m m m RUNNER JERUSALEM A.GOODRICH fe FREER < INNER JERUSALEM OUTER ISLES BY A. GOODRICH-FREER ILLUSTRATIONS BY ALLAN BARAUD Price I2S. 6d. net. Popular Edition, Price 55. net. "This book is not simply the outcome of a holiday visit. Miss Freer has spent summer after summer in these islands. She has made friends with and obtained the confidence of their inhabitants, and has moreover ex- hausted all available written authorities The result is a work which, while it may be termed popular, contains a great deal of exact and authoritative ;informa- tion. It may be cordially recommended as worthy of perusal Considering that they (The Outer Hebrides) are part of the United Kingdom it may be surprising how little is known of them, even by the average member of the Geographical Society." Scottish Geographical Magazine. INNER JERUSALEM BY A. GOODRICH-FREER AUTHOR OF " OUTER ISLES," ETC. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON b 5 COMPANY 1904 BUTLER & TANNER, THE SELWOOD PRINTING WORKS, FROME, AND LONDON. PREFACE NO one can be more conscious than the writer of a book on Jerusalem, perforce the student of other books on Jerusalem, that the production of yet another requires a reason, if not an excuse. The special point of view of the present work is set forth in the text, and I venture to hope that it may have some value for those interested in studying the practical outcome, psychological and religious, of a history so unique even its Christian sanctity apart as that of the Holy City. The irresponsible aggregation of races, languages and creeds collected in Jerusalem, and that lack of any standard of public opinion which results from the entire absence of a public press, combine to make it exceedingly difficult to obtain accurate information upon any subject whatever. I have devoted over two years, with certain special facilities for investigation, to the personal study of Inner Jerusalem, and have spared neither cost of many kinds nor pains, in collecting material. For deductions I am personally and solely responsible, without reference to the many kind friends from whom I have received opinions and advice. The names of many books occur in the course of these pages, naturally of very varying merit. Those of value to the merely English reader are, however, easily enumerated. The story is told that an early edition of Murray's Guide appeared with the motto, " The Bible is the best guide- book to Palestine," and that the ensuing Baedeker retorted with, " Palestine is the best guide-book to the Bible." The Bible, Josephus and Baedeker together our cosmo- v PREFACE politan friend is nowhere more trustworthy than in Syria /" form a fairly sufficient library. To make up " the twelve best books " for the amateur visitor to Jerusalem, I would add, first, G. A. Smith's Historical Geography of the Holy Land, and next Clay TrumbulFs Studies in Oriental Social Life, from which even the most unintelligent tourist may learn what to observe. Next would come Besant and Palmer's History of Jerusalem, and Post's Flora of Syria, which perhaps is too technical for the amateur, though an indispensable companion to even the shortest ramble for the specialist. Then I would take Lady Burton's Inner Life of Syria, and the still earlier Domestic Life in Palestine by Miss Rogers (1855), however much I might be assured by observers less profound than these very interesting authors, that both were out of date. For lack of anything equally informing among more modern writers, I would finish my collection with Finn's Stirring Times, Robinson's Biblical Researches, and Williams' Holy City, although all N are over half a century old. One who has plenty of leisure may select many articles of interest out of the thirty and odd volumes of the Palestine Exploration Fund. The learned will not fail to read Curtiss' Primitive Semitic Religion, and Barton's Semitic Origins, nor the devout the Early Pilgrims' Texts. Other English and American works are of interest to those who travel farther north, while a score of German, and half a dozen French books, are essential to any serious student. Life is not wholly at a standstill, even in Jerusalem, and as this book has been passing through the press, certain changes have occurred. Even science has arrived among us, and the German Emperor's Institute for the study of Oriental learning has completed its first year of work ; how gratefully appreciated has been testified by the large attendance, not only of the German population, as well as of special students from the Fatherland, but of European residents of both sexes, and also of Jews and Arabs, and, vi PREFACE perhaps more remarkable still, of members of religious Orders, Greek and Latin. The surpassing interest of the German Institution may partly account for the fact that during the same period the American School has not had a single new member. It is obvious, however, that students will not travel 6,000 miles unless in the hope of intellectual advantage, and it is a tribute to the reputation of Professor Barton, author of Semitic Origins, that the attendance should have reached its maximum during the year of his directorship, 1902-3, although Jerusalem was in quarantine, and even the railway had ceased to run. The Palestine Exploration Fund has lately been unusually successful in its operations, and by the kindness of Mr. Macalister, its representative in Palestine, I am permitted to bring its history up to date (cf. chap. xxii). " The mound of Tell el Gezer (excavations still in progress), has proved very rich in remains of the earliest civilization of Palestine. A neolithic Troglodyte race has for the first time been discovered, and burial places of every age, from the Amorite to the Christian period, opened, and their contents investigated. The largest and most perfect Canaanite High place has been found, and a cuneiform tablet, proving the existence of an Assyrian occupation, in the middle of the seventh century, B.C." The discussion, by other archaeologists, especially those German savants personally acquainted with this country, of Mr. Macalister's very interesting discoveries and con- clusions, will be eagerly looked for. Those who are interested in the important question of the future of women in the East cannot fail to be gratified to note their craving for education, in its highest sense. Although in the Mission School, containing forty-four Jewesses, I found only six who belonged to this country the rest being mainly Europeans the Evelina de Roth- schild School, had it twice its accommodation, would be vii PREFACE more than crowded in a week, and it is to be observed that payment is required for every child. It is under English Government inspection, and can receive, at present, but 610 girls, including the kindergarten and technical classes. On the opening day of term, I have seen the surrounding roads so crowded with clamorous parents that the police had to interfere. When the gates were locked, fathers dropped their daughters over the wall ; and children, on one occasion to the number of fifty have been smuggled in by their companions. Not only a better preparation for home-life is secured by the learning of cooking, needle- work, cutting out, sanitation, laundry work and even gardening, but the addition of other interests and of a higher ideal of life, tends to the postponement of the early marriages which are the degradation, mental and physical, of the woman of the East. Almost as much may be said of the 350 girls of the Moslem Public school under the admirable training of the American Colony ; and when we realize that the Jewish population of Jerusalem is six times that of the Moslem, the numbers are relatively even more surprising. Among other changes it should be recorded that Jerusalem has been enriched by a Swedish consulate, and that German benevolence has founded a sorely needed Convalescent Home on the Mount of Olives, the first of the kind in Pales- tine, where the sufferers from malarial fever especially, may find the change of air, which is so essential to the arrest of their malady ; also that, as predicted in these pages, matri- mony, after a quarter of a century's hesitation, has entered the American Colony. The crank is always with us, and has been lately reinforced by a new Mission for the suppression, on Scriptural authority, of breakfast-eating ; by the opening of a Glory Home alleged to be educational, and the erection of a place of worship with the practical view of casting out devils, of whom it seems that a legion still remains in the Holy City. viii PREFACE On the other hand, one establishment for religious teaching has not too soon been broken up by authority, for reasons of morality which need not be detailed, while the head of another has been imprisoned for cruelty to children, and is awaiting trial for the death of his own son. It is unfortu- nate for our prestige, religious and political, that such institutions should have been established by English-speak- ing people and in the name of Protestant religion, and the circumstance may make it somewhat difficult for our re- ligious teachers to reflect upon the sanity of the fakir or the morality of the derweesh. It is pleasant to be able to record that the Anglican Bishop has lately imported two certificated nurses for attendance upon the poor in their own homes, who, like those of the French, German, Russian and Greek Hospitals, wear a uniform in the streets, and concern themselves only with the work for which they have been trained. For help in understanding the people of the land to which he has devoted talent and learning which might have adorned a wider sphere, I am indebted, beyond all acknowledgment, to the Rev. E. Hanauer, Chaplain to the Mission of the London Jews' Society ; for direction in study of the Eastern Church to the Rev. Doctor Dowling, Canon of St. George's Collegiate Church, and of the Western to many members of the Franciscan, Assumptionist, and Dominican Orders ; for ever-ready kindness to H.B.M. Consul, Mr. Dickson ; and to many Moslems, Greeks, and Jews for help in practical inquiry. If I have been able to give, in any degree, an accurate picture of certain features of Inner Jerusalem life not described elsewhere, it has been due to the help and courtesy which have never failed me among those of all nationalities and of every creed." " What," wrote Sir Francis Bacon, " What is truth ? said jesting Pilate." ix PREFACE No one who has lived in Jerusalem need wonder that, being a local magistrate, resident among the European element of the population, " he did not stay for an answer." But such things are, after all, accidents, and not essentials of the life in Jerusalem, where human fallibility is easily forgotten among ever-present testimony to eternal Truth, and lack of charity where the very stones cry out reminder of eternal Love. Hope, too, is more and more with us and the light that lighteth every man has been kindled if not by us, yet from elsewhere. In their institutions, their philanthropy, their widening sympathies, their craving for education, their demand for literature, Moslem, Jew, and native Christian (and it may be, even some of us who look on and learn) are drawing nearer to each other in com- mon activity in the service of man and in common worship of the One God. A. GOODRICH-FREER. HOTEL FAST, JERUSALEM, October, 1904. NOTE. I wish to disarm criticism, in one direction, by pointing out that several chapters of Inner Jerusalem, though, with the exception of that on Domesticities (reproduced by kind permission of the Editors of Temple Bar) never published, were originally intended for periodical publication, before it was foreseen that they would develop into the proportions of a volume. This accounts for the fact of the occasional repetition of an explanation, and for some apparent inconsistency in spelling ; for the transliteration of Arabic, like that of the name of Weller, is according to the taste and fancy, and tends to follow that of the special author or particular language which is one's unit of thought for the moment. CONTENTS CHAPTER I WHAT IS JERUSALEM LIKE_? PAGE Books of Travel Limitations of Nationality and Creed The Eng- lish The Germans The Americans Society Language Trade Medicine Intellectual Advantages Physical Aspect 1 CHAPTER II DOMESTICITIES IN JERUSALEM Experiences of the Traveller Eccentricities of the Place Com- mercial Aspect Climate andScirocco Water Supply Vegeta- tion Insect Enemies Flora Anomalous Customs Coinage Economy of Living . . . . . . .16 CHAPTER HI " CRANKS " IN JERUSALEM Individual Eccentricities Spittler of Basel The Millerites Amen-ites Church of the Messiah Awaiting the Anti-Christ The Overcomers ........ 35 CHAPTER IV GOVERNMENT IN JERUSALEM Advantages of Turkish Rule Position of Europeans Machinery of Government Turkish Law Moslems Jews Sanitation Prisons ..... ...... 47 CHAPTER V JEWS IN JERUSALEM Population Distribution Racial Divisions Distinctive Character- istics Irrational Almsgiving Schools Occupations Old Customs still Extant Sophistries and Quibbles Alliance Israelite Its Excellent Work Mission Work and Results Views of Zangwill Charitable Institutions, English and Jew- ish Abraham's Vineyard Relations with Jerusalem Pro- gress of Re-Patriation . . ; . . . . .55 CHAPTER VI RUSSIA IN JERUSALEM "The Russian Tower" Religious Buildings Relations between Greek and Russian Churches Population Pilgrimages "Imperial Orthodox Society" Means of Education Greek xi CONTENTS PAGE Patriarchate Russian Dissent Archimandrite Consulate Acquisition of Territory Ambassador Influence on the West Jealousies and Disputes . . . . . . .75 CHAPTER VII THE GREEKS IN JERUSALEM The Greek Church Its Antiquity Its Authority Latin Patriarchs in Jerusalem, 1204-1260 End of the Eastern Empire The Eastern Church Its Government Education of Clergy Charitable and Philanthropic Undertakings Convents The Greek Fire Misunderstanding and Exaggeration Early His- toryAs it was in 1902 In 1820 98 CHAPTER VIII HERESIES AND SCHISMS IN THE EASTERN CHURCH Various Churches in Jerusalem The Armenians, Syrians, Abys- sinians, Copts Possibilities of Anglican Re-union Attempts already made Points of Sympathy Chapel of Abraham Common Beliefs Characteristics of the Eastern Church Its Austerity, in Fasts, in Art, in Architecture St. George . . 115 CHAPTER IX LATINS IN JERUSALEM Palestine in Roman Times Early Pilgrims First Monasteries First Latin Convent Beginning of Rivalry Papal Address Vicissitudes Settlement in Jerusalem Hospital Knights Hospitallers Latin Establishment in the Eleventh Century Origin of Enmity between East and West Churches Francis- cans Custodianship Hospitality and Philanthropy . . 131 CHAPTER X THE LATINS IN JERUSALEM TO-DAY Revival of Patriarchate Advent of Religious Orders Their In- dustries Dominican Lectures "Revue Biblique " Pilgrim- ages Educational Advantages Uniats Visible " Communion of Saints." . . . . . . . . .154 CHAPTER XI MARTYRDOM IN JERUSALEM Significance of Apparently Unimportant Details Mutual Relation of Greeks and Latins Greek Promises The Pasha's Decision Next Morning's Incidents The Pasha and the French Re- xii CONTENTS PAGE preservative Events of November 4 Public Feeling " Ab solute Reparation " Sentences Episodes History Repeats itself 167 CHAPTER XII ENGLAND IN JERUSALEM Early Associations Crusades Trade Anglo -Prussian Bishopric Protestant Influence Lack of English Enterprise and Philan- thropy English Bishopric Established ... . . 180 CHAPTER XIII ENGLISH CHURCH IN JERUSALEM Anglican Bishopric Its Difficulties Missionary Societies Prosely- tism Condemned Education Need of English Philan- thropy Christ Church Statistics Medical Work Remarks on Missionaries Absence of English Hospitality Remarks by Lady Burton 193 CHAPTER XIV ENGLISH TRADE AND ENGLISH TRAVEL Commercial Relations of England and Syria Jerusalem Water- worksThe Arab of the East What he Thinks of the West The Traveller, American and English ; according to Lady Burton ; to Canon Dalton ; to Mark Twain ; to Clermont Gan- neau The Dragoman The Soldier and Policeman ;; . . 209 CHAPTER XV THE MOSLEM IN JERUSALEM The Sachra Traditions Dome of the Rock Omar His Mosque His Magnanimity Saladin Palestine and the Arab . . 221 CHAPTER XVI THE MOSLEM AS A CITIZEN Arab Influence on Europe Aestheticism Cursing Acuteness Literature Dress Aristocracy Forms of Prayer Tenets of the Faith Philanthropy Institutions Hospital and Sisters Tradition Pilgrimage to Tomb of Moses. . . . 232 CHAPTER XVII THE MOSLEM IN HIS RELATION TO WOMEN Marriage Customs Types of Womanhood Dress Physique Do- mestic Education Debate on Women's Rights An Evening xiii CONTENTS PAGE Party Household Occupations Needlework Children Vul- garity A Moslem Establishment The " Sabeel " . . 251 CHAPTER XVIII THE MOSLEM FAITH IN JERUSALEM The Spirit of the East The Influence of Islam The Career of Mo- hammed His Relation to Jew and Christian -Religion among Women Observance of Religious Duties The Lower Ani- mals 266 CHAPTER XIX THE MOSLEM IN THE HOLY PLACES Mosques Sacred Sites of Common Interest Mosque at Hebron Posted Prayers Mukrams Mukaddasi His Description of Palestine Moslem Devotion in the Holy Land. . . .291 [CHAPTER XX THE MOSLEM WOMAN IN JERUSALEM Amusements Theatre Shopping Wedding Bath Reception El Gelweh 301 CHAPTER XXI CHRISTIAN WOMEN IN JERUSALEM Training Occupations Comparisons between Moslem and Christian .- Women Christians of the Working Class Manners Hos- pitality Notable women Benefactresses .... 323 CHAPTER XXII BIRD AND BEAST IN JERUSALEM Alleged Cruelty in Jerusalem The Camel, Cat, Dog, Horse, Ass, Wild Animals The Gazelle,* Jerboa, Hyena, Jackal, Coney Mar Saba Sport The Partridge, Hare, Fox Wild Birds In the " Temple Courts Storks, Sparrow, Swallow The Lizards . . 336 CHAPTER XXIII THE HUMANITIES IN JERUSALEM Conventional Writing Poetry Art Literature and Science Education Royal Visitors Sir Moses Montefiore Consular Flags Jewish Intercession English Visitors The P.E.F. German Exploration Holy Places Modern Buildings Edu- cational Errors Examination Papers. ... . . .351 xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE 1. Frontispiece. ......... 17 2. A General View of Jerusalem . . . . . .14 3. Lydda, the home of Dorcas ...'... 10 4. Olive Harvest (Gethsemane) ...... 28 5. In the Prison Courtyard ....... 54 6. Aged Jews 60 7. Olive oil presses ........ 70 8. The Mount of Olives and the Russian Tower ... 76 9. " He shall lead His flock " . . ... .80 10. The Damascus Gate 96 11. View of the Temple Area looking North . . . .130 12. View of the Temple Area looking South . . . . 152 13. Mosque of El Aksa 180 14. In the Temple Precincts 192 1."). House and tomb of Samuel ...... 208 10. Irrigation wheel ........ 210 17. Via Dolorosa ......... 216 18. El Aksa, "the further Mosque" 220 19. Absalom's Pillar 234 20. Village Sheiks 239 21. The Muezzin 240 22. Bethlehem Bride 254 23. The Cafe of the town 284 24. Moslem Women v 308 XV LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE 25. Salt Hills and Jordan . ... . . . 344 26. The River Jordan . . . . . . . . 346 J7. Garden of Gethsemane ....... 354 28. An Askkeiiazim Jew ....... 302 29. A Bedawi Camp 370 30. Bedawi man and woman ....... 374 31. Threshing floor .376 32. " Good measure " . 37& xvi CHAPTER I WHAT IS JERUSALEM LIKE? BOOKS OF TRAVEL LIMITATIONS OF NATIONALITY AND CREED THE ENGLISH THE GERMANS THE AMERICANS SOCIETY LANGUAGE TRADE MEDICINE INTELLEC- TUAL ADVANTAGES PHYSICAL ASPECT IF you are going to give us a book about Jerusalem," said a friendly publisher before we left England, " do tell people what they want to know. Never mind where Absalom's Tomb isn't ! " " What is Jerusalem like ? " is what friends say in their letters. " Of course we have read books of description and archaeology ; but What do you do ? How do you dress ? What language do you talk ? What do you eat ? What sort of people do you meet ? How do they entertain ? Is it healthy ? Would it be a nice place to take the children to ? Is there any shooting ? Is there a good doctor ? Are there any educational advantages ? Is there a decent hotel ? Is it pretty country ? What is there to do besides going to Holy Places and to church ? " Such are some of the questions which I hope to answer in the following pages, as well as some others which we have ourselves been compelled to ask since coming into the country two years ago, and which, in some cases, have not been very readily answered. Those points which were easily ascertained, especially those of the Absalom's Tomb variety, I have ignored, not because we were indifferent upon such matters indifference here would be brutal and unintelligent but because they are already abundantly 1 B INNER JERUSALEM dealt with, and are being dealt with further, at (so it has been calculated) the rate of seven books a year, to say nothing of the Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Explora- tion Fund, the Revue Biblique, the American Journal of Archaeology, a Russian journal admirably illustrated, but of name untranscribable, the Zeitschrift des deutschen Palae- stina-Vereins, and, probably, many other publications in half a score of languages. Of description, also, we have abundance, especially in English, and the supply is perpetually renewed. We have Three Weeks in Judaea, Snapshots in Galilee, Discourses with Dragomans, Chats with Consuls, Causeries with Cook, Lectures with Lunn, and Pilgrimages with Perowne. What is more, the memory of many a weary Sunday afternoon spent in the enforced society of works not less accurate in observation nor learned in research, provokes the reflection that there are persons, ignorant and indifferent, who are but imperfectly responsive to discussion upon points remote from their experience, and description of places of which they never heard before. We recall unregenerate days when we hated Biblical Researches, were bored by The Giant Cities of Bashan, fled from The Land and the Book, and looked upon The Wars of the Jews as a special cruelty devised for the torment of young Christians who lived two miles from church, beside a road inches deep in mud on wet Sundays. Here and now, we are thankful if we may touch the skirts of the garments of Robinson and Burton, Burckhardt and Josephus ; we put George Adam Smith under our pillows, and read Post and Tristram at meals ; but that is because we have learnt to know and love the Holy Land ; to find in her the heart of Christendom ; the parent of history, the springs of human life, at once the grave and resurrection-place of hope. She calls to us with voices that are more imperious than that of the East, as such ; with that of the past, for she has been the battle- field of all nations ; of the present, for she is the common 2 WHAT IS JERUSALEM LIKE centre of all religions ; of the future, for to her, the meeting- place of East and West, of all Monotheistic creeds, we look for that re-union, which shall make Catholicism inclusive as its name, and Christendom something more vital than a geographical distinction. Even in Jerusalem one cannot be always gazing at great landscapes. They are, as Hannah More says, " seen through small openings," and one's cosmic emotions are born out of an aggregate of circumstances here, as elsewhere, small. In Jerusalem, you can easily lead that simplified existence for which doctors and thinkers alike are pleading. You could not eat half a crown's worth of food in a day if you tried ; you can get a lunch as good, so far as " good " means well cooked, wholesome, and satisfying, for a franc and a half, as at home for three and sixpence ; your clothes, like those of the Israelites, wax not old, and when they do it won't matter ; you are not troubled by social competi- tions, for nobody keeps a carriage or entertains to the extent of twenty pounds a year. Bishops and consuls have what look like servants in livery, but they are really a kind of policeman whom the Government obliges them to maintain. There are, if you are English-speaking, no social distinc- tions. You soon get accustomed to meeting in the draw- ing-rooms of your friends with persons whom you would by nature have rather expected to find elsewhere, and you learn that those who are excluded, are not the ill-mannered or uneducated, but those who speak in foreign tongues, or still worse, who say their prayers in Greek or Latin. There are not, of course, wanting persons of wider views, but they are few and have sufficient tact to refrain from amalgamating groups the separation of which nature so clearly indicated at the Tower of Babel and in the Blessed Reformation. Attempts have been made to meet upon the broad basis of a tennis club, which once a week had tea, but as no one discovered that tennis, as a society amuse- ment, was in England past its prime, it was regarded as 3 INNER JERUSALEM worldly and died a natural death, only to be resuscitated, by invitation, on the neutral ground of Judaism (reformed). Here one might meet with half a score of nationalities, en- joy good music, and, if so inclined, play Bridge, or even, upon occasion, dance ; from which it may be deduced that foreigners are frivolous, and that English, under the cir- cumstances, is little spoken unless with the muscular relaxation of the Levantine. If your tastes incline to learning and archaeology, you have again, for the most part, to subject yourself to the perils of foreign tongues and other creeds ; to the Germans, who may be Lutherans but are often Catholic, to the Italians of the Patriarchal or Franciscan Clergy, to the French of the Dominican or the Assumptionist orders. England is repre- sented by a solitary savant from the Palestine Exploration Fund, but America has a School of Archaeology, opened in 1900, which receives, irrespective of religion, nationality, or sex, all students who are graduates of a university of recognized standing. It has no local habitation, and only one professor, annually renewed, and, however learned, as new as are his pupils to the Holy Land. The students have gradually risen in number till there were once five. The English Missionary Societies, who have been longer in Palestine than any Europeans except the Franciscan friars, are entirely indifferent to such interests, although, to one of their clergy the Rev. Edward Hanauer, Jerusalem born archaeology is indebted in a degree of which the pub- lic, especially in Jerusalem, knows little, his learning hav- ing been given to the world mainly over the signatures of those who have profited by his conversation. One would suppose that the English point of view as to the division of the world of Jerusalem into English and foreigners, might be conceivably modified by the fact that certain foreigners are Protestants. 1 Unfortunately, however, 1 " Protestant " is, in Turkey, the official name for all beliefs collectively which are not Moslem, Jewish, Latin or Greek. There 4 WHAT IS JERUSALEM LIKE for the cause of social unity, they are also Germans ; and although we have prospered at home for a couple of centuries under a German dynasty, we are here unable to hold out the hand of fellowship to those who own the hospital which nurses the English sick, and the post which for the most part conveys the English letters, to whom, moreover, we owe most of the shops which purvey our European comforts and conveniences. The visit of the German Emperor in 1898 is still marked with a white stone in the history of Jerusalem. Roads were made, gates were opened, the town was even cleaned in his honour, and he showed his warm appreciation of the wel- come, general, and well deserved, by the truly cosmopolitan and Catholic spirit in which he presented to his subjects, in the Holy City, two sites, one for the erection of a Lutheran, the other of a Latin Church. Trade, agriculture and com- merce in Jerusalem are never more flourishing than in the hands of Germans. The suburb known as the German colony is an admirable example of cleanliness and order. It is, to all practical purposes, a picturesque German village, having its own church, public hall, band, drill-hall, schools, farm, gardens, and of course Bier Halle. Three immense orphanages, a large general hospital and a children's hospi- tal, maintained by the Germans, are the only Protestant institutions of the kind upon any scale of magnitude in Jerusalem. There are, moreover, three or four groups of Americans with whom, with the exception of certain Quakers at Ramallah, it is equally impossible for the English to associate ; and this is again another privilege reserved for the foreigners, who have not been slow to discover that for baking, con- fectionery, dressmaking, art-needlework, various decorative handicrafts, photography, carpentry, for lessons in various subjects, including painting and concerted music, as well as one speaks always of the " Latin," not of the " Roman Catholic " Church. 5 INNER JERUSALEM for much general benevolence and philanthropy, the Ameri- can colonists, although doubtless unorthodox in religious opinions, are without equal in Jerusalem. Lady Burton, writing at the time when Sir Richard, then Mr. Burton, was consul at Damascus, could not refrain from quoting from an inquiring lady in one of Trollope's novels : " Isn't a consul a horrid creature that lives in a seaport, and worries merchant seamen and imprisons people who have no passports ? He isn't a creature one knows. They are im- possible, dear, impossible." On the contrary, in Jerusalem, consuls are Society, not in Society, but with the addition of the doctors, clergy, and a banker or two, and some two or three persons not easily classified, they are Society. 1 The Greek, and still more the Latin clergy, largely well bred and scholarly gentlemen, whose acquaintance is a privilege, are above or below it, ac- cording to the point of view, but any way outside it, and the rest of the European population are missionaries and Levan- tines. The consuls worry about passports only in so far as it is their business, by providing them, to save one from being worried by the Turkish and other governments, and they are popularly supposed to call up gunboats when pashas are not amenable. The consuls of Russia, France and Germany 2 have a large and efficient suite 3 of their respective nationalities ; 1 Lady Strangford, than whom none should better know the social life of Oriental towns, speaks of " the enormous power (of consuls) in a quiet way, for improving or disimproving the people in whose country they are placed." 2 The consuls of France, Italy, Russia and Austria take prece- dence of all others as consuls-general. 3 " The French cancelliere is duly educated for his profession in jurisprudence and notarial functions, which he enters by a competi- tive examination, and acts as notary and keeper of the archives. In the Levant he is always a young man of ability and practice." (Finn, Stirring Times, ii. 379). This is equally true of the employes of some other continental Consulates. 6 WHAT IS JERUSALEM LIKE but it is characteristic of the fashion in which England commends herself to the respect of this country that the English consul, with some 200 1 persons in his jurisdiction, has not a single English subordinate, so that the interests of England in Jerusalem are largely in the hands of Arabs ; 2 and the consular agent at Jaffa, the port of Jerusalem and gate of Palestine, was till lately a Jew, unsalaried, who could barely speak English. The American consuls seem to be chosen from among re- tired ministers of religion (non-episcopal), and although they represent a country which contributes an immense number of visitors to the Holy Land, are alone among officials in Jerusalem in being without any Consular residence. France, Italy, Russia and Greece are largely occupied in rivalry as to front places in then* respective Church cere- monials ; the betting, to put it profanely, being upon France in the one case, and Russia in the other. Spain, presumably, is also required to figure in religious duties, and Germany and Austria are much concerned in friendly rivalry of postal service, to the great advantage of European residents. Hol- land apparently has an existence ; for she hangs out a red, white and blue flag on Sundays. Hanging out flags on Sundays and saints' days is an important consular duty, which is perhaps the reason why Holland is but little in evi- dence ; as, apparently, the reformed religion does not con- cern itself with saints. It is generally either a Greek, or a Latin and Anglican, saint's day, so that we are seldom desti- tute of flags ; and one is disposed to wonder whether the Hollandisches Consulat feels at all " out of it." Her repre- sentative, however, lives in sight of two windmills, and 1 The number of British subjects and protected persons registered in the British Consulate during 1902 was 155. This includes heads of families and single persons only, and is exclusive of wives and of children under twenty-one years of age. 2 A question was asked on this point in the House of Commons, on Nov. 11, 1902. It is hoped that it may lead to some arrange- ment more becoming to our dignity as a nation. 7 INNER JERUSALEM though long disused they may serve to make him feel at home in the absence of cleanliness and canals. A consul, patriarch, or other person of distinction, does not appear in public without his attendant cawass, a native servant, who, when entering a church or other public place, serves as beadle, and bangs on the ground with a silver-headed stick to clear the way. This is not, as the critical tourist is apt to call it, mere " swagger " ; for the dignitary in ques- tion is merely fulfilling his part of the bargain under which the Turkish Government makes itself responsible for his safety, his contribution to the position being, naturally, that he should not go about without a licensed attendant sufficiently armed. Each official provides these servants with suitable uniform, often very picturesque. As they are generally soldiers, or potential soldiers of the Turkish army, it follows that they are Moslems, which, as a rule, means that they are good and faithful servants, and also that there will be no religious complications ; for to convert a Moham- medan is practically an impossibility. Probably also there may be other points involved in the presence of the cawass, whose existence ensures that an official cannot receive or pay a visit without the cognizance of a potential spy, who is also for the most part instructed in what goes on in his master's house and among his household. He is certainly a pictur- esque accessory ; the heavy stick, curly sword, and hanging sleeves are common to cawasses of all nationalities, the tarbush 1 to most. The Montenegrins who serve the immense Russian hospices are perhaps the most ornamental, with their closely fitting white cloth costumes, blue vests and red sashes. The Russian consular cawasses are mysterious as to their nether garments, which begin as petticoats gathered into a band, continue in fashion more or less normal, and end up, apparently, as stockings. The English, French, and Italians have a general resemblance to each other, but are all 1 Better known to English as the " Turkish cap " or " fez," which a sumptuary law imposes upon all Turkish subjects. 8 WHAT IS JERUSALEM LIKE alike imposing, with braided jackets, wide trousers, and a general effect of blue and silver. As may be gathered, social life in Jerusalem is convenient in proportion to the number of languages in which one can have intercourse with one's fellow-creatures ; and perhaps a difficulty in acquiring foreign tongues may be a contribu- tory cause of English exclusiveness. Almost all foreigners can speak two or three languages, and most Arabs half a dozen. The Jews, who compose more than two-thirds of the population of Jerusalem, can speak, the rising generation at least, French, German, or English, according as they have been educated by the Alliance Israelite, the Lamel, or the Anglo- Jewish Schools. Almost anybody in Jerusalem can say " all right" when your own conversation flags, and if they have been educated in the English schools they will say " Not at all " when you say " Thank you " ; for as the Arabic language contains no equivalent of " thank you " or "if you please," they appear to think that a repartee is required, and this is the hereditary phrase with which some missionary of former times has endowed them. To say " all right " and " very well," and to shake hands perpetually, is the Arab conception of English manners, and to pay you extravagant compliments (if he has anything to sell), his notion of French politeness. Shops, in Jerusalem, are kept by almost every nationality except English ; but Germans, Greeks, and Jews predomi- nate. French and Italian, or French and German, will carry you anywhere, and you soon pick up enough Arabic for the expression of your wants, especially if you don't take lessons. With tafadal and a gesture, you can make almost any request, with imshi you can say " Go away," with la in varied in- tonations you can dissent, and with aiwa you can agree, though it is an expression discouraged by the missionaries, as having some remote connexion with " Allah " ; ivallah, with which it is etymologically associated, meaning literally " by God." It is, however, impossible to keep your conversa- 9 INNER JERUSALEM tion clear of religious phrases. You do not say " Good morning," but " May your day be blessed " ; for " thank you " you substitute " May (God) increase your goods." If asked how you are, you say, " As God wills " ; and if asked your opinion, intention, object, or desire (if you have entered into the secretive spirit of the East), you will reply, " Do I know ? God knows." You can practise an Arabic accent by repeating the word " umbrella " with separate emphasis on both 1's, and " Rachel Ramsay," like a German with a tendency to say w for r. But it is a magnificent language, and gains on one's respect with increased acquaintance. An intelligent Syrian school- master told us that he would rather be examined in English grammar than that of his own speech, and my own teacher, by way of encouragement, assured me that a Moslem grammarian had reduced the rules to one thousand, though a Christian had subsequently increased the number to fifteen hundred. We have, in English, a score or two of Arabic words, which is quite a nice little collection to begin with, and some of them, such as " admiral, artichoke, algebra, talisman and shawl," are quite useful, and it would not be impossible to devise phrases which should introduce " nadir, elixir, amulet, and lute." The inhabitant of Jerusalem can be doctored in half a dozen languages, and there is a German physician who specializes in oriental diseases, and has especial facilities, in certain directions, in the admirable leper hospital main- tained by the Moravians, the only institution of the kind in Jerusalem, if we except the work, under the protection of the Turkish Government, of the French Sisters of Charity at present, in this branch of benevolence, very inadequately housed. Of the work of the English Eye Hospital I shall have more to say, but even in passing can mention it only with very especial respect, and with satisfaction that there should be one direction in which our country has, in Syria, surpassed 10 WHAT IS JERUSALEM LIKE all others, although others are also doing similar good work on a smaller scale. We English have no newspapers, and no club, and no music, and not even any musical instrument worthy of mention. A mechanical contrivance destitute of semitones which played popular hymn tunes from the tower of the church connected with the London Mission to the Jews, has been lately silenced. There are pianos, and church organs, and a choral society, but for music one of necessity has recourse, as for much else, to the Germans and the Russians, and to the churches of the Latins. A library, mainly of theology, has been established in con- nexion with St. George's (Anglican) Collegiate Church, and about a hundred books, by no means up to date, in addition to their own journal up to 1896, represent the library of the Jerusalem Association of the Palestine Exploration Fund ; 1 but for the specialist literature of the Holy Land one must once more seek the hospitality of the Germans or of the Latin Orders : the Dominicans, Assumptionists, or of the White Fathers at St. Anne's, who possess, moreover, the only museums of general utility ; though at other convents, and even among the Greeks and Armenians, there are collections of value and interest. One cannot but regret that the P.E.F. should not have added to much good work accomplished in Jerusalem that of a small museum and library which should stimulate the student, and compete, however humbly, with other nationalities. The Dominicans and Germans are alone in Jerusalem in offering antiquarian and archaeolo- gical instruction to the general public. It is much, however, that intellectual advantages are to be had, although our own country is behind all others in supplying them, that museums, libraries, antiquarian lectures, cultivated and learned society, scientific research, the enthusiasm of humanity, practical philanthropy, art and music, all are here in this city of beauty and wonder ; 1 A Society henceforth to be known in these pages as the P.E.F. 11 INNER JERUSALEM the reward and insignia of wider views and larger hopes, of the elimination of prejudice, and the recognition of the universal Fatherhood of God. As to the general physical aspect of Jerusalem, we may turn to the ebullitions of a hundred pilgrims writing at intervals during nearly two thousand years we can be emotional with Chateaubriand and Lamartine, or common- place with a distinguished ecclesiastic who said the other day that it looked like a second-rate provincial town in Italy. We can, moreover, refrain from adjectives, and look at the view. Let us pass to the balcony. It is the month of November ; we are so fortunate as to be in Jerusalem out of the season, and the " early rain " has fallen, lending colour and freshness to a landscape which, till lately, has responded to the sun- shine in tones of sepia and grey. The distant hills have a delicate veil of green, and we know that all the sheltered hollows are gay with little gardens of the autumn crocus, and sweet with the breath of wild thyme and " the slender galingale." We stand, looking due east, almost at the middle of the base of a wide horseshoe, the horizon bounded all around by mountains. Beginning to our right, and realizing that " Jordan rolls between," we see the Mountains of Moab, perhaps of all things visible from Jerusalem, the sight upon which one learns to gaze with the most unwearied affection. Beyond are the Mount of Olives, Mount Scopas, and the hills which unite the Jerusalem group with the Alpine range of Palestine. Mount Scopas is crowned by what is marked on the maps as " the English house," the country-house of a Liverpool barrister, and the centre, during the spring months, not only of art and hospitality, but also of a wide philanthropy which puts to shame the prejudice and bigotry of many of the " good works " of the Holy City. On the Mount of Olives a group of Russian buildings, political per- haps as much as religious, are the most conspicuous object ; 12 WHAT IS JERUSALEM LIKE below them the Church of the Pater, 1 and the Convents of the Carmelites and Benedictines, and the church of the Domimis floevit, where the view of Jerusalem over which " Jesus wept," is still one of the most beautiful anywhere to be found. Further northward the eye easily distinguishes the highest point of the Mount of Olives, the Viri Galilaei, 2 on the slope of which we see the dome of the Church of the Ascension. In the nearer distance, again beginning to the right of the horseshoe, is the city of Jerusalem, two and a half miles in circumference, of which nearly the whole of the north wall is visible. The north-east corner, the site of Tancred's camp, is hidden from us by the immense hospice of Notre Dame de France, with its church, theological seminary, and hospital, but the fine battlemented wall nearly forty feet in height, with its many towers, and broken only by the Da- mascus Gate and the Gate of Herod, stretches down to the foot of Mount Scopas. Within the walls, once more beginning to our right, there are first the great group of buildings belonging to the Fran- ciscans ; 3 east of these a curious and complex group of which the main feature is the Church of the Resurrection with its two domes of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and of the Greek Catholicon respectively. Crowding round it, are three mosques distinguishable by the graceful minarets so characteristic of Jerusalem ; and, just beyond, the German Church of the Redeemer, which occupies the site 1 Marking the spot where our Lord is said to have given His prayer to the Apostles, which, in the cloisters, is engraved on marble tablets in thirty-two different tongues. 2 Where the " Men of Galilee " were addressed on the morning of the Ascension (Acts i. 2). 3 These include the great Convent and Church of San Salvador, the Casa Nuova or Hospice for pilgrims, the dispensary, schools, orphanages, library, printing press, dwellings for the poor, etc. The nucleus of the buildings was a Georgian Convent acquired by the Franciscans in 1551. It is thus by several centuries the oldest conventual Latin building in Jerusalem, and perhaps for that reason of architectural pretensions. 13 INNER JERUSALEM of the magnificent ruins of the Muristan, the monastery founded by Charlemagne, later the centre of the hospi- talities of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. Be- yond this is a collection of synagogues, one of which, the green dome of the Ashkenazim Jews, is alone visible from our present standpoint. Passing over the Jewish quarter, the , eye reaches the splendid dome of the Mosque, the centre of the Haram area, which occupies one-sixth of the entire city, a spot sacred alike to Jew, Christian, and Moslem. The further wall of the Temple area is also the east wall of the city, which again brings us back to the Mount of Olives, with the Garden of Gethsemane and the Tomb of our Lady at its feet. Outside the walls, besides the French Convent of the Assumptionist Order, already referred to, we have the very handsome and extensive buildings of St. Etienne belonging to the Dominican Order, with, perhaps, the handsomest church in Jerusalem. They are just outside the Damascus, formerly known as the St. Stephen's, Gate, and are built upon the site of three ancient and successive churches com- memorating the martyrdom of the Saint. At our feet is a considerable suburb, largely Moslem, the houses well built, detached and generally surrounded by court or garden, but in placing disorderly and irrelevant, a road not being by any means a necessary adjunct to a house in this country. Immediately opposite to us is a little green knoll * covered with Moslem tombs and undermined by the Grotto of Jere- miah ; northwards the tower of St. George's Collegiate Church peeps through a break in the surrounding olive gar- dens. To our left, just across the road, is a little stone hall, unlicensed and unconsecrated, which is what the Church Missionary Society exhibits in Jerusalem as the outward and 1 Known as the Protestant Calvary and commonly called the Green Hill in allusion to the well known hymn, though the adherents of this very modern variant upon a tradition recorded over 1600 years are naturally few. 14 WHAT IS JERUSALEM LIKE visible sign of the beauty of holiness. Services are held there twice on a Sunday, with Holy Communion once a month. Behind us is the suburb affected by consuls. It will thus be evident that from any point slightly ele- vated the Holy City presents a compact though outspread panorama. It is built on a plateau of about a thousand acres, sloping from 2,589 feet at the north-west angle down to the hill of the Temple, 2,441 feet above the Mediterranean, the residential suburbs, outside the walls, being somewhat higher. Its many domes and minarets make it, all question of sentiment apart, an undoubtedly handsome city, and to the white stone of which it is built it owes its characteristic j aspect of eternal youth and eternal hope. 15 CHAPTER II DOMESTICITIES IN JERUSALEM EXPERIENCES OF THE TRAVELLER ECCENTRICITIES OF THE PLACE COMMERCIAL ASPECT CLIMATE AND SCIROCCO WATER SUPPLY VEGETATION INSECT ENEMIES FLORA ANOMALOUS CUSTOMS COINAGE ECONOMY OF LIVING THE people who think that to go to Jerusalem is to go to the end of the world, fail to realize that it takes but one day longer than to go to Cairo. At Port Said you turn north instead of south ; one day by boat brings you to Jaffa, and next afternoon, after seeing the house of Simon the Tanner, and the tomb of Dorcas, you take the train there is only one to Jerusalem. In approaching Jerusalem one struggles between contend- ing emotions of surprise and of familiarity. To take a ticket at the Jaffa station and see one's luggage labelled for Jerusalem on the American check system to have your belongings examined and your tickets clipped by a person in a pink petticoat with a brooch in the form of a railway- engine to designate his official position to puff, however slowly, across the plain of Sharon to look out of a carriage- window at the cave where Samson hid, and at the vineyard where he tied the foxes' tails together to pass close by the house where Dorcas made clothes for the poor (which it is to be hoped in nowise resembled the garments sent out from her followers in England to unfortunate little " con- verts " here) to pass the factory where the boxes are 16 DOMESTICITIES IN JERUSALEM made for Jaffa oranges, such as in England we beg from the grocer for sitting-hens ; to see the oranges themselves growing in gigantic clusters, deep ellipses of which the English representatives are a poor mockery both in colour and in form in all this, it is difficult from first to last to distinguish between familiarity and surprise. This is such a poor little thing in railway trains, although its engine was made in Philadelphia, it hides itself in such deep valleys, and gets so discouraged at the hills and so terribly out of breath during the three hours and a half which it takes to travel under forty miles, that one soon learns to forgive its existence. Up and up we go, slowly climbing for over 2,000 feet the land which should be flowing with milk and honey growing more bleak and desolate as we proceed. Here and there is a distant village, and the Arab children come racing down the precipitous hills on either side the line, to throw bunches of flowers in at the window, and soon come running after the train again to complain that the money we have given them is not of the right coinage. It was right enough twenty miles back in Jaffa, but coinage, beggars, and mosquitoes, are annoyances that are always with us. The mountainous walls on either hand widen, and the landscape takes a more human aspect. There is a man ploughing with two yoke of oxen and a Highland caschrom ; here a tower which some one has begun to build and is not able to finish ; a sight which soon becomes familiar where the thriftless, shiftless, children of the East seem seldom able to count beyond a few piastres, over which they will chatter and haggle with indefatigable enterprise. Finally, to the north-east stands a city on a hill which cannot be hid, and we have reached Jerusalem. We give in our checks, show receipts for excess luggage, firmly refuse to take a cab from the railway station to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which is our destination, are 17 c INNER JERUSALEM told in excellent English by the young dragoman who takes our affairs in hand, to " turn to the left and we cannot miss the Jaffa gate," and, still with the same sense of mingled astonishment and familiarity, we set out toward the most sacred spot on the face of the whole world. We are to walk about a mile due north. It is Bethlehem which is behind, Jerusalem before us, and yet we are in the land of suburbs a German suburb, a Jewish suburb ! Away to our left against the sky-line are a minaret and two windmills ; to our right the British Ophthalmic Hospital looks down into the Valley of Hinnom ; here we pass the Upper Pool of Gihon, where the steep cliff of Sion frowns down upon the new pleasure gardens of the Pasha. Life in Jerusalem is a life of anomalies and anachronisms. To the looker-on it can never assume the definite colouring of other places, it can never be even consistently religious, as Rome is religious. Every street Arab speaks three or four languages ; apart from tourists you have representa- tives of half the nations of the world. You have a dozen Consulates, you have a score of Convents, you have Jews, Mohammedans and Christians ; you learn to understand religious distinctions of which you never thought before ; you find that the Greeks and Russians, like the Anglicans and the English Church Missionary Society, worship apart, that even among the Roman Catholics there are half a dozen rites, that the country is administered by a government which does not speak its language, and that the " native " is of an older race than that which immigrated here under Abraham four thousand years ago. But Jerusalem is interesting, is lovable even, to those who ever so little " hear the East a-caUing." One can have emotions here of which in the West we know nothing. We, who date events from the Norman Conquest, have a sense of luxury in hearing the archaeologist speak of some wayside tomb as " merely Graeco-Roman," in knowing that the ancestors of races whom the missionary proposes to elevate 18 DOMESTICITIES IN JERUSALEM were probably Christians who, conceivably , dwelt in marble halls while his were running about in woad. It is natural enough among evidences of time and place so diverse, that there should also be immense diversities in all questions of civilization and convenience. The streets of the city are unspeakably filthy ; happily, except for worship (if he happens to be anything but an Anglican), the resident has little temptation to go within the walls. One does not go to market ; your servant or dragoman can buy things at about half the price you would give, and will enjoy spending half an hour in smoking cigarettes, drinking coffee, and cheapening your dinner a franc or so, by a metalik (about a sou) at a time. Even in what Americans call " dry-goods " you can buy nearly anything in Jerusalem, only you can seldom get quite enough of it ; you are always a yard, or an ounce, or half a dozen, short for whatever you want to make. All products of the country, beautiful materials in cotton, linen, and silk, are hand- woven and extraordinarily cheap and good, and in the convents one can get excellent needle- work ; French dressmaking up to the latest fashion-plates, good boot-making, lace-making, laundry-work, metal-work in gold and silver, and in combinations of silver and mother o' pearl, and so on. One hardly expects to find a County Council, but one could wish that it were not the custom to put everything of every kind that is not wanted in the house just outside the front door ; and that when they water the roads, which is every time that the Pasha's car- riage is expected, they would use water which had been less often used before. In a sense the Arab is clean. You cross a foul doorstep to enter a spotless house. The floors are all stone, and they are constantly damp, from perpetual swilling, so long as he has any water to swill with. Perhaps it is because water is at times an expensive luxury that he loves to waste it. The white sheet, which is the outdoor dress of the women, 19 is generally spotless, but it might be as well not to inquire further. The kumbaz, or long cotton frock of the men, generally shows traces of an unscientific wash-tub, but they all carry themselves so well, and are so lithe and well set up, so great a contrast to the slouching, heavy women, that one is not too critical of details. This applies only to the town: in the villages it is the women who are effectively dressed and graceful. The native cooking is good and extremely elaborate. The Arab is never in a hurry, and some of the dishes take many hours to prepare, though they are probably cooked on a pinch of charcoal, in a thing like a tin pie-dish. I have seen a tailor fry his dinner upon the charcoal in his box-iron, and excellent coffee is prepared over a spark at which an English cook could not light a pipe. In Jerusalem we do not talk pluie et beau temps, but cisterns and scirocco. At best the rainfall averages only thirty or forty inches, and the rainy days may be counted on one's fingers, so that we forget to make the customary proviso " if it is fine." Except on a few odd days between November and February it is always fine, and our June anxieties are not as to damp school-feasts and flooded garden-parties, but as to the amount of water in the cistern, and whether the garden may be permitted to exist at all ; for without water even the hardy scarlet geranium and long-suffering marguerite lose heart after a time, and hang down withered heads, so quickly faded that the blossoms have not had time to fall ; and there are no showers of scarlet petals or yellow pollen, such as proclaim their demise at home. At afternoon teas, or when neighbours meet after church (there is nowhere else to meet in particular), we com- pare notes as to the contents of cisterns, mainly, and to the distraction of the English new-comer, in metres. No one, who can afford to do better, thinks of drinking water from the cisterns, however well cleaned and cared for ; as science, represented by the doctors, has declared 20 DOMESTICITIES IN JERUSALEM that cistern water, scirocco and mosquitoes, are responsible for most of the characteristic ailments of the European in Jerusalem ; and the first of these evils is the only one we are in any practical degree able to control. There is quite a trade in drinking-water, which comes mainly from the Well of the Blessed Virgin, three miles away, at the little village of Ain Karim, a well from which she must assuredly have drawn water, if, as appears probable, this little village of S. John in the mountains were really the home of Zacha- rias and Elizabeth, and the birthplace of S. John Baptist. But as health depends not only upon the water one drinks, but upon the amount available for other purposes, the capacity and contents of the cisterns or tanks for collecting water from the surface of roofs and elsewhere, is a prominent topic of interest. Only the very shy venture upon the banality of " Isn't it hot ? " but when in doubt as to other subjects one may always risk a speculation as to scirocco. As a matter of fact this very unpleasant wind, which comes from the south- east, has all the characteristics of east wind elsewhere, plus the aggravation that as it has a touch of south, and comes to us across the arid deserts of Arabia, its vices are hot instead of cold, and the more infernal in consequence. It is, in short, fatal to vegetation, exhausting to the nerves, irritating to the temper, parching to the skin, ruinous to the hair and complexion, and destructive to domestic peace. The lower animals are restless, children cross, and adults behave like the influenza convalescent in Punch, the man on the Stock Exchange, or other haunt of the stalwart and unemotional, who says, " If you contradict me I shall cry." * This aspect of the Jerusalem temperament is probably 1 The disagreeable characteristics of scirocco are due to the entire absence of ozone. Dr. Chaplin, who, until Dr. Masterman's recent hydrometric experiments near the Dead Sea had alone represented British Science in Jerusalem, entirely failed to get the slightest discoloration of ozone paper when the scirocco was at all severe. 21 INNER JERUSALEM merely an evil habit acquired in past Mays and Octobers, the months of scirocco ; and if further excuse is needed, one may always plead, for a large proportion of the population, the absence, not only of occupation but of interest in a place where there is little occasion for " servant " talk, where there are no circulating libraries, no shop-windows, where every one is intimate with every one else's wardrobe and other possessions, where little worth mentioning is ever achieved, where croquet and bicycles have not yet arrived, and lawn-tennis, such as it is, is on the doubtful borderland of piety, abandoned mainly to the world, as represented by consuls, foreigners, and some half-dozen outsiders. Moreover, if scirocco, and an ineffective existence, do not suffice to palliate certain peculiarities of Jerusalem life, there is yet one more excuse, which for some among us may fairly be taken to outweigh all other sources of provocation put together. On Fridays and Sundays the Turkish Band performs, and on every day of the week it practises ; all the instruments independently at the same moment. Music, in Turkey, would appear to imply mainly, attention to rhythm, and the difference between playing and practising consists in the combined observance of time, which the conductor beats, not unsuccessfully, with his feet. They have two tunes, " The Turkish March," which one recognizes through the medium of one's recollections of " The Ruins of Athens " (oh, shades of Beethoven and Rubinstein !), and another, or others, which one never succeeds in recognizing at all. There is no light and shade, no expression, unless a general sense of distress visible on all surrounding European counte- nances, may be taken as evidence of some kind of suffering, imperfectly externalized. " Aus meinen grossen Schmerzen Mach' ich die kleinen Lieder " might well be the motto of the official music of this country 22 DOMESTICITIES IN JERUSALEM assuredly the cause of at least some of its many evils and misfortunes. To return to scirocco. There is a superstition that it lasts always for three days, which are, however, occasionally pro- longed to eight or ten ; and it is worst that is, least endurable in the otherwise most healthy and bracing parts of Syria : Jerusalem, Nablous, and the mountains of Galilee. Happily it is less frequent than is the east wind in Western Europe, but it makes up in intensity for its lack of duration. The wise shut doors and windows, and come face to face with the enemy as little as may be ; and it is only fair to hasten to say that otherwise the climate of Jerusalem is as delightful as can well be imagined. The hot, close nights of the English summer are unknown, as witness the practical fact that even in July and August one never sleeps without a blanket. Between ten o'clock and three it is wise to remain indoors, as well as immediately after sunset. The houses are so well built, that only under very bad management need the thermometer ever rise above 75 or 80 indoors, even on days when to open the front door is like putting one's head into an oven. After sunset, as a rule, the wind rises, and often after a hot day it amounts to a positive gale, so that when doors bang and windows rattle, in a fashion worthy of Scotland, it seems strange to preserve the calm certainty of cloudless skies and gentle breezes to-morrow morning. The dews are so heavy that one thinks of " the mist that went up from the ground and watered the whole face of the earth." There is much vegetation ; grapes, figs, and olives ripen ; pomegranate and oleander-blossoms flame ; and the blue eryngo waves its pompons long after the ground has become pale and hard, when rain has not been seen for three or four months, and there is still a certainty of at least another three months of cloudless sky, with not so much as a thunder- storm to cool the atmosphere which, however, never 23 INNER JERUSALEM strikes one as exhausted and " used up," as so often happens in a hot summer at home. Of course, Jerusalem has its own special diseases ; but these, even with common care (and not too much of it), the reasonable traveller may quite easily avoid. If one stays indoors during the prescribed hours, abstains from alcohol more heating than the refreshing light wine of the country, does not eat or drink too much, is careful as to salads, especially as to where they are grown and washed, wears woollen next the skin, avoids over-fatigue, and, above all, seeks such protection as may be from dust, mosquitoes, and sand-flies, one need not court headache under a pith helmet, eye-ache under blue glasses, or self-consciousness by perpetual libations of chlorodyne and quinine. It is, perhaps, not too much to say that mosquitoes and ; sand-flies are responsible for a very large proportion of the ; fever and malaria which visit the Holy Land ; as good water is generally attainable, and the Syrian almost always boils his milk. The sand-fly is, on the whole, the worst offender. He is to the mosquito what the hyena is to the tiger, a low, prowling brute that knows nothing of fair play. If, by your own mismanagement, the mosquito does get in- side your bed-curtains, he at least sounds his trumpet before him, and does his little best to play fair. You can approxi- mately gauge his proportions and detect his whereabouts. But the sand-fly is alike inaudible and invisible. You may pin your curtains close, but he and his sail gaily through the finest mesh. Clothing is no protection, Keating is no discouragement. You smite him without injury ; you triumphantly clap your palms together, certain of having enclosed him, and when you open your hand he flies happily away, only refreshed by the repast he has snatched upon your " Mount of Venus," or in the hollow of your " line of life." The mosquito is always with us, but the summer invasion of the sand-fly is far more to be dreaded even than the pro- 24 longed residence of the nobler beast of prey, a phrase which, by the way, reminds one that they are never so offensive as in church. Indeed, for these and other reasons, great and small (especially small), the programme of worship should always include an immediate return home and entire change of toilet. Even boots are but inadequate protection from the denizens of Jerusalem dust ; and in the Holy Sepulchre, often crowded and always ill-ventilated, one becomes acquainted with things creeping innumerable. It is at certain seasons, harvest-time especially, the refuge of the winged creation ; from the common house-fly, fresh from unspeakable wayside horrors, to the wary mosquito, whom, even in death, one gazes on rather in horror than in triumph, and with the reflection, " Whose blood have I spilt ? " It is from the fact that his bite is probably also an inoculation, that one attributes to him so large a portion of responsibility in the dissemination of disease. Fortunately ^ malarial fever requires eight to ten days to develop, and one has plenty of time for self-defence in the shape of small doses of quinine a useful prophylactic after any specially severe assault from the enemy. " The " Syrian " fever, one learns from an interesting article by Dr. Masterman on Residence and Travel in Palestine, is a generic term for various kinds of ague, but ''it is," he adds, "practically certain that Malta fever occurs. . . . When malaria is once in the system, the most potent cause of its recurrence is chill. Chills are very much more liable to occur in this semi-tropical climate than at home, and both the resident and the traveller are only too apt to think too lightly of them." The winter is, in its way, as pleasant as the summer. A fire is welcome in the evening, and it is desirable to carry a wrap when you go out in the afternoon, for towards sunset the air becomes chilly, and your dress is probably the ordinary woollen house-dress, without extra covering, of an English winter. This is, indeed, a land of perpetual 25 INNER JERUSALEM sunshine ; and whereas one hears of Arctic sufferings on the part of visitors to places of Mediterranean winter resort, except in hours (and one advisedly says hours] of actual rain, Jerusalem never fails to smile. The mean annual temperature is 63. One breakfasts out of doors in January, and rejoices in the refreshing breezes of July. To the sympathetic friends who wonder how one endures the summer sunshine of Judea, one replies : " Don't you wish you could keep the temperature of your bedroom at 65, and feel certain of immunity from the little summer shower ? " Moreover, they forget that we are nearly 3,000 feet above sea-level, that a morning's ride will bring us within sight of the Mediterranean, and a day's journey within reach of the cool breezes blowing off the snow-clad peaks of Mount Lebanon, 10,000 feet high. Probably nowhere in the world can one find so many varieties of climate. Although Palestine lies within the subtropical zone of latitude 23J to 34, the levels of its surface are so varied that, out of the eight zones recognized in physiography, five are represented within this very limited area. From the Mount of Olives, 2,723 feet above sea-level, one looks down into the valley of the Dead Sea, 1,292 feet below it, so that in a morning's drive one may encounter an entire change of flora and fauna ; one may look upon the juniper of Sweden and the palm- tree of the desert ; one may hear the skylark of our own Highlands, and the long-drawn note of the grackle of the tropics. According to Humboldt, the botanical character of any scenery may be determined by reference to some sixteen tribes of plants, and of these one-half are represented in Palestine ; namely, palms, acacias, laurels, myrtles, pines, willows, mallows, and lilies. One finds among the joyous spring miracle of wild flowers, not only countless new varieties, of form and colour undreamed of, but old friends wonderfully glorified ; the mallow, and poppy, and honey- suckle, and mouse-ear, and mandrake, and star of Bethlehem ; 26 DOMESTICITIES IN JERUSALEM the thistle, and clover, and linus, and flag-lily, of our fields and hedgerows, all wonderfully varied and dignified ; as well as the arums and cyclamen, crocus and anemone, scillas, and a hundred other glories of our English garden, flaunting by the wayside in glorious array and new magnificence, the very apotheosis of the humbler types at home. The Arab best loves flowers of strong scent, and it is perhaps mainly owing to this that the stock, carnation, and violet are cultivated wherever flowers are cultivated at all ; and that other plants of familiar association, not always inherently beautiful, have nevertheless a recognized place in most gardens hedges of wormwood and fennel, or more fragrant rosemary, and rows of every variety of pot-herbs, including many new to the European visitor. As one walks along the ill-smelling streets, one constantly comes across groups of peasant-women, offering for sale great heaps of herbs deliciously perfumed and bought largely by the Russian pilgrims. There is a whole bazaar of drugs and scented herbs and seeds and woods, many probably of foreign origin ; not only the aloes, balm of Gilead, calamus, cassia, cinnamon, frankincense, and myrrh, all obtained from scented woods brought from still further east, but other scents belonging nearer home ; the fruit-stalls are decorated with garlands of orange-blossom, jessamine, stephanotis, and tuberoses ; and the carpenters' shops are fragrant with the delicious cypress-wood, of which the bridal chests are made, and which, especially when freshly sawn, is sweet as sandalwood. One cannot wonder in contemplating either the good or bad smells of Jerusalem that the Jews have special thanks- givings for pleasant odours : " Blessed art Thou, oh Lord, our God, King of the Universe Creator of fragrant woods, Creator of fragrant plants Who dost bestow a goodly scent on fruits Who Greatest all sorts of spices Who created pleasantly scented oil," the special addition being selected to suit the case in point. 27 INNER JERUSALEM It is only to the superficial observer that this is a barren country. It was our own first impression, upon arriving in December ; not that one has any right to complain that a country does not look fertile in mid- winter, especially when the grey-green of the olive contrasts everywhere with the grey-brown of the bare hillsides. Even then, the children were offering bunches of cyclamen, primroses, anemones, at every station on the railway ; maidenhair and lady-fern were waving in the recesses of every tomb. Within a very few weeks, a delicate green hue began to creep over the faded fields, and day after day, as one opened the eastern window to the warm glow of sunrise, one noted how the spring tints became deepened and diffused. The wondrous glories of the Syrian spring are beyond all description, and the wealth of golden harvest beginning in May lasted well into June ; and now, in mid- August, when cisterns are emptying, and rain is unhoped for, the hillsides are gloriously green with the vines, not stiffly trained as elsewhere, but lying on the warm bosom of mother earth, and clothing the rocks and bare stone walls with the fresh glistening beauty of foliage, green and fresh as April lime-trees, or the horse chestnuts of Bushey Park before the first summer dust has flecked their radiant youth. Golden apricots gleam under dark green leaves, in trees which shelter the roadsides ; the figs are ripening, and the olives are still in prospect : and so here, as elsewhere, every month brings her own crown of delight and beauty. The peasants are leaving their homes in the narrow streets of the neighbouring villages, and betaking themselves to the rough stone watch-towers which shelter them when the fruit harvest is about to be gathered in. Often, in this country, one is reminded of the customs of the Western Highlands, as doubtless are those from other lands of similar habits common to all elementary peoples ; and the little groups of peasants carrying a few homely household utensils, the children and domestic animals snatching their own pleasures by the roadside, the little 28 DOMESTICITIES IN JERUSALEM picnics under a wayside tree, recall to mind the shealing migrations of Sutherlandshire or the Hebrides. One thinks too, in sight of the round towers made of unhewn stones roughly piled together, perched in the corner of field or garden, of " the lodge in the garden of cucumbers," which in truth it often most literally is ; but the cucumbers are far more dainty than ours, and ripen so much more quickly that they have a savour especially their own ; be they the ordinary cucumber of the western market or any of the varieties of cucumbers, gourds, and melons, smaller and more delicate than any known to us, which are so familiar a feature in the Syrian dietary. Jerusalem, for all its sacredness, is not without its humours. It is topsy-turvy land. The native entering a sacred place, takes off his shoes and keeps on his hat ; you begin to read a book at the end ; the landlord pays the taxes ; your servant walks in front of you instead of behind ; a man calls himself not Mac, but Abu, not " the son of," but " the father of " ; the men wear petticoats and the women expose their legs while they cover their faces ; the theory of " ladies first " is a novelty from Europe ; they put carpets on their walls, and pictures on their ceilings ; you buy milk by weight. 'Any and 'Arriet are unknown ; the men dance together, and in public places men and women sit apart ; giggling has not yet been introduced, nor public-houses ; there is no smoking of pipes, and no expectoration in the streets. Swearing there is, but of a different type from the universal English adjective. It takes longer, but it leaves some scope for originality ; it is after the fashion of the 109th psalm, only " more so." It is indirect, whether from inherent politeness, or from deference to the law of libel. A man curses, not the priest but the bishop who ordained him, not you but any of your ancestors or relatives whom it occurs to him to mention. 1 Courtesy requires the form of generosity 1 There are, however, certain oaths that are not lightly used, and which are considered binding, such as the Half el Yamin el- 29 INNER JERUSALEM rather than of gratitude you must place all that you possess at the disposal of your friend, but Arabic contains no word for " Thank you." Another of its humours is the coinage. It has practically given up, as inconveniently small, the para, which was the fortieth part of two pence ; but it retains the kabak, of the size and weight of a crown piece and worth about a farthing though marked at eight times that value, and formerly worth about twopence halfpenny. Everything is valued in piastres, but the coin exists apparently mainly to be alluded to. When you do come across it, it is worth a piastre and an eighth. There are however, some two-piastre pieces worth two piastres and a fourth, and locally known as " fleas," though not nearly so numerous. It is said that a Turkish pound was once worth only 100 piastres, now it is worth at the post-office 124 piastres, and at the shops 136J, so that nothing is a measure of anything else. In despair you fly to francs, and find that when you pay in gold, your franc is worth nearly 5| piastres, but in silver only 5 piastres. The commonest silver coin is a medjidi, which is worth 23 piastres in the shops, or 20 at the post or other Government offices, and is no proportional part of a pound. The beshlik, the commonest " metal " coin, for it is neither silver nor copper, is so called from the Turkish words besh and lik " a piece of five "apparently because it has no particular relation to that or any other number, being worth 3 piastres in the shops and 2 at the Arab, the faithful oath of the Arab, which is thus described by a recent traveller : " Drawing a circle in the court where we were reclining, he took a broken bit of a dry stem of grass between his hands, and standing in the middle of the circle with great solem- nity repeated the following, ' By the life of this stem and the Lord the adored, and the line of Solomon the son of David, to him who lies may none be born.' The circle, the unbroken line, symbolizes truth, and the failure of posterity is the Oriental's most grievous penalty." 30 DOMESTICITIES IN JERUSALEM post-office. The remaining common coin is a metalik, a piece of tin rather smaller than a shilling and worth 12 paras. Eight of them go to a beshlik, which is worth about 6d., but they do not divide evenly into anything else. The easiest common denominator is perhaps the humble para, of which five make a kabak, 12 a metalik, 40 a piastre, 120 a beshlik, and 920 a medjidi. Only the Oriental could have invented a coinage so inconsequent as this. Moreover, when you have mastered the coinage and the weights and measures of Jerusalem, you have to begin all over again if you go anywhere else. Even in Bethlehem, eight miles away, you must acquire a new set of names if not values. The Holy City is not an expensive place to live in, for although house-rent sounds about as dear as in any ordinary English town, one has to remember that there are practically no rates and the landlord pays the taxes. A house of ten rooms with perhaps an acre of garden costs about 60 a year, and one of six or seven with half an acre, about half as much. Most houses have stabling, and the hall generally serves as dining or drawing-room, as the case may be. They are very well built, with the cupboards and recesses and deep window-sills of a bygone period. Labour is cheap. A good cook can be had at from twenty- five to thirty francs a month, an indoor man-servant at from thirty to thirty-five, a housemaid for a napoleon, a boy for three or four medjidis, that is from twelve to sixteen francs. In Jerusalem the price of food varies greatly according to season, and also according to the purchaser. You have to pay for being a consul, or, if you are a woman, for wearing a hat. Missionaries are not expected to pay lavishly, and ladies living in pairs, as they always do, can keep a man and a maid and a couple of donkeys, and save at least half their professional income. It is fair to say, however, that they have house-rent, medical attendance and passage home on board ship free, eight or ten weeks' holiday in 31 INNER JERUSALEM the year, and six months every three years but then every one cannot aspire to be a missionary ; and mere doctors, and consuls, and clergy, have to work for their living. Meat is bought by the rottle, which is about six pounds, mutton sometimes rises as high as seventeen piastres, though, says my informant, "in June it fell to twelve piastres, when the Greeks were fasting." A piastre being worth twopence at the shops, we may take it that mutton varies from four- pence to nearly fivepence halfpenny a pound. Lamb, early, costs as much as eighteen piastres, or sixpence a pound ; beef about fourpence, the fillet about sixpence. Partridges are dear at eightpence each, and they are vastly superior to their namesakes in England. A large turkey is worth perhaps five shillings. Chickens cost a shilling or one and twopence a pair, but it is best to buy them alive, and feed them for two or three weeks. Fruit is of course exceedingly cheap, as are also vegetables, both being very varied, and of excellent quality. Fish, heavily taxed when it is caught, is practically unattainable, and milk is very dear in the summer months, but by an arrangement with some of the convents one can get it at about the English price fourpence a quart the year round. Butter and cheese are very good when in season, but are scarce during five or six months of the year. One can get excellent white Bethlehem wine at half a franc a bottle, and a sweet wine which has the effect of new port for less than a shilling ; wholesale, of course, it is much cheaper. Eggs in summer are about fourpence a dozen, though in the season they rise to three for twopence. Bread is about the same price as in England. Of course no one eats cold meat, and all marketing is done daily in the early morning ; ice, however, is attainable at very moderate price. Foreign groceries and drugs are a little dearer than in England. Leather and metal work are very good, and shoes, made to measure at ten francs a pair, are 32 DOMESTICITIES IN JERUSALEM difficult to wear out, even on the Jerusalem roads, many of which look as if a wall had been casually spilt upon them. You can get a good riding-horse for five shillings, and a very good victoria and pair for about sixteen shillings a day, and for sixpence you can call in style upon any one within a mile of Jerusalem. There are no omnibuses happily but if you like to risk your company, that is to risk other than human company, you can go in a carriage to Bethlehem (for example), eight miles, also for sixpence. A porter will carry anything anywhere for about five metaliks, or a little over threepence. You may see one man carry a cottage piano, or an iron girder, or a twenty-foot section of railway line, though probably luggage of that sort commands a special price. You tip with a franc, where in England you would give half a crown, which is only in fair proportion to wages ; and though your laundry costs you from two francs to two and a half a dozen, it comes home snow-white, and the price includes dresses and all the " white wear " essential to the climate. If you wash at home, your laundry- woman, often Russian or Armenian, costs about one and twopence a day; but then skilled labour is dear, and you can get an ordinary charwoman for about sixpence ! Furniture used to be costly and scarce, but you can now get any design in wood and metal-work copied at a very reasonable price in the workshops of the Alliance Israelite. The less of carpets, curtains, and general upholstery one has the better ; but this is, naturally the happy hunting-ground for rugs, em- broideries, and inlaid cabinet- ware. Considering the advantages of climate, economy of living, and convenience of access, entirely apart from other attrac- tions and advantages even to those other than students and artists, it is extraordinary that the number of English, resident in Jerusalem from choice, may be counted on the fingers of one hand. Among visitors even, their numbers are many times multiplied by those of the Americans. On account of its elevation the extremes of temperature are 33 D INNER JERUSALEM much less perceptible than in other places in the same latitude. To put the fact in familiar form, I have never seen a candle " fainting " in the summer, and I have never slept without a blanket ; on the other hand, in the course of two winters, I have seldom worn an out-door wrap except for driving. The problem why people of small incomes, independent of their surroundings, continue to struggle along in England and America, becomes more perplexing as the struggle becomes more difficult. Perhaps one solution is that others may struggle the less, elsewhere. 34 CHAPTER III "CRANKS" IN JERUSALEM INDIVIDUAL ECCENTRICITIES SPITTLER OP BASEL THE MILLERITES AMEN-ITES CHURCH OF THE MESSIAH- AWAITING THE ANTI-CHRIST THE OVERCOMERS IT is a recognized fact that a large proportion of insanity takes the form of religious mania, and as Jerusalem, more even than Rome herself, is the gathering-place of creeds, the holy place alike of Christian, Jew and Moslem, nay more, as she unites the still wider disparities of sect and sect, it is hardly surprising that all the more striking eccen- tricities of Christianity seem to have been, at some time or other, represented within her walls, from the self-tortured ascetics of the earliest Christian centuries, down to the latest extravagances fresh from America. On the north of the Holy City is the settlement of the American Colony, commonly known from their founder as Spaffordites, on the south that of the Templars or Hofmannites, both societies admirable for their order and their industry, if somewhat erratic in theological opinions. On the west we have the immense ruin of the unfinished building in which, half a century ago, some wealthy lady, apparently Dutch (although variously re- ported as English, Belgian and German) proposed to house the hundred and forty and four thousand who had been sealed in the middle of their foreheads ; a scheme arrested 35 INNER JERUSALEM by the Government on the ground of the danger to society involved in so large a gathering of Jews. 1 To the east, we have the mount of Olives, geographically the rallying-place of an extraordinary variety of enthusiasts, including a worthy Englishwoman who is alleged (probably with some exaggeration) to be in constant readiness to welcome Our Lord's return thither with a cup of tea. We have Adventists and Lydites, and Seventh Day Baptists, and Mormons, and votaries of Christian Science. We have had a penitent Englishman who did penance for his sins by beat- ing his wife because it was the punishment which caused him the most pain. We have a worthy Englishwoman who at over fifty years of age converted a modest competence into portable property, and wandered out to Jerusalem alone, with fifty-six pounds of luggage and one hundred and fifty pounds of money, upon which, with the kindly help of foreigners of another creed, she has lived for over twenty- five years, convinced of the justice of her undertaking by the fact that she had travelling companions whose relation to each other permitted her to suppose her journey a fulfil- ment of Jeremiah iii. 14 : "I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion." We have had a well-intentioned pilgrim who, deciding some- what hastily that her turn of mind was ascetic, presented herself at a strictly enclosed convent, entreating to be accepted as a novice, and insisting (immediately upon gaining admission, in spite of all representations as to the length of novitiate required) on cutting off her hair. Having discovered, however, in a few days, that she had no vocation, she was next observed at the door of the hospice, where her fellow-pilgrims had been received, imploring the advice of some young theological students as to where in Jerusalem she could get a wig a situation that probably afforded them considerable amusement. 1 It is moreover alleged that she gave additional offence to the Turkish government by raising a regiment of Servian revolutionaries. 36 CRANKS" IN JERUSALEM We have had a lady who, partly as a propagandist of rational dress, partly in the interests of self-sacrificing economy, wore skirts so exceedingly narrow that when she fell down the church steps she was unable to recover her feet ; and another (or perhaps the same) who provided herself with inexpensive millinery by trimming her hat with a cotton pocket handkerchief on which was printed an Arabic love-song, of a nature so erotic as to afford consider- able entertainment to the native element in the congregation at Church. We have had a German who on principle left his hair and beard to nature and dressed in a single and scanty garment, but whose natural beauty and good grooming decidedly commended his teaching, subject to the state of the thermometer. We have had an Eng- lishman who reduced his wardrobe to a Norfolk jacket and knickerbockers, with results aesthetically less at- tractive. We have a colony profanely known as the Tishbites English and American presided over by " the prophet Elijah." Scarcely a year goes by without the arrival of some one who dares to assume a personality still more sacred. Every greater festival is attended by various strange-looking figures ; pious men who for the rest of the year pass an eremitic existence in dens and caves of the earth. We have defroques priests and declassees nuns, generally leading truly penitent and devout lives, often after some quaint and ascetic fashion. We have numberless women of whom it is generally whispered that they have a " past," and who, as the French untranslateably express it, courent les eglises. We have irresponsible philanthropists and " independent " missionaries, we have those to whom obscure rites have been miraculously revealed, and votaries of " Gordon's Calvary." We have a good many persons of whom it may be conjectured that their nearest and dearest long ago " wished them at Jericho," and who in the endea- vour to oblige have stopped a few miles short on the way. In fine, as a resident expressed the situation, at a time 37 INNER JERUSALEM when there was a talk of erecting an asylum for imbeciles, we should not be altogether in the wrong " if we took down the walls of Jerusalem, and built them up again, so as to include the suburbs." The Anglo-Israelite crank is of course one of the common objects of Jerusalem life, and is of various degrees of sincerity and reasonableness. His raison d'etre ranges from pure ignorance and assertiveness up to the complex eccentricities of a certain Doctor Sivartha, who by dint of complicating the historical question by those of phrenology, physiology, and astrology, succeeded in rendering the so-called study a very serious affair. He was in Jerusalem about 1878 and among the older inhabitants are some still in possession of elaborate maps or charts showing that the missing Ten Tribes consist of Norse, Saxons and Fellahs to the number of fifty-one millions, while the Jews, recognized as such, amount to only about a sixth of that number. He produced, moreover, a plan of Salema, the New Jeru- salem, showing the return of the missing tribes and assigning to them their proper places in the Holy City according to their relation (ascertained from Ezek. xlviii. and Rev. xxi. ) with the mental faculties, of which, he observes, institutions are but an outgrowth. Hence, to put it briefly, the various departments of the New Jerusalem will be distributed in accordance with human faculty as exhibited by phrenology ; Asher, for example as Science over the eyes, Naphtali and Judah above as Culture and Marriage, and Gad and Simeon below as Art and Letters. Though the effective colonization of the Holy Land mainly by the Jews and the Germans becomes every day more obvious and more definite, it was, like many other schemes destined to ultimate success, for a long time in the hands of a class very familiar to the student of Jerusalem, and who can best be described as " cranks." Of some of these an excellent account has been given by the Rev. J. E. Hanauer (P.E.F. 1900), the first on his list being Spittler of Basel, 38 "CRANKS" IN JERUSALEM who proposed to establish lines of mission-stations radiating from Jerusalem as a centre, the first of which was to consist of twelve, leading in the direction of Central Africa, and called after the twelve Apostles. The scheme began and ended with the importation into Jerusalem, about 1847, of four mechanics, who, after a time, found they had no vocation for celibacy and other conditions of the mission, and who all returned to secular life. In this they apparently showed good judgment, as all four have been eminently successful, each in his special career : Dr. Schick as the greatest authority on underground Jerusalem, Palmer as a highly respected teacher, the Rev. S. Miiller as the founder of a German Mission at Bethlehem, while the fourth was, perhaps, the pioneer of agricultural colonists. This was Baldensperger, who proceeded to cultivate gardens at Urtas which may be said to have led indirectly to the existence of the Agricultural and Trades School, known as Schneller's Syrian Orphanage, and (under his son) to the establishment of the interesting apiaries at Wady Hanein, Jaffa and elsewhere, a highly successful effort to produce the honey hitherto almost unknown in the Holy Land, and which is accomplished by moving the hives on the backs of camels from one place to another, in search of this or that form of pasture requisite for the bees. A more eccentric scheme was that of a certain Mrs. Minor, the wife of a rich Philadelphian merchant, who was a disciple of the Millerites, a body of Methodists and Bap- tists, who expected the second Advent on October 25, 1843. When the day passed with no distinguishing features, they discovered that the date should have been reckoned by Jewish, not by Roman time, and that the catastrophe would occur on October 25, 1844, at about 3 p.m. When this day in turn approached, the whole party bid farewell to the Sodomites of Philadelphia and went into camp at a little distance, one, it is said, having left a notice on the shutters of his shop : " Closed in honour of the King of kings." 