,illustration3 ,,jerusalem4 ,from the traditional spot on the ,mount of ,olives where ,christ wept over the city4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,holy ,,land ,,painted ,,by ,,john ,,fulleylove1 ,r4,i4 ,,described ,,by ,,john ,,kelman1 ,d4,d4 ,a,c ,,black ,l,,td #d4e4f ,,soho ,,square1 ,,london1 ,w4#a4 ,printed in ,great ,britain by ,r4 ,r4 ,,clark1 ,,limited1 ,edinburgh4 ,first ,edition1 with #ic illustrations1 published in ,october #aijb ,reprinted in #aijd and #aiab ,second ,edition1 revised1 with #cb illustrations1 published in #aibc ,,agents ,,america ,,the ,,macmillan ,,company #fd #ff ,,fifth ,,avenue1 ,,new ,,york ,,australasia ,,the ,,oxford ,,university ,,press #bje ,,flinders ,,lane1 ,,melbourne ,,canada ,,the ,,macmillan ,,company ,,of ,,canada1 ,,ltd4 ,,st4 ,,martin',s ,,house1 #gj ,,bond ,,st41 ,,toronto ,,india ,,macmillan ,,company1 ,,ltd4 ,,macmillan ,,building1 ,,bombay #cji ,,bow ,,bazaar ,,street1 ,,calcutta ,,indian ,,bank ,,buildings1 ,,madras ,preface ,the secrets of satisfactory travel are mainly two--to have certain questions ready to ask2 and to detach oneself from preconceptions1 so as to find not what one expects1 or desires to find1 but what is there4 ,these rules ,i endeavoured to follow while in the ,holy ,land4 ,as to this book1 ,i have tried to write it 8with my eye on the object0--to describe things as they were seen1 and to see them again while describing them4 ,the extent to which this ideal has been reached1 or missed1 will be the measure of the book's success or failure4 ,no attempt has been made to add anything original to the scientific knowledge of ,palestine4 ,for that task ,i am not qualified either by sufficient travel or by expert study of the subject4 ,on the other hand1 this is not merely an itinerary1 or journal of experiences and adventures of the road4 ,i have freely introduced notes from my journal in illustration of characteristics of the country and its life1 and have claimed the privilege of digressing in various directions4 ,but the main object has been to give a record of impressions rather than of incidents4 ,these impressions are arranged in three parts1 as they bear upon the geography1 the history1 and the spirit of ,syria4 ,they have been corrected and amplified by as wide reading as the short time at my disposal allowed4 ,a few of the books read or consulted are referred to in footnotes1 but many others have helped me4 ,to append a list of them to so small a contribution to the subject as this1 would be but to remind the reader of the old fable1 ,nascetur ridiculus mus4 ,i must1 however1 acknowledge with much gratitude my obligation to two volumes above all others--,major 7now ,colonel7 ,conder's ,tent ,work in ,palestine1 and ,professor ,george ,adam ,smith's ,historical ,geography of the ,holy ,land4 ,to these every chapter is indebted more or less1 some chapters very deeply4 ,among the pleasures which this task has brought with it1 none is greater than the intimate acquaintance with these two works which it entailed4 ,with ,professor ,smith ,i have a more personal bond of obligation than the invaluable help ,i have had from his book4 ,last year we rode and camped together from ,hebron to ,damascus1 back over the eastern spurs of ,hermon to the coast1 and north by ,tyre and ,sidon to ,beyrout4 ,all who were in that party know1 as no words can express1 how much insight and suggestion we owed to the leader who interpreted the land for us so brilliantly and with such kindness4 ,for my own part ,i feel that at times it has been difficult to distinguish between impressions of my own and those which have been unconsciously borrowed from him4 ,if ,i have borrowed freely1 ,i am sure he will allow me to count that among the many privileges of our long acquaintance1 and as a token of my admiration for his genius and gratitude for his friendship4 ,,john ,,kelman4 ,,edinburgh1 #aijb4 ,,publishers' ,,note ,for the purposes of this reissue the author has revised the work and slightly abridged it1 but no attempt has been made to describe the changed conditions consequent on the ,war4 ,september #aibc4 ,contents ,,part ,i4--,,the ,,land1 pp4 #a to #hd ,,chapter ,,page #a4 ,,the ,,colour ,,of ,,the ,,land #g #b4 ,,the ,,desert #bj #c4 ,,the ,,life ,,of ,,the ,,land #cg #d4 ,,the ,,waters ,,of ,,israel #ea #e4 ,,brown ,,villages1 ,,white ,,towns1 ,,and ,a ,,grey ,,city #fe ,,part ,,ii4--,,the ,,invaders1 pp4 #he to #agb #a4 ,,israelite #hh #b4 ,,gr,,co-,,roman #ih #c4 ,,christian #aae #d4 ,,moslem #acg #e4 ,,crusader #aeg ,,part ,,iii4--,,the ,,spirit ,,of ,,syria1 pp4 #agc to #bde #a4 ,,the ,,lighter ,,side ,,of ,,things #agg #b4 ,,the ,,shadow ,,of ,,death #aij #c4 ,,the ,,spectral #bje #d4 ,,the ,,land ,,of ,,the ,,cross #bbf #e4 ,,resurrection #bci ,list of ,illustrations #a4 ,jerusalem1 from the traditional spot on the ,mount of ,olives where ,christ wept over the ,city ,frontispiece ,,facing ,,page #b4 ,the ,mount of ,temptation1 from ,jericho #i #c4 ,cana of ,galilee #af #d4 ,on the ,road from ,jerusalem to ,bethany #be #e4 ,the ,hills round ,nazareth1 from the ,plain of ,esdraelon #cb #f4 ,mount ,hermon1 from the ,slopes of ,tabor #da #g4 ,jerusalem--,the ,pool of ,hezekiah #dh #h4 ,the ,golden ,gate1 from the ,garden of ,gethsemane #eg #i4 ,the ,lake of ,galilee1 looking ,north from ,tiberias #fd #aj4 ,the ,fountain of the ,virgin at ,nazareth #gc #aa4 ,joppa1 from the ,sea #hj #ab4 ,the ,lake of ,galilee1 looking ,south from ,tiberias #hi #ac4 ,site of the ancient ,city of ,samaria #if #ad4 ,the ,forecourt of the ,church of the ,holy ,sepulchre #aje #ae4 ,the ,rotunda and ,chapel of the ,holy ,sepulchre #aab #af4 ,the ,dome of the ,rock 7,mosque of ,omar71 as seen from the ,porch on the ,north ,side of the ,mosque of ,el ,aksa #aba #ag4 ,the ,dome of the ,rock 7,mosque of ,omar71 from the ,barracks near the ,site of the ,tower of ,antonia #abh #ah4 ,interior of the ,mosque of ,el ,aksa1 from the ,s4,e4 #acg #ai4 ,the ,temple ,area and the ,mount of ,olives1 from ,mount ,zion #add #bj4 ,the ,west ,side of the ,temple ,area1 from the ,barracks near the ,site of the ,tower of ,antonia #aec #ba4 ,entrance to the ,church of the ,holy ,sepulchre #afj #bb4 ,interior of the ,dome of the ,chain1 looking ,north #afi #bc4 ,interior of the ,dome of the ,rock 7,mosque of ,omar71 from the ,s4,e4 #agf #bd4 ,the ,mount of ,olives1 from a ,house-top on ,mount ,zion #ahe #be4 ,the ,church of the ,nativity at ,bethlehem1 from a ,garden on the opposite ,hill #aib #bf4 ,jerusalem--,exterior of the ,golden1 or ,beautiful1 ,gate #bja #bg4 ,the ,tomb of ,rachel1 on the ,road from ,jerusalem to ,hebron #bjh #bh4 ,the ,judean ,desert and the ,dead ,sea1 from the highest point of the ,mount of ,olives #bag #bi4 ,valley of ,hinnom1 with ,hill of ,offence #bbd #cj4 ,the ,rock-cut ,tombs of the ,valley of ,jehoshaphat #bcc #ca4 ,the ,n4,e4 ,end of ,jerusalem and ,mizpah1 from the ,mount of ,olives #bdj #cb4 ,the ,plain of ,jericho1 looking towards the ,mountains of ,moab #bdd ,sketch-map on page viii ,illustration3 ,,sketch-,,map ,,of ,,palestine4 ,,part ,i ,,the ,,land ,a journey through the ,holy ,land may reasonably be expected to be in some sort a sacramental event in a man's life4 ,spiritual things are always near us1 and we feel that we have a heritage in them2 yet they constantly elude us1 and need help from the senses to make them real and commanding4 ,such sacramental help must surely be given by anything that brings vividly to our realisation those scenes and that life in the midst of which the ,word was made flesh4 ,the more clearly we can gain the impression of places and events in ,syria1 the more reasonable and convincing will ,christian faith become4 ,everything which revives the long past has power to quicken the imagination1 and site-hunters and relic-hunters in any field have much to say for themselves4 ,now1 apart altogether from the ,christian story1 ,syria has the spell of a very ancient land4 ,the mounds that break the level on the plain of ,esdraelon represent six hundred years of buried history for every thirty feet of their height4 ,among the first objects pointed out to us in ,palestine was a perforated stone which serves now as ventilator for a ,christian meeting-house in ,lebanon1 but which was formerly a section of ,zenobia's aqueduct4 ,in ,syria the realisation of the past is continual1 and the centuries mingle in a solemn confusion4 ,its modern life seems of little account1 and is in no way the rival of the ancient4 ,in ,london1 or even in ,rome1 the new world jostles the old2 in ,palestine the old is so supreme as to seem hardly conscious of the new4 ,all this reaches its keenest point in connection with men's worship2 and what a long succession of worshippers have left their traces here6 ,the primitive rock-hewn altar1 the ,jewish synagogue1 the ,greek temple1 the ,christian church1 the ,mohammedan mosque--all have stood in their turn on the same site4 ,his must be a dull soul surely who can feel no sympathy with the ,moslem1 or even with the heathen worship4 ,these religions too had human hearts beating in them1 and wistful souls trying by their help to search eternity4 ,to the wise these dead faiths are full of meaning4 ,through all their clashing voices there sounds the cry of man to his ,god--a cry more often heard and answered than we in our self-complacency are sometimes apt to think4 ,the sacramental quality of the ,holy ,land is of course felt most by those who seek especially for memories and realisations of ,jesus ,christ4 ,within the pale of ,christianity there are several different ways of regarding the land as holy1 and most of them lead to disappointment4 ,the ,greek and ,roman ,catholic ,churches vie with one another in their passion for sites and relics there1 and seem to lose all sense of the distinction between the sublime and the grotesque in their eagerness for identifications4 ,a ,protestant counterpart to this mistaken zeal is that of the huntsmen of the fields of prophecy1 who cannot see a bat fluttering about a ruin or a mole turning up the earth without turning ecstatically to ,hebrew prophetic books1--as if these were not the habits of bats and moles all the world over4 ,apart from either of these1 there are others less orthodox but equally superstitious who have some vague notion of occult and magic qualities which differentiate this from all other regions of the earth4 ,benjamin ,disraeli and ,pierre ,loti are representatives of this point of view4 ,the former is persuaded that the land 8must be endowed with marvellous and peculiar qualities02 and the hero of his ,tancred seeks and finds there supernatural communications from the unseen world4 ,the latter tells in his ,jrusalem how he went to ,palestine with the hope that some experience might be given him which would revive his lost faith in ,christianity4 ,he returned1 a disappointed sentimentalist4 ,the saddening and yet fascinating narrative reaches its climax in ,gethsemane1 where1 beating his brow in the darkness against an olive tree1 he waited 7as he himself confesses7 for he knows not what4 ,his words are3 8,non1 rien3 personne ne me voit1 personne ne m'coute1 personne ne me rpond40 ,the belief in miracle is always difficult3 nowhere is it so difficult as on the traditional site4 ,the earth is just earth there as elsewhere2 and the sky seems almost farther above it4 ,the rock is solid rock2 the water1 air1 trees1 hills are uncompromising terrestrial realities4 ,it is wiser to abandon the attempt at forcing the supernatural to reveal itself1 and to turn to the human side of things as the surest way of ultimately arriving at the divine4 ,when that has been deliberately done the reward is indeed magnificent4 ,an unexpected and overwhelming sense of reality comes upon the sacred narrative4 ,these places and the life that inhabited them are actualities1 and not merely items in an ancient book or the poetic background of a religious experience4 ,more particularly when you look upward to the hills1 you find that your help still cometh from them4 ,their great sky-lines are unchanged1 and the long vistas and clear-cut edges which you see are the same which filled the eyes of prophets and apostles1 and of ,jesus ,christ ,himself4 ,it is this1 especially as it regards the ,saviour of mankind1 that is the most precious gain of ,syrian travel4 ,now and again it comes on one with overpowering force4 ,sailing up the coast1 this impression haunted the long hours4 ,as we gazed on the mountains1 and the image of them sank deeper and deeper1 the thought grew clear in all its wonder that somewhere among these heights ,he had wandered with ,his disciples1 and sat down by the sides of wells to rest4 ,in camp at ,jericho we were confronted by an uncouth1 blunt-topped mountain mass1 thrusting itself aggressively up on the ,judean side1 in itself a very rugged and memorable mountain-edge4 ,not till the light was fading1 and the bold outline struck blacker and blacker against the sky1 did the fact suddenly surprise us that this was ,quarantana1 the ,mountain of ,temptation4 ,then we understood that wilderness story in all its unprotected loneliness1 and we almost saw the form of the ,son of ,man4 ,thus1 as day after day he rides through the country1 the traveller finds new meaning in the words1 8,i have glorified ,thee on the earth40 ,an inexpressible sense possesses him of the reality of ,jesus ,christ4 ,these pathways were1 indeed1 once trodden by ,his feet2 through these valleys ,he carried the lamp of life2 under these stars ,he prayed2 through this sunshine ,he lay in a rock-hewn grave4 ,to a man's dying day he will be nearer ,christ for this4 ,the chief sorrow of the ,christian life for most of us is the difficulty of realisation4 ,at times we have all had to flog up our imagination to the 8realising sense0 of ,christ4 ,after this journey that necessity is gone4 ,it is almost as if in long past years we had seen ,him there1 and heard ,him speak4 ,the divine mystery of ,christ is all the more commanding when the human fact of ,jesus has become almost a memory rather than a belief4 ,,chapter ,i ,,the ,,colour ,,of ,,the ,,land ,every land has a scheme of colour of its own1 and while form and outline are the first1 they are not the most permanent nor the deepest impressions which a region makes upon its travellers4 ,it is the colour of the land which slowly and almost unconsciously sinks in upon the beholder day by day4 ,we observe the outlines of a scene2 we remember its colouring4 ,this is especially true of ,palestine4 ,nothing about it is more distinctive than its colour-scheme2 and nothing is perhaps less familiar to those who have not actually seen it4 ,syria may be treated as if it were ,italy1 or even ,egypt--in hard intense colouring2 or it may be treated as if it were ,england1 in strong tones but with a certain homely softening of edge4 ,neither of these modes is true to ,syria4 ,its edge-lines are sharp1 but they are traced in such faint shades as to produce an effect very difficult either to reproduce or to describe1 and yet impossible to forget4 ,the colours are manifold1 and they vary considerably with the seasons of the year4 ,yet the bare hill-sides 7which form the greater masses of colour in most landscapes71 the desert1 and the distant mountain ranges1 are ever the same4 ,most travellers make their first acquaintance with ,palestine in ,judea1 entering it from ,jaffa4 ,when the plains are behind you1 and you are in among the valleys up which the road climbs to ,jerusalem1 you at once recognise the fact that a new and surprising world of colour has been entered4 ,in the valley-bottom there may be but a dry watercourse1 or perhaps a rusty strip of cultivated land2 but above you there is sure to be the outcrop of white and grey limestone4 ,in some places it appears in characterless and irregular blotches whose grotesque intrusion seems to confuse and caricature the mountain side4 ,this is1 however1 only occasional1 and the usual and characteristic appearance is that of long and flowing lines of striation which generally follow pretty closely the curve of the sky-line4 ,the colours of these strata are many4 ,you have rich brown bands1 dark red1 purple1 yellow1 and black ones2 but these are toned down by the dominant grey of the broader bands1 and the general effect is an indistinct grey with a bluish tinge1 to which the coloured bands give a curiously artificial and decorative appearance4 ,as a work of ,art ,judea is most interesting2 as part of ,nature it is almost incredible4 ,in the northern district1 near ,bethel1 everything yields to stone1 and the brighter colours disappear4 ,the mountain slopes shew great naked ribs and bars--the gigantic stairs of ,jacob's dream4 ,on the heights your horse slips and picks his way over long stretches of ,illustration3 ,,the ,,mount ,,of ,,temptation1 ,,from ,,jericho4 ,the ,mount of ,temptation is one of the spurs of the mountains which overlook the deep valley of the ,jordan on its western side4 ,the central peak is the traditional site of the ,temptation of ,christ4 smooth white rock2 in the valleys the soil is buried under innumerable boulders and fragments of broken rock4 ,the whole land is stony1 but ,judea shews this at its worst4 ,it is an immense stone wedge thrust into ,palestine from east to west4 ,south of it lie the fertile valleys of ,hebron1 with their wealth of orchard and plantation4 ,north of it open the 8fat valleys0 of ,samaria1 winding among rounded hills planted to the top with olives1 or terraced for vines4 ,over these1 here and there1 a red cliff may hang1 or the irrigation ditches may furrow and interline a vale of dove-coloured clay4 ,but while the green of ,judea is for the most part but the thinnest veil of sombre olive-green1 a mere setting for the rocks1 ,samaria is a really green land1 variegated by stone4 ,in the north of ,samaria the land sinks gradually upon the ,plain of ,esdraelon4 ,as we saw it first it was covered by a yellow mist through which nothing could be seen distinctly4 ,but afterwards1 viewed in its whole expanse from the top of ,tabor in clear sunlight1 the great battlefield of the ,eastern world appeared in characteristic garb--8red in its apparel10 with the very colour of the blood which has so often drenched it4 ,galilee repeats the limestone outcrop of ,judea1 but in far gentler fashion1 the undergrowth and trees softening almost every landscape1 and the mountains leading the eye along bold sky-lines to rest on that form of beauty and of light which masters and watches over the whole land--the white ,hermon4 ,hermon is always white4 ,but sometimes when clouds are forming rapidly around its summit1 it is a wonder of brightness4 ,on no other mountain1 surely1 was it that 8a bright cloud overshadowed0 ,jesus and his three friends4 ,even now1 on many a summer day1 ,hermon is lost in a changing glory of frosted silver1 when the sun strikes upon its cloudwork1 and the long trails of snow in the corries stream towards the plain below4 ,the limestone runs on into ,phnicia1 and seems to grow whiter there4 ,nothing could be finer than the valleys east of ,tyre at harvest time1 when the fields of ripe grain wave below cliffs white as marble1 and the whole scene1 with its foreground of brilliantly robed reapers1 is a study in white and gold4 ,but in the higher valleys of ,phnicia the rock breaks through a rich red soil1 which in parts is gemmed with the curious and beautiful 8,adonis stones0--little egg-shaped bits of sandstone1 dyed to the heart of them with deep crimson1 as if they had been steeped in newly shed blood4 ,little wonder if the women of old days 8wept for ,tammuz0 at the sight of them4 ,the thing most characteristic of ,syrian colour is its faintness and delicacy4 ,pierre ,loti1 who in this matter is a witness worthy of all regard1 is constantly ending the colour adjectives in his ,syrian books with -atre--8yellowish10 8bluish10 8greenish10 etc4 ,the general impression is of dim and faded tints1 put on1 as it were1 in thin washes4 ,in the stoniest regions there seems to be no colour at all1 as if the sun had bleached them4 ,the curious colouring of the ,judean valleys1 which has been described1 is never aggressive1 and it takes some carefulness of observation to see anything in them more than a blue green in the sparsely-planted olive-groves fading into faint greenish grey above4 ,the valleys of ripe sesame and vetch are washed into the picture in pale yellow or yellow ochre4 ,where tilled earth appears it is generally a variegated expanse of light brown1 or pink1 or terra-cotta4 ,the eastern slopes of ,hermon1 below the snow1 shew vertical stripes like those of the haircloth and jute garments of the peasants1 washed out with rain and sun2 or they are spread upon the roots of the mountain like some vast ,indian shawl cunningly and minutely interwoven with red and green threads1 but worn almost threadbare4 ,as you approach a village in strong sunlight1 you see it as a dark brown mass shaded angularly with black2 but it seems to float above a mist of the airiest purple sheen1 where the thinly-planted iris-flowers stand among the graves before the walls4 ,the ,sea of ,galilee1 as we saw it1 was light blue2 the ,dead ,sea was light green1 with a haze of evaporation rendering it even fainter in the distance4 ,if this be true of the near1 it is doubly so of the distant1 landscape4 ,in a country so mountainous and so sheer-cleft as ,palestine1 distant views are seen for the most part as vistas1 the 8land that is very far off0 revealing itself at the end of some ,v-shaped gorge or towering over some intermediate mountain range4 ,of course distant views are faint in all lands1 but in ,palestine the clear air keeps them distinct with clean-cut edge1 however faint they are4 ,thus there is perhaps nothing more delicate and spirituel in the world than those faint dreamlike mountains in the extreme distance of ,syrian vistas--the hills east of ,jordan grey1 with a mere suspicion of blue in them1 or the lilac and heliotrope mountains of the desert which form the magic background of ,damascus looking eastward4 ,reference has been made to the irises 7the 8lilies of the field07 near villages4 ,these are but typical of the general sheen of that carpet of wild flowers which every spring-time spreads over the land4 ,they are of every colour4 ,there are scarlet poppies and crimson anemones1 blue dwarf cornflowers1 yellow marigolds1 white narcissus 7said to be the ,rose of ,sharon72 but here they seldom grow in patches of strong hue4 ,each flower blooms apart1 and the sheen of them is delicate and suggestive rather than gorgeous4 ,they seem to share the reticence and shyness of the land1 and tinge rather than paint it4 ,even the animal life conforms to this dainty rule2 lizards are everywhere1 but their colouring is that of their environment1 now stone-grey1 now wine-red1 now straw-coloured4 ,chameleons are anything you please--green in growing corn1 black among basalt rocks4 ,tortoises are blue at the sulphur springs1 brown or slate in the muddy banks of streams4 ,this faintness is1 however1 but half the truth of the colour of ,syria4 ,everywhere it is rendered emphatic by certain vivid splashes of the most daring brilliance4 ,wherever springs are found you have instances of this contrast1 and ,palestine is essentially the land of bright foregrounds thrown up against dim backgrounds4 ,the ,jordan valley is the greatest example1 running south along its whole length1 8a green serpent0 between the pale mountains of the east and the faint mosaic of the western land4 ,its jungle is uncompromisingly distinct throughout the entire course1 and its colour is living green1 with a white flash of broken water or a quiet flow of brown bursting here and there through the verdure4 ,other streams are similarly marked1 with luxurious undergrowth of reeds1 varied by clumps of hollyhock or edged with winding ribbons of magenta oleander4 ,but the most striking oases of this kind are the valley of ,shechem and the city of ,damascus4 ,there is a hill seldom visited by tourists1 but well worth climbing1 set in the broad vale of ,makhna1 right opposite ,jacob's ,well4 ,north and south past the foot of this hill runs the broad valley4 ,it is edged on the western side by the continuous line of the central mountain range of ,samaria--continuous except for one great gash1 where1 as if a giant's sword had cleft the range1 the valley of ,shechem enters that of ,makhna at right angles4 ,the whole landscape is in dim colour except for that valley of ,shechem4 ,ebal and ,gerizim guard its eastern end1 dull and rocky both4 ,but the valley which they guard is fed by countless springs and intersected by rivulets1 so that below the shingle of their slopes there spreads a fan-shaped expanse of intensely vivid green1 like a carpet flung out from ,nablus between the mountains4 ,the lower edge of the green is broken by the white wall of the enclosure of ,jacob's ,well1 and the cupola of ,joseph's tomb4 ,damascus--surely the most bewitching of cities--owes its witchery to the same cause4 ,the river ,abana spends itself upon the city4 ,as you approach it from the south it discloses itself as a mass of bold outline and high colour in the midst of a great field of verdure1 flanked on the west by precipitous hills of sand and rock--sheer tilted desert4 ,when you climb those hills you see the white city1 jewelled with her minarets of many hues1 resting on a cloth of dark green velvet whose edge is sharply defined4 ,immediately beyond that edge the sand begins1 stretching into the farther desert through paler and paler shades of rose and yellow to the lilac hills in the eastern distance4 ,it is not only the water-springs1 however1 that provide the land with vivid foregrounds4 ,loti describes a little sand-hill in the desert 8all bespangled with mica10 which 8sets itself out1 shining like a silver tumulus40 ,such bold and detached features are by no means uncommon even on the west of the ,jordan4 ,the name of the cliff 8,bozez0 in ,michmash means 8shining10 and there are many shining rocks in these valleys--either masses of smooth limestone1 or dark basalt rocks1 from whose dripping surface the sun is reflected in blinding splendour after rain4 ,even without such reflection the sudden intrusion of black rock will often give character to an otherwise neutral landscape4 ,but the sun is the magician of ,syria1 who bleaches her and then throws up against his handiwork the boldest contrasts of strong light and shade4 ,no one who has seen the crimson flush of sunset on the olives1 or the sudden change of a grey ,judean hill-side to rich orange1 or the whole eastern cliffs of the ,sea of ,galilee turned to the likeness of flesh-coloured marble1 will be likely to forget the picture4 ,loti's wonderful description of desert sunsets--8incandescent violet1 and the red of burning coals0--is not overdrawn4 ,shadows will transform the poorest into the richest colouring4 ,the tawny desert changes to the luscious dark of lengthening indigo at the foot of a great rock2 and the shadows of clouds float across ,esdraelon1 changing the red plain to deep wine-colour as they pass4 ,silhouettes are of daily occurrence in that crisp air4 ,one scene in particular made an indelible impression4 ,it was a village on terraced heights1 thrown black against a gold and heliotrope sunset4 ,the figures of ,arabs standing or sitting statuesque upon the sky-line were magnified to the appearance of giant guardians of the walls1 and the miserable little hamlet might have been an impregnable fortress4 ,the inhabitants have entered with full sympathy into the spirit of this play of foreground4 ,they are spectacular if they are anything4 ,their religion forbids them all practice of the graphic arts1 and most of the ,western pictures which are to be seen in churches are execrable enough to reconcile them to the restriction4 ,but they obey the law in small things only to break it by transforming themselves and their surroundings into one great picture4 ,their clothing1 their buildings1 and their handiwork are a brilliant foil to the dull background4 ,from them ,venice learned her bright colouring1 and there are few ,english homes which have not borrowed something from them4 ,in part1 this is thrust upon them by the sun4 ,the interiors of houses are all ,rembrandt work1 as ,conder has happily remarked4 ,the rooms are dark1 and the windows very small4 ,but when the sun shines through the apertures1 their rich brown rafters and red pottery gleam out of the shadow4 ,one such interior is especially memorable1 where a bar of intense sunlight lit up the skin and many-coloured garments of children sitting in the window-sill1 while through the open door the green grass of the courtyard shone4 ,still more wonderful is the effect when one opens the door of a silk-winding room in sunlight1 and sees the colours wound on the great spindles1 or when one enters the dark archways of the bazaars where long shafts of light striking down slantwise upon a shining patch below turn the brown shadow of the arch to indigo4 ,the natives see this1 and love the lusciousness of it4 ,they build minarets cased with emerald tiles1 or domes of copper which will soon be coated with verdigris4 ,of late years a further touch has been added in the red-tiled roofs which are already so popular in the towns4 ,in proof of the genius of the ,easterns for colour1 nothing need be mentioned but their carpets and their glass4 ,the glass of old windows in mosques beggars all description4 ,it is an experience rather than a spectacle4 ,the panes are so minute1 and so destitute of picture or of pattern1 that they are unnoticed in ,illustration3 ,,cana ,,of ,,galilee4 ,this is the village of ,kafr ,kenn1 believed to be the ,cana of the ,new ,testament1 where our ,lord performed ,his first miracle at the marriage feast4 detail1 and the general effect is that of a religious atmosphere in which all one's ordinary thoughts and feelings are lost in the overpowering sense of 8something rich and strange40 ,after the magic of that light1 with its blended purple and amber and ruby1 the finest ,western work seems harsh4 ,it is hardly light2 it is illuminated shadow4 ,the rugs and carpets1 with their intricate colouring1 are more familiar and need not be described4 ,the finest of them are of silk1 and their delicacy of shade is marvellous4 ,the patterns constantly elude the eye1 promising and just almost reaching some recognisable figure1 only to lose themselves in a bright maze4 ,it is said that they were suggested by the meadows of variegated flowers2 but they are intenser and more passionate--as if their designers had felt that their task was to supply an even stronger counterpart to the faint landscape4 ,the gay clothing of the ,east is proverbial4 ,even the poorest peasants are resplendent4 8,fine linen0 is still the mark of the rich man1 but ,lazarus can match him for 8scarlet40 ,in certain parts the men are clad in coats of sheepskin1 the wool being inside1 and protruding like a heavy fringe along the edges4 ,almost everybody's shoes are bright red4 ,in one place we saw a shepherd whose sheepskin coat had met with an accident1 and the patch which filled the vacant space in the raw brown back of him was of an elaborate tartan cloth4 ,in another village all the men wore crimson aprons4 ,when our camp-servants were on the march they seemed to be in sackcloth1 or in thick grey felt which suggested fire-proof apparel2 but when they reached a town they blossomed out into a rainbow4 ,children playing in a village street1 women at the wells1 statuesque shepherds standing solitary in the fields1 all seemed arranged as for a tableau4 ,everybody official--the railway guard1 the escort1 even the mourner at a funeral--is immensely conscious of his dignity2 and on him descends the spirit of ,solomon in all his glory4 ,the man you hire to guide you for a walk of half a dozen miles will disappear into his house and emerge in gorgeous array4 ,one of our guides decked himself in flowing yellow robes and marched before us ostentatiously carrying in front of him a weapon which appeared to be a cross between a carving-knife and a reaping-hook1 through a land peaceful as an infant school4 ,a procession marching to some sacred place across a plain lights the whole scene as with a string of coloured lanterns4 ,even where the natives have adopted ,european dress the fez is retained1 and a crowd of men1 seen from above1 is always ruddy4 ,the delight in strong colour goes even one step farther4 ,the rich hues of the flesh in sunny lands seem to suit the landscape1 and one soon learns to sympathise with the native preference for dusky and brown complexions4 ,to them a fair skin appears leprous1 though bright flaxen or auburn hair are regarded with great admiration4 ,not satisfied1 however1 with their natural beauty1 the ,syrians paint and tattoo their flesh in the most appalling manner1 and redden their finger-nails with henna4 ,fashionable ladies1 and in some places men also1 paint their eyebrows to meet1 and touch in their eyelids with antimony1 whose blue shadow is supposed to convey the impression of irresistible eyelashes4 ,in towns where 8the ,paris modes0 are the sign of smartness1 some of the girls paint their faces pink and white--faces painted with a vengeance1 with a thick and shining enamel which transforms the wearers into animated wax dolls of the weirdest appearance4 ,but that which shocks the unsophisticated traveller most is the tattooing of many of the women4 ,some of them are marked with small arrow-head blue patches on forehead1 cheeks1 and chin2 others are lined and scored like ,south ,sea ,islanders1 and their lower lips transformed entirely from red to blue4 ,all this is savage enough1 but it illustrates in its own crude way that delight in strong colour which transforms the human life of the ,east into such a vivid foreground to the faint landscape4 ,in the dress there is artistic instinct as well as barbaric splendour1 and in the carpets1 the mosaics1 and the glass there is brilliant and matchless artistry4 ,as to the general principle which has been stated in regard to natural colouring1 this is as it always must have been4 ,these were the quiet hues of the land1 and these the brilliant points of strong light in it which ,christ's eyes saw1 and which gave their colour to the ,gospels4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,the ,,desert ,environment counts for much in national life4 ,a country knows itself1 and asserts itself1 as in contrast with what is immediately over its border2 or it retains connection with the neighbouring life1 and is what it is partly because the region next it overflows into its life4 ,at any rate1 to understand anything more than the colour of a land--indeed even to understand that1 as we shall see--it is necessary to begin outside it and know something of its surroundings4 ,for ,palestine1 environment means sea and desert--sea along a straight line for the most part unbroken by any crease or wrinkle of coast-edge which might serve for a harbour1 and desert thrown round all the rest1 except the mountainous north4 ,palestine is a great oasis--a fertile resting-place for travellers making the grand journey from ,egypt to ,mesopotamia2 between which kingdoms she was ever also the buffer state in war and politics4 ,these nations were her visitors1 her guests1 her terrors1 but they never were her neighbours4 ,her neighbours are the sea and the desert4 ,the sea she never took for a friend4 ,with no harbour1 nor any visible island to tempt her to adventure1 and no sailor blood in her veins1 she hated and feared the sea1 and thought of it with ill-will4 ,there is little of the wistfulness of romance in her thought of the dwellers in its uttermost parts2 little of the sense of beauty in her poetry of the breaking waves4 ,she views the ,phnician trader who does business on the ocean as a person to be astonished at rather than to be counted heroic4 ,she exults in the fact that ,god has his path on the great waters1 but has no wish to make any journey there herself4 ,her angels plant their feet upon the sea1 and she looks forward almost triumphantly to the time when it will be dried up and disappear4 ,meanwhile its inaccessible huge depth is for her poets a sort of ,gehenna--a fit place for throwing off evil things beyond the chance of their reappearing4 ,sins are to be cast into it1 and offenders1 with millstones at their necks4 ,the desert was ,israel's real neighbour4 ,south-east from her it stretched for a thousand miles4 ,from ,n4,n4,e4 round through ,e4 and ,s4 to ,w4 it hemmed her in4 ,to a ,briton1 watching the departure of the ,bagdad dromedary post from ,damascus1 the desert seems infinitely more appalling and unnatural than the sea4 ,for ten days these uncanny beasts and men will travel1 marching 7it is said7 twenty hours out of every twenty-four4 ,the stretch of dreariness which opens to the ,western imagination1 as you watch the lessening specks in the tawny distance1 is indescribable4 ,to the ,eastern it is not so1 and it never was so4 ,he knows its horrors1 and yet he loves it4 ,the modern ,arab calls it ,nefud 7i4e4 8exhausted10 8spent071 and1 according to ,palgrave1 there are in the ,arabian desert sands no less than #fjj feet in depth4 ,yet with all its horrors it is after all his home4 ,the desert is not all consecrated to death4 ,besides the occasional oases which dot its barren expanse1 there are many regions where grass and herbage may be had continually so long as the flocks keep wandering4 ,accordingly the long low black tent1 with its obliquely pitched tent-ropes and skilfully driven pegs1 takes the place of such substantial building as might create a city4 ,it has been so for countless generations1 until now the desert ,arab fears walls and will not be persuaded to enter them4 ,kinglake gives a remarkable instance of this1 telling of a journey to ,gaza on which his ,arabs actually abandoned their camels rather than accompany them within the gates4#a ,colonel ,conder insists that the ,arabs are entirely distinct from the ,fellahin of the ,syrian villages2 yet he and other writers call attention to the borderland east of ,jordan where the boundaries of the rival races swing to and fro with the varying successes or failures of the years4 ,in places where the land lies open1 as at the ,plain of ,esdraelon1 the east invades the west4 ,no one who travels in ,palestine can fail to be impressed--most will probably be surprised--by the frequency with which those black hair-cloth tents are seen1 sprawling like the skin of some wild-cat pegged out along the ground4 ,if the question be asked what becomes of them1 the day's journey will likely enough supply the answer4 ,in the market-place of a town you may see their inhabitants trading their desert ware for city produce4 ,but even such slight contact of city with desert evidently has its temptations4 ,in the valley below1 the tent is pitched on the edge of a field rudely cultivated4 ,the nomad here has already yielded to the agriculturist4 ,descend to the ,jordan valley1 and you shall see the hair-cloth covering a hut whose sides are of woven reeds from the river1 and a little farther on the covering itself will be exchanged for a roof of reeds4 ,finally1 you may look from the road that runs between the two main sources of the ,jordan1 and see in the southern distance1 shining out against the lush verdure of the ,huleh morass1 the red-tiled roof of a two-storey villa--the house of the ,sheikh of the local tribe of ,arabs6#b ,this immigration has gone on from time immemorial1 and it was some such process by which ,palestine received all her earlier inhabitants4 ,once fixed in cities and settled down to the cultivation of the fields1 their character and way of life so changed that the desert and its folk became their enemies4 ,yet a deeper loyalty remained through all such alienation2 and1 in spite of dangers and even hostilities1 the desert was still their former home4 ,it is not only by its neighbourhood1 however1 that the desert has influenced ,palestine4 ,nature has done her best to shut it off from the land1 from the eastern side at least1 by the tremendous barrier of the ,jordan valley4 ,not even the angel of the wilderness1 one would think1 might cross that defence4 ,yet even that barrier has been crossed1 and a bird's-eye view of ,palestine shews a land bitten into by great tracts of real desert west of ,jordan4 ,in a modified degree1 the whole of ,judea--that great stone wedge to which reference was made in ,chapter ,i4--exemplifies this4 ,half the ,judean territory is wilderness1 and the other half is only kept back from the desert by sheer force of industry4 ,even on the western side this is strikingly seen4 ,as viewed from the ocean1 the desolate sand and scrub of the coast seems to clutch at the land1 stretching here and there far inland from the shore4 ,but the desert of ,judah1 in the south-east of the country1 is the great intrusion of the desert upon ,palestine4 ,the sea-board of ,palestine is perhaps the smoothest and most unbroken of any country in the world4 ,but if a coast-line of the desert were sketched in the same way as a sea-coast is shewn on maps1 the edge would show an outline almost as broken as that of the ,greek coast1 with many a bay and creek4 ,the desert is the sea of ,syria1 and its inthrust is like that of great fingers feeling their way through the pastures to the very gates of her cities1 and at one place reaching a point within a mile or two of her capital4 ,disraeli describes graphically the transition from ,canaan to ,illustration3 ,,on ,,the ,,road ,,from ,,jerusalem ,,to ,,bethany4 stony ,arabia--the first sandy patches2 the herbage gradually disappearing till all that is left of it is shrubs tufting the ridges of low undulating sand-hills2 then the sand becoming stony1 with no plant-life remaining but an occasional thorn1 until plains of sand end in dull ranges of mountains covered with loose flints4 ,in the journey from ,bethlehem to the ,dead ,sea the transition is even more abrupt4 ,hardly have you left the 8fields of the shepherds0 when you perceive that the herbs1 though still plentiful among the stones1 are parched4 ,in a mile or two there is nothing round you but wild greyish-yellow sand and rock4 ,you thread your way precariously along the sides of gorges till you reach that sheer yellow cleft down which ,kidron is slicing its way with the air of a suicide to the sea4 ,then you come up to a lofty ridge from which are seen the dreary towers of ,mar ,saba1 like the 8blind squat turret0 of ,childe ,roland's adventure1 8with low grey rocks girt round1 chin upon hand1 to see the game at bay40 ,so you journey on1 feeling at times that this is not scenery1 it is being buried alive in great stone chambers beneath the surface2 at other times welcoming the sight of a broom bush like that under which ,elijah lay down and prayed that he might die4 ,the carcase of a horse or the skeleton of a camel are almost welcome1 breaking the monotonous emptiness of this land of death4 ,the physical influence of the desert on the land is evident in many ways4 ,greece and ,britain are not more truly children of the sea than is ,syria the desert's child4 ,even those who have had no experience of the desert proper1 but have only made the regulation tour in ,palestine1 will have memories of what they saw recalled to them in every page of a book descriptive of the desert4 ,the land throughout has ominously much in common with its desolate neighbour--so much so as to suggest a territory rescued from the desert and kept from reverting only by strenuous handling4 ,many things go to confirm this impression4 ,the winds that blow from east or south have crossed the sand before they reach the mountains4 ,when they are cool1 they are pure and fresh1 unbreathed before1 8virgin air40 ,the evening breeze of ,syria is 8the respiration of the desert0 after its breathless heat of day4 ,when the wind is hot1 it is terrible as only wind can be that comes off burning sand4 ,the shirky1 or sirocco1 interprets the desert in a fashion which the traveller is not likely to forget4 ,we rode against it half the length of the ,plain of ,esdraelon1 when the thermometer registered #ajd in the shade1 until the steel of our coloured eye-glasses became so hot that we were glad to remove them1 and endure the glare by preference4 ,the plant-life of the desert has its counterpart in the land4 ,loti describes it with his usual vividness4 ,there is the furze dusted with fine sand2 there are the strange sand-flowers of yellow or violet colours1 the spikes shot out of the soil without leafage1 the balls of thorn which wound the feet1 the occasional palm-tree1 the white edible manna plant4 ,and there is the exquisite scent of these after rain1 so strong that one might think a jar of perfume had been broken at the tent door--a perfume in which one distinguishes the scents of resin1 lemon1 geranium1 and myrrh4 ,all this the ,palestine traveller seems to recognise2 in that curious but familiar flora1 and that pungent aromatic smell1 we have the intrusion of the desert again4 ,the colour of the land has already been described1 and here again we have the touch of the wilderness4 ,the colouring is no doubt partly due to the quality of the air1 dry and crisp as nothing but those miles of sand could make it4 ,having absolutely no concerns of its own1 as wooded or grassy lands have1 the desert abandons itself to the sun4 ,it takes and gives the sunlight wholly1 making itself a mere reflector for the light and heat4 8,everything in this desert is of one colour--a tawny yellow4 ,the rocks1 the partridges1 the camels1 the foxes1 the ibex1 are all of this shade40#c ,yet this absolutely neutral region1 just because of its neutrality1 catches the sunrise and the sunset in a brilliance that is all its own1 and deepens its shadows to liquid depths of indigo and violet4 ,in this we see the extreme and untempered form of that interplay of faint background with intense foreground which is the characteristic feature of the colour-scheme of ,syria4 ,it is the same as regards form4 ,the two towers of ,mar ,saba are among the most impressive of all the ,syrian spectacles4 ,pitilessly unsuggestive1 they are the most unhomely things one ever saw1 like the mere skeletons of habitations4 ,but part of this impression comes from the shape of the surrounding hills4 ,ranged in a wide semicircle1 their fronts eaten out with land-slips and torrents1 they are polished and smooth like gigantic sculptures4 ,in some parts the regularity of their cones and tables suggests the work of purposeless but mighty builders4 ,in other parts the rocks are twisted as if by tormentors1 or tumbled in utter confusion4 ,this too1 as we shall see1 has its modified counterpart in the land4 ,if the desert has thus produced a strong physical effect upon the land1 its moral effects are even more apparent4 ,we have seen how to the dwellers west of ,jordan it was at once an abiding enemy and an ancient home4 ,shut out from it by the huge trench of the ,jordan valley and the barricade of the eastern mountains1 the ,syrian still feels enough of the desert's fiery touch to fear it as an enemy4 ,its wind blasts his crops and its heat drives him from his valleys to the hill country for the breath of life4 ,every traveller speaks of the 8positive weight0 of heat that makes men bend low in their saddles4 ,others besides the ,persians are constrained1 as ,kinglake puts it1 to bow down before the sun1 whose 8fierce will0 is most terribly felt in those tracts of the land which the desert has claimed for its own4 ,in the desert there are the same conditions which are to be found in the land1 only in extreme forms and without mitigation4 ,it is the place of tempests1 fires1 and reptiles4 ,these visit the land at times1 but they abide in that weird country into whose distances the ,syrian may peer from most of his mountain tops4 ,there1 too1 abide those dark and occult powers of evil in which every ,eastern man believes4 ,the magic of the desert--its treacherous mirage1 its genii 7by no means difficult to imagine in the forms of sandy whirlwinds whose march is strewn with corpses71 and its infinite unexplored possibilities of terror--all this is very real to the native imagination4 ,its inhabitants1 too1 are uncanny to think of4 ,the true ,arabian1 whom perhaps they may have met on a journey1 with his jade-handled jewelled sword and his shrunken skin2 the lunatics who have wandered to its congenial wildness2 the anchorites and ascetics whom1 like the scapegoat of ancient times1 sin has driven forth to its unwalled prison-house1--all these fill in for ,syrians the ghastly picture1 and its tales of wars and massacres add the last touch of horror4 ,nothing proves and exemplifies