Inmwitg fff Cdifffijnia, 
 
 •> /■ 
 
 
 FRINIING BIM DI NG 
 
 1-=! x.\.y'FH.i\ctsrti. !» 
 

 
EGYPTIAX HIEROGLYPHIC 
 
 (See p. 147, Spen^gr''s £gyptP) 
 
EGYPT 
 
 AND 
 
 (^O 
 
 THE HOLY ivA^D. 
 
 %^ 
 
 {. 
 
 ■'*».' 
 
 '^ 
 
 " Those holy field8(;?> 
 Over whose acres -walked those blessad feet, O 
 Which, fourteen hundred years ago, were nail'd, * 
 
 For our advantage, on the bitter cross." 
 
 King HBSKf 
 
 BY 
 
 J. A. SPENCEK, D. D., 
 
 AXrrBO& OF " HISTORY OK TH£ REFORMATION IN ENGLAND ;'' EDITOR OF " THE NK\f 
 
 TESTAMENT IN GREEK, WITH NOTES ON THE HISTORICAL BOOKS ;" MEMBER 
 
 OF THE AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY, ETC.. ETC. 
 
 FOUBTH EDITION. 
 
 NEW YOKK: 
 PUBLISHED BY A. S. BARNES & CO., 
 CINCINNATI: H. W. DERBY. 
 
 185 7. 
 
^1 
 
 Entkred, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by 
 
 J. A. SPENCER, . 
 
 the Clerk's Office of tlie District Court of the United States for the 
 Southern District of New York. 
 
 STEREOTYPED BY T. B. SMITH, 
 3!6 WILLIAM STREET. 
 
Slitistratiniis, 
 
 ■^ — »■ 
 
 PAOl 
 
 Section of the Gbeat Pyeamid . . . . 43 
 
 CARTOUOnE AND IIlEROGLTPIIICS, FROM THE TeMPI^ AT KaRNAK 147, 8, 9 
 
 TiGUEE OF Cleopatea, feom Temple at Dendera , . 157 
 
 Plan of Jerusalem ...... 26S 
 
 Gbound Plan OF the CnuRcn OP THE Holt Sepulcheb • 318 
 
 Sketch Map of the Dead Sea ..... 385 
 
 loiUfOGEATHY OF TUB CaTHEDEAL ChUBOH AT TyEB . . 468 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/egyptholylandOOspenrich 
 
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. 
 
 In presenting to the public a fourth edition of his work 
 on Egypt and the H0I7 Land, the Author begs leave to ex- 
 press his satisfaction at the success which his work has met 
 with, and also to embrace the opportunity to give utterance 
 to the hope that the present volume may continue to serve 
 the good end which was had in view in its original publica- 
 tion. 
 
 Although not a work of much pretension, the Author has 
 no ordinary gratification in knowing that the following Let- 
 ters have been found to be — what it was his especial aim to 
 make them — both truthful and relicMe, And he is clear in 
 the conviction, moreover, that these are points of far more 
 consequence than any brilliancy of style, piquancy of adven- 
 ture, or even profundity of learned research. 
 
 The interest of Christian people in the land of the Bible 
 is, and must continue to be, unabated ; for wherever the 
 Holy Scriptures are read and freely circulated, as in our 
 highly favored land, there will there be found to exist an 
 ever present desire to know all that can be known of these 
 sacred localities where our Lord and Saviour, in the days of 
 his flesh, tabernacled among men. And hence, in a work 
 
Tl PEEFACE. 
 
 such as the present claims to be, there is to the reader not 
 only the interest which every book of travels offers, but also 
 the further and more sacred interest in everything which 
 can help to illustrate and make more plain the language, 
 customs, allusions, and history of the Bible. 
 
 The Author would fain hope that the present volume will 
 hold its place as a library book, and for use in Schools and 
 Academies as a reading book and book of reference ; and 
 this the rather because in Egypt and the Holy Land, the 
 customs, and manners, and habits of the people do not 
 change, hardly at all, from age to age ; and also because 
 the various questions of interest relative to Biblical litera- 
 ture and interpretation are carefully considered, and dis- 
 cussed with as much fulness as readers in general would 
 desire. 
 
 In the preface to the third edition, the Author took occa- 
 sion to record his deep sense of the kindness and courtesy of 
 the eminent Arabic Scholar and Orientalist, Me. Edward 
 WujAAM. Lane, and his not less distinguished nephew — al- 
 ready, though young in years, well known as a learned 
 Egyptologist — Mk. Keginald Stuart Poole. He begs leave 
 to repeat here the sense of obligation under which he lies to 
 these gentlemen, and to conclude the present preface in the 
 significant words of Mr. Poole : — " If the reader wdll com- 
 pare the results of my studies with the statements of ancient 
 authors, he will find many points of agreement, some of 
 which I have had occasion to point out, especially in the 
 cases of Herodotus and Manetho. But what is far more 
 important and interesting, is the fact that these results vmdir 
 cate the Bible^ showing that the monuments of Egypt m no 
 manner^ on no point contradict that Sacred Book, but con- 
 
PREFACE. Til 
 
 firm it. Some have asserted that they disprove the Bible, 
 others have insinuated that they weaken its authority. The 
 monimients completely disprove hoth these ideas^ and their 
 venerable records warn us not only against the disbelief of 
 Sacred History, but also against distrusting too much the 
 narratives of ancient Profane History, and even Tradition."* 
 
 J. A. S. 
 New York, Jwne Vlth^ 1854. 
 
 At the publisher's request the following letter from the 
 learned Dr. S. T. Bloomfield is here inserted. It was ad- 
 dressed to the eminent publisher Mr. Murray, soon after the 
 appearance of the first English edition of the present 
 volume : — 
 
 Me. John Murray : — 
 
 Dear Sir, — I beg to return you my best thanks for 
 your polite attention in offering to my acceptance a copy of 
 " Sketches of Travel in Egypt and the Holy Land," by the 
 Rev. J. A. Spencer, D. D., of ]^ew York. I take a peculiar 
 interest in whatever is written by intelligent travellers in 
 those parts, especially in so far as their investigations serve 
 to illustrate the Holy Scriptures^ to the interpretation of 
 which the main labors of my life have been bestowed. Ac- 
 cordingly, I have gone over with some care and attention 
 the greater part of Dr. Spencer's book ; and my impression 
 is that it will be ultimately well received by the reading 
 public in this country as well as in America. It is indeed 
 a work not intended for the learned, but for the great rnass 
 of well educated and intelligent persons, by whom it will, I 
 think, be found both instructive (as conveying a great deal 
 of valuable information not easily otherwise attainable), and, 
 
 * HoRAE JEqyptiacae, p. 210, 211. 
 
Vin PREFACE. 
 
 especially from its peculiar features, as being conveyed in 
 familiar letters, very interesting. ******* 
 
 The writer is evidently a truly modest man, yet an inde- 
 pendent thinker for himself, and who has everywhere chosen 
 to use his own eyes and convey his own impressions on the 
 deeply interesting scenes brought under his view. There is 
 no aim at fine writing^ no tendency to over coloring^ but 
 everything is conveyed with simplicity and strict fidelity ; 
 and there is a certain vividness, arising from the matter 
 being written on the spot, while the subjects were fresh in 
 the traveller's mind, and absorbed all his thoughts. 
 
 From the personal knowledge which I have of the writer, 
 I should say that every dependence may be placed on the 
 complete accuracy of the representation which he makes 
 of the state of things in those countries. Truthfulness, an 
 earnest seriousness and candor, as they form, I believe, the 
 characteristics of the man^ so they stamp every page of the 
 writer^ whose book will be found especially interesting to 
 Bible students, from the attention of the pious writer having 
 been uniformly directed to the illustration of the Holy 
 Scriptures. 
 
 Upon the whole, I feel assured that you will have no 
 cause to regret having undertaken the republication of the 
 work in this country. I am, dear sir, with much esteem, 
 yours very truly, 
 
 S. T. Bloomfield. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The Author of the following Letters is anxious to say a word or two 
 to his readers, before they do him the honor of venturing upon the 
 perusal of what he has written. It is to forewarn them that they are 
 not to expect erudite disquisitions on antiquity, history, chronology, and 
 such Hke matters ; neither must they look here for critical dissertations 
 on science in its various relations to Egyptian or Hebraistic lore. Though 
 the Author has transgressed on one or two occasions, being led away 
 by the deep interest of the subject, he, nevertheless, makes no preten- 
 sions to more than ordinary fitness for dealing with the vexat36 quses- 
 tiones of scholars ; and were he able to add any of his own learned 
 dulness, to the mass aheady reposing on the shelves of royal and na- 
 tional libraries, he would, under the circumstances under which he 
 wrote, most carefully have eschewed everything of the sort. He begs 
 to assure his readers, that the Letters now made pubhc, were actually 
 written — except in a few instances — as they profess to be, and at the 
 time when they are dated :* they were addressed to one at home, 
 
 * It is but proper, however, to state, that on revising the Letters since his return, 
 the Author has added notes here and there from works pubHshed since the date 
 of the Letters in the present volume. He has also in his quotations from Mr., 
 Wilhams's " Holy City," made them conformable to the second and enlarged 
 edition of that valuable work : while the Author was in the East the first and 
 less complete edition was all that was accessible to him. He has preferred this 
 course, wherever it seemed desirable, even at the risk of being charged with 
 anachronisms. 
 
VI PRE A . 
 
 dearer to him than all else in the wide world, and had most of all in 
 view, her interest and pleasure ; and if there be aught of hfe or value 
 in them to readers in general, it may not improperly be attributed to 
 the fact of the Author's writing on the spot, while the subjects were 
 fresh in his mind and filling all his thoughts. 
 
 It has been a pleasing thing to him, to hope, that many a reader will 
 love to hear of those sacred regions, where ow Lord walked in the days 
 of His flesh, and will love to know how full of Holy Scripture is the 
 Holy Land ; and hence, though originally he wrote for one out of the 
 thousands and- tens of thousands of Christ's soldiers and servants, he 
 has trusted that he may be the humble instrument of adding to the 
 knowledge, and confirming the faith, of others, among those who believe 
 in, and adore the Divine Saviour. Nothing doubting, on his own part, 
 that the Word of God is sure and standeth fast forever, he has loved 
 to speak of it, whenever he beheld its holy truths illustrated, enforced 
 or impressed upon the mind and heart ; and he shall esteem himself 
 happy indeed, if he has been able to make others partakers of the 
 deep convictions, and the clearer, brighter ^^ews of the truth as it is 
 in Jesus, which it was his privilege to enjoy in both Egy|)t and the 
 Holy Land. 
 
 The Author's aim has uniformly been to deal plainly, candidly, and 
 in earnest with everything which came under his observation : he has 
 not hesitated to express a decided opinion on some occasions, where, 
 perhaps, modesty should have taught him to be silent ; he has not 
 scrupled to speak out what he believes respecting many of the ques- 
 tions relative to oriental life, manners, customs, principles, &c. ; and he 
 would fain hope that, though the following Letters do not pretend to 
 any original research in the great field of geography, history, and an- 
 tiquities, the reader may, notwithstanding, obtain a tolerable idea from 
 them, of the most important points of interest to the Christian student 
 
 In justice to liimself, the Author de^ms it but right to speak of a mat- 
 ter almost purely personal. When he left home early in the spring of 
 1848, he had no expectation whatever of proceeding beyond England 
 
PUfiPACE. 'frti 
 
 and the Continent ; neither his time nor his engagements admitting of 
 any protracted absence from the United States ; but as various circiiffi- 
 stances — which it would not, he trusts, be wrong to term providential 
 — occurred to open the way, and as he was soHcited by a dear friend to 
 join him in a projected journey to the East, after some hesitation h^ 
 yielded consent, and gladly became a pilgrim, with his face set toward 
 the Holy City, tip to that date he had never given any special atten- 
 tion to Egyptian history and learning, and his knowledge of the Arabic 
 Was confined to the elements of the language. He felt consequently 
 with great keenness, his own deficiencies in many points, and he well 
 knows that his enjoyment was much marred by want of previous prep- 
 aration, and his fitness so much the less for undertaking to write any- 
 thing respecting the East. He hopes that this statement may account 
 for various lacunae and imperfections which will readily be discovered. 
 
 So much for self; it is far more pleasing to turn to something of 
 more consequence. The Author begs to return his sincere thanks to 
 all the friends and brethren who have encouraged him to hope, that 
 these Letters may be acceptable and not unuseful to the public ; he 
 would also embrace the present opportunity to acknowledge his obli- 
 gations, in various ways, to his learned young friend and fellow-voy- 
 ager, Mr. George W. Pratt, and to give utterance to the hope that he 
 may continue to cultivate oriental studies, for which Ire has peculiar 
 aptness and capacity. 
 
 To J. B. Atkinson, Esq., who, though trained to the severer studies 
 of the law, is a devoted lover and cultivator of art, the Author would 
 particularly express his thanks. The reader will readily understand, 
 how materially Mr. Atkinson's pencil has added charm and beauty 
 to the present volume ; and he may gather from these specimens of 
 the artist's talents, what a treat is in store for the public, when that 
 gentleman is prevailed upon to submit his entire portfolio to the admi- 
 rers and patrons of ai*t 
 
 A word or two in conclusion may be allowed the Author. He ven- 
 tures to ofier these Letters to the pubhc, without much apprehension as 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 to their fate ; for he is well convinced that they will meet with all the 
 indulgence which they deserve ; and will speedily find their true level 
 in the estimation of the reading community. If it be found that they 
 contain nothing of interest or value to the Christian public in general, 
 and that they ought never to have been dragged forth, through the un- 
 wise partiality of friends, from the privacy of thei; original destination, 
 the writer of them will yield to no one in wishing that they may speed- 
 ily sink into neglect and obhvion ; but if it be true, as he believes and 
 trusts, that they are not unworthy attention, as coming from one who 
 has spoken honestly and straight-forwardly ; as being free from exag- 
 geration, affectation, or a captious spirit ; and as treating of matters 
 deeply important and interesting to all ; then he will not doubt, that 
 even a new book on the East will be received with indulgent favor ; and 
 he will have the satisfaction of knowing, that he has not Hved and 
 written altogether in vain. 
 
 Nkw Yoek, December 20th, 1849 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 ALEXANDRIA. 
 
 PASS 
 
 Voyage from Malta.— Arrival.— First Impressions.- Contrasts.— The Modern City.— 
 Glimpses of Oriental Life.— Remnants of the Past.— Pompey's Pillar.— The Obelisks. 
 —Recollections of by-gone Ages, ........... I 
 
 LETTER n. 
 
 THE NILE AND THE PYRAMIDS. 
 
 Mahmtidieh Canal.— Importance.— Petty Steamers. — Scenery.— Atfeh.— Discomforts. — 
 First View of the Nile.— Scenery Peculiarly Oriental. — Arrival at Cairo in the Night. — 
 The Metropolis.- Start for the Pyramids. — Masr el Atikeh.— Mosque of 'Amr.— Tradi- 
 
 . tion.— Island of Rhoda.— Pyramids from East Bank of the Nile.— Gizeh.— Plain between 
 River and Pyramids. — Effect of Gradual Approach.— Immense Masses of Stone. — As- 
 cent-Prospect from the Summit.— Visit to the Interior.— Narrow, Dark Passages. — 
 "King's Chamber."— Sarcophagus.— Perhaps Discoveries yet to be made. — " Queen's 
 Chamber."— Very Hot and Dusty inside.— Evening "Walk. — Vast Necropolis of Royal 
 Memphis, 33 
 
 LETTER ni. 
 
 THE PYRAMIDS AND THEIR BUILDERS. 
 
 The Second Pyramid.— The Pyramid of Mycerinus.— The Sphinx.— Its Position and Ap- 
 pearance. — Its Former Glory.— Mystical Import of the Sphinx. — Object of the Pyramids. 
 —Historical Abstract.— Statements of Herodotus, Diodorus, Strabo, Pliny. — Early Chris- 
 tian Travellers.— Date of the Pyramids.— Who built the Pyramids?— Intended Uses of 
 these Structures. — Exciting Scene on Leaving the Pyramids, . . . . 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 LIFE ON THE NILE. 
 
 PASS 
 
 Romance of Life on the Nile.— Our Boat, the " Ibis." — Description of it.— The Reis, Pilot 
 and Crew.— Their Characters and Habits.— Dragoman and Servants. — A Day Described. 
 — Adventure with Dogs on Shore. — Other Adventures and Exploits. — Characteristics 
 of this Sort of Life, 71 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 PraLAE SYENE ELEPHANTINE ESNEH. 
 
 Vicinity of Philae. — The Island.— Ruins.— Extent and Character. — Egyptian Architecture. 
 — Its Eflfectin General. — Large Chamber.— Used by the Early Christians. — Crosses and 
 Inscriptions. — Greek, Italian, French, &c.— The Cataracts. — Swimming Exhibition. — 
 Syene. — The Granite Quarries. — Island of Elephantine. — Its Ruins. — Present Inhab- 
 itants. — Thoughts on their Condition. — Esneh.— Its Temple. — Ghawazy. — Disgusting Ex- 
 hibitions, 80 
 
 LETTER YI 
 
 NECROPOLIS OF THEBES. 
 
 Vast Variety and Extent of Ancient Thebes. — Details not Attempted.— Some Days spent 
 in Looking over the Ground. — Diflaculty of selecting Objects for Description. — Several 
 Villages now occupy Site of Ancient Thebes.— History of its Downfall.— Outline Sketch 
 of its Wonderful Ruins. — West Bank of the Nile.— Necropolis of Thebes.— Position of 
 the Catacombs.— Belzoni's Tomb.— Interior.— Splendid Decorations and Sculptm-es. — 
 Brace's or the Harper's Tomb.— Deeply Interesting.— Other Tombs. — Temple at Medi- 
 net Habi.— Style and Character. — Sunrise Visit to the Vocal Memmon.— Position of the 
 Colossi.— How was the Sound Produced ?— Present Condition of the Colossi, . , 106 
 
 LETTER Vn. 
 
 LUXOR AND KARNAK. 
 
 Ruins at Luxor.— General Character.— View from the Propyla.— Obelisk.— Beauty and 
 Finish.— Colossal Figures.— Sculptures on the Walls.- Ride to Karnak.— Droraos of 
 Sphinxes.— Massive Gateways.—" Hundred-Gated Thebes."— The Great Temple.— Its 
 Wondrous Extent and Grandeur. — Hall of Assembly. — Unequalled in Conception and 
 Execution.— Power and Wealth of the Ancient Egyptians. — Beauty and Glory all gone. 
 — Present Desolation. — Edifices in the Vicinity.— Magnificence and Splendor of Thebes 
 as a Whole. — Comparative Antiquity of the Buildings. — Interesting Discovery of Cham- 
 poIlion's.—Shishak.— Jerusalem Taken.— Hieroglyphics Explained.— Result, . . .131 
 
CONTENTS. Jl 
 
 LETTER Vin. 
 
 DENDKRA ES-SIOUT BENI-HASSikK. 
 
 FAOC 
 
 Remains at Dendera. — Visit to the Temple.— Description. — Date. — Inferior Style of Arch- 
 itecture—Interesting as a Whole. — The Zodiac.— Unfounded Views once entertained. — 
 Cleopatra. — Singular Representation. — Es-Siout. — Visit to the Cojitic Bishop. — Appear- 
 ance. — Conversation.— Characteristics. — Second Visit. — Coptic Churches.— Style and Ar- 
 rangements. — Bishop of Esneh. — Character and Standing. — Stabl Antar. — Interesting 
 Locality.— Beni-Hassan. — General Character of the Grottoes.— Paintings and Sculptures. 
 —Supposed Connection with Joseph and his Brethren. — Exciting Interest of the Scene, 151 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 THE METEOPOLia OF EGYPT. 
 
 Tromise to be Pulfllled.— Scenes during a Day from the Window of our Hotel.— Variety. 
 —Peculiarity, and Strangeness of everything.— Noise and Confusion.— A Walk in the 
 Streets and Lanes.— Coptic Quarter.— A Cairene House.— View from the Roof. — The 
 Bazaars.— Process of Buying a Garment. — Cries of the Metropolis, . . . .173 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 MOSKS CITADEL — HELIOPOLIS. 
 
 Religious Edifices. — Great Number of Mosks in Cairo. — Mosk of Ahmed ibn et-Tiilun.— 
 Oldest.— Minaret. — Anecdote.— Mosks easily visited.— Description of Interior.— Mosk 
 of Sultan Hassan. — Finest in Cairo. — Interior. — Citadel. — Massacre of Memlooks. — Mo- 
 hammed All's Mosk.— Splendid View from Citadel. — Adventure.— Objects of Interest 
 in the Environs of Cairo. — Heliopolis. — Obelisk. — Sad Reflections. — Joseph and the 
 Daughter of the Priest or Prince of On.— Sycamore of the Holy Family.— An Oriental 
 Bath.— Description of one. — Its Peculiarities.— Great Enjoyment, 190 
 
 LETTER XI. 
 
 COPTIC CHURCH — PUBLIC MEN AND EVENTS. 
 
 Christian Privileges of Travellers.— Rev. Mr. Lieder and Family.— Missionaiy Operations 
 in the East.— Visit to the Coptic Patriarch. — His Character and Position.— Church Ser- 
 nces in the Patriarch's Church in Cairo.— Arrangements Internally.— Robes of the 
 Priests.— Customs of the Worshippers.— Coptic and Arabic used in the Services.— 
 Communion Service.— Consecration of the Elements.— Pecuharities of Administration. 
 —Public Men in Cairo. — Mohammed Ah. — Ibrahim Pasha.— Abbas Pasha.- His Char- 
 acter and Course.— Presentation of Mr. Macauley, the American Consul-General.— 
 Description of the Scene.— Did not go off Well.— Mr. Lane and Family.— Conclusion 
 Respecting Egypt, 907 
 
r>v.Q/ 
 
 t lnlt| Innt 
 
 LETTER Xn. 
 
 LIFE IN THE DESERT. 
 
 PAOI 
 
 Delights of a Lazaretto.— Our Original Plaa determined on.— The Short Route.— Num- 
 ber of our Party,— The Camel. — How arranged for Riding. — Peculiarities of this Sort 
 of Locomotion.— Its Pleasures and Pains. — A Day's Scenes and Occurrences described. 
 —The Punishment of the Rebellious Jews. — What is Seen and Felt in the Desert. — Our 
 Route by el Arish. — Land of Goshen. — Locusts.— El Kanka, Tel Jehudieh, Belbeis, 
 Salahieh, &c. — Arrival at El Arish. — Enter Asia. — Route to Gaza.— duarantine. — The 
 Town or City.— No Opportunity to Visit it. — Vexatious Loss of Time, . . . .'221 
 
 LETTER XIIL 
 
 PALESTINA — THE HILL COUNTRY. 
 
 Pecuhar Emotions excited by Visiting Jerusalem.— Not easily Explicable. — Our Route 
 from Gaza.— Our Wish to be in the Holy City before Good Friday. — Horses and Mules. 
 — Weather. — Contrast. — Immense Olive Groves. — Fertility and Beauty of the Land of 
 the Philistines. — Commands of God with Respect to the Canaanites. — Conduct of the 
 Jews. — Mode of Computing Distances in Syria. — Villages and Towns on the Road. — 
 Dwellings of the People.— Emmaus or Nicopolis. — Latrun.— "Gate of the Valley." — 
 Terrible Road upwards to Jerusalem.— Toil and Fatigue. — Time Occupied. — Abu Gosh. 
 —Story.— First View of the Holy City.— Feelings of Disappointment.— Entered Jaffa 
 Gate.— Hotel. — Severe Illness.— Confinement for Several Days. — Deprivation of Pre- 
 cious Privileges, 248 
 
 LETTER XIV. 
 
 THE HOLY CITY. 
 
 Extent of the Topics Involved.— A few Points only Attempted.— The Stieets, General 
 Appearance, First Impressions, &c. — Houses. — Stone and well Built.— Peculiarity. — 
 Population of Jerusalem. — Probable Amount of.— Character and Condition. — Jews. — 
 Depressed Condition.-- Jewish Quarter.— Visit to it.— Scenes there —English Mission 
 
CONTENTS. .,:3QtO 
 
 to the Jew8.— Ita Fouodation and Objects.— Converts.— Jews' Place of Wailing.— Mas- 
 sive Masonry. — Ruined Arch. — Lepers' Huts. — Scene of Misery and Woe. — Moham- 
 medan Population. — Their Character. — The Christians in Jerusalem. — Deplorable and 
 Disgraceful Hatred and Dissensions. — Social State and Condition on the Whole.— Hope 
 for the Future, 267 
 
 LETTER XV. 
 
 GETHSEMANE THE MOUNT OF OLIVEg. 
 
 Necessity of omitting many Things for Want of Room.— A Walk outside of the City.— 
 Via Dolorosa.— Pass out of St. Stephen's Gate.— Scene from this Point.— Descend into 
 the Valley of Jehoshaphat.— Cross the Kedron. — Garden of Gethsemane. — Deep and 
 Solemn Feelings.- Our Lord's Agony.— Thoughts respecting the Last Days of His Pas- 
 sion.- Ascent of the Mount of Olives.- An Incident. — Desolateness of the Scene.— 
 Ruins on the Summit.— The Foot-print in the Rock. — Pilgrim Devotion. — Question as 
 to the Place of our Lord's Ascension. — View Adopted.— Panorama from the Minaret 
 near by.— Musings on the Mount of Olives.— David and his Rebellious Son. — Our Lord 
 Jksus Christ. — Wept over Jerusalem.— His Solemn Words.— Return to the City.— Talk 
 with Tommaso.— Sadness of the Scene at Evening.— A Walk around the Walls Outside. — 
 The Citadel, Pool of Gihon, Mount Zion, Valley of Hinnora.— The Pool of Siloam, 
 Fountain of the Virgin. — Some General Remarks in Conclusion. — Striking Natural Fea- 
 tures of Jerusalem Anciently. — Question as to the Population it was Capable of Con- 
 taining.— Probable Result, 
 
 LETTER XVL 
 
 CALVARY AND THE HOLY SEPULCHEE. 
 
 Avowal of Preference for the Opinions of Antiquity. — Bearing on the Questions Proposed. 
 — Is the Holy Sepulchre rightly placed by Tradition, or not ?— Description of the Present 
 Church. — Where Situaie.— The Court. — The Interior.— Traditionary Localities. — Effect 
 Produced on the Mind.— The Sepulchre.— Present Appearance.— Mount Calvary. — 
 Tombs underneath. — Examination of the Question at Issue. — Scriptural Statement.- 
 What is Certain.— Present Church is within the Walls, Calvary was without.— Difficulty 
 in Consequence.— Topographical Argument.— Josephus's Statements.— Points to be de- 
 termined.— Tower of Hippicus, where situate.— Position of the Gate Gennath.— Course 
 of the Second Wall. — Akra and the Tyropoeon. — Result of the Examination. — Argument 
 from History and Tradition.— Its Value.— Knowledge, Sentiments, Position, Character, 
 etc., of the first Christians.— Reign of Hadrian. — What was done in Jerusalem. — Con- 
 stantine and the Bishop of Jerusalem. — Recovery of the Holy Sepulchre.— Invention of 
 the Cross.— Basilica of Constantine.— Why should we not believe in the Verity of the 
 Holy Sepulchre ?— Evil Characteristics of the Present Age.— Claims of the Early Chris- 
 tians upon our Sympathy and Candor.— Dr. Robinson's Stricture? on Macarius and his 
 Clergy censured. — Conclusion.— Passages quoted from Bartlett, Fergusson and Wilson, 315 
 
mr CONTENTS. 
 
 LETTER XVn. 
 
 BETHLEHEM AND ITS VICINITY. 
 
 Environs of Jerusalem. — Attractions. — Excursion to Bethlehem, Frank Mountain, &c. — 
 Prospect from near the City.— Plain of Rephaim.— View of a Part of the Dead Sea. — 
 Characteristics of the Hills and Vales seen on our Way. — Illustrations of Holy Scripture. 
 — Musings upon David's Eventful Career. — Picturesque Situation of Bethlehem. — Arri- 
 val at the Frank Mountain. — Herodium. — Ascent of the Hill. — View from the Summit. — 
 Ruins there.— Thence to Solomon's Pools.— Value of Water in the East.— The Pools. — 
 Massive Masonry.— Position.— Route to Bethlehem. — Convent and Church.— Place of 
 the Nativity. — Is the Tradition Reliable ? — The Town.— Reflections upon the History 
 and Events connected with Bethlehem.— Jacob, Rachel, Naomi, Ruth.— The Blessed 
 Virgin, the Holy Child, the Shepherds, the Magi, &c. — Rachel's Tomb.— Reach Jerusa- 
 lem at Sunset.— Extract from Mr. Pratt's Journal, relative to Hebron and its Vicinity, 348 
 
 LETTER XVni 
 
 THE DEAD SEA AND THE JORDAN. 
 
 Early Start for the Dead Sea.— Path or Road over the Mount of Olives.- Bethany.— Its 
 Present Position. — Traditionary Sites.— Our Saviour's Divine Compassion.— Fountain of 
 the Apostles.— Contrast.— Gloomy and Cheerless Road. — Character of the Scenery. — 
 Road by Neby Musa. — Our Sheikh and his Men. — ^Picturesque Costume. — Parable of the 
 Good Samaritan.— Truthfulness and Force.— First View of the Dead Sea.— Reputed 
 Tomb of the Prophet Moses. — Sanctity in the Eyes of the Mohammedans. — An Incident. 
 —Approach to the Dead Sea.— Saltish Plain.- The Water.— Took a Bath in it.— Charac- 
 ter of the Water.— The Plain or Valley of the Jordan.— Banks of the River.— Bathing- 
 place of the Pilgrims. — Strong Current.— A Bath in the Jordan. — Ride to Jericho. — 
 Wretched Village. — Ain es-Siiltan.— Lovely Fountain.— Return to Jerusalem.— The Eng- 
 lish Chui'ch and Services.— Preparations for Departure, 373 
 
 LETTER XIX. 
 
 JUDEA — SAMARIA — ^JACOB's WELL — NABULUS. 
 
 Preparations for Departure. — Leave the City. — Last View of Jerusalem.— Character of the 
 Road as we proceed Northwardly.— Ruins by Roadside. — Anatholh.— Er-Ram or Ramah 
 of Benjamin. — Gibeon, Beth-horon, &c. — The Miracle wrought by Joshua. — Beeroth, 
 Place of Encampment. — Pleasantness of the Scene.— Ti^dition relating to the Virgin 
 and Child.— Next Morning's. Experience.— Delays.— Beitin or Bethel. — Hilly Road.— Plc- 
 turesqueness. — Yebrud.— Mountains of Ephraim. — Khan Lubban.—Shiloh.— Plain of 
 El-Mukhna.— Extent and Fertility.- A Gallop.— Jacob's Well.— Its Touching Interest.— 
 Our Lord and the Woman of Samaria.— Arrival at Nablus. — Adventure. — Were Stoned. 
 — Beauty of the Valley between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. — Musings on the 
 Past. — Visit to the Synagogue of the Samaritans.- Had a Sight of the Pentateuch.— Its 
 Age and Value.— Tischendorff's Opinion.— The Lepers.— Population, Name, &c., of the 
 City, 401 
 
CONTENTS. 5f 
 
 LETTER XX. 
 
 SEBASTE TABOR TIBERIAS NAZARETH. 
 
 PAOS 
 
 Departure from Nabhxs.— Lovely Valley between Gerizim and Ebal. — Well-watered. — 
 Lawless Character of the People. — Arrival at Sebaste. — Beautiful Situation on a Conical 
 Hill.— Remains of a Grand Colonnade. — Church of St. John the Baptist. — Difllculty of 
 getting Admission. — Insults offered to Travellers. — Road after leaving Sebaste.— Sanur, 
 a Strong Place naturally. — Reached Jenin.— Story of our Dragoman's Adventure here. — 
 The Town —The Great Plain of Esdraelon. — Its Fertility, Extent, and Beautj\— Zerin, or 
 Ancient Jezreel.—Solam, or Shunem.— Nain.— Kleber's Battle.— Little Hermon.— Arrival 
 at Mount Tabor.— Make the Ascent. — Ruins on the Summit.— Magnificent View irom 
 the Summit. — Question as to the Place of our Lord's Transfiguration. — Reflections on 
 the History and Associations of Tabor.— Leave for Sea of Tiberias. — The Route.— Jebel 
 Hattin.— Tubarieh.— Its present Degraded Condition.— Beauty of the Lake.— Our Lord's 
 Frequent Presence here,— Desolation of the Cities and Towns around it.— Departure for 
 Nazareth. — Lubieh. — Kefr Kenna. — Beautiful Situation of Nazareth. — Its Traditionary 
 Localities.— The Mount of Precipitation.— The Panorama from the Summit of the Hill 
 on which Nazareth stands.— Reflections on our Lord's Early Days, and the Years spent 
 in Nazareth, 42S 
 
 LETTER XXL 
 
 MOUNT CARMEL — ST. JEAN d'aCRE TYRE. 
 
 The Value of the Hospices at Nazareth and other Points in the Holy Land. — Country be- 
 tween Nazareth and Carmel. — Cross the Kishon. — Not Large River. — Haifa. — In De- 
 pressed Condition. — Ascent of iMount Carmel. — Two Days Sojourn at the Hospice. — Ex- 
 cellence of the Accommodations. — Brother Clement. — Brief Notice of Giovanni Battista, 
 the Architect and Founder of the Present Edifice. — His Labors and Success.— Explora- 
 tion of the Building. — The Chapel, Library, &c. — Scriptural Recollections of Carmel. — 
 Departure on the SJoth inst. — Cross the Kishon. — Amusing Scene. — The River Belus. — 
 Akka as it now is.— Excursion through the Town.— Mosk of the Butcher Pasha.— Recol- 
 lections of the Past connected with Akka. — Departure. — Ez-Zib. — Plain to the North. — 
 Ras en-Nakura. — Encamp on the Hill. — Ruins of Scandalium. — Promontorium Album. — 
 The "Ladder of Tyre." — Picturesque View. — Ras el-Ain. — Description of the Reservoirs 
 from Maundrell. — Approach to Sfir or Tyre. — lis Desolate Appearance. — Striking Fulfil- 
 ment of Prophecy.— Present Condition of the Town.— The Ruins of the Cathedral of 
 Paulinus. — Ichnography of the Ancient Church. — Description. — Abstract of the History 
 ofTyre.— The Certainty of Retribution, 450 
 
 LETTER XXIL 
 
 SIDON BEIRUT AND ITS VICINITY. 
 
 Uncertainty of our Future Plans.- Route from Sur. — Leontes Flumen.— Adlan or Oml- 
 thonpolis.— St. George's Khan.— Mound and Ruins of Zarephath. — Village of Surafend. 
 — Passed the Night on the Mound. — Scriptural Recollections. — Heavy Rain Storm.— 
 
XVI CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Cloudy, Damp, Wet Weather. — Columns and Roman Mile-stones. — Syrian Sheep.— Saida 
 as one approaches it. — Its Situation.— Place of rather more Consequence than Tyre.— ' 
 Excursion through the Town.— Its History. — Vicinity. — Road Northwardly not of mucb 
 Interest. — Cross the Bostrenus. — Khan Neby Yunas. — The River Tamyras. — Mountains 
 and Villages.— Sandy Cape of Beirut.— Enter it Late in the Afternoon. — Pleasant Envi- 
 rons. — What we have been Doing. — ^The Mission of Americans here for Syria. — Their 
 Press. — Sentiments as to their Course and Probable Success. — Avowal of Opinion on 
 this Point.— Who only can meet with Success among Eastern Christians. — Concluding 
 Remarks on the Holy Land in General. — Hope for the Future.— A Word or Two to the 
 Reader, 473 
 
 A.PPBNDIX, NOTIS, &c.. 
 
EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 «0 EGYPT! EGYPT!"— As it is said in one of the Heemetio 
 Books, — " Fables alone will be thy future history ; wholly in- 
 credible TO later generations And naught but the lette* 
 
 OF THY stone-engraved MONUMENTS WILL SURVIVE." 
 
 CH>y. BinifCH. 
 
EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 01e):antitfa. 
 
 Voyage from Malta.— Arrival.— First Impressions.— Contrasts.— The Modem City.— Glimpses 
 of Oriental Life.— Remnants of the Past.— Pompey's Pillar.— The Obelisks.— Recollections 
 of by-gone Ages. 
 
 Alexandria, Dec. 18th, 1848. 
 My Dear S., 
 
 We are at last in the land of Egypt. Our journeyings 
 thus far have been prospered, and we have been brought in 
 safety to a point in our wanderings to which we had looked 
 forward with intense interest. You may recollect that in 
 my last letter I informed you of the arrival of Mr. P. and 
 myself at Valetta, in the island of Malta. We spent about 
 a week there very pleasantly, and not unprofitably, in exam- 
 ining the numerous objects of interest which this noted isle 
 contains, and particulaily in visiting the inlet or cove on the 
 north-westerly shore, known as St. Paul's Bay, and most 
 firmly believed by the Maltese to be the very locality of the 
 Apostle's shipwreck and preservation. A portion of our time 
 was occupied in making preparations for Oriental travel, and 
 in procuring various articles which it is needful to get before 
 passing away entirely from European comforts and civiliza- 
 tion. Our multifarious arrangements having been effected, 
 
2 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 and an active Maltese servant secured, we bade adieu to 
 Malta and its hospitalities on the 9th inst., and turned our 
 thoughts and wishes towards Egypt and its mysterious won- 
 ders. We embarked in a French government steamer, the 
 Mgyptus^ a large and well-furnished vessel, the captain of 
 which spoke English with fluency, and was very attentive 
 to the wants of his passengers. We were favored with beau- 
 tiful weather, though rather a rough sea and its usual disa- 
 greeable consequences. Among our fellow-voyagers were 
 Ahmed Bey and Ismael Bey, two sons of Ibrahim Pasha, 
 "V^hose recent death had obliged them to leave the military 
 schools in Paris, in order to be present at the settlement of 
 their father's affairs. They were young men of about twenty 
 and twenty-two years of age ; short, and almost squat fig- 
 ures, small, inexpressive eyes, and altogether as unintelleotual 
 Looking persons as one could well imagine : their costume, 
 too, half French half Turkish, was in the worst possible taste. 
 Certainly this would hardly be worth mentioning, had not 
 Ibrahim Pasha's name led us to expect something at least 
 tolerably respectable ; and their connection with the family 
 of Mohammed Ali induced us to suppose that there might 
 be some sparks of that genius which has given the late Pasha 
 of Egypt a position of no mean importance in history. But 
 there was nothing of the sort in their manners, speech, or 
 personal appearance ; and though I would not deny the possi- 
 bility of their possessing abilities of a high order, I am sorry 
 to say that there was not the slightest indication of such 
 being the case in anything which transpired on board the 
 ^gyptus. 
 
 Towards evening, on the 13th, we were off our destined 
 port, but, in the judgment of one of the lank-looking Arab 
 pilots who here hold sway, we were too late to enter. Our 
 captain, however, was a spirited fellow, and being inti- 
 mately acquainted with the navigation of the Mediterranean 
 in general, and the entrance to Alexandria in particular, he 
 
FIRST VIEW OF ALEXANDRIA. 6 
 
 very coolly left the pilots to their peculiar notions on nauti- 
 cal subjects, and carried the ^gyptus into the harbor without 
 molestation or difficulty, and anchored in his usual place, not 
 far from several other large steam- vessels, both English and 
 Turkish. The next morning, our eyes were for the first time 
 greeted with a distant view of what remains of the once 
 great and splendid city founded by the Macedonian conqueror, 
 and rendered renowned by the earlier Ptolemies. From the 
 water there is not much to strike the attention of the travel- 
 ler. The pasha's showy but useless men-of-war lying in 
 the harbor, the lofty pharos, the windmills on the neighbor- 
 ing hills, the large white palace and harim, the few minarets 
 in the city, and the singular mixture of European and Egyp- 
 tian style, if so it may be termed, of the edifices in sight, do 
 not impress one much with either the greatness or attractive- 
 ness of Alexandria ; nor indeed does an actual acquaintance 
 with the city, as it now exists, give one a more favorable 
 or pleasing opinion of its real state and condition. On the 
 contrary, I think, whether it be that the imagination becomes 
 too much excited, or whether the policy of Mohammed Ali 
 has been productive of more injury than advantage, it cannot 
 well be denied that the present city, which bears the name 
 of one of this world's mighty heroes, disappoints, annoys, and 
 almost disgusts the traveller. Such at least is the general 
 impression which some days' residence in Alexandria is apt 
 to produce upon the mind ; an impression which, I am sorry 
 to say, in my own case, nothing that occurred tended mate- 
 rially to alter, notwithstanding the many acts of kindness 
 shown us by individuals who, though Alexandrines, I am 
 proud to call my friends. 
 
 The scene at landing was unique to a European or Amer- 
 ican eye. Hardly had the steamer obtained pratique before 
 we were surrounded by fifty or a hundred boats, containing 
 a motley collection of dark-skinned, turbaned, half-naked, and 
 half-savage looking fellows, each one shouting and gesticulat- 
 
4 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 ing with all his might, and calling aloud to any one and 
 every one in a medley of tongues, partly in English, a little 
 in French, with a few words of Italian, or German, or some- 
 thing else. To a spectator unacquainted with the habits of 
 these people, it would appear that they were quarrelling 
 very furiously, and liable at any moment to come to blows, 
 so eager are they, so active and energetic in endeavoring 
 to recommend their boats, and so full of liveliness and noisy 
 good humor in pushing and jumping about ant! getting 
 hold of the luggage of travellers. Happily we were relieved 
 of the annoyance of personal attendance upon our multifari- 
 ous collection of luggage, since our Maltese servant, an ac- 
 tive fellow by the way, had been to Egypt before, and spoke 
 Arabic sufficiently well to manage all such matters as these ;* 
 and we were at liberty to observe and — so ill-natured are 
 mankind — ^to be amused with the perplexities of our fellow- 
 passengers. Such a Babel of tongues, such a chaos of lug- 
 gage strewed over the steamer's deck, such fuming and fret- 
 ting, such running hither and thither, hunting up stray car- 
 pet-bags or small parcels, calling out almost in frenzy for a 
 missing trunk or portmanteau, rousing the ire of the French 
 sailors and servants, seizing hold of some bare-legged Arab 
 who is making off with part of the luggage, and at last 
 giving up all in desperation, determined to take one's chance 
 and let bags and baggage go as they may, — ^such an odd 
 scene of confusion I do not know that I ever witnessed. 
 After a while, however, we made our way through the noisy 
 crowd, and depositing ourselves in the midst of a boat full of 
 articles which we had brought with us, we were rowed along, 
 at a slow pace, through the merchant vessels, a large num- 
 ber of which were lying at anchor in the harbor, and in fifteen 
 minutes' time were set down in front of a dirty white- colored 
 
 * The striking affinity between the dialect of the Maltese and the Arabic has 
 engaged the attention of several eminent scholars, and deserves further invests 
 gation. 
 
PURPOSE OF THESE LETTERS. 9 
 
 building termed the Custom-house. Our luggage was placed 
 in very large baskets, and these put on the heads of women, 
 who act as porters in Alexandria, and indeed throughout 
 Egypt perform labor of a kind and severity which would 
 appear incredible to females in our more favored land. The 
 examination of luggage is really quite a farce, since a few 
 piastres serve at once as a convincing proof to the officers 
 that you have nothing contraband in your possession. 
 
 The day before, it appears, rain had fallen in Alexandria, 
 a fact of which we were made painfully aware, by the pools 
 of clayey, slippery mud and filth, through which we had to 
 make our way, and into which several of our bags and port- 
 manteaus were deposited, until the pasha's officers had re- 
 ceived their accustomed fee for passing our luggage. The 
 donkey boys, too, beset us, and almost perforce, shoved one 
 of these much abused quadrupeds between our legs: '' Berry 
 good donkey, master," shouted a one-eyed, two-thirds-naked 
 boy in my ears, as I was waiting a moment for my com- 
 panion ; " donkey, sir ; ride donkey ?" exclaimed a chorus 
 of a dozen, who had gathered round in hopes of a customer ; 
 and really, had I not known with w^hom I had to deal, I 
 should have been mounted on two or three donkeys one after 
 another, without any consent on my part, or contrary entirely 
 to my own volition : but as the hotel had a sort of half- 
 omnibus, half-cart in waiting, to convey passengers, we got 
 into it, and after a short ride through several narrow and 
 dirty lanes, we were set down in the large Frank Square, 
 in front of the '' European Hotel." 
 
 It is not my purpose in these occasional letters which I 
 hope to send you, my dear S., to enter into details respecting 
 many of the facts and statistics, which several valuable wri- 
 ters on Egyptian life, manners and history, have given with 
 great care and accuracy. My highest ambition is, to convey 
 to you the impression made upon my mind by what I have 
 seen and heard, in this land so full of strange things, and so 
 
^ 
 
 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 crowded with mysterious monuments of long-forgotten ages. 
 I have endeavored, and I shall endeavor, to look at everything 
 which is presented before me with care, as far as may be 
 apart from prejudice, and with the distinct recollection, that 
 God rules in the affairs of men, according to His good pleas- 
 ure ; and to the best of my ability I shall try to place before 
 you the present condition of things, and the actual, veritable 
 life, manners, customs, habits, &c., of the people among 
 whom I am now sojourning. I do not hope to approach the 
 sparkling brilliancy of some of those who have written on 
 Eastern life, and amused and astonished the world with their 
 vividly-drawn sketches of scenes, almost too romantic for 
 belief by sober-minded people : my desires are more humble, 
 and I have the consciousness of knowing — a proud conscious- 
 ness it is too — that my want of brilliancy will not, in your 
 estimation, or in that of those whose good opinion I prize, 
 detract from the correctness or value of that which I may 
 write. Truth, in its purity and completeness, is ever the end 
 aimed at by the Christian man; and, though I dare not for 
 a moment pretend, that I am, or shall be, able to present the 
 whole truth in all it« bearings, in respect to Egypt and the 
 East generally ; I am sure that I have no temptation to de- 
 viate from it to the right hand or to the left. I know that I 
 have not the slightest inclination to sacrifice truth to smart- 
 ness of expression, or glitter or piquancy of narrative. In- 
 fluenced by such desires and intentions, I trust to make you, 
 my dear S., in some measure a participator in the enjoyment 
 and advantages which have fallen to my lot in the present 
 visit to the East: and while I beg you to pardon me for 
 having dwelt so long upon this point, I promise you, that, 
 with this understanding as to my purpose and expectations, 
 T will here dismiss the subject entirely. 
 
 Alexandria, or as the Arabs term it, El-Iskandirieh, as 
 it now exists, is not, you know, a very large city. It has 
 gone through many and various changes, since the period 
 
ANCIENT ALEXANDRIA. ^^3L J 
 
 when the son of Philip fixed upon this spot to found a city 
 in, which might rival the whole world. The modern town 
 fc^nnot boast much, either in extent or beauty ; and, while it 
 owes very much of its present importance and improvement 
 on former days* to the genius and policy of Mohammed Ali, 
 it still appears to our eyes as a mere remnant of departed 
 glory and grandeur, and, as it were, in a condition than which 
 nothinof could well be worse. It is curious to contrast the 
 language of the ancient geographer Strabot with the repre- 
 sentations of modern travellers : the former, in his great work 
 on Geography, says : " The site of the city has the form of 
 a (Macedonian) mantle, whose two longest sides are bathed 
 by water to the extent of nearly thirty stadia (i. e. S^ miles), 
 and its breadth is seven or eight stadia (i. e. a mile), with the 
 sea on one side, and the lake (Mareotis) on the other. The 
 whole is intersected with spacious streets, through which 
 horses and chariots pass freely ; but two are of greater 
 breadth than the rest, being upwards of a plethrum (=101 
 feet) wide, and these intersect each other at right angles. 
 Its temples, grand public buildings, and palaces, occupy a 
 fourth or a third of the whole extent ; for every successive 
 king, aspiring to the honor of embellishing these consecrated 
 monuments, added something of his own to what already 
 existed. All these parts are not only connected with each 
 other, but with the port and the buildings that stand outside 
 of if't Few of those who have visited Alexandria within 
 
 * Th6 population of Alexandria had become reduced as low as 6000, it is 
 Said, and some of the early travellers term it a petty, mean village ; but under 
 the late pasha, the number of inhabitants is estimated to have risen as high as 
 80,000, including about 20,000 engaged in military and naval service. According 
 to Wilkinson, the inhabitants are of a mixed race, from the coast of Barbary, and 
 all parts of Egypt, with Turks. Albanians, Syrians, Greeks, Jews, Copts, and 
 Armenians, independent of Frank settlers. The aspect and general appearance 
 of the city, it is asserted, have also materially improved, 
 
 t Strabo, Geogr. lib. xvii. p. 793, Paris ed. 1620. 
 
 X According to Pliny {Nat. Hist., v. 10), the circumference of ancient Alexan- 
 dria was fifteen miles, and its population more than 300,000, besides, at least, an 
 
T5 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 the last twenty years, can bring themselves to imagine, that 
 it once deserved so high epithets, or M^as really the great 
 and magnificent city which the ancients would lead us to 
 suppose. Hardly one but what speaks of it in terms of deep 
 disappointment ; and probably, among the places of which we 
 read, and concerning which the imagination becomes excited, 
 and aroused, by pondering over the glory and renown of other 
 days, there is none which more effectually dampens, if not 
 destroys all enthusiasm, than the present city of Alexandria. 
 It needs not that I quote the words of others to prove what 
 they felt ; it may suffice that I declare, and this without any 
 intention of undervaluing a city, whose position is of the first 
 importance to commerce with the far East, that I was vexed 
 at having expected too much, and sadly out of humor with 
 the reality, as it opened itself to my wondering eyes. 
 
 But not to dwell upon general remarks, which, I fear, 
 convey no very clear idea, permit me to enter a little more 
 into particulars. Frequently have I perambulated the city 
 in every direction, sometimes on foot, but more generally on 
 the back of a donkey. In many respects Alexandria has lost 
 its oriental aspect, and can hardly be said to give one a very 
 good idea of an Eastern city. The influence of European 
 habits and customs, and the effects produced by intercourse 
 with the French and English are quite evident; and it is 
 not unlikely that in the course of time, and by the force of 
 
 equal number of slaves. The Romans, too, appeared to have considered it as sec- 
 ond only to their own proud capital, and as late as the period when it was taken 
 by the Saracens, A.D. 640, it still retained its original wealth and splendor. "I 
 have taken," says 'Amr, in his letter to the khalif, "the great city of the west 
 It is impossible for me to enumerate the variety of its riches and beauty ; I shall 
 content myself with observing, that it contains 4000 palaces, 4000 baths, 406 
 theatres, or places of amusement, 12,000 shops for the sale of vegetable food, 
 and 40,000 tributary Jews." Its importance was almost annihilated, you will 
 recollect, by the discovery of the cape of Good Hope, in 1497, and the enterprise 
 and skill of the Portuguese ; but, singularly enough, it bids fair to resume its 
 ancient greatness, now that England must needs take it in the w«/ ♦.o her vast 
 East India possessions. 
 
ALEXANDRIA AS IT NOW IS. V 
 
 that almost necessity of a free and uninterrupted passage for 
 England to her East India possessions, by way of Alexan- 
 dria, Suez, and the Red Sea, the change will become still 
 more marked, and according to our ideas, the improvement in 
 the city still more important. But as it now is, there is 
 something very melancholy and unpleasant to one accustomed 
 to clean and paved streets, to broad avenues regularly swept 
 and washed, and lighted at night with gas, to elegant edifices 
 for both private and public use, and to the numerous con- 
 veniences which mark the refined state of society in the west 
 of Europe. In Alexandria the streets are unpaved, and con- 
 sequently either very dirty or muddy ; the soil is of such a 
 character, that either of these conditions is excessively an- 
 noying, though our experience hes principally in the latter, 
 since an unusual quantity of rain had recently fallen, and 
 the streets and lanes of the city were not a little muddy and 
 disagreeable. In general there are no broad streets or avenues, 
 most of the passages from one part of the city to the other 
 being narrow, crooked, and arranged with an apparently total 
 disregard of public convenience. As may be supposed, the 
 mud reposes quietly, until it is dried up by the influence of 
 the sun and wind, and the continual trampling and scattering 
 of it by the barefooted fellahin ; and the dust blows about to 
 the infinite annoyance of everybody, until a fall of rain con- 
 verts it into a thick, clayey, and very adhesive mixture. At 
 night it is impossible to go out without a servant and a lan- 
 tern; and, save here and there an occasional glimmer of a 
 light in some Frank residence, the city is shrouded in dark- 
 aess and a gloom, which I can hardly characterize in any 
 other way than as oppressive and disagreeable in the extreme. 
 If we except the Frank quarter, or that part where the con- 
 suls and most of the foreigners reside, it is astonishing to 
 notice what an air of miserable desolation — the term is not 
 too strong — many portions of the city present : half-finished 
 houses, portions of walls, and heaps of stones and dirt, lying 
 
 1* 
 
vlO EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 in confused masses ; wretched hovels, most of them roofless, 
 and destitute of every convenience which can minister to the 
 wants of life ; and to render the picture complete, half-clad, 
 filthy and degraded people, men, women and children, with 
 their little stock in the way of fowls, goats or donkeys, all 
 occupying some favorite corner of their unique habitation, 
 and all apparently on an equality ; — these and such like, are 
 the things which strike a visitor from a country like ours, 
 where civilization, refinement, and the general diifusion of 
 the comforts and blessings of life are our proudest boast and 
 inestimable privilege. 
 
 That portion of the city which is more peculiarly Arabic, 
 cannot well be termed otherwise than a labyrinth of lanes, 
 narrow passages, and winding thoroughfares. With singular 
 ill taste and worse judgment, under a hot sun, the houses 
 are mostly whitewashed, rarely have any windows in front, 
 and present an aspect at once repulsive and melancholy. In 
 the lanes and streets where the bazaars are situated, the scene 
 ofttimes has a lively, and, in many respects, a peculiarly ori- 
 ental appearance. Everything is open to the street, and in a 
 little shop, slightly elevated above the passer-by, surrounded 
 by his goods, such as they may chance to be, and smoking 
 his pipe, the master or shopkeeper sits. With listless indo- 
 lence he waits for customers, who now and then assemble, 
 Turks, Arabs, Greeks, Copts, and foreigners of all nations, 
 and commence a long, prosy, and noisy discussion, cheapening 
 the goods, haggling about the price, and now and then getting 
 up a quarrel, remarkable rather for words than anything 
 else. At the same time crowds of persons are passing, many 
 on foot, some on donkeys, mules and horses ; the boys 
 who drive the donkeys shouting to the people to take care : 
 now a train of camels with immense loads move slowly along, 
 and cause everybody and everything to give place ; now a file 
 of Egyptian soldiers, in their white cotton clothes and bright- 
 red tarbushes, stroll carelessly towards their barracks ; now a 
 
ORIENTAL LIFE AND HABITS. QM. 
 
 person of consequence, preceded by his groom snapping a 
 large whip, rides by ; now some veiled object, hid in silks, 
 and astride an ass, occasionally with a child sitting in front, 
 ambles quietly through the crowd, with her attendant driver 
 or groom ; and so, with one thing after another, the noisy, bus- 
 tling, but in effect idle and inefficient, Arabs spend their time, 
 day after day and year after year, without ambition, and, it 
 would seem, well-nigh without hope. 
 
 I do not feel that at this point in my wanderings I have 
 seen sufficient of Egyptian life and manners, to speak at all 
 accurately of the curious and interesting scenes which pass 
 daily before one's eyes. Particulars I shall reserve to a later 
 period, when I hope to give as clearly a written description 
 of matters which will interest you as my opportunities will 
 admit ; but I cannot forbear at this time saying a word or 
 two in respect to the fellahin, or common people of Egypt. 
 At first sight, it would appear that nothing could be worse 
 than their condition ; scantily clad, at best, and ofttimes 
 nearly destitute of rags to cover their nakedness, squatting 
 down at the corners and on the sunny sides of the streets, or 
 lying at full length on the ground ; children frequently per- 
 fectly naked, and, without exception, as ffithy as neglect and 
 superstition can render them ; the men with a pipe, when 
 they can get one, the women with a child astride their shoul- 
 der and another in their arms, or carrying some heavy burden 
 on their head ; all these, with their dark skins, naked legs and 
 arms, and other peculiarities which I need not mention, strike 
 the attention with a force hardly to be expressed in words, 
 and certainly give one the impression that the modern Egyp- 
 tians are degraded to the lowest point possible in the social 
 scale. But it would not be quite fair to take an extreme 
 view of the matter : degraded and oppressed they certainly 
 are, ignorant and superstitious to a degree almost incredible, 
 and deprived of nearly every comfort and enjoyment which 
 we regard as essential to happiness, yet nevertheless, you 
 
a» EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 would be astonished, I was, at their light-heartedness, their 
 patient endurance of fatigue and want, their noisy merri- 
 ment, the affecting care and tenderness of mothers for their 
 offspring, their contentedness with scanty fare, and such like 
 qualities, which, although they do not prove anything in re- 
 spect to their condition when estimated by the scale of west- 
 ern civilization and refinement, certainly go far to show that 
 as they have never known, so they can hardly be said to feel, 
 the want of what we are accustomed to regard as the essen- 
 tials of life. After all, however, I must acknowledge that 
 the scenes here to be witnessed are distressing, and far from 
 pleasant to one who is disposed to think highly of cleanliness 
 and its accompaniments. It is no uncommon thing, as I 
 have said, to see children entirely naked in the streets and 
 outskirts of the town, and both men and women are fre- 
 quently so insufficiently clad (I mean according to our ideas) 
 as to shock our notions of decency, and particularly of mod- 
 esty ; one, however, soon becomes accustomed to all this, as 
 well as other things : but what is really disgusting, and all 
 the more so from its prevalence and its connection with one 
 of their ridiculous superstitions, I mean that of the evil eye^ 
 is the abominable and filthy condition of the children's per- 
 sons generally, and their eyes in particular. Ophthalmia is 
 lamentably prevalent throughout Egypt, especially among 
 the natives, a fact which might surprise one unacquainted 
 with the causes which tend to promote the spread of so seri- 
 ous an infliction ; but all wonder ceases when a little expe- 
 rience has made one familiar with that which I would fain 
 describe in terms adequate to the reality. Hardly a child 
 have I seen who has not had his eyes covered, nay, literally 
 filled with flies, feasting on the acrid humor which the sores 
 produce, and remaining as long as they please, without an 
 effort on the part of mother or child to drive them away. 
 Hour after hour they sit, or lie, or play listlessly about in 
 the sun, never pretending to wash the eyes, one of the best 
 
TRACES OF THE ANCIENT CITY. IB 
 
 possible remedies, but rather studiously abstaining from this 
 simple and wholesome process ; and thus they go on, year 
 after year, sometimes fairly weathering through flies, sores, 
 exposure, filth and everything, and blessed with the use of 
 one or both eyes, but very generally either losing the sight 
 entirely, or deprived of one eye, or becoming partially blind 
 for life. My pity was strongly excited for the poor children, 
 as I gazed upon them ; but I confess a feeling of strong in- 
 dignation was aroused at the thought of the senseless and 
 pernicious superstition which has had so much to do with 
 promoting this shameful neglect of one of the greatest bless- 
 ings of Almighty God. On a future occasion, however, I 
 hope to be able to speak more particularly of this and some 
 other prevalent superstitions of the Mohammedans of Egypt. 
 It is doubtless somewhat unreasonable to hope that, from 
 these rather rambling remarks and statements, you will un- 
 derstand that Alexandria is but the shadow of what it once 
 was ; but the fact is even so ; and knowing, as we do, what 
 glory, greatness and magnificence it once possessed, it may 
 seem astonishing that there are so few marked traces of for- 
 mer grandeur at present existing. Here and there we do 
 see, it is true, the scant remains of what are thought, or con- 
 cluded to be, portions of ancient palaces or edifices renowned 
 in history ; now and then, amid the heaps of rubbish, are 
 found broken columns, beautifully wrought capitals, frag- 
 ments of an archway, pieces of stones and ancient brick, in- 
 dicating at some unknown period in the past the number, 
 extent and beauty of the buildings which formerly adorned 
 the capital of the Ptolemies ',^ but who can tell anything 
 
 * " Wherever an excavation is made, an arch, a pillar, or a rich cornice, indi- 
 cates that a splendid structure had once occupied the ground, though these relics 
 can supply no information as to the object, the date, the name, or the founder. 
 For miles, the suburbs are covered with the rums of the ancient town. Heaps 
 of brick and mortar, mixed with broken shafts and mutilated capitals, cover im- 
 mense vaults, which, serving as reservoirs of water, are replenished on every 
 overflow of the Nile. Perhaps much of this devastation, as well as of the igno- 
 
19: EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 worth knowing about them ? and who is able to point out 
 with any certainty, or identify with any probability, what 
 may yet exist of the splendid temples, the gorgeous palaces, 
 the spacious baths, or the noble halls of learning of ancient 
 Alexandria ? Who can stand in the midst of this mass of 
 utter ruin and desolation on every side, without meditating, 
 for the moment at least, upon the instructive lessons and 
 warnings of the past ? I shall not venture, then, to dwell 
 upon such things as these, but will, with your permission, 
 my dear S., occupy a small space with some account of seve- 
 ral visits which we made to two or three monuments of anti- 
 quity which have escaped the destroying hand of time. 
 
 A short ride of about a mile and a half in a southerly di- 
 rection from our hotel, brought us outside of the city walls 
 and fortifications, and in full view of the pillar which custom 
 and tradition have combined to call by the name of Pompey, 
 and for a long time to associate with the name of the great 
 rival of Julius Csesar. It is situate on an eminence, consider- 
 ably above the road and neighboring Turkish burying-ground, 
 and is quite alone, apart from any edifice, standing in silent, 
 nay, almost gloomy grandeur. As all the donkey-boys in 
 Alexandria know where it is, and havs got the impression 
 that every Frank must see this and the obelisks as a matter 
 of course, they whipped up their obstinate little brutes with 
 right good-will and a plentiful supply of noise, and we soon 
 found ourselves at the base of the pillar, and at liberty to ex- 
 amine it at our leisure, and with as much patience as the trou- 
 blesome and malicious children, who lie in wait for visitors, 
 would allow. Few, I imagine, will be surprised to learn that 
 the absurd practice of scribbling names on celebrated objects 
 
 rance which prevails respecting it, may be attributed to the effects of that fntaJ 
 earthquake TA.D. 365) which swallowed up 50,000 of the inhabitants, and threw 
 down the loftiest of their edifices. But on such subjects all inquiry is vain ; for 
 the traveller finds that the degraded beings who now occupy the wrecks of this 
 superb metropolis, are equally indifferent and ill-informed as to every event whicb 
 preceded their own times." — Russell's " Ancient and Modern Egypt," p. 176. 
 
.aVil POMPEY S PILLAR. Toa Id 
 
 and in noted localities, which seems to characterize the An- 
 glo-Saxon race, is here displayed in a scandalous manner, and 
 between the black paint, tar and other substances used on 
 the base, and even the capital, the column is disfigured and 
 sadly marred. If Mr. " G. Button," *' Wm. Thompson," 
 ** E. Scott," and others, could but know what annoyance 
 their silly proceedings have caused travellers and admirers 
 of art, they would probably have paused ere they disgraced 
 themselves by daubing their names in great staring black 
 and white letters on Pompey's Pillar. 
 
 The foundation on which tiie pedestal is placed is of rough 
 stones cemented together, and was no doubt at one time cov- 
 ered from view. The pedestal itself is of hard, reddish gran- 
 ite, much worn by the weather on one or two sides, and evi- 
 dently not from the same quarry with the shaft which has 
 been raised upon it. The same remark applies to the capi- 
 tal, which appears to be of inferior workmanship and quality, 
 and together with the pedestal is thought to be of a different 
 epoch by Dr. Clarke, Wilkinson and others. The shaft is 
 certainly a very noble and imposing one, rising aloft, in one 
 solid block, more than seventy feet, elegantly proportioned 
 and beautifully wrought.* The material is what is termed 
 the red syenite or Egyptian granite, and not porphyry, as 
 Russell, in his •' Ancient Egypt," asserts on insufficient 
 authority. Rarely, if ever, have I seen a column of victory 
 which, even though this is at present in a lone and deso- 
 late position, shows more nobly or more strikingly ; and per- 
 haps no existing monument of the kind excites more varied 
 emotions, or impresses the mind more forcibly with a convic- 
 tion of the emptiness of warlike renown, than this, with which 
 
 * According to Sir Gardner Wilkinson, the total height of the colunrm is 98 
 ft. 9 inches, the shaft is 73 ft., the circumference 29 ft. 8 inches, and the diame- 
 ter at the top of the capital l(j ft. 6 inches. Mrs. Poole, following the measure- 
 ments of Mr. Lane, her brother, gives the shaft of the column as 68 ft. in height 
 and 9 ft. in diameter at the bottom, and the total height 95 ft. Other writerB, 
 quoted by Dr. Russell, speak of Pompey's Pillar as much higher. 
 
W EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 the world has become familiar in connection with the name 
 of one of Rome's greatest of generals. 
 
