ROADS.-ROAD-MAKING.-MODERN ORIENTAL ROADS.-PREPARATIONS FOR A JOURNEY. CARAVAN. - TRIBES MOVING. SINGLE TRAVELLERS.-WALKING.- RIDING.-CAMEL FURNITURE. RUNNING FOOTMEN.-RATE OF TRAVELLING.-MEMORIAL STONES BY THE ROADSIDE.-MEASURES OF DISTANCE. IN describing the occupations of the Jews, we cannot leave out of consideration the important question of the means of communication by which trade and ordinary intercourse were carried on. Hardly anything is more distinctive of Asiatic as compared with European life, than their mode of travelling, and in this, as in many other respects, little progress has been made during the last 3000 years.

The earliest notice we have of a roadway is in

ROADS IN PALESTINE.

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Num. xx. 17, where we read of the "king's highway" in the country of the Edomites, by which the Israelites wished to travel without turning to the right hand or to the left. A similar expression is again used in reference to the roads of the Amorites in the following chapter (xxi. 22). These roads may originally have been mere tracks, but in process of time a roadway was thrown up, stones were erected to mark its course, and caravanserais established at definite intervals. These roads were maintained by the kings of the countries at the expense probably of the travellers, who paid dues on entering each separate territory: they were hence called "king's highways."

The character of the regularly-formed road is indicated in the following passages from the prophets "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed" (Is. xl. 3-5): "Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people: cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people" (Is. Ixii. 10): "Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps; set thine heart towards the highway, even the way which thou wentest" (Jer. xxxi. 21). It thus appears that the process of road-making in these early days was but rude, and consisted only of a removal of the great impediments, together with the formation of a roadway by "heaping up" the ground above the level of the surrounding district. Such roads were directed by the Mosaic law to be made to each of the cities of refuge (Deut. xix. 3), and these were probably the first roads constructed in Palestine. At a later period the Romans introduced regular paved roads with milestones; these are traceable in certain spots at the present day.

The various kinds of roads now seen in the East correspond in character to those we have been describing. We are told, for instance, by one writer that "The road is not like a king's highway with us, made before it is travelled, but is made by the feet of the animals that travel it; and as camels generally follow one another, it consists of many narrow paths in one broad way. We counted fifteen or twenty of these narrow paths mingling with each other, in a breadth of thirty or forty yards. Verdure and wild genista often occurred between the paths, so that the camels were frequently bending their long necks to feed as we journeyed. We noticed this because it seems to illustrate the description of Wisdom in Proverbs,She standeth by the way in the places of the paths.' Hence also the expression, Hold up my goings in thy paths;' and in Psalm xxiii.-' He leadeth me in paths of righteousness." "Narrative of a Mission of Inquiry to the Jews, p. 96.

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The following is from Sir Thomas Rae's chaplain : "I, waiting upon my Lord Ambassador two years, and part of a third, and travelling with him in progress with that king (the Mogol), were in one of our progresses... nineteen days, making but short journeys in a wilderness, where, by a great company sent before us, to make those passages and places fit to receive us, a way was cut out and made even, broad enough for our convenient passage."-See CALMET.

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Travelling near Bagdad, we had ten or fifteen peasants with us to act as pioneers, in repairing bridges, and smoothing bad passages for the takht-teven (litter) in which Mrs. Rich rode."-RICH'S Koordistan.

"The road (along the desert) was now marked by pillars, composed of heaps of brick, at distant intervals; the Arabs call these 'ahmoud,' that is 'pillars.' They are peculiarly useful to the traveller, for it is as easy for one to find his way amidst drifted snow that has covered the tracks and lines of a road, as to find it

in this sandy desert; and no doubt to these allusion is made by the prophet, 'Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps.' When a hurricane has passed over the desert, the traces in the sand are easily obliterated, which may be alluded to by the prophet, 'O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy (swallow up) the way of thy paths.' "— Narrative of a Mission of Inquiry to the Jews, p. 55.

دو

The absence of inns in our sense of the term, that is, places where food as well as lodging can be procured, rendered it necessary for travellers to carry a large stock of provisions with them. Hence Abraham's servant travelling to Mesopotamia, required no less than ten camels to carry all the things he took along with him (Gen. xxiv. 10). The same amount of preparation is still needed:-"The preparations for a journey for some thirty days through the desert occupied a good deal of time. A tent was to be purchased and fitted up; water-skins were to be procured and kept full of water, which was to be changed every day, in order to extract the strong taste of the leather; provisions were to be laid in for a whole month, besides all the numerous smaller articles which are essential to the traveller's progress and health, even if he renounce all expectation of convenience and comfort. "We chose a large tent with a single pole. This was folded into two rolls, for which we had sacks; so that it was easily packed and loaded, and suffered little damage on the way. We had large pieces of painted canvas to spread upon the ground under our beds, and found these more convenient than poles or bedsteads; as the mattresses could be rolled up in them during the day, and thus be protected from dust or rain. At a later period, when we came to travel with horses and mules in Palestine, we left our mattresses behind, taking only blankets and other coverings, which might by day be thrown over our saddles. Indeed, if he choose, the traveller can very well do without either

bed or tent, provided he has cloaks and covering enough to protect him from the night chill. But to us it was important to keep a tolerably full record of our observations; and for this a tent and lights were neces

sary.

"We had wooden boxes, like those of the Mecca pilgrims, for packing many of the articles; but afterwards abandoned them for small sacks and larger saddle-bags of hair-cloth, like those of the Bedawin. These proved to be more advantageous, as diminishing the bulk of the loads, and thus removing a source of expense, and a cause of grumbling among the cameldrivers and muleteers."-ROBINSON'S Researches, i. 34, 35.

Another result of the infrequency of inns and the difficulties of travelling by insecure and little frequented routes is that people seldom go singly, but form themselves into caravans or "companies." The earliest notice we have of this mode of travelling is in Gen. xxxvii. 25: -"Behold, a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt." We again read in Isaiah xxi. 13:-"In the forest in Arabia shall ye lodge, O ye travelling companies of Dedanim." The progress of a caravan is regulated by the enforcement of almost martial discipline, and the annual travelling of those great bodies of people that go in pilgrimage to Mecca* through the desert, may serve in a striking manner to illustrate the travelling of the children of Israel through those very deserts.

We learn from the book of Numbers that the Israelites journeyed in companies, each company having a prince over it, and an ensign or standard by which it was distinguished, and near which it encamped ; that the signal for the moving of the hosts was the blowing of a trumpet, and that they travelled by night

*The city of Mecca, in Arabia, was the birthplace of the false prophet Mahomet, and his followers go there in great multitudes annually.