_l i ijj)ij u.-.j i )M iiii . i .i i rif iiiiii i i Vi i nr'H-r ii iii Vr'i r'f ' I 'd" ' ' i ' '"" i f ! ''■' "'■■"■ - IlilfiWiyj^MiMBMaaBWMftlMilil.lllitMni'i'i'i LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. UNITED STATES OF A3IEEIC:A. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from The Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/eddystravelsinasOOeddy Tlie Reandabsat Bosks DRIFTING ROUND THE WORLD A VOYAGE IN THE SUNBEAM OUR BOYS IN INDIA OUR BOYS IN CHINA YOUNG AMERICANS IN JAPAN YOUNG AMERICANS IN TOKIO YOUNG AMERICANS IN YEZO THE FALL OF SEBASTOPOL FIGHTING THE SARACENS THE YOUNG COLONISTS THE YOUNG BUGLERS THE HERO OF PINE RIDGE THE OCEAN ROVERS EDDY'S TRAVELS IN EUROPE EDDY'S TRAVELS IN ASIA AND AFRICA ENTRANCE TO THE KHAN EL-KHALIL. HE^ovNDAB^VTpOOlfS BV Rev. D. C.Eddv, AVALTERS T^vn IN TME EAST "T/^AVELS \n EUROPE " 0¥COJV^ l^^DEC 4 1993 BOSTON". ^^^ WAon-^^ ^ Charles E.Brown & Co. 6^-^f^J \ K Copyright, 1S93, Charles E. Brown & Co. «RKHIUL a CO., B15T0N TABLE OF CONTENTS. In Morocco 9 Things at Home. — Malta. — Tangier. — Cape Malabet. — Fez. — Morocca — Manufactures. — Mogadore. In Algeria 33 The Pirates. — The Guide. — As-amar. — Rabuat. — Constantia. — Startling Ad- ventures. — Illness. In Tunis and Tripoli 39 City of Tunis. — Roman Remains. — The Caravansary. — The Servant in Trouble. — Our Hostess. In Alexandria 45 The Coast. — Alexandria. — Donkey Boys. — The Hotel. — Blindness. — Flies. — Pompey's Pillar. — Cleopatra's Needles. — The Catacombs. In Asia Minor 62 New Friends. — Jaffa. — Ramlah. — Smyrna. — Ephesus. — Diana. — Pergamos. — Laodicea. — Sardis. — Philadelphia. — Thyatira. — Nineveh. — Babylon. In Damascus 98 First View. — Mahomet. — Abana and Pharpar. — Antiquity. — Straight Street— Maronite Quarter. — Dangers. — Flight. In Galilee Ill Chorazin. — Magdala. — Tiberias. — Sea of Galilee. — Mount Tabor. — Nazareth. — Synagogue. — Safet. In Samaria 123 Samaria. — Esdraelon. — Battle of Mount Tabor. — Ebal. — Gerizim. — Jacob's Well. — Nablous. — Sebastia. — Shiloh. — Adventures with the People. VI CONTENTS. VAom In Jerusalem 137 An Evening with the Boys. — Jerusalem. — Camps. — A Week around the City. — Gihon. — Siloam. — The Gates. — Via Dolorosa. — Church of the Sepulchre. — Church of the Armenians. — Olivet. — The Temple Area. — Scripture Scenes. In Jericho . .... ... 165 Consultation. — Long Ride. — The Camp. — Dancing Girls. — The Jordan. — Greek Bathing Place. In Bethlehem - 179 The Dead Sea.— The Town.— Church of Nativity. — Mar Saba.— Convent Life. — The Milk Grotto. — Bible Illustrations. — Shepherds. In Hebron 200 Cave of Adullam. — Cave of Machpelah. — Glass Works. — Productions of the Section. — Prince of Wales. — Dean Stanley. In Egypt 207 The Desert. — Sinai. — Suez. — Cairo. — Pyramids. — The Sphinx. — Heliopolis. — The Nile. — Donkey riding. — Street Scenes, — Funeral Scenes. — Wedding Cere- monies. — Customs of the People. — Government. — Mohammed All. — The Mame- lukes. — Emin Bey. — Joseph's Well. — Old Tree. — Nilometer. — Cheops. — Dash- oor. — Memphis. — Thebes. — Karnac. In Southern Africa . . 253 Ipsamboul. — Birds of the Nile. — Fish of the Nile. — Monsters of the Nile. — Nubia. — Zanzibar. — Madagascar. — City Life. — The Interior. — Changes. In India ... 269 Ceylon. — Colombo. — Kandy. — Madras. — Buddha. — Tanjore. — Travelling in India. — The Thugs. — William Carey. — Henry Martyn. — The Himalayas. — East India Company. — The Punjaub. — Agra. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Entrance to the Khan El-Khalil, Frontispiece. Water Boy of Smyrna . , . . The Memorial Well at Cawupore, Title Page. Plain of Ephesus Crossing the River .... 9 Amphitheatre at Ephesus . St. Paul's Bay, Malta . 14 Ruins at Ephesus Rip Van Winkle Taking a Ride 15 Pergamos .... View of Tangier . 18 Ak Hissar .... Fish Merchants . 20 Sardis Serpent Charmers 23 Philadelphia In the Interior 25 Birs Nimroud Mode of Transportation 27 Damascus .... Costumes in Morocco . - 29 Public Garden Fruit Gathering . 31 Street in Damascus On a Litter .... Zl Cedar Grove Hassan 35 Temple of Baalbec Laid up in the Hut 36 Fallen Pillar Natives Building Hut . 39 Lake of Gennesareth . Interior of House 41 Magdala .... Our Victims 42 Arab Story Teller Our Hostess 43 A Woman of Nazareth Window of the Harem 45 Spring at Nazareth Old Harbor of Alexandria . 47 The Carpenter's Shop . Water Carrier, 50 Valley of Shechem Place Mohammed Ali . 53 Plain of Esdraelon Silk Workers 56 Nablous Pompey's Pillar . 59 Jacob's Well Gathering Dates . 61 Samaritan Priest . Palmyra .... 62 Evening on the Housetop . Jaffa from the North . . 64 Temple Area and Mount of 01iv« 'S Pearl Merchants . 67 Street in Jemsalem Lydda .... 68 Pool of Hezekiah Ploughing in Palestine . 69 Tomb of Absalom Ramlah .... 71 Mosque of Omar Sidon 73 Church of the Holy Sepulchre Beirut .... 75 Stone of Unction Tobacco Seller . 76 St. Stephen's Gate Flower Seller n Jerusalem and Olivet . Smyrna . . . 79 Fountain of Elisha . . viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Arab at Tent Door . 167 Arabs on the Plain 169 Ruined Aqueduct near Jericho . • 171 Banks of the Jordan . . 175 Old Khan . 179 Harvest-Carrying in Palestine . 181 Church of the Nativity 182 Eastern Gleaners 183 Shepherd Boy of Bethlehem 187 Convent of Mar Saba . . . . 189 Bethlehem, looking East 192 Women of Bethlehem . . . . 195 Abraham's Oak 200 Hebron 201 Cave of Adullam . . . . 202 Hebron and Cave of Machpelah . 203 Solomon's Pool 205 Emblematic Egypt . . . . 207 First Ride on a Camel 209 The Dromedary Race . . . . 211 Street in Suez 212 Town of Suez 213 Street in Cairo . .' . . . 215 Kilometer 217 Mameluke's Leap . . . . 219 Obelisk at Heliopolis . . . . 221 Going to Heliopolis . . . . 223 Garden in Heliopolis . . . . 225 Mary's Tree 226 A Trip to the Pyramids — old style 228 Foot of the Pyramid . . . . 229 Pyramid of Dashoor . . . . 231 Ascent of the Pyramid 233 Pyramid of Sakhara . . . . 234 The Sphinx 239 Funeral Procession . . , . 241 Mummy Cases 242 Marriage Procession . . . . 243 Nile Boat 245 Stepped Pyramid . . . 246 Waterwheel 247 Nile Monsters . . « . . 248 The Lotos ■ 249 The Papyrus .... . 249 Propylon at Karnac Column of Thothmes IIL Gypsy Tent . Temple of Ipsamboul One of Them Electric Shad Tetrodon Kanooma Finny Pike . Aboo and Selim Life in the Interior Zanzibar Street in Tamatave Foliage in Madagascar Chief's House, Tamatave Madagascans Interior of Madagascar Buddhist Temple . Ceylon Elephants Kandy . Buddha's Tooth . Temple of the Dalada Madras Surf Temple of Soubramanya Rock Temple Milk Sellers of Madras Pagoda at Pondicherry Travelling in India Bullock Carriage . Religious Mendicant . Railway Travelling Martyn's House . On the Way to the Himalayas Benares Pavilion of Tinka State Elephants . Indian Fakir Ranch Mahal Futtepore Sikri Jumma Mus-jid, Delhi . Hall of Private Audience Tomb of Rungit-sing Golden Temple of the Sikhs Floating Gardens of Srinagur . Shops of Kashmir PAGE 250 251 253 254 255 256 256 257 257 258 259 260 262 263 264 265 267 269 273 274 275 276 277 279 280 282 283 285 286 287 291 293 295 397 298 300 302 304 305 307 30S 309 RIP VAN WINKLE TRAMPING ON. CROSSING THE RIVER. ASTER VAN WERT was in Paris when last we parted with him, maturing his plans for a trip to the distant East. He had been reading, consulting maps, conversing with recent travellers, and gaining such information as he could, and was now looking about for some one to accompany him. One day he was walking leisurely along the Champs El3^sees, that fine promenade, striking west from Place de la Concorde one and a quarter miles, laid out with foot and carriage paths, and forming a beautiful resort for the gay and fashionable crowds, who sit and walk by hours, hearing sweet music and witnessing gay scenes. He had entered the Avenue de Neuilly, and was going toward the Triumphal jQ RIP VAN WINKLE TRAMPING ON. Arch, when a gentleman paused in front of him, with the ex- clamation, — "Well!" The master stopped, looked in the face of the gentleman, hesitated a moment, and then, with a smile on his face, answered, — "Well!" "You recognize me, then, at last? " "Yes; though I did not expect to see you here to-day." "Some people turn up when we least expect to see them, you know." "Yes, and I am heartily glad to see you; it does one good to see the face of a friend in a distant land." The gentleman was a New York merchant, who often crossed the ocean, and who was not a stranger in the streets of Paris. His name we shall call " Goodspeed." " Let me ask," said Master Van Wert, " when you came from home, when you reached Paris, where you are staying, and where you are bound ? " " Four questions to be answered at once," said Mr. Goodspeed. " One at a time." " I left New York three weeks ago, and after a short stop in England came directly to Paris, where, as you see, I am ; I am resting my weary self at the Grand Hotel, and next week, like a bird of passage, shall take my flight." "Where to?" " Where I don't want to go." "Ah, where is that?" "To Morocco." " Morocco ? " " Yes, sir, against my will ; but business compels me." "I should think the trip would be an interesting and profitable PLANNING HIS ROUTE. jj " It might be to one who had never been to that country. But I have been there twice, and now go for the third time." " How do you go? By what route? " " I proceed to Marseilles, as much of the way as I can by water, to get rid of the dust and noise of the railroad. There I shall find a steamer or sailing vessel, I do not know or care which, in which I shall go, via Malta, to Tangier, where my business lies." "Where then?" " Then to Algeria, Tunis, Tripoli, and Egypt. I shall merely touch at Egypt to take a steamer for Smyrna." " A curious round-about trip." "Yes, but one I am forced to take. And now for your plans?" " They are not made." " Then can I not persuade you to go with me, as I suppose yon are free to go at will ? " "Is this a good season to visit Morocco?" " As good as any. Come, pack your travelling kit, and go with me. " I don't know. I was thinking of going to Egypt, up the Nile. into the heart of Africa." " Perhaps you can vary your route, and take Africa later in the season. I would be glad of company, and will make my arrange- ments to suit yours, if you will let me have the privilege." " I have no arrangements to make. My valise is packed, ready for a start, and I can be ready at any moment, and am inclined to go with you. I am here without much plan, except to see as much as possible in the time I have to remain." " Let it be so fixed; and if you will tell me at what hotel you are staying, I will call upon you in the evening, and we will fix our time of starting and our mode of travel." " All right," said the master, as he shook hands with his friend and turned away. 12 RIP VAN WINKLE TRAMPING ON, " This is just what I want, I think/' said the master, as he moved off toward his hotel. He had seen Paris by sunlight and gaslight, aJ- midday and at midnight. He had been to churches filled with images; to vast libraries; to cabinets of antique articles, where are objects of great curiosity and every namable and unnamable wonder; to the Bourse, where the living daily throng in such crowds; to the In- valides, where he saw the old soldiers of the Empire; to Pere la Chaise, where are the tombs of Heloise and Abelard; to the Gobelins, where the curious tapestry is manufactured; to the Cata- combs under the city; and to the Morgue, the resting-place of unfor- tunates. He had seen Paris, and was ready to go. So when Mr. Goodspeed came in that evening it was not hard to decide on plans for future work. " I think," said the master, " that we can reach Marseilles in a way that will be more interesting to us than to go by rail all the way, which, though the most expeditious route, is the least interesting." " How would you go ? " " By rail to Chalons, thence by steamer on the Saone to Lyons, and from Lyons, on the Rhone, to Marseilles." " I have never been that way, and would like to enlarge my expe- rience by pursuing that route. As I told you, I wish to escape the dust of the railroad." " When will you be ready to start? " " On Monday next." " I will be ready at that time." The friends looked over the map and saw how they were to go, and, after a quiet chat, separated, to meet at the hour for starting on their journey. At the time appointed the two gentlemen met, and took their seats in one of the commodious second-class cars, those on French road? being much superior to those of the same grade on English roads. The master, without regret, turned his back on Paris, on that bright FROM PARIS TO MARSEILLES. j -j and beautiful day, glad to escape from the endless round of vain and frivolous amusement to the quiet scenes and cool breezes of the coun- try. The ride from Paris to Chalons takes a long day, and lies through a country finely diversified, — now passing long rows of women toiling like slaves in the fields, now through tunnels miles in length, and anon driving across beautiful vine-covered plains. They had all kinds of company — women, with bags containing bread, meat, and wine ; jabbering Frenchmen, who kept up a conversation delightfully unintelligible ; children, who felt it a duty to cry half the wa}^ ; and a few men who used an honest tongue. They arrived at Chalons, a town of about nineteen thousand inhabitants, at eleven o'clock at night, and forthwith crowded into an omnibus, which, after an unusual amount of scolding, fretting, snapping of the whip, rolled to a dirty hotel, where they stopped for the night, and at length gj-umbled themselves to sleep. As soon as the sun was up, on the following day, our two travellers breakfasted, and were ready to start. They were to take steamer on the Saone, and everything gave promise of a pleasant day. And so they found it to be. The sail down the River Saone is very beautiful, and the scenery all along the banks is most delightful, though, perhaps, not equalling the castle- guarded Rhine, which every traveller wishes to see. High hills, covered with vines, cultivated to the very summit, and sloping beautifully to the river ; fine villages, sleeping on the shores ; little boats gliding up and down ; steamers now and then sweeping by, and rippling the waves to the flower-fringed bank on either side, — all render the voyage one of uninterrupted pleasure. At the confluence of the Saone and the Rhone lies the city of Lyons, where the two gentlemen remained a da}^ or two, when they took steamer on the Rhone for Avignon, and thence by cars to Mar- seilles. The ride to the latter city was a pleasant one, the cars good, and the rails smooth and easy. At Marseilles they found a little French steamer which was going to Tangier, and took passage there- i_. H RIP VAN WINKLE TRAMPING ON. cn, and were soon afloat on the great sea, sailing toward the coast of Africa. On their way down they touched at Palermo, and proceeded to Malta, an interesting place to visit, and memorable as the scene of St. Paul's deliverance from shipwreck. But of this voyage the master will speak more particularly hereafter. ST. PAUL S BAY, MALTA. Master Van Wert found Mr. Goodspeed a most entertaining trav- elling companion, a little too anxious to get along fast, having a great fund of general knowledge, and a thorough acquaintance with the various modes of travelling. He had visited the East many times, and though his tastes and pursuits were mainly in the line of business, he proved to be a very useful as well as entertaining voyager. /iV MOROCCO. 15 IN MOROCCO. RIP VAN WINKLE TAKING A RIDE. The boys at home who composed the Triangle had not heard from the old master for a long time, and were beginning to be anx- ious about him, and impatient for another letter, when one day Charlie received a package with several foreign stamps upon it, and the familiar handwriting of Rip Van Winkle. He had been out one evening, and on his return at a late hour his father placed in his hands the letter. The clock in the distant church tower was striking, one. two, three, four, live, six, seven, eight, nine, ten !, It waLi time for him to go to bed, but the elastic and excited fellow could not wait until morning to show his joy, but at once started to tell Hal. ri\ RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. It was rather late and lonely, but he reached the house and found it dark and gloomy, the family having retired to rest. However, the lad was determined to see his friend, and so went up and pulled the bell- knob. " Tinkle — tinkle — tinkle." No other response, and he pulled again. **Tinkle — tinkle — tinkle." He waited a few minutes, and was about to ring again, when a window in an upper story was raised, and Hal put his head out to see who was at the bell. "Who is there?" "It's me — Charlie." "What do you want, old fellow? " " I have a letter from Rip Van Winkle. " " Good, first rate. When did it arrive ? " "I got it this evening, after my return from May Thornton's party. " " Have you seen Will ? " "No ; but I am going over to his house." "Well, to-morrow night we will have a meeting of the Triangle." "Will wants it to meet at his house." " So let it be ; good night. " Charlie, in his enthusiasm, started to find Will, but concluded that his good news would keep until morning, and wisely went home, and was soon asleep in bed. The next evening the Triangle met. About thirty invited guests were present, among whom were Dr. Oldschool, Mr. Speedwell the lawyer, and Rev. Mr. Earnest, a young clergyman who had recently been settled over one of the churches, and who had been asked to come in b}' Hal. "Order!" cried Charlie, bringing down his gavel precisely at me hour. "Order!'' IN MOROCCO. 17 Order being instantly restored, Will moved that Rev. Mr. Earnest be invited to open the exercises of the evening with prayer. The motion being put and carried, Mr. Earnest prayed that the Triangle might be useful and subserve a grander purpose than was proposed at the outset; that the lads composing it might grow up to be useful men, and that Master Van Wert might be protected in his travels, and permitted to return safely to his home and friends. "Amen, " responded Dr. Oldschool. " Amen, " was the unuttered response from every heart present. "Is there any unfinished business before the meeting.'"' asked the president. No response. "Then the letter of our travelling companion will be opened and read by Hal. " In a somewhat pretentious way Hal opened the letter, and in fine, manly tones, read the following: — Tangier. * Dear Boys, — You will doubtless be surprised at receiving a letter from Morocco, when you expected one from some part of Palestine. But " circumstances alter cases," and circumstances have led me to alter my plans very considerably, and instead of being in the Holy City I am in a city of the other extreme. This change of programme I have been led to make in consequence of having fallen in with Mr. Goodspeed, an American gentleman, who has persuaded me to come to this part of the world with him. Nor am I at all sorry, for I have time enough for my Asiatic trip after this is finish#d. We took a little steamer at Marseilles for a round-about trip to this place, thinking the circuitous passage would give us good company and pleasant surroundings. But we w^ere disappointed in all that. The vessel was a miserable one, and several times I thought we should go to the bottom, and believe we should if we had had a storm on the way. The officers were uncivil, and made their pas- IN MOROCCO. jQ sengers generally uncomfortable. Instead of a genteel company of civilized people we had a dirty set of vagabonds, among whom we could not recognize one decent person, with the exception of two } oung Americans who happened to be going to the same port that we were destined for. The crowd on board was made up mostly of the lowest class of characters, who swore and jabbered in their out- landish tongues until it seemed as if we had got into bedlam. Every part of the steamer swarmed with fleas of the most wolfish kind. We went to bed at night, but sleep was impossible. Every few minutes a hollow groan would proceed from some one of the bunks, indicative of the misery of the occupant. But 3''ou can imagine the discomfort of the passage. On the way down we touched at one or two places, reaching Malta on the morning of the third day out. This, as you know, is the central depot of British powder in the Mediterranean Sea, an island sixteen miles long, and about nine miles in the widest part, and nearly oval in shape. It is a fortified rock, bristling at every point with British cannon. The capital of the island — or rather group of islands, for under the general name come Gozo, Comino, Corminetto, and Filfla, — is Valetta, where we stopped for a few hours. The steamer anchored oft' the town, and we were rowed ashore by natives in small cockle-shell boats, which seemed as if they were going under water at every bend of the oars. On landing we were greeted by large numbers of Maltese sailors, women, and cats, from whom we escaped, and went up through the long narrow streets, on a tour of inspection. Everything was odd and singular; we took breakfast at a coffee-house, on very thick muddy coffee, and very coarse garlicky bread. While taking breakfast the milk gave out, and a goatherd coming along at that moment with a drove of goats and asses, the creatures were milked, and we were supplied. We had time to visit the fortifications, the governor's palace, and the Church of St. John. In the crypts below the church, which is a f- [ Pi,i.\HUi -^^==-'^W ^S ^--- ^^-^r- _^^. 2>jA-f '" FRUIT GATHERERS AT RIO. 32 RJP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. while I was out hunting with a negro guide, the tide came in, and as usual at high water, surrounded Mogadore, the town being on a plateau, surrounded with marshes. The only way for me to get back was to wade, and my black guide taking me on his shoulderSj put me through, as nicely as a horse could have done. It was a curious kind of riding, and the animal seemed to enjoy the sport as much as his rider. Once or twice, when he came near dumping me into water, he indulged in an immoderate laugh of satisfaction. Rip Van Winkle. IN ALGERIA n IN ALGERIA. ON A LITTER. Rip Van Winkle remained at Mogadore some time longer than he expected to have done, on account of circumstances which he will detail in his next letter, and when he set sail he was devoutly grateful to the kind providence which had enabled him to obtain a glimpse of the empire of Morocco and get out safely in spite of experiences with bandits, with an unhealthy climate, with jungle adventures, and all the annoyances one meets in a country which is 3-1 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. separated from the arts and culture of Europe, only by a narrow strait, v^hich is easily crossed, but which, as far as the civilization of Morocco is concerned, might as well be as deep and as wide as the Atlantic Ocean. Algiers. From a boy the name of Algiers has been a terror to me. In my earl}' days it was associated in my mind with atrocious piracies that made the world shudder. Previous to 1815, when Commodore Decatur destroyed an Algerine fleet, and, sailing into this harbor, forced the dey to surrender all American prisoners found in his dun- geons, Algiers was noted for the extent of its piratical operations. Then, in 1816, England took it up, and a British fleet, under Lord Exmouth, bombarded the city. Then the French sent a fleet to do mischief, and that great power arrayed itself against the piracy of the Algerines, which had become so notorious that the name of Algiers was hated throughout the commercial world. But Algerine piracy has been suppressed. The sea is no longer molested by the clipper ships, bearing the black flag or the skull and cross-bones, and Algiers is so thoroughly under French control, that life is nearly as safe as in Paris. Before speaking of this city and country, I will tell you how T got away from Mogadore. The German caravan left me at the inn, and at once I set about finding a vessel bound for Tangier. But no one offering itself, I determined to have a few days of sport in the interior. It was somewhat hazardous, but selecting a fine, comely black, named Hassan, I started out one morning, to be gone two or three days. The shooting was good, and the game plenty, and everything went well until the second day, when at noon, while taking our dinner, Hassan leaped wildly to his feet, exclaiming, ^^Lion! lion!" and betook himself to the nearest tree. I did the same thing, and soon both of us felt ashamed of our flight, for nothing appeared but a wild boar, who went tramping along at a rearing IN ALGERIA. 