^0irpmce^ V' —» 't * OCT 1 1907 * A %mml stw^ v V Division D2 | 0 7 Section * 3 » R 6 ,4 ft S fit 4 j V V# •:^ 1 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library https://archive.org/details/tenttestamentcamOOrixh “/ pity the man who can travel from Dan to Beersheba , and cry , ’Tis all barren Sterne MOUNTAINS OF SAMARIA AND THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON (see p. 48) From a sketch by the Author TENT AND TESTAMENT A CAMPING TOUR IN PALESTINE WITH SOME NOTES ON SCRIPTURE SITES BY HERBERT RIX, B.A. NEW YORK : CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS LONDON: WILLIAMS AND NORGATE 1907 PREFACE The tour which is recorded in this book followed in part the hackneyed tourist route ; in part a route which is seldom taken. It is hoped that each may have its own interest. The average tourist who arrives in Jerusalem finds himself in the midst of perplexity. He is confronted by two or more sites for most biblical scenes. Two Zions, two Temple areas, two Bethanys, two Geth- semanes, two or more Calvarys, three Holy Sepul¬ chres, several Bethesdas, put in their claims for his veneration. And it is the same throughout his tour : there are two Bethlehems, two Capernaums, two Sychars, four Jerichos, and so on. Some attempt is made here to discriminate between the true and the false in respect of the Bible places which are visited by most pilgrims to Palestine. For the rest, the detours to Bethlehem of Zebulon and to Chorazin, and the journey down the Ghor, with visits to Gadara and Pella, may interest those who have not left the beaten track and the Bible student in general. The narrative is in some respects belated. The tour was taken five years ago, and, though the notes were written out in full immediately upon return, the VI PREFACE publication, with the results of subsequent study, has been delayed partly by an active life, partly by illness. The “ Unchangeable East ” has not, however, essen¬ tially altered since then. So far as the tourist is concerned, the main alterations are the completion of the northern road from Jerusalem as far as Sinjil, and the establishment of hotels at Nablus and Jenin. The opening of the railway from Haifa to Semakh does not help the average tourist : it is intended for and will be chiefly used by Mohammedan pilgrims. The suffering from drought, which occurred during my visit to Jerusalem, led to an attempt to lay on water from Solomons Pools, and a feeble stream now arrives in the Haram esh-Sherif, but it is available only for Moslems, and, since the pipes are laid on the surface of the ground, it arrives hot. Besides these “ improvements,” I do not know that any change remains to be noted which would alter the record if the tour had been taken this year. PUBLISHERS NOTE Mr. Rix died on October io, 1906, while this book was in the press. We have e?ideavoured to make it accord in all respects with the Author’s wishes , and we are greatly indebted to those of his friends who have assisted us in the attempt. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. Jaffa .i II. From Jaffa to Jerusalem.6 III. From Jerusalem to Bethel .n IV. From Bethel through Shiloh to Huwara . 16 V. From Huwara to Jacob’s Well and Shechem . 24 VI. From Shechem to Samaria. 33 VII. From Samaria through Dothan to Jenin . . 37 VIII. From Jenin through Nain to Nazareth . . 41 IX. An Excursion to Bethlehem of Galilee . . 46 X. A Sunday in Nazareth.50 XI. From Nazareth to Tiberias.56 XII. Across the Sea of Galilee to Kersa . . . 62 XIII. A Coasting-trip in Search of Bethsaida . . 68 XIV. From Tiberias through Gennesaret to Tell Hum.74 XV. From Tell Hum through Chorazin to Safed . 81 XVI. From Safed to el-Khalisah.87 XVII. From el-Khalisah, by the Springs of Jordan, to Mejdel esh-Shems.93 XVIII. On Mount Hermon.100 XIX. Back to Caesarea Philippi.104 XX. From Caesarea Philippi to Gennesaret . . 109 XXI. Round about Capernaum.114 XXII. Two Days in Tiberias.121 XXIII. From Tiberias to Gadara.128 XXIV. From Gadara to Pella.140 XXV. From Pella to Scythopolis.150 Vlll CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE XXVI. From Scythopolis by Thebez to Jerusalem . 156 XXVII. Jerusalem—Calvary and the Tomb . . . 161 XXVIII. An Excursion to Jericho. 166 XXIX. From Jericho to Beth-Nimrah and Back . . 173 XXX. The Return to Jerusalem — The Garden of Gethsemane.183 XXXI. A Drive to Bethlehem.188 XXXII. A Drive to Hebron. 195 XXXIII. Jerusalem—In Search of Bethesda . . . 202 XXXIV. Jerusalem—The Temple Walls .... 217 XXXV. Jerusalem—The Temple Area .... 224 XXXVI. Jerusalem—The Holy Fire. 237 XXXVII. Jerusalem — Conder’s Sepulchre. — An Adven TURE AT THE VIRGIN’S WELL .... 24I XXXVIII. A Drive to Bethany ... . . 246 XXXIX. A Walk through Jerusalem ..... 249 XL. Farewell.253 APPENDIX A. The Nazareth Question.255 B. The Bethlehem Question.257 C- The Bethsaida Question.. . 265 D. The Capernaum Question ....... 274 E. The Bethesda Question ....... 298 F. The Site of Herod’s Temple. 300 Index. 305 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS To face fig. page Mountains of Samaria and the Plain of Esdraelon Frontispiece 1. Our Dragoman.14 2. Our Muleteers .... ...... 14 3. The Well at Shiloh . . 26 4. Jacob’s Well.26 5. Resting Place on Mount Gerizim . ... 44 6. Tomb at Nain .. 44 7. Greek Church at Nazareth.50 8. St. Mary’s Well at Nazareth ....... 50 9. The Old Mosque, Tiberias ....... 60 10. The Sheikh of Gergesa. 60 11. Khan Minyeh and Ain et-Tin, Gennesaret .... 76 12. Ain T&bigha : The Octagonal Enclosure . . . -76 13. Ruins of Chorazin.82 14. Ruins of Synagogue: Chorazin ...... 82 15. Bedawin of Ain Belata ....... 88 16. Bridge of el-Ghajar ......... 88 17. The Infant Jordan ......... 94 18. Near Caesarea Philippi ........ 94 19. Caesarea Philippi: The Castle Gate from the Bridge . . 104 20. Caesarea Philippi: The Castle Gate from Within . . 104 21. The Village of B&niy&s, built from the stones of Caesarea Philippi .......... 106 22. Summer Houses on the Roofs of Baniyas .... 106 23. Caesarea Philippi: The Cave of Pan.108 24. Caesarea Philippi: The Source of the Jordan .... 108 25. Bedawi Village: Plain of Huleh.. no 26. Fishing Bedawin of Lake Huleh.no 27. Tiberias: Jewesses preparing for the Passover . . . 126 28. Tiberias: Jewesses preparing for the Passover . . . 126 29. Outflow of the Jordan at Kerak.128 X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS To face fig . pare 30. Crossing the Jordan at Kerak.128 31. Western Theatre at Gadara . 136 32. Theatre at Gadara: The Corridors . . . . . -136 33. Ghawarineh Boy ......... 140 34. Ghawarineh Boy . . . . . . . . .140 35. Coin Struck at Tiberias.142 36. Valley of el-Waggas.142 37. Pella: The Terrace.142 38. Pella: The Wadi el-Jirm ........ 148 39. Pella: Temple Ruins.148 40. Conder’s “ Bethabara ”.152 41 Bedawin Women by Jordan . . . . . . .152 42. Natives of Thebez . . . . . . . .158 43 Thebez: Driving Home the Cattle ...... 158 44. ‘‘ Gordon’s” Calvary . ........ 162 45. Gordon’s” Sepulchre ........ 162 46. Shore and Bottom of Prehistoric Jordan Lake . . -174 47. Ford of Nimrin (Bethabara ?).174 48. Tell Nimrin . . . . . . . . . .176 49. The Jordan near the Mouth of Wadi Nimrin .... 176 50. Pilgrims to the Tomb of Moses.182 51. Pools of Solomon : The Middle Pool.182 52. Upper Pool of Hebron ........ 198 53. Pool of Hezekiah. 198 54. Entrance to the Virgin’s Spring .*.... 208 55. Hezekiah’s Conduit ... 208 56. The Old Pool ... 212 57. The Pool of Siloam.212 58. The Jews’ Wailing Place . . . . . . . .218 59. Jewesses at the Wailing Place •.218 60. The Haram esh-Sherif. N.W. Angle.224 61. The Dome of the Rock ........ 