The physical character of the country and the peculiarity of its position had a marked effect on the inhabitants of Gilead, and still have to this day. The Gaclites retained their old pastoral and semi nomad habits, while their brethren west of the Jordan settled down in cities and farms. Gilead was border land ; exposed along the eastern fron tier to the unceasing raids of the desert tribes, and on the north to the armies of Syria. The people thus situated became inured to fatigue, danger, and war. Jeplithalt, the Gileadite, played a distin guished part in the time of the Judges, leading on his followers after the manner of an Arab Sheikh (Judg. xi.) ; and some of David's noted warriors were trained amid these mountains (I Chron. xii. 8, 15). Ramoth-Gilead became the gathering place and stronghold of the tribes beyond the river, and the scene of many a fierce conflict (r Kings xxii. 4 ; 2 Kings viii. 28). The Gilead ites sustained the first onslaught of the great As syrian conqueror, and became the first captives (xv. 29). Gilead was a favourite asylum for reffi gees. When Abner rallied the Israelites around Ishbosheth, he brought him over the Jordan to Mahanaim (2 Sam. ii. 8) ; and thither David fled from Absalom (see Stanley, S. and P., 322). The reason was twofold—Gilead was a great natural stronghold where invasion and apprehension were equally difficult ; and the Gileadites, with that genuine hospitality which characterises the Arab tribes, were ever ready to giVC a home and a wel come to the stranger.
After the close of the O. T. history the name Gilead is seldom mentioned. It seems to- have soon passed out of use ; for though referred to a few times by the apocryphal writers (t Maccab. v. 9, 20, 36), by Josephus (Antiq. i. 19. iz ; Bell. yzed. ii. 3. 3), and by Eusebius (Ononzast. c.); yet it seems only to be borrowed from the Bible. The allusions are all i,ague, and those who make them had evidently no definite knowledge of the country. In Josephus and in the .N. T. the names Pertva and nepap Toiz' '10pScivou, are used instead of Gilead (Bell. Yud. iii. 3. 3; Isdatt. iv. 15 ; John i. 28) ; and the country is sometimes spoken of by Josephus as divided into small provinces, called after their capi tals, Gadara, Pella, etc., in which Greek colonists had established themselves during the reign of the Seleucidae (Joseph. Bell. 7ztd. iii. 3. I).
Gilead is now divided into tvvo provinces, sepa rated by the Jabboc. The northern is called
yebel Ajli2n, and the southern yebel 7ildd, in which we can Yecognize the ancient name. The inhabi tants, like the old Gadites, are semi-nomads, whose wealth consists in flocks and herds. Like them, too, they are harassed by the desert tribes, they are inured to arms, and they are noted for their hos pitality. The capital of the whole country is es Salt, which occupies the site of Ramoth-Gilead (Burckhardt, Trav. in ; Buckingham, .4rab Tribes ; Lord Lindsay's Travels ; Irby ana' Mangles).
The great body of the range of Gilead is Jura limestone, but there are also occasional veins of sandstone. The oak and terebinth flourish on the former, and the pine on the latter. The average elevation of the mountains is about 25oo feet ; but as seen from the west they appear much higher, owing to the depression of the Jordan valley. The summit of the range is singularly uniform, resem bling a great wall ; yet the sides are deeply seamcd with mvines. The pastures are everywhere luxu riant ; ..and the wooded heights and winding glens clothed with tangled shrubbery, and having here and there open glades and flat meadows of green turf, present a marked contrast to the general bareness of western Palestine. In passing through the country one can scarcely get over the impres sion that he is roaming through an English park. The graceful hills, the rich vales, the luxuriant her bage, the bright wild-flowers, the plantations of ever-green oak, pine, and arbutus ; now a tangled thicket, and now sparsely scattered over the gentle slope, as if intended to reveal its beauty ; the little rivulets fringed with oleander, at one place running lazily between alluvial banks, at another dashing madly down rocky ravines. Such are the features of the mountains of Gilead. And then, too, we have the cooing of the wood-pigeon, the hoarse call of the partridge, the incessant hum of myriads of insects, and the cheerful chirp of grasshoppers to give life to the scene. Add to all the crumbling ruins of town, village, and fortress, clinging to the mountain-side or crowning its summit, and you have a picture of the country between es-Salt and Gerasa' (Handbook for S. and P., p. 31o). Such a picture, too, illustrates at once the fertility as cribed to it by Jeremiah (xxii. 6 ; 1. 19), and the judgments pronounced against it by Amos (1. 3, r3). —J. L. P.