35 rate. Seeing what it was, and anxious to get a shot at the animal, 1 ieaoed from the tree, and in my descent fell somewhat unfortunately, and sprained my ankle, and it caused me great pain. Hassan got me to the hut of a native, which was not far away, but by the time I reached the hut the ankle was badly swollen, and the kind and faithful fel- low, with the assistance of the proprietor of the hut, was obliged to cut away my boot and apply cooling lotions to the inflammation; but in spite of all they could do, and my own determination, I was obliged to go to bed and stay there two or three days. The negro who owned the hut gave me up the only bed he had, which was a clean one, over- hung by a sort of rude canopy of his own manufacture. The hut contained little beside the bed and a chest, and the only occupant until our arrival was the negro, who kept a pet goat, that had free access to the hut, and who as soon as it saw me on its master's bed became my constant attendant, refusing to leave me for an hour. It was a noble crea- ture, seeming to have the instincts of a human being. It hung around me, sprang upon the bed, lapped my hands, and seemed to manifest a reasoning fondness. Wishing to get to town as soon as possible, Hassan formed a litter, and securing a couple of negroes, I was borne back, while the guide kept by my side, through the swamps and bushes, where the way was almost impassable. Soon after, I found a coasting vessel bound for Tangier, and took HASSAN. 36 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. passage. We stopped a few hours at each of several little seaport towns, for which I was glad, as it gave me an opportunity to go ashore and see more of the country. At Asamar, Rabuat, Mehedia, and other places, we put in, but soon put out again, and in due time arrived at Tangier, where I found Mr. Goodspeed, and he being ready to start, we shipped at once for this port, where we now are. ^^. "^';, t''-^~^f/''''?t~'^-^~ LAID UP IN THE HUT. Algiers is fineiy situated on the bay, and the buildings form an amphitheatre. It is a walled city, and is the capital of the country, Being the headquarters of French power in Algiers, the European population is large, and there is a " Frenchiness " not seen anywhere else in the country. The hotels are fair, the mosques elegant, the government houses, bank, and cathedral respectable buildings. There IN ALGERIA. 37 are several colleges, a bishop's house, and the usual accompaniments of such a city. There is much of the appearance of a European city Steamers ply from this to several other ports, and the constant coming and going of vessels makes the place very lively. Mr. Goodspeed having finished his business here, we discussed the propriety of going further into the country. One day we ap- proached our landlord, a Frenchman, who had long lived here, and my friend said to him, — "Would it be worth our while to visit Constantia? " "Constantia?" ''Yes." "What you want to know about Constantia?" "Whether it would be wise for us to go there.'* '* " Ouir "That is, would we sec enough to pay us for so long a journey? " " Oui. Constantia is a much fine city. I know all about him." " How large a place ? " " Very large, " stretching his arms apart. " But how many inhabitants? " " Inhabitants ? " "Yes; how many people? " " Oui^ ze peoples much; thirty thousand of him." " Had we better go there ? " "No go, bad place; bad peoples in the woods — very far off." "How far?" " One hundred miles you call him, and fifty, sixty, seventy, eiglry more. " "One hundred and eighty miles?" " Ouir "How about Bona?" " No good! No good ! " "OrOran?" 38 RIP VAN WIAKLE'S TRAVELS. "You no go to any place. You stay here; you be safe. When you want to go, you go to the ship. No go to ze peoples." And on many accounts we concluded that it was not safe to venture into the country. First, there is little to see. There is a remarkable sameness in all the negro villages, and the inland cities and towns are devoid of special interest. Then it is not quite safe to be about among the inhabitants of the interior. The quarrels among themselves, the jealousy of strangers, and the general character of the people, makes travelling anywhere but in the most public places somewhat hazardous. On these accounts we concluded to make a hasty visit, and take an early departure. Rip Van Winkle. IN TUNIS AND TRIPOLI 3') IN TUNIS AND TRIPOLI. NATIVES BUILDING A HUT. One morning a steamer landed a dozen passengers in the harbor of Tunis, the capital of the Regency of the same name, and among them were Rip Van Winkle and Mr. Goodspeed, both of whom had had quite enough of the Algerines. How they fared in Tunis will be told by the Master. Tunis. After a wakeful night we landed in the chief city of Tunis, glad to get out of the steamer which took us from Algiers. I think, boys, you will not blame me for not getting reconciled to some of the annoyances we meet on the little steamboats that ply along the northern coast of Africa. They generally run in the night, and stop and load or unload by day. To sleep is impossible, for we have 40 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. strange bed-fellows. They are such as Dean Swift alludes to in a ctanza of his ^ — " So, naturalists observe, a flea Has smaller fleas that on him prey ; And these have smaller still to bite 'em ; And so proceed qd infinitum." Jonathan must have been a passenger on one of these boats at some time. As we approached the city, it presented a very fine ap* pearance, and looked as if a great deal of comfort might be found in it. But it has the narrow streets, the low rude houses, the squalid poverty, the filthy habits, and the treacherous manners of Algiers. The city, which has nearly two hundred thousand inhabitants, is surrounded by a double wall, and defended by a strong fortification. There are a plenty of mosques, a Moorish college, one or two theatres, some public baths, with manufactories of cotton, linen, and woollen goods. The place has great antiquity, and has had a singular history. Like Carthage, whose ancient site is not far off, it traces its record back to a very remote period. Perhaps, boys, you imagine that I am in a country of sultry heat, but in this you are mistaken. The temperature of Tunis in winter averages 55° and in summer only 85°, while the mean of the year is 70°. So you see the people of the sea coast have a delightful climate. But when 3^ou go into the interior, and approach the great desert which begins within a short distance of the sea, you find the heat more intense. While at Tunis we went out on two or three occasions to hunt. Before we started, the residents told us that we should find plenty of lions, wild horses, panthv-^rs, and wolves to shoot. To tell the truth we did not care much to see the panthers and lions, and did not. If there were any of these inhabitants of the forests they did not trouble us. We got upon the track of two or three wolves, but our inexperi- ence in hunting allowed them to get out of our way. So I shall IN TUNIS AND TRIPOLI. 41 not be able to bring home a stuffed lion, as a present to the Triangle. We did, however, do some deer and antelope shooting, and took back with us some specimens which v/ould have made a show in Washing- ton market if they could have been hung there, with the inscription, '^ Shot in Tunis, by Rip Van Winkle." The old Roman ruins we did not feel it safe to visit. The bar- barous people murder and rot any unprotect- ed stranger that comes to see their country, and unless a large guard is ODtained, no one knows, when he leaves Tunis, how he will get back. Though we did not go far away, we had some rough adventures, and one night, while stop- ping in a hut in the woods, were surround- ed by the wild Arabs, and should have been robbed if not killed, had we not made a vigorous demonstration with our firearms, by which the barbarians were frightened away, supposing w-e were more numerous anc -*^ter armed than we were. INTERIOR OF HOUSE. 42 :UP VAN IVIAKLE'S TRAVELS. our victims. Tripoli. Coming along the coast we reached this cit}^, the capital of the province of the same name. Like Algiers, Tripoli has been famous in ages past for its piracy. One of its governors, Dragut, somewhere about the year 1550, was a noted corsair, and, under his rule, the State became the headquarters of the worst class of men who ever sailed upon the ocean. The ships of no nation were safe. The commerce of all nations was at the mercy of these lawless depredators, who became so bold and defiant that they were hated in every civilized land. This state of things lasted from the time of Dragut to the year 18 16, when the British compelled the Tripolitans to abandon their infamous practices upon the high seas. Thanks to war steamers, pirates have little chance in our times. The city of Tripoli is an uninteresting place. The houses are low, generally of one story, with flat roofs. The streets are narrow and filthy, the inhabitants boisterous and treacherous, and the customs and 'V:.^ - Jjh/isy^%(5^ A LADY OF CEYLON. A A , RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. manners of the foreign merchants are little calculated to make the place attractive. The caravansary at vv^hich we are stopping, though small, is neatly kept. The head of the house is a woman oi fine appearance. Only once have we seen her. Her servants are mostly men, but she rules them well. She is an illustration of the value of brains. On one occasion one of the table waiters became insolent, and refused to fill our orders or answer our calls. We appealed to the head of the house, expecting to see a man, to whom we could state our grievance, but we were indeed surprised to find ourselves confronted by an elegantly dressed lady, who conversed fluently in English and who received us with as much dignity as could the Queen of England. On stating our case, her eyes flashed, her hands were brought impres- sively together, and the offender was sent for. On his appearance she showered upon him a torrent of angry words, under which the fellow, whom now we began to pity, stood cowering with shame and fright. Assuring us that the oflfence should not be repeated she dismissed us, and ordered the fellow to the stables, where he was kept in disgrace until after we left. He did not appear in the dining-room during our stay in the place. We made several excursions out into the country, when it was safe and pleasant to go, and saw something of the rural districts, impressed every moment with the immense failure of Euro- pean civilization to penetrate into Africa. The moment we left the seaport towns all traces of European institutions vanished, and we were thrown back into the blackness of barbarism. Rip Van Winkle. IN ALEXANDRIA. 45 IN ALEXANDRIA. WINDOW OF THE HAREM. In a steamer running from Tripoli to Alexandria, Rip Van Win- kle and his fellow-traveller took passage, and early one morning reached the latter port, where they were to spend a few days and then part company. The merchant was to return to Europe, whiJe the master was not quite decided which way to go. He had plenty of time on his hands, was not pushed for funds, and could take things as he pleased, and he was prepared to go in such directions as wouid give him the best facilities for seeing the world and acquiring information. Af^ RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. Alexandria. The Triangle will be glad to learn that I have got through with the Arabs, Bedouins, and negroes of Morocco, Algiers, and Tripoli, with no damage to my physical proportions. I have been in some tight places, but can honestly say that I never had " hair-breadth 'scapes." In coming to countries of more interest to 3^ou, I shall be more specific in my details, and more full in my description, for I re- member how carefully you charged me to tell you all about Egypt, when I should reach that country. Well, I am here; and though I do not propose to remain long at the present time, I will give you all the particulars I can think of, or rather all that the limits of a letter will allow me to write about. While you are wearing furs and mufflers, and getting your sport in coasting, skating, sleighing, and frolick- ing in your youth among the frozen streams, falling snow, and drifting ice of New York, I am here in the intense heat of the dusty plains and arid deserts of Egypt. On approaching the coast you are conscious of a stifling heat, as from a furnace. In my own case, I awoke one morning, after a fearful voyage, and found the steamer lying still outside the harbor, and on going on deck, experienced sensations very much like that of a man who had put his head into a heated oven. The spars, rigging, and deck of the steamer were covered with a fine red dust from the desert, which had met us twenty miles away, and clung obstinately to every object on which it rested. The pilot who took us in was a native, and looked much better fitted for the arena of a circus, or the stage of a theatre, than for the wheel-house of a steamer. He had on loose, flowing trousers, a close-fitting red jacket, with black and gold braid ornamentation, while on his curly head rested a little jaunty cap, the whole forming an attire so novel and grotesque, that the stranger, up to that moment unfamiliar with the costumes of the country, was m doubt whether a man or woman had taken possession of the ship. Nimble as a cat, he ran about the vessel, chattering like a black- iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii^^ 48 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. bird, in an unknown tongue, until, safely through the narrow passages and dangerous straits, he brought the steamer to her anchorage in front of the city. No sooner was the cable out than a hundred jabbering Arabs sprung on board from light feluccas, in which they had come out from land. It seemed for a time as if we had got into Bedlam. These invaders all talked at once in their strange accents, gesticulated to each other and to us, and everything was in confusion. Some were custom-house officers, some hotel proprietors, some mail agents, some were beggars, some were thieves, and a few were Alexandrian gentlemen and merchants who had come out to meet friends. The custom-house officers were overhauling our luggage. The hotel proprietors, with cards in hand, were recommending in unknown tongue their various public inns. The mail agents were pointing out their mail-bags. The beggars were following us about like spaniels, whining "backsheesh! backsheesh! " The thieves were on the alert to steal anything, from a silk handkerchief to a gold watch. Mer- chants, thieves, beggars, all looked alike in their red caps, loose garments, untrimmed beards, and unwashed faces. And there before us was Alexandria, with its domes, minarets, mosques and palaces.. »jtting like a queen on the shores of the great sea. The city of Alexandria, you know, is situated on the mouth of the Nile, and occupies a large place in history. In ancient times it vied with. Rome in military greatness; with Athens in literature, and with Tyre in commercial importance. Early in the history of the Church, Christianity was planted there by St. Mark, who organized the first congregation. Philosophy and science there found numerous and influential patrons, and the great library founded by Ptolemy Soter 290 B.C. which numbered 500,000 volumes in an age when books were comparatively few, made Alexandria a place of great literary renown. From the time the city was founded by Alexander the Great 332 b.c» IN ALEXANDRIA. .^ for twelve centuries it was a place of immense wealth and extensive commerce, the great centre to which the trade of Europe and the Mediterranean with Persia and the distant East converged. But Time levelled its walls and War slaughtered its inhabitants. It in- curred the hostility of Rome, its military rival, and was again and again sacked by Caracalla, Aurelian and Diocletian. Its commerce drifted to other ports; its wealth aided to build up Constantinople; its power faded before superior races, and its ancient glory went to sad decay. The great temple of Serapis was destroyed by the Patriarch Theophilus, who left no vestige of its former splendor. The famous library was used by Caliph Omar to light the fires of his four hundred royal baths, the Saracen declaring, " If these Grecian books agree with the Koran they are useless, if not they should be destroyed." The population which once rivalled the London of to-day dwindled to a handful of wandering vagabonds. Mahomet AH endeavored to avert the ruin, and, by the revival of trade, the promotion of commerce, and the rebuilding of the port, made modern Alexandria a place of considerable activity. The pres- ent city has sixty thousand inhabitants, made up of all the nations of the earth. The first thing a traveller meets on landing in Alexandria, or in any other Egyptian city, is some adventure with the donkey-boys, a queer set of beings whose curious antics and strange gibberish lead us to query whether they belong to the monkey tribe or are real, thorough specimens of the genus homo. I had heard of them, and knew nearly what to expect, for all travellers have had about the same experience with them. As we set our feet on shore, we were attacked by almost a hundred of them in one solid rabble. They had been waiting the arrival of the steamer, ready for a cargo of new victims. They came rn like hungry wolves, shouting in all sorts of dialects, seizing our baggage, pulling our clothing, crowding us in one direction and pushing us in another, one urging us to ride his 50 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. donkey for this reason, and another for that; and one or two of our party who were men of small stature and light weight were actually lifted from their feet and mounted on the little frowzy animals, before they knew what the boys were doing with them. While in the midst of this hubbub, which was as unintelligible to us as a scene among the hackmen in a New York depot would be to a company of newly-landed Chinese, we espied, at a little dis- tance, a vehicle, half way between an old-fashioned baggage-wagon and a modern hearse, and with- out knowing, indeed hardly caring whether it went to the hotel or the graveyard, we sprang for it, hoping we should es- cape the annoyance. But we had a practical appli- cation of the old adage, " Out of the fr3ang-pan into the fire," for, though the donkey drivers fell back, a hungry pack of dragomen, or profes- sional guides, followed us, offering their services and stating their terms. They were ludicrously, alarmingly persistent. They filled the hearse until the crazy vehicle cracked and groaned beneath the burden. They climbed upon the outside and yelled over our shoul- ders. They gesticulated, screamed, howled, and made the whole KASTERN WATER SELLER. IN ALEXANDRIA. c\ way hideous. Each one had a bag of greasy recommendations given him by English or American travellers whom he had taken up the Nile, or piloted through Syria. Some of these papers denounced the bearers as worthless vagabonds, heartless liars, persistent cheats, and arrant knaves, but the fellows not being able to read had no idea of the impression made on us, as each one handed us his worn and soiled document, saying in triumph — ^^ Judge of my charac- ter." The omnibus fortunately took us to a fine hotel, conducted on European principles, where a traveller could be as well accommo- dated as in London or Paris. This hotel was situated on the grand square of Alexandria, and from its balconies in front fine views were obtained in all directions. On looking out of the windows, or from the porticos, the square is found, like our parks at home, to be filled with people. But, unlike our parks, the people are made up of all nationalities, and there appears a vast variety of costumes and colors, the Greek and the Turk, the Nubian and the Bedouin, the French- man from Paris, and the Arab from the desert, the Englishman from the banks of the Thames, and the Abyssinian from the upper Nile! Each has his own peculiar costume. The Egyptians are clad mostly in the flowing Oriental garb, var34ng from a mere white cloth around the body, leaving the major part of the person exposed, to the full Turkish or Egyptian suit, with its gay colors and fantastic dec- orations. Around the square of Alexandria, which to the natives is what the Common is to Boston, are the consulates of the various nations, and waving over them are the distinctive flags, showing where the ac- credited representive of each foreign government can be found. There were the tricolors of France flapping lazily in the sun, repre- senting yesterday a kingdom, to-day a republic, to-morrow an empire. There was the Union Jack, the royal ensign of Great Britain, on whose proud possessions the sun never goes down. There was the S2 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. crimson Crescent of Turkey, symbol of the waning Ottoman. And there, too, were the Stars and Stripes. I shall never forget the emotions with which I looked on that beautiful flag, which so recently in our own country was in peril. It is worth a voyage to Europe, to feel as every patriot must feel when looking up to this standard of our country, waving in a foreign sky — the " Stars and Stripes," suggested as our national symbol by John Adams, adopted by Congress in 1777, and first in battle at the surrender of Burgoyne, and borne out upon the ocean by Paul Jones, from whose mast-head it first fluttered in a European port. At home we look upon it as a piece of holiday bunting, but waving in a foreign land, flapping against the thrones of kings, it is the emblem of self-government, constitutional liberty, and Demiocratic ideas and purposes, — the symbol of universal freedom and political equality. Beside the peculiarity of costume, and the adventures among the donkey boys, the traveller in Egypt is struck with several things which are so novel as to draw his attention, challenge his criticism, and provoke his mirth. The means of locomotion is one thing. There are few horses, fewer carriages, but innumerable donkeys. Little children, sometimes five or six of them on one beast, are seen; women with their faces covered, looking like ghosts, sitting on their knees in a most awk- ward way, go trotting along; fat portly men of aldermanic size amble through the streets looking as if they would break the legs of the little creatures, nothing of which can be discerned under the flowing robes of the rider but the ears and heels; now and then two boys appear, sitting back to back, one grasping the mane, the other clinging to what, in da3's gone by, used to be the tail of the creature, that seems to enjoy the fun as much as the}' do. The whole spec- tacle is so novel to an American, who is accustomed to ponderous street cars, heavy omnibuses, and stately vehicles, that his face is 54 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. constantly covered with a broad laugh. The ludicrousness of the whole thing would soon cure the most confirmed dyspeptic. Then one is struck with the blindness which prevails extensively. About one-third of the people seem to have some trouble with their eyes. It is distressing to see so much of this disease. Blind chil- dren, blind men, blind women, and even blind mules and donke3'S, are met in all directions. The cause of this blindness is found mainly in the filthy, wretched habits of the people. The children are actually covered, and literally eaten up, w^ith flies. It is not uncommon for a mother to carry her babe through the streets covered with these insects, without trymg to brush them off. Somehow the Egyptian fly has swifter motion, and a sharper sting than any other. However it may have been with the other plagues which were sent upon this hapless land in the days of Moses, the plague of flies still continues. To a stranger the insect is exceed- ingly troublesome, while the natives seem to consider it one of the luxuries of the climate. The question is sometimes asked, AVhat God made mosquitoes for? A man on the banks of the Nile asks with double emphasis. What the Egyptian fly was made for. It generally aims at the eye, strikes in at once, boring like a gimlet into the sufferer's flesh, and as you lift your hand to brush it off, you find its poisonous weapon so deeply embedded, that you kill the insect in dislodging it. The infection is carried from eyes that are diseased to those that are not, and thus they keep up a perpetual system of inoculation. Some say that a superstition among the people, that the fly is a sacred insect, prevents its destruction. Others say that mothers extinguish the right eye of the male child, that he may not be forced into the arm}'. But doubtless the real cause of the prevalent blindness is the utter filthiness of the children, and the inattention to personal cleanliness among adults. Dr. Smith, formerly mayor of Boston, who looked at the phenomenon as a medical man, thinks that IN ALEXANDRIA. 