224 62. “ Conder’s ” Sepulchre ..242 63. The Village of Siloam.242 BIBLIOGRAPHY WORKS REFERRED TO Besant, Sir W., and Palmer, E. H., “Jerusalem, the City of Herod and Saladin,” 1888 Burton, Sir R., “Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah ” Conder, C. R., “Tent-Work in Palestine,”6thedition, 1895 Curtis, W. E., “To-day in Syria and Palestine,” Chicago, 1904 “ Dictionary of the Bible,” Hastings, 1898 “ Dictionary of the Bible,” Sir W. Smith, and Rev. J. M. Fuller, 2nd edition, 1893 Doane, T. W., “Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions,” 4th edition, 1882 “ Encyclopaedia Biblica,” 4 vols., 1899-1903 “ Encyclopaedia Britannica,” 9th edition Edersheim, Alfred, “The Life and Times of Jesus, the Messiah,” 9th edition, 1897 Edersheim, Alfred, “ Sketches of Jewish Life ” Finn, James, “ Byeways in Palestine,” 1868 Guerin, M. V., “ Description De La Palestine,” Tome I. (Galil6e) Hausrath, Adolf, “ A History of the New Testament Times—The Time of Jesus,” translated from 2nd German edition, 1878 Hausrath, “Time of the Apostles,” 1895 ABBREVIATIONS USED Tent- Work Hastings , D.B. Smith , D.B Encycl. Bibl. Encycl. Brit. Hausrath , Time of Jesus Hausrath , Time of the Apostles “ Hibbert Journal, The,” Vol. II., 1904 Xll BIBLIOGRAPHY WORKS REFERRED TO Hull, E., “ The Survey of Western Palestine.” “ Me¬ moirs on the Geology and Physical Geography” Josephus, Flavius, The Works of. Translated by W. Whiston, 1843 “ Kernel, The, and the Husk,” by the Author of “ Philo-Christus,'" 3 1886 Keim, Theodor, “The History of Jesus of Nazara.” Translated by Arthur Ransom, 2nd edition, 1876 King, Rev. J., “ Recent Discoveries on the Temple Hill at Jerusalem,” 1884 Lees, Rev. G. R., “Jerusalem and Its People,” 2nd edition Le Strange, Guy, “ Palestine under the Moslems,” 1890 Le Strange, Guy, “ A Ride through Ajlun ” Macgregor, J., “The Rob Roy on the Jordan,” 2nd edition, 1870 Merrill, Selah, “ East of the Jordan,” 2nd edition, 1870 Neander, A., “ General Church History,” 2nd edition. Translated by J. Torrey, 1847 Okakura, Kakasu, “ Ideals of the East ” Palestine Exploration Fund. Memoirs. 4to Palestine Exploration Fund. Quarterly Statement. 8vo “ Purchas, His Pilgrimes. 3 ’ Fol. 1625 Ramsay, W. M., “Was Christ Born in Bethlehem ? 33 2nd edition Robinson, E., and E. Smith, “ Biblical Researches in Palestine,” 1841 Robinson, E., and E. Smith, and others, “ Later Biblical Researches in Palestine,” 1856 Sanday, Prof. W., “ Sacred Sites of the Gospels,” 1903 Schumacher, G., “Northern Ajlun ” Schumacher, G., “ Pella,” 1889 Smith, Geo. Adam, “ Historical Geography of the Holy Land,” 1894 Smith, W. Robertson, “ Lectures on the Religion of the Semites.” First Series. 2nd edition, 1894 ABBREVIATION USED P.E.F. Mem. P.E.F.Q.S. Sacred Sites Smith , Hist.Geog. BIBLIOGRAPHY xm WORKS REFERRED TO Stanley, Arthur P. (Dean), “ Sinai and Palestine,” 1883 Stapfer, Edmond, “ La Palestine au Temps de Jesus- Christ.” 6 me edition Stapfer, Edmond, “ Palestine in the Time of Christ.” Translated by A. H. Holmden, 1886 Thomson, W. M., “The Land and the Book,” 1866 Tristram, H. B., “The Land of Israel,” 3rd edition, 1876 Tristram, H. B., “The Natural History of the Bible,” gth edition, 1898 Wilson, Sir C. W., and Sir C. Warren, “ The Recovery of Jerusalem,” 1871 Wilson, John, “The Lands of the Bible Visited and Described,” 1847 ABBREVIATIONS USED Nat. Hist. Bib. TENT AND TESTAMENT CHAPTER I JAFFA After a leisurely journey across Europe, and a glimpse of Egypt, we (myself and a friend) anchored off Jaffa on Friday, March 8. The vessel in which we had sailed from Port Said was a Russian. Apparently she had no keel to speak of, for, although the sea was calm, she rolled prodigiously. Every one spent the night in more or less of misery, which was much increased by the fact that no one belonging to the ship, not even the captain, nor, alas, the steward, spoke a word of anything but Russian. One passenger, fortunately, could speak modern Greek, and by means of this he made the officers understand a little of our wants, and so we managed to endure the long hours in which we bored our way cork¬ screw fashion through the dark waters. When at length we anchored outside the reef we learned to our dismay that the surf was too heavy for the boats to put off. All that weary day we swung and rolled and bobbed about in the smooth, heaving swell, the ship never still for a moment, the passengers mostly on their backs. Evening came, and still the ocean heaved and the reef foamed. For twenty-four hours we endured that curvilinear motion in many planes ; and then, oh, joy ! in the cold dawn of the second day the boats came threading the reef to our rescue, and a shout of relief went up from the travellers who crowded the deck. We landed at about 7.30 a.m. and found our dragoman 2 TENT AND TESTAMENT awaiting us. His Christian name was Hanna, which being interpreted means John ; a strong, stout, good-looking fellow, dressed in Syrian costume, cool and composed in manner, and speaking good English. He was a Christian, and a resident in this town of Jaffa. One’s first impression of Jaffa is that of a place of unmiti¬ gated glare, with roads ankle-deep in dust. But this impression is soon lost in admiration for the beauty and luxuriance of the surroundings seen from any point of vantage. The view from the minaret of the Greek church, which was the first sight that Hanna took us to see, is very lovely. Below and around us was one dense mass of foliage, the greater part that of orange-groves upon which the fruit hung golden. Among the orange-trees were pomegranates, not yet in leaf, bananas, blossoming almonds, and, rising tall and stately amid the general mass, palms, which reared their feathery heads and gazed abroad over the blue waters of the Mediterranean. To the north-east rose the hills of Judaea and Samaria, and south-eastward the high plateau between Jerusalem and Hebron. These heights were all dim with a blue heat-mist; Carmel and Gaza were still shrouded by it. Enough, however, we could see to enable us to realise, at length, what had been at first so difficult to believe, that we were indeed in the Holy Land. This church of the Greek Christians is built in honour of Dorcas, whose tomb is supposed to be in the adjoining burial-ground. We did not care to visit it, but drove at once to the traditional house of Simon the Tanner. In Dean Stanley’s time the site of Simon’s house was shown near the Latin convent ; but it has shifted since then, and is now shown half a mile away, to the south of the town : there is little reason to suppose that either site is the true one. Dean Stanley, it is true, regards the former as “ one of the few localities which can claim to represent an historical scene of the New Testament” ; but the most that Canon Cheynecan say for the long note in which Stanley maintains this posi¬ tion* is that it “is at least eloquent and chivalrous.”! On the whole, the archaeology of Jaffa may be summed up in the three words used by the Canon in the article just quoted : “ Antiquities are wanting.” But although there are no antiquities, and ancient sites are more than uncertain, we may to some extent console * “Sinai and Palestine,” p. 274. “ Encycl. Bibl.” art. “ Joppa.” JAFFA 3 ourselves with the reflection that there is no doubt about the situation of the town itself. Jaffa or Yafa, as the natives call it, corresponds to the ancient Joppa. It was in these blue waters that the cedars were floated for the building of the Temple ; and in the offing yonder that the miserable act of treachery took place, in the days of Judas Maccabaeus, when the men of Joppa “ invited the Jews who dwelt among them to go with their wives and children into the boats which they had provided,” and then “ took them out to sea and drowned them in number not less than two hundred.” * Here stood the city which Jonathan Maccabaeus besieged and took, and which went through such troubled times during the Maccabaean Wars. Here stood the later city which Pompey built and gave to Syria, which Caesar restored to the Jews, which Herod seized, and which Cestius plundered and burnt in the Jewish War. And, coming to later times, it was here that Richard Coeur de Lion fought the Saracens; and it was on that strip of beach, where the surf is now breaking so white, that Napoleon, called “the Great,” shot in cold blood two thousand prisoners whom he could not feed and would not release. There is, moreover, much that interests in the life which to-day crowds the streets and roads. Here come long processions of camels loaded with mountains of empty orange-boxes going to the gardens to be packed for Europe. Here, up this narrow court, is a bare-legged boy drawing water from a well, in a bucket made of a roughly stitched piece of goat-skin. The stone edge of the well is worn with deep grooves where the ropes have rubbed for many generations. Possibly this may be the very well which supplied water for Simon's tannery : who knows ? The bazaars, too, are picturesque. The shops are dark, shadowy recesses without shop-front or screen: inside squat the shopkeepers smoking their pipes. Along the narrow lane between these stalls, crowds of picturesque figures pass to and fro, old men in turbans riding brisk little donkeys; youths in long cotton gowns girded at the waist; women with their faces veiled, not as in Egypt merely from the eyes downward, but with the countenance completely covered. Perhaps, after all, the most interesting thing about Joppa is the variety of myth connected with it, in which variety * 2 Mac. xii. 3, 4. 