39 INNER JERUSALEM Again the day passed and the trump of doom failed to sound, but instead there came a high wind which blew down the tents and obliged the Millerites to seek shelter in the Sodom they had left " for ever." Then the prophetess took to fasting, prayer, and the investigation of prophecy, which led to the discovery that she was, in fact, Esther, who " must go before the King and become God's instru- ment to make ready the land of Israel for the King's return." An Advent-brother shared the conviction (it is said with no objection from Mr. Minor or the Advent-brother's wife), and together they proceeded to Jerusalem, where, after many vicissitudes, they arrived on May 15, 1849. There they made the acquaintance of a certain Mr. Meshullam, a Hebrew Christian, at whose hotel in Jerusalem they had established themselves, and who owned some lands and gardens in the direction of Bethlehem which it was revealed to the prophetess she was destined to develop. What became of the Advent-brother, history does not relate, but, clear at last as to the intentions of Providence, Mrs. Minor hastened back to the United States, whence she returned widowed, but re-inforced by a large body of Millerites, Presbyterians and Seventh Day Baptists, and a considerable sum of money. Even Jews were attracted by the Seventh Day observance of Sunday, and Sir Moses Montefiore himself endorsed the scheme. But nothing could prevail against the internal dissensions which soon arose. The colonists did not approve of Mr. Meshullam, some even have gone so far as to doubt his disinterestedness, and at the end of a couple of years the community dissolved. Again there was a residuum of good. Sir Moses Montefiore came to the rescue and established some of the malcontents in an orange-garden in the plain of Sharon, the seed of the move- ment long afterwards known as " Zionism," for soon after Mrs. Minor's death, in 1855, the American and German element died out and the Jewish alone ultimately survived. Another set, this time from Germany, calling themselves 40 "CRANKS" IN JERUSALEM the " Amen-ites " because they believed that prophecy was about to receive the seal of Amen or fulfilment, arrived about 1858. Their leader, however, never returned from an expedition made to discover the Ark of the Covenant, and the movement died a natural death. The " Church of the Messiah," to the number of one hundred and fifty three, appeared upon the scenes in 1866. It was composed largely of Americans, including some surviving Millerites, Latter Day Saints, Wesleyans and others whose object was to " build up the waste cities," and who, accordingly, began operations by erecting some wooden houses brought with them from America. They met with many discouragements from a fearful rate of mortality and destruction of crops ; but again the little venture served an unforeseen purpose, and their land passed ultimately into the hands of the Templars, a colony of Germans whose industry and admirable organization has met with extraordinary success both in commerce and agri- culture, and whose village south of Jerusalem is in itself a valuable object-lesson, not only to the natives of the country but, still more, to many would-be but ineffective European philanthropists. The colony in Jerusalem was founded in 1871, the sister colony in Jaffa in 1868. A third is now being formed in the neighbourhood of Ramleh. In 1885 there arrived a party of Saxons under the guidance of a miner who had received information from the Evil One as to the immediate incarnation of the Anti-Christ, whom they were directed to await in Jerusalem. Unfortunately for their finances he tarried, and the party was soon reduced to extreme poverty, whence they were rescued, as many in need have been rescued, by the kindness and benevolence of the American Colony, who are also credited with various deviations from orthodoxy, religious and social, but of whom little seems known with certainty, but that they are indus- trious, orderly, beneficent and extraordinarily successful in all that they undertake baking, confectionery, weaving, 41 INNER JERUSALEM photography and much else, including the management of a large government school for Moslem girls, the only one, as far as I can learn, which has ever been confided to the care of Christians. Owing to the general, though surely not inevitable, aliena- tion caused by differences of creed, nationality and language, to the absence of newspapers and the consequent dependence upon gossip for information, there are probably few European settlements where facts are liable in a certain section of the community to distortion so gross as in Jerusalem, where the unknown is commonly taken, not for the sublime but for the discreditable. For this reason in speaking of the American Colony of Overcomers, I withhold all references to the unpleasant accretions of scandal which have gathered about them, mainly, I am bound to say, among the English- speaking population of the Holy City, for within then- hospitable walls I have met representatives of all that makes " Society " among the continental inhabitants of Jerusalem. The little I am able to relate concerning them is at least at first hand. About the year 1879, Mrs. Spafford, an American lady on her way to Europe for the education of her children, saw her entire family drowned before her eyes. She tele- graphed to her husband the pathetic message, " Saved alone," and returned at once to her desolate home. A woman of sensitive, restrained nature, not without a dash of genius, and of a naturally religious temperament, the tragedy made an ineffaceable impression upon her very soul. She believed that God, in His infinite wisdom, had spared her life because He had work for her to do, and from that time forward she, her husband, and a small group of friends devoted their lives and substance to the poor of Chicago. After a time, however, this work seemed to her an insufficient expenditure of her zeal; she believed that yet more was required of her, with the result that in 1881, with a small following, now including two little daughters, the Spaffords 42 "CRANKS" IN JERUSALEM arrived in Jerusalem giving themselves to work and prayer, living theoretically in a Theocratic Communism, knowing no Head but Christ, and no Law but the Law of Love. As the community enlarged, it assumed certain new features. They necessarily increased their premises, and to meet their added requirements engaged in various trades and occupations with a degree of success to which I have already, more than once, referred. They soon became known as " the Overcomers " from the motto which they assumed, " This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith," their own designation of " The American Colony " having become somewhat inexact, owing to the large proportion of admixture of other nations, mainly Swedes but including also some English and at least one Scot, and one Hebrew-Christian, the Jerusalem name for a " converted Jew." 1 Theoretically their scheme of life is one to admire ; industrious, philanthropic, effective. Practically one can- not but note certain extravagances liable to introduce an element of danger. Their system may be not inaptly described as a parody of monasticism. Their working principles are practically those of poverty, chastity and obedience, of holy simplicity and holy humility, although they would themselves not so express it. The condition of poverty is that of a common purse from which each is free to take what he or she desires, desire however being limited by the principle that all wishes for earthly advantage must be overcome, again a kind of parody on the Catholic doctrine of detachment. The condition of chastity is not in itself an end, but again an opportunity to overcome. Love is of God, they say, and like the Love of God must embrace all His creatures, and that equally. Husband and wife, parent and child, friends, 1 I believe their present numbers to be approximately fifty-five Swedes, thirty-eight Americans, and twenty of various nationalities 43 INNER JERUSALEM compatriots, must not look upon each other as nearer or dearer than other fellow-beings, and therefore, until the desire for intimate relation is overcome, such relation is of the nature of sin. The position strikes one as being analo- gous with that of the man who proposed in Lent to conceive a desire for self-mortification and to proceed to mortify that desire. Marriage under such conditions is regarded as at present impossible, although as they progress towards perfection (and, presumably, no longer desire it) it may conceivably be permitted. The condition of obedience, except to God Himself, is one they definitely deny ; but as each must submit his will to that of his neighbour it follows that the will of the last of the series must be supreme, and unless appearances and probabilities are very misleading, the will in question is that of Mrs. Spafford herself, who is said to exercise an influence by some regarded as hypnotic. The conditions of humility and simplicity are involved in those of a communal life without regard to previous social environment, and in common labour for the common weal. Naturally, however, the nature of the work is, as in conventual institutions, apportioned with some reference to individual fitness, the better educated occupying themselves with educational work, those originally of the working classes largely the Swedes performing the more menial duties ; those who understand commerce attending to the shop, those who have had manual training working as carpenters, tailors, dressmakers, farmers, and so on, as the case may be. The degree of influence which they exercise over the native population of Jerusalem is, in contrast with that of other institutions, astonishing. It is probably not too much to say that among those who frequent the colony for instruction in language, music, painting and various industries, there are representatives of every creed and every nation in this modern Babel of Jerusalem. With 44 "CRANKS" IN JERUSALEM the exception of the Soeurs de Charite, to whom the Munici- pality entrusts its hospital, its lepers and the visitation of those who are sick and in prison, they alone, of all Christians, have won the confidence and friendship of the Moslems, who not only employ them professionally as managers of their Public School, but who, of all classes including the Pasha himself, as well as the effendis and officers in the army, allow the ladies and children of their establishments to visit them freely, an intercourse which, from the point of view of culture and of arts and letters, cannot fail to exercise excellent effect. It is in connexion with their success in this direction, as well as with the exceptional conditions of the mutual relations of the sexes within their walls, that their detrac- tors have mainly concerned themselves, without, however, so far as, after diligent inquiry, I and others have hitherto discovered, producing any first-hand evidence of their allegations. It is impossible, however, to deny that those who desire occasion for the overcoming of temptation in more than one obvious direction must have abundant op- portunity for its exercise, or that to those who, under the circumstances, rise superior to the temptations of jealousy, heart-burning, disappointment, humiliation and rivalry which their daily life must abundantly provide, we may justly attribute a degree of merit which should excite our warmest admiration ; and this the more that they are with- out all supernatural help beyond that of the Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. They confess their sins, in public gatherings, one to another, but have no priestly absolution ; they have no sacraments, holding that in their daily relations in the law of love every meal becomes a Eucharistic feast. If on the one hand there is no evidence of social irregularity, if we are free to extol gratefully their liberality, temperance, charity, brotherly love and diligence, it were, on the other, vain to deny what to the Catholic must appear 45 INNER JERUSALEM heresy both Arian and Gnostic, and a recklessness of danger which, to most of us, must seem a daily defiance of the prayer, " Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." 46 CHAPTER IV GOVERNMENT IN JERUSALEM ADVANTAGES OF TURKISH RULE POSITION OF EUROPEANS MACHINERY OF GOVERNMENT TURKISH LAW MOSLEMS JEWS SANITATION PRISONS ABUSE of the " unspeakable Turk " is as much a recog- nized conventionality as abuse of the weather, and often with about as much understanding of the needs and position in question a position which many would do well to study in Jerusalem, asking themselves seriously and in- telligently what would be best for the Holy City, if, as seems highly improbable, the " sick man " were to die. Is there any European power which, for the non-Moslem population, would, to put it mildly, keep the peace among conflicting religions, as, owing to its indifferent attitude, the Turkish Government contrives more or less to do ? Would a ruler of the Greek faith continue to the Latins the unique privileges of then: position in Palestine ? Would the followers of His Holiness tolerate the Greeks ? Would either endure the Protestant ? Would the Protestants be certain to " play fair " ? How would any Christian Power regard the ever-increasing importance of the Jews ? Would the Jews themselves continue existing privileges to the Christians ? How much individuality, nationality, would any or all of these leave to the indigenous race of the coun- try, compared with whom the Arab is a mere mushroom, and the Hebrew himself a parvenu ? 47 INNER JERUSALEM " Strange as it may sound in European ears," writes one who for nearly twenty years was British Consul for Jerusa- lem and Palestine, 1 "it is nevertheless true that the laws under which Palestine and Turkey are governed are, in themselves, excellent. They are based upon the principles of Justice and Humanity justice for true believers more particularly humanity for all. . . . With all their incom- pleteness it must be said that the regulations from Constanti- nople are a blessing to the inhabitants. They are far better now than the original laws of the Twelve Tables were to the Romans ; yet the Romans are regarded as the great nation of antiquity characterized by the practice of jurisprudence." Nevertheless " it is better to be governed by a good man than by good laws," said the Greek philosopher, a reflection which is often in one's mind in this Holy City of Jerusalem ! It is at least something to feel confidence in the system if not in its administration. The existence of a worthy ideal leaves room for ultimate hope which could scarcely be ours were the case reversed ; and we are at least left free to dream of a time when baksheesh, the key-note of the lament of Turkish provinces, shall be no more. 2 1 See Stirring Times, or Records from Jerusalem Consular Chronicles of 1853 to 1856, by James Finn. The sphere of the Jerusalem consul is now considerably diminished. In the stirring times which preceded the Crimean war it was a position which counted for something in European politics. 2 The Englishman who grumbles, often justly enough, at the occasional payment of baksheesh to the officers of the Municipality in Jerusalem, should, however, remember not only that he is exempt from military service and from payment of rates and taxes, but that in London, in this year of grace, we are paying an Income tax of Is. 3d. and a School Board rate of over Is. 2d. in the pound. He may, moreover, regard " baksheesh " as the Turkish equivalent for various imposts not exacted in the Turkish dominions ; licences for armorial bearings, carriages (hackney carriages only are taxed by the Municipality), game, stamps on documents and receipts, succes- sion-duties, liveries, plate, bonds, patent medicines, dogs, gun licences, etc., etc. The taxes to which the resident in Turkey is subject are briefly enumerated. Rates there are none. Taxes, 48 GOVERNMENT IN JERUSALEM Meantime, to the minute philosopher, there are institu- tions in Jerusalem more degrading to humanity than the Turkish Government, acquisition and expenditure of bak- sheesh more dishonest, bigotry and fanaticism more un- charitable, because, from a Christian standpoint, in defiance of a higher culture, and in the name of a nobler creed. The European has indeed little cause for complaint. What should we say in England if Turkish subjects who had oc- casion of dispute or who had offended against the law of the realm declined to refer the matter to the nearest magistrate, to accept judgment from British authority, and insisted on taking the case before their own representative in Bryan- ston Square ? Yet permission for such procedure and not fine or im- prisonment for contempt of court is granted to us by Tur- kish courtesy in the Holy Land. Europeans refer all ques- tions of law to their respective consuls ; a dispute between two Englishmen would be tried before the British Consul, between an Englishman and a German before the consul of the plaintiff, the interests of the defendant being watched over by the dragoman of his own Consulate, who, if not the lawyer one would wish for under the circumstances, would at least (except in the case of an Englishman or American) be of his own nationality. If between an Englishman and a Moslem, it would be tried by the Turkish authorities, the consul having the right to watch the case, cross-examine witnesses, and secure for his protege the full benefit of the within the City of Jerusalem, none. Outside, on house and land property, less than one per cent., always paid by the landlord. Cer- tain lands, not so taxed, pay a tithe on production, or on what they carry ; for sheep and goats about 1\d. per head ; on beasts of burden nothing, except when sold, when 5d. per head is charged on camels, asses, oxen, and horses. Succession-duty is about Id in the shilling. Exoneration from military service about 8s. per annum. Duty on imports 8 per cent., on exports 10 per cent. Licences are required to let carriages, and to sell stamps, tobacco and spirits. Here at \east there is small cause for complaint !. 49, a INNER JERUSALEM Moslem law. The exercise of such judicial functions, on the part of the consul, is, of course, unknown in any Christian country ; it is only in Turkey, China, and Morocco that foreigners have the right of being governed by their own laws, with which, let us suppose, for sake of argument, that their consuls are acquainted. The machinery of the Turkish Government in Jerusalem is controlled, primarily, by the Pasha, who is appointed from Constantinople. He is assisted by a municipal Council (Majless), composed of five or six Moslems, a Latin, a Greek, an Armenian and a Jew ; thus representing, in very fair proportions, all of the Sultan's subjects except the Protes- tants, which, numerically, are indeed a quantity which may safely be neglected, though one would have supposed that the two Protestant powers, England and Germany, would have sought representation for those of their own religion, England as having the oldest-established European Consu- late, 1 Germany on account of her importance in Syria in commerce, agriculture, and navigation. The Government has in Jerusalem officers corresponding, among others, with our Secretary of State (Directeur des Correspondences) ; Charity Commissioners (Comptable des Legs-pies) ; Minister of Education (Directeur de Vinstruc- tion publique) ; Registrar- General (Directeur du Registre Imperial) ; Minister of Finance (Caissier) ; Minister of Agriculture (Chef-succursal d* Agriculture), and in some de- gree of Lord Chancellor (Directeur de la caisse des orphelins). The Municipality has also its medical and veterinary de- partments, its hospital and dispensary, and, of course, its police, of which the discipline, on public occasions, is ad- mirable, though the custom among the night-watchmen of sounding a whistle as signal to each other, is little less preposterous than were the noisy boots, until very few years 1 The English Consulate was established in 1838, the Prussian in 1841 ; France and Sardinia came in 1843. 50 GOVERNMENT IN JERUSALEM ago, worn by the town police of Great Britain. The new comer in Jerusalem is sometimes surprised by the scanty number of police-officers, until further knowledge of the country reveals to him the fact that, owing to the practically entire absence of public drunkenness and public immorality, to the almost entire impossibility, within the walls, of vehi- cular traffic, and to the minimized danger from fire where wood is barely used in construction, their services are but little needed. Soldiers and tax-officers are to be found at/ every gate of the city, and those bringing in goods are liable to payment of various tolls. The law of the Turkish courts is technically the law of the Koran, but, as Lord Stratford de Redcliffe has pointed out, " The Koran is far from being that inelastic code of laws which many suppose. It has long ceased to be an exact mirror of Islamism as practised by the Ottoman authorities." It appears, however, that the principles of the Koran and its commentaries are those which direct the advice and opinions of the Mufti, who is something between an archbishop and a consulting barrister, who, learned in the sacred books, presides in a sort of Court of Arches, and deals out abstract justice to John Doe and Richard Roe, or, as they are called in the East, Zaid and Omar. As only fictitious cases are brought before him, he cannot exact payment on results like the Kadi, a judge of a more practical kind, and is there- fore less likely to be affected by interest, prejudice, or bak- sheesh. The Kadi presides over the Mahkameh, or Court of Civil Law, and receives three per cent, on the value of the suit, paid by the one in whose favour the judgment is given. Trial by jury is unknown, but many cases are brought before the Majless, an assembly usually of ten or twelve, who decide in conformity with the code of Secular Jurisprudence, as distinguished from the Koran. Jerusalem is defended by a garrison averaging from one thousand to fifteen hundred men, military service being compulsory, as in most European countries ; Jews and 51 INNER JERUSALEM Christians who are Turkish subjects pay a commutation poll-tax of less than eight shillings per head. It is in many respects upon the Moslem population that the Turkish yoke presses most heavily. Their position is somewhat anomalous. On the one hand the Supreme Head of the State de facto or de jure is the successor of the Prophet and the Caliph vice-regent of God and to obey him is a religious duty. On the other, to the Syrians, the Turk is, equally with the Arab or the Hebrew, an alien, a perpetual reminder that they are a conquered race ; while to the Arab he is the descendant of the Tartar conquerors of Arabistan, the representative of the modern reform which is a perplexity to their faith a departure from the pure Moslemism of the Koran. The Jew, like the European under consular protection, has his special privileges. The Chief Rabbi ranks next to the Pasha, and is always presented with a key of the city gates when a new Sultan comes to the throne. The key is associ- ated with a religious ceremonial, and is blessed and anointed with oil and spices. Accounts differ as to whether its pos- session is permanent, but it would seem unlikely, otherwise why should the presentation be renewed ? As large bak- sheesh is paid for what seems, if temporary only, a useless privilege, one must conclude that there is for the Jews some esoteric signification, some allusion to the repossession of the city of their forefathers ; some prophetic gratification, in the process of its return, of, as it were, bestowing it upon the Turkish authorities ; some symbolic satisfaction in being, if only for the moment, in virtual command of the situation. One cannot but feel glad that they should find consolation in so small and temporary a distinction ; for even now, in, comparatively speaking, the days of their prosperity, when Jerusalem, as a city, is in many respects so much benefited by their presence, they have many inevitable humiliations. Jewish children, girls especially, have to be protected mainly from other children, Christian 52 GOVERNMENT IN JERUSALEM and Moslem, on the way to and from school ; one frequently wonders at the patience the heritage of centuries with which Jews ignore the insults shouted after them in the streets ; and, considering how much they contribute as citizens to the welfare of Jerusalem, it is sad that large sums of money should be paid for permission to pray beside the western wall of the Temple enclosure, to the villagers of Siloam for not disturbing the graves east of the village, and to the Arabs for letting alone the Jewish share of the Tomb of Rachel on the road to Bethlehem. The Chief Rabbi is, moreover, the supreme judge of the Beth Been, their " House of Judgment," in which disputes between Jews are decided and wrongs redressed. For all questions, other than those which can be referred to a re- ligious tribunal, the Jew, as a European, must refer to the consul of the country to which he belongs, who will decide his quarrel if with one of his own nationality, or watch his case in the Serai if his dispute be with a Moslem. The municipal authorities are intermittently active in matters of sanitation. It is an immense advantage to Jerusalem that, with the exception of what amounts to half a dozen scullery taps supplied from what are called the Pools of Solomon, alleged to be much older than that monarch, the city has no common water-supply, so that general contamination from infected sources is practically impossible. Each institution, group of houses, in the better parts each house, provides for its own collection of rain- water there is no other, and one has to live in Palestine to appreciate the constant Bible references to cisterns, to the blindness of the people " who hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water ! " Probably it was largely to the nature of her water-supply and to her elevated position (from 2,500 to 3,000 feet above sea-level) that the city owed her immunity from cholera in 1902-3, when many villages around were suffering, and extraneous cases were even brought into the town. But it is only fair 53 INNER JERUSALEM to record the activity of the town council ; the beggars were returned to their own villages, houses were compulsorily cleaned and whitewashed, fines for accumulation of decay- ing matter inflicted, and the streets sprayed with a dilution of carbolic acid. The Moslem public schools were closed, an example promptly followed by the C.M.S, although the schools of the L.J.S., the Anglican schools of St. George's, and those of the Jews, Greeks, Latins, Armenians and Ger- mans kept open doors with no ill effects, and with, in many cases, large additions to their numbers, as parents were naturally thankful to have their children removed from the risks, mental and physical, of over six months' idleness, and the dangers of street life. The efforts of the Government were ably seconded in certain directions. The Jews and some of the continental consuls issued sanitary directions to every householder with whom they were concerned ; and some, especially the Jews and the Russians (for orderliness and sanitation Russia has no rival in Jerusalem), made ad- mirable preparations for their own people so as to be ready to deal with the enemy at a moment's notice. There is one Government institution in Jerusalem which it would be easy, rather perhaps than fair, to condemn as an almost unmixed evil, and that is the prison, which, however, it is alleged, is under consideration with a view to funda- mental changes. The prisoners are so unsuitably housed, their condition is so insanitary, their classification, or rather their aggregation, so disorderly, they are subject to so much extortion, they are so dependent upon the alms of the benevolent or the support of their friends, that one is forcibly reminded of our own Fleet or Marshalsea, as depicted by Dickens or Besant, although those of Jerusalem are, happily, owing to abundance of outer air, and the seclusion of women, less of a disgrace to civilization than those of our own country, as described by John Howard or Elizabeth Fry. 54 CHAPTER V JEWS IN JERUSALEM POPULATION DISTRIBUTION RACIAL DIVISIONS DIS- TINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS IRRATIONAL ALMSGIVING SCHOOLS OCCUPATIONS OLD CUSTOMS STILL EX- TANT SOPHISTRIES AND [QUIBBLES ALLIANCE ISRAELITE ITS EXCELLENT WORK MISSION WORK AND RESULTS VIEWS OF ZANGWILL CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, ENGLISH AND JEWISH ABRAHAM'S VINEYARD RELATIONS WITH JERUSALEM PROGRESS OF RE-PATRIATION THIS chapter aims at no criticism of Zionism or other movement on behalf of the Jews of Palestine ; it is not inspired by teachings of Hertzl or Nordau on the one hand, or of Reich or Zangwill on the other. It is perhaps even fair to say that it proceeds less from any personal ad- miration or affection for the people with whom it deals than from respect for their genius, sympathy with their sufferings, and appreciation of their achievements. We are so accustomed to think of the modern Jew as a recent immigrant to Palestine that it is somewhat surprising to find that Jerusalem is virtually a Jewish city. Out of about 60,000 inhabitants some 40,000 are Jews; a large part of the trade of the town is in their hands ; not only have they overflowed in all directions their own quarter within the walls, but they have established themselves in various colonies, amounting to some half-dozen villages all within a mile or so from the city gates. The Jewish population is said to have increased tenfold or more in sixty years. From 55 INNER JERUSALEM the religious point of view it includes the Orthodox or Rabbinists, who are far the most numerous, the Chasidim or Cabalists, and the Karaites, a very small body who study the Scriptures only. From the national point of view they may be divided roughly into ( 1 ) Ashkenazim, who speak mainly Yiddish, a jargon composed of German and Hebrew, and who are mostly Germans, Poles, Russians and Roumanians ; and (2) Sephardim, who speak mainly Spanish, and who come from the south-west of Europe. There are Jews also, from Yemen in Arabia, from Africa, from Persia, from England and France, and a considerable number from America, whither they go for just sufficient time to get naturalized. For the practical purpose of studying their institutions, however, one may divide them into three groups : (1) the Students of the Law, whose raison d'etre is wholly religious, who look upon Jerusalem as the Sacred City, in which all occupations are irrelevant ; (2) the Alliance Israelite, French > in origin and management, to whom Jerusalem is the Aus- tralia of the Jews, a happy hunting-ground, a career, a com- mercial enterprise ; and (3) the Anglo- Jewish Association, which is its English equivalent, with a considerable element of orthodoxy, and as much religion as is consistent with some defiance of rabbinical prejudice ; even, in the case of its most important institution (the Evelina de Rothschild Girls' School), of actual excommunication. The Chief Rabbi takes rank next to the Sultan himself, and the tendency of the Jews being, naturally enough, to centralization and self-government, they form a distinct community, never for any purpose amalgamating with any other, separate in locality, in religion, and in custom. 1 1 A touching illustration of the strong national feeling of the Jews occurs incidentally in the account by Consul Finn of a visit paid to Sir Moses Montefiore in Jerusalem by certain Rabbis. " Are we to speak in a language of the Gentiles ? " they asked of his secretary, Dr. Loewe. " No ; but in our own language," was the reply. 56 JEWS IN JERUSALEM One soon gets rid of the English superstition that a Jew is known by his nose, the only " Jewish " nose I have seen in Jerusalem being attended by a cockney accent ; but other marks of difference remain, as, for example, the side curls worn by most of the Ashkenazim, in literal obedience to the precept, " Ye shall not round the corners of your beard " ; so, too, in the case of the Russian Jewess, the wearing of the wig. The married woman, " uncovered, dishonoureth her head," and it was as a mark of dishonour that the Jew- esses of Russia were forbidden to wear the veil or shawl or opaque net common elsewhere, and took to wigs in conse- quence ; so, too, the fur cap, originally an insulting dis- tinction, now accompanied by the long coat, often of plush bordered with fur the voluntary costume of the Ash- kenazim of Jerusalem. These are perhaps the most un- satisfactory members of the Jewish population, certainly the most dirty and unattractive. There is a theory that they are descended from Issachar, who was a student, whereas Zebulun was a merchant, and it is largely from them that the Talmudists, the modern Pharisees, the true ob- structionists of Jewish progress, are drawn. Zangwill has somewhere the phrase, speaking of the Jews, " the rich gave unscrupulously," and it is perhaps no figure of speech to say that unscrupulous charity has been the modern curse of Jerusalem. It is owing to the irrational almsgiving, to the system of vicarious pilgrimage, that, among other evils, this class of obstructionists has been fostered. Their theory is, that Jerusalem is a place for study and that those who are able and prepared to give them- selves exclusively to meditation on the Law, should carry out this duty on behalf of those who are otherwise occupied. The money, sent in immense quantities to Jerusalem, is regarded as tribute, and excites not the smallest gratitude. It is collected by special agents known as the Sheluchim, who, it is said, receive forty per cent. Mr. Montague 1 1 Jewish Life in the East. 57 INNER JERUSALEM Samuel quotes the case of one such agent who had enjoyed a tour of two years and pocketed 5,200. This tribute or haluka is a powerful instrument in the hands of the Rabbis, and those engaged in education have a hard struggle to keep the schools open at the time of distribution, as haluka is often refused to those known to be " progressive " in whatever direction. Even when Sir Moses Montefiore sent money that those in the Torah or Law Schools might learn Arabic, the vernacular of Jerusalem, it was returned to him as a mere temptation to distraction. The language en- couraged is the Yiddish, which those engaged in education are trying so hard to eliminate. The Talmudic Schools cluster round the Ashkenazim Synagogue, and number some hundreds of boys from five to fifteen years of age. Their instruction is limited to the reading of Isaiah, Pro- verbs, Job and Daniel, with the Talmudic or oral law, upon which they meditate while violently rocking themselves backwards and forwards in conformity with the text, "All my bones shall praise the Lord." It would be interesting to inquire how far this custom, also practised by the Moham- medans, is of purely oriental origin, and how far the expla- nation is an afterthought, after the manner of folklore. The evils of the magnificent, if somewhat " unscrupulous," charity which has been so conspicuous in Jerusalem, have of late become abundantly obvious, sometimes in directions upon which it would be painful to insist. Suffice it to say that in the year 1900 Baron Edmund de Rothschild, whose munificence to his co-religionists is well known to all inter- ested in the question of Jews in Palestine, set the example of withdrawing his colonies from private management and of transferring them to the care of the Colonization Association. It is hoped that under the added impetus of divided responsibility, and regard for public feeling, a higher standard of morality, not only financial, but social, may be achieved. The question of the agricultural colonies does not arise 58 JEWS IN JERUSALEM in connexion with the Jew in Jerusalem, but we may say, in passing, that they are a valuable adjunct to other edu- cational effort, and that they help to provide an answer to the increasingly difficult problem of the ultimate destiny of the girls and boys now being trained and stimulated to as- pirations and ambitions which, at this period of transition, may be hard to satisfy. To ordinary agricultural work extending over at least 70,000 acres of land, the colonists have now added such occupations as floriculture, perfume distilleries, soap-making, apiculture, cattle-breeding, fruit- preserving, tobacco-growing, silk-worm cultivation, wine- making and poultry-keeping. Of certain customs kept alive under the influences of the Talmudists one can think only with respect. One is interested to note that, in reminder of the Temple destroyed, no house is ever entirely finished ; one stone at least is left unplastered and shows conspicuous in its native baseness in some promi- nent part of hall or chamber. So too in some, if not all of the agricultural colonies, the priest's portion of one per cent, of the garden, is still set aside, but as there are now no priests technically pure to receive it, it is annually buried in the ground ; moreover, no fruit is gathered from a tree during its first three years of blossoming. Again, it is an interesting reminder to Jew and Christian alike, that on every road as one goes out from Jerusalem, at a distance of 2,000 yards ; from the city gate, one passes beneath a wire supported by two posts to mark the limit of the Sabbath day's journey. It is less pleasing, but not uncharacteristic of place and people, to find how this, among other rules, is evaded by means of a religious fiction called eruhh, that is, mixture or connexion of places. Such fictions occupy ten chapters of the Seder Moed, and are ascribed to Solomon. It is not unusual for Jews to deposit food on the previous evening at places 2,000 yards apart on the route they desire to follow, thus establishing a series of fictitious homes ; or they will set up doorposts or lintel 59 INNER JERUSALEM at the end of the street, thus creating the fiction that the street is all one house. The story is told, that not long ago, on the occasion of the visit on the Sabbath of an illustrious person whom the Jews were anxious to honour, they circumvented the difficulty of going out to meet him, by making a wooden gateway which they pushed before them, thus fictitiously remaining in the city all the time. It is said that before the present definite stand was made in the interests of education, the rabbis would forbid the teaching of certain subjects upon the most frivolous pre- texts ; French for example because in conjugating the verbs savoir and se marier the student must repeat j'ai su and various forms of marie, which would familiarize him with the names Jesu and Marie ; or geography because of the names of saints involved in dealing with such towns as St. Petersburg, San Francisco, etc. ; or arithmetic, because the signs of multiplication and addition were those of the cross. Such a story would seem incredible if it were not that in the year of grace, 1902, the Evelina de Rothschild School was forbidden to fly the Union Jack in honour of the Coro- nation of King Edward, not because it was English, but because it bore the cross, and they must needs compromise, in defiance of etiquette by the way, by using the royal standard ! The study of the Jew in Jerusalem is the study of anoma- lies and anachronisms. Side by side with the observance of Levitical precepts and Pharisaic interpretation we have so up to date an institution as the Alliance Israelite with its essentially French atmosphere, and its inherent modernness. Its immense buildings stand within a stone's throw of a quaint relic of the earlier days of Jewish immigration, before the various recent building societies and admirably organized villages were established. This is the curious Box Colony, so called because literally built of old boxes, mainly the tin boxes which contain petroleum, and the wooden cases in 60 JEWS IN JERUSALEM which these tins are packed. By degrees, however, the occupants, many of them Persians, others Yemenites, an industrious and orderly community, are moving into neat red- tiled houses, many close by, others in a more distant suburb known as the Colony of the Hundred Gates. Founded in 1860 for the protection and secular advance- ment of the Jews, in 1871 the Alliance connected itself with the Anglo-Jewish Association, and about the same period founded perhaps the first of the Agricultural colonies of Palestine, the very successful Farm School of Jaffa which has between two and three hundred resident students, and which, after payment of all expenses, makes a profit of over 1,000 per annum. The Farm School of Djedeida, though later in origin, seems, in its degree, equally successful and already numbers over a hundred students. The immense but strictly utilitarian buildings of the Alliance are surrounded by what will shortly be a forest of olive and eucalyptus trees, in itself a fact of real sanitary importance to the neighbourhood. Everything is of the best and most modern, but everywhere one notices what is not too common in Jerusalem, the care with which public money has been expended. The scrupulous cleanliness and order, the presence of trees and flowers, and the abundance of fresh air and even, what is here more difficult to obtain, of fresh water, are the points which first strike the attention of the visitor, who can do little more than enumerate his after sensations and surprises. We are taken to the carpenters' shops, where cabinet- making and joinery of every kind is in progress ; to the metal workshops, where " beaten " work is being carried on ; where a round plate of copper, from England, is by degrees beaten into a graceful coffee pot which would be an orna- ment to any studio ; to the forge, where wrought ironwork (of the designing of which we learn more later) is being carefully copied from drawings to which the apprentices constantly refer ; to the blacksmith's, where rows of lads are 61 INNER JERUSALEM making the tools required by their companions in other trades, and where we are shown a motor-engine, the first piece of such machinery brought into Jerusalem. Passing across a shady courtyard, and one must live in this country to know how rare a luxury this is, we enter a huge workshop where one or two carts and carriages are being repaired, the one branch of industry which has not been a success, because few people own carriages in Jerusalem, and those from whom they are hired have some reluctance in paying for their manufacture and repair, while, unlike other articles, they are not adapted for export. Mounting to an upper floor we reach what may be called the nursery of other trades the admirable Art Schools where drawing and modelling are taught and the designs made from which those below are working. Here, we are told, are no Moslems ; elsewhere we have found those of all races and religions except the Ashkenazim Jew, as we soon inferred from the absence of side curls. The Moslem, even when emancipated enough to defy the prohibition to make images, has, we learn, no turn for Art, an interesting contribution to the study of heredity. Here are rows of lads carving in wood and stone from models in clay, as well as from the round and the flat chairs, panels, decorative groups and friezes. We are shown the model of two camels, one erect, the other kneeling, copied first in clay from nature, accurate in measurement and proportion, the hundredth part of life- size, perfect in anatomy and the reproduction of muscle, and attitude one had almost said gesture. Would that the tourists who keep alive the trade in the olive-wood abominations thrust upon their notice in the city, could contrast their " camel-shaped " glove-boxes and inkstands with so real a work of art as these ! In a further room lads are drawing working out prob- lems in mechanics and engineering, or reproducing types of architecture, some from models, some working only with 62 JEWS IN JERUSALEM the assistance of a note-book. Dante, Venus, Apollo, the young Augustus, look down familiarly from the walls never in all their wanderings perhaps have they found them- selves in surroundings more unexpected than these ! For two hours every day all must study here whose work is of the nature of designing, or even of copying designs, and the enthusiastic Russian artist who moves briskly among the lads seems to have inspired them with true reverence for Art. In another building we find a new experiment, not of the Alliance but of the Jewish Colonization Association, housed here for the moment. This is the weaving of cotton and linen fabrics, curtains, covers for the ever present divan, and a thinner material, [usually striped, used for the Kumbaz, the Arab dress, worn by men all over the country, a material excellent in colouring, wear and texture, and which "no family should be without." At present they have not undertaken dye-work, an industry very rudimentary in Jerusalem, but it is to be hoped that this too will be added to their enterprises. Again descending, and leaving to our left the as yet un- finished technical school for girls, we pass through further plantations of olives, firs, and eucalyptus, and look in at the great dining-hall, where 200 poor boys are fed daily, on the theory, not always observed at home, that unless a child eat, neither shall he work. Most of these are also clothed and provided with shoes by the Alliance. We pass also the gymnasium, and enter the school-building, which, alike in its economy and its liberality, would shame many of our most vaunted institutions at home. It is calculated to hold a thousand students, but only a part of it is as yet in use. French is the universal language ; Hebrew also is spoken ; " jargon " is forbidden. Arabic, the vernacular, is taught, and also Turkish, the official language. There are repre- sentatives of every religion, and of every class, from the son of the Pasha to the two hundred, who in orderly rank 63 INNER JERUSALEM are being led down below to dine. Out of the 368 in the school, 67 are paying pupils. They are just dispersing, and we have no opportunity for observing more than the order and cleanliness of the arrangements, and the perfection of schoolroom apparatus. Little can we wonder that, as the headmaster expresses it, the Rabbis " make war on the Alliance," which is truly opposed in all its working to the obstructionist principles of the Ashkenazim. It is for this reason that the students are taken so far as the Jewish element is concerned almost exclusively from the Sephardim, upon whom the Rabbis have far less hold, and who have little share in the haluka. Unhappily for Jerusalem, it seems as if no question of current history or politics can be considered apart from some form of religious bias, and the relation between Chris- tians and Jews in Jerusalem seems to consist of two kinds of prejudice that of the Latins, who (with the exception of the Educational Orders of the Peres de Sion, and of the Sisters known as the Dames de Sion) ignore them, and of the English missionaries, who spend considerable force of various kinds in the somewhat futile attempt to convert them. In estimating the attitude of the Jews, rather than in criticizing that of the missionaries, a few figures may be informing. Between 1839 and 1847 1 (the Society having been at work since 1823), thirty-one adult Jews were bap- tized an average of about four a year. Between 1849 and 1896, 2 including infants as well as adults, there were 492 baptisms, an average of ten and a quarter a year, probably half of those being infants. In the year 1901, according to the report of the Society, the baptisms (children and adults) had risen to thirteen. The Jewish population being at the lowest about 30,000, the percentage of converts, 1 Life of Bishop Gobat, p. 241. 2 See Missions to Jews, p. 91, a publication of the London Jews' Society. 64 assuming, as I am officially informed I may, that half of those baptized are adults, would be less than one in 4,000. The expenditure of the Society was over 7,000, or about a thousand pounds a convert. As to the sincerity of the conversions it would perhaps be unfair to hazard an opinion. Mr. Zangwill, however, who cannot be accused of glossing over the faults of his race, is very definite upon this point. " No Jew has ever apostatized except to fill his purse or his stomach, or to avoid persecution. Getting grace they call it in England ; but with poor Jews it is always grace after meals . . . Two Spanish Jews who had ' got grace ' were waiting to be baptized at Burgos Cathedral, There was a great throng of Catholics, and a special Cardinal was coming to conduct the ceremony, for their conversion was a great triumph. But the Cardinal was late, and the Jews fumed and fretted at the delay. The shadows of evening were falling on vault and transept. At last one turned to the other and said, ' Knowest thou what, Moses ? If the father does not arrive soon, we shall be too late to say Bishop Gobat's testimony is equally strong. "I tremble whenever the missionaries send me a convert, for either he is insincere from the beginning, or, if he commence by being sincere, he will soon be spoilt by the flattery of the friends of Israel in England." (Gobat, Life of, p. 289.) This is a Moslem's view of the same question : 2 " English people bought land for converted Jews at Jaffa and built houses for them. If one was carpenter they gave him tools, they gave these Jews horses, donkeys and car- riages (carts), and ploughs, and gave each one shilling for 1 The afternoon prayer of the Jew, said at the hour of the Evening Sacrifice as the Catholic prays at the Angelas. Possibly referred to in the verse, " And the lifting up of my hands as (or at the time of ) the evening sacrifice." - With the Bedouin, Gray-Hill. Appendix. 65 F INNER JERUSALEM every day. Those Jews took all, and when they were rich they ran away back to other Jews. I think only five or six remain. " Once, when I was going from Jaffa to Jerusalem, I found people beating one Jew. It was near Ramleh. He have been eating and drinking, and he jump on his horse and run away without paying. They went after him and caught him. They beat him too much. I said, ' How much is it ? ' They tell me ' seven piastres ' (about Is. 2d.). I pay it. He tell them he have no money. Then I want to know whether it was true he have none. So I ask him. He say, ' Yes, I have plenty money, but I did not want to give it. I thought I could run away on my horse.' He paid me. He give me one medjidie, and I take seven piastres, and give him the rest. He was a converted Jew. I ask him, ' Are you Protes- tant ? ' He tell me, ' Oh no, I go by them, and tell them I am very poor, and they give me house and clothes and one shilling every day. When I have enough I leave them.' "Never any Jew is converted. They only laugh at Eng- lish. You know that court of church of Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. No Jew can pass there. If he do they kill him. Christians have one firman from Sultan that if any Jew go there and they catch him they may kill him." Perhaps, to speak it profanely, there is less temptation to conversion for the working Jew in Jerusalem than else- where, for as a large proportion of workshops and markets are in their own hands and in those of the Mohammedans, they can work six days a week, and so the sacrifice to re- ligious principle is less than in most other places. It is commonly alleged that a Jew's religion costs him five shil- lings in the pound more than the Christian's, for, as has been well said, " it consists largely in meats and drinks and in loss of time." Animal food has, at all costs, to be killed in a special manner, and with considerable waste, as the hind- quarters cannot be eaten, and it often happens that the beast or bird, after having been killed, is condemned for some 66 x. JEWS IN JERUSALEM impurity. Then, in addition to the loss of Sunday in a Christian country, there are so many fasts and festivals that the working year is reduced by at least another score of days. If so little has been effected in the past, when the Jews themselves had few charitable and philanthropic agencies, what can be the prospects for the future, now that they them- selves have every sort of charity and institution magnificently supported and admirably organized ? Of what use is it to have spent 12,000 upon the erection of an English Hospital for Jews, and 2,000 a year upon the maintenance of its staff, when they have four hospitals and several skilled physicians of their own ? men able to converse with them in their own tongues, of which as many as fourteen are some- times required in a single morning ; hospitals of which a synagogue is a necessary adjunct and a knowledge of the 100 odd laws which are involved in their ritual an almost essential feature 1 We read in the last Report of the English Hospital that by association with Christians " a great deal of the prejudice, the barrier between Christ and His Jewish people, is broken down." However, in spite of the fact that even out-patients are expected to receive religious instruction, the results, statistically speaking, are not very striking ; it is added, by way of illustration, " We had hopes of a young Yemen Jew coming out and confessing Christ. He was very ill, but we could not keep him any longer in the hospital on account of the nature of his disease." Nearly a thousand patients received treatment, involving, for the most part, attendance at prayers, and of these there were " hopes " of one tenth of one per cent. ! However great his confidence in the skill and kindness of English doctors and nurses, no true Jew would risk the danger of dying in a Christian hospital and consequently of being refused the rites of burial by his co-religionists. Moreover, at Passover time, no Jew would dream of remaining in Gentile surroundings, and accordingly the 67 INNER JERUSALEM hospital is then entirely emptied of all its patients. When we consider what would be the result, say, upon St. Bartholomew's, if no patient could risk dying within its walls, nor of remaining there during the Christmas week, it is obvious that serious cases can seldom be received ! Of minor complaints, eye ailments are infinitely the most numerous in Palestine, and these are admirably provided for by the magnificent English Ophthalmic Hospital, in which, according to the latest Report (1903), over a thousand opera- tions were performed and over 5,000 cases treated. The patients are of all religions, and none is forced upon their notice. One can only admire the strength of the conviction which leads to the subscription, mainly in England, of over 7,000 a year for the support of this and a small amount of edu- cational work in Jerusalem, on behalf of, possibly, the richest nation in the world, and (towards each other) one of the most charitable. In former times, when the rich Jews did but little for the small number of their race then living in Jerusalem, the notion of bribing them to Christianity with medicine and lesson books might conceivably be less unpractical than now, when we can give them nothing except the religion they reject, with which they are not at least as well, often far better, provided on their own account. They have, except the Germans, the finest hospital, the only proper disinfecting laboratory, the only wholly isolated wards for the reception of diphtheria and small-pox patients, the only poor-house, the only mad-house, the only Hospital for Incurables, 1 the only School of Art, the only effective Tech- 1 It is, however, only just to say that at the Convent of the Soeurs de S. Vincent de Paul, which is open to misery of every age and creed, may be found the old and infirm, idiots and the incurable. They also receive and teach the blind, as do the Jews, the Germans and a benevolent English lady whose solitary perseverance should recommend her work to the kindness of those who would wish Eng- lish charity to be better represented in Jerusalem. 68 JEWS IN JERUSALEM nical Schools, the only Weaving School, the only Public Library, and the only newspaper in Jerusalem. They have the only Girls' School under English Government inspection and properly trained certificated teachers (the Evelina de Rothschild School), the only Cookery School for girls, the only place where young women are taught gardening, domestic economy, laundry work and first aid to the injured. Their needlework excels even that of the convents, which is saying a great deal ; and their Kindergarten, of some 250 children, is directed by a teacher trained at the Froebel School in Dresden ; while the headmistress, a highly educated Englishwoman, is a Queen's scholar holding first-class Government diplo- mas, and of considerable experience in both primary and secondary schools. The children have all the ad- vantages which result from such experience in the way of proper desks properly placed in reference to light a point, where sound eyes are a rare exception, of infinite importance, and which, so far as I have seen, is ignored everywhere else. They have all the best and most modern English text-books, and the whole 600 children, whatever their nationality, are taught in English and in pure Hebrew, no word of " jargon " being permitted. They come from homes of every class, the richest in Jerusalem as well as from those of almost incredible poverty, but all pay some- thing, according to their means a gratifying tribute to the desire for education and improvement. What chance has the best-intentioned institution of the London Jews' Society against such work as this, although its Girls' School, numbering, according to its last Report, thirty- nine boarders, is doubtless a centre of home-like and kindly influences ? Its Boys' School takes itself more seriously, and there the teaching seems to be of excellent quality, inasmuch as, especially in the relations between master and scholar, it aims at education rather than instruction. The boys are encouraged to manly games, and their summer 69 INNER JERUSALEM holiday- camp gives them opportunities for the study of natural history, and for swimming and photography. The mission has also a day-school under the charge of devoted ladies, which is not only free, but which obviously also clothes many of those who attend it, as judging from cut, fit, quality and workmanship, the frocks and blouses could have been produced nowhere but at an English " working-party." One cannot but wish that the Dorcases of some kindly parish could see their handi- work side by side with the graceful dresses of the women of Syria. The mission expends some 1,500 a year on a House of Industry, but a visit to the workrooms of the Technical School of the Alliance Israelite can only suggest to the unprejudiced observer the reflection that whether the Jew has a future in Jerusalem or no, his present is not of a nature to require Christian patronage or Christian alms. One modest piece of work, truly demonstrating the spirit of the charity that " is not puffed up," is to be found in a quiet corner a mile or so from Jerusalem, bearing the pleasantly suggestive name of Abraham's Vineyard, or, in Arabic, Kerm el-Khaleel, the Vineyard of the Friend (of God). Its history is simple and reasonable. It was founded as long ago as 1852, when very little material aid was given to the poor Jews at Jerusalem, by Mrs. Finn, the wife of the then English consul, for the object of giving work to a com- paratively small number of the very poor. There is no quid pro quo exacted of attendance at prayer-meetings ; it is merely an object-lesson in that spirit of the human charity which was brought down from heaven by a Jew, " despised and rejected of men." A piece of ground of ten acres, redeemed from the bare hillside, was enclosed, cultivated and planted with vines and olive-trees, and as it became more obvious that the immigration of Jews was an- nually increasing quite out of proportion with the accommo- dation then provided, a quarry was opened on the vineyard, 70 OI.IVK OIL PRESSES, FOR CRUSHING THK FRUIT, AND FOR PRESSING OUT THK Oil.. JEWS IN JERUSALEM stones cut and dressed, and a house erected, the first built by Jews outside the walls of Jerusalem, in order to teach those who came from the cities how to execute practical work of the kind. In 1882 Mrs. Finn, who had returned to England, established in connexion with the Vineyard the Society for Relief of Persecuted Jews, and it is said that there is im- mense competition for the privilege of working here at its various industries. Seventy men are daily employed. One important work is the construction of cisterns, hewn out of the solid rock the storage of water (which has a definite commercial value) being a very important feature of Jerusalem husbandry. Agriculture on such a small scale as the size of the estate permits is also carried on, and the mere spectacle of the exquisite finish and orderliness of the ground must have practical value in this land of slovenliness and too often dirt, even in public institutions where one would least expect to encounter it. There are also carpenters' work- shops, the stone excavated from the cisterns is dressed and sold, and an excellent toilet-soap is made from pure olive- oil combined with alkali from the Dead Sea. One cannot help wishing that the English Jews would help to enlarge and extend so admirable a piece of work, which enters into no competition with any institution of their own, and, in point of fact, relieves them from a burden otherwise incum- bent upon themselves. A pleasing incident which lately occurred reveals something of the good feeling of the people themselves. It was on June 25, 1902, the day when the sad news reached Jerusalem of the postponement of the Corona- tion. The projected festivities, organized mainly by the missionaries, included no entertainment for the old and poor of Abraham's Vineyard, so there was no selfish regret in the petition preferred to the manager, that they might be allowed time to pray for the King's restoration to health. Permission being given, they asked that His Majesty's name might be spelt out to them, when they prayed separately for every letter of Albert Edward, the significance of letters and num- 71 INNER JERUSALEM bers being a part of the esoteric teaching of the Jewish faith ! It is interesting to note, in this connexion, the very kindly feeling towards England which, in spite of their extreme rigidity, is entertained by certain of the Ashkenazim, and which is said to be an inheritance of gratitude for the fact that their synagogue is built on ground obtained for them by the intercession of Lord Napier. The building is, of its kind, very handsome, and contains elaborate silver chandeliers, and an Almenar (centre pulpit), of olive-wood and wrought iron. During the Boer War a special prayer on behalf of the English arms was circulated for daily use among the congregation. The reading of Psalms 18, 20, 24, 27, 35, 83, and 144 was recommended, and then followed a lengthy and eloquent prayer : " For the troops of our English brethren, who stand this day in battle with their enemies " who are further referred to as " the enlightened English people, chosen to tread and rule vast parts of the earth, and whom Thou hast strengthened for their uprightness and hast given them for their inheritance vast lands of the Gentiles, that they may breathe to their inhabitants a generous spirit and a love of righteous- ness and right, who have given freedom and righteous laws to every creature, and have spread wisdom and knowledge in all their dominions according to the pleasure of Her Majesty the Queen, who is full of righteousness and kindness . . . yea, the English nation, which protects and shields Thy people Israel from oppression . . . O King, Dweller of Jerusalem, may the Redeemer come to Zion. Amen" Professor Margoliouth has pointed out what is, I venture to think, endorsed by observation of the relations between the various religionists in Jerusalem, that the Jews are more kindly disposed towards the Mohammedan than towards the Christian. The reason he assigns is, that " though Mo- hammed himself hated the Jews, the terms they got in Mohammedan countries were, on the whole, so favourable, that the feeling towards Mohammed, which is reflected in 72 JEWS IN JERUSALEM early Jewish literature, is very different from the feeling about Christ. The persecution of the Jews has not only rendered conversion difficult by making Christianity odious, but still more by making Judaism dear." In the eyes of the Jew Mohammedanism has at least one practical differentiation from Christianity as represented by its more Protestant adherents that, much as it may despise him and his religion, it has at least no desire to super-impose any other. Of the relation of the Jew with Jerusalem, as his former home, the scene of the history of his race, it is not possible to speak at any length. To the casual observer his position is essentially modern : he is an immigrant, a foreigner, more distinctly so perhaps than even in London or New York. He is rigorously excluded from even the courtyard of the Holy Sepulchre, even when, as recently happened, he is represented by a distinguished English novelist with, as far as one knows, no anti-Christian prejudices. From the Temple area, now entirely in the hands of Moslems, he voluntarily excludes himself, lest, it is said, he should acci- dentally profane the Holy of Holies, though it would seem that without the Divine Presence and the presence of the Tables of the Law the Holy of Holies could not virtually exist. It is in the well known Wailing Place that one realizes that the Jew is a homeless exile, heir to all the sufferings of what Zangwill has called " the long cruel night in Jewry which coincides with the Christian era." There, not only at the conventional hour on Friday afternoon, when the Jews assemble in large numbers, but all day, and every day, and even, at certain seasons, all night, one may witness scenes of obviously real personal sorrow. On the ninth day of the month Ab, a time when for nine days the Jews fast from meat and wine, when there are no marriages and no rejoicings, then above all it is, in the words of their own litany, that " for the palaces laid waste, for the Temple destroyed, for the walls laid low, for the glory which has 73 INNER JERUSALEM gone, for the great ones perished," they " sit solitary and weep." As has been well said by a recent writer in the Tablet (March 15, 1902), "it is not for us to interpolate our interpretations of the workings of Divine Providence into the application of the doctrines of the Sermon on the Mount even to the race of the unjust judges of our Saviour. That race was His . . . The modern Jew, descended after nineteen centuries from those who preferred Barabbas, is entitled to be judged, in the relations of policy and citizenship, as what he is the devotee of deathless tradition, the bearer of an undying nationality, the victim of his patriotism and religion." When one sees the work effected by the Jewish Colonisa- tion Association, by the Anglo-Jewish Association, and by the Alliance Israelite, one realizes that even unscrupulous charity cannot wholly degrade, nor Rabbinical obstruc- tionism entirely depress, a people whom repeated dispersions have failed to disunite, and two thousand years of perse- cution have not sufficed to destroy. If numerical superior- ity be a criterion of possession, and achievement a measure of power ; if the higher civilization be that of the more effective philanthropy, and true part and lot in the soil be that of him who restores it to cultivation; then, mysterious as may seem to us the workings of God's providence, the deep tragedy of their existence, the dark problem of their destiny, is approaching solution, and Jerusalem is for the Jews. 74 CHAPTER VI RUSSIA IN JERUSALEM "THE RUSSIAN To WEB " RELIGIOUS BUILDINGS RELA- TIONS BETWEEN GREEK AND RUSSIAN CHURCHES POPULATION PILGRIMAGES " IMPERIAL ORTHODOX SOCIETY " MEANS OF EDUCATION GREEK PATRI- ARCHATE RUSSIAN DISSENT ARCHIMANDRITE CON- SULATE ACQUISITION OF TERRITORY AMBASSADOR INFLUENCE ON THE WEST JEALOUSIES AND DISPUTES T N a recent examination in a Christian school in Jeru-' * salem, the question was asked, " Where is the Mount 1 of Olives, and what took place upon it ? " The answer was, i " To the east of Jerusalem, and the Russian Tower took I place upon it." To the average boy in Jerusalem every point upon the Mount of Olives, the Mosque of the Ascension, the Church of the Pater, the Chapel of the Credo, the Church of the Dominus flcevit, the Garden of Gethsemane, the, Grotto of the Agony, the Church of the Tomb of Our Lady, the Tombs of the Prophets, and the Viri Galilicei, aU suggestive of historical association, are as familiar as are, to the young Londoner, Charing Cross or the Zoological Gardens ; and the boy's reply has probably been a long-standing subject of mirth and reproach among his fellows, or at any rate it would have been if the school in question had been a girls' school. Nevertheless, the naif remark donne a pen-ser. It is 75 INNER JERUSALEM charged with a political significance, possibly even a re- ligious significance, of which but a very small proportion of those " at home " are in any degree aware. The Russian Tower is what is commonly known as a " Belvedere." It is six stories high, it is ascended by 214 steps, and it presents the finest panorama in the country. Northward, over Mount Scopas, one can follow the new high-road which has already reached to Bethel, and is, ultimately, to open up the way to Nazareth. Eastward, nearly 4,000 feet below, lies the Dead Sea, and the valley of the Jordan is clearly visible although seven hours' ride distant ; and on a clear day one sees even further, to the town of Kerak, twelve hours distant, an important military station, and a seat of Turkish government. It is a town of over 20,000 inhabitants and has a garrison of some 2,000 infantry and 350 cavalry ; it is a very important stronghold as well as a considerable centre of commerce with the desert tribes. Westwards we look towards the Mediterranean ; and south, in the direction of Bethlehem and Hebron. It is obvious, therefore, that the Russian Tower is a quite important incident to have " taken place upon " the Mount of Olives, and that, visible from the Mediterranean on the west and to the boundary of Syria on the east, it is a valuable strategic position, worthy even of the country by which it was devised. It should, however, be mentioned that the Russian Tower is merely a feature in a group of buildings strictly religious in their purpose a church, a hospice for pilgrims, and the residence of the Archimandrite. A few miles west of Jerusalem lies the beautiful village of Ain Karim, and there, on a hill-top commanding a view both of the Mount of Olives and of the Mediterranean, the Russians began to build a similar tower, which, however, presents a somewhat truncated appearance, a repetition of the same style of structure having been disapproved, it is alleged, by the Government authorities, who, like the English County Councils, claim 76 RUSSIA IN JERUSALEM the right of architectural criticism. Here also the Tower is, again, merely a feature of an adjacent group of religious buildings a chapel, a hospice, and an establishment for nuns, who live, not in community, but in separate dwellings. Bearing in mind then the occasional union of religious with secular objects, it may be interesting to glance at the position occupied by Russia in connexion with the Holy City. Jerusalem has no commerce, no manufactures, no agri- culture ; in no part of the town itself could you drive for more than a couple of hundred yards ; the majority of the streets are inaccessible even to the camel, which does most of the goods traffic of the country, and a good many even to the horse. The donkey is the omnibus of Jerusalem, and as it is trained to walk up and down the steps of which most of the streets consist, you can generally arrive at your front door or do your shopping without dismounting. En revanche, however, Jerusalem has probably more lan- guages and more religions than any town in the world. Her politics are questions of sites, questions, however, but indirectly connected with archaeology; her most important languages, Arabic, the native language, apart, are those in which these questions are carried on, namely French and German ; and her dominant religions are those of the Greek and Latin Churches. The Holy Places, which are the "sites" in question, more especially the Holy Sepulchre and the Church of; Bethlehem, are under the protection of the Franciscans, \ who since 1230 have been the recognized custodians of the Holy Places, and as they are, for the most part, Italians, , and as their superior, the Pere Custode, is invariably Italian, it might have seemed natural that Italian, rather than French, should be cited as for them the language of debate. But this brings us face to face with the curious complication that whereas the Franciscans are the guardians of the Holy Places, France is the guardian of the Franciscans. 77 INNER JERUSALEM A similar international anomaly meets us when we come to consider the question from the other side that of the Greeks. To most of us in England, the Orthodox Eastern Church is associated equally with the Holy Synod of Russia, and with the older Patriarchates of Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem, and it is a little perplexing to the new comer to find that the Russian priest cannot, theoretically, officiate at the Greek Altar of the Holy Sepulchre, that a perpetually recurring dispute is the election to some bishopric or patriarchate of a nominee of the Greek or Russian congregations respectively, and that he who would understand in what sense, and that not an unimportant one, Jerusalem is making history, must, in the absence of local newspapers, never lose sight for one day of the relations, not merely between the Latin and the Greek, but of the further complication of Greek and Russian. Of all this the Russian Tower upon the Mount of Olives is the effective prototype. It is situated between Church and Presbytery, but it moreover looks towards the Turkish defences on the east, and towards the fleets of the Mediter- ranean on the west. Statistics are hard to arrive at where there are no registers of births and deaths and no census ; but if we may accept the figures given in Baedeker, the resident orthodox Greeks number about 6,000, a number which is more than doubled, perhaps trebled, every year by the immigration of Rus- sian pilgrims, almost entirely of the peasant, even of the poorest peasant classes. Between Christmas and Easter (the Greek Christmas falls eight days later than ours) at least 8,000 pilgrims, men and women, arrive in Jerusalem, many of them coming from the interior of Russia, from distances so great that it is said the pilgrimage often occupies two years ; for the piety, if not poverty, of the devout Russian demands that the journey shall be made, whenever possible, on foot. Such an immigration cannot be without important 78 RUSSIA IN JERUSALEM consequences, both in Jerusalem and in the home sur- roundings of the people themselves ; and it is obvious that the piety of the Russian peasantry is an instrument to be seriously reckoned with. The national Church has a hold upon them possibly unparalleled in history. It has been long bound up with the fortunes of the country, it has been subject to no changes, no reformations ; it is the Church of the people as such, a part of their history. Their monas- teries are the fortresses of the country and have been con- stantly put to practical use against the foreign invader ; the Czar is in a special sense the symbol of the unity of the Church and the nation ; their Church is the largest national Church in the world, and their passion is for pilgrimage. That this is racial rather than inherent in their religion has been well demonstrated by a recent writer on The Teaching of the Russian Church (Arthur C. Headlam, B.D., 1897). " There are few contrasts greater than that of passing from a Greek monastery on Mount Athos to the great Russian houses. There is no sight in Palestine more im- pressive than that of the devotion, and enthusiasm, and endurance of the Russian pilgrims " (p. 27) ; and again, " Just as we might say that one great characteristic of the English Church was practical philanthropy, or of Germany a devotion to theological study, or of Scotland a taste for metaphysical and theological discussion, so of Russia we might say that it was religious devotion. . . . The half religious, half political movement which presses Russia ever southwards to the Holy Places is one of the forces which will mould history in the future much more surely than the skill of its statesmen. Russia is a religious power not to be despised, one of the great factors which will mould the religion of the future." Those only who have been eye-witnesses of such scenes as are of daily occurrence in the Holy Land can appreciate the practical working of Russian devotion. One must 79 INNER JERUSALEM travel with a pilgrimage, say from Beirut to Jaffa, and see, perhaps, 700 packed close on a shelterless deck on a December night. Leaving one's quarters, comfortable only by contrast, in the first class, one ascends to look upon them ; there is not space to approach near. In spite of the cold and the open air, the smell is almost unbearable ; most of them are sea-sick, a few are munching lumps of hard black bread. One poor woman has died in the night, and her baby of a few months old wails bitterly. Astern a tall young priest, bareheaded, whose neat golden chignon, mysteriously hairpinless, is a perplexity to the occidental understanding, is leading a hymn, and many a weary head is raised from the bare boards to share in the sweet melody. Arrived at Jaffa every pilgrim devoutly and repeatedly crosses himself on setting foot in the Holy Land ; many a bearded man stoops to kiss the sacred soil, while tears of real emotion arc falling from the eyes of men and women alike. Most of them will walk the forty miles, the nearly three thousand feet of ascent between this and Jerusalem. 1 Arrived there they will proceed to every shrine in the Holy Land. You will meet them toiling painfully homeward from the Dead Sea, bathing at every sacred pool, drinking at every historic fountain, approaching on hands and knees to every spot of religious association, crossing themselves and praying wherever the slightest pretext for devotion may be found. 2 Scores of them remain all night in the 1 A magnificent bell was sent from Russia for the church at Jerusalem. Disembarked at Jaffa no vehicle, no beast of burden, could be found capable of transporting it to Jerusalem. It was finally conveyed the entire distance by the women of a Rssians pilgrimage. This was in pre-railway days. 2 In the centre of the courtyard of St. George's Collegiate Church (the new church of the Anglican See of Jerusalem) is a " Founder's Cross " of wrought iron. A Russian pilgrim, visiting it one day, inquired the meaning of the cross, when it entered into the heart of a sinful little Arab to aver that it was the burying place of a great saint, upon which the Russian carried to his friends the good news of a new holy spot, and they spent the rest of the day in prostrations ._t RUSSIA IN JERUSALEM Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and every morning at day- break you hear them singing in wonderful harmonies on their way to the hospice. At Christmas or Epiphany they take their only sleep, packed like sardines on the floor of the church in little parties or family groups, of whom one, even in sleep, is embracing the great brass samovar which is their centre of physical comfort. At Easter you find the same scene in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. On the Saturday of the Greek fire, though the " miracle " does not occur till midday, the close-packed crowds, one is told, have been in their places since three o'clock of the day before. They are always pleasant and good-tempored, ready to greet you with a smile and to accept gratefully the smallest joke. They ask for nothing ; on the contrary, they are the main cause of the importunity of the beggars, who for the most part entirely disappear when the last Russian boat has gone home. When the first warm days of May bring in the scirocco they die off like flies, and the sweet singing in the streets is that of the mourners as the funerals, often two or three at a time, are hurried to the Russian burying-ground on Mount Sion ; the faces of the uncoffined dead peaceful and quiet in death, as in life, suggesting, before all else, that their pilgrimage has truly led them to the " haven where they would be." Some h'ttle party which set out from its far-distant village has left a hostage or two in sacred soil and will take home a shroud or two the less ; for the coarse cotton cloth, accurately measured against the stone upon which, it is said, the body of our Lord was washed, and a bunch of candles which have been lighted at the " holy" fire, are part of the return burden of every pilgrim, the eagerly welcomed gift for the dear ones at home, laid aside for the day when their time too shall come for the eternal sleep. The annual, if temporary, immigration of so many and genuflexions, until the return home of authority, when the young Arab was suitably dealt with. 81 G INNER JERUSALEM strangers into so small a town as Jerusalem, where, to the indigenous population, order, discipline, and foresight are unknown, would entail, if not efficiently organized, con- siderable, perhaps even serious, discomforts upon the per- manent and temporary population alike. Nothing, however, could be more admirable than the perfect discipline of the whole movement, and its organization by the " Imperial Orthodox Society of Palestine ' is efficient in every detail. The Society was founded in 1847 for the encouragement of pilgrimage, but its work did not become actively important till after the Crimean war. Hitherto all pilgrims of the Greek Church Greeks, Russians, Bulgarians, etc. had been lodged in the various Greek convents \\dthin the town ; but under the auspices of the Society an entire colony has by degrees been erected on the north-west side of Jerusalem in an excellent and open situation. It consists of hospices for single men and women and for families respectively, and includes a very handsome cathedral, a large hospital, shops selling Russian provisions for the convenience of pilgrims, the offices of the Society, and large and well kept gardens which, in shadeless Jerusalem, are an especial boon. The Russian Consulate is in premises adjoining. There are also a certain number of superior apartments which can be engaged by visitors of the higher classes. In its earlier days the Society was under the direction of the Grand Duke Sergius, brother of Alexander III. It now numbers at least 1,500 members, and includes the Emperor, the Royal Family, the Ministry and many distinguished ecclesi- astics. All receive a medal in gold, silver or bronze, according to their distinction and the value of their services ; and the Society has its own flag and coat of arms. The difficult and formerly dangerous transport by land and sea is now greatly facilitated. The pilgrim, before taking ship at Odessa, deposits sufficient money for his journey to Jerusalem and his return, amounting to not less 82 RUSSIA IN JERUSALEM than thirty-six roubles. 1 They are, then, like Cook's tourists, provided with a book of tickets half of which will take them to Jerusalem, while the other half is, for safety, deposited on arrival at the bureau of the Society. The pilgrims bring stores of provisions and above all tea, and it is to be remarked that hot water can always be instantly procured in any haunt of the Russian peasant. On arriving in the Holy Land they are met by the Cawasses of the Society, who during their visit, usually of three months, take entire charge of their affairs and invariably accompany them in any journeys in the interior of the country. These men are Dalmatians and Montenegrins, generally of splendid physique and dressed in the dignified costume of their country. For prolonged expeditions, such as that from Jerusalem to Nazareth, the pilgrims must undergo inspection by the medical officer. They are preceded and followed by Cawasses mounted and armed with cutlass and revolver, and accompanied by a priest, a doctor, a Sister of Charity, and others ; also by an ambulance, a hospital-tent and reserve animals for the use of any pilgrims exhausted by the way. The advance-guard arranges for the food and housing of the pilgrims. The danger to health of remaining during the summer when water is scarce and the climate might prove trying to those accustomed to temperature so different limits the pilgrim-season to practically about half a year, and, for convenience of housing, those arriving for the Christmas ceremonials generally leave before Easter, and those arriving for Easter remain at most till after the Assumption. After the beginning of July the pilgrims may be counted by scores only. 1 Coins in Jerusalem are constantly changing in value. If we accept Baedeker's valuation of 15 piastres to a Russian rouble, this sum would be worth about five Napoleons, which clearly demon- strates that the Russian Government finds it worth while largely to subsidize as well as " personally conduct " these immense pilgrimages. 83 INNER JERUSALEM From time to time the work of the Society is inspected by its officers, or other competent persons. M. Mansouroff has written two works on the Russian pilgrim in Jerusalem, after studying the subject carefully on the spot for some months. M. Philippow. Controller of the Empire, and a member of the Holy Synod, spent the Easter of 1894 at Jerusalem ; and in 1899 M. de Nelidoff, Russian Ambassador to Rome, paid a lengthened visit to this, the companion Holy City. It should also be mentioned that pilgrims are conducted even as far as Sinai whenever a group of not less than ten persons shall express a desire for this difficult journey across the desert ; thus carrying the example of Russian piety to the district of the monastery of St. Catherine, now under Russian protection. The Latin Orders have some excellent hospices, mainly frequented by " paying guests," but even their wonderful capacity for organization has invented nothing to compare with that of the Imperial Society of Russia, nor indeed is it required, for their religious pilgrims are comparatively small in number, and, as a rule, not far removed from the ordinary tourist in purpose. Hitherto, however, Russia may be said to have concen- trated her efforts mainly in the direction of pilgrimages, and indeed no more effective means of propaganda, social and political, if not religious, could be devised. The purely philanthropic work of the Latin Church, her orphanages, her asylums for the old, the blind, the deformed, the imbecile, her training schools, her workshops, have never been imitated even by the Greek Church, much less by the English mission- aries. In education, however, Russia has now seen her way to some individuality of effort, and in this direction she has already far distanced her co-religionists the Greeks, although it was only in April of 1902 that she received a firman empowering her to open schools at will. Since then, over a hundred schools have been opened in Galilee alone. 84 RUSSIA IN JERUSALEM Russia has seen, as the Latin Church long since saw, that in the intelligent, quick-witted Arab, properly trained, and under the right influence, she might find a powerful ally and propagandist. It is the rule rather than the exception in the villages around Jerusalem to find that the pere cure is a native, an example which the English missions would have done well to follow, and which has been inculcated by the Anglican bishop in Jerusalem. Such a priest is a man of like passions with the people, understanding their lan- guage, nature, and temperament as no occidental can ever hope to do. Probably conscious of the weakness of their own position, the Greek and the Protestant have never wholly trusted the Arab, and consequently are apt to report him unworthy of confidence. It is by no means uncommon to find Arabs in the Latin convents, both men and women ; indeed two orders, the Peres Blancs d'Afrique, and the Sceurs du Rosaire are largely recruited from the native population. The English, however, seldom admit natives to positions of full confidence, and the Greek monks of the Holy Sepulchre went so far as to refuse to house Monsignor Gerasimos, then an archimandrite, afterwards Patriarch of Antioch, when he arrived there as secretary to Monsignor Nicodemos, on account of his Arab origin, and in spite of his well known piety and erudition. The first time that Russia fully revealed a contrary policy was at the time when Bulgaria separated herself (1872) from the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and was consequently anathematized by the three Patriarchs of Constantinople, Antioch and Alexandria. Monsignor Cyril, Patriarch of Jerusalem, alone refused to express disapproval, thereby drawing upon himself the indignation, not only of his brother ecclesiastics, but of his flock in Jerusalem, with the exception of its native element ; which, it may be con- ceived, had a certain personal sympathy with the position of the Bulgarians and with their desire for freedom. Russia, who had long worked for the dissociation of the churches 85 INNER JERUSALEM of the principalities of the Balkans from the Patriarchate of Constantinople, showed signs of quiet satisfaction, and the native thus became, as it were, for the first time the pioneer of Russian policy in Palestine. The Greek monks, in sign of displeasure, closed schools, churches and hospitals against the native element, upon which Russia, unable at that time to open schools on behalf of the Arabs, by sympa- thy and practical aid encouraged a considerable number of young natives to come to her own seminaries for education. Hitherto the only places available for the higher education of the Arab had been in the schools of the Latins and in the admirably efficient College of American Missionaries in Beirut. A Greek elementary school, preparatory to the Seminary of the Convent of the Cross, was indeed open to all, but higher studies were not encouraged, and the native students of the more advanced course, averaged but a very small proportion of the whole. Now, however, they had easy means of first-class instruction among those of their own faith ; in Russia they were admitted to hold offices civil and military, and to become professors, and when they returned to Palestine as priests or teachers it was with a grateful sense of duty towards their benefactors. Even the chance visitor to the churches of the Russians and Greeks, respectively, cannot but remark the great difference in at least the outside presentation of the same religion, in the contrast of the beautiful and harmonious music of the one with the barbarous nasal twanging of the other ; cannot but admire the decoration, the really beautiful pictures to be found in the Russian Cathedral and in the church at the foot of the Mount of Olives, as well as the greater cleanliness and orderliness of all their ecclesiastical appointments . In this connexion, however, it is only fair to emphasize the fact that, so far as one can see, Russia is not walking in another path, but only ahead of her co-religionists. Their jealousies and oppositions are racial, not religious. 86 RUSSIA IN JERUSALEM The Greek Church has benefited largely by Russian liber- ality, not only in gifts to convents and in contributions to the general support of her institutions, but also in special gifts for the beautifying of the Catholicon of the Holy Sepulchre. The display of cloth of gold and silver, of jewelled mitres, of pectoral chains and crosses, of mon- strances and reliquaries, to be seen in the festival processions, could hardly have been collected without the liberality of the wealthier nation, 1 a liberality all the more generous that the Greeks have been extremely tenacious of their privileges and have made constantly renewed difficulties as to three points which the Russians have greatly at heart, namely, permission, if only once in the week, for a mass said by the Russian Archimandrite either at the altar upon Calvary or at the Holy Sepulchre ; the admission of Russian monks to serve as guides to Russian pilgrims visiting the Holy Sepulchre ; and the residence of a Russian Archimandrite within the walls of the Greek convent. The Greek Patriarchate at Jerusalem has always been " a close borough," and it need hardly be said that to place it on a broader footing has long been the policy of Russia, equally with the utilization of the Arab, although those who allege that she would internationalize the office and would throw it open to the candidature not only of Russians, but of Arabs, Bulgarians and Servians, may possibly overstate the case. It is, however, certain that in spite of much opposition, fortified by an appeal to the Patriarchates of 1 It is alleged that the Russian pilgrims are a considerable source of ecclesiastical revenue, as it is calculated that each spends, on an average, some 10 in the country, of which a considerable proportion is paid for candles, masses, and fees to priests on various occasions. Moreover it is said that, after their return home, additional and supplementary offerings are forwarded, amounting in the aggregate to many thousands of pounds, sums which naturally, though in- tended for the Greek priests at the Holy Places, have to pass through the Russian Consulate, a fact which, all else apart, might well and naturally suggest the importance of obtaining a national share in the ceremonies of Bethlehem, the Holy Sepulchre and elsewhere. 87 INNER JERUSALEM Constantinople and Jerusalem, Russia has succeeded in placing a native upon the Patriarchal chair of Antioch, and in obtaining his official recognition by the Sultan. The patriarch of Antioch has his residence at Damascus, which has long been a centre of Syrian " orthodoxy," and has had several native bishops, and it is even alleged that it was in view of this candidature that Damascus was raised from a vice-consulate to a consulate. It is at least difficult to assign any other reason in a city where there are few resident Russians and where Russia has little commercial interest. Another point in Russian policy, somewhat akin to her protection of the Arab, is her alleged inclination to protect what may be called the " dispossessed sects." Those who fondly imagine that it is only among dissenters from Angli- canism, or in the Reformed Churches of the Continent that heresies and schisms tend to multiply, should visit Jerusalem and try to grasp the significance of the varieties who worship in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre alone. There are two sects whom the Russians might conceivably annex, and who, if not very numerous, might at least be counted upon to strengthen her hands against then 1 common opponent, the Latin Church, namely, the Georgians and the Abyssinians: The Georgian Christians, have been since 1802, legally subject to Russia, so that to befriend them is only natural, although one may question whether she is likely to go so far as to attempt to restore to them their former share of the Holy Sepulchre, namely, the Chapel of Adam and one of the altars on Calvary, of which the Greeks took possession after the fire of 1808. Russia is also kindly disposed, it is said, towards the Abyssinians, who formerly possessed the Chapel of St. Helena, now in the hands of the Armenians, and the Chapel of the Opprobrium, now owned by the Greeks. Moreover, they formerly possessed the right of sharing in the cere- monial of the Greek Fire, a performance by the way which, 88 RUSSIA IN JERUSALEM it is said, is seriously disapproved by the Russians, who, not only better instructed themselves, but more ambitious for their people, would willingly have it discontinued. Russia is indeed the religious protector of the Greeks, Armenians, Syrians, Copts and Abyssinians, who all follow the oriental rites and profess practically the same faith. Although by the treaty of 1774 with the Sublime Porte, Catherine II became protector of " the orthodox " in the Ottoman Empire, and thus of the pilgrims to Palestine, which even then outnumbered those of the Latin Church, it was not until 1844 that a representative of the Russian Church, in the person of an Archimandrite, arrived in Jeru- salem, and not until 1858, after the Crimean war, that a consulate was established, shortly after which Russia began to acquire property. Naturally her ambition was, like that of all religious bodies in Jerusalem, to gain possession of ground in or about the Holy Sepulchre, and, difficult as it was, even this has been accomplished, a church and a hospice erected, which if Russia should ever succeed in acquiring the intervening buildings of the Abyssinian convent, would be brought into actual touch with the coveted sacred spot. Now, moreover, in addition to the immense estate north of the city she has a share of the garden of Gethsemane, where a beautiful church has been built at the cost of the Imperial family (consecrated in 1888) ; also considerable property on the Mount of Olives, at St. John's, Jaffa, Jericho, Nazareth, Tiberias, Ramallah, and indeed almost all the historical places in the Holy Land. Although, as already mentioned, it is only since 1902 that general permission has been obtained for building schools in Palestine, nevertheless they have multiplied rapidly, to the provocation of great jealousy among the Greeks in all parts of the country, at Tiberias, Nazareth, Damascus and even in the wild and distant Hauran, east of the Jordan. In 1890, at the desire of the Emperor, considerable additions were made to the ecclesi- 89 INNER JERUSALEM astical staff, and in 1893 an Ambassador was established at Rome, probably having regard to the relations of Russia with Palestine, where the Greek and Latin Churches are more especially brought into touch, and where every event has its religious aspect. According to an article in IS Echo d 1 Orient (1898) Russia even proposes to enter the fields of higher education, which hitherto, in Syria, have belonged exclusively to the Jesuits and the American missionaries; who have carried on an admirable rivalry in arts, science and medicine at Beirut. So far, what we have had to say upon the presence of Russia in Palestine, has been, on the whole, of good work accomplished, of something practical achieved among her co- religionists, the Greeks, or among the people of the country. But we may not forget the lesson taught us by the " incident of the Russian Tower " ; we must remember that as it stands upon that lofty eminence, the most conspicuous object in the whole district, impossible to ignore, a part of the perspective of the country, ostensibly a feature of its religious life, so also Russia fixes her gaze, not only upon the East with its interests, its faith, its distant hope, but upon the West, with its civilization, its history, its traditions. So far, we have dealt with the relations between Russia and Greece, which, despite racial and political difference, have nevertheless for object the propaganda of the same faith. From the point of view of religion, they unite against a common foe, and, so far, the work of Russia, as we have seen it, has been creative, constructive, synthetic. We have now the more difficult task of attempting to review her attitude in Jerusalem towards the Western faith, and here we find that her influence, naturally enough, tends to be disintegrating, destructive, aggressive. Thanks mainly to the policy which has permitted, until lately, that the Church of England should present herself in the Holy Land hand in hand with the " Reformed 90 RUSSIA IN JERUSALEM Church " of Germany, 1 the " Protestant " influence in Jerusalem has long been an almost negligible quantity except as represented by Germany. Figures are here difficult to arrive at, but the latest English Baedeker quotes 1,400 Protestants as against 4,000 Latins and 6,000 Greeks ; or in both cases, counting sects, 4,250 Latins and 7,000 Greeks ; the two combined being about one-third more than the Mussulman population. Germany has a handsome new church, the gift of the Emperor, a hospital under the very efficient care of the Kaiserwerth deacon- esses, the only Leper Hospital in Syria, and large and flourishing schools and orphanages of so practical a kind that it is rumoured that, unlike other missionary institu- tions, they produce craftsmen, trained nurses, and even domestic servants. But with this Russia is not concerned. For Russia the Latin Church means France, however anomalous it may be that France should, anywhere, be definitely identified with religion: Many French Orders are largely represented in Jerusalem : the Assumptionists, Dominicans, Benedictines, the Peres Blancs d'Afrique, the Freres Chretiens ; and among women, the Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul (who, it is interesting to note, are entrusted by the Turkish Government with the charge of the Municipal Hospital), the Sisters of St. Joseph, and the Sisters of the Rosary. In addition to these sisters, whose active good work is equally beyond all measure and all praise, there are the less useful Orders of the Carmelites, the Clarisses and the Marie Eeparatrices. There is also the unique Order of the Soeurs de Sion, whose work is especially among the Jews. The Franciscans, who are in charge of 55 sanctuaries, 9 convents, 18 mission churches, and 34 chapels, and 1 One can hardly wonder that the fact is thus stated by Alphonse d' Alonzo, formerly attache at the French Consulate in Jerusalem : " Les adeptes de Luther se firent representer sur le sol de la Terre Sainte ; un eveque protestant designe par 1'Angleterre et 1'Alle- magne unies s'y installa." 