55 in addition to the uncleanliness of the people, the visual inability may come from wearing the turban and the tarboosh, there being no rim or visor to shade the eyes from the sun which, pouring on the heated sand, reflects the light with all the intensity of a mirror. Dr. Smith states — you may believe it or not — that an English lady told him that an opinion prevails in Egypt, that it is exceedingly disastrous to wash an infant until it is quite a year old, consequently from the hour they are born into the world, to the termination of twelve months — I quote his language — "the dirty brats are never washed." Whether this is true or not I cannot tell from actual observation, but of course it must be, coming from a lady; and certainly, I have seen children who looked as if they had not been washed for a dozen years, and who would take all the waters of the Nile to make them clean. But whatever may be the cause of the blindness, it is fearfully prevalent. Blind men stand in the streets, asking your charity on every corner; men blind of an eye look out at you from the little window of the shop where nicknacks and gimcracks are sold; the donkey boy, whose half blind beast you hire, is blind of an eye; his mother, who comes to help him out of the scrape into which you are sure to get with him when you settle for his services, is blind of an eye; his father, who comes to help his mother, is blind of an eye; the waiter at the hotel unfortunately has some trouble with his eyes; the landlord is obliged to shut one eye and squint dreadfully before he answers the honest question you ask him; and before you have been in Egypt a week, you find yourself asking your friends if there is not something the matter with your own eyes. The first night in Egypt is a tr3nng one. To say nothing of the fleas, which are monstrous in size and ferocious in disposition, the dogs and donkeys manage to prevent sleep. The dogs of Alexandria are very numerous, and go at large, a ferocious, half- starved race of creatures, looking more like wolves and jackals IN ALEXANDRIA. ry than common Jogs. They run in droves, and prey upon the flesh of horses and donkeys, or, perchance, upon some human being who falls dead or drunken in the street. At night, these savage creatures keep up a terrific howling and barking. One solitary dog will commence, and in a moment he will be joined by another, then another, until it seems as if forty thousand dogs were uniting in one prolonged canine chorus. At first you are amazed; then amused; then, as the howls come in, just like the parts in some modern fashionable church music, — tenor, soprano, contralto, bass, — each chasing the other through rhyme and measure, you are obliged to break out into a hearty laugh at the grotesque ideas which are suggested. The donkeys also make the night hideous. Almost every man, boy, and woman in Egypt keeps a donkey. The animal is sometimes tied in the street; sometimes left in the front entry with the door open; sometimes put into the spare room of the house; and some- times taken to bed with the owner, or rather the owner goes to bed with the donkey! You have just got asleep by dint of hard work, — stuffing the pillows in your ears to keep out the barking of the dogs, and counting a hundred backwards, to make you forget that a half million fleas have gone to bed with you, — when you start up, every sense awake, wondering what that noise could be, — thun- der, earthquake, or the hotel tumbling down. First one unearthly noise from one brutish throat, then another, and another, ten, twenty, a hundred of them, all in one deafening bra}'. While everything in Alexandria is novel and interesting, there are few special objects and these are soon seen. Pompey's Pillar outside the city, standing alone in its solitary pomp, ninety-nine feet high and thirty feet in circumference, is a real wonder. Of its origin, how it came here, with what instruments it was quarried, by what process it was raised to its present elevation, but little is known. ,An inscrip- tion, deciphered by Wilkinson, showing that it was erected by Publius, prefect of Egypt in honor of Diocletian, whose name it S8 RIP VAA WINKLE'S TRAVELS, should bear instead of that of Pompey, is all the information that has come down to us. It is a striking object, a wonderful comrnert op the skill of the ancients, proving that they must have had machiner ■ which has been lost for nearly forty centuries. The shaft of the pillar, between the base and the elegantly wrought capital is seventy-three feet high, of polished red granite. A woman, looking as I have always supposed the " Witch of E idor " looked, was guarding it when I was there, to prevent any mutilations, for unless such things were guarded they would be chipped to pieces and carried away by the vandal hordes from Europe and America, whose antiquarian tastes are limited to the mutilation of works of art, and whose sacrilegious hands are used in despoiling the most venera- ble relics of antiquity. Cleopatra's Needles are two obelisks, one of which fell down, and was long almost entirely embedded in the earth, w^hence it Y/as removed to New York and now stands in Central Park. Though named for the wicked daughter of Ptolemy Auletes, they were erected iong before her times. The other obelisk has been removed to Lon- don, and stands on the banks of the Thames. It is seventy feet high, and covered with curious hierogl3'phics that prove that it was brought to Alexandria from the ancient temple of the sun at Heliopolis, and like Pompey's Pillar shows the grandeur of the ancient structures, and the skill of those by whom these shafts were quarried and setup. These few relics of the former glory of Alexandria are all that remain, and much of the present city is as tasteless and modern as are the new-fangled buildings in the mushroom cities of our Western States. Doubtless all these obelisks were once in the "Temple of the Sun. ' Whatever may have been their history since, or the nr.mes ihe}- now bear, they were once parts of the templed city, which ""/as •■he centre and glory of Egyptian worship. The traveller also finds some ancient catacombs, but the mum- POMPEY S PILLAR. 5o R^P VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. mies have been removed — used for fuel or converted into an asrent for fertilization — the decorations destroyed, and the passages filled with filth and rubbish. The memory of the dead has been lost in the dust of ages; the generations, as they have marched by, have trampled down into utter oblivion even the names of those w^ho once reposed in these elegant receptacles of death. The funeral customs of the Eg3'ptians are very peculiar. Almost every morning we were awakened by the wailing mourners as they carried the corpse to the grave. When a person is about to die, in Egypt, they place him with his face toward Mecca, and let him expire looking toward the tomb of the Moslem prophet. When life is extinct they wrap the body in a shroud of cloth, — cotton if the man is poor, and silk if he is rich. White and green are the colors generally used; blue is expressly interdicted. A poor child is often carried to the grave in a box or tray on the head of a woman. A rich man's funeral procession will often have with it two or three camels loaded with simple articles of food, to be distributed among the spectators at the grave. I was awakened on the Sabbath morning after my arrival by a strange outcry in the street, and on looking out saw one of these vvnique funeral processions. First came about fifty men and boys with tin horns, rude drums, and unearthly sounding gongs, making a most hideous outcry. Next came a dozen venerable-looking men — priests, I suppose — repeating solemnly, " There is no god but God, and Mohammed is his prophet." Then followed a number of persons bearing the body on a bier. The corpse was draped in gay and showy colors, and the dashing turban of the deceased lay on the out- side. Immediately behind came a woman and two children. These I judged to be the wife and children of the departed. Following came from sixty to seventy aged men and women, hired for the occa- sion, wailing and moaning, throwing up their hands and venting their sorrow m the most piteous tones, — "O my father! O my mother! O IN ALEXANDRIA. 6l GATHERING DATES. the sun! O the moon! O the stars! O the river!" — keeping up the horrible noise until the cortege of death was out of sight. But I have made this letter lengthy enough, and will affix to it the usual sifrnature. Rip Van Winkle. 62 RIP VAN WINKLE S TRA VELS, IN ASIA MINOR PALMYRA. At Alexandria, the master parted from Mr. Goodspeed and began to make inquiries for travelling parties. One day, while visiting the American Consul, he met a gentleman who introduced himself as a fellow-countryman, and said he made one of a party who in a few days would leave for Asia Minor, and gave Rip Van Winkle a press- ing invitation to go along with them. " Is not your party full ? " asked the master. «No." "How many are there? " IN ASIA MINOR 5^ " Three men and two boys, the latter, sont. of one of the gentle- men." "Are all Americans?" "Yes; one of the gentlemen is from New York, the other two with the boys are from Boston." " Well, if agreeable to them, I should be glad to join your party." " I know it will be agreeable, for we have been in quest of two or three more persons to go with us." "Then count me in." "We will do so, and it will give us pleasure to come and see you this evening." The master gave the name of his hotel, shook hands with his new friend, and went away to make arrangements for the trip. " I am in luck," he said to himself, as he reached his room. And so he was. The party with which he connected himself he was des- tined to find a most congenial one. At night they called upon him, made arrangements with him for the journey, and in a few days in the steamer Corso they were sailing for the Syrian coast. The master wrote : Smyrna. You will expect me to tell you how I got here, and why I came. Finding a pleasant party about to visit Asia Minor I cast in my lot with them, and on board the French steamer Corso, started from , Alexandria. We had been out two days when we sighted Jaffa. Though the voyage had been pleasant, the steamer being clean and the company agreeable, we were glad to see the coast again. The nearer I came to the places mentioned in Scripture the more intense became my interest and enthusiasm. Jaffa, you know, is celebrated as the home of Simon Peter, and Dorcas, and also as the port from which Jonah sailed on his perilous visit to Tarshish. It is one of the most ancient cities of Palestine, existing even before Jerusalem, and some say before the flood. It is picturesquely, and beautifully situa- ted on the shore of the blue Mediterranean. As we rode at anchor 64 RIP VAN WIiXKLE'S TRAVELS. outside we wondered whether the sights within the city would prove as beautiful as the place viewed from a distance, for looking upon the JAFFA, FROM THE NORTH. houses rising one above another, the turrets and minarets pointing to heaven in all directions, the view was a very pleasant one. But we were doomed to disappointment when we entered, and saw the IN ASIA MINOR. 65 town. The houses are clustered closely togethei on the hillside, street rises above street, and roof towers above roof, while here anO there are seen the tall palms waving their branches, green and slender, as if keeping guard with their long arms over the people below. But like many other things which look well at a distance Joppa (or Jaffa) is a most disgusting place to visit. The streets are narrow and filthy, the houses mean and squalid, and the people indolent and corrupt A feeling of intense disappointment comes over one who has gazed with admiration on the town from a distance, as he is obliged to pick his way amid filth and rubbish, seeing nothing to please, but every- ching to disgust him. Sending our dragoman to obtain some supplies we went on a tour of inspection through the town. Our first inquiry was for the home of Simon the tanner, which we knew to be in existence, but we might as well have inquired for the house that Jack built. Nobody knew anything about Simon the tanner. But by perseverance we discovered the place at length. It is near the sea. A part of the wall remains standing, the house having been carried away piece- meal, by those who wished to retain a relic of the structure. The locality shows that it has been used in ages past for a tannery, though the identity is somewhat doubtful. Not far from the house of Simon is the tomb of Tabitha. You all know that she v/as the founder of sewing-circles, a very excellent representative of that much-abused class of people known as " old maids." If she had been a married woman we probably should never have heard of her, but her fame is now in all the churches of Chri«:t. The houses in Jaffa are square stone or plaster buildings, with a fiat roof, one or two stories high. I climbed up to the top of one of them, and when there, did not wonder that the people in the evening were accustomed to assemble on the house-top, and that they made it \ place of devotion, and even a place for rest and sleep. The house!! within are filthy and gloomy, but on the top, Vv^ith a Syrian sky ove?> fi6 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. fcead, and the Mediterranean sea spread out in front, all was changed. Below us was the wreck of the house in which Simon the tanner once lived, and I thought of that remarkable vision Peter, his j^uest, had on that roof, in which he saw a sheet let down from heaven, "^ filled with all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air." I thought of Tabitha, or Dorcas, as Luke calls her, who, when she lay dead, was a theme of wonder and praise on the lips of all the women, who wept, * and showed the garments which Dorcas had made." I thought )f that miracle performed by Peter, in which that good woman was recalled to life. I thought that, perhaps, eighteen hundred years ago, that same house where I then was might have been occupied by some Christian family, who came up at evening and looked upon the sea. As our steamer was to stop a day or two at Jaffa, v/e concluded to ride inland as far as the town of Ramlah. We started in the afternoon, and our dragoman procured a number of horses for us. They were creatures of all sorts, with wretched saddles and worse bridles. Those who were good horsemen and accustomed to equestrian exercises, at once selected the best animals. It did not matter what kind of a beast I had. I had ridden camels, donkeys, gnd cows since I had been in the East, and had "done some horse- manship," but up to the time I left home I had seldom been on the back of a horse. Only a year ago I tumbled one horse down when half way up Mount Vesuvius, and it did not make much ditierence with me what kind of an animal I had. So after the others had made their selection, I took the creature that was left, and a sorry animal he was! The hair had come off in a dozen oiaces, leaving him half bare. The saddle looked as if the rats had been gnawing off its covering, while the bridle was half leather and half cord. Well, I was going to Ramlah, and that was the only -ay to get there, so I mounted the nag. By touching the reins, and 68 RIP VAX IVIXKLE'S TRAVELS. shouting "ge lang" at the top of my voice, I was able to get him into a dog-trot. The day was fine, and we rode through an interesting country , olive-tree^ and immense cactus plants shaded the road. Our way lay across the plain of Sharon, and the narcissus, the orange blossom^ and the wild rose grew rank along the way, reminding us of the time when the whole plain, now sandy and desert, bloomed as the garden of God. We passed Gezer, a city formerly of note, of which Horam, LYDDA. who was conquered and killed by Joshua, was king; then through the desert of Beth Dagon to Ludd, called in the New Testament Lydda, w^hich is about nine miles from Jaffa. It is still a considerable place, and the ruins of a church built by the Crusaders are so conspicuous, that no traveller riding over the plain fails to stop and gaze about him. St. George, the patron saint of England, was born and buried here. The common story of this saint is that he was a soldier in the army of Diocletian, and suffered martyrdom for the gospel. Edward III. PLOUGHING IN PALESTINE. 70 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. made him the tutelar saint of English chivalry. It was at Lydda that Peter healed the poor paral3-tic Eneas, who had been bed-ridden eight years. As we paused there that day, where centuries ago the miracle was wrought, we could seem to hear the stern voice of the Galilean fisherman, — " Eneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole." The ride of a few miles brought us to Ramlah, where we were to spend the night. Our baggage and tents having been left in the steamer, our dragomen quartered us in a convent, where we were made as comfortable as could be expected. The approach to this monkish abode was through a narrow road a mile in length, com- pletely overgrown and shaded by the cactus or prickly pear, which grows to immense size. The plant was in full bloom, and its great clusters of flowers hung down to our heads as we rode on beneatli them. Through the huge arms of the giant plant, we could see the orange trees in all their beauty, and down through the interlaced foliage shone the beams of the setting sun. On reaching the convent we were shown about the place, and introduced to the monks, who seemed to be a jolly good-natured set of fellows, who take life less drearily than many persons suppose. A table was set for us, supper served, the ghostly fathers making them- selves as handy as the servants in a hotel. At night I was put into a cell, with cold stone floor and walls, a more dreary prison-like place than I ever slept in before. However, I was not at all lonely, for besides one of my friends, who was in the same room, I had the com- pany of Innumerable mosquitos that all night long kept buzzing, and innumerable fleas which all night long kept biting. The bed was well enough, what there was of it! It was made for a very small monk, and I am quite a large person. The night was cold, and in vain I tried to make the scanty coverlid reach around me. My friend in ^Q other bed was a man of very different turn of mind from myself. He seldom saw the ludicrous side of anything. In the night he ,Woke. The sombre shadows, the stone walls, the barred windows, IN ASIA MINOR. 71 TOWER OF RAMLAH. all produced in him a feeling of awe, and thinking I might be in the same mental mood, he asked if I was awake, and on receiving an affirmative reply, asked gravely what text I should use if turned sud- denly from a pedagogue into a preacher at that impressive hour. At 72 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. the risk of dissipating his solemnity I was obliged to declare that there was but one passage in the Bible that I thought any preacher could preach from that night — that verse in the book of Isaiah — " For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it; and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself \u it." Early in the morning we rode back to Jaffa, and found the steamer with steam up, and all ready to start, and in an hour after we got on board and were on our way again. At Tyre we again anchored — ancient Tyre! What its origin was, none can tell, for it is so remote that it is lost to view. We know that Isaiah mentions it as a great city in his time, and Josephus informs us that it was in existence B.C. 125 1 years, and Joshua speaks of it as a a strong city two hundred years earlier than that. For a time it was the great commercial city of the world. A complete description of it is found in the twenty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel. From secular history we learn that the inspired description is exact and literal. There were two ports, and they were closed at night by chains being put across the mouth. The population at times was very large, — all engaged in commerce. The modern town has but four hundred inhab- itants, and though advantageously located it no more deserves its ancient name — mistress of the sea. Of ancient Tyre little remains. The ruins of an old temple 216 feet long and 136 feet broad, at the dedication of which Eusebius preached, and beneath which rest the remains of Origen and Frederick Barbarossa, with some other frag- ments, are all that is left. The commerce of Tyre is confined to a few fishing boats, and the beauty of Tyre has been cast into the sea. We next came to anchor in front of Sidon, but only long enough to throw out some mail bags and discharge a little freight, and we were off again, but we had an excellent sea view of the town. Soon Beirut was in sight, and we had the pleasure of looking about the great seaport of Syria for some time. The night had been stormy, and with great pleasure we landed and were received by 74 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRA VELS. the American consul and his wife, whom we recognized as old friends. The city has many attractions and seems very much like a European city. Whether you approach it from sea or land, the view is charming. Randall says that the city " contains at least 50,000 inhabitants, of whom about one-third are Mohammedans. There are usually strangers in the city, drawn here for commerce and travel. Many Europeans are settled here, and many European houses adorn the town, and European costumes meet the eye. A large body of French soldiers are now stationed here, the avowed object being the protection of the Christians of the'surrounding country from the hos- tility of the Druses. It is a place of considerable commerce, and large quantities of raw silk are among its exports. The city stands upon quite a promontory, and is most beautifully situated. The old portion of it is densely built, close upon the sea-shore, the streets nar- row, crooked, and badly paved. The houses are mostly of stone, substantially built, and have a neat and comfortable appearance. There are many beautiful villas in the suburbs, embowered in groves of mulberry; in fact, the whole country about, as one says, is rapidly becoming one vast mulberry plantation. As you ascend to the upper parts of the town the view becomes magnificent, embracing the Bay of St. George, the distant expanse of the blue sea stretching away in the distance till it blends with the horizon; the heights of Lebanon, rising tier above tier, until, in the far distance, their heads are pin- nacled in the clouds, and their ^ snowy scalps ' glisten in the sunlight. I have seldom looked upon a more extensive, sublime and enchanting landscape than meets the view from the heights of the town back of Beirut." At Beirut we joined a party of gentlemen who were going to Asia Minor. Some of them were Americans and others were English. Ten of us agreed to go together. The party, before we joined it, had procured servants, dragomen, and guides sufficient for the wants of a much lars^er party. We were loth to leave Beirut, having found it 76 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. a very attractive city. The jew^elry sellers, the tobacco venders, the hot-coffee boys, the flower dealers, make the streets busy at all hours of the day. Men and women riding about on donkeys presented a novel sight, and the days we were here were filled with incidents of a most pleasant character. Only because we could have the company ^;,, of a large party, and the services of ^^^ their dragomen, did we go so soon. ^^■ - After leaving Beirut, we came ;" - — ^ ■„ to the Island of C3^prus, a beauti- -1^=^ ful spot in the Mediterranean sea. '^S. Lavnica, its chief town, contains a . ^^S. small population, and has an Amer- ican consul, who was very civil to us. Here two of us — the Bos- tonians — were taken with peculiar notions. You know Cyprus is famed for its wines. The grape vintages are very large, and the manufacture of the sparkling fluid is very extensive. A man landing at Cyprus is supposed to be a wine merchant, and he will find at the landing, and at the hotels, drum- mers who are on hand to show him where the best wines are sold at the lowest price. The common Cyprus wines taste like rain water that has been standing on tar. But as it is somewhat famous, and very cheap, two of our number determined to buy wnne. So they began tasting, tast- ing, trying the stuff, and when they had tasted and experimented, made their purchase. Well, whether it had any connection with the wine or not, I cannot tell, but the same two men, after buying their wine, concluded to buy a couple of donkeys. Whether they would TOBACCO CUTTING. IN ASIA MINOR. 