ABANA, or AMANA (n=t.; or r1=N; the for mer being the kethib or Hebrew text, and the latter the keri or marginal reading ; Sept. ' Alkyd), the name of one of the rivers which are mentioned by Naaman (a Kings v. 12), Abana and as ' rivers of Damascus.' Amana signifies ' peren nial,' and is probably the true name, the permuta tion of b and m being very common in the Oriental dialects. It is easy to find ' rivers of Damascus;' but there is a difficulty in appropriating the dis tinctive names which are here applied to them. The main stream by which Damascus is now irrigated is called Bamuda. This river, the Chrysorrhoas, or ' golden stream,' of the ancient geographers, as soon as it issues from a cleft of the Anti-Lebanon mountains, is immediately divided into three smaller courses. The central or prin cipal stream runs straight towards the city, and there supplies the different public cisterns, baths, and fountains; the other branches diverge to the right and left along the rising ground on either hand, and having furnished the means of extensive irrigation, fall again into the main channel, after diffusing their fertilizing influences, without which the whole would be an arid desert, like the vast surrounding plains. In those plains the soil is in some parts even finer than here, but barren from the want of water. The main stream and its sub sidiaries unite in greatly weakened force beyond the town on the south-east; and the collected waters, after flowing for two or three hours through the eastern hills, are at length lost in a marsh or lake, which is known as the Bahr el Aferdj, or Lake of the Meadow. Dr. Richardson (Travels, ii. 499) states that the `water of the Barrada, like the water of the Jordan, is of a white sulphureous hue, and an unpleasant taste.' At the present day
it seems scarcely possible to appropriate with cer tainty the Scriptural names to these streams.
There is indeed a resemblance of name which would suggest the Barrada to be the Pharpar, and then the question would be, which of the other streams is the Abana. But some contend that the Barrada is the Abana, and are only at a loss for the Pharpar. Others find both in the two subsi diary streams, and neglect the Barrada. The most recent conjecture seeks the Abana in the small river Rd gi or Fijih, which Dr. Richardson describes as rising near a village of the same name, in a pleasant valley fifteen or twenty miles to the north west of Damascus. It issues from the limestone rock, in a deep, rapid stream, about thirty feet wide. It is pure and cold as iced water; and, after coursing down a stony and rugged channel for above a hundred yards, falls into the Barrada, which comes from another valley, and at the point of junction is only half as wide as the Fijih. Mansford (Script. Gaz. in ABANA), who adopts the notion that the Abana was one of the subsidiary streams, well remarks that Naaman may be ex cused his national prejudice in favour of his own rivers, which, by their constant and beautiful supply, render the vicinity of Damascus, although on the edge of a desert, one of the most beautiful spots in the world.' See Wilson's Lands of the Bible, ii. 19; Stanley's Sinai and Palestine, p. 489, and papers by the Rev. J. L Porter, M.A., in the 7ounzal of Sacred Literature, zd series, vol. iv. p. 245, and vol. v. p. 45.