M. Clermont Ganneau was the fortunate explorer who first recovered the name, and I was delighted to find that Corporal Brophy had also collected it from half a dozen different people, without knowing that there was any special importance attaching to it. The title being thus recovered, without any leading question having been asked, I set out to examine the site, the position of which agrees almost exactly with the distance given by Jerome, between Eleutheropolis and Adullam--ten Roman miles. The Great Valley of Elah (Wâdy es Sunt) is the highway from Philistia to Hebron; it has its head not far from Terkûmieh, and runs down northwards, past Keilah and Hareth, dividing the low hills of the Shephelah from the rocky mountains of Judah; eight miles from the valley-head stands Shochoh, and Wâdy es Sunt is here a quarter of a mile across; just north of this ruin it turns round westward, and so runs, growing deeper and deeper, between the rocky hills covered with brushwood, becoming an open vale of rich corn-land, flanked by ancient fortresses, and finally debouching at the cliff of Tell es Sâfi. About two and a half miles south of the great angle near Shochoh, there is a very large and ancient terebinth, one of the few old trees of the species, along the course of the valley, which took its Hebrew name of Elah from them. This terebinth is towards the west side of the vale, just where a small tributary ravine joins Wâdy es Sunt; and near it are two ancient wells, not unlike those at Beersheba, with stone water-troughs round them; south of the ravine is a high rounded hill, almost isolated by valleys, and covered with ruins, a natural fortress, not unlike the well-known Tells which occur lower down the Valley of Elah. This site seems to be ancient, not only because of the wells, but judging from the caves, the tombs, and the rock quarryings which exist near it. The hill is crowned with a little white-domed building, dedicated to “the notable chief” (Sheikh Madhkûr), who seems to have no other name. The ruins round it are named from the Sheikh. But although to the site itself no name except Sheikh Madhkûr is applied, there are ruins below the hill and near the well, which are called ’Aid el Ma, or ’Aid el Miyeh, “Feast of the Water,” or “Feast of the Hundred.” Both pronunciations are recognised, and either is radically identical with the Hebrew Adullam. The ’Aid represents the Hebrew Ed, “monument,” and the Ma, “water,” reminds one of Jerome’s curious translation of the name Adullam--“Testimonium Aquæ, Monument of Water.” But if this ruined fortress be, as there seems no good reason to doubt it is, the royal city of Adullam, where, we should naturally ask, is the famous cave? The answer is easy, for the cave is on the hill.