and the Israelites were then obliged to retrace their steps. down the Arabah valley as far as the Wady el Ithem, near Elim (or Akabah), and, by this narrow defile through the mountains, to make their way northwards along the high road to Damascus, known as "El Derb-el-Haj," which runs at the back of the Edomite valleys, and along the margin of the Arabian table-land.

Coming down somewhat later, to the time of the Kings of Judah, we find that Amaziah revenged the affront shown to the Israelites by the terrible slaughter of the Edomites in the Valley of Salt,-probably the great plain at the southern end of the Dead Sea; and after his victory, marching southwards into the mountains, he captured the capital, then called "Selah" (or the Rock), synonymous with Petra, and changed its name to "Joktheel," or "subdued by God" (2 Kings xiv. 7). According to the usual reckoning, this was B.C. 839 years, from which we may infer that Petra had been the capital of Edom for some time previously, that is to say, for about a thousand years before the Christian era. In the centuries immediately preceding this era, the influence and prosperity of Petra appear to have expanded to such an extent that we find it referred to by classic authors both of Greece and Rome. Strabo gives a very clear description of its position and surroundings. It is described as the metropolis of the Nabatheans, and distant from Aila (or Elath), at the head of the Arabian Gulf, ten Roman miles. (The real distance is much greater.) According to the same historian, Petra was situated in a level valley, decorated with gardens and fountains, but bound in by rocks on all sides; beyond its precincts lay the deserts, chiefly in the direction of Judea. In the fourth century B.C., the city was so strong as to have successfully resisted Antigonus; and, at a later period, B.C. 24, also, the invasion of Gallus, the Roman governor of Egypt; but ultimately it fell before the Roman armies, under their general, Hadrian, and became a portion of the province of Syria. during the reign of Trajan, receiving the name of Hadriana, as shown by the coins of that period. This brings the history of Petra down to the commencement of the second century of our era; and it is probable that to this time may be referred many of the temples, together with the rock-hewn theatre, aqueducts, and other public buildings, of which the remains come down to the present day. The city was the great entrepôt of commerce for Central Arabia. It was

* Strabo, lib. xvi.

connected by several high roads with Damascus, with the cities of the Persian Gulf, with the harbour of Aila, and with the coast of the Mediterranean, and thus with Egypt, Palestine, and Tyre. We may gather from Strabo that spices. landed at Aila in the ships of the Minæi and Gerraræi, probably from the district of Southern Arabia known as "the Yemen," were taken to Petra, and exchanged for the products of the Phoenicians. At some very early periodperhaps in Apostolic times-Christianity was introduced into Arabia Petræa; we might even hazard the conjecture that this event took place through the agency of St. Paul himself, who, as we know from the Epistle to the Galatians, went into Arabia after his conversion, and thence returned to Damascus. It is not improbable that he took advantage of this opportunity for visiting the capital of the country, and preaching to the inhabitants the Gospel he had himself received. However this may be, about the beginning of the fifth century, according to Reland,* the region extending from the borders. of Arabia to those of Syria, and constituting the ecclesiastical province of Palestine, was divided into Palestina Prima, Secunda, and Tertia, the metropolis of the first being Jerusalem; of the second, Scythopolis; and of the third, Petra. In this sense, Eusebius speaks of Petra as being a city of Palestine, at which time it was the seat of a bishop who had the oversight of the Christian populations; and there can be little doubt that during the fourth and fifth centuries Christianity had been embraced by a large proportion of the population of Arabia Petræa, especially amongst the more settled inhabitants. This brings us to the consideration of the religious history of the people of this region.

Going back to the earliest ages of Arabian history, it seems clear that the Semitic races, occupying the region between the Caucasus on the north and Southern Arabia on the south, had dispossessed the prehistoric races, whose remains we recognise in the dolmens and stone circles which are so abundant in the table-lands of Moab and to the east of the Jordan valley. According to Le Bon‡, Arab tradition points to two divisions of the Arab race; the first descended from Kachtan (the Joktan of the Bible), who now occupy the fruitful district of the Yemen, in South-Western Arabia; and the second from

* Palestina ex Monumentis veteribus illustrata (Nuremberg, 1616).

+ In a MS. in the library of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, a fourth Province, that of Bostron or Arabia, is mentioned. Palmer's Desert of the Exodus, Appendix, vol. ii. p. 551.

Dr. Gustave Le Bon, La Civilisation des Arabs (1884),

Ishmael, the son of Abraham, who now constitute the nomadic tribes, and whose territory extends through Arabia Petræa, and the table-land east of the Jordan Arabah valley. Esau, the son of Isaac, married into the family of Ishmael, and settled in Mount Seir (Gen. xxxvi. 8), which ultimately became the possession of his descendants; and thus was established a double family relationship between the nomadic descendants of Ishmael and the more settled inhabitants of Mount Seir. Thus we may, with much certainty, refer the early history of Petra (then called "Selah ") to the time of Esau, or of his immediate descendants, the Dukes of Edom, about B.C. 1700. The Edomites were doubtless at first Monotheists, worshipping the God of Abraham; but Assyrian inscriptions belonging to the seventh or eighth century B.C., together with those of Safa, afford evidence that at a later period the Arabs, including probably the Edomites, were polytheists, and erected statues to their gods. An Assyrian inscription recounting the return of Hassar-haddon from an expedition into the Arabian Desert, states that the Arab King X. arrived at Nineveh with numerous presents, petitioning humbly for the restoration of their gods, and so effectually that the monarch restored the images, together with the Arab Princess Tabura, who had been captured, and who returned to her own country along with her gods. The deities ultimately became so numerous (being, probably, chiefs of distinction) that on the authority of Le Bon, when the images were collected together in the ancient temple of Mecca called the Kaaba, the very Pantheon of Arabia, they amounted, in the time of Mahomet, to three hundred and sixty in number, collected from various tribes, thus constituting a bond of unity between all the Arabian populations, which became of great service to Mahomet in his work of unification. The Kaaba still remains. Tradition carries its foundation back to the time of Abraham, the father of the race; and Mahomet, when preaching the doctrine of the One God, had only to point out to the Arabs that it was the God of Abraham, the founder of the Kaaba, whom he proclaimed.