91 INNER JERUSALEM have over 4,000 children in their schools, are, techni- cally, international, speaking eleven different languages ; but, as has already been pointed out, their Superior, the Pere Custode, is, by tradition, always Italian, and, in their capacity of Guardians of the Holy Places they are under the protection of France. We thus arrive at the anomaly that whereas, until the comparatively recent local activity of Russia, the Greek religion was under the sole protection of the Turk, the Latin religion is under the protection of the French ; hence we have the Latin religion protected by a power which is not religious, and the Greek religion by a power which is not Christian. One must, however, regard the question of the Holy Places as too large to be merely national. They are supported by men and by alms, not only from the whole of Western Europe, but from America as well ; indeed the active interest and actual work done by the new world in and for the Holy Land would be a revelation to those who have not had occasion to consider the question on the spot. Russia is therefore in daily and active relation with two powers Greece whom she is trying to drag along, France whom she is trying to repulse. All that she can gain for herself if possible, but if not, for Greece, or even for the Syrians, Copts, Armenians, Abyssinians is so much subtracted from France ; here the privilege of saying an additional Mass, there of lighting a lamp, of using a doorway, or even, it may be of sweeping a stair. The heart of Jerusalem, its Holy of Holies, and alas ! its battlefield, is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Here, as in the Holy Stable of Bethlehem, while the Christians pray, the Turkish soldiery must sit by to see that they do not steal, nor even murder. This is no figure of speech. Under the altar which marks the birthplace of our Lord there is a silver star which belongs to the Latins. In 1847 it was stolen, it is believed, by the Greeks. Replaced in 1852, another attempt to carry it off was made in 1873. 92 RUSSIA IN JERUSALEM Close by the same spot in 1893 the Latin sacristan was killed, and three of his companions injured by the Cawass of the Russian pilgrims, who fired his revolver on being requested to make way for the passage of the procession ; and, so lately as in November 1901, seventeen Franciscans were severely wounded by the Greeks in the courtyard of the Holy Sepulchre. Some of the occasions of dispute are so trivial that one hesitates to describe them, so difficult would it be for any one not on the spot to focus such incidents correctly. And in truth they are, in most cases, the occasion, not the cause ; the causes often being far to seek, difficult to explain, and of extreme complexity. Moreover one has to realize the enormous importance in this country of precedent. In 1852, the Government, doubtless perplexed by the counter claim of rival Churches over questions of ritual and privilege, little adapted to the Moslem understanding, issued a firman ordaining the statu quo, extending over the Holy Sepulchre, the Church at Bethlehem as well as the Tomb of the Virgin at Gethsemane, in which the Latins have now lost all rights. This, naturally enough, each party has ever since been scheming to evade. In 1888, for instance, during the visit of the Grand Dukes Sergius and Paul, the Russian archimandrite said Mass in the Holy Sepulchre, contrary to precedent, on three con- secutive days, against which the Latins felt bound to protest. On the other hand, during the Congress of the Holy Eucharist in 1893 the Latins allowed the " united " Catholics of some other rite to say Mass on Mount Calvary, upon which the Greeks lodged a complaint with the Governor. It is a most literal case of " great landscapes seen through small openings," and in some cases one must be on the spot to appreciate their magnitude. The Greeks and French, as it were, got the start of Russia, who manifested little interest in the Holy Places, as such, until they became of some political significance. In 1841 93 INNER JERUSALEM France established a consulate and became the recognized protector of the Latin Church. In 1847 Pope Pius IX re- vived the Latin patriarchate. In 1857, after the Crimean war, Russia for the first time actively occupied herself with the affairs of the Holy Land, and, together with France and Turkey, signed the protocol on the subject of the re-con- struction of the dome of the Holy Sepulchre, a fact of the more importance that, on the last occasion of its repair, 1808, the matter had rested almost exclusively in the hands of Greece, the opportunity when she annexed many privileges confirmed to her by the statu quo, to the satisfaction of Russia and the humiliation of France ; an instance sometimes quoted in illustration of the difficulties of the Latin position. The Czar, it is said, on those rare occasions when he resorts to arbitration instead of gaining ends by subtlety and diplomacy, never allows his party to experience a check, whereas France is interested only from the political, and cares practically nothing for the religious side, as such. In 1897 at Bethlehem another long disputed case of violation of the statu quo was again lost to the Franciscans. The Grotto of the Nativity is approached by two staircases from north and south, opening into the Latin and Greek Churches respectively. On the evening of the Greek Easter, which coincides with our Epiphany, a Greek pro- cession sought egress through the former, and as a matter of precedent was resolutely opposed by the Franciscans. The Russian Consular Agent, who was present, was loud in protestation ; first the Governor of Bethlehem and then the French Consul were sent for, and, greatly to the surprise of those whom he " protected," the Franciscans were required to withdraw. Thus, on one side or the other, is precedent created, and where so many opposing forces meet on so small a battle- field, as for example five creeds within the walls of the Holy Sepulchre, the very smallest encroachment becomes of consequence. It would be no impossibility for either 94 RUSSIA IN JERUSALEM France or Russia to absorb the rights of the nation she protects, and by diminishing the number of the combatants enlarge the extent of the interests at stake. Now and then some point in dispute is settled by the appearance of yet another claimant. A curious example of this was afforded when the Latins and Greeks were unable to settle their rival claims to the church discovered at the Pool of Siloam; While the quarrel was proceeding the Mohammedans ran up a minaret and the matter was decided. Russia has not yet succeeded in obtaining proprietary rights in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, but their acquisition is by no means impossible, though both Greeks and Latins are, for once, of the same opinion as to the expediency of restraining her ambitions in this direction. Policy or poverty may conceivably appeal to either the Armenians or the Abyssinians on her behalf, and the more often the statu quo is violated in small things the easier will it be, when the time comes, to carry the matter with a high hand, as at Bethlehem in 1897. A Russian journal the Mosh Vedom of January 2 and 14, 1894, has not hesi- tated to put the suggestion into words. " As the Armenians are not in communion with our Church we can act in relation to them without compunction, the more that they are the oppressors of the inoffensive and simple African Christians (Abyssinians) to whom it will be possible to offer liberal and advantageous terms." Year by year, it is said, towards the time of the Greek Christmas, application is made to the protecting authority for permission to prevent the unseemly passage of the Greek procession by the north staircase at Bethlehem, and year by year the authority finds new methods to " put the question by." One can hardly expect religious enthu- siasm from a nation which politically owns no religion, and to be obliged to attend officially at long religious func- tions in which he may not be personally interested must pall upon the most devoted servant of his country, even though 95 INNER JERUSALEM the service will be delayed for him however late he may arrive, though his attendants will be tolerated whatever their manners and customs, and even when he is placed in a conspicuous position in an arm-chair of early Victorian design, covered tastefully in green reps with purple and magenta stripes. But that these things are not so trivial as they may seem at first sight, was abundantly demonstrated by the tragedy of November 1901, described in a later chapter. It was again a question of statu quo and again an instance of a trifling occasion and a serious cause. The Greeks disputed the right of the Franciscans to sweep certain steps in the courtyard of the Holy Sepulchre, and on a certain day prepared themselves for attack by taking on to the roof heavy stones, and, it is even said, burning tow to hurl from the security of their lofty position upon their defenceless victims in the court below. The Franciscans would not even defend themselves, much less resent attack, until they received orders from headquarters, but merely occupied the steps, and by their mere presence defended the position. The Turkish soldiers, always on guard at the entrance, were called out, and order was at length restored, happily without the firing of a single shot, for the slightest sign of disorder would almost certainly have been followed by an emeute. It is alleged that a considerable number of " roughs " were waiting for the smallest excuse to make a rush for the church, and the treasure it contains. As usual upon all public occasions, the Turkish soldiers were orderly and prompt. One never fails to admire their quiet, one had almost said their respectful, conduct at the Holy Places which for them can have neither interest nor meaning. It is satisfactory that when after nearly nine months' delay the matter was at length brought to trial, a new pre- cedent was established, which may lead to very important results and be far reaching in its ultimate issues, namely, 96 Tm: DAMASCUS GATE RUSSIA IN JERUSALEM that the Germans and Italians were brought before their respective consuls instead of the matter being decided between the French and the Turks, as would have been the ordinary procedure. Truly the crust of civilization is still somewhat thin in the East, and one cannot but feel that the position is tem- porary and the period one of transition. The Russians, as we have seen, can show a consistent policy and magnificent organization ; France, ineffective on the political side, upholds institutions of practical piety and good works ; the Greeks maintain a dignified independence ; the Arabs are developing a divine discontent ; Germany exercises a magnificent philanthropy ; the Jews excel in num- bers, in combination and in hope. England ? well England is busy elsewhere. Meanwhile Turkey is in possession. What next ? The Syrian himself, who has lived on the soil since long before the Mosaic immigra- tion, who was a Christian when our ancestors offered human sacrifice, raises his indifferent eyes to Heaven~and says, "Do I know? God knows." Laalam 9 Allah yaallam. 97 CHAPTER VII THE GREEKS IN JERUSALEM THE GREEK CHURCH ITS ANTIQUITY ITS AUTHORITY LATIN PATRIARCHS IN JERUSALEM, 1204-1260 END OF THE EASTERN EMPIRE THE EASTERN CHURCH ITS GOVERNMENT EDUCATION OF CLERGY CHARIT- ABLE AND PHILANTHROPIC UNDERTAKINGS CONVENTS THE GREEK FIRE MISUNDERSTANDING AND EXAG- GERATION EARLY HISTORY As IT WAS IN 1902 IN 1820 ONE of the most perplexing of the many social prob- lems which confront the resident in Jerusalem is that of the presence of the Greek element, national and religious, perplexing at first on account of its novelty, afterwards even more on account of such elements as increased familiarity cannot fail to present. Most of us know, vaguely, that the inhabitants of Greece, Russia, and certain of those smaller states of Europe which are always having rebellions, massacres and earthquakes, belong to the Greek Church ; we know that a certain part of London, north of Hyde Park, is known as " Asia Minor," and that there you may meet ecclesiastics in flowing black robes, hats which appear to be put on upside down, copious beards, and chignons. The " runagates " who go about from church to church, and in consequence " continue in scarceness," will add that the service-books are magnifi- cently decorated, and the music hardly to be described as such. Arrived in Jerusalem, you may easily learn that the Greeks more than twice out-number the Latins and 98 THE GREEKS IN JERUSALEM more than five times the miscellaneous body known as " Protestants " ; that when the Greeks are fasting' which occurs on about 226 days in the year, meat is cheap ; that they quarrel a good deal with the Latins, resent the immigration of the Russians, and own many convents and houses in and about Jerusalem. One soon arrives at the further stage of discovering that not only is the Greek Church obviously divided into Greek and Russian, having separate churches, convents, and schools, but that the Greeks are further subdivided into some six or seven varieties at least. Probably nowhere else but in Jerusalem could one so effectively learn that England and America are not the only happy hunting grounds for the supporters of " false doctrine, heresy, and schism " ; the difference being that here dissent is hoary with antiquity, and (comparatively) reputable by association with Church Councils. " The Sunnites," says Lady Burton, " excommunicate the Shiahs, both hate the Druses, all detest the Ansariyehs, all despise the Jews. The higher classes want place and power, the lower, money and European protection. . . . The fourteen Christian sects wrangle at the Holy Places. Others have come to teach us better." She might have added that the "others " only do not wrangle at the Holy Places because they are excluded, a fact which they do not appear to regret. To the Western Churches, Latin and Anglican alike, it cannot but be startling, probably offensive, to be told that they are a schism, a dissent from the oldest church in the world, the " Greek Orthodox " ; and yet, in a certain historical sense, the statement is susceptible of proof. " The Church of Rome," says Dean Stanley, " is a Greek Church a colony of Greek Christian and Grecized Jews. " Greek Christianity," says the author of one of the best 1 recognized books of reference on the subject, " is the parent of Latin Christianity, and the Churches of Rome and 1 Eighteen Centuries of the Orthodox Greek Church, A. H. Hore, 1899. 99 INNER JERUSALEM England are really, in the present divided state of Chris- tendom, separated limbs of the Greek Church." Dean Milman puts the position thus : " For some considerable (it cannot but be an indefinable) part of the first three centuries the Church of Rome, and most, if not all, of the Churches of the West, were, if we may so speak, Greek religious colonies ; their writers Greek, their Scriptures Greek, and many vestiges and traditions show that their ritual, their liturgy, was Greek. ..." Of the three hundred Bishops present at the Councils of Nice, 325 A.D., eight only represented the Western Church ; and at the Council of Constantinople, when the heresy of Macedonius was condemned and the Nicene Creed formu- lated, not a single Western Bishop was present. It has been remarked by several writers that the Greek language was the more adapted for dealing with the subtleties of heresy, the Latin for the science of dogmatic theology. " Whatever we may think," says Dr. Wordsworth, Bishop of Salisbury, 1 " of the claims of the modern Greeks to be descendants of the countrymen of Homer and Thucydides, we cannot doubt that the Greek Church has a continuous succession from the great Fathers, Athanasius, Basil, the Gregories, Chrysostom, and the rest. 2 . . . Even the most uninstructed English Churchman is familiar with, and has a veneration for, the Nicene Creed, the faith defended by St. Athanasius, and the liturgy of St. Chry- sostom, and when he opens his Prayer-Book is reminded of all three, even " (he adds characteristically) " though the reminders be wanting in strict literal accuracy." 3 1 In a lecture on The Church of England and the Eastern Patriarchate delivered at Oxford, July 1898. 2 Shall we forget that " the rest " include Polycarp, Justin Martyr, Clemens Alexandrinus, Ignatius and Gregory Thaumaturgus ? 3 The reference is mainly to the dispute upon the filioque clause in the Nicene creed, the Eastern Church alone preserving the original form " which proceedeth from the Father,'" whereas both the Western Churches have added the phrase, " and the Son." 100 THE GREEKS IN JERUSALEM The six General Councils, whose decisions were accepted throughout Christendom, were all held in the East, and conducted in the Greek language. The Eastern Church, in a certain historic sense, can show claim to be, not only the Mother Church of Christianity, but also the parent of Theology. Among the early Fathers, Tertullian alone wrote in Latin, and even he was resident in Carthage. The principal writers of early ecclesiastical history were all Greeks : Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret. A synod of the Greek Church held at Laodicea in 367 A.D. determined the canon of Scripture. It was not till the pontificate of Damasus (366-384) that the Vulgate edition of the Bible was translated at Bethlehem by St. Jerome, and that the Scriptures first became Latinized, having hitherto been commonly known only in the form of the Septuagint and the Greek Testament. The first bishop of the Christian Church was St. James, Bishop of Jerusalem ; the earliest centre of Greek Chris- tianity was Antioch (Acts xi. 11), presided over, according to ecclesiastical tradition, for seven years by St. Peter, for which reason Pope Innocent I claimed for it a special dignity. Evidence goes to show that the See of Rome was not created till between 64 A.D. (when we know that St. Peter was at Babylon) and June 29 A.D. 68, the date of his martyrdom in Rome. After Constantino, the first Christian Emperor, had, in 327, removed the seat of Government to Constantinople, Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, and Alexandria were raised to the dignity of patriarchal sees, though, strange to say, Jerusalem did not receive a corresponding distinction till the Council of Chalcedon in 451. It is easy to see how, while the ecclesiastical authority of the East was divided among four, Rome, having undivided power, and, moreover, being at a distance from the rival influences of secular authority, soon became, not only a more important patri- archate than any other, but even than the four distributed 101 INNER JERUSALEM authorities combined. The Greek Church, on the other hand, suffered continual tyranny and martyrdom under the oppression of successive conquerors Arabs, Mon- gols, Turks ; and perhaps one may venture to doubt whether, under the combined pressure of schism and perse- cution, she might not have disintegrated altogether, had it not been for, perhaps, the mightiest conquest of the Christian Church, her conversion of Russia, King and people, Church and State, wholly and bodily, in the year 980. From the first, Constantinople, " the New Rome," was a Christian city, possessed of the finest position in the world, the outpost, as it were, between Europe and Asia ; from the eighth to the tenth century the strongest military power in Europe, holding her own against Persians and Goths, Saracens and Bulgarians, Seljouk and Ottoman Turks ; strong under a long succession of able administrators, enriched by commerce on land and sea, producing art which became the parent of the wider schools of Italy, maintaining, as few nations have succeeded in maintain- ing, a steady legal standard of coinage. In 380 Christianity was established (under Theodosius) as the state religion, 1 and it is to be noted that when, in 800, Charlemagne asserted himself as the head of the Roman Empire, it was " not by professing to revive the Empire of the West " (extinguished three hundred years before, in 476), " but by getting himself recognized, as, in some sense, the representative of the eastern Emperors." 2 He is thus spoken of in the annals of his time as the 68th Emperor in order from Augustus, the 67th being Con- 1 The Emperor, from the time of Constantine, had been supreme in matters religious as well as civil, and the title by which the Em- peror styled himself X/H.O-TW TTIO-TOS /3ao-iAevs TWV Pto/xaitov is equi- valent to the English " Defender of the Faith." 2 Rev. H. F. Tozer, The Church and the Christian Empire Epochs of Church History. Series edited by Mandell Creighton (Bishop of London), 1888. 102 THE GREEKS IN JERUSALEM stantine VI (780-797), and was crowned by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day, 799. It will be remembered that, in 1204, after the fourth Crusade, Jerusalem became for fifty-seven years a Latin kingdom, and that Latin patriarchs, with Latin clergy, succeeded to the Greek patriarchs, and Greek clergy, who for seven centuries and a half (451-1204) had held the Patriarchal See. The Franciscan Order of Friars Minor arrived in Jerusalem in 1219, but the Latin Patriarchate was not revived till 1847. During the interval, however, the Franciscans, often at noble cost of life and liberty, succeeded in maintaining, on behalf of Western Christendom, their influence and position as Guardians of the Holy Places. The Eastern Empire ended in 1453, having existed for eleven centuries. The last sign of life was an attempt at reconciliation with the Western Church, though it is perhaps not quite easy to believe that the attempt, at that par- ticular period of her conscious decline, can have been wholly disinterested. Four points, then as now, made approxima- tion impossible. Although some concession to the Greeks was offered it was not accepted, as was the case in the more recent amalgamation of Abyssinians, Armenians, Copts and Syrians, with the Church of Rome. The points in dispute can only be briefly indicated as relating to the pro- cession of the Holy Spirit (i.e. the use of the filioque clause in the Creed), the use, for sacramental purposes, of un- fermented bread, the doctrine of purgatory, and of the supremacy of the Pope. The theory of a national Church, definitely established at the fifth General Council of Justinian, 553, has never been wholly lost sight of. It was to be controlled by the supreme authority of the Emperor, and to yield to Rome the respect due from the younger to the elder, a respect now entirely a thing of the past. This idea of nationality has become stereotyped in the East, and is the idea politically recognized. 103 INNER JERUSALEM Thus, for example, the United Armenians are regarded as the Armenian Catholic nation. Anything like the niter- national subjection to the Pope, so essential a feature of the Latin Church, is entirely lacking. 1 The Eastern Church is governed by four patriarchs : 1. Of Constantinople, who has jurisdiction over at least 7,500,000 mainly in Turkey in Europe, but also in Asia, north of the territory of the Patriarch of Antioch. 2. Of Alexandria, who has supervision over Egypt, where, how- ever, the orthodox amount only to about 6,000, as the religion of the country is that of the Copts. 3. Of Antioch, who governs about 80,000 in Cilicia, Syria and Mesopo- tamia. 4. Of Jerusalem, who controls some 50,000 in Palestine. In communion with these patriarchs, but not subject to them, are the Churches of Greece, Cyprus, Russia, Servia and Roumania, Montenegro and the three independent national Churches in Austro-Hungary. 2 A charge very commonly brought against the Orthodox Church, especially in relation to the Greek as distinguished from the Russian branch, is that of the ignorance of their clergy. Their deficiencies are now clearly recognized, the more since the importation of educational advantages into Syria by the Russians. The Sy nodical letter relating to the establishment of the new Greek Seminary in Jerusalem enumerates, among other objects, " That our Church be no longer deprived of educated ministers, that the peculiar 1 In view of the formerly anomalous position of the Anglican Church in Jerusalem, one can hardly feel surprised that the term " Protestant " is the official, indiscriminate designation of all in the kingdom of Turkey who are not Latins, Greeks, or Moslems, without reference to national or religious distinction, except in the case of the converted Jew, who is always distinguished as a " Hebrew Chris- tian." The story is told of a dragoman who supposed himself to be an American because he had been baptized by the American Pres- byterians in Beirut. 2 Compare the relation of the church of England with the epis- copal church of America. 104 THE GREEKS IN JERUSALEM people entrusted to us may not remain destitute of adequate and properly equipped Guides, that lack of learning and of knowledge may not prevail among us, that the thirst for the Divine Word the worst of evils may not afflict the sacred flock, but that it may be seasoned with salt, itself good and well-seasoned." The educational difficulties do not exist in Jerusalem only. Except in Athens, the Greek Church has no university ; little indeed beyond elementary schools, for the theological colleges are but few in number, and their time is, necessarily, from lack of other provision for general education, taken up with secular studies. It seems that only four such colleges are extant : at Constantinople, Athens, Tripolitza (in the Peloponnesus) and at the Monastery of the Holy Cross at Jerusalem, 1 founded in 1858, but, even since that time, thrice closed. It was re-opened last in 1893, and has now, it is said, fifty students, the full number which it is possible to provide for. It is maintained by the Greek Community of the Holy Sepulchre, is under the superintendence of their Patriarch, and the staff is preferably, but not entirely, ecclesiastical. There are a library (where we noted the complete works of Sir Walter Scott), a museum and a laboratory ; and a course of musical instruction is included in the curriculum of the college. Students are admitted between the ages of seventeen and twenty-two, and must pass a preliminary examination in Greek, arithmetic, political geography, elementary catechism, and sacred history, and be able to read in Arabic. They are educated and boarded, and, if needful, clothed, at the ex- pense of the Monastery, but seventy-five Turkish pounds must be deposited by some responsible person as guarantee 1 This fine old convent, possibly founded by St. Helena, was for many centuries the property of the Georgians, though for a time, in the thirteenth century, in the hands of the Moslems. It was last restored in 1643. It is, among the Greeks, the traditional site of the tree of which our Lord's Cross was formed. 105 INNER JERUSALEM that they will fulfil all requisite conditions, proceed to take orders, and be obedient to the Patriarch in all things. The course covers seven years, of which the last two are purely theological ; they are examined twice a year, and, should they fail in the final examination for a theological diploma, may be once only " referred to their studies," after which, on failing a second time, they forfeit their deposit and leave. One constantly meets them in the neighbourhood of their convent, dressed in black cassocks, and the peculiar brimless hat of the Greek clergy. There are, in Jerusalem, large elementary schools both for boys and girls, a hospital with excellent buildings and well-arranged wards, orderly and well cared for by nurses who seemed to be mainly Russian, and much admirable organization for ministering to the needs of the poor. There are weekly doles of bread, with the addition, on festivals, of wine the simple wholesome wine of the country. During a recent alarm of cholera, when the surrounding district was in quarantine and trains and road traffic sus- pended, and when, in consequence, food and other neces- saries rose in price, arrangements were made by the Greeks to supply the poor on reasonable terms. There is at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre a small but well arranged museum testifying to the recent stimulus of interest in local archaeology. There are many convents sixteen at least, of which most are within the walls of the city, and of which two at least are for women, though I am bound to say that we have not been able to discover that the latter serve any useful purpose. The nuns showed us their churches, but when asked what they did, replied that they cooked their food and cleaned the house, and seemed surprised that any- thing further should be expected of them. They wore no habit. Philanthropy has always been an essential part of the religion of the Eastern Church. St. Basil (368) founded almshouses and hospitals, Justinian (528) a penitentiary, 106 THE GREEKS IN JERUSALEM the Emperor Isaac Angelus (1185) a hospital and hospice for a hundred travellers free of charge, and the Church devoted herself at an early period to the consideration of the slavery problem. Among all the exaggerations of travellers' tales, is there any subject which has been treated more unfairly than that of the Greek fire ? The scene has been too often described, but the quotation of a few facts may interest the reader. The ceremony is very ancient, and though no record exists of its institution it is thought to have taken its rise at the time when much encouragement was given to pil- grims, under the reign of Charlemagne. It was first de- scribed by a traveller, Bernardus the Monk, in 867. " Within this city, besides others, there are four principal churches, connected with each other by walls one to the East, which contains the Mount of Calvary, and the place in which the Cross of our Lord was found, and is called the Basilica of Constantino ; another to the South ; a third to the West, in the middle of which is the Sepulchre of our Lord, having nine columns in its circuit, between which are walls made of the most excellent stones, of which nine columns, four are in front of the monument itself, which with their walls include the stone placed before the Sepulchre, which the angel rolled away, and on which he sat after our Lord's resurrection. . . . On Holy Saturday, which is the Eve of Easter, the Office is begun in the morning in this Church, and after it is ended the Kyrie Eleison is chanted, until an angel comes and lights the lamps which hang over the afore- said Sepulchre ; of which the patriarch gives their shares to the Bishops and to the rest of the people, that each may illuminate his own house." A Moslem historian, Masudi, wrote in 943 : " The Christians assemble for this festival from out all lands. For on it the fire from heaven doth descend among them, and they kindle therefrom the candles. The Moslems also are wont to assemble in great crowds to see the sight of the festival. 107 INNER JERUSALEM The Christians hold many legends thereanent, but the fire is produced by a clever artifice, which is kept a great secret." As early as the eleventh century detractors arose, who denounced the Miracle of the Fire as an imposture to the Caliph Hakem, and the persecutions of the Christians, the destruction of the Holy Sepulchre in 1010, ultimately the Crusades, were probably the consequence ; though the facts are as seldom remembered as cause and effect, as is the reconstruction of the dome of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, remembered as the occasion, if not the cause, of the Crimean war. The Christian writer, Abelfaragius, tells us that " The author of this persecution was some enemy of the Christians, who told Hakem that when the Christians assembled in their Temple at Jerusalem to celebrate Easter, the chaplains of the Church, making use of a pious fraud, greased the chain of iron that held the lamp over the Tomb with oil of balsam ; and that when the Arab officer had sealed up the door which led to the Tomb, they applied a match, through the roof, to the other extremity of the chain, and the fire descended immediately to the wick of the lamp and lighted it. Then the worshippers burst into tears, and cried out Kyrie Eleison, supposing it was fire which fell from heaven upon the Tomb ; and they were thus strength- ened in their faith." Undoubtedly large numbers of ignorant peasants, per- haps even others who have less excuse, are, to this day. 1 1 It may be worth while to compare with this superstition of the Russian and Oriental pilgrims, ignorant peasantry for the most part, the following paragraph, which I quote from Finn's Stirring Times, ii. 462, and which he borrows from Lambarde's Topographical Dictionary (no reference given). " I myself, being a child, once was in Paul's Church at London at a feast at Whitsontide, wheare the comyng of the Holy Ghost was set forth by a white pigeon that was let to fly out of a hole that is yet to be seen in the midst of the roof of the great ile, and by a long censer, which descending out to the same place almost to the very ground, was swinged up and down at such a length that it reached at one swepe almost to the west gate of the church, and with the 108 THE GREEKS IN JERUSALEM similarly "strengthened in their faith," but there is now abso- lutely no dramatic machinery whatever. The Patriarch of Jerusalem, accompanied by a Greek and Armenian ecclesi- astic, walks into the tomb, leaving the door open. Like his predecessor, who over fifty years before the Norman Con- quest is mysteriously alleged to have " applied a match," the Patriarch, by some means, ignites whole bundles of candles, which are handed, through the window, to the eager crowd without ; to the Greeks on the north side, to the Armenians on the south ; lastly to the Coptic and Syrian ecclesiastics who are waiting in the doorway outside. In a moment, as it seems, the waiting thousands, within and without, have lighted candles and torches at the sacred flame ; and not the Church only, but the courtyard is so ablaze with lights, that it is no exaggeration to say that within, at least, the daylight is extinguished. Mounted messengers are already on their way to Bethlehem and to the coast, each carrying the sacred flame carefully shielded in a lantern, and, in a few minutes, the orderly, courteous and well disciplined Turkish police have cleared the whole scene, and the crowd has dispersed into the streets. It is during the long hours of waiting that the disorder is alleged to occur. Such may have been the case in former days, but now a cordon of police surround the Holy Sepulchre, and neither entrance nor movement can be effected, except at certain intervals, and under strict organization. The police have been at their posts so long 1 that some are almost fainting, and not only water, but even smelling-salts are handed round at the command of the observant officers, whose courtesy, dignity, one had almost said reverence, in other to the queer stairs of the same, breathing out over the whole church and companie a most pleasant perfume of such swete thyngs as burned therein." 1 Moreover, in 1902, Easter happened to fall within the Fast of Ramadan, so that matters for the Moslem police were complicated by exhaustion. 109 INNER JERUSALEM presence of a scene so utterly contrary to all their prejudices, is beyond all praise. We could not but remark that we had often seen police, vergers, and beadles in churches and cathedrals at home and on the continent, who might well profit by their example. One must take into consideration the very small theatre of a scene so immense, the presence of a vast concourse of strangers, many of whom are un- sympathetic, others even bent on creating disturbance ; the Latin gallery crowded with those who, while behaving with all the respect due to the place in which they are assembled, can hardly be expected to entertain much cordial feeling towards those so unhappily their rivals in the possession of the Holy Places ; the Armenians, Copts, Syrians, Abyssinians, all anxious to take part in an occasion upon which their legal status is, to say the least, doubtful 1 ; the crowd of Russian pilgrims, hundreds of whom have been waiting in the church for at least twenty-four hours, and many of whom have been travelling, mainly on foot, for months on purpose to be present; the tourist curiosity-mongers, craning necks and raising opera-glasses, from various points of vantage provided by their respective Consuls ; and, above all, the Greeks themselves, conscious, undoubtedly, of criticism, of being on the defensive, aggressive perhaps, as it is only human on such occasions to be. It is fair, however, to acknowledge that peace and order are rather to the eye than to the ear. It seems an impos- sibility to the Arab to be silent. Work and amusement alike are accompanied by song. From morning till night they shout, sing, scream, crack their whips ; the very dogs, donkeys, camels of Syria make more noise than those of any other place within civilized ken, and here, with all the stimulus of expectation, of the presence of crowds, of excite- 1 At what precise period the Latins ceased to take part in the ceremony is not known. However, as early as 1697, Maundrell writes : " The Latins take a great deal of pains to expose this ceremony as a most shameful imposture and a scandal to the Christian religion." 110 THE GREEKS IN JERUSALEM ment, conceivably even of religious devotion, it is not reasonable to suppose that they will keep silence. In endless succession, one or another starts a song which the crowd takes up, for the most part relevant, and even reli- gious in character. A favourite ejaculation, recited anti- phonally, is " Our candles are in our hands And towards the Tomb we are praying." Or again, twenty, fifty times without stopping, they cry " Hatha Kuber Said na Sabt en nar wa aed na Wa hatha Kuber Said na" " This is the Tomb of our Lord The seventh day is the fire and our feast And this is the Tomb of our Lord." Why they are specially anxious to insult the Jews, who are certainly not present, as no Jew dare show himself even in the court of the church, it would be hard to say, but another favourite song runs thus " O Jews ! O Jews ! Your feast is the feast of devils, Our feast is the feast of Christ, Christ who has redeemed us, And with His blood has bought us. We to-day are happy And you are sorrowful. " O, the Jews ! the Jews ! O, the Infidels ! Your feast is the feast of the dead, And our feast is the feast of Christ ! " Now and then, when the cordon is opened to admit of newcomers, there are cries of " God save the Sultan ! " or in a momentary pause, of " The resurrection of Christ has redeemed us from our sins ! " The crowd is so dense in the small space that there is not the slightest difficulty in hoisting the leaders on to the shoulders of the multitude, nor of their moving about freely when once up. We counted seven at one time thus 111 INNER JERUSALEM mounted, a phenomenon one has read of, and hitherto supposed to be among the figures of speech peculiar to newspaper reports. The author of Days in Galilee (ed. 1900, p. 272) writes that the Acting Russian Consul of the period said to him, " I was with the Patriarch 1 on one occasion when there were present several bishops and some other gentlemen. The Patriarch said on that occasion, ' The Church does not claim to work a miracle, it is but an emblem of the spread of the Evangel through the world.' ' The Easter panic of 1834, described in Curzon's Monas- teries of the Levant could hardly recur in these days, as was well demonstrated when, in 1895, the Greek crowd made an attempt to prevent the entry of the Armenian Patriarch into the Chapel of the Angels the ante-chamber of the Holy Sepulchre to which, as usual, he sought to accompany the Greek Patriarch. The bugle at once sounded, the soldiers came to the rescue, and the disorder was promptly quelled, though a few persons were injured from the extreme pressure which naturally follows the movement of a crowd within so small an area. The orthodox procession round the Holy Sepulchre is followed by that, even more ornate as to vestments, banners, and jewels, of the Armenians, with whom are grouped the Copts, Syrians and Abyssinians, who have no legal status in Jerusalem and no representatives at the Porte. The Armenians, however, who have long shown a tolerant spirit towards all anti-Chalcedonians or anti-Melchites, take charge of their political affairs, for since 1830 the Porte has recognized but two oriental Patriarchs, the Armenian and the Greek. The author of Christian Researches in the Mediterranean describes the ceremony of the Greek Fire in the year 1820. He mentions, as a fact, that the sum of 16s. 8d. was paid by 1 Probably Gerasimos. This learned Greek, universally respected , died in February, 1897. 112 THE GREEKS IN JERUSALEM every person for admission, but that the crowd was, not- withstanding, enormous. He naively concludes, " What I have written " (i.e. as to various ceremonials, mainly Latin) " will suffice to show you what takes place annually round the Tomb of Christ. May we not hope that the exertions of the Bible Society in the diffusion of the Scripture, which the Pilgrims will be enabled in future to purchase at the very gates of the Sepulchre and carry home to then* families and friends, will tend progressively to inspire a purer and more- exalted spirit ? " The spirit of devotion, especially of the Latin and Russian pilgrims of the present time, strikes one as singularly " pure and exalted " as compared with that of the English tourists, although the Bible Society has not yet been permitted to sell books to them in the Court of the Holy Sepulchre. Pilgrims are not, however, entirely deprived of incentive to the study of Scripture. The very large college of the Dominicans exists in Jerusalem solely for the study of the Bible in its natural surroundings ; the Brothers of St. Anne have a Biblical museum, designed to illustrate every article and every custom mentioned in the New and Old Testaments, and in the handbook issued to the Latin pilgrims of Jerusalem by the Assumptionists, who annually organize and receive within their walls the largest caravans which have ever visited Jerusalem, we find the following passage : " Notre livre, c'est la Bible, PAncien et le Nouveau Testa- ment. Etudions-le avec amour. La vue des Lieux Saints nous en donnera 1' intelligence. . . . Lisons notre Nouveau Testament et suivons, pas a pas, les traces misericordieuses du Sauveur Jesus." Moreover, both in this more popular guide-book, as well as in the more recondite Guide Lievin issued by the Franciscans, the sacred story is given in full, in the words of the Gospel, of every site connected with the history of our Lord, an incitement to reverence and meditation which has not been imitated in any English handbook, so far as I am aware. 113 I INNER JERUSALEM It is interesting, moreover, to find that even the Bible Society had ultimately to accept the aid of the Eatin Church in introducing the Scriptures into Palestine. The Rev. James Connor, also travelling for the Bible Society, writes (op. cit. p. 452) : " All that I have seen and heard during my travels in Syria has led me to the firm conviction that no edition whatever of the Arabic Bible which differs in any respect from the text sanctioned in Rome will be accepted in these countries. ... I have conversed with many of the Catholic ecclesiastics on the Bible Society and its labours of Christian charity, and never have I heard one voice lifted up against it ; all that they require is that the edition be conformable to the Authorized Text." The Society took the hint and shortly issued a reprint of the Propaganda edition. 114 HERESIES AND SCHISMS IN THE EASTERN CHURCH VARIOUS CHURCHES IN JERUSALEM THE ARMENIANS, SYRIANS, ABYSSINIANS, COPTS POSSIBILITIES OF ANGLICAN RE-UNION ATTEMPTS ALREADY MADE POINTS OF SYMPATHY CHAPEL OF ABRAHAM COMMON BELIEFS CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EASTERN CHURCH ITS AUSTERITY, IN FASTS, IN ART, IN ARCHITECTURE ST. GEORGE HERESIES upon such points as the nature and will, Divine and Human, of our Lord, have effected the separation from the Greek Church of some half-dozen bodies, all represented in Jerusalem, namely, the Copts, Armenians, Abyssinians, and Syrians, further complicated by " United " Copts, Armenians, Abyssinians, Syrians, and Orthodox * (under these circumstances called " Melchites "), that is, representatives of the Orthodox Greek, and of the four separated Churches, who have joined themselves with the Roman Catholic Church, in some cases preserving certain peculiarities of their own, such as administering the Sacra- ment in both kinds, use of the vernacular language for mass, and marriage of the clergy before ordination. 1 The title " Orthodox," which, like that of " Catholic," may be felt by those not in sympathy to be somewhat question-begging, serves to differentiate about one hundred millions of persons who hold fast to the decrees of the (Ecumenical Councils, to which may be added some six millions more, who reject them in one or more parti- culars. 115 INNER JERUSALEM Of these bodies, the most prosperous in Jerusalem, at all events is that of the Armenians, whose very fine Church of St. James is quite one of the " sights " of the Holy City. The Armenians are the earliest example of the conversion of the entire nation, indeed perhaps the oldest native Church in existence, converted in 276 by the preaching of St. Gregory, the Illuminator. They are said to be rich, and indeed the magnificence of the decoration of their church and the possession of some really fine works of art, would suggest, what is rare in the East, the undisturbed possession of property for a considerable period. They have the reputation of being shrewd and apt in business, 1 and of being much engaged in trade throughout Asia and India, which may account for the presence, in their churches, of treasures conceivably Chinese or Japanese, of wonderful mellow blue tiles, of silk carpets, inlaid work of tortoise- shell and mother of pearl, and, above all, a collection of magnificent monstrances, jewels, lamps, vestments, mitres, and altar frontals, some of which might well be the pride of any art-museum in Europe. One altar frontal might probably tell a curious story, could such things speak. Its obvious design is that of a " sun in splendour," with ac- companying corner devices, heavily and richly embroidered in gold thread. A vague perception of an imperfectly disguised background, invited closer attention, and there we discovered, exquisitely and daintily embroidered, a beautiful piece of seventeenth century French needlework a Watteau scene of, to say the least, worldly tendency, unfinished telling its own pathetic story of intentions frustrated, perhaps by death, or possibly by change of views on the part of the skilled embroideress, who, it may be, had turned to the religious life, and had dedicated this, the labour of years, to the service of God and of the Church. 1 Hence the saying that " it takes two Arabs to cheat a Jew, two Jews to cheat a Greek and two Greeks to cheat an Armenian." 116 HERESIES IN THE EASTERN CHURCH The Armenians are said to be religious and church-going, and number, in Syria and Palestine, some 4,000 souls. Their own Chronological History of Jerusalem is the received authority upon their history and opinions. The conventual buildings of the Armenians are perhaps the most picturesque in Jerusalem, and, including two churches, and the resi- dence of the Patriarch, cover a large part of the plateau of Mount Zion. Their fine old garden, which contains some stately trees, is probably the remains of the pleasaunce of Herod's Palace. There is accommodation for 3,000 persons, including some 200 monks, a theological seminary for thirty or forty students, who enter at the age of sixteen for a five years' course of instruction, and who, if they fail in reaching the required standard, are expected to enter the monastic life for thirty years. There are also what may be described as secondary or high schools for about a hundred boys and girls. The Armenians excel in various manual arts, and have, attached to the convents, admirable printing and bookbinding establishments. They have a valuable library and a museum of antiquities. They possess convents not only in Jerusalem, but also at Bethlehem and Jaffa, and share in common rights with Latins and Greeks at various Holy Places. They possess two chapels within the precincts of the Holy Sepulchre, those of St. James and St. Helena ; the latter, which might be made one of the handsomest, as it is one of the largest in the sacred pile, they unaccountably neglect, and it is scantily decorated with strings of ostrich eggs, specially characteristic of the Armenians, although found in other oriental churches, and considered a symbol of faith, as the bird is said to hatch them by her steady gaze. They have been in Jerusalem from the earliest days of the Christian Church, and their own historians record the visit of a queen during the time of the Apostles. The title of Patriarch of Jerusalem dates only from the twelfth century, but there are many remains of older churches belonging to them, and it is said that at one time they 117 INNER JERUSALEM possessed a considerable share of the Mount of Olives. Their convent on Mount Zion is on the alleged site of the house of Caiaphas, and they possess part of the stone said to have closed the Holy Sepulchre, of which part only remains at the tomb of our Lord. It is said that the Armenian separation rests upon no demonstrable heresy, but upon a mere misunderstanding consequent upon the accident that the See was not repre- sented at the Council of Chalcedon 1 (in 451), in consequence of a fearful persecution raging in Armenia, an attempt of the Persians, then rulers of the country, to enforce the doctrines of Zoroaster. These unhappy people, destined in all ages, it would seem, to religious persecution, had already resisted an attempt of the Emperor Maximin to enforce Paganism upon them, rather more than a century earlier. One Armenian tradition is noteworthy as illus- trative of their conservatism and continuity. They are said to reckon time from the date of the first Armenian, who, it seems, was contemporaneous with Shem ; so for the date of 1903 they use 4391. They have also a secondary method, of dating from the year 551 A.D., which in the Lehrbuch der Chronologic is thus explained. In the year 351 A.D., a certain Andreas of Byzantium made an Easter calendar for 200 years, which, at the end of that period, was found to be incorrect, and it was adjusted in the year 551, from which year they have since calculated. The Syrian is perhaps one of the most interesting of the independent Churches. Like the Armenians they separated 1 It is an interesting point that Etchmiadzen, at the foot of Mount Ararat (their great ecclesiastical centre, the Patriarch being superior to all Bishops and Patriarclis) is now in the hands of Russia, a fact which may conceivably lead to re-union. In Newman's edition of Palmer's Visit to the Russian Church (p. 166) it is stated that the Patriarch of Constantinople himself, had said the Armenians might safely be reunited to the Orthodox Church, only that " the Greeks would cry out that we had made union with the heretics." 118 HERESIES IN THE EASTERN CHURCH after the Council of Chalcedon, their heresy being as to the Divine and Human nature of our Lord ; but though con- demned as Monophysites, they do not seem to have been separately incorporated until about a century later, when they received the nickname, which still clings to them, of " Jacobites," from Jacob " Baradai " (the man of rags, so called from the humility of his dress), Bishop of Edessa, who became their leader, and at his death, in 578, left a large community amounting, it is alleged, probably with exaggeration, to 80,000, now represented in Jerusalem by a single monastery and church, and perhaps some fifteen families. One may perhaps venture to think of them as the lineal representatives of those who listened to the teach- ing of our Lord and His Apostles, as the oldest Christian Church in the world, that which at Antioch was " first called Christian." The language of their ritual is Syriac, still also in use among the Maronities of the Lebanon, a language of Syria before the introduction of Arabic, and probably that used by our Lord Himself. Its alphabet is still often employed even where the words themselves are Arabic, and was a mark of distinction between Syria and the more Judaized Palestine as far back as nearly a thousand years before Christ. Their Church, by a well authenticated tradition, is said to be on the site of the house of John Mark, and contains a painting said to be by St. Luke. 1 1 The late Dr. Schick, facile princeps upon questions of Jerusalem topography and archaeology, thus describes the Church of St. Mark. " This is an old building somewhat variously restored. The gate leading from the street first into the convent and about a dozen paces further to the church, has some remarkable decorations. It is said to be the gate at which St. Peter knocked . . . The font is shown as a very old relic, even as coming down from the times of the Apostles. Blackburn says of this Church, ' It is supposed to have been the first ecclesiastical building of the Christians.' Although this assertion cannot be proved, still it is probable that the erection of all these small and simply formed churches at Jerusalem, falls in the early Christian time before Byzantine art became flourishing." (Quarterly Statement, P.E.F,, October 1895.) This group of 119 INNER JERUSALEM It was a sensation not to be forgotten to pass by the site of the Prison of St. Peter, where the present wall consists, in part, of stones probably belonging to a much earlier building, where sections of columns and arches have been roughly squared to take their place among more modern material, to enter by a door at least representing that at which St. Peter knocked when the maidservant took him for his own ghost, and to drink coffee with the stately Bishop and his chaplains ; to be privileged to handle then- beautifully decorated works bound in marvellous silver, chased and repousse, and adorned with veritable gems of the illumina- tor's art, caligraphy of incredible delicacy and minuteness, and bold representations of Gospel scenes. They celebrate mass, not only in their own church, but also at altars in the Holy Sepulchre, and at the Church of the Tomb of our Lady. They entertain a few pilgrims yearly, and in spite of the attenuated number of the faithful, live in modest dignity, mainly upon the proceeds of a small property near the Jaffa Gate. Their habits are simple and ascetic, they have five lengthened fasts during the year, when both clergy and laity abstain not only from flesh and eggs, but even from wine, oil, and fish. Their Patriarch always takes the name of Ignatius in memory of the disciple of St. John thrown to the lions in A.D. 115, who was the first Bishop of Antioch, and from time to time they have produced distinguished scholars, Gregory Abelpharagius (d. A.D. 1286) poet, physi- cian, philosopher, historian, and divine, being the one best known to the western world. Although, in Jerusalem, they have a new and handsome church outside the walls, as well as an ancient one within the precincts of the Holy Sepulchre, the Abyssinians belong churches includes seven of unquestioned interest : the Church of the Olive Tree and the Prison of Christ, both in the Armenian Convent ; the Churches of St. Thomas, St. James, the Three Marys, St. Mark, and Mar Jirius (Saint George). They are probably identical with " the seven synagogues " mentioned by the Bordeaux pilgrim in the fourteenth century. 120 HERESIES IN THE EASTERN CHURCH to one of those races, whose destiny seems to be that of submission to others. One is not, therefore, surprised that they are dependent upon the Coptic Patriarch for the choice of their nominal bishop, who, however (notwithstanding statements to the contrary) is never called Caiholicus, who has no power of ordaining Metropolitans or Bishops, who is not allowed to be of their own race, and who, as a rule, is ignorant of their language, although it is, in great degree, the language of their ritual. They have begged the Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem to send them a bishop, but he has not yet felt justified in interference. They have a convent, a curious kraal-like settlement, in the court which surrounds the dome of the Armenian Chapel of St. Helena (in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre). On the west side are some half-ruined houses of two stories high ; on the south and east are groups of small buildings little more than huts, each containing a single family, those in Orders, unless monks, being allowed to marry. Their church is a low, projecting building, which the priest is courteously ready to show. Their ecclesiastical language is Ethiopic, they are tall, and of good carriage, but almost painfully fleshless, encumbered with clothing about the neck and shoulders, bare, men and women alike, about the legs. Their manner is dignified and reposeful, although one learns, on excellent authority, 1 that " They remain an almost unique specimen of a semi- barbarous Christian people. Their worship is strangely mixed with Jewish customs ; dancing forms part of their ritual, as it did among the Jews ; the Sabbath is still observed as well as the Lord's Day ; circumcision is prac- tised." " They are," says Dean Stanley, " the only true Sabbatarians of Christendom, observing the Jewish Sabbath as well as the Christian Sunday." Like the Jews, they eat the flesh of such animals only a chew the cud and have cloven feet. 1 Tozer, op. cit. p. 83, 121 INNER JERUSALEM " The Abyssinian Church," writes Rev. A. H. Hore (Op. (cit., p. 270), " presents the spectacle of the benign influence of the Gospel struggling with the cruel surroundings of a savage life ; a strange mixture ... of devotion, super- stition, and barbarism, combined with Christianity." Their earliest teaching dates probably from the year 316, when they were Christianized by Frumentius of Tyre, who was wrecked upon their coast, and who was afterwards consecrated first Bishop of Alexandria ; though they them- selves give a different account of their history, which is interesting, as in part explaining the story of their mys- terious relations with Judaism. Abyssinia, they say, is the same as Sheba, and when their Queen was converted to Judaism on the occasion of her visit to Solomon, she brought back the Hebrew religion. Moreover, by Solomon, she became the mother of her successor Menelek, which accounts for the opening clause of the Profession of Faith of their Emperor Claudius : " In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; one God. This is my faith and the faith of my Fathers, Kings of Israel, and the faith of my flock, which is within the precincts of my kingdom." Their conversion to Christianity they attribute to the eunuch of Queen Candace, converted by St. Philip. The Coptic, or Egyptian Church, is somewhat associated with the Abyssinians, 1 who may be indeed described as an 1 Bishop Gobat, writing to King Theodore (June 13, 1863), says : " Your Majesty will be grieved to hear of all the wrong that is done to your subjects, the Abyssinian priests and pilgrims in Jerusalem. . . . The Copts and the Armenians have already taken the Chapel belonging to your Majesty, and now they want to take whole convents by force. . . . Formerly the English Consul protected the Abyssinians, but now there is a new Consul, who has no order from the Queen of England to protect them." The bond between the Abyssinians and Copts seems to have been formerly even closer than now. A volume of travels of 1822 : Chris- tian Researches in the Mediterranean, speaks of the Abyssinians shar- ing the Convent of the Copts, and saying their Mass in the Churches 122 HERESIES IN THE EASTERN CHURCH offshoot of the Copts, if we accept the more tenable, though the less romantic hypothesis, that it was founded from Abyssinia in the fourth century. The Church, said to have been founded by St. Mark, was, in its early days, famous for its learning, and its separation from the Orthodox Church on the condemnation of the Monophysite heresy, was an event of great consequence. The Church, even in Egypt, is now but a poor remnant of its former prosperity, and has but four bishops where formerly it had twelve. Then" Bishop of Jerusalem generally lives at Jaffa, pos- sibly because the Copts possess but scanty accommodation in Jerusalem. They have a convent, hospice, and a chapel within the courtyard of the Holy Sepulchre, but all poor, and, if one may judge from appearances, without ambition or attempt at improvement. At Easter they receive a good many pilgrims, which may or may not be a source of income. As having endured, possibly, more persecution than any other Church in the world, the Copts are entitled to our reverence and respect, and it is interesting to reflect that their language, however much debased, is probably related with that to which Moses listened at the Court of Pharaoh. Their clergy are poor and ill-educated, and, it is alleged, often become priests to evade military service. Few even understand the language of their own service-books, but the increasing tendency to read the liturgy in Arabic has not yet reached Jerusalem. Of the " United " oriental Churches, we shall speak in connexion with the work of the Latins. As to the possibility of re-union between the Greek and Anglican Churches, it is not for a mere outside observer, and that in the limited area of the Copts and Armenians, by whom they were for the most part supported. Lady Burton, in her Inner Life of Syria, vol. ii., also speaks of the Chape! of St. Helena as belonging to the Abyssinians, who, she says, " allow the Armenians to use it for a certain payment in bread and soup." 123 INNER JERUSALEM of Palestine only, to express an opinion. Upon the broad basis of religious charity, unity is, of course, always to be desired, or rather, divisions are to be deprecated ; otherwise the advantages to be gained by fusions of prejudices are, in this instance, not entirely obvious, nor are we, so far as one can gather, regarded by the other side as wholly desir- able allies. The presentation of the Church of England in Jerusalem, until the consecration of St. George's Collegiate Church in 1898, has not been such as to commend its teach- ings to those of other Churches, accustomed to frequent worship, obedience to our Lord's injunction of fasting, reverence to sacraments, and observance of Church seasons and of holy days. The Greek Church has never questioned the validity of Anglican orders the great stumbling-block in regard to re-union with the Latin Church and has always received all expressions of desire for re-union with entire courtesy, apparent readiness to entertain friendly relations, and a masterly inactivity. The earliest official attempt at approximation on the part of England seems to have been made in the year 1723, and repeated in 1866-8. Later there was a correspondence with Archbishop Tait, described in a document addressed by the Greek ecclesiasti- cal authorities to Canon Dowling in 1901 as " truly brotherly letters, full of pure and enlightened Christian love, which were exchanged in the year of grace 1899 between His Holiness the late Patriarch of Constantinople, and the most Reverend Frederic, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of all England." A permanent committee has since been formed to discuss points of difference, especially as to the teaching of the English Church in relation to the infallibility of Church Councils, to faith and good works, sacraments, predes- tination, and, above all, the " procession of the Holy Spirit." No expression of kindly feeling could be more gratifying to the English Church than the fact that it is owing to Greek liberality that her clergy should have an opportunity of celebrating the Holy Eucharist within the precincts of 124 HERESIES IN THE EASTERN CHURCH the Church of the Resurrection, more commonly, but less correctly, known as that of the Holy Sepulchre. In 1885, on Palm Sunday, the very Reverend C. R. Hale, D.D., Dean of Davenport, Iowa, celebrated at the altar of the Chapel of the Greek Monastery of Abraham, and from time to time others have availed themselves of the privilege. This, England's one slender link with any of the Holy Places of Jerusalem, is only too little known, the very existence of the chapel being ignored in every English guide-book so far as I have discovered, although Baedeker devotes two lines to the existence of the monastery for the sake of refer- ring to the size of its cistern. It stands, probably, upon part of the site of the first Latin convent built in Jerusalem by order of Pope Gregory the Great in the year 601. Destroyed by Chosroes, it was rebuilt by Charlemagne, and under the name of St. Mary Latin served as a hospice for pilgrims, among whom, in 870, was Bernard the Monk, whose records are so valuable a treasure to the historian. This again was destroyed by Hakem, but rebuilt some ten years later with the same dedication. The little chapel is one of at least three places in Jerusalem in which the sacrifice of Isaac is located. It contains some curious frescoes, notably one of the flight of Lot from Sodom, another of the sacrifice of Abraham. It has been hand- somely restored and decorated, mainly by the English, somewhat to the regret of the archaeologist. Anglicans visiting Jerusalem are naturally exceedingly grateful for such a privilege, the more that England lost 1 her only chance 1 One is tempted, however, to regret the loss the less, upon reflect- ing on the possible consequences to the world of archaeology when one reads the following passage written by a distinguished American antiquary and archaeologist, Dr. Peters. " In 1894, in the grounds of the English Bishop's Church, north of the Damascus gate, a tomb of the heathen period with a painted fresco was discovered. That is the only painted tomb hitherto found in the neighbourhood of Jeru- salem. I regret to say that the fresco is now exposed to the air and the painting has been utterly ruined." 125 INNER JERUSALEM of erecting an altar of her own in any site of sacred as- sociations, when, after the Crimean War, she refused the gift of the site of an early Christian church beside the probable Pool of Bethesda and over the alleged birth- place of our Lady, where now one of the most beautiful churches in Jerusalem, as well as school, seminary, library and museum, have been raised by the " White Fathers " of St. Anne. This Church is described by De Vogue as being, after the Holy Sepulchre, the best preserved edifice in Jerusalem, as having come down to us just as it was built in the first half of the twelfth century, and as being, as such, a complete example of the architecture of the Crusaders and the type of all their religious monuments (De Vogue, Eglises de la Terre Sainte, p. 233). On occasion of an Anglican celebration, the Greek Patri- arch makes all preparations, and provides the bread and wine. A costly service of sacred vessels, presented to him by friends in England, is kept for the purpose, and as Bishop Blyth, in his Second Charge, points out, such kindly hospi- tality to a foreign rite is " full of hope for the restoration of the Church's unity," and indeed there are certain points which seem to indicate the possible approximation of the Greek and Anglican Churches ; in both, two sacraments only are accounted " generally necessary to salvation," and in the Greek, as in the English Prayer Book, the real presence is expressed without being defined. Both make use of a tongue " understanded of the people," both com- municate fasting. Both reject the doctrine of Indulgences. The views of the Eastern Church upon this subject are effectively expressed by Philaret, who says, "It is not difficult for sinners to give gold and receive heaven, and for the pastor to give heaven and receive gold. But it is not so easy to get the real kingdom of God. It is taken by force." Those who best know the tendency of the Eastern Church 126 HERESIES IN THE EASTERN CHURCH are wont to declare that, despite the phenomenal length of its services, it is a Church of the people, just as it tends to become, wherever it be, the Church of the Nation ; and as in the case of the Jews, there may be in their faith some of that emotion of patriotism which is inherently absent in the Church Catholic. Attachment to the faith is a matter of course ; the congregations are mostly of men ; there is no false shame in confessing religion ; the Christos Aneste of the Easter greeting, as one hears it even in the streets, is a contrast to our " Merry Christmas," which is at least suggestive. The liturgies of St. Basil and St. Chrysostom are familiar to many Anglicans in the devotional works of Bishop Andrew. Their vestments, with certain differences of ornamentation, correspond with the alb, maniple, stole, chasuble and pall. There is a certain austerity which is probably, like their art, a survival. Their pictures are all more or less after the school of Cimabue. They are without tenderness, and are to the humanity they represent what the conventional flower of decoration is to the primrose or lily of daily life. This, however, does not apply to the Slav or Russian Church, which, at least in Jerusalem, possesses many pictures of serious art value. In contrast also to that of the Russians, the Greek singing, also a survival, is a nasal drawl which has not even the rhythm of Arab music. The Russian singing is absolutely unique, and is inconceivable to those who have not heard it. Even the pilgrims, often old men and women, weary perhaps and hungry, lighten the fatigue of then* journey or the monotony of waiting by singing, which is really exquisite. The trained singing of their churches fills one with wonder and astonishment. It is not only beautiful, it is a tour de force. Their chants and melodies, sung harmoniously and in parts, have, more- over, a distinct accompaniment, preludes, final cadences, sustained notes, persisting beyond what one would suppose the possibilities of the human voice, and one looks around, 127 INNER JERUSALEM despite one's knowledge that no musical instrument is tolerated, for the organ or deep-toned viol, which has pro- duced so marvellous an illusion. One reflects with gratitude upon the oversight which has prevented some entrepreneur from importing a choir of Russian peasantry in national costumes, for the entertainment of English Society. The austerity of the Eastern Church is noticeable in the direction of then- fasts, and one can well understand the phrase, " long as Lent." For some 226 days in the year they fast clergy and laity alike abstaining not only from meat, but from eggs, cheese, milk, butter, and even from fish, not absolutely of the bloodless kind, such as shell-fish, the octopus, and such like. They fast, not only in Lent and Advent, and on various odd days in the year, but also from Whitsuntide to St. Peter's Day, and again for the first fortnight of August, previous to the great festival of the Dormition of the Virgin, when, here in Jerusalem, they visit her alleged tomb, in which they place a figure for the stimulus of devotion. It is a great festival, and one well worthy of the observation of all interested either in its religious aspect or merely as " local colour." The very ancient subterranean church known as the Tomb of our Lady is a stone's throw from the Garden of Gethsemane, and is venerated almost as widely as the Holy Sepulchre. There are altars, not only for Armenians and Abyssinians, as well as Greeks and Copts, but even a praying niche for Moslems ; and the assemblage of worshippers is indeed varied. Day and night the devotion continues ; there is the nasal drone of the Greek, the devout quiet of some passing Latin, the sweet litany of the Russians. At night the floor is not strewn, but packed with resting pil- grims, and the scene, day and night, is illuminated with hundreds of lamps, many of them in gold and silver, and of antique or foreign workmanship. The air is heavy with incense and with rosewater, which add to, rather than relieve, the oppression of the atmosphere, for the underground church, 128 HERESIES IN THE EASTERN CHURCH mainly an aggregation of grottoes or caves, is without light or ventilation, except through the door. In addition to the fasts kept by the laity, the monks observe fourteen days in September previous to the great festival of the Exaltation of the Cross, when the true Cross, carried away by Chosroes, was restored to Jerusalem by the Emperor Heraclius, who himself bore it into the Holy City. Sunday is so absolutely a festival that fasting on that day is entirely forbidden, as also on Saturday, except in Holy Week, for they manifest their respect for the Old Testament by reverence for the Jewish Sabbath, a custom which one can but regard with respect. Thus in Lent, when the fast is emphaszied by the absence of the consecra- tion of the sacred elements, Saturday, as well as Sunday, is excepted, and the presanctification which takes place on Sunday is of five loaves only, one for each of the first five days of the week. Their austerity is manifested also in the churches, which are not only often small, and generally dim with ornament, destitute of seats, even the misereres for the monks but little used, but in which a high screen (the iconastasis) entirely veils the sacrarium, so that the laity are unable to participate by sight in the mysteries of their faith. A minor point of contact between the Anglican and the Oriental is the common regard for St. George, who, in Syria generally, is widely venerated. He is confused alike with Elijah and with Perseus, also a local hero. 1 1 To Jaffa, Japho, or Japhoo, as it is variously called, an ancient myth assigns the locale of the legend of Perseus and Andromeda ; humorists have asserted that the monster slain by Perseus was the identical whale that swallowed Jonah, and which desired to make a second and more permanently successful experiment. The bones of a huge monster were long an object of curiosity on this coast. As early as the sixth century a church stood over the tomb of St. George, at Lydda, a village not far from Jaffa. It has been many times destroyed, but was finally restored by' the Greeks in 1870. The Moslems have their own variants of the tradition of St. George, 129 K INNER JERUSALEM " They like St. George, these Arabs," explained a Latin priest, himself a native, doing true missionary work in a remote village. " They like St. George a handsome man, a large horse, a big lance. They like, too, St. Elias, a large nose, a big beard he who kills the priests of Baal, who spills their blood ; but these pale saints who pray always " and he concluded with the expressive Arab gesture of wiping one's hands together, and so being rid of the subject. It is true enough that, here in Jerusalem, one realizes with exceptional vividness the unhappy divisions of the Church of Christ, but it is, fortunately, equally true that one becomes conscious here, as nowhere else, that what is divided is still Christendom. Here, in this Babel of lan- guages, this Pentecostal aggregation of nationalities, this exhibition of national principles, one is constantly struck not only by the differences, but by the homogeneousness of mankind. The points of contact, the inherent sympathies, become more and more apparent, and more and more one learns that the true Catholicism is not that which obliterates nationality and the many-sidedness of human nature, but that in which it is sanctified and absorbed, that which allows for difference of the expression of emotion which is universal as it is eternal. one of which, obviously in allusion to the dragon, is that Mohammed declared that Christ would slay the Antichrist at the Gate of Lydda. 130 VIEW OF THE TEMPLE AREA (LOOKING NORTH). CHAPTER IX LATINS IN JERUSALEM PALESTINE IN ROMAN TIMES EARLY PILGRIMS FIRST MONASTERIES FIRST LATIN CONVENT BEGINNING OP RIVALRY PAPAL ADDRESS VICISSITUDES SETTLE- MENTS IN JERUSALEM HOSPITAL KNIGHTS HOSPITAL- LERS LATIN ESTABLISHMENT IN THE ELEVENTH CEN- TURY ORIGIN OP ENMITY BETWEEN EAST AND WEST CHURCHES FRANCISCANS CUSTODIANSHIP HOSPITA- LITY AND PHILANTHROPY JERUSALEM is but a small town of 60,000 inhabitants, standing on a plateau of about 1,000 acres. Pales- tine, the little province of which it is the capital, is but 140 miles long, with an average breadth of 40 miles, its acreage about that of the principality of Wales. Jerusalem, Hebron and Samaria were the only mountain cities known to the Jews, and as such are often described in such terms as to make one think of them as of great elevation, yet the Temple area is but 2,400 feet above the Mediterranean, and Hebron stands 400 feet lower than the summit of Helvellyn. The traveller Burchard (1280)), so much praised for his accuracy, has a friendly trick of measuring distances by familiar comparison. The river Jordan, he says, is from Jericho as Epping is from London, the lake of Sodom and Gomorrah is from Jericho as Gravesend from London; the Valley of Gethsemane is from Jerusalem " as Ratcliffe Fields lyeth from London." A writer to the Times a few years 131 INNER JERUSALEM ago (October 1880) alleged that the revenue of Palestine amounts to something less (residence here would lead one to suppose something considerably less) than 200,000 per annum, and suggested that the European powers should raise ten millions and buy it, which, fortunately perhaps, for all concerned, the European powers refrained from doing. That this little country should be endeared to the religion and patriotism of all Jews, to the cult of all mono- theists, to the hearts of all Christians, is conceivable enough, but in estimating the causes which have made it a battle- field for at least 4,000 years, we must not lose sight of the fact of its geographical importance, of its position as the highway connecting Europe, Asia and Africa, which, all questions of sacred association apart, is and has been adequate cause for the continued struggle, political, reli- gious, racial, of which for so long it has been the scene. Historians tell us that Palestine has always been coveted. Two thousand years before Christ, we are told, Gudea, king of Mongolia, hewed cedars in Lebanon, and brought granite from Sinai ; that the Hittites of the north fought their way as far as Hebron ; that 1320 years B.C. Palestine passed into the hands of Setha I, king of Egypt ; that the Hebrews fought with the tribes of Canaan, and were them- selves vanquished by Assyria ; that Asiatic influence was succeeded by Greek, by Roman, by Frankish, by Arab, by Egyptian, by Turkish. And, in its degree, the struggle con- tinues, and the various nations represented in the Holy City seldom combine except to ask as the case may be why Russia, more than other nations, should be allowed to build, why Germany to transcend in opportunity for and success in excavation, why France should claim to be the protector of Holy Places, why Jews should have been permitted to buy some 130 square miles of agricultural land, why Eng- land should do nothing in particular, not even run a post- office or keep a shop, which one might have supposed to be quite in her line of business. 132 LATINS IN JERUSALEM One must come to Syria in order to get rid, among other superstitions, of the notion so carefully instilled into the stories of our childhood, that our Lord was born in an obscure country, imperfectly civilized, quiet and secluded, thinly populated, that He lived only among the poor, and preached only a simple gospel for the unlearned. As Sir Walter Besant has well put it : 1 " There was no part of the Roman Empire better known, more jealously guarded, more anxiously watched. Nor was it a quiet and secluded country. He who wandered among the hills and valleys of Galilee was never far from some great and populous city. On the seaboard there were Tyre and Sidon, Ptolemais and Antioch; on the other side were Caesarea Philippi and Tiberias. . . . The land was densely populated ; there were schools in every town ; there was a wealthy society ; there was a learned society ; there was a Romanizing section ; there was a Judaizmg section ; there were everywhere Rabbis, merchants, centurions, legionaries, townsmen and peasants. But it was not as a rustic preach- ing to rustics that our Lord went about. It was as one who had learned in the schools of the rabbis, as one who was allowed to teach in the synagogues that He went forth, not in an obscure corner of the Roman Empire, but in a part thoroughly well known, full of Roman civilization, busy and populous, where at every turn He would meet with something to mark the empire to which it belonged. . . . The one Figure remains. He wanders about the shores of the Galilean lake, and before Him are the splendid buildings, the strong walls, all the magnificence of a noble Roman city." In these days of train service, telegraph service, machinery and a population which is heir to all the ages, the resources of Jerusalem are strained to the utmost, if, as very occa- sionally has happened, 8000 or 9000 pilgrims arrive about the time of Easter. What must have been the possibilities, the 1 Address to the P.E.F., 1892. 133 INNER JERUSALEM organization, the accommodation two thousand years ago when, as is alleged, two millions (or let us halve, quarter that estimate) annually visited the Holy City to make their Passover offerings ? France, Russia and Germany have beautified the modern town with costly buildings, but even in architecture the contrast with the past is at least as great, and when we sorrow with the exiled Jew beside the fragment (1,600 feet) of wall at which he is allowed to weep, when we look up at the fifty feet of gigantic masonry towering above our head, and realize that fifty, perhaps eighty, feet are buried below us, we too grieve with yonder little group of mourners, the orthodox congregation of ten, who are chanting, " For our walls laid low, for our Majesty departed, for our great men perished, we sit here and weep ! " Even in its days of utmost desertion, from the destruction of Jewish Jerusalem by Titus * (70) to its reconstruction as a pagan city by Hadrian in 136, it is obvious that, for reasons other than religious, it can never have been a wholly for- gotten or neglected spot. The Christians were banished to Pella just before the siege of Titus, and, according to all ancient authorities, began to return immediately after it, from which time the continuity of Christian occupations (even were it not testified by the succession of fifteen bishops up to the time of Hadrian) has never been disputed. 2 Hadrian might raise a temple of Venus on one sacred spot, a temple of Jupiter on another, but the very effort to oblite- rate the associations, even in the minds of the indifferent, would but tend to preserve them. Mark Twain's name is 1 It is an interesting contribution to the fact of the political con- sequence of Jerusalem that the city was besieged at least twenty- seven times between the first recorded siege of Jebus to the last, by the Kharezmians in 1244. That of Titus, one of the most destruc- tive, was the twenty-second. 2 Those whose object is to dispute the succession of the bishops do so on the ground that it is first recorded by Eusebius, who, how- ever, quotes from Hegesippus, who quotes from what he calls " old records." 134 LATINS IN JERUSALEM not precisely that one would look for in such a connexion of ideas, but what he said when under the influence of one of the sacred places of the Holy City is, for many, more practi- cally convincing than more learned arguments : " One fully believes that he is looking upon the very spot where the Saviour gave up His life. He remembers that Christ was very celebrated long before He came to Jerusa- lem ; he knows that His fame was so great that crowds followed Him all the time ; he is aware that His entry into the city produced a stirring sensation, and that His reception was a kind of ovation ; he cannot overlook the fact that when He was crucified there were very many in Jerusalem who believed that He was the true Son of God. To publicly execute such a personage was sufficient in itself to make the locality of the execution a memorable place for ages ; added to this, the storm, the darkness, the earthquake, the rending of the veil of the Temple, and the untimely waking of the dead, were events calculated to fix the execution and the scene of it in the memory of even the most thoughtless wit- ness. Fathers would tell their sons about the strange affair, and point out the spot ; the sons would transmit the story to their children, and thus a period of 300 years would easily be spanned, at which time Helena came and built a church upon Calvary to commemorate the death and burial of the Lord, and preserve the sacred place in the memories of men ; since that time there has always been a church there. It is not possible that there can be any mistake about the locality of the Crucifixion." It was not at all events until the year 1741 that it occurred to any one (a certain Jonas Korten x ) to question the identity of the two most sacred spots in the Holy City, the scenes of the death and burial of our Lord. And when, in 352, the Emperor Constantine desired Macarius, bishop of Jerusalem, to build " an oratory on the place of the Resurrection," the only question or difficulty of which we hear was as to what 1 Beise Altona, pp. 210-12. 135 amount of the original rock or other mark of identity would be found in situ. 1 Two years before the consecration of the Church of Con- stantine the anonymous Bordeaux Pilgrim walked from France to Palestine, as thousands of poor Russian men and women walk from remote parts of their own country every year, even in our own day. The next pilgrims of whom we have historical record are devout women not a few : Sylvia, Paula, Eustochia, Melania. The idea of pilgrimage was not a new one, nor confined to Christians. Pilgrims made their way to the sacred stone of Mecca long before Mohammed, just as Chinese pilgrims braved untold dangers in pursuing their way to the Holy Land of Buddha, and as even the Azteks of Mexico so the Spaniards reported had long been accustomed to travel for worship at different shrines. The result of the movement, of this passion of expiating the indifference of nearly two hundred years (136-313) was a gradually increasing immigration of European Christians. " The land where the seed of the Crucified Sower had so marvellously fructified, where r grew the first ear of that corn which was to be multiplied indefinitely, and to furnish the religious needs of the world for centuries with the bread of the Spirit ; the nursery of a creed whose cradle was a tomb and whose flag a gibbet this little land became the object of a special adoration, a kind of topolatry, when the Church mounted with Constantine the throne of the Caesars, and assumed the Imperial diadem, after having so long worn a martyr's crown. So great was this love of Holy Places, and so passionate the desire to expiate the cruel mysteries of 1 Eusebius, Vita Con-st. xxx.-xxxii., on the discovery beneath the Temple of Venus of the Cave. " No power of language seems worthy to describe the present wonder. For that the token of that most Holy Passion, long ago buried under ground, should have remained unknown for so many cycles of years until it should shine forth to His servants, truly transcends all marvels for the nature of the wonder as far transcends all capacity of man's reason as divine things surpass in permanence those which are human." 136 LATINS IN JERUSALEM which they had been the theatre, that during the whole Byzantine period Judaea was overrun by monks and trans- formed into one vast convent." 1 Although there was a colony of monks at Tekoa, the birth- place of Amos, founded by St. Chariton, who died in 410, St. Jerome was probably the first to encourage definitely what Montalembert has called " that permanent emigration which during the first years of the fourth century attracted so large a number of Romans and other occidental Christians towards Egypt and Palestine." 2 Other monasteries there were, erected by men known in the Greek Calendar, St. Euthymius, St. Zozimus, St. Saba, but evil days came upon all in 614, when 300 monasteries, hospices and oratories were destroyed by order of Chosroes. Only fifteen years later, however, under the Emperor Heraclius, we hear of the erection of monasteries on the banks of the Jordan, in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, on Mount Zion, and the Mount of Olives ; at Bethlehem, Bethany, and Mount Tabor. Pilgrims, among whom Arculf and Willibald were prominent chroniclers, flocked in immense numbers to the Holy Land, and we learn from John the Deacon, 3 the biographer of St. Benedict, that Gregory the Great sent the Abbe Probus to Jerusalem, with large sums of money for the construction of a hospice, and that to the end of his life the Pontiff never ceased to provide the religious of Jerusalem as well as those of Mount Sinai with the resources necessary for their maintenance. However, it is not till the end of the eighth century that we have actual documental evidence of the existence of a Latin convent in Jerusalem. In the " golden days " of Haroun er Raschid, to whom so many good things are attri- buted, the Holy City was, in a certain sense, placed under 1 Clermont Ganneau, P.E.F. 1875. 2 Montalembert, Moincs d 1 Occident, i. pp. 165-6. 3 John Diac. ii. c. 52. 137 INNER JERUSALEM the protection of Charlemagne, to whom were transmitted a relic of the true Cross, and later the keys of the Holy Sepul- chre, of Calvary, and of the city, with a standard, at the hands of two priests, one from the Mount of Olives and one from the Convent of Mar Saba. The Emperor kept his guests with him, at Aix la Chapelle, until four months had elapsed from the time of their starting, and then dismissed them with rich presents for the churches of Jerusalem. The convent on the Mount of Olives thus represented at the Imperial court was undoubtedly Benedictine, as we learn from the Itinerary of Bernard the Monk, who travelled in the Holy Land in 870, and who enumerates a " Hospice for pilgrims and a Church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, to which belong a fine library, the gift of the Emperor Charle- magne, a dozen houses, fields, vines, and a garden in the Valley of Jehoshaphat." 1 We hear later of other communica- tions passing between the two great powers, and a letter still remains to us, of unique interest, and of which, if only as proof of the fashion in which history repeats itself, it is worth while to give some account. On Christmas Eve, 809, in the Grotto of the Nativity at Bethlehem, began the first of that series of hostilities between the Greeks and Latins which, in the same place, and even at the same holy season, have been so often repeated. We ourselves witnessed a like scene on the eve of Christmas, 1902, and many times, often in still severer form, have the same annoyances occurred during the thousand years inter- vening. The alleged causes vary : in 809 the Latin priests, while in the act of prayer, were assaulted, and an attempt made to drive them from the church, on the charge of heresy. That question having been threshed out, the allega- tion, in later ages, has been not of heretical unfitness, but of trespass. The letter which the monks addressed to Pope Leo III 1 Bernard ap Tobler, Itinera Hierosolymitana lat,, 1880. Genevae, p. 314. 138 LATINS IN JERUSALEM was the parent of many later appeals to the powers of the West, religious and civil. " We, who are Frankish pilgrims (Franci peregrini) in this holy city of Jerusalem, so far from the seat of Rome, are a part of the flock confided to your care. John, a monk of St. Saba, has dared to accuse us of heresy us, Franks of the Mount of Olives 1 and to suspect our orthodoxy. Neverthe- less, our faith is that of the seat of Rome ; that which we sing, we have heard it in the chapel of the Emperor Charles ; that which we believe, we find in the Homilies of St. Gregory and in the rule of St. Benedict, which the Emperor has given to us. Vouchsafe therefore to let us know what you think of the sentiments of the Fathers on the subject of the Filio- que, and to remind your son, the Emperor Charles, that we heard, in his chapel, the words qui ex Patre Filioque procedit. 2 Vouchsafe also to receive, with favour, our delegates . . and to remit us your orders by their hands. We all, your humble servants, Dominic, Theodore, Arimond, Gregory, John, Leo, and all the community of the Mount of Olives, commend ourselves to your charitable prayers, and we pray the Saviour to bless and exalt His holy Church." This letter contributed to the convocation in November, 809, of the Council of Aix la Chapelle, in which the question of the Procession of the Holy Spirit was discussed. After the death of Haroun er Raschid in 809, civil war broke out in Syria between the respective followers of his two sons. Churches and monasteries were pillaged, though, 1 M. le Comte Riant (Etude- sur VEglise de Bethleem) regards this as a probable indication of the presence of a Benedictine establish- ment at Bethlehem, associated with that of the Mount of Olives. The Commemoratorium of Charlemagne contains a possible allusion to such a community. 2 It will be remembered that this addition to the Nicene Creed of the filioque clause, " who proceedeth from the Father and the Son," began in Spain, after the Council of Toledo, in 589. In the ninth century it was customary in Gaul and in Germany, and, upon the demand of the Emperor Henry, was adopted by Pope Benedict VIII in 1014. 