Tent work in Palestine : a record of discovery and adventure

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TE]NTT WOEK IIV PALESTINE.

josEi-n BiLLixc A^•D soxs, rEixmrA

TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

^ liccorb of iDiscobcri) anb JlliOcntuvc.

BY

CLAUDE REIGNIER CONDER, R.E

OFFICKR JN COMMAND OF THE SURVEY EXPEDITIOK.

J3ablisKcii fov tlu tCommittcc of titc i3alcstinc (Jr.vploration -dfuiib.

IN TWO VOLUMES.— VOL. I.

With Illustrations by J. W. Whymper.

llEto (gbitton.

LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY & SON, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,

$3ubUshcrs in (Orbinuri) to ^cr ^llajcstjj the Queen.

1879.

(AU Rights Reserved.)

^^^B&^^wm0dJ^^

TO HIS EOYAL HIGHNESS

THE PRINCE OF WALES

^hi0 (SEork is ^i;l):ratcl),

WITH HIS KOYAL HIGHNESS' GKACI0U3 PEEillSSIOX,

BY THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.

The Survey of Western Palestine was commenced
under Captain Stewart, KE., in January, 1872.
Ill-health oblis^ed that officer to return almost
immediately. Lieutenant Conder, R.E., was ap-
pointed to the command, and arrived in Palestine
in the summer of the same year. The work
meantime had been conducted under the charge
of the late Mr. C. F. Tyrwhitt Drake.

Lieutenant Conder returned to England in Sep-
tember, 1875, having surveyed 4700 square
miles. He brought with him a mass of notes,
special surveys, observations, and drawings, in the
arrangement of which he has been principally
occupied from that time to the present.

The remaining 1300 square miles of the Survey
were finished by Lieutenant Kitchener last year.

viii . FREFACE.

The volumes which tlie Committee now issue
contain Lieutenant Condor's personal history of his
work, without specially entering on the scientific
results. These will be published with the great
map in the form of memoirs, twenty-six in number,
one to every sheet.

Lieutenant Condor's conclusions and proposed
identifications are, it will be understood, his own.
The Committee do not, collectively, adopt the
conclusions of any of their officers.

W. HEPWORTH DIXON,

Chairman of the Executive Committee.

Palestine Explouation Fi'XD Offices,
11 & 12, Charing Cross, May, 1S78.

CONTENTS OF VOL. L

-<>o^*IO

CHAPTER

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION - - - -

I. THE ROAD TO JERUSALEM
II. SHECHEM AND THE SAIIARITANS -

III, THE SURVEY OF SAMARIA

IV. THE GREAT PLAIN OF ESDRAELON -
V. THE NAZARETH HILLS -

VI. CARMEL AND ACRE

VIL SHARON-

VIII. DAMASCUS, BAALBEK, AND HERMON
IX, SAMSON'S COUNTRY
X. BETHLEHEM AND MAR SABA -
XL JERUSALEM - - - - -

XIL THE TEMPLE AND CALVARY -

PAOE

vii

- Xlll

- 1

- 29

- 80

- 110

- 136

- 167

- 197

- 234

- 267

- 282

- 307

- 346

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

aJO^oo—

THE DOME OF THE ROCK — Frontispicce.

From a photograph by Lieut. Kitchener, E..E. ; showing part
of the arcade, and the pillars and ' ' grille " beneath the
Drum.

TITLE-PAGE.

From a sketch by the Author. A theodolite- party at work.

JACOBS WELL - ------- 29

From a sketch made by the Author in the vault over the
well ; looking south.

TOMB OF PHINEHAS 77

From a sketch by the Author ; looking south-west.

HEROD'S COLONNADE AT SAJMAEIA ----- 80
From a photograph ; looking east.

GUEST HOUSE 97

Fi'om a sketch by the Author made in the village of Kuriet-
Jit.

VIEW FROM JENIN - - - - - - - 110

From a water-colour sketch by the Author ; looking north.

TABOR - - - to face 120

Seen from the top of Jebel Dtlhy. From a water-colour sketch
by the Authok-.

xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PACR

CHURCH OF ST. ANNE, AT SEFFUPJEII - - - - 136

IVom a photograph by Lieut. Kitchener, R.E. ; looking east.

CARMEL 167

From a water-colour sketch l)y the Author; looking west from
near the village of ^lujeidil.

CONSTA'NTLNE'S basilica at BETHLEHEM - - - 282

From a photograph by Lieut. Kitchener, R.E.; looking east.

MAR SABA - . - - 302

From a photograph ; looking north-east.

THE DOME OF THE ROCK 307

From a photograph ; looking north.

CAPITALS SUrrORTING THE DRUM (DOME OF THE

kock) ------- to jace, 323

Reduced photographically from sketches by the Author.

THE TEMPLE WALL 346

From a sketch made by the Author in a chamber outside the
west wall, near the north corner.

SITE OF IIEROD'S TEMPLE . - . - io fact 359

Proposed restoration in dotted lines ; actual vaults and build-
ings in firm lines, with actual rock levels above the
ilediterranean.

ANCIENT JERUSALEM to jact 365

Showing places where the level of the rock has been ascer-
tained, and with lifty-foot contours.

THE PLACE OF STONING io fact 374

Generally called Jeremiah's Grotto. From a photograph ;
looking north.

Ij^TEODUCTIOE".

-o-oJq;c«>— — -

The Trigonometrical Survey of Western Palestine
is now an accomplished fact. The whole of the
material collected is safely stored in the Workinf^
Office of the Palestine Exploration Fund, and It
is hoped that in the course of the year 1878 It
will be ready for publication.

It Is not an easy task which has thus been
successfully accomplished ; the difficulties of the
Survey party have been many, and, more than
once, events seemed to threaten the entire inter-
ruption of the work. But the time was unusually
favourable in many respects, for the land was
quiet and comparatively prosperous, the Bedawin
were in subjection to the Turkish Government,
and the price of provisions and of animals was, at
first, remarkably low.

The Survey was actually commenced at the end

>^'V INTRODUCTION.

of the year 1871. Preliminary reconnaissances of
parts of Palestine had been previously made by
Captain Anderson, P.E., and Captain Warren,
P.E., and the Ordnance Survey of the neigh-
bourhood of Jerusalem, with the line of levels
from the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea, and
from Jerusalem to Solomon's Pools, had been
executed by Major Wilson, II.E.

It was by the advice of these experienced
explorers that the Committee of the Palestine
Exploration Fund undertook the Survey of
Western Palestine, to the scale of one inch to
the mile, the object being the complete examina-
tion of the whole countrv, with an amount of
a,ccuracy equal to that of Ordnance work.

The officer to whom this trreat work was
entrusted was Captain Stewart, P.E., and his
staff" consisted of Sergeant Black and Corporal
Armstrong, R.E. ; Mr. C. F. Tyrwhitt Drake
was also appointed as linguist and archccologist to
the expedition.

The work met with a most serious check at
its commencement. Captain Stewart, arriving in
the most unhealthy time of the year, and engaged
in the most unhealthy part of the country, while
measuring the base line, was struck down with

INTRODUCTION. xv

fever and invalided home. The Committee then
honoured me with the ojQTer of the command, as his
successor, and I was instructed to proceed as soon
as possible to Palestine.

In the meantime the little party, under the care
of Mr. Tyrwhitt Drake, pursued its labours, and
carried the Survey up the country to Jerusalem,
and thence to Nablus, accomplishing in the first
half of 1872 about 500 square miles. This work
has since, under my direction, been re-examined,
and the excellent character of this part of the
map reflects the highest credit on the zeal and
care of the two surveyors, who, though ignorant
of the language and unaccustomed to the style of
work required, yet succeeded in recovering every-
thino; of value in the district : nor does it less
reflect credit on the tact and judgment of my
lamented friend Mr. Tyrwhitt Drake, on whom
devolved the arduous task of orojanisino- and
managing the infant expedition.

I reached Palestine on the Sthof July, 1872,
and from that date, until the 1st October, 1875,
the work was pushed on with scarcely any in-
terruption, except during my absence for four
months in 1874, when I returned to England to
recruit my health, which was seriously impaired

x^'i INTRODUCTION.

by tlio hardships encountered in the Jordan
Valley.

After the attack on the party at Sal'ed in 1875,
an account of which will be found in the second
volume, the work was suspended for a year.
When I left Palestine four-fifths of the Survey
was comjileted ; the remaining fifth has been
happily carried out during the year 1877 under
the command of Lieutenant Kitchener, and the
great map now extends over 6000 square miles,
from Dan to Beersheba, and from Jordan to the
Mediterranean Sea.

The Survey is being prepared in twenty-six
sheets. The plan will show towns, villages, ruins,
roads, water-courses, and buildings, tombs, caves,
cisterns, wells, springs, and rock-cut Vv'ine-presses.
The hills will also be delineated, and the cultiva-
tion shown, olives, figs, vines, and palms being
distinguished; and the Avild growth, oak-trees,
scrub, and principal separate trees will appear. The
Roman milestones on the roads are marked, and
every similar relic of antiquity ; the heights of the
various principal features are given, and the levels
of the Sea of Galilee and Dead Sea have been
fixed to within a foot.

Palestine is thus brouQ-ht home to Eno-land,

INTRODUCTION. xvii

and the student may travel, in his study, over
its weary roads and rugged hills without an
ache, and may ford its dangerous streams, and
pass through its malarious plains without dis-
comfort.

The map, however, is but a part of the material
collected, and the map without a memoir would
be a sealed book. On that memoir, under the
direction of two editors, Major Wilson, R.E., and
Mr. G. Grove, I have now been employed for
nearly two years, and may hope in another six
months to have completed the work.

There are in all some 9000 Arabic names on
the map which, without translation, must prove a
stumblinQ:-block to the student: the first and most
important want was therefore a series of indexes
giving the Arabic words, their meanings when
descriptive (and tliis applies to about nine-tenths
of the whole number), their relation, when ancient,
to the Hebrew, and their origin when modern.
Thus, out of the mass of names collected, those
of real value may easily be selected; and the
danger of fixing on some modern title of little
importance, as representing some old Scriptural
site, is avoided. This translation I have en-
deavoured, as far as I was able, to carry out,

xviii INTRODUCTION.

and have submitted it to persons conversant with
the pecuUar peasant dialect of Palestine. Their
opinion on its merits is, I am glad to say,
satisfactory, as is also the professional opinion
of tlie Ordnance Survey authorities on the cha-
racter of our trian^fulation and on the technical
details of the Survey.

In addition to these names indexed in English,
in Arabic, and, where necessary, in Hebrew, the
memoir will contain three other sections ; first,
the Topographical description of the country, the
OrogTaphy and Hydrography, and the full account
of the villages and towns, of their principal build-
ings, the cultivation round them, and as far as
possible their population and ancient history ;
every inhabited place in Palestine will be so
described. In the second section, the large mass
of Archa3olo2:ical notes collected will be oiven.
Every ruin marked on the Survey sheets will
receive a notice, and full descriptions will be given
of all the important places, with minute details of
the mortar, masonry, and architectural features,
and a collection of plans and surveys to a larger
scale, including, for instance, the surveys of
Ascalon, Ccesarea, Masada, Samaria, Beisiin, and
other important towns, with the plans of all the

INTRODUCTION. xix

Crusading churches and fortresses, of Byzantine
monasteries, and ancient synagogues and tombs.
From this mass of information, arranged and
compared, I have been able to deduce many
valuable results, which tend to throw light on th<*
date of those buildings, throughout Palestine, the
orio'in of which was before doubtful, and I have
collected indications to assist in the classification
of newly-discovered buildings as either Jewish,
Roman, Byzantine, Gothic, or Saracenic.

The last section of the memoir gives informa-
tion as to the population, with all the traditions
collected which refer to special places. In addition
to this, a general geological account of Palestine
v>'ill be added, with all the observations made
regarding the formation of the Jordan Valley.

This work has been carried out by a party never
stronger than five in number as regards Europeans,
and will have been completed in httle over five
years. The account given of the country will, I
hope, be more comjDlete than anything of the kind
yet attempted for any Eastern land. The memoir
will contain information which I have at various
times carefully abstracted, from more than fifty
standard works, including Egyptian, Samaritan,
and Talmudic writings, the early Christian Itine-

VOL. I. h

3CX INTRODUCTION.

raries, and the medireval clironicks, besides the
Bible narrative, and the worhs of Josephus and
other classical authorities.

It is evident that so great a work requires
some general resume, to bring it within the reach
of the general public, who might not read the
memoir, or would fail to obtain from it any
very vivid idea of Palestine, or of the discoveries
made there during the work of the Survey Party.

The Committee of the Palestine Exploration
Fund have, therefore, further honoured me with
the commission to write the followinof account of
the work carried out under their orders, and of
the results which seem to be of most sfeneral
interest. The book is intended to give as accurate
a general description as possible of Palestine. It
is not, of course, to be supposed that the Com-
mittee necessarily hold themselves responsible for
the personal views expressed with regard to
points of controversy mentioned in these pages ;
those views are put forward on my own account,
and the public will best be able to judge how
far they are worthy of being endorsed. My aim
has, however, been to steer clear, as far as pos-
sible, of doubtful questions, and to confine myself
to the newly-acquired facts, which in many cases

INTRODUCTION, xsi

have dissipated the difficulties due to imperfect
information.

The main object of the Survey of Palestine
may be said to liave_been to collect materials

in illustration of the Bible. Few stronger con-
firmations of the historic and authentic character
of the Sacred Volume can be imagined than
that furnished by a comparison of the Land and
the Book, which shows clearly that they tally in
every respect. Mistaken ideas and preconceived
notions may be corrected ; but the truth of the
Bible is certainly established, on a firm basis, by
the criticisms of those who, familiar with the
people and the country, are able to read it, not as
a dead record of a former world or of an extinct
race, but as a living picture of manners and of a
land, which can still be studied by any who will
devote themselves to the task.

The study is threefold. It includes the minute
investigation of the detailed topography of the
Bible. Former explorers have done much in this
respect; but it may be claimed for the Survey
that the new discoveries are almost as numerous
as all those of former travellers put together.
For confirmation, I vv^ould ask the reader to turn
to the Appendix giving the list of Bible places

d(r

xxn INTRODUCTION.

now identified, and to observe the proportion
newly discovered.

The second branch is that of archaeology. The
Survey includes a complete examination of the
ancient condition of the country. The old culti-
vation is traced by the wine-presses_, olive-presses,
ruined terraces, and rude garden watch-towers.
The ancient sites are recognised by their tombs,
cisterns, and rocky scarps. Thus Ave are entitled
to draw conclusions as to the ancient cultivation,
climate, and water supply of Palestine, in Bible
times.

The third branch is the study of the people.
To this I offer a contribution in the chapters de-
voted to the peasantry and to other inhabitants of
Palestine. I trust they may serve to show how
rich a field of inquiry is opened to the student
among the ancient indigenous population of the
Holy Land.

In concluding these remarks, I would say a few
words on the subject of identification. What is
an identification? It is the recovery of an ancient
historic site, still known to the natives under its
original name, or a modification of that name,
though lost sight of by Europeans. It is evident
that the requisites for a satisfactory identification

INTRODUCTION. xxiii

are — first, the suitability of the position to all
the known accounts of the place ; second, the
preservation of all the radical parts of the name ;
third, in case of the loss of the name, we require
definite indications — such as measured distances,
or some connection with existinsf buildino-s, or
relative position to known sites. The site must
show traces of antiquity, and the name must be
placed beyond the suspicion of being of recent or
spurious origin ; the correspondence of the modern
and ancient titles must, also, not be merely
apparent, but must be radically exact. Failing
these requirements, no identification v\^ill stand
the criticism which is now brouoiit to bear on

O

newly-proposed discoveries.

A second question is intimately connected with
this subject — namely, the authority of Christian
tradition. We should not underrate this valuable
means of tracing ancient and sacred sites, w^hich
has, we may hope, handed down to us the
positions of such holy places as the Grotto of
Bethlehem and Jacob's well at Shechem ; nor
lay aside tradition because it is tradition, dis-
regarding one of the few ways of settling the
locality of places which were quite as sacred in
the fourth century as they are now.

-^-\iv INTRODUCTION.

On the other hand, a careful and minute in-
spection of the fourth-century writings cannot
but lead to one conclusion : that Christian tra-
dition can be taken only as an indication, not as
an authority. Unsupported by other evidence,
the tradition is not, in itself, sufficient to fix any
site as authentic ; yet most valuable hints may
often be obtained by a study of these early
descriptions of the land.

We may take as an example the famous
Onomasticon of Eusebius and Jerome. We are
now able to point out, on the map, almost every
place mentioned in the Onomasticon, the position
of which is clearly defined by measurement, or by
reference to neighbouring places ; for in almost
every case the name still exists, and these places
number about 200 in all.

There is thus no question that the land was
thoroughly well known to Jerome and Eusebius ;
but when we turn from their facts to their theories,
we find that the confusion is hopeless ; the places
proposed as identical with those noticed in the
Bible are quite as often impossibly guessed as
correctly fixed. In fact, the early fathers too
often jumped at conclusions, and, in the fourth
century, there were no critics to contradict them.

INTR OD UCTION. xx v

This conclusion may be supported by any number
of instances. In the cases of Shiloh and Bethhoron,
the sites mentioned are those now accepted. In
those of Nob and Ajalon, Jerome's identifica-
tions are not in any way capable of being recon-
ciled with the Scripture narrative. Thus it is
only as regards personal acquaintance with ancient
Palestine fifteen centuries ago, that the Onomas-
ticon has any real value.

The observations which apply to this work — ■
the earliest and ablest of the Christian descrip-
tions of Palestine — apply with equal force to
all succeeding accounts ; and few writers would
attempt to justify the wild theories of the
mediseval chroniclers, whose identifications, in
many cases, contradict alike the Biblical ac-
counts, and the views of the earlier Byzantine
pilgrims.

Christian tradition with regard to sacred places
can only, with a single exception, be traced back
to the fourth century — that exception is the Grotto
of Bethlehem. But Christian sites appear often
to be fixed by Jewish tradition ; and when such
is the case, their reliability is evidently increased,
their history being carried back to an earlier source.
This latter really reliable C-:".ss of traditions is dis-

-^-^^1 INTRODUCTION.

tinguishecl by the fact that the Jewish or Sama-
ritan, and generally the Moslem, traditions point
to the same spots venerated by the Christians.
The sites of the Temple, and of Jacob's well,
with Joseph's tomb, the sepulchres of the Patri-
archs, and of Joshua, Phinchas, and Eleazar, are
pointed out at the same spots by Jew, Christian,
and Moslem; and there is every reason to suppose
these to be authentic traditions.

It is, therefore, by consent of evidence that the
true and indigenous origin of a tradition may be
tested. "Where this consent does not exist, it is
to the Jewish and indigenous, rather than to the
later Christian tradition, that we should turn, as
the latter must evidently be in such cases of
foreig^n orio^in.

This distinction wdll be carefully observed in
the following pages ; and, by pointing out the
cases in which there is a general consent of the
Jewish, Moslem, and Christian traditions, it is
hoped that everything of real value preserved by
tradition will be thus selected.

C. E. C.

Christmas, 1877.

TENT WOEK IJ^T PALESTINE.

CHAPTER I.

THE ROAD TO JERUSALEM.

The morning of Monday the 8th of July, 1872,
brought us in sight of the coast of Palestine, near
Jaffa. The town rose from the shore on a brown
hillock ; the dark, flat-roofed houses climbing the
hill one above another, but no prominent building
breaking the sky outline. The yellow gleaming
beach, with its low cliffs and sand-dunes, stretched
away north and south, and in the distance the dim
blue Judean hills were visible in shadow.

Jaffa is called the Port of Jerusalem, but has
no proper harbour at present. In ancient times
the " Moon Pool," south of the town, now silted
up, was perhaps the landing-place for Hiram's
rafts of cedar- wood ; but the traveller passes
through a narrow opening in a dangerous reef

VOL. I. 1

2 TENT WORK IN FALESTINE.

running parallel with the shore, or, if the weather
is bad, he is obliged to make a long detour round
the northern end of the same reef. By ten in
the morning: the land breeze rises, and a consider-
able swell is therefore always to be expected. The
entrance through the reef is only sufficient for one
boat, and thus every year boats are wrecked on the
rocks and lives lost. It is said also that each year
at least one person is killed by the sharks close ta
land.

The little Ptussian steamer was anchored about
two miles from shore, and rolled considerably.
The decks were crowded with a motley assemblage,
specimens of every Levantine nationality. Each
deck passenger had his bedding with him, and
the general effect was that of a huge rag-heap,
with human faces — black, brown, and white — legs,
arms, and umbrellas, sticking out of the rags in
unexpected places. Apart from the rest sat a
group of swarthy Bedawin, with their huge head-
shawls, not unlike a coal-scuttle bonnet in effect,
bound with a white cord round the brow. They
wore their best dresses, the black hair cloak, with
red slippers. The rugged dark faces with white
beards and sun-scorched eyes Avore a curious
mixed expression of assumed dignity and badly-
concealed curiosity concerning the wonders of
civilisation surrounding them.

The colouring of these various groups would
have been a treat to an artist. The dull rich

THE ROAD TO JERUSALEM. S

tints were lit up here and there by patches of red
leather and yellow silk. Like all oriental colour,
it was saved from any gaudiness of effect by the
large masses of dull brown or indigo which pre-
dominated.

The steamer was soon besieged by a fleet of long
flat boats with sturdy rowers, and into these the
passengers were precipitated, and their luggage
dropped in after them. The swell was so great
that we were in constant danger of being capsized
under the companion-ladder. As we rowed off
and sank in the trough of the waves, the shore
and town disappeared, and only the nearest
boats were visible high up on the crest of the
rollers.

The exciting moment of reaching the reef came
next ; the women closed their eyes, the rowers got
into a regular swing, chanting a rude rhyme, and
waiting for the wave we were suddenly carried
past the ugly black rocks into smooth water
close to the wharf There is always a good deal
of screaming on landing, but on this occasion it
was worse than usual. The Quarantine officers
interfered, as the passengers had not been ex-
amined, and we remained in the boat for about
half an hour in hot sua, listening to the furious
storm of abuse and recrimination, which suddenly
came to an end for no very easily understood
reason ; probably from some hint of a douceur not
understood by foreigners. A very dirty Nubian

1—2

TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

now rushed at the boat, and, on his shoulders, I
made my approach to the sacred soil.

The landinsr at Jaffa has been from time im-
memorial an exciting scene. We have the terrible
and graphic account of the old pilgrim (S3e\vulf)
who, *' from his sins or from the badness of the
ship," was almost wrecked, and who witnessed from
the shore the death of his companions, helpless in a
pfreat storm in the offinof. We have the account of
Richard Lion-Heart springing, fully armed, into
the surf and fighting his way on shore. The little
port, made by the reef, has been long the only place
south of Acre where landing was possible ; but the
storms wdiich have covered the beach with modern
wrecks were equally fatal to the Genoese galleys
and Crusading war- ships.

The town of Jaffa contains little of interest,
though it is sufficiently striking to a new comer.
The broad effects of light and shadow are perhaps
enhanced here by the numerous arched streets and
the flights of steps which climb from the sea-level
to the higher part of the town. The glory of J^fla
consists in its beautiful gardens, which stretch in-
land about a mile and a half, and extend north and
south over a length of two miles. Oranges,
lemons, palms, bananas, pomegranates, and other
fruits grow in thick groves surrounded by old
cactus hedsres having^ narrow lanes between them
deep in sand. Sweet water is found in abundance
at a moderate depth. The scent of the oranges is

THE ROAD TO JERUSALEM.

said to be at times perceptible some miles from
land, to approaching ships. Still more curious is
the fact that the beautiful little sun-bird, peculiar
to the Jordan valley, is also to be found in these
erardens. How this African wanderer can have
made its way across districts entirely unfitted for
its abode, to spots separated by the great moun-
tain chain, it is not easy to explain.

Outside the town on the north-east is the little
German colonv, the neat white houses of which
were built originally by an American society which
was almost exterminated by fever, and finally
broken up by internal differences, caused, I un-
derstand, by some resemblance in the views of
the chief to those of Brigham Young. The
land and buildings were bought by the thrifty
German settlers, members of the Temple Society,
with the views and history of which sect I
became further acquainted during the following
winter.

Leaving this colony about four p.m., and passing
through the gardens, we emerged on the broad
brown plain of Sharon. My travelling companion,
an American clergyman, was unfortunately a bad
horseman, and our progress was therefore tedious.
We had with us a young Arab, the son of one of
the dragomans, and I was also accompanied by my
faithful terrier, which was mistaken by the Jaffa
street-boys, at the hotel, for a white cat. She
trotted most bravely along in the sand in spite of

C TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

the heat, or lay still on the pommel in front while
we cantered.

The soil of this plain is naturally of great fertility.
Even the negligent tillage of the peasantry pro-
duces fine harvests. The Germans ploughed
deeper, and were rewarded by a crop of thistles,
which to a good farmer would have been a subject
of satisfaction as jDroving the existence of vug'in
soil, only requiring to be scoured by other crops
for a year or two in order to yield fine harvests
of corn. At this time of year, the barley had
been gathered in, and only the dry stubble was
left.

Our ride was not a long one, as we only in-
tended to reach Eamleh that nio-ht, and we arrived
before sundown in sight of the town, which is first
visible from a rise of ground on the road. The
long olive groves here formed a dark Oasis in the
treeless plain, and above them rose the beautiful
tower of the " Forty," belonging to the fine old
ruined building called the " White Mosque," built
in the fourteenth century by the son of Kalawun.
The Forty were, according to the Moslems, com-
panions of the Prophet; according to the later
Christian tradition, forty martyrs of Cappadocia.
A second mosque, now in use, exists in the middle
of the town. This I was afterwards able to visit,
and found it to be probably the most perfect spe-
cimen of a fine twelfth century church in Palestine,
unchanged except that the beautiful western door-

THE ROAD TO JERUSALEM.

"way is closed, a prayer recess scooped in the
soutliern wall, and the delicate tracery of the
columns defaced by whitewash and plaster — a
vandalism not peculiar to Moslem restorers.

This fine church, which we were the first to
examine and plan, is probably that visited by
the old English pilgrim Sir John Maundeville,
dedicated according to him to the "Virgin, *■' where
Our Lord appeared to Our Lady in the likeness
which betokeneth the Trinity."

Ramleh, like many another town in this ruined
land, is full of contrasts of past grandeur and
of present squalor and decay. The walls of fine
stone houses are enclosed in wretched hovels of
mud. Here and there an ornate Cufic or Arabic
inscription is left, telling of Moslem conquerors
and munificent Caliphs ; but the bazaars are de-
serted, and starved dogs and helpless lepers meet
the eye on every side.

Many attempts have been made to identify
Hamleh with some ancient site. Thus the
learned Kabbi Benjamin of Tudela regarded it as
the birthplace of Samuel, while Christians have
supposed it to be Arimathaea or Ramoth Lehi.
But, against all such views, the testimony of
historians, both Moslem and Christian, is decisive.
They agree in representing it as founded by the
son of the Caliph A.bd el Melik early in the eighth
century, after the destruction of Lydda. In Cru-
sading history the town, which was then walled,

8 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

plays a conspicuous part, and, under the early suc-
cessors of Saladin it rose to considerable import-
ance ; but the site, which is, as its name indicates,
*' sandy," is not a natural one for a great city, and
the water-supply is entirely artificial, from wells
and huge tanks having Cufic inscriptions on their
sides. Picturesque as is the scene, especially from
among the palms on the east, Kamleh is never-
theless a modern place, when compared with the
high antiquity of sites near to it.

By the advice of our guide we rose, though tired
and stiff, from our miserable pallets in the Kussian
hospice, and pursued our journey by night. This
is a common practice with Syrians, the townspeople
especially having a great dread of the sun. We
fell, however, later into the habits of the peasantry,
and I feel sure that a good sound night's sleep
during the cool fits the traveller far more for hard
riding, though in the heat, than the broken rest
of a few hours followed by slow progress in the
dark.

The road to Jerusalem was once properly made,
except in the matter of drainage, but it has been,
allowed to fall into ruin asrain, and the central rib
of stones sticks out from the surface, the metalling
having been worn away on each side. The last
left of the American colony, a man of energy and
resource, once set up a coach, but, during his iUness
it was driven by less skilful hands, the horses were
liuned, and the coach itself smashed. There is

THE ROAD TO JERUSALEM.

therefore now no means of travelling except on
horseback, with mules to carry the luggage.

In silence we picked our way along beneath
the cloudless Syrian sky, bright with stars, which
shine with a lustre unknown in Eno-land. The
dawn was breaking when we began to enter a bare
wilderness of stony hills, and higher mountains,
were visible dark in the shadow beyond. In cross-
ing Palestine at any point three districts are passed
through, each of which receives a distinctive name
in the Bible and in Jewish writinofs. First we
cross the flat sea plain, in part sandy and barren,
scattered with the black tents or reed cabins of the
small encampments of Bedawin, a pastoral race
gradually losing ground before the peasantry ; in
part a cultivated and very rich corn land, with
wretched villages of mud perched on eminences
whence the breeze is better felt. To the new
comer these hamlets, most of which represent
sites older than the time of Joshua, have a de-
serted appearance. The eye misses the contrast
between roof and wall, and the glazed windows
and wooden doors seen in Europe. The peasant
hut in Palestine is merely four walls of mud, with,
a roof of boughs covered also with mud; hence the
village, which consists of jDerhaps fifty or sixty such
cabins huddled together without plan or order, and
gradually climbing the slope so that the floor of one
is level with the roof of another, has an uniform
grey colour only broken by the whitewashed dome

10 TENT IVORK IN PALESTINE.

of the little chapel dedicated to the patron " Pro-
phet" or Sheikh. In the plain there are scarcely
any springs, and the village is supplied as a rule
by a pond of stagnant rain-water banked round
freshly every year. The most conspicuous object
outside is the huge rubbish-heap where refuse of
ever}^ kind is thrown. Savage mangy half-starved
dogs keep watch above, and annoy the stranger
until boldly attacked in turn. They belong to no
one, are cared for by no one, and their only food
appears to be an occasional carcass of a donkey or
bullock. It is said that they eat mice and beetles
when nothing else is to be found. All night
they vie with the jackal in their howls, and they
are often really dangerous when rearing their
puppies.

Upon the refuse-heap, in the shade of the w^all,
the village elders may be seen seated smoking in
rows, whilst the blue-gowned women toil up the
hill with the goat- skin water-bags bound to their
heads or the red pottery jars balanced upon them,
holding in their tattooed lips the corner of the
white head-veil which prevents their mouths being
visible.

The plain once passed, the traveller enters
the district called Shephelah, or " lowlands " in
the Bible, consisting of low hills, about 500 feet
above the sea, of white soft limestone, Avith great
bands of beautiful brown quartz nmning between
the strata. The broad valleys among these

THE ROAD TO JERUSALEM. 11

hills forming the entmnces to the third district
produce fine crops of corn, and on the hills the
lono" olive otovos flourish better than in either of
the other districts. This part of the country is
also the most thickly populated, and ancient wells,
and occasionally^ fine springs, occur throughout.
The villages are partly of stone, partly of mud ;
the ruins are so thickly spread over hill and valley
that in some parts there are as many as three
ancient sites to two square miles. All along the
base of these hills, commanding the passes to the
mountains, important places are to be found, such
as Gath and Gezer, Emmaus and Beth Horon,
and no part of the country is more rich in Bible
sites or more famous in Bible history.

With dawn we came upon the entrance to the
"lowland" district, and before us were some of
the ancient places above noticed. South of the
great road, Gezer, on the road, Latrun, north of it
Emmaus.

The recovery of the site of Gezer we owe to
M. Clermont Ganneau. The position is one well
suited for an important place, and Gezer was a
roj^al city of the Canaanites. The modern name.
Tell Jezer, '' Mound of Gezer," represents the
Hebrew exactly, the meaning being "cut off" or
" isolated."

The origin of the title is at once clear, for the
site is an outlier — to use a geological term — of the
main line of hills, and the position commands one

12 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

of the important passes to Jerusalem. As is the
case with many equally important places, there is
not much to be seen at Gezer. The hill-side is
terraced, and the eastern end occupied by a raised
foundation, probably the ancient citadel. Tombs
and wine-presses, cut in rock, abound, and there
are traces of Christian buildings in a small chapel,
and a tomb apparently of Christian origin.

Beneath the hill on the east there is a fine
spring, which wells up in a circular ring of masonry ;
it is called 'Ain Yerdeh, or the " Spring of the
Gatherings," and its existence is a strong argument
in favour of the antiquity of the neighbouring
site.

The little Mukam, or Moslem Chapel, on the
hill, commands a fine view of the plain of Sharon.
On the south-west are the bare, sandy dunes of
" barren " Ekron, beyond which are Makkedah,
and Jamnia, famous for its school of learned
doctors of the law, where the Sanhedrim sat after
Bether had fallen. Due south the white cliff of
Gath projects into the plain ; on the north-west
Kamleh stands among its olive gardens, palms, and
cactus hedges, and the great tower of the " Forty"
rises Uke a belfry above them : farther north
another white minaret is seen above the Church
of St. George at Lydda, and olive groves again
hide the houses in their midst. Many of the towns
of Dan, now mere mud hamlets, are scattered over
the plain, and the view is bounded by the range of

THE ROAD TO JERUSALEM. 13

yellow sand-dunes and the shining waters of the
great sea ; on the east rise the Judean moun-
tains, the third district, which we were about to
enter.

A most interesting and curious discovery was
made in 1874 at Gezer. M. Ganneau was shown
by the peasantry a rude inscription deeply cut in
the flat surface of the natural rock. It appears to
be in Hebrew, and to read " Boundary of Gezer,"
with other letters, which are supposed to form the
Greek word Alkiou. M. Ganneau has broa<xht
forward an ingenious theory that Alkios was
Governor of Gezer at the time this boundary was
set, and he supports it by another inscription from
a tomb on which the same name occurs. This
theory might seem very risky, were it not strength-
ened by the discovery of a second identical inscrip-
tion close to the last, containing the same letters,
except that the name Alkiou is written upside
down. In both it is true the letters are hard to
read, being rudely formed, but they are deeply
cut, and of evident antiquity, whilst it can scarcely
be doubted that the inscription is the same in both
cases. M. Ganneau attributes them to Maccabean
times ; it is curious that they should thus occur in
the open country, at no definite distance from the
town, and unmarked by any column or monument.
Altogether they are among the many archteolo-
gical puzzles of Palestine, and their origin and
meaning wiU probably always remain questionable.

U TENT WORK IN PALESTINE,

On the road itself stands the old Crusadino: for-
tress, called Castellum Emmaus, and apparently
also Toron of the Knights, according to Benjamin
of Tudela. From the latter name (a French word,
meaning a hill) the present name, Latrim, seems
derived ; by a process common enough in the
Fellah dialect, el Atrun has taken the place of el
Turun, as Ajfat is the common pronunciation of
Jefat, or Ajdur of Jedur. In the sixteenth century,
however, a curious explanation of the name is
given. It is called the Castle '' Boni Latronis " of
the good or repentant thief Dismas, but this is
quite a late explanation. In the earlier chronicles
of the twelfth century Latrun is called the town of
the Maccabees, and in the fourteenth their sepul-
chral monuments were shown there ; but this notion
cannot be traced back in earlier chronicles, and
there is nothing: at Latrun which seems older
than Crusading;' times.

The third site north of the road is one of even
greater interest. The rude village of Amwas
preserves the name of Emmaus, famous in Macca-
bean history. The early Christians recognised
this place as being also the Emmaus of the New
Testament to which the two disciples walked upon
the Besurrection Da}^ This view continued to
be held till the fifteenth centurv, when it was
observed that the distance given in the present
text of the Gospel is '' sixty furlongs," whereas the
present site is just 160 from Jerusalem. This is

THE ROAD TO JERUSALEM. 15

generally held to be fatal to the tradition, but the
Sinaitic Manuscript, as usual, throws new light on
the question. This venerable fourth century text
must be held to be an important authority, because
the oldest yet discovered, and in the Sinaitic
Emmaus is said to be 160 furlongs from Jeru-
salem. There seems, therefore, no reason to sup-
pose a second and unknown place, when the
distance brings us to the famous site of Emmaus
Nicopolis.

The neighbourhood of Emmaus was the scene
of the second great Maccabean struggle. Judas
had already overthrown the army advancing on
Jerusalem by the northern pass, the famous Beth
Horon battle-field. A second, yet more formid-
able army was encamped at the mouth of the
western approach to the Holy City, and so certain
were its leaders of victory, that merchants accom-
panied the camp with money to give for Jewish
slaves, and fetters to put on their limbs when sold..
The battle of Emmaus was the Maccabean Aus-
terlitz. The little band of devotees came down by
night from the ancient praying-place at Mizpeh,
and whilst the main part of the Greek host was
enticed into the hills, the Jews advanced north-
wards on the camp, and took it, cutting off the
retreat of the heathen. Never again in the history
of this struggle did any Greek general attempt to
attack Jerusalem from the western pass.

Tliere are still ruins of the little chapel in

1 6 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

Einmaus, which the early Christians built on the
supposed spot where the Lord was recognised in
breaking bread. Near to it also was a spring,
supposed to have healing virtues. This tradition
is no doubt older than Christian times, though the
Christians added to it the assumption that its
power was due to the touch of Christ, for the
name Emmaus itself means a " healing bath," as
Josephus informs us, speaking of the Galilean
place of the same name. At the present day a
well is shown by the peasantry, called " Well of
the Plague," and it is said that a great plague
originated from the spot. It is not perhaps im-
possible that, by a curious perversion, the tra-
dition of the healinor waters wliich mio-ht cure the
plague has been converted into the modern idea
of a plague-stricken well.

Leaving the mud hovels of Latrun huddled
amidst the ancient ruins, we proceeded to the
mouth of the pass, which is called the " Gate of
the Valley." On the way we were promised a coffee-
shop, and naturally looked forward to a cool build-
ing, with shady court, perhaps a fountain in the
midst, and fruit trees around, such as one sees
depicted in views of Eastern life. Instead of so
inviting a retreat, we perceived a low circle of
stones, rudely thatched with dry boughs. A re-
markably dirty and aged peasant was roasting
black coffee within, in an iron spoon. The place
was unshaded by tree or rock. A well of dirty

THE ROAD TO JERUSALEM. 17

water was close by the hut, and the dust and heat
of the white road and white hills were anything
but pleasant to the weary traveller. The fatigue
of journeying was becoming greater, and my com-
panion especially suffered. We pushed on into
the pass, and leaving the Shephelah district, ad-
vanced into the third — the mountain country.

In the conformation of the Judean hills the
secret of the immense vitality of the Jewish
nationality is probably to be found. Had the
capital of Judea been placed at Csesarea, on the
high-road from Greece to Egypt — had it even
been permanently fixed at Shechem, accessible
through the open valley of Samaria, it cannot be
doubted that Greek or Egyptian influence would
have affected far more the manners and relio-ion of
the Jews. Hemote and inaccessible in its ruo-o-ed
mountains, Jerusalem was removed from the hio-h-
way by which the hosts of the Pharaohs advanced
on Assyria. It was only accessible by one of
three difficult passes, unless the whole country of
Samaria were in the hands of the enemy. Hence
in the mountains of Judea the national faith had
a secure home. The Philistines overran the plains
and even came up into the Shephelah ; Egyptian
and Assyrian monarchs conquered Samaria and
Galilee, but a small band of undisciplined peasants
was able, under the Maccabees, to hold at bay the
armies of the Seleucidae, and it required the fullest
efforts of Roman energy and disciphne to compass

VOL. I. 2

18 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

the destruction of Jerusalem under Titus or under
Hadrian. The history again repeats itself in Cru-
sading times. The Judean hills resisted long
after all other parts of the country had been lost,
and Saladin held Jerusalem undisturbed while
Richard overran the plains.

The same natural conformation renders the con-
struction of a railway to Jenisalem an engineering
project of no little difficulty. Within the distance
of a few miles the hills rise suddenly from the level
of the Shephelah towards the narrow plateau, 2500
feet above the sea, on which the city stands ; the
ascent is rough and steep, and the valleys very
deep, with rugged stony sides, and ledges of hard
grey rock thickly covered with shrubs, principally
lentisks and arbutus, while here and there terraces
have been artificially built up Avith dry stone walls
for the cultivation of the olive.

Near the Gate of the Valley there is a little ruined
Mukam or " station " sacred to the famous Imam
'Aly, to whom the deeds of Samson and Joshua
are commonly accredited by the peasantry. It is
conspicuous from the fine group of aged terebinths
which shade the little mihrab or prayer niche.
Ascending thence past the ancient village of Saris,
we reached at lenoih the hill above the modern
Kuriet el 'Anab, a place which calls for more
special description.

Kuriet el 'Anab, or the '' town of grapes," is
generally called Kuriuh only by the peasantry,

THE ROAD TO JERUSALEM. 19

and this suggests its identity with Kirjath of
Benjamin, in the territory of wliich tribe the
village appears to lie. It was supposed in the
early Christian times to be the site of Kirjath
Jearim, the *' town of forests," but this appears
to be an unsatisfactory identification for several
reasons. The place seems scarcely on the line of
the boundary of Judah, as Kirjath Jearim was; it is
not a hill Avith a "high" place, as we should gather
Kirjath Jearim to have been from the account of
the hill where the ark Avas kept ; and lastly, the
important part of the name bears no reference to
the ancient title, derived from some mountain
covered Avith thick Avild groAvth Avhich does not
exist near the village.

The Crusaders fixed upon Kuriet el 'Anab as
being^ the ancient Anathoth, their reasons beino- as
usual very difficult to understand. They erected
a magnificent church over a spring in the valley
north of the village, dedicated to Saint Jeremiah
of Anathoth, and this structure remains almost
intact. On its Avails the dim shadows of former
frescoed paintings can be traced, and over these
the names of pilgrims rudely scrawded like those
of the modern tourists. The church is peculiar
from the careless manner in which it has been
constructed, the walls not being at right angles ;
thus the east Avail is tAvo and a half feet longer
than the Avest, as Ave found in making the plan.

The village itself consists of stone houses of

2—2

20 TENT WORK JN PALESTINE.

better appearance than those in the plain, sur-
rounded by beautiful vineyards, the vines trail-
in <x over the stone walls like a careen cataract
flowing to the valley. The place, which derives
its name from these vineyards, was once the seat
of the famous native family of Abu Ghosh. The
most notorious of its chiefs, a robber, who held all
pilgrims to the capital in terror, was killed by the
Egyptian Government, pursuing its usual policy
of exterminating: the orreat native families : since
death he has been canonised, and a Mukam erected
to him near the villaofe. At Easter the children
of the place (which is often called Abu Ghosh after
the family) are to be seen seated along the road
offering water in spouted bottles to the pilgrims.
This charitable custom is rare in Palestine, though
occasionally in use on some of the other pilgrim
routes.

From Kurict el 'Anab the road descends to the
spring of Dilbeh, where a clear stream flows in
winter, and a patch of real turf is found. Here
we came upon a second coffee-shop, with which I
became familiar later. Though no more preten-
tious than the former in a})pearance, it was found
to be capable of furnishing us a boiled fowl, some
bread unleavened, and a glass of raki, which con-
siderably invigorated my failing companion. He
found himself able to proceed at a hand-gallop,
greatly to the discomfiture of my poor terrier, who
had been thrust into his saddle-bairs. Kiding

THE ROAD TO JERUSALEM. 21

behind I saw the unfortunate beast jogged uj) and
down, bumping against the horse's flanks until at
last she flew out, was tossed high into the air, and
fell on her back in the dust. With great pluck she
merely shook herself, and, without a single com-
plaint, scudded away after the horse on which sat
the clergyman in his shirt- sleeves and spectacles,
his chimney-pot hat bound round with a puggaree,
and his saddle-bags still flapping as he galloped
wildly on towards the Holy City.

The next ascent brought us in sight of a very
remarkable village on the right, now called Soba.
It is separated from the ridge on which the road
runs by the deep and impassable valley which, for
the greater part of its length, forms the northern
boundary of Judah. The place struck me much
at the time — a high conical hill crowned by a
village surrounded by steep rocky ledges with
tliick growth of wild shrubs mingled with olives.
I had afterwards occasion to visit it, and found it
to be undoubtedly an ancient site. Not only are
there traces of a Crusading fortress, but also many
ancient Jewish sepulchres cut in rock. The
peasantry say it was the palace of the Sultan of
the Fenish, and that his daughter lived at a
certain ruined convent near the road, which we
saw surrounded with ancient trees — the wilderness
formed from its original garden.

Since the telegraph line has been laid to Jeru-
salem, this tradition has been supplemented with

22 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE,

the detail that the Fenish had a telegraphic wire
from the hill palace to that in the valley. Another
favourite abode of the daughter was not far from
the first cofFee-shop. Again at Beit Jibrin and at
Keratiya we found a cavern, a garden, and a castle
of the Fenish ; and the fact that this tradition is
confined to the district south of the Jerusalem
road and on the edge of the hills, leads one
to suspect that the Fenish were no other than
the Felish or Philistines, for the peasantry
almost invariably change their L's into N's in
this manner.

But to I'eturn to Soba. This fine site, standing
out black against the sky, with its grand ravine
and wild copses, is evidently an important spot ;
yet the name Soba does not recall any Scriptural
place, though not far different from the Hebrew
Zuph where Saul met Samuel. In modern Arabic
it means " a heap," such as the grain-heaps of the
threshing-floors, a title which applies well to the
shape of the hill, but probably this is a corruption
of some older word. Dr. Chaplin of Jerusalem,
who is perhaps the soundest antiquarian in the
country, supposes it to mark the real site of Kir-
jath Jearim, and there are many points in favour
of such a view. First of all, Kirjath Jearim is
mentioned as on the boundary of Judah next to
Mount Seir, which, in turn, is ilext to Chcsalon.
Chesalon is known to be the present Kosla, a
village on the same ridge with Soba, and between

THE ROAD TO JERUSALEM. 23

them is a mountain called Saghir, a word radically
identical with Seir. Then again the thickets west
of Soba may well represent those of the ancient
Mount Jearim " the hill of thickets." Geba also
was a place near Kirjath Jearim, and a ruin
called Jeb'a exists close to Soba. Baalah was
another name for Kirjath Jearim, and the word
means " high " or " elevated," applying well to
Soba, which is a strong place. It is also not
impossible that in the name Soba we have a
trace of Shobal the founder of Kirjath Jearim.
These indications do not amount to proof, but
seem well worthy of consideration, especially as
the identification materially simplifies the account
of the boundary of Judah.

Soba also was at one time honoured as the true
site of Modin, with as little foundation as that on
which Latrun was fixed, and its great prominence
above the deep and stony valley has attracted the
attention of most students of Palestine topography.

And now at length we arrived at the top of the
ascent, and spurring along under the stony knoll
on which the little village of Kustul — an ancient
'^castellum" of the Koman conquerors — stands, we
fally expected to see Jerusalem. Instead of this
we saw before us a huge valley over 1000 feet
deep, and beyond it a straight line of hills more
lofty and barren than those before passed. We
could well picture the disappointment, so graphi-
cally described by the old chronicler, of the weary

24 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

hosts of women and children who toiled footsore
and tliirsty in rear of the Crusading army, faintly-
asking, as each height was passed and a new
view opened, " Is that Jerusalem T If to us, well
mounted and well fed, the journey was wearisome,
what was it to the pilgrims harassed by Saracen
skirmishers, and afraid to stop and bury those who
fell, lest, as one writer says, a man might be found
to be but digging his own grave.

A stony winding road led down to the bottom,
a stony winding ascent led up on the other side.
Around us were mountains of strikingly wild and
barren character, with the dark iron-grey rocks
tinged in parts with black and russet and capped
by a softer white chalk. The long blue shadows,
the larfre rounded outlines, the hardness and
ruggedness of the slopes, combined to produce a
scene of wild grandeur more striking than any-
thing yet met except the dark thickets of the
Soba ridge.

The valley beneath was full of grey olive-groves;
the course of its torrent bed is sinuous and winds
gradually round west. In the hollow, south of its
course, the village of 'Ain Karim stands on an
eminence, and close to it the white convent wall,
with its dark cypresses, marks the traditional
birthplace of John the Baptist.

The valley is a place famous in Jewish history.
It commences north of Jerusalem and leads down
past Lifta (Nephtoah) to a little village called

THE ROAD TO JERUSALEM. 25

Kolorda which was on the road beneath us.
Thence by 'Aui Karim southwards to join the
B ether valley, and by Kesla it runs down to
Zoreah and Eshtaol and widens out into the great
corn valley of Sorek, and so past Ekron and Jamnia
to the sea. Thus it was one of those passes by
which the Philistines were able to penetrate into
the heart of the Jewish mountains. It was down
this valley that Samuel drove the defeated host
from Mizpeh, north of Jerusalem, to Ebenezer, a
place probably at the entrance of the hills. In
their flight they passed under Bethcar, which is
not improbably the present 'Ain Karim. Along
the stony bed of this great valley at our feet, we
may picture to ourselves the nomadic hosts with
their mail-clad champions flying before the fol-
lowers of the prophet, while far away on the
white hills the tabernacle would be seen hio^h on
the ridge of Mizpeh.

The valley was also once the scene of more
peaceful events in the yearly festival of " taber-
nacles." Kolonia has near it a ruin called Beit
Mizzeh, the ancient Motza or " Spring-head," a
town of Benjamin- The Talmudic doctors tell us
that Motza was a colonia or place free from taxes,
whence the origin of the modern name, and beside
the banks of the stream from the spring-head grew,
and still grow, the willows used at the feast. By
the restaurant and the ruins of a small monastery,
the stream flows under a little bridge ; and round

26 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

its course shady oraniT^e gardens and olive-yards,
beneath the villa/j-e perched on the hillside, often
tempt the inhabitants of Jerusalem to come out
for an afternoon siesta. It would seem also that
on the Day of Atonement this place used to be the
scene of a festival so peculiar and so unlike any
other part of Jewish custom that we are tempted
to believe that it was an innovation of the later
Hellenising faction. The daughters of Jerusalem
were encouraged to come out to meet the youths
who were celebrating the newly-acquired purifi-
cation from sin, with palms in their hands and
songs and dances. Twice a year this festival of
maidens took place, and the contrast to the stern
precepts of the Talmudic doctors, who discoun-
tenanced any gaiety in which women took part,
forbade a student to speak to or look at any
woman but his wife, and even counselled that the
less he talked to her the better, is certainly sug-
gestive of foreign origin for the feast of Motza.

Passing by this little oasis in the hills, which
has thus from time immemorial been the site of
festal excursions from the capital, we began the long
ascent which led, not, as we hoped, to Jerusalem,
but to the edge of the plateau on the opposite side
of which the city stands. The road, afterwards so
familiar to me, seemed longer when the distance
was unknown than when every way-mark was
recognised as showing nearer approach to the end
of the journey ; tind we did not halt to admire, as

THE ROAD TO JERUSALEM. 27

I often did afterwards, the fine view from the
brow of the hill.

From that brow the great valley is seen winding
southwards, and the high rounded ascent to
Kusttd bars out the view of the plain. North-
wards the conical point of Neby Samwil, crowned
Y\"ith its minaret, is a conspicuous object, and in
the evening when the long shadows steal up
the rugged hillsides, and the western slopes are
ruddy in the setting sun, the breadth and grandeur
of the colouring of the wild shapeless mountains is
extremely striking, and grows upon one every
time the scene opens before one's eyes.

The first approach to Jerusalem from the west
is decidedly disaj)pointing. On the east, north,
and south, the aged walls, the mosque, and Holy
Sepulchre, come into view at some distance, and
the scene is striking; but from the west the city is
approached within less than a quarter of a mile
before it is seen. The first object is the huge
Russian cathedral outside the town, built in 1867.
The white walls and heavy leaden roofs in the
Neobyzantine style block out ancient Jerusalem.
Standing on the approximate site of the old tower
of Psephinus, the Russian Hospice commands the
whole town, and is thought by many to be in a
position designedly of military strength.

When, however, these ugly modern buildings
are passed, together with the many white stone
villas, country residences of Europeans or rich

28

TENT WORK IN TALESTTNE.

Jews, which form " New Jerusalem," the traveller
at leni^th comes in view of a long grey battle-
mented wall, a tower, the dark trees of the
Armenian convent garden, and behind all the
pale blue line of the Moab hills. He enters
between groups of tawny, groaning camels, and
black donkeys loaded with firewood, under a dark
archway, and forcing a path through a noisy
bright-coloured crowd of peasantry, under the
shadow of the jrrcat Tower of David he aliofhts
at a German hotel within the walls of Jerusalem.

^s^-S^

Jacob's Well.

CHAPTER II.

SHECHEM AND THE SAMARITANS.

The Survey party had been left in charge of Mr.
Tyrwhitt Drake for over six months since Captain
Stewart had returned to England. Their progress
had been rapid, and the Survey had been carried
over a narrow strip from Jaffa to Jerusalem, and
thence along the watershed as far north as Nablus,
the ancient Shechem, thirty miles from the capital.
Thus my duty lay at first in Samaria, and I only
stayed a few days in Jerusalem in order to pay my

30 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

respects to our excellent consul, Mr. Noel Temple
Moore, and to Dr. Chaplin, the Physician to the
Jewish Mission, afterwards, as will be seen, a
faithful friend of the party. I made the acquaint-
ance of the clergyman, Mr. Neil, whose kindness
to us was also afterwards very great ; and of Herr
Schick, the German architect, who undertook to
make for me a plan, showing the depth of rubbish
all over Jerusalem, which enables us now to form
a fair estimate of the ancient conformation of the
ground.

Only two non-commissioned officers were em-
ployed at this time. Sergeant Black and Corporal
Armstrong, both picked men from the Survey
companies of the Koyal Engineers. On the 10th
of July Sergeant Black rode from Nablus to Jeru-
salem and reported in the afternoon, and six days
later we left for camp. The cursory visit did not
allow me to gain much acquaintance with Jeru-
salem, and the subject may be deferred till the
time when we passed a winter within the walls of
the city.

About four p.m. we started along the north road,
leaving on our right the valley in which lies the
sacred tomb of Simon the Just, where a yearly
festival is held by the Jews. The towers of Jeru-
salem disappeared beliind the ridge of Scopus, and
we cantered over the white plateau towards
Beeroth. The view here is very striking, from
the broken outline of the hills and from the very

SHE C HEM AND THE SAMARITANS. 31

red colour of the plough-land on their slopes. I
afterwards saw these ranges round Neby Samwil
black against a sky of most delicate blush-rose
tint, and the contrast was perhaps the finest in a
land where fine effects are common at sunset. We
must, however, leave undescribed for the present
the hills of Benjamin, hastening on to the goal of
our journey.

About sunset we began to descend into the
narrow, stony gorge of the Robber's Fountain.
The road is not improved by the habit of clearing
the stones off the surrounding gardens into the
public path. It descends through olive groves to
a narrow pass with a precipice on the left, beneath
which is the little sjDring. A ruined castle com-
mands the pass on the Jerusalem side, and is still
called " Baldwin's Tower " by the peasantry,
having no doubt been built by one of the kings of
that name. The gorge once j^assed, we emerged
into an open valley, and on our left was Sinjil,
named from Raymond of Saint Gilles, who there
fixed his camp advancing on Jerusalem. The
short twilight gave place to almost total darkness,
as we began to climb the watershed which sepa-
rates the plain of Moreh from the valley coming-
down from Shiloh, and the moon had risen when
the great shoulder of Gerizim became dimly visible
some ten miles away, with a silvery wreath of
cloud on its summit. Creeping beneath its shadow
we gained the narrow valley of Shechem, and fol-

32 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE,

lowed a stony lane between walnut trees under a
steep hillside. The barking of dogs was now
heard, and the lights in camp came into view. My
poor terrier was tired and sleepy, and was set upon
at once by Drake's larger bull-terriers, Jack and
Jill, rather a rude reception after a thirty-mile
journey.

The camp had been very well placed by Drake
close to the beautiful fountain of Ras el 'Ain.
Three good-sized tents, besides the kitchen tent,
were arranged in a line under the olives, hio-h
above the town in a little gully, down which the
cool breeze came from Gerizim. Besides our
horses, mules, and dogs, we had a little tame
gazelle, fed with milk from a pipe-stem, and o.
small jackdaw.

Next afternoon a tall man rode up the lane,
accompanied by a native soldier. Dressed in
tweed, with knee-boots, and the native shawl
head-dress, armed and spurred, with a great beard
and tanned face, Drake came in from a forty-mile
ride, and we began an acquaintance destined to be
remarkably intimate.

The work done from this pleasant camp, with
the various sites passed on the ride from Jeru-
salem, will be noticed in the following chapter; the
present is to be devoted to the neighbourhood of
Shechem and to the Samaritan survivors living
there, perhaps the most interesting city and the
most interesting people in Palestine.

SHE C HEM AND THE SAMARITANS. 33

Shechem is the first town mentioned in the
history of Abraham, the ground round Jacob's
well was the first possession of Jacob in the Holy
Land. Shechem is recognised in the Pentateuch
as the capital of central Palestine, ranking with
Hebron in the south and Kadesh in the north as
a city of refuge. Later on we find Pehoboam
crowned here, and indeed it is not too much to
say that Shechem may be considered the natural
capital of Palestine. Its central situation, its
accessibility, its wonderfully fine water-supply, are
advantages not enjoyed by any other city in the
land. The one disadvantage which perhaps as
early as the time o^' Pehoboam prevented its being
selected as the capital, is found in its being com-
manded bv a hill on either side so close to the
town, that the old geographer, Marino Sanuto, in
the fourteenth centmy, considers the place to be
untenable by any military force, because stones
might be rolled down upon the houses from either
Ebal or Gerizim. It was at Shechem that the
solemnities which were to be performed on the
conquest of the country — the reading of the law
and erection of the altar — were commanded by
Moses to be performed, yet, soon after, we find
the religious capital at Shiloh, and, in a few years
a,fter the great schism, the political capital of
Israel was removed to Tirzah, and afterwards to
Samaria.

But while the town is interestingf from its an-

VOL. I. 3

31 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

tiqiiity and from the vicissitudes of its history, the
Samaritan people are yet more so.

Who are the Samaritans ? What is their orisfin,
and relation to the other natives of the country ?
The answer is usually a short one. They are
Cuthim, strangers from beyond Jordan — settlers
who replaced the Israelites led away by Sargon.
It seems to me, however, that these conclusions
must be received with great reserve.

Soon after my arrival we received a visit from
Amram, the Samaritan high-priest, accompanied
by Jacob Shellaby. The high-priest was a wonder-
fully handsome old man, with fine aquiline features,
and he wore the crimson turban distinctive of
his race. He could speak no languages except
Arabic and Samaritan, and his ideas were perhaps
rather limited, as he pronounced Gerizim to be
the highest mountain in the w^orld. We repre-
sented to him that Ebal was 227*7 feet hioiier.
He allowed that it appeared to be so, but could
not in reality be, because Gerizim was the highest
mountain in the world. This fine old man died
in 1874. It was thought that his successor was
to be a mere doll in the hands of Jacob Shellaby;
a gentleman who is an accomplished savant. In
England he appeared for some time in the charac-
ter of a Samaritan prince. He supplied travellers
with many ancient Samaritan hymn books, pur-
loined, it is said, while the conQfreofation were
reverently prostrating themselves. He described

SHE C HEM AND THE SAMARITANS. 35

to us with immense gusto the mode of preparing
ancient manuscripts, by steeping a skin in coffee-
grounds, and placing it for a month or two under
the pillows of the divan. Many an unwary tra-
veller has been taken in by false antiquities,
stones, and manuscripts. It was thought that
Shellaby would succeed, on the death of Amram^
in obtaining the ancient roll of the law itself; but
this is the Samaritan Fetish, and the young high-
priest, would not connive at such a deed — which
would indeed have been the killing of the golden
goose, as the manuscript brings in a yearly income
— and excommunicated Jacob, who, after holding
an heretical passover of his own on Gerizim, finally
left the congregation and repaired to Jerusalem,
where I saw him in 1875.

Jacob Shellaby's ideas were perhaps not far in
advance of the high-priest's. He related very
naively his delight at the supposed discovery of a
gigantic emerald, which he showed us, and which
was merely a large fragment of green slag from
some old glass-works. He also fully believed in
the story of a cave guarded by genii, and full of
gold, which might be carried away, but invariably
flew back by night to its place, from wherever it
mioht be taken.

