The giant cities of Bashan; and Syria's holy places . ozrites must have been men of greattaste and enterprise as well as wealth. Some of the buildingsI saw there would grace the proudest capital of modernEurope. It was a work of no little toil to explore Bozrah. The streetsare mostly covered, and in some places completely blocked up,with fallen buildings and heaps of rubbish. Over these I hadto climb, risking my limbs among loose stones. The principalstructures, too, are so much encumbered with broken columnsand the piled-up ruins of roofs and pediments, that one hasgreat difficulty in getting
The giant cities of Bashan; and Syria's holy places . ozrites must have been men of greattaste and enterprise as well as wealth. Some of the buildingsI saw there would grace the proudest capital of modernEurope. It was a work of no little toil to explore Bozrah. The streetsare mostly covered, and in some places completely blocked up,with fallen buildings and heaps of rubbish. Over these I hadto climb, risking my limbs among loose stones. The principalstructures, too, are so much encumbered with broken columnsand the piled-up ruins of roofs and pediments, that one hasgreat difficulty in getting at them, and discovering their pointsof interest or beauty. In trying to copy a Greek inscriptionover the door of a church, I clambered to the top of a weight caused it to topple over, and it fell with a terriblecrash. It was only by a sudden and hazardous leap I escaped,and barely escaped, being buried beneath it. And we werehourly exposed to danger of another and. still more pressingkind. Bozrah had once a population of a hundred thousand. 1 I I I BEDA WIN ROBBERS. 65 souls and more; when I was there its whole inhabitants com-prised just twenty families ! These live huddled together in thelower stories of some very ancient houses near the castle. Therest of the city is completely desolate. The fountains near thecity, and the rich pastures which encircle them, attract wander-ing Bedawin,—outcasts from the larger tribes, and notoriousthieves and brigands. These come up from the desert with afew goats, sheep, and donkeys, and perhaps a horse; and theylurk, gipsy-like, about the fountains and among the ruins of thelarge outlying towns of Bashan, watching every opportunity toplunder an unguarded caravan or strip (Luke x. 30) an unwarytraveller, or steal a stray camel. The whole environs of Bozrahare infested with them, owing to the extent of the ruins andthe numbers of wells and springs in and around them. Ourarrival, numbers, and equipments had been carefully noted ;an
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