 We spent considerable time in looking at Pompey's Pillar 
 from various points of view, and particularly in searching for 
 the inscription, which formerly might have been comparatively 
 quite legible, but is now certainly difficult to be found — prob- 
 ably ere long it will have become entirely erased. It was not 
 till a second visit, and on narrow inspection, that we suc- 
 ceeded in detecting some parts of the words which are given 
 by Wilkinson as the inscription which denoted the uses to 
 which the column was appropriated, and the date of its erec- 
 tion on its present site. By the aid of a ladder, and chalking 
 out the letters, Mr. Salt and the distinguished scholar just 
 named were enabled, a few years ago, to make a complete 
 copy of the inscription, which is on the side facing the old 
 port, or Eunostus portus, and between the base and the shaft. 
 It is as follows : 
 
 TON TIMmTATON AYTOKPATOPA 
 TON nOAIOYXON AAESANAPEIAC 
 AIOKAHTIANON TON ANIKHTON 
 nOYBAIOC EIIAPXOC AirYHTOY 
 
 EnArAes2 1 
 
 Other writers, it is but fair to mention, have read the inscrip- 
 tion differently. M. Quatremere, as quoted by Dr. RusseU, 
 ascertained that there was, in the time of Diocletian, a pre- 
 fect whose name was Pompeius, who, it is thought, erected 
 or dedicated this column to the glory of his victorious master. 
 Dr. Clarke traced the Greek characters so as to substitute 
 Hadrian instead of Diocletian, and discovered that the name 
 of the prefect was Posthumus rather than Pompeius. Some 
 hare inferred, from its Arabic tii:]ey Amud es-Sowari, that 
 the column is connected with Severus, and some have even 
 attributed it to Julius Csesar. It is most likely, however, 
 that Sir Gardner Wilkinson is correct in this, as well as 
 other things in relation to ancient Egypt ; he, you will ob- 
 
CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLES. * 3.7 
 
 serve, gives the name — the least legible word in the whole 
 inscription — as " Publius" instead of Pompey ; and expresses, 
 in regard to its erection, the opinion that " this column silently 
 records the capture of Alexandria by the arms of Diocletian 
 in A. D. 296, when the rebellion of Achilleus had obliged him 
 to lay siege to the revolted city."* 
 
 Considering this question, then, settled, as far as it ever 
 will be, I hope it may not be improper to express a sort of 
 half-lurking regret that the name of Pompey is deprived cf 
 all honor in connection with this noble column, and some- 
 thing of a wish that in this, and a few other cases, tradition 
 might triumph over learning, or rather might be found to 
 accord with sound learning and the rules of evidence. Cus- 
 tom and habit are very strong, and we may be sure that this 
 column, though it has no connection with Pompey the Great, 
 or most probably with any one else of the same name,t will 
 not be called Publius's or Diocletian's Pillar ; and we shall 
 still hear of it, as we have been accustomed to do even from 
 childhood, and still read of it, under the title of the best one of 
 the first triumvirate. Equally true is the remark in regard 
 to the Obelisks, commonly known as Cleopatra's Needles, 
 since, while in fact they do not appear to have any connec- 
 tion whatever with a female of that name, they have some 
 how or other got the present soubriquet, and most probably 
 will retain it, in spite of learning and demonstrative evidence 
 that they belong to some old Egyptian monarch who lived 
 more than three thousand years ago. 
 
 It was a part of our day's excursion to visit these celebrated 
 obelisks. Leaving Pompey's Pillar, and returning by nearly 
 the same road, and passing several gardens of palms, oranges 
 
 ♦ See Gibbon's " Decline and Fall" &c,, vol. i. p. 205, Am. Ed. 
 
 t Tischendorff quotes the opinion of Von Prokesch, who thinks that Pompey 
 may have breathed forth his mighty soul at the foot of this pillar ; and that in 
 this way it has received his name, as has the grave of Themistocles the renown 
 of his, on the shores of the Pirseus.— " TVaveU in the East,'' p. 10, note. 
 
18 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 and citrons, and some rather pleasant-looking villas, we crossed 
 the great square towards the new harbor. They lie at only 
 a short distance from the Frank quarter, and though not quite 
 so desolate as Pompey's column, so far as human beings are 
 concerned, they are even more depressing and saddening in 
 their effect upon the mind, by the misery, degradation and 
 filth in close vicinity. We rode by a number of the mud 
 huts by the road side, and saw enough of their wretched and 
 debased inmates, and the heaps of mingled filth and ruins of 
 various kinds, to fill us at once with astonishment approach- 
 ing to disgust. It was a relief to us to find Mr. and Mrs. B., 
 fellow New Yorkers, engaged in the same occupation with 
 ourselves, that of "sight-seeing;" and I believe I am not 
 going too far in saying, that there has already sprung up an 
 intimacy between us, which promises to result in many days 
 and weeks of most pleasant and genial intercourse. The 
 standing obelisk is close to the water's edge, and in the im- 
 mediate proximity of the remains of an old Roman tower. 
 It rises aloft to the height of nearly seventy feet, is about 
 eight feet in width at the bottom, tapering off gradually to 
 less than five feet at the point, where a pyramidical pinnacle, 
 if I may so phrase it, completes the obelisk ; and to one un- 
 acquainted with the hieroglyphics, with which each of the 
 four faces is covered, it presents a mysterious and almost 
 solemn aspect. The material out of which the obelisks were 
 cut is the red granite of Syene, which is exceedingly hard 
 and durable, but does not appear to admit a very fine polish. 
 There are three lines of hieroglyphics on each side, reaching 
 from the topmost point to the bottom of the obelisk ; the cen- 
 tral one is much the earliest, and fixes the date of the king 
 in whose reign it was originally wrought out and erected at 
 the place whence it was brought to Alexandria. As a matter 
 of curiosity, I measured one of the ovals of the central line 
 of hieroglyphics, and found it to be four feet in length, by 
 about two-thirds of that amount in width, a fact which may 
 
DATE OP THE OBELISKS. 19 
 
 help to give you some idea of the size and imposing appear- 
 ance of these stately blocks of granite, and the sculptured 
 story of other days which they tell. Sir Gardner Wilkin- 
 son,, whose authority is especially high in all these matters, 
 informs us that the ovals in the centre are those of Thothmes 
 III.5 a monarch whose reign he dates about B.C. 1495, or 
 nearly the period of the Exodus of the children of Israel. 
 " In the lateral lines," he goes on to say, " are the ovals of 
 Remeses the Great, the supposed Sesostris (B.C. 1355), and 
 additional columns of hieroglyphics at the angles of the lower 
 part, present that of a later king, apparently Osirei II. (B.C. 
 1255), the third successor of the great Remeses."* It ap- 
 pears further, that these obelisks stood originally at HeliopoliSj 
 a city at no great distance from Cairo, and were brought to 
 Alexandria by one of the Caesars, to grace that noble capital 
 of the Ptolemies. 
 
 At a short distance, and nearly covered with sand and dirt, 
 lies the other obelisk ; the base and about half of the lower 
 portion are completely covered, and probably a part of the 
 obelisk is under the high sea-wall which incloses the great 
 harbor. It has suffered much injury from various causes, 
 but principally from being exposed to the influence of the 
 weather, and the careless ignorance and folly of the natives, 
 as well as some of the tribe of travellers, a class of persons 
 who are not always either the best informed or the most at- 
 tentive to leave unharmed the valuable remains of a past age. 
 The prostrate obehsk answers in all important respects to its 
 counterpart, which stands near by, and so needs no special 
 description. I may mention, however, but certainly with no 
 invidious feeling, that the obelisk which now lies on the ground, 
 exposed to every chance of injury, was many years ago pre- 
 sented by Mohammed Ali to the English government. So 
 far as appears, it might have been removed without incurring 
 any great expense, and would have formed a grand ornament 
 
 ♦ " Hand Book for Egypt," p. 91. 
 
9t EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 for some conspicuous position in London. It is both more 
 ancient, and perhaps of more durable material, than the obe- 
 lisk of Luxor, which adorns the Place de la Concorde in 
 Paris, and which was brought thither at an expense of time, 
 labor and money, which quite shames the public spirit of any 
 other civilized nation. Lord Nusjent* is one of the Eno^lish 
 travellers, who deeply regrets what he considers culpable neg- 
 ligence on the part of his country : Sir Gardner Wilkinson, 
 however, is of opinion, that the obelisk is too much injured 
 and defaced to be worth the expense of transportation, and 
 declares that the project has been wisely abandoned. 
 
 There is something very impressive in the sight of such 
 immense blocks of stone, cut out of quarries nearly eight 
 hundred miles distant, and transported and erected with a 
 care and skill, which utterly exceed the power of the pi^sent 
 race of inhabitants. Modern times are much given to boasting, 
 and certainly some very surprising exhibitions of mechanical 
 skill have been presented to the admiration of the world ; bat 
 I am sure that nothing is so astonishing, and yet so little 
 known, as the means by which the genius of ancient Egyp- 
 tian architects accomplished the works which we now see, and 
 seeing, cannot help admiring and wondering at. What ma- 
 chines must they have had ; what energy to direct, what 
 capacity to combine, what knowledge of natural philosophy, 
 to applj to their proper end the means and facilities of labor ! 
 and how surprising does it seem, that we know absolutely 
 almost nothing, save what is inferred from their remains, of 
 what this mighty people were capable of doing, and, of course, 
 of teaching to the world at large ! 
 
 Yesterday being the Lord's day, I was happy to have the 
 opportunity of attending divine service, in the small building 
 in' the outskirts, at present in use for the English congrega- 
 tion. The attendance was small, so much so as to be dis- 
 couraging, I should think, to the reverend brother who occupies 
 
 * " Lands Classical and Sacred^^ vol. i. p. 64. 
 
CHRISTIAN NEEDS IN ALEXANDRIA. 2it 
 
 this field of labor, and quite disproportioned to the large num- 
 ber of English at the hotels, in waiting to proceed to India. 
 It may not be out of place to mention here, that the pasha 
 was prevailed upon, not only to allow the thing itself, but also 
 to give the ground on which to erect a church to the worship 
 of Almighty God our Saviour : this liberality, it is mortifying 
 to say, has not been met by a corresponding spirit, on the 
 part of those most nearly concerned in improving this opening 
 for the cause of Christian truth. Some funds were gathered, 
 an excellent plan fixed upon, the walls raised to a certain 
 height, and materials in abundance collected ; but all has 
 been brought to a stand-stili for want of money : the govern- 
 ment at home, the residents, the hundreds and thousands 
 continually passing to and fro, look upon it with apathy, or 
 caily momentary interest. The walls, unroofed and unpro- 
 tected, are silently going to decay ; and it may be that in 
 years to come this too will be added to the heaps of ruins in 
 close proximity. Though not a native of Britain's rocky isle, 
 I could not but feel that it was a disgrace upon the name and 
 language (which latter is our birthright as well as England's), 
 to suffer this to stand before the eyes of Mohammedan bigots 
 and infidels, as a lasting monument of the real estimation, in 
 which those called Christians hold Christian verity, purity and 
 excellence. 
 
 " O pudor ! 
 O magna Carthago, probrosis 
 Altior Italiae ruinb !"* 
 
 I have already exceeded the limit which I had proposed to 
 l^is letter, and I fear also the patience of you, my dear S., 
 my most patient of readers. Much as I should like to say 
 more, I shall not trespass upon your kindness further at this 
 time : pleasant as it might be, and much as I am tempted to 
 impose upon you many of the recollections which crowd upon 
 the mind, in this ancient see of Alexandria, where St. Mark, 
 
 * Horat. Carm. iil 5. 38. 
 
2B' EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. ^'^ 
 
 and a long and illustrious line of successors, ruled over and 
 fed with food convenient the Church of God, and where, 
 alas, for ages, heresy and Mohammedan imposture have tri- 
 umphed over the truth, as it is in Jesus ; where, too, the 
 bigoted fanatic, Omar, condemned to the flames the world- 
 renowned Alexandrian library,* to his everlasting infamy, 
 and our unutterable loss ; desirable as I might esteem it to 
 tell you of our visit to the bath of Cleopatra, or to the Cata- 
 combs near the sea-shore, those remarkable subterranean 
 burying-places, on which so much speculation has been be- 
 stowed ; Alexander's tomb, as it is termed, a spot which it 
 seems difficult to persuade oneself is the resting-place of the 
 Macedonian conqueror's ashes ; the vicinity of the city, where 
 the pasha's fortifications astonish one by their extent, and, if 
 I may say so, their inutility, and where the broad plains pre- 
 sent an appearance both interesting and painful,^interesting 
 by the peculiarities of oriental scenery, and painful in conse- 
 quence of the manifest degradations of the cultivators of the 
 soil ; — pleasant as all these things might possibly be, never- 
 theless I spare you, and only beg that you will grant me your 
 usual kind indulgence for the future. 
 
 * Egypt was conquered by Omar in the year 640 ; the Alexandrian library 
 consisted of 700,000 vols. , which were ordered to be distributed for heating the 
 public baths, for which purpose they answered during six months. Gibbon and 
 some other writers question the truth of this statement, and the modern Moham- 
 medans deny it strenuously ; but the weight of testimony fixes this act of Van- 
 dalism where it is usually placed, and as has been justly said, " the Caliph Omar 
 will forever bear the odium of having devoted to destruction that library, whose 
 numerous volumes are said to have sufficed for six months for the use of the 
 4000 baths of this immense city." Milman's note upon Gibbon (vol. iii. p. 522) 
 is well worth consulting. 
 
' LETTER II. 
 
 8C|)e Ktle ant» ti)e iagtamfHs. 
 
 Mahmudieh Canal. — Importance.— Petty Steamers. — Scenery.— Atfeh. — Discomforis. — Firal 
 View of the Nile. — Scenery peculiarly Oriental, — Arrival at Cairo in the Night. — The Me- 
 tropolis. — Start for the Pyramids.— Masr el Atikeh.— Mosque of 'Amr.— Tradition.— Island 
 of Rhoda. — Pyramids from East Bank of the Nile. — Gizeh. — Plain between River and Pyr- 
 amids. — Effect of Gradual Approach. — Immense Masses of Stone. — Ascent. — Prospect from 
 the Summit. — Visit to the Interior. — Narrow, Dark Passages. — "King's Chamber." — Sarco- 
 phagus.— Perhaps Discoveries yet to be made. — " Queen's Chamber."— Very Hot and Dusty 
 Inside.— Evening Walk.— Vast Necropolis of Royal Memphis. 
 
 Cairo, Dec. 23d, 1848. 
 My Dear S., 
 
 It is with the deepest pleasure that I again embrace the 
 opportunity of writing to you. So much has occurred, and so 
 many are the objects of interest which I have seen and visited 
 since my last letter was sent, that I hardly know where to 
 begin in telling my story, and very much fear that I may 
 miss speaking of such things as would be most agreeable to 
 you and other dear friends at home. I shall try, however, to 
 relate accurately, and as briefly as possible, the various mat- 
 ters of interest or importance connected with the last week's 
 wanderings. Bear with me if T become tedious, or seem to 
 tell a mere traveller's tales ; for, be assured, in a land like this, 
 and amid scenes so varied, so deeply interesting, so surprising, 
 so wonderfully strange, it is well-nigh impossible to relate sober 
 truth, which shall not wear the air, in part, of romantic fiction. 
 We left Alexandria on the afternoon of the 8th inst., and 
 after a short ride, took our places on board a small barge or 
 
24 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 vessel, which is towed by one or two steam-tugs, on the Mah- 
 mudieh canal. This important water commmiication be- 
 tween the sea-port of Lower Egypt and the Nile, is one of 
 the most valuable of Mohammed All's works ; and though 
 its history has several of the offensive features connected with 
 the despotism under which Egypt groans,* still no one can 
 fail to see and feel its value and consequence to the country 
 at large. Alexandria, you will recollect, is situate on the 
 western side of the Delta, at a distance of some fifty miles 
 from the nearest, i. e. the Rosetta mouth of the Nile, and 
 about the same distance from the point where it is now con- 
 nected, by means of this canal, with the great river of Egypt. 
 Of course as the entire resources of Egypt are dependent upon 
 the Nile, that mighty fertilizer, without which the whole 
 country would be but a barren desert, it is of the first import- 
 ance to bring into as close connection as possible, a sea-port 
 which abounds in facilities and extent of commerce, and the 
 broad stream which is almost adored by the peasantry of 
 Egypt : on the whole, too, though canals have their disadvan- 
 tages, it may be doubted whether, in the present condition 
 of this country, that mode of communication was not the best 
 for all parties which could have been adopted.! Usually, it 
 
 * The Mahmudieh Canal was begun in 1819 ; more than 300,000 men were 
 employed to dig it, of whom no less than 20,000 are said to have perished in con- 
 sequence of ill-treatment, hunger, accident, over- working, and plague: less than 
 a year, some say only six months, were required to finish it; it was opened in 
 Jan., 1820, and named after the then Sultan Mahmud. Its length is nearly 50 
 miles, and its breadth varies from 80 to 90 feet. Its cost is estimated at Sl,500,000. 
 But, after all, we are assured that the work is not well done, and far from durable 
 and satisfactory. 
 
 f " An old canal existed on this line, which brought water from the Nile, and 
 had been used, in the time of the Venetians, for carrying goods to Alexandria. 
 It was called the canal of Fooah, and existed, though nearly dry, in Savary's 
 time, A. D. 1777. The spot where it entered the walls of Alexandria may still 
 be seen, at the salient angle to the west of Pompey's Pillar; and it was proba- 
 bly the same that of old went towards the Kibotos. There was also a canal on 
 a part of this line which left the Nile at Rahmaneeh, supposed by some to have 
 1»een the old Canopic branch,"—" Hand Book for Egypt," p. 107. 
 
MAHMUDIEH CANAL. /SO 
 
 has been the custom for travellers to take a boat, which is 
 draffored bv horses when there is no wind, until the Nile is 
 reached, and then the wind, or the labor of the men, is em- 
 ployed to complete the voyage to Cairo : but at present, since 
 the overland travel to and from India has increased very much, 
 and is on the increase, the " Transit Company," under the di- 
 rection of the pasha, agree to convey passengers for a stipulated 
 sum, by means of steamboats, from Alexandria to the metropolis 
 of Egypt. It was in one of this company's vessels that we took 
 passage, along with a noisy and rather riotous party of cadets, 
 on their way to India, and were tugged by two small steamers 
 ahead, attached to our barge or boat by a large rope, until we 
 arrived at the point where the canal joins the river, when we 
 were transferred to another small steamer for the remainder 
 of the voyage. 
 
 The scenery along the Mahmudieh canal is, on the whole, 
 rather uninteresting and monotonous. The villages scattered 
 here and there present so strange an aspect, with their mud 
 walls and heaps of dirt ; the fellahin appear to be so miserable, 
 and suffering from destitution and want of all those things 
 which strike a European or American as essential to happi- 
 ness and comfort ; the almost unvaried and uniform prospect 
 of broad plains, diversified occasionally with small hills of 
 sand, and far away in the distance, on either side, the bound- 
 less barren desert, are so little calculated to please the eye or 
 satisfy the imagination, that, could you behold the scene, you 
 would not be surprised that I desire to pass rapidly over it, 
 and invite your attention to other things : at the same time, 
 I confess that there are now and then spots of brightness and 
 even beauty ; the verdant fields of grain, the occasional orange 
 grove, the gardens abounding in vegetables and flowers, the 
 stately palms, the acacias or locusts, the picturesque country 
 residence or villa of some wealthy citizen, are reliefs to the 
 general tediousness of the canal-passage, which delight all the 
 more from their infrequency, and help to make one forget 
 
 2 
 
116 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 how deplorably governed — so far as the prosperity and wel- 
 fare of the people at large are concerned — is this land, blessed 
 in so high a degree with a fertile soil, a lovely climate, and 
 means and resources for wealth of which the present race 
 appear to have no conception. 
 
 About midnight we arrived at Atfeh, a small, dirty village 
 of no great consequence, where the canal joins the Nile by 
 means of two locks. At this season, the boats have to de- 
 scend to the level of the river, some four feet or more below 
 the water of the canal ; but during the inundation, of course 
 the Nile runs into the canal, and fills it to a much greater 
 depth than it is at present. I ought to have mentioned above, 
 too, that the cisterns and reservoirs at Alexandria are sup- 
 plied with the Nile water by means of the Mahmudieh canal : 
 this fact, added to that of the continual drain o.n the canal by 
 lowering vessels to the river, and raising them to the canal 
 through the locks, tends materially to interfere with its capa- 
 bilities for navigation, and at the period called the low Nile, 
 the canal is very shallow, and will hardly admit the passage 
 of heavy boats. Considerable delay, and a great deal of noise, 
 shouting and barking of dogs, occurred in passing the locks, 
 transhipping the luggage and disposing of the passengers, in 
 one of the most contemptibly little and inconvenient steamers 
 which it has ever been my lot to be on board of; but delay 
 is so common, inactivity so almost universal, and steam nav- 
 igation so comparatively recent in this part of the world, that 
 I am not sure that it is right to complain ; but whether it 
 be or no, it would be of little or no use. The Egyptians 
 have a way of their own of doing everything, and that way, 
 as you may imagine, is usually the worst of all ways which 
 could be devised; and notwithstanding the influence of 
 'Europeans, particularly English and French, is very great, 
 still it will take several generations before the skill and 
 enterprise of Christian nations will be able to accomplish 
 
FIRST VIEW OF THE NILE. 27 
 
 much among the present Arabs, or change the notions of an 
 obstinate and ignorant people. 
 
 The first view of the Nile must, under any circumstances, 
 be interesting. It is so intimately connected with ancient 
 history, particularly of that people whose monuments have 
 excited so much wonder and astonishment for ages, and it is 
 in itself a river so marvellous for its length, size, periodical 
 inundations, and many valuable qualities, that hardly any 
 one can gaze upon it for the first time without emotion, or 
 glide over its broad bosom without a crowd of recollections 
 of the mysterious past. I well remember feeling almost awe- 
 struck, as I stood in the scant light shed by the stars at this 
 early hour of the morning, and looked out upon the Nile, 
 
 -" coloratis amnis devexus ab Indis,"* 
 
 gliding by with it-s yellowish clay-colored waters, ever mov- 
 ing onward toward the Mediterranean, ever flowing, as it 
 has done for thousands of years, towards that broad deep blue 
 sea, where its stream is mingled and lost in the vast volume 
 of waters. Albeit not much given to the romantic vein, I 
 could not resist the influence of the scene, nor abstain from 
 musing over the past history and present condition of a peo- 
 ple whose annals run back into hoar antiquity. I do not 
 envy the man who can visit such a land as this, and be for 
 days on the Nile, and yet feel no glow of enthusiasm, indulge 
 in no solemn reflection, and derive no profit from the natural 
 and monumental wonders with which Egypt abounds. Happy 
 shall I esteem myself, if the thoughts which on this occasion 
 crowded upon me be of advantage to myself, and lead me to 
 realize more deeply than I now do, the truths of Holy "Writ, 
 and more especially the overruling hand of Divine Providence, 
 which has more than once or twice been manifested in the his- 
 tory of this land. It would be unfair to you, however, my 
 dear S., to impose upon you that which, though I could not 
 ♦ Virg. G6(yrg. iv. 293. 
 
28 EGYPT 4.ND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 help feeling it, will nevertheless hardly bear repeating, or can 
 scarcely claim to be worth recording. Hence, I leave you to 
 imagine, if you will, what a pilgrim from the far off land of 
 the West would naturally and properly feel in these deeply 
 interesting regions of the East, and particularly when he first 
 is privileged to sail over the broad waters of the Nile, that 
 mighty and only river of Egypt. 
 
 In consequence of the strength of the current, which usu- 
 ally runs at the rate of nearly three miles an hour, the pro- 
 gress of a steamboat is necessarily slow and labored ; and as 
 the channel frequently shifts its place, and banks of sand are 
 deposited in those spots where deep water formerly stood, the 
 navigation of the Nile is neither very easy nor very safe, for 
 vessels proceeding at a rapid rate. Not seldom does the ex- 
 perience of the oldest and best informed pilot fail him, and it 
 often happens that boats get aground, and remain some time 
 in a position, the most annoying possible for a traveller. It 
 was our lot narrowly to escape the shoals, and after a tedious 
 and very comfortless passage, to reach the point of destination 
 at a late hour in the night of the 19th, or rather, early on the 
 20th inst. The scenery along the river, from Atfeh to Bulak, 
 a distance of about a hundred and twenty miles, is interest- 
 ing, more from its peculiarly oriental character, than from 
 any variety or striking characteristics which it possesses. 
 The mud huts of the peasantry, the groves of palms, the fer- 
 tile fields of grain at this wintry season, the uniformly de- 
 graded appearance of the people, combined with their light- 
 heartedness and cheerful submission to a state of things 
 which we should consider intolerable, are all pecuUar to the 
 East, and consequently full of interest to a stranger. One 
 can hardly fail, too, to be struck with the evident richness of the 
 country, and its capacity to furnish not only means of sup- 
 port, but even wealth to its inhabitants, were not the oppres- 
 sive hand of the despot laid upon everything within his grasp, 
 and the' curse of monopoly spread over the whole land. As 
 
SCENEKY ALONG THE NILE. 29 
 
 you sail along, you see the active boatmen of the Nile, busily 
 engaged in their occupation, singing and shouting, and spending 
 much labor in accomplishing little work, as is usual in Egypt. 
 On the low banks of the river, or some shoal place, you notice 
 flocks of various sorts of birds — pigeons, ducks, herons, &c., 
 and now and then a vulture or a falcon-kite will sail slowly 
 by, or hover for a few moments overhead, as if waiting for 
 its accustomed prey. Occasionally, too, the white dome of 
 some Mohammedan saint's tomb will strike the eye, as one 
 of the few picturesque objects in Egyptian scenery ; and the 
 creaking of the sakieh, or water-wheel, by which the water 
 of the river is raised to a sufficient level to irrigate the fields, 
 or the tedious process of accomplishing the same end by 
 means of the shaduf, or bucket, at the end of a pole, moving 
 on a pivot, and having a weight at the opposite end, very 
 similar to the machinery of the old-fashioned country wells,''^ 
 gives note of the industry of the agricultural population, and 
 insensibly turns the thoughts upon what might be the hap- 
 piness of Egypt and its people, were Mohammedan bigotry 
 and intolerance rooted out, and the civilization and refinement 
 
 ♦ The " sakieh" mainly consists of a vertical wheel, which raises the water in 
 earthen pots attached to cords, and forming a continuous series ; a second ver- 
 tical wheel fixed to the same axis, with cogs ; and a large horizontal cogged 
 wheel, which, being turned by a pair of cows or bulls, or by a single beast, puts 
 in motion the two former wheels and the pots. The construction of this machine 
 is of a very rude kind ; and its motion produces a disagreeable creaking noise. 
 The '' shaduf'^ consists of two posts or pillars of wood, or of mud and canes or 
 rushes, about five feet in height and less than three feet apart, with a horizontal 
 piece of wood extending from top to top, to which is suspended a slender lever, 
 formed of a branch of a tree, having, at one end, a weight chiefly composed of 
 mud, and at the other, suspended to two long palm sticks, a vessel in the form 
 of a bowl, made of basket work, or of a hoop and a piece of woollen stuff or 
 leather : with this vessel the water is thrown up to the height of about eight feet, 
 into a trough hollowed out for its reception. In the southern parts of Upper 
 Egypt, four or five shadufs are required, when the river is at the lowest, to raise 
 the water to the level of the fields. There are many shadufs with two levers, 
 &c., which are worked by two men. The operation is extremely laborious. — 
 Lane's, " Modom Egyptians," vol. ii. pp. 30, 31. 
 
30 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 of Christianity prevalent throughout the land. But, it needs 
 not that I dwell here upon the Nile and its scenery, as I hope, 
 by and by, to have a more fitting opportunity during our pro- 
 jected voyage up the river to Thebes and the Cataracts : it 
 may be, too, that I shall be able to speak more intelligibly 
 and accurately than at present, when everything is so novel, 
 as hardly to be distinct in my recollection, and so strange 
 and ev«n mysterious as to cause me not a little perplexity. 
 
 Usudly, in ascending the Nile to Cairo, the pyramids are 
 visible for many miles before reaching Bulak, the port of the 
 metropolis. Towards evening, on the 19th, we looked with 
 no common interest in the direction where they are situate, 
 bftt our eyes were not gratified with a view of these imposing 
 monuments of antiquity, and we had to restrain our impa- 
 tience till another day. It would be but little beside the 
 truth, did I say the same of Cairo itself; for, so late was the 
 hour of arrival, so dark was the night, and so impossible is it 
 to see aught of an oriental city, except when the sun shines, 
 or some grand illumination takes place, that we left the 
 steamer, and rode into the city, with no more perception of 
 where we were going, than if we had been set ashore at any 
 petty village along the Nile. It was rather vexatious, but it 
 could not be helped, and we consoled ourselves with the pros- 
 pect of enjoyment on the morrow, when we purposed explor- 
 ing the city somewhat at large, and, as soon as might be, 
 paying our long thought of visit to the pyramids. 
 
 Cairo, or El-Kahireh, the " city of victory," is one of the 
 most interesting, and purely oriental cities to be met with in 
 the East. In size and extent, in the number of its popula- 
 tion, in its importance as the metropolis of Egypt, it holds 
 the first rank ; and in those peculiarities which distinguish it 
 from European cities, or such places as Alexandria, partly 
 Arabic and partly Frank, it presents to the traveller a field 
 for observation, which can hardly be found anywhere else. 
 As you will notice, we have been here but a few days ; and 
 
A GLIMPSE OP CAIRO. 31 
 
 during that time, we have been busy in making arrangements 
 for our trip up the Nile : hence we have given but a small 
 share of our time and attention to the city, where we are 
 sojourning. We have been several times to the bazaars; 
 have ridden and walked through the streets or lanes on vari- 
 ous occasions ; have been struck with similar scenes, which 
 have been alluded to when speaking of Alexandria, as the 
 crowds in the streets, the mingling in one confused mass of 
 men, women, children, horses, donkeys, camels, dogs, beg- 
 gars, &c. ; have admired in the distance the lofty and many 
 elegant minarets, the surrounding scenery as one rides to 
 Bulak, or walks in the neighborhood of Cairo, and the singu- 
 larly ornamental Saracenic architecture, as it appears scat- 
 tered here and there throughout the city and its environs ; 
 but we have not as yet devoted ourselves to a regular survey 
 of the objects of curiosity and interest ; nor do I think it will 
 be in our power at present. The lateness of the season makes 
 it incumbent on us to hasten our departure for Upper Egypt, 
 while there is a prospect of having northerly v/inds, which 
 blow at this season with some regularity ; and as we hope to 
 have a few weeks to spare on our return, we have nearly 
 concluded to give Cairo the go-by for the present, and endeavor 
 to satisfy our curiosity at a later period. Such being the 
 case, my dear S., I shall not pretend to say now what I pur- 
 posed, respecting the metropolis of Egypt, but shall reserve 
 everything like a lengthened or connected description of the city 
 and its inhabitants, till after we have ascended the Nile, and 
 seen something of the wondrous remains of ancient Egypt. 
 
 I have not found it difficult to come to this conclusion, nor 
 perhaps is it a fit subject of regret ; but you will believe me, 
 that I could not reconcile my mind to omit the Pyramids, 
 even though I did not expect to satisfy myself with one or 
 two visits to these mighty monuments of other days. So 
 intimately are they associated with all our recollections of 
 everything we have read or heard of Egypt, so strange have 
 
88 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 they seemed, so mysterious their uses, so vast their size, so 
 far back into antiquity does their history reach, that almost 
 the first thing we did on arising, the morning after arriving 
 in Cairo, was to look out of the window for the Pyramids, 
 and to gaze at them in the distance with mingled emotions, 
 utterly beyond our power to express. The first day, too, that 
 we could spare, we determined to devote to visiting the Pyr- 
 amids, and looking with our own eyes upon those vast monu- 
 ments, of which we had many a time read and thought, and 
 which we had seen pictured by the hand of Art, in many 
 different ways ; and, in order to render our visit as safe and 
 pleasant as possible, we took cafe to secure the services of 
 the janissary or kawwas of the American Consulate, as well 
 as to embrace the opportunity of going to Gizeh, in company 
 with our friends, Mr. and Mrs. B., who were fellow-passengers 
 with us from Alexandria to Cairo. 
 
 Very early on the morning of the 22d, our party assem- 
 bled for the expedition, and after the usual bustle and confu- 
 sion, set off* in good style for the point on the Nile where it 
 is necessary to cross. On the whole it was rather an impos- 
 ing cavalcade. In front rode our kawwas, a fine-looking Arab, 
 with his double-barrelled gun hanging across his shoulders, 
 and wielding his silver-headed cane, or staff" of office, with a 
 vigor and importance which had a manifest elTect upon the 
 natives all the way through ; next came the servants, or 
 dragomans, who acted as interpreters, dressed in the pictur- 
 ifisque costume of Syria and Turkey ; then followed the lady 
 and gentlemen of the party ; and lastly, the servants with 
 :the provisions, tent, &c., and the numerous volunteers and 
 extra hangers-on, who usually force their attendance upon 
 all such expeditions. As we rode forth in the first bright 
 rays of the morning sun, and emerged from the gate of Cairo 
 on the south, dashing along on our donkeys, and making our 
 presence known, not to say felt, by many an unlucky passer- 
 by in the streets, our appearance was rather grand and im- 
 
m 
 
 pressive; and I am sure, from the looks of several dark- 
 visaged Turks or Mohammedans, that we received some of 
 the many maledictions and curses which they bestow in mut- 
 ters upon the '' dogs of Christians" that ride through their 
 streets with so much consequence, and whom, unlike it was 
 in other days, they dare not revile openly or treat with con- 
 tumely and violence ; but, as you may suppose, their half- 
 uttered abuse excites much more of pity than of anger, and 
 hardly at all disturbed our equanimity. On we rode, in high 
 spirits, and anticipating no little enjoyment from our visit to 
 the Pyramids. About 8 o'clock we came to Old Cairo, Masr 
 el Atikeh, distant some three miles from Cairo. It was 
 founded A.D. 638, by the celebrated 'Amr, the general of the 
 khalif Omar, and it was here that he erected that mosk 
 which goes by his name, and which, according to tradition, 
 is connected with the rise and fall of Mohammedanism. As 
 the story was told me, 'Amr exclaimed, on building this edi- 
 fice, '' With this mosk the religion of El-Islam rises, and 
 with its fall perishes the faith of our holy prophet !" Curi- 
 ously enough, the notion is quite prevalent among the people 
 that this is a true prophecy ; and as the dilapidated and 
 almost ruinous condition of the building meets their eyes, tho 
 feeling of danger stares them in the face, and the conviction 
 more or less forcibly impresses itself upon their minds, that 
 the cross is destined ere long to triumph over the crescent. 
 May that day speedily arrive ! Originally the name of the 
 town was Fostat, but after the founding of Cairo in 971, and 
 its elevation to the post of metropolis of the country, Fostat 
 received the name of " Old Masr," or Old Cairo, as Euro- 
 peans term it. It is a wretched-looking town, and evidently 
 in a state of the lowest depression : ruined houses, old build- 
 ings, idle and listless inhabitants, and other signs of decay, 
 give Masr el Atikeh a distressing appearance, and we were 
 not at all sorry to escape from it, and turn our attention to a 
 more enlivening prospect. 
 
 2* 
 
-^ EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 For some little time we rode along the bank of the Nile, 
 opposite the beautiful island of Rhoda, where, according to 
 Arab tradition, the daughter of Pharaoh came to bathe, and 
 saw the ark of bulrushes in which was the infant Moses, 
 whom she saved from the ruin which had been denounced 
 against the male offspring of the oppressed Hebrews. In 
 this same island is the celebrated garden of Ibrahim Pasha, 
 which has become quite weU known as indicative of the skill 
 and taste, of Mr. Trail, an English gardener and botanist; 
 and here, too, the inhabitants of Cairo love to resort for par- 
 ties of pleasure and the enjoyment of rural scenery. At the 
 southerly point of Rhoda is the important Nilometer, by 
 means of which the daily rise of the Nile is ascertained and 
 proclaimed during the season of inundation, and directly be- 
 yond it is the usual place of ferry age for those intending to 
 visit the Pyramids. At this point, as we stood upon the 
 lofty banks, waiting for the termination of the wordy contest 
 between our dragoman and the boatmen of the river, we had 
 our first clear view of the Pyramids. They do not appear 
 to be more than a mile or two distant, and, as is generally 
 remarked, they disappoint one's previously-formed notions of 
 their extent and height. Looked at from this point, I cer- 
 tainly could hardly believe that the Great Pyramid was almost 
 500 feet in height, and more than 740 feet broad at its base ; 
 and indeed, throughout the remainder of our ride, while these 
 massive edifices were in full view, which was for more than 
 two hours, I was quite unable to realize the truth, as it is 
 established by the measurement of scientifio men, and with 
 difficulty persuaded myself that these were really the vast 
 monuments of other days with which our thoughts had be- 
 come familiar, and which we were so anxious to inspect. 
 What may be the precise reason why the Pyramids appear 
 so much smaller and less imposing than we imagine they 
 ought to be, it is not very easy to say ; the common explana- 
 tion, though hardly satisfactory, is this, — that those great 
 
GIZEH AND ITS VICINITY. W 
 
 masses of stone stand wholly alone, on the edge of the desert, 
 and without a solitary object with which the eye is familiar 
 to serve as a contrast or comparison ; and hence the specta- 
 tor is readily deceived, his imagination leading him to expect 
 more than the reality warrants, and his eye being unaccus- 
 tomed to judge of heights and distances, except by compari- 
 son with well-known objects. But however this may be, 
 there can be little doubt about the fact itself, which is noticed 
 by nearly every writer whom I have read in connection with 
 the Pyramids. 
 
 The village of Gizeh, from which the Pyramids usually 
 take their name, is at present of no importance, and presents 
 nothing worthy of a visitor's attention. Once, it appears, it 
 occupied a position of considerable consequence, and was 
 rather distinguished for some features which are now utterly 
 lost. Wilkinson mentions that the custom of hatching eggs 
 in ovens, which we know was practised in the times of the 
 Pharaohs, is still in vogue, and to those interested in such a 
 sight, it might be an inducement to spend a few hours in 
 Gizeh. For ourselves, how^ever, we preferred getting away 
 from the importunate beggars, the crowds of donkeys, camels, 
 water-carriers, children, loads of vegetables, and so on, and 
 as soon as was practicable, we arranged our party in its usual 
 order and rode briskly forward. The path winds over an ex- 
 tensive plain, across broad fields of grain and ploughed lands : 
 now w^e pass a small village with its grove of palms, its mud 
 cottages, its heaps of rubbish and filth, its pigeon or dove- 
 cotes, its unattractive and generally repulsive-looking inhabi- 
 tants ; now we have to cross some half-filled canal ; anon we 
 approach the tents of some Arabs of the desert; and fre- 
 quently are beset by children demanding bakhshish ^ or an- 
 noyed by the furious barking of a pack of lean, wolfish-looking 
 dogs : all this time the Pyramids are distinctly in view, and 
 though you are certainly drawing nearer to them at every 
 step, you are astonished to find that they are miles distant, 
 
36 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 and that you must ride on for some two hours before you 
 can actually reach their base. It is not a little curious to 
 notice how gradually the precise appearance of the Pyramids 
 unfolds itself to one's view. As first seen from the river, 
 about six miles distant, they seem to be mere masses of 
 stone, built up in the shape with which we are familiar, and 
 presenting no special characteristics on which the eye rests ;* 
 a nearer approach shows their outline and color more exactly ; 
 and when within a mile, the layers of stone, the rough and 
 broken sides of the Great Pyramid, and the partially smooth 
 surface of the Second Pyramid, are distinctly visible. During 
 this part of the ride, too, when on the sandy plain which has 
 to be crossed before reaching the usual resting-place, one be- 
 gins to comprehend the actual state of things, and looks upon 
 the broad and elevated rocky basis on which the Pyramids 
 stand, the heaps of sand and stones scattered about, the small 
 pyramids, the tombs excavated in the side of the rocks, and 
 other features of the scene, with feelings of unbounded sur- 
 prise and almost inexpressible interest. 
 
 Leaving our servants to arrange the tent on the plain be- 
 low, our first impulse was to mount over the heaps of sand 
 and rubbish to the point where the Pyramids begin actually 
 to rise, which is more than a hundred feet above the highest 
 level of the Nile's inundations. As you will suppose, we 
 were soon surrounded by the Bedawin, who live in the vicin- 
 ity, and seemed, as it were, to rise out of the ground at our 
 approach ; ere long, too, we experienced the oppressiveness of 
 their attentions in our behalf, and learned pretty thoroughly 
 the meaning of the word bakhshish, which was repeated at 
 
 * M. le Vicomte de Chateaubriand appears to have possessed more acute pow- 
 ers of vision than belong to most of travellers, for he professes to have seen 
 and distinguished their pecuUarities from the Citadel in Cairo ! " Though I was 
 four leagues (=10 or 12 miles) distant from the Pyramids," are his words, " I 
 seemed to be quite close to them. I could perfectly distinguish, with my naked 
 eye, the courses of. stones and the head of the Sphinx rising above the sand."— • 
 « Travels in Greece, Palestine, Egypt, &c.," p. 410, N. Y. 1814. 
 
VASTNESS OF THE PYRAMIDS. mV" 
 
 almost every breath, and enforced with a persevering action, 
 which must be seen and felt in order to be understood. But 
 notwithstanding this annoyance, from which there was no 
 escape, we could not restrain our astonishment, when we drew 
 near the Great Pyramid, beheld the immense blocks of stone, 
 and looked up from one corner at the towering mass which 
 rose to such a height above us. It is only in this position, 
 when you are standing close by, when you see the layers of 
 stone, examine and measure their length, breadth and thick- 
 ness, look along the sides, or upward toward the summit, no- 
 tice the diminutive appearance of some smaller pyramids near 
 the base, and see how very insignificant seem objects like one- 
 self, that the imagination becomes satisfied that the reality is 
 in no wise inferior to what it expected in these mighty monu- 
 ments.'^ For myself, I can but say, that though I had sup- 
 posed a far difierent scene would meet the eye, and had pic- 
 tured to myself something quite unlike the reality, I now felt 
 all the effects which grandeur in nature or art produces upon 
 
 * For the benefit of Londoners it has been said that the Great Pyramid cov- 
 ers the same space as Lincoln's Inn Fields (= about 550,000 square feet,) and is 
 more than sixty feet higher than St. Paul's Cathedral, which is sufficiently 
 near to serve for a comparison. You, as a New Yorker, will perhaps be better 
 able to comprehend the vast size and extent of the Great Pyramid by comparing 
 it with some well-known objects in our metropolis : suppose, then, that you are 
 standing by the N. W. corner of the Park ; you walk down Broadway till you 
 come to the lower side of Park Place ; thence across in a straight line, just leav- 
 ing out the Fountain, to Chatham street, and continuing till you take in the 
 American Bible House, the range of buildings and hotels, &c,, nearby; thence 
 turning northwardly in a straight line to the corner of Chambers street and the 
 Park, on Centre street ; and thence to the point of starting, — a space of about 
 12 acres in extent. As you stand here, just think of all this being one solid mass 
 of stone, as a base for a pyramid! all the public buildings, the City Hall, offices, 
 walks, trees, and so on, covered entirely ! Next take a look at St. Paul's, with 
 its spire piercing the clouds, and imagine, if you can, that from this vast stony 
 basis, which you see before you, rises aloft a mighty structure, considerably more 
 than twice as high as that neighboring spire. Is not that a conception worthy 
 of some old Pharaoh, to fill a space more than equal to the entire area of the 
 Park with stone, and to pile it up into the air to a point twice the height of the 
 highest tower or spire in our great city I 
 
Sm EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 the mind; and it is not too much to say — ^though rather 
 common-place — that I was overwhelmed with the sight, and 
 lost in wonder and surprise. What immense labor, what an 
 amount of toil for hundreds of thousands, what astonishing 
 skill and ingenuity must have been exerted in their erection ! 
 How strange does it seem to look at the Pyramids and turn 
 the thoughts back to four thousand years ago, when they 
 were built by the proud oppressors whose names they bear ! 
 
 " Instead of useful works, like Nature's, great, 
 Enormous, cruel wonders crushed the land : 
 And round a tyrant's tomb, who none deserved, 
 For one vile carcass perished countless lives:"* — 
 
 and what a multitude of recollections come thick and fast 
 upon the mind when one thinks that the father of the faith- 
 ful beheld these masses of stone ; the children of Israel saw 
 them ; the myriads of pilgrims of all nations, ages and climes, 
 gazed upon them ; the invader and conqueror, the Persian, 
 the Greek, the Roman, the Saracen, the Turk, the Gaul, 
 the Anglo-Saxon, have looked upon them, and looking, have 
 felt their own weakness and insignificance ; for here the Pyra- 
 mids stand, in gloomy grandeur, frowning upon the pigmies 
 of a day who come to gaze awhile at them and then go away 
 to die — here they remain, the lasting evidences of death's 
 triumph over the race of man, and the puerile attempt of 
 royal despots to provide for themselves mausoleums of imper- 
 ishable renown. What a lesson do they teach of the vanity 
 and worthlessness of this world's greatness and glory ! 
 
 The ascent of the Great Pyramid is a far more serious 
 matter than I had anticipated : in the distance, the angle of 
 the face, which is 52°, does not appear so great as it really 
 is, and one imagines, from the look of things, that it is rather 
 easy than otherwise to climb up the respective layers of stone 
 to the summit ; but the nearer one approaches, the more steep 
 
 * Thompson's "iifrer^y." 
 
ACCENT OF THE PYRAMID. 
 
 dft 
 
 appear the sides, the larger the blocks of stone, the greater 
 the height ; and when a stand is taken at the base, and the 
 spectator sees the task before him in all its magnitude and 
 difficulty — such as it is, — I do not wonder that he feels, as I 
 did, some disinclination to attempt it. For myself, I must 
 say, that, recollecting how I had suffered in clambering up 
 the sides of Mount Vesuvius, I was not without apprehension 
 of what might possibly be the consequences of the toil neces- 
 sary to mount to the top of the Pyramid, and I stood for some 
 time in doubt whether to make a trial or not. The other 
 gentlemen of the party started first, each with three of the 
 Bedawin for assistants, in climbing up from one layer of stone 
 to another ; and after hesitating awhile, I, too, began the 
 ascent. Three Arabs accompanied me ; one took hold of an 
 arm, another of another, and a third helped me up when the 
 stones were very large, and I found it hard to pick my way. 
 The northeast corner is usually the point of starting, and in 
 consequence of the fractures of the corners and sides of the 
 stones, which have been made at various times, and the fre- 
 quency of the ascent, the north side is decidedly the best 
 and easiest to climb up. It was slow work, however, and 
 very difficult and trying to me, as you ma})- suppose when 
 you know that the stones are four and five feet thick, and 
 afford but a narrow resting-place for the feet, as you gradu- 
 ally get higher and higher. Many persons who are good 
 climbers go up alone, but I assure you, that I could hardly 
 have done it without the aid of the Arabs, nor without occa- 
 sionally stopping to rest and recover breath. Practice has 
 rendered these people so agile, that it is no uncommon thing 
 for one of the Bedawin to go up to the top of the Pyramid in 
 five minutes ; others, too, have done it in ten and twelve min- 
 utes ; it took me, however, better than half an hour to reach 
 the summit, with, at the same time, excessive fatigue, and 
 feeling very hot and uncomfortable. But, of course, my feel- 
 ings do not form any criterion for persons in general, who can 
 
40 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 ascend the Pyramids with little difficulty, and scarcely any 
 fatigue. Invalids, however, and bad climbers — ladies in par- 
 ticular, — not infrequently find, that the pleasure of standing 
 on the summit, and beholding the scene there spread out to 
 the view, barely compensates for the toil of the ascent. 
 
 There is something rather surprising in the fact, that the 
 top of the Great Pyramid, which, from the bottom, appears 
 only partially broken off, presents, when you are really there, 
 a broad surface of between thirty and forty feet. In former 
 times, it appears that the platform was much less ; and, we 
 are told that, in the earliest ages the Pyramid was complete 
 and finished up to the very apex ; but, as is well known, 
 the vast structures here situate were used by the Saracen 
 conquerors as quarries, from which to obtain stone for the 
 edifices of Cairo, and consequently, not only the casing-stones, 
 which the Great Pyramid is said to have once possessed, and 
 which are partially remaining on the second, have been car- 
 ried off, but also many blocks have been rolled down from 
 the top, breaking and crushing the sides and corners of most 
 of the layers in their descent, as well as diminishing the ver- 
 tical height of the Pyramids. We spent nearly an hoar in 
 this elevated position, and were not a little interested in the 
 extensive and varied prospect spread out before us in every 
 direction. The atmosphere was not so clear and transparent 
 as is usual in this fine climate, and I found the thermometer 
 had risen to 77° ; but nevertheless, Cairo, with its towering 
 Citadel and tapering minarets, was distinctly visible ; and in 
 the distance, the range of the Mokattam hills, and the 
 quarries of Masarah, from whence the stone used in building 
 the Pyramids was brought, added interest and variety to the 
 scene ; a. short way to the east, the Nile flowed along in 
 still majesty, and the green and fertile fields, with occasional 
 villages here and there, contrasted most strikingly with the 
 barren Libyan desert, reaching away for miles and miles be- 
 yond the eye's range, and presenting a most cheerless aspect. 
 
VIEW FROM THE SUMMIT. 41 
 
 Nearer by, the large and rather fine bridges, built by the 
 Saracens over the canals which lead from the Nile to irrigate 
 the country, formed a prominent feature ; and almost at one's 
 side, the Second Pyramid, the Third, and the many smaller 
 ones scattered around, together with that mysterious idol, the 
 Sphinx, engaged our attention, and afforded abundant food 
 for serious reflection. In many respects the view was pleas- 
 ing, and in all instructive ; yet, though I felt the force of 
 what was before our eyes, and acknowledged the deep interest 
 attaching to these mighty monuments, and the eventful and 
 important history of this land, my mind was filled with 
 mournful emotions, and I gazed long and steadfastly at a 
 scene, which it is out of my power adequately to describe. 
 Death, death, ruin and decay — these formed the prominent 
 characteristics ; death, without hope of renewal — ruin and 
 decay, without expectation of re-enlivening power and energy. 
 The tombs of the dead, the ruins of once mighty cities, the 
 scant remains of former greatness and glory, the degraded 
 descendants of a mighty people, all were about me and before 
 my eyes; and the words of the prophet seemed to write 
 themselves deeper than ever in my memory: — 
 
 " The sword shall come upon Egypt, 
 And great pain shall be in Ethiopia, 
 When the slain shall fall in Egypt, 
 And they shall take away her multitude, 
 And her foundations shall be broken down. 
 
 ♦ * ♦ ♦ 
 
 Thus saith the Lord, 
 They also that uphold Egypt shall fall ; 
 And the pride of her power shall come down ; 
 From Migdol to Syene, shall they fall in it by the sword, 
 Saith the Lord God, 
 
 And they shall be desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, 
 And her cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are wasted. 
 And they shall know that I am the Lord, 
 When I have set a fire in Egypt, 
 And when all her helpers shall be destroyed."* 
 
 ♦ Ezek. XXX. 4, 6-8. 
 
42 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 Like many hundreds of other visitors of all nations,* we too 
 inscribed our initials on one of the immense blocks of stone 
 which are found at this great elevation, and which fill one 
 with wonder how they were ever raised to such a height. 
 As we were all Americans, too, we hoisted the stars and 
 stripes, and one of the party taking the lead, three as hearty 
 cheers were sent forth as ever were heard on any occasion ; 
 tne Bedawin, who had attended us to the top, and were prob- 
 ably not unacquainted with similar outbursts of national feel- 
 ing, joined in with the cheering very lustily ; but hardly had 
 they got through with this tribute to America, before they 
 raised the Arab cry of bakhshish I bakhshish I All such 
 claims, however, we made it a principle to resist, and to give 
 them all that they deserved, and something more, at the last 
 moment of our stay ; for if a person once begins to give, there 
 is no cessation to the clamor and confusion which they make 
 in pressing upon him, and annoying him beyond expression. 
 Taking this course as the best in every way which a travel- 
 ler can adopt, we prepared to descend to the level below, 
 where we had left Mrs. B., who had declined venturing to 
 make the ascent. I will confess to you, my dear S., that I 
 had more apprehension of coming down than of going up. At 
 an elevation of between four and five hundred feet, and look- 
 
 * when Chateaubriand was in Egypt, in 1806, he was prevented by circum- 
 stances from visiting the Pyramids ; nevertheless he thought that he might as 
 well figure in good company there as anybody else ; so, as he says, " I requested 
 M. Caffe, on the first opportunity, to inscribe my name, according to custom, on 
 these prodigious tombs : for I Hke to fulfil all the little duties of a pious traveller." 
 His friend, M. Caffe, it appears, did not relish exactly this injunction, and very 
 quietly omitted putting the learned Frenchman's name on the summit of the 
 Great Pyramid ; but subsequently the piety of the Viscount met with some one 
 who regarded it more highly than M. Caffe appears to have done ; his name was 
 cut into the rock or stone of the Pyramid, and there it remained until a coun- 
 tryman of the parties seems to have blushed at the ridiculousness of the whole 
 proceeding, and so wrote under the name of Chateaubriand, " M. le Vicomte 
 n'etait pas icV I was sorry not to be able to find this amusing specimen of the 
 liistory of past years during our visit to the Pyramids. Possibly it has been en- 
 tirely erased. — See Chateaubriand's "Travels," &c., p. 412, N. Y. 1814. 
 
VISIT TO THE INTERIOR. 
 
 ^ 
 
 ing down the side of a structure varying not much more than 
 35° from the perpendicular, I had some fears lest I might be 
 seized with dizziness, and run a serious risk in consequence ; 
 but happily my fears were unfounded, and I descended in 
 safety and comparative comfort, save a certain amount of 
 lameness and stiffness, arising more from a previous bad fall 
 from a donkey than from any exertion on the present occa- 
 
 sion. 
 
 A Section of the Great Pyramid.* 
 
 After a pleasant dinner-party in our tent, we set off to visit 
 the interior of the Great Pyramid, attended by the sheikh of 
 the village, his treasurer and janissary, and a person holding 
 
 * 1. Entrance on north side. 
 
 2. Forced Entrance to the passage leading to the King's Chamber. 
 
 3. The Well. 
 
 4. Continuation of passage under ground. 
 
 5. Queen's Chamber. 
 
 6. Grand Gallery. 
 
 7. King's Chamber. 
 
 8. Entresols, or chambers above. 
 
•'44i EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 the rank of governor or director of the Bedawin, besides our 
 usual troop of the wild children of the desert, who had elected 
 themselves our attendants and guardians. The old Turk, 
 who was of the party of volunteers, seeing a Frank lady was 
 in the case, was excessively polite, and declared that though 
 he had not for twenty years past visited the interior of the 
 Pyramid, he would certainly do so on this occasion : his ve- 
 racity, I fear, is not above suspicion, since this sort of speech 
 is no uncommon thing in the East ; and it sometimes hap- 
 pens that a man repeats a lie so frequently, as that at last 
 he gets to believe it to be true himself The entrance is on 
 the north side, about fifty feet above the base, but easily 
 reached by means of the large sloping heap of stone and rub- 
 bish which has gradually been here collected during the many 
 operations connected with opening the Pyramid. The pros- 
 pect before one at this point is not a little singular, and not 
 very inviting ; for all that is visible is a narrow low passage, 
 inclining downwards till lost to the view, and evidently not 
 large enough to be passed through except by stooping almost 
 double ; and as it is clear that no light can penetrate, and 
 candles must be used, the imagination may very easily take 
 fright and conjure up phantoms of terror connected with being 
 inside of a vast stone tomb, in the dark, and at the mercy of 
 the wild Bedawin who accompany travellers to light them on 
 their way and aid them in the difficult places. The masonry 
 over the entrance is noticed by Sir Gardner Wiikinson as very 
 singular : two large blocks resting against each other form a 
 sort of pointed arch, and serve to take off" the superincumbent 
 weight from the roof of the passage ; they also manifest very 
 clearly the care and skill, as well as the advanced state of archi- 
 tectural knowledge possessed and exercised by the ancient 
 Egyptians. At the right hand, just beside the entrance, is 
 a tablet covered with hieroglyphics, done by Prof. Lepsius in 
 honor of the king of Prussia and queen of England, — a most 
 singular addition to the Pyramid, and one which Lord Nugent 
 
INTERIOR OP THE PYRAMID. 46 
 
 <Aid othei^ severely and justly criticise, as in bad taste and 
 quite out of place.* It took some time to arrange the pre- 
 liminaries necessary before entering, to see that a sufficient 
 number of candles were ready, to pick out our attendants, to 
 insist upon only just so many going in with us, &c. ; and 
 then, one after another, stooping with our faces toward the 
 opening, and walking backwards, as well as we were able, 
 we went slowly in. The direction of this and all the pas- 
 sages is in a due north and south line, and we proceeded 
 downward at an angle of 27° for about eighty feet, sometimes 
 slipping over the smooth stones under our feet, and very soon 
 feeling the change in the temperature and the annoyance of 
 the dust, which is here rather abundant. At this point we 
 noticed the forced passage which has been made by those who 
 opened the Pyramid, and were unable to remove a granite 
 block which closed the entrance to the upper passage ; and 
 as they could not enter at the proper point where this pas- 
 sage joins the lower, they forced a way into it by hollowing 
 out tlie roofing, and cutting away the upper part of the side 
 of the lower passage. This circumstance obliges one to climb 
 up a few rough steps, when he finds himself in a passage 
 
 * " In one corner of this pediment Prof. Lepsius has, if it may be allowed to 
 say so of so learned and able a man, with a somewhat questionable taste, carved 
 out a tablet, and adorned it with a long, and doubtless very correct, hieroglyphic 
 inscription, in honor of his sovereign, king William of Prussia, and of Victoria, 
 queen of England, strikingly inappropriate in that place— an anachronism 
 both in character and composition — illegible to the great mass of mankind — and 
 to the few learned who can read it, a counterfeit, proclaiming itself to be 
 such ; — a Hne added to the IHad in commemoration of Waterloo," — " Lands Clas- 
 sical and Sacred," vol. i. p. 119. 
 
 Dr. Wilson also speaks rather tartly of this addition to the Great Pyramid: 
 " Whatever may be thought of the taste in which this bedaubery originated, 
 more especially as associated with the name of one of the first of Egyptian an- 
 tiquarians, and his generous regal patron, I have no hesitation in saying that 
 were all gentlemen obliged to produce appropriate and intelligent hieroglyph- 
 ics, according to the ancient form and style and language, as in this instance, 
 when they scribble on the monuments of Egypt, we should have but seldom oc- 
 casion to complain of their officiousness." — '• Lands of the Bible," vol. i. p, 83. 
 
4S EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 ascending at precisely the same angle as that by which he 
 has come thus far, has descended. The second or upper pas- 
 sage is of the same dimensions as the first, which continues 
 its course downwards to a subterranean chamber in the solid, 
 rocky basis of the Pyramid ; but it wants the finish and polish 
 of the first passage : its length is rather more than a hundred 
 feSt.v Jlere we came to the entrance of the " Grand Gal- 
 lery," as- it has been termed, the entrance to "the Well," 
 which communicates with the lower or first passage, oeing 
 on^our right hand, and another passage branching off hori 
 zontally,*and leading to what is called the " Queen's Cham- 
 ber," being directly before us. It was at this point that out 
 gallant friend the Turk gave out, and puffing and sweating 
 with heat and fatigue, he bestowed his malediction upon 
 Frank curiosity, and as soon as possible made his way out 
 again into the open air. We, however, continued our ascent, 
 at the same angle of 27°, through the '* Grand Gallery," 
 which is a wide and lofty opening, extending to a considera- 
 ble length, until we came to a horizontal passage, which, as 
 Wilkinson says, was once closed by four portcullises of gran- 
 ite, sliding in grooves of the same kind of stone ; they served 
 to conceal and stop the entrance to the " King's Chamber." 
 
 This is the principal apartment in the Great Pyramid, and, 
 1 assure you, has an imposing effect upon the mind, as well 
 from its size,^ as from the consideration, that here we may be, 
 and probably are, standing in the very burial chamber of the 
 king who built this mausoleum for his own remains. We spent 
 some time in gazing at the strange scene which the half- 
 lighted chamber presented, with its medley of occupants, the 
 wild and bright black-eyed Bedawin,the turbaned Turk, and 
 the fair-faced Anglo-Saxons ; and the Arab pertinacity in beg- 
 
 * The length of the King's Chamber is 34 ft. 4 in. : its breadth 17 ft. 7 in. ; 
 its height 19 ft. 2 in. The roof is flat, and formed of nine long blocks of granite, 
 which extend from side to side. The side-walls are also of granite blocks in 
 six regular courses, admirably united at the joints, and perfectly even and polished. 
 
SARCOPHAGUS AND KING's CHAMBER. 47 
 
 ging, and the occasional shouts with which they favored us, 
 both to show the power of their lungs, and the reverberating 
 capacity of the apartment, were very singular, in such a 
 place, and under circumstances calculated to produce the 
 deepest emotion. The sarcophagus interested me much more 
 than I had expected, and I took some pains to measure it 
 with precision, because of the question respecting th© means ^ 
 by which, and the time when, it was introduced : /'tlie resull^ 
 of my measurement was as follows : length outside, 7 feet 5 
 inches ; breadth, 3 feet 2i inches ; height, 3 feet 3 inches. 
 It is of the red granite, and has no hieroglyphics upfwi it, arid 
 no cover. Whatever it may have contained in forkier days, 
 it is now empty ; and here it stands, a strange monument of 
 the instability of kingly power, since all this vast structure. 
 as is supposed, was built to contain the perishing dust of a 
 monarch, whose remains have long since, we know not when, 
 been carried off, and scattered to the four winds of heaven. 
 The sarcophagus has been much injured by the culpable con- 
 duct of visitors, who are usually desirous to carry away some 
 relic of the Pyramid, and who have not scrupled to break off 
 pieces from one of the corners, to an extent which, if con- 
 tinued, will ere long destroy it entirely. We hardly had time 
 to reflect much upon the perplexing questions which present 
 themselves in connection with the sarcophagus and the King's 
 chamber, in general ; but we could not fail to be as much 
 struck as every one has been with the fact, that there is an 
 entire absence of hieroglyphics where, above all places, we 
 we should have expected to have found them. May it not 
 be, after all, that the secret of the Pyramid has not yet been 
 discovered ? Is it not possible, that where so much skill and 
 care has been displayed in everything, to keep out intruders, 
 and to conceal from all eyes some sacred spot or object, that 
 there is yet something to be discovered, which will throw light 
 upon points, even to the present day much debated, and far 
 from being satisfactorily ascertained ? I am, by no means, 
 
& 
 
 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 skeptically inclined ; but I profess to you, my dear S., that I 
 am not wholly satisfied on the subject of the Great Pyramid : 
 perhaps time will reveal what is now hidden from the wise 
 and learned laborers in the field of Egyptian history and 
 antiquities. 
 
 Descending from the "King's Chamber," through the 
 " Grand Gallery," we came to the horizontal passage, noticed 
 above, as leading to the apartment called the "Queen's 
 Chamber :" this passage is less than four feet in height, and 
 three feet five inches wide, a fact which, as you perceive, 
 obliges one to stoop and creep along, in a manner extremely 
 disagreeable, especially when it is continued for a hundred 
 feet or more. Between the dust and heat, I found this the 
 most unpleasant part of our visit to the interior of the Pyra- 
 mid, and was far from sorry when permitted to stand upright 
 once more in the " Queen's Chamber." It is not a large 
 apartment, and its roof is formed of long blocks of stone, 
 resting against each other, as over the entrance of the Pyra- 
 mid. The stones in the side- walls are finely fitted or joined 
 together, and the chamber wears the appearance of having 
 been hewn out of the solid rock, which, however, is not the 
 case. Perhaps the most striking thing in connection with 
 this apartment is the fact, that it is directly under the apex 
 of the Pyramid, whereas we should have expected this to be 
 true of the " King's Chamber," in preference every way. At 
 this point, according to Wilkinson, one stands seventy-two 
 feet above the level of the ground, four hundred and eight 
 feet below the original summit, and seventy-one feet below 
 the floor of the " King's Chamber." 
 
 There are other things in the interior of the Great Pyra- 
 mid, which we did not attempt to see, partly from the want 
 of means, and partly from the difficulty, not unattended 
 with danger, connected with them. I refer to the entresols 
 or chambers discovered by Col. Vyse, above the "King's 
 Chamber," and which are reached by means of a ladder, or 
 
VICINITY OF THE PYRAMIDS. 
 