all this more strikingly than the apparently unreasonable view of the fertility1 beauty1 and general perfection of ,palestine which its inhabitants have always cherished4 ,visitors from the ,west are often disappointed1 and as they move from place to place their wonder grows as they recall the ,biblical descriptions of the land flowing with milk and honey4 ,allowing for the many centuries of misrule and deterioration1 it still remains obvious that ,palestine never can have been that dreamland of natural delight which piety has imagined4 ,but the inhabitant views it1 as ,dr4 ,smith has pointed out1 not in contrast with the ,west1 but in contrast with the desert4 ,we have to remember how 8its eastern forests1 its immense wheat-fields1 its streams1 the oases round its perennial fountains1 the pride of ,jordan1 impress the immigrant nomad40 ,this contrast exaggerates all his blessings in a heat of appreciation4 ,coming in from the desert1 a man sees trees and fountains not as they are in themselves1 but as they are in contrast with burning sand3 he welcomes them as the gift of ,god's grace4 ,the sound of wind among the leaves or of flowing water is to him truly the speech of a god4#d ,to many a wayfarer the poorest outskirts of the ,syrian land have meant salvation from imminent death1 and so appreciation enlarges to optimism1 and the very barrenness of the desert becomes a challenge to hope and faith4 ,streams will break forth there1 as in his happy experience they have already broken forth1 until the whole barren waste shall blossom as the rose4 ,it is by such hope and faith that the tribes of ,palestine have lived4 ,there is a magnificent indomitableness in the spectacle of ,jews after two thousand years of exile still celebrating their vintage festival in the slums of great cities1 or in the 8squalid quarter of some bleak northern town where there is never a sun that can at any rate ripen grapes40 ,one seems to find the key to this in that tradition of the ,arabs that certain ruins near the ,dead ,sea are the remains of ancient vineyards4 ,the ,syrian land can never be seen but as a miracle of life and beauty rescued from the desert1 and that appreciation becomes the incentive for a larger hope4 ,yet it is not as an enemy1 however wonderfully conquered or strenuously held at bay1 that the desert appeals most to the ,syrian4 ,as he looks eastward to the hills of ,moab and dreams of what lies beyond them1 there is perhaps more of wistfulness than of terror in his heart4 ,the melancholy note of his music1 heard by every camp-fire in the long evenings1 is infinitely suggestive as well as pathetic4 ,where was that note learned if not in black tents pitched in the boundless waste1 where man's littleness1 in contrast with the great powers of ,nature1 oppressed him into prone fatalism1 or revealed to him the infinite refuge and comfort of the ,everlasting ,arms8 ,he whose fathers have sung such songs will not satisfy his soul with the bustle of towns4 ,he will need the desert for retreat1 that his confused mind may calm itself down to order and find new revelations of truth4 ,and when the ,syrian retreats to the desert he seems rather to be going home than abroad4 ,david and ,elijah1 ,paul and ,mohammed1 for various reasons1 but with the same urgency1 betook themselves to the solitude4 ,jesus ,christ himself was driven of the ,spirit into the wilderness4 ,if temptation waited them there1 and the sense of exile and desertion1 it was there also that angels ministered to them2 and ancient prophecies were fulfilled in those 8streams of spiritual originality which broke forth in the deserts of moral routine0 of their times4 ,to their spirit1 and to the spirit of all dwellers in the land1 the desert is not enemy only1 it is home4 ,this fact is abundantly borne out by many traits of character which are the survivals of a desert ancestry4 ,there is nothing in ,syria which can explain the fact that the most skilful dragoman cannot understand a map1 nor guide you to your destination by geographical directions4 ,on unknown ground a ,syrian is of little use as guide4 ,on one occasion some of us set out on a journey of five or six miles in ,hauran under the guidance of an excellent lad who started with the air of a ,napoleon ,bonaparte4 ,his directions were to go straight from ,muzerib to ,sheikh ,miskin--two stations on the railway south of ,damascus1 between which the railway line runs in a wide curve4 ,our route was the bow-string1 while the line was the bent bow4 ,for a little way he boldly marched forward1 but soon began to edge towards the rails1 and finally lost his head altogether1 crossed the line1 and set out on a route whose only apparent destination was ,persia6 ,this was too much for us1 and we mutinied and reversed the direction1 arriving at ,sheikh ,miskin in less than an hour1 with our guide under a cloud4 ,there could not have been a better illustration of a ,syrian's helplessness on ground without familiar landmarks4 ,he finds his way partly by a nomad instinct1 very difficult to account for2 partly by the habit of noticing minute features of the road which entirely escape the ordinary observer4 ,a story is told of a thief in a certain town in ,palestine who entered a house and stole nothing4 ,he simply went out and claimed the house before the judge4 ,when the case came to trial1 the thief challenged the owner to tell how many steps were in the stair1 how many panes of glass in the windows and a long catalogue of other such ,illustration3 ,,the ,,hills ,,round ,,nazareth1 ,,from ,,the ,,plain ,,of ,,esdraelon4 ,the village of ,nazareth shows out white in the dip between the hills4 details4 ,this the owner could not do1 and when the thief gave the numbers correctly1 the house was at once given to him as its obvious possessor4 ,the tale at once recalls the ,arab of our childhood who described the route of the strayed camel4 ,the ,syrian character is nothing if not complex1 a mass of paradox whose contradictory elements it seems hopeless to attempt to reconcile4 ,the politest and the most ruffianly of men1 the most effusively frank and the most impenetrably wary1 the most silent and the most voluble1 the gayest in laughter and the most melancholy in song1 is the ,syrian4 ,he will bully you so long as he has the majority1 and he will beg for the privilege of tying your shoe's latchet if the majority is with you4 ,he will row a boat or drive a donkey under a noonday sun with a violence which threatens apoplexy2 he will suddenly subside into a repose which no surrounding bustle can disturb4 ,the captain of the ,rob ,roy tells how in the ,huleh region a native boy running alongside pointed his long gun at him at least twenty times with the cry of bakhshish1 so close that he once knocked the barrel aside with his paddle2 and yet in the tent that evening this same youngster 8was my greatest favourite from his lively laugh and eyes like diamonds1 and his quick perception of all ,i explained40 ,in a note on page #ci an adventure of our own is told which illustrates sufficiently the rapidity of change in the mood of the native4 ,he is a civilised barbarian1 a scrupulous fraud1 an aged little child4 ,no doubt so complex a character is traceable to many causes1 but in the main it is the work of the desert4 ,there the extreme conditions--the long hunger and the occasional surfeit1 the great silence and the shrill speech in which that silence unburdens itself1 the demand for desperate exertion and the long deep rest--these call forth the most opposite qualities1 each in exaggerated degree4 ,perhaps the most important contributions of the desert to the ,syrian character have been two4 ,there is a certain hardiness and strenuous carelessness of comfort1 which produces a rather bleak impression on ,european travellers1 but which nevertheless has counted for a great deal in national life4 ,it has told in opposite ways4 ,judea's success has been undoubtedly due to the fact that it had to be fought for against such bitter odds4 ,on the other hand1 this same independence of fate has led the nation to settle down in a too easy contentment4 ,defeat1 and even oppression1 sit more lightly on people who are indifferent to circumstances2 and if the artificial demands for luxury have been the ruin of some nations1 they have been the saving of others1 keeping alive in them their vigour and whetting their ambition4 ,the other contribution is the instinctive kindliness and hospitality which are well known as characteristic of the desert tribes4 ,where life is so precarious1 it inevitably comes to be regarded as an inviolable trust by the man on whose mercy it is cast4 ,accordingly the wandering ,arab has but to draw in the sand a circle round his laden camel in order to secure every scrap of his possessions from robbery2 and the bitterest enemies are sure of safety so long as they abide in each other's tents4 ,a little incident which occurred to ourselves brought home to us vividly the real kindliness of the ,eastern sense of guest-right4 ,it was in ,damascus1 and after nightfall4 ,some of us1 wishing to see how the city amused itself1 set out for a ramble through the streets4 ,it was only nine o'clock1 yet everything was shut up and the bazaars and thoroughfares silent and deserted4 ,at last we found a little caf still doing business at the end of the high black vault of a bazaar4 ,seats were placed in the open air in front of it1 while from within came the rattle of dice and the voices of one or two gamblers4 ,sitting down on the outside bench1 we asked for coffee1 which was immediately brought4 ,a stylishly dressed ,moslem1 in an indescribable flow of robes1 took his seat silently opposite us and sat smoking his nargileh4 ,when we rose to go we found that he had paid for us all1 and when we would have thanked him he would have none of it1 satisfied with the consciousness of having shewn hospitality to strangers sojourning in his land4 ,we could not help wondering how long our friend might have continued making the circuit of ,london restaurants before a similar experience would have fallen his way6 ,there is a tale of a scoundrel who acts as guide to ,english travellers1 and presents to each of them a certificate from a former victim1 which invariably makes them laugh4 ,the writing is1 8,i was a stranger and ye took me in40 ,it was pleasing to find that this testimony need not always be ironical4 ,,extract ,,from ,,journal ,one of the horses had been stolen in the night4 ,it was the last on the line1 and beyond it ,harun was sleeping on the ground4 ,at #aa4cj all was right1 but by #ab4cj it had disappeared4 ,by #a ,a4,m4 the village had been roused1 and the head men were coming in to the camp offering us one of their mares in compensation4 ,the mares1 which were wretched skeletons of beasts1 were refused1 and the horse demanded4 ,nothing could persuade them to bring him back1 or to acknowledge any cognisance of him whatever4 ,they said that passing robbers had taken him1 and begged us not to report the affair4 ,our dragoman1 however1 took another view4 ,he wrote a letter1 long and circumstantial1 describing us as 8,hawajas0 7merchants1 gentlemen71 travelling for information under tescera from the ,sultan4 ,the touch of genius in the letter was its insistence upon the seriousness of this affair on the ground that we were travelling under three flags1 the ,union ,jack1 the ,turkish flag1 and the ,stars and ,stripes4 ,this letter was sent1 by one of our men on horseback1 to the ,kaimakham1 governor of the district1 at a place some distance from where we were4 ,the ,kaimakham passed him on to the ,mudir at another village1 a person of terrible reputation1 of whom everybody in the neighbourhood was afraid4 ,the upshot of it all was that ,mohammed1 the messenger1 returned to camp accompanied by two soldiers1 powerful and intelligent young fellows1 but savage-looking and rather ragged4 ,the taller of the two1 named ,nimr 7the leopard71 was armed with bayonet1 rifle1 and revolver1 while a double belt of cartridges added to the effect4 ,his orders were to take the thirteen leading men of ,banias in irons1 and march them off 8shoulder-tight0 to prison at ,mejdel4 ,during the day a great meeting was held in the dragoman's tent1 the soldiers on one side1 the 8leading men0 on the other4 ,one of the latter protested that this was unfair--they had expected the dragoman to grow cooler1 but although he had been hot at first1 he was getting hotter instead of cooler4 ,the reply was--7may it be forgiven67--that he had meant to get cooler1 but the ,hawajas were getting hotter steadily1 owing to the three flags aforesaid4 ,after a long parley it was arranged that they should send to another village for a horse worth #bj1 the value of the stolen one4 ,they stoutly maintained that a stranger1 and none of themselves1 had committed the robbery1 and that it was a bitter day when the ,hawajas had pitched their tents among them4 ,nimr the soldier sat frowning and beating the ground savagely with a stick between his wide open legs4 ,he repeated several times1 with gusto1 the aphorism1 8,better to touch fire and scorpions than the property of ,hawajas10 to which the rueful answer of the ,sheikh was that it would be better6 ,all was gloom1 and when at last a messenger was sent off to procure a horse worth #bj1 the grandees went to their houses with the air of men doomed4 ,next morning the horse was brought1 and was to be seen at the end of the line kicking and biting viciously4 ,its worth was only #ae1 but the balance was condoned4 ,we expected that this would draw forth gratitude and even some gladness2 but instead it brought them all to tears1 and drew from them many assurances of the miserable poverty of their condition1 and the inevitable ruin that awaited them if we actually accepted this horse which they had brought4 ,to these pleadings the dragoman was deaf1 insisting that we must now at least let things take their course4 ,when they saw that this was the final position of affairs1 they ceased from wailing4 ,within five minutes our own original horse was led into the camp1 and their new one removed6 ,their game had been played to its very last turn1 and having failed was laid aside4 ,during the rest of our sojourn there these same men lingered in the camp1 manifesting neither regret nor shame1 but smoking1 chatting1 and laughing with our company in the highest possible good-humour4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,the ,,lie ,,of ,,the ,,land ,every writer about ,palestine speaks of the smallness and concentration of the land1 yet these take the best informed by surprise4 ,it is 8the least of all lands0 indeed1 when one thinks how much has happened in it4 ,leaving ,jaffa at #aj ,a4,m41 the steamer reaches ,beyrout at #f ,p4,m4 ,the passengers in that short sail have seen the whole of ,palestine4 ,national life there is a miniature rather than a picture4 ,in a stretch of country equal to that between ,aberdeen and ,dundee you cover the whole central ground of the ,bible1 from the ,sea of ,galilee to ,jerusalem4 ,in a ride equal to the distance from ,london to ,windsor there may be seen enough to interpret many centuries of the world's supreme history4 ,the ,dead ,sea is but #ej miles from the ,mediterranean1 the ,sea of ,galilee about #be miles2 while the distance in miles between the two seas is only #ee4 ,yet in that little land there is every kind of soil1 from mere sand and broken limestone to rich red and chocolate loam4 ,it is a mountainous country throughout1 and its inhabitants are a race of ,highlanders4 ,so numerous are its mountain spurs that you may pass up and down the centre of the country for scores of miles1 and yet never catch sight of the sea1 though you constantly feel it in the breeze4 ,everything is there--the gorge1 the wide sweeping valley1 the great plain1 the rolling tableland4 ,it is1 indeed1 a land in miniature1 the multum in parvo of lands4 ,its history and religion1 like its natural features1 are crushed together and compact4 ,the epigram is the only form of speech that can express it4 ,this idea of smallness and compression1 however1 is by no means the only possible view which may be taken4 ,all depends on what it is with which one compares ,palestine4 ,thinking of it as a field of history1 one inevitably has other fields in mind4 ,if we think of ,britain1 ,palestine is but the size of ,wales2 if of ,france and ,germany1 it is the equivalent of ,alsace4 ,but a more primitive point of view is gained when you regard it as a reclaimed tract of the desert4 ,just as ,egypt is a huge river-meadow1 and ,venice a glorified harbour in the sea1 so ,syria is the largest oasis in the world4 ,its whole geographical character is that of desert1 more or less modified by water4 ,the sculptured hills are here1 the rock and the shingle and the sand4 ,dry up its rivers and arrest its rainfall1 and you will have a continuation of the peninsula of ,sinai1 except that instead of granite it will be of limestone4 ,it is this1 as we have seen1 that has led its inhabitants to regard it with a rare appreciation1 an extraordinary sense of its preciousness1 and a tendency to exaggerate both its beauty and its fertility4 ,nothing illustrates this loving appreciation of their land better than the play of imagination which has created the place-names of ,palestine4 ,hebrews1 ,arabs1 and ,crusaders vie with each other in the poetic beauty of their nomenclature4 ,it is a little land1 but there is much witchery in it4 ,for its inhabitants it lives personified1 and its masses of mountain scenery are often named from parts of the human body4 ,there are 8the shoulder10 8the side10 8the thigh10 8the rib10 8the back40 ,the 8head0 of ,pisgah looks down upon the 8face0 of the wilderness4#e ,there is a 8hollow hearth0--homeliest of names to a ,semite4 ,in other names poetry has reached its utmost of epigrammatic beauty--8the dance of the whirls10 8the star of the wind10 8the diamond of the desert40 ,yet sacred and beautiful as its scenery was to ,israel1 she had a dearer bond with her land than that4 ,she was kept from nature-worship by a spiritual faith which created such names as 8,bethel0 7the house of ,god71 and many others of similar significance4 ,these claim the land in all its length and breadth for the ,god of ,israel4 ,every green spot was for the ,semites the dwelling-place of some divinity2 this whole oasis of hers was for ,israel the house of her ,god of peace and blessing4 ,to the ancient ,greek 8,god was the view02 to the ,hebrew1 ,god was the inhabitant of the view--,he ,himself was ,righteousness4 ,and because the land was ,his--rescued by ,him from the desert with ,his waters1 and given to the people in ,his love--it was tenfold more dear to them4 ,down every vista which shewed them a land that was very far off1 their eyes caught sight also of some vision of the ,king in ,his beauty2 every high hill was a veritable mountain of the ,lord's house4 ,let us try to get1 as it were1 a bird's-eye view of this fascinating country1 noticing in their right perspective and significance its outstanding natural features4 ,dr4 ,smith's ,historical ,geography has perhaps rendered no service higher than the aid towards this which is afforded by its epitome and map 7pp4 #di1 #ej1 #ea74 ,these divide ,palestine into five parallel strips running north and south4 ,cutting across these strips in a straight line westwards from the desert to the sea1 we first traverse the range of the eastern mountains2 then dip to the immense gulf of the ,jordan valley1 far below the ,mediterranean level2 then climb by precipitous ascents to the summit of the central range2 then descend through the foot-hills2 and finally land on the maritime plain4 ,to grasp thoroughly the lie of these five longitudinal regions is the first necessity for understanding the geography of ,palestine4 ,its general impression is one of extraordinary brokenness of contour1 and ,zangwill points out the important fact that a land with so much hill surface has in reality a very much larger superficial area than that estimated by multiplying its length by its breadth4 ,by far the most remarkable feature in the whole ,illustration3 ,,jerusalem--,,the ,,pool ,,of ,,hezekiah4 territory is the ,jordan valley4 ,rising from springs at the western roots of ,hermon1 high above sea level1 it sinks by rapid stages till at the ,dead ,sea it reaches bottom nearly #acjj feet below the ,mediterranean4 ,down its extraordinary gully flows the one great river of ,palestine4 ,there are other perennial streams1 but none to compare with ,jordan either for volume or for associations4 ,it is this mass of flowing water which stands as the heart and soul of the ,syrian oasis4 ,its mighty stream has overcome the desert1 and claimed the western land for greenness and for life4 ,it is this huge cleft that has isolated the ,holy ,land for the purposes of its ,god4 ,the only clear opening from the ,jordan to the ,mediterranean is the ,plain of ,esdraelon4 ,standing on ,jordan's bank below ,bethshan and looking westward1 you see before you a valley whose farther end shows nothing but sky4 ,many streams cut their way down its slopes beside a green morass1 and hold in their embrace the ruins of a strong city4 ,you must follow them up westwards for some ten miles before you reach sea level1 and soon after that you cross the watershed in a wide valley with mountains rising to north and south4 ,jezreel stands above you on a protruding tongue of high cultivated land to the south4 ,at a level of about #bjj feet above the sea1 you suddenly emerge upon a great triangular plain1 with ,carmel at its apex1 #ae miles to the west4 ,this is the ,plain of ,esdraelon4 ,the one really large level space in ,syria1 its rich soil1 even surface1 and plentiful water-supply make it a famous piece of cultivated ground4 ,but it is also the natural battlefield of the ,east1 and its chief associations are not with agriculture but with war4 ,esdraelon1 however1 is but an incident in the geographical fact of ,syria1 though an important and large incident4 ,it is but the largest of those open spaces into which ,syrian valleys swell out4 ,there are three or four of them in the ,jordan valley1 and several of smaller size are scattered here and there throughout the country4 ,the really essential feature of the land--that1 indeed1 which historically is the land--is the mountain range that sweeps from ,lebanon to ,hebron and beyond4 ,it was on the mountains that ,israel lived4 ,the ,plain of ,esdraelon1 being the ganglion of the natural main routes of traffic and of war1 was but a doubtful possession1 precariously held at best1 and often changing owners4 ,the strong city of ,bethshan at the eastern mouth of its main valley was held by ,israel's enemies during almost the whole of her history2 and1 until a year or two ago1 the ,arabs made yearly raids upon the ,plain4 ,again1 the sea-coast was largely in the hands of enemies2 while the ,jordan valley1 with its insupportable heat and malaria1 was thinly peopled1 and its population swiftly degenerated from national as well as from moral loyalties4 ,thus he who would know the ,holy ,land must1 in every sense of the words1 8lift up his eyes unto the hills40 ,it was our good fortune to have this view at its very best for our first sight of ,palestine4 ,we should have landed at ,jaffa1 but a rather doubtful case of plague at ,alexandria inflicted a two days' quarantine on all ships coming out of ,egypt4 ,so we looked at ,jaffa from under the yellow flag1 and sailed off in the morning sunlight northward to ,beyrout4 ,all day long we lay on deck1 with maps spread out before us4 ,the quarantine had cost us the sight of the ,greek ,easter ceremony at ,jerusalem1 but it gave us in exchange the rare experience of a daylight sail along the ,syrian coast4 ,the day was marvellously clear1 and every object on the shore was seen in photographic outline1 while the various distances were preserved in fading colours1 back to the thin transparency against the sky which stood for the furthest mountain ranges4 ,the shore was barren3 a low belt of tawny sand1 broken by dark olive-green scrub1 and very desolate4 ,one solitary house was all we saw for the first two hours1 and in another place a column of smoke1 apparently rising from some invisible camp4 ,beyond this the foot-hills east of the plain were seen1 lifting towards the great central ridge of the mountain range4 ,though broken here and there by an occasional point1 or overlooked by a peak that rose very high beyond1 the crest of the range was remarkably level1 with wavy outline4 ,until we passed ,carmel it shewed as a unity--8the mountain0 of ,ephraim and ,judah4 ,north from that there was a bolder sky-line1 much nearer to the sea1 which led on eventually to the magnificent heights of ,lebanon1 beautiful as they are mighty4 ,let us suppose ourselves to land at ,beyrout and journey from north to south well inland4 ,at first we climb eastwards among bold bare hills1 in whose recesses mulberry gardens nestle and on whose heights innumerable villages perch4 ,cedars are conspicuous by their absence1 but there are plenty of humbler trees4 ,soon we come to realise the large-scale meaning and contour of the district4 ,we have been crossing ,lebanon1 whose highest peaks have revealed themselves now and then far to the north4 ,some twenty miles from the coast we find ourselves in the valley of the ,litany 7,leontes74 ,this whole region is easily understood4 ,it consists of the magnificent ranges of ,lebanon and ,antilebanon and the spacious valley between them1 running in ample curves parallel with the shore4 ,mighty though these are1 however1 it is neither of them that has received the name of ,jebel-es-,sheikh--8the patriarch of mountains40 ,that honour is reserved for ,hermon1 the range and summit which ,antilebanon thrusts south from it into ,galilee1 just opposite ,damascus4 ,it is happily named 8the sheikh40 ,go where you will in ,palestine1 ,hermon seems to lie at the end of some vista or other4 ,for many miles around it1 ,hermon commands everything4 ,its mass tilts the plain and sends out innumerable spurs of rich and fertile land2 its snow shines far and gives character to the view2 its eastern waters redeem the wilderness through many a mile of ,hauran2 and from its western roots spring all the fountains of the ,jordan4 ,this is the king of ,syria1 by whose beneficent might the desert has become oasis4 ,while the southern continuation of ,hermon holds up the high tableland of ,bashan and runs it on into the mountains of ,gilead and ,moab east of ,jordan1 the thrust of ,lebanon into ,western ,galilee ends curiously in a succession of hills divided by valleys running east and west1 like great waves of mountain rolling south to break along the northern edge of the ,plain of ,esdraelon4 ,there is a quiet regularity about these ,galilean ,highlands1 which gives the impression of a region made to plan4 ,the eastern end of ,esdraelon is blocked by the group of ,tabor and 8,little ,hermon10 while the feature of the western end is the long lonely ridge of ,carmel4 ,crossing the plain we enter ,samaria1 whose deep rounded valleys1 rich in corn1 send their sweeping curves in all directions4 ,here there is neither the dominant north-and-south trend of ,lebanon1 nor the horizontal ripple of ,galilee1 but an intricate network of curving valleys1 which leave the mountains everywhere more individual and distinct1 and which frequently expand into wide meadows or fields4 ,yet the general rise of the region is from west1 sloping up to east4 ,the watershed is perhaps #aj to #ae miles from ,jordan1 while it is more than #cj miles from the sea4 ,but ,jordan here is well-nigh #ajjj feet below sea-level1 so that the eastern slope is immensely steeper than the western4 ,as we enter ,judea1 we find the land1 as it were1 gathering itself up on almost continuous heights4 ,the lesser valleys are shallow1 and the hilltops swell from the lofty plateau in colossal domes or cupolas4 ,so high is the general level that when we come to ,jerusalem we look in vain for the mountains we had understood to be round about her4 ,no peaks cleave the sky--only smooth and gentle hills1 which have never been in any way her defence1 but have made excellent platforms for the siege-engines of her enemies1 and have grown wood for the crosses of her inhabitants4 ,the lateral gorges of ,judea1 both east and west1 cut into her high tableland in angular zigzags1 and as you descend these in either direction you realise what is really meant by 8the mountains round about ,jerusalem40 ,she does not see them1 lying secure upon the height to which they have exalted her4 ,but he who approaches her must come by their gorges1 where for many miles his sky will be but a strip seen between sheer heights of cliff and scaur4#f ,the rugged sharpness of outline reaches its climax on the eastern side1 where the range1 split in the wildest gorges1 falls in fragmentary masses between their mouths down to the ,jordan valley4 ,nothing in the land has a more bare and savage grandeur than the square-chiselled mountain blocks of ,quarantana1 seen from below at ,jericho in black angular silhouette against the sunset4 ,south of ,jerusalem the ,kidron gorge1 cleaving the intruding desert1 exaggerates the wildness of the north1 but as you climb past ,bethlehem to ,hebron you are in a region liker to ,samaria1 with its deeper and more rounded valleys and its richer pasture and cultivation4 ,south of ,hebron the range spreads fanwise and gradually sinks to the desert4 ,the most impressive memories of the land1 so far as its form and contour go1 are two--the gorges cleft through the ,judean mountain1 and certain isolated conical hills thrown up from the ,samaritan valleys4 ,judea is mountain1 emphasised by gorge2 ,samaria is valley1 diversified by hill4 ,the gorges are uncompromising4 ,when we read1 for instance1 the third verse of the seventh chapter of ,joshua1 we think of an ordinary march--8,the men went up and viewed ,ai4 ,and they returned to ,joshua1 and said unto him1 ,let not all the people go up2 but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite ,ai2 and make not all the people to labour thither40 ,but he who has himself 8gone up0 from ,jericho to ,ai puts feeling into his reading of the words 8to labour thither40 ,that is the only way of going up4 ,the recollection is of several hours of precipitous riding1 with beasts stumbling and riders pitched ahead4 ,when the climb is over you turn aside to the south1 and view the gully of ,michmash along whose northern edge you have scrambled inland4 ,it looks not like a valley1 but a crack in rocks1 hundreds of feet deep4 ,the valley of ,achor1 next to the south of ,michmash1 presents an almost more dramatic appearance as you view its entrance from the ,jordan foot-hills4 ,it gapes on the plain1 like the open mouth of some petrified monster4 ,the isolated hills of the northern territory are in their way as memorable as the gorges of the south4 ,in ,judea you cannot see the mountains for 8the mountain40 ,the whole land is one great elevated range1 and the noticeable features of the district are the gorges that cut across it4 ,samaria1 on the other hand1 is a place of valleys and of plains1 and its mountains are seen as mountains4 ,this fact finds its most striking instance in certain 8,gilgals10 or isolated cones standing free in the midst of plain1 or cut off by circular valleys round their bases4 ,the most perfect of these is that which bears the name of ,gilgal1 rising detached in the wide valley to the south-east of ,jacob's ,well4#g ,it is in shape an almost perfect cone1 whose gradual curve renders it very easy of ascent4 ,the ,hill of ,samaria itself is another such 8,gilgal10 the centre of a splendid circular panorama of hills4 ,sanur1 in the country of ,judith and ,holophernes1 is a third1 on a smaller scale1 but with even wider panorama4 ,north of ,esdraelon1 again a long ripple of mountains sweeps round at least one such ,gilgal1 leaving ,sepphoris isolated on the peak of it4 ,and ,tabor itself might plausibly be counted in this class--,tabor the irrelevant1 whose cone seems always to be peeping over the shoulder of some lower ridge1 unlike any other landmark1 commanding all the views eastward from the heights of ,nazareth4 ,these curious cones are in ,palestine to some extent what the ,righi is in ,switzerland4 ,with the exception of ,tabor1 they are but lesser heights2 yet they give the widest mountain views1 and seem to shape the land into a succession of circles1 of which their summits are the centre-points4 ,the mountains of ,israel are the characteristic features of her history as of her geography4 ,in every part of ,syria they are the companions of the journey4 ,great ,illustration3 ,,mount ,,hermon1 ,,from ,,the ,,slopes ,,of ,,tabor4 ,the lofty mountain in the extreme distance is ,mount ,hermon4 distant masses1 or near crests of them1 seem to accompany you as you move4 ,and as you travel through the history of the land it is in the same companionship4 ,the ,jordan valley lies along the western side of the mountain range1 a place of luxury and temptation4 ,but ,israel abides on the hills1 sending down to it only the most degenerate of her children4 ,it is a very striking fact that ,jesus was tempted to sin for bread on the mountain almost within sight of ,jericho1 where the ,herodians were sinning with surfeits of wine and rich meats4 ,all that is truest to ,israel and most characteristic of her at her best is on the hills4 ,they are the places of her war and of her worship4 ,the ,gilgals have almost all stood siege4 ,all1 or at least the most of them1 have been fortified4 ,on some of them the rude remains of ancient sacred circles1 or the decayed steps of altars cut in the rock1 may still be traced4 ,her enemies found by bitter experience that 8her gods are gods of the hills40 ,her ark had its abode on the tableland at ,shiloh or on the hill of ,zion4 ,its history on the low ground was but a story of calamity2 it had to be sent up again to ,kirjath-,jearim among the hills4 ,yet the heights of ,israel stand for more than this blend of war and worship2 they were her home4 ,all her greater towns nestle among them somewhere2 most of them stand on the summits1 or just below them4 ,it was a race of ,highlanders that gave us our ,bible--men whose home was on the heights4 ,her wars1 indeed1 were everywhere1 for it is a blood-drenched land4 ,many of her battles were fought at the edge of the mountain-land1 on the kopjes that run along the southern border of ,esdraelon1 or among the foot-hills near the mouth of the western gorges4 ,there1 or on the great plain1 she met her invaders4 ,but the heights were the scenes of battles in the last resort1 and the gorges are associated with the advance and retreat of armed hosts1 the rush of the invader and the headlong retreat of armies that had been surprised and routed from above4 ,meanwhile1 in the middle spaces1 she fought her continuous battle with the desert and the sun for her daily bread4 ,it is said that in ,malta1 where every possible spot is cultivated1 the earth has been all imported1 and that the ,knights of ,malta allowed no vessel to enter the harbour without paying dues in soil4 ,the denuded hill-sides of ,palestine1 with their ruined heaps of stones that once built up terraces for cultivation1 tell a similar story4 ,on some hillsides the remains of sixty or even eighty such terraces may still be traced4 ,in many places the valleys are rich in an altogether superfluous depth of fertile soil4 ,but this did not suffice the inhabitants1 and they built up the terraces along the southward slopes1 in many places quite to the walls of their mountain villages4 ,on not a few of these slopes labour must have actually created land1 and men's hearts grown strong within them as they changed the rocks into gardens and the slopes of shingle into harvest fields4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,the ,,waters ,,of ,,israel ,keeping in mind our view of ,palestine as an oasis1 we naturally turn at once to the thought of the waters that have retrieved it from the desert4 ,by far the most conspicuous of these is the ,jordan1 flowing down a long course to its deep-dug grave in the ,dead ,sea4 ,at whatever point we approach that great valley the eye is inevitably led along it northward to the white ,hermon1 whose great 8breastplate0 shines over all the land4 ,that mountain1 and the ,lebanons of which it is the southern outpost1 are the real makers of ,palestine4 ,there was a beautiful poetry of ,hermon which from earliest times made it a sacrament of sweet thoughts to ,israel4 ,perhaps the sweetest thought it gave her was that of dew4 ,in every part of that land of clear skies1 a heavy dew lies upon the ground at sunrise4 ,poetic feeling1 undertaking the work of science1 interpreted this dew as ,hermon's gift1 so that 8the dew that descended on the mountains of ,zion0 was 8the dew of ,hermon0 7,psalm cxxxiii4 #c74 ,the meteorology is faulty1 but the larger idea is true4 ,the cool and glistening snow-field1 more than a hundred miles away from ,zion1 does indeed send out and receive again the waters that refresh the land in an endless round4 8,the ,abana dies in the marsh of ,ateibeh1 yielding its spirit to the sun1 as ,jordan dies in the ,dead ,sea1 and1 rising into clouds again1 both of them wafted to the snow-peaks where they were born1 they pour down their old waters in a current ever new1 in that circuit of life and death which ,god has ordained for all40#h ,so conspicuous are these two rivers that we almost need to remind ourselves that they are not the only waters of ,israel4 ,there are several perennial streams in ,syria1 of which something will be said presently2 but the list of these by no means exhausts the stores of water in the land4 ,great stretches of the country are apparently waterless1 especially in the south1 and yet water is almost everywhere1 underground4 ,in many parts the soil and surface-rock are soft1 lying on a hard bed-rock at various depths below4 ,accordingly we find that one of the most mysterious and characteristic features of the south country is its underground waters4#i ,springs and streamlets find their way through fissures or filter through porous stone to the harder rock below1 and flow along subterranean channels there4 ,zangwill quotes an older authority for the somewhat startling statement that 8the entire plain of ,sharon seems to cover a vast subterranean river1 and this inexhaustible source of wealth underlies the whole territory of the ,philistines40 ,putting the ear to any crack in the sunburnt clay of the surface1 in certain parts1 one may hear the subdued growl and murmur of the waters underneath4 ,trees flourish in places where there is no water apparent1 their roots bathing in unseen streams1 and drawing life and freshness from them4 ,one can well understand the feelings of awe with which primitive people regarded these mysterious nether springs4 ,they did not connect them with the idea of rain from above1 as modern science does1 but believed that they had forced their way up from 8the ,great ,deep10 which was supposed to underlie the earth1 and into which the roots of the mountains were thrust far down like gigantic anchors of the world4 ,some of the rivers of ,damascus are also underground1 8and may often be seen and heard through holes in the surface40#aj ,jerusalem is a waterless city1 whose famous pools are tanks for rain-water4 ,its one spring is that strange intermittent one which overflows from the ,well of the ,virgin through ,hezekiah's aqueduct to the ,pool of ,siloam4 ,yet there are legends that beneath the sacred rock which the mosque of ,omar covers there is a subterranean torrent2 and that the rushing of hidden waters has been heard at times below the massive stones of the ,damascus ,gate of the city4 ,these underground waters have given to ,palestine a still more interesting feature at the points where her greatest rivers rise4 ,this is the sudden emergence of full-bodied streams from the ground4 ,these rivers have1 so to speak1 no infancy4 ,their springs are not little toy fountains with trickling rivulets4 ,they bound into the world full-grown1 with a rush and fury which is perhaps unparalleled in any other land4 ,this inspiring and suggestive phenomenon has not been without its effect on the national thought and imagination4 ,in the midst of one of the most gloriously forceful passages of ,isaiah 7chap4 xxxv47 the vigour and impetuousness of the prophecy finds its climax in the sudden leap of waters which 8break out0 in the wilderness1 and which are described in the same breath as the first glad leap of the restored lame man1 leaping 8as an hart40 ,when ,moses in his blessing of the tribes speaks of ,dan 8leaping from ,bashan10 he refers to that wonderful spot where ,jordan1 in the tribe of ,dan1 leaps up from below ,hermon4 ,matthew ,arnold1 had he chanced to think of it1 might have seen in his delight in full and rushing streams another link connecting him with the ,hebrew race with which he so quaintly claims affinity4 ,the south country keeps its rivers for the most part below ground1 though even there considerable streams suddenly break out4 ,conder describes deep blue pools of fresh water near ,antipatris which 8well up close beneath the hillock surrounded by tall canes and willows1 rushes and grass40#aa ,yet the greatest outbursts are in the north4 ,one traveller describes a river-source in ,lebanon as an abyss of seething black waters1 into which he rolled large stones1 only to see them presently reappear1 flung up like corks from the depths4 ,at one of its sources the ,abana bursts from the masonry of some ancient temples 8a pure and copious river1 rushing into light at once as if free40 ,it is at ,hermon that we find the true centre of the water supply of ,palestine4 ,parts of it are under snow all the year round1 and it gives off some thirty streams flowing in every direction4 ,not one of these streams reaches the ,mediterranean4 ,they flow forth only to evaporate sooner or later in some inland morass or sea1 and to return in vapour that will be condensed again by the snows of ,hermon4 ,conder describes one of these in the north1 whose water 8rushes out suddenly with a roaring noise from a cavern0 in winter1 and transforms the plain below into a lake4 ,but the great work of ,hermon is the ,jordan1 two of whose three sources leap up from its roots4 ,the most striking of these is that of ,banias1 which ,jewish tradition names as one of the three springs of ,palestine which 8remained not closed up after the ,flood40 ,on the crest of a spur of ,hermon stands the ruined castle of ,subeibeh1 one of the noblest ruins in the world4 ,from the castle you descend #adjj feet to the village of ,banias1 the ancient ,caesarea ,philippi4 ,the descent1 over basalt boulders whose interstices are filled for the most part with thorn-bushes1 is said in the guide-books to be practicable for horses4 ,one wonders how long the horses are supposed to survive the journey6 ,the view across and down the ,jordan valley is indescribably grand4 ,near the foot the path curves round the top of a precipice and doubles back on a lower level to a white-washed ,mohammedan weli1 or praying-house4 ,just below1 as you look down from the weli1 a large cavern is seen1 with niches beautifully carved in the rocks beside it4 ,on one of these niches is the inscription 8,to ,pan and the ,nymphs10 and on another the names 8,augustus and ,augustina40 ,here1 most likely on the site of a prehistoric holy place of the ,semites1 stood the ,roman temple which ,herod built in honour of ,augustus4 ,nor is it wonderful that these and so many other faiths have counted this a sacred place2 for ,jordan used to pour forth from that cavern1 clear and full-bodied4 ,now the old cave-channel is choked up with debris1 and ,jordan forces its way to light in many smaller fountains among the stones and earth of the open space below1 which is coloured by long trails of slime4 ,within a few yards the streams unite in a rich green pool1 with reeds and luxuriant water-growth4 ,the second source of ,jordan is even more impressive4 ,it is at ,tell-el-,kadi1 some two miles west from ,banias4 ,on the western side of this ,tell1 on which there are traces and ruins of an ancient city1 there is a thicket of rank undergrowth1 from beneath whose lowest branches and creepers the river suddenly appears1 spreads immediately into a wide pool1 and within a hundred yards is racing violently south in foaming rapids4 ,the pool was reported to be bottomless1 but the irrepressible little canoe ,rob ,roy was launched upon its boiling waters1 and the depth proved to be but five feet6 ,jordan is a river worth much study1 interesting from ,illustration3 ,,the ,,golden1 ,,or ,,beautiful1 ,,gate1 ,,from ,,the ,,garden ,,of ,,gethsemane4 ,the well is in the upper part of the ,garden of ,gethsemane4 every point of view--geographical1 historical1 religious4#ab ,changing in colour1 as the floods wash down their various soils to it1 it tumbles and rushes south through a stretch of some #acg miles without a single cascade till it sweeps1 with strong and level current1 into the ,dead ,sea4 ,at ,banias its height above the ,mediterranean is about #ajjj feet1 but the extraordinary valley is chiselled on a running slope down to the depths of the earth4 ,clouds have been seen sweeping above its bed #ejj feet below the level of the ocean4 ,the ,dead ,sea level is #abij feet below the ,mediterranean2 its bottom1 at the deepest part1 is as deep again4 ,spanned by a few bridges1 of which only one or two are now entire1 the river's course is for the most part through solitudes without inhabitants1 or tenanted but by a few half-savage people4 ,the valley is alternately wide and narrow1 swelling out in five broad expanses1 of which the two northern are lakes1 and the other three are plains4 ,from ,banias to the last confluence of the different head-streams is a distance of some seven miles through green land4 ,soon after that point the river loses itself in a vast forest of impenetrable papyrus canes growing in shallow water1 from which it emerges in a little lake or clear space half a mile lower4 ,then it flows1 a solemn and glassy stream1 for some three miles and a half down a sharp-edged lane whose perpendicular banks are tall papyrus canes1 till it glides silently out1 a hundred feet in breadth1 into ,lake ,huleh4 ,from ,huleh to the ,sea of ,galilee is ten miles1 along the greater part of which the river tears through a narrow gorge4 ,emerging clear and broad from the ,sea of ,galilee it soon begins its innumerable windings4 ,a few streams flow into it perennially from east and west1 and countless torrents after rain4 ,in the north it quickens a poisonous soil into rank vegetation1 and spreads its superfluous waters on steaming swamps1 full of malaria4 ,opposite ,shechem its clay is good for moulding1 and the mounds which break the level are for the most part apparently the remains of old brickfields or brass foundries4 ,as it descends to the broadest of its plains at ,jericho the valley falls into three distinct levels4 ,from the hills a flat expanse of desolation spreads towards the river1 till it falls in steep banks of #aej to #bjj feet to the lower level of the 8trench0 down which the river flows in flood4 ,finally1 in the centre of this lies the ordinary channel1 at whose banks the trees and undergrowth seem to crouch and kneel over the sullen brown stream4 ,there are other perennial rivers in ,syria1 but their courses are short4 ,the ,litany 7,leontes7 rises between the ,lebanons a short distance north of the highest springs of ,jordan4 ,for many miles the two flow in parallel courses1 divided only by the little ridge of ,jebel-es-,zoar4 ,but before ,jordan has passed its new springs at ,banias1 the ,litany has swept to the west in a sharp right angle1 to pour itself into the ocean north of ,tyre4 ,it is a fine stream1 yellow with rich loam1 but its bed is in the sharp angle of valleys whose sides remind one of the ,screes of ,wastwater4 ,its descent is so rapid that even if there were meadows in the bottoms of its gorges1 it would hurry past them to pour its treasure of water and of soil alike into the thankless sea4 ,the ,abana1 rising in the same region as the springs of the other two1 has a course of only some fifty miles4 ,kishon1 which waters the ,plain of ,esdraelon1 is certainly the most generous in the matter of cultivated fields1 but it is also the most treacherous4 ,its fords are never certain1 for great masses of sand and mud are shifted to and fro in the most unaccountable manner4 ,the rest of the perennial rivers are either tributaries of the ,jordan1 companions of the ,abana in its eastern course1 or streams from ,carmel or the central mountain range1 whose short course to the ,mediterranean is of little account4 ,as we think of these rivers flowing through a land which so sorely needs their help1 we cannot but feel oppressed by a sense of waste that is almost tragic4 ,there is no boat plying on any of them4 ,most are1 indeed1 far too rapid for that1 but not everywhere4 ,the guide-book speaks of a steamer plying on the lower reaches of ,jordan2 and the local story of oppression there--every district has its particular grievance--is of two boats that had been brought for the service of the monastery1 and then confiscated by ,government4 ,the only boats of any kind we saw on fresh water between ,hebron and ,damascus were two on the ,sea of ,galilee1 manned by ,syrians in red jerseys1 on which the magic letters were inscribed1 8,,cook40 ,in the old days it must have been very different4 ,there is mention of a ferry-boat on the ,jordan in #b ,sam4 xix4 #ah1 and in ,christ's time there must have been a considerable fishing fleet on the lake4 ,the trireme on the coins of ,gadara reminds us of ,roman vessels which sailed there for warlike purposes1 and here and there you find a valley dammed across its breadth for the construction of an artificial lake1 on which a naumachia or naval fight might add piquancy to the games4 ,there is an island in the ,dead ,sea itself on which what are supposed to be ruins of a landing-stage are still visible1 showing that long ago even these uncanny waters were not without their sailors4 ,there used to be a wrecked boat in the ,ateibeh marsh from which three men had been drowned4 ,the wreck of another boat was still visible some years ago under the surface of ,lake ,huleh4 ,these wrecks are but too truthfully symbolic of the fate of men's attempts to utilise the waters of ,israel4 ,the ,abana1 indeed1 is utilised4 ,never was river so wholly taken possession of by a city as ,abana by ,damascus4 ,she flows into it--right into the heart of it--and disappears underground2 she is led captive into a thousand fountains in public streets and the courts of private houses2 she is sent in a thousand little channels to irrigate the gardens which surround it4 ,all the more pitiful is her ending in that wild and haunted morass of ,ateibeh1 where she yields up her waters to the desert and the sun4 ,the fate of ,jordan seems still more tragic4 ,in the far north his waters are indeed utilised to some small extent for irrigation1 but for the vastly longer part of his course he does nothing but flee through the wilderness to the bitter sea in the south4 ,dr4 ,ross has strikingly summed up ,jordan's career in the words3 8,so1 in a valley which is thirsting for water1 the ,jordan rushes along to an inglorious end40 ,yet that is only one aspect of the matter4 ,jordan gave ,israel her last story of ,elijah and her first of ,christ's ministry4 ,neither association is of the kindly sort which a nation's sentiment usually gathers round its rivers4 ,there is1 as it were1 the glitter of fire from the prophet's departure for ever lending to these brown waters a sort of unearthly grandeur4 ,those fiery horses which bathed their feet here take the place of the gentle memories of generations of lovers or little children4 ,yet that is true to the spirit of the river4 ,to ,israel it stood for a very forceful and practical fact4 ,their first crossing of ,jordan began their national life in ,palestine and cut them off from the desert4 ,so1 to the end1 the ,jordan stood for this to them1 and that was much4 ,jordan created no great city as ,abana created ,damascus2 but it streamed down the side of the east1 flinging1 as it were1 a great arm round the land1 claiming it from the desert1 and proclaiming this to be oasis and the home of men4 ,disraeli characteristically writes3 8,all the great things have been done by the little nations4 ,it is the ,jordan and the ,ilyssus that have civilised the modern races40 ,and truly it is the ,jordan that is in great part responsible for the ,hebrew share in that civilisation--not by his material gifts1 indeed1 which were ever ungenerously given and carelessly gathered1 but by his sentiment of isolation and aloofness from the rest of the ,eastern world1 to which we owe much that is best in our inheritance from ,israel4 ,for the homelier uses and gentler thoughts of ,israel's waters we must turn to the lesser fountains and streams4 ,there is1 it is true1 much disillusionment for the sentimentalist even here4 ,remembering the sweet music in which they have been sung--the 8,song of the ,well0 78,spring up1 ,o ,well1 sing ye unto it607 or the 8gently flowing waters0 of the #bcrd ,psalm--one expects the perfection of purity and freshness4 ,early tradition has pictured the angel ,gabriel meeting with ,mary at the village spring of ,nazareth2 nor is that the only ,syrian fountain by which the footsteps of angels have been traced4 ,all the more trying is the reality4 ,hideously tattooed women squat by the sweetest springs1 fling filthy garments into them1 and beat them with stones till the stream flows brown below them2 or they toil wearily a mile or two away from their villages to fill the heavy water-pots1 beasts of burden rather than mothers in ,israel4 ,of cleanliness the natives have not the remotest idea4 ,we used to see them filling their vessels from a stream where our horses were being washed down after their day's ride1 and they seemed on principle to choose a spot just below that where the horse was standing4 ,often the water seemed calculated to assuage hunger rather than thirst4 ,the natives drank it freely when it was mere mud in solution2 and even when it was clear1 the glass bottles on the table sometimes presented the appearance of lively and well-stocked aquariums4 ,our squeamishness was unintelligible even to our camp-servants1 who drank in defiance large draughts of the water we refused4 ,the landmarks of the hot journey are the pools where one may bathe1 and the first sight of ,elisha's ,fountain and the ,well of ,harod is refreshing to remember still4 ,but one touch of the bottom mud sufficed to bring to the surface a gas which sent us posthaste to our stores of quinine--and yet the deliciousness of the plunge was worth the risk6 ,the spell of the fountains remains in spite of all1 and no traveller wonders that the ancient men revered them as sacred places4 ,israel exulted in the forcefulness of her larger rivers1 but hardly knew their kindlier resources4 ,her affection was kept for those wells and streamlets which flowed past her doors and made glad her cities4 ,it is a land of dried-up torrent-beds1 and no river made glad any ,city of ,god except at the seasons when ,god had filled it with ,his rain4 ,in such a land a wayside well like ,jacob's counts for more than our ,western imagination can realise4 ,property in water was an older institution than property in land4 ,these wayside wells and 8sealed fountains0 refreshed men from time immemorial in the very presence of their enemies4 ,they were the choicest riches of their owners4 ,the journey from south to north leads one ever more frequently in among such springs1 but many towns of the south are built at places where there is abundance of them4 ,hebron has twelve little fountains2 ,gaza fifteen4 ,in ,samaria they burst forth in every valley1 and the vale of ,nablus is a net-work of rivulets1 springing1 it is said1 from no fewer than eighty sources4 ,in ,galilee they are still more abundant4 ,at ,khan ,minyeh1 supposed by many to be the site of the ancient ,capernaum1 the ruins are mostly those of aqueducts1 and springs break forth and stream in little rivers everywhere4 ,the beauty and refreshing coolness of such fountains is very great4 ,the dripping walls of the ,khan ,minyeh aqueducts are covered with magnificent bunches of maidenhair1 whose fronds were the broadest we had ever seen4 ,the ,well of ,harod1 close by the stream where ,gideon tested his soldiers1 is one of the loveliest spots imaginable4 ,there is a little cave1 where the pebbles shine up blue through the shallow water2 ferns grow in its crannies1 and at the side a clear spring1 two feet broad and five inches deep1 splashes into the pool from a recess entirely hidden by hanging maidenhair4 ,nor is the natural beauty of these springs their only charm4 ,when one remembers the days of old through which they flowed1 and the men who stooped to drink of them so along ago1 all that was most sacred and most heroic to one's childhood lives again1 and speaks to the heart4 ,ay6 and to the conscience too2 for these were the springs that gave to ,bible men their metaphors of a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness2 this is the land in which it sprang up and from which it has flowed forth with cleansing and refreshment for the whole earth4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,lake ,,of ,,galilee1 ,,looking ,,north ,,from ,,tiberias4 ,the road at the left of the picture is the main road to the north from ,tiberias4 ,,chapter ,v ,,brown ,,villages1 ,,white ,,towns1 ,,and ,a ,,grey ,,city ,nothing could better illustrate the completeness of the change through which ,israel passed when she exchanged a nomadic for a settled life than the great importance which the idea of the city has in the ,bible4 ,kinglake describes the ,jordan as 8a boundary between the people living under roofs and the tented tribes that wander on the farther side40 ,the very name of 8city10 applied to these grotesque little hamlets1 shews how seriously they took themselves1 and compels an amused respect for so mighty a little self-importance1 for a 8,king0 of that time might be compared with a chairman of parish council to-day4 ,the idea of the city became more and more part of the religion of ,israel as ,jerusalem rose to religious as well as civil importance4 ,to them ,god was a city-dweller1 and there is an eastern saying about lonely wanderers journeying homeless towards the sunset1 that they are 8going to ,god's gate40 ,the changing history of the land has passed it through many phases1 and no doubt there are far wider differences between the centuries in respect of men's dwellings than in respect of those natural features of the land which we have been studying in the preceding pages4 ,this chapter will describe present conditions4 ,and yet in spite of changes the aspect of things must be pretty much what it always was4 ,men gathered into cities on some strongly fortified hill for purposes of war1 or around some holy place for worship1 or in some fertile valley for safe agriculture2 and the sites thus chosen are retained for the most part4 ,with the exception of the wandering tents1 which are occasionally seen throughout the land1 there is hardly a solitary dwelling in ,palestine which is not a ruin4 ,and the want of good roads1 together with the uncertain government1 seems still to keep the village communities more apart than they are in most countries4 ,each village has a character and a reputation of its own1 and cherishes views regarding its neighbours which it is not slow to impart either to them or to foreigners4 ,the colour of these townships divides them into the three classes of our title4 ,damascus and ,beyrout are beyond the scope of the present description--,damascus1 the greyest city in the world so far as age is concerned2 and ,beyrout1 the over-grown white town upon which the ends of the world are come1 leaving it little individual character of its own4 ,keeping to the south of these1 we have the clearly marked division1 with little overlapping4 ,a brown village may indeed have a white church or mosque gleaming from its bosom1 and the walls of some towns besides ,jerusalem are grey2 yet in the main it is a land of brown villages1 white towns1 and one grey city4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the villages are very brown--8dust-coloured10 as they have been happily called4 ,seen from a distance they generally look inviting1 but it takes the traveller no long time to believe that a near approach will certainly disillusionise him4 ,they have many sorts of charm in the distance4 ,some of them are set up on the edge of a hill1 and these seen from below present all the appearance of fortification1 their flat roofs and perpendicular sides giving them an angular and military aspect4 ,others are surrounded by neatly walled and cultivated olive-yards which give the promise of a well-conditioned village4 ,in the rare instances where trees are planted among the dwellings1 the flat brown roofs seem to nestle among the branches in delightful contentment and restfulness4 ,where trees are absent there is generally a high cactus hedge1 serving as an enclosing wall1 which sets the village in a pleasant green4 ,even those hamlets which have about them no green of any kind are not uninviting1 especially if they are built on a hill-slope4 ,there is a peculiar formality and neatness given by irregular piles of flat-roofed buildings overlapping each other at different levels4 ,but as you approach1 all is disillusionment4 ,the trees seem to detach themselves and stand apart in the untidy paths4 ,the cactus hedge is repulsive1 with its spiked pulpy masses and its bare and straggling roots4 ,the brown walls seem to decay before your eyes1 and the village seen from within its own street changes to a succession of ruinous heaps of dbris1 with excavations into the mud of the hillside4 ,if1 as at ,nain1 there be a white-walled church or mosque in the place1 it seems to stand alone in a long moraine of ruins4 ,an acrid smell hangs upon the air1 for the fuel is dried cakes of dung4 ,these are plastered over the walls of low ovens into which the mud seems to swell in great blisters by the street-side4 ,in some of these ovens crowds of filthy children and tattooed women are sitting1 while the men loiter in idle rows along the house walls4 ,when suddenly you say to yourself that this is ,shunem1 or this ,nain1 or ,magdala1 the disappointment is complete4 ,in some places the houses are built of stones gathered from the ancient ruins of the neighbourhood 7,colonel ,conder believes that in hardly any instance are the stones fresh quarried74 ,other houses consist simply of four walls of mud1 with a roof of the same material laid upon branches set across4 ,a small stone roller may be seen lying somewhere on the roof1 for in heat the mud cracks and needs to be rolled now and then to keep the rain from leaking through4 ,the sheikh1 or headman of the village1 has a better house--often the one respectable habitation in the place1 but suggestive of a ruined tower at that4 ,it is a two-storeyed building1 whose great feature is the public hall1 or reception-room1 where local matters are discussed and strangers interviewed4 ,there is no glass in the windows1 and the strong sunlight deepens the gloom of the interiors to a rich brown darkness with points of high light and colour4 ,the shade is precious in these sun-smitten places1 and ,conder narrates an incident which often recurs to mind in them4 ,it was in the cave of the ,holy ,house at ,nazareth1 the reputed home of ,jesus in ,his boyhood4 ,the visitor 8observed to the monk that it was dark for a dwelling-house1 but he answered very simply1 #8,the ,lord had no need of much light4'0 ,the rooms are almost bare of furniture1 a bed and a few water-jars in a corner being sometimes the only objects visible4 ,in some of them the floor space is divided into two levels1 half the room being a platform two or three feet higher than the other half4 ,on this platform the family lives1 while the cattle occupy the lower part2 and along the edge of the platform there are hollows in its floor1 which serve as mangers for the beasts4 ,no doubt it was in such a manger that ,jesus was laid in ,bethlehem4 ,the inhabitants of these villages are the ,fellahin1 of whom ,conder has given so interesting a description4#ac ,he recognises in them a people of almost unmixed ancient stock4 ,distinct from ,bedawin and from ,turks1 they are the 8modern ,canaanites10 probably descendants of the original inhabitants whom ,israel displaced4 ,these were never quite exterminated2 and although there have no doubt been many minor instances of the absorption of other breeds1 yet in the main they remain very much as they were when they talked with ,jesus in ,aramaic1 or even as they were in days much earlier than ,his4 ,a slight enrichment to their lives has been made by each of the invaders1 and reminiscences of ,israel1 ,rome1 the early ,christians1 the ,crusaders1 may be found blended with their ,mohammedanism4 ,but they are conservative to the last degree1 and any radical change seems an impossibility among them4 ,many things contribute to this conservatism1 among which perhaps the chief is the tradition of intermarriage between the inhabitants of the same village4 ,another factor is their extraordinary ignorance1 combined with a pride no less remarkable4 ,it would be difficult to find anywhere men so self-satisfied on such small capital of merit4 ,a third cause of their immovableness is to be found in the usury and oppression by which they are held down2 and even their local self-government--that imperium in imperio which prevails under the larger oppression of the ,turk--keeps up1 so far as it is allowed1 the ancestral ways and thoughts4 ,in one respect this conservatism of theirs is a gain to the world3 it has preserved among them those habits of speech and manner with which the ,bible has made us all so familiar2 and it is to them1 with all their faults1 that we owe much of the 8sacramental value0 of ,palestine travel4 ,as for their faults1 no doubt they are many1 but it is not for the passing stranger to attempt an estimate of their character4 ,the most obvious lapses are sins of speech1 and one always has the impression that the interpreter is toning down as he translates4 ,one can see that property is insecure1 and life by no means so sacred as in the ,west4 ,one incident brought this home to us vividly4 ,some of our party had been detained on an exploring excursion till after dark4 ,when we asked a group of natives what could have become of them1 the answer was more significant than reassuring1 for they pointed with their fingers vertically downwards6 ,it was not so bad as that1 however1 for we soon heard revolver shots1 and answered them4 ,we fired into a field1 aiming at a large stack of corn to prevent accidents4 ,conceive our horror when a silent figure in flowing robes rose from the centre of the stack6 ,he was spending the night there to keep his property from thieves4 ,for the rest1 it is their laziness that strikes one most forcibly4 ,their agriculture is as leisurely as it is primitive4 ,they sit while reaping1 and thresh by standing upon boards studded with flints1 which oxen draw over the threshing-floors4 ,their ploughs are but iron-shod sticks which scratch the surface of the field4 ,in outlandish districts they are described as mere savages1 but we saw little to justify such a criticism4 ,they are uncompromisingly dirty everywhere1 yet their food is simple1 and they appear in the main to be healthy enough4 ,at first one's impression of them is of universal gloom1 sulky and contemptuous2 but the mood soon changes if you stay among them for a little time1 and the knit brows relax to a smiling childishness4 99 99 99 99 99 ,of white towns1 with a population between #cjjj and #cejj1 there are about a dozen in ,palestine1 of which1 excluding ,damascus and ,beyrout1 the best known are ,haifa and ,acre1 ,tyre and ,sidon1 ,tiberias1 ,jenin1 ,nablus1 ,bethlehem1 ,hebron1 ,gaza1 ,jaffa4 ,they shine from far as you approach them4 ,some1 like ,jenin1 gleam most picturesquely from among palm trees2 others1 like ,nazareth seen from ,jezreel1 shew like stars of white in high mountain valleys2 and yet others1 like ,bethshan1 appear 8like white islands in the mouth of an estuary40 ,the nearer view of ,nazareth1 when the hill has been climbed and the town suddenly reveals itself1 is one of rare beauty4 ,you are looking down into an oval hollow full of clean and bright houses4 ,many cypress trees and spreading figs enrich the prospect1 and the whole picture is most pleasing4 ,bethlehem1 again1 has a picturesqueness that is all its own4 ,approaching it from the south1 the track turns sharply into a valley whose end is entirely blocked by a lofty hill1 covered along its whole length with shining white masonry set far up against the sky4 ,it looks trim and newly finished2 and one hardly knows whether to be delighted or vexed that ,bethlehem should be so workmanlike a place4 ,but it is the sea-coast towns which are the most characteristic of their class4 ,tyre is a surprisingly living and wide-awake place still1 and the name recalls ever some vista of blue sea with ships seen through the white arches or rich foliage that decorate the town's western front4 ,jaffa is still more surprising4 ,it is usual to embark at ,port ,said late in the evening1 and when you wake in the morning and find the steamer at anchor1 the first sight of ,palestine that greets you is ,jaffa1 framed in the brass circle of the port-hole--a very perfect and brilliant little picture4 ,the town is set well up1 a conical ,illustration3 ,,the ,,fountain ,,of ,,the ,,virgin ,,at ,,nazareth4 hill of sparkling colour1 backed1 as we first saw it1 by cloudless ,syrian sky1 into which it ran its two minarets4 ,it was larger than we had imagined1 and much loftier1 with a very bold and gaily tilted edge-line--a city set on its hill1 and with a mighty consciousness of being so set1 like ,coventry ,patmore's old ,english cottage4 ,dark-leaved trees1 red roofs1 and occasional jewel-like points of green1 where copper cupolas have been weathered1 light up the picture into one of the most ideal of its kind4 ,within1 the white towns shew a strange mixture of splendour and of sordidness4 ,the streets are aggressively irregular1 and the whole impresses one as at once ancient and unfinished4 ,the wider spaces are full of colour and of noise1 and the houses which surround them are a patchwork of all manner of buildings1 with smaller structures leaning against their sides1 and gaudy awnings of ragged edge protecting doorways from the sun4 ,where the street narrows1 it is filled with crowds of men1 women1 and children1 and laden donkeys pushing them aside as they pass along4 ,there are lanes1 also1 in deep shadow1 with buttresses and long archways converting them into high and narrow tunnels4 ,the shopkeepers in these lanes sit behind their piles of merchandise and converse in shrill voices with neighbours on the other side1 not six feet away4 ,the whole appearance of the town is that of close-huddled dwellings1 which have squeezed themselves into as little space as possible1 and have been forced to expand upwards for want of lateral room4 ,these towns are the mingling-places of ,syria--crucibles of its national life1 in which new and composite races are being molten4 ,one or two of them1 like ,nablus and ,hebron1 are inhabited chiefly by a fanatical ,moslem population1 and in these life stagnates4 ,but the others are open to the world4 ,in the past1 long before the modern stream of travellers came1 this process was going on4 ,in very early times the towns were recruited by the neighbouring ,canaanites and ,arabs4 ,they were1 as they still are1 so insanitary that if it were not for such additions their population would soon die out4 ,in ,christ's time the ,greek and ,roman world poured itself into them2 then came the long train of ,christian pilgrims2 after that the ,crusader hosts4 ,each of these1 and many other incursions1 have helped to mix the race of townsfolk4 ,in ,bethlehem and elsewhere there are many descendants of the ,crusaders1 whose fair hair and complexion tells its own tale4 ,but the mingling of races has gone on with quite a new rapidity during the last few decades4 ,trade and travel have combined to force the ,west upon the ,east4 ,circassians1 ,kurds1 ,turks1 ,jews1 ,africans1 ,cypriotes have settled there4 ,travellers who have twice visited the land1 with an interval of some years between their visits1 are struck by the sudden and sweeping change4 ,even the passing visitor cannot fail to perceive it4 ,the villagers remain apart1 intermarrying within the village or with neighbouring ,fellahin4 ,the townspeople bring their brides from other towns1 and sometimes from other nations4 ,many kinds of imported goods are exposed for sale in the bazaars4 ,there are parts of ,damascus where nothing is sold that was not made in ,europe4 ,the habits of the ,west are also invading towns4 ,intoxicating liquors are freely sold1 and in ,nazareth there are now no fewer than seventeen public-houses4 8,paris fashions0--probably belated--are ousting the ancient customs4 ,tattooing is quite out of fashion among the women of the towns1 and knives and forks have penetrated native houses even in ,hebron4 ,the traveller comes into contact with the townspeople far less fully than with the villagers4 ,in the towns everybody is minding some business or other of his own1 and the stranger meets with the residenter merely as buyer with seller4 ,once only did we see the interior of a town house1 and that visit confirmed the impression of a new and composite life very remarkably4 ,it was in ,tyre4 ,an agreeable native1 who had brought some curiosities for sale1 invited us to go home with him and inspect his stock4 ,the house was in a narrow street1 but the rooms were large4 ,his wife sat near the window smoking a nargileh1 her eyebrows painted black1 and her face heavily powdered and rouged4 ,the room was crowded with furniture4 ,there were a sofa and two ,european beds with mosquito curtains2 a new ,english wardrobe of carved walnut1 with a large mirror2 a kitchen dresser covered with dinner dishes of the customary ,european kind4 ,dry-goods boxes were drawn forth from under the beds and the sofa1 and pasteboard boxes from drawers and shelves1 all filled with the most indescribable medley of curiosities from rifled tombs4 ,bracelets1 tear-bottles1 ear-rings came to light in rapid succession4 ,finally1 a square foot of lead-work appeared--part of a leaden winding-sheet which had recently been torn off an ancient corpse in a sarcophagus--a heavy shroud1 finely ornamented with deep-moulded garlands and figures4 ,our hosts were good-humoured and pleasant people1 who conducted the conversation in some five different languages1 and appeared to combine in themselves and their properties several centuries of human life4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the grey city of ,jerusalem stands unique among the towns of ,palestine4 ,with the brown villages it has nothing in common4 ,the immense variety of its buildings1 with their domes1 flat terraces1 minarets1 and sloping roofs1 distinguishes it at once from the rectangular masses of the villages4 ,as if on purpose to emphasise the contrast1 one of these villages has set itself right opposite the city across a narrow valley4 ,looking from the southern wall of the ,haram enclosure1 this village of ,siloam is seen sprawling along the opposite hillside1 a mere drift of square hovels seen across some fields of artichokes4 ,nothing could appear more miserable2 inferiority is confessed in every line of it4 ,more might be said for the description of ,jerusalem as the largest of the white towns4 ,it is1 like them1 a centre where races mingle2 indeed it is the centre of such mingling4 ,all roads lead to it from north1 south1 east1 and west2 and when one suddenly comes upon one of those old ,roman roads which make for ,jerusalem with such purposeful and grim directness over the ,judean mountains1 one realises that this has been the centre and mingling-place of nationalities for many centuries4 ,yet on the spot an obvious distinction is felt at once4 ,there are two ,jerusalems3 the old one within the walls1 and a new one spreading on the open ground to the west and north4 ,this 8new ,levantine city side by side with the old ,oriental city0 is quite a modern place4 ,when ,stanley wrote his ,sinai and ,palestine it was unsafe to inhabit houses outside the walls4 ,now such houses are clustered together to the west in a city which is actually larger than the enclosed one1 and whose rows of shops are hardly distinguishable from those of ,western ,europe4 ,a strange medley its buildings are6 ,the best sites are occupied by the great ,russian ,cathedral and ,hospice1 white-walled and leaden-roofed4 ,beyond these1 embedded in ,jewish 8colonies10 are the ,european consulates1 with a ,syrian ,orphanage and an ,english ,agricultural ,settlement farther up the slope4 ,the ,tombs of the ,kings lie to the north1 in all their desolation1 and the still more desolate ,mound of ,ashes which is supposed by some to be a relic of ,temple sacrifices2 but these are next neighbours to the ,dominican monastery1 the ,bishop's house1 and the house of that curious body of ,americans known as the 8,overcomers02 while on the hill1 not a mile above them1 is an ,english villa4 ,all this and much else pours itself into the city and mingles in the streets with the very composite life already dwelling there4 ,just at the foot of the hill which ,gordon identified as ,calvary1 while ,turkish bugles were blowing from the fort1 we saw two ,syrians engaged in rough horseplay1 a party of ,americans and ,english riding1 some tonsured and cowled monks on foot1 and a travelling showman with an ape clinging to him in terror of a tormenting crowd of ,jews and ,mohammedans2 while poor women1 unconscious of any part in so strange a tableau1 were returning to the city with full waterpots on their heads4 ,yet in ,jerusalem all this makes a different impression from that of other towns4 ,the mingling of races here is but1 as it were1 the surface appearance of a far more wonderful fact4 ,from the days of ,solomon1 ,israel centralised her life in ,jerusalem4 ,on that hill the mountainland seems to gather itself as in a natural centre1 typical and representative of the whole4 ,there the nation centred its life also1 in 8the mountain throne1 and the mountain sanctuary of ,god40 ,jeroboam's attempt to decentralise cost the nation dear2 but in spite of that attempt the centralisation took effect1 and made her the most composite of cities from the first4 ,all ends of the earth meet here as in a focus4 ,laden camels of the ,arameans from the far ,east are making for the city1 and ships flying like a cloud of homing doves to their windows are bearing precious freights to her port4 ,history and religion are compressed within the walls4 ,on the spot no one can forget the ancient geography which regarded ,jerusalem as the centre of the earth1 with ,hell vertically below1 and the island of ,purgatory its antipodes1 and ,heaven's centre overhead4 ,in the ,church of the ,holy ,sepulchre they shew a flattened ball in a little hollow place as the centre of the world4 ,as in some other cases of faulty science1 an imaginative mind may discover here a happy truth beneath the error4 ,the composite life of ,jerusalem without the walls is but of yesterday1 that within the walls is hoary with age4 ,we have called it 8a grey city10 and even in respect of colour this is a true name4 ,not that there is any one colour of ,jerusalem4 ,in the varying lights of sunrise1 noon1 afternoon1 and evening1 its colour changes4 ,at one time it hangs1 airy and dreamlike1 over the steep bank of the ,valley of ,jehoshaphat2 at another time it seems to sit solid on its rock1 every roof and battlement picked out in photographic clearness2 again1 in the twilight of evening1 all is sombre with rich purple shadows4 ,there are spots of colour1 too1 which break its monotonous dull hue4 ,the ,mosque of ,omar1 with its faint metallic greenish colour1 stands in contrast to everything1 and makes a background of the city for its isolated beauty4 ,there is another dome1 that of the ,synagogue of the ,ashkenazim1 whose colour is a lustrous blue-green1 shining over the city almost luminously4 ,white minarets and spires are seen here and there1 and a few red-tiled roofs have found place within the walls4 ,several spots are softened by the foliage of trees1 and the pools1 whose edges are formed of picturesque and irregular house-sides1 catch and intensify the colours in their rich reflections4 ,yet1 in spite of all that1 ,jerusalem is grey4 ,the walls are grey with a touch of orange in it4 ,the houses1 massed and huddled close within1 are grey with a touch of blue4 ,they are built roughly1 the stones divided by broad seams of mortar1 and most of them in their humble way conform to the fashion set by the ,mosque of ,omar and the ,holy ,sepulchre1 and are domed4 ,but the domes of ordinary houses are far from shapely1 and suggest the fancy that the scorching sun has blistered the flat roofs4 ,by far the best view of ,jerusalem is that which is seen from the ,mount of ,olives1 as one approaches the city by the hill-road from ,bethany4 ,her environs are of interest from many associations--there1 on the ,mount of ,offence1 ,solomon offered sacrifices to idols2 yonder1 on the hill of ,scopus1 the main body of ,titus' troops was posted2 here1 near where we stand1 is the place of the agony in ,gethsemane4 ,for many days one might go round about the city1 every day gaining new knowledge of its story4 ,but what the first eye-shot gives is this3 a sharp angle formed by the two valleys of ,jehoshaphat and ,hinnom2 steep banks rising from their bottoms to the walls1 which they overlap in an irregular and wavy line2 within the walls1 glancing back from the angle which they form above the junction of the valleys1 the eye runs up a gradually rising expanse of close-packed building1 which is continued more sparsely in the long rolling slope beyond1 to the ridge of ,scopus in the north1 and to the distant sweep of long level mountain-line in the west4 ,it is as if the whole city had slidden down and ,illustration3 ,,joppa ,,from ,,the ,,sea4 been caught by that great angle of wall just before it precipitated itself into the gorges4 ,to see the grey city rightly1 and feel how grey it is1 you must view it across these gorges4 ,the more distant environs are detached from the city4 ,they are cultivated in patches1 and dotted with modern buildings of various degrees of irrelevance4 ,but these are mere accidents1 which the place seems to ignore4 ,the gorges themselves are part and parcel of the city1 and they stand for the overflow of her sad and desolate spirit4 ,their sides are banks of rubbish--the wreckage and dbris of a score of sieges1 the accumulation of three thousand years4 ,you look from the lower pool of ,siloam in the valley of ,hinnom1 up a long dreary slope of dark grey rubbish1 down which a horrible black stream of liquid filth trickles1 tainting the air with its stench4 ,far off above you stands the wall1 which in old days enclosed the pool4 ,here the city seems to have shrunk northwards1 as if in some horror of conscience4 ,the ,field of ,blood and the ,hill of ,evil ,counsel are just across the gorge to the south4 ,the valleys are full of tombs1 those on the city side for the most part ,mohammedan1 while the lower slopes of ,olivet are paved with the flat tombstones of ,jews4 ,what a stretch of history unrolls itself to the imagination of him who lingers on the sight of ,jerusalem6 ,the boundaries seem to dwindle1 till that which stands there is the old grey battle-beaten fortress of the ,jebusites1 the last post held by her enemies against ,israel4 ,david conquers it1 and the procession of priests and people bring up to its gate the ark1 for the celebration of whose entrance tradition has claimed the #bdth ,psalm4 ,a new city rises1 and falls1 and rises again1 through more than twenty sieges and rebuildings4 ,assyrians1 ,babylonians1 ,romans1 ,moslems1 ,crusaders batter at its gates4 ,the level of the streets rises through the centuries1 till now the traveller walks on a pavement thirty or forty feet above the floor of the ancient city4 ,to discover the old foundations1 the explorers of our time have sunk shafts which at some parts of the wall touch bottom #abj feet below the present surface4 ,far below the slighter masonry of the present wall1 with its battlemented ,turkish work1 lie the huge stones of early days1 some of which bear still the marks of ,phnician masons4#ad ,the gates1 of course1 are modern1 though in some of them there are immense stones of very ancient date1 whose rustic work the ,turkish builders have cut away1 and scored the flat surface with imitation seams to make them match the small square stones of the building above4 ,yet the positions of the ancient gates are not difficult to fix1 and modern ones do duty for some of them4 ,others are built up with solid masonry1 notably the double-arched 8,gate ,beautiful10 which was thus closed because of a tradition that ,messiah would return and enter the city by it4 ,it was from this gate that in olden times the man went forth with the scapegoat that was to bear the sins of the people to the wilderness4 ,the interior 7which1 however1 dates from the seventh century7 is a rich and beautiful piece of architecture1 with massive monolithic pillars supporting heavy arches1 and an elaborately decorative entablature cornicing the walls4 ,it is a dreary little place1 with its litter of dbris and its flights of bats2 and its dead wall1 pierced only with loophole windows1 now affords neither entrance for ,christ nor exit for sin4 ,what memories crowd the mind of the beholder as he looks upon these gates6 ,here1 seven centuries ago1 went out the weeping company of the inhabitants1 when ,saladin took the city4 ,there1 eleven centuries earlier1 the ,jews set fire to the ,roman siege-engine1 the flames were blown back upon the fortifications1 and the wall fell and made an entrance for the legions4 ,that was near the ,jaffa ,gate4 ,here again1 by the ,damascus ,gate1 if ,gordon's theory be the correct one1 the ,saviour passed to ,calvary2 and there may be stones there on which the cross struck1 as ,simon the ,cyrenian staggered out under its weight4 ,it is indeed a strange city1 a city of grey religion1 in which three faiths cherish their most hallowed memories of days far past4 ,but 8far past0 is written on every memory4 ,that ,beautiful ,gate has indeed shut out ,christ1 and shut in all manner of sin unforgiven4 ,the land1 as has been already said1 seems still inhabited by ,christ1 but ,he has forsaken ,jerusalem2 it is almost impossible to feel any sense of ,his presence there4 ,this is a city of grey history1 whose age and decrepitude force themselves upon every visitor4 ,it has been well described as having still 8the appearance of a gigantic fortress40 ,but it is a weird fortress1 with an air of petrified gallantry about it1 and an infinite loneliness and desolation4 ,no river flows near to soften the landscape4 ,a fierce sun beats down in summer there upon 8a city of stone in a land of iron with a sky of brass40 ,but for the sound of bugles1 whose calls seem always to shock one with their savage liveliness1 it might be a fossil city4 ,built for eternity1 setting the pattern for that 8,new ,jerusalem0 which has been the ,utopia of so many devout souls1 it seems a sarcasm on the great promise1 a city 8with a great future behind it40 ,what has this relic to do with a blessed future for mankind--this rugged bareness of stone1 this contempt for beauty1 this pitiful sordidness of detail8 ,history and religion seem to mourn together here1 and one sees in every remembrance of it those two weeping figures1 the most significant of all1 for its secular and religious life--,titus1 who 8gazed upon ,jerusalem from ,scopus the day before its destruction1 and wept for the sake of the beautiful city02 and ,jesus ,christ who1 when things were ripening for ,titus1 foresaw the coming of the legions as ,he looked upon ,jerusalem from ,olivet1 8and when ,he was come near ,he beheld the city and wept over it40 ,,part ,,ii ,,the ,,invaders ,since the days of the ancient ,canaanites ,palestine has been often invaded4 ,the composite life of the towns we have already noted4 ,the history of ,palestine shows how composite the life of the whole land has become4 ,its central position among the nations is known to every one4 ,to the south1 shut off by but a strip of desert1 are ,egypt and ,africa2 to the east lie ,arabia1 ,persia1 and the farther ,asiatic continent2 easily accessible on the north are ,asia ,minor1 ,turkey1 and ,russia2 while ships almost daily arrive which unite it on the west with ,europe and ,america4 ,yet one day's ride along any of its chief highways will do more to show the traveller what that central position practically means1 than all his study of it in books and on maps4 ,for in one day's ride he may meet ,kurds1 ,circassians1 ,arabs1 ,syrians1 ,turks1 ,cypriotes1 ,greeks1 ,russians1 ,egyptians1 ,nubians1 ,austrians1 ,french1 ,germans1 ,english1 and ,americans4 ,in a mission school in ,damascus were found some little dark-eyed ,syrian children speaking ,english with an unmistakable ,australian accent4 ,they had been born and brought up in ,queensland4 ,it is in ,hauran that this mixture of races is most forcibly thrust upon one's notice4 ,in the villages south of ,damascus1 the crowd which gathers round the tents is sure to contain several smiling negroes1 some of them branded on the cheeks2 ,circassians1 with sickle-shaped nose and thin lips1 sharp-featured and small-limbed men with an untamable expression on their bitter faces2 ,arabs1 darker of complexion1 and more languid of eye2 and ,turkish soldiers1 thin and smallpox bitten4 ,there are to be found the ,jew1 sneering complacently at the inferior world2 the fanatical ,moslem1 who will break the water-bottle your lips have touched2 the ,druse1 who objects to coffee and tobacco1 and to whom you hesitate to say 8,good morning10 lest he may have conscientious scruples about that2 and the cross-bred ruffian1 who has no scruples about anything4 ,everything helps to strengthen the impression4 ,in ,damascus it seems always to be ,sunday with one or other portion of the population1 and a different set of shutters are up each day for nearly half the week4 ,the railway1 it might be supposed1 must have blended the life of the composite ,east1 but it only serves to emphasise the compositeness4 ,in one of the ,hauran stations we had some hours to wait4 ,we spread our rugs in the shadow of the station-house1 with a ,turkish officer1 an ,arab soldier1 and a long line of camels to watch till lunch was ready4 ,when the time came1 the hall of the booking-office was cleared of passengers of a dozen different nationalities1 and our lunch was spread on the floor1 just in front of the ticket-window6 ,the train came at last1 an hour late1 drawn by a rather blas-looking engine4 ,then began that babel of tongues which shows how nations meet in the ,east4 ,all the world seemed to have sent its representatives to that train--its wealth to the white-cushioned first-class2 its middle-class to the bare boards of the second2 its poverty to the cattle-trucks dignified by the name of third1--while behind the carriages came two waggons loaded with grain1 their owner perched high on one1 and a baby's cradle on the other4 ,all this phantasmagoria of the present helps one to realise better the extraordinary history of the past4 ,for thousands of years the flow of manifold human life through ,syria has been continuous4 ,at the mouth of the ,dog ,river1 whose valley has from time immemorial served as a main passage from the sea to the ,east for armies1 there is1 cut in smoothed faces of the solid rock1 the most remarkable collection of inscriptions in the world4 ,the ,assyrian slab shows still the familiar bearded figure of the monarch with his air of strength untempered by compassion4 ,the ,egyptian slab records its invasion in hieroglyphics4 ,the ,greek1 ,roman1 and ,french stones tell their similar tale4 ,throughout the land the same thing repeats itself4 ,in ,hauran we found a fine ,egyptian hieroglyphic embedded in the mud-and-rubble interior wall of a private courtyard1 an altar of the time of ,titus lying exposed on a hillside1 and many ,graeco-,roman inscriptions built into the walls of houses4#ae ,the five names which we have selected from so great a number of invaders are those whose mark upon the land has been deepest and most permanent4 ,,chapter ,i ,,israelite ,every traveller is impressed by the very meagre remains of a material kind which ,israel has left for curious eyes4 ,in a museum at ,jerusalem many of these have been gathered--fragments of pottery and glass1 coins1 and other relics1--but the total number of them is surprisingly small4 ,there are1 of course1 those huge stones to which reference has been already made1 cut in a style which experts used to regard as distinctive enough to enable them to identify it as ,jewish work4#af ,but inscriptions are extremely rare4 ,phnicia and ,israel seem to have purposely avoided the habit of ,assyrian and ,egyptian kings1 who wrote upon everything they built4 ,there is1 of course1 the ,moabite stone1 whose characters are closely allied to ,hebrew writing4 ,but with that exception there is hardly any certain ,hebrew inscription extant except one4 ,that is indeed a writing of romantic fame4 ,there is a tunnel known as ,hezekiah's ,aqueduct1 connecting the ,fountain of the ,virgin with the ,pool of ,siloam at ,jerusalem4 ,its length is rather more than the third of a mile2 its ,illustration3 ,,the ,,lake ,,of ,,galilee1 ,,looking ,,south ,,from ,,tiberias4 ,two of the circular towers and wall which defended the ancient ,tiberias are seen in the foreground4 height varies from five or six feet to one foot four inches4 ,its course bends in a wide sweep which adds greatly to the distance1 and is said to have been taken in order to avoid tombs4 ,there are a number of culs de sac1 where the workmen had evidently lost their way4 ,the flow of water is intermittent1 so that ,sir ,charles ,warren and his friends took their lives in their hands when they first explored it4 ,their mouths were often under water1 8and a breath of air could only be obtained by twisting their faces up4 ,to keep a light burning1 to take measurements1 and make observations under these circumstances was a work of no little difficulty2 and yet1 after crawling through mud and water for four hours1 the honour of finding the inscription was reserved for a naked urchin of the town1 who1 some years after1 announced that he had seen writing on the wall1 whereupon ,professor ,sayce1 and ,herr ,schick1 and ,dr4 ,guthe plunge naked into the muddy tunnel with acid solutions1 and blotting-paper1 and everything necessary to make squeezes1 and emerge shivering and triumphant with the most interesting ,hebrew inscription that has ever been found in ,palestine40#ag ,the inscription describes the meeting of the two parties of miners1 who1 like the engineers of modern tunnels1 began to bore simultaneously at opposite ends4 ,failing any wealth of such material remains1 we must seek for ,israel in the human life of the land4 ,jews are there in abundance1 gathered1 for the most part1 within their four holy cities of ,jerusalem1 ,tiberias1 ,hebron1 and ,safed4 ,in ,hebron they are a persecuted minority2 in ,safed they form about half the population2 in ,jerusalem1 where there are more than seventy synagogues1 it was estimated in #ahih that out of the #fj1jjj inhabitants #da1jjj were ,jews1 nearly six times the number of the ,mohammedans2 while in ,tiberias also they form about two-thirds of the population4 ,besides the ,jews resident in these cities there are others both in the older colonies and in the new settlements of the ,zionist movement1 which have been created by the generosity of ,jewish millionaires4 ,reports differ as to the success of these interesting experiments1 and the knowledge of them which can be obtained from a passing visit is a quite inadequate ground for forming any judgment4 ,mr4 ,zangwill eloquently pleads for the restoration of the land to its ancient people2 ,colonel ,conder assures us that the ,jew is incapable of becoming a thoroughly successful agriculturist1 though as a shopkeeper1 a money-changer1 or1 in some cases1 as a craftsman1 he prospers in his native land4 ,certain it is that ,jews are gathering to it from ,russia1 ,poland1 ,germany1 ,spain1 ,arabia1 and many other countries1 with what ultimate result the future alone can shew4 ,it would be unfair and misleading to take the present ,jewish population of ,syria as the representative of ancient ,israel4 ,it still perpetuates1 indeed1 the sects of ,pharisees and ,sadducees1 and it still holds aloof from the surrounding population with that independence and tenacity which has marked ,israel from of old4 ,crucified by ,romans1 butchered and tortured by ,crusaders1 oppressed and driven forth by ,moslems1 