Two things struck me very much in my inter-
course with the Samaritans during this first visit,
and during another stay of a few days in 1875 in
Kablus.

o — ^

36 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

First of all it is indisputable that both in
features and in figure they bear a strikingly close
family likeness to the Jews, It may be urged
that the Cuthim are supposed to have been Semitic,
but so are the Syrians and Bedawin, yet they are
not at all hke the Jews. The Samaritans are a
very pure stock, the beauty of their priestly family
is remarkable ; the aquihne nose, the lustrous
brown eyes, the thick under lip, the crisp hair, the
peach-hke down of the complexion, are features
pre-eminently Jewish. The lean and weedy figure
is again peculiar also to the Palestinian Jews, and
contrasts forcibly with the obesity of the Turks
and the sturdiness of the peasantry. For hun-
dreds of years the Jews have kept their race pure,
and so have the Samaritans. Since the time of
Christ at least, Jews and Samaritans have probably
never intermarried, yet we find them now closely
alike in their characteristic physiognomy.

In the second place, the Samaritans presei^^e an
ancient copy of the Pentateuch, which, though dif-
fering in some marked peculiarities, is yet sub-
stantially the same as the Jewish text. It is
written in the Samaritan character, which closely
approaches the most ancient forms of Jewish
writing. It cannot be supposed that these Samari-
tans would have adopted the religion and sacred
books of a nation that they despised and hated,
and the evidence of the character employed is in
favour of the original copies having been made

SHECHEM AND THE SAMARITANS. 37

before the time of Ezra, when, according to the
Rabbis, the square alphabet was adopted, before
indeed the schism between Jew and Samaritan
became so intense as it afterwards grew to be.

These facts naturally incline one prima facie to
consider the Samaritans as originally of the same
stock with the Jews, and an investigation of the
question seems to me to show that they are the
last remnants of the scattered Israel, the lost Ten
Tribes, whose history has always excited curiosity
in the minds of so many.

It will be allowed that but little reliance can be
placed on the partisan descriptions of Josephus
and of the Rabbinical writers. Unfortunately we
gather but little from the- Bible which can throw
light on the subject, and the Samaritan accounts
are all very late, their oldest chronicles dating
back only to the twelfth century, though appar-
ently founded on more ancient material. It may,
however, be interesting to sketch what is known
of their history from various sources.

Sargon, who on his monuments is described as
" Destroyer of the city of Samaria and of all Beth
Omri," took away with him in 722 B.C. all the
more important and a great host of minor captives,
to Assyria. Still a certain proportion of the
Israelites would seem to have been left behind, as
we find Hezekiah sending messengers through the
country of Eplu'aim and Manasseh, inviting Israel-
ites to the Passover, which might not be eaten by

38 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

strangers, and as some actually attended it (2 Chron.
XXX. 18). Worshippers from Shechem and Samaria
are also noticed as coming to Jerusalem after its
destruction by Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. xli. 5) ; thus,
though foreign colonists from Cutha, Ava, Hamath,
And Sepharvaim were sent into Samaria, there is
reason to suppose that many of the original
Israelite population were left.

The Talmudic doctors invariably call the Sama-
ritans Cutliim. Cutha is a district as yet unknown,
but it may be noticed that the Biblical account
represents the men of Cutha as serving Nergal,
who is known from Cuneiform inscriptions to have
been a " hon-god," worshipped by inhabitants of
Cutha, and therefore an appropriate deity to
appease when a plague of lions was devastating
the land. It is not impossible that the Jews
seized upon the close similarity of the name
Cuthim with the title Kusaniya, or "true people,"
by which one Samaritan sect distinguished them-
selves from a second, the Lifaniyeh. The first
sect believed in the future life, in future reward
and punishment ; the latter confined the promises
of the law to temporal matters ; the latter were
named from a Avord meaning "to make light,"
because, like the pupils of the Jewish Hillel, they
made the law less stringent, whereas the stronger
sect, the Kusaniya, made its burden heavier, fol-
lowing the example of the school of Shammai.

The foreign colonists, from Cutha, found them-

SHECHEM AND THE SAMARITANS. 39

selves, as they simply supposed, unable to appease
the deity of their new country without special in-
structions in the peculiarities of his rite. They
petitioned therefore for a priest, and an Israelite
priest returned and dwelt at Bethel. It is perhaps
only natural to suppose that the place here intended
in the Bible is Gerizim, which was held by the
Samaritans to be the site of Jacob's vision. It
follows from this account that at least one priestly
family returned to Samaria, and the Samaritans
claimed a descent for their priesthood from
Phinehas the grandson of Aaron.

Another curious allegation, brought forward by
Josephus and also to be found in the Targums, is
that the Samaritans claimed to be Sidonians ; this
is however plainly contradictory to the view that
they were Cuthim, and only serves to show the
small reliance that can be placed on the later
Jewish accounts.

Having then indications that the Israelites were
not all carried to Assyria, and that one at least of
their priests returned, and having the invariable
assertion of the Samaritans that they are descend-
ants of this small remnant, and in confirmation of
this their physiognomical characteristics, their re-
ligion, their possession of an ancient text of the
books of Moses, their observation of the Jewish
Passover, according to the most ancient form of
the rite, we may fairly place the Samaritan
literature in the balance against the accounts

40 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

of the Pharisees — Jose2:)hus and the Talmiidic
doctors — which, as above shown, are in themselves
contradictory.

It seems probable that the cause of the division
of the Hebrew monarchy is to be sought in an
original jealousy between the great tribes of Judah
and Joseph who first seized on the land ; but, as
we have seen above, the religious schism was not
complete before the time of the revival under
Ezra. Worshippers from Shechem had been re-
ceived at Jerusalem, and on the return of the
Jews the Samaritans were anxious to take part in
the restoration of the Temple in the Jewish capital.
With regard to the history of the quarrel, Jewish
and Samaritan accounts are, as might be expected,
diametrically opposed. Josephus, in a passage
which has no parallel in the Book of Ezra
(Ant. xi. 4. 9.), represents ambassadors, including
Zerubbabel, as going to Darius and obtaining a
decree against the Samaritans, forbidding them to
interfere with the building of the Temple. From
the Book of Ezra it appears, however, that the
enemies of Judah succeeded in stopping the work
of restoration (Ezra iv. 24). The Samaritan ac-
count is in agreement with this ; according to their
clu'onicle the whole of Israel, with the exception
of the Jews, Avished to build the Temple on Gerizim.
An appeal was made to the King, and copies of
the law made by Sanballat and Zerubbabel were
cast into a great fire ; the former leapt out thrice

SHECHEM AND THE SAMARITANS. 41

unhurt, the latter were inimediately consumed.
These traditions cannot of course be put in the
same category with the sober history of the Book
of Ezra ; but in the main the accounts are not dis-
cordant, as both acknowledge an appeal to Darius
and the hindrance of the Jews by Samaritan op-
position.

In tracing the history of the schism, it is
important to remember the great similarity of
doctrine which certainly existed between the
Samaritans and the Sadducees. The Jews never
placed their enemies in quite the same category
with the heathen. In the remarkable tract on
the Cuthim, a Jew is allowed to hold intercourse
with a Samaritan in all cases where it might be
to his own advantage, but not when it is against
his interests. The two tenets which caused the
exclusion of Cuthim from the congregation are
stated to have been — first, their belief in Gerizim
as the true religious centre ; second, their denial
of the resurrection, which opinion they shared
with the Sadducees.

Many details of the Samaritan faith were
identical with Karaite and Sadducean tenets, and
the view taken of their error appears to have been,
with one Jewish party, that, while originally
orthodox, they had become mixed with the priests
of the high places and corrupted the purity of the
faith.

It cannot be doubted that it was the Pharisees

43 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

who were the deadly enemies of the Samaritans.
This sect, originating in the " separation " under
Ezra, at once excluded the Samaritans from par-
ticipation in the building of the Temple. San-
ballat was connected by marriage with the Sad-
duccan high priest — a fact which favours the view
that he was an Israelite, not a foreigner — but
against this affinity Ezra set his face, and the
schism was thus rendered more complete. Gradu-
ally the Pharisees gained in power as the Sadducees
declined ; under the Maccabees they obtained at
length the high-priesthood, and the Asmonpean
Hyi'canus succeeded in destroying the Samaritan
Temple in 129 b.c. With the exception of a short
interval the Pharisees were in power until 35 B.C..
and the constant reprisals which for four hundred
years had been indulged in on both sides, had left
such indelible hatred between the two nations that
nothing: but entire submission and the abandon-
ment of Gerizim would have induced even the
Sadducees to receive into the congregation a people
whose religion in other respects was almost indis-
tinfjuishable from their own.

The Samaritans are indeed in the pecuharities
of their doctrine almost identical with the original
Jewish party — the Karaite and Sadducean sects.
They are even called Sadducees in Jewish writings,
and their denial of the resurrection was, like that
of the Sadducees, based on the declaration that
nothing was to be found in the law of Moses on

SHECHEM AND THE SAMARITANS. 43

the subject. Again, their version of the law is
closely similar to that of the Septuagint, which
was a translation authorised by a Sadducean high-
priest from a text differing from that finally es-
tablished by the Pharisees. The animosity of
Josephus — who was a Pharisee, the fierce denun-
ciations of the Talmud, written by Pharisees, the
destruction of the Gerizim Temple by Hyrcanus —
also a Pharisee — all combine to indicate that the
Jewish hatred had nothing to do with any foreign
origin of the race, but rather was roused by the
religious differences of a people whom they knew
to be their kith and kin.

It is often supposed that the Samaritans
borrowed their religion from the Sadducees. It
is surely a simpler explanation that they were
a sect originally identical because originally
Israelite.

The Samaritan chronicles give a simple account
of the origin of their people. At the time of the
return from captivity a certain number of the
congregation carried into Assyria came back ta
Palestine under Sanballat. Some thirty thousand,
however, remained behind awaiting the Prophet
whom they expected as a leader. It is not impos-
sible that of these the Nestorian Christians may
be the descendants, for the Nestorians claim to be
Jews of the tribe of Naphtali, and in dialect and
in many of their rites they are indistinguishable
from the Jews of the same country.

44 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

Sanballat, the leader of the Samaritans, is called
in the Bible Sanballat the Horonite. From this
title it has been supposed that he was a foreigner,
though the Samaritans call him Lawini the " Le-
vite." The place where Israel assembled before
crossing into Palestine, and where the first quarrel
as to where the Temple was to be built occurred,
was Horan, and this may perhaps account for the
term Horonite. The Jews, under Zerubbabel, re-
paired to Jerusalem, the rest of the congregation,
thi'ee hundred thousand in all, beside youths, women,
children, and strangers (probably the colonists
from Cutha, Hamath, and Ava), were led to Geri-
zim, where they estabUshed the Temple on the 9 th
of Tizri. Such is the Samaritan account, which
gains credibility when we compare it \sath the
Book of Ezra, and from the fact that Sanballat
was connected by marriage with a Sadducean
high-priest in Jerusalem. The name Lawini or
" Levite " is still preserved as the name of a
prophet whose tomb is shown to the west of
Shechem.

The quaiTcls and recriminations of Jews and
Samaritans it is useless to follow in detail. The
beautiful lessons of Christ were lost on both ahke,
and the large charity of the parable of the good
Samaritan, with the truth that neither at Jeru-
salem nor on Gerizim was God exclusively to be
sought, seem to have been far beyond the com-
prehension of the disputants. Even in their own

SHECHEM AND THE SAMARITANS. 45

accounts the falseness and cruelty of the Sama-
ritans are repulsively prominent ; nor does the
Jewish character stand high by contrast either
for ingenuousness or for charity to their enemies.

By the time of our Lord the hatred of the two
people had become greater than their aversion to
the heathen. Wine for the Temple passing
through Samaria became unfit for use, a Jew
was forbidden to help a wounded Samaritan or a
Samaritan woman in trouble. On the other hand,
murder and treachery are charged against the
Cuthim ; they hghted false beacons in order to
confuse the Jewish calendar depending on the
appearance of the new moon, they betrayed the
Jews to the Bomans, they polluted the Temple
with bones. Such crimes could never be foro-iven,
and the Jews in contempt cast them out as heathen
and foreiofners.

The later history of the Samaritans has been
often told; under Pilate they raised a tumult,
headed by a leader who promised to show them
(probably assuming the character of Mcssiali) the
golden vessels said to have been buried by Moses
on Gerizim. The cruelty with which this revolt
was repressed led to Pilate's final disgrace.

In the time of Vespasian they again rebelled,
and were again repressed. Under Hadrian they
assisted the Pomans against the Pharisees led by
Bar Cocheba, but under Severus they took part
in rebclHon with the Jews.

46 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

The greatest revolt appears to have been, how-
ever, in the time of Justinian, when the whole race
rose in IVIay, 529 a.d., attacked the Christians, put
the Bishop of Neapolis to death, and crowTied a
certain Julian. Their repression was cruel, and
hencefonvard they disappear from history, being
probably almost exteiTuinated.

The Emperor Zeno had in 474 a.d. erected a
church on Gerizim. This church Justinian con-
verted into a sort of fortress by building a second
wall round it. He also caused five churches (pos-
sibly all now represented by mosques) to be rebuilt
in Neapolis.

In the fifth century the Samaritans had begun
to spread over Egypt and southern Palestine, in
493 A.D. they had a synagogue in Home. In the
seventh century, according to their own records,
they occupied the whole of Palestine except the
Judean hills. Up to some fifty years ago they
had a synagogue in Gaza, the last of their com-
munities, which in the seventeenth century also
existed in Cairo and Damascus. At the present
day they are found only in the town of Nablus,
and appear to have become extinct in other towns
about the year 1820 a.d.

In the middle ages they seem to have been un-
distinguished from the Jews, and thus it is only
in the writings of a Jew (R. Benjamin of Tudela)
that they are described. He speaks of about one
hundred Cutheans " who observe the law of Moses

SHE C HEM AND THE SAMARITANS. 47

only," that is to say, do not recognise the later
books. Thouo'h writino; with the usual Pharisaic
prejudice, the Habbi admits the priestly family to
be descendants of Aaron.

The existence of an ancient roll of the law, in
possession of the Samaritans, was known to
Scaliger ; a copy was obtained by Pietro Delia
Valle in 1616 a.d., and this brought the Samaritans
again into notice. They became a sort of pet
people among learned men, and long correspond-
ences were held with them. Thus, although the
ancient copy at Shechem has never been collated,
the value of the Samaritan version of the Penta-
teuch is well known to students.

The most striking peculiarity of the Samaritan
text is its close resemblance to the Septuagint
version. This caused a most exaggerated estimate
of its value to be at one time formed. It was
supposed that the Masoretic text, from which our
English version has been taken, was corrupt, and
the Samaritan and Greek the more ancient. The
labours of the great scholar Gesenius have, how-
ever, almost placed these questions at rest. He
points out that though the Samaritan and Greek
ao-ree asfainst the Masoretic text in about one
thousand passages, there are numerous instances
where Greek and Hebrew agree against the
Samaritan. He further holds that the archaic
forms of the Hebrew have been modernised in the
Samaritan, and numerous corruptions introduced

48 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

from jDurcly theological reasons. The vaiiations
of the text he divided into three classes : first,
Samaritan forms of words ; secondly, blunders and
emendations in the text ; thirdly, alterations for
the glorification of Gerizim and of the Samaritans.
It cannot be doubted that in some cases, however,
the Samaritan and Greek preserve the sense which
has been lost in the Jemsh version ; Gesenius's
conclusion will commend itself to all by its
moderation and impartiality. He holds that
Samaritan and Greek are both derived from
ancient codices, differinof among; themselves and
also from the text which became received later by
the Jews. Kennicott goes yet further in saying
that the authority of both the versions should be
recognised. The antiquity of the text from which
our English version is derived, is however estab-
lished by the comparison, and unless the oldest
Samaritan roll differ very materially from all other
copies as yet collated, we cannot expect to get
much of any permanent value or interest from its
examination.

The Kolls of the Law, or Five Books of Moses
(considered by the Samaritans to form a single
M'ork), now found in the synagogiie at Nablus are
three in number. I have twice been enabled to
see them ; at Jerusalem also I was shown another!
manuscript, not a roll but in the form of a book,!
which is called ''The Fire-Tried," as it claims]
to be one of Sanballat's copies before noticed

SHECHEM AND THE SAMARITANS. 49

These venerable documents may now be briefly
described.

The Samaritan synagogue stands in the Samari-
tan quarter, the south- v/estern part of the town of
ISTabhis. It is a mean room, with white-Avashed
walls, and a dome with a skylight. A dirty coun-
terpane is hung before a recess, called the Musbah,
in which is a cupboard. From behind this veil
the manuscripts are produced. At m}'- first visit
the high-priest Amram brought out the latest
scroll. It is wiitten in black ink on parch-
ment, and rolled on two rollers, enclosed in two
cylinders of brass, covered with a florid arabesque
of tliin silver plates fastened on to the brass.
This scroU is kept on a shelf of the cupboard, the
other two are locked up. The case is enveloped
in a green silk wrapper, embroidered ^dth ara-
besques. Mr. Drake, who accompanied me, now
asked to see the next. The high-priest answered,
after affecting great surprise, that his nephew Jacob
had the key ; he, however, was soon persuaded to
send his son to fetch it, and brouo-ht out from the
locker the second, which is of older appearance,
also in a brass case, with huge knobs to the rollers.
By means of these roUers the parchment is slipped
round, so that each column of the roll is visible in
turn. The workmanship in this case is better
than that of the first. The cherubim, pot of
manna, Aaron's rod, and other sacred objects, are
shown in the arabesque. There is a legend with

VOL. I. 4

50 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

the date 820 a. h., or 145G a.d., which gives the
name of the maker as Jacob ben Phoki, a Damas-
cene. The writing in this manuscript appears to
have been touched up later.

The high-priest and his nephew Jacob now de-
clared that there was no older scroll, but Mr.
Drake said he had seen it, and at length they
Yv'ere reduced to saying that being ceremonially
unclean they could not touch it. We accordingly
stepped behind the veil, the locker was opened,
and we saw the famous roll of Abishuah in a solid
silver cover of modern workmanship. The greatest
reluctance was manifested in showinof us this
sacred relic ; the priests exclaimed, "Permission!"
and " In the name of God." The roll is said to
have been written on the skins of about twenty
rams, which were slain as thank- offerings, the
writins: beino^ on the hair side : the hand-writino^
is small and rather irregular, the lines far apart,
the ink is faded and of a purplish hue, the parch-
ment much torn, very yellow, and patched in
places.

Down the centre of the scroll runs the famous
title called Tarikh or " Inscription," a sort of
acrostic. By thickening one or two letters in
each line in a vertical column, the following has
been obtained :

" I Abishuah, son of Pliinehas, son of Eleazar,
son of Aaron the priest, the favour of Jehovah be
upon them, for His glory T liave written this.

SHECHEM AND THE SAMARITANS. 51

Holy Torah (copy of the law) in the entrance of
the tabernacle of the cono'reofation on Mount
Gerizim, even Bethel, in the thirteenth year of
the possession by the children of Israel of the
land of Canaan and all its boundaries. I thank
the Lord."

My second visit was paid after the death of
Amram, in company with Lieutenant Kitchener
and Mr. Elkarey the missionary. Jacob, the old
man's nephew, was now high-priest ; on the 10th
of June, 1875, we repaired again to the synagogue.
The high-priest, an eminently handsome man
about thirty-five years of age, received us, dressed
in robes of dark purple, with the crimson turban ;
his brown beard long a,nd square, not marred at
the corners, his dark eyes with drooping lids, the
beautiful olive complexion and delicate aquiline
nose, perhaps a little too square at the end, mad©
him a model of beauty of a certain type — the
Jewish beauty, for which the priestly family of the
Maccabees was so famous, and which captivated
Herod the Great in Mariamne, the last of her
race.

Hastily admitting us, he locked the door, and
brought us to the veil now covered over with a
gorgeous yellow satin cloth. A younger priest
brought out the second manuscript, but was hastily
told " not that one," and the silver case once more
appeared, and was placed on a sort of trestle.
Whilst we examined it, some urchins got up on

4—2

52 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

the roof and looked tlirough the skyhght. The
priest was alarmed, he drove them away, replaced
the old scroll, unlocked the door, and showed us
the other two.

There is a marked difference in the treatment
Abishuah's roll receives at the hands of the priests.
It is indeed a Samaritan Fetish, and is only seen
by the congregation once a year, when elevated
above the priest's head on the Day of Atonement.

The so-called " Fire-tried Manuscript " belongs
to a poor widow in Jerusalem, named Mrs. Ducat.
She lent it to a German savant named Dr. Jacob
Frederic Ivraus, and his essay on the manuscript
is kept with it. The whole consists of 2 1 7 leaves,
containing the Torah or law, from the twenty-ninth
verse of the first chapter of Genesis to the blessing
of Moses in Deuteronomy. Six leaves are added
in a smaller hand on parchment at the beginning,
the first being almost illegible. The real manu-
script only begins at Gen. xi. 11 ; three leaves are
added at the end for protection, after Deut. xxix.
30. The whole is much worn, and measures eleven
inches by nine inches, and three inches in thick-
ness. The text is divided into paragraphs, with
verses, sentences, and words separated by a single
dot ; v/ords are not allowed to be broken by the
line, but in order to fill up the line the last letters
are further apart, unless they form the w^ord
Jehovah which is read Elwem. The letters are
not so small as those of Abishuah's roll, nor as

SHECHEM AND THE SAMARITANS. 53

large as those of the later roll ; the hand is steady
and uniform. The Decalogue is not numbered by-
marginal letters, in this respect it resembles Abish-
uah's roll, and so also the paragraphs are neither
numbered nor stated in either text. These points
seem to show the Fire-tried manuscript to be
ancient.

Some hundreds of the Samaritan copies of the
law have the acrostic like Abishuah's roll, each
giving the name, place, and date of the text ; but
the Fire-tried Manuscript has a note instead at the
end of Genesis to this effect :

" This holy Torah has been made by a wise,
valiant, and great son, a good, a beloved, and an
understanding leader, a master of all knowledge, by
Shelomo, son of Saba, a valiant man, leader of the
congregation, by his knowledge and his understand-
ing, and he was a righteous man, an interpreter
of the Torah, a father of blessings, of the sons of
Nun (may the Lord be merciful to them !) ; and it
was appointed to be dedicated holy to the Lord, that
they might read therein with fear and prayer in
the House of the Hio-h-Priesthood in the seventh
month, the tenth day ; and this was done before
me, and I am Ithamar, son of Aaron, son of
Ithamar the High-Priest ; may the Lord renew
his strength ! Amen."

A note at the end of the Book of Numbers con-
nects this manuscript with the story given above
irom the Samaritan Book of Joshua.

54 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

" It came out from the fire by the power of the
Lord to tlie hand of the King of Babel, in the
presence of Zerubbabcl the Jew, and was not burnt.
Thanks be to the Lord for the Law of Moses."

This curious manuscript, which has been photo-
gi'aphed for the Palestine Exploration Fund, came
into Mr. Ducat's hands from a Samaritan in pay-
ment of a bad debt. It has been in England, and
was then oifered for sale for £1000. In 1872,
£200 was asked for it. There were faint traces
of gilding on the proper names still visible when
shown to me in August of the same year.

Turning again to the Samaritans themselves.
In 1872 the little community numbered 135 souls,
of whom no less than eighty were males. The
Moslems say that the number is never exceeded,
and that one of the eighty dies as soon as a child
is born. By the defection of Jacob Shellaby with
his family, they have been reduced to a total of
130 souls.

Year by year the Samaritans are dying out.
Clinging to Shechem and the Holy Mountain,
they are the last left of the nation Avhich in
the fifth and seventh centuries spread far over
Palestine and Egyj^t.

The religion of the Samaritans approaches
probably closer to original Judaism than any-
thing among the Jews themselves. Even their
view that Gerizim was intended to be the Temple
mountain is not without foundation, for while the

SHECHEM AND THE SAMARITANS. 55

blessings and curses are placed on the two Sama-
ritan mountains, Jerusalem is not noticed in the
books of Moses.

The first Samaritan doctrine is the Unity of
God and His special revelation to Israel. They
hold Moses to be the one messenger of God, and
superior even to their expected Prophet ; they
believe in the immutability and perfection of the
written law, and finally in Gerizim as the earth's
centre, the house of God, the highest mountain
on earth, the only one not covered by the fiood,
the site of altars raised by Adam, Seth, and
Noah, the Mount Moriah of Abraham's sacrifice,
the Bethel or Luz of Jacob's vision, the place
where Joshua erected first an altar, next the
tabernacle, finally a temple. On its slope the
cave of Makkedah is also shown, though now
closed up. From all these sacred memories it
becomes naturally the central shrine of Samaritan
faith.

It appears also that they beheve in future re-
tribution, and in angels and devils as ministers of
God in the unseen world, but their views as to
the future life seem to be vasrue.

Still more interesting is the question of the
Samaritan belief in a future prophet who is to be
of the sons of Joseph. This expectation, founded
on the words of Moses, " The Lord thy God
will raise up unto thee a Prophet like unto me,"
(Deut. xviii. 15,), is identical with the Jewish ex-

5G TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

pectation in Maccabean times. It is to this belief,
no doubt, that the Samaritan woman refers in
the conversation at Jacob's ■well, " I know that
Messias cometh " (John v. 25). In 1860 the
Samaritans believed the Prophet to be already on
earth. His name is to begin with the letter M,
his titles are Taheb the " restorer," and El Mahdy
the "guide." Following his direction the con-
gregation will repair to Gerizim, under the famous
"twelve stones" will find the Ten Commandments,
and under the stone of Bethel the golden vessels
of the Temple and the manna. After one
hundred and ten years the Prophet is to die
and be buried beside Joseph in the valley. Soon
after, on the conclusion of seven thousand years
from its foundation, the world is to come to an
end.

Whilst agreeing with the Jews in the accept-
ance of the law in its strictest and most limited
interpretation as immutable and everlasting, the
Samaritans differ in many minor points as to its
interj)retation, not only as regcirds Gerizim, but
also in such matters for instance as the rio-hts of
the widow who is married to the nearest relation
and not to the brother of her husband. They
allow bigamy if the first wife be childless, but do
not permit more than two wives ; they do not
allow earrings to be worn, because of the use of
earrings in the moulding of the golden calf Any
member of tlie priest's family may be made a priest

SHECHEM AND THE SAMARITANS. 57

if twenty-five years old, and if his hair has never
been cut. The men marry at fifteen, the girls at
twelve, the dowry given by the husband being
from forty to sixty pounds. Generally speaking
they adhere more closely to the original spirit of
the law than do the Jews, and have not invented
any of those evasions which are described in the
Talmud.

These details, with many more too minute to^
be now discussed, will be found in Juynboll's
edition of the Samaritan Book of Joshua, in Nutt's
*' Sketch of Samaritan History," and in Mills'
" Modern Samaritans." It is needless to say that
the various accusations of idolatry which have
been brousrht as^ainst these unorthodox Israelites
(unorthodox from a Jewish point of view) are
groundless. They do not and never have wor-
shipped a dove, the story originating probably in
their belief in a miraculous dove which carried
letters for Joshua ; as to the statement that they
hold the world to have been created by a goat,
it appears to be altogether an invention.

A few words must be added as to the great
feasts held yearly, though I have never been
so fortunate as to witness the Passover on Gerizim.
In addition to this great festival, the Samaritans
keep the Feast of Pentecost, and the Fast of
Atonement when the Torah is displayed and
kissed, the law read, and sleeping, eating, and
talkino' alike forbidden. On the first day of the

58 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

Feast of Tabernacles they repair to booths of
arbutus boughs pitched on the side of Gerizim ;
these, with the Sabbath, which is very strictly
observed, and a feast in memory of the dehverance
from Egypt, form their principal festivals.

The sacrifice on Gerizim, called Karaban Afsah,
has been graphically described by one of the most
picturesque writers on the Holy Land. A brief
resume of his and other accounts will render the
present sketch more complete.

After special preparation by prayer and the
reading of the Law, the congregation repair to the
plateau or lower spur which runs out west from
the hicrh ridsre of Gerizim Avhere are the ruins of
the ancient TemjDle, and it is at this time covered
with white tents ; it is, however, only within the
last thirty years that this has been allowed by the
Moslems. At sunset on the loth of Nizan the
service besrins, the IIii2:h Priest standing^ on a larsre
stone surrounded by a low dry stone wall. A certain
proportion of the congregation wear long white
robes, and all have white turbans instead of the
usual red one. Six sheep are slain, as the sun
goes down, by the Samaritan butcher cutting
their throats ; the entrails and right fore-legs are
€ut off and burnt ; the bodies are scalded A\dth
water from two huQ-e cauldrons heated over a fire
of brushwood, the fleeces removed, the legs
skewered, and the bodies then thrust into a sort
of oven in the ground (Tannur in Arabic), covered

SHECHEM AND THE SAMARITANS. 59

with a hurdle and with sods of earth. Here for five
hours they are baked. The oven, hned with stone,
can be seen on the mountain all the year round.
The men of the congregation gird themselves Avith
ropes, and wdth staves in their hands and shoes
on their feet as though prepared for a journey,
they surround the meat when brought out, and
generally eat standing or walking ; of late years,
however, they have been seen seated. The Jews
have always eaten the Passover seated, in Palestine,
but until lately the Samaritans have adhered to
the ancient and prescribed form to eat " in haste."
The scene of the feast, dimly visible by the light
of a few candles, is one of unique interest, taking
the spectator back for thousands of years to the
early period of Jewish history. The men eat first,
next to them the w^omen ; the scraps are burnt,
and a bonfire kindled and fed with the fat ; the
rest of the night is spent in prayer for four hours.
On the following day rejoicings continue; fish,
rice, and eggs are eaten, wine and sj^irits drunk,
and hymns, generally impromptu, are sung. On
the 21st of the month another pilgrimage is made
to Gerizim, forming the eighth festival held by
the nation.

Such is a slight sketch, compiled partly from
personal inquiries and partly from various standard
authorities, of the history and customs of the Sa-
maritans. To sum up the points principally worthy
of consideration. We have seen that while the

60 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

later Jewish accounts are contradictory as to the
origin of this people, and the Bible itself silent,
we have their own assertion that they are the
remaining descendants of the Ten Tribes of Israel.
We have noticed that their physiognomy leads to
the conclusion that they are of the same stock
with the Jews, that their sacred book is a version
of the Pentateuch and their religion a very pure
form of Judaism, that the first became apparently
their religious standard before the time of Ezra,
and that it is inconceivable that they should have
adopted Jewish dogmas at a period when they
were distinguished by their hatred of that nation.
Finally, we see their doctrines to be in the main
identical with those of the most ancient Jewish
party, the Karaite or Sadducean.

From these various reasons the conclusion
which appears to me personally to follow is, that
the Samaritans are to be believed in respect of
their account of their own origin, and that in
them we find the only true descendants of Israel,
and the only remnant of the Ten Tribes v»-ith
exception perhaps of those still dispersed in
Assyria, who have, however, deserted their ori-
ginal faith.

The subject which naturally next claims atten-
tion is that of the sacred Samaritan places, and of
their relation to the Biblical history. The sites in
question are all grouped in the immediate vicinity
of Shechcm.

SHE CHE M AND THE SAMARITANS. 61

The modern town of Nablus (tlie Roman
Neapolis) probably occupies, in part at least, the
site of the ancient Shechem, as is indicated by the
proximity of the modern cemetery to the greater
number of the Jewish rock-cut sepulchres. It is
a town of some thirteen thousand inhabitants, of
Avhom all but about six hundred are Moslems of a
very fanatical spirit. The town is well built, con-
taining several fine houses and a good bazaar. It
is surrounded with walls and is long and narrow,
situate at the head of the great valley called
" Valley of Barley " Avhich runs west to Samaria.

The Vale of Shechem is from a quarter to half
a mile wide north and south, hemmed in between
the twin mountains, Ebal and Gerizim, the summits
of which are two miles apart in a line. The valley
is the most luxuriant in Palestine ; long rivulets,
fed by no less than eighty springs (according to
the natives), run down the hill-slopes and murmur
in the deep ravine ; gardens surround the city
walls; figs, walnuts, mulberries, oranges, lemons,
olives, pomegranates, vines, plums, and every
species of vegetable grow in abundance, and the
green foliage and sparkling streams refresh the
eye. But as at Damascus, the oasis is set in a
desert, and the stony, barren mountains contrast
strongly with the green orchards below.

The Crusaders have left their mark on the town,
the ruined " Leper's Mosque " to the east seems
to have been probably the Hospital. Tlie Great

C2 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

Mosque is a Byzantine Basilica, with an outer
court, having on the east a fine Gothic portal.
The little chapel of the " Wailing of Jacob " (over
his lost son Joseph) was also once a Christian
church. The names of the six quarters of the
city appear to be ancient.

Just inside the town wall is a modem Moslem
mosque, dedicated to the " Ten Sons of Jacob," and
the site is probably connected with an ancient tra-
dition mentioned by St. Jerome in his account of
Sta. Paula's travels. Olive groves extend east-
wards for half a mile from the town, and also on the
west there are groves where the lepers have taken
up their abode. The ancient ruins extend some
way beyond the walls on the east, and the founda-
tions of a former monastery exist above the road
on the south-west.

South of Nablus rises the rocky and steep
shoulder of Gerizim. The mountain is L-shaped,
the highest ridge (2848.8 feet above the sea) runs
north and south, and a lower ridge projects west-
wards from it. The top is about 1000 feet above
the bottom of the valley east of Shechem. As
compared with other Judean mountains, the out-
line of Gerizim is very fine ; the lower part con-
sists of white chalk, which has been quarried,
leaving huge caverns visible above the groves
which clothe the feet of the hill. Above this
formation comes the dark blue Nummulitic lime-
stone, barren and covered with shin^-le, risinof in

SHECHEM AND THE SAMARITANS. 63-

ledges and long slopes to the summit. The whole
of the northern face of the mountain abounds with
springs, the largest of which, with ruins of a little
Koman shrine to its Genius, was close to our
camp.

In ascending to the summit of the western spur of
Gerizim, by the path up the gully behind our camp,
the contrastwas striking between the bright green of
the gardens dotted with red pomegranate blossoms
and the steel- grey of the barren slope. Riding
eastwards and gradually ascending, we first reach-
ed the little dry-stone enclosures and the oven
used during the Passover. There are scattered
stones round, but no distinct ruins of any build-
ings ; the place is called Lozeh or Luz, but the
reason of this appears to have escaped notice.
The title is of Samaritan origin, and is due ta
their view that Gerizim is the real site of Bethel
or Luz, the scene of Jacob's vision.

The highest part of the mountain is covered by
the ruins of Justinian's fortress, built 533 a.d., in
the midst of w^hich stands Zeno's church, con-
structed in 474 A.D. The foundations alone are
visible, showing an octagon with its entrance on
the north, and remains of six side chapels ; the
fortress is a rectangle 180 feet east and west, 230
north and south, with tov/ers at the corners ; that
on the south-west being now a little mosque dedi-
cated to Sheikh Ghanim, who is, according to the
Samaritans, Shechem, the son of Hamor. The

U TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

fortress walls are built of those constantly recur-
ring drafted stones which are often loosely de-
scribed as Jewish or Phoenician masonry, though
the practised eye soon discriminates between the
original style of the Temple at Jerusalem and
the rude, rustic bosses of the Byzantines and
Crusaders.

A huge reservoir exists, north of the castle which
is called El Kul'ah in Arabic, and below this a spur
of the hill projects, artificially severed by a ditch
and covered with the traces of a former fortress.
This is perhaps the station of the Roman guards,
who thus prevented the Samaritans from approach-
ing Gerizim, for it commands the southern ascent
to the mountain.

Of the ancient Samaritan Temple the only rehcs
are probably the remains of massive masonry
known as the "Twelve Stones" (Asherah Balatat),
near the west wall of Justinian's fortress. They
are huge blocks rudely squared, forming one
course of a foundation, the north-west corner of
which was laid bare by Captain Anderson's exca-
vation in 18G6. There are two courses, and the
lower one contains thirteen stones ; this course,
however, was not formerly visible, and the Sama-
ritans considered twelve stones alone to lie buried,
and to be those brouMit from Jordan at the time of
Joshua — thus supposing some supernatural agency
sufficient to cany such huge blocks up a steep
slope 1000 feet high, to say nothing of the journey

SHECHEM AND THE SAMARITANS. 65

from the Jordan. Under these stones, as before
noticed, the treasures of the old Temple are sup-
posed to lie hidden.

South of the fortress is one of those flat slabs of
rock which occur all over the summit. It shelves
slightly down westward, and at this end is a rock-
cut cistern. The whole is surrounded by a low
drystone wall. This is the Sacred Rock of the
Samaritans, and the cave is traditionally that in
Avhich the tabernacle was made. At the time of
my second visit some peasants were using the
Sacred Hock as a threshing-floor. Rude stone walls
extend on every side, and farther south there is a
curious flight of steps leading down east. They
are called the " seven steps of Abraham's altar,"
and just beneath them, on the edge of the eastern
precipice at the southern extremity of the plateau,
there is a little trouo-h cut in the rock resembhna*
the Passover oven. This the Samaritans suppose
to be the site of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, for
their version of the story reads ''Moreh" instead of
Moriah, and makes Gerizim the scene of the
Patriarch's trial.

This question has been taken up by Dean
Stanley, who favours the Samaritan view ; but it
must not be forgotten that Moriah is distinctly
stated in the Bible (2 Chron. iii. 1) to be the hill
on which the Temple was built at Jerusalem, as
also the scene of Isaac's sacrifice (Gen. xxii. 2).

The view from the summit of Gerizim is exten-

VOL. I. 5

66 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

sive and interesting. Northward the dome-like top
of Ebal sluits out the distance, whilst the eastern
half of Nabliis, with its gardens, is seen below.
The numerous hills of the " Land of Tampne," as
the Crusaders called it, with the dark wooded
hein-ht of Jebel Hazkin, or " Ezekiel's Mountain,"
and the gorge w^hich leads down by Salem to the
waters of ^non, appear to the right. On the east
the broad Plain of Moreh lies at our feet, and the
mountains of Gilead rise blue and clear behind ; in
the middle of the plain stands 'Awertah, the place
of entombment of the sons of Aaron ; farther south
are the mountains round Shiloh and Tell 'Asur
(the ancient Baal Hazor), loftier than even Ebal
itself by some 300 feet. The ridge of Gerizim
joins on the south the chain of Mount Salmon, on
whose summit in 1874 the snow lay white and
thick as late as March. Gradually turning to the
south-west the ofieamino: sand-hills and the shinincr
sea appear, and the stone villages of the Beni S'ab
hills stand up like towers in mid distance. Here
on a clear day the brown ruins of Csesarea, once
the scene of bloody feuds between Jews and
Samaritans, can be descried ; and farther north
the range above Samaria is seen over the shoulder
of Gerizim, and behind this the dark woods and
volcanic crater of Sheikh Iskander, with Carmel
faint and blue in the extreme distance.

On the 24th of July in 1872, I looked round
from this point on a strange land in every direction.

SHECHEM AND THE SAMARITANS. 67

On tlie 10th of June, 1875, I again stood on the
summit, and could name each village visible, and
recognise each high hill as one on which I had
stood once at least in the years which intervened ;
for on the first occasion the great Survey was
slowly commencing, and painfully pushing north-
wards ; on the second it was drawing rapidly to a
successful conclusion, and we were marching north-
wards, ignorant of the rude check we were destined,
as will be seen, to receive at Safed.

Crossing the narrow valley on another July
day, the Survey-party ascended the eastern brow
of Ebal. The Mount of the Curses is even more
barren than Gerizim, the Mount of Blessing.
Cactus-hedges clothe its feet, on which the culture
of the cochineal insect has lately been tried without
success. The slope of steel-blue rock is less abrupt
than that of Gerizim, but a band of precipitous
cliffs exists near the summit. The mountain is
dome-shaped, its top (3076-5 feet above the sea)
is higher than those of p.ny mountains near,
though both in Judea and in Galilee more lofty
points occur ; thus Ebal is a conspicuous object
from all sides, especially from the north and from
the maritime plain. The southern face of the hill
has no springs on it, but man}'- occur on the north.
The southern slopes are covered with corn, and at
sunset the orange-coloured flush over the bare
rocks produces a startling contrast to the rich
foliage of the valley beneath.

5—2

G8 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

There are three curious places on Ebal ; one of
which is a rude stone building, enclosing a space
of fifty feet square, Avith walls twenty feet thick, in
which are chambers. The Samaritans call it part of
a ruined village, but its use and origin are a mystery.
It resembles most the curious monuments near
Hizmeh, called the " Tombs of the Sons of Israel."
The second place is the little cave and ruined
chapel of Sitt Eslamiyeh, *' the Lady of Islam,"
who has given her name to the mountain. It is
perched on the side of a precipice, and is held
sacred by the Moslems, who have a tradition
that the bones of the Saint were carried hither
throuofh the air from Damascus. The third
place is a site the importance of which has not
been previously recognised. It is a little Moslem
Mukiim, said once to have been a church, called
'Amad ed Din, the "Monument of the Faith."
The name thus preserved has no connection with
Samaritan tradition, but it is undisputed that
the sacred places of the peasantry often represent
spots famous in Bible history. It is therefore
perhaps possible that the site thus reverenced
is none other than that of the monumental altar
of twelve stones from Jordan, which Joshua
erected, according to the Biblical account, on
Ebal, and not on Gcrizim as the Samaritans
believe, charn^incc the Jews with havino- altered
the names (Deut. xxvii. 4). Another possible
origin for the title "Monument of the Faith"

SHE CHE AT AND THE SAMARITANS. GO

is, however, to be noticed in a later chapter, for
the Crusaders seem to have regarded the place
as the Dan of Jeroboam's Calf Temple.

In the account given of the reading of the Lavv^,
we find that the Israelites stood half " over
against" Gerizim, half over against Ebal, and that
an altar of whole stones was built "in Mount
Ebal," where also a copy of the law v/as wiitten
by Joshua (Josh. viii. 30, 33). Later on we find
reference to a great stone under an oak by " the
holy place of Jehovah" (Josh. xxiv. 26), and the
same place is probably intended by " the oak of
the pillar that was in Shechem" (Judges ix.
G) ; it is even conjectured that the " oak which
was by Shechem," where Jacob hid the strange
gods (Gen. xxxv. 4), was the same place. The
pillar of the oak must not be confused with the
altar on Ebal, and we have next to discuss the
question of the probable position of this sacred oak.

It has been pointed out by Canon Williams
and other writers that a natural amphitheatre
exists between Ebal and Gerizim in the sloping
sides of two recesses opposite each other, formed
by a tributary valley from each hill ; there is
space for the assembly of a vast multitude, and
the voice of a speaker in the valley could probably
have been heard by the entire congregation, though
such a requirement is not necessarily involved in
the description of the reading of the law. It is
strikincr to find, here at the foot of Gerizim a

70 TENT WORK IN PALESIINE.

place called the " Pillar," but it cannot represent
the altar on Ebal, and if it be the great stone by
the oak, where Joshua made a covenant with
Israel, it has no direct connection with the reading
of the law. The Mosque of the Pillar (el 'Amud)
is a little shrine similar to many in the country
with small whitewashed domes and a wall sur-
rounding a little garden. The gate is on the
north, and cool pitchers of wtiter here await the
thirsty pilgrim ; within is a paved court shaded
by an aged tree, shrubs and palms are visible
throu^'h the doorwav, and the small building
stands in the midst with whitewashed walls and
wooden door. The modern Samaritans seem to
regard this as the true site of Joshua's stone by

the oak (Josh. xxiv. 26).

It is not, however, at this mosque that the
Samaritan chronicles and the early Christian
pilgrims seem to agree in placing the site of the
oak. Jerome and Eusebius speak of a place
called Balanus or Balata, the Samaritan or
Aramaic equivalent of Elon an *' oak," and the
same place is noticed in the Samaritan chi'onicles
under the Arabic titles of Balata and Shejr el
Kheir (the " tree of grace "). The site is thus
carried about half a mile east to the village of
Balata (equivalent to Ballut, an '' oak "), close to
Jacob's Well.

The sites which next attract attention are
situate at the point where the Yale of Shcchem

SHECHEM AND THE SAMARITANS. 71

opens into the Plain of the Miikhnah or " camp."'
Here close tos^ether we find Jacob's Well and
Joseph's Tomb, and in connection with them our
attention turns naturally to the Sychar of St.
John's Gospel.

The tradition of Jacob's Well is one in which
Jews, Samaritans, Moslems, and Christians alike
agree. Its credibility is thus much increased, for
there are only three other sites as to the position
of which such unanimity exists, namely the site of
the Temple at Jerusalem and those of Joseph's and
Eleazar's Tombs. In addition to this argument
there are other reasons which lead to the belief
that the tradition is trustworthy ; the proximity
of Joseph's Tomb, and of Sychar, and finally the
fact of a well existing at all in a place abounding
with streams, one of which is within one hundred
yards' distance. No other important well is found
near, and the utility of such a work can only be
explained on the assumption that it was necessary
for the Patriarch to have water within his own
land, surrounded as he was by strangers who may
naturally be supposed to have guarded jealously
their rights to the springs. By digging the well
Jacob avoided those quarrels from which his father
had suffered in the Philistine country, pursuing a
policy of peace which appears generally to have
disting-uished his actions.

The well then, as beino- one of the few undoubted
sites made sacred by the feet of Christ, is a spot

72 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

of greater interest than any near Shechem. Its
neighbourhood is not marked by any very pro-
minent monument, and indeed it would be quite
possible to pass by it without knowing of its
existence. Just east of the gardens of Balata, a
dusty mound by the road half covers the stumps
of three granite columns. After a few moments'
search a hole is found south of them, and by this
the visitor descends throuGrh the roof of a little
vault, apparently modern, as shown in the illus-
tration. The vault stretches twenty feet east and
west, and is ten feet broad, the hole in the pointed
arch of the roof beinsf in the north-east corner. The
floor is covered with fallen stones which block the
mouth of the well ; through these we let down the
tape and found the depth to be seventy-five feet.
The diameter is seven feet six inches, the whole
depth cut through alluvial soil and soft rock re-
ceiving water by infiltration through the sides.
There appears to be occasionally as much as two
fathoms of water, but in summer the well is dry.
The httle vault is built on to a second, running at
rigrht anGfles northwards from the west end, but
the communication is now walled up. In this
second vault there are said to be remains of a
tesselated pavement, and the bases of the three
columns rest on this floor, the shafts sticking out
tlirough the roof, a sufficient proof that the vault
is modern.

The vicv/ from the well is good : on the south

SHECHEM AND THE SAMARITANS. 73

the rugged slopes of Gerizim ; on the west the
oHves in the Vale of Shechem, with Ebal rising
behind, and the little hamlet of Balata, Avitli its
fio- gardens, the whitewashed walls and dome of
Joseph's Tomb, the mud huts of Sychar; on the
north-east the neio-hbourhood of Shalem whence
Jacob first came ; and on the east the broad brown
Plain of the Mukhnah, named perhaps (for the word
is of Hebrew origin) from the great encampment
of Israel at the time of the first conquest.

A Christian church was built before 383 a.d.
round Jacob's Well, but did not exist apparently
in 333 A.D., when the Bordeaux Pilgrim visited
the spot. Bishop Arculph, in 700 a.d., gives a
plan which shows the building as cruciform, with
the well in the middle; and St. Willibald (722 a.d.)
mentions it as standing in his day. It was pro-
bably founded by Constantino and destroyed in
the invasion of Omar, for in Crusading times it
had disappeared. To this church the pavement
and pillars seem to have belonged. As late as
1555 A.D. a little altar stood in the vault on which
yearly mass was offered, but this practice is now
discontinued. I confess that for one I should be
sorry to see modern restorations attempted at this
sacred spot ; the present ruin takes back the mind
far more to ancient memories than would any newly
designed building of European taste, failing, as
it must do, to harmonise with the oriental surround-
ino-s. The site now belonsfs to the Greek Church.

71 TENT WORK IN TALES! INE.

About six hundred yards north of the well is
the traditional Tomb of Joseph, venerated by the
members of every religious community in Pales-
tine. The buildinof stands on the road-side from
Balata to 'Askar, at the end of a row of fine fig-
trees. The enclosure is square and roofless, the
walls whitewashed and in good repair, for, as an
inscription on the south wall in English informs
the visitor, it was rebuilt by Consul Rogers, the
friend of the Samaritans, in 18G8 ; it is about
twenty -five feet square, and on the north is another
building of equal size, but older and partly ruin-
ous, surmounted by a little dome. The tomb itself
resembles most of the Moslem cenotaphs — a long
narrow block with an arched or vaulted roof havino-
a pointed cross section. It is rudely plastered, and
some seven feet lonof and three feet hioli. It is
placed askew, and nearest to the west wall of the
court, A stone bench is built into the east wall,
on which three Jews were seated at the time of
our second visit, book in hand, swinging back-
wards and forwards as they crooned out a nasal
chant — a prayer no doubt appropriate to the
place.

The most curious point to notice is, however,
the existence of two short pillars, one at the head,
the other at the foot of the tomb, having shallow
cup-shaped hollows at their tops. These hollows
are blackened by fire, for the Jews have the
custom of burninq; sacrifices on them, Email

SHE C HEM AND THE SAMARITANS. 75

articles such as handkerchiefs, gold lace, or
shawls being consumed. Whether this practice
is also observed by the Samaritans is doubtful.

The tomb points approximately north and south,
thus beinof at rio;ht andes to the direction of
Moslem tombs north of Mecca. How the Mo-
hammedans explain this disregard of orientation
in so respected a Prophet as " our Lord Joseph,"
1 have never heard ; perhaps the rule is held to
be only established since the time of Mohammed.
The veneration in which the shrine is held by the
Moslem peasantry is, at all events, not diminished
by this fact.

The little villao-e of 'Askar stands on the slope
of Ebal within sioiit of Jacob's Well, about half a
mile from it and little over a mile from Nablus.
It is merely a collection of mud-hovels like Balata
or any village near, but it has a spring issuing from
a curious cave, and ancient rock-cut sepulchres
beneath it, so that it is in all probability an
ancient site.

It is here no doubt that we recoo^nise the
Sychar of the Fourth Gospel. An unaccountable
confusion has grown up lately between Sychar
and Shechem, for which the Crusaders are origin-
ally responsible, as they are indeed for most of the
false theories on sacred sites. It is only through
careful study, and by such work as that of the
Survey, that we are beginning to escape from
the entanglements and confusion caused h^ the

7G TENT VrORK IN PALESTINE.

ignorance of knights and priests, arriving, in the
twelfth century, strangers and illiterate enthusiasts
in a hostile country.

It will be evident to all readers of the Gospel
narrative that Sychar, " a city of Samaria" near
Jacob's Well (John iv. 5 — G), is a description
hardly to be expected of Shechem, which is more-
over mentioned by its original name in the New
Testament (Acts vii. IG). The early Christians
recognised the distinction, and place Sychar a
mile east of Shechem, as noticed in the " Itinerary
of Jerusalem," 333 a.d. It is clear that they refer
to 'Askar, and the identity is maintained by Canon
Williams and others ; but a difficulty has always
been felt by students because the modern name
begins with a guttural, Avhich cannot have occurred
in the name Sychar. This difficulty the Samaritan
Chronicle seems to me to remove, for in it we find
a town mentioned apparently near Shechem, called
Ischar, which is merely a vulgar pronunciation of
Sychar ; and the Samaritans themselves, in trans-
lating their Chronicle into Arabic, call it 'Askar.
Thus the transition is traceable from the Hebrew
form, having no meaning in Arabic but originally
" a place walled in," through the Samaritan Ischar
to the modern 'Askar, " a collection " or " army "
in Arabic.

But one group of sacred places remains to be
noticed in the village of 'Awertah, called Abearthah
in the Samaritan dialect. It stands in the Plain

SHE CHE M AND THE SAMARITANS.

77

of the Mukhnah, and is sacred to the Samaritans
and to the Jews as containing the tombs of
Phinehas and Eleazar, Abishuah and Ithamar.
It is probably to be recognised as the Hill of
Phinehas where Eleazar was buried, according to
the Bible (Josh. xxiv. 33), and which is described
as in Mount Ephraim.

In 1872 I visited the villao-e and examined the

Toirc o:-' Phinehas.

two principal monuments. That of Eleazar, west
of the houses, is a rude structure of masonry in a
court open to the air. It is eighteen feet long,
^plastered all over, and shaded by a splendid tere-
binth. In one corner is a little mosque with a
•Samaritan inscription bearing the date 1180 of

TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

the Moslem era. The Tomb of Phinchas is ap-
parently an older building, and the walls of its
court have an arcade of round arches now sup-
porting a trellis covered with a grape-vine ; the
floor is paved, A Samaritan inscription exists
here as well as at the little mosque adjacent.
The tombs of Ithamar, and of Abishuah author
of the famous roll, are shown by the Samaritans
close by.

The *' Holy King Joshua " is said by the Sa-
maritans to have been buried at Kefr Haris, which
they identify with Timnath Heres. This village
is nine miles south of Nablus.

The Jewish pilgrim Rabbi Jacob of Paris
visited Caphar Cheres — presumably Kefr Haris,
in 1258 A.D., and mentions the Tombs of Joshua,
Nun, and Caleb. The Samaritans also hold that
Caleb was buried with Joshua, and thus we have
the curious result that Jews and Samaritans ascree
as to the site of these tombs, both placing them
within the boundaries of Samaria. The Crusadinsr
writers point to the same site for Joshua's Tomb,
and the place is marked on the map of Marino
Sanuto (1322 a.d.) in the relative position of Kefr
Haris.

The modern village has three sacred places : one
of Neby Nun, the second Neby Lush'a, the tliird
Neby Kifl, In the two first we recognise Nun
and Joshua ; the third also, the " Proj^het of
division by lot," seems to preserve a memory of

SHECHEM AND THE SAMARITANS. 79

the leader who divided the inheritance to the
children of Israel, though perhaps occupying the
place of the medieval Tomb of Caleb.

The site of Joshua's Tomb seems therefore to
be preserved by an indigenous tradition which is
at least as authentic as that which fixes Joseph's
Tomb. It is true that Jerome appears to indicate
a different site, as will be seen in a subsequent
chapter, but it seems only natural in a case of
discordant traditions to give the preference to
that which is traceable to Jewish and therefore
indigenous origin, rather than to the conjectures of
Christians from Europe.

Heeod's Colonnade. Samakia.

CHAPTER III.

THE SURVEY OF SAMARIA.

It is a remarkable fact, but one which can scarce
be disputed, that while the descriptions given of
tribe boundaries and cities in the Book of Joshua
are full and minute in the territory of Judea, and
scarcely less so in Galilee, they are fragmentary
and meagre within the bounds of Samaria. A
short inspection of the topographical lists will con-
vince any student of this fact ; he will find there
is no account of the conquest of Samaria, that the
list of Royal Cities does not include the famous
Samaritan towns, Shechem, Thebcz, Acrabbi, and

THE SURVEY OF SAMARIA. 81

others ; that no list of the cities of Ephraim and
Manasseh is inckided in the topographical chapters
of the Book of Joshua, no description of the
northern limits of Manasseh, and only a very-
slight one of the southern border, where that tribe
marched with Ephraim. However it may be
accounted for, the plain fact remains that this
portion of the Book of Joshua is manifestly
incomplete.

The result of this silence is that the number of
sites of Biblical interest within the borders of
Mount Ephraim and the hills of Manasseh is
small, and hence this central portion of the land
was one well fitted for our first survey operations,
when attention had to be devoted exclusively to
the technicalities of the work, and was fortunately
not distracted by the necessity of studying difficult
antiquarian questions.

The places of primary interest between the pass
of the Bobber's Fountain on the south and the
Great Flain of Esdraelon on the north, are five in
all. Shiloh just south of the Samaritan boundary,
Samaria, Tirzah, ^non and Dothan, north ot
the Vale of Shechem. These may now be described
in order, and a short account given of the routine
of the Survey and the adventures of the party when
first starting from Nablus under my command.

There is no site in the country fixed with
greater certainty than that of Shiloh. The modern
name Seilun preserves the most archaic form

VOL. I. 6

82 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

which is found in the Bible in the ethnic Shilonite
(1 Kings xi. 29). The position of the ruin agrees
exactly with the very definite description given in
the Old Testament of the position of Shiloh as
" on the north side of Bethel (now Beitin), on the
east side of the highway that goeth up from
Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah"
(Lubben) (Judges xxi. 19). It is just here that
Seilun still stands in ruins ; the traveller leaves
Bethel, descends into the gorge of the Bobber's
Fountain, and emerges into open ground near
Sinjil (Casale Saint Gilles of the Crusaders), Here
he leaves the main road to Shechem on the west,
and passes over the corn-plain of Turmus Eyya
(the Thormasia of the Talmud). The scenery of
the wild mountains is finer than that in Judea ;
the red colour of the cliflTs, which are of g-reat
height, is far more picturesque than the shapeless
chalk mounds near Jerusalem ; the fig-gardens and
olive-groves are more luxuriant, but the crops are
poor compared to those in the plain and round
Bethlehem ; Judea is the more fertile district.
Mount Ephraim the more rugged and picturesque.
We approached Shiloh from the south, by a
mountain-road of evident antiquity, from the little
plain. The ruins of a modern village here occupy
a sort of Tell or mound. On the east and north
the site is shut in by bare and lofty hills of grey
limestone, dotted over with a few fig-trees ; on the
south the plateau looks down on the plain just

THE SURVEY OF SAAIARIA. 83

crossed. A deep valley runs behind the town on
the north, and in its sides are many rock-cut
sepulchres ; following its course westward, we
again reached the main road, thus avoiding a steep
jDass, and turning northwards found the village of
Lebonah perched on the hillside to the west of
the road and north of Shiloh, as described in the
Bible.

Shiloh was for 369 years, according to the Jews^
the chosen abode of the Tabernacle and Ark. It
is a question of no little interest whether this was
the first spot selected after the conquest of the
hills by Joshua. That Shiloh became the gather-
ing-place after the conquest of Shechem there is
abundant proof (Josh. xxii. 12), and it may be
inferred that the Tabernacle was placed there
early ; but, on the other hand, we have the ex-
pression "Sanctuary of the Lord" (or Holy Place
of Jehovah) applied at the same period to a place
near Shechem (Josh. xxiv. 25), possibly to Gerizim
itself, and we may perhaps gather that, though not
recognised by the doctors of the Mishna, there was
a time when the Tabernacle stood, as is believed
by the Samaritans, near Shechem. The date they
give for its transference to Shiloh, in the time
of Eli, whom they consider to be the first schis-
matical leader of the children of Judah, does not,
however, accord with the Biblical account, and the
story is no doubt due to the influence of religious
hatred.

6—2

Si TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

The site being so certainly known, it becomes
of interest to speculate as to the exact position of
the Tabernacle. Below the top of the hill, on the
north of the ruins, there is a sort of irregular
quadrangle, sloping rather to the west, and perched
above terraces made for agricultural purposes.
The rock has here been rudely hewn in two
parallel scarps for over 400 feet, with a court
between, seventy-seven feet wide, and sunk five feet
below the outer surface. Thus there would be
sufficient room for the court of the Tabernacle in
this area. From the Mishna we learn that the
lower part of the Tabernacle erected at Shiloh
Avas of stone, with a tent above.

There are, however, two other places which
demand attention as possible sites, one being per-
haps a synagogue, the other a little building called
the " Mosque of the Servants of God."

The building which I have called a synagogue is
situate on a slope south of the ruins of Shiloh. It is
thirty-seven feet square, and built of good masonry.
The door is on the north, and is surmounted by a
flat lintel, on which is a design in bold relief,
representing vases and wreaths. Inside there are
pillars with capitals seemingly Byzantine. A
sloping scarp has been built against the wall on
three sides, and a little nlosque sacred to El
Arb'ain — " the Forty" Companions of the Prophet
— is built on to the east wall. There is a pointed
xircli on the west Avail. Thus we have at least

THE SURVEY OF SAMARIA. 85

three periods — that of the old synagogue repre-
sented by the lintel, which is similar to the lintels
of Galilean synagogues, that of a later Christian
erection, and finally the Moslem mosque, built
probably Avhere the apse of the chapel would have
been placed.

The Jami'a el Yeteim, or " Mosque of the
Servants of God," is situate at the southern foot
of the Tell. It is shaded by a large oak-tree, and
is of good masonry like that of the last ; there was
nothing very remarkable in the little low chamber
within, but the name seems to preserve a tradition
of the position of the Tabernacle.

The only water close to the village was once
contained in a little tank with steps, south of the
lower mosque. There is, however, a fine spring
placed, as is often to be observed in Palestine, at a
distance of no less than three quarters of a mile
from the town, at the head of the valley which
comes down behind the ruins from the east. A
good supply of water here issues into a rocky
basin, and was once carried by an underground
aqueduct to a rock-cut tank, but is now allowed to
run waste.

The vineyards of Shiloh have disajopeared,
though very possibly once surrounding the spring,
and perhaps extending down the valley westwards,
where water is also found. With the destruction
of the village desolation has spread over the barren
hills around.

86 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

A yearly feast "svas held at Shiloh, when the
women came out to dance in the vineyards (Judges
xxi. 21). It is possible that a tradition of this
festival is retained in the name Merj el 'Aid,
" Meadow of the Feast," to the south of the
present site.

