Conduct (Hastings' Dictionary)

1 Es 8" ' I was ashamed to ask the king footmen, and horsemen, and c. for safeguard against our ad versaries ' — mod. ' escort. ' So Shaks. Cymb. lU. v. 8— * So, sir, I desire of you A conduct over land to SlUtord-Haven.' See Ethics. J. Hastings. CONDUIT {n))ir\, iSpayuy6i, aqvirducttis). — A channel for the convej-ance of water from the source whence it was derived to the place where it was delivered.

It wound round hills, or passed through them by means of tunnels ; and crossed valleys upon arches or upon a substructure of solid masonry. The channel, when not itself a tunnel of varying height, was rectangular in form, and either cut out of the solid rock or constructed of masonry. It was covered by slabs of stone to keep the water pure and cool, and its floor had a alight ami fairly uniform fall.

The remains of ancient conduits constructed for the conveyance of water to towns, or for purposes of irrigation, are common in Pal., but it will only be necessary here to allude to those connected with the water supply of Jerusalem. Amongst the oldest of the ,Ierus.

conduits are the rock-hewn channel that entered the temple area from the north, and was cut through when the ditch that separated Bezetha from the Antonia was excavated ; one at a low level, beneath 'Robinson's Arch,' which was de stroyed when Herod built the west periholos wall of tlie temple ; and the well-known tunnel that conveyed water from the Fountain of the Virgin to the Pool of Siloam. An inscription in Phcon.

char- acters in the last conduit carries the date of itscou struction back to the Hth cent. B.C. Kquiilly interesting and, iierlinps, in part of I 464 CONEY COXfESSIOlN greater age, is the conduit about ISJ miles long which convev«>i water from the ' Pools of Solomon,' beyond Betlilohem, to the temple enclosure at Jerus., and is known as the 'low-level aqueduct.'

Tradition, with great probability, ascribes the con- struction of this conduit to Solomon, who must have found himself obliged to increase the water supply when the temple services were instituted. The channel, which is about 2 ft. deep and IJ ft. wide, pa.s.ses under Bethlehem by a tunnel. It has been conjectured that this conduit was called 'Tannin' by the Jews from its serpentine course, and that the ' Dragon's Well ' of Neh 2" was an outflow from it in the Valley of Hinnom.

At a later date a pool {piscina) was constructed in the Wdily Arriib to collect the water from springs in that valley, and this was connected with the ' low -level aqueduct' by a conduit about 28 miles in length, wliich, near Tekoa, passed through a long tunnel. This conduit is apparently that alluded to by Jos. (Ant. XVIII. iii. 2, BJ II. ix. 4) as having been made by Pontius Pilate with the Corban. The most remarkable work, however, is the • high-level aqueduct,' which probably entered Jerus.

at the Jatfa Gate. It was apparently con- structed by Herod for the supply of the citadel and palace which he built on tlie W. hill, and of the fountains and irrigation channels in his palace gardens (BJ v. iv. 4) ; and it displays a very high degree of engineering skill.

It derived no portion of its supply from the ' Pools of Solomon,' but had its head in Wddy Bk'tr, ' valley of wells,' where it passed through a tunnel about four miles Ion", which collected the water from several small springs, awl had numerous shafts leading to the surface. On issuing from the tunnel it entered a piscina, where any sediment contained in the water was deposited, and it aftervvards passed through a second tunnel 1700 ft. long, which had nine shafts, — one 115 ft. deep.

The conduit crossed the valley in which the ' Pools of Solomon ' lie, above the upper pool, and at this point its level is 150 ft. above that of the ' low-level aqueduct.' One of its most interesting details is the inverted syphon, compo.sed of perforated limestone blocks, cased in rubble masonry, which crosses the valley between Bethlehem unA Mdr Eli&s. No details have come down to us of the manner in which the water con- veyed by the numerous conduits was distributed after it reached Jerus.

; but there were probably fountains, supplied by small conduits of lead or earthenware, as well as cisterns and pools, to which the public had access. Amongst the conduits mentioned in the Bible are : ' the conduit of the upper pool,' at the end of which Isaiah was commanded to meet Ahaz (Is 7'), and beside which Sennacherib's messengers stood when they spoke to the people on the wall (2 K 18", Is 36^) ; that bv which the waters of Gihon were brought straight down to the \\".

side of the city of David (2 Ch 32') ; and that connected with the pool made by Hezekiah (2 K 20=°). The existence of conduits is also implied in Sir 48", Is 22^- ". In Sir 24" there is an allusion to a conduit made for irrigating a garden. C. W. Wilson.