4 TENT AND TESTAMENT there is, moreover, a very interesting unity. I am reminded of it by the appearance of the reef as it is seen from the shore. One cannot but note the likeness of the long line of rocky spikes, standing up so abruptly from the water, to the backbone of some great fish whose skeleton has been stranded in the shallow surf ; and I have wondered whether that reef was not in fact the skeleton of the sea-monster which was shown at Joppa until about 60 B.c. as that of the creature from whose jaws Andromeda was rescued by Perseus ; though, if it is true that Marcus Scaurus, Pompey's general, carried the skeleton to Rome, that cannot be, for there it still is. The myth of the great Joppa fish is threefold. First you have the myth of Jonah : for, it was from Joppa that Jonah took ship for Tarshish, when the storm arose and he was cast into the sea, to be swallowed by “ the great fish which the Lord had prepared.” Next you have the Greek tale of Heracles, rescuing Hesione from the sea-monster at Joppa by leaping into its jaws and tearing its entrails for three days and three nights. And, thirdly, you have the story of Perseus rescuing Andromeda, the daughter of Cepheus and Joppa, who was chained to the rocks at a place of the latter name.* As to these three myths folklorists seem pretty well agreed that they are variations of the same idea—that of the sun being swallowed up by the earth (or sea) and vomited forth again in the morning—a cross-current of another cycle coming in, from the observation of the winter solstice, when the sun remains in the lowest regions for three days and three nights from December 22 to 25. But this does not of itself explain why all three myths should be localised at Joppa. To explain this we must remember that Joppa was originally a Phoenician colony in Philistine territory, and that the particular legend of Heracles given above is of Phoenician origin. Also, in the neighbour¬ ing Philistine country Dagon was worshipped, who was represented as a man emerging from a fish's mouth, being in fact a symbol of that same solar myth which is represented by the stories of Heracles and Perseus ; while Jonah is said to be no other than Oannes, the Chaldean fish-god, who is one with the Philistine Dagon. Whoso meditates * According to Josephus “the chains wherewith Andromeda was bound have left their marks” on the rocks here (“Jewish Wars,” ifi. ix. 3), and Pliny says the same. JAFFA 5 on these cognate facts will not find it hard to see how Joppa may have come to be the scene of these strange adventures.* * See Doane’s “ Bible Myths,” p. 77, et seq. ; “ Encycl. Bibl.” art. “ J°PP a ” » Smith’s D.B. art. “Joppa,” &c. We have also to take into account the widespread association of dragons with the movement of waters. The rising and falling of the intermittent spring at Jerusalem known as St. Mary’s Well are accounted for by the natives by a hypo¬ thetical dragon, who is believed to swallow the waters and vomit them forth again at regular intervals. The special liveliness of the sea at Joppa, where the Mediterranean swell is churned into foam by the remarkable reef at that place, would, therefore, go to confirm the connection between Joppa and sea-monsters. (See “ Encycl. Bibl.” arts. “ Dragon ” and “ Joppa.”) CHAPTER II JAFFA TO JERUSALEM There was no need to linger in Jaffa, and at mid-day we took train to Jerusalem by the one little bit of railway which up to the time of our visit had invaded Palestine.* It is a line of about fifty miles, with one train a day each way, which accomplishes the journey in something under four hours. The line runs first through the plain of Sharon, a district of wonderfully rich and deep soil. Along the shore a great deal of this rich land has been lost beneath the drifting sand, which has accumulated to the depth of a couple of feet or more. A little energy in planting tamarisk and other bushes might rescue some thousands of acres which are otherwise doomed. At present, however, there is a vast extent of fertile soil remaining. In two or three places I noticed excavations near the line, which showed a depth of ten feet or more of pure loam. The scriptural “ Rose of Sharon/' by the by, is said to be the Polyanthus narcissus (Narcissus tazetta ), which grows both upon the plains and hills of this district, a flower of which Orientals are passion¬ ately fond. “ While it is in flower," says Canon Tristram, “it is to be seen in all the bazaars, and the men as well as the women at that season always carry two or three blossoms at which they are continually smelling." The train passes between large plantations of orange- trees ; then through cornfields, the blades of wheat standing, on this ninth day of March, eight or ten inches high, very rich and glossy. In the distance we could see the small square watch-towers along the Jerusalem road. “ Before the railway was made," said Hanna, “two soldiers were put in each * A branch of the Hejaz line, from Haifa, is in course of con¬ struction, but is still (1906) far from completion. The Southern extension of the Damascus-Beyrout Railway is now carried as far as Mezerib, and a Turkish railway has been built from Damascus to Akaba. 7 JAFFA TO JERUSALEM tower to guard the road, but there is now much less traffic by road, and the towers have no guard in them.” On the right of the line Hanna pointed out the village of Beit- Dejan—the ancient Beth-Dagon (Josh. xv. 41). It stands on the border of Philistia. And on the same side there presently came into sight the Tower of Ramleh, near the old Saracenic and Crusading city of that name. Then we passed through the olive-plantations of Lydda, enclosed by hedges of prickly pear, and I knew that away to the left lay Modein, where the Maccabaean revolt took its rise, where Mattathias hewed down the false priest who sacrificed to idols, and where the Maccabees are buried. On our right Ekron was pointed out, and then the train began to climb through the harsh and stony land of Judaea, the maritime plain being left behind. Past “ Samson's Cave ” the engine panted, toiling up a narrow chasm in the limestone, where we got our first impression of the wadis of Palestine. Here, too, we saw our first jackals, of which we were to have experience in plenty before our tour was done. We arrived at Jerusalem at five o'clock or thereabouts, and were straightway whirled off to the hotel in one of the open carriages drawn by a pair of horses, which here fulfil the office of the London cab. People say that Jerusalem is disappointing, especially when approached from the western side. I can only say that I did not find it so. To me it was forthwith entirely fascinating; so picturesque, so venerable, so crowded with strange half-civilised life, so full of historical and sacred interest! In particular I found it more obviously biblical than I had expected. Here were the blind, the lame, the lepers, the camels passing through the city gates, the peasants riding on their asses. It hardly needed interpreting; the past was brought to life. As I sat in my room and looked from the window at the “ Tower of David” and a narrow perspective of grey walls beyond, and knew that at last my eyes actually beheld the Holy City, there came one of those rare moments of life when the ideal is fulfilled and the mind rests in perfect content. I was fortunate in being the bearer of a letter of intro¬ duction to the Rev. Dr. Merrill, the United States Consul in Jerusalem, and the learned author of several works on Palestine. Many were the kindnesses which he wrought us during our stay in the Holy Land, and very valuable was 8 TENT AND TESTAMENT the information which he afforded us. On Sunday morning, being the day after our arrival, the kind doctor took us on the roof of our hotel and indicated the points of interest in the bird’s-eye view of the city which is thence obtained. The “ Grand New Hotel " in which we were staying is close to the Jaffa Gate, in the middle of the western wall. As you face eastward the high ground, on which of old stood the Upper City, lies in the near foreground and stretches away to your right. This, in the time of Christ, was the aristocratic and wealthy quarter of the town. It is now erroneously known as “ Zion," a designation which causes much confusion in the minds of tourists. On your left are the two domes belonging to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and straight before you, at the further boundary of the city, stands forth the Dome of the Rock, in the old Temple Area, situated on