FULFILMENTS OF PROPHECY.

THE fields of Tafyla, (near Edom,) are frequented by immense numbers of crows; the eagle is very common in the mountains, as are also wild boars. In all the valleys south of the Arnon, large herds of mountain goats (the Satyr of Scripture) are met with. The Katta also is met with in such numbers in the neighbouring mountains, that the Arab boys often kill two or three at a time, merely by throwing a stick at them. The only sounds that break the night silence of the valley of Petra," are the hooting of the owls, or the distant cry of the fox or jackal." The ruins of Edom are also said to abound with scorpions.

"Petra," observes Dr. Wilson, " may be characteristically spoken of as an habitation of dragons. The Arabs, in the space of a few minutes, caught for us some scores of lizards, chameleons, centipedes, and

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dragons." Thorns and brambles, too, are numerous ; climbing the columns, and hiding the monuments. the interior of what seems to have been a palace, and in its adjoining enclosures, there are many brooms, thistles, nettles, thorns, &c., growing. It is impossible to look at them in the place where they are found, without recalling the language of the prophet in Isa. xxxiv. 13.

Of the character of the wild Arabs who frequent the heights of Edom, and are its only inhabitants, very bad accounts are generally given. They resist any entrance into their territory, in the hope of extorting money from travellers.

"The messages which arrived in the course of the morning from the opposite party, were only a renewal of protestations and oaths against our entering their territory; and they even threw out menaces of cutting off our return from where we were; thus situated we could not but compare our case to that of the Israelites under Moses, when Edom refused to give them a passage through her country."-IRBY AND MANGLES.

They have the reputation of being very daring thieves a savage and treacherous race. Their ignorance and barbarous condition are extreme,—they are only bent on seeking for treasures amongst the wonderful antiquities which surround them; and Burckhardt speaks of the clearing away of rubbish to allow the water to flow into an ancient cistern at Madeba, as an undertaking far beyond the views of the wandering Arabs.

"On the western side of the valley, hewn stones, formerly used in different kinds of edifices, public and private, are seen scattered about in all directions, and in some places covering the ground to a considerable depth. Numerous foundations and broken walls, rising but little from the ground, are also visible. These ruins, and those corresponding with them in the destroyed walls of the terraces for cultivation on Mount

Seir, and the covering of the soil by their fragments, as well as the washing down of that soil from the heights, are impressive indications of the desolations of Edom. 'God shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness,'-or, as it is by some rendered, 'the line of wasteness, and the plummets of desolation."-DR. WILSON.

Surely in all these particulars we cannot fail to recognise the literal fulfilment of the prophetic word.

"It might with truth be called Petræa," writes Burckhardt of this district of Arabia, "not only on account of its rocky mountains, but also (because its elevated plain) is so much covered with stones, especially flints, that it may with great propriety be called a stony desert, though susceptible of culture; in many places it is overgrown with wild herbs, and must once have been thickly inhabited, for the traces of many ruined towns and villages are met with on both sides of the Hadj road between Maan and Akaba, as well as between Maan and the plains of Hauran; in which direction are also many springs. At present all this country is a desert; and Maan is the only inhabited place in it."-BURCK

HARDT.

MAON.

SCRIPTURE NOTICE.

"THE Maonites did oppress you; and ye cried unto me, and I delivered you out of their hand."—Judges x. 12.

"Maan is situated in the midst of a rocky country, not capable of cultivation; the inhabitants, therefore, depend upon their neighbours of Djebal and Shera for their provision of wheat and barley. At present, owing to the discontinuance of the Syrian Hadj, they are scarcely able to obtain money to purchase it. Many of

them have commenced pedlars among the Bedouins, and fabricators of different articles for their use, especially sheepskin furs; while others have emigrated to Tafyle and Kerek... The inhabitants considering their town as an advanced post to the sacred city of Medina, apply themselves with great eagerness to the study of the Koran. The greater part of them read and write, and many serve in the capacity of Imams, or secretaries, to the great Bedouin Sheikhs. The two hills upon

which the town is built divide the inhabitants into two parties, almost incessantly engaged in quarrels which are often sanguinary; no individual of one party ever marries into a family belonging to the other.

"At Maan are several springs to which the town owes its origin, and these, together with the circumstance of its being a station of the Syrian Hadj, are the cause of its still existing. The inhabitants have scarcely any other means of subsistence than the profits which they gain from the pilgrims in their way to and from Mekka, by buying up all kinds of provisions at Hebron and Gaza, and selling them with great profit to the weary pilgrims; to whom the gardens and vineyards of Maan are no less agreeable, than the wild herbs collected by the people of Maan are to their camels. The pomegranates, apricots, and peaches of Maan are of the finest quality. In years when a very numerous caravan passes, pomegranates are sold at one piastre each, and every thing in the same proportion. During the two days' stay of the pilgrims, in going, and as many in returning, the people of Maan earn as much as keeps them the whole year."-BURCKHARDT.

BOZRAH OF EDOM, PROBABLY EL BUSAIREH.

SCRIPTURE NOTICES.

"JOBAB the son of Zerah of Bozrah reigned in his stead (over the land of Edom.)”—Gen. xxxvi. 33.

"The Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.”—Isaiah xxxiv. 6. "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah ?"—Isaiah lxiii. 1.

Judgment is come. . . upon Bozrah, and upon all the cities of the land of Moab, far or near."-Jer. xlviii. 24.

21,

"I have sworn by myself, saith the Lord, that Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all the cities thereof shall be perpetual wastes." Jer. xlix. 13. (See ver. 7-22.)

"I will send a fire upon Teman, which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah.”—Amos i. 12. (Ver. 11. Micah ii. 12.)

(Busaireh) is a village of about fifty houses. It stands upon an elevation, on the summit of which a small castle has been built, where the peasants place their provisions in times of hostile invasion. It is a square building of stone, with strong walls. (It) appears to have been in ancient times a considerable city, if we may judge from the ruins which surround the houses."-BURCKHARDT.

"This place, El-Busaireh, seems to bear in its name decisive tokens of antiquity. It is now a village of about fifty houses, &c. There is reason to suppose that another Bozrah lay here within the proper limits of Edom, and was for a time the capital of the country. Bozrah is often coupled with the land of Edom itself; while the prophet Amos speaks of it expressly in connexion with the land of Teman, or the south. Further, both Eusebius and Jerome mention a Bozrah as existing in their day in the mountains of Idumea, distinct from the northern Bozrah.

"A Bozrah is once mentioned among the cities of Moab this is not improbably the same; since the possession of particular cities often passed from one hand to