42
Wells covered by large Stones.
[Book I.
Petra, the long lost Capital of Edom , an intense interest was excitedamong the learned men of Europe , and several hastened to behold themost extraordinary city of the World; a city excavated out of the rocks,whose origin goes back to the times of Esau , the ‘ father of Edom, ’ andwhich had for more than a thousand years, been completely lost to thecivilized world. But the natives swore, as in the times of Moses, theyshould not enter their country, nor drink of their water, and they threatenedto shoot them like dogs, if they attempted it. It was with much difficultyand danger, that Burckhardt at length succeeded in obtaining a glimpseof this singulär city. He was disguised as an Arab , and passed under thename of Sheik Ibrahim. The difficulty and danger of a visit to Petra,is now however in a great measure removed by the present Pasha, Ma-hommed Ali.
From the custom of concealing many ancient Wells, we learn the im-portant fact, that machines for raising the water could not have been at-tacked to, or permanently placed near them. As these, as well as curbsor parapets projecting above the ground, would have betrayed to ene-mies and strangers their location. When the woman at Bahurim secretedUavid’s spies in the well belonging to her house, and “ spread a coveringover the well’s mouth, and spread ground corn thereon;” 2 Sam. xvii, 19,her device could not have succeeded, if a curb had enclosed its mouth,or if any permanent machine had been erected to raise the water from it;as these would have indicated the well to the soldiers of Absalom , whowould certainly have examined it, because wells were frequently usedas hiding places in those days. There is a tradition in Persia that one ofthe Armenian patriarchs, was concealed several years in a well, duringthe persecution of the Christians under Dioclesian and Maximinian; andwas ‘ privately relieved by the daily charity of a poor godly woman.’Fryer, 271.
When Ali the fourth Caliph of the Arabians , marched with ninetythousand men into Syria , the army was in want of water. An old hermit,whose cell was near the camp, was applied to ; he said he knew but ofone cistern, which might contain two or three buckets of water. TheCaliph replied that the ancient patriarchs had dug wells in that neighbor-hood. The hermit said there was a tradition of a well whose mouth wasclosed by a stone of an enormous size, but no person knew where it was.Ali caused his men to dig in a spot which he pointed out, and not far fromthe surface, the mouth of the well was found. a
Where wells were too well known to be concealed, as those in theneighborhood of towns, villages, &c. they were sometimes secured bylarge stones placed over them, which required the combined strengthof several persons to remove. ‘ A great stone was upon the well’s mouth;and they rolled the stone from the well’s mouth and watered the sheep,and put the stone again upon the well’s mouth.’ Gen. xxix, 2, 3. The Ma-hommedans have a tradition that the well at which Moses watered theflocks of his father-in-law, was covered by a stone which required severalmen to remove it. It is indeed obvious large stones only could have beenused, for small ones could not extend across the wells, which were fre-quently of large diameter. Jacob’s well is nine feet across, and somewere larger The curb round the well Zemzem at Mecca , is ten feet indiameter. “ Another time we passed an ancient well,” says Lindsay, Let.10, “ in an excursion from Jerusalem to Jericho and the Dead Sea , itsmouth sealed with a large stone, with ahole in the centre, through which