77 ever have thought of the donkeys if it had not been for the wine, I cannot tell, but certain I am, that "wine the mocker " and " donkey the kicker " were both contracted for in Cyprus. I asked our friends to let me exhibit the animals when I returned home, to illustrate the productions of Cyprus, but they thought there were American donkeys enough, without introducing any of foreign breed. Our next stop was at Rhodes, famous for its brazen Colossus, which stood at the entrance of the harbor. It was a statue to Apollo, and was one hundred and five feet high, hollow, and with a winding staircase to the head, from which a view of Asia Minor was obtained. It cost about three hundred and twenty thousand dollars. It stood many years and was shaken down by an earthquake. The metal weighed eight hundred thousand pounds, after lying on the ground nine hundred years. Of course the Colossus was gone, but a beautiful town we saw from the deck of our steamer as we rode at anchor for an hour in the har- bor. The name of Rhodes is derived from the number of roses that grow there, the whole island being a perfect bouquet at some seasons of the year. The day after we left Rhodes, we passed Patmos, a rock about sixteen miles in circumference, to which the beloved John FLOWERMAN. 78 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. was banished by the cruel order of Domltian. It looks like a prison, its steep cliffs rising out of the waters of the Egean sea, like the palisades of a vast dungeon. On account of its solitary, dungeon-like aspect, the Romans used it as a prison for convicted criminals. It was the bastile of the Egean, but has become a sacred locality by being made the .scene of that prophetic book, which bears the stamp of inspiration in every line. The next morning w^e were anchored in the harbor of Sm3Tna, called by the ancients the " Crown of Ionia," where we were to spend several days. It is a Turkish city, beautifully situated on the side of a hill, which from the water seems to form a complete terrace to the top. We were soon on shore rambling about the place. What we saw may give you a better idea of the town than a particular description. After visiting the American consul we went and paid five francs for the privilege of looking over a few old papers, in hopes to find some American news, but as far as the papers we saw were concerned, no one could tell whether there was such a place as America. The shops in Smyrna are odd places, almost all out of doors. We were amused particularly with the eating-houses. A room in a house, all open in front, had a table or two in the rear, while all the cooking was done in front. Three or four cooks were busily engaged; one making coffee; another frying fish; a third roasting meat. The latter operation was altogether a new one. The fire was in a high perpen- dicular stove about as large as an eight-inch funnel. The meat was cut about table size, and put upon a piece of stick, making a long string of it. This the man turned round and round with his hands, keeping it as near the red hot stove as possible. As the meat dried he *vou]d taste it, and push it down, and when a customer came along he would take off a piece from the lower end of the stick, half done, or double done, as the case might be, and put on another raw piece at the top. There is an advantage to this, for every man sees his own 'iinner cooked, and knows what he gets. IN ASIA MINOR. 79 I visited the slave market in Smyrna. The Christian sentiment even of Turkey has made open public slave auctions unpopular. So the slaves are kept in some old dilapidated house, and those who wish to purchase go there after them. There were about a dozen persons of each sex. The girls were coal-black Nubians, prettily dressed, covered with ornaments, and very tidy. The boys were a far better looking class than our free negroes. They all seemed anxious to be sold, and sat in the windows to display themselves most conspicuously to purchasers. I asked the man who had charge of them the price, and found that it ranged from $200 to $300. I did not buy any. We happened to be in Smyrna on one of the days when the der- vishes perform. These people live in convents like the Catholic SMYRNA. monks, and once or twice a week perform. They wear coarse robes, and go about the streets with bare heads, Veasts and feet. Some- times they go dressed in the skins of beasts, and beg or steal as they have opportunity. Some of our company went in on Friday to see them perform. The room of their convent in which they assemble, and admittance to which is secured by the payment of a small sum of money, is designed for this exercise. On a raised platform, or gallery, were the operators. Below, on the floor, were a number of mats, one richer than the rest. At the appointed hour the leader came in and took his seat on the richest mat, and soon he was fol- lowed by thirty dervishes, who gathered around him, and -reverently kissed his hand as they passed. Then they all knelt together, and the leader repeated in Arabic a sentence which they at once caught 8o RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. from his lips. This was repeated quickly, then more quickly, until iv became one broken cry. For about seven minutes they repeated it, swinging their bodies backward and forward as they knelt, with the utmost vehemence. At the end of seven minutes the words or rather sounds, for no words could be distinguished, were changed to another unintelligible sentence which they shouted for five minutes, with increased violence of sound, and the most vehement gesticula- tions. At the end of the five minutes their eyes began to roll, their features were distorted, and the peculiar trance symptoms began to appear. Then one voice began to sing a plaintive monotonous Arab song; at the end of the first verse they all arose, and joining hands, sang together. This finished they fell into lines, and advanced toward and retreated from each other, with a peculiar sort of a grunt which was most distressing. Then the motion changed to a rapid whirl, the grunting being continued. Soon some began to fall out, wearied and exhausted with the exercise. The others stood up and kept on whirling, until but few remained on their feet. Then the leader gave a signal at which they came to a sudden pause, and strik- ing up a dirge-like wail left the room. The whole performance is very disgusting and unintelligible; and is witnessed with pain. While wandering about Smyrna, one day, we fell in with a rich old Jew whose name was Daniel. He invited us to his house, and intro- duced us to his wife and children. One of the girls was but thirteen years old, and had been married two years. A daughter at the age of twelve was to be married the next month. We asked him how many daughters he had, and he replied that if he had as many daughters as ^ons they would ruin him. We asked him why, and he told us that he gave £200 or $1,000 to the man who married the girl, and spent $1,000 more in ornaments. He showed us the necklace and brace- lets which he had bought for the girl so soon to be married. They were very elegant and costly. We were told by him that some Jewish official goes about making matches between the boys and girls, K'V ^^.^It^^ I a/Wv 'iL §3 A/>' VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. th(* l Within a few years, vigorous explorations have been made, whici'- show that the accounts of the former splendor of the place have not been exaggerated. " I commenced," says Mr. J. T. Wood, " by explor- ing the great theatre which is now called St. Paul's Theatre b}^ the Greeks, and which is u' -doubtedly the theatre mentioned in the New Testament. It was *' grand building of the ancient city, and was raised on the western lope of Mount Covessus, within a few hundred yards of which was situated the city port. The outer diameter of the PLAIN OF EPHESUS. theatre was four hundred and ninety-five feet, and it was capable of seating twenty-four thousand five hundred persons. It had a splen- did proscenium, adorned with two tiers of columns, and at each end of this there was an entry for those persons of high rank, the vestal virgins, and others who were entitled to places on the lowermos'' seats nearest the stao^e. It must have been at one of the entrance?^ that Gt. Paul struggled with his friends who succeeded in prevent- ing his entrance into the theatre, on the occasion of the uproar 84 ^^P VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. caused by Demetrius and his fellow-craftsmen, or it might have beer, ^t the foot of one of the slopes, probably the southern one, which led lip steep ascents from the road to the entrances." The tomb of St. Luke, now in ruins, a circular building, fifty feet in diameter, is here. Though Luke did not die, nor was he buried in Ephesus, the tomb, which in its time was an elaborate structure, is an object of considerable interest. There are also ruins of churches^ public buildings, private residences, but the stamp of desolation is on them all. The city, or what is left of it, lies on the plain like a fallen queen, while silence broods where once was activity and lifcc One of the churche. , now in ruins, bears the name of St. Luke. Mr. Wood thinks it wa? formerly dedicated to that Evan- gelist, but it is more likely that it derived its name from being located near what is said to be the tomb of St. Luke. These churches show that Christianity obtained great w^ealth and in- EPHESiAN AMPHITHEATRE. flucncc, and that the original ibuilders of these places of public worship were not stinted in their means, nor narrow in their idea of architectural elegance. The people of Ephesus are as fallen as the city. With few excep- tions they are a wretched class, who live among the ruins, and rob all they can. They obtain a scanty living by raising swine, tilling the earth, and fleecing travellers. Whether on the plain, or on the hills. Prion- and Covessus, the same poverty and degradation are seen. The woe fell not only on the church but on liie city. The candlestick has been removed out of its place, and Ephesus is a mound of elegant fragments of a once renowned emporium of wealth and fashion. It is sad to look tebout upon the sepulchres of departed greatness. The great heroes RUINS OF EPHESUS. 86 mP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. and statesmen have been forgotten. Their names are aJso lost. They are, with a few rare exceptions, unmentioned in history. They might have been as ambitious as the man who set fire to the temple, that his name and fame might rise parallel with that of the goddess Diana. The members of the council condemned him to death, and decreed that his name should never again be mentioned. But theirs, like his, are forgotten. The image of Diana, in the temple, was a small ebony statue, which was supposed to have fallen down from Jupiter, and as sach, was worshipped by the multitude. Paul first visited Ephesus a. d. 54, while he was on his journey to Jerusalem. At that time he saw the degradation of the people. He hastened to Jerusalem, completed his business, and returned to Ephesus, where he abode three years. At times he had the compan- ionship and co-operation of Gains, Aristarchus, Timothy, Erastus and Titus. He at once organized his church of twelve disciples. Bui soon trouble arose. The silversmiths of Ephesus, who had gained a living by the manufacture of little silver images of Diana, an article that was in great demand, found that this revival had spoiled their business. Their trinkets would not sell, and they held a mass meet- ing, made confusion, created an uproar, and set the whole cit}^ in a blaze. About the beginning of the third century, Constantine ascended the throne of the Roman empire, and has been styled " the first Christian e nperor." He had seen the folly of paganism, and on his accession to the throne in 306, he resolved to make Christianity the religion of his empire. His conversion, as related by Eusebius, was a sort of miracle. " He was marching at the head of his army from France into Italy, on an expedition which he knew fully involved all his future des- tiny. Oppressed with extreme anxiety, he looked for aid of some deity. About noon one da}', while engaged in prayer, a lummous cross appeared in the clouds, brighter than the sun. On it was inscribed /// ASIA MINOR. 87 /n hoc signo vinces (by this sign thou shalt conquer). While he pondered, an angel appeared to him, and bade him make the cross the symbol of his nation, and inscribe it on all his armor. This pious deception was practised to influence the minds of credulous Christians and win them over in a body to his standard. He succeeded, and was no sooner seated on his throne than he began to rebuild the churches, and pass laws for the protection of Christians. Christianity became the established religion of the empire, the road to preferment and honor. But religion by this time had become very corrupt, and the Ephesian church, founded by Paul, and for a long time under the pastoral charge of the apostle John, began to decline. The city is a devastation. Its once gorgeous temples are mounds of ruins, and some traces of a wall, with a solitary watchtower, are all that remains of Ephesus. " A more thorough change can scarcely be conceived than that which actually occurred. Once the seat of active commerce, the very sea has shrunk from its solitary shores; its streets, once populous with the devotees of Diana, are now ploughed over by the Ottoman serf, or browsed by the sheep of the peasant. It was early the strong- hold of Christianity, and stands at the head of the apostolic churches of Asia. Not a single Christian now dwells within it; its mouldering arches and dilapidated walls merely whisper the tale of its glory; and it requires the acumen of the geographer, and the active scrutiny of the exploring traveller, to form a probable conjecture as to the actual site of the first wonder of the world." Dr. Chandler, who visited Ephesus long ago, says, — " The inhab- itants are a few Greek peasants, living in extreme wretchedness, dependence, and insensibility; the representatives of an illustrious people, and inhabiting the wreck of their greatness — some, the substructure of the glorious edifices which they raised, some beneath the vaults of the stadium, once the crowded scene of their diversions. We heard the partridge call in the area of the theatre and of the 88 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. stadium. The glorious pomp of its heathen worship \s no longei remembered; and Christianity, which was there riursed by apostles and fostered by general councils, until it increased to fulness of stature, barely lingers on in an existence hardly visible. On approach- ing it from the wretched village of Aiasalouk, a few scattered fragments of antiquity occur; and on the hill above, some traces of the former walls, and a solitary watchtower, mark the extent of the city." " Where is Diana's temple ? — Where the shout Of many people like the deep-voic'd sea, ' Great is the Ephesian Goddess ! ' — Scan the dust That gathers o'er thy feet, — and point me out One glittering particle of that proud dome, And those rich columns, gift of throned kings — Where is the altar at whose costly shrine All Asia worshipped in that idol's praise Which fell from Jupiter ? Thou canst not tell ! — World! do thy wofiders pass away so soon? — I pause, — but none reply, Save where the Cayster with retreating wave Moans round some sullen rock, — or from his pool With rushes dank, the lonely bittern screams. ■— Where art thou, Ephesus ? — I hear a voice As from the hollow grave, — " Go, search God's book, And when thou mark'st its fearful threat fulfill'd Upon these lifeless plains, — look to thine heart And see if aught doth rankle there, to tempt The Righteous Judge in sorrow's night to shroud Thy 'golden candlestick.' — If so, repent ! Do the first works, — to thy first love return, — And on these ruins date thy deathless gain." Pergamos. Pergamum, good authorities say, the real name of the place should be. This is an inland town, twenty-two miles from the sea, and is on the banks of the Caicus, at its junction with the Selmas. The ancient iient ruins, and some have pretended to find there the remains of an altar built by Joshua. Mount Gerizim seems to smile in ever}- changing feature. There is an irresistible fascination about it, and the gaze of the traveller always turns to it with pleasure. On its summit the Samaritans celebrate the Passover, and the}' claim that here, and not on Mount Moriah, Abraham came to offer Isaac. We approach the city of Nablous, a place of eight thousand inhabitants. The streets are narrow, many of them arched, and the buildings have the appearance of great antiquity. We rode the whole length of the town. The people came out and scowled on us as we went by, and uttered all kinds of insulting epithets. There are a few Jews in the place, but Samaritans prevail largely, and the latter vie with the former in the hatred of Christians. We encamped in a grove of olives, some of them a thousand years old. We were surrounded all night by troops of dogs, and several times were obliged to go out and drive them away. We had some apprehension of an attack. We knew the character of the people, and were well on our guard. But no disturbance occurred, and we got through the night without any noteworthy incident. The sun was hardly up before we stole away very quietly, fearing a shower of stones or of more deadly missiles, avoiding the usual way of egress from the city. A ride of two hours brings us to Sebustia, the ancient city of Samaria, which in its day must have been one of the most magnifi- cent of cities. In the '^centre of a basin five miles in diameter, runs a flattish, oval-shaped hill to the extent of three hundred feet." On this hill the city of Samaria was built. The mound is terraced to its top, and rows of pillars, some of which still remain, show that the whole hill was formerly covered with elegant and elaborately wrought edifices. There are now about sixty houses and four hundred and fifty inhabitants in the village. The only building of any note is the church of St. John, built by the crusaders, to cover, it is said, the s]?ot l^A. ^^^ ^^-^ WINKLE'S TRAVELS. where John the Baptist was entombed after his martyrdom. The sepulchre is a little chamber excavated in the rock, and is gained by a descent of twenty-one steps. There is a tradition that John was beheaded here, and Jerome adopts it as a fact, and in the fifth century it was universally accepted. But Josephus says that John was beheaded in the Castle of Macherus, on the east side of the Dead Sea, and I do not know as the statement was contradicted until the fourth century. You may remember that in Micah there is a fearful prediction concerning this city. " I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as the planting of a vineyard; and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof" This terrible threat has been literally fulfilled. The very foundations of the city have been torn up, the pillars and capitals of the beautiful colonnades have been pitched over into the valley, and the whole place is literally "a heap." The entire hill is a mound of ruins. The village is almost inaccessible. Our horses panted as they clambered over the stones, or leaped the fallen pillars. The rude inhabitants were mostly absent, but enough remained at home to come out and stone us, and one or two of the company were obliged to draw their revolvers and drive them back. It was mournful to stand on this hill and look around upon the solitary columns rising here and there, so many mementoes of the past, — mementoes of a city which has had a large place in history — a city founded by Omri on this mound, which he bought for two talents of silver, about nine hundred pounds sterling; here Ahab built an altar to Baal; here Elijah and Elisha largely figured, and here, in the infancy of the church, Philip preached and gathered a congregation, to which Simon the Sorcerer belonged. We drove out of town amid the curses of the boys and women, down the rocky declivity, through the valley, by ruined villages, and picturesque ruins, until we reached the village Jeba, where, in a vineyard of vines and an orchard of figs, we lay down under the trees and slept for an hour. The ride from Jeba 136 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. was one of great interest, through a fertile country, over beautiful meadows, by fine old ruins, passing Jenin where much attention was shown us. We also saw the site of ancient Shiloh, famed in Bible history for the exploit of the Benjamites, whose wives had been destroyed, and who determined to make good their loss by stealing an equal number of the most beautiful women of Shiloh, and making them their wives. When the bereaved six hundred returned to their forsaken homes they had no women, which was a most serious misfortune in the rebuilding of their towns, and the repeopling of their villages. So they remembered that the people of Shiloh had an ancient feast, which was celebrated just outside of their city. At such times the daughters of Shiloh came out to dance in the vine- yards. In those times men and women did not dance together, and so the men remained behind. On this occasion, these Benjamites went and hid in the vineyards, and w^hen the girls of Shiloh came out to dance they sprang up, and caught one each, and hurried back to their town of Gibeah. We do not read that any stir was made about the abduction of the damsels. Their friends probably thought they might as well get married that way as any other, and made no effort to get them back again. Rip Van Winkle. IN JERUSALEM. m IN JERUSALEM. TEMPLE AREA AND MOUNT OF OLIVES. There was a great time among the boys when the letter of Rip Van Winkle from Jerusalem was received. More than the usual number of outside friends were invited into the meeting of the Trian- Sl'ie, and various services were performed before the letter was read. Among other things, the president called on Hal for a "declamation," and ine lad recited the following poem: — *' Not from Jerusalem alone To Heaven the path ascends ; As near, as sure, as straight the way That leads to the celestial day From farthest realms extends ; Frigid or torrid zone. loS RIP VAN IVIXKLE'S TRAVELS. " What matters how or when we start ? One is the crown to all ; One is the hard but glorious race, Whatever be our starting-place ; Rings round the earth the call That says, Arise, depart ! *' From the balm-breathing, sun-loved isles Of the bright Southern sea. From the dead North's cloud-shadowed pole. We gather to one gladsome goal — One common home in thee, City of sun and smiles ! " The cold rough billow hinders none. Nor helps the calm fair main ; The brown rock of Norwegian gloom, The verdure of Tahitian gloom, The sands of Misraim's plain, Or peaks of Lebanon. *'As from the green lands of the vine, So from the snow-wastes pale We find the ever open road To the dear city of our God ; From Russian steppe, or Burman vale, Or terraced Palestine. " Not from Jerusalem alone The Church ascends to God ; Strangers of every tongue and clime. Pilgrims of every land and time. Throng the well-trodden road That leads up to the throne." After the recitation, and a song about Jerusalem, the letter of the master was opened and read. Jerusalem. The round red Syrian sun was 3'et high in the heavens when our little cavalcade passed over the hills and approached the city of Jerusalem. Eager indeed were the expectations of the little company, and each one was striving to be the first to catch in the distance some outline of the place. At length we reached the summit of a hill, IN JERUSALEM. 