the true “Zion" of the Psalms. Beyond this rises the Mount of Olives, very sadly disfigured of late by the buildings which have multiplied upon its sacred soil, and, back of all, stretches the purple wall of Moab, a huge straight-ridged mountain-barrier, looking strangely near, though it is thirty or five-and-thirty miles away. Dean Stanley * seems to find some difficulty in justifying the Psalmist’s simile, “ As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so is the Lord round about his people." He is tempted to refer it to the mountain-barrier on the far North, together with the enclosing arms of Olivet on the East, and, perhaps, the distant range of Moab just mentioned ; but he is perplexed because on the South and West he finds no protecting mountains such as the expression would lead one to look for. Seen, however, from an elevated point, like this roof on which we are standing, the surrounding country seems to fit perfectly with the scriptural picture. The pro¬ tection of the city is notin any towering heights which over¬ top and hem the city in, but in that wide sea of mountains which, billowing ridge behind ridge, and stretching arid and forbidding far into the distance, are seen to surround the city on every hand. This difficult country, waterless and waste, was, historically speaking, always Jerusalem's pro¬ tection. And now it behoved us immediately to make our plans, and decide upon what day we would take up our camp. One main object of our tour was to see something of the Ghor or Valley of the Jordan. I had long since come to the * “ Sinai and Palestine,” p. 174. 9 JAFFA TO JERUSALEM conclusion that it was probably by this Jordan Valley route that Jesus in His last sad journey came from Galilee to Jerusalem, and I was anxious for this reason to travel down some portion of its length. After due deliberation we decided to travel northward to Nazareth at once, returning southward by the Jordan Valley, and deferring any sight¬ seeing in Jerusalem until the end of our tour. This decision having been communicated to Hanna, he forthwith brought our horses round for us to try them, and we went for a two hours' ride on as lovely a morning as 1 have ever known. It was just such a day as early June sometimes brings to us in England, when the air is of perfect clearness, the colour brilliant, the heat tempered by a delicious breeze, and the dull world so gay and buoyant that it is hard to believe that it has ever been the scene of tragedy or terror. At the start our horses were somewhat fresh and frisky, and performed various antics to the amusement of the onlookers, but they very soon quieted down and gave no trouble except such as was occasioned by their extreme jealousy of one another. This I have been told is character¬ istic of the Syrian horses. They seldom quarrel with their riders, but continually quarrel with each other. The almost invariable mode of progression being in Indian file, it is inevitable that one horse of the party should be the leader ; and which is to be the leader is the great subject of dispute among the horses. In their endeavours to settle this question each in his own favour, they bite and kick and fight, with no animosity against their riders but occasionally with peril to them all the same. The peril, however, is after all but slight, for the Syrian horses are docile to a degree, and there is no need for even inex¬ perienced riders to make such an exhibition of themselves as did the good clergyman of whom Dr. Merrill tells in his delightful book “ East of Jordan ” * u who was so timid that he had his horse led by the bridle from Jaffa to Jerusalem, to Jericho, Mar Saba, Hebron, and back to Jerusalem again, and thence all the way up through the country to Beirut 1 " Our ride took us first to the knoll above “ Jeremiah’s Grotto," which I had learned in my previous study to identify with Calvary. The question whether it is rightly so identified must be discussed in a future chapter ; here it will suffice to say that it is a mound divided from the * Op. cit. p. 219. 10 TENT AND TESTAMENT northern wall of the present city only by a road and a small area of garden ground, and presenting to it the broken face of a sheer cliff, while on all other sides it slopes gently down so as to form a slightly rounded surface. I had sufficient faith in the site to make the interest very great, yet there was always the haunting doubt, and there was moreover the hard glare of the mid-day sun, which made the reality seem too earthly. I felt that one should have come here not only in full faith, but by twilight. On this first visit it was as if the sun were shouting to us, “ This is Calvary ! ” and it ought to have been whispered. Leaving this sacred spot to be revisited on a later day, we struck northward to Scopus, where one of the camps of Titus was pitched during the siege of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The mountain is something less than a mile from Jerusalem (seven stadia, Josephus says), near the spot now called Mesharif, and is one of the great view-points in the neigh¬ bourhood of the city. The Temple Area stands, as Josephus describes it,* in full view, with the city spreading beyond it, while, away to J:he East, the north end of the Dead Sea can be seen, and that strange mountain-wall of Moab behind it. From Scopus we came by a circuit over the high ground to the Mount of Olives on the East of the city, from which we descended by a steep road past the traditional Garden of Gethsemane into the Valley of the Kidron, and so up to the so-called St. Stephen's Gate and through the city to our hotel in the Western or Christian quarter. About some of these localities we shall have an opportunity of speaking at more length in a later chapter. * “ Wars,” v. ii. 3. CHAPTER III JERUSALEM TO BETHEL The ride described in the previous chapter was but a u pre¬ liminary canter v to try our horses ; but now we were to begin serious work. The morning of Monday, March u, was spent in making necessary arrangements, packing saddle¬ bags, kit-bag, wraps and umbrellas, looking out photo¬ graphic films, pressing-papers, sketch-books, and all the other things that would be wanted upon the journey, and making a bundle of the rest to be left at Jerusalem. The native saddle-bag, a gorgeous affair decorated with numerous tassels and fringes, is a most useful contrivance, indispensable indeed when you are separated from your baggage, as we mostly were, for the whole travelling day. The native stirrup is also, as I was afterwards informed by an experienced traveller, very comfortable and much to be preferred for this kind of travelling to the European stirrup which is generally supplied to tourists. It consists of a flat metal plate upon which the whole foot is rested, and the corner of which is used as a spur. As for the saddle, most English travellers use the European form, although some prefer the Arab with its high peaks fore and aft, which afford some support upon a long day's journey. The dragoman, of course, was armed, but after much debate we decided to take no arms ourselves. West of the }ordan all the ordinary roads nowadays are safe enough, it is not until one strikes into the untamed East that the question of arms need be considered.* We intended to have set forth directly after luncheon, but unfortunately our tezkerehs had not come. The tezkereh is a secondary passport, with which every traveller has to provide himself in addition to that which he gets from the Turkish Ambassador before leaving Europe. Until he has * Macgregor, of Rob Roy fame, has some very judicious remarks upon this subject. See “ Rob Roy on the Jordan,” p. 219. 