Shiloh lies in so remote a situation, so hidden
by its surrounding hills, and so out of the main
highways, that neither the early pilgrims nor the
Crusaders seem to have ever known of its position,
and it is unnoticed by any writer but Jerome
before the sixteenth century. The Crusaders con-
sidered Neby Samwil (or Mount Joy, as they pre-
ferred to call it) to be Shiloh, and also Ramathaim
Zophim, or, Gibeah of Saul. Such wild ideas are
sufficient to show their ignorance of the Bible, and
are only noticeable as among the curiosities of
Palestine geography.

The Tabernacle and Ark remained so Ions: at
this spot that it was regarded by the Jews as
only second to Jerusalem in sanctity. A curious
peculiarity of their worship is noticed in the
Mishna, where they are said to have been allowed
to eat certain sacrifices at any spot Avhence the
Tabernacle could be seen, but not farther from it.
As Shiloh was shut in by mountains, the effect
must have been to cjather the conofreofation much
oftener to this remote valley, than when, at Nob
or Gibeon, the same sacrifices (the second tithes)
might be eaten in any of the cities of Israel.

THE SURVEY OF SAMARIA. 87

The road from Shechem to Samaria leads down
the course of the western valley through groves
of ancient olives with gardens of pomegranates
and figs. The olives are more picturesque than
in Judea, as the trees are not regularly arranged
in quincunx order, but grow almost wild with a
tangled underwood. Those in the valley beneath
Nablus seem to be of great age, and have split up
into two or three stems from one root, with
numerous suckers. Leaving these groves, the
road climbs the side of a white chalk swell, where
the ground is strewn with gravel from the huge
blocks of beautiful brown flint conglomerate like
agate, which runs in bands through the rock. It
finally descends into a valley, open and well
Avatered, and passes beneath the Hill of Samaria,
which is thickly covered with olives.

Samaria is in a position of great strength, and
though it would now be commanded from the
northern range, it must, before the invention of
gunpowder, have been almost impregnable. It
rises some 400 feet above the valley, the sides of
the hill being steep, and terraced in every direc-
tion for cultivation, or perhaps for defensive pur-
poses, as Josephus tells us the hill was scarped
by Herod the Great (Ant. xv. 8, 5) ; broad and
open valleys stretch north and south, and the hill
is thus almost isolated, being joined only by a low
tonofue on the east to the chain of Ebal. The
view northwards extends to the high ridge a few

88 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

miles off wliicli divides the Nablus district from
the outskirts of the great plain. On the east the
lower slopes which run out of the great dome of
Ebal are visible, on the south and west the flat
Samaritan hills stretch away, covered with olives,
and crowned by numerous villages which stand on
high knolls, generally with a central tower or
larger house. It is wonderful to reflect how great
the antiquity of most of these hamlets is. For
four thousand years, in some instances, the little
hill has been covered by a succession of probably
just the same sort of cottages which now rise upon
the ruins of their predecessors ; for four thousand
years the women have gone down to the same
spring, quarrelled, talked scandal, and returned
Avith their brown jars on their heads ; for four
thousand years the cattle have trampled the corn
and the wind has borne the chaff from the irreat
yellow corn-heap ; for all this time the same race
has lived on, and has handed down the same villao-e
name, scarcely changed from the time of Abraham
to the present day.

The village of Sebustieh, representing the
ancient Samaria, is built on the brow of the great
white hill, and immediately north-east of the mud-
hovels are the ruins of the beautiful Crusadino-
church of Saint John Baptist, where, in a crypt,
now held sacred by the Moslem peasantry, the
saint was supposed to have been beheaded. The
tradition, though erroneous, is ancient, and existed

THE SURVEY OF SAMARIA. 89

in 380 A.D. The church is a mere shell, its roof
and the pillars of the nave having been destroyed.

The site of the Paradise of Samaria, mentioned
in the Talmud, is perhaps represented by the
spring and gardens to the south of the hill.
The ancient tombs, which included those of the
Kings of Israel, seem to have been situate to the
north, on the opposite side of the valley, and none
have as yet been discovered on the hill itself.

The most interesting ruins, however, are those
of Herod's colonnade to the west of the modern
village. This building seems to have run round
the hill on a flat terrace, in the middle of which
rises a rounded knoll on which the Temple, dedi-
cated to Augustus, and stated by Josephus to have
been in the middle of the town, presumably stood.

The cloister measures about 2100 feet east and
west, and 660 feet north and south ; the walk
being fifty feet wide in the one case, and 100 feet
in the other. The total circuit is thus some
5500 feet, but Josephus (Ant, xv. 8) estimates
it at twenty furlongs or 10,000 feet ; his statement
is therefore considerably exaggerated, but is no
doubt to be considered as conjectural only.

In the south-west anole there seems to have
been a gateway flanked by small towers, the rock
scarps of which remain. On the north-east there
is another street of columns at the bottom of the
hill, running in a line oblique to the sides of the
upper colonnade. This seems to have been an

90 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

avenue of approach 180 feet wide, 1450 feet long ;
but it may have been a distinct building, as no
pillars remain on the upper slopes.

The pillar shafts are principally monoliths ; they
are not, however, of colossal size like Herod's
work in Jerusalem, but only sixteen feet high and
two feet thick.

Samaria is not a city wliich can compare in
antiquity with Shechem or Hebron, for only just
before Ahab's time Omri bouGfht the Hill of
Shemer. In the Talmud we find it called
Shomron or " watch-tower " as in the Bible, and
also Sebustieh as at present, Sebaste being
Herod's name for the town in honour of Au-
gustus, to whom the Temple was dedicated.
Strategical reasons may be supposed to have
dictated the choice of the capital of Omri, for on
the north the hill commands the main road to
Jezreel over a steep pass, on the west it domi-
nates the road to the coast, and on the east that
to the Jordan through Wady Far'ah, the highway
to Gilead. Thus we find that when the Syi'ians,
under Benhadad, raised the siege, and fled by
night down the great Far'ah valley to Jordan,
their panic was due to the fear of reinforcements
which they imagined they could hear advancing
over the pass from the northern land of the
Hittites, and on the west up the open valley
from Egypt (2 Kings vii. 6).

The history of Samaria has often been sum-

THE SURVEY OF SAMARIA. 91

marised. It shared the vicissitudes of Shechem,
and was destroyed by John Hyrcanus in 129 B.C.
when he demohshed the Temple on Gerizim. It
rose to importance under Herod, and then dis-
appears for a time from history. It became the
see of a Crusading bishop about 1155 a.d., and is
mentioned by many of the Christian pilgrims. It
is not, however, connected with the religion of the
people like Shechem, and there is therefore com-
paratively little to describe in the political capital
of Israel.

The traveller who rides across from Samaria
behind Ebal, or w^ho follows the stony road
in the mao-nificent p'oro^e east of the same moun-
tain, finds himself gradually descending to the
springs which lie at the head of the great Far'ah
valley, the open highway from the Damieh ford
of Jordan to Shechem. It was up this valley
that Jacob drove his flocks and herds from Suc-
coth to Shalem near Shechem. It was along the
banks of its stream that the " garments and
vessels " of the hosts of Benhadad w^ere strewn
as far as Jordan. It was here also that Israel,
returning from captivity (according to the Sa-
maritans), purified themselves before going up to
Gerizim to build the Temple ; but the j^lace pos-
sesses a yet higher interest as the probable site
of '' ^non near to Salem" where John was bap-
tizing, '' because there was much water there "
(John iii. 23).

92 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

The head-springs are found in an open valley
surrounded by desolate and shapeless hilb. The
water gushes out over a stony bed and flows
rapidly down in a fine stream surrounded by
bushes of oleander. The supply is perennial, and
a continual succession of little springs occurs along
the bed of the valley, so that the current becomes
the principal western affluent of Jordan south of
the Vale of Jezreel. The valley is open in most
parts of its course, and we find the two requisites
for the scene of baptism of a huge multitude — an
open space and abundance of water.

Not only does the name of Salem occur in the
village three miles south of the valley, but the
name ^non, signifying *' springs/' is recognisable
at the villaofe of 'Ainun four miles north of the
stream. There is only one other place of the
latter name in Palestine, Beit 'Ainun near
Hebron, but this is a place Avhich has no very fine
supply of water and no Salem near it. On the
other hand, there are many other Salems all over
Palestine, but none of them have an ^non near
them. The site of Wady Far 'ah is the only one
"where all the requisites are met — the two names,
the fine water supply, the proximity of the desert,
and the open character of the ground.

The identification has been questioned on the
assumption that ^non should be found near the
desert of Judea, where John first preached
(Matt. iii. 1), but it will afterwards be seen that

THE SUR VE Y OF SAMARIA. 93

there is good reason for placing Betliabara, where
also he baptized, far from. Judea and higher up
the valley of the Joi'dan than even this site of
^non ; and the large area thus supposed to have
been the theatre of the Baptist's wanderings fully
accords with the words of the third Gospel, " He
came into all the country about Jordan, preaching
the baptism of repentance " (Luke iii. 3).

Here then in the wild desert valley, beneath
the red precipices where the hawk and kite find
nests in *' the stairs of the rocks," or by the banks
of the shingly stream with its beautiful oleander
blossoms shining in the dusky foliage of luxuriant
shrubs, we may picture the dark figure of the
Baptist in his robe of camel's hair, with the broad
leather Bedawi belt round his loins, preaching to
the Judean multitude of pale citizens, portly grey-
bearded Babbis, Boman soldiers in leathern armour
and shining helmets, sharp-faced publicans, and,
above all, to the great mass of oppressed peasantry,
the "beasts of the people," uncared for, stricken with
palsy, with blindness, with fever, with leprosy, but
eagerly looking forward to the appearance of that
Messiah who came to preach the Gospel of the poor.

The scenery of Samaria differs from that both
of Judea and of Galilee ; with the excej)tion of the
ruo'o-ed hills south of Gerizim — the Mount Heres (or
" rough mountain ") of the Bible — the greater part
of the chstrict consists of chalk hills covered with
olives, and of open valleys and plains which are

94 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

wonderfully fertile. The great mountain blocks
of Galilee belonor to the wilder ranches of Lebanon,
and the loner ridores of hard limestone in Judea to

o o

a class of far less picturesque scenery.

It was among these hills and valleys that the
Survey was extended during the months of July
and August, 1872. Starting about eight in the
morning, we pushed on, now guiding our horses
over the loose blocks of a dry torrent-bed, now
crushing the thyme on the treeless slopes. The
land was stony and colourless, dried up by the
sun, the flowers long dead, and the glare from
the white rock very trying ; between the ledges
the little owls glared out on us ; the huge grey
lizards lifted their tails like race-horses, scam-
pering across the path, or nodding angrily behind
a stone with a sort of mimicry of Moslem
prayer-attitudes which causes them to be killed
by the Mohammedans whenever caught. In the
olive-groves the hoopoes were strutting with
their crests lifted, on the rocks the orazelles now
and then bounded past, or a stray jackal was to
be seen staring from a safe distance. Herds of
black long-eared goats, tended by the ragged
shepherd boys, roamed over the uncultivated
hills ; by the springs the little red cattle, scarcely
larger than an English calf, were huddled in the
shade, flipping off" the flies, and processions of blue-
robed women came down from the dust-coloui'ed
villas^es to fetch back water.

THE SURVEY OF SAMARIA. 95

The slabs of rock were slippery from the smooth
feet of the huge camels which came swinging alono-
the highway, led by men on diminutive brown
donkeys. All was grey and dusty under a sky
of lead in the east wind, or deep blue when it came
from the west. At the villag^es the corn was beino*
threshed and winnowed with instruments as old as
the time of Abraham, in their peculiarities of form.
Palestine was in fact at its worst as far as pic-
turesqueness is concerned ; but all was novel and
strange, and the interest had scarce time to subside
before the fine changes of autumn set in.

The routine gradually growing up for the exe-
cution of the work underwent but little change
during the whole period of our labours. The
party first rode out to various points round the
camp within a radius of fifteen miles, from which
good views might be expected. As each was
found satisfactory, or one near it preferred, great
cairns eight or ten feet high were built and white-
washed. This work took about five days. When
the points were chosen, five more days were con-
sumed in revisiting them, with the theodolite,
which travelled in its box bound to the back of a
mule, the muleteer perched behind it ; and with it
went the saddle-bags holding lunch, the chisel
and hammer for cutting the broad arrow on the
summits of the hills, the hatchet for hewing down
trees and copses.

From two to four hours were spent at each

98 TENT WORK JN PALESTINE.

point fixing the position of every prominent object,
tree, village, white dome or minaret visible within
ten miles. The names were collected from the
peasant who accompanied the party, and as the
afternoon shadows began to lengthen we slowly
wound down the hillside, a rough-looking cavalcade,
preceded by our Bashi-bazouk in his red boots,
armed to the teeth, and followed bv the non-
commissioned officers, who had become well accus-
tomed to their stout little Syrian ponies, whilst
the pack-mule and guide came last. We all wore
revolvers and the native head-dress, the Bedawin
kufeyeJi or shawl, a sure protection from sunstroke
and substitute for an umbrella. Our appearance
was therefore an extraordinary compound of
European and Bedawin, which is often, however,
assumed by the Turkish officials in travelling, and
thus attracted less attention.

On one of these rides we visited the little
villao-e of Kuriet Jit, west of Nablus, in which
there was a very high house fitted for a point in
the triangulation. It was generally better to
choose a mountain-top, as the curiosity of the
villagers is often annoying. They were, however,
here unaccustomed to travellers, and behaved
with the solemn courtesy, which used to be dis-
tinctive of the peasantry before European vulgarity
and European " backsheesh " had spoiled them.
They stared hard at the theodolite, which was
variously conjectured to be a watch, a compass, a

THE SURVEY OF SAM ART A.

97

telescope, or a combination of all three. At noon
we retired into the room which is kept especially
for chance guests in every village. Here we con-
sumed breakfast, the Sheikh and elders sitting
opposite to see us feed, and afterwards invited to
share the remains with our native followers. The

scene m colouring was almost equal to that o

Guest House, Kueiet Jit.

Eembrandt's interiors, the bright light through the
little door touchinsr here and there the outhnes of
the swarthy figures in their mantles of tawny
camel's-hair, striped with darker brown. The
Sheikh was o'lad of our escort back, as he was
carrying the taxes to Nablus. He inquired, as
he rode with us, how soon the English were

VOL. I. 7

98 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

coming to take the country and " build it up
again."

The theodohte work over, and the fixed points
laid down, the fiUing in of tlie detail followed.
The two non-coramissioned officers divided the
work betAveen them, and I took alternate days
with each to enable me to do the hill-sketchino^
and examine the geology. In open country this
riding day after day was pleasant, but when
the hills were precipitous and the valleys deep
and stony, the labour was very severe. Starting
at eight, resting at noon, returning at sunset,
and sleeping immediately after dinner, day after
day sped by with wonderful rapidity, and the
Survey spread gradually northwards. At length
the detail was finished round Nablus, the work
penned in, the name-lists completed and the
notes written up, and on the 16th of August
the camp was struck early, the tents j)acked
on grumbling camels by a crowd of yelling
natives, and we formed the line of march to our
new centre.

The adventures of the baQ:o:a2^c-train were
numerous; the gazelle was seized by some soldiers,
who wanted it as a present to their colonel,
and the usual difficulties in adjusting loads and
finding: the road occurred.

The horsemen went down by Samaria and
crossed the steep pass over the hills north of it.
From this place we looked down on a new scene,

THE SURVEY OF SAMARIA, 99

a little brown plain, hills crowned with villages
behind, and far off a long dark ridge, covered with
dense copses, rising into a conical point some thir-
teen miles off, with a white dome on the top ; this
proved a most important station later on.

The district thus entered is very rich, the
villages large and flourishing, with good stone
houses in them, and the olives and corn very fine.
It is called the " Eastern District of the Jerrar,"
from the name of a famous family of native chiefs,
once the governors of all the hills from the Great
Plain to Nablus on the south. The Sheikh of
the village at which we camped was one of this
family, and we were treated by its members with
much courtesy, although this politeness may not
have been altogether disinterested.

The village of Jeb'a was on the east of our camp,
on a hillside, and well built of stone, with olives
around it ; on the north we looked across a narrow
plain to Remeth of Issachar, and other ancient
villages perched on heights; behind us the hills
rose suddenly and stretched westwards in the long
chain crossed in the morning. East of Jeb'a
stands the strong fortified village of Sanur, on an
isolated hill guarding the pass into a small plain,
called the "Drowned Meadow," which has no
natural drainage, and thus becomes a marsh in
the winter, drying up only in May or June.

This fortified village has often been supposed
identical with the Bethulia of the Book of Judith,

7—2

100 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

a place which was near Dothan ; but Santjr does
not fulfil one of the main requisites for the site, as
it does not command a view of the Plain of
Esdraelon. It is curious that the villaG^o of
Mithilia, a little farther north, has been over-
looked, the name of which approaches closely to
that of Bethulia, whilst the plain is seen from the
ridge near the village.

The head of the house of the Jerrar lived at
Sanur, his nephew was Sheikh of Jeb'a ; the
younger members of the family were innumerable,
and we were plagued with endless visits from them
all. The Jeb'a family invited us to dinner, and
we were thus able to witness a phase in peasant
Hfe not often seen by Europeans.

About six in the evening a man was sent to the
camp to escort us, and w^e walked through the
village to the highest house, that of the Sheikh.
The inhabitants are w^onderfuUy fine men, and
used to be famous for their feuds with the men of
'Arrabeh, some miles to the north ; they are still
redoubtable thieves, but in 18G8 the Government
came down on them after a riot, killed some
thirty or forty, fined the village heavily, and took
most of the young men for soldiers. The Sheikh's
house was well built and new ; the reception-room,
on an upper floor, had a raised dais, with a low
wooden rail, about six inches high, on the step.
It was carpeted and pillows arranged against
the walls at the upper end in the corners, "where

THE SURVEY OF SAMARIA. 101

we were requested to sit. The walls were covered
with plaster very brown and cracked. A gallery
for sleeping was built at the lower end of the
room.

The Sheikh now appeared in his white robe,
w^ith a yellow silk hufeyeh on his head bound
with a black cord ; removing his red slippers from
his well-washed feet, he stepped on to the dais,
touched our hands and then his own breast, lips,
and head, in token of the submissive formula, "On
my heart, my mouth, and my head." The oft-
repeated greetings, "How is your health^" "How
is your excellency V " your worship," "your lord-
ship," next followed, with repetitions of the former
signs, which are very gracefully executed. The
host sat at a distance, or rather knelt, until pressed
to come near, when he gradually approached and
sunk sideways on one thigh, with his feet carefully
hidden. An aged elder followed, and then the
son of the host ; a third and fourth dropped in,
and as each appeared we rose and the same cere-
monies were repeated with a dignity and decorum
which made one forget for a time that we were
dealing with ignorant and degraded j)easants.

The Natur, or village-watchman, and some ser-
vants now brought in a round wooden table, about
a yard in diameter, on legs some six inches high ;
it was of rough wood, and folded down the centre.
A huge brass basin followed, with a brass ewer
having a long spout like a coffee-pot ; the Sheildi's

102 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

son distributed towels, and we washed our ri^fht
hands preparatory to eating with them — to eat
with the left hand being almost as bad a breach of
manners as to show the sole of the foot. A dozen
dishes were then brought in succession, taken by
the young man from the servants and placed
on the board ; they contained lentils, tomatoes,
and huzaJi, a sort of vegetable-marrow, which
were stuffed with rice ; bowls of sour milk (leben),
a delicious sauce to such fare, were placed be-
tween, but the centre of the table was still bare,
until three huge wooden dishes of rice, piled up in
cones, with fragments of boiled meat sticking out,
were brought in. The most deUcate dish, how-
ever, was a kid (as we then thought, but after-
wards doubted whether it were not our own little
gazelle which was lost soon after) dressed whole,
with its head and leo-s still on.

As we were Europeans, the great innovation of
a pe'wter spoon and fork was allowed, no doubt
being considered as a wonderful mark of civilisa-
tion by the Sheikh ; thin discs of bread, unleavened
and very leathery, about a foot in diameter, were
scattered on the oai-pet beside each guest. We
were invited to draw near, but had to press
our host for some time before he ventured to eat
with us; finally he sat down with two more,
and the son carved — that is to say, pulled the
meat in pieces with his right hand, and made up
httle parcels wrapped in a funnel of bread for us

THE SURVEY OF SAMARIA, 103

to eat : the liver and kidneys of the kid were
placed inside the ribs and considered great deli-
cacies ; the whole fare was tender and good, but
rather too oily for European palates, and the want
of salt rendered it insipid. No water was placed
on the board, but a servant brought it when
required in a green glass ; as each guest drank,
his nearest neighbour turned with a bow and said,
" Digestion," to which the answer is (for every
formula has its proper answer), " The Lord in-
crease your digestion," accompanied by a touching
of the head with the hand.

It was evident that the party enjoyed the feast
and the dignity of the proceedings, which repre-
sented in their eyes what Captain Costigan would
have called " the height of poloite societee." The
meal completed we retired to our corners, and the
basin was brought again with water and soap — a
necessity after using the fingers in eating. Coffee
was then handed round, whilst a fresh batch of
guests fell upon the feast, and was succeeded by
a third, who left but httle remaining. The coffee
was made clear, as among the Bedawin, which is
far more delicious than the thick Turkish coffee
usually given to travellers. The guests drank
quickly, with a loud sipping sound, the cups being
about the size of an egg-cup and only half full, for
to fill the cup is an intimation that the host is
anxious for you to go soon, as is also the offer of a
third cup soon after the second. A narghih or

104 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

hubble-bubble followed for each of us two, with
pipes and cigarettes, and Drake talked, describing
England, London, and the raihvays, while I,
naturally, had to sit silent, not as yet knowing the
language. The Sheikh supposed we were looking
for crosses cut on the ruins, and that we should
afterwards claim ownership of all such places — a
belief probably originating from the crosses cut on
the lintels of every ruined monastery in Crusading
and Byzantine times.

About seven p.m. we retired, the host accom-
panying us to his door. We slipped a coin into
the servant's hands, and afterwards sent a present
of gunpowder to the Sheikh.

Some days later we had a repetition of this
scene at Sanur. The host, an unwieldy man in a
black cloak, was yet more dignified, and the purple
jackets and green waistcoats of the younger men
marked them out as great dandies and local
grandees. This village was so strong that it once
stood several days' assault by regular troops, and
only yielded on being bombarded by the Pacha.
An ag^ed elder described seeino; a cannon-ball enter
a room where cotton was stored, and roll the soft
heap round itself The old Sheikh, once governor
of the district, declaimed bitterly against the
Turks. " They rob and impoverish me," he said.
" Are my women to carry wood and fetch water %
Are my sons to plough the ground ?" The Govern-
ment were following the same policy with the

THE SURVEY OF SAMARIA. 1 05

Jerrar family which has ruined the Zeidanlyin in
the north, and the Abu Ghosh in the south, and
has certainly broken the national spirit, while
curbinof the turbulence of the factions which
caused constant local outbreaks between neigh-
bourinsT villasres.

The most remarkable point in the behaviour of
these native gentry was the reverence for age
shewn even by grey-bearded men to those some
ten years older. We noticed also that the religious
Sheikh of the villao-e sat above our host after
the Jeb'a banquet.

On Friday, the 30th of August, we left Jeb'a
and moved on to Jenin. We were accompanied
by several of the Sheikh's family, from one of whom
I had purchased a little chestnut colt, which after-
wards became my favourite horse ; and many a long
dav in deserts under burnino' sun, or on bleak moun-
tains in storms of snow and hail, we went through
together during the three years I rode him, but
hot or cold he never failed, and always kept his
place at the head of the march.

The da.y was very tiring from the hot, dry east
wind blowing, and as usual, the air showed no
s^^mptoms of ozone on the test papers, the sky
was lead-coloured, and the throat became parched
and dry. At dawn the beds were rolled up and
the tent-sides taken down, leaving a row of huge
umbrella-like tops, which in turn fell and were
folded. Six camels then appeared, and their in-

lOG TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

dividuality was curious : the first young, white,
with curly hair; the second reddish; the third so
thin it seemed suffering from atrophy ; the fourth
with a huge head, bulky and short-legged ; the
fifth tall and graceful, of ochre colour, its head
ornamented with bells and long-tufted tassels,
evidently a favourite ; the sixth aged, blear-eyed,
its lower lip dropping, so as to show all its long
yellow teeth. Each in turn knelt, and as it was
loaded it groaned and brayed, and snarled, and
bubbled, sometimes twisting its head round and
biting viciously. Of all animals the camel is most
stupid and disagreeable. It is sulky and revenge-
ful, slow, and yet easily panic-stricken, when it
will stampede with its load dragging on the
ground. It never seems happy or playful, and
receives caresses and food with the same grum-
bling noise which it makes when loaded. It is
very weak in the hind legs, and carries very little
for its size. It resembles, in fact, the peasant it
serves, and one would imagrine the lang^uao-e of the
two to have a common origfin.

Each camel was loaded and kicked till it
struggled up and went off to browse on the olive-
trees ; when all were ready and tied in a string,
they filed down the chalky road, followed soon by
six mules. The horsemen then set oflT, but the
poor gazelle was nowhere to be found. After the
Europeans came our head man, Habib, in his
gay blue hussar jacket, yellow hifeijeh, and dark

THE SURVEY OF SAMARIA ^ 107

green Turkish trousers, with EngHsh knee-boots ;
the second man in a red jacket and green waist-
coat, with blue trousers ; the soldier in black, with
a pink head-dress ; the bandy-legged Egyptian
groom leading my colt; finally, the cook on a don-
key, with an old handkerchief on his head — a motley
group, with the Sheikhs riding alongside in white
cloaks, tucked under their knees and swelling out
in the breeze till they looked from behind like
balloons on horseback.

By noon we reached Dothan, the scene of
Joseph's betrayal by his brethren, and halted under
a spreading fig-tree beside a long cactus hedge.
Just north of us was the well called Bir el Hufireh,
" Well of the Pit," and east of us a second, with
a water-trough, thus accounting for the name
Dothan, " two wells." Above the wells on the
north rises the shapeless mound where the town
once stood, and on the west spread the dark brown
plain of 'Arrabeh, across which runs the main
Egyptian road — the road by which the armies of
Thothmes and Xecho came up from the sea-coast,
and by which the Midianite merchants went down
with their captive. The cattle stood by the w^ell,
huddling in the shade, waiting to be watered, and
rude cowherds and goatherds gathered around us
in groups which were no doubt not far different
in dress or language from Joseph's brethren four
thousand years ago.

The heat was so intense that the Door terriers

108 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

were knocked up, and had to be hoisted for a ride.
By the time of afternoon prayer we reached the
pleasant camping-ground of Jenin, and thus passed
out of Samaria into the plains of Lower Galilee.

One place of interest must be noticed in con-
cluding this chapter — Tirzah, once the capital ot
Israel, famous for its beauty^

It is the only Samaritan town mentioned among
the royal cities taken by Joshua, and even this
name was changed by the Kabbinical writers into
Tiran, a place in Galilee.

Just twelve miles east of our Jeb'a camp, on a
plateau where the valleys begin to dip suddenly
towards Jordan, stands the mud hamlet of Teiasir.
We afterwards visited it from the Jordan camp,
and found it to have been once a place of import-
ance, judging from the numerous rock-cut sepul-
chres burrowing under the houses, the fertile lands
and fine olives round, and the monument of good
masonry, seemingly a Roman tomb. Just north
of it we discovered a ruin called Ibzik, which is
unquestionably a Bezek kno^vn to Eusebius, and
probably the place where Saul collected his army
before attacking the Ammonites (1 Sam. xi. 8).

In the latter ruin is a little chapel dedicated to
Neby Hazkin, " the Proj^het Ezekiel," and the
high mountain crowned with thicket behind is
called " Ezekiel's Mountain."

This name Teiasir I suppose to be Tirzah. It
contains the exact letters of the Hebrew word,

THE SURVEY OF SAMARIA. 109

though, the two last radicals are interchanged in
position, a kind of change not unusual among |
the peasantry. The beauty of the position and
the richness of the plain on the west, the ancient
remains, and the old main road to the place from
Shechem, seem to agree well with the idea of its
having once been a capital; and if I am right in the
suggestion, then the old sepulchres are probably,
some of them, those of the early kings of Israel
before the royal family began to be buried in
Samaria.

View from J ex in.

CHAPTEE IV.

THE GREAT PLAIN OF ESDRAELOX.

Our new camp was fixed at Jenin, the ancient
Engannim or "Spring of Gardens," at the soutli-
crn extremity of the Great Plain, a border city
of Gahlee according to Josephus, now a pictur-
esque town of tliree thousand inhabitants, with a
bazaar and a mosque, surrounded by groves of
oUvcs, through which a httle stream finds its way
in spring. Our camp was west of the place, and
looked out on the white mosque of 'Azz ed Din
Avith its minaret, the great threshing-floor with its
heaps of yellow grain, the beautiful gardens of

THE GREA T PLAIN OF ESDRAEL ON. Ill

palms, oranges, and tamarisks set in cactus hedges,
while behind, on the east, was the stony range of
Gilboa, on the north the brown plain, the blue
Nazareth hills, the volcanic cone of Jebel Duhy,
and the shoulder of Carmel towards the west.

The Great Plain extends northwards fourteen
miles from Jenin, to Junjar at the foot of the
Nazareth chain, whilst from Jezreel on the east,
to Legio on the west, is about nine miles. The
elevation is about 200 to 250 feet above the sea,
and a Y-shaped double range of hills bounds it
east and west, with an average elevation of 1500
feet above the plain. On the north-east are the
two detached blocks of Neby Diihy and Tabor,
and on the north-west a narrow gorge is formed
by the river Kishon, which springs from beneath
Tabor and collecting the whole drainage of this
large basin, passes from the Great Plain to that
of Acre. On the east of the plain the broad
valley of Jezreel gradually slopes down towards
Jordan, and Jezreel itself (the modern Zer'in)
stands on the side of Gilboa above it. On the
west are the scarcely less famous sites of Legio,
Taanach, and Jokneam, while the picturesque
conical hill of Duhy, just north of the Jezreel
valley, has Shunem on its south slope, and Nain
and Endor on the north. Thus seven places of
interest lie at the foot of the hills east and
west, but no important town was ever situate in
the plain itself, — a flat expanse of arable land,

/

112 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

the loose basaltic soil of which is extremely
fertile.

The Great Plain was once the favourite resort of
the Beda"svin when driven by war or famine across
Jordan. At times it used to be covered with
camels " like the sand which is by the sea-shore
innumerable." The Ku walla (a branch of the
great Arab nation called 'Anazeh), the Sukr and
other important tribes came over to pasture their
camels, and like the Midianites whom Gideon
encountered advancing by the same great high-
way— the valley of Jezreel, they oppressed the
native population settled in the ^^llages. Thus
in 1870 only about a sixth of the beautiful corn-
land was tilled, and the plain was black with Arab
"houses of hair." But the Turks WTOucrht a sfreat
and sudden change ; they armed their cavalry
with the Reminofton breech-loadino- rifle, and the
Bedawin disappeared as though by magic. It
was of course to be expected that when external
troubles had weakened the Government, the law-
less nomads would again encroach and levy toll
and tribute as before ; for the history of Palestine
seems constantly to repeat itself fiom the earliest
period recorded, in a recurring struggle between
the settled population and the nomads, Midianites,
Canaanites, Bedawin, or whatever other name you
may call them; thus during the year 1877 Fendi
el Pais and the Sukr have again invaded the plain
and levied black-mail on the luckless peasantry

THE GREAT PLAIN OF ESDRAELON: 113

In 1872 no less than nine-tentlis of the plain was
cultivated, nearly half with corn, the rest with
millet, sesame, cotton, tobacco, and the castor-oil
plant. The springs on the west are copious; from
near Legio a considerable affluent flows north to
join the Kishon, and even in August the streams
are runninof to waste at the foot of the hills. The
Great Plain is indeed one of the richest natural
fields of cultivation in Palestine — perhaps one
might say in the world.

The night came down on our newly-erected
camp before even a hasty glance could be obtained
of all this interesting scenery. There is some-
thing peculiarly soothing in the Syrian starlight ;
the planets are brighter than in the north, the
milky way looks like a long white cloud, the
moon, as she rises, is often accompanied by a
silvery vapour floating over the mountain-tops.
The silence is broken by the sigh of the night
wind amons: the olives which form a black lattice-
work overhead. In the villag^e at intervals one
hears the barking of the troops of savage dogs,
and in the open plain the shrill gamut of the
jackals, rising note by note, and ending in a sort
of shake or quavering sound. The cicalas are
asleep, but the piping of the black mole-crickets
continues all night. Occasionally a horse wakes
with a snort, or the English terriers hear a strange
step and give the short sharp warning bark, so
different from the mongrel howls of the native

VOL. I. 8

114 TENT WORK IN PALESUNE.

dogs ; then once more all is still but the wind, and
the silence becomes almost oppressive.

The Great Plain was the place chosen for the
measurement of our second base to check the ac-
curacy of the triangulation carried up some sixty
miles from its starting-point in the Jaffa plain.
On the 2nd of September we laid out the line for
a distance of four and a half miles, directing it on
the white dome of Neby S'ain above Nazareth,
and thus obtaining a prolongation for calculation
of nearly six miles. The high liills east and west
gave us a second line of fifteen miles almost at
right angles, and from this, large well-shaped
triangles were carried away to the north. The
check was perfectly satisfactory, and the closing
line, when calculated in 1876 at Southampton, had
a margin of only twenty feet, which is an invisible
distance on the one inch scale.

It was, however, whilst assisting in this arduous
undertakinoj that Mr. Drake laid the foundation
of the disease which finally took him from us.
The south end of the base was marked by a
platform of huge blocks of stone, and in helping
to move these he appeared to give his side a
strain which brought on enlargement of the liver,
and finally the acute inflammation which caused
his death. The danger was seen early, and ex-
plained to us by Dr. Chaplin ; but poor Drake's
devotion to our work was greater than his delicate
health would permit, and thus our first success was

THE GREA T PLAIN OF ESDRAEL ON. 1 15

also the commencement of our future troubles.
The labour of walking over the loose basaltic soil,
which seemed to scorch the soles of one's boots,
under a noonday sun whose power was unbroken
by any friendly tree or cloud, was such as I shall
never forget, and more severe than anything, with
exception of the desert and Jordan work, in the
following years. The skin of my nose came quite
off, and the soreness was most painful. The mirage
was also very annoying in observing, the air flicker-
ing hke that above a limekiln, and making objects,
some four miles distant, often indistinguishable.
The cairn at the end of the base seemed at times
to be perched on the slope of the hills beyond, and
ripples occasionally appeared in the haze as though
in water, whilst the camels, with legs of impos-
sible length, seemed to stoop and drink. In the
following year I saw the mirage yet more marked
on the Sharon Plain, where the groups of palms
and the cactus hedges appeared to grow on the
brink of white lakes in which they Avere partly
reflected, a delusion gradually shifting as the
traveller approaches, and finds nothing but red
sand and dry hedges.

A camp of militia was established at the village,
their tents spread in a flat dusty plot near the
barracks. There were some three hundred infantry,
in white jackets, white baggy trousers, and red
fezzes, crowded eight in a tent with 107° F. in the
shade. They Avere drawn ujj in line without being'-

R— 2

116 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE,

sized, and the Colonel was to be seen addressing
them, the men replying by a sort of hum. On
another day we saw them marching in fours, not
in step, but in very good time to the music. An
officer in a black frock-coat, with the tails to his
heels, was swaggering in front, cane in hand. On
the drill-ground the awkward squads were being
instructed, by sergeants in blue shell -jackets with
enormous red badges, white trousers, and gaiters,
and the military fezz, which is bright vermilion in
colour. The men wore beards, and handled their
long guns very awkwardly, each repeating the
caution in a loud voice as he went throuo-h the
motions very much in his own time. They seemed,
however, to satisfy the instructor, whose views
were perhaps less strict than those of a Guards
sergeant ; but I noticed that the ojDinion of the
majority had apparently no influence on about one
man in ten, who was marked out by the originality
of his rendering of the general idea conveyed by
the sergeant.

One of our trigonometrical stations was placed
on a high hill above the smaller plain of 'Arrabeh
in which Dothan stands just south-west of the
Great Plain. Here there is a chapel dedicated to
Sheikh Shibleh a famous Emir, who in IGDZ way-
laid the traveller Maundrell. This writer remarks
drily that after extorting black-mail, " he eased
us in a very courteous manner of some of our
coats, which now began to grow not only super-

THE GREA T PLAIN OF ESDRAEL ON. 117

fluous but burdensome." The Emir died, and was
canonised, and his tomb looks down from the
stony hill-top on the scene of his former prowess ;
but he is not the only sainted bandit in the Syrian
pantheon.

In returning from this ride we passed through
the little Christian village of Burkin, where we
were hailed with a pleasure very different from
the hollow courtesy of the Moslem natives. The
old Khuri or cure hastened down to show us his
church on the hillside, a small whitewashed room,
with a stone screen on the east shutting- off the
apses, as in all Greek churches in the country,
and with three entrances guarded by curtains.
The silver plate and ewer were kept in the
north apse, the altar stood in the central one ;
the church was very rudely built, about fifty feet
square, with a dome some twenty feet high. Two
stone lecterns held the books near the screen, and
a stone chair on the south side had arms with rude
dogs' heads carved on them. The pictures were
all painted on wood in a stiff pre-Raffaelite style,
with gaudy colouring dimmed by age. One re-
presented the ascent of Elijah in a chariot Avith a
red cloud beneath, and four winged horses har-
nessed to it, with traces looking like white tapes
attached to the spokes of the wheels. Elisha
below receives the mantle, and is again represented
as at a greater distance striking Jordan with it,
whilst a group of sons of the prophets stand hke

118 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

a shock of corn in a square block with gilded
glories on their heads. Other pictures represented
St. George, the Virgin, the Baptist with red wings
and a title in Russian and Arabic characters, St.
Nicholas, and the Saviour enthroned.

The Khuri Avas a native, and his robes could not
well have been dirtier or shabbier. He was ac-
companied by two acolytes who held our horses ;
his pride and satisfaction in showing his church
were immense.

Whilst at Jenin we had the unusual honour of
a visit from a lady, who came to ask for medical
ad^dce. Peasants suffering from ophthalmia, or
from indigestion, which they explained by saying
*' the head of my heart hurts me," we had to
doctor every day, and one poor old gentleman, at
Mujeidil, we afterwards treated with carbolic acid
and nearly cured of a skin disease ; but he had
many other ailments which we could not treat,
and he consequently became a decided nuisance.
The lady came attended by her slave, a little girl
in white with huge dark eyes, one of which, for
same unknown reason, she kept steadily shut.
The mistress was dressed in yellow and white
striped cotton, with the izar or white veil above ;
her face-veil she was obliired to remove to show
her tongue, and her eyes had a deep fringe of blue
kohel all round, the eyebrows painted to meet,
whilst on her chin, forehead, and upper lip, were
small dots tattooed in blue in a sort of trefoil

THE GREA T PLAIN OF E SDR A EL ON. 119

pattern ; her hands had bands of Hue paint and
dots on the knuckles. She wore heavy rings and
a bhie o^lass bracelet : the sleeves were tiofht to the
wrist, and under her frock she wore the gay-
coloured trousers as we call them, which are in
reality a petticoat sewn up, and the prettiest
article of Syrian costume. Her nails and the
palms of her hands were dyed orange colour
with henna, and on her feet she wore the red
curly-toed slippers used in walking out of doors.
She described her symptoms with the usual high
cjuerulous tone and rapid chatter peculiar to the
native women, and was made happy by a couple
of pills.

On Sunday afternoon we had to entertain four
German students, who were walkino- throuo-h the
Holy Land. They had heard we had a house in
Jenin and came to ask hospitality. The conversa-
tion was in Italian, German, Arabic, Latin_, and
French, all of which languages they and we spoke
ill We gave them shelter for the night, but
Sergeant Black must have come off badly, for they
eat up his dinner, and his brea.kfast, it afterwards
appeared, was devoured by the rascally guide who
accompanied him in his long day's work.

The places visited from this camp lay principally
east of the plain. We ascended the high conical
peak of Jebel Duhy, so-called after Neby Duhy
{^' the leader or general"), a prophet whose sacred
place is on the summit. Who this prophet was I

120 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

am unable to say, nor can we with any certainty
apply a Biblical name to the mountain. The Cru-
saders called it sometimes Mount Endor, and
generally Little Hermon, a title still known to the
Nazareth Christians. The latter name was given
in consequence of the expression, " Tabor and
Hermon shall rejoice in Thy name," whence they
seem to have argued that Hermon was to be
sought close to Tabor. They can never have looked
northwards from the neighbourhood of Endor, or
they would have seen the rounded, isolated mound,
like a huge mole-hill, which is Tabor, and behind
it far away the magnificent, snowy dome of the
second sacred mountain of the text — the true
Hermon.

Some excitement was caused in the httle village
near the top of the hill by the sight of " pagans "
standing on the sacred dome of Neby Duhy ; but
the old custodian was quite reconciled by finding
we had removed our boots, had asked permission
of the prophet himself, and had actually brought
a can of whitewash, wdth which we whitened the
entire dome — for survey purposes, or out of respect
to the prophet, as I believe he was led to suppose.

The top of the mountain is composed of blocks
of basalt, covered with grey lichen. The view is
maofnificent, extendins: from the Safed rano-es on
the north to Mount Ebal on the south, and from
the peaks east of the great Hauran plateau to
Carmel and the sea. Fifteen hundred feet below us

t'^'i^ir"^'^"*!

THE GREAT PLAIN OF ESDRAELON. 121

is Nain, and north of this the plain in which the
mediaeval tradition supposed Abraham to have met
Melchisedek, with the unique outline of Tabor, the
Nazareth block, and distant Hermon. On the
south side the broad valley of Jezreel is just below,
and the villages of Kumieh and Shutta, seen
almost in bird's-eye view on their little knolls
surrounded by long patches of arable land, whilst
on the south side of the valley the limestone of
the Gilboa ridge is twisted into wavy lines by the
eruptive basalt beneath, and the range is seen,
end on as it were, rising shelf above shelf, while
conspicuous on its knoll of rugged rock, Jezreel
stands at the north-west horn of the crescent-
shaped range, 500 feet above the bright pool of
" Goliath's Spring," where the early Christians,
by some curious misconception, imagined David to
have fought the giant. On a clear autumn day the
little Survey cairn was plainly visible on Mount
Ebal at a distance of twenty-six miles. The pros-
pect is indeed one of the finest in Palestine, with
a variety of outline and extent of view rarely to
be found.

The villasfe of Nain lies below on a sort of
spur to the north of Neby Duhy, and the road
from Nazareth ascends in a hollow to the west
of it. On the right of the road, yet farther
west, are the rock-cut tombs, and thus the pro-
cession bearing the young man's body would
have come down the slope towards the little

122 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

spring wcst\Yards, meeting our Lord on the main
road. The mud-hovels on the grey tongue of hme-
stone have no great marks of antiquity, but the
surrounding: ruins show the villao^e to have been
once larger, and a little mosque called " the Place
of our Lord Jesus " marks, no doubt, the site of
an early chapel. There are, as far as we could
see, no traces of a wall, and I think we should
understand by " gate of the city," the place where
the road enters among the houses, just as the
word is used often in Greek, and in modern Arabic
in such expressions as ** gate of the pass," "■ gate
of the valley," and even " gate of the city," where
no wall or gate exists.

East of Nain is a second similar village of mud-
huts, with hedges of prickly pear. This is Endor,
famous in connection with the tragic history of
the death of Saul. The adventurous character of
Saul's night journey is very striking, when we con-
sider that the Philistines pitched in Shunem on
the southern slopes of the mountain, and that
Saul's army was at Jezreel ; thus, to arrive at
Endor, he had to pass the hostile camp, and would
probably creep round the eastern shoulder of the
hill, hidden by the undulations of the plain, as an
Arab will now often advance unseen close by you
in a fold of the ground. We are accustomed,
probably from the various pictures of the scene,
to think of the witch as living in a cave ; and
caves exist at Endor, but they are small, and seem

THE GREAT PLAIN OF ESDRAELON. 123

to be probably modern, having been dug out in
seeking for the marl used in making mortar. The
hillside is bare and stony, with a low ledge of rock
in which the rude entrances are cut ; round one
cave there is a curious circle of boulders, which
form a sort of protection, and resemble somewhat
a druidical circle, though the formation is probably
natural. This cave would, however, offer an ap-
propriate scene for the meeting of the sorceress
with the unhappy king, whom God answered
*^ neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by pro-
phets " (1 Sam. xxviii. 6).

On the southern slope stands a third and similar
village called Sulem, the ancient Shunem. There
is nothing specially to mark it as an ancient site,
for it is only a mud-hamlet, with cactus hedges
and a spring, yet it is undoubtedly the place known
in the fourth century as Shunem. West of the
houses there is a beautiful garden, cool and shady,
of lemon-trees, watered by a little rivulet, and in
the village is a fountain and trough. Westward the
view includes Fuleh — the Crusading Castle of the
Bean, with its fosse and marshy pool outside, and
extends as far as Carmel, fifteen miles away. Thus
the whole extent of the ride of the Shunamite
woman (2 Kings iv. 24) under the burning noon-
tide sun of harvest-time is visible. Were the
houses of that time no larger than the mud-cabins
of the modern village, it was not a great archi-
tectural undertakinof to build " a little chamber "

124 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

for the prophet, and the enumeration of the simple
furniture of that chamber — the bed, perhaps only
a straw mat, the table, the stool, and the lamp,
seems to indicate that it was only such a little hut
that was intended. Another point may be noted :
how came it that Elisha so constantly passed by
Shunem ? The answer seems simple ; he Uved
habitually on Cai-mel, but he was a native of Abel
Meholah, "■ the Meadow of Circles," a place now
called 'Ain Helweh, in the Jordan valley, to which
the direct road led past Shunem down the Valley
of Jezreel.

Crossing the valley, we see before us the site of
Jezreel on a knoll 500 feet high. The position is
very peculiar, for whilst on the north and north-
east the slopes are steep and rugged, on the south
the ascent is very gradual, and the traveller coming-
northwards is astonished to look down suddenly
on the valley, with its two springs, one ('Ain
Jalud) w^elling out from a conglomerate cliff, and
forming a pool about 100 yards long, with muddy
borders ; the other ('Ain Tub'aun), the Crusaders
Fountain of Tubania, where the Christian armies
were fed "miraculously" for three days on the fish
which still swarm m most of the great springs
near.

The main road ascends from near these springs
and passes by the " Dead Spring," which was
re-opened by the Governor of Jenin, and now
forms a shallow pool between rocks of black basalt.

THE GREAT PLAIN OF ESDRAELON. 125

covered with red and orange-coloured lichen, and
also full of little fish ; thence it passes on the east
side beneath the knoll of Zer'in (Jezreel) to the
plain on the south. Climbing up to the village,
Yv^e are again struck by the absence of any traces
of antiquity ; the buildings, including the central
tower, are all modern, and only the great mound
beneath, and perhaps some of the innumerable
cisterns, seem ancient ; yet the site is undoubted,
and has never been really lost. Here fi'om a
tower, perhaps standing where the modern one is
erected, the watchman could see down the broad
Valley of Jezreel as far as Bethshan, and watch
the dust and the gleam of the armour advancing.
The course of the two horsemen and of Jehu's
chariot was distinctly seen beneath the hill, and
the distances are sufficiently extensive to give
time for the succession of events.

On the east and south-east there are rock-cut
wine-presses on the rugged hills, where no doubt
the " portion of the field of Naboth " and his vine-
yard are to be placed, — a good instance of the
decay of vine cultivation in Palestine.

It was by the " fountain which is in Jezreel "
that Saul pitched before the fatal battle of Gilboa.
The Philistines removed from Shunem to Aphek,
and, according to Josephus, to Kangan. Perhaps
these are the modern Fuku'a and 'Arraneh, in
which case the strong position of Jezreel was
turned on the south-west, where it is most assail-

126 TENT WORK IN FALESTINE.

able, and the doomed monarch was hemmed in
between the enemy on the south and the precipices
of the mountain on the north.

On the 28th of September we left the Jenln
camp, where we suffered from the east wind and
the great heat, to find a retreat in the western hills
above the Great Plain, at the modern village of
Umm el Fahm.

It was a day of misfortunes ; the weather was
fearfully hot, with a strong east wind, and the
does had suffered so much in the last move, that
Ave determined they should ride ; Jack and Jill
were accordingly put in a pair of nose-bags, one
each side of a mule, with their heads sticking out,
and the other two were carried on the saddle.
After about a mile Jack and Jill fell out, ?.nd all
four had then to sit in a row. A mule ran away
and his load came off, including a theodolite ; he
was chased for nearly half an hour; a second,
frightened by the galloping of our Bashi-bazouk
ran away, and fell under its load, including a deli-
cate chronometer. Then the head man Habib
was seized with one of those hysterical fits of
passion from which all Syrians suffer, and rode
after his own mule with a gun to shoot it. Then
Jack refused to ride, and got kicked by a mule
and was laid for dead in the road.

After luncheon things got better, but we suffered
intensely all day from prickly heat, and from the
huge thistles ten to fifteen feet high beside the

THE GREAT PLAIN OF ESDRAELON. 127

roads. The camping-ground by a spring in an
olive-yard proved very pleasant, but one of the
camels broke down on the road, and the mules
had to be sent back to bring up his load. Two
days later I left the camp for a few days in order
to visit Jerusalem, and rode thither alone from
Nablus, arriving after dark. On my return Dr.
Chaplin kindly came down to see Drake, who was
now suffering from his liver, and we reached the
tents once more on the 10th of October, and
visited the country round and the interesting site
of Legio (now called Lejjun) in the plain beneath.

The large and flourishing stone village above us
was built within the present century, and is called
Umm el Fahm, ''Mother of Charcoal." It is
perched on the slope of a high, conical, wooded
hill, called from the little chapel on the top
Sheikh Iskander, or ''Chief Alexander." The
Kadi of the village, an amusing httle native, who
could read and write, told us many legends of
this saint. He was identified apparently with
Alexander the Great, for he was said to have had
two ram's horns, and also seemingly with Mel-
chisedek, as he was reported to have had a meet-
ing with Abraham in the valley.

This district was almost entirely unknown in
1872; the cone is a volcanic crater, and small
volcanic outbreaks exist west of it, and also at the
edge of the Great Plain on the east. The range is
covered with thickets of lentisk and spurge laurel,.

128 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

and on the western slopes is an open wood of
good-sized oaks ; but on the north a broad valley
called Wady 'Arab, divides this range from a
plateau of white chalk called " the Breezy Land "
(Belad er Ktihah), bare of trees and reaching to
Carmel. The thickets of Sheikh Iskander reach
southwards almost to the plain of Dothan; the
Yahmlir or roebuck gives its name to one of the
valleys in this region, and every kind of game
abounds.

On the western edge of the Great Plain there
are three famous sites, Taanach, Legio, and
Jokneam, concerning which a few words may
be said.

The ruined site of Lejjtin is the Koman Legio,
a town mentioned as a military station, and an
important place in the fourth centur}?-. On the
maps it will be found marked as the ancient
Megiddo, but this is only an instance of the very
slender basis on which conclusions as to the posi-
tions of important places in Palestine have been
somehow founded. There is nothing definite in
the Bible as to the position of Megiddo. It is
often mentioned with Taanach, the site of which,
with its name unchangfed, exists about four miles
south of Lejjiin; but it also occurs in connection
with Jezreel, and with Bethshean, east of the
Great Plain. In the time of Jerome Meofiddo
was unknown, though the Great Plain was appa-
rently then supposed to be the Valley of Megid-

THE GREAT FLA IN OF ESDRAELON. 129

don. Dr. E-obinson, in suggesting the Lejjtin site,
appears to have been influenced by the Crusading
chronicles, which he, as a rule, condemns. Marino
Sanuto, in 1321 a.d., places Megiddo at a town
which he calls Sububa, and shows it on his map
as on the west side of the plain. This is evidently
the present Ezbuba, a mud village two miles north
of Taanach, and three miles and a quarter south-
east of Lejjun. But Crusading topography is
unfortunately more remarkable than reliable, and
we seek in vain for further confirmation. Dr.
Robinson has relied on Jerome's comment on a
passage in Zechariah (xii. 11), '' As the mourning
of Hadad Bimmon in the Valley of Megiddon,"
concerning which St. Jerome says that Hadad
Rimmon was a town afterwards called Maxi-
mianopolis in the Valley of Megiddon ; and this
place we learn from the Bordeaux Pilgrim was
ten miles from Jezreel on the road to Csesarea.
This distance evidently points to Bummaneh south
of Lejjun, seven and a quarter English miles from
Jezreel. But we are still no nearer to the satis-
factory fixing of Megiddo, for we have to depend
on Jerome, first for the fact of Hadad Bimmon
being a town at all (a fact disputed by many
authorities who make it the name of an idol) ;
secondly, for the town, if it was one, being the
same as Maximianopolis. Supposing these pre-
mises both to be granted, it still does not follow
that the town Megiddo was west of the Plain of

VOL. I. 9

130 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

Megiddo ; nor, if it were, does it follow that it
was at Lejjun.

Such is the flimsy chain of argument which has
been considered sufficient to fix the site. When
we discover that there is a large ruin between
Jezreel and Bcthshean, which still bears the name
Mujedd'a, a name which occurs in no other part of
Palestine, these arguments cannot be considered
worth weighing against so important an indication ;
and the new site, as will afterwards be seen, seems
to fit far better the few requirements for the an-
cient Megiddo.

Lejjun was indeed once a large town, with a
fine water supply from a beautiful spring, but
Legio appears to have been the chief town of this
part of Palestine, and to it the ruins are plainly
to be ascribed, the distance from Taanach fittin^r
wdth that given by Jerome.

North of Lejjun the Great Wady el Milh runs
down from the white plateau of the "Breezy Land,"
which it separates from the southern end of Carmel.
Here at the mouth stands a huo-e Tell or mound
called Keimun, on which are remains of a little
Byzantine chapel, and of a small fort, erected by
the famous native chief Dhahr el 'Amr. The
Samaritans have a curious leo-end connected with
this site. According to them Joshua was chal-
lenged by the giants, and enclosed here with his
army in seven walls of iron. A dove carried his
message thence to Nabih, king of the tribes east

THE GREAT PLAIN OF ESDRAELON. 131

of Jordan, who came to his assistance. The
magic walls fell down, and the King of Persia,
Shobek, was transfixed by an arrow which nailed
him on his horse to the ground.

The present name is a slight modification of the
ancient Jokneam of Carmel, but the Crusaders
seem to have been puzzled by it, and transformed
Keimun into Cain Mons, or Mount Cain, whence
arose the curious legend that Cain was here slain
with an arrow by Lamech, which they supposed
to be the murder referred to in the Sono- of
Lamech (Gen. iv. 23). The chapel no doubt
shows the spot once held to be the site of the
death of Cain, but the derivation of the name was
as fanciful as that of Haifa from Cephas or from
Caiaphas the high-^^riest.

From our pleasant camp at Umm el Fahm,
where are no less than twenty springs within the
village lands, and fine gardens of oranges, lemons,
and huge shaddocks, we marched north-west to
the town of Mujeidil in the Nazareth hills. On
this day (the 19th of October) we crossed the
Kishon and found by experience how treacherous
are the banks of this apparently insignificant
stream. The subject which naturally concludes
the account of the Plain, is therefore the great
battle in which the host of Sisera was drowned in
the SAVoUen v/aters of this river.

The amount of light which can now be thrown
on this episode is very great. The topography

9—2''

182 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

has hitherto been obscure, but the Survey does
much to explain it. To suppose that Sisera fled
from the Great Plain to the neighbourhood of
Kedes in Upper Galilee (a distance of over thirty
miles) has always appeared to me to be contrary
to what w^e know of the general character of the
Biblical stories, the scenes of which are always
laid in a very confined area ; nor has the name of
the plain, Bitzaanaim, near Kedesh, been recovered
in this direction. Bitzaanaim was a town of Is-
sachar near Adami (Ed Damieh) and should there-
fore be sought east of Tabor in the plateau over
the sea of Galilee, where Ave still find it in the
modern Bessum. The Kedesh of the narrative
where Barak assembled his troops is therefore
probably Kedish on the shore of the sea of Galilee,
only twelve miles from Tabor. There is thus,
from a military point of view, a consistency in the
advance to Tabor (a strong position in the Hne
by which the enemy were approaching), which
is lacking if w^e suppose a descent from the
stronger hills of Upper Galilee. The Kings of
Canaan assembled in Taanach and by the waters
of Megiddo, but it was not at either of these places
that the battle was fought. Sisera was drawn to
the river Kishon (Judges iv. 7), and the host
perished near Endor, " at the brook Kishon "
(Psalm Ixxxiii. 10). The battle-field indeed was
almost identical with that from which Napoleon
named the " battle of Mount Tabor/* when the

THE GREAT PLAIN OF ESDRAELON. 133

French drove the Turks into that same treacherous
quagmire of the Kishon springs.

There are few ejDisodes in the Old Testament
more picturesque than this of the defeat of the
Canaanites. Tabor, the central position, a moun-
tain whose summit is 1500 feet above the plain,
is bare and shapeless on the south, but to the
north it is steep, and wooded with oaks and
thickets in which the fallow-deer finds a home.
About three miles west are the springs from
which the Kishon first rises, and from this point
a chain of pools and springs, fringed with reeds
and rushes, marks, even in the dry season, the
course of the river. Along this line, at the base
of the northern hills, the chariots and horsemen
of Sisera fled. The sudden storm had swollen the
stream, " the river Kishon swept them away, that
river of battles the river Kishon." The remainder
fled to Harosheth, now only a miserable village
(El Harathiyeh), named from the beautiful woods
above the Kishon at the point where, through a
narrow gorge, the stream, hidden among oleander
bushes, enters the Plain of Acre.

The flight of Sisera himself was in an opposite
direction, under the slopes of Tabor and across the
great lava plateau on which stood, near Bessum,
the black tent of Heber the Kenite. The two
incidents in the tragedy of his murder by Jael,
which most require illustration, are the "milk"
and "butter" with which she rcQ-aled her victim,

134 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

and the reasons which, in her eyes, justified the
deed.

The Bcdawin have a dehcious preparation of
curdled milk called Leben, which is offered to
guests but generally considered a delicacy ; from
personal experience I know that it is most re-
freshing to a traveller when tired and hot, but it
has also a strange soporific effect, which was so
sudden in its action on one English clergyman
after a lonof ride, that he thouo-ht he had been
poisoned. It was perhaps not without a know-
ledge of its probable effects, that Jael gave to her
exhausted guest a tempting beverage which would
make his sleep sound and long.

The murder of a fuo-itive and a truest is so con-
trary to the morality of the Semitic nomads, that
we must seek for a very strong justification. It
could not have been national enthusiasm which
actuated Jael, for she was a Kenite, not a Jewess,
one of a nation hostile to Israel, and there '' was
peace between Jabin King of Hazor (Sisera's
master) and the house of Heber the Kenite."
The true reason is probably to be sought in
Sisera's enterinsf the tent at all. There are in-
stances in later history in which a defeated Arab
has sheltered himself in the women's apartments,
but such an infringement of Eastern etiquette has
always been punished by death ; and it is not im-
probable that in revenge for such an insult Jael
seized the iron tent-peg and drove it A\ith the

THE GREAT PLAIN OF ESDRAELON. 135

mallet, used to fix the tents to the ground, through
Sisera's brain.

One final illustration may be added, suggested
to me quite lately by an English clergyman. In
the magnificent song of Deborah, the great storm
wliich swelled the Kishon is described :

'' They fought from heaven, the stars from
their com^ses fought against Sisera" (Judg. v. 20).

The season was probably that of the autumn
storms which occur early in November. At this
time the meteoric showers are commonest, and are
remarkably fine in effect, seen in the evening light
at a season when the air is specially clear and
bright. The scene presented by the falling fiery
stars, as the defeated host fled away by night, is
one very striking to the fancy, and which would
form a fine subject for an artist's penciL

^cr^

!■

Chuech of St. Anxe, Sepphoris.

CHAPTER Y

THE NAZARETH HILLS.

For ten days we had been encamped at Jenin,
with our faces towards the distant block of hills
where, beneath the white and gleaming chapel of
Neby S'ain, Nazareth lay hidden in its mountain
vale. At length, on the 10th of September, we
were able to leave the camp for a day, and, in
company with Drake, I cantered over the plain in
the early morning and arrived at the city in four
hours' riding, the distance being seventeen miles.
Past Gilboa, Jezreel, Shunem, Nain, and

THE NAZARETH HILLS. 137

Endor, we sjDed to the foot of the great cHff 1000
feet high, which rises straight from the plain by
the narrow pass to the hills. From the middle
aofes down, this cliff has been shown as that from
which the Nazarenes would have precipitated the
Saviour. Old Maundeville quaintly terms it " the
Leap of our Lord," and other pilgrims were shown
a hollow where the rock had become soft as wax,
and formed a hiding-place where Christ was said
to have been concealed.