 49 
 
 some wooden steps, now partly decayed ; and also the tortu- 
 ous and irregular passage, termed " the Well," which reaches 
 down to the passage first entered from the outside. It is 
 nearly two hundred feet deep, and, according to Wilkinson, 
 was used by the workmen as a way of egress, after they 
 had closed the lower end of the upper passage with the block 
 of granite above spoken of; though this seems to be hardly 
 a sufficient explanation of the original purpose of forming 
 this passage. Leaving these, as well as the portion still 
 lower down, which was excavated by Col. Vyse, but w:th no 
 particular result, as not offering special inducements to us or 
 other ordinary travellers, I beg to refer you, should you feel 
 curious on the subject of the Pyramids, to the elaborate vol- 
 umes of Col. Vyse, the excellent work of Sir Gardner Wilkin- 
 son, the useful compend of Dr. Russell, or the learned treatise 
 of Champollion-Figeac, entitled " Egypte Ancienne^ All 
 these writers go into detail, and bring to bear an amount and 
 variety of learning and acuteness, far beyond anything to 
 which I can have the slightest pretension, or which would be 
 consistent with the object intended by these familiar letters. 
 On emerging from the interior we found ourselves in a 
 profuse perspiration, produced by the warmth of the atmos- 
 phere inside, and the exertion necessary to make one's way 
 up and down through narrow, close passages, filled with per- 
 sons, and almost suffocating the visitor by the clouds of dust 
 there stirred up. As we purposed spending the night in our 
 tent on the plain below, we retired to it to rest and refresh 
 ourselves with a cup of tea, which was the more delightful 
 because of a lady's presiding over our repast, and adding, by 
 her presence, io the enjoyment of a scene so novel and so in- 
 teresting in every respect. Subsequently we walked forth, 
 just as the sun was setting, and beheld, in the soft rays of 
 twilight and approaching evening, the impressive sight which 
 is presented by the Pyramids, the multitude of tombs on 
 every side, and the Sphinx, that most striking image, which 
 
 3 
 
BO EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 rivals in interest the vast structures near which it stands. 
 Perhaps no collection of monuments in the wide world has 
 so many claims upon the traveller as this, for none can equal 
 it in antiquity, in impressiveness, in gloomy grandeur. If, 
 as I stood upon the summit of the Great Pyramid, I was 
 struck with feelings such as I have alluded to, how much 
 more forcibly were my thoughts now directed in the same 
 channel ; for here, under our feet, all is ruin and decay, all 
 manifest the triumph of death and the mutability of human 
 affairs. The whole plain is filled with the marks and proofs 
 of death ; the Pyramids, as is thought, and with great proba- 
 bility, were mausoleums ; the rocky sides of the elevation on 
 which they stand abound in excavations for tombs, and hun- 
 dreds of pits or burial-places have been dug in the vicinity 
 of the Pyramids ; and beside all these, the sands of the great 
 desert have swept over everything, covering many objects 
 entirely from sight, and lying in heaps and great masses in 
 every direction as far as the eye can reach. Truly, this were 
 a fit place to muse over the past, and musing, to lay up in 
 store lessons of sound wisdom and instruction ; truly, this were 
 the place to burst forth in the words of the accomplished and 
 ill-fated Raleigh, — "O eloquent, just and mighty Death! 
 whom none could advise, thou hast persuaded ; what none 
 have dared, thou hast done ; and whom all the world have 
 flattered, thou only hast cast out and despised : thou hast 
 drawn together all the far-stretched greatness, all the pride, 
 cruelty and ambition of man, and covered it all over with 
 these two narrow words, hic jacet." 
 
 The great length to which my rather discursive remarks 
 have extended, warns me of the necessity of drawing to a close ; 
 but as I have alluded to some questions of great interest in 
 connection with the Pyramids in general, and have as yet had 
 neither time nor space to say aught about the Great Sphinx, 
 and the Second and Third Pyramids, I will, with your permis- 
 sion, stop here, and resume the subject in another Letter. 
 
LETTER III. 
 
 2C|)c ^^ramitrs antr f^zlx 3Suflticrs. 
 
 The Second PjTamid.— The Pyramid of Mycerinus.— The Sphinx.— Its Position and Appearance. 
 —Its Former Glory.— Mystical Import of the Sphinx.— Object of the Pyramids.- Historical 
 Abstract. — Statements of Herodotus, Diodorus, Strabo, Pliny.— Early Christian Travellers. — 
 Date of the Pyramids.— Who Built the Pyramids ?— Intended uses of these Structures.— Ex- 
 citing Scene on Leaving the Pyramids. 
 
 Cairo, Dec. 26th, 1848. 
 My Dear S., 
 
 The Great Pyramid of Cheops, or Suphis, usually en- 
 grosses the attention of the traveller so entirely, and has 
 besides so many superior claims on the score of antiquity, 
 grandeur and solidity of architecture, that not infrequently 
 the Second and Third Pyramids are but cursorily glanced at, 
 and but rarely inspected with care and particularity. Few 
 persons venture to ascend the Pyramid of Cephrenes, for 
 though it is not so high as the Great Pyramid, it is much 
 more difficult to ascend, and indeed presents considerable 
 danger in coming down. The reason is this : the Pyramid 
 of Cheops, though asserted to have had an outer casing which 
 rendered it smooth and even from the apex to the base, has 
 now no remains of such covering, and the visitor easily and 
 quite safely climbs up the different layers which project one 
 beyond another from the top downwards; but the Second 
 Pyramid has a large part of its casing still left, and the voy- 
 ager is compelled to make his way up by getting a foothold 
 in such places as he can, where the stones have been broken 
 or cut into. Generally speaking, this part of the matter is 
 
52 
 
 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 not very difficult or dangerous, for he forgets or does not 
 notice the space he has gone over, and the angle at which he 
 has been mounting upward for some hundreds of feet ; when, 
 however, he stands on the summit, and looking downward, 
 gees the smooth facing of the Pyramid, and the plain spread 
 out below, and while engaged in finding places for his feet, 
 in getting down, he beholds the dizzy height at which he is 
 placed, you will not wonder that an uncomfortable feeling 
 forces itself upon him, or that sometimes he loses his presence 
 of mind, and is in imminent danger of being precipitated 
 down the side of the Pyramid. As there was little to be 
 gained by running any risk of this sort, I did not venture 
 upon the ascent of the Second Pyramid ; nor did we think it 
 worth while to go into the interior ; for after the Great 
 Pyramid, everything appears indifferent by comparison, and 
 substantially the same remarks would apply to the interior 
 of this and the Third Pyramid, as to that which we took some 
 care to examine. A sloping passage, cased with granite, and 
 a long horizontal passage hewn through the rock, lead into 
 one main chamber, similar in form to the " Queen's Cham- 
 ber" in the Great Pyramid, and containing a plain granite 
 sarcophagus. It appears that this, like the other Pyramids, 
 bad been opened by the khalifs, and re-closed. The enter- 
 prising and persevering Belzoni deserves the credit which he 
 has obtained, of opening the Pyramid of Cephrenes, amid dif- 
 ficulties and discouragements which would have broken down 
 the energies of any less sanguine antiquarian than himself;* 
 this was in the year 1816 : Col. Vyse succeeded in laying 
 open the Third Pyramid in the year 1836 ; the Great Pyra- 
 mid was opened, according to Arab writers, by the khalif 
 Mamun, son of the celebrated Harun er Rashid, of the 
 " Arabian Nights' " memory ; this was about A.D. 820. 
 
 * Dr. Russell, in his ^'-Ancient and Modern Egypt,^' pp. 103-110, gives a very 
 interesting and full account of the labors of Belzoni in entering and exploring 
 the Second Pyramid : it is well worth reading. 
 
THE GREAT SPHINX. 53 
 
 The Pyramid of Mycerinus, or Mencheres, offers little to 
 interest the visitor, compared with the two larger ones which 
 overshadow it, and make it appear quite small and insignifi- 
 cant : its height is considerably less than half that of the 
 others, though it seems to have been excellently well-built, 
 and from being cased or covered with the red syenite granite, 
 to have presented an elegant appearance : its interior hardly 
 compensates one for the trouble of creeping through the nar- 
 row entrance, which is almost closed by masses of stone. 
 Col. Vyse found in the interior the sarcophagus of its founder; 
 but unfortunately it was lost at sea, on its way to England: 
 the mummy-case, or wooden coffin, with the name of the 
 king, Mencheres or Mycerinus, which is contained within 
 it, is, however, in the British Museum. We spent only 
 a short time in examining this one of the three greater 
 Pyramids; and gave but a passing look at the multitude 
 of tombs and mummy pits, and the several smaller Pyra- 
 mids which have been erected in the immediate vicinity 
 of those of Cheops and Mycerinus : they are in no wise im- 
 portant, in themselves considered, unless perhaps from the 
 singular desire which seems to have been present with so 
 many to erect, in this particular locality, mausoleums for 
 their mortal remains, and to sleep in the midst of the vast 
 necropolis of royal Memphis. 
 
 The Great Sphinx is one of the most striking and interest- 
 ing monuments in the vicinity of the ancient capital of Egypt, 
 and well deserves its place by the side of the Great Pyramid. 
 It faces the traveller as he approaches by the route by which 
 we came, that is, from the east, and though overshadowed 
 by the Pyramids, not far from which it stands,^ it wears so 
 massive and so imposing an appearance, that it may well 
 
 * The Sphinx is about 1700 ft. due east of the Second PyramicT, and about 
 1000 ft. south-easterly of the S. E. corner of the Great Pyramid. ChampolHon- 
 Figeac gives its dimensions as follows : — Length, 128 ft. ; circumference of the 
 head round the forehead, 88 ft. 7 in. ; height from the belly to the top of the 
 head, 55 ft, 9 in. 
 
m 
 
 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 claim attention, and may well increase his wonder at the 
 mighty remains which have survived the lapse of thousands 
 of years. Cut out of the solid rocky basis on which the Pyra- 
 mids are built, and looking forth toward the rising sun over 
 the broad plain between it and the range of hills in the dis- 
 tance, even now, almost covered with the sand of the desert, 
 and disfigured and injured by the hand of violence, it is an 
 image of striking impressiveness, and I doubt not was rever- 
 enced and worshipped by the early Egyptians with the deep- 
 est solemnity. It was in the early morning, after a night 
 spent in our tent on the plain below, that I made a second 
 visit to the Sphinx. The rays of the sun shone brilliantly 
 upon the mutilated face of the image, and disclosed to view 
 features which I had not noticed before, and which seemed 
 to me to give it sternness of character, and yet a dignity and 
 force which must have been peculiarly effective in the wor- 
 ship of a people given to mysticism and superstition. Even 
 now. as I have said, when only the head and upright portion 
 of the Sphinx are distinctly visible, and with difficulty the 
 back of the leonine part can be traced out behind, — even in 
 its present condition, injured as it has been by the nose being 
 broken off, and much of the ornament of the head being re- 
 moved, it is an image which no one can pass by unheeded ; 
 how much more grand and impressive must it have been in 
 its palmy days, when the face was so renowned for its grace- 
 fulness and admirable proportions as to excite the astonish- 
 ment of an ancient writer ; when, being wholly uncovered 
 and exposed to view, the worshipper beheld the vast propor- 
 tions of the Sphinx ; the huge legs stretched out fifty feet in 
 front of the body, which is in a recumbent posture ; the altar 
 of sacrifice, the three tablets of granite, forming a sort of 
 sanctuary or temple, and the small lion couching in front of 
 this edifice with its eyes fixed on the Sphinx, all placed be- 
 tween the projecting forelegs ; the massive breast, neck and 
 
PURPORT OF THE SPHINX. SU 
 
 head of a man, measuring from the belly of the lion to the 
 highest point of the head, sixty-three feet, and the expansive 
 lion's back, reaching out to the vast length of nearly a hun- 
 dred and fifty feet — how grand, striking, and forceful must 
 it have appeared in the days of its glory and renown !* 
 
 It needs not here, my dear S., that I venture upon the 
 question which has been discussed with much learning, as to 
 the design of the Sphinx ; doubtless there was some deep 
 meaning intended to be couched under this union of man 
 and beast, and their respective qualities ; but precisely what 
 it is, is difficult to say, or which of the numerous theories of 
 distinguished scholars is the more probable, it is hard to pro- 
 nounce ; perhaps, after all, the discussion is of no great value, 
 since I believe it may be said, that Egyptian theology is in- 
 volved in even deeper darkness, than that which has long 
 enveloped the history and literature of the land of the Pha- 
 raohs; and there can be little doubt, after what the labors of 
 the indefatigable Caviglia brought to light, that the Sphinx 
 was a local deity, and was treated with divine honor and 
 worship by the ancient Egyptians. Instead of wearying you 
 with abstruse speculation, permit me to quote, as a relief 
 to the dryness of what has gone before, the celebrated 
 Dr. Young's version of one of the Greek exvotos or dedica- 
 
 * Lord Lindsay, in his interesting ''Letters on Egypt,^' &c., (p. 51,) gives a 
 more poetic and fanciful view of the Sphinx. His notion is, that the human 
 head and bust are those of a woman, and he indulges in something of a rhap- 
 sody thereupon : — " Her attitude bespeaks the calm repose of conscious strength, 
 her expression of countenance benevolence — the tout ensemble, strange, mysteri- 
 ous beauty, awful in its stillness. A monster she is indeed, but not one to trem- 
 ble at, — you stand before her in awe and reverence, as before the wise but be- 
 nevolent Simurgh ; and oh, if one could but give her a tongue, what histories 
 she would tell, what wisdom reveal to us !" I am sorry to interfere with Lord 
 L.'s poetry, but there can be no doubt that, as Mr. Layard (" Nineveh," &c., 
 vol. ii. p. 170) asserts, " It is well known that the Egyptian Sphinx is always 
 male." The Great Sphinx, too, appears to have been a sculptured representation 
 of one of the early Pharaohs, 
 
m 
 
 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 tory inscriptions, found sculptured on the left paw of the 
 Sphinx : — 
 
 '*Thy form stupendous here the gods have placed, 
 
 Sparing each spot of harvest-bearing land ; 
 And with this mighty work of art have graced 
 
 A rocky isle, encuraber'd once with sand ; 
 
 And near the Pyramids have bid thee stand : 
 Not that fierce Sphinx that Thebes erewhile laid waste, 
 
 But great Latona's servant, mild and bland ; 
 Watching that Prince beloved, who fills the throne 
 Of Egypt's plains, and calls the Nile his own : 
 That heavenly monarch who his foes defies, 
 Like Vulcan powerful, and like Pallas wise." Arrun. 
 
 The allusion which has been made to the recondite mean- 
 ing which was probably intended by idols like the Sphinx, 
 naturally suggests the more important and more interesting 
 questions, which have been raised in regard to the Pyramids. 
 I fear that I may be trespassing upon your patience, as well 
 as deceiving myself, by the thought, that you will take an 
 interest in a discussion, which, so far as one can see, will 
 never be brought to a precise and satisfactory conclusion : 
 yet, nevertheless, as I have purposely omitted to speak of 
 several matters, not only interesting in themselves, but of 
 considerable importance in connection with the history of 
 past ages, I must beg your indulgence for a page or two, 
 while I endeavor to give a brief outline of the questions at 
 issue on the subject of the Pyramids, and a rapid sketch of 
 the more probable opinions as to their uses and history. 
 
 It is a singular fact in regard to these imposing monuments, 
 that there are few points on which ancient writers agree with 
 the moderns, or the moderns with themselves ; or, if this be 
 thought too strong language, there can be no doubt that it is 
 a strange thing how many and various opinions and theories 
 have been started, and how little satisfaction is, after all, de- 
 rived from the researches of many learned and able men, in 
 this interesting field.=^ The ancient writers, commencing 
 
 * It is not a little curious, and may be of service, to place side by side the 
 
STATEMENT OP HERODOTUS. 
 
 57 
 
 with Herodotus, have related the traditions which were cur- 
 rent in their days, and have furnished some facts of a rather 
 curious nature,, and made several statements which ft seems 
 impossible to reconcile with truth. The " father of history" 
 (B.C. 443) enters into a long and, on the whole, sensible 
 account of the Pyramids. He informs us that the First or 
 Great Pyramid was erected by a despotic and profligate mon- 
 arch, named Cheops, that the time occupied was twenty years, 
 and the number of men employed 400,000: he goes on to 
 explain the probable mode in which the immense stones of 
 the Pyramid were elevated to their proper position, expressly 
 declaring that none of them were of less dimensions than 
 thirty feet, and that the whole structure was finished from 
 the top downwards. He concludes his statements respecting 
 the Great Pyramid with a rather ridiculous story, which one 
 might think was something of a jest of the interpreter at his 
 expense, viz., that the outer surface of the Pyramid contained 
 
 measurements which have been made of the Great Pyramid at different periods, 
 and it may possibly serve to justify the expressions used above ; inasmuch as 
 there is here no room for mere speculation, but simply the determining a certain 
 number of feet and inches : now mark the result. 
 
 
 
 
 Perpendicular Height. Length of Sides. 
 
 Herodotus says 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 800 ft. . 
 
 800 ft. 
 
 Strabo " 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 
 625 " 
 
 600" 
 
 Diodorus " 
 
 , , 
 
 , 
 
 
 600 " 
 
 700" 
 
 Pliny " 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 
 725 " . 
 
 883" 
 
 Thevenot " 
 
 present height 
 
 
 . 520" 
 
 612" 
 
 Niebuhr " 
 
 (( 
 
 (( 
 
 
 . 440" 
 
 710" 
 
 Greaves " 
 
 (C 
 
 « 
 
 
 . 444" 
 
 648" 
 
 Davison " 
 
 {( 
 
 (( 
 
 
 . 461 " 
 
 746" 
 
 Champollion-Figeac 
 
 (( 
 
 
 . 456" 
 
 763" 
 
 Sir G. Wilkinson 
 
 C( 
 
 (( 
 
 
 . 461 " 
 
 . 732 " 
 
 Col. Vyse 
 
 (( 
 
 (( 
 
 
 . 451 " 
 
 746" 
 
 The two distinguished scholars last quoted are undoubtedly worthy of implicit 
 confidence ; but even these differ by ten and twelve feet, one from the other. Is 
 it not possible to have the Pyramids measured so accurately as that we can be 
 certain on this point 1 I would suggest, also, that perhaps the anci^^nt writers 
 do not speak of the perpendicular height of the Great Pyramid, bu> n Ui* u»- 
 clined height, i. e., the distance from the base along the side up to th» 
 
 3* 
 
58 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 a long record, in Egyptian characters, of the sums expended 
 in the progress of the work, for the radishes, onions and gar- 
 lic consumed by the workmen. Truly, a most unique appro- 
 priation of the face of so grand a monument. Of the Second 
 and Third Pyramids, Herodotus speaks in brief terms, assert- 
 ing, that though the body of Cheops is said to be deposited in 
 the Great Pyramid, the Pyramid of Cephrenes had no cham- 
 bers inside, and, of course, no passages similar to those in his 
 brother's burial place : the mausoleum of Mycerinus, he re- 
 lates, was considerably smaller than that of his father Cheops, 
 and was in part constructed of Ethiopian stones. He gives 
 the size of these vast structures as follows, having declared 
 that he had measured them : Height of the Great Pyramid, 
 eight hundred feet ; length of its sides, eight hundred feet. 
 The Second Pyramid, he states, is less than that of his bro- 
 ther's, and not so high by forty feet. The Third Pyramid 
 he makes three hundred feet in height. 
 
 It is not necessary that I detain you with an abstract of 
 the historical statements made by Diodorus, Strabo and Pliny, 
 for, substantially, they agree with what has been drawn from 
 Herodotus. Diodorus (B.C. 59) gives the name of the 
 founder of the Great Pyramid as Chembis or Chemmis, and 
 its height as six hundred, and its breadth seven hundred feet. 
 Strabo (B.C. 30) speaks of the opening near the centre of 
 the First Pyramid, closed by a stone which can be removed, 
 and gives the height six hundred and twenty-five feet, and the 
 breadth six hundred feet. He also mentions the fragments of 
 stone scattered about, resembling lentils and barley, which he 
 supposes may be the petrified remains of the workmen's food. 
 Pliny, (A.D. 70) stigmatizing the Pyramids as an idle and 
 silly display of royal wealth, mentions " the Well" in the in- 
 terior of the Great Pyramid, relates some foolish stories of the 
 means used in the construction of such vast edifices, and gives 
 the height of the first as seven hundred and twenty-five, and 
 its breadth eight hundred and eighty-three feet. 
 
Some of the early Christian travellers have related the 
 traditions which prevailed in their days, which are more cu- 
 rious than profitable. Bernard the Wise (A.D. 867) speaks 
 of " Babylon of Egypt, where once reigned King Pharaoh, 
 under whom Joseph built the seven granaries still remain- 
 ing." Benjamin of Tudela, a Jewish traveller, (A.D. 1168) 
 says, "the Pyramids, which are seen here, (at Old Mizraim) 
 are constructed by magic ; and in no other country or other 
 place, is anything equal to them. They are composed of 
 stones and cement, and are very substantial.'' Sir John 
 Maundeville, (A.D. 1322) who abounds in marvellous stories, 
 devotes a whole paragraph to the Pyramids: "Now I will 
 speak of another thing that is beyond Babylon, above the 
 Nile, toward the desert, between Africa and Egypt ; that is, 
 of the granaries of Joseph, that he caused to be made, to 
 keep the grains against the dear years. They are made of 
 stone, well made by masons' craft ; two of them are marvel- 
 lously great and high, the others are not so great. And each 
 granary has a gate to enter within, a little above the earth ; 
 for the land is wasted and fallen since the granaries were 
 made. Within they are full of serpents ; and above the 
 granaries without are many writings in divers languages. 
 And some men say that they are sepulchres of great lords 
 that were formerly ; but that is not true, for all the common 
 rumor and speech of the people there, both far and near, is 
 that they are the granaries of Joseph ; and so find they in 
 their writings and chronicles. On the other side, if they 
 were sepulchres, they would not be empty within ; for you 
 may well know, that tombs and sepulchres are not made of 
 such magnitude or elevation ; wherefore it is not credible 
 that they are tombs or sepulchres."^* 
 
 It is a relief to turn from such garrulity to the writings of 
 those learned and careful laborers in the field of Egyptian 
 
 * See " Early Travels in Palestine," one of Bohn's " Antiquarian Library." 
 It will be observed that the Editor, Mr. Wright, has modernized the spcHing, which 
 takes away somewhat from the quaintness and pith of the mediaeval writers. 
 
 ^gfi-^ 
 
f© EGYPT AND THE HOLY LANDi 
 
 history and literature, which the last half-century has pro- 
 duced. I need but mention the names of such men as Ham- 
 ilton, Belzoni, Richardson, Rosselini, the French savans, Wil- 
 kinson, Vyse, Osburn, Lane, Lepsius, &c., to call to your 
 recollection the pleasure and improvement drawn from their 
 productions, and to induce you to refer to their elaborate vol- 
 umes for the particulars which I cannot now pretend to give. 
 All that I shall attempt on this occasion will be, to give you 
 a brief abstract of the more probable opinions which have at 
 times prevailed, or still hold sway, in respect to 1) the date 
 and founders of the Pyramids, and 2) their intended uses. 
 
 1. The question as to the date and founders of the Pyra- 
 mids opens at once, as you perceive, a vast field of inquiry, 
 and if treated properly, and at all fully, involves the necessity 
 of entering into that very perplexing, but very important 
 branch of human learning, ancient chronology ; I shall not, 
 however, presume here to do more than allude to some things 
 which perhaps I may be able at a later day to discuss more at 
 large. Following the chronological table given by Sir Gard- 
 ner Wilkinson, the Great Pyramid was built about B.C. 2123 ; 
 the Second, B.C. 2083; the Third, B.C. 2043. The same 
 high authority makes Abraham to have visited Egypt B.C. 
 1920, and the Exodus to have taken place B.C. 1491. Era- 
 tosthenes, as quoted by Syncellus in his Chronicle, gives the 
 date of Saophis or Suphis (the same as Cheops in Herodotus) 
 as B.C. 1853 ; Suphis 11. (Cephrenes) B.C. 1824 ; Moscheres 
 (Mycerinus) B.C. 1797. Dr. Hales, in his " New Analysis 
 of Chronology," states that the First Pyramid was begun 
 about B.C. 2095 ; that Abraham visited Egypt B.C. 2077 ; 
 and that the Exodus occurred B.C. 1648. A learned young 
 friend of mine, Mr. Reginald Stuart Poole, at present a resi- 
 dent of Cairo, places the reign of Suphis I., builder of the 
 Great Pyramid, B.C. 2350, and dates the Exodus B.C. 
 1 652.* Townsend (who, with many divines of note, follows 
 
 * See ''Literary Gazette,'' No. 1703. Lond., Sept. 1st, 1849. 
 
DATE OF THE PYRAMIDS. 61 
 
 Ussher, or the ordinary Bible chronology,) gives the date of 
 Joseph's death B.C. 1635, and expresses the opinion that 
 the Pyramids were built, or rather commenced, about forty 
 years subsequently, i. e., B.C. 1595. RoUin also follows 
 Ussher's scheme, and gives the date of the pyramid builders 
 as B.C. 1204, i. e., about three hundred years after the Ex- 
 odus. Dr. Richardson, as quoted by Col. Vyse, dates them 
 as low as B.C. 1032. A later school, more particularly the 
 German, is disposed to give them even greater antiquity than 
 is done by any of the writers above quoted. Bockh, as quoted 
 by Dr. Nolan, (in his learned " Egyptian Chronology Ana- 
 lyzed") makes Suphis I. to have been of the fourth dynasty, 
 B.C. 4904 ; Suphis 11. B.C. 4842 ; Mencheres, B.C. 4776, 
 Chevalier Bunsen, who is understood to agree with Lepsius 
 in all important matters, is of opinion that there are existing 
 Egyptian monuments (the Pyramids are among the oldest, if 
 not the oldest,) which date back more than B.C. 3000.* Mr. 
 Gliddont (in his '^ Otia ^gyptiaca," 1849,) speaks rather 
 vaguely, but has no hesitation in carrying back the date of 
 the Pyramids to more than 5000 years ago, or to about B.C. 
 3500. Champollion-Figeaci: places the invasion of the Hyk- 
 sos, or Shepherd-Kings, about B.C. 2000, and quotes from 
 Manetho's list of Egyptian Dynasties the era of Suphis, Sen- 
 saouphis and Mencheres, about B.C. 5000 — 4800. The re- 
 sult then is as follows : — 
 
 The highest date claimed is (about) B.C. 4900. 
 The lowest date 'assigned is " " 1200. 
 
 The most probable date is " " 2100. 
 
 * Bunsen's " Egypt's Place'' &c., vol. i. p. xxviii. Introd. 
 
 f " All the Memphite pyramids existed and were ancient 2000 years before 
 Christ. All the pyramids in Lower Egypt are 4000 years old, and taking the 
 pyramid of Moeris, according to Lepsius' letters, built between 2151 and 2194 
 before Christ, as the last of this series, the remainder will successively recede to 
 above 5000 years ago." — Gliddon's " Otia JEgyptica" p. 25. 
 
 X This learned writer speaks of " une peuplade de Barbares ; I'histoire les a 
 nommes Pasteurs et Hyksos. lis furent ses maitres pendant pres de trois siecles, 
 
WS EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 All this is certainly dry enough, and hardly to be excused 
 on any plea, unless you will tolerate it on the ground of its 
 giving you a glimpse, at least, of the difficulties and uncer* 
 tainties attendant upon ancient chronology in general, and 
 that of Egypt in particular. It will be more interesting, I 
 hope, to spend a few moments in endeavoring to ascertain 
 who were the builders, or were concerned in the building of 
 the Pyramids. 
 
 Here, too, the opinions of the learned are various, and not 
 very satisfactory. Some writers of eminence suppose, that 
 the Jews were compelled to labor in the erection of the Pyr- 
 amids. Josephus, in speaking of the various modes in which 
 the Egyptians oppressed the Israelites, expressly declares that 
 the Pharaohs of that period, " who knew not Joseph" and his 
 services, "set them also to build pyramids."^ Perizonius, 
 (1711) in his " History of Egypt," quotes the statement of 
 Josephus, just given ; and though doubting, on the whole, the 
 great antiquity of these buildings, is of opinion that they were 
 constructed by the Hebrews.t Dr. Clarke (1801) inclines 
 strongly to the view, that the Jews, though chiefly employed 
 upon brick constructions, were occupied in the erection of 
 the Pyramids of Memphis : he has, besides, a notion peculiar 
 to himself, so far as I know, viz., that the Great Pyramid 
 was the tomb of Joseph, and that it was opened at the Ex- 
 odus, that his bones might be carried up to Judea. In Cal- 
 met's " Dictionary of the Holy Bible," several pages are de- 
 voted to the advocacy of the theory now under consideration : 
 a degree of acuteness is displayed, but the arguments adduced 
 are far from convincing.^ The learned and reverend Henry 
 Browne, in his " Ordo Sseclorum," (1844) is the latest writer, 
 I believe, who takes this view of the question. " That the 
 
 et ce fut d'un de ces chefs etrangers que Joseph, fils de Jacob, fut le premier 
 ministre;" &c. — " Egypte Ancienne," p. 42. 
 
 * Joseph. " Antiqy ii. 9. f See Vyse's " Pyramids,'' vol. ii. p. 236. 
 
 :}: Calmet's " Dictionary," p. 374. Am. Ed. 1843. 
 
BUILDERS OF THE PYRAMIDS. €3 
 
 Israelites were the persons employed in building the Pyramids, 
 the Jews themselves at a later period believed, and it is a sup- 
 position to which one is naturally led by the very terms in which 
 their bondage is described in Scripture." " The tnith is, doubt- 
 less, that the Pyramids were raised by the labor of the Israelites 
 in the time of their oppression : but in the national version of the 
 story, the oppressed became the oppressors ; the Israelites, under 
 the name of Hyksos, were represented as a godless race of shep- 
 herds, who caused these vast monuments of their tyranny to be 
 reared by the labor of the Egyptians." The same author 
 thinks, that the name Suphis or SaophiSy is, in reality, the 
 very name Joseph ; and that when his memory became odious 
 to the Egyptians, they set him forth as "an invading tyrant, 
 at the head of a horde of godless shepherds (Salatis), and 
 withal, as the builder of the Great Pyramid (Suphis or Che- 
 ops). "=* I do not know how these sentiments may strike 
 your mind, or whether you will be able to see any force in 
 the arguments used, to support the opinion of the Jews' con- 
 nection with the erection of the Pyramids : for my own part, 
 I cannot accede to this view, for several reasons, but princi- 
 pally the deficiency of everything like proof in its support. 
 I am much disposed to prefer the more commonly adopted 
 view, that the Pyramids were erected by the Shepherd Kings, 
 during the time of their rule in Egypt. This would accord 
 very well with the great antiquity of these vast monuments, 
 and would serve, in some measure, at least, to explain the 
 reason why " every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyp- 
 tians."! If it be true, as is generally agreed at the present 
 day, that Egypt was overrun by a foreign tribe, known in 
 history as the Hyksos or Shepherd Kings ; and if it be true 
 that they established their power, maintained their supremacy 
 for some hundreds of years, (Dr. Hales says 260 years,) and 
 treated their conquered subjects with severity amounting to 
 actual tyranny, the supposition does not, certainly, seem im- 
 
 ♦ Browne's «' Qrdo Sceclorum," pp. 587, 594, 595. f <J^en. xlvi. 34. 
 
(St 
 
 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 probable, that they might have been the founders of the Pyr- 
 amids, and that they might have hit on this plan as an excel- 
 lent one for breaking down the spirit of the people, and for 
 preventing any sudden or violent outbreak. Now you will 
 observe, that I have ventured to think, that about B.C. 2100 
 is the most probable date of the Pyramids ; if this be so, 
 Abraham (according to Dr. Hales's Chronology), appears to 
 have visited Egypt about B.C. 2077 ; and the Shepherd 
 dynasty to have been expelled by the efforts of the native 
 kings, who probably retained all along their dominion in the 
 Thebaid, about B.C. 1900 : Joseph — following the same 
 learned author — was appointed governor or regent under one 
 of the Pharaohs, who were native kings, B.C. 1872, and his 
 father and family came and settled in the land of Goshen, 
 only a few years subsequently. The recent expulsion of the 
 Hyksos was fresh in the memories of the people, and those 
 mighty masses, the Pyramids, were striking mementos to 
 their minds, of foreign invasion and oppression. Hence, on 
 this hypothesis, we can understand the significancy of that 
 expression, that shepherds were regarded as an abomination 
 by the Egyptians ; not, probably, all shepherds, for the Egyp- 
 tians themselves had flocks and herds, but shepherds who 
 came from abroad, and towards whom, having no natural 
 affinity, they entertained invincible repugnance and hatred. 
 I am well aware, that very much of what I have stated as 
 most probabfe on this subject, is yet unsubstantiated by proof; 
 but as it is most likely, that for many years to come we shall 
 be under the guidance of theories and great names, instead 
 of clear and satisfactory evidence, I hope that you will agree 
 with me in looking upon this hypothesis as, all things con- 
 sidered, quite as reasonable as any other. Sir Gardner Wil- 
 kinson expresses himself on these points, with a candor and 
 fairness worthy of all praise : let me quote his words : — " I 
 have supposed the date of the Great Pyramid, or the reign 
 of Suphis, to be about B.C. 2120 ; but this is a conjecture 
 
INTENT OF THE PYRAMIDS. 65 
 
 which remains to be confirmed or refuted by future discov- 
 eries. At all events, the opinion of those who conclude from 
 the Pyramids not being mentioned in the Bible, and by Homer, 
 that they did not exist before the Exodus, nor at the time of 
 the poet, is totally inadmissible ; and we may, with equal 
 readiness, reject the assertion of those who pretend that the 
 Jews aided in their construction. With regard to the opinion 
 that those kings were foreigners, arguments may oe found 
 both to refute and support it. The style of architecture, the 
 sculptures in the tombs, and the scenes they represent, are 
 all Egyptian ; and there are no subjects relating to another 
 race, or to customs differing from those of the country. On 
 the other hand, the aversion stated by Herodotus to have been 
 felt by the Egyptians for the memory of their founders, if 
 really true, would accord with the oppression of foreign tyrants. 
 Other strangers who ruled in Egypt employed native archi- 
 tects and sculptors ; and it is remarkable that, with the excep- 
 tion of the Sphinx, Campbell's tomb, and a few others, the 
 Pyramids and the monuments about them, are confined to 
 nearly the same period. But, however strong the last may 
 appear in favor of a foreign dynasty, it must be remembered 
 that all the tombs of Beni Hassan were, in like manner, 
 made within the short period of two or three reigns ; and 
 many other cemeteries seem to have been used for a limited 
 time, both at Thebes and other places."* 
 
 2. It is a question of considerable interest as to what were 
 the intended uses of the Pyramids; and here too there is 
 nearly as much disagreement as in respect to the date and 
 founders of these massive monuments. It has been conjec- 
 tured by a writer of eminence, as quoted by Dr. Russell, that 
 inasmiich as the entrance to the Pyramids is on the north 
 side, near the centre, and the angle of inclination is in every 
 case about 27°, there must have been intended by this some 
 special connection with the science of astronomy, to which 
 
 * " Hand Book for Egypt;' p. 197.-^^*^ ^^ ■^' ' * 
 
66 
 
 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 we know the ancient priests of Egypt were greatly addicted. 
 Weight seems to be added to this opinion by the fact that th^ 
 Pyramids uniformly face the four cardinal points, which coul(^ 
 hardly have been the effect of chance, and almost demon- 
 strates the advance in science of the ancient Egyptians. A 
 recent French writer=^ has devoted a good deal of learning to 
 the advocacy of the theory, that the Pyramids were erected 
 for the purpose of preventing the encroachments of the sands 
 of the desert on this side of the valley of the Nile : by the 
 kindness of a friend and fellow-voyager I have been permitted 
 to peruse this volume, but though interesting, it is not to my 
 mind at all convincing. Mr. Agnew, an English scholar, in 
 the year 1838, broached a novel theory; he supposed that 
 the Egyptians were so scientific as to have attained to a 
 knowledge of squaring the circle, and that they "sought in 
 the appropriate figure of the Pyramid to perpetuate a portion 
 of their geometrical science." Dr. Shaw, and some few others, 
 think that these vast erections were used for the purpose of 
 worshipping in them the deity which was typified in the out- 
 ward form of the Pyramid, that is, that they were temples 
 rather than anything else. Not to dwell upon other theories, 
 I may mention that the one most usually adopted, and which 
 has the least difficulties connected with it, is that which is 
 derived from the ancients, and which makes them to have 
 been built for tombs or sepulchres. While I am not thor- 
 oughly convinced on the point, I must confess that this is, on 
 the whole, the most probable supposition ; it is not unlikely 
 too, that they may have subserved another, or other purposes, 
 and thus, though primarily intended as tombs, may still have 
 been used for scientific purposes. Such is the opinion of Sir 
 Gardner Wilkinson, than whom there is no higher authority. 
 '' I do not presume (he says) to explain the real object for 
 which the Pyramids were built, but feel persuaded that they 
 served for tombs, and were also intended for astronomical 
 
 * ♦ M. de Persigny, " De la destination des Pyramides," &c. 1845. 
 
DR. Johnson's opiNio]%yi>a ©7 
 
 purposes. For though it is in vain to look for the pole-star 
 in latitude 30°, at the bottom of a passage descending at an 
 angle of 27°, or to imagine that a closed passage, or that a 
 Pyramid covered with a smooth inaccessible casing, were 
 intended for an observatory, yet the form of the exterior 
 might lead to many useful calculations. They stand exactly 
 due north and south, and while the direction of the faces, 
 east and west, might serve to fix the return of a certain pe- 
 riod of the year, the shadow cast by the sun at the time of 
 its coinciding with their slope, might be observed for a simi- 
 lar purpose."^ Such is doubtless the most sober and judi- 
 cious opinion in the present state of our knowledge respecting 
 Egypt and its wonders ; and here I am disposed to leave the 
 whole subject, begging, however, as a relief to the dry and 
 dull manner with which I have imposed upon you in this 
 discussion, to quote the words of a wise and good man in 
 reference to these mausoleums of the Pharaohs : — " For the 
 Pyramids no reason has ever been given, adequate to the cost 
 and labor of the work. The narrowness of the chambers 
 proves that it could afford no retreat from enemies, and treas- 
 ures might have been reposited at far less expense with equal 
 security. It seems to have been erected only in compliance 
 with that hunger of imagination which preys incessantly upon 
 life, and must be always appeased by some employment. 
 Those who have already all that they can enjoy, must en- 
 large their desires. He that has built for use till use is sup- 
 plied, must begin to build for variety, and extend his plan to 
 the utmost power of human performance, that he may not 
 soon be reduced to form another wish. I consider this mighty 
 structure as a monument of the insufficiency of human en- 
 joyments. A king whose power is unlimited, and whose 
 treasures surmount all real and imaginary wants, is com- 
 pelled to solace, by the erection of a Pyramid, the satiety of 
 dominion and tastelessness of pleasures, and to amuse the 
 
 * " Hand Book for Egypt;' p. 185. ^pj 
 
DJy EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 tediousness of declining life, by seeing thousands laboring 
 without end, and one stone, for no purpose, laid upon an- 
 other. Whoever thou art, that, not content with a moder- 
 ate condition, imaginest happiness in royal magnificence, and 
 dreamest that command or riches can feed the appetite of 
 novelty with perpetual gratifications, survey the Pyramids, 
 and confess thy folly !"^ 
 
 But a truce to this long discussion. I shall not soon ven- 
 ture to trespass upon you in a similar way ; and I feel that 
 at this joyous season, when you at home are celebrating the 
 Christmas holidays, it is too great a tax to impose upon any 
 one to ask him to wade through the deep and dark waters of 
 doubt and mystery which, as it were, encompass the whole 
 land of Egypt. Lret me tell you of other things, which, though 
 more common-place, are not, I trust, less interesting. The 
 evening and night of the 22d ult. were spent in our tent, 
 over which waved the beautiful flag of our country. A regu- 
 lar watch was established, and save some slight disturbance 
 produced by the braying of a donkey, and the everlasting 
 chatter of the Arabs, who were awake and seated round a 
 fire, the night passed quietly.t We arose the next morning 
 very early, and beheld a most gorgeous sunrise, clear, bright, 
 unclouded, and shedding a new glory upon those vast struc- 
 tures which the rays of the sun have illumined day by day 
 for thousands of years. On breaking up our encampment, 
 we had rather an amusing, but somewhat vexatious scene. 
 Mr. and Mrs. B., who, I am sony to say, will not proceed 
 up the Nile this season, were going to visit, on the 23d, the 
 Pyramids of Sakhara and that neighborhood, and conse- 
 quently wished not only to retain the services of the janis- 
 
 * Dr. Johnson's " Rasselas," ch. xxxii. 
 
 I I found it rather cool, almost cold, in the night ; the thermometer at 5 P, M. 
 Btood at 67° ; in the middle of the night, 50° ; and the next morning at 7, 52°. 
 This, I believe, is about the usual range : Mr. Lane remarks, (vol. i. p. 12) that 
 " a penetrating cold is felt in Egypt when the thermometer of Fahrenheit is be- 
 low 60°." 
 
EXCITEMENT ON LEAVING. 69 
 
 sary of the American consulate, but to get off as early as 
 possible, so as to return to Cairo the same day. A party of 
 at least fifty wild Arabs gathered around in expectation of 
 that greatest of all delights to a Bedawy, getting of bakh- 
 shish. Every fellow whom you had looked at, or rapped 
 over the knuckles, or driven off, or almost trampled under 
 foot in your vexation, came for bakhshish; the black eyes 
 flashed with eagerness ; the boy with his goolel or water-jug, 
 the one who had lent a helping-hand in the ascent or forced 
 himself upon you when visiting the interior, the old and the 
 young, the sheikh of the village near by, and the naked vag- 
 abond, all pressed forward and cried the well-known Arab 
 cry, ''bakhshish, bakhshish !" The boys and half-grown men, 
 at one side, significantly drew their fingers across their mouths, 
 and then snapped them like the lash of a whip, pointing fur- 
 tively to the sheikh, and implored us not to give their bakh- 
 shish into his hands, since, in that case, poor fellows, they stood 
 very little chance of ever seeing a para of it in their own 
 possession. While our friend the janissary remained, things 
 went on pretty well, and the clamor was kept within due 
 bounds ; he whirled his staff of office about without regard 
 to whom he struck, and with hearty good-will, and through 
 him we paid every man at least five times as much as he 
 deserved. M^. and Mrs. B. bade us good-morning, and pre- 
 ceded by the janissary, rode off towards Sakhara ; and then 
 you should have seen what a storm of noise and confusion 
 was. stirred up ! they crowded round us by dozens, not a sin- 
 gle one satisfied, and all excited to a degree beyond what is 
 usual even among Arabs ; they shouted for more, more ! laid 
 their hands upon the heads of our donkeys, and seemed dis- 
 posed to proceed to extremities. Happily we did not lose our 
 presence of mind, but we did become indignant, and spring- 
 ing on the backs of our trusty steeds, we warned them to 
 clear the road, and flinging aside every fellow who stood in 
 the way, we dashed forward over the sands towards Gizeh. 
 
7® EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND 
 
 The insatiable troop followed us a long way ; but by degrees 
 they tired out, and we were left in peace to return to Cairo. 
 We reached the city about mid-day, without accident, and 
 highly gratified with our visit to the Pyramids. Would that 
 I could persuade myself that my imperfect description was 
 capable of conveying to you a moiety of the pleasure which I 
 have myself enjoyed ; but I fear greatly it will be otherwise, 
 and can only beseech you to receive what I have written, not 
 for its intrinsic value, but rather in proportion to the deep 
 and true regard which I know you entertain for one who, an 
 exile and v^anderer, *'i 
 
 — " drags at each remove a lengthening chain." 
 
 ::vr 
 
 oq 
 rq 
 
 ili 
 
s^ 
 
 LETTEE IV. 
 
 3lffe on ^tft l^ffU. 
 
 Romance of Life on the Nile.— Our Boat, the " Ibis."— Descriptfon of it.— The Reis, Pilot Mid 
 Crew.— Their Characters and Habits.— Dragoman and Servants.- A Day Described.— Ad- 
 venture with Dogs on Shore.— Other Adventures and Expioits.— Characteristics of this Sort 
 of Life. 
 
 On the Nile, Lat. 25^, Jan. 25th, 1849. ' 
 My Dear S., ii J '^^> ^toiiols 
 
 We have now been several weeks on the Nile. Mtich 
 of novelty and interest, and not a little of romance, attaches 
 to life such as this, gliding day after day over the broad 
 surface of a mighty river, and passing through scenes unri- 
 valled in the history of the world. The complete change from 
 one's ordinary habits, and the deprivation of most of the refined 
 comforts of civilized life, are not without their attractiveness; 
 while the freedom, and entire absence of all restraint, and all 
 control, save what one's fancy may dictate, or one's sense of 
 propriety require, have a charm which it is not easy to ex- 
 press in words. The dreamy stillness of the atmosphere, the 
 air of repose spread over all surrounding objects, the picture 
 esque villages amid the groves of stately palms, the fields of 
 grain, rich in verdure of exquisite beauty, the clear transpa- 
 rency of the azure skies, the magnificent brilliancy and splen- 
 dor of the starry vault of heaven, and such-like characteristics 
 of oriental life and scenery, are full of delightful variety, and 
 of those pleasures which are peculiarly the reward of travel. 
 To most of persons, young persons especially, the romance of 
 a boat life on the Nile outweighs all considerations of its 
 
72 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 tediousness, monotony, and tendency to produce ennui; and, 
 indeed, I am not surprised that such should be the case ; for 
 the rules of society in our advanced stage of civihzation, are 
 imagined, or found to be so full of restraint upon the exuber- 
 ance of youth, and the enthusiasm of early life, that any 
 state of things which tends to remove this burdensome con- 
 trol, and permits the free and unrestrained enjoyment of what 
 one's fancy, or taste, or inclination suggests, is apt to be 
 hailed with the brightest anticipations of pleasure. You will 
 not wonder, then, if I frankly confess the truth, that we, too, 
 had our share of enthusiasm, and could not resist the influ- 
 ence of romantic expectations: we, too, in the dim and 
 shadowy future, beheld many adventures in store for us; 
 many wonders to be enjoyed, not inferior to the glowing 
 stories of the " Thousand-and-one Nights ;" and many grand 
 and strange scenes, of which we had as yet formed no sort 
 of clear conception. Bear with me for a while, and I will 
 tell you, most honestly, what has been our experience. 
 
 Our boat, which is one of the best on the river, we have 
 named the "Ibis;" her burden is 220 ardebbs (=nearly 30 
 tons), and her rig of the style usual in the Mediterranean 
 and Archipelago, viz., one large triangular sail near the bow, 
 and another much smaller one placed at the stern, near the 
 rudder, together with oars fitted to the sides, principally for 
 use in descending the river. About half the length of the 
 boat is devoted to the cabin and the uses of the party on 
 board : before the cabin entrance is a sort of alcove, with 
 cushions to sit or lean upon — one of the pleasantest spots on 
 board ; next we enter the cabin proper, which is about six and 
 a half feet high, by nine broad, and seven long, with divans on 
 each side to lounge upon in the day-time, and repose oneself dur- 
 ing the long evening and night. After this principal apart- 
 ment, which serves for our dining-room, our place of reading or 
 writing, or anything else we choose, comes a second division 
 of the space devoted to our use, with a narrow passage be- 
 
.a>l/ OUR DAHABIYEH. 7B 
 
 tween ; on one side a berth for sleeping in, and on the other 
 a convenient pantry. Behind these is still another apartment, 
 which may, when needed, be used for sleeping in ; but as we 
 do not require it for that purpose, we have made it a general 
 store-room for books, luggage of various sorts, bedding, &c. 
 Over the deck, directly in front of the cabin, there is an 
 awning, which renders the seats in the alcove, if so I may 
 term it, all the more cool and delightful, and gives us an op- 
 portunity to have our carpets spread, to take coffee, to offer 
 our visitors pipes and refreshments, or to lay half at length, 
 supported on an arm or by a cushion, gazing at the shore and 
 its many picturesque objects, as they pass slowly before the 
 eyes. The remainder of the forepart of the vessel is occu- 
 pied by the cook's apparatus, the small space where the crew 
 gather in a group to eat, where they sleep, &c., and the 
 slightly elevated spot, just by the bow, where usually the reis 
 sits cross-legged on his carpet, and at stated hours says his 
 prayers, with. his face scrupulously turned towards Mecca. 
 The roof of the cabin serves, in some measure, as an upper 
 deck, and here the pilot holds sway, an olficer of special im- 
 portance on a boat which navigates the Nile, since the channel 
 is continually changing, and it requires incessant watch to 
 avoid the shoals and sand-banks ; on this upper deck, too, are 
 kept various articles, needful to the boat's supplies, as a kaffas 
 for fowls, turkeys, &c. Our flag-staff is directly over the 
 stern, and from it float, in all their beauty, the stars and 
 stripes ; and at the end of the long yard is our private signal, 
 by which it can be known to any countrymen who follow us 
 up the river, what party is on board the " Ibis," we having, 
 according to custom, left with the consul a description of the 
 signal which distinguishes our boat. The entire length of 
 the " Ibis" is rather more than sixty feet, its greatest breadth 
 ten feet, and it draws between three and four feet water. 
 But you will, I suspect, obtain a more definite idea of what 
 I have been attempting to describe, by looking at the spirited 
 
 4 
 
?74 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 sketch of our boat, which my friend, Mr. Atkinson, made for 
 me one day, while we were at anchor near Kineh. It is, I 
 can assure you, very life-like, indeed. 
 
 I trust you will excuse this dry detail, as in some degree 
 necessary to render at all clear our position, and the mode 
 of life in which we indulge : habit has rendered us so accus- 
 tomed to our boat and its accommodations, that it seems 
 almost like home, and one is gradually led to enlarge upon 
 the topic as he would in speaking of home, though that is 
 often of interest to no one else so much as himself The 
 " Ibis," however, has other and more striking points : she i» 
 manned by a reis, pilot and ten men. Sherkawy, our reis, is 
 of the Barabra or Nubian race, and is really one of the best- 
 looking men that I have met with in the East. He has a 
 decidedly good face, high projecting forehead, bright-black 
 eyes, very dark skin, good teeth, and regular features ; he is 
 about five feet ten inches in height, rather spare in person, 
 and when occasion offers, displays great muscujar power. In 
 general he sits on the small elevated space near the bow, 
 keeping a good look out, and issuing his orders or exhortations 
 with vigor and decision : sometimes he mounts the upper 
 deck, and holds a conference with the pilot, a grim-visaged, 
 one-eyed Palinurus, who rarely changes his position or utters 
 a word. At stated hours the reis spreads his carpet for 
 prayer,^ and goes through the required Mohammedan wor- 
 ship with scrupulous exactness, and with an evident devoted- 
 ness, which has excited in me much regret and compassion, 
 seeing that he knows not the pure faith of the Gospel. On 
 the whole, while it is hardly possible to find one of his class 
 free from the vices for which his countrymen are celebrated, 
 
 * "Mohammed obliged his followers to pray five times every tw^enty-fbiif 
 hours, at certain times; viz. 1. In the morning, before sunrise : 2. When noon 
 is past, and the sun begins to decline from the meridian : 3. In the afternoon, 
 before sunset : 4. In the evening, after sunset, and before day be shut in : and 
 5. After the day is shut in, and before the first watch of the night."— Sale's 
 " Koran,'' Prel. Disc. p. 76. 
 
.<I>TCREW OF THE " IBIS." OS 79 
 
 I candidly believe that our friend Sherkawy is one of the few 
 fair and honorable men who command boats on the Nile. 
 
 Our crew is a rather nondescript set ; some are Arabs, and 
 of a lighter or tawny hue, others are Nubians, and almost 
 coal black, with features which render it difficult to distin- 
 guish them from negroes, besides being very like to them in 
 other respects. They are a light-hearted, good-natured race, 
 agreeing excellently well together, and working with good- 
 will and a patient endurance which is rather remarkable, but 
 as I have before noticed, without accomplishing any great 
 amount after all. Full of merriment and noise, like all par- 
 tially civilized nations, they are extravagantly fond of amuse- 
 ments, however simple and childish, as they might appear to 
 us ; they work with a song, they are pleased with a rudo 
 strain of music, of the plainest character; they laugh exces^ 
 sively at jests of the most ridiculous and pointless description, 
 and, day after day, the same song, the same jest, the same 
 monotonous music, please them just as much as ever. If a 
 rope is to be pulled, an oar to be handled, a pole to be used, 
 the boat to be dragged by means of a long tow-line, they do 
 all with a simple song, in which is a strange mixture of reli- 
 gion and profanity,*" now calling upon Allah and Mohammed, 
 now bursting out into some buffoonery or indecency, now 
 laughing, now shouting and gesticulating, with an excite- 
 ment amounting almost to fury, till the end sought is obtain- 
 ed, when a sigh of satisfaction is heard, followed by a pious 
 exclamation, and generally a low laugh of gratified content- 
 ment. And thus they live, willing to work, and working with 
 cheerfulness, and, in general, ready obedience ; yet, by no 
 means free from the vices of obstinacy, deceit and falsehood; 
 they make no pretensions to religious character ; not one of 
 them knows how to read (the reis included) ; and I have 
 never seen a single individual take the trouble to go through 
 
 * See some curious illustrations of this feature in Egyptian character in Mr. 
 Lane's chapter on " Music," &c. — ''Modem Egyptians," &c., vol. ii, p. 69-104. 
 
76 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 with his prayers, on any occasion since we have been on 
 board. Honest we have thus far found them, but not always 
 truth-telling, and not always to be relied on, where their fears 
 of punishment or their desires of gain interpose. With 
 care and decision there is no difficulty in managing them, 
 especially if the custom of giving bakhshish be judiciously 
 adhered to, so that they shall not receive presents without 
 having worked for them, nor having labored with unusual 
 diligence, shall fail of obtaining the desired reward. 
 
 Besides the crew, we have our dragoman, Maltese cook, 
 and native servant, each important in his way, and quite 
 necessary to the establishment. Antonio, our dragoman, is of 
 Syrian origin, a Christian and, I believe, a man of good prin- 
 ciple. He understands and speaks accurately the Arabic, 
 Turkish and modern Greek, and acts as our interpreter on 
 occasions where either of those languages is to be employed* 
 Quick-tempered, active, diligent, and well-informed, we have 
 found him abundantly capable to discharge any duty within 
 his province ; and being, withal, possessed of great physical 
 power, which he does not scruple to use when need requires, 
 he manages matters excellently with the reis and crew, as 
 well as the various and motley company that we fall in with 
 by the way. Our Maltese servant we brought with us from 
 Valetta ; he furnishes us with a variety of articles from his 
 cuisine, some of which are very good, and some extremely 
 indifferent ; he is very much like those of his countrymen 
 whom I have met with, simple, good-natured, and easy-tem- 
 pered, but tinctured with the vices which seem inherent in 
 the natives of that rocky isle ; under a strict master he would 
 do very well, but he requires close looking after and watch- 
 ing, and we have had occasion now and then to be dissatisfied 
 with his deportment. Our Arab boy is an idle, good-natured, 
 good-for-nothing young fellow, who does odds and ends about 
 the boat, helps the cook, &c., and like the natives of Egypt 
 
BOAT LIFE ON THE NILE. 
 
 77 
 
 in general, requires to be watched and made to know that he 
 has a master. 
 
 These are particulars hardly worth relating, and certainly 
 of little consequence in themselves ; but as illustrative of life 
 on the Nile, and the multifarious preparation required for a 
 journey of this sort, may not be deemed quite out of place. 
 In truth, it is rather a serious matter to get entirely ready 
 for some two months' absence in a boat, where you are com- 
 pelled to furnish yourself with everything, down to the small- 
 est, with stores of all kind, just as one would supply his 
 house, with beds and bedding, articles of comfort or pleasure, 
 &c. The larger part of these arrangements fell upon me, as 
 it happened, and I assure you I got not a -little confused in 
 the midst of bread, potatoes, tea, coffee, salt, pepper, pickles, 
 butter, dried fruits, crackers, and fifty other things which go 
 to make up stores for a voyage : had I not been so highly fa- 
 vored as to have the aid of my very kind friend Mrs. Lieder, 
 in providing not only things to eat, but the nameless variety 
 of articles for the uses of the cabin as well as the kitchen, I 
 fear I should have made some strange blunders, and our trip 
 been wanting in many of the comforts which we have pos- 
 sessed. But not to dwell upon these, as comparatively insig- 
 nificant matters, let me endeavor to give you an idea of how 
 we live, by describing a day on the Nile, and by telling you 
 of some of our adventures and exploits. Possibly I may suc- 
 ceed in imparting to you some of the enjoyment which has 
 fallen to our lot in ascending the great river of Egypt. 
 
 We usually rise between six and seven o'clock, which at 
 this season, in this latitude, is about sunrise ; ablutions are 
 performed in rather primitive style on the deck in front of 
 the cabin ; breakfast is at eight o'clock, when we can suc- 
 ceed in getting milk in time from a neighboring village. 
 After this, those of us who smoke take a pipe, and in imita- 
 tion of the Turks, enjoy the exciting eifect produced by to- 
 bacco ; but as this weed, in all its shapes, is my aversion, 1 
 
1?B EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 follow my taste in any way that fancy may suggest. At one 
 time a book has charms, at another I prefer using a pen, or 
 perhaps a pencil ; again, feeling the want of exercise, I pace 
 the deck ; or being too indolent for walking, I stretch myself 
 out on a carpet or diwan, and gaze idly at the passing scene 
 on shore, in musing mood over home and its pleasures. When 
 the wind fails or blows in a contrary direction, the men at- 
 tach themselves to a long rope and drag the boat by main 
 force, though of course very slowly, against the strong cur- 
 rent which sets constantly towards the Mediterranean. At 
 such times, if we feel in the humor, we go ashore with a 
 gun, and occasionally find some game to add variety to our 
 table ; or if we fail in that, we have a delightful stroll along 
 the banks of the river, or penetrate somewhat into the inte- 
 rior for a mile or so, to an out-of-the-way village, where our 
 presence stirs up not only the men, women and children, 
 who come out of their mud huts to look at the stranger, but 
 what is considerably worse, the lean and hungry dogs; who 
 bark furiously, and are ready to rush upon one the moment 
 he is off his guard. 
 
 One day I went ashore entirely alone, and walking along 
 much faster than the men who were dragging the boat, I got 
 considerably ahead of it. Just here was a small village situ- 
 ate in a grove of palms, as usual. While looking around for 
 some birds worth shooting at, I saw three wolfish-looking dogs 
 rush out of a mud hut, and fasten upon a boy who was pass- 
 ing qi^ietly along : he shouted out lustily, and soon obtained 
 relief The moment after, the dogs spied me through the 
 trees, and set off at the top of their speed in pursuit of new 
 game. Fortunately I had a double-barrelled gun with me, 
 and standing perfectly still, I waited their approach, deter- 
 mined to settle the matter very speedily with them : on they 
 rushed, till within about five feet of my person, when, find- 
 ing that matters were becoming serious, I fired a charge of 
 shot into one of them, and he rolled over and over, howling 
 
ADVENTURE ON SHORE. 
 
 79 
 
 dreadfully, while his companions slunk off as quick as possi- 
 ble. But this was by no means the end of my adventure. 
 In a few minutes, as I was walking along, I heard a great 
 noise and shouting behind me, and soon became aware that 
 the entire population of the village was in pursuit. Certainly 
 I had not calculated for this result, but I put a bold face upon 
 the matter, and facing the crowd of some fifty or a hundred 
 people, I distinctly warned them off by pointing to my gun, 
 and bringing it to bear for use if required : there I stood for 
 quite a long time, and listened to a diatribe from a most im- 
 passioned speaker, who gesticulated furiously, and evidently 
 demanded satisfaction for the loss of the dog. As my knowl- 
 edge of Arabic is not extensive, and as it is difficult even for 
 a good scholar to keep up with the Arabs, who can talk faster, 
 it is said, and as I now believe, than anybody else in the 
 world, you may be sure that I caught only here and there 
 the meaning, and am not able to give an abstract of so ani- 
 mated a speech. Not to be behind-hand with them, I made 
 a reply, not quite so lengthy as my opponent's oration, but 
 I flatter myself more to the point ; I insisted upon the fact 
 that the dog was shot in self-defence, that consequently it 
 was no fault of mine, and that if it were necessary I should 
 defend myself in the same way against the assaults of man 
 or dog. All this was delivered in excellent English, and lis- 
 tened to with commendable gravity by the major part of the 
 audience ; but as I did not exactly fancy standing alone 
 against so great a force, I entrenched myself behind a large 
 boat drawn up on the shore, and waited the motions of the 
 villagers. For a while things looked rather threatening and 
 uncomfortable, for one man against a hundred ; but after 
 two or three more speeches were made, some consultations 
 had, and a good deal of hesitation shown as to the course 
 they should adopt, the affair was ended by their drawing off 
 and l-eaving me to walk back and rejoin our boat. 
 
 About five o'clock dinner is served up, in no particular 
 
f 
 
 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 style, as you will easily imagine, but usually consisting of 
 the various articles which can be obtained in this part of the 
 country. Beef is a meat we can very seldom get, as the 
 pasha has forbidden the slaughtering of animals so valuable, 
 and at present so scarce, as the buffalo breed of oxen, &c. : 
 hence, as sheep and goats are numerous, mutton is our sta- 
 ple, and for variety, we have chickens, now and then a tur- 
 key or goose, and pigeons, or such birds as may be shot by 
 any of the party when on shore. Vegetables are not easily 
 obtained ; potatoes are very dear, and must be brought from 
 Cairo ; but onions, coarse beans, and salads, are found in 
 abundance all along the river ; and as already our potatoes 
 are gone, we have to depend upon those articles, for which 
 Egypt, in the days of Moses, was celebrated, and for which 
 the rebellious Jews longed so eagerly.*" Dinner being an 
 important meal, it is,protracted generally as long as possible, 
 not so much on account of the attractive fare set before us, 
 as because it is something of an object to get through with a 
 portion of time, where there is so little variety to relieve the 
 monotony of day after day, and week after week's limited 
 amount of occupations and enjoyments. During the long 
 evenings, after tea, as the air is damp and chilly, we usually 
 confine ourselves to the cabin, and peruse and reperuse the 
 scanty stock of books which we have brought with us ; or 
 attempt to write ; or engage in conversation, or something 
 of the sort, till the hour of retiring, which is usually at ten 
 or eleven o'clock. 
 
 You must not infer, my dear S., from this meagre outline, 
 that all days pass stupidly and lazily with us, in the mere 
 succession of getting up, eating, drinking, smoking and sleep- 
 ing. By no means ; we do have inklings of adventure every 
 
 * " The children of Israel wept again, and said, who shall give us flesh to 
 eat 1 We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely : the cucumbers, 
 and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic : but now our soul 
 is dried away : there is nothing at all, beside this p^apna^ befpre our ey^s." — 
 Numb.xi.4r-G. '" "" " '* ' --'•■•-- 
 
BATTLE WITH THE SHADUF MEN. S^ 
 
 now and then, and we occasJpnally meet with something, which 
 breaks in upon the monotony of every-day life. As we were 
 coming up the river, little more than two weeks ago, we 
 passed the Beni Hassan district, the reputation of which is 
 exceedingly bad. The inhabitants of the villages were noto- 
 rious thieves and vagabonds, so much so, that Ibrahim Pasha, 
 about twenty-seven years ago, administered to t^em oriental 
 justice in its fullest extent. He sent a body of troops, com- 
 pletely destroyed every village in the obnoxious district, and 
 flogged, fined, and enlisted a considerable portion of the in- 
 habitants. Nevertheless, the evil was not wholly eradicated. 
 The present race are little if any better than their predeces- 
 sors ; and it is necessary to be on one's guard more than 
 ordinarily, the whole distance from Beni Hassan to Manfalut 
 (=about 55 miles). It happened one day, that our men were 
 on shore, dragging the boat, as usual when the wind is ahead, 
 and making very slow and tedious progress ; all along the 
 banks of the river, as the Nile is now quite low, the rude 
 machinery of the shaduf was in operation ; and it required a 
 little care to pass the tow-line, without coming in contact 
 with the long pole, or some other part of the shaduf. By and 
 by, as we were sitting very indolently, and looking out upon 
 the water, wishing for favorable wind, we heard a noise and 
 shouting on the shore, which seemed to betoken a disturbance 
 of peaceful relations. Sure enough, our crew and the shaduf 
 men had got up a regular fight, and the latter appeared, to 
 have altogether the best of it. We called to the old pilot to 
 run the " Ibis" in shore, being determined to have a closer 
 look at matters, and to interfere, if necessary. A few mo- 
 ments brought us upon the scene of action, when we found 
 the fortune of war changing: our men had got their long 
 sticks or clubs from the boat, and, instead of using the flat 
 of the hand as before (the fist is peculiar to Anglo-Saxon 
 fighting), were belaboring their opponents with something 
 more serious in its effects : one fellow was knocked down by 
 
 4* 
 
8fc EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 a club ; and I thought that the buffoon, who was very brave, 
 now that his party was in the majority, would have killed 
 the almost naked vagabond, whom he was beating over the 
 head without mercy. As it was, the fellow was left appar- 
 ently insensible ; and our men, raising the cry of victory, 
 and after the manner of warriors on a larger scale, carrying 
 destruction into the enemy's country, resumed the more 
 humble and more useful occupation of dragging the boat. 
 
 One evening we arrived at a village, where we purposed 
 remaining for the night, since, without wind it is quite impos- 
 Sfible to do anything after dark. The bank was higher than 
 usual, and the village was situate on the water's edge, 
 amid a fine grove of palms. Curiosity had brought out nearly 
 qill the people, and men, women and children, squatting on 
 their haunches, or with their legs under them, occupied them- 
 selves in looking at us and watching our movements. Just 
 as the twilight was deepening into the gloom of night, there 
 appeared symptoms of not a very pleasant character, among 
 the people on shore. Some words, more in jest than anything 
 else, as I supposed, passed between our crew and the vil- 
 lagers, when, to my surprise, a stone was thrown into the 
 boat, and soon after a whole volley followed. This time our 
 dragoman took the lead, and with an immense pair of pistols 
 in his belt, dashed into the midst of his opponents : the crew 
 seized their clubs, and manfully seconded Antonio : Messrs. P. 
 and A. and myself formed a corps de reserve^ and were ready 
 to take any steps which might be deemed necessary. A most 
 tremendous noise and confusion ensued, and for a while it 
 appeared very doubtful whether we should not have to storm 
 the village, in order to recover our men ; but by and by. 
 Antonio appeared again, and, dragging a wretched-looking fel- 
 low by the nape of the neck, brought his prize on board. The 
 poor creature was in a state of awful terror, and thought that we 
 were going either to shoot him or cut his throat. He begged, 
 he plead, he supplicated in the most abject terms ; he was 
 
ADVENTURE AT ESNEH. 89 
 
 ready to make any concessions, and promise anything in the 
 world for the future ; and after keeping him a considerable 
 time, and listening to various deputations from the shore for 
 his release, we let him go, with the most solemn assurance 
 that a repetition of the offence would meet with condign 
 punishment. Not long after, the sheikh of the village came, 
 and, apologizing for what had taken place, drove the people 
 away from the river's bank, and left us to pass the night in 
 peace. 
 