139 INNER JERUSALEM as we have already seen, the Benedictine convent was again in possession of its property in 870, at the time of the visit of Bernard the Monk. As time went on, however, the power of the West, which had been strong with the individual strength of Charlemagne, was overshadowed by that of the Emperors of the East. They were unable nevertheless to protect the Holy Land against the fanaticism of the Caliph Hakem, who, it is said, was incited against the Christians less by the Moslems than by the Jews. In 1010 the Holy Sepulchre was profaned, the church destroyed, and the patriarch put to death. However, by some change of mood, some say by the influence of his mother, who was a Christian, others, in consequence of a quarrel with the Jews, Hakem permitted the rebuilding of the Holy Places, funds being provided, in great part, by the immense number of pilgrims who were flocking to Jeru- salem from all parts of Europe. With the facilitation of travel there came, naturally enough, increase of commerce, which was largely in the hands of merchants from Lombardy and Amalfi, upon whom the Caliphs and wealthy Syrians came to be dependent for European luxuries, and whom they were in consequence ready to protect. It thus became possible to secure the consent of the Government to the establishment, in the Christian quarter of the city of Jerusalem, in the neighbourhood of the Holy Sepulchre, of a permanent d welling for the Amalfi merchants and for other Christian travellers. In order that this might be placed in the charge of resident Europeans (the monks of Syria, in consequence of Byzantine influence, being entirely followers of the Greek rites), a band of monks, in charge of an abbe, was brought from Italy, and the monastery and church originally erected by Charlemagne, henceforth known as St. Mary of the Latins, 1 restored for their use. In 1023 1 So called from their use of the Latin rites. The title was applied equally to all the three houses which were erected on this site. There 140 LATINS IN JERUSALEM the Sultan Mouzzafer granted a firman (still to be seen in the archives of the Franciscans in Jerusalem) according pro- tection to all Franks belonging to religious Orders established in the Holy City. The pilgrimages included many women, and this led to the establishment of a second hospice and convent, known as S. Mary the Less. As, considering the difficulties of travel- ling there would doubtless be many sick, the erection of a hospital, with a chapel dedicated to St. John, was the next development, and as it was in the hands of pious laity, con- verts or oblates of the Order, it became ultimately the cradle of the world-famous Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Knights Hospitallers 1 , and, to use the term they themselves employed, Guardians of the Poor. is considerable evidence that the clergy thus introduced were Bene- dictines from the Abbey of the Sainte Trinit6 de la Cava, who were established by St. Alferius and followed the Cluny use, thus first brought into Palestine. This very popular Order gave origin to the contemporary saying : Esse ubique asseres Cavenses et passeres. There was special suitability in the choice of this community to serve in Jerusalem, for southern Italy was still nominally dependent on the Byzantine Empire, and the monks, being almost Greeks by nationality, would the more easily establish themselves among those of the Eastern Church. The pious monks of Jerusalem and of La Cava carried on the traditions of the Amalfitan foundation, and I learn from the present Prior of the Order of St. Benedict in Jerusalem that Baldwin accorded to the vessels of La Cava the right of naviga- tion among the ports of his kingdom, for the exchange of merchan- dize, bringing necessaries for the Religious Houses, and carrying back the produce of the East. Similar special facilities are still accorded to the religious Orders in Jerusalem by certain lines of steam- boats. 1 The controversy as to the possibly later and independent origin of the Knights of St. John, who, according to some, followed not the Benedictine but the Augustinian rule, has perhaps been laid to rest by the discovery of charters of the Hospital bearing date 1083-4-5, which make it evident that the Hospital existed before the Crusades, and that it was directed by Benedictines (Saige, De Vaneiennete de Vhopital Saint Jean de Jerusalem ; also Delaville le Roulx, De prima origine Hospitaliorum hierosotymitanorum, 1885). It is worthy of remark that, even before this discovery, Vertot, while assigning the 141 INNER JERUSALEM The Crusades by no means diminished the frequency of pilgrimages, even apart from the immense number of clergy who, either as chaplains or as voluntary followers, came in the train of the Church militant. I have dwelt at possibly undue length upon certain points distinctly and definitely Latin in the history of Christianity in Jerusalem, previous to the Crusades, in order to make it evident that the rites and teaching of the occidental Church were not, as many would have us suppose, a new importation consequent upon the Frankish immigration from the west and north of Europe. We have documental evidence that for some seven hundred years the two rites had existed side by side, although that of the East had undoubtedly been the stronger, as belonging to the empire and nearest to the seat of government. It was, for example, with the Greek or Augustinian rule to the subsequent foundations of the Canons of the Holy Sepulchre and the Knights Templars, makes no such mention in connexion with the Knights Hospitallers, whom he always speaks of by their later designation of Knights of Malta, and whose origin he quaintly describes as having arisen among the patients of the Hospital. Though he, perhaps erroneously, thus assigns the later date, his account of the initiation of the Order is too picturesque to omit. " Several young gentlemen who had just had an happy experi- ence of it (that is of ' the great charity of the Hospitallers, who spared no pains for their relief '), renounced all thoughts of returning into their own country, and devoted themselves, in the House of St. John, to the service of the poor and pilgrims . . . Though Godfrey by this means lost some gallant men who had done him great service, he could not but look upon their change with joy and perhaps with pious emulation . . . The hospital was in a little time enriched with a great number of lands and manors as well in Europe as in Palestine." He then describes how, at the suggestion of the Abbe G6rard, after the taking of Jerusalem, both the Brothers and Sisters of the Order were invested with the black mantle and white linen cross of Jeru- salem, and " at the foot of the Holy Sepulchre took the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience " (Vertot, History of the Knights of Malta, vol. i. pp. 19-20, ed. 1728). ':> We gather from Matthew Paris, however, that this dress was after- wards changed. Postmodum verd tempore Eugenii Papae cruces de panno rubeo suis assuerunt mantellis, ut a caetaris possent hoc signo discerni. (Matt. Paris, Hist. AngL, ed. 1640, p. 67.) 142 LATINS IN JERUSALEM Oriental Church that Omar made terms, and the Greek is to this day technically known as " the Orthodox," and is that officially recognized ; so that " the Patriarch of Jerusalem " invariably means the Greek Patriarch, and " the Christian Church " that holding the Greek creed. From very early days there had always been the four main points of differ- ence, the recognition of Papal authority, the filioque clause in the Creed, the doctrine of Purgatory and the use of un- leavened bread in Communion ; but with few exceptions, the good understanding between the Greeks and Latins had been little interrupted, and although the Greeks were prob- ably alive to the fact that Rome would not hesitate to seize an opportunity for establishing religious just as much as temporal supremacy, it was only with the foundation of the temporal kingdom that the differences became irreconcil- able. 1 The establishment of the Latin kingdom in 1099 led naturaUy to the reorganization of religious matters, accord- ing to the faith of the Western Church under Latin clergy with Latin patriarchs. We read that the Patriarch of Jerusalem had as suffragans four archbishops, nine bishops, the Master of the Knights of St. Lazarus, nine mitred abbots and five priors, all of the Latin rite ; with moreover fifteen native prelates Armenians, Syrians, Jacobites and Greeks. 1 Thus Milman would appear to ignore somewhat the previous conditions, when he writes, " The establishment of Latin Christianity in the East was no less a foreign conquest (than the Empire). It was not the conversion of the Greek Church to the Creed, the usages, the ritual, the Papal supremacy of the West ; it was the foundation, the superinduction of a new Church, alien in language, in rites, in its clergy, which violently dispossessed the Greeks of their churches and monasteries and appropriated them to their own uses." Fleury would seem to enter more into the spirit of the age, when he says, " The Greeks always believed that the Latins had an eye to their empire, and what happened (after the second Crusade) too well justi- fied their suspicions. The conquest of Constantinople brought about the loss of the Holy Land and made the schism of the Greeks irreconcilable." Fleury, Sixtime Discours sur PHistoire Ecdesiaa- tique. 143 INNER JERUSALEM Twenty monasteries of these various rites were comprised within the limits of this patriarchate. 1 The position of the Patriarch was much strengthened by the creation of the Sepulchrans or Canons of the Holy Sepulchre, who swore obedience to no prior or abbot, but to the Patriarch only. 2 This synod consisted of five abbots and a prior, all of mitred dignity. His spiritual seigneury was co-extensive with that of the king. The Benedictines, hitherto the only, still re- mained the chief, representatives of the Western Church, and in addition to their convents, churches, hospices and hospital already mentioned, they established other hospitals and schools in connexion with religious houses in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, on Mount Tabor, at Bethany, Antioch, and Nazareth, altogether to the number of about a dozen. It is interesting to notice that those popes most active in pro- moting the Crusades belonged to the Benedictine Order, and their houses continued to flourish and to exercise con- siderable power up to the time of the Moslem conquest of Jerusalem in 1187, when they retired to Acre, which, from the presence there of the Knights of St. John, has been since called S. Jean d'Acre in place of its former name of Ptolemais. Historians teach us that the apparently unconquerable enmity between the eastern and western branches of the Church dates from the period of the fourth Crusade, which, from being a war of defence of the Holy Places, was diverted into an attack upon the eastern Christians. Constantinople was attacked in April 1204. The empire was in a state of internal disruption, with two rival emperors, Alexius V and Theodore Lascaris, each with his own following. " Never was victory more cruelly abused. The conduct of the champions of the Cross in their hour of victory formed a sad 1 Rey, Les Colonies jranques de Syrie aux XII* et XIII" Siecles, 267-8, 1883. 2 William of Tyre complains that the original order of twenty Augustinian Canons under a prior was changed by the Patriarch Arculphus. 144 LATINS IN JERUSALEM contrast with that of the Mussulmans under Saladin, 1 when the latter conquered Jerusalem." The account given by the Pope himself, Innocent III, is too horrible for transla- tion ; he had done his utmost to prevent the deviation of the purpose of the Crusade, but naturally did not refrain from seizing the opportunity of extending his power and that of the Church. " The consequence of the Pope's action was and still is that the Greek Church spurns the idea of returning to union with the Roman Church." 3 Innocent IFI himself wrote : " How is it possible that the Greeks should ever return to unity when they have been treated in such a manner, that they regard the Latins as dogs ? " After the period of the Crusades, the Franciscans, the peaceful Crusaders of the Holy Land, may be regarded as, for nearly seven hundred years, the representatives of Latin Christianity in Palestine. When Pope Innocent III dreamed that he saw the grand church of St. John Lateran falling into ruins, held up only by the poor brown-frocked figure whom he had that day waved from his presence when St. Francis heard in vision the voice of the Crucified, saying, " Go re- build my house, which, as thou seest, is falling into ruins," may not the meaning, at least in some degree, have related not only, as supposed, to the material structure of St. Damian, or the three ruined churches of Assisi, not only generally to the living Church of Christ which he restored to a new and higher life, but to those sacred spots in the Holy City of which the sons of St. Francis were hereafter to be the Guardians ? There is no documental evidence of the date of their arrival. One tradition is that the earliest Franciscans in the Holy Land were hermits, living in cells hewn in the 1 It is a recognized fact that the Saracens always respected the Holy Places. 2 Eighteen Centuries of the Orthodox Greek Church, Hore, chap. xii. 3 Hore, op. cif. 145 L rocky foundation of the Benedictine Convent of St. George, in the Black Mountain near Antioch, about the year 1210, but the more usual version, which, however, is not incon- sistent with the other, is that their first appearance was in the year 1219 under the leadership of St. Francis himself, who was already on friendly terms with the Sultan Melek el-Khamel, whom he had indeed hoped to convert. In the year 1229 this same Sultan ceded the Holy City to the Emperor Frederic II, so that for a time the safety of the Christians was assured, and it is the fact of his excommunica- tion which gives us our first definite date in the history of the Franciscan occupation, for in 1230 Pope Gregory IX sent two Franciscans as legates of the See to arrange matters in regard to the Emperor in Palestine, 1 expressing the desire that the Patriarch would give them every assistance. Dr. Schick, who has preserved many gems of history which would otherwise have been utterly lost, describes a long tunnel-like vault in the Armenian Convent of Zeitun, shown to him as having afforded refuge to the Franciscans in 1244, when the Kharezmians destroyed their convent on Mount Sion. The earliest evidence of political acknowledgement of the Order is, so far as I can discover, in a firman dated 1250, in which the Sultan Melek el-Aschraf mentions twelve sultans who had protected the Franciscans, the first-named being a brother of Melek el-Khamel, the friend of St.Francis. Another firman, dated 1295, by the Sultan Daher gives permission to the religious of Mount Sion to restore their convent ; while another, only fourteen years later, is addresed " to the re- ligious Franciscans of the cord," - and speaks of them as 1 The Bull still exists and begins " Si ordinis Fratrum Minorum." See Calahorra, Chronica de Syria y Terra Santa, vol. ii. ch. vi. Another Bull, dated 1257, Alexander IV, is addressed to the religious of the province of the Holy Land, showing that they must have attained to some considerable number. 2 Sir John Maundrell in 1322, and de la Brocquierein 1432, speak of the " Christians of the Girdle," but this may be an allusion to the 146 occupying the Convents of the Coenaculum, the Holy Sepul- chre and Bethlehem. The convent on Mount Sion was on the alleged site of the " Upper room furnished," or Coenaculum, which has so many associations for the Christian (St. Lukexxii., St. John xx., possibly Acts ii. 1-4 ; also Acts i. 13, and, according to a very old tradition, Acts vi. 1-6). A church seems to have existed upon this site from very early times, and is mentioned by the Bordeaux Pilgrim (333), by St. Jerome (382 letter 86), byArculf (670), Willibald(722), and Bernard the Wise (870). Saewulf (1103) speaks of it as in ruins ; but in 1212 Willebrand of Oldenbourg speaks of a fine convent largum et pulchrum aspectu cenobium ; and it appears to have been handsomely restored by the Crusaders and served by the canons of St. Augustine up to the dissolution of the Frank kingdom of Jerusalem in 1187. The Franciscans took formal possession of the church and convent in 1342, when it was purchased for them by Robert of Sicily, and handed to the Papal See on the condition that the Francis- cans should be regarded as its custodians in perpetuity (Nov. 21, 1342) ; and then it was that they built, out of existing material, the little Gothic chapel which still covers a part of the nave of the earlier and larger crusading build- ing. The title of Guardian of Mount Sion, still possessed by the Custode of the Franciscan Order, is all that remains to them of this, their earliest possession. Moslem, or, according to some, Jewish jealousy of the tomb of David, alleged to exist on the same spot, led to the expulsion of the Franciscans in 1551. 1 fact that the Caliph Motawakkel in 856 had ordered Christians and Jews to wear a leathern girdle for distinction. De la Brocquiere speaks of the " Cordeliers " of Bethlehem as being under great sub- jection. Their vicissitudes were certainly frequent. 1 I give this date on the authority of Calahorra, Chronica de la provincia de Syria y Terra Santa, iv. chap. xv. p. 395, though later ones are elsewhere commonly given. He tells us that the order for 147 INNER JERUSALEM A firman dated 700 of the Hejira, 1309 of our era, giving to the Custode power to execute repairs to the church of the Holy Sepulchre, shows that the Franciscans were at that time in possession there, and moreover, in 1363, by means of an arrangement made with the Sultan Chabab ben Hassan by Jeanne, Queen of Naples, they had permission to build a convent on a former Benedictine foundation, near the alleged tomb of the Virgin ; but neither site provided sufficient accommodation for themselves and for the hospitality for which they were already famous. The advancement of the Franciscans had been contem- porary with the decline of the Georgians or Iberians, who have been described as in some sort their rivals, or at least their predecessors, in the care of the Holy Places. They too had encouraged pilgrimages, established some dozen of religious houses, entertained strangers, made rich offerings to the Holy Sepulchre, and possessed, according to their historian Jossilian (Georgian Hist. cap. viii.) " half Golgotha." Baumgarten, who visited Jerusalem in 1507, speaks of their establishment on Mount Calvary. They had been originally settled in Jerusalem by the liberality of Constantine, who bestowed a grant of land on their king out of sympathy, it is said, for his having made, like Helena, a pilgrimage at an advanced age. They were now politically enfeebled, and unable to support their establishments in Jerusalem, among others that of the convent and church of St. John the Divine, originally built by King Vachtang about 446, and which they were now glad to sell to the Franciscans, to whom it expulsion was given by Soliinan the Magnificent in 1549 and executed two years later at the time when Paul Marino was the energetic and capable Custode. An old and very rare book of travels by Pierre Belon de Mans, who visited the Holy Land in 1553, speaks of thirty Franciscans having been ejected from their convent on Mount Sion and their church turned into a mosque. He adds that they had been re-instated at the instance of the French ambassador at Constantinople. 148 LATINS IN JERUSALEM became the Casa Nuova or Nova, the New House. 1 The church, which is the Latin parish church of Jerusalem, has latterly been practically rebuilt and surrounded by a convent, also enlarged, so as to accommodate one hundred religious. The Casa Nova is reserved for a hospice, and having been restored and enlarged by American liberality, is now capable of accommodating between two and three hundred guests, who are received irrespective of creed, sex or nationality, and permitted to remain for twenty-one days.^ For another 300 years the Franciscans remained the sole Guardians of the Holy Places and of the Latin faith in Jeru- salem, gradually enlarging their sphere and widening their ambitions, so as best to serve what they themselves call their triple mission of defending the Holy Places, showing hospitality to pilgrims, and " preaching the Gospel where it was inaugurated by Jesus Christ Himself." The president of the Friars Minor has no dignity of abbot or prior, but his title of Custodian of the Holy Places is a greater 1 The visit, to the new guest-house, of Prince Radzwil in 1583 is described by Mouravieff, Guide-Indicateur de la Terre-Sainte, par Le Frere Lievin, O.F.M., 1897, c. xxxviii. a book to which in many matters relating to Franciscan history in Jerusalem, I once for all acknowledge my indebtedness. 2 I recall one occasion when, at the Casa Nova in Jerusalem, the guests at table represented the following languages : English (which included a Gaelic-speaking Scot and an American), French, German, Italian, Spanish (including a representative of South America as well as of the Peninsular), Greek and Russian. There was a missionary from China, and an English officer from India, and there were ser- vants present who spoke Turkish and Arabic. A Franciscan, having to give out a notice of interest to all present, after one despairing look round the table, addressed us in Latin. Mark Twain, who frankly owns to anti-ultramontane prejudice, writes, nevertheless, " There is one thing I feel no disposition to forget, and that is the honest gratitude I, and all pilgrims, owe to the convent fathers in Palestine. A pilgrim without money, whether he be a Protestant or a Catholic, can travel the length and breadth of Palestine and in the midst of her desert wastes find wholesome food and a clean bed every night, in these buildings." No one will interfere with his. religious views, and no one will ask him to pay. 149 INNER JERUSALEM distinction than mitre or crozier. Some of the sites have been lost to them, however good may have been their original title by firman or purchase. They lost, as we have seen, the Coenaculum, although by the courtesy of the present pro- prietors they are permitted to say Mass within the enclosure during twenty-four hours at every Whitsuntide. Although a firman of 1363 put them in possession of the Benedictine Church at the alleged Tomb of the Virgin, which was con- firmed to them in 1757 by a new firman from Constantinople, the Greeks took possession of it two years later. Their privileges are now shared among all rites (Greeks, Armenians, Copts, Abyssinians, and Syrians, even Moslems), except those of the Latin Church. The Franciscans have also lost certain rights at Beth- lehem, where the Greeks alone have now an altar on the alleged site of the birth of Jesus, as well as an old privilege of saying mass once a year in two Armenian churches, that of St. James and that said to be on the site of the House of Caiaphas. They have, however, within late years restored and again utilized certain old shrines, such as the Church of the Dominus Floevit on the Mount of Olives and the chapels of the Flagellation and of Bethphage. In other departments of their mission their activity has never ceased. They afford hospitality for a period, longer or shorter according to the accommodation, at Jaffa, Ramleh ( Arimathea), Jerusalem, St. John in the Mountains, Bethle- hem, Nazareth, Qoubebeh (the alleged Emmaus), Mount Tabor, and Tiberias. In the department of education for their Order they are especially active, and receive novices from every part of Europe and from America, both north and south. In addi- tion to the central house in Jerusalem there is a special novi- tiate at Nazareth, from which the young students are sent out to study, in succession, the humanities at St. John's, philosophy at Bethlehem and theology at St. Saviour's. They make no encroachments upon the work of other 150 LATINS IN JERUSALEM churches, but their missionary influence is reinforced by an extensive and highly organized philanthropy. They have doctors and dispensaries in all directions, orphanages for boys and girls, schools, both primary and secondary, for both sexes ; technical schools of almost every trade, in which steam-power is utilized as well as hand- work, and large print- ing and bookbinding establishments. They have also a very large number of houses and apartments which are assigned to the use of widows and the indigent poor, and their daily distribution of food is said to amount to over 1,000 Ib. in weight. It would be a very easy task to criticize these charities, and to say that the poor of Jerusalem are pauperized, that they have become ungrateful, and receive benefits as of right, that they are idle, and will often refuse work when they can get it, which is all true enough, though not wholly peculiar to Jerusalem. Undoubtedly, in that they are far the largest donors the Franciscans are mainly responsible for this, but it should be remembered that it would have been easier for others to withhold the large amount of superfluous charity lately added to the already existing benefits of the friars, than for them to subtract the bounties, undoubtedly far too liberal, which have for so long existed. I have discussed the matter with many among them, and have heard them deplore it in terms quite as unqualified as the most modern econo mists could desire. There are, however, many difficulties which time alone can surmount. Many benefactions were founded in the days when to become a Christian was liter- ally to " leave all," and when it was absolutely necessary to supply a convert with shelter, food, and, above all, protec- tion. Such a claim has hi some cases become hereditary, or funds, centuries ago dedicated to this purpose, cannot well be diverted, or recent efforts to re-appropriate gifts have been misrepresented in the various countries where they originated. Possibly some weight may even attach to the trend of circumstances such as they were indicated by 151 INNER JERUSALEM a well dressed woman of middle age, speaking more or less four languages, and apparently in excellent health, who however came to us to beg for assistance. We offered her manual work, well paid, which, however, she declined on the plea that " her stomach was fatigued." At the outset of our interview she inquired, for obvious reasons, to what confession we belonged, and proceeded to inform us that during many years of weak health she had received help from the Franciscans, that they now helped her no more, nor did the Armenians, and that she had since seen that Protestantism was the only true faith ; in proof of which she presented us with a manuscript copy of Rock of Ages, for which she expected to receive a franc. Later, somewhat dissatisfied with our interview, she retired, expressing dis- gust at the insincerity of Franks, and exclaiming, "I go Greek ! " There would be some dozen or so of sects for her to fall back upon after that, with a variety of " cranks " for ultimate resort. The Franciscan, with his brown frock and white cord, his capuch, his sandals, the white umbrella over his defenceless head, is, so to speak, rooted in the soil of Jerusalem, a part of the life, even of the very landscape. The Order is largely Italian, though theoretically international ; the custode must always be an Italian, the vicaire a Frenchman, the procurator a Spaniard. The Spaniards have been for cen- turies large benefactors to Jerusalem, seeking, it may be, to atone by money gifts for the fact that they alone of all European nations took no part in the Crusades. When, on occasions of great ceremony, gorgeous vestments and em- broideries are donned in the processions at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre it is quite an interesting lesson in heraldry to study the coats-of-arms of the donors em- broidered at the foot, and to notice how large a proportion are Spanish and Austrian. Lamartine estimated the gifts of Europe to the Jerusalem Franciscans as amounting to 15,000 per annum, a sum exceeded, it is said, during the 152 YIK\V OK TIU-: TEMPI. E AREA (LOOKING SOUTH). LATINS IN JERUSALEM last year by France, " infidel France," alone. 1 A part of their possession is, from time to time, invested in real estate, their property in Jerusalem and the neighbourhood being larger than is generally known, a fact which affords some security to their position as guardians of the Holy Places custodians only, it should be remembered, the Sultan being in many instances the proprietor. 1 Laurence Oliphant has some forcible remarks on this point. " The French Government, which has been ejecting monks and nuns and closing religious establishments and making laws against reli- gious instruction in France, is very particular about the religious principles of its representatives in Syria ; as a member of the French Government recently remarked, ' Religion is only useful as an article of export. ... It is by the manufacture and protection of Holy Places that republican France extends and consolidates her influence in these parts.' " (Haifa, p. 55, et ante,) 153 CHAPTER X THE LATINS IN JERUSALEM TO-DAY REVIVAL OF PATEIAKCHATE ADVENT OF RELIGIOUS ORDERS THEIR INDUSTRIES DOMINICAN LECTURES " REVUE BIBLIQUE " PILGRIMAGES EDUCATIONAL ADVANTAGES UNIATS VISIBLE " COMMUNION OF SAINTS " THE modern history of the Latins in Jerusalem dates from the revival of the patriarchate in 1847. Founded originally at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, powerful, as we have seen, during the Prankish kingdom, with seigneury conterminous with that of the King himself, the office fell into abeyance with the dissolution of the Christian Government, and the last remnants of his authority and dignity passed ultimately into the hands of the Fran- ciscan Custode. He it was who, according to Lady Hester Stanhope, continued, even in her time, the right of granting licences carrying special advantages and exemptions to vessels trading in the Levant, and bearing the Jerusalem flag of five crosses, red on a white field, on the theory that they were carrying goods for convents the possible origin of the free or reduced passages still given by certain lines of steamships to the religious of Jerusalem. He it was who exercised all episcopal functions, and who issued licences for the power of absolution. It is, however, alleged that even he, as well as all other foreigners in Jerusalem (there were no consuls in those days), was obliged to begin 154 THE LATINS IN JERUSALEM TO-DAY every authoritative document with the formula, " There is no God but God, and Mohammed is His prophet ! " The first patriarch was Joseph Valerga, a Piedmontese, and a man said to possess especial talents of organization. An English consul had been appointed during the Egyptian occupation nine years before, and a French envoy had arrived in 1841, although France had long practically possessed a representative, for Maundrell, in 1697, speaks of the French consul at Sidon as having the title of Consul of Jerusalem. 1 During the same year, Sardinia sent a representative of the titular king of Jerusalem, who, when that dignity came to an end in 1849, was succeeded by an Italian consul. By a very ancient understanding, France was regarded as the protector of all Latins in Jerusalem, although there has been a recent movement on the part of Italy and of Germany, to relieve her of the charge of their own subjects. Finn 2 tells a story, of which, however, I can hear nothing elsewhere, that in 1847 the Franciscans, enraged at the apathy of the French consul as to the abstraction by the Greeks of their silver star from the altar at Bethlehem, threatened to place themselves under Turkish rule, to register at the British Consulate, and to let all Europe know the reason why. (Cf. infra. 176, " Martyr- dom in Jerusalem "). To forget the part which France has played in Jerusalem 1 Maundrell adds that the consul " is obliged by his master, the King of France, to make a visit to the Holy City every Easter under pretence of preserving the sanctuary there from the violations, and the friars, who have the custody of it, from the exactions of the Turks." He further describes how he himself accompanied him, and went to " the Latin Convent, at which all Frank pilgrims are wont to be entertained. The guardians and friars received us with many kind welcomes." He further relates that, owing to the inter- vention of France, and " according to the tenor of the capitulation made in the year 1673, " the Holy Sepulchre had, since 1690, been appropriated to the Latins," though it be permitted to all Christians, of all nations, to go into it for their private devotions." 2 Finn, Stirring Times, vol. i. 155 INNER JERUSALEM on behalf of Christendom would, however, be ungrateful indeed. Not to speak of the initiation of Occidental Christianity in Palestine, one may almost say that the history of the Crusades and of the Christian kingdom is, in a great degree, the history of France. As soon as Christianity again became a power in Jerusalem, we find France exercising her influence on behalf of the injured. It was by the interference of Francis I. that the Franciscans were released from imprisonment in the Tower of David, by order of Soliman, in 1537, and by the action of the French Ambassador in Constantinople that they were restored to their rights in the Church of the Tomb of the Virgin, originally bought from the Sultan, and usurped by the Greeks in 1666. The interference of Louis XIV in 1673 resulted in a treaty with the Porte, which officially recognizes France as pro- tectress of the Holy Places and of their Guardians, and which, moreover, in its thirty- third article, expressly declares that " the Franciscans shall be henceforth respected in the posses- sion of all their sanctuaries, both within and outside of Jerusalem," a right which was so far understood that when, three years later, the Greeks contrived to possess themselves of other sanctuaries, they were at once restored to their owners upon the requisition of France. A firman, obtained by the Count of Vergennes, Ambassador of France, in 1757, renewed the formal concession of the claim of the Fran- ciscans to rights over the principal sanctuaries of Jerusalem. 1 In 1808, after the partial destruction by fire of the chapel covering the Holy Sepulchre, the Greeks obtained permission to restore what was necessary, but the alterations for which they made this the pretext were the occasion of much heart-burning among the Franciscans and others ; and, 1 A succession of victories over Moslem troops by the Emperor Leopold I of Austria in 1699 led to a further understanding with the Porte, and on the part of Austria, that the Franciscans were not to be disturbed in their possession of the Sanctuaries. 156 THE LATINS IN JERUSALEM TO-DAY accordingly, when the rebuilding of the cupola became necessary about the middle of the century, the French Ambassador, Lavalette, in bringing the matter before the Porte, took occasion to obtain a formal agreement known as the statu quo ante, confirming the Latins in all the rights which they held at the time of the interference of the Sultan on their behalf in 1740, and at that of the firman of rights granted to France in 1757. This is now the basis of all negotiation with the Porte on the subject of Latin rights in Jerusalem. It has been mentioned elsewhere that the question of the rebuilding of the cupola of the church led, indirectly, to the Crimean war, and that the restoration of the roof was finally diplomatically achieved by the com- bined efforts of France, Russia, and Turkey. Three empires availed no more with the local plumber than does the average housekeeper ; the roof has ceased to be weather- tight, and is in sad need of interior decoration. Let us hope it may be arranged without an international war, and before the marble chapel which it shelters (built by the Greeks, and singularly ugly) shall have further suffered from the early and the latter rains. After a digression (which international courtesy ap- peared to demand) we may return to the consideration of the new life introduced into the Holy City by the new activities of the revived Patriarchate. The Patriarch has jurisdiction over all Palestine and Cyprus, and he visits every parish in his diocese every three years, either per- sonally or by proxy of his coadjutor, who is titular Bishop of Capitolia, in Decapolis. The most important institution directly connected with the Patriarchate is a large seminary for native youths, which, though not necessarily, prepares for the secular priesthood, especially with a view to provide acceptable parish priests for remote districts, east of the Jordan, in the mountains of Gilead, or the remote plateaux of Moab. It is interesting, in view of the quality of the singing in churches where the choir is drawn from the 157 INNER JERUSALEM native schools, to note that special attention is given, as by the Russians, to music, with encouraging results, demon- strating that the pain inflicted upon Europeans by native parish choirs is not inevitable. The arrival of the Patriarch was followed, within the century, by that of twenty-five religious Orders, of whom eighteen are resident in Jerusalem. Three of these are contemplative Sisterhoods, the Carmelites, Clarisses, and Reparatrices ; two are here primarily for their own study, the Dominicans and Assumptionists, though incidentally doing valuable work for the public good ; while the remain- ing thirteen are occupied in various forms of philanthropy. The work of the Christian Brothers is, as elsewhere, edu- cational ; the Sisters and Fathers of Notre Dame de Sion 1 were founded for work among the Jews ; the " White Fathers " have a training school for natives, and themselves wear the tarbush and white burnous of the country. They have also a school of music, and Jerusalem owes much to their excellent band. They are a society of united Greeks founded by Cardinal Lavigerie, and doing valuable work as missionaries, mainly in Africa. The Sisters of St. Joseph and of St. Francis are occupied mainly with parochial schools and female orphanages, the Sisters of the Rosary, themselves mainly Syrians, with the education of native girls ; the Sisters of St. Charles and the Lazarist Fathers have schools, dispensaries, orphanages, and a hospice for the German element in the population of Jerusalem, and the Benedictine Convents on the Mount of Olives have also schools and orphanages for the outside villages. The 1 This unique Order was founded by Ratisbonne, himself a Jew who died in 1884. The Society numbers about 1,000 members, and has Houses in England, Paris, and America. There are about eighty orphans, in addition to Technical Schools and a Seminary for students, at St. Peter's in Jerusalem, about 100 girls in the school at the Ecce Homo Convent, and 100 more at St. John's. The sisters have also a dispensary for Jews. The schools are not entirely Jewish. Some of those " professed " are of Jewish parentage. 158 THE LATINS IN JERUSALEM TO-DAY Freres de S. Jean de Dieu, though perhaps their institution, with its hospital and dispensaries at Tantour, are nearer to Bethlehem than to Jerusalem, are too valuable to escape mention. Before the admirable American and Scotch medical missions had reached Syria ever since 1879 they have been doing just that work which is best calculated to commend the Christian teaching to the Arab mind ; a little band of qualified medical men, dispensers, and nurses one physician and one surgeon at least among them being men of high eminence who have given up distinguished positions to devote themselves to the service of the poor, in a country where medical work of a high class is sorely needed. They receive patients of any creed or nationality, or visit them in their own homes ; they have a surgery and dispensary at Bethlehem, and are often to be seen as consultants in Jerusalem. They have no arriere pensee of conversion, and no subscription lists. There is one other Order whose philanthropy deserves especial mention, that of the Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul. Surely never was such varied misery relieved under one roof ! Their buildings, though vast, are quite inadequate to their purpose. The Sisters themselves have no separate cells, but are housed, like their patients, in dormitories. Their chapel is almost bare ; all that can be spared from the merest necessities of life is spent upon others. Under that kindly roof we find orphanages for boys and girls, an asylum for the aged and bedridden, for the blind, the crippled, the deformed, the mentally afflicted (neglected by all other Christian societies in Jerusalem, 1 cared for by Jews and Moslems only, and by the latter with no appliances of science, barely of civilization). Here, too, we find a creche, a refuge for foundlings, children often literally cast out, some of whom have been found mangled by pariah-dogs. All creeds, all 1 Except in so far as Jerusalem patients may find their way to the Asylum of Waldemie;-, a German-Swiss whose unique and beau- tiful institution is supported mainly by Scotland and America. 159 INNER JERUSALEM nationalities, both sexes, are welcomed, the only condition being that of misery too great for admission elsewhere. All who are in any degree capable are employed ; shoemaking, weaving, tailoring, carpentry, lace-making, laundry work, knitting, mending, dressmaking, embroidery, all are done and are done well. The blind learn to read and write, as well as various crafts, and have also quite an effective band. Here a boy with no arms and a crippled foot is doing a sum in fractions with his remaining member, the working of which is neat, legible, and correct ; there a half-witted lad is serving as eyes to the blind, a second nature with him, for his crippled frame was bent out of human likeness from his having led during all the years of his growth an animal existence at the hands of his father, a beggar, blind and lame, who dragged himself about by means of leaning on the child's shoulders, which, even as he grew taller, the father compelled him to maintain at the low level con- venient to himself. Here, in a bright airy work-room, a number of girls, directed by a couple of Sisters, are making fashionable dresses for the ladies of Jerusalem, silk shirts for Moslem effendis, delicate fabrications of lace and tucks for Christian babies. And, as if the maintenance and clothing of so large a family were not enough responsibility for the good Sisters, yonder are great stacks of useful gar- ments for the outside poor, the results of the industry of a working-party of native Jerusalem ladies organized and directed by the Sisters. Elsewhere, as has been shown, other daughters of this great household are tending the Government hospital for Moslems, nursing the prisoners, ministering to the lepers. And everywhere one sees bright and happy faces, and evidences of good health. A special word of gratitude from the outside public should be said for the work of the Dominicans, whose presence in the Holy Land, directly for the purpose of studying the Bible in its own land and in its own languages, is indirectly a boon to all students in Jerusalem, the general 160 THE LATINS IN JERUSALEM TO-DAY public being admitted every winter without condition (and without payment) to the weekly lectures, by specialists, on subjects of local interest. Students of the Bible and the Holy Land are also indebted to them for their monthly publication, the Remie Biblique, which, in respect of illustrations and maps, and often in the interest of its articles, perhaps excels any other journal of current Palestinian inquiry. About twenty years ago the Augustinians of the Assump- tion, among whose many good works that of facilitating pilgrimages has a prominent place, conceived the idea of conducting a pilgrimage of penitence to the Holy Land. In those days hotels were few, the Franciscans possessed the only hospice generally available, the conveniences of travel were less even than now, and, although both Pius IX and Leo XIII had encouraged the project, it appeared to many to be a scheme very difficult of practical realization on any large scale. Even Church room seemed to be insufficient for any considerable number of worshippers, the new Churches of St. Saviour, of St. Anne, of the Ecce Homo, of the united Armenians and Greeks, of the Sceurs de Saint Joseph, and of the Reparatrices to speak only of Jerusalem were not yet built ; there was no railway, the roads to Jericho, to St. John's (Ain Karim), to Ramallah, were not yet made. Nevertheless, the pilgrims came, to the number of over a thousand. The next year more were again found to brave an exceptionally difficult journey. The occasion is remembered as " the pilgrimage of storms." Their arrival was delayed till Jerusalem was crowded with Easter visitors ; the Franciscans could receive but seventeen of the 400 additional guests. In 1884 the organization was more complete, the success was incontestable, and, at the disinterested suggestion of a Franciscan, the pilgrims taxed themselves to the amount of 80,000 francs (3,200) for the purchase of the estate now known as that of Notre Dame de France, the immense hostelry capable of receiving 161 M INNER JERUSALEM 500 guests. In 1888 it was ready for use ; in 1889 the chapel was begun, and the pilgrimages have continued to increase every year in numbers and in devotion. The arrangements, both for those who come direct from Jaffa to Jerusalem, and for those who, landing at Beirut, visit Damascus and ride down through Galilee and Samaria, are admirable in every detail, including the presence of a nurse for the sick. Each pilgrimage brings a cross, often of the traditional proportions, which, after being carried along the Via Dolorosa, is conveyed back home and planted in some sacred spot ; among others have been Montmartre, Paray le Monial, Lourdes, and St. Michel. In 1902 there were two, one carried by priests, the other by laity. In spite of the multiplication of philanthropic agencies, the new religious Orders in Jerusalem have, happily, not tended to the subdivision of means of education for natives. There are special schools in connexion with orphanages and with the blind ; there are the technical schools at the Convents of Ratisbonne and of the Sceurs de Charite, and there are the schools of the Christian Brothers for secondary education, resorted to by the sons of tradesmen, officials and others, of all creeds and nationalities. But the primary parish schools remain, as they have always done, in the hands of the Franciscans. They have made a difficult stand on behalf of education, for until after the Crimean war in the year 1858, when they first obtained a firman, their work was carried on against obstacles which at times seemed well-nigh insurmountable. But the Arab has a considerable degree of intellectual activity of a certain kind ; 1 they never lacked pupils, and they never failed, on the establishment of a convent, at once to open a school for children of six years old and upwards, who, at the age 1 The Rev. G. E. Post, a member of the American College in Beirut and specially conversant with the Arab temperament, credits them with " curiosity, perceptivity, memory, versatility, but with little judgment, logic, or originality." 162 THE LATINS IN JERUSALEM TO-DAY of twelve, had the opportunity of learning a trade from some master-workman, Christian or Moslem. In 1645 the Chapter-General decided that the children were to be further encouraged to study by a mid-day meal, the nature of which is specified mainly vegetable soups, polenta, rice, and cheese. 1 An Italian writer 2 of the year 1790 expresses his surprise at finding excellent masons, carpenters, me- chanics, locksmiths, and furniture-makers in Jerusalem, a fact which was explained by the training received in the schools of the Franciscans. A few years before the first grant of a firman we find 3 that the Friars had established fifteen schools for boys and nine for girls ; that among the teachers, twenty-two were religious and twenty secular ; and that they were suitably provided with books, maps, and furniture, the scholars numbering 1,278, of whom 446 were girls. The report 4 for 1903, enumerates thirty-one schools, attended by 2,680 boys, and eleven schools, attended by 700 girls. These do not include the large number of orphanages which abound in all directions, especially for girls. No account of Latin Christianity in Jerusalem would be in any degree complete without reference to those con- fessions which have seceded from their original government and have submitted themselves to that of the Pope ; hence spoken of commonly as " united." The united Greeks, or Melchites, have been already referred to as the royalists, or King's men, who submitted in 451 to the edict of the Emperor in favour of the Council of Chalcedon, when the Syrians, Copts, and Armenians were condemned. Their Patriarch takes his title from Antioch, Jerusalem, and 1 Elzear Horn, Locorum etc. veterum Terrae Sanctae, 1725-44, pp. 222-3, ed. 1902. 2 Marita Istoria dello state presente di Gerusalemme, vol. i., 1790, p. 70. 3 P. Bassi, Stato delle Missioni di Terra Santa nellanno 1851, vol. ii. p. 339. 4 Status descript. Custodiae Terrae, Sanctae, 1903. 163 INNER JERUSALEM Damascus, and has been hitherto represented in Jerusalem by a Vicar ; there is, however, a recent rumour of the probable appointment of a Bishop. They retain the Byzantine rite, recited in Arabic, which is printed parallel with the Greek. They possess the Chapel of the Credo on the Mount of Olives and the Chapel of St. Veronica at the Sixth Station of the Cross, as well as the College, Church, and Museum known as St. Anne's. The united Armenians date only from the middle of the last century, and are not numerous. They are in the care of a Vicar Patriarchal, and possess the Church which marks the fourth station of the Via Dolorosa, whose unfinished condition still roofless for many years, although on the site of some interesting ruins of a Benedictine convent strikes the visitor as somewhat of a reproach to the wealthier institutions and to the large numbers of pilgrims and " religious " who every Friday take part in the procession of the Via Dolorosa. The united Copts are quite modern, and are very few in number. The united Abyssinians are under the care of the Lazarist Fathers, and worship at their own altar in the Church of the Patriarchate. The united Syrians, who date only from the end of the eighteenth century, have their own Vicar-Patriarchal, and are about to build a church and hospice for themselves near the Damascus Gate outside the walls of the city. The Maronites, said to be the most latinized of all the uniats, are not largely represented in Jerusalem, although it is said that there are some 200,000 of them, mainly in Syria. Their churches, vestments and ritual are practically undistinguishable from those of Rome, but they have their own Patriarch and their own customs as to the marriage of the inferior clergy, and other points. They are to be found mainly in the Lebanon district, where they serve, from the student's point of view, the valuable purpose of keeping alive the Syrian or Aramaic language ; though often their announcements, church notices, etc., may be 164 THE LATINS IN JERUSALEM TO-DAY found actually in the Arabic tongue, although written in the Syrian alphabet ! They became fully united with Rome in 1600, but their Patriarch was present at the General Council of the Lateran as long ago as 1216, under Innocent III. They are protected by the French, but were, nevertheless, cruelly massacred by the Druses in 1860 to the number, it is said, of about 10,000. Even to the present time, their convents and churches resemble for- tresses rather than the peaceful homes of ecclesiastics. They have shown some literary interest, have had since 1584 a college in Rome, and the work of their author Assemarni on oriental subjects was recognized by Gibbon as a classic. Once a year, in the church belonging to the superb convent of the Reparatrices, one may assist, during nine days before the carnival, at the unique occasion profanely and locally known as " the Carnival of the Rites." This Order, whose business it is to pray for those who do not pray for themselves, then collects together representatives of the whole of Roman Catholic Jerusalem, of every rite, nation- ality, and Order, to pray for those who may be specially tempted at the Carnival ; and it is an opportunity not to be had elsewhere of studying liturgical variations. The Mass is said according to every rite, six in all, sermons are preached in at least half-a-dozen languages, the Orders come on different days with their choirs, their students, their orphans, their cripples, as the case may be. Every patriarch, every bishop, is there in turn ; all bring their habitual vestments, customs, uses. Nowhere else, in the world, not even in Rome, is there a similar occasion. But perhaps the scene which above all others impresses one most with the actual living fact of the Communion of Saints, is that which presents itself daily at the Holy Sepulchre. The Franciscan friar, guardian of the shrine, shares his responsibility with the Greek, whose aged Empress was the first to beautify the spot, sixteen centuries ago. 165 INNER JERUSALEM There the Syrian worships in the language in which the Master taught, there, the gentle Abyssinian, silent and restrained, contrasts vividly with the Russian pilgrim, who has walked for months, it may be, to do reverence in the Holy City, and who is kissing the very stones in a passion of adoration. Here we note the Armenian, proud of his religious descent from the earliest Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land, there the swarthy Copt, there the Maronite, faithful under the most appalling religious persecution of modern times, and here the St. Thomas Christian from India, partner with the Syrian in his humble share of the holy shrine ; while even the Moslem, while denying the fact of His death and resurrection, is yet respectful to the teaching of the Master. The scene is one which testifies to the homogeneousness of Christendom, 1 or to its unhappy divisions, according to the point of view. One may be conscious of differences of creed, or of a common love for the risen Lord ; one may note fanaticism, superstition, savagery, or one may remember the dictum, "in essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity." He is not here, He is risen, but man, His servant, made in His likeness, even the least of these His brethren, remains, and his presence is evidence of the persistence, in spite of all disenchantment, all disappointment, of the hope that remaineth, of our common brotherhood, our common sonship. 1 " Catholicism does not obliterate or absorb national character, it consecrates it ; and conversely each national character grasps a special aspect of the Catholic faith, which it is its vocation to guard." (Biggs, Six months in Jerusalem, p. 336.) "Do not these very divi- sions afford an indirect illustration of the extraordinary vitality of the new kingdom ? " (Liddon, Divinity of our Lord, p. 124.) 166 CHAPTER XI MARTYRDOM IN JERUSALEM SIGNIFICANCE OP APPARENTLY UNIMPORTANT DETAILS MUTUAL RELATION OF GREEKS AND LATINS GREEK PROMISES THE PASHA'S DECISION NEXT MORNING'S INCIDENTS THE PASHA AND THE FRENCH REPRE- SENTATIVE EVENTS OF NOVEMBER 4 PUBLIC FEELING " ABSOLUTE REPARATION " SENTENCES- EPISODES HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF " There are three kinds of martyrdom ; the first both in will and deed, which is the highest ; the second, in will but not in deed ; the third, in deed but not in will." WHEATLEY. THOSE who have acquainted themselves with the his- tory of the events which occurred in the courtyard of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in November of the year 1901, must feel that the title, borne by the Franciscans, of Guardians of the Holy Places, is not an empty one. Again and again have they signed with their blood the deed of entail which conveys this proud distinction. The accounts of the matter which have been published in England, in all cases meagre, have been, moreover, so often coloured by prejudice and party-feeling that I think it worth while to describe the incident with some detail, as I am enabled to do so at first hand. The quotations are throughout from the pen of one of the Franciscans of the Convent of San Salvador, the headquarters of the Order in the Holy Land. 167 INNER JERUSALEM As has been already seen, so many privileges, so much territory has been wrested from the Franciscans by force or artifice during the last century, that the duty of zealously preserving what remains to them is, as Guar- dians of the Holy Places, all the more rigidly incumbent. The large square common to Latins, Greeks and Armenians in front of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is, however, surrounded on three sides by buildings, which, with the exception of one small Armenian chapel, are entirely in the hands of the Greeks. The only share now left to the Franciscans is a short flight of steps leading up to a small chapel, built against the fagade of the church itself, and which it is, of course, their duty to keep clean, sweeping the steps and the adjoining stone-flagging every day, not merely for the sake of order, but, as is the local custom, in token of proprietorship, a duty which they have exercised from time immemorial. Towards the close of October 1901 the sacristan reported to the Gustos of the Holy Land, that the Greeks had interfered with his work, and sought to hinder its exe- cution. It was at first supposed that the interference was merely a piece of fanaticism, but when the molestations were daily repeated, fears were entertained that the matter might have some connexion with other annoyances of recent occurrence, and that what seemed separately events of small importance, might in the aggregate have serious significance. These had arisen partly out of some discussion as to certain repairs which the Greeks had executed during the night without reference to the joint Latin authority, and partly out of certain other repairs and alterations sanctioned by Greeks, Latins and Armenians, but as to which the Greeks had assumed a degree of authority in excess of that of the others. The matter had, however, been to all appearance amicably settled, and the Greek Guardian, Euthymios, acting in the absence of his Patriarch, had made suitable excuses, and had been loud in professions 168 MARTYRDOM IN JERUSALEM of friendship even so lately as October 29, when he made a personal call upon the Gustos, the Custodial Vicar, Father Prosper of Marennes, being present. He professed entire ignorance as to the matter of the steps, and promised that there should be no further ground for complaint. When the interference still continued, the Gustos sent a dragoman to remind him of his promise, and received a reply in a somewhat different key from the former, to the effect that he would look into the matter and send word as to his decision. On the evening of November 2 the decision arrived, to the effect that the Greeks would certainly pre- vent the Franciscans from sweeping the flag-stones, upon which the Gustos at once communicated with the Pasha, who accordingly ordered that two policemen should be in attendance the next morning. Their presence, though it availed to protect the friars from actual molestation, would have effected little against the fifty or more Greeks, who were awaiting any excuse for creating a disturbance. How- ever, the Franciscans showed great discretion, swept their steps, made a dignified protest against the enemy's hin- drance of their duty, and withdrew, attended by their dragoman. The Consul-General of France was unfortunately absent from Jerusalem, but his ChanceUor was sent for, the matter explained to him, and he at once proceeded to the Pasha, who was anxious to effect a compromise on the subject of the sweeping, which, however, the Gustos absolutely de- clined. Meantime, the Greek Guardian had sent for the Franciscan dragoman, who was permitted to visit him, but only on his own responsibility, not as representing the community of San Salvador. To him also was proposed a like policy of compromise. I give the Franciscan argu- ment upon the subject in their own words. ' The rejection of the Pasha's proposal was not at all unreasonable on the part of the Most Rev. Gustos. How could he consent to accept as an alms from the Greeks a 169 INNER JERUSALEM portion of a right which was his in its entirety ? Besides, as every one knows, the rights, whether great or small, which the Gustos and his Franciscan confreres maintain and defend at the Holy Shrines are maintained and de- fended not as their own possession, which they can dispose of at will, but as the rights and property of the Church and the whole Catholic world." The day ended with the receipt of a message from the Pasha promising to support the Franciscans in the exercise of their rights, pending further inquiry. Next morning accordingly the friar-sacristan set about his sweeping, the dragoman and a priest (who had just said his Mass in the little chapel at the head of the steps) looking on. A crowd of Greeks had already gathered in the court, and eight or ten Greek monks, with their Vicar, some carrying brooms, stood at the foot of the steps. When they reached the flag-stones the usual molestation began, in spite of the presence of a Turkish official and two policemen. " The two Franciscans and their dragoman protested on the spot against the unwarranted interference, appealing to the Pasha's order, which guaranteed them the right to sweep that flagging. But the Greeks paid no regard either to the Pasha's order or to the remonstrances of the two Franciscans. The Turkish official and policemen thereupon interfered. . . . When the Father saw how things stood, he left the dragoman there to prevent the Greeks from sweeping the flagging, as they had already tried to do, and himself hastened to report the occurrence to the Gustos. Other Franciscans meanwhile, who had been engaged in private devotions before the Holy Sepulchre, came out of the Basilica when they heard the commotion, and took their stand at the side of their dragoman." The Gustos at once sent his Vicar down to the scene of disturbance, and despatched a messenger to the French Consulate, who returned with the assurance that undoubtedly 170 MARTYRDOM IN JERUSALEM all would be well for the Franciscans. Meanwhile, the Pasha sent down additional police and some soldiers, with two commandants, one of the military and one of the police. The Franciscans also were reinforced by others of their community. " Their only object in going to the place was that their presence there might serve as a quiet but positive protest against the unlawful aggression of their Greek neighbours. They would remain here in the face of all danger, until the Pasha either made good his promise of the preceding night or sent other orders." Meantime, the crowd of Greeks was increasing every moment. When from time to time dispersed by the soldiers, great numbers disappeared into the doorways of the sur- rounding Greek buildings, whence they easily gained access to the roof of the Basilica and Convent, from which they looked down on to the Franciscans below, sitting quietly on the steps, their hands in their sleeves, confident in the assurances of protection which, for the third time, reached them at noon from the representative of the Protector of Christianity in the East. " You on your part must patiently await the outcome of the event," wrote the French representative. " You know that in this country everything is done slowly. . . . Let us show by the correctness of our bearing that we know how to await the hour when peace will be restored. Though absent, I am occupied with and watch over the preservation of your interests." For once, however, things were done less slowly than usual in the East. While the defenceless Franciscans " showed the correctness of their bearing," the Greeks were gathering upon the flat roofs all around, even within a few feet of them, occupied with the accumulation of means of assault piles of stones, and of rags, and bottles of petroleum. " At about half-past nine the number of Greek monks 171 INNER JERUSALEM had increased considerably. Many of them were not monks at all, but well known brigands disguised as monks to take part in the wretched work. They were armed with hatchets, stilettoes, daggers, pistols and short heavy clubs. Many unsheathed daggers, and knives, concealed with little care by those who generally made no feint to hide such weapons, revealed the murderous intent of the Greeks. Even pistols glistened among the ample folds of the orthodox Greek habit." About three o'clock the Gustos received a visit from the French representative, the Vicar being present. " He came to speak about the difficult situation, to see whether no way could be devised for the Friars " (who had now sat patiently for about seven hours with their hands in their sleeves) " to assert their rights without further exposing themselves to danger." While they were talking, the bells of the Greek Convent rang out an ominous tocsin. A friar rushed into the room announcing that the assault on the unarmed Fran- ciscans had begun, followed by a second friar with the intelligence that a number of them were lying dead, for all that any one knew in pools of their own blood. The French representative now, for the first time, directed his steps to the scene. " The first act of open hostility was committed by those on the terraces above, who began to spit on the Franciscans, seated quietly on the steps before their chapel. The soldiers were informed of this indignity, but they interfered to stop it only in a very indifferent manner. At the same moment the Greek monks closed in and took possession of the lower steps. The Franciscans were thus pressed within narrow quarters, which made it easy for the Greeks to stone them altogether. . . . Since the forenoon the Greek sacristan had been standing ready with the bell-rope in his hand. He now rang the bells as a signal for the attack. The Greeks rushed on in crowds priests, students, church 172 MARTYRDOM IN JERUSALEM assistants and others. . . . From the terraces stones were uninterruptedly rained down on the poor friars. Several of them were struck, and fell down with heads laid open. A few were able to escape into the chapel. But even there they were not safe ; for the Greeks, denouncing them in opprobrious terms, continued to throw stones at them through the window which faces Mount Calvary. Those who were prevented from fleeing into the chapel were subjected to acts of the greatest cruelty. ... If they attempted to escape or to defend themselves as well as they could with their bare hands, they were dragged among the crowd on the plaza, where they were beaten with clubs and wounded with daggers, knives, and hatchets. . . . Some venerable old brothers who came out of the Basilica were thrown to the ground with remorseless cruelty, wounded and trampled underfoot." " All save the Greeks now fled from this indescribable scene of carnage and bloodshed. Mohammedan and Latin women shrieked for dread, and many fainted on the spot. But the Greek women who thronged the terraces did not show any signs of terror. Instead, they supplied the men with stones to cast down on the Franciscans. The cheer which the Greeks generally employ at marriage festivities resounded on all sides. 1 Meantime, at risk of his life, one of the friars made his way out into the Sion quarter of the city and succeeded in obtaining additional military assist- ance. We owe thanks to God that these soldiers came as early as they did ; for the Greeks on the terraces were just preparing to throw their burning rags, soaked in petroleum, on the wounded friars lying below, and thus to complete by fire their work of murderous assault. The 1 This is the special and characteristic sound of joy among Ori- entals, made by a rapid vibration of the tongue against the teeth. It would sound like the prolonged whistle which a street-boy makes by putting his fingers into his mouth, if such a whistle could be pro- duced with a tremolo. 173 INNER JERUSALEM fact that the friars made no attempt to defend themselves is another instance of God's providential care. For, if they had done so, we have the testimony of well informed people for the assertion that the Greeks would have made use of their pistols. In that case the carnage would have been by far more frightful." I am able to add, on good authority, that a large number of the roughest characters of the city were waiting, ready armed, for the first pistol-shot to announce that the worst had begun, in order to rush in and loot the precious ornaments of the Holy Places. Fifteen Franciscans and their interpreter, a Syrian, were carried, all severely, some dangerously wounded, into the Convent. The list of then 1 injuries, signed by two prominent Jerusalem doctors, a Frenchman and an Italian, as well as by the physician of the Municipality, lies before me, and, reading over the horrible details, one can only marvel, looking back, that all have, by the mercy of God, survived, though there are many whose injuries will be felt for life. The honours are, as to nation- ality, widely distributed. Five are Italians, two Germans, one French, one Spaniard, one Dutch, two Russian, three Syrian, and one let us feel proud of the fact English. Three were priests. One of the most serious cases was that of a Russian, who had doubtless been made the subject of special malice in consequence of his personal history. He was one of the few survivors from one of the frequent shipwrecks off the dangerous Jaffa coast. The friars of the Franciscan Convent, as is their wont, received and tended the homeless sufferers, and, as a token of gratitude to God for his deliverance, he ac- cepted the Latin creed, and, in further gratitude to his preservers, became one of their number. His onerous work at the Holy Sepulchre, where the conditions of life are especially uncomfortable and insanitary, exposed to the daily scorn of the Greeks, is evidence, if evidence were needed, of his sincerity. 174 MARTYRDOM IN JERUSALEM Public feeling in the matter was strong. The Franciscans had the sympathy, not only of those of their own faith, but of even the Moslems, who loudly expressed their regret for the sorrow which had befallen the Brothers of the Cord, their name for the Sons of St. Francis. " The French representative shortly visited the scene of the late attack. He did not hesitate to address the Turkish officers there in a manner that did honour to the consular dignity which he held. Among other things he said with fearlessness and vehemence . . . Reparation must abso- lutely be made absolutely" The French protectorate, however, practised the policy which they had thrice recommended to the defenceless friars, and showed " by the correctness of their bearing that they knew how to wait." The quotations which follow are from a communication sent from the Convent of St. Salvador to the Commissariat of the Holy Land in the United States, under date June 3, seven months after the occurrence. " Ever since the events of November 4, 1901, the entire Catholic world is looking to the East, asking itself the question whether to-day, in this age of civilization, atrocities such as have been committed at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre shall go unresented and unpunished. How justifiable this question is, may be seen from the fact that until to-day diplomatic negotiations have not shown the slightest result." The writer proceeds to explain that, from motives of policy, France had acted throughout in concert with Russia, the protector of the Eastern, as France is of the Western Church in Jerusalem. Russia apparently had suggested that a call of apology on the part of the Greek Prefect of the Holy Sepulchre would be, under the circumstances, a polite attention, but the Gustos, still mourning over the protracted sufferings of his sixteen wounded sons, did not consider the proposal, as "an abso- lute reparation," adequate. " However, the matter is not 175 INNER JERUSALEM yet disposed of, and negotiations have not yet been brought to their final conclusion. When the German and Italian consuls (having seven of their compatriots among the wounded) saw France's indifference in obtaining satisfaction for the flagrant wrong done to the German and Italian Fathers and Brothers, they took their defence into their own hands." Finally, on July 10, eight months after the occurrence, the case was brought up for trial before not only, as usual, the French Protector of Christianity, but before the Italian and German Consuls and the dragomans of other Consuls also concerned. No accused Greek appeared ; they had had plenty of time to get away. Sixty were accused, thirty-one sentenced, of whom three were archimandrites, nine monks, and nineteen seculars. The Archimandrite Pachromios was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment, three of the monks to four months, four to three months, one secular to three months, seven seculars and one archi- mandrite to one month, the remainder to short periods of one or two weeks. Writing after the lapse of two years after the trial, I cannot learn that any of these sentences have been carried out. The story from beginning to end is one which needs no comment. Even those who are not privileged to feel the sympathy of a common brotherhood and a common cause, must at least feel the responsibility of a common humanity. " Lives there a man with soul so dead " that he is not ashamed to think that here in the Holy City, in the twentieth century, it should be possible for an armed crowd to deliberately organize an assault on a score of unarmed men, bareheaded and barefooted, who, pledged to obedience, and under orders " to show by the correctness of their bearing that they knew how to wait," sat for hours with folded hands until driven from their post by showers of stones ? The city of Jerusalem is supposed to contain about 176 MARTYRDOM IN JERUSALEM thirteen thousand " Christians." Not one solitary man came to the rescue. Two episodes deserve especial mention. When the Vicar Custodial, a man of fifty years of age, returned from his afternoon interview with the Custos, " four Greek monks surrounded him at once, striking at him with clubs, one with a hatchet. The hatchet had already inflicted one slight wound, 1 and was just raised by the monk who wielded it for a more telling blow, when three men rushed to the rescue of the Father." Two of these were Arabs and one a Turk. This last was the only officer not rewarded by distinction or promotion at the general distribution of favours by the authorities. A Turkish officer was seriously wounded by a Greek monk and lost his eye. " As this might have been followed by serious consequences for the cause of the Greeks, they left nothing undone to conciliate the soldier. They visited him in the hospital, 2 each time leaving several gold pieces under his pillow, until he had fully recovered. They later on settled the matter with him for the sum of about five thousand francs, and induced him to testify that he was wounded, not by a Greek, but by one of the Franciscans, although it was amply proven that none of the Franciscans carried a weapon." A Franciscan has described the touching scene which occurred in the refectory of the Convent at the hour of supper on that unhappy fourth of November, the many empty seats, the sad countenances of those present. The aged Custos was overcome with grief. He praised the courage for sacrifice of those who lay suffering on their beds of pain. He called them martyrs of duty, fearless protectors of the Holy Shrines and Saints of God, in that they shed their blood in so holy a cause and so precious a 1 Described by the surgeon as " exposing the skull." 2 He was so fortunate as to be tended by Dr. Cant, in the British Ophthalmic Hospital. 177 N INNER JERUSALEM charge as that which has been entrusted to the Sons of St. Francis. . . . Their mission in the Orient," he said, " afforded them frequent opportunities for illuminating the pages of their Order's history with their blood freely and gladly shed." So much has been said in certain quarters as to the alleged readiness of the Franciscans to receive offence, that it may be interesting to recall that, in the year 1856, an almost similar fray occurred in the Holy Sepulchre, not between Greeks and Latins, but between Greeks and Armenians. It was during the very week in which, in Jerusalem as well as in Europe, every one was rejoicing in the restoration of general peace after the Crimean war. Te Deums were sung in every church, and a decree had been issued by the Government, publicly read in the Jerusalem Serai, in which, among others, had occurred the following admirable announcement on the part of the Sultan : "As all forms of religion are and shall be freely professed in my dominions, no subject of my Empire shall be hindered in the exercise of the religion that he professes, nor shall be in any way annoyed on this account." Scarcely had the echo of this liberal sentiment on the part of a Moslem died away, scarcely were the illuminations in honour of the Peace extinguished, when, on the Greek Easter Eve, a disturbance broke out within the sacred precincts on the occasion of the Holy Fire. It was no accidental outburst under sudden provocation. Pilgrims provided themselves with stones and cudgels, and a further supply of weapons was thrown down from a window in the gallery communicating with the Greek Convent. Certain details of the scene bore a curious resemblance to those of the later occasion. In each case the Commandant of the troops and some of his men were hurt, a Turkish officer was severely wounded with a knife, and over twenty on each side were seriously injured. On this occasion, unfortu- 178 MARTYRDOM IN JERUSALEM nately, part of the fray occurred actually within the sacred edifice, and many valuable pictures were torn, Church ornaments destroyed, and some silver lamps and silver chains subtracted. As on the latter occasion, one victim was especially selected for assault ; a lad was stabbed on face and neck by the Greeks on account of his having paraded a sort of Guy Fawkes effigy of the Emperor of Russia during the late illuminations. 1 1 Finn op. cit. ii. xxxvi. 179 EARLY ASSOCIATIONS CRUSADES TRADE ANGLO-PRUS- SIAN BISHOPRIC PROTESTANT INFLUENCE LACK OF ENGLISH ENTERPRISE AND PHILANTHROPY ENGLISH BISHOPRIC ESTABLISHED THE association of England with the Holy Land has always been somewhat capricious and ineffective a single gravestone in the Court of the Holy Sepulchre, 1 the share taken by Edward IV in restoring the roof 2 1 This gravestone, which forms part of the pavement almost in front of the door of the Holy Sepulchre, commemorates Philip d'Aubigny, the lord of the Castle of Devizes in Wiltshire, guar- dian to Henry III, and Governor of the Channel Islands. We learn from Matthew Paris that he was one of the twenty-four barons who signed Magna Charta, 1215, and that he afterwards joined the Sixth Crusade. He was at Acre in 1222, with the Emperor Frederic II, when Jerusalem was recovered in 1228, and remained with the Crusaders till his death shortly before their expulsion by the Sultan of Egypt in 1236. The stone is now very much defaced by the fre- quent passage of feet, from which it was preserved until 1864, by being covered with a block of masonry, but an emblem, probably a cross, surmounts the Hie jacet and the name is still visible. From earlier records, however, we learn that the inscription was as follows : " Hie jacet Philippus de Aubinedi cujus anima requiescat in pace. Amen." The coat of arms is a heart-shaped shield bearing four fusils in fess. 2 Whether any English work really remains is more than doubtful. Edward IVs share was the lead, that of Philip of Burgundy, the wood ; and about 200 years later, the Turks stripped the roof of its lead in order to make bullets. 180 V ENGLAND IN JERUSALEM of the Church of St. Mary at Bethlehem, and the grave * of the murderers of St. Thomas of Canterbury in the Haram Area, being the sole material links at present discoverable. Certain historians have sought to show that Constantine, who did so much for Jerusalem, was born at York, but according to Gibbon (Decline and Fall, chap, xiv.) the place of his birth, as well as the condition of his mother, Helena, far from being established, have been the subject, not only of literary, but of national, dispute. For the first associa- tion with England we have to turn to a mention made by St. Paula, one of the two Roman ladies who followed St. Jerome, and who writes to her friend, Marcella, about 390 A.D. : " The Briton, when separated from our world, if he has made any progress in religion, leaves the setting sun and seeks a place known to him only by fame and the narrative of the Scriptures " (ad Marcellam, ii. 2). The Briton, it is to be feared, had unfortunately made no pro- gress in religion at that period, which was nearly two hundred years before even St. Patrick or St. Columba, and, so far as we know, the first Briton to " leave the setting sun " in favour of the Holy City was Willibald, a nephew of St. Boni- face, who, with seven companions, went to Palestine in 754, and was imprisoned by the Saracens. Happily they were redeemed by the private liberality and influence of a merchant, who represented to the King that they came " from the west country where the sun sets, and we know 1 They are buried within El Aksa or " the further Mosque," so called in opposition to that of Mecca, which was for nearly seventy years the home of the Knights Templars. This was originally, although desecrated and probably in part destroyed meanwhile, the Church of St. Mary, otherwise the Church of the Presentation, built by Justinian in the fifth century. There, not far from the entrance, their graves are still pointed out. As part of the penance ordained by Pope Alexander III, they came to Jerusalem Hovenden says to the " black mountain," possibly Jebel Musa, still celebrated for its black stone, and were buried at Jerusalem. " Quorum superscriptio haec est. Hie jacent Miseri qui^martyrizaverunt beatum Thomam archiepiscopum Cantuariensem. ' ' 181 INNER JERUSALEM of no land beyond them but water only," to which the King replied, " Why ought we to punish them ? They have not sinned against us give them leave and let them go." And even the backsheesh of four deniers which other prisoners had to pay was remitted to them. Two accounts of the travels of St. Willibald have come down to us one by one of his companions in travel, but written some time after and from memory ; the other by an English nun, said to have been named Roswida, who had personally listened to the Saint's narrative, and whose manuscript was corrected by himself. It has all the advantages and drawbacks one might expect from a scribe who made up in personal interest what she lacked in literary experience. She devotes nine chapters to an account of the Saint's childhood, and heaps up adjectives to give weight to her convictions. As she herself says, " I pluck twigs from the lowest branches with what small skill I possess, and offer these few things to serve you as a memorial. On the other hand, the very simplicity and naivete of her work has led to the record of details which, like those of Boswell or Pepys, undoubtedly add interest of a kind which we should not have found in more dignified biography. Her descriptions of Calvary, the Holy Sepulchre, the Pool of Solomon's Porch, the Tomb of our Lady, the Church of the Ascension, are the more valuable as contributions to the discussion of the authenticity of the present sites, that they contain just those small points of detail which are valuable helps in identification. She relates that after his return to Rome he was called upon to describe his adventures to the Pope, Gregory III, who " turned all these subjects over in pleasant and familiar conversation," after which " this strenuous athlete of our good God " was made a bishop, and " immediately many commenced to flock together from all sides from those provinces and from other far-off regions." The pilgrimage of Arculphus, though he himself was French, is interesting to us, for his association with 182 ENGLAND IN JERUSALEM Adamnan and with the Venerable Bede. The pilgrim on his way home got out of his course, and the ship, intended for Bordeaux, was wrecked on the coast of lona, where Arculphus was hospitably entertained by Adamnan, who took notes of his descriptions, and even preserved a rough plan of the Holy Sepulchre. Ten years after the death of St. Augustine, Palestine was conquered by the Persians, churches were destroyed, the faithful martyred, and the Cross, discovered by St. Helena, carried away by King Chosroes in 614, and not restored till his defeat in 628 by the Emperor Heraclius. 1 But a new power was now rising into importance. Among the Arabs of the Euphrates, as well as among those of Syria and the Hauran, revolutions, both civil and religious, had taken place, and the rule of the Khalifs and the sway of Moham- medanism were practically contemporary. The year of the death of the Prophet (632) was that of the succession of the second Caliph, Omar, under whom Jerusalem, Damascus, and Antioch were captured, and finally lost to the Greek Empire ; and whose name should ever be held in gratitude by the Christian, to whom he showed a kindly toleration, which has been rare even in succeeding ages. A second benefactor to the Christians was the famous Haroun er Raschid, who entered into friendly relations with Charle- magne, the contemporary of our own Egbert, and in whose time the hospice for pilgrims in Jerusalem, founded by Gregory the Great, was reconstituted. The Latin kings did much for the cultivation of Palestine. Although looking back and merging the century of their rule into the general perspective of the age, it seems to us as if nothing were accomplished but fighting, building churches, and establishing Orders, it is probably fair enough to say that the little kingdom of Palestine enjoyed a greater 1 The reader may be reminded that its return, carried into the Holy City by the Emperor himself, is the origin of the Festival (Sept. 14) of the Exaltation of the Cross. 183 INNER JERUSALEM amount of peace and prosperity than most of her sister kingdoms of the period. Records still existing i tell us of cisterns constructed, of schemes of irrigation, of forests, and corn-fields, and vineyards, and olive-gardens ; of fields of corn, and doura, and rice, and lentils, and beans, and sesame ; of flax, cotton, and indigo ; of melons, peas, and cucumbers ; of apricots and pomegranates, oranges, almonds, bananas, and figs. Sugar, now practically abandoned, must have flourished in considerable quantities, for the crusading mills may still be seen, as well as olive and wine- presses in abundance, ah 1 pointing to cultivation enormously Colonel Conder estimates it as ten times in advance of anything now known, although the Jewish and German colonists are doing much to restore the former conditions. It is pleasant to be able to remember that there was a time when England was, however, honourably associated with the Holy Land ; that Robert of Normandy mortgaged his fief to his brother, and with the money thus raised joined the Holy War for the expiation of his sins against his father ; that he took with him Stephen of Blois, father of our King Stephen, who. however, deserted the expedition at Antioch ; and that Henry II took the Cross, though he did not live to bear it. His son, the Lion-Hearted, who in his zeal said, " I would sell London if I could find a purchaser," is one of the great heroes of the Holy War ; and the fact, preserved for us by Richard of Devizes, shows that the genus Englishman was in course of evolution, for he reached Palestine without being sea-sick, as was Philip of France. Francus ma-re nauseam, says the historian. Edward I, the last Crusader, had correspondents in Jerusalem the Master of the Templars, and Sir Joseph de Cancy, a worthy York- shireman who tried to incite him to renew the exploits of his youth, when he entered Palestine with a little army of 7,000, of whom, however, very few were English. We may also remember that our King Alfred the Great 1 Rey, Colonies Franques, 235-252. 184 ENGLAND IN JERUSALEM contributed his share to the royal alms for the support of the monasteries of Palestine. Charlemagne, who founded (at least) three religious houses, with hospices and churches, sought to assure their future maintenance by the initiating of annual subsidies ; Louis le Debonnair continued the pious custom by means of taxation, and in the eleventh century we find Pope John VIII, Alfred of England, and the kings of Hungary laying themselves under contribution. It is interesting to know that one of the most remarkable specimens of twelfth century workmanship to be found in the British Museum is the Breviary of Queen Millicent, a zealous benefactress of the church in Jerusalem. It is in the Byzantine style of binding, with sides of carved ivory and silver, and a cross embroidered in gold on the back. It will be remembered that she was the half Armenian daughter of Baldwin II, and that she married Fulk, Count of Anjou, who (by his first wife) was father of Geoffrey Plantagenet, and grandfather of Henry II of England, through whom the Plantagenets inherited Anjou. In 1574, England made a treaty with Murad III, and in 1583 the Levant Trading Company was started under the auspices of Queen Elizabeth. Among the many ways in which the unhappy King Charles I sought the advantage of the Anglican Church was that of extending her influence to the East, where already, for over 400 years, the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor had been firmly established as Guardians of the Holy Places. Archbishop Laud made a collection of Oriental MSS., which was greatly enriched by the presentation to the King in 1628 of the price- less Codex Alexandrinus of the New Testament, now in the British Museum, by Cyril Lucar, Greek patriarch of Alexandria. Moreover, Laud conceived a design that there should be " a Church of England in all Courts of Christendom in the chief cities of the Turk and other great Mahometan princes, and in all our factories and plantations, in every known part of the world, by which it might be rendered as * 185 INNER JERUSALEM diffused and Catholic as the Church of Rome." * In spite, however, of the immense commercial relations between England and the East, and of the reign of the " Turkey Merchant," nothing was done until the establishment, nearly two hundred and fifty years later, of the Anglican Bishopric in Jerusalem. The story of this renewal of our relations opens about the year 1840, when the English, together with the Austrian banners, were displayed in Palestine (over Acre), probably for the first time since the days of Richard I. It was an hour of weakness for Turkey. Egypt, Crete and Syria had been wrested from her grasp. Was there not, for the first time since the Crusades, a chance of establishing a Christian kingdom in the Holy Land ? But no ! the gospel of the balance of power was more potent than the desire for the Gospel of Christ, and the Western powers, fearful of adding force to Russia by the subtraction of influence from Turkey, re-established the supremacy of the Porte. Their opportunity for making terms went by, and Jerusalem was given back to Islam and the Grand Turk. When we see to-day what English influence has done for Egypt, we are the more sensible of the value of the oppor- tunity, so gratuitously lost. Philhellenism, Philjudaismeach in turn urged its claims ; colonies of English, of Germans, were projected ; a protectorate under the Porte on some such lines as directed the Danubian Provinces was suggested ; the existing activities of the American missionaries at Beirut, 3 the potential activities of English societies, all these were brought before the notice of Lord Palmerston, 1 William Laud. Rev. W. H. Hutton (Leaders of Religion Series), p. 165. 2 The traveller, Eliot War burton, writing in 1848, while regretting that there was not in Syria an English missionary who had taken a University degree, speaks in the highest terms of the Americans, who had even then fifteen schools under " devout and zealous men, who, though Presbyterians, have probably produced a deeper effect than is at present apparent." (The Crescent and the Cross, ch. xxiii.) 186 ENGLAND IN JERUSALEM of the English Government, but the only practical upshot of the matter was that mysterious alliance between the Church of England and the Church of Prussia, which resulted in the mixed bishopric, appointed alternately by England and Prussia, an idea unique in the history of the Anglican Church, invented by the King of Prussia, who not only liberally contributed half the expenses, 15,000, but allowed England first choice of a bishop. She chose Michael Solomon Alexander, a Jew from Posen, who was baptized at Plymouth at the age of twenty-six, ordained priest at Dublin at twenty- eight, and who then taught Hebrew in King's College. London, until, at the age of forty-two, he became bishop at Jerusalem. He was accompanied by Ewald, another Jew, and found a missionary, a Jew of Schleswig, already at work in the Holy City, a representative of the Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews, presided over by Lord Shaftesbury. It is interesting to note a remark by the editor of the Memoirs of Bishop Oobat in relation to this very period : " Among the Christians of Great Britain the idea began to gain ground that the time of the prophesied conversion and restoration of Israel was at hand, but of the return of the Jews not a trace was to be discovered " (op cit., p. 223). Bishop Alexander died in 1845, and was succeeded by Samuel Gobat, elected by the King of Prussia. Some glimpse of the anomaly of the position may be gathered from his own biographer, who tells us that Herr Zeller, the father of Frau Gobat, " was shocked ; for it was his opinion that no bishop could be saved ; the temptation to worldli- ness would be too strong " (op. cit., p. 227). Herr Werner, another friend, writes : " By speech a Frenchman, you are a German in sympathies, and have become an Englishman by virtue of your connexion with the British Mission." One cannot help being struck, even in the case of a man of such undoubted ability and personal piety as Bishop Gobat, by one peculiarity of the Protestant attitude of 187 INNER JERUSALEM mind, which, even after some seventy years of experience, is apparently just as strong among the uninformed to-day, that of attributing to French political influence the successes, religious and educational, of the Latin Church. In 1847 he writes : " I fully agree with you that the combined efforts of French and Roman policy, of which education is the most powerful auxiliary, are calculated greatly to increase the influence of France in Syria. But the more I reflect on this subject, the more I feel our want of means to counteract that influence, either in a political or religious point of view. I do not think, however, that the greatest difficulty will be with the natives ; although in this respect, also, the French emissaries, whether Jesuits or Sceurs de Charite, 1 have a great advantage over us in the fact that they can begin their operations, wherever they go, with co-religionists, who not only have no prejudice of importance against them, but who have also been accustomed to look to them for protection " (op. cit. p. 236). There is no doubt that esprit de corps is stronger among the Latins than is at all to be looked for among the miscellaneous and subdivided varieties of Protestantism represented in the Holy City ; but, as a matter of fact, the only religious Order at that time in Jerusalem was the definitely international Order of Friars Minor, commonly known as Franciscans, of whom the Superior must always be an Italian, the next in office a Frenchman, 2 and the procurator a Spaniard. 1 It is thoroughly typical of the ignorance which so often charac- terizes the attacks of one religious body upon other communities, that there are not, and never have been any Jesuits in Jerusalem, and that the Sceurs de Charite did not arrive till 1886, forty years after the writing of the above passage. The pioneers of the Sceurs de Saint Joseph, whose foundation in Jerusalem dates from 1848, may conceivably have arrived. The Franciscans had been the Guardians of the Holy Places for 650 years, and the priests associated with the newly restored Patriarchate had just appeared upon the scene. No French order of priests came to Jerusalem before 1878. 