Up the pass a long train of camels and of black
donkeys toiled, laden with the rich crop of sesame
just reaped. Ascending the steej) and slippery
track, we reached the soft white chalk which forms
the upper portion of the range, and which pro-
duces all round Nazareth a neighbourhood of bare,
white, rolling hills, quite distinct from the bold
mountains of Upper Galilee and from the oak-clad
downs near Carmel. Here in the valley which we
were following is a beautiful garden or orchard;
oranges, figs, nuts, lemons, and pomegranates grow
beside a spring, the rich green contrasting with
the glaring white of the chalk and the brown of
the burnt grass between the ledges. Still riding
north-east a busy scene greeted our eyes — a huge
threshing-floor, on which horses and cows were
beinof driven round, some draofsfino; the rude
threshing-sledge, some trampling only with their
feet, while orreat cones of corn were beino- win-
nowed with a fork. Here we turned a corner, and

138 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

suddenly all Nazareth was before us, gleaming
white and new-looking on the side of the hill.

The position of the village is secluded, and it is
only visible from its immediate neighbourhood.
The range of hills runs north-east, and the south
slopes are steep ; a valley comes down westward
on this side, and then gradually burrows south to
its mouth, at the pass by which we had come up.
At the point where it turns an open dell or hollow
plateau is formed, where are the gardens of
Nazareth — a sort of little mountain-plain, shelving
down southwards. On it stand the Greek Church
of the Annunciation and the Virgin's Fountain;
the town itself climbs up from it westwards, and
hangs on the side of the steep hill, on the summit
of which is the Moslem Chapel of Neby S'ain.
The total extent of the village or town is only
about a quarter of a mile either way, but the
houses stand close together, so that in this small
area a population of nearly 6000 souls is crowded,
of whom one third only are Moslem.

Very characteristic of the history of the Holy
Land it is to find within so small an area the
sacred places of no less than six sects. The most
ancient buildincj is the Latin Church over the
Holy House, in the strong monastery with its
shady garden and palms. North of it the graceful
minaret and the dark cypresses of the mosque rise
close to the Governor's house. On the west, yet
higher up the hill, white and new stands the Gothic

THE NAZARETH HILLS. 139

tower of the English Church ; still farther west is
the Maronite chapel. In the main street by the
market the Greek Catholics hold possession of
the chapel where they believe the synagogue of
Nazareth once to have stood ; high above the
town on the north a large orphanage, built by
German labour with English money, has been
erected by the Society for Female Education in
the East. Farther east is the palace of the Greek
bishop, and above the fountain is the church (also
on the foundations of a building mentioned as
early as 700 a.d.) where the Greeks hold the
Salutation of Mary to have occurred beside the
springhead beneath the hill.

Thus we see at a glance how the little town
is the centre of Christian love and veneration,
and the goal to which men's thoughts have
been attracted from the west, from the north,
from the east, and from the south, from civilised
Europe, from rough but believing Russia, from
the hills of Lebanon, even from the plains of
Mecca.

Twenty years ago Nazareth was a poor village,
now it is a flourishing town. The freedom given
to religious worship by the Turks has been indeed
remarkable compared with the tyranny of Arab
or Egyptian governors ; thus two Latin Churches,
a Latin Hospice, the English Church, and many
fine houses have been built within the last dozen
years or so, and hence the very white and new

140 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

appearance of the town of which they are the
most prominent buildinf^s.

Past the fortress convent, where a monk was
alighting from a richly-caparisoned horse, up the
narrow lanes, between the little hovels of the older
part of the town, up rubbish-heaps, and over
slippery cobbles, we rode to the parsonage, and
were hospitably entertained by Mr. Zeller, the
clergyman. The next day "\ve returned early, and
thus a more intimate acquaintance with the town
was reserved until later, when I spent nearly three
weeks in the Latin Hospice, and again visited the
city twice for a few days in 1875.

Nazareth is probably not a very ancient place,
for it is not noticed in the Old Testament, thoucfh
situated veiy near the boundary of Zebulun ; nor
was it probably ever a very large town, for it has
but one spring. Its name is most likely derived
from the colour of the hills around, and may mean
*' white," thouGfh the earlv fathers loved to render
it " flower," and others make it to mean " watch-
tower." Ancient Nazareth probably stood rather
higher on the slope than modern Nazareth, the
place, in fact, has slid down the hill, as is indi-
cated by the position of the old cisterns and tombs.
Thus the " brow of the hill " is more probably one
of the cliffs now above the town, or perhaps
another hidden beneath the houses, and there is
no necessity to seek it at so great a distance as
that of the Saltus Domini precipice.

THE NAZARETH HILLS. 141

It is curious that Jerome scarcely seems ever to
have been in Nazareth, thouo^h travelHnof far and
wide over Palestine. In 700 a.d. Bishop Arculph
found it an open village, with two churches — one
over the grotto, one over the spring, both very
large ; but soon after troubles began, and it was
not till the time of the Crusades that Nazareth
became a bishopric. In 1102 Ssewulf found it
entirely wasted, only a few columns remaining at
the fountain, and though enjoying a temporary
prosperity under the Christian monarchy, it was
again devastated by the Moslems, and in 1322
Sir John Maundeville writes of it that it was
" formerly a great and fair city, but now there is
but a small village;" whilst of its inhabitants he
says, '' they are very wicked and cruel Saracens,
and more spiteful than in any other place, and
have destroyed all the churches." It is not only
Sir John, unfortunately, who can attest this fact ;
the zealous missionaries who have seen Moslem
and Christian, Latin and Greek, shedding one
another's blood, Captain Burton who there nearly
lost his life, and my own party who fared but ill
in the neig^hbourhood, will alike bear witness to
the turbulence of the Nazarenes — an evil character
for which they seem to have been notorious ever
since the days when they sought to stone our
Lord, and gave cause yet earlier for the Jewish
proverb, " Can any good thing come out of
Nazareth 1"

142 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

The people of the town are remarkable for the
gay colouring of their dresses, and the Christian
women for their beauty. Many a charming bit of
colour, many a shapely figure set off by picturesque
costume, many a dark eye and ruddy cheek, have
I seen in the streets or by the spring. This
beauty is peculiar to the Christians of Bethlehem
and Nazareth, and various reasons are given which
agree, however, in supposing a mixture of Euro-
pean blood. As to the dress, the causes are
manifest ; the costume is that commonly worn
by Christians, and is only striking by contrast
because the villagers of the neighbouring places
are Moslem ; the townsmen are also richer, and
can afford better dress, and this partly accounts
for the superior beauty of the better- fed women
when contrasted with the worn faces of the over-
worked and half-starved peasant women of the
surrounding poor hamlets.

A more special description of the peojole, their
dress, customs, and religion, must, however, be
reserved until they can be treated with the rest of
the natives in a future chapter ; suffice it here to
notice that they present a far more pleasing and
picturesque appearance than that of most of the
inhabitants, of Syrian towns. Leaving the question
for the present, we may next turn attention to the
two sacred places of Nazareth — the Grotto of the
Annunciation and the Virgin's Spring.

While staying in the Casa Nuova I was left

THE NAZARETH HILLS. 143

much to myself, for Drake was suffering and
often obliged to keep his bed. Being able to
chat with them in their native tongue, I made
friends with the old monks, and was shown the
sacred places with great courtesy. Could a Fran-
ciscan be persuaded to use a bath he would be a
good companion to any one who will return his
courtesy, but he does not like to be laughed at
when he shows the place where the Holy House
split in two, when the outer room went off on its
protracted travels before resting finally on the
wooded hill- top of Loretto.

The site of the Holy House was shown as
noticed above as early as 700 a.d. in a rock-cut
grotto. The pillars of the Crusading church built
round it were still visible in 1620 a.d., but the
new building erected in 1730 a.d. with the rest of
the present monastery, has no connection with the
plan of the former, the foundations of which still
exist beneath. The modern church is a white-
washed, square structure, seventy feet long and
fifty broad, directed north and south. The high
altar above the sacred grotto is reached by a
flight of stairs, from each side of the seventeen
marble steps which lead down to the vestibule,
called the Chapel of the Angels, where left and
rip'ht are the altars of St. Joachim and the ano-el
Gabriel. Behind the high altar is the choir^ dark
and roomy like that at Betlilehem. Descendino-
into the grotto and passing through the vestibule,

144 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

the old Franciscan led me into the little rock-cut
chamber, with marble floor, and an altar on the
north wall. This is the outer half of the grotto,
and a wall of separation divides it from the inner
half. The outer is called Grotto of the Annunci-
ation, the inner that of St. Joseph. From the
roof of the former, which measures twenty feet
across and sevon feet in depth, hangs pendant
near the west side the shaft of a red granite pillar,
apparently a column of the old chapel in the
grotto, and believed to be miraculously suspended
over the very place where the angel stood when
bringing the message to Mary. Lighting the
little taper on the altar, and kneeling for a moment
in prayer, the monk drew the veil from before an
Italian picture of the Annunciation, soft and
mellow in colour, with a sweet Virgin face, and
tawdry silver crown and nimbus sewn on above
her head and that of Gabriel.

By the narrow entrance on the right we passed
into the inner part of the chapel, dark and damp,
equal in Avidth, but double the depth of the outer
part. It is only just about high enough to stand
in ; its altar is placed at the back of the last de-
scribed, with a picture of St. Joseph. From this
a narrow passage twenty feet long, with seventeen
steps, leads up obliquely to the inmost part of the
cave, a chamber of irregular shape, traditionally
supposed to be the Virgin's kitchen, with a
chimnev hewn in the rock on the east^ and an

THE NAZARETH HILLS. 145

entracce, now walled up, on the west, by which
the father informed me the Yirofin used to pfo out
to fetch water from the spring. The whole place
is very dark and low, with a damp odour, and
resembles the ancient cisterns of which many exist
in Nazareth ; yet for nearly twelve centuries this
spot has been visited by millions from every Chris-
tian land as the early home of Christ and of His
mother. I observed to the monk that it was dark
for a dwelling-house, but he answered very simply,
^' The Lord had no need of much lieht."

It is hardly worth wliile to describe the modern
sanctuary of " St. Joseph's Workshop," a Latin
Chapel, built only in 1859, about two hundred
yards north of the monastery, in the Moslem
Quarter; or the Mensa Christi, a block of rock
rudely oval ten feet across and three feet high, in
a chm-ch built in 1861 in the west quarter of the
town. The only other ancient site is that of the
Virgin's Fountain, six hunch'ed yards north-east
of the Latin Monastery at the end of a lane
hedged with prickly pear, and near the flat camp-
ing ground among the olives.

As early as 700 a.d. we find Bishop Arculph
visiting here a church over the spring. The
present building is only about eighty years old,
but occupies the same site. It is dedicated to St.
Gabriel, and even the Latins admit it to be on the
site where first the ano-el became visible. It is
curious that no artist has pitched upon so charming

VOL. I. 10

146 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

a subject as that suggested by a meeting with the
Heavenly messenger at the Fountain, an idea not
discordant with the words of the Gospel. As in
the eighth century, so now the spring is under the
floor of the church, which is itself half subter-
ranean. The water is led to the left of the high
altar, past a well-mouth, by which it is drawn up
for pilgrims, and so by a channel to the masonry
fountain, where it comes out through metal spouts
under an arched recess broad enough for fifteen
women to stand side by side. A pool is formed
below at the trough, and here the constant suc-
cession of the Nazareth women may be seen all
day filling their great earthenware jars, standing
ankle-deep in water, their pink or green-striped
baggy trousers tucked betvreen their knees ; their
heads are covered, if Moslems, with the moon-
shaped tire, if Christians, with a gay handkerchief
or the hair platted in long tails. A negress in
blue here and there mingles with the crowd, which
is chattering, screaming, gossiping, and sometimes
fighting.

The Protestant buildino-s in Nazareth are the
most conspicuous, because higher placed than
either the beautiful minaret of the mosque or the
strong pile of the monastery. The hospital, pre-
sided over by Dr. Vartin, an accomplished surgeon
and a kind doctor, stands towards the north ; the
church, well built with a pretty garden and
capable of containing five hundred persons, is to the

THE NAZARE TH HILLS. 1 4 7

west, tastefully decorated within, and having over
the altar-table, in Arabic, the words read by the
Saviour in the Synagogue of Nazareth, *' The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me ... to preach the
Gospel to the poor ; he hath sent me to heal the
brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the cap-
tives" (Luke iv. 18).

Highest placed of all, however, half way up the
hill, the great orphanage has been building since
1872, and is now complete, and designed to hold
two hundred girls. It is built in the symbolic
but very inconvenient form of a cross with the
sides filled in, and is but ill designed though w^ell
executed, and externally a very fine building. From
its esplanade the town is visible, spread out almost
like a map on the lower slopes, with olive and fig-
gardens, cactus hedges and yellow threshing-floors,,
backed by barren stony hills.

A volume might be written on the history and
topography of Nazareth, but the present sketch
is necessarily a short one. A chief feature of
the place must not, however, be forgotten, the
view from the summit of the hill by the little
chapel of Neby S'ain, whose untranslatable name
is a puzzle to the residents.

We can scarcely doubt that this scene, unchanged

. . . ' o

as it must be in its noble natural features, w^as
one often before the eyes of Christ in childhood
and manhood, and it is remarkable how much
that is stirring in the history of Israel was enacted

10—2

148 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

within tlie theatre of rolling hills which bound the
view.

Here on the south the broad brown Plain of
Esdraelon stretches away to the hills of Samaria. "
The peak of the Precipitation stands above it at the
end of the plateau of Nazareth, and beyond, the
top of Tabor and the cone of Jebel Duhy rise fl
up on the left. The ridge of Gilboa appears '
farther south, cliff above cliff, tilted eastwards and
shelving down gently to the plain on the w^est.
Turning to the right the eye follows the broken
outline of mountains rising into the volcanic cone
of Sheikh Iskander, and farther on, the whole
range of Carmel, in its length of twelve miles, is
stretched dark and wooded from the peak of the
Sacrifice to the Convent promontory where Haifa
nestles at its feet. Over the ridge far south the
gleaming sea appears ; to the north is the hollow
bay of Acre wdth its white circle of surf, the town
itself not visible ; behind us again on the north are
the steep Galilean hills, the Saf ed mountains, the
beautiful plain of Asochis where Kanah stands on
the slope ; farthest away of all is the snowy dome
of Hermon.

Very beautiful on a clear day is this panorama,
and striking indeed is the jagged and broken hill
horizon, purple against the orange sunset.

Here, then, the Saviour may have stood, and |
seen before His eyes the theatre of many a tragedy
of Jewish history. Tabor, from which the army

THE NAZARETH HILLS. 140

of Barak burst on the host of horse and chariots
by the Kishon springs beneath ; Endor where
Saul crept round the hillside by night to the
witch's cave ; the broad valley down which
Gideon drove the Midianites, up which Jehu
came in his chariot to Jezreel visible on its rocky
knoll ; Gilboa, on whose slopes Saul and Jonathan
had perished, caught between the Philistines and
the precipices ; Carmel, the site of the great
triumph of the God of Elijah, and the great sea
on which still in autumn the little cloud comes
up like a man's hand and swells till huge thunder-
pillars are piled black and high above the moun-
tains. On the north Sepphoris the Koman capital,
Seph the '' city set on a hill," E-umeh where some
said Messias was first to appear, the road to Ca-
pernaum, and the solitary ridges of Hermon where
the transfigured Saviour was seen by the three
Apostles.

But, as we look round, nineteen centuries later
we mark the influence of the history of the
Gospels, and of the growth of tradition. On the
south the traditional Leap of our Lord, two miles
from the city built on the brow of the hill. In
Nain, beneath and unseen, the Christian chapel,
commemorative of the raising of the widow's son,
now in turn a Moslem mosque. On Carmel a
grotto of Elijah, venerated by Christians and
Druses. On the hill of Sepphoris a ruined
church, six centuries old, once thought to be the

150 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

home of Joachim and Anne, the Virgin's parents.
On the plain a ruined Cana, perhaps only dating
from Crusadincr times. On Tabor a false site for
the Transfiguration, and three churches in ruins.

Yet with a history so long and eventful, the land
itself is unchanged ; the brown plains/ the grey
barren hills, the wooded cliffs of Carmel, the
ofleamino: sea, the snow-clad Hermon, are still the
same that Christ once looked on : and we merely
add to the theatre of Jewish victory or defeat the
sites venerated, in loving, if mistaken zeal by the
Christian pilgrims of the eighteen centuries before
our time.

From the hill-top northwards, the view extends
to the ruin of Kanah, a village destroyed not long
ago, to judge from the existing remains ; beneath
the hills north-east lies hidden the prosperous
villasfe of Kefr Kenna. These are the two
places which claim each to represent Cana of
Oalilee, the site of Christ's first miracle.

Unfortunately there is scarcely anj^thing in
Scripture which v/ould lead to a choice between
the two, nor do the chance references of Josephus
enable us to do more than speculate as to the
comparative likelihood of the sites. In the
Talmud, Cana is not noticed ; thus there is
nothing in contemporary literature to enable us
to decide.

One tiling only seems pretty certain — that the
Crusaders believed Khiirbet Kanah to be Cana.

THE NAZARETH HILLS. 151

Soewulf in 1102 a.d. gives a very particular descrip-
tion of the place as six miles north of Nazareth,
with a place called Roma half way, which he
describes as a castle near the road from Acre to
Tiberias, where travellers broke the journey.

Fetellus, again (1130 a.d.), places Cana five miles
from Nazareth, Sepphoris two, and Tabor four. In
the " Citez de Jherusalem" (1187 a.d.), it is made
to be three leao-ues from Nazareth, with a well
-a bowshot off; Sepphoris being one league, and
Tabor three. John Poloner in 1422 a.d. makes it
four leagues east of Acre, and two leagues north
of Sepphoris. Marino Sanuto describes it most
carefully, and draws it on his map as north of a
plain reaching south to Sepphoris, with a mountain
behind it on the north ; he gives the distance as
four miles. Tabor also as four, and Sepphoris as
two. Brocardus agrees with this description, and
Quaresmius in 1620 a.d. notices the same site as
^n old traditional position for Cana.

These accounts, though the distances seem only
approximative, agree in placing Cana at a distance
from Nazareth equal to or greater than that of
Tabor, and north of Sepphoris and of Eoma. They
'can only therefore apply to Khurbet Kanah, situate
v/ith a plain to the south, a mountain to the north,
and a cave like the crypt described by John Poloner
to the west. They cannot be applied to Kefr Kenna
south of Roma (now Rumeh), almost equidistant
with Sepphoris from Nazareth and nearer than

152 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

«J

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6

i>

if

34

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5i

it

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Tabor, with a mountain to the south and plain
to the north.

The true distances are as follow :

Nazareth to Kefr Kenna 3j English miles.
„ „ Kanah
„ „ Rumeh
„ „ SefFurieh
„ „ Tabor

These measurements, as a glance at the map
will show, serve to place Crusading Cana from the
twelfth to the seventeenth centuries at the north-
ern site of Khurbet Kanah. John of Wirtzburg
indeed (1100 a.d.), might be thought to mean Kefr
Kenna, because he makes Cana east instead of
north-east of Sepphoris, but he gives its distance
as double that of the latter town from Nazareth
(four miles, whilst Sepphoris is two according to
him), the long mile used by most of his contem-
poraries being evidently intended. The distances
thus serve to point in this case also to Khurbet
Kanah.

Unfortunately the Crusading locality is not of
necessity the true one. Writers who could believe
that Shiloh was south of Bethel, who could place
Tyre south of Carmel and Capernaum on the
shore of the Mediterranean, cannot well be re-
ceived as authorities on such a difficult question.
Their identification is thus merely a matter of
curiosity. The early pilgrims, before the Cru-

THE NAZARETH HILLS. 153-

sades, are generally more correct in their views,
but even they cannot be received as certainly in-
formed, so many and so curiously perverse are
their errors in other points ; in this case, moreover,
they scarcely mention the place, St. Willibald
(722 A.D.) gives a hint of its whereabouts in
noticino- Cana as on his road from Nazareth to
Tabor — a position which seems to suit neither
Kanah nor Kefr Kenna. Sta. Paula (383 a.d.)
also passed it on her w^ay from Nazareth to the
Sea of Galilee ; and Theodorus (530 a.d.) makes it
equi-distant with Nazareth from Sepphoris (both
five Roman miles), but does not mention the
direction.

The comparative claims of the two places may
thus be summed up : Khurbet Kanah approaches
nearest in name, Kefr Kenna is in the most
suitable position.

As regards the name, the word Cana, as spelt
in the Greek, seems undoubtedly to represent
Kanah as sj)elt in Hebrew with the "■ Koph," a
name occurring in the Book of Joshua as that of
a town near Sidon (now Kanah) and that of a
valley south of Shechem. Kenna spelt with the
"Caf " is quite a different word; the root of Kanah
has the meaning '' reedy," and this applies well to
Khurbet Kanah, situate above a large marsh ; the
root of Kenna signifies "roofed," and would be
spelt properly in Greek with the X not the K.
Yet this argument is not quite conclusive, because

154 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

the modern Arabic name of the " Brook Kanah "
is spelt by the natives with the Caf hke Kenna,
not with the Koph as in the Hebrew.

As regards position, it seems far more probable
that Kenna, on the road to Tiberias, w^ould be
the place twice visited by Christ, than the remote
Kanah, which is on no main line of travel. The
objections also that the word Kefr has to be ac-
•counted for, and that no signs of antiquity are
found at Kefr Kenna, were removed by the Smwey,
for we found an old ruin called Kenna near the
beautiful spring west of the village of Kefr
Kenna.

There is, however, another place which has
never, I believe, been noticed, and which fits
better than either with the early Christian site
noticed by Willibald. The little village of Keineh
is on the road north-east of Nazareth, and only a
mile and a half away ; from it a main road leads to
Tabor, and by this road is a fine spring called 'Ain
Kanah, spelt as the Greek leads us to suppose the
Hebrew form of Cana must have been. In the
absence of more definite indications, it seems to
me that this third site may well rank with either
•of the others before mentioned.

The Crusaders, then, believed Cana to be north
of the Buttauf Plain, the early Christians placed
it south. In the seventeenth century both sites
were known, but finally ecclesiastical sanction was
^iven to Kefr Kenna ; thus the northern site

THE NAZARETH HILLS. 155

presents now only ruined walls and dry wells in
the rock on the slope of the rugged mountain
Avhich is also named Kanah, whilst the southern
place is a flourishing Christian village of flat-
roofed huts standing above the beautiful gardens
and orchards which surround its spring. Like
many others of the New Testament towns, ^non,
Bethabara, or Nazareth, there is nothing in the
Gospel definitely to fix the position of the place ;
Josephus and the Talmud give us no aid, and
the question appears to me destined to remain
always unsettled from want of any evidence
sufficiently conclusive.

The survey of the country round Cana and
Nazareth, as far west as Kishon, and north to the
beautiful valley called Wady el Malak, occupied
seven weeks from the 20th of October to the 10th
of December. It was a period of constantly re-
curring difficulties, caused partly by the fanaticism
of the Moslems, partly by the unhealthy season.
The adventures of the party were far from pleasant,
and the anxiety was considerable ; all, however,
was in the end successfully carried through, and
Christmas found us safely housed in Haifa. Poor
Drake alone succumbed to the constant exertion
and the cruel pain in his liver, which ever since the
fatal day on w^hich the base line was first laid out
in the Plain of Esdraelon, had continued to grow
worse till he was obliged to take a sea-trip to
Egypt during the winter months.

150 TENT WORK IN~ PALESTINE.

Warned by the misfortunes of others, we en-
camped first at some Httle distance from the
quarrelsome town of Nazareth, in the flourishing'
village of Mujeidil west of it, a place containing
Christians and even a few Protestants.

On the night of our arrival the ^veather broke,,
and on the following day the thunder-pillars, which
had been piled over the dark slate- colored ridge of
Carmel, gradually approached; the effect was mag-
nificent, with a mid distance of low hills covered with
oak woods. The storm burst suddenly, the rain de-
scending with violence, hissing on the ground as if
not able to come down fast enough, and accom-
panied with gusts of wind, thunder, and lightning.
This naturally called to mind the great storm after
the sacrifice on Carmel, when Ahab sped over the
plain before the swollen Kishon became sufficiently
full to intercept him. In the evening the light-
ning over Carmel, in broad sheets and vivid forks,
was equally fine. The face of the country was
soon changed : crocuses, narcissus, lilies, squills,
and red anemone appeared, the grass began soon ta
sprout, and the birds to arrive, and the yellow wag-
tail appeared by the springs ; long wreaths of cloud
formed on the hills, and bursts of sunlight or of
rain alternated. The extreme clearness of the
atmosphere was most remarkable, and distances
became most difficult to judge, being apparently
only half what they were in reality.

The scenery in the Nazareth Hills differs very

THE NAZARETH HILLS. 157

much in different parts ; round the city itself it
consists of rolHng, rounded mountains of bare
•white Hmestone, but on the west these are hidden
beneath a grow^th of forest trees. The wood con-
sists almost entirely of oak, and in places is open
with corn beneath the trees ; but for the greater
part of its extent it is very dense, especially near
Harosheth (El Harithiyeh), a place thence named,
where underwood, more or less thick, is found.
Through this forest runs the beautiful valley called
Wady el Malak,generallyrendered" King's Valley,"
but perhaps better ''Valley of Pasture." Such a
valley, wdth its cool brook and clear springs, its
broad corn-fields and patches of turf, its flocks and
herds we may suppose David to have in remem-
brance in the twenty-third Psalm. On either side
the slopes are covered by the oak-forest, and in-
numerable wild doves find shelter for their nests
among the branches. For quiet beauty we saw
nothing in Palestine equal to this valley, up which
in 1875 we ran the levels, thus visiting it day
after day for more than a week.

Yet even here the absence of sonsf-birds was
very remarkable. Birds of prey, eagles, kites,
hawks, vultures, and griffons may be seen almost
anywhere in Palestine ; the twittering of swal-
lows and the screaming of the Galilean swift are
also common ; the jays and the comical little
" boomehs," as the owls are called, are always found
m the olive-trees; but only at Jericho did we come

158 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

across the biilbul, and only once did I hear the
ni^htiniTfalc, near Jerusalem. The noise of the
cicalas in summer in the olives, and at nio-ht
the peculiar gamut of the " wowies " or jackals,
and occasionally the bark of a hyena, and the
shrill note of the great black crickets, are the
most familiar sounds in tent life.

Mujeidil being a place visited by the mission-
aries, we here witnessed a curious scene. The
native Protestant schoolmaster invited us to break-
fast, and to the service held by an ordained native
clergyman. The school was cool and roomy, with
a bright glare through the window and door; the
flat roof of wood was supported on masonry arches
at intervals, and consisted of boughs smoke-black-
ened and imtrimmed ; the walls and floor were
shmy, with plaster also stained with smoke.
Hence the efiect was that so peculiar to these
interiors, of broad dusky shadow and little bright
patches of light : here and there faint lines of
tobacco smoke curled in the air, and alonof the
step of the divan was a row of old slippers of the
congregation. Three or four pigeons flew cooing
about, and a dozen purple swallows were half
hidden in the rafters, Avhilst an old hen with a
tuft on her head stood in a corner.

On one side sat the men, some of them great
villains in appearance, in old worn " kufeyehs " and
brown "abbas;" behind them a young woman, pro-
bably only looking in out of curiosity, to see the

THE NAZARETH HILLS. 15&

Franks, dressed in the Nazareth Christian style,
with the baggy trousers — a pkimp, dusky face, very
bright eyes, and hair all tangled. Farther on the
old schoolmaster, in a black mantle and white
under-robe, hook-nosed, bald-headed, and grey-
bearded ; by him eight children of various ages,
with fat, dark faces, rather pretty, but, as usual,
coarse in feature, with bright sparkling eyes, white
teeth, and well-shaped mouths. One girl had a
sort of stomacher of silver coins, a second was in
pink-striped calico, with a huge black Bible. A
handsome little boy wore an olive-green jacket,
a scarlet fezz, a salmon-coloured waistcoat bound
with black braid, and white trousers.

Conversation with the minister, dressed in black
overcoat and white gown, opened the proceedings,
lemonade, coffee, and a cigarette followed. All
the congregation then rose, the minister removed
his fezz, and a prayer, a chapter, and a short
sermon formed the service, concluding with the
Lord's Prayer, in which all joined, and the bless-
ing ; the whole in Arabic. The natives were reve-
rential and attentive, but some of the children got
tired of the sermon and set to teasing one another.

Such peaceful scenes were not, however, our
only experiences. One of our servants bringing
provisions from Nazareth was set upon by the
people of Yafa — a village of evil reputation. He
foolishly endeavoured to make a prisoner of one
offender, and a general rescue ensued, our man

160 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

being beaten very severely and his pistol stolen ;
he would probably have been half murdered but
for our Bashi-bazouk, who turned out and was
nearly stoned ; he fired on the crowd and dispersed
it. Correspondence with the local authorities
followed, but no satisfaction was at first ob-
tained.

Nor was this our only trouble. Drake and I
both suffered from the change of weather, Drake
especially with asthma and fever. Sergeant Black
was laid up with one of those painful ulcers on the
hand, from which no member of the party finally
escaped, being connected in some mysterious way
with the low malarious fever. Bain and sirocco
in succession interrupted the work, and poor Jill,
one of our favourite terriers, went mad, and had
to be shot to save the rest. Finally, an olive-tree
fell on the camp, nearly killing some of the
servants.

Nor were matters improved when we got to
Nazareth. Drake was here laid up with fever,
and Sergeant Black had a slight attack which
made him unfit for work. Our muleteer manao-ed
to get his head badly broken in a street row ;
finally, a fanatical peasant at Seftiu'ich bitterly
reproached my guide and soldier with serving a
Kafir or "pagan," and picked a quarrel, which
was followed by a shower of stones ; the soldier
chased him and fired at him, the man was finally
imprisoned and fined as an example ; but we still

THE NAZARETH HILLS. IGl

had the Yafa case unsettled, and a second affair
yet more serious occurred soon after.

Under these circumstances I wrote to Constan-
tinople and stated our difficulties to Sir Henry
Elliot, asking for a Firman signed by the Sultan,
instead of the Vizier's letter previously used by
us, in order to enable us to claim more firmly the
aid of the Turkish authorities. My request was
courteously and promptly answered, and the Fir-
man arrived soon after, and proved a most valuable
document.

Leaving Nazareth as soon as possible, we made
our new camp at the village of Sheikh Abreik,
situate on a white hill, which projects as a bastion
from the rest, forming one side of the narrow
gorge where, under the cliffs of Carmel, the Kishon
leaves the great Plain of Esdraelon to enter that
of Acre. Here we spent a pleasant fortnight, but
here also we had troubles with the neighbouring
peasantry.

Sheikh Abreik stands on the site of an un--
known town of no little importance. To the west
the hillside is completely undermined by exten-
sive excavations and systems of tombs which
required many days to examine. Under the town
is one called "■ the Cave of Gehenna," and on the
hill is another consisting of chamber within cham-
ber, the first entered being painted with palm
branches, ivy-leaves, and other mortuary emblems
in red ; in one tomb the inscription " Parthene "

VOL. I. 11

162 TENT WORK JN PALESTINE.

is written in Greek, in another we found graves
unopened, and the entrances most carefully closed ;
but unfortunately the roof had fallen in, and all
that our excavation brought us was a delicate little
tear-bottle, the glass oxidised by age, and covered
with a prismatic crust Avhich scaled off easily.

Into every entrance I could find I forced a way,
sometimes opening up the door with a spade just
enough to force my shoulders through, and creep-
ing into the dark chamber, where the taper revealed
ghastly creeping insects, and in one case a scorpion,
which stung me pretty sharply. This inspection
laid the foundation of a systematic comparison
of many hundred tombs throughout the country,
which has led to conclusions of some value with
regard to the comparative antiquity of various
kinds of sepulchres. It is pretty clear, for instance,
that the tomb with a grave parallel to the side of
the central chamber is a later arrangement, used
by the Jews about the Christian era, instead of
the Kokim tomb, in which the body was placed in
a sort of pigeon-hole, with its feet nearest the
chamber; and further, that the rolling stone was
also a later contrivance, being found almost ex-
clusively wdth the loculi or later tombs. These
conclusions fully accord with the description of
the Holy Sepulchre as a tomb with a rolling stone
to its door, for our Lord's tomb must have been
t)ne with a loculus or grave parallel to the side of
the chamber, because two angels are described as

THE NAZARETH HILLS. 163

sitting, "the one at the head, the other at the feet,
where the body of Jesus had lain " (John xx. 12),
which would have been clearly impossible in the
more primitive form of Jewish tomb with Kokim.
Sheikh Abreik Avas a great place for game ; a
flio'ht of woodcock arrived on the 7th of November,
and, in spite of the constant massacre which they
underwent at our hands (Drake being a very good
shot), they stayed a week, during which time we
killed and ate about fifty, sending some as presents
to Nazareth. Quail and red-legged partridge were
also to be found near the camp. One day we
had an exciting hunt, over the cotton-fields, after
gazelles. The dogs chased a huge wild-cat, over
the hill and down a chimney cut in the rock, so
that it alighted on the heads of our astonished
grooms, in a cave which formed our stable beneath.
They also unearthed some fine specimens of the
ichneumon, almost as large as themselves, and
speedily put them to death. There were large
flocks of lapwings recently arrived, but very shy,
and in the marshy ground the small bustard was
to be found, and occasionally a snipe near the
river.

The first really serious attack on the party —
thouQfh not the last nor the worst — was made near
this camp. Sergeant Black was quietly surveying
near the village of El Harithiyeh, where, as it
appeared afterwards in evidence, a fete or " fan-
tasia " was being held. The young men were

11—2

164 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

firinof at a mark, and one or more turnino- at rio-ht
angles, tleliberately fired at the Sergeant on the
neighbouring hill. He must have been in no little
danofer, as he brouo-ht home two bullets which
had fallen near him. Our soldier (Husein) behaved
with great pluck, and charged up the hill at the
crowd to disperse them. We at once wrote to the
Governor of Acre, and I lost no time in tele-
graphing to the Consul-general, Mr. Eldridge, at
Beirut. The Governor sent a party to the village
and took fifteen prisoners, though the inhabitants
were at first inclined to make resistance.

The Lieutenant-Governor of Nazareth, of whose
conduct Ave had much cause to complain, appears
to have been reprimanded, for he came down to
our camp to make friends. He was a most extra-
ordinary character — Faris Effendi by name. His
personal appearance was not improved by the
affectation of European costume, a purple flannel
shirt, a bright brown jacket, trousers of greenish
hue, with broad black stripes ; on his head a cotton
pocket-handkerchief with purple border, put on to
guard from sunstroke, under a shabby old red fezz;
on his eyes huge blue goggles. For an hour and
a half he stayed, showering protestations of love
and friendship upon us, and, even to the last, he
continued his chatter, and disappeared still talking
in an excited manner.

Of this oflScial and his predecessors I was told
many curious stories by Mr. Zeller, the Protestant

THE NAZARETH HILLS. 105

clergyman. Faris EfFendi had one passion — his
sliikis or himting'-dogs, which he petted almost like
children. He had curious ways also of increasino-
his income, his salary being a mere pittance on which
he could not live ; one was to levy a tax on his sub-
lects of all the white hens in the villao-es : wherever
on his travels through the Nazareth district he saw
a white hen it is said he sent to claim it as his
own. Mr. Zeller related that another official
offered to give his good services, in some difficulties
about a schoolhouse, in consideration of the present
of a pair of white trousers. A colonel in the
Jordan valley, in command of a camp of 3000
men, held a review in honour of some passing
travellers, and afterwards demanded a " bakshish "
of ten francs. Another dignitary w^as entertained
with a game of chess, at Mr. Zeller's house, in
presence of his admiring circle of followers; finding
himself, however, in danger of being beaten, he
waited till Mr. Zeller's attention was for the
moment diverted, and then quietly removed his
opponent's queen. It is said he expressed much
satisfaction at his own ability in winning the
game, after having taken this rather unusual
method of retrieving his fortunes.

One curious fact, as showing the infamous
condition of the administration, we here also
ascertained. A Greek banker named Sursuk, to
whom the Government was under oblisfations,
was allowed to buy the northern half of the Great

1G6 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

Plain and some of the Nazareth villacces for the
ridiculously small sum of £20,000 for an extent of
seventy square miles; the taxes of the twenty
villages amounted to £4000, so that the average
income could not be stated at less than £12,000,
taking good and bad years together. The cultivation
was materially improved under his care, and the
property must be immensely valuable, or would
be, if the title could be considered secure ; but it
is highly probable that the Government will again
seize the land when it becomes worth while to do so.

The peasantry attributed the purchase to Prus-
sian intrisfue, beinof convinced that their hated
enemy has his eyes greedily turned to Palestine
and to Jerusalem as a religious capital, and is
ever busy in gaining a footing in the country.

The preceding pages give but a sketch of the
labours of our first autumn. The information
collected cannot be condensed into a few pages,
and it forms a very considerable section of the
memoir to the map. The main points of interest
have been touched upon, but the discoveries of
aqueducts, tombs, a hermitage, etc., the explora-
tion of Crusading churches, Poman sepulchral
buildings, and other ruins, must be at present
passed over in silence.

On the 10th of December the weather threatened
to break up, and Ave marched down to the neat
little house which we had hired for the winter, iu
the German colony at Haifa.

Car MEL.

CHAPTEE YI.

CAR MEL AND ACRE.

There was no part of Palestine with which T
became more familiar than the neio-hbourhood of
Carmel, and^ with the exception of Jerusalem,
there was no station where the party remained so
long. From the 10th of December, 1872, till the '
26th of the following February, we lodged in the
German colony, surveying, Aviien weather per-
mitted, and arranor-inor our field-work duringf the
wet days. From the end of February till the
20th of March, we were camped under the shadow
of the mountain at Jeb'a. Aq'ain m the autumn
of 1873 we marched through Haifa, and once more,

VOL. I.

1G8 TENT WORK IN rALESTJXE.

after the Scafcd attack, we found shelter in the
monastery and in the German hotel, from the 13th
of August until the end of September. As a
familiar and pleasant place of retreat, I have,
therefore, an affectionate remembrance of . the
Carmel country; and the scenery is perhaps
more attractive than that of any other part of
Palestine, the climate more healthy, and the
people more civilised,

Carmel is best described as a triangular block ot
mountains, the apex being the promontory on
which the Carmelite monastery stands. The
watershed runs south-east from this point for
twelve miles, to the Mahrakah or '' place of
burning," a peak visible from Jaffa in fine
weather. The highest part of the mountain is
1740 feet above the sea at the Druse villao-e of
'Esfia. The Peak of Mahraka is onlv 1687 feet
high, and the promontory by the monastery 500,
but the slope of the shed is gradual. Long spurs
run out westwards from this ridge and fill up the
triangle, their western extremities having steep
slopes above a narrow plain along the sea-coast.
In the valleys among them are two tine s]) rings,
and others smaller. The north-eastern declivity
of the ridge is extremely steep, and fine cliUs
occur in places. At the foot of the mountain are
numerous springs feeding the Kislion, which runs
beneath gradually diverging northwards. The
little town of Haifa nestles under the promontory,

C ARM EL AND ACRE. 1G9

by which it is sheltered from the south-west wind,
its bay forming the best harbour on the coast.
On the north side of the bay is St. Jean d'Acre,
twelve miles along the curve of the shore from
Haifa. On the narrow plain, between Carmel
and the sea, there are also many places of interest.
Sycaminon, Geba of Horsemen, Calamon, Elijah's
Fountain, the Crusading Capernaum, and the
strong and beautiful Chateau Pelerin with its
little advanced port of Lo Detroit. On Carmel
itself is a ruined synagogue, and on the south of
the range beneath the inland cliffs are the fine
springs feeding the Crocodile river.

First of all in interest comes the cliff of EI
Mahrakah " the place of burning " or of sacrifice,
a peak, forming the south-east extremity of the
main range, and tilted high above the white downs
south of the mountain, in consequence, as we
discovered, of volcanic disturbance. The peak is
a semi-isolated knoll with a cliff some forty feet
high looking south-east ; beneath it a small pla-
teau of arable soil with olives ; bushes and shrubs
grow up the cliff, and among them a little modern
chapel stands near a huge dry reservoir; below
the plateau, at the very edge of the steep slope
which descends to the plain, is a well, cut in hard
rock and shaded by a large locust-tree. It con-
tained water even in December before the rains,
though not in great quantity, and it was infested
with large hornets. From the summit of the cliff

170 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

the view was wonderfully interesting: on the west
the spurs of Carmel, the yellow sand-hills round
Caesarea, the far horizon of sea; on the north
Acre, the Galilean hills, Lebanon and Hermon ; on
the east Nazareth, Tabor, Nain, Endor, Shunem,
Bethshan, Gilboa with Jezreel at its feet, the
Great Plain, distant Gilead, the Kishon, and
Jenin ; at the foot of the mountain, Keimun the
Crusading Cain-Mons, the Biblical Jokneam.

At least as early as the close of the last century,
the Carmelite fathers looked on this peak as the
scene of Elijah's sacrifice. The place seems to fit
the account well. A plateau gives space for the
assembly of the multitude. A well close by may
have supplied water. Fourteen hundred feet below
is Kishon, where the priests were slain. The sea
is invisible, except from the very summit, and
thus the prophet's servant could have seen only
by climbing up to the top of Carmel, from the
plateau where the altar may have stood, the little
cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, spreading
gradually over the sea, the plain, and the bushy
mountain spurs. We require a site for the altar
near the summit, or the prophet's servant must
have taken at least an hour for each journey ; on
the other hand, we require water other than that
in the Kishon, if the sacrifice took place near the
summit, or the water-carrying would have taken
three or four hours to complete. Both requisites
are found in the site at El Mahrakah.

C ARM EL AND ACRE. 171

It is possible perhaps to lay too much stress
on the name, for its antiquity is not known,
and it is thouMit to be connected with Druse
sacrifices yearly performed here. The Druses
are not natives of Carmel, and their tradition
can therefore scarcely be thought to have come
down from the time of Elijah, but is far more
probably derived from the monks, with whom
they evidently live on good terms, for, as we
had occasion to see for ourselves, they present
votive offerings to the old wooden image of Elijah
in the chapel of the monastery. It is certain that
mediaeval Christian legends are preserved by the
wild Bedawin near Jericho, and there is therefore
some probability of more modern monkish tra-
ditions, derived from the monastery, remaining
current among the Druses of Carmel. There is a
second name which has been thouQfht also to have
a connection with the grand tragedy of the
slaughter of the priests of Baal occurring near
the Kishon ; this is Tell el Kassis, " the hillock
of the priest," a name applied to a shapeless
mound near the river-bank ; but, in this case also,
much caution is necessary before accepting the
supposed derivation, for Kassis is the word applied
to a Christian priest, and the v/ord Kohen or
Kamir would more naturally be expected if there
was any real connection with the idolatrous priests
of Baal. Yet, however the tradition of the
sacrifice became attached to this peak, there is

1T2 TEXT WORK IN TALESTIXE.

no point on the ridge which appears more suitable
for the dramatic incidents of the Bible story or
for the erection of a mountain altar.

Carmcl, " the place of thickets," was at one
time cultivated, as shown by the rock winepresses
among its copses. In 1837 it had many villages on
its slopes, but these were ruthlessly destroyed by
Ibrahim Pacha, and only two now remain — 'Esfia
on the main ridge, Ed Dalieh (perhaps Idalah of
Zebulon) on a high spur ; both are inhabited by
the mountain-lovinsr Druses, and are remarkable
for their race of fine handsome men and beautiful
women, some with flaxen curly hair and blue eyes.
The whole mountain is covered thickly with brush-
wood, mastic, hawthorn, the spurge laurel, and, on
the top, dwarf pines ; the luxuriance of the vege-
tation, rolling down the valleys between the steep
grey and rusty cliffs like a dark cataract, attests
the richness of the red soil, and the fine mountain
air makes the place the healthiest district in
Palestine. Among the thickets game abounds, —
the Nimr or hunting leopard, wild pigs, gazelles,
and fallow-deer ; partridges and other birds are seen
continually in riding about the mountain. To this
known fauna we Avere able to make an important
addition.

From natives of Haifa we learnt that a kind of
deer called Yahmur was to be found on Carmel,
and, offering a reward, we procured from some of
the Arab charcoal-burners a specimen which re-

CARMEL AND ACRE. 173

sembled the English roebuck. The flesh we ate L .> ^ j-\
and found excellent, the skin and bones Mr. Drake
sent to the Museum at Cambridge; and in 1876 I
was informed by competent authority that the
specimen w^as indistinguishable from the English
roebuck. Now the interest of this discovery lies
in the name. The Yahmur gives a title to a large
valley in a wooded district south of Carmel, and
in translating the nomenclature I found that it
was a Hebrew^ word used in the Bible (Deut. xiv. 5)
to designate a kind of deer. The authorised
version renders it "■ fallow-deer," but this latter
animal is properly called Ayal in Hebrew and
Eim in Arabic. Thus until wc were able to as-
certain the existence of the roebuck, 23reviously
heard of but not seen by Dr. Tristram, and to
obtain the name Yahmur, there was no clue to the
true identification of the deer which furnished
Solomon's table daily with choice venison
(1 Kings iv. 23).

The history of the Carmelite settlement is in-
teresting and not generally known. The infor-
mation which I was able to collect in 1875 from
their records and by word of mouth from the
monks may be briefly summarised.

Carmel has been a sacred mountain from the
time of its earliest appearance in history. Elijah
himself "repaired the altar of the Lord that Avas
broken down" (1 Kings xviii. 30), from which we
infer that a sacred place or Makom had existed

174 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

on tlio suniinit of the moimtain at an earlier
period, thoiii^h, according to the Talmud, such
high places became for ever unlaAvful after the
building of the Temple at Jerusalem. From
Tacitus we learn that Vespasian visited a place on
Carmel, sacred to the deity of the mountain but
"without either statue or altar, and even now, as
above noted, the Druses hold the site at El Mah-
rakah in reverence as a sacred place.

In the early Christian period the memory of
Elijah consecrated Carmel, and it became a
favourite resort of hermits, to whom in 412 a.d.
John, the forty-second Bishop of Jerusalem, gave
a rule of life. In 1185, after Jerusalem had been
taken by the Crusaders, a church rose over the
sacred Grotto of Elijah, and in 1209 another
monastery of St. Margaret or St, Brocardus was
built in a steep gorge south of the promontory.
We visited from Haifa its ruins, with a cave con-
taining sedilia for the monks and an upper open
story, a spring with sedilia beside it, and below,
at the opening of the valley, a second spring, and
a garden of fruit trees, pomegranates, apricots, and
figs. The lower spring was called after Elijah,
and the title still remains in the corrupted form
EI Haiyeh (** the snake "), applied to the stream
from it. A tradition exists that Elijah turned the
fruits of the garden to stone, and the huge geodes
in the white chalk of the valley are shown as the
petrified fruit. This monastery was sacked by the

CARiMEL AND ACRE. 175

Saracens in 1238, the monks were massacred and
thrown into a rock-cut tank by the lower spring,
and hence the place is still called " the Valley of
Martyrs."

In 1245 St. Simon Stock, a Kentish man, be-
came General of the Carmelites. He is said to
have received from the Virgin the scapular or dis-
tinctive tabard worn by the monks of this order ;
for sixteen years he lived in a cave on Carmel, and
was visited by St. Louis during his stay in Pales-
tine.

A monastery of St. Bertoldo rose round his
cave, and its ruins are still shown on the slope
north-west of the present building, under the light-
house, near the chapel containing the cave of
Simon Stock. In 1291, however, the Saracens
fell upon the monks whilst chanting the " Salve
Regina," and massacred them all.

The history of the two subsequent monasteries
gives a good example of that energy and persis-
tence which once formed the main characteristics of
the Church of Rome. In 1620 the order of Car-
melites was extinct in Palestine when a certain
Father Prospero, of the monastery of Biscaglia
near Genoa, was ordered by his General to pro-
ceed with his monks to Persia — probably he was
found to be a dangerous man at home, for his
history bears witness to his ambitious and ener-
getic character. He got no farther than Carmel,
where he left his companions and returned to

176 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

Rome to obtain leave from the Propaganda to
establish a missionary hospice on the mountain.
In a second journey he obtained from the Pope
the title of Prior for himself and his successors,
and, in IGol, he bought the land round the Grotto
of Elijah where the present monastery stands, and
round the cave called " School of the Prophets"
(now El Khudr) at the foot of the promontory.
He erected chapels in both places, but a Moslem
derwish succeeded in establishinsf himself at the
latter place, and in 1635 the Moslems took it by
force and made it a mosque. Quarrels and per-
secutions followed; in 1653 robbers stripped Father
Prospero and tied him to a tree. Soon after he
died and was buried in the upper chapel.

In 1761 the famous Dhahr el 'Amr, of whom
there is much to be said later, had already made
himself lord of Acre and king of Galilee ; he
despoiled the monastery, and in 1767 ordered its
destruction on the plea that it was in a dangerous
position on the slope of the hill. In 1775 he was
beheaded at Acre, and his son 'Aly in revenge
massacred all the monks.

In 1799 the sick of Napoleon's army were
sheltered in the monastery, but, on his retreat,
they were all killed by the Moslems. A pyramid
in the front garden of the monastery marks the
grave where their bones were afterwards laid hj
the monks. In 1821, by order of the Pacha of
Acre, the monasteiy was destroyed, and the new

CARATEL AND ACRE. 177

monks arriving from Europe saw it in flames on
the hill- top.

Warned by the natives not to land, they re-
turned to Europe, but three of them came back in
1825 — Era Gianbattista of Erascati, Era Matteo
of Philippopolis, and Era Giusto of Naples. They
built the present monastery from a design by the
first named, and so strong has it been made, with
high walls and an apse which affords flank pro-
tection on the east (where also, as being more
exposed, there is a ditch), that the monks need
scarcely fear further massacres. In 1830 other
monks arrived. In 1872 Era Matteo died in
extreme old age, the last survivor of the three
founders. This information I obtained in 1875
from Era Cirillo, the lame lay -brother, a
courteous old man who delighted in stories of
the monastery.

Situate at the end of the ridsfe, five hundred feet
above the sea, reached by a steep ascent of steps,
and guarded by a carefully-constructed entrance
to the courtyard and by savage dogs, the old
monastery stands facing the fresh breeze, and sur-
rounded by vineyards and gardens, among which
small chapels are dedicated to the Virgin, to St.
John Baptist, and to Sta. Theresa, patroness of
the bare-footed or reformed Carmelites. The
huge pile, square and lofty, with a dome to its
chapel and a broad flat roof, looks more like a
castle than a house of devotion. Seventeen monks
VOL. I. 12

178 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

inhabit it, but there is room for thirty, and beds
are provided for twenty-eight guests besides. The
monastery owns three hundred goats and twenty
oxen, the monks dry tobacco for snuff, and make
a scent called " Eau de Carme " from the flow^ers
of the mountain. They are supposed only to eat
meat when ill, but it is said that if a deer is
shot, some of the brethren are at once placed on
the sick list ; fish they may eat, and they include
under this category anything staying longer in the
water than on land — as for instance wild-duck and
other sea-fowl. Living in the monastery for six
weeks, I found the monks to be goodnatured and
fond of gossip, but fully convinced that in England
the sun was never seen, and that the people all
lived on potatoes and cold meat.

The chapel of the monastery is octagonal, and,
under the high altar, is a cave five yards long and
three yards broad, with an altar of rock dedicated
to Elijah. Lighting two tapers, the old lay brother
drew back a curtain and show^ed us the statue of
the Madonna del Carmine over the high altar, well
modelled in wood, life size, and robed in white
satin, with the infant on her right arm, and in her
left hand some of the little square black charms
so often worn round the neck in Italy. The
statue was made in Genoa early in this century.
The niche is surrounded with silver lamps ofierud
by pilgrims.

Tradition says that in the "little cloud" over the

CARMEL AND ACRE. 170

sea Elijah beheld the future Virgin Mother typi-
fied. It is remarkable, however, that the native
Christians prefer to offer vows to the old wooden
statue of Elijah on a side altar. It is covered
with chains, bracelets, and anklets, presented bj
peasants. A gold Austrian coin, worth five
Napoleons, is hung round its neck, with a filigree
silver cross presented by an English convert.

There is nothing remarkable in the chapel,
which is gaudily painted in modern Italian style.
Over a side altar to the south, the heart of the
Count of Craon lies entombed, having been brought
to the monastery in 1864.

Carmel is remarkable for the profusion of its
flowers. In November we found on its sides the
cytisus, crocus, narcissus, the pink cistus, and
large camomile daisies, the colocasia, and the
hawthorn in bud. The Judas tree I have also
twice found in remote parts, and, in spring, wild
tulips, the dark red anemone like a poppy, the
beautiful pink phlox, the cyclamen, little purple
stocks, large marigolds, wild geranium, and saxi-
frage, with rock roses of three kinds, pink, yellow,
and white. Butterflies also flourish : orano-e-tips,
sulphurs, the great swallow-tail (Machaon), and a
peculiar transparent species somethiug like the
Apollo, apparently peculiar to the mountain, are
the commonest.

Leavinof the wild ricl^-es of Carmel we must,
however, descend to the plain beneath, to the

12—2

180 TENT WORK IN FALESTINE.

thriving town of Haifa, which has gradually-
grown in size as Acre has sunk into decay, and
which bids fair to be a place of much importance
should the prosperity of Palestine ever become
greater.

Napoleon is said to have held that Acre was
the key to Syria. The natural advantages of the
position are great. The bay is the only harbour
of importance south of Tyre ; from Acre roads
lead into Upper Galilee, and southwards they
ascend gradually to the watershed of Judea. The
whole of the great corn harvest of the Hauran
finds a port at Acre, and the rich Plain of Es-
draelon close by forms a natural highway across
Palestine. But while Acre is the more impor-
tant town, the south end of the bay at Haifa is
the best harbour, both because the projection of
the Carmel promontory breaks the force of the sea,
and because the hio-h rido-e of the mountain forms

o o

a shelter against equinoctial and other soutli-
Avestern gales.

Haifa is not noticed in the Bible. In the Tal-
mud it appears under the same name, which means
*' a haven." In the middle ages the place was
called Porphyreon by a strange mistake, the real
town of that name beinsf north of Sidon. It
was also known as Cayphas, and the derivations
given are very curious. Some supposed the name
to come from Cephas, " a stone," from the stony
mountain ; others thought it was named from

CARMEL AND ACRE. 181

Simon Peter, who was said to have fished here ;
whilst Sir John Maundeville boldly asserts that
it was built by and named after Caiaj)has, the
high-priest.

The curious rock cemetery is mentioned by
many Jewish travellers. It is of value as show-
ing both kinds of loculus to have been used by
the Jews, the tombs being close to the present
Jewish graveyard, and having the golden candle-
stick more than once represented on the fagades.
The place appears, indeed, to have been always a
favourite resort of the Jews, and over 1000 are
still to be found within its walls, forming a quarter
of the population, which includes 1100 Moslems
and 1000 Greek Christians, besides Latins, Greek
Cathohcs, and Maronites.

The town is walled and well-built, with a
mosque, a court-house, and many large private
dwellings. On the west side, the extensive ruins of
*' Ancient Haifa " stretch along the shore beyond
the German colony, and the magnificence of former
buildings is attested by the fragments of marble,
granite, porphyry, and greenstone lying in the
shinofle on the beach.

Two miles farther south-west are the remains
of another large town, at the place called Tell es
Semak. There can scarcely be a doubt that this
is the ancient Sycaminon, often confused with
Haifa, but a, place distinct and named from its
sycamine fig-trees — a stunted specimen of which

182 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

still stands near, with its little figs growing out of
the stem.

There is much to be said of the German colony
of 300 peasants and mechanics, mostly from the
Black Forest, who have settled near Haifa, and,
on the whole, prospered very well. But an ac-
count of this colony must be reserved for another
chapter. It is enough here to say that their
kindness to us was great whenever we came in
contact with them ; and we have cause especially
to remember with gratitude Herr Kraft, of the
hotel, and Herr Shumacher, the chief of the
colony. In a little house near the school of the
colony we bivouacked, rather than settled, for our
first winter, and felt a great relief in the bright
faces, the neat dresses, and cheerful salutations of
the colonists, after months of dirt and misery wit-
nessed amongst the starved and oppressed pea-
santry of the middle country.

The appearance of the bay in winter was very
fine. In calm weather we looked northwards to the
long ridge of Galilean mountains, with the strong
walls and white minaret of Acre beneath, and the
snowy dome of Hermon above. For five minutes
every evening a glorious crimson flush spread over
the mountains, gradually dying out as the cold
blue shadow crept up the slopes. In the morn-
ing the long curve of the bay, the misty hills, the
beautiful line of palms along the dunes, with the
sun rising behind, made a subject fit for Tui'ner's

CAR MEL AND ACRE. 183

pencil. The town itself, backed by the Carmel
bluff, was equally picturesque, with the old tower
above its walls, riddled by English shot and shell
in 1840, yet still mounting one gun. As the
winter went on, the heavy seas came rolling in
round the promontory, and a huge cormorant, or
a Mother Carey's chicken, might be seen hover-
ino- over the waves, or a fliofht of wild-duck bob-
bine: on the rollers. Great shoals of fish came in,
and were caught with the primitive cast-nets of
the naked fishermen ; and, after the storm, the
beach would be found strewn with shells, amongst
which the Murex trunculus was common, from
which the Tyrian purple was derived.

The Chilzon, or murex, is, indeed, closely con-
nected with Carmel. The E-abbis u.nderstood the
expression, "riches of the deep," to refer to the
Chilzon, and to be promised to the tribe of Zebulon
as an inheritance. The Chilzon was fished at a
place called after it, and as far north as Phoenicia.
Its name still exists in the modern Wady Halzun,
a valley tributary to the Belus Biver, near Acre,
in which river the murex was found. The ex-
pression in the Song of Songs, " thine head ....
like Carmel .... the hair of thine head like
purple " (vii. 5), was also understood by the Jews
to refer to the Chilzon, and, by a natural elision,
to its beinsf found under Carmel.

The murex gave many colours, from green and
•deep blue to red, but the Tyrian purple was

184 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

the dark blood-colour, like the darkest of " black
roses " as the ancients called them, and only one
drop of the dye was found in the vein of the
mollusk, which circumstance accounted for the
exjDensiveness of the Tyrian garments.

The Kishon, as noticed in a former chapter^
enters the plain of Acre by a narrow gorge under
the cliflfs of Carmel, on the north side of the ridge.
From this point it gradually works away north-
west, and is fed by fine springs from the foot of
the mountain, and also from near the low hills on
the right bank. Most of these springs, but espe-
cially 'Ain S'adeh and the 'Ayun el Werd, flowing
from among the rocks near the foot of Carmel,
are perennial. Thus, beneath the main ford, west
of El Harathij'eh (Harosheth of the Gentiles),
the river is full of water even in autumn. Above
this point its stony bed is hidden by the oleander
bushes, but below it flows slowly through a barren,
marshy plain, between banks some ten feet hio-h
— an impassable stream, but very sluggish, having-
only a fall of eighty feet in the last five miles of
its course.

The mouth is curious ; the prevailing winds
blow from the south-west, and the dunes are
gradually heaping up and advancing on this side,
so that the river is always forming new mouths
farther north. The lasroons now existinor behind
the dunes on the left bank are perhaps results
of the former course. The river breaks throuo-h

CARMEL AND ACRE. 185-

the sand and flows to the sea when the wind is
from the east ; but, even in wet years, a bar is
formed whenever the wind is in the west, blowing
on shore. Thus 1 have found it almost impassable
in September, before the rains, but quite dry in
January, after they had fallen, according to the
■wind.

Few scenes more picturesque and more
thoroughly Oriental are to be found in Pales-
tine than that at the mouth of the Kishon. The
palms, w^hich flourish only on the coast, where
water and sand occur together and frost is never
experienced, are here found all along the dunes
and round the lagoons ; the banks, some thirty
yards apart, are fringed with rushes and a sort of
pink, fleshy-leaved plant. Along the sides stand
the grey herons, watching for fish, whilst here
and there a white egret steps daintily about, and
on the sand the Kentish dottrel runs hastily sea-
wards as the waves ebb out, and the red-shanks
and sandpipers skim along in large flocks. Be-
hind all rises the dark steep slope of Carmel, Avith
white piles of cloud above, and a foreground
of palms sets the scene in an appropriate frame.

