THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY •ij? cK 220.S Ool rr\ 1 j%. 1 This J within i Pers< ! Pected UNIVERSITY OF Illinois library Ax URBANA-Ci i. -iVIPAIGN SlACKS > Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates https://archive.org/details/mountainshighlanOOsoci KH' i the mmt OF THE WKIV586ITV Of iUMIMt MOUNT ARARAT. MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. LONDON: SOCIETY FOE PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE ; SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORIES : 77, GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS ; 4, ROYAL EXCHANGE ; 48, PICCADILLY ; AND BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. LONDON : Printed by Truscott, Son, & Simmons, Suffolk Lane, City. .nag Ac a PREFACE. 5)o^tt\ It is a gratifying characteristic of the present day, that so general an interest should exist in all that is connected with the Holy Land. The most intellectual and gifted are never weary of research and inquiry respecting it, and the humblest artisan solaces his hours of recreation in reading of it, or hearing lectures upon it. “ Artists,” says a well-known writer “ love to portray its venerable scenes, and all men gaze on their efforts with wonder and delight. The divine, the scholar, the philo- sopher, and the poet, the subjects of most kingdoms, the dwellers in distant climes, all have bent, and are daily bending, their steps to the land of Scripture history.” And this a 2 667 : IV PREFACE. is not surprising when we reflect that, small as is the territory of Palestine, there is yet no spot upon the face of the earth, with which can be associated so various and so vast an accumulation of the highest historical interest. It is the place which God specially set apart for His great designs, and which contains no portion of ground which does not suggest inci- dents in the histories of patriarchs, prophets, apostles, priests, and kings, whose names supply the familiar links of that chain by which we are connected with the times of old. In this little volume we purpose to give descriptions of some of the most striking objects in the East, the Mountains and Hills mentioned in Scripture, interweaving the state- ments of various travellers who have visited and explored places of such lasting interest. Eor although the country has ceased to be PREFACE. V the seat of triumphant empire, her goodly cities being desolate, and her rich lands com- paratively waste, yet Nature is still the same, and in no page of her volume can we trace scenes of wilder grandeur, combined with more peculiar interest, than the one we have chosen for our subject. ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Mount Ararat 1 Mount Bashan 39 Mounts Ebal and G-eriztm 79 Mount Seir 94 View in Lebanon 102 Mount Sinai or Horeb 154 Mount Tabor 183 Mount Zion 193 CONTENTS PAGE Chapter I. Mount Ararat .... 1 „ II. Mount Ararat .... 16 55 III. Mount Ararat .... 27 55 IY. Bashan and Gilead . 39 „ Y. The Mount of Beatitudes . 55 55 YI. Mount Calvary 61 55 VII. Carmel 55 Yin. Mounts Ebal and Gerizim 79 55 IX. Mount Ephraim .... 86 5) X. Mount Gilboa .... 90 55 XI. Mount Seir 94 55 XII. Lebanon 102 55 XIII. Lebanon . 107 55 XIY. Lebanon 118 55 XY. Lebanon 55 XYI. Mount Moriah .... 133 55 XVII. Mount of Olives .... . 138 55 XVIII. Mount of Precipitation . 145 55 , XIX. Quarantania . 150 5) XX. Mount Sinai or Horeb . 154 55 XXI. Mount Sinai or Horeb . 159 55 XXII. Mount Sinai or Horeb . 169 55 XXIII. Mount Sinai or Horeb . 176 55 XXIV, Mount Tabor .... 183 55 XXV. Mount Zion . 193 / THE MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE, CHAPTER I. MOUNT ARARAT. ARMENIAN TRADITIONS — PROFESSOR PARROT’S FIRST AND SECOND ATTEMPT TO ASCEND THE MOUNTAIN. “ And the Ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the Mountains of Ararat.” — Gen. viii. 4. The name Ararat is, in Holy Scripture, applied to the country upon the mountains of which the ark rested on the subsidence of the flood. There is scarcely a people in the East who do not claim for the mountains of their own land the honour of having afforded a resting place to this miraculous refuge of the second parent of mankind. Thus we are informed by Sir A. Burnes, in his travels to Bokhara, that on the road to Peshawar and Cabul, where the Sufued Koh, or “ White Mountain,” rears its crest on one side, and the towering hill of Kooner on the other, the Affghans believe the ark of Noah to have rested. Another sacred B 2 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCBIPTURE. mountain, connected by tradition with the same event, is Adam’s Peak, in the island of Ceylon. But there can be no doubt that the name Ararat • belongs properly to the country inhabited by the children of Togarmah (Gen. x. 3.), which was subsequently called Armenia. The word is found so applied in Jer. li. 27, and 2 Kings xix. 37. It is a high table land, upon which stands the celebrated mountain generally known as Mount Ararat, which is called by the Turks Aghri Tagh , or 4 4 the Painful Mountain,” from the difficulty of ascending it. The table land is about 7,000 feet above the level of the sea, and the higher of the two summits of the mountain rises majestically more than 10,000 feet above this, being about 1,500 feet higher than the summit of Mont Blanc. The difficulties which formerly beset every at- tempt to make any scientific researches on this mountain, while it constituted the landmark between two hostile states, were sufficient to repress the ardour of the most zealous traveller and naturalist. But when the peace between Russia and Persia in 1828 took place, the domain of Christendom was extended beyond the river Araxes, and Mount Ararat became the boundary of the Russian empire on the side of Turkey and Persia. The Russian professor, Dr. Parrot, then determined, with the sanction of the Emperor, to ascend a mountain which for many years he had earnestly desired to explore. He was accompanied by two gentlemen MOUNT ARARAT. 3 who employed themselves in making zoological and botanical observations and collections. His Imperial Majesty not only gave the scheme his full approval, but commanded a courier to attend the travellers, and on their return repaid all the expenses they had incurred, and conferred the order of St. Anne of the second class on Professor Parrot. And well bestowed was the dignity, for, as Baron Humboldt remarks, “We cannot praise too highly the candour and extreme love of truth, with which the Professor carried out his noble exertions in the behalf of science.” In the “ World surveyed in the Nineteenth Century,” Mr. Cooley has given a long and interesting detail of the journey from Russia. We must here nearly con- fine ourselves to the latter part of his history of the undertaking (adding a few particulars from other writers), and describe only the most striking incidents in the ascent of Mount Ararat. The whole land of Armenia abounds with tra- ditionary stories about Noah’s ark, and the flood. The Armenians call Ararat, the Mountain of the Ark ; the Persians, the Mountain of Noah, It is a common belief that the remains of the ark still exist on the summit, though the wood is converted into stone; and in a church near the junction of the two Armenian rivers, Aras and Kur, they actually show a cross which they state was many centuries ago made out of one of its planks. In 1720, Peter the Great sent some Armenians and b 2 4 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. Kussians to ascertain if the ark was still to be seen, and they were scarcely credited when they stated that nothing of the kind existed. The report, however, in no way shook the confidence of the credulous, who with great reason stated that the summit of the mountain was unapproachable. The Armenian monk who procured the plank from which the cross was formed, had been, it was said, when nearly exhausted by his efforts to ascend, met by an angel who compassionately procured and handed him the precious relic. The higher regions are usually clothed with clouds, and when- ever these are dispersed, and the summit is unveiled, the devout Armenians fall on the ground, cross themselves, and pray. At Erivan they show the spot where Noah first planted the vine. The name of another town, Nachichevan, means, according to Chardin, “ place of descent,” and the place is said to be where Noah first settled, when he came out of the ark. On approaching Mount Ararat from the convent of Elschmiadsin, where he had been most hospi- tably entertained by the priests, Professor Parrot seems to have been impressed with emotions similar to those which the Holy Land never fails to excite in the minds of Christian travellers. A thunder- storm enveloped Ararat at the moment, “but the rolling of the thunder,” says the Professor, “did not disturb me ; I enthusiastically indulged now in the contemplation of the country spread before me MOUNT ARARAT. 5 — the longed-for goal of my undertaking; now in deep reflections on an ancient period replete with the most interesting historical events. How could it be otherwise ? I was at the foot of Mount Ararat, the mountain of the patriarch Noah.” Sir Robert Ker Porter paints in glowing colours his approach to Ararat from the north. “It ap- peared,” says he, “as if the hugest mountains of the world had been piled upon each other to form this one sublime immensity of rocks, earth, and snow. The icy peaks of its two heads rose majes- tically into the clear and cloudless heavens ; the sun blazed bright upon them, and the reflection sent forth a dazzling radiance equal to other suns. My eye, not able to rest for any length of time upon the blinding glory of its summits, wandered down the apparently interminable sides, till I could no longer trace their vast lines in the mist of the horizon — when an irrepressible impulse immediately carrying my eye upwards, again refixed my gaze upon the awful glare of Ararat.” To the same effect writes Morier : — “Nothing can be more beautiful than its shape, more awful than its height ; all the surrounding mountains sink into insignificance when compared to it. It is perfect in all its parts ; no hard, rugged features, no unnatural prominences, every thing is in harmony, and all combine to render it one of the sublimest objects in nature.” b B 6 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. At the convent of St. James, and the village of Argnri, situated on the sloping base of the moun- tain, Professor Parrot received a kindly welcome from the hospitable priests, and he particularly mentions the kindness of some shepherds. “ We met,” says he, “ with a great flock of sheep, and as, notwith- standing the advanced season of the year, we suffered exceedingly from the heat, the obliging shepherd, who had a little store of sheep’s milk ready for himself, liberally gave us as much of it as we desired. I found it an excellent cooling drink, one which may be taken even in the greatest heat without risk, and at the same time is of an agreeable flavour.” At the convent preparations were made for the ascent. Though the priests expected no good issue to such an undertaking, they threw no obstacles in the way. On the 24th of August, 1829, at seven o’clock in the morning, Professor Parrot started on his way, attended by M. Schiemann, one of the medical students who had accompanied him from Russia for the purpose of making zoological obser- vations. One of the Kossaks who had also accom- panied him, and a peasant from Arguri, a hunter, were also of the party. They directed their steps first to a deep ravine, and then along its left de- clivity, till they came to a spot where there were two small buildings of squared stone, standing near each other, one of which was formerly a chapel, and the other erected over a well, reputed MOUNT ARARAT. 7 to be holy. To this well the Armenians are in the habit of making pilgrimages for the performance of religious ceremonies, after which they amuse them- selves with discharges of fire-arms, and other demonstrations of jpy. A curious tradition is attached to this almost solitary spring of Ararat. The country of Armenia is subject to incursions of locusts, which come in immense swarms, and will in one day lay waste whole tracts of land. It is believed that these creatures can neither be dis- persed nor destroyed, except by a kind of bird resembling a starling, which visits the country in flocks when the mulberries are ripe, and soon rids the country of the devouring plague. To entice them to so useful a work the Armenians take a vessel filled with water from this holy well, and place it where the locusts are committing their ravages, when a flock of the birds is said to appear ' immediately. — The Arabs say that they do not eat many of the locusts, but attack them with the beak and talons, killing as many of them as possible; and that the insects take fright at the cry of the birds. — Mr. Robinson tells us that, in riding through some part of Syria, he met with many flocks of the locust bird, and that almost every one of them had a locust in its mouth. From the chapel and well the party ascended the grassy eminence which forms the right side of the chasm, but suffered so much from the heat that the Kossak, who would much rather have galloped b 4 8 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. for three days together through the steppe on horseback than climb over the rocks for two hours, declared that he was ready to sink with fatigue, and was sent back. About six o’clock in the evening the others had almost reached the snowy region ; and here they stopped for the night in the clefts of the rocks, at an altitude of about 12,000 feet above the level of the sea. The night was cold, the temperature of the air being at freezing point. The peasant guide, Isaac, who had nothing but his summer clothing, in which his neck and legs, from the knee to the sandal, w T ere quite naked, was quite dispirited with the cold, until the Pro- fessor, having no spare clothing, wrapped him in some sheets of grey paper, which had been brought for the purpose of drying plants. At daybreak, they continued the journey towards the eastern side of the mountain, and soon reached the declivity which runs immediately from the summit of the great peak. It consists entirely of sharp rocky ridges coming down from above, having between them ravines of considerable depth, into which the icy mantle of the summit sends down glaciers of great extent. Several of these rocky regions and chasms filled with ice lay between them and the side of the mountain which they were striving to reach. When they arrived at the top of the second ridge Isaac lost the courage to proceed further ; his limbs, still half-frozen by the cold of the preceding night, had not recovered their natural glow; he MOUNT ARARAT. 9 came to a stand-still, and thus the party lost both the guides, one by heat, and the other by cold. The two gentlemen then successfully surmounted one by one the rocky crests, making deep holes with their ice-poles in the glaciers, until they reached the extreme upper edge of the rocky ice. They had now attained an elevation equal to that of Mont Blanc, being 15,666 feet, yet the summit of Ararat lay far above them, like a smooth cone of snow. The afternoon, however, was too far advanced to permit of their hoping to ascend much further by daylight ; and as they could see no rock near the summit which would afford them shelter during the night, and as their stock of provisions was but small, they resolved to return. Having made some barometrical observations, and having had the satisfaction of knowing that the mountain was by no means inaccessible on this side, they turned about, and immediately fell into a danger they had not at all anticipated. In the descent of any moun- tain the tread is made less firmly than in going up, and it is still more difficult to tread securely where there is a surface of ice and snow, when, if any slip is made, there is nothing to stop the way but the sharp-pointed masses of stone in which the region of ice and snow loses itself. Mr. Schiemann, wdiose courage had probably been proof against severer trials, here lost his presence of mind; his foot slipped, and he fell, but, as he was about twenty paces behind, the Professor had time to thrust his 10 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. pole firmly into the ice, to take a sure footing in liis snow-shoes, and while he held his pole in the right hand to catch him, in passing, with the left. The position was well chosen, but the straps which fastened the ice-shoes of the Professor broke, and instead of being able to stop his friend he was carried with him in his fall. Mr. Schiemann was so fortunate as to be stopped by some stones, but the Professor rolled on for nearly a quarter of a mile, until he reached some fragments of lava, near the lower glacier. In this accident the tube of the barometer was broken to pieces, the chronometer burst open, and all the contents of his pockets were turned out, but the Professor happily escaped without severe injury. As soon as they had re- covered from the fright, and had thanked God for so merciful a preservation, they collected as many of their scattered articles as they could find, and resumed the journey down. By cutting steps in it, they crossed a small glacier, and soon afterwards heard, with joy, the voice of their guide Isaac, who, in expectation of their return, had lighted a fire of dry grass, and by it they passed the night. On the third day, about ten in the morning, they reached the monastery, where they refreshed them- selves with peaches and a good breakfast, carefully avoiding any allusion to the fall they had encoun- tered. The Armenians would not have failed to discover therein the divine punishment on so rash an attempt to arrive at the summit of a spot, access MOUNT ARARAT. 11 to which, they held, had been forbidden to mortals by Heaven. On the following day the Professor had a severe attack of fever, of which, he says, he entirely cured himself by the simple use of tea, and a little garlic eaten with salt and bread. He then set about mending the barometer, and made preparations for another ascent of the mountain. He hired attend- ants and beasts of burden, provided food, and got ready an inscription on a strong leaden plate, which he intended to take with him to fasten to a cross to be erected on the highest point. This cross was of fir-wood, ten feet long. It was painted black, and easily taken asunder. Before they started, on the 18th of September, the cross was put together, consecrated, and anointed with holy oil by the principal of the convent. It was then taken apart, and fastened on the oxen. About half-past eight Professor Parrot, his two friends, a deacon named Avovian, four Armenian peasants, three Russian soldiers, and a driver for the four oxen, set out on the expedition. They, this time, tried the ascent of the mountain from the north-west side, where the way, though considerably longer than on the eastern declivity, is in general much less steep. For some little time they met with paths over withered grass, but then came to a tract covered with volcanic sand and shingle, in which they sank ankle deep. About eleven o’clock they arrived at a stony, precipitous tract, when the Professor and 12 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. his friends were obliged to alight from the horses on which they had come thus far, and send them hack by the Kossaks, who had accompanied them for the purpose. A little Persian pony, on which the peasant Stepan was mounted, seemed better able to endure the hardship of travelling on such rough ground, and carried his tall master with un- wearied strength and activity over the steepest and most dangerous places. They next reached a plain, well carpeted with grass, where, after five hours uninterrupted ascent, they were glad to rest and refresh themselves with soup, which they heated by means of a fire made of the dry dung scattered round this summer pasture-ground, while the cattle made a hearty meal on the half- green herbage. At six o’clock, having reached a height of more than 13,000 feet, they fixed their night quarters among some large and conveniently-placed masses of rock, and kindled a fire with fuel which they had brought with them. The cattle were turned loose, to feed as they could. The Professor was suffering too much from a contusion on the hip, received on the last journey, to be able to sleep, but was ready at half-past seven in the morning to resume the march. In about two hours they reached the limits, of the ice and snow, the immediate ascent to which was particularly fatiguing, from the steepness of the crags, which consisted of masses piled one upon the other. These offered good angles and edges for the hands and feet, but threw gieat- im- MOUNT ARARAT. 13 pediments in the way of carrying np the cross. Various expedients were tried in vain, until at length one of the Armenian peasants, seeing that the plan of taking it was about to be abandoned, threw the long beam over his shoulders, and then drew the end of his frock over it from behind : with this heavy burden he contrived to make his way up the rugged and winding path. For an instant the party halted when they reached the pyramid of snow projecting with wonderful grandeur against the clear blue sky, and then in silence set foot upon that region which “ certainly,” says the Pro- fessor, “ since the time of Noah, no human being had ever trodden.” At first the progress was easy, but at length, to avoid constantly sliding back on the ice, they were compelled to cut steps; for which purpose some of the party had brought little bill- hooks and ice axes, while others used the ice staffs. The general rule in the ascent was, that the leader should only cut the ice just enough *to allow himself to mount, and that each as he followed should enlarge the step; and thus, while the labour of the foremost was lightened, a good path was prepared for the descent, in which a much firmer footing was required. This proceeding caused great delay to the travellers. In the pre- ceding stony region they had been able to gain about 1000 feet of elevation in an hour, but they could now with difficulty clear 600 feet. After crossing a most perilous crack in the ice, and 14 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. ascending a moderate slope, they found themselves on a nearly level plain of snow. Here, to the great sorrow of the party, they were obliged to stop in their progress, for a strong, humid wind arose, which is generally the precursor of a snow-storm. The Professor, having sought out a spot visible from the monastery, or at least from Erivan, pro- ceeded to erect the cross, which had been brought, up with so much care and difficulty. While some were employed in cutting a hole about two feet deep in the ice, with bills and poles, others joined together the timbers of the cross with two strong screws, and over the joint, fastened in like manner with screws, placed the leaden plate, weighing twenty-seven pounds. The cross was then raised, and with pieces of ice and snow firmly fixed in the hole. From its being painted black, and strongly relieved by the steep snows of the summit, the Professor considered that, with the aid of a tele- scope, it would be distinctly visible from below. It was with great reluctance that the party relinquished the hope of reaching the summit; but, even if the weather had been more propitious, they were not provided with means for spending the night on the snow. Consoling themselves, therefore, with the hope of a third and more successful attempt, they turned, and without any accident, beyond a transient giddiness to one of the party, reached, before night had fully set in, the place where they had rested at noon on their way up. Here the sturdy guide, MOUNT ARARAT. 15 Melik, found his horse, the oxen, and the drivers, for they had sagaciously determined on descending from the inhospitable rocks and glaciers among which the party had left them, to wait for their return in a spot more welcome to the weary travel- lers. They gladly warmed themselves at a brisk fire, for they had hardly quitted the snowy region in the descent, than a heavy fall of snow covered the whole tract. Having partaken of the evening repast, they sought shelter for the night under the large rocks scattered in great numbers over the plain; and on the following day, at about ten o’clock in the morning, again reached the monas- tery of St. James. Here they again took up their abode for some days, in order to make careful preparations for a third attempt to ascend the mountain. 16 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. CHAPTER II. THE MONASTERY OF ST. JAMES — VILLAGE OF ARGURI — PARROT’S PREPARATIONS FOR HIS THIRD ASCENT — THE ARCHIMANDRITE — THE FALL OF ARARAT. The church of the Monastery of St Janies is built in the form of a cross, with a cupola in the middle, and is entirely formed of hard lava. Against the walls of this, clay buildings are erected, in some of the apartments of which the Professor and his party were simply, though hospitably, entertained. Their furniture consisted of the blankets, pelisses, cloaks, and chests, which they brought with them. Their dinner-table was a singular piece of basket-work of split wood interwoven, not quite so high as a com- mon seat. Those who did not like to eat standing, seated themselves on a large stone. The room being too dark for the numerous and important observations to be made with the instruments, a tent of sailcloth and woollen was pitched in the middle of the court, and the Professor, for the purpose of watching instruments so valuable, here took up his night quarters with them. Comfortable arrangements were made for the subsistence of the travellers, who were, including Kossaks and soldiers, seventeen in number. The courier was despatched MOUNT ARARAT. 17 to Erivan, with money for the purchase of provi- sions. One of the soldiers was an excellent cook; another, somewhat advanced in years, was appointed superintendent, to distribute the rations, and for- mally to report to the Professor every morning, according to military custom, whatever had occurred. The fodder for the horses, eleven in number, con- sisted partly of barley — for oats are not cultivated in this country — and partly of hay, the procuring of which, at that season of the year, and particu- larly after a dry summer, gave some trouble. A sheep could be bought in Arguri whenever neces- sary, and eggs, milk, and chickens could also be had there. But the Professor had been obliged at first to lay a strict interdict on that place, as the plague had been raging, and a few persons in it were still not quite recovered; all dealings, therefore, were carried on with great caution. The people who came from the village were not allowed to stay in St. James’s a moment longer than necessary. The sheep they purchased were sprinkled with chloride of lime, as well as the woollen sacks in which the barley for the horses was brought. But far better flavoured, and more nutritive than the mutton, was the flesh of wild hogs, shot by the Kossaks among the reeds of the river, a large por- tion of which was salted in a great crock which happened to be in the monastery. These hogs are of a dirty, darkish, yellow grey colour, and lie con- cealed in great numbers, issuing forth only at night, 18 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. to the rice-fields of the Tatars, on which they commit terrible devastations. The inhabitants, therefore, as soon as the rice begins to ripen, watch the fields at night, having dogs with them, which they set upon the hogs. In this way the latter are some- times caught, and torn to pieces in the fields. The peasants often petitioned the travellers to shoot the wild hogs. The river in which they most abounded had very marshy banks, extending in some places for miles, covered with an almost impenetrable growth of reeds. On one of these expeditions, they shot a hog which weighed more than 280 lh. "While the Kossaks were skinning it, the Tatars gathered round, begging for the lard, to serve as ointment for wounds. One of the Kossaks, to get rid of them, threatened to anoint them with the fat of the beast, which is to them an unclean one, and jeeringly asking why, if they really wanted the lard, they did not shoot this beast themselves. They would not even receive the much -prized ointment in their fingers, but split a piece of wood, so as to make a rude kind of forceps to hold it. Mr. Schiemann did not fail also to supply the table with game, and dried fish was brought by the inhabitants for sale, particularly a well-flavoured kind of salmon trout. The Archimandrite, or chief of the convent, obligingly supplied them with cream, for which they daily provided him with tea and wine. With the latter they were con- stantly supplied in goat-skin bottles from Erivan. MOUNT ARARAT. 19 In this country, wine is never kept in casks, but either in earthen jars buried in the ground, or in leathern bottles. These latter are made of the skins of goats, oxen, and buffaloes, turned inside out, washed, and rubbed over with mineral tar, or, as it is called, naphtha. This, as might be sup- posed, gives an unpleasant flavour to the wine, which, however, is partly lost after the skins have been some time in use, and they then become more valuable than new ones. The openings of the skin are closed with a sort of wooden bungs, except at the feet, where they are tied with cords. The wine is drawn from a foot merely by untying one of the cords. It is a strange and whimsical sight to the stranger to see the skins of oxen, buffaloes, and goats, full of wine, lying in the wine-booth, or in the streets, with their legs stretched out. These skins are, however, very convenient either for home use or for carriage ; for they may be had of all sizes, some very small, as the skins of young kids, which hold but a few bottles. The jars which are used for keeping wine are of clay, and of very large size, generally from six to seven feet high, holding from 1,000 to 1,500 imperial gallons, sometimes more. They are firmly sunk in the ground to the brim, and when filled with wine the mouth is covered with a round piece of slate, and heaped over with earth, which serves the double purpose of preserving the wine, and hiding the place where it is buried. From Erivan also they procured c 2 20 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. groats, lentiles, dried apricots, raisins, rice, onions, salt, pepper, sugar, tea, and rum — the last three articles at a very high price, the sugar costing from two to three rubles (six to seven shillings) a pound. Occasionally they had a basket of grapes and other fruit, particularly apricots, from the magnificent groves of these trees which abound near Arguri. From some springs about half a mile distant they were obliged to get their supply of water, that of the Arguri brook being so muddy as to be only fit for the cattle and for cooking. It contained such a quantity of earthy particles, that it was also quite unfit for washing, and this process conse- quently took place at the springs, which issued from the rocks. At first they were but ill off for bread. The Armenians make use of a kind which, whatever its good qualities in other respects, wants the flavour and nourishment requisite for the European palate and stomach. It is called “ cosh.” It is generally made in cakes a yard long, half a yard wide, and not thicker than the blade of a knife, rolled out of slightly fermented dough. Being spread on a leathern cushion, it is pressed against the inside of a heated oven, to which it adheres : in two or three minutes it is baked through, and here and there burnt a little ; it is then torn off to make room for another. The oven is of a peculiar kind ; it is a pit in the chamber or porch of the dwelling, wide at the bottom, narrow above, well coated with MOUNT ARARAT. 21 fine plaster, and heated with wood ; when not in use it is covered over. This cosh is the bread universally used among the Armenians, and it serves many purposes. At meals, the table is covered with it; and every one partaking has a whole cosh set before him, to use as a napkin with which he may wipe his mouth. When sour milk is a part of the feast, a piece of cosh is broken off and folded up so as to make a spoon ; it is then dipped in the bowl, and bread and milk are swal- lowed together. Kaw and preserved roots and stalks of edible plants, which are always to be found on the tables of the Armenians, are, with the addition of a bit of fish or meat, wrapped up in a piece of cosh, and the whole eaten together. Another kind of bread, called Bocken, sometimes made use of in Armenia, is baked in flat round cakes about an inch thick ; but this did not supply the place of European bread, and the soldiers were so desirous of finding something more to their taste, that, after various experiments, they succeeded in making some very good and whole- some bread of rye-meal. Neither in the monastery nor in the village was there a trough to be procured large enough to prepare the dough in, wood being in this country an expensive article, and wooden ware almost unknown. But the Kossaks, though without trough, oven, or table of wood, contrived to attain their object. Close to the monastery was a steep bank of clay mixed with sand ; in this they c B 22 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. made an excavation for an oven : a stone that fitted the opening served as a door ; a hollow within it, well coated with plaster, was the trough in wdiicli the dough was kneaded, and left to ferment for two days; another level and smooth place in the same bank did duty as a table. The whole kitchen apparatus of the travellers consisted of two iron pots and one pan, which, when taken from the fire, were set upon the table without any ceremony ; for smaller matters they had a pair of tinned dishes, fitted for travelling, with half a dozen plates tinned in like manner. Each of the gentlemen had his knife and fork, silver spoon, and glass. The wood for the cooking- fire was fetched from a considerable distance, and consisted merely of twigs and branches. For the fire in their own apartment they used the dry dung which in that country the people collect and lay by for fuel, just as we do wood ; it is easily kindled, and throws out a great heat without any unpleasant odour. It was procured in great quantities, as the inhabitants of Arguri lived by the breeding of cattle and horses. This Armenian village was the only one upon Mount Ararat. It contained about 275 families, with a well-built church, a pastor of its own, and a village elder or chief, of respectable condition; the richer class had vineyards adjoin- ing the village, and these were, according to tradi- tion, on the spot where “ Noah began to be a husbandman, and planted a vineyard.” The people MOUNT ARARAT. 