2 It is interesting, in view of the present relation between the 188 When the English Bishopric was founded in Jerusalem the field was practically unoccupied ; the Anglican Church, had she chosen to avail herself of it, had as good a chance as any other ; the Franciscans were mainly occupied with their task of discovering, securing and maintaining the Holy Places, their educational work had hardly begun ; the ten religious orders of priests, with the two brother- hoods, the twelve sisterhoods, by whom they have been so nobly seconded, men and women from all continents and both hemispheres, had not yet arrived, and England might have founded the schools, hospitals, asylums, orphanages, institutions of secondary and technical education, refuges, which she has chosen to leave to those of other faiths and other nationalities, Christian and Jewish ; and English, instead of French, might have become the secondary vernacular of the Jerusalem of to-day. Had the Church in England been disestablished and disendowed, had her representatives been placed under a foreign protectorate, had her hierarch become a prisoner in his own house, had the representatives of her faith been chased with ignominy from the country to which they had given love and work and life, one might have understood, in some degree, the causes of failure ; but it is our England, with her state religion, her endowments, her enormously wealthy missionary societies, who to-day must hide her diminished head, who to-day in Jerusalem must ask the Mohammedans to provide her with house-room, the Germans to nurse her sick, the Latins to show hospitality to her pilgrims, the Americans Government of France and the religious orders, to realize that their claim to be Protectors of Christianity in the East rests not merely on conditions of policy and treaty, but on their further claim to be the hereditary successors of the Crusaders. The Holy War was preached by Peter the Hermit, a Frenchman ; its conditions were established at the Council of Clermont, a French Council ; the Frank kings and conquerors, Godfrey de Bouillon and Baldwin, were French- men, as was also Saint Louis the Saint of the Crusades, the hero of the final attempt. 189 INNER JERUSALEM to make her Arabic translations, to print her books, to educate her sons, to prepare them for professions and to provide them with diplomas. To the Jews we offer a hospital which their own in almost every respect transcends, and which is closed, except on terms practically prohibitive to all but the rich among Christians ; * to others we offer only untrained teachers, amateur colporteurs of medicine, and a Gospel which, for the most part, we, in so far, omit to illustrate. In proportion as we reverence our National Church, as we desire the spread of the faith, we shall open our eyes to our real position in the land to which we owe all that has made our England great among the nations. In Jaffa, the seaport of Jerusalem, and the gate of the Holy Land, where, with the few exceptions of those who reach the interior on horseback, every " Protestant " entering Palestine must pass, what do we find ? In the month of September 1902 we found schools closed for the holidays, the missionaries away, a hospital closed for the summer (the time of greatest physical need in Palestine), and within the gates of the German Colony a bare room with the inscription, " Church of England. Services, Sundays, 10.30 and 3 (the three o'clock service being dis- continued)," and then we quote political conditions as the cause of our failure to appeal to the sympathies of the Palestine Moslem ! The immense hospital tended by the Sceurs de Saint Joseph was full ; the sisters had lately moved from the large schools they have outgrown into still worthier buildings with every modern educational improvement, which might well be the envy of any School Board in England ; we found teachers who give their lives (unsalaried) to God's service ; orphanages, asylums, dispensaries, secondary schools, where 1 Fortunately the French and German hospitals are open gratis, or on moderate terms, irrespective of creed or nationality. 190 ENGLAND IN JERUSALEM the machinery never stops, and the least of these our Lord's brethren is cared for 365 days in the year ; churches where we may worship at any hour of the day on seven days in the week. In a population of 33,000, we find 1,700 Latins and 200 Protestants, and those largely German ; we meet in all parts of the city the kindly sons of St. Francis walking two and two, like the disciples of old, seeking those who need their practical help, and ever ready to offer courtesy to the passing stranger or show hospitality to all, irrespective of faith, position, sex or nationality ; and then we regret " our want of means to counteract the French influence either in a political or religious point of view." It seems to have been almost by a freak of destiny that here, where life, history, politics, science, art, society even, all turn upon the pivot of religion here with the eyes of Christendom upon her here where sheer force of rivalry seems to put each Creed upon its mettle, England should have placed herself in a unique and anomalous position never attempted elsewhere in the whole course of her history. The biography of Bishop Gobat is evidence enough of the weakness of the position : " His large heart was full of brotherly love for the truly devout among the German and Swiss evangelicals. He was also filled with reverence for the ancient firmly established ordinances of the Episcopal Church, a state of feeling which his office rendered obliga- tory and his humility made easy. . . . Did he desire to ordain priest of the Church of England some candidate from Switzerland, who had already received a quasi-ordm&tiou at home, the step was disapproved of at Berlin. Did he permit a non-episcopally ordained functionary to preach in Christ Church, this was turned to his reproof in other quarters," and so on. Was ever an honest man placed in so impossible a position ? The book is a human document which should be carefully read by any one seeking to estimate justly the present position of Anglicanism in Jerusalem. 191 INNER JERUSALEM Bishop Gobat died in 1879, and his successor, Bishop Barclay, in 1882. The anomaly which had existed for forty-one years died a natural death, and it was not till after five years' interregnum that the position was re- constituted, and Doctor Blyth, Archdeacon of Ran- goon, was consecrated as Bishop of the Anglican Church in Jerusalem on St. Luke's Day 1898. 192 IN THK TKMIM.K PRECINCTS. CHAPTER XIII ENGLISH CHURCH IN JERUSALEM ANGLICAN BISHOPRIC ITS DIFFICULTIES MISSIONARY SOCIETIES PROSELYTISM CONDEMNED EDUCATION NEED OF ENGLISH PHILANTHROPY CHRIST CHURCH STATISTICS MEDICAL WORK REMARKS ON MISSION- ARIES ABSENCE OF ENGLISH HOSPITALITY -REMARKS BY LADY BURTON r I ^HE definite and authoritative expression of a desire -I for the presence of an Anglican Episcopate came from the Patriarchs of the Greek Church in Jerusalem and Constantinople, but Bishop Blyth, in giving the history of the movement, 1 does not hesitate to add that " the same professed desire for the unity of the Church in Christ, with the same personal kindness towards ourselves and the same hope of peace, is expressed by the Latin Church as by our- selves and by the Churches of thepEast." " The circumstances of the Bishopric," reports the Bishop himself in one of his earliest charges, " are peculiar : the majority of the clergy are in the employ of Missionary Societies which even to minute details direct the affairs of missions in their London office. This has its advantages from their point of view it enables them to bring their ' home influences ' to bear upon all questions ; but from a diocesan point of view it has its grave drawbacks it makes a separation perhaps more distinct than that of living in another diocese might do between various bodies of clergy ; it interferes with unity 1 The quotations from the Bishop are taken in all cases from his published charges. 193 O of work ; it allows an undesirable scope to individual eccen- tricity ; it paralyses common and concerted action and progress and weakens anything like diocesan unity. In whatever sense the Anglican Church is here represented amongst other communions, our Church is affected and compromised by action taken under the standard of the Church of England by any association which, on their private rules, act independently of, or counter to, the policy of the Bishop ; and to the extent that I notice this, I would have it regarded by the Church which is affected by it, for it is keenly and justly noted by the Churches around us " . . . " The policy pursued by our missions has gathered powerful foes against them. It is no secret that Government action has been repeatedly invoked against our schools on requisi- tion by other Churches on which aggression has been made." The two Missionary Societies, one devoting itself to Jews, the other avowedly to Mohammedans, the one dating from 1823, the other from 1851, 1 naturally became tinged with the accommodating laxity which made possible the condi- tions of the joint bishopric, and which has probably done more than any fact in the entire history of the English Church to injure her in the eyes of other Churches. The time may come when the influence and example of St. George's Collegiate Church, 2 strictly " moderate " as is its teaching, will convince them that the Anglican Church is not merely a sect of the " Protestants " of whom they speak wholesale, who keep no fasts, and reverence no saints, whose Offices are recited by laymen, whose churches are closed from Sunday to Sunday, who communicate at any hour of the day, who are indifferent to bishops and other authority, who practically allow their women to preach, and, above all, who seek to proselytise among other branches 1 The mixed Bishopric was founded in 1841. The London Jews' Society seems to have arrived in 1841, although in their own publica- tions they date from 1823 ; the Church Missionary Society in 1851. 2 The Church built, and the Collegiate foundation organized, by Bishop Blyth. 194 ENGLISH CHURCH IN JERUSALEM of the Christian faith. It is in vain to show them the calendar of the Book of Common Prayer, in vain to call their attention to rubrics, in vain to produce authoritative statements as to the objects of the Societies. " Ye say and do not " is, very naturally, their reply. Of " the English High Church " they speak with unfailing respect, but the very name they bestow upon it is evidence of their very natural inability to perceive, after sixty years' active demonstration to the contrary, 1 that it represents the national faith of England, and not merely the views of a party which happens to differ from the missionaries. One can hardly expect, perhaps indeed one would hardly desire, that they should understand that the Church Missionary Society in Palestine is, to quote Bishop Blyth, " an abnormal mission presenting features quite unique, and in most respects, unlike any other mission of that Society with which I am acquainted. I think fair weight must be given to this difference, for I should be sorry indeed to attach to the whole missions of the C.M.S. the strictures which I must sometimes pass upon their special work in this country." " I had thought that you were born at the Reformation and that Martin Luther was your patriarch," was the obser- vation of a Greek prelate, and no doubt he represented the views of the Latins and Greeks who have observed and criticized those English in Jerusalem who appear to have consistently sought to alienate the sympathies of those of 1 Although the Church Missionary Society has some twenty-five clergy in Palestine they have not a single consecrated church, and many of their stations are left for weeks together without sacraments, in the charge of deacons, whose ordination as priests for some myste- rious reason they are chary of accomplishing. In some stations they have a room reserved for service, but too often one finds, as Bishop Blyth regretfully expresses it, " the irreverence of Baptism, where there is nothing set apart to do duty for a font, and of the Holy Communion on the loan of the inky and rickety schoolmaster's table." He relates that a native, being reproved for smoking cigar- ettes during service, replied, " Why not ? this is not a Church. You are not a clergyman. We are only having a meeting." 195 INNER JERUSALEM other creeds. 1 Though definitely prohibited even by their own Society from all attempts to proselytise among other members of the Christian faith, they have persistently sought every opportunity of so doing ; a policy which endangers the continuance of all English work in the country. By the original convention of 1841, assigned by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the representative of the Prussian Government, " the Bishop," they agreed, " is specially charged not to entrench upon the spiritual rights and liberties of the Churches of the East, but to confine himself to the care of those over whom they cannot right- fully claim any jurisdiction." " Thus," it is added, by our own primates in 1887, on the establishment of the Anglican Bishopric, " to make English proselytes of the members of those Churches, to make it the worldly interest of the poor to attach themselves to us, to draw away children against the wishes of their parents, is not after the spirit or usage of this foundation." That such entire disregard of conventions understood, and promises definitely given and received is recognized as confined to the work of the C.M.S. is obvious not only from the friendly reception accorded to Bishop Blyth by the Greek and Latin Patriarchs and the Bishops of the Syrian, Coptic and Armenian Churches, but also because he is happily able to record conduct more scrupulous on the part of the only other English Mission of any long standing in the Holy Land, that of the Society for the Pro- motion of Christianity among the Jews. " There is the same presence around these missions of other Christian Churches who might pleasantly swell a congregation. Yet the London Jems' Society keeps to its 1 It should be noted that the Services in the German Church are reverent, orderly and aesthetic, and that the Lutherans of Jeru- salem'are punctilious in respect of ritual and observance of Feasts. They are too much occupied with practical philanthropy to at- tempt proselytism. 196 ENGLISH CHURCH IN JERUSALEM single aim ; 1 neither by education nor by any other means does it aggress upon other Churches. There is not a single such convert on their roll, nor child in their schools" One can hardly feel surprise at the Bishop's expression of regret at " the employment in our missions of teachers, preachers, catechists and native clergy trained originally for the work of those who are not in communion with our Church," the English Church, alone perhaps of all the creeds represented in Jerusalem, having as yet no training college, and indeed no school which can claim to be much more than elementary. Those desirous of education in any degree advanced must seek it among the Latin or Greek religious Orders, or in the Jesuit or the Presbyterian American College at Beirut. Indeed, all higher educational movement for men or women, technical, secular or religious, is in 1 It is worth while to quote from a letter of the Duke of Kent, May 4, 1813, in relation to the foundation of this Society. After excusing himself from a meeting on account of the Duchess of York's birthday, he says : " I am most sincerely and warmly interested in the success of the grand object which they have in view, which I consider not only highly laudable, but at the same time most impor- tant ; always, however, bearing in mind that every idea of prosely- tism must be excluded therefrom, the freest exercise of conscience upon all matters of religion being, in my own opinion, the only basis on which the plan can thrive. . . . Although holding, as I do, the Christian religion, agreeable to the manner in which it is professed and taught in the Established Church of this country, to be the purest guide to true happiness and morality, still I could not consider a right spirit of Christian benevolence as going beyond the extending our arms to receive into the bosom of our Church either the Jew or Mahometan who, from unbiassed conviction, becomes a convert to Christianity." It is fair to add the words of Bishop Gobat, by whom the C.M.S. was originally invited to Jerusalem : " I have never wished to make converts from the old Churches," i.e. to proselytise in the Greek or Latin Churches, and again : " Let them remain in their own Churches, and there confess their Saviour and His truth." It is interesting to note that even the American missionaries, who are under no political obligation hi the matter, have from the first been aware of the dishonourable nature of all attempts at prosely- tism. Robinson, writing of 1838, remarks : " The object of the Ameri- can Missions to Syria . . . was not to draw off members of the Ori- ental* Churches to Protestantism." {Biblical Researclies, section vi.) 197 INNER JERUSALEM Jerusalem in the hands of Germans, Americans, or Jews. The many changes and improvements which have followed the establishment of an Anglican Bishopric will, before long, include the promotion of higher education, and indeed the schools already existing in connexion with St. George's are in advance of any educational work hitherto done by the English in Jerusalem. The occupation of Palestine by the Crusaders lasted barely a century, but it sufficed to cover the land with countless monuments of devotion. It is literally impossible to explore any ground of an acre or two in extent within, say, a radius of two miles from the Holy Sepulchre without coming upon traces of churches and fortresses of considerable artistic merit, but during the last hundred years English zeal and English money have not availed to erect half a dozen buildings religious or philanthropic, and of those, St. George's alone has any architectural pretentions whatsoever. Christ Church, the oldest centre of English missionary enterprise in Jerusalem, is a small building eminently early Victorian in style, with its font in front of the altar, begun with the help of Lord Shaftesbury in 1842 and built at the cost, it is alleged, of over 17,000. 1 The Rev. George Williams, B.D., who was Chaplain to Bishop Alexander, and whose volumes on The Holy City are among the most readable and accurate upon the subject, has the following note (vol. ii. p. 584, second edition), a contribution to those many humiliations to which, as English, one is constantly subjected in Jerusalem. "I cannot but regard it as an unfortunate circum- stance that the land selected for the English Church (i.e. the English Missionary Church) was the property of the Jacobites, 2 unjustly confiscated by the Turks, 1 The Church was paid for partly by voluntary subscriptions from England ; Germany contributed 200 and a Miss Cook over 20,000. The very beautiful and richly decorated Collegiate Church of St. George's was erected at a cost of 3,000. 2 The Jacobites deserve the especial consideration of all who call 198 ENGLISH CHURCH IN JERUSALEM and especially that their venerable Church of St. James the son of Alphaeus should have been used as a de- pository for lime and other building materials. Even though we place no faith in their local traditions and regard the sacred places with indifference ourselves, it were surely well to bear with their weakness in this respect and avoid the appearance of a contemptuous or irreverent violation of scenes associated in their minds with the most awful events of sacred history. ... If we think that we have everything to teach and nothing to learn, we are wanting in the first qualification for the task which we have set ourselves the spirit of humility." Mr. Williams' prophecies as to the effectiveness of our Missions (as at present organized) made in 1847 have been but too sadly fulfilled. He regards them not only as intro- ducing false doctrine and heresy in relation to the Anglican Church, but as provocative of schism in the Churches of the East. He makes the suggestion that " a medical staff of Christians devoting themselves to the service of the Jews without any private ends might perhaps have imperceptibly exercised a salutary influence upon the unbelievers. It would have seemed to them like a moral miracle." This suggestion would appear to have been at one time accepted, as in Mr. Montagu Samuel's Jewish Life in the East, 1881, we read that Dr. Chaplin (as well as Dr. Schick), the medical officer of the L.J.S., was much esteemed by the Jews, " as he is very good to them, never preaches a syllable of Chris- tianity, is always ready to visit them at their residences without charge." This silent oratory of good deeds is now relegated to Latins, Greeks, Russians, Germans and Moravians, who nurse the sick of all denominations in themselves Christian as the representatives of those Syrians who followed our Lord here in His own native land, and who still pray in the language in which He taught. How can other Churches regard the fact that our one point of contact with them is the desecra- tion of one sanctuary and the spoliation of another ? 199 INNER JERUSALEM their own homes, as well as in admirable hospitals, without any demonstration of " private ends " ; but as an important Jewish official remarked in relation to the English Hospital, " Mais $a ne fait rien. Ce n'est pas la bas qu'on attrape le Christianisme, et ga fait des economies pour nous autres ! " Christ Church is in the hands of the London Jews' Society, while the C.M.8. has a little chapel outside the city, where, on Sundays, services are held in Arabic. Some of the major fasts and festivals are now observed at Christ Church, and, thanks to the zeal of the Rev. J. E. Hanauer, there is a daily service in Hebrew, theoretically for the Hebrew Christians, but which, one erroneously supposes, must be eagerly appreciated by the missionaries whose work is the conversion of the Jews and whom one innocently assumes are, of course, as a primary condition, fluent Hebrew scholars and glad to familiarize themselves with that language on its devotional as well as on its practical side. In the interests of charity one has to bear in mind constantly the fact that the present generation of mission- aries has, so to speak, not yet outgrown the long associa- tion with those of the Lutheran faith, and that by them the idea of obedience to Bishops and to the Book of Common Prayer is as yet but imperfectly understood ; but in regard to the observance of Feasts and Fasts, Bishop Blyth has well said, " Is there any excuse to be accepted in a land where the Apostles lived and walked with our Lord, and where they founded His Church, and where the Blessed Virgin set before womankind the example of her beautiful life of modesty, reverence and obedience for the neglect of the days set apart by every branch of the Church, as by our own, for their commemoration ? I may well speak plainly on this point, since a clergyman said to a native brother, ' Every one knows that those days are now obsolete and are only observed by extreme ritualists ! ' Of the work of the Society for the Promotion of Christianity 200 ENGLISH CHURCH IN JERUSALEM among the Jews something is said in the chapter concerning Jews in Jerusalem, and on the same analogy observations concerning the work of the Church Missionary Society should be relegated to the chapter upon Mohammedans in Jerusalem ; but although the enormous amount of money spent upon the Palestine Mission is theoretically subscribed for the conversion of Mohammedans, then* work seems to have so little practical relation with Mohammedanism that it is only with a chapter upon the English that the subject seems to have any obvious connexion. As there are no heathen in Palestine, and the Society is technically prohibited from interfering with other Chris- tian Churches, it is to be presumed that their statistics concern their relations to Moslems only. The following figures are extracted from their reports for the years 1895- 1901 inclusive. 1894-5 Expenditure, 16,011 95. 2d. Local receipts, 119 16s. 5d. Adult baptisms none. In 1895-6 Expenditure, 15,006 85. 3d. Local re- ceipts, 136 3s. lOfd. Adult baptisms, one in Jerusalem, one in Jaffa. In 1896-7 Expenditure, 14,762 Os. lid. Local re- ceipts, 110 18s. 2d. Adult baptisms, none. In 1897-8 Expenditure, 15,917 11s. Id. Local re- ceipts, 112 2s. 9d. Adult baptisms, none. In 1898-9 Expenditure, 14,972 17s. 5d. Local receipts, 135 6s. 7d. Adult baptisms, six, all in Gaza, which by a curious coincidence is the only station contributing nothing whatever to local receipts. In 1899-1900 Expenditure, 16,710 14s. lid. Local receipts, 94 2s. lOcl. Adult baptisms, one, at Gaza. In 1901-2 Expenditure, 20,989 4s. 6d. Local re- ceipts, 431 6s. 2d. Adult baptisms, none. Thus we observe that in seven years there has been a 201 INNER JERUSALEM total expenditure in Palestine of 114,370 Is. 9^., towards which the country itself has contributed 1,139 16s. IQd. The number of adult baptisms has been nine. This we may take as an average annual expenditure of 16,338 lls. Sd. ; average local receipts (presumably from school fees and local subscriptions), 162 16s. 8d. ; average baptisms, If, at the cost of 12,707 15s. 9d, per head. 1 The Society has been at work for over half a century, and had the start of all bodies but the L.J.S. and the Soeurs de St. Joseph. The country of Palestine is about the size of Wales. We cannot wonder that Bishop Gobat should have written to Von Bunsen, in 1848, " That there can be no question of proselytising among the Moslems, is a matter of course." One naturally inquires whether it is on philanthropic work that so large an income is expended ? The Report of 1894-5 complains that Government had stopped the medical work recently begun at a certain town because the missionary in charge " not being a properly qualified medical man, cannot practise in the Turkish Empire." In the British Empire they would probably find that the police would go further than stopping the work. The Turkish Empire has apparently learnt some lessons on this point, as now even a properly qualified medical man must, here as elsewhere, have his diplomas endorsed by the medical faculty, and it is reported that two men were lately imprisoned for resorting to a reputable M.R.C.S. and M.B. Lond. who had neglected to comply with the usual and very necessary conditions (C.M.S. Report, 1900). The C.M.S. appears at one time to have attempted a printing press, as in 1900 it is reported that a child's book was issued, and during some of the previous years we hear also of the issue of a Church History of the first seven centuries, a grammar of Arabic particles, an 1 Jews are cheaper. The average cost of a Jewish conversion is 1,200, as has been already seen. 202 ENGLISH CHURCH IN JERUSALEM almanac, and Discourses upon the Sermon on the Mount by the Rev. H. E. Fox. Although Jerusalem is the head- quarters of Arabic-speaking Missions, no literary work worth mentioning has been accomplished ; and for books, as for trained teachers, the English Church depends upon the American Presbyterians at Beirut. In 1891, the Mission, for the first time, established a hospital at Gaza ; four others have since been added, none, however, within two days' journey of Jerusalem. In Jerusalem itself the Society is represented by a small church, where there are, on Sundays, services in Arabic, an iron room for classes and prayer meetings, a secondary school known as the Preparandi, which according to a late report had seventeen students, and a primary school founded by Bishop Gobat, which seems prosperous and effective, and contains seventy-eight boys, who are taught, among other matters of useful knowledge, drilling, cricket and football, all, for reasons obvious to the student of oriental psychology, of especial value to the Arab races. The report is made under the headings of six stations Jerusalem, Jaffa, Gaza, Nablous, Nazareth and Salt. In the Report for 1900 we read for the first time of the C.M.S. having undertaken work at Bethlehem, so literally the cradle of Christianity. The inhabitants of the town and neighbouring villages were, however, long ago Christian- ized by Greeks, Latins and Armenians. The English Mission has no church and no clergy, but the immense crowd of white-veiled women and barefooted men, seated on the floor of the large Latin Church, not only every Sunday but on all Holy Days (which are kept with great precision), is a very striking spectacle. There are, moreover, well worked and long established German mission stations with handsome churches and various philanthropic institutions, orphanages, dispensaries and schools both at Bethlehem and the neighbouring village of Beit Jala. There was formerly an English mission admirably worked by Miss 203 INNER JERUSALEM Jacomb, sent out nearly half a century ago by some obscure society now extinct, a lady whose memory and practical work is still revered among the natives. The missionaries do not live in community, as economy might suggest, but the ladies occupy houses singly or in pairs. Each has 100 a year, house-rent and medical attendance, and living is exceedingly cheap. The climate is on the whole salubrious mean temperature 62. Moreover, most of the schools have nearly three months holiday in the year, and every three years, according to the latest arrangements, the missionaries may go home for six months, expenses paid. In certain cases, to meet the views of anxious parents, return is even more frequent. This, it is said, is necessary for health. I do not find that any other European residents, consuls, medical men or their families, require so frequent a variety ; indeed, on careful inquiry, I believe that the usual term of residence for the official classes averages about six years, though many remain for much longer periods. Of those engaged in religious work in other Churches it is unnecessary to speak. The majority are here for life ; and though in most cases, certainly in that of the women, their work is unspeakably more severe, they utterly ridicule any suggestion of injury to health. I have consulted on this point not merely those who, coming from southern lands, may possibly be the better acclimatized to Palestine, but Swedes, Russians, French, Swiss, Dutch, Germans, Canadians and sons and daughters of the United States. Even English, Scotch and Irish appear to have greater powers of endurance and sustained effort when dissociated from missionary societies. Of course it is only fair to remember that these have no fatigue of social claims, that they live in communities of scores and hundreds and have no need to take thought for the morrow, that their associates and friends are in some cases little children, in others the homeless, the sick, the crippled, the aged, the leprous, even the criminal. To 204 visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and keep oneself unspotted from the world seems to be economical even to health and spirits as well as to the purse of the subscriber. I note, for example, that during the years 1894-1900 inclusive the cost of Palestine missionaries under the heading of " outfit, passages, allowances for home leave, children and shipping " amounts to 5,959 185. 9d., an annual average of over 883, which, now that more frequent leave is permitted, will presumably be con- siderably increased. The Church missionaries have, moreover, certain advan- tages of which one does not hear in connexion with other employment, and one reads in their reports, not only of gratuitous training, but even while students, of allowances for dress and travelling an advantage which students for the Army and Navy, the Church, Medicine or the Law, presumably also preparing for the service of their fellow- creatures, though under conditions of less assured payment, might regard with legitimate envy. The Church of England alone, among all religions, has no provision for hospitality to strangers. Greeks, Russians, Abyssinians, Copts, Armenians, Germans, Austrians, French, have all their national hospices, and the Assumptionist Order at Notre Dame as well as the Francis- can Fathers at the Casa Nuova are prepared to receive over 500 and 200 pilgrims respectively, irrespective of sex, creed or nationality, not only entertaining them with all suitable hospitality, but making arrangements for their visits to all places of pious pilgrimage. In travelling over the country, moreover, all creeds and nationalities are kindly welcomed in the guest-houses attached to the monasteries, Greek, Latin and Russian alike. As long ago as October 1848 Bishop Gobat, in his Circular Letter, admitted the need of the English community in this direction. After commenting with no doubt deserved severity upon the conduct of the Protestant immigrant, 205 INNER JERUSALEM he continues : " From the foregoing remarks it must become clear to every one how desirable it is that a hospice should soon be established for the reception of such travellers to aid them in their want and degradation. Then it is not fair that Protestant artizans should absorb the alms of Roman Catholics." A German Protestant Hospice has since been established, and England alone sets no example of welcome to the immigrant, she alone organizes no pil- grimages, offers no hospitality, facilitates no religious ardours, fails even to provide care or shelter for the sick among her own people. In reflecting on the practical efficacy of mission work one's thoughts naturally turn towards our earlier British missionaries, St. Patrick, St. Columba, St. Augustine, St. Boniface and even to Henry Martin, Judson, Heber, or Paterson. But, neglecting such examples, let us only quote from the Baptist missionary, David Livingstone, who assuredly cannot be accused of entertaining " popish " proclivities. Of the ancient monks, the earliest to follow the teaching of our Lord's own missionaries, to go without purse or scrip, he writes, " They did not disdain to hold the plough. They introduced fruit-trees, flowers, vege- tables, in addition to teaching and emancipating the serfs. Their monasteries were mission stations which resembled ours in being dispensaries for the sick, almshouses for the poor, and nurseries of learning." He was not, of course, referring to mission work in Palestine in saying " ours." I am, however, officially assured that philanthropic work is purposely and definitely excluded from the objects of the C.M.S. with the exception of the five medical missions which figure in the last report as receiving the apparently very inadequate and disproportionate allowance of 1,287 out of an expenditure of nearly 21,000^; so that it is in vain to plead for the establishment of such civilizing agencies 1 Of. the allowance for holidays, p. 205. 206 ENGLISH CHURCH IN JERUSALEM as technical and industrial schools where the boys and girls of towns and villages might be taught the Christianizing influences of orderly homes honestly earned ; perhaps one may venture to hope however that the time may come when at least some definite and recognized standard of education may be exacted from those who come out here to teach ; that the examination in the Arabic which it is their business to acquire after their arrival in the country shall, as well as that of the schools in which they teach, be conducted by some extraneous authority and that the study of the Koran should be incumbent upon those whose concern is presumably religious discussion with those of the Moslem faith. Unhappily, as the Moslems have now provided themselves with excellent educational advantages and many valuable philanthropic institutions, as charity and alms- giving are an inherent part of their religion, the time has now passed when an example such as has long been offered, among Protestants, by the Lutherans, Moravians, the Church of Scotland, the American Presbyterians and the Society of Friends might have been usefully associated with the work of the Church of England. Lady Burton describes a scene which might equally occur almost anywhere in Syria in certain Protestant schools to- day. " I once asked a group of girls what they learned in school. I shall not quote their answer, but after a long tirade I said, ' Can you make bread and butter or cook ? '" She might have added " or wash, or iron, or clean the house, or do plain needlework, or cut out your own clothes, or even carry a parcel without complaint ? " and now, as well as then, she might have received, as I have three times received, the negative, the contemptuously negative answer, she describes. Now, as then, she might vainly seek throughout the houses of European residents and the hotels of Jerusalem for any mistress who would take a " Protestant " servant, man or woman, while she could get any one else to serve her ; and that despite the obvious convenience of a religion 207 INNER JERUSALEM which demands no week-day churchgoing, no fasts, no early communions, no inconvenient confessions. Now, as then, she might conclude, " we had better let education alone till we understand our business better, and until we have learnt to introduce our virtues and leave our vices at home." 208 NKBI SAMWEEI., THE Iloi'SE AND TOMB OF SAMUEL. CHAPTER XIV ENGLISH TRADE AND ENGLISH TRAVEL COMMERCIAL RELATIONS OF ENGLAND AND SYRIA JERU- SALEM WATERWORKS THE ARAB OF THE EAST WHAT HE THINKS OF THE WEST THE TRAVELLER, AMERICAN AND ENGLISH ; ACCORDING TO LADY BURTON ; TO CANON DALTON ; TO MARK TWAIN ; TO CLERMONT GANNEAU THE DRAGOMAN THE SOLDIER AND POLICEMAN ENGLAND'S share of responsibility for the Holy Land, whether she accept it or not, is the more obvious when we consider what, in regard to so small a country, is the surprising extent of her commercial relations. The most important item of trade in Palestine is oranges, of which, says a recent Blue Book, almost the whole were sent to the United Kingdom, the total value being 86,525, an increase of 12,310 on the previous year. The next in importance among the exports are wine and spirits, manu- factured mainly in Jewish and German colonies, and which during the year 1901 increased in value by 13,510 (i.e. 35,350 as against 21,840). It does not appear who are the principal purchasers, but from the fact that in the shipping returns Austro-Hungary takes the second place after England one may suppose that she repre- sents some share of the liquor traffic in addition to her own traffic in mail bags and passengers. Great Britain was represented by 140 vessels, Austro-Hungary 85, Russia 79, France 66. One would have expected olives in 209 p INNER JERUSALEM some form to be an article of trade, but they do not appear in the statistics, unless as represented by soap, which has been exported to the amount of 57,000, showing an increase of 13,000. The imports are catalogued under sixteen clauses, of which it seems as if only cotton goods, hardware, cloth and coal are likely to come from England. The last item, however, will, happily for English housekeepers, be shortly superseded, as even the railways are now using Turkish coal from the mines of Zougouldak, which is lower in price and exempt from duty. On the other hand, oil engines, used in the gardens for irrigation purposes, have come into favour ; and though Germany seems to have supplied most of those lately imported, the Jerusalem Consul, Mr. Dickson, expresses the opinion that " manufacturers at home would do well to study the matter, as there is a prospect of a growing demand for such engines should the orange trade continue to prosper as it has hitherto done." There is an element of humour in the accounts published, in various directions, of the new Jerusalem waterworks. " In the way of public works," continues our Blue Book, " the most noteworthy undertaking during the year 1901 was that for supplying Jerusalem with water, which was brought in iron pipes from a spring situated about seven miles distant south of the city and known as the Sealed Fountain of Solomon's times." It is very picturesque to see the citizens of Jerusalem, men with goatskins carried on their backs, or with donkeys carrying empty kerosene cans, pannier fashion ; women with jars on their heads, crowding round the fountain on the Bethlehem road to fetch water, in the rainy season without price, in summer to buy ; but as the modern aqueduct, in contrast with that attributed to Solomon, is a wrought-iron pipe a few inches in diameter, laid, for a considerable part of its way, over ground, any little London boy armed with a straw and a tin tack would quench his thirst at a lower rate than five piastres a cubic 210 IRRIGATION WHEEL AND CAMEL. ENGLISH TRADE AND TRAVEL metre, the price quoted to us to-day. Indeed, there are many directions, which it might not be judicious to indicate, in which the Street Arab could " give points " to his Oriental cousin. Certainly he is a better sportsman, and would scorn the Jerusalem method of fighting, juvenile or adult ; knives are drawn on very small provocation, and we have personally seen a man disabled for taking too low a fare for a carriage, which, however, is only trades-unionism; or for trying to draw water out of his turn, or when a stronger than he had a mind to precede him ; but these again are only the methods of Nature herself. Even Whitechapel would cry shame on combatants who, after fighting at arms' length for some minutes, their long sleeves flying in the air, finally close,biting each other's shoulders, pulling each other's hair, scratching each other's faces and finally rolling together in the dust, when the uppermost will seize a stone the Holy Land formation lends itself to such weapons and belabour his adversary on head, face, hands or breast as most easily accessible. One realizes among the children of Nature that the traditions of the Ring have certain advantages, and we have seen the English horsewhip produced on some such occasions with considerable satisfaction. Perhaps it is the same lack in the Arab nature which makes them poor sportsmen, which impels the men to walk about hand in hand, and kiss, really kiss each other on railway platforms, Mark Twain, in another connexion, remarks that a man would not be likely to kiss one of the women of this country of his own free will and accord, and man, he argues, is a kissing animal. It is said that when, about the middle of last century, Europeans began to flock to the Holy Land, it was the fashion for the ladies of the country to faint with horror at the frank impropriety of the dress of the men, since, one regrets to say, widely adopted by the Syrians themselves. The author of Hadji Baba presents their views on the sub- 211 INNER JERUSALEM ject of Europeans in general in a fashion that may fairly afford us a very becoming lesson in humility. He puts his remark into the mouth of the king's physician, commenting upon his rival the Frank doctor. " The lower part of his dress was particularly improper, and he kept his boots on in his room, without any con- sideration for the carpet he was treading upon, which struck me as a custom subversive of all decorum. I found that he talked our language, for as soon as he saw me he asked me how I did, and then immediately remarked that it was a fine day, which was so self-evident a truth that I immediately agreed to it." A truth has to be indeed self-evident before an Arab will agree to it, not for lack of wit to perceive your point, but for lack of inclination to speak with directness in any con- nexion. In general the answer to such a remark (which, however, no one makes in a country where for months together it is never anything else but fine) would be " Mashattah." It is as Allah wills. Of a certain " tribe of people called Ingliz," he relates that " they are the most unaccountable people on earth, who live in an island and make penknives. They are powerful in ships, and in watches and broadcloth unrivalled. Allah, the almighty and all-wise, to some nations giveth wisdom, and to others folly. Let us bless Him, and our Prophet, that we are not born to eat the miseries of the poor English infidels, but can smoke our pipes in quiet on the shores of our peaceful Bosphorus." Of Americans he knows but little, but that " they are all infidels as much as those of the old world, and by the blessing of Allah will all grill in the same furnace." The word " traveller," as used in Palestine, has gained in extension, and signifies neither a commission agent nor one entitled to drink at a public-house within church-going hours on a Sunday. In Jerusalem it is used in opposition to " pilgrim." The traveller, as a rule, is British or American ; 212 ENGLISH TRADE AND TRAVEL he frequents the hotel rather than the hospice ; he dines probably sleeps before visiting the Holy Sepulchre. He is no lineal descendant of Arculf or Saewulf or Felix Fabri. He brings little information, and what he takes away is derived from the guide book or even from the dragoman. He commonly speaks no language but his own, and is reduced, for further association, to the city Christian. Few have loved and therefore observed and known the East like Lady Burton, and on this point she writes, " The Afgan, the Kurd, the Mogharibeh, the Bedawin, are superior to the City Moslems, and the City Moslems are superior to the Jews and the City Christians," meaning of course the con- verts, not those who were Christians centuries before Christianity reached Great Britain. 1 Canon Dalton has observed the ways of the English traveller. " In former days no one went to Palestine unless he was desirous of enlarging, or giving reality to, the impres- sions he had derived by study at home. But now as far as the majority of the English-speaking visitors are concerned it is not so. ... The religious feelings of some few are undoubtedly stirred sympathetically by the hurried con- templation of the sacred places of the Greeks and Latins, but others are moved in quite another way." He then re- lates the case of an intelligent and distinguished officer, who attempted to discourage him from going to Palestine, be- 1 This is a point on which Lady Burton is equally explicit. " The fresh and ardent missionary's usual manner of accosting a Syrian is, " Do you know Jesus ? " The Syrian receives him courteously and answers him affably, but the moment his back is turned he bursts out, " May Allah burn his mother. Know Him ! I should think we did, better than he does. Was not He born among us, lived among us, died among us and for us, and spoke our own lan- guage was He not one of our own people ? Who would know Him if we don't ? " A missionary naively tells the following story in one of the C.M.S. reports, " I asked a man what he would say to the Lord Jesus when He came in judgment. He smiled and replied gently, ' I will say " welcome " to Him.' " 213 INNER JERUSALEM cause, he said, " after beholding the various surroundings of the Holy Sepulchre you will find it hard to believe in the truth of the Christian religion at all." " The truth is," Canon Dalton regrets, " such persons, in their hurry, do not pene- trate beyond the exterior to that which lies beneath. They are in reality doing themselves just what they blame those whom they call superstitious for doing in another way. They are slaves to an external materialism. If, for instance, they make the descent to the wondrous ravine of the Jordan, unlike anything else on the face of the globe, past the three- fold interesting site of the prehistoric, the Jewish and the Herodian Jericho, haunted by martial memories of Joshua's raid with the vanguard of the Beni Israel, and by those of more than one romantic and picturesque episode belonging to the prophetic school, by memories of the Egyptian Cleopatra, of Herod's funeral that here wound its way, of Dives and Lazarus and the last journey of Jesus, of the Essenes and the early Christians, and of much else, these persons carry away chiefly a remembrance of the roughness and aridity of the road thither, and of the smallness of the muddy Jordan stream when they reached it, and are apt to consider the river itself, as Naaman at first did, a fraud." l Mark Twain, for ah 1 his humanness and tolerance, has also something to say of the English-speaking traveller ; among other points as to his occasional barbarity. He describes how the poor, broken-down, galled, saddle-sore horses were brutally overridden, that the Sabbatarian might not have it on his conscience that he had travelled on Sunday. " We pleaded for the tired, ill-treated horses, and tried to show that their faithful service deserved kindness in return, and their hard lot compassion. But when did self-righteous- ness know the sentiment of pity ? What were a few long hours added to the hardships of some overtaxed brutes when weighed against the peril of those human souls ? It was not the most promising party to travel with, and hope 1 The City and the Land, 217-218. 214 ENGLISH TRADE AND TRAVEL to gain a higher veneration for religion through the example of its devotees. They lecture our shortcomings unsparingly, and every night they call us together and read to us chapters from the Testament that are full of gentleness, of charity, of mercy, and then all the day they stick to their saddles, clear up to the summits of these rugged mountains and clear down again." He resents, moreover, the conduct of the " lost tribes of America " upon their arrival in the Holy Land, as one equally resents the conduct of the " lost tribes " of England. The native accepts them all together as English-speaking, just as the observant among other Churches accept them altogether as " Protestants," till one has come to feel the presence of the English or the Americans an anxiety, and " Protestant " a term of reproach. Yet one is ready to say with Mr. Clemens, " I have said I like them, and I do like them but every time they read me a scorcher of a lecture I mean to talk back in print." He talks back further, justly enough, on the subject of their relic-mongering and on that of their appearance ; on the stale old superstition which enforces blue spectacles, and green umbrellas, the heating and superfluous " rag wrapped round and round their hats and dangling down their backs " the short stirrups, the flapping elbows, the ladies with a schism about the waist. " When one sees this outrageous picture exposed to the light of day, he is amazed that the gods do not get out their thunderbolts and destroy them off the face of the earth. I would not let any such caravan go through a country of mine." What does not amaze one is that the very Arabs have learnt the phrase " V Anglais pour rire." " Few countries are more travelled in than Palestine," says M.Clermont Ganneau, " and in few are the manners and customs of the people less known. We may truly say that the population of Oceania, of the extreme East, of Central Asia, of India, of Egypt, and even of the Bedawin tribes 215 INNER JERUSALEM east of the Jordan are now more familiar to us than that of this little corner of the earth so often trodden by European travellers. Tourists, pilgrims and savants pour into the country, but all, nearly without exception, for different reasons neglect to notice and to render any account of the only thing which is entirely fresh and untouched the natives of the place." He proceeds to ascribe much of this ignorance to the mode of travelling to which the European is condemned in Pales- tine. " He has to hand himself over to the mercy of the inevitable dragoman, an obstructive animal, peculiar to the social fauna of the Levant, and combining the functions of interpreter, maitre d'hotel, guide and courier. . . . While on the Nile he is kept in his place ; as a servant in Syria he becomes a master and a despot. An amusing picture might be drawn of the misfortunes of those who have become the prey of these gentry, but I will merely mention the great drawback to their presence, viz. that it hinders all direct contact with the peasants and has the effect of a scarecrow on the suspicious people whose confidence is of supreme value to the investigator." Dragoman imposition is not a new feature of Palestine travel. Maundrell (1697) describes those in attendance on his party as insisting on their hiring donkeys at five ducats which they could buy anywhere else at two. " For myself," he remarks, " who had hitherto ridden on a camel, and had no intention of changing, I desired they would tell me how I could ride a camel and an ass at the same time. The governor [of Gaza] decided in our favour, and ordered that we should not be forced to hire any asses from the moucres." That there are honest and well behaved dragomans, men to whom the tourist should feel grateful for much intelligent, kindly and often self-sacrificing help and companionship, few would presume to deny, but it is equally futile to deny that there are others, especially among the younger ones, 216 VIA DOI.OROSA. ENGLISH TRADE AND TRAVEL whose insolence, arrogance and ignorance are quite suf- ficient not only to deter the unwary traveller from repeating his, especially her, visit, but from encouraging that of others. In 1895 it was ordered by the Government that all Jeru- salem dragomans should pass an examination as to what they are to tell visitors to the Holy Places, but even a cer- tificate from a Mussulman effendi is not entirely satis- factory as a guarantee of information on Bible history or the discoveries of European archaeologists. Moreover, the tourist in this, as in much else, has himself to blame. So long as he is content to accept such statements as that the Ten Commandments were ordained at the Church of the Paternoster, that our Lord was tempted on the Mount of Olives, that the Sacred Body lay three days and three nights upon the Stone of Anointing, that the Ark of the Deluge rested upon the Sakrah (the Rock within the Temple Area), that the stations in the Via Dolorosa mark the places where the twelve Apostles stood to watch our Lord go by 1 so long will such statements continue to be made and so long does he richly deserve this and anything else he gets. Nor can one exonerate our compatriots in another and perhaps even more serious direction, more serious because in this case women are the offenders, although, poor things, they have occasionally incurred punishment perhaps even beyond their deserts. One could hardly have supposed it possible that it could occur to any educated, not to say 1 In the Chapel of the Apparition, alleged to be the spot where our Lord appeared after His resurrection, a portion of the Column of Scourging is preserved under a network, in order to protect it from the hyper-devotion of pilgrims and the desecration of tourists. In order, however, that the former, especially the Russians, who love to salute all sacred objects, may not be wholly disappointed, a piece of stick is kept, with which the column may be touched, so that, although at second hand only, it may be saluted. This the dragoman of exceptional ignorance has dubbed the " Bod of Moses," and in Cook's Guide, corrected by a well known orientalist, edition 1900, incredible as the statement may appear, it is solemnly described as such (p. 89). 217 INNER JERUSALEM respectably conducted, Englishwoman to think of her dragoman in any category other than that in which one places her cabman, her shopman, her footman, or any other useful person who ministers to her necessities, and at first sight one is tempted to regard, as a gratuitous insult, the serious warning which an English clergyman, travelling in Palestine in the year 1899, has thought it desirable to issue in his book (Days in Galilee, Rev. A. A. Boddy, F.R.G.S., page 334). Unhappily, no observant woman can remain through even a single tourist season in Jerusalem without admitting with shame and confusion that the con- duct of her sisters, American and English, has exposed womanhood to the disgrace of the necessity of such a warning. Possibly they are not aware that what might pass as mere levity in a country of other manners and other traditions cannot fail to be more seriously interpreted where reserve and dignity are among the elementary attributes of woman ; and that what at home might possibly pass as merely vulgar is here otherwise classified and otherwise under- stood. From time to time, however, one hears with satis- tion that some Englishman, brother or friend, has inflicted reprisals upon the dragoman in the form of the " thrashing " which is precisely what the occasion invites. When Lady Burton wrote, in 1875, warning young ladies not to marry Lebanon " princes," Englishwomen had not yet sunk to the lowest stage of flirting with or marrying their couriers, but even against the pseudo-prince she sounds a shrill note of warning. " If you see a Syrian with a handsome face pervading society in a green and gold jacket, and wearing a fez, admire the costume and be hospitable and kind to the wearer, but do not fall in love and marry. This is what will happen if you neglect my advice ; you will arrive at a mud hut in the Lebanon, and from morning to night you will be surrounded by native women who look upon you as a " dispensation of Providence." 218 Probably in these days, when wider experience and more liberal education has opened the eyes of even Syrians in mud huts, the unhappy Englishwoman might think herself for- tunate if she were looked upon as anything so respectable. One of the grievances most frequently insisted upon by those whose visits to the Holy Places are without true sympathy and breadth of view is the " disgrace " of the presence of Turkish officials in churches held by Latins, or Greeks, or both. Have we not soldiers at the door of our king's palace or even at the Chapel Royal ? have we not police at all ceremonials in St. Paul's Cathedral, or for the matter of that at any cathedral or museum in Europe ? and if one is in a country where the police and soldiers are all Turks x or Arabs, as the case may be, whence shall the guardians of the place be otherwise provided ? Further, why should their presence be a reproach ? Is it reasonable to suppose that the admirable order which characterizes all the Holy Places can be maintained without official regula- tions and enactments ; when they are, not only at festivals, but all the year round, visited daily by crowds as various as those of the Feast of Pentecost ? It is no exaggeration to say that in any one day the Latin worshippers may include pilgrims from England and America as well as from every country on the Continent of Europe ; the Greek mainly from Eastern Europe, from Northern Africa and from Western Asia ; at the shrines of either, one finds men of every colour, almost of every speech, literally from " China to Peru," and the Russian pilgrim is always with us. Never have we heard a single case quoted of intentional lack of reverence, or breach of order on the part of any pilgrim, Greek or Latin, no matter whence. To the English and American alone is reserved the proud distinction of such 1 As a matter of fact, only the superior officers are Turks. The Christian subjects of Turkey are exempt from military service on payment of a compensation tax. 219 INNER JERUSALEM conduct as daily shames us here. The author of Six Months in Jerusalem writes : " I never saw the soldiers exhibit a demeanour so frivolous and scoffing in regard to the Holy Places as many English churchfolk thought it not indecent to adopt ; and on their own principles such persons might have felt that in the presence of the unbeliever it would be as well to show some loyalty to the Life which in its courtesy and meekness lies at the basis of Christendom " (p. 65). We have been asked by a Franciscan custodian whether " Protestants " habitually wore their hats in their own churches, or whether it is only on the most sacred spot in Christendom that it is necessary to speak somewhat strongly before an Englishman would show the common respect ordinarily due to another man's house. Lady Burton observes that apparently " Gratitude is not incumbent upon a tourist" ; otherwise, to those who have no reverence for the Divine, one might suggest gratitude to the human, to the Brothers of St. Francis, who, on behalf of Christendom, and often at the cost of their blood, have held and main- tained the Holy Places of Palestine for 700 years. 220 EL AlCSA, "THE FURTHER MOSQUE." CHAPTER XV THE MOSLEM IN JERUSALEM THE SACHRA TRADITIONS DOME OP THE ROCK OMAR His MOSQUE His MAGNANIMITY SALADIN PALES- TINE AND THE ARAB THE two visits made by Mahomet into Syria were at the age of twelve and of twenty-five years, and long before the period of his mission. His con- nexion with the Holy City, however, rests on nothing so material as a journey across the desert. " I declare the glory of Him who transported His servant by night," we read in the Koran (xvii. 1), "from the Mosque at Mecca to the further Mosque at Jerusalem," the " mosque " 1 being taken, be it remembered, as denoting the whole Haram area, the site of the Hebrew temple and its surroundings. The prophet rode his winged steed, Al Bucak (the lightning), and was escorted by the angel Gabriel. After worshipping in the sacred precincts they ascended by a ladder of light, and, passing through seven heavens, stood in the presence of Allah, from whom Mahomet received instructions which have sanctified for ever the Rock and the Haram Area in the sight of all the faithful. This is, however, for the Moslems, by no means the begin- ning of the history of the Sachra. They have a tradition 1 The term " Mosque of Omar," to denote the Dome of the Rock, is used only by tourists, irresponsible guide-books, and dragomans. The Mosque of Omar is a very small mosque in the neighbourhood of the Holy Sepulchre. 221 INNER JERUSALEM that Jerusalem, El Kuds, was built by angels, who were pilgrims to the sacred rock 2,000 years before Adam ; that the ark of Noah rested there, as is proved by the visit of the dove with a leaf from the Mount of Olives, and they believe it to have been the scene, not only of Abraham's sacrifice (though of Ishmael not Isaac), but also of Jacob's vision, as well as of Araunah's threshing-floor. " This stone of the Sachra is that which God be He exalted and glorified commanded Moses to institute as the Kiblah. After this command had come down, and Moses had instituted the Sachra as Kiblah, he himself lived but a brief time, for of a sudden was his life cut short." It does not appear that its association with the Ark of the Covenant has any special interest for them, although they too have a story of a lost ark, originally sent down from Paradise with Adam, from whom it descended to Seth and Abraham, from whom Ishmael received it as the eldest son. When it came to Kedar it was claimed by Jacob, hence its possession by the younger branch. One tradition asserts that, together with the rod of Moses, it is now lying at the bottom of the Lake of Tiberias, another that it is buried beneath the rock itself. The following ejaculations are said to be incumbent upon all visitors to the mosque. As the worshipper enters, he says, " Lord, pardon my sins and open to me the doors of Thy mercy " ; and as he goes out, " Lord, pardon my sins and open to me the doors of Thy grace." He must always keep the rock on his right hand, thus reversing the ritual of Mecca. As he enters the cave containing the altars (probably Crusading) where David and Solomon, and the niches where Abraham and Elijah, are said to have prayed, he says, " O God, pardon the sinners who come here, and relieve the injured,' 1 '' words worthy of notice, as it is often alleged that the Moslem faith teaches no intercession for others. The Sachra, like the well known spot in the Greek Church of the Holy Sepulchre, 'is the centre of the world as well as eighteen miles 222 THE MOSLEM IN JERUSALEM nearer heaven than any other spot on the earth's surface, and beneath it is the source of all the sweet water which flows over all lands. They have a saying, which, however, sounds as if of Jewish origin, that " Palestine is the centre of the world, Jerusalem the centre of Palestine, the Temple the centre of Jerusalem, the Holy of Holies the centre of the Temple, the Ark the centre of the Holy of Holies, and in front of the Ark was a stone called the Foundation of the World." The Sachra, when a threshing-floor, was owned by two Moslems who were brothers, one married, the other single. One August night, when the corn had been threshed out and divided between them, each was sleeping by his heap to guard it, as is still the custom. In the course of the night, the married brother, lying awake and reflecting on the harvest, said to himself, " I am now a rich man ; I have wife and children as well as abundance of corn. My poor brother is lonely : why should I have so much more than he ? At least I can make it up to him in corn," and so he removed a portion from his own heap to that of his sleeping brother. Soon after, the brother in his turn awoke, and he bethought himself how much more he possessed than was needful for one who had neither wife nor child. Were he to offer a share to his brother, he might refuse to accept it, so, rising, he took a large portion of his heap and added it to that of his sleeping brother. In the morning each was surprised to find his share what it had been originally, but God had marked the deed, and decided to make the Sachra the place of prayer for all the world. It is here, moreover, that on the morning of the Resurrec- tion the Angel Israfil will blow the last trumpet ! In the east wall of the Haram Area is a fragment of a pillar built in horizontally, as often occurs in Jerusalem, where any piece of ancient masonry is made to serve any purpose convenient at the moment, and which, moreover, projects considerably beyond the face of the wall. From this projection a thread, 223 INNER JERUSALEM fine as a hair, will be cast over to the Mount of Olives, across which all men will pass for judgment, Jesus sitting on the Jerusalem side, Mahomet on the Mount of Olives. The faithful will pass in safety, the faithless will fall into the Valley of Jehoshaphat beneath. But there is an intermediate class upon whom the Prophet will have mercy, and, so says an ancient legend, will himself pass over in the form of a sheep so as to shelter them as fleas in his fleece. A gloss suggests the variant that it is in his sheepskin coat that they will find refuge. Judging from the analogy of such coats as are worn by the fellahin, there will be no failure of accommodation . There is a tendency in many books of travel to belittle the beauty of the Dome of the Rock. It is satisfactory to quote the words of two recognized authorities on Oriental subjects. Professor Hayter Lewis writes : "It is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful buildings existing, and I cordially agree with these eloquent words of Mr. Ferguson, ' The one thing I was least prepared for was the extreme beauty of the interior of the building. I re- member perfectly the effect of the Taj Mahal and the other great imperial tombs of Agra and Delhi, and I am tolerably familiar with most of the tombs and tomb-like buildings in other countries. But as far as my knowledge extends, the Dome of the Rock surpasses them all. There is an elegance of proportion, and an appropriateness of detail, which does not exist in any other building I am acquainted with. Its mosaics are complete and beautiful in design, and its painted glass, though comparatively modern (sixteenth century), is more beautiful than any in this country. These, combined with the mystery of the Great Rock, occupying the whole floor of the sanctuary, make up a whole, so far as I know, unrivalled in the world.' ' Perhaps the strongest impression which one carries away is not that of the marvellous, the perhaps unrivalled, richness and harmony of colouring, the dignified repose of form a 224 repose so absorbing in its grace of unity that one is deprived of the power of attention to detail but rather a sense of the extraordinary contrast between the perfection of the work of art and the simplicity of the work of nature ; the glory of light and colour, of rich material, the pride of invention, the triumph of painter and craftsman, the liber- ality of the rich, the praise of the mighty dead, mellowed by centuries of waiting, sanctified by generations of wor- shippers, baptized by the blood of thousands, expressive of the hopes, aspirations, prayers of millions of our fellow- creatures, and all for what ? a piece of bare brown rock, rudely cropping out of the ground, sacred alike to Moslem, Jew and Christian, to the readers of the Koran, of the Old Testament and of the New. Description here would be even more futile than elsewhere ; for magnificent and impres- sive as is the Dome of the Rock even from the point of view of art, it is to this shock of contrast that one is largely indebted for the emotion it cannot fail to inspire in any soul sensitive to beauty, alive with imagination, responsive to the suggestion of memory. Here is no treasure encased in shrine of marble like the Holy Sepulchre, hung with silken tapestry like the Cave at Bethlehem, making difficult appeal to faith like the footstep on the Mount of Ascension, enclosed in gold and precious stones like a dozen relics at a dozen altars in the churches of the Holy City, but the bare bosom of our mother earth, prototype of all that is most sacred, all which most cries aloud for reverence in the common things of daily life. 1 While Mohammed was collecting his earliest followers Syria 1 The Sachra, a bare, rugged, unhewn piece of rock, roughly a parallelogram, 60 feet by 45 feet, standing about 4 feet 9 inches above the marble pavement at its highest point, and one foot at its lowest ; it is one of the missal strata (i.e. the upper of the two strata which form the Jerusalem plateau) ; it is hard and of a grey, in places of a reddish, colour, and has a dip of twelve degrees in a direc- tion of eighty-five degrees east of north. The surface of the rock bears the marks of hard treatment and rough chiselling. 225 Q INNER JERUSALEM had been wrested from the Eastern Empire by Chosroes, King of Persia ; but while one Arab was making a new reli- gion, another was creating a new empire, and in 634, twelve years after the Hegira, Jerusalem fell into the hands of Omar, the second of the Kaliphs, a man whose political energy had welded a homogeneous nation out of the immemorial nomadic desert tribes of Arabia. The monarch who had made emperors to tremble on then: thrones, entered the Holy City, not as a conqueror but as a pilgrim attired in simple Bedawi costume, a sheepskin coat and coarse cotton skirt. The story is told in the Muihir al Ghirdm (The Exciter of Desire, i.e. to visit the Holy City), an unpublished work by a native of Jerusalem, written in A.D. 1351. 1 " Now at that time there was, over the Rock of the Holy City, a great dung-heap, which completely masked the Mihrab of David, and which same the Christians had put here in order to offend the Jews, and, further, even the Christian women were wont to throw here their cloths and clouts, so that it was all heaped up therewith. . . . Now when Omar had come to the Holy City and conquered it, and saw how there was a dung-heap over the Rock, he regarded it as horrible, and ordered that it should be entirely cleared. And to accomplish this they forced the Nabath- aeans 2 of Palestine to work without pay. On the authority of Jabir ibn Naf ir, it is related that when Omar first exposed the Rock to view by removing the dung-heap, he commanded them not to pray there until three showers of heavy rain should have fallen." The spitefulness of the Christians had laid up for them a retribution which is a lasting sorrow to the whole of Christen- 1 The passage is quoted in Palestine under the Moslems, Guy Le Strange, 1890. 2 The Nabathaeans were a tribe of heathen Arabs who were settled in Petra about 300 B.C., whence they penetrated into Palestine according to some authorities, the ancestors of the Samaritans. 226 THE MOSLEM IN JERUSALEM dom, as we learn from another historian, the Greek Theo- phanes : * " Anno Domini 635. In this year Omar began to restore the Temple at Jerusalem, for the building, in truth, no longer then stood firmly founded, but had fallen to ruin. Now when Omar inquired the cause, the Jews answered, saying, ' Unless thou throw down the Cross which stands on the Mount of Olives, the building of the Temple will never be firmly founded.' Thereupon Omar threw down the Cross at that place in order that the building might be made firm ; and for the same cause innumerable crosses in other quarters these enemies of Christ did likewise overthrow." Deplorable as was such a retribution, we nevertheless owe much to the magnanimity and liberality of the conqueror. Eutychius 2 is the authority for the well known story of the courtesy of Omar in relation to the Holy Sepulchre. " Omar entered the city and sat down with Sophronius in the innermost part (inpenetrali) of the Church of the Sepul- chre. The time of prayer approached, and Omar wished to pray. ' Pray here,' said Sophronius. ' Not here,' answered Omar. Sophronius now led him into the Basilica (ad templum), and spread a carpet in the middle of it that Omar might pray. As he again refused the Patriarch led him outside to the steps by the entrance to the Church of Constantine, looking towards the East. Here Omar prayed alone. Afterwards he asked, ' Do you know why I would not pray inside ? ' ' How could I know that ? ' said Sophronius. Omar replied, ' If I had prayed inside the church, it would have been lost to you. After my death the Moslems would have taken it from you : for they would soon have said, " Here Omar prayed ! " Omar then gave to the Patriarch a written document by 1 Chronographia Bonn., 1839, vol. i. p. 524. 2 Annals of Eutychius Patriarch of Alexandria, d. 940. The quotation is from Dr. Max von Berchem, who translates from Selden's Latin version, vol. ii. 284-90. 227 INNER JERUSALEM which he decreed that the Moslems might pray only singly on the steps ; further, " that they should neither assemble there for prayer, nor the voice of the Muezzin over there summon them to it." At Bethlehem, too, we owe much to this same magna- nimity. The Arabic historian, Yakut, writing in the thirteenth century, relates : " Bait Lahm is the place where Jesus was born. . . . There is here a church the like of which is none other in the country round. When the Kaliph Omar was come to Jeru- salem, a monk of Bait Lahm approached him and said, ' I would obtain mercy of thee for Bait Lahm.' Said Omar, ' I know naught of the place, but would fain see it.' When Omar was come there, he said to the people, ' Ye shall have mercy and safe conduct, but it is incumbent upon us that in every place where there are Christians we should erect a mosque.' The monk answered, ' There is in Bait Lahm an arched building, which is built so as to be turned towards your Kiblah ; take this, therefore, and make of it a mosque for the Muslims, and do not destroy the church.' So Omar spared the church, saying his prayer in that arched building and made -of it a mosque. . . . The Muslims have never ceased to visit Bait Lahm in pilgrimage, and go to this arched building to make their prayers therein one generation after another, which same is the building of Omar." After Omar, the hero of Arab history perhaps, one might almost say, of Arab literature is the great Haroun er Raschid (" the Just "), contemporary with Charlemagne, and with our own King Egbert. Those were the days of a united Islam, an Islam which extended from India to Egypt, which traded with China, which studied philosophy, which sent an elephant to the emperor and gave The Arabian Nights to the schoolboys of a thousand years. With a magnanimity which was worthy of Omar, which perhaps is unparalleled in the world's history, which puts to shame the prejudices and bigotries of creeds and nationalities, Haroun, ruler of 228 THE MOSLEM IN JERUSALEM Islam, sent, it is related, to Charlemagne, ruler of Christen- dom, the keys of the Holy Sepulchre with an invitation to rebuild the churches of the Holy Land. But these great rulers passed away and Islam and Christendom alike were split up by sects and local prejudices ; and Palestine became the battlefield, first of Moslem with Moslem, Egyptian, Arab, Turk, and then finally of Christen- dom and Islam as such. A country which was little more than a perpetual battle- field was no place for peaceful pilgrims. The hour came and the man ; the humble monk kneeling at the Holy Sepulchre heard the voice, " Arise, Peter. The time is come that My servants should be succoured, and that My Holy Places should be free." In four years Godfrey, the Galahad of the Crusades, knelt on that same spot in thanksgiving that Jerusalem was restored to Christendom and the Holy Sepulchre was free. But a year later, at only forty years of age, he was brought to the sacred spot for which he had given his life and laid at the foot of Calvary. 1 The learned Q.uaresimus wrote his fitting epitaph Hie jacet inclitus dux Godefridus De Bull on, qui totam istam terrain Acquisivit cultui Christiano, Cujus anima regnet cum Christo. Amen. Saladin, too, had in him something of the large-heartedness of Omar and Haroun, but the incidents which are recorded as illustrating his gentleness and patience are of a nature to exhibit him as the worthy enemy rather than as the friend 1 As the savagery of the Jews who accompanied Chosroes was especially vented on monuments erected by Christian, reverence, so Christian jealousy has been expended on the destruction of the tombs of Godfrey and Baldwin I. When the Greeks took possession of the Chapel of Adam in 1808 they removed all traces of these sacred resting-places lest the Latins should make them the occasion of claims for possession. 229 INNER JERUSALEM of the Frank. Colonel Conder, who may perhaps have something of the warrior's appreciation of the soldier as well as the man's admiration for the hero, is not sparing in his eulogy : " Since Omar and Mohammed no Moslem like Saladin had arisen, and after him none other such arose . . . brave and just, merciful to all, tolerant even of Latin priests, and wisely prudent as well as determined and active. Among all who opposed him he found but one who was his equal, in Richard Lion- Heart, the hero of the third Crusade." If to speak Arabic makes an Arab, then the inhabitants of Judaea are Arabs, but in no other sense. The Arab was not here in the time of our Lord. He is to Palestine what the Saxon is to Britain. Haroun er Raschid was contem- porary with Egbert, Selim I, who brought in the Turkish rule with Henry VIII. The Arab came in with the Kaliph Omar, one of Mohammed's earlier converts, and what is left of him is to be found mainly in the towns. ' The odd popular prejudice," writes Clermont Ganneau (Q.S. 1875), " which obstinately believes that the Mussulman Arabs, who became masters of Syria after the defeat of the Greek troops, took altogether the place of the original inhabitants of the country, and are in fact the people whom we find there now, cannot be too strongly combated." The conquerors imposed, or perhaps only introduced a religious enthusiasm. These new immigrants, like their former invaders the Jews, were also the sons of Abraham, only that they descended from Ishmael rather than from Isaac, and the new dogma was that of Mohammed the Camel Driver, not that of Jesus the Carpenter in whom many of them believed. They disturbed nothing ; they found a decaying civilization, the sciences and arts ; the architecture and traditions of Greece and Rome, which to these children of the desert were of no account. They looked for revenue, and here revenue could come only from the soil. Of agriculture they knew nothing, but they exacted labour from those who 230 THE MOSLEM IN JERUSALEM did, and under these conditions the original inhabitants remained, and to a great extent, like the Celtic races of Scotland and Ireland, outlived their conquerors, as they had also outlived the Jew and the Greek. The Crusades and the rule of the Franks have left their traces mainly in stone, though here and there one meets, in the most unex- pected places, with fair-haired and red-haired children with the blue eyes and broad palms of the European. In 1517, Jerusalem, with the rest of Syria and Egypt, passed into the hands of the Turks, and since then has formed part of the Ottoman Empire. In the year 1542 Suleiman restored the walls of the city, building those portions now described as " modern," though contemporary with Henry VIII of England. Since then the Holy City has had no history until we come to the nineteenth century, when England mysteriously interfered to restore her to Turkey, after she had made desperate efforts at self -emanci- pation ; and when the Crimean war broke out as the result of a quarrel as to the rebuilding of the dome of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Following upon this we have the arrival of various religious bodies, the earliest from America ; England sent two missionary societies, Germany various bands of practical philanthropists, Roman Catholic Europe a score or more of religious Orders to supplement the work of employing, teaching, nursing, in which the Franciscans had been already employed 500 years. Russia, France, Italy, Germany have raised handsome buildings in all direc- tions till Jerusalem without the walls is a more extensive city than that within. Within the last decade England too has begun to erect a monument not unworthy of her prestige, the very handsome church and college of the Anglican bishopric. 231 CHAPTER XVI THE MOSLEM AS A CITIZEN ARAB INFLUENCE ON EUROPE AESTHETICISM CURSING ACUTENESS LITERATURE DRESS ARISTOCRACY FORMS OF PRAYER TENETS OF THE FAITH PHILAN- THROPY INSTITUTIONS HOSPITAL AND SISTERS TRADITION PILGRIMAGE TO TOMB OF MOSES WE are wont to forget the share which the Arabs have had in the civilization of Europe. The very words we have borrowed from their language are themselves evidence of lessons as to the things they represent. From Skeat (p. 760), we may take the following examples : admiral, amulet, artichoke, alcove, alcohol, chemise, cipher, camlet, elixir, lute, magazine, maltress, mohair, nadir, sofa, shrub, sarsenet, saffron. From Damascus we received the damson, from Ascalon the shalot, from Syria generally the maize. Possibly the earliest versions known to Northern Europe of Aristotle, Plato, Galen, Hippocrates came to us from a Nestorian Arab physician, who died in 876 A.D. The china and metal work of Europe owe much to Arabic influence; Venetian glass is copied from the Syrian art, beautiful specimens of which are still constantly found. The Arabic numerals facilitated mathematics all over Europe, the study of mathematics and astronomy was promoted among Latins by the Syrian Jacobites, the arts of painting, sculpture, and engraving came from the Arabs, while the ecclesiastical art of the Italian churches of the 232 THE MOSLEM AS A CITIZEN time of Cimabue may be seen in its earlier development on the walls of the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem. Spain was a great centre for the dissemination of Oriental learning. Science studied at Cordova and in Andalusia had been brought thither from Bagdad. The troubadours of Languedoc sang under the influence of Arab poets, who learnt the art of rhythm from the cadences of the earlier parts of the Koran. The aestheticism of the Arab is externalized in language rather than in plastic art. We ventured to attempt a defence against an artist friend, who condemned Oriental art as rudimentary, on the line that Jews and Moslems alike, owing to the conditions of their religion, lacked practice and opportunity for its development. We were met by the counter argument that both Moses and Mohammed, anxious for the credit of their followers, diplomatically forbade any attempt at competition in directions in which they would inevitably be surpassed by those of other nations. Except in the " fancy work " executed in certain schools, in which early Victorian combinations and aniline dyes are patriotically perpetuated, an Arab never makes a mistake in colouring. From the red, green and white of the women of Ramallah, or the red, blue and yellow of the women of Bethlehem, from the red sash, or blue kumbaz of your donkey-boy, or the orange handkerchief twisted round the scarlet tarbush of your cook, up to the mosaics of the Dome of the Rock or the decoration of the Alhambra, the Arab never strikes a false note. If he makes a carpet, the two ends are seldom of the same width ; if he builds a house, the recesses, doors, windows have seldom any cor- respondence. The Moslem theoretically, though I know of many exceptions puts no pictures on his wall, but away on the ceiling twelve feet overhead he sketches bold com- binations from the alphabet in colours of 'the same quality as those of his turban or kumbaz, always supposing that he is left literally to his own devices. His idea of adapting 233 INNER JERUSALEM a house for European occupation is to decorate the ceilings with a stencilled design, which suggests a Nottingham lace curtain lined with washing-powder blue, or Swiss land^ scapes upside down. I used as a child to wonder to what nationality the furniture belonged, of which that in the average dolls'-house was the copy ; sideboards and wardrobes, of which the greater part of the surface was devoted to decoration, while a minimum of drawer or cupboard occupied their central anatomy ; chairs upon which one could only perch, and tables which existed mainly for the liberal exhibition of legs. Wherever they may have originated, they are now in the Levant, together with equally impossible upholstery in striped silk, and plush of designs which, originally invented by lady novelists in descriptions of " oriental magnificence," were produced by speculative manufacturers, and, by a process of inversion, may now be found in houses where a " salon " is reserved for visitors, but where the owners tuck up their legs and smoke narghillehs in the leewan as soon as the visitors have departed. Much of this comes from the Lebanon, which is practically a province of France, and where the kind of French taste which expresses itself in gilding and artificial flowers is superimposed upon the Oriental desire for display. In Jerusalem it exists mainly among the inferior officers of consulates, where Levantines and Arabs pose as Europeans, modify their names, and speak French, or even Italian, with the muscular relaxation which in English we call " a cockney accent," and the criard voice which never fails to proclaim literally, loudly to proclaim the secret of their extraction. The men pay calls in white kid gloves, and the women in toilets realized from descriptions in the ladies' papers. But to return to the original proposition, in language the Arab is an aesthete. He not only has an immense vocabu- lary from which to select the precise terms in which to express, not his thought perhaps, but rather the phrase in 234 ABSALOM'S PILLAR. THE MOSLEM AS A CITIZEN which best to conceal it, but he has also at command an extraordinary number of proverbs, allusions, even allego- ries and fables, the subtlety and delicacy of which would be entirely lost upon those of the same social grade further west. Like the Gaelic perhaps like many languages as yet unspoiled by conventional uses Arabic may be described as excellent " to swear in, to make love in, and to shuffle out of a bargain in." For erotic songs, the East is, of course, unrivalled, and few would venture on the attempt to out-swear an Arab. In a bargain the Arab could probably be beaten by a Jew, a Greek, or an Armenian, especially in Arabic. When he begins to swear, or rather, when he really warms to the subject, all minor considerations of the unities are absolutely transcended. He will curse the father of his own son, he will curse the harem of his she-donkey : " May your house be destroyed and the house of your master," he will say to a servant who annoys him. Cursing is a recog- nized way of expressing emotion. For two thousand years the Jewish child has been taught to throw a stone at Absa- lom's Pillar, as a visible token of the curse which rests on filial disobedience ; and a part of the ritual of the Mecca Pilgrimage is the throwing of stones in the valley of Mena. This custom, at least time-honoured, is held by some anti- quarians to account for the existence of certain cairns to be found here in various places in the neighbourhood of dolmens and ancient monuments still held sacred. By analogy with the cursing-stones of Celtic races in Scotland Ireland, Wales, and Brittany, we may suppose them to be associated with the saint whose imprecations upon an enemy are desired, possibly in connexion with some wish or vow, of which the stones are the witness. 1 There are some forcible examples of cursing in the Koran, though 1 Alike in the East and among the Celts we find rags and frag- ments of clothing fastened in Holy Places, either as evidence of pilgrimages, witness of a vow, or as points de repere for the concen- tration of transferred sickness or sorrow. 235 INNER JERUSALEM Mohammed was inferior to the Psalmist in the art of effect- ive and picturesque imprecation. The details of the Com- mination Service become more impressive in the country which gave them birth when one realizes that any mis- chievous child can remove his neighbour's landmark the single row of separated stones which to this day serve to indicate what in Scotland we call the Marches, where per- verting the judgment of the stranger and the fatherless, taking reward to slay the innocent and smiting his neigh- bour secretly is mainly a question of baksheesh. Both in small things and great the Arab is extraordinarily acute. The porter of an hotel is a veritable Sherlock Holmes in the rapidity with which he takes in a situation and " reckons up " the group of strangers whom he admitted five minutes before. In the wider philosophy of life they are equally subtle, if not always genial, as one learns from their common sayings : " The friends of this world are but spies on our conduct," " Silence is the protection of the ignorant," " The pain of death is less than that of an un- welcome companion," " He who hates not, loves not " ; or, to ascend to a higher level, we may quote, " Spoil not an act of kindness by talking about it," " To adjourn a bad action is to begin it," " Peace of mind is a habit that does not wear out," " One-third of faith is knowledge, one-third modesty, and the rest generosity." All these are of value as practical rules of life, and the same type of social philo- sophy is inculcated in most of their stories. Their very acuteness is, in a certain sense, a difficulty to the student whatever the direction of his inquiry. The Arab has two tendencies, common, perhaps, to elementary races, and notably among the Celts one of giving a pleasant answer, the other of concealing what is in his mind. The advice given by M. Clermont Ganneau as a result of many years' study of then' character is precisely that which we have ourselves found useful in dealing with the Highlanders of Scotland, when equally in quest of folk-lore and local 236 THE MOSLEM AS A CITIZEN colouring. " The art of questioning Arabs," he writes, " consists in knowing when to shut your mouth and keep your eyes and ears open, listening so as to draw them on to tell stories, and thus gradually extracting information while carefully abstaining from asking questions calculated to suggest ideas to minds so credulous and so easily influenced." It is our privilege to visit occasionally at the house of a well educated Moslem friend, on whose bookshelves we have found works, among others, by Sir Walter Scott, Emerson, Blackmore, Shakespeare, Zola, Georges Sand Daudet, Jules Bois, and Bourget, and who hastily dropped a copy of Rousseau out of sight behind the rest, a tribute to the presence of womanhood which we found suggestive and interesting. The ladies of the household, his mother and sister-in-law, receive us kindly, and the children, a girl and two boys, are Avell-mannered and intelligent, the girl, contrary to popular theory, holding her own with the boys here as elsewhere. Now that thanks to the Turkish Government and the American Colony Moslem girls are receiving a superior education we cannot fail, in presence of those bookshelves, to express curiosity as to how those who have learnt no foreign languages will utilize their powers of reading. The Arabic poetry is, we are assured, " very difficult " ; the Thousand and One Nightsh&ve in them much which is " not good," but there are now, it is said, some translations of Romances, and we find among the list of publications by the Arabic presses in Beirut many books well deserving attention. The Jesuits, besides theology, have given the Arabic-speaking people of Palestine the opportunity of reading a considerable number of the best standard works in history and science. The American press also has published many books which cannot fail to influence a people to whom modern literature is practically unknown. There are some forty volumes of science, naturally somewhat elementary, including such subjects as astronomy, geology, chemistry, anatomy and hygiene, 237^ INNER JERUSALEM besides specialist works for the use of the students of their excellent medical school. Algebra and geometry are now again at home in the language which was among the first to give them utterance ; geography and history are each represented in some dozen volumes ; grammars of various languages are, of course, numerous, and among " miscel- laneous " works one is glad to hail many old friends. There are Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson in part payment for what the schoolboy owes for The Arabian Nights. There is Self -Help, about which one feels a trifle uncertain, for while the lesson of industry is everywhere of value, that of frugality is here more than superfluous, and Smiles' biographies are written to a tune which, in Oriental surroundings, has something of the vulgarity of the street musician. Peep of Day and its companion volumes, the Schonberg Cotta Family, Mrs. Sherwood's Little Woodman, and, above all, Black Beauty, are books one is glad to meet in any tongue. A good many books have been published at the expense of private persons, which is enough to account for anything ; but one feels a certain psychological curiosity as to what the subtle Arab mind deduces from such works as Miss Havergal's Little Pillows, Jessica's First Prayer^ or The Prince of the House of David. From Misery to Happiness, by John Bunyan, means, let us suppose, the Pilgrim's Progress, a work which could not fail to delight those to whom the idea of pilgrimage is familiar, and to whom allegory is a common form of speech. It is conceivable that sermons by Spurgeon and Moody may appeal to some ; they are to be had by the score ; and the numerous tracts on intemperance are, judging from the analogy of many nations recently Christianized, a fitting accompaniment to other gifts of European civilization. The two English Missionary Societies which have been in the country eighty and fifty years respectively, have done nothing to satisfy the intellectual appetite which, presumably, it is the avowed purpose of their educational institutions to 238 VILLAGE SHEIKS. THE MOSLEM AS A CITIZEN create. It is fortunate that Americans and Jesuits should have done so much to supply our deficiency. Even the Arabic translation of the Book of Common Prayer is pub- lished by another Society, that so widely respected, for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Many of the Moslems belonging to the oldest and most distinguished families are engaged hi trade, and even to keep a shop is apparently no derogation of dignity, especially now that, for very practical reasons, it literally does not pay to work for the Government, and there are no learned pro- fessions to fall back upon. There are few doctors, there are no clergy, and, as a profession per se, no lawyers. There is an enforced military service, but in Palestine the officers in the army are mostly Turks. Life in the Holy Land is not costly, and a good many live as landed proprietors on a small scale. The Moslem gentleman, except in certain cases where, unfortunately for himself, he has taken to European costume, is of very dignified appearance. All Turkish subjects must wear the tarbush, or fez, which, in his case, is rendered more becoming by the handkerchief twisted about it. Out of doors he wears the jibir, a substi- tute for the abba of the lower classes, and something of a compromise with Prankish fashions. It is a long coat, hanging perfectly plain from neck to heel, and with a low collar like an Anglican priest's. It is often made of very fine cloth, and is becoming and dignified. There are certain old families, the descendants of the associates of the Prophet, who came to Jerusalem with Omar, and whose very names, unlike European nomenclature, convey assur- ance of their social position. These are : El Husseini, descendants of the prophet himself ; El Ellami, Et Tahboub, En Sabi, Huddai, Nammar, Khaldi, Jawani, Jarallah, Ersasi ; Dijani and Ed Denaf, who are the servants of the Haram, and have hereditary charge of the Dome of the Rock. 1 1 As these names have been misquoted in certain travellers' books, 239 INNER JERUSALEM It is what we should call " good form " to be precise in religious duties, and in passing through Government offices, the Bureau of the Police, and so on, it is edifying and start- ling to European ideas to see the employes leaving their desks and retiring into a corner to pray. The clerks in Whitehall and Somerset House may have good reasons for despising the unspeakable Turk and other Moslems ; but it cannot be denied that he pays more respect to his Maker than they ! Five times a day must he kneel toward the East, and recite, so to speak, the equivalent to the Creed and the Lord's Prayer. There are three Orders of Nuns in Jerusalem, whose con- cern it is to pray for those who do not pray for themselves, Those who do neglect this duty in Jerusalem have at least no -excuse of want of even verbal reminder, for from all parts of the city, five times a day, the Muezzin proclaims the obligation. His voice, at earliest dawn, rings with special clearness over the quiet city where, though the fellahin are already bargaining their fruit and vegetables, thousands of citizens are still sleeping. " God is most Great f God is most great" he proclaims, facing the morning miracle of sunrise. " / testify there is no God but God ! I testify Mohammed is God's messenger ! Come ye and pray ! Come ye and pray ! It is better to pray than to sleep f There is no God bat God f " And one cannot but remember that out of the six or seven thousand Moslems of the Holy Cit}^ some thousands, at least, must be respond- ing to the call. The Mohammedan opens the door of his shop, or bureau, with the invocation, '' O opener of the day ! gracious One ! restorer of property ! bountiful One ! " There is a whole racial history in that " O restorer of property ! " Sitting, it may be, in the early morning on the hill-side opposite the Damascus Gate, and watching the effendis this list has been revised by one whose social position among Moslem Arabs is beyond question. 