The birds are very numerous. Wild-duck and
snipe are found in the marshes, the African kino--
fisher hovers over the stream, and various species
of gulls flit along the shore. Huge crabs swarm
along the line of the bay, and occasionally a great
number of rays and skates. In the deeper water

186 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

a porpoise is sometimes to be seen, and many
species of good edible fish are caught.

One of our most curious adventures at Haifa
was a visit to a native Christian, who invited us,
with some of the chief men of the German colony,
to dinner on New Year's Eve.

We rode into the town in a sort of char-a-hanc
(the only carriage in the colony) without any
spiings, the horses harnessed with the German
peaked yoke. We were received by our host in
the usual native Christian dress — a long shirt,
with a dress of striped calico (kumbaz) above, the
boots of white stujQf, with side-springs and patent-
leather toes — quite the height of the fashion — the
lesfs in white stockinofs under the shirt. Our
hostess wore a green silk gown, and her hair
plaited in two tails and parted on the left.

Seated round the divan, we drank neat raki and
smoked cigarettes. My conversation was principally
directed to Herr Shumacher, and I found that
great things were expected from our visit to the
colony. The rest of the talk was conducted in
German, French, English, and Arabic, and M.
Azar, our host, was principally interested in a
cruel murder of a husband by a pretty Moslem
woman, who was afterwards transferred to the
Pacha's harem. The servant — in a black uniform
with red piping, brass buttons, straw-coloured
trousers, white boots, and an old fezz — bore a
suspicious likeness to M. Azar's eldest son. At

C ARM EL AND ACRE. 187

dinner I sat between Madame, who spoke only-
Arabic, and an old German, who had a cold and
wore a grey suit and a comforter ; he spoke only
German, and my conversation was limited. A
turkey and bananas were the chief luxuries, and
native wine the worst feature of the banquet.
After dinner, the old German fell asleep, and
conversation in general was not lively. At nine
p.m. we retired, the experience of this semi-
civilised society being far less interesting than
that of the hospitality of the Jerrar family at
Jeb'a, or subsequently of the wild Bedawin at
Jericho.

The offenders in the three attacks on the Sur-
vey party, mentioned in the last chapter, had as
yet received no proper punishment. A fine of
one pound had been levied, by Faris Effendi, on
the man who endeavoured to stone my soldier at
Seffurieh, but it had not come into my hands, and
none of the others had been either fined or im-
prisoned. ]\Iy representations to Mr. Eldridge,
the Consul-General for Syria, induced him to send
down the Vice- Consul of Bevrout, Mr. Jasfo, who,
with a Turkish official, formed a mixed commis-
sion, which sat at Acre, and terminated their in-
quiry on the 27th of January, the offences having
been committed in November. On the 12th of
February I received notice of the punishments
awarded. The men who beat our servant at Yafa
were imprisoned for twenty-five days and fined

188 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

ten Napoleons ; the villagers of El Harathiyeh,
who fired on Sergeant Black, were also imprisoned
and fined five pounds. This award was made in
February, 1873, but it was not till May, 1874^
that I actually received the money, after an
amount of official correspondence perfectly ap-
palling to remember. Such is the despatch with
which the Turks administer justice, when not
immediately under the eye of our able Consular
representatives.

The business of these actions often took me over
to Acre, and I was able, in Mr. Jago's company,
to go round the ramparts, not generally seen by
visitors. A brisk canter for a couple of hours
would bring me to the mouth of the Belus, which
bears a strong family likeness to the Kishon. In
autumn the whole of the shore between this river
and the town is often covered by troops of camels
bringing corn from the Hauran, and the dark
Bedawin — some of whom have probably never
before seen the sea — may there be found swim-
ming in the shallow water, with their water-skins-
inflated with air and tied to their shoulders.

Acre is a walled town, with a single gate on
the south-east. Its trade is now much reduced,
and the bazaars are deserted ; the richest in-
habitant is not worth £1000. The ramparts^
blown up by the English in 1840, remain in ruins,
and the whole place has a desolate appearance.
The port was filled up in the seventeenth century.

CARMEL AND ACRE. 189

by Faldir ed Din, and, in the whole space between
the walls and the old Crusading pier — a breadth
of 700 yards east and west, by 350 north and
south — the greatest depth of water is only six feet,
the average being two or three. The appearance
of the town outside is picturesque ; with brown
walls, a tower on a rock in the sea, called, from
the fourteenth century dowuAvards (and perhaps
earlier), El Manara, yellow stone houses, with
two higher buildings, roofed with red tiles, and
with green shutters ; above all, the huge white
mosque of Jezzar Pacha, a square building, with
a dome and a graceful minaret, surrounded by
palms, and with chambers for the students,
covered by rows of little round domes ; behind
this, the modern fortress, on the site of the old
Crusading castle.

Entering the town, I found many of the bazaars
turned into cavalry stables, and only about one
shop in ten inhabited. In the southern part,
however, a busier scene may be witnessed.

Near the Greek convent, I found, in ruins, the
tombs of two English officers, who fell in a sortie
in 1799, Major Oldfield and Colonel Walker, of
the Marines. The name-plate of the second had
been stolen, and the whole monument was in a
disgraceful condition. I afterwards had these two
tombs repaired, and a new title and head-stone
made by Mr. Shumacher for that of Colonel
Walker, whose name I obtained from the Ensflish

100 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

Consular agent. I had them railed in, and thus
protected from insult, and public proclamation
was made by the Governor to cause them to be
respected. Unfortunately, I have never been able
to revisit them since they were repaired, though I
believe they are still in good order.

The walls of Acre are of masonry, drafted after
the fashion used by the Crusaders, and they
probably date in part from that period. The
powder magazine, blown up in 1840 by the
EngHsh, is still in ruins ; rusty guns are pointed
in the embrasures. On the north and east are
bastions with a very slight projection, a glacis,
and ravelin. Two mortars were shown as left
behind by Napoleon, and English cannon-balls are
visible stickinor in the walls of the castle.

The great mosque of Jezzar Pacha is built of
materials brought from ' Athlit, Csesarea, and Haifa.
The north entrance, from the rudely-iDaved street
leading to the castle, is flanked by a beautiful
little fountain with rich lattice-work of marble.
The square yard within is paved with black and
white marble in bands ; lofty palms grow between
the paved Avalks, and a colonnade runs round,
supported on shafts of marble and red granite,
with rude capitals not originally made for the
pillars. In the centre is an octagonal fountain of
marble, some five feet high, surmounted by a
wooden dome, once beautifully painted. The
mosque within has a jporch, ^^•itll lofty granite

CARMEL AND ACRE. 191

columns, capped with marble. It is a large square
building, cased in coloured marble, with little
cloisters on three sides, the dome above painted
and whitewashed, with a gallery round the drum.
The fresco-painting is much worn. An English
clock is placed at each side of the door, set to
Arabic time (six o'clock being noon), and standing
in a high case of walnut. The Mihrab, or prayer-
niche, on the south wall, is handsomely adorned
with flagging of marble, and is high enough to
stand in.

The Moslems were at prayer. A peasant, in
a gorgeous head-shawl, a dark blue jacket, and a
robe (kumbaz) of pink and white stripes, was per-
forming the usual genuflections and prostrations.
A huge wooden torch, six feet high, in imitation
of the wax torches brought from Mecca (such as
exist at Jerusalem in the mosque), is placed on
either side of the Mihrab, and to the rio-ht is a
handsome marble pulpit. A long inscription in
yellow letters on a blue ground runs round the
walls of the mosque. Two beautifully carved stone
tombs are shown in the courtyard near the
minaret ; but the tomb of the founder is in the
north-east corner of the town.

Passing through the crooked, narrow, ill-paved
lanes of Acre, where huge camels jostle the
crowd of bright-coloured peasants and Bedawin,
we visited the "galeres," or convict prison, so
much dreaded by the natives, because hard labour

192 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

is enforced on the prisoners. The dark vaults are
entered by a wooden door, from between the bars
of which heads and arms were stuck out, the con-
victs shouting for charity — the whole scene a per-
fect pandemonium.

There were no less than 300 cavalry in Acre,
well mounted on fine half-bred horses ; but the
place has no real strength, and its fortifications
could not resist the attacks of modern war-
fare.

Acre is not a city famous in Scripture. It is
noticed, indeed, under the names Accho and
Ptolemais; but the Jews were not a maritime
people, and it had not, therefore, in their eyes,
the importance which makes it now " the key to
Syria."

The Crusaders recosfnised at once the value of
its position, and Baldwin I. besieged it, in 1103,
as soon as Jerusalem was secured. The garrison
w^ere relieved by a fleet from Tyre ; but, in the
following year, it fell into the hands of the Chris-
tians, after twenty -five days' siege. In the dis-
astrous year, 1187, Saladin took it without a
blow ; but the place was too important to be lost,
and the Christians aofain took it in 1191. In
1229, the Knights Hospitallers settled here, whence
its modern title, St. Jean dAcre ; but it was
finally lost, in 1291, when the son of Kalawun
levelled it to the ground.

In its palmy days, the town contained a church

CAR MEL AND ACRE. 193

to St. Andrew, of which a few arches still remain
near the sea ; a second of St. Michael, now de-
stroyed ; a third of St. John, possibly now a
mosque ; a castle, where the modern fortress
stands; a hospital of the Knights of St. John,
now the mihtary hospital ; and a patriarchate,
now perhaps a mosque. On the south the mole
ran out south-east and east, closing in the port,
and terminated by the rock and tower of El
Manara. There were two lines of wall on the
north and east, and in the angle was the famous
tower called " Tower of Flies," or " Maledictum,"
which long resisted King Pdchard, when besieging
the town from the great mound called Turon, on
the east, where also Napoleon made his attack.

There was a sort of suburb on the north, with
a double Avail, which now seems to have disap-
peared entirely, though the sea-rampart is, in all
probability. Crusading work. The southern quarter
of the town belonged to the Venetians, and north
of them the Germans had several streets. The
Templars and Hospitallers had each their Cus-
todia; and, in the thirteenth century, the Teutonic
knights had wide possessions, in the plains round
Acre, and among the villages, or "casales," as they
called them, of Lower Galilee.

The splendid buildings of the Christians were
levelled to the ground, and the place remained
desolate until 1749 a.d.

The rebuilding of 'Akka, as the town is now

VOL. I. 13

194 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

called, was effected by the celebrated Dliahr el
'Amr, of the Zeidaniyin family. The rise and
fall of this famous house forms a natural parallel
to that of the native Jewish ruling family of the
Asmoneans. Zeidan was a chief of Arab race
settled in the town of 'Arrabeh, north of the
Buttauf plain. The power of the family gradually
extended, until Dhahr el 'Amr, his gi-andson,
became virtually King of Galilee. Under this
famous Sheikh, who paid no tribute, and who
governed all Lower and a great part of Upper
Galilee, eight districts, including 162 villages,
were ruled by his eight sons. Strong forts were
erected all over the country, many of Avhich still
remain, while in other cases the foundations only
are visible. The mosque and Serai (or court-house)
of Haifa, the castles of Shefa-'Amr, Jedin, and
Seffurieh, the fortress of Deir Hanna, the walls
and mosques of Tiberias, and part of the fortifica-
tions of Acre, were built by this family, wliile
many mills and works of irrigation by the Sea of
Galilee date from the same period. The country
appears to have been prosperous under the rule of
its native chiefs, and their buildings are remark-
able for good Avoikmanship and well-chosen
positions.

But, in 1775, Dhahr, who had long been
governor at Acre — where his Avails still stand,
with an inscription on them, giving the date of
their construction — Avas seized and beheaded by

C ARM EL AND ACRE. 195

the cruel Bosnian Pacha called Jezzar, or
*' butcher," from his many murders. The old
man was nearly ninety when he died. His family
decayed in power, and it has been so persecuted
by the Turks, that now only one representative
remains, in the villas^e of B'aineh. From him we
obtained lists of the possessions of the Zeidaniyln,
of their fortresses and towns, their mosques and
public buildings, with the names of the various
builders and approximate dates.

Under Jezzar Pacha, Acre again declined in
prosperity. The cruelties of this governor are
well known, and remembered among the f)eople.
His murder of seven of his wives, whom he be-
headed with his own hand, the mutilation of his
servants, and of all who offended him, are often
spoken of. It was Jezzar whom Sir Sidney Smith
assisted, in 1799, against Napoleon, when besieging
Acre from King Pichard's Hill, and the defeat of
the Empsror was followed, as before noticed, by
the massacre of the sick on Carmel.

Jezzar died in 1804, and, since then, Acre has
had no history, excepting in 1840, when the
English fleet bombarded the town, and drove
out the forces of Ibrahim Pacha, who had taken
it in 1832. There are many inhabitants who
can well remember the short, sharp engagement,
and the terrific explosion of the powder magazine,
which killed 2000 Egyptians. Since this disaster,
the prosperity of the place has dwindled more and

13—2

196

TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

more, so that it now contains only some 8000 in-
habitants. Should Palestine, however, be destined
to form the theatre of future military operations,
the name of Acre will no doubt be often heard
again in English mouths.

CHAPTER VII.

SHARON.

The preceding chapters bring down the history of
the Survey to the end of the campaign of 1872.
In the winter Mr. Drake's health became so much
affected that he was obhged to try the effect
of a sea voyage to Egypt. Thus, on the 1st of
February, he left me alone for a month. On the
26th I marched out from Haifa, and again took
the field, our intention being to fill in the broad
tract of plain and low hills between Carmel and
Jaffa, and from the sea to the Samaritan moun-
tains previously surveyed.

Our first camp was at a village not marked
on any map and much wanted, for it was known
that a place caUed Geba of Horsemen, which
Herod's veterans colonised, must have existed
near Carmel, and here we found the required
spot in the present Jeb'a at the foot of the hill.

All round us were places of interest. The
village had rock-cut tombs and a fine olive grove,
amongst the trees of which sat the little "boomehs"
or Athenian owls only some ten inches high. By

198 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

day tlieir peculiar cry, a sort of mew, Is the only
indication of their lurking-place, but by ni^^ht
their huge eyes can be seen in the branches.

To the north is a little ruined monastery with
a garden of fruit trees by Elijah's spring ; this is
the Valley of ]\Iartyrs described in the last
chapter, and the huge geodes, or pudding-stones,
in the rock, are said to be the remains of the fruit
of a former garden turned to stone by the prophet,
to whom their owner refused to give them.

To the south-east we discovered a large volcanic
outbreak, which appears to have been a submarine
crater according to the geologist's verdict on our
specimens.

To the w^est was 'Athlit, amongst the ruins of
which w^e spent several days measuring and plan-
ning. This place Avas one of the most famous
Crusading strongholds of Palestine. It was built
by the Templars in 1218, and a contemporary de-
scription of their work exists. Jaques de Vitry
describes the outer enceinte, the ditch and stron^-
wall, built across the neck of the promontory, and
protecting the town on the east. He notices the
two great tow^ers behind, of which only a single
wall, belonging to the northern one, remains ; he
speaks of the church now destroyed, and of the
gi'eat vaults still existing. Thus we have here a
dated specimen of Gothic architecture in Pales-
tine, and the magnificent ruins are worthy of the
great order which erected the fortress. The place

SHARON. 199

was called Pilgrim's Castle by the knights, and
long resisted every effort of the Moslems to cap-
ture it. Only in 1291, just before the fall of Acre,
was it finally lost to the Christians, and with its
capture the last hopes of the Christian dominion
in the country were overthrown. The chronicler
describes the huge stones, which could scarcely be
dragged by a yoke of oxen, and to the wheels of
the carts, which brought the blocks from the quarry
for the walls, we may ascribe the deep ruts in the
soft rock, on the roads leading from the quarried cliff
on the east, towards the town. Here also we have
proof that the Crusaders themselves hewed stones
with a marginal draft and a rude rustic boss, for
no old materials are used up in 'Athlit, and
drafted stones occur even in the voussoirs of the
pointed arches.

Just outside this position is a little fort with a
rock-cut ditch and rock-hewn stables with mangers
still in place. It is called Dustrey, and the name
is a corruption of District or Destroit, the name
of a little tower which the Templars, in 1218, found
guarding a narrow passage in the rocks. The
passage was called ''House of Narrow Ways,"
and is mentioned as near the camping-ground of
Hichard Lion-Heart on his march southwards to
Jaffa.

'Athlit then was the point where the pilgrims
of the thirteenth century landed. Their road
was protected for them, both towards Nazareth

200 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

and towards Jerusalem, by a chain of forts still
remaining at distances of an easy day's journey.

It is curious to observe how many ancient sites
the Crusaders grouped round the Pilgrim's Castle.
The rehgious devotee was shown, as soon as he
landed, no less than thi^ee famous places — ancient
Tyre, Capernaum, Meon (the home of Nabal), —
and probably Sarepta also ; of these the true
sites were separated by distances of many days'
journey, in parts not held by the Christians, and
one is tempted to suppose that design, rather than
ignorance, was the true cause why they were so
grouped. Caipha (or Haifli) just north was shown
as a place where Simon Peter used to fish. 'Athlit
itself was called ancient Tyre, perhaps because
near a place named Tireh, and Sarepta was pos-
sibly shown at Surafend close by. Meon was here
placed because a confusion existed, in the Crusadino-
mmd, between Carmel, the city of the south of
Judah whence Abigail came, and Mount Carmel,
the scene of Elijah's sacrifice. But, stranger still,
Capernaum was sho\vn in the same district, for a
reason which I have never been able to penetrate.
The place is mentioned more than once, and Ben-
jamin of Tudela speaks of its distance from Haifa,
by means of which we are able to identify it with
a village near 'Athlit, now called Kefr Lam.
Capernaum was a fortress, and remains of its
towers and walls still exist ; but there is nothintr
to show w^hether it was supposed to be the real

SHARON. 201

town of our Lord, or merely a place of similar
name.

These places, and many other ruins of interest,
lie in the narrow plain extending twenty miles
south of the Carmel promontory. This plain sud-
denly enlarges to more than double its width, or
to about nine miles, south of the Nahr ez Zerka,
or Crocodile River, and a cliff above the beautiful
springs, whence this stream is fed near Mamds,
forms the end of the Carmel block. The Zerka is
a deep perennial stream, fringed with rushes and
full of Egyptian papjnrus, forming a huge blue pool
in one j)lace where it is dammed across to collect its
waters, and thence rushing down, even in autumn,
in a strong stream to the sea; its mouth is guarded
by a Crusading fort, and near it are the remains of a
Crusading bridge. North and south of the stream
there are large marshes, full of tamarisk and of tall
canes. The clear springs, under the hills, are per-
ennial, and by them are remains of a Roman
theatre at Mamas, which has been converted later
into a fortress. This stream has been known from
the time of Strabo and Pliny as the Crocodile
River, and in it the crocodile still exists, being,
according to general native evidence, unknown in
any other stream in Palestine.

On the sides of Carmel we discovered also a
ruin called Semmaka, or the " Sumach tree,"
where are remains of what seems to me to have
been undoubtedly a synagogue. The dimensions

202 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

and ornamentation of the lintel stones and pillars
rej)roduce exactly those of the Galilean synagogues;
and the place is a very likely one, as the town of
Haifa has been a favourite residence of the Jews,
from the time of Christ to the present day.

The district we now entered is rarely visited by
travellers. The natives are savage and unruly,
and the Government finds much difficulty in re-
pressing their internal feuds. They are robbers
and murderers, and we were astonished at the
number of skulls and bones, in the old tombs, until
we found that many were fractured, and we were
told that they had belonged to persons murdered
by the villagers. In one case I entered a Jewish
sepulchre, the door of which was open, and found,
to my horror, some six newly-interred corpses,
lying on the floor in various directions, not with
the right side and face to Mecca according to the
proper form of sepulture among Moslems. These
corpses therefore belonged apparently to strangers
recently murdered.

Early in March, Drake returned and remained
with us until the 1st of May, when he left for
England and did not rejoin us until October.
Thus, for the greater part of the year 1873, I was
working with only the assistance of my excellent
sergeant and corporal.

At Jeb'a we experienced another disturbance,
owinor to old Jack barking: ^t the villaq;e cows and
being stoned by the cowherd, which led to a

SHARON, 203

quarrel, but the Governor of Haifa was near us,
and imprisoned the offender. Here also we had
an accession to our party in the shape of four fine
little puppies, the children of my own terrier. It
was very comical to notice the dislike of Jack to
his children ; the morning after they were born he
trotted cheerfully in to breakfast, but no sooner
heard their cries than he disappeared with his tail
between his legs, and never came near my tent for
many months. The jDoor puppies were the tor-
ment of my life. At night their mother no
sooner heard the jackals than she jumped out and
ran off to the chase. Then feeble yelps would
arise from various parts, andj though tired and stiff
with long riding, I had to strike a light, and collect
my puppies scattered by the sudden disappearance
of their natural protector.

Later on also they required doctoring, and, when
they could walk, they used to come and bite my
toes under the table, whilst I was writing reports
to the Committee of the Fund.

The weather was still uncertain. On the nisfht
of our arrival at Jeb'a, we had a heavy thunder-
storm, and the tent being old, the rain came
through, and I was obliged to put an indiarubber
bath over my head in bed. Again on the 18 th of
March we had, in a single storm, no less than
1"74 inches of rain. Yet, notwithstanding this, it
was a pleasant time, for the air was cool and
fresh, the hills carpeted with wild flowers, and

201 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

the country round the camp full of objects of
interest.

On the 21st of March we struck our tents, put
our puppies in a box on a mule, and marched south
to Kannu', on the edge of the Plain of Sharon, and
opposite to Csesarea, nine miles away. Scarcely
had we settled down in our new position, when on
the 25th the equinoctial gales came upon us, and
found us in a bare flat field, without the shelter of
either houses or trees. In the middle of the night
I was waked by shouts, and on lighting a candle
I found half of our great tent blown in, and Drake
in bed enveloped in a mass of dripping canvas.
Fortunately I had my sou'- wester hat, and cloak,
and boots ready, and rushing out into a deluge of
rain I succeeded in releasing him. We replaced
the pegs, loaded them with stones, and deep-
ened the trenches, and were able to resist the
storm ; but the lesson we learned for the future
was to camp among trees, about the period of
the equinox.

The district west of camp was all plain, and to
the east were the lower slopes of the " breezy land."
Both the slopes and the plain Avere covered Avith
an open forest of oaks, less dense than that on the
Nazareth hills, but of finer trees ; and this wood-
land is the last remains of the great forest of
Sharon, which is mentioned by Strabo as a
" mighty wood." The scenery is very pretty, and
the streams, of which there are three between the

SHARON. 205

Zerka and the 'Aujeh near Jaffa (all noticed in the
march of the English in 1191 under King Richard),
are, even in autumn, full of water.

The famous rose of Sharon (Cant. ii. 1) as I have
since endeavoured to show, is the beautiful white
narcissus, so common on the plain in spring. The
Jews themselves, in their Targum commentaries, so
explain the word, and the modern name Buseil
used by the peasantry, is radically identical with
the Hebrew title in the Bible. The " lily of the
valleys" is probably the blue iris which is now
called Zembakiyeh in Palestine.

From Kannir we visited the mas^nificent remains
of Csesarea, lying low among the broad dunes of
rolling, drifted sand, and so hidden on the land
side as only to be seen when within a mile of the
walls. The survey of the ruins occupied nearly
a Aveek, the principal points of interest only can
here be touched upon.

Csesarea is one of Herod's cities, completed in
13 B.C. on the old site of Strato's Tower. The
magnificence of Herod's work at Samaria, Ascalon,
Antipatris, and above all at this seaport town,
probably far surpassed that of any of the work of
the kings of Israel and Judah, excepting Solomon's
great walls at Jerusalem, It is instructive, there-
fore, to note how little is left of Herod's buildings,
for if of erections so solid and large, constructed
at so comparatively recent a period, there remain
now but scattered fragments, surely it is most

206 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

unreasonable to expect an explorer to unearth the
" Ivory House " of Ahab (even allowing this to
have been a palace at all), or to recover the Calves
of Bethel, and the Ark of the Covenant.

At Csesarea we are brought face to face with
another vexed question — the reliability of Jose-
phus. Some writers have extolled the Jewish
historian as a model of almost infallible veracity,
but a reaction asfainst this exasrsrerated view has
led to a depreciation of the author, which seems
to be now very general. Where authorities are
so few, it is surely dangerous to underrate their
value ; but the question with regard to Josephus
is a double one. First, did he write truthfully ?
secondly, is the present text free from corruption %
To this we may often add the enquiry how far
are arguments drawn from Whiston's faulty trans-
lation, rather than from the original Greek ?

That the present text is often corrupt, there is
abundant evidence to prove. That Josephus wrote
descriptions which he knew to be exaggerated, it
is more difficult to show. Eastern descriptions
always lack the exactitude which belongs to the
Western mind, and hyperbole seems to be in-
separable, in Eastern thought, from elegant descrip-
tion. In the case of Josephus, also, personal feeling
undoubtedly interferes. On visiting the ^^oi, one
cannot fail to notice how exaggerated is Jiis de-
scription of Jotopata, which he defended, and how
the ingrained conceit of the Semitic mind appears in

SHAROK 207

his account of his own doings ; but at Masada we
shall have cause to admire the fidelity of his
detailed account of the fortress.

It must also be noticed that far greater correct-
ness of detail is to be found (as would naturally
be expected) in his descriptions of events occurring,
and of places existing, during his own lifetime, and
that for this reason his first production — the Wars,
is far more valuable than his compilation of the An-
tiquities, though even in this he draws from sources
other than the Old Testament.

Here at Csesarea we have a description of the
port and public buildings which contains undoubted
inaccuracies. He represents the port as equal in
size to the Piraeus, but it measures scarcely two
hundred yards across either way, whilst the famous
harbour of Athens Avas three quarters of a mile
long and over six hundred yards in breadth.
Josephus also speaks of the mole on the south
side of the harbour as being '' two hundred feet."
This can hardly mean in length, for the present
measure is more than a hundred and thirty yards,
and, if he means in breadth, the estimate is
exaggerated, for the greatest width at jDresent is
eighty-five feet.

Thus, without taking any notice of the great
length given for the stones sunk to form part of
the breakwater, we find that Josephus estimates
the harbour as equal to one of twenty times its
capacity, and the mole at over double its real

208 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

width. It must indeed be remembered that he
wrote neither at Csesarea nor at Pirasus, and that
exact surveys had then no existence. Yet this
case is sufficient to prove that the measurements
twice given (Ant. xv. 9, B.J. i. 21) are unrehable,
and the descriptions exaggerated.

In shape the port of Ccesarea was not unhke
the Pirseus. The southern mole was adorned
with towers, and had three colossi at the end, sup-
ported on two huge blocks of stone ; on the north
side a reef ran out, and was also adorned with
three colossi on a tower. A temple of white stone
stood opposite the mouth of the port, and of this
the foundations appear still to exist — a wall with
niches for statues, well worthy of examination as
beinof of white stones, whilst all the other build-
ings are of brown- colon red masonry. In this
temple were colossal statues of Csesar and of
Rome.

An amphitheatre, still remaining, was also built,
to the south by the sea, capable of holding, as
Joseph us says, a vast number, for its diameter is
560 feet, and it could contain 20,000 persons.
The theatre appears to have been within its
circuit, where it still remains, but the hippodrome,
over 1000 feet long, seems unnoticed by the
historian. It is to the cast, and in it are the
remains of a goal post of granite, a magnificent
truncated cone seven feet six inches high, once
standing apparently on a base, a single block of

SHARON. 209

red granite thirty-four feet long. How such blocks
were moved, it is difficult to imasfine : nor was the
material to be obtained in Palestine, beings a fine
land of granite, so hard that the peasantry, en-
deavouring to cut the stele into millstones, have
only penetrated a few inches into the stone.

The wall of the Roman town was traced, and
found to embrace an area of four hundred acres ;
but Crusadino^ Csesarea was much smaller, beino-
only about thirty acres, within a rectangle of six
hundred yards by two hundred and fifty.

Csesarea was considered, after the fall of Jeru-
salem, to be the capital of Palestine. Sometimes
it was spoken of as part of the "land" by the Jews,
sometimes it was excluded. Jews, Syrians, and
Samaritans dwelt in it, and the place was the scene
of many bloody feuds between them. In the Talmud
the port (Leminah), and the famous promenade
along the mole are noticed, but I find no ancient
account of the great aqueducts, which brought
water to the city, otherwise suppHed only by a
single well. One of these is carried from springs
on the Carmel hills, a distance of eiofht miles, on
arches with a double channel, and is perhaps the
finest engineering work in the country, evidently
of Koman origin \ the second, or low level, brings
water from the pool above the dam in the Crocodile
River. The manner in which the rocky ridge
along the coast is pierced, and long rock-stair-
cases cut down to the tunnel, with the separation

VOL. I. 14

210 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

of the two channels when crossing the great
marshes, are indications of high scientific educa-
tion in the builders. The native tradition says
that the two aqueducts were made, by two
daujrhters of a king-, for a wasrer as to who should
first convey water to the capital.

The history of Csesarea is one of many vicis-
situdes. It became a bishopric in 200 a.d., and
was the home of Orio^en and of Eusebius, The
Franks took it in 1001, when the green flagon,
called "the Holy Grail," was found by the Genoese.
Saladin conquered it in the fatal year 1187; but its
walls were again erected by Gautier d'Avesnes, in
1218, and the place was taken back by the Moslems
the same year. Ten years later it was again
taken, and aofain fell. In 1251 it was re-fortified
by St. Louis ; but the invincible Bibars de-
stroyed it in 1265. The restorations of St.
Louis are still plainly distinguishable from the
older work of Gautier.

On the south side of the town the Crusading
towers project into the sea along the great mole, and
stand probably on the site of Herod's tower Drusus.
On the north, the pillars of the Roman town have
been used up to form a long jetty, running parallel
with the reefs ; and other shafts have, as at As-
calon, been built into the walls. On the top of
the southern hill, within the Crusading walls, are
the foundations of the fine cathedral, and to the
north is a second smaller church. These are the

SHARON. 211

only public buildings which remain distinguish-
able, and the whole extent, within the Roman
enceinte, is now but a mass of fallen masonry, ex-
cepting the dark, dismantled towers and scarps of
the thirteenth-century fortress, and the shapeless
tower on the mole.

In our rides to and from Cresarea, we constantly
had reason to admire the faint, harmonious colour-
ing of the wild flowers on the untilled plain.
Csesarea was surrounded by fields of the yellow
marigold, which produced a bad kind of hay-fever,
and gilded our legs in riding. Ancient ruins in
Palestine are, in spring, easily distinguished, by the
gro^vth of this plant, and of the marsh-mallow.
Other flowers were also conspicuous — the red
pheasant's-eye, in some cases as big as a poppy ;
blue pimpernels, moon-daisies, the lovely phlox,
gladioles, and huge hollyhocks. Swarms of
" painted lady " butterflies fluttered over the
mallows ; the hoopoes had just arrived, and were
fanning their crests up and down in the oak
boughs ; the storks were solemnly marching over
the plain ; and the air was full of the white-footed
lesser kestrel, also a migratory bird.

Early in April the corn was ripening under the
oaks ; but a great portion of the plain is covered
with marshes, among which the Ghawarni Arabs,
who are almost independent, have their camps.
The tracks through the boggy land are known
only by themselves, and the government is thus

14—2

212 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

unable to do more than inflict a poll-tax on them.
Here the shaggy brown buffaloes might often be
seen sunk, like hippopotami, in the deep, muddy
stream, the nose and horns only visible — for the
peculiar set of the neck allows the head to be ex-
tended quite horizontally, the nose, ears, and eyes
in line, as in the hippopotamus.

We made diligent inquiry as to the crocodiles,
and visited Abu Nur, the miller on the river.
He took us up a ladder into the loft above the
mill, where we sat in state on carpets, our eyes
blinded with wood-smoke, as he prepared coffee,
and our ears deafened w^ith the wlurl of the mill-
wheel. The old man promised to do all in his
power — " Inshallah," he would get us a crocodile.
He also criticised my riding- whip, which he pro-
nounced good, but not equal to one he had seen,
which could also be used as a chair and umbrella,
with a sword-blade inside.

The Arabs and Turkomans of the plain are rich
in flocks and herds. Long lines of the Syrian
flat-tailed sheep, black goats, and small red oxen
covered the plain. The rich people in the hills
had sent down their horses for spring grazing,
and camps were pitched, round which forty or
fifty fine horses w^ere picketed, feeding on the
grass and flowers. Here also I noticed the pecuhar
fashion of sewing the ears of donkey colts together,
to make them stand up, and of splitting the cows'
ears, so that they appear to have two pairs of
horns as well as ears.

SHARON. 2ia

On the 8th of April we moved south to 7^^\i2^
on the edge of the hills. From this camp no
discoveries of much importance were made ; but
we visited two Crusading towers which formed
fine stations in the plain — one at Kakon, a place
mentioned, in 1160, by Benjamin of Tudela, as
beino" the ancient Keilah: the second at Kulun-
saweh (which means "mitred"), where is a beautiful
hall, probably part of the Castle of Plans, built by
the Templars in 1191.

From Zeita I rode, on the 14 th of April, to
Jerusalem to witness the Greek Easter ceremonial,
and on the 22nd returned to the new camp at
Mukhalid, on the sea-coast, in company with Dr.
Chaplin. We came down by the old road, through
Bethhoron, visited Modin and Lydda, slept at
Bamleh, and came north by Has el 'Ain.

Dr. Chaplin's visits were always most accept-
able to us, and his knowledge of the people and
country rendered his suggestions very valuable.
By his advice I shortly after withdrew the party
from the plain, and had reason, as will be seen, to
feel glad I had done so.

On one of our expeditions along the coast from
Mukhalid, we perceived, to our astonishment, un-
known rocks or islands out at sea. Soon, however,
I saw that our islands were moving, and came to
the conclusion that they were drifting wrecks or
rafts, wrecked vessels being very common all along
this harbourless coast; but presently the blocks

2 1 4 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

broke up and soared into the air ; they were two
large flocks of pchcans, rocking on tlie summer
sea.

The country near the coast was here all of
blown sand, with scattered bushes, and, farther
inland, are dunes of semi-consolidated red sand-
stone. Near Jaffa there are low oak-bushes, which
spring from the roots of a forest, now entirely
felled ; and, east of our camp, an open woodland
exists, with a ruin called Umm es Sur, " mother
of the wall." In this name we see probably re-
mains of Assur, the name of a forest near the
coast, throuofh which the Eno^lish and the Tem-
plars fought their way before arriving at Arsiif,
durinof the famous march of Richard Lion-Heart.

Whilst I was occupied in inspecting a cemetery
of Christian rock-sepulchres north of camp, in
company wdth Drake and Dr. Chaplin, a dark
thin man, in a blue cloak, red boots, and chocolate
and yellow head-shawl, rode up. He was an
Emir, chief of the Howarith Arabs close by, and
came to offer hospitality, though his hidden object
I only discovered later.

In the middle of the plain his tent was pitched,
anions: coarse srrass and thistles — a low black
camel's-hair cloth stretched over rude poles, and the
sides closed in with reed mattino;-. The Avomen's
apartment was on the north, shut off with matting,
on the south and west the tent was open. Carpets
were spread, and gay-coloured pillows strewn on the

SHARON, 215

ground. The Emir's black slave, Sheikh Saleh, and
a little black demon, his head all shaven except
the sMsheh, or top- knot, took our horses. The
Emir was not content with our sipping coffee ; he
insisted on our eatinof salt with him. A sound of
grinding arose behind the matting, and two good-
looking women in the dark blue, sweeping, long-
sleeved robes peculiar to Bedawin, went off to
fetch water, with large jars balanced on their heads.
The elders of the tribe sat, half asleep, around us,
one being remarkable for a fine pair of silver-
mounted pistols.

Other guests began soon to arrive, on good grey
mares. The young men were shaved, all but
their mustachios, and gaily dressed, having red
leather top-boots with tassels. One had baggy
trousers of chocolate colour, and the usual square
lambskin jacket, wool inside, which is worn in
winter ; in his hand was a spear, fifteen feet long.
They alighted, touching head, lips, and heart to
the Emir, who clasped their hands and kissed
them on each cheek. The Arabs do not, as a
rule, actually kiss, but lay their foreheads to-
gether and make a sound of kissing with their
mouths. We settled down to wait for dinner,
only interrupted by a fight between my horse and
that of a guest, which I was obliged to stop my-
self, as Arabs have a good deal of respect for
hoofs, and prefer stoning the animals from a
distance.

216 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

The Bedawin are immensely superior to the
peasantry in politeness and quietness of manner.
Life in the country of the Arabs is really nearer
civilisation, in many respects, than that among the
villagers, and nothing is a greater error than to
speak of the Bedawin as savages. My pleasantest
expeditions were always those among the " houses
of hair," and with the wild Arabs we had far less
difficulty in dealing than with the Fellahin.

The conversation was curious. We gave the
Emir our staple bit of astonishing information,
that the English Queen had more Moslems under
her rule than the Sultan ; and he inquired how
long Ave had ruled India. One of the elders dis-
agreed with our reply, and said the English had
held it only forty-five years. The Emir made
him a cutting answer, and he collapsed.

About one p.m. dinner appeared. A wooden
bowl, nearly four feet in diameter, was carried in
on a mat. It was piled with rice and portions of
roast lamb just killed, with bread and vegetables
below, and melted butter over all. We despised
the three brass spoons, and, washing our right
hands, boldl}'' plunged them in, squeezing the
rice into balls. A negro attended with a green
glass tumbler of water. As soon as we retired,
hungry Arabs slowly filled the vacant places, at
the invitation of the Emir, who only tasted a few
mouth fu].s until his guests were fed. The dogs
licked up the scraps, and the calves walked in and

SHARON. 217

sat by us in the shade. Soap and water, coffee
and tobacco followed, and we retired, sending a
small tin of gunpowder to our host in the even-

On the 30th of April, Dr. Chaplin left, and
Drake went o^ for Eng'land, leavins^ me still in the
plain.

The barley harvest had commenced about the
20th of April, and was being carried on round the
village. It is a most peculiar sight to see the
natives, squatted on their haunches, cutting the
corn in small handfuls with a very short stalk, and
tying each handful round. The small shocks are
then removed, on the camels, to the threshing
floors.

On Saturday, the 3rd of May, an adventure
overtook us. Corporal Armstrong came home
about eleven a.m., having been stopped by Bedav/in
who had attempted to rob him. He shook his
horse free, however, from the hands on his bridle,
and hit one man over the head. They threatened
to shoot him, but were cowed by his determination;
and the thieves pronounced the leather water-
bucket, on the mule, not Avorth taking, so they let
the muleteer go also.

As soon as this was reported I sent our head
man Habib over to the tents of the Emir, who
ruled another tribe. Here v/as the afovernor of
the district, then making inquiries as to a camel,
which had been stolen from the men whom we

2 1 8 TENT WORK IN PA IE S TINE.

hired to bring us into this lawless district. Hcabib
returned with four Kurdish soldiers, armed to the
teeth, and having Icurhaslies, or whips of hippo-
potamus-hide, slung to their Avrists. They took
our muleteer down as a guide, and brought back
three prisoners in irons, and an old gun. I after-
wards heard that the whole camp had been levelled
to the ground, and the men flogged with the for-
midable whips until they gave up the culprits.

The Arabs along the coast are indeed very
dangerous ; one tribe is called Nefei'at, from the
murderous bludgeons they carry. In subsequent
travels I have seen the men on raids, marching
armed through the marshes, and ready to fall upon
any unwary traveller or benighted peasant journey-
ing alone.

The true reason of the Emir's anxiety to make
friends now became apparent. Members of his
tribe had stolen the camel, but he sent to remind
me that I had eaten salt wdth him and could not
suppose him guilty of conniving at such a deed.
As, however, I obtained the names of the thieves,
I handed them over to government; and, as I had
found that mercy is a quality not appreciated by
Syrians, I turned a deaf ear to the deputations of
old men and women, who came aji^ain and aoain to
my camp in the hills, rushing in suddenly and
clasping my knees at unexpected moments, and
even besieging the hotel-door and the landing-
place at Jafia. The adventures were also con-

SHARON. 219

tinued at Nablus where the prisoners were taken,
as Avill be seen immediately.

Our camp was not a pleasant one ; the peasantry-
were surly, and the Arabs dangerous. Almost
every night attempts were made to steal our
horses and mules, and were only frustrated by the
vigilance of Habib, who lay, gun in hand, by the
line of tethered animals, and fired on the thieves
more than once. The place was also infested
with scorpions, and I was stung by one, in six
places along the leg, before I could get off my
riding-breeches in which it had hidden. Habib
licked the bitten places carefully, having, as he
assured me, once eaten a scorpion, and thus
obtained a power of heahng the stings; this is
a common idea among the natives ; the stings
were certainly less painful than on a former
occasion.

The view from the Mukhalid camp was very
extensive ; the Carmel ridge and the Mahrakah
peak were plainly seen, with the whole broken
line of the watershed blue in the distance, and
white villages on little knolls, sharply defined
against the shadow of the long flat curve of Ebal ;
the crater of Sheikh Iskander with the lower
plateau to the north, was distinctly shown against
the sky-line, and, yet more distant, appeared the
Safed mountains and a silver thread of snow on
Hermon 100 miles away. To the south, the eye
roamed over low sand-dunes with patches of red

220 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

and of bright yellow, and a few scattered oaks,
over corn-land, and, farthest off, was a long line
of cliff, with a promontory on which the town
of Jaffa was seen distinct^. Thus the panorama
from Hermon to Jaffa embraced a distance of
120 miles.

The prisoners had been captured on the 3rd ;
on the Gth the Governor of Kulunsaweh allowed
them to escape, for reasons easy to imagine,
and I was obliged to appeal to our Consul in
Jerusalem. On the 7th we marched up into the
hills, to a place called Kefr Zibad, and experienced
a frightfully hot sirocco. The treeless plain was
scorched with heat, the flowers all dead and the
corn all reaped. The grey hills, the olives, houses,
and ruins, had a fossilised appearance, and, over
all, a terrible leaden sky was spread ; the poor
dogs hid from the sun in the thorny bushes, and
had to be thrown into every pond that was passed
to cool them. The puppies arrived at camp so
limp and feeble that I doubted if they would
live.

Next day was as bad, but, on the 9th, the fresh
breeze from the sea came back and the work
became less arduous. The country was one scarcely
visited before by Europeans, and the villagers
were in some cases so terrified by our appearance
and our arms, that they fled in the greatest terror ;
but a report got about that we were sent by the
Sultan, to see which of the villages had become

SHARON. 221

ruinous, and, hence, we became favourites, and
every possible ruin in the village lands was shown
to us, with the greatest eagerness, as it was sup-
posed that taxes would be remitted in proportion
to the amount of desolation.

At one place called Baka the great gig umbrella
over the theodolite attracted much attention, and
here, as at Kakon, the chief delight to elderly
men was a peep through the theodolite telescope.

" What do you see, O father T cried the less
fortunate who crowded round the observer.

" I see Hammad and his cows, two hours off, as
if he were close here !" replied the delighted elder.

Here also we were near Kur, the head-quarters
of another of the great native families like our
old friends the Jerrar; and the head of the house
— which is called Beit Jiyus, came to see me
with some twenty followers. My knowledge of
Arabic was still most rudimentary, and I found
conversation very difficult ; but the old man was
quite happy, staring at all the European novelties
and exclaimino^ to all he saw and heard : " O
prophet ! O Lord Mohammed ! Mashallah !"

The business connected with our Arab prisoners
now took me to Nablus. It appeared that all the
offenders had been allowed to leave prison, appa-
rently in consequence of monetary arrangements
with persons in authority ; yet no sooner was it
understood that I was to be expected in Nablus,
than they were reca.ptui'ed and produced for me to

222 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

see. The Deputy-Governor invited me to attend
their examination by the MejHs, or Town Council,
where a curious scene was presented. The Kadi
sat on a diwan, in the whitewashed room serving
as a justice hall — a stout man (Kadis become fat
for a well-knoAvn reason), his eyelids drooping, his
dress a long robe striped yellow and w^hito, with a
short blue cloth jacket and the huge white turban,
— emblem of superior holiness and incorruptibility
and by him, a thin clerk, in a red fezz and white
clothes. The military element was represented
by a colonel in blue, with gold sleeves, his frock-
coat unbuttoned, as is usual with Turkish officers.
Other members were less remarkable. Mr.
Elkarey, the missionary, kindly escorted me, and
interpreted for me. The majesty of the council
was upheld by a guard at the door, and a smart
sero^eant in black would have been almost Euro-
pean in appearance, but for a green silk comforter
over his coat.

Two prisoners, both horribly squalid in appear-
ance, were brought up. They did not deny that
they belonged to the Nefei'at, or "club-bearing
Arabs." One was a very short man, his face
dreadfully pitted by small-pox, and with only one
eye ; the second, a very tall, thin man, of a Don
Quixote type of face, with beautiful white teeth.
Evidence was first taken of the two together, then
of each separately, by which means their various
versions were made to prove contradictory. The

SHARON. 223

tall man wept and wrung his hands; the little
man held up a corner of his shirt, and shook it, to
testify his innocence, repeating many times that
he "feared God." The Kadi inquired whether they
were Howareth dogs, Belauneh dogs, or Nefei'at
doD-s. and invoked destruction on most of their
relations. The other councillors shouted all at
one time, and some stood up on the diwan, after
which fresh pipes and coffee were brought. K.
witness was called, and, while he was coming,
the case of a big miller and his man was taken
up ; and in the middle of it in came the old high-
priest of the Samaritans, looking like Moses in
Millais' picture, attired in coffee colour, mth the
crimson turban, and accusing a debtor of defraud-
ing him of a shilling, which the latter denied,
winking at the judge in secret. Presently the
Vice-Governor came in, a man of peculiarly sanc-
timonious appearance, and notoriously corrupt.
The shouting was then redoubled, three cases ap-
parently being all tried and decided at once.

The scene was a farce as far as justice was con-
cerned, but the policy which always appeared to
me best, was to insist only on imprisonment, and
to make sure this was actually enforced, leaving it
to the authorities to inflict some sort of monetary
punishment, without my asking for fines, well
knowino- that, once in prison, a Syrian does not
get out without paying something to somebody.
This line of conduct made us quite popular with

oo

24 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

some governors, whose incomes were ridiculously
small.

On Friday, the 23rd of May, we again marched
south, and suffered even more than in the last
move. First of all, no camels could be got, until
the Sheikh of the village had been solemnly warned
of the result of disobeying the Sultan's firman ;
then, all the long day through, a scorching sirocco
blew from the east, and the road was almost im-
passable, across valleys a thousand feet deep,
including the great boundary of Kanah. My
terrier rode on the pommel, and for a great part
of the way I had to cany two puppies also. At
length, late in the afternoon, we arrived at Bidieh,
in a state of collapse. The mules came soon after,
wdth poor Jack slung across the cook's donkey,
head down. He survived only a few hours, and he
lies buried under the ohve-trees by our camp, with
a great stone cairn over his remains. Nearly
every native suffered Avith ulcerated throat, from
the effects of drinking too much water while
exposed to the wind. Our poor little Kurdish
soldier was, on the following day, reduced to tears
by the death of his horse, and, in the plain, many
people were killed by sunstroke. The heat was
even worse next day, the glass being over 106° F.
in the shade ; at Gaza, the same day, it stood
at 118°, while in Beyrout most of the mulberry-
trees Avere killed by the wind, and the silk crop
failed. On the third day, the Sunday, I was

SHARON, 225

waked in the afternoon by a churning noise, and
saw a whirlwind coming rapidly through the olive-
grove towards the camp, tearing up the thorny
plants, the stubble, dust, and small stones, whilst
all round a dead calm prevailed. Fortunately, its
path was to one side of the tents, and it passed by
without doing any damage. Next morning the
fresh west wind returned, and surveying became
once more a possibility.

The country round us was some of the wildest
in Palestine. The villagers had never before seen
a Frank, and on the maps it is almost a blank.
The hills were stony, but very fine groves of
beautiful old ohve-trees existed all round the
villages.

Here, on the 30th of May, I received an addi-
tion to the party, by the arrival of Corporal
Brophy, E,.E. ; but his services did not become
really of assistance during this campaign, as he
had to learn to ride first, and to pick up a little
of the lanoruaofe.

Many fine ruins existed round us, showing that
it is probably to the agency of man, rather than
to the gradual action of weather, that the utter
destruction of ruins in more accessible parts of
Palestine is to be ascribed. Thus my time was
occupied, day and night, with visiting and plan-
ning various places of interest, tombs, monasteries,
towers, etc., keeping pace Avith the geographical
Survey by sheer hard work.

VOL. I. 15

226 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

A good instance of the valuable finds made by
the Survey party in this ftnknown district, is that
of the ruin called Deir Serur. Here we discovered
the site of an important town, with public build-
ings of good masonry, and rock-cut tombs, evi-
dently a place of great importance. This con-
spicuous site is not marked on any modern map,
nor described by any previous traveller, so far as
I have been able to find. On a map of the last
century, an episcopal town of the fifth century-
called Sosura, is, however, shown in just the posi-
tion of this ruin of Serur, and the character ot
the buildings seems to agree with this identifica-
tion.

At Kur^wa we found also a rock-cut sepulchre,
with a classic facade, rivalling any of those at
Jerusalem, and apparently to be attributed to the
first or second century of the Christian era ; yet,
on this fine monument, there is not a single letter
of inscription to tell the names of its former
occupants. These are but single instances of the
large number of interesting discoveries, in central
Palestine, which are stored up in the memoir of
the map.

During one of these expeditions, in company
with a very plucky little Kurdish soldier, I was
examining some tombs, when I suddenly found a
ring of armed men round me. Nothing afraid,
my Bashi-Bazouk ran at the nearest, and pelted
them with stones, whereupon they all disappeared.

SHARON. 227

There is something most "uncanny" in the way in
which you may ride through such places, apparently
quite deserted, though if, as now happened to us, a
saddle-bag drops off, it will disappear in a few
moments, as if snatched by invisible hands. Our
mule ran away on this occasion, and disappeared ;
it was found the next day, hidden in a cave.
Another old mule (a great character) got into the
habit of breaking his halter as soon as he had
breakfasted, and running away till dinner-time,
when he came home. His name was Abu S'aid,
" Father of Happiness," but he was far from
bringing happiness to Habib, who owned him.

On the 3rd of June we moved ao-ain south,
and crossed the most difficult valley we had yet
encountered. It was nearly a thousand feet dee^D,
and only a narrow goat-walk led down its preci-
pitous sides, above which hangs the fine ruin called
Deir Kul'ah, the " Convent Castle."

This valley forms the boundary between Judea
and Samaria, and runs into the plain near Rtis el
Ain. We were obho-ed to follow its course west-
ward for some distance before it became possible to
take the pack-animals up the other side.

Our new camp at Rentis was in more open
ground, and but little remained to be done in
order to join on to the old limits of the Survey
on the south. A hole in the work was, however,
here left in the plain which weather forbade our
attempting to fill in, and, as nearly all our horses

15—2

228 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

were laid up with sore-back and lameness, the
summer rest, which we had now earned, came
none too soon to save the party from demorali-
sation.

Two places of great interest came within our
district from the E-entis camp, namely, Tibneh, in
the hills to the east, and Ras el 'Ain to the west,
the first supposed by some to represent Timnath
Heres, the burial-place of Joshua ; the second,
Antipatris, built by Herod the Great.

Tibneh is a ruined site on one of the great
Roman roads from Lydda and Ras el 'Ain to
Jerusalem. A mound, or Tell, stands on the south
bank of a deep valley, surrounded with desolate
mountains; by it, a clear spring issues from a
cave ; to the south-west is a beautiful oak-tree, the
largest I saw in Palestine, called by the natives
Sheikh et Teim, " the Chief, the Servant of God."
South of the Tell, the hillside is hollowed out with
many tombs, most of which are choked up. One
of these has a porch with two rude pilasters, and
alonof the facade are over two hundred niches for
lamps ; the trailing boughs of the bushes above
hang down picturesquely, and half cover the
entrance. Within there are fifteen Kokim, or
graves, and, through the central one, it is possible
to creep into a second chamber, with only a single
Koka. Other tombs exist farther east, one having
a sculptured facade ; but the tomb described is the
one popularly supposed to be that of Joshua.

SHARON. 229

It seems to me very doubtful how far we can
rely on the identity of the site with that of Tim-
nath Heres. It is nearly certain that this is the
place held by Jerome to be the true site, and then
called Timnathah, a town of importance, capital
of a district in the hills, and on the road from
Lydda to Jerusalem. Its position is fixed by re-
ferences to surrounding towns. St. Jerome also
states that in his day the tomb of Joshua was
there shown; and we have a relic, probably, of the
tradition, in the name of the sacred oak. On the
other hand, the Jewish tradition, and also that of
the modern Samaritans, points to Kefr Haris,
as described in a previous chapter. The com-
parison of many other instances indicates invari-
ably the greater reliability of the indigenous
Jewish tradition, when differino- from that of the
early Christians ; and there cannot well be any
objection on the score of the modern character of
the buildino's at Kefr Haris, for the same mig-ht
be said of the tomb of Joseph, the identity of
which is not generally questioned. It is remark-
able, however, that a village called Kefr Ishw'a,
or *' Joshua's hamlet," exists in the immediate
neighbourhood of the ruin of Tibneh,

With regard to Antipatris, we have fortunately
far greater certainty ; but the place is of less in-
terest, being mentioned in the Bible only as the
limit of St. Paul's night journey from Jerusalem
(Acts xxiii. 31). It was weU known in the fourth

230 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

century, but its site was lost to the Crusaders,
who identified it at ArsM, the ancient Apollonia,
where also the mere itinerant supposed Ashdod
to have stood. It is only within the last twenty
years that attention has been directed to the true
site.

Josephus describes Antipatris as a city in the
plain, close to the hills, in a position well watered,
with a river encompassing the city, and with groves
of trees. Now, as there is but one river in the
plain of Sharon, anywhere near the required part,
and as there is on that river but one important
ancient site, surrounded by water and near the
hills, we can have little doubt as to the locality of
the town, first apparently identified by the late
Consul Finn, in 1850 ; but, in addition to this, we
have, in the old itineraries, various measurements
to surrounding places which, though not quite
exact, still serve to indicate the same site. They
are as follows :

R.M. R.M.

Antipatris to Galgula [KalJdlia) G, measures 6-|-

Lydda 10, „ ll|-

„ . Betthar {Tireh) 10, „ 9^

„ Ca3sarea 28, ,, 30^

These measurements on the Survey bring us to
the ruined site of Riis el 'Ain, a large mound
covered with ruins, from the sides of which, on
the north and west, the River Aujah (the Biblical

SHARON. 231

Mejarkon, or " yellow v>^ater "), gushes forth, a
full-sized stream.

A confusion has arisen between Antipatris and
a town called Caphar Saba, in consequence of the
loose description, given by Josephus, of a ditch dug
by Alexander Balas, " from Cabarzaba, now called
Antipatris," to Joppa (Ant. xiii. 15, 1) ; but the
same author afterwards explains that Caphar Saba
was a district name, applied to the plain near
Antipatris (Ant. xvi. 5, 2).

In the Talmud, the two towns, Antipatris and
Caphar Saba, are both noticed in a manner which
leaves little doubt that they were separate places.
Of Antipatris, we learn that it was a town on the
road from Judea to Galilee, the boundary of " the
Land " on the side of Samaria ; and, as I have
noted above, the great boundary valley actually
runs into the plain at this point. But while
Antipatris was a JoAvish city, Caphar Saba was
in the district which was considered foreign gi'ound,
as within Samaritan territory, and an idolatrous
tree existed there, perhaps now represented by
the great sacred tree at Neby Serakah, close to
Kefr Saba, five and a half miles north of Kas el
'Ain.

Antipatris, with two other places, Jishub and
Patris, is mentioned as a station at the entrance
to '' the King's Mountain," as the Jews called
the Judean hills. This as^rees with its situa-
tion at the -base of the hills, the other places

232 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

being, perhaps, Sufin and Budrus, in the same
district.

The site thus fixed, by the Survey measure-
ments, is one naturally better fitted for an im-
portant town than any in the district. The name
has indeed vanished, being a Greek title derived
from that of Herod's father, and always awkward
to the mouths of the natives ; but the stream, the
mound of ruins, and the neighbouring hills, remain ;
the deep blue pools of fresh water well up close
beneath the hillock, surrounded by tall canes and
v/illows, rushes, and grass. A sort of ragged lawn
extends some two hundred yards southwards, and
westwards the stream flows rapidly away, burrow-
ing between deep banks, and rolling to the sea, a
3''ellow, turbid, sandy volume of water, unfordable
in winter, and never dry, even in summer.

The ruins of Herod's city are now covered with
the shell of a great Crusading castle. The
knisfhts seem to have taken the name Mirr, or
" Passage," applied to a hamlet near the ford, and
transformed it into Mirabel, by adding "bel," a
word which occurs in the names of several of
their fortresses, such as Belfort, Belvoir, etc. The
castle is flanked with round towers, and resembles
that of Capernaum (near 'Athlit), on a larger scale.
It was here that Manasseh, the cousin of Queen
Mehsinda, was besieged, in 1149, by Baldwin
III,, and obliged to ca2:)itulate. In 1191
Mirabel was dismantled by Saladin, on the ap-

SHARON. 233

proach of King Richard, in common with Plans,
Capernaum, and many other castles ; nor does it
appear to have been subsequently restored.

The Survey operations were now suspended for
a time, owing to the great heat and the exhaustion
of the party, and a holiday in the Anti-Lebanon
was prescribed by Dr. Chaj)lin. The rate of the
work had been increased by nearly one-half in the
second campaign ; but the reorganisation which I
was able to effect during our holiday soon resulted
in a progress still more rapid, and, as Avill be seen
later, my time was also profitably spent in acquir-
ing a more scientific knowledge of the language,
which became highly important on the lamented
death of my fellow- workman Mr. Drake.

The fatigue of the campaign had been very
great. My eyes were quite pink all over, vv^ith
the effects of the glare of white chalk ; my
clothes were in rags, my boots had no soles. The
men were no better off, and the horses also were
all much exhausted, sufferino: from sore-back, due
to the grass diet. The rest, however, soon restored
our energies, and autumn found us once more im-
patient to be in the field.

CHAPTER VIII.

DAMASCUS, BAALBEK, AND HERMON.

The order of the narrative now takes us away from
Palestine itself, to the more northern parts of
S3^ria, where the Survey party spent the months
of July, August, and September, recruiting their
health, and arrangrino^ the field-work.

On the morning of June the 16th, 1873, we
arrived in the Bay of Beyrout, and landed, just
as Midhat Pacha left the harbour havino- been
superseded, in the post of Governor of Syria, in
favour of Hallet Pacha. The praises of Midhat
as an able, upright, and liberal statesman were
in the mouths of all European residents, and his
dismissal was sincerely regretted.

Beyrout is called the "Paris of the Levant," and
is the most civilised place in Syria, with a popula-
tion of over seventy thousand souls. It is a long
and rather straofgrlinq- town, of white houses, with
roofs of brown tiles and green Venetian blinds,
which give it quite an Italian air. To the north
stretch long vine terraces ; to the south is the
fine coUesfo of the American Mission. Coffee-

o

DAMASCUS, BAALBEK, AND HERMON. 235

houses, on wooden piles, project into the water,
and behind, on the east, are the steep spurs of
Lebanon, running down sheer into the sea by
the Dog Ptiver. An Enghsh engineer has lately
supplied Beyrout with good drinking water from
this stream, but what becomes of the surplus of
the water thus furnished is a mystery, for there is
only one drain in all the town, and that is but fifty
yards long. As, however, the soil is a light sand,
perhaps the water filters away of itself.

The streets are good, and fit for carriages, and
the scenes presented on the principal thoroughfares
are gay and lively ; the usual mixture of the
Oriental and the European, of native dress and
the outrageous imitation of Paris fashions, which
is peculiar to the Levantine seaports, is specially
remarkable. The public buildings — here a Gothic
church, there a mosque and minaret — present the
same queer mixture. The only road in Syria fit
for wheeled vehicles leads from Beyrout, over one
of the Lebanon passes to Damascus, being the
property of a French Diligence Company.

Beyrout had, however, for me, but little attrac-
tion. Viewed as a civilised town, it could not but
be considered very inferior; and, from an anti-
quarian point of view, it has not much of interest
to recommend it, excepting the great rock tablets
above the Dog Piver. I was anxious, as soon
as our baggage animals were sufficiently rested
after the long land journey from Jaffa, to proceed

23G TENT WORK IN TALESTINE.

to a far more interesting place — namely, Damascus.
During my week's stay, I had been hospitably en-
tertained by various residents, including the Vice-
ConsuljMr, Jago, whose acquaintance I had already
made, and Dr. Thomson, the well-known author of
the "Land and the Book." I also visited the Con-
sul-General, Mr. Eldridge, in his summer retreat
in Lebanon, and spent a most pleasant afternoon.
The scenery which lies between his house at ' Aleih
and the plain of Beyrout, is some of the finest that
we observed; deep and romantic ravines, cliffs
with jagged outlines, ruins and scattered villas,
dark clumps of umbrella-j^ine, and bright, mellow,
green vineyards, long terraces of mulberries on the
red sand of the plain, all contrasting pleasantly
with the tame barren hills, amonofst which we had
been livinsf for months.

