=Ordinary Palestinian Roads.= The common Hebrew word for road is _derekh_, which means literally _a trodden path_, made by the feet of men and animals. It well describes a majority of the roads of Palestine to-day. It suggests to the experienced Palestinian traveller in most cases a narrow path, so thickly strewn with rocks that it is to him a never-ceasing wonder that his horse or mule is able, without mishap, hour after hour to pick its way over these rough piles of stone. Sometimes the path runs over a steep mountain hillside, where the animal is obliged to lift itself and rider by sheer strength up rocky steps a foot and a half to two feet in height or to hold itself with marvellous skill on the sloping side of a slippery rock. Often the horse flounders blindly among scattered boulders while it braces itself against the rush of a mountain stream. At times the traveller must balance himself on his horse as it struggles and often swims through fords whose waters reach almost to the top of its back. =Evidence that the Hebrews Built Roads.= There are indications, however, that road construction was not entirely unknown to the ancient Hebrews. _M[)e]sill[=a]h_, another common Hebrew term for road, means literally _that which is heaped up_, that is, _a raised way_. The common translation, _highway_, is exact. In Judges 20:31, 32 there are references to highways which ran to Bethel and to Gibeah. In I Samuel 6:12 is an incidental reference to the road which ran from the Philistine city of Ekron up through the Valley of Sorek toward Jerusalem. Along this road the ark was sent, drawn on a cart by two cows. The ancient narrative alludes, however, to the roughness of the road. From I Kings 12:18 it is clear that in the days of the united kingdom a highway for chariots ran from Shechem to Jerusalem. The allusions in II Kings 7 also indicate that in the later days of the northern kingdom there was a road from Damascus to Samaria, over which the chariots of the Arameans passed. As early as the reign of David royal chariots became common in Israel (_e. g._, I Kings 1:5). This fact does not prove the existence of great highways like those built by the Romans, for the ancient charioteers were able to drive over roads which would seem to a westerner utterly impassable; but it does imply the rude beginnings of road construction, probably under royal supervision. Apparently the Israelites inherited from the more highly civilized Canaanites a few well-worn highways and a certain knowledge of the art of road-making.