s. At an hour and three-quarters from Doheriyeh we arrived
at a pretty glen of evergreen oak and pine; and at the entrance of this
glen is a fountain, called _Afeeri_, of beautiful water issuing from a
rock.

Shortly after we joined the route by which we had left our encampment
yesterday, near the fountain of _Dilbeh_, where we had drawn water when
outward bound. Then came to an ancient well of good masonry, hexagonal
in shape, but without water. A cistern for rain-water was close
adjoining.

Reached the oak of Sibta in twenty-eight hours after leaving it, well
pleased with having been able to visit Beersheba, the scene of many
ancient and holy transactions, in the days when the great patriarchs,
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, walked humbly with their God, and God gave
them a faith capable of overthrowing mountains.

In conclusion, I may express my regret that, although residing in the
country many years afterwards, I could not get an opportunity of visiting
either Beer-la-hai-roi or Isaac's well of Esek. (Gen. xxvi. 20.)
Concerning the former we find some indications in an appendix to
Williams' _Holy City_; and I have been assured personally that the latter
is still held in estimation by the Bedaween tribes, under the name of
_Esak_, and frequented as a rendezvous for making truces and covenants.

On breaking up our camp at Abraham's oak, the family took the direct road
for Jerusalem, while I struck across the Philistine plain for Jaffa.

With one horseman and a kawwas, I diverged westwards from the common road
just before the descent to 'Ain Dirweh, between it and the ruined town of
Bait Soor, (Bethzur of Joshua xv. 58,) leaving Hhalhhool of the same
verse on my right hand. Advanced gradually down a woody glen of the
usual evergreen oak and pine. The higher part of the valley is in
excellent cultivation, with careful walls, and drains to keep off the
winter rains that descend from the hills, although no villages were in
sight except in one place on an eminence to the left, where an apparently
well-built village was entirely abandoned. It is called _Ma'naeen_; and
the history of it, as I have since learned, is that it was only a few
years before built by a colony of refugees from oppression in sundry
villages, who concerted to set up on their own account, without regard to
the authority of their family connexions, or of the hereditary shaikhs.
So daring an innovation upon national customs was resented by a coali