On Tuesday, the 24th of June, I set out, at the
head of my party, on a march to Damascus, along
the French road. We wound slowly up the sides
of Lebanon, here covered with pines, and veiled
above with fleecy clouds, which, when the wind
blows from the sea, gather daily on the summits,
and swell the grapes by a soft damp mist, giving
great potency to the Lebanon wine. Arrivino* at
a heioiit of over three thousand feet, we lost siofht
of the plain and the white city, and marched on
in the mist until two p.m., only resting at a little
mud cottage, where was a stream of icy water.
We then began to descend, and beneath us was

DAMASCUS, BAALBEK, AND HERMON. 237

spread out one of the finest views in Syria. The
broad flat plain of the Litany Kiver separates the
two ranges of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, and
runs north and south, with the river in the middle.
The outline of Anti-Lebanon was beautifully
varied, with a long succession of blunt peaks,
rolling ridges, knife-edged spurs, divided by deep
narrow ravines, the whole bathed in the soft bright
afternoon sunlight; some hills were thin and blue in
the distance, some rocky and rugged in front, while
the shadows were already creeping slowly up the
feet of the mountains and across the plain. The
Bukei'a, as the plain itself is called, was all yellow
with corn, the white road, skirted by tall poplars,
running across it ; and, on the south, the back-
ground was formed by the dark ridge of Hermon,
on which a sohtary streak of snow still remained.

In a couple of hours we reached the plain, the
horses being much fatigued, and one unfit for riding.
We remained for the nisfht at a miserable wooden
house at Stura, supposed to be an hotel, and kept
by a Greek, and his Avife, an ex-ballet-dancer,
Italian by birth. I have a lively remembrance
of the wretched dining apartment with a glass
door, one pane of w^hich was gone and replaced by a
piece of calico ; over the dinner-table two swallow^s
had made their nests in the roof Various mangy
pointer dogs w^alked in, but were valiantly ex-
pelled by my puppies. In the bedroom was
another swallow's-nest^ and I war, amused, in. the

238 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

morning, by watching the old bird finding her way
over the top of the ha]f-closed door, bringing in
flies, to the white-beaked little monsters, who
screamed incessantly over my head.

On the first day we had ridden twenty-nine
miles in seven hours. We were now once more
in the saddle by 7.30 a.m., and accomplished
forty-one miles in eight hours (including stop-
pages), the baggage animals also arriving at
Damascus the same day.

Our way lay at first across the plain, which is
well watered, and covered with corn-fields. Herds
and flocks and black Arab tents were visible
everywhere ; the storks were still abundant, their
long necks stretched out above the barley, and
their shadows sailing along, as they wheeled above
in srreat circles, before leavinof for the north ; the
swallows, also, sat in long rows on the telegraph
wires. Soon, however, after crossing the river,
we began to enter the pass of Wady el Kurn, and
the bare grey hills, steep crags, and wilderness of
lentisk, succeeded the more fertile scener}'' of the
Bukei'a. Here were no sisfns of animal life,
beyond an occasional eagle or vulture. The old
yellow diligence, with three mules at the pole and
three horses in front, rumbled past us down the
hill. Soon a rocky range, with castellated crags,
appeared in front, and wc ascended hills of glaring
white chalk, with here and there a black basaltic
seam ; at length the top of a poplar appeared in

DAMASCUS, BAALBEK, AND HERMON. 239

front, and we rested, for nearly an hour, by a mud
stable, near a beautiful spring in the yellow rocks,
round which the ruddy-coloured little oxen lay,
chewino' the cud, in blazing^ sunligfht.

Our mules caught us up, with the servants
riding on them, — a string of seven animals, on four
of which four white terriers were seated, each
carried by a native, to the great astonishment of
every one along the road. Soon after, the great
Kurdish colley-dog, whom we had bought in the
Avinterfor a shilling, limped in quite exhausted, and
was, by my order, hoisted on to the biggest mule,
where he lay quiet for the remaining twenty miles.

The country grew yet more barren as we ad-
vanced— a succession of rolling hills of an ochre
colour, with here and there a steep grey crag.
About two p.m. we arrived at a barren plateau,
across which the road led — a streak of blind ino-
white. In front was a range of steep hills like
those left behind ; great black shadows came slid-
ing down the slopes, and so along the plain and up
the eastern ridges ; behind were banks of fleecy
cloud, but above us a broiling sun and cloudless
heaven, while before us not a trace of Damascus
was to be seen. It was, indeed, wearisome work,
toiling over this plateau, uncheered by any distant
view of the goal, and with the apparent necessity
of climbing another mountain range ; great, there-
fore, was my relief when the road dived suddenly
down into a narrow winding valley.

240 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

The scenery now became very remarkable, re-
sembling most that of a Sinaitic oasis. The crags
on either side were glaring in the sun, reddish-
yellow in colour, without even a bush or shrub
on the slopes, and with an intensely blue sky
above ; but below them, in the valley, the road led
beside a swirling stream, which ran rapidly over
boulders and pebbles, under the cool shadow of
tall poplar groves, and gardens of cool, green
foliage. The grass grew rank beside the path,
trailing vines, peaches, plums, and other fruit-trees
flourished on either bank. A paradise was, in
short, set in a frame of most barren desert, an
oasis between bare crags of sun-scorched lime-
stone. The white road wound down the valley,
which became constantly more luxuriant, whilst
the hills grew higher and glared more desolate.
On every side tributary streams gushed down, and
we began to pass by w^hite villas, with primitive
frescoes on the walls, by groups of veiled ladies
on Avhite donkeys, and by rich merchants on fine
mares. At last the valley opened, and our caval-
cade, of seven horsemen, came cantering down an
avenue of poplars, until, turning a sharp corner,
we came suddenly in sight of the entrance to
Damascus.

This approach to the city is not favourable to a
just appreciation of its peculiar beauties. In front
of the houses there is a sort of green, covered with
short grass, and divided by the river. A large

DAMASCUS, BAALBEK, AND HERMON. 241

white mosque, with two tall minarets, was in front,
and the castle to the right ; but no great wall, as
at Jerusalem, bounds the city, which has, in spite
of domes and minarets, rather the appearance of a
stragfsflino' villasje of mud houses, with windows of
wood lattice, flat mud roofs, and overhanging
upper storeys.

We stopped at the hotel, and at once became
acquainted with the real glory of Damascus —
namely, its interiors. The house was built round
an ample paved court, its inner walls of stucco,
painted in horizontal bands of white, red, and
blue. In the centre was a large square basin,
surrounded by little jets, whence the water
trickled slowly. It was shaded by tall lemon and
orange trees, peaches, and plums. On one side
of the court opened the diwan, a cool, lofty apart-
ment, with raised floors surrounded by low sofas,
and with an octao-onal fountain in the narrow
central passage. The roof of this central part was
more lofty, and clerestory windows let in a sub-
dued light. The diwan waUs were of marble, and
the roofs of inlaid woodwork, gorgeously painted
on a dark brown ground.

On Friday, the 27th, we set up our camp, in a
shady garden near the river, and enjoyed the cool-
ness and the fruit. I was, however, afflicted with
ophthalmia, consequent on the exposure, for the last
few months, to the sun in a white chalk district,
and for several days I coidd hardly see at all.

VOL. I. 16

242 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

Damascus is an oval town divided into two un-
equal portions, the largest to the south, by the
river Barada (the ancient Abana). The houses
appear to be principally of mud, or sun-dried
brick, with wooden frames ; but the public build-
ings and better private dwellings are of stone.
The bazaars form the heart of the town, and
ramify in various directions. To Europeans there
is something very curious in the collection of fifty
or sixty small shops, in one street, all selling the
same article. Thus, from the meat-market one
strolls into a long, covered lane, where red and
yellow slippers are sold ; thence into the fragrant
scent bazaar, or to the grimy silversmiths' smithies,
or to the long rows of shops where silks and em-
broidered stuffs are sold. Each salesman sits
calmly, on the raised floor of the little pigeon-hole,
surrounded by shelves on which his goods are
packed, smoking his V-shaped water-pipe, or
engaged in pra3^er, and apparently quite indifferent
as to custom.

The bazaars are delightfully cool and shady, and
the absence of wheeled vehicles makes them ver}^
quiet. They are very narrow, and consequently
much crowded. Huo-e camels, loaded with fire-
wood, come rolling by, and oblige you to crouch
against the wall to avoid the sweep of the load.

Ladies in long veils, white, or checked with
blue, with embroidered edges, walk by in huge
yellow knee-boots, or slippers with a sort of thick-

DAMASCUS, BAALBEK, AND HERMON. 243

soled leather golosli drawn over theDi. Some are
mounted on the white donkeys, which have a thick
protuberance to the two sides of their necks — a
sort of fold runnino^ sometimes all alono- the back.
The saddles on which they are perched aloft,
with their feet in front over the animal's neck, are
of red morocco and velvet.

The peasants wear blue, baggy trousers,
gathered in at the knee. The Maronite women,
with rich apple-red cheeks, have a black band
bound over the forehead. Among these the fierce
Bedawin are mingled, dark and dusky in com-
plexion, gaunt and stealthy in mien. The broad-
shouldered and moustachioed Kurds are asfain
quite distinct, and contrast with the ghastly faces
and weakly figures of the townsmen born — the
fanatical Softas and Ulema, in their long pale
gaberdines and scanty w4iite turbans, incarna-
tions of narrow bigotry and ignorant hate. The
bazaar is roofed in, with openings at intervals, and
the ever-changing crowd is dimly visible in the
shadow, or lit up by a beam of sunlight from the
roof

The great charm of the scene consists in its un-
mixed Oriental character. No French fashion or
Gothic building destroys the general eff'ect. You
walk in the Damascus of the " Thousand Niofhts
and a Night," and the grim story of the Avooden
roof-prop at the corner, from which you may
chance any day to see a criminal hanging, reminds

IG— 2

214 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

you of the justice of Haroun-er-Kashid. Here,
through a grating, you look in on the tomb of
Saladin's brother, under its green pall ; there, into
the cool court of a khan, or the outer chamber of
a bath. Dark-eyed beauties, who are not ashamed
to show their tattooed faces and nose-rings, meet
you at every corner ; and, if you know the city
well, you may penetrate into the recesses of the
wicked bath-houses, or visit the slave-market.
Damascus is still the scene of intrigue and passion,
as of old ; the yearly 2^oisonings are incredibly
numerous, and the place is one of the chief strong-
holds of that obstinate fanaticism, which refuses to
see anything good in the manners and civilisation
of the '^ heathen."

The great mosque epitomises the history of
Damascus. Once a heathen temple, then a
Clu'istian church, it is now a Moslem sanctuary.
By a covered street with a great fountain beside
it, we arrived at the bronze gates on which the
Sacramental cup is twice repeated, w^ith Arabic
inscriptions nailed on above. The enclosure is
not as large as that of the Jerusalem Sanctuary ;
the mosque stretches for 800 feet along the
south side, and is about 300 wide. The court is
paved, with a central fountain beneath a dome,
where Moslems wash before prayer. Broad
cloisters run round the court, supported on classic
columns.

The building itself is divided by columns into a

DAMASCUS, BAALBEK, AND HERMON, 245

nave and aisles, and the floor covered with carpets.
Four mikrabs, or apses, for prayer, are made in
the south Avail, belonging to various sects, and
each is flanked by huge wax torches from Mecca.
A long row of worsliippers stood before the
central mihrcib — soldiers and civilians, old and
young, facing the wall and praying together, led
by a Sheikh with a melodious voice.

An old water-carrier brouc^ht us sweet water
from the holy well of the Prophet Yahyah (John
the Baptist), to the east of the mosque. The
whole sanctuary is whitewashed ; but patches of
the old glass mosaic, which once covered all the
walls, are still visible, and the effect must for-
merly have been highly magnificent.

The mosque has three minarets — that of the
Bride to the north, a square, blue tower, from the
upper gallery of which four stout Muedhens were
chanting, in beautiful time and shrill falsetto notes,
the call to prayer, a cry which can be heard like
a bell over the entire city. The second minaret
is that of " Our Lord Jesus " — a slender grey
needle, upon the summit of which the Moslems
believe that Christ will descend in the last day.
We ascended the third minaret, in the south-west
corner, by a winding stair of one hundred and
ninety steps, leading to a wooden gallery, wliilst
forty more lead up to a narrow ledge beneath
the little dome.

From this point a really characteristic view

246 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

presented itself. On every side was a flat ex-
panse of mud roofs, only broken here and there
by a little white-washed dome, and set in a dense
rich belt of deep green, extending for a mile from
the houses on every side. Beyond the gardens
were ranges of hills, barren and desolate, brown
and white in colour, and terminated by the steep
Hermon ridge.

The charm of the view, however, was due to
the interiors. Each house was built round an open
court, with a cool central fountain, and with green
trees, some of great size, overtopping the roof.
The courts were paved with marble, and galleries of
carved woodwork ran round them ; the walls were
banded in courses of black and white marble, or
coloured blue and red. Above the roofs rose the
countless minarets, in endless variety ; some blue
or green, square and squat ; others of beautiful
grey stone, with richly ornamented stone pendents,
wood lattices, and Arab or Cufic inscriptions ;
some whitewashed and crowmed with a sort of
snuffer-shaped roof, others domed. Bristling
against the green bed in which the mud city lies,
they gave a rich variety of effect, which is lost in
the narrow lanes or roofed bazaars.

Damascus is a centre of the faith, second only
to Mecca. The Greek cathedral is hustled into a
corner and guarded by a great white minaret. A
second great mosque is built on the west, outside
the town, its architect having lost his head for so

DAMASCUS, BAALBEK, AND HERMON. 247

placing it, to be given back to him — so says the
grim Arabic inscription — when the sanctuary
stands in the middle of Damascus. On the west
of the town is a brown fortress, outw^ardly formid-
able, inwardly a ruin — fit emblem of Turkish
rule.

From the silversmiths' bazaar we visited the
exterior of the southern wall of the mosque, jump-
inof over a narrow street, and runninsf along; the
house-roofs. Here we found a fine Byzantine
doorway, with a well-carved cornice, and along its
frieze the famous Greek inscription : " Thy king-
dom, 0 Christ, is an everlasting kingdom, and
Thy dominion endureth throughout all genera-
tions."

On the 4th of July we left this fascinating city
for the cooler retreat in the mountains, where the
English Vice-Consul w^as staying. Passing once
more up the narrow valley, with its green groves
amid desolate crags, we crossed the Saharah, or
desert plateau, and, diverging towards the right,
we made for a fine gorge, with high precipices. The
Barada, a clear, broad, green stream, here comes
slipping rapidly down over ledges of rock and
through deep pools, and by its channel is the mud
village called Stik Wady Barada. The river makes
a sudden bend at the gorge, and passes between
high rocks, burrowed with tombs, which are in
many cases inscribed with barbarous Greek
texts. The river falls over a low precipice,

24S TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

and forms a broad pool — a delightfid Ijathing*-
placo, remindino' me on each visit of Naaman's
boast about this very river, " better than all the
waters of Israel." A more picturesque spot than
this gorge, with its Roman road cut in the cliff, its
cemetery, its tall poplars and rushing stream, its
crags, above which is the traditional tomb of
Abel, we did not again meet. This place is the
ancient Abila, and its name is still recognisable in
the tradition of Abel's tomb, where, after carrying
the corpse for a hundred years, Cain was allowed
to lay it down. On the 24th of July we revisited the
gorge, and inspected the antiquities. A tablet, cut
in the side of the precipice above the ancient road,
identifies the town as Abila, and is repeated again
a little farther on ; below it is an aqueduct tunnel,
and lower down the valley, on the left bank oppo-
site the village, are remains of a small temple.
On this visit we discovered no less than six
inscriptions previously unknown, all on tomb-
stones.

Crossing the stream, just above the waterfall,
by a single arch, we continued along the left bank.
The Barada has worn a deep bed, and on either
side the remains of petrified leaves and stems are
visible in the rude cono^lomerate of the banks.
The stream pours over boulders and broken blocks,
and is half covered with luxuriant bushes. Gra-
dually ascending, the road leads into the long
plain of Zebdany — a sorb of repetition of tbo Stura

DAMASCUS, BAALBEK, AND HERMON. 249

plain on a smaller scale, flanked on the west by
the raofsced and castellated rido^es of the Anti-
Lebanon, and on the east by a range of equal
height. The plateau is bare and treeless, ex-
cept towards the north, where are groves of
poplar. Through the centre runs the river, its
course marked by green bushes. In the middle
of the plain it springs up suddenly from a huge
blue pool, or small lake, of unfathomable depth,
resembling the springs of Antipatris mentioned in
the last chapter. The stream is here actually
broader than at the gorge, and emerges in full
volume from the earth. The basin is of hard
yellow rock. At first the stream is sluggish, the
banks clayey and grassy, fringed with tall canes ;
and the water of the pool is full of fish and fre-
quented by water-fowl; lower down, however, the
fall is very rapid, and, from the gorge to Damascus,
the current is extremely quick.

The western mountains were already dark in
the blue afternoon shadow, as we began to climb
the white slopes to the east of the plain. Here,
at a heio-ht 5000 feet above the sea, our summer
camp was to be fixed, at the village of Bludan,
below the Consul's house.

Most cordial and kind was the welcome which
awaited us, both from Mr. Kirby Green, the Con-
sul, and his wife, as well as from the Rev. W.
Wright, the Protestant Missionary ; and I shall
always remember, with the greatest pleasure, the

250 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

time I spent there and the kindness ^vhic•h wc
received.

Our camp Avas fixed in an orchard — a stony
field — ahnost the only level plot in the neighbour-
hood. Our office was a low mud room in the
village. Here also I found a teacher, an intel-
ligent young Damascene, from whom I acquired
as much knowledge of Arabic as could be gained
in three months of daily study — sufficient for the
Survey and for colloquial purposes.

On the 11th of Aug^ust the Consul rode down
to Damascus, accompanied by Mr. Wright and
myself On this occasion I was able to see
something of Damascus by night, guided by the
missionary, and in the afternoon we penetrated
into one of the slave-markets, ascending a
rickety staircase to a miserable wooden veran-
dah, on to which the little rooms opened. In
one chamber was a negress, seated on a straw
mat, gaily dressed, and dandling a small black
baby. She seemed in very good spirits ; but her
next-door neiofhbour was nursino^ a sick child, and
looked unhappy enough. In a third room were
three negTesses, and a white girl, pale and thin,
who, instead of greeting us in the jovial manner
of the black women, drew her veil round her and
iled into an inner chamber. Theoretically, the
])urchase of fresh slaves is forbidden in the Turkish
dominions ; but there are two of these slave estab-
lishments in Damascus — one just behind or in a

DAMASCUS, BAALBEK, AND HERMON. 251

mosque — and newly-imported slaves from Africa
arrive here every year.

On the following day I was honoured by Hallet
Pacha, Governor-General of Syria, wdth an in-
vitation to accompany the Consul to breakfast.
About ten a.m., we drove through the bazaar, and
arrived at the Pacha's house, on a terrace above
the green meadow, west of the town. A tent was
spread in the garden, and the Governor, a man of
immense corpulence, sat on a velvet sofa within.
His staff sat round, wearing red fezzes and black
frock-coats.

The Pacha belonged to the Old Turkish party,
and cordially hated all '•' pagans." The breakfast
was studiously Oriental in character, no French
dishes being allowed, and no wdne offered. A
huge brass tray, on a plain wooden stand, formed
a table for eight people. Among the guests
were Mohammed Said Pacha — the fierce Kurd
who broke in the mountaineers of Xablus for
the Turks — Holo Pacha, and other dignitaries.
The first course consisted of tomato soup and
macaroni, with lemons ; rissoles of rice, and
mutton cutlets in bread-crumbs followed, with
httle dishes of caviar, and bowls of leben, or sour
milk, with cucumbers ; next came a kind of sweet
muffins ; then six dishes of various vegetables,
stuffed with rice, and a broiled chicken ; last of all,
a huge pilau, and dessert of figs and melons.

Though hungry at first, I was quite unable

Zo2 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE,

to eat a quarter of the amount consumed by the
Pacha, and ceased to wonder at the almost universal
obesity of the Turkish dignitaries. The guests all
ate from their hands ; and the conversation was
such as would not be countenanced in an ordinary
barrack-room, though apparently much enjoyed
by the Pacha and his staff.

To suppose this picture to be universally cha-
racteristic of Turkish hif^h life would no doubt be
an error ; able and honest men are not altoGfether
wanting, among the Government officials of high
standing, and Midhat Pacha, the immediate pre-
decessor of my host, has since become famous as a
patriot and statesman ; but it is the misfortune of
Turkey, that the majority of the governing class
are men ignorant and fanatical, sensual and inert,
notoriously corrupt and tyrannical, who have suc-
ceeded only in ruining and impoverishing the
countries they were sent to govern.

On the 19th of August, the whole party pro-
ceeded, from Bludan, on a visit to Baalbek, where I
was ordered to report on the condition of the ruins.

Descending from our mountain camp, we rode
north-west, over the well-watered plain, with its
long rows of poplars, narrow strips of green turf
along the streams, and long vineyards, with vines
trained into little bushes, as in Burgundy. Thence
we ascended a rugged patli over tlie grey rocky
slopes of Anti-Lebanon, and our view extended
over the broad brown Bukei'a, and as far as the

DAMASCUS, BAALBEK, AND HERMON. 253

long gleaming ridge of Lebanon, " the milk-white
mountain," the outline of which is broken by
cones and rounded tops, whilst below a dusky
fringe of brushwood creeps up the slopes. After
five hours' riding, we began to descend, over
downs of blinding white chalk, to the great
plain, and at length came in sight of a village,
lying low in an oasis of green trees, with a fine
spring to the east, from which ran a stream fringed
wdth willows and poplars.

The village, or town, of Baalbek is extensive
and flourishing. At the gate of the governor's
house a fine statue, of colossal size, headless, and
seated between sculptured lions, has been placed
in a corner of the road. Passino; throuG:h the
main street, we rode on, between dry-stone walls,
in a narrow lane, which had a perfect screen of
poplars above; and, behind this, rose a huge tawny
fortress- wall, like that of the Temple at Jerusalem ;
while, to the right, stood a little temple, stagger-
ing, as it were, after the last earthquake, the joints
of the magnificent masonry yawning, and the
columns and cornices bending over. The great
wall is crowned by a Saracenic battlement, with
loopholes, and its masonry is a perfect patchwork;
but below, the ancient drafted ashlar, with Greek
masons' marks on the stones, remains intact.

We now found ourselves riding, three abreast,
tlu-ough a dark tunnel of huge masonry, and
looked back on the green paradise of foliage ;

254 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

wliilc in front a glaring dust-heap indicated the
ascent into the great enclosure; hence we emerged
into the centre of the ruins, with the famous Six
Columns and the Temple of Jupiter in front.

So gracefully are these great buildings propor-
tioned, that the mind fails at first to appreciate
their enormous size. It is only when, standing
beneath the pillars, the bases of which, alone, are
higher than a man's stature, that one can believe the
columns to be seventy-five feet liigh. Even the
rich tracery of the roofs and cornices, is scarcely
more striking than the orange rusty colour which
the stone has assumed in weathering. As at
Jerusalem, this colour is most remarkable on the
side from which the winter storms beat on the
ruins.

The position of the Kul'ah, or " Castle," as the
enclosure is called, is very low ; but the plateau is
supported on vaults some thirty feet high, the
space enclosed being, roughly, 1000 feet east and
west, by 400 north and south. On the east is a
hexagonal structure, with a vestibule, to which a
flight of magnificent steps originally led up, but
was destroyed by the Saracens in converting the
temple into a fortress.

The hexagon and the gi'eat court beyond, are
surrounded with alcoves, most richly decorated,
and once including statues, which now, no doubt,
lie hidden beneath the rubbish. The domed roofs
of the alcoves are all richly carved ; in one, a

DAMASCUS, BAALBEK, AND HERMON. 255

head surrounded with a web of scaly wings ; in
another, a winsfed draofon straofGrhno- over the
whole roof. The shattered shafts of granite
columns lie before the recesses, and mounds of
rubbish cover the floor.

A Christian basilica once stood close to the
Sun Temple ; but its dimensions are dwarfed bj
the husre columns, which seem to bear witness
to the grandeur of the genius of their Roman
founder, dwarfing the puny attempts of Byzantine
art and intellect. The church is all gone, except
the foundations. The great 2:)illars of the Sun
Temple have fallen one by one ; but six weather-
beaten survivors still resist the fury of the winter
aiid the constant eating away of the frost, though
their bases have all been sapjied, by the Turks, in
seeking for the metal cores run into the joints.
The pillars are seventy-five feet high, and seven
and a half feet in diameter ; the cornice has a
weight of nearly four tons to the square foot.
As the capitals of some pillars are worn away, and
the bases of all six are undermined, they cannot
be expected long to remain standing, and any
winter may bring the destruction of the most
eastern column, and perhaps of the next two.

The method of erection of these huofe masses
of masonry remains a mystery. The Egyptian
obelisks were monolithic, and could be swuno; into
a vertical position ; but the building up of the
three great stones in a shaft, the placing of its

25G TENT WORK IN TALESTINE

capital, and the crowning labour of raising the
cornice blocks into position, seem to require super-
human power, and the simple explanation of the
Arabs, that the sons of the Jann were employed
to pile the huge masses, seems almost a tempting
theory.

The most beautiful and perfect building is the
smaller Temple of Jupiter, to the south. It is 118
feet long east and west, by sixty-five feet broad, in
Xhoi interior, Avith a porch twenty-six feet wide, in
fi'ont. The coorway, twenty-one feet broad, was
spanned by a lintel in three pieces. The central
block, or key-stone, weighing sixty tons, has
slipped down, and is suj^ported on a wall built by
the Turks. Five attached columns, with fluted
shafts, are built against each wall inside, and a
rich cornice runs above them, whilst two rows of
brackets, with canopies over them, once held
statues between the pillars. The carving of the
canopies is marvellously bold and intricate ; every
detail is sharply cut ; the rosettes and graceful
arabesques stand out almost separated from the
stone. The wall across the temple, dividing off
the altar part, is covered with graceful undulating
figures, unfortunately headless ; beneath are great
A'^aults, covered with hard cement.

The door, forty-two feet high in the clear, has
huge jambs in three courses, inside each of wdiich
a little staircase is hollowed out, asccndinir to
the roof. The cornice above the door is per-

DAMASCUS, BAALBEK, AND HERMON. 257

haps the richest design of all ; and, on the soffit,
or under side, a huge spread eagle is flanked by
winged genii and wreaths. A correct drawing of
one niche in Baalbek would take a day to do, and
there are at least two hundred such niches.

The temple of Jupiter is surrounded by a
cloister, comparatively narrow — eight feet ten
inches in the clear — its columns fifty-eight feet
hiofh. The low-arched roof above is covered with
colossal busts in high rehef, set in frames of rich
design. The effect of height, obtained by the
very great disproportion in width, is more strik-
ing than even that of the loftier Six Columns.

Nine pillars remain on the north side of the
cloister, and the roof, with its sculptured kings,
queens, and warriors holding palm branches, is
intact ; but the rich cornice is dropping piece-
meal from above. On the south only three pillars
remain standing, and one great shaft leans against
the walls, its three stones still adhering firmly
together.

The greatest marvel of Baalbek has, however,
still to be noticed. The w^estern fortress-wall is
intact, and consists of drafted stones fifteen to
twenty feet long ; the third course from the
ground is composed, however, of three huge
blocks, each more than sixty-three feet long. In
the c[uarry lies a fourth, sixty-eight feet long,
thirteen feet eight inches broad, fourteen feet
high, along which three horsemen might ride

VOL. I. 17

258 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

abreast ; it is called the '' pregnant stone," from a
leo-end which is also found connected with the
great column of the Huldah gate in the Temple.

Such are the main features of this mightiest
temple ever built by Roman genius. In size
Baalbek dwarfs Palmyra, and equals it in rich-
ness of workmanship. No doubt the super-
abundance of ornamentation is a mark of de-
cadence in art; but the magnificence of the
proportions seems to allow of any amount of
tracery, without injury to the effect as a whole.

The sun was getting low as I sat sketching the
Six Columns, which stood out dark and desolate
against the glowing sky. A stork stood on one leg
on the cornice; his mate was in a nest below. As
I turned eastward, the scene was yet grander.
The Temple of Jupiter was in dark shadow, with
a foreground of tumbled columns, like fallen giants,
sprawling over crushed blocks and ruined cornices.
The wall on which I sat was battered in by the
thud of one huge shaft tossed against it. Beyond
the temple, the rich tracery of the Moslem milirah
on the south wall was visible ; and, behind this
again, was the dark foliage of mulberries, poplars,
and willows, and the bare grey hills tipped with
crimson from the setting sun.

It was indeed an impressive scene; the majesty
of the Pagan, the pride of the Moslem, super-
human power and inexhaustible fancy — all alike
things of the past ; and beyond the puny works

DAMASCUS, BAALBEK, AND HERMON. 259

of man, the " everlasting hills/' Avith the rose of
evening on their summits, unchanged as they
stood long before the golden plates of the great
temple had first caught the dying beams, and as
they may still glow evening after evening, long
after the huo;e columns have crumbled to dust.
The stork stood on one leg, and no doubt con-
sidered the matter ; the stars came out one by
one, and unbroken stillness prevailed throughout
the ruins.

On the 21st we rode back to Bludan, and on
Monday, the 8th of September, w^e again set out,
this time in company with Mr. Kirby Green, on
an expedition to the summit of Hermon.

The first day's ride was a long one. Pushing
rapidly over the Zebdany plain, we reached, in three
hours, the French road, and, crossing it, ascended a
long valley, bare and grey with chfFs and a few
oak bushes. We passed the famous temple called
Deir-el-Ashaiyeh, described by Captain Warren,
and then lost our way; butw^ere at length directed
by a charcoal-burner — one of the very few natives
whom we met — to the little village of Rukhleh,
on the steep barren slopes of Hermon. Here we
were joined by Mr. Wright and Sergeant Arm-
strong, from Damascus. We visited the ruins
and copied several inscriptions.

There are at Kukhleh two temples, one called
" the Kinof's Castle :" there is also a tower on a
rocky knoll, and a Christian church built of the

1.7—2

260 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

fragments of the temples. In the church wall
is part of a lintel representing an eagle, and a
fine block with a head in bold relief, surrounded
by a circle ornamented with honeysuckle pattern ;
the head is nearly five feet high.

In the afternoon we continued our ride along a
rugged mountain path, passing by Kefr Kuk,
where are beautiful vineyards, and a plain, which
in winter becomes a lake, the water rushing out
suddenly, with a roaring noise, from a cavern, and
floodino^ the w^hole area.

Passing by Aiha, where are remains of another
temple, we hurried on to the large town of Rash-
aiyeh, built about half-way up the side of Her-
mon, and presenting a striking appearance, in the
moonlight, with long slopes of vineyard, terrace
above terrace — a cataract of green trailing fohage.
Our entry was triumphal. The Lieutenant-
Governor, on a grey steed, pranced forth to re-
ceive the English Consul's party, at the head of
an army of ten men, who formed line and pre-
sented arms. The cavalry — six irregulars in all
— galloped somewhat wildly about, and^ one rider
was kicked over his horse's head ; we then got
jammed in a narrow street, the horses fought, and
the Kaimakam (or Governor) was nearly kicked,
and retired hastily.

The summit of Hemion was only about three
hours distant from Rashai^^eh; so we did not
start till late next day. A reception was first

DAMASCUS, BAALBEK, AND HERMON. 261

held in the httle whitewashed room in which we
slept. The Governor, the Kadi, the Druse Sheikh,
the Greek pope, the Protestant schoolmaster, and
their friends, all came together to do honour to
the Consul. At the farther end of the room sat
three old Druses, seemingly dyers — as their hands
were blue with indigo — who expressed extreme
approval of every remark that was made, and
laughed loudly at the slightest symptom of a
joke.

According to etiquette, the Governor's visit was
returned in half an hour's time. The military
again turned out, and lemonade was brought by a
soldier, who held an embroidered cloth under our
chins as we drank. The Governor was old and
fat, with a cough ; he was informed that I came
to look at the stars from the top of Hermon, and
supposed it was because they could be seen better
at so sTeat a heio^ht, beino^ so much nearer.

We commenced the ascent of some 5000 feet
about 10.30 a.m., passing fii'st through the fine
vineyards, into which the bears often come down,
from the summit, to eat grapes ; thence along
lanes with stone walls, passing bushes of wild
rose, of oak, and of hawthorn, and honeysuclde
in flower. We thus reached the bottom of the
main peak, consisting entirely of grey rocks, worn
by snow and rain into jagged teeth and ridges,
covered with a loose shingle or gravel. It seemed
impossible for horses, and still more for laden

262 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

mules, to toil up ; Lut the breeze grew fresher,
and the bracing mountain air seemed to give
visfour to man and beast. Kestinor at intervals,
we gradually clambered up, passing by the little
cave where the initiated Druses retire, for three
or four months, and perform unknown rites.
Ridge above ridge, of rock and grey gravel,
appeared, each seemingly the last, each only
hidinsf one above. Not an animal was to be
seen, except an occasional vulture, and not a tree
or shrub, for the snow covers all this part of the
mountain till late in summer. By two o'clock I
stood on the summit, and the rest soon followed.

A glorious panorama repaid us for our labour.
South of us lay Palestine, visible as far as Carmel
and Tabor, some eighty miles away ; eastwards a
broad plain, with detached hills on the dim horizon
beyond ; westwards the Lebanon and the golden
sea ; northwards, mountains as high as Hermon,
Lebanon, and Anti-Lebanon.

As the sun sank lower, Palestine became more
distinct, and appeared wonderfully narrow. The
calm, green Sea of Galilee lay, dreamlike, in its
circle of dark grey hills. Tabor was just visible
to the south, and from it the plateau ran out east
to the Horns of Hattin. The broken chain of
the Upper Galilean Hills, 4000 feet high, lay be-
neath the eye, and terminated in the Ladder of
Tyre. The mole of Tyre stood out black against
the gleaming water ; and the deep gorge of the

DAMASCUS, BAALBEK, AND HERMON. 263

Litany could be seen winding past the beautiful
fortress of Belfort. Dim and misty beyond, lay
the ridge of Carmel, from the promontory to the
peak of Sacrifice. The white domes in Tiberias
were shining in the sun, and many of the
Galilean towns, including Safed, could be distin-
guished.

The scene presented a great contrast on the
east and west. In the brown, desolate, and
boundless plain to the east, stood the distant
green oasis of Damascus, and the white city, with
its tall minarets. The flat horizon was broken
only by the peaks of Jebel Kuleib, the " Hill of
Bashan," some seventy miles away. South-east
of Damascus was the terrible Lejja district, a
basin of basalt seamed with deep gorges, like
rough furrows, and with isolated cones, into which
one appeared to look dowTi, so distinctly were the
shadows marked inside the hollow broken craters.
No trees or water relieved the dusky colour ; but
the great dust whirhvinds were swirling slowly
along over the plains, the bodies, as the Arabs
tell us, of huge malignant spirits, carrying destruc-
tion in their path. At the foot of the mountain
little villages were perched on the rocks, and a
stream glittered in a green valley. In most of
these hamlets there is a temple facing the rising
sun, which appears first from behind the great
plain on the east.

On the west, high mountain walls, ridge behind

264 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

ridge, reached out towards Beyrout, and, on the
north, cedar chimps and ragged peaks, grey and
dark with long sweeping shadows, w^ere thro\\Ti in
stronof contrast ao^ainst the shininof sea.

The sun began to set, a deep ruby flush came
over all the scene, and warm purple shadows
crept slowly on. The Sea of Galilee was lit up
with a delicate greenish-yellow hue, between its dim
walls of hill. The flush died out in a few minutes,
and a pale, steel-coloured shade succeeded, although
to us, at a height of 9150 feet, the sun was still
visible, and the rocks around us still ruddy.

A long pyramidal shadow slid down to the
eastern foot of Hermon, and crept across the great
plain ; Damascus was swallowed up by it, and
finally the pointed end of the shadow stood out
distinctly against the sky — a dusky cone of dull
colour against the flush of the afterglow. It was
the shadow of the mountain itself, stretching
away for seventy miles across the plain — the most
marvellous shadow perhaps to be seen anywhere.

The sun underwent strange changes of shape in
the thick vapours — now almost square, now like a
domed temple — until at length it slid into the sea,
and went out like a blue spark.

Our tent was pitched in the hollow, and six
beds crowded into it. Until one in the morning
we continued to observe the stars, but the cold was
very considerable, tliough no snow was left, and
the only water we had was fetched from a spring

DAMASCUS, BAALBEK, AND HERMON. 2G5

about a third of the way down, and tasted horribly
of the goat-skin. In the morning I ran to the
peak, and saw the sun emerge behind the distant
plain, and the great conical shadow, stretching
over the sea and against the western sky, becom-
ing gradually more blunt, until it shiivelled up
and was lost upon the hills beneath.

The top of Hermon consists of three rocky
peaks ; two, north and south, of equal height, the
third, to the west, considerably lower. On the
southern peak are the ruins called Kusr esh
Shabib — a rock-hewn hollow or trench, and a cir-
cular dwarf- wall, with a temple just below the
peak on the south. On the plateau is a rudely-
excavated cave, with a rock-cut pillar supporting
the roof, and a flat space levelled above, probably
once the floor of a building over the cave. Of all
these objects of interest we made careful plans, as
well as of the shape of the summit.

There is one remarkable natural peculiarity of
Hermon still to be noticed — namely, the extreme
rapidity of the formation of cloud on the summit.
In a few minutes a thick cap forms over the top
of the mountain, and as quickly disperses and en-
tirely disappears.

In the accounts of our Lord's Transfisfuration,
we read that whilst staying at Ccesarea PhilijDpi,
He retired with His disciples to a " high moun-
tain apart ;" and there can be but little doubt that
some part of Hermon, and very probably the sum-

2GG

TENT WORK JN PALESTINE.

mit,is intended. From the earliest period the moun-
tain has been a sacred place ; in later times it was
covered with temples ; to the present day it is a
2)lace of retreat for the Druses. This lofty solitary
peak seems wonderfully appropriate for the scene
of so important an event ; and in this connection
the cloud formation is most interesting, if we
remember the cloud which suddenly overshadowed
the Apostles and as suddenly cleared away, when
they found " no man any more, save Jesus only,
with themselves." (Mark ix. 8.)

--^^

CHAPTER IX.

A M S O N ' S COUNTRY.

We descended from the summit of Hermon on
the south-east, through Kul'at el Jindil, where
Nimrod is said to He buried, whence it arises that
no dew ever falls in the village ; thence, by the
gorge of the Barada, we marched back in one day
to Bludan.

On the 13th of September I again rode to
Damascus, and paid a most interesting visit to
Abd el Kader. On the 24th we struck our tents
and marched out of our pleasant mountain-camp,
bound for Jerusalem and the hills of Judah. I
was sorry to leave my kind hosts, but anxious to
be once more in the field. Nineteen pack-animals
and eight horses now formed the travelling-party,
and wound in a long procession down the hill.
Next day we reached Beyrout, in the early after
noon, and after three days' rest, set out, on
Monday, to march down the coast to Jaffa.

The animals had been so badly cared for, by the
native servants, in the journey up the coast^ that

268 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

I determined not airain to trust them in their
hands. Wo were also able to shoot and stuff
specimens of the sea-birds on our way, an oppor-
tunity which did not recur.

Leaving Bey rout and its pine plantations, we
struck the ancient coast road, which was once
carefully paved with large blocks, and apparently
made of concrete, above this foundation. We
halted under the oleanders of the River Damur,
which is spanned by a fine Roman bridge, beside
which is a modern one of iron. Six hours' ridinsr
brought us to Sidon, jutting out into the sea,
with well-built houses, and ruins of the famous
harbour, in which the water is now not over four
feet deep.

A mule unfortunately fell lame, and thus, when
the sun set, we found ourselves in the streets of
the town, without any shelter for the night or
anything to eat. The French convent refused to
take us in, on the plea that the Superior was ill
and could not be disturbed. In the streets we
were greeted only with sour looks from the fana-
tical Moslems ; but at length Ave found hospitable
shelter in the house of a Maltese, who w^as the
American Consular Agent ; his brother, who re-
presented England, was dead, but six others, re-
presenting France, Germany, Austria, etc., etc.,
all live in Sidon, and three fiasfs floated over our
host's house. It struck me that, in case of a war
between France and Denmark, a dignitary who.

SAMSON'S COUNTRY. -269

in liis own person, represented both nations, as
did one of these brothers, must find himself unable
to be on speaking terms with himself in his second
capacity.

On the 30th of September we left at eight a.m.,
and rode to Tyre, about twenty-four miles. It
was a very hot day, and the dull shore and shape-
less hills were alike uninteresting. Tyre is a long,
flat town, running out into the peninsula, once
an island, and is crowned by a minaret. It is
less picturesque in appearance than Sidon, which
is surrounded w4th beautiful gardens, in which the
banana is grown. A fine esplanade on the south-
west, by the southern harbour of Tyre, formed a
good camping- ground, and in the basin, now
choked with fallen pillars and blocks of masonry,
we were able to bathe luxuriously. The port on
the north is less striking than that at Sidon,
where the tower, on the entrance reef, beside the
sea-gate which was once closed nightly by a
chain, is remarkable for the great size of its
masonry.

The third day's march was a long one ; for as
no accommodation could be found at Acre, we de-
termined to push on as far as Haifa, which is
forty miles by road from Tyi'e — a distance accom-
plished by the horses in nine and a half hours'
riding, and by the mules in fourteen hours. Our
route lay first round the shallow Bay of Tyre,
and the sand was covered in the early morning by

270 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

innumerable crabs, which scampered towards the
sea as we approached, or hid behind the httle
sand hillocks.

It was a briMit morninfj, and fresher than the
day before. We ascended the pass round the
*' White Headland," where the road is cut into
rocky steps, on a gleaming chalky cliff covered
with dark mastic bushes, Avith deep green water
a hundred feet below, plashing against the rocks,
and surcrinof into the caverns. We then rode alonor
a stony shore, leaving on our left the pillars of
Alexandroschene ; and hence we came to a fine
gravel road, running over the promontory of Na-
kura, the ancient Ladder of Tyi'e. Rounding this
point, we saw, stretched before us, the whole ex-
tent of the Bay of Acre, and Haifa, beneath Car-
mel, twenty- two miles off.

We soon descended the promontory, and rested
at the edge of the plain, under a fig-tree, in a palm-
garden by a running stream ; thence we passed
by gardens, mud villages, a long line of c}3)resses,
and a poplar hedge ; by the beautiful country seat
called El Bahjeh, and its shady joines; along a
road hedged with prickly pear, and through fields
of chaff. Yet Acre seemed a long way off, and
the great aqueduct stretched, arch after arch, in
endless line. At last we came to the shore
near the Belus, but had still two hours' riding
round the bay. The horses were hot and tired,
and the soft sand was wearisome ; but at length

SAMSON'S COUNTRY. 271

we reached the Kishon ford, and soon after the
comfortable hotel of Herr Kraft, in the German
colony, where we were among old friends.

It was desirable, after so long a march, to give
the beasts some rest ; so on the next day we went
only twelve miles, as far as our old camping-
ground at Jeb'a, where I shot and stuffed one of
the " boomehs," or small owls.

The fifth day was the hardest ride of the jour-
ney— ten and a half hours for a distance of 44
miles, after four days' riding, with a previous total
of 100 miles. It spoke well for the pluck and con-
dition of our horses, that not one suffered by the
journey, and that all were afterwards fit for work
within a few days' time. The day was cool, and
fleecy clouds covered the sky; thus, with one hour's
rest, we arrived at Jaffa by 6.30 in the evening.

It was a matter of congratulation to remember
that the desolate desert of Sharon, through which
we now travelled, was already thoroughly ex-
plored. Neither tree nor drinkable water did we
find for many miles ; sand, coarse grass, thistles,
and marshy tracts covered with rushes, succeeded
one another.

Our midday halt was made on the brink of a
marshy river ; and here we saw, stalking in the
plain, a long string of the Nefei'at, or " club-
bearing " Arabs, the scoundrels who had attacked
Sergeant Armstrong in the spring. They now
emerged from the marsh just as we mounted our

272 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

horses, and as they were fully armed and unac-
companied by women, we suspected their inten-
tions ; but they showed the usual Bedawin caution
in not attacking well-armed men who were ready
prepared for them. We arrived, at length, at the
dry bed of the " Roche Taillo " River, and found
it full of luxuriant papyrus. At four p.m. we came
in sight of the dark hump on which Jaffa stands ;
and, soon after, passing by the ruins of 'Arsuf, we
forded the 'Aujeh, which, even so late as the 1st
of October, was up to the girths, and, from its
banks, a sharp canter brought us to the hotel,
where I found my other two men comfortably
installed, for Sergeant Armstrong only accom-
panied me, while Sergeant Black and Corporal
Brophy went by sea with heavy stores.

Thus, in a continuous march of five days, with
pack-animals, we had come 144 miles — a distance
equal to the total length of Palestine — and not
one of our beasts Avas laid up, or refused its feed
in the evening. Although I have, subsequently,
ridden farther at a stretch than the distance we
rode on any one day in this march, we never un-
dertook another journey so trying to our animals.

Arriving at Jafia on Friday, wc rested until
Monday, and then rode up to Jerusalem, where
we remained until Friday, the 10th of October,
and thence marched out, to re-commence the Sur-
vey from a camp at Beit 'Atab, a village in the
hills some twelve miles south-west of Jerusalem.

SAMSON'S COUNTRY. 273

The new district is one of considerable interest
from a Biblical point of view. It is called the
'Arkub, or "■ ridge/' and consists of a long spur,
about 2000 feet above the sea, Avith numerous
smaller ridges branching off, and two important
valleys to the north and south — the first the
Valley of Sorek, the second that of Elah. Our
camp was a place of considerable interest, if I am
correct in identifying it with the Kock Etam, in
which Samson took refuge from the Philistines.
West of us were Sorek, Zoreah, Eshtaol, and
Bethshemesh ; and east of us Bother, the scene of
the great destruction of the partisans of Barco-
cheba, and Beth Zacharias, the theatre of the
battle in which Eleasar, the Hasmonean, perished
under the elephant. These various sites are worthy
of special notice as places of general interest.

Three places called Etam are noticed in the
Old Testament. One a town of the south coun-
try (1 Chron. iv. 32), probably the place which
Ave discovered in 1874, called 'Aitun; the second,
a city fortified by Behoboam (2 Chron. xi. 6),
near Bethlehem and Tekoa, and Avhich has pro-
bably left its name in the spring called 'A in
'Atan, near the so-called Solomon's Pools. The
third Etam does not seem to have been a toAvn at
all, but " a strong rock," as Josephus calls it, in
the territory of Judah, and is to be sought in that
part of the country to Avhich most of Samson's
exploits are confined. (Judg. xv. 8.)

VOL. I. ]8

274 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

About two miles west of Beit 'Atab, a valley,
running north and south, separates the high rugged
mountains of the 'Arkub from the low rolling
hills of the Shephelah district, beyond which is
the Philistine plain. This valley joins the great
gorge which bounded Judah on the north, and
forms a broad vale, half a mile across, filled with
luxuriant corn, with a pebbly torrent-bed in the
middle, and low white hills on either side. The
vale is called Wady Surar (a Hebrew word, mean-
ing "pebbles"), and is the ancient Valley of Sorek.
The ruins of Bethshemesh lie on a knoll surrounded
by olive-groves, near the junction of the two val-
leys above mentioned. On the south is Timnah,
where Samson slew the lion ; and on the north
are the little mud villages, Sur'a and Eshu'a — the
ancient Zoreah and Eshtaol — the hero's home.
The scene, looking up the great corn valley to the
high and rugged hills above, is extremely pic-
turesque, and is that which was spread before the
eyes of the five lords of the Philistines, as they
followed the lowing oxen, which bore the ark on
the " straight way" from Ekron to Bethshemesh.

Here also, at the edge of the mountains, is the
village of Deir Aban, supposed, by the early
Christians, to mark the site of Ebenezer, the
boundary of Samuel's pursuit of the Philistines,
and of the land held by the Jews at that period.
On the north brink of the Vale of Sorek (in
'svhich also Delilah lived) there is a conspicuous

SAMSON'S COUNTRY. £75

white chapel on the hill, dedicated to Neby
Samit, and close to the village of Zoreah. Con-
fused traditions — which are, however, probably
of Christian origin — connect this prophet with
Samson, whose name is recognisable in other
parts of this district under the forms Shemshun,
Sanasin, and 'Aly (as at Gaza), and also a little
farther south as Shemsin and Samat. It appears
probable that the tomb now shown at Zoreah, is
that known, to the Jews, in the fourteenth century
as Samson's ; and the tradition, thus traced to
other than monkish origin, is very possibly as
genuine as that which fixes the tombs of Joseph
and Phinehas near Shechem. Here, then, we are
in Samson's country, and close to Zoreah we
should naturally look for the Rock Etam.

The substitution of B for M is so common (as
in Tibneh for Timnah), that the name " 'Atab "
may very properly represent the Hebrew Etam
(or " eagle's nest "); and there are other indications
of the identity of the site. It is pre-eminently a
"rock" — a knoll of hard limestone, without a
handful of arable soil, standing, above deep ravines,
by three small springs. The place is also one
which has long been a hiding-place, and the
requirements of the Bible story are met in a
remarkable way; for the word rendered "top of
the Bock Etam" is in reality "cleft" or " chasm ;"
and such a chasm exists here — a long, narrow
cavern, such as Samson might well have "gone

18—2

27G TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

down " into, and which bears the su^jxestive name
Hastita, meaning " refuge" in Hebrew, but having
in modern Arabic no sisfnification at all.

This remarkable " cave of refugee " is two hun-
dred and fifty feet long, eighteen feet wide, and
five to eiofht feet hio^h: its south-west end is under
the centre of the modern village ; its north-east
extremity, W'here is a rock shaft, ten feet deep,
leading down from the surface of the hill, is within
sixty yards of the principal spring.

The identification thus proposed for the Rock
Etam is, T believe, quite a new one ; and it cannot,
I think, fail to be considered satisfactory, if we
consider the modern name, the position, and the
existence of this remarkable chasm. Ramath
Lehi, where the Philistines asseml)led when
searching for Samson (Judg. xv. 9 — 10), is natur-
ally to be sought in the vicinity of Zoreah —
Samson's home, and of the Rock Etam where he
took refuo^e.

A little way north-west of Zoreah, seven miles
from Beit 'Atab, is a low hill, on the slope of
which are springs called Ayun Abu Meharib, or
the " fountains of the place of battles." Close by
is a little Moslem chapel, dedicated to Sheikh
Nedhir, or "the Nazarite chief;" and, higher up,
a ruin with the extraordinary title Ism Allah — >
" the name of God." The Nazarite chief is pro-
bably Samson, whose memory is so well preserved
in this small district, and the place is perhaps

SAMSOJV'S COUNTRY. 277

connected with a tradition of one of his exploits.
The Ism Allah is possibly a corruption of Esm'a
Allah — " God heard " — in which case the incident
intended will be the battle of Kamath Lehi.
Finally, we were informed by a native of the
place that the sj)rings were sometimes called
'Ayim Kara, in which name we should recognise
easily the En Hak-Kore, or " fountain of the
crier," (Judg. xv. 19.)

To say that this spot certainly represents E,a-
math Lt'hi — " the hill of the jaw-bone " — would
be too bold. It seems, however, clear, that a
tradition of one of Samson's exploits lingers here ;
the position is appropriate for the scene of the
slaughter with the jaw-bone, and we have not
succeeded in finding any other likely site.

Next in interest to the scenery of Samson's hfe
comes the site of Bother, the scene of the final
overthrow of the Jewish power in Palestine by
the Romans.

Bar Choseba, the Jewish leader, possibly took
his name from the town Choseba, which is per-
haps the modern Kueiziba. Claiming to be the
long-expected King-Messiah, he assumed the title
Bar Cocheba — " Son of the Star" — and it is re-
markable that near Kueiziba, not far south-east
of B ether, is the sacred tomb of Abu Nujeim,
which in the vulgar dialect means " Son of the
Star." His last retreat was Bether, a stronsf fort-
ress, near Jerusalem, and forty Jewish miles from

278 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

the sea. For three years and a half the fanatical
party here held out, and are said to have been
finally betrayed by a Samaritan.

Dion Cassius relates that 580,000 Jews were
massacred when the fortress fell. Habbi Akiba,
the friend and banner-bearer of Bar Choseba, was
flayed alive, repeating with his last breath the
noble words of the Shema, or morning prayer of
the Temple : '' Hear, O Israel ! the Lord our God
is one Lord." (Deut. vi. 4.) The valley below
Bether is said, in the Talmud, to have run blood
to the sea, and the E-omans lost a great number
of troops in the siege. The power of the Jews
Avas broken for ever by a destruction which must,
have decimated the nation, and the seat of the'
Sanhedrim was withdrawn finally to Galilee, having
been situated at Jamnia up to this date since the
time of the destruction of Jerusalem.

The only site "which seems really suited for the
important fortress of B ether is the village Bittir,
on the south side of the valley of the same name,
thirty-five English miles from the sea, and about j
five from Jerusalem. On every side, except the
south, it is surrounded by deep and rugged gorges, i
and it is supplied with fresh water from a spring
above the village. On the north the position]
would have been impregnable, as steep cliffs rise
from the bottom of the ravine, upon which the
houses are perched. The name exactly represents]
the Hebrew, and the distances agree with those]

I

SAMSON'S COUNTRY. 279

noticed by Eusebius and in the Talmud. Nor
must the curious title be forgotten, which is
applied to a shapeless mass of ruin on the hill,
immediately west of Bittir, for the name, Khurbet
el Yehud — "ruin of the Jews" — may be well
thought to hand down traditionally among the
natives of the neighbourhood the memory of the
great catastrophe of Bether.

The lofty but narrow ridge of the watershed
which runs out south fi:om Bittir is the scene of
another great tragedy in Jewish history, it is a
bare and rocky hill, the summit of which, 3260
feet above the sea, is called Bas Sherifeh, and it
extends to a lower saddle, upon which stand the
ruins of Beit Skaria, the ancient Beth Zachariah.
The ridge commands a fine view both east and
west, being the very backbone of Judea. On the
one side are the bare white hills round Beth-
lehem, and the fantastic peaks of the Judean
Desert, with the great wall of the Moab moun-
tains far beyond ; on the other, the long spurs of
the 'Arkub, resembling waves, with gleams of
white chalk, like the surf, on their sides.

From a military point of view, the position is a
fine one. The great western road from the plain
ran beneath the hill-top, gradually ascencUng,
and was joined by a second main Boman highway
from the south-west ; while the Hebron road was
also commanded on the other side. The very
£teep slopes on the east, and the precipices and

280 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

deep valleys on the west, rendered the position
impregnable on its flanks, and in rear the retreat
to Jerusalem was easy, while abundant water was
obtainable from neighbouring springs.

Such was the position in which Judas Mac-
cabeus, with true military instinct, awaited the
attack of Antiochus, emerging from the difficult
defiles between Bethzur, and Beth Zacharias, into
the more open ground near the so-called Solomon's
Pools. The Jews were apparently not expert
horsemen at this period of their history, any more
than at the present day; and the superiority of
the Greeks in cavalry and in elephants must have
been almost neutralised by the character of the
ground. Few scenes have been more vividly
described in history than the impetuous advance
of the Greek army, the shining of their brazen
helmets, and the ponderous wooden towers upon
their elephants, the devotion of Eleazar, and the
timely retreat of Judas.

The rido-e of Beth Zacharias was also the scene
of a triumph over the native peasantry, which we
owed to the kind offices of our friend Mr. Moore.
I had erected a small cairn on the hill-top, which
was pulled down by unknown hands, and I ac-
cordingly sent a complaint to the Consulate. On
the 24th of October, I met M. Selamy, the Con-
sul's secretary, at the spot; and on arriving I
found, to my astonishment, a crowd of peasants
busily engaged in constructing a huge f)ile, fifteen

SAMSON'S COUNTRY. 281

feet hisi'h. The inhabitants of the suiToundinof
villages of Haiisan, el Khudr and Nehbalin had
all been pressed into the service. Soldiers had been
sent to each place by the Governor of Jerusalem
at Mr. Moore's request; the men were not allowed
to go to plough, nor the goat-herds to take out
their flocks, until the work was done. The huge
conical cairn was whitewashed all over ; and there
it probably still stands, under the protection of
the Greek pope of El Khudr, a landmark visible
for twenty miles round. The moral eflecfc of this
prompt action was immense, and the Survey party
received no molestation from any natives within
the district afterwards. To the energy and
promptitude of the Consul we therefore owed a
very material improvement in the facility with
which we were able to carry out our work.

vol.. 1.

Com STAN tine's Basilica at Bethlehem.

CHAPTER X.

BETHLEHEM AND MAR SABA.

The tradition which fixes the grotto in the old
basihca at Bethlehera, as the site of the stable
where Christ was born, is the most venerable of
its kind in existence, the place being noticed by
Justin Martyr in the second century. It is
almost the only site which we can trace earlier
than the time of Constantino, and the tradition
seems to me credible, because, throughout this
part of Palestine, there are innumerable instances
of stables cut in rock, resembling the Bethlehem

BETHLEHEM AND MAR SABA. 283

grotto. Such stables I have planned and mea-
sured at Tekoa, 'Aziz, and other places south of
Bethlehem, and the mangers existing in them
leave no doubt as to their use and character.

The credibility of this tradition thus appears to
be far greater than that attaching to the later dis-
coveries, by which the enthusiastic Helena, and the
politic Constantine settled the scenes of other
Christian events ; and the rude grotto with its
rocky manger may^ it seems to me, be accepted
even by the most sceptical of modern explorers.

Bethlehem is a long town of solidly-built stone
houses, crowning the summit of two knolls, con-
nected by a lower saddle, on a white chalk ridge,
with steep declivities to the north and south. The
monastery and basilica are at the east end of the
town, overlooking the northern valley. The popu-
lation of 5000 souls, is almost entirely Christian,
and the inhabitants are remarkable for their enter-
prise and energy in trade. The contrast between
Bethlehem and Hebron is very striking ; it is the
contrast between Christianity and Islam, between
the vitality of the religion of progress and civili-
sation and the hopeless stagnation of a fatalistic
creed. Hebron is a city of the past, wrapped in
contemplation of its sacred tombs. Bethlehem
is a thriving modern town — the birthplace of a
faith that looks forward rather than back.

The Church of the Viro-in now stands inside a
fortress monastery, in which Latin, Greek, and

284 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

Armenian monks find a common retreat. The
basilica was erected, according to cotemporary
evidence, by order of Constantine, and is thus the
oldest church in Palestine, and perhaps in the
world. It has escaped destruction on every occa-
sion when other churches in Palestine were over-
thrown, and the greater part of the work is stated,
by competent authority, to be of the original
design. In the eleventh century, when the mad
Caliph Hakim destroyed the Holy Sepulchre
churches, the Bethlehem basilica was spared ; in
1099 the Crusaders sent a detachment of troops to
protect it, and it thus again escaped, nor was it des-
troyed in the thirteenth century, although threat-
ened by the Moslems. In this basilica, therefore,
we have the only undisputed erection of the time
of Constantine in Palestine, and its value cannot
be overrated.

Architectural authorities are of opinion that
our information as to the progress of Byzantine
art in the East is still very imperfect. M. de
Yogue has done much to elucidate the subject, in
his work on the great buildings of northern Syria,
many of which are dated with exactitude. In
Palestine we have two valuable examples, one of
fourth century, and one of sixth century architec-
ture'— the basilica at Bethlehem, and Justinian's
fortress on Gerizim, with which we may compare
rains of unknown date ; and in the first we find
M. de Yoglio's ooinion confirmed, with respect

BETHLEHEM AND MAR SABA. 285

to the slowness with which Byzantine art deve-
loped in style in the East, in comparison with the
more rapid progress of the western Romanesque.

The basilica is moreover interesting because its
general plan resembles, very closely, the description
given by Eusebius of Constantino's buildings over
the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. On the west
was an atrium or outer court, parts of the outer
w^alls of which and shafts of its columns still re-
main. A narrow vestibule or narthex, entered
by a door scarcely four feet high, leads into the
basilica itself, wdiich consists of a nave and four
aisles, with four rows of eleven columns each, a
total breadth of about thirty yards, and a leng-th
about equal.