this marvellous people lives yet and will live on4 ,in ,europe the lot of the ,jew has been and still is a bitter one4 ,in ,syria to-day the lowest and most insulting term of abuse among the ,fellahin is to call each other ,jews4 ,yet the spirit of the people is not broken by oppression1 as is the spirit of the ,fellahin4 ,the ,jew takes what comes and says little2 but he believes in himself1 his past and his future1 with a faith indomitable as it is daring4 ,still it must be confessed that the ,jew of ,palestine is generally repulsive4 ,mark ,twain's description of them as he saw them at ,tiberias is hardly overdrawn--8long-nosed1 lanky1 dyspeptic-looking ghouls with the indescribable hats on1 and a long curl dangling down in front of each ear40 ,the hats are circular black felt plates1 giving to their wearers a peculiar air of conscious rectitude and semi-clerical superiority2 the curls are grown for the convenience of the archangel in the resurrection6 ,the younger men and lads of ,tiberias impress one as the most unpleasant-looking of all the inhabitants of the land4 ,they are so neurotic and effeminate1 and at the same time so monstrously supercilious4 ,the ,jewish quarters are famous for their excessive dirt4 ,in the visitors' book of the hotel at ,tiberias1 ,captain ,mac,gregor wrote 8that the ,rob ,roy and myself had stopped there two nights1 and that the canoe was not devoured40 ,this is not encouraging1 and in part it is the result of mistaken methods4 ,many of these ,jews are subsidised1 and a subsidised religion is inevitably degrading4 ,a man who receives an income for no other service to his kind than that he is a ,jew is not likely to do credit to his ancestors4 ,in the ,samaritans we have better representatives of the ancient days4 ,no people in the land have a more pathetic quaintness about them than these few survivors of antiquity who are still met with in the streets of ,nablus4 ,they preserve the old type of features1 for their blood has been unmixed for more than #bjjj years4 ,but they are fast dying out1 and only a remnant of less than #bjj individuals is now alive4 ,difficult of access1 reserved1 mysterious1 they are the ghosts of ancient ,israel1 who seem to haunt rather than to enjoy their former heritage4 ,in the manners and customs of ,syria a still more interesting memorial of ,israel is found4 ,many of these were not peculiar to ,israel1 nor was she the first to cherish them4 ,they are the forms of the general ,semitic stock1 of which she was but one people4 ,but the words and ways of ,israel are the only form of ,semitic life with which the world is familiar1 and every student of the ,bible finds in these the greatest source both of devout and of scientific interest4 ,in the towns and in ,jerusalem there is still much to remind one of the life so matchlessly delineated in ,scripture4 ,lean and mangy dogs still sniff around ,lazarus at the very door of ,dives4 ,the windows of houses generally face the interior courts1 and the outer walls are blank1 so that every door opened after nightfall contrasts the vivid light of the interior with the 8outer darkness0 of the street4 ,still more in the country1 among the ,fellahin and the wandering ,arabs1 does one seem to live in ,bible times4 ,the gipsy-like ,bedawin west of ,jordan are certainly degraded by change of nomadic habits and by contact with the villagers2 yet there is enough of their desert heredity in them to interpret many of the patriarchal stories4 ,the ,arab sitting at noon-day in the shaded edge of his tent1 or walking at eventide in the fields where it is pitched1 is the true son of ,abraham and ,isaac4 ,when you know him better you will not improbably recognise ,jacob also4 ,except for tobacco1 gunpowder1 and coffee1 he lives much as ,israel lived in those days of wandering to which her writings love to trace back her origin4 ,even these modern innovations hardly break the continuity4 ,the ,arab smokes with such enthusiasm that it is difficult to imagine his fathers without their chibouk2 and his brass-bound gun might be the heirloom of countless generations4 ,of the ,fellah and his descent1 and his conservatism of the past1 we have already written4 ,so it comes to pass that he who journeys intelligently through ,palestine reads the history of ,israel ever afterwards with a quite new interest4 ,the ,bible is incomparably the best guide-book to ,syria2 and you seem to journey through its chapters as you move from place to place4 ,here is the fig tree planted in the vineyard2 there1 the tower guarding the wine-press4 ,unmuzzled oxen are trampling the corn on the threshing-floor1 from whence the wind drives the chaff in a glistening cloud4 ,women are still coming from the city to draw water1 and grinding in couples at the mill4 ,we saw the prodigal son1 drinking and singing at ,beyrout2 and the owner of the waggonloads of corn we noted in ,hauran had kept them from the last year on the chance of a drought1 which would raise their prices in the market--he was the rich man of the prophets who was grinding the faces of the poor4 ,under the walls of ,jezreel a curious coincidence brought back vividly to mind the tragic fate of ,jezebel4 ,it was there that we first saw people with painted eyes and faces2 and there a horse lay dead with a pack of dogs at work upon the body4 ,next morning1 as we parted1 nothing was left but the skeleton and the hoofs4 ,the people whom you meet are talking in ,bible language4 ,when they repeat the familiar words of ,scripture they are not quoting texts1 but transacting business in their ordinary way4 ,we were told of a shepherd near ,hebron who1 when asked why the sheepfolds there had no doors1 answered quite simply1 8,i am the door40 ,he meant that at night1 when the sheep were gathered within the circular stone wall of the enclosure1 he lay down in its open entrance to sleep1 so that no sheep might stray from its shelter without wakening him1 and no ravenous beast might enter but across his body4 ,in the north1 an ,american was endeavouring to persuade a stalwart ,syrian lad to try his fortunes in ,chicago4 ,the boy evidently felt the temptation1 but he turned smilingly towards the middle-aged man at his side1 and1 pointing to him1 answered1 8,suffer me first to bury my father40 ,but of all our experiences there was one which recalled the ancient life most vividly1 and on that account it may be related here4 ,we had camped over night near the village of ,tell-es-,shihab in ,hauran4 ,in the morning we mounted our horses amid a crowd of villagers1 and started for the village4 ,the men protested loudly1 and when we told them we were going only to search for inscriptions1 they assured us that there were none4 ,in spite of their opposition we rode on1 followed by a tumultuous chorus4 ,a chance remark led finally to an invitation from the headman of the village to his menzil1 or reception hall4 ,it was the mention of the name of ,dr4 ,torrance1 of the ,tiberias ,medical ,mission1 who1 on one of his journeys1 had cured this sheikh of an illness4 ,at the door our host met us1 and most courteously invited us to enter1 bowing and touching our palms with his4 ,the hall was dark1 with the great stone arch characteristic of ,hauran architecture spanning its centre4 ,smoke had coloured the arch and the rafters a rich dark brown1 from whose shadow swallows flitted continually out into the sunshine and back again4 ,we were seated on mats1 spread with little squares of rich carpet round three sides of a hollow place in the floor1 where a fire of charcoal burned1 surrounded by parrot-beaked coffeepots4 ,this was the hearth of hospitality1 whose fire is never suffered to go out2 near it stood the great stone mortar1 in which a black slave was crushing coffeebeans4 ,the coffee1 deliciously flavoured with some cunning herb or other1 was passed round4 ,but the conversation which followed was the memorable part of that entertainment4 ,in the shadow at the back the young men who had been admitted sat in silence4 ,the old men1 elders of the village community1 sat in a row on stone benches right and left of the door4 ,the sheikh made many apologies for not having called upon us at the tents--he had thought we were merchantmen going to buy silk at ,damascus4 ,then followed endless over-valuation of each other1 and flattery concerning our respective parents and relations4 8,how long would we stay under his roof8 surely at least till to-morrow or next day8 ,no1 one of us had to catch a steamer at ,beyrout8 ,but any steamer would wait for so great a general10 etc4 ,until finally our leader came to the delicate subject of inscriptions1 and was made free of the town1 and immediately guided to the ,egyptian slab mentioned on p4 #hg4 ,it was a perfect specimen of intercourse with ,arabs1 and it dazed us with its ancient spell4 ,there is no possibility of hurry4 ,you must despatch your business by way of a discussion of things in general4 ,compliments were as rife and as conventional as those of ,abraham and the children of ,heth at ,kirjath-,arba1 and they were received and given without any pretence of taking them seriously4 ,the elders sat silently leaning upon their staves1 except now and then1 when one of them would slowly rise and expatiate upon something the sheikh had said--perhaps about camels or the grain crop--beginning his interruption almost literally in the words of ,job's friends3--8,hearken to me1 ,i also will shew mine opinion4 ,i will answer also on my part1 ,i also will shew mine opinion4 ,illustration3 ,,site ,,of ,,the ,,ancient ,,city ,,of ,,samaria4 ,the remains of the ancient city are on the olive-clad hill to the left4 ,for ,i am full of matter1 the spirit within me constraineth me40 ,altogether it was a scene of the unadulterated ,east--just such a scene as might have been witnessed any time these three thousand years4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the great memorial of ,israel is her religion4 ,to her it was given to know the ,eternal ,god and to pass on that knowledge to all the nations of the world4 ,among the many impressions given by a journey through ,palestine1 none is so important and none so strong as this1 that the land was eminently suited for that one purpose and for that alone4 ,she tried many similar experiments1 but they all failed utterly4 ,the luxurious orientalism of ,solomon1 the democratic revolt of ,jeroboam1 the military ambitions of ,baasha1 and the attempt at commercial supremacy which ,omri made--each of these was an imitation of one or other of the contemporary nations4 ,for ,israel they were alike impossible4 ,their successive failures proclaim her a peculiar people1 set in a peculiar place for a peculiar purpose4 ,for them1 as ,renan says1 8to act like men0--i4e4 like all the rest of the world--was a sort of degradation4 ,all other experiments in greatness failed2 their greatness lay solely in the knowledge of the ,lord4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,gr,,co-,,roman ,nothing strikes one more than the contrast in ,palestine between the vanishing of ,hebrew buildings and the permanence of ,roman ones4 ,you have come here to a land which you know to have been for many years under ,roman government1 but which still to your imagination is ,oriental1 with here and there a ,roman touch4 ,you find1 among the very ancient buildings1 hardly a remaining trace of anything that is not ,roman2 and of ,roman work you find an amount which probably astonishes you4 ,before you have long left ,jaffa1 some part or other of one of the old ,roman roads making for ,jerusalem will be seen4 ,not long afterwards ,bether comes in sight--that terrible little valley where the blood ran so deep when the siege ended and the ,jews' last hope was broken4 ,so you move on from point to point of ,roman story until1 as you climb the steep ascent from the ,jordan valley to ,gadara1 you realise that it was when encamped just here that ,vespasian heard the news of ,nero's death and was proclaimed emperor by his legion4 ,the ,roman work in ,palestine seems to exaggerate its peculiar characteristics1 so that here one notices these more distinctly than in any other land4 ,a ,roman tower in ,switzerland1 a ,roman road in ,scotland--certainly they are ,roman1 but they are not removed from all things ,swiss or ,scotch by so vast an interval as that which divides ,roman from native work in ,palestine4 ,it is indeed an invasion of arms1 this ,roman life--an intrusion of what is1 first and last1 alien to the spirit of the place4 ,the traveller to-day1 to whom the very dust of this land is dear1 inevitably feels about the ,roman relics an air of obtrusive and uncomprehending indifference4 ,they 8cared for none of these things10 or1 if they did care a little now and then and try to understand1 they did it clumsily and unnaturally4 ,rome's policy was that of wide toleration1 but her spirit was absolutely unaccommodating4 ,she might allow her provinces to govern themselves and to worship pretty much as they chose1 but she herself1 in her officials and their works1 stood aloof from them and was ,rome still4 ,this is to be seen in ,palestine in all its good and in all its bad aspects4 ,in those solidly-constructed bridges and mighty aqueducts and imperishable causeways there is the very embodiment of the ,roman virtus and gravitas1 that output of manhood which never trifled nor spared itself1 that solemn1 business-like reality which is so full of purpose4 ,in this hard reality of ,rome there is not only purpose but pitilessness of force to accomplish what is planned4 ,every ,roman road you chance upon seems to be feeling its way with an unerring instinct towards ,jerusalem or some other goal1 and you know that it will arrive4 ,just as impressive1 on the other hand1 is the sense of ,rome's limitations4 ,her works disclose her seeing a certain length1 and you know beyond all doubt that she will get there4 ,but there are very obvious and very clearly defined limits to the length she ever sees or will go4 ,the work of ,greece is far beyond the furthest reach of ,roman work--the glad spring1 the grace of conscious strength that is beautiful as well as strong1 the restfulness withal of perfect harmony that is thinking of more than merely utilitarian values2 of these ,rome knows not the secret4 ,beside the flight of ,greek art she is pedestrian2 to the ,greek artist she plays at best but the part of ,roman artisan4 ,forceful1 massive1 successful up to its highest desire1 the ,roman work is finished and perfect4 ,and it has attained finish and perfection on a lower level than that of any nation that ever yet dreamed dreams or 8looked beyond the world for truth and beauty40 ,not that there are no other traces of ,rome in ,syria beyond the stones of ,roman ruins4 ,in many place-names ,latin is discernible1 and the country is full of inscriptions of all sorts4 ,a still more permanent mark was left by that invasion of ,roman spirit which1 for a time1 claimed ,israel for ,rome4 ,rome came to ,syria next in succession to the invasion of ,alexander the ,great4 ,after his death the ,macedonian power remained in the ,east1 and the seductive spirit of ,greek humanism became the rival of the old ,puritan ,hebraism of the nation4 ,it was this that led to the ,wars of the ,maccabees1 who fought for the sterner against the more genial spirit4 ,as in the days of ,english ,cromwell1 the ,puritan was invincible while he remained true to his faith--that singularly effective blend of patriotism with religious belief which has made itself felt in so many national histories4 ,the triumph of ,hebraism lasted for about a century1 and then came ,pompey in #fc ,b4,c4 to ,jerusalem4 ,hellenism regained its ascendency and the ,greek cities of ,palestine their freedom4 ,about a quarter of a century later the figure of ,herod the ,great appears as a critical factor in the history of ,palestine4 ,an ,idumean and a ,sadducee1 he had neither patriotism nor religion to check his ambition4 ,the path of glory and of easy advancement1 then1 was by way of ,rome1 and there was much in ,herod that found ,rome congenial4 ,as a young man he had made his name by clearing out a notorious band of robbers from the valley which led down the great road from the ,mediterranean to the ,sea of ,galilee at ,capernaum4 ,this 8,vale of ,doves0 is flanked by precipices pierced with many caves1 in which the robbers lived4 ,josephus tells us how ,herod fell upon the device of letting down cages with the bravest of his soldiers4 ,these men1 lowered by ropes from the edge of the cliff1 sprang upon the robbers in their cave's mouth1 and when they retreated within1 smoked them out with fires like vermin4 ,the man who contrived and carried out that design was not unworthy of the title 8,great0 from the ,roman point of view4 ,he became the centre and the champion of the new ,hellenism1 which was really the worship of ,rome1 touched as ,rome was with the ,greek culture she had conquered and envied and sought in vain to acquire4 ,rome was clumsily ,greek at this time1 and ,herod was clumsily ,roman4 ,certainly he would have been a ,roman if he could4 ,he was prepared to go any length to serve his end4 ,at the ,banias springs of ,jordan he built a temple to ,augustus4 ,samaria and ,csarea1 his ,roman cities1 must have cost him a fabulous sum to build4 ,of the actual architectural remains of ,rome in ,palestine1 the smallest are perhaps the most impressive4 ,here and there1 from south to north1 you come upon tesser1 the remains of inlaid mosaic floors of the ancient houses4 ,sometimes it is single little cubes that turn up among the gravel of the sea-shore or shine from the newly-ploughed furrow4 ,at other times broken fragments of a hand-breadth's size may be found1 with enough variety of colour to suggest the beginning of a pattern4 ,but here and there you may find whole floors of elaborately designed mosaic1 with concentric circles of various colour and size1 with large-scale pictures1 or1 as in one case at least1 with an ancient map--one of the most ancient in the world4 ,on many a spot of ,palestine you ride over ground whose stones are capitals of carved pillars1 and whose layers of caked earth disclose fragments of ancient mosaic floors4 ,the ,roman roads are still frequently met with in ,palestine1 and these1 perhaps more than any other of their works1 help the imagination to realise the old life in its magnificence of power4 ,whether the causeway lies bare to the weather across a mountain1 or whether it cuts its track along the sheer cliff of a gorge1 there is the same uncompromising purpose and capacity in it--the stride of the road1 that seems to be aware of whither it is going and the reason for its going there4 ,in the cities of the ,decapolis and others there is generally one straight line of ,roman causeway--the 8,street called ,straight10 which is by no means peculiar to ,damascus4 ,it was a ,roman hobby1 this of straightness1 and one of the most characteristic of ,roman hobbies4 ,the roads went1 so far as that was possible1 up hill and down dale in a direct line from place to place2 and in the cities at least one columned street did the same4 ,the milestones which may still be found occasionally seem to heighten the human interest1 though that is considerably damped when we realise that none of these roads date from the early ,roman days in ,syria4 ,the paths our ,saviour walked on were but tracks1 not unlike those which modern travellers follow4 ,but the bridges are older1 and in some places they are used for traffic to-day1 spanning ,jordan and ,leontes4 ,there is little causeway at the ends of them--their one business in these old days was to do the difficult and needful task of crossing water4 ,once across1 the traveller might find his path or make it for himself4 ,parapets are not provided on the old bridges1 and the surface is a flight of broad and shallow steps4 ,if you walk unwarily and are drowned in the torrent below1 that is no concern of these resolute but unluxurious bridge-builders4 ,their business is simply to span the stream4 ,so effectively and conscientiously have they done this1 that even when time and floods have broken the bridge1 you may see the half of it still standing3 the huge pier of stone and of mortar almost harder than stone stands at the side1 and the actual arch is still flung across the water1 wedged into an almost unbreakable strength by its keystone1 while all the surface building above the arch has long been washed away4 ,such a ruin may be seen to-day on the coast some miles to the north of ,tyre4 ,it was in her fight with water1 either for it in aqueducts or against it in quays and bridges1 that ,rome seems to have put out her utmost strength of masonry4 ,along the coasts both of the ,mediterranean and of the ,sea of ,galilee1 submerged stones and fragments of building may be seen1 which bear testimony to this2 and at ,tariche1 where a large fish-curing trade had to be provided for1 there are remains of a dam and quay where ,jordan swept round in a circle1 affording a great length of water-frontage4 ,but perhaps the most noticeable monuments of ,rome in this dry and thirsty land are the ,illustration3 ,,the ,,forecourt ,,of ,,the ,,church ,,of ,,the ,,holy ,,sepulchre4 aqueducts1 sections of which still stand in many parts4 ,in the neighbourhood of ,jericho1 ,laurence ,oliphant counted nine different aqueducts4 ,at ,khan ,minyeh1 believed by some to be the site of ,capernaum1 there is a bewildering mass of water-building of many sorts4 ,a ,wasserthurm still stands1 whose walls are #ab feet in thickness1 and in all directions water is carried at various levels in channels which run along the top of mighty banks of masonry4 ,great stone water-pipes1 with rim and hollow for fitting to the next pipes tightly1 lie scattered in all directions1 peeping up through the long grass and ferns1 or hiding among the roots of the thorn trees4 ,elsewhere are to be seen longer stretches of aqueduct1 whose architects have been able to turn strength into beauty in a very wonderful fashion4 ,roman building at its best relies on the one principle of constructive truth4 ,it never aims at being pretty2 it never fails in being right for the purpose it is meant to serve4 ,from the point of view of beauty this may often have produced harsh1 material1 and heavy work--and indeed that is part of what we have already referred to as the limitation of ,roman achievement4 ,but the highest beauty is1 after all1 a matter far more of truth than of ornament1 and there are many remains of ,roman work in which such high beauty has been unconsciously attained4 ,they built to accomplish some definite practical purpose1 and for that end they built thoroughly and well4 ,the result is the beauty which comes like a crown upon honest work beyond the design of the workers--a beauty of wholeness1 adequacy1 truth1 which is perhaps not so far removed from the ,hebrew idea of the 8beauty of holiness0 as careless observers might be disposed to think4 ,this is seen in many a fragment of the ,roman aqueducts4 ,these irregular1 three-tiered clusters of variously sized and shaped arches1 carrying the stone or concrete channel across a gorge1 have a real beauty of their own2 and the long stretches of single or double tiers that take up the channel where it emerges from a mountain-tunnel1 lead it high and secure across the treacherous ooze of a marsh1 throw their level line on high bridges over ravines1 and at last end in the tumbled ruins of a city whose pools and fountains they filled long ago--these have an indisputable beauty of workmanship and design1 as well as an infinite pathos of sentiment4 ,next in impressiveness to these monuments are the remains of the ,greek amphitheatres of the ,roman period4 ,whether it be that the massiveness of the stones has been too much for the lazy builders who have constructed their modern dwellings out of stolen fragments of ruins2 or whether1 in its irony1 history has attached to these monuments of ,rome's attempt to amuse the world some special sacredness1 it would be difficult to say4 ,certain it is that these in many places remain1 sunk in the natural hollow of a hill as in a socket1 while all traces of the city which once surrounded them have disappeared4 ,they have been often described1 both as they are found in ,syria and elsewhere2 and the stage arrangements1 the underground passages1 and the whole design of them does not materially differ from those of other countries4 ,one feature in the ,syrian theatres appears with special distinctness4 ,when the play was going on1 an awning may be supposed to have been spread horizontally over the roof1 to shade spectators and actors from the sun4 ,between the edge of this awning and the flat top rim of the stage buildings1 there would be a blank space left1 as it were1 like a framed and draped picture4 ,the sites were so chosen that this space was filled up with some commandingly beautiful vista--in the north generally a view of ,hermon4 ,hauran boasts many such theatres in the cities of the ,decapolis4 ,in cities which were first ,greek and then ,roman1 such as these1 it may be difficult to determine the exact date of a particular building4 ,if the ,romans built these theatres1 they closely imitated the older ,grecian work4 ,they certainly built the theatre and hippodrome of ,csarea1 in which latter the goal-post is still to be seen1 an immense granite stone1 which has seen life in its day4 ,the theatres have1 as a rule1 survived the fortresses and the temples4 ,rome undertook many things4 ,she would worship1 govern1 educate1 amuse4 ,is it not significant that her wreck looks so like a gigantic playground1 as if in those degenerate days of her conquest the ,empire was already finding in the motto 8il faut s'amuser0 her rule of life8 ,after all1 it is his chief interest that is the immortal thing about any man or nation4 ,yet this may be an unjust and fanciful estimate4 ,relics of ,roman temples and fortresses also remain4 ,a statue of ,jupiter has had its resurrection from the sands of ,gaza1 and a monument in honour of ,jupiter ,serapis now bears a ,roman inscription near the ,zion ,gate of ,jerusalem4 ,near springs and the fountain-heads of rivers especially1 the ruins of ,roman shrines to the ,genius of the fountain are found1 as at ,banias4 ,fortresses too1 where ,roman garrisons used to be located1 can still be traced1 in a ring or an oblong trail of loose stones4 ,such ruins crown the height of ,tabor1 the summit of ,gerizim1 and many another hill4 ,but these shew little trace of their former meaning4 ,here and there the acropolis of a ,greek or ,roman town may retain its ancient embankment1 built on the steep slope of the hill1 as if shoring up the plateau above where the temple once stood4 ,elsewhere1 some parts of the curtain wall of a crusader castle may be blocks of ,roman fortification left in situ4 ,but the greater part of the ,roman building must be looked for in the walls of village houses1 where the contrast between such fragments and their surroundings is as grotesque as it is pitiful4 ,the ,gadarenes have built into their walls whatever lay nearest them4 ,coffins and tombstones1 capitals and columns1 even altars themselves1 are there1 8stopping holes to keep the wind away02 it is exactly what 8imperial ,csar0 has come to in ,gadara4 ,when ,roman power decayed1 the signs of its decadence were manifest in the departure from old severity into an efflorescence of ornament and a magnificence of mere size out of all proportion to the constructive meaning of the work4 ,in ,baalbek1 ,rome has left us a monument of such decadence4 ,the elaborated detail is foreign to the grand simplicity of the old ,roman style1 and the exaggerated size is but boastfulness4 8,the ,romans had seen the huge ,jewish stones at ,jerusalem0 7as ,dr4 ,merrill explained the matter to us7 8and began at ,baalbek to work on a bigger scale1 the ,barnums of the ancient world1 whose ambition was to run the biggest show on earth4 ,by and by they got tired of that1 and left it off2 it was not their line1 after all40 8,the line0 of ,rome was a very straight and simple one4 ,with immense power and a great and single purpose1 she went straight forward1 and did what she meant to do4 ,hers was a rough simplicity which never failed4 ,strange that1 with so mighty a resource1 she should have ever gone out of her line to attempt any other work than her own6 ,when men or nations discover their limitations1 and rashly make up their mind no longer to stay within them1 their ambition has already begun to foreshadow their downfall4 ,the pathos of seeing anything which evidently was once so competent and so strong1 now so absolutely dead as ,rome is1 is heightened almost to weeping1 in those places where the little and everyday memorials of her former life are commonest4 ,it is not the gigantic monoliths1 but the little tesser1 not the fallen columns1 but the broken jar-handles1 that touch the heart most4 ,between ,tyre and ,sidon the rider passes over fields every stone of which is a fragment of some marble slab or curiously-carved piece of masonry4 ,his horse is overturning the remains of ,ornithopolis1 8the city of the bird10 in these ploughed fields4 ,but it is at ,samaria that the emotion is most irresistible4 ,where the 8fat valley0 opens to the westward1 a conical hill1 slightly oval and with flattened top now clad with an orchard1 nestles in and yet lies apart from the bend of the mountains of ,ephraim4 ,it was this hill that ,omri bought from ,shomer for the heavy price of two talents of silver4 ,it was here that the city rose--the inferior houses 7if we may reconstruct the probable past7 of white brick1 with rafters of sycamore2 the grander ones of hewn stone and cedar--while the royal palace overtopped them all4 ,a broad wall with terraced top encircled it1 and the city lay there1 8a vast luxurious couch1 in which its nobles rested securely1 #8propped and cushioned up on both sides as in the cherished corner of a rich divan4'0 ,it was ,ahab's capital too1 and after the varying fortunes of centuries it was granted to ,herod the ,great by ,augustus1 who immediately called it by the ,greek name of the emperor1 ,sebaste1 and proceeded to rebuild it in a style of unheard-of magnificence4 ,a hippodrome appeared in the hollow1 a temple on the hill4 ,round the summit he ran a flat terrace with double colonnade of monolithic pillars about #af feet in height1 with palaces and massive gateways4 ,from our camp on the threshing-floor1 quite near the circuit of pillars--for many of them are still standing1 and the bases of almost all may be seen in the ground--we crossed to within the ring of the colonnade4 ,the ground was ploughed here even along the faces of the artificial terrace-banks1 which still preserve their sheer angle1 clean and steep as of old4 ,the furrows were literally sown with fragments of broken pottery and tesser4 ,we crossed to a squared and heavy mass of fallen stones and carved pillars lying slantwise against walls still strong in ruin1 which bears the name of ,herod's daughter's palace2 and then along the colonnade to the great piles of masonry which guard the gate that looks toward ,csarea4 ,two massive towers are there1 partly in ruins and soon to be wholly so1 for the cactus hedge is busy with its roots among the stones1 and is making its way through cracks to the very heart of the towers4 ,we sat there watching the sun sink into the sea1 and thought of all those faded splendours and crimes that make this spot so famous among the tragic places of the world4 ,it was the home of ,jezebel1 it was the slaughter-house of ,mariamne1 both of whom must often have watched the sunset from that gate4 ,the ambitions of the ancient kings1 the pride and wealth and cruelty of ,herod1 the beauty and the misery of passionate women1 dead these many centuries--all seemed to people the place with ghosts1 as the twilight deepened4 ,we turned to go back1 and found ourselves accompanied by the man who farms the hill--a tall1 friendly1 and gracious man in long flowing robes4 ,he held the hand of his little five-year-old girl1 a dark-eyed1 sweet-faced child1 dressed in a red cloak crossed with blue and yellow stripes4 ,her hair was short1 in clustering curls of glossy black1 with a blue bead cunningly inwoven among them to keep off the evil eye4 ,she had her free hand entwined by all its fingers in the wool of a pet lamb1 which she steered along sideways vigorously4 ,how dead the mighty ,herod and all the ,roman glory seemed in contrast with this simple picture of the eternal life of home6 ,where a multitude of men breathed joy and woe ,long ago2 ,lust of glory pricked their hearts up1 dread of shame ,struck them tame2 ,and that glory and that shame alike1 the gold ,bought and sold4 ,now1--the single little turret that remains ,on the plains1 ,by the caper over-rooted1 by the gourd ,overscored1 ,while the patching houseleek's head of blossom winks ,through the chinks-- ,marks the basement whence a tower in ancient time ,sprang sublime1 ,and a burning ring all round1 the chariots traced ,as they raced1 ,and the monarch and his minions and his dames ,viewed the games4 99 99 99 99 99 ,oh heart6 oh blood that freezes1 blood that burns6 ,earth's returns ,for whole centuries of folly1 noise and sin6 ,shut them in1 ,with their triumphs and their glories and the rest6 ,love is best4#ah ,it is not1 however1 merely with the chill of that which has been long dead that ,rome affects us in ,syria2 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,rotunda ,,and ,,chapel ,,of ,,the ,,holy ,,sepulchre4 it is with the living interest which attaches to all that touched ,christ1 and entered in any way into ,christianity4 ,it is a far-reaching generalisation which reminds us that 8the great civilisations have always risen in the meeting-places of ideas40#ai ,historically it is true that the times of greatest international struggle have been times of heightened vitality1 when the mingling nations were ready to receive and to impart much1 and to send forth a new spirit upon the world4 ,nothing could be more providentially apposite1 from this point of view1 than that ,jesus should have been born 8amid the fever of the establishment of the ,roman power in ,judea40 ,he kept aloof1 indeed1 from the ,herodian people who lived delicately in kings' houses1 and from all the ,greek and ,grco-,roman life of his day4 ,yet1 as ,dr4 ,smith has shown us memorably1 ,jesus was no quiet rustic dreaming dreams and seeing visions far from the life of men4 ,he lived and died in close touch with all that ,rome1 ,greece1 ,egypt1 ,mesopotamia1 ,arabia had to show4 ,not for the first time1 nor for the last1 did ,he see1 in ,his temptation1 8the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them40 ,as this realisation becomes more and more distinct1 a new force is added to the contention that ,his ,gospel is the ,gospel for the world4 ,it was thought out and first preached amid the throng of commerce1 and while the din of battle was as yet hardly silent4 ,this contact of ,jesus ,christ with ,rome1 which under ,paul's hand was to become the messenger and instrument of ,his kingdom1 is vividly associated with two hill-tops in ,palestine4 ,one of them is that height near ,nazareth1 some ten minutes distant from the village well1 the description of whose outlook closes the chapter on ,galilee in the ,historical ,geography with the well-known passage about the boyhood of ,jesus4 ,there1 while ,he faced seawards1 lay on the left hand below ,him the wine-coloured1 battle-soaked plain of ,jezreel1 with squadrons of the ,roman army marching east and west along it2 while on the right hand the ,sepphoris ,road ran ribbon-like along the ranges1 with its constant stream of merchandise4 ,the other hill-top is that known as 8,gordon's ,calvary0 at ,jerusalem--a low and rounded hillock just outside the ,damascus ,gate4 ,if this be indeed the site of ,calvary1 ,christ was crucified on a wedge of ground between a military and a commercial road2 and 8they that passed by wagging their heads0 may have been soldiers from the ,tower as well as merchants from the ,northern ,gate4 ,certain it is1 at least1 that ,rome was about ,his cradle and ,his grave4 ,the earliest narratives of ,his earthly career bring ,him to ,bethlehem to a ,roman taxation2 the latest story delivers ,him to a ,roman judge1 to ,roman soldiers1 and to a ,roman cross4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,christian ,from the invasion of warlike ,rome we turn to that 8,peace and her huge invasion0 which came to the ,holy ,land during the later days of the ,roman ,empire4 ,before the time of ,constantine the ,church in ,syria had grown and spread with such startling vitality and promise of even more abundant life as to bring down upon her the cruelty of persecutions4 ,in the north the ,christian communities were mainly ,gentile1 in the south ,jewish ,christians4 ,they must have been intellectually as well as spiritually vigorous1 for the curious speculations and mystic dreams of the ,gnostics had already1 in the second century1 gained footing in ,syrian ,christianity4 ,with ,constantine 7#cbd-ccg7 ,roman persecution ceased for ever4 ,the ,jews were permitted to return to ,jerusalem1 and the construction of the written ,talmud began its career of three centuries4 ,julian1 the last emperor on the throne before the ,empire divided into east and west1 had apostatised from the ,christian faith before his ascension1 and in #cfa he attempted the restoration of the temple in ,jerusalem as a strength to ,judaism against ,christianity4 ,but the ,galilean had conquered1 and it was the day of ,christ4 ,the recognition of ,christianity as the religion of the ,state began a new era1 which ran on for a thousand years in the ,eastern ,empire1 until the siege of ,constantinople changed the face of ,europe in #adec4 ,the words of ,dante will often recur to the student of early ,christian days in ,palestine3-- ,ah6 ,constantine1 what evil came as child ,not of thy change of creed1 but of the dower ,of which the first rich father thee beguiled4 ,the reference is to the legend of 8,the ,donation of ,constantine10 by which he transferred ,rome and the states of the ,church to the ,papal ,see4 ,christianity in ,syria has run a strange career4 ,up to the time of ,constantine the ,church was at bay1 fighting a desperate battle against the ,pagan world4 ,at ,csarea especially1 but in many another ,roman town besides1 native ,syrians were forced underground into caves and catacombs1 or brought to the death in the public games4 ,many records of this period survive4 ,at ,sidon1 searching about among the tombs which ,renan has recently explored1 we came upon a broken marble slab--evidently the lintel of a church raised in memory of a local massacre of ,christians--with the word ,,marturion inscribed on it4 ,the martyr monuments of ,syria are wonderfully full of peace1 hope1 and assurance4 ,like ,marius the ,epicurean you feel1 when first you come upon them1 that for the first time you are seeing the wonderful spectacle of those who believe4 ,you understand his impression of every form of human sorrow assuaged--desire1 and the fulfilment of desire working on the very faces of the aged1 and the young men obviously persons who had faced life and were glad4 ,and the same wistful sense of a sure word of revelation comes upon the beholder as that which appealed to him4 ,surely here the earth was for once not forsaken of the higher powers1 but visited and spoken to and loved6 ,after ,constantine the pilgrim takes the place of foremost interest1 which the martyr previously held4 ,from #dea1 when an independent patriarchate was established at ,jerusalem1 pilgrimages became very frequent2 and a century later there were hospices with #cjjj beds in them within ,jerusalem1 while trade of many sorts flourished by their aid4 ,in the oldest itineraries there are very curious accounts of these pilgrimages2 but two1 which ,colonel ,conder gives1 are especially quaint and interesting4 ,they refer to later pilgrimages1 but are appropriate enough to earlier ones4 ,the first one is from ,saewulf1 giving an account of his landing at ,jaffa3 8,from his sins1 or from the badness of the ship10 he was almost wrecked1 and his companions were drowned before his eyes4 ,the other is ,sir ,john ,maundeville's--most fascinating1 if most unscrupulous1 of travellers3 8,two miles from ,jerusalem is ,mount ,joy1 a very fair and delicious place4 ,there ,samuel the prophet lies in a fair tomb2 and it is called ,mount ,joy because it gives joy to pilgrims' hearts1 for from that place men first see ,jerusalem40 ,from the first1 pilgrimage seems to have had its moral disadvantages and special temptations4 ,the ,turkish proverb runs1 8,if your friend has made the pilgrimage once1 distrust him--if he has made the pilgrimage twice1 cut him dead40 ,and it would seem that the ,christian pilgrim is not altogether in a position to throw stones at his ,moslem brother4 ,apart from any sins to which the freedom of travel in a far land may be supposed to tempt poor human nature1 there are some which are par excellence pilgrim sins4 ,thus we find in the seventeenth century the ,armenian patriarch complaining that the seat in the ,chapel of ,st4 ,helena in which he used to sit had been so hacked to pieces by relic-hunting pilgrims that he was 8frequently obliged to renew it40 ,the case was all the harder because it was not from its association with the patriarch1 but because ,st4 ,helena had sat in it1 that it was so much in request6 ,if ,mark ,twain be a true reporter1 there are pilgrims who have inherited that particular kind of moral frailty with remarkable fidelity to the manners of their predecessors4 ,then again1 the pilgrimages1 which everywhere stimulated trade1 created an amazing amount of fraud in the sale of false relics and other such traffic4 ,dr4 ,conan ,doyle's picture of the pilgrim in ,france1 who takes a nail from the box of a blacksmith and sells it to unsuspecting soldiers as one of those which were driven into the wood of the true ,cross1 is drawn from the life4 ,even on the sacred spots themselves the simplicity of pilgrims has always been a temptation to custodians4 ,a tale is told of some one who1 only a year or two ago1 dropped by accident a ,bible down the dry shaft of ,jacob's ,well4 ,the ,bible was reclaimed within a few days1 but when brought up it was a mere mass of pulp4 ,a large party of pilgrims had visited the place in the interval1 and had professed a strong desire to drink water from the famous well4 ,a small stream1 conveniently diverted to the well mouth1 had enabled the priest in charge to gratify their desire by draughts of water drawn from the depths before their eyes4 ,the pilgrim is still extant4 ,for well-nigh two thousand years he has come and gone1 a tourist who has always had an immense commercial value for the ,holy ,land4 ,the levy made on pilgrims at the gate of ,jerusalem was one of the principal causes of the ,crusades1 and it is hardly more than a hundred years since a heavy tax was imposed upon every pilgrim when he reached the gate of the ,church of the ,holy ,sepulchre4 ,the greater part of those who come now are ,russians4 ,jaffa is full of them1 but they are to be seen in long caravans of pedestrians1 with a donkey or two bearing all their scanty luggage1 as far north as ,samaria and ,galilee4 ,the men are typical ,russian peasants1 in the blouses and caps that are so familiar4 ,their long hair may be fair or dark1 but it is always matted and coarse4 ,the women1 with their good1 weather-beaten faces1 are uncommonly like old-fashioned peasant women from the northern ,scottish countrysides4 ,their head-dress is a simple kerchief1 and their hands grasp a rude pilgrim staff polished with much wear4 ,the privations of such pilgrimages must be very great4 ,they involve the expenditure of a lifetime's savings1 and a journey in many cases of at least six months4 ,most of this is done on foot1 and largely by people who are growing old4 ,there is no nation that could send forth such multitudes except 8rough but believing ,russia40 ,the belief is everything4 ,they are very poor people1 and very ignorant and simple4 ,yet many whose minds' conflict seems only to grow sterner in this land of contradictions1 may own without shame to a touch of something like envy as they see the exaltation of their childish faith4 ,they encompass the walls of ,jerusalem to the strains of ,psalms1 and march triumphantly to the sand south of ,jaffa for shells to authenticate their travels1 such as those which appear on the coats-of-arms of some ,european families1 telling of former pilgrimages4 ,mere children in intellect1 the gleam in their eyes tells that in their own pathetic way they have entered here into a veritable kingdom of heaven4 ,the objects of pilgrimage are somewhat gruesome in ,illustration3 ,,the ,,dome ,,of ,,the ,,rock 7,,mosque ,,of ,,omar71 ,,as ,,seen ,,from ,,the ,,porch ,,on ,,the ,,north ,,side ,,of ,,the ,,mosque ,,el ,,aksa4 their way4 ,a favourite ambition used to be that of measuring the 8stone of anointing0 in the ,holy ,sepulchre1 in order to have the pilgrim's own winding-sheet made the same length4 ,the great goal1 however1 is the ,jordan1 whose banks at the period after ,constantine used to be paved with marble4 ,in the old time a wooden cross was erected in mid-stream1 and the waters were blessed by a priest1 after which the pilgrims tumbled in with such haste that numbers of them were drowned4 ,here1 too1 the winding-sheet is in evidence4 ,besides the flask of ,jordan water which they fill1 they dip their own winding-sheets and those of friends at home who have been unable to come in person1 but have sent these pale substitutes4 ,it was not our good fortune to see the merry band of pilgrims at the ,jordan1 though we met scattered groups of ,russians in many places4 ,one other pilgrim we saw1 and he accompanied us through several days' march northward4 ,he was a jet-black ,abyssinian--a lonely and silent figure clad from head to foot in a loose robe of pure white sackcloth4 ,he went with us to ,nazareth1 the destination of his pilgrimage4 ,his only word in common with us was 8,christianus10 and he always bowed and crossed himself when he said it4 ,all day long he walked in silence in our company4 ,he asked for nothing1 but ate the meat he received in singleness of heart1 and sat apart watching the loading and unloading of the baggage with the eyes of a great child4 ,while so many ,christians paid a passing visit to ,palestine in the early days1 there were some who came to stay4 ,it was the time of the rise of monastic institutions1 which first appear in the beginning of the fourth century4 ,their history from the first is peculiarly associated with ,syria1 into which they spread almost immediately after their start in ,egypt4 ,some of the most famous of the early recluses1 including even ,st4 ,symeon ,stylites himself1 were of ,syrian origin4#bj ,these ascetics were the natural successors of the martyrs4 ,the first hints of them are given during the time of earlier martyrdoms1 for it is recorded that ,christians as early as the ,decian persecutions fled to the wilderness and led a life there which was soon to become popular beyond all possibility of forecast4 ,it was not1 however1 until ,constantine's favour had secularised the ,church1 or at least had made easy that life which hitherto had been so dangerous1 that the reaction set in which gave monasticism its great hold on the world4 ,this is generally explained as a matter solely of protest against growing worldliness1 or a development of that curious kind of 8other-worldliness0 which finds in asceticism the surest means of attaining earthly fame and heavenly reward4 ,no doubt both these elements are true4 ,in the early ascetics there was a self-denial prompted by the purest desire for escape from the defiling society of their time into the spiritual cleanness of the faith1 and from its hard and coarse materialism into the delicate ideality and refinement of ,christian thought and feeling4 ,it was also1 on the other hand1 a refuge and an outlet for much of the inefficiency and moral worthlessness of the time1 which found in its freedom from social restraint and its wide leisure things exactly to their own taste4 ,but behind all this there is another fact which is really the most significant of all4 ,monasticism was 8the compensation for martyrdom40 ,readers of the letters of ,ignatius are familiar with that mania for martyrdom which during persecuting times took possession of so many in the ,church4 ,in abnormal and extreme conditions such as these1 certain minds grow hysterical and lose their perspective and sense of proportion altogether4 ,in such minds a morbid and passionate delight in pain develops into a sort