262 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



been there, and that man's accommodation had been in some measure attended to. The 

 thirsty and weary traveller was reminded by these signs that others had suffered similar 

 difficulties, reposed in the same spot, and, doubtless, found their way in safety to a more 

 fertile country. Again ; the scarcely visible current which escaped from the basin, served 

 to nourish the few trees which surrounded the fountain ; and where it sunk into the 

 ground and disappeared, its refreshing presence was acknowledged by a carpet of velvet 

 verdure." Some of the wells that occur in the wilderness of Arabia were halting-places 

 to the descendants of Jacob in their migration through it, and appear under the same 

 character now as then, shaded by a few palms, often supplying brackish and bitter water, 

 capable of being sweetened by artificial means, and claimed as valuable property by the 

 parties having territorial right to the soil. " And when they came to Marah, they could 

 not drink of the waters, for they were bitter ; " but the juices of a plant thrown into 

 them, rendered them palatable. There is every reason to suppose this spot to be the 

 fountain Hawarah, a basin of unpleasant, saltish, and somewhat bitter water, near which 

 Dr. Robinson found many bushes of the shrub Ghurkud in blossom, a low thorny plant 

 producing a red berry, which ripens in June, which is juicy and slightly acidulous, capable 

 of correcting the bad qualities of the spring by mingling with it. " And they came to 

 Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees." This is 

 identified upon good grounds with Wady Gharandel, a valley about seven miles from the 

 former station, a mile in breadth, with date trees, tamarisks, acacias of different species, 

 and a copious fountain producing a small rivulet. The non-existence at present of twelve 

 wells is no evidence, as Burckhardt remarks, against the conjecture, for water here is 

 readily found by digging for it, and wells are frequently formed which the drifting sands 

 fill up. Drawing water has ordinarily been the employment of females throughout the 

 East, without distinction of rank, from a remote antiquity, an onerous duty, as the 

 wells are often at considerable distances from their habitations. " The daughters of the 

 men of the city came out to draw water," is a remark which refers to a period separated 

 by two thousand years from the time of a similar record, " there cometh a woman of 

 Samaria to draw water." Equally ancient and general is the oriental practice of making 

 the neighbourhood of a spring the scene of occasional festivity and mirth, a usage which 

 was primarily a tribute of gratitude for its waters. " When I was at Ain, in Palestine," 

 says Maritis, " a young Arab woman, at whose wedding I had been present on the first 

 day of our arrival at the village, came hither to draw water. She was accompanied by 

 some other women who were singing a song allusive to her marriage." We have a song 

 of the Israelites, of the recitative kind, commemorating a spring, encountered soon after 

 their emergence from the dry and thirsty desert. 



" Spring up, O well ! Answer ye to it ! " 

 One party sung these words, and called upon another band to reply ; and they replied 



" The well ! The princes searched it out." 



And the chorus was, 



" The nobles of the people have digged it, 

 By decree ; upon their own borders." 



Dr. Clarke informs us that the Eleusinian women practised a dance about a well, that 

 was called Callichorus ; the dance was also accompanied by songs in honour of Ceres ; 

 and these songs of the well are still sung in parts of Greece and Syria. There is a 

 similar practice in our own country, which will be adverted to upon a subsequent page. 



The origin of springs, a subject invested with considerable obscurity, has been referred 

 to the rains and melted snow which the earth absorbs ; to the subterranean combination 



