Page:Buried cities and Bible countries (1891).djvu/164

 only because of the wells, but judging from the caves, the tombs, and the rock quarryings which exist near it."

Below the hill, and near the well, there are ruins which are called 'Aid el Ma, and this is radically identical with the Hebrew Adullam. "But if this ruined fortress be, as there seems no good reason to doubt it is, the royal city of Adullam, where, we should naturally ask, is the famous cave? The answer is easy, for the cave is on the hill. We must not look for one of the greater caverns, such as the Crusaders fixed upon in the romantic gorge east of Bethlehem, for such caverns are never inhabited in Palestine; we should expect, rather, a moderate-sized cave, or (considering the strength of the band) a succession of 'hollow-places.' The site of Adullam is ruinous, but not deserted. The sides of the tributary valley are lined with rows of caves, and these we found inhabited, and full of flocks and herds. But still more interesting was the discovery of a separate cave on the hill itself, a low, smoke-blackened burrow, which was the home of a single family. We could not but suppose, as we entered this gloomy abode, that our feet were standing on the very foot-prints of the Shepherd King, who here, encamped between the Philistines and the Jews, covered the line of advance on the corn fields of Keilah, and was but 3 miles distant from the thickets of Hareth.

"The hill is about 500 feet high There is ample room to have accommodated David's four hundred men in the caves, and they are, as we have seen, still inhabited.

"It is interesting to observe that the scene of David's victory over Goliath is distant only 8 miles from the cave at 'Aid el Ma."

When David became king of all Israel, he made it his first great object to capture Jerusalem. There might be several reasons for this. In the first place, his capital