of Urtâs to the Dead Sea, and wasted their sweet waters in the bitter lake, till a Solomon's hand restrained them, and led them into these great reservoirs, and built the famous duct round hill-sides, over plains, and across valleys, to convey the water to the Temple on Mount Moriah. Even now the fountain opposite to the Mosque-el-Aksa is thus supplied. Sometimes, it is true, the supply is scanty there, owing to the careless keeping of the aqueduct; for men water their horses at the various openings, and otherwise waste the water, before it can reach the city. Every new Pasha does his best to enforce strong measures to prevent this abuse, but generally gives up the attempt after a short time.
We rode homeward, following, as nearly as we could, the course of the aqueduct. At every opening we saw the running water framed in a mass of delicate maiden-hair and moss; at several of these places women were, contrary to the law, washing their clothes, and filling their water jars. It strikes me, that there may have been a chariot road by the side of this aqueduct, in ancient times, and it may have served as a sort of coping or parapet to it. No chariot-road is to be found there now, and in some places the path is difficult even for a mule; yet, when we consider what damage the torrents of one Winter will effect, we may wonder that the torrents of centuries have not proved even more destructive than they have.
Roads in this land must have required peculiar attention and care. In the Talmud it is said that, before the going up of the tribes, three times a year, to Jerusalem, the roads leading to it were prepared. "Prepare the way of the people; cast up the highway, gather out the stones, take up the stumbling-block out of the way of my people." I can imagine the kind of preparation required in obedience to this command; how the rocks, and stones, and débris of the hills, washed down by the Winter rains, were cleared away; how the fallen tree-trunks were gathered up and supported; and the broken edges of the road and the holes
