well to remark
that, among all our company, there was a feeling of uncertainty as to the
geographical boundaries of the lands possessed by the old people of
Ammon, Moab, and Bashan. Probably there had been some fluctuations of
their towns and confines between the time of the exodus and the
prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah.

One thing is certain--that we all, with one heart, were confident that
God spake by Moses and the prophets; and that, with the incidents, the
people and the local names we had lately passed among, we might as soon
believe in the non-existence of the sun and stars, as that the books
called "The Law of Moses" are not in every word a record of infallible
truth.

We had now a different journey, and a different set of scenes before us,
entering into the half tribe of Manasseh.

[Picture: Triumphal Arch]

Ascending the steep mountain-sides with two of the guides, I preceded the
rest of the party, and even the baggage mules. In perhaps half an hour,
(it may be more,) I came to a triumphal arch, the commencement of Jerash.
One of the guides told me that they call this the Amman Gate of the old
city; for that, in ancient times, there were two brothers, one named
Amman, and the other Jerash. Each of them built a city, and gave it his
own name; but called the gate nearest to his brother's city, by the name
of that brother.

At this gateway I observed the anomaly of the columns on each side of the
principal opening, having their capitals at the bottom of the shafts, and
resting on the pediments, though in an upright position. It was very
ridiculous. When could this have been done--at the original erection of
the gate, or at a later rebuilding, after an earthquake had shaken the
pillars? It would seem to me to be the former, as they are posted
against the wall, and this is not disturbed or altered. The columns and
the curve of the portal are gone, so that it cannot be seen whether
originally they had capitals on the heads also of the columns. It is
most probable that those remaining are not the true capitals, inasmuch as
they have no volutes.

Passing by inferior monuments of antiquity,--such as a sepulchre, a
single column, a sarcophagus, and then a square elevated pavement in good
condition, upon which are several sarcophagi, some of them broken, and
all with the lids displaced,--I came to a large circus of Ionic columns,
almost all standing, and joined to each other at