139 from which we c-ould obtain a view of the city — the city of David, the city of Jesus, the city of God. There it lay full before us, an ob- ject of untold and indescribable interest. It was one of the happiest moments of my life. The trials and dangers of the way were forgotten; the cold shiver gave way to a thrill of exultation. Every pulse bounded, every nerve w^as keenly alive. There across the valley was Jerusalem, — its walls, its towers, its Zion, its ISIoriah, its Calvary. We were on one of the spurs of Gihon, the valley at our feet. Never before did I realize the force of the v/ords of the psalm- ist, ^'Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion, on the sides of the North, the city of the great king." Never could I say before, with such enthusiasm and such emotion, '^ Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces." Longingly and lovingly we looked over to the sacred city, shouting, "Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem." And as we stood there, gazing over, the sun came out, the clouds rolled away, and Jerusalem lay blazing in the splendor of the closing day. After viewing the city for a time, and reading several passages of scripture, and allowing our feelings to have their tender sacred flow, we rode to our tents, which were pitched in an olive vineyard outside of the city, not far from the Jaffa gate. Let me give you a description of the camp. Our party, which was small at first, had increased to ten. To accommodate these persons we had one fine marquee, and three smaller tents. Five of us occupied the larger tent, and the others were accommo- dated in two of the smaller tents, w^hile the other was devoted to the use of the cook. We had five iron camp bedsteads, with plenty of clothing. On pitching the tents in any place, a large carpet w^as spread on the ground and the table placed upon it, if pleasant, in the open air, if unpleasant, in the marquee. A table service of silver made the board look well, while our food was of the best kind, consisting of meats and fowl of all kinds, vegetables and 140 RIP VAN WINKLE 'S TRA VELS. US at the table. fruit in great profusion. Our attendants consisted of our drago- man,- our cook, — and a better could not be found in Europe; and Halllle, a Nubian, pretty as a girl, black as a coal, and smiling as May day. He was the man-of-all-work, and waited upon Besides these we had several muleteers, who took care of the mules and horses. Twenty-five ani- mals, and nearly as many men, made up the caravan. At night, the mules and horses would be tied about the camp, and the muleteers would sleep around them for protection. Any party attacking the camp would be obliged to arouse the muleteers, who were our picket guard. Whatever tent life might have been to our brave soldiers on the Potomac, it was certainly very pleasant to us in Pal- estine. However, we did not sleep in our camp that night. The tents were wet, and ourselves chilled by the STREET IN JERUSALEM. long ride through the storm, so we repaired to a Latin convent just inside the walls, where we remained that night. And now we are at Jerusalem! But what can we do with it in the limits of a single letter? It is a city which might well demand a volume rather than the communication of an hour. To make myself as intelligible as possible to you, I propose, before describing the city IN JERUSALEM. 141 itself, to notice its environs. Let us walk about Zion, and mark the towers thereof. We started on Saturday morning, the Jewish sabbath, to walk around Jerusalem, outside the walls. It was a beautiful day, and Nature was in all the loveliness of the season. Leaving our camp, we moved down into the valley of Gihon, by the Upper Pool, over Fuller's Field, to the Lower Pool. The latter is now a cultivated garden, and fig-trees are growing in it. In the time of Christ it was a vast reservoir to supply the city with water. Leaving the pools, we soon struck the remains of the old aqueducts made by Solomon to introduce water from Bethlehem into his capital. These works show the immense expense of furnishing water to the city, and indicate an elaboration of means to make this supply which is truly wonderful to us. Moving slowly along the south of the place, we struck the Valley of Hinnom. This is a deep ravine, separating the city from the Mount of Offence and the Hill of Evil Counsel. It has a most unenviable notoriety. It comes to our notice in the first book of Kings as the place where Solomon, in his apostacy, set up an image of Moloch and made the people bow down and worship, for which crime the kingdom of Israel revolted from his house and family. From that time it was a place of idolatry. Ahaz and Manasseh there made their children to " pass through the fire," and led their people to practice abominable wickedness. At the end of the valley is Tophet, where infants were sacrificed to Moloch, and some have sup- posed that its very name was derived from certain coarse instruments of wirfe used there to draw the corpses of the poor victims as they passed through the fire to the idol. Josiah changed the character of the place from the worship of idols to a scene of pollution, making the valley the cesspool of the city, throwing in filth and burying the dead bodies of lepers that had been cast into it. The Jews and early Christians used the place to represent the state of eternal punishment. Across the valley of Hinnom is the " Hill of Evil Counsel." It is so J42 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. called because the house of Caiaphas was located upon it, and there the wicked Jews assembled to take counsel against the blessed Saviour. The hill rises about five hundred feet above the valley below, and its top contains the ruins of an old convent, which dates back to the time of the crusades. Near here is the famous or infamous Aceldama, or " Field of Blood," a deep cavern, or series of caverns, still used for burial purposes. It is on the southern slope of the valley of Hinnom. It is a place of bones and skulls. It was bought of a potter with the thirty pieces of silver which Judas received for the betrayal of Christ. A look down into the dens of death made us wish to leave the place and hurry away. All the waters in the Pool of Hezekiah would not wash out its stains. Soon we came upon the Mou a^ of Offence, or Mount of Corrup- tion, Mount of Scandal as it is sometimes called. Here Solomon gave himself up to idol worship, and here offended a holy God, who will not tolerate idolatry. As long as this hill stands it will be a solemn remonstrance against the offence which that wise king committed. Walking on, we struck a little rill which arrested attention. This was a stream of water from the Pool of Siloam, in the Tyropean valley. Following up the rill we soon came to the pool, which re- ceives its waters from the "Fountain of the Virgin," at a little distance. There are several reasons why this charming water should be called the "Fountain of the Virgin." One tradition states that the Virgin Mary was accustomed to resort to this place for the purposes of purification, and hence in time it took its name from her. Another tradition, vouched for by Mejr-ed-Din, states that the water was known formerly as the Fountain of the Accused Woman, and it was deemed a test for women accused of great sin. If the person was innocent, she would drink without harm, and wonderful beauty was the result. But if she was guilty, she died, ere the sun set, of a most horrid, loathsome disease. When the Virgin Mary was accused of 144 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. crime she was brought here, subjected to the ordeal, drank the water harmlessly, and ever after was gifted with a wonderful purity of ex- pression, and secured the reputation among all her countrywomen of a saint. The chief peculiarity of the fountain is its intermittent character. Whence its waters come, and why their flow should be intermit- tent, is only a matter of conjecture. They rush "furiously like a mountain torrent for twenty or thirty minutes, then intermitting for an hour or two, and in dry weather for a day or two." The Arabs account for this peculiarity by saying that an amphibious animal has charge of the waters, and their theory is that this dragon lives within the fountain. If he is awake, the water does not flow; but when he sleeps and cannot control it, it bubbles up. But men of science attribute the phenomenon to " the natural action of a syphon-shaped reservoir in the heart of the mountain." I am thus minute in the description of this fountain because it supplies Siloam, which is an oblong tank or reservoir, fifty-four feet in length, eighteen feet wide, and twenty feet deep. The remains of the porticos, which were once very beautiful structures, sheltering the multitudes who came to use the waters, are still seen. The pool was once probably covered with a roof, and in its day was elaborate and elegant. The fact that Siloam receives its waters from the Fountain of the Virgin, which I believe to be identical with ancient Bethesda, gives to it its name Siloam — signifying "sent." Striking off" from the objects on which we have commented, we enter the Valley of Jehosaphat, — "God judgeth," — which divides Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, on the east. The brook Kedron flows through the valley, sometimes a tiny stream and sometimes a rushing torrent. We are soon among the ancient tombs — the tomb of St. James, a chamber excavated in the cliff", with its covered door- way, its elegant porch, and its sepulchral openings; the tomb of Zachariah, who was stoned in the reign of Joash, a monolith, solid ir IN JERUSALEM. H5 its contents, and beautifully ornamented from its rubbish-covered base to its pyramidal summit; the tomb of Jehosaphat, in which, a few years since, was found a Hebrew manuscript of the Pentateuch, the cloisters of which are now nearly filled with filth and rubbish; the tomb of Absalom, twenty-two feet square and fifty feet high, which has been filled wath stones cast on it by the Jews, who spit upon it and curse it in memory of Absalom's ingratitude and treason. And many other ancient tombs there are, all worth seeing, and each of which has a history, but we must pass them by for want of space in this letter. Still keeping on through the valley of Jehosaphat, we come to that sacred spot — the Garden of Gethsemane. In the time of Christ, the Garden of Geth- semane covered the whole base of Olivet; but a lot about three hundred feet square has been enclosed, to preserve the trees and to afford a retreat for devout strangers. Within the wall is a walk around the garden, which is enclosed with a pale-fence. There are eight olive-trees in the garden, indicating a great age; and flowers and vines abound. The Latins have the charge of the place, and strangers are admitted for backsheesh. We went to the gate and were admitted by a monk, and stood on the very spot where Christ fell down, sweating great drops of blood. A clergyman of our party read the scripture narrative of the terrible agony which Christ en- dured in tlat place, and then we all knelt on the ground in prayer. It was awful to pra}^ in that place. There came rushing on us the particulars of that scene, which no pen has j^et attempted to descriDe. TOMB OF ABSALOM. lO 146 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. It was one of the sweetest and most tender hours in my life. I closed my eyes, and soon my senses were all asleep to the world around me. I had gone back eighteen hundred years. I was in sad Gethsemane. I heard the groaning Lord as he lay upon the ground. I caught the memory of that tremendous agony. I saw the blood-sweat fall to the ground. I saw the angels as they came to strengthen him. And when I opened my eyes again it seemed as if my soul had received a shock, a jar, as when one is suddenly, roughly awakened from a charming dream. Walking rapidly back to our tents completed the circuit of Jeru- salem. We had seen the walls, passed the various gates, beheld the people as they went in and out, and had a fine idea of the surround- ings of the city of God. We are now prepared to enter the gates and see the interior of Jerusalem. There is generally a feeling of disappointment on the part of those who visit the city, and we felt it. We went in one morning, entering at the Jaffa gate. On each side of the gate out- side was a long line of lepers, — men, women, and children, — their bodies in the various stages of decomposition. Their emaciated hands were held out for charity, and piteous indeed was the spectacle which they presented. Formerly this class of persons was driven away to the Lazar city, but they are now allowed to sit at the entrances of the city, begging of all who go in or out. The streets within the place are narrow, irregular, crooked, and untidy. The houses are generally mean, low, and gloomy looking. The people, with a few exceptions, indicate poverty and sorrow, and the stranger, as he travels from one object of interest to another, can- not fail to see that God has marked with his divine curse the city where His son was neglected and crucified. The city is elevated above all the surrounding region, being twenty-two hundred feet above the level of the sea. But beyond the valleys rise the mountains, which seem to guard the city. On the 148 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. east is the triple-topped Mount of Olives, its terraced sides rising steeply from the Valley of Jehosaphat. On the south is the so-called Hill of Evil Counsel, overhanging the vv^ild ravine of Hinnom. On the west, the ground ascends by rocky acclivities to the brov^ of Wady Beit Hanina. On the north is the hill of Scopus, a western projection of the ridge of Olivet. Around the city runs a wall, sufficient for the purpose for which it was erected, but entirely unfit to stand a discharge of artillery. The circumference of the walls is but twelve thousand nine hundred and seventy-eight feet, — four thousand three hundred and twenty-six yards, — or about two and a half miles. These walls are pierced by five gates, — the Joppa Gate, the Damascus Gate, the St. Stephen's Gate, the Dung Gate, the Zion Gate. Besides these gates, which are now in use, are two others that have long been closed, — the Gate of Flowers and the Golden Gate. The shops of the city are mean and filthy, the houses wretched and uncomely, and the whole appearance of the place is that of barbarous desolation. The present population is about sixteen thousand; of whom six thousand are Jews, six thousand Moslems, two thousand Greeks, and two thousand are made up of other sects. The first building within the gates is the tower of Hippicus, of which Josephus tells us that " it was built by Herod the Great, and named after a friend who had fallen in battle. The form is quadran- gular, twenty-five cubits on each side, and built up entirely solid to the height of thirty cubits. Over this solid part was a large cistern, and still higher were chambers for the guards, surmounted by battle- ments. The stones in its w^alls were of enormous magnitude, — twenty cubits long, by ten broad, and five high. Its situation, too, was commanding; for it stood on a rocky crest which rose from the summit of Zion to a height of fifty cubits." Of one of the towers which still stands, the others being in a crumbling condition, Porter remarks that "the lower part is built of huge bevelled stones, meas- uring from nine to thirteen feet in length, and some of them more IN JERUSALEM. j^g than four feet high; the upper part is modern, and does not differ in appearance or workmanship from the other towers. The height of the antique part above the present level of the fosse is forty feet. It is entirely solid, and recent excavations have shown that for some height above the foundation it is formed of the natural rock, hewn into shapo or faced with stones." Leaving the tower behind, you strike into Via Dolorosa, the long, narrow street which led out from the judgment-hall of Pilate, through which Christ passed on his way to execution. The monks have invested almost every step in this street with interest, for they have attached some legend to almost every foot of it. The first object of interest in the street is the "Church of the Flagellation," where it is said that Christ was beaten with rods. Still further on is an arch spanning the way, Ecce Homo, where it is said that the cowardly Roman governor brought forth the Redeemer and showed him to the people, saying, " Behold the man." Then we reach a place where, as Christ passed along, he leaned against a house for protection, leav- ing the impression of his shoulder in the wall. There is pointed out another spot, where Christ met his mother, and held with her a tender and last interview. Next we come to the house of Dives; and there are Greek priests who will show you the very stone on which sat Lazarus, covered with sores, begging for bread. Just the place where Christ fainted under the cross comes next, and where it was taken from his shoulders and laid upon Simon the Cyrenean. Then you will be shewn the place where, after he had recovered, he turned on the weeping w^omen of Israel, saying, "Weep not for me, but for yourselves and your children." And there, too, is the hctuse from which Veronica came forth, and wiped the gory face of Christ with the handkerchief, which is now preserved with great reverence and care at Rome. Via Dolorosa conducts to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, one of the chief attractions of Jerusalem. It was commenced in 1048, ^i)0 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TJiAVELS. CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE. and was never finished until 1810. It is supposed to stand over the spot where Christ was crucified and buried. It is a tasteless Roman- esque edifice, and in itself of no interest. The fact that it stands on Calvary gives it its importance. IN JERUSALEM, I c j And here allow me to say that there is some dispute as to where Calvary is. Some say here, and others point out locations elsewhere. The traditionary account of the exact spot where the cross stood is said to be this: The Empress Helena, mother of Constantine, was directed by God to search for the true cross, the spot where it stood, and the tomb of the Saviour. At the age of seventy-nine she entered on her mission. The pagans had buried the cross, and built a heathen temple on the spot where it stood on the day of crucifixion. But the empress went to her holy work, at length found the crosses, but for a time could not distinguish which was the one on which Christ died. At length they were submitted to a test. They were taken to a Christian woman who was dying in Jerusalem. The first and second were presented to her without effect, but when the third came it restored her to instant health. It may be asked, what are the evidences that the place selected is the real Calvary. Dr. Robinson says it is not. Others, as careful and as able, say it is. Certain it is, that as early as the year 326 this site had been selected. The Apostle John, who witnessed the cruci- fixion, or knew all the facts pertaining to it, lived nearly seventy years afterward, and many others who were present at the tragedy, must have carried the knowledge of the place forward nearly a cen- tury; so that it seems to me that it would have been impossible for Constantine or his empress mother to have made any mistake. The knowledge of the exact spot must have been transmitted from the thousands who saw the deed committed to their children and grand- children; and had the emperor fixed upon a site a mile or two miles from the place where the event transpired, a thousand voices would have been heard stating the traditions which had been handed down to them. The early Church could hardly have failed to know all about this great transaction, on which so much was depending. They must often have referred to the place where the Lord was put tc death, and the spot must have been as familiar to them as the Garden jq2 I^IP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. of Gethsemane or Mount ZIon. It can hardly be supposed that fiom the death of John to the time of Constantine the spot where the Lord was put to death for the world could have been forgotten. Nor do we know of anything in the scriptural representation, the topograph- ical argument, and the historical account which may not be recon- ciled with known or existing facts. Without, however, expressing a definite opinion, where men who have spent so much time in Jerusa- lem and who have given the subject so much attention differ widely, let us conclude that we are near the mount of martyrdom, and the sepulchre of the Son of Man. Eusebius was born in the year 264, only about one hundred and sixty-four years from the death of the Apostle John, and he adopted the commonly accepted sacred localities without a question or a doubt as to their identity. He was present at the dedication of the Martyron erected by Constan- tine, and delivered a discourse, and must have been familiar with all the steps taken by the emperor and his gifted mother in their investigations. Various things are shown in the Church of the Sepulchre, — the Stone of Unction, on which the body of the Saviour was laid while being anointed for burial ; the spot where his mother stood during that process, indicated in the floor by a colored marble, an iron cage, lighted by an ever-burning lamp, covering the spot; the stone on which the angel sat when he had rolled it away from the door of the sepulchre; the stony, sepulchral slab on which Christ rested three days while the toml held him; the vault itself where the King of kings wrestled with the King of Terrors. Then, in a little chapel we find a fragment of the pillar to which Christ was bound when he was scourged. Pilgrims touch the pillar with a rod, and then kiss the rod. Then comes the prison where Jesus was confined before his death, and the mount itself — Calvary, which is crowned with marbles, which are laid open so that the places where the thre/* crosses are said to have been set in the rock, are seen. /.\- JERUSALEM. 