 A more serious affair occurred at Esneh, a city of some 
 size, and of more notoriety than goodness of character. We 
 arrived here in the course of the morning, and, drawing up 
 to the bank, in company with other boats, we intended to 
 remain till the next day. I had a call to make on the bishop 
 of Esneh, the temple was to be explored, some other matters 
 to be attended to, &c., which gave us occupation during the 
 day. I ought to mention, that at all towns or villages of 
 any size, there are a number of petty, rude cafes, where 
 pipes, coffee, &c., are furnished. Our crew were scattered 
 about in various directions, enjoying themselves in any way that 
 they pleased. At a late hour, about ten o'clock, we sent one 
 of the two or three remaining on board to call in his oompan-» 
 ions. Now, according to the rule or law (established, I be* 
 lieve, by the government), it is not allowed for any boatmen, 
 after dark, to be on shore without a lantern: if they are 
 found so, the guard is empowered to arrest them. As the 
 cafe to which he was going is not more than fifty or sixty 
 feet from the boat, our messenger thought that he might ven- 
 ture to go without his fanus or paper lantern ; but it was an 
 unwise step. A rough fellow, armed with a sword and long 
 Arab musket, was on duty, and he laid hands on our man 
 Jjefore he had time to get through with his errand. In his 
 fright, he called out to his companions for help, and they, 
 nothing loath, rushed on shore, sticks in hand : the guard was 
 perfectly furious, and when he obtained a reinforcement, was 
 
84 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 going to capture the entire crew of the " Ibis :" one or two 
 were knocked down, and the matter began to look rather 
 serious. Antonio dashed into the midst of the fray, which 
 so exasperated the guard, that the scoundrel attempted to 
 run our dragoman through the body with his sword. Fortu- 
 nately, our Maltese servant, who had served in an English 
 man-of-war, was at hand, and seeing the design of the Arab, 
 he very coolly but effectually planted his fist between the 
 fellow's eyes, and left him sprawling on the ground. Antonio 
 seized the sword, and, half fighting his way, and getting out 
 of the confusion as well as he could, he and the men soon 
 after reached the boat. From appearances on shore, we con- 
 cluded that further trouble was brewing; and not exactly 
 liking to come into collision with the ruling powers, we 
 deemed it most prudent to leave Esneh at once, even at that 
 late hour. We did so, sword and all, expecting during the 
 night to be pursued, and to have a battle ; but nothing occur- 
 red till the next day, when to our surprise a boat overtook 
 us, charged with an humble apology, and a respectful request 
 that we would give up our trophy of victory ! Looking at 
 it, as a whole, and considering the danger to which we were 
 exposed, I cannot help thinking that we got off remarkably 
 well. 
 
 I shall not bestow any more of my tediousness upon you, 
 my dear S., by attempting to describe several other adven- 
 tures which we have met with in our journey up the Nile. 
 It may suffice to declare that in general the days pass, with 
 little of variety, but still no small share of pleasure : some- 
 times there is excitement, even to us, in the boat getting 
 aground, and the noisy efforts put forth by the naked crew 
 to get her off; in the head winds and calms, and the occa- 
 sional puffs of fair wind, which blows just long enough to fill 
 us with hope, and increase our disappointment when it sub- 
 sides; in the distant prospect of a strange boat, whose char- 
 acter forms a fine subject of speculation, whom we watch 
 
ARAB AMUSEMENTS. 09 
 
 through the glass as she draws nearer, and as the case may- 
 be, either board, or are boarded by her, when the folds of the 
 Union Jack of Old England wave in the same breeze, almost 
 side by side, with the American stars and stripes. At other 
 times we find amusement in the comic actions and dances of 
 one of the men, whom we have named the buffoon, and who 
 is certainly a fellow of a good deal of wit naturally : if we 
 leave out of view the want of delicacy and refinement, and 
 do not scruple to be pleased with rather low buffoonery, we 
 need not ever be at a loss for amusement, for Abu-'of is al- 
 ways ready to dance, or sing, or play on reeds, or do almost 
 anything which may be asked ; and I must confess, that when 
 he gathers the whole crew around him, one man thumping 
 with his fingers on what answers for a drum, another playing 
 on the reeds, the buffoon dancing and grimacing in the midst, 
 and the rest clapping their hands and singing a strain in tune 
 with the instruments, the scene is not wanting in picturesque- 
 ness or beauty.* Without always understanding the point 
 of the jokes which are made, I hope that, in consideration of 
 the circumstances, we shall not be severely censured for hav- 
 ing sometimes laughed at witticisms and repartees which 
 would pass muster nowhere else except on the Nile. But 
 when such things pall — as they speedily do — upon the taste, 
 
 ♦ One of the most common musical instruments in use on the Nile is a rude 
 kind of drum, termed " darahukkeh.'* It is larger at one end than the other, and 
 is about 1^ ft. in length : the larger end is covered with a piece of fishes' skin, 
 while the smaller is left open. The Arabs generally place it under the left arm, 
 and beat it with both hands, so that it gives different sounds, accordingly as it is 
 beaten near the edge or in the middle. " The boatmen of the Nile very often 
 use an earthen darabukkeh ; but of a larger size than that used in harems ; gener- 
 ally from a foot and a half to two feet in length. The boatmen employ, as an 
 accompaniment to their drum, a double reed pipe, called ' zummarah,' There is 
 also another kind of double reed pipe, called 'arghool;' of which one of the 
 reeds is much longer than the other, and serves as a drone, or continuous bass. 
 This, likewise, is used by boatmen ; and sometimes it is employed instead of the 
 nay, at zikrs. Both of these reed pipes produce harsh sounds ; and those of 
 the latter much resemble the sounds of the bag-pipe." — Lane's ^'■Modern Egyp- 
 tians " vol. ii. p. 89. 
 
B8 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 we have abundant resources in store. The banks of the Nile 
 are an unfailing source of interest, though unlike those of 
 any river which I have ever seen, since they have no water- 
 plants, no weeds or shrubbery, or anything of the kind, at 
 the water's edge, and for some distance from the shore. The 
 height of the banks in many, or most places ; the scattered 
 palm groves ; the fields of grain ripening to the harvest ; the 
 villages seen at intervals, and as near the water as they can 
 be placed, on account of its all-essential importance ; the 
 flocks of sheep and goats ; the occasional herds of cattle ; now 
 and then camels slowly trudging along ; now donkeys, and, 
 for a great rarity, horses ; at this season, too, when the river 
 is getting low, the busy workmen at the shaduf, or the creak' 
 ing sakieh, giving note of the industry of the inhabitants, — 
 all these are features in an ever-varying scene, which rarely 
 loses its interest, or fails to impress the beholder. Nor are 
 there other things wanting to add to our pleasure and excite- 
 ment. Every day — at least since we passed Beni Hassan'^ — 
 we have been on the lookout for crocodiles, and it is quite a 
 spirit-stirring cry of the crew, which we now and then hear, 
 timseach ! timseach ! You would be astonished at the 
 agility which is displayed in seizing our guns, and the fear- 
 ful accuracy of our aim at the scaly monsters ; and perhaps 
 you would be still more astonished to know that we have shot 
 at crocodiles, over and over again, but we have not yet suc- 
 ceeded in killing one. In this experience, however, we are 
 far from being alone, since it is a rare thing indeed for Nile 
 voyagers to be able to boast of anything further than that of 
 having wasted a goodly amount of powder and bullets on the 
 impenetrable exteriors of crocodiles. Two or three times, for 
 want of something better, wo have paid considerable atten- 
 tion to incipient mutinies, or disturbances, which promised 
 to result in this way ; and occasionally we have to interpose 
 
 * This is the most northerly point at which crocodiles are found. On de- 
 scending the river, Mr. P. had a shot at one on the shore near the Grottoes. 
 
VARIETIES OP NILE-LiFt^. SP 
 
 in a quarrel which springs out of too free a use of arrack, 
 got in a neighboring town, or a supposed or real case of theft 
 of one Arab from another. One evening we got mingled 
 up with a rather novel case : a poor fellow in a boat neai* 
 by was struggling, and shouting, and striving to get away 
 from two or three others who were holding him, and en- 
 deavoring to calm his agitation. On inquiry, we learned 
 that he was a passenger on the boat from Cairo to some point 
 up the river, and he begged and entreated so much to come 
 on board the " Ibis" for the night, that we consented. A 
 most pitiful story indeed was that which he told ; declaring 
 that he was a merchant, returning home, and that he had 
 overheard a project by the boatmen to murder him that night, 
 and seize upon the little wealth which he had with him. I 
 never saw a person so filled with terror, and whose counte- 
 nance and every act indicated more intense and ungoverna- 
 ble excitement. On the part of the persons in the othet 
 boat, it was asserted, and apparently with reason, that the 
 poor merchant was crazy, and had frequent attacks of this 
 kind ; and consequently they wished him to return to his 
 proper quarters. As, however, he shuddered so fearfully at 
 the proposition, that we could not bear to force him away — « 
 not being certain, too, but what his story might be true — we 
 let him spend the night among the crew. The next day he 
 left us quietly, and we saw him no more. 
 
 Much might be added on so prolific a theme as life on the 
 Nile. I might tell you of naked monks from the convent of 
 " Our Lady Mary the Virgin," near Jebel e' Tair, swimming 
 across the river, and with just enough occidental learning to 
 proclaim themselves Christians, begging lustily for help : I 
 might dwell upon the picture of primitive manners which is 
 afforded every day on the banks of this great river, where the 
 village maidens come continually with their jars for water, 
 and when they have filled them, raise them to their heads^ 
 and settling them on a small cushion placed there, walk away 
 
88 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 erect, finely formed, and by no means deficient in beauty : 1 
 might enlarge upon the magnificent skies of southern Egypt, 
 more glorious, or at least more marvellous, than aught ever 
 seen in our cold regions ; where the stars sparkle like suns, 
 and the surface of old Nile seems to glitter as if filled with 
 diamonds, wrapping the beholder almost into extaoy, and lift- 
 ing the devout soul up in aspirations of praise and gratitude 
 to Him who created all these things for His own glory. I 
 might indeed tell you a long, long story, and whisper in your 
 ear that, after all, one becomes tired of the monotony and 
 tediousness of living in a boat for months ; but it needs not ; 
 you, I will not doubt, have had enough, and more than 
 enough, to satisfy you that life on the Nile must be rather 
 stupid, if my attempted description of it is any certain index 
 of its true character and attractions ; and I am quite sure 
 that you will feel no special regret if I end here without an- 
 other word. In my next letter, I hope to interest you in 
 something of a very different nature from that which has 
 formed the staple of the present letter. 
 
rt« 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 Vicinity of Philae.— The Island.— Ruins.— Extent and Character.— Egyptian Architecture.— 
 Its Effect in General.— Large Chamber.— Used by the Early Christians.— Crosses and In- 
 scriptions.- Greek, Italian, French, &c.— The Cataracts. — Swimming Exhibition. — Syene.— - 
 The Granite Cluarries.— Island of Elephantine.— Its Ruins.— Present Inhabitants.— Thoughts 
 on their Condition.— Esneh.— Its Temple. — Ghawazy.— Disgusting Exhibitions. 
 
 Aswan, Jan. 30th, 1849. 
 My Dear S., 
 
 We were just thirty-one days in ascending the Nile, 
 counting from the time that we left Bulak, the port of Cairo, to 
 the day of our arrival at Aswan and the First Cataract ; con- 
 sidering the distance, which is not quite six hundred miles, it 
 has been a long and rather tedious passage. My impressions of 
 the journey, its pleasures and pains, its lights and shades, I 
 have already sent you. It now becomes my pleasing duty to 
 speak of other things, and to endeavor to give you as good 
 an idea as I can of Egyptian antiquities, in so far as I have 
 been permitted to examine them in this vicinity. Most of 
 the interesting localities on either side of the Nile we have 
 been compelled to leave for examination during our voyage 
 down the river. The few days that we have spent at Aswan, 
 the farthest point south to which we purpose proceeding with 
 our boat, have been principally devoted to the island of Philae 
 and its extensive remains, the vicinity of the Cataracts, the 
 vast quarries of Syenite granite, and the island of Elephan- 
 tine, just below the rapids. If you will allow me, I will 
 
90 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 endeavor to speak intelligibly and accurately of matters, 
 which, I trust, will not be deemed unworthy your attention. 
 The island of Philae occupied us a whole day. Leaving 
 our boat at Aswan, below the Cataracts, we set off early, 
 and, riding over a broad plain of sand, and the remnants of 
 stones from the quarries, which were once so extensively 
 worked, and passing through a vast unenclosed cemetery, in 
 which the rich and poor, the high and the low, lay mingled 
 together, we came again to the river : a small boat soon 
 wafted us over the intervening space, to the shore of Philae. 
 As we drew near to it, it was impossible not to be struck 
 with the marked contrast of the scenery round about, and of 
 that below the rapids. Usually, as you know, the banks of 
 the Nile are of uniform height, without stones or rocks, save 
 when the mountain range rises abruptly at the water's edge, 
 and the eye sees, day after day, the same plain on either 
 hand, with the villages, and towns, and groves of palms, and 
 the vast deserts in the distance beyond ; but here, massive 
 rooks not only encompass the river, and divide it into several 
 smaller streams, but spring up in the very midst of the 
 channel, and by their huge masses, and the lofty hills all 
 around, give an air of wildness and almost sublimity to the 
 scene. To one who, like myself, had become rather wearied 
 with the monotony of the scenery along the lower portion of 
 the Nile, it was refreshing to look once more upon such things 
 as these, and to feel that we were once again amid objects 
 which forcibly reminded us of portions of our dear native 
 land. The island itself is picturesquely and rather beauti- 
 fully situate, and not inaptly deserves the name which has 
 been given to it ;*^ and one loses all surprise that the Ptole- 
 
 * Philae, known in Arabic by the name of Anas el Wogud, is about seven 
 miles south of Aswan, and has deservedly obtained the epithet of " beautiful." 
 In Greek it was called (^i\ni, and in Egyptian Pilak, or Ailak, and Ma-n'-lak, 
 "the place of the frontier." I find that Mr. Lane, in his admirable version of 
 the " Thousand-and-one Nights," supposes a part of the story of Uns-el- Wujood 
 and El- Ward-Fi-L-Akman. to refer to the Nile and the island of Philae. In 
 
TEMPLE AND RUINS AT PHILAE* 41 
 
 mies should have chosen this remote and isolated spot for a 
 grand temple, when he gazes at it for awhile, and notes its 
 admirable position, and its adaptedness to the purposes of 
 religious solemnities. 
 
 On landing, we clambered up a rather steep and high bank, 
 which brought us to the level of the ruined temples, and cer- 
 tainly presented before our eyes a most novel scene ; for the 
 whole island is devoted to the vast erections which have here 
 been made ; and not a living creature, or a sign cf life, can 
 tjiywhere be seen. All the glory of Philae has passed away 
 forever, and its hundreds of priests and priestly attendants, 
 and its crowds of worshippers, from the kings and nobles 
 down to the peasant and the slave, are gone, and the place 
 which once was theirs knows them now no more. Ourselves 
 were the only persons on the island, and we wandered through 
 the ruins, and looked upon the deserted halls and sanctuaries 
 of pagan idolatry, alone and unattended, save by one or two 
 little boys, who had swum across the channel on a log of 
 wood, to salute us with the ever-ready cry of bakhshish ! 
 We entered the ruins at the northerly end, and before looking 
 at any objects in detail, gave a cursory glance at the whole. 
 The principal building is the temple of the moon-crowned 
 Isis, the rooms of which we explored as well as we could ; 
 we mounted a stone staircase, which led to the top of the 
 temple or second story, as I may call it. Here we looked 
 into a chamber with a narrow portal, and beheld a number 
 of hieroglyphics and sculptured figures, which, according to 
 Wilkinson, relate to the death and resurrection of Osiris, that 
 
 ►he story, the " sea of the Kunooz" is spoken of! and the learned translator, after in- 
 forming us that the term bahr is appUed to " a large river," as well as " a sea," 
 goes on to say : — " The people who inhabit the banks and islands of the Nile 
 between Aswan and Wadee-es-Subooa are called the ' Kunooz ;' therefore that 
 portion of the Nile which flows through their country may be properly called ' Bahr- 
 el-Kunooz, and Philae, which is in this part of the Nile, near the northern limits, 
 is now called ' the island of Anas (or more properly Uns) el-Wujood.' "—Lane's 
 " ThoiLsand-and-one Nights,'^ vol. ii. p. 576. 
 
92 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 deity of whom the Egyptian stood in such awe, as to lower 
 his voice and drop his eyes, when he uttered the fearful adju- 
 ration, "By him that sleeps in Philae !" This interesting 
 chamber is nearly over the western adytum, and is about 
 fifteen feet long, by nine wide and eight high. Here, too, we 
 had a fine view of the island itself and the surrounding scen- 
 ery ; one object in particular attracted our attention : it was 
 a large stone or rock on the edge of the water, opposite the 
 northerly end of Philae ; it looms up very remarkably, and 
 presents a form not unlike a vast altar or shrine ; possibly it 
 may have been used for some religious purposes, though that 
 is denied by the best authorities. To the west we saw the 
 island of Biggeh, a wild and desolate spot, where are some 
 few remains of early days, and one or two mud huts built in 
 their midst ; and to the south and west we gazed upon the 
 extent of the buildings here spread out, the narrow channels 
 of the Nile, which flow on either side of this lovely island, and 
 the arid and parched up plains and hills of Nubia stretching 
 away in the distance. Passing through the portal of the first 
 propylon, we emerged into a large open court, with a fine cor- 
 ridor on either hand, and where, near the commencement of 
 the eastern corridor, as well as I could make out, is the small 
 chapel of ^sculapius. The sculptures on the propyla are 
 colossal, and though in great measure defaced by the hand 
 of violence, still evince the skill of the artist, and the taste 
 and habits of the age. In the next passage-way, through 
 the second propylon, we read the famous inscription which 
 the army of Napoleon caused to be placed here, and which 
 has not escaped disfigurement ;* and on emerging into the 
 open space beyond, found ourselves in a position of much 
 interest : we were standing before the Great Temple, in all 
 its imposing grandeur ; while to the south, for a very long 
 distance, was a continued line of columns, more or less broken, 
 
 * Perhaps you may think this inscription worth the trouble we took in copying 
 it ; it is as follows, (see next page) :— 
 
CONDITION OP THE RUINSj - 93 
 
 on both sides of the area, terminating in what Irby and Man- 
 gles call " a large pylon formed by two moles :" here a lofty 
 obelisk stands, and marks the extreme southerly end of the 
 island. Formerly there were two obelisks, one on each side, at 
 the close of the long colonnade ; but at present only one remains, 
 the other having been removed to England by Mr. Bankes, 
 many years ago. In this portion of the ruins, we beheld the 
 evidences of the uses to which the temples, after the fall of 
 paganism, were devoted; for half-standing mud huts, and 
 great heaps of rubbish from their remains, lie all around, and 
 if possible, add to the desolateness of the scene : the samo 
 thing we found to be true in other parts of Philae, where 
 such proofs of degradation of the living, contrasted with the 
 grandeur of the ancient system of imposture and deception, 
 were far more painful than I am able to express in words. 
 While in this portion of the island, I walked to the most 
 southerly point, and looked down from the elevation of some 
 
 REPUBLIQUE FRANCAISE, AN 6, 
 
 Le 13 Messidor. 
 
 Une armee Francaise commandee par Bonaparte 
 
 Est descendue a Alexandrie. 
 
 L'ahmee ayant mis, vingt jours apres, 
 
 Les Mamlouks en fuite 
 
 Aux Pyramides, 
 
 Dessaix commandant la premiere division, 
 
 Les a poursuivis au-dela, jusgiu'aux Cataractes, 
 
 Ou iL est arrive le 13 Ventose, an 7. 
 
 Les Generaltx de Brigade 
 Davoust, Friand, et Belliard, 
 D'Onzelot chef dk l'etat major, 
 Latour prem. comm. de l'artillerie, 
 Eppler chef de la 21me legere. 
 Le 13 Ventose, an 7 de la Repdblique, 
 
 3 MARS, AN DE JeS. ChR. 1799. 
 
 Certain ill-natured persons having scratched their own names on this tablet, 
 and in part injured what it contains, some indignant Frenchman has carefully 
 erased everything of the sort, and, by way of rebuke, has caused to be written 
 up in large, clear letters this line, " Une page d'histoire ne doit pas etrk 
 salie." 
 
94 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 twenty-five or thirty feet upon the Nile, which flows rapidly 
 by on either side, till it meets again below, to rush impetuously 
 down the rapids : at this point, too, I gained another fine view 
 of the country above ancient Syene, and occasionally had an 
 opportunity to notice the difference between the Nubian race 
 and the Arab population of the Lower Nile. The former 
 are, as you may know, more brave and warlike, and conse- 
 quently possessed of greater liberty than the people of the 
 North : the fellahin of the villages are usually quiet and 
 peaceable, and, having suffered from the hand of despotism 
 being laid heavily upon them, are more degraded and less 
 spirited than the dark-skinned inhabitants of the South. I 
 regret that I cannot give you exactly the entire length of 
 these ruins, and some other measurements which would en- 
 able you to gain a better idea of their great extent and im- 
 posing appearance : I can only say, that the island appeared 
 to me to be about two thousand feet in length, by perhaps 
 three hundred feet in breadth in its widest portion. Nearly 
 the whole is occupied by the temples, and buildings of that 
 sort, a fact which may aid you, in part, at least, in under- 
 standing what a noble field is here spread out for the exam- 
 ination and study of the chronologer and antiquarian.^'^ 
 
 I shall not pretend to enter into a detailed account of all 
 that Philae offers to the lover of ancient things ; it would not 
 interest you to an extent sufficient to warrant me in under- 
 taking so laborious a task, and besides I feel my own incom- 
 petency too sensibly to venture upon a matter of this impor- 
 
 * " At three we arrived at Philae, called by Hamilton and Burckhardt, Gie- 
 siret el Berbe el Ghassir, or Giesiret Anas el Wodjoud. The first of these names 
 means the Island of ruined Temples — not an inapt denomination. Philae is the 
 easternmost of a group of islands and rocks which compose the first cataract. It 
 is about half a mile long, rather high, and being entirely covered with magnifi- 
 cent ruins, has a grand and imposing appearance : the lofty pylons are seen at 
 a great distance, and produce a fine effect. The island divides the Nile into two 
 streams, and the water, finding so great an impediment in its course, rushes by 
 with considerable velocity." — Irby and Mangles' " Travels in Egypt, Nubia," 
 &c., p. 34. 
 
EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTUHE. ^ 
 
 tance. You will pardon me, however, I trust, if I speak of 
 one or two particulars, in connection with this lovely island, 
 of more than ordinary interest. Without dwelling upon the 
 hieroglyphics or sculptures which abound on the walls and 
 columns of the temples at Philae, I cannot but call your at- 
 tention to the character of the architecture, so different from 
 that of every other land, and the singular brilliancy and clear- 
 ness of the colors which have lasted so many centuries, and 
 appear almost as if the work of the past year. In general, 
 there is, if I may venture to say it, a heaviness about Egyp- 
 tian buildings ; the vast columns and immense stones which 
 form the walls ; the want of relief to a broad and high wall, 
 such as is found in our western style of architecture ; and the 
 singularly grotesque objects by which the artist sought to di- 
 vert the attention from dwelling too closely upon the temple 
 as a whole, appear to me as serious defects. My experience 
 is, of course, slight, and therefore my opinion is of small 
 value ; but I cannot yet say that I have felt any of that ex- 
 treme gratification of which many speak in visiting the ruins 
 of ancient Egyptian temples ; nor have I been able to look 
 upon any one scene which conveyed a tithe of the delight 
 which I found in various old castles and churches in England 
 and on the continent. Apart from the great antiquity of 
 Egypt and its temples, and the charm which its historic 
 recollections and associations must ever throw around it, I 
 do not suppose that the world would be especially struck with 
 the heavy masses of stone, the enormous pillars, the excess 
 of ornament, the vast expanse of side- wall, and such like fea- 
 tures of the architecture of this wonderful land ; and certainly 
 I do not conceive that it would for a moment be compared 
 with the chaste elegance of the Grecian, or the imposing 
 grandeur of the Gothic style. Even Sir G. Wilkinson con- 
 fesses that the architecture of the Ptolemaic period (during 
 which Philae was devoted to the purposes of religious wor- 
 ship) has little to satisfy the mind or gratify the taste, and 
 
96 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 in speaking of Dendera, acknowledges that the style of the 
 figures is graceless, the hieroglyphics profuse and ill-adjusted, 
 the columns, looked at singly, heavy, perhaps barbarous, in 
 appearance, and the walls tediously long and unrelieved ; and 
 though this language may appear too strong, as applied to 
 Philae, I am persuaded that, in substance, one feels that in 
 these respects Egyptian architecture,^ as we now see it in 
 ruins, is vastly inferior to that which prevailed in Greece 
 and the west of Europe in later days. At the same time, it 
 is but just to recollect that we see everything under the great- 
 est possible disadvantages, and, as the learned author of 
 " Modern Egypt and Thebes" very properly says, " a temple 
 did not present the same monotonous appearance (which it 
 now does) when the painted sculptures were in their original 
 state ; and it was the necessity of relieving the large expanse 
 of flat wall that led to this rich mode of decoration." But 
 however this may be, no one can look upon the richness of 
 coloring which still exists, without astonishment ; so balmy 
 is the climate of Egypt, so remarkably free from dampness or 
 moisture, and so well suited to the preservation of works of 
 art, that to one who comes from a land of cold and storms, it 
 seems well nigh impossible that he can be gazing upon deco- 
 rations thousands of years old. Over head, he looks upon a 
 ceiling representing the clear blue sky, bespangled with stars, 
 and so fresh and brilliant are the colors, that it needs no par- 
 ticularly vivid fancy to imagine that the scene is veritably be- 
 fore him, and that the artist has not long since left the work 
 which he has completed. On the walls and columns, over 
 the pyla and throughout the temple, he sees the green, and 
 red, and yellow, and other colors used in adorning the sculp- 
 tures, and in them too he recognizes the same brightness and 
 beauty, and hardly knows whether most to admire these, or 
 mourn over the desolation which the ruins as a whole present. 
 You will readily understand, my dear S., with what inter- 
 est I spent a considerable time in one of the large apartments 
 
TRACES OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. ^ 
 
 in the main temple, over the entrance to which is sculptured 
 that striking symbol, the winged orb, where I discovered two 
 or three crosses of St. John, cut into the wall near the door- 
 way, and inscriptions in Greek under them, stating the fact, 
 that at one period our brethren in the faith of Christ here as- 
 sembled to worship. This room is about forty feet square, 
 and is adorned with ten noble columns, measuring fourteen 
 feet round, and covered with carvings or sculptures of various 
 sorts, many of which have been defaced, or plastered over as 
 an easier way of hiding them from view. The capitals of 
 the columns are all different in design, and have a singular 
 effect, though it can hardly be considered good taste thus to 
 seek ornament in an edifice of this sort. Doors are on either 
 side, leading into smaller chambers, which once appear to 
 have been elaborately adorned ; the light comes from above, 
 there being no windows in the room. Near one of the walls 
 I saw a splendid block of granite, about five feet in length, 
 which was probably used for an altar when the Christians 
 occupied this apartment as a church. I took some pains to 
 decipher the inscriptions which testify to the fact just stated ; 
 they are cut into the solid wall, but not deeply, and are in 
 the usual uncial characters. One of these, as a matter of 
 curiosity I subjoin : — 
 
 * 
 
 KAT TOYTO TO AFAGON 
 EPrON EFENETO 
 Eni TOY 0CIS2TAT0Y 
 IIATPOC HMS2N EHILK 
 OnOY GEOAflPOY O GE 
 AYTON AIAcI)YAASH 
 Eni MHKI2T0N XPONON.* 
 
 ♦ The above inscription may be found on the west side of the north entrance 
 to the portico. I am sorry that I cannot inform you at what period this inscrip- 
 tion was put here, or when bishop Theodore ruled over the church in this vi- 
 
 cinity. 
 
 5 
 
1^ .^-ifiOYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. ■'■' 
 
 Various other inscriptions are to be found on the walls of the 
 temple, some in Greek, stating how many nobles, warriors, 
 statesmen and others, came here to worship Isis, and beg her 
 favor and protection ; some in Italian, particularly one over 
 the massive doorway to the apartment of whi^h I have spoken 
 above, dedicated to the glory of Pope Gregory XVI., and the 
 renown of the expedition which he sent out in 1841 ; and 
 some in French, in the days of the older Republic, in which 
 the names of the principal men are recorded with needless 
 particularity, and the victories of the army are specified with 
 all the grandiloquence of the Gallic nation. Besides these, 
 the walls and columns, high and low, are adorned — ^I say 
 adorned, because many persons must have thought that they 
 were adorning them — with names of all sorts, and from all 
 climes, perpetuating the memory of Mr. Softly's or Mr. Sim- 
 pleton's visit to Philae. How important is it to the future 
 traveller to know that Mr. S. has preceded him ! But I leave 
 these, one and all, with simply quoting what is really use- 
 ful, if it be correct, from one of the inscriptions made by the 
 French expedition : *' longit. depuis Paris, 30° 16' 22" ; lati- 
 tude boreale^ 24° 3' 45"."— And so, farewell to Philae. 
 
 In returning to our boat, we passed very near the Cataract, 
 and were witnesses of a rather curious scene. The rapids, I 
 must mention, are no great matter, and hardly equal those 
 just above Niagara Falls ; nevertheless, they are not to be 
 despised, and except under skilful management, a boat would 
 certainly be lost amid the rocks, if it should happen to get 
 among them unawares. While looking from a hill near by 
 at the Cataract and its waters dashing down impetuously, we 
 saw several naked Arabs prepare to swim down the current, 
 and exhibit their skill in reaching the smoother water below 
 in safety. In they went, one or two with a log between their 
 legs, but most of them without anything at all, and at one 
 tnoment their heads would be above the water, and at an- 
 other, not a trace of their tawny bodies would be visible. 
 
THE CATARACTS AND SYENE. 99 
 
 After a few minutes, dripping with the spray, they climbed 
 nimbly up the bank and demanded bakhshish for the sight 
 which we had witnessed : happily, it took only a few piastres 
 to content them, and they marched off in high glee, and we 
 returned to Aswan just at sunset. 
 
 Of the modern town which answers to ancient Syene, I 
 need not say anything, as it presents few points of interest 
 beyond what all Arab towns and villages have in common. 
 I made one expedition through it, without any attendants ; 
 but except a little extra impertinence, I met with nothing 
 worth recording. Syene was a place of importance in ear- 
 lier days, being on the frontier of Egypt to the south ; it is 
 spoken of by the prophet Ezekiel, who denounced the judg- 
 ments of God against the land of the Pharaohs : — 
 
 " Behold, therefore I am against thee and against thy rivers, 
 And I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate, 
 f From Migdol to Syene, even unto the border of Ethiopia."* 
 
 In later times, the emperor Hadrian sent Juvenal into ban- 
 ishment to this spotjt with the half-mock title of " Governor 
 of the Frontier of Egypt," and it was here in exile that the 
 great satirist died, four years subsequently, at the advanced 
 age of more than fourscore years. At present, the most in- 
 teresting thing in connection with this vicinity is undoubt- 
 edly the quarries of granite, so well known under the name 
 of Syenite, or red granite. I spent part of a very hot day in 
 examining these quarries, and can assure you that nothing 
 which I have seen in Egypt impressed me more strongly 
 with the skill and ability of the ancient inhabitants than what 
 I here witnessed. What instruments they must have pos- 
 sessed to separate from the solid mass such immense blocks 
 of stone as we see in every part of Egypt ; and what ma- 
 chines they must have used to transport the obelisks, and 
 
 ♦ Ezek. xxix, 10 ; xxx. 6 ; marg. reading, 
 
 f Some authorities mention other localities in Egypt as the place of his exile. 
 
100 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 statues, and sarcophagi to their destination, often hundreds 
 of miles distant ! I can hardly believe what is generally 
 stated by writers on antiquities, that this wonderful people 
 had no tools of iron, but that all their work was done with so 
 inferior a metal as copper or brass : if the fact be really so, it 
 heightens the idea of their skill and capacity, and almost puts 
 to shame the greatest efforts of art in modern times. It was 
 a curious thing to see an obelisk nearly completed and wrought 
 with care, lying as it were just ready to be removed ; and it 
 did not require much stretch of imagination to suppose thit 
 the workmen had only recently left it, and that instead of 
 thousands of years which have passed away never to return, 
 only a few days had elapsed since the skilful artisans of some 
 old Pharaoh were singing merrily over their work. Leaving 
 this singular remnant of antiquity, my guide next carried 
 me up a steep ascent to another very remarkable locality, 
 where I had an opportunity to observe the manner in which 
 the ancient Egyptians used to cut off the blocks of stone. 
 Several incisions about six inches deep and wide were made 
 in the rock, at intervals of about ten inches ; into these they 
 appear to have driven wooden wedges, which being saturated 
 with water by means of a small trench cut to contain it, 
 expanded, of course, and broke off the block by their equal 
 pressure. In some cases, probably, a violent blow or concus- 
 sion was employed for the same purpose. I cannot better 
 conclude this brief notice of these interesting and extensive 
 quarries, which contain many other very curious remains, 
 than by quoting the language of Wilkinson, in respect to the 
 component parts of syenite granite : "The nature of the 
 rocks about Syene," he says, " is not, as might be expected, 
 exclusively syenite, but on the contrary, consists mostly of 
 granite, with some syenite and a little porphyry. The differ- 
 ence between the two former is this — that syenite is com- 
 posed of felspar, quartz, and hornblende, instead of mica, or 
 solely of felspar and quartz ; and granite of felspar, quartz 
 
ELEPHANTINE AND ITS RUINS. 
 
 m 
 
 arid mica. According to some, the ingredients of syenite are 
 quartz, felspar, mica and hornblende ; but the syenite of an- 
 tiquity, used for statues, was really granite. Indeed, many 
 of the rocks of Syene contain all the four component parts ; 
 and from their differing considerably in their proportions, afford 
 a variety of specimens for the collection of a mineralogist."* 
 Elephantine, the " Isle of Flowers," and, according to He- 
 rodotus (lib. iii. 19), the dwelling-place of the Ichthyophagi, 
 or fish-eaters, lies opposite Aswan, and in many respects quite 
 equals Philae in picturesqueness and beauty. Mr. Denon 
 speaks of it and its ruins in very highly laudatory terms, as 
 indeed, is his practice with nearly everything he saw in 
 Egypt. No doubt the time was, when its temples, with the 
 city of the same name, its quays and public edifices, which, 
 as we are assured, were on the same grand scale as the sacred 
 island of Philae, were exceedingly imposing and beautiful; 
 but now it would be hard to find a more desolate-looking 
 place than the major part of the island ; and the few ruins 
 that are still preserved, hardly repay one for the trouble of 
 visiting them, and for the sadness which accompanies him in 
 such a locality, and amid the ruins of such greatness. Our 
 guide was perfect in his way, and he dragged me from one 
 site to another, — now to seek for the scant traces of an an- 
 cient Nilometer, now to look at the remnants of an ancient 
 quay, now to see a mutilated statue of Osiris, now to inspect 
 a ruined granite gateway, and now, amid the heaps and rub- 
 bish of mud huts, and across the hills and fields, to behold a 
 small sarcophagus cut in the solid granite rock, but empty 
 and unused, and without mark to distinguish its age or 
 owner ; but I found very little to interest me in these ruins. 
 Much more attractive seemed the green fields of grain, the 
 stately palms, and the evidences of life, and of God's good- 
 ness and mercy ; "for He maketh His sun to rise on the 
 evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the 
 
 * " Hand Book foi^ Egypt," p. 417. 
 
W^ EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 unjust;"* and I will confess to you, what may ruin me in 
 the eyes of the wholesale admirers of antiquity, because it is 
 antiquity, that I took more pleasure in going through the 
 small village near the river, inhabited by Nubians, and 
 catching a glimpse of their mode of life, than in all the re- 
 mains of early grandeur which Elephantine presents, to the 
 admiring gaze of the traveller. These poor people, dwelling 
 in their mud huts, which would hardly be thought fit resi- 
 dences for the swine in our country, appeared to me far from 
 unhappy. Their wants are few and easily supplied, their 
 climate, at this season, is delicious, their beautiful palms and 
 other trees afford them shade from the scorching sun, and 
 their huts, mean and contemptible as they are, according to 
 our western notions, serve to accommodate them and their 
 numerous offspring, in a style quite equal to their desires. 
 With our feelings and habits, and accustomed to the luxuries 
 which fall to the lot of nearly all in our highly favored land, 
 they would, of course, be miserable in so degraded a condition, 
 and obliged to live amid filth and penury. But I am by no 
 means sure, that, looking at their position and enjoyments 
 by the standard of what they are fitted for, they are so much 
 to be pitied as at first sight might appear. Think you that 
 they would not be more unhappy and wretched than they 
 now may be thought, if they were suddenly transported to a 
 western dwelling, obliged to wear our clothing, and attend to 
 the thousand customs of refined society and elegant habits ? 
 But what is to be mourned over is their deep degradation in 
 an intellectual and religious point of view. Nine out of ten 
 know literally nothing more than the animals which they em- 
 ploy in cultivating the ground ; and not one in a thousand 
 ever attains to even the simplest rudiments of education: 
 and then, when looked at as responsible creatures, as having 
 souls, and as beings who will have to give account for the 
 deed^ done in the flesh, whether they be good or whether they 
 
 * M|tt. V. 45. 
 
•OKA TEMPLE AT ESNEH,qyo3 103 
 
 bo evil, what a sad picture do they present ! Hardly any of 
 them know aught, even of the false religion of the impostor, 
 whose name serves to characterize them and thousands of 
 others : seldom do the men pretend to pray, and the women, 
 as, indeed, is the case everywhere, under the detestable sys- 
 tem which degrades them to the lowest possible level, never 
 pray ; and as they are never expected to have, so they never 
 in reality have, any religion of any sort.^ O, is not this.a 
 matter to move the heart and bedew the eyes with tears ! is 
 there not reason for every Christian man, and woman, and 
 child, to cry earnestly to God, to send help and lighten the 
 darkness of myriads like these ! 
 
 On this topic, however, I may not here enlarge ; perhaps 
 at another time I may resume the subject, and give you, 
 more in detail, the impressions made upon my mind by actual 
 contact with the Mohammedan religion, as exhibited in the 
 lives and conduct of the Egyptians. At present, the objects 
 of interest along the Nile claim our attention, and I purpose 
 to address you from several of the most important points, as 
 we descend the river, which, though contrary to what may 
 appear the natural and proper order, is rendered necessary by 
 the fact, that in ascending the Nile, we have left nearly 
 everything to be examined at subsequent times, on our jour- 
 ney downward. I ma^ mention, however, in this place, that 
 as we came up we stopped for part of a day at Esneh, which 
 is about a hundred miles north of Aswan, and took a look at 
 the ruins of a vast temple, of which only the portico remains 
 free from the mounds of rubbish and the huts of the villagers. 
 The portico is of late date, containing simply the names of 
 some of the Caesars, as Tiberius, Vespasian, Trajan, &c. I 
 
 r ♦ The statement is literally true in respect to the fellahin of Egypt. Occasion- 
 al/y, it is true that among the higher classes in the cities, some Pharisaic old lady 
 will now and then make a great display in going through the required prayers ; but 
 the mass, even of the best instructed, neither know nor care anything about the 
 matter, and it is a sad truth, as Mr. Lane expressly asserts, that ''very few wo* 
 men in Egypt even pray at home." — See " Modem Egyptians," vol. i..p. llfferiJ 
 
104 EGYPT AISTD THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 do not intend here, to detain you with any description of this 
 remnant of early days ; it is sufficient to quote the words of 
 Wilkinson, who says: ''The imposing style of its architec- 
 ture cannot fail to call forth the admiration of the most indif- 
 ferent spectator ; and many of the columns are remarkable 
 for elegance and massive grandeur. It was cleared out to 
 the floor by order of Mohammed AH, during his visit to 
 Esneh in 1842." Another matter, however, I do not think 
 it right to pass over, since I fear that there are such erroneous 
 notions on the subject of right and wrong becoming current 
 among travellers, that it is made a duty to protest against 
 everything of the sort ; more especially as our holy religion is 
 held responsible for the faults and follies of those who bear 
 its name. The circumstances are these : — 
 
 Esneh has become the place of exile of the dancing girls, 
 or Ghawazy, who formerly were permitted to exhibit their 
 indecencies in Cairo, and have been spoken of by several 
 travellers, in years that are gone by, as one of the many 
 strange sights to be seen in Egypt. At Esneh these prosti- 
 tutes carry on a regular business, and hire themselves for the 
 day or evening to any whose tastes are prurient enough to wish 
 to behold their obscene exhibitions. It ought certainly to be a 
 matter of deep regret, that there are any to be found at this 
 day, who deem themselves justified in attending a dance of 
 this character ; for my part, I have never been able to under- 
 stand why filthy songs, licentious dances, and the most dis- 
 gusting immodesty should be encouraged by gentlemen, and 
 those wearing the Christian name, because these things take 
 place in Egypt, rather than at home ; nor further, am I able 
 to comprehend, why what is wrong in itself should not be 
 discountenanced wherever it exists ; or why a man's morals 
 and principles should not be held as sacred and as binding in 
 the East as in the West. If I could so far have forgotten 
 what was due to the virtuous female, as to have gone to see 
 these Ghawazy, I should not have dared to pollute these 
 
THE GHAWAZY AT ESNEH. 105 
 
 pages with any accounts of scenes, which are only equalled 
 by some of the outrages upon morality in certain portions of 
 Paris. That it may not be supposed that my language is 
 stronger than the occasion warrants, I beg to use the words 
 of Mr. Lane, than whom it would be impossible to find a 
 higher authority : *' The Ghawazee often perform in the court 
 of a house, or in the street before the door, on certain occa- 
 sions of festivity in the hareem ; as, for instance, on the occa- 
 sion of a marriage, or the birth of a child. They are never 
 admitted into a respectable hareem ; but are not unfrequently 
 hired to entertain a party of men in the house of some rake. In 
 this case, as might be expected, their performances are yet 
 more lascivious than those which I have already mentioned. 
 Some of them, when they exhibit before a private party of 
 men, wear nothing but the shintiyan (or trousers), and a tob 
 (or a very full shirt or gown) of semi-transparent colored 
 gauze, open nearly half-way down the front. To extinguish 
 the least spark of modesty, which they may yet sometimes 
 affect to retain, they are plentifully supplied with brandy, or 
 some other intoxicating liquor. The scenes which ensue 
 cannot be described. I need scarcely add, that these women 
 are the most abandoned of the courtesans of Egypt."^ Sir 
 G. Wilkinson uses language equally strong, and characterized 
 by indignation and warmth. But I need not dwell upon so 
 ungratefu^. a topic ; and, had I not felt compelled, as a Chris- 
 tian and a minister of the Gospel of truth and purity, to 
 utter words of warning and remonstrance, not a sentence 
 should have escaped me in regard to the matter. Having, as 
 I trust, discharged my duty, let me dismiss the subject en- 
 tirely; and in my next, let me introduce you to ancient 
 Thebes, and its world-renowned ruins. 
 
 * " Modern Egyptians," vol. ii. p, 107. 
 
 ' 5* 
 
iOl .i:: '/SAV/'/^n;^ aiiT 
 
 iJ8 
 
 LETTER 71. 
 
 Vast Variety and Extent of Ancient Thebes.— Details not Attempted.— Some Days spent In 
 Looking over the Ground.— Difficulty of Selecting Objects for Description.— Several Villa- 
 ges now occupy Site of Ancient Thebes.— History of its Downfall.— Outline Sketch of its 
 Wonderful Ruins.— West Bank of the Nile.— Necropolis of Thebes.— Position of the Cata- 
 combs.— Belzoni's Tomb.— Interior.— Splendid Decorations and Sculptures.— Bruce's or the 
 Harper's Tomb.— Deeply Interesting.— Other Tombs.— Temple a^Medinet Habii— Style and 
 Character.— Sunrise Visit to the Vocal Memnon.— Position of the Colossi.— How was the 
 Sound Produced?— Present Condition of tho Colossi, 
 
 LiJXOR, Feb. 6th, 1849. 
 My Dear S., 
 
 It is somewhat contrary to the natural order of things, 
 to address you from ancient Thebes, after sending you a let- 
 ter from a point so much farther south as Aswan and the 
 Cataracts are, where my last epistle was dated ; but I could 
 not well do otherwise. When we went up the Nile, about 
 two weeks ago, we stopped only an hour or so at Luxor, and 
 paid no attention to the grand ruins at Karnak, and those on 
 the west bank of the river; but having a good wind in our 
 favor, we endeavored to make the best of it/ and pressed for- 
 ward without delay, purposing on our way down, to spend a 
 week or ten days in this deeply interesting locality. We 
 have, accordingly, done so, and it now becomes my pleasing 
 duty, to try to record, for your gratification, some of the in- 
 cidents of the past week, and my privilege to give utterance 
 to some of the many and deep reflections which such scenes 
 as are here exhibited must ever excite in the thoughtful mind. 
 1 shall, first of alL disclaim everything like an attempt to 
 
VASTNESS OF ANCIENT THEBES. §^ 
 
 describe, in detail, the remains of ancient Thebes ; mainly 
 because a week's stay amid the ruins of the far-famed hun- 
 dred-gated city of Homeric days, is utterly insufficient to fit 
 one to speak, with even tolerable accuracy, of what is here 
 spread out to view ; and also, because there is so much to 
 occupy one, such a vast variety to describe, such an ex- 
 tent of ground to be gone over, that it would be preposterous 
 for me, within the narrow limits to which T have restricted 
 myself, to venture for a moment to enter into particulars re- 
 specting the ancient capital of Egypt. Not only am I wholly 
 incompetent to deal in the manner which they deserve, with 
 those topics which have occupied the greatest genius of mod- 
 ern times, and the most valued years of such men as Cham- 
 pollion, Rosselini, Wilkinson, Bunsen, and many others; 
 but, from the necessity of the case, I am so hurried, that I 
 can give but a week to the examination of ruins, amid which 
 Sir Gardner Wilkinson lived for years, and which would 
 richly repay the lover of ancient lore, who should here pitch 
 his tent, and determine to abide till he had faithfully gone 
 over the remains of once glorious Thebes. It will be the 
 best, therefore, on every account, that I should select a few 
 things out of the many which here crowd upon the attention, 
 and speak somewhat more fully of such matters as I am sure 
 will intei 3st you equally with myself. 
 
 The first two or three days we spent in giving a general 
 look over the ground, which was to be gone over afterwards 
 more in detail. Under any circumstances, this locality would 
 be interesting ; for it would be hard to find, anywhere along 
 the banks of the Nile, a more lovely plain spread out to the 
 view, or a more imposing rampart of hills in the distance, to 
 give character and nobleness to the scene. On either side of 
 the river, the cultivated land extends back for some two or 
 three miles, not only presenting a rich carpet of green on 
 which the eye loves to rest, but also serving as a magnificent 
 site for so many great and glorious temples as are here ex- 
 
m 
 
 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 bibited to the wonder of all ages. Frequently, when I have 
 attained some elevated position, either among the hills, or 
 amid the massive ruins of Karnak or Luxor, I have been 
 compelled to admire the extent, not less than the beauty, of 
 this plain or valley, which is nearly thirty miles in circum- 
 ference ;^ and I have not known, at times, which most to 
 admire, the mighty monuments of the wealth and power of 
 the ancient Egyptians, or their taste and juogment in the 
 selection of a site which would most fitly display their pro- 
 gress in the arts and refinements of civilized life. If mere 
 words could suffice, or if the enunciation of distance and 
 extent of surface, were sufficient to convey an adequate idea 
 of what, I am persuaded, can never be realized save by actual 
 experience, then might I hope that, simply stating the facts 
 as they are, would be all that is required ; but as I know to 
 the contrary, I must beg your indulgence if I seem to use 
 language, which wears an air almost of exaggeration, in my 
 attempt to convey to you my impressions of what remains 
 of ancient Thebes. I dare not speak in the enthusiastic tone 
 of the French savans, and yet I would fain believe that my 
 feelings have been as deeply touched as theirs. I will not 
 venture to give utterance to emotions of a merely general 
 character, short as has been our stay in this vicinity, and 
 necessarily rapid as has been our survey of the vast extent 
 of ruins, at Luxor, Karnak, Medinet Habu, &c. ; for I am 
 fully sensible, that the main difficulty in a case of this kind 
 is, to select out of the great abundance of matter for thought 
 which crowds upon the mind, such as is most becoming and 
 most useful to record. Bear with me, then, while I endeavor 
 to indicate, in as few words as possible, the exact position of 
 
 * " We returned on foot, by the way of the Memnonium, ascending to the top 
 of the Lybian chain, which on one side gave us a fine view of the valley and 
 Tombs of the Kings, while on the other side we looked down on the plain, which 
 contains the whole of ancient Thebes, together with the Nile, both seen to great 
 advantage, and forming a splendid specimen of Egyptian scenery." — Irby and 
 Mangles' "Travels in Egypt, Nubia" &c., p. 47. 
 
HISTORICAL SKETCH. 109 
 
 things in and about Thebes, such as it took us some days to 
 ascertain : and then, with your permission, I will try to speak 
 a little more fully, of a very few objects of interest, which 
 it would be unpardonable to pass by in silence. 
 
 Though we use the term Thebes in speaking of the great 
 city, which once exercised such wide sway in Egypt, you 
 will understand that there is no modern town which will an- 
 swer to this name, but that there are several villages, known 
 as Luxor, Karnak, Medinet Habu, etc., which occupy the 
 site of the ancient capital of the Pharaohs. So long ago as 
 the time of Cambyses, the Persian conqueror, B.C. 525, 
 Thebes received a blow to its prosperity, from which it never 
 recovered ; for the son of Cyrus spared no efforts to destroy 
 the proud monuments of Egyptian power and glory ; and, 
 with a zeal more akin to insane fury, than aught else to 
 which it can be likened, he sought to lay in ruins the metrop- 
 olis of the country which he had conquered. Subsequently, 
 too, one of the Ptolemies, B.C. 116, on occasion of a revolt 
 against his authority, marched against Thebes, and wreaked 
 his vengeance upon it, in a manner which it is impossible to 
 characterize in the terras which it deserves ; and there can 
 be little doubt, that very much of the mischief which has 
 been done to the temples and monuments in and about Thebes, 
 is to be attributed to the deep and insatiable resentment of 
 Ptolemy Lathyrus, quite as much as to the hatred manifested 
 by the Persians against a system of worship and religion most 
 odious in their eyes. Ever since, Thebes has borne but the 
 lame of what it once was : it has passed from under the 
 domination of the Roman, the Saracen, the Turk, and the 
 French, and has been for nearly half a century under the iron 
 rule of Mohammed Ali, who, whatever else he may have 
 done for Egypt, has not manifested any very enlightened 
 views, in respect to preserving its antiquities from the rapa- 
 city of rival collectors, or the singular proceedings of certain 
 distinguished savans. Its importance lost, and its glory taken 
 
no EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 away by the rise of the new capital, Memphis, which, in its 
 turn, has given place to another, where the present Pasha 
 rules supreme, this once mighty capital of a great empire 
 exists no more ; but the traveller is compelled to wander 
 from village to village, and seek in different spots, the remains 
 of grandeur, which, even in their ruins, strike him more for- 
 cibly than he knows how to express. He approaches this 
 deeply interesting region from the north, gliding over the 
 bosom of the same mysterious river, which, for ages, has fer- 
 tilized and blessed the land of Egypt : he sees before him, on 
 either hand, a plain of several miles in breadth, and some six 
 or eight miles in length, bounded by a line of hills or moun- 
 tains, which seem, as it were, to inclose this lovely valley 
 with an impassable wall, and render it as secluded as the 
 most devout lover of retirement could desire. In almost 
 every direction, he beholds the evidences of the vast wealth 
 and power of the ancient Egyptians, in the massive remains 
 of temples, the obelisks, the colossal statues, the avenues of 
 sphinxes, the towering propyla, and such like. On the west 
 bank he rides over the plain, passes the petty villages, or col- 
 lections of mud huts, and in an hour's time, finds himself at 
 the top of the mountain range, where he is even more aston- 
 ished than ever at the wonderful necropolis of ancient Thebes, 
 and spends several days most profitably, in wandering amid, 
 and penetrating into, the tombs of the mighty dead. Here, 
 too, he finds the remains of the Memnonium or Remeseum, 
 the temple-palace of Kurneh, the great temple at Medinet 
 Habu, the vocal Memnon and its fellow-statue, both the 
 work of Amunoph III., B.C. 1430 ; and as he surveys the 
 ^cene immediately before him, with the Nile flowing on ever 
 in its silent majesty, and the vast collection of ruins on the 
 opposite bank, he cannot but admire the grandeur of concep- 
 tion, the extent of resources, and the deeply religious tone 
 which characterizes the edifices of this ancient metropolis. 
 Crossing again to the east bank, he seesj almost at the river's 
 
THE WONDROUS RUINS AT THElfifES. Ill 
 
 side, the rains of the temple at Luxor, in such strange and 
 offensive connection with mud huts, stables, pigeon-houses, 
 squalid children, noisy dogs, and such like things, which so 
 effectually destroy all the romance with whicli imagination 
 is apt to invest the relics of by-gone ages ; he gazes at the 
 mutilated statues, and the magnificent obelisk whose fellow 
 now graces the Place de la Concorde in Paris ; and perhaps 
 he thinks, as T did, how much more noble and fitting this 
 splendid block of syenite granite appears here, though in the 
 midst of ruins, and exposed to the ignorance of the villagers, 
 no less than the culpable and disgraceful thoughtlessness of 
 some of those who travel, apparently without object, than its 
 companion statue does, in the midst of the gay world of 
 fashion and pleasure. Leaving Luxor, he mounts his donkey, 
 and, riding in a southerly direction about two miles, he arrives 
 at Karnak, where, doubtless, are the most ancient remains of 
 the glory and greatness of Thebes, and where the successive 
 monarchs of old seemed to have lavished all their care, and 
 striven each to outdo the other in works which should add to 
 the renown of the metropolis, and carry down their names 
 to the most remote generations.*' Visiting this last of all, as 
 I did, the traveller finds Karnak to surpass all that he could 
 have imagined ; and he is for a time bewildered, and lost in 
 the most profound astonishment, as he wanders amid ruins 
 which cover so vast a space, and indicate a previous condition 
 of glory and splendor, far, far beyond all that the world has 
 ever since beheld. He spends some days here in endeavoring 
 to gain a clear idea of what is before him: and leaving -it 
 
 * The illustrious race of monarchs who composed the 18th dynasty " crowded 
 the plains of Thebes and Memphis with temples and palaces, the mutilated remains 
 of which in the former city still set at defiance the powers of language to describe 
 the sensations which the sight of them excites in the mind of the spectator, and 
 force, even from the most incredulous, the confession, that no imagination can 
 conceive the combination of splendor and magnificence which must have over- 
 whelmed the senses of him who, 3000 years ago, was privileged to enter the then 
 hallowed precincts of Thebes in its glory." — Osburn's " Antiquities of Egypt," 
 p. 217. 
 
112 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND, rf 
 
 with regret, when his allotted time is expired, he is ashamed 
 to acknowledge to himself how little, after all, he has really- 
 learned, and how incompetent he is to pretend to speak with 
 precision of what it contains. Most thoroughly, too, does the 
 conviction force itself upon his mind, that, to appreciate 
 Thebes, one must take up his residence here, and, being well 
 prepared by previous study of Egyptian history and antiqui- 
 ties, must give months, where he has had to be content with 
 days, and even hours. 
 
 If now I have succeeded at all in conveying to your mind 
 any idea of the general position of things in and about Thebes, 
 you will readily comprehend how vast a field there is for de- 
 scription, for the exercise of learning and ingenuity, and for 
 the most salutary reflection, amid such scenes as those to 
 which I have so briefly, and, I fear, so imperfectly alluded. 
 With a full consciousness of my inability to do justice to the 
 theme, and with a knowledge that no sufficient excuse can 
 be found for the presumption of writing about Thebes after a 
 single week's stay amid its ruins, I shall venture to select 
 only a few points to speak of more particularly, in the con- 
 fident hope that you at least will pardon me that which is 
 done to show my earnest desire to make you partaker of the 
 privileges which have fallen to my lot in the present visit to 
 the East. I shall first endeavor to tell you of what we saw 
 on ';he west bank, and then devote some pages to Luxor, and 
 especially Karnak. 
 
 The '' Ibis" was moored on the eastern bank of the Nile, 
 not far from Luxor ; but as we are furnished with a small 
 ^ boat, it was an easy matter to be rowed across the river to 
 any point which we chose ; and I assure you that the scene 
 which the early hour of the morning, just after sunrise, pre- 
 sents, is very beautiful and impressive, especially when one 
 gives play to his imagination, and looks back into antiquity 
 as contrasted with the present ruined and wretched condition 
 of all that attaches to the once proudly-styled hundred-gated 
 
WEST BANK OF THE NILE. 113 
 
 city. On the west side of the river horses are supplied, 
 though I cannot say much in their favor as respects speed, 
 bottom, or other qualities ; they answer, however, very well 
 for present necessity, and carry the traveller over the ground 
 quite as fast as he desires. For some distance we rode along 
 the shore, and could not but admire the prospect which was 
 afforded by the river, stretching away in both directions as 
 far as the eye can reach, the opposite bank, with the ruins 
 of Luxor near by, the lofty, towering propyla of Karnak in 
 the distance, and the range of hills which bound the view on 
 the east still farther off; after a while we turned off from the 
 river's bank, and following the course of the valley, passed in 
 full view of the vocal Memnon, which we did not now stop 
 to examine, and in the course of an hour and a half came to 
 the foot of the hills, or mountainous range, in which are the 
 tombs of the kings. It took us some time to ride through 
 the vast collection of gravel, sand, and chalky formations 
 which lie strewed around, and it was by no means difficult 
 to fancy ourselves in the midst of the chambers of the dead, 
 so desolate and wholly removed from everything which has 
 life is the necropolis of ancient Thebes. May it not, too, in the 
 opinion of the early Egyptian teachers of religion, have had 
 a good effect upon the living, thus to see continually before 
 them, as the inhabitants of this great metropolis must have 
 done, the vast dwelling-place of the dead, and to know that 
 soon they likewise must occupy the space allotted to them in 
 the tomb ? From all that we know of the better features of 
 their religious system — unhappily that is very little — it ap- 
 pears evident that they turned their attention quite as much 
 to the subject of death and the preservation of the perishing 
 body, as to care for the living and the every-day concerns of 
 this fleeting existence. 
 
 We made it a point to enter Belzoni's tomb first of all, 
 both on account of our respect for the distinguished man who 
 discovered it, and because it is in itself very remarkable for 
 
114 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 its interior decoration and arrangement. Unlike most of the 
 others, this one is entered by a steep staircase, which, accord- 
 ing to Wilkinson, descends twenty-four feet in perpendicular 
 depth on a horizontal length of twenty -nine, and certainly 
 seems to mar the effect which is gained by the gradual slope 
 usually chosen in constructing the tombs. A short distance 
 further on, a second staircase is found, by which we de- 
 scended some twenty-five feet lower, and walking along a 
 passage of about thirty feet in length, we came to an oblong 
 chamber, twelve feet by fourteen, where formerly was a deep 
 pit, which Belzoni filled up, and which appeared to form the 
 limit of the tomb ; his sagacity, however, and the skill he 
 had acquired in detecting the hidden chambers which were 
 formed with so much care by the ancient Egyptian kings to 
 conceal their mortal remains and protect them from the hand 
 of violence, enabled him, after great labor, to effect an en- 
 trance into the secret portions of this truly magnificently 
 adorned burial-place. We did not wonder that Belzoni was 
 delighted at his success, for rarely has it fallen to our lot to 
 witness a scene at all comparable with what is here exhibited 
 to the admiring gaze of the visitor. Hall after hall, and 
 chamber after chamber, not more remarkable for size and ex- 
 tent than for beauty of sculpture and elegance of decoration, 
 lay open to our inspection ; and as we walked along, with 
 steps slow and minds attuned to serious and solemn things, 
 and beheld the multitude of objects which the artist has here 
 drawn with a skill very surprising, when we consider the 
 lapse of time since they were executed, our only light the 
 flickering rays of a candle, and ourselves the only living 
 things in the very charnel-house of a Pharaoh, you will be- 
 lieve me that I felt oppressed, and in some measure, pained 
 with inexpressible emotions. I do not mean by this that death 
 here wears the gloomy and terrifying aspect which is too gen- 
 erally associated with it ; nor that the ancient Egyptian bury- 
 ing-places affect one with that chilling and shuddering sensa- 
 
NECROPOLIS OF THEBES, a 1M\ 
 
 tion which steals insensibly upon such as go down into the 
 tombs and vaults in Christian countries, and see and feel that 
 they are indeed in the midst of festering corruption and mor- 
 tal dust and ashes : on the contrary, I have been struck with 
 the fact, that the very reverse is true of the tombs of Egypt. 
 Everywhere they have sought to deprive death of its horrors, 
 and, if I may be allowed to say so, have succeeded admirably 
 well. It was not, therefore, as perhaps it may appear, the 
 simple consciousness that we were in the chambers of the 
 dead, the house appointed for all living, which affected me 
 with sensations of mingled pain and grief: nay, while this 
 consciousness had its full effect, it was something more which 
 touched my feelings ; it was rather the thought of the vanity 
 and nothingness of all earthly things which forced itself upon 
 my attention ; it was the calling to mind that the great king 
 who more than three -thousand years ago ruled supreme in 
 Egypt, and gloried in his power and magnificence, has sunk 
 into oblivion, and his name and works, and all that apper- 
 tained to him, have for ages been forgotten, like the things 
 that perish and are no more. Standing here, in the mauso- 
 leum of the mighty and illustrious dead, who doubtless never 
 dreamed that they should pass away utterly from the knowl- 
 edge or recollection of men, I could not but feel how worth- 
 less is human glory, how less than nothing is this world's 
 might, magnificence, splendor and beauty ; and I could not 
 but grieve over the vain and fleeting show for which mortals 
 have spent their best efforts, and which, when attained, ia 
 like a vapor which appeareth for a little time, and then van 
 isheth away forever. But, if such were the feelings most 
 natural to the heart on an occasion like the present, O how 
 grand and truly glorious appeared the hopes and expectations 
 of the Christian, when set in contrast with what these an- 
 cient Egyptians possessed ! how unspeakably precious seemed 
 the lot of those who know and believe in the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and by whom this world and all its vain pomp and 
 
116 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 circumstance are counted as nothing, and less than nothing, 
 compared with the eternal and unfading glory which awaits 
 the ransomed of the Lord ! Truly, my dear S., if the heart 
 of man sink within him, when he is compelled to realize the 
 power of death and the perishable nature of earthly greatness, 
 there is consolation in the thought that now no longer need 
 he mourn and weep, for the Redeemer has purchased joy and 
 peace for His children ; no longer need he spend his efforts 
 for naught, in the vain endeavor to escape the doom of mor- 
 tality, for the grave has no terrors, death has no sting, for 
 those who " are more than conquerors through Him that loved 
 us ;" yea, as the glowing Apostle to the Gentiles has said, 
 " I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor 
 principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to 
 come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be 
 able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ 
 Jesus our Lord."=^ 
 
 I shall not attempt to describe in detail the respective 
 chambers in this splendid Tomb; after what Sir Gardner 
 Wilkinson has done in his very valuable and elaborate work, 
 " Modern Egypt and Thebes," it would be presumptuous in 
 me to venture to do more than speak of such points as con- 
 sist with a rapid visit to the wonders of this ancient capital ; 
 you wiL, however, I trust, pardon my quoting a passage from 
 Belzoni's narrative, giving an account of the sarcophagus 
 which he found in the vaulted saloon, or grand hall, and 
 which Wilkinson thinks was a cenotaph of the deceased mon- 
 arch : — " The description," says he, " of what we found in 
 the centre of the saloon, and which I have reserved till this 
 place, merits the most particular attention, not having its 
 equal in the world, and being such as we had no idea could 
 exist. It is a sarcophagus of the finest oriental alabaster, 
 nine feet five inches long, and three feet seven inches wide. 
 The thickness is only two inches ; and it is transparent when 
 
 ♦ Rom. viii. 37-39. 
 
