12 CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 



credible size; so that the description of the cluster cut 

 at the Brook Eshcol, and borne "between two upon 

 a staff," by the spies, is not at all improbable. Stephen 

 Schultz relates, "At Beitdjin, a village near Ptolemais, 

 we took our supper under a large vine, the stem of which 

 was nearly a foot and a half in diameter, the height 

 about thirty feet, and covered with its branches a hut 

 more than fifty feet long and broad. The bunches of these 

 grapes are so large, that they weigh from ten to twelve 

 pounds ; and the grapes may be compared to our plums." 

 Foster, in his Hebrew Dictionary, under the word 

 "Eshcol," says, "I knew at Nurnburg a monk of the 

 name of Acacius, who had resided eight years in Pal- 

 estine, and had also preached at Hebron, where he 

 had seen bunches of grapes which were as much as 

 two men could conveniently carry." Christopher Neitz- 

 schutz, who travelled through Palestine in the year 

 1634, speaking of his excursions on the Jewish moun- 

 tains, says, " I can say with truth that I saw and ate of 

 bunches of grapes which were each half an ell long, and 

 the grapes two joints of a finger in length." These 

 accounts are worthy of entire credence, and are indeed 

 surpassed by the grapes of Damascus at the present day, 

 which are often found to weigh twenty-five pounds to the 



