"They preserve their ancient faith and form of worship, and they have a temple on Mount Gerizim, above the town, where annually they celebrate the Feast of the Passover and eat of the Paschal lamb. They showed us a copy of the Pentateuch, which is claimed to be the oldest in existence. The high-priest who held and opened it says it was written by a grandson of Aaron. There is good reason to doubt that it is more than a thousand years old, and the case containing it belongs to the fourteenth or fifteenth century. They would not let us unroll and examine it, and so we must accept the statement of others, who have had a better opportunity, that the parchment is fifteen inches wide and from twenty to thirty yards long, and contains the whole of the first five books of the Old Testament." There was not time to spare for the ascent of Mount Gerizim, which rises above Nabulus, and is ascended chiefly for the view from the summit. The top of the mountain is covered with ruins, and the spot is pointed out where Abraham was about to slay Isaac when his hand was stopped by divine interposition. There have been Jewish temples, Roman castles, Christian churches, and Moslem mosques on Mount Gerizim, and, as Frank states in his journal, the Samaritans go there to celebrate the Feast of the Passover, and perform other ancient rites. The party made a late start from Nabulus in the direction of Jenin and Nazareth. As they rode from their camp Doctor Bronson called the attention of the boys to the fact that the streams east of the town flowed into the Mediterranean, while those to the west found their way into the Jordan and the Dead Sea. The route lay through a region of pleasing valleys and plains not unlike those they had seen the day before, and for part of the way they followed an ancient road which the guide said belonged to the time of the Romans, or might even be older by a few centuries. There was a succession of olive and fig orchards, interspersed with gardens and fields, and the terraces on the hill-sides showed that not a foot of arable soil had been overlooked. There were numerous villages clinging to the hill-sides, or nestled among the rocks, and altogether the landscape was full of picturesque effects. [Illustration: SEBUSTIEH, THE ANCIENT SAMARIA.] Through scenes like these they made their way for two hours and more, when the guide called their attention to a village on the side of a broad hill. Immediately in front of them was the ruin of a Roman gate-way, with two of its arches standing, and not far from the gate-way was a group of natives with the ever present camel. Old olive-trees were on the slopes and through the valley, and covered the hill where stood the village to which the guide pointed. "That is Sebustieh," said the Doctor, "a modern village on the site of ancient Samaria."