117 
 
 a light is placed in the inside of it. It is minutely sculptured 
 within and without with several hundred figures, which do 
 not exceed two inches in height, and represent, as I suppose, 
 the whole of the funeral procession and ceremonies relating 
 to the deceased. I cannot give an adequate idea of this beau- 
 tiful and invaluable piece of antiquity, and can only say that 
 nothing has been brought into Europe from Egypt that can 
 be compared with it. The cover was not there ; it had been 
 taken out and broken into several pieces, which we found in 
 digging before the first entrance."* It was not our good for- 
 tune to see this elegant specimen of ancient workmanship, it 
 having been removed many years ago to London for exhibi- 
 tion ; but this was comparatively of little consequence ; for 
 there is so much to interest and astonish the visitor, that he 
 hardly finds time to regret the absence of any one object, 
 however important. In truth, I feel that the amount of 
 decoration, in the way of sculpture, painting, hieroglyphics, 
 &o., is so vast, and requires both so much more knowledge 
 of art, and so much greater space than are at my command, 
 that I am quite ashamed to deal so unfairly by you and by 
 this wonderful catacomb, as to comprise within a few sen- 
 tences all that I dare now undertake to say respecting it. 
 Yet so it is, and you will have to be indebted to imagination 
 for very much that no words of mine can adequately deline- 
 ate. The numerous chambers, filled with hieroglyphics, of 
 which Wilkinson speaks in detail ; the freshness of color ; 
 the variety of design ; the interest attaching to many of the 
 figures and subjects, particularly those which are said to rep- 
 resent a procession of four different people or races, red, 
 white, black, and white again, four by four, followed by Ra, 
 " the sun ;"t the drawings in one of the halls which have never 
 
 ♦ Compare Russell's " Ancient and Modern Egypt," p. 223. 
 
 t This is the view advanced by Sir Gardner Wilkinson, who thinks that the 
 four red figures are Egyptians, the white, a nation of the north, the black, a 
 southern people, and the other white figures an eastern tribe, all intended to 
 
fl8 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 been finished by the sculptor ; the various Egyptian divini- 
 ties ; and such like matters, are points on which I must not 
 attempt to enlarge, and respecting which the larger volumes 
 of Wilkinson and others can alone give satisfaction. At best, 
 too, though I made two visits to Belzoni's tomb, and spent 
 some hours in examining it, I must confess that I have but 
 a confused recollection of the vast variety of hieroglyphical 
 decoration, the strange profusion of serpents and reptiles of 
 different sorts, the singular and mysterious ceremonies alluded 
 to in some of the sculptures, the numerous gods and goddesses, 
 the various figures of men and animals, and the many groups 
 which are scattered throughout the halls and chambers; I 
 could not, however, help being struck with some peculiarities 
 in the representation of human figures, and noting them at 
 the time. The shape of the head is excellent, and proves at 
 once that the Egyptians were no more connected with the 
 negro race than ourselves : the expression of the face, too, is 
 pleasing, and in many cases very sweet and attractive ; but the 
 figure is very remarkable for extreme tenuity, and a slenderness 
 of waist in the female, which is beyond anything attainable by 
 the modern devotee of fashion. In other respects, while one 
 <5ould not but admire the artistical skill displa^yed in the design 
 and execution of these figures, taking into account the early 
 period at which they were drawn and sculptured, there was 
 much room for regret that the knowledge of perspective was 
 not more extended among a people who manifested talent of 
 «uch high order in the arts in general. If I have an oppor- 
 tunity by and by, I may recur to this point again : now, I 
 must leave this, as well as some minor matters relating to 
 
 typify the four divisions of the world, or the whole human race. Earlier writers, 
 quoted by Dr. Russell, give a different view of these sculptures, supposing that 
 the period referred to is the time of Pharaoh Necho, who conquered Jerusalem 
 and Babylon (see 2 Kings, xxiii. 29, etc.), and his son Psammis or Psammuthis, 
 who made war upon the Ethiopians : hence the people indicated would be the 
 Jews, Ethiopians, Persians, and Egyptians, The opinion of Wilkinson is, 
 however, entitled to the greater weight, from the fact that no Egyptologer ex- 
 cept himself, has devoted the time and attention to Thebes which it deserves. 
 
the scribbling of names on the walls, and various severe and 
 not undeserved objurgations against Dr. Lepsius and his bar- 
 barisms in removing some of the sculptures, and ask yon to 
 accompany me to another tomb, on some accounts not less 
 interesting than that of Belzoni.* 
 
 A short walk brought us to Bruce's, or the Harper's tomb, 
 so called from the interesting figures of two minstrels, play- 
 ing on harps of rather an elegant form, which were copied 
 by the distinguished traveller just named, and furnished to 
 Dr. Burney for his " History of Music." Unlike the one 
 from which we had recently emerged, this tomb descends 
 gradually from the entrance, and in its whole length of four 
 hundred and five feet, reaches only thirty-one feet below the 
 level of its mouth. I may mention here, too, that most of 
 the tombs are constructed on this plan, and consist of a 
 straight passage, about twelve feet wide and ten high, cut 
 into the side of the soft limestone rock, and having on each 
 side of the main hall a number of small chambers. The 
 principal interest connected with this tomb, is undoubtedly 
 on account of its throwing light upon the every-day life of 
 the ancient Egyptians; and though the nature of the rock 
 was not very favorable for sculpture, and a large part of the 
 tomb is too much defaced to enable one readily to recognize 
 the design of the artist, still sufficient remains to render 
 Bruce's tomb one of the most attractive of them all. In one 
 
 * Lord Lindsay cannot contain his indignation at what has been done in 
 this tomb : — " The spoilers have been at work in Belzoni's tomb : it makes the 
 heart ache and the cheek burn to see such wanton outrage ; one whole pillar (to 
 say nothing of partial robberies, figures cut in two for the sake of a limb or an or- 
 nament) has been stript of its sculptures, and stands a melancholy wreck, naked 
 and dazzlingly white, amidst its companions, the chips all around it — tongues 
 of reproach, that curse the hand that maimed it !" — According to Wilkinson, the 
 *' total horizontal length of this catacomb is 320 ft., without the inclined descent 
 below the sarcophagus, and its perpendicular depth 90, But including that part, 
 it measures in depth about 180 ft., to the spot where it is closed by the fallen 
 rock." The hieroglyphics show that the tomb was king Osirei's, (B.C. 1385) the 
 father of Remeses IL, who is supposed to be the great Sesostris of Egyptian history. 
 
120 EGYPT AND TH£ HOLY LAND. 
 
 of the chambers are represented the various processes con- 
 nected with culinary operations, as the slaughtering of oxen, 
 the putting the cauldrons over the fire, the kneading of some 
 substance with the feet, the making of bread, where the dough 
 is kneaded by hand, &c. In another chamber is a great vari- 
 ety of warlike instruments, helmets, spears, daggers, clubs, 
 standards, &c. In another are to be seen specimens of house- 
 hold furniture, as chairs, sofas, couches, and numerous orna- 
 mental articles for the drawing-room or parlor, of which Wil- 
 kinson truly remarks, that they prove that the ancient Egyp- 
 tians "were greatly advanced in the arts of civilization, and 
 the comforts of domestic life." But I need not dwell upon 
 those points, which have been so admirably enlarged upon by 
 the illustrious author, to whom all travellers in Egypt are so 
 much indebted. One other chamber, only, demands a passing 
 notice, viz., that from which the tomb generally derives its 
 name. We spent some little time in looking at the harpers 
 and their instruments, which have an additional interest from 
 the circumstance of the name of Bruce being written just 
 over one of them. The minstrels are blind, and the harps 
 have eleven and thirteen strings ; they are performing in the 
 presence of the god Ao or Hercules, and might easily be 
 taken for persons of the same rank in life, and the same oc- 
 cupation as the wandering musicians of modern days. 
 
 The other tombs of the kings, which we examined with 
 some particularity, are those which Wilkinson has numbered 
 9, 14 and 15 : we also took considerable pains to explore one 
 of the extremely spacious tombs in the Assaseef, executed by 
 a wealthy priest, who lived about B.C. 640. I am confident 
 that I should weary you, were I to enter upon a detailed de- 
 scription of these catacombs, which have so many character- 
 istics in common with those already spoken of. If I have 
 been so happy as to render my meaning at all clear, there is 
 the less necessity of this, since you will understand that the 
 variety in the style, subject, and execution, is not great, and 
 
THE PRIVATE TOMBS. 121 
 
 that after all, it requires a very extensive preparation, to en- 
 joy and profit by the most of things, in which these mansions 
 of the dead abound. The Tomb of Memnon (No. 9), as it 
 was styled by the Romans, is certainly well worthy a visit, 
 and appears to have been greatly admired by the Greek and 
 Roman visitors, who have recorded on the walls their senti- 
 ments, in inscriptions of some length. Nos. 14 and 15 have 
 several points of interest, illustrative of Egyptian life and 
 manners. The tomb belonging to the priest Petamunap, is 
 very remarkable for its extent, and the profusion of its deco- 
 ration ; and it has been calculated, that the area of the exca- 
 vation is twenty-two thousand two hundred and seventeen 
 square feet, and with the chambers of the pits, twenty-three 
 thousand eight hundred and nine ; and that it occupies nearly 
 an acre and a quarter of ground. At present, the bats have 
 taken up their residence in such numbers, in this tomb, that 
 it is extremely disagreeable to penetrate into its recesses.''^ In 
 every direction, too, the scandalous manner in which the tombs 
 and mummy-pits have been rifled, and the fragments of human 
 remains scattered about, excite one's indignation at the heart- 
 lessness of travellers and antiquarian collectors, and the cu- 
 pidity of the uncivilized Arabs. 
 
 Among the private tombs, by far the most curious and 
 interesting is the one which Wilkinson has marked 35, for 
 
 ♦ " We cannot leave these ancient tombs without expressing our regret that 
 the rage for discovery in the mansions of the dead should have led to conse- 
 quences so little creditable to European delicacy. The mummies have been 
 drawn from their recesses with a rapacious and unsparing hand. The chief 
 part of this havoc, no doubt, has been committed by the Arabs, who tear the 
 bodies open to get at the rosin, or asphaltum, used in the embalming, which they 
 sell at Cairo to great advantage ; but travellers and their agents have also had 
 their share in this sacrilege, as it may be justly called. It is, we are informed, 
 a sad and disgusting sight ; the sands and the edges of the graves, in some parts, 
 being strewed with bones and even pieces of flesh thrown wantonly about. The 
 poor Egyptians, who had slept in peace some thousands of years, have been mer- 
 cilessly dealt with here, and the remains of warriors, citizens, and sages, now lie 
 mingled together beneath the burning sun ; for no retreat or sanctuary has been 
 suffered to remain inviolate." — Russell's " Ancient and Modern Egypt,^' p. 230. 
 
 6 
 
122 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 **it throws more light upon the manners and customs of the 
 Egyptians, than any hitherto discovered." We did not fail, 
 as a matter of course, to visit this tomb ; and while we were 
 gazing most intently at the picture of the brick-makers, which 
 Rosselini has rendered renowned by copying it, and express- 
 ing a decided opinion respecting its application, we felt all 
 the excitement arising out of the view, which, not Rosselini 
 alone, but others equally learned and judicious, have adopted. 
 Certainly there could not be a more striking and apt illustra- 
 tion of the words of Moses, than is afforded by this remark- 
 able painting ; " the Egyptians made the children of Israel 
 to serve with rigor ; and they made their lives bitter with 
 hard bondage, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of 
 service in the field : all their service wherein they made them 
 serve was with rigor." (Exod. i. 13, 14.) Whether we con- 
 cur in opinion with such distinguished scholars as Hengsten- 
 berg, Osburn, Rosselini, and others, who are very decided on 
 the point of this pictorial representation being intended ex- 
 pressly to set forth the Jews working as slaves ; or whether 
 we defer to the judgment of Sir G. Wilkinson, Taylor, and 
 men of that stamp, there can be no doubt, that it is a very 
 surprising and very wonderful illustration of an important 
 part of Scripture history. For myself, as you know, it be- 
 comes me to speak with the utmost diffidence on controverted 
 points ; yet I cannot forbear expressing to you my thorough 
 conviction, that this is a veritable and trustworthy evidence 
 from the monumentiii of Egypt, in favor of the truth of the 
 Bible. I have looked at this picture with this feeling ; I de- 
 sire to cherish such feelings ever in my bosom, not "in defi- 
 ance of logic," as Wilkinson would have it of those who take 
 this view, but because the arguments are too many and con- 
 vincing for me to doubt on the point. Let me quote, in sup- 
 port of the opinion which I would advocate, the words of the 
 learned William Osburn, Jr. : after informing us that the pre- 
 sent is the tomb of Rek-share, the chief architect of the temples 
 
PICTURE OF THE BRICK-MAKERS. 123 
 
 and palaces of Thebes, under Pharaoh Moeris, he says : '' never, 
 perhaps, has so striking a pictorial comment as this upon the 
 sacred text, been before recovered. The physiognomy of the 
 Jews it is impossible to mistake; and the splashes of clay 
 with which their bodies are covered, the air of close and in- 
 tense labor that is conveyed by the grouping on the left side 
 of the picture, and, above all, the Egyptian taskmaster 
 seated with his heavy baton, whose remorseless blows would, 
 doubtless, visit the least relaxation of the slaves he was driv- 
 ing from their wearisome and toilsome task of making bricks, 
 and spreading them to dry in the burning sun of Egypt, give 
 a vivid impression of the exactitude of the Scripture phrase^ 
 * all their service wherein they made them serve was with 
 rigor.' The inscription at the top of the picture, to the 
 right, reads, * Captives brought by his majesty' (Moeris), ' to 
 build the temple of the great god.' This means, either that 
 Moeris was the king ^ that arose that knew not Joseph, and 
 that reduced the children of Israel to servitude ;' or, more 
 probably, that the family or gang of Israelites which are here 
 represented, had been marched up from Goshen, and attached 
 especially to the building of the temples at Thebes."* I shall 
 not, however, enticing though the theme be, dwell longer 
 upon this interesting picture, or the many others which this 
 tomb contains. You will find all that is known, and the 
 opinions of the wise and learned in Egyptian history and an- 
 tiquities, in the volumes of the authors above named ; and I 
 will not doubt that you will agree with me in the sentiments 
 I have ventured to express.! At this time, let me beg your 
 
 * Osburn's " Antiquities of Egypt,'' pp. 220, 221. 
 
 f Since my return to the United States there has been pubUshed, "The Mon- 
 uments of Egypt, or Egypt a Witness for the Bible," by Francis L. Hawks, D.D., 
 LL.D., 8vo. pp. 418. The learned author, in speaking of the bondage of the 
 children of Israel in Egypt, discusses this subject quite at large, and with his 
 usual ability, I am happy to refer you to pp. 179-188, where you will observe 
 Dr. Hawks advocates the view adopted by Hengstenberg and Osburn. 
 
124 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND.' 
 
 patience for a little while, to a brief notice of one oi' two 
 other matters on the western bank of the Nile. 
 
 Passing by the Memnonium or Remesseum, the small 
 temple to the east, called Deir el Medineh, from having been 
 the abode of the early Christians, and the temple-palace (as 
 it is termed) of Kurneh, which are not, by any means, unwor- 
 thy notice, but hardly require attention here, in the midst of 
 so many other more imposing ruins in Thebes, I feel that it 
 would hardly be right to omit all mention of the great temple 
 at Medinet Habu, and the Colossus, with which we are fami- 
 liar under the name of the "Vocal Memnon." The ruins 
 of the temple are easily visited in the course of a day, and 
 strike the attention the more forcibly, from their extent, 
 character, and historical associations. Like all the ruins of 
 Egypt, these are in the midst of surrounding objects, which 
 offend the eye and the taste, and afford clear evidence of the 
 degradation of the present race of inhabitants. Heaps of 
 dirt and rubbish, the half thrown down mud huts of the vil- 
 lagers, who usually took up their residence in the midst of 
 the old temples and ruins, and the here-and-there scattered 
 proofs of a miserable existence in the squalid children, shout- 
 ing for bakhshish, and the few goats which constitute all the 
 wealth of their parents, give an air of desolation to the scene, 
 which I am unable to describe, and which can hardly fail to 
 impress the beholder with sad reflections. This temple-palace 
 dates back, according to Wilkinson, to the time of Remeses 
 III., B.C. 1235. We first passed what are called lodges, and 
 arrived at a lofty building, resembling a pyramidal tower on 
 either hand : these, together with the oblong court and gate- 
 way at the end, and the chambers on the inner or north side, 
 gave us a good idea of the pavilion of the king, who made 
 his royal residence in a locality such as this. Of the sculp- 
 tures and decorations of this portion, time does not permit 
 me to speak, much as they would strike the antiquary, and 
 the admirer of Egyptian works of art : it may interest you 
 
GRAND COURT AT MEDINET HABU. 125 
 
 more to notice the singular symmetrophobia, as it is termed, 
 which characterizes many of the pillars or columns in these 
 temples. Here, in one of the large courts, as at Philae, it 
 seemed not a little curious, that no two columns are alike, 
 and that the artist has bestowed more care and labor to make 
 each one different from the other, than to give them all that 
 elegant symmetry and finish, which, to our notions, render 
 the Grecian styles so attractive. "The next area," says 
 Wilkinson, " is far more splendid, and may be looked upon 
 as one of the finest which adorn the various temples of Egypt. 
 Its dimensions are about one hundred and twenty-three feet 
 by one hundred and thirty-three, and its height from the 
 pavement to the cornice thirty-nine feet four inches. It is 
 surrounded by an interior peristyle, whose east and west sides 
 are supported by five massive columns, the south by a row 
 of eight Osiride pillars, and the north by a similar number, 
 behind which is an elegant corridor of circular columns, 
 whose effect is unequalled by any other in Thebes. Nor do 
 the colors, many of which are still preserved, tend a little to 
 add to the beauty of its columns, of whose massive style 
 some idea may be formed, from their circumference of nearly 
 twenty-three feet to a height of twenty-four, or about three 
 diameters." It is this grand court which the artist has 
 usually chosen to sketch and present to our view. There is 
 something rather grand and very interesting in the sculptures, 
 of a historical character, on the walls of this vast court, com- 
 mencing at the inner face of the tower : they are much too 
 elaborate and extensive, for me at present to undertake to 
 describe them; and as the author of "Modern Egypt and 
 Thebes" has devoted a number of pages to an accurate de- 
 scription of the battle scenes here sculptured, I must beg 
 to refer you to them, as on every account worthy a re-perusal. 
 What struck me the most was the spirit and skill of the 
 artist, who has succeeded in depicting scenes of this kind in 
 a manner worthy of the later and better days of art ; and, 
 
126 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 despite all the defects of perspective drawing, and the want 
 of proportion in many ways and in many portions of the 
 figures, even the most casual observer must render the 
 tribute of praise to the general effectiveness of the whole, 
 and the singular accuracy and minuteness of most of the 
 details. He cannot well fail, also, being impressed with 
 the temple, as a whole, and as illustrating the main fea- 
 tures of Egyptian architecture, in a manner most likely to 
 make a deep and lasting impression. It is quite possible, 
 nay, perhaps probable, that he will feel disposed to condemn 
 these vast edifices, in which the land of the Pharaohs abounds, 
 as heavy and in measure unmeaning, as deficient in the 
 gracefulness and beauty of the Grecian style, and as eviden- 
 cing a false taste ; but he will find them grow upon him, and 
 he will see reason to acknowledge, that in their palmy days, 
 when all the richness of color, and elegance and profusion of 
 decoration, were brought to bear ; and when there was every- 
 thing in keeping, both in surrounding objects and in the minds 
 of the people, the temples of Egypt must have equalled, if 
 not surpassed, all edifices in the world. Even now, too, 
 the pilgrim wanderer amid the ruins needs no very vivid 
 imagination to lead him to the conviction, that the ancient 
 inhabitants of the fertile valley of the Nile were a people 
 wonderfully advanced in the arts of civilized life, and truly 
 great in those things to which it took the western world ages 
 to attain. These remarks are no more than simple justice to 
 the remains of art in Egypt, and may serve as a slight tribute 
 at my hands, since I profess myself no great admirer of a 
 style of architecture so totally different from all that I have 
 been led to think the pure ideal of grace and beauty. 
 
 It may appear somewhat fanciful, but under the influence 
 of our present circumstances, and the romance connected 
 with the thing, we could not resist the inclination to visit the 
 Vocal Memnon at the hour when so many pilgrims, both 
 Greek and Roman, came to hear its heavenly voice, as thoy 
 
^THE VOCAL MEMNON. 123^ 
 
 usually termed it. We left our boat about daylight, and 
 mounted on horses, rode briskly over the plain towards the 
 Colossi, which, in the clear light of early morning, appeared 
 to loom up very grandly. Just as the sun sent forth his first 
 bright beams, and began to illumine the scene with a glory 
 unequalled at any other hour of the day, we arrived in front 
 of these colossal statues, and with ears attent, listened for 
 that sweet-toned salutation with which, as so many have tes- 
 tified, the " Son of Tithonus" was wont to greet the sun's 
 daily appearance. We were not of imperial rank, though 
 part and parcel of the " sovereign people," and so were not 
 treated like the emperor Hadrian, whom the obsequious co- 
 lossus saluted three times one bright morning, just to show 
 the difference between him and ordinary mortals: nay, as 
 you will readily imagine, no sound whatever now issued from 
 the Memnon ; its vocal qualities are gone, and its glory and 
 reputation departed forever, and, like the far-famed heathen 
 oracles which once exercised such vast sway over the minds 
 of men, but are now powerless and silent as the grave, so this 
 colossus, which in the days of its beauty, and when it had 
 its priests and thousands of votaries, was renowned through- 
 out Rome's wide-world empire, is now, and has been for hun- 
 dreds of years, ruined and defaced, and none are now found 
 so poor as to do it reverence. 
 
 The position of these Colossi is very fiae, and doubtless in 
 the days when they were uninjured and surrounded by the 
 magnificence which characterized Thebes under the Pharaohs, 
 they formed objects of wonder and admiration to all beholders. 
 They are about a mile and a half from the river, which they 
 look towards, and stand in the middle of a broad plain, and 
 not very far from the various ruins of which I have spoken 
 above. It seems highly probable that these and other colossi 
 formed part of the dromos or paved approach to the temple, 
 now no longer existing, on this bank of the Nile, which fact 
 would accord with the name of " Royal Street," which, as 
 
128 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 Wilkinson states, is mentioned in some papyri found at 
 Thebes, and which led to the river opposite Luxor, with 
 which it communicated by means of a ferry. By the grad- 
 ual rise of the land, the dromos is covered with alluvial de- 
 posit to the depth of about seven feet, and of course a large 
 part of the pedestal on which the Colossi stand is below the 
 present surface of the ground : this is to be taken into ac- 
 count in estimating their height and vast proportions.^ As 
 we approached them, in the distance they did not appear to 
 be so lofty and imposing as they really are ; and even when 
 we stood at the side of the pedestal, climbed up upon it, and 
 stood between the legs of the sitting figure, and looked up to 
 the knees, nearly fifteen feet above our heads, we could hardly 
 realize their full size : it was a greater amusement to us to 
 see if we could catch any idea of the sound which was heard 
 in olden times. We struck the stone in various places, but to 
 no satisfaction, and we regretted that we had not the means 
 of getting up to the lap of the statue, where, Wilkinson states, 
 " is a stone which, on being struck, emits a metallic sound, 
 that might still be made use of to deceive a visitor who was 
 predisposed to believe its powers." Possibly all this was well 
 studied out beforehand by the priests, for the stone of which 
 the Colossi are constructed is, according to the same author- 
 ity, to which I am so often indebted, " a coarse, hard grit- 
 stone, ' spotted,' according to Tzetzes' expression, ' with num- 
 
 * The heijrht of either Colossus is 47 ft., or 53 above the plain, with the pe- 
 destal, which, i>iw buried from C ft. 10 in. to 7 ft. below the surface, completes to 
 its base a total of GO. They measure about 18 ft. 3 in. across the shoulders ; 16 
 ft. 6 from the top of the shoulder to the elbow ; 10 ft. 6 from the top of the head 
 to the shoulder: 17 ft. 9 from the elbow to the finger's end; and 19 ft. 8 from 
 the knee to the plint of the foot. The thrones are ornamented with figures of 
 the god Nilus who. holding the stalks of two plants pecuHar to the river, is en- 
 gaged in building up a pedestal or table, surmounted by the name of the Egyp- 
 tian monarch — a symbolic group, indicating his dominion over the upper and 
 lower countries. A line of hieroglyphics extends perpendicularly down the back, 
 from the shoulder to the pedestal, containing the name of the Pharaoh they rep- 
 resent. 
 
DESOLATE CONDITION OF THE COLOSSI. 129 
 
 erous chalcedonies, and here and there covered with black and 
 red oxide of iron :' " we can hardly suppose that they left 
 themselves open to detection by any ordinary means ; and if 
 they kept the stone from which the sound was made to issue 
 concealed in the lap of the statue, no ordinary observer could 
 possibly discover by what means the priests rendered the 
 colossus vocal. 
 
 In speaking of the Colossi, as I have done, it will, of course, 
 be understood that they have little or none of their former 
 beauty and grandeur remaining. Most probably it was the 
 Persian conqueror who broke down and destroyed the upper 
 part of the Vocal Memnon, though Strabo was told that a 
 shock of an earthquake did this damage. Its appearance is 
 now much inferior to that of the other, defaced and mutilated 
 as that is, since the restorer of the upper part, whoever it 
 may have been, has piled up five layers of sandstone, which 
 form the body, head, and upper part of the arms, but have 
 nothing of the finish and workmanship of the rest of the 
 statue. Doubtless it once wore the same semblance of massive 
 elegance, if the term may be allowed, which even, now can 
 be detected in the other colossus, where the head-dress is 
 beautifully wrought, and which has its shoulders and back 
 comparatively quite uninjured ; but no words can express too 
 strongly their present desolate, disfigured and ruinous condi- 
 tion. You will also bear in mind, that though we use the 
 name of Memnon in connection with this colossus, it has really 
 no more to do with that rather doubtful personage than the 
 obelisks at Alexandria have with Cleopatra, by whose name 
 they are commonly called. In reality, these statues were 
 erected by Amunoph III., B.C. 1430, or, according to Os- 
 burn, B.C. 1687, who was supposed also to bear the name of 
 Phamenoth ; and we owe the title which the vocal statue has 
 attained to a blunder of the Romans, who were noted for their 
 contemptuous treatment of subjects which did not particu- 
 larly interest them or minister to their national pride. The 
 
 6* 
 
130 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 researches into hiero%jlyphics since the days of ChampoUion, 
 have enabled us to ascertain with precision to whom the 
 Colossi belong, and as Sir G. Wilkinson declares, " Amunoph 
 once more asserts his claims to the statues he erected." 
 
 I had thought of inflicting upon you some of the Greek 
 and Latin inscriptions osa the legs and feet of the colossus, to 
 show you how learned a man can be on very small means. 
 I took the trouble of copying several of these, by way of 
 amusement, and I doubt net I could display considerable eru- 
 dition in throwing light upon the plain and simple parts, as 
 well as in judiciously gliding in silence over the real difficul- 
 ties — ^no uncommon plan, by the by — but I spare you all 
 this, and shall leave the inscriptions to rest in peace in the 
 " Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature." Let me 
 hope that, considering the t^^^^^iion my forbearance will 
 not go unappreciated. 
 
LETTER VII. 
 
 3ltt^or anti IS^arnaft. 
 
 Ruins at Luxor.— General Character.— View from the Propyla.— Obelisk.— Beauty and Finish. 
 —Colossal Figures.— Sculptures on the Walls.— Ride to Kamak.— Dromos of Sphinxes.— 
 Massive Gateways.—" Hundred-Gated Thebes."- The Great Temple.— Its Wondrous Extent 
 and Grandeiu-.— Hall of Assembly.— Unequalled in Conception and Execution.— Power and 
 Wealth of the Ancient Egyptians.— Beauty and Glory all gone.— Present Desolation.— Edi 
 fices in the Vicinity.— Magnificence and Splendor of Thebes as a Whole. — Comparative An- 
 tiquity of the Buildings. — Interesting Discovery of ChampoUion's. — Shishak. — Jerusalem 
 Taken.— Hieroglyphics Explained.— Result. 
 
 Luxor, Feb. 8th, 1849. 
 My Dear S., 
 
 It was far from my intention to have said so much re- 
 specting Thebes and its wonderful ruins, and I am not without 
 apprehension that I may have wearied you with an attempt 
 to speak in terms adequate to the subject, of what exceeds my 
 powers faithfully and fully to portray. Had I been wise, per- 
 haps, I should have presented to you the more interesting re- 
 mains of Karnak first of all, and devoted only a small space 
 to those on the west bank ; but I will confess to you I had 
 an object in it beyond the mere fact, that such was the order 
 in which I visited the ruins of Thebes. I was not without 
 hope that you would have the greater patience with me and 
 my tediousness, if you supposed that by and by you would 
 be compensated with an account of Karnak and its astonish- 
 ing and unequalled ruins ; and I took the liberty of presum- 
 ing upon your goodness and affection in speaking much more 
 at length, and much more diffusely, than I had intended : let 
 me hope that I have not wrongly judged, but that you will 
 
132 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 bear with even another letter on a topic so full of attractive- 
 ness as this is to those who visit the East. Most certainly, 
 if Karnak and Luxor do not interest you as much as it is 
 my earnest hope they will, and as they should, the fault is 
 wholly my own ; and you must not think the less of what all 
 travellers find that they have not words truly and fairly to 
 represent, because you have sad proof of my dulness and in- 
 efficiency. 
 
 During most of our stay at Thebes, our boat was moored 
 directly opposite the ruins at Luxor, which is a market-town 
 of some size, and rendered more important than it otherwise 
 would be, by the frequency with which travellers come to visit 
 the remains of the ancient metropolis of Egypt.^ Hardly an 
 hour passed, when we were on board, in which the eye was 
 not attracted by the massive pillars, which seemed, as it were, 
 to form a grand entrance to a city beyond ; the lofty propy- 
 lon, built strongly enough for a castle or military post; 
 and the magnificent obelisk which Mohammed Ali presented, 
 together with its fellow now in Paris, to the late king of 
 France ; and, on several occasions, as we happened to be at 
 Luxor when the moon was full, we had a view of the ruins 
 by moonlight, a view which I can safely say, was unsurpassed 
 by anything I ever saw in any land. One day, accompanied 
 by our guide, I set ou.t to explore the ruins with some partic- 
 ularity. We passed through the broad spaces between the 
 columns which face toward the river, and admiring their 
 great size and imposing appearance, even in their present de- 
 graded and unworthy position, we came to an open space be- 
 yond, where was once a large court connected with the other 
 parts of the temple ; but now nothing could be more repul- 
 sive than the appearance of everything connected with these 
 
 * Luxor, or Luksor, occupies a part of the site of ancient Diospolis ; and its 
 name signifies "the Palaces," from the temples there erected by Amunoph III. 
 (B.C. 1430) and Remeses II. (B.C. 1355). According to the distances given by 
 Sir G. Wilkinson, it is 464 miles south of Cairo. ill 
 
CHARACTER OF THE RUINS AT LUXOR. 133 
 
 ruins. Not only are the huts of the fellahin built in and about 
 the temple, but heaps of filth lie in every direction ; pigeon- 
 houses are stuck up against the walls ; different rooms, filled 
 once with splendid sculpture and elegant decorations, are now 
 used for stables for cattle, and disgust one by the ordure which 
 it is necessary to encounter in order to inspect some interesting 
 point ; and beside all, what I have several times noted before, 
 the living objects, in the way of men, women and children^ 
 are scarcely less repulsive to one's feelings and wishes at such 
 a time as this. These remarks are true of every part of the 
 ruins at Luxor, and if I do not enlarge upon the annoyances 
 we met with, you will not suppose that I felt them any the 
 less keenly. Following my guide, I made my way through 
 several passages and huts, and had a good chance to inspect 
 an Arab school, which was as noisy as any of the primary 
 institutions in our good city of New York. Mounting up- 
 ward, now through a fellah's hut, now over the top of hab- 
 itations into which one can look without difficulty, and now 
 clambering up a narrow stone staircase, half in ruins, we ar- 
 rived at the top of the large pyramidal towers which form the 
 grand entrance to the temple, and face northerly in the direc- 
 tion of Karnak.* I sat for some time on the broad surface at 
 the top of this noble gateway, admiring the scene which is here 
 spread out to the view. Perhaps nowhere could one obtain a 
 better position in which to look abroad over the grand plain 
 where Thebes once stood in all her glory, and in which to 
 muse over her fallen greatness, and her majesty even in ruins. 
 I noticed here the names of many travellers, among which 
 were those of Prince '^ Puckler Muskau," " W. Pottinger," 
 &c., and several countrymen, as " E. Robinson, 1838," " E. 
 Bergh, D. Austin, N. Y., 1841," &c. The mania for writ- 
 ing names has not died out, even in 1849, since, though the 
 
 * This propylon is computed to be two hundred feet in length, and nearly 
 sixty feet high. I measured some of the coping stones of the towers, and found 
 them to be seven feet in width by nearly double that in length. 
 
134 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. ' Hli 
 
 number of persons who have ascended the Nile is less this 
 year than in former years, there is no lack of names to show 
 who has made a pilgrimage at the present date : you will 
 need no assurance that Americans figure quite as largely as 
 others in this matter. 
 
 The obelisk which stands in front of the propylon just 
 spoken of, at a distance of about thirty feet, is certainly one 
 4bf the most beautifully executed things which Egypt pre- 
 sents to the admiration of the lovers of art. It is not sur- 
 passed by the larger one at Karnak ; and if my recollection 
 do not greatly mislead me, is in far better preservation than 
 that which now adorns the great Square in Paris. I assure 
 you, that I stood looking at this splendid shaft with unmixed 
 delight, notwithstanding I felt how sadly out of place is every- 
 thing of a living kind which surrounds it, and how liable it 
 is to injury and defacement, from the ignorance and careless- 
 ness of the peasantry, and sometimes the relic-loving propen- 
 sities of travellers. It is of the finest kind of red granite, has 
 received a polish and beauty of finish inimitably fine, and 
 rises to a height of about eighty feet, being about seven feet 
 square at the base. Its four sides are covered with a profusion 
 of hieroglyphics, which are "no less admirable for the style 
 of their execution, than for the depth to which they are cut, 
 which, in many instances, exceeds two inches." My skill in 
 reading hieroglyphics being very slight, I did not attempt to 
 interpret what is written, in these mysterious characters, on 
 the faces of the obelisk. I occupied myself more agreeably, 
 in admiring the work of the artist who, thousands of years 
 ago, traced out the various symbols on which my eyes now 
 rested, and which it seemed almost impossible to persuade 
 myself, were not the work of the present generation. I do 
 not speak too strongly, for the freshness of color, and the pre- 
 cision and accuracy of the sculpture, are perfectly astonishing; 
 and did we not know positively, that the obelisk, as well as 
 other grand objects at Thebes, were executed so many ages 
 
BATTLE SCENES ON THE WALLS. 136 
 
 gone by, we should not deem it possible that any works of 
 art could retain their beauty and elegance for more than 
 three thousand two hundred years. 
 
 Directly behind the obelisk and the spot where its com- 
 panion stood, are two colossal sitting figures of Remeses II., 
 placed on either side of the pylon or gateway; but, like all 
 the statues which I have seen, they are greatly mutilated 
 and broken : these are also half-buried in the sand and earth, 
 which has gradually accumulated about them. I need not, 
 however, dwell upon objects comparatively of little interest : 
 far more striking and more worthy of a lengthened descrip- 
 tion, are the battle scenes sculptured on the front of the 
 towers. Though concealed, to a considerable extent, by the 
 huts of the villagers, and evidently not in their best condition, 
 these sculptures strike one very forcibly, as illustrative of the 
 skill and taste of the artists so many centuries ago ; and, to 
 use the language of Mr. Hamilton, as quoted by Dr. Russell, it 
 is impossible "to view and to reflect upon a picture so copious 
 and so detailed, as this I have just described, without fancying 
 that we saw here the original of many of Homer's battles, 
 the portrait of some of the historical narratives of Herodotus, 
 and one of the principal groundworks of the description of 
 Diodorus: and to complete our gratification, we felt that, 
 had the artist been better acquainted with the rules of per- 
 spective, the performance might have done credit to the genius 
 of a Michael Angelo, or a Julio Romano. To add to the 
 efiect, in front of this wall had been erected a row of colossal 
 figures of granite ; fragments of some of them, still there, 
 sufficientxy attest their size, their character, and the exquisite 
 polish of the stone." 
 
 I shall not attempt to describe the various portions of the 
 temple at Luxor, more especially since they are detailed with 
 much fulness in the admirable "Hand Book for Egypt;" nor 
 will it particularly interest you, to be told into how many 
 ruined chambers I ventured to follow my guide. It would 
 
EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 be difficult, without something of a ground plan, to render 
 clear the position of what remains, or to give anything of an 
 idea of what this temple was, in the days of the great Sesos- 
 tris, whose warlike achievements and glory form so prominent 
 a part of its sculptured decorations. If you feel curious to 
 read the details, you cannot do better than consult the valu- 
 able work so frequently referred to, "Modern Egypt and 
 Thebes." At present, I doubt not, that I shall have your 
 pardon, if I leave these ruins, though so imperfectly and 
 briefly described, and occupy the remainder of my letter with 
 some account of the grand and imposing remains at Karnak. 
 It is rather an interesting ride from Luxor, in a northerly 
 direction, towards Karnak, through the fields of half eh grass, 
 and passing by the many interesting sites of ancient ruins, 
 the tomb of a noted sheikh, portions of an old wall, &c. As 
 one draws near the temple, he begins to see the evidences of 
 there having been an avenue or street of great size, connect- 
 ing Luxor with Karnak, even as the former was connected 
 with the temples and palaces on the west bank. Fragments, 
 for they can hardly be called more, of Sphinxes, arranged on 
 either hand, show the direction of the street, and even in their 
 almost shapeless condition, give one something of an idea of 
 the grandeur of the approach to Karnak in former days. 
 Shortly after, passing over a dromos, or continuation of the 
 same avenue, in which are Criosphinxes, or Sphinxes with 
 rams' heads, a very imposing pylon attracts the attention : it 
 was the work of Ptolemy Euergetes and Berenice his sister 
 (B.C. 246), who, according to the abominable practice of those 
 days, was also his wife and queen. These gateways are 
 frequently very grand and majestic ; and though they would 
 probably be out of place anywhere but in Egypt, they here 
 suit admirably with the massive style of architecture, in 
 which the ancient people of this land seemed to delight. They 
 are very lofty, with very thick and solid walls, and highly 
 decorated with sculptures, generally in intaglio, and a profu- 
 
GRAND TEMPLE AT KARNAK. 137 
 
 sion of hieroglyphics. This particular one is a fine specimen 
 of Egyptian pyla, and, in general, may be compared with 
 edifices like Napoleon's grand Triumphal Arch in Paris, 
 which was erected for a purpose not very unlike that which 
 appears to have prompted the monarchs of Egypt at different 
 periods, to add to the glories and extent of Karnak. Passing 
 through this Ptolemaic pylon, another avenue, similarly adorned 
 with Sphinxes, leads to the pyramidal towers or propyla of 
 a temple behind this gateway. It was now that we began to 
 form some idea of Homer's exaxo^nvloi Qri^ui (II, ix. 383), "^ an 
 expression which, as there are not the slightest traces of city 
 walls or gates, almost certainly refers — if it be more than 
 a poetic expletive — to the propyla or gateways of the tem- 
 ples — we did not, however, stop at this point to examine any- 
 thing, when the grand temple was so near at hand, and over- 
 shadowing every object else by its vast size and importance, 
 but hastened onward to gaze at its wonders in silent admira- 
 tion. 
 
 The front or main entrance is on the northwest side, where 
 we took our stand, and had our first view of the largest and 
 grandest temple in the world. Its extent is almost bewilder- 
 ing, and it was a long time before I could form any sort of 
 idea of what was before me. Just fancy yourself placed at 
 an immense doorway, and looking into a building whose width 
 is between three and four hundred feet, and length nearly 
 twelve hundred feet, and whose walls are proportionably thick, 
 massive, and lofty : imagine, if you can, hundreds of columns, 
 so large and so grand, as to excite unbounded astonishment, 
 Been at various distances, and in various positions, and form- 
 
 * " Not all proud Thebes' unrivalled walls contain, 
 The world's great Empress on th' Egyptian plain ; 
 That spreads her conquests o'er a thousand states, 
 And pours her heroes through a hundred gates, 
 Two hundred horsemen, and two hundred cars, 
 From each wide portal issuing to the wars." Pope. 
 
1S6 
 
 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 ing a feature in the scene, unlike what the eye ever before 
 beheld : think, too, of the vast propyla, the lofty obelisks, 
 the extensive courts, the sanctuary of red granite, and such- 
 like things, and you may perhaps catch an idea of that, which 
 I have no words adequately to describe, and with which every 
 traveller, from the enthusiastic Frenchman down to the most 
 phlegmatic German or Englishman, is enraptured :^ enter, 
 if you will, in imagination, and walk amid the ruins : see 
 what destruction the hand of violence has wrought ; notice 
 the portions of columns strewed about, the broken walls, the 
 massive stones lying under foot ; measure the circumference 
 pf a column, or the size of a lintel stone, and realize what 
 immense blocks the ancient Egyptians managed to elevate to 
 great heights : pause awhile in the grand hall, with its pro- 
 fusion of columns and its decorations, even yet worthy of 
 admiration, and count its pillars : see what towers rise be- 
 fore you, and not far beyond, what a magnificent obelisk of 
 the most beautifully polished red granite, points its lofty head 
 
 * M. Denon uses the following language on catching a first view of these 
 ruins : " At nine o'clock, in making a sharp turn round a projecting point, we 
 discovered all at once the site of ancient Thebes, in its whole extent. This cele- 
 brated city, the size of which Homer has characterized with the single expres- 
 sion of the hnndred-gated — a boasting and poetical phrase, which has been re- 
 peated with so much confidence for so many centuries ; — this illustrious city, 
 described in a few pages dictated to Herodotus by Egyptian priests, that b ave 
 since been copied by every historian, — celebrated by the number of its kings, 
 whose wisdom had raised them to the rank of gods, — by laws which have been 
 revered without being promulgated, — by science, involved in pompous and en- 
 igmatical inscriptions, — the first monuments of ancient learning, which are still 
 spared by the hand of time,— this abandoned sanctuary, surrounded with bar- 
 barism, and again restored to the desert from which it had been drawn forth, — 
 enveloped in the veil of mystery and the obscurity of ages, whereby even its own 
 colossal monuments are magnified to the imagination, — still impressed the mind 
 with such gigantic phantoms, that the whole army, suddenly and with one ac- 
 cord, stood in amazement at the sight of its scattered ruins, and clapped their 
 hands with delight, as if the end and object of their glorious toils, and the com- 
 plete conquest of Egypt, were accomplished and secured by taking possession 
 of the splendid remains of this ancient metropoUs." — Russell's " Ancient and 
 Modem Egypt," p. 203. 
 
IMMENSE EXTENT OF THE RUINS. 139 
 
 to the skies — " in its meek beauty, the record of a daughter's 
 love, love strong as death, stronger, for it has triumphed :'' 
 look at the sad ruins all around, and reflect for a moment 
 upon the powerful means w^hich must have been used, to de- 
 stroy, as well as to erect such works as these : walk still 
 further on, and gaze at other portions of this grand temple, 
 without pretending for a moment to examine aught in detail ; 
 and when you have done this much, take note of the time 
 which even so cursory a look at Karnak has consumed, and 
 you will be surprised to find that the hours have slipped away, 
 you know not how, and that you have not yet begun to take 
 in the grandeur of the scene, or to comprehend the greatness 
 of those, w^ho, ages ago, ruled in power and glory in hundred- 
 gated Thebes. 
 
 If, on former occasions, I have not ventured to go into de- 
 tails, much less dare I venture here to pretend to describe 
 with any fulness and precision, the varied objects which meet 
 the eye of the beholder, and fill him with inexpressible aston- 
 ishment. You will have to be indebted to imagination, in 
 great measure, for very much that exceeds the power of words 
 to express ; and I am confident that I should fail utterly were 
 I to attempt to tell you particularly of each massive doorway, 
 each grand court or corridor, each statue or obelisk ; or to en- 
 ter into an account of the thousands of hieroglyphics, many 
 of them deeply important in a historical point of view ; the 
 unrivalled columns ; or of the sculptures, which are found on 
 every wall, and illustrative of so many and so various sub- 
 jects.* With your permission, therefore, I shall pass over in 
 
 * " Never were pages more graphic. The gathering, the march, the melee — 
 the Pharaoh's prowess, standing erect, as he always does, in his car — no char- 
 ioteer — the reins attached to his waist — the arrow drawn to his ear — his horses, 
 all fire, springing into the air like Pegasuses, — and then, the agony of the dying, 
 transfixed by his darts, the relaxed limbs of the slain — Homer's truth itself ; and 
 lastly, the triumphant return, the welcome home, and the oflfering of thanksgiv- 
 ing to Amunre — the fire, the discrimination with which these ideas are bodied 
 forth, they must be seen to judge of it."— Lord Lindsay's " Letters on Egypt" 
 &c., p.85. 
 
140 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 silence the principal portion of this grand temple, simply ask- 
 ing you to go with me a while into the large hall of assem- 
 bly, and look at it a little more closely. We have entered, 
 you will recollect, through the pylon or doorway, crossed an 
 open court or area nearly three hundred feet in width, with 
 a double line of columns down the centre, and have come 
 to the propyla and entrance leading into the great hall : no- 
 tice for a moment what a wall is before you, rising up aloft 
 some eighty or ninety feet, and being more than thirty feet 
 in thickness ; what immense blocks of stone are these, what 
 strength they possessed, what towers of defence against as- 
 sault they must have proved ! what lintel stones are those 
 over the doorway, more than forty feet in length ! Let us 
 enter the hall and look about us. It " measures," says Wil- 
 kinson, *' 170 feet by 329, and is supported by a central 
 avenue of twelve massive columns, 66 feet high (without the 
 pedestal and abacus) and twelve in diameter ; besides 122 
 of smaller, or (rather) less gigantic dimensions, 41 feet 9 
 inches in height, and 27 feet 6 inches in circumference, dis- 
 tributed in seven lines on either side of the former." Stop 
 for a while and examine one of these columns, so massive, 
 wrought with so much skill, and adorned with such a variety 
 of sculpture : what singular design has been displayed, what 
 strange conceptions of art, what surprising accuracy in exe- 
 cution, along with equally surprising errors and faults : go 
 which way we will, and the coup d^oeil is strikingly grand 
 and impressive ; so many of the columns are standing and in 
 good preservation, that we could not have a finer specimen 
 of Egyptian architecture than this, and the few that are 
 prostrate or half fallen, afford us an opportunity to look at 
 them and wonder as much as we will at the powerful means 
 employed to cut out of the quarries and put in their present 
 places such extraordinarily large blocks of stone. Notice the 
 sculpture on one of these columns ; generally it is in intaglio, 
 sometimes in bas relief: what singular beauty and nobleness 
 
GRANDEUR OP THE HALL OF ASSEMBLY. 141 
 
 the heads and faces present, especially those of the female 
 figures ; but what strangely ill-proportioned persons many 
 of these have :=* observe how nearly the artist approached to 
 the perspective, and yet how sadly deficient his work is from 
 ignorance of that important point in art ; and particularly 
 notice the prominence given to a religious view of all sub- 
 jects, in the constant introduction of the gods and god- 
 desses, the offerings made to them, and the hieroglyphics 
 expressing the adoration of the deities, and the care of the 
 kings to promote their worship and honor. Look, too, at 
 the walls of this grand hall or chamber, and remembering 
 that the king in whose reign it was erected lived some three 
 thousand two hundred and thirty years ago, note the fresh- 
 ness and beauty of the colors, the bright blue, the dazzling 
 vermilion, the pale green, the lovely yellow, and many others : 
 does it not seem well nigh impossible that these colors could 
 have lasted through so many centuries, and be even now 
 strikingly beautiful ? Observe, likewise, what is sculptured 
 on the walls : you may not, any more than myself, be capa- 
 ble of reading with fluency the story which the hieroglyphics 
 teU, and without much previous study you will not see tho 
 reason or propriety of many things which appear very singu- 
 lar, not to say grotesque ; but nevertheless you can enjoy 
 with me such points as are open to the view of all ; you can 
 see what progress the ancient Egyptians had made in the 
 arts of sculpture, painting and architecture ; you can form 
 something of an idea of their warlike spirit, of their wealth, 
 their luxury, their amusements, their occupations, and their 
 religious sentiments and conduct; and you can appreciate 
 their greatness in some or many respects, and mourn over 
 their degradation and superstition in those matters which 
 
 * I measured several of the figures sculptured on the walls and columns, and 
 in illustration of the remark above, I may mention that one of the female fig- 
 ures, five feet two inches high, had a waist of five inches, and a foot of fourteen 
 inches in length : and this was the usual proportion. 
 
142 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 most truly manifest what spirit men are of. And when we 
 have spent hours in this way, in endeavoring to gain knowl- 
 edge and instruction, and in the enjoyment of a scene, the 
 like to which the world nowhere else presents, we may seat 
 ourselves on some fragment of a column, or on one of those 
 immense blocks of stone which lie strewed around, and in 
 melancholy mood, listening to the chirping of the birds who 
 now inhabit these desolate halls, may muse over the destruc- 
 tion which awaits the might, majesty, and dominion of man. 
 I fear, my dear S., that all this will appear to you as mere 
 vague generality, and that you will not gain the idea, which 
 I am so desirous you should, in respect to these vast and im- 
 pressive ruins. You will not, I trust, suppose, that aught 
 remains in its primitive state of beauty and glory ; for, in 
 truth, the very reverse is the case : on every hand is ruin and 
 desolation. Not only has time done its work, but the hand 
 of the conqueror has been stretched forth, on more than one 
 occasion, to break down the power and magnificence of ancient 
 Thebes ; and one is astonished at the vast efforts which were 
 made, to destroy the works of art in the temples of Egypt — 
 efforts which, it would appear, were almost as laborious as 
 those which were needful to erect them at the first. Were 
 we not assured, that the powerful agency of gunpowder was 
 unknown in those early times, we should certainly attribute 
 to its explosive force, much of the injury which has been 
 done to the vast columns, walls, obelisks, statues, &c. ; for, 
 while equally with others, I am lost in wonder at the skill 
 of the art?sts, who could elaborate such vast, and often ele- 
 gant works, with only tools of copper, as it is generally stated, 
 I am none the less surprised at the means, whatever they 
 may have been, by which the conquering Persian succeeded 
 in dashing in pieces sach immense blocks of the hardest gran- 
 ite ; in overthrowing statues, weighing, in some cases, nearly 
 nine hundred tons ; in prostrating obelisks, columns and door- 
 ways ; in levelling walls of a thickness almost beyond credi- 
 
VASTNESS OF THEBES AS A WHOLE. pl^ 
 
 bility, and such -like things. But, not only must you not 
 suppose, that the beauty or glory of Karnak remains, or that 
 you can walk amid aught but ruins in the grand temple ; 
 you must also recollect, that vast as is the main temple, and 
 astonishing as it is in every respect, it does not constitute all 
 which meets the eye, and fills the mind with inexpressible 
 emotions. I have alluded to the avenue of Sphinxes, through 
 which one passes in approaching Karnak from the south, and 
 a majestic pylon, of the days of the Ptolemies. Oth«r and 
 grander things are in the vicinity. Numerous buildings and 
 smaller temples are not far off, which, by themselves, would 
 be imposing and grand, but being near the principal temple, 
 are considered as nothing by comparison. Here one sees a 
 prodigious gateway, of polished granite, covered with sculp- 
 ture, and adorned with colossal statues; and there, some 
 other edifice, not directly connected with the great temple, 
 but included in the ruins, meets the view, and, mingled 
 with the evidences of later life, and the sad falling off" from 
 former greatness, in the mud huts of the peasantry, some 
 times built in and upon the remains of ancient temples, tenda 
 to deepen the impression which Karnak, as a whole, is calcu- 
 lated to make, on the mind and memory of the least imagina- 
 tive person. Add to this, too, the consideration, that Karnak 
 was, after all, only a part of old Thebes; that it was connected 
 with Luxor by the dromos of Sphinxes ; that Luxor was 
 connected with the splendid temples, palaces, obelisks, and 
 statues, on the west bank ; and that the whole covered, a 
 circuit of, it is said, thirty miles ; and you will need, as you 
 can have, nothing more to prove, that on this plain are the 
 grandest, most astonishing, and most interesting ruins in the 
 world. I may, perhaps, be allowed to use the language of 
 Denon, a French traveller, who accompanied the expedition 
 which Bonaparte sent into Egypt, and with some allowance 
 for what may be thought exaggeration, may adopt it as ex- 
 pressive of my own sentiments : " One is fatigued with wri- 
 
144 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 ting," he declares; "one is fatigued with reading; one is 
 stunned with the thought of such a conception (as Karnak 
 demands). It is hardly possible to believe, after having seen 
 it, in the reality of the existence of so many buildings, col- 
 lected at a single point, in their dimensions, in the resolute 
 perseverance which their construction required, and in the 
 incalculable expenses of so much magnificence. On examin- 
 ing these ruins, the imagination is wearied with the idea of 
 describing them. Of the hundred columns of the porticos 
 alone of this temple, the smallest are seven feet and a half in 
 diameter, and the largest twelve. The space occupied by this 
 circumvallation contains lakes and mountains. In short, to be 
 enabled to form a competent idea of so much magnificence, it 
 is necessary that the reader should fancy what is before him to 
 be a dream, as he who views the objects themselves occasion- 
 ally yields to the doubt, whether he be perfectly awake."* 
 
 It is not necessary that I should speak with particularity 
 of the comparative antiquity of the buildings, which go to 
 make up the grand temple. Of course you will understand, 
 that the vast extent to which it attained was the work of 
 time, and that various monarchs of Egypt, to gratify their 
 pride or vanity, or manifest their piety, made various additions 
 to the earlier structures. Wilkinson is of opinion, that no 
 part remains of the original foundation of the temple ; but as 
 the name of Osirtasen I., the Pharaoh who ruled Egypt in 
 the days of Joseph, or earlier, as Osburn thinks, has been 
 found on some prostrate columns, near what was the sanctu- 
 ary, it proves that we have here not only the oldest building 
 in Thebes, but ruins which carry us back about three thou- 
 sand six hundred years. Later kings added the obelisks and 
 the chambers near the sanctuary. Thothmes III., in whose 
 reign the Exodus took place, "made large additions to the 
 buildings and sculptures, as well in the vicinity of the sanc- 
 tuary as in the back part of the great inclosure ; where the 
 
 ♦ Russell's "Ancient and Modern Egypt," p. 211. 
 
 6 
 
WORKS OF THE EGYPTIAN KINGS. 145 
 
 columnar edifice (to the southeast), the side chambers, and 
 all the others in that direction, were added by his orders." 
 Subsequently, Osirei, a great conqueror, and his son Remeses 
 11. , probably the far-famed Sesostris, beautified and enlarged 
 the bounds of the temple : the former added the grand hall, 
 spoken of above, and the latter caused to be designed and 
 executed, very many of those striking sculptures on the north- 
 east side, which illustrate the extent and variety of his mar- 
 tial achievements. The son of Remeses II. continued the 
 work begun by his illustrious father, and built the area in 
 front, with massive propyla, preceded by granite colossi, and 
 an avenue of Sphinxes; and succeeding monarchs adding 
 still more and more, the several edifices by degrees became 
 united in one grand whole, connected either by avenues of 
 Sphinxes, or by crude brick inclosures. After the time of 
 Cambyses, B.C. 525, who manifested such intensity of rage 
 against the monuments and temples of Egypt, some other, 
 but less important additions were made, and various repairs 
 and sculptures were introduced, as late as the last ages oi 
 Egyptian independence. Ptolemy Lathyrus, however, B.C 
 116, exasperated against the rebellious citizens of Thebes 
 appears to have done this ancient city greater injury, than 
 even the Persian conqueror ; and as we are informed, reduced 
 it to so deplorable a state, that it "no longer deserved a rank 
 among the cities of Egypt." Since that period, it has gra- 
 dually sunk into insignificance, and for ages has lain in ruins. 
 Before leaving Karnak, and its astonishing remains of an- 
 cient art and magnificence, I must beg your indulgence for a 
 short space, to one of the most interesting sculptures in the 
 whole temple, particularly on account of its connection with 
 Scripture history. Some time before the visit of the French 
 and Italian commission to Egypt, in 1828, ChampoUion le 
 Jeune had discovered, on the exterior southwest wall, near 
 the doorway, the cartouche, which proved, on examination, to 
 refer to the capture of Jerusalem by the Egyptian king, called 
 
 7 
 
£H EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 Shishak in the Bible. You will recollect the passage, in 
 which this expedition is spoken of: '' It came to pass, that in 
 tlie fifth year of king Rehoboam, Shishak, king of Egypt, 
 came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed 
 against the Lord, with twelve hundred chariots, and three- 
 score thousand horsemen ;* and the people were without 
 number that came with him out of Egypt; the Lubims, 
 the Sukkiims, and the Ethiopians. And he took the fenced 
 cities which pertained to Judah, and came to Jerusalem." 
 It having pleased God to warn the king and princes of the 
 consequences of their disobedience and sin, they found grace 
 to repent and humble themselves, so that He did not destroy 
 them, or pour out His wrath upon Jerusalem, by the hand of 
 Shishak : nevertheless, says the Lord, by His prophet, they 
 shall be the servants of the king of Egypt, "that they may 
 know my service and the service of the kingdoms of the coun- 
 tries. So Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem, 
 and took away the treasures of the house of the Lord, and 
 the treasures of the king's house ; he took all : he carried 
 away also the shields of gold which Solomon had made."t 
 This was in the year B.C. 971, according to the usual chio- 
 nology. On the king's return to Egypt, various sculptures 
 were added to the walls of the temple at Karnak, illustrating 
 his conquests, and the cities and countries which he had sub- 
 dued, this of the " kingdom of Judah," among the rest. Perhaps 
 you will not be displeased at having this interesting cartouche 
 as I have copied it from the '■^ Egypte Ancienne'^ of Cham- 
 pollion-Figeac, and carefully compared with the original, at 
 the time of our visit. As to the features and expression of 
 the face, I will not answer for their exactness ; but, although 
 they differ somewhat from the plate given by Rosselini, in his 
 
 * " We take this opportunity of remarking that the horse was only used in 
 ancient Egypt for warlike purposes, yoked in the chariot. The art of riding the 
 horse would appear by the monuments to have been unknown there in early times. 
 It was probably of Scythian origin." — Osburn's " AntUjuitlcs of Egypt. '^ p. 227. 
 
 t 2 Chron. xii. 2—9. 
 
SHISHAK AND JUDEA. 
 
 str 
 
 great work " I Monumenti dell' Egitto," they are sufficiently 
 correct to answer the purposes of Scriptural illustration : 
 
 ^.irri"'^-*-^^--^^ 
 
1^ EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 Here you will observe the figure of a captive, bound and at- 
 tached to a large number of others (on the same wall, but not 
 appearing in the picture above). The king, whose proportions 
 are colossal, is represented as standing erect and threatening, 
 with his arms stretched out, the group of prisoners and foreign- 
 ers, whom he is holding by the hair with one of his hands. He 
 conducts before the Theban triad, (i. e. Amn, Neith, Khunsu,) 
 the chiefs of more than thirty nations, whom he has subdued : 
 they are bound by the neck, and each of them has near him 
 an embattled shield or buckler, in which is inscribed the 
 name of the conquered country or city. The prince whose 
 figure you see above, is one of these : he has a pointed beard, 
 and the physiognomy of an Asiatic, and the name of his 
 kingdom is written in the shield. The king, whose arms 
 effected all this, bears the name of Sheshonk, the Sesonchis 
 of Manetho's lists, and evidently the same as Shishak of the 
 Scriptures.* In order that you may see how the hieroglyphics 
 are interpreted, I subjoin those contained in the cartouche 
 above, with the names of the phonetic signs and their equiv- 
 alent letters : 
 
 G1 
 
 = two reeds : sound I, originally, AA. 
 
 = duckling (hen) : sound XJ. 
 
 — open hand : " T. 
 
 = maeander : " HA. 
 
 = stand of a boat : " M. 
 
 = arm : "A, like Heb. 5 
 
 = lion : " L, R. 
 
 = bowl with a handle : " K. 
 
 ♦ «' Les Monuments Egyptiens encore subsistants confirment hautement ccb 
 recits de la Bible : la premiere cour du grand palais de Karnac a Thebes, est, 
 
EXPLANATION OP HIEROGLYPHICS. 149 
 
 = a hill : determinative of districts and countries. 
 
 = walled fort : determinative of names of foreign 
 prisoners, which it incloses. 
 
 When arranged according to the manner in which the phone- 
 tics are to be read, they are as follows, beginning at the right 
 hand : — 
 
 Country 
 
 That is, as Chevalier Bunsen gives it, Iutaha Maluk,* the 
 " kingdom of Judsea." Wilkinson expresses the hieroglyph- 
 ics by Yooda-Melchi : Champollion-Figeao gives Jouda Ha- 
 MALEK ; but all, as you perceive, amount to the same thing in 
 substance. 
 
 And now, my dear S., perhaps this evening or some time 
 to-morrow, we shall say farewell to Thebes forever ; not 
 without many regrets at the shortness of our stay, and at the 
 brief and rapid manner in which we have been compelled to 
 
 en partie, ornee de bas-reliefs. L'un des plus etendus represente un roi de pro- 
 portions colossales, mena9ant de ses armes un groupe de prisonniers ctrangers 
 qu'il tient par les cheveux, d'une ses mains. Le merne roi conduit aussidevant 
 la trinite thebaine les chefs de plus de trente nations qu'il a vaincues ; ils sont 
 lies par le cou, et chacun d'eux a pres de lui un bouclier crenele, dans lequel 
 son nom est inscrit. Or, un de ces princes de ces peuples vaincus, a barbe 
 pointue et a physionomie asiatique, est nomme dans son bouclier Jouda Hama- 
 lek, le royaume de Juda, et le roi qui I'a soumis a ses armes, porte, dans cette 
 meme scene, le nom de Scheschonk ; c'est le S6sac vainqueur de Juda a Jerusa- 
 lem, et Sesonchis des listes de Manethon." — ^" Egypte Ancienne" par M. Cham- 
 poUion-Figeac, p. 359. 
 
 * See Bunsen's " Egypt's Place,^^ &c., vol. I, p. 561. I have copied from his 
 valuable Appendix, the forms, sounds, &c., of the phonetics; the smaller letters 
 at the sides of some of the larger ones are the vowels supplied to make up and 
 pronounce the words. 
 
mt EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 go over its time-honored remains. Personally, I shall have 
 the less sadness at going away, partially satisfied, if I can 
 but feel persuaded, that what I have written will meet your 
 approbation, or minister to your pleasure in any wise. May 
 I entertain that hope ? 
 
 \%^. 
 
LETTER YIIL 
 
 Remains at Dendera.— Visit to the Temple.— Description.— Date.— Inferior Style of Architec- 
 ture.— Interesting as a Whole.— The Zodiac— Unfounded Views once entertained.— Cleo- 
 patra.— Singular Representation.— Es-Siout.— Visit to the Coptic Bishop.— Appearance.— 
 Conversation.— Characteristics.— Second Visit.— Coptic Churches.— Style and Arrangements. 
 —Bishop of Esneh.— Character and Standing.— Stabl Antar.— Interesting Locality.— Beni- 
 Haasan.— General Character of the Grottoes.— Paintings and Sculptures.— Supposed C!on- 
 nection with Joseph and his Brethren.— Exciting Interest of the Scene. 
 