240 THE MUEZZIN CALLING THE HOUR OF PRAYER. THE MOSLEM AS A CITIZEN making their way from the Moslem suburb towards the Serail for the administration of the laws of their country ; the fellahin, basket-laden, coming into the market; the Bedouin with camels bearing grain and wood ; the police, the soldier, the tax-gatherer, all with the demure gait of the town Arab, one is irresistibly reminded of " the weary souls by thousands meekly stealing," and one wonders the less that places of business should be opened with an appeal to the " Restorer of property." The anonymous editor of Kinglake's Eothen (in Methuen's Little Library) writes of certain customs of this country : " The swindling is so palpable and yet so gravely decorous in its external forms that it ceases to shock ; it is so universal that in the end no one seems to have suffered much wrong. To vary the celebrated remark about the Scilly Islanders, one may say that these people gain a precarious livelihood by taking bribes from one another." (Introduction, xx.) Besides the Salat, the obligation of praying five times a day the Moslem must daily recite the Creed, " There is no God but God, and Mohammed is the prophet of God." He must keep the yearly fast of Ramadan by refraining during a month from food, drink or smoking from sunrise to sunset, he must give a tenth of his property in alms, and if possible he must make the pilgrimage to Mecca. Some who have the means, but lack health or leisure, perform this last duty by proxy, praying for a substitute, as in the case of many Russian pilgrims to Jerusalem. These, the five pillars of the faith, are a part of the " Obligatory action " incumbent on every one, whether man or woman, who has arrived at years of discretion, to know and observe. It consists of eight things, which are classified as things indispensable, necessary, traditional, lawful, unlawful, abominable and pernicious. These categories are an interesting study in casuistry. The things indispensable have been already enumerated. They are, perhaps, on the analogy of Sacraments, for he, " who believes them 241 R INNER JERUSALEM not (may God preserve us) is an infidel." He who neglects the things necessar} 7 , which are of the nature of the works of supererogation, such as voluntary almsgiving, deserves hell-fire, but is not an infidel. He who omits things traditional, such as circumcision, is open to reproach. He who does things meritorious shall receive his reward. He who does things lawful is praiseworthy. Things un- lawful, such as rebellion against parents, lead to the tor- ments of hell, and " he who calls things unlawful, lawful (which God forbid), is an infidel." (One cannot refrain from the reflection that, according to Moslem standard, a large proportion of modern literature is tainted by infidelity !) Things abominable are blameworthy but do not deserve torment ; they include carelessness in ritual, such as praying at, instead of before, sunrise. Things pernicious are ritual-neglect of a more serious nature, such as inattention while at prayer, or eating during a fast. Moreover, there are twelve indispensable conditions of prayer, four of ablution, one of almsgiving, three of pil- grimage, three of fast, and it is well to remember that in a religion without priests, sacraments, confession, or, neces- sarily, public worship, yet, withal, with a strict system of rewards and punishments, so elaborate a ritual lays a heavy responsibility upon individual conscience. The common assertion that modern religion is divorced from life is by no means a fair generalization. There is, for example, much room for private charity ; at the Festival of Beiram, for instance, when every household that can afford it, sacrifices a sheep, in remembrance of the sacrifice of Ishmael (sic), there is always abundance given to those who cannot themselves do what is ceremonially required. The other day a wealthy Moslem was about to celebrate the circumcision of his son, a boy of about twelve years. The ceremonial tends to become the occasion of an elaborate and costly hospitality, and he accordingly allowed it to be known that any parents unable to afford the expense on 242 THE MOSLEM AS A CITIZEN their own account might bring their boys to share in the proposed festivity. Over fifty little boys attended, and all received a suit of clothing proper to the occasion, and they and their friends were entertained and fed. Every day, what in England we should call a soup-kitchen is opened for the poor, irrespective of creed. The charity has a small original endowment, but is now so widely extended that the endowment would be inadequate were it not for the gifts of the faithful, often taking the form of votive or thanksgiving offerings a sheep, it may be, or a sack of rice or meal. Until the Jews lately established an asylum it must be admitted, on lines more scientific the Moslems alone made provision for the insane. 1 Like the Jews of the time of our Lord, they assume (who knows with what justice ?) that insanity is due to the presence of an evil spirit, and their treatment is based on the theory of exorcism, of making his tenement unpleasant. They, however, distinguish between the insane " who hath a devil" and a congenital idiot, whom they treat as " God's fool," on the supposition that his soul is in heaven. Dr. Chaplin (Q.S. 1894), in relation to certain nervous diseases, common, especially among young women, in Palestine, tells us that such patients are sometimes shut up under the Haram Area, or chained to a pillar in the church at el Khudr (i.e. St. George), or sent to the Cave of Elijah. He adds, "It is said that benefit is often derived from this method of treatment ; the awful sacredness of the place, the silence, the solitude, producing a kind of shock to the nervous system, which proves beneficial. The remedy is akin to the sudden fright which cures hiccup, swallowing live spiders for ague. . . . The chain with which patients are bound to a pillar in the church at el Khudr is, perhaps, 1 Waldmeier, a German Swiss, has established an Asylum in the Lebanon, which is, from the point of view both of science and bene- ficence, worthy of the highest respect. 243 INNER JERUSALEM that which was shown to Felix Fabri in the fifteenth century as the chain with which St. George had been bound. Brother Felix relates that he and his companions put it round their necks out of devotion." There is an admirable Moslem hospital, supported by Government, and in itself a fact of interesting significance under the management of the Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul, commonly known as Sisters of Charity. The order and completeness of all arrangements are abundant testimony that it could not be in better hands. The building is admir- ably planned ; there is well organized accommodation for out-patients, the dispensary, and operating-room, wards on a separate floor for women, a Mosque, accessible at all hours ; supervision of doctors, native and European, care- fully trained Arab-speaking nurses, the frequent attendance of a Moslem committee of management, and a separate building, under the charge of police, for criminals needing medical attention. There is a carefully tended garden for the use of con- valescents, and it is pleasant to notice everywhere, even in the dispensary, the presence of flowers. The rules of the Order forbid the attendance of the Sisters upon obstetric and syphilitic cases and at certain operations ; but in the cause of humanity even these are set aside if the case is urgent or the auxiliary nurses inadequate. The Sisters are a magnificent illustration of the grand rule " laborare est orare." Even the ritual requirements of their faith have to be arranged with a view to the exigencies of service, and their daily Mass is heard at four o'clock in the morning, in order that their patients may not lack their work, even when gaining by their prayer. " We try to feel that at least our actes are said before the Muezzin calls the Moslems to prayer," * said one of them. " We like to be the first to 1 In addition to the morning cry of the Muezzin, the Dervishes go about the town, especially at the time of Ramadan, beating a drum to call the people to prayer, and crying out, " Oh, Moslems ! 244 THE MOSLEM AS A CITIZEN knock at Heaven's gate on behalf of our poor sufferers." They take no mean advantage of their relation to their patients in order to interfere with their faith. " If our work does not speak the example of our Master, our poor words would have little chance," said a young Alsatian, whose very countenance was in itself a lesson of calm happiness and selfless devotion. We asked what happened when the patients realized the approach of death. "Oh, their teachers come and visit them, or they pray with each other. They are full of God's praises ; it is very edifying." In an outside building, carefully locked and guarded, we found a poor criminal convicted of murder. He was dying of diabetes, but he had every comfort, every possible alleviation of his sufferings. The Sisters visited him con- tinually, but the policeman in charge was also his nurse, and we could not but observe in his conduct more of com- passionate ministration than of the stern guardian. We arrived about a quarter to four in the afternoon, when the policeman was engaged at his third hour of prayer, Ikindi ; and the presence alike of the Sister and the Lady, the rahbat and the sitt, availed nothing to distract his attention from his devotions. That would have been one of the " things pernicious." The essential ritual accomplished, however, he rose, and, still continuing to pray aloud, unlocked the door and admitted us. The poor patient had been removed from the comfortable iron bedstead to a mat upon the stone floor, reverting, by his own wish, in the extremity of suffer- ing to his normal habits. As his attendant entered, still praying aloud, he made a feeble effort to perform the Rakaat, the ritual genuflections, as his lips moved in praise of " the Compassionate, the Merciful, the King of the day of judgment," whose summons he was hastening to obey. Oh, God's people ! I'm a Dervish of God's way. Get up to your morning meal ; the prophet visits you the prophet redeems you ; your. Creator will not forget you " a cry which, incidentally no doubt, procures for themselves an invitation to breakfast. 245 INNER JERUSALEM The occasion when one obtains the most impressive view of the Mohammedan inhabitants of Jerusalem is that of the annual pilgrimage to the alleged Tomb of Moses at Nebi Musa. There is a pretty legend that Moses complained of the loneliness of his grave, and that God, to console him, promised him an annual pilgrimage. We learn, however, from the Rev. E. Hanauer, of a local tradition which, if less romantic, is more probable, that the origin of the pilgrimage was political rather than religious, and that it was a device for gathering together a large body of Moslems during the period when the Holy City was crowded with Christian pilgrims. It is quite useless to quote that " No man knows that Sepulchre, and no man saw it e'er," because its where- abouts was revealed to a holy dervish in a dream, and every spring hundreds of Moslems perform devotions there which last for a week. Their traditions on the subject of that Vale in the Land of Moab, originally published by Frere Lievin, have been often quoted. The story, which is long and elaborate, relates in brief that to Moses God had given the privilege that, although 120 years of age, he should never die till he voluntarily stepped into his grave. For the sake of his charge, he studiously avoided the neighbour- hood of sepulchres, a habit which, in these days, would in Jerusalem oblige one to remain indoors. Nevertheless he must fulfil the demands of destiny. One day, while walking among the mountains, he saw four angels disguised as workmen the better to deceive him. They were engaged hi cutting a sepulchre in the heart of the rock, but on being asked the nature of their occupation, they replied, " We have been sent to prepare a retreat for the most precious treasure of our King. Our task is nearly done, and we are only awaiting the arrival of the treasure itself." The sun was hot, and the cool cavern in the hillside offered inviting shelter. Moses, heated and weary, asked permission to enter and stretched his limbs upon a stone bench in the remotest corner, upon which the workmen 246 THE MOSLEM AS A CITIZEN offered him with all signs of respect an apple of exquisite colour and perfume. He accepted it, to appease his thirst, but had barely carried it to his lips, when he fell into eternal slumber, upon which his soul ascended on high, borne upon the wings of the ministering angels from the spot where his body reposes to this day. In proof of the story, the rock of which the sepulchre is composed is outside white as the angels of light, and within dark as the angels of death. Frere Lievin materializes the position by pointing out that the sepulchre is within the remains of a convent, possibly one of the most ancient in Christendom. It was founded in the fourth century by St. Euthymius, 1 and destroyed by Chosroes in 616. The Moslems, upon their arrival in the country, conceiving the idea that it was a spot of especial sanctity, built a minaret out of the ruins, estab- lished a guard of Dervishes, and bestowed upon it the above tradition. All the strict Moslems of Jerusalem, and great numbers from the country, who assemble in advance, unite in pilgrim- age, preceded by the green flag, long preserved for the occasion in the family of the Husseini. The women line the roads for a couple of miles, sitting in tight-packed rows in their white sheets (the izzar) and with their faces covered by veils of figured muslin (the mandil), which make them look as if they had a disease or deformity. The strict Moslem considers silk unclean, so the simplicity of the linen wrapper is no indication of poverty. Moham- medan women, out of doors, make no pretence to the gay colouring and rich material of the Jewess. The pilgrims assemble in the Haram Area, and as they leave the adjacent gate of St. Stephen a gun is fired and a detachment of soldiers comes sweeping down the hill to 1 The learned Dominican, Father Vincent, a specialist in Jeru- salem archaeology, is, however, of opinion, that the convent in question was more probably at the Khan el Ahmar. 247 INNER JERUSALEM clear the road for the advancing procession, which consists of some hundreds of Moslems, chief among whom is the Mufti. Naturally but a small band accompanies the flag to its ultimate destination, where they remain for a week, and which is occasionally the scene of disorder and even tragedy. Already one sees the elements of intense excite- ment, and by the time they return the following week there will have been various accretions, emotional and real, which account for the presence already of Turkish troops along the line of pilgrimage. Here, two rival tribes coming from opposite directions chance to meet, and a miniature battle takes place under our very eyes ; indeed, we ourselves are driven to take shelter behind some tombs, and on our return find traces of blood shed on the very spot where we had been standing. Here is a Dervish with sheesh, a skewer hah 6 a yard long, through both cheeks, which he frequently withdraws and replaces, amid the plaudits of the crowd. Here a fanatical group are vehemently cursing us, our fathers and mothers, our camels and our asses, dogs of Franks that we are ! Here, again, a gradually increasing group has hypnotized itself into a state of ecstasy, and for a good half hour, with hardly a pause, has been executing a monotonous dance, repeating ceaselessly the formula known as the Zikr ; that is, the mentioning of the name of God. ' ' La illdlah ilia lldh," " There is no God but God. ' ' The rhythm is thus accentuated, and the repetition is on four notes, which, ceaselessly repeated, have a stupefying effect of which we, mere spectators even, are unwillingly conscious. A writer in the P.E.F., who watched the same ceremony in a mosque in the town, calculated that the formula was repeated about thirty times a minute during three periods of ten minutes, and for a shorter period with greater rapidity, making about a thousand repetitions during an hour and three quarters. Others are executing a sort of dance, always upon the same spot, beating time with their hands the while, and 248 THE MOSLEM AS A CITIZEN shouting " Allah ddeem, Allah, Allah hei " (" God is everlast- ing, God is living." ) Their cries and their movements become more and more rapid, they are panting and breathless, the singing is intermittent, and finally there is but an occasional gasp of " hei," and at last the leader, himself exhausted, suddenly stops, and one expects to see them collapse upon the ground ; but no, some one is at hand with a bottle of water, from the spout of which all drink in turn and are ready to begin again. There is a tourist superstition that every green turban, or mantle, indicates a pilgrim to Mecca or a descendant of the prophet. As a matter of fact, the green mantle was originally a literary decoration given by the prophet to one Kaab ebn Zoheir, who so enchanted him by the recitation of a poem that he took off his own cloak and threw it over the shoulders of the poet, an action which signified protection. The recipient placed so high a value upon his possession that he refused the sum of 10,000 dirhems of silver ; the Kaliph Moawyia, the would-be purchaser, got it at last, however, on the poet's death, on payment of double that sum. It was long preserved by the Kaliphs of the Moaweeya and the Abassides successively, but was finally burnt on the capture of Bagdad by the Tartars in the thirteenth century. The green attire is now worn for devotion, or even eccentricity, and has ceased to be distinctive of family or piety. A not unusual method, however, of publishing the fact of pilgrim- age to Mecca is by, so to speak, affixing a certificate to the front door. Pictures roughly painted upon the stone door- way represent the dangers that have been braved ; the forests, wild beasts, and in some cases the ship and railway train, while the sanctity of the owner is exhibited by the inscription of texts and pious ejaculations. Whatever may be the nature of the hold upon the Moslem of his religion, whether the complication be political, social, or domestic, certain it is, as Bishop Gobat himself put it, " that there can be no question of proselytism among the Moslems is a 249 INNER JERUSALEM matter of course." That a certain number of Jews should have apostatized to Mohammedanism is not altogether sur- prising, as the monotheistic character of its creed would appeal to them more readily than Trinitarianism misunder- stood. Gratz (Oesch. des gudenthums, vi. 303) appears to ascribe the apostasy of the Jews during the twelfth century to the degeneracy and superstition that had then taken hold of eastern Judaism, and also, partly, to the temporal successes of the Arabs. Even so late as 1840, after the cruel persecution of the Jews, consequent upon the disturbances in Syria, the with- drawal of the French protectorate in the north, and the restoration of Turkish authority, Moses Abulafia, a member of a well known family which has furnished many distin- guished Rabbis and Talmudic scholars to various towns of Palestine, assumed the turban to escape further torture. A writer in the Jewish Encyclopaedia [v. Apostates] remarks, " In general, it may be said, that the apostates to Islam exhibited no great animosity toward their former brethren. Those that went over to the side of Ishmael never forgot that he and Isaac were both sons of Abraham ; and the reason for this is probably to be found in the tolerance which Mohammedans almost universally showed to the Jews." 250 CHAPTER XVII THE MOSLEM IN HIS RELATION TO WOMEN MARRIAGE CUSTOMS TYPES OF WOMANHOOD DRESS PHYSIQUE DOMESTIC EDUCATION DEBATE ON WOMEN'S RIGHTS AN EVENING PARTY HOUSEHOLD OCCUPATIONS NEEDLEWORK CHILDREN VULGARITY A MOSLEM ESTABLISHMENT THE "SABEEL" MARK TWAIN, who always combines as much direct fair thinking as is compatible with the tendency to take the conventional view of Palestine, remarks : " Mosques are plenty, graveyards are plenty, but morals and whisky are scarce. The Koran does not permit Moham- medans to drink. Their natural instincts do not permit them to be moral ... it makes our cheeks burn with shame to see such a thing permitted here in Turkey. We do not mind it so much in Salt Lake City " (New Pilgrim's Progress, chap. iii.). The immorality in question consists of the permission to multiply wives up to the number of four, which, according to history, would be moderate in Salt Lake City a per- mission of which, however, the Moslem seldom avails him- self ; the upper classes because except in royal circles, in which here, as elsewhere, certain irregularities are per- mitted the march of civilization and perhaps a more modern standard of domestic comfort has carried them beyond this relic of patriarchal barbarism ; the lower, 251 INNER JERUSALEM because, among other reasons, such an indulgence would be too costly. This custom, like much else in the Moslem faith, was probably borrowed from the Jews, among whom, Scriptural example apart, the Mishneh allowed an ordinary Jew four wives, a king eighteen. The great Hillel made divorce quite as easy as it is among Moslems ; and a woman who was ugly, ill-dressed, or a bad cook, then as now, had small chance of a permanent situation (Gittin, ix. 10). Even in the early days of the Victorian era, however, before those of modern modifications, it did not neces- sarily follow that a Moslem household was more unhappy than an English one. The traveller Warburton observes that " the Eastern woman seems as happy in her lot as her European sister, notwithstanding the plurality of wives that her lord indulges in or ventures upon. For her there is no more disparagement in occupying the second place as a wife than there is in Europe as a daughter. ... In the hareem there is as much order and decorum as in an English Quaker's home ; it is guarded as the tiger guards his young ; but its inmates consider this as a compliment, and fancy themselves neglected if not closely watched " (The, Crescent and the Gross, chap. vi.). There are three kinds of women, says an Arab tradition : those who have patches on the knees, like those who pray ; on the breast, like a dog that scratches itself ; and on the back, like an ass that is beaten ; which distinctions are thus accounted for. When Noah had a daughter, and a sheikh came with the usual congratulations, the patriarch replied in the usual form of an offer of marriage " upon the choice of your hand," and the sheikh accepted the proposal. With more politeness than forethought he did this a second and yet a third time, and when the girl grew up she had three bridegrooms to satisfy. To the first he gave his daughter, and to the second and third his she-ass and she-dog, changed into the likeness of women ; and from these three are descended the three varieties the womanly 252 THE MOSLEM IN HIS RELATION TO WOMEN woman, the ass-woman, stupid and self-willed, and the dog-woman, who, like the dog of the East, screams for the least thing, and delights in running about the streets and stirring up unpleasant matters better left alone. One would be sorry to suggest that the same classifications might be found elsewhere ; and in fact the woman of the East seems to be, in many respects, nearer to the brute than to the human creation. The Greek woman may have succeeded hi looking graceful in flowing robes and shapeless draperies ; the Oriental too often succeeds only in looking obtrusively female, although, in grace of carriage and move- ment, she might have given points to Venus or Diana. It would appear, however, that she deliberately cultivates as beauties physical peculiarities offensive to the eye of Northern Europe. This is less perceptible in girl- hood, but when a woman becomes a mother in her early teens, and lives in a country where the olive branch is more than conventionally regarded as a decoration, one can hardly wonder that its frequent multiplication should early produce the results one deprecates. When one compares the physique of the Arab and the Jewish races, as represented in Jerusalem, one cannot but reflect that Ishmael must have been much better-looking than Isaac ; or, perhaps, as it is chiefly among the women that the fact strikes us, it might be fairer to say that one can hardly wonder, considering their respective ages, that the daughters of Hagar should be so much more pleasing in appearance than those of Sarah. " The Harim freely unveiled before me," says Lady Burton (Inner Life of Syria), " and I thought what a fine chance the izzar and mandil would be for some of us ! " The izzar and mandil, which so entirely mask both face and figure, are, however, essentially the dress of the women that is, the Moslem women of the towns ; and for beauty one must as a rule go to the villages, where the graceful dress, the white veil thrown back from the face hanging to the waist, or some- 253 INNER JERUSALEM times to the edge of the dress, modify the abandon of the figure ; above all, where the habits of walking barefoot and of carrying burdens on the head, lend dignity and ease to the carriage, very different from the slouching shuffle of the townswomen in ill-made shoes and superabundant wrappings. At Bethlehem, Ramallah and Nazareth, 1 the women are gorgeous in raiment of needlework, each district, often each village, having its distinctive dress, woven, dyed and embroidered at home the acquisition of an embroidered robe and a head-dress of coins being the girl's principal outfit for matrimony. In the Moslem schools at Jerusalem, or where there are convents, as well as where there are Jewish schools, the girls are taught to become useful wives, to wash, bake, sew and cook ; but the English missionaries have done nothing in this direction, though they had been here many years before convents were established or Government schools organized. Now, after half a century of lost opportunity, their aid is no longer required ; and woman, here as elsewhere, is beginning to take her fair share of the responsibilities as well as the work of life. In spite of much that is alleged to the contrary, there is, and always has been among the Arabs, a certain chivalrous recognition of the higher womanly qualities. In the time of the Mamelukes criminals were led to execution blindfold, because, if they met a woman and could but touch her garments, they would be saved ; and only the other day we were privileged to attend the meeting of a club of some scores of young Syrians, among whom were a fair sprinkling of the " gentler sex," in order to listen to a debate by Arabs 1 The beauty of the Nazareth women was not lost upon the fathers of the Early Church. Antoninus Martyr writes : "In eivitate tanta est gratia mulierum Hebraearum ut inter Hebraeas pulchriores non inveniantur, et hoc S. Maria sibi concessum dicunt Provincia paradise similis in tritico in frugibus similis ^Egypto sed praecellit in vino et oleo promis ac melle." 254 A BETHLEHEM BRIDK. THE MOSLEM IN HIS RELATION TO WOMEN and Syrians, in the country of the Turk, upon the position, education and rights of women ! Among the speakers, although many different points of view were presented and various degrees of culture advocated, there was not, we were told, one wholly dissentient voice. Much applause was elicited by a certain story of a man who asked for the best and the worst food in the world, to whom was brought twice over a dish of tongues, an apologue of the value of women, reminding one of Tennyson's " Men differ but as heaven and earth, But women, best and worst, as heaven and hell." The arguments used, perhaps for the first time in this country, were just those which are most familiar to us, the heirs of all the ages : that woman has wide responsibilities, that she is not only in herself important to the comfort of others, but the guardian and companion of childhood, and that the child is father of the man. It is fair, perhaps, to add that the women present looked, for the most part, wholly uninterested in the question, and were themselves eloquent testimony to their own need of development. They were per- fectly decorous and orderly ; they did not whisper or giggle or make eyes at the men, as the same class of girls would do at any meeting in any schoolroom in England ; but they sat uncomfortably on the unaccustomed chair, stuck their feet out in front of them, looked stolid, and when refresh- ments were handed round, ate and drank in eager silence, as if thankful to welcome something tangible at last ! Their common sayings testify, if not always in compli- mentary fashion, to the influence of women. " It is useless to try and explain a matter quietly to an angry woman," say the Arabs. ' ; Allah has given man a mind, a long spirit and a beard, whereas to most women he has given only a long tongue." The author of Haji Baba, who has so thoroughly entered into the spirit of Oriental life, puts into the mouth of one 255 INNER JERUSALEM of his characters the remark, That when a woman meddles with anything " pena be Khoda, it is time to put one's trust in God!" The conventional reproach of women is as a rule that of vanity and chatter. For vanity the woman of Palestine has but little scope as understood by a European. When she has a new dress it is exactly like the last ; like her grand- mother's, probably like her grandchild's. We are not, of course, referring to those to whom the English missionaries have introduced ill-cut blouses, draggle-tailed skirts, sailor hats and brown shoes, but of those who at the most have exchanged the mandil and izzar for the modest white kerchief or the graceful mantilla of black lace, so general among the congregations of the Greek and Latin churches, that one speculates as to its having been copied from pilgrims from Spain or other coasts of the Mediterranean. What she lacks in variety of dress, however, she makes up in ornaments, and her jewels are often beautiful in workmanship and design. On a certain occasion, however, when we were privileged to attend a large evening party of Moslem ladies, we regretted to see that some of the more fashionable were wearing " Parisian diamonds " and dresses which looked as if they had been bought at a July sale in Oxford Street and slept in since. All, however, arrived in the orthodox mandil and izzar, carrying in their hands embroidered squares such as are bought at Liberty's for table-centres and chair-backs the object of which was soon displayed. It seemed to be etiquette for the hostess to meet each guest, help to remove the double sheet of white calico in which she was enveloped, and wrap it in the embroidered square for identification when it was time to leave. The etiquette of the occasion, though it permitted certain relaxations to which we are unaccustomed, appeared to be extremely rigid in other directions. Social distinctions were marked, not by precedence in entering or leaving the room, 256 THE MOSLEM IN HIS RELATION TO WOMEN but by selection of seats. The hostess was not required to look in any local Debrett for the oldest title, as each lady settled her own affairs by the simple process of elbowing out any one whom she considered out of place. We, dogs of Franks that we are, had ignorantly taken our seats upon the divan destined for our betters, who very shortly contrived by pressure right and left to make our tenure impossible, when we meekly withdrew to isolation and cane chairs. All, even those in European costumes, wore high dresses, and to be decolletee is regarded as gross indecency. The custom among a certain class of continental ladies of baring their necks in the day-time, and which has been imitated by the Levantines, is commented upon here by natives in language so exceedingly definite that one can hardly refrain on public occasions from begging the ladies to put on a shawl and spare our blushes. Naturally one dines among Euro- peans in the same costume as at home. Another point of etiquette was involved in the fashion of greeting. The inferior in age or position takes the hand of the other and raises it to her lips and forehead, and when there is no such obvious inferiority there is a friendly contest as to which shall perform the graceful salute. The commonplace hand- shake is, however, now becoming only too general. The ladies smoked abundantly, and when the first chill of cere- mony had worn off, tucked up their legs as well as the dignity of sitting on chairs and divans would permit, many kicking off their shoes for greater convenience. Those who were nursing-mothers had their babies brought to them for re- freshment, and when cakes were handed round there were some who turned them over with their fingers in order to select the specimens they fancied. They ate and drank the whole evening ; coffee, weak tea with rose-water in it, lemonade and tumblers of water, accompanied by spoonfuls of jam. The children of the household sang, danced and acted little dramas for their amusement, but their manners in this connexion had so entirely " that repose which marks 257 s INNER JERUSALEM the caste of Vere de Vere " that they displayed no interest whatever. One little girl, who looked too childish to go to parties, seemed so sad and weary that we asked the cause, and heard that she came from a distant village, and had been lately married to a husband who had made no effort to conceal his disappointment, not in her character or acquirements, but in her appearance. The poor little thing was just at the stage when, at home, she would have had long black legs, short shapeless frocks and a pigtail ; when her joys would have been puppies and fairy stories, and her sorrows vulgar tractions and French verbs ! Here, a stranger in Jerusalem, without even a girl friend, she sat silent in pathetic dignity, her eyes full of unshed tears because her husband neglected her for being too thin ! The idleness of which the Mohammedan woman is accused differs in kind from that of the idle Englishwoman, owing to the scarcity of shops, the absence of change of fashion, the duration of her clothing (which, unless she buys European material, is usually of excellent quality), and her innocence of the arts of reading and writing, at least among those of the elder generation. She has no magazines, newspapers, nor fashion plates ; no tennis, no croquet, no bicycle, no motor car ; but she pays visits, gossips, goes out to afternoon tea, which probably consists of coffee, cakes and sweet syrup, with true suburban enthusiasm. Her house is spotless ; her furniture, probably covered with white, is trimmed with needle lace infinitely tedious to make, the only material being a needle and thread. She supervises the cooking, which is inconceivably elaborate, some of the dishes needing many hours to prepare. We have seen beautiful needlework in the hands of members of two communities in Jerusalem one Latin, the other American " orders " on behalf of the Pasha, in both cases cut out and arranged in every detail by his wife ; we have seen Moslem ladies industriously work- 258 THE MOSLEM IN HIS RELATION TO WOMEN ing for the poor, not only making, but, what to many women is more meritorious, mending for children or for the old. We have asked what became of widows or old women alone in the world, and almost debarred by custom and tradition from going out into the world to earn a living. 1 Why should we ask such a question ? Surely they have children, or, if not, they can return to their parents, or at the worst they have friends ! The possession of children is taken for granted. The first question asked when one visits a native house here is gene- rally : " Have you one boy or two ? " The form of the question is courteous. It is intended on the one hand to give you an opportunity for the possible triumph of announc- ing a larger number, on the other to protect you from the humiliation of having to own to only girls. On one such occasion we explained that though of mature years we were unmarried, and that such a condition of things was not wholly unknown among English ladies, even those possessed of a dowry equivalent to many camels, and of appearance which, according to our standard, is quite passable. Our hostess sighed wearily as she looked around at her numerous olive-branches, and remarked, " It is better so." " Elle a enfante a douze ans," frankly explained a son of about four- teen, who was studying at the school of the " Christian Brothers," and could recite passages from Hamlet and Macbeth. One learns from books that girl children do not count ; perhaps that may be so among the peasants, but in the Moslem homes of Jerusalem the little girls seem to receive their full share of affection and attention, and now even of education. Even among the peasants, however, a girl has not merely her uses, but her practical value. When she is born the disappointment is broken to the anxious father in the phrase " Blessed be the bride," a reminder that when marriageable 1 Not wholly ; some are engaged in teaching, some in needlework. 259 INNER JERUSALEM she will be worth from about 16 upwards to 50 or more, according to her age, utility and appearance. At twelve years old she can carry the pitcher to the well, knead, bake, cook ; if there be but one boy in the family, she has probably acted the part of shepherd. Here, however, as elsewhere, a woman occasionally makes herself cheap, and a lady was pointed out to us whose first husband, it is alleged, in moments of domestic difference taunted her with the fact that he got her for a donkey with- out a tail. Left a widow possibly with means she has since acquired a second husband under conditions more worthy. We have seldom met with instances of marriage so shock- ingly early among Moslems as among native Christians and Jews, possibly because of the greater social restraint usual among the better class followers of the prophet. There are unfortunately certain Arabs and other inhabi- tants of Syria who disgrace themselves by appearing to consider the title of " Arab " disgraceful, who seize upon the most ridiculous pretexts to Frenchify or Anglicize their names, and who in educating their children to pass as Euro- peans, seek their own individual advantage instead of the elevation of their country. The woman, as being naturally less advanced than the man, suffers and loses most. In dis- carding her native dress and assuming one in which she looks about as much at home as an English soldier in a Highland kilt, she loses her grace, her " cachet," her dignity, and is as ridiculous as the English tourist who borrows a Bethlehem dress to be photographed in. Her magnificent hair, 1 which in a plait as broad as your hand was tucked into her belt to be out of the way, is wasted in a fashionable coiffure ; the stately carriage, robbed of the veil which lent it grace, be- comes a mere strut ; her figure, with its Oriental abun- dance, not to say abandon, reluctantly corseted, degenerates 1 The Jewish traditions represent God as plaiting the hair of Eve before presenting her to Adam. 260 THE MOSLEM IN HIS RELATION TO WOMEN into inevitable coarseness where it was at least potential^ statuesque. M. Clermont Ganneau has pointed out that in Palestine, as often elsewhere, the depositories of tradition, the custodians of ancient forms and beliefs, are the women. It is from them that one might learn, as no one has yet learnt, at least for publication, ancient customs of dances and funerals, songs 1 of occasions of joy and sorrow, and suggestive traditions of the toilet, of tattooing and of embroidery. It is they who, by refusing to buy any other kind, have perpetuated the patterns of their jewels and their painted boxes, in a country where the indigenous art has been always of the most rudi- mentary kind ; whose straw dishes, shield-shaped, beautiful in colour and simple of design, are probably what they were a thousand years ago ; who have associated with certain villages their own special dress, water-bottles, vessels for grain and house decorations. That no one, at least that no English person, 2 has collected information from the women, is easily explained by the fact that the strict separation of the sexes has prevented any man from taking advantage of the possibilities, and that the only women who have had the opportunity, the missionaries, have not been of a type to avail themselves of it, useful and valuable as it would be to the antiquarian, the anthropolo- gist, the humanitarian, and, one would have imagined, the intelligent religious teacher. There are some curious anomalies in the position of Moslem women in Palestine. It is said that one must not speak to a Mohammedan of his shoes or of his wife ; nevertheless, I 1 In a collection of over a thousand Bedouin songs, made by a certain Hamasa of Abu Tammam, forty-five of the authors men- tioned are women. 2 One must, however, except the works so valuable to the psychological student, of Lady Burton and Miss Rogers, The Inner Life of Syria, and Domestic Life in Palestine, written before the days when the Englishwoman had excluded herself from the confidence of the native. 261 INNER JERUSALEM have myself heard a Moslem speak with gentleness and respect of his mother, his sister-in-law and his nieces ; he did not happen, although over thirty years of age, to have a wife. Another invited us to his house in order that we might have the privilege of seeing his wife, the daughter of an important sheikh and a very beautiful woman. She is the mother of many daughters, but of no son. We asked whether he proposed to supplement or even divorce her. " No, indeed," he replied ; " she is a good wife, and it is the will of Allah ! " He belongs to a well-to-do family, and has several brothers, each of whom has but one wife. They all live on their own property in houses adjoining. In more than one the tesselated pavement of a crusading church crops up through the mud-floor of the kitchen. " These are holy things, and the house is blessed," said our hostess. In cleanliness and order the house was certainly blessed, and we were struck by the fact that the eldest girl, though apparently about sixteen years of age, handsome and well- off, was not yet appropriated. " That which I have in my house," or " the thing which is within," are curious euphemisms for the honoured name of " wife " ; but though I have not seen the suggestion made, I venture to think that such phrases may not be intended, as the Occidental supposes, in pure insult. Wherever there is fear of the Evil Eye, or of the Powers of Evil, 1 there is usually some effort made at distracting their attention. Thus a Moslem will speak of his children as " the protected ones " ; of a cemetery as " the house of the living " ; of the Wely of his village as " the father of the Crescent," " the strength of the faith," in precisely the same spirit in which a High- lander will say blue when he means green, lest he attract the attention of the fairies. The Moslem, and often the Jew, in this country will avoid the mention of the number five, possibly from association of ideas with the fingers every- 1 See chapter on " The Powers of Evil," in Outer Isles (Messrs. Constable, 1902), by A. Goodrich-Freer. 262 THE MOSLEM IN HIS RELATION TO WOMEN where displayed as protection against the Evil Eye. "How many eggs for a piastre ? " you ask. " The number of your hand," is the reply. The Moslem house, whether large or small, generally shows traces of its origin in the days when, for protection and for concealment of its inmates, it turned dead walls to the road and gave entirely on to a central court. Many of these still exist : the house is of one storey, the rooms domed, the roofs flat ; in the older houses the roofs are walled, but pierced with what look like drain pipes, enabling the women to look out without being seen. The communication with the outer world is by a passage having a door at either end. The eunuch of the story-books is now replaced by a peasant servant, who violates no proprieties if she answers the door and bargains with tradespeople. In humbler homes it is very common to see a man colloguing through a crack, the door being open an inch or two, and the woman with whom he is dealing behind it. Within, one finds a number of entirely independent dwellings, large or small, according to the requirements of the owner. The court is often filled with shrubs and flowers, planted probably in kerosene tins, such being the flower-boxes of the country, but often painted or otherwise decorated. In one room you will find the mother of the master of the house, perhaps a widowed or unmarried sister ; in other rooms the wife, or, let us sup- pose, wives, though we have not met with any such instance. The Moslem law forbids any man to keep two wives in one house, which also helps to account for the fact that a " house " here means the section of an aggregation of independent rooms, or suites of rooms. The next stage in the history of the Moslem house is the covering in of the courtyard, giving a handsome central room or rooms, often divided by pillars and paved with marble. It is often so arranged by division, at perhaps a third of its length, as to furnish a handsome entrance hall or leewan, used as a reception-room, on to which open the public rooms, or rooms for the gentlemen of 263 INNER JERUSALEM the household, often brothers or sons of the householder. The inner part, or beit diwan, a sort of general salon, is the centre upon which open the doors of the private rooms of the ladies. The kitchens are often outside, and as a rule are mere cupboards containing a small charcoal stove, which would be the scorn of a European cook, in spite of the fact that of its kind Arab cookery is generally excellent, especi- ally as to rice, vegetables, sweet cakes and puddings, and of course coffee. As the Moslems are in Jerusalem the landlords of the English, who, alone among Europeans, have little property (with the recent exception of St. George's Collegiate build- ings), an effort has been made to meet European tastes, and houses are now very generally built with an upper floor, and often, unfortunately for the sanitary and the picturesque, with tiled and sloping roofs. In this case the upper floor is usually a duplicate of the lower, and provision is commonly made by means of an outside staircase for division into two separate houses, should the Moslems at any time occupy the building themselves. It is generally easy to ascertain whether the house is in Moslem or Christian occupation by a glance at the sabeel, or recess for water, which the pious Mohammedan always constructs in his outer wall, and which by a beautiful custom is in memory of the dead, and as a covenant with God for the protection of the house, kept full of water for the refresh- ment of passers-by, water being one of the luxuries as well as one of the urgent necessities of the country. If the house belongs to a Christian, the sabeel is usually blocked up with stones, leaving the promise of the reward for the giving of a cup of cold water to be inherited by those on behalf of whose souls we have been spending about 16,000 a year for half a century. A striking example of the fact may be seen where two Moslem-built houses stand side by side on the high road as one enters Jerusalem. Here, at all hours of the day, one meets fellaheen coming in from distant villages, 264 THE MOSLEM IN HIS RELATION TO WOMEN from the mountains, bringing vegetables, fruit, cheese, eggs, or game to the market; asses laden with wood and coal ; camels bearing an incredible weight of stones from some distant quarry; all weary and heavy laden, for the way has been long and dusty, shelterless and arid. Here man and beast can squat beneath the shelter of the wall, and the tough, dry bread they carry with them is dipped in water and distributed among the little group. A few paces beyond is another sabeel, but the house is rented by the English Missionaries, and the wayfarer turns away weary and disappointed to find it choked with dust and ashes. 265 CHAPTER XVIII THE MOSLEM FAITH IN JERUSALEM THE SPIRIT OF THE EAST THE INFLUENCE OF ISLAM THE CAREER OF MOHAMMED His RELATION TO JEW AND CHRISTIAN RELIGION AMONG WOMEN OBSERVANCE OF RELIGIOUS DUTIES THE LOWER ANIMALS Reposeful, patient, undemonstrative, Luxurious, enigmatically sage, Dispassionately cruel, might look doom On all the fever of the Occident. The brooding mother of the unfilial world Recumbent on her own antiquity, Aloof from our mutations and unrest, Alien to our achievements and desires. Too proud alike for protest or assent When new thoughts thunder at her massy door ; Another brain dreaming another dream. Another heart, recalling other loves. Too gray and grave for our adventurous hopes, For our precipitate pleasures too august ; And, in majestic taciturnity, Refraining her illimitable scorn. IF Mr. William Watson, as is alleged, were inspired by a cat to the writing of these lines on the genius of the East, it was undoubtedly a Persian cat a cat whose ances- tors had " heard the East a calling," who, though she had accepted the beef and mutton of England, the salmon and sardines, the cow's milk and Brussels carpets, together with the damp, the draughts, the precarious weather, the society of her short-haired cousins, had done so with " majestic taciturnity, refraining her illimitable scorn." 266 THE MOSLEM FAITH IN JERUSALEM The East is courteous, too courteous, as well as " too proud for protest or assent, when new thoughts thunder at her massy door." She passes the palm of her right hand over the palm of her left ; the palm of her left over the palm of her right, and says, " Maktub " " It is decreed." The West " gives voice to our adventurous hopes." She closes dreamy eyes, and murmurs, " Inshallah " " If God will." We lay at her feet our mutations and unrest, our achieve- ments and desires, our dreams, our loves, our hopes. To India we bring a civilization which is barbarism compared to her own in ages before we came into existence ; to Syria, the religion which was hers while we were burning human sacrifices and dressing in blue paint ; to Egypt, education and politics, which are child's play to the memories of sphinx and pyramid ; and, " with another brain dreaming another dream, another heart recalling other loves," she awakens for one moment's contemplation of our offerings, and " reposeful, patient, undemonstrative," above all " enigmatically sage," looking it may be " doom on all the fever of the Occident," barely changing her attitude, "re- cumbent on her own antiquity," she asks only, " Ana aalam ? Allah yaalam." " Do I know ? God knows." It is the attitude of Orientalism, above all of Islam, the religion of which the name signifies the resigning or devoting one's self, on the theory that the devotion be entirely to God and to His service. The ostrich, says the Oriental, is the symbol of faith ; she hatches her eggs x by expec- tantly looking upon them. " Everything comes to him who waits," is assuredly the motto of the East ; she is " the brooding mother of an unfilial world." " The East," says Disraeli, " is a career." It is not, as the tourist supposes, a museum of antiquities through which to scamper, Baedeker in hand. Jerusalem is not to be under- stood in the course of a " pious picnic," or other personally 1 The churches of the Greeks and Armenians are commonly decor- ated with eggs as a sacred symbol. 267 INNER JERUSALEM conducted tour, still less in the prejudiced purview of a Pro- testant crusade. " A horror of the common groove, of the cab-shafts of civilization, of the contamination of cities, of the vulgarities of life, takes its hold of me," writes Lady Burton ; " and I yearn for the desert to recover the purity of my mind, and the dignity of human nature, to be regenerated among the Arabs." It may be a dream, a farce, a pose, a vision born of self- suggestion, a hypnotization, what you will ; but only in some such mood, the mood of patience, of detachment, the mood of the poet who makes, not of the critic who destroys, can one approximate, however faintly, to that sympathy which alone is understanding of the East. The East, so far as one knows it here, is mainly the East of Islam. The sons of Isaac, through " the long cruel night in Jewry which coincides with the Christian era," * have lost, with much else, something of their Orientalism ; the sons of Ishmael alone, save those few who have some modern veneer of Christianity, 2 are all children of the desert still. To us of other dreams, Islam makes, and seeks to make, no appeal ; it is a faith which contains none of such elements as the cynic conventionally supposes to be, in vary- ing degrees, essential to the spiritual pabulum of the Western soul. What is it which, with Paganism, Judaism, Christianity before them for alternative, attracted that little group of Eastern thinkers who are the ancestors of the two hundred millions of our fellow-creatures, whose creed is " resignation to the will of the One God " ? incomparably the largest band of adherents to any one creed in the entire human race and in the course of human history ? It is not that influence of priestcraft by which the Pro- testant accounts for the existence of the Catholic, Roman or 1 Zangwill. Children of the Ghetto. 2 The Syrians, be it remembered, are not Arab. 268 THE MOSLEM FAITH IN JERUSALEM Anglican, for they have no priests, no sacerdotalism what- ever ; it is not the " religion-made-easy " by which the Catholic accounts for the Protestant, for they pray, men, and often women, five times a day, and abstain from all food from dawn to sunset thirty consecutive days in the year. It is not that the absence of ecclesiasticism lightens the cost of religion, for they must give a definite share of all posses- sions to the poor, and a tenth of the margin that is left. It is not that idle repose in hereditary conservatism which satisfies the mere Sunday church-goer, for is it not written : " It is not righteousness that ye turn your faces in prayer towards the East and the West, but righteousness is of him who believeth in God and the Last Day, and the angels, and the Scriptures, and the prophets, who giveth money for God's sake . . . who is constant at prayer, and giveth alms, and of those who perform their covenant . . . and who behave them- selves patiently in adversity, and hardships, and in time of violence : these are they who are true and fear God" EL KORAN, c. ii. It is not the sensuousness of which the colder North accuses the votary of Ultramontanism, for they have neither music nor incense ; they have no Sacraments ; no vestments ; they are even commanded to come before God in simple clothing, for Islam has a special blessing for those who are poor in spirit. It is not that fear of public opinion which is the temptation of those who " assemble themselves to- gether," for their religion is individual, its ritual independ- dent of place. At the hour of prayer the Moslem ceases from his occupation as the devout Catholic at sound of the Angelus, makes the necessary ablutions, and, turning his face towards Mecca, offers his praise to " the All-Compassionate, the All-Merciful." It is not the easy-going irreverence which so often accompanies a lack of ritual, for none may come into the presence of God nor even touch the Sacred Book without due ablution, for " the practice of religion is founded on cleanliness, which is the one half of the faith, 269 INNER JERUSALEM and the key of prayer, without which it will not be heard by God. 1 " It is not the human yearning for certainty, for dogma ; for the whole faith is involved in the unity of God and submission to His will ; on the other hand, it is not the carelessness of living which lack of dogma facilitates, for it is a creed of works as well as faith, of rewards and punish- ments, of the futility of a death-bed repentance. " No repentance shall be accepted from those who do evil until the time when death presenteth itself unto one of them, and he saith verily, I repent now ; nor unto those who die unbelievers ; for them nave we prepared a grievous punishment" EL KORAN, chap. iv. \ It is not that it makes easy the conditions of the religious life, for it is not too much to say that the teaching of the Koran comprises not only all the Commandments, but the spirit of all the Beatitudes. It is not individual irresponsi- bility, for their creed teaches no absolution, no propitiation, no atonement, no doctrine of the fall, no mitigation of sin by hereditary taint. " All men have sinned, but it has been each his own fault, acting independently and not because of anything antecedent." 2 It is not, as superficial readers of the Koran have alleged, that they are promised a Para- dise of material pleasures only. After describing these, we are told that there are prepared, beside all this, " such feelings as eye hath not seen, nor hath ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive . . . that he will be in the highest honour with God, that shall behold His face . . . that all other pleasures of Paradise will be forgotten and lightly esteemed, and not without reason, since every other enjoyment is equally tasted by the very brute beast who is turned loose into luxuriant pasture." 3 It is not even, as commonly alleged, laxity of morals, 1 Sale's Koran : Preliminary Discourse, sec. iv. 2 Sir William Muir, The Kordn, in series of Non-Christian Re- ligion-Systems, p. 54. 3 Sale's Kordn : Preliminary Discourse, sec. iv. 270 THE MOSLEM FAITH IN JERUSALEM for although usury and betting and drink and " the social evil " are found in the East, as elsewhere, it is as a rule the Jew and the Christian by whom they have been introduced, and by whom they are supported. The long neglected Jewish law that the woman of evil life shall be stoned is still active in Islam. The Christian Government of the British Empire may legalize her existence, and organize her rela- tions with our armies ; the disciples of Moses may trade and traffic in human bodies and souls ; but the poorest peasant among the Mohammedans takes the life of the daughter who has lost her virtue, and swears an eternal blood-feud against him who has done her wrong. Polygamy, urges the bigot, with his usual lack of informa- tion, polygamy, with all its laxity, is the mask for Moslem immorality. That Mohammed (himself faithful for twenty- five years to one wife, though in old age he unhappily declined from his own standard), in reforming the example of the Old Testament saints, then still in vogue among the children of Ishmael, did not venture upon further severity than the limit of four wives, is to be regretted ; but as a matter of fact, at least in Syria, the possession of more than one wife is, except among the lowest classes, increasingly rare. Personally we have not met with a single instance, though such undoubtedly exist. That immoral relations with slaves formerly existed, 1 is unfortunately as true as that they existed among our own Christian brethren until the suppression of the slave-trade in 1833. That divorce is easy among Mohammedans is as unhappily true as that it is easy in many Christian countries, including England, where, how- ever, it is more expensive, and therefore the privilege mainly 1 Sir William Muir points out that the prophet himself always released his slaves, and that his relations with his domestic servants were so friendly that he mentions some fourteen or fifteen of them by name. " They are the servants of the Lord," he wrote of the slaves, " and are not to be tormented." It is related that in honour of the prophet's sixty-third birthday, sixty-three slaves were set free. 271 INNER JERUSALEM of the upper classes. I appeal again to the erudition and experience of Sir William Muir. " The comparison of Christian with Mohammedan ethics is not altogether free from difficulty. The Moslem advocate will urge the precedent of Jewish polygamy, and also the social evils which he will assert to be the necessary result of inexorable monogamy. The Koran not only denounces any illicit laxity between the sexes in the severest terms, but exposes the transgressor to condign punishment. For this reason, and because the conditions of what is illicit are so accommodating and wide, a certain negative virtue (it can hardly be called continence or chastity) pervades Moham- medan society, in contrast with which the gross and syste- matic immorality of every European community may be regarded by the Christian with shame and confusion. In a purely Mohammedan country, however low may be the general level of moral feeling, the still lower depths of fallen humanity are comparatively unknown. The social evil and intemperance, prevalent in Christian lands, are the strongest weapons in the armoury of Islam. We point, and justly, to the higher morality and civilization of those who do observe the precepts of the Gospel, to the stricter unity and virtue which cement the family, and to the elevation of the sex ; but in vain, while the example of our great cities, and too often of our representatives abroad, belies the argument." And so, while we sing " they call us to deliver their land from error's chain," let us realize that here, in Moslem cities, we may send out our youngest maid with no further caution than not to get her pocket picked ; we may take a cab, certain that our driver, unless he be a Christian, will not be drunk. We have no fear that our lads will take to racing or gambling! unless it be among the Christian tourists of places such as Cairo, or the British Government officials farther East ; we may take a stroll by moonlight, certain that 1 Sir William Muir, The Koran : its Composition and Teaching, p. 62. 272 THE MOSLEM FAITH IN JERUSALEM our eyes will not be offended by such sights as the most care- fully protected of our daughters is familiar with in the Strand or Piccadilly ; * that we shall not even interrupt the osculation of avowed and legitimate sweethearts, nor find the gardener with his arm round the housemaid's waist ; that here lasses dress carefully for love of pretty things, and laugh because they are young and merry ; that there is no ogling and no giggling and no loitering at street corners, for 'Arry and 'Arriet are not. To be " as drunk as a lord " is no part of the ambition of even the most idle and the most unworthy, and the poorest girl carries herself with the dignity which, before the invasion of the nouveau riche, was supposed, among Europeans, to be the speciality of the duchess. With ourselves for example of all Christian charity, of brotherly love, of morality of life, for all contrast with a creed which makes such demands upon its votaries as theirs ; with a religion of which its adherents are not so modern as to be ashamed ; with a social system free from all which we habitually summarize as " vice," one can hardly wonder that the statistics of con- version are less encouraging than the readers of religioua journals are commonly led to suppose. Though the history of Islam is familiar to most, it may be well to remind ourselves briefly of such of its essential features as continue to influence the Moslem in the Jeru- salem of to-day. Mohammed, the son of Amina and Abdallah, was born at Mecca about 570 A.D. ; of the family of Hashim, of the tribe Koreish ; hereditary custodians of the Kaaba, the sacred stone which stands to the descendants of Ishmael in the same relation as the Ark of the Covenant to the 1 Lady Strangford has well said (Preface to Stirring Times), " In an annual volume of the Rescue Society of London it may be truly said there are more sorrowful horrors detailed as happening in the heart of our civilized capital than in ten years of Turkish provincial history." 273 T INNER JERUSALEM descendants of Isaac ; the centre of their traditions, the essential cause of their most sacred edifice. Like his ancestors, Mohammed kept sheep and drove camels. Early left an orphan, and obliged to earn his own living, he followed a trading caravan to Syria at the age of twelve. At twenty-five he went thither again, and on his return married his employer, a lady of higher rank than his own, but considerably his senior, 1 in whose society he practised all the domestic virtues. After her death, twenty-five years later, when he had reached the mature age of fifty-four, and fourteen years after the commence- ment of his mission, he deteriorated in this direction. It was not until forty years of age that he became con- scious of a mission, although many of his utterances, now included in the Koran, may belong to an earlier period ; as, for example, the Fdtihat, which, from its frequent use in public and private worship, may be said to be, to the Mohammedan, what the Lord's Prayer is to the Christian : Praise be to God, the Lord of Creation, The All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate ; Ruler of the Day of reckoning, Thee we worship, and Thee we invokejior help. Lead us in the straight path The path of those upon whom Thou hast been gracious, Not of those that are the objects of wrath or that are in error. As in other religions, women were among the earliest converts, and for the first five years of Mohammed's mission few beside would hearken to his message ; the world then, as in all ages, being ready to scoff at what it failed to under- stand ; to treat as a charlatan the man whose limitations were fewer than its own. The world has always its " This will never do " for the genius who transcends, in what- 1 It is worthy of remark, however, that in enumerating the joys of heaven, Mohammed again and again promises to the faithful, wives " of the same age," and that when he induces his friend Zaid to espouse a lady considerably his senior, he promises him paradise as a compensation. 274 THE MOSLEM FAITH IN JERUSALEM ever direction, the petty limitations of conventionality. Mohammed's " revelations " did not spare such as these. Because he is to Our Signs an adversary, I will afflict him with fierce calamity ; For he imagined and devised mischief in his heart. May he be damned ! how he devised ! Again may he be damned ! how he devised^! Then he looked, Then he frowned and scowled ; Then he turned his back and looked contemptuously ; And he said, Verily this is nothing but Magic that will be wrought, Verily this is no other than the speech of a mortal. Truly, the Oriental, from the Psalmist onwards, has known how to curse ! " The teaching of the Goran," says Sir William Muir, 1 "is up to this stage very simple. Belief in the Unity of God, and in Mahomet 2 as His messenger, in the resurrec- tion of the dead, and retribution of the good and evil, are perhaps the sole doctrines insisted upon ; and the only duties to be observed^ prayer and charity and honesty in weights and measures, truthfulness in testimony, chastity and the faithful observance of covenants." Perhaps no feature of the Mohammedan faith strikes one in Jerusalem as more pleasing than its note of " Live and let live." You may constantly see the Bible among other specimens of the European literature which the pre- sent, and still more the rising, generation are learning to value so highly. In their desire for education they are equally ready to attend the schools of the Latin or Anglican according as they desire to cultivate the French of the Freres Chretiens or the English of the Bishop's school. Latterly, many, including the son of the Pasha, have attended the admirable schools of the Alliance Israelite the French Society for the Advancement of the Jews. If they 1 Life of Mahomet : from original sources, p. 79, ed. 1878. 2 Sir William Muir always uses the transliteration Mahomet and Coran. 275 INNER JERUSALEM show any misgiving as to our study of the Koran, it is only lest we may defile it by " unwashen hands." Sir William Muir has written a valuable treatise * to show "that un- equivocal testimony is borne by the Goran to the Jewish and Christian Scriptures as current in the time of Mahomet ; that the evidence extends equally to their genuineness and authority ; and that there is not a hint anywhere through- out the Goran of their cancelment or interpolation . . . No expression regarding either the Jewish or Christian Scriptures ever escaped the lips of Mahomet other than of implicit reverence, although he taught that the Goran contained everything necessary " x (op. cit. p. 157). " Verily in this book are contained sufficient means of salvation unto people who serve God" (Sura xxi.). Our learned author goes further : he shows us that the same bigotry and lack of charity which is the present cause of our unhappy divisions, the multiplication of sects, and propagation of schisms, was practically the cause of the de-Christianizing of the faith of Mohammed the ultimate alienation of two hundred and odd millions of our fellow- creatures, a number said to be on the increase. " It was the opposition of the Jews and estrangement of the Christians, as well as the martial supremacy of Islam, that imperceptibly, but inevitably, led to the universal and exclusive authority of Mahomet and the Goran. The change by which the prophet dispensed with previous reve- lation was made in silence " (op. cit- p. 157). Before the alienation caused by " Jewish opposition and Christian estrangement," his policy had been upon lines which might have profoundly modified the whole of human history which might have hastened " the one fold under one Shepherd " for which the world still waits, but of which at present, it would seem, it is not worthy. " The Jew was still to follow the Law ; and in addition 1 The Testimony borne by the Koran to the Jeivish and Christian Scriptures. 276 THE MOSLEM FAITH IN JERUSALEM he was to believe also in the New Testament and in the mission of Jesus. The Christian was to hold fast by his Gospel. . . . The necessity of conforming to their respec- tive Revelations is urged upon Jews and Christians in the strongest terms. The Jews of Medina are repeatedly sum- moned to judge by the Book, that is, by the Old Testament ; and are warned against the danger of accepting a part only of God's Word, and rejecting a part ; there are many pas- sages such as the following : " Oh ye people of the Book ! (the Jews) ye do not stand upon any sure ground^ until ye set up both the Law and the Gospel, as well as that which hath been sent down unto you from your Lord . . . And we caused Jesus, the Son of Mary, to follow in their footsteps, attesting the Scripture, viz. the Law which preceded Him. And we gave Him the Gospel, wherein are guidance and light, attesting the Law which precedeth it, a direction and an admonition to the pious : and that the people of the Gospel (Christians) may judge according to that which God hath re- vealed therein ; and whosoever doth not judge according to that which God hath revealed, they are the wicked ones." " Thus," observes Sir William Muir," the former revela- tions were to be believed in coUectively as the Word of God by all the faithful of whatever sect. 1 The Old and New Testaments were further to be followed implicitly, the former by the Jews, the latter by the Christians, and both were to be observed by Mahomet himself when determining their respective disputes" (op. cit. p. 156). The world was lying in wickedness in the sixth century as in others, and one cannot but regret the " Jewish opposition and Christian estrangement " which diverted into alien channels the sweet reasonableness of teaching such as this. Again, to quote Sir Wiliam Muir, " from time beyond 1 A distinguished Jerusalem Moslem observed to us the other day that although he desired the success of the Japanese arms he must not pray for an idolatrous people against those who worshipped the One God. Ts it with as wide a charity that we pray for " Jews, Turks, Heretics, and Infidels ? " 277 INNER JERUSALEM memory, Mecca and the whole peninsula had been steeped in spiritual torpor. The slight and transient influences of Judaism, Christianity, or philosophical inquiry upon the Arab mind had been but as the ruffling here and there of the surface of a quiet lake ; all remained still and motionless below. The people were sunk in superstition, cruelty and vice. Their religion was a gross idolatry, and their faith rather the dark superstitious dread of unseen beings, whose goodwill they sought to propitiate and whose displeasure to avert, than the belief in an over-ruling Providence. The life to come and retribution of good and evil were, as motives of action, practically unknown " (op. cit. p. 169). What was the teaching of the prophet we have already seen ; we refer again to Sir William Muir for a description of its effects. " What a change has thirteen years pro- duced ! A band of several hundred persons had rejected idolatry, adopted the worship of one God, and surrendered themselves implicitly to the guidance of what they believed a revelation from Him ; praying to the Almighty with fre- quency and fervour, looking for pardon through His mercy, and striving to follow after good works, almsgiving, chastity and justice. They now lived under a constant sense of the omnipotent power of God, and of His providential care over the minutest of their concerns. In all the gifts of nature, in every relation of life, at each turn of their affairs, indivi- vidual or public, they saw His hand " (op. cit. p. 169). For this faith they suffered exile and martyrdom, aliena- tion of friends, the spoiling of their goods. " Oh, son of Awf," said the prophet to a rich man, " verily thou art amongst the rich, and thou shalt not enter Paradise but with great difficulty. Lend therefore to thy Lord, so that He may loosen thy steps." And he departed by Mohammed's advice to give away all his property. 1 It is one among many instances of the reason- 1 The prophet taught that the poor would enter Paradise 500 years before the rich, and said that when he himself went thither he saw that they formed the majority of the inhabitants. 278 THE MOSLEM FAITH IN JERUSALEM ableness of the prophet's teaching, that he sent for him again, and told him, by Gabriel's desire, that it would suffice if he used hospitality and gave alms. The more one is brought face to face with the subsequent failure of the prophet to maintain, to the end, the high standard of personal conduct which had impressed those about him for twenty-five years, the more that one observes the deterioration in practice of his followers, the lowered ideals, the confusion of thought, the increasing tendency to ecclecticism in doctrine, the widening estrangement from Christianity the more one realizes that in the lives of nations, as of man, " there is a turn " in their affairs which, once missed, can never be recovered ; so much the more one is tempted to speculate as to what might have been the effect upon the history of the larger half of the population of the world had Christian toleration and Christian charity been more active and more Christ-like thirteen centuries ago. The overtures of rapprochement, once repelled, were never again attempted after the Mecca period, i.e. after the thir- teen years of the prophet's mission immediately preceding the Hegira. 1 The Koran contains many passages referring to the history and teaching of the New Testament, as, for example, the story of the birth of St. John Baptist, and that of the birth of our Lord ; the first being for the most part almost in the words of St. Luke, the latter containing such variations as constantly arise in any story orally pre- served. There are references to our Lord's miracles, to the healing of the leprous and the blind, and of the raising from the dead. Jesus Christ is spoken of as " the Word of God," and as " His Spirit, which He breathed into Mary." " Ye people of the Book ! (the Jews] commit not extrava- gances in your religion ; and speak not of God aught but the 1 The English reader may be glad to learn that this word, meaning " emigration," is pronounced with a soft g and with the accent on the first syllable. 279 INNER JERUSALEM truth. For verily the Messiah Jesus, Son of Mary, is an Apostle of God, which He placed in Mary, and a Spirit from Him " (Sura 4, Koran). Mohammed makes no reference to the Sacrament of Bap- tism ; he misunderstands the doctrine of the Trinity, which was supposed to include the " Mother of Jesus " ; he taught that Jesus was not crucified, but that another had died in His likeness, and he but imperfectly apprehended the Sacra- ment of the Eucharist. " When the Apostles of Jesus said, Jesus, Son of Mary, is Thy Lord able to cause a Table to descend upon us from Heaven ? He said, Fear God, if ye be faithful. They said, We desire that we may eat therefrom, and that our hearts be set at ease, and that we may knoiv that Thou verily hast spoken unto us the truth, and that we may be witnesses thereof. Then spake Jesus, Son of Mary. God our Lord ! send down unto us a Table from Heaven, that it may be unto us a Feast-day unto the first of us and unto the last of us, and a sign from Thee ; and nourish us, for Thou art the best of nourishers. And God said, Verily I will send it down unto you ; and whosoever after that shall disbelieve amongst you, surely I will torment him with a torment wherewith I shall not torment any other creature " EL KORAN, chap. v. The example of " Mary, Mother of Jesus," is quoted for the imitation of women (Sura, p. 66), who are to be " sub- missive unto God, believers, pious, repentant, devout, fasting," and in many respects Islamism did much to improve their position, though naturally it retained, in many things, the standard of the period, Christian and pagan alike. " If we put aside the depressing influence which the constraint and thraldom of the married state has exercised upon the sex at large, the unmarried freewoman has nothing to complain of. In one particular, viz., the inheritance by the son of his father's wives, she was delivered by Mohammed from a gross and intolerable abuse. No freewoman can be forced, under the code of Islam, to marry against her will ; and so long as 280 THE MOSLEM FAITH IN JERUSALEM single she is mistress of her actions " (Muir, op. cit. p. 347). There is a superstition among Christians that Moslem women have no part in religious privileges and obligations, and no hope of a future life. Not only is such an idea at variance with the whole tenor of their teaching, but it is definitely contradicted by express passages in the Koran. 1 Several Moslem ladies have assured us that they always pray at the canonical hours, that is, five times a day, and seemed surprised, not to say hurt, that we should think it possible they should do otherwise. In one household where we were visiting we expressed a desire to see a real Mohammedan rosary, 2 such as is used for prayer, as distinct from the muti- lated toy consisting of thirty-three beads, only one-third of the authorized number, which all Mohammedan, and most Christian, Arabs are constantly handling at leisure moments " perles pour s'amuser," said one, when we asked its use. " My mother has one," said our host, just as naturally as most young Englishmen would turn to their mothers for, let us say, a copy of S. Thomas a Kempis, or The Christian Year. " Women without souls," says Lady Burton, " may be Christian, not Moslem. Thomas Aquinas may have adopted Aristotle's ' mulier est erratum naturae et suas occasionatas et per accidens generatur, atque ideo est monstrum.' We do not go down amongst the men, but have a tribune with a grating, the same as we have in Catholic convents. It is only a 1 See Koran, chaps. 3, 4, 13, 16, 40, 48, 57, etc. 2 The Moslem rosary is intended to contribute not to prayer but to meditation. The ninety -nine beads in their three sections are so many reminders of the attributes of God ; the hundredth, which is of a long shape, roughly that of a minaret, is for " reminder," and serves, in its way, the purpose of the Muezzin. It is a call to prayer. The attributes are all expressed in one word, such as Compassionate, Saviour, Defender, Creator. Sometimes, however, such words are untranslatable into our less comprehensive language, and one falls back upon whole phrases " O Thou who wilt assemble us in the day of Judgement," " O Author of the Resurrection," " O Thou to Whom nothing is impossible," " O Thou who dost accept our repentance " and the like. 281 INNER JERUSALEM belief among the vulgar and ignorant that the Moslem allows women no souls. The women go to Es Salat (that is, the five periods of prayer) and perform the same Rekat (i.e. prostra- tions) and make the same genuflexions as the men, only un- seen." Women also keep the thirty days' fast of Ramadan, 1 when neither food nor drink is taken from dawn to sunset. We happened once to meet a large number of Moslem ladies at an evening entertainment during Ramadan, and could not but notice how much they ate and drank (it was only cake and coffee and sweet syrups !), and how many cigarettes they smoked ; but how should we ourselves behave at an " At Home " if we had eaten nothing since yesterday's dinner ; if, moreover, we were released from the criticism of the other sex, who might have reported at their clubs how many times " Miss So-and-So " went down to the supper room ; and if, moreover, we had carried on our usual occupa- tions in the meanwhile ? for it is commonly understood that absolutely no grace is allowed in consideration of the fast. Two of the ladies present were even nursing mothers, 2 and the nurses in attendance from time to time brought up neat little tight white parcels (nothing so lax as " bundles " or " packets," but tidy little parcels) for maternal services. How many English women would be capable of keeping Lent by an absolute fast from dawn to sunset and attendance at five offices a day ? How many laymen ? How many priests ? Business goes on just as usual : the magistrate is on his bench, the tradesman in his shop, the children at school, the soldier or policeman at his post. Moreover, one must remember that these are Arabs, to whom frequent coffee and cigarettes, and among the older men the long continuous sedative of the narghileh, are almost more neces- sary than fresh air. 1 The month when the Koran was given to mankind. 2 It should, however, be noted that " dispensation " is given to travellers, sick persons (which includes all whose health might suffer, such as nursing or expectant mothers), old people, and young children. 282 THE MOSLEM FAITH IN JERUSALEM We have seen the Arab soldiers, the Turkish officers, almost fainting at their posts in the vitiated atmosphere of the Christian churches, when they were keeping the peace among those * to whom, at least among the laity, the virtue of fasting in any such sense as theirs is practically unknown, and yet always courteous, always long-suffering, though we might almost hold them justified for any irritability and impatience of the kind for which " nervous exhaustion " is considered an excuse. Happily, the Christian festival can- not often synchronize with the Moslem fast, as the use by the Mohammedans of the lunar month, changes the period of its occurrence by about a month every year. It is trying when the fast occurs during the exhausting heat of summer, or, as happens once in thirteen years, when the fast occurs twice in a single year. The Mohammedan is something of a Puritan, and his iconoclasm exceeds even theirs. Tradition says that when the prophet purified the Temple of the Kaaba of the 360 idols which it contained, he sent a crier through the streets of Mecca to proclaim : " Whoever believeth in God, and in the day of Judgement, let him not leave in his house any image whatever, that he doth not break in pieces." Probably so extreme a measure was necessary to the times, just as the utter destruction of heathen associations had been necessary in the times of Moses and Joshua, and may have gone far to destroy polytheism ; but it has had lamentable consequences in the persistent mutilation by the Arab peasants, even of to- day, of all images of man or beast found in tomb or temple, 1 The author of Six Months in Jerusalem (Rev. Charles Biggs, M. A.) observes : " Ancestral traditions must be taken into account if the modern missionaries to Islam are to succeed. Some part, at least, of the failure of Protestant efforts has been due to carelessness and want of courtesy . . . Nor is it surprising that men, who in Ramadan will live on one meal in each twenty-four hours, should question the spirituality of a religion whose missionaries are never seen to mark any day or season with the denial of physical appetite." 283 INNER JERUSALEM sculpture or mosaic, and thus in many a loss, serious to art and archaeology. One is, in these days, frequently told that the Moslem is so far deteriorating that he does not obey the precepts of his own religion, but is occasionally guilty of drinking wine. As a matter of fact, commentators consider it doubtful whether the Koran contains any such absolute prohibition, though there are various precepts, such as the following : " They will ask thee concerning wine, and casting of lots. Say, in both there is great evil, and (also) advantages to man- kind ; but the evil of them is greater than the advantages of them" ; and again " Verily, wine and the casting of lots, and images and divining arrows, are an abomination from amongst the works of Satan : shun them therefore, that ye may prosper" " Verily, Satan seeketh that he may cast among you enmity and hatred through wine and games of chance, and hinder you from the remembrance of God, and from prayer. Will ye not then refrain ? EL KORAN, chap. ii. The larger proportion no doubt refrain from wine, and although chess, draughts, cards, backgammon and tric-trac are played at every street corner in Jerusalem, doubtless many of the players are Christians, for in Ramallah, an entirely Christian village, possessed by some half-dozen sects, we have counted a dozen groups of men playing cards and dice by the roadside in the course of a quarter of an hour's walk. Usury is absolutely forbidden, and strict Mohammedans will not even bank their money, but prefer to invest it in building. Their houses are picturesque, and exceedingly well built, and the English missionaries, the only settlers in Jerusalem who, unlike all other religious bodies, Greek, Latin, Anglican, or Protestant, do not live in community, but on the far more costly plan of separate houses, are obliged to rent them almost entirely from Moslems, other bodies being established in suitable premises which are their own property. 284 Tin; CAFK OK :IIE To\vx. THE MOSLEM FAITH IN JERUSALEM The prophet not only recommended, but himself practised, poverty ; and Ayesha, his young wife, who long survived him, relates that for months together he did not get a full meal, but would live on the " two black things," dates and water. He would also go without light or fire. But such sacrifice, to be acceptable, must be deliberate, and not spendthrift. " Give unto him who is of kin to you his due, and also unto the poor, and the traveller. And waste not thy substance profusely, for the profuse are brethren of the devils, and the devil was un- grateful unto his Lord" EL KORAN, chap. xvii. He considered the silk clothing, commonly worn, as effemi- nate, and desired that women should be modestly dressed. " Speak unto thy wives and daughters and the wives of the believers, that they throw around them a part of their mantles . . . Speak unto the believing women that they restrain their eyes . . . and display not their ornaments" EL KORAN, chap. xxiv. In spite of such asceticism, the prophet was fastidious ; he delighted in sweet scents, and hated onions or garlic, and he washed his hands in a decoction of the wild palm tree ; he was also very particular in the care of his hair, eyes and teeth. The theory of sacrifice seems to have been associated less with the idea of atonement than of charity. To this day, when an animal is vowed to God, 1 it is that it may be given as food to the poor. " Unto every people we have appointed rites that they may commemorate the Name of God over the brute beasts with which He hath provided them . . . and the victims have we made unto you as ordinances of God. From them ye receive benefit. Commemorate therefore the name of God over them a-s they stand disposed in a line, and when they fall slain upon their sides eat thereof, and give unto the poor, both to him that is silent and him that beggeth. Thus have we given thee dominion over 1 As for recovery from illness, for a safe return from a journey, for the birth of a son, all such cases have come under our personal notice in Jerusalem. 285 them that ye may be thankful. Their flesh is not accepted of God, nor yet their blood ; but your piety is accepted of Him." EL KORAN, chap. xxii. The sight of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of sheep and lambs crowding into the gates of Jerusalem at the time of the Feast of Beiram is horribly pathetic, for all are destined to be sacrificed in memory of the sacrifice of the son of Abraham. Probably however the average of such mortality is a low one, as in an ordinary way the Arab is but little of a meat eater. It is well known that his beautiful white teeth soon deteriorate in domestic service from the use of European food, chiefly from exchange of his own nutritious whole- meal bread for the adulterated innutritious substitutes of civilization. The charge of cruelty to animals is constantly brought against the Moslem. Indifference to animal suffering is a feature not of Islam, 1 but of Orientalism, and nowhere have we remarked it as so prominent as in the largely European and Christian town of Port Said. You may see quite as much cruelty in any London thoroughfare, as many homeless cats, overdriven horses, and, until recent legisla- tion, starving dogs. It is also a Christian superstition that the Mohammedan regards the dog as unclean which here he would be almost justified in doing, as they are the much needed scavengers of Oriental cities but we are assured by various Moslems, in justification of their owning them as pets and companions, that it is only with the saliva of the dog that they are for- bidden to come into contact. The Koran especially directs that dogs should be trained for sport, and the Arab grey- hound is one of the fleetest and most beautiful of his race. (EL KORAN, chap, v.) 1 Ceremonial purity (i.e. the washing of the face, arms, head, feet and ankles) is one of the " indispensable conditions " of prayer, five times a day, and may not^be omitted if water is to be had, unless " a man fears that he or his beast may remain waterless." 286 THE MOSLEM FAITH IN JERUSALEM The Moslems are more daring than most Christians in their views as to the responsibility of the lower animals. " The end of the Resurrection, the Mohammedans declare to be, that they who are so raised may give an account of their actions, and receive the reward thereof. And they believe that not only mankind, but irrational animals also, shall be judged on this great day ; when the unarmed cattle shall take vengeance on the horned till entire satisfaction shall be given to the injured." 1 (Will the fox and the hare, the victim of the vivisectionist, the tortured and the starved, take vengeance to the point of " entire satisfaction " upon man ?) Two animals at least are to be admitted into Paradise : Ezra's ass who, having died beside his master, was with him restored to life after 100 years (Sale's Koran : Preliminary Discourse, section 4), and the dog of the Seven Sleepers 2 who conveyed to them God's will in the words, " I love those who are dear unto God ; go to sleep therefore and I will guard you." The prophet gives us an analogy to our Lord's lesson on God's care for the sparrows : " How many beasts are there which provide not their food ! It is God Who provideth food for them and you, and He both heareth and knoweth." EL KORAN, chap. xxix. Mohammed draws lessons also from the ant, the spider, the bee, the war-horse, the elephant, and other animals, and often addresses God as " the Lord of all creatures." We all read in the schoolroom the story of the prophet's cutting off a part of his robe rather than disturb the cat who had gone to sleep upon it, and there are many stories of the prophet's affection for his own animals ; of his horses, Sabek (running water), named from the easiness of his paces ; 1 C. P. Bayle, Diet. Hist., Art. " Rorarious." 2 El Koran, Chap. 18. See Sale's note in loco. " The Mohammedans have a great respect for this dog, and allow him a place in Paradise with some other favourite brutes." They call him Katmir, and write his name on letters sent to a distance as a charm against miscarriage. 