153 ~^an^^'r((^"^ ')oK\'^ STONE OF UNCTION. All these places are near together, and one comes away with a confused and mixed idea of the whole thing. And yet here, doubt- less, Christ was crucified! Here he was laid in the sepulchre! Here he rose from the dead! It would be mockery to attempt to tell how ve^ R^^ ^'^^ WINKLE'S TRAVELS. one feels when reaching down and touching with his hand the cold, wet earth, where it is supposed the cross stood. The very ground seems damp with blood. The rock seems to tremble yet as if it felt the shiver of the earthquake which shook it eighteen hundred years ago! It would be mockery to attempt any description of the emotions which surge over you as you crowd into the sepulchre, about seven feet square, and on your bended knees bow your head down upon the stony couch, and weep in memory of him who once reposed there in death, remembering that in this little cell Christ had his last conflict, here trampled death beneath his feet! Another day in Jerusalem is given to the Temple, — alas, the temple of God no longer! At eany dawn we left our camp to see the pavements and broken stones <)i what was once the finest edifice on the globe. As the Bible student knows, the first edifice was planned by God, the materials gathered by David, and the foundation laid by Solomon, B.C. loii, on the threshing-floor of Oman the Jebusite, on the summit of Mount Moriah. For seven years the workmen labored upon it, but no sound of the hammer was heard during all that period. The building was all framed together, part fitted to part, before being brought here. For four hundred and twenty years the struct- ure stood, the wonder of the world, when it was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. The second Temple was built by Zerubbabel, B.C. 534, on the ruins of the first, but without much of the former glory. Antiochus Epiphanes polluted it, and set up the image of Jupiter Olympus on its grand altar. Judas Maccabaeus purified and repaired it; but time and war wasted it again, until the time of Herod the Great, who repaired it with great magnificence. The structure covered the whole top of Mount Moriah, which had been walled up all around so as to give ample space. The structure stood until after the crucifixion, and was at length destroyed b}^ Titus, by a singular coincidence, or rather a striking providence, on the IN JERUSALEM. 155 same day of the same month that the first Temple was destroyed by the Chaldeans. When the Turks came into possession of the holy city, they built vipon the old foundations of the Temple the Mosque of Omar. It costs five dollars to each person as an entrance fee, and we were obliged to wander about the premises with our shoes off, and as it had rained the night before, and the water stood in puddles upon the worn and broken pavements, the exercise was by no means agreeable. Would you understand how the Temple area appears at the present time.^ Imagine a hilltop levelled down, and the sides walled up, forming an area or s(|uare of about six hundred feet on each side. A wall, thick and massive, rises round it, while it is paved within with large, flat stones, which are moss-grown, broken, and defaced. In the centre of this area, where once stood the Temple, stands the Mosque of Omar, an octagonal building, each face of which is sixty- six feet. The edifice is one hundred and seventy-five feet high, surmounted by an elaborate and elegant dome. The interior is very imposing and beautiful, though the interiors of all the mosques are cheerless on account of their want of furniture. The most conspicuous object in the mosque is the Sakhrah, or sacred rock. It seems that when the flinty top of Mount Moriah was graded down, this rock, some fifty by forty feet in dimensions and ten feet high, was left in its natural state, with no marks of the chisel upon it. The traditionary account was that on this rock Abraham built the altar on which his son Isaac was laid; that on it David offered his sacrifices before the Temple was erected; and that afterward it became the grand altar of the Jewish nation. The Mohammedans think that from this rock their great prophet ascended to Paradise. They even say that the mark of his foot is still upon it, though the} do not often show it. There is not much remaining of the old Jewish Temple. These 156 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. ST. STEPHEN S GATE. time-beaten paths, the foundations, and some subterranean passages are all that are left. The word of God is fulfilled. The prediction of Christ was verified. All that stood above the ground at the time the Redeemer lived was tumbled down — not one stone being left upon another. IN JERUSALEM. 157 No Jew is allowed to enter the Temple area, but there is a place in the Tyropean Valley where the western foundation of the earliest house of God is exposed to view. To this place the Hebrews come every Friday to moan and wail. The sight is a very touching one. From one hundred to five hundred Jews assemble, and as they read the Lamentations of Jeremiah they swing backward and forward, bow and wail; and then go again and again to kiss the stones. So long have they done this, and so passionate have been their kisses, that for a considerable distance the coarse, rough stones have been smoothed and polished by the lips of these devotees. I read from my Bible while the Jews read from theirs, and then went with them and kissed the stones, thinking of Him who saw the Temple and predicted its destruction, who now is the light and glory of the heavenly temple. The question has often been asked, " What has become of the sacred vessels, and the immense wealth of Jerusalem.^ " It can hardly be supposed that God would allow all the sacred vessels to be forever ruined, and the general impression has been that the Jews, when the Roman armies came upon them, hid the Ark of the Covenant, the holy things of the Temple, and much that pertained to Jewish worship, and at some time, when God is ready, they will be found and be brought forth, to the joy and wonder of the ages. They are probably somewhere beneath the Temple, or some of the public edifices, and when the archaeologists get at work they will bring them up. Dr. Barclay, who has written well on Jerusalem, and whose acquaintance we were fortunate enough to make at Jaffa, says that, " It is a very general belief that amongst the spoils of the Temple carried to Rome by Titus were the identical candlestick, golden altar and table, the silver trumpets, etc., that had been provided by Solomon; but this is a great mistake. Such of this furniture as was brought back from Babylon by the Jews on returning from captivity was carried to Antioch by Antiochus Epiphanes, when he despoiled 158 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. Jerusalem, and emptied the Temple of its secret treasures and left nothing at all remaining.' The sacred trophies carried away by Titus were those with which the Holy House was furnished by Judas Maccabeus on purifying the Temple after its profanation and desertion. On reaching Rome, the golden vesels and other sacred implements were deposited in the temple of Concord; and although some of them may have fallen a prey to the devouring element when that temple was destroyed, A. D. 191, yet history distinctly informs us that they fell into the hands of Alaric, when he sacked the city, A. D. 410. And about half a century afterwards most or all of them appear to have been carried to Carthage by Genseric, king of the Vandals, when the city fell into his ruthless hands, but seem to have been returned to Rome, or at least recovered by the Romans, after the victory of Belisarius. There appear to be reliable notices of them both at Ravenna and at Constantinople afterwards; and tradition, at least, reports that they were finally restored to Jerusalem by the Emperor Justinian, and it is supposed by many that they still lie concealed in some of the secret subterranean recesses of the Temple Mount." There is one picture to be painted before we leave our subject and close our present letter. We must go out and view the Mount of Olives, " over against the Temple." American travellers gen- erally go out on Sabbath afternoon, and cross Mount Olivet, as far as Bethany. And no walk on earth can be more suggestive of pious thoughts. It is the walk that Christ used to take when he sojourned on earth. Over the mountain, in a little town that nestled close to the brow of the hill, lived some of his friends. Here dwelt Lazarus, whom he raised from the dead, and Mary who sat at his feet, and Martha who loved to entertain him at her hospitable board. For this family, Christ seemed to entertain a special fondness. He loved their society, and often when weary went over the hill to take his evening meal in their ever-cheerful home. IN JERUSALEM. 159 I went out one Sabbath afternoon. The Jews in the cit}' were all Sjusy, for their holy day had passed, but outside all was still. Only the song of the bird, and the hum of the insects, and the rustling of the grain, disturbed the silence. I went down into the valley of Jehosa- phat, through the bed of Kedron, to the base of Olivet, and struck into the very road which we suppose Christ took when he went out to visit his friends. Passing by the Garden of Gethsemane, I was soon ascending the hill. But here pause in the way while I describe the Mount of Olives. Sit down on the ground by the wayside, or rest on the stones, while I make your minds familiar with this hill which we are ascending. Olivet is on the east of Jerusalem, and separated from it by the brook Kedron. It is not a Mount Washington, towerinsf to the clouds, and covered with its crown of snow, nor even a Monadnoc, lofty in its verdant pride. It is a respectable hill, or a ridge of hills, rather than one solitary mount, only one hundred and seventy-five feet above the city, and but half a mile from it. On the centre hill is the little village of Tur, which has one tapering minaret, and beneath that minaret is the Church of the Ascension, built, it is supposed, on the spot from which our Lord went up to glory. The hill is sparsely covered with olive-trees, and streaked with roads and foot-paths leading over or winding around it. We reach the summit, and ascending to the gallery of the minaret look off upon Jerusalem spread out before the eye. "We look down," says an eyewitness, "the shelving side of Olivet into the dark, bare glen of the Kedron, sweeping from the distance on the right away down to the left. The eye follows it till it is joined by another dark ravine, coming in from behind a high ridge to the westward. That ravine is Hinnom, and that ridge Zion. On the left bank of the Kedron we can just observe through the olive-trees the white pointed top of Absalom's pillar, and the flat gravestones of the Jewish cemetery, and farther to the left the gray excavated cliffs and house« i6o RIP VAN WINKLE'S TEA VELS. of Siloam. In the foreground beyond the ravine is the beautiful enclosure of the Haram — the octagonal mosque with its noble dome in the centre, occupying the site of Oman's threshing-floor and mm JERUSALEM AND THE MOUNT OF OLIVES. Solomon's Temple; the flagged platform around it; and then a grassy area with its olives and cypresses encircling the whole. At the left- hand extremity is the mosque el-A.ksa, easily distinguished by its IN JERUSALEM. j5j peaked roofs and dome — formerly the church of St. Mary. Beside the enclosure at the right-hand corner is a prominent group of build- ings, with a tall minaret adjoining them. This is the pasha's residence, and the site of the Fortress of Antonia. The massive ancient masonry at the southern angle of the wall is very conspicuous; and so like- wise is the double-arched gateway in the side, generally known as the ' Golden Gate,' now walled up. Farther to the right, north of the Haram area, is St. Stephen's Gate, and the white path winding up to it from the bottom of the Kedron at the Garden of Gethsemane. Northward of the gate, along the brow of the valley, runs the city wall, formidable-looking in the distance with its square towers. To the right of the Haram, a broad irregular ridge extends north- ward, thinly inhabited, interspersed with gardens, and crowned by a mosque and minaret. This is Bezetha. The low ridge of Ophel is on the opposite side of the' Haram, sinking down rapidly into the bed of the Kedron behind Siloqm; it contains no buildings, but is thickly sprinkled with olives. It can now be seen how these three hills, Bezetha, Moriah, and Ophel, form one long ridge. Behind them is a valley, dividing the city from north to south, and falling into the Kedron just above its junction with Hinnom." Turning from the view toward Jerusalem, we look out in the other direction. " Here we stand," says the same observer, " on the very brow of the mount. The ' Wilderness of Judea ' commences at our feet, shelves down in a succession of naked white hills and dreary gray glens for ten miles or more, and then dips abruptly into the deep valley of the Jordan. A scene of sterner desolation could not be imagined. The Jordan valley comes from the distance on the north, gradually expanding into a white plain, and terminating at the Dead Sea, a section of whose waters is seen over the lower cliffs of the ' Wilderness.' The winding course of the Jordan can be traced for some distance up the plain, by its dark line of verdure. Away beyond this long valley rises suddenly a long unbroken mountain* 11 l52 R^P VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. range, like a huge wall, stretching north and south far as the eye can follow it. The section on the right is within the territory of Moab; that in the centre, directly opposite us, was possessed by the Ammon- ites; while that on the left hand was anciently called Gilead, and still retains its name. Evening is the proper time for this view, for then the pale blue lights and purple shadows on the Moab mountains are exquisitely beautiful. The glare too of the white wilderness is subdued; and the deep valley below appears still deeper from being thrown into shade." We cross over the mountain, and reach Bethany, on the hillside. Here lived the family that Jesus loved. The house in which they once abode is pointed out, and the tomb of Lazarus is also shown, but the identity of both is very doubtful. Returning, we reach the summit, pass around the Church of Ascension, and descend by a different road from that we took in coming up. A sudden turn in the road brings the city to our view. Until now it had been hidden. As it bursts upon us we stop, and in wonder and amazement gaze out upon it. We remember a scene that once transpired here. Christ was crossing the Mount, and a great multitude of people were with him. They wanted to take him to the city and crown him as their king. They shouted, " Hosannah, hosannah to the Son of David." But as Christ turned this point in the road, and the city burst upon him, he stood still and wept — wept that Jerusalem knew not her day. Singular and precious were my thoughts that Sabbath evening as I sat in the door of my tent, looking on Jerusalem on one side and on Olivet on the other. Did space allow we might dwell long in describing the scenes in and about the city; the walls and the gates, the Castle of Antonia, the room where the Lord's Supper is supposed to have been instituted^ the fountains and pools, the tombs and monuments, but our space is exhausted, and I must stop writing. Many are never permitted IN JERUSALEM. jg, to see the earthly Jerusalem. Few people are so situated that they can travel so far, even to see the place where the Lord was crucified. "Jerusalem — far distant land — Our longing feet can never stand Upon those far-off hills. We know these deep and yearning thoughts To see those consecrated spots, Can never be fulfilled. " Yet day by day our feet draw near A land that to our soul is dear — The New Jerusalem ; Its gates of pearl, its golden wall, God's glory shining o'er it all, The Lamb the light thereof. ** And oft on wings of earnest prayer, Our soul draws near that land so fair, And views its Heavenly Home; ; And as we gaze towards Zion's hill, Its fair foundations glisten still, With minaret and dome. " Sometimes our souls in saddened hours Feel the soft touch of friends of ours, Who long since went to dust ; Then, dim and undefined, it seems Like the soft rays of sunset gleams. That land comes down to us. " Not over ocean's heaviest breast, Or toilsome days of dark unrest, Shall we that city see ; But soft we pass through quiet death, With calm repose and fleeting breath — Jerusalem, to thee." Yes, that upper Jerusalem we may visit, within its walls we may dwell, all its joys we may share. Jerusalem the golden! In old Jerusalem Christ was mocked and denied. In the new Jerusalem 164 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS, he is honored and worshipped. In old Jerusalem he was crowned with thorns. In new Jerusalem he is crowned with glory. In oid Jerusalem he was crucified. In new Jerusalem he is enthroned. Jerusalem the golden I Rjp Van Winkle. IN JERICHO. 165 IN JERICHO. ELISHA S FOUNTAIN. Early one morning, Rip Van Winkle was aroused by one of hia friends, who came to the door of the tent, shouting, — "Professor! Professor!" "What is it?" "Why, get up and see, good friend." " It is not time to get up yet." "Yes, it is; and you are wanted." "What for?" "The party are out in the valley holding a council of war." " Is the enemy in sight ? " " No." "Then what is it?" " The subject of a visit to Jericho, the Jordan, the Dead Sea, aPv the South, is contemplated, and the matter is being discussed." 1(35 ^^P ^A^ WINKLE'S TRAVELS. "Well, let them discuss." " But they want you." "What for.?" "They say that it will not do to decide until the professor is present." " But I am only an attacM of the party. They do not want me to help decide." " But they do. They say your opinion is worth all the rest." " Well, I will come along as soon as I can get ready." " So do, for you know how fully they all rely upon your judgment." "Just six minutes and ten seconds and I will be there." "All right." In less than the time mentioned. Rip Van Winkle was seen in the midst of the group of men who were debating their plans. As they saw him come, one of them said, — " Professor Van Wert, we have been thinking of going to the Dead Sea, making an examination thereabouts, and returning to this place again. We want your opinion." Rip Van Winkle heard their plans and approved of them, and said he would like to go with the rest. Though the gentlemen had been strangers to him until within the few weeks that they had been together, he had become much attached to them, and they felt a deep interest in him. What they did, and where they went, we will let the traveller tell in his own way. Jericho. My last letter was written when I was sitting at the door of my tent, looking off upon Jerusalem. You will now see that our quar- ters have been changed, and we are on our way to the Dead Sea, Though the whole land is stagnant, and marked with death, there is always something novel and strange drawing attention which gives variety even to that God-cursed region. In one place the remains of a city wherein some of Christ's marvellous works were done. IN JERICHO. 167 meets your eye, reminding you of transactions which will never be forgotten nor repeated. Then you will remember that the next piece of desert through which you ride has become historic on account of some world-famed battle which has been fought or some dreadful tragedy which has been enacted there. Then you leap some tiny ARAB AT TENT DOOR. brook or streamlet scant which has a sacredness which all the ages cannot take away. The whole life of Christ, the founding of the Christian religion, the most remarkable events, the most wonderful histories ever known, are crowded into a little country not larger than the state of Vermont, and though stagnation reigns, yet each new step is marked with something to which the traveller turns, and on wL.ch he gazes with ever-kindling enthusiasm. J 58 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. We Started one morning on a tour toward the south. We wanted a flag, and because we could do no better, made one that morning before we started. We could not purchase one. There was none for sale in Jerusalem, so we carefully prepared the cloth, and, with needle and thread, we all sat down and sewed the stripes together. As we sat there Avith our work on our knees, we formed a very much more respectable " sewing circle " than we often see at home, where the ladies don't sew, but come just at tea time, for the good supper, and then go home thinking they have been at the " sew- ing circler There was not room enough on our flag for the whole number of stars, so we put on the original thirteen. Just as we had finished it, a regiment of Turkish soldiers marched by, and we hung out our banner, proud there, before Jerusalem, that we lived under the stars and stripes. At ten in the morning our tents were all down and packed safely on the backs of the mules, and we were leaving Jerusalem behind us. The trip being somewhat dangerous, a mounted guard had been fur- nished us by the pasha, a sort of irregular soldiery kept for the pur- pose of escorting travellers through regions infested with bandits and robbers. Sweeping with our long train over the Mount of Olives, through the town of Bethany, we were now going down to Jericho. I never before realized the force of the expression, " going down to Jericho." From Jerusalem it is down hill all the way, and the roads are villainous in the extreme. The whole course is eminently sug- gestive. Through dark, solitary ravines, by the mouth of yawning caverns, looking out of which the swarthy Bedouins could be seen, and sometimes their long pointing guns, over rocky declivities, leaping our horses where they could neither trot nor walk, we pursued our way for several hours. You notice that I say "hours." The distances are measured by hours, not by miles. If you ask, "how far to such a place ? " the answer is " so many hours." A man may be an hour going five miles, or he may be two hours going one mile. Some 170 RIP VAN WINKLE 'S TRA VELS. days, we were riding hard to make five or six miles. The road to Jericho is of this description. After leaving Bethany and passing a famous fo",ntain covered with a Saracenic arch, close to which are the remains of an old Khan^ the way becomes frightful. " Into a bleak glen, the road winds for an hour or more, and then, leaving it 'i the right, passes through a broken country of chalk}- hills till it reaches an extensive, ruined caravansary, situated on the top of a bleak ridge. Some broken walls and fragments of arches remain standing; but they are scarcely sufficient to afford us a shade while we rest a few minutes to draw water from the deep well. This is considered the most dangerous part of the road; and somewhere near it Sir Frederick Henniker was stripped, wounded, and left for dead by the Bedouins in 1820. He was probably thinking of the parable of the Samaritan when the assassin stroke laid him low. I venture to state that no one will advance much beyond this place without at least feeling how admirably fitted the region is for deeds of violence and blood; especially if he gets a sight of some of the half-naked Arrbs who are generally found skulking amid the ruins, or perching on the rocks around. On passing the ruin we enter a region still wilder than that we have left behind. Dr. Olin says of it, that ^ the mountains seem to have been loosened from their foun- dations and rent to pieces by some terrible convulsion, and then left to be scathed by the burning rays of the sun.'' Through such a wild desolate country we rode until nearly night, when we struck the Plain of Jericho. The Arab escort suddenly paused, and bade the compan}^ halt, and called to one of the party who was in advance of the rest, to return. Two or three of them then rode forward, and scoured the plain, riding up and down among the gaps to be sure that no Bedouins were lurking there to start up as we approached, for robbery and murder. A few days before we crossed this plain, two or three of our countrymen were robbed of all they had, their horses taken away, and they left to get back to Jeru- IN JERICHO. 