The aisles have flat roofs, above the pillars which
^re nineteen feet hio-h but the nave has a cleres-
tory, with walls some thirty feet high above the
capitals, and a pointed roof. A w^all has been
built across the east end of the basilica, separating
off the chancel, w4iich has three apses, north,
south, and east, and which forms the Greek church.
Beneath the chancel is the Grotto of the Na-
tivity. North of the basilica is the more modern
Latin chapel of St. Catherine, from which a
staircase leads down to vaults communicating
with the Grotto.

The shafts are monoliths of red and white
marble, painted with figures of saints, now dim
with age, and scrawled over with the crests and

286 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

titles of knightly jiilgrims of the Crusading ages.
The capitals are of the Corinthian order, debased in
style, with the cross carved on the rosettes of
each. The wall above was once decorated all over
Avith glass mosaic, fragments of which still remain,
representing scenes in our Lord's life, portraits of
angels and of Scripture characters, wuth arabesques
and Greek inscriptions. These mosaics, with those
on the chancel walls, were executed by order of
the Greek Emperor, Manuel Comnenos, in the
middle of the twelfth century. The roof above,
once painted and gilded, was put up in 1482, the
fine rafters having been given by Philip of Bur-
gundy, the lead (stripped off later by the Moslems
to make bullets) by Edward IV. of England; and
the w^ork w^as executed in Venice, and brought on
camels from Jaffa. Further restorations were
made in 1478, and again in 1672 and 1842, but the
majority of the work appears to belong to the
orioinal structure of the time of Constantine.

On the 24th of October, 1873, we first ap-
proached Bethlehem from the west, passing by the
great tanks near Urtas, commonly called Solo-
mon's Pools, but more probably of the same date
with the aqueduct passing by them, which was
constructed by Pontius Pilate.

The olive harvest had commenced, and pictu-
resque groups were gathered in the groves, whilst
little hammocks for the babies were sluns: between
the trees. The Bethlehem women are famous for

BETHLEHEM AND MAR SABA. 287

their beauty, for their dehcate complexions and
aquiHne features ; they are distinguished by their
head-dress, a tall felt hat, in shape a truncated
cone, over which a white veil is arranged, and
from which heavy strings of coins are suspended.
Their dresses are also remarkable from the square
patches of red and yellow, which are introduced
into the blue or striped fabric of which they are
composed.

Bethlehem is supplied with water by cisterns,
and from the great aqueduct which passes through
the hill. The famous well for the waters of
which David thirsted, is supposed to be repre-
sented by an ancient and extensive cistern with
many mouths, on the north-west. It is not im-
possible that this may be the " pit," as Josephus
calls it, which w^as beside the gate of the city.

Two feasts are yearly held at Bethlehem, en
the Greek and Latin Christmas Eve. The scene
on the latter occasion is especially interesting, and
may here be described, though I did not witness
it until the Christmas of 1874, in company with
Lieutenant Kitchener.

Arriving at Bethlehem on that occasion, we
visited the church, and descended into the sacred
grotto. The floor of the chancel is raised, but
the transepts are on the same level with the
basilica, and from them two staircases lead down
to the grotto^ which is about twelve yards long,
and three or four wide. It was profusely de-

288 TENT WORK JN PALESTINE.

corated, and the j^assages were hung with cloth of
gold. The exact jDlace of the Saviour's birth is
shown near the east, in a recess beneath an altar.
The manger is on the south ; both are cased in
marble, but two old columns, supporting the roof,
appear to be of rock. The western passage, to the
Latin chapel, was decorated with paper hano-ings,
with paintings of scenes in our Lord's life, and,
over the hangings, were some pictures so old that
the tarnished gold backgrounds were covered with
prismatic tints.

The Latin chapel is a long vaulted room on the
north of the basilica, once painted in fresco, but
now whitewashed. It was hung with red silk.
On the east is a large altar, with a screen and
huge wax torches ; behind it is the choir. The
chapel is principally remarkable for its fine silver
lamps.

Mass was being performed, and the music and
singing were impressive, in a land where song
seems almost unknown. The Latin Patriarch, in
cloth of silver, with a mitre of gold and jewels,
and a handsome silver crook, sat on his throne to
the north. He was an Italian, a man of diofnified
mien and delicate features, but apparently of very
weak health. After the service he was disrobed,
and again robed in purple, with a beautiful ermine
cape, the dress of a Canon of the church. In this
attire, after a few prayers at a side altar, he was
conducted out in procession.

BETHLEHEM AND MAR SABA. 289

We now wandered througli the vaults, where the
tombs of Eusebins, of Paula, and of her dauo-hter
Eustochia, are shown, and the famous study — a
gloomy, rock-cut cell — where St. Jerome spent so
many years of his life, engaged on the noble Vul-
gate translation of the Scriptures.

We left the building in order to witness the
entry of the French Consul, who attends the cere-
mony on this day as representative of the " Eldest
son of the Church." First came the villao-e elders
in gay dresses, capering madly on horses and
mules ; then about a couple of dozen cavalry-sol-
diers in black, with red fezzes and facings. Then
four Tcaiixisses on good brown horses, dressed in
crimson hussar jackets, braided with gold and
black, with blue trousers and silk head-shawls,
and carrying huge maces with gilded tops. The
Consul and his secretary came last.

At ten in the evening the bell beo-an to rino-
and we again entered the Latin chapel. The
place was quite full, and the congregation pushed
and struggled, and chattered at the top of their
voices. The French Consul appeared in full
uniform, covered with orders, and we also ob-
tained good places near the altar. The heat was
fearful, and many persons fainted and had to be
drao-aed out.

The long wearisome service, almost entirely
choral, with occasional solos, went on for two
hours. The Patriarch, in his hot and heavy vest-

290 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE:

merits of clotli-of-gold, looked mucli exhausted.
His mitre was chang^ed at various times, one being:
of silver, a second of gold, a third jewelled. The
Avhole service was directed by an extremely active
jDriest, who appeared to be a sort of master of
the ceremonies.

At midnio'ht the climax was reached, the storm
of song and music suddenly ceased, and, in the
stillness, the clock struck, and the seventh candle
on the liio^h altar was lio-hted. A curtain was
drawn back, and above the altar, was a little
glass-fronted ebony box, from which the rosy face
of a small Avax image looked down representing
an infant swathed in cloth- of-gold. The great
convent-bell swung with a deep sound, heralding
the news of Christmas morn, and the little red-
cassocked choristers burst forth, in memoay of the
angels, with the " Gloria ! gloria in excelsis !"
The organ struggled and pealed in a mad and
powerful symphony, and was accompanied by a
pipe or reed, in memory of the music of the
shepherds' pipes. The mystic ceremonies of the
early mass were commenced, and the weary con-
gregation became interested.

There was something at once touching and
ridiculous in this curious scene : ridiculous when
one considered the rude and inadequate symbolism
employed, and on the other hand impressive, when
one reflected that for fifteen centuries the Christmas
moru had yearly been celebrated within these

BETHLEHEM AI^D MAR SABA. 291

"walls, and the riches of the Church, the genius of
great composers, the intellect of a powerful priest-
hood, all combined to pay honour to the birthday
of the little Jewish child, who had been born in the
rude rock stable one wintry night, in a small village
of a remote and despised province of the empire of
Home.

Two more hours of singing and music followed,
and the great procession to the grotto was then
formed. Huge wax torches were given to the
Consul and his secretary, and candles to the rest
of the congregation. A second wax image, in
a little wicker cradle, was placed on the altar
beneath the former, and borne thence by the
Patriarch, who came last. As he passed me,
I saw that the figure was surrounded with long
strips of paper, like swaddling-clothes loosed
from its limbs, one of its hands being raised in
benediction.

Very striking was the scene in passing through
the Greek chancel. The dark building was lighted
only by the torches and tapers, which made the
silver lamps above shine out against the dusky
background. A dense crowd was kept in its ranks
by two lines of Turkish soldiers with loaded
Snider rifles. The variety of costumes and faces
was wonderful, w^hile the dark columns and sfrim
figures in the glass mosaics, the forest of rafters
in the ancient roof, and the rich screen before the
apse, formed a dim and effective background, to

VOL. I. 19

292 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

the glittering line of priests and acolytes in cloth
of silver and gold.

The thought could not but suggest itself, how^
different was the scene thus enacted, amidst the
awe-stricken veneration of the multitude, with all
the pomp and magnificence which could be lavished
on it by a rich and long-established Church, from
that first Christmas scene in the dark damp stable
beneath, the events of which day were now
symbolised by the dressing and undressing of a
small wax doll.

The grotto was filled with priests, and blazed
Avith crimson silk, silver and gold, lit up by rows:
of silver lamps above. The Gospel for the day
was read in Latin, and at the words " Et peperit
filium suum primogenitum," the image was laid
by the Patriarch on the marble slab, supposed ta
mark the spot where Christ was born.

" And -svrapped Him in swaddling clothes."

The paper bands were wound round the limbs of

the image.

*' And laid Him in a manger."

The priest descended to the recess with little
rock columns, and laid the cradle on one of the
two altars within. The Gospel was continued
from the words "And there were shepherds,
abiding in the fields," until the Gloria in Excelsis
had again been sung, and the Patriarch, after
censing the image where it lay, returned with.

BETHLEHEM AND MAR SABA. 293

equal state to the Latin cliapel, where the mass
"was resumed.

The crowd was now so thick that we could
scarcely move without treading on some one. On
the right were the women in gay-coloured dresses
with white veils, the married ones wearing the
Bethlehem cap. On the left were the men, who
had removed their turbans but stiU retained their
cotton skull-caps. At five in the morning, after
seven hours of heat and discomfort, we left the
Patriarch still enojaaed in his arduous office.

East of Bethlehem is a narrow plain or open
valley, bare and treeless, with white stony slopes
and a few crumbling ruins. One of these ruins
is a large building called Sir el Ghanem, "the
sheep-fold," apparently an ancient monastery; a
second site is called " the Church of the Flocks,"
a subterranean Greek chapel, with mediaeval ruins
above, first mentioned in Crusading^ chronicles.
It is here that Migdal Eder, '' the Tower of the
Flock," is supposed to have stood, where, accord-
ing to the Jews, Messiah was first to appear ; and
it is on this plain, according to tradition, that the
angelic messenger appeared to the shepherds, and
that the Gloria in Excelsis was first sung.

On the 5th of November we marched across
the Shepherds' Plain and entered the terrible
Avilderness which stretches above the Dead Sea
on the west, and creeps up almost to the vines
and olive-groves of Bethlehem.

19—2

204 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

Two remarkable places may be noticed south-
east of Bethleliem at the entrance of this desert ;
namely, Herodium and the Cave of Khureitl^m.
The first is a great conical mound on the north
side of the valley which runs down from the
so-called Solomon's Pools to the Dead Sea. In
the scenery south of Jemsalem, and in views of
the country round Bethlehem, this mountain
forms a most remarkable feature. It is commonly
called, by Christians, " the Frank Mountain," from
a fifteenth-century tradition that it Avas defended
by Franks, for a long time, against the Saracens,
iifter the loss of Jerusalem. By natives it is called
Jebel Fureidis, ''Hill of the little Paradise,"
possibly a corruption of its old name, Herodium.
It was here that Herod the Great built his
summer palace, and also his tomb. There is a
large reservoir on the flat ground at the foot of
the cone, with a central fountain once fed by an
xiqueduct from the spring at Etam, and near it are
buildings wdiich resemble, very closely, those attri-
butable to Herod at Masada. The cone rises 400
feet above this platform. It is truncated, and
surrounded by a circular wall, on which are four
round towers. On arriving at the summit one
looks down into a sort of crater 290 feet in
diameter, full of debris. The view from the top is
a fine one, with a long succession of barren hills,
^nd the blue waters of the Dead Sea, and the
precipices of Moab beyond. The architecture is

BETHLEHEM AND MAR SABA. 295

of great interest as the most perfect specimen of
this early date in Palestine.

The Cave at Khureitim is the most remarkable
cavern in the country. The entrance is reached
by creeping along a very narrow ledge, on the side
of a high precipice of hard limestone, in a magni-
ficent desert gorge. The entrance is double, and
is protected by a great block of stone. The narrow
passage leads to a great circular hall cut in rock,,
and, from this, other narrow winding passages run
yet farther into the heart of the mountain ; the
windings are extremely intricate, leading from one
chamber to another, the farthest being some 200
yards from the entrance. A whole day was spent
in planning the place. For 100 feet I followed
a long burrow, so narrow and low that I could
only just drag myself along it, on my hands and
knees, with a candle in one hand ; huge bats flew
into my face and more than once extinguished the
light, but I succeeded in reaching the very end,
and in searching out the extremity of every other
l^assage in this extraordinary cavern.

It appears probable that the whole of the caves
and passages are formed by water action; here and
there, in the outermost chambers, the walls have
been shaped with a pick, but the general character
is not unlike other water-worn caverns in limestone
country.

In the twelfth century the Crusaders fixed upon
the Khureitim Cave, with their usual hasty jud

1106 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE,

ment, as being the Cave of Adullam, no doubt
because it was the most remarkable place of the
kind that they could find. The early Christians,
however, had been better informed, and the true
site, as will be seen later, is to be sought in the
Valley of Elah, many miles west of Bethlehem ;
for Josephus tells us that the cave was at the
Koyal City of Adullam, which was in the low
hills west of the watershed mountains.

Our first camp in the desert was fixed beside
the Monastery of St. Saba, a famous settlement
of Greek monks. We here entered into an entirely
distinct region. The character of the rock was
different from the stratified limestone of the moun-
tains above; it is a white soft chalk, which is
worn, by the winter rain, into long knife- edged
ridges, separated by narrow ravines with stony
beds. The sea breeze never visits this ghastly
desert, which is fitly called in Scripture Jeshimon,
or " solitude." Thus, though in spring the naked
slopes are thinly covered with grass and flowers,
it presents, throughout nearly the whole year, a
long succession of glaring ridges, with fantastic
knolls and peaks, and sharp ragged spurs, absolutely
treeless and waterless. The fauna also changes;
the tawny desert-partridge takes the place of the
red-legged Greek species, common in other dis-
tricts. The ibex succeeds the gazelle, and many
birds unknown in other parts of Palestine are here
abundant. The people also are a distinct race;

BETHLEHEM AND MAR SABA. 237

their language is as different from that of the
peasantry as is broad Scotch from Devonshire
•dialect ; their habits, dress, dwellings and tra-
ditions are those of an entirely different people.

Everything in this desert is of one colour — a
tawny yellow. The rocks, the partridges, the
•camels, the foxes, the ibex, are all of this shade,
and only the dark Bedawin and their black tents
are distinguishable in the general glare.

The convent of Mar Saba stands on the south
side of the huge fissure or gorge called the Valley
of Fire, by which the w^ater from Jerusalem comes
down to the Dead Sea. East of it is a plateau
between mountains on the west side and precipices
rising eight hundred feet from the shores of the
lake on the east. This plateau is also of water-
worn marl with innumerable ridges, knolls, peaks,
ravines, and iron crags around it.

It was from a "Tubof" or terrace, east of the
plateau, that v\^e first looked down on that marvel-
lous sea (1300 feet lower than the Mediterranean),
which sw^allow^s up all Jordan and all the snows of
Hermon, and yet has no outlet, but yearly gives
off the surplus supply in the heavy steam of
evaporating water, which in summer hides it in a
hot haze.

The morning sun cast purple, dusky shadows,
over the great mountains to the east, leavingpatc hes
of brig^ht lisfht on their level summits. The hio-h
piles of cumulus rose, in silvery brilliancy, above a

29S TENT WORK IN PALESTINE

long grey base of stratus clouds. The sea itself
lay unruffled by a single breath of wind, blue and
glossy, shining like oil, Avith long bands of white-
scum here and there stretching across it. The
foreground was yet more extraordinary^ — fawn-
coloured marl with bands of dark brown flint, in a
tumbled confusion of cones and knolls, without a
single tree or shrub, but streaked, on the north,
Avith a pinkish colour, and capped with harder
limestone. Part of this district still bears, among
the Bedawin, the title 'Amriyeh, which represents
the Hebrew Amorah or Gomorrah. A few
scattered ruins exist on the plateau, and the
Arabs have a tradition that these are remains of
vineyards, which once existed, according ta
them, throughout this scorched and desolate
solitude.

The hills west of the plateau are well worthy of
notice. They consist of hard brown limestone, and
I discovered a feature of great geological interest^
in a fault which runs north and south, at the point
where the white marl commences ; showinsf that a
violent, and probably sudden subsidence has here
taken place, at a period so late (geologically
speaking), as to be subsequent to the chalk era.
The general bearing^ of this obsei'vation on the
history of the lake, will be noticed in a subsequent
chapter.

Day after day I wandered in this desert, fol-
lowed only by a single Bedawi. It was Bamadan*

BETHLEHEM AND MAR SABA. 29i>

and my old guide would toucli neither food nor
water till after sunset. We became great friends
during our rambles, and one day while we rested
at noon in a dark rock-hewn cavern, he unfolded
to me an enticing proposition. He was willing,
he said, to give me his daughter in marriage,
and asked what sum I should be willino- to
pay as her dower. I was, however, obliged to
explain that, in our country, the dower was always
given by the bride's father, a piece of information
which considerably damped his ardour; and he
changed the subject before I was able to ask
the amount at which he Avould feel inclined to
value his daufyhter, if I should have been willino-
to accept her in accordance with the custom of
my own country.

The heat was terrible. Not only was the actual
temperature high, but not a blade of grass nor a
breath of wind gave relief. In the evening I used
to feel positively weakened by the effect of the
sun, and sore from head to foot as though beaten
with a rod. The caves were the only places where
any shade could be found, and they were even
hotter than the glaring desert. There are probably
few places in Asia where the sun beats down with
as fierce and irresistible a power as in the Desert
of Judah.

The western mountains, above the plateau, form
a lonor rido^e runnins^ north and south, the hic]jhest
point of which is called El Muntar, the " watch-

300 TENT WORK IiV PALESTINE.

tower," while the rest is named El Hcadeidlan. A
steep slope, unbroken save by precipices, comes
sheer down from the top to the plateau, and the
mountain is barren and fawn-coloured like the rest
of the country. Now this hill, as I afterwards
found out, is a place of historical interest, and the
story is as follows :

According to the Law of Moses the Scapegoat
was led to the wilderness and there set free. This
was not, however, the practice of the later Jews.
A scapegoat had once come back to Jerusalem,
and the omen was thought so bad that the ordinary
custom was modified, to prevent the recurrence of
such a calamity. The man who led the goat
arrived at a high mountain, called Sook, and there
was at this place a rolling slope, down which he
pushed the unhappy animal, which was shattered
to atoms in the fall. It was always a matter of
much interest to me to find out w^here this moun-
tain was.

The Scapegoat was led out on the Sabbath, and
in order to evade the law of the Sabbath-day's
journey, a tabernacle was erected at every term
of two thousand cubits, and became the domicile of
the messenger, who, after eating bread and drink-
ing water, was legally able to travel another stage.
Ten such tabernacles were constructed between
Sook and Jerusalem, and the distance was ninety
Ris, or six and a half English miles. The district
was called Hidoodim, and the high mountain Sook.

BETHLEHEM AND MAR SABA. 301

The first means " sharp," the second " narrow,"
both applying well to the knife- edged ridges of
the desert. The distance of ninety RU brings us
to the great hill of El Muntar, and here, beside
the ancient road from Jerusalem, is a well called
Suk, Avhile in the name Hadeidiin, applied to part
of the rido'e, we recoo-nise the Hebrew Hidoodim.

Here then, I think, we may fairly conclude is
the Mountain of the Scapegoat. From this high
ridge the unhappy victim was yearly rolled down
into the narrow valley beneath, at the entrance of
the great desert, which first unfolded itself before
the eyes of the messenger as he gained the summit
half a mile beyond the well of Suk. Beside this
well stood probably the tenth booth to which he
returned after the deed, and where he sat until
sun-down, when he was permitted to return to
Jerusalem.

From a very early period this horrible wilder-
ness appears to have had an attraction for ascetics,
who sought a retreat from the busy world of their
fellow men, and who thought to please God by
torturing the bodies which He had given them.
Thus the Essenes, the Jewish sect whose habits
and tenets resembled so closely those of the first
Christians, retired into this wilderness and lived
in caves. Christian hermits, from the earliest
period, were also numerous in all the country
betw^een Jerusalem and Jericho, and the rocks are
riddled with caves iu inaccessible places where

VOL. I.

302

TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

thoy lived. About 480 a.d., St. Saba and St.
Euthymius followed the general custom, and
established here, in the Fire Valley, the first
nucleus of the present monastery.

Mar Saba.

The Mar Saba Laura clings to the side of a
precipice some four hundred feet high, and is
built against the cliff with huge flying buttresses
to support the walls. The buildings are scarcely
distinguishable in colour from the brown crags
on which they stand. The huge crevice, which
seems to have been rent in some great con-
vulsion of nature, is bare and tawny like the
rest of the country. The silence of the desert

BETHLEHEM AND MAR SABA. 303

surrounds it, and only the shrill note of the
golden grackle, or the howl of a jackal, breaks
this solemn stillness. Not a tree or shrub is in
sight, walls of white chalk and sharp ridges shut
out the western breeze, and the sigjh of the wdnd
in the trees is a sound never heard in the solitude.
The place seems dead. The convent and its
valley have a fossilised appearance. Scarcely less
<lead and fossil are its wretched inmates, monks
exiled for crimes or heresy, and placed in charge
of a few poor lunatics.

Ladies are not admitted into the monastery,
but we were provided wdth a letter to the Superior.
A little iron door in a high yellow wall gives
iidmission from the west, thence a long staircase
leads do^vn into a court before the chapel. The
walls within are covered with frescoes, some old,
some belonging to the time when the monastery
was rebuilt, in 1840, by the Russian Government;
Greek saints, hideous figures in black and grey
dresses, with stoles on which the cross, and ladder
and spear, are painted in white, stand out from
gilded backgrounds. Against these ghosts of
their predecessors the monks were ranged, in
Avooden stalls, or miserere benches with high
arms, which supported their wear}^ figures under
the armpits. The old men stood, or rather
•drooped in their places, with pale sad faces, which
spoke of ignorance and of hopelessness, and some-
times of vice and brutality ; for the Greek monk

304 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

is perhaps the most degraded representative of
Christianity, and these were the worst of their
kind. Kobed in long sweeping gowns, with the
cyhndrical black felt cap on their heads, they
looked more like dead bodies than livins: men,
propped up against the quaint Byzantine back-
ground. One could fancy one's self suddenly
brouofht back to the dark as^es of the fifth and
sixth centuries, when art, and literature, and even
human intellect seem to have sunk into a second
childhood, and that these were the very men who
had fought so obstinately for and against the
Monophysite heresy, which St. Saba succeeded in
putting down.

The floor of the church was unoccupied, and
paved with marble; the transept was closed by the
great screen, blazing with gold, and covered with
dragons and arabesques, and gaudy pictures of
saints and angels on wood. A smell of incense
filled the church, and the nasal drawl of the offici-
ating priest soon drove us away to the outer air.
We next visited the dark cave covered with
pictures, which, after the Greek fashion, were
cased in silver, and gleamed in the darkness, and
where, behind a grating, are the skulls of the
martyrs of a former massacre. Next we went
up and down, by winding stairs in the rock, on
to the roof of the church to see the naicdkts,
or wooden beams, which are struck instead cf
Lolls, though bells are also huno: in the belfi ,\

BE THLEHEAf AND MAR SABA. 305

The convent pets came abont us, the beautiful
black birds with orange wings, which live only in
the Jordan Valley, and have been named '' Tris-
tram's grackle/' after that well-known explorer.
They have a beautifully clear note, the only
pleasant sound ever heard in the solitude, and the
monks have tamed them, so that they flock round
them to catch raisins, which they pounce upon in
mid air. In the valley below the foxes and
jackals also come for alms, the monks throwing
down loaves for them.

There is a tall solitary palm, said to have been
planted by St. Saba, and to have sj)rung up bear-
ing dates without stones, which he ate the same
day on which it was planted. Tiiere is also a
cavern in the rock reached by a few steps, where
he lived, and in the side of it, a little cupboard
about three feet square, where his lion slept. The
Avhole cave belonged to the lion, but the saint
seems to have had little reQ:ard to the rioiits of
property, and considerable obstinacy of character.
Three times he was ejected by the beast, but each
time he returned to his meditations undaunted,
and the lion finally relinquished to the invader
the greater part of his cave.

The monks scattered a little rosewater over our
hands, and we left this gloomy abode of the dead-
alive in the desert. Scarcely half the monks can
read the valuable manuscripts in their library, yet
they hide them carefully from the eyes of heretics.

30G TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

Within the walls they may neither smoke nor
eat meat, yet raw spirits find their way past the
porter, as we were able to prove. A more hope-
less, purposeless, degraded life can scarcely be-
imagined than that of such hermits.

Yet even for these poor outcasts in the stony
wilderness, lifeless and treeless though it be,,
nature prepares every day a glorious picture,
quickly-fading but matchless in brilliance of
colour : the distant ranches seem stained with
purple and pink ; in autumn the gi'eat bands of
cloud sweep over the mountains with long bars
of cjleaminsr lisfht between, and for a few minutes,
as the sun sets, the deep crimson blush comes
over the rocks, and glorifies the whole landscape
with an indescribable glow.

The Dome of the Rock.

CHAPTER XI.

JERUSALEM.

We approach at length the centre of interest in
Palestine — the Holy City. In this chapter are
gathered up the results of fifteen visits to the
capital, and of two winters, one passed in a country
villa outside, and a second within the walls, in
our " own hired house." During this time I
penetrated into almost every nook and corner of
the city, and visited its underground passages, and
its smallest churches and mosques.

From my room in the Mediterranean Hotel I

VOL. 1.

303 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

looked out at dawn. The oraiiiJ^e-coloured liijflit
behind the Mount of OHves showed a black out-
line of mosque and tree and hill, with steel-
coloured mountains, to the right, capped by long
wreaths of leaden vapour. The town lay in
darkness below, its roofs shining wet with the
heavy dew. Dimly visible the great dome of the
Chapel of the Rock shone with its new coat of
lead, and the tall minaret on the north wall of the
Haram, together with the dark cypresses, was just
distinguishable. A vapour went up over the whole
city, and gave it a weird and dream-like aspect.

Soon the town awoke, and the morning hubbub
beo'an. Lono; trains of camels came in, and the
swarthy Bedawin wrangled with the soldiers at
the gate. The market-girls from Bethlehem ap-
peared under David's Tower, and, as the crowd
thickened, black priests in saucepan-like hats
jostled sickly Jews, with fur caps, long love-locks,
and dirty gaberdines. The heavily-shod, unkempt
Russian pilgrims mingled with sleek Bablbis, with
Europeans, and German residents ; Armenians
with apple-cheeks and broad red sashes, and fierce
Kurds, with long moustachios and swords, were
also numerous.

So motley a scene as that which is presented
daily in David Street and in the market-place
under David's Tower, is perhaps to be found no-
where else. The chatter of the market people,
the shouting of the camel-drivers, the tinklino: of

JERUSALEM. 309

bells, mingle with the long cry of the naked
Santon, as he wanders, holding his tin pan for
alms, and praising unceasingly ''the Eternal God."
The scene is most remarkable in the morninsf,
before the glare of the sun, beating down on the
stone city, has driven its inhabitants into the
shadow ; for, later on, the white houses, white
chalk hills, and dull grey domes, present a truly
unattractive prospect ; but about eight a.m. the
market still lies in cool shadow, under the huge
ochre-coloured tower, with a background of cy-
presses, and of white walls belonging to the
Bible Warehouse. The foreground is composed
of a tawny group of camels lying down, donkeys
bringing in vegetables or carrying out rubbish, and
women in blue and red dresses slashed with yellow,
their dark faces and long eyes (tinged with blue)
shrouded in white veils, which are fringed perhaps
with black or red. Soldiers in black, and Softas
in spotless robes, are haggling about their change,
or praying in public undisturbed by the din.
Horsemen ride by in red boots with red saddles,
and spears fifteen feet long. The Greek Patriarch
Avalks past on a visit, preceded by his mace-
bearers and attended by his secretary. Up the
narrow street comes the hearse of a famous
Moslem, followed by a long procession of women,
in white " izars," which envelop the whole figure,
swelling out like balloons, and leaving only the
black mask of the face-veil visible ; their voices

310 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

are raised in the high-pitched tremulous ululation
which is ahke their cry for the dead and their note
of joy for the living. Next, perhaps, follows a
regiment of sturdy infantry marching back to the
castle, with a colonel on a prancing gTey — men who
have shown their mettle since then, and fat, un-
wieldy officers, who have perhaps broken down
under the strain of campaigning. Their bugles
blow a monotonous tune, to which the drums keep
time, and the men tread, not in step, but in good
cadence to the music. If it be Easter, the native
crowd is mino-led wdth the hosts of Armenian and
Russian pilgrims, the first ruddy and stalwart,
their women handsome and black- eyed, the men
fierce and dark ; the Russians, yet stronger in
build and more barbarian in air, distinguished
from every other nationality by their unkempt
beards, their long locks, their huge fur caps and
boots. Not less distinct are the Spanish, Mugh-
rabee, Russian, and German Jews, each marked
by a peculiar and characteristic jDhysiognomy.

Jerusalem is a city of contrasts, and differs
widely from Damascus, not merely because it is a
stone town in mountains, whilst the latter is a
mud city in a plain, but because, while in Damas-
cus, Moslem religion and Oriental custom are
unmixed with any foreign element, in Jerusalem
every form of religion, every nationality of east
and west, is represented at one time.

Jerusalem is quite a small town, the circum-

JERUSALEM. 311

ference of its walls being only two miles and
three quarters ; yet within this space it contains a
population of 20,000 souls. Ten sects or religions
are established in it, and, if their various sub-
•divisions are counted, they amount to a total of
twenty-four, more than half of which are Christian.
Prophets and visionaries of no particular sect are
also not wanting at any time in the Holy City.

Jerusalem is a very ugly city. It is badly built
of mean stone houses perched on the slope of the
watershed, and seems in constant danofer of slidinof
into the Kedron Valley. Beautiful bits of archi-
tecture are to be admired in its interior — the
Gothic facade of the Holy Sepulchre, the grand
walls of the Temple, the glowing interior of the
mosque ; the view towards the east is also very
fine, a long wall of far-oif mountains, with a fore-
ground of embattled parapets and slender minarets
standino' out ao^ainst the distance. Yet, with all
"this, the city as a whole is not beautiful ; its flat-
roofed houses and dirty lanes are neither pleasing
nor healthy, and the surrounding chalk hills are
barren and shapeless. Shechem is a fine and well-
watered city. Damascus is bedded in gardens, and
bristles with minarets, but there is nothing in the
site or architecture of Jerusalem, as a whole, which
can save it from the imputation of ugliness.

To the antiquary, nevertheless, Jerusalem is
the most fascinating place in Palestine, and the
longer one lives within its wallsj the greater

VOL. I. 20

312 TENT WORK IN TALESTINE.

becomes one's interest in the "Jerusalem question."
The present town stands on mounds of rubbish
which average thirty feet in depth, and reach in
places one hundred feet above the rock. Nor is
this a matter for astonishment when we remember
how often the city has been razed to the ground.
Within the memory of residents the level of the
streets has risen ten inches, and huge mounds
outside are daily growing higher.

Leaving the Jaffa Gate, with Dr. Chaplin, mj'
first ramble was round the outside of the town.
We descended by the *' Sultan's Pool," which has
been called Gihon from the fourteenth century-
do wnwards, in ignorance of the fact that the latter
word means *' springhead," and that the Sultan's
Pool was constructed by the Germans in the
twelfth century. Thence we rode down by the
deep valley, on the south bank of which are the^
traditional Aceldama and the tombs of many
Christian pilgrims from Europe to " Holy Zion."
This valley leads down to Bir Eyiib ( Joab's Well) ;
identified by Crusading error with the Biblical
En-Kogel. The scene was here wonderful, the
grey and rusty rocks shining red in the sun, the
slopes of the upper city grey in shade. By the
deep well the peasants were winnowing corn, and
black goats and black donkeys were drinking.
From thence we rode, in the very steps of Nehe-
miah, towards Siloam — a most disappointing pool
with dry-stone walls and a little muddy water

JERUSALEM. 313

below. We now caught a glimpse of the Haram
wall, almost dwarfed by the great mound which
hides two-thirds of its height, but glorious in its
tawny hue, and in the stern broad contrast of light
and shadow which is the most marked feature of
Jerusalem scenery.

On our right the village of Siloam stood perched
on the cliff of Zoheleth (Zahweileh), and surrounded
by the hermitages of the twelfth-century ancho-
rites cut tomb-like in the rock, while farther north
was the " Peak of Pharaoh," as the peasants call
the monument known to us as Absalom's Tomb.

Before us was the only true spring near Jeru-
salem, the " Mother of Steps," the Upper Gihon
or " springhead," whence Hezekiah's aqueduct
still leads down to Siloam or Gihon in the Valley.
It has been suggested by Dr. Pobinson that this
is the true Bethesda. The early Christians
pointed to the Twin Pools, and the Crusaders to
the modern Birket Israel as representing Bethesda,
but there are many indications that the eastern
spring is the real place. Of these the most im-
portant is the fact that the Jerusalem Jews still
consider the water of the 'Ain Umm ed Beraj, or
Virgin's Pool as it is called by Christians, to have
sjDecial virtue in healing disease. Every day crovvds
of both sexes go down to the spring, and, entering
the dark archway, descend the steps, and await
the fitful troubling of the waters, which rise sud-
denly and immerse them, fully clothed, nearly up

20—2

314 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

to the neck. This intermittent flow is supposed
to be due to a natural s3rphon, but the native ex-
jDlanation is that a dragon hves below, and swallows
the water when he is awake, but that, when he
sleeps, it wells up freely.

May not we trace, I would ask, in this old
custom of awaiting the overflow of the spring, a
reminiscence of the time when the crowd of im-
potent folk lay by the Pool of Bethesda, "waiting
for the moving of the water'"? (John v. 3.)

Passing northwards from the spring, by the
trim garden of Gethsemane, hidden by its ugly
white walls, and ascending to the rock-founded
corner tower of the city wall, we turned west,
riding by the iron door of the great cavern, whence
the Temple stones were hewn, and so returned
through the Damascus Gate.

Going down David Street and through the fruit
bazaar, with its background of arches, wooden
balconies, marble portals brown with age, and
fragments of Crusading architecture, you come at
length through a bye-lane to the Jews' wailing-
place — a narrow street with the high Temple
rampart rising on the east. All along the narrow
court the Jews are crowded on Friday. The scene
is striking from the great size and strength of the
mighty stones, which rise without door or window
up to the domes and cypresses above, suggesting
how utterly the original worshippers are cast out
by men of alien race and faith as they here con-

JERUSALEM. 315

gi'egate to bewail " our people that are wanderers,
our priests that are defiled, our Temple that is cast
down."

Nearest to us stood the Pharisees from Ger-
many, the Ashkenazi Jews, dressed in their best ;
the old men with grey locks and thin grey beards,
on their heads the high black velvet cap edged
Avith wove fur, their lovelocks curling on either
side of their lank faces, their robes long gaberdines
of many colours ; the younger men had blue-black
hair, and pale strongly-marked features ; here and
there one saw a richly- dressed boy, a few little red-
haired children, and occasionally an old woman,
their faces all stam2)ed with that subtle hkeness
which betrays the Jew in any country, and in
any dress.

There were bits of colour in these groups wliich
would have delio'hted Rembrandt. An a^ed
white-haired man, in a mulberry gaberdine and
black velvet cap, contrasted with the black satin
and fur of his next neighbour, and in front of both
was a third in a green dress. All these dark rich
costumes were set in a warm background of
tawny colour made by the great wall towering
above.

Beyond the Ashkenazi were the Spanish and
Mughrabee Jews, in quieter colours with black
turbans, brown-eyed, and more dignified in
bearing. Presently came in a hulking fellow in
citron-coloured coat and blue trousers, with a

31G TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

huge black pointed lambswool cap — a Kussian
Jew. The httle Pharisees seemed to dwindle
beside this giant, and his handsome, fresh-coloured
face, blue eyes, and russet beard, seemed hardly
to allow of his being one of the same nation ; for
it is the greatest peculiarity of the Jews that
while never intermarrying, they yet approach in
appearance most nearly the natives of the country
in which they live, without entirely losing national
traits of a distinctive character — a striking proof
of the influence of climate and surroundings on
race.

The emotion of a few of the worshippers was
affectino^. Here an ag-ed woman in a white veil
stood mute, her eyes fixed on the great stones of
the Eternal House ; there an elder leant his tearful
face against the wall, his lips moving, his prayer-
book unheeded. But as a rule the crowd main-
tained the tranquillity of an English congregation,
and their dress and appearance was rather ludicrous
than otherwise. The E-abbi read verse by verse
the touching lamentation service, leaning his book
on the wall, and lighted by two or three ordinary
candle- lanterns placed before him. The assembly
gave the responses in the peculiar manner of the
Jews, which reminds one of the buzzing of a swarm
of flies when disturbed, and they swayed their
bodies all the time with the extraordinary bobbing
motion which always accompanies their prayers.

Strange and indeed unique is the spectacle, and

JERUSALEM. 317

it reminds one forcibly of the unchanged character
of the Jews. After nineteen centuries of wander-
ing and exile, they are still the same as ever, still
bound by the iron chain of Talmudic law, a people
"whose slavery to custom outruns even that of the
Chinese to etiquette, and whose veneration for the
past appears to preclude the possibility of progress
or improvement in the present.

Entering by the gate of the Cotton Bazaar, we
stand at length within the Temple courts. Before
us are the steps which lead up to the platform
where shoes must be removed; for while the outer
court, like the old Court of the Gentiles, is a
promenade, the paved platform is a sacred en-
closure, not to be trodden except barefoot.

From the bright sunlight we pass suddenly into
the deep gloom of the interior, lit with the *' dim
religious light " of the glorious purple windows.
The gorgeous colouring, the painted wood-work,
the fine marble, the costly mosaics, the great dome
flourished all over with arabesques and inscrip-
tions, and gilded to the very top, all this splendour
gleams out here and there from the darkness.

And in honour of what is this beautiful chapel
built ? A low canopy of rich silk covers the
dusty limestone ledge round which the " Dome of
the Bock " has risen. The Bock of Faradise is
the scene of Mohammed's ascension, the source of
the rivers of Paradise, the Place of Prayer of all
the Prophets, the Foundation-stone of the World.

313 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

Such was the holy spot enshrined by the Dome.
The sacred rock, recovered and purified by Omar,
was soon after enclosed by the Caliph Abd el
Melek, and the inscriptions on the walls give the
history of this building with most remarkable
detail.

The Arab historians relate that the Dome of
the Chain was the model for the Dome of the
Rock. Now this is possible, if we except the
outer wall of the latter. Take that wall away,
and you have a building consisting of two con-
centric polygons, with pillars bound together by
a wooden beam, and supporting arcades. The
Dome of the Rock is just three times the size of
the Dome of the Chain, and the various measures
of plan and height are proportional The smaller
building may therefore have been originally the
model of the laro-er.

Over the outer arcade of the Dome of the Rock
runs the great Cufic inscription, giving the date
of the erection of the buildino- in 688 a.d. The
name of Abd el Melek has been taken out at a
later period, and that of Mamun substituted, but
the clumsy forger has forgotten the date, and
has used a lighter blue in the grounding, thus
the antiquity of the text is the more contirmed
by the alteration.

This inscription dates the arcade, and thus
apparently the inner circle, but not necessarily
the outer wall, which may be later. The doors in

JERUSALEM. 311)

this outer wall bear Cufic inscriptions dating 831
A.D., at which time Mamun restored the biiildino';
the beams in the roof resting on the wall bear
the date 931 a.d. In the ninth century the
pointed arch began to be used by the Arabs, and
the outer wall cannot be dated later than this ;
but if it be, as may naturally be supposed, of the
same date with its doors, it is part of the work of
El Mamun, and this agrees with the idea that
'Abd el Melek's Dome of the Kock consisted of
two concentric arcades only, proportional to those
of the Dome of the Chain. The symmetry of the
proportions is altogether destroyed by the great
breadth of the larger building in comparison with
its height, which is due simply to the addition
of the outer wall. Once remove the outer wall,
and the pleasing proportions of the Dome of the
Chain are reproduced to three times their scale.

The Dome of the Kock belongs to that obscure
period of Saracenic art w4ien the Arabs had not
as yet created an architectural style of their own,
and when they were in the habit of employing
Byzantine architects to build their mosques.
Among the rare specimens of their work at this
time, is the Mosque of 'Amru, at Cairo, com-
menced in 642 A.D., and apparently almost rebuilt
by that very 'Abd el Melek whose work in
Jerusalem we are now considerino;.

Of the Egyptian building Mr. Fergusson writes :
** It probably now remains in all essential parts as

320 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

left by these two Caliphs'* ('Abd el Melek and his
successor, Walid). It is therefore very interesting
to compare the Jerusalem Haram with the Cairo
mosque, and the resemblance is striking.

In both there is a large rectangular area sur-
rounded by colonnades ; the pillars in the Cairo
mosque are torn from older buildings, and sup-
port round arches, and a wooden beam runs above
the capitals, — details also observable in the Dome
of the Rock.

In both cases there is a mosque on the south
wall of the enclosure, that at Jerusalem being,
however, a Christian church adapted to Moslem
worship, as is the great mosque at Damascus, also
partly rebuilt by Walid.

In both the enclosures there is also the same
feature of an octasronal buildino: in the centre of
the area, with an inner arcade supporting the
dome ; and this kind of structure is found in many
other mosques at Damascus and in Cairo, being
essentially an Arab building, suited either to give
shade to a fountain useful for ablutions before
prayer, or for the protection of some spot sacred
as the Mukam or " standing-place " of a saint or
prophet. Such is the Dome of the Rock, not a
mosque, as it is sometimes wrongly called, but a
" station " in the outer court of the Aksah
mosque.

In 831 A.D. the Caliph El Mamiin restored the
Dome of the Rock, and if I am correct, enclosed

JERUSALEM. 321

it with aa outer wall and gave it its present ap-
pearance. The beams in the roof of the arcade
bear, as above stated, the date 913 a.d. : a well-
carved wooden cornice, hidden by the present
ceihng, must then have been visible beneath
them.

In 1016 A.D. the building was partly destroyed
by earthquake. To this date belong restorations
of the original mosaics in the dome, as evidenced
by inscriptions. The present wood-work of the
cupola was erected by Husein, son of the Sultan
Hakem, as shown by an inscription dated 1022 a.d.

The place next fell into the hands of the
Crusaders, who christened it Templum Domini,
and established in 1112 a.d. a chapter of Canons.
The Holy Rock was then cut into its present shape
and covered with marble slabs, an altar being-
erected on it. The works were carried on from
1115 A.D. to 1136 A.D. The beautiful iron grille
between the pihars of the dome and various
fragments of carved work are of this date, includ-
ing small altars with sculptured capitals, having
heads upon them — abominations to the Moslem,
yet still preserved within the precincts. The
interior of the outer wall was decorated in the
twelfth century with frescoes, traces of which stiU
remain. The exterior of the same wall is sur-
mounted by a parapet, with dwarf pillars and
arches, which is first mentioned by John of
Wurtzburof, but must be as old as the round

322 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

arches of the windows below. The Crusaders
would seem to have filled up the parapet arches,
and to have ornamented the whole with glass
mosaic, as at Bethlehem.

In 1187 A.D. Saladin won the city, tore up the
altar, and once more exposed the bare rock,
covered up the frescoes with marble slabs, and
restored and regilded the dome, as evidenced by
an inscription in it dating 1189 A.D.

In 1318 A.D. the lead outside and the gilding
within were restored by Nakr ed Din, as
evidenced by an inscription.

In 1520 A.D. the Sultan Soliman cased the bases
and upper blocks of the columns with marble.
The wooden cornice, attached to the beam
between the pillars, seems to be of this period,
and the slightly pointed marble casing of the
arches under the dome is probably of the same
date. The windows bear inscriptions of 1528
A.D. The whole exterior was at this timo
covered with Kishani tiles, attached by copper
hooks, as evidenced by inscriptions dated 1561
A.D. The doors were restored in 1564 A.D., as
also shown by inscriptions.

The date of the beautiful wooden ceilinsr of the
cloisters is not known, but it partly covers the
Cufic inscription, and this dates 72 a.h. (688 A.D.),
and it hides the wooden cornice, dating probably
913 A.D. The ceiling is therefore probably of the
time of Soliman.

DOME OF THE ROOK.

CAPITALS .SlPrullTlNU TlIK LiKUM.

Tofao". pagt 323, VcX. I.

JERUSALEM. 323

In 1830 A.D.the Sultan Malimud, and in 1873 — 5
A.D. the late 'Abd el 'Aziz, repaired the Dome, and
the latter period was one specially valuable for
those who wished to study the history of the
place.

Such is a i^lain statement of the gradual growth
of the building. The dates of the various inscrip-
tions on the walls fully agree with the circum-
stantial accounts of the Arab writers who describe
the Dome of the Kock.

The materials employed were all apparently
designed for their present uses and positions, with
exception of the columns supporting the dome
and the outer arcade. These have a Byzantine
character, and they appear to have been torn from
some other building or buildings, probably from
Christian churches, just as in the case of the
Mosque of 'Amru at Cairo, or like the pillars
which Jezzar Pacha at Acre collected for his
mosque. Of every capital in the place I made
a careful sketch, as shown in the illustration ; of
those under the dome only three are alike. The
cross is said to occur on one boss, as at Bethlehem.
I have searched for this in vain, though I have a
sketch of every boss, but there would be no im-
possibility in its presence if the pillar came from a
church. The bases differ as much as the capitals,
as we saw when the marble slabs were removed in
1875. The shafts are also of various heights and
diameters, and one at least is upside down, with

324 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

the capital of anotliur pillar placed on its base
end.

Leavinof this beautiful and interestinn- buildinof
we crossed the platform southward, having on our
right the old sundial, which the Crusaders held to
mark the site of the Temple altar; and passing
the beautiful summer pulpit we descended to the
southern court. The most picturesque view is
from this point. The Dome of the Rock is seen
behind the venerable cypresses of the lower court
— a great cupola on which sit innumerable doves,
while, beneath it, the w^alls are resplendent with
the harmonious colouring of the tiles — white, blue,
green, black, and yellow, in elegant tracery which
cannot now be imitated. In front are the flat
steps leading up to the pillars and arches called
" balances " by the Moslems, and below them, and
the little chambers of the Sheikhs who live in the
enclosure.

The black fanatics who guard the holy place
lounged among the trees, and a funeral procession
was slowly marching, with subdued murmurs, round
the Chapel of the Rock, while, by a curious coin-
cidence, a gorgeous wedding-party in bright
coloured silks, was also approaching the same
place.

The great enclosure outside the platform is not
paved ; it is covered with grass and planted with
olives and cypresses. Only the platform is fairly
level, and its flagging in parts is covered with

JERUSALEM. 325

Crusading masons'-marks. There is, as above
noticed, only one mosque in the enclosure — the
great building on the south wall. The whole area
is called Haram esh Sherif, ''High Sanctuary,"
and Masjid el Haram, ** Praying-place of Sanc-
tuary;" also sometimes Masjid el Aksa, "the far-off
praying-place," in allusion to its distance from
Mecca and to the Prophet's long night journey.
The mosque itself is called Jami'a el Aksa, or
the "far-off meeting-house." To it we next
repaired.

The history of the mosque differs from that of
the Dome of the Rock. Justinian, in the sixth
century, erected a basilica in honour of the Virgin,
partly supported by vaults beneath. The remains
of such a basilica are distinguishable in the Aksa,
and the vault beneath the mosque has the pecu-
liarity of Byzantine vaulting — the narrow key-
stone, which is not found in the round arches of
the Kubbet es Sakhrah, or Dome of the Pock.

In 637 A.D. the Church of St. Mary was visited
by Omar, and the "station" where he prayed is still
shown in the Aksa. In688 a.d. Abdel Melek covered
the doors with gold and silver plates. Additions
were made in the eighth century, and the width of
the buildinsr was increased. The Crusaders called
the place Solomon's Palace, Solomon's Porch, or
Solomon's Temple. The Templars remodelled it,
adding an apse on the east and a long hall on the
west. Again it fell into Moslem hands, and farther

336 TENT WORK TN PALESTINE.

alterations were made ; thus at the present day it
presents a confusion of style and plan requiring
the eye of a practised architect to distinguish the
various additions.

The general effect is poor, for the interior is
Avhite- washed and coarsely painted ; only at the
south end do any remains of the old glass mosaics
still exist, and here are found close together the
beautiful pulpit of parquetted Avood-work from
Damascus, and the new glass chandelier from
Constantinople, the twisted columns of the
Templars' dining-hall, and the heavy basket-work
capitals of the Byzantine basilica, while, in the
vault beneath, is the huge monolith, which three
men can scarcely girth, supporting the porch of
the Temple-gate — a mixture of styles which
cannot perhaps be fpund in any other building in
the world.

Many chapters might be written on the High
Sanctuary and its buildings, but space is wanting
to describe the gates, the underground passages,
the chambers and cisterns, which I asfain and
again explored, and which had, already, been
minutely examined and described by Major Wilson
and Captain Warren. We must hasten therefore
to another building, surpassing in interest even
the Temple enclosure itself, namely, the Church
of the Holy Sepulchre.

It is a orim and wicked old buildino: that we
now approach. No other edifice has been directly

JERUSALEM. 327

the cause of more human misery, or defiled with
more blood. There are those who would willingly
look upon it as the real place of the Saviour's
Tomb, but I confess that, for myself, having twice
witnessed the annual orgy which disgraces its
walls, the annual imposture which is countenanced
by its priests, and the fierce emotions of sectarian
hate and bhnd fanaticism which are called forth
by the supposed miracle, and remembering the
tale of blood connected with the history of the
Church, I should be loth to think that the Sacred
Tomb had been a witness for so many years of so
much human ignorance, folly, and crime.

The place is nevertheless venerable from its
many memories, for whether or no it encloses the
Sepulchre of Christ, it may at least claim to be
the site which Christians, from the fourth century
downwards, have venerated as such. Of this we
cannot well have any doubt when we review the
descriptions of the place which have been written
in consecutive centuries, including several recently
published.

Jerome places Golgotha north of Sion, and the
early Christians included under the title Sion only
the Upper City of Josephus. Eucherius, Bishop
of Lyons, writing in 440 A.D., repeats this descrip-
tion of its position, and speaks of Siloam as below
the city wall, and beneath the precipitous eastern
rock of Sion — a description of relative position
which can only apply to the hill now known as

VOL. I. 21

328 TENT WORK IN PALESTJNE.

Mount Si on. Jerome himself speaks of Sion .as
the citadel of the town, which is still true of the
modem site.

Theodorus, in 530 a.d., is quite as explicit with
regard to the position of the church. " In the
middle of the city," he says, " is a basilica ; from
the west side you may enter to the Holy Resur-
rection, where is the Sepulchre of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and there is the Mount of Calvary, to
which Mount the way is by steps, and it is under
one roof."

We know by contemporary evidence (the
Pascal Chronicle) that this Basilica of Constantine
was destroyed, in 614 a.d., by Chosroes the Per-
sian. Several small chapels were soon after erected
instead, by the monk Modestus, and they are
described in 630 a.d. In 700 a.d. Arculphus gives
a detailed account of these new buildino-s, includinsf
the round Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the
square Church of the Virgin, the Chapel of Gol-
gotha, and, on the east, the Basilica of Constantine
separated by an open space from the round church
and from Golgotha. The relative positions of
Calvary and of the Sepulchre in this account, are
the same described by the previous Avriters, and
by Euscbius in his history of the building of the
original Basilica in 333 a.d. Arculphus' descrip-
tion of the Sepulchre as a pla6e " large enough to
allow nine men to pray standing," might have been
written of the Holy Tomb in the present church.

JERUSALEM. 329

In 722 A.D. it is again described, and the door of
the tomb is then said to be, as it still is, on the
east.

We are thus able to identify the site chosen by
Constantino in the fourth century, with that
recognised in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth
centuries. The chapels of Modestus were destroyed,
according to contemporary writers, in 1009 a.d. by
the mad Caliph Hakem, but were restored in
1048. From the year 1033 down to 1099 a.d.
innumerable pilgrimages took place, but accounts
of the buildings are not known. The Crusaders,
however, replaced the third system of churches by
a magnificent cathedral, and united once more the
Sepulchre and Calvary under one roof Their
erection dated from 1103 a.d., and remained intact
till 1808, when it was partly destroyed by fire;
the southern facade is however still attributable
to the twelfth century. Of the position of the
Crusading site there is also no doubt, and it is
shown on charts of the fourteenth century. Srewulf,
in 1102 A.D. , places the site of Calvary '^on the
declivity of Mount Sion," thus agreeing with
Eucherius, who had described it in the fifth cen-
tury as " placed outside Mount Sion, where a knoll
of scanty size exists to the north." Both these ex-
pressions fit Avell, as the plan will show, with the
actual site of the present building.

We approach the church from the south, where
is an open court in which, according to the legend,

21—2

330 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

the Wandering Jew stays for a moment once in
every century to beg admission, and hears a voice
which bids him resume his endless journey. In
front of us rise the beautiful Gothic doorways, the
pillars scrawled over with the names of pilgrims,
and with dates from the fourteenth century down-
wards ; beneath our feet lies old Philip D'Aubigny,
close by the threshold, and over his head each
year thousands of pilgrims press through the
narrow portal.

Passing through the doorway we enter the
vestibule, in which is the Stone of Unction, a slab
of marble Avith lanterns of ground-oflass hun;^
above it. On the left is the diwan of the Turkish
custodians, to the right the stairs of the Chapel of
Calvary, beneath which is the place where the
*' rent in the rock " is shown, and where are the
tombs of Godfrey and Baldwin. Huge wax
candles, reaching half way to the lofty roof, flank
the Stone of Unction, which is devoutly kissed by
the pilgrims. Passing round it to the left, the
rotunda of the church is reached ; to the right a
narrow passage, with small chapels, runs behind
the apses of the Greek Church, and here a flight
of steps leads down to the subterranean Chapel
of Helena, with its picturesque lighting and heavy
eighth-century basket-work capitals ; beneath this
again is the dark cave so suggestively named
" Chapel of the Invention of the Cross."

The rotunda is well litrhted, M'itli a dome liijht

JERUSALEM. 331

blue in colour, and covered with golden lilies and
arabesques ; the drum is of good white stone. In
the centre rises the old Chapel of the Sepulchre,
dark and gloomy, of marble discoloured by age, sur-
mounted by a queer cupola of Italian taste, and
ornamented all along the top with gilt nosegays
and modern-framed pictures. Its entrance is
flanked by very handsome marble candlesticks,
and in front of the vestibule are hunof' beautiful
gold and silver lamps, suspended by chains, and
glowing with a subdued light through glass cups,
red, yellow, and green ; they number forty-three
in all, thirteen for Franciscans, Greeks, and Ar-
menians respectively, and four for the poor Copts.

Stooping to enter, we pass into the vestibule or
Chapel of the Angel, walled with marble slabs,
and thence into the inner Chapel of the Sepulchre
itself, where the darkness is only relieved by the
glowing lamps over the altar on the Tomb.

The most impressive portion of the church is,
however, the nave east of the rotunda belonging
to the Greeks, with its great screen in front of the
three eastern apses. The floor is unoccupied, save
by the short column marking the " centre of the
world." The dome above is poor, rudely white-
washed, and painted in fresco, with the long
strings of globular lamps usually seen in Greek
churches; but the glory of the place consists in the
huge screen and the panelling of the side walls.
Into the panelling dark pictures are framed, and

332 TENT WORK IN TALESTINE.

gilded thrones for the bishop caiid patriarch stand,
one each side, beyond the dark wooden choir-stalls.
The screen towers up to the roof, and presents
figures, in rows one above another, standing in
canopied recesses, but all in low rehef : in the
screen are the gates of the apses, and over each gate
is a little purple glass lamp, the colour of which,
in the gloom and beside the tarnished gilding, is
truly magnificent. Four candlesticks of grey marble
beautifully carved, the central pair eight feet high,
stand before the steps to the screen ; they are
presents from the Czar, and have the Eussian
eag:le on them.

Passing over without description the many
minor chapels, which are dingy and uninteresting,
there remains only the Chapel of Calvary to
notice. It is as dark as the greater part of the
rest of the church, yet on arriving at the top
of the steep stairs, the general efltect is a blaze
of gold. Nearly the whole of the east end is
occupied by the Greek altar. The pictures
above it have been covered with gold plates,
leaving only the faces visible. The lamps are
gold, the sacred vessels are gold. The roof is
very low, and painted in well executed and
ancient fresco on a blue ground, A faint smell of
rosewater pervades the chapel, mingled with an
odour of stale incense.

Sunday after Sunday we revisited the venerable
church, and followed the brown Franciscans in

JERUSALEM. 333

their march round the sacred stations, Hstening
to the deep sonorous tones of their chant. On
one occasion this was suddenly drowned by the
high nasal scream of the Armenians, and we
found the celebrant of the latter rite in the
Calvary Chapel, — a priest with a long beard and
peaked Armenian hood. The responses were
made by black-robed acolytes in fezzes, and a
second minister, in gaudy robes, with a gilt-paper
crown much too large for him, swung a censer.
The Latin ritual seemed simple and dignified, its
music melodious, and its ministers reverential,
when contrasted with the unearthly screeching
and childish mummeries of the Oriental sect.

The plaintive chant of the Franciscans attracted
us to the spot where the officiating priest stood,
at the door of the Chapel of the Angel. The
monks knelt in a double row, and the scene was
impressive ; the background was formed by the
great screen; in front was the dark chapel — a
church within a church. Not less affecting was
the aspect of the congregation, many with sad
pale faces telling of no common histories. One
man especially used to draw my attention ; light-
haired, pale, gaunt, and shabby, kneeling with his
little taper in one hand, the other held out in an
attitude of entreaty ; his wild eyes were fixed on
the marble Tomb, as though he could hardly
beheve that, after many miles of journey, he at
last really beheld the Holy Sepulchre. In him

334 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

one might fancy a penitent of the old Crusading
times, sent on jDilgrimage to expiate some great
crime ; and the memories of seven centuries rose
up ; of the king who refused to be crowned where
his Master had suffered; of the strong men in
mail who had knelt in tears on these stones, and
clanked their iron heels about the church ; of the
time when the proudest chivalry of Europe had
devoted their lives to redeem the few feet of rock,
where they believed the Holy Saviour to have
hung on the cross.

But the time to see the church is the season of
Easter. In 1873, and 1875 I was present at the
so-called Holy Fire. On the first occasion alone,
on the second Avith Lieut. Kitchener, with whom
I rode sixty miles in one day from Gaza to see the
spectacle.

On the evening before the day of the Fire, the
whole huge building was full of pilgrims, and
the long winding passages and galleries were
blocked with human beings, fast asleep, crouched
against the walls or extended on mattresses.
In the passage from the door to the rotunda,
Armenian women Avere propped in long rows
against the walls, on a kind of bench. Most of
the pilgrims were asleep, but some still showed
by frequent crossings, prostrations, and sighs, that
the keenness of their ecstasy was unabated.

In 1875 the pilgrimage to Neby Miisa was
going on at the same time, and parties of wild

JERUSALEM. 335

fanatical Moslems paraded tlie streets of Jerusa-
lem, bearing green banners surmounted with the
crescent and inscribed with Arabic texts. A body-
guard armed with battle-axes, spears, and long
brass-bound guns accompanied each flag, and a
couple of big drums with cymbals followed. It
speaks well for the Turks, that with all the
elements of a bloody riot thus ready to hand, with
crowds of fanatics, Christian and Moslem, in direct
contact, still no disturbances occurred.

By 11.30 a.m. on the 19th of April, 1873, and
by the same time on the 22nd of April, 1875, we
had been marshalled to a place in the Latin
gallery, w^est of the Sepulchre, and looking doAvn
on the rotunda. Between the Chapel of the
Sepulchre and the rotunda wall is a space some
fifteen paces wide ; a double line of Turkish
soldiers kept open a narrow lane, in the middle
of this space, round the tomb — a lane sufficiently
wide for three men to walk abreast. On either
side the crowd was packed against the rotunda
wall, and against that of the Sepulchre chapel,
and packed so thickly, that it seemed impossible
for one single body more to be squeezed in. To
say that you could walk on the heads of the
crowd conveys but a poor idea of its compactness ;
the whole mass seemed welded into one body,
and any movement of a single individual swayed
the entire crowd, which seemed to tremble like a
huge jelly.

336 TENT WORK AV PALESTINE.

But who can describe this wonderful scene ?
The sunhiiht came down from above on the north
side where the Greeks were gathered, Avhile on
the south all was in shadow. The mellow grey
of the marble was lit up, and a white centre of
light was formed by the caps, shirts, and veils of
the native Christians.