23 are described by tlie Professor as living in great peace and contentment, and he appears to have become quite attached to the venerable Archiman- drite of St. James, from whom the party met with so hospitable a reception. u In a poor monastery on the high steeps of the lofty Ararat, completely separated from what in Armenia may be called the civilized world, attended by two servants only to look after his household and his little stock of cattle, the Archimandrite might have led a happy life in the edifying con- templation of God’s works and providence, and might have enjoyed an enviable lot, if by resigning riches and worldly greatness he could also have escaped the grasping selfishness and covetousness of the Persian subordinates, who extended their arbitrary levy of contributions even to the poor monastery on the heights of Ararat, carried off the cattle reared with so much care, and did not scruple even to personally maltreat the venerable old man.” That general place of rest to which he had attended so many of his brethren had con- sequently become an object of desire to him ; and since he could not hope that after his death any one would take the trouble to bestow pains on his tomb, he made it his amusement to prepare it himself. For years he was in the habit of working at his own tomb on the pretty hill not far from St. James, on which is the burial-ground of Arguri. After having dug the grave, he was employed in c 4 24 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. lining it neatly with stones ; and daily might the old man be seen in his worn-out garments, the trowel and some mortar in his hands, going off* with a contented heart to add stone to stone, until perhaps exhausted with the effort he would fall asleep, resting on the stone which was to cover his future grave. This tombstone, which had been made by a stone-cutter, was covered with an Armenian inscription. But the remains of the venerable old man now rest under a mightier monu- ment; for in the summer of 1840 Armenia was visited by a violent earthquake, which shook Ararat to its foundation. The immense quantities of loose stones, snow, ice, and mud then precipitated from above in an instant overwhelmed and destroyed the monastery of St. James, and the ancient village of Arguri, with its thousand inhabitants. The earth- quake also spread destruction far and wide in the plain of the Araxes. It was first felt at Ararat on the 20th of June, a little after six in the evening, and continued with alternating shocks and an undu- latory motion of the earth for two minutes. Streams of mud and melted snow poured down from the great chasm, and covered the fields and gardens to the distance of seven miles. Throughout the vil- lages in Armenia the habitations laid in ruins amounted to between six and seven thousand. Had not the earthquake taken place at the hour when the Easterns generally quit the shelter of their roofs to enjoy the freshness of the open air, MOUNT ARARAT. 25 its effects would have been much more fatal ; but it does not appear that above fifty people, exclusive of those who perished on Ararat, lost their lives on the occasion by being buried in the ruins of their dwellings. Shocks were daily felt in the villages near Ararat till the 26tli of June, each continuing about two or three minutes. It was on the 24th that the great fall, as it has been called, of Ararat took place. It was at the commencement of the earthquake that the monastery of St. James and the village of Arguri were buried. But as the ice and snow which, mixed with rocks and earth, had been precipitated from the summit, gradually melted, the whole mass lost its stability, and about nine o’clock in the morning of the 24tli it began to move with extraordinary rapidity down the mountain, so that in an incredibly short space of time the rocks and mud spread to a distance of twelve or fourteen miles in the valley of the Araxes. The debris of the trachyte formed a blue mud, which poured down in a stream from eighty to one hundred feet deep in some places, and seven miles wide. About the 7tli of July it ceased to flow, and soon became completely dry. The result of this fall has been a vast increase in the size of the great chasm (which has been already mentioned), from which the accumulation of rocks and ice, made during ages, has been swept away. The snowy summit of Ararat has sunk considerably. Of the monastery of St. James not 26 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. a vestige remains. The meadows round it, where thirty families of Kurds who were encamped there perished, are now covered deeply with the deposit of mud. At Arguri some of the dwellings have been cleared by the Kurds seeking for treasures. They are found to be completely filled with mud and rubbish ; and, from the condition of the side walls, compared with that of the roofs, it is evident that they were overwhelmed and crushed from above. MOUNT ARARAT. 27 CHAPTEE III. parrot’s THIRD ASCENT — THE SUMMIT OF ARARAT — THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE MOUNTAIN— AUTONOMOFF’s ASCENT. We will now return to the Professor and his party, whom we left making their arrangements for a third ascent of Mount Ararat, in the now buried con- vent of St. James. A decidedly favourable change having taken place in the weather, the Professor, on the afternoon of the 25th of September, sent to ask Stepan, the peasant of Arguri, if he would join the party, but received from him an answer that he still felt too sore, from the toils of the preceding excursion, to attempt another so soon. But he sent four active peasants, as requested, and also three oxen with a driver for hire. The experience acquired in the former ascents made them aware that everything depended on their spending the night as near as possible to the limits of perpetual snow, so as to be able to reach the summit, and return again on the following day. The loads of the cattle, and of the men, were therefore confined to what was absolutely indispensable. The oxen were loaded only with warm clothing, food and fire-wood, with a small cross made of strips of oak 28 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. two inches in diameter, so that the longer piece not inconveniently served as a staff to the man who carried it. About noon they reached the grassy plain, and sent back the horses on which they had ridden. After taking breakfast and resting about an hour and a half, they again pro- ceeded, but, finding that the oxen could not get on so fast as themselves, they halted at the foot of a towering pile of stones, over which the poor animals could have scarcely climbed, and, freeing them from their loads, distributed the burden fairly between the party, and then sent them back with their keeper. At half-past five o’clock they had attained a much greater height than on the previous occasion, and were close to the border of the snow. The large masses of rock scattered about sheltered them for the night, but, as they were nearly 14,000 feet above the level of the sea, the cold was very severe. A good fire, and a warm supper, were, therefore, particularly acceptable. “I had some onion broth,” says Dr. Parrot, “a dish which I would recommend to all mountain travellers in preference to meat broth, as being extremely warm and invigorating.” This refreshment the peasants could not share in, a church holiday compelling them to fast, but they partook of some bread and a very small portion of brandy. At daybreak they arose, and began the journey at half-past six, crossed the last broken declivities in half an hour, and entered the boundary of perpetual snow. But, MOUNT ARARAT. 29 in consequence of the great change in the tem- perature, the new fallen snow, which had facili- tated their progress on the former ascent, had melted, and its surface had frozen, so that, in spite of the still inconsiderable slope, they had to cut steps in the ice. This very much embarrassed their advance, and added greatly to their fatigue. One of the peasants had remained behind at the resting- place, as he complained of illness, and two others now became so exhausted in ascending the glaciers, that they first lay down, and then retreated to the quarters where they had spent the night. Without being disheartened by these difficulties, the travellers continued their way, and soon reached a great cleft which marks the upper edge of the declivity of the large glacier. At ten o’clock they arrived at the great plain of snow, which marks the first break on the icy head of Ararat. At about the distance of half a mile they saw the cross which they had reared on the 19th of September, but it appeared so small, that the Professor began to almost doubt whether it could be seen, even with the aid of a telescope, from the plain of the Araxes. A shorter, but somewhat steeper, declivity than the one they had ascended, now lay before them, and between this and the extreme summit there appeared to be only one small hill. After a short rest they passed the first and steepest precipice by hewing out steps in the rocks. But here, instead of seeing the end of their difficulties, 30 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. immediately before them appeared a series of small hills, which wholly concealed the summit from their view. This, for a moment, rather abated their courage, which had hitherto not yielded, and their strength, exhausted by the hard work of cutting steps in the ice, seemed hardly adequate to the attainment of the now invisible object of their wishes. But a review of what had already been accomplished, and of what still remained to be done, invigorated the Professor to banish his fears, and, casting a glance of encouragement at his brave companions, he boldly continued to ad- vance. They crossed two more hills, and the cold breeze of the 'summit blew towards them. “I stepped,” says the Professor, “from behind one of the glaciers, and the extreme cone of Ararat lay distinctly before my enraptured eyes. Only one other icy plain was to be crossed, and at a quarter past three on the 27th of September, 1829, w r e stood on the summit of Mount Ararat.” Having attained this longed-for object of his wishes, the Professor spread his cloak on the snow, and sat down with feelings of deep gratification to enjoy the prospect around him. The summit of the mountain is a slightly convex and almost circular platform, above 200 feet in diameter, from the edges of which there is a steep declivity on all sides, forming the silver crest f)f Ararat, composed of enduring ice, unbroken by a rock or stone. The view of the valleys and regions around the base of MOUNT ARARAT. 81 Ararat was obscured by a grey mist, and the hills in the neighbourhood appeared like dark spots no bigger than a man’s hand. About thirty feet below the summit, where there was a better chance of its being seen from the valley than there was on the top, the cross was planted. After remaining on the summit about three quarters of an hour, and partaking of a little bread and wine, they rapidly descended, one after another, by means of the deep steps cut in the ice. The sun was getting low, and before they reached the snowy plain of the great cross it had sunk beneath the horizon. It was a magnificent spectacle to observe the dark shadows thrown by the mountain, on the plain beneath, mingling gradually until deep darkness covered the whole of the valleys, and gradually rose higher and higher on Ararat. At last the snowy summit itself was veiled by the shades of night, and the journey down would have been one of great peril, if the moon had not risen to throw light on their footsteps. About half-past six they reached the place of bivouac, where a cheerful fire and a warm supper refreshed the enterprising travellers. On the next morning they returned in safety to the convent of St. James, where they offered their grateful thanks to Heaven for the success of their perilous enterprise, perhaps not far from the place where Noah also offered thanks, and “ built an altar unto the Lord.” After what has been said of the prejudices of the Armenians, 32 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. it will scarcely excite surprise that many of them were found to express their disbelief in the success- ful performance of Professor Parrot’s undertaking. And what was scarcely so pardonable, some scientific persons in Europe, after the Professor’s return to St. Petersburgh, expressed a similar doubt on the ground of the physical difficulties of the enterprise. To set the question at rest, Dr. Parrot took the trouble to get the oaths of his five companions on the journey taken by a magistrate. This strange unwillingness to believe in the achievement may be regarded as constituting a striking testimony to the difficulties which Professor Parrot overcame in his enterprise. The three journeys gave the Professor an oppor- tunity of becoming tolerably acquainted with the geology of the mountain. He found that it was an extinct volcano. A rich harvest, in a botanical point of view, was not to be expected, partly on account of the dry and rocky character of the country, where even lichens and mosses can hardly obtain a firm hold on the hard masses of lava, and partly on account of the advanced season of the year, when most of the smaller plants were withered so as to be no longer recognised. But what plants were found on the slopes of the lower region of the mountain, were observed to possess the distin- guishing character of Alpine vegetation. Their stems were either short and strong, or crooked and bent down, while the leaves and flowers were more MOUNT ARARAT. 33 compact and placed more closely together, than in plants of a similar kind in lower situations. The general reason of this difference is, that plants can hear only a certain degree of cold, and since the warmth of the air is derived by radiation from the earth, which is heated by the sun, while the ground on high mountains is kept at a low tem- perature by the cooler state of the atmosphere, it is easy to understand that those plants which at the bottom of the mountain grow a foot high, may, on the summit, find, at the height of a few inches only above the soil, the limits of temperature which confine their growth. Thus the different kinds of plants, in proportion to their usual size and their power of living under a ruder climate, become dwarfish. But besides this change of size in plants at great heights, they also undergo some special modifications with respect to their several parts. The root ordinarily becomes strong and thick. The flowers are quite perfect in size and every other particular : they for the most part unfold in great luxuriance, and with remarkable freshness of colour; and if a plant be followed on great heights to the very furthest limit at which it grows, it will be found that its flowers are there but little diminished, never deformed, and rather richer and more vigorous than usual. On the other hand, the leaves, the cuticle covering the stalk, and, in short, everything green about the D 34 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. plant, dwindles with the increased elevation of the place; and it may be observed that those parts which, on account of their greater strength, would seem much more capable of resisting cold than the flowers, are uniformly weaker and smaller. In the grasses, and other plants with slender leaves, this is less apparent; but in other kinds, the higher up they grow, the smaller the leaves become, until at last they no longer retain their natural form, they exchange their pure well-defined green for an ill-defined light yellow, and get the look of a thin membrane. These changes unquestionably arise from the thinness of the atmosphere, from which the leaves have to derive their nourish- ment. Professor Parrot had made these ob- servations during his travels in the Caucasus, and on the Swiss and Italian Alps, and they were con- firmed in his ascent of Mount Ararat. “It was,” says he, “ peculiarly agreeable to me to find on Ararat, as the highest plant, the same remarkable Cemstium which I had formerly gathered on the Kasbeg, in the Caucasus, far above the limits of perpetual snow, and to find it with the same singu- lar anomalies of structure.” In the same region, about 12,000 feet above the level of the sea, he found Saxifraga muscoides , with numerous flowers, but exceedingly small leaves. The Aster alpinus is a lovely ornament of these desolate regions, the leaves small, the stems scarcely half an inch high, but the flowers quite fresh, tolerably large, and MOUNT ARARAT. 35 of a beautiful violet colour. In company with it are the Aster pulcliellus, with its tufts of lilac blossoms, and other flowers which the Professor had observed on the heights of Caucasus. In the lower region, about 7,500 feet above the sea, the Juniperus oxycedrus and the Cotoneaster ripen their fruit. That walnut-trees, apricots, willows, and Italian poplars (these last of diminished size) can still grow well at the height of 6,000 feet above the sea, provided they find soil and moisture, is proved by their being found at the monastery of St. James. That birches also, though no longer straight and tall, are yet not quite overpowered by the climate at the height of 7,800 feet, is proved by the wood at the foot of Little Ararat. Sir Robert Ker Porter says, that on the sides of Ararat tigers and crows abound. Tournefort also says that the middle region, and even the borders of the snow limit, are inhabited by tigers — that he saw them within seven hundred yards of him. He adds, that the young ones are caught in traps by the people round the mountain, to be exhibited in Persian menageries. But there is nothing in Parrot’s narrative to confirm these statements. In the approach to Ararat, while his companion was making a sketch of their first view of the moun- tain from the Blackwater, a little stream in the plain of the Araxes, the Professor observed a number of cochineal insects, some of which were d 2 36 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. creeping about on the dry sand and short grass, but the greater part were collected together in large nests, round the roots of a short, hard species of grass — the Dactylis littoralis — which grows there in great abundance. He speaks of this discovery as being one which might, under proper manage- ment, become a source of profitable occupation to these provinces. The value of these insects is well understood in Persia, where they are used very generally for dyeing scarlet — as they are, in fact, through every part of the East. The scarlet dye employed in Europe is produced from the American cochineal insect, which lives upon several species of cactus, whence it derives its name of Coccus cacti . The Persian insect, the Coccus Polonicus, is some- what different; it takes its name from being pro- duced in Poland, from whence great quantities were obtained, before the discovery of America. The male is a winged insect, and is never used in dyeing ; the female is roundish, about the size of the kernel of a cherry, provided with very short legs, for creeping. It is quite soft, like a berry, and of the finest dark amaranth colour throughout. When dried, it shrivels up to the size of a grain of millet, and becomes covered with a bluish mould. The scarlet colour is obtained by infusion, with the addition of acids, and the purple by a solution of potash. The nests — which the Professor found embedded among the roots of the grass — consisted of three, four, ten, or twenty very hard cells, formed MOUNT ARARAT. 37 of a paper-like material, to suit the size of the animal, and irregularly arranged. In the winter, the insect falls into the chrysalis state, and the young ones make their appearance from the nests in the spring. The Professor made a report of this discovery to the Commander-in-chief of Erivan, and presented him with some specimens of the plants and insects. The Armenians now carry on a trade in cochineal. In 1834, an ascent of Mount Ararat, in the middle of August, was accomplished by a Mr. Autonomoff, a young man holding an office in Armenia, who was induced to make the attempt, partly to satisfy his own curiosity, and partly out of regard for the re- putation of Professor Parrot; whose having actually reached the summit of the mountain was still obstinately denied by some, who fancied that the fact would lower the sanctity of the mountain in the opinion of the people. Mr. Autonomoff succeeded in reaching the summit; the large cross set up by the Professor was nearly covered with snow; the smaller cross, planted on the summit, was not to be found, and was probably buried in the snow. One of his guides, who had also accompanied the Professor, showed him the spot where it had been set up. He asked some persons to look while he was at the top, and try if they could see him. On his coming down, however, nobody would admit having seen him there : many still affirmed that to reach the summit was impossible; and, though d 3 38 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. he and his guides agreed in their statements, the magistrates of the village refused not only to give him a certificate of his having ascended the moun- tain, but even of his guides having declared that he had done so. BASHAN. BASHAN AND GILEAD. 89 CHAPTER IY. BASHAN AND GILEAD. 44 All the oaks of Bashan.” — Is. ii. IB. ‘ 4 Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits.” — Is. xxxiii. 9. 44 Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thy oars.” — EzeJc. xxvii. 6. 44 Bams of the breed of Bashan.” — Deut. xxxii. 14. 44 Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.” — Ps. xxii. 12. 44 A high hill, as the hill of Bashan.” — Ps. lxviii. 15. Gilead 44 was a place for cattle.” — Num. xxxii. 1. 44 Their cattle were multiplied in the land of Gilead.” — 1 Chron.v. 9. 44 A company of Ishmeelites came from Gilead, with their camels, bearing spicery, and balm, and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.” — Gen. xxxvii. 25. 44 Is there no balm in Gilead — is there no physician there?” — Jer. viii. 22. 44 Go up into Gilead, and take balm, 0 virgin, the daughter of Egypt.” — Jer. xlvii. 11. The high land which runs along on the east side of the river Jordan, from Mount Hermon on the north to the mountains of Moab on the south, is divided into two portions by the river Hieromax — which, although not mentioned in Holy Scripture, appears to have been called by the Hebrews Jarmuk, a name which the Greeks turned into Hieromax. The northern of these two regions long retained the name of Bashan, and comprised the rocky table-land of Argob and the heights now known as “the Hauran,” which appear to have been called d 4 40 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTUKE. “the Hill of Bashan” (Ps. lxviii. 15); but the rest of the region is a level fertile tract, producing excellent pasture. Bashan was originally the kingdom of Og, the gigantic Amorite (Num. xxi. 33; Deut. iii. 11). When he was conquered, it was given to the tribes of Manasseh and Gad (Josh. xiii. 29, 30). Gilead, the southern of the two regions, was sometimes called Mount Gilead, from its surface being covered with hills and rocks. Its valleys and slopes, are, however, very fertile, and formerly produced the famous Balm of Gilead, which was an important article of commerce in very early times. A portion of Gilead was united with Bashan, under the dominion of Og, while the southern part belonged to Silion, King of Heshbon, the other great King* of the Amorites (Numbers, xxi. 26 ; Deut. ii. 24). It was subsequently divided between the tribes of Manasseh, Gad, and Beuben. — (Josh. xiii. 23, 24, 25.) The richness of the pasture land of Bashan, and the consequent superiority of its breed of cattle, are frequently alluded to in the Scriptures; the oaks are also mentioned in connection with the cedars of Lebanon, and in Ezekiel’s description of the wealth and magnificence of Tyre it is said, “ of the oaks of Bashan have they made their oars.” The country took its name Bashan from its fertile soil ; the word Bashan meaning “ fruitful hill.” Its fertile plains are intersected by basaltic BASHAN AND GILEAD. 41 ridges, which are connected with Anti-Libanus. It appears from the existing ruins that the towns of Bashan were chiefly built on heights, and modern travellers bear witness to the extreme fertility and beauty of the land. Buckingham, in travelling through this region, wore the dress and spoke the language of the Arabs, and thus maintained free intercourse with the people of the country. This enabled him to obtain information, and to make observations, which would have been otherwise inaccessible. He considers the lands of Bashan and Gilead as among the most interesting of the countries he had visited. “ Independently,” he remarks “ of the high interest which this portion of the Jewish possessions cannot fail to excite in the minds of all those for whom the illustration of scriptural topography and sacred history has any charms, its importance as the seat of ten Roman cities, giving the name of Decapolis to the region in which they were seated, must rouse the curiosity of the scholar to know something of their present state. The positions established here, of some among the threescore cities of Og, the King of Bashan, in the mountains of Gilead, will gratify the biblical inquirer; the ruins of some of the chief cities of the Decapolis will furnish food for the antiquarian ; and the Greek inscriptions amidst these ruins will be interesting to the classical student and the man of letters.” Mr. Buckingham remarks that the character of the country was quite different 42 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. from anything he had seen in Palestine. “ We were now in a land of extraordinary richness, abound- ing with the most beautiful prospects, clothed with thick forests, varied with verdant slopes, and possessing extensive plains of a fine red soil, now covered with thistles, as the best proof of its fertility, and yielding in nothing to the celebrated plains of Esdraelon and Zabulon in Galilee and Samaria. We continued our way through a country, the beauty of which so surprised us that we often asked each other what were our sensations, as if to ascertain the reality of what we saw, and persuade each other, by mutual confessions of our delight, that the picture before us was not an optical delusion. The landscape alone, which varied at every turn and gave us new beauties from every different point of view, was, of itself, worth all the pains of an excursion to the eastward of Jordan to obtain a sight of, and the park-like scenes that sometimes softened the romantic wildness of the general character as a whole reminded us of similar spots in less neglected lands. It was about noon when we reached a small encampment of Arabs, who had pitched their tents in a most luxuriant dell, where their flocks fed on the young buds of spring, and where they obtained for themselves an abundant supply of wood and water. After smoking a pipe, and taking coffee with the Arabs, we quitted them about one, and soon after saw a smaller party, consisting of about a dozen families only, BASHAN AND GILEAD. 48 halting to pitch their tents in a beautiful little hollow basin, which they had chosen for their place of encampment, surrounded on three sides by wooded hills. The Sheikh rode, while the rest of the men walked, as did also most of the women ; the boys drove the flocks of sheep and goats, and the little children the young lambs ; the kids and the poultry were all carried in panniers, or baskets, across the camels’ backs. The tents, with their cordage and the mats, the cooking utensils, the provisions and furniture, were likewise laden upon these useful animals. As these halted at every five steps to pull a mouthful of leaves from the bushes, the progress of their march was very slow ; but the patience of all seemed quite in harmony with the tardy movement of the camel, and it was evidently a matter of indifference to every one of the group whether they halted at noon or sunset, since an hour was time enough for them to prepare their shelter for the night. The camels are mostly of a whitish colour, and in ascending the banks of the Jordan we met large flocks of them, all of which were young and had never been burdened, as our guides assured us, though the whole number of those we saw could not have been less than a thousand. These were being driven down to the Jordan to drink, chiefly under the care of young women and boys. Among them, many of the young ones were clothed around their bodies with coverings of hair-tent cloth, while the elder females % 44 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCKIPTURE. had their udders bound up in bags, tied by cords crossing over the loins, and the males walked with two of the legs tied.” These wandering tribes, some of whom exclu- sively live on the produce of their flocks and herds, while others cultivate some small spots of ground, yet principally deriving their subsistence from their cattle, are consequently obliged often to change their abode. This mode of life is connected with the character of the country, in which two districts are frequently found contiguous to each other, one of which affords pasture in winter and is barren in summer, while the other yields pasture in summer and cannot be pastured with advantage in winter. But this state of things is very destructive to agriculture, under a weak and distracted govern- ment like the Turkish of the present day. These wandering tribes are difficult to keep in order, and they inspire the peaceful husbandman with such a dread of their depredations that he gladly pays them a tribute on condition of their not laying waste his fields and carrying off his cattle. Burck- hardt observes that the tax which the agriculturists of the Hauran pay to the wandering tribes dis- persed among them is much heavier than all the taxes imposed by their own chiefs ; and this is the reason why so fertile a country is neglected. Those tribes who never cultivate the ground wander about in the Arabian desert, where they pass the winter, which lasts from the beginning of October BASKAN AND GILEAD. 45 to tlie end of April, when the rain causes grass and herbs to spring up, on which their flocks feed ; hut they enter the limits of Syria, and especially Bash&n and Gilead, at the beginning of May, and remain there until after September. At this time they approach the caravan roads leading from Aleppo to Damascus and Mecca. They come to these places for a twofold purpose, water and pasture for their cattle during summer, and to exchange their cattle for corn as provisions for the winter. If they happen to be at peace with the Pacha of Damascus, they encamp quietly among the villages near the springs and wells in that neighbourhood. The following description, given by Mr. Parsons, of the movement of a numerous Arab horde, is extremely illustrative of patriarchal manners. “ It was,” he says, “ entertaining enough to see the horde of Arabs decamp, as nothing could be more regular. First went the sheep and goat-herds, each with their flocks in divisions, according as the chief of each family directed; then followed the camels and asses, loaded with the tents, furniture, and kitchen utensils; these were fol- lowed by the old men, women, boys, and girls on foot. The children that cannot walk are carried on the backs of the young women, or the boys and girls ; and the smallest of the lambs and kids are carried under the arms of the children. To each tent belong many dogs, among which are some 46 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. greyhounds ; some have from ten to fourteen dogs, and from twenty to thirty men, women, and chil- dren, belonging to it. The procession is closed by the chief of the tribe, whom they call Emir, and Father (emir means prince), mounted on the very best horse, and surrounded by the heads of each family, all on horses, with many servants on foot. Between each family is a division or space of 100 yards, or more, when they migrate ; and such great regularity is observed, that neither camels, asses, sheep, nor dogs mix, but each keeps to the division to which it belongs without the least trouble. They had been here eight days, and were going four hours’ journey towards the north-west, to another spring of water. This tribe consisted of about 850 men, women, and children ; their flocks of sheep and goats were about 5000, besides a great number of camels, horses, and asses. Horses and greyhounds they breed and train up for sale ; they neither kill nor sell their ewe lambs. At set times a chapter in the Koran is read by the chief of each family, either in or near each tent, the whole family being gathered round, and very attentive.” “ This wandering life, without ambition,” says a French traveller, “ brings to the mind of the traveller that of the ancient patriarchs. Nothing is more interesting than their manner of changing their abode and finding their homes, their hearths, and their country in every place.” Dr. Bussell states that BASHAN AND GILEAD. 