Magrunte or Magroonat
(in Syriac "Madjroonat") means "the female neighbours."]

Fragments of gray granite pillars, still standing, are here to be met
with about the road, the fields, and the sand, and we saw one lying on
the ground half buried. On one side stands a "Sidr" tree (see sketch),
and to the right in the other hollow of the valley is another. The
pillars are the remains of an ancient temple, Raphia, and are of special
importance in the eyes of the Arabs, who call them Rafah, as they mark
the boundary between Egypt and Syria.

[Illustration: SAGER EL EMIR.]

[Illustration: RAFAH COLUMNS.]

We took our midday meal close to the pillars, being now within the Holy
Land, and after a short rest resumed our journey. Leaving a green
sloping valley on the left, and passing sandy hills, we went over gently
undulating grass-land, and saw before us the township of Benishaela,
situated on the flat crest of a hill. Numerous cows grazing, and flocks
of kites soaring in the air, enlivened the otherwise monotonous
landscape.

But here the aspect of the country suddenly changed, and we saw that we
had entered the Land of Promise. Mud walls, with thorn bushes and
prickly pears, enclosed the fields, in which almonds, apricots, and
figs, sycamores, locust, and "Sidr" trees, vied with each other in a
luxuriance all the more cheering to the eyes of the traveller from the
barren desert. Passing several small houses built of clay, straw, and
stones, we reached at three o'clock Khanyunis, the picturesque Kala of
which seemed to invite our approach. We found that our camps had been
pitched opposite to it in a field surrounded by opuntias.

The governor Chaker Effendi, whose family were still in El Halil
(Hebron), where he formerly resided, came to welcome us. He was very
friendly, and ordered our camp to be guarded by three cavalry and four
infantry soldiers, who relieved each other every two hours. There were
one or two negroes amongst them, but the greater number were slim and
muscular Arabs, and some of them remarkably handsome men. The governor
personally conducted us afterwards over the Kala. Before describing
this, however, I must give the reader some general account of
Khanyunis.

IX.

KHANYUNIS.

Khanyunis (or Khan Yunas) is the furthest Syrian place in the direction
of Egypt, and in some respects the last outpost of the immediate
authority of the Porte, as El Harish is of that of the Khedive. Between
the tw