of lust--a religiosa cupiditas--for suffering torture1 just as in the persecutors cruelty becomes a lust for inflicting it4 ,so asceticism offered itself when martyrdom could no longer be had--8a voluntary martyrdom1 a gradual self-destruction1 a sort of religious suicide40#ba ,the new ideal passed through several successive phases4 ,from an unorganised and individual way of life within the ,church1 it developed first into anchoretism about the beginning of the fourth century4 ,in barren and solitary places1 where life at best was precarious and physical enjoyment impossible1 every cave and den had its tenant4 ,on ,mount ,sinai one hermit is said to have lived for fifty years in absolute solitude1 silence1 and nakedness4 ,as you ride down the terrific gorges from ,mar ,saba to the ,dead ,sea1 you pass along precipitous hillsides and rock-faces which appear literally riddled with small caves and holes in the rock and sand4 ,these1 which now serve for a covert from the heat for passing shepherds1 or for the lairs of jackals1 were once populated by hermits4 ,saint ,saba is said to have collected the bones of no fewer than #aj1jjj solitary dwellers in this district1 who had fallen victims to the ,carismians4 ,and in many parts of ,syria even now1 a hillside which during the day has seemed barren of all human habitation1 is unexpectedly illuminated with hermits' lights--those 8hands praying to ,god0--in the dark4 ,the enthusiasm with which this dreary life has filled some of its devotees may be realised in the following lines from an epistle of ,st4 ,jerome3--8,o desert1 where the flowers of ,christ are blooming6 ,o solitude1 where the stones for the new ,jerusalem are prepared6 ,o retreat1 which rejoices in the friendship of ,god6 ,what doest thou in the world1 my brother1 with thy soul greater than the world8 ,how long wilt thou remain in the shadow of roofs1 and in the smoky dungeon of cities8 ,believe me1 ,i see here more of the light40#bb ,it was in cloister life1 however--at first in smaller communities and then on the large scale of many cloisters gathered under a common rule--that early ,christianity reached its full development4 ,besides the native establishments1 there was1 in the first centuries after ,constantine1 a cloud of religieux1 flying like homing doves across the sea to alight and quietly settle down on holy soil4 ,these establishments had many faults4 ,they perpetuated little sectarian differences and exaggerated them into quite ridiculous importance4 ,the very lamps that hang in the oldest churches are denominational1 and are divided with a childish arithmetic among rival sects4 ,the insistence of these on their respective rights is such that a guard of armed ,moslem soldiers has to be kept perpetually on the spot to keep the peace4 ,yet there is a splendid dash of courage in this part of ,church ,history1 which cannot possibly have been all in vain4 ,it must have been an exciting life in some of the outpost stations in these old days4 8,it is true10 says ,warburton of one monastery1 8the monks were occasionally massacred by the ,saracens1 ,turks1 and ,carismians1 but their martyrdom only gave fresh interest to the spot in the eyes of their successors40 ,no doubt these establishments drained the world of some of its best manhood1 and diverted much greatly needed energy from family life and state loyalties2 yet1 on the other hand1 these were the soldiers of the ,cross who then fought the paganism of the world and conquered it4 ,monastic establishments still remain1 and supply much-needed inns to many thousands of poor travellers in ,syria4 ,they vary by very wide degrees of difference from one another4 ,by far the worst place we saw in ,palestine--one of the worst perhaps that could be seen anywhere--is the convent of ,mar ,saba near the ,dead ,sea4 ,coming out on the high ridge of the ,judean mountain country1 we caught a glimpse of two towers1 which we have already described1#bc square and blind1 and so pitilessly unsuggestive that they seemed1 as it were1 built into the desert1 or part of its fantastic offspring4 ,they were the most unhomely buildings we had ever seen1 and they are the nearest point to which women are allowed to approach the monastery1 lady travellers being accommodated with cells there if they have not tents4 ,by and by we passed between them1 down a road so steep as to be practically a stairway1 on every step of which loathsomely dirty beggars sat plying their trade4 ,in the courtyard to which this entrance led were two monks1 fat and stupid-looking1 who brought out strings of beads1 rosaries1 and crosses of their own manufacture for sale4 ,having1 apparently1 absolutely nothing to do1 the making of these things may be taken for sign of enterprise and commercial genius1 but as time is evidently valueless1 they sell their work very cheap4 ,to the right is a rock1 hollowed out into a chamber or broad gallery1 which is sacred as having been the shrine of ,saint ,saba's devotions4 ,the entrance is violently coloured in washes of blue and white paint1 so crude and aggressive that it quite robs the pictures in the interior of their horror1 and prepares you to look with unclouded eye upon the skulls which fill the grilled recesses4 ,one of these skulls is set in front1 to receive the kisses of devout pilgrims4 ,it is deeply worn and polished4 ,when it has actually been worn through to a hole it will be replaced1 as others have been before it4 ,across the courtyard you follow narrow stairs and galleries that run irregularly along the edge of a precipice2 for the monastery has affixed itself to the face of a cliff four hundred feet high4 ,it clings there1 supported by huge flying buttresses that spring from the depths below in a fashion which1 as one writer says1 remind you of pictures of ,belshazzar's feast4 ,the cells of the monks1 little disconnected 8lean-to0 sheds or caves1 have the ,greek cross upon their doors1 and the often-repeated inscription1 8,o ,christ1 abide with us60 ,here and there are a few plants in pots1 or a feeble attempt at rearing vegetables in little garden patches which fill in any foot of level among the many-cornered buildings2 while in one cranny grows the solitary date-palm which ,saint ,saba planted more than #acjj years ago4 ,at every few yards you pause to look over a low balustrade into the gorge1 which here is a sort of yellow-ochre gulf1 with all the horror but none of the rich depth of colouring that belongs to frightful abysses4 ,over these walls the monks throw meat to the jackals which come and fight for it below4 ,occasionally1 as we passed1 a face was visible at a window1 generally either wizened and dried up1 or with a white1 neurotic appearance that was almost more repulsive4 ,everywhere dirt reigned supreme--unspeakable filth in open drains and putrid litter4 ,in one place1 where the smell was sickening1 a monk was lying asleep by the side of a broken drain1 covered with flies in great black masses on his face and arms4 ,in another place an abominable-looking dish of food1 fly-blown and disgusting1 was pushed with a spoon in it half through a hole broken in the bottom of a cell door4 ,and everywhere throughout this palace of disgust was to be read the prayer1 8,o ,christ1 abide with us60 ,that was the worst4 ,mar ,saba is a sort of combination of prison and asylum1 where lunatics are kept under the charge of monks condemned to this place for heresy or immorality4 ,other monasteries we saw1 of a very different kind4 ,our tents precluded the necessity for our making any of these our home for the night1 but in many cases it would have been very pleasant to do so4 ,on the top of ,tabor1 at ,tell ,hum on the ,sea of ,galilee1 and in other places1 we were received and entertained with the most cordial and generous hospitality4 ,the clean and spacious guest-chambers are open to all comers4 ,they are adorned with photographs of various sorts1 and often contain a cabinet of rare local curiosities4 ,the brothers in charge of these establishments were fine genial men1 courageously facing the risks of fever in deadly spots1 or varying their hospitable labours on the heights by long seasons of study 7for some of them are distinguished scholars72 but always ready to meet a stranger as a friend1 and to chat with him in ,french or ,german1 over a pipe of ,western tobacco1 about the great world from which they had gone so far4 ,in all these ways the many-sided life of the old ,christian days lingers and may still be seen4 ,but it ,illustration3 ,,the ,,dome ,,of ,,the ,,rock 7,,mosque ,,of ,,omar74 ,from the barracks near the site of the ,tower of ,antonia4 ,the north porch of the ,dome of the ,rock is towards the spectator2 to the left is the ,dome of the ,chain2 to the right1 in the middle distance1 is the ,mosque of ,el ,aksa4 lingers more impressively in the most ancient of the churches which date from this period4 ,there is in ,palestine an astonishing number of ruins of old ,christian churches1 many of them dating back1 at least so far as their foundations go1 to the ,byzantine period4 ,there are many modern churches1 but they are not as a rule impressive4 ,even when1 as in the ,russian church at ,gethsemane1 the building is in itself rich and costly1 it is so irrelevant as to rouse a feeling of rebellion4 ,most of the ancient churches have utterly vanished1 like that roofless basilica which ,constantine built on the supposed scene of the ,ascension on the ,mount of ,olives4 ,in other cases they are mere heaps of ruin1 like the remaining fragments of the ,church of ,jacob's ,well1 which was built about the middle of the fourth century1 and has been several times rebuilt since then4 ,this church takes most travellers by surprise4 ,they go expecting an out-door scene1 with all the harvest breeze of the ,scripture story on it4 ,they find a newly built white wall1 glaring in the sunshine4 ,through a gate in this wall they are admitted by certain broken-down-looking persons in the greenish-black garments of the ,greek clergy4 ,within the gate1 a few steps bring them to the edge of a sort of oblong pit full of masonry4 ,it is the nave of the old church1 and the splendidly carved pillars of its white stone show how beautiful it must have been4 ,a door in the sunk side-wall opens upon a groined vault newly rebuilt4 ,in the dim light you can discern in the centre a rough stone altar1 with candles and lamps and a couple of execrable pictures of ,christ and the woman of ,sychar4 ,on the ground before the altar is a flat stone perforated with a hole two feet in diameter4 ,this is the cover of the well1 and a second clerical person1 badly marked with smallpox1 lets down a twist of lighted candles by a long rope1 while a little green lamp of silver hangs above1 dripping oil steadily down the well4 ,surely this is the infatuation of reverence6 ,if there is any memory of ,jesus which is essentially of the open air1 it is this incident of the ,well of ,samaria4 ,yet reverence must build its dark chamber1 and proceed to illuminate with candles the spot where ,jesus sat and saw the miles and miles of waving fields1 white already to harvest4 ,no doubt the church dates from the fourth century2 but what right had even the ancients to build a church here1 to keep men busy with their sectarianism on the very spot where they and all the world were told that the hour was come when neither in this mountain nor yet at ,jerusalem would the ,father be worshipped1 but in spirit and in truth8 ,there are1 however1 two great churches of this ancient time which waken feelings very different from these2 they have been for centuries the centres of ,christian interest and devotion in the land1 covering1 as they are supposed to do1 the sites of the birth and death of ,jesus ,christ4 ,in some respects they are alike4 ,the outsides of them are huddled and packed together1 a heterogeneous mass of apparently unrelated buildings4 ,the insides are not1 like the houses1 ,rembrandt studies in intense light and shadow4 ,by some skilful arrangement1 the sunlight seems to be caught and diffused in a pale luminous twilight that sinks gradually to darkness in chapels and recesses1 and blends with the light of many lamps and candles not unpleasingly4 ,the ,church of the ,holy ,sepulchre is the gift of ,st4 ,helena1 mother of ,constantine1 and was consecrated by her in ,a4,d4 #ccf4 ,tradition relates how1 at the age of seventy-nine1 she made her pilgrimage to ,jerusalem1 was baptized in ,jordan1 discovered the true ,cross1 and built the church upon the spot of its discovery4 ,our guide-book tells us of an ante-chamber 8where ,oriental ,christians are in the habit of removing their shoes1 though we need not follow their example40 ,yet the ,crusaders entered it barefooted1 though with songs of praise1 a thousand years ago2 and the impulse of most ,christians1 however little they may be disposed to believe in the identity of the sacred sites within1 will be to share the veneration of the ,easterns4 ,not that what we see now is the original building4 ,that was a rotunda and a basilica1 the former quite other than the present rotunda1 as we know from the fact that it formed the model for the ,mosque of ,omar4 ,it has suffered many things from assault1 from decay1 from fire1 and from rebuilding4 ,in the twelfth century the whole group of detached shrines and monuments was included for the first time in one huge and complicated building4 ,probably no such patchwork in stone is to be seen elsewhere in the world4 ,yet each rebuilding found many of the older materials ready for its use1 and incorporated them in the newer work4 ,thus the columns at the eastern door are supposed to have come from some ancient pagan temple1 and the present foundations of the pillars belong to the old rotunda4 ,the capitals of many pillars are ,byzantine1 while the pink limestone column which is embedded in the wall to the right of the eastern entrance is also very ancient4 ,it is a strange conglomeration of imaginary associations and real value of material4 ,the atmosphere is at times dreadful enough within to justify that daring little touch of realism in the ,french bas-relief over the door1 where some of the spectators at the raising of ,lazarus are holding their noses with their hands6 ,the chapel of the ,empress adjoins the altar of the ,penitent ,thief2 ,adam and ,abraham jostle each other for standing ground under the sacred roof2 the stone of anointing has been 8often changed0 according to the guide-book1 and the column of scourging 8judging from the narratives of different pilgrims1 must frequently have changed its colour and its size0--yet pilgrims poke a stick at it and kiss the part that has touched the stone to-day4 ,every incident of the world's great tragedy is commemorated there1 from the footprint of ,jesus to the silver socket in the rock where ,his ,cross was erected4 ,futile enough all this1 and even wearisome4 ,but the worship of fifteen hundred years is neither futile nor wearisome4 ,and that worship seems to detach itself from the legends and find its embodiment in the marvels of precious stone that are gathered there4 ,as one sees the slabs of costly stone with which the rock is overlaid--the ruddy yellow slab of the 8anointing10 the red and white polished limestone of the central shrine1 the green serpentine and the black basalt--one remembers the tomb which the ,roman bishop ordered in ,st4 ,praxed's1 with its 8peach-blossom marble10 its lump of lapis lazuli1 8blue as a vein o'er the ,madonna's breast10 and its block of jasper1 8pure green as a pistachio-nut40 ,but there is a difference4 ,the stones of the ,holy ,sepulchre were given in love3 they are the tribute of many souls whose adoration was the noblest feature of their times4 ,the ,church of the ,holy ,nativity at ,bethlehem is a simpler and1 to many minds1 a more impressive structure4 ,it consists of a broad nave1 entirely screened off from what lies beyond1 with two rounded transepts and a rounded apse behind the screen--this trefoil-shaped inner building being the church proper4 ,one of the transepts is the property of the ,armenians2 the other1 together with the great altar in the apse1 belongs to the ,greeks4 ,below the great altar-rail 78in the breast of ,god10 in ,dante's language7 is the cave of the ,nativity1 with steps leading down to it from either transept4 ,a ,mohammedan soldier stands at the bottom to keep the peace between ,christians4 ,the transepts and apse are ablaze with lamps and hangings4 ,below1 the 8manger0 is overlaid with coloured marble1 and the rock is entirely covered with yellow silk cloth1 on which are stamped the insignia of the ,franciscans--an arm of ,christ crossed with an arm of ,st4 ,francis1 both shewing the print of nails in the palms of their hands4 ,all this1 and the air of raree-show that exhibits so many spots where somebody or other stood1 destroy any lingering credulity of which a man may still find himself capable2 they make one rather ashamed1 and glad to escape4 ,but the nave is mighty in its simplicity1 and no less mighty in its wealth of historical association4 ,it is a great severe oblong basilica1 with four rows of massive pillars giving double aisles4 ,old glass and old mosaics add their appropriate wealth of sombre beauty4 ,the rafters1 replacing ,constantine's beams of cedar from ,lebanon1 are the gift of ,philip of ,burgundy4 ,lead for the roof was sent by ,edward ,,iv4 of ,england4 ,most impressive of all is the old plain font of polished stone1 with its ,greek inscription--not1 like so many such inscriptions1 a record of the donor's name1 but a prayer for ,god's blessing upon those who gave it--8whose names are known to ,thee only40 ,opinions differ as to the plausibility of the claim to the site of our ,lord's nativity2 but this church was built by ,constantine1 and the ,vulgate was written in it by ,jerome4 ,and since that time the feet of countless millions of worshippers have trodden its stone pavement--a consecration in itself worth many traditional sanctities4 ,in this chapter we have sought to gather the most obvious survivals of that old ,christian invasion of ,palestine which followed next after the ,roman4 ,almost inevitably we find ourselves quarrelling with the legendary lore that has stultified so many venerable buildings and associations4 ,yet in its legends too the early ,church survives1 and some of them embody eternal truths in forms of rare beauty4 ,take three of the legends of the ,holy ,sepulchre by way of example4 ,they show the spot where the one-eyed soldier ,longinus1 who pierced the side of ,christ1 received back the lost eyesight at the touch of a drop of the blood4 ,there1 too1 is the cleft in the rock through which blood flowed from the ,cross down into the tomb of ,adam1 whose corpse came to life at once4 ,and there1 on ,easter ,eve1 the sham miracle of the 8,holy ,fire0 has been enacted annually for at least a thousand years4 ,who can miss the underlying truth beneath these legends8 ,they are1 for all but the ignorant and the gross1 symbols of the eternal healing and quickening power that the love and sacrifice of ,christ exert on humanity and even on ,his enemies4 ,the torch-bearers1 who kindle their fires at the blaze on ,easter ,eve1 and speed thence to ,bethlehem and other towns to light from it the candles waiting on many altars1 tell their own exhilarating lesson4 ,two other legends may be mentioned1 which the ,western world owes to the ,syrian ,church--those of ,st4 ,george and ,st4 ,christopher4 ,st4 ,george1 who was a ,roman soldier under ,diocletian1 was martyred in ,a4,d4 #cjc4 ,his memory1 mixed up with the ,greek myth of ,perseus and ,andromeda1 and with ,crusader stories of ,richard ,cur de ,lion1 stands for the victory of faith over paganism4 ,st4 ,christopher would only follow the strongest1 and finding that his master the devil was afraid of ,christ1 renounced his service and set out to seek ,him who was strongest of all4 ,the point of the story is that1 after seeking ,christ far and wide1 he found ,him while he was performing the humble task of carrying passengers across a river4 ,it is characteristic of the pilgrim point of view that legend has fixed this scene not by some homely ,german stream but at the fords of ,jordan1 where he is said to have carried the infant ,christ across upon his shoulder4 ,even of such legends no wise man will speak with scorn4 ,they1 too1 are monuments of that conquest of ,christ which gives its meaning and its glory to the ,christian invasion4 ,illustration3 ,,interior ,,of ,,the ,,mosque ,,of ,,el ,,aksa1 ,,from ,,the ,,south-,,east4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,moslem ,mohammedanism is the religion which is everywhere in evidence in the ,east to-day4 ,from the smart ,turkish officer who drops in to smoke a cigarette with you in the tent after dinner1 and discusses ,european politics in excellent ,french1 down to the beggar who beseeches you in the name of ,allah for a pipeful of tobacco or the end of your cigar1 your acquaintance in ,syria is ,moslem4 ,from the consecration of the ,church of the ,holy ,sepulchre to the ,moslem capture of ,jerusalem was exactly three hundred years4 ,when1 in #fcg1 ,jerusalem fell1 ,damascus had already fallen1 and ,antioch was to follow next year--all within sixteen years of the beginning of the ,mohammedan era4 ,the conquest was inevitable4 ,first ,persia and then the scattered tribes of pagan ,arabs had proved too much for the ,byzantine empire in ,syria4 ,then the man appeared who understood his opportunity4 ,the ,eastern world was in confusion4 ,heathens constituted the ruling race1 the ,jews were scattered in their dispersion1 and the ,christians torn into many fragmentary heretical sects4 ,it was the moment for a great union of scattered forces4 ,the ,arabs were united by the new faith in ,god1 for which they abandoned their paganism with a marvellous willingness4 ,the bond of union with ,christians and ,jews was the common ancestry in ,abraham by which ,mohammed hoped to rally and unite the ,syrian world4 ,one sharp battle at the ,yarmuk threw ,syria open to his advance1 and the crisis of the faith was past4 ,mohammed has been declared an impostor1 who from first to last won his way by cleverness without faith2 he has been idealised as a hero and prince of heroes in the religious world4 ,dean ,milman1 perhaps1 is wisest when he says1 8,to the question whether ,mohammed was hero1 sage1 impostor1 or fanatic 444 the best reply is the reverential phrase of ,islam3 #8,god knows4'0 ,one thing is certain1 viz41 that he founded a religion which proved itself capable of wakening response from the ,semitic ,east with a swiftness and a completeness never elsewhere known4 ,it would be a matter of rather serious consequences to affirm that such sweeping success is possible without any vestige of honest faith on the part of its own prophet4 ,arabia found ,islam a religion after her own heart4 ,the conquest of the ,arabian mind1 and that sudden transference of religious and political loyalties which changed it from chaos into cosmos1 is little short of miraculous4 ,in the words of one of the severest critics of ,islam3 8,in ,a4,d4 #egj1 ,abdullah1 the son of ,abd el ,muttalib1 a ,mecca merchant1 went on a trading trip from ,mecca to ,medina and died there2 the same year his wife1 ,amina1 gave birth to a boy1 named ,mohammed1 at ,mecca4 ,one hundred years later the name of this ,arab lad1 joined to that of the ,almighty1 was called out from ten thousand mosques five times daily1 from ,muscat to ,morocco1 and his new religion was sweeping everything before it in three continents40#bd ,in many ways the new religion was congenial to ,arabia4 8,although it made a most vigorous effort to conquer the world1 it is1 after all1 a religion of the desert1 of the tent1 and the caravan1 and is confined to nomad and savage or half-civilised nations1 chiefly ,arabs1 ,persians1 and ,turks4 ,it never made an impression on ,europe except by brute force2 it is only encamped1 not really domesticated1 in ,constantinople1 and when it must withdraw from ,europe it will leave no trace behind40#be ,it gave the heathen ,arabs1 in exchange for their precarious dependence on incalculable and wayward gods1 the sublime conception of 8,islam10 the absolute surrender to the ,one ,god1 whom it declared to be ,almighty1 ,all-,wise1 and ,all-,merciful4 ,for the rest1 its secret was simplicity4 ,it drove straight for its object1 sacrificing art1 appetite1 the purity of home life1 the spirituality of religious imagination1 and some of the accepted moralities of conscience4 ,what was left was a creed and standard1 somewhat impoverished truly1 but workable and uncompromising4 ,a thousand difficult questions were avoided1 and one of those forces set in play before whose rough simplicity finer and more delicate things are swept away4 ,mohammedanism meets the traveller at every turn in ,syria4 ,now and then a dervish is encountered--the extremest sort of ,moslem4 ,it would seem difficult to develop a mystic school within the pale of so clear-cut a faith as ,mohammedanism2 yet it has been done4 ,but the ,mohammedan dervishes escape from this despised material world by the vulgar process of hypnotising themselves by the repetition of the word 8,allah0 or 8,hu10 or by whirling in circles until they are stupefied4 ,this they call the ecstatic state1 and when they have reached it they are said to perform many violent tricks1 stabbing their flesh or eating broken glass1 without appearing to feel pain4 ,in ,syria they are by no means impressive in appearance4 ,here and there you meet one1 with hair crimped in long thin pointed wisps1 and sticking out in a wiry fashion from his head in all directions4 ,the dazed and rather weak look in the eyes is suggestive of a strayed reveller rather than a holy man1 but the people hold them in great reverence4 ,another occasional freak of ,mohammedanism is the religious procession1 which is conducted on the principle of a rival show to the ,christian ftes4 ,it starts on ,good ,friday from ,jerusalem to visit the tomb of ,moses--a late fiction1 somewhat daring in its contradiction to the old belief that the tomb of ,moses was known to no man4 ,it is amusingly described by witnesses1 but appears to be rather a poor affair on the whole4 ,these extravagances apart1 one is never out of sight of ,mohammedan religion for an hour of travel in ,syria4 ,the worship1 like old idolatry1 seems to have claimed every high hill and every green tree for its own4 ,it has settled itself1 in the very seat of old ,judaism1 on the sacred area of the temple4 ,almost every one of the prominent hills of ,palestine is crowned with a little building1 domed and whitewashed1 opening in a porch in front1 and containing a single empty chamber4 ,this is the weli 7i4e4 monument1 not necessarily tomb7 of a ,mohammedan saint4 ,what the terms of canonisation may be1 it is perhaps best not to inquire too minutely4 ,many of these departed saints are said to have been prophets1 but the discoverer of coffee has his monument in ,mocha1 to which great processions come1 and there is more than one weli in ,palestine commemorative of a dead robber chief4 ,not the less sacred are they to the ,mohammedans4 ,in various parts of the country we were puzzled by little piles of stones1 gathered and arranged in considerable numbers on the tops of long ascents or passes1 and bearing a curious resemblance to the cairns which in certain districts of the west of ,scotland mark the spots at which funeral processions have halted to change the coffin-bearers4 ,the explanation of these little piles is very simple4 ,when a ,mohammedan comes to the hill-top1 and looking around him sees a weli shining in the distance1 he offers up a prayer1 and drops a stone there1 to call the attention of the next comer1 that he also may look and pray4 ,very picturesque and quaint these little holy houses are2 serving1 like the hermit's tower of old in ,western lands1 for landmarks as well as for shrines--the white light-houses of the inland4 ,it is not at the white tombs only that the ,moslem prays4 ,five times a day1 at the call from the mosque1 he is summoned to his devotions4 ,often1 indeed1 it is inconvenient to worship at some of these hours1 and it is permissible to say the prayer five times in succession in the evening1 when there is most leisure4 ,sometimes he carries with him his rosary1 to help his memory with the ninety-nine beautiful names of ,allah1 and in railway trains or steamers wealthy gentlemen are to be seen cherishing a string of amber beads which appear more like the property of young girls than of grown men4 ,to perform his devotions the ,syrian goes to a fountain1 when that is possible1 as it is part of the ritual to wash the hands before praying2 but the ,arab1 spreading his carpet in the shade of his camel1 far away upon the desert1 where no water is to be had but the precious drops in his leathern bottle1 is permitted to wash his hands and lips with sand instead4 ,that which impresses every spectator is the extraordinary faculty for abstraction which is manifested4 ,the ,moslem seems to have at command the power of annihilating the world around him1 and entering the unseen4 ,his eyes are open1 but you may pass within a yard of them and they will not seem to see you4 ,they are fixed on the far distance1 as if1 over the ,southern edge of the world1 the man saw the ,holy ,city towards which he bows1 with its ,kaaba and its black stone4 ,he might be crystal-gazing1 or watching the horizon for a sail at sea4 ,people may be dancing and singing by his side1 but he does not see them nor hear4 ,bathing once in the waters of ,elisha's fountain at ,jericho we had a memorable instance of this4 ,we found the pool empty and the walls undergoing repair4 ,a lad who had charge of the place was persuaded in the usual fashion to let down the door of a sluice and so allow the pool to fill1 greatly to the detriment of the newly mortared wall4 ,when we had stripped1 the owner of the place appeared1 and we rose to the surface from a dive to hear a controversy going on1 with violent gesture and apoplectic fury1 which marks a high point in our register of vituperation4 ,the water seemed on the whole to be the safest place1 and we kept to it until suddenly we perceived that a great silence had fallen on the landscape4 ,looking anxiously to see what had happened1 we found the owner on his knees1 praying by his own spring4 ,we dressed without delay1 and had to pass in front of him to reach the tents1 but he never seemed to know that we had passed4 ,the muezzin1 or call to prayer from the minaret1 is one of the most affecting of all ,eastern sounds4 ,men are chosen for this office with singularly mellow and rich voices2 they intone1 with a very musical little cadence in a minor key1 the first chapter of the ,koran1 and sometimes other prayers4 ,at the great ,mosque of ,damascus1 a solitary reciter calls from the slender minaret1 and is answered from the balcony of the broader one across the court by twenty voices in unison4 ,while the waves of rich sound float out over the city1 and are caught and faintly echoed from scores of other minarets1 one remembers how that voice has rolled forth already over innumerable villages from ,bengal westwards1 and men have paused from their labour to pray according to their lights4 ,islam is usually supposed to have been the 8,ishmaelite in church history10 with hand against every man from the first4 ,really1 when it was ,arabian1 as it remained for four centuries1 it was very tolerant1 and the ,christian pilgrims1 priests1 and monks were little disturbed4 ,but in #ajhf the ,seljuk chiefs of wandering ,turkish tribes came into possession1 and the days of suspicion and that heavy cruelty which is characteristic of the stupid began4 ,there were massacres of monks on ,carmel and elsewhere then1 and such a state of general tyranny and oppression that the cry reached the ,west1 and the ,crusades began4 ,the ,crusades1 as they dragged their slow length along1 did not tend to better understandings2 and after ,saladin's conquest of ,jerusalem1 we read that the walls and pavement of the ,mosque of ,omar had to be purified with copious showers of water distilled from the fragrant roses of ,damascus4 ,the relations between ,moslem and ,christian in the land to-day are happier1 and the intercourse of increasing trade and travel is breaking down old partitions here as elsewhere4 ,yet little love is lost between the professors of the rival faiths even now4 ,dr4 ,andrew ,thomson relates how1 in recent years1 8it had been observed that at a particular period of the day the shadow of the great ,mosque of ,omar fell upon a certain ,christian burying-ground4 ,even the honour of ,illustration3 ,,the ,,temple ,,area ,,and ,,the ,,mount ,,of ,,olives1 ,,from ,,mount ,,zion4 ,the dome on the right is that of the ,mosque of ,el ,aksa1 and that on the left is the ,mosque of ,omar4 ,between these domes1 and just below the principal group of cypresses1 is the 8,wailing ,place40 ,the hills in the background are the ,mount of ,olives4 blessing conveyed by so sacred a shadow was grudged4 ,the public authorities in ,jerusalem were strongly urged to have the ,christian cemetery removed to some more distant place1 and it required all the combined influence of the ,european consulates to prevent a scandalous order to this effect from being issued40 ,the ,ordnance ,survey party was on several occasions attacked1 and even fired upon4 ,in fanatical ,moslem cities like ,hebron and ,nablus1 travellers have to conduct themselves with the utmost discretion1 and even then will probably be stoned with more or less effect according to the courage and the marksmanship of the thrower4 ,the ,christians return the animosity with a kind of impatient ridicule1 which seems to indicate a lack of refined piety on their part4 ,our camp-waiters were ,christians1 and they used to give us very freely their opinions on the theological differences between them and the ,mohammedans4 ,there would be a reverent if somewhat startling account of the ,holy ,trinity1 and then1 in scornful contrast3 8,mohammedans only ,one1--and ,mohammed all the rest60 ,the scorn is hardly to be wondered at when one remembers the intellectual level of the powers that be4 ,this is forced upon one's notice by countless tales of the custom-house and censorship officials4 ,a map of ancient ,palestine was objected to because 8there were no maps in those days60 ,an engineer1 telegraphing about a pump1 was arrested because the message read3 8,one hundred revolutions60 ,in certain ,bibles the text was erased1 8,jesus ,christ came into the world to save sinners02 and it was directed that the word 8,christians0 should be substituted1 as there were no sinners in the ,turkish empire6 ,after a certain amount of that regime1 one would no doubt put new meaning into the prayer which invokes ,god's mercy 8upon all ,turks10 as well as on infidels and heretics6 ,in spite of all this there is a good deal of interchange between the two faiths1 or at least of borrowing on the part of ,islam from ,christian tradition4 ,so many points have the two in common1 that a theory has been broached on which ,mohammed appears only as the ,judaiser 7as it were7 of later days1 who saw the difficulty that ,christians had in working with general principles1 and set himself to simplify the situation by reducing ,christianity to a stereotyped system4 ,carlyle distinctly calls ,islam 8a kind of ,christianity40 ,however this may be1 there is no question as to the immense amount which ,syrian ,mohammedanism borrows from the ,jewish and ,christian ,scriptures4 ,countless tombs and other monuments are dedicated to ,joshua and other ,old ,testament worthies4 ,this1 of course1 may be due to the fact that many ,moslem saints have borne the old names1 and as time went on their memories came to be confused with those of their more famous namesakes4 ,samson's exploits especially have appealed to the ,mohammedan imagination1 and he appears under the incognito of 8,ismn ,aly10 among many other names4 ,st4 ,george is a very popular saint for ,moslem worship4 ,it startles us still more to find that in the great fire at ,damascus numbers of ,moslems threw themselves into the flames in the attempt to rescue the head of ,john the ,baptist2 while a copy of the ,koran--one of the original four copies--which lay below the relic1 was forgotten and destroyed4 ,the most extensive and curious point of contact between the two religions is found in those mosques which were formerly built as ,christian churches1 and then appropriated by the conquerors4 ,the ,grand ,mosque of ,damascus is a conspicuous case in point4 ,it is built on the site of a pagan temple1 part of whose hoary front still stands1 a magnificent fragment of ancient heavy masonry and carving now brown and grey with age4 ,on the ruins of the temple rose the ,christian church of ,st4 ,john the ,baptist1 whose date is about the beginning of the fifth century4 ,after the ,mohammedan conquest the church became a mosque1 and fabulous sums were spent on its decoration4 ,it has twice been destroyed by fire1 and is now being restored after the last of these destructions4#bf ,the restoration has a very brand-new appearance1 yet it is magnificent with its wealth of marble and of other costly stone4 ,the ,mosque of ,samaria1 conspicuous from a distance by its minaret is another ,christian church reconstructed for ,mohammedan worship4 ,there was a sixth-century basilica here1 but the present mosque is built out of the material of the ,crusader church which replaced that4 ,the severity and bareness of its stone walls and pillars are relieved only by one touch of colour--the flags and the lovely green pillars of the pulpit4 ,the wall at the pulpit's side has been recessed into a mihrab or niche1 which points towards ,mecca and so gives the worshipper his bearings4 ,in the crypt1 where the ,crusaders believed they had the tomb of ,john the ,baptist1 large slabs of polished marble attest the former wealth of decoration1 and these slabs are of peculiar interest because of one curious little fact4 ,it was customary to carve on ,christian buildings the sign of the ,cross--a ,maltese cross1 set within a circle4 ,such a cross may be distinctly seen on one of the stones close to the embedded pillar at the south door of the ,church of the ,holy ,sepulchre4 ,on the marble slabs of the crypt in ,samaria these encircled crosses are to be seen2 but the ,mohammedans have chipped away the uprights of them1 leaving only the meaningless horizontal bar bisecting the circle1 and the obvious mark of the chisel in their rough workmanship leaves the uprights also faintly visible4 ,perhaps the most interesting case of all is the ,mosque el ,aksa1 close to the ,mosque of ,omar1 within the temple area4 ,this is that 8far-off place of prayer0 which ,mohammed counted among the most holy shrines in the world4 ,founded by ,justinian as a ,christian basilica1 it was converted into a mosque by ,omar1 and adorned with unheard-of lavishness by ,abd el ,melik1 who overlaid its doors with gold and silver plates4 ,since then it has passed through many adventures4 ,widened to efface some suggestion of cruciform shape1 its breadth became unmanageable1 and six rows of pillars support the roof4 ,the roof has fallen in1 and earthquakes have broken the building more than once1 so that most of the masonry is comparatively modern1 the great arches of the structure which supports the dome being 8anchored0 by wooden beams which throw horizontal bridges from capital to capital in ,arab fashion4 ,the green-and-gold mosaic with which the interior of the dome and the upper portion of the adjacent masonry is covered1 cannot be very old1 though their dim and antique beauty is worthy of the older art4 ,the pulpit1 richly inlaid with ,aleppo work of ivory and mother-of-pearl1 was ,saladin's gift seven hundred years ago4 ,but that which most of all attracts the eye and fascinates the imagination is the aspect of the pillars1 whose variegated colours are peculiarly rich and harmonious4 ,up to a certain height they are polished to the shining point by the garments of worshippers rubbing against them as they pass2 above that they are smooth1 unpolished stone4 ,the capitals1 and some at least of the columns1 are very ancient1 and may have stood in the original basilica4 ,the ,mosque of ,omar is not1 strictly speaking1 a mosque at all4 ,the mosque is ,el ,aksa1 and the more famous building is but a glorified praying-station of the nature of a weli in its court4 ,it stands near the centre of a wide open space1 practically the only such space in ,jerusalem1 which occupies one-sixth part of the whole area of the city within the walls4 ,the enclosure is partly artificial1 supported on vast substructures of vaulted building which raise the enclosed ground to a general level4 ,the mosque is set up on a platform ten feet higher than this level4 ,its history has been a strange one4 ,behind the time of its erection lies all the story of the ,temple1 whose sacred ark ,jewish tradition affirms to have been concealed here by ,jeremiah4 ,but that rock1 whose red outcrop breaks through the floor of the mosque1 leads us back to a dimmer past1 and to the story of ,abraham's sacrifice upon ,moriah1 whose site this is said to be4 ,various theories have been advocated as to the place which the rock held in the arrangements of the ,jewish temple4 ,the ,jews of to-day have a legend that on it somewhere the ,unspeakable ,name is written1 and they explain the miracles of ,jesus by the supposition that ,he had succeeded in deciphering it4 ,we1 too1 for whom its chief interest and pathos lie in the fact that ,christ came hither to worship1 and in the things that befell ,him here1 may accept the meaning at least of that curious legend4 ,for ,his own words were that ,he had declared to men the name of ,his ,father1 and that declaration has truly revealed to mankind the hidden meaning of their holiest things4 ,it was in #fhj ,a4,d4 that the first ,mohammedan sanctuary was erected on the temple area1 but the date of the present building is two hundred years later4 ,it struck us as a curious fact a year ago in ,damascus that the burnt mosque was being rebuilt almost entirely by ,christian masons4 ,still more surprising is it to learn that the ,mosque of ,omar was built by ,byzantine architects and modelled on the ,rotunda of the ,holy ,sepulchre4 ,two hundred years later the ,crusaders entered ,jerusalem1 and1 according to the dreadful story1 8the carnage in the ,mosque of ,omar swept away the bodies of thousands in a deluge of human blood40#bg ,mistaking the ,mosque for the veritable ,temple of ,solomon1 they founded there the ,society of the ,knights ,templars1 on whose armorial bearings the dome appears4 ,they converted the building into 8,templum ,domini10 and planted a large gilded cross upon the summit of it4 ,traces of their invasion still remain in the cutting of the rock to suit their altar1 and in the great wrought-iron enclosing screen4 ,for almost a century the ,templum ,domini remained in ,christian hands1 until #aahg1 when ,saladin conquered ,jerusalem4 ,his generosity and gentleness contrasted strangely with the 8loathsome triumph0 of the ,crusaders2 but the first destination of the triumphal march was the mosque1 from whose dome the ,cross was hurled to the ground1 and for two days dragged about the streets4 ,from that time the mosque has been one of the most exclusive places in the world4 ,till recent years no ,christian was permitted to enter it1 and ,jews avoid it1 lest they should unwittingly tread upon the ground of the ancient ,holy of ,holies4 ,the first impressions of the ,mosque of ,omar are very pleasing4 ,there is a barbaric splendour in its rich colouring and metallic glitter when seen from a short distance1 while the more distant view of it is one of rare soft beauty4 ,its wide courts1 too1 give it a fresh and open-air character which is very refreshing after the stifling dark heat and closeness of the ,holy ,sepulchre4 ,above all it impresses one with its grand simplicity4 ,the sharp-edge angles of the octagon are taken in at a glance2 the rock within is bare rock1 and infinitely more impressive than the silk and marble in which rock masquerades at ,bethlehem4 ,the great number of its pillars1 screens1 reading-stands1 and other furniture1 leaves little open room1 and it feels rather a crowded than a spacious place for worship4 ,yet1 on the other hand1 you are not wearied with the complex symbolism of many of the ancient churches4 ,the meaning of this may be poorer1 but at least it is plain4 ,this means just a perfectly shapely and highly coloured octagon1 where men have worshipped ,god for a thousand years in the least complicated way in which worship has been done4 ,thus the mosque is typical of the faith and the policy that created it4 8,i do not believe10 says ,disraeli's ,tancred1 8that anything great is ever effected by management4444 ,you require something more vigorous and more simple4444 ,you must act like ,moses and ,mohammed40 ,on the other hand1 the enthusiasm for ,mohammedan simplicity is sorely tried when the first moment of almost awestruck feeling ends with the advance of the guide4 ,he is to shew you the wonders of the mosque1 and the torrent of mingled absurdity and superstition by which you find yourself swept on is very trying to the would-be admirer of the faith and its monument4 ,first of all1 there are the relics--the footprint of ,mohammed1 and the hairs of his beard2 the praying-places of ,abraham and ,elijah and other 8very fine1 high-class people10 as our dragoman described ,illustration3 ,,the ,,west ,,side ,,of ,,the ,,temple ,,area4 ,from the barracks near the site of the ,tower of ,antonia4 ,above the domed building in the right foreground rises ,mount ,zion4 ,the rosy hills to the left are the mountains of ,judea4 them to us2 the round hole where the rock let ,mohammed through when he ascended to heaven1 the hollow place in the roof of the cavern where it rose to let him stand erect to pray1 the tongue with which it spoke1 and the mark of the angel ,gabriel's finger when it had to be held down from following him in his ascension4 ,still more disenchanting is the knot of underground superstitions that desecrate the holy place1 and rob it of its freshness and healthy simplicity1 like snakes in the garden4 ,the wild imagination of the ,east has pictured to itself the regions which lie underneath this sanctuary in its own grim way4 ,in spite of a very obvious pillar1 and a bit of white-washed wall to be seen in the cavern1 the rock is supposed to hover unsupported over the abyss4 ,beneath is 8the well of souls10 where the dead assemble twice weekly to pray4 ,some think of these departed ones as those who wait for the ,resurrection1 but a darker fancy holds that the gates of hell are here4 ,the worshipper feels the souls of the dead flitting about him1 and prays with the cries of the lost in his ears4 ,even the open spaces of the court are haunted by unclean legends1 and seem to be heavy with the odour of graveyard mould4 ,here1 at ,st4 ,george's dome1 with the two red granite pillars in front of it1 is the place where ,solomon tormented the demons2 there1 by the eastern wall1 is the throne whereon he sat when dead1 the corpse leaning on his staff to cheat them1 until worms gnawed the staff through1 the body fell forward1 and the demons found out the trick4 ,in common decency1 any place that lays claim to sacredness must have something to say to worshippers regarding conduct2 but the ethics of the ,mosque of ,omar are a match for its impostures1 alike in gruesomeness and in impudence4 ,they are all of the nature of magic tests1 by which souls are to be tried for their eternal fate4 ,the little arcades at the top of the steps of the platform are called 8,balances0 because the scales of judgment are to be suspended there on the ,great ,day4 ,the ,dome of the ,chain owes its name to the circumstance that there a golden chain hung at ,david's place of judgment1 which had to be grasped by witnesses and dropped a link when a lie was told4 ,a place in the outer wall is shown from which a wire will be suspended on the ,day of ,judgment1 whose other end will be made fast on the ,mount of ,olives4 ,christ will sit on the wall and ,mohammed on the mount4 ,over this wire must all men find their way1 but only the good will cross1 the wicked falling into the valley beneath4 ,in the ,el ,aksa ,mosque a couple of pillars stand very near each other1 so worn that they are perceptibly thinned4 ,the space between them bulges1 in which a piece of spiked iron-work is now inserted4 ,these were another test for the final award--he who could squeeze himself through the aperture1 and he alone1 had found the true 8narrow way0 to