I see far inland the banks which the stream anciently washed, before science began to record its freshets.

By popular preference made of the wood of a sacred tree, it was brought into church, and washed first with water and then with wine, or anciently perhaps with blood of a victim.

Anciently the country on both sides of the Euphrates was habitable as far as the river Khabur; at the present time it is all desert from Birejik downward, the camping ground of Bedouin Arabs, the great tribe of Anazeh occupying esh-Sham, the right bank, and the Shammar the left bank, Mesopotamia of the Romans, now called elJezireh or the island.

Between `Ana and Hit there were anciently at least four island cities or fortresses, and at the present time three such towns, insignificant relics of former greatness, Haditha, Alus or el-`Uzz and Jibba still occupy the old sites.

Now the Maccabean high-priests were the first to assume the title ` priests of the Most High God ' - the title anciently borne by Melchizedek.