171 salem on foot. We fared better, being a much larger and more formidable company, and we were careful that the fellows should see tha"- ve were well armed. Indeed, if the Arabs judged us by the bold show we made of revolvers and pistols, they would conclude that we were the most desperate set of characters that ever rode over the plain, as ready to shoot a Bedouin as a squirrel. A. length Jericho appeared in sight, and what a sight! A pile ot RUINED AQUEDUCT, NEAR JERICHO. ruined villages heaped up into one, looking more like a lot of brick- yards than a royal city, such as we expected to see. On the right of Mount Gilgal, where the twelve stones, which Joshua took out of the river Jordan when he crossed with the Hebrew hosts, were set up as a memorial, and where, also, the Tabernacle was pitched for the first time in the Holy land, we encamped. The site of Gilgal is near Jeri- cho, but not a vestige of the place remains. It has been destroyed, plucked up by the roots and ploughed for the fruitful field. After our tents were all pitched, and dinner had been served, we walked 172 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. over to see Jericho! There have been three Jerichos. The tirst was very ancient in its origin. It was the city of palm-trees, and must have been very beautiful in its time. This was the place that was taken by Joshua after being encompassed by the Israelites. The second Jericho was built in the time of Ahab, by Hiel the Bethelite. It flourished exceedingly, and became a very noted place, but in time it was again destroyed. The third city was founded some time before Christ, and was in his day, a considerable place. It continued awhile to increase in wealth and power, but the hand of God was laid upon it, and it went to sad decay. There was a terrible curse pronounced on the first Jericho, which was wonderfully verified in the building of the second. When Joshua had taken the place, he destroyed it by direction of the Almighty, and then pronounced a curse upon anybody who should endeavor to rebuild it, in the words: "Cursed be the man before the Lord, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho; he shall lay the foundation thereof in his first born, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it." This was a most peculiar curse, but it was fulfilled. Five hundred years after Joshua destroyed the city, Hiel set himself about rebuilding it. He knew about the curse. But he lived in a wicked age, and was the servant of a very wicked king, and dared defy the Almighty. So he commenced the work, and the curse commenced with it. While the foundations were being laid, Abiram, Hiel's eldest son, was killed, and while the gates were being set, Segub, his youngest son, died, crushed, as is supposed, by falling masonry. The word of God tells it all in one graphic sentence, — *^ He laid the foundation thereof in Abiram, his first born, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son, Segub!" And so may we learn were all God's curses and threatenings fulfilled. Entering Jericho just before sundown, we found it to be a most forlorn and God-forsaken place. The children howled and yelled at us, and set dogs on us. The women followed us with scowling /iV JERICHO. 173 faces, and taunts, and we were glad to escape. On emerging on the other side of the town, we found the house in which Zaccheus is said to have lived at the time he entertained the Saviour. The tree into which he climbed is not standing, though it is ahnost a wonder that some one near by is not pointed out as the veritable tree from which he expected to get a good view of the illustrious personage. The house which is now occupied by a Turkish governor, is in a good state of preservation, and is the largest in or about the town. At night we had an idea of life in Jericho. Between us and the city was a grove, and after dark, the people came out of their filthy houses and assembled here. It was a strange gathering. Some were cooking their evening meal, some were sporting on the green sward, some were dancing under the trees, some were sleeping, some in groups were singing their monotonous songs, and every con- ceivable thing was being practised, from the Moslem offering his prayers, to the most utterly indecent exhibitions, to which there seemed to be no restraint. I never knew, until that evening, how near human beings could come to the brutish cr^eation, or how low immortal souls could descend. Until late in the evening they kept up their revel, and then the quiet of night hushed them in slumber. While sitting in our tents this evening, our friend the dragoman came in and told us that women outside wished to speak to us. " Women ! " we said. " Yes." We wondered what lady friends we had in Jericho! We could not conceive what women should want of us, and some of the gentlemen began to fancy that their wives, thinking it not well that they should have all the pleasure of the trip alone, had followed them across the ocean and overtaken us at Jericho. But Hallile, one of our attendants, told us that the women were the dancing girls of the country, who are accustomed to visit the camps of European travellers and give them an exhibition of their dancing skill. They go through their dance, for which the travellers Ij^ RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. are expected to pay something. I was not unwilling to have the exhibition, but some of the party objected, and we sent the servant out to send the girls away. The dancing girls of the East are an institution of themselves, and those who are acquainted with dancing in this country have little idea of the same art in oriental nations. I don't know but the dancing of the Arabs is as decent and as sensible as our own. Let me describe it in the language of another: — "Whenever a town is reconnoitred, in the poorest and shabbiest huts on the outskirts, the dancing girls have their homes. Different from all other females, their faces are never covered. Their dress is of a light rose color, a delicate yellow, or an equally soft blue — of the thinnest gauze. Their foreheads are covered with jewels of Turkish gold or silver coin, suspended in strings, one below another. They are stockingless, but wear red morocco shoes, stiff and hard. Their belts are strung with trinkets, such as small silver triangles, or little bells, and all have metallic cymbals in each hand. Stripping off their shoes when the music begins, their hips suddenly rise up, their bodies swing either way, their toes cramp into the sand or into the floor, while their countenances assume an earnestness of expres- sion; the fervor increases, the features become impassioned, the cym- bals click, and thus they pass from one degree of excitement to another till, quite exhausted with the intense action of every muscle in the frame, the exhibition closes." Why this disgusting contortion of the muscles of the body should be called dancing, I don't know. One needs to s'='e it but once to remember it with a feeling of loath' ing and abhorren .&, Sunrise in triv^ morrmg found us on the banks of the Jordan — at the spot where x u supposed Christ was baptized, a short distance from the entrance of the river into the Dead Sea. The Jordan is a sacred river, divided for the passage of the Children of Israel, and notable for the baptism of Christ. It has figured largel}^ in the annals of the church. It rises far away in the north, at the roots of IN JERICHO. ns Anti-Lebanon, and pours down over long inclined planes and twenty- seven rapids and cataracts for two hundred and ten miles, until it comes to the Dead Sea. It descends from the point where it rises to the Sea of Tiberias, which is six hundred and fifty feet below the BANKS OF THE ;0RDAN. Mediterranean. Through that sea which is thirteen miles long and six miles wide it rushes on its way scarcely mingling with its waters, and pouring out at the lower extremity, and descending again in swift torrents to the Dead Sea, which is one thousand three hundred and sixteen feet below the Mediteranean. Almost all the way, it 176 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. flows through a deep sombre glen varying from two hundred to six hundred yards in width, and from forty to ninety feet below the level land above. The banks are of clay and mud, and shrubs and trees of various kinds grow on the shores. The stream itself varies in width and depth. At the place we visited it was, at the time, about one hundred feet wide and very deep, and the current was very swift. Travellers differ much in their descriptions of the depth and breadth of the Jordan, from the fact that they view it at different seasons of the year — one when the snows of Anti-Lebanon and the north of Syria have swollen it, and others when the summer suns have licked up the waters, so that they have nearly all disappeared. I saw the river at sunrise that day. It was wide and deep. Along its course trunks of trees, the roots of shrubs and many other fragments were rapidly borne along. There was water enough to drown a hundred thousand men, and it was not hard to recall that time when our Lord, beneath the shadow of the trees as they overhung the stream, was baptized in the Jordan. Once a year a most singular scene is witnessed here at the Jordan. The Greek Christians of Palestine have an annual custom of coming in large numbers to bathe in these waters. It takes place in Passion Week. On Monday swarms of pilgrims come from all parts of Palestine and encamp at Gilgal. "The desolate plain," says one who has witnessed the thrilling scene, " is thus suddenly filled with life; and the stray traveller who witnesses the scene will be strikingly reminded of the multitudes that thronged, eighteen centuries ago, to the * baptism of John.' Every Christian state of Europe and Asia has its representative there; and there, too, is seen, picturesquely grouped, every variety of costume. At their head marches the Turkish governor of Jerusalem, or his deputy, with an armed escort, to guard against the bandits, who, since the days of the '^Good Samaritan,' have infested this desert road. Some hours before dawn on the following morning a host of little tom-toms suddenly give IN JERICHO. i^» forth their discordant but stirring roll, and a thousand torches sud- denly flash amid the thickets of the plain. Over the desert presses the crowd in silence. A raddy glow along the eastern horizon brings out into bold relief the summits of the Moab mountains, and gives a hint of the sun's approach; and the pilgrims, as they descend the steep bank from the upper terrace, now see, in the pale morning light, the dark line of foliage that hides the sacred stream. An opening in the fringed border is soon after discovered, and the motley throng hastily dismount, and, as Mr. Stanley graphically describes it, ^ set to work to perform their bath; most on the open space, some farther up among the thickets, some plunging in naked, most, however, with white dresses, which they bring with them, and which, having been so used, are kept for their winding sheets. Most of the bathers keep within the shelter of the bank, where the water is about four feet in depth, though with a bottom of very deep mud. The Coptic pilgrims are curiously distinguished from the rest by the boldness with which they dart into the main current, striking the water after their fashion alternately with their two arms, and playing wnth the eddies, which hurr}^ them down and across, as if they were in the cataracts of their own Nile. ... A primitive domestic character pervades in a singular form the whole transaction. The families which have come on their single mule or camel now bathe together, with the utmost gravity; the father receiving from the mother the in- fant, which has been brought to receive the one immersion which will suffice for the rest of its life, and thus, by a curious economy of resources, save it from the expense and danger of a future pilgrimage in after years. In about two hours the shores are cleared; with the same quiet they remount their camels and horses; and before the noonday heat has set in, are again encamped on the upper plain of Jericho. . . . Once more they may be seen. At the dead of night the drum again awakes them for their homeward inarch. The torches again go before; behind follows the vast multitude, mounted, 12, lyS RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. passing in profound silence over that silent plain — so silent that, bu* for the tinkling of the drum, its departure would hardly be per- ceptible. The troops stay on the ground to the end, to guard the rear; and when the last roll of the drum announces that the last soldier is gone, the whole plain returns again to its perfect solitude.' " And speaking of the baptism of Christ, reminds us that John, his forerunner and harbinger, came clothed in " camel's hair," and *^ eating locusts and wild honey." The locusts of the East were an article of food, being prepared in different ways. Sometimes thej were pounded up and mixed with flour and sometimes boiled, broiled or roasted. And yet it is a question whether John did really eat this food, or whether he lived on the sweet locust-pods, on which the prodigal fed, called in his case, the ^"^husksP It was an article generally used in feeding the swine. Certain is it that this was the food the prodigal son wanted, and which no man gave to him, and many suppose it was the food of John, called in this case ^^locusts^^ The fruit is now used by the common people as an article of food. It has a sweetish smell, and is not at all unpleasant to the taste. Well, here, boys, I must leave you. You can think of me encamped near the Jordan, from whence I shall go to a spot where ! know you would like to be with me. Rip Van Winkle. lA BETHLEHEM. IN BETHLEHEM. OLD KHAN. "Where do you suppose Rip Van Winkle will take us to-night?" asked Fred of his two fellows, on the day when the next budget was to be opened. " I don't know," answered Charlie, " but I presume he will return from the Jordan to Jerusalem, and his letter will be from that city," " I think not," said Will. " The master has plenty of time on his hands, and I do not think he will turn back so soon. He may go I go RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. through the desert to Egypt, and if so we shall find him on the Nile. But we shall see when we meet to-night." " Don't you sometimes peep into the letter before you open it in the Triangle? " asked an outsider who was by. " On my honor, no! " " I should think you would." "We agreed some time since that the letters should be opened in public meeting, and shall hold to it." "Shall I come to-night?" "Yes, glad to have you." " I know of several who will be present." " Yes, we have invited twenty-five — as many as our parlor will accommodate." " Then I will be there." When the hour arrived a goodly company of gentlemen and ladies was present, and the Triangle opened in the usual way, and the letter was opened, and found to be dated at Bethlehem. I left you last week at the ford of the Jordan, where we cut walk- ing sticks, and gathered flowers. A brisk trot on our poor horses brought us to the Dead Sea, a very memorable sheet of water, and one that you would like to bathe in. We met with no adventure on the way, though the region is infested with robbers who will attack any party that may not be strong enough to resist them. Not long before we were there, an Englishman in company with a clergyman from Phila- delphia, with their two wives, took it into their heads to visit Jordan without an armed escort. They reached the river in safety, but in crossing over to the sea were met by bandits w^ho robbed them of ever3'thing they had, taking every article of clothing they wore, and leaving them to get back to the city in the best way they could. As one approaches the Dead Sea, he is conscious of a drowsiness: which sobers and saddens him. It may be the emotions, or the deso- l82 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. iation of the surroundings, but few fail to feel it. The spirits go down, vivacity ceases, and a sadness comes over all the senses. The sea is called in Scripture, " the Salt Sea," the " Sea of the Plain," the " Sea of Arabah," and the " Sea of Sodom." It is forty-six miles long CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY. by ten and a half wide, an oblong pool containing about two hundred and fifty square miles area. As already remarked, it lies one thou- sand three hundred and sixteen feet below the Mediterranean Sea. It is very deep, measuring, only a mile from the northern end, over one thousand three hundred feet. The chief characteristics of the EASTERN GLEANERS. 1 84 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. water are its weight and saltness. A gallon weighs about three pounds more than common water, and has in it over three pounds of saline matter, of which one pound is of common salt. Ordinary sea water contains only one-half pound of saline matter to the gallon. It has been a common idea that a bird trying to fly across the sea would soon inhale the poisonous vapors and fall dead into the water. But this is not so. Birds do fly over the waters, though there is so little to attract them that they are not often seen about the sea. They keep away from it because there is nothing there for them to feed upon. Now and then a shrub is seen growing, but vegetation finds little to support it there. The shores of the north end are covered with black coal-like bituminous stones, which will burn if put into a hot fire. They resemble in appearance a slaty kind of coal. A bath in the water is more novel than comfortable. A New York clergyman who went in says: "I cannot conceive worse tor- ture than that plunge caused me. Every inch of my skin smarted and stung as if a thousand nettles had been whipped over it. My face was as if dipped in boiling oil, and the skin under my hair and beard was absolute fire; my eyes were balls of anguish, and my nos- trils hot as the nostrils of Lucifer. I howled with pain; but I sus- pended when I heard my friend's voice. He had swallowed some of the water, and coughed it up into his nose and the tubes under his e3'es. The effect was to overcome all pain elsewhere while that tor- ture endured. It came near being a serious matter with him; and, as it was, his voice suffered for a week, his eyes and nose were inflamed as if with a severe cold, and the pain continued severe for several days. Recovering our feet with difficulty, we stood, pictures of de- spair, not able to open our eyes, and increasing the pain by every attempt we made to rub them with our wet hands or arms." Our party were soon floundering about upon the water. It was quite amusing. Portly men would float upon the surface like a cork. Tall thin men would act like a pole — if one end was down, the other IN BETHLEHEM. 185 end was up. A little scratch or bruised spot upon the body would be the source of intense pain as soon as the water touched it. On cominof out the skin is found covered with a saltish scurf that is quite unpleasant. Generally, travellers visit the Dead Sea first and wash off the salt in the Jordan afterward, but we had tried the Jordan first, and were to suffer the salting process all through that sultry burn- ing day. The shrubs growing on the shore of the lake are the lotus and the osker plant. The lotus is described by Lynch, as " having small dark- green, oval-shaped, ivy-like leaves. Clustering thick and irregu- larly upon the crooked branches, are sharp thorns half an inch in length. The smaller branches are very pliant, which, in connection with the ivy-like appearance of the leaves, sustain the legend that of them was made the mock crown of the Redeemer. Its fruit, as I have before mentioned, is subacid, and of a pleasant flavor." The osher plant bears what are called the apples of Sodom. These apples are about the size of a small lemon, filled with bitter juice, which when dried changes to ashes. Thus they are spoken of by Tacitus: "The herbage may spring up, and the trees may put forth their blossoms, they may even attain the usual appearance of matur- ity, but with this florid outside, all within turns black and moulders into dust." Josephus in his description of them says, "Which fruits have 3 color as if they were fit to be eaten ; but if you pluck them with your hands, they dissolve into smoke and ashes." About half way down the lake is the famous pillar of salt, known as " Lot's wife." For ages such a pillar is said to have been in existence, and now and then allusions have been made to it by travellers. Lynch, in his Dead Sea expedition, found it, as it had been described at Usdum: "Soon, to our astonishment," he says, "we saw on the eastern side of Usdum, one-third the distance from its north extreme, a lofty, round pillar, standing apparently detached from the general mass, at the head of a deep, narrow, and abrupt J 36 ^IP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. chasm. We immediately pulled in for the shore, and Dr. Anderson and I went up and examined it. The beach was a soft, slimy mud encrusted with salt, and, a short distance from the water, covered with saline fragments and flakes of bitumen. We found the pillar to be of solid salt, capped with carbonate of lime, cylindrical in front, and pyramidal behind. The upper or rounded part is about forty feet high, resting on a kind of oval pedestal, from forty feet to sixty feet above the level of the sea. It slightly decreases in size upwards, crumbles at the top, and is one entire mass of crystallization. A prop, or buttress, connects it with the mountain behind, and the whole is covered with debris of a light stone-color. Its pecu- liar shape is doubtless attributable to the action of the winter rains." By some ill-fortune our dragoman when we returned from the Dead Sea left his skins containing water behind, and we were an hour on our way before the loss was discovered. At length when thirst began we inquired for drink, and found that we had none. This was a bad condition of things. We had several hours' ride before us. The sands of the scorching desert over which we rode were hot and blistering. The Syrian sun was pouring down its hottest beams, and the thermometer stood at one hundred degrees. "How far is it before we come to water .