heaven4 ,frauds such as these force upon every visitor the question how far the ,mohammedans themselves believe them4 ,the utter want of earnestness1 or anything that to a ,western mind bears the resemblance of reality1 is painfully evident in the attendants who guide you through the mosque4 ,you are forced to respect its sacredness by purchasing the loan of slippers to cover your boots1 and you feel rather like one entering a circus than a place of worship1 when you have been transformed into an illuminated caricature by means of one yellow and another red slipper4 ,your guide1 who wears the appearance of a convict in clericals1 greatly enjoys your picturesqueness1 and makes haste to conduct you to a certain jasper slab into which ,mohammed drove nineteen nails of gold 7which look1 however1 indistinguishable from iron74 ,a nail comes out at the end of every epoch1 and when all are gone the end of the world will come4 ,one day the devil destroyed all but three and a half of them1 when the ,angel ,gabriel1 caught napping for once1 stopped the mischief just in time4 ,here you are invited to lay any coins you may chance to have about you1 and assured that if the coin be silver you will save your soul by giving it4 ,as the coins are tabled1 the whole body of assistant clergy assembles to count the collection4 ,all this1 and much else1 is but the inevitable outcome of a worship that gathers round a stone4 ,it is a petrified worship1 hard and dead as its sacred rock4 ,nothing could be more pathetic than a window in ,el ,aksa almost darkened with little rags of clothing hung there by poor folk who come to pray for their sick friends4 ,if ,syrian ,christianity is corrupt1 it is at least not so pitiless as ,syrian ,mohammedanism4 ,the very aspect and situation of the rival shrines is symbolic4 ,the mosque does not really love men1 whether it really believes in ,god or not4 ,it sits apart in its wide enclosure1 while the ,church of the ,sepulchre is huddled indistinguishably into the thickest pressure of the life of men and women in the city4 ,the church seems1 by its rugged and broken outline1 to sympathise with the shattered fortunes of the life around it2 it is grey and ruinous-looking1 as if it had borne man's sorrows and carried them4 ,the mosque1 with all its beauty1 seems to sit there like some great sleek sphinx1 watching everything1 but sharing little and loving none of the misery around it4 ,in this city of ruins there is something repellent about its smooth and self-complacent finish4 ,no1 the mosque does not really love men2 whether it really believes in itself and its miracles or not is another of the many ,mohammedan things which ,god only knows4 ,,chapter ,v ,,crusader ,to tell even in barest outline the long story of the ,crusades would be a task as impossible as it would be thankless4 ,the magic of ,sir ,walter ,scott's ,talisman is happily not yet dead1 and in some degree the ,crusader still lives as an actual and human figure in our imagination4 ,many ,christians who had come as pilgrims had settled in the land as its inhabitants1 and for four centuries after the ,arabian conquest these continued both their trade and their worship under the tolerably mild ,mohammedan rule4 ,in the eleventh century all was changed by the ,saracen invasion4 ,pilgrims were extortionately taxed at the gates of ,jerusalem2 their lives were imperilled1 their persons and their devotions insulted4 ,the old commerce1 which had grown to considerable proportions1 was ruined1 and pilgrimage1 from being a lucrative and pleasant service1 became an almost certain martyrdom4 ,it was this state of affairs which sent ,peter the ,hermit through ,europe on his great campaign in #ajic1 and those extraordinary wars that raged in ,syria through two centuries bore the complex character of the motives which had prompted them4 ,from the departure of that motley rabble which followed the ,hermit to the ,east in the first ,crusade1 down to the pitiful expedition of ,french children who started #cj1jjj strong from ,vendme in #abab1 there stretches perhaps the most picturesque period in all history4#bh ,the mass of paradox and contradiction which that period presents is no less striking4 ,it was an invasion by the ,west1 whose purpose was to rehabilitate an ,eastern faith4 ,it was a religious war carried on by the jealousies and ambitions of rival nations4 ,it was the occasion of some of the most statesmanlike government that the world has seen1 and it was accompanied from first to last by frequent outbursts of treachery1 massacre1 and lust4 ,it was the most airy dream and at the same time the most effective practical force of its time4 ,it was the expression of the most ascetic severity and the most reckless luxury4 ,utterly futile1 commercially and socially disastrous1 often wholly irreligious1 it was yet everywhere a massive and purposeful conception1 in which the determination and forcefulness of the ,west thrust their iron wedge clean to the centre of this sleepy land4 ,its high idealism1 curiously alloyed with grosser elements both sensual and brutal1 was yet able to preserve through all the genuine spiritual fire of chivalry and of faith4 ,our task is simply to ascertain what all this stands for in the history of ,palestine1 and what it has left behind it there as its memorial4 ,in two words1 it stands for the contact of the ,east and ,west1 and for their separateness4 ,into ,europe the ,crusades brought much from the ,east4 ,it was due to them more than to all other causes that there was so immense an increase of ,eastern merchandise in ,western markets--not of ,jerusalem relics only1 but of ,damascus ware and of ,persian and even ,indian produce from beyond the great rivers4 ,their influence on architecture1 too1 is a well-known fact of ,western history4 ,the ,mosque of ,omar rose on at least three ,european sites1 and the plan of many another piece of ,byzantine building and ,arabesque decoration was brought home by the ,crusaders from the wars4 ,into the ,east1 again1 the ,crusades brought much from the ,west4 ,from north to south of ,palestine one meets with the remains and memorials of that invasion4 ,theirs are the footprints most visible throughout the land4 ,everything in ,syria has felt the touch of them and retained its mark4 ,at every turn one finds something recognisable and homely to ,western ears and eyes--the name of a castle1 the chiselling of a stone1 the moulding of metal--they are strangely familiar as they are met so far away from home4 ,yet they survive as wreckage1 and as wreckage only4 ,he who hopes to westernise the ,east is attempting a task in which all must fail1 whether they be soldiers or priests1 missionaries or statesmen4 ,the ancient ,eastern life has long ago flowed back over the relics of the ,western occupation of ,syria4 ,the surviving traces are of many kinds4 ,there are the descendants of ,crusaders1 sprung of intermarriages with ,eastern women1 and still preserving a distinctively ,european type in little suggestive details of feature or of hair4 ,names such as ,belfort1 ,belvoir1 ,mirabel1 ,blanchegarde1 or ,sinjil 7,st4 ,giles71 coming without apology next to the ,hebrew and ,arabic names of villages in ,palestine1 strike one with very much the same shock as old ,scottish place-names do1 alternating with incorporated aboriginal ones1 on the railway stations of the ,australian bush4 ,relics like the sword and spurs of ,godfrey de ,bouillon may1 like most other relics1 be discounted1 but not so the wonderful masonry of castles and of churches which everywhere overawes the man accustomed to modern walls4 ,winding our way with tight rein along the narrow and crooked streets of ,tyre1 we suddenly plunged into the darkness and foul air of the ,bazaar4 ,at the other end of it1 emerging under a ,gothic archway1 we found ourselves in the courtyard of a khan1 a very dirty and unpleasant place4 ,seeing nothing but unclean stables1 we imagined that our horses were to be put up here and perhaps fed1 and we pitied them4 ,then1 to our astonishment1 we discovered that this was the old ,crusader ,church1 where these broken and discoloured arches had once echoed the hymns and prayers of ,european chivalry2 and that somewhere among them lay the bones of the great emperor so famous in ,illustration3 ,,entrance ,,to ,,the ,,church ,,of ,,the ,,holy ,,sepulchre4 history and legend--8,der alte ,barbarossa1 der ,kaiser ,friederich40 ,not less affecting in its way was the discovery of a little patch of snapdragon flowers on the ruined walls of ,belfort ,castle4 ,we were informed that the plant is not elsewhere found in ,syria1 and the likelihood is that some ,crusader's lady brought it from the garden of a far-off ,french or ,english home4 ,the ,crusader was at once the dreamer1 the worshipper1 and the fighter of the ,middle ,age4 ,the knight was not indeed the sort of man whom at first sight we would suspect of dreaming4 ,could we see him riding down the street to-day1 we should probably be reminded of some village blacksmith on a ,clydesdale horse4 ,yet he had been dreaming dreams and seeing visions4 ,he was a gentleman and a man of feeling1 though he had his own rough ways of shewing it4 ,part of what had set him dreaming was the instinct of travel and the literature of travel which in those days was so quaint and picturesque4 ,no doubt this travel literature was largely due to pilgrims1 but there were others then who could play no tune but 8,over the hills and far away40 ,travellers' half-remembered and exaggerated adventures conspired with the fantastic imaginings of the untravelled rustic to create that magic land beyond the horizon where giants1 monsters1 and devils had their home4 ,all the wistfulness1 the dream1 and the desire of the ancient days are there4 ,the chroniclers of the time before the ,norman ,conquest are the most fascinating of geographers1 and the singers of ,arthurian romance in the later days of the ,crusades arrived at a geography which was an utter bewilderment1 the result of ages of vague travel and rumours from the ,syrian seat of war4 ,babylon and ,wales and places with names wholly unpronounceable are in sublime confusion1 and the geography in general is that of ,thackeray's ,little ,billee1 who saw from his mast-head 8,jerusalem and ,madagascar and ,south ,amerikee40 ,jerusalem always came first4 8,the ,crusades10 as ,sidonia says in ,tancred1 8renovated the spiritual hold which ,asia has always had upon the ,north40 ,the spell of the ,east had come upon the ,west1 and in that there lay a reason for the ,crusades deeper than any commercial or even military attraction4 ,the ,west was waiting for it4 ,behind the ,british men of the twelfth century lay a heredity of patriotic legend connected largely with the battle of ,christianity against ,paganism under ,arthur4 ,there lay the foundation of much that was best in the crusading enthusiasm4 ,on their own soil they had followed the ,king and fought under him for ,christ4 ,but to satisfy the hearts of these rough men it needed more than all such practical life could yield them1 even when that life was so exciting as it was then4 ,there is an infinite pathos in the dream that was coming to clearness through those years4 ,discontented with the glories even of ,arthur's court1 longing for a spiritual something which might give to chivalry its finest meaning1 they sought the ,holy ,grail4 ,until1 well on in the twelfth century1 the shadowy figures of ,walter ,map and ,robert de ,borron formulate the romance1#bi we see it growing out of old pagan legends baptized by ,christian missionaries and blended with ,bible stories4 ,it emerges at last in the romances of the ,french ,trouvres1 the summit and flower of all past idealisms1 the spiritual secret and gist of life1 and the chief end of noble men4 ,this is all well known to those who interest themselves in that spiritual search which is the main business of choice souls in all ages1 and which in that age took literary form in the ,grail ,quest4 ,but to us it is specially interesting to note that the century whose later years received the ,trouvre legend from ,chrtien de ,troyes began with an event but for which that legend would never have assumed the form in which it appeared4 ,in #aaja ,cssarea was besieged and taken by ,baldwin ,i4 8,it yielded a rich booty4 ,among other prizes was found a hexagonal vase of green crystal1 supposed to have been used at the administration of the sacrament1 and now preserved in ,paris4 ,this vase plays an important part in medival poetry as the ,holy ,grail40 ,the visionary aspect of the ,crusades is that which continually obtrudes itself as one reads their history4 ,tasso's ,gerusalemme ,liberata is full of it4 ,even so rough and boisterous a hero as ,richard is obviously a dreamer also4 ,nothing in all this history is more striking than that fateful day when1 after marching to within seven leagues of ,jerusalem1 ,richard commanded his army to halt1 and courted their murmurs during a month's unaccountable inaction4 ,performing unheard-of feats of valour in minor sallies1 he could only weep when he beheld the towers of the ,holy ,city1 and after routing ,saladin's army in a great battle at ,joppa1 negotiated a truce and wandered off to shipwreck and imprisonment1 commending the ,holy ,land to ,god1 and praying that it might be granted him to return again and recover it4#cj ,as worshippers1 the ,crusaders are famous figures in the ,holy ,land4 ,it is hard to reconcile the tales of wild debauchery which followed almost all their victories1 with the obviously genuine religious enthusiasm that swept the hosts down weeping on their knees when they caught first sight of ,jerusalem4 ,yet the worship was sincere1 and there were pure and gentle spirits among them whom victory did not demoralise4 ,they are always1 indeed1 armed worshippers--at first a religious soldiery1 afterwards a military priesthood1 as ,stebbing puts it4 ,this composite character is well brought out in the two orders of knights1 the ,hospitallers and the ,templars4 ,the former1 working for the sick in the ,holy ,city1 wore a black robe with a white cross upon the breast of it1 but when there was fighting to be done they covered this with a surcoat of scarlet on which a silver cross was embroidered4 ,they lived simply1 contenting themselves with such lodging and fare as were offered them1 and they were bound to keep themselves provided with a light which must always be kept burning while they slept4 ,the ,templars pledged themselves in even stricter vows1 and were warrior-priests in the most literal sense of the term4 ,on the summit of ,mount ,tabor there is the ruin of a ,crusader church1 whose broken walls still enclose the sacred space where once men worshipped4 ,spacious and strongly built1 the ruin has a severe grandeur of its own4 ,in the chancel an altar has been rebuilt1 and an upturned ,corinthian capital set upon it1 in the centre of which is fixed a heavy iron cross4 ,that iron cross seems to sum up in its grave symbolism the very spirit of the ,crusades4 ,many of their churches were reconstructions of older ,christian edifices1 and most of them have been transmuted into mosques1 so that their ecclesiastical architecture still remaining is as composite as their character and their enterprise4 ,yet enough remains of what is distinctively their own to show at once the massive strength and the decorative beauty of their buildings4 ,its strength is that of men who were accustomed to build fortresses2 the buttressed walls are of immense thickness1 and the mortar is sometimes harder than the stone4 ,its beauty has been defaced by the mutilation of much fine work1 but from what is left we know how well they carved2 and there is a certain high solemnity about their arches and columns which tells of men whose minds were large1 strong1 and real4 ,one curious fact1 to which ,conder often directs attention1 is constantly perplexing the traveller4 ,their identifications of sacred sites are those of men whose enthusiasm far exceeded their knowledge4 ,had they taken time to consult the ,scriptures1 or to read them with any thoughtfulness1 countless errors would have been avoided4 ,but the soldier instinct is very far from the critical1 and they were impatient to find the sites they wished to see4 ,anything was sufficient for a clue4 ,the name ,jibrin suggested 8,gabriel10 and a great church arose in honour of the ,archangel4 ,athlit was near the sea-shore1 and the ,crusaders who lived there found ,tyre and ,capernaum in its immediate neighbourhood4 ,for reasons equally cogent1 ,shiloh was brought within a mile or two of ,jerusalem1 ,shechem became ,sychar1 and the heights of ,ebal and ,gerizim were recognised as the ,dan and ,bethel of ,jeroboam's calves4 ,most curious of all1 the little hill of ,jebel ,duhy1 on whose summit you look down across the valley from the top of ,tabor1 was named ,hermon1 for no other reason than that a psalm places the two together in its promise that 8,tabor and ,hermon shall rejoice in ,thy name40 ,altogether1 these worshippers were in too great haste4 8,crusading topography is more remarkable than reliable40 ,great as the ,crusaders were in dream and in worship1 it is their fighting that remains for ever most impressive and most characteristic4 ,of no men in history is the verse truer1 in spite of all their extravagances-- ,know that the men of great renown ,were men of simple needs3 ,bare to the ,lord they laid them down ,and slept on mighty deeds4 ,looked at from a distance1 the ,crusades very generally wear the aspect of a stream of vivid colour--a spectacular progress of ,europe through a corner of ,asia1 whose main feature is its brilliant picturesqueness4 ,on the spot the quality in them which is by far the most impressive is their stern reality and fighting weight4 ,the ,crusader was doubtless one who in his time played many parts1 but whatever else he was1 no one who has seen the remains of his work will question that he was at least 8a first-class fighting man40 ,the figure of ,richard1 as it is preserved for us in the records of the older historians1 may be more or less apocryphal1 but it is at least true enough to crusading ideals1 which must have found many an actual realisation in these strong and fearless soldiers of the ,cross4 ,we read of amazing captures of booty2 of single combats in which 8the ,king at one blow severs the head1 right shoulder and arm of his opponent from the rest of his body02 of a conflict in which only one ,christian perished1 while 8the ,turks lost seven hundred men and above fifteen hundred horses40 ,at ,joppa the king leaps out of his ship before it can reach land1 and rushes on the enemy4 ,three days later he and his knights are surprised and have to fight half-naked1 some in their shirts and some even barefoot2 yet they win4 ,at another time we see ,richard plunging alone into the midst of the hostile army1 and fighting until ,saladin's brother sends him a gift of two ,arab war-horses to enable him to fight it out4 ,altogether such a hero was he1 that the ,moslems asserted 8that even the horses bristled their manes at the name of ,richard40 ,no wonder if in the popular imagination he became for ,england hardly distinguishable from that ,st4 ,george who had already been identified with ,perseus1 who on these same sands had fought the dragon for ,andromeda4 ,the grandeur of crusading warfare lingers in the mighty ruins of their castles4 ,nothing could surpass the impressiveness of these castles1 seen on hill-tops from below1 combing the sky with the sharp broken teeth of their ruined towers1 or rearing a black 8mailed head of menace0 against the stars4 ,many of them are on the sites of older fortresses1 and actually stand on ,jewish or ,roman foundations4 ,by far the most imposing of such castles is that of ,banias1 which crowns that spur of ,hermon at which 8,dan leaped from ,bashan0 long ago4 ,it must have been capable of quartering a small army1 and the quantity of broken vessels confirms the impression4 ,cisterns1 vaulted and groined archways1 mosaic floors1 dungeons1 and every other luxury of their ,european homes had been imported hither4 ,the ,crusaders ran a line of fortresses along that western edge of the ,jordan valley where ,israel1 as we saw1 failed to protect the mouths of her gorges4 ,belvoir1 8the ,star of the ,wind10 guards from its lofty promontory the passes immediately south of the ,sea of ,galilee4 ,bethshan itself1 where the ,canaanites lingered to the standing shame of ,israel1 shows the well-preserved remains of a crusader bridge and fortress4 ,not less striking is the sea-board line of castles4 ,not only in such old localities as ,tyre and ,sidon1 ,csarea and ,joppa1 did fortresses arise1 but on at least two quite new sites--those of ,athlit and ,acre4 ,illustration3 ,,interior ,,of ,,the ,,dome ,,of ,,the ,,chain1 ,,looking ,,north4 ,athlit is unmentioned in ,scripture1 and only the eye of seafaring soldiers could have discovered how its little crease in the long straight line of coast might be utilised for defence4 ,acre is 8the ,key to ,syria02 but it was left for the ,crusaders to discover that fact4 ,yet with all this might and purpose and strategic instinct manifest in every mile of ,syria1 failure is written broad across the land in these ruins4 ,at two points the sense of it becomes especially acute4 ,one is the battlefield below the very mountain which tradition has assigned to the preaching of the ,sermon on the ,mount4 ,the horrors of that field were such that even yet it is impossible to look without shuddering upon the flattened top of ,hattin1 where the black basalt stands out from the green slopes below4 ,the ,crusaders were rushed into the open plain1 near which ,saladin's cavalry were waiting for them1 and they met his assault unfed1 unrested1 and without even water to quench their thirst4 ,throughout a long hot day they perished round the banner of the ,cross1 a final element of horror being added when the ,saracens set fire to the scrub1 and unhorsed knights were roasted alive in their armour4 ,that was the decisive battle of the ,crusades1 and ,saladin marched after it straight upon ,jerusalem4 ,the other point at which the failure of the ,crusades has set up its monument is at their own ,athlit4 ,the creation of their genius1 and for solidity and massive strength perhaps the most characteristic ruin in ,syria1 it is also the saddest thing of all they have left for a memorial4 ,near its rocks ,king ,louis ,,ix4 of ,france--most unfortunate and yet most saintly of all crusading kings--was shipwrecked4 ,here1 too1 at the end of the thirteenth century1 the ,knights ,templars made their last retreat after the fall of ,acre1 and it was from its castle that they departed--the last to abandon the last ,crusade4 ,seen from the sea1 the compact and rounded promontory of ,athlit presents the appearance of a clenched fist menacing and defiant4 ,its history grimly corroborates the imagination that here through centuries of decay the land as it were gathers itself together1 and thrusts out this grim headland in perpetual defiance of the ,western world4 ,the ,crusades stand for more in ,palestine than it is easy to realise4 ,the comprehensiveness of their historical significance is by no means exhausted when we have stated it in such paradoxes as those with which our chapter began4 ,they were indeed the greatest sham and at the same time the greatest reality of ,syrian history1 but they were far more than that4 ,they were heirs to all the past of the country1 and they did much to perpetuate that past and to carry it on into the time to come4 ,even from the ,moslem life they wrestled with1 they borrowed something4 ,they1 and the chivalry which they fostered1 are the most spectacular part of ,western history1 and give a dash of brilliant colour to the grey life of the ,middle ,ages4 ,that brilliance is in part the splendour of the ,east4 ,the ,crusader has borrowed from the ,saracen at least a scarf for his sword4 ,it is chiefly as builders that the ,crusaders remain in ,syria exposed to modern eyes1 and in their building they have perpetuated and utilised the other three invasions4 ,from the first ,christians they took over their churches and rebuilt them1 retaining something and adding more4 ,from the older ,jewish architects they had almost as great an inheritance4 ,there seems no incongruity in the heavy stone mangers and far-driven iron rings which they fixed in the walls of those tremendous vaults on which the ,temple area rests2 and it is by a not unnatural transference that tradition has given to these the name of ,solomon's ,stables4 ,solomon's vaults they may have been1 but as stables they were of crusading origin4 ,their own building is a rough imitation of the drafted stones of the ,jews4 ,the rustic work is much the same1 only rougher1 but the plain chiselling is very far from the minute fineness of the older workmanship4 ,altogether1 they were fighters first and builders second4 ,like the men of ,nehemiah's time1 8every one with one of his hands wrought in the work1 and with the other hand held a weapon4444 ,every one had his sword girded by his side1 and so builded40 ,nor did they fail to utilise the work of ,roman builders4 ,at ,csarea there is the most striking instance of this1 and one of the most suggestive facts in the whole story of the ,crusaders4 ,csarea was the most ,roman of all ,syrian towns4 ,built as the seaport for ,sebaste by ,herod1 it was the part of ,syria which travellers and governors sailing from ,italy first sighted1 and it was designed to give them the impression of a land ,romanised4 ,herod's delight in pillars is attested by the colonnades of ,sebaste1 and the wealth of shaft and capital which marks the ruins of all his cities4 ,but in ,csarea he seems to have excelled himself4 ,the ,roman mole which forms the northern side of the harbour 8is composed of some sixty or seventy prostrate columns lying side by side in the water like rows of stranded logs40#ca ,on the long promontory south of the mole stands the ,crusader ,castle1 notable for the circumstance that the ,crusaders built hundreds of lighter and shorter columns into their walls to thorough-bind them1 so that1 in ,oliphant's exact and graphic words1 8the butts project like rows of cannon from the side of a man-of-war40 ,which thing is for an allegory2 and one of the most eloquent of all sermons in stone it is4 ,rome did more for ,christianity than all its friends1 while she was as yet its enemy4 ,without her courts of justice ,paul would have had short shrift from his countrymen4 ,her roads and her citizenship gave to the first missionaries of the ,cross their exit upon the world and their opportunity4 ,her laws gave them not protection only1 but a groundwork for much that entered into that theology which conquered the thought of the world4 ,paul appealed unto ,csar1 and he wrote to the ,romans his gospel expressed in the forms with which they were most familiar4 ,and it was at ,csarea that he made his appeal1 doing in flesh and blood what his disciples a thousand years later did in stone--thorough-binding the walls of the building of ,christian faith with ,roman columns4 ,,part ,,iii ,,the ,,spirit ,,of ,,syria ,in the first and second parts of this book we have been collecting impressions of the ,land and its ,invaders4 ,it remains for us in the third part to gather these together into something which may enable us to realise more clearly the general meaning and quality of the spirit of ,syria4 ,in the main two things must be noted1 and the first of them is religious4 ,whatever else ,palestine may be1 she is certainly a land with a ,god4 ,the meaning of ,syria is disclosed in her ,israelite and ,christian periods1 whose great fact and characteristic process is the revelation of ,god to men on earth4 ,all her other invasions have to reckon with that fact4 ,some of them were bitterly hostile to it1 but they were powerless to efface it4 ,others were indifferent1 entering ,syria for ends of their own2 but history shews them bent over to ,god's purposes and unconsciously made the instruments of working out ,his will4 ,that will brought ,israel to her land1 isolated her there1 hemmed her in1 bore her and carried her in everlasting arms on through her centuries1 finally was incarnate in her life4 ,for ,jesus ,christ was a ,syrian1 and we must orientalise our thoughts of ,him before we can rightly understand the ,christian revelation4 ,not less clear is the second impression1 which is that of the unfinishedness and imperfection of all things ,syrian4 ,it is a place of wreckage1 new and old4 ,but the peculiarity of that wreckage is that it was always there1 more or less4 ,none of the ideals of the land were ever quite realised4 ,it was never completely conquered by the ,israelites1 their ambition stopping short and their energy flagging before their task was done4 ,it was never completely cultivated1 or made to yield its full harvest of natural wealth4 ,in countless small things this incompleteness is evident4 ,the contrast between the beauty of the distant view and the disorder and slovenliness of the near has been already noted4 ,the post-office in ,damascus is a quite good post-office1 so far as letters and telegrams go4 ,but you inquire for these in a hall which looks like a very dirty stable-yard with a very dirty fountain in the middle of it1 furnished with little rough-sawn wooden boxes for private letters1 such as no self-respecting grocer would pack with oranges4 ,even the tombs1 about which so much sacredness is supposed to gather1 are the untidiest of sepulchres4 ,you may see a large and expensive tombstone1 shining white in the distance1 with all the air of aristocratic self-importance which man's pride can lend to death2 but when you approach1 it is railed off with bamboo and barbed wire which might have been picked off a rubbish-heap4 ,there are good roads in places1 but they lead to nowhere4 ,generally they collapse into mere watercourses after a few miles1 or they run on in a squared and measured lane of sharp boulders down which no horse can walk4 ,nor is this incompleteness a peculiarity of ,turkish administration4 ,probably nothing in ,palestine is older than the landmarks which divide the fields4 ,from generation to generation these have been held sacred1 laws against their removal having been in force among the ancient ,canaanites before the conquest by ,israel4 ,so sacred are they that even murderers and thieves will seldom dare to tamper with them4 ,yet through all the long past the landmarks are said to have remained as the first men laid them down--mere inconspicuous heaps of little stones1 the easiest things in the world to remove4 ,when we take the unfinishedness of the land along with the revelation and consider them together1 we can hardly fail to gain a lesson of far-reaching meaning4 ,the great incompleteness of ,syria--the thing in which her life has been most lamentably unfinished--was her response to the revelation of her ,god4 ,she never was at pains to understand it2 she never fully opened her heart to its new progress1 nor felt her high destiny as the bearer of good tidings to the world4 ,she never seriously set herself to obey its plainest ethical demands4 ,the wreckage is her price paid for the neglect4 ,no man nor nation can finish any task to perfection1 who has not done justice to such revelation of ,god as his heart and conscience have received4 ,it is truth to the inward light that keeps us from losing heart and enables us to feel that energy and patience to the end are worth our while4 ,right dealing with revelation is the secret of all efficient performance4 ,the combination in ,palestine of such revelation and such defect in strenuous action shows us a land that has just missed the most amazing destiny on earth4 ,it is in the remembrance of these thoughts that the chapters of this part should be read4 ,the ,shadow of ,death has fallen because these men could not escape their knowledge of some greatness in death1 more moving than anything life had to show4 ,the spectral is but a degenerate and perverse form of their sense of ,god4 ,the ,cross gives its ethical significance to the burden and sorrow of the land4 ,resurrection shows signs even now that ,god has not yet done with ,syria4 ,but first1 before we treat these aspects of her spirit1 let us look at it on its brighter side--the smile and song of the land4 ,illustration3 ,,interior ,,of ,,the ,,dome ,,of ,,the ,,rock 7,,mosque ,,of ,,omar71 ,,from ,,the ,,south-,,east4 ,,chapter ,i ,,the ,,lighter ,,side ,,of ,,things ,one easily forgets1 among the many sorrows of the ,holy ,land1 that there is any lighter side to the picture there4 ,yet such a side there is1 and always has been4 ,nature is not always severe1 nor the spirit of man melancholy1 in the ,east4 ,both nature and man are sometimes found in lighter vein here as elsewhere4 ,stevenson's most charming good word for the world he always defended so gallantly1 is specially applicable to the ,syrian part of it4--8,it is a shaggy world1 and yet studded with gardens2 where the salt and tumbling sea receives rivers running from among reeds and lilies40 ,syria has always known the value of her gardens1 and felt the sweet enchantment of her reeds and lilies4 ,was not her first story told of a garden where four such rivers flowed1 and her noblest sermon that whose text was 8the lilies of the field0 and 8the birds of the air08 ,what pleasantness of open nature there is in these two latter expressions6 ,what sense of field-breadth and sky-space1 in which the ,preacher had room for breathing and for delight6 ,every ,israelite1 sitting under his vine and fig tree1 or going forth to meditate in the fields at evening1 knew this charm4 ,from of old the inhabitants have taken delight in exchanging roofs for bowers in their fields and gardens1 or for booths1 built with green branches on their house-roofs4 ,many a sweet vista is seen in ,palestine framed in trellised vines or in passion-flower swinging over a roofed fountain or a garden house4 ,the mountains were often bare and unhomely1 for at no time can any but a minor part of them have been cultivated2 yet even the wind-swept heights were inhabited by health and hope and gladness1 and when a shepherd passed by1 or the reapers shouted in the harvest-fields1 the heart of the men of ,israel sang aloud4 ,in the words of the #feth ,psalm this exhilaration and childlike glee finds its most perfect expression2 we quote them in that old ,scottish rhymed version which has so singularly caught their spirit3-- ,they drop upon the pastures wide1 ,that do in deserts lie2 ,the little hills on ev'ry side ,rejoice right pleasantly4 ,with flocks the pastures clothed be1 ,the vales with corn are clad2 ,and now they shout and sing to thee1 ,for thou hast made them glad4 ,similarly the ,jordan1 usually thought of with a certain gloom1 and rendered still more dismal by its persistent allegorical association with death1 is by no means so melancholy as it is supposed to be4 ,its rise1 indeed1 was from a black cave1 where ancient pagan worship erected its shrines1 seeing life issue there from the abyss of death4 ,its course leads it far down1 like the dark stream of classic fable1 below the surface of the earth and ocean4 ,yet there is no sense of all that as one looks at it from any point in its course4 ,the trees of ,syria are generally disappointing4 ,for the most part solitary1 or undersized where there is a wood1 many of them are decaying1 and most of them are dull in colour4 ,but the vegetation of the ,jordan is a bright exception4 ,even at its lowest point1 when it is hurrying over the last miles to the ,dead ,sea1 it flows through that rich boscage known as the 8,swellings0 or the 8,pride0 of ,jordan1 where pilgrims cut their staves4 ,it is to this part of its course that the words in ,tancred apply most exactly1 8,the beauty and abundance of the ,promised ,land may still be found 444 ever by the rushing waters of the bowery ,jordan40 ,warburton1 describing the same scene in early morning1 speaks of the awakening of birds and beasts there1 and then the sunrise1 adding1 8,i lingered long upon that mountain's brow1 and thought that1 so far from deserving all the dismal epithets that had been bestowed upon it1 ,i had not seen so cheerful or attractive a scene in ,palestine40 ,the scents of the ,east add to the delightfulness of ,nature on her pleasant side4 ,there are plenty of abominable smells there1 but these are in the towns and villages4 ,the open country is continually surprising and refreshing its travellers with new perfume4 ,that this is fully appreciated by the natives1 no reader of the ,bible can forget4 ,there we have the scent of spices and of wine2 of the field1 of water1 and of ,lebanon2 of budding vines1 mandrakes1 apples2 of ointment1 of incense1 and of raiment4 ,in such references we see the ,east inhaling the fragrance of the land with an almost passionate delight4 ,it is all there still4 ,the scent of the desert after rain has been already referred to1 but the same aromatic perfume may be enjoyed by climbing the hills above ,beyrout1 where every ground-plant seems to breathe forth spices4 ,again1 there are the blossoming trees1 the heavy perfume of orange-flower1 and the simple fragrance of roses4 ,best of all1 there is the clean smell of ripe grain in the cornfields1 and the fresh1 briny exhilaration of breezes from the sea4 ,such is the lighter side of ,nature2 and man is not by any means so far out of touch with it as is often supposed4 ,the severity of material conditions and of historical experience has not been able quite to suppress man's gaiety4 ,it is well that this has been so1 for here certainly the words of the ,scots song are true enough3 8,werena my heart licht1 ,i wad dee40 ,with so much of the darker powers of the universe pressing hard upon them1 one trembles to imagine what the spirit of ,syria would have been without those inexhaustible stores of gaiety that break forth sometimes like her great river from the very darkness of the abyss4 ,her laughter is not that of progressive lands looking to the future in the great joy of an intelligent hope4 ,it is rather a part of her inalienable childhood1 whose fresh sweetness and virginity have somehow been permitted to remain through all her sorrows4 ,renan describes the heroes of the ,bible as 8always young1 healthy1 and strong1 scarcely at all superstitious1 passionate1 simple1 and grand40 ,there is still some inheritance of such life1 perpetually young and even childish1 in the ,holy ,land4 ,the first appearance of an ,eastern is grave and solemn1 with an element of contempt in it rather trying to the would-be jester or too familiar stranger4 ,but this is not wholly due to any weight of gloom pressing on his heart4 ,it has1 with singular ingenuity1 been traced to quite minor and apparently insignificant causes1 such as the wearing of flowing robes by the men and the burden-bearing of the women4 ,there can be no doubt that both clothes and burdens exercise a powerful influence on character2 and it may well be the case that the management of their garment has taught dignity to the men1 while the carrying of heavy waterpots has helped to make the women graceful and erect4 ,there is also the instinct of self-defence1 and the constant remembrance of danger4 ,every ,eastern1 however prosperous1 impresses one with the idea that his table is spread for him in the presence of his enemies4 ,this leads him--especially if he be an ,arab--to assume a show of superiority and a bullying swagger1 which seem to the uninitiated quite impervious to any thought of fun4 ,but the mask is easily laid aside1 and the gravest and most contemptuous ,syrian will suddenly collapse into harsh laughter or forget himself in childish interest4 ,it would be wonderful if it were otherwise4 ,the ,east is full of provocatives to mirth--not merely such as seem ridiculous to a stranger because they are foreign1 but things grotesque in themselves4 ,take the one instance of the camel4 ,much has been written about him from many points of view1 but justice has never yet been done to the camel as a humorous person4 ,yet he is the most humorous of all the inhabitants of the ,east4 ,beside him1 with his sardonic pleasantry1 the monkey is a mountebank and the donkey but a solemn little ass4 ,he has been described as 8the tall1 simple1 smiling camel02 but on closer acquaintance he turns out to be hardly so simple as he might be taken for1 and if he smiles1 he is generally smiling at you4 ,the camels you meet in ,syria are carrying barley with the air of kings1 and regarding their human companions with1 at best1 a sentiment of contemptuous tolerance4 ,the lower lip of a camel is one of the most expressive features in the whole repertoire of natural history4 ,the humours of this animal reached for us their climax at ,sheikh ,miskin1 while we were waiting for the ,damascus train4 ,a camel had been persuaded to kneel in order to receive its load of long poles brought by the railway4 ,it was roaring steadily1 in a fiendish and yet conscientious manner4 ,ten men were loading it1 of whom one stood upon its near fore-leg1 two fastened the poles upon its back1 and the remaining seven looked on and made remarks4 ,the beast waited until the poles were all but fixed--ten of them or so4 ,then it indulged in a shake1 which sent them rolling in all directions4 ,finally it was loaded1 with two of the sticks on one side and one on the other1 their ends projecting far out behind and in front4 ,it rose1 nearly ruining a well-dressed ,arab who had somehow got in among it4 ,just then the train arrived and the camel fled incontinently1 sidewise like a crab1 spreading the fear of death in man and beast for many yards around1 and dragging a terrified driver1 who hung on to its head-rope1 across towards the distant east4 ,a loaded camel behaving in this fashion is a deadlier weapon than a loaded gun4 ,now the native wit always appeared to us to have modelled itself on camel drollery of this sort4 ,it is generally personal1 and its essential function is to hit somebody4 ,it lacks freshness1 and has a certain suggestion of a clown with 8crow's feet0 under his eyes4 ,sometimes indeed a ,syrian indulges in jokes at his own expense1 but more frequently his facetiousness is at the expense of others1 and it is tolerably direct4 ,the habit of nicknames lends itself to ,oriental wit1 the lean man being described familiarly as 8,father of ,bones10 and the stout man as 8,full ,moon of ,religion40 ,passing through a village some distance off the usual route of travellers1 we were surrounded with villagers who asked the dragoman why we had come4 8,to take away your country60 was the answer1 and it was met with peals of laughter4 ,another witticism which was immensely appreciated was the remark to some farmers who were suffering from drought that we in ,england had stolen their rain and it had made many people sick there4 ,a boatman on the ,sea of ,galilee was being chaffed unmercifully upon the fact that he had once tried to commit suicide4 ,he appealed1 smiling1 to one of the passengers as 8,my ,father10 and pled that he had been mad when he did that4 ,a fellow-boatman rebuked him for calling the gentleman 8father of a lunatic10 and the whole crew was dissolved in laughter1 the victim himself heartily joining in the chorus4 ,in ,damascus we found a time-worn ,joe ,miller in the shout of the nosegay-seller--a very musical cry1 which the guide-book translates 8,appease your mother-in-law10 i4e4 by presenting her with a bouquet4 ,from of old pleasure has been apt to degenerate in the luxurious ,east1 and the fun of ,syrians shows abundant traces of such degeneration4 ,many unpleasant elements mingle with it4 ,one of the recognised forces in ,eastern life is humbug--barefaced bluff and transparent pretence1 which is apparently seen through and yet retains its potency4 ,the lengths to which this method may go are almost incredible1 and cases are on record of interpreters who have volubly translated a long ,english address and afterwards confessed that they did not know a word of the ,english language4 ,at times1 also1 high spirits leads to savagery4 ,the men who were in charge of our animals were kind and even affectionate to them1 but their moods changed unaccountably4 ,your donkey-driver1 trotting behind his donkey1 will sometimes encourage it with yelling which would fill any animal less philosophical with the fear of instant extermination1 and he jocularly throws rocks at it until you stop him4 ,worst of all1 the ,syrian humour constantly tends towards indecency of the most bestial type4 ,the song with which a musical donkey-boy relieves the monotony of the journey is sometimes quite untranslatable4 ,the 8body-dances10 which form the staple ,illustration3 ,,the ,,mount ,,of ,,olives1 ,,from ,a ,,house-,,top ,,on ,,mount ,,zion4 entertainment provided by wandering ,arabs1 are often pantomimic1 and their crude realism is unspeakably disgusting4 ,yet there is a very innocent and cheerful vein in the human nature of ,syria4 ,at times it is irrelevant and trying4 ,the camp guards1 e4g4 who are hired from the nearest village to watch the sleeping tents1 are apt to beguile the hours of darkness in a manner hardly conducive to repose4 ,in most of our camps they were silent figures1 flitting about in an almost ghostly fashion1 with perfectly noiseless footsteps4 ,but ,mac,gregor complains of having had to pay his ,egyptian guards 8for sleeping very loud to keep away the robbers40 ,our difficulties were not exactly the same as his1 but in some places the guards kept singing as they paced to and fro1 and shouted cheerily to one another along the whole length of the encampment1 or whistled incessantly1 and occasionally fired guns to prove their vigilance4 ,there is a sense of spontaneity and heartiness about the mirth of the ,east which throws into strong contrast its subtler and more gloomy characteristics4 ,irresponsible and gay1 ,syrians seem to be grown-up children1 and they retain the ways of childhood4 ,we rarely saw children playing games1 but bands of full-grown men were seen at times playing schoolboys' field games with much shouting4 ,everybody in the cities appears to be either selling or eating sweetmeats4 ,sport is rare1 but men go forth with guns to shoot little birds like sparrows4 ,one of the most curious sights of ,damascus is that of shopkeepers and artisans who go about the streets followed by pet lambs instead of dogs1 the wool of these strange little creatures being dyed in brilliant spots of blue or pink4 ,the kindliness of the ,east is as genuine and as pleasing as that of any land in the ,west4 ,it is not in evidence indeed when there is nothing to call it forth4 ,as you pass through the country1 the villagers and townsfolk regard you with indifference if not with scorn4 ,but one must remember the universal acting of the ,east--its devotion to appearances1 and its very curious ideas as to which appearances are most becoming4 ,with that in mind1 the indifference and the scorn become less alarming4 ,you may find the whole spirit of the situation suddenly change to one of the kindliest4 ,a traveller who has fallen victim to one of the malarial fevers which are so common in ,syria at certain periods1 will never forget the tenderness with which his camp-servants come about his tent inquiring1 8,ente mabsut80 7,are you happy1 or well874 ,when he returns the inquiry the answer is1 8,ente mabsut1 ana mabsut0 7,if you are happy1 ,i am happy74 ,at ,sidon we had just arrived and had the tents pitched in the open space next the burying-ground4 ,it was ,thursday1 and the graves were crowded with visitors--,mohammedan women in black1 white1 or light-coloured robes4 ,they did not seem very sad1 even beside the most recent graves1 but gossiped and enjoyed their half-holiday1 disappearing before sunset silently1 like a flock of pigeons to their dovecots4 ,the spectacle was theatrical and almost unearthly4 ,it was difficult to persuade oneself that these flitting figures were really women at all2 they seemed rather to be animated bits of landscape4 ,just while we were watching this1 and feeling all its dreamy remoteness from human life as we had ever known it1 two new figures appeared4 ,they were the gardener of a neighbouring garden and his young daughter ,wurda 7,rhoda1 ,rose74 ,she was five years of age1 a tiny vision of black eyes and hair1 the hair being arranged in two pigtails down her back4 ,she brought a little bunch of roses for each of us1 and as she gave them kissed our hands with as sweet a shyness as any child anywhere could have done4 ,the incident1 like that on the hill of ,samaria1 lingers on the memory1 and bears witness to a world of gentleness and kindliness such as we had little dreamed