HOUSES IN HAURAN.

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wholly composed of stone, including roofs, and even doors, that they never need repairs. In times of great danger, when a visit from Arabs of the desert is apprehended, the inhabitants either retire to some other town, or barricade themselves in their houses by heaping up loose stones to oppose the approach of horsemen to the most defenceless parts of their dwellings, while they can assail them with the same materials from the terraces above. It is only by walls of loose stones, heaped up without cement, that the enclosures for the cattle are formed, unless, as is sometimes the case, they are driven into the dwelling itself at night, where they remain perfectly secure from depredation."-BUCKINGHAM's Arab Tribes, pp. 180, 326.

"In general each dwelling (in the towns of the Haurān) has a small entrance leading into a courtyard, round which are the apartments: of these the doors are usually very low. The interior of the rooms is constructed of large square stones; across the centre is a single arch, generally between two and three feet in breadth, which supports the roof; this arch springs from very low pilasters on each side of the room, and in some instances rises immediately from the floor; upon the arch is laid the roof, consisting of stone slabs one foot broad, two inches thick, and about half the length of the room, one end resting upon short projecting stones in the walls, and the other upon the top of the arch. . . . The rooms are seldom higher than nine or ten feet, and have no other opening than a low door, with sometimes a small window over it. In many places I saw two or three of these arched chambers one above the other, forming so many stories. . . To complete the durability of these structures, most of the doors were anciently of stone, and of these many are still remaining: sometimes they are of one piece, and sometimes they are folding doors: they turn upon hinges worked out of the stone, and are about four inches thick, and seldom higher than about four feet,

though I met with some upwards of nine feet in height."-BURCKHARDT's Syria, &c., pp. 58, 59.

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In other parts of Palestine stone was used only in the more expensive structures, such as the houses of the wealthy, public buildings, and fortifications. In all these cases, great pains were taken to select stones of very enormous size. The disciples were perfectly justified in their admiration of the size of the stones used in the temple :- Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here" (Mark xiii. 1). Their size strikes even modern travellers with astonishment. Among the ruins of Baalbec are "three stones, which alone occupy a space of one hundred and seventyfive feet and one half: viz. the first, fifty-eight feet seven inches; the second, fifty-eight feet eleven; and the third, exactly fifty-eight feet; and each of these is twelve feet thick. These stones are of a white granite, with large shining flakes: there is a quarry of this kind of stone under the whole city and in the adjacent mountains, which is open in several places; and among others, on the right as we approach the city, there is still lying there a stone, hewn on three sides, which is sixty-nine feet two inches long, twelve feet ten inches broad, and thirteen feet three inches in thickness."-See CAlmet, Fragment, lx.

In the wonderful piece of wall identified by Dr. Robinson with part of the ancient foundations of the Jewish temple at Jerusalem, is a corner-stone, measuring "thirty feet ten inches in length, by six and a half feet broad." -Researches, i. 286.

Above all, the finest stone was reserved for the foundation or chief corner-stone, which was always regarded with special honour, and was hence made a type even of our blessed Lord Himself:-" The stone which the builders refused is become the headstone of

دو

the corner (Ps. cxviii. 22; compare Matt. xxi. 42; Mark xii. 10; Luke xx. 17).

There is no doubt that the walls of the cities of

ORIENTAL HOUSE.

وو

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Palestine were, even in the earliest ages, built of stone. The strongholds of the Canaanites, at the time of the entrance of the Israelites, were great and walled up to heaven (Deut. i. 28); "fenced with high walls" (Deut. iii. 5); and the walls which the Israelites themselves erected were of the same material.

The general form of an eastern house is quadrangular, with a courtyard in the centre, into which the windows look, and round which the rooms are arranged. This description applies, of course, most truly to the better class of habitations; but it is also to a certain extent true of the lower class, with the explanation that each room becomes frequently a house in the joint occupation both of the family and of the domestic animals belonging to them. The general aspect of an eastern cottage cannot be better described than in the following extracts :

"In the plain between Ramlah and Gaza, the houses are so many huts, sometimes detached, at others ranged in the form of cells around a courtyard, enclosed by a mud wall. In winter they and their cattle may be said to live together, the part of the dwelling allotted to themselves being only raised two feet above that in which they lodge their beasts."-VOLNEY'S Travels, ii. 335.

"Many large flocks of sheep and goats were coming into the village, and we followed the 'footsteps of the flocks,' in order to see where they were lodged all night. We found the dwellings to be merely cottages of mud, with a door, and sometimes also a window, into a courtyard. In this yard the flocks were lying down, while the villagers were spreading their mats to rest on within. Small mud walls formed frail partitions to keep separate the larger and smaller cattle; for oxen, horses, and camels were in some of these enclosures. We could not look upon these 'folds for flocks,' so closely adjoining the 'dwellings and cottages

for shepherds,' and this in the very region anciently called the sea-coast,' without expressing to one another our admiration at the manner in which God had brought about the fulfilment of the prophecy-The sea-coast shall be dwellings and cottages for shepherds, and folds of flocks." "-Narrative of a Mission of Inquiry to the Jews, &c., p. 112.

Niebuhr thus describes the Arabs' huts in Arabia :"The walls are of mud, mixed with dung; and the roof is thatched with a sort of grass which is very common here. Around the walls within are a range of beds made of straw, on which, notwithstanding their simplicity, a person may either sit or lie commodiously enough. Such a house is not large enough to be divided into separate apartments. It has seldom windows; and its door is only a straw mat. When an Arab has a family and cattle, he builds for their accommodation several such huts, and encloses the whole with a strong wooden fence."-NIEBUHR's Travels, i. 255.

"There are about one hundred and forty huts at Howash (in Syria), the walls of which are built of mud: the roofs are composed of the reeds which grow on the banks of the river Orontes. The huts in which these people live in the mountain during the summer are formed also of reeds, which are tied together in bundles, and thus transported to the mountain, where

1

HOUSES AT ASSALT.

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they are put up so as to form a line of huts, in which the families within are separated from each other only by a thin partition of reeds."—Burckhardt's Syria, &c., p. 135.

"The houses of Assalt are very small; each dwelling, with few exceptions, consisting of only one floor, and this having only one room, subdivided into recesses, rather than separate apartments. They are mostly built of stone; and, where necessary, a few pointed arches are thrown up on the inside, to support a flat roof of branches of trees and reeds plastered over with clay. The interior of the dwelling is generally divided into a lower portion for the cattle and poultry, and an upper part raised as a terrace, about two feet above the ground-floor, for the use of the family. In this raised part the fireplace for cooking is generally placed; but in no instance that I observed was there a chimney for carrying off the smoke; and as wood and turf are the fuel generally used, it becomes painful to those not accustomed to it, to sit in any house more than an hour where a fire is burning. In the upper division are the beds, clothes' chests, and provisions; and for the better security of these, there are again other subdivisions made in the upper part of the house by walls, shelves, and recesses, all formed of dry mud, or sunbaked clay, without being whitewashed or ornamented in any manner. There is seldom any aperture for light, except the doors, which must be shut when storms of rain or snow occur, and are always closed at night; so that those within are then enveloped in darkness and smoke." BUCKINGHAM'S Arab Tribes,

pp. 33, 34.

"An Arab cottage consists of but four bare walls, generally with numerous openings, or rather windows without glass, having crossbars of wood instead of iron, similar in shape to those of an English prison. We consoled ourselves with the idea that it was the same in ancient days, for where it is said in Scripture, 'He