enough for Abraham to have enjoyed its
shade almost four thousand years ago. The trunk is thirty-two feet in
circumference, but the tree is not tall like the American oaks. It is
now in a dying condition, and some of the branches are supported by
props, while the lower part of the trunk is surrounded by a stone wall,
and the space inside is filled with earth. The plot of ground on which
the tree stands is surrounded by a high iron fence. A little farther up
the hill the Russians have a tower, from which we viewed the country,
and then went down in the shade near Abraham's Oak and enjoyed our
dinner.

Hebron is a very ancient city, having been built seven and a half years
before Zoar in Egypt. (Num. 13:22.) Since 1187 it has been under the
control of the Mohammedans, who raise large quantities of grapes, many
of which are made into raisins. Articles of glass are made in Hebron,
but I saw nothing especially beautiful in this line. The manufacture of
goat-skin water-bottles is also carried on. Another line of work which I
saw being done is the manufacture of a kind of tile, which looks like a
fruit jug without a bottom, and is used in building. Hebron was one of
the six cities of refuge (Joshua 20:7), and for seven years and a half
it was David's capital of Judah. It is very historic. "Abraham moved his
tent, and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and
built there an altar unto Jehovah." (Gen. 13:18.) When "Sarah died in
Kiriath-arba (the same is Hebron), in the land of Canaan, * * * Abraham
came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her." At this time the worthy
progenitor of the Hebrew race "rose up from before his dead, and spoke
unto the children of Heth, saying, I am a stranger and a sojourner with
you: give me a possession of a burying-place with you, that I may bury
my dead out of my sight." The burial place was purchased for "four
hundred shekels of silver, current money of the land. * * * And after
this Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave in the field of Machpelah
before Mamre (the same is Hebron), in the land of Canaan" (Gen.
23:1-20). Years after this, when both Abraham and his son Isaac had
passed the way of all the earth and had been laid to rest in this cave,
the patriarch Jacob in Egypt gave directions for the entombment of his
body in this family burial place. "There they buried Abraham and Sarah
his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I
buried Leah" (Gen