12 TENT AND TESTAMENT obtained this he cannot go from one vilayet, or chief division, to another. It is much as if the British were to require from every traveller in England separate passports for the Southern, the Midland, the Northern, the Eastern and the Western counties, besides the passport with which he landed. This is, of course, merely one of the petty ways in which the Turkish Government extorts money ; for, each tezkereh means not only a fee for its issue, but another fee for the visa at each vilayet that is entered. At length the dragoman decided to start, tezkereh or no tezkereh , and was giving instructions to have them sent after us by express messenger, when a youth came panting in hot haste, his eyes starting from his head, and with a tremendous fuss and flourish delivered the important documents to the dragoman, and, of course, claimed his bakhshish for the ex¬ treme expedition which he had used. Our horses thereupon were brought to the door, an excited crowd gathered, and we proceeded to mount with the eye of the world upon us. Unfortunately for the dignity of our start, the steeds were fresher than ever, and danced about in fine style before the entrance to the hotel. The animal upon which I was myself mounted, after rearing and kicking in an excited manner, backed obstinately across the middle of the road just as the carriage of a Turkish dignitary, with outriders and rearguard, came careering along at a furious pace. My back being turned that way I was, of course, ignorant of the approach of that great man, and wondered why the heathen did so furiously rage. However, we managed by degrees to bring our horses within hail of each other, and started in our journey amid the cheers of the throng who had gathered in the street to see us off—the first expedition going northward that year. A good part of the afternoon ride was alongside a road which was then in course of construction, but which has since been opened for traffic as far as Bireh. The general character of the country was stony and barren, but our way was fringed throughout with flowers ; bright blue irises— little things six inches high, but very noticeable among the scarlet anemones which were everywhere abundant— daisies, buttercups, golden broom, wreaths of cyclamen encircling the loose limestone blocks, while once or twice a yellow crocus peeped out among the scrub, a -solitary lingerer, for the time of crocuses was past. Of traffic there was a considerable amount nearly all the i3 JERUSALEM TO BETHEL way, people travelling in each direction, towards Jerusalem and away from it. They were mostly poor folk driving laden asses or walking in companies, the women sometimes, but by no means always, veiled. At one point we saw six girls stepping along in single file, balancing empty water- pots upon their heads. The waterpots lay upon their sides, that being the position in which they are always carried when empty, and between each pot and the bearer’s head was a little round pad similar to those used by bakers in England for their trays. At another place we passed a well from which girls were returning home with their waterpots full and balanced upon their heads in an erect position. One picture is impressed with special vividness upon my mind, that of a beautiful shepherd-boy with dark oval face, reclining among his flock. About his neck and shoulder hung a scrip, from which he took scraps of food and held them to the sheep, who ran to him with perfect confidence and fed from his hand. It might have been David himself. The villages we passed were Shafat, Tell el-Ful, er-Ram, and el-Bireh—all of them places of scriptural interest— Shafat being usually identified with Nob, Tell el-Ful with Gibeah of Benjamin, er-Ram with Ramah, and el-Bireh with Beeroth.* Of these places er-Ram is to us the most interesting, because this is in all probability the spot where Jacob’s pillar stood and marked the traditional grave of Rachel when her story in the Book of Genesis was written, where it stood when the story of Saul and the lost asses was written in the Book of Samuel—“thou shalt find two men by Rachel’s sepulchre in the border of Benjamin at Zelzah ” —and because it is the place to which Jeremiah alluded when he recalled the sorrowful leave-taking of the Jewish exiles at this spot and wrote the well-known lament quoted by the Evangelist Matthew, “A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping ; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.” f Above all is er-Ram interesting to us because here was * The chief passage upon which these identifications depend is Isa. x. 28-32. A writer in the “ Encyclopaedia Biblica,” basing his view upon an emendation of the text, gives strong reasons for thinking that it was not from Nob at all, but from the northern summit of the Mount of Olives that the enemy was to shake his fist at Zion ; so the village of Shafat may not occupy the site of Nob. f Jer. xxxi. 15. 14 TENT AND TESTAMENT the Rachel's tomb of Christ's time. The traditional tomb, which has been shown for many centuries on the road to Bethlehem, dates in all likelihood from the time of Con¬ stantine, when so many other holy sites were fixed ; in the time of Jesus Jacob's pillar still stood at Ramah, and the grave of Rachel which He knew was the grave beside this northern road.* Indeed, the whole of this afternoon's ride has a certain New Testament interest for us, because although the places belong to the older Jewish history, their close proximity to each other helps us to realise how every mile of country through which Jesus passed on His journeys to and from Jerusalem was replete with sacred story. Here, in a distance of five miles, we have passed the ruins of at least four villages intimately connected with Scripture narrative. Possibly some parts of Britain are similarly packed with British history ; but consider the difference ! How much does the English peasant know of English history, and of the connection of existing localities with that history ? With the Jew it was far otherwise. His history and his religion were one. His synagogue-schooling steeped every Jewish boy with both at once. His patriotism, which to the Roman seemed so fanatical and so obstinate, was afire with religious enthusiasm. And down to Jesus’ day almost every corner of Palestine was filled with villages and towns bearing names which hallowed them because those names were written in the sacred annals of God's suffering people. All three of these villages—Shafat, Tell el-Ful, and er- Ram—are small places, not in themselves picturesque, though picturesquely situated on high hills; but el-Bireh (the Beeroth of Scripture), the fourth place which we passed, comes under a different category—it is beautiful in itself. The village, as we saw it, was surrounded by vineyards, each with its watchman’s tower, and by plantations of fig-trees which were now just putting forth the tender leaf. A foun¬ tain of sweetwater gushed from a crevice in a rock. The elders of the village sat and gossiped and smoked their hubble-bubbles, while near by the children played and shouted to their hearts' content. As we rode on into the distance the sounds came to us wafted on the breeze, like those of an English village on a summer evening. There are ruins of an old khan here, for it was one of the * “ Book of Jubilees,” 32 ; “ Gotting. Year-Book,” 1850, p. 53, quoted try Hausrath, “ Time of Jesus,” 1878, vol. i. p. 30. The question as to the site of Rachel’s tomb is further discussed in chapter xxxi. FIG I.—OUR DRAGOMAN FIG. 2 —OUR MULETEERS ■ ' i5 JERUSALEM TO BETHEL places where Jews travelling northward from Jerusalem used to pass the night. Sometimes, it is true, those who wished to reach Galilee would cross the Jordan opposite Jericho and travel up the eastern bank, but this was by no means the in¬ variable rule ; often they would pass through Samaria, spend¬ ing the first night at Beeroth or Gophna,* especially when they were in haste, t To this day travellers from Jerusalem often make it their first stage. There is some likelihood, there¬ fore, in the old tradition dating from Crusading times, that this village of el-Bireh is where the caravan, returning to Nazareth after the feast at Jerusalem, made its first halt, when Joseph and Mary found that the child Jesus was not, as they had supposed, u among their kinsfolk and acquaintance.’’ From el-Bireh we diverged to the right, and another half-hour brought us to Betin, the modern representative of the ancient shrine of Bethel. There we found our camp pitched in a sheltered nook below the village. It was the first we had seen of it, and we were rather taken aback by the luxury which Messrs. Cook and Sons had thought fit to pro¬ vide for two homely individuals. The camp consisted of three tents—sleeping-tent, dining-tent, and kitchen-tent— containing bedsteads, washstands, dressing-table, looking- glass, chairs, carpets, mosquito-curtains, and endless etceteras. The staff included, besides our dragoman, a groom, a cook, a waiter, and three muleteers. Our beasts of burden were four horses, six mules, and two donkeys. The little hollow in which our camp was pitched at Bethel was surrounded by a dry stone wall, and in the midst rose an aged fig-tree, whose twisted arms sprawled stark and un¬ canny against the sky. On the stony height above us stood one of the square flat-topped houses of this strange land. A turbaned figure clad in the flowing garb of the East could be seen upon the roof slowly pacing to and fro, and pausing every now and then to gaze fixedly towards the Western heavens or look up towards the zenith. The twilight is short in Palestine. We arrived in broad daylight; half an hour afterwards it was too dark to see. Suddenly a mist came sweeping up, and the wind began to rise. “ Ha ! rain?” exclaimed Hanna; "well, let rain come ! ” But as we sat reading in our tent after dinner, we heard some one ramming every tent-peg tighter into the ground. They were expecting a storm. * Hausrath, “Time of Jesus,’’ vol. i. p. 26. Compare Josephus, “Antiq.,” xx. vi. 1. f Josephus, “Life,” sec. 52. CHAPTER IV FROM BETHEL THROUGH SHILOH TO HUWARA The storm did not come. There was a shower, which Hanna declared was nothing but the falling of the dew. I awoke without having dreamt of any ladder reaching to the skies : the luxury of Cook's tents forbids, I fear, those dreams of heaven. By daylight it was easy to see what Dean Stanley meant when he supposed that the material suggestion of Jacob's Dream came from the manner in which the stones around formed themselves into a vast “ ladder," or rather “ flight of steps " (for so the word should be rendered).* It is a familiar phenomenon in limestone country, and by no means peculiar to Bethel, although at Bethel the natural terraces climbing up the hill side are very marked, and readily lend themselves to the fancy. What may be the mythology or folk-lore of that ladder of Jacob I do not know. Perhaps it is connected with the Indian, Persian, and Egyptian ladders by which souls descended from heaven to enter into earthly bodies ; or, perhaps it is purely legendary adornment of the Yahvistic narrative by the hand of the Elohist. The earlier narrative has no “ ladder," only a dream that u Yahveh stood beside him." If, as biblical scholars now tell us, Jacob was a tribal name, and the pillar stood at Bethel long before the story of Jacob was written, it is impossible to say whether the stone was erected because of a vision, or the vision in¬ vented to account for a stone. In Arabia the anointed pillar is still found a living fact of religion ; and it stands as a memorial of the past in almost every land. Such a pillar was more than a monument of some religious event, more than an altar for the offering of sacrifices, it was (like the stone at Luz) “ Beth-el," the house of God—the object into which the Deity entered, the body * “ Sinai and Palestine,” p. 220. THROUGH SHILOH TO HUWARA 17 in which He dwelt, the vehicle by which He manifested Himself to His worshippers. At Bethel, Shechem, Gilgal, and other shrines, such pillars continued to be an essential part of the apparatus of worship to a comparatively late time.* “But where is Jacob’s stone now?” Well, such a question is not quite so absurd as it may seem at first. Prehistoric monu¬ ments of the kind—monuments dating from an antiquity quite as remote—are to be found in all parts of the world ; and, seeing that there is absolutely no doubt as to the site of Bethel, why, if the iconoclasm of intervening ages has spared it, may not the megalith be standing there still ? Unfortunately, the iconoclasm of intervening ages has been unusually ruthless in Western Palestine. East of the Jordan, menhirs, such as this pillar of Jacob, with cromlechs, cairns, and dolmens, are numerous enough, but west of the Jordan they are few and far between. It is sufficient, however, to recall the doings of one very celebrated iconoclast at this very place, namely, those of King Josiah : “ He brake in pieces the pillars, and cut down the Asherim, and lilled their places with the bones of men. Moreover, the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, even that altar and the high place he brake down ; and he burned the high place and stamped it small to powder, and burned the Asherah.” After that it is of little use, I fear, to look for Jacob's pillar! Nevertheless, I remembered that one such prehistoric monument was reported to be still standing here. It is mentioned by Baedeker, and alluded to in most of the recent accounts of Bethel ; namely, a stone circle discovered by Sir Charles Wilson, “ which, though much decayed, reminds one irresistibly of the rude stone temples of our own country.”! Why Josiah had not “stamped it small to powder” I could not say; perhaps he overlooked it. At any rate, it might prove worth our while to see it, and if not, the climb would at least give us a view of the country and do us no harm. So we mounted our horses and left our camp in the valley for a bare, bleak height above the village. Unluckily I had * See Hosea iii. 4. On the place of the sacrificial pillar in the worship of the northern Semites see Robertson Smith’s “ Religion of the Semites,” pp. 200 et seq. f P.E.F.Q.S., 1881, p. 81. B i8 TENT AND TESTAMENT no precise note as to the position of the “ circle.” Baedeker said it was on the north of the village, the Palestine Explora¬ tion List of Photographs said it was on the east. The best plan seemed to be to make our way to the highest neighbouring point and take a general survey, and this accordingly we did. What a tumult, what a wild confusion of rocks and stones, some lying loose, others rooted in the mountain ! Truly Jacob had no lack of material when he u took of the stones of that place and put them for his pillows !” The line of deep blue away to the north, where the mountains of Samaria lay, was refreshing to the eye ; but in the nearer distance, for miles around us, was little else than a grey chaos. I swept the adjacent hills and valleys with my glass, and there, sure enough, on a slope less than half a mile away, was a fairly perfect circle. We did not need to go to it, for I could see it in every detail. It was a circle of huge stones, quite as perfect as that photographed by the Palestine Exploration Fund, and yet —not the same ! In fact, I cannot but think that too much has been made of that circle, and that in the stony wilder¬ ness around Bethel several such natural circles might be found. Conder says that he paid three visits to the vicinity “ with the view of examining the supposed circle of stones.” “We were, however, unable,” he writes, “to arrive at any other conclusion than that the curious rocks photographed by Colonel Wilson are natural features ; and although Dr. Sepp speaks, I believe, of a rude stone circle, I was unable to find any such monument after searching the entire vicinity.”* I will only add that the photograph published by the Pales¬ tine Exploration Fund fully confirms this verdict of Colonel Conder as to the natural origin of this supposed monument; and I hope that some time soon the guide-books and hand¬ books will cease to copy one another and to waste the time and energy of tourists. Having concluded our survey of Bethel, we renewed our journey, travelling through a barren and silent country. Not the twitter of a bird broke the deathly stillness, for in these mountains where birds of prey are abundant, the little songsters cannot live. We passed several villages perched upon the tops of hills, but the very villages seemed dead : we saw no figures moving about them, heard no sounds issuing from them. Even the flowers seemed to have for¬ saken this forbidding region, and it was not until we left the * P.E.F.Q.S., 1881, p. 255. 19 THROUGH SHILOH TO HUWARA bald and solid rocks of Bethel that we found ourselves once more travelling over the beautiful carpet which spreads itself on the bleak hills of Judaea in springtime. Then indeed, wherever the least scrap of soil could be found, their glory returned to us. Large anemones, white, scarlet, blue, and pale pink, with cyclamens both white and purple, wreathed every stone and draped every mountain-terrace. Leaving the high ground, we descended into The Valley of Fig-trees, avast depression with plantations of figs extending far up the slopes by which it is bounded. We climbed again, and again descended by a narrow and rocky wadi known as The Valley of Robbers. The path drops steeply down the length of this pass beneath a fine range of limestone rocks in which are many caves. At one point a spring breaks out of the cliff and trickles down its face. This place opens into a fine wide valley as full of olive-trees as the first was of fig-trees, their grey foliage spreading over the length and breadth of the hollow, and climbing the mountain-sides as far as eye can see. Again we rose and again descended ; and found ourselves in a broad plain, with deep rich soil, where barefooted men were ploughing with their old-world ploughs. They press on the cross-piece of the simple plough-tail with their left hand, and in their right they carry a long goad with which they guide the little oxen, one man and one yoke of oxen to each plough. From this plain the road to Sinjil (the Casale St. Giles of the Crusaders) bears away to the left; but we kept straight on, or inclined a little to the right, ascending another barren, stony region. We were now approaching Seilun, the ancient Shiloh. On our right, a little off the path, stood an ancient building, about thirty-five feet square, known as “ The Mosque of the Forty," that is to say it is dedicated to the Forty Companions of the Prophet. But it was a synagogue before it was a mosque, for the lintel of the north doorway, although it has been thrown down since Colonel Conder visited it in 1872, is still unbroken, and shows the pot of manna on its front, being, as Conder declares, “ similar to the lintels of Galilean synagogues." Neither are the Jews and the Mohammedans the only claimants to the building, for in the west wall there is a pointed arch ; and inside the ruin are columns and capitals which Colonel Conder con¬ siders to be Byzantine. In all probability, therefore, the building has been first a synagogue, then a church, and finally a mosque. 