47 the people of Aleppo are supplied with the greatest part of their butter, their cheese, and their cattle for slaughter, by the tribes of wandering Arabs, and that the patriarchs doubtless supplied the ancient cities of Canaan in like manner. We will now return to Mr. Buckingham and his party, who continued their progress over still more beautiful and luxuriant regions than those which they had traversed before. In three hours they arrived at a high plain, leading to a deep ravine, apparently caused by a convulsion of nature, which had cleft the hill in two. The height of the cliffs on either side, which were nearly perpendicular, was not less than 500 feet, while the breadth from cliff to cliff was not more than 100 yards. The plains at the top, on both sides, were covered with a light red soil, and bore marks of high fertility ; but the dark sides of the rocky cliffs that faced each other in the hollow chasm were, in general, destitute of verdure. “We descended,” says Mr. Buckingham, “ into the ravine by winding paths, since it was everywhere too steep to go directly down, and found at the bottom of it a small river, which flowed from the eastward, appearing here to have just made a sharp bend from the northward, and from this point to go nearly west, to discharge itself into the Jordan. The banks of this stream were so thickly wooded with oleanders and plane-trees, wild olives and wild almonds in blossom, pink and white cyclamen flowers, and others, the names of 28 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. which were unknown to us, with tall and waving reeds at least fifteen feet in height, that we could not perceive the waters through them from above, though the presence of these luxuriant borders marked the winding of its course, and the murmur of its flow was echoed through its long deep channel, so as to be heard distinctly from afar. Close thickets are also to be met with all along the edge of the Jordan, which would afford ample shelter for wild beasts ; and as the Jordan might overflow its banks, when swollen by rains, suffi- ciently to inundate the lower plain, though it could never reach the upper one, it was most probably from these that the lions were driven out by the inundation, which gave rise to the simile of the Prophet Jeremiah.* “ At the side of the stream,” continues Mr. Buckingham, “ near the spot where we forded it, was a piece of wall, solidly built upon the inclined slope, constructed in an uniform manner, though of small stones, and apparently finished at the end which was towards the river, so that it never could have been carried across, as we at first supposed, either for a bridge, or to close the pass. This was called by the Arabs ‘ the work of the sons of Israel,’ but they knew of no other traditions regarding it. The river where we crossed it, at this point, was not more than ten * “ He shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan.” — Jer. xlix. 19. BASHAN AND GILEAD. 49 yards wide, but as it w T as deeper than the Jordan, and nearly as rapid, we had some difficulty in fording it. As it ran in a rocky bed, the waters were clear, and we found the taste agreeable. This stream is called the river of Zerkah by the Arabs, from the name of the nearest place, which we had just passed through before coming here. From its position, there can be no doubt that it is the Jabbok of the Scriptures, which was the northern boundary of the Amorites, as the stream of Arnon was their southern one ; and this northern border, from its character, fully justifies the assertion of its strength. Josephus, in describing the geographical boundaries of the country of the Amorites, says, ‘ This is a country situated between three rivers, and naturally resembling an island, the river Arnon being its southern limit, the river Jabbok deter- mining its north side, which, running into the Jordan, loses its own name, and takes the other, while Jordan itself runs along by it on its western coast.’ ” This statement illustrates the passage in the Book of Judges, u and they possessed all the coasts of the Amorites, from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and from the wilderness even unto Jordan.” At the ford of the Jabbok was Peniel, where Jacob wrestled with an angel, when his name was changed to Israel, because as a prince he had power with God , and with men he had prevailed (Gen. xxxii. 28). “ We ascended the steep on the north side E 50 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCHIPTUEE. of the Zerkali, and, on reaching its summit, came again on the beautiful plain of an elevated level, and still covered with a very rich soil. We had now quitted the land of Sihon, King of the Amo- rites, and entered into that of Og, the King of Bashan. The mountains here are called the land of Gilead in the Scriptures and in Josephus; and, according to the Roman division, this was the country of the Decapolis, so often spoken of in the New Testament, or the province of Gaulonitis, from the city of Gaulon, its early capital. “ We pursued our way over this celebrated tract, continuing to view, with surprise and admiration, the beautiful country that surrounded us ; its plains covered with a fertile soil, its hills clothed with forests, at every new turn presenting the most magnificent landscapes that could be imagined. Among the trees the oak was frequently seen, and we know that this territory produced them of old. The expression of the fat bulls of Bashan, which occurs more than once in the Scriptures, seemed to us inconsistent as applied to the beasts of a country generally thought to be a desert, in common with the whole tract which is laid down in our modern maps as such between the Jordan and the Euphrates ; but we could now fully comprehend, not only that the bulls of this luxuriant country might be proverbially fat, but that its possessors, too, might be a race renowned for strength and comeliness of person.” BASHAN AND GILEAD. 51 “ As we continued to advance in a general course to the north-east the aspect changed. We came into cultivated lands sown with corn, the young blades of which were already appearing above the earth, from their having had gentle showers on the mountains, while all the country west of the Jordan was parched with drought. The general face of this region improved as we advanced farther in it, and every new direction of our path opened upon us views which surprised and charmed us by their grandeur and beauty. Lofty mountains gave an outline of the most magnificent character ; flowing beds of secondary hills softened the romantic wildness of the picture ; gentle slopes, clothed with wood, gave a rich variety of tints, hardly to be imitated by the pencil ; deep valleys, filled with murmuring streams and verdant meadows, offered all the luxuries of cultivation ; and herds and flocks gave life and animation to scenes as grand, as beautiful, and as highly picturesque as the genius of a Claude could either invent or desire.” “ It was about four o’clock,” continues Mr. Buckingham', “ when we reached the village of Boorza, which is seated on the brow of a hill towards the south-east, commanding before it, in that direc- tion, a prospect which no language can adequately describe. It appeared to contain from forty to fifty dwellings of stone, and we learnt that the whole of the inhabitants were nominally Mohammedans, though they have among them neither mosque nor e 2 52 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. priest, nor do they trouble themselves about reli- gion any further than to maintain its public profes- sion. The ruins of an old castle on an eminence, which occupied a commanding position, proved this place to have been anciently a post of defence. It was strongly constructed of stone, and in a square form.” This village Mr. Buckingham considers to have been the city of Bosor, in the land of Gilead, mentioned in the Maccabees as the one which Judas Maccabeus and his brother Jonathan, after travelling three days over Jordan, “took and burnt.” What is there called the garrison in which the Jews were shut up, may most likely be the identical ruined citadel now to be seen on the adjacent hill. “ About an hour’s distance from Boorza,” Mr. Buckingham continues, “we passed a large ruined building called the convent of Bamza, and on the side of a hill the ruins of a city of that name, most probably the ancient one of refuge, Kamoth in Gilead. This city was so called to distinguish it from other towns of the same name, and is first mentioned as one of the cities of refuge set apart by Moses on the east of the Jordan. On an oppo- site hill stand the ruins of what is supposed to be Jabesh Gilead, the scene of a battle between Saul and the Ammonites, in which the latter were dis- comfited. Nahash, the leader of the Ammonites, had come up to encamp against this place, and, on being asked to make a covenant, urged the strange condition of his being allowed to thrust out the BASHAN AND GILEAD. 53 right eyes of all the people, which the men of Jabesh requested seven days to consider of, during which time Saul came to their aid, and repelled their enemies. At a future period, as is well known, these men of Jabesh testified their gratitude by rescuing the bodies of the king and his sons from the hands of the Philistines, and burning them at Jabesh ; they then took their bones, buried them under a tree, and fasted seven days. — We continued our way from between the ruins of these two ancient cities, still towards the north-east, admiring, as before, the beauty of the country on all sides.” “ The prospects around us made us credit all that has been said of the ancient populousness of this district ; and while we felt the difficulty in many instances of identifying ancient positions with the perfect correspondence of all the re- quisite data, we conceived it highly probable that one place might be sometimes taken for another, in a kingdom of so confined an extent, yet so thickly spread over with populous* towns and vil- lages, and in which are said to have existed three- score great cities, with walls and brazen bars.” A recent traveller describes in terms as glowing as those of Mr. Buckingham, the fertile character of these lands, and speaks of having met with many flocks of sheep and goats, which were feeding by the way ; the long curling hair of the latter was of a beautiful glossy black, showing the beauty and e 3 54 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. propriety of the description in the sacred song, “My hair is as a flock of goats that appear from Mount Gilead” (Cant. iv. 1). In passing through a large flock of sheep, he remarked how familiar they appeared with the shepherd, showing no signs of timidity at his closest approach. THE MOUNT OF BEATITUDES, 55 CHAPTEE Y. THE MOUNT OF BEATITUDES. “ And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain ; and when He was set, His disciples came unto Him : and He opened His mouth and taught them.” — Matt. v. 1, 2. The hill which hears this name is of but little geographical importance, hut its celebrity, as the supposed hill on which the Sermon on the Mount was delivered, will not permit us to pass it un- noticed. It is about thirteen miles to the south of the modern town of Safet, the road from which descends for two hours, and then crosses several other hills before it arrives at the foot of this one, which, with its two summits, bears some resemblance to the back of a Bactrian camel. By the Arabs it is called “the Horns of Hattin,” from a village near at hand. “In front,” says Mr. Elliot, “there are several ranges of hills, rising one above another; the mountains of upper and lower Galilee, and the city of Safet, elevated above all, like a sentinel on a post of observation ; on the left is Tabor, on the north-west is the long high range of Lebanon, and on the right the sea of Tiberias, with the hills of Ituraea and Gaulonitis.” And with reference to e 4 56 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. Safet, as the city to which our Saviour is supposed to have directed attention as the city set on a hill (Matt. v. 14), the same traveller observes, — “Such is the height of Safet, that from every point where it is seen it cannot fail to form the most remarkable feature in the landscape ; and if the position assigned to our Lord, when delivering His discourse, he correct, Bethulia, which probably stood on the site of Safet, rose in unrivalled majesty immediately before Him.” “If,” says a late writer, “the traveller seeks on the northern shores of the lake of Gennesareth for the ruins of Capernaum, that city, once ‘ exalted unto heaven,’ hut now utterly ‘cast down,’ and pauses in his search to survey the mountains by which the lake is enclosed, he observes to the north of him hill rising above hill, in beauteous succession, and that the loftiest visible eminence is crowned by a castellated city, whose commanding situation is, perhaps, unrivalled in the world. If this strange prospect tempts his feet to the ascent, he is surprised to find the task less arduous than he had anticipated. Gradually one mountain after another is left below, and at last he arrives at a pyramidal hill, which overtops them all, and on the extreme summit of which the city stands. It now bears the name of Safet, and is thought to represent the Bethulia of which so much mention is made in the book of Judith; and it is also, with very sufficient probability, supposed to he THE MOUNT OF BEATITUDES. 57 that city to which our blessed Lord, in His Sermon on the Mount, directed the attention of His hearers, when he reminded them that ‘a city set on a hill cannot he hid.’ The elevation of the moun- tain attracts the clouds, and at Safet rains are frequent.” Dean Stanley thus speaks of the probability that the Horns of Hattin really mark the spot where our Lord delivered the Sermon on the Mount : “ The tradition cannot lay claim to an early date; it was in all probability suggested first to the Crusaders by the situation of the hill. But that situation so strikingly coincides with the intima- tions of the Gospel narrative, as almost to force the inference that in this instance the eye of those who selected the spot, was for once rightly guided. It is the only height seen in this direction from the shores of the lake of Gennesareth. The plain on which it stands is easily accessible from the lake, and from that plain to the summit is but a few minutes’ walk ; the platform at the top is evidently suitable for the collection of a multitude, and corresponds precisely to the ‘level place,’ to which He would ‘ come down ’ as from one of its higher horns to address the people. Its situation is central both to the peasants of the Galilean hills, and the fishermen of the Galilean lake, between which it stands, and would therefore be a natural resort both to ‘Jesus and His disciples’ when they retired for solitude from the shores of the sea, and 58 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. also from the crowds who assembled ‘ from Galilee, from Decapolis, from Jerusalem, from Judea, and from beyond Jordan.’ None of the other moun- tains in the neighbourhood could answer equally well to this description, inasmuch as they are merged into the uniform barrier of hills round the lake; whereas this stands separate — ‘the moun- tain,’ which alone could lay claim to a distinct name, with the exception of the one height of Tabor, which is too distant to answer the require- ments.” Behind the hills which bound the lake of Gennesareth on the west, there are some spots which tradition indicates as the scenes of some of the transactions in the history of our blessed Lord. One of these is that in which Christ is supposed to have multiplied the seven loaves and fishes. This valley is long, and of moderate width, with green and abundant grass, and well capable of containing, seated thereon, a great number of people. The height on which our Lord is alleged to have stood, when He blessed the loaves and fishes, is less elevated than some of those on the opposite side of the valley. It bears the odd name of the table of multiplication, according to Nau, who, with his party, sat down and ate a commemorative morsel of bread on the spot. From the top of this hill is visible the Mount of Beatitudes, which stands detached in the *friidst of an extensive plain, con- siderably elevated above the level of the Jordan. THE MOUNT OF BEATITUDES. 59 It is, however, considered more likely, from the narratives of the sacred writers, that the miracle of the five loaves really occurred near the north-east of the lake, not far from the city called Bethsaida Julias. When Dr. Clarke visited this part of the country, he remarked a number of wild animals — antelopes, especially, were very numerous; and he had the gratification of seeing them in the natural state, either feeding among the thistles and tall herbage of the plains, or bounding gracefully along as they were disturbed from their pastures. The Arabs are very fond of these graceful little animals, and frequently tame them as pets, of which their children become very fond. Mr. Parsons gives us a touching instance of this, in the follow- ing anecdote : — “ A little Arab girl brought a young antelope to sell, and it was bought by a Greek merchant, whose tent was next to mine, for half a piastre. She had bored both ears, into each of which she had inserted two small pieces of red silk ribbon. She told the purchaser, that, as it could run about and lap milk, he might be able to rear it up ; and that she should not have sold it, but that she wanted money to buy a ribbon, which her mother would not afford her; then, almost smothering the little animal with kisses, she delivered it, with tears in her eyes, and ran away. The merchant ordered it to be killed and dressed for supper. In the close of the evening, 60 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. the girl came to take a last farewell of her little pet, knowing that we were to decamp at daybreak. When she was told it was killed, she seemed much surprised, saying it was impossible that anybody could be so cruel as to kill such a pretty creature. On its being shown to her, with its throat cut, she burst into tears, threw the money in the man’s face, and ran away, crying.” MOUNT CALVARY. 61 CHAPTEE VI. MOUNT CALVARY. “ And when they were come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified Him and the malefactors — one on the right hand and the other on the left .” — Luke xxiii. 33. One of the first objects in Jerusalem which attracts the attention of the pilgrim or the traveller, is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre — a building said to cover the spot where our blessed Lord suffered, and the tomb in which He was afterwards laid. The church is less than one hundred paces long, and not more than sixty wide, and yet it is supposed to contain under its roof twelve or thirteen sanctuaries which mark places connected with the last scenes of our blessed Saviour’s life. Calvary is not called a mount in Scripture, but it is a rising ground, selected as a place for the execution of criminals. Though it was once without the gates, it is now in the middle of Jerusalem. This change of relative position has arisen from the altered form of the modern city. The Latin name Calvary (as well as the Hebrew Golgotha) means a skull. The Via Dolorosa (Street of Grief) which leads to it, derives its appellation from its being the street through which our blessed 62 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. Lord was led. The street rises with a gradual ascent, and becomes narrower towards Calvary, where it terminates ; it is now in such a state of ruin that it is very difficult to pass through it. The Empress Helena, the mother of Constantine, in the fourth century, erected the first church over the rock of Calvary, known as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Early in the seventh century Jerusalem was taken by the Persians, a large part of the city destroyed, many thousands of the inha- bitants slain, and the splendid church was burnt. In a few years the city was restored, and the church rebuilt. From the time of the Crusades to the year 1685, the Roman Catholics, or Latins, as they are here styled, were in undisturbed possession of the church, and enjoyed the exclusive right of performing every act of devotion within its walls. The Greeks of the Eastern Church then invaded their privileges, and the most violent commotions have since, at times, taken place in consequence. On the 12th of March, 1808, a great portion of the edifice was a second time destroyed by fire. The present building was commenced immediately afterwards, and finished in 1810. It happened that at the time of the conflagration the funds of the Latins were very low, and that the attention of the Church of Rome was otherwise engaged. The devotional fervour of Christians in Europe (according to the report of the monks) was also somewhat relaxed. The consequence was, that MOUNT CALVARY. 63 the Greeks, backed by the Russians, having offered to defray the expenses of reconstruction, were put in possession of what are esteemed the most valu- able parts of the edifice. Hence that antipathy, which unhappily exists between the members of the Latin and Greek Communions, breaks out in this venerable spot into actual warfare, giving rise to scenes most injurious to the cause and interests of religion. In laying the foundation of the church built by the Empress Helena, much of the rock was hewn away, and parts which were too low were raised upon strong arches ; these, with many of the splendid marble pillars that supported the roof, still remain. The church is entered from the south, where there is an open paved court. Here a considerable traffic is carried on in crucifixes, carved shells, beads, and chaplets, the sellers sitting on the ground beside their wares. A gateway, formed of two pointed arches of Gothic or Saracenic architecture, faces the court, and originally formed, no doubt, a side entrance. One of the doors has been walled up. The existing one is formed of massive materials, and has a small aperture in it, to communicate with visitors from without. Over the doorway is a narrow frieze in low relief, representing the triumphant entry of our Saviour into Jerusalem. To the left of it is a high tower, anciently the belfry. The whole edifice is crowned by a handsome cupola, which is dis- tinguishable from most parts of the town. “ The 64 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. church,” says Mr. Kobinson, “when opened to the public, is guarded by Turks, who sit on a raised divan, spread with mats and cushions, within the walls, and exact a small tribute from all who enter. There is nothing remarkable in the architecture or decorations of the building either externally or internally, it being necessarily irregular in its form, from an attempt to bring under one roof the various places it comprehends. But once ushered within the walls, the doors shut upon us, and our voices softened down into a whisper, we felt ourselves impressed with the reverential awe due to the sacredness of the place. Our attention was first directed to slab of polished marble, on the floor of the entrance hall, said to cover the ‘ stone of unction,’ on which the body of our Lord was washed, anointed, and prepared for the tomb. It is surrounded by a low rail, and several rich lamps are suspended over it. Advancing a few paces to the left, we came into that part of the church properly denominated the nave. It is an open space in the form of a circle, about thirty-five paces in diameter, and surrounded by sixteen pillars supporting galleries, and covered in by a dome, not unlike that of the Pantheon at Borne. In the centre of this area, and immediately under the aperture through which the light is admitted, rises a small oblong building of marble, twenty feet in length, by ten in breadth, and about fifteen feet in height, surmounted by a small cupola standing MOUNT CALVARY. 65 upon columns. This covers the supposed site of our Lord’s tomb. It is approached by steps lead- ing into an ante-room or chapel. Taking off our turbans and shoes, at the desire of the Dragoman who attended us (some pilgrims advance on their knees), we entered the sacred adytum. In the outer chapel we noticed a block of polished marble about a foot and a half square. It marks the spot where the angel stood who announced the tidings of the resurrection to the pious women. Stooping down to pass under a low narrow door, across which a curtain is drawn, we entered the sanctuary or sepulchral chamber* To the right is an altar erected over the ‘ new sepulchre,’ where, according to ancient tradition, the body of our Eedeemer was deposited by Nicodemus, after he had taken it down from the cross. Above it a vast quantity of lamps, gold and silver, the gifts of Christian poten- tates, are suspended, and kept constantly burning. The walls are cased in marble of a darkish hue, and the roof is much blackened by the smoke of the lamps. The space before the altar is very con- fined, not admitting of more than from three to four visitors at a time. After remaining for some minutes on our knees, contemplating the mysteries of the redemption, which were concluded on this hallowed spot, we withdrew and entered the choir of the church, facing the entrance of the sepulchre and running towards the east. Although these different sanctuaries and altars may be visited by 66 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. Christians of all nations for private devotions, none but the sect to whom it has been particularly assigned by the authorities is at liberty to exercise there any public office of religion.” It is not therefore to be wondered at, that the several portions of the church, as well as the relics it contains, should have become objects of con- tention. As they are to be purchased from the Turkish authorities, the highest bidder becomes the possessor. During the holy week numbers of pilgrims, from the Romish and Greek churches, flock to this spot, and it is, says Mr. Elliott, “when both parties require access to the tomb at the same time that the most disgraceful scenes are witnessed. The church is then crowded to excess by pilgrims, all anxious to obtain the best places, and scuffling for them without shame or awe, so that women and children, and even men, are often killed. But accidents constitute the least melancholy part of the drama. With or without provocation, the opposite parties, animated by religious hate, and impelled by their priests, proceed to blows ; the hallowed shrine is stained with the blood of murderers and the murdered ; the Turkish soldiers are forced to interfere, and drag violently from the fray Christian combatants, nay, Christian priests, wielding their bludgeons over the sepulchre of the Prince of Peace ! Could anything rival the horror of the scene, it would be that inspired by the conduct of the Turks themselves. Accustomed to MOUNT CALVARY. 67 regard Christians as dogs, and to detest them as idolaters, too long habituated to the riots and mur- ders of the church of the Holy Sepulchre, and justly considering the pilgrims and priests who figure there as among the most foolish and degraded of their race, the indignities they inflict on them know no bounds. If a Turk of rank or a Frank gentleman wish to pass through the crowd, an attendant will precede him with a stick, dealing his blows right and left with a mercilessness which makes the beholder shudder ; and the priests at the very altar crouch and bleed under the strokes of the infidel.” On the eve of the Greek Easter-day the ceremony of receiving the holy fire is performed in their chapel. This fire, it is pretended, bursts forth in a supernatural manner, and the pilgrims of the Greek communion light their torches at it, be- lieving that they receive it from Heaven. A chapel on the north side is called that of the Apparition, in commemoration of our Saviour having appeared just after His resurrection to Mary Magdalen. It is in the exclusive possession of the Latin friars. The apartment occupied by these friars can only be entered from within the church ; in consequence of this, though they are nominally guardians of the sepulchre, they are in fact themselves prisoners at the discretion of the real keepers, who are the Turks. They have an organ, which is a source of much annoyance to their neighbours the Greeks, in whose service all f 2 68 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. musical instruments are interdicted. Besides the centre altar, on the left hand is a smaller one, dedicated to the holy cross ; other altars commemo- rate the scourging of our blessed Lord, the place where He was confined whilst the preparations were made for His crucifixion, and that where the soldiers cast lots for His garments. A flight of about thirty steps leads to a sub- terranean chapel, called after St. Helena; it is wholly without ornament : and from thence a further descent of eleven steps conducts to a rocky damp cavity, where the three crosses, those of our Saviour and the two thieves, are reported to have been found by the Empress. It was after this discovery that she built the magnificent fabric of which we now see the remains. The daily employment of the recluses inhabiting the sacred edifice is, to trim the lamps, and to make devotional visits and processions to the several sanctuaries in the church. Thus they spend their time, many of them for four or six years together, some for their whole lives. MOUNT CARMEL. 69 CHAPTER VII. CARMEL. “ Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits.” — Is. xxxiii. 9. “ The excellency of Carmel.” — Is. xxxv. 2. “ He shall feed upon Carmel and Bashan.” — Jer. 1. 19. “ The wood in the midst of Carmel.” — Mic. vii. 14. “ Gather all Israel to Carmel, and the prophets of Baal.” — 1 Kings xviii. 19. “ So she went and came unto the man of God to Mount Carmel.” — 2 Kings iv. 25. Mount Carmel, called by the Arabs the Mount of Elijah, constitutes a remarkable feature in the western border of the land of Canaan. It is a ridge about ten miles in length, running to the north- west from the plain of Jezreel, till it ends in a promontory, which forms one side of the bay of Acre, and is the only great promontory upon the coast of Palestine. In height Mount Carmel is about 1800 feet, and at its foot on the north-east runs the brook Kishon. Mount Carmel well deserves its Hebrew name (country of vineyards and gardens), for, although the statements of travellers vary in the accounts of its fertility, it is well known that this is owing to the different times of the year at which the place is visited. Those who are on Carmel in f 3 70 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. the spring, or early summer, find the mountain covered with verdure, while those whose visit is later in the season find everything less flourishing. Mariti, who was one of the former, describes it as a delightful region, and says that the good quality of its soil is apparent from the multitude and variety of the flowers which grow wild upon the mountain. Another traveller tells us that Mount Carmel is richly covered with verdure. On its summit are pines and oaks, further down olive and laurel trees, and everywhere it is plentifully watered. It gives rise to a multitude of brooks, the largest of which springs from the so-called fountain of Elijah ; these gush down between banks overgrown with bushes, to the river Kishon. Every species of tillage succeeds here admirably under this mild and cheerful sky. The prospect from the summit is enchanting, embracing a view over the gulf of Acre with its fertile shores, and the blue heights of Lebanon and the White Cape. Carne says that “no mountain in or around Palestine retains its ancient beauty so much as Carmel. Two or three villages and some scattered cottages are found on it ; its groves are few but luxuriant : it is no place for crags and precipices, or rocks for the wild goats, but presents a surface covered with a rich and constant verdure.” The interior of Galilee and Samaria is often obscured by fogs, but the heights of Carmel enjoy a pure and exhilarating atmosphere, calculated to MOUNT CAKMEL. 71 render mere existence a delight. The pine, oak, laurel, and many other trees throw their shadows upon a beautiful carpet of grass and wild flowers ; and this rich covering extends to the fine uplands round the mountain, which are watered by nu- merous streams. The forests and woods of Carmel abound with numerous wild animals, while birds, in still greater numbers, attracted by the abundance of suitable food, and by the lovely streams, enliven by the harmony of their varied songs this most beautiful spot. Such descriptions admirably illustrate the lan- guage of the Hebrew prophets with respect to Carmel. Thus Isaiah alludes to the “ excellency of Carmel,” and, on account of the graceful form and verdant beauty of its summit, the head of the bride, in the Song of Solomon, is compared to Carmel. It was also as celebrated for its pastures as Bashan. There is, indeed, a character peculiarly pastoral about the scenery. Few grey and naked rocks, or unfruitful cliffs, are here, as in the moun- tain of the Temptation, or on Pisgah ; and this fertility and verdure is deeply welcome and refreshing to the weary and thirsty traveller, more especially in the woody spots on its summit and sides. It is delightful to stand beneath the shade, on the brink of the mountain, and look far on every side where nothing but a forsaken and shadowless land meets the eye. Over the banks of the Kishon, “ that ancient river,” on which “ the strength of the f 4 72 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. mighty was broken,” and the power of Sisera swept away (Jud. iv.), no solitary tree spreads its shade. The stream rolls between its green banks, and these are so low that the river overflows to some extent on each side during the rainy season, and is so deep and rapid as not to be fordable. It was, most probably, during this season that the army of Sisera was in part destroyed by the waters, for in its usual narrow course the stream is not of suffi- cient width and power to be dangerous. This spot was also fatal to a great number of Arabs, who, after the memorable battle of Mount Tabor, fought on April 16th, 1799, were drowned in their attempt to escape from the French invaders of Palestine. Of the spot pointed out by tradition as the scene of Elijah’s sacrifice, Dean Stanley thus speaks : — “ The summit thus marked out is the extreme eastern point of the range, commanding the last view of the sea behind, and the first view of the great plain in front, just where the glades of forest, the ‘ excellency of Carmel,’ sink into the usual barrenness of the hills and vales of Palestine. There, on the highest ridge of the mountain, may well have stood, on its sacred ‘ high place,’ the altar of the Lord which Jezebel had cast down. Close beneath, on a wide upland sweep, under the shade of ancient olives, and round a well of water, said to be perennial, and which may, therefore, have escaped the general drought, and have been able to furnish MOUNT CAKMEL. 