The Maccabaean

We set off for Rechoboth late in the afternoon. Not a cloud marred the purplish blue sky. The sun was setting upon the western mountains of Judea. We crossed the plain of Sharon, approaching the upper part of the Sephelah, imperceptibly ascending the heights of the plateau, the most important part of Judea. This plateau is about twelve miles wide and forty-five miles long, extending from the vale of Ajalon in the North and to Gaza in the South.

The plateau is separated from the plain by a range of low chalky foothills and by a valley or inner-lowland called the Sephelah. The last was the bone of contention between the Shepherd tribes and the Philistines, when the Hebrews conquered the plateau and strove to expel the Philistines, their most powerful antagonists of the Shanon. The villages of both contestants lay in close proximity and the Sephelah belonged to neither. Among the vineyards of one of these pretty villages Samson grew up (Judges 5 13:2), and in the neighboring Philistine villages of Timnah, and in the vale of Sorek (Judge 14:1-16:4) (where the railway from Jaffa to Jerusalem now runs) he met the fair miaidens. Here in the Sephelah, Saul was encamped against the Philistines under a pommegranate grove of Migron (Sam. 14:2) and. again on the other side of the vale of Elah (Sam. 17:2), and here was the chief. battle ground for the two races in the days of David, the sturdy son of the wealthy sheep-owner, when on one fine morning he passed the narrow valley coming down from Bethlehem to meet his antagonist, the Philistine warrior, Goliath.

The general topography here undergoes marked changes. As soon as the plain is passed, the hills are more or less bare, trees become scarce and flowers are not quite so profuse. The villages are situated on the hills, with grainfields and pas-

tures in the valleys. The land of the upper part of the Sephelah is not quite so beautiful or fertile, and the road not as good as the plain we traversed in the morning. One observing the contrast of this territory is not surprised that the Israelitic armies of the highland exerted all efforts to wrest the beautiful plain from their neighboring adversaries.

Ibrahim was in good humor and indulged in Arabic melodies, which sound to the Western ear more like a plaintive declamation than a song. One, however, that is familiar with the traditional music of the Jew, especially of Asia and Eastern Europe, at once recognizes a similarity in the music of the Arab and that of his cousin the Jew, a point which Fthnolo- gists may take advantage of in establishing the Semitic origin of the modern Jew.

We soon reached the model settlement Rechoboth, with its verdant fields and abundance of trees, an oasis in the desert compared with the surrounding territory. Large fields of rolling pasture whereon cattle made their way toward the settlement, and fields studded with white daisies and a myriad of familiar wild flowers, lav as wreaths of welcome at our feet when we entered the colony.

It was twilight, and the Rechobites were returning from their day's toil in the fields, hailing us cordially as our carriage took us to the modest little inn. On the way we passed two encampments where several white tents were pitched, around which were frolicking children and women engaged in preparing the evening meal. These were not the camps of hostile Beduins nor of friendly tourists. They were the homes of Jewish laborers that had recently arrived from Yemen, and of native Jewish working men (Frankists) who had come here to work during the busy season. The men having just returned from work, gathered into two respective bodies with