287 INNER JERUSALEM Sabah, with whom he raced and won ; and Murtaji (the neigher). Also he had a white mule which he gave to his wife Ayesha ; another, Fizza, which he gave to a friend. He disapproved of mules, and said, " No one would propose so unnatural a cross save he who lacked knowledge." He had two favourite asses and a riding camel named Adhba of great speed. Yet one day an Arab passed it when at its fleetest pace, and his Moslems were chagrined ; but Mohammed reproved them, saying, " It is the property of the Lord, that whensoever men exalt anything, or seek to exalt it, that the Lord putteth down the same." He had also a favourite milch camel, and Ayesha had one called Samra. He had seven goats, and when his favourite among them died he had the skin preserved as a remembrance. " There is no house," he would say, " possessing a goat, but a bless- ing abideth thereon, and there is no house possessing three goats but the angels pass the night there praying for its inmates until the morning." It is said that among the Moslems there are thirty-two Orders of Holy Men (Dervishes), although we can hear of four only as existent in Jerusalem at the present time. The most widespread are the Nashberidies, who, like the " third order " in certain Christian communities, remain in the world while observing the rules to which they have vowed submission. Others, more rigid, live in greater seclusion, and are apparently required to have a vocation, as they undergo a novitiate of 1,001 days. The only properly mendicant order is that of the Bektashies. The rule against taking life, even that of a caterpillar, is common to all Dervishes, and indeed an aversion to doing so is general among Orientals. A friend who had humanely drowned half a score of super- fluous puppies, had occasion, later in the day, to reprove her servant for neglecting to provide the mother, who was shut up in charge of her remaining infant, with requisite food. " You call me cruel that I make one dog hungry," he expos- 288 THE MOSLEM FAITH IN JERUSALEM tulated, " you who killed ten dogs this morning ! " There is a custom called diyyet, by which, if a man kills a pariah dog, the animal is hung up by its tail, and he is obliged to buy as much wheat as will cover the body from the muzzle to the tail, to be made into bread and given to the surviving com- panions of his victim. It is, moreover, not unusual for a Moslem on his death-bed to leave a sum of money for bread for the same purpose, or, when in trouble, to make a vow to devote a given sum to feeding the kilab (or wild dogs), and it is pleasant here, where we hear so much of Mohammedan cruelty and of hatred to the " unclean beast," to meet the Moslem, followed by a servant carrying the votive offering, which he is himself distributing among his suffering fellow- creatures. In passing a sentry-box, or guard-house, or watchman's lodge, one constantly notices a prosperous cat established comfortably upon the bed of the occupant, as a rule a Moslem soldier in the Turkish army ; and it is said that a year or two ago a serious disturbance was raised in a certain district by the fact that a tax-gatherer or other official, billeted upon the village, had insisted upon the killing of a pet lamb for the gratification of his own appetite. The public feeling upon the point was so greatly excited that not only was the soldier imprisoned, but the custom of billeting him upon the natives was discontinued by authority of the Government. When Muir published his Life of Mahomet somewhere about the year 1856 a reviewer made much of the fact that though the author seemed little disposed to admit any pretensions inconsistent with a firm and exclusive faith in the Christian revelation, he nevertheless thought it no part of his duty to descend to misrepresentation or reviling of the founder of another creed ! The march of civilization and the work of which Sir William Muir and Professor Max Miiller were the pioneers have relegated observations such as this to the dark ages of theological criticism. Freeman, in his Lectures on the History of the Saracens, writing 289 u INNER JERUSALEM purely as an historian, and not as theologian or orientalist, fully admits the greatness and the lofty conduct of the prophet during the first fifty years of his career, and the impeccability of his monogamous domestic relations during twenty-five years of married life. The degeneracy of the last twelve years, less than a fifth of the whole, he speaks of, justly enough, as a time when the prophet, like Alexander or Solomon, had become corrupted by success. It is, however, characteristic of the sort of criticism of which the odium iheologicum is a prominent feature, that Mohammed's life is commonly represented as one of unqualified depravity, whereas it would compare favourably with that of most of those Old Testament heroes of whom he claimed to be the successor. 290 CHAPTER XIX THE MOSLEM IN THE HOLY PLACES MOSQUES SACRED SITES OF COMMON INTEREST MOSQUE AT HEBRON POSTED PRAYERS MUKRAMS MUKADDASI His DESCRIPTION OP PALESTINE MOSLEM DEVOTION IN THE HOLY LAND WHEN we realize that for over 1,300 years the Holy City has been, with the short interruption of the Frank kingdom, in the power of the Mohammedans, to whom our sacred places are also, in their degree, objects of reverence, we have indeed strong reason for gratitude for the forbearance which has taken from us so little, compara- tively, that is precious. While regretting perhaps their possession of the Temple area, which the early Christians, however, delighted to desecrate, we have occasion to rejoice that for the last few years we have had liberty to visit its pre- cincts, a liberty which one feels to be the more kindly when one hears the graceless scorn which the tourist pours upon local traditions of which he commonly fails to grasp the esoteric if not the more obvious meaning. It is said that the earliest recorded visit of a Christian was that of Bonomi the artist, who, with two friends, contrived not only to enter disguised as a Mohammedan, but even to make sketches of the Haram Area. The remains of a church originally built by Constantine, but many times destroyed and restored, upon the alleged site of our Lord's Ascension, are now utilized as a praying- 291 INNER JERUSALEM place for Mohammedans, who re-erected the Crusading Chapel upon the former ground -plan ; but, on the Festival of the Ascension both our own and that of the Greeks, which varies, and may occur a fortnight later than ours, it is courteously put at the disposal of the Christians, and in the dome itself, as well as in the courtyard, altars are placed, and Masses said, from earliest dawn till late in the morning of the feast day. Other spots about Jerusalem, none the less sacred from association that they are not necessarily admitted by the historian and the archaeologist, are now in Moslem hands ; the Pool of Siloam, the Tomb of Rachel, Mizpah where Samuel judged Israel, with many others among which that most endeared to Christendom by centuries of reverence is the Coenaculum, the scene of the Last Supper, of our Lord's appearance after the Resurrection, of the appearance of St. Thomas, of the election of St. Matthias, of the Miracle of the Day of Pentecost, and which was known as a sanctuary by St. Cyril as early as 350. 1 Moreover, the early pilgrims venerated this same scene as the site of the residence and death of the Virgin, and the spot was, very naturally, chosen by the Franciscans soon after their arrival in the thirteenth century as a centre for their church and conventual buildings. The jealousy of the Jews 2 revealed to the Moslems that these buildings included the possible tombs of David and Solomon, and in 1551 the Franciscans were compelled to seek new quarters, and their church, built about 1342, became a mosque. The loss has been the more felt by those who suffered it, that 1 The tradition is supported by Modestus 611-34 ; Sophronius 634-38 ; Arculfus, 670 ; Bede, 720 ; Bernard the Monk, 870 ; and others. 2 One story told is that a rich Jew of Stamboul, who wished to pray at the Tomb of David, was refused admission to the Franciscan Church, and that he revenged himself, on his return to Constantinople, by abusing the Pashas for not themselves taking charge of places sacred to their faith, and thus suggested the appropriation. 292 THE MOSLEM IN THE HOLY PLACES whereas many traditions are held in common by Moslem and Christian, that of the Institution of the Lord's Supper in "the Upper Room furnished" is to the present pos- sessors without interest. The building is of two storeys, but only into the upper one is the Christian admitted ; and here we are shown a distant view of a sarcophagus covered with a cloth of crimson and gold, said to be a replica of the actual tomb of David still existing in the lowest of three chambers one above another and exactly similar. The spot upon which, according to legend, Judas betrayed our Lord is separated by a wall from the Garden of Geth- semane, since 1848 in possession of the Franciscans. From Maundrell, who visited Jerusalem in 1697, we learn a tradi- tion to which I have never seen any allusion, but which has a special interest in our present connexion. " About eight paces from the place where the Apostles slept is a small shred of ground, twelve yards long and one broad, supposed to be the very path on which the traitor Judas walked up to Christ saying, ' Hail Master,' and kissed Him. This narrow path is separated by a wall out of the midst of the garden as a terra damnata, a work the more remarkable as being done by the Turks, who, as well as Christians, detest the very ground on which was acted such an infamous treachery." l It may be remarked that the word " Turk " is loosely used for " Moslem " by early writers, as it is to this day by the French. One of the very rare instances of reversion is that of the Church of St. Anne, built over the reputed birthplace of the B.V.M. (a tradition supported by Theodosius 530, St. Anthony 570, St. Sophronius 636, 1 A tradition preserved by the Abbe Azais (1852,) relates that it was then customary for Moslems, when seriously ill, to be brought by their friends and laid upon the rock bed of the grave of Lazarus, that the same spot which restored life to the dead might also restore health to the sick and suffering. 293 INNER JERUSALEM St. John Damascene 760), and close by the alleged Pool of Bethesda. A church existing there in the sixth century was rebuilt as a convent for nuns in the twelfth century ; desecrated by Saladin, it became a Moslem college. It was restored to France after the Crimean w ar 1 and is now once more a convent and also a college for Greek Catholics, under the " White Fathers " of St. Anne. Another interesting example of common interest in a holy site is that of the Chapel of the Tomb of the Virgin at the foot of the Mount of Olives. Originally built at least as early as the fifth century destroyed by the Persians, said to have been immediately rebuilt and to have been prayed in by Omar, again destroyed and again rebuilt by Millicent, daughter of Baldwin it is now mainly the property of the Greeks, is very occasionally used by the Latins, and has altars belonging to the Armenians and Abyssinians, and a prayer niche of the Moslems. 2 The Mosque, from which the Christian is most rigorously ex- cluded, is, however, that at Hebron, the alleged resting- place of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and of their wives, Rachel excepted. From time to time, by special favour, a Christian is admitted the sons and grandsons of Queen Victoria, the late Marquess of Bute, President Grant of America, Sir Moses Montefiore, and others ; but the Moslems 1 This site, so immensely interesting in all its sacred associations as well as so valuable to the antiquarian, was offered as a gift to Eng- land and declined by the enlightened Government of the period. 2 This community of reverence, however, can hardly be said to justify a statement made in the P.E.F., 1881, p. Ill, that ' ' In holy places many high masses are celebrated both by Mohammedans and Christians." The same author informs us (op. cit. p. 114), that the village inn is, " for the Moslems, town hall, casino, and church all in one," and also that " you may there join in the prayers of the priests." The author, who was for twenty- six years a missionary in Palestine and pastor of the Protestant Arab community, might have found it useful to inform himself that the Moslems, whom he desired to convert, were not accus- tomed to high masses, churches, priests, nor to joining in the wor- ship of the Catholic communities. 294 THE MOSLEM IN THE HOLY PLACES of Hebron are more fanatical than any to be met elsewhere. Not only are they but little accustomed to Europeans, although Hebron is but five hours from Jerusalem, but the place is one of special sanctity. Like the Jews of Jerusalem, who drop petitions into the crevices of the sacred walls of the Wailing Place, some of the more uninstructed there also deposit prayers in a hole in the natural rock adjoining the Mosque. One which was perhaps unfairly subtracted by a visitor, I am able to quote as a specimen of the petitions thus forwarded. One can feel nothing but reverence for its natural pathos. " May it be the will of Our Father in Heaven, by the merit of our fathers the saints. May he have mercy on the woman Haya, the daughter of Aaron ; and on Abraham Isaac, the son of Aaron ; and Etta, daughter of Aaron ; and Sippa daughter of Aaron. May he send a perfect recovery to the poor sufferers, in particular to the woman Haya ; also a good old age." * " Upon every high hill and under every green tree," all around Jerusalem and indeed all over Palestine, to the number, it is said, of over 300, there are mukrdms ; small cubical buildings covered with a dome, and very often the mausoleum of some Weli or Sheikh (saint or holy man) often reverenced by Jews and Christians as well as by Moslems. Here articles deposited are safe from theft ; votive gifts are made, and lamps lighted, as offerings for the sick. They are sometimes the objects of pilgrimage, and of processions at the Festival of Beiram, and as they contain a mikrab (prayer niche) are often resorted to for prayer. 1 We have also read several such messages found in another place, which, as accessible to tourists, I will not specify. In these we have observed that in most cases the mother is specially men- tioned, a feature usual in Jewish prayers, as in charms, amulets and incantations. Some ascribe the origin of this custom to the words of David, " I am thy servant and the son of thine handmaid." Others give the more common-place explanation that it may be that the father's identity is sometimes less certain than that of the mother. 295 INNER JERUSALEM They are frequently tombs, but not necessarily so, as is obvious from their multiplication. Thus Joseph has two, at Nablus and Hebron, Jonah has four, Daniel five, Isaac, said to be difficult to propitiate (though, by the way, it was not he, but Rebekah, who was " weary of her life " because of her daughters-in-law), has one in Galilee as well as that at Hebron. Some of the dedications are to Old Testament characters such as those already named, some to New Testament saints, such as St. Matthew, St. John Baptist, St. Paul, St. Anne ; some to special aspects of Moslem tradition such as Gabriel and St. George. 1 The earliest Moslem historian of social Jerusalem, Mukad- dasi, was born, as his name signifies, 2 in the Holy City in 946. After making a pilgrimage to Mecca in 965, he deter- mined to devote himself to the study of geography, and spent twenty years in travelling through all the countries of Islam, to qualify himself for writing his book, which he began in 985, and of which perhaps the most interesting part is his study of Jerusalem. He reports at great length upon the products of Syria, and his classification is worth quoting. " Know that within the province of Palestine may be found gathered together six and thirty products that are not found thus united in any other land. 1 Conder gives a list of some forty-eight such dedications, and adds, p. 140, " As in England the fairies were feared, so in Palestine the peasantry will not, if they can avoid it, speak of a Wely (saint) by his full name ; they prefer a complimentary nickname, such as ' the good Sheikh of the raft, ' the lady of childbirth,' ' the famous Sheikh,' ' the father of the Crescent,' ' the strength of the faith.' These divinities have a local power extending to a greater or less radius ; within this circle they are feared, and it is said that a man would rather confess a murder than allow himself to be perjured in swearing on the tomb in the Mukram of his village. Whether the complicated mass of tradition, the growth of so many centuries and the product of three religions, can be disentangled ... I leave others to judge." P.E.F., 1876. 2 One of the many names of Jerusalem is Beit al makdis or Mu- kaddas ; thus Mukaddasi means a Jerusalemite. 296 THE MOSLEM IN THE HOLY PLACES " Of these, the first seven are found in Palestine alone ; the following seven are very rare in other countries ; and the remaining two and twenty, though only found thus gathered together in this province, are, for the most part, found one and another singly, in other lands." Among the first seven he includes " the pine-nuts 1 called Kuraish-bite," among the second the sugar-cane, no longer found in the country, but cultivated widely in Syria in the middle ages. The remaining twenty-two include the excellent wild asparagus of the country, the truffle, " also snow and buffalo-milk ! " He also includes the orange, then a novelty imported from South-western Asia, and a sweetmeat called kubbat, still (deservedly) popular, made of carob-sugar, almonds and pistachio nuts. He also mentions, among objects especial to Jerusalem, rosaries, mirrors, lamp jars, and needles. Apparently then, as now, for some reason not obvious to the Occidental understanding, building operations were not carried on in winter, in spite of the absence of frost and rarity of snow ; for among other uses of Christian phrases he quotes that " When St. Barabara's feast [December 4] comes round, then the mason may take to his flute." He also speaks of Whitsuntide as the time of heat, the Feast of the Cross [i.e. the Exaltation of the Cross, September 14] as the time of grape-gathering, and the Feast of St. George [April 23] as the time of sowing seed. He says that the Christians are the scribes of the country, for " the Muslims, unlike the men of other nations, do not hold letters a profitable study." However, he admits later that Jerusalem has certain intellectual privileges and advantages, Mukaddasi is more than eloquent in his description of his native city. After dilating on her natural advantages (and he is so far prejudiced as to say " her markets are 1 The fruit of the Strobili pini eaten with rice boiled in gravy, one of the pleasantest of many good native dishes. 297 INNER JERUSALEM clean "), he proceeds : "In Jerusalem are all manner of learned men and doctors, and for this reason the heart of every man of intelligence yearns towards her. All the year round, never are her streets empty of strangers. 1 As to the saying that Jerusalem is the most illustrious of cities is she not the one that unites the advantages of this world and those of the next ? . . . Wine is not publicly consumed and there is no drunkenness. The city is devoid of houses of ill-fame. . . . Allah ! may He be exalted ! has gathered together here all the fruits of the lowlands and of the plains, and of the hill country, even all those of the most opposite kinds." It is only just to quote also that he admits and not less truly that " Jerusalem has some disadvantages. Thus it is reported, as found written in the Torah of Moses, that Jerusalem is as a golden basin filled with scorpions. Thus you will not find anywhere baths more filthy than those of the Holy City. 2 Learned men are few and the Christians numerous, and the same are unmannerly in the public places. In the hostelries the taxes are heavy on all that is sold. ... In this city the oppressed have no succour, the meek are molested, and the rich envied. Everywhere the Christians and Jews have the upper hand." Most of his statements still hold good, but the last is somewhat surpris- ing in reference to a period a hundred years before the first Crusade. But Mukaddasi is an observant person, and his- tory tends to repeat itself. 1 The Persian traveller, Nasiri Khusran, writing in March, 1047, tells us : " From all the countries of the Greeks and from other lands, the Christians and the Jews come up to Jerusalem in great numbers in order to make their visitation of the Church (of the Resurrection) and the synagogue that is there." 2 Thackeray and Mark Twain in after ages report somewhat to the same effect. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Lady Burton contrast the baths of Palestine with those elsewhere. Thackeray, however, remarks pleasantly that he did " not know before what saponacity was." 298 THE MOSLEM IN THE HOLY PLACES During the period of Moslem rule, Jerusalem, though the Sacred City, was never the capital of Palestine, a dignity reserved for Er Ramleh in the south, and Damascus in the north. As containing the sacred rock and other holy sites it was second only in sanctity to Mecca and Medineh, was called by Mohammed Mesjid el Aksa the Mosque farthest away from Mecca and as such, a place of pilgrimage. We read in the travels of Nasiri Khusran in 1047 : "The men of Syria and of the neighbouring parts call the Holy City by the name of Kuds (the Holy), and the people of these provinces, if they are unable to make the pilgrimage (to Mecca), will go up at the appointed season to Jerusalem and there perform their rites, and upon the feast-day slay the sacrifice as is customary to do (at Mecca) on the same day. There are years when as many as twenty thousand people will be present at Jerusalem during the first days of the month (of pilgrimage), for they bring their children also with them in order to celebrate their circumcision." 1 The institution of a new opposition Mecca on the ruins of the Hebrew Temple, also a centre of Monotheism, is in fact a matter of history belonging to the period of the rival Khalifate of Damascus (661-679), and was an attempt to discourage pilgrimages to Mecca, initiated by Mohammed's enemy, Abu Sofian Khalif, in Damascus, for sufficiently obvious reasons. Mecca, however, remains the Holy City of Islam, although the Kaliph bears the title of Hdmi el Haramein, " guardian of the two sanctuaries " ; and when we lightly discuss the future of the Holy Land, and speculate as to what European crown it would most suitably adorn, we forget that we are not proposing merely to subtract an unimportant Turkish province, but to rob 200,000,000 of our fellow-creatures of the sanctuary of their religion. It is 1 The Moslems do riot necessarily circumcise in infancy as do the Jews, but at almost any age, as a rule between six and ten. If a Moslem dies uncircumcised the ceremony must be performed before burial, that he may not go uncircumcised into the presence of Allah. 299 INNER JERUSALEM probably even a new thought to most of us that the Dome of the Rock, the site of Solomon's Temple, has been considerably longer the uninterrupted possession of the sons of Ishmael than it ever was of the spns of Isaac, and that the One God has been worshipped on the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite some five centuries longer in the Arabic, than ever in the Hebrew tongue. 300 CHAPTER XX THE MOSLEM WOMAN IN JERUSALEM AMUSEMENTS THEATRE SHOPPING WE DDING BATH RECEPTION EL GELWEH r I ^HE Moslem woman has few amusements beyond that A of receiving and visiting her friends. Social festivities take place largely out of doors, and there are some half- dozen spots around Jerusalem, more or less shady, where, in the afternoon, you are sure to find groups of women drink- ing coffee and eating sweets and nuts. You may track them by nut-shells. The natives, when they are not smok- ing, are eating ; on board ship, in railway carriages, in bed, on visits, up to the very doors of the churches, they eat. They have but one substantial meal a day in the evening but unless they are smoking, they nibble all the rest of the time, except of course the better educated among the men. The men, however, have their cafes, where they smoke water-pipes, drink coffee and play cards or tric-trac at intervals all day. The effendis, on their way back from the serai, sit on little rush stools at the doors of the shops all the way up the Jaffa Road, just as if our young men from Downing Street and Whitehall were to have chairs brought out to them under the awnings at Lewis & Allenby's or Marshall & Snelgrove's. If you have a message for one of them, you leave it at the shop he frequents the substitute for the club or restaurant. The men, moreover, can, if they choose, go to the theatre, which flourishes even in the Holy 301 INNER JERUSALEM City, but is mainly frequented by Greeks. When we our- selves experimented in this amusement, there were a few women in the boxes. The acting was excellent ; the natives are born actors, and I think we all felt the emotions intended ; but as the play was conveyed in dumb-show, except where in certain cases it was supplemented by modern Greek, we were uncertain of the plot, which was highly military and political, and it was variously explained as the siege of Troy or of Ladysmith. We remained about three hours, but our Greek servant, who did not return till midnight, said we had missed the better half, and must go again. "For the love of God, master, you must go ! You will forget all your anxieties all your relations ! " a revela- tion perhaps of Dimitri's domestic concerns. In the morning the Moslem women often go shopping. They are large bundles wrapped up in white cotton or purple silk sheets, with ball-room slippers and wooden clogs. It takes six to choose a piece of stuff and an immense expendi- ture of coffee, cigarettes, time, and the endurance of the shopkeepers, and any other customers present, to decide how much they shall pay for it. " The word of a Frank," the phrase which plays so romantic a part in travellers' tales, but as a matter of fact is equivalent to our " sharp practice," is the final statement of your intentions " the last price " in any commercial transaction. It means that contrary to local custom, and consistently with Frankish habits, you don't want coffee, cigarettes, argument, but are willing to pay a quarter of the price asked or go. It is a custom not appreciated, for that " time is money " and " business is business " are facts which few Arabs have yet mastered. It is on the occasion of a wedding that the Moslem woman is in her element. The object of her existence is to be mar- ried and have children. The husband is householder, provider, father ; it is the merest chance if he be friend, or companion, for she probably never sees him till the knot is tied, for even if, as commonly happens, she marries a near 302 THE MOSLEM WOMAN IN JERUSALEM relative, there is, in the upper classes, no companionship between even children of opposite sexes. We have been fortunate in seeing weddings of various classes and degrees of dignity, but an invitation into the exclusive circle of the Moslem effendi is not to be easily had on an important and festive occasion. At last, however, we were bidden to a wedding under just the con- ditions we would have chosen not showy, as among the nouveaux riches, but in the innermost circle of the gentle classes of Jerusalem. We go first to the bridegroom's house, or rather dwelling, for the house is shared with his two brothers and then: wives and children, having in common a large central hall or lewan, a dining-room and a kitchen; the sleeping-rooms, which serve also for boudoirs, being the only private apart- ments. He belongs to one of the most distinguished, though not perhaps one of the most prosperous families in Jerusalem. The advantage, in point of means, is with the lady, who, moreover, is, by some dozen years, the senior, which may be taken to equalize matters, she also being of the old aristo- cracy of the city. She is an orphan, we are told, living with an only brother under conditions of such domestic tranquillity as have led to a somewhat unusual postponement of marriage, a great number of eligible proposals having been refused on her behalf. All this is explained to me en route by the kind friends to whose intercession I am indebted for the invitation. We are met at the gate by a little boy of perhaps ten years of age, who might have looked very well in a native kumbaz, or even in the sailor-suit or kilt which in our eyes would be suitable to his time of life, but who, in ill-cut drab coat and trousers, a shirt front, and elaborate necktie surmounted by a scarlet tarbush, is sufficiently grotesque. He is, however, a somewhat important personage, being the only son of the 303 head of the family, who occupies a handsome house by the side of that we are now entering, and whose wife, from her position in the faniily, acts as hostess upon the present oc- casion. The fact that she is known only as the " mother of Mousa," the quaint little figure that has escorted us from the carriage to the house-door, is one of those features of the life here, which so often exhibit what seems to us an extraordin- ary lack of the sense of proportion ; for the mother of Mousa has a very distinct individuality and will long remain in my memory as one of the most beautiful and gracious gentle- women it has ever been my good fortune to meet. During the eight hours in which we remain her guests, mere items in a crowd of several score, the consciousness of her graceful and kindly hospitality never fails us ; she is a perfect hostess, calm, dignified, yet attentive to every trifle by which she may give pleasure to others. We are to remain here until the time arrives for fetching the bride from her own home, but we find no lack of enter- tainment. We are introduced into the bed-room of a sister- in-law of the bridegroom, herself the bride of a year ago, and the proud possessor of an infant son. Seated on the floor, in front of a large wardrobe with plate-glass doors, two or three ladies are putting the finishing touches to their toilet, a fact which does not in the least embarrass them, for, after bidding us a kindly welcome, they return to their former position and continue to stick flowers in their hair and to put on necklaces and brooches. To acquire their names was out of the question, but I resolved to differentiate them as the " mauve brocade," the " maize silk," and the " blue satin," a mental process which was also a failure, as each changed her dress at least three times during the re- mainder of the day ! It was equally out of the question to ascertain who was who, for the relationships of the leading families here are as complicated and as intricate as those of royalties at home, and for the same reason of frequent, in fact enforced, inter- 304 THE MOSLEM WOMAN IN JERUSALEM marriage. Moreover, age is no criterion in a country where there may be only thirteen years' difference between mother and daughter, and where a woman is a grandmother at thirty. A little girl of about ten was anxious to exhibit her new frock and henna-stained hands, and I was equally glad to examine them in detail. The finger ends, to the depth of perhaps an inch, were stained a ruddy brown, a few lines were traced on the back, but the real triumph of art was on the palms, which were adorned with a conventional bud and leaf in lozenge-shaped groups like a lodging-house wall- paper, and I observed that most of the ladies carried their hands palm forwards, so that the decoration should be seen to full advantage. This is perhaps the best opportunity to describe the cir- cumstances under which such a work of art is achieved. Unfortunately I was not present upon the precise occasion in question, and can only speak from recollection of a similar incident elsewhere. About two days before the marriage, the bride, accom- panied by all her most intimate friends, adjourns to the bath, Hammdm, which is, in every respect, essentially the same institution as the Turkish bath anywhere else. On the occasion to which I refer the friends were very numerous, for friendship is a great feature of Oriental life, and it is even said that a woman without gossips will find it difficult to get to heaven, for social freedom and harmony procures forgiveness of sins. Friends must be faithful to each other through good and evil report, and it is a command of the Sunnah 1 that, alike in pleasure and in prayer, de- ceased friends should not be forgotten. Besides all the usual functions of the Turkish bath, the soaping, the lavement, the massage, which are here performed to the perfection of luxury, a temptation of the flesh it would take a saint to resist, one has certain additions in the em- 1 i.e. According to the traditions and law of the Prophet. 305 X INNER JERUSALEM ployment of perfumes and of a species of hypnotization in which the Oriental bathing- women are adepts. But the preparation of the bride involves special features in which no woman not married or about to be married is allowed to share, and which few are privileged to witness, of which the principal is the use of the nura, a very powerful depilatory 1 consisting, apparently, largely of quicklime. With this, even the down of the face is removed, with a result one must be an Oriental to admire, as the skin is left with a hard, and almost raw appearance, which the lustrous powder, subsequently applied, does not greatly ameliorate. It is a good omen if one of the bride's com- panions be a woman who has lately become for the first time a mother. The lighted candle which, during a part of the performance, she holds in her hand, and which served at her own wedding-feast (under circumstances to be described later), is as a matter of courtesy offered for the bride's ac- ceptance. While reposing in the cooling room she is expected to partake not only of the coffee offered to all present, but of some special food which appeared to consist of yolks of eggs and of seeds. A great deal of time was spent at this stage, many of the ladies going to sleep, a very natural consequence of a process at once exhausting and soothing. After this, a certain amount of toilet was de rigueur, a somewhat classical peplum, or at most a sheet having hitherto sufficed ; there was much brushing and plaiting of hair, and resumption of bangles, and much merriment, sometimes in directions startlingly inconsistent with extreme etiquette in others. Truly was it a case of Honi soit qui mal y pense. The Oriental women are only grown up children after all, and their play is little more than kittenish. Next came the artists the inevitable Sheikhats the professional advisers on all matters relating to the health, beauty and domestic 1 The esoteric meaning of this process will be obvious to the anthropologist. 306 THE MOSLEM WOMAN IN JERUSALEM affairs of the women a combination as it were of Truefitt, Harley Street doctor, and the Matrimonial Gazette. All the women who were preparing for the approaching festivities submitted, in some degree, to treatment, some having the hands alone decorated, others having kohol applied to the eyes, others again having the front of the foot and the toe-nails henna-stained, the bride alone being treated with any great elaborateness. 1 The process was a kind of stencilling, stiff and formal as to design, which ex- tended in a sort of trellis-pattern over the neck and breast, a survival possibly of the tattooing still customary among the Bedu. After purification and decoration at the Hammam the bride remains apart, taking no share in what goes on around her which brings us back to our point of departure, the companions whom we found awaiting the hour for fetching her to her new home. Coffee was served and sweetmeats handed round, and then our kind hostess, learning that this was my first presence at such an entertainment, asked if we would like to see the preparations made for the reception of the bride. We were accordingly conducted to her room, which was large and handsome, though somewhat dark, owing to the fact that the windows to begin with too high to see out of were, moreover, blocked with piles of silk-covered lehafs or wadded quilts, and, with the long, hard bolsters which serve as pillows, a necessary part of the bride's outfit, partly for purposes of hospitality, partly for ordinary use, as the very ornate sleeping arrangements we were about to see are re- garded as ornamental rather than useful, except on festive occasions. The handsome marble floor was strewn with costly and beautiful carpets, the " prayer-carpet," however, a real work 3 Not so, however, in the case of the heroine of the present chapter, who, as far as I could discover, had only her hands decorated and that very moderately. 307 INNER JERUSALEM of art, in rich shades of red and blue silk, being folded and laid aside for the bridegroom's use. Two sides of the room were occupied with low divans richly covered with crimson velvet, heavily embroidered in gold thread. There was a very handsome inlaid wardrobe, with plate-glass doors ; a chest of drawers, many cupboards in the thickness of the wall, and a bedstead which, though small, was the most conspicuous article of furniture in the room. By birth a mere Tottenham Court Road cast-iron bedstead, it was idealized by the Oriental imagination into a very apotheosis of repose, surmounted by draperies caught up with branches of palm and sprays of orange flowers. The counterpane was of such fineness that it might have been passed through a ring, a rose-coloured silk pillow it is etiquette that there should be but one was covered with the finest linen, open- hemmed and bordered with lace ; the very vallance was a miracle of tucks and insertions, with frillings having tucks and insertions de nouveau. On the deep window-seat, upon one of the X shaped book-rests with which Liberty has familiarized us, lay a Koran, open at the Sura of Joseph, possibly by way of inculcating conjugal fidelity. Beside it was a young cypress-tree, heavily decorated with gold-leaf, and enveloped in a veil of red gauze, and a dish of seeds, also carefully covered over ; palm-leaves decorated with gold leaf were arranged in groups upon the wall, and some phials, also covered with gauze, probably contained the dose of camphor, rose-water and certain seeds which, it is said, should never be omitted by the bride who wishes to avoid the misfortune of being the mother of a daughter instead of a son and heir. On the chest of drawers were arranged some nargilehs, coffee-cups and trays. Anything you do not find upon the furniture in an Arab house should be sought for on the floor, for the Arab sits down, and as a rule low down, for most of the functions of life, from stone- cutting to coffee-grinding, from making a horseshoe 308 MOSLEM WOMEN ATTIRED IN MANDII.S AND IZZAKS. to embroidering a dress. Accordingly, we were not surprised to find on the floor the toilet apparatus, con- sisting of ewer and basin in beaten brass, a delight to the eye, but not, to English notions, of any special utility as a substitute for our more homely " tub." On a tray, also on the floor, we discovered a collection of dainty shoes, gold and silver-embroidered on coloured satin, adapted in some degree for daily use by insertion, each pair in its own clogs, generally of dark, hard wood, inlaid in mother-of-pearl, a few of the best pairs being roughly shaped into the likeness of a shoe and, one would suppose, the better adapted for walking. Beside the bed lay a richly-embroidered velvet wrapper folded envelope-wise, into which we were allowed to peep, and which contained the toilet of the bridegroom, new to the smallest detail. Indeed, we audaciously penetrated even into drawers and wardrobes, for our kind hostess said, " Look and inquire as much as you like ; if we came to a wedding at your house, we should want to ask about every- thing," a permission of which we gladly availed our- selves. Countless dresses, in every shade of delicate silk, hung in the wardrobe, many of them very elaborate, made with a vague yearning after European outline and decorated with the inartistic meaninglessness which bespeaks much study of fashion-plates, which, in fact, solved for us the life-long problem, " Who is found to wear the garments depicted in ladies' papers ? " There were piles of mandils, squares of coloured muslin, stamped with the large sprawling pattern with which the Oriental woman covers her face ; there was a choice of izzars, the silk sheets with which she envelops her entire person, when she goes out of doors, and which consists of two skirts, connected by a drawing-string at the waist, the upper one being raised to cover the head. There were piles of dainty linen of shapes which went far to explain the lack of outline in the figure of the Oriental woman ; there 309 INNER JERUSALEM were cosmetics from Paris, rosewater from Damascus, and silk gloves that set our teeth on edge. All this while visitors had been collecting, and by the time we had finished our inspection the room was full of women, some handsomely dressed and jewelled, others ap- parently poor, but probably relatives, for the Arabs, like the Highlanders, make family, rather than wealth, the criterion of distinction, and, indeed, one of their rules for the choice of a wife is " Take a woman of a clan, even if she be on a mat " ; that is, if her sleeping-mat spread on the ground be her only possession. Among them were several nursing- mothers with their infants, " for good luck," it was explained, an explanation, by the way, so frequently offered as all- sufficing, that I soon fell back upon such knowledge of folk-lore and tradition as I possessed as offering information at least less generic than the invariable answer which they themselves seemed to consider sufficient. On religious points especiaUy, I found information difficult to obtain. The contract of engagement appears to be the only occasion of religious ceremonial and consists in prayer and in reading the first Sura of the Koran ; the marriage itself is regarded as merely the sequel to the earlier and equally binding performance. We, however, elicited, among other details of the final denouement of the drama, that the beautiful prayer-carpet, with its distinctive design roughly representing a minaret, would not be used on the first occasion of prayer by the newly married pair, but that the bridegroom, on retiring at the end of the public festivities, would make his devotions kneeling upon the lady's train. The first seven days of matrimony are regarded as devoted to festivity, and any elaboration of ritual is considered as superfluous and unfitting ; but it is recommended that the bride should ask for the blessing of Allah upon her relations with the family of her husband, a point in which the poor thing must indeed often stand in need of supernatural guidance ! 310 THE MOSLEM WOMAN IN JERUSALEM I could not resist some further discussion in this direc- tion. Our beautiful hostess declared herself specially fortunate, for not only had she, with her husband and chil- dren, a house to themselves, which she acknowledged to be a great advantage, but, moreover, her husband had all the perfections of the hero of a lady's novel, an allegation which she proceeded to support by the narration of many incidents in which she seemed convinced that any other man would have shown impatience or resentment. I observed that the other ladies present made no remark. The temptations to jealousy can be but few in Moslem circles ; and though it is alleged that divorces are frequent, it should be remembered that they are never on account of conduct such as is discussed shamelessly in our own newspapers ; for it is ordered that a Moslem woman, convicted of immorality, shall be put to death. Even to bring an accusation of misconduct is here a very serious matter, and the accuser, if unable to sub- stantiate it, upon a solemn and thrice repeated oath, is also condemned to death, so that in the matter of the seventh and ninth commandments their standard, and at least theoretically their conduct, is infinitely superior to our own. It is also worthy of mention that, either by her mother, some near female relative, or, failing that, by the Sheikhat, a well brought up girl is always instructed in what is sunnat in reference to her future conduct as a bride, which involves, in addition to the usual responsibilities, certain recondite points of ritual, so that it is imperative even more than in other cases, that she should not be left to the " light of nature." About five o'clock we were invited to take supper a few specially honoured guests round a table in the dining-room j the remainder upon mats in the hall. The whole meal was served at once, and you ate of the dishes in any sequence that occurred to you. Each of us had a plate, a knife, a spoon and fork, a table-napkin and a large flat cake of 311 INNER JERUSALEM excellent bread. We helped ourselves with our own spoons, and cleaned our plates with bread, when the nature of the succeeding course suggested a lack of harmony with the last. Everything was well-cooked and nicely served ; among novelties were mutton stewed in lebben, a kind of butter- milk ; mutton admirably farpi with ingredients hard to guess at ; cabbage served with slices of lemon ; rice variously cooked and coloured, sweet and savoury ; a delicious blanc- mange made with many varieties of nuts and seeds ; and a compote of apricots and prunes which was not only good, but extremely gratifying to my curiosity, for I had long desired to taste, as now, the dish that I was assured was made out of the sheets of apparently brown paper, which I had often observed in the market, and which consist of dried apricots subsequently soaked, and used as the basis for compotes of other fruits. The water offered as beverage was not inviting wine is, of course, absent, and as frequent cups of coffee are provocative of thirst, we sighed vainly for the unattainable teapot. Finally a long string of carriages drove up to the door, the ladies quickly draped themselves in mandil and izzar, and put on their clogs ; collected the omnipresent contingent of unmanageable children, and we were off. As we were going to the home of an heiress it was somewhat surprising to be driven into the heart of the city, turned out at a point beyond which it was impossible for carriages to pass, con- ducted through slums that would disgrace Whitechapel, and after ducking under arches, scrambling down steps, slipping over unspeakable filth in a pitch-dark tunnel, finally hauled up a squalid stone staircase, and we were in the midst of the festive scene ! We were greeted with showers of rose-water, and with the curious cries peculiar to occasions of rejoicing. We were hurried into a great hall, so closely packed with women that it was difficult to take our bearings, but at length a way 312 THE MOSLEM WOMAN IN JERUSALEM was made for us through the crowd, and we found ourselves seated on a divan facing the audience. I use the word " audience " advisedly, for the divan served as a stage, in the midst of which, upon a chair, raised above everything else, sat an absolutely motionless figure draped in a striped silk sheet, which fell over chair and all, and lay in folds about her feet. Our hostess, who was privileged, both as cousin of the bride and sister-in-law of the groom, with characteristic kindness brought up a glass of lemonade and, lifting a corner of the veil, put it to the lips of the prisoner so unhappily circumstanced, and seemed to offer caressing and encouraging words. In front of the stage, upon a round table composed of an immense brass tray upon a stand, stood a crowd of some scores of lighted candles of yellow wax, decorated with leaves and sprays of foliage. Behind this was placed a row of chairs reserved for the professional merry makers a gigantic negress, who played skilfully upon the zither, and some other women who sang and thrummed the tambourines made of skins stretched upon an earthenware foundation, which are essential to Oriental festivities. At intervals coffee was handed round, followed by cigarettes, sweet- meats, lemonade, or preserved fruits ; and suddenly, at a signal from the negress, the mistress of ceremonies, the music ceased, and a rush was made at the lighted candles. In an instant the table was cleared, the tray overturned, the decorations scattered on the ground. Only a small pro- portion of the crowd could be the happy possessors of the coveted treasures, said to be most particularly provocative of " good luck " more exact information was lacking. Our hostess was careful to see that we had our chance, and we are still awaiting the issue ! Then the band struck up again, the zither, the tambourines, and some cymbals out of tune with the tambourines. The space cleared by the disappearance of the table was reserved for a professional dancer, who now appeared upon the scene. I had recently 313 INNER JERUSALEM read a description of such a one, written by a young Syrian whom I knew as one of educated taste, and was curious to realize the picture he had evoked in the following terms : " Dressed in her best, with neck, face, head and hands all gleaming with jewels and gold, with a silk handkerchief waving in the one hand, and a graceful curve made to the hip with the other, and with her sweet abashed eyes rivetted on the ground, the handsome Syrian woman dances to the sound of music. Many are the movements and curves she makes. Like a delicate palm tree swayed by the gentle breeze, she moves to and fro," and so on. Autre race autre mosurs ! There was a more or less hand- some Syrian woman, there were the jewels and the gold and the silk handkerchief but for the rest ! Probably the ladies present would have fainted with horror at the sight of our dancing we were thankful to look away from theirs, but I don't know that any other eyes were " abashed " except our own. Presently, to our relief, the young woman subsided and singing began again. There was so much noise that the words were undistinguishable, but I have since learnt that they were probably somewhat as follows : God be with you, maiden ; weeping is vain. Your fate is declared. Whatever you desire in your father's house, Now is the time to bring it with you. The time to go has come. Up with you O bride ! The night- ingale has sung. The cock has crowed. Under your bridegroom's windows merchants are standing : They have jewels to grace those pretty hands. There was a sound of shouting without. The singing ceased, the women hastily veiled themselves ; there was sil- ence as three tall men entered the room sheiks of the Temple in picturesque smoke-coloured robes (jubr), with snowy tur- ban uncles and brother of the bride. Our hostess advanced 314 THE MOSLEM WOMAN IN JERUSALEM raised her veil, and respectfully kissed both hands of the oldest her father. The uncles advanced to the feet of the bride ; each ungirded his sword, heavy with massive scabbard and silver mountings, and both were passed over her head, where they hung round her neck by a cord, a sign that she was now under authority, swaying to right and left, almost touching the ground, as, moving for the first time, she rose to her feet. It was now the brother's turn to approach her, in order to conduct her to the bridegroom's house. We could not but feel that it was a high tribute to the qualities which had provoked such fraternal tenderness, that he burst into tears and rushed from the room. An awkward pause followed. The negress, whose function seemed to be to elicit gaiety, struck up a song. The guests responded, there was hand-clapping, and the usual indescribable shrilling of the lips ; the words probably as follows : O bride, your look is like the moon, Your face is as round as a tray. What has been showered upon you in your home Is as nothing to what is your gain in marriage. In a few minutes the brother returned, a dignified elderly man, with long beard and downcast eyes. The bride descen- ded from her throne, assisted at every step, for, enshrouded as she was, to see her way was impossible. The crowd closed in behind her and we at once made our way through the darkness and slush to find our carriages. The rain was now falling in torrents, but this, too, we were told, was " good luck," a promise of the fertility of Mother Earth. 1 The immediate family of course went first, so that by the time we reached the bridegroom's house the bride was installed. The hall was fuU of servants and dependants ; the negress was there too, and the professional dancers and singers, and, in addition, some five or six white-robed Sheikhats gliding about, superintending generally, passing In 1 Compare the English saying : " Happy is the bride that the rain rains on." 315 INNER JERUSALEM and out of the bride's chamber, making various arrangements consistent with their professional duties. There was some- thing in their mysterious presence, something disagreeably suggestive of " undertaking," of an immolation, a sacrifice ; and it was with a shudder of repulsion that we turned to a scene not less weird, but more social in its aspect. The dining-room had been cleared of the table and the four or five chairs which constituted its furniture, cushions had been placed upon the floor all round the room, a single lamp burnt sulkily upon the window-sill, and in the corner, propped up against the wall, sat the cynosure of all eyes, the bride, still motionless and still veiled. Presently came a summons to my companion " Would she dress the bride ? " She consented, and I was allowed the privilege of assisting her. We repaired to the corner, got down upon the floor, and proceeded to unpack the em- broidered silk envelope which contained all the necessary articles of toilet ; a pink silk dress trimmed with lace, a creation of the Sceurs de Charite, pink embroidered shoes, the bridal veil, the box of cosmetics and perfumes, a box of additional ribbons and laces, and a comb which a decently groomed horse would have resented, coarse, jagged, and of the impracticable variety known as a tooth-comb. Next, the veil was removed, and a fine, strapping woman of a year or two over thirty exposed to view ; her eyes were closed, her face destitute of expression, her limbs lax : she was playing her part to perfection. She had an immense " pig- tail " of jet-black hair to be coiffe for the first time. We sent for another comb. We removed the long shapeless white dress that she wore and found another exactly like it underneath, and another below that. The dress, more or less of European design, into which she had to be got, had a waist band of unprecedented proportions, but even so we looked at each other in silent despair. The shapeless corsets, our only ally, promised little assistance, and one of us murmured : "It will take a couple of strong 316 THE MOSLEM WOMAN IN JERUSALEM men to do this." Nevertheless, with much perseverance on our part and much fortitude upon that of the bride, the thing was done, her only sign of life a shake of the head, when my companion asked if she were hurting her. The magnifi- cent hair was made up into a Psyche coil, and then we fell to upon the creation of a complexion. The grease-paint lay so nicely on the well-curved throat, that it seemed a pity not to add a little extra, and as time and endurance did not fail, we proposed to make the dress slightly decollete, a suggestion repudiated with horror by the crowd of onlookers, who were most of them sitting at the moment in attitudes which exhibited their garters. Truly propriety is a question of custom ! The toilet finished, it only remained to put on the jewels, which were produced out of a leather bag by one of the group of elderly women who had played secondary lady's maids. A necklace, consisting of thirty large gold coins of a favourite Hungarian variety, worth slightly more than two napoleons and a half each, reached to her waist. Two ropes, each of twenty-eight strands of seed pearls, came next. Then a large diamond locket was produced. There was no chain, and we sought in vain for a pink ribbon, and finally took refuge in a yellow one, which looked pink in the lamp light, not without some qualms that it would be put on again by daylight next morning, and would pass into history as English taste. Then came various brooches ; then so many dia- mond sprays that the beautiful Psyche knot looked like a show cushion in a jeweller's window. Rings and bracelets were placed on hands and wrists. There seemed space for nothing more ; but at the last moment a bunch of flowers was handed over, which we were required to distribute on head and breast, a semi-transparent lace veil was thrown over her head, and that act in the drama was complete. Sounds of music and shouting outside. " Behold the bridegroom cometh " arose to our lips, and we hastened into the outer hall to witness his entrance. 317 INNER JERUSALEM A man never counts for very much at his own wedding, but the position of a defenceless Moslem, alone in a crowd of a hundred excited women, is even less than usual to be envied, not that an Arab is given, as a rule, to self-conscious- ness, false shame, or kindred discomforts. A chair at the bottom of the room by the door at the extreme end from the bride's exit was assigned to him, the women not privileged, either as relatives or professionals, veiled themselves ; a few small boys clustered about him ; we received front places in the crowd for ourselves, and presently the sound of music in the distant room announced that the bride was on the way. She appeared as the centre of a brilliant illumination, her attendants carrying large flat wax candles, each having three wicks and all richly painted and decorated. The etiquette of the occasion requires the exhibition of extreme reluctance, combined with all the allurements of an accomplished beauty, a probable survival of the actual resistance still offered by the women of certain tribes of the Bedu, to what is practically marriage by capture, and in which the throwing of stones and the use of teeth and nails as weapons of defence are as much a part of the etiquette of the occasion as the carefully rehearsed performance at present under consideration, and known as El gelweh. As the bride advanced and reached the bottom of the avenue of onlookers, in a direct line with her husband, still distant some thirty or thirty-five feet, we were able to watch her attentively. Her eyes were still closed, her hands, held palm outwards, in front of her chest. She was surrounded by the professional assistants. Two white-robed old women supported her from behind, another on either hand ; the gigantic negress moved in front facing the bride, making believe to encourage and cheer her progress, but in reality contriving now and then to drive her backwards, so as to prolong the performance to the very utmost. The singers and dancers in the crowd took up their songs from time to time under the direction of the negress. The women 318 THE MOSLEM WOMAN IN JERUSALEM on either side of her carried the swords (now decorated with flowers), so as to form an archway over her head. All joined in the songs, led by the professionals, and accentuated by much clapping of hands and clicking of lips. " Reel and sway and go to sleep," they sang, over and over again, " and should we reproach you, say, To-day am I yet among the maidens." And in truth she reeled and swayed to their hearts' con- tent a thorough mistress of the etiquette of the situation. She staggered from side to side, and every step was taken with an exaggerated movement of the hips, which was much applauded, although in truth in no sense beautiful in Occi- dental estimation. 1 Perfect as was her acting, one sometimes lacked the key to the part. One was occasionally at a loss to know whether her role were that of amorousness or reluctance, whether she were playing the " Bride of Lam- mermoor " or the heroine of the " Song of Songs." All this went on for, perhaps, half an hour, by which time she had advanced about ten feet. Then the negress indi- cated a change in the programme. The cymbals and tam- bourines were clanged with added energy, the singing became louder and more rapid, the negress and her band turned in the direction of the bridegroom. " Strain your eyes and see her ! " they sang ; "see her, and the diamonds .she wears. All that you have paid for her is less than the worth of her finger-tips." The bridegroom, a young Arab, of two or three and twenty, dark and hirsute, with, like so many of his race, a cast in his eyes, had hitherto appeared somewhat bored and indifferent. Thus urged, however, he began to enter into the spirit of the play, and at a signal from the mistress of the ceremonies, he rose, and walked briskly down the room to where the bride had now halted, still swaying from side to side. He lifted her veil, and there was a pause and a dead silence, while he, presumably for the first time, contem- 1 It is one of the beauties specially celebrated in Arabic poetry. 319 INNER JERUSALEM plated her charms. I had an uncharitable desire to warn him that her roses were ours, and that to-morrow the bril- liant complexion would have departed, but he showed no particular enthusiasm, not even the shyness which, we were told, it was customary to exhibit ; put down the veil with the air of wrapping up a recent purchase, and returned to his seat. From this time the proceedings, though not more rapid, were somewhat more lively. It seemed to be proper to encourage the bride with extravagant compliments, whether to stimulate the ardours of the too business-like groom, or to console the lady, we could not decide. Every verse was sung again and again with occasional slight variations improvized by the negress. You are welcome, you are twice welcome, God spare the bridegroom who bought you ; And since he has brought you here, No evil shall befall you. From this consoling general sentiment we advanced to personalities You are a first-fruit like the cucumber of October, Many are the girls of our city, but for birth and breeding have we sought you. Your waist is so thin that it won't feed the hungry ant, You are so good that you are obedient to your mother-in-law ; You are a box of spices that has filled the air with balm. We were getting metaphysical, and the recollection that she had been well saturated with Eau-de-Cologne de Gelle Freres was, I was aware, a materialistic irrelevance. The irrepressible negress again came forward, the music was stopped, and she began a performance on her own account. The bride's charms and accomplishments were to be shown off a coffee cup was put into her hand, and, with her eyes still closed, she went through the pantomime of making coffee ; a needle which it is important should be 320 THE MOSLEM WOMAN IN JERUSALEM threaded with green silk was given to her, and she sewed an invisible seam ; an egg, seeds, leaves in turn, served some concerted purpose, always under the direction of the negress. Then, as in the course of the last hour she had arrived within a dozen feet of the always seated bridegroom who, it may be mentioned, had been exceedingly attentive to the later developments yet another act of the play was entered upon. With much gesticulation, apparently intended to convey to the unhappy man that his long-suffering patience must endure yet longer, the procession was stopped, and with shrieks of laughter and much mysterious pantomime, the negress, aided by the Sheikhat, proceeded to manipulate the bride's appearance. We held our breath as she stuck additional flowers into the coiffure we had so carefully arranged, turned and twisted the bride's veil, directed her how to hold her hands, how to make certain gestures, the pur- port of which was to us not obvious ; drew attention to the fashion of bending the hips, which seemed to us so unsightly, and, finally, as a tour de force, stuck scraps of fern leaves all over her face and invited us to admire " the Bedu," from which we gathered that the patches represented tattooing. The poor girl looked so utterly exhausted that at every moment we feared that the play would become real, and she would faint in good earnest. However, the longest day comes to an end, and in another five minutes, with eyes open and hands at rest, she was seated by the bride- groom's side. The singers and musicians burst out anew, relatives pressed forward to congratulate, and after a few minutes of reception of friends the bridegroom took the exhausted damsel by the arm, and, at a pace very different from that hitherto adopted, she was re-conducted down the room ; the Sheikhat pressed forward to open the door of the nuptial apartment, our hostess and some half-dozen ladies entered with them, and we saw them no more, though it is only just to say that such is the inexhaustible hospitality of 321 Y INNER JERUSALEM such occasions, that we were invited to pursue our investi- gations farther, and were confidently assured that fellow- guests would not be lacking. The pschycologist is avowedly merciless, but even in the cause of science one must draw the line somewhere, and we felt that the poor girl should be allowed at least her first domestic meal with peace, if per- haps not with appetite. The gaiety of the negress was inextinguishable, although, we learnt casually, she had but a few days before buried her second husband, a white man ! As we had understood that a ceremonial akin to the old English custom of " throwing the stocking " was among those about to occur behind the closed doors, and as the presence of a handsome woman is always considered pro- pitious on such occasions, we had been glad to observe that our beautiful hostess had remained with her charge, and it was probably in allusion to the superstition involved that the ugly negress made repeated feints of seeking entrance, to be dragged away with shrieks and laughter by the rela- tives present. We were glad to escape, and take our final coffee quietly in the room of one of the sisters-in-law, where I gladly noted we were shortly joined by our hostess and the other near relatives, and I ventured to express sympathy with the fatigue involved in such continuity of attention as a peri- phrasis for congratulating the happy pair on being left alone at last ! It was a vain hope a further reception was ex- pected of them, and no guest would think of repose that night further than could be snatched upon the floor, where, indeed, many were stretched, anyhow and anywhere, wrapped in silk coverlets ! Truly Oriental magnificence and luxury do not take into account the humble joys of occasional solitude ! 322 CHAPTER XXI CHRISTIAN WOMEN IN JERUSALEM TRAINING OCCUPATIONS COMPARISONS BETWEEN MOSLEM AND CHRISTIAN WOMEN CHRISTIANS OF THE WORKING CLASS MANNERS HOSPITALITY NOTABLE WOMEN- BENEFACTRESSES IT is but natural that woman, numerically the larger half of creation, should have figured considerably in these pages, but, although we have looked at her from the Moslem and from the Jewish point of view, except incident- ally as a missionary or as a Sister of Mercy, Latin or German, we have seen less of her from the Christian standpoint, possibly, perhaps, because the outlook is not wholly encouraging. A large proportion of the so-called Protestant element of Jerusalem is German, and the German girls in the indus- trious and orderly little German colony have much the same prospects and objects in life as German girls else- where. Of French there are not a dozen, and the Levantiners, who account themselves such, are, like the English of the same type, for all purposes of psychological inquiry, natives. The Convents and the German Deaconesses train large numbers of girls in practical domestic work and useful house- hold industries. Of these a fair number themselves take up the religious life, and some are sent as teachers to other institutions, while many marry for the Arab well knows how to appreciate the money-getting and money-saving results of a useful training. It is alleged that those brought 323 INNER JERUSALEM up in the English schools often become school-mistresses. I never yet heard of any one employing them as servants, and, indeed, have never met a domestic servant who was not Latin, Greek, German, or Armenian. Jewish indoor servants are obviously inconvenient, on account of ceremonial differences, about which, in Jerusalem, they are very strict ; and a Moslem townswoman cannot take service at all except in a harem, while the fellaheen women are mainly employed in agriculture, sometimes as porters, not to say beasts of burden, sometimes as driving, or even, yoked with a donkey, as drawing the plough. A friend tells me that on a certain occasion he saw a man lamenting the death of his mule, which had fallen by the wayside. His wife stood meekly afar, not venturing even to proffer sympathy. After a time she was beckoned up, the dead animal unloaded, and the burthen handed over to her. She was about to set off, thus weighted, when, with a curse on her idleness, she was once more recalled, and the pack-saddle added to her encumbrances. From the point of view of such a husband, woman has a definite value, which is duly considered at the time of purchase a wife being valued under such conditions as so much muscle and endurance, just as, in other countries, she may be considered as equivalent to so much money, business connexion, social position, or other advantage. Whether the position, Moslem or Christian, of beast of burden for the farm be really inferior to that among the wealthier Oriental households, of cow for the nursery, is purely a matter of individual fancy. One is, of course, thankful that there should be some 12,000 Christians in Jerusalem, of whom some 1,400 are Protestants, mostly German, and one earnestly wishes new life to the mission-fields such life, for example, as the Americans and the Scotch Medical Mission have introduced in Syria, the Quakers in the Lebanon, and the Germans in their many Christian colonies all over Palestine and Syria ; 324 but when it comes to practical relations with the native, and speaking solely from the social point of view, one is bound to acknowledge that in the Holy City (of course, with certain welcome exceptions) the native Christian is as inferior to the Moslem as is the Hebrew Christian to the unadulterated Jew. This is especially true in reference to the wealthier classes, with whom one comes into social relation in hotels, or business relation in shops and elsewhere. The Moslem effendi, in spotless turban and kumbaz, dazzling linen, silks and satins which invite to dreams of luxurious tea-gowns, or even, on occasions of less ceremony, in the dignified jubr, at least looks like a gentleman, and as such contrasts effectively with the Christian, who in the morning probably wears frock-coats of all colours and preternatural length, stiff collars and cuffs but poorly adapted to a hot climate, gem rings, yellow shoes, a tartan necktie, and a scarlet tarboosh. The Moslem's silent contemplation of his narghille (water-pipe) may not be edifying, but it does not violate the unities and irritate one's senses like the smell of arak and the litter of cigarettes. The Moslem is always courteous, generally silent, and one readily pardons but too sympathetically, perhaps his cat-like air of supercilious indifference. The Christian may be courteous, is seldom silent, and is frankly inquisitive. One would like to know how far the contrast might hold good if one had the opportunity of pursuing it among the women in really intimate relations in their own homes ; as perhaps no cultured woman, unless it be Lady Burton and the ladies of the American Colony in Jerusalem, have ever had the good fortune to be permitted to do. The Moslem woman is hospitable and courteous, and if merely a part of the nursery furniture, at least of good quality as such, well groomed, well dressed, pleasing to the eye, a little wistful perhaps, pathetic with the pathos of an intelligent caged animal. But she is not a dowdy dressed like a fashion- 325 INNER JERUSALEM plate, such as is to be seen in its perfection at Beirut, and in its degree at all the summer hotels in the country. The Moslem religion enforces ablution, and, so far as the women are concerned, a decent reserve, therefore we owe it to the Christians only that the keepers of native hotels, however luxurious and expensive, should fail to understand why the members of one party should not be content to occupy a single bedroom, irrespective of age, sex, and relation. We have personally established the contemporary occupation of one room by father, mother, three children, two elderly relatives, and two female servants. It is true there were four beds. On another occasion a husband, wife, brother- in-law, and female cousin, to whom had been assigned three rooms, in a Latin hospice, abandoned two of them upon some trifling pretext, and the Brother in charge told us that the frequent occasion for remonstrance against similar indifference to common decency was the painful side of his pleasure in dispensing hospitality. The Christians of the working classes are often Latin and Armenian, but more largely Greeks in the towns, and Maronites in the Lebanon. There is one entire Bedawy tribe of Christians (Latin) and some few Christian villages in the Jerusalem district, many of them of very unsavoury reputation. The Christian native women one meets in the streets of Jerusalem are necessarily of the lower classes, or they would not be there a fact which would explain the extreme roughness of their manners, were it not that many times a poor fellah woman or a rough, good-natured girl from Siloam or Lifta (Moslem villages) has protected us against the frank egotism of the superior Christian from Bethlehem, who sweeps before her anything which impedes the progress of her unaccountable bulk. The Moslem, man or woman, may be indifferent, even supercilious, but is never impertinent and never servile. The native Christian, here as elsewhere, is what other Christians have made him, whether the other Christian be the teacher working in the 320 CHRISTIAN WOMEN IN JERUSALEM interest of religious statistics, or merely the tourist in the interest of his own passing convenience or amusement. The congregations of the Protestant Churches in Jerusalem belong almost exclusively to the genteel classes, and are Europeans, Levantiners, and a few Syrian Christians, all in their Sunday clothes, generally of European cut ; the younger men and women having an increasing tendency to hats, which, as opposed to the veil and tarbush, the last mark of Oriental distinction, are, from the point of view of the picturesque, much to be regretted. In the Latin, Greek, and Armenian Churches the poor are always with us, every day and at all hours, not neces- sarily from motives of piety, as we of the West understand it. Indeed, especially among the women, one is struck alike by the earnestness and by the frank indifference of the worshippers. Dean Church l thus expresses the fact. " The sort of orderly inattention and stealthy gossip that goes on with us, you never see here. They are either attending in earnest or not pretending to attend at all, and they seem to pass abruptly, without any hesitation or concealment, from devotion to mutual salutation and smiles." Brightman's remarks on the same point have often recurred to us at sight of the entire area of a large Oriental Church covered on the one side with kneeling figures in white sheets, on the other with forms, equally devout in attitude, covered with striped kumbaz or brown abbaye, the men and women, it should be observed, mutually ignoring each other's presence. " If it seems to one that in the East personal edification is too much lost sight of, it must be remembered that with us the idea of public worship is equally lost sight of in the pursuit of individual edifi- cation." 2 I once ventured to remark upon the conduct of the native women to a Pere cure in a Syrian town ; upon the 1 Life and Letters, p. 29. 2 Brightman, op. cit. p. 24. 327 way in which they alternate their prayers, said aloud, to the disturbance of their neighbours, with conversation, equally frank and unrestrained, with those about them ; upon their custom of bringing wailing infants, whom no one attempts to pacify, and older children, who wander about unrebuked. " What can we do ?" he replied. " Of reverence, as we understand it, they know nothing, and there is a certain piety in their very familiarity. If we speak to them, they say, Are we not at home ? Is not this our Father's house ? Le bon Dieu tiest pas mechant comme ceux qui s'en plaignent f " Bundled up in such a quantity of clothes that each native woman requires the space of two or three Europeans, and possessed, moreover, of the extraordinary development of hip consequent on many generations of perpetual squatting, the native woman at worship takes possession of any place it may occur to her to covet by the simple process of placing herself immediately in front of the person occupying it, and proceeding to kneel down ; upon which, time being the condition of two bodies in the same space, and space the relation of two bodies in the same time, one has no choice but to seek the conditions of life elsewhere. At Bethlehem, where the native woman, devotionally inclined, achieves her ends by sheer bulk and persistence, like the camel, whose manners she imitates, grumbling included, we have some- times had to remove ourselves four or five times during a single Mass. On profane occasions the Christian villager may be, and often is, courteous and agreeable, especially in her own house, but in church there seems to be a received tradition that the laws of ordinary politeness are temporarily suspended. There is yet another view of woman which is somewhat forced upon one's notice in a country in which the monastic life is perhaps one of the most prominent of social insti- tutions. Many of us have our own views as to the advantages of 328 CHRISTIAN WOMEN IN JERUSALEM the celibacy of the clergy and its utility from the point of view of social relations, even apart from those, more directly, of religion ; but most, I think, would consider its enforce- ment as one of the personal sacrifices necessary to the ascetic life that a priest renounces marriage as he renounces property, as a thing good, it may be, in itself, though to be avoided under certain circumstances women and wealth alike being of the nature of distraction, not, one would fain hope, necessarily of evil. The extreme hospitality and courtesy which the religious Orders of Jerusalem of all creeds are ever ready to show to guests of either sex and every nationality would suggest that their outlook was somewhat exaggerated by Charles Kingsley when he makes the Abbot in Hypatia express his views as to what is conventionally known as the " gentler sex." " Have I not bidden you never to look on the face of women ? Are they not the firstfruits of the devil, the authors of all evil, the subtlest of all Satan's snares ? Are they not accursed for ever for the deceit of their first mother, by whom sin entered into the world ? A woman first opened the gates of hell, and until this day they are all portresses thereof." The perpetuation of such an attitude would indeed, in this country, show the basest ingratitude, for at every step of the advance of the Christian faith some woman has stood by with helping hand. It is unnecessary to recall those holy women " last at the Cross and earliest at the grave," but one may well be reminded that almost the first evidence we have on the subject of the traditional sites is that of Sylvia of Aquitaine, 1 whose narrative of her visit in 385 is second only in interest to that of the Bordeaux pilgrim. Were not Paula and Eustochia the devout fol- 1 This interesting document was found in 1883 by Signor Gamur- rini, librarian at Arezzo in Tuscany. 329 INNER JERUSALEM lowers of S. Jerome, 1 with their contemporary Melania (c. 361) the mothers of all the pilgrims of after ages ? The first congregation of corporal works of mercy in Jerusalem was probably that of the Knights of S. John, known variously as Knights Hospitallers, Knights of the Cross, of Rhodes, and of Malta still represented at Tantour, 2 between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and universally respected for their charity and surgical skill. It was founded by one Gerard, a Crusader, about 1099, and very shortly after was followed by its modest counterpart, founded for Dames Hospitalieres by a Roman lady named Agnes. Was not Mary of Portugal, a tertiary of the Order of S. Francis and a pilgrim to the Holy Sepulchre, one of the earliest martyrs to the faith, attached to a cross and burnt in the court of the Church of the Resurrection ? 3 Have we not, for our example, the traditions of Pelagia, and of Mary of Egypt, who here, in the Holy City, showed public sorrow for a sinful life, like Mary Magdalene of old ? Even in pre-crusading times woman played her part in the Holy Land. " Christian Jerusalem has known three principal periods of prosperity, incarnated in three glorious 1 Nevertheless, at the risk of spoiling our argument as to the value of the example of woman, I cannot resist reference to the inter- relations of these ladies from the standpoint of an entertaining human document. S. Jerome, the confessor of Paula and Eustochia, formerly the close friend of Rufinus the confessor of Melania, but latterly separated from him on the ground of some religious differences, made use of his disciples as a weapon of offence, pointing out the fact, of which it is conceivable they were not unconscious, that whereas they were the daughters of the Scipios, Melania was merely a wealthy parvenu. He condescends to even further personalities, and points out that the word " Melania " means black, and that ' her name was the living image of her soul.' " (Thierry, IS Emigration Romaine en Terre Sainte. ) 2 Protestant representatives of the same rule are also to be found in the German Hospice in the city of Jerusalem, and in the English Hospital for Ophthalmia on the Bethlehem road. 3 Quaresimiis, vol. ii. chap. vi. 330 CHRISTIAN WOMEN IN JERUSALEM names, those of Helena, Eudocia, and Justinian. It is, thanks to the liberality of these powerful benefactors (of whom two were women) that the Holy City, in the first half of the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries respectively, was covered with great and glorious monuments " (Official Guide of the French Pilgrims to Jerusalem, p. 128). Of Helena, the Mother of Constantine, to whose piety and liberality are attributed the foundation not only of the Churches of the Holy Sepulchre and of Bethlehem, but a great number of shrines only second in importance in all parts of Palestine, it is unnecessary to speak. Eudocia, of whom it is related that, at a time of much discussion in the Church, she was herself restored to orthodoxy, is further remembered as the foundress of churches, hospitals, and almshouses. It is said also that she rebuilt the walls of the Holy City, and was buried in the Church of S. Stephen, which she had herself erected on the site of his martyrdom. According to some, she beautified the Church of Bethlehem, and erected the Church of the Grotto of Gethsemane. The Benedictines owe the importance of one of their earliest edifices to Arda, the wife of Baldwin I. The Sanctuary of S. Anne, said to be the birthplace of Our Lady, originally built and served by the hermits of Mount Carmel, was restored by Helena and again by Justinian, when it passed into the hands of the Latins. Saewulf (1103) describes it as served by a few poor nuns, but when Arda took the veil it became a rich Abbey, and was still further established under Judith (or Ivette), the daughter of Baldwin II, about 1144. This same princess afterwards organized another convent at Bethany, out of funds pro- vided by Melisande, the wife of Fulk, who, upon her death, in 1161, was buried in the Benedictine Church of the Tomb of Our Lady, the spot being still shown. The Franciscans arrived in Jerusalem, according to tradition, in 1219, and occupied a small convent on Mount Sion, more or less by grace of the Canons Regular of S. 331 Augustine. It was not till 1333, however, that they ob- tained anything like a firm footing, when, thanks largely to Sancha, wife of Robert of Sicily, they were presented with a site bought from the Sultan for seventeen millions of gold ducats, and handed over to the Pope, on condition that the Franciscans should be guardians in perpetuity of the Coenaculum, the first of the many Holy Places associated with their Order. It was at this time also, and by the same intercession, that they obtained possession of the so-called Chapel of the Apparition in the Holy Sepulchre. The Pope, Clement VI, accorded the desired Bull, which was addressed to the queen herself as Nuper carissimi in Christo, given at Avignon, November 21, 1342. They proceeded to build a church on the spot with some material of ruined churches already at hand. Some ten years later Sophia of Archangel, a rich Florentine lady, bought the ground surrounding their convent, and built the first establishment for pilgrims confided to the care of the Franciscans, which included also a hospital, placed by Urban VI, in 1365, under the charge of the Sisters of S. Martin and of S. Claire. It was, moreover, a woman, the Marquise de Nicolay, who, in 1872, presented to the Franciscans the site recognized by Papal authority as that of the Emmaus of S. Luke, upon which a convent and an oratory were first built, and where, in 1902-3, in consequence of further excavations and the discovery of a Crusading church, alleged to enclose the house of Cleophas, a handsome church was erected on the old foundations. Thus, the Franciscans owe, in some degree, to women their first convent, church, hospice, hospital, the only chapel in the Church of the Resurrection to which they have an exclusive right, the first Papal Bull in their favour in the Holy Land, and one of their latest and most treasured sites. Another possible site of the village of Emmaus, and of the home of Cleophas, known as Amwas Nicopolis, was also bought and presented to the Latins (now in the hands 332 CHRISTIAN WOMEN IN JERUSALEM of the Trappists) by a woman, Mile, de Saint Cricq Dartigaux, who bore the cost of considerable research in 1880 by the architect Guillemot. To the Princesse de la Tour d'Auvergne (d. 1891) we owe the purchase and preservation of the Church of the Pater, said to be the site where the disciples received the Lord's Prayer. The Scandinavian pilgrims record its existence, and the Danish bishop Sweyn and his brother were buried there about 1152. The Princess established the Carmelites in the restored Convent in 1876. When Chosroes II had accomplished his work of destruc- tion, it was his wife, a Christian, and the sister of Maurice, Emperor of Constantinople, whose intervention made it possible to Modestus, then a monk in the Convent of S. Theodosius, to reconstruct the Church of the Resurrection within the short space of fifteen years. When Hakem had ordered the Governor of Ramleh, near Jerusalem, to destroy all Christian churches, it was his mother, Mary, the sister of the patriarchs of Jerusalem and of Alexandria, who obtained for the Christians the privileges they had lost, and permission to rebuild. The time would fail us to tell of many other benefactresses to the Holy City ; of gifts to the Benedictines l made by the Viscomtesse Pisellus, confirmed by Baldwin I (1114) ; of the gifts of orchards and gardens by Papia, the wife of Eustache Grenier ; of lands given by Cecilia, " sister of the King of Jerusalem," 1126 (probably Baldwin II), by Adeliza, his daughter, 1134, of Hodierne, wife of Helie of Tyre, 1140, a practical woman, whose offering includes a wood, a mill, and certain villas. In 1176 one Gilbertus, with Lizina his wife, and Anne his sister, sold property at Ravenna for the benefit of the Benedictine Abbey at Jerusalem ; in 1187 Amaury, Viscount of Nagreouse, with the consent of his wife, Theophania, ended a difference with the Abbey on the subject of boundaries, probably a greater sacrifice than the 1 See Charters published in the Revue de L'Orient Lutin, vol. vii. 1-2. 333 INNER JERUSALEM gift of lands. In 1196 the Empress Constance, Queen of Sicily, signed a deed approving of privileges granted in Jerusalem by her husband, Henri VI. In 1198 Amaury IX, King of Jerusalem, and his wife Isabel, gave " hore mil unum molendinum equorum " in the town of Acre. There seem to have been some large-souled women in those days, and one is glad to find, now and then, tokens that their value was appreciated. The so-called Tombs of the Kings, for example, which are among the most inter- esting remains in Jerusalem, have no concern with those kings of Israel and Judah, so difficult to remember, who slept with their fathers, in consequence of which somebody else reigned in their stead, but are the Tombs of Queens, chief among whom was Helena of Adiabene, in Kurdistan, who was converted to Judaism, and arriving, says tradition, in Jerusalem about the year 44 A. D., at the time of the famine prophesied by Agabus, sent to Egypt for grain and to Cyprus for figs, and thus merited the beautiful sarcophagus alleged to belong to her. 1 Various other persons of quality were buried around her, the only one whose name we know being a certain Princess Sarah, though, as her son Izatis is reported to have had twenty-four daughters (in addition to twenty-four sons), we may assume that she lies among her own kindred. It is interesting to note that the only two examples remaining intact of sepulchres guarded by the rolling stone, so interesting to all Christians, are this, of Helena, and another, perhaps even more perfect, though less visited, of another woman of distinction, Mariamne, the wife of Herod. Another interesting tomb, practically ignored of tourists, is that of " Chouchangane, mother of Ardavan," to whom 1 The Arabic author, Mejr ed din, A.D. 1391, speaks of a certain Dame Tonshok, whom he describes as the munificent Queen Dowager of Adiabene, who endowed the soup-kitchen for the poor which is still kept up in Jerusalem by Moslems, who may be seen daily dispensing help to the needy, irrespective of creed. 334 CHRISTIAN WOMEN IN JERUSALEM was awarded, let us hope by filial piety, a beautiful mosaic decoration, probably of the fifth century, consisting of bunches of grapes, fishes, a cock and a lamb, specimens valuable to the student of early religious symbolism. Per- haps not less useful to posterity was a certain Roman lady, Lucilia Pampilia, whose ex voto offering of a marble foot, obviously of the time of Adrian, has earned the gratitude of archaeologists for enabling them to restore the character for antiquity to the so-called Pool of Bethesda, which, mentioned by the Bordeaux pilgrims (in 333), by Cyril of Jerusalem (d. 386), and described by Eusebius and S. Jerome, had been lost sight of after the fourteenth century till the discovery mentioned encouraged Mauss, the French archaeologist, to further researches, with the result of discovering a piscina of undisputed antiquity, certainly of earlier date than the ecclesiastical remains near by dedicated to S. Mary and to S. Anne, the first of which was first men- tioned in 530 by Theodosius. Six metres below the soil a curious mural painting was discovered, probably repre- senting the miracle at the Pool. 335 CHAPTER XXII BIRD AND BEAST IN JERUSALEM ALLEGED CRUELTY IN JERUSALEM THE CAMEL, CAT, DOG, HORSE, Ass, WILD ANIMALS THE GAZELLE, JERBOA, HYENA, JACKAL, CONEY MAR SABA SPORT THE PARTRIDGE, HARE, Fox WILD BIRDS IN THE TEMPLE COURTS STORKS, SPARROW, SWALLOW THE LIZARDS I HAVE already ventured to suggest that the cruelty of the Orientals is, in no sense, a consequence of the Moslem faith, and that the worst offenders are among the Jews and Christians. A large number of the public conveyances belong to the Jews, and the overload- ing and beating of their horses is one of the most pain- ful features of street life in Jerusalem. It is, however, one which should make us more than thankful for the Mosaic institution of the Sabbath, as the Jewish horse and ass are probably the only beasts in the Holy City who are entitled by law to a seventh day of rest, and an even longer period for recuperation at the time of festivals. It is the Jews who buy up the living wrecks of other stables, and put them upon the abominable tread-mills, where the poor things toil till they drop dead at their posts. Although it is an ancient custom among the Beduin to cut the ears of sporting dogs, with the notion of quickening their sense of hearing, it is Christian civilization which has introduced the bar- barism, increasingly prevalent, of cutting the ears of asses, and the ears and tails of domestic dogs, it is the tourist, 336 BIRD AND BEAST IN JERUSALEM whose selfishness, taking advantage of native indifference, is responsible for the pain and exhaustion which, whenever a traveller's caravan enters Jerusalem, cries aloud to Heaven from galled and saddle-sore and broken-kneed horse and mule and ass, in this land whe're man, responsible for the brute creation, was first taught that " Blessed are the merciful." There is a tradition that the riding of horses was the exclusive privilege of Moslems, 1 and forbidden to Jews and Christians, but that they found means to evade the prohi- bition ; and in the time of Mohammed Ali his subjects complained that they were thereby insulted. The Con- queror tactfully contrived to evade the difficulty by sug- gesting that it was undoubtedly improper that the faithful should be put in an inferior position, but it was always possible to vindicate their exalted claims by riding on camels, and, as a matter of fact, the camel is almost exclu- sively the property of the Moslem population. As a beast of burden he is a necessity of the country, where not only grain and charcoal, but building materials, stone, marble, lime, wood, have to be carried over plain and mountain, where roads are practically unknown. To the picture-books of our youth we owe the superstition that a dromedary is a camel with two humps. As a matter of fact, the dromedary is to the camel what the hunter is to the cart-horse, a lighter and swifter specimen of the same genus, and the two-humped camel is never seen in this part of the world at all. He is not " the ship of the desert," but belongs to regions farther north to Turkestan, Thibet and China. The camel, as we know him here, is undoubtedly the camel of the Bible, of whom we first hear as part of a 1 The picture of a Moslem on horseback defiling the Holy Places was one of the means of arousing the Third Crusade. To this day the entrances to most of the Crusading and Early Christian Churches are partly blocked up, leaving doorways only about five feet high, a reminiscence, it is said, of desecration as well as a means of defence. 337 Z INNER JERUSALEM present which Abraham received from Pharaoh, and which next appears as in use among the Ishmaelites for carrying merchandise of spices, balm and myrrh (Gen. xxxvii. 25). The camel, as it seems to us, never ceases to fascinate, never begins to charm. He is the only quadruped of my acquaintance with whom I have never desired to entertain individual and friendly relations, not from any instinctive dislike, but because he seems to stand outside of, and apart from, the rest of the brute creation. The sheep, in whom one also feels but a limited personal interest, is, so naturalists tell us, the relic of a very early age ; he has never advanced, he exhibits no vestiges, no potentialities. His environment has changed, but he has resisted adaptation. The camel seems to have come down direct from a rudimentary landscape, which he decorated, as he does now, with a frieze of curves, grey against a turquoise sky, from a world of great spaces and simple requirements. There were giants in those days, but there were no roads, and he could shuffle along in the dust without looking in (not, however, that he ever displays the smallest interest or curiosity) at second floor windows. He is unsympathetic, uninterested, disdainful, and he smells like the British Museum reading" room at four o'clock on a winter afternoon. While he is being loaded he grumbles the whole time ; once afoot, he displays no emotion but lofty and impersonal disdain. I have seen the same expression on the face of a dowager whose daughter is flirting with a younger son ; of an heir- apparent in reduced circumstances when introduced to the American who has " rented " the family place ; of a Roman Catholic 'vert when confronted with the village curate ; of a professional clever woman when one talks to her of clothes. The camel, as I know him, comes somewhere between Mark Twain's and Rudyard Kipling's ; he is less of a tame ineptitude than the one, less of an intentional aggravation than the other. Let us take the poet first ; the creature apparently irritates him " with 'is silly neck a bobbin' like 338 BIRD AND BEAST IN JERUSALEM a basket full of snakes." He gets absolutely angry with " the commissariat camel puttin' on 'is bloomin' frills." 