 Grottoes of Beni-Hassan, Feb. 16th, 1849. 
 My Dear S., 
 
 Though I date my present letter from this deeply inter- 
 esting point, in our journey down the Nile, I find that thero 
 are several rather important things, which it will hardly be 
 proper to omit altogether, and which, therefore, I must beg 
 your indulgence to permit me to speak of, before describing 
 the grottoes of Beni-Hassan. I refer to our visits to Dendera 
 and Es-Siout : the former of these was attended with pleasure 
 of no ordinary kind, in the opportunity thus afforded of seeing 
 a temple in a state of comparative perfection and complete- 
 ness ; and the latter was hardly less interesting and agreeable 
 to me, from the fact, that I was privileged in this way to 
 gain some insight into the condition of the Coptic church and 
 its bishops and clergy. Bear with me awhile, should I seem 
 to enlarge too much upon these matters, or lose sight of the 
 fact, that, perhaps no locality in Egypt has greater claims 
 upon the traveller, than the one whence I am now writing. 
 The ruins at Dendera, or Tentyra, are situate on the west 
 
152 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 bank of the Nile, four hundred and sixteen miles from Cairo, op- 
 posite Kineh, which is a modern town, of some importance, be- 
 cause of its proximity to Kosseir, on the Red Sea, and its con- 
 nection with the probable course which the overland travel and 
 trade to India will assume. According to Wilkinson, the name 
 Tentyra, in Coptic Tentore or Nikentore^ seems to have origin- 
 ated in that of the goddess Athor or Aphrodite, who was parti- 
 cularly worshipped there ; and the hieroglyphics, as well as the 
 Greek inscription on the front of the main temple, show that 
 it was dedicated to the goddess of love and beauty. As our 
 boat lay up at Kineh for the day, we crossed the river in our 
 small-boat, and took donkeys for the ride to the temple, which 
 is about three and a half miles, and through an uninhabited 
 and rather desolate region. We passed, now and then, a 
 flock of goats and sheep, tended by some children and noisy 
 dogs, and were saluted with the usual cry, bakhshish, ya 
 khawdgeh, and in the course of an hour and a half, arrived 
 in the vicinity of the temple. We entered a rather fine pylon, 
 and walked several hundred feet up a narrow dromos, with 
 walls of crude brick on either side, which leads directly to 
 the portico of the temple. A descent by steps of some twenty 
 feet, brought us to the level of the floor, and gave us an op- 
 portunity to inspect an Egyptian temple, in a better state of 
 preservation than any which we have seen. The massive 
 columns of the portico are but little injured by time or vio- 
 lence ; the walls are all standing, and the sculptures and 
 hieroglyphics in a state of comparative completeness ; the 
 roof is preserved ; and the interior rooms and chambers, 
 though more or less defaced from various causes, enable one 
 to form a good idea of the internal arrangements of an ancient 
 temple, devoted to the worship of an Egyptian deity. With- 
 out pretending to enter into an accurate description of the 
 various portions of the temple, I may mention that the por- 
 tico is supported by twenty-four columns, the circumference 
 of each of which, I found on measurement, to be nearly 
 
DATE OF THE TEMPLE AT DENDERA. 153 
 
 twenty-nine feet. The portico is open to the front, above the 
 screens that unite six of its columns ; and in each of the side- 
 walls is a small doorway. To the portico — I use Wilkinson's 
 words — succeeds a hall of six columns, with three rooms on 
 either sida; then a central chamber, communicating on one 
 side with two small rooms, and on the ofher with a staircase. 
 This is followed by another similar chamber (with two rooms 
 on the west and one on the east side), immediately before the 
 isolated sanctuary, which has a passage leading round it, and 
 communicating with three rooms on either side. The total 
 length of the temple is about two hundred and twenty feet, 
 by ninety-four, or across the portico a hundred and fifteen 
 feet : its date, according to the inscription on the fillet of the 
 cornice of the portico, is of the time of the Emperor Tiberius. 
 The circumstance just mentioned will account for the fact, 
 which is quite evident even to an inexperienced observer, that 
 the temple at Dendera is of a later and a declining style of art. 
 I was struck with this, more especially at this time, when I 
 had only three or four days before left Karnak and the won- 
 ders of ancient Thebes, where, despite the defects which I 
 have presumed to allude to, there is a nobleness and massive 
 grandeur in the architectural remains of the temples, obelisks, 
 statues, &c., which cannot but attract the attention of the 
 most unscientific visitor. Here, however, the capitals of the 
 columns appeared to me deficient in taste, quite to the extent 
 with which the^ are over-ornamented : they want the sim- 
 plicity and grace which characterized the earlier works of art 
 in Egypt ; the sculptures are not executed with the skill and 
 care which might have been expected ; and, as has been as- 
 serted, the hieroglyphics are ill adjusted, and in crowded pro- 
 fusion. I speak with the utmost diffidence on these points, 
 because I am entirely conscious how unfitted I am by the 
 habits of life in which I have indulged, to speak either scien- 
 tifically or with precision, of architecture in its respective 
 branches. T should not venture to say even one word, were I 
 
 7* 
 
154 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 not aware, that you will look for some opinion from me on 
 such subjects, little worth as that opinion may be in general. 
 If you will do me the kindness to receive it, as from one who 
 looks at the wonders of Egypt with feelings of profound as- 
 tonishment, and the deepest interest, and who h*s no other 
 standard of judgment save that which belongs to all travellers, 
 without reference to their scientific attainments, I shall be 
 satisfied, and you will not be liable to err to any extent, as to 
 the value of any sentiment herein expressed. But, to return 
 from this digression : the temple of Dendera is certainly open 
 to criticism, and yet it wears an imposing appearance, and is 
 not devoid of beauty and grandeur ; and I well recollect, that 
 by the older travellers, before its actual date was known, it 
 was spoken of in terms of the highest, nay, most extravagant 
 admiration. However it may be esteemed by those who come 
 after the present race of Egyptologers and travellers, there 
 can be no doubt, that it will always be looked upon with in- 
 terest, as a noble specimen of architecture, as it existed in 
 the days of the early Roman emperors, and when science 
 was on its decline in the land of the Ptolemies.^ 
 
 We spent some considerable time in exploring the various 
 chambers and halls of the temple, many of which required 
 torches to enable us to distinguish the sculptures and orna- 
 ments which they contain. Since the late pasha, Mohammed 
 Ali, effected the entire clearing out of the accumulated rub- 
 
 * " Though the columns of this temple, considered singly, may be said to 
 have a heavy, perhaps a barbarous appearance, the portico is doubtless a noble 
 specimen of architecture ; nor is the succeeding hall devoid of beauty etnd 
 symmetry of proportion. The preservation of its roof also adds greatly to the 
 beauty as well as the interest of the portico, and many of those in the Egyptian 
 temples lose their effect by being destitute of roofs. Generally speaking, 
 Egyptian temples are more picturesque when in ruins than when entire; being, 
 if seen from without, merely a large dead wall, scarcely relieved by a slight 
 increase in the height of the portico; but not so the portico itself; nor did a 
 temple present the same monotonous appearance when the painted sculptures 
 were in their original state ; and it was the necessity of relieving the large 
 expanse of flat wall that led to this rich mode of decoration." — '^Hand Book for 
 Egypt,'' p. 328. 
 
INTERIOR OF THE TEMPLE. 155 
 
 bish and dirt which had almost filled up the interior of the 
 portico and rooms behind, it is not so easy as one could de- 
 sire, to examine the zodiac on the ceiling of the portico. I 
 shall not trouble you with the learned controversy in regard to 
 this, as well as the only two other known in Egypt (at 
 Esneh and the neighboring Ed-Deir) ; it is sufficient to be 
 assured that the fears of some who apprehended danger to the 
 authority of the Scriptures, and the exultation of others who 
 imagined that here was a monument reaching back into 
 almost indefinite antiquity, are equally groundless ; and so 
 far from this zodiac " being of early Pharaonic time, or of an 
 antediluvian age, it is (in fact) confined to the more modest 
 and more probable antiquity of eighteen hundred years :" the 
 same, too, is true of the other zodiacs, which are of Ptolemaic 
 or Roman date. It was difficult, as I have said, to get much 
 satisfaction in looking at the zodiac so far above our heads ; 
 so after examining a few points with care, we searched out 
 the chamber on the ceiling of which was the small plani- 
 sphere, which I well recollect poring over many a time last 
 summer in Paris: it has been placed in one of the lower 
 rooms in the " Bibliotheque Royale ;" but its value, as is evi- 
 dent from its probable date, is not very great or important. 
 I do not pretend to say that it is not right to carry off objects 
 of science and art from the temples and ruins of Egypt ; you 
 will pardon me, however, I trust, for expressing a feeling of 
 regret, which I am sure comes over almost all travellers who 
 visit Egypt, that it is not possible to see everything which 
 belongs to a particular edifice or locality in the place which it 
 once occupied, and where its interest is a hundred-fold greater 
 than when severed from its legitimate connection. How 
 much to be deplored is it, that the ruler of this land has not 
 the spirit and the knowledge which would prompt him to pre- 
 serve the many remains of art in Egypt, and to form a grand 
 museum of antiquities, unrivalled by aught which the world 
 contains ! 
 
156 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 Before leaving Dendera, I must tell you of one sculpture 
 in particular, which interested me equally with every person 
 who has heard the name of Egypt's beautiful but licentious 
 queen. It is rather curious, and well worth a few moments' 
 examination, which was all that we had time to devote to it. 
 On the back wall of the exterior, we found several colossal 
 figures, two of which represented the far-famed Cleopatra and 
 her son Ca3sarion, so named from his father, Julius Csesar. 
 I can hardly express my surprise that this singularly un- 
 handsome figure should be meant for one whose charms of 
 person were no less renowned than her seductive graces and 
 brilliancy of mind. The features are heavy, and the whole 
 face wears a dull and inexpressive look : if it be a portrait in 
 any sense, Cleopatra could have possessed none of that striking 
 beauty which all story attributes to her ; and we must sup- 
 pose both that the artist never saw the queen, and that he 
 possessed but little skill in representing the face and person 
 of his far-famed mistress. The accompanying hastily-made 
 sketch, will, I hope, enable you to form an idea of what the 
 artist has done in this matter, and may also serve as a speci- 
 men of the usual mode of sculpturing the human figure on 
 the walls and columns of ancient Egyptian temples : my 
 only objection to it is, that it is too favorable, rather than the 
 reverse, and you do not in the picture feel the singular ill 
 proportion to exist, to the same extent as in the colossal 
 figure on the wall of the temple itself. To show you what I 
 mean, let me give you the measurements which I made on 
 the occasion : the feet are very flat or thin, and two feet in 
 length; the height of the figure to the top of the head is 
 fourteen feet, the crown being four feet nine inches high, 
 making in all eighteen feet nine inches; and yet, notwith- 
 standing this, the waist is only fifteen inches ; and the legs, 
 and body, as a whole, are equally thin and pinched; as it 
 were, out of all fair proportion. 
 
CLEOPATRA, EGYPT'S ftUEEN. 
 
 157 
 
 There are several other buildings or chapels in the im- 
 mediate vicinity, at which we gave a hasty look ; but they 
 
158 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 do not require that I should dwell upon them at this time. 
 The most curious thing, perhaps, in or about the temples, 
 after what I have noted in regard to Cleopatra, are the repre- 
 sentations of goddesses or mothers suckling their children ; 
 generally the child sits astride the lap of the mother, and 
 thus obtains nourishment from the breast ; but here I observed, 
 in one instance, the mother sitting and the child standing and 
 suckling, and in another, both the mother and child were 
 standing, and the lips of the boy were pressed to the breast of 
 his goddess-mother, in the act of drawing thence his needful 
 sustenance. But of these and such-like matters, neither 
 time nor space permits me to speak, in the terms which they 
 really deserve. I shall therefore pass on to another point, 
 which I promised to say something upon, before telling you of 
 Beni-Hassan and its interesting grottoes. To be strictly 
 accurate, I ought to have sent you in a previous letter an 
 account of my visit to the bishop of Es-Siout ; but not having 
 had a good opportunity before the present occasion, I am obliged 
 to introduce it here. I trust that its interest will be none 
 the less in your eyes from the fact that some weeks have 
 elapsed, since I had the pleasure of seeing the diocesan of the 
 capital of Upper Egypt, my interviews having taken place 
 when we were going up the Nile, whereas now our faces are 
 turned towards Cairo. 
 
 It was on a Sunday afternoon that we arrived at Es-Siout, 
 having been nearly three weeks in accomplishing a distance 
 of two hundred and fifty-four miles. As I had been furnished 
 with a letter by my highly esteemed friend and brother, the 
 E-ev. J. R. T. Lieder, to the Coptic bishop of Es-Siout, I em- 
 braced the earliest opportunity of going ashore with our drago- 
 man, to pay my respects to him, and also to present him with 
 an elegant quarto copy of the Gospels in Coptic, with an 
 Arabic version on the side of the page. This elaborate and 
 valuable addition to the stores of Biblical literature, is mainly 
 due to the learning and perseverance of the able and excellent 
 
THE CAPITAL OF UPPER EGYPT. 159 
 
 missionary of the " Church Missionary Society," who has 
 been many years resident in Cairo, and it has been brought out 
 by the " Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge," in a 
 style of beauty and accuracy unsurpassed by any work of the 
 present day. Besides the simple discharge of my commission 
 from Mr. Lieder, I was desirous to see, and if possible learn 
 something of the actual state of the Coptic Church in Upper 
 Egypt, which, so far as is generally known, is in a lamentable 
 state of depression and ignorance, and if we may believe the 
 statements furnished to Mr. Lane, and published by him to 
 the world in his "Modern Egyptians," deserves our pity in a 
 degree quite equal to that bestowed upon the heathen. Very 
 probably we shall know with greater accuracy the history 
 and condition of this portion of the Church, when Mr. Lieder's 
 labors for a number of years in this department, are brought 
 to that state of advancement which will warrant publication. 
 
 Having mounted a donkey, the principal means of locomo- 
 tion in Egypt, a short ride of about two miles brought us to 
 the city, which is one of the principal towns in Upper Egypt, 
 and a place of considerable importance. The general appear- 
 ance of things is much the same as in all oriental towns ; the 
 streets, if so 1 may call them, are very narrow, crooked, 
 winding and unpaved ; there is the same bustling and noise, 
 without any particular cause, the same crowding together of 
 camels, horses, donkeys, people, men, women and children, 
 in one scene of confusion, which appears to disturb no one, 
 but rather to be necessary to their notion of things ; there is 
 the same up and down, steep places and deep holes, heaps of 
 dirt and rather pretty houses, scattered here and there ; and 
 the same number of dirty, fly-eaten children, with diseased 
 eyes, and half-naked or wholly nude persons ; now and then 
 you see a handsome minaret, an imposing tomb of some great 
 man or Mohammedan saint, an attractive-looking cafe, with 
 turbaned Turks smoking, and looking grave enough to be 
 cogitating over the mo«t abstruse subjects ; and you have the 
 
160 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 satisfaction of knowing that you are a source of great surprise 
 to the passers-by, and are scrutinized in a manner which to a 
 vain or conceited man might not be at all unpleasing, bu* 
 rather the reverse. 
 
 We alighted in the interior of the city, in front of a nonde- 
 script-looking house, which might, so far as I could see, be 
 used for any purpose whatever, from an Episcopal residence, 
 down to a cobbler's stall. I followed Antonio through several 
 dark passages, twisting about and going up and down steps 
 in a way not at all agreeable, and after a while emerged into 
 daylight again, and was invited to enter a room, partly 
 covered overhead with matting, and closed in on one side 
 with some rough boards, and having on the floor carpets and 
 mats, with pillows to lean against when you had deposited 
 yourself on the floor and crossed your legs under you, after 
 the oriental fashion. The inmates were two venerable-look- 
 ing old men, who scanned me with evident curiosity, and 
 hastened to pronounce the simple but really touching eastern 
 salutation, "Praise be to God, you are welcome." I be- 
 stowed myself as well as I could on the floor, but our habits 
 are so different, and the use of boots so interferes with the 
 Eastern mode of sitting, that I cannot boast of my success ; 
 nor will I sacrifice truth to politeness, by saying that I fancy 
 sitting on anything but what is known to our occidental cus- 
 toms. The old gentleman inquired who I was, as a matter 
 of course, and one of them when he heard that I was a priest, 
 rose instantly, and coming up to me made a low obeisance, 
 and took my hand and kissed it with a reverential respect, 
 which surprised me quite as much as it may be thought to 
 have gratified me : I could observe also, that he looked at me 
 with additional interest, and seemed to watch my words with 
 particular care, as indeed was the case with all whom I saw 
 on the present occasion. Coffee was brought, and though it 
 was a rather bitter draught, I managed to swallow it, but 
 when a pipe was proposed I had to beg off", by stating that 
 
INTERVIEW WITH THE BISHOP. 161 
 
 it was not the practice for priests to smoke pipes in our 
 country, and so the matter was not pressed, and out of com- 
 plaisance to me, none of them took their much-loved shibuk. 
 In a short time the bishop, who had been sent for, arrived, 
 and all rose at his entrance and saluted him with reverence, 
 though not to the degree that I had looked for. He took a 
 seat in one corner, and politely invited me to sit by him, as- 
 suring me that I was welcome, with other complimentary 
 and kind expressions. His appearance, though not striking, 
 is on the whole pleasing, and not unimpressive ; imagine a 
 pleasant smile, a rather good countenance, a dress after the 
 manner of the country, with dark blue turban, beard over his 
 whole face, flowing robes, &c., and a person rather below the 
 usual height, and you have the bishop of Es-Siout before you 
 as nearly as I can describe him. Three or four priests were 
 also present an,d joined in the conversation, which was carried 
 on through Antonio, though I frequently understood their 
 inquiries before translated into our dragoman's indifferent 
 English, or good French. A variety of inquiries were made, 
 some of them rather amusing, and showing a very limited 
 knowledge on the part of the dignitaries of the Coptic Church, 
 and in one or two cases not precisely the delicacy which suits 
 our western ideas of propriety. For instance, after some 
 general remarks on the topic of America, and the difference 
 between it and Egypt, where externally the fields, and trees, 
 and indeed everything indicated the summer or autumnal 
 season of America, which is now sufTering from the wintry 
 cold and snow and ice, the bishop asked if our Sultan or 
 Melik, was a Mohammedan ! On being assured that we had 
 neither a king nor any of the religion of Mohammed in the 
 United States, he seemed very much astonished and some- 
 what incredulous, as though it were hardly possible to escape 
 Turkish domination, or live without a king to rule and 
 govern the country. On my asking in general respecting 
 the churches in Es-Siout, the bishop did not appear to have 
 
1^ EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 any clear information ; he said that there were two or three 
 in the city, and about six thousand Coptic Christians ; but I 
 imagine that no great reliance can be placed upon the num- 
 ber of Christians under a state of things like that in Egypt, 
 where it is impossible to tell what the population amounts to, 
 since even the absolute power of Mohammed Ali did not suf- 
 fice to obtain a census of the people. As a finishing speech, 
 the bishop asked if I had not something to give for the Coptic 
 Church, and indeed on several occasions he pressed the matter 
 in a way which we should think anything but polite or 
 proper to a stranger or brother clergyman. Antonio was 
 quite unwilling to tell me exactly the terms of this and other 
 requests, but I am sure they were plain enough, and were I 
 disposed to condemn indiscriminately, would afford ground 
 for the charge of that mercenary and selfish spirit which is 
 usually affixed to the name of Copt in Egypt. As it was 
 getting late, I assured the bishop that I would have the pleas- 
 ure of seeing him in the morning, and of bringing with me 
 the present which Mr. Lieder had kindly intrusted to my 
 care, and an appointment was made for "three o'clock," i. e. 
 between eight and nine, A. M., according to our mode of 
 reckoning time. A gentle pressure of the hand, some words 
 of blessing on his part, and the motions usual in the East at 
 meeting and parting, when the hand is put to the heart or 
 breast, and to the forehead, with an inclination towards the 
 person saluted, and my visit was concluded. As I rode back 
 to the boat, and rested for some little time on the bank, gaz- 
 ing at the lovely scene, the beautiful lines of Kirke White 
 came into my thoughts, and I repeated them with more than 
 ordinary enthusiasm : 
 
 " How beautiful upon the element 
 
 The Egyptian moonlight sleeps ! 
 The Arab on the bank hath pitched his tent ; 
 
 The light wave dances, sparkling o'er the deeps, 
 The tall reeds whisper in the gale, 
 And o'er the distant tide moves slow the silent sail" 
 
DESCRIPTION OF A COPTIC CHURCH. 163 
 
 In the morning, accompanied by the other gentlemen in 
 the " Ibis," I called again on the bishop, and presented the 
 elegant volume containing the Gospels, as before stated. 
 He thanked me for it, but not very heartily, and immediately 
 after asked if I had not some books in Arabic to give him ! 
 He talked of sending us a sheep, but that was mere compli- 
 ment, and meant nothing, since on our thanking him nothing 
 further was said or done in the matter ; we had to return the 
 compliment, however, by sending something from the boat, 
 which was done, and was, we learned, very acceptable. The 
 usual formalities of coffee handed, &c., were gone through 
 with, and some general conversation carried on which it is not 
 worth while to record; but as I was curious to see a Coptic 
 church, the bishop was kind enough to offer to show me the 
 principal one in the city, and rose to lead the way. 
 
 The church was near at hand : a few turnings through 
 narrow passages and we entered the door of a building in no 
 wise to be distinguished from others externally, and with 
 hardly anything which we should consider meet and proper 
 for the temple of the Lord our God. Let me try in few 
 words to give you an idea of a Coptic church. The entire 
 area devoted to the church was large, and appeared to me 
 nearly square ; the walls were plain, and the ceiling, whence 
 the light was obtained, was some forty feet high. There are 
 three divisions of the space thus appropriated, and they do not 
 differ much in extent ; the first portion is for the congregation 
 in general, and is separated from the adjoining space by a 
 partition of open wood work about ten feet high; the 
 second compartment is appropriated to the priests, who read 
 the lessons, &c., to their assistants in performing divine ser- 
 vice, and to some of the higher classes of the members of the 
 church ; the third portion, which is the smallest, is screened 
 from the rest of the church by a partition of rather elaborate 
 inlaid work, having small openings or holes at intervals per- 
 haps a foot in diameter, and a door usually covered by a cur- 
 
164 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 tain. This compartment contains the altar and sacred vessels, 
 and here, it appears, only the Coptic language is allowed to 
 be used, which is explained in Arabic to the people by the 
 priests outside. No furniture of any kind was in the church, 
 no seats, or aught save a rude stand containing the copy of 
 the Scriptures in MSS., from which the bishop or priest 
 reads ; I saw, however, a number of crutches hanging in the 
 holes of the partition, which the people, who stand during a 
 great part of the service, are allowed to use for a support. 
 On the floor were mats, and I noticed that the persons who 
 accompanied the bishop, together with himself, laid aside their 
 slippers, and walked without shoes during the whole time we 
 were in the church. Attached to the walls were several 
 wretchedly executed paintings of the Virgin Mary and the 
 infant Saviour, and — what may appear rather curious — the 
 legendary story of which we all have heard often enough, that 
 of St. George and the Dragon. An old chandelier, and 
 some other contrivances for lighting the church at night, a 
 small bell or two for various parts of the service, and curtains 
 for covering the pictures of the blessed Virgin and St. George, 
 comprise about all which it is needful to specify, in order to 
 render intelligible what I would describe. Of the two other 
 churches, which are close by, and partly under the one above 
 spoken of, I need not say anything, as they offer no peculiari- 
 ties at which I have not glanced already. Being much older, 
 they were less clean and neat than the one which the present 
 bishop has built, and which he took some laudable pride in 
 showing to us; they have, too, in greater abundance, that 
 active little animal the pulex, to whose propensities I believe 
 that no one who has ever been in a church or convent in the 
 East, has long remained a stranger. Leaving the church we 
 were courteously invited to sit again, but as our time was 
 limited we were obliged to decline, and making our adieus 
 we left the bishop of Es-Siout and his clergy with feelings of 
 kindness and respect, not unmingled with disappointment. 
 
BISHOP OF ESNEH — STABL ANTAR. 165 
 
 I may mention here, as connected with the same subject, 
 though occurring some days afterwards, that I had the pleas- 
 ure of caUing upon the bishop of Esneh with a letter from Mr, 
 Lieder. He received me with great kindness and courtesy, 
 was very much pleased with the present which I had brought, 
 and appeared to be deeply interested in the cause to which 
 his life is devoted. Personally his appearance and address 
 are more striking than those of the bishop of Es-Siout, and 
 from considerable intercourse with him, both at home and 
 afterwards at Luxor, I should be disposed to think highly of 
 his intellectual capacity and his general information. His 
 character, too, as an energetic and faithful bishop — I mean 
 of course to the extent of his knowledge of the truth — stands 
 high among those who are competent to judge, and disposed 
 to judge fairly. By his invitation, I visited some of the 
 churches in Esneh ; but as they do not offer anything special 
 or different from those already spoken of, I need not detain 
 you with any attempt to describe them. 
 
 As our reis had chosen Es-Siout as the place where Iiq 
 would bake bread for his crew's supply, we had the rest of 
 the day before us, to spend in any way we chose. Accord- 
 ingly we concluded to visit the grottoes cut in the limestone 
 rock near the modern town, of which Sir Gardner Wilkinson 
 gives a full and accurate account. We rode out of the town 
 on donkeys, in a southwesterly direction, passed through sev- 
 eral beautifully green fields, crossed over a canal intended 
 for irrigation, by means of a rather large and well-built stone 
 bridge, and in about half an hour came to the foot of the 
 lofty hill, called by the modern Egyptians Stabl Aniar. We 
 climbed up the steep sides of the hill for about two-thirds of 
 the way, when we were gratified by a sight of the porch or 
 entrance-chamber, which is cut out of the limestone rook, 
 and open to the air. It is this chamber of which M. De* 
 non speaks in glowing terms, declaring " that all the elegan- 
 cies of ornament, which the Greeks have employed in their 
 
166 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 architecture ; all the wavy lines and scrolls, and other Greek 
 forms, are here executed with taste and exquisite delicacy."* 
 The inner rooms are large, and deeply interesting to the anti- 
 quarian ; the roofs are adorned with paintings, the colors of 
 which can even yet be tolerably well distinguished, and on 
 the walls are many hieroglyphics, some of them of consider- 
 able importance. Of course it would be quite out of the 
 question, for me to pretend to speak fully of these curious 
 catacombs ; at most, I can but hope to convey to you some 
 faint idea of a high hill, which has been cut into in hundreds 
 erf places, and is so full of grottoes and smaller excavations, 
 that it is pronounced by Denon cavernous, and is said to 
 resound under the foot. We made our way through the sand 
 and rubbish, into many of the inner chambers, and saw 
 evidences of mummy remains, not only of human beings, but 
 of wolves, which latter circumstance is in accordance with 
 the fact, that the ancient city was called Lycopolis, " the city 
 of wolves," and that that animal was held sacred by its inhabi- 
 tants. Perhaps the most interesting thing to a Christian, in 
 connection with these catacombs, is the fact, that they were 
 once used as the abodes of the persecuted and despised fol- 
 lowers of the cross, and at a later period became the favorite 
 haunts of monks and anchorites. Egypt, as you well know, 
 was the original home of monasticism, and from it spread a 
 system, which had its advantages to a certain extent, but 
 which very soon became corrupted and abused in the most 
 lamentable manner. Probably, as Wilkinson suggests, it was 
 from one of these tombs that John of Lycopolis gave his orac- 
 ular answer to the embassy of the Emperor Theodosius, a 
 circumstance which afforded Gibbon an opportunity to relate 
 the story in his usual style of affected respect, but of real 
 insult to Christianity.! As I stood, looking down from 
 the summit of the hill, upon the city of Es-Siout, and during 
 
 * Russell's ^^ Ancient and Modern Egypt,^' p. 211. 
 
 t See Gibbon's " Decline and Fall," &c., vol. ii. p. 179, Am. Ed. 1841. 
 
 6 
 
GROTTOES OP BENI-HASSAN. 167 
 
 our ride back to the boat; these things afforded abundant food 
 for reflection. 
 
 It is not without hesitation that I venture at this point, 
 having already occupied you a long time, to speak of the 
 Oaves or grottoes of Beni-Hassan. Deeply interesting as they 
 are, in connection with a question which Sir G. Wilkinson dis- 
 cusses with great good sense, and respecting which he draws 
 a conclusion different from what we might have hoped the 
 evidence w^ould furnish, it may not, perhaps, be wise to intro- 
 duce any account of them at the end of a letter ; and I assure 
 you, were I about to consult the taste of persons in general, 
 I should omit, until another opportunity, all mention of Beni- 
 Hassan and its catacombs. But with you, my dear S., I feel 
 that I may take this liberty, and may beg that the indulgence 
 which has so often been granted, may again be extended to 
 me on the present occasion. It will be my aim to be as con- 
 cise as I can, and, at the same time, as particular as my 
 limited space will allow. 
 
 These grottoes or caves are perfectly accessible from the 
 river at this period, when the water is low, though at the 
 same time, it involves the necessity of a walk, rather long for 
 comfort, under a hot sun, and rather toilsome for such per- 
 sons as myself, who feel the labor of climbing a steep ascent. 
 I was struck with the appearance which the large boulders, 
 which lie scattered round on the side of the hill or mountain, 
 present, in contrast with the usual absence of everything of the 
 kind in the valley of the Nile. Wilkinson terms them calcare- 
 ous, and says that they are full of shells, containing much silex, 
 very heavy and hard, and externally of a dark-brown color. 
 He also expresses the opinion, that probably these large stones 
 were once in horizontal beds, like flints in chalk, and that 
 the decay of the stratum in which* they lie, has in many 
 places disengaged them ; — an opinion which is, no doubt, 
 correct. On reaching an elevation of about eighty feet above 
 the river, we came to the entrances of the oaves which front 
 
168 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 toward the Nile, and are excavated in the side of the moun- 
 tain, at about one-third below its top. Their general charac- 
 ter is simple enough ; usually you enter a square or oblong 
 chamber, say twenty or twenty-five feet long, and perhaps 
 fifteen feet high. In many cases, the walls are rough and 
 unornamented ; in others they have been adorned with great 
 care and skill. In nearly all very deep pits are seen, in which 
 the mummies were deposited, but which have been rifled of 
 their contents. Several of the caves have columns, both in 
 front and in the interior ; and in some instances I observed 
 niches or recesses opposite the door or main entrance, where 
 the figures or sculptures of the triad worshipped here, were 
 placed. 
 
 We spent considerable time in examining the various se- 
 pulchral chambers, which so many centuries ago were hollowed 
 out of the solid rock, for the purpose to which they were de- 
 voted. Several of the more northerly ones are disfigured by 
 childish scrawls made by the ignorant Arabs, and nearly all 
 of them bear the marks of that mania for recording names, 
 which is so prevalent among travellers in general. Most of 
 the grottoes which we visited are adorned with paintings on 
 the walls, and various hieroglyphical inscriptions, which throw 
 light, not only upon the date of their excavation, but also 
 upon numerous interesting points, in regard to the manners 
 and customs of the ancient Egyptians. Some of these paint- 
 ings are in excellent style, the colors being still good, and do 
 credit to the artist, quite as much so as anything which we have 
 seen in Egypt, not even excepting the tombs at Thebes. In 
 one place we saw the ancient gymnastic exercises, represented 
 with much spirit ; in another we beheld a hunting scene, in 
 all its details, and, with the single failure of perspective, as 
 life-like as many a modern painting. Here we looked upon 
 the peaceful occupations of the husbandman ; there we saw 
 the administration of justice, and the bastinado being inflicted 
 upon men and even women, the latter in a sitting posture, 
 
INTERESTING GROTTO. 169 
 
 and beaten upon the shoulders instead of the feet. Now, the 
 artist presents before us the various exciting scenes of war, 
 and now, the more agreeable domestic avocations of every-day 
 life : the scribes register for their master the accounts of his 
 estates, and present them with the vouchers to him whom they 
 serve : the women play on the harp, or they are engaged in pre- 
 paring bread and delicacies : the servants are occupied in catch- 
 ing fish in nets, or in snaring birds and wild fowl, or in mana- 
 ging boats on the Nile, or something of the kind, which tends to 
 illustrate many of the multifarious occupations of the ancient 
 Egyptians, not far from four thousand years ago. I suppose, 
 in all, we visited about fifteen, or perhaps more of these grot- 
 toes, and witnessed in them the variety of scenes, to which I 
 have alluded, thrown together, so far as I could judge, without 
 any particular connection, and representing such matters, and 
 in such order, as either the artist or his employer chose, or as 
 their respective fancies dictated. But it would be useless to 
 attempt a detailed account of all that we beheld: I shall 
 therefore, with your permission, speak of only one of these 
 caves, which, for a reason presently to be stated, does not 
 yield in interest to any of the monumental wonders of the 
 land of the Pharaohs. 
 
 In front are two polygonal columns, cut out of the moun- 
 tain's side, and appearing, as Wilkinson phrases it, to be " the 
 prototype of the Doric shaft." As nearly as I could obtain 
 the measurements, they are nine and a half feet in circum- 
 ference, and about fifteen feet in height, slightly decreasing 
 in thickness towards the upper end of the shaft, and crowned 
 with an abacus, exceeding but little the summit of the column. 
 The doorway or entrance is large, and only a few feet from 
 the columns in front ; it is covered with hieroglyphics, both 
 in front and on its sides. The chamber itself I found to be 
 nearly forty feet square, with a recess or niche opposite the 
 doorway: there are four large columns, with sixteen sides 
 or faces, similar to those just spoken of, placed at even dis- 
 
 8 
 
170 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 tances, and supporting the ceiling, which is vaulted between 
 the architraves, and ornamented in a manner, which is, even 
 at this remote period, striking to a high degree. The ceiling 
 is about twenty feet high in the most elevated parts : the 
 columns, I ought to mention, are, according to the Egyptian 
 custom, painted or stained with a reddish color, in imitation 
 of granite,* and might readily deceive a cursory observer. 
 On the walls are numerous paintings, representing scenes, in 
 general like those alluded to above : the figures of the men, it 
 struck me, were frequently badly proportioned, and stiff and 
 unnatural in many instances, the arms, particularly, being 
 extravagantly long, and out of shape. Most of the animals 
 are well represented ; and the fish on the wall opposite the 
 doorway, are decidedly superior to anything which I have 
 seen in Egypt ; they would not discredit even some of our 
 present artists. 
 
 It is a question of some moment, in connection with this 
 grotto, which may easily be distinguished by the fish, painted 
 on the wall opposite the entrance, t-o ascertain to whom we 
 are to refer the procession of strangers, represented on the 
 upper part of the north wall. It has been supposed, that as 
 these caves were made in the time of Osirtasen, during whose 
 reign, it is thought by some writers of eminence, Joseph came 
 into Egypt, the persons here set before our eyes might be Jo- 
 seph's brethren, and that thus we might have one of the 
 most authentic and most deeply interesting mementoes, of an 
 age fraught with importance to the chosen people. Of course, 
 I do not feel myself competent to decide in a case of so much 
 
 * '•' All the caves of Beni-Hassan are ornamented with colored figures, or 
 other ornamental devices ; and the columns, with the lower part of the walls, 
 in the northern grottoes, are stained of a red color to resemble granite, in order 
 to give them an appearance of greater solidity. These imitations of hard stone 
 and rare wood, were very commonly practised by the Egyptians, though it is 
 a singular fact that granite and other stone used in their monuments, being 
 generally colored, could not be distinguished." — ^^Hand Book for Egypt," 
 p. 294. 
 
JOSEPH AND HIS BRETHREN. 171 
 
 consequence, nor in the present state of hieroglyphical learn- 
 ing and research into Egyptian history and antiquity, do I see 
 how the objections of Sir G. Wilkinson to this view can be 
 answered. He informs us that the hieroglyphics above these 
 strangers, represent them as " captives ;" that they have the 
 number " 37" written over them; that the person who should 
 be Joseph, in case it were a representation of the scene sup- 
 posed, has a name totally unlike his Egyptian name, " Zaph- 
 nath Paaneah," and is styled in hieroglyphics, " Nefothph," 
 or " Nehoth ;" and finally, that the names of the father and 
 mother of this individual are too distinctly specified to admit 
 the claims of Joseph. These appear to me fatal objections, 
 and though it is not impossible that they may all be answered, 
 and this grotto may, after all, assume an importance, which 
 a settlement of the question in the way desired, would confer 
 upon it, I dare not believe that I have, indeed, looked upon 
 a picture so touchingly attractive as this would be, were it 
 really the representation of the meeting of Joseph with his 
 brethren. It is true, however, that I gazed upon these an- 
 cient paintings with an interest too deep for words: and it 
 was not for a considerable time after my companions had left, 
 and had called me to come with them, that I could consent 
 to turn away from this grotto, and look no more upon what 
 may be, perhaps is, connected so intimately with the history 
 of the great and good Joseph. You will allow me, I doubt 
 not, as a fitting conclusion, to refer you to the sentiments of 
 two eminent living writers, whose spirit of reverence for Holy 
 Scripture cannot be too highly commended in these rational- 
 istic days : " I do not pretend," says Wilkinson, in reference 
 to the question of who these strangers were, " to decide, nor 
 do I see suflicient reason for supposing them to represent that 
 event (viz., the arrival of Joseph's brethren) ; but should this 
 ever prove to be the case, they will be looked upon with un- 
 bounded interest, and be justly deemed the most curious 
 painting on the Egyptian monuments." The learned W. 
 
172 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 Osburn devotes several pages to this interesting tomb or grotto, 
 which he calls " the tomb of Pihrai," a person who held a high 
 military office, in the reign of Osirtasen I. This monarch's 
 reign " belongs to the time of Abraham or thereabouts." The 
 learned author's view of the signification of the painting on 
 the walls, is well expressed in few words : — " Without enter- 
 ing at all into the various conjectures which have been haz- 
 arded, as to the nation to which these captives belonged, we 
 at once adopt the plain indication of the text, and assume, 
 that it represents the tribe or clan of the Jebusites, who, 
 subdued by the prowess of Pihrai, had sent an embassy to 
 Egypt, to solicit peace."* 
 
 With these remarks, I must bid adieu to the various topics 
 which have occupied my letters for some time past : it will 
 be my design next to address you from the metropolis of Egypt, 
 and to speak of those things which relate to the living rather 
 than the dead, and which, just at this time, have an import- 
 ance far beyond any previous period in their history. 
 
 * Osburn's " Ancient Egypt, her Testimony to the Truth of the Bible" 
 p 37-43. 
 
LETTER IX. 
 
 5CJ)e ^etxopolis of Eflgpt. 
 
 Promise to be Fulfilled.— Scenes during a Day from the Window of our Hotel.— Variety, Pe» 
 culiarity, and Strangeness of everything. — Noise and Confusion. — A Walk in the Streets and 
 Lanes. — Coptic Quarter. — A Cairene House. — View from the Roof. — The Bazaars. — Process 
 of Buying a Garment.— Cries of the Metropolis. 
 
 Cairo, Feb. 24th, 1849. 
 My Dear S., 
 
 You will recollect that in a former letter dated from 
 Cairo, I ventured to promise at a subsequent period, some- 
 thing of a lengthened and connected description of the me- 
 tropolis and its many objects of interest. I was then hardly 
 aware what such a promise might lead you to expect, or 
 what a serious task I had imposed upon myself by this un- 
 dertaking ; and perhaps were I wise, or duly sensible of my 
 inefficiency to add novelty or interest to topics already so 
 fully, ably, and accurately dealt with by Mr. Lane, in his 
 admirable volumes on the " Modern Egyptians," 1 shoujd 
 beg you to pardon me for not keeping my promise, and refer 
 you to Mr. Lane's work, as calculated to afford you entire 
 satisfaction. Yet, nevertheless, so perverse is human nature 
 — especially the nature of letter-writers — that I am foolish 
 enough to persuade myself that you would hardly be content 
 were I to take such a course, and that having become ac- 
 customed to my freedom of speech in regard to Egypt in 
 general, you would rather like, than otherwise, to know what 
 my impressions are in regard to the metropolis. If it be true, 
 
174 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 however, that I have deceived myself, and that you prefer the 
 excellent and complete description of Mr. Lane's, to the ram- 
 bling and often dull remarks of mine on these topics, I give 
 you full liberty to pass over the whole, and to leave me to 
 suffer the just punishment of my presumption. 
 
 Let me first invite you, if you will, to imagine yourself stand- 
 ing at the window of my room, and gazing upon the panorama 
 which constantly passes before your eyes. You are looking out 
 upon the Ezbekiyeh, a large park or plat of ground, planted with 
 trees and arranged into wallis : it is irregular in shape, being 
 about half a mile in extent either way, and as you see, it winds, 
 as it were, for a considerable distance, both right and left ; the 
 flowers and fruit trees, and the shady walks, make it a de- 
 lightful place of resort for those who are fatigued or annoyed 
 with the bustling, noisy streets. In former times this whole 
 space was a lake, during the season of the high Nile ; but a 
 large canal which surrounds it, and at present is, as you see, 
 dry, has drained it, and not only removed a disagreeable pool 
 of stagnant water, but furnished to the Cairenes a beautiful 
 public square and garden. Our street is one of the few wide 
 enough for vehicles of any size to pass and repass, and 
 most of the hotels for foreigners are collected together in 
 this locality. You will readily see how great an amount of 
 travel on foot and on horseback, on donkeys and in carriages, 
 must here take place during the day. 
 
 Well, then, very early in the morning, the donke} boys 
 assemble with their useful steeds on the opposite side of the 
 street, and keep a sharp lookout upon the doors and windows 
 of the hotel ; every once in a while they make their selamat 
 (the usual " how-d'ye-do,") to me, or some other passenger 
 who has patronized them the day before, and endeavor to pre- 
 vail upon me to engage for an indefinite period an animal 
 which has perhaps shaken me almost to death, or — as on one 
 occasion — ^precipitated me over his head, or has other and 
 equally valuable qualities. Near by, under the same trees 
 
SCENES IN THE STREETS OP CAIRO. 175 
 
 where they keep themselves, is a fellahah, squatted on some 
 stones, with large trays of dates spread out before her ; she 
 appears to have one of the ugliest faces which is to be met 
 with in the streets, and just in this proportion does she seem 
 to be careful to cover it up with her dirty "burko," or face- 
 veil. Nevertheless she has her customers, and the palatable, 
 cheap fruit which Egypt furnishes in such abundance, en- 
 ables many a fellah and poor boy to enjoy himself at a very 
 small cost. At this hour, too, one of the hard-working and 
 poorly-paid water carriers, with a very large goat skin full of 
 water, goes to and fro in front of the hotel, and liberally 
 dashes its contents upon the dusty street, so that instead of 
 dust you have now mud, a choice of evils, but which is to be 
 preferred I can hardly say, even after having effectually tried 
 both. 
 
 As by the requirements of their religion the Mohammedans 
 are early risers, so that they may say the appointed morning 
 prayers, you perceive that many persons are astir before you 
 have breakfasted, and that business of various sorts begins to be 
 transacted at seven and eight o'clock in the morning. Now, 
 comes ambling by on a donkey, a Coptic Christian, distinguished 
 by his deep blue or black turban, and hastening to his daily oc- 
 cupation ; like most of his brethren, he appears to be a scribe, 
 for stuck in his girdle is the dawayeh, or oriental inkstand 
 and receptacle for reed pens, and under his arm or in his 
 hand are some paper and blank books for present use. Now, 
 a fat, lazy-looking Turk rides along, at a slow pace, casting 
 looks of scorn or contempt upon the peasantry and others 
 whom he meets or passes, and doubtless on his way to some 
 greater man than himself, to whom he can and will cringe 
 and bow with all that servility which renders the Eastern 
 character so often despicable in our western eyes. Now, others 
 of all classes, ages, sexes, and colors, from the deepest black 
 to the palest white, pass our window ; some have turbans of 
 manifold colors, red, white, black, parti-colored, &c. Some 
 
176 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 wear dresses of different descriptions, half Turkish, half 
 Egyptian, partly Frank, partly Greek, some English, some 
 French, more nondescript : here are women in veils and 
 drawers, with yellow boots and slippers ; there are women 
 without covering to the face, with bare feet and legs, and 
 having only a blue shirt of cotton ; and mingled with all are 
 boys and girls, dogs and donkeys, camels and horses, carts 
 and carriages, sheep and goats, the gaudy splendor of some 
 government officer and the ragged penury and filth of some 
 miserable fellah, the concubines and wivep of the rich man, 
 astride of asses and guarded by eunuchs, and the half-naked 
 peasant woman seated in like manner upon her load of vege- 
 tables, a plentiful supply of importunate beggars^ — and many 
 such-like curious sights. 
 
 As the morning advances, the scene changes somewhat ; 
 frequently you see Europeans in the street, moving about 
 with all that freedom and utter indifference to the liking or 
 disliking of the Turks and others, which characterize them : 
 as they do not understand, so they do not care for the mut- 
 tered imprecations which are every now and then bestowed 
 upon them by some bigoted Mohammedan, who only wants 
 
 * The cries of the beggars who frequent the streets and frequently grow rich 
 by the trade are curious enough, and well worth quoting, as illustrative of the 
 extent to which the Mohammedans bring religion to bear on nearly all subjects, 
 whether appropriate or not : " Among the most common cries are — ' O exciter of 
 compassion ! O Lord !'- For the sake of God ! O ye charitable !' — ' I am seek- 
 ing from my Lord a cake of bread !' — ' O how bountiful Thou art ! O Lord !' — 
 ' I am the guest of God and the Prophet !' — in the evening, ' My supper must 
 be Thy gift! O Lord!' — on the eve of Friday, 'The night of the excellent 
 Friday !' — and on Friday, ' The excellent day of Friday !' — One who daily 
 passed my door used to exclaim, ' Place thy reliance upon God ! There is none 
 but God !' and another, a woman, I now hear crying, ' My supper must be Thy 
 gift ! O Lord ! from the hand of a bountiful believer, a testifier of the unity of 
 God ! O masters !' — The answers which beggars generally receive (for they are 
 so numerous that a person cannot give to all who ask of him) are ' God help 
 thee!' — ' God will sustain !' — ' God give thee !' — ' God content, or enrich, thee !' 
 — They are not satisfied by any denial but one implied by these or similar an- 
 swers." — Lane's " Modern Egyptians,'^ vol. ii. p. 28. 
 
NOISE AND CONFUSION. 177 
 
 the opportunity to use fire and sword with as great fury as 
 was ever done by any of the followers of the Arabian impos- 
 tor. 
 
 About mid-day, a tremendous cracking of a whip by a 
 groom on foot, and an unceremonious dispersion of the people 
 on all sides, announce the approach of some one greater than 
 ordinary ; see, now : horsemen in elegant or showy trappings, 
 with various appurtenances of a magnate's public appearance, 
 are prancing slowly by ; next comes a carriage and six, with 
 the pasha inside, who bestows occasionally a nod or some- 
 thing of the sort upon the passers-by ; following his carriage 
 are a number of horsemen and others who form his suite ; 
 and these, as well as himself, require the utmost deference 
 and respect, and while the whole cavalcade is going by, no 
 one must dare to get in the way or move out of his appointed 
 place ; for, as you well know, it only requires a significant 
 motion of the pasha's eye or hand to dispose of any unlucky 
 fellow's head, or appropriate his heels to the horrible bastinado 
 " — such is the despotism of Egypt ! Occasionally, too, other 
 carriages, preceded in the same way by a groom, running 
 ahead with a large whip, pass our window, and by the show 
 which they make give the beholders an idea of the conse- 
 quence which belongs to the respective consuls and consuls- 
 general of foreign powers ; or impress the common people 
 with a salutary reverence for some of the pasha's officers who 
 move to and fro in these novel vehicles. Listen, for a moment : 
 what an uproar and disturbance in the street ; what furious 
 gestures, what shouting and screaming, what fast talking and 
 fiery war of words ; — and what do you suppose it is all about? 
 Why, not a revolution, not a shouting for " equal rights," or 
 *' down with the pasha," but nothing more nor less than 
 which one of the donkeys or boys shall gain possession of a 
 Frank who has just appeared at the door of the hotel ; see 
 what a crowd gathers round him ; now he is pushed toward 
 one, now another ; now he is nearly lifted by main force upor 
 
 8* 
 
IfBl EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 a donkey, and now some opposition brute is all but thrust 
 betwixt his legs ; this boy shouts, that half-grown man 
 screams, another praises the saddle of his donkey, a fourth 
 beseeches the gentleman to try his beast, a fifth falls foul of 
 number two, a sixth begins to belabor number three and his 
 donkey — and so they go on, talking all known languages, and 
 several that are not known, until the poor European at last 
 gets on to one of the steeds, and the tempest subsides, only 
 to be renewed again at the first opportunity. 
 
 As the day wanes, similar scenes are enacted ; the streets 
 present the same appearance of crowding and jostling; of 
 threading one's way amid camels, with heavy, wide-spreading 
 loads, and donkeys with panniers filled with stones or vege- 
 tables, or laden with water-skins or great bundles of grass ; 
 of escaping from being run down by a horse, and narrowly 
 missing being crushed by a cart against the side of a house ; 
 of pushing your neighbor out of the way, and being as uncer- 
 emoniously used by some one else ; and such-like. Just lis- 
 ten to the donkey-boys, as they beat their little brutes, and 
 warn pedestrians to get out of the way : ' yemeenak I shi- 
 malakP (to thy right ! to thy left!) ^dahrakV (thy back !) 
 ^wishshak!^ (thy face!) '' gemhakV (thy side!) ^riglakV (thy 
 foot !) kaahakV (thy heel !) Hear them call out to a Turk, 
 ^sakinP (take care !) to a Frank, ^ ya khawageh ." to some 
 poor woman, * ya bint P (^ daughter' or * girl'), to an old man, 
 'ya sheikh P etc., etc.* The street is full, very full, as it 
 would seem, having no sidewalks to protect the pedestrian, 
 but all being in common ; the various classes, ages, and sexes 
 use such part or parts of the street as they can find ; and it 
 is wonderful to notice how seldom an accident happens, how 
 unfrequently any one is hurt, how well, on the whole, every- 
 body manages to get along, and both to give and receive his 
 or her share of jostling and pushing, without offence meant 
 or taken. 
 
 ♦ Lane's '■ Modern Egyptians ^^' vol. i. p. 209. 
 
I 
 
 PECULIARITIES OF EASTERN CITIES. 179 
 
 Towards evening the scene changes again, and as night 
 draws on, the donkey-boys, the old woman with her dates, 
 the venders of other articles of food, the idlers and loungers, 
 the dogs and monkeys with their masters, and the whole tribe 
 of street walkers and travellers, gradually retire, and the 
 thoroughfares become vacant and lonely. In the hours of 
 darkness, hardly a person can be found or seen in the busy 
 avenue in front of our hotel ; occasionally one passes by with 
 a lantern in hand, to save him from harm in picking his way 
 where no light is furnished by the authorities ; and during 
 the evening and night, naught else is seen, and scarcely any- 
 thing is heard, save the annoying bark of some mongrel 
 curs, who thus take glorious revenge for your contempt of 
 their prowess during the day. 
 
 Perhaps this may answer for a rude sketch of what is 
 daily to be seen from my window : it would afford you, how- 
 ever, but a very imperfect view of what the streets of Cairo 
 are in general, or of what this large city contains, were we 
 to stop here, without penetrating into some of the recesses 
 which give a special character to oriental towns. You well 
 recollect, I doubt not, that eastern cities have many features 
 in common with one another ; and, unlike what prevails in 
 the West, the streets or lanes are very narrow, winding, 
 unpaved, uneven, and dirty to an extreme : the houses are 
 built to suit the climate and the religion of the people, and 
 externally have hardly a single mark of beauty or good taste ; 
 excepting, always, many of the projecting lattice windows, 
 which are often very pretty. Heaps and mounds of rubbish 
 meet the visitor at various points ; and he is both astonished 
 and annoyed at finding such things in the heart of a great 
 city, almost as a matter of course. The places of business 
 and trade are in various quarters, and are styled bazaars, 
 where articles of all sorts are sold ; and the merchants spend 
 their time, with pipe in hand, chatting with a customer, dis- 
 playing their goods, and, sitting with their legs drawn under 
 
1^ EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 them, lead a life of indolence and inactivity. These and 
 other characteristics of the same kind, belong to nearly all 
 oriental towns, and are more or less familiar to every one who 
 has taken any interest in Eastern matters. It needs not, 
 therefore, that I should enlarge upon these things in general; 
 but I am sure that you will find something to amuse you in 
 the streets and bazaars, during the walks that I propose you 
 should take with me in Cairo. Let us sally out, then, in good 
 season, and take a look at some of the many strange and 
 curious things, to be seen in the streets and lanes of the me- 
 tropolis. 
 
 Turning to the right, as we leave the Hotel d'Europe, we soon 
 arrive at another quarter of the town. We enter through a 
 large door, which at night is shut and guarded, and find our- 
 selves in a narrow, crooked lane, hardly wide enough to pass 
 any one on a donkey, and having a gloomy appearance and a 
 damp atmosphere. It is the Copt quarter where we are : the 
 Jewish quarter we shall find to be much worse ; and the 
 Turkish a very great deal better. Observe the change in the 
 streets : here they are about five or six feet wide, and some- 
 times much less ; and the little shops on either side, with the 
 women squatted in the midst of their dates, or vegetables, or 
 groceries ; the men shouting forth their articles of trade ; the 
 children playing under foot; the slippery mud and filth in 
 Which we are treading, impress one very singularly, and far 
 from pleasantly. One does not wonder that plague, cholera, 
 and pestilence in general rage in Cairo. The only surprise 
 to those educated in the belief that cleanliness of person and 
 habitation, and the circulation of pure air, are essential to 
 the health of the community, is, that the plague should ever 
 leave such a fair field for its operations as this ; or that the 
 cholera and pestilential fevers should not sweep away the 
 whole population, during the period of their ravages. Notice 
 how scant is the supply of light, though it is noon-day, and 
 the sun is shining in all its vigor. The interior of the petty 
 
LANES AND BY-PATHS IN CAIRO. 361 
 
 shops is quite dark, and it is not without difficulty that you 
 can distinguish any objects at all. If you look upward for a 
 moment, you discover that it is not altogether the narrowness 
 of the street or lane which causes this sort of twilight ; for 
 there you see how the windows and upper stories, in many 
 cases, project beyond the perpendicular, for two feet or more 
 on both sides of the passage, which, of course, diminishes the 
 space so much, that neither the sun nor the light can pene- 
 trate with any great effect. We leave this lane at this point, 
 and turn down another, which, amusingly enough called 
 *' Broadway," goes at one time under portions of houses, and 
 is quite dark ; and at another becomes quite wide, i. e., some 
 seven or eight feet, which appears well by contrast. Now we 
 see houses in ruins, and the rubbish in the middle of the 
 street, as is sometimes the case in our part of the world. 
 Now we pass along, without meeting a single individual; 
 now we meet a crowd of boys and donkeys ; a number of 
 veiled objects, which appear to be of all colors and ages ; and 
 a string of camels, with immense loads, which require the 
 pedestrian to take shelter in a doorway, or where he best may, 
 to avoid being crushed, as they stalk slowly by. And thus 
 we continue, turning in and out, up and down, meeting all 
 sorts of curious things, coming in contact with all classes, 
 from the gaudily dressed lady, waddling along in silks, to the 
 most miserable fellah woman, with scarcely half a blue shirt 
 to cover her nakedness, and with a child devoid of clothing 
 astride of her shoulder. And though, at times, in crowds and 
 thoroughly jostled, yet often we are quite alone, and surprised 
 to see how few people are in the streets and lanes of the city. 
 But let us enter a house ; it is the mansion of a dear friend, 
 yet in nearly all respects is like other houses in Cairo. At 
 the door, or just inside, stands the porter who admits us. 
 You see there is a small court, which in many cases is much 
 larger, and has a well and some other things in it ; but as 
 yet there is no appearance of life or of inmates, and only 
 
EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 JDlank walls and an earthen floor, which do not seem to pro- 
 mise much. We follow the sober Arab, who moves at just 
 such a pace, and rejoices in the name of Musa, and he leads 
 us up a staircase of stone steps, which wind at every third or 
 fourth step during the whole ascent : it is lighted from above, 
 being open to the sky. By and by, we get to the third story, 
 as we should call it, and leaving the stairs enter a broad 
 space paved with stone, and having doors leading to rooms on 
 either hand, and those again connected with others on the 
 same floor. In this particular house, there are various things 
 which indicate European habits and tastes: the drawing 
 room is furnished with chairs, and has a carpet on the floor, 
 together with many objects which could only interest a 
 Christian and a lover of English literature ; and the various 
 other rooms, while oriental to some extent, still show that 
 habit is a strong thing, and that our customs may not easily 
 be dispensed with ; but in general, as you will notice in other 
 houses where eastern manners are adopted, the rooms are not 
 at all furnished in this way ; the stone floor is covered, some- 
 times only in part, with plain white matting, and at one end 
 of the apartment, which is nearly square, is a long and broad 
 diwan, raised about six inches above the floor, reaching en- 
 tirely across the room, and having pillows against which to 
 recline. Very few articles of any kind are to be seen, seldom 
 a chair, usually a small table or escritoire ; but very seldom 
 is there an approach to the profusion of furniture which 
 characterizes our parlors and drawing rooms ; and at first one 
 cannot but feel that it is cheerless and uncomfortable ; but 
 use, and the necessity of studying how best to pass the hot 
 season, accustom one soon to these changes. You will no- 
 tice, too, in the house where we are, that there is no harim, 
 and of course no portion of it set aside as forbidden to any 
 but the husband and female visitors ; in others, where Euro- 
 peans choose to adopt this custom likewise, the apartments 
 of the women form an important portion of the house — a por- 
 
VIEW FROM THE HOUSE-TOP. ISS 
 
 tion, which, as you know, I have never seen, and cannot 
 therefore describe from personal observation, but which 
 several writers have admirably treated of, particularly some 
 of the ladies who have visited Egypt, and have favored the 
 world with the result of their intercourse with eastern fe- 
 males. 
 
 While here, it is worth our while to mount still higher, 
 and from the flat roof or terrace, to observe what an appear- 
 ance Cairo presents. A similar winding staircase leads to 
 this attractive spot, as the citizens usually esteem it ; for 
 here in the cool of the morning and evening, they love to as- 
 semble and enjoy the delightful breezes which refresh and in- 
 vigorate the wearied body and jaded spirits ; here they have 
 their pipes and coffee, and reclining on their diwan or carpets, 
 spend hours in contemplation or cheerful conversation, as 
 best suits their taste. Look now at the unique scene which 
 lies before you ; in the distance you see the lofty pyramids of 
 Gizeh, those mighty monuments of a people and an age 
 which have long since passed away forever, and, far beyond, 
 the illimitable desert and hills of sand which bound the view 
 on the African side; opposite to these, looking eastwardly, 
 are the Mokattam hills or mountains, which stretch away to 
 the south, and far into the Arabian desert. Mingled in one 
 picturesque outline, you see the broad and winding Nile, 
 which confers life upon Egypt, and renders verdant its pro- 
 ductive banks; the vast collection of splendid tombs and 
 mausolea for the dead of past generations, which serve to re- 
 mind one of the certainty of death and decay of all things 
 human ; the beautiful palm groves, the numerous villages, 
 the broad fields of grain, the gardens and residences of the 
 great, the manufactories of the pasha's introduction, and such- 
 like features, which, under the brilliant sun and the transpa- 
 rent skies of Egypt, have an attractiveness which, so far as I 
 know, is peculiarly their own. But it is not these things 
 which require our present attention, since there are several 
 
184 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 elevated spots where this same scene, slightly varied, is spread 
 out to view ; the city itself, as we now see it, claims our no- 
 tice on many accounts. In the streets and lanes, it is very 
 difficult to form any idea of the actual state of the houses in 
 which people live, or of the strange appearance which they 
 present when seen from a high position, as ours is ; but here, 
 we look down upon such things as we could not have sup- 
 posed to exist in a large and populous city, like the metropo- 
 lis of Egypt.''^ Observe the air of desolation which seems to 
 envelop every object ; the houses are very generally partly in 
 ruin, and being built of the dark-colored bricks, formed of 
 the mud of the Nile, look still less inviting than would other- 
 wise be the case. Crowded together, and having few ave- 
 nues wide enough to be distinguished, were it not for the re- 
 lief which the minarets afford to the scene, the dwellings of 
 the people would in general strike one as little better than 
 those in the villages ; in short, Cairo looks like a city in ruins, 
 and the reality is probably not very far behind the appearance. 
 Before returning to our hotel, let us go into the bazaars, 
 which are in many respects the most interesting objects in 
 the city, and will well repay us for an hour or two spent in 
 examining them. Most of the streets, especially the larger 
 ones, have a row of shops on either side, and, as you will ob- 
 serve, certain portions of the city are devoted to some par- 
 ticular branch of trade or manufactures : thus, there is the 
 
 * "The modern Egyptian metropolis is now called 'Masr;' more properly 
 •Mist ;' but was formerly named ' El-Kahireh ;" whence Europeans have formed 
 the name of Cairo. It is situated at the entrance of the valley of Upper Egypt, 
 midway between the Nile and the eastern mountain range of Mukattam. Be- 
 tween it and the river, there intervenes a tract of land, for the most part culti- 
 vated, which in the northern parts, (where the port of Biilak is situated) is more 
 than a mile in width, and at the southern part, less than half a mile wide. The 
 metropolis occupies a space equal to about three square miles ; and its popula- 
 tion is about 240,000. It is surrounded by a wall, the gates of which are shut 
 at night, and is commanded by a large citadel, situated at an angle of the town, 
 near a point of the mountain. The streets are unpaved ; and most of them ar« 
 narrow and irregular: they might more properly be called lanes." — Lane's 
 •• Modem Egyptians'^ vol. i. p. 5. 
 
GREAT TURKISH BAZAAR. 185 
 
 market of the copper-ware dealers, the jewellers' market or 
 bazaar, that of the hard- ware merchants, of the sword-mount- 
 ers, of the silk dealers, of the perfume- sellers, of the gold and 
 silver workers, &c. It will be quite impossible for us to do 
 more than look at one of these thoroughly ; let us then go to 
 the great Turkish sook or bazaar, termed "Khan El-Khalee- 
 lee,"^' from the sultan Khaleel, in whose reign it was built, 
 A.D. 1292, and we shall obtain probably the best idea which 
 Cairo affords of an oriental bazaar. It consists, as you see, of 
 a number of short lanes, connected with each other, and has 
 four entrances from different quarters. The shops are on 
 both sides, and are worth stopping to look at, and to contrast 
 with the large and splendid shops in our western cities: a 
 square recess or cell, perhaps seven or eight feet high, and 
 about half that distance in width, with narrow shelves for the 
 articles offered for sale, constitutes a shop in the "Khan El- 
 Khaleelee." In front of the shops, you observe that there is a 
 raised seat of stone or brick, built up to a height even with 
 the floor, i. e., about three feet above the ground : this seat 
 is about a yard wide, and having a carpet spread over it, with 
 a cushion to recline against, is used by the shop-keeper as 
 well for his own purposes as to accommodate a customer with 
 a pipe and means of resting during the tedious process of con- 
 cluding a bargain. Several of the bazaars, as you observe 
 here where we are at present, are covered over with matting 
 laid on loose reeds, or supported by more solid planks, ex- 
 tending across the street, at a slight distance, usually, above 
 the houses. 
 
 * "The Khan Khaleel (or Khan Khaleelee) was built in 691, A.H. (A.D. 
 1292) by one of the officers of the reigning sultan, whose name, Khaleel, it bears. 
 This man, under the pretence of removing the bones of the caliphs to a more 
 suitable place of interment, is said to have thrown them carelessly on the mounds 
 of rubbish outside the walls; to which profane conduct they ascribe his misera- 
 ble end ; having been killed in battle in Syria, and his body having been eaten 
 by dogs. This like many other Arab stories, may be doubted." — ■' Hand Book 
 for Egypt,''' p. 141. 
 
 7 
 
^186 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 Notice, now, for a moment, what is passing before our 
 eyes; crowds of people are constantly moving along, some 
 having come to buy, and some merely to look ; diiferent cries 
 are shouted in our ears by those who vend articles about the 
 streets ; women of the lower classes are haggling with the 
 shop-keeper about some trifling purchase; ladies in silks and 
 satins are stopping to examine some jewelry or ornaments, 
 where not only the bijouterie attracts their attention, but 
 something else in the merchant himself, a circumstance 
 which strikingly reminds one of the Arabian Nights, and the 
 love stories in them based on the visits of ladies to the ba- 
 zaars ; on the mastabah, or raised seat, at various shops, are 
 customers, who having taken off their shoes and drawn their 
 feet under them, are gravely smoking a pipe or drinking 
 coffee, as a necessary part of making a purchase ; or having 
 concluded these operations, are soberly discussing the value 
 of the article, and what may be considered a fair price ; some 
 of the shops are empty, the master having left his property to 
 the care of his neighbors, who in general thus aid one another ; 
 in one or two places the merchant is very devout, and is say- 
 ing his prayers upon the mastabah, in the sight of everybody, 
 according to the custom of the Turks and other Mohamme- 
 dans and mingled with all are foreigners from nearly all 
 nations, and persons of all colors, which form \ medley rather 
 curious and interesting. As we stroll through this extensive 
 bazaar, we see that a great variety of articles are on sale ; 
 such as ready-made clothes, arms of different descriptions and 
 qualities, the seggadehs or prayer-carpets, silks, linens, mus- 
 lins, amber mouth-pieces, pipes, copper-ware, &c. &c. 
 
 Let us see if we can make a bargain for an article of dress 
 which I expect to use in going into Syria ; it will serve to 
 illustrate the oriental manner of buying and selling, which is 
 in some respects very diverse from our own. I wish for a 
 burnoos or heavy capote, and in a shop close at hand I see 
 several exposed to view : we stop at an old acquaintance's, 
 
PROCESS OF BUYING AND SELLING. 187 
 
 with whom we have dealt before. He is delighted to see us, 
 presses us to mount the mastabah and take a pipe ; the latter 
 we decline, courteously of course, and beg him to show us 
 the burnoos. I find one which fits me tolerably, and I in- 
 quire the price ; being a customer, he does not advance on 
 what he means to take more than eighty or a hundred pias- 
 tres, and for the same reason, I do not offer him less than a 
 hundred below what I purpose giving: then begins the 
 speechifying ; he expatiates upon the superior quality of the 
 article ; beseeches me to handle it and see ; and declaring 
 that he cannot for a moment entertain my offer, diminishes 
 his price, nevertheless, thirty piastres. I listen with the ut- 
 most gravity, assure him that I do not particularly care about 
 the burnoos, and am in doubt whether to buy one or not ; but 
 on reflection, I advance my offer twenty-five piastres. This 
 only excites the Turk, and the phlegmatic merchant gets on 
 his feet, and with a gesture of impatience at my hardness, 
 solemnly declares his ultimatum, which is sixty piastres less 
 than the original price asked. At this point I determine 
 upon my course ; as I do not specially need the garment at 
 this time, I say to him, rather indifferently, "Well, as you 
 please ; in consideration of having traded with you before, I 
 will tell you what I will do ; I will give you a hundred and 
 seventy-five piastres for the burnoos, and no more." This, 
 by the way, is within fifteen of what he has offered it to me 
 for ; he shakes his head, and says, no; so I get up and take 
 my leave, to try elsewhere ; but hardly have I got ten feet 
 away from his shop, before he calls me back, and says, "Well, 
 well ; allah akbar ; take it ; you are an old customer, and I 
 can't refuse you." So, by this roundabout and time-losing 
 process, I get what I want at about a fair price : and so, in 
 fact, is the way with nearly every purchase which one makes 
 in Cairo. 
 