78 water for the trenches round the altar, must have been ranged, on one side the king and people, with the eight hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and Astarte; and on the other side the solitary and commanding figure of the prophet of the Lord. Full before them opened the whole plain of Esdraelon, with Tabor and its kindred ranges in the distance ; on the rising ground, at the opening of its valley, the city of Jezreel, with Ahab’s palace and Jezebel’s temple distinctly visible ; in the nearer foreground, immediately under the base of the mountain, was clearly seen the winding stream of the Kishon, working its way through the narrow pass of the hills into the Bay of Acre. Such a scene, with such recollections of the past, with such sights of the present, was indeed a fitting theatre for a conflict more momentous than any which their ancestors had fought in the plain below. This is not the place to enlarge upon the intense solemnity and significance of that conflict, which lasted on the mountain-height from morning till noon, from noon till the time of the evening sacrifice. It ended, at last, in the level plain below, where Elijah ‘ brought’ the defeated prophets ‘ down ’ the steep sides of the mountain ‘ to the “ torrent” of the Kishon, and slew them there.’ ” The highest summit rises immediately behind the monastery, near the north-western extremity of the ridge, towards the sea. On this elevation facing the sea tradition says that the prophet Elijah stood 74 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. when he prayed for rain, and beheld the cloud arise out of the sea. From the convent on the ridge the celebrated order of Carmelites took its name. This convent, in 1821, was destroyed, at the commence- ment of the Greek revolution, by the Pasha, its inmates having been suspected of holding an inter- course with the insurgents ; hut permission for its rebuilding was obtained from the Sultan, and it has since been reconstructed on a new and larger scale. The prospect from the site of the convent is of the grandest kind. At the foot of the ascent of the mountain is an oratory, now Turkish, covering a grotto which is said to have been inhabited by Elijah. The mountain was once the favourite refuge of pilgrims and anchorites, and the beauty of the spot, the purity of its air, and the refreshing coolness of its elevation, in the burning summer of the shores below, must have made it, independently of its sacred character, an incomparable retreat, alike from the scorching heat of the plains and the troubles of the world. Mr. Skinner mentions an instance to the point: — “Padre Camillo (one of the monks of the convent on Mount Carmel) was unwilling to leave his cave, and, as the rain had again commenced, we remained there for an hour or two longer. ‘ What a place for uninterrupted con- templation ! ’ cried he. ‘ Here, indeed,’ quoting a passage from his favourite historian, he continued, ‘ the plants, the rugged rocks, the moanings of the wind, the prospect of the ocean, the murmuring of MOUNT CARMEL, 75 the streams, the lowing of the herds, the frisking of the flocks, the shady valley, the singing of the birds, the delightful climate, the variety of flowers, the odour of the aromatic herbs, how they refresh my soul ! ’ This sounded very sweetly in Italian, and as he delivered it with all his heart, standing in the mouth of the cave as if he had been before an altar, it came with great force, for the glowing catalogue was not overdrawn.” The convent is described by Lord Lindesay as one of the handsomest in Palestine : it is three stories high, having nine windows towards Acre, and thirteen towards the Mediterranean. “ Two monks only were there, but nothing could exceed the cordiality of our reception, and pressing were their entreaties that we should stay three or four days with them. After coffee they showed us their house. Think what a pleasant surprise it was, when, opening a side door, they ushered us into a suite of no less than five small apartments, fitted up for visitors in the European style, and with European furniture, window-curtains, tables, reed- bottomed and arm-chairs, beds with curtains and gilt corner-tops (one room with a double bed for a gentleman and lady), basins, looking-glasses, &c. ; and these, with a splendid sea-view from the windows, they begged us to consider at our service for as long as we should like to remain.” The church, which at that time was not yet finished, is built over the cave in which Elijah is said to have 76 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. dwelt, and in a side chapel they show a beautiful wooden statue of Elijah killing one of the prophets of Baal. In this mountain, as is often the case in compact limestone, there are a great many caverns, more, it is said, than 1,000. In one tract, called the Monk’s Caverns, as many as 400 lie adjacent to each other, furnished with windows, and with places for sleeping, hewn in the rock. The en- trances into many of them are so narrow, that only a single person can creep in at a time, and they are so crooked within, that a person is immediately lost to sight, unless closely followed. This may serve to give a clearer view of what is intended in Amos ix. 3, where the Lord says of those who may endeavour to escape His punishments, “ Though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence.” That these grottoes and caves existed in very ancient times, probably as abodes of prophets and other religious persons, is well known. The prophets Elijah and Elisha may have sojourned in some of them ; and at the present day is shown a cavern called the Cave of Elijah ; it is a little below the Monk’s Caverns, and is now a Moslem sanctuary. Though the soil of the plain, at the foot of Carmel, consists of a reddish sand, intermixed with some gravel, it has a considerable degree of fertility when irrigated, and produces good crops of grain, and several kinds of fruit, as figs, olives, MOUNT CABMEL. 77 pomegranates, oranges, and lemons : the water- melons are of a peculiarly fine quality. “On our way to Carmel, upon the plain of Sharon/’ says Mr. Vere Monro, “we crossed a small plot of ground which had been carelessly turned over with the plough, and sown with melons; the husbandman had gone his way to a distance, carrying his light plough on his shoulder, and would not return until he should calculate that the time of harvest had arrived. There are few productions which more forcibly declare the care and bounty of Providence than this plant ; loving the driest soil, it flourishes to perfection even in the sandy desert, and produces one of the most juicy and refreshing fruits, in a climate where these are most needed and most grateful.” But a great part of the plain between Carmel and the Mediterranean is converted into a swamp by the rivulets descending from the mountain, which do not find their way to the sea, in consequence of the sand-hills thrown up by the south-west winds. These swamps, however, make rich pasture for cattle. In the plain of Esdraelon, the swamp, which is formed by the overflows of the river Kishon after a heavy rain, in like manner, produces very rich pasture, and here may be found cattle of a larger size than in any other part of Syria. Dr. Shaw tells us that, while the ship in which he was lay at anchor under Mount Carmel, in the middle of April, he saw several flights of storks, 78 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. some of which were open and scattered, with large intervals between them ; others, more compact ; each of which took upwards of three hours in passing by, extending at the same time more than half a mile in breadth. They were then leaving Egypt (the canals and ponds annually left by the Nile having become dry), and were directing their course towards the north-east. MOUNTS EBAL AND GERIZIM. MOUNTS EBAL AND GERIZIM. 79 CHAPTER YIII. MOUNTS EBAL AND GERIZIM. “ Thou shalt put the blessing upon Mount Gerizim and the curse upon Mount Ebal.” — Deut. xi. 29 ; xxvii. 12, 13. u Then Joshua built an altar unto the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal.” — Josh. viii. 30. “ Our fathers worshipped in this mountain ; but ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship .” — John iv. 20. Westward of the fertile plain which Jacob bought of the children of Hamor (Gen. xxxiii. 19) stand the mountains Ebal and Gerizim. The height of each of them above the sea is about 2650 feet. The plain narrows into a valley between these two mountains, and on it is the site of the Shechem of the Old Testament, the Sychar of the New, the Nablous of the present day. The valley thus enclosed by these mountains is about 300 paces wide, and above three miles in length. At the widest part is a low pile of rude masonry, sur- rounded by a large number of loose stones of con- siderable size, and remains of walls and their foundations. It is an object which many a tra- veller might overlook, were he not prepared for* it by previous knowledge. A very ancient well is concealed by these remains, the descent to which 80 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. is through a narrow mouth in the stonework above, usually covered with a massive fragment of stone, which is too heavy to he removed without great strength ; and though the weary traveller would gladly drink of this water, he is told that, in addition to the fact of its mouth being closed, 44 the well is deep, and there is nothing to draw with.” The most august traveller whose feet ever pressed the soil of the Holy Land once rested on the brink of this noted well. That traveller was Jesus of Nazareth. The well is Jacob’s well. When the children of Israel took possession of the promised land, it was on Mount Ebal that God commanded an altar to he reared by Joshua ; and the tribes were to he assembled, half on Ebal, and half on Gerizim, to hear the maledictions pro- nounced by the Levites upon all who should violate the obligations of the sacred code, and the blessings promised to those who should observe them. The blessings and curses seem to have remained upon these mountains, for while Gerizim is fertile and of pleasant aspect, Ebal is nearly barren. The valley which divides them, shaded with groves of figs, olives, almonds, and apricots, and with a clear and beautiful stream winding through it, is one of the most beautiful in Palestine. On Mount Geri- zim once stood the Samaritan temple, to the service of which the woman of Samaria most prc^ bably referred, when, at the well of Jacob, she said MOUNTS EBAL AND GERIZIM. 81 to her illustrious Teacher, “ Our fathers worshipped in this mountain.” From Josephus we learn that Manasses, the brother of Jadclua, the Jewish high- priest, being expelled from Jerusalem for his mar- riage with the daughter of Sanballat the Governor of Samaria, built the temple on Gerizim, after the model of that of Jerusalem ; it was used by the Samaritans at first for the sake of convenience, and afterwards from feelings of hatred to their Jewish brethren. Antiochus Epiphanes placed within it a statue of Jupiter, and John Hyrcanus destroyed it. The summit of Mount Gerizim is now occupied by the tomb of an Arab chief, a structure of modern character ; but an annual pro- cession is still made to the spot by the small residue of the Samaritan people who yet occupy their ancient city. “ It is interesting,” says Dr. Stanley, ‘^to re- member that, through all these vicissitudes, Ge- rizim, the oldest sanctuary in Palestine, retained its sanctity to the end. Probably in no other locality has the same worship been sustained with so little change or interruption for so great a series of years as in this mountain, from the time of Abraham to the present day. In their humble synagogue, at the foot of the mountain, the Sa- maritans still worship — the oldest and the smallest sect in the world, distinguished by their noble physiognomy and stately appearance from all other branches of the race of Israel. In their prostra- G 82 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. tions at the elevation of their revered copy of the Pentateuch, they throw themselves on their faces in the direction, not of priest or law, or any object within the building, but obliquely towards the eastern summit of Mount Gerizim. And up the side of the mountain, and on its long ridge, is to be traced the pathway by which they ascend to the sacred spots where they alone of all the Jewish race yearly celebrated the Paschal Sacrifice.” But what gives the most abiding and peculiar interest to the Mounts Ebal and Gerizim is, after all, the fact that on their sides were gathered the tribes of Israel, to hear and respond to the bless- ings and curses of Jehovah ; while the Ark of the Covenant, surrounded by its attendant priests and Levites, was placed in the lovely valley between. Israel was then victorious in the land of promise, and there it was that their whole destiny was open before them, as it was to result from either their obedience or the contrary. On Gerizim stood the tribes of Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin, “to bless the people.” On Ebal stood those of Beuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphthali, “for a cursing.” The Levites uttered, in the Name of the God of Israel, the curses attendant on a disobedience to the Divine will, which had been revealed from Heaven ; and at every pause the tribes on Mount Ebal gave forth their solemn “ Amen :” while, in like manner, the blessings of obedience were heard and responded to MOUNTS EBAL AND GERIZIM. 83 by the tribes stationed on Gerizim (Deut. xxvii. ; Josh. viii. 33). Dr. Ollin, an American traveller, in the month of April ascended Gerizim. The ascent is by an ancient road, excavated in the side of the mountain with much labour, and, in the steeper parts of the ascent fashioned into broad stone steps. This was, probably, the principal ascent to the ancient town and fortress, the ruins of which cover the top of the mountain, as well as that pursued by the religious processions in their way from the Valley of Shechem to the temple built by the Samaritans. The top of Gerizim affords a commanding view of a con- siderable region. Cultivation is carried quite to the top of the mountain, which is clothed with plantations of fruit-trees, whilst every level spot, and a vast number of fields supported by terraces, on the lower parts of both, produce wheat. A considerable part of the table-land on Mount Geri- zim itself exhibits marks of recent tillage. Mount Ebal, as viewed from this spot, spreads out in like manner into a table-land, but is apparently rocky and more broken, and less susceptible of culti- vation. The town of Nablous is nearly concealed by the thick olive-groves of the valley, till you are within a few hundred yards of its walls, when it breaks upon the view, with its graceful minarets em- bosomed in the rich foliage which this abundantly watered valley so luxuriantly cherishes. Almonds, g 2 84 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. pomegranates, vines, figs, mulberries, apples, and orange trees, grow with the greatest luxuriance ; while the cultivation of melons, cucumbers, and similar garden produce, is carried on with great success. The melons of Sychar are much esteemed. In some places the cliffs of Gerizim seem to over- hang the town ; and when Jotham addressed his fable of the trees to the men of Shechem (^ud. ix. 7) from one of the points on the summit, his voice might be heard in the city below. It was one of the ancient cities of refuge. Its external appearance is very attractive, as we have already observed, not unworthy of the interest which is attached to its history. “But,” says Mr. Fisk, “ Sychar should be always viewed from without. The charm is lost when once you set foot within its poor and miserable streets, and offensive bazaars. We rode through it, but made no stay; only taking a leisurely survey, as we passed, of the pursuits and occupations of the people. Some were seated in groups, amidst piles of cucumbers, melons, and other fruits ; some were engaged in cutting and preparing for sale large supplies of tobacco ; others were carrying to and from the fountains water-bottles made of the untanned skins of sheep and goats ; while veiled women were shuffling about in their yellow morocco boots, thrust into loose slippers, which gave them a very awkward gait. In many of the houses and bazaars we noticed an extensive manufacture of cotton in MOUNTS EBAL AND GERIZIM. 85 various stages ; some were carding ; others were spinning, and not few weaving. There was a general appearance of activity and liveliness amidst the population, though in most streets were to be found large parties of those lovers of ease, whose day is spent reclining in the shade, and inhaling the fumes of Latakia.” 86 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. CHAPTER IX. MOUNT EPHRAIM. “ Get thee up to the wood country — if Mount Ephraim be too narrow for thee.” — Josh, xvii, 15. “ And they buried him (Joshua) in the Mount Ephraim.” — Jud. ii. 9. 11 — A certain man of Mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah.” — 1 Sam. i. 1. “ — The men of Israel who had hid themselves in Mount Ephraim.” — 1 Sam. xiv. 22. One the finest and most fruitful parts of Palestine, occupying the very centre of the land, was assigned to the tribe of Ephraim. It extended from the borders of the Mediterranean on the west to the Jordan on the east. This tract of country included the southern portion of what was afterwards called Samaria, as distinguished from Judaea on the south, and from Galilee on the north. The taber- nacle and the ark were deposited within its limits at Shiloh ; and the possession of these symbols of the Divine presence must, in no small degree, have enhanced its importance, and increased its wealth and population. The group of hills called Ephraim occupies the central part of the southernmost border of this region. In the time of Joshua these hills were densely covered with trees, which is by no MOUNT EPHRAIM. 87 means the case at present, though they are well watered, and the rich pastures of the valleys are clothed with verdant herbage, and are still very productive. The terraced hills, and often the rocks are, in the season, entirely hid by the vine and fig-tree ; under the latter flourishes the waving corn, while the fields are adorned by a large species of convolvulus, and many other sweet flowers. On Mount Ephraim Joshua was buried. Here also Micah, the idolater, lived (Jud. xvii.), and Elkanah, the father of Samuel. Here also the Israelites were saved out of the hands of the Philistines (1 Sam. xiv.). A recent traveller, passing by night through a valley, called Luban, near the west extremity of the ridge, remarks, “We were attended for above the space of an hour with an ignis fatuus, that displayed itself in a variety of extraordinary ap- pearances ; for it was sometimes globular, like the flame of a candle ; afterwards it would spread itself and involve our whole company in its pale, inoffensive light ; then at once contract and sud- denly disappear. But in less than a minute it would begin to exert itself, as at other times, running along from one place to another, like a train of gunpowder set on fire; or else it would expand itself over more than two or three acres of the adjacent mountains, discovering every shrub and tree that grew upon them. The atmosphere, from the beginning of the evening, had been re- g 4 88 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. markably thick and hazy, and the dew as we felt it upon our bridles, was unusually clammy and unctuous. I have observed at sea, in the like dispositions of weather, those luminous bodies that skip about the masts and yards of ships. This description of such a natural phenomenon must strongly remind the reader of the 29th Psalm, especially of the 7th verse.” The Rev. G. Fisk, in his Visit to the Holy Land, says, “We had quitted the territory of Benjamin, and were now upon the mountains of Ephraim, amidst small quiet villages and ancient sites, presenting themselves here and there at almost every turn of the road, one which must have frequently been traversed by our Blessed Re- deemer, when passing from Jerusalem to Galilee. Finding it quite impossible to reach Nablous during the evening march, we pitched the tents upon a threshing-floor, near a small village, called Hawarah, where we were soon surrounded by a large party of Syrian shepherds and villagers, from whom we obtained a good supply of delicious milk and cheese, and excellent water, for a trifling remuneration.” The virtue of hospitality was, and still is, the national character of the Arabs ; they value them- selves upon it as their highest glory. The moun- taineers upon a journey never think of spending a para for their eating, drinking, or lodging. On arriving at a village in the evening, they alight at the dwelling of some acquaintance, if they have MOUNT EPHRAIM. 89 any, which is generally the case, and say to the owner, “I am your guest.” The host gives the traveller a supper, consisting of milk and bread, and, if rich and liberal, feeds his mule or horse also. When the traveller has no acquaintance in the village, he alights at any house he pleases, ties up his beast, aiid smokes his pipe till he receives a welcome from the master of the house, who makes it a point of honour to receive him as a friend, and to give him a supper. In the morn- ing he departs with a simple good-bye. “ It is a point of honour,” says Burckhardt, “with the host never to accept the smallest return from a guest. I only once ventured to give a few piastres to the child of a very poor family at Zahomet, by whom we had been most hospitably treated, and rode off without attending to the earnest cries of the mother, who insisted upon my taking back the money.” And another traveller, speaking of the Druses (who inhabit a part of Mount Lebanon), says, “Whoever presents himself at their door, in the quality of a suppliant or passenger, is sure of being entertained with lodging and food in the most generous and unaffected manner. I have often seen the lowest peasants give the last morsel of bread they had in their houses to the hungry traveller. When they have once contracted with their guests the sacred engagement of bread and salt, no subsequent event can make them violate it.” 90 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OP SCRIPTURE. CHAPTER X. MOUNT GILBOA. “ And the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain in Mount Gilboa ; and it came to pass on the morrow when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen in Mount Gilboa.” — 1 Sam. xxxi. 1. 8. “ Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain upon you, nor fields of offerings.” — 2 Sam. i. 21. Gilboa is a mountain memorable for the defeat of Saul by the Philistines, when his three sons were slain, and where he himself died by his own hand. The ridge of mountains, of which it forms the highest summit, bound the plain of Esdraelon on the south-east, and separate it from the valley of the Jordan. The height of Gilboa is 2,200 feet above the sea. On passing across the plain of Jezreel, Mr. Paxton notices the mountain of Gilboa projecting into the plain, where the battle seems to have been begun. “I could not but be struck,” says he, “ while looking on this elevation from the plain, to see how well it accorded with the statement that the chariots and horsemen followed hard after Saul on Mount Gilboa. The ascent from the plain is such, that horsemen and chariots might pass even to the top of this hill. In their sterile and arid MOUNT GILBOA. 91 character, these hills are remarkably distinguished from those of the lesser Hermon, and indeed from all other mountains in this neighbourhood, which are mostly covered with trees, and copses, herbs, flowers, and grass. Its peculiarly desolate character was ascribed by most of the old travellers to the poetical curse of David upon the mountains where ‘the shield of the mighty was vilely cast away,’ in the words, ‘ Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain upon you, nor fields of offerings.’ ” (2 Sam. i. 21.) But this is, evidently, assigning too literal a sense to the denunciations of the Royal Poet. It is admitted that ample dews and heavy rains have been experienced by travellers upon this very mountain. A few villages are to be seen with their vineyards, olive, and other plantations around them, and a straggling flock or two find scanty pasturage, where all around is desolate and barren. Two or three other streams are also to be met with in the neighbourhood ; one is justly supposed to be the ancient fountain of Jezreel, by which Saul and his beloved son Jonathan pitched their camp before the last fatal engagement. Mr. Carne, who crossed this desolate range of mountains, says, “We pursued our way through a territory unrelieved by a single shrub or blade of verdure, where for many leagues no trace of a habitation was visible, but the path grew more exciting as we approached the mountains of Gilboa. 92 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTUKE. There was a solitary grandeur and stern sublimity in the scene, on which the traveller could not help pausing to gaze, even had it awakened no vivid associations of the times of old. Utter solitude was on every side ; the mountains were broken in some parts into naked precipices and pointed summits ; they were not dwelling-places for man, save for the wandering shepherd, whose search for pasturage must often have been in vain.” Dr. Stanley thus describes the battle of Mount Gilboa: “ Nearly on the site of Gideon’s Camp, on the rise of Mount Gilboa, hard by the ‘ spring of Jezreel,’ was the army of Saul, the Israelites, as usual, keeping to the heights, whilst their enemies clung to the plain. It was whilst the two armies were in this position, that Saul made the disguised and adventurous journey, by night, over the shoulder of the ridge on which the Philistines were en- camped, to visit the witch at Endor, situated immediately on the other side of the range, and immediately facing Tabor. Large caves which, at least to modern notions, accord with the residence of the Necromancer, still perforate the rocky sides of the hill. “ The onset took place the next morning. The Philistines instantly drove the Israelites up the slopes -of Gilboa, and however widely the route may have carried the mass of fugitives down the valley to the Jordan, the thick of the fight must have been on the heights themselves ; for it was ]\tOUNT GILBOA. 93 'on Mount Gilboa 5 that the wild Amalekite, wander- ing like his modern countrymen over the upland waste, ‘ chanced ’ to see the dying king ; and ' on Mount Gilboa 5 the corpses of Saul and his three sons were found by the Philistines the next day . 55 94 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS «OF SCRIPTURE. CHAPTER XI. MOUNT SEIR. “And we compassed Mount Seir many days.” — “We passed by from our brethren the children of Esau, who dwelt in Seir.” — Deut. ii. 1. 8. “ The Horites in their Mount Seir.” — Gen . xiv. 6. “ The land of Seir in the country of Edom.” — Gen. xxxii. 3. “ So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir.” — Gen. xxxiii. 16. The mountains of Seir form an extensive moun- tainous region, from six to eight leagues in width, separating the Stony Arabia from the eastern desert of sand. On first viewing these mountains from the south, high rocks of granite appear as if fractured into a thousand different forms. From this rugged appearance the mountains are said to take the appellation of Seir (which means “ rough”), though the name is also said to be derived from Seir, the chief of the Horim, who were the former inhabitants of the country afterwards possessed by the Edomites. That the aspect of the heights, viewed from the valley on the west, is very stern and dark, would appear from the general terms in w T hich travellers speak of them. Lord Lindesay refers to them as “ the black mountains from which the Edomites looked down;” and Mr. Stephens, standing on the northern extremity of the gulf of MOUNTAINS OF SEIR. MOUNT SEIR. 95 Akaba, saw before him the broad sandy valley of the Arabah, with high, dark, and barren mountains bounding it like a wall. He says : — “ The land of Idumaea lay before me in barrenness and desolation ; no trees grew in the valley, and no verdure on the mountain-tops. All was bare, dreary, and desolate. The opposite, or eastern face, presents a very different aspect, not only from its apparent lowness, for viewed from the plain on this side the ascent is comparatively slight, but from its regular form, and from being covered with vegetable mould. This was too important a feature in so stony and sandy a region to have been overlooked, and accordingly numerous marks of ancient cultivation are here found. Stones which have been arranged to mark the limits of fields, as well as the ruins of separate habitations and villages, scattered everywhere over this elevated country, still attest the industry of the ancient inhabitants in cultivating an apparently unfriendly soil. Lord Lindesay, who crossed Seir in its northern portion, speaks of its being a country of most utter desolation, hills succeeding hills, without the slightest picturesque beauty, covered with loose flints, sand, and gravel — a complete 'desert.” Belzoni, who approached it on the most favourable side, gives the following striking descrip- tion of the nakedness of the land through which he journeyed in reaching it. “ It is,” says he, “ diffi- cult to form a correct idea of a desert without having been in one. It is an endless plain of sand 96 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. and stones, sometimes intermixed with mountains of all sizes and heights, without roads or shelter, without any sort of produce for food. The few scattered trees and shrubs of thorns, that only appear when the rainy season leaves some moisture, barely serve to feed the animals and a few birds. Everything is left to Nature ; the wandering inha- bitants do not care to cultivate even those few plants, and when there is no more of them in one place they go away to another. When the trees become old and lose their vegetation, in such climates as these, the sun, which constantly beams upon them, burns and reduces them to ashes. I have seen many of them entirely burnt, their form remaining in ashes. The other smaller plants have no sooner risen out of the earth than they are dried up, and take the colour of straw. After wandering for many days in this monotonous desert the sight of the distant hills of Seir was a pleasant relief to the eye, and we thought we could understand a little of the feeling which led Moses to utter the prayer, after being forty years in the desert, ‘ I pray Thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon.’ ” The precise place from which Moses was permitted to behold the “Land of Promise” has been much disputed ; the most probable spot is said to be a continuation of the mountains of Seir towards the north, a little beyond the Dead Sea. These appear to form the mountains which MOUNTAINS OF SEIR. 97 in Scripture bear the name of Abarim. There it is recorded that from Mount Nebo, one of the highest summits of the range, and one which, from the context, must have been in the northern part, Moses was permitted to view the promised land, and here he died. The highest summit among the mountains of Seir is Mount Hor, on which Aaron died, and whose towering bulk is a landmark to the wanderer afar off in the surrounding deserts. It offers a commanding view over the plains and mountains below, and, “If,” says Mr. Stephens, “I had never stood on the top of Mount Sinai, I should say that nothing could exceed the desolation of the view from the summit of Mount Hor ; its most striking objects being the dreary and rugged mountains of Seir, bare and naked of trees and verdure, and bearing their lofty summits to the skies, as if in a vain and fruitless effort to excel the mighty pile on the top of which the high-priest of Israel was buried. Yet even here all is not barren. The interior of these desolate mountains, their valleys and hollows, present many a scene of verdure and beauty.” But the spot by which travellers are now mainly attracted to the mountains of Seir, is the deep hollow in their bosom, of which the tall cliffs offer those wonderful ruins and excavations of temples, habitations, and tombs which are the remains of the ancient metropolis of Edom. This, and other H 98 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. hollows and valleys in these mountains, exhibit some very striking characteristics, and all travellers mention with wonder and admiration the beautiful and varied colours of the rock composing the cliffs which enclose the valley of Petra. “ The whole stony rampart that encircled the city,” says Mr. Stephens, “was of a peculiarity and beauty that I never saw elsewhere, being a dark ground, with veins of white, blue, red, purple, and sometimes scarlet and light orange, running through it in rainbow streaks ; and within the chambers, where there had been no exposure to the elements, the freshness and beauty of the colours in which these waving lines were drawn, gave an effect hardly inferior to that of the paintings in the tombs of the kings at Thebes.” Other travellers speak to the same effect ; and Lord Lindesay adds : “I was surprised to find the stone so crumbling; it must have been as easy to cut as chalk; I could break it easily with my fingers.” Stephens was informed by the Arabs that no stone, veined like the rocks at Petra, was to be found elsewhere, which at least shows that they know of none like it. A little to the north of this city is another valley, described as being extremely romantic, with lofty, almost perpendicular crags towering on each side, with deep fissures, tufted with evergreens, and single isolated rocks guarding the pass like sentinels, the road winding through a thick wood of oleander and acacia trees, presenting every MOUNTAINS OF SEIR. 99 shade of green. Mr. Macmichael, who visited ' Petra, and explored its remarkable ruins, also ascended Mount Hor. “Taking,” says he, “a south-westerly direction from the ruined palace at* Petra, we arrived at the foot of Mount Hor at three in the afternoon, where, finding an Arab boy tend- ing some goats, he offered for a small remuneration to conduct us to the summit. The ascent was rugged and difficult in the extreme, and it occupied us one hour and a half to climb the almost per- pendicular sides. A crippled Arab hermit, about eighty years of age — the one half of which he had spent upon the top of the mountain, living on the donations of the few Mohammedan pilgrims who resort thither and the charity of the native shep- herds, who supply him with water and milk — con- ducted us to a small white building, crowned by a cupola, that contains the tomb of Aaron. The monument is of stone, about three feet high, and the venerable Arab, having lighted a lamp, led us down some steps, to a chamber hewn out of the rock, but containing nothing extraordinary. Against the walls of the upper apartment, where stood the tomb, were suspended beads, bits of cloth and leather, votive offerings left by the devotees. On one side, let into the wall, we were shown a dark- looking stone, that was reputed to possess con- siderable virtues in the cure of diseases, and to have formerly served as a seat to the Prophet.” The view from the summit is very extensive, h 2 100 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. but no part of it is more striking than the crags of Mount Hor itself, which stand up on every side in the most rugged and fantastic forms. “An artist, who would study rock scenery in all its wildest and most extravagant forms, and in colours which, to one who has not seen them, could scarcely 'be supposed natural, would,” says Captain Irby, “ find himself rewarded, should he resort to Mount Hor for that sole purpose.” Dr. Stanley’s description of the summit of Mount Hor and the tomb of Aaron may be compared with that of Macmichael: — “It is one of the very few spots connected with the wanderings of the Israel- ites, which admits of no reasonable doubt. There Aaron died in the presence of Moses and Eleazar ; there he was buried ; and there Eleazar was in- vested with the priesthood in his stead. The mountain is marked far and near by its double top, which rises like a huge castellated building from a lower base ; and on one of these is the Mahometan chapel erected out of the remains of some earlier and more sumptuous building, over the supposed grave. There was nothing of interest within, only the usual marks of Mussulman devotion, ragged shawls, ostrich eggs, and a few beads. These were in the upper chamber. The great high-priest, if his body be really there, rests in a subterranean vault below, hewn out of the rock, and in a niche now cased over with stone, wood, and plaster. From the flat roof of the chapel we overlooked his MOUNTAINS OF SEIR. 101 last view — that view which was to him what Pisgah was to his brother. To ns the northern end was partly lost in haze ; but we saw all the main points on which his eye must have rested. He looked over the valley of the Arab ah, counter sected by its hundred watercourses, and beyond, over the white mountains of the wilderness they had so long traversed ; and at the northern edge of it there must have been visible the heights through which the Israelites had vainly attempted to force their way into the Promised Land. This was the western view. Close around him on the east were the rugged mountains of Edom, and far along the horizon the wide downs of Mount Seir, through which the passage had been denied by the wild tribes of Esau, who hunted over their long slopes. A dreary moment and a dreary scene — such, at any rate, it must have seemed to the aged priest.” 102 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. CHAPTEE XII. LEBANON. THE LEBANON RANGES — MOUNT HERMON — THE JORDAN VALLEY — THE DEWS — THE SNOWS. “ I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond J ordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon.” — Dent. iii. 25. “From the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea shall your coast be.” — Lent. xi. 24. “Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon ?” — Jer. xviii. 14. “ Lebanon is not sufficient to bum, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.” — Is. xl. 16. “ The voice of the Lord maketh the cedars ; yea, the Lord maketh the cedars of Lebanon.” — Ps. xxix. 5. The two nearly parallel ranges of the mountains of Lebanon form, at their termination, the natural frontier of Palestine, and enclose between them a fertile valley, which has the average breadth of fifteen miles. The westernmost of these ranges gradually inclines towards the sea, and terminates at the mouth of the river Leontes, near the re- nowned city of Tyre ; while the more inland range having reached its highest point, Mount Hermon, in its course southwards, divides near the sources of the Jordan, and limits on the east and west the basin, which contains the river Jordan and its three lakes. The western branch is continued in VIEW IN LEBANON LEBANON. 103 the hills of Bashan and Gilead to the mountains of Abarim and Mount Seir; while the eastern branch forms the highlands of Naphtali, Ephraim, and Judah, with those of the Amalekites which terminate in Mount Halak. (Josh. xii. 7.) The name Lebanon, which signifies “the White Mountains,” is applied in Scripture to both the great ridges which enclose the valley of Syria (Ccele-Syria) on the north of the Holy Land. But in more recent times, the name has been restricted to the mountains near the coast, while the inland range is called Anti-Lebanon or Anti-Libanus. The highest mountain of Anti-Libanus, now bear- ing the name of Jebel Esh Sheikh, is unquestion- ably Mount Hermon, called also Sion and Sirion (Deut. iii. 8, 9 ; iv. 48 ; Ps. xxix. 6), the perpetual snow of whose far-seen summit is more than once alluded to by the sacred writers. It reaches to nearly 10,000 feet above the level of the sea. From its base the Jordan takes its rise. It is probably the highest of all the Lebanon mountains, and is thought to rival Mont Blanc in its aspect, though, as Elliot observes, “the high ground on which it stands detracts considerably from its apparent altitude, and makes it a less imposing object than that Monarch of European mountains, as viewed from the Italian valley of Aosta.” Its top is covered with snow throughout the year, and the fanciful resemblance afforded by the lengthened streaks on its sloping ridges to the hoary head h 4 104 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. and beard of a venerable old man, has obtained for it the name of Sheikh’s, or old man’s mountain. “ Lebanon,” truly remarks an Arabian poet, “ bears winter on its head, spring plays about its shoulders, autumn rests upon its bosom, while summer lies sleeping at its feet.” Streams fed from the ice and snow of the summit find their way down its sides, sometimes forming beautiful cascades, which recall to f us the words of the prophet Jeremiah when speaking of the folly of a man who forsakes God, as being like him who scorns the cool flowing streams that come from the side of Lebanon, — a remark which would be well understood in a sultry climate where water, from its scarceness, was a treasure fully appreciated. “It is an observation,” writes Dr. Shaw, “that, provided a moderate quantity of snow or rain falls in the beginning of February, and the streams and fountains overflow a little afterwards, there is the prospect of a fruitful and plentiful year; the in- habitants making upon these occasions the like rejoicings with the Egyptians upon the cutting of the Nile.” In our northern climates, where the dew is inconsiderable, we can scarcely comprehend its importance in Eastern lands, where at some seasons it is a most welcome substitute for the rain which refreshes our soil. When Maundrell was in the vicinity of Mount Hermon, he observed that “he was taught by experience what the Psalmist meant by the dew of Hermon, the tents LEBANON. 105 being as wet with it as if it had rained all night.” (Ps. cxxxiii. 8.) Dr. Shaw also remarks, “that the dew often wets the traveller to the skin, but no sooner is the sun risen, and the atmosphere a little heated, than the mists and the copious moisture, which the dews occasion, are quickly dispersed.” Irwin, in his Voyage up the Red Sea, when on the Arabian shore, says, “ Difficult as we find it to keep ourselves cool in the day-time, it is no easy matter to defend our bodies from the damps of the night, when the wind is loaded with the heaviest dews that ever fell ; we lie exposed to the whole weight of the dews, and the cloaks in which we wrap ourselves are as wet in the morning as if they had been immersed in the sea.” The two principal rivers of Lebanon, the Orontes and the Jordan, rising at the opposite extremities of the range, are compelled by the declivities to shape their course, the one to the extreme north, and the other to the extreme south of Syria. The port of Larnica in Cyprus is distant thirty leagues, but the traveller scarcely leaves it before he discovers the highest summits of Libanus capped with clouds. But few of these mountains have been measured ; but, during winter, the mountains throughout the whole range north of Palestine are covered with snow; and its disappearance or continuance, on the advance of summer, of course affords a test of comparative elevation, for after the month of March all this snow dissolves, except in 106 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. the highest regions. Dr. Clarke, observing Mount Hermon in July, from the plain of Esdraelon, says, “ The summit was so lofty that the snow entirely covered the upper part of it, not lying in patches as, during summer, upon the tops of some very elevated mountains, but investing all the higher part with that perfect white and smooth velvet-like appearance, which snow only exhibits when it is very deep.” LEBANON. 107 CHAPTER XIII. LEBANON {continued). THE MARONITES — THE DRUSES— TRAVELLING ON LEBANON — THE CEDARS. “ ‘His countenance is as Lebanon.’ Such,” says Mr. Fisk, “is the figure used by Solomon to indicate the dignity, beauty, and majesty of the ‘ beloved,’ the great head of the Church. They who have gazed upon Lebanon from the heights, from the sea coast about Beyrout, and marked its varied aspect, as the light and shade throw their garniture of beauty around it, must have felt how noble an image it i$, how fitting in its application.” Lebanon is a little world in itself, and the history of its tribes, its religions and superstitions, its warfares, and reverses of fortune, would occupy a far larger space than we have to spare. The two principal tribes who at present inhabit the region are the Maronites, in communion with the see of Rome, though not entirely in agreement with it in all particulars ; and the Druses, whose religion is a sort of mysticism. The feud between the two tribes is deadly and devastating, and during the late war it was the policy of the Turkish govern- 108 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. ment to supply them both with ammunition, in the hope of each breaking down the power of the other. Carne, in his Visit to the Holy Land, gives a glowing description of Mount Lebanon, which he ascended in the noon of a summer’s day : — “ The heat was oppressive, and the air so transparent that the peaks of snow looked, in the dazzling beams, like so many fiery crests, on which a few thin clouds are floating, like little isles, faintly peopling a lone and beautiful sea. Many a projecting ledge, many a noble tree growing out of the clefts of the rock, invited to a few moments’ pause, to gaze on the defiles beneath, or on the rich banks of wild flowers on every side. The valleys, that seem so narrow at the top, are every one accessible by winding paths to where the stream blesses as it winds, but blesses only a wilderness. The paths require a careful eye on the mule ; the steps, either natural or cut, that form part of the way, being sometimes several feet deep in the rock, and on the verge of a tremendous precipice, it is safest here to travel on foot.” One of the most agreeable features of a tour in Lebanon is the certainty of an excellent and hos- pitable asylum at the close of almost every day’s journey. The gate of one of the numerous convents is sure to open to the wanderer, where a clean lodging, a refreshing, and often luxurious repast, with the mountain wines, is soon prepared. Should it happen that no convent is within reach, the LEBANON. 109 house of the Sheikh of the Maronite village is a welcome substitute. Throughout the whole of Lebanon every spot capable of producing grain is under culture to the very summits, and the villages are embosomed in walnut and mulberry trees, orchards, and vineyards. Juniper and barberries abound, and a great quantity of rhubarb grows at the very edge of, and even under, the snow. The snow on Lebanon, in the course of the night, becomes frozen hard enough to support the baggage-animals, but after the sun has been upon it for half an hour it will not bear the lighter weight, and less penetrating foot, of man ; and thus it is impossible to traverse it during the day. Travellers, therefore, after halting for the night, commence their journey two hours before daybreak, for if the sun should overtake them before they can clear the snowy district they run the risk of being lost — a catastrophe wdiich has happened both to men and horses who have attempted the passage at too late an hour. “ The snow,” says Mr. Munro, “when we began our journey, after the night halt, was as hard as marble, and very slippery, for some distance not more than a foot deep, except in a ravine on the left of our tract, which was so filled as to be marked only by a slightly concave surface. We crossed this ravine near the top, where it was a hundred yards wide ; and a small patch on the opposite side being kept clear of snow, by the swampy nature of the 110 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. ground, from whence a rill took its rise, served to show that the sun had influence even in this cold region, for the Yinca minor, and the delicate little Scilla Italica were in flower. The ridge of snow upon the actual summit, forty feet in height, was narrow ; the east side being almost perpendicular, like a wall. Under this we proceeded for a short distance to the north, before we could ascend, and then crossed it obliquely. From hence the cele- brated cedars were visible, two miles and a-half to the north-west, in a small clump considerably below the summit of the mountain, which here bays round, and forms the head of a magnificent valley. The east was purpled by the sun, whose disk, now edging the horizon, warned us to hasten forward, that we might escape before the snow should become too soft to bear us. The necessity for accelerating our pace was apparent at each step. The surface, hitherto hard, was now becoming loose, and would not support the weight of the mules, who, sinking to their knees, trembled at every joint, as if aware of their danger. It was with the utmost difficulty we could get them to move, for hanging back, and stretching out their necks, to examine with the eye and nostril the treacherous paths, their instinct reproached us for having placed them in such peril, while they pleaded to be allowed the use of their sagacity to extricate themselves. But the great danger was in delay ; so, changing their order, we brought one forward which w r as less timid than the LEBANON. Ill leader, and proceeded more rapidly. The snow was now giving fast, and the animals, sinking to their shoulders, scrambled, plunged, and lay prostrate till we could ease them of their burdens, and enable them to rise, when they struggled forward a few steps, to fall again. We were ourselves, at times, engulphed to the middle, or falling through with one leg, avoided a further immersion, by crawling horizontally to firmer footing, and in this manner we laboured on until we arrived among the bare rocks of the mountain.” Burckhardt gives a similar account of his ascent, adding, that, when he and his party reached the summit they were glad to stretch themselves for an hour on the snow, to recover breath and to repose. The view, however, seems to repay any labour in the ascent. Lord Lindesay, as well as Burckhardt, describes the view from the top of Lebanon as being magnificent in the extreme, particularly looking towards the Me- diterranean, which, far on the western horizon, meets and mingles with the sky. “ After feasting our eyes,” continues Lord Lindesay, “on a view so splendid, we found leisure to observe a small group of trees, not larger, apparently, than a clump in an English park, at the very foot of the northern wing or horn of this grand natural theatre. These were the far-famed cedars. We were an hour and twenty minutes in reaching them, the descent being very precipitous and difficult. As we entered the grove the air was quite perfumed with their odour, 112 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. ‘ the smell of Lebanon/ so celebrated by the pen of inspiration. We baited under one of the largest trees, inscribed with De la Borde’s name on one side, and De Lamartine’s on the other. But we were not ourselves sacrilegious enough to wound these glorious trees. I am happy to say there are few English names cut on them. I would as soon cut my name on the wall of a church. Several generations of cedars, all growing promiscuously together, compose this beautiful grove. The younger are very numerous ; the second rate would form a noble wood of themselves, were even the patriarchal dynasty quite extinct ; one of them, by no means the largest, measures nineteen feet and a quarter in circumference, and in repeated instances two, three, and four large trunks spring in a cluster from a single root. But they have all a fresher appearance than the patriarchs, and straighter stems — straight as young palm-trees. Of the giants there are seven standing very near each other, all on the same hill, three more further on, in a line with them. It is gratifying to reflect that great care is now taken of these remnants of the giant vegetable world. The trees are considered sacred, and the patriarch of the convent performs a solemn yearly mass under their shade, on the feast of the Transfiguration . ’ ’ The site of these noble trees is a very unsheltered one, on a ridge near the highest part of Lebanon, encompassed with snow several feet deep, during LEBANON. 113 half the year, and open to the wildest mountain winds and storms. The small forest includes a great number of young cedars, and the whole can be walked round in half an hour. Pococke says, “that the great cedars, at some distance, look like spreading oaks ; the bodies of the trees are short, dividing at bottom into three or four, some of which, growing up together for about ten feet, appear something like those Gothic columns which seem to be composed of several pillars.” The oldest cedars in England are not more than a hundred and sixty years old ; but some on the Continent, which have been planted at least three centuries, compared with those of Lebanon are but saplings. “ I went to see them,” says Father Dandini; “they are called saints because of their antiquity ; moreover, as these trees are but few in number, the Arabs esteem it a miracle that they cannot be reckoned exactly. I counted twenty- three, and another of my companions twenty-one. They never fell them to make boards. Indeed they say that some Turks, who cut down one of these sacred trees, were punished forthwith by the loss of all their cattle.” The cedars sometimes fail to make the impression on the traveller for which he is prepared. “But,” says Mr. Fisk, “ let such a one put himself in the place of an Asiatic passing from barren desert to barren desert, traversing oceans of sand and mountains of naked rock, accustomed to countries i 114 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. like Egypt, Arabia, Judea, and Asia Minor, abound- ing, in the best places only, with shrubbery and fruit trees ; let him, with the feelings of such a man, climb the rugged rocks, and cross the naked ravines of Lebanon, and suddenly descry, among the hills, a grove of three hundred trees, such as the cedars actually are, even at the present day, and he will confess that to be a fine comparison in Amos xi. 9, ‘ Whose height was as the height of cedars, and he was as strong as the oaks.’ Let him, after a long ride in the heat of the sun, sit down in the shade of a cedar, and contemplate the exact conical form of its top, and the beautiful symmetry of its branches, and he will no longer wonder that David compared the people of Israel, in the days of their prosperity, to the goodly cedars. A traveller who has just left the rich forests of America may think this little grove of cedars not worthy of so much notice, but the man who knows how rare large trees are in Asia, and how difficult it is to find timber for building, will feel at once that what is said in Scripture of these trees is perfectly natural. It is probable that in the days of Solomon and Hiram there were extensive forests of these trees in Lebanon ; a variety of causes may have contributed to their diminution and almost total extinction, yet, in comparison with all the other trees I have seen on the mountain, the few that remain may still be called the glory of Lebanon. “ While assembled beneath the canopy formed LEBANON. 115 by these natural wonders,” continues Mr. Fisk, “we were visited by a small party of Maronite monks, who have a chapel among them, and are connected with a convent not far distant. They brought us a supply of new milk, and very pleasant curd cheese, which, with a few eggs and bread already in our stores, made out a very fair break- fast. We had wished to be quite alone among the cedars of Lebanon, but were wholly unable to shake off two officious monks and an Arab boy, w T ho tracked us in every step, knowing well the meaning of the hateful word ‘Backshech,’ and pronouncing it with perfect ease, and no small importunity; but we had paid liberally for our milk and cheese, and determined not to yield to their cupidity. One of the monks seemed very anxious to secure our attention to the rude chapel in which he was, I presume, the chief officiating priest. It consisted of four bare walls, open at top, without any roof, having an altar, with some attempts at tinsel decoration, and sacramental vessels.” Dr. Stanley visited the cedars in 1862 with His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. In the notes to his volume of sermons preached during his tour, he says, “A green slip of cultivated land reaches up into the verge of their desolate fields. Behind them is a semi-circle of the snowy range of the summit of Lebanon. Just in the centre of the view, — in the dip between the Moraines and the i 2 116 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. snow-clad liills beyond, — is a single dark massive clump, the sole spot of vegetation that marks the mountain wilderness. This is the cedar grove. It disappears as we ascend the intervening range, and does not again present itself till we are close upon it. Then the exactness of the prophetic description comes out. It is literally, on the very ‘edge’ of the height of Lebanon, a ‘park 5 or ‘ garden’ of the forest; as truly as the ‘jardin’ or garden,’ well known to Swiss travellers, in the bosom of Mont Blanc. It is indeed worthy, from its mysterious elevation and seclusion, to be ranked by the Prophet Ezekiel as the ‘ Garden of God.’ It stands as if on an island eminence, broken into seven knolls, of which six are arranged round the seventh, a square mount in the midst of which stands a rude Maronite chapel. This variation of level and outline makes the whole group a kind of epitome of forest scenery. The outskirts of the eminence are clothed with the younger trees, whose light feathery branches veil the more venerable patriarchs in the interior of the grove. This younger growth, which has entirely sprung up within the last two centuries, amounts now to more than three hundred. The older trees, which are so different in appearance from the others as to seem to belong to a different race, are now about twelve in number. Their forms are such as must always have impressed the imagination of those who saw them. Their massive trunks, clothed LEBANON. 117 with a scaly texture, almost like the skin of living animals, and contorted with all the multiform irregularities of age, may well have suggested those ideas of regal, almost divine, strength and solidity which the sacred writers ascribe to them,. They stand at the apex, so to say, of the vegetable world. ‘From the cedar tree that is in Lebanon’ down- wards extends the knowledge of Solomon. ‘ To the cedars of Lebanon’ upwards reaches the destruction of the trees from the burning bramble of Jotham. The intermarriage of the inferior plants with the cedar is the most inconceivable of all presumption. The shivering of their rock-like stems by the thunderbolt is like the shaking of the solid moun- tain itself.” 118 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. * CHAPTER XIV. LEBANON ( continued ). PASTURES OE LEBANON — VINES — AGRICULTURE — THE THRESHING-FLOOR — FLOWERS, FRUITS AND TREES — THE WEATHER. Tribes of Arabs are often wandering on Lebanon during the summer months, in search of pasture. They remain for a time in the fertile spots, with their cattle, and then strike their tents to seek a fresh pasturage. Some of the districts of the moun- tains, like those of the Alps, are covered with grass, and the numerous springs, together with the heavy dews which fall during the summer months, produce a very rich verdure. The Arabs remain here about five months in the year; in winter they descend to the more sheltered valleys, or to the sea-shore about Tripoli and Tartus. “I was astonished, ” says Burckhardt, “at seeing, so high in the mountain, numerous camels and Arab huts. Though, like the Bedouins, they have no fixed habitations, their features are not of the true Bedouin cast, and their dialect, though dif- ferent from that of the peasants, is not a pure Bedouin dialect. They are tributary to the Turkish LEBANON. 119 governors, and at peace with all the country people, but they have the character of a great propensity to thieving; their property, besides camels, con- sists in horses, cows, sheep, and goats. The words, ‘ 0 inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars/ can now apply only to those wandering Bedouins, or to the Sheikh, and his little tribe, who, in summer, come and dwell beneath their shadow. Here they may be seen partaking of their rude repast, and conversing round the large fire, of which the forest afforded materials. No danger can be apprehended with regard to the venerable cedars, for the Arabs regard them with such superstitious veneration, that they would rather fire their own dwelling than touch a splinter from these sacred trees.' ” Between Beyrout and the foot of the mountains the way lies over plains of sand, often deep enough to be very inconvenient to the horses. On all sides are large plantations of mulberry trees, cultivated for the maintenance of silk-worms. These planta- tions are hedged in by rows of the prickly pear, the fruit of which the Arabs eat abundantly ; in- deed it is, during the season, one of their principal articles of sustenance. It grows with a thorny skin, and requires, when prepared for food, to be handled with care, or the hand may be painfully pricked. The flavour of it is something like that of a fresh fig. It wants more acid to make it agreeable to an European palate. One of the most i 4 120 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. refreshing, while it is one of the most common fruits in Palestine, is the pomegranate, which, from its singular beauty, was chosen to he an ornament of the Temple of Solomon. The tree rises to the height of twenty feet, sending out long branches covered with spear-shaped leaves of a rich and beautiful green. The flowers are of a rich scarlet colour. The seeds are dried, and used in cookery and medicine ; the bark is employed in tanning the finer kinds of leather, such as morocco. In October the pistachio trees ripen their loads of smooth nuts, of a beautiful pale bluish colour ; the fruit loses much of its beauty in drying, but perhaps improves in flavour. The grapes of Mount Lebanon are as large as prunes, and the wines of Lebanon are still so celebrated that we can understand why the prophet Hosea should have derived a comparison from them, when he says, the memorial thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon. * They are sweet, such wines being most esteemed in the East. They were formerly appropriated to the use of monarchs and men of rank. On the heights of Lebanon the vine trails along the ground like the cucumber. In October the vintage engages attention, and it must be remembered that in Moslem countries vines are chiefly cultivated for the sake of grapes as a table fruit, the followers of Mohammed not being allowed to drink, or consequently to make wine. It is only made by Christians, for their LEBANON. 121 own consumption, or for sale by unscrupulous Moslems. On Mount Lebanon Mr. Paxton states that he saw a most noble threshing-floor ; it was on the edge of the plain (covering a large space of several acres), and comprised about a dozen or twenty compartments. In some of these people were employed in thresh- ing corn ; in others they were separating the chaff from the wheat ; in others lay great piles of grain, some clean and others mixed with the chaff and straw. They separate the wheat by merely throw- ing it up and letting the wind blow the chaff away. For this process they must of course wait for a wind. The threshing instrument is a board about three feet in width, three inches in thickness, and from six to eight feet in length ; at the ends it is turned up a little like a sleigh. On the under side many holes are cut in it, and in these are fastened pieces of stone, flint, or iron, which project nearly an inch from the face of the board, and serve as teeth to bruise the ears of the corn and set free the grain from the husks. To this implement oxen are fastened, to drag it round the floor, while the driver sits or stands upon it, furnished with a whip or goad. The oxen are without muzzles, and as they pass round they take up a mouthful now and then (Deut. xxv. 4; 1 Cor. ix. 9). Mules, donkeys, and, at times, camels, are used in bring- ing the grain to the floor, and carrying away the straw. Oats are not cultivated by the Arabs : they 122 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. feed their horses entirely on barley and straw ; the latter, indeed, is the usual fodder of the Holy Land, where grass is never made into hay. In the month of January the groves and meadows at the foot of Lebanon are adorned in great profusion with the blossoms of different species of anemone, ranunculus, crocus, tulip, narcissus, lily, and violet. The orange trees on the plain of the coast are in February loaded with fruit. After the second week in March every tree is in full leaf, and the apricot, almond, apple, and pear blossoms give a peculiar beauty to the plains. The tall waving cypresses of the coast during this month engage the attention of travellers, from the peculiarly bright green of their leaves. The cypress is said to be the only tree that grows close to the summit of Lebanon, but being checked by the cold, it does not there grow in its usual pyramidal form, but like a small oak. The date-palm, which is an evergreen, also blossoms in March, and the carob, or locust-tree, produces its fruit. It is the fruit of the carob which is mentioned in the parable of the prodigal son, as the food of swine, called in the English Bible, husks. The young fruit of the fig-tree also appears this month. As the spring advances, numerous and various are the flowers and shrubs which here deck the face of Nature. Among them seven or eight arums may be found. In most of the arums the root becomes, when dressed, both palatable and nutritious. This is so LEBANON. 