A narrow cross-lane was made at the fire-hole
on the north side, and here first two, and in 1875
six herculean guardians, in jerseys and with hand-
kerchiefs bound to their heads, kept watch — the
only figures plainly distinguishable among the
masses.

The effect of colour was remarkable ; it seemed
to run in patches, as all of one nationality were
near one another. In the sunlight, brown faces
and arms, salmon colour, pink, light blue, and.
cinnamon in the clothing, were blended with the
white, but, in the shadow, the dark blue uniforms,
the black dresses of nuns, and the brown frieze
and red sashes of the Armenians, were streaked
across by the long line of the soldiers' red fezzes.

On the west a strikinsf contrast Avas observable:
here stood and sat the Abyssinians and Copts,
silent and dusky, with many women among them,
some with small babies in their arms, whose cries
of half suffocation were plainly heard above the din
of many voices and many languages. The Coptic
men were in loose dark robes, with Avhite, twisted
turbans, the women weru closely veiled, in dow-

JERUSALEM. 337

ing indigo-coloured garments. The Abyssinians,
swathed in voluminous white drapery, sat gloomily
silent ao^ainst the wall. On the east a few Arabs
were gathered, also in dark robes, and behind
them was seen the rich colouring: of the Greek
chancel, dark and dusky in the dim light.

The pilgrims had been standing in their places
for at least ten hours, yet they showed no signs of
weariness. Every face was turned to the fire-hole,
and but one interest seemed to absorb them, save
when the great pewter cans of water, supplied by
the charity of the priests, were brought round.

The variety of national character was also re-
markable. Patient and stolid the Russians and
Armenians stood in their places, and a little forest
of candles rose from amongst them, ready to re-
ceive the fire, each pilgrim having a bunch of
perhajDS a dozen in his hand. Silent and motion-
less sat the Egyptians, awaiting the event with all
the apathy and dignified indifference of Orientals.
On the north, however, an entkely diff"erent scene
was enacted. Here stood the Greek Christians,
mostly Syrians by birth, w^ho were worked up
into a state of hysterical frenzy which would not
allow them to be quiet for a moment, and which
seemed ever on the increase. Every now and
then a man w^ould struo-o^le on to the shoulders
of his neighbours ; in one case six arms, extended
full length, supported him, three to each foot,
whilst his baggy trousers were grasped to keep

338 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

him steady ; another man was pushed and rolled
along, over the peoj^le's heads, as if he was
swinimino-. These individuals became fufxle-men,
and led the numerous well-known chants, of which
I collected the following:.

" Hildha Kilb-er Sdid— nu."

This is the most common chant, meaning " This
is the Tomb of our Lord," and repeated by
hundreds of voices in perfect time ^\atli the accen-
tuation as given above. Another chant was to
the same cadence :

"Allah linscr cs Sul— tan."

" God help the Sultan." The next was rarely

heard :

" Yd Ye-hiid, Yd Ye-liiid,
'Aide-kiira, 'Aid el ku-rud."

" O Jews, O Jews ! your feast is a feast of _
apes. I

Two longer chants were also used pretty "
frequently.

" El Mcssih 'Ata-iia
Ui dunihu, Isliterd-na
Alma el yom fo-raua
Wa el Ye-hi'ul liiza-na."

" The Christ is given us, with His blood He

bought us. We celebrate the day, and the Jews

be"svail."

" Sebt en Ndr -vva 'Aid-na
"VVa hddlia kub-er Sa-ldua."

JERUSALEM. 339

" The seventh is the fire and our feast, and this
is the Tomb of our Lord."

Nothing was more remarkable than the patience
of the soldiery who had to keep order. The
Greeks gave most trouble, and in 1873 the feeling
evinced by them was very bitter, because their
favourite Patriarch had just been deposed. A
very fat old colonel walked up and down, armed
with a murderous hurhaj, or whip of hippopota-
mus hide ; then he would sit on the floor and look
at the crowd, sometimes putting an additional big
soldier at a weak point in the line. The men
were armed with the Snider, and were very stal-
wart and tall. Sometimes the crowd became
dangerous, and hissed. As fast as his legs could
carry him, the Colonel rushed to the spot, and
down came the whip ; then where a moment
before were angry faces and arms stretched out
with clenched fists, there was suddenly nothing
but a flat surface of backs, or a few arms raised to
protect the heads. Yet on the whole it was a
good-natured crowd, and the soldiers were wonder-
fully patient. Little incidents of a comic nature
occurred, and an Arab chief, who tried to swagger
down the lane, found his head-shawl ofl" and far
away in a moment, tossed from hand to hand
amid shouts of laughter.

Two wooden galleries were erected, under the
arches to the west, each three storeys high ; and

340 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

here sat native women of the better class, in their

best silks, yellow and red stuffs, cachemire shawls,

white muslin and blue cloth, with flashing eyes

and painted faces. They lay scattered over the

bright carpets, presenting an effect of colour more

brilliant than that of the broad masses of sombre

tints below.

About one o'clock in the afternoon, the natives

of Jerusalem arrived — a Ion 2^ wave of human

beings bursting suddenly in from the south, and

surging along the narrow lane. Many were stripped

to their vests and drawers — in reo^ular fiofhtingr

costume. They rushed at the fire-hole, and the

first comers thrust their arms into it to keep

their places. The effect of this crowd within a

crowd — a moving wave, ploughing through the

two packed masses — was very curious. No sooner \

was it pushed and swept into place and the lane

cleared, than it burst into one long loud shout of J

repetition —

" Hddha kub-er Said — nd !
Hddha kub-er Said — nd !"

wliich was repeated twenty or thirty times at a
breath ; and a big man was hoisted up, and fairly
pounded the walls of the Sepulchre with his list,
shrieking the same refrain and pointing at the
chapel with his fingers, while the crowd joined
in the last syllable — a tremendous shout of
" Na !"

And now the rotunda contained some 2000

JERUSALEM. Oil

persons, and the church probably 10,000 in all,
when, at 2.15 p.m., the procession was formed,
and the nasal chant of the priests was heard in
the Greek church.

First came the banners, looking very shabby,
the crosses above them bent on one side in bygone
fights. The procession was a short and hurried
one; the old Patriarch (just elected in 1872) had
a frightened air, and shuffled along, flanked by
the Archimandrite and by another dignitary, each
carrying a great silver globe, with holes in it,
mounted on a silver handle, and intended to hold
the fire. The tuneless singing was interrupted by
the chorus of the crowd and the shrill cries of the
women. For a moment, in 1873, there seemed
danger of a riot. A man raised his arm and
shouted something at the Patriarch in a loud voice.
Instantly an oflficer was on the spot; the man,
who had hidden, was dragged out, held by the
legs, and beaten over head and face, then thrust
back into the crowd, and an extra guard placed
over him.

And now a moment of breathless silence fol-
lowed. Many faces were raised to the roof, per-
haj)s exjDecting the fire to drop through the quiet
shaft of light above, or the dove, which used
to be let loose, to appear. Two priests stood
bareheaded by the fire-hole, guarded by the
giants on either side.

Suddenly a lighted torch was in their hands

343 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

passed from ^vitllin, where was the Patriarch.
The two priests turned and fled, and the giants
closed in round them, trampHng hke furies through
the crowd. In a moment the thm Une of soldiers
was gone, and two huge hustling masses surged
up like waves round the great torch, which, now
high, now low, was tossed on the seething flood,
scattering sparks right and left, but gradually
drifting towards the exterior of the church, where
the horseman sat, ready to take the fire to Bethle-
hem. A great forest of arms was stretched out
towards the torch, and they seemed to writhe
like serpents after it ; but not a single taper was
lighted. Soon, however, other torches were passed
out of the fire-hole, and the fire spread over the
church, as the roar grew louder and louder. A
flame next broke out behind the grating of the
Coptic chapel, and a yet more wonderful scene
here presented itself. The dark mass of blue and
black was streaked with livid flesh-colour, as bare
arms stretched towards the light with their bundles
of tapers. Woe to the owner of the taper first lit ;
it was snatched from him, and extinguished by a
dozen others thrust into it. Delicate women and
old men fought like furies ; long black turbans
flew off" and uncoiled like snakes on the ground,
and what became of the babies I do not know.

The chancre from the stag^nation of the motion-
less crowd to the wild storm now raQ^insr was as
marvellous as it was sudden. The flame spread.

JERUSALEM, 343

seeming to roll over the whole crowd, till the
church was a sea of fire, which extended over the
roof of the chapel, and ran up the galleries and
alonof the choir. Meantime a dreadful bell was
clanging away, and the grey-bearded Patriarch
was borne out aloft into the chancel, on the shoul-
ders of a body-guard of priests. A dense blue
fog, made by the smoke, and a smell of burning
wax rose up, and above all the quiet gleam of
lieiit shone down from the roof.

The fury of the crowd seemed to increase. A
stalwart negro, struggling and charging like a mad
bull, ran round the church, followed by the wTithing
arms ; then, as all got their candles lighted, men
mio'ht be seen bathino- in the flame, and sinseinq;
their clothes in it, or dropping wax over themselves
as a memorial, or even eating it. The dancing is
not allowed now ; but here and there knots were
formed, of men who jumped and hopped, rolling
along the centre and out of the church. The whip
came down on crowd and soldiers alike, until the
lane had been re-formed ; and at last the excite-
ment abated, as the gorgeous second j)rocession
came forth in an endless string.

This procession is the grandest to be seen in
Jerusalem, but only a few of the Greeks assist
at it.

First came a priest in yellow, with a crown and
great jewelled cross, flanked by others in pink
satin, with censers ; four banners followed, and six

VOL. I. 22

34'! TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

priests in embroidered cloth of gold ; next came
twenty Armenians in cloth of silver; next, two
censer-bearers with red-and-gold crowns, and four
priests in cloth of gold, with candles ; then came
the Armenian bishop, in a huge cope lined with
rose satin, Avith a white beard and a gigantic mitre
of gold, having a central medallion of enamel ; on
each side of him was a priest in a black cap, holding
liis robe. Next came the Copts, with six banners,
a cross, and two books in silver covers ; the priests
in cloth of gold, with crowns of red-velvet and gold;
then six monks in the same, with white hoods ;
two censer-bearers with yellow tippets, and crowns;
followed by the Coptic bishop, in cloth of silver
lined w^ith crimson, and with a great silver crown ;
two acolytes and a banner-bearer in silver and
white went before him. A cross, four banners,
and two censers were borne next ; then came four
priests in silver embroidered with blue, bearing
books in rich silver covers ; then the Syrian bishop,
in plain cloth- of-gold, with a hood of the same ;
and behind him a banner, borne by a priest in
pink and silver robes embroidered wath flowers.

Asfain in the eveninc: we went to the church,
and found our way into the galler}^, where we
remained till one in the morning. The crowd
was almost as thick, but the majority were Rus-
sian women ; and the old cry, " Hadha kuber
Saidna," still rang at intervals. A new proces-
sion of eighty priests and seven croAvned bishops

JERUSALEM. 345

in silver robes was formed, these bein<j: of the Greek
rite. The glare of countless candles lit up the scene:
and after the procession had gone thrice round the
Tomb, the bells began clanging, the crowd roared,
and all the banners and crosses were spun round
and round with a rapid whirl, till the flashing, the
noise, and this extraordinary spinning of the flags
made one giddy.

Such is a plain account of this wonderful feast,
from notes made on the spot. The Latins have
long discountenanced the imposture, though it
was once recognised by them, and dates back to
the miraculous lighting of lamps in the time of the
Christian kings of Jerusalem. Every educated
Greek knows it to be a shameful imposition ; but
the io'norant Syrians and the fknatical Russian
peasants still believe the fire to descend from
heaven. The clergy dare not enlighten them, and
that crafty diplomacy which encourages pilgrini-
ao'es to Jerusalem by government aid, fosters the
superstition which is the main inducement f(jr the
Russian pilgrims to visit the Holy City.

VOL. L

The Temple Wall.

CHAPTER XII.

THE TEMPLE AND CALVARY.

The present account of Jerusalem is, of necessity, j
only a sketch ; the subject cannot be treated fully
in two chapters, but requires a volume to itself.
I have, therefore, confined myself to the two main
points of interest — the Teni2:)le and the site of
Calvary — hoping to have some other occasion oJ
utiHsing notes, which represent the results of two
seasons of continual prowling about the city, and
of long study of its antiquities.

In the present chapter the results of my own

THE TEMPLE AND CALVARY. 347

studies are given in brief; the theories are neither
entirely original nor very startling, for a simple
reason — that originality would be only another
term for perversity, in the face of the accumu-
lation of hard facts available.

One important addition to our information re-
mained still to be made when Captain Warren left
Jerusalem ; this was to ascertain accurately the
lie of the rock within the city, under the accumu-
lation of rubbish. To this point Captain Warren
had directed my attention, and had told me how
much valuable knowledge might be acquired. By
his introduction, I made the acquaintance of Herr
Konrad Schick, the architect of the Society for
promoting Christianity among the Jews. Not
only has this careful and patient workman himself
erected many houses in the city, but, his pro-
fessional ability being fully recognised by the
Turks, he has been constantly consulted by the
Government, and has had opportunities of ex-
amining buildings in every part of Jerusalem. All
this valuable information remained still unapplied
to the use of antiquarians.

I gave ]Mr. Schick a cojDy of the Ordnance Sur-
vey map, on which Major Wilson, R.E., has
shoA\Ti all the present levels in the city, and
he kindly undertook to mark accurately every
spot where, from digging foundations, examining
drains, etc., he was able to give the depth below
the surface at which the native rock was reached.

22—2

348 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

During my stay in the city, I also visited with
him many places where it can be seen near the
surface. From Mr. Schick I received this record
of rock heights in April, 1873, and I added to it
the measurements which I made at the Zion Scai-p
in 1875, and at Chamber No. 24 in the Haram in
1872. The total number of distinct observations
amounts to nearly 200, without counting those
made by Major Wilson and Captain Warren in the
Haram.

With this material T constructed a map, show-
ing by contours at ten feet vertical intervals the
apparent lie of the rock below the surface ; and
these form a continuation of Captain Warren's
map of the Temple Hill. After the contours had
been drawn and submitted to Mr. Schick for
criticism I sent a copy to England. In 1874 new
excavations w^ere made, and the results entirely
agreed with my contours. In 187G further exami-
nation of the rock was obtained by Mr. Schick,
and the measure, over a length of 100 feet, agreed
again exactly with my contours. Still, the infor-
mation is perhaps not sufficiently exact in some
parts of the city to give certainty; and in deference
to the valuable opinion of Major Wilson, I propose
at present to publish, on a reduced scale, only the
lines of the contours at intervals of fifty feet, con-
cernino: the s^eneral correctness of which there can
hardly be any dispute. This is sufficient for the
purpose in view ; for while the error of a few feet

THE TEMPLE AND CALVARY. 340

might be a blot on a plan aiming at perfect exacti-
tude, an error of tliirty or forty feet would not
affect the matter at present under discussion, which
is simply the relative position of the original hills
on which the city stands.

I had also opportunities at various times of
making explorations in the Haram which had not
before been possible, especially as regards the
north j)ortion of the west Vv^all, which I reached
and examined in 1873. In 1874 I was able to
examine the character of the masonry closing the
great tunnels under the platform, numbered 1 and
o ; and, in 1872, in company wath Mr. Drake, I
found a beautiful scarp of rock under the same
platform, which had not previously been described.
Such were the few gleanings I w^as able to add to
the minute descriptions of Major AYilson, and to
the invaluable discoveries of Captain Warren.
Few though they be, these additions wiU be seen
to have an interesting bearing on the antiquarian
questions.

It is generally allowed that Herod's Temple
occupied part, if not the whole, of the area of the
" High Sanctuary ;" but the question to be set at
rest is the exact position of the Holy House and
of its courts wdthin that area. In the following
pages I oifer the explanation, which has resulted
from a long and careful study of the subject, and
which I hope merits serious consideration by those
who are interested in the question.

350 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

The sources of our information as to the Temple
are two — the first Josephus, the second the Tal-
mud. The first is simply a general and pictorial
account; the second is a laborious and minute
description by men in whose eyes the subject was
all-important ; and the tract of the Mishna, called
Middoth, or " measurements/' gives the details of
arrangement, in some parts, with an exactitude
which is rare amono^ Jews, and which allows of
plans being made. We have also this great ad-
vantaofe — that all the scattered accounts in the
Talmud have been summarised and arranged by
the famous Maimonides, "the second Moses," a
man of great ability and thoroughly trustworthy,
and that every statement he makes in his syste-
matic account of the Holy House can be traced
back to the original passages hidden away in the
Talmud.

While, therefore, it is from Josephus that we
get a general idea of the appearance and arrange-
ments of the Temple, it is from the Talmud, and
from Maimonides, that we obtain that exact in-
formation which enables us to make a plan of the
Holy House and of its courts.

A considerable initial difficulty arises, for
Josephus makes the area of the Temple to liave
been a square furlong, or 625 feet side, and the
Talmud gives it as 500 cubits, which, as will bo
seen, is probably Q>'^Q) feet ; but the Haram has a
mean measurement of 982 feet by 15G5 foot — a

THE TEMPLE AND CALVARY. 351

trapezoid, containing an area of thirty-five acres,
or three and a half times the area given by the
Talmud. Thus the question arises, has the
present boundary any connection with that of the
Temple ? And if it has, where are we to place
the smaller area within the larger ?

There are many indications leading to the con-
clusion that the present outer wall of the Haram
is the old boundary of the Temple Hill. In the
south-west corner we have the remains of the
great bridge Avliich Josephus so often mentions.
The south Avail is trisected by the Hne of the
two underground portals, answering to the two
Huldah or " Mole-gates " of the Temple. Captain
Warren's excavations have also shown us that the
south wall is all of one date and in one piece,
with a " Master Course " six feet high, except near
the west, where, for over 200 feet, this feature
is wanting, and where the stones below the
original surface existing at the time of the great
bridge are less finished, being probably never
visible. In the south-east corner, where the
stones are smoothly finished down to the rock,
are the Phoenician masons' marks, denoting the
courses ; and from this corner to the Golden Gate
the masonry is apparently of the same character.
The west wall has been examined for nearly half
its length, and proves to be of the same style
as that on the south-east. Finally, in 1873, I
found the same masonry, in the north corner of

362 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

the M'cst wall, reaching up to a higher level than
that at which it was previously known in any-
other part of the Haram, and founded on rock.
The natural conclusion is that all this beautiful
and gigantic masonry is of one period, and formed
one area. The question is, to what period does it
belonQC?

I may, perhaps, insist upon an indication of
date connected w^ith the dressing of the stones,
which I have never seen brouo;ht to bear on the
question. Drafted masonry, imitating that on
these walls, was used by Byzantine builders and
by Crusading masons ; but they never dressed
their stones in the manner in which those of the
Temple are dressed. This is distinctive and
unique. It consists of a careful cross-chiselling,
on the draft, and for a dej^th of three inches
round the margin of the raised part of the stone
— a regular "criss-cross" pattern, never found in
the later masonry. This dressing also occurs on
the stones of the voussoirs of the great Tyropceon
bridge, an indication which I have never seen
noticed before. The bridge and the wall then are,
to all appearance, of one period; the lower courses
of the wall are j)roved, by excavation, to be in
situ, and thus the existing line must, I conclude,
be referred to the time of the brido-e. No one
has disputed as to v/hen this bridge was built.
Captain Warren has shown that an older arch
fell, and a pavement was made over it, before the

THE TEMPLE AND CALVARY. 353

present ruined bridge was built ; thus the present
arch is generaily thought to be not earUer than
Herod's time ; and hence the Haram wall is
attributable, according to the indications obtained
irom its masonry (as was long ago pointed out
by the Comte de Vogile, arguing from , different
premises), to the time when Herod rebuilt the
work of Solomon, and in part, if not altogether,
"took away the old foundations" (Ant. xv. 11, 3).
On the north other important indications exist
which require careful consideration. Josephus
tells us that a tower called Baris (probably mean-
ing " the castle ") was built by Hyrcanus and
repaired by Herod. It w^as on a hill which
originally joined that of Bezetha, but was severed
by an artificial trench. The fortress was re-named
Antonia ; it stood on a rock fifty cubits high
(B. J. V. 5, 8), and at the north-west corner of
the Temple, which it commanded, being on the
"top of the hill" (B. J. vi. 1, 5). Now there is
just such a rock-fortress in the north-west part of
the Haram. It is a great scarp, with vertical
faces on the south and north, standing up forty
feet above the interior court, and separated from
the north-eastern hill of Jerusalem by a ditch
fifty yards broad, in which are now the " Twin
Pools " — the Bethesda of St. Jerome. This block
of rock is " the top of the hill," and occupies a
length of 100 yards along the course of the north
wall of the Haram. No other such scarp exists

354 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

in or near the enclosure of the "High Sanctuary."
Can we, then, hesitate to place Antonia here ?

The foregoing observations knit together the
various parts of the Haram enclosure, as consti-
tuting a single building of one period. The east
wall, from the Golden Gate southwards, is in one
piece with the south wall; the S.W. corner has
the remains of Herod's Bridge contemporary with
the wall ; the west wall is all of one style with the
rest, and the N.W. corner is occupied by Antonia.

But we have still the north-east corner of the
Haram to consider, and here we have, I think,
indications that it was not originally part of the
Temple enclosure. There is no rock north-east of
the present platform for a great depth ; a valley
runs across this part of the area, and even the
present surface is very low. It is also ascertained
that the east wall has, near the north-east corner,
a character distinct from the remainder, and much
rougher, and that it runs beyond the present
N.E. corner of the Haram without a break.

Nor can it, I think, well be doubted, that the
north wall of the Haram, east of the rock scarp,
is less ancient than the other walls. In the first
place, the vaults in this part, which Captain
Warren explored, and which I also visited, are
Crusading or Saracenic v»^ork; they are of masonry,
with groined roofs and pointed arches, not of rock,
like the great passages under the platform. In
the second place, the north wall is faced outside

THE TEMPLE AND CALVARY. 355

with rough small masonry, which was once covered
with the plaster of the great pool called Birket
Israil. This masonry is certainly more modern
than the time of Herod, and the pool is never
mentioned, in any account of Jerusalem before
the t^velfth century, about which period, perhaps,
it was first constructed. Had a fine wall existed
on the north side of the Haram, surely the cement
would have been spread directly over it, and not
over a facing of inferior stonework far more liable
to leak. A boring through the wall would here
be most valuable as an exploration, but, even
without it, there is I think ample evidence that
the N.E. corner of the Haram, east of Antonia,
north of the Golden Gate, is not a part of
Herod's enclosure, as its walls and subterranean
vaults are distinct in character.

Assuming the outer boundary of the Temple
Hill, to have been thus defined, as coinciding with
the Haram walls except on the north-east, we
have next to explain the statements of the Talmud,
which make the "Mountain of the House" 500
cubits by 500.

The explanation is not difficult. Maimonides
tells us, in a passage of which Dr. Chaplin kindly
sent me a translation, in 1873: "The men who
built the second Temple, when they built it in the
days of Ezra, they built it like Solomon's, and
in some things according to the explanation in
Ezekiel."

35 G TENT WORK AV PALESTINE.

The learned Professor Constantino I'Empereur,
speaking of the same question in 1630 a.d., quotes
the Tahnud Commentary as follows :

" The ^Mountain of the House was to the north
of Jerusalem, and the mountain was indeed much
greater than five hundred cubits on each side would
contain, but to the outer part of it the sanctity did
not extend."

In this particular, then, the men of the second
Temple followed the injunction in the Book of
EzekieL " Five hundred lonoi; and five hundred
broad, to make a separation between the sanctuary
and the profine place " (Ezekiel xlii. 20) ; or, in
the words of the Revelation (xi. 2) : " The court
which is without . . . measure it not, for it is given
unto the Gentiles."

Thus the 500 cubits refers apparently to that
part of the Temple, within the Soreg or Dru-
phactos, which could not be entered by any
Gentile.

The measurements of Josephus are only aji-
proximate. They cannot, as we have seen in
the case of Csesarea, be relied on ior accuracy,
and in one particular (the measurement of the
altar) they are impossible. But it is otherwise
with his fifeneral descriiotions. Dimensions esti-
mated in a distant country may be incorrect, and
figures are liable to alteration in copying ; but
general position and arrangement we must accept,
unless we condemn the author as thoroughly un-

J

THE TEMPLE AND CALVARY. 357

trustworthy. As to the position of the Holy
House, Josephus and the Tahnudic writers are in
accord. The Temple stood on the top of the hill,
which, at first, was scarcely large enough for the
Holy House and the Altar (B. J. v. 5, 1). This
statement is the joroper starting-point for any re-
constructive plan of the Temple and its courts.

The top of the Temple Hill is, without dispute,
the Sakhrah Rock ; from it the mountain slopes
down on all sides, and we now know accurately
the general lie of the rock. At the Sakhrah,
consequently, Jose^jhus places the Holy House.

Three traditions consent in pointing to the
same spot. In other cases, such as Joseph's
Tomb, Jacob's Well, and the Tomb of Eleazar,
we also find such a consent of tradition, and the
latter sites are generally accepted as real. When,
as in the case of Joshua's Tomb, traditions are not
in accord, we get but little help from them ; but,
in the few instances where both Moslem and
Christian traditions agree Avith that accepted by
the Jews, we may fairly argue that from the Jews
they were originally derived. This is the case in
the present instance. A rock called " Stone of
Foundation" (Eben Shatiyeh) existed, according
to the Jews, in the Holy of Holies ; round it the
world was first gathered together, in it the Ark
was hidden, and over it the Mercy-Seat originally
stood. The same tradition seems to be repeated
in the Crusading chronicles, and the Christians of

353 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

the twelfth century placed the Holy of Holies on
the Sakhrah rock. Moslem tradition also connects
the Sakhrah with the Stone of Foundation, for it
is, in their eyes, the foundation of the world, as in
the tradition of the Jcavs was the Eben Shatiyeh
under the Holy of Holies.

After taking this position for the Hol}^ of
Holies as a starting-point, a serious question at
once confronts us, namely, the length of the cubit.
Here again we must trust to the Jews. The
measure they used was not an Egyj)tian cubit, not
a Babylonian cubit, not a Greek or Koman cubit ;
it was a measure of their own, the Hebrew Am-
mah. Maimonides tells us that the Temple cubit
was of six hand-breadths, or forty-eight barley-
corns, and any one who Avill take the trouble to
measure barley-corns, wdll find that three go to the
inch. This gives us sixteen inches for the cubit,
or the averao^e measure from the elbow to the first
joint of the finger, wdiich the Ammah is said to
have been. I am the more inclined to accept this
length, because I find that the Galilean syna-
gogues, measured by it, give round numbers.
Thus in (he synagogue of Umm el 'Amed, which
I measr.ved in 1875, I found the pillars to be ten
cubits high, their bases one cubit, their capitals
half a cubit, and the synagogue itself thirty cubits
by forty, taking the cubit used to have been six-
teen inches.

The result obtained from these data is ex-

SITE OF HEROD'S TEMPLE.

SUOWlJiiJ 'niii ACTUAL LEVELS.

«S4!2

— — «. _ ^3ss_ ^ __

S 0 R E C

Scale of Xeef

2.-V .to J!0

jW

■ ■*

,sao

Scale lai CuhiU.

To face page 359, Vot, /•

THE TEMPLE AND CALVARY. 359

tremely striking. The weak point of all restora-
tions of the Temple which I have as yet seen is
this, that no attention has been paid to the charac-
ter of the ground, or to the elevation of the building.
If we apply the well-known measures of the
Temple courts, given in the Middoth, to the
ground, on the assumption that the Sakhrah is
the Holy of Holies, the result is satisfactory, and
in fact exact, as regards level. The various levels
of the courts we know from the writino-s of
Maimonides ; they agree to a foot with those of
the rock round the Sakhrah, as a glance at the plan
will show ; but only in this position is it possible to
make them agree ; in any other we are obliged to
suppose gigantic masonry foundations which are
not mentioned by the writer who says the Temple
was built on " the higher part of the hill " (B. J.
V. 5, 2), and of which not a trace has been found
inside the Haram.

The plan shows this agreement better than
words can explain it ; there is only space here to
point out some of the special tests which can be
applied.

Placing the floor of the Holy House on the

level of the top of the Sakhrah, 2440 feet above

the Mediterranean, the Altar-Court should be at a

level six cubits lower (2432). The rock is actually

known to have the level 2432, immediately west ot

the supposed position of the Altar on the present

plan. __

VOL I. 23

360 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

The Court of the Women should have a level
2418-6. The rock in this part is known to be
lower than 2419 over a considerable area. The
gates north and south of the Temple led down to
a level about 2425. The rock in their immediate
neio-hbourhood has been fixed at the levels 2425
and 2426. The outer part, near the Soreg or Wall
of Partition, had, on the east, a level 2410. The
rock is here known at the level 2409 and 2406.

Nor are these the only indications of exactness
in detail. North of the Court of the Priests was
the irreat Gate-house Moked, " the house of the
fireplace," from which a gallery, aj)parently that
noticed by Josephus (Ant. xv. 11, 7), ran under
the Sanctuary to the subterranean gate Tadi or
Teri, and from this gate the Bath-house was reached.
The great subterranean passage called No. 1 on
the Ordnance Survey, starts from the north wall
of the Court of the Priests, as placed on the present
plan, and it leads just as far as the boundary of the
500 cubits, where the level of the rock is apparently
low. On this same line is the north end of the
great excavation No. 3, which Captain Warren
has proposed as representing the Bath-house;
here then I would place Tadi, just outside the
Sanctuary, close to the entrance of the Bath-house
vault. I may remark that a visit in 1874 showed
me that these great galleries are closed on the
north by rude modern walls, probably built up
just across their original entrances, which are

2 HE TEMPLE AND CALVARY. 3G1

now covered with rubbish beneath the platform
flags.

On the south we have another indication. The
Water-Gate of the Holy House was on this side,
and was connected with a cistern outside the Court
of the Priests. A glance at the plan shows that the
shaft leading down to the huge rock-cut reservoir
No. 5, is on the present theory just outside the posi-
tion of the Water-Gate as defined by the Mishna.

There is not space to go farther into detail,
though the investigation has been pursued farther ;
but the above facts are, perhaps, sufficient to speak
for themselves. We see the Holy House in its
natural and traditional position, on the top of the
mountain ; we see the Courts descendino- on either
side according to the present slopes of the hill ;
we find the great rock-galleries dropping naturally
into their right places ; and finally we see the
Temple, by the immutability of Oriental custom,
still a Temple, and the site of the great Altar
still consecrated by the beautiful little Chapel
of the Chain. Push the Temple a little to the
north or south, and the levels cease to ao-ree :
lengthen the cubit to the Egyptian standard of
twenty- one inches, and the exactitude of the
adaptation is at once destroyed.

And now we must turn from this interestingr
question to one not less important — that of the
position of Calvary. I have no wish to review
the long controversies which have arisen on this

362 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

subject. But I may give in detail some new in-
dications which appear to me of importance.

It is a recognised fact that Calvary was outside
the city- wall that existed in the time of Our Lord.
This fact was also understood by the early fathers,
and Eusebius gives a long description of the growth
of New Jerusalem, to account for the position of
Constantine's site almost in the heart of the town.
Ssewulf also, in 1108, says: "We know that Our
Lord suffered without the gate, but the Emperor
Hadrian, who was called ^lius, rebuilt Jerusalem
and the Temple of the Lord, and added to the city
as far as the Tower of David, which was previously
a considerable distance from the city." St. Willi-
bald (723 a.d.) echoes the same feeling, speaking
of " the place of Calvary which was formerly
outside of Jerusalem," and Sir John Maundeville
(1322) says the same. Thus, even as early as the
eighth century, attention had been drawn to the
fact that the accepted site was apparently too near
the middle of the city, but the modesty and faith of
pilgrims rendered them willing to accept, without
question, the answers which they received from
the monks regarding their difficulty as to the site.

The main arguments in favour of the present
site are two. The first, insisted on by the Comte
De Voglle and others, is the existence of an un-
doubted Jewish tomb, just outside the rotunda of
the Church of the Sepulchre, and now called the
Tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. This has been

THE TEMPLE AND CALVARY. 363

cited as evidence that the place was outside the
old city- wall, but we know from the Talmud that
ancient half-forgotten tombs were allowed by the
Jews to exist within Jerusalem, and any writer
will admit that, in the time of Agrippa at least,
this particular tomb was within the circuit of the
town. The second argument, brought forward by
Chateaubriand, is that tradition had handed down
the site, and that its exact position was known
in the fourth century, because Hadrian had built
a Temple to Venus on the spot. Of the latter
fact we have, apparently, no single intimation
in any known author of the time of Hadrian,
thousfh several buildinsfs of his in Jerusalem
are noticed by contemporary writers ; the story
of this Temple of Venus is first mentioned by
Eusebius two centuries later. As regards con-
tinuity of tradition, we have a break of eighty
years between a.d. 70 and a.d. 150, during
which time the Christians were absent from the
city ; finally we have no sound reason for sup-
posing that the early Christians paid any attention
to the site of the Sepulchre. As Jews, their
horror of dead bodies would naturally have pre-
vented their visiting a place which would pollute
them; and had it been considered important to
hand down the exact position of the Tomb, Ave
should surely have had suflicient indications in
the Gospel narrative to fix its locality, whereas,
nothing can be gathered from the New Testament,

3G4 TENT WORK IN FALESTiNE:

further than the statement of the Epistle that
'^ Christ suffered without the gate " (Heb. xiii. 12),
with the incidental remarks ot St. John, that the
Sepulchre was " nigh at hand " to Calvary (John
xix. 42), and that Calvary was " nigh unto the
city " (20).

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre stands near
the centre of the lower part of modern Jerusalem,
but this is unimportant, if it can be shown to
have been outside the "second wall" — the northern
boundary of Jerusalem in the time or Christ.

On this question the new rock levels have a
most important bearing, and the indications ob-
tained from them will now be summed up as con-
cisely as the subject will allow.

The account Avhicli Josephus gives of the site
on which Jerusalem was built is explicit and easily
understood. It was placed on two hills (B. J. v. 4)
ojoposite each other, with a valley between. The
hill of the Upper City was the highest and largest;
the second, that of Acra, was lower ; a third hill,
lower still, was to the east, separated by another
valley, which was filled up by the Asmoneans.
The first valley — the Tyroposon, which divided
the Upper and Lower City — ran down to Siloam.
Other deep valleys with precipices existed beyond
the city on all sides, except on the north where
three successive lines of fortification protected the
town.

Turning to the plan of the rock beneath modern

THE TEMPLE AND CALVARY. 365

Jerusalem, which is given in illustration, we see
just such a site before us. On the south is a large
and high hill, the top 2540 feet above the sea,
with a deep valley to the south and west, and a
second valley, almost equal in size, to the north
and east. Down the last-mentioned valley David
Street now runs, but the accumulation of rubbish
is in parts forty feet deep. By the observations
taken in making excavations in the old Hospital
of the Knights of St. John, and in a vault farther
east, as well as at the foundations of the Bishops'
Palace and of the hotel near David's Tower, we
ascertain the following details : that the valley,
breaking down suddenly eastward, has its head
at a narrow saddle at a level about 2500 feet
above the sea, and that this saddle separates
the head of the eastern valley from that of
Wady Rababeh, which runs to the west of the
Jaffa Gate : the eastern valley proves to have
a depth of more than 100 feet below the sum-
mit of the southern hill. Other observations,
farther east, show that the precipice visible just
opposite the great bridge from the S.W. corner
of the Haram runs north and turns westward,
where either a vertical scarp, or a very steep slope,
forms the N.E. anoxic of the southern hill above
the corner where the great valley sweeps round
southwards descendino- towards Siloam.

The plan further shows that the ground rises
again north of the valley, and forms a small knoll

3G6 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

in the neighbourhood of the Church of the Holj
Sepulchre, with a second valley head to the east.
This knoll is actually fifty feet lower than the top
of the southern hill, and, from the lie of the
ground, it appears to be still lower than it really
is. The second valley on the east of the knoll
separates off a third hill now occupied by the
Mohammedan quarter of Jerusalem, and this is
divided from the Temple Hill, of which it is really
a part, by the rock-cut trench forty feet deep, hewn
on the north side of the scarp which I have en-
deavoured to show was the Castle of Antonia.
The third hill is lower again by fifty feet than
the knoll last mentioned.

I do not see how we can hesitate in applying to
this " rock site " the names given by Josephus.
The southern, higher, and larger hill must be
the Upper City, the '' Mountain Fort " of Zion ;
the knoll north of it is Acra (which is identified
by the Septuagint Version with Millo), the site
of the Lower City ; the broad valley between is
the Tyi'opccon ; the second valley is the Asmo-
nean ; the third hill is Bezetha, north of the
Temple. The existence of the narrow saddle at
the head of the valley, as will shortly appear, is
an important indication. The fact is proved by
no less than ten distinct observations, made in
sinking the foundations of three large buildings,
and the rock is here found to be shghtly higher
than the top of the Acra knolL

THE TEMFLE AND CALVARY. 3G7

The conformation of ground in Jerusalem is not
radically different, even now, from that existing
before the rubbish accumulated. David Street is
indeed forty feet above the bed of the Tyropoeon,
but it still is reached from the southern hill by a
steeply sloping street with steps. The ground
falls away east of the Acra knoll to the Asmo-
nean Valley on somewhat the same line which
the rock beneath it follows, and it again rises
into the third hill on the north-east. Thus any
observer from the roofs will see in modern Jeru-
salem a very fair reproduction of the ancient city
beneath ; the main features are the same, but the
differences of level, in the hills and valleys, are
less marked.

Such being the rock site, Josephus's description
of the walls is easily followed. The first wall
embraced only the Upper City, and in its north-
west corner were the Royal Towers, which formed
the fortress of that part of the town. The north
line of the wall is that most important to define,
and it can scarcely be doubted that a line from
David's Tower (where Hippicus and its two com-
panions are placed in almost every plan) towards
the Haram Avill represent the First Wall. Remains
of towers have been found along this line, and, as
above noticed, it is the line of the northern crest
of the hill of the Upper City. As to this there
is but little dispute between various authorities,
nor is there any radical difference of opinion a^

368 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

to the line on the south and west sides oi" the
Upper City. The valuable excavations made in
1874 by Mr. Maudslay have thoroughly opened
up the great scarp which formed the S.W. corner
of ancient Jerusalem. Captain Warren's adven-
turous shafts have shown where the great wall
joined the Temple. The line between these
points might be traced without much difficulty,
by simply following out the work already done.

From the first wall the second had its start,
and here the difficulty arises, and here also the
real value of the rock-levels is most noticeable.
Can the wall be drawn to exclude the traditional
Calvary, or must it of necessity include that spot %
The answer, I think, may be given without hesi-
tation, and the present site of the Holy Sepulchre
Avill probably be discarded by any unprejudiced
inquirer, if the following facts are taken into
consideration.

The description of Josephus is tantalising from
its brevity ; but one word seems wanting — a word
which must be supplied by the rocks themselves.

" The second wall took its beo'inninof from the
Gate Gennath, which belonged to the first wall.
It encircled the north quarter of the city, and
reached as far as the Tower Antonia " (B. J. v.
4, 2).

The word rendered " encircled " cannot well
be construed with any other meaning. The wall
had no angles, as had the first and third, it there-

THE TEMPLE AND CALVARY. 369

lore required no lengthy description. The second
wall started from the first wall, and running in
a curve enclosed the Lower City, and terminated
at the N.W. corner of the Temple.

The one statement wanted is that which should
fix the Gennath (or Garden) Gate, which, as is
generally admitted, was somewhere in the north
face of the wall of the Upper City.

Now, as we have seen above, a great valley
separates the Upper City from Acra, and a second
valley runs southwards on the west side of the
upper hill. No military man Avill suppose for a
moment that the wall of a fortress could have
been constructed in a deep valley and commanded
from without by high ground immediately near.
The wall must have stood on the high ground^
and must have included one valley and excluded
the other. Thus we are confined to a very narrow
limit — to that saddle of rock at the head of the
Tyropoeon, which connects the great peninsula of
the Upper City with the Acra knoll, for this
little saddle is the only place where the rampart
could protect the lovv^er ground east of it, and
command the valley to the west.

Here, therefore, hidden by the palace of the
Protestant Bishop, still perhaps exists the founda-
tion or the rock scarp, in which was the Gennath
Gate; and from this isthmus of high land the
second wall circled round to Antonia. The sudden
deepening and the great breadth of the Tyropceon

370 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

appear to me to render it impossible to draw the
line farther east.

If we accept this new indication, the wall can
hardly be di'awn otherwise than to include the
Church of the Holy Sepulclii'e ; for the knoll on
which that building stands is, as contended above,
the knoll of Acra — the Lower City included by
the wall ; and if this knoll be excluded, the same
military objection will again arise — the "en-
circling " wall would be commanded by a hill im-
mediately outside it.

The line of argument thus followed is, I believe,
a new one, though the result is old. The observa-
tion of the rock-levels is a matter of primary im-
portance, and the special observations on which the
argument has been based have never before been
2:)ublished. The military consideration seems to
me to set the matter at rest; and, to state the idea
in a nutshell — " fortresses stand on hills, not in
deep ravines."

The course of the third wall is a matter which
has no bearing on the question of the site of
Calvary ; but it may be noted that the line laid
down on the plan is controlled by three con-
siderations. First, the necessity of placing the
great corner tower, Psephinus, on very high
ground, the position indicated being the very top
of the watershed ; second, the, distance from
the Women's Towers to the Tomb of Helena,
which was three furlongs according to Josephus ;

THE TEMPLE AND CALVARY. 371

third, the line passing through the " Caverns of
the Kings/' as described by the same author, and
extending to the Tower of the Corner. This ques-
tion of the course of the Third Wall is, however,
separate, and cannot be further pursued at present.

It seems to me that the study of the rock drives
us irresistibly to the conclusions given above, and
thus forbids us to accept the traditional site of the
Sepulchre as genuine.

Will any reader who holds in veneration so
sacred a spot feel disappointed at such a result ?
In the last chapter I endeavoured to give a faith-
ful account of the yearly Pandemonium which
disgraces the ancient walls, and of scenes which
low^er the Christian faith in the eyes of the Mos-
lem. Surely none who read those pages could
still wish to believe that the place thus annually
desecrated is the Tomb of Christ.

The question which naturally next demands at-
tention is that of the real site of Calvary ; but
the Gospel gives us no indication sufficient to
settle the matter, though the w^ords in the Epistle
are enough to condemn the miraculously-discovered
fourth-century site.

There is a fact bearing on this question which
has never been published. It was mentioned to
me by Dr. Chaplin, and by his consent I now
make use of it.

The place called Calvary was, according to our
general idea, the public place of execution. Some

372 TENT WORK IIv PALESTINE.

have supposed its name — Golgotha, or '^ place of
the skull " — to be derived from this fact : thouofh
others, including many of the early fathers, suppose
it to refer to the shape of the ground — a rounded
hill, in form like a skull. We look naturally for
some spot just outside the city, and beside one
of the great roads.

We have yet another indication — namely, that
Calvary should be near the cemetery in which was
the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, in the garden be-
yond the city. Now the great cemetery of Jewish
times lies north of Jerusalem, on either side of
the main north road ; here we have the sepulchre
of Simon the Just, preserved by Jewish tradition;
here is the magnificent monument of Helena,
Queen of Adiabene, fitted with a rolling-stone,
such as closed the mouth of the Holy Se20ulchre.
The first of these tombs dates from three centuries
before Christ ; the second was cut in the first cen-
tury of His era. Thus the northern cemetery was
probably that which was in use in His time.

The Holy Sepulchre cannot have been one of
the kohim tombs originally used by the Jews, in
which each body lay in a long pigeon-hole, with
its feet towards the central chamber ; for in that
case ano'els could not have been seated " one at
the head and the other at the feet where the
body of Jesus had lain." It must have been one
of the later kind of tombs, in which the body lay
in a rock sarcophagus under a rock arch parallel

THE TEMPLE AND CALVARY. 373

with the side of the chamber. This is the kind
of tomb which throughout Palestine we find
closed by a rolling-stone ; it is the kind in use
in the late Jewish times, and the kind, more-
over, which is found north of Jerusalem. Here,
then, among the olive-gardens and vineyards of
Wady el Joz, one would naturally look for the
site of the new tomb in the garden, far beyond
the Acra hill, and in the cemetery which was
used by the Jews at the time of Christ.

These considerations would lead us to fix Cal-
vary— the place of execution, north of Jerusalem,
near the main road to Shechem, and near the
northern cemetery. Now, close to this road, on
the east, is a rounded knoll, with a precipice on
the south side, containing a cave known to Chris-
tians as Jeremiah's Grotto. The knoll is called
by the natives El Heidhemiyeh ("the rent"), being
severed from the Bezetha Hill by a deep trench.
The Arabic word is, however, known to be a
corruption of El Heiremiyeh, " the place of
Jeremiah."

A venerable tradition has fixed on this neioh-
bourhood as the scene of the martyrdom of St.
Stephen. A church dedicated to him stood, in
the twelfth century, near the knoll. There can
be little doubt that the stoning of Stephen occurred
at the place of public execution, and if we are
right in supposing that place to be Calvary, then
we have traditional reason for identifying the latter

37-i TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

with the neighbourhood of the HeicQiemiyeh
knoll.

But a stronger confinnation remains to be
noticed. I have before shown how valuable is
tradition, when, by common consent, Jew and
Christian point to the same spot. In this case
also the Jewish tradition agrees with that above
mentioned. Dr. Chaplin tells me that the Jews
still point out the knoll by the name Beth has
Sekilah, " the Place of Stoning " (Domus lapida-
tionis), and state it to be the ancient place of
public execution which is mentioned in the Mish-
nah, and which was apparently well known at the
time at which the tract Sanhedrim was written.
Thus to "a green hill far away, beside a city
wall," we turn from the artificial rocks and marble
slabs of the monkish Chapel of Calvary.

I wish I could bring before the reader's mind
as vividly as it now rises in my memory, the
appearance of this most interesting spot. The
stony road comes out from the beautiful Damascus
Gate, and runs beside the yellow cliif, in which are
excavated caverns, perhaps once part of the great
Cotton Grotto. Above the cliff, which is some
thirty feet high, is the rounded knoll without any
building on it, bare of trees, and in spring covered
in part with scanty grass, while a great portion is
occupied by a Moslem cemetery. To the north
are oUve-groves, to the west, beneath the knoll, is
a garden, in which the remains of the Crusading

m

::^^ 'Sir'*

'm%

ts

o

<

E-i

r##^tf ■ '^^

THE TEMPLE AND CALVARY. 375

Asnerie, or Hospice of the Templars, were found
in 1875. From the knoll a view of the city,
backed by the Moab hills, is obtained, and of the
long white chalky ridge of Olivet dotted with
olives. The place is bare and dusty, surrounded
by stony ground and by heaps of rubbish, and
exposed to the full glare of the summer sun.
Such is the barren hillock which, by consent of
Jewish and Christian tradition, is identified with
the Place of Stoning, or of execution according to
Jewish law,

I have but a word in conclusion to add in sup-
port of these views. Immutability is the most
strikinof law of Eastern life. The Bible becomes a
living record to those who have heard in men's
mouths the very phrases of the Bible characters.
The name of every village almost is Hebrew, each
stands on the great dust-heap into which the
ancient buildings beneath its present cabins have
crumbled, and the old necropolis is cut in rock,
near the modern site. For thousands of years the
people have gone on living in the same Avay and
in the same place, venerating (perhaps in ignor-
ance) the same shrines, building their fortresses on
the same vantao^e-fyround.

This is also the case in Jerusalem. The great
barracks of Antonia are still barracks. The
fortress of the Upper City is still a fortress. On
the rock-scarp of the " Tower of the Corner," a
corner tower now stands. On the high ground,

VOL. I. 24

376 TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

where the stronghold of Psephinus once stood, the
Russians have erected building^s which are re-
garded by many as a menace to the city. The
Upper Market is a market, the Lower Market
(mentioned with the former in the Talmud) is the
main bazaar of Jerusalem. The old Iron Gate
retains its name in the present Bab el Hadid.
The Temple Area is still a sanctuary ; finally, the
Rock of Foundation is still covered by a sacred
building, and the '' Place of the Skull " is now a
cemetery, while close to it is the slaughter-house
of the city.

Knowing the immutability of sites in Palestine,
we cannot, I would urge, consider these facts to
be mere coincidences ; they are rather strong con-
firmations of the accuracy of the more generally
accepted views regarding the topography and
monuments of ancient Jerusalem.

Note. — With regard to the levels given in the city, it may
be noted that I myself took those in the Hospital (or Muristan)
in 1873 with a tape, the rock being visible for a distance of
•over 100 feet. Those in the vault farther east, and at the
foundations of the Bishop's Palace, and of the Hotel, were
taken by ]\Ir. Schick, and the results agree entirely with the
contours which I had already drawn before some of these levels
were obtained.

INDEX TO VOL. I.

»o;=S

PACE

»iO0

PAGE

Abel Meholaii .

. 124

Bar Cocheba

. 277

Abel's Tomb

. 248

Bath House (in Temple)

. 360

Abila .

. 248

Belus (River)

. 188

Abu Ghosh .

. 20

Beth Car .

. 25

Aceldama .

. 312

Bether (Bittir) .

. 277

Acra .

. 364-366

Bethesda

. 313

Acre (Accho)

. lSd-192

Bethlehem .

. 283

/Enon .

. 91

Bethulia

. 99

Ain Karim .

. 24

Beth Zachariah .

. 279

Alexandroschenc .

. 270

Betthar

. 230

Alkios .

. 13

Beyrout

. 2.34

'Amad ed Dm .

. 68

Bezek ....

. 108

Amram (High Priest) .

. 34

Bezetha

. 366

'Amud, El (Mosque) .

. 70

Bidieh ....

. 224

Ancient Tyre (' Athlit)

. 200

Bitzaanaim .

. 132

Anti-Lebanon

. 237

Bludan

. 249

Antipatris .

. 230

Breezy Land

. 128

Antonia

. 353

Buffaloes

. 212

Apollonia (Arsuf)

. 230

Burkin

. 117

Aqueducts (Ctesarea) .

. 209

Arb'ain, El (Mosque) .

. 84

CfEsarea

. 205

'Arkub (District) .

. 273

Calvary

. 362

Asmonean Yalley

. 366

Cana of Galilee .

. 150

Asnerie (Hospice)

. 375

Capernaum (Kefr Lam)

. 200

Assur (Forest)

. 214

Carmel (Mount) .

. 168

'Athlit.

. 198

„ Monastery

. 175

Attack on Corp. Arms

trong 217

Cave of Khureitim

. 295

„_ „ Sergt. Blacl

c . 163

Cave of Refuge .

. 276

'Aujeh (River)

. 272

Cavern of the Kings .

. 371

'Awertah

. 76

Chapel of Calvary

. 332

Chilzon (Murex) .

. 183

Baalbek . . ,

. 253

Church of the Flocks .

. 293

Bahjeh (El) .

. 270

„ „ Holy Sepulchre 326

Balata

. 70

„ „ St. Mary .

. 325

Baldwin's To\ycr

. 31

„ ,, the Virgin .

. 283

Barada (River) .

•

242-248

Coustantine's BasiUca .

. 328

37S

jxnRX.

rxcE

I'AOK

Costumes (Bethlehem)

287

Gihon

. 31 ;{

Court of Women

:'>GU

Golgotlia

. 327

Crocodile River .

•201

Gohath's Spring .

. 121

Cubit (Length of)

358

Greek Easter

. 3;}4

Cuthim . . . .

38

Grotto of Elijah .

. 174

„ „ Nativity .

2-2-285

Damascus .

240

Damiir (River) .

2G8

Had ad Rimmon .

. 129

David's Well

287

Haifa ....

. 180

Dead Sea

297

Halle t Pacha

. 251

Deir el Ashaiyeh .

259

Harosheth .

. ];}3

Deir Kill ah

227

Harvest

. 217

Deir Serur .

226

Hermon (INIount) .

261-265

Dhahr el 'Amr .

194

Herods Colonnade 'P^amaria) 89

Dilbeh

20

„ Temple .

. 350

Dog River .

235

Tomb .

. 294

Dome of the Chain

318

Hippicus (Tov.'er)

. 367

„ „ „ Rock

317

Holy Fire .

. 335

Dothan

. 107

„ Grail .

. 210

Drowned ]SIcadow

99

„ House (Nazra-eth)

. 143

Drusus (Tower) .

. 210

„ Sepulchre .

331, 372

Dustrey (Destroit)

. 199

Huldah Gates

, 351

Ebal (Mount)

. 67

Jacob Shellaby .

. 34

Ebenezer . . . '2"

274

Jacob's Well

. 71

Elijafs Fountain .174

198

Jacl and Sisera .

. 133

„ Sacrifice .

170

Jaffa (Joppa)

. 4

Emir (Howarith Arabs)

. 214

Jeba ....

. 99

Emmaus ("Amwus)

14

Jebel Duhy .

. 119

Endnr ....

. 122

Jenin (En Gannini)

. 110

En Haklcore

. 277

Jeremiah's Grotto

o — •>

Ezekiel s Mountain

108

Jerusalem .

. 307

Jewish Tombs

. 162

Paris Effendi

1(14

Jews' Wailing Place .

. 315

Feast of Maidens

26

Jezreel

. 124

Fenish (Legends of the)

21

Jezzar Pacha

195

Fire-tried MS. .

52

Jishub and Patris

. 231

Fii-stWall .

367

Joab's Well (Bir i:yiib)

. 312

Flowers (Carmel)

. 179

Jokncam (Keimunj

. 131

Frank Mountain .

. 294

Joseph's Tomb .

. 71

Fiileh ....

. 123

Josephus

. 206

Joshua's Tomb .

. 78

Galgula

. 230

Jotopata

. 20(;

Gate of the Valley

. 16

Justinian's Fortre.-:; .

. <ii

Geba of Horsemen

. 197

Gennath Gate

. 368

KakCn

. 2i:5

Gerizim (Mount)

. 62

Kefr Haris .

. 78

Gezer

. 11

„ IshxV'a

229

Ghawarni (Arabs)

. 211

„ Kiik .

. 200

INDEX.

379

PAca:

PACK

Kefr Suba .

2;3i

Mosque of 'Amru

319

„ Zibad .

220

„ „ Servants of God

85

Kirjath Jearim .

22

Motza

25

Kishon (River) . . i;Jl

184

Mountain of the House

355

Kolonia

2.0

„ „ Scape Goat

300

Kul'at el Jiiidil .

2G7

Mount Cain

131

Kurawa

. 226

„ Hcres

93

Kuriet el 'Anab .

IS

Seir . . . .

22

Kusuniya (Sect of)

;j8

Mujeidil . . . .

158

Kustiil . . . ,

23

Mukhahd . . . .

219

Ladder of Tyre .

270

Xablus (Shechcm")

61

Latrim

14

Naboth's Vineyard

125

Leap of Our Lord

137

Xain

121

Lebanon

236

Xative Dinner

101

Lejjini (Legio) .

128

„ Protestants

158

Leminah (Harbour)

209

J^Tazareth . . . .

138

Leper's Mosque .

61

Neby S'ain (View)

148

Lifaniyeh (Sect of) .

38

Nestorians . . . .

43

Lif ta (Xephtoali)

24

New Jerusalem ,

28

Lily of the Valley

205

Little Hermon

. 120

Owls

197

Lower Market

. 37G

Lozeh (Luz)

. 63

Paradise of Samaria .

89

Passover on Gerizim .

58

[Mahrakah (El)

. 168

Pelicans . . . .

213

Mamas

. 201

Pilgrim's Castle ('Athlit) .

199

Manara (El)

. 18'J

Pu'seus . . . .

207

Mar Saba .

. 302

Place of Stoning

374

Maximianopolis .

. 129

Plain of Esdraelon

111

Meadow of the Feast .

. 86

Planes (Castle) .

213

Megiddo

. 128

Pregnant Stone (Baalbek) .

258

Mejarkon

. 231

Prophet Yahyah .

245

Mejlis at Nablus .

. 222

Psephinus (Tower)

370

Meon (Kefr Lam)

. 200

Ptolemais (Acre) .

192

Midhat Pacha

. 234

Migdal Eder

. 293

Eamath Lehi

27t;

^Militia Camp

. 115

Ramleh . . . .

('>

Millo (Acra)

. 366

Ras el 'Ain (at Nablus)

32

Mirabel (Castle) , ' .

. 232

Rashaiyeh . . . .

2(iO

Mirage

. 115

Reineh . . . .

154

Mizpeh . . . 1

5, 25

Rentis . . , .

227

Modestus

. 329

Robbers' Fountain

31

Moked (Gate^

. 360

Roche Taille (River) .

272

Moon Pool (Jal'a)

. 1

Rock Etam . . 273

275

Moreh (Land of)

. 65

„ Levels . . 348

365

Mosque el Aksa .

. 325

„ Scarp in Haram

349

„ of Jezzar Pacha

. 190

Rose of Sharon .

24 2

205

3S0

INDEX.

PAor
liukhlcli . . . .259
Russian Hospice . . . L'ii

Saint Simon Stock . . IT;")
„ Stephen (Church) . 373

Salem Dl

Samaria (Sebiistieh) . . S7
Samaritans . . . .30
Samaritan Doctrines . . 55
„ Passover . . 48

„ Pentateuch . 57

Sacred Rock . 05
Samson's Tomb . . . 275
Sanballat . . 40, 42, 44
Saniir . . . . 90, 104
Sargon . . . .37

School of Prophets . . 170
Scopus. . . . .30
Scorpions . . . .219
Sebustieh . . . .88
Second Wall . . . 308
Semmuka (Synagogue) . 201
Seven Steps of Abraham's

Altar .... 65

Shalem .... 91

Sharon (Forest) . . .204

Slicchem (Xublus) . . 01

Sheikh Abreik . . .101

„ Iskander . . .127

„ Shibleh . . .116

„ et Teira . . .228

Shephelah (District) . .10

Shepherd's Plain . . . 293

Shiloh (Seiliin) ... 81

Shunem . . . .12;!

Sidon 208

Siloam 312

Simon the Just (Tomb) 30, 372
Sinjil(St. Gilles). . . 31
Sion (Mount) . . . 327

Sisera 132

Sitt Eslamiyeh ... 08
Six Columns (Baalbek) . 254
Slave Market . . . 250

Soba 21

Solomon's Palace . . . 325

„ Pools . . . 280

Soreg (or Druphactos) 356-300

Stone of Foundation . . 357

Stone of Unction
Stura ....
Sububa (Ezbiiba)
Si'ik Wady Barada
Sultan's Pool (Jerusalem)
Sun Birds .
Sun Dial (in Harum) .
„ Temple (Baalbek)
Sursuk (family) .
Sycaminon . . .
Sychar ( Askar) .

PAOX

. 330
. 237
. 129
. 247
. 312
. 5
. 324
. 255
. 165
. 181

Tadi (Gate) . . .300

Tarikh (or acrostic) . . 50
Temple of Jupiter (Baal-
bek) .... 25G
Temple of Venus (Hadri-
an's) .... 363
Tcmplum Domini . .321
Ten Sons of Jacob (Mosque) 62
Third Wall. . . . 370
Tibneh (Timnathah) . . 229

Tirzah 108

Tombs of English Officers . 189
Tomb of Helena . . . 370
,, „ Phinehas . . 77
Toron (Latrim) . . .14
To^ver of Flies . . .193
Tristram's Grackle . . 305
Tubania (Fountain) . . 124
TurmusEyya ... 82

Tyre 269

Tyropaon Bridge . . 352

Valley . 304-306

Twelve Stones (Gerizim) . 64

Twin Pools .... 353

Umm el Fahm . . .127

Upper City . . . 364-366

„ Market . . . 376

Vale of Shechem . . . 61

Valley of Barley . . .61

„ „ Martyrs . 175-198

Virgin's Fountain . .145

„ Pool . . .313

Wady el Kurn . . . 238
,. ., Malak . . .157

INDEX.

381

PACE

I'ACl!

Wailing of Jacob (Mosque)

G2

Yahmftr (Roebuck)

•

172

Water Gate (Temple) .

361

Well of the Pit (Dothan)

107

Zebduny

a

248

„ „ „ Plague .

IG

Zeita .

•

213

West Wall of Haram .

34'J

Zeno's Church (Gerizim)

G3

White Headland .

270

Zoheleth (Stone) .

•

313

„ Mosque (Ramleh)

G

Zoreali (Siir'ah .

•

274

Women's Towers

370

Zuph (Laud) ,

•

22

END OP VOL. I.

eilLlNCJ AND SONS, PRINTEBS, GUILDFORD, SURIIKY.

/

BINDING SECT. QCT 1 2 1982

PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE
CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY

Conder, Claude Reignier
Tent-work in Palestine