20 TENT AND TESTAMENT What can have made this particular spot so sacred that Jew, Christian and Moslem have alike reverenced it ? Of course those to whom the Hebrew Tabernacle is a solid fact jump to the conclusion that this is the spot where the Tabernacle stood. Even Edersheim quotes the opinion with apparent approval.* All that we can say, however, is that in ancient and mediaeval times such a tradition may have existed and led to the erection of these shrines, but that, if so, it is quite lost now. As we approached Shiloh I had in mind that passage in Stanley's “ Sinai and Palestine " in which the author pictures the “ daughters of Shiloh " as dancing about the well at the yearly festival,! and I asked the dragoman to point it out to me when we reached it. Accordingly, a little way past the “ Mosque of the Forty," he pointed out a round pool cut in the rock, which he said was the Well of Shiloh. This may certainly be sufficiently ancient, but a serious drawback is that it is not a well at all, but a cistern, and it was difficult to imagine Shiloh's daughters dancing round this. It is to be noticed, however, that this “ well" is a feature of the picture gratuitously introduced, and that the Scripture passage to which Stanley refers contains no mention of it at alLJ However, while we were on the subject of wells it seemed not amiss to visit any running water which there might be in the neighbourhood; so I determined that after our mid-day meal we would go in search of the real well of Shiloh. Meanwhile luncheon was the next business on the programme. We ate it under the shadow of another mosque. A group of villagers gathered round us. The men wore the usual square striped cloak of coarse sacking thrown over a tunic of dark-coloured cotton, which was belted at the waist and came a little below the knees. Their heads were wrapped in the keffiyeh or large handkerchief protecting the neck and fastened round the crown by the agal or elastic rope of camel-hair or worsted. The girls wore blue skirts, and had their heads wrapped in white kerchiefs. Their faces, like those of all fellah women, were * “Sketches of Jewish Life,” p. 255. t “ Sinai and Palestine,” p. 232. Judges xxi. 19 et seq, + Some trace of the festival may linger in the name Merj el ’Aid, “ the meadow of the feast,” by which the plain to the south of Seilfin is still called. P.E.F.Q.S., 1877, p. 180. THROUGH SHILOH TO HUWARA 21 unveiled. One man, of different aspect from the rest, tried to converse, speaking to my surprise what seemed tolerable French. He asked the invariable questions as to where we came from and whither we were going. I complimented him upon his French, and he explained that he was an Algerian. After luncheon I requested Hanna to inquire of the natives whether there was no running water in the neighbourhood of the village, and one of the youths readily undertook to guide us to it. He had not gone far when he was joined by another, and the two stepped briskly on before us, planting their bare feet on the rough and thickly-strewn stones with the greatest unconcern. They were very jolly fellows, their broad faces, which were almost black, shining with good humour, their eyes sparkling, and rows of white teeth gleam¬ ing when they laughed. The ease and spring of their walk over the rough ground indicated great agility and health ; indeed, it seemed difficult for them to walk slowly enough for us ; they would stop and look round and wait, and then trot on again, just as a dog does when he is out for a walk with his master. The spot to which they guided us was in a deep valley running north and south, the western side of it perforated with numbers of rock-cut tombs lying in rows along the layers of limestone. In a picturesque nook on the same side of the valley, among piled-up rocks, they showed us a round hole just large enough to admit the body of a man. Look¬ ing down it I could see, at a depth of about fifteen feet, a stream of running water. It was apparently coursing swiftly along an underground duct in a direction transverse to the line of the valley. While we stood there a grey-haired old man appeared, wearing nothing but a cotton shirt, which was open from the neck to the waist, showing his hairy breast. He promptly descended through the opening, making his way down to the water by means of projections in the rocky sides of the shaft. There he drank and washed, and then climbed up again. (Fig- 3 ) When we got back to our dragoman, he told one of our guides to show me how he struck a light. The youth pro¬ duced from a little leather pouch at his girdle (the “ purse ” of Scripture) a flint and steel, the latter similar in shape to those formerly used in England, but smaller. He then took a small end of frayed hempen cord, and held the flint and 22 TENT AND TESTAMENT the cord between the thumb and finger of his left hand in such a way that the frayed end of the latter came about level with the sharp edge of the former. With his right hand he then struck the steel upon the flint, the cord immediately began to smoulder, and he soon produced a flame with his breath. Remounting our horses, we now travelled in a north¬ westerly direction down the Wadi Seilun. After about an hour's ride we turned northward, and on a hill before us saw the village of el-Lubban—the Lebonah which in the Book of Judges (xxi. 19) is mentioned as being on the north of Shiloh. How strange it seems to find these names almost unchanged, clinging to the identical spots for thousands of years ! The country continued to be silent—no streams, no birds ; only Mohammed the groom, riding in the rear, chanted an interminable Arab song to a tune of four notes ; and occa¬ sionally, in some cultivated nook among the mountains, a little company of fellahin sang at their work. At a distance of about two or three hours' ride from Seilun we found ourselves on a height from which we looked upon the plain of Makhnah, with a grand distant view of the mountains of Samaria, and the snowy peak of Hermon far to the north. In the near distance rose Ebal and Gerizim, and at the foot of the latter lay the little village of Huwara, where our camp was pitched. We reached the valley by a very steep and bad road, and thence made our way to the open plain,across which about twenty minutes' ride took us to our camp. I should have preferred to encamp at Nablus, in that Vale of Shechem concerning whose beauties I had heard so much. But Hanna strongly dissuaded us from any such plan. The people, he said, were rude, and it was impossible to keep them from invading the tents ; and they were fanatical to such a degree that they often became dangerous to Chris¬ tians. He further took occasion to remind us that pictures were forbidden by the Mohammedan religion, so that when we entered Nablus I must not attempt to photograph, other¬ wise we stood a fair chance of all being killed. It may be that for reasons of his own he exaggerated the dangers, but, of course, for the ignorant there was nothing to do but to follow his advice. However, the spot where our camp was pitched had its own interest. Our tents were on a spur of Mount Gerizim. THROUGH SHILOH TO HUIvArA 23 The mountain chain rose upon our left as we faced north¬ ward. On our right beyond the plain was a range of lower hills, their tops ail aglow just now with the rays of the declining sun as it sank behind Gerizim. Straight before us, but just hidden by a projecting spur, lay the Well of Jacob. It was about four or five miles distant, and between it and our camp stretched the Plain of Makhnah, green with the broad stretches of wheat now in blade. And it came upon me that these were the very fields upon which Jesus looked when He sat by the well and said, “ Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh the harvest ? