44

Description of ancient Wells.

[Book I.

CHAPTER VII.

Wells concluded: Description of Jacob’s well—Of Zemzem in Mecca—Of Joseph’» well at Cairo—Reflections on wells—Oldest monuments extant—Wells atElim—Bethlehem—Cos—Scyros—Heliopolis—Persepolis—Jerusalem—Troy—Ephesus—Tadmor—Mizra—Sarcophagi employed as watering troughs—Stone coffin of Richard III used as one—Ancient American wells—Indicate the existence in past timesof a more refined people than the present red men—Their examination desirable—Might furnish (likethe wells at Athens,) important data of former ages.

A description of some celebrated wells may here be inserted, as weshall have occasion to refer to them hereafter. Jacob’s well, is one ofthe most ancient and interesting. Through a period of thirty-five cen-turies it has been used by that patriarch’s descendants, and distinguishedby his name. This well is, as every reader of scripture knows, near Sy-char, the ancient Shechem, on the road to Jerusalem , and has been visitedby pilgrims in all ages. Long before the Christian era, it was greatly re-vered, and subsequently it has been celebrated on account of the inter-view which the Savior had with the woman of Samaria near it. Its lo-cation according to Dr. Clarke is so distinctly marked by the Evangelist,and so little liable to uncertainty from the circumstances of the well itself,and the features of the country, that if no tradition existed for its identity,the site of it could hardly be mistaken.

The date of its construction may, for aught that is known to the contrary, extend far beyond the times of Jacob; for we are not informed thatit was digged by him. As it is on land which he purchased for a residence,“ of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem, ” and was in the vicinityof a Canaanitish town; it may have been constructed by the forme’owners of the soil, and probably was so. The woman of Samaria whenconversing with the Savior respecting it, asks ‘ Art thou greater than ourfather Jacob who gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, his childrenand cattle 1” John, iv, 12. She does not say he dug it. This famouswell is one hundred, and five feet deep, and nine feet in diameter, and whenMaundrell visited it, it contained fifteen feet of water. Its great an-tiquity will not appear very extraordinary, if we reflect that it is boredthrough the solid rock, and therefore could not be destroyed, except byan earthquake or some other convulsion of nature; indeed wells of thisdescription, are the most durable of all man’s labors, and may, for aughtwe know, last as long as the World itself. #

The well Zemzem at Mecca , may be regarded as another very ancientone. It is considered by Mahometans one of the three hobest things inthe world, and as the source whence the great progenitor of the Arabs was refreshed when he and his mother left his father’s house. “ She sawa well of water, and she went and filled the bottle with water and gavethe lad to drink.” Gen. xxi, 19. This well, the Caaba and the blackstone, a were connected with the idolatry of the ancient Arabs , centuriesbefore the time of Mahomet. The Caaba is said to have been built byAbraham and Ishmael , and it is certain that their names have been con-nected with it from the remotest ages. Diodorus Siculus , mentions it as

“This stone like those of the Hindoos and the one mentioned in Acts, xix, “feildown from heaven” and is probably a meteorite.