EUREIYEH. 39 



appointed with the first of the ' Giant Cities.' I thus 

 recorded, on the evening of the same day, the impression 

 made on us by the famous stone-houses attributed by 

 some recent writers to the Eephaim mentioned in Deu- 

 teronomy : — ' Among many houses, the comparatively re- 

 cent date of which is evidenced by fragments of Roman 

 sculpture built up into the interior walls, a few of earlier 

 times probably exist. These may be of the time of Og, 

 or they may not; there is nothing to show they were 

 built by giants.' 



The Sheikh of the village, a powerful Druse chieftain, 

 was away, but his steward pressed us hard to stay to 

 jjartake of a sheep, saying, ' What will my lord say, when 

 he returns, and finds travellers have passed his door with- 

 out tasting food ? He will be angry with me, and I shall 

 have nothing to answer him.' Throughout the Jebel 

 Hauran we were almost oppressed by the hospitality of 

 the inhabitants, and did not find any inconvenience from 

 being unattended by a Druse escort. 



Hebran is in sight from Kureiyeh, and the track to it 

 is a gradual ascent. The first half of the way is dreary 

 and monotonous, but, as we neared our resting-place, 

 dwarf oaks clothed the hillsides ; and though, being 

 unprovided with magnifying glasses or poetical imagina- 

 tions, we failed to discover the ' dizzy crags ' and ' deep 

 ravines ' described by a previous traveller, the landscape 

 redeemed itself from the charge of actual ugliness. We 

 met many parties of villagers on the road — some re- 

 turning from labour in the fields, others driving laden don- 

 keys. The position of Hebran itself is really fine. It stands 

 out boldly on a spur of the moiuitains, if a range rising 

 less than 3,000 feet from the tablelands at their base may 

 be dignified by the name. From the ruined temple which 

 crowns the crest, a wonderful panoramic view is obtained 



