ut off and Eleazar, the heroic
brother of Judas, was crushed under an elephant which he had killed. Yet
the fortune of the day was not decisive in favour of the Maccabaean army,
which retired and entrenched itself within the temple fortress.

The outlying post of Bethsura was obliged to capitulate.

Philological grounds for the above identification are not wanting.
Bethsura and Bath Zacharias may have easily represented the Arabic or
Hebrew form of Bait Sahhoor. The guttural letter in the middle naturally
disappears in the Greek text, just as the Greek word "Assidean"
represents the Hebrew Chasidim in the same history.

The following is a simple demonstration of the transition:--

[Picture: Transition from Hebrew via Greek to Arabic]

It may be asked, why did neither Josephus nor the author of the Books of
Maccabees tell us that Beth Zachariah was near Bethlehem? I answer:
first, the narrative did not make this necessary; secondly, Bethlehem was
then "among the least of the thousands of Judah," her great day had not
yet arrived; and thus it might have been quite as necessary to say that
Bethlehem was near Beth Zachariah, as to say that Beth Zachariah was near
Bethlehem.

The modern name "Bait Sahhoor of the Christians" arises most likely from
the fact that a majority of the inhabitants,--thirty families to twenty
in the year 1851,--were of that religion, and from its nearness to the
field where it is believed the angels appeared to the shepherds
announcing the birth of Christ, with its subterranean chapel, the crypt
of a large church in former times.

The other Bait Sahhoor (El Wadiyeh) is so named from its position on the
side of the Wadi in Nar, or valley of the Kedron. It is only
occasionally inhabited, the people who claim it being too few to clear
out the encumbered cisterns for their use, but prefer to identify
themselves during most of the year with other villages, such as Siloam
near at hand, where water is more abundant.

XVI. THE BAKOOSH COTTAGE.

At about seven miles from Jerusalem lie the Pools of Solomon, commonly
called the "Burak," upon the road to Hebron, which passes by the head of
the westernmost of them, on the left hand of the traveller to that city;
while immediately on the right hand, stands a hill with some cultivation
of vineyards and fig-trees, with a few olive-trees; apparently half-way
up that hill is a stone cottage, roughly but well built. It is of that
cottage and it