 On the whole, I am not'sure but that you will be wearied 
 with this attempt to give life to scenes which must be viewed 
 
188 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 with one's own eyes really to be appreciated; and I assure 
 you that I have rarely felt more acutely than at present how 
 difficult it is to describe accurately and intelligibly the ordi- 
 nary habits and customs of oriental life. There are so many 
 peculiarities arising out of the national characteristics of the 
 people, so many little things which exemplify the mental de- 
 velopment of the masses — so far as this term can be applied 
 to them — and so many finer shades which are necessary parts 
 of the picture as a whole, that I shall be surprised if you are 
 not disappointed with what I have written, or if you do not 
 censure the vagueness and unsatisfactoriness of the present 
 letter. Perhaps you will allow me, as a fitting close to my 
 lucubrations on these topics — even though I know I shall suf- 
 fer much by comparison — to quote a passage or two from Mr. 
 Lane, in illustration of some of the many and various cries 
 heard in the streets of Cairo ; allusion was made to them 
 above, and they ar« sufficiently curious and peculiarly orien- 
 tal to merit attention: 'Hhe seller of sour limes cries, *God 
 make them light, (or easy of sale) I O limes !' — The toasted 
 pips of a kind of melon called 'abdallawee,' and of the water- 
 melon, are often announced by the cry of * O consoler of the 
 embarrassed ! O pips !' though more commonly by the sim- 
 ple cry of ' Roasted pips !' — A curious cry of the seller of a 
 kind of sweetmeat (' halaweh'), composed of treacle fried with 
 some other ingredients, is * For a nail ! O sweetmeat !' He 
 is said to be half a thief: children and servants often steal 
 implements of iron, &c., from the house in which they live, 
 and give them to him in exchange for his sweetmeat. — The 
 hawker of oranges cries 'Honey! O oranges ! Honey!' and 
 similar cries are used by the sellers of other fruits and vege- 
 tables, so that it is sometimes impossible to guess what the 
 person announces for sale, as when we hear the cry of ' Syca- 
 more figs ! O grapes !' excepting by the rule that what is for 
 sale is the least excellent of the fruits, &c., mentioned ; as 
 sycamore figs are not so good as grapes. — A very singular 
 
CRIES IN THE STREETS. 189 
 
 cry is used by the seller of roses : 'The rose was a thorn ; 
 from the sweat of the prophet it blossomed.' This alludes to 
 a miracle related of the prophet. — The fragrant flowers of the 
 henna-tree (or Egyptian privet), are carried about for sale, 
 and the seller cries, 'Odors of paradise! O flowers of the 
 henna !' — A kind of cotton cloth, made by machinery, which 
 is put in motion by a bull, is announced by the cry of ' The 
 work of the bull ! O maidens !' "^ Other illustrations of the 
 cries of various street merchants are found in Mr. Lane's 
 volumes, to which I beg to refer you in case your curiosity 
 extends beyond what I have quoted ; at present I leave the 
 whole subject, in the hope that in my next letter I may 
 interest you more successfully in some other features peculiar 
 to the East. 
 
 * " Modern Egyptians,'^ vol. ii. p. 18. 
 
LETTER X. 
 
 posits — ectaKcl— 3^ elio|ion». 
 
 Religious Edifices.— Great Number of Mosks in Cairo.— Mosk of Ahmed ibn et-Tulun.- -Old- 
 est.— Minaret.— Anecdote.— Mosks easily Visited.— Description of Interior.— Mosk of Sultaa 
 Hassan.— Finest in Cairo.— Interior.— Citadel.— Massacre of Meralooks.— Mohammed Ali's 
 Mosk. — Splendid View from Citadel.— Adventure.— Objects of Interest in the Environs of 
 Cairo. — Ileliopolis. — Obelisk. — Sad Reflections. — Joseph and the Daughter of the Priest or 
 Prince of On.— Sycamore of the Holy Family.- An Oriental Bath.— Description of one.— Its 
 Peculiarities.— Great Enjoyment. 
 
 Cairo, March 6th, 1849. 
 My Dear S., 
 
 I DO not know that there is anything in any country, 
 v^rhich, to a thoughtful mind, is more full of interest, and 
 more strikingly illustrative of the character and condition of 
 the people, than their religious edifices. Go where we will, 
 we are sure to find evidences of some sort of belief in superior 
 power and agency, whether it be the wretched idolatry of the 
 Hindoos, the false creed of the Arabian impostor, or the pure 
 and true faith of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and 
 we are equally sure to meet with houses of worship, and edi- 
 fices devoted to religion, which afTord us an insight into the 
 nature of their belief, and tend to show the near approach of 
 nations and people to the truth, as it is in Jesus, or their vast 
 remove from that which constitutes the glory of Christian 
 lands. It was, therefore, with feelings of no ordinary char- 
 acter, that I spent some days, in visiting such of the mosks 
 as are accessible to Franks, and in noticing their peculi- 
 arities, and their points of difference from the churches and 
 temples devoted to the worship of the Triune God of our sal- 
 
MOSK OF AHMED IBN ET-TULUN. 191 
 
 vation. Yt)u will not be displeased, 1 am confident, if T de- 
 scribe one or two of these mosks somewhat at large. They 
 are said to be very numerous in the metropolis — ^\\^ilkinson 
 thinks about four hundred ; but they do not differ much, ex- 
 cept in size and variety of minarets, and would not repay one 
 for the trouble of visiting them all : hence I shall confine my 
 remarks to those two, which seem to have the greatest inter- 
 est connected with them, — the one as being the oldest, the 
 other the finest mosk in Cairo. 
 
 The mosk of Ahmed ibn et-Tulun, commonly known as 
 the '' Gama Taylun," is the oldest in the metropolis, having 
 been founded nearly a hundred years before any other part 
 of the city, in the year A.H. 265 = A.D. 879 ; and though it 
 is not particularly attractive on the score of architectural 
 beauty, it is very interesting in another point of view, as 
 establishing the use of the pointed arch, some three hundred 
 years before its introduction into England. The exterior, like 
 that of most of the mosks which I have seen, presents a sin- 
 gular want of taste, according to our ideas, in having the 
 walls daubed, for I can call it nothing else, with alternate 
 horizontal stripes of coarse red and white paint, which seems 
 to me to give the building a childish and almost ridiculous 
 appearance. The edifice, as a whole, is very large, and the 
 windows are few, small, and protected by thin bars of wood 
 or iron, which form a sort of lattice-work, through which the 
 air circulates freely. This particular mosk has a very singu- 
 lar mad'neh or minaret, unlike, I believe, any other in Cairo ; 
 for the staircase, by which the ascent is made, winds round 
 the outside. The cause of this peculiarity is thus given by 
 Wilkinson : " It is said to have originated in the absent hab- 
 its of its founder, and an observation of his wizeer : he had 
 observed him unconsciously rolling a piece of parchment into 
 a spiral form ; and, having remarked, 'it was a pity his maj- 
 esty had no better employment,' the king, in order to excuse 
 himself, replied, 'so far from trifling, I have been thinking 
 
1^ EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND.' 
 
 that a minaret erected on this principle, would have many 
 advantages ; I could even ride up it on horseback : and I 
 wish that of my new mosk to be built of the same form.' "* 
 There is little or no difficulty attendant upon visiting the 
 mosk s of Cairo at the present day; and, with the exception 
 of two of them (viz., the Hassanin and the Ezher), a person 
 in a Frank dress may freely enter a mosk, and look about 
 him as much as he chooses, without fear of insult or molesta- 
 tion. For this we have to thank the French, in great meas- 
 ure ; for it is only since their invasion, that the privilege of 
 even passing before several of the mosks, has been allowed 
 to Christians and the persecuted Jew. Happily, too, Moham- 
 med Ali has had sense enough to see, how impolitic is all this 
 bigotry and intolerance, in which the lower classes delight. 
 Some two or three days ago, accompanied by Antonio, I set 
 out to spend a day in looking through the Mohammedan houses 
 of worship, visiting first the mosk of the Sultan, above alluded 
 to. The entrance is mean, comparatively speaking, and has 
 usually about it a number of loungers or idle fanatics, and 
 beggars, who go as far as they dare, in muttering impreca- 
 tions upon the " Christian dogs," and in gazing at them with 
 countenances fairly lighted up, at times, with malignity and 
 Pharisaic pride. We walked some little distance through a 
 rather dark passage-way, till we came to an open doorway, 
 leading to the inner part of the building. Here we were 
 stopped by the servant or keeper of the mosk ; and before we 
 were allowed to step over the low railing, and enter, we had 
 either to take off boots, and go in barefoot, or encase our feet, 
 boots and all, in a pair of heavy reed slippers. I chose the 
 latter, not feeling it quite safe to spend any time barefoot on 
 the stone floor inside. Antonio, however, followed the usual 
 fashion. We now found ourselves in a large, open, square 
 court, paved, and having in the centre a large fountain, cov- 
 ered with a dome, and used by the people for ablutions, pre- 
 
 * ''Hand-Book for Egypt,'' p. 133. 
 
INTERIOR OF THE GAMA TAYLUN. 193 
 
 vious to prayer. On each side of this court are colonnades, 
 those on three of the sides consisting of two rows of columns, 
 about sixty feet deep, and that on the eastern end, of five 
 rows, all supporting pointed arches. On two sides, however, 
 as I was informed, the colonnades have been converted into 
 houses, by order of the government. The mosk itself is said 
 to be built on the plan of the Kaaba at Mecca. Crossing the 
 court, we came to that portion of the building, which is prin- 
 cipally used for the place of prayer. It is more spacious than 
 the other parts of the mosk, and is divided into three aisles, 
 by rows of columns, parallel with the outer wall. Mats are 
 spread over the entire space, and the worshippers go through 
 with their devotions, high and low, rich and poor, all together, 
 without distinction of classes — a feature of Mohammedanism, 
 which reminded me rather painfully of the different notion 
 of things, which Protestant Christians are apt to entertain in 
 arranging their houses of prayer. In the centre of the ex- 
 terior wall is the mehrab or niche, which points out the direc- 
 tion of Mecca ; towards which, as you know, every Moham- 
 medan turns when he says his prayers. To the right of the 
 niche is the pulpit, which is about ten feet high, I suppose, 
 and reached by means of a wooden staircase, remarkable 
 rather for solidity than beauty. '' Opposite the mehrab, in the 
 central part of the portico, there is a platform (called ' dik- 
 keh'), surrounded by a parapet, and supported by small col- 
 umns ; and by it, or before it, are one or two seats, having a 
 kind of desk, to bear a volume of the koran, from which a 
 chapter is read to the congregation. The walls in the mosks 
 generally are quite plain, being simply whitewashed ; but in 
 some of them, the lower part of the wall of the place of 
 prayer is lined with colored marble, and the other part orna- 
 mented with various devices, executed in stucco, but mostly 
 with texts of the koran (which form long friezes, having a 
 pleasant effect), and never with the representation of anything 
 that has life." In one corner of this part of the edifice, is the 
 
 9 
 
194 EGYPT AND THE HOLY Li^ND. 
 
 tomb of the Sultan Tulun (whose reign dates A.D. 868-884) ; 
 it is railed in ; and what little light there is here, comes 
 principally from above, the ceiling being very lofty. At this 
 hour, being about the middle of the forenoon, there were very 
 few persons present; one old man, doubtless a mendicant, 
 from his looks, lay stretched out at full length, asleep on the 
 matting, not far from the pulpit : a number of children were 
 running about, and playing very noisily ; and several women 
 seemed to be lounging around, more to gratify their curiosity 
 than anything else. 
 
 Escaping from the importunity of the beggars, and the 
 cupidity of the door-keeper as well as I could,* I next set out 
 to visit the mosk of Sultan Hassan, which is said to be, and 
 justly, I believe, the finest in Cairo. It is situate just at the 
 foot of the lofty hill on which the Citadel stands, between the 
 Roomaylee and the Soog e' Sullah. The Cairenes are ex- 
 ceedingly proud of this mosk, and well they may be, since 
 it is the only one that I have seen in Cairo which has any 
 pretensions to what we consider architectural beauty or gran- 
 deur. It has a high and rather finely ornamented porch ; the 
 cornice of its lofty walls is rich in decorations ; its minaret 
 is one of the most striking in the whole city, and the arches 
 of its spacious court cannot fail to interest every admirer of 
 architecture. But after all, how far short does it fall of the 
 sublime conception and execution of an edifice, like hundreds 
 of Christian churches, in which our Lord and our God is 
 worshipped and adored, with a pure and holy worship ! In 
 the temples of the true God, we see a grasping after the pure, 
 
 * Thefts are sometimes committed in the mosks ; Mr. Lane tells an amu- 
 sing story which was related to him by a friend : — " I went there," (to the Has- 
 aneyn Mosk) said he, "to pray ; and as I was stooping over the brink of the 
 meydaah, to perform the ablution, having placed my shoes beside me, and was 
 saying, ' I purpose to perform the Divine ordinance of the wudoo,' somebody 
 behind me said to himself, ' I purpose to take away this nice pair of shoes. 
 On looking round, I found an old worn-out pair of shoes put in the place of my 
 own, which were new." — " Modern Egyptians'^ vol. ii. p. 235. 
 
MOSK OF SULTAN HASSAN. 195 
 
 the spiritual, the infinite : in the edifices of imposture and 
 false religion, all is sensuous, materializing, utilitarian, ex- 
 pedient ; — and thus will it ever be, as it ever has been. After 
 mounting a number of steps, and making our way through 
 a crooked, narrow passage, we came to the entrance or door 
 nearest the tank for ablutions. Here I had to go through the 
 same operation, of putting on slippers over my boots before I 
 oould enter. The interior is very large, and differs from " the 
 mosks of early times, and from the generaUty of those in 
 Cairo, consisting of a hypaethral court, with a square recess 
 on each side, covered by a noble and majestic arch, that on 
 the east being much more spacious than the other three, and 
 measuring sixty-nine feet five inches in span." Besides the 
 puJpit, niche, etc., as in the mosk of Sultan Tulun, I noticed 
 a number of chains for lamps, which are suspended from the 
 ceiling, and the two rows of pretty colored glass vases, of 
 Syrian manufacture, bearing the name of the Sultan, and 
 hanging from the side walls : these add much to the effect of 
 the interior. Passing through a door, we came into a large 
 room, with a very lofty dome of wood and plaster, and some 
 curious ornamental woodwork at the corners of the ceiling or 
 top of the wall. In the centre of this apartment is the tomb 
 of the Sultan Hassan : it is railed in, has a large old copy of 
 the koran lying upon it, and bears the date A.H. 764 (= A.D. 
 1363). The pavement here is a good deal out of repair, and 
 there is not that neatness which I had expected to find in this 
 celebrated mosk. On the whole, however, it well repays the 
 visitor for the time spent in going through it, even if it have 
 no other effect than to lead him to the conclusion of the supe- 
 riority of Christian art, and the true value and excellence 
 of the religion of the cross. 
 
 In connection with this subject, it may not be out of place 
 to speak of several matters in and about Cairo, which are in 
 a degree related to that of which I have just been writing 
 I refer to the Citadel, Mohammed All's mosk, the tombs 
 
196 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 of the Khalifs, of the Kings, &c. The Citadel is one of the 
 most interesting spots in the city : every traveller makes it a 
 point to visit it, and enjoy the splendid view which is there 
 spread out before him ; of course we did the same, and were 
 well rewarded. The ascent is by a wide carriage road, which 
 winds gradually up to the summit, and affords many a pleas- 
 ant glimpse of the city, as well as distant objects. Of the 
 fortifications, which are on a large scale, it is needless to 
 speak ; the only really interesting point in connection with 
 them is the spot near the Roomaylee gate, where Emin 
 Bey — this was in March 1811 — escaped daring the massacre 
 of the Memlooks, by leaping his horse over a gap in the then 
 dilapidated walls. You may be sure that, however policy, 
 or what is called state necessity, may serve to justify or 
 palliate the detestable treachery of Mohammed Ali, we could 
 not refrain from a strong feeling of indignation against him 
 and all other tyrants who take such means to rid themselves 
 of their enemies. Within the Citadel is the new mosk of Mo- 
 hammed Ali ; it is very large and peculiarly imposing, as 
 well from its position as from its style, and the material 
 of which it is built. The stone is the oriental or Egyptian 
 alabaster, and is very showy, and on the whole pleasing. At 
 present the mosk is but partially finished, and it will probably 
 take some years before it can be completed. They have a 
 curious notion in Cairo and the neighborhood, that the old 
 Pasha, who is now in his dotage, and may be removed at any 
 moment, is to be spared till his new mosk is entirely finished. 
 It is quite possible, that this same delusive idea has place in 
 his thoughts, and that he counts upon several years yet, be- 
 fore he goes to his final account.* The view from the plat- 
 form or level space in front, which forms the court of the 
 
 * Alas for all human calculations ! Mohammed Ali is dead; he expired 
 August 2d, 1849, aged 80 years, and was buried in his unfinished mosk, and 
 not in the large and splendid mausoleum which he had provided for himself and 
 hia family. i 
 
VIEW FROM THE CITADEL. ISIt 
 
 mosk, is really grand, and surpasses anything which I have 
 seen in Cairo. You have spread out before you the whole 
 city, the arsenal below, and the surrounding country. Just 
 outside of the Citadel gates is the mosk of Sultan Hassan. 
 Immediately beyond, and in every direction, the numerous 
 minarets rise, as it were, from amid the ruins of a great city 
 and form one of the features on which the eye loves to rest 
 In the distance are the mighty Pyramids, and the valley of 
 the Nile, reaching to Sakkhara on the south, and the poin' 
 of the Delta on the north. Besides the things already men 
 tioned, the Citadel contains other objects worthy of a visit, a 
 the Pasha's palace, where Abbas Pasha receives official visits 
 and the well of Joseph, that is, of Salah ed-Din, or Yusc/ 
 ibn-Eiyub, who, though you might not easily guess it fi^rn 
 the Arabic name, thus spelled, figures in history and romance 
 as the chivalrous Saladin, the worthy opponent of the Lion- 
 hearted Richard of England. We visited these, as & tnatter 
 of course, while we were about it ; but they are not of con- 
 sequence enough to demand special description at my hands. 
 As we were leaving the Citadel, on our return, I chanced 
 to be some distance behind our party, and alone ; a number 
 of noisy boys came along, and excepting some abusive words, 
 passed me without notice. I rode on very quietly, not ex- 
 pecting anything further, when the first thing I knew, a large 
 stone struck me in the back, having been hurled with con- 
 siderable force. Convinced that insult of this kind ought not 
 to be submitted to in silence, I immediately wheeled my 
 donkey to the right about, and dashed into the midst of the 
 boys at full speed. I happened to have a stout stick in my 
 hand, and* I assure you, I whirled it about to the infinite an- 
 noyance and no little risk of these young fanatics. I de- 
 manded to know which was the one that dared to throw a 
 stone ; but, terrified, pale and trembling, every boy denied it, 
 and thus prevented my castigating the real offender, a course 
 which I had made up my mind to take, without hesitation, 
 
198 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 and effectually. After giving them a good lecture, I let them 
 go, and in a few minutes rejoined our party ahead, having 
 been taught a useful lesson as to the actual hatred instilled 
 into the minds of the young against Christians. I understood 
 now^, pretty well, the instruction which is given in many 
 schools in Cairo, as summed up in the prayer quoted by Mr. 
 Lane (vol. ii. p. 424), and used every day ; and I have little 
 doubt, that if the present Pasha suffer it, we shall see a re- 
 turn, in part at least, to the outrage and insult manifested 
 against Christians in former days, before Mohammed All's 
 rule in Egypt. 
 
 There are a number of other things of which I might 
 speak, and which, perhaps, I might succeed in making inter- 
 esting to you. The environs of Cairo have several features, 
 not wanting in attractiveness ; and as we have spent a longer 
 time in the metropolis than we intended, owing to circum- 
 stances of a private nature, we have visited pretty thoroughly 
 all the objects woi;th seeing, and some that do not repay one 
 for his trouble. We have ridden to Bulak quite frequently, 
 and explored that busy suburb of Cairo with much interest : 
 we have been again to old Cairo, to see the mosk of 'Amr, 
 whiqh is in ruins, but undergoing repair, and to make a pil- 
 grimage to the Grotto of the Virgin, over which the Copts 
 have built a large church, and in which they devoutly believe 
 the Virgin Mother to have nursed and watched over the Holy 
 Child, during the sojourn in Egypt. We have wasted some 
 precious hours in looking at the Nilometer, on the island of 
 Rhoda. We have had a delightful ride out to Mohammed 
 All's palace and gardens at Shubra, where we spent several 
 hours, in looking about and enjoying the fragraftce of the 
 flowers, the lemon and orange groves, &c. We have spent 
 two days in excursions to the large and imposing tombs in 
 the vicinity of Cairo, viz., those of the Memlook kings, of 
 different dynasties, that of Mohammed Ali and his family, 
 and others in the neighborhood. We have had occasion, both 
 
HELIOPOLIS AND ITS REMAINS. 199 
 
 to admire the imposing and richly wrought domes and mina- 
 rets of these mausoleums, and to muse over the fleeting char- 
 acter of earthly grandeur and glory, in visiting many that 
 are dilapidated, uncared for, and fast sinking into ruin; — 
 
 " Pallida Mors aequo pulsat pede paupemtu tabernas 
 Regumque turres :"* 
 
 but I will not extend this mere enumeration of cbjects of inter- 
 est or curiosity ; I will rather ask your indulgence to one of our 
 excursions, in which, as it in part, at least, relates to Holy Scrip- 
 ture, I am sure you will find something worthy your attention. 
 It was a pleasant ride, in an easterly direction, of rather 
 more than two hours from Cairo to Matarieh, near which are 
 the few scant remains of once glorious Heliopolis. Some 
 considerable time before reaching it, the obelisk was plainly 
 in sight, and presented a singular appearance in the midst 
 of cultivated fields and gardens ; whereas formerly, ages ago, 
 it and its companion stood, at the entrance of the magnificent 
 Temple of the Sun, and was approached by a grand and im- 
 posing dromos of Sphinxes.! Rarely, even in this land of 
 ruins, is there to be found a monument, which more aptly 
 illustrates the fleeting character of earthly greatness, than 
 this noble obelisk, almost the sole remnant of a city, renowned 
 for learning, wisdom, and splendor. It stands all alone, 
 though in the centre of a fertile garden. The fellahin whom 
 we saw, and who here pursue their daily labor, have no 
 
 * Horat. Carm. I. iv. 13, 14. 
 
 ■f The faces of the obelisk measure at the ground six feet one inch on the 
 north and south, and six feet three inches on the east and west. Its height 
 above the level of the ground is sixty-two feet four inches. The annual de- 
 posits of the Nile have in the lapse of time covered the base and pedestal. 
 Wilkinson found the base, or first pedestal of the obelisk, to be about six feet 
 below the present level of the ground ; and a larger pedestal a number of feet 
 still lower down. This may give you some idea what changes have taken place 
 in the course of time in the valley of the Nile — the river bringing down its fer- 
 tilizing products and depositing them on the land, as well as retaining a portion 
 in its own bed, year after year, as it has done from a period beyond the range 
 of authentic history. 
 
EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 knowledge or conception of its meaning or significance ; and 
 they gaze at it with listless indifference, roused only by the 
 visits of inquisitive foreigners, whom they count little better 
 than fools or madmen. Far, far back into antiquity does its 
 history reach, not much short of three thousand six hundred 
 years ago (Mr. Gliddon dates it about B.C. 2070) ; and yet 
 here it stands, while everything else in connection with Heli- 
 opolis, that famous seat of learning and Egyptian wisdom, 
 has faded away, and become very dust and ashes. You will 
 not wonder that I fell into my usual musing way, or that I 
 spent a long time in striving to realize the lessons which such 
 monuments ought ever to teach, of the unsatisfying nature 
 of human glory, and the utter worthlessness of this world's 
 fame, power, and magnificence. I read the inscription as well 
 as I could, though it is not easy, in consequence of a multitude 
 of wasps, or insects of that sort, having deposited the mate- 
 rials for their homes on a considerable portion of the obelisk's 
 faces. Mr. Osburn translates it as follows, stating that on 
 each face is the same hieroglyphic inscription : — 
 
 " Horus the life-giver, the king of an obedient people (Sun 
 offered to the world), lord of Upper and Lower Egypt, the 
 life-giving son of the Sun, Osortasen, beloved of the spirits 
 of Poone, the hawk of gold, the life-giver, the great god, (Sun 
 ofTered to the world), the celebrator of the festivals, giving 
 eternal life." 
 
 Rosselini's translation, as given by Mr. Gliddon, is sub- 
 stantially the same : — 
 
 " The Horus [living of men], Pharaoh, Sun offered to the 
 WORLD, lord of Upper and Lower Egypt, the living of men, 
 son of the Sun, Osortasen, beloved of the spirits in the re- 
 gion of Pone, ever-living, life of mankind, resplendent Horus, 
 beneficent deity. Sun offered to the world, who has begun 
 the celebration of his two panegyries to him who makes him, 
 vivifier forever." 
 
 Truly, methought, as I stood looking at this really beauti- 
 
THE OBELISK AND ITS LESSONS. 201 
 
 ful obelisk, all such boasting is vain, and all the might, maj- 
 esty, and dominion of man, is like his life itself, — " a vapor 
 that appeareth for a little time, and then vanish eth away." 
 Alas, how little do we know of him, the monarch of Egypt, 
 who once trod the earth so proudly, rejoicing in his strength, 
 surrounded by sycophants and flatterers, and vainly hoping 
 to escape the doom of man — oblivion and nothingness ! This 
 single block of stone is all : it tells his name, and parades his 
 kingly titles ; his wars and conquests, his magnificence and 
 glory, his virtues and vices, his qualities of head and heart, 
 his trials and successes, his domestic life, and those manifold 
 characteristics which link him to us and the great family of 
 man, — what do we know of them ? and what is Osortasen 
 to us but a name, a mere name, to which we attach no idea ? 
 O, instead of seeking those things in which fallen man so 
 much rejoices, may our inheritance be that of which St. Peter 
 speaks, '* incorruptible, and imdefiled, and that fadeth not 
 away, reserved in heaven for us ;" and may we be among 
 the wise, and them that turn many to righteousness, for they 
 " shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as the 
 stars forever and ever.""^ 
 
 It was not the least interesting feature in connection with 
 Heliopolis, to call to mind the Scripture story — so inimitably 
 told — of Joseph, the good and noble Joseph. He, you re- 
 member, by his wisdom and the blessing of God resting 
 upon him, was made ruler over all the land of Egypt : *' and 
 Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnath-paaneah ;t and he 
 gave him to wife Asenath, the daughter of Poti-pherah,| 
 
 * 1 Pet. i. 4; Dan. xii. 3. 
 
 t Gesenius's Lexicon is worth looking into for the signification of this name. 
 The Septuagint give ^Po^0o|<^a^^;^, which means, according to Egyptian authori- 
 ties, "the Saviour of the world." Jerome also interprets it Servator inundi; 
 Kimchi, however, makes the Hebrew words to signify " Revealer of secrets." 
 
 I This name Poti-pherah, Pete-phra, he who belongs to the sun, is very com- 
 mon on the monuments of Egypt. "The ancient Egyptian name of Heliopolis 
 was in hieroglyphics Re-ei or Ei-re, ' the house' or ' abode of the Sun,' cor- 
 
 9* 
 
202 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 priest of On," — ^which city was afterwards by the Greeks 
 called Heliopolis. It was an alliance of great moment as 
 well to Joseph and his family, still in Canaan, as to the 
 monarch and people of Egypt. It established Joseph's 
 power on a firm basis, by connecting him with a noble fam- 
 ily, and enabled him to make such arrangements as might 
 best subserve the end which Divine Providence purposed 
 accomplishing in this way. For, you will observe, that not 
 only were the priests, as a body, possessed of very great 
 power and influence, but the particular college at On. or 
 Heliopolis, was renowned above all, and of course the high 
 priest of On was the most distinguished ; his son-in-law, as 
 ruler of Egypt, must have been supreme. It would seem, 
 also, as Osburn suggests, " that in name, in dress, in lan- 
 guage, and in manners, (doubtless so far only as was con- 
 sistent with the service of the God to whom he was so 
 eminently devoted,) he appeared as an Egyptian, (Gen. xlii. 
 23y# jn later times, the prophets speak of Heliopolis un- 
 der names signifying the same thing as the Greek word ; he, 
 Nebuchadrezzar, " shall break also the images of Beth- 
 shemesh, that is in the land of Egypt ;" " the young men of 
 Aven (On) shall fall by the sword."t After the accession 
 of the Ptolemies, it ceased to be the seat of learning and 
 influence, the new capital, Alexandria, outrivalling all com- 
 petitors ; and in the days of Strabo (B.C. 30) it had become 
 deserted, several of its obelisks had been removed, and its 
 importance had dwindled into almost nothing. Since then 
 it has sunk into entire ruin, and it would not be easy to find 
 the site of the city, were it not for the obelisk and a few 
 fragments noticed by Wilkinson. Let me conclude this 
 
 responding to the title Bethshemcs. of the same import, which was applied to it 
 by the Jews ; and in Scripture and in Coptic it is called On." 
 
 * '= Antiquities of Egypt " p. 16. See Hengstenberg's " Egypt and the Books 
 of Moses;' p. 32-34. 
 
 f Jer. xliii. 13 ; Ezek. xxx. 17. 
 
SYCAMORE OF THE HOLY FAMILY. 
 
 brief notice in his words : " On a red granite fragment, lying 
 some distance from the obelisk, are the name and mutilated 
 figure of the great Remeses ; and Mr. Salt found a pedestal 
 with a bull and Osiris, about a quarter of a mile to the east- 
 ward. The bull Mnevis shared with Re or Phra the worship 
 of this city, and was one of the most noted among the sacred 
 animals of Egypt. It was kept in a particular enclosure set 
 apart for it, as for Apis at Memphis, and enjoyed the same 
 honor in the Heliopolite as the latter did in the Memphite 
 nome."* 
 
 At no great distance from the obelisk is " the fountain of 
 the Sun," which has the reputation of being the only real 
 spring in the valley of the Nile, though in fact it is supplied, 
 like the other wells in Egypt, by filtration from the river. 
 Passing by this, we rode a little way further, and like many 
 thousand pilgrims before our days, we went to see the Syca- 
 more of the Holy Family. It is a large old tree, in the midst 
 of a neat, pretty flower garden, and has been visited by great 
 numbers of persons in years that are gone by. We saw here 
 several names of countrymen and others which we recognized, 
 and could hardly forbear smiling at the strength of that pro- 
 pensity for cutting names m famous localities, which seems 
 to characterize the race to which we belong. Tradition — 
 though here of little if any value — relates that the "fountain* 
 of the Sun" was once salt, but that by the visit of the Holy 
 Family it became sweet and pure ; and further, that this is 
 the very tree, under which more than eighteen hundred years 
 ago, the blessed Virgin and Child with Joseph reposed for a 
 season, after their long and wearisome journey from Judea. We 
 spent some little time musing over the circumstances con- 
 nected with the Scripture history to which the tradition 
 points ; and inclined more to pity than censure the credulity 
 of the poor pilgrim who believes all that is told him on these 
 
 * « HandrBookfor Egypt;' p. 168. 
 
EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 subjects, we bade adieu tcHeliopolis and its vicinity, and rode 
 back to Cairo. 
 
 There is not much congruity, I confess, between visiting 
 and exploring ruins, and enjoying the luxuries of an oriental 
 bath ; and you may not be able to see exactly why I introduce 
 the latter into such grave and staid company. In good sooth, 
 I have no especial reason, though I suspect one might be 
 found for this as well as other things ; the simple honest truth 
 is, that I have a page or two to spare at this time, and I have 
 really enjoyed this sort of bath so much, that I quite want to 
 tell you all about it ; it is needful, too, in order to illustrate a 
 striking feature in oriental life and customs. 
 
 It was one of the best establishments in the city, though in 
 an out-of-the-way street, to which we went, on our initiation 
 into one of the greatest sources of pleasure and amusement to 
 orientals.^ The entrance is through a narrow door and pas- 
 sage-way, which introduce the visitor into a large apartment, 
 paved with different colored marble, intermixed with pieces 
 of red tile. Round the sides of the room are high raised seats 
 or diwans to recline on, and according to one's taste, to use for 
 saying his prayers against the jinn and other evil influences, 
 or to undress and get ready for the bathing operation inside. 
 Several bleached objects were lounging here after their bath, 
 ' smoking, chatting, or sitting in dreamy vacuity, which de- 
 lights the Turk especially on such occasions. We passed on 
 to an inner room, which is considerably smaller, and has an 
 arched ceiling overhead, whence the light comes> two raised 
 seats, etc. The warm vapor in this apartment had an im- 
 mediate and sensible effect upon our feelings, and we were 
 very glad to disrobe ourselves as quickly as possible. Leaving 
 our clothes, &c., in the hands of the keeper, who is held re- 
 sponsible, and with a napkin round the loins and wooden 
 clogs on the feet, to save one from slipping, as much as any- 
 
 * There are some sixty or seventy baths of vaxious sizes and qualities in 
 Cairo. 
 
AN ORIENTAL BATH. 205 
 
 thing, we entered through a small, low door, into a large, 
 square apartment, in most respects like the outer one, having 
 seats or diwans, being paved, etc. ; in the centre of the room 
 is a fountain of hot water, which keeps it filled with hot va- 
 por, and very soon throws one into a profuse perspiration. 
 Here a one-eyed Arab, like myself with only a napkin round 
 his loins, took me in charge, and depriving me of the clogs, 
 led me up several steps into a small adjoining chamber, to 
 undergo the first process in an oriental bath. A tank of 
 water, hot enough to scald one if introduced suddenly into it, 
 is in the middle of this chamber, and the vapor or hot air is so 
 filled with moisture, that it is only by the gradual approach 
 which one makes in getting to this point, that he finds him- 
 self at all able to endure it. My friend, the Arab, spread a 
 napkin on the marble pavement within a few inches of the 
 tank ; then laid me flat on my face ; and next taking a small 
 coarse woollen bag, began to rub and scour me with right good 
 will. When he had finished this portion, he turned me over 
 and performed the same service to the rest of my person ; 
 continually throughout the process dashing me with handfuls 
 of the scalding water, and begging me to let him go through 
 the joint-cracking operation, which, you may be sure, I decid- 
 edly declined. He revenged himself, however, by jesting and 
 laughing at my white skin, and he passed his witticisms — at 
 least he thought them such — to some acquaintance of tawny 
 hue who was amusing himself in the tank of hot water, and 
 between them I imderwent a rather severe wordy castigation. 
 When the rubbing was over, though I did not much relish 
 the idea, I was prevailed upon first to dip my feet into the 
 scalding water, and then boldly to plunge into the steaming 
 caldron up to my very neck. O it was curious to see what 
 the human body is capable of, and what pleasure may be 
 found in a tank of hot water, provided one be not plunged 
 into it too suddenly ; I assure you I enjoyed it immensely. 
 Leaving this apartment, I was taken into another, also small, 
 
206 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 and devoted to the second process. The one-eyed operator 
 placed me on the top of a round stone seat, and then began 
 to lather me with soap and water over the head and neck, in 
 such abundance as nearly to choke me, and for some moments 
 to deprive me of breath. He uses for this purpose the fibres 
 of the palm, much as we would a sponge ; these fibres are 
 white (those of Egypt are brown), and as Mr. Lane states, 
 are brought from the Hejaz. After a thorough washing and 
 cleansing with water almost cold, from a small reservoir near- 
 by, my Arab attendant had the assurance to ask me for 
 bakhshish^ which, as I told him — ^not very clearly I fear — was 
 a very great piece of impudence, all things considered. I was 
 next led back into the large room above spoken of, covered 
 with four napkins over the head, shoulders, and loins, and 
 then conducted into the apartment where we had undressed. 
 Here, laid at length on our carpets, we luxuriated in the de- 
 licious languor produced by the hot bath, and according to 
 our respective tastes took coffee, inhaled the fragrant tobacco 
 from the bubbling sheesheh, or lay half asleep dreaming of 
 those far away in freezing New York. In the course of an 
 hour or so we had taken our fill of this sort of enjoyment, 
 and after giving the grumbling bath-men about five times the 
 usual price (to a Turk or native it is two or three piastres, 
 = nine or fourteen cents), we left them, and emerged once 
 more into the open air.*' 
 
 Here, however, let me close for the present ; we have be- 
 gun to m.ake our arrangements for leaving Cairo, and ven- 
 turing into the vast desert on the East; our thoughts are 
 turned toward the *'land of promise," and I find myself a 
 good deal occupied in getting various matters in readiness for 
 the expedition. But I mean, notwithstanding, to write you 
 once more before bidding a final adieu to Egypt. 
 
 * See on this subject, Lane's " Modem Egyptians,^' vol, ii. p. 43~54. 
 
LETTER XI. 
 
 Christian Privileges of Travellers.— Rev. Mr. Lieder and Family.— Missionary Operations in 
 the East. — Visit to the Coptic Patriarch. — His Character and Position.— Church Services in 
 the Patriarch's Church in Cairo. — Arrangements Internally. — Robes of the Priests. — Customs 
 of the Worshippers. — Coptic and Arabic used in the Services. — Communion Service.— Con- 
 secration of the Elements.— Peculiarities of Administration.— Public Men in Cairo. — Moham- 
 med All. — Ibrahim Pasha. — Abbas Pasha. — His Character and Course.— Presentation of Mr. 
 Macauley, the American Consul-General.— Description of the Scene,— Did not go off Well.— 
 Mr. Lane and Family. — Conclusion Respecting Egypt. 
 
 Cairo, March 19th, 1849 
 My Dear S., 
 
 It is one of the most delightful of a Christian traveller's 
 privileges, to find in the places of his sojourn, the services of 
 the English branch of the Catholic Church, conducted in 
 their purity and integrity ; and to be permitted on the Lord's 
 day, to assemble with even the few who meet together for this 
 purpose, and to offer up united prayers and praises, in the 
 very words which have become consecrated by long use, and 
 thorough conviction of their entire accordance with Holy Writ. 
 I shall ever esteem it as one of the brightest spots in my re- 
 collections of Egypt, to have been favored, not only with an 
 opportunity to kneel in the house of God, and listen to His 
 servant, who there expounds His Holy Word, but also with 
 the privilege of becoming acquainted with the learned and 
 excellent Missionary and his family, who have been laboring 
 for many years, so zealously and so effectively, among the 
 Coptic Christians of Egypt. I have been partaker of so 
 many acts of kindness, and been treated with such warmth 
 
208 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 of fraternal affection, by both Mr. and Mrs. Lieder, that I 
 dare not give utterance to my feelings as I would, lest I be 
 deemed extravagant, or trespass upon the sanctities of private 
 life. And yet I cannot refrain from saying something which 
 shall manifest the exceedingly high respect, esteem, and grat- 
 itude which T entertain towards Mr. L. and all of those 
 under his roof, with whom I have had for weeks almost daily 
 intercourse. Of their labors, in the sphere of their proper 
 duties, I may not here speak ; not for the reason that I might 
 not find much to say, but simply because in all missionary 
 labors in the East, among its decayed and corrupt Churches, 
 everything good is the result of time, often a much longer 
 time than falls to the lot of those who spend their lives in 
 this portion of the Lord's vineyard. Nothing, if I may ven- 
 ture an opinion, can be more fallacious, than to judge of what 
 has been, or can be done, by the fruits of rapid growth ; 
 nothing can well be more uncertain — apart, of course, I 
 mean, from the blessing of God, who alone can give effect 
 1o any labor in His cause — than what a short period might 
 promise ; and nothing, I am certain, can be more unsafe, 
 than to build an opinion upon single instances or isolated 
 facts, in missionary labors. For this reason, I know you will 
 excuse me, if I do not pretend to pronounce upon the mission 
 of the Church Missionary Society in Egypt, further than to 
 express my firm conviction and assurance, that it has been, 
 and may yet be, still further, the means of great good to the 
 bodies and souls of thousands in the metropolis of thi? deeply 
 interesting land. May God, in his mercy, pour out upon His 
 ministering servant here, and all connected with him, His 
 choicest blessings I 
 
 I have been led to think the more deeply on these matters, 
 in consequence, not only of what I have stated in respect to 
 the bishop of Es-Siout and the Church there, but of some 
 circumstances and further opportunities of observation, which 
 have occurred since our return to Cairo. By the kindness oi 
 
INTERVIEW WITH THE PATRIARCH. 209 
 
 Mr. Lieder, I have been privileged to have an interview with 
 the patriarch of the Coptic Church, who, though residing in 
 Cairo, is styled " Patriarch of Alexandria,*' and occupies the 
 chair of St. Mark. He is chosen generally by lot, from the 
 monks of the convent of St. Anthony, in the Eastern desert, 
 near the Red Sea, and his jurisdiction extends over all Egypt 
 and Abyssinia. In Nubia, the people are nearly all Moham- 
 medans. The present patriarch is said to be well learned in 
 ecclesiastical matters, particularly those relating to the con- 
 troversies and disputes, in which the East has always been 
 rife ; but in respect to general information, I am sorry to say 
 that his holiness knows no more than the bishops and clergy 
 under him. The daily habits in which he is obliged to in- 
 dulge, the listlessness, languor, idleness, and, as we should 
 esteem it, inefficiency, of his life, are such as to cause one 
 pain and deep regret, that the duties of a bishop are not bet- 
 ter understood, and more earnestly performed, in Egypt. 
 While I cannot bring myself to believe, that the informant 
 of Mr. Lane is correct, in stating that the patriarch is guilty 
 of manifest tyranny, corruption, and lust for money, and that 
 the inferior clergy are little better than robbers and wolves to 
 their flocks, and both ignorant and vicious to a lamentable 
 degree ;=^ I must confess to you, that so far as appearances 
 go, I have seen very little to impress me favorably with either 
 clergy or people. The patriarch does not much else than sit 
 and smoke, hour after hour, sleeping a portion of the day, and 
 being obliged to be awake and watch all night. Excepting 
 such duties as fall upon him, in connection with his metro- 
 politan jurisdiction, and some few of a civil character, noi^e 
 of which are to be considered onerous, he passes his time in 
 the manner to which I have alluded, going out only one day 
 in the week, and never leaving his house save when he takes 
 part in the services in church. Sermons or expositions of 
 Holy Scripture, neither he nor any one ever composes ; and 
 
 * See Lane's " Modem Eg^tiarkC' vp>. ii. ^ 351-r374, 
 
210 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 the thousand ways in which our bishops labor are unknown 
 and unimagined by the dignitaries of that Church, which 
 boasts of Athanasius as one of her great lights in other days, 
 and claims St. Mark as her founder. When I had the honor 
 of seeing the patriarch, some days ago, he received me very 
 kindly, and invited me to a place near himself, on the eleva- 
 ted diwan or raised seat, in the court of his residence. His 
 personal appearance is not prepossessing ; he is a man of per- 
 haps sixty years of age ; his face is heavy, dull, and, except 
 when lighted up by excitement, rather stupid and unmeaning ; 
 and, so far as I could gather from the conversation carried on 
 by Mr. Lieder, and occasionally made clear to me, his holi- 
 ness had no idea of America, asked no questions, and felt no 
 interest in regard to its spiritual condition ; and had confined 
 his mind to an extremely limited range of subjects. I found 
 it quite as difficult to get any information from this quarter, 
 as from any other, in regard to the number of the churches 
 and Coptic Christians in Cairo. The patriarch said that there 
 were thirty churches in and about the metropolis, but that, I 
 know from other sources, is not correct, being greatly over- 
 stated. Of the spiritual condition of this decayed branch of 
 the Church, it would have been idle to have asked particulars, 
 especially as what passed convinced me that the patriarch had 
 not thought much on that point, and probably deemed it 
 secondary to maintaining and increasing the power of the 
 Church, and going precisely through the stated routine of 
 forms and ceremonies. After a short time spent in rather 
 unsatisfactory conversation, we took our leave, with, on my 
 part, I confess, a feeling of considerable disappointment. 
 
 When in Upper Egypt, you may recollect, I sent you a 
 brief account of a visit paid to some Coptic churches, and at- 
 tempted, I fear not very successfully, to describe one to you ; 
 as I felt great interest in this corrupt branch of the Catholic 
 Church, I determined at some period to endeavor to be pres- 
 ent at the public services, and see how nearly they assimi- 
 
SERVICES OP THE COPTIC CHURCH, 
 
 21t 
 
 lated ¥4 what we know of those of the ancient Church. Un- 
 til the Sunday just past, I had found no convenient oppor- 
 tunity of attaining my desire ; but yesterday, the 18th, being 
 the Fourth Sunday in Lent, I visited the church where the 
 patriarch assists in the services, and was present during the 
 long and to me tedious performance of their established ritual: 
 I think you will not be displeased to have somewhat of a de- 
 scription of what I witnessed on this occasion. 
 
 The services commence at daybreak ; consequently, at 
 about half-past five, A.M., accompanied by an intelligent 
 young Abyssinian, who spealvs French very tolerably, I went 
 to the church. The entrance, like all which I have seen in 
 Egypt, was through a narrow, winding passage, which gives 
 one a mean idea of the edifice into which he is going. Seve- 
 ral beggars, principally women and cripples, were stationed 
 along the sides of the passage, and were very importunate 
 for alms. On entering the first compartment, I found quite 
 a number of the poorer people already assembled, and was 
 surprised to hear a loud buzzing noise of persons talking 
 throughout the church, walking to and fro, and appearing to 
 have very little reverence for the building in which they were. 
 The floor was covered with matting, and occasionally pieces 
 of carpeting ; and I noticed that every one who came in took 
 off his slippers, and, placing them sole to sole, as the Mo- 
 hammedans do in the mosks, continued barefoot during the 
 entire service. The divisions and ornaments of the interior 
 of the church, were nearly the same as I mentioned in speak 
 ing of my visit to Es-Siout. The first and second compart 
 ments were devoted to the uses of the congregation generally 
 the women being in a place by themselves, entirely disoon 
 nected with that used by the men. The church appeared tc 
 me to be nearly square, with a deep recess at the end, oppo- 
 site the entrance, containing the chancel, altar, &c-, and 
 separated from the rest of the edifice by a close partition, 
 rather handsomely inlaid with ivory, and other substanceD 
 
212 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 Various pictures — if so I may call these miserable daubs- 
 are affixed to the walls in different places, and over the chan- 
 cel partition are representations of the Saviour and the Apos- 
 tles. As in the Greek Church, pictures are allowed to any 
 extent, but images of every description are positively prohib- 
 ited. The light is admitted by some small grated windows 
 abore, about fifty feet from the floor of the church. This 
 arrangement is effected so as to give the church very much 
 the appearance of possessing a clerestory, since the height of 
 the ceiling is by no means equal, and near the sides of the 
 building is comparatively low and supported by pillars. At 
 this early hour, however, there were a great number of can- 
 dles burning, the chandelier was lighted, the large candles on 
 the altar were burning, and no dependence was placed on the 
 light derived from the windows above. During the whole 
 service, which lasted several hours, the priests, attendants, 
 readers, &c., used the small tapers, partly for symbolic pur- 
 poses, but more commonly for to throw light sufficient to read 
 by, upon the copies of the Gospels which are read on these 
 occasions. The robes of the priests who officiated in the 
 heykel or chancel, as well as those of the youthful attendants, 
 were meant to be, and probably were once handsome ; but as 
 they were now quite dirty, and very carelessly put on, they 
 appeared to me rather shabby than otherwise : the other 
 priests, who were stationed apparently without any regard to 
 order, near the chancel door or in its vicinity, were in nowise 
 to be distinguished by their dress, from the members of their 
 congregation ; neither had the patriarch anything peculiar to 
 his office, so far as his garments were concerned, which were 
 precisely the same as he had on when I saw him some days 
 ago. 
 
 As I was known to be a priest, my young Abyssinian 
 friend conducted me through the compartments to the front 
 of the chancel, and near the patriarch's chair, where, pro- 
 vided with a seat which he brought for the purpose, I could 
 
COPTIC MODE OF WORSHIP. 213 
 
 observe all that was going on. Every person, when he came 
 into the church, went first to the chancel door, prostrated 
 himself there towards the altar, and touching his lips to one 
 side of the entrance, bowed, crossed himself, and kissed the 
 hand of one or more of the priests stationed in this compart- 
 ment. After the patriarch had entered and taken his seat, 
 the same ceremonies were performed 'towards him, — a fact 
 which I was pained to learn, since, however the former might 
 be excused, as done with reference to Him whose altar they 
 were bowing before, the latter seemed to have no palliation, 
 and tended to superstition in its worst form. A part of the 
 time the congregation sat, cross-legged, on the floor, but dur- 
 ing the most of the service they were obliged to stand, and 
 then, I observed, very many of them used a crutch to support 
 themselves : it is a simple cane, about four feet and a half 
 long, and having across the top a piece of wood perhaps eight 
 inches in length. Much confusion and disorder prevail in 
 the church, and I can well believe that it is, as Mr. Lane 
 asserts, often the case that great indecorum, and even pro- 
 fanity, may be seen and heard in the patriarchal church in 
 Cairo : there is constant moving about of persons, particularly 
 boys and the church attendants ; often some one will cry out 
 quite loud, in angry and irreverent tones, and I several times 
 heard one or two of the priests give directions in a style and 
 manner exceedingly unsuited to the house of God. 
 
 Notwithstanding "-he fact that the Coptic is a dead lan- 
 guage, and not understood by either priests or people, the 
 major part of the service is performed in it, particularly the 
 Communion service ; as respects the Gospels and Homilies 
 which are read in the church, after the reader has gone over 
 them in Coptic, another person, standing in the doorway of 
 the compartment before the chancel, reads or chants the les- 
 sons or explanations in Arabic, the vernacular tongue of the 
 people at the present day. There is a good deal of this mo- 
 notonous chanting, and some loud singing and beating of 
 
214 
 
 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 cymbals, and occasionally a procession of one or more priests 
 and attendants through the church, carrying a censer, and 
 putting the hand of blessing upon the heads of the congrega- 
 tion. When the patriarch entered, which was about half- 
 past six o'clock, he was preceded by several persons, one 
 bearing a large torch composed of three lights, and another 
 carrying his staff, which was — rather singularly, as it ap- 
 peared to me — Moses's rod, and not the pastoral staff of the 
 episcopal office. In his hand he held a small Greek cross of 
 gold, with which he made the sign of the cross over those 
 who prostrated themselves before him, and which he held out 
 to the priests and others to kiss on these occasions. As a 
 great part of the service was unintelligible to me, being in 
 Coptic and Arabic, I am not able to give any account of its 
 character, furtlier than to state, that it appeared to me to 
 have much repetition, and, as in Romish churches, to be in 
 great measure a dead letter ; few seemed to be in any wise 
 affected by solemn feelings, or to derive any fresh incitement 
 to leave off sin, and follow hard after righteousness. Many 
 used their beads, just as the Mohammedans and Romanists 
 do, and fairly gabbled over the same words for fifty or a 
 hundred times, with the utmost speed, and very little atten- 
 tion to their meaning. The acolyths, and attendants, went 
 through with their duties as unceremoniously as possible, and 
 behaved generally in quite an unseemly manner. 
 
 During the Communion service, as a special favor, I was 
 admitted within the chancel recess, and had an opportunity 
 to witness the consecration of the elements, and the mode of 
 administering the Lord's Supper. The bread, which is in 
 the shape of a round cake, about three quarters of an inch 
 thick, and about three inches in diameter, is placed on a 
 gilded or gold dish, which has a napkin laid across the bot- 
 tom : the wine is contained in a cup or vessel placed in the 
 top of a small cabinet, made of wood, about ten inches broad 
 oy fifteen high, and the priest, who had a number of napkins 
 
THE COMMUNION SERVICE IN COPTIC. 215 
 
 of different colors laid near each hand, standing in front of 
 the altar, with his back to the people, went through a very 
 long consecration service in Coptic, frequently bowing and 
 prostrating himself, and not venturing to touch the bread 
 with his hands, except in one or two instances. I could not 
 see that the wine was included in the service of consecration, 
 for nearly all the time of the priest was spent over the bread, 
 and once or twice he dipped it in the vessel of wine, which 
 remained in its receptacle. During this long service, the 
 priest rested a few times, but was not allowed to sit down, 
 and in the interval, several bells were rung, and cymbals 
 struck, together with a loud monotonous chant kept up, 
 which indeed is the custom throughout the entire Sunday 
 services. There were several boys of different ages who 
 assisted the priest in various ways, but principally by hold- 
 ing lighted tapers near the place where the elements were, 
 and occasionally by chanting, in a high key, some sentences 
 in Coptic, the only language allowed in the chancel. 1 was 
 sorry to observe a great deal of noise and great want of rev- 
 erence in these boys, who appeared to have no regard what- 
 ever to the sacred ness of the matters in which they were 
 engaged. I was still more grieved, and almost shocked, to 
 see and hear the priest — a hard-featured, and not pleasant- 
 looking man — scold and threaten the boys, who now and 
 then annoyed him, in words and tones which were disgrace- 
 ful at such time and in such place. The mode of adminis- 
 tering the consecrated elements was peculiar : the priest first 
 broke the cake into a number of small pieces, dipped them 
 one at a time in the wine, and began by putting a piece into 
 the mouth of a very little boy, with a taper in his hand, and 
 then into the mouths of the other boy-attendants ; he after- 
 wards went out into the church, and administered in the 
 same manner to the congregation. 
 
 Shortly afterward, and just before the people were dismiss- 
 ed, I took my leave, having been in the church rather more 
 
216 
 
 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 than four hours, and being very much fatigued with the length 
 and monotony of the services. I will confess to you that I 
 was disappointed with what I saw and heard, and am not 
 able to express any very great hopes of the increase of pure 
 religion among the Copts, while their public services are so 
 apparently inoperative and listened to and joined in so much 
 as a mere matter of form. But I express this opinion with 
 no particular confidence, since I do not esteem myself suffi- 
 ciently acquainted with the people and their actual condition, 
 to judge accurately. Perhaps time, and the influence of the 
 labors of missionaries among them, may produce all that we 
 could hope or desire.* 
 
 Having spoken above of the Coptic patriarch, a person of 
 some note in the East, you will perhaps allow me to say a 
 word or two of some other residents of Cairo, who occupy po- 
 sitions of no little importance in public estimation. The old 
 pasha, Mohammed Ali, I have seen a number of times, rid- 
 ing past our hotel and through some of the streets which are 
 wide enough to admit of the passage of carriages : he is evi- 
 dently in his dotage, takes but little notice of things in gene- 
 
 ♦ It may not be unacceptable here to quote Mr. Lane's estimate of the popu- 
 lation of Egypt in general, among which are included the various bodies of 
 Christians. His view is that the whole amount of population is " less than 
 2,000,000." 
 » Muslim Egyptians (fellahin and towns-people) . 1,750,000 
 
 Christian " (Copts) 150,000 
 
 Osmanlis, or Turks 10,000 
 
 Syrians . 5,000 
 
 Greeks . 5,000 
 
 Armenians 2,000 
 
 Jews 5,000 
 
 Western Arabs, Nubians, Negroes, Franks, &c., (about) 70,000 
 
 In Cairo he estimates the Mohammedans, about 190,000 ; the Copts, about 
 10,000 ; the Jews, 3000 or 4000 ; strangers from various countries, about 36,000. 
 In the times of the Pharaohs, Egypt appears to have had a population of about 
 7,000,000 ; and Mr. Lane is of opinion that the country could readily yield 
 enough, under proper care and cultivation, to support 8,000,000 inhabitants. — 
 See " Modem Egyptians," vol. i. pp. 30, 31. 
 
MOHAMMED ALI AND HIS FAMILY. 217 
 
 ral, and is as capricious as a spoiled child : his attendants and 
 suite go with him wherever his fancy may suggest, and hardly 
 a day passes without their being on the move to and fro, be- 
 tween the palaces and other places of resort. The old man's 
 energy is all gone and he knows nothing of what is going on, 
 and takes no interest in those matters to which his whole life 
 of ambition has been devoted. I shall not here pretend to 
 enlarge upon his career, or that of his step-son Ibrahim Pasha ; 
 tyrants they were both, undoubtedly, according to our view 
 of the correlative duties of ruler and subject ; and many are 
 the acts of treachery, wrong and outrage, recorded on the 
 page of history against them ; but if we judge them by the 
 standard of the country and people over which they ruled, 
 we shall find occasion to mitigate very much the severe cen- 
 sure which rightly attaches to a large part of their public and 
 private acts ; and if we consider how much real advantage 
 has resulted to Christians and strangers from the desire Mo- 
 hammed Ali had of cultivating European customs and intro- 
 ducing European improvements into Egypt, we shall be dis- 
 posed to rejoice at the good which has sprung out of evil and 
 too often corrupt motives. Much, very much has already 
 been written by both French and English authors, respecting 
 these two remarkable men ; and I am well convinced that 
 you can spare any lucubrations of mine on the subject. 
 Abbas Pasha, however, the present ruler of Egypt, may be 
 thought worthy of a sentence or two. He is the son of 
 Toosoom Pasha, the eldest and favorite son of Mohammed 
 Ali ; and a short time ago he went to Constantinople to be 
 invested by the Sultan with the pashalic of Egypt. There, 
 it appears, they had discovered and understood what he is, 
 and though treated with a great deal of outward attention, he 
 was in reality shabbily used, and obliged to put up with things 
 that would have roused all the ire of his grandfather. His 
 character may be summed up in few words ; he is a mix- 
 ture of the bigot, fool and debauchee : he has none of the 
 
 10 
 
218 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LANDf,f^T 
 
 talent of his grandfather, and all the concentrated dislike and 
 ignorance of foreigners which belong to the most fanatical of 
 his countrymen. His career, thus far, has been short and 
 inglorious, and his measures — if they may be dignified with 
 the name — have done him no credit, and involved him in dis- 
 putes with the representatives of nearly every foreign power 
 resident at his court. That he has his good points I should be 
 the last to deny, and some steps which he took with reference 
 to certain aged but disgraced public men under the former 
 pasha, have given evidence of capabilities for better things ; 
 but alas, there is no dependence to be placed upon such 
 trifles, light as air, when the general tenor of his life and 
 principles is corrupt, unjust and unworthy his elevated posi- 
 tion. How true are the prophetic words, and how often have 
 they recurred to my mind since I have been in Egypt, — '' it 
 shall be the basest of kingdoms ;"=^ it shall sink low and be- 
 come mean and degraded, and shall no more have a prince of 
 its own to rule over it: " which," as says a learned divine, 
 " hath accordingly come to pass ; for not long after the expi- 
 ration of the said forty years (Ezek. xxix. 13), the Egyptians 
 yvere made a province of the Persian empire, they became 
 subject to the Macedonians, and after them to the Romans, 
 and after the Romans to the Saracens, and then to the Mam- 
 elukes, and are now a province of the Turkish empire."t 
 
 Speaking of Abbas Pasha, recalls to my recollection the 
 events of Saturday last, the 17th instant, when the newly 
 appointed American consul-general, Mr. Macauley, was form- 
 ally presented in his official character, to his highness, the 
 Pasha. It was a beautiful day, and the scene from the win- 
 dows of the " Hotel d 'Orient," where Mr. M. is at present, 
 was unique and striking. About ten o'clock, there had ar- 
 rived a half-battalion of troops, sent as an escort, who paraded 
 in front of the hotel in very creditable style, and had a band 
 
 ♦ Ezek. xxix. 15; see xxx. 13. 
 
 t Prideaux's " Oldand New Testament Connected," vol. i. p. 110, Am. Ed. 1836» 
 
PR]p;SEN:rA.TION OF MR. MACAULEY. 219 
 
 of music which would not disgrace the martial arrangements 
 of any country. The costume of the troops is peculiar, but 
 not unhandsome ; the red tarbush, the white cotton dress, 
 the red slippers, the dark-brown skins of the soldiers, and 
 their neat accoutrements in general, formed rather marked 
 points in the view : and when, besides, the eye glanced over 
 the motley group of lookers-on, of all classes and descriptions, 
 With the Esbekiyeh behind, serving as an apt relief to the 
 foreground, it was impossible not to be interested in, and 
 pleased with, this panoramic illustration of oriental life and 
 manners. Mr. Maoauley was desirous of making the pre- 
 sentation as imposing as possible, and for this purpose had 
 invited Captain Gwynne and the officers of the U. S. frigate 
 Constitution, lying at Alexandria, as well as all the Ameri- 
 cans in Cairo, to be present and go in procession to the Citadel. 
 Quite a goodly number assembled : the consuls of other pow- 
 ers paid Mr. M. their respects, the troops took up the line of 
 march, and the consul-general and his countrymen, in car- 
 riages, followed slowly on. This was about eleven o'clock ; 
 but so crowded was the Mooskee, the main thoroughfare, and 
 so much curiosity was there manifested to get sight of the 
 strangers, that it took us more than an hour to reach the 
 Citadel: occasionally, too, on the road, some bright eyes and 
 pretty faces would be seen from the half open harim windows, 
 their curiosity getting the better of their prudence. On ar- 
 riving at the palace, there was a strange scene of confusion, 
 crowding and jostling, to get into the reception room, and for 
 a time, I was not sure but that the consul-general and his 
 countrymen would be completely excluded from the presence 
 of the Pasha. By pushing and knocking about for a while, 
 however, we all succeeded in getting in. The room is large, 
 of oblong shape, has a beautifully painted ceiling, and high 
 diwans upon three sides. In the centre of the diwan, oppo. 
 site the entrance, was perched a short, obese figure, with not 
 a bad, though rather brutified face, and apparently about 
 
220 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 thirty-five years old. As I looked at him, I felt that it would 
 be a sorry matter to be within his power, if one should have 
 happened to come across his path of lust and sensuality. Mr. 
 Macauley was conducted to the right of the Pasha, who got 
 down from his seat, and made an awkward sort of bow on his 
 entrance. Both the Pasha and all present remained standing 
 while he received the firman of the Sultan, touched it with 
 his lips, raised it reverentially to his forehead, and then handed 
 it over to an attendant officer. Mr. Todd, the consul, Capt. 
 Gwynne, and others of less note, occupied positions near Mr. 
 Macauley, on the same side : poor I got off on the left, among 
 a number of persons as insignificant and unnoticed as myself. 
 Immediately after we were seated, a number of eunuchs and 
 slaves, dressed, for a wonder, in coats and pantaloons, brought 
 in pipes with jewelled mouth-pieces, and coffee, presenting 
 the Pasha with his, on bended knee. The honor of a pipe 
 and cup of coffee, however, was confined to a few, even, of 
 the dignitaries present, which I thought rather queer hospi- 
 tality. Mr. Macauley made a short speech in French, which 
 was translated to the Pasha by his interpreter, a fine-looking 
 fellow. Abbas succeeded in getting out a compliment or two ; 
 but anything like the tact and skill of Mohammed Ali, la 
 conversation, was too deep for him. So, after a rather ridic- 
 ulous silence, for some little time, he sent for the present he 
 intended to bestow on the consul-general. It was a handsome 
 sword or sabre, whict was put on Mr. M., in presence of the 
 Pasha ; and, together with the horse outside, was bestowed 
 on the representative of America, in a pretty little speech, 
 made by the interpreter. Another half French bow was 
 graciously given to Mr. M. and party, after which we t^ook 
 our leave, partly vexed, but more inclined to be amused, at 
 the way in which the thing had gone off. Altogether, it was 
 an insipid affair, and did not tend to raise Abbas Pasha in 
 our estimation. Nor do I think that he would have felt 
 particularly complaisant to our countrymen and others, could 
 
ESQ., AND FAMILY. 221 
 
 he have heard the free, and not altogether complimentary re- 
 marks which were made about him, at Mr. Macauley's levee, 
 that afternoon. However, let me not condemn him without 
 reserve : he is but an agent in the hands of greater men, 
 whose thoughts are turned towards Egypt, and who, when 
 the time comes, will sweep him away, and all that belongs 
 to him, without a moment's hesitation. The Christian man, 
 too, cannot doubt, that both he, and they who use him, are 
 only instruments in the hands of God, for carrying out His 
 designs with reference to the East, as well as the West : and 
 if I may venture to speak of what is yet future, I may ex- 
 press the decided conviction, that the day is fast approaching 
 when Mohammedanism will sink into nothingness, and pass 
 away, and the Gospel of Christ will resume its supremacy 
 over those fair and fertile regions, so long groaning under the 
 yoke of heresy and schism, and the foul imposture of Mo- 
 hammed. May it soon be, '' that the Word of the Lord may 
 have free course, and be glorified."*" 
 
 It would be unjust in a high degree, and wholly contrary 
 to my own feelings, not to speak of one whom I am proud 
 to have the honor of knowing, and who is no less distin- 
 guished as an author and profound orientalist, than a man 
 of liberal, large mind and heart. You know, my dear S., 
 my tastes and habits, and you can well understand what 
 pleasure it was to me to visit and spend many an hour at 
 the house of Mr. Lane, where I enjoyed the delights of social 
 and literary intercourse in their fullest extent. Rarely have 
 I met with a learned man so interesting and so attractive, 
 so full of matter, and so wholly free from pedantry and as- 
 sumption ; and were it allowed to speak of those things 
 which I know and feel, but which belong rather to the sa- 
 credness of private intercourse, I might tell you much of the 
 increased pleasure afforded me by having become acquainted 
 with Mrs. Lane, Mrs. Poole, (Mr. Lane's sister, and author 
 * 2 Thess. iii. 1. 
 
222 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 of the " Englishwoman in Egypt,") and her two sons, noble 
 and interesting youths as they are. But I will not presume 
 to enlarge upon a point like this ; it may suffice to mention, 
 in this place, that Mr. Lane's great work, the Arabic and 
 English Lexicon, is still unfinished, and it will be probably 
 two years before it can be looked for from the press. His 
 nephew, Mr. Reginald Stuart Poole, bids fair to be among 
 the first Egyptologers of the present age, a fact which I am 
 the more gratified at communicating from knowing, as I do, 
 his conscientious and firm convictions of the truth and Divine 
 authority of Holy Scripture. May all under that roof be 
 long spared to discharge rightly the high and holy duties of 
 their rank and calling ! 
 
