Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/299

Sepulchral Architecture. 269 Canaanites, amongst whom they lived for centuries. On the other hand, we know that the Hebrews, as late as their kings, still made use of undressed stones as more appropriate to the deity. The country is throughout brown and bare in summer, except the stretches towards Gaza and Esdraelon, where the scenery presents an agreeable contrast to that of the highlands. Clear brooks are running through grassy plots, or breaking in falls over immense boulders, hung with brambles and feathery fern, and over the Jordan plains, broad wolds, dotted with clustering trees, deep ravines and murmuring brooks, whose presence is revealed by tall rushes, or the dark green oleander laden with pink blossoms, everywhere meet the gaze. The menhir or erect stone is perhaps the oldest of human Fig. 177.— Dolmen at Ala-Safat. De Luynes, Voyage, torn, i. p. 135, monuments ; be it to mark a sacred spot, the burial-place of a chieftain, or some traditional event that had taken place there. To this day, as the Arab travels along the main routes of the country, and comes upon stone monuments erected by Moslem pilgrims, at every point where a shrine first becomes visible, he piously adds a stone to the mass. 1 The earliest instances we have of these monu- ments in the Bible is the "pillar" or menhir raised by Jacob at Bethel to record a vow ; again, when he takes leave of Laban, he set up a " pillar " which he called Gabead Djel-aad, the " witness," i.e. of " the covenant they had made " [Gen. xxxi. 44-47). We read of the twelve " cromlechs" or " stones from Jordan" to mark at the passage of the Israelites ; 2 of Joshua's pillar under the oak Sichem, 3 and of the stone erected over Rachel's grave {Gen. xxv. 20). 1 Respecting this custom, see Conder, Heth and Moab, pp. 207-209 ; and De Saulcy, Hist. Judaïque, p. 73. 2 Josh. iv. 1-9. 3 Ibid., xxiv. 26, 27.