of4 ,altogether there are abundant signs that in ancient days there must have been much of that ,syrian life described by one scholar as 8gay and bright1 festive and musical--the very home of songs and dances40 ,it is pleasant to know that although the fortunes of the land have saddened her so terribly1 there still remains something at least of her former gaiety4 ,even the religion of ,syria has its lighter side4 ,every student of the ,bible knows how much there was of rejoicing and fresh childlike revelling in the situation1 in the worship of ancient ,israel4 ,it is peculiarly interesting to find that in the ,semitic worship before and apart from the invasion of ,israel1 so kindly and friendly a relation subsisted between man and his gods4 8,the circle into which a man was born was not simply a group of kinsfolk and fellow-citizens1 but embraced also certain divine beings1 the gods of the family and of the state1 which to the ancient mind were as much a part of the particular community with which they stood connected as the human members of the social circle40#cb ,accordingly it would appear that among these ancient ,semites the conception of sacrifice was by no means so gloomy as it came to be later1 when the moral tragedy of life was more clearly realised4 ,the idea was that of 8communion with the deity in a sacrificial meal of holy food40 ,they 8go on eating and drinking and rejoicing before their god with the assurance that he and they are on the best of jovial good terms4444 ,ancient religion assumes that through the help of the gods life is so happy and satisfactory that ordinary acts of worship are all brightness and hilarity1 expressing no other idea than that the worshippers are well content with themselves and with their divine sovereign40#cc ,of course the severer truth and cleaner conscience which ,israel's revelation brought her gradually deepened the shadows on her religious life4 ,she substituted duty for happiness1 the beauty of holiness for the mere joie de vivre1 and the tragic blessedness of forgiveness for the careless pleasures of life4 ,yet to the end she retained and insisted on the gladness of religion4 ,the duty of joy was a command and not merely an epigram for ,israel4 ,dante himself was not more explicit in his condemnation of perverse sullenness than was he who wrote1 8,because thou servedst not the ,lord thy ,god with joyfulness1 and with gladness of heart1 for the abundance of all things3 therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies40#cd ,it is surely a very striking fact that the spots which all travellers select as those in which the gladness of the land dwells most freely still are ,nazareth and ,bethlehem4 ,for beauty of feature and of dress1 and for their general air of pleasant and light-hearted gaiety1 these are the acknowledged centres4 ,it was of ,bethlehem that we felt this most true4 ,its name1 signifying 8,house of ,bread10 is significant of plenty and of comfort4 ,its associations1 even apart from the song of angels there1 are sweet and gracious4 ,while approaching it1 you look across a pleasant and lightsome landscape to the dim blue mountains of ,moab1 and remember how ,ruth looked across these very fields1 when the reapers of ,boaz were working in them1 to her distant home in those mountains4 ,here it was that ,king ,david in his boyhood played and tended the flocks of his father1 and it was the water of that sweet well for which he longed in the days of his adversity4 ,these and a hundred other memories prepare the traveller for a place of gracious and kindly sweetness4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,the ,,shadow ,,of ,,death ,we now turn sharply to the other side of things1 and it must be apparent to every one that we are passing from the smaller to the vastly greater element in the spirit of ,syria4 ,the text in ,deuteronomy which we quoted#ce shows us joy commanded at the sword's point1 as if the nation were unwilling and unlikely to obey easily the happy command4 ,even when ,jesus ,christ repeats the injunction in ,his great words1 8,rejoice and be exceeding glad10 it is a defiant gladness ,he enjoins4 ,the context shows that the rejoicing is that of persecuted and slandered men4 ,a recent writer has bitterly described our march through life in the words3 8,we uphold our wayward steps with the promises and the commandments for crutches1 but on either side of us trudge the shadow ,death and the bacchanal ,sex40#cf ,the words sound profane to ,western ears1 but they are not untrue of the spirit of ,syria4 ,it is of 8the shadow ,death0 that the present chapter treats4 ,as primitive religion decayed and men lost their sense of kinship and their easy and friendly relations with the old gods1 they were left alone with death1 which everywhere stared them in the face and claimed them for its own4 ,next to ,god1 death is the most impressive fact in human experience1 with sin for its sting4 ,when old and defective views of ,god are passing away1 two courses are open to men4 ,as death closes in upon them1 and they feel its grasp upon their unprotected souls1 they may appeal from it to ,god1 and find ,him revealing ,himself1 with eternal life for them in the knowledge of ,him4 ,this was what the noblest of ,israel's thinkers did1 and the growing revelation of the ,bible was their reward4 ,god showed ,himself to them in ever-increasing clearness1 until one and another and another of them found that the hand that grasped them was 8not ,death but ,love40 ,but another course is open4 ,they may enthrone death in place of the broken gods--8,death is king1 and vivat rex60 ,they may 8say to corruption1 ,thou art my father2 to the worm1 ,thou art my mother1 and my sister40 ,then the emphasis of thought will fall on the grave1 and all men's imaginations will grow morbid4 ,the tombs of the ,holy ,land are of many patterns4 ,in his ,haifa1 ,laurence ,oliphant describes several different kinds of them1 from the cave-sepulchres1 or the underground galleries1 to the little wayside graves or narrow holes driven into rock which seem such tightly-fitting homes for the dead4 ,there are1 of course1 the modern graves sacred to the wives and children of missionaries who have laid down their lives in the loving service of ,christ and man4 ,buckle the historian sleeps in the ,christian burying-ground at ,damascus1 and ,henriette ,renan was laid to rest in ,byblus4 ,these graves and others dear to the ,western world are1 as graves have been since ,abraham's day1 symbols of the strangers' inheritance and lot in the ,holy ,land4 ,from these1 back to the tombs of hoariest antiquity1 the country is bound by an unbroken chain of death4 ,through all the centuries the dead have been thrust upon the notice of the living in a fashion so obtrusive as to make this the most obvious impression of the land4 ,most of the graves are those of persons now unknown and quite forgotten4 ,small and great1 common men and heroes1 are alike conspicuous in death4 ,each of the invaders has left his memorial1 and the sites of ancient cities are traced by help of their burying-grounds4 ,moslem tombs are everywhere4 ,most of them are oblong structures of rude but solid masonry erected over shallow graves4 ,in some cases a painted tarbush 7fez-cap7 marks the head and a little upright stone the feet4 ,a slight hollow is often cut in the flat top for birds to drink from4 ,tombs are clustered among their iris-flowers beside the walls of villages4 ,they have crept up to the very summit of the hill which ,gordon identifies as ,calvary4 ,they have encroached on the palace of ,herod's daughter at ,samaria4 ,they crowd the ground outside the built-up 8,gate ,beautiful0 at ,jerusalem4 ,there is1 to our feelings1 a certain indecency in this promiscuous invasion of the grave3 ,mohammedans seem ,illustration3 ,,the ,,church ,,of ,,the ,,nativity ,,at ,,bethlehem4 ,from a garden on the opposite hill4 to bury their dead anywhere4 ,the ,crusaders have left fewer memorials of themselves in the shape of tombs than one might have expected4 ,barbarossa's tomb we have already visited4 ,for the rest1 their memorials are mostly those great buildings whose ruins stand to this day4 ,early ,christianity1 too1 has left its tombs--catacombs and single graves1 especially in the southern part of the coast1 and eastwards in ,hauran4 ,people of importance have sometimes more than one tomb1 like ,st4 ,george1 who is buried both in ,lydda and ,damascus4 ,but the graves of humbler ,christians are more precious than these1 for their inscriptions remain1 breathing forth the faith and peace with which ,christ had blessed the world4 ,such memorials of victory over death are inextinguishable lamps hung in the sepulchres of ,syria4 ,and these lamps are kindled at the ,great ,light4 ,never was symbolism more appropriate than that of the ,holy ,fire in the ,church of the ,sepulchre4 ,the very heart and soul of ,syria is a tomb--the reputed grave of ,jesus ,christ4 ,to this day the chief pilgrim song repeats with exultant reiteration the words1 8,this is the tomb of ,christ40 ,it is a song which has never been silent in the land4 ,in the ,crusader camps a herald closed the day with the loud cry1 8,lord1 succour the ,holy ,sepulchre02 and the sentinels passed the word from post to post1 8,remember the ,holy ,sepulchre40 ,it is not1 however1 the victory over death that impresses one as the spirit of ,syria4 ,it is death itself1 unconquered1 mysterious1 and dark4 ,its ,christian tombs are few and far between compared with the countless multitude of sepulchres where there is no lamp alight4 ,most common and most impressive of these are the ,roman and ,greek graves4 ,the sands of ,tyre and ,sidon are strewn with sarcophagi4 ,here a man's magnificently carved stone coffin serves for a drinking-trough1 there a little child's stands alone and desolate near a river mouth4 ,in ,sidon the ancient cemetery is on a scale whose rifled grandeur speaks volumes concerning the vanity of earthly greatness4 ,at ,gadara1 the eastward road is a miniature ,appian ,way3 hollow to the tread of horses as they cross the excavated rock1 and adorned with sarcophagi carved with crowns and garlands1 but bearing inscriptions without hope in them4 ,farther north1 on the eastern slopes of ,hermon1 we found a far older monument near one of the ,druse villages4 ,we were crossing a little brook1 when we noticed that the bridge consisted of two huge monolithic slabs of limestone1 which1 on examination1 appeared to be the lids of ancient sarcophagi4 ,the carving on the ends was obviously intended to represent figures of cherubim or some such winged creatures4 ,the heads were gone1 but the plumage of the wings was very perfectly preserved4 ,no one in the locality knew anything about their origin4 ,their general appearance seemed to connect them with the far ,east4 ,the ,jewish tombs are those which impress the imagination most with the bitterness of death in ,syria4 ,they are so sad1 with their antique solemnity--so severely simple and unadorned4 ,where there is carving it is almost always of ,roman or ,christian workmanship4 ,a few stones with such symbols as the seven-branched candlestick engraved on them are the only unquestionable remains of ornamental ,jewish work4 ,few of the ,jewish sepulchres have escaped appropriation by ,gentiles4 ,the more famous of them have been appropriated by the ,mohammedans1 and early ,christian tradition is responsible for many other indentifications4 ,the saints and heroes of ,israel1 claimed also by ,mohammedans and ,christians1 have achieved a kind of funereal immortality which makes the whole land seem one vast graveyard4 ,every prospect is dotted with tombs4 ,the tomb of ,jonas shines white from its hill-top north of ,hebron1 that of ,samuel north of ,jerusalem1 while ,joseph's tomb commands the view where the ,vale of ,shechem opens on the wider valley of ,makhnah4 ,none of them1 however1 is at all so impressive as the tomb of ,rachel1 where a modern house and dome cover a rough block of stone worn smooth with the kisses of centuries of ,jewish women4 ,the wailing1 as we saw it there1 is a memorable custom4 ,the women were mostly elderly or aged1 but they were weeping real tears and wailing bitterly as they kissed the stone4 ,it is an old story that consecrates that rough stone1 but how eternal is its human pathos3 8,and they journeyed from ,bethel2 and there was but a little way to come to ,ephrath3 and ,rachel travailed1 and she had hard labour4444 ,and ,rachel died1 and was buried in the way to ,ephrath1 which is ,bethlehem40#cg ,the earlier fashion of ,jewish work seems to have been the 8pigeon-hole10 in which the corpse was thrust into a little tunnel six feet long driven at right angles to the rock face4 ,later1 troughs were excavated to fit the body along the line of the rock4 ,in some instances these graves1 especially the former kind1 are found in detached groups in wayside rocks1 whose perpendicular faces front the open air4 ,for the most part they are grouped in larger numbers within natural caves or subterranean excavations1 whose low doorway is blocked by a large circular stone running in a groove4 ,a later example of such a cave is that which is shewn as the 8new tomb0 of ,joseph of ,arimathea1 close to ,gordon's ,calvary4 ,a few specimens of another sort1 built of masonry without cement1 are to be found in ,galilee4#ch ,nothing could be gloomier than the constantly repeated ruins of ancient ,jewish graves in ,syria4 ,no day's journey is without them4 ,they meet you casually1 as it were1 at every turning4 ,they are not1 indeed1 quite dark like the pagan tombs2 but the twilight1 in which the hope of immortality just broke the darkness for ancient ,israel1 is grey and cheerless1 and the contribution of ,jewish graves to the spirit of ,syria is a very sombre one4 ,the typical spot for this side of the spirit of ,syria is the town of ,hebron4 ,the lanes and the dark bazaar are filthy and foul-smelling4 ,the mosque is an impressive building1 suggestive of military rather than devotional ideas4 ,the ,tomb of ,abraham1 which it covers1 is one of the sights which only a very few ,christian eyes have seen4 ,it is permitted to none but ,mohammedans to approach nearer the entrance to it than the seventh step of the lane1 or staircase1 alongside its eastern wall4 ,there is a hole in that wall which is supposed to communicate with the cave below4 ,jews write letters to ,abraham1 and place them in this hole1 to tell him how badly they are being treated by the ,moslems4 ,but the ,moslem boys are said to know that the hole has no great depth1 and to collect these letters and burn them before ,abraham has seen them4 ,the tomb is the very heart and black centre of the ,shadow of ,death in ,palestine4 ,there is no part of man's faith in which it is more necessary to be thoroughgoing than in his thoughts about immortality4 ,egypt and ,greece furnish examples of great significance here4 ,egypt held an elaborate doctrine of the future life1 and it dominated all her thought concerning this life4 ,men built their tombs and kings their pyramids as the most important of their life's achievements4 ,the earthly house of the ,egyptian was but an inn where he spent a little time in passing2 his tomb was his eternal house and real home4 ,thus the tombs were glorified copies of the dwelling-houses1 either of the present1 or more often of a former generation4#ci ,greece1 on the other hand1 did not believe in a life beyond the grave4 ,her funeral celebrations were full of lamentation1 and her inscriptions sound sad enough to us4 ,but it was a principle with ,greece and ,rome to decorate tombs exclusively with glad symbols such as sculptured flowers and even dances4#dj ,the point to be observed about these is that neither of them was morbid4 ,morbidness appears to avoid a robust faith or a frank scepticism1#da and to cling about the thought which is neither sure of one thing nor another4 ,israel's position in regard to the belief in immortality is extremely difficult to define4 ,it was obviously with her a thing of gradual development1 as her revelation opened its broadening light upon life's problems4 ,he would be a bold critic who would sum up the situation of ,isaiah's time as ,renan does in the statement1 8not looking beyond the world for reward and punishment10 the ,hebrew life 8has a heroic tension1 a sustained cry1 an unceasing attention to the events of the world40 ,everything goes to shew that long before the faith in immortality had grasped the imagination and the belief of the people in general it had been revealed to chosen spirits4 ,as for the others1 it had been working its way among them1 occupying their minds in speculation1 and leading them1 as it were1 among the shades of the nether world4 ,there was something in the genius of the nation which rendered this interest in death quite inevitable4 ,the natural bearing of the people has a strange solemnity about it1 which finds constant expression in pose and gesture1 and often strikes the stranger with sudden vividness4 ,women may be often seen1 especially when clad in thin white garments on holidays1 who might stand just as you see them as models for monumental sculpture4 ,along with all its activities1 there is a distinct sympathy with death in the genius of ,israel4 ,this phenomenon is1 of course1 due to very complex causes4 ,it is a deep-rooted ,semitic instinct1 which seems to be not altogether unlike that of the ,egyptian feeling to the tomb as the real home4 ,some parts of ,arabia are very rich in sacred tombs and spots of holy ground1 and pilgrimages are made to these both by ,moslems and by ,jews4 ,long strings of mules1 laden with coffins1 wend their way to such sacred places as ,nejf1 and thousands of corpses are sent thither even from ,india4#db ,old tombstones are held in peculiar veneration by the more devout ,arabs4 ,the well-known reverence with which the ,syrian ,jews regard the tombs of their ancestors may be in part explained on the ground of patriotic loyalty4 ,such scenes as those which may be witnessed at the tomb of ,rachel1 remind us that a sense of the pathos of human life and its mortality is also developed strongly and enters as a very real factor into the spirit of ,syria4#dc ,nor can there be any doubt that a certain moral or didactic use of death is also characteristic of the ,east1 such as is expressed in the sententious rhymes of old graveyards in this country4 ,the reader will recall the famous instance of this1 which ,sir ,walter ,scott has made familiar--the shroud which served for the banner of ,saladin1 with its inscription1 8,saladin must die40#dd ,if1 however1 such elements have entered into earlier thoughts of death1 it is to be feared that ,palestine of the present day has little of them left4 ,the great light of ,christ illuminated the sepulchres of ,christian ,syria2 but with the ,mohammedan conquest darkness fell again1 and all the morbid fascination of the grave reasserted itself4 ,there is little reverence for the ordinary man's place of burial now1 whether it be of ancient or of recent date4 ,dr4 ,merrill tells how he has found ,arabs actually stealing graves1 i4e4 clearing out old ones to make room for a newly-deceased body1 on the plea that 8the dead man who was buried there could not possibly want his grave any longer40#de ,on many a hillside the rock tombs are rent and split1 like pictures from ,dante's ,inferno1 where they have been blasted open with gunpowder in the search for treasure2 and sometimes parties of natives may be seen prowling about a hillside on that business4 ,the find may consist of glass bracelets1 which have to be taken from the bone of a baby's arm1 or gold earrings beside the skull whose face was once fair2 but they excite no emotion except that of money values4 ,laurence ,oliphant had difficulty in restraining the natives who searched with him from smashing the cinerary urns they found1 on ,illustration3 ,,jerusalem--,,exterior ,,of ,,the ,,golden1 ,,or ,,beautiful1 ,,gate4 ,this gate1 which was walled up by the ,arabs after the conquest of ,jerusalem1 forms a tower projecting from the ,eastern ,wall of the ,temple ,area4 ,the tombs in the foreground are part of the great ,mohammedan ,cemetery extending along the ,eastern ,wall of ,jerusalem4 the plea that 8they are so very old that they are not worth anything40 ,with the decay of reverence for the dead1 however1 there seems to have been a recrudescence of that morbid and charnel-house interest in death which marks the spirit of the land4 ,at times one is shocked by the apparently total indifference displayed--houses being built close to the mouths of graves or even1 it is said1 upon the roofs of them4 ,yet any one who has seen a festival at a holy tomb1 whether ,jewish or ,mohammedan1 must have realised the strong attraction by which death and the grave draw men4 ,a curious instance of this is that of the 8,jews' ,burning0 at ,tiberias4 ,tiberias has been a ,jewish centre since the time of ,vespasian4 ,before that time1 ,jews avoided the city1 because in building it ,herod had disturbed a burial-place4 ,to-day1 by a strange coincidence1 it is a tomb that gives it its special popularity for the ,jews--the grave of the famous ,rabbi ,meir4 ,conveniently near the tomb there are large baths1 whose warm and sulphurous water is considered highly medicinal4 ,at this tomb a curious spectacle may be seen on the second day of ,may each year4 ,jewish pilgrims from near and far assemble1 bringing with them their oldest garments1 which are immersed in a great cauldron of oil1 and then piled up and burned4 ,the honour of setting fire to the pile is sold to the highest bidder1 and the sum paid reaches #ae or more4 ,the same fascination of death1 seen as it were past a byplay of irreverence and grotesqueness1 is felt in the burial customs as they are seen to-day4 ,at the ,moslem funerals we saw there was no appearance of mourning4 ,the men were dressed in gay colours1 and they trotted along behind the corpse talking and gesticulating with an apparent gusto4 ,it may have been the unusual appearance of the thing which impressed strangers more powerfully than natives2 but to us it seemed that the realism of death was here in more crude and aggressive consciousness than in ,western funerals4 ,the corpse lay on a board1 shoulder-high1 with a gorgeous crimson and purple pall covering his body and limbs instead of a coffin4 ,the head1 wrapped tight in a napkin1 rested on a pillow1 and the features of the face stood prominently out against the sky4 ,the man seemed1 in an altogether gruesome way1 to be attending his own funeral1 and to be thrusting the fact of his presence on the spectators4 ,this may be subjective criticism1 and it is always unfair to judge the burial-customs of other peoples without intimate knowledge of their origin and inner meaning4 ,in one respect1 however1 it is certain enough that the ,shadow of ,death rests upon the land of ,syria4 ,that is ,fatalism4 ,we have all heard of the fatalism of the ,east2 and strange stones have become familiar1 of soldiers selling cartridges to their enemies1 of villagers refusing to drain the swamp that was decimating them by its malaria1 or even to desist from poisoning their own springs with foul water4 8,it is ,allah60 ends all questioning and checks all energy4 ,yet the constant recurrence of living instances of fatalism shocks the traveller1 however well he was prepared for them4 ,a traveller asked a ,mohammedan in ,damascus what they had done to the workman who upset his brazier and burned the great mosque4 8,oh nothing10 said he1 8what should we do80 8,i should have thought you might have killed him40 8,no10 he replied2 8in the ,west you say when such things happen1 #8,it is the devil'2 in the ,east we say1 #8,it is ,god6'0 ,still more impressive was a conversation with one of the camp-servants during a long ride near ,jezreel4 ,he had told the pathetic story of his life--how they had lived comfortably till the father died1 leaving no money2 then came work1 begun too early and with no providence and little hope of success1 until it had come to be 8eat1 drink1 sleep1 then again1 eat1 drink1 sleep--then die and sleep1 no more eat nor drink40 ,the ,syrian character of the present day has been well expressed on its negative side in three traits4 ,these are1 want of concentration1 want of will-power1 and an absolute want of the sense of sin4 ,of sin they literally do not understand the meaning1 the substitute for conscience being a dread of the opinion of friends and of the public4 ,they do not think about the problem of evil as in any sense a practical problem4 8,the ,lord said unto ,ahriman1 ,i know why ,i have made thee1 but thou knowest not0--that is their philosophy of the moral mystery of things4 ,conder sums up the situation in striking words3 8,christian villages thrive and grow1 while the ,moslem ones fall into decay2 and this difference1 though due perhaps in part to the foreign protection which the native ,christians enjoy1 is yet unmistakably connected with the listlessness of those who believe that no exertions of their own can make them richer or better1 that an iron destiny decides all things1 without reference to any personal quality higher than that of submission to fate1 and that ,god will help those who have lost the will to help themselves40#df ,the spirit of ,syria is darkened by a shadow of death that has grown not only familiar but congenial1 as darkness does to all who choose it rather than the light4 ,strange that ,syria should thus have 8made a covenant with death10 she from whom shone forth once the ,light of the ,world4 ,but that was long ago4 ,these many centuries this has been one of that sad multitude of nations and of individuals who have sent forth a spirit that has inspired and moved the world1 and who yet themselves sit desolate and listless4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,the ,,spectral ,,the shadow of death is always haunted4 ,a strong and pure faith peoples it with angels1 and is accompanied through its darkness by that ,good ,shepherd whose rod and staff comfort the soul4 ,when the faith is neither strong nor pure1 and when those who sit in darkness have been disloyal to their faith1 it is haunted by spectres1 and its darkness becomes poisonous4 ,the fascination of the marvellous passes into 8what ,french writers call the macabre--that species of almost insane preoccupation with our mouldering flesh1 that luxury of disgust in gazing on corruption40#dg ,this unclean spectral element is a very real part of the spirit of ,syria4 ,the spell of the ,east is proverbial1 and it is a more literal fact than is sometimes realised4 ,even such a commonsense ,englishman as the captain of the ,rob ,roy confesses to a nameless fear that came upon him in the solitudes of the upper ,jordan4#dh ,there is a well-known passage in ,eothen1 where ,kinglake describes the calculating merchant1 the inquisitive traveller1 the wakeful post-captain all coming under the spell of ,asia4#di ,the warmth and strangeness of the land may have something to do with it2 but the associations and the prevalent tone of thought have more4 ,every one feels it whose imagination and heart are in the least measure open to spiritual impressions4 ,to analyse it or to specify the causes which have produced it were an impossible task4 ,three things have to do with it very specially4 ,there is the habit of the ,eastern mind in dealing with matters of fact4 ,truth is not to the ,oriental the primary moral necessity which it is to the ,west4 ,vividness and forcefulness of presentation count for at least as much4 ,the ,arab story-teller is said to close his enumeration of various legends with the sacramental formula1 8,god knows best where the truth lies10--the truth being a matter of ,god's responsibility1 while to man is committed only responsibility for being interesting4 ,again1 in the ,east1 terror is a recognised force between man and man2 and the great forces of nature and the more occult forces of magic are recognised and taken as part of the natural order4 ,religion also has had her share in the 8,great ,asian ,mystery40 ,this land is1 to most devout persons1 altogether isolated and apart1 as the place of a divine revelation such as no other part of earth has known4 ,there is a passage in ,pseudo-,aristeas where1 describing his supposed embassy to ,jerusalem1 he gazes at the constant waving of the veil in the ,temple1 which screened from his view the holiest things of ,israel4 ,as it rippled and swung in the wind it seemed to tantalise the gazer with the never-fulfilled promise of a glimpse into the secret place4#ej ,the wistful sense of mystery in that letter gives a hint which is of extraordinary significance on this subject4 ,the geographical formation of the land and its strange colouring lend themselves to the spectral and the uncanny4 ,the ,dead ,sea presents the most sinister landscape in the world4 ,the opening paragraphs of ,scott's ,talisman1 founded upon the description of ,josephus1 are certainly overdrawn1 yet in truth everything conspires to produce a sense of ghostliness by these unearthly shores4 ,a ring of 8scalded hills0 encircles them1 and a perpetual haze lies upon their waters4 ,their soil is nitrous and their springs sulphurous4 ,blocks of asphalt lie among their shingle2 and fish1 dead and salted1 are cast up by the waves4 ,there is little life visible about them1 whether of man or beast or bird4 ,here and there the tempting ,apple of ,sodom grows1 to appearance the most luscious of fruits1 but so dry that its core is combustible and is used as tinder by the ,arabs4 ,a few feet above the summer level of the sea runs an unbroken line of drift-wood washed down by winter floods and left white and sparkling with crusted salt4 ,yet it was not the ,dead ,sea that seemed to us most unearthly1 but that more famous lake of which one thinks so differently4 ,it would be a curious and instructive task to collect the various impressions which the ,sea of ,galilee has made upon travellers4 ,romance and piety conspire to furnish many of its visitors with a predisposition to find it surpassingly beautiful2 and not a little could be quoted which owes most of its touches to the imagination of the writer4 ,a natural rebellion against this has led to no less exaggerated expressions of disappointment1 and to accusations of ugliness which are simply untrue4 ,the fact is that ordinary canons of description are of no avail here4 ,the ,sea of ,galilee1 even so far as natural appearance goes1 must be judged by itself4 ,journeying to it from ,tabor1 you ride across a rather characterless tract of country4 ,a jackal1 a stray ,circassian horseman1 a low black tent of the ,bedawin1 are the only signs of life4 ,suddenly the track1 sweeping up over the farther side of a shallow and rudely cultivated valley1 lands you on an unexpected edge1 from which the ground falls sheer away before you into the basin of the lake4 ,this is not scenery2 it is tinted sculpture1 it is jewel-work on a gigantic scale4 ,the rosy flush of sunset was on it when we caught the first glimpse4 ,at our feet lay a great flesh-coloured cup full of blue liquor2 or rather the whole seemed some lapidary's quaint fancy in pink marble and blue-stone4 ,there was no translucency1 but an aggressive opaqueness1 in sea and shore alike4 ,the dry atmosphere showed everything in sharpest outline1 clear-cut and broken-edged4 ,there was no shading or variety of colour1 but a strong and unsoftened contrast4 ,to be ,illustration3 ,,the ,,tomb ,,of ,,rachel4 ,on the road from ,jerusalem to ,hebron4 ,it is stated in the #ceth chapter of ,genesis that ,rachel died and was buried in the way to ,hebron 7,ephrath74 quite accurate1 there was one break--a splash of white1 with the green suggestion of trees and grass1 lying on the water's edge directly beneath us--,tiberias4 ,when1 next day1 we sailed upon the lake1 coasting along the western shore from north to south1 we found ourselves again as far removed from anything we had seen or experienced before4 ,a casual glance showed utter and abject desolation1 and a silence that might be heard oppressed the spirit4 ,as the eye grew more accustomed1 villages were discerned4 ,but what villages6 ,with the same exception of ,tiberias1 they were brown slabs of flat-roofed cubical hovels--let into the slope of the shore or the foot-hills4 ,and as we skirted closer along the beach1 we descried everywhere traces of ruined architecture4 ,it appeared to form a continuous ring of towers2 columns broken and tumbled1 but showing elaborately carved capitals2 aqueducts and retaining walls2 fragments of all sorts1 and apparently of widely different styles of architecture4 ,foliage is scanty1 save for the thorn-trees and bamboo canes in which the carved stones are often half buried4 ,here and there a plantation of orchard trees hides a trim little ,german garden4 ,at ,tiberias a few palm trees lend their graceful suggestion of the ,far ,east4 ,all this impresses one in a quite unique way4 ,you try to reconstruct the past--rebuild the castles and synagogues and palaces1 and imagine the life that sent forth its fleets upon the lake in the days of ,jesus4 ,or you more daringly attempt the future landscape1 and imagine these hillsides as scientific cultivation and the withdrawal of oppressive government may yet make them4 ,but from it all you are driven back upon the extraordinary present--petrified1 uncanny1 spectral--a part of the earth on which some spell has fallen1 and over which some ghostly influence broods1 silencing the daylight1 and whispering in the darkness4 ,if1 however1 this sense of the ghostly be intenser here than elsewhere1 it is but an exaggeration of the spirit of the whole land4 ,nature in ,syria seems always to have something of the supernatural about her4 ,not only in the petrifactions of the ,lejja and the silent stone cities east of ,jordan is this the case4 ,the whole country offers you stones when you ask for trees1 and that mere fact of its stoniness is enough to lend it the air of another world4 ,as an indirect consequence trees1 when they are found1 assume a factitious importance1 and a supernatural significance either for good or evil4 ,some of the fairest plants of ,syria are treacherous as they are fair4 ,one of our company1 in gathering sprays of a peculiarly lovely creeper1 somewhat resembling a white passion-flower1 had his hand wounded with invisible but virulent needles which caused it to swell and gave great pain4 ,the green spots1 where grass and trees abound1 tempt the unwary to drink and rest in them4 ,but they are the most dangerous places in the land1 and some of them are deadly from malaria4 ,on the other hand1 a tree in a treeless country is an object of preciousness inconceivable by any who have not come upon it from the wilderness4 ,in the distance it beckons the traveller with the promise of shade and water4 ,arrived beneath its branches1 life takes on a new aspect2 kindly voices are heard in the rustle of its leaves1 and gracious gifts seen in its shadow and its fruit4 ,it is said that our fleur-de-lis pattern1 often supposed to represent the flower of the lily or the iris1 is really an ,eastern symbol4 ,the central stem is the sacred date-palm1 while the side-lines and the horizontal band stand for ox-horns tied to the stem to avert the evil eye4 ,it is no wonder if by the ancient ,semites trees were regarded as demoniac beings1 or as growing from the body of a buried god4#ea ,such traditions are no longer to be found in their ancient forms1 but they linger in a vague sense of the holiness of conspicuous trees1 which may be seen covered with rags of clothing hung on them by natives4 ,a like play of imagination has from time immemorial haunted the pools--especially those whose dark waters made them seem bottomless--with holy or unholy mystery4 ,still more terrible is the superstitious dread with which the natives regard undrained morasses4 ,the ,serbonian ,bog on the south coast has from of old been regarded with special fear1 owing to its treacherous appearance of sound earth4 ,the marsh in which the ,abana loses itself shares with the ,serbonian ,bog its grim distinction1 chiefly on account of its deep black wells1 which the natives take to be man-devouring whirlpools4 ,in her grander and more impressive features1 ,nature is in ,syria constantly suggestive of the play of occult powers4 ,earthquake has left its mark in many a split rampart and broken tower1 and that of itself is enough to give a peculiarly ghostly tinge to the spirit of any land4 ,the unspeakable loneliness of the desert has its own magic--a melancholy spell which has no parallel in other lands4 ,in the desert1 too1 the sky conspires with the earth in its bewitchment4 ,the mirage has power to arrest and overawe the spirit with something of the same sense of helplessness as that felt in earthquake4 ,in the one case earth1 in the other heaven1 are turning ordinary procedure upside down1 and the bewildered mortal knows not what is to come next upon him4 ,the writer has had experience of both1 though with an interval of several years between them4 ,the mirage he saw to the east of the ,great ,haj ,road in ,hauran4 ,for some time the rocky hills of the ,lejja had been the horizon1 shimmering dimly through the heat-haze4 ,suddenly1 on looking up1 he was amazed to find that the hills had disappeared1 and in their place had come a long string of camels on the sky-line1 with an island1 a lake1 and a grove of palm-trees floating in the air above them4 ,the sudden apparition recalled on the instant a day in the ,antipodes when he felt1 though at a great distance1 the tremble of the ,new ,zealand earthquakes4 ,either experience is unearthly enough to explain many superstitions4 ,in most lands the sea would have yielded a larger crop of unearthly imaginations than has been the case in ,palestine4 ,for reasons which have been already stated1 ,israel kept out of touch with the ocean4 ,yet1 all the more on that account1 it is the case that almost every thought she has of the sea is fearsome4 ,its immensity bewilders her with the unhomely distances of the world1 and the four winds strive savagely upon it4 ,the roar and surge of the shore are all she needs to remember in order to impress herself with its terror4 ,now and then she thinks of the ,great ,deep1 and of its horrible inhabitants--leviathan unwieldily sporting there1 and other nameless monsters bred of the slime and ooze1 and the dead men who are waiting to float up from their places to the ,great ,judgment1 when their time shall come4 ,mention of the ,great ,deep reminds us of yet another prolific source of the spectral element in ,syrian thought4 ,it was but natural that the sound of underground rivers and their explanation by the theory of a world founded on bottomless floods 7the 8waters underneath the earth071 should have given to the whole land an air of possession by ghostly powers4 ,it may have been that same phenomenon which drew down the imagination of ,syria to the subterranean regions1 or it may also have been to some extent the hereditary greed of buried treasure1 which every nation whose buildings have been often overturned is likely to acquire4 ,whatever be its explanation1 the fact is certain that the underground element is one which counts for much in the spirit of ,syria4 ,alike in ,christian and in pre-,christian times there seems to have been a most unwholesome dread of fresh air blowing about holy things4 ,sacred caves and pits were among the most characteristic properties of ancient ,semitic religion4#eb ,as for ,christian tradition1 it seems positively to dread the open air4 ,the ,nativity in ,bethlehem and the ,agony in ,gethsemane have each their cave assigned to them1 and many another site has a cave either discovered or actually constructed for its commemoration4 ,nature and history have combined to encourage the underground tendency4 ,palestine is remarkable for the number and size of its natural caverns1 and it is not slow to add its imaginative touch to the length of them1 connecting distant towns with supposed subterranean passages4 ,these caves have been used as dwelling-places from very ancient times4 ,the strange cities of ,edom and of ,bashan are well known to all as wonders4 ,and not in these places only1 but in many other parts of the land1 men have dwelt beneath the ground4 ,in times of invasion1 for the solitude of hermit life1 and in the terrors of persecution1 caves have offered natural places of refuge and of hiding1 which have in many cases been greatly enlarged by excavation4 ,besides those caverns whose interest lies in the memory of ancient inhabitants1 there are some of an interest whose terror is not yet departed4 ,these are the cave-dwellings of lunatics1 who in former times often chose the dead for company and inhabited tombs4 ,now1 in some places they are chained in black recesses of mountain caverns1 where their life must be horrible indeed4 ,there are also one or two caves in ,syria which end in sudden perpendicular shafts of great depth1 where adulteresses are said to meet their fate4 ,such modern instances may have reinforced the natural fascination of the occult which subterranean places offer4 ,but there is something congenial to it in the spirit of ,syria quite apart from these4 ,if the natural features of ,syria thus tempt men towards the ghastly side of things1 her history suggests plenty of material for superstition to work upon4 ,if the legend were true that no dew nor rain would moisten the spot where a man had been murdered1 ,syria would be no longer an oasis1 but the driest of deserts4 ,in a spiritual sense the legend is truer than it seems4 ,when1 in his ,laughing ,mill1 ,julian ,hawthorne works out the idea of a mystic sympathy in ,nature with crimes that have been done by man1 he is reminding us of something which every one of sensitive spirit has more or less clearly felt4 ,in ,nathaniel ,hawthorne's subtler tales the same idea is worked out in a fashion still more convincing4 ,there are times and places when it is difficult to resist the conviction that the material world1 in its dumb1 unconscious way1 is yet burdened with the weight of man's evil deeds4 ,in ,syria one can almost hear 8the groaning and travailing of the whole creation40 ,it seems to be a land waiting the hour of its release1 and meanwhile shrouded in deeper mystery than any other land4 ,something has happened here1 you feel1 which never happened elsewhere2 something is going to happen here again1 when the time shall come4 ,nothing could better attest this fact than the extraordinary wealth of legend in ,syria4 ,fragments of ,bible story1 changed and often distorted by those who have retold them1 are met with every day4 ,sometimes a story has passed from ,jews to ,christians and from ,christians to ,mohammedans1 increasing steadily in marvellousness and decreasing in verisimilitude as it passed4 ,samson1 ,goliath1 and the prophet ,jonah are notable cases in point4 ,a ,mohammedan weli marks the spot where the latter was thrown ashore2 but the inventors of this legend have been inconsiderate4 ,the weli stands at the bend of a shallow sandy beach1 where the whale must either have itself come ashore to deposit the prophet1 or have projected him a distance of at least a hundred yards4 ,a very curious instance of a similar kind is that of the fall of ,jericho as narrated in ,joshua vi4 ,conder gives two legends1 both of which are obviously elaborated forms of that account4 ,one of these is a ,samaritan story of iron walls1 and the other a ,mohammedan one of a city of brass whose walls fell after ,aly1 the son-in-law of ,mohammed1 had ridden seven times round them4#ec ,still more curious is a legend related by the same author1 which looks like a ,mohammedan version of the ,wandering ,jew4 ,it tells how1 at ,abila1 ,cain was allowed to lay down the corpse of his brother ,abel after carrying it for a hundred years4 ,the whole story of the ,herods has infested the region of their crimes with the ghosts of their victims4 ,in ,samaria the murdered ,mariamne still seems to dwell in her honey1 and ,herod and his servants to call her by name and force the pretence that ,illustration3 ,,the ,,valley ,,of ,,hinnom ,,with ,,the ,,hill ,,of ,,offence ,the upper portion of the picture to the left is the ,hill of ,offence1 with the village of ,siloam on its lower slopes4 she is yet alive4 ,the land is sick with ancient crimes whose blood 8crieth from the ground40 ,the religions of the land seem to be in league with the powers of darkness for the propagation of magic lore4 ,it is an extraordinary fact that ,syria has sent forth to the ends of the earth a religion that is the ,eternal ,word of ,god to mankind1 and yet herself has reverted to the religious conceptions of ancient ,semitic paganism4 ,one of the most fundamental of these conceptions was that of a religion whose essential element is not belief but ritual4#ed ,while in the ,west the free play of reason has tested and interpreted ,israel's faith1 and discovered in it the unique revelation of the living ,god to man1 the worshippers in the ,holy ,land itself seem to treat that same faith wholly as a department of magic lore4 ,certain rites have to be performed1 no matter how unintelligently1 and that is all4 ,all creeds alike share the blame of this4 ,druse and ,samaritan1 ,jew1 ,christian1 and ,mohammedan vie with one another to-day in the poor ambition of making the religion of ,jehovah contemptible in the eyes of thinking men who investigate it as it is practised on its native soil4 ,much of the magic of the ,east is decadent or decayed religion4 ,on rare occasions a marriage superstition may be met with1 such as the foretelling of marriage destinies by tying green twigs with one hand1#ee which appears to be the creation of pure romance4 ,but the great majority of those superstitions which hold the ,eastern mind in bondage are evidently relics of pagan thought incorporated now in ,jewish1 ,christian1 or ,moslem creeds1 and absorbing all the interest of those who believe in them4 ,if a ,mohammedan saint's bones flew through the air from ,damascus to ,mount ,ebal1 the ,christians can match the miracle and more1 for was not the very house of the ,virgin carried off by angels from ,nazareth to ,loreto lest the ,moslems should desecrate it8 ,magic dominates the mind of the ,east and explains everything there to this day4 ,every inscribed stone runs the chance either of being honoured by a place in the wall of a dwelling or of being heated with fire and split with water1 according to the sort of magic it is supposed to represent4 ,it is difficult to realise that the men you converse with are actually living in the world of ,tasso's ,gerusalemme ,liberata1 where a dealer in black art1 by his incantation1 unbinds the demons of the deep to do ,deeds without name1 or chains them in his cell1 ,and makes e'en ,pluto pale upon the throne of hell4 ,yet such is undoubtedly the case4 ,even the saddle-bags you buy at ,jerusalem--those gorgeous labyrinths of shells and tassels--have a blue bead concealed somewhere in them to return the stare of any evil eye that may look upon your horse4 ,to avert the same danger you will see little boys dressed in girls' clothes1 and specially pretty children kept dirty and untidy4 ,lest the dreaded eye should blight the fortunes of a newborn babe the ,jewish ,rabbis sometimes hang up the #abast ,psalm on the wall over mother and child4 ,magic is as useful a substitute for science as it is for religion4 ,it explains any phenomenon and clears up any mystery without the trouble of investigation4 ,all great buildings must have been built by enchantment1 so what is the use of speculating as to their architecture8 ,western civilisation is1 no doubt1 a remarkable affair1 but it never occurs to an unsophisticated ,syrian that it is a matter for energetic emulation4 ,the ,frank has only been lucky enough to learn the proper spell4 ,it is easy to see how ,syria1 with such views as these1 is doomed at once to moral and intellectual stagnation4 ,the vivid mind of the ,east is fertile in poetic imagination4 ,restless and quick itself1 it cannot conceive the ,universe otherwise than as living around it4 ,everything is alive and aware4 ,all inanimate things are personified2 or1 to speak more accurately1 they are inhabited by spiritual beings4 ,natural phenomena express the purposes of minds hidden behind them4 ,every dangerous or adverse experience is regarded as the work of malice4 ,human life is beset with ambushed spiritual enemies4 ,the advantage which their invisibility gives to these over the human combatants would be enough to put fighting out of the question1 were it not that so many of the spirits are of feeble intelligence and may be hoodwinked2 while