treated as a guest of honor; the best that the home afforded was
at my service. Stuffed cucumbers, figs, olives, pomegranates, and
what, for want of a better name, I call "congealed grape-juice,"
--all these were placed before me when in the early evening they
aided my guide in serving supper.

We spent little over four hours in the saddle to-day, so I am not
wearied, and I can give interested attention to the surroundings.
And there is much to interest me here. For, while the name
"Coefrinje" is not mentioned in the Bible, nor is its site
definitely identified with the location of any biblical city, yet
there is much of Bible story centered at points within five miles
of this town.

Just across the narrow valley, only a few hundred yards distant,
is the height, Kulat er Rubad. It is crowned with the ruins of an
old castle-fortress called (together with the peak on which it
stands) the "watch-tower of Gilead." The view from the dismantled
ramparts is not excelled in this part of the world. It, indeed,
rivals the view from the celebrated peak south of the Jabbok,
Jebel Osha. Dr. Thomson says, "In reality this prospect includes
more points of biblical and historical interest than any other on
the face of the earth." And Dr. Merrill, after enumerating many of
the famous characters of history that moved under the gaze of this
mount of out-look, adds, "The view is more than a picture. It is a
panorama of great variety, beauty, and significance." To me it is
wonderfully impressive.

As the evening wore on I first gave attention to the large olive-
press close to the mission-house. The press was simple in