'E'll gall, an' chafe, an' lame, an' fight 'e smells most awful vile ; 'E'll lose 'imself for ever, if you let 'im stray a mile. The 'orse 'e knows above a bit, the bullock's not a fool, The elephant's a gentleman, the battery mule's a mule, But the commissariat cam-u-el when all is said and done 'E's a devil, and an ostrich, and an orphan-child in one. Mark Twain's requirements were less, and therefore he had the less to resent. " We have been trying for some time to think what a camel looks like, and now we have made it out. When he is down on all his knees, flat on his breast to receive his load, he looks something like a goose swimming, and when he is upright, he looks like an ostrich with an extra set of legs. Camels are not beautiful, and their long under lip gives them an exceedingly ' gallus ' expression. They have immense, flat, forked, cushions of feet, and they make a track in the dust like a pie with a slice cut out of it. They are not particular about their diet. They would eat a tombstone if they could bite it." It would not do for most of the beasts of the Holy Land to be particular about their diet. Vultures, pariah dogs and stray cats are probably the best fed, being the scavengers of the country. As you walk down the Vale of Siloam, or Silwan, as one learns to call it here, you note perhaps that some of the tomb-dwellers have gone out for the day leaving a dead donkey opposite their front door, and, with a shudder, you go on your way past Aceldama (we pronounce Akeldama here, not as the Vicar did in the Second Lesson last Sunday) along Gehenna, conjuring up visions of the unspeakable horror of Moloch-worship, of the children made to pass through the fire ; and returning a couple of hours later and glancing half involuntarily at the memento mori of the morning, you are startled to note that a gleaming skeleton remains, where so lately Brother Ass reminded us 339 of a life of hardship and labour and final suffering and death. The vultures overhead, the yellow dogp slinking out of sight, are already on their way to finish the work begun by human hands at the slaughter-house below the village of Bethany, on the road to Jericho. Was there ever a land in which associations are so strangely intermixed as here ? The cat is a clean animal, and Solomon put his seal on him. He flourishes in Jerusalem to-day with all the dignity, vanity and independence of cats everywhere else. Though the Jews must certainly have known cats in Egypt, there is no trace in art or language that they were domesticated in Syria. The Arabs have indeed the word Jcatt, but its very resemblance to the English cat, the French chat, the German katze, the Danish Jcat, the Celtic cath, the Italian gatto, all derived from the Latin catus, itself a late word, is apparent evidence that the creature was not early domesti- cated. The Sanscrit word, it is interesting to recall, is marjara, " the clean animal." The wild cats of Syria are two, the felis chaus, which is really a lynx, and the felis Syriaca, which, to the eye of the amateur, differs in no respect from the wild cat of Europe. It will be remembered that the only Biblical reference to the cat is in Baruch, in a passage which certainly suggests that he was then reckoned among the wild animals. In reference to the forsaking of the idols of Babylon we read, " Upon their heads and bodies sit bats, swallows and birds, and the cats also " (Baruch vi. 22). The long-haired cat, the household favourite in Jerusalem, is an importation here as in Europe, but the climate is favourable, and he multiplies and prospers. Milk is scarce, but rats and mice abundant, and in every shop in the city, and in the courtyard of every monastery, he thrives and suns himself, generally in the ill-marked black and white variety, which testifies to the absence of " the fancy." The dog, which has been in most countries, and in all 340 BIRD AND BEAST IN JERUSALEM ages, the friend of man, was, as we learn from Scripture, never understood or appreciated by the Jews, and to this very day, although so numerous in Palestine, they seem to have usurped the character elsewhere bestowel upon cats, and to own allegiance to places rather than people. In every village one enters, a tribe of furious, half-wild dogs rush out, with the dog instinct of protecting their sur- roundings ; the very word in Hebrew and Arabic for dog, kelb, is thought by some to be onomatopoeic, and to signify their yelping character. Even the absolutely homeless dog who scavenges the city streets by night, and serves a useful purpose in sorting the rubbish heaps outside the city walls, for animal or vegetable matter, is said to have^ his own district, and the dogs of one neighbourhood allow no immi- gration or poaching from those of another. All day they wander outside the walls, but " at evening let them return, let them make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city. Let them wander up and down for meat, and grumble if they be not satisfied." Beside the pariah dog of the towns, there is a species of sheep-dog, not unlike a large collie, said to be faithful and brave in defence of his flock : and, above all, there is the beautiful Persian greyhound, not to be surpassed for grace, or coat, or agility, or gentleness of disposition, by any of the products of civilization. He is much valued among the Beduin for hunting the gazelles. He has the long darting paces of the English greyhound, but in appearance reminds one rather of the Irish deer- hound, if an Irish deerhound, with his well opened eye, can be imagined, of pelage the colour of his own, but in texture exquisitely silky, and with ears and legs daintily feathered. We have seen various European dogs in Jerusalem, but they seldom thrive, and the race, too often the individual, rapidly deteriorates. The Arab steed, from the point of view of the European rider, is, as one gets him in Jerusalem, a much overrated animal. With arched neck, light of limb, head held high, 841 INNER JERUSALEM mane and tail in their pristine beauty, accoutred with gay housings, a necklace of blue beads about his neck for preser- vation from the Evil Eye, an ornament formed of two tusks hanging upon his breast, mounted by a Beduin Sheikh with flowing headdress and balanced lance, he is part of a picture so harmonious that one almost resents it as theatrical. Or again, with fringed clothing and picturesque peaked saddle, ridden by a Moslem effendi with gay turban and lithe Oriental carriage, prancing and curvetting, and, as the Arabs say, doing fantasias, all a part of his careful training, he is again a subject for song and story. But the overworked, nervous, uncertain creature, whose mouth has been spoilt by tourists, whose temper by constant change of stableman, with the viciousness of stupidity, and the irresponsiveness of the ill-used, is not a pleasant animal to ride. He can amble and gallop, but has never been taught to canter, and his trot is disagreeable. The Bedu, as a rule, ride mares : the chances are that the worn-out steed you obtain from a miscellaneous stable is an " entire " animal, with all the nervousness and irritability of his kind, overlaid with the sheepish demeanour consequent upon his circumstances, and liable to betray you at any moment. Travelling in a caravan, one is generally en queue, and your mount is more than docile, but get him alone on the high road, and you may chance to find your hands full. Fortunately, it is possible to obtain really serviceable donkeys of a degree of grace and spirit of which, as associ- ated with the humble ass, we of the West know nothing. Like the horse, the donkey is usually " entire," and occasionally, regardless of his rider, takes to fighting his companions. He is likewise addicted to braying, which disconcerts the unwary, but on the whole he is agreeable enough, can go a good pace for a moderate distance, has great endurance, and is very surefooted, which is a great advantage in a country where roads are few, and one is 342 BIRD AND BEAST IN JERUSALEM constantly confronted with the perpendicular, slipping about on rocks, or seeking cautious foothold in the dry bed of a torrent, or on " paths " which suggest the casual spilling of a Yorkshire wall. The Oriental ass is, intellectually as well as physically, superior to his Western cousins. It is quaint to pass a long string of camels carrying enormous weights, looking the more immense for the narrow path along which, tied head to tail, they mechanically tread in each other's footsteps, with about as much individuality as the carriages of a railway train. The pioneer trotting along in front of the string of a dozen or fifteen of these huge beasts, who chooses the path, receives the master's orders, keeps the whole thing going, is a little donkey, who, alert and brisk, is responsible for the whole caravan. Equally preposterous is it to see an ass and a camel ploughing together, not tandem, which might have some advantages, but abreast, the strength of the one supplemented by the intelligence of the other. There is here no indignity in riding upon a donkey, and, indeed, under certain circumstances, there is no choice as to means of locomotion. The native women are hardly ever seen upon horses, though sometimes on camels, when they have quite a luxurious little platform, which probably accommodates luggage and a child or two into the bargain, and is sometimes protected by an awning. On a donkey they sit astride ; for the conventionality which requires that the face should be concealed, strikes the average by leaving entire liberty in the matter of legs, and several inches of the striped stockings popular in this country are commonly visible. Among the unrehearsed effects sometimes attendant upon such occasions, much mirth was recently evoked among the audience of a missionary lantern-lecture on the " Life of our Lord." " Fancy Sitte Miriam on a side- saddle ! " was the universal exclamation when a picture of the flight into Egypt was presented. The spectacle of a 343 INNER JERUSALEM bedstead in the picture of the Annunciation was considered equally ridiculous in a country where a mat, or, at the best, a mattress, is the usual sleeping accommodation. We have been in houses of persons really well to do in which a bedstead, with mosquito curtains and handsome silk coverlet, was part of the furniture of the reception-room, not intended for use, but, like the lustres, Bohemian glass vases and artificial flowers, a recognition of a stage of culture aesthetically, in truth, inferior to their own. Among the unfamiliar wild animals one is likely to see, even in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, are the gazelle, jerboa, hyena, jackal, and coney. Many others there are, for the fauna of Palestine is very varied, owing to the con- trast and variety of climate : indeed, it is said that over eighty mammals are to be found. The beauty and grace of the gazelle is proverbial ; it makes a delightful household pet, trotting up and down stairs after its friends like a dog. It requires the utmost care, however, as dogs are its natural enemies, and the domestic favourite often falls a victim to some strange visitant. The jerboa, too, is easily tamed. They are like miniature kangaroos, with fur like chinchilla, and legs of very disproportionate length ; the fore legs very short, the hind legs as long as the body, about five or six inches. The tail, by which they steer their leaps, is about eight inches long, and has a brush at the end. It is a gentle creature, and, though rat-like, has not the unpleasant smell of the pet rats of one's school-days. The hyena prowls within a short distance of the city, skulking among graveyards and in rock-cut tombs, and towards dusk is often seen, seeking for prey. The jackals, unlike the fox, are gregarious, and the unhappy beasts whom Samson sent into the cornfields of the Philistines were almost certainly jackals. To catch three hundred creatures so solitary as the fox would have been difficult. The jackals probably are also " the little foxes that spoil the vines," and the vine- yards are still carefully protected against them. They are 344 SALT Hn.i.s NEAR THE DEAD SEA. BIRD AND BEAST IN JERUSALEM very daring, and only the other day a favourite dog belong- ing to a lady in Jerusalem was killed by jackals in her own garden killed probably for food. Happily, they were disturbed, and the body recovered. The coney is not, as in England, a rabbit, but a species of the genus Hyrax, neither a rodent nor a ruminant ; and, though not so large as a hare, his only relatives are the hippopotamus and the rhinoceros. He is found in the direction of the Dead Sea, notably in the gorge of the Kedron, in the wild valley of Mar Saba, where the earth seems as if all turned to stone, and where the aggregation of hermitages which now compose the convent, a settlement of Greek monks, clings to scanty ledges on the face of the great stone precipice seven hundred feet high. Here man is so solitary, his relation to Nature so much more proportionate than elsewhere, that the very jackals come up for food, and the blackbirds are fed daily at stated hours. The European residents in Jerusalem seem to have no tendency in the direction of " sport " further than an occasional pot-shot in the valley of the Jordan. Perhaps they lack the impetus of close times, game laws, and gun- licences. When a fox gets on their land they shoot him, and as often as not they catch partridges in traps with decoys. Such ways seem to have always been the custom of the country, for your Jew will never make a sportsman. David's complaining that Saul's persecution of him " was as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains," refers to the custom, still extant, of hunting down partridges and killing them with throw-sticks, for the Greek partridge, the large and excellent variety most common in Syria, seldom takes to wing, but hides behind rocks, and so is chased from point to point. In Ecclesiasticus (xi. 30) we read, " Like as a partridge taken in a cage " (doubtless for decoy purposes), " so is the heart of the proud, and like as a spy watcheth he for thy fall." The hare is not very often in the market, and those which 345 INNER JERUSALEM one buys have usually been shot. The Beduin sheikhs, however, the only sportsmen of the Holy Land, pursue them both with hawk and hound, as also, one regrets to say, the gazelle. The Arabs eat hares' flesh, but it is dis- dained by the Turks and prohibited to the Armenians by religious scruple, as it was, according to Caesar, to the ancient Britons. According to authorities, the fox of Judea is the common fox of Europe. All I have chanced to see, however, and which were " put up " by the dogs when riding over waste land and among tombs, were larger and lighter in colour than any I have seen in Great Britain, and may have been of the kind described by Dr. Tristram as belonging to the wooded districts of Galilee, the Canis Syriacus of Colonel Hamilton Smith. The birds of Palestine were enumerated by Dr. Tristram as amounting to some 350 varieties, and the English visitor finds with pleasure that the catalogue includes about 172 species familiar in Great Britain ; and here, in the country of many tropical varieties and some of rare if not unique species, like the graakle and the sun-bird of the Dead Sea district, one may find the lark, the robin, the cuckoo, stone- chat, sandpiper, great-tit, and scores of other familiar friends. The crested lark is very common, and here, as in some other countries, he is a special favourite. In the Heb- rides he is called the lark of Mary. Here too he has his tradition. Solomon, as is well known, understood the language of the birds, but the feathered creation, never- theless, refused him allegiance, and all flew away except the lark, to whom he awarded a crest as a distinction. The raven was the ringleader, and was caught and imprisoned; and has been in chains ever since, as any one may see from his manner of walking. There is another raven, with lighter feathers on the neck, the marks of Noah's fingers, for he, and not corvus corax, was, according to Arab tradition, the messenger from the ark. The red dove, common in Pales- 346 THF. RIVER JORDAN. BIRD AND BEAST IN JERUSALEM tine, is associated by tradition with the blood of our Lord ; the owl, of which there are many species in Palestine, figures in stories of Lilith, the first wife of Adam, and the Arabs have a tradition of one species which they call bana, who is undoubtedly an incarnation of this childless and jealous wife, for she tears the flesh from the faces of sleeping children. It is a pleasant picture to see the Elijahs of to-day feeding the ravens of the Brook Cherith, where the ravens fed the Elijah of old. The northern end of the ravine is honey- combed with hermitages, still inhabited by brown-robed ascetics of the Greek confession, and in the monastery at the head of the glen, where for convenience of communica- tion with the world a few live in community, one may be privileged to see the aged Superior, who for a lifetime has loved and lived among them, sharing his meal of bread and fruit with the wild creatures of the glen. " I doo Sudar," " Come along, sir," he says in gentle tones, looking upward into the empty space of clear blue sky, and in a few moments there is a glint of gold, a shadow of deep purple, and the dainty blackbirds of the Jordan valley hover overhead and finally descend upon the out- stretched arm of the old man, upon his shoulders, his head, and the iron rail which protects the fragile platform overlook- ing the precipice, at the foot of which the brook can but trickle to-day in the March sunshine, but which in December was a raging torrent. These graceful creatures, with feathers iridescent against the sapphire sky, with orange-glancing wing feathers, are not indeed the ravens of our picture-books, but also they are not the prosaic " Arab " forced upon our unwilling school-days as a more correct translation, and here at least we may still for a moment cling to the loved story. -our meddling intellect Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things. We murder to dissect, f 347 INNER JERUSALEM The people of Jerusalem are very fond of singing birds, and cages constantly hang before the doors of house or shop. Birds of all kinds still abound in the precincts of the Temple, the " Happy birds that sing and fly, round Thy altars, Lord, most high." " The sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest ; " the raven, the jackdaw, the rook all find shelter around the House, which has been dedicated to God longer than any spot on earth ; and, says Dr. Tristram, " the Moslems cherish tenderly any birds which resort to the Mosques, and woe betide the reckless stranger who should meddle with them ! The storks seem perfectly aware of their immunity, as do the doves and other birds which rest in numbers in such situations " (Nat. Hist. Bib. p. 160). The storks indeed are everywhere welcome. They arrive in great flocks about the third week in March, and for about six weeks are to be seen in every cornfield. The Arabs call them " father of legs," and greatly value their presence, as they clear the land of snakes, lizards, frogs, and various pests of agriculture. A visit to the Holy Land goes far to clear away many so-called " difficulties " of Bible interpretation. Most of us who are familiar with the gay, chattering, gregarious little sparrow, have wondered why the Psalmist, sleepless from sorrow, should describe himself as a sparrow, " alone upon the housetop." Here we become accustomed to a sparrow which is non-gregarious (the petrocincla cyanea, sometimes called the " blue thrush "), uttering a plaintive, monotonous tone, and sitting sorrowfully alone upon the housetop. There are, however, in addition, here as else- where, countless flocks of the familiar passer domesticus, of the passer cisalpina, of the true sparrow, passer montanus, and, above all, of the so-called Spanish sparrow, passer silicariiis, said to be in Palestine the most numerous of all. The observant visitor soon discovers that the swallow of Jerusalem, present in the ehimney and gable end, summer 348 BIRD AND BEAST IN JERUSALEM and winter alike, differs somewhat from the house-martin, as well as, of course, from the swift and marsh-swallow, also common ; and one learns that they are of a special Oriental variety, the hirundo cahirica. Perhaps the most familiar remaining creatures are the various lizards, animals which seem to inspire in many persons the same sense of horror as the snake. Personally, I find them endlessly interesting. There is the chameleon, whose attributes are real and not a fairy tale. I have kept two, one of a species which basks on rocks, another of the variety which prefers a tree, especially, it is said, a fig-tree. Both turned red in an earthern flower-pot, brown in a cardboard box, and a dull grey when nursed upon the sleeve of a navy blue coat. They have hands which remind one of the filaments of ampelopsis veitchii, and enormous throats, which they inflate when excited, whether pleasurably by abundance of flies, or the reverse by too much handling. They have, moreover, tails which curl as neatly as a coil of rope. Surely no other animal in the world has eyes so extraordinary. They are placed well back in the head, and not only move on a pivot, like a nautical telescope, but the two pivots occasionally work in opposite directions, sug- gestive, not so much of a squint as of a brain of which the two lobes are independently and equally active. The true lizards are also endless in variety and interest, some said to be so venomous that the Arabs call them the " father of leprosy." Most seem to be entirely harmless. Many are about the size and colouring of sparrows, and, as they dart along the ground, are difficult to distinguish from birds. They have a trick, disconcerting enough, if you catch them by the tail, of leaving it in your hands. On the subject of these beasts, Mark Twain has one of those outbursts of real sentiment for which one thanks him cordially from time to time : " Grey lizards, those heirs of ruins, of sepulchres, and desolation, glided in and out among the rocks or lay still 349 INNER JERUSALEM and sunned themselves. Where prosperity has reigned and fallen ; where glory has flamed and gone out ; where beauty has dwelt and passed away ; where gladness was and sorrow is ; where the pomp of life has been and silence and death brood in its high places ; there this reptile makes his home and mocks at human vanity. His coat is the colour of ashes, and ashes are the symbol of hope that has perished ; of aspirations that come to naught ; of loves that are buried. If he could speak, he would say, Build temples, I will lord it in their rums ; build palaces, I will inhabit them ; erect empires, I will inherit them ; bury your beauti- ful, I will watch the worms at their work ; and you who stand here and moralize over me, I will crawl over your corpse at the last." After which cheerful reflections, it is but timely to change the subject. 350 CHAPTER XXIII THE HUMANITIES IN JERUSALEM CONVENTIONAL WRITING POETRY ART LITERATURE AND SCIENCE EDUCATION ROYAL VISITORS SIR MOSES MONTEFIORE CONSULAR FLAGS JEWISH INTERCESSION ENGLISH VISITORS THE P.E.F. GERMAN EXPLORATION HOLY PLACES MODERN BUILDINGS EDUCATIONAL ERRORS ARAB EXAMINA- TION PAPERS IT is natural enough that there should be an immense amount of conventional writing on the subject of the Holy City. There are certain phrases which have long been accepted with the same uninquiring acquiescence as the tonsure in pictures of the apostles, or the Dutch or Italian costumes in portraits of the Virgin. To quote examples would be as easy as it would be unprofitable. It is plea- santer and more edifying to remember how much we owe to the Western Church for the rhythm of S. Bernard ; to the Eastern for many hymns which have been made acces- sible to the English reader by Dr. Neale ; and to the Anglican for the poems of Keble, the local colour of which strikes the visitor to Jerusalem as the more interesting that the poet never visited the Holy Land. His accuracy was, like the historical fidelity of Sir Walter Scott, that generic accuracy which is a part of the intuition of genius; 1 something 1 I may add one little pebble to the great cairn of appreciation of the accuracy of the author of The Talisman, by observing, that in a recent reading of this story among the scenes described, I was 351 INNER JERUSALEM infinitely wider than the mere specific fidelity to detail which belongs to science rather than to art, to the encyclopaedist rather than to the poet. He wrote, for example, of the shores of Gennesareth All through the summer night Those blossoms red and bright Spread their soft breasts unheeding to the breeze, Like hermits watching still Around the sacred hill Where erst our Saviour watched upon His knees. Nothing could be more absolutely real than the generic truth of the impression which those lines leave upon the memory of the pilgrim, but the poet allowed seventy-one editions to be published before he materialized the specific fact that the blossoms were oleanders, and not rhododen- drons, as hitherto stated in his note, to the exasperation of the mere traveller. As one wanders down the Valley of the Kedron below Mount Sion, shaded with olive trees and honeycombed with tombs still often utilized as dwellings, and where, alone in all the Holy City one may find " fresh springs," with us an ever favourite moonlight stroll, it is impossible not to recall the lines Or choose thee out a cell In Kedron's storied dell, Beside the springs of Love that never die ; Among the olives kneel The chill night-blast to feel, And watch the moon that saw thy Master's agony. impressed by the extraordinary fidelity of its local colour and general atmosphere. The solitary exception is the presence of rose-buds in Engadi which may, however, have been brought from the Wadi Ward (Valley of Roses) ten hours north. The Saracen welcome (ch. xxvii.), by the discharge of blunt arrows, is the ancient equivalent of the " Gunpowder Play " (laab- el-bar ut) described by Burton (Arabia vol. ii., 86), and which we have our- selves witnessed. 352 THE HUMANITIES IN JERUSALEM The picture of the country, as the Israelites found it, is touchingly realistic here, where one is still living among the people whom they dispossessed. The orphaned realm threw wide her gates, and told Into freed Israel's lap her jewels and her gold. And when their wondrous march was o'er, And they had won their homes, Where Abraham fed his flock of yore Among their father's tombs ; A land that drinks the rain of Heaven at will, 1 Whose waters kiss the feet of many a vine-clad hill. Oft as they watched at thoughtful eve A gale from bowers of balm Sweep o'er the billowy corn, and heave The tresses of the palm Just as the lingering sun had touched with gold, Far o'er the cedar-shade, some tower of giants old. It was a fearful joy, I ween, To trace the heathen's toil, The limpid wells, the orchards green, Left ready for the spoil. . . . Here, where every day one meets with the foundations of " some tower of giants old," with the traces of the heathen's toil ; the cisterns which kept the orchards green, which made possible the billowy corn all evidences of days pre-Hebraic, days barely thinkable to us who look upon Crusading times as remote, and count it an honour to date from the Norman Conquest of our country here only can one really appreciate the poet's accuracy. Nor may our household vine or fig-tree hide The broken arches of old Canaan's pride. We are perpetually thanking Keble for some happy epithet. When we drive down to Jericho we think of 1 To appreciate the accuracy of this, one has to realize that, in a country without rain for more than half the year, without streams, almost without springs, the grain and fruit harvest are entirely dependent upon the dew. The dew clouds about sunset are often sucli as to suggest a rainy morrow to the occidental. 353 A A INNER JERUSALEM The rude sandy lea, Where stately Jordan flows by many a palm. After the early or the latter rain, we note Green lake, and cedar tuft, and spicy glade Shaking their dewy tresses, now the storm is laid. Here it is true that not, as at home, the grass, but The fresh green earth is strew' d With the first flowers that lead the vernal dance. Only those who know can fully realize the justness of the epithet applied to " Tabor's lonely peak," to the dreary plain beyond, " landscape of fear," to the lilies of the field spring- ing when all rain is over but " bath'd in soft airs and fed with dew," to loneliness accentuated, not by winds wailing amid forest trees, but " the fitful sweep Of winds across the steep, Through withered bents." Here, when in the early morning the sweet rich cry of the Muezzin and the bell of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre contend which shall first arouse us to our morning prayer, and one rises to open the window and look across the sleeping city to the Mount of Olives where in many a dewy dawn our Lord watched the mists ascending from the Jordan valley and floating, as now, over the mountains of Moab, one recalls The moist pearls now bestrewing Thymy slope and rushy vale ; * * * Not by manna showers at morning Shall our wants be then supplied. But a strange pale gold adorning Many a tufted mountain side. Perplexed and bewildered among the conflicting claims of exact spots within Gethsemane, the Grotto of the Agony, the grand old olive trees, the inner and outer garden, it is infinitely restful to recall the lines 354 THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE. THE HUMANITIES IN JERUSALEM There is a spot within this sacred dale That felt Thee kneeling touch'd Thy prostrate brow, One Angel knows it. Or again, at the Sacred Tomb, with all its adornments, crude or costly, reminders at once of the homogeneousness and of the unhappy divisions of Christendom, many may recall that here assuredly was The other holy garden Where the Lord was laid. The accretions of time, the accentuations of strife and opposition, disappear, and one remembers only that E'en the lifeless stone is dear For thought of Him who late lay here, And the base world, now Christ hath died, Ennobled is and glorified. The exultations of the devout S. Bernard belong to another mood than that in which we respond to the tender local colour of him of whom Stanley has so well said, " It is not David only, but the Sibyl, whose accents we catch in his inspirations." There is a musical old Elizabethan poem of which some few verses, beginning " Jerusalem, my happy home," are popularly known, which arises spontaneously into one's mind, not in Jerusalem, but along the road leading down to S. John's (Ain Karim), the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth in the sweet hill country, an hour's ride from the Holy City. The little glen rejoices in one of the few springs to be found in the district, and the hillsides are clothed with trees and waving with gardens and cornfields. Here the women still cluster about a well where the Virgin must often have filled her water- jar ; and as one turns back eastward, perhaps in the golden evening light, the memory of the Jerusalem of to-day is glorified by thoughts of the past, and of the future ; and borrowing from the scene around, the quaint old song takes on a vivid reality 355 INNER JERUSALEM Ala, my sweet home, Hierusalem, Would God I were in thee ; Would God my woes were at an end Thy Jy s that I might see ! . . . For there they live in such delights, Such pleasure and such play, As that to them a thousand years Doth seem as yesterday. . . . Quite through the streets with silver sound The flood of Life doth flow, Upon whose banks on every side The wood of Life doth grow. Our Lady sings Magnificat With tones surpassing sweet, And all the virgins bear their part, Sitting about her feet. There is nothing that I know of in English verse that one can set beside these gentle cadences, unless it be some of the lines of Christina Rossetti, which have something of the same effect of passionless desire, as of angels with folded wings Jerusalem of fire And gold and pearl and gem, Saints flock to fill thy choir, Jerusalem. Lo, thrones thou hast for them, Desirous they desire Thy harp, thy diadem, Thy bridal white attire, Palm -branches from thy stem ; Thy holiness their hire, Jerusalem. She is nearer to the blithe utterances of the ecclesiastical Latin versifiers in other lines, such as Jerusalem makes melody For simple joy of heart, An organ of full compass she One-tuned through every part. While not to day or night belong Her matins and her evensong, The one thanksgiving of her tlirong. 356 THE HUMANITIES IN JERUSALEM Drummond of Hawthornden, in the lines Urbs Coelestis, Jerusalem, written for a translation of the Primer or Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, sings in somewhat the same key, and Richard Crashaw's verses, At Bethlehem, are the inevitable lilt with which one descends the hill, leaving behind the breezy tableland of Rephaim at the point where the bright little town, with its Church of the Nativity and to the east the Shepherd's Field, just come into view. The Babe looked up and showed his face, In spite of darkness it was day : It was thy day, Sweet ! and did rise, Not from the East, but from thine eyes. Welcome all wonders in one sight, Eternity shut in a span ! Summer in Winter ! Day in Night ! Heaven in earth ! and God in man ! Great Little One, Whose all-embracing birth Lifts Earth to Heaven, stoops Heaven to earth.1 Some of the most familiar of our hymns * were composed in the gloomy Convent of Mar Saba, a spot inconceivably desert, where all but the sky seems to be composed of solid rock. No one who has ever taken that wild mountain ride along the Valley of the Kedron, getting deeper at each step into the heart of the lonely hills, where only the faint ghost of human life glances out of that aggregation of solitary cells, can ever fail to marvel at the vitality of the inner vision which, amid such surroundings, could picture Those eternal bowers Man has never trod ; Those unfading flowers Round the throne of God. 1 Among others those of S. John Damascene (A.D. c. 780), " Tho Day of Resurrection," " Those eternal bowers," " Come ye faithful, raise the strain," ; of S. Stephen the Sabbaite, " Art thou weary ? Art thou languid ? " To S. Andrew of Crete (and of Jerusalem, 660-732) we owe " Christian, dost thou see them ? " 357 INNER JERUSALEM or could greet the Easter sunrise with words so joyous as in the song 'Tis the spring of souls to-day : Christ hath burst His prison, And from three days' sleep in death As the sun hath risen. All the winter of our sins, Long and dark, is flying From His light, to Whom we give Laud and praise undying. The whole world of Art owes a debt of gratitude to Holman Hunt as a pioneer in the direction, afterwards pursued by certain others, notably Tissot, whose artistic atmosphere is so extraordinarily true that on several occasions I have found an explanation of a certain sense of familiarity with Jerusalem scenes and scenery, in the fact that I was already acquainted with them in his pictures. When I had the privilege of watching him in his studio in Paris at work upon an immense canvass, representing the entry of the Patriarch into Bethlehem, I little thought how soon I should witness the very same in all its added bravery of movement. Mr. Hunt's pictures, equally true, and with the distinction of greater selection, make special appeal to those who have entered into the spirit of the Holy Land. He arrived in Jerusalem in 1854, at a period when, perhaps, England was at her best, from the intellectual point of view in her relation with the Holy City. Dr. Robinson of the United States, the pioneer of all Palestine exploration, was there, as well as some distinguished foreigners, Roth, Petermann, and others. While Mr. Hunt was painting from living models his " Finding of Christ in the Temple," Mr. Seddon, in a tent pitched above Aceldama, was at work upon his " Olivet and Siloam." The English, under Consul Finn, had established an active literary society (of which one member was a missionary) for the " investigation and elucidation of any subject of interest, literary or scientific, of any period whatever within the Holy Land." They often 358 had valuable lectures from passing visitors of various creeds and nationalities ; the Prince Consort, the King of Prussia, the Earl of Aberdeen and others gave large contributions ; the missionary bishop became a patron, the University of Cambridge contributed 40 a year for the establishment, by the English doctor, of a botanical garden ; various learned bodies sent donations of scientific instruments ; weekly meetings were held for the discussion of discoveries and of gifts and loans ; learned foreigners became corresponding members ; travellers, such as Layard, Burder and others sent objects of interest ; manuscripts collected were, after due study and discussion, handed over to the British Museum, and the Rev. H. C. Reinhardt, a member, gathered and exhibited one of the finest collections of Palestine coins then in existence. The excellent climatic conditions of Jersualem, with its mean average temperature 62J, and the very unusual opportunity for the study of European and Oriental lan- guages, 1 suggested the foundation of a school of such a class that it might not merely serve for the children of resident Europeans, but be of value to families residing hi the Levant, Egypt, and even India. Elder students would have a rare chance for the study of history in a land in which the pro- gress of nations had left so many traces, and many branches of science could be pursued under considerable advantages. The college was opened and a Head-master selected the Rev.W. J. Beaumont, a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, holding high University honours the Chancellor's gold 1 It is interesting to note that even Hindustani is included among the babel of tongues to be heard in Jerusalem, not only among the Moslem pilgrims to the Haram, who are to be found in large numbers in the hospices close to the Holy Place, but also among Jacobite pilgrimages of S. Thomas Christians from the Malabar coast. The Jews, too, and Armenians are in constant relation with India and receive large numbers of pilgrims and merchants, so that one often hears various languages of India in walking through the streets of Jerusalem. 359 INNER JERUSALEM medal and Senior optime degree. The students, besides resident Europeans, included Maronites from the Lebanon, Oriental Jews, a Greek monk from Thessaly, and Germans preparing for work in Abyssinia. All that now remains of the hopes and achievements of these good old days is the Literary and Scientific Society so-called, of which the sole remaining object is to join in subscription for certain periodicals. A few books remain in an obscure room of the L. J. S. and the Botanical Garden has ceased to exist. Jerusalem has benefited, from time to time, by the pre- sence of distinguished visitors, the earliest since the Crusades being the unhappy Princess of Wales in 1816. Prince Albert of Prussia followed next in 1843, and his former consort, Princess Marianne of the Netherlands, in 1850. These came and left no trace, but in 1855 the Consuls had become suf- ficiently numerous to begin the quarrel for precedence which the curious may still continue to observe on the occasion of any arrival of interest. The ostensible object of this com- petition was to honour the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Brabant. Belgium then, as now, had no Consul, 1 and the guests were personally under the conduct of Austria. The Spanish Consul prepared to receive them in two Spanish convents (at Ramleh and Ain Karim), 2 which they were to visit on 1 One may venture to conjecture that now that so many members of religious Orders having houses in Jerusalem are taking refuge in Belgium the pious and hospitable little monarchy will not remain long unrepresented. 2 The contention between the general claims of France and the special claims of Spain in relation to the Spanish Convent at Ain Karim broke out again in September, 1855. Apropos, perhaps, of the general hoisting of consular flags which followed the fall of Sebastopol, the friars, aided by the Spanish Consul, not only put up the Spanish flag, but proceeded to erect a permanent iron cross, However, a French Commissioner happened to be in Jerusalem at the time. The French Consul, it seems, being absent, reinforced by a crowd of peasantry from Bethlehem, and the Secretary of the 360 THE HUMANITIES IN JERUSALEM the way, claiming as well right of precedence in the Holy Sepulchre ; claims which France, as the Protector of Christi- anity in the East, successfully resisted. The Latin Patriarch, equal to the occasion, addressed the royal visitors in French, although himself a Sardinian, and although the King of Sar- dinia, it should be remembered, had always claimed to be King of Jersualem, a title, however, assumed by the Emperor of Austria. All passed off, not only with perfect order, but with all the parade and distinction important on an occa- sion when precedents were undoubtedly established. Much credit was due to the courtesy, tact and intelligence of the Turkish Government at a time when the mutual relations of various European countries with each other and with Turkey were approaching a crisis not two years before the Crimean war. It is interesting to remember that these same royal personages were the first Europeans permitted publicly to visit the Temple area. The same year brought a visitor whose personality, liberality and subsequent tragic fate have perpetuated his memory in Jerusalem the Archduke Maximilian, after- wards Emperor of Mexico. He and his companion, a royal Duke of Wurtemburg, arriving merely as naval officers, having left their ship at Jaffa, were met by the Pasha and afterwards by the Roman Catholic ecclesiastics and Consuls with all due ceremony. The Austrian Jews, moreover, afforded them a joyous welcome ; but one unfortunate incident occurred, which is worth remembering here, where many delicate questions of precedence are of daily occurrence. They visited the sacred places of Jerusalem and Bethlehem as well as the Temple area, and then pro- ceeded northwards. In sight of the Convent of Mount Carmel the Archduke objected to place himself under the hospitality of the French flag, and desired that during his stay it might be replaced by that of his own country, a re- Pasha (a Frenchman), achieved the removal of the Spanish Cross and substituted a gilt one provided by the French authorities. 361 INNER JERUSALEM quest which, as Carmel is one of the Holy Places technically acknowledged in the Sultan's dominions as under the pro- tection of France, the good monks were unable to grant, al- though it so happened that at the moment not one of their number was a Frenchman ; and the royal visitors turned away. A permanent memorial of their visit to Jerusalem is the very fine bronze statue of S. Helena which beautifies the Chapel of the Invention of the Cross, as well as some costly lamps also presented by the archduke to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. He also restored the very ancient chapel known as that of " The Flagellation." It had been desecrated in 1618, but was restored to the Guardians of the Holy Place in 1838 by the liberality of Ibrahim Pasha. This same eventful year of 1855 is memorable in Jerusalem for the introduction of fireworks. The occasion was that of the Papal Bull of the Immaculate Conception, and the buildings of the Franciscans were brilliantly illuminated with lamps and transparencies ; many private houses followed suit, and even the military Pasha contributed squibs and rockets. The gay scene was repeated on March 3, 1902, on the occasion of the jubilee of His Holiness, the addition of at least a score of immense Latin institu- tions serving to multiply the sphere of festivity ; one sugges- tive feature being the enormous cross of electric lights standing out triumphantly against the dark blue heavens crowning the Convent of Notre Dame de France and shedding its pure radiance around. Another important event of this year, 1855, was the arrival the second, I believe, of his seven visits of Sir Moses Montefiore, in charge of a large sum of money pre- sented mainly by an American benefactor named Touro for the use of the poor Jews of the Holy Land. At an earlier visit, in 1849, he had inaugurated certain charities, and in 1854 M. Albert Cohn had founded the Rothschild Hospital, the lying-in charity and the schools for girls, which are an increasingly important feature of Jerusalem benevolence. 362 AN ASHKENAZIM JEW. THE HUMANITIES IN JERUSALEM The almshouses, dwelling-houses, dispensary, synagogue and mill, which stand so conspicuously above the road to Bethlehem, facing Mount Sion, were the practical outcome of this visit, and this sale of land to a foreigner and a non- Moslem was another important precedent in the history of the relations of Jerusalem with the Turkish Government. Sir Moses Montefiore being a British subject, 1 the deed was witnessed in the British Consulate. It may be interesting to remark in passing that some technical difficulty having arisen some four or five years ago in the acquisition by the Jews of the present buildings of the Evelina de Rothschild schools, where 600 girls are taught in the English language, the lease was made out on behalf of the Latin Patriarch, a tribute to liberality of feeling on both sides, which in Jerusalem is of especial value. Sir Moses, on the occasion of his visit, showed equal liberality in another direction, in presenting the neces- sary provision for the celebration, by two thousand people, of the Moslem festival of the Corban Bairam. Music and bonfires were kept up all night, and a large number of sheep consumed in honour of the sacrifice by Abraham. On the other hand, certain Askkenazim Jews of very strict orthodoxy exhibited a contrary spirit of bigotry and prejudice, which was at least self-sacrificing and consistent where their nation had so much to gain or to lose ; for they excommunicated the generous philanthropist in, it is said, three synagogues. His additional offences against their narrower views were two. In the first place, the purchase of land in the Holy City is contrary to their principles. They believe literally in the promise, " The land shall not be sold for ever ; the land is Mine," (Lev. xxv. 23). Further, he had visited the sacred enclosure of the Temple, a place for- bidden to Jewish orthodoxy on account of the danger of treading unconsciously on the spot where the sacred vessels 1 The deed of sale describes him as " The honourable person of the Mosaic sect and ornament of the tribe ef Israel, who is a nobleman of the Government of England." 363 INNER JERUSALEM of the law are buried, 1 or upon that of the Holy of Holies. The less fanatical contend, on the other hand, that the Talmud dispenses from the crime of sacrilege him who walks over even what is sacred, if beyond a certain number of cubits underground ; and the author of that very interesting work Jewish Life in the East, himself a Jew, observes that without the presence of the Deity the Holy of Holies no longer exists. Moreover, he suggests that as, according to other tradition, the Tables of the Law were removed by the Prophet Jeremiah or stolen by the Assyrians, the danger is minimised of trampling the Law underfoot. In the autumn of 1855, after the fall of Sebastopol, the Consulates established the custom of hoisting their national flags on festival occasions, the Protestants on Sundays and royal birthdays, others on all festivals of their respective Churches also. Those of France, Austria, Spain and Prussia, on their first appearance, were respectfully saluted by the Turkish cannon, twenty-one guns being fired, as at a Moslem festival. Another event of this year important from several points of view, religious and political, was the commencement of the plan for the building of the Austrian Hospice. Hitherto the hospitalities of Jerusalem towards the Western world had been in the hands of the Franciscans only, and the royal visits, Belgian and Austrian, may have suggested the policy of reminding the Turkish authorities of the existence of other Catholic powers beside the French. Another violation 1 The story is current in Jerusalem that only a year or two ago some Moslem children, playing in the Temple courts, fell into one of the immense reservoirs which underlie a large portion of the Haram area, the storage of millions of gallons of water. The last time one of these storehouses for the water supply had been cleaned out, human remains had been discovered, and this recent event had made the Moslems sensitive on the score of pollution. A Jew in the neighbourhood volunteered to search for the bodies on condition that he was carried to and from the cistern on another man's back, so as not to set foot on the sacred soil. 364 THE HUMANITIES IN JERUSALEM of precedent was the employment, in the process of construc- tion, of carts, a means of transportation not seen in Jeru- salem since the Crusades, and which were the remains of material provided for our troops for the construction of the Balaclava railroad. According to Macgregor (" Rob Roy ") the first carriage seen in Palestine for many centuries belonged to an American named Floyd. The first road of modern times was that made in 1869, before the visit of the Austrian Emperor ; later came that between Jerusalem and Hebron, with a branch road to Bethlehem, those between Jerusalem and Jericho, and between Jerusalem and Ain Karim, all com- pleted about 1889. The carriage road up the Mount of Olives was made in 1898, and the existing roads were further improved in preparation for the visit of the Emperor of Germany. The railway between Jerusalem and Jaffa was opened in 1 892. The first bicycle seen in Jerusalem appeared on the Jaffa road in 1898. Motor cars have been seen in Beirut, but have not yet reached the Holy City. This important year threatened to end disastrously with a drought, and the anxiety felt upon the subject of rain can scarcely be comprehended except by those who have lived where there are no rivers, lakes, nor even springs, and where the water supply is almost dependent upon the rain caught in the domestic cistern. The Moslems inaugurated a pro- cession of penitence : the chief men of the city, with the Pasha, walking barefoot around the sacred Haram enclosure, which occupies one-sixth of the entire city. The Jews, too, fasted and prayed let us hope the Christians followed suit. Finally, in despair, the Moslem authorities, who seem to preserve a certain intermittent regard for the Hebrew faith, appealed to their fellow-sufferers and offered to the Jews free entrance into the Sacred Courts if they would assemble there and beseech the mercy of Heaven. This they declined, but asked permission to pray at the Tomb of David, a jealously guarded sanctuary of Moslem 365 INNER JERUSALEM fanaticism, and receiving permission, assembled there on December 17. Before evening the rain fell in torrents, and a glorious rainbow spanned the Holy City. England also has sent royal guests to Jerusalem ; our present King accompanied by Dean Stanley in 1862; his brother, Prince Arthur, in 1865, and his two sons, in 1882 : visits which resulted in useful books by Dean Stanley and Canon Dalton. There have been other royal European visitors, the German Emperor in 1898, and his third son, Prince Adalbert of Prussia, in 1901. The year 1902 has also seen some distinguished guests : Prince Windisch Gratz on his marriage tour with the Princess Elizabeth Maria, daughter of the unfortunate Prince Rudolph ; and also the Prince Likomako-as, the Nado of Abyssinia, whose visit is said to have reference to the present erection, in the neighbourhood of the new Abyssinian church and convent, of a house of residence for some mem- ber of the royal family. It is hoped that their permanent presence here may be of much benefit to their fellow- countrymen. Visits from the late Marquess of Bute in 1880 and the Duke of Norfolk in 1900 will be long remembered by the poor and by certain religious institutions. Among the few other Englishmen of note who have been attracted as students or pilgrims to the Holy City we may recall the names of General Gordon, Lord Kitchener and Sir Charles Warren ; among ecclesiastics, the Bishop of Salisbury, a staunch friend to the work of the revived Jerusalem bishopric ; the Bishop of Argyle and the Isles, Canon Tristram, Dean Stanley and Professor Sanday. Among recent visits of well-known men of letters it seems unaccountable that one should be able to name only George Adam Smith, to whom students of Palestine owe an immense debt of gratitude for his Historical Geography ; and Zangwill, who has given us only too few sketches of the city in which his father is a permanent resident. The visits of Mrs. Oliphant and Dean Farrar should also be mentioned. 366 THE HUMANITIES IN JERUSALEM The first impulse towards scientific exploration in Palestine was given by Dr. Robinson in 1838, and other Americans soon followed in his footsteps. In suggestive contrast with the more rapid methods and the greater self-confidence of modern times, it is interesting to note that he had prepared himself for his task by fifteen years of special study. Among the more important of his successors were Lieutenant Lynch in 1848, Dr. Barclay in 1858, Dr. W. M. Thompson, author of the ever-popular work The Land and the Book, in 1859. Professor Hackett in 1860 all Americans. One valuable English work, The Holy City, written by Williams, chaplain to Bishop Alexander, had appeared in 1845, and Porter had published interesting descriptions (mainly of the north of Palestine) in 1855 ; the Germans were characteristically busy with details the Herodian architecture, the Valley of Jehoshaphat ; Wiinsch was excavating in Jericho and Capernaum, the French were archaeologizing in Gyrene when, in some degree the result of the visit of the Prince of Wales in 1862, the Palestine Explo- ration Fund was founded, in 1865. Their first report was issued in 1869, so that the Quarterly Statement numbers over thirty volumes. Although doubtless of value for the specialist, a large amount of their contents have for the general reader only the historic and incomplete interest of last year's almanac ; there are, however, even for the amateur, many chapters of permanent some of even literary interest, notably those of Dr. Post and Dr. Bliss, both of the American College of Beirut ; of M. Clermont- Ganneau, Chancellor of the French Consulate in 1868, and of Philip Baldensberger, whose personal knowledge of the country has enabled him to collect information of unique interest on the language and manners of the people. He is one of an interesting family of Swiss extraction, other mem- bers of which have done valuable work -of various kinds, notably as apiculturists, on very original lines. They move their hives about the country on camels, following up the 367 INNER JERUSALEM flowers in different districts, and thus securing four and even five harvests of honey in the year. It is difficult for the merely general reader, however seriously interested, to distinguish between achievements personally attractive and those of scientific value. Con- scious of all that has been done by French and German explorers, by the earlier American pioneers, and by certain Jerusalem residents, notably Dr. Schick and the Rev. E. Hanauer, the mere outside observer would be inclined to point out as the results of widest general consequence the survey l which has provided us with practicable maps, and the publication of the thirteen volumes of The Pilgrims' Texts, which have brought a considerable share of the literature of the Holy Land within the reach of all ; which have made it possible to every amateur of the subject to know its history at first hand during the thousand years which include the period of Constantine and Helena and which end with Felix Fabri ; before the Reformation had split Westepn faith into sects, and when men were able to write simple narratives of what they had seen and heard, with no arriere pensee and no parti pris ; when no dogma was involved in the identification of sites, and the stones " which remain unto this day " were not to be dismissed as deliberate frauds, or explained away as monuments of party politics and religious superstition. By the kindness of Mr. Macalistcr, the present repre- sentative of the Fund in Palestine, I am able to give a sum- mary of what has been accomplished in the matter of prac- tical archaeology. 1 It is interesting to remember that the first traveller to make a map of the country was the pilgrim John Poloner (1421). The first Palestine Survey was made by the Franciscan Bernardino in 1516. It is said to be singularly accurate as to measurements. The latest, with every advantage of modern methods and scientific precision, is now in course of publication by the Germans. It will, it is hoped, supplement and correct the many omissions and inaccuracies of that of the P.E.F., inevitable in an earliest attempt. 368 THE HUMANITIES IN JERUSALEM I. Excavations at Tell el-Hesy [Lachish] by Professor Flinders Petrie and (afterwards) by Dr. Bliss of the American College in Beirut. Chief Results. The determination of the history of pottery in the country, affording a chronological scale by which to> date all subsequent discoveries. II. Excavations in and about Jerusalem by Dr. Bliss and Mr. A. C. Dickie. Chief Results. Determination of ancient southern limit of the city at various periods, discovery of church at so-called Pool of Siloam and of other important buildings. III. Excavation by Dr. Bliss, assisted by Mr. Macalister, of Tells (i.e. mounds of accumulated debris). (a) Tell Zakariya (Azekah ?). (6) Tell es Safi (Gath). (c) Tell Judeideh (unidentified). (d) Tell Sandahannah (Merash). IV. Excavations at Tell ej-Jezari (Gezer) by Mr. Mac- alister. Chief Results so far. The determination of the period of Egyptian influence in Palestine and of pre-Israelite methods- of disposal of the dead. Discovery of Canaanite temple. This site, originally identified by Clermont Ganneau in 1868, has proved to be of extreme interest, though not per- haps as contributing to the " Biblical illustration " which is- the avowed object of the Palestine Exploration Fund, which may account for the fact that the published accounts of Mr. Macalister's valuable discoveries have not the detail and fulness of illustration which the archaeologist, as distinguished from the religious teacher, might desire. The discovery of a temple of Astarte, with all its properties and historical suggestions, seems indeed a little incongruous with the pre- vious work of the Fund, and has already been criticized as affording " a surprising lack of antiquities of the Jewish or later periods." The antiquarian and historian will be not the less grateful for contributions to the knowledge of 369 BB INNER JERUSALEM manners and customs, of faith and morals of the inhabitant of Syria before the first Hebrew invasion ; how women looked before Helen of Troy, how priests worshipped before Aaron, how cities were built before Thebes, how sanitation was practised before Leviticus, how the world lived when the Sphinx and the pyramids were young. It would seem, however, as if the future of Palestine archaeology were in the hands of the Germans. Their rela- tion to the country, to its agriculture, its commerce, its postal service and its architecture, its education, their foundation of the only European archaeological institution in Palestine, with specialist professors of distinction sent out from Germany, and, perhaps, above all, the work they have already accomplished, enable them to secure firmans of permission to excavate such as seem impossible to other European powers. They have even secured protection for their completed work a priceless boon in a country where excavation is regarded by the natives mainly as affording them a convenient quarry of stones already prepared for use. At Baalbek, where within the last three or four years they have uncovered and restored to a condition of security one of the most perfect and extensive ruins in existence of the Graeco-Semitic type, there is provision for its permanent preservation, not only in the existence of an enclosure, but of a marble slab which places the spot under the aegis of two Powers ; declaring in Arabic and German that the memorial is placed by the Sultan Abd-el-Hamid II, hi tes- timony of his immutable friendship with his illustrious friend the Emperor Wilhelm II and (notable words from a Moslem) with the Empress Augusta Victoria, and in memory of their visit to Baalbek in November, 1898. The immense work is still in progress, under the auspices of four university men, each a specialist in his own line, headed by an architect of high distinction. They employ some two hundred work- men, and have every mechanical convenience, including tramways for the complete removal of debris a pleasing 370 contrast to the usual method of carrying a few pounds at a time to the very short distance possible on the heads of women and girls, in baskets and kerosene tins. At Tell el-mutesellim, the ancient Megiddo, the excavations are now hi the hands of the German Society for the Explor- ation of Palestine. The spot is of unique importance as the junction of the highways of the nations of antiquity. An ancient walled city has been found at the hitherto unpre- cedented depth of forty feet. Two painted vases, still entire, have been unearthed among the debris of 5,000 years, and among minor objects a seal, which, if it be, as is probable, that of Jeroboam II, is the oldest Hebrew inscription extant. Other important work under the personal protection of the Emperor of Germany is in progress near Zahleh in the Lebanon, at Palmyra, and Amman the ancient capital of the Ammonites. The most ancient specimen of Christian archi- tecture known to exist is the ancient Mshetta, south-east of Madeba, east of Jordan, which has been presented by the Sultan to the Emperor. The fa9ade, a unique specimen of early art, has been cut away entire from the crumbling wall of stone and removed for safe keeping to Berlin, instead of, as would otherwise happen, if preserved at all, to Constantinople. The Russians have been working at Palmyra, and have been permitted to remove a customs tariff of the time of Hadrian. The Austrians have been excavating at Taanak, and have made discoveries of supreme interest, including the very rare find of an altar of incense. Now that both Germany and America have permanent archaeological schools in Jerusalem for the training of future archaeologists, who will begin their work with a knowledge of the country and of its language, we may hope for a more systematic investigation of the treasures of Syria treasures of so many races, so many cycles and so many creeds than has hitherto been in any degree possible. 371 INNER JERUSALEM In Jerusalem, as may have been gathered, the main interest of educated society centres round the past, a subject upon which I might indefinitely enlarge if my initial under- taking had not been that I would not worry my reader with discussion on points such as where Absalom's tomb isn't, a type of discussion which, even here, is in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred absolutely unprofitable, because it is, except among a few of the small number who possess any archaeological knowledge, entirely unconnected with any genuine antiquarian, historical, or even religious interest. The dispassionate reader can have no conception of the extent to which, in this connexion, a sane adult can utterly refuse all inquiry into history, archaeology, proba- bility, testimony, to what degree he can abandon himself to his f eelings, lest he should be accused of being emotional ; to hearsay evidence, lest he should be suspected of lending an ear to tradition ; to the testimony of his senses, lest he should have to reproach himself with being too readily convinced. To such a one the holy places of Jerusalem, which are indeed of very various degrees of merit so far as the evidence for their authenticity is concerned, 1 make no appeal. They 1 The only sites which have never been seriously questioned are those of the Temple and of the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem. Most of the stations of the Via Dolorosa have many times changed their whereabouts. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built by Helena and Constantino on the site preserved by the desecration of Hadrian (who placed an image of Venus on the traditional Calvary, of Jupiter on the traditional Holy Sepulchre) was first questioned by a German named Jonas Korten, who visited Jerusalem in 1738, and afterwards by a certain Dr. Clarke, who spent seventeen days in Palestine in 1801, and wrote a book a year later. Between 1840 and 1876 sixteen theories were advanced; twelve critics argued from their various points of view in favour of the original site ; four against, one of whom, the learned Dr. Schick, the only one resident in Jerusalem and really familiar with its topography, subsequently changed his opinion and advanced a seventeenth theory, in favour of the original tradition. The Rev. E. Hanauer, upon whom Schick's mantle has undoubtedly fallen, is Iso in favour of the tradition of sixteen hundred years. The alleged sites of Bethesda, 372 THE HUMANITIES IN JERUSALEM are mere rags of popery, their traditions, though they may date back to times when there was not a Latin priest in Palestine, even before the separation of the Church into eastern and western branches, are nevertheless mere inven- tions on behalf of " the scarlet woman." To such Gordon's tomb is a god-send, and the Green Hill the apology for his presence in Jerusalem. One may explain that the one is a crusading stable, and that the other owes its alleged likeness to a skull to the fact of a modern stone quarry, and the presence of a couple of cisterns ; but to him it is the flag of Protestantism, a corollary of his possession of the English tongue. Beyond the colouring of the mosque and the faade of the Holy Sepulchre, there is nothing of artistic beauty in Jeru- salem. The charm is in colour, not in form, in association, in the persistence of historic custom, in the psychology of the Oriental. The large new suburbs of the Jews are ugly and purely utilitarian, those of the Germans have the irrele- vant prettiness of a model village. The English have spent incredible sums upon a hospital for the bodies and a church for the souls of the Jews, with results which are gratifying neither to the artist nor to the utilitarian. The Collegiate Church of S. George, a fraction of a building intended to be of the proportions of Oxford Cathedral, goes far to atone for failure elsewhere. The modern French buildings of the Dominicans (S. Etienne), in spite of French taste in stained glass, are pleasing of their kind ; the restored Church of Siloam, the site of the Ascension, the spot where " Jesus wept," Bethphage, the scene of the Flagellation, the House of John Mark, have all been preserved, with many others, by Crusading Churches, on spots venerated by pilgrims of the fourth century. The church, of which some remains still exist, built on the alleged site of the ";large upper room," is probably the oldest sanctuary in Jerusalem. Except for perhaps a year or two, when the Christians withdrew to Pel la, there must always have been Christians in Jerusalem, and the Oriental has the material kind of mind which clings to ocular demonstration and is as well aware, as in Bible times, when the stones remain there to his own day. 873 INNER JERUSALEM S. Anne follows early Crusading lines, and has considerable archaeological interest ; the tiled chapel of Notre Dame de France is effective hi colouring ; the large church built for the accommodation of the Reparatrices is coldly handsome. The decorations of the Greek churches are beneath criticism crotchet, patchwork, Christmas-tree balls and artificial flowers ; in the Russian alone one finds art, sometimes of really high quality. There are beautiful and costly objects, amid much that is crude, in the Armenian Church of S. James ; and the new Lutheran Church of the Redeemer has much purity and dignity of outline. The new Moslem suburb is pleasing so far, though getting perilously near to the type mysteriously called " Queen Anne," from which, however, it may be ultimately preserved by Oriental love of space and sense of dignity. It is difficult to the mere onlooker to conjecture why, unless from some inherent idleness or local superstition, certain Europeans who have been for some fifty years educators in Jerusalem (although, happily, the Moslems have more than overtaken them), should cling to the idea that to occident- alize is a part of the process of instructing the Oriental. The Franciscans, however, have for centuries taught Arabic to Arabs, combined with technical instruction and the acquisi- tion of modern languages in cases where such were likely to be of use. The White Fathers not only seek to elevate the Oriental in his own surroundings, but they share his life, even to the extent of themselves wearing the Bedouin bour- nous and the Turkish tarbush. In the American schools the study of three languages is compulsory ; one of which must be Arabic with its literature and philosophy ; a second the native language of the student, if he be other than Syrian, such as Armenian, Greek, Hebrew, etc.; while the third may be European or classical. In the Jewish schools of the higher class, the Rothschild, Cohen or Alliance Israelite, Hebrew is compulsory, combined with English, German, or French respectively. In the great German orphanages the 374 BEDAWI MAN AND WOMAN. THE HUMANITIES IN JERUSALEM children are instructed in Arabic, which is also the language they use among themselves. The English schools, however, for some inscrutable reason, are conducted on the theory that the Arabs or Jews, as the case may be, although their ultimate destiny will almost inevitably be to marry Arabs or Jews, to live among them, and to lead the lives of the native population, will be the better for being temporarily Anglicized, for speaking English with the mincing Levantine accent, which is what most of them acquire, and for learning English Church history ! English trades, laundry-work, washing, mending, cooking, scrubbing, sanitation enter but scantily, if at all, into the bill of fare, though possibly of a nature more easily digested, as well as more nourishing, than the diet supplied. The Arab is extraordinarily receptive and observant, and utterly destitute of the mauvaise honte which so often hinders the utilization of such acquirements ; his very faults and failures are of special interest to the student of human nature. It has been our privilege to read the papers produced at the examination of a certain school of the better type, and we have found them so suggestive, so instructive in the workings of the Arab mind, that I venture to reproduce a few notes illustrating the effect of (more or less) useful knowledge upon the Oriental understanding. To what end are they instructed in Greek mythology, in the use of special- ist or archaic English words, in the morals of the English monarchy, the physiology of the rabbit, a beast unknown in Palestine, in the relations of Antony and Cleopatra ? is the kind of question one would put in an examination paper for teachers. A compulsory examination for teachers, in religion and arts, would work some very astounding revolu- tions in Jerusalem. Certain surprising statements as to New Testament history may possibly have been due to the authorship of Jews or Mohammedans. "St. Mark appears first time to the disciples at Antioch. His parents were Zecharias and 375 INNER JERUSALEM Sapphira or Mary. He wrote also the Gospel of Revelation.'* Another boy writes : " St. Mark made a school, put boys to learn fighting as brave as ever can be." " St. John was put in prison in the island of Cyprus, and there he wrote the whole history of Jerusalem." " When Saul's asses fled away he was told that the asses were upon the hills, so he went, and on the way the Lord appeared, and said, ' Saul, Saul, percutest thou me ? so he fell upon his face, and began to prophesy with the prophets that were upon the hill." "St. John was the youngest of the Lord's disciples. He was all the time with Him and he wrote more than the others because he used to see everything in his eye, but the others did not see but heard." Among the plagues of Egypt are men- tioned " Turning the water into wine, ashes in the air, tor- toises, and lies." The last no one will dispute. Sometimes one finds curious uses of language. The following are mistakes arising out of such confusion of sound or of memory as might occur in the case of any student of a foreign tongue. Milliner is a man who works in a mill ; stoic is a kind of stick ; hansom is not connected with hand or some, but handsome, of fine appearance ; proxy is a kind of verse called prose ; the feminine of lad is ass, and the masculine of siren is sir. Even the beginner in Arabic must see that something more complex is involved in the following definitions, given by those accustomed to a language in which all thought is visual, in which everything seems to bring up an image of some kind. " Easel, a kind of stand ; it comes from the German Esel, which means ass, hence the word means a stand to hang things on." Does not the schoolboy of Jeru- salem a score of times a day see the patient donkey, laden with saddle-bags, waiting to have things hung in them ? Could the boy who said, " The bustard is a drunkered," have, by chance, seen an English tourist " on the bust " ? There is unconscious satire in the definition of Bedlamite as " half a goat, and half a lion, from bedellium, a monster of the 37G A THRKSHING FLOOR. THE HUMANITIES IN JERUSALEM 'Greeks . " " Bayonet,>f rom Bayonne , was a minister of France , who was very strict," suggests that the minister had a trick of practical expression more familiar in Turkey than in France ; " Buxom is from bow. A buxom boy is an obedient boy because he can easily be bent" ; "lynch law is a very sever law written in blood by an Athenian legislator." " A constable is with the stable, who gives horses to eat." " Heaven is the hanged one, the upper part." Some vague association with the shank bone may have suggested that " the human body is 1st trunk, 2nd shrunk, 3rd extremities. The extremities is the remainder of the body." " Posseidon is the god of the downward thing," and " the rabbit is an outside beast." " A diving bell is the ways of the water through the houses by canals or tubes made of iron.'* Water " laid on " is a very rare luxury in Jerusalem, and the boy had probably been struck by seeing tubes full of water, diving underground. " Panic is a kind of disease, so when they say he is panic-stricken it means that he is diseased." " Gasconading is a man who visited the palaces of the king of France and said, ' The stables of my father is better than this, only somewhat larger.' ' Artichoke is ' ' a kind of plant that grows in Jerusalem to make dinners and suppers from." One can only sympathize with the boy who wrote that " loathing is water half hot, half cold." We all know that variety of loathing. A delightful touch of visualization associates widows with black. A boy thus describes the memorial service of Queen Victoria : "In the English church people were English, French, Greeks, Abyssinians, Widows and Jews. The English were praying for the Queen." The spelling of Arabic is strictly phonetic, which may account for the peculiarities of the following. " I was in the school, and after came Amil tolthus (told us ; the Arabs never stint an h) come and see Jabra, and we toll them, my ! wat tis demater ? he toll-dus the turques beet him with the 377 INNER JERUSALEM nii'e ; how many boys was ? and toll-dus 2 boys ; and toil them were are they ? and toll them went to the gate and Master toll to Nicola to go and bring the bulish (police) and he went and brotit in the scool and rot (wrote) his name, and after come his brother and see him. His hand wass terr (tore) and took him home." The following is an account of the rabbit's adaptation to environment. " The rabbit is like the fox, change of colour of his fur in the towns cold, from the ashes colour to white. In the summer it will be an ashes colour till the winter ; in the winter and in the beginning of November his fur will become white, and the white continued to grow allitill till his skin will be covered and will be sow some weeks ; then will changed ; and it is the last which became white from his body, then his bowls will be changed, and his back also, till his body changed and he will be all his colour ashes and no place white." " Thomas a Becket was a priest and got married to a Mohammedan girl, and it is said that it is quite certain that he went to heaven." There is a fine Oriental flavour in the accounts of Henry VIII. " He quarrelled with the Pope because he was engaged to a wife and he took another one." " He took six wives, some he killed some he executed, and some he gave to his generals." "Henry was a very strong man and he married six wives. Some of them were executed and some of them were died, but the last was survived on her husband, and they were Katherine, Anne was executed. Jane Grey of Aragon, Katherine, and the last Katherine, which sur- vived on her husband." Asked " What do you know of Antony and Cleopatra ? " a boy replies, " Instead of at- tacking her he was fashanated by her beauty." Another adds, " It was a great shame for the Romans so Octavius came to attack him and Cleopatrera." Those who have to endure the inconsequence of the Mohammedan calendar, which varies eleven or twelve days in every year, would naturally appreciate the virtue of Caesar, 378 GOOD MEASURE, TRESSED DOWN AND SHAKEN TOGETHER, AND RUNNING OVER." S. LUKE vr. 38. THE HUMANITIES IN JERUSALEM who was " a man of high spirit, who composed the Calendar and he dived the year into 365 days, knowing the times and the years ; and this shows that he was a great man and very clever about reforming the Calendar." It is interesting to know what the young Arab has to say about the horse. As might be expected, he is held in high esteem. " The horse is a beautiful animal of those that have four legs, he is bigger than the donkey. His ears are erect. He is a beautiful animal. The people use him for riding drawing carriages, carts and for driving mills, 1 sometimes for carreeing things." Or again, " The horse is the largest animal in the world ; he has long ears, he has a long feet and they are bone " (this, I suspect, is not the scientific state- ment of the real whereabouts of the ankle, about which so many are in error, but that " feet " is merely used for "legs "), "he has a long tail, his head is very big, he is a high animal, and his back is broode, he can run faster than the camel." One feels that the book of Deuteronomy has lost in com- plexity when one reads that " its general character is that it was neatly written under the influence of Moses," and a truly Arabic talent for " getting out of it " appears in reply to the question, " What are the contents of the book of LeviticusJ " " Its contents are many things " a criticism which may be very suitably applied to the present volume ! 1 It is melancholy to see the horse or donkey on the treadmill, the last sad occupation of the broken-down. 379 INDEX Abyssinians, 88, 109, 110, 120-122, 128, 164 Ain Karim, 21, 76, 355 America and American, 212, 215. See Consul, Cranks, Missionaries archaeology, 2, 4 College, Beirut, 86, 90, 190, 197 Colony, 5, 35, 41-46, 237 education, 90, 190 and Latins, 92, 149, 158 press, 237, 239 quakers, 5 Anglican Church. See English Anglo-Israelites, 38 Animals, 26, 47, 48, 76, 77, 214, 286, 287, 337-49 cruelty to, 47, 214, 336 Arab and Arabic. See Moslem t , Christian 19, 213, 234, 325, 326 convents in, 85 colour, love of, 233 cooking, 20 cursing, 29, 235 customs, 19, 181, 261, 325 dress, 19, 234 education, 85, 158, 255, 374 flowers, love of, 27 homes, 19 language, 9, 10, 77, 230, 232, 234, 374 levantine, 4, 6, 234, 260, 323, 375 literature, 237, 238 music, 22 race, 47, 230 sportsman, 210 women's rights, 255 Archaeology : American, 2, 4,11,367-68,371, 374 Austrian, 371 English, 4, 125, 126. And see P. E. F. Archaeology, continued German, 2, 4, 77, 132, 367-68, 370-71 instruction in, 11, 160] Latin, 11, 77, 158, 160, 161, 247, 368 Russian, 2, 371 questions of, 1, 77 Archimandrite. See Russia Armenians, 88, 89, 109, 110, 112, 115-18, 121, 128, 143, 151, 164, 178 Austria, 209, 371 Baalbek, 370 Baksheesh, 48, 49, 236 Bees. See Baldensberger. Bible, 113, 114, 160 Bethlehem. See Church of Na- tivity. and Omar, 228 Cawasses (or cavasses), 3, 7, 83, 98 Cholera, 53, 54 Churches, 373, 374 St. Anne, 126, 293, 294, 331 Ascension, 291 Bethany, 331 Bethphage, 150 Byzantine, or pre-Byzantme, 120, 198 C.M.S., 14, 199, 203 Christ, 198, 199, 373 Coenaculum, 147, 150, 292, 331, 332 Dominus floevit, 13, 150 Emmaus, 332 flagellation, 150 St. George, 14, 80, 194, 197, 198, 231, 264, 373 Holy Sepulchre, 13, 17, 81, 87, 88, 89, 92, 94, 95, 105, 135, 156, 165, 227, 330, 331, 332 380 INDEX Churches, continued St. Mary Latin, 140 ,, ,, Minor, 141 Nativity, 92-05, 138, 139, 150, 181, 228, 331 Notre Dame, 13 Pater, 13, 75, 164, 333 Redeemer, 13 Re'paratrices, 165 .Resurrection, 13, 135, 330, 333 See Holy Sepulchre St. Saviour, 13, 149 St. Stephen, 331 Tomb of our Lady, 128, 150, 292, 294, 331 St. Veronica, 164 Consuls and Consulates, 360, 364 America, 7, 49 Austria, 7 England, 6, 7, 48, 49, 155, 210 France, 7, 50, 94, 95, 96, 155 et seq., 169, 360, 361 General, 6 Germany, 6, 49, 155 Greece, 7 Holland, 7 Italy, 155 Russia, 7, 89 Sardinia, 50, 155 Spain, 7, 360 Consular law, 49, 97 Convents. See Latin. St. Anne, 113 Assumptionist, 14, 113 Benedictine. 13, 138 et seq., 144 Carmelite, 13 Coenaculum, 147 Dominican, 14, 113 Earliest, 125, 137, 144 Franciscan (St. Saviour's), 13, 145-53, 167 Georgian, 148 Greek, 82, 137 Mar Saba, 139 St. Mary Latin, 14, 140 ,, ,, Minor, 141 Russian, 79 Coinage, 17, 30 Copts, 89, 109, 110, 115, 121, 122, 123, 128 Cranks, 3, 35-46, 152 Crusades, 48, 143, 144, 145, 180, 186, 197, 220 Cursing, 29, 235, 236 Dragomans, 49, 213, 216, 217, 221 East, 2, 18, 266-68 England and English, 60, 70, 72, 73, 97, 181, 215, 218, 238, 260. And see Archaeology, Consul. Arab views of, 212, 215 Architecture, 198, 264, 284 Bethlehem, in, 203 Beit Jala, in, 203 Bishopric, mixed, 187, 189, 191 revived, 193 blind, care of, 68 Church, 187, 193-208 Conversions by, 64-69, 202 Eye-hospital, 10, 18, 68, 177 Hospital for Conversion of Jews, 67, 199, 373 - hospitality, 189, 205 law, administration of, 49 pilgrims, 181, 182 position of, 189, 100, 197; former, 359 relations with Jews, 180-86 responsibility for, 203 how fulfilled, 186, 189, 197, 198 schools, 194, 197, 203, 206, 207 r 359 trade, 132, 185, 209 travellers, 33, 212-16, 366 women, 217, 218, 258,261,325 Firmans, 84, 141, 146, 148, 150, 156-57, 162, 163 of Statu quo, 93, 94, 157 Flowers, 12, 17, 23, 26, 27, 63 Food, 3, 32, 163. And see Moslem. France. See Consuls. influence of, 155, 188, 191, 247 and Jews, 9 protectorate of, 91, 93, 155, 156, 164, 169, 170, 175, 189 recognition of, 156, 157 and Russia, 91, 92 Schools. See Latin trade, 209 George, St., 120, 129, 130, 243-44. And see Churches. Georgians, 88, 105, 148 German. See Archaeology, suls agriculture, 40, 50 Church, 91, 200 Colony, 5, 35, 41 colonization, 38, 209 Emperor's visit, 5, 91 hospice, 158, 206 381 INDEX Geiman, continued institutions, 5, 39, 68, 91, '97, 189, 199, 203, 231 Jews, 9 Latins, 158, 164, 174, 176 - lectures, 11 - law, how administered, 49, 97, 155, 176 schools, 5, 39, 91, 197, 203 trade, 9, 39, 50, 209 Gordon's Calvary. Also Protes- tant Calvary. 14, 37 Government,47-54. And see Schools. - alternatives to, 97, 299 - characteristics of, 47 - hospital, 45, 91, 160, 244 machinery of, 50, 51, 54 - prisons, 45, 54, 244 - schools, 45, 237, 244 - tolerance of, 47, 49 Greek and Greeks, 98-130 - Anglicans and 99, 100, 123-26 - Arabs and, 85, 86 - austerity of, 128, 129 - Bishops, 101 - Church of, 103, 104, 115, 127 - clergy, 104, 105 - convents, 106 Councils, 99, 100, 101, 118, 163 - foundation of, 99, 103 - heresies of 99, 115-30 holy fire, 81, 88, 107-13 - Hospital, 106 hymns, 357 - orthodoxy, 89, 99, 100, 102, 115, 142, 143 - patriarch, 85, 87, 88, 103, 109, 112, 143, 185 - philanthropy, 106 - rites, 127, 129 Russia, relations with, 85, 86, 87 - schools, 86, 105, 106, 197, 199 trade, 9 Heresy and Schism, 115 30 of American Colony, 46 - of Eastern Church, 88, 100 of English missionaries, 195, 198 Holy Places, 136-37, 372. And see Churches. Bethesda, 294, 335 Bethlehem, 203. And see Church of the Nativity. Betrayal, scene of the, 293 disputes about, 77, 93, 94, 96, 99, 128, 138, 150, 167-79 ' \ - evidence for, 135, 217, 292, 293 And see Fathers Holy Places, continued Gethsemane, 89 Guardians. See Franciscans Mizpah, 292 Siloam, 95 Tomb of Rachael, 292 Via Dolorosa, 164 Hospices, 205, 364 earliest, 106, 137, 138, 149 Franciscan, 84, 149 French, 13 German, 158, 206 Gobat upon, 205 Greek, 82 hospitality of, 149-50 Russian, 12, 76, 89 Insect pests, 17, 24, 25 Institutions : asylums, 68, 84, 159 blind, 68, 159, 160 cre'ches, 159 cripples, 68, 159 eye, 10, 18, 68, 177 hospitals, 45, 67, 68, 91, 106, 159, 160, 199, 203, 244 incurables, 68, 159 insane, 68, 159, 243 leper, 10, 45, 91, 160 orphans, 39, 91, 158, 159, 160, 163, 203 schools. See American, Eng- lish, etc. soup-kitchen, 243 Jacobites, 143, 198. And see Syrians Jaffa, 16, 17, 32, 33, 129, 190, 191 Jerusalem, amusements in, 3, 11, 301-2, 359, 360 - aspect of, 1, 12, 15, 134 - books on, 2. And see Authorities - descriptions of, 12, 133, 296-98 - fireworks, 362 - humours of, 29, 210 - language, 9, 10, 77, 234, 359 - roads, 343, 365 - sanitary conditions of, 20, 23, 24, 25, 33, 53, 54, 204, 298, 359, 365 - sport in, 345 - temperament, 21 - trade, 9, 39, 50, 59, 77, 132, 184, 185, 209, 239, 284, 296, 297 visitors, royal, to, 360, 362, 366 Jesuits, 90, 188, 197, 237 Jews : Abraham's vineyard, 70-72 382 INDEX Jews, continued as agriculturists, 61, 132 Alliance Israelite, 9, 33, 56,60,63 almsgiving of, 57, 64 Association, Anglo-Jewish, 9, 66, 74 characteristics of, 57 - charity of. See Alms - citizens, as, 55, 73, 131 - colonists, as, 38, 58, 59, 61, 63 - Colonization Association, 58, 63, 74 -- conversion of, to Christianitv, 64, 65-70, 202, 325 - conversion of, to Moslem faith, 250 - customs of, preserved, 57, 58, 59, 60, 73, 295 - exactions from, 53 hospitals of, 67, 68, 362, 363 - hospital for conversion of, 67, 199, 373 - House of Industry for con- version of, 70 - in Holy Places, 73, 349 - language of, 9, 58, 60, 63, 67, 69 - loyalty of English, 71, 72 - and Latins, 64, 91, 158 - and Moslems, 72, 73, 250, 365 - population of, 55, 64 - privileges of, 52 - protection for, 52 - Rabbis, 58, 60, 64 - Chief, 53, 56 - schools of, 56, 60, 63," 69, 197, 254, 362, 363 art, 62, 68 technical, 9, 55, 59, 61, 63, 68 - torah, 58 - trade, 9, 59, 209. And see Colonists institutions, classification of, 56 - superiority of, 68, 69, 74 Sects : Ashkenazim, 56, 64 Chasidim, 56 Karaite, 56 Rabbinists, 56 Sephardim, 56, 64 various, 56 synagogues, 14, 58 Zionists, 40-55 Knights of St. John, or Hospitallers, 14, 141, 144, 330 Labour, 3. 31, 33. And see Trade Law, 48, 50, 51, 97 Lydda, 129 Latins and Latin. See Uniats. agriculture, 183-84 - Arabs, 158 - buildings, 13, 125 charities, 151, 158, 159, 162, 163 Custode, 92, 147, 149, 154, 170, 172 educational institutions : religious, 150, 157 secular, 151, 157, 158, 162 technical, 162, 163, 197 Franciscans, 91, 93, 103, 143- 53, 162, 165, 167-79, 188, 191, 220, 292, 331, 332. history, ancient, 131 et seq. modern, 146, 154 et seq. institutions, 151, 157, 159, 190, 203 - Jews, 64, 73, 91, 158, 363 kingdom, 143 et seq., 183 and Moslems, 160 objects, 91, 113, 149, 158 Orders, 4, 85, 91, 158, 165, 188, 189, 190, 202, 231 patriarchate, 93, 94, 143, 154, 155, 157 pilgrimages, 160 Popes, 94, 101, 125, 127, 138, 139, 145, 146, 161, 182 protectorate, 92, 155, 177 schools, 150, 151, 157, 158, 160, 162, 163, 197 Mahomet, history of, 273 - in Jerusalem, 221, 225 mantle of, 249 morality of, 271, 274, 279, 289 steed of, 221 slaves of, 271 teaching of, 274-77 Maronites, 119, 164 Megiddo, 371 Mshetta, 371 Missions and Missionaries, 31, 204, 206, 213, 231, 254, 261, 283 American, 86, 90, 159, 186, 189, 197, 207, 231, 237, 324 English, 4, 18, 193, 203, 284 C.M.S., 188, 189, 190-207, 213 L.J.S., 67, 69, 196, 199, 200, 202 French. See Latin German, 203, 207, 324 Jesuit, 90, 197, 237 Presbyterian, 197, 207 383 INDEX Missions and Missionaries, con- tinued Scotch, 159. 207, 324 Quaker, 5, 207, 324 Moslem. See Arab, Government amusements, 284, 301, 302 aristocracy, 239, 247, 303, 310 art, 232, 233, 234 bath, 305-7 caliphs, 108, 140, 147, 183, 249 characteristics, 8, 236, 266, 325 charity. See Philanthropy children, 259, 303, 312 club, 255, 301 dancing, 313, 314 dervishes, 248, 288 divorce, 252, 271 dress, 19, 211, 239, 247, 253, 256, 257, 260, 285, 302, 303-4, 309, 316, 325 education, 237, 254, 259, 275 entertainment, 256 et seq., 302 food, 20, 281, 301, 311 forbearance, 275, 277, 291 girls, 45, 237, 254, 259 green, 249 homes, 14, 233, 234, 263, 284, 303, 307-8 hospital, 45, 67, 160, 244 - Jerusalem, relation to, 291, 298 - literature, 237, 238 loyalty, 238 marriage, 258, 260, 280, 304, 305 description of, 302-22 - morality, 251, 270, 272, 273 290, 311 - mosques, 13, 14, 221, 222-24, 291-96 muezzin, 240, 244 - nationality of, 230 - philanthropy, 207, 242, 244, 245, 264, 278, 285 - physique, 253 - pilgrimage, 136, 246, 247, 249 - polygamy, 251, 252, 263, 271, 272 - prison, 54, 160, 244 professions, 239 schools, 45, 237, 254 superstitions, 262 swearing, 29, 235, 275 trade, 239, 284, 296, 297 women, 251-65, 280, 281, 282, 325 education, 44, 237, 254 manners, 257, 273, 304, 310, 325, 326 occupations, 256, 257, 259, 301 Moslem, continued regard for, 254, 261, 262, 281. Moslem faith : attractions, 268-72 animals, 221, 286, 287, 289 charity, 212,213. And see Phil- anthropy, Moslem. Christianity, 201,202, 272,276, 280, 291-94, 297 circumcision, 212, 299 dogma, 280, 284, 285 Hebron, 294 iconoclasm, 283 Jews, 73, 250, 252, 276, 279,. 298, 299 Koran, 51, 235, 272, 274, 275, 276, 279, 280, 284, 285, 310 and life, 242, 278 ritual, 222, 241, 240-42, 269,. 281-82, 310 rosary, 281 sacred places, 221, 235, 246, 294, 291, 295 Omar in, 226-28 Sachra, traditions of, 221-24 Haram Area, 221-27, 243, 291, 299, 300 Museums, 11, 105, 106, 113, 117 Music, 11, 22, 69, 80, 86, 127, 128 r 158, 159. And see Russians Nebi Musa, 246 Palestine, 131, 132, 133 Patriarch : orthodox, 85, 87, 88, 103, 227, 228 Latin, 94, 103, 143, 154, 157 various, 78, 85, 88, 104, 112,. 117, 120, 121, 163, 227 Population, 55, 64, 78, 91, 131, 137, 177 Protestant, 4, 91, 104, 191, 194, 207, 215, 220, 268, 269, 283,. 323, 324 Russia and Russian. See Consul ambassador, 90 Arabs utilization of, 85, 86, 87" archimandrite, 76, 87, 93 art, 86 buildings, 82 churches, 86, 89 Western C., 90-97 Czar, 82, 94 devotion, 78, 79, 80, 113 education, 84, 85, 90 and France, 91, 92, 94 384 INDEX Greeks, rivalry with, 78, 84, 86, 92 liberality to, 87 hospital, 82, 83 music, 80, 86, 127, 128 pilgrims, 78, 80, 82, 83, 84, 87 policy, 12, 76, 79, 85, 88, 89, 90 protector of orthodoxy, 89 property, 89 schools, 84, 86, 89 sects, protection of, 88 Society, Imperial Orthodox, 82, 84 tower, 75, 76, 90 Soldiery, Turkish, 51, 96, 109, 177 178, 205, 207, 219, 281, 289 exempted, 48, 51, 219 Suburbs, 12, 14, 15, 18, 35 Sultan, 52, 141, 146 Survey, 368 Syrian Church, 89, 109, 110,118-20, 143, 232 race, 218, 219, 230 Travellers, 33, 213, 298 Travellers, continued brutality of, 47, 214 grace of, 215 intelligence of, 213 reverence of, 113, 219, 220 variety of, 219 - women, 215, 217, 218 Woman. See Moslem. benefactors, 148, 181, 183, 185, 32935 Christian, 323-35, 326, 327 English, 215, 217, 218, 219 Fellah, 324 French, 323 German, 323 history in, 329-35 levantine, 323, 324, 326 - pilgrims, 136, 141, 181, 329 servants, 323-4 tourists, 215, 217, 218 tradition, depositories of, 181, 261, 325 work among, 45, 189, 261, 325 And see Institutions Water, 19, 20, 21, 53, 184, 210 Wheeled vehicles, 365 NAMES OF PERSONS MENTIONED Aberdeen, Lord, 359 Alexander III, 82 Alexander, Bishop, 187, 198 Alexius V, 144 Argyll, Bishop of, 366 Baldensperger, 39, 367 Barclay, Bishop, 367 Beaumont, 359 Bliss, 369 Blyth, Bishop, 192 Bonomi, 291 Caliphs, 108, 140, 147, 183, 249 Cant, Dr., 177 Catherine II, 89 Charlemagne, 102, 138, 139, 183, 228 Chosroes, 125, 129, 182, 229 Connor, 114 Constantino, 101, 102, 135, 148 d'Aubigny, Philip, 180 Dickson, Consul, 210 Dowling, Canon, 124 Finn, Mrs., 70, 155 Gudea of Mongolia, 133 Haroun er Raschid, 137, 139, 183, 228, 229 Helena, 105, 135 Heraclius, Emperor, 129, 182 Hertze, 55 Hunt, Holman, 358 Isaac Angelus, Emperor, 107 Jacomb, Miss, 204 Kent, Duke of, 196 Lascaris, Theodore, 144 Lucar, Cyril, 185 Laud, 185, 186 Lavalette, 157 Lavigerie, Cardinal, 158 Macarius, Bishop, 135 Mansouroff, 84 Masterman, Dr., 21 Maximilian, Archduke, 361-2 Meshullam, 40 Miller, 39 Minor, 39, 40 Montefiore, Sir M., 40, 58, 362, 363 Muller, 39 385 c c INDEX Napier, Lord, 72 Nelidoff, de, 84 Nordau, 55 Omar, 227, 228, 294 Palmerston, Lord, 186 Patriarchs : Paul, Grand Duke, 93 Peter the Hermit, 229 Philippow, de, 84 Pilgrims, early, 136, 137, 138, 147, 181, 292, 293, 329, 331 Reich, 55 Beinhardt, 359 Robinson, 2, 358, 367 Roth, 358 Rothschild, de, 56, 58 Royal visitors, 366. Saladin, 229, 230 Seddon, 358 Sergius, Grand Duke, 82, 93 Schneller, 39 Shaftesbury, Lord. 187 Spafford, Mrs., 42, 44 Spittler of Basel, 38, 39 Stanley, Dean, 355, 366 Sultans, 141, 146, 183, 370-1 Theodosius, Emperor, 102 Thomas a Becket, 181 Thompson, 367 Tissot, 358 Touro, 362 Waldmeier, 159, 243 Wortley, Montagu, 298 Yakut,~228 AUTHORS AND WORKS REFERRED TO Abelfaragius, 108, 120 Alphonse d'Alonzo, 91 Annals of Eutychius Selden, 227 Assemarni, 165 Azais, Abbe, 293 Baedeker, 83, 267 Bassi, P., 163 Berchem, Max von, 227 Bernard, Saint, 355 Bernardino, 368 Belon de Mans. Pierre de, 148 Besant, Sir W., 133 Biggs, Rev. C., 166, 283 Biblical Researches, 2, 197 Blackburn, 119 Bliss, 367, 339 Blyth, Bishop, 193 Brightman, 327 Brocquiere, de la, 146 Burder, 359 Burckhardt, 2 Burchard, 131 Burton, Sir R., 2, 6, 352 Lady, 6, 99, 123, 207, 218, 253, 261, 268, 281 Calahorra, 146 Chaplin, Dr., 21, 199, 243 Christian Researches in the Medi- terranean, 112, 122 Chronica de Syria y Terra Santa, 146 Church Life and Letters, 327 Church and the Christian Empire, The, 102 Clarke, DA, 372 Clermont-Ganneau, 137, 215, 230, 236, 261, 367, 369 Codex Alexandrinus, 185 Colonies Franques, Les, 144, 184 Conder, 296 Crashaw, 357 Creighton, Bishop, 102 Crescent and the Cross, The, 186, 152 Curzon, 112 Dilton, Canon, 213 Days in Galilee, 112 De Fanciennete de Fhopital, etc., 141 De prima origine Hospitaliorum, etc., 141 D3 Vogue, 126 Dickie, 369 Diet. Hist. Bayle, 287 Disraeli, 266 Divinity of our Lord, 166 Domestic Life in Palestine, 261 Dcummond, 257 Eglises de la Terre Sainte, 126 I'Eglise de Bethleem, 139 Eighteen Centuries of the Orthodox Greek Church, 99 Emigration Romaine en Terre Sainte, 330 English works in Syria, 237, 238 Eothen, 241 Eutychius, Pat., 227 386 INDEX Fabri, 368; Farrar, Dean, 3661 K Fathers of Greek and Latin Church 100, 101, 106, 137, 140, 181, 247, 254, 336, 342, Ferguson, 224 Finn, Consul, 6, 48, 108, 155, 179, 358 .; Fleury, 143 Georgian Hist., 148 Gibbon, 181 Gobat, Bishop, 122, 187, 191, 202, i 203, 205, 249 Gratz, 250 Guide Lievin, 113 Hackett, 367 Hadji Baba, 163, 211, 255 Haifa, 153 Hamaso, 261 Hanauer, 4, 38, 199, 246, 368, 372 Headlam, 79 Historians, Greek, 101 Holy City, The, 198 Hore, 99, 120, 145 Horn, Elzear, 163 Hutton, 186 Istoria dello etc. Gerusalemme, 163 Itinera Hierosolymitana, 138 Jewish Encylopaedia, 250 Jewish Life in the East, 57, 198, 364 John Diac, 137 Josephus, 2 Kaab ibn Zoheir, 249 Keble, 351-54 Kinglake, 241 Kipling, 338 Kordn, Sale's, 270 etc. Muir's, 270 etc. Korten, Jonas, 135, 372 Lamartine, 152 Lambarde, 108 Layard, 358 L'echo d 1 Orient, 90 Lectures on the History of the Sara- cens, 289 Lehrbuch der Chronologic, 117, 118 Le Strange; 226 Lewis, Professor Hayter, 224 Liddon, 166 Lievin, P., 149, 247 Life of Bishop Gobat, 64, 187, 188, 289 Locorum etc.* Terr ae Sanctae, 163 Lynch, 367 Macalister, 368 Macgregor (Rob Boy), 365 Mahomet, Life of, 275, 289 Margoliouth, Professor, 72 Marita, 163 Masudi, 107 Matthew Paris, 142 Maundrell, 111, 146, 155, 216, 293 Max Miiller, 289 Meji ed din, 334 Milman, 143 Missions to Jews, 64 Moines d? Occident, 137 Monasteries of the Levant, 112 Moncalembert, 137 Mouravieff, 149 Muir, Sir W., 271, 277, 278, 289 Mukaddasi, 296-98 Muthir al Ghirdm, 226 Nasiri Khusran, 298, 299 New Pilgrim's Progress, 251 Neale, 351 Oliphant, Laurence, 152 Mrs., 366 Outer Isles, 262 Palestine under the Moslems, 226 Palmer, 39, 118 P.E.F.,2, 4, 119, 133, 248, 296, 367-69 Petrie, Flinders, 368 Petermann, 358 Pilgrims' Texts, 368 Poloner, John, 368 Porter, 367 Post, Dr., G. 2, 162, 367 Quaresimus, 229, 330 Reports, C.M.S., 1894-1902, 201, 202, 213 Reise Altona, 135 Revue Biblique, 2, 161 Revue de V Orient Latin, 333 Key, 144, 184 Riant, Comte de, 139 Robinson, 2, 197, 358 Rogers, Miss, 261 Rossetti, Christina, 355 Roulx, Delaville de, 141 Saige, 141 Samuel Montagu, 57, 199 Sandey, Professor, 366 387 INDEX Schick, Dr., 39, 119, 140, 198, 3(58, 372 Scott, Sir Walter, 105, 237, 351 Six Months in Jerusalem, 1 GO, 220, 283 Smith, Geo. Adam, 2, 300 Stanley, Dean, 99, 120, 355, 300 Stato delle Missioni, 103 Status descript., etc., 103 Stirring Times, 0, 48, 108, 155, 273 Strangford, Lady, 273 Stratford de Redcliffe, Lord, 5] Talisman, 351 Teaching of the Russian Church, 79 Testimony borne by the Koran, etc., 270 The City and the Land, 214 Thierry, 330 Thompson, 307 Times newspaper, 132 Tobler, 138 Topographical Dictionary, 108 Tozer, 102, 121 Tristram, 2 Twain, Mark, 134, 149, 211, 214, 251, 338, 349 Vertdt, 141, 142 Vincent, P. 247 Visit to the Russian Church, 118 Warburton, Eliot, 180, 2.V2 Warren, 300 Watson, William, 200 Wheatley, 107 William of Tyre, 144 Williams, Rev. G., 198, 307 Wordsworth, Bishop, 100 Wiinsch, 307 Zangwill, 55, 57, 05, 300 Zeitschrift des deutschen Palaestina Verains, 2 Cutler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London. 388 University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 305 De Neve Drive - Parking Lot 17 Box 951388 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90095-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. Tea 00062634 - -' ' 8 :-i^ ffm