SKETCHES OF PALESTINE. 393 



the matter agreeably to the Samaritan tradition. There is certain- 

 ly much plausibility in the arguments in favor of the Samaritan 

 texts ; which, in many other instances of variation from the receiv- 

 ed toxt, is admitted by Biblical critics to preserve the genuine 

 reading. It is very probable, that a further collation of Hebrew 

 MSS. will throw some light on the question. 



The town is governed by a Mutsellirn, or Beg, subject to the 

 Pasha of Damascus, and having under his command about 400 

 Arnaout soldiers. The prevailing costume is the Turkish dress; 

 the women wear a colored veil, concealing the whole face, as 

 in the towns of the Yemen ; the scarf thrown over the head and 

 shoulders is of a yellowish white, with a deep red border. Nab- 

 lous is in long. 35? 22' E. lat. 32? 16' N. ; and is thirty-four miles 

 N. of Jerusalem. 



The only object of antiquity noticed by travellers within the 

 town, is the eastern front of a ruined church, the site of which is 

 now occupied by one of the mosques. It presents a fine pointed 

 arch, supported by Corinthian columns, the upper part highly 

 ornamented, in the style of some of the Saracen doors in Cairo: 

 within are seen plain granite pillars ; and the whole exhibits, Mr. 

 Buckingham tells us, a singular mixture of orders, in the most 

 grotesque taste. 



Just without the city, towards Jerusalem, is a small mosque, 

 said to have been built over the sepulchre purchased by the patri- 

 arch Jacob, and bearing the name of Joseph's Sepulchre : it is at 

 the foot of Mount Gerizirn. Mr. Buckingham, noticing the Ma- 

 hommedan buildings here, 'either mosques or tombs,' says, they 

 are now called Mahmoodea. ' On the left,' he adds, * at the foot of 

 Mount Ebal, were several well- hewn grottoes in the rock, some 

 with arched, and others withvsquare doors, most probably ancient 

 sepulchres.' These he had no time to examine, although the most 

 interesting antiquities of the place. That these caves may have 

 been used as places of retreat or ascetic seclusion, is very probable ; 

 but there is no room to doubt their sepulchral character. They 

 may, or may not, be of remote antiquity ; but of this description, 

 and not far" distant, must have been the burial-place of Joseph, 

 whose bones were brought up out of Egypt to be laid in Shechem. 

 To the practice of burying in the sides of mountains, we have 

 repealed references in the Old Testament. Abraham was buried 

 in the Cave of Machpelah before Mamre ; Joshua, on the north 

 side of the Hill of Gaash in Ephraim ;* Eleazer, the son of Aaron, 

 in a hill within the same district ; and Aaron himself in Mount 

 Hor.f The ' parcel of ground ' given by Jacob to his son, is gen- 

 erally supposed to be the ' wide field,' as Maundrell terms it, into 

 which the Valley of Sichem opens at the Well of Samaria; and 

 which he describes as 'exceeding verdant and fruitful,' being 

 watered with a fresh stream, rising between it and the town. The 



* Gen. xxv. 9 ; Josh. xxiv. 22, 29. f Num. xx. 28 ; Deut. x. 6- 



