The evening before the morning of the battle Saul came fully to the conclusion that the Philistines were too strong for the forces under his command. In his forlorn belief in the spirit world and in the existence of Samuel, although three years dead, he determined upon an interview with the prophet if it were possible by a witch’s power of incantation to obtain it. As soon as it was dark, Saul, disguised, and with two trusty servants, crossed the valley from Gilboa northward to the village of En-dor, where in the caves near at hand there dwelt such a woman as he sought. The distance from the Fountain of Jezreel is about seven miles north. The interview with Samuel, which seems to have been as unlooked for and as terrible to the witch as it was dreadful and disheartening to Saul, is recorded in 1 Sam. 28:3‒25. =14. Early the next day= the battle began. The place called Aphek, where the main centre or headquarters of the Philistines was located, is not known, but was probably a mile southwest of Shunem, where the left wing of the army extended upon the line of its approach. The Philistines had the army of Saul at terrible disadvantage from the fact that his troops were drawn up southeast of them against the foot of Gilboa and slightly covering its sides, and thus elevated to the shafts of the archers. It was at about this age that the bow in war was used with terrible fatality by some of the African nations, and the Philistines had added this weapon to their javelins and short arms.[85] =15. It was a battle of arrows= against swords and slings, and the archers won the victory, and after a long day’s fearful contest Saul and his three sons lay dead among the defeated thousands that covered the flanks of Gilboa. Beth-shean was in sight eastward down the valley of Jezreel. It probably was never a Jewish but always a Canaanitish city, and here the Philistines the next day carried the headless trunk of Saul’s body and nailed it upon the outside walls with the bodies of his sons, while the salted head of the king was sent to the land of the victors to be carried around through the cities of the Philistines on exhibition. Large numbers of the Philistines now took possession of the vacated cities, and many of the Israelites crossed the Jordan to find other homes until better times should come. ZIKLAG AND THE SOUTH COUNTRY. =16. Among the vast numbers of the Philistine army=, as they came upon the plain from Mt. Carmel, David’s royal friend, King Achish, occupied the rear, and David and his small band would be distinguished from the lack of the conventional army uniform, which could be seen at a great distance. The appearance of the Philistines in war was specially distinguishable from that of all other warriors by a peculiar head-dress and tightly-fitting tunic, leaving the arms bare.