kook, and arrived at
Mukhinâs (Michmash) in less than two hours from Remmoon. Rested in the fine grove of olive-trees in the valley on the north of the town for an hour. The birds were singing delightfully, though the time was high noon, and our horses enjoyed some respite from the sanguinary green flies which had plagued them all the way from Remmoon; their bellies and fetlocks were red with bleeding. In this matter I particularly admired the benevolence of the slave Sulimân. Yesterday, after a sharp run across a field, perhaps in the vain hope of escaping the tormentors, he dismounted, and the mare followed him, walking like a lamb. He then sat down to switch away the flies, and rub her legs inwards and outwards. To-day he had taken off his Bedawi kefieh, or bright-coloured small shawl, from around his head, and suspended it between her legs, then, as he rode along, was continually switching between her ears with a long bunch of the wild mustard-plant.
On leaving Mukhmâs in the hottest part of the day, we had to cross the Wadi Sûaineet, along which to our left appeared the northern extremity of the Dead Sea. At a short distance down the valley there are remarkable precipices on each side, which must be the Bozez and Seneh, [207] renowned for the bold adventure of Jonathan and his armour-bearer,
and near these projections are some large old karoobah-trees.
Emerging upwards from this wadi one comes to Jeba’, (the Gibeah of Saul, so often mentioned,) upon a table-land extending due east, in which direction I visited, five years before, an ancient ruin, which the people of Jeba’ call El Kharjeh; it consisted of one principal building of contiguous chambers, built of nicely squared stones, put together without cement, like several of the remains at Bethel.
These stones are gray with weather stains, but seldom more than three courses in height remain in their places, though in one place five.
From this site, as well as from Jeba’, there is a very striking view of the northern extremity of the Dead Sea.