128 well known in Palestine, that one species of Egyptian arum is carefully cultivated on this account. The arbutus is a very common shrub in Palestine, attaining a greater size than it does in our latitudes, the trunk being sometimes six feet in circumference. Lord Lindesay speaks of the arbutus as one of the three trees which principally give a wooded character to the hills of Gilead and Bashan, the other two being the oak and the fir. Captains Irby and Mangles observed a curious tree in this region, bearing bunches of fruit resem- bling the currant in shape, and the plum in colour. They had a pleasant and aromatic taste, exactly resembling mustard, and if taken in any quantity produce an irritability of the nose and eyes like that which is caused by taking mustard. The leaves of the tree have the same pungent flavour as the fruit, although not in so great a degree. The travellers thought it probable that this, and not the mustard plant of the north, is the tree alluded to by our Saviour in the parable of the mustard seed (Matt, xiii. 31, 32) ; for although they met with mustard growing wild, as high as the horses’ heads, still, ’ being an annual, it does not merit the name of a “ tree.” Whereas the other is really such, and birds might, and actually do, take shelter under its shadow. The Jewish writers speak of a mustard- tree, common among them, which seems to have been a species existing in Palestine, with which we 124 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. are not well acquainted, and which may, perhaps, prove to he that which Captain Mangles has pointed out. It is probably the plant known to botanists by the name of Salvador aVersica , a shrub belonging to the Goose-foot tribe. In the early part of the month of May showers are sometimes known to fall, but from the end of it to September rain is unknown in this country, or in Palestine (See 1 Sam. xii. 17). Hail-storms are common after this season, and the hail-stones are often of enormous size. Russell mentions his having seen, at Aleppo, hail-stones two inches in diameter. These hail-storms often make terrible havoc with the windows. About 1,200 panes of glass in one seraglio have been broken in a short hail-storm. This fact illustrates the descriptions of storms of hail contained in the Holy Scriptures. LEBANON. 125 CHAPTER XV. LEBANON ( continued ). MINERAL PRODUCE OF LEBANON — FUEL — SILK — SHEEP — GOATS—* BEARS AND OTHER WILD ANIMALS — BIRDS. In the mountains of Lebanon are rich mines of iron, and in their vicinity coal has lately been dis- covered. These are worked by the pacha, but the difficulty of access, and consequent cost of transport, must make the undertaking one of very doubtful result. Mules are at present employed, but a rail- road is in contemplation to convey the produce of the mines to Beirout, where a depot is to be established. “ The descent,” says Dr. Bowring, “ is long and precipitous from the village of Cornail, and the mines appear in a very unsafe state, for our candles were frequently extinguished, and the oppression of the atmosphere was great. The gal- leries enter the mountain horizontally, and the quantity of coal is considerable, but rather of a sulphurous quality. The number of workmen is 114, who are paid three piastres (sevenpence-half- penny) per day, and who work in two relays, both day and night. The whole of the operations were under the direction of an Englishman, but he has 126 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCKIPTURE. been superseded by a Turk, who appeared to have but little knowledge or experience to fit him for the discharge of his duties.” Coal has certainly never been used in Syria, and for the want of this sub- stantial article of fuel the inhabitants of Palestine, and, indeed, of most of the countries of Western Asia, are driven to the sparing use of fires in winter, and to the employment of any article as' fuel which is not too valuable to be so appropriated. Fires, in fact, are so inadequately used in winter, that it is said an Englishman is likely to suffer far more from cold in the mildest winters in Western Asia than in his own land. Warm indoor clothing, and crowding round miserable and unwholesome braziers of charcoal, are the chief remedies. Open fires of wood, or aught else, or even chimneys, are rarely found, save in the kitchens, and among the poorer classes, who warm themselves at the same fire that serves for cooking. Near the top of Lebanon, towards the west, Mr. Paxton speaks of having seen a small spot of fine white marble. Much of the rock, indeed, has the character of marble, and the quarries of the moun- tain anciently supplied materials for the noblest buildings of the Hebrews. Thence did Solomon bring, “ the great stones, the costly stones, and the hewn stones,” needful for the erection of the temple. “ But what,” Mr. Paxton adds, “ gave us most interest were the fossil shells which we found at many places as we ascended, and also on the top LEBANON. 127 itself. We found some very fine specimens of them. I procured several, nearly as large as a common concli shell. At various places on the side, and also on the summit, we saw rocks that appeared little else than a mass of shells.” The most important and valuable produce of the mountains of Lebanon is silk. Much of the best ground is planted with the mulberry-tree, the leaf of which is used for feeding the worms. Not much of the silk is manufactured on the spot, most of it being exported to Italy, France, and England. The big-tailed sheep may be seen here, either singly, or two or three together, with a string round their necks, by which they are fastened when at home, and led and managed when at pasture. They are about the usual size, but around the root of the tail is a large mass of fat, which appears to be but loosely connected with the body, except as kept in connection with it by the skin. It hangs loose, like the udder of a cow, and has altogether a very strange appearance. The goats are often seen in flocks with their keepers, but the sheep are usually seen singly. They are led about in the gardens and vineyards, and out on the mountain side, wherever a tuft of grass is to be found, by a boy or girl. In the evening the sheep are often brought to the pools and springs, where water is plentifully poured over them to cool them — a pro- cess which the sheep take very kindly. The goats are valued for their milk, and are seen in consi- 128 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. derable numbers ; some of them have very long ears, hanging down from eight to twelve inches. The camel is much used as a beast of burden, and shares with the donkey and mule the hard service which the people of these lands exact of their cattle. Bears appear to have been, in ancient times, common in Palestine (2 Sam. xvii. 8; Is. xi. 7), and to have been much dreaded by the -inhabitants for their ferocity, infesting the roads, and even the neighbourhood of towns. They have now become rare, and are scarcely mentioned in modern travels, being almost confined to the mountains, particularly those of Lebanon. La Koque states that in his time they were very numerous upon the higher Lebanon mountains, from which they descended by night in search of prey, and occasioned serious apprehension to travellers. Naturalists tell us, that during summer the bears of Lebanon remain near the snows, but descend in winter to the neighbourhood of the gardens and villages. The Syrian bear frequently preys on animals, but for the most part prefers vegetables, and whole fields of chick-pea, and other crops, are frequently laid waste by it. The wolf is no longer common in Syria, but still there is no partin which it is not occasionally seen, and the flocks suffer in consequence. Jackals are far more numerous in Syria than either wolves or foxes, and congregate in great numbers, howling incessantly from sunset to sun- LEBANON. 129 rise. They enter the streets to seek for offal, robbing the hen-roosts, entering out-houses, de- vouring all the carrion in their way, digging their way even into the sepulchres of the dead, and in the fruit season, in common with foxes, seeking the vineyards, and fattening on grapes. They are silent by day, never appearing in troops, and if a solitary jackal is met with, it always runs away, as if in fear. Several travellers in Syria have noticed tigers, leopards, panthers, and ounces, but by all these names one and the same animal is intended — a species of leopard, one of the most beautiful of its tribe. It is met with frequently in and about Lebanon, and stories are current of its attacking travellers in the night. It is among the animals of Mount Tabor, and has been noticed near the lake of Tiberias. This leopard is frequently mentioned in Scripture. Solomon speaks of the “ Mountains of the Leopards” (Cant. iv. 8), and in the Scriptural topography of Palestine several names occur, which being formed from the name of the leopard (nimr), appear to intimate that the localities indicated were the peculiar haunts of these animals. The jerboa, a sort of miniature kangaroo without the pouch, abounds in Syria, living in burrows, which it makes with its teeth and nails. This animal, about as large as a cat, possessing the longest hind legs of any quadrupeds, while the fore legs are proportionably short, takes prodigious Iv 130 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. leaps of forty-five feet, with tail horizontally ex- tended. The tail is necessary to this mode of progression, and those who are deprived of it are unable to leap, or even to maintain the upright position, which is natural to them, and in which, like the squirrel, they feed, assisted by their fore feet. They are exceedingly shy, and can only be killed by surprise. The Arabs take them by stopping up their burrows : they eat the flesh, and use the skin as fur. A modern traveller describes one of the plains he crossed in the Lebanon range as being everywhere so honey- combed by the burrows of the jerboa as to render riding dangerous, the ground frequently giving way under the feet of the dromedaries. The jerboa has been supposed to be the coney of Scripture, though some naturalists give the prefer- ence to the Syrian hyrax, which, in appearance, resembles a guinea-pig. It is common in the deserts, where it lives upon the scanty herbage which it finds, and as it does not burrow in the earth, its feet not being calculated for that purpose, it conceals itself in the natural holes or clefts which it finds in the rocks. Among birds the golden oriole and the cuckoo are among the winter residents of Syria, coming in autumn, and departing in spring. Buckingham tells us, that early in April, as he was travelling across the mountains from Damascus to Sidon, he heard the voice of the cuckoo, loud, distinct, and LEBANON. 131 clear, at the time the ground was covered with deep snow. The Arabs called it Tier-El-Yakoob, or Jacob’s bird, from supposing it to utter the name of that Patriarch, the Arabic sound of which, indeed, its note closely resembles. A recent missionary to the Holy Land speaks of having seen Mount Lebanon under a singularly picturesque aspect. “ Standing off the coast of Saide and Beirout, we had a brilliant view of the illuminations which take place on the mountain on the eve of the festival of the Holy Cross. From north to south there was, in a crescent form, an exhibition of lights, which increased in brilliancy as the darkness of evening came on. Some of them rose to a very considerable height above the horizon, marking the great elevation of the moun- tains; I counted fifty. These large fires were lighted at the monasteries and churches ; this ceremony took place throughout the whole of Mount Lebanon, from Tripoli to Tyre, and in various other parts. Considering that our view was partial, we may calculate that not fewer perhaps than 500 such fires were lighted.” We shall conclude our notice of Lebanon with a striking description of the view from the south extremity of the ridge by Yan de Velde. “ I have travelled in no part of the world where I have seen such a variety of glorious mountain scenes within so narrow a compass. Not the luxurious Java, not the richly wooded Borneo, not k 2 182 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. the majestic Sumatra or Celebes, not the paradise- like Ceylon, far less the grand but naked mountains of South Africa, or the low impenetrable woods of the West Indies, are to be compared to the southern projecting mountains of Lebanon. In yonder lands all is green or all is bare. An Indian landscape has something monstrous in its super- abundance of wood and jungle, that one wishes in vain to see intermingled with rocky cliffs or with towns or villages. In the bare table lands of the Cape Colony, the eye discovers nothing but rocky cliffs It is not so, however, with the southern ranges of Lebanon. Here there are woods and mountains, streams and villages, bold rocks and green cultivated fields, land and sea views. Here, in one word, you find all that the eye could desire to behold on this earth The whole of northern Canaan lies at our feet. Is not this Sidon ? Are not those Sarepta and Tyre, and Ras-El-Abiad ? I see also the Castle of Shukif, and the gorge of the Leontes, and the hills of Safed, and, in the distance, the basin of the sea of Tiberias, with the hills of Bashan, far, far away ; and all these hundreds of villages between the spot we are at and the sea coast Half a day would not suffice for taking the angles of such an ocean of villages, towns, castle, rivers, hills, and capes.” MOUNT MORIAH. 133 CHAPTER XVI. MOUNT MORIAH. “ Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah ; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” — Gen. xxii, 2. “ Then Solomon begun to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, in Mount Moriah.” — 2 Chron. iii. 1. The “Land of Moriah, ” mentioned in Genesis xxii., is supposed to mean the spot on which Jerusalem afterwards stood ; and these heights were called “Moriah,” or Vision, because, being high lands, they could be seen afar off ; but after- wards the name was appropriated to the single hill, on which Solomon built his celebrated temple, on the site of which now stands the mosque of Omar. Mount Moriah is a rocky limestone hill, steep of ascent, and bounded by narrow valleys on every side except the north, where it is connected with other hills. When drawing near Mount Moriah from the north, Mr. Paxton observes ; “We passed a district where an immense quantity of stone had been quarried and removed ; the refuse stone lay in piles, and the excavations showed that large quantities had been procured. The face of the k 3 134 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. high ridge, or kind of table-land over which we now passed, was almost wholly destitute of vegeta- tion. A few thistles and an occasional small thorn bush might be seen, but a more naked district I had not met with in the Holy Land. Several miles to the right, I saw a hill or hills pretty well covered with trees of some sort, olives, I thought, from their appearance ; and at a greater distance on our left, I saw several patches of trees on the side of a high and long ridge, and a small village or two near them ; but more immediately about me, and over the whole face of the naked ridge I was passing, all was naked, all was des- titute of vegetation, except a small enclosed spot. I was struck not only with the absence of vege- tation, but with the enormous quantity of rough rock that almost literally covered the surface of the ground. Much of it lay in irregular patches projecting from eighteen inches to five or six feet in height above the little earth that could be seen. It really appeared as if the district was given up to be occupied by rocks to the exclusion of all other matter.” In the time of David, Mount Moriah stood apart from the city, and was richly cultivated ; here was the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite, bought by David, and on which he raised an altar to God (2 Sam. xxiv. 15-25). At the time when Solomon built his temple it had become included within the walls of the city. It was on Mount Moriah MOUNT MORIAH. 135 that Abraham, more than eight hundred years before this period, was directed by Jehovah to offer his only son in sacrifice. “ There is, perhaps, no event in the Old Testament which more powerfully enlists the sympathy of our nature than the affect- ing narrative of the trial of Abraham’s faith. The order of words in the original,” says Bishop War- burton, “ gradually increases the sense, and raises the passions higher and higher. ‘ Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, even Isaac.’ Every word seems calculated to awaken some pain- ful feeling, and to increase the difficulty of com- pliance. But he who before staggered not at the promise, staggers not now at the precept through unbelief.” The mosque built by the Caliph Omar, which now occupies a spot of so much interest, is regarded with the greatest veneration by the Mohammedans. At its northern extremity is the golden gate, for many years closed, and flanked with a tower, in which a Mussulman soldier is constantly on guard ; for the Turks have a tradition that by that gate the Christians will one day enter, and obtain possession of the city. Venerable as is the spot to both Jew and Christian, neither can now tread its precincts with freedom. Dr. Richardson, how- ever, an English physician, whose skill and pro- fession rendered him generally acceptable, obtained permission to explore the building. He beheld the beautifully gilded ceilings, the marble walls k 4 136 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. and pillars, the well where the worshippers drink and wash, and the ancient copy of the Koran. He was even permitted to “put his hand through a hole, to feel the pretended print of the Prophet's foot, and to feel as well as to see the pretended marks of the angel Gabriel's fingers, over which is suspended a fine curtain of green cloth and satin, the sacred colour of the Turks.” The mosque is said to be very striking at a distance, and to lose nothing of its grandeur or beauty on a near ap- proach. The spacious paved courts, the flights of steps, and surrounding arcades, the tall dark cypress trees and running fountains, and the large octagonal body of the mosque, with its surrounding domes, produce all together the finest effect, and increase the desire to enter its forbidden walls. It is said to be the finest piece of architecture in the Turkish empire ; far superior to the mosque of St. Sophia, in Constantinople. By the sides of the spacious area in which it stands are several subterranean remains ; and it is said that evidence can be produced to prove that they belonged to the foundation of Solomon's temple. Chateaubriand says, that he was strongly tempted to find some mode of penetrating to the interior of the mosque, but was deterred by the fear that he might thereby involve the whole Christian population of Jerusalem in destruction. Here the Moslem, in his pride, takes his evening walk, to the envy of the excluded Christian and Jew. On the mount MOUNT MORIAH. 137 and north of it, along the outside of the city walls, is the Turkish burying-place, while the Jews bury on Mount Olivet, and the Valley of Jehoshaphat ; and the Christians on Mount Sion. The spring of water which flows from the sides of Mount Moriah is supposed to be the pool of Siloam to which our blessed Saviour directed the blind man to go and wash. “He went, therefore, and washed, and came seeing” (John ix. 7). 138 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. CHAPTEE XVII. MOUNT OF OLIVES. “ The mountain which is upon the east side of the city.” — Ezek. xi. 23. “ David went up by the ascent of Mount Olivet.” — 2 Sam. xv. 30. “ When they were come to Bethphage unto the Mount of Olives.” — Matt, xxi, 1. “ As He sat upon the Mount of Olives.” — Matt, xxiv. 3. “ And when they had sung a hymn they went out into the Mount of Olives.”— Matt. xxvi. 30. “ Then returned they (after the ascension) to Jerusalem from the Mount called Olives.” — Acts. i. 12. The Mount of Olives, so frequently mentioned in the Gospel history, stretches from north to south, and is about a mile in length. The height of its summit is 2720 feet above the sea; but it should be kept in mind that it stands on a table land of 2000 feet high. During summer the short grass, which covers its sides in the spring, is withered by the heat; but the absence of verdure is com- pensated for by patches, here and there, of the tree to which it owes its name, and with which formerly the whole mount and valley were covered. At about two-thirds of the ascent travellers are shown the place where our Lord, looking down upon the city, wept over its impending fate. “ If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, MOUNT OF OLIVES. 139 the things which belong to thy peace ! but now they are hid from thy eyes. For the days will come upon thee that thy enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee ; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another ” (Luke xix. 42 — 44). How strikingly has this prophecy been fulfilled ! No vestige is to he seen of the ancient capital of David, and hut few and doubtful remains exist of later Jewish times. Without the walls there are, indeed, some ancient sepulchral monuments ; but even these have been defiled and defaced, as if the destruction pronounced on this fatal city extended even to the asylums of her dead. From the Mount of Olives the best panoramic view of the holy city is obtained, the slope of the hill, from west to east, being just sufficient to present it to the greatest advantage. The interior of the court of the temple is distinctly seen, with the celebrated mosque of Omar rising in its centre, occupying the site of its more august predecessor. Behind the sanctuary of the Holy Sepulchre and other churches, minarets, convents and mosques rise in succession ; and though the J erusalem of modern times is not the city of the Scriptures, any more than that it is built upon the same spot, yet, as seen from hence the “widowed daughter of Zion,” still displays sufficient grandeur to aid the 140 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. imagination in painting her, as she once existed, “the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth.” The view from the western slopes of the Mount of Olives is, as a picture only, extremely mag- nificent ; colour, form, composition, all are in the finest order; hut the mind, however touched by these, soon turns to its hallowed historical asso- ciations. From the eastern side the view is equally extensive and delightful, embracing as it does the chain of the mountains of Moab, and parts of the Dead Sea, with the valley and part of the plain of Jordan; and beyond these, though not admitting of exact distinction, are Bethpeor, Gilead, and Pisgah, with the height of Mount Nebo : to the N.W. stands Bamah, the birth-place of Samuel : in the foreground the eye traverses vast, ocean-like undulations of bare and arid mountain-tops and valleys. At the feet of Mount Olivet, on its west side, runs the valley of Jehoshaphat, so often mentioned under different names by the sacred historians and prophets. Who knows not, also, that this valley, was often traversed by David and by our blessed Saviour, whenever they crossed the brook Kedron, or ascended Mount Olivet ; or that it is the peculiar and awful distinction of this valley that Jews, Mohammedans, and many Christians live and die in the persuasion that this is the “ valley of decision, the valley to which all the nations shall MOUNT OF OLIVES. 141 be gathered in the great and terrible day of final judgment. Lamartine describes the spot as en- closed on the north by dark and barren heights which contained the sepulchres of the kings, shaded on the west by the heavy and gigantic walls of a city of iniquities, and overhung at the east by the summit of the Mount of Olives. At some paces’ distance, a black and bare rock stands out like a promontory from the base of the mountain, and overhanging the Kedron, and the valley itself, con- tains several old tombs of patriarchs and kings, formed in a gigantic and singular style of archi- tecture. In the time of our Saviour, no doubt, the sloping sides of the Mount, which are now nearly bare, were watered by brooks from the pools, and in the rainy season by the running stream of Kedron. Gardens of olive, orange, and pome- granate trees, covered with a thicker shade the narrow valley of Gethsemane, which sinks like a sanctuary of grief into the darkest depth of the valley of Jehoshaphat.” The tombs mentioned by Lamartine are not the sole memorials of the dead, for the sides of the valley are almosLpaved with white and black sepulchral stones, by thousands and tens of thousands, for this is the place where, three thousand years ago, the Jews buried their dead under the shadow of the Temple. The Jew of modern times journeys in his old age from the uttermost parts of the earth, that when he dies his bones may be laid in this valley of his fathers’ sepulchres. 142 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. The brook Kedron, which traverses the length of this valley, is now a mere winter torrent, quite dry for the greater part of the year. The Mount of Olives will seem to many of our readers, perhaps, one of the most interesting localities in the world. The marks and boundaries of Jerusalem itself have been so altered in the course of ages, that it would be difficult to fix upon any spot which may be supposed to present, even nearly, the same appearance it did in the time of our Saviour. But respecting the Mount of Olives there is no doubt or question. In all the changes of time and of possessors it has continued to retain its name, and to exhibit the perennial green of the tree from which that name was derived. There is much reason to conclude that, even in its surface, it is now little different from what it was in that day when King David went up its ascent, “ weep- ing and barefoot,’’ or that day, when the Son of Man was wont to resort thither, when from thence He wept over the doomed city, whose “ goodly buildings” He viewed, — and when at last He as- cended from thence, to resume His place “ at the right hand of the Majesty on High.” That any of the olive trees now found there should have existed in the time of Christ, is hardly probable. Yet there are eight old trees on the lower slope of the mountain towards the brook Kedron, standing in the supposed site of the Garden of Gethsemane (which means oil-press), to which this ancient date is ascribed by the monks, and which are, in MOUNT OF OLIVES. 143 consequence, regarded with great veneration by the pilgrims. “ They are,” says Dr. Wilde, “ un- doubtedly the largest, and I may add with safety, the most ancient olive trees in the world. The largest is twenty-four feet in girth above its roots, though its topmost branch is not thirty feet from the ground. The trunks of most of them are hollow in the centre, and built up with stones. There is nothing unnatural in assigning an age of nineteen centuries to these patriarchs of the vegetable kingdom, whose growth is the slowest of any in existence. They have not borne fruit for many years past, but, though their trunks are greatly decayed, yet, from the hardness of the wood, and each part being so retentive of life, there is still a considerable head to each, whose light-coloured silky leaves hang like so many silver locks over their time-worn and aged stems, that now, in the evening of life, are fast tottering to decay.” To this tradition it has been objected that, according to the testimony of Josephus, all the trees within some distance of Jerusalem were cut down by the Romans, to be employed in the works raised against the devoted city ; but this again has been refuted by the fact that the timber of the olive tree would have been of little or no value in constructing engines and battering-rams, and that these trees in particular must then have been so slender, that the besiegers would have considered them unfit for any such purpose. “It is,” says 144 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. Dr. Clarke, “a curious and interesting fact, that, during a period of little more than two thousand years, Hebrews, Assyrians, Romans, Moslems, and Christians, have been successively in possession of the rocky mountains of Palestine; yet the olive still vindicates its paternal soil, and is found at this day upon the spot which was called by the Hebrews, Mount Olivet, or the Mount of Olives, eleven centuries before the Christian era ” (Zech. xiv. 4). One of the three summits into which the mountain is divided, is over against the village of Siloam, and is composed of bare rock, in which many cisterns are cut. Another is known as the Mount of Offence, or the hill of corruption, as the supposed site of the idol temples which King Solomon constructed for his heathen wives. On the third is a remarkable cavern with a single entrance at the top, like that at the mouth of a well. Cavern-worship, especially on the summits of mountains, formed part of the pagan rites of Ashtaroth and other gods of the heathen, and it is conjectured that this was constructed by one of the idolatrous kings of Judah, for the use of his misguided people. A pathway leads directly over the Mount to the village of Bethany on the other side, that place of memorable resort, where, after our Lord had, for the last time on earth, led Plis disciples (Acts i. 5), “ It came to pass that while He blessed them, He was parted from them and carried up into heaven” (Luke xxiv. 51). MOUNT OF PRECIPITATION. 145 CHAPTER XVIII. MOUNT OF PRECIPITATION. “ They rose up and thrust Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast Him down headlong .” — Luke iv. 29. The little vale of Nazareth, in which our Saviour passed His early years, is enclosed by mountains of no great height. “It seems,” says Dr. Richardson, “ as if fifteen mountains met to form one enclosure for this delightful spot. They rise round it like the edge of a shell, to guard it from intrusion. It is a rich and beautiful field in the midst of barren mountains, abounding in fig-trees, small gardens, and hedges of the prickly pear, the dense grass affording an ample pasture. The village stands on an elevated situation on the western side of the valley, and contains between six and seven hundred people.” This picture is in agreement with that which other travellers have drawn. About a mile and a half distant from the modern Nazareth, is the Mount of Precipitation, as it is now called, a hill, though not very lofty, yet still steep and overhanging. “ The eye,” says Mr. Jowett, “naturally wanders over its summit, in quest of some point from which it might probably L 146 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. be, that the men of this place endeavoured to cast our Saviour down ; but in vain, no rock adapted to such an object appears. At the foot of this hill is a modest simple plain, surrounded by low hills, reaching in length nearly a mile ; in breadth, near the city, one hundred and fifty yards, but farther on, about four hundred yards. On this plain there are a few olive and fig-trees, scarcely sufficient to make the place picturesque. Then follows a ravine which gradually grows deeper and narrower, till after walking about another mile, you find yourself in an immense chasm, with steep rocks on either side, from whence you behold, as it were, beneath your feet, and before you, the noble plain of Esdraelon. Nothing can be finer than the apparently immeasurable prospect of this plain, bounded to the south by the mountains of Samaria. The elevation of the hills on which the spectator stands in this ravine is very great, and the whole scene, when we saw it, was clothed in the most rich mountain-blue colour that can be conceived. At this spot, on the right hand of the ravine, is shown the rock to which the men of Nazareth are supposed to have conducted our Lord, for the purpose of throwing Him down. With the Testament in our hands, we endeavoured to examine the probabilities of the spot; and I confess that there was not the least ground for incredulity. “ The rock here is perpendicular for about fifty MOUNT OF PRECIPITATION. 147 feet, down which space it would be easy to hurl a person, who should unawares he brought to the summit, and his perishing would be a very certain consequence. That the spot might be at a con- siderable distance from the city, is an idea not inconsistent with St. Luke’s account; for the ex- pression, thrusting Jesus out of the city, and leading Him ‘ to the brow of the hill on which their city was built,’ gives fair scope for imagining, that, in their rage and debate, the Nazarenes might, without originally intending His murder, press upon Him for a considerable distance after they had quitted the synagogue. The distance, as already stated, from modern Nazareth to this spot is scarcely two miles — a space which, in the fury of persecution, might soon he passed over. Indeed it is by no means certain, hut that Naza- reth may at that time have extended through the principal part of the plain, which lies before the modern town; in this case the distance passed over might not exceed a mile. The word hill has in many other passages of Scripture a much larger sense, denoting sometimes a range of mountains, and in some cases, a whole mountainous district. In all these cases the singular word Gebel (hill) is used according to the idiom of this country ; thus G-ebel Carmel, or Mount Carmel, is a range of mountains ; Gebel Libnan, or Mount Lebanon, is a mountainous district of more than fifty miles in length ; and thus any person coming from l 2 148 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. Jerusalem, and entering on the plain of Esdraelon, would, if asking the name of that hold line of mountains which hounds the north side of the plain, be informed that it was Gebel Nasra, the Hill of Nazareth, though in English we should call them the Mountains of Nazareth. Now the spot shown, as illustrating Luke iv. 29, is, in fact, on the very brow of this lofty ridge of mountains ; in com- parison of which the hill upon which the modern town is built, is but a gentle eminence.” In one of the valleys near this spot is a fountain which bears the name of the Virgin Mary, and where the women are seen passing to and fro with pitchers on their heads, as in days of old. “ It is justly remarked,” says the Rev. Hartwell Horne, “that if there be a spot throughout the Holy Land, which was more particularly honoured by the presence of Mary, we may consider this to be the place ; because the situation of a copious spring is not liable to change, and because the custom of repairing hither to draw water has been continued among the female inhabitants of Naza- reth from the earliest period of its history.” Robinson tells us that in the south-west part of the town is a small Maronite church, under a pre- cipice of the hill, which here breaks off in a perpen- dicular wall, forty or fifty feet in height. Several such precipices occur in the western hill around the village, and he, with very good reason, con- cludes that one of these — probably the one just MOUNT OF PRECIPITATION. 