^" we asked of our dragoman. " Half hour," was the reply. We thought that we could stand that very well, though the salt sea had parched our lips, and terrible were our sensations. We rode on half an hour, and then inquired again, " Dragoman, how far is it to water ? " " Half hour," he replied. Still on we rode another half hour, and again asked the same question, and received the same answer. "You rascal," we replied, "you told us an hour ago that we SHEPHERD BOY OF BETHLEHEM. /88 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. should come to water in half an hour — now tell us truly how far it is before we can get any water to drink." Finding himself driven to the wall, the dragoman put spurs to his horse, saying, "Water is half hour — hour — hour and a half." And this was the only reply we could get all that day. "Do tell us, dragoman," we would say, "how long it will be before we reach some spring or well where we can find water," and the same unsatisfactory reply would be given, " Half hour — hour — hour and a half." I never knew what thirst was before. I thought I had experienced it. I had read about it in books. I had heard of men left for days without water on the sun-heated deck of some ship, but I never knew the meaning of that word, thirst! Hour after hour we rode on in the scorching heat, brains throbbing, pulses beating, heads aching, and senses failing. At length in the middle of the afternoon we came to water. It was in a sort of excavation under a rock. The water had drained down from some recent rain, and was a foot or two deep. The top of it was covered with a green slime, and one or two dead owls were lying on the surface. That was the water we were to drink. Out of that cistern we were to obtain our supply. Under ordinary circumstances the idea of drinking such water as that would have been so revolting that we should have turned away in deep disgust. But not so then. We were thirsty. We knew the meaning of that word. So we lowered our tin cans down into the pool, and drawing up the thick, putrid liquid, swallowed it without com- punction. And, certainly, no Cochituate, with Lake Wenham ice in it — no Croton, from crystal goblets, ever tasted so delicious as that stuff from that well in the desert. Only once that day did we get a glimpse of the Bedouin robbers of the wilderness. In the forenoon, a company of them saw our train moving along, and dashed across the plain to intercept us, but on coming near found that we were too strong for them, and with a few curses hurled harmlessly at our escort, I no RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. they strapped their long guns over their shoulders and rode hastily away. Late in the afternoon we reached the convent of Mar Saba, one of the most remarkable in the world. There we were to stop after our toilsome journey. On entering, the monks furnished us with lemonade, arakee^ and other drinks, w^hich w^e took according to our tastes and inclinations — some the harmless lemonade, and some the fiery arakee, an intoxicating liquor distilled from anise seeds, and other sweet herbs of the region. This convent is located in a ravine through which runs the brook Kedron, and is said to be the most " extraordinary building in Palestine." The convent was founded by St. Sabas in the year 483. It is partly natural, being hewn in the cliffs, and partly artificial, chambers having been built out, and projecting over the valley below. Imagine a deep ravine, with a high ledge of rocks, or series of bluffs, rising precipitously from it, and these rocks excavated, pillared, chambered, and fortified, so that it seems as if the very precipice itself was one vast edifice, and you have some conception of this convent. It is wildly picturesque, and is a study for the curious traveller. After supper we went in through these queer chambers which are used by the monks for various purposes. They did not put us into cells at night, but provided for us in the large dining-room of the convent. The most remarkable room we saw there w^as the charnel-house, in which they keep the monks after they are dead. For a year, we were told they are allowed to lie in their monkish habits, and then their bones are cleaned and they are housed away in this hideous chamber. We saw one or two monks, embalmed as we suppose, spending their pro- bationary year in their robes, waiting for its expiration, to be taken to pieces and fixed out for a final disposal. The history of the founding of the convent is this: " St. Sabas, the founder of the convent, is said to have been born in the year a. d. 439. He was a man of extraordi- nary sanctity; and assuredly no stronger proof could be ^;iven of the IN Bi^THLEHEM. igv high veneration in which he was held than the fact, if fact it be, thai he drew thousands of followers after him to this dreary region. Some writers affirm that as many as fourteen thousand swarmed to this glen and its neighborhood during the saint's life. Sabas w^as a native of Cappadocia, but at a very early age he devoted himself to conventual life, and went to Palestine. After visiting many parts of the country in search of a home, he withdrew to this spot about the year 483, and began to form a religious community. He soon afterwards founded the convent, which still bears his name. He subsequently received from the Patriarch of Jerusalem the appoint- ment of archimandrite, or abbot of all the anchorites of Palestine. In the controversy raised about the Monophysite heresy, which so troubled the Church during the early part of the sixth century, he took a leading part; and on one occasion, with a little army of monks, he marched to Jerusalem, drove the emissaries of the heretical Patriarch of Antioch from the city, though accompanied by imperial troops, and pronounced anathemas against him, and all those of his communion, in the presence of the emperor." The saint died — for saints will die, in 532, after which, for twelve centuries, his holy home was a place of blood, sometimes being held by one faction, and sometimes by another, until now, a peaceful community of monks inhabit it, and it is a hotel for travellers on their way from the Dead Sea to Bethlehem. A story is told by the monks, and many believe it, that when the saint came here, he found one of the crevices in the rock which he supposed would make an admirable place for a recluse to live in poverty, retirement, and with God. But on climbing to it, he found a fierce lion to be a prior occupant. The saint told him his purpose; and the king of beasts, appreciating his pious wish, left the premises, and for years brought the hermit his food day by day, and at night slept at his door as a faithful sentinel- Several ages have added to this place, so that now it is so extensive that no stranger could find his way through it. 192 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. BETHLEHEM, LOOKING EAST. No lady is ever allowed within the gates of this strange edifice. Were a woman dying, she would not receive permission to enter. Sometimes in perilous times, however, when the country was so filled with roDoers tnat it would be utterly unsafe to stay in camp outside, women nave Deen hoisted from, the outside to the top ^i the high IN BE7IILEHE.}r. j^^-, tower, and thus allowed to remain over night. There is not rrruch huspit.'ihty, nor much gallantry in this, but it is a way the monks have. When Mr. Prime was at this convent, he trieJ to take his wife in, but was not successful. " When the door at which we stood was opened," he says, "we found a lay brother there who was not booked up in the traditions. He politely invited us to enter. I asked him if Miriam could be admitted; aid he said there was no objection. I waited a moment to send back to the tents for her; and he, in the mean time, stepped into the refecior}^ to consult an older authority. When Miriam arrived, we advanced as icX as the descent of the first steps, into the great court by the tomb of the saint, but there we were arrested by a cry that might have roused his bones, if the profane footsteps of a female had not already disturbed him. The father superior and a dozen brothers were begging Miriam to go out; and she paused a moment to enjoy their terror, and then retired to the gate, where a venerable monk soon joiited her; and, making a thousand apologies, and relating the traditions \.o Ler great amuse- ment, led her to the east tower, where she could look down into tne convent, and where she was supplied with bon-bons, sweetmeats, jellies (and arakee!) ad libitum^ while we entered the sacred pre- mcts." It is a wild and strange place, and as in the evening we wandered out, and looked up to the grotesque structure, we could not prevent imacrination from investinor each cell with nameless horrors and infernal tragedies. The valley of the Kedron, on the side of which the convent is built, or rather into the sides of which it is built, is about four hundred feet deep, and six hundred feet across from height to height; and the whole has been very appropriately styled a "city of caverns." When morning came we were glad to gallop out the gates, and leave the dim, frightful old nest of caves behind us. A brisk ride of three and a half hours along the banks of the Kedron, across the 13 194 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS dreary plateaus, brought us within sight of Pethlehem. As we rode toward the town we were reminded of the olden times. Shepherds were near, watching theii flocks on the hills and in the valleys, as tbey did eighteen hundred years ago. The day was quiet, and all nature was hushed to calm repose. The words of Milton came to mind as we advanced, — " No war nor battle sound Was heard the world around ; No hostile chiefs tc famous combat ran ; But peaceful was the night In which the prince of light, His reign of peace upon the earth began. The shepherds on the lawn, Before the point of dawn. In social circle sat : while all around, The gentle fleecy brood, That cropped the flowery food. Or slept, or sported on the verdant ground." It seemed almost as if we should hear the angels sing, and w» paused as Ave read the account of Messiah's birth — listening as we read to catch ■^ome seraph's anthem in the sky. When near the town we met groups of young girls and children, Did men and young men, coming out and going in, forming a beautiful and picturesque spectacle to the eye, and as the low wailing music fell on the ear, it seemed the sweetest place we had visited. You can hardly conceive of the beautiful effect of the whole scene, the costumes ot the country cor esponding so finely with the natural scenery, the whole effect heightened by the flowing robes and the shcwv colors. Bethlehem! What sacred memories cluster around this place! The word signifies — " House of Bread," and the town is sacred in the annals of the people of God. Here Jacob buried Rachel; here Ruth came and gleaned in the fields of Boaz; here Jesse lived at the time David was anointed king; and here, greatest event of all, -"Iljjlll^^ ..^^1 .\'-ZMi.N OF ilETHLEHEM 196 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. the son of God commenced his earthly career, and the sacred majesty of heaven put on a robe ot flesh. Driving at once to the church and convent, v\^e were in the midst jf the sacred places. They are all under this church and convent edifice. The grotto of the Nativity, or the stable in which the Lord was born, has been recognized for seventeen centuries. It is beneath the church, which was erected by the Empress Helena in the year 328. The grotto, cave, or stable, as it formerly was, is a natural cavity in the rock, thirty-eight feet long by twelve in width, and is reached by crowded passages. Passing through these passages and entering the room, you find that the monks have marked every spot with an exactness which throws discredit on them all. There, under sixteen silver lamps, that are never allowed to go out, is a slab cover- ing the exact spot, it is said, where the Virgin Mary gave birth to the son of man. Holding a candle down to the slab, you find a Latin inscription, which reads as follows : " Hie de Virgins Maria yesus Christus natus estP '^ Here Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary." Near by is a stone trough, which is pointed out as the manger wherein the Lord was laid after his birth. Another spot is marked as the one where he was arrayed in swaddling bands. Though the exact spots are of course, uncertain, the cave is doubtless the one in which Christ was born. Indeed, writers who are skeptica, on many of the places, give credence to this. Dr. Robinson saj '^The Cave of the Nativity, so called, at Bethlehem, has been pointed out as the place where Jesus was born, by a tradition wi:iich reaches back at least to the middle of the second century. At that time Justin Martyr speaks distinctly of the Saviour's birth, as having oc- curred in a grotto near Bethlehem. In the third century, Origen adduces it as a matter of public notoriety, so that even the heathen regarded it as the birthplace of him whom the Christians adored. Eusebius also mentions it several years before the journey of Helena, and the latter consecrated the spot by erecting over it a church." JA BETHLEHEM. ig^ Another subterranean cave is shown as the study of St. Jerome, •sirhere so many years of his toilsome life were spent, a fit place for a man to be alone and wrestle with God. An old portrait of the saint yet hangs in the room, which is dim and dreary enough for any recluse. There is at Bethlehem what is called ''The Milk Grotto." I should not omit a reference to that. " Tradition relates," says the historian, "that the Virgin and Child hid themselves here from the fury of Herod for some time before their flight to Egypt. The grotto is excavated in the chalky rock, which derives its whiteness, say th^ monks, from some drops of the Virgin's milk which accidentally fell upon it. Many are the pilgrimages made to this spot, and the reason is, the virtue attributed to the stone of miraculously increasing woman's milk. The stone is soft, and bits are broken off, and conveyed to every province of Europe, Asia, and Africa, in which Christian superstition has established its dominion, to be administered to such as need its wondrous efficacy. Even the Abbe Geramb bears testimony to its virtues. ^ I shall make no remark,' he states, * on the virtue of these stones or on its causes. I merely affirm, as an ascertained fact, that a great number of persons obtain from it the effect they anticipate.' " The few hours spent in Bethlehem are memorable ones. The quaint town, the attentive monks, the dim and dreary convent, the suggestive associations, all add interest to the dajT dfA the occasion. From Bethlehem we rode to the extensive pools of Solomon, troiti whith the king, in an aqueduct yet extant, carried water to the cit} of Jerusalem. Then on to the capital, whic'i we reach at dusk, entering by the way of Olivet, taking the road which the Saviour took when they carried him over in triumph, and soon we were at our camp ground, under the branches of fig-trees cooling ourselves in the door of our tents. Before closing this long letter, which I will soon do, I wish tv 198 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. speak of a few things in general. I was afraid when I set out for the Holy Land that I should find things so different from what I had expected and imagined, that my feelings would be constantly shocked. But It was not so. Not only in Jerusalem, but throughout Palestine, I found things very much as I expected to find them, and indeed as I wanted to find them. The face of the country, the topography of the Holy Land, corresponded with my general idea; and the habits and customs of the people, so little changed from what they were centuries ago, seemed to bring up before me the narratives of that blessed Saviour, whose words are ever fresh and new. The hills looked us I thought they would look; the people dressed as I expected to see them; the cities, towns, and villages, v^e^e as I had heard them described. The roads everywhere were dreadful. Indeed there were no roads worthy of the name, and I often wondered how our dragoman could take us through the country without being confused and losing his way. Sometimes the precipices were so steep that we were obliged to dismount and let our horses pick their way down as best they could, and again and again have I seen them roll over and over. At other times we pursued our way for miles over rough, ragged, rolling stones, that turned, and slid, and wabbled, and rolled as we trod on them, or as our horses put their feet into them. Sometimes the only way we could advance was to follow the bed of a stream, the water splashing on us as we rode along. I think there is only one decent carriage road from Mount Sinai to Mount Lebanon, and that has been- built from Beyrout to Damascus, by the French government, That admits of heavy carriages, has been built at a great expense, and has required considerable time to complete it. The climate we found much more favorable for our explorations than we had anticipated. Onl}^ one day — that on which we journeyed from the Dead Sea to Mar Saba — did the mercury in the thermom- eter rise higher than 100°, and on one occasion, at five o'clock in the IN BETHLEHEM. IQ9 morning, it was as low as 34!°, but generally ranging from 00' to 80°. At almost every turn one is meeting something to remind him of Scripture, something to prove and illustrate the truth of the words of Christ and his apostles. The whole land is a sublime illustration of the truth of prophecy. The declarations of God are written, not only in the Bible, but they are burnt into the soil of Palestine. Jerusalem is the fulfilment of prophecy. Jericho, Capernaum, Tyre and Sidon, are fultilments of prophecy. Everywhere the truth of God is seen in the history and condition of this land and people. Everywhere the :ruth of the Bible is seen in the destruction of cities and the wreck of once populous countries. Rip Van Winkle. 200 KIP VAN WINKLE 'S IkA VEL6. IN HEBRON. ABRAHAM S OAK. Before leaving Bethlehem, the party with Rip Van Winkle at its head rode out gayly to visit a cave, famed in ancient history — the Cave of Adullam. It is about five miles from Bethlehem, and a ride of little over an hour brought the travellers to it. It is near the base of Jebel Fureidis and w^ell answers to the description of the cave in which David hid. Dr. Thomson's description of his visit would answer for that of our party. " Having passed eastward of Tekoa, we descended a shallow wady for about a mile to some curious old buildings which overhang the tremendous gorge of Wady Urtas there called Khureitiin, which is also the name of the ruins. Leav- ing our horses in charge of wild Arabs, and taking one for a guide, we started for the cave, having a fearful gorge below, gigantic cliffs A\- HEBRON. 201 aDove, and a path winding alang a shelf of rock, narrow enough to make the nervous among us shudder. At length, from a great rock hanging on the edge of this shelf, we sprang by a long leap into a low window which opened into the perpendicular face of the cliff. We were then within the hold of David, and, creeping half doubled Arough a narrow crevice for a few rods, we stood beneath the dark vault of the first grand chamber of this mysterious and oppressive HEBRON. cavern. Our whole collection of lights did little more than make the damp darkness visible. After groping about as long as we had time to spare, we returned to the light of day, fully convinced that, vv^ith David and his lion-hearted followers inside, all the strength of Israel under Saul could not have forced an entrance — would not have even ttempted it. I see no reason to disturb the tradition which makes tnis the hold into which David retired with his father's house and his faithful followers when he fled from Gath. David, as a shepherd l6ad'ng his flocks over these hills, was doubtless acquainted from his 202 ^IP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. boyhood with all the intricacies of this fearful cavern, just as these Arab shepherds, his successors, now are, and what more natural, therefore, than that he should flee thither in the day of his extremity? It was out in the wild desert, far from the haunts of Saul, and nc: likely Xo be visited by him. It was also in the direction of Moab, CAVE OF ADULI.AM. whither he sent his parents and the women of his train, while he abode still in the hold. Again, we know that many of his subsequent exploits and escapes from Saul were in this region and south of it; and, finally, there is a sort of verbal accuracy in speaking of the topography — David's family are said to have gone doivn to him from Bethlehem. Now this cavern is nearly two hours to the southeast of HEBRON AND CAVE OF MACHPELAH. 204 ^^^ VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. that village, and the path descends rapidly nearly the entire distance. Let us therefore acquiesce in the tradition that this is the Adullam into which David fled fi )m Gath, and in w lich he first collected and organized his band of trusty followers." Hebron. It was early morning when the first view o± Hebron, the old royal city of David, was first taken. It was an inspiring sight, and must have been magnificent wnen the place was m its former glory and splendor. Of course, within, like all the old cities of Palestine, there is an annoying disappointment, but approaching the city of Hebron from the northeast, a very fine view is obtained. The objects to be seen in Hebron are the pools, the Cave of Machpelah, the manufactories of glass and filigree work — each on a small scale, to be sure — the mosque and a few other things. The city is reduced in population greatly from what it once was. It has now only seven thousand inhabitants, but these people are much more respectable and thrifty than those found in Jericho, Bethlehem, or Jerusalem. Here, in the vineyards around Hebron, the spies sent out by Moses found the magnificent fruit which they carried back to show to the people as evidences of the fertility of the land. There is little now to suggest the grapes of Eshcol, or the vineyards of the earlier days. Waste, decay and desolation are written all around. And yet it is not hard to see what might be done here with proper cultivation. The natives make raisins of the grapes that are produced and send them to distant markets. The pomegranates also abound in this vicinity. Dr. Thompson speaks of this fruit, which was greatly es- teemed. "There are several kinds of them," he says, "in this country. In Jebaah, on Lebanon, there is a variety perfectly black on the out- side. The general color, however, is a dull green, inclining to yel- low, and some even have a blush of red spread over a part of their surface. The outside rind is thin but tough, and the bitter juice of it IN HEBRON. 20^ stains everything it touches with an undefined but indelible blue. The average size is about that of the orange, but some of those from Jaffa are as large as the ^^g of an ostrich. Within, the "grains " are arranged in longitudinal compartments as compactly as corn on the cob, and they closely resemble those of pale red corn, except that they are nearly transparent and very beautiful. A dish filled with these " grains " shelled out is a very handsome ornament on any table, and the fruit is as sweet to the taste as it is pleasant to the eye. They SOLOMON S POOL. are ripe about the middle of October, and remain in good condition all winter. Suspended in the pantry, they are kept partially dried through the whole year. The flower of the pomegranate is bell or tulip shaped, and is of a beautiful orange-red, deepening into crimson on some bushes. There is a kind very large and double, but this )cars no fruit, and is cultivated merely for its brilliant blossoms, which Are put forth profusely during the summer." The Cave of Machpelah is the wonder of the city. It is the 2o6 ^IP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. Westminster Abbey of Hebron. Here lie the bodies of Abraham, Isaac, ana Jacob, with their wives Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah. What a company sleeping together in death! For ages no Jew nor Christian was allowed to enter the cave. Death would have been the penalty had any adventurous traveller dared descend into the dismal abode But in 1862 the Prince of Wales and his suite were allowed to enter, and others have since followed. If you care to read more than I have written, you can obtain various details in the work of Dean Siuniey who accompanied the Prince of Wales, and who had facilities fot obtaining information which have been granted to no other travellei since the days of the Hebrew kings. Rip Van Winkle. IN EGYPT. 207 IN EGYPT. The Professor now leaves the land made sacred by the life^ memories and death of the Saviour of mankind, and with his compan- ions, journeys through the desert of Sinai, toward the dark coast of Egypt. He has been fortunate in finding so pleasant a party to travel with. The gentlemen composing it are men of culture, good habits, and rare ^onv^ersational powers, and Rip Van Winkle finds himselt a congenial spirit in their society. They agree to go to Egypt together, and so he can have the benefit of their company and kindness for many days to come. The pleasure of a foreign tour depends very much upon the good fempei and kindly spirit of those who travel together. Some parties 2Qg RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. Split asunder, and the persons comprising them separate before half their tour is over. Want of congenial tastes, varieties in disposition and temper \ead to this, and the party is broken up before it has had time for the v^arious persons to become acquainted with each other. It was not so in this case, but every day cemented the friendship between the men who had fallen into company. Mi-. Van Wert gives ?his account of his experience in Egypt. Cairo. W^e have now reached the prominent Egyptian city. S^ou may care to hear how we got heie, and as if gives you some Oi my experience in camel riding, I may as well tell you about it. At Hebron, we took camels and horses, and joined some other parties who were to proceed through the desert of Egypt. Person^ who have never used these ships of the desert, as camels are callea. know little about the sensations of those who take passage on them, They soon become seasick on the dryest land, and get down from the hump with as much pleasure as a seasick boy lands from a yacht in New York harbor- To mount, to ride, and to dismount, art' rtil awkward proceedings. But we get used to each process. When v\^e have passed the boundaries of Palestine, and are out upo^ Lhe desert, the Arabs, who have been quiet and stolid in the town^ and cities, seem to be in their native element, and give themselves up to hilarity and mirth. They have thrown off the incubus whici civilization seems to put upon them, and are wild with jo}'. One da;;, two or three of them Cc