Page:Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894.djvu/137

Rh community, the matter of finding wives continues to be one of great difficulty. The High Priest's son, however, though only 17, has been married some time. A marriage was recently arranged between a young Samaritan and a rich Joppa Jewess, but it fell through, the difficulty, I understand, being the question as to who should perform the ceremony.

At Sebastieh (Samaria) I found that extensive repairs were going on in the mosque at the east end of the Church of St. John. I noticed an interesting stone fragment, perhaps recently turned up: a bust of a man in coat of mail, arms raised to level of head, supporting three small columns, one in each hand and one on his head. The summit of the hill of Samaria is crowned by a tell. The tell-slope is unmistakable; the top fairly flat coming to a distinct edge, and dropping at a sudden angle. At the west and north I should estimate the accumulation at about 40 feet. The flat top continues to the east where a terrace occurs, like a platform on the tell, indicating the ruin of some later building that did not cover as much ground as the earlier ruins.

Between Jenîn and Haifa we passed the two great tells of Ta'anuk and Mutesellim, near Lejjûn. The latter is somewhat circular in shape, and its north and south axis at the summit measures about 1,000 feet. The accumulation at its southern end is 50 feet, while at the northern end over 80 feet. As I paced up and down this magnificent site, commanding such a wide outlook over the plain of Esdraelon, and remembered a similar outlook from the smaller Tell el Hesy, which yielded up its story to us, I confess I felt a burning desire, which returns upon me as I write, to put the spade into the larger tell also, and see if it would not settle the much discussed site of Megiddo. Whatever Mutesellim may represent, the site was one of the most important in the whole country. The pottery on the summit is not very distinctive, but the absence from it of the Roman ware, so prevalent in the fields between the tell and Lejjûn, suggests that the earlier occupations were at the tell and the later near the mills. The tell at Ta'anuk is smaller than that of Mutesellim, but very similar in appearance. They are less than 5 miles apart, which is suggestive when we remember how often Taanach and Megiddo are mentioned in lists, the one after the other, as well as the phrase "Taanach by the waters of Megiddo."

February 7th, 1894.



Auwaly flowing westwards from the Lebanon enters the sea about two miles north of Sidon. Some eight miles from its mouth, at Merj Bisry where the narrow bed widens into a small fertile plain, it is joined by the river of Jezzîn coming down from the south. The