149 indicated — may well have been the spot whither the Jews led Jesus, unto the brow of the hill, that they might cast Him down headlong, and not the precipice two miles from the village, mentioned by Mr. Jowett, and which monkish tradition indicates to the traveller as the Mount of Precipitation. Large herds of mountain goats are met with in this region as well as on the plain of the Jordan. They are the Steinbock, or Bouquetin of the Swiss and Tyrol Alps, and pasture in flocks of forty or fifty together. Great numbers are killed by the people, who hold their flesh in high estimation. They sell the large knotty horns to the Hebron merchants, who carry them to Jerusalem, where they are worked into handles for knives and daggers. Mr. Burckhardt saw a pair of these horns at Kerek, three feet and a half in length. The Arabs told him that “it is very difficult to get a shot at the animal, and that the hunters hide themselves among the reeds on the banks of streams, where the goats resort to drink; that when pursued, they will throw themselves from a height of fifty feet and more, alighting on their heads without receiving any injury.” The same fact is asserted by the hunters in the Alps ; the flesh is excellent, and has nearly the same flavour as that of the deer. They may be hunted with dogs in the plains, but these cannot come up with them among the rocks, where they can take leaps of twenty feet with great ease. l 3 150 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. CHAPTER XIX. Q U A R A N T A N I A. “ Then was Jesns led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.” — Matt. iv. 1. The road from Jerusalem to the plain of Jericho, after a few miles, traverses the sternest and most desolate mountain wilderness in all Palestine. The ridge of mountains in this singular district which immediately faces the plain, forming part of the mountains which enclose the valley of the Jordan, is one of the most savagely picturesque in Judea. It bears the name of “ Quarantania ” (that is “ Forty days”), from an ancient opinion that it was the wilderness in which our Saviour remained for forty days fasting, after He had been baptized in the river Jordan ; and that the loftiest summit of the ridge is that “ exceeding high mountain” from which the devil showed Him “all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them” (Matt. iv. 8). Speaking of this wild region, Maundrell says, “ I am persuaded that there are few deserts in the world so frightful as this ; and I am compelled to acknowledge that melancholy as are the vast soli- tudes of Arabia Petrsea, which I traversed in my QUARANTANIA. 151 journey from Egypt to Sinai, they are altogether pleasant to this.” Hasselquist bears similar tes- timony : “ A most miserable, barren, and dry place, consisting of high rocky mountains, so torn and disordered, as if the earth had suffered some great convulsion in which its very bowels had been turned outward.” The snow lies long in winter on these mountains and high intervening plains ; but from its peculiarly low level and inclosed situation, the whole valley of the Jordan enjoys a remarkably mild winter climate. Mariti adduces and confirms the opinion of Josephus, who reports that the winter of the plain of Jericho resembles spring, and that the inhabitants in his day were clothed in linen garments at the very time when it snowed in other parts of Judea. It appears generally, that when the sun does not shine, the day is exceedingly warm although the night may be frosty. The Scriptures contain allusions to this (Gen. xxxi. 40, Jer. xxxvi. 30). The ascent of the Mount of Temptation is so difficult and perilous, that many travellers of no ordinary enterprise have made attempts to reach its summit, but have desisted. Of this number was Hasselquist, who describes the mountain as “high and pointed, and on our left, as we as- cended, the rock was perpendicularly steep. It consists of a loose white limestone, mixed with another, which is greyish and harder. The way up to its highest point is dangerous beyond imagina- l 4 152 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. • tion, narrow, steep, full of rocks and stones, over which we were obliged to creep ; the difficulty in- creased by the valley on one side, which, besides its terrible aspect, is most dangerous, as, in case any one should slip, his death must be certain. I went as far on this terrible mountain as prudence would permit, but ventured not to the summit.” He probably did not reach more than about half way up this mountain, an ascent which is attended with more fatigue than risk. The higher part presents obstacles so formidable, that the few pilgrims who have attained the summit describe it as a most perilous undertaking. The view from the top, however, well repays the fatigue and danger of the enterprise. It embraces the whole extent of the Dead Sea, and beyond it the plains of Moab and Mount Pisgah, from whence Moses beheld the promised land, while just under the eye are the plains of Jericho and the river Jordan. Like the other heights of the same ridge, Quarantania has on its top the remains of an old chapel, and the eastern side is full of grots and caves, of various forms and size, which have alternately offered secure retreats to fugitives, recluses, and robbers. Such caves are indeed most numerous among the steep and rugged mountains at the northern ex- tremity of the Dead Sea, on this side the J ordan ; which, except in being of much less elevation, offer the same essential characteristics as Quaran- tania. QUARANTANIA. 153 On Mr. Carne’s visit to Jericho, he says, “We were too much fatigued to visit the Jordan this day, but in the evening we walked to the foun- tain at the foot of the mountain Quarantania, which has ever been venerated as the same that the prophet Elisha purified, * whose waters were bitter and the ground barren.’ ” It is a beautiful fountain, and gushing forth with a full rapid stream falls into a large and limpid pool, whence several streams flow over the plain. The fruitful- ness of the neighbourhood, which is covered with a rich verdure and many trees, and well cultivated, arises chiefly from the vicinity of this celebrated fountain, the waters of which are remarkably sweet. The plain, about six miles wide and enclosed by ranges of mountains, as far as Tiberias, a distance of three days’ journey, has a rich soil, and delight- ful aspect, the Jordan’s course through it being perfectly straight. 154 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. CHAPTEE XX. MOUNT SINAI OR HOREB. THE PENINSULA OF SINAI — MOUNT SERBAL — BURCK- HARDT’S ASCENT — INSCRIPTIONS. " And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the Mount : and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the Mount ; and Moses went up.” — Exod. xix. 20. “ The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.” — JDeut. v. 2. “ Behold I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb, and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it.” — Exod. xvii, 6. The Peninsula formed by the two branches in which the gulf called the Red Sea terminates to the north, constitutes part of the wild and desolate region of Arabia Petrsea. In the central part of this peninsula stand the mountains, called by the Arabs “the Tur,” to which such great celebrity has been given by its connection with the migration of the Israelites from Egypt to Palestine. This group, composed almost entirely of granite, forms a rocky wilderness of an irregularly triangular shape, intersected by many narrow valleys, and is from thirty to forty miles in diameter. It contains several lofty summits, whose shaggy and pointed peaks, and steep and shattered sides, are very MOUNTS SINAI AND HOREB MOUNT SINAI OR HOREB. 155 remarkable. In this region several fertile valleys are found which produce fruit trees. Water also abounds in this district, on which account it is a favourite place of refuge for the Bedouins when the low country is parched up. Its advantage in this respect may have been an attraction to the Israelites, who remained here for a year. There is some doubt regarding the application of the names Sinai and Horeb. It might seem from a comparison of different passages in the Pentateuch, that they are only different names for one and the same mountain. Some, however, have supposed that while Horeb denotes the central portion of the group, including several mountains, Sinai is the peak on which the law was given to Moses. But a more important difference of opinion has existed as to which of the summits is the true Sinai. In early times (as early as the sixth cen- tury) the mountain called Serbal, nearly 7,000 feet high, on the eastern side of the Tur, appears to have been identified with it, and was the resort of numerous pilgrims. Burckhardt was the first European who visited it. It has five peaks : the two highest are to the east, which Burckhardt ascended. These rise like cones, and are distin- guishable from a great distance, particularly on the road from Suez. The ascent is very difficult, and Burckhardt was completely exhausted by the time he reached the lower summit, to climb which 156 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. took him no less than twelve hours. Here there is a small plain with some trees, and the ruins of a reservoir for water. After reposing for a while, the enterprising traveller ascended the other peak, and reached its top, after great exertion ; for the rock is so smooth and slippery, besides being steep, that although barefooted he was obliged frequently to crawl, to avoid being precipitated below. Had he not occasionally met with a few shrubs to grasp, he would have been obliged to abandon the at- tempt, or would have rolled down the cliff. The summit of this peak consists of one enormous mass of granite, the smoothness of which is broken by only a few partial fissures, presenting an appear- ance not unlike the ice-covered tops of the Alps. The sides, at a few paces below its top, are formed of large insulated blocks, from thirty to forty feet long, which appear as if just suspended in the act of rushing down the steep. Near the top, steps have been formed with large loose stones, which must have been brought from below; and so judiciously are they arranged, that they have resisted the encroach- ments of time. These steps are the continuation of a regular path from the bottom of the mountain, which is in several parts cut through the rock with great labour, for the use of pilgrims. The peak, which from below looks as sharp as a needle, has a platform on its summit forming a circle about twelve feet in diameter. Just below the top, every granite block that presents a smooth MOUNT SINAI OR HOREB. 157 surface bears inscriptions, the greater part of which are illegible. Similar inscriptions are found on the sides of the small caverns, which exist between the masses of stone, and are large enough to accommodate a few persons. As the eye is very apt to be deceived in estimating the relative height of mountains, Burckhardt hesitates to give any positive opinion as to that of Mount Serbal ; but it seemed to him to be higher than all the peaks, except Mount St. Catharine. The inscriptions mentioned by Burckhardt were most probably the work of pilgrims about the sixth century, at a time when Mount Serbal was regarded as the true Sinai. The principal display of such inscriptions, is found in the Wady Mo- katteb, or Written Yalley, which lies on the most frequented road to Serbal, where the cliffs are so situated as to afford a shelter to travellers during the mid-day hours. This valley extends for about three hours’ march in the north-west direction. The cliffs and rocks are thickly covered with in- scriptions, which are continued with intervals of a few hundred paces only, for at least six miles. Some of these are cut at a height which must have required the assistance of a ladder to reach. Among them are many in Greek, containing probably, like the others, the names of those who passed this way while engaged in their pilgrimage to the holy mountain ; some contain Jewish names in Greek characters. A vast number of drawings 158 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. of mountain goats, and camels, the latter being sometimes represented as laden, or with riders on their backs, are also visible. Crosses, too, may be seen, in some instances, indicating that the inscribers were Christians. MOUNT SINAI OR HOREB. 159 CHAPTER XXI. MOUNT SINAI OR HOREB ( continued ). MOUNT ST. CATHARINE— THE CONTENT — GENERAL CHA- RACTER OF THE WILDERNESS OF SINAI — TRAVELLING IN THE DESERT — CEMETERY OF THE CONVENT. The name of St. Catharine is given to a mountain near the centre of the group, which is about 8,700 feet in height. A convent was built on its side by the Emperor Justinian, a.d. 527, on the site where a small church had been erected by the Empress Helena, dedicated to the Transfiguration. It is said that one of the monks was informed in a dream that the corpse of St. Catharine, who had suffered martyrdom at Alexandria, had been trans- ported by angels to the summit of the highest peak of the mountain. The monks ascended the mountain in procession, and having found the bones, brought them down, and deposited them in the church. To commemorate such an event, the convent, as well as the mountain, was named after St. Catharine. At this convent travellers generally lodge and make excursions from it to the neighbouring moun- tains. The following extracts will convey some 160 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. notion of the general character of the region, as well as of the hardships of travelling in it. “ The sandy soil,” says Mr. Carne, “as we took our solitary walk through the plain, was still warm to the foot after the heat of the day, and the air was mild and delightful. This had seldom been the case during our journey, for the sharp blasts of the night are more to be dreaded, during this season, than the mid-day sun ; the pits which are found dug in the sand, are sometimes a shelter to the Arabs from the fury of the winds, that will not suffer the tents to stand. This may be one reason why the people of Israel encamped so long and often in enclosed valleys, and amidst ranges of lofty mountains, rather than in open, exposed, and extensive plains. In the night these declivities were a protection from the winds, that often sweep down with great force.” “I feel it difficult,” says Mr. Fisk, “to convey to an European mind, an idea of the impressions left upon my own, by a desert route. Its lone- liness amidst numbers, its frequent sameness, its hoary antiquity, the dreaminess of the ordinary pace of the camels, the absence of all human habitations, the sense of vast distance from the great world and its civilisation, the fewness of incidents, the melancholy chanting of the Arabs towards sunset, the wild, gipsy-like appearance of the bivouac, all combine to form a picture of sensations (if I may be allowed the expression) not MOUNT SINAI OR HOREB. 161 easily obliterated by time. Had not the traveller full, undoubting confidence in the integrity of his escort, they would be insupportable. To many a privation he is of necessity exposed, particularly that of fresh water. “ Surely none but those who have thirsted in the desert, have learnt to prize as they ought the real blessing of good water. It is with this, as with most of the ordinary mercies of God, — they are little esteemed, and awaken, too generally, but slight returns of gratitude, because they are common. Knowing that a desert route such as ours might, and probably would, expose us to many privations, particularly in regard to fresh water, I resolved, during one day, to try how long I could endure the cravings of thirst, although we had, in our skins and bottles, a sufficient supply though of not very palatable water. From six in the morning till our noontide meal, I was able to abstain without any uncomfortable result. At dinner I took just enough to refresh my lips. During the afternoon and evening march, the sense of thirst became very painful, and when the sun went down it brought no refreshment; I became feverish, with a feeling of oppression in my throat, a burning pulsation at the tips of my fingers, and felt a general restlessness of the whole system, while every thought of my mind was associated with running or springing water. Before I could reach the halting station, I called impatiently for 162 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. drink, rinsed my month, and took the smallest possible draught, but it was long before the re- action of the system threw off the effects of the painful experiment.” The sun in these regions, if the person is ex- posed to it, parches the skin, and produces fever, and the experienced traveller in a high temperature, will take care to keep the head thickly covered, so as to be protected against it. Hence the turban is an almost necessary part of Oriental costume. It is desirable to wear flannel, and to keep up, if possible, a continual perspiration. A desert route, indeed, requires as thick clothing as a winter journey in Europe. “ While the sun was bearing down upon us,” says Mr. Fisk, “ I availed myself of a simple provision which should be strongly recom- mended to all travellers. Though I had an Arab umbrella of double cotton (which, by the way, was sometimes fatiguing to carry overhead long to- gether), a thick turban, with a tarbouch, and cotton skull-cap under it, yet the sun seemed to penetrate through them all. I had provided a piece of thick cotton cloth, about five or six yards long, and two wide, which sometimes served as a sheet by night, when I indulged in such a luxury. I folded this into about a yard square, laid it with all its thickness on the top of my head, brought two of its corners to meet under my chin, and fastened them with a pin, so as to form a hood. One of the other corners fell over my face like a veil, while the other protected the back of my neck. I MOUNT SINAI OR HOREB. 168 never really suffered from the heat, after adopting this simple precaution.” “At length,” says a modern traveller, “the venerable object of our desires, Sinai, the mountain of the Lord, stood before us. Half an hour’s progress across the plain brought us within sight of the Greek convent of St. Catharine, the first human habitation we had seen since quitting Suez. It appeared little more than a white speck amidst the gloomy vastness of the Sinaitic group ; a little nest of repose amidst gigantic tokens of natural convulsion. As we slowly approached from the north, which point presents the best view, we were enabled to form a general idea of this remarkable habitation. It is a somewhat castellated quadran- gular building, with a little show of fortification. Its walls are high, and, though constructed with stones and mud, or clay, which seems never to have attained any very great degree of solidity, are capable of making sufficient resistance against such missiles as Arabs are accustomed to use. In a garden, enclosed by a continuation of the convent walls, were olives, vines, cypresses, apricots, and other trees, clothed in their bright livery of lovely green. As I gazed upon these refreshing objects, I thought I had never before really felt and under- stood the charm of green as a colour : all appeared so fresh, luxuriant, so cool, in the midst of the wilderness of savage granite by which it w T as sur- rounded. Finding the way rough and troublesome, m 2 164 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. we dismounted, and leisurely on foot approached the main entrance, which is on the eastern side ; and how awfully did the majestic mountain ranges, right and left, look down upon us ! We arrived, and soon were surrounded by a troop of wild and fiery-eyed Bedouin retainers of, and dependents upon, the monks of St. Catharine. ‘ Backshish, Backshish/ was the general cry while we waited for admission within the convent walls, when our arrival was soon announced, and preparations made for our reception. “ On account of the unmanageable ferocity of the Bedouins in past years, before the friendly footing on which they live with the monks was established, all usual modes of entrance were blocked up, and in this state they still continue ; so that the traveller is admitted by a trap-door, at least thirty feet from the ground, to which he and his baggage are elevated by a kind of crane, from which a rope, moved by a windlass within, is let down, and in which he seats himself as in a swing; and as everything within the convent moves at a slow and sleepy pace, the ascent is not made with any degree of speed. On reaching this elevated portal the superior, a pale white-bearded man, of middle age, met us with great courtesy, and passing thence down an inclined plane, and a flight of rude steps, and then up another, we reached an open gallery overlooking a great part of the building, from which opened off four small cells, conveniently furnished MOUNT SINAI OR HOREB. 165 with carpets and cushions, with a little lamp sus- pended in each, for burning olive oil during the night. One was assigned to each of us, and a third to our servants ; and soon all our desert furniture was gathered together about us, not an article of which was missing. In addition to these things, a small sheep had been purchased of the Bedouins, which was dressed and hung up for use, as the provisions afforded by the convent are of the most spare and slender description, animal food of all kinds being forbidden by the rules of the order, though they are permitted the use of brandy, which they manufacture themselves from dates. While seated at the door of our cells we were soon waited upon by several monks, one bearing a basin, and another a large ewer of water, with clean white napkins. While we held our hands over the basin, he poured the fresh water upon our parched skin, which afforded a refreshment that was truly de- lightful. Another brought a bountiful supply of water, fresh and sparkling from the convent well, for drinking. It was almost too delicious, for we had been drinking water little better than diluted mud for several days previous to our arrival. While our meal was in preparation they served us with a fragrant cup of coffee. The little cells we inhabited had their whitewashed walls written over, in many places, with the names of travellers from most parts of Europe, who had from time to time shared, like us, the hospitality of these kindly monks.” m 3 166 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. The convent is like a small town, containing many buildings, several courts and store-houses, a mosque with a minaret, and a chapel, celebrated as the richest in the land. The mosque, a singular object in a Christian convent, is said to have been built by Mahomet, who gave the monks a letter of protection, a copy of which is still shown ; and the mountain is consequently still visited and highly esteemed by the Mahometans. The convent has an inexhaustible supply of pure water, from a well, which the brethren point out to the traveller as that of Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, to which the future lawgiver led his flocks, while he was yet living in obscurity in Midian. The convent has been built on the spot where, according to tradition, the Almighty first manifested Himself to Moses, and spake to him out of the burning bush. In a garden of the convent is the cemetery of monks, which can only be visited by the special permission of the superior. At the end of a long arbour of grape-vines, a narrow staircase cut in the rock leads to an excavated square, of about twenty feet ; on the left is a small door opening into a vault, where formerly the bodies of the dead monks were laid on an iron bedstead, and there suffered to remain till all the corruptible part was gone, and only the dry skeletons remained. Now they are buried for about three years, or as long as may he necessary to effect the same object ; and when the flesh has disappeared, the bones are deposited MOUNT SINAI OR HOREB. 167 in the great cemetery, the cloor of which is directly opposite. Within the door is a small antechamber containing a divan, and a portrait of some saint, who is said to have wandered eighteen years in the desert without meat or drink. “From this the door opens into the cemetery,” says Mr. Stephens, “ which is so different from any that I had ever seen, that I started back on the threshold with surprise. Along the wall was an excavation about thirty feet in length, but of what depth I could not tell. It was enclosed by a fence, which was three or four feet above the ground, and filled with human skulls ; and in front, extending along the whole width of the chamber, was a pile of bones about twenty feet high, and running back some distance. They were very regularly displayed in layers, the feet and shoulders being placed out- wards alternately, and by the side of the last skeleton was a vacant place for the next that should be ready. The superior told me that there were more than 80,000 skeletons in the cemetery, literally an army of dead men’s bones. Besides the pile of skulls and bones, in a chamber adjoin- ing were the bones of the Archbishops, in open boxes, with their names and ages labelled on them, and those of two sons of a king of Persia, who came hither on a pilgrimage, and died in the convent ; their iron shirts, the only dress they wore on their long journey from their father’s court, are in the same box. Other skeletons were m 4 168 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. lying about, some in baskets, others tied together and hanging from the roof. In one corner were the bones of a pious anchoret, called St. Stephen, after the martyr of that name. All the feelings of solemnity with which we look upon the grave were here completely destroyed by this peculiarly revolt- ing mode of heaping together in a promiscuous mass the relics of mortality.” MOUNT SINAI OR HOREB. 169 CHAPTER XXII. MOUNT SINAI OR HOREB {continued). THE MODERN “ HOREB ” — JEBEL MOUSA — RAS SASAFEH — SUMMIT OF MOUNT ST. CATHARINE. The mountain traditionally called Horeb is on the north side of Mount St. Catharine, and its height is about 7500 feet. It is, in fact, a small table land, with a surface of about a mile and a half in length, and something less than half a mile in breadth. To the north this terminates in a bold cliff called Ras Sasafeh, with a level plain at its foot. At its southern end it rises into something more like a peak, which is known as “Jebel Mousa,” the mountain of Moses. At the foot of this also there is a plain. A question is raised as to whether probability is in favour of the Israelites having encamped in the northern or in the southern plain, and of course on this depends the decision as to whether Ras Sasafeh or JebelMousa is the true Sinai. On the morning after his arrival at the convent of St. Catharine, Mr. Fisk and his fellow-traveller started for their excursion to the top of Horeb at half-past four o’clock. They were accompanied by two of the younger monks and several Arabs, who, 170 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. by directions of the Superior, attended for the purpose of conveying provisions. The ascent was commenced at a deep ravine, lying at the back of the convent, and the first stage carried them to the foot of Jebel Mousa. This part of the journey was made tolerably easy by large slabs of granite, disposed in such order as to give a firm footing ; but as many have been washed away from time to time by winter torrents, some effort was in places required to keep the road. In about half an hour the ascent became still more steep, and the way lay between impending masses of vast magnitude, and through two arched gate- ways at a short distance from each other; the first of which reminded Mr. Fisk of the “ wicket gate ” of John Bunyan, whither Evangelist directs Christian. The latter archway led to a rather extensive plain or platform, in which grows a fine towering cypress, near which is a roughly con- structed stone building, called the chapel of the convent. Not far off is another chapel, said to commemorate the flight of Elijah to Horeb when persecuted by Jezebel. A cave to which they after- wards came is as desolate a place of refuge, as the fancy can conceive, one to which neither the revenge of woman nor the cruelty of man would ever dream of pursuing its victim. No tree gives its shade, no brook or pool is nigh to quench the burning thirst, not a shrub grows on the savage soil. Every part of the way was strewed with MOUNT SINAI OR HOREB. 171 broken fragments of rocks and cliffs, as if in literal fulfilment of the words, “ a great and strong wind rent the mountains and brake in pieces the rocks.” It is a spot in which sadness might easily gather on the spirit even of the most faithful ; so different from the beautiful solitudes of Samaria, which the prophet had just quitted. “We saw these scenes,” says a recent traveller, “ only beneath the serenest sky and the loveliest atmosphere possible. When the tempest thickens around them, with the thunder and lightning that sometimes prevail, it is easy to imagine that the effect must be awful and terrific in the extreme.” From the cave of Elijah the direct ascent to the summit is made ; toilsome and difficult in the extreme, but, from the accounts of all travellers, amply repaying them for their most fatiguing exertions.” “Among all the stupendous works of nature,” says Mr. Stephens, “not a place can be selected more fitted for the exhibition of Almighty power. I have stood upon the summit of the giant Etna, and looked over the clouds floating beneath it, upon the bold scenery of Sicily and the distant mountains of Calabria ; upon the top of Vesuvius and looked down upon the waves of lava, and the ruined and half-recovered cities at its foot ; but they are nothing compared with the terrific solitudes and black majesty of Sinai. Not a tree, or shrub, or blade of grass, is to be seen upon 172 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. the bare and rugged sides of innumerable moun- tains, heaving their naked summits to the skies, while the crumbling masses of granite all around, and the distant view of the Syrian desert, with its boundless waste of sands, form the wildest and most dreary, the most terrific and desolate spectacle that imagination can conceive.’ ’ The summit of the peak is a plain of about sixty feet in circumference, and on it stands a church. It is built of granite, but has suffered much from the efforts of the Arabs to discover the Tables of Law, which they believe to he concealed underneath the building. The Moslems have a small mosque a little below the summit, which they hold in great veneration and make it a place of pilgrimage. The Bedouins visit it and slaughter sheep in honour of the Jewish lawgiver, to whom they make vows, and entreat his intercession in their behalf. They show a place in the rock, which somewhat resembles the form of a foot, and which they believe to have been made by Mahomet when he visited the mountain. In a valley on the west of Horeb is shown, among other objects of veneration, what is said to be the rock from whence water issued at the command of Moses. It is an irregular block of granite, about twelve feet high, with about twenty holes in the surface, evidently the work of art. The Bedouins place offerings of grass in them, as a tribute to the memory of Moses, in the same MOUNT SINAI OR IIOREB. 173 manner as they place it upon the tombs of their saints, because grass is to them the most precious of all the gifts of nature, and that upon which their existence chiefly depends. They also bring hither their female camels, believing that by making them kneel before the sacred rock, while they recite some prayers and renew the grass in the fissures of the stone, the camels will become fruitful, and yield milk in abundance. That this rock is neither the real rock of Meribah, nor the valley that of Rephidim, is clear from the fact that here perennial springs are so numerous as to supersede all occasion for a miraculous supply of water. Not far from this is shown a small and apparently natural excavation, in a granite rock, where it is said that Moses often sat, and a circular projecting knot in a rock, resembling in size and shape the lid of a kettle, is pointed out as the pot or kettle of Moses. The Arabs have vainly endeavoured to break open this rock, supposing it to conceal great treasure. Dr. Stanley is inclined to favour the notion that, not Jebel Mousa, but Ras Sasafeh, is the true Sinai. “No one,” says he, “ who has approached the Ras Sasafeh through that noble plain, or who has looked down upon the plain from that majestic height, will willingly part with the belief that these are the two essential features of the view of the Israelite camp. That such a plain should 174 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. exist at all in front of such a cliff is so remarkable a coincidence with the sacred narrative, as to furnish a strong internal argument, not merely of its identity with the scene, but of the scene itself having been described by an eye-witness. The awful and lengthened approach, as to some natural sanctuary, would have been the fittest preparation for the coming scene. The low line of alluvial mounds at the foot of the cliff exactly answers to the ‘bounds’ which w T ere to keep the people off from ‘touching the Mount.’ The plain itself is not broken and uneven and narrowly shut in, like almost all others in the range, but presents a long retiring sweep, against which the people could ‘ remove and stand afar off.’ The cliff, rising like a huge altar in front of the whole congregation, and visible against the sky in lonely grandeur from end to end of the whole plain, is the very image of ‘the Mount that might be touched,’ and from which the ‘voice’ of God might be heard far and wide over the stillness of the plain below, widened at that point to its utmost extent by the confluence of all the contiguous valleys. Here, beyond all other parts of the peninsula, is the adytum, with- drawn as if in the ‘ end of the world ’ from all the stir and confusion of earthly things.” The mountain of St. Catharine is higher and more picturesque than Horeb, and the ascent is very difficult, but it is rewarded by extensive views over the Gulfs of Akaba and Suez. The island MOUNT SINAI OR HOREB. 175 Tersau, the village of Tor on the south-west coast, and the high ground near Suez, are among the distant points which may be distinguished, and at times the mountains of Africa. The top of Horeb is seen far below. All the rest is the same “ sea of desolation,” the same confusion of granite mountains and valleys destitute of verdure, which have already been noticed. The sharp peak in which this mountain, like the other, terminates, consists of an immense block of granite, the smooth surface of which is ascended with extreme difficulty. On the very summit is a small chapel, or shed, badly built with loose, uncemented stones, and hardly high enough to allow a person to stand upright. It covers the spot from which the body of St. Catharine is said to have been taken, although the floor is hard and solid rock. 176 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. CHAPTER XXIII. MOUNT SINAI OR HOREB {continued). MINERALS OF THE SINAITIC MOUNTAINS — PLANTS — CUS- TOMS OF THE ARABS OF THE PENINSULA. In travelling towards Sinai, Laborde mentions that his attendant searched among the ruins of some tombs, at a place called Sacbout El Cadem, for turquoise stones, which are found there in great abundance, being brought to the surface by the rains. “ He gave me five of these stones, which were of considerable value, parting with them without the slightest reluctance.” The Arabs of the present day attach no value to the turquoise, though in former ages it was much sought after in the East ; the most extraordinary medicinal qualities having been ascribed to it. One of the most remarkable specimens of rock from Sinai is named talcose quartz, and we are told that it forms very extensive beds towards the middle of the route, which leads from the Sinai group to the southern extremity of the peninsula. Strata of rock-salt are also very frequent. In several parts of the road the traveller observes holes out of which rock-salt has been dug ; and in MOUNT SINAI OR HOREB. 177 the cliffs which bound some of them rock-salt is seen among the sandstones. It may be obtained white and perfectly clean. “ They showed us some,” says Lord Lindesay, “ fit for the table of an Emperor.” Among the remarkable plants of the region is the gourd called coloquintida, which produces the valuable medicine known by that nafrie. It grow r s in abundance near Mount Horeb, where it was found by Robinson at the latter end of March, when its yellow fruit was ripe. It is called in English, the little cucumber ; its tendrils run over the ground, sometimes to a considerable extent, and the gourds are so numerous as to be crushed under the feet of the passengers. The dry gourd when bruised produces the drug in the shape of powder. The Arabs use the plant to make tinder by the following process : — after roasting the root in ashes, they wrap it in a wetted cotton cloth, and beat it between two stones, by which means the juice is expressed, and absorbed by the cloth, which is dried in the sun, and ignites with the slightest spark of fire. Here also grows the Shittim Acacia, or Gum Arabic tree. It is of the middle size ; the young branches are armed with twin thorns, and the flowers are like little golden balls, hanging grace- fully among the leaves, and giving a sweet smell. The valuable gum arabic exudes from the bark. The wood is considered incorruptible, and is so N 178 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. hard and close-grained as to take an excellent polish. For this reason it was probably selected as a peculiarly fit material for the Ark of the Cove- nant. Its leaves often furnish food for camels when little else is to be obtained. Robinson mentions another species of very thorny acacia near Horeb, producing a little gum arabic of inferior quality, which, when not too indolent, the Arabs sometimes gather and sell. The ground is some- times covered with the large thorns of these trees, which are a great annoyance to the Bedouin and his cattle. Each Bedouin carries in his girdle a pair of small pincers, to extract the thorns from his feet, which are protected only by a pair of sandals made of camel’s skin, and fastened on with leathern thongs. The gum is said to have a sweet and rather agreeable taste, and upon journeys the Bedouins regard it as a preventive of thirst, and say that the person who chews it may pass a whole day without feeling any inconvenience from the want of water. The pods which the tree produces, together with the tenderest shoots of the branches, serve as fodder to the camels, and the bark is used by the Arabs to tan leather. It is remarkable that almost every tree which furnishes tasteless gums or resins is Covered with a bark that is highly astringent and bitter to the taste. A plant also grows in the same spot, from which the Arabs obtain a substitute for soap, by pounding it when dry between stones, and mixing it with the water in which they wash their linen. This is MOUNT SINAI OR HOREB. 179 the Salsola Kali, the ashes of which are used in the manufacture of ordinary soap. In the Sinai range, the bird Katta, a* species of partridge, is found in such large flocks during the months of May and June, that the Arabs often kill two or three at a time, merely by throwing a stick among them. They also collect their eggs, which are laid on the rocky ground, in great numbers. Mr. Burckhardt conjectured that this bird might be the quail of the children of Israel. The female Bedouins who frequent Mount Sinai are described as being fully as hardy as the men, and are early accustomed to fatiguing duties. Among the Arabs it is an established rule that neither men nor boys should drive the cattle to pasture. A boy would feel insulted were any one to say, “ Go and drive your father’s sheep to pasture:” these words, in his opinion, would signify, “You are no better than a girl.” This employment thus becomes the exclusive one of the unmarried girls of the camp, who perform it by turns. They set out before sunrise, three or four of them in company, carrying victuals and some water, and do not return till late in the evening. During the whole day they continue exposed to the sun, carefully watching the sheep, for they are sure of being severely beaten by their father should any be lost. Sometimes they may be seen running barefoot over sharp rocks, where the well- shod traveller can with difficulty step along. If a n 2 180 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. man of their tribe passes through the pasturing ground, they offer to him sheep’s milk, or share with him their scanty stock of water. The milk of their flocks is a more important consideration with an Oriental than the wool or the flesh, and is regarded as quite superior in quality to the milk of cows, especially for making their favourite sour curd. Burckhardt describes a curious trait of super stition on the part of his Arab guides, which ap- pears to have much interfered with his pursuits. “ I was obliged,” he says, “ to conceal wholly from my guides that I took notes of my journey, lest I should be thought a necromancer, or in search of treasures. Had I visited the convent of Mount Sinai in the character of a Frank, with the Pasha’s firman, and had returned, as travellers usually do, from thence to Cairo, I should not have hesitated to take notes openly, because the Towara Arabs dread the Pasha, and dare not insult any one under his protection. But wishing to penetrate into a part of the country occupied by other tribes, it became of importance that I should conceal my pursuits.” An Arab, however, happened to sur- prise Mr. Burckhardt while engaged in taking notes, and instantly accused him of wishing to be instrumental in the ruin of his race, adding, “ that some years since several men, God knows who they were, came to the country, visited the moun- tains, wrote down everything, stones, plants, MOUNT SINAI OR HOREB. 181 animals, even serpents and spiders, and that since then little rain had fallen, and the game had greatly decreased ; that these sorcerers wrote down certain charms, and stopped the rains to transfer them to their own country.” These dangerous visitors were two gentlemen who travelled for the Emperor of Austria some years since, collecting specimens of natural history, and who sent Arabs to hunt for all kinds of animals. “ After our return to the convent, 55 says Mr. Burckhardt, “the report spread among the Arabs that 1 was a writer like those who had preceded me, and I thus completely lost their confidence, though I continued on good terms during the remainder of the journey. 55 This the aid of good and plentiful fare enabled Mr. Burckhardt to do, for the Bedouins in general have the most voracious appetites, and he tells us that a few shillings laid out in victuals have more effect than pounds given as presents. One of his guides spoke with peculiar complacency of having once, in his younger days, eaten at a meal, with three others, the whole of a mountain goat. Who- ever travels with them, therefore, should feed them abundantly, and invite all strangers whom he may meet on the road to share his repasts. The reputation for hospitality wdiich the traveller thus gains facilitates his progress wonderfully. The virtue of hospitality is cherished most carefully among this primitive people, and Mr. Burckhardt mentions another very pleasing trait in the cha- n 8 182 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. racter — the confidence 4 they place in each other. Near a well, the waters of which are never known to dry up, he saw different articles of Bedouin furniture suspended on several trees in the valley leading to it. These were left by the owners during their absence, in order that they might not have the trouble of carrying them about. No instance is known of any of the articles so left ever having been stolen. MOUNT TABOR. MOUNT TABOR. 183 CHAPTER XXIV. MOUNT TABOR. “ Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name.” — Ps. lxxxix. 12. “ Surely as Tabor is among the mountains and as Carmel by the sea, so shall he come.” — Jer. xlvi. 18. “ So Barak went down from Mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him.” — Jud. iv. 14. “ Then said he to Zebah and Zalmunna, What manner of men were they whom ye slew at Tabor.” — Jud. viii. 18. The plain, called in later times the Plain of Esdraelon, is often mentioned in Sacred History, under the names of the Valley of Megiddo, and the Valley of Jezreel. It was the “ mighty plain” of the ancients, celebrated for more than three thousand years as the great battle-ground of nations. Exclu- sive of three arms which stretch eastward towards the valley of the Jordan, this plain maybe said to be in the form of a triangle, having a measure of from thirteen to fourteen miles on its north side, about eighteen on the east, and above twenty on the south-west. Before the verdure of spring and early summer has been parched up by the heat and drought of the late summer and autumn, the view of the plain of Esdraelon is, from its fertility and beauty, very charming. In June, yellow fields of grain, with green patches of millet and cotton, n 4 184 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. chequer the landscape like a carpet. The plain itself is almost without villages, hut there are several on the slopes of the enclosing hills, especially on the side of Mount Carmel. “ The plain of Esdraelon,” says Dr. Clarke, “ has been the chosen place for encampment in every contest carried on in this country, from the days of Nebuchodonosor, King of the Assyrians, until the disastrous march of Napoleon Bonaparte from Egypt into Syria. Jews, Gentiles, Saracens, Crusaders, Egyptians, Persians, Druses, Turks, Arabs, and French — warriors out of every nation which is under heaven, have pitched their tents upon the plain of Esdraelon, and have beheld their banners wet with the dews of Tabor and Hermon.” Here took place the remarkable victory of Gideon, and the last fatal overthrow of Saul ; here the hosts of Sisera fell upon the edge of the sword before Barak, who came down upon them from Mount Tabor ; and here the memorable contests took place between the Kings of Judah and Egypt, which occasioned such distinguished scenes of national mourning. The last dreadful conflict that occurred in this memorable spot was in the spring of 1799. When the French invaded Syria, Nazareth was occupied by from six to eight hundred men, whose advanced posts were at Tabariyeh and Safed. Two hours’ journey from hence General Kleber sustained, with a corps not exceeding fifteen hundred men, the MOUNT TABOR. 185 attack of the whole Syrian army, amounting to at least twenty-five thousand. He was posted in the plain of Esdraelon near the village of Foule, where he formed his battalion into a square, which con- tinued fighting from sunrise to mid-day, when they had expended almost all their ammunition. Bona- parte, informed of Kleber’s perilous situation, advanced to his support with six hundred men. No sooner had he come in sight of the enemy, and fired a shot over the plain, than the Turks, sup- posing that a large force was advancing, took precipitately to flight. Several thousands were killed, and many drowned in the river, which then inundated a part of the plain. Bonaparte that evening dined at Nazareth, the most northern point that he reached in Syria, where he declared that the recollection of the sacred scene supposed to have taken place on Mount Tabor came to his remembrance in the thickest of the fight. On the borders of the Plain of Esdraelon, Mount Tabor stands out alone from the surrounding hills in magnificent grandeur. Seen from the south-west its fine proportions present a hemispherical aspect, but from the north-west it more resembles a trun- cated cone, rising about a thousand feet from the plain. The beauty of the mountain, and its conspicuous position, rendered it a favourite subject of poetic contemplation ; and when the psalmist exclaims, “ Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name !” he selects these two as the representatives 186 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. of all the mountains of Palestine — the former as the most graceful, and the latter as the loftiest. The following description is from the pen of Dean Stanley: — “This strange and beautiful mountain is distinguished alike in form and in character from all around it. As seen, where it is usually first seen by the traveller, from the north-west of the plain, it towers like a dome — as seen from the east, like a long arched mound — over the monotonous undula- tions of the surrounding hills, from which it stands completely isolated, except by a narrow neck of rising ground, uniting it to the mountain range of Galilee. It is not what Europeans would call a wooded hill, because its trees stand all apart from each other ; but it is so thickly studded with them as to rise from the plain like a mass of verdure. Its sides much resemble the scattered glades in the outskirts of the New Forest. Its summit — a broken oblong — is an alternation of shade and green sward, that seems made for a national festivity, broad and varied, and commanding wide views of the plain from end to end.” In ascending Mount Tabor, Dr. Robinson ob- serves, “that he found the path generally good, so that he rode easily quite to the summit in an hour ; the path winding considerably, obviously ancient, and in many parts steps hewn out in the rock, the whole way delightfully shaded by a thick over- growth of the ilex, pistachio, and other trees, while now and then the delicate and graceful gazelle MOUNT TABOR. 187 might be seen grazing on the neighbouring hills.” The proper summit of the mountain consists of a beautiful little oblong plain, or basin, skirted on the south-west by a ledge of rocks of some height, covered with foundations and ruins, and on the north-east by lower rocks ; and this higher ground is thickly overgrown with bushes and small trees, while the basin itself lies in grass without trees or ruins. Perhaps one of the noblest panoramic views in the world is that obtained from the highest point of the ruins on the summit. North-west, in the distance, is the ridge of Carmel. South are the lovely mountains of Samaria, running east and west, bounding the plain of Esdraelon, where the chariot of Ahab once drove as the monarch fled from danger. Immediately in front of these are the hills of Gilboa, and nearer is the hill called Little Hermon, overshadowing the cities of Endor and Nain. On the east stretches out the scene of the Redeemer’s early ministry, where the blue waters of the sea of Galilee reflect the sunbeam. South of the lake is the plain of Jericho, and beyond rise up the distant peaks of Anti-Libanus, while to the north the vast mass of Lebanon sets up its noble, snow-capped barriers. “ The sun,” says Dr. Robinson, “ rose gloriously upon us as we sat at the door of our tent, upon the summit of Tabor. A very heavy dew had fallen during the night, so that the tent was wet as with 188 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. rain. After the snn had been up about half an hour a fog came on, and veiled everything below from our view ; but when it cleared away glorious was the prospect.” The summit of Tabor is subject to such morning fogs, which hang around it like a fleecy crown. There are remains of several small ruined tanks on the crest, which still catch the rain-water dripping through the crevices of the rock, and preserve it cool and clear, it is said, throughout the year. “ Near the summit of the mount,” says Mr. Fisk, “ hid in a cavern approached by a few rude steps, is a most delicious well of liquid crystal. Fatigued and weary, we descended, and found the water to be of icy coldness. The burning sun could not reach it. A black Nubian slave, belonging to the muleteers who accompanied us, sat on his heels in mute surprise at our ecstasy on meeting with such delicious refreshment in so unexpected a place.” The tops of the range of hills, with which Tabor is connected by a low ridge, are barren, but the slopes and valleys afford pasturage, and are capable of cultivation, from the numerous springs to be met with in all directions. Cultivation is, however, found chiefly on the seaward slopes. On that side many flourishing villages exist, and every inch of ground is turned to account by the industrious natives. Josephus informs us that Mount Tabor was encompassed with a wall by himself in a short space MOUNT TABOR. 189 of time to resist the Koman army. “ In forty clays’ time Josephus encompassed the top with a wall, furnished it with other materials, and water from below ; hut when the latter failed them the people fled to Jerusalem.” Tradition speaks of a city built on the top, which sustained a five years’ siege, drawing its supplies by skirmishing from the plains below, and being furnished with water from the two excellent cisterns still in existence ; but as no fixed period is assigned to this event it may probably relate to the siege of Vespasian, mentioned by Josephus. Sufficient evidences remain, however, of the town having been a place of great strength, and when it lost its reputation as a stronghold, it assumed the character of a holy sanctuary, so that the accumulated vestiges of forts and altars are now mingled in one common ruin. A rude chapel is still standing, dedicated to the Transfiguration, with three altars, answering to the proposed three tabernacles. It is, however, highly improbable that the transfiguration took place on this mountain. The existing ruins show that a considerable town must have stood upon it in the time of our Saviour. “ The Christians,” says Burckhardt, “ consider Mount Tabor a holy place in honour of the Trans- figuration, but the exact spot at which it took place is not known, and both the Latins and Greeks are at variance on the subject. The Latins celebrate the sacred event in a small cavern, where they have formed a chapel, at about five minutes’ walk from 190 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. which the Greeks have built a low circular wall, with an altar before it, for the same purpose. The Latin missionaries of the Frank convent of Naza- reth send annually two fathers to celebrate a mass in their chapel ; they generally choose St. Peter’s day for making this visit. The Greek priests of Nazareth visit their chapel of Mount Tabor on the festival of the Virgin, on which occasion several thousand pilgrims repair to the mountain, where they pass the night under tents, with their families, in mirth and feasting.” The small village of Deborah, where she who judged Israel is reported to have dispensed her decrees, is situated at the foot of Mount Tabor, and the little stream which flows at no great distance from it is called the Lesser Kishon. Here, if we may trust the tradition, the people “ came up for judgment.” At the present day the Arabs assemble at the same place every Monday, to hold a bazaar, and dispose of their merchandise ; the governor of Tabariyeh, in whose jurisdiction the place is, either attending himself, or sending a deputy, for the dispensation of justice. The meeting is held in the open plain, as it might be, “ under the palm- tree of Deborah ;” and close to the spot are some ruins, at which all those who are debtors for tributes or duties are accustomed to pay them. Although it is merely related in the Book of Judges, that the “ people came up for judgment” to stated places at different periods, it is, nevertheless, by no means MOUNT TABOR. 191 improbable that they did at the same time transact other business, such as the sale of merchandise. The people assemble here from every part of the central country, and from all the coast as far as Jaffa. Mount Tabor, and the adjoining hills and plains, are still the haunt of the leopard, and the wild hog is sometimes found in the thick bushes. The latter, it is said, feeds chiefly on the root of the liquorice, which grows abundantly in most of the eastern plains ; and, in the proper season — that is, in the beginning of autumn and winter — the flesh of the animal is delicious, very fat, and easily digestible. The hogs sometimes approach very near to the towns and villages, attracted by the gardens which surround them ; and where there are any European settlers they are shot by the Moslem peasants, who lie in wait for them at the fountains or streams, to which they at night come to drink. They then place the carcases of the “unclean beasts” on asses, and convey them to the Franks for sale. At the foot of the mountain, by the sides of the little streams, flourishes in great beauty the Rose- bay, or Oleander. Burckhardt speaks of a rivulet running in a deep valley through a wood of olean- ders, which formed a canopy over the rivulet im- penetrable by the meridian sun. The red flowers of these trees reflected in the river gave it the appearance of a bed of roses, and presented a sin- 192 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. gular contrast to the whitish grey rocks which border the wood on either side. The water was almost warm, and had a disagreeable taste, probably from the quantity of flowers thkt had fallen into it. As the green bay is not very common in Judea, though found in the ancient gardens of Tyre and Sidon, Hasselquist was led to consider that the rose-bay, being constantly found flourishing so luxuriantly by the waters of Palestine, was the shrub alluded to by David under the name of the “tree of the righteous.” Other naturalists are of opinion that the rose-bay is the willow of our English Bible. “ By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept : when we remembered thee, 0 Zion. As for our harps, we hanged them up : upon the trees that are therein.” (Psalm cxxxvii. 1, 2.) /' MOUNT ZION MOUNT ZION. 193 CHAPTEE XXY. MOUNT ZION. “ David took the stronghold of Zion : the same is the city of David.”— 2 Sam. v. 7. “ Walk about Zion, and go round about her : tell the towns thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces.” — Ps. xlviii. 12, 13. Mount Zion is the name of one of the four hills on which ancient Jerusalem was built, the other three being Mount Moriah, Mount Acra, and Mount Bezetha. The latter two are named by Josephus, but not in the Scriptures. Of these hills Zion was the highest, and was the south-west portion of the ancient city, containing the city of David, strongly fortified in very ancient times by a wall of great solidity, which enabled the Jebusites so long to keep it as their stronghold, and to retain their com- mand over the lower part of the city, even when they were obliged to allow the Israelites to share in its occupation. The foundations of the palace of David, it is said, are still to be traced on the rocky brow of Zion, and the supposed sepulchres of that monarch and his son Solomon are said also to be there, though the exact spot is not known. 194 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. The hill of Zion must have formed the most striking feature in every view of the ancient city, except that on its east side, where the Temple and Mount Moriah were brought into the foreground. “ The situation of Jerusalem,” says Dean Stanley, “ is in several respects singular amongst the cities of Palestine. Its elevation is remarkable, occasioned, not from its being on the summit of one of the numerous hills of Judaea, like most of the towns and villages, but because it is on the edge of one of the highest table-lands of the country. Hebron, indeed, is higher still, by some hundred feet ; and from the south, accordingly, the approach to Jeru- salem is by a slight descent. But from every other side the ascent is perpetual, and to the traveller approaching Jerusalem from the west or east, it must always have presented the appearance beyond any other capital of the then known world — we may add, beyond any important city that has ever existed on the earth — of a mountain city, breathing, as compared with the sultry plains of the Jordan or of the coast, a mountain air ; enthroned, as compared with Jericho or Damascus, Gaza or Tyre, on a mountain fastness. In this respect, it concentrated in itself the character of the whole country of which it was to be the capital, ‘ the mountain throne,’ the ‘ mountain sanctuary’ of God. ‘ The “ mount” of God is as the “ mount” of Bashan ; an high mount as the mount of Bashan. Why leap ye so, ye high MOUNT ZION. 195 “ mountains ? ” This is the “ mountain’ ’ which God desireth to dwell in.’ ‘ Thou hast ascended up on high, thou hast led captivity captive.’ 4 His foundation is in the holy mountain.’ ‘ They that trust in the Lord shall be as the Mount Zion, which may not be removed, but standeth fast for ever.’ ‘ God is in the midst of her, therefore shall she not be removed.’ It was emphatically the lair of the Lion of Judah, of ‘ Ariel,’ the Lion of God. ‘ In Judah is God known, His Name is great in Israel. In Salem is His “ leafy covert,” and His “ rocky den” in Zion Thou art more glorious and excellent than the “ mountains of the robbers.” ’ And this wild and fastness-like character of Jerusalem was concentrated yet again in the fortress, the ‘stronghold’ of Zion. That point, the highest in the city, the height which most readily catches the eye from every quarter, is emphatically the ‘ hill-fort,’ the ‘rocky-hold’ of Jerusalem — the refuge where first the Jebusite, and then the Lion of God, stood at bay against the hunter,” Zion is now partly without the city, the wall running across the hill. That part lying within the wall is chiefly occupied by the citadel, where some irregular troops are stationed to guard the gates. It is surrounded by a deep trench, over which a covered wooden bridge leads into the interior, and on its benches is often seen the Pasha o 2 196 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. of Jerusalem, smoking his pipe, and surrounded by liis officers, administering justice. In front of the citadel is an open square, used as a fruit and vegetable market. Here the vfamen collect every morning from various places, with the produce of their gardens and fields, which they sell to the greengrocers of the town, when an absurd scene commences. The buyer offers a price, the seller says it is not sufficient, abuse follows, they scream, quarrel, and shake each other till the whole market- place is in a state of utter confusion. But in a very short time order is restored, and by nine o’clock the square is cleared. The other buildings on Mount Zion are two convents, the English hospital for sick Jews, the Jewish Quarter, and the temporary English church. At the north-west corner are the ruins of Hippicus, one of the three towers built by Herod the Great. Chateaubriand thus describes Zion: “From the top of the hill to the south you see the valley of Ben Hinnon. Beyond this the field of blood, purchased with the thirty pieces of silver given to the traitor Judas ; the hill of evil counsel ; the tombs of the Judges ; and the whole desert towards Hebron and Bethlehem ; — to the north the wall of Jerusalem, which passes over the brow of Mount Zion, and intercepts the view of the city. On passing from the city by the Zion gate, the first object that meets the eye is a dingy-looking MOUNT ZION. 197 Turkish mosque, called the Mosque of David, and believed, without any authority, to have been built over his tomb, which is still exhibited in the interior, and held in high veneration by the Moslems. To the right of this mosque, and between it and the city-gate, stands a small Armenian chapel, said to be built on the spot where once stood the palace of Caiaphas. A few paces to the west is a Christian burial-ground. A little to the south of this is pointed out a spot where the Virgin Mary is said to have expired, and on the north side the place where the cock crew, and where Peter went out and wept bitterly.” The sides of the hill of Zion have a pleasing aspect, as they possess a few olive trees and rude gardens. “At the time,” says Dr. Richardson, “when I visited this sacred ground, one part of it supported a crop of barley; another was under- going the labour of the plough, and the soil turned up consisted of stone and lime mixed with earth, such as is usually met with in the foundations of ruined cities. It is nearly a mile in circumference, is highest on the west side, and towards the east falls down in broad terraces on the upper part of the mountain, and narrow ones on the side, as it slopes down towards the brook Kedron. Each terrace is divided from the one above it by a low wall built of the ruins of this celebrated spot. The terraces near the bottom of the hill are still used 198 MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCRIPTURE. as gardens, and are watered from the pool of Siloam. They belong chiefly to the inhabitants of the small village of Siloa immediately opposite.” We have here another remarkable instance of the fulfilment of prophecy: — “ Therefore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed as a field, and Jeru- salem shall become heaps” (Micah iii. 12). The following passage occurs in Mr. Richard- son’s travels, and well expresses the general state of feeling on the subject to which it refers : — “ In passing up to the synagogue I was particularly struck with the mean and wretched appearance of the houses on both sides of the streets, as well as with the poverty of their inhabitants. The sight of a poor Jew in Jerusalem has in it something peculiarly affecting. The heart of this wonderful people, in whatever clime they roam, still turns to it as to the city of their promised rest. They take pleasure in her ruins, and would kiss the very dust for her sake. Jerusalem is the centre round which the exiled sons of Judah build, in imagination, the mansions of their future greatness. In what- ever part of the world he may live, the heart’s desire of the Jew is to be buried in Jerusalem. Thither they return from Spain and Portugal, from Egypt and Barbary, and other countries, among which they have been scattered, and when, after all their longings, and all their struggles up the steeps of life, we see them poor, blind, and MOUNT ZION. 199 naked, in the streets of their once happy Zion, he must have a cold heart that can remain un- touched by their sufferings, without offering a prayer that God would have mercy on the dark- ness of Judah, and that the day-star of Bethlehem might arise in their hearts.” London : Printed by Truscott, Son, & Simmons, Suffolk Lane, City.