The transition from the worship of the Invisible God to that of the heavenly hosts, especially of the sun, is easy amongst an untutored people. There is reason to believe that at a very early period the worship of Baal was general throughout Edom and Moab.* Amongst the most ancient of

* Baal signifies "Lord," and, according to Prof. Robertson Smith, is not a proper name; but is applicable to the God of any tribe or locality.-Contemporary Review, April, 1887.

เ

the ruins of Petra is the supposed "Altar of Baal," of which an excellent representation is given by an American traveller, Mr. Edward T. Wilson.* It consists of a circular basin, cut on the surface of an isolated rocky platform, and in a conspicuous position. A perforation in the centre of the basin communicates with an underground cavern, into which the blood of the sacrifice may be supposed to have flowed away. When, in the reign of Trajan, A.D. 105, Petra fell under the Roman sway, and became the capital of the province of Palestina Tertia, it may be supposed that some of its magnificent structures became temples of the gods of Rome. To what extent Christianity gained a footing in Petra is uncertain. From the Excerpta ex Græca Notitia Patriarchatoum† it may be inferred that the settled inhabitants of Arabia Petræa had generally embraced the Gospel, and that there were a large number of villages and churches scattered over that region, of which Petra was the metropolis. By the close of Mahomet's life the whole of Arabia Petræa had been brought over to Islamism, and the only representative of Christianity which has survived to this day is the Greek convent of St. Katharine, at the foot of Mount Sinai. The stream of commerce which had flowed through Arabia became diverted by the events of the seventh century, and Petra, the fountain-head, fell into decay, and has ever since lain desolate, except when the Bedawin condescend to pitch their tents amongst the ruins. The fellahin of the Wady Musa at the present day are of a decidedly Jewish cast of countenance. Islamism has even less influence with them than with the Bedawin themselves. According to Professor Palmer, they are the sons of Leith, a lineal descendant of Kacab, and a branch of the Kheibari Jews who resided near Mecca, and played an important part in the early history of Islam. The Kheibari are still found in large numbers about Mecca and Medina, and are much dreaded by the Haj caravans, as they invariably rob and murder unarmed travellers. Intending visitors to Petra should, in the first instance, come to terms with the head sheikh Arari. On an occasion subsequent to our visit to the city (in December, 1883), I had an interview with this redoubtable chief near the shore of the Dead Sea, and I was favourably impressed by his conversation and

* The Century Magazine (New York), Nov. 1885.

+ In the Vatican, edited by Luca Holstenio (1704). Eusebius in the Onomasticon, says, Mount Hor in quo mortuus est Aaron erat juxta urbam Petram." This is a sufficient identification of the Mount known amongst the Arabs as "Jebel Haroun."

bearing. He had faithfully kept his promise upon receiving a present of £5 to protect our party from attack when marching towards our camping-grounds at Es Safieh, and he assured me that he was friendly to English travellers, and did not wish them to be put to any annoyance while passing through his territory, nor that they should pay more than what was just and reasonable for right of way.*

In recent times Petra has been visited by Burckhardt (1812), Leon de Laborde, Robinson, Wilson, Dean Stanley, Palmer, and Drake; within the last few years by Dr. Strong, Mr. Edward L. Wilson, and the members of the expedition sent out to Arabia Petræa in 1883 by the committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. De Laborde, who spent several days in the Wady Musa, made an excellent map of the valley and its branches, and has left us a graphic account of his visit and dealings with the Arab inhabitants.

As regards the architectural ruins of the Wady Musa, it would be useless to attempt to give anything like a detailed description within the limits of this paper. A better idea of their style and former magnificence may be obtained from a study of the beautiful drawings of David Roberts, or those in Picturesque Palestine, and of Mr. E. L. Wilson, already referred to. The predominating style is that known as GrecoRoman, but superadded to these are evidences of the influence of Persian and Egyptian art amongst the earliest structures, and of Christian art amongst the latest. What is specially remarkable is the total absence of Saracenic sculpture or decoration, showing how in the case of Arabia Petræa, as throughout the Sinaitic Peninsula, the Mahometan power was essentially destructive, rather than constructive, as was the case in Egypt, Persia, India, and elsewhere. Mecca and Medina having been constituted the sacred shrines of the Prophet, his followers were probably determined that no other city in Arabia should be permitted to become a rival. Hence Petra shared the fate of Feiran, and of numerous other Christian towns and villages in the Peninsula.

Of all the tombs and temples in Petra, the Khazneh is unquestionably the gem. When first seen through the narrow chasm, called the Sik, which forms the channel to the stream and the entrance to Petra from the East, the Khazneh appears like a beautiful vision. The delicate rose-tinted façade, supported by its graceful columns, lighted up with

* The account of this interview, as also of the visit to Petra and Mount Hor, will be found in the author's Mount Seir, Sinai, and Western Palestine (1884).