270 THE HOLY LAND. 
to the antient Hebreiu text of Genesis, and the 
book oi Judges, it would be written Schechem '. 
Josephus says that the natives called it Mabartha ; 
but by others it was commonly named Neapolis"-. 
Its modern appellation is Napolose. To the 
traditions concerning its antiquities, all writers 
bear testimony ; and since even a sceptic has 
remarked', that the Christians oiPalcestine " fixed, 
by unquestionable tradition, the scene of each 
memorable event," we may surely regard them 
circum- with intcrcst. But the history of Sichem, 
stances 
connected referring to events long prior to the Christian 
antient dispcusatiou, dirccts us to antiquities which 
'**°'^^' owe nothing of their celebrity to any traditionary 
aid. The traveller, directing his footsteps 
towards its antient sepulchres, as everlasting as 
the rocks in which they are he wn, is permitted, 
upon the authority of sacred and indisputable 
record*, to contemplate the spot where the 
remains of Joseph ^ of ELEAZAR^ and of 
(1) Reland. Palmt. Illust. lib. iii. torn. II. p. 1004. 
(2) Josephus, lib.v. deBell-Jud. c.4. ed. Havercamp. Amst. &c. 1726. 
(3) See Gibbon. Hist, &c. chap. 23. vol. IV. p. 83. Lond. 1807. 
Monsieur Chdteaubriand has referred to the same observation of Gibbon. 
(See Introduct. to Travels inGreece, &c. vol. I. p. TO. Lond. 1811.) An 
English Commentator may perhaps suspect the Historian of irony. 
(4) See the Booli of Joshua, c. xxiv. 
(5) " And the bones of Joseph, which the Children of /jro^/ brought 
out of Egypt, buried the}' in Shechem." Josh. xxiv. 32. 
(6) " And Eleazar, the son of Aaron, died; and they buried him 
in a hill that pertained to Phinehas his son, which was given him in 
Mount Ephraim." Ibid. ver. 33. 