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white already unto harvest."* The very fields, and almost the very time of year. Not quite ; for the wheat- harvest is in June, and this was March 12, so that it wanted little more than three months to the average harvest-time. Before our tents there stretched two paths, both of them leading to Nablus. The main path crosses the centre of the plain, and is the one most frequented ; the other is on rather higher ground, and is therefore used more especially in winter, though it was far from being deserted even now, being shorter, though rougher, than the main route. Dotted along each path, in vanishing perspective, were people in twos and threes, dressed in bright colours, particularly in a very bright yellow, which seems to be the favourite colour in this part of Palestine. A little further up the slope on which our camp was pitched stood the village of Huwara, from which came shouts and laughter of children. Their little forms, in red, blue, and yellow, glanced gaily in the evening light. The sun sank behind Gerizim, the golden glory faded from the hill-tops on the East, the vivid green of the plain below us darkened, the children's games ceased, night came with rapid strides, and the sudden chill warned us into the tents. I noticed that inside the tent the thermometer stood at 55 0 Fahr., and it was ten degrees lower when we woke in the morning. * John iv. 35. CHAPTER V FROM HUWARA TO JACOB’S WELL AND SHECHEM Professor George Adam Smith, in his “ Historical Geography of the Holy Land/' mentions that besides the ordinary road to Jenin through Shechem and Samaria, he had heard from his muleteers that another route existed. He was told that in order to find this route he must take the road past Askar which leads towards Bethshan, until he reached the point where it turns eastward, and then keep due north.* Professor Smith, therefore, upholds Lightfoot and Stanley in their assertion that such a road exists, and he thinks it likely that it would be preferred by Jesus to the other route, inasmuch as it avoided both Shechem and Sebaste, two large alien towns, one Samaritan and the other Greek, close to which He must otherwise have passed.f Now, since it was one chief object of my tour to obtain such information as would enable me to realise that Life, I read the passage from Professor Smith's book to our dragoman Hanna, and told him that I should like, if pos¬ sible, to follow the route described. He declared, however, that he had never heard of such a road, neither had his mule¬ teers; and, even if it existed, one thingwascertain,andthatwas that we could not depend upon finding any suitable camp¬ ing-grounds on the way. I then began to realise how heavily handicapped we were by our luxurious camp. It was perfectly true that to drag our great caravan over mountain-tracks which were unknown to dragoman or muleteers, where we might find no water, or might be forbidden by the natives to encamp, would never do at all, so the plan had to be abandoned. By all means let the man who has health and strength travel with nothing but horse and saddlebags. * Op. cit. p. 374. t We know from Josephus that Galileans who went up to the festivals at Jerusalem commonly travelled through the country of Samaria passing through Jenin (“ Antiq.” xx. vi. 1); but that description might apply to either route. 25 JACOB’S WELL AND SHECHEM However, I determined, since the existence of the road has been denied, and since Professor Smith does not seem to have actually seen it, that I would do what I could to ascertain whether it is really extant.* Accordingly I requested Hanna to cross-examine the natives of Huwara. But all I got from them was this : they said that they never went through Nablus or Sebastiyeh to reach Jenin, but neither did they go by the Bethshan road. Their regular route was by a mountain track which took them through Fandakumiyeh and Jeba. Now there is one road through Fandakumiyeh and Jeba which is well known ; it runs almost direct from Sebastiyeh to Jenin, leaving Dothan on the left ; but the mountain-track of which the Huwara people spoke would avoid Nablus and Sebastiyeh, cutting off a large corner, and joining the main road near Jeba. However, we were at the mercy of our dragoman and impedimenta , and, since we could not explore the road mentioned by Lightfoot and Stanley, the best course seemed to be to take the usual route, and when we had visited Jacob's Well to follow the great bend round to the west and see something of Nablus and Sebastiyeh, the ancient Shechem and Samaria. From Huwara to Jacob’s Well is between four and five miles. W T e rode along the wide well-worn track between broad stretches of glossy wheat, and reached it before nine o’clock in the morning. Until a recent date the well lay in the open plain, amid the ruins of an ancient church which once covered it. At the present time it is enclosed by a high stone wall, having been purchased, as Hanna informed us, by the Greek Christians of the village of Balata, which is about seven minutes’ ride from the well. In 1697 the well was found to be 105 feet deep, with fifteen feet of water. In 1866 it was reported as seventy-five feet deep and quite dry. In 1881 the original stone which surrounded the mouth of the well was discovered among the ruins. In 1894 Professor George A. Smith writes, “ It is impossible to say whether the well is now dry, for many feet are choked with stones/’ f At the present time the well may be seen with the ancient curbing replaced, the debris cleared out, and the water standing cold and sweet to a considerable depth. Entering the enclosure we found ourselves in a garden * It is not marked in the Ordnance Survey Map. f Smith, “ Hist. Geog.,” p. 374. 26 TENT AND TESTAMENT of sweet-scented stocks, which the Christian owners had planted there. In one corner of the enclosure, on the left as we entered, were some sheds and a long barrack-like building where pilgrims are lodged ; six hundred Russian pilgrims were expected that very night. Looking to the right we saw what seemed to be a heap of rubbish—a mound of earth and stones—in the side of which was a dark doorway or cavernous opening flanked by the shafts of some broken pillars. To this narrow arch we were led, and found ourselves at the top of a short flight of steps which led down to a little chapel within the mound. We descended the steps, and, when our eyes had become accus¬ tomed to the gloom, saw before us the Well surrounded by its ancient kerb cut half through by the rub of the ropes. Noting these deep-worn grooves, and remembering that the well has not been in use for ordinary purposes since the fourth century, when the church whose ruins now lie scattered around was built over it, it appears to be just within the bounds of possibility that this was the very stone upon which Jesus sat when He talked with the woman of Samaria (Fig. 4). To some, no doubt, the whole story of the Samaritan woman who “ came to draw water " is as legendary as the story of “ our father Jacob, which gave us the well”; to myself, however, the probabilities have seemed to be that the Fourth Gospel is a composite book, consisting of dis¬ courses based upon more or less historical traditions, and that this particular story of the Samaritan woman is one of those which, while it contains some Philonic sym¬ bolism, bears traces of having come originally from the narrative of one who knew the place and was likely to know the circumstances. The well lies close by the road from Judaea to Galilee ; above it towers the mountain of Gerizim, where the foundation of the Samaritan temple still exists ; to the east and south stretches the plain of el-Makhnah, rich with corn-crops to this very day ; and the village of Askar, half a mile away, in all likelihood represents the little town of Sychar, from which the Samaritan woman had come to draw water. Thus the local details seem to be exact. At our request an attendant let down a candle by a long string, and we were able to judge of the accuracy of another detail of the Scripture story—“ the well [