all of them have other spirits for their enemies who may be enlisted on man's side against them4 ,these spirits are of many kinds1 but they may be classed in two groups1 according to their connection with natural phenomena or with death4 ,chief of the former group are the angels1 good and bad2 and the jinn1 or genii1 whom ,islam took over from the ancient paganism of ,arabia4 ,the angels are ,god's attendants1 and have some functions entirely independent of natural phenomena4 ,thus the two stones which mark a ,moslem's grave show the stations of the angels who are to examine him2 and the tuft of hair on his shaven head is 7like the ,jewish sidelocks7 to enable the ,angel ,gabriel to bear the man to heaven4 ,yet the angels are in many instances personified parts of nature1 guardians of the land1 spirits of wind or fire or water1 who are obviously the descendants and the heirs of the ancient local gods4#ef ,thus the wicked angels are supposed to have descended on ,mount ,hermon1 and to have sworn their oaths there--a belief which adds considerably to the importance of the great mountain in ,syrian estimation4 ,the jinn are the demons of the desert1 lordly and terrible to all who have not the charm which masters them1 obedient as little children to those who have it4 ,they are the inhabitants of those whirling sandstorms which sweep across the waste4 ,some superstitions of this kind may be connected with the former dangers from wild beasts1 which used to haunt the jungles of lower ,jordan and swarm up to the inland territories after an invasion had depopulated them4 ,even now there may be seen in ,palestine an occasional wolf or leopard1 to say nothing of the jackals which every traveller is sure to see4 ,some of the fauna of ,palestine are in themselves so strange as to suggest unearthly affinities4 ,the jerboa1 for instance1 the jumping mouse of the desert1 merits ,browning's description of him1 when in ,saul he says1 8there are none such as he for a wonder1 half bird and half mouse40 ,the lizards1 too1 seem anything but ordinary respectable law-abiding animals as they twinkle to and fro among the ruins of old buildings4 ,it is said that ,mohammed refused to eat lizards1 considering that they were the metamorphosed spirits of ,israelites4 ,the spirits that haunt sepulchres are either ghosts of the dead or ghouls that prey upon their flesh4 ,it is this class of apparition which appears to have the strongest fascination for the ,syrian mind2 and its graveyard lore is the natural sequel to the morbid interest in death which formed the subject of our preceding chapter4 ,conder1 whose book gives much interesting information on this whole subject1 found it difficult to keep any ,arabs about him at ,fusil1 a few miles north of ,jericho1 because of their fear of a ghoul in the ruins1 who might chance to desire a change of food were he to see them there4 ,the dead appear to have undergone a change for the worse in dying4 ,the utmost caution and politeness are required to prevent their ghosts from doing harm to the visitors at their tombs1 even in the case of men who1 while in the body1 were hospitable and friendly persons4 ,some localities are regarded as peculiarly dangerous1 among which is the reputed site of the stoning of ,stephen and 7according to ,gordon7 of ,calvary1 near ,jerusalem4 ,an ,arab writer of the ,middle ,ages advises the traveller not to pass that haunted spot at night4#eg ,if1 under ordinary conditions1 life in ,syria is overshadowed and haunted1 the dread becomes far greater when disease has come4 ,the explanation of disease is the same easy one as that which has deadened science and distorted religion--magic again4 ,even when the true cause of illness has been guessed1 it has to be explained in ghostly language4 ,when plague has broken out in a locality the ,jewish ,rabbis make the neighbours of the stricken house empty all jars and vessels1 saying that 8the angel of death wipes his sword in liquids40 ,the malaria of swamps is set down to the same cause1 and it is probable that many of that mixed multitude who are to be seen sitting chin deep in the hot sulphur-springs of ,gadara or ,tiberias regard their cure as due to some local spirit who happens to be benevolently inclined4 ,in the neighbourhood of the tomb of a ,mohammedan saint1 every accident or ailment is regarded as the work of the dead man4 ,indeed the main idea of ,syrian medical science is that all or most sickness is possession by demons1 and a common cure is to bore or burn holes in the patient's flesh1 by which the evil spirit may escape4 ,the treatment of lunacy is perhaps the saddest case in point4 ,until ,mr4 ,waldmeyer built his asylum at ,beyrout1 there was but one mode of treatment4 ,at certain monasteries there are caves in which the insane are chained below huge stones1 with hardly space for movement1 and are kept there for days in hunger and filth1 in order to drive out the devil4 ,the test for devil-possession is somewhat crude4 ,the patient is shewn a cross4 ,if he turns from it and refuses to look he is possessed2 if he shews no aversion to it he is only unwell and is allowed to go4 ,in the ,beyrout asylum we were told that no case of lunacy had been discovered which in any way differed from the ,european types of the same disease4 ,the record of cures there1 under the same treatment as that which is practised in the ,west1 is a most encouraging and hopeful one4 ,it is true that the bright spirit of the ,east with its rapid changes and its unquenchable sparkle of gaiety1 has mitigated the horror and oppressiveness of the spectral there4 ,there are times when one would almost fancy that the whole of their superstition was a pretence which was never meant to be taken seriously4 ,in ,damascus1 and probably elsewhere1 you may buy little rag-dolls supposed to resemble camels4 ,they are made of bones1 covered with patches of many-coloured cloth1 and tricked out with tinsel and strings of beads4 ,we bought two of these from a young girl in 8the street called ,straight0 for half a franc1 and bore them through the city with a crowd of idlers following us4 ,we learned afterwards that these were cunning devices to cheat the ghosts4 ,when you are very sick or in danger you vow a camel to your saint or friendly spirit--this is how you pay your vow4 ,poking fun at ,hades in this fashion might seem a dangerous game1 and one hardly to be recommended while any lingering belief in the reality of ghosts remained4 ,yet such is ,syrian character4 ,this sort of thing persists along with a deep horror of the other world4 ,the words of ,job are not in the least out of date in ,palestine to-day3 8,fear came upon me1 and trembling1 which made all my bones to shake4 ,then a spirit passed before my face2 the hair of my flesh stood up4 ,it stood still1 but ,i could not discern the form thereof2 an image was before mine eyes3 there was silence1 and ,i heard a voice40#eh ,the horror is all the deeper because it appears to be seldom brought to clear statement4 ,the spectral world is undefined1 and it has1 therefore1 all the added power of the unknown1 whose play upon the imagination is so much more strong and subtle than that of any clear conception1 however ghastly4 ,in this chapter no attempt has been made to distinguish between the superstitions of ,jews1 ,christians1 and ,mohammedans in ,palestine4 ,as a matter of fact1 there is little to choose between them1 and they have much in common4 ,it is true that every nation has some outlook or other upon the world of spirits4 ,but each has its own way of regarding the apparitions2 and the kind of spectre which a land believes in is no bad indication of the tone of the land's thought and character4 ,about the fairy-lore of ,teutonic nations there is a child-like simplicity and purity which make ,illustration3 ,,the ,,valley ,,of ,,hinnom1 ,,with ,,the ,,hill ,,of ,,offence4 ,the upper portion of the picture to the left is the ,hill of ,offence1 with the village of ,siloam on its lower slopes4 that lore wholly refreshing and precious4 ,the nymphs and ,pan1 whose ancient monuments we have seen in ancient ,palestine1 were graceful4 ,but the spectral element in modern ,palestine appears to be almost wholly morbid and unclean1--the further decadence of a land that has made its covenant with death4 ,the life a ,syrian peasant leads to-day is haunted by ghostly terrors2 it is a life led by leave of the dead1 or by a systematic cunning which plays off one malign spirit against another1 or succeeds in winning a point or two against the grave for the player4 ,it is a view of life than which surely none can be at once more impudent and more melancholy4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,the ,,land ,,of ,,the ,,cross ,it is a sad view of the spirit of ,syria which the last chapters have offered1 yet it is but too true4 ,we must linger yet a little longer listening to 8the sob of the land0 before we turn to that which is at once the explanation and the hope of relief for its long sorrow4 ,apart altogether from the ghostly elements in this land of ruins1 the mere melancholy is persistent and depressing as one moves from place to place4 ,the gloom is so ominous1 as to be at times suggestive of a supernatural curse that broods upon everything with its depressing weight4 ,the khans outside of villages are in ruins2 so are the bridges over streams1 and the castles on the hills4 ,amid such scenery it is natural to remember the defeats rather than the glories of the past1 and the national history seems to be one long record of misfortune4 ,in the modern conditions of life in ,palestine the long story of tears and blood seems to be continued in the haggard desolation of its present4 ,two things especially must send this impression home even to the most casual observer1 viz4 the heartlessness of toil and the prevalence of disease4 ,in every country much must always depend on the spirit in which men labour4 ,where the walls of its cities rise to music1 as the old glad legends told of ,troy and ,thebes1 there is hope and promise2 but here there is no song to help men's toil4 ,it is hard and joyless1 with little promise and less hope4 ,with the death of these self-respect also dies2 and work1 without incentives to anything which might tempt ambition1 remains merely as a hard necessity and a curse4 ,next to its heartless toil the uncured sickness of the land contributes to the deep sadness of its spirit4 ,disease seems to stare you everywhere in the face4 ,superstition and fatalism combined have blocked all progress in medical science4 ,the people are naturally healthy2 and their strong constitutions1 kept firm by plain living1 yield to medical treatment in a marvellous way4 ,but when any serious accident has happened1 or any dangerous disease infected them1 they are utterly helpless1 and things take their course4 ,the medicinal springs form an exception to this rule1 and seem to be the one real healing agency in the country4 ,their bluish waters bubble with sulphuretted hydrogen1 and smell abominably1 but they cure sicknesses of some kinds4 ,for other diseases there is no native cure4 ,those which are most in evidence are ulcers and inflammatory diseases of the eyes4 ,the natives appear to be immune so far as malaria is concerned2 but a peculiar kind of decline is not uncommon1 in which the emaciation is so great as to reduce the patient to the appearance of a skeleton1 with great lustrous eyes4 ,it need hardly be said that the characteristic disease of ,syria is leprosy4 ,the first object which attracts the eye after you arrive at the railway station of ,jerusalem is an immense leper hospital4 ,in a case which created some sensation lately in the south of ,england1 it turned out that a fraudulent ,syrian had been raising money for a non-existent hospital at ,tirzah1 which was to accommodate eleven thousand lepers4 ,of course the figure was a monstrous one1 but the fact that it was invented shews how terrible a scourge this is4 ,it is a curious circumstance that the inhabitants of towns do not contract leprosy4 ,it appears in villages1 and the sufferers are at once driven out1 to wander to the larger towns1 outside of which they settle in communities or beg by the wayside4 ,the view of the north-east end of ,jerusalem from the ,mount of ,olives shews a roadside which is always dotted with these pitiable folk4 ,for many travellers this is the road of their first journey from the city1 leading over ,olivet to ,bethany1 and they are not likely to forget that ride4 ,lepers1 in all stages of hideous decay1 line the roadside2 real or sham paralytics sprawl and shake in the middle of the path1 so that the horses have actually to pick their way among the bodies of them4 ,the epileptics appear to be frauds4 ,their faces are covered1 but they see what is going on well enough to stop shaking when the horses have passed4 ,the leprosy is all too real4 ,arms covered with putrid sores1 hands from which the fingers have one after another fallen off1 and husky voices begging from throats already half eaten out--these cannot be imitated4 ,as to the causes of ,syrian disease1 and leprosy in particular1 there seems to be much obscurity4 ,perhaps the word that comes nearest to an explanation is uncleanness1 and the promise of 8a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness0 may have a physical as well as a spiritual significance4 ,the land is incredibly contaminated with filth1 as the following quotation shews3 8,sir ,charles ,warren tells us that the soil in which he made some of his excavations was so saturated with disease germs that his workmen were often attacked with fever1 especially if they had any sore or scratch on their hands40#ei ,it would be hard to find words more significant than these4 ,for this state of matters1 and for its continuance from generation to generation1 many reasons may be given4 ,the usual explanation of the whole is the government1 with its soldiers and its taxation4 ,the wild notes of ,turkish bugle-calls answering each other across ,jerusalem sound harsh1 and as it were blasphemous1 and further travel deepens the resentment rather than removes it4 ,when1 behind all the present evils1 one remembers the past1 with its massacres and all its other iniquities1 one's heart grows hot4 ,one ,syrian1 after narrating a specially aggravated case of oppression1 asked us if we knew 8the story of the prophets ,ananias and ,sapphira40 ,we said we had heard it2 and he added1 8,ah1 in those days ,god punished at once2 now1 ,god waits60 ,dr4 ,thomson somewhere quotes a proverb to the effect that1 8,wherever the hoof of a ,turkish horse rests it leaves barrenness behind it02 and all that is seen in ,syria tends to prove that saying but too true4 ,every possible experiment in misgovernment seems to have been made here4 ,frequent change of governors1 underpayment of officials1 conscription of the most ruinous sort1 bribery1 cruelty1 fanaticism1 laziness1 sensuality1 and stupidity--all are to be seen open and without pretence at concealment4 ,yet in the interest of truth it ought to be remembered that there is another side to the story4 ,the incident of the horse at ,banias#fj made one understand how a ,turk might answer his critics1 with some show of reason1 that this was the only sort of government these people could understand4 ,of course it might be again replied that it was oppression that had brought this about4 ,yet it is perfectly clear that ,syrian character is very far from that of martyred innocence4 ,from whatever causes it has come about1 the fact is certain that in many respects the moral sense of ,palestine is as depraved as that of her oppressors4 ,her worst enemy is her own wickedness4 ,thus many elements enter into the desolation of the ,holy ,land1 and make it a place of decaying body and of shiftless spirit1 but of all these elements the ethical is supreme4 ,the very look of the country suggests this4 ,it is not merely stony2 as has been cleverly said1 it seems to have been stoned--stoned to death for its sins4 ,the loose boulders of ,judea1 and the scattered ruins of old vineyard terraces and village walls1 present all the appearance of flung missiles4 ,this view of the case is acknowledged freely by the inhabitants themselves1 in whose thoughts judgment has a prominent place4 ,the buried cities of ,sodom and ,gomorrah are favourite subjects of reflection with disciples of all the creeds4 ,a somewhat similar story is told of the ,lake of ,phiala1 a volcanic mountain lake south of ,hermon4 ,tradition tells of a village submerged below its waters 8to punish the inhabitants for their inhospitable treatment of travellers10 and there are many other stories of judgment in the country4 ,yet the judgment always falls upon some one else than the narrator of the story1 who would not insult your intelligence by supposing that you thought him in need of judgment4 ,even in the familiar quotations from the litany chanted by the ,jews at their ,wailing-,place1 the confession of sin is conspicuous by its absence4 ,there is sore mourning over the departed glories of the land1 but the only sins confessed are those of priests and kings long dead4 ,to all creeds alike the essential element in religion seems to be ritual performance1 and the ideal life is accordingly not one of ethical character but of formal correctness4 ,and yet in the midst of all this self-righteous complacency1 any one can see that every part of the land is being judged and is bearing the punishment of sin4 ,jericho1 squatting sordidly amid the ruins of its ancient ,hellenism1 looked down upon by the severe and barren mountain where ,jesus hungered1 is a monument of the reality of ethical distinctions as hard and practical facts4 ,they may be ignored1 but they must be reckoned with in the end4 ,of the ethical significance of the fate of ,palestine there cannot be a moment's doubt4 ,it is here that the love and care of ,god have been met and foiled by the sin and carelessness of man4 ,in regard to its whole moral and social life1 there is one overmastering conviction which grows upon the traveller from day to day4 ,that conviction is1 that it is a land which requires and demands righteousness4 ,nature and man are in close touch1 and each depends upon the other4 ,it is not a desert1 where no amount of labour can produce result2 nor is it a luxuriant tropical country whose fruits fall ripe and untoiled for into man's hand4 ,it demands labour1 but it answers to it4 ,the least effort of man to be a man and do his human work meets with immediate and generous response4 ,neglected plains and valleys1 once rich1 are now a wilderness2 the most unpromising hillsides1 where terracing and irrigation ,illustration3 ,,the ,,rock-,,cut ,,tombs ,,of ,,the ,,valley ,,of ,,jehoshaphat4 ,these tombs are opn the eastern side of the alley facing the ,east ,wall of the ,temple ,area4 have kept the human side of the compact1 are fertile4 ,the labour would indeed require to be hard and unremitting4 ,many of the streams are so deep sunk in their channels that extraordinary enterprise would be needed to raise their waters for irrigation or to conduct them from higher levels in long conduits4 ,yet every remaining arch of an old aqueduct1 and every watermill whose wheel thuds round in its heavy way1 shew that such enterprise is possible4 ,each of those grooved and checkered valleys where men with their naked feet open and close the little gates of clay1 and water the fat crops of onion and tomato1 shews how sure is the reward of enterprise4 ,similarly the terracing reminds us that soil is as precious as water4 ,both must be laboured for and fought for4 ,it is the desert that naturally claims the land and sets the normal point of view for its inhabitants4 ,syria is an oasis by the grace of ,god and the toil of man4 ,this alone would suffice to make ,palestine an ideal training-ground for a nation to learn righteousness4 ,the whole theory of ,providence which dominates the earlier ,old ,testament1 and lingers on in popular belief through the ,new1 is apparent on every mile of these valleys4 ,that theory was that even in the present life the sin of man will be immediately punished by adversity1 and his righteousness rewarded by prosperity4 ,it was a theory which had to be abandoned1 and the whole marvellous story of ,job shews us the process of the nation's discarding it4 ,to us it seems wonderful that it should have been able to survive at all in face of the inexplicable and at times apparently irrational facts of all human experience4 ,but the fact that in ,syria nature's rewards and punishments are so certain and so immediate goes far to explain both its origin and its persistence4 ,such thoughts as these regarding ,syria inevitably lead towards one goal4 ,there is but one symbol in the world which expresses all that depth of pain which we have found in the history of this sorely-tried land1 and at the same time forces on even the most thoughtless its moral significance4 ,that symbol is the ,cross of ,christ4 ,it is still to be seen very frequently in ,syria1 generally in its ,greek form 7,illustration3 cross74 ,in this form it is more impressive than in the other4 ,the oblique lower bar represents a board nailed across the shaft for the feet of the sufferer to rest on4 ,the realistic effect of this is surprising1 for it brings home to one's imagination in a quite new way the terrible fact that men have actually been crucified4 ,the later history and legend of the cross in ,palestine is one of singular and tragic interest4 ,first of all there is the preposterous story of ,st4 ,helena's dream--the miraculous discovery of the three crosses1 and the miracle of healing which enabled her to distinguish the cross of ,christ from those of the robbers4 ,since then the sacred wood has been tossed about from hand to hand1 hunted for1 bargained for sinned for1 died for4 ,its presence in their army comforted the ,crusaders in their misery2 the sight of it in the hands of the ,saracens filled them with despair4 ,the restoration of it was among the chief demands conceded by ,saladin when he surrendered ,acre to ,richard2 and when he failed to deliver it1 hostages to the number of #bgjj were slaughtered in sight of the ,saracen camp4 ,all through the ,crusades it was the badge of self-devotion to the holy wars1 and a strange tale is told of an occasion on which ,louis ,,ix41 presenting robes to his courtiers according to an ancient custom1 had crosses secretly embroidered on them1 so that the wearers found themselves committed unawares to the ,crusade4 ,for #aejj years that symbol pointed to the site which the buildings of the ,church of the ,holy ,sepulchre cover4 ,godfrey was buried there1 and many a devout soul regarded it as the holiest of holy places4 ,in the middle of the nineteenth century the question of its authenticity was raised2 and ,general ,gordon1 who spent part of the last year before he went to ,khartoum1 in ,jerusalem1 championed the identification of the hill of ,jeremiah's ,grotto1 just outside the ,damascus ,gate1 with ,calvary4 ,his point of view was a strange one4 ,it was suggested by the words 8place of a skull10 from which he developed the idea of the ,holy ,city as the body of the bride of ,christ1 this hill being the head1 ,zion the pleura1 and so on4 ,the theory1 so far as it regards ,calvary1 has appealed to many competent judges who were very far from adopting the mystical and emblematic views of ,gordon4 ,the hill is an old quarry1 within which ,jeremiah is supposed by tradition to have written his ,lamentations4 ,it is quite a little hill1 whose short and scanty grass was burnt up with drought when we saw it1 leaving a surface of loose sandy soil4 ,a man crucified here would have the ,mount of ,olives in his eyes behind some roof-lines of the city4 ,by a curious coincidence a rock-hewn tomb1 with a groove running in front of the face of it for a great stone which would close its entrance1 has been discovered close by4 ,it is a grave with only one loculus in it1 and it is temptingly like one's idea of the ,garden ,tomb of ,joseph2 but it is said to be undoubtedly of later date than the death of ,jesus4 ,from one point in the road1 somewhat nearer the ,valley of ,jehoshaphat1 the hollows and caves of the hill1 which here breaks along its length into a small precipice1 bear a striking resemblance to a chapfallen skull4 ,not that the features can be examined in anything like accurate detail4 ,but in the evening1 while the sun sets over ,jerusalem and the shadows slowly deepen1 the resemblance is sufficient to strike one who had not heard that this was the place so named4 ,many arguments have been urged for this new site4 ,its proximity to an ancient ,jewish cemetery is in favour of the probability that ,joseph's tomb was there4 ,it was close to the public highway1 as ,calvary undoubtedly was4 ,it is also significant that the gate now known as the ,damascus ,gate was formerly called ,st4 ,stephen's ,gate2 and tradition affirmed that through it ,st4 ,stephen was led forth to his martyrdom4 ,it is probable that the martyrdom took place on the public execution-ground1 where1 in the natural course of events1 ,jesus and the robbers would also have been crucified4 ,finally1 and most important1 recent explorations have discovered1 in various parts of the city1 huge ,jewish stones which are believed by advocates of this theory to be those of the wall which stood there in the time of ,christ4 ,by completing the line of these stones a wall is reconstructed which encloses the traditional ,church of the ,holy ,sepulchre1 while it leaves ,gordon's site still outside4 ,to get the ,holy ,sepulchre outside this wall1 as we know the place of the crucifixion was1 it would be necessary to imagine a sharp angular recess in the wall pointing inwards1 with ,calvary filling the space within the arms of the angle4 ,it matters little where the spot was4 ,yet it would be interesting if the north side of the city should ultimately claim ,him from the west--,nazareth1 as it were1 from ,rome4 ,the garden and the new grave belong to an ,english committee of trustees endowed in #aija4 ,it would indeed be a striking thing if1 after all the idolatry of sites which the vision of ,st4 ,helena started1 the real hill and garden where the world's great tragedy was enacted should prove to have gone past ,roman and ,greek worshippers both1 and to have been committed to the hands of ,protestants4#fa ,no one who has stood upon that hill of ,golgotha and thought of the wondrous past can have failed to perceive a mystical and dark connection between the crime which has rendered ,jerusalem so famous1 and all that deathly and spectral fate which has befallen the spirit of ,syria4 ,as we stand amid the deepening shadows of sunset on the spot where ,christ was crucified1 a change seems to come1 as the blood-red sky crimsons the minarets and domes4 ,it is no longer ,christ that hangs upon the ,cross1 but ,palestine4 ,no other land would have crucified ,him4 ,had ,he come to ,greece ,he might have been neglected or ridiculed1 but certainly not crucified4 ,for that it needed a religion as bitterly earnest1 and at the same time as morally decayed1 as ,judaism was then4 ,and that same moral and spiritual condition which set up the ,cross for ,jesus1 has finished its course by crucifying the nation that murdered ,him4 ,most literally this happened in the days when ,titus used up all the trees near ,jerusalem to make crosses for ,jews4 ,but in ,sir ,john ,mandeville's time the legend had expanded to this1 that at the ,crucifixion all the trees in the world withered and died4 ,certainly a blight came upon the land of ,palestine4 ,it has sometimes been asserted that the nation which crucified ,jesus ,christ can never again rise to national prosperity or greatness4 ,the forces at work in history are far too subtle and complex to allow any one to say with assurance what the future may or may not have in store for a race4 ,but this at least is evident1 that meanwhile the ,cross has marked this region for its own2 the land is everywhere on its ,cross1 and the obvious cause of this is the want of righteousness1 both in oppressors and oppressed4 ,it is a land that cries aloud for righteousness in its agony4 ,,chapter ,v ,,resurrection ,in regard to the future of ,palestine the outlook of different writers varies perhaps as much as upon any similar question that could be named4 ,every one is familiar with the ,utopian dreams which optimistic constructors of programmes cherish regarding it4 ,on the other hand1 grave and thoughtful writers have sometimes felt the misery of its present state so heavily as to abandon all hope for the future1 and to acknowledge the most discouraging views as to the possibilities before the land4 ,apart from sentiment1 or from some favourite method of interpreting prophecy1 the reasons for such pessimism are mainly two4 ,one is the change of climate1 which appears from many indications to be an unquestionable fact4 ,the other is the destruction of terraces1 and the consequent washing away of soil from the higher regions of the country4 ,these are serious considerations1 which cannot be ignored4 ,if this view be the correct one1 the only permanent continuance of ,syria will be as a symbol of judgment1 a kind of ,lot's-wife pillar among the peoples1 a sermon in stone upon the ethical principles which govern the fortunes of nations4 ,the land will remain as a proverb1 but will never again be a home4 ,yet neither these nor any other such forebodings seem to the ordinary observer quite to be justified4 ,if the climate has changed1 may not that be due to causes that can be remedied8 ,by proper drainage of swamps and planting of trees1 it would seem perfectly possible to modify climatic conditions to an extent at least sufficient to allow the hope of prosperous agriculture and pleasant habitation4 ,as to the terraces1 if they have been constructed once they may be reconstructed with hope of result4 ,there are tracts even in the desert itself where traces of former cultivation may still be seen4 ,if the uncivilised or semi-barbarous tribes of the ancient time built up the land until handfuls of corn waved on the tops of mountains1 surely it is not too much to expect that men armed with all the skill and appliance of modern engineering may yet repeat the process4 ,the instance of ,malta has been already cited2 and1 apart from that it is a very dusty world1 and soil accumulates as if by magic where man provides for it a place to rest on4 ,it seems rash in one little qualified for the task to pronounce judgment of any sort on the future of ,palestine1 yet the conviction that all is not over with the land grows stronger1 rather than weaker1 with reflection4 ,renan speaks of 8the little kingdom of ,israel1 which was in the highest degree creative1 but did not know how to crown its edifice40 ,put in another ,illustration3 ,,the ,,north-,,east ,,end ,,of ,,jerusalem ,,and ,,mizpah1 ,,from ,,the ,,mount ,,of ,,olives4 ,the mountain above the city to the north1 with mosque and minaret on its summit1 is the point from which the ,crusaders had their first view of ,jerusalem4 form1 this means that the ,holy ,land is a land of prophecies unfulfilled or half-fulfilled4 ,but each such prophecy was an inspiration1 by which the highest men saw possibilities for the nation1 whose conditions the lower men failed to realise or to fulfil4 ,yet the possibilities were there1 as to a great extent they still are there1 and1 as ,coningsby puts it1 8the ,east is a career40 ,as to what those possibilities and that career may actually be1 the past history of the land may guide our speculation4 ,here1 as elsewhere1 the lines of hope for the future are pointed out by the failures of the past4 ,the failure has been due to bad morality and disloyalty to religious faith2 the hope of success lies in ethical and religious regeneration4 ,when we sought for an explanation of the misery of ,palestine we were thrown back on the ethical aspect of the case4 ,had the land been faithful to her high calling her story would have been very different4 ,never was a country honoured with so lofty a trust as hers2 never did a country so often betray her trust4 ,this was the despair of her ancient lawgiver1 and the burden of her later prophets4 ,when ,christ came to her1 she knew no better thing to do with ,him than to break ,his heart and to crucify ,him on ,calvary4 ,within the century ,jerusalem was crucified in turn2 and soon a ,christian ,syria took the place of the perished ,judaism4 ,that in its turn decayed4 ,its creed became artificial1 its spirit effeminate1 and its morality corrupt4 ,the spirit of ,christianity had sunk so low in ,palestine before the ,mussulman occupation as to manifest its zeal by using every effort to defile that part of the ,temple area which they regarded as the ,jewish ,holy of ,holies4 ,the young faith of ,islam1 fresh and vigorous1 and not as yet embittered1 made an easy conquest of the effete religion1 which has lived since then on sufferance1 lamenting its sufferings1 but never realising its desert of them4 ,to this day the ,christian travelling in ,syria is oppressed by the sense of its desertion4 ,christ has forsaken the desolate shores of the ,sea of ,galilee4 ,he walks no more in the streets of ,jerusalem4 ,it is the old story--8,they besought ,him that ,he would depart out of their coasts1 and ,he entered into a ship1 and passed over and came unto ,his own city40 ,yet somehow it is impossible to believe that ,he has gone from the land of ,his earthly home for ever4 ,an incident which occurred to us in ,damascus dwells in our memory with prophetic significance4 ,we had visited the ,great ,mosque1 which rose upon the ruins of an ancient ,christian church4 ,the original walls were not entirely demolished1 and among the parts built into the new structure was a beautiful gate on whose lintel may still be deciphered the ,greek inscription1 8,thy kingdom1 ,o ,christ1 is an everlasting kingdom1 and ,thy dominion endureth throughout all generations40 ,to see this inscription we climbed a ladder in the ,jewellers' ,bazaar4 ,at the height of some fifteen feet we stepped upon a ledge of rather precarious masonry1 and after a short scramble along this came to the lintel1 half concealed by a rubble wall running diagonally across it4 ,a stranger was with us1 a devout ,christian from a town far south of ,damascus4 ,in the whole city nothing moved him so deeply as this stone1 and he exclaimed1 8,it was the ,christians' fault--they were so rough1 so rude1 so ignorant--it was done by the wish of ,god--but ,he will have it again40 ,and ,he will have it again1 sooner or later6 ,when ,omar heard that ,mohammed was dead he would not believe it1 but proclaimed in the ,mosque of ,medina1 8,the ,prophet has only swooned away60 ,but ,mohammed had died1 and it is his dead hand that has held the land these thirteen centuries4 ,christ1 being raised from the dead1 dieth no more2 and the future of the land lies with ,christ4 ,to the ,western world ,he has fulfilled ,his tremendous claim1 8,i am the resurrection and the life10 not only in the hope of immortality1 but in the spring and impulse which ,his faith has given to national ideals4 ,it is impossible not to hope for a fulfilment of the promise to the land where it was first spoken4 ,looking down from ,tabor upon the hill of ,dhy1 one has sight of ,endor to the east1 while ,shunem lies just round the western slope1 and between them is the village of ,nain4 ,it is as if that hill were a sanctuary from ,death1 where the grave could not hold its own4 ,palestine holds in trust for the world those empty graves1 and one grave above all others from which ,he ,himself came forth4 ,surely she1 too1 will rise1 by ,his grace1 in a faith and character purer than those which she has lost4 ,it would be impossible1 within our present limits1 to say anything of the political or national outlook of ,syria1 or of the many schemes and agencies which are dealing with such problems4 ,the impression made by ,christian missions1 however1 must have a word of record before we close these notes of travel4 ,we have already described at considerable length the sadness of ,palestine4 ,as you journey from place to place the impression deepens4 ,sores1 exposed and fly-blown1 intrude themselves into the memory of many a wayside and city street4 ,the dirt and stench of the houses make the sunshine terrible4 ,after weeks of travel the feeling of a sick land has deepened upon you until it has become an oppression weighing daily upon your heart4 ,suddenly you emerge in a mission-station1 and an indescribable feeling of relief possesses you4 ,there is at last a sound of joy and health4 ,these are the spots of brightness in a very grey landscape1 little centres of life in a land where so much is morbid4 ,the visiting of sacred places would be the most selfish of religious sentimentalities if it were done without a painful sense of helplessness against the misery that surrounds them4 ,the only thing that turns pity into hope in ,palestine is the mission-work that is being done there4 ,no one can see that work without being filled with an altogether new enthusiasm for missions4 ,across the sea1 one believes in them as a part of ,christian duty and custom4 ,on the spot1 one thanks ,god for them as almost unearthly revelations of 8sweetness and cleanness1 abundance1 power to bless1 and ,christian love in that loveless land40 ,the names of ,christian missionaries are imperial names in ,syria4 ,it is1 indeed1 an empire of hearts1 and ,illustration3 ,,the ,,plain ,,of ,,jericho1 ,,looking ,,towards ,,the ,,mountains ,,of ,,moab4 ,the road in the foreground1 stretching across the plain1 is that from ,jerusalem to ,jericho4 its coming is not with observation4 ,but of its reality and power there can be no question even now1 and its sway is extending year by year4 ,to those whose ,syrian travels have given them the vivid imagination1 vivid almost as memory1 of the real fact of ,christ in the past1 this fact of ,christ in the present is as welcome as it is evident4 ,they feel1 and the ,east too is feeling1 that the ,great ,healer still goes about the land doing good4 ,the future1 whatever its political course may be1 is religiously full of hope4 ,it may take time--,god only knows how long it will take4 ,the ancient miracles of ,christ did not reveal the ,healer to the world in a day4 ,yet quietly and out of sight1 the ,east is learning that ,christ is indeed the ,healer of mankind4 ,it does not as yet confess this1 even to itself4 ,but the hearts of many sufferers know it1 and every ,christian knows that certainly 8,he will have it again40 ,index ,abana1 #eb1 #ei1 #fj ,achor1 #dg ,acre1 #afi ,agriculture1 #ga ,amphitheatres1 #ajg ,angels1 #bbj ,antipatris1 #ed ,aqueducts1 #ajd ,arabia1 ,arab1 #bb1 #bi1 #ic f41 #adi1 #aha1 #aih1 #aii ,aramaic1 #fi ,asceticism1 #abb ,athlit1 #afi ,baalbek1 #ajh ,banias1 #ee1 #afh ,barbarossa1 #afa ,bashan1 #dd ,beautiful ,gate1 #hc1 #aib ,bethel1 #h1 #ajb ,bether1 #ih ,bethlehem1 #be1 #df1 #gb1 #gd1 #ahi1 #bad1 #bec ,bethshan1 #da1 #db1 #gb1 #afi ,beyrout1 #ff ,bible illustrations1 #ib1 #ic1 #id ,booths1 #agh ,bridges1 #eg1 #ajd ,burdens1 #aha ,csarea1 #ajb1 #afc1 #agb ,calvary1 site of1 #gh1 #hc1 #aad1 #aif1 #bbb1 #bce1 #bcf1 #bgf ,capernaum1 #fd1 #aja1 #aje ,carpets1 #af ,castles1 #afh ,caves1 #bad ,character1 ,syrian1 #ae1 #cc1 #fb1 #bcb f4 ,children1 #aaa1 #ahg1 #bah1 #bca ,christianity1 early1 #aae f4 ,church of the ,holy ,sepulchre1 #gi1 #aca1 #aej1 #aea1 #aef1 #aic1 #bce ,church of the ,nativity1 #acc f4 ,churches1 #abi1 #adf1 #afj1 #afe1 #aga ,cities1 #bb1 #fe f4 ,clothes1 #ag1 #aha ,coast1 #dc ,colour1 #g f4 ,commerce1 #ge1 #gh1 #aeg1 #aei ,constantine1 #aae1 #aaf ,cross1 the1 #adg1 #bcd f4 ,crusaders1 #gd1 #aeg f41 #aib ,damascus1 #ab1 #ac1 #ba1 #ce1 #ec1 #fj1 #ff1 #ge1 #he1 #acg1 #adc1 #adf1 #agd1 #ahe1 #aia1 #aic1 #bbc1 #bda ,damascus ,gate1 ,jerusalem1 #ec1 #hc ,dan1 #ed ,dead ,sea1 #aa1 #be1 #cg1 #da1 #ea1 #eg1 #fj1 #bjg ,death1 #gf1 #aij f4 ,dervishes1 #adj ,desert1 #ab1 #ad1 #ae1 #bj f4 ,detail1 observation of1 #cb ,dew1 #ea ,disease1 #bbb1 #bbc1 #bbg f41 #bdd f4 ,dog ,river1 #ed1 #hf ,earthquake1 #bab ,east of ,jordan1 #bb ,el ,aksa1 #adg f4 ,elijah1 #fa ,elisha's ,fountain1 #adc ,esdraelon1 #i1 #bb1 #bf1 #da1 #db1 #di1 #ei ,evil eye1 #bah ,fanaticism1 #ahh ,fatalism1 #bja1 #bjb ,fauna1 #ab1 #bbj1 #bba ,feasts1 #ahh1 #bja ,fellahin1 #bb1 #fi ,flora1 #ab1 #fg1 #afa1 #bjg1 #bji1 #baj1 #baa ,future1 #bci f4 ,gadara1 #fj1 #ih1 #ajh1 #aid ,galilee1 #i1 #de ,games1 #ahe ,gardens1 #agg ,gaza1 #fd ,genii1 #bbj ,geography1 #cb1 #afa ,gethsemane1 #bad ,ghosts1 #aij ,gideon1 #fd ,gilgals1 #dg f4 ,glass1 #af ,gorges1 #dg ,great ,deep1 #ec1 #bac ,greece1 #ajj1 #aac1 #aig ,harod1 ,well of1 #fd ,hattin1 #afi ,hauran1 #he ,hebron1 #i1 #df1 #fd1 #gd1 #ge1 #ij1 #aif ,hermits1 #abc ,hermon1 #i1 #aa1 #da1 #dd1 #ea1 #ed1 #ee1 #bbj ,herods1 #ef1 #aja1 #aaj1 #aga ,hezekiah's aqueduct1 #ec1 #hh ,holy ,fire1 #acc1 #aic ,holy ,grail1 #afb ,hospitality1 #ce ,houses1 #af1 #fg1 #ge ,huleh1 ,lake1 #eh1 #fj ,humour1 #ahc ,immortality1 #aig1 #aih ,inscriptions1 #hg ,irrigation1 #i1 #bcc ,israelites1 #hh f4 ,jacob's dream1 #e ,jacob's ,well1 #ac1 #dh1 #fc1 #aai1 #abi ,jaffa1 #gb ,jehoshaphat1 ,valley of1 #gi ,jericho1 #bf1 #di1 #aje1 #bbg1 #bcb ,jeroboam1 #gh ,jerusalem1 #de f41 #ec1 #fe f41 #gf f41 #adi1 #bbh ,jesus ,christ1 #d1 #e1 #aj1 #ca1 #df1 #di1 #fi1 #hd1 #aac1 #aad1 #aej1 #agc1 #agg1 #bjd1 #bdb1 #bdc1 #bde ,jews1 #cj1 #hh f41 #aie1 #bja ,jezreel1 #da ,job1 #if1 #bbd1 #bcc ,john the ,baptist1 #adf1 #adg ,jordan1 #ac1 #bc1 #bh1 #dj1 #da1 #db1 #dd1 #di1 #ea1 #ee f41 #fe1 #aba1 #agh ,joy1 #ahh ,judea1 #h1 #i1 #bd1 #cd1 #de f41 #dg ,khan ,minyeh1 #fd1 #aje ,kidron1 #be1 #df1 #fc ,knights1 #aea1 #afd1 #agj ,landmarks1 #age ,lebanon1 #dd f41 #ea ,legends1 #fb1 #fi1 #ajc1 #acd f41 #aej1 #aec ,leontes1 #dd1 #eh ,leprosy1 #bbh ,lunacy1 #bbb ,maccabees1 #ajj ,magic1 #c1 #bi1 #aed1 #bje1 #bag f4 ,mar ,saba1 #be1 #bg1 #abc1 #abe f4 ,martyrs1 #aaf1 #abc ,medicinal springs1 #bja1 #bbb1 #bbg ,melancholy1 #ca ,michmash1 #dg ,miracle1 #c1 #d ,mirage1 #bab ,missions1 #ie ,mohammedanism1 #b1 #gd1 #acg f41 #adb1 #bdb ,monastic establishments1 #abb ,morasses1 #baa ,mosaics1 #ajb1 #afh ,mosques1 #adf ,mosque of ,omar1 #ec1 #gi1 #hj1 #aca1 #add1 #adi f41 #aei ,mount of ,olives1 #aed ,mountains1 #dj f41 #di ,muezzin1 #adc ,music1 #ca f4 ,mystery1 #bjf ,nablus1 #fd1 #gd1 #ib ,nain1 #fh ,names of places1 #ci1 #afj ,nazareth1 #dh1 #fb1 #fi1 #gb1 #aad1 #ahi1 #bah ,oppression1 #bbi ,past1 the1 #b ,paul1 ,st41 #agb ,persecutions1 #aaf ,phnicia1 #aj ,pilgrimages1 #aag f4 ,pools1 #baa ,prayer1 #adb ,providence1 #bcc ,quarantana1 #e1 #df1 #di ,rachel1 #aie ,railway1 #hf1 #ahb ,relics1 #b1 #aai1 #aeb1 #afj ,religion of ,israel1 #ci1 #fe1 #ig f41 #agc f41 #ahg ,revelation1 #ig f4 ,richard ,cur de ,lion1 #afc1 #afg ,rivers1 #ea f4 ,roads1 #gg1 #ii f41 #agd ,rib ,roy canoe1 #eg1 #ia ,romans1 #ef1 #gg1 #hc1 #ih f41 #ajg1 #ajh1 #aac ,russians1 #aai f4 ,safed1 #ij ,st4 ,christopher1 #ace ,st4 ,george1 #acd1 #afh1 #aic ,samaria1 #i1 #de1 #dg1 #dh1 #ajb1 #aaj1 #adf ,samaritans1 #ib ,sanur1 #dh ,scents1 #agi ,sea1 #ba1 #bd1 #gh1 #bab1 #bac ,sea of ,galilee1 #aa1 #ae1 #cg1 #eh1 #ei1 #bjh1 #bji1 #baj ,shirky1 #bf ,siloam1 #ec1 #gf1 #ha1 #hh ,sites1 identification of1 #afe ,smallness of the land1 #cg ,solomon1 #gh1 #aec ,spectral1 the1 #bje f4 ,springs1 #ed ,stones1 ,jewish1 #hb ,straight ,street1 #ajc ,sun1 #ad1 #af1 #bh ,synagogues1 #gi ,tabor1 #de1 #dh1 #abh1 #afe ,tattoo1 #ah1 #ge ,tell ,hum1 #abh ,tents1 #bb f4 ,terraces1 #ej1 #bdj ,terror1 #bjf ,tiberias1 #ij1 #ia1 #bja1 #bji ,titus1 #hd ,tobacco1 #ic ,toil1 #bbg ,tombs1 #ha1 #adj1 #agd1 #ahf1 #aia ,towns1 #fe f41 #ga ,travel1 #b1 #afa ,trees1 #fg1 #baj1 #baa ,truth1 #bjf ,tyre1 #aj1 #gb1 #ge1 #afj ,underground waters1 #eb1 #bac ,unfinishedness1 #agd ,villages1 #aa1 #ae1 #fe f4 ,war1 #di1 #ej ,welis1 #ada ,wells1 #fb ,zionists1 #ij ,,the ,,end ,,footnotes3 #a ,eothen1 ch4 xxiii4 #b ,the natives have at last borrowed the sloping red-tiled roofs from the ,franks who introduced them4 ,cf4 a letter written by ,professor ,g4 ,a4 ,smith to the ,spectator1 ,october #ahia4 #c ,tent ,work1 p4 #ed4 #d ,cf4 ,the ,semites1 ,robertson ,smith1 chaps4 iii4 and v4 #e ,for these and other instances cf4 ,historical ,geography1 p4 #eb1 and ,appendix ,i4 #f ,cf4 ,the ,least of all ,lands1 ,principal ,miller1 ch4 #a4 #g ,cf4 p4 #ae4 #h ,the ,rob ,roy on the ,jordan1 p4 #abi4 #i ,cf4 ,the ,semites1 ,robertson ,smith1 p4 #ig4 #aj ,rob ,roy1 p4 #ajb4 #aa ,tent ,work1 p4 #abj4 #ab ,the ,rob ,roy has contributed gallantly to its exploration4 ,to her captain's book this chapter is under many obligations4 #ac ,tent ,work1 chaps4 xx41 xxi4 #ad ,they are cut with a cross-chiselled margin1 and rough outstanding rustic work in the centre4 ,their size and weight are enormous4 ,one writer1 whose sense of humour is hardly equal to his knowledge of ,scripture1 in describing them is carried away into the statement that 8the ,jewish architects1 taught by their ,phnician neighbours1 bestowed special care upon the corners of their great buildings4 ,they show a finish1 a solidity1 and choice of material superior to other parts4444 ,and how beautifully expressive is the language of the ,psalmist1 #8our daughters are corner-stones1 polished after the similitude of a palace'--one of the corner-stones of this angle weighs over a hundred tons06 #ae ,for an account of these and others cf4 ,palestine ,exploration ,fund1 ,quarterly ,statement1 ,october #aija4 #af ,see1 however1 ,professor ,g4 ,a4 ,smith's ,jerusalem1 vol4 i4 pp4 #ahi1 #aij4 #ag ,haifa1 ,laurence ,oliphant1 pp4 #cag1 #cah4 #ah 8,love among the ,ruins10 ,robert ,browning4 #ai ,the ,dawn of ,art1 ,martin ,conway1 pp4 #eh-gf4 #bj ,st4 ,symeon was a shepherd from the borderland between ,cilicia and ,syria4 #ba ,cf4 ,schaff's ,church ,history1 ,nicene and ,post-,nicene ,period1 chap4 iv4 #bb ,st4 ,jerome1 ,ep4 xiv4 #bc ,cf4 pp4 #bg1 #cj4 #bd ,arabia1 the ,cradle of ,islam1 ,zwemer1 p4 #agi4 #be ,medival ,christianity1 ,schaff1 p4 #aej4 #bf ,written in #aijd4 #bg ,the ,crusades1 ,cox1 p4 #gb4 #bh ,the ,crusades1 ,cox1 p4 #bae4 ,of these children only #ejjj crossed the ,mediterranean4 ,they were sold1 when they landed1 in the slave-markets of ,alexandria and ,algiers4 #bi ,map has the credit of introducing the ,grail story into ,arthurian romance2 ,borron of adding the early part which traced it to ,joseph of ,arimathea4 #cj ,cf4 ,chivalry and ,crusades1 ,stebbing1 vol4 ii4 chaps4 iv4 and v4 #ca ,haifa1 ,laurence ,oliphant1 p4 #ahi4 #cb ,the ,semites1 ,robertson ,smith1 p4 #bi4 #cc ,ibid4 pp4 #bdd1 #beg4 #cd ,deut4 xxviii4 #dg1 #dh4 #ce ,deut4 xxviii4 #dg1 #dh4 #cf ,robert ,browning1 ,william ,sharp1 p4 #bjc4 #cg ,gen4 xxxv4 #af1 #ai4 #ch ,haifa1 pp4 #bgj-bgb2 ,tent ,work1 p4 #he4 #ci ,cf4 ,the ,dawn of ,art1 ,martin ,conway1 p4 #ie1 etc42 ,some ,aspects of the ,greek ,genius1 ,professor ,butcher1 p4 #cj4 #dj ,cf4 ,rationalism in ,europe1 ,leckie1 ii4 #aig4 #da ,cf4 the sprightly figure of ,glaucon in ,plato's ,republic1 ,b1 x1 #i3 8,do you know10 says ,socrates1 8that our soul is immortal and never dies80 8,by ,jove1 ,i do not10 replies ,glaucon4 8,are you prepared to prove that it is80 #db ,arabia1 the ,cradle of ,islam1 ,zwemer1 xiii4 #dc ,the rags which are hung on trees or fences near certain tombs suggest the medicinal value of holy places1 which attracts men to them from selfish interests4 #dd ,talisman1 xxviii4 #de ,east of the ,jordan1 ,dr4 ,merrill1 p4 #dif4 #df ,tent ,work1 p4 #cad4 #dg ,marius the ,epicurean1 ,walter ,pater1 i4 #dd4 #dh ,rob ,roy on the ,jordan1 p4 #bfj4 #di ,eothen1 ch4 viii4 #ej ,cf4 ,geschichte des ,jdischen ,volkes1 ,schrer1 ii4 #hai1 #hbj4 #ea ,cf4 ,the ,semites1 ,w4 ,robertson ,smith1 iii4 v4 #eb ,cf4 ,the ,semites1 ,w4 ,robertson ,smith1 pp4 #aig1 etc4 #ec ,tent ,work1 pp4 #fh1 #bjd4 #ed ,cf4 ,the ,semites1 ,robertson ,smith1 pp4 #af1 #ag4 #ee ,east of the ,jordan1 ,merrill1 p4 #aic4 #ef ,the early ,christian belief that the gods of paganism were demons has died hard1 if indeed it be quite dead4 ,the 8weird horsemen0 who in windy nights are to be heard galloping down lonely valleys lead us back to that interesting custom by which a horse was actually provided in some of the temples of the ,syrian ,herakles1 to that the god might ride forth at night4 #eg ,haifa1 ,laurence ,oliphant1 p4 #cjj4 #eh ,job iv4 #ad-af4 #ei ,the ,cradle of ,christianity1 ,d4 ,m4 ,ross1 p4 #fj4 #fj ,see p4 #cf4 #fa ,professor ,g4 ,a4 ,smith1 in his chapter on 8,the ,walls of ,jerusalem10 has given the results of an exhaustive study of the most recent research on this subject1 and his conclusion is that 8on our present data it is hopeless to decide between the rival and contradictory arguments40--,jerusalem1 vol4 i4 p4 #bdi4