 And now, my dear S., the hour of our departure from 
 Cairo draws nigh. We have looked, for the last time, upon 
 many of the scenes of which I have so feebly spoken in for- 
 mer letters ; we have made all our arrangements, got our 
 camels and our multifarious luggage in readiness, bade 
 adieu to our friends, and to-morrow, if God will, we set out 
 for the Holy Land. As, on this last evening of our stay in 
 Cairo, I look back upon what we have seen, and call to mind 
 what we have thought, I cannot but recollect good old Ful- 
 ler's energetic and wise words : " The sins of the Eastern 
 countries, and chiefly their damnable heresies, hastened God's 
 judgments upon them. In these Western parts, heresies, 
 like an angle, caught single persons, which in Asia, like a 
 drag-net, took whole provinces."=^ I feel, too, that there is 
 not much hope at present for Egypt, so far as our eye can 
 see into the dim, unknown future. " There is a gleam in 
 the sky, as if the light of civilization were about to rise, but, 
 like the false dawn in India, it will fade away, and deeper 
 darkness will succeed. Yet the true dawn will come at last, 
 and brighten into perfect day ; and then, and not till then, 
 will Egypt, Christian Egypt, rise from the dust, and resume 
 
EGYPT PAST AND PRESENT. 223 
 
 her seat among the nations."* As she is now, I know not 
 more apt and fitting words to tell her story in, than those of 
 that quiet but deep thinker, Sir Thomas Browne, in whose 
 quaint but striking language let me say farewell to the land 
 of the Pharaohs : — " Of their living habitations they made 
 little account, conceiving of them but as hospitia^ or inns, 
 while thfty adorned the sepulchres of the dead, and planting 
 thereon lasting bases, defied the crumbling touches of time, 
 and the misty vaporousness of oblivion. Yet all were but 
 Babel vanities ! Time sadly overcometh all things, and is 
 now dominant, and sitteth on a Sphinx, and looketh upon 
 Memphis and old Thebes ; while his sister. Oblivion, reclin- 
 eth demi-somnous on a pyramid, gloriously triumphing, mak- 
 ing puzzles of Titanian erections, and turning old glories into 
 dreams. History sinketh beneath her cloud. The traveller, 
 as he paceth amazedly through those deserts, asketh of her, 
 who builded them ? and she mumbleth something, but what 
 it is he heareth not. Egypt itself is now become the land of 
 obliviousness, and doteth. Her ancient civility is gone, and 
 her glory hath vanished as a phantasma. Her vouthful days 
 are over, and her face hath become wrinkled and tetrick. 
 She poreth not upon the Heavens ; Astronomy is dead unto 
 her, and Knowledge maketh othsr Cycles. Canopus is afar 
 off, Memnon resoundeth not to the sun, and Nilus heareth 
 strange voices. Her monuments are but hierogl> phically 
 sempiternal. Osiris and Anubis, her averruncous deities, 
 have departed, while Orus yet remains, dimly shadowing tit« 
 principle of vicissitude and the effluxion of things, but receL 
 eth little oblation."t 
 
 ♦ Lord Lindsay's " Letters on Egypt," &c. p. 34. 
 
 f '* Works of Sir Thomas Browne,'^ vol. iv. p. 276. — London, ■1846« 
 
EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 •* Thy holy cities are a wilderness, 
 Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. 
 Our holy and our beautiful house, 
 Where our fathers praised thee, 
 Is burned up with fire ; 
 And all our pleasant things are laid waste." 
 
 " Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen." 
 
 " Egypt shall be a desolation, 
 And Edom shall be a desolate wilderness. 
 For the violence against the children of Judah, 
 Because they have shed innocent blood in their land. 
 But Judah shall dwell forever, 
 And Jerusalem from generation to generation." 
 
 " They shall call thee, The City of the Lord, 
 The Zion of the Holy One of Israel. 
 Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, 
 So that no man went through thee, 
 I will make thee an eternal excellency, 
 A joy of many generations." 
 
 " The Lord shall inherit Judah his portion in the Holy Land, 
 And shall choose Jerusalem again." 
 
 Isaiah liiv. 10 ; iii. 8 ; Joel iii. 19, 20 ; Is. Ix. 15 ; Zech. li. 12. 
 
.07 A J YJOH aHT aU WTOa 
 
 
 'jiaiffil ftt dAbuti boat ^t&aiat «i fna! 
 
 
 .TI 9 fit n' 
 
■VIA T^YOa 
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 arte in t!)e 3ie«ert. 
 
 DeligLis ofaLazaretto.— Our Original Plan determined on.— The Short Route.— Number of 
 our Party.— The Camel.— How arranged for Riding.— Peculiarities of thi3 Sort of Locomo- 
 tion. — Its Pleasures and Pains, — A Day's Scenes and Occurrences described. — The Punish- 
 ment of the Rebellious Jews.— What is Seen and Felt in the Desert. — Our Route by El 
 - Arish.— Land of Goshen.— Locusts.— El Kanka, Tel Jehudieh, Belbeis, Salahieh, &.c. — 
 . Arrival at El Arish.— Enter Asia.— Route to Gaza.— Quarantine.— The Town or City.— No 
 Opportunity to Visit it. — Vexatious Loss of Time. 
 
 Gaza, Lazaretto, April 2d, 1849. 
 My Dear S., 
 
 The annoying, and in some respects, absurd quarantine 
 regulations of various parts of the Ottoman empire, having 
 put a stop to our travels for nearly a week past, I embrace 
 the opportunity thus afforded of giving you some account of 
 what has transpired since I last addressed you from the me- 
 tropolis of Egypt. I say nothing of the delights of a laza- 
 retto, where you have the chance not only of catching the 
 plague or any other disease which may be on hand,^ but are 
 exposed to the fierce assaults of armies of flies, mosquitoes, 
 fleas, and other vermin not named in polite society, and are 
 stopped without reason and put to expense without compunc- 
 tion, though Egypt is perfectly healthy, and we all are as 
 well as men can be, after the fatigues of crossing the desert. 
 Of these things poets have sung and eloquent writers have 
 discoursed : I being neither the one nor the other, shall leave 
 
 ♦ ■' * "Quarantine has been justly defined 'imprisonment,' with the chance <xf 
 l^atching the plague." — " Hand Book/or Egypt," Introd. p. xxiii. " i^ 
 
228 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 them here unrelated, as I cannot speak of them with any 
 patience, and am too keBnly sensible of the annoyances here 
 suffered, to dwell upon them a moment longer than I can 
 help. You can imagine all that I might say, though it 
 would be less than the reality, and has deprived us of the 
 inestimable privilege of spending the entire Holy Week in the 
 Holy City. Were it not that no power can prevent my writing 
 to you, my dear S., I should feel disposed to anathematize 
 the very name of quarantine for the rest of my life ; but as 
 it is, I shall try to forget some of our troubles in telling you 
 of our wanderings during the past twelve or thirteen days. 
 
 Originally, it formed a part of our plan to enter Syria at 
 another point, after visiting Mount Sinai and other localities 
 connected with the history of the Jews. I felt a deep inter- 
 est in the questions which have been so ably discussed in 
 some recent publications, respecting the passage of the Red 
 Sea and the true Mount Sinai ; and I was desirous of inves- 
 tigating on the spot, several points, which appear to me to 
 settle the matter, so far as Jebel Mousa is concerned, and to 
 verify the very ancient tradition in favor of the mountain, 
 which is generally thought to be that on which the Lord God 
 descended and held converse with His servant Moses. But, 
 mush to my regret, circumstances prevented our taking this 
 route, and we determined upon crossing the desert by way 
 of El Arish : this route has the advantage of being much 
 shorter and of course less fatiguing than that by way of 
 Mount Sinai; and if I may judge by my experience often 
 days' steady riding on a camel, gives one quite as much as he 
 desires of life in the desert. 
 
 Our rather extensive preparations having been completed, 
 we left Cairo on the afternoon of March 20th, and proceed- 
 ing as far as Matarieh, the ancient Heliopolis or On of the 
 Scriptures, we halted for the night, and were the next day 
 joined by the Rev. Dr. Wainwright and Mr. R. B. Minturn, 
 of New York, with whom it has been our privilege to travel 
 
PREPARATION FOR THE DESERT. 229 
 
 across the desert. We had nine camels, five of which were 
 used for luggage and the multifarious provision necessary for 
 a journey of this kind ; our friends and fellow-pilgrims had 
 eight, and were provided in much the same manner with our- 
 selves, with dragoman, cook, tent, canteens, &c. Beside 
 our own forces, we had a volunteer who kept us company 
 with his dromedary, and at night numbers of pilgrims, from 
 India by way of Mecca, took up their quarters in our vicinity, 
 feeling a degree of safety in being near to Franks in the 
 desert. All together, we numbered four gentlemen, two 
 dragomans, two cooks, eight Arabs and a boy to lead and at- 
 tend to the camels ; and as you may suppose, we presented a 
 rather imposing and formidable appearance, as our long train 
 wound its devious way through the waste and dreary wilder- 
 ness of Shur. As desert life has some points of interest as 
 well as novelty, I presume you will like to have such idea 
 as I may be able to give of it in brief compass, and also, to 
 know something of the route by which we have entered the 
 Holy Land. 
 
 The most striking feature in this sort of life, is certainly 
 the peculiar mode of travelling which one has to undergo on 
 a camel's back. This animal, which seems to have been fitted 
 in every respect by nature for the uses to which it is applied, 
 is variously esteemed by different persons. Some speak of 
 its '' gentle and womanish ways" and the love which the trav- 
 eller soon learns to feel for its companionship ; others term it 
 a heavy, stupid creature, constantly complaining, and possess- 
 ing no sensibility or emotions of any sort worth noticing ;* 
 
 * Kinglake, the author of" Eothen," with more of fancy than truth, speaks 
 in this style of this invaluable animal in the desert : " The camel kneels to re- 
 ceive her load, and for a while she will allow the packing to go on with silent 
 resignation, but when she begins to suspect that her master is putting more 
 than a just burthen upon her poor hump, she turns round her supple neck, and 
 looks sadly upon the increasing load, and then gently remonstrates against the 
 wrong with the sigh of a patient wife ; if sighs will not move you, she can 
 weep; you soon learn to pity, and soon to love her, for the sake of her gentle 
 and womanish ways." (P. 136.) Dr. Robinson talks in a much more practical 
 
230 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 many are fatigued excessively with the motion so unlike any- 
 thing else in the world ; and many, finding it very much 
 easier than they expected, are delighted with it from its nov- 
 elty, and break forth into praises of the camel and camel rid- 
 ing. For myself, I must say that I had anticipated great 
 hardship, much greater than experience warranted. I had 
 often in Cairo, and various parts of Egypt, looked with special 
 interest upon the trains of camels which I had seen, and had 
 endeavored to get as good an idea as I could of the effect which 
 their rather awkward gait was likely to produce upon per- 
 sons like myself not very well fitted for undergoing great fa- 
 tigue ; but it was not till I had actually mounted and had 
 tried several days' travel, that I understood what a camel is, 
 and what a serious undertaking it is for an invalid to get 
 upon his back with a long journey before him. In general, I 
 have found it very hard work, but as I did not suffer in the 
 way that I had anticipated or to the extent to which I had 
 been led to suppose, I cannot in justice speak of it as either 
 unendurable, or on the whole unpleasant. 
 
 The Arabian camel, as you know, has a large hump upon 
 his back,* which would seem to forbid the idea of attempting 
 to mount him. To obviate this difficulty, a large pack saddle 
 of straw is fitted on his back, so as to raise his sides, so to 
 speak, to the level of his hump : on top of this saddle a wood- 
 en frame-work is placed, by means of which, loads of mer- 
 
 manner, and, according to my experience, much more veraciously. The camel 
 is "commonly represented as patient; but if so, it is the patience of stupidity. 
 They are rather exceedingly impatient, and utter loud cries of indignation when 
 receiving their loads, and not seldom, on being made to kneel down. They are 
 
 also obstinate, and frequently vicious At all times, the camel eats and 
 
 drinks little, and secretes little ; he is a cold-blooded, heavy, sullen animal 
 
 having little feeling, and little susceptibility for pain There is nothing 
 
 graceful or sprightly in any camel, old or young ; all is misshapen, ungainly, 
 and awkward."—'- Biblical Researches,'' vol. ii. pp. 633, 634. 
 
 * The Bactrian species has two hunches or humps, one on the shoulders, and 
 the other on the croup. His height is said to be considerably greater than that 
 of the Arabian camel. 
 
CAMEL RIDING IN GENERAL.^ 231 
 
 chandise are secured upon the camel, or heavy panniers are 
 hung upon its sides. The arrangement for riding is a little 
 different ; the wooden frame has two short, round pieces of 
 wood, reaching up in front about eight inches asnd the same 
 in the rear, making a surface or saddle for the rider about two 
 feet in length between these short posts : here are placed cush- 
 ions, or something of the sort, on which the traveller sits, and 
 the pieces of wood, both before and behind, prevent his sliding 
 backwards or forwards, and often save him from falling off of 
 the camel's back. 1 may mention here, that the animals 
 trained for riding are usually termed dromedaries, but are in 
 no other respect distinguishable from the ordinary camels. 
 Well, then, the dromedary having been properly fitted for 
 your use, you make your first essay in mounting. Unlike a 
 horse, as well in beauty as in speed and intelligence, the 
 camel stands too high to be mounted by means of stirrups ; 
 consequently, it is compelled to kneel and bring its huge 
 body nearer your own level before you can get upon its back. 
 The driver standing at its head, makes a singular clicking 
 or gurgling sound in his throat, which the animal under- 
 stands, and after a few moments and some growls of discon- 
 tent, falls upon the knees of its fore legs, then bends its hind 
 legs partly under its body, and finishes by stretching out its 
 fore legs upon the ground, and remaining thus, its belly touch- 
 ing the sand, as long as may be wanted. In this position it 
 is easy to mount, and being fairly astride, the camel gets up 
 again. It first raises its hind legs, and then scrambles up on 
 its fore legs. The effect of this, as you perceive, is to give 
 you a sudden pitch forwards and almost as sudden a pitch 
 back again to a level position : unless you are very careful 
 and have got perfectly secure on your seat, you are almost 
 certain to be thrown over the camel's head (as I was on one 
 occasion) which is no trifling matter, I can assure you. In 
 general, persons ride without stirrups, but we thought that 
 they would prove serviceable in resting our legs, which, other- 
 
232 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 wise, would be dangling all day without any relief. Con- 
 sequently, we had these useful articles attached to the fore 
 part of our wooden saddle, and found them very excellent for 
 the purpose intended. At first you are apt to feel that your 
 position is rather too elevated for comfort, and it is not to be 
 wondered at if you look somewhat anxiously at the height 
 from the ground, and think very seriously of the chances of 
 a broken head, or neck, it may be, in case you are pitched 
 off unawares. But a little experience reconciles you entirely 
 to this arrangement, and when you have spent a hot day ia 
 the desert, where on the sand the heat is intolerable, but on 
 the camel's back there is usually a nice and free cir<}ulation 
 of air, you feel the value of a lofty elevation like this, and 
 are glad, at any price, to purchase some exemption from the 
 power of the burning sun. All being ready, the camel- 
 driver leads the dromedary forward, and you immediately 
 find that the motion produced by its long strides and peculiar 
 gait, is by far the most singular of anything you have ever 
 experienced. Now you pitch forward, now backward, now 
 sideways, and now you have a movement consisting of a mix- 
 ture of all three. For a while you are in great terror of 
 falling off, and grasp the pommels, if so I may term them, 
 of the wooden saddle with desperate earnestness; and if 
 your head is not good or you are easily affected with nausea, 
 you may feel something of what is commonly called sea-sick- 
 ness : ladies, I have been told, not unfrequently suffer in 
 this way. But si::pposing that you escape this mishap, you 
 are some little time before you dare look around you, or try 
 to enjoy the novel scene. You still feel suspicious ; you are 
 uneasy at the growling and unpleasant noises of the camels ; 
 you do not yet understand the habits of the animal, and you 
 suspect that some dreadful accident will most certainly occur 
 before you are through with the matter. By and by, too, 
 your back begins to ache, and you find this perpetual see-saw 
 sort of motion, which is not discontinued for a moment, so 
 
ITS PLEASURES AND PAINS. 233 
 
 unnatural and so hard upon the muscles of that part of the 
 body, that you are soon fatigued and soon convinced that you 
 can never endure it for any great length of time. And when 
 towards evening you dismount, running the same risk of a 
 fall as when you went through the operation of getting upon 
 your camel's back, you ache all over so badly, your limbs are 
 so stiff, and you are so completely fagged out, that you are 
 ready to lie down almost in despair, and groan bitterly over 
 the prospect before you. 
 
 This is usually the first day's experience : on the second, 
 yoQ find camel riding more tolerable ; on the third, you be- 
 come quite reconciled to it ; and subsequently, when you are 
 entirely at home in your place, riding in any one of a half- 
 dozen different positions which you may choose, forwards, 
 backwards, sideways, cross-legged, and so on, and are so 
 much at ease as to read comfortably, and even make notes 
 as you go along, you get rather to like this kind of locomo- 
 tion, and actually find that you can go through more on the 
 back of a camel than on horseback ; you are convinced, too, 
 that for a long journey, the former is preferable to the latter 
 in many respects, and has advantages which cannot be at- 
 tained in any other way. I do not mean, in speaking thus, 
 to conceal from you the fact that I found it a tedious and 
 wearisome thing thus to ride day after day, at so slow a 
 rate. I will confess to you that I suffered not only from the 
 ordinary discomforts of this sort of travelling, but was very 
 much troubled with pain in my side, sometimes in one, some- 
 times the other. I was but little satisfied to go at a pace of 
 between two and two and a half miles per hour, which is the 
 usual rate of a camel's walk ; and I felt the want of that 
 pleasurable excitement which generally attends other and 
 more common modes of travel. Hence, while the other gen- 
 tlemen in our expedition, experienced much enjoyment in rid- 
 ing on camels, I am obliged in candor to say, that, so far as 
 I was concerned, I was not at all sorry when it was over, 
 
234 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 at least for the present, and shall not care particularly, ever 
 again to resume this primitive mode of travelling. 
 
 I do not think I am wrong in terming this the most strik- 
 ing feature in life, in thje desert ; yet you must not suppose 
 that there are not other and many curious things con- 
 nected with an entire abstraction from the world and its so- 
 cial privileges, and a manner of living not very unlike that 
 in which, we doubt not, the patriarchs of old passed their 
 long and peaceful days. To illustrate what I would say, let 
 me endeavor to describe to you the events of a day or two 
 spent in the desert. 
 
 oifWe rose usually at day-break, so as to secure an early 
 sVart in the pleasantest part of the day. Our toilet was very 
 simple, it being enough if we could get our hands and faces 
 clean ; our breakfast was equally simple and soon dispatched. 
 Next came the packing up ; the tent was struck, the camels 
 were made to kneel down and receive their loads, our drome- 
 daries were arranged for riding, and in the course of an hour 
 and a half, we took up our line of march. Under no cir- 
 cumstances could we manage to save time here, where it 
 was so important, for hurry as much as we chose, there were 
 just so many camels to load, and just so much to do, and we 
 found that it always took about the same amount of time to 
 accomplish all this in ; consequently seven, or a little before, 
 was our usual hour of starting. For a while, the tempera- 
 ture was very delightful, and the bright sun, shining in all his 
 glory, gave something of an air of animation even to the des- 
 ert : but towards noon, and during the middle hours of the 
 day, the heat became at times well nigh unbearable ; and had 
 it not been that almost always we had plenty of wind in our 
 elevated positions on our dromedaries, I fear that besides hav- 
 ing my face and hands burnt black, I, at least, should have 
 suffered much more serious injury from exposure to the 
 scorching rays of an African sun at this period of the year. 
 Bat we did not stop on account of the heat, nor fortunately 
 
TRAVELLING IN THE DESERT. 235 
 
 were we impeded by any storms or any mishap of any kind : 
 on we travelled, slowly, it is true, but steadily, not making 
 much, but always doing something, our faces set towards the 
 East, and our thoughts and hearts intent upon reaching the 
 Holy City in time for the holy season which precedes the great 
 and glorious festival of Easter, At one time, our way was 
 through the soft deep sand, into which our poor beasts would 
 sink over the hoofs and labor exceedingly in getting onwards ; 
 at another, we came upon some level tracts, where the salt 
 water had lain, but being dried up, there was now presented 
 a curious appearance as the salt lay like scattered snow or 
 ice upon the surface of the ground ; sometimes the surface 
 of the desert was nearly a plain, covered with only here and 
 there some prickly shrubs, clumps of bushes, stunted grass, 
 &o., but, more generally, we met with low hills and valleys, 
 and more variety and unevenness of ground than I had been led 
 to expect. For miles and miles, on our right hand and on 
 our left, we beheld vast, broad hills and mounds of fine, light, 
 yellowish sand, which had drifted from one place to another 
 just like snow drifts, and at every high wind, kept changing 
 more or less its position ; and we could not but be struck 
 with the desolate and disheartening look which such a scene 
 presented to our eyes. The life and beauty which, the culti- 
 vated and fruitful regions of the earth offer to the admi- 
 ration and gratitude of the beholder, are here extinct; and 
 the spirit of man sinks within him, as he contemplates a 
 prospect so terrible, were there no hope of escape from it, and 
 so fearful, were he condemned to pass in such a spot the re- 
 mainder of his days. As I gazed upon the desolate wilder- 
 ness — the aSuiog iq-rjfxia of ^schylus — ^through which we 
 travelled, I felt as never I had felt before, the severity of that 
 punishment which the rebellious Jews brought upon them- 
 selves ; and while riding slowly onward, or at night, in our 
 tents, I read in my Bible of the wandering of the children of 
 Israel with a deeper and clearer sense of the meaning pf„ 
 
236 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 God^s Holy Word than it had been my lot at any previous time 
 to attain. How forcible appeared now the expressions of 
 Scripture respecting what this stiff-necked people were com- 
 pelled to undergo ! 
 
 " A desert land ... the waste howling wilderness," 
 
 " That great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scor 
 
 pions, and drought, where there was no water." 
 •'•Wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto thw 
 evil placed It is no place of seed, ot of figs, or of vines, or of pome- 
 granates; neither is there any water to drink." 
 " The soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. And the 
 people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have yo 
 brought us up out of F.gypt to die in the wilderness 1 for there is no 
 bread, neither is there any water ; and our soul loatheth this light bread." 
 " While the meat was yet in their mouths, 
 The wrath of God came upon them, 
 And slew the fattest of them, 
 And smote down the chosen men of Israel. 
 
 Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, 
 And their years in trouble," 
 " Neither said they, where is the Lord 
 That brought us up out of the land of Egypt, 
 That led us through the wilderness, 
 Through a land of deserts and of pits. 
 Through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, 
 Through a land that no man passed through, 
 And where no man dwelt *?"* 
 
 Would God that there were such an heart in Christian 
 people that they would ponder upon these things, and that 
 they would consider and know that He will not at all spare 
 the wicked, nor suffer to go unpunished the guilty nations who 
 break His commandments or set at naught His holy will ! 
 
 Towards mid-day, we usually halted for a short time to 
 lunch and to give our camels an opportunity to browse awhile 
 upon the prickly shrubs and stunted bushes which are found 
 in considerable abundance nearly everywhere in the desert. 
 
 ♦Deut. xxxii. 10; viii. 15; Numb. xx. 5; xxi. 4,5; Ps. Ixxviii, 31, 33; Jer. 
 iL 6. 
 
SCENES IN THE WILDERNESS. 237 
 
 We would, on such occasions, spread our seggadeh upon the 
 clean sand, and Antonio having set before us a cold chicken, 
 or something of the sort, with some dates, oranges, &o., we 
 would enjoy our repast as well as the burning sun would ad- 
 mit, and would quench our thirst, as best we might, with 
 the dark reddish colored water which was carried in leathern 
 buckets attached to our camels' sides. Remounting again, 
 we pressed onward with renewed vigor ; now, one after anoth- 
 er new or strange thing met our view. Here and there, we 
 beheld some groves of palms which looked doubly refreshing 
 and attractive in the midst of the waste and dreary desert on 
 all sides : occasionally some dome-covered tomb of a sheikh or 
 Mohammedan saint, served to add variety to the scene : very 
 frequently, we came upon the carcasses and bones of some 
 poor camels which had dropped down with fatigue or thirst, 
 and had been abandoned to the vulture and beasts of prey 
 that watch unceasingly the track of caravans in the desert : 
 and at such times we thought of the touching lines of the 
 poet : — 
 
 " In silent horror o'er the boundless waste 
 The driver Hassan with his camels past ; 
 One cruise of water on his back he bore, 
 i , And his light scrip contained a scanty store ; 
 
 The sultry sun hath gain'd the middle sky, 
 And not a tree, and not an herb was nigh ; 
 Shrill roar'd the winds, and dreary was the view . 
 
 ' ' Ye mute companions of my toils, that bear 
 In all my griefs a more than equal share ! 
 Here, where no springs in murmurs break away, 
 Or moss-crowned fountains mitigate the day, 
 In vain ye hope the green delights to know. 
 Which plains more blest, or verdant vales, bestow ; 
 Here rocks alone, and tasteless sands are found, 
 And faint and sickly winds forever howl around. 
 Sad was the hour, and luckless was the day. 
 When first from Shiraz' walls I bent my way !' 
 
 * ColUns's " Hassan, or the Camel Driver." 
 
238 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LANDk. 
 
 At one time, we saw the desert quails, some small birds, liz- 
 ards, and several of that beautiful and most graceful animal 
 the gazelle, who, with ears erect and bright glancing eyes, 
 looked^ timidly at us for a few moments, and then bounded 
 fleetly off to a place of greater security ; at another, not a 
 vestige of life was visible, all was silent as the grave and 
 gloomy as the sepulchres of the dead, and our spirits sank 
 within us, and we longed once more to revisit the abodes of 
 men and look upon the green fields, the trees, and gardens of 
 an inhabited land : occasionally, though but rarely and in the 
 neighborhood of marshy places, there appeared a larger bird 
 or two, and we were forcibly reminded of the striking figure 
 nsed by the Psalmist when he was overwhelmed by affliction 
 and poured out his complaint before the Lord ; — ^ 
 
 ^ " I am like a pelican of the wilderness ; * 
 
 I am like an owl of the desert."* ^* 
 
 'f.t 
 
 Now we saw the mirage, that singular illusion, which often 
 deceives the most experienced, and which for the moment, glad- 
 dened our eyes with the prospects of quiet and refreshing 
 lakes, and trees on their banks, most desirable for their entic- 
 ing shade, only to depress our spirits the more when the con- 
 viction forced itself upon our minds, that all which we beheld 
 was unreal and baseless as a dream : now, again, we came 
 upon flocks of goats, cropping the scanty herbage which they 
 could find in the desert, and not far off we noticed a Bedawy 
 encampment, with some children, females and noisy dogs, 
 close by, the former hiding themselves under the coarse blan- 
 kets rudely supported on sticks stuck in the ground, and peep- 
 ing out at the Frank strangers, the latter barking and snarling 
 most disagreeably : as the day advanced, we found out, occa- 
 sionally, what it was to travel through the territories of the 
 wild sons of the desert, for, at intervals, some keen black-eyed 
 Bedawin suddenly started forth, as it were, from the ground, 
 
 jaitVl bjwi * Ps, cii. 6. «:aailkiO ♦ 
 
OUR EVENING ENCAMPMENT. 
 
 «lid in peremptory tones, demanded tribute for the privilege of 
 crossing their desert, a demand, which on the whole, we deem- 
 ed it best to satisfy for the sake of peace, though with -^^Hf^s- 
 large party, we might easily have resisted all such claims "^"^Jv 
 About five o'clock in the afternoon, our thoughts began. to *</ ^ 
 be turned to our evening encampment, and between that and ^ 
 sundown, we looked out rather anxiously for a good place to ' 
 pitch our tent in. This being obtained, the caravan-; halted, 
 and the tired camels being made to kneel, were released from 
 their loads, and turned loose to roll in the sand, and browse 
 upon the various sorts of nutriment, which a kind Providence 
 has furnished for them, even in the arid desert. In the course 
 of an hour or so, we were comfortably seated in our tent 
 (which consisted of canvass, upheld by a single pole in the 
 centre, and kept in its place by numerous ropes, fastened to 
 pins driven into the sand), and were glad to sit down to our 
 dinner, and refresh our jaded bodies with food convenient. 
 Generally, we were too much fatigued, to do more than write 
 down some brief notes of the day's events ; and, save, per- 
 haps, a stroll out to gaze at the bright stars, and listen, if 
 so I may speak, to the profound and solemn stillness of the 
 vast desert, we rarely pretended to attempt anything in the 
 way of occupation. At an early hour, we lay down on our 
 beds, which were nmch like the ordinary cot bedsteads, only 
 arranged to fold up into small compass, and commending our- 
 selves to the protection of Him, who neither slumbers nor 
 sleeps, we slept as only the weary and wayworn pilgrims rest, 
 in security and peace. Sometimes in the night, I was aroused 
 by the low-toned and monotonous songs of the Arabs, who 
 take this method of keeping themselves awake, and manifest- 
 ing their watchfulness, or by the braying of a donkey, or the 
 noisy and sharp barkings of the wolfish Bedawin curs ; but 
 never had I or my companions any cause of apprehension 
 from the a1 tacks of robbers, or the thievish propensities of 
 many of the lawless inhabitants of the desert. Most thank- 
 
240 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 fully do I record the fact, that we met with no mishap, and 
 suffered no loss whatever, during our entire journey from 
 Cairo to Gaza. 
 
 Our route by way of El Arish, will not require any very 
 lengthened description, and I shall simply call your attention 
 to a few points, which, I hope, will interest you. We left 
 Cairo, as I stated above, on the afternoon of March 20th, and 
 made that day, only as far as ancient Heliopolis or On, now 
 called Matarieh, about eight miles from the metropolis. Here 
 we encamped, having in full view the lofty obelisk, which, as 
 we had visited it on a former occasion, we did not now stop 
 to examine. The wind blew quite strongly from the north, 
 and at night I found myself cold and uncomfortable. Having 
 sent back to the city for one or two articles which had been 
 forgotten, we arose early the next morning and got under 
 way, in as good season as we could ; though as it was the 
 first morning, there was more than ordinary delay in striking 
 the tent, arranging the camels' loads, &c. Our general course 
 was a little to the east of north, and for several days we were 
 skirting that portion of Egypt, where, no doubt, was the land 
 of Goshen. At various times during the day, we saw im- 
 mense swarms of locusts, which were of a light, yellowish 
 color, about two and a half inches in length, and gave the sky 
 something of the appearance which it presented in a snow- 
 storm; and we were struck with the marked contrast be- 
 tween the desert, in all its waste and dreary loneliness on the 
 one hand, and the rich fields of green grass and grain on the 
 other. At various times, too, we thought we saw reason to 
 suppose, that the desert tract, over which we were passing, 
 had been once under cultivation ; for it is an established fact, 
 that the land now rendered fertile by the Nile, could not sup- 
 port more than half the population of ancient Egypt ; and it 
 is a necessary inference, that in earlier days, before conquest 
 and misrule had brought ruin upon Egypt, much more of 
 what is now the desert was included in the cultivated and 
 
OUR ROUTE THROUGH THE DESERT. 241 
 
 fruitful soil of the country. We passed through El Kanka, 
 a hrge village, at eleven o'clock, and had a view of the out- 
 side of one of the Pasha\s army-schools. It is very large, and 
 with two or three others, serves for the education of the Egyp- 
 tian troops, some of the officers, &c. About two hours later, 
 some little distance to the west of us were some mounds, 
 called Tel Jehudieh, the " Mound of the Jews," which plainly 
 points to the former occupants of this district of Egypt. In 
 the course of 'the afternoon, we were joined by Dr. Wain- 
 wright and Mr. Minturn, who had left Cairo on donkeys 
 early this morning, and we encamped together near a small 
 village. From the low hill on which we were, we saw plainly 
 the Great Pyramid, which was more than thirty-five miles to 
 the south of us. 
 
 The next day, the 22d, at half-past nine A.M., we passed 
 near the large town of Belbeis, which is said to be well sup- 
 plied with bazaars, &c., and seems to be of some consequence 
 in this part of the country. The locusts still were visible in 
 great abundance, a fact of which we were sorry to be aware, 
 for the people consider it a bad sign, at this season, for 
 the prosperity of the land. We began to find the sand of the 
 desert more soft, and with less appearance of vegetation than 
 we had previously noticed. About four P.M., we passed 
 through a village, called Ras el Wad, which is about sixty 
 miles from Cairo. On the 23d, we began to turn rather more 
 to the east in our course, and entered more into what may 
 strictly be termed the desert. We noticed, both to-day, and 
 all the way through the wilderness, many small lizards, and 
 occasionally some birds, which appear to make this their 
 home. We saw considerable marshy ground, and some pools 
 and ponds of salt water. There was also a good deal of wind 
 from the north, which rendered it quite cool, almost cold, at 
 times. We arrived at Salahieh at three P.M. Wilkinson 
 gives the distance from Cairo as eighty and a half miles. All 
 the village turned out to look at us, and to sell us such arti- 
 
 11 
 
242 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 des as they had. Here we were compelled to lay in water 
 for four days, as none could be had that was good short of 
 El Arish. The twenty-fourth of March brought us into the 
 desert in reality, w^ild, waste, and without water. A strong 
 wind was blowing, and, save some little birds, we saw nothing 
 which had life : thistles, prickly shrubs, bushes, in clumps 
 usually, stunted grass, and such-like, were quite abundant, 
 and very serviceable to our camels, who cropped them with 
 great relish. The surface of the sandy ground was slightly 
 undulating, and there was, for the most part, a regular beaten 
 track or road. Beside the occasional encampments of the 
 Bedawin, a flock or two of goats, the bleached bones of camels 
 who had died on the road, we had frequent experience in the 
 mirage, which is one of the most singular optical illusions 
 that I have ever witnessed. During the afternoon, we passed 
 an inlet or arm of the sea (perhaps the Lake Menzaleh), and 
 pools and salt marshes. The night was very cool, and having 
 ridden eleven hours, we felt very tired. 
 
 Our course for the succeeding days was nearly east, and 
 we traversed the desert of moving sands, which meets one 
 before arriving at El Arish. Our poor beasts sank into the 
 soft sand very much, and were frequently in over their hoofs. 
 Now and then we passed a grove of palm trees, and saw 
 some birds, bugs, lizards, &c. The vast hills of yellowish 
 sand, which is drifted or blown together, looked very singu- 
 larly, and reminded us very much of the snow drifts in 
 America ; and all day, we were passing through ravines, 
 formed by these hills and mounds of fine sand, and over a very 
 uneven surface. At two P.M., we came upon a large, broad 
 plain, and in half an hour arrived at Katieh, the ancient Ca^- 
 ium, which, though put down on the maps, as if it were 
 actually in existence, is in entire ruins. It was formerly a 
 place of some importance, in a military point of view ; but 
 when the French evacuated it, during Napoleon's campaign 
 in Egypt, they blew up the fortifications, and destroyed the 
 
EL ARISH AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD. 243 
 
 town entirely, to prevent its being of any value to the Eng- 
 lish. There are now some palm trees on the site, two old 
 tombs of Mohammedan saints, some remains of the old walls 
 and fortifications, &c. Just beyond, we passed the third of 
 Ibrahim Pasha's camel stations. It consists of a deep well 
 of briok, of circular shape, say ten feet in diameter by eighteen 
 feet deep: the water is very brackish, and unfit to drink, 
 though the camels, who had had no water for six days, man- 
 aged to satisfy their thirst upon it. Beside the well there is a 
 long, wide trough of masonry, about forty feet in length, into 
 which the water was conveyed, by means of a sakieh : this 
 machine is not now in use, and the water is obtained by means 
 of a rope attached to a small jar, let down into the well. 
 
 The succeeding two days offer nothing of special import 
 to mention ; we had the same unmitigated desert, and passed 
 through mu,ch the same scenes, as previously. We came near 
 the sea, which was close on our left hand, saw some gazelles, 
 some of the desert quails, and other birds, herds of camels 
 feeding, &c. The Bedawin tax gatherers came upon us to 
 claim tribute, and every now and then, we would light upon 
 some one of their encampments. On the 28th, at ten A.M. 
 we arrived at El Arish, the ancient Rhinocolura : it is nearly 
 two hundred miles from Cairo, and only about a mile from 
 the sea. There is here a large brick fort, in unserviceable 
 condition at present, and the town consists of a number of 
 mud walled huts or houses. The medical officer stopped us 
 on the frontier of Egypt, and we found it necessary to register 
 ourselves, our camels, and other matters, which is done merely 
 to give a fee to the officer there, and was of no sort of use to 
 us. We saw here, the most villainous-looking soldiers and 
 hangers-on, about the quarantine station, which I have ever 
 met with. After an hour's detention, we were suffered to de- 
 part, and crossed the Wady el Arish, which is supposed to be 
 the mountain torrent, or flumen jEgyptiacum^ the ancient 
 
244 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 boundary of Egypt, on the side of Syria.^ From this point; 
 we wrote two or three short letters, and put them in charge 
 of an Arab of the party, who wanted to go back to Cairo. 
 He was to have four dollars paid him at the Consulate, should 
 he deliver our letters safely. I have wondered many a time 
 since, how the poor fellow has got along, and whether he has 
 managed to evade the quarantine and the Bedawin of the 
 desert. I fear the fate of our mementoes of the wilderness is 
 very uncertain. 
 
 As it was an object to reach Gaza as soon as we could, in 
 order to save all that was possible of the stupid quarantine, 
 there imposed, we made a great effort on the 29th ; we got 
 up at two, A.M., and were off before four. At a quarter 
 before eight, we saw the tomb of Sheikh Juideh, from which 
 our boy brought some dust, and sprinkled the camels with, 
 to preserve and bless them. A tax gatherer came upon us 
 again, and was disposed to give us some trouble ; but we paid 
 him and sent him off. The appearance of the country was 
 certainly better as a whole, and we had an opportunity to 
 notice the primitive mode of ploughing among the Bedawin ; 
 a rope is passed over the camel's hump, and being attached to 
 the plough, an Arab walks behind and guides the machine. 
 It was intensely hot between nine in the morning and one, 
 P.M. At eleven, A.M., we came to Refah, the ancient 
 Raphia, which is now only a mound of ruins, covered with 
 grass ; two pillars of gray granite are still standing, and some 
 are lying about ; the Arabs call the deep well here, Solo- 
 mon's, but why, I did not learn. At one, P.M., we arrived 
 at Khan Yunus, (Jonas's Inn), the ancient Yenisus, a neat 
 town, if so I may speak of any village with mud huts, and 
 the peculiar habits of Eastern people. A soldier stopped us 
 
 * At the great feast made by Solomon, at the dedication of the temple, all 
 Israel were assembled, '' a very great congregation, from the entering in of 
 Hamath unto the river of Egypt." Hamath is situate far to the north, on the 
 road to Aleppo, in latitude 3?° 15'.— See 2 Chron. vii. 8; Josh. xiii. 5. 
 
ARRIVAL AT GAZA. j>j| 246 
 
 on account of the quarantine. I demanded why, when Egypt 
 was perfectly healthy, they stopped us for this purpose : he 
 laughed, and said, "for the money, to be sure!" which is 
 undoubtedly the fact. After an hour's detention, we went 
 on towards Gaza, in charge of a soldier on horseback: the 
 road is over a broad and fertile plain, with sand hills between 
 us and the sea on our left : at a quarter past five, we crossed 
 the Wady Gaza, which is a considerable stream in winter, 
 but at this season is dry. The bed is of a fine sand and gravel. 
 Gaza appeared in the distance, and looked rather well, on the 
 hill, on which it is partly situate. Albeit not in the poetic 
 vein, we did think of Tasso's lines : 
 
 " Upon Judea's confines, on the way 
 That leads to old Pelusium, Gaza stands; 
 Built on the shore, it overlooks the bay, 
 And on the east the bordering tract commands, — 
 A fruitless waste, a solitude of sands, 
 Which, like the waters of the tossing main. 
 The breathing whirlwind spreads o'er all the lands ; 
 And scarce the pilgrim can his course maintain 
 Against the frequent storm that sweeps th' unstable plain."* 
 
 About half-past six, we arrived at the quarantine station, 
 and were met with the disagreeable intelligence, that we 
 had to spend five whole days, and parts of two other days, 
 seven days in fact, in this vile prison-house. The rooms are 
 damp, and when it rains, wet and nasty ; and you can imag- 
 ine what a trial it was to us, who had ridden nearly fifteen 
 hours that day, to find such accommodations, and such a re- 
 ception, when we arrived, fatigued and half sick, as we nearly 
 all were. 
 
 Gaza is a name which will call to your mind some of the 
 many interesting portions of the Old Testament history. It 
 was once a city of great importance, and figured largely in 
 the eventful life of Samson, the mighty champion of his 
 
 * Tasso's '' Jerusalem Delivered," Cant. xviiL 1 
 
3ft EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 oppressed country There are some traditionary remain* 
 connected with the Scriptural account of Samson's exploits, 
 but as the envious walls of the Lazaretto have restrained 
 our liberty entirely, we have been unable to explore th© 
 town or its environs, and have had to be content with such 
 knowledge of it as we could gain from gazing at it some twa 
 hundred yards off. Fortunately, a considerable part of the 
 city is situate on a high hill between one and two miles from 
 the sea, and is therefore a very prominent object to one who 
 looks upon it with the interest which it inspired in us. I ara 
 sorry to say, however, that we could distinguish nothing witbi 
 precision, and could only notice that it appears to be a larger 
 and populous town, abounding in monks, tombs of saints, &o. 
 The ancient city appears to have stood on the hill, which is 
 well calculated for erecting defences; the modern town is 
 mainly in the valley on the east and north. To the south- 
 east is a hill of no great height, called by some writers, 
 " Samson's Mount," as being the hill mentioned in the book 
 of Judges (chapter xvi. 3) to which Samson carried off the 
 doors of the gate of Gaza. This hill might properly be said 
 to be before, i. e. towards, Hebron, since there is no reason 
 to suppose that the doors of the gate were carried to any 
 great distance ; certainly we can hardly imagine that they 
 were transported to the vicinity of Hebron, a city some 
 thirty-five or forty miles off. Dr. Robinson has collected to- 
 gether much interesting historical matter in connection with 
 Gaza ; permit me to refer you to his elaborate volumes for 
 further information. As I have not had an opportunity to 
 visit the city as I desired, I beg to quote from the learned 
 author, a passage in respect to its present condition : " All 
 vestiges of the ancient walls and ancient strength of Gaza 
 have disappeared; and nothing remains to mark its former 
 extent, except the bounds of the hill itself on which it stood. 
 Even the traces of its former existence, its vestiges of anti- 
 quity, are very rare; consisting of occasional columns of 
 
GAZA AS IT NOW li. 247 
 
 marble or gray granite, scattered in the streets and gar- 
 dens, or used as thresholds at the gates and doors of houses, 
 or laid upon the front of watering troughs. One fine Corin- 
 thian capita), of white marble, lies inverted in the middle of 
 a street running from north to south, along the eastern foot 
 of the hill."* The same writer gives the population of Gaza 
 as about fifteen thousand, which makes it, he says, larger than 
 Jerusalem. TischendorfF calls it " a bnsy city, with a popu- 
 lation of about sixteen thousand souls."t Others have rated 
 it as low as two thousand ; probably, at the extent it does not 
 exceed eight thousand. 
 
 Here I must close this rather discursive letter. On the 
 day after to-morrow we shall be released from our disagree- 
 able prison-house, and once more breathe the air of freemen. 
 If God spare my life, I shall next address you from the Holy 
 City, that most deeply interesting of all the cities of the 
 earth. 
 
 * " Biblical Researches" vol. ii. p. 376. 
 t " TVavds in the East,'' p. 128. 
 
LETTER XIII. 
 
 Peculiar Emotions excited by Visiting Jerusalem.— Not easily Explicable,— Our Route from 
 Gaza.— Our Wish to be in the Holy City before Good Friday.— Horses and Mules.— Weather. 
 —Contrast.— Immense Olive Groves.— Fertility and Beauty of the Land of the Philistines.— 
 Commands of God with Respect to the Canaanites.— Conduct of the Jews.— Mode of Com- 
 puting Distances in Syria.— Villages and Towns on the Road.— Dwellings of the People.— 
 Emmaus or Nicopolis.— Latrun.— " Gate of the Valley."— Terrible Road upward to Jerusa- 
 lem.— Toil and Fatigue.— Time Occupied.— Abu Gosh.— Story.— First View of the Holy City. 
 —Feelings of Disappointment.— Entered Jaffa Gate.— Hotel. — Severe Illness.- Confinement 
 for Several Days.— Deprivation of Precious Privileges. 
 
 Jerusalem, April 10th, 1849. 
 My Dear S., 
 
 It is not, perhaps, easy to explain why it is, but I can 
 assure you of the fact, that a most singular hesitation, and a 
 strange feeling of unw^illingness, have come over me in re- 
 gard to writing to you from the Holy City. For several 
 days, I have been desirous to do that which I am sure will 
 gratify you, and I have more than once taken up my pen to 
 begin a letter, and every time, up to the present, have laid it 
 down, without being able to express, in any wise, that which 
 I wish to say. I do not know how to account for the state 
 of mind which I have now so frankly avowed ; a state of 
 mind, in no respect accordant with my earnest desires to 
 convey to you all the pleasure in my power, or with my de- 
 termination, at all times, to write to you fully and freely, in 
 regard to what I have seen and heard : it may be, that the 
 intense longing which I had to get to Jerusalem, and the 
 great excitement which was produced in me by drawing near 
 
FIRST EMOTIONS IN JERUSALEM. 249 
 
 to it, and entering actually within its walls, added to some 
 other and trying circumstances, which I will mention pres- 
 ently, were too much for me ; and finding so much that I had 
 not expected, and so many things different from what I had 
 supposed ; it is not, perhaps, unlikely that my mind became 
 untuned, and my thoughts of such a discursive and unset- 
 tled character, as to be utterly unfit to record. Of course, 
 you will not misunderstand me. I do not for a moment im- 
 agine, that it is of the slightest consequence to you or any 
 one, to be made acquainted with the fact to which I have 
 alluded above, only in so far as it may show the effect of a 
 pilgrimage to Jerusalem, upon minds and feelings of a cast 
 similar to my own. I would not have believed it possible, a 
 week ago, what I have just avowed. I came to the Holy 
 City under a state of mind, as I supposed, most favorable to 
 enjoy it and its sacred associations ; I was full of the thoughts 
 and wishes of a devout pilgrim ; I longed, even to tears, to 
 stand upon holy ground, where my Lord and my God had 
 walked, in the days when He took upon Him our nature, 
 and dwelt among us ; I was planning to myself what I would 
 write to you, and how fully I would tell you of all that I 
 saw in the city of the Great King ; but, alas, for all human 
 calculations, I met with hardly aught else but disappoint- 
 ment. The excessive fatigue and exposure on the road 
 brought on sickness, and I lay for four days, the most inter- 
 esting days of the whole year, in my bed, or on my couch, 
 unable to do anything, and with leisure abundant to reflect 
 upon my sins, which added sharpness to the agony of our 
 Lord, in the garden and on the cross : and when at last, 
 through God's goodness, I was permitted to go out, and was 
 allowed to see with my own eyes, what I had so often heard 
 of by the hearing of the ear, the reality seemed to me so dif- 
 ferent from all that I had expected, the lessons which I 
 learned were so new and so unlooked for, and the picture 
 which my imagination had formerly dwelt upon, with so 
 
 11* 
 
250 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 much delight, was so little like Jerusalem as she now is, de- 
 graded and desolate, that I yielded to the pressure of cir- 
 cumstances, and gave way to feelings and emotions of which 
 I had not believed myself capable. I trust, however, that 
 you, who know me so well, will pardon even this at my 
 hands, and excuse some of the defects which, I fear, will at- 
 tach to most of my letters from the Holy Land. 
 
 Before attempting to tell you aught about Jerusalem, al- 
 low me, as briefly as I can, to describe our journey from 
 Gaza upward to the Holy City.* We were permitted to 
 leave the quarantine at any time after sunrise, on the morn- 
 ing of the fourth instant, our seventh day ; and as we were de- 
 sirous, not only to escape from the disagreeable confinement, 
 but also to reach the Holy City as early in Passion Week as 
 was possible, we had everything prepared in good season for 
 our departure. Dr. W. and Mr. M. continued in company with 
 us, and their train, added to ours, presented quite an imposing 
 appearance, as we took up our line of march for the city of 
 the Great King. The gentlemen of our party were mounted 
 on horses — rather sorry beasts, at best — while our luggage 
 and servants proceeded in the usual manner on the camels: 
 originally, our engagement with the Bedawin was to have 
 the camels as far as to Ramleh ; but as we were hurrying 
 forward as much as possible, we succeeded, after some dis- 
 cussion, in effecting a change in our route, and prevailed 
 upon our headman to go by the shorter road to Jerusalem, 
 by which means we expected to accomplish in two, what 
 would otherwise require three days. The morning of our 
 departure was rather unpleasant ; we had had rain for nearly 
 every day while in quarantine, and the weather proved to be, 
 
 ♦ The expression is strictly accurate, more so than, perhaps, might at first 
 sight appear. Gaza is near the sea, and of course not much above its level ; 
 Jerusalem is situate among the hills and mountains of Benjamin, about 2700 
 feet above the level of the Mediterranean. It is worth noticing, too, that in the 
 direction given to Philip by the angel, he is told to "go toward the south unto 
 the way that goeth down from Jerusalem to Gaza." (Acts viii. 2G.) 
 
OUR ROUTE FROM GAZA. 251 
 
 on this occasion, cloudy and damp, with a prospect of rain 
 during the day. Perhaps no one thing reminded us more 
 forcibly of the fact, that we had left Egypt, where it very 
 seldom rains, and where one never thinks of providing against 
 it, than this circumstance, that now we were compelled to 
 provide against wet, and to watch with some anxiety the 
 threatening clouds, which might at any moment pour down 
 their contents upon our heads. During the day, as it hap- 
 pened, rain fell frequently, and I experienced once more the 
 discomforts of riding in wet or damp clothes, over roads nei- 
 ther smooth nor easy to traverse ; — but these are the com- 
 mon trials of travel in Syria. 
 
 Our road passed to the right of the city of Gaza, which 
 we did not now stop to examine, in consequence of the strong 
 desire which each one of the party felt, to get to the Holy 
 City at the earliest possible moment in the Holy Week. We 
 rode for some time through hedges of prickly pear, which 
 serve to protect the gardens and fields from incursions, and 
 which also afford more or less shade to the narrow lanes, or 
 roads, which wind their devious way through them. Shortly 
 afterwards, we entered most extensive groves of olive trees, 
 the largest, I think, which I have ever seen: for nearly two 
 hours we were riding through these beautiful groves, and 
 were filled with many thoughts of that land, of which we had 
 so often read, and whose richness is so often spoken of under 
 the expressive figure drawn from the olive as well as the vine. 
 We next came upon a broad and fertile plain, extending from 
 the neighborhood of the sea backward to the hills on our right, 
 and stretching out to the north and east as far as the eye 
 could reach. In the distance, on the one hand, were the hills 
 or mountains of the Hebron range, whose dark-colored sides 
 and summits formed a most striking contrast to the plain be- 
 neath our feet Toward the sea, on our left, the hills of yel- 
 low sand presented an equally strong contrast ; and the scat- 
 tered villages here and there, on some gentle slope, or some 
 
252 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 more commanding elevation, in the midst of the bright and 
 verdant fields of grain for miles in extent, gave a picturesque- 
 ness and beauty to the scene, far beyond the power of words 
 to express. In truth, the land of the Philistines, through 
 which we were passing during the day, appeared to me one 
 of the most lovely tracts of country which I had ever seen ; 
 and its exceeding fertility served to remove from my mind 
 some of the wonder which I used to feel at the vast, and, as 
 it were, almost numberless population, which it anciently 
 possessed, and which warred with the children of Israel so 
 frequently and so successfully. The beauty of the country, 
 too, as well as the ease and facility of travel over so level and 
 fertile a tract, seemed to me decisive of the question in re- 
 gard to that passage in the Acts, where Philip was directed 
 to '' arise and go toward the south, unto the way that goeth 
 down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert ;" for it 
 would be quite out of the question to term a road or way 
 desert, which passed through a country like this. I have no 
 doubt, therefore, that the reference is to Gaza itself, which 
 at this date was partly in ruins, and might properly be termed 
 ^Tjiuog, desolate, desert, &c. 
 
 As we rode along, I could not help thinking over various 
 portions of Holy Writ, in relation to the history of the chosen 
 people; and I saw abundant occasion to recognize the hand 
 of God, in His proceedings with the rebellious descendants 
 of those who were so severely punished in the desert. You 
 recollect, that it was the express command of Jehovah, that 
 they should go up and destroy utterly the inhabitants of the 
 land, whose iniquity was full, and the cup running over.* 
 
 * " When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou 
 goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, 
 and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, 
 and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than 
 thou ; and when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee ; thou shall 
 smite them and utterly destroy them ; thou shalt make no covenant with them, 
 nor show mercy unto them ; neither shalt thou make marriages with them ; 
 
god's dealings with the jews. 253 
 
 And He promised, that if they served Him with their whole 
 hearts, and obeyed His commands, He would drive out all 
 before them, and make their arms victorious on every occa- 
 sion. While the great captain Joshua lived, "Israel served 
 the Lord," and were blessed in their many and sharp contests 
 with the idolatrous inhabitants of the land promised of old 
 to the seed of Abraham ; yet, not even then, were they per- 
 fectly minded to worship and obey God only: and so their 
 success was not complete, and in various portions of the land 
 the former inhabitants remained, tributary, it is true, but 
 continual snares unto the chosen people. When that gene- 
 ration which came in with Joshua, and had known all 
 the works of the Lord, that He had done for Israel, had 
 passed away, "there arose another generation after them, 
 which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which He had 
 done for Israel ;"^ these forsook the Lord, and bowed them- 
 selves down to the idols of the people round about them ; 
 so that wrath went out against them ; their arms were 
 powerless, their strength was gone, and the hand of the 
 oppressor lay heavily upon them. The bitter cup of ad- 
 versity, which they often drained to the very dregs, al- 
 most always brought them back again to their senses, and 
 made them feel most keenly the enormity of their guilt 
 against God their Saviour ; and so they cried unto Him, out 
 of the depth of their misery, and He heard them, and gave 
 them relief. Many a time was this done : many a time did 
 they rebel : their sins, as a people, brought punishment: their 
 repentance and profession of amendment, obtained for them 
 relief, at the hands of Him, who always remembered His 
 covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And such, in 
 brief, is their whole history : they could not drive out the 
 Canaanites, because of their own unbelief and rebellion ; and 
 
 . . , thou shall consume all the people which the Lord thy God shall deliver 
 thee ; thine eye shall have no pity upon them." — Deut. vii. 1-3 ; 16. 
 * Judges ii. 10. 
 
254 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 SO God left various tribes and nations in their midst, "to 
 prove Israel by thorn, to know whether they would hearken 
 unto the commandments of the Lord, which He commanded 
 their fathers by the hand of Moses."* Among those expressly 
 enumerated as thus left, were " the five lords of the Philis- 
 tines and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the 
 Hivites that dwelt in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal- 
 Hermon unto the entering in of Hamath :" and though Ju- 
 dah took Gaza, with the coast thereof, and Askelon, with the 
 coast thereof, and Ekron, with the coast thereof; and though 
 the Lord was with Judah, so that he expelled the inhabitants 
 of the mountainous districts, yet he could not drive out the 
 inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron ;t 
 though, too, in later times, David subdued the Philistines, 
 and extended his dominion more widely than had been pos- 
 sible, either in former or subsequent times, still the Philistines 
 remained, and frequently prevailed over the children of Israel. 
 About nine, A.M.,1: we passed the village of Beit Hanun, 
 near to the road on our right : we saw frequent evidences of 
 the heavy rains which occasionally deluge a part of Syria, 
 in the deep gullies worn in the plains, at intervals, along the 
 road-side. At ten, we crossed a bridge over a mountain tor- 
 rent, with a deep sandy bed. On Robinson's map, it is called 
 Wady Simsim, and is marked as occasionally dry in nearly 
 its whole extent : when we crossed it, there was not much 
 water in the stream. During the day, we had considerable 
 
 * Judges iii. 4. f Judges i. 18, 19. 
 
 :}: In travelling in Syria, all computations of distance are made by the time 
 occupied in the journey. Camels average from two to two and a half miles 
 per hour ; horses frequently perform more, especially when the traveller chooses 
 to leave the luggage train, and urge his steed forward ; in this way three miles, 
 and even four, may be gone over in an hour. But it is well to remember that, 
 with slight exception, the whole journey through Syria is performed at a horse's 
 usual walking pace, which gives on an average rather less than three miles per 
 hour. In speaking, too, of the distance of one place from another, the people 
 always say, it is so many hours — not so many miles — to the point inquired for. 
 Of course, I shall be compelled to adopt the same mode of speech. 
 
SCENERY ALONG THE ROAD. 255 
 
 wind, and an appearance of +he clouds which reminded me 
 very much of home, and as I have noticed above, we had fre^ 
 quent showers, which served to add brilliancy to the green 
 fields through which we were passing. In general, our rido 
 to-day was over one continuous plain, with occasionally gentle 
 slopes, and some low hills and lovely valleys ; as there are no 
 fences in this part of the world, and as the road is simply a 
 path for horses, camels, asses, &c. — no vehicles ever being 
 used — the view is unobstructed, and the eye has a range as 
 extensive as could be desired. We had opportunity, every 
 now and then, to see the primitive mode of ploughing, which 
 is not uncommon in this country ; it is very simple and easy, 
 since all that the Arabs do is merely to pass a rope over a 
 camel's hump and attach it to a rude instrument for turn- 
 ing up the ground, such an one as our scientific farmers would 
 despise as a plough ; sometimes, too, we would see an ass and 
 a heifer, yoked together, for this purpose, and the husband- 
 man directing them with a long goad, pointed with iron ; 
 a circumstance, which called to mind that passage in the 
 Acts(ix. 5), where our Lord declares to Saul, the astonished 
 and trembling persecutor, "it is hard for thee to kick against 
 the pricks," or goads, — it is insane folly for thee thus to in- 
 jure and ruin thyself, by attempting to fight against God, and 
 like a silly brute, which uselessly resists his master, to strive to 
 thy own wounding and hurt against Me, thy Lord and Master. 
 At a quarter past eleven, we passed Burbareh, on our left, 
 and about noon, Dimreh, and other small villages. At fre- 
 quent intervals, too, we saw sheikhs' or saints' tombs, which, 
 with their white domes and solid construction of stone, gener- 
 ally about twelve to fifteen feet in height, form picturesque 
 and rather imposing objects in the midst of the plain and on 
 the hill-sides. About two o'clock, from a slight elevation, 
 we had a fine view of the sea ; after which, we rode over a 
 broad plain, commencing near Es-Sawafir. Just beyond the 
 town is an ancient well of solid masonry, some two or three 
 
256 EGYPT AlNd the holy land. 
 
 hundred years old, and a little further, may be seen ruins of 
 a former city or town. But little can be traced of the foun- 
 dation walls, yet the remains appear to be of an early period. 
 Some distance to the left, on a hill, is Yasur, supposed to be 
 the Hazor of Scripture (Josh. xv. 25). Saphir, you may rec- 
 ollect, is spoken of by the prophet : — 
 
 " Pass ye away, thou inhabitant of Saphir, having thy shame naked : 
 The inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth 
 In the mourning of Beth-ezel ; he shall receive of you his standing."* 
 
 Eusebius and Jerome place it below Eleutheropolis and 
 Ashkelon, which would coincide very well with the position 
 of Es-Sawafir ; its ruins beyond, are not probably those of 
 the ancient town. The people of the villages, and in the 
 fields, looked at us with curiosity, and some degree of sullen- 
 ness, but they did not at all molest us, or refuse to answer 
 any questions which we chose to ask ; in general, too, I was 
 a little surprised at the light color of the inhabitants, who, 
 with the exception of the effect of the sun upon those exposed 
 in the fields, appeared to me as of much the same complexion 
 as most of the people of our own country. This applies more 
 particularly to the younger women and children, many of 
 whom, I noticed, had very beautiful, sparkling, black eyes, 
 and regular features, not infrequently of classic mould. 
 
 At half-past three, P.M., we passed through a village named 
 Kastineh, situate on a hilly slope, with a pond of water 
 near by. In most respects, the villages along the road wear 
 the same aspect of degradation, and, as we should esteem it, 
 of misery, as those in Egypt, being merely collections of huts 
 or hovels, without order or arrangement, and sadly lacking in 
 neatness and comfort, both externally and internally ; there 
 is, however, one striking difference between the Syrian and 
 Egyptian towns and villages. In Egypt, the natives live in 
 mud huts, half the time or more, without covering of any 
 
 * Micah. i. 11. 
 
REMAINS OP ANCIENT PLACES. 257 
 
 kind ; bat in Palestine, where the rains are abundant and at 
 frequent intervals, the huts or houses are generally built of 
 stone, and sometimes plastered with mud, having roofs of 
 poles or beams, laid across, and over these, thick layers of 
 dirt, grass, &o., by which means, the occupants are protected 
 from the wet, and can easily keep themselves comfortable dur- 
 ing the vicissitudes of heat and cold. Late in the afternoon, 
 we crossed a small stream^ which is named the Brook Sorek, 
 on Palmer's map, having in sight, at intervals, the Mediter- 
 ranean, and being about one hour distant from Esdud, or 
 Ashdod, on our left. This, you will recollect, was one of the 
 five cities of the Philistines ; Irby and Mangles visited it in 
 October, 1817, and give an interesting account of some ruins 
 in the immediate vicinity. Gath is marked on Palmer's map 
 as about the same distance to the east of our road as Ashdod 
 was to the west ; Dr. Robinson does not mark it on his map, 
 since he was not able to find any traces of the name through- 
 out the present region.* In the times of the Romans, the 
 city was called Azotus, and is mentioned in the eighth chap- 
 ter of the Acts, fortieth verse ; it was here, that Philip was 
 found, after he had preached Jesus unto the eunuch of queen 
 Candace, and baptized him into the true faith of our Lord 
 and Saviour. Shortly before seven, P.M., we came to our 
 proposed place of encampment, very much fatigued with 
 eleven hours in the saddle, and glad to rest from the labors 
 of the day. 
 
 We rose very early on the morning of " Thursday before 
 Easter," in order to get through as much of the journey as 
 we could before the heat of the day, and also to secure as 
 early an arrival in Jerusalem as was possible : and that we 
 might have no cause of delay, we mounted our horses, and 
 with our dragoman to lead the way, pushed onward, leaving 
 the camels and luggage to follow us more leisurely. I re 
 gretted particularly, that I did not feel as well as usual, since 
 
 * See Robinson's " Biblical Researches,'' vol. ii. pp. 420, 421. 
 
258 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 it prevented my enjoying, as much as 1 desired, the deeply 
 interesting scenes through which we were passing, and made 
 me apprehend worse consequences in store for me. On many 
 accounts, the day was more trying than the preceding, for 
 not only had it rained hard during the night, and thus ren- 
 dered the road or path disagreeably wet and muddy, but at 
 frequent intervals, in the course of the day, I found it very 
 difficult to protect myself, particularly my feet, against the 
 abundant showers ; and I thought it not unlikely, that I might 
 be seriously sick in Jerusalem. I did not, however, let these 
 things interfere with our journeying upwards toward the 
 Holy City, for I felt the force of that excitement which the 
 Christian mind cannot resist, quite as much as any one of 
 the party, and I was as eager as the most enthusiastic pil- 
 grim, to get a first view of the hills which stand round about 
 Jerusalem, and to feast my eyes with gazing upon her towers. 
 So we rode on, at a tolerably good pace, through a pleasant 
 and fruitful country, in measure level and remarkably easy 
 of cultivation, but, more than yesterday, presenting the 
 varied appearance of hill and dale, and offering to the eye 
 a scene, at times, of very great beauty. I can hardly pre- 
 tend to enumerate all the villages along the road, for I was 
 not always able to get the names exactly as the Arabs pro- 
 nounced them; this, however, is of the less consequence, since 
 the towns and villages are very sparse, surprisingly so, when 
 one recollects what a large population this land has, at differ- 
 ent periods, supported, and what an increase of its inhabi- 
 tants might easily be made, without danger of its being over- 
 burdened with people. The villages are also, in general, a 
 collection of huts of recent origin, and seldom connected with 
 any interesting point in ancient or modern history. When, 
 however, it may chance that they relate in any wise to the 
 facts of the Scriptures, I have endeavored to make accurate 
 mention of everything of a kind which I supposed would 
 be worth your attention. 
 
NICOPOLIS AND LATRUN. 259 
 
 *?' Crossing the dry bed of a small stream, Wady Surar, on 
 Robinson's map, and having Ekron, or at least the village 
 which occupies its site, to the north-west of us, perhaps an 
 hour distant, we came at eight, A.M., to a region of hilly yet 
 fertile country, near to which Dr. Robinson has pointed out 
 the site of Nicopolis or Emmaus, now called Am was, though 
 he did not visit and examine it in person.* The road passed 
 a little to the right, but the conical hill on which the town 
 was situate, was a striking object which we stopped a few 
 minutes to look at and admire. You will understand, how- 
 ever, that this could not be the Emmaus mentioned in St. 
 Luke (chapter xxiv. 13), to which the two disciples were go- 
 ing when the Lord Jesus met them and revealed Himself to 
 them in the breaking of bread ; for it is expressly mentioned, 
 that that village was sixty stadia (about seven miles) from 
 Jerusalem, whereas, the ancient Nicopolis is about a hun- 
 dred and sixty stadia, or not far from nineteen miles from 
 the Holy City. It is to this town, near to Jerusalem, that 
 Tasso alludes : — 
 
 " Emmaus, a city at so short a space 
 
 From regal Salem, that a youth in June, 
 Walking for pleasure at a careless pace, 
 
 From dewy morn, may reach the town by noon."t 
 
 Descending a rather steep hill, and crossing a brook of no 
 great size, we entered upon the Ramleh road, near Latrun, 
 which is situate on a lofty hill, and appeared to have been 
 once a place of great strength, t We inferred this, not only 
 from its natural adaptedness for military purposes, but also, 
 from various evidences of massive buildings of this sort, and 
 some ruins of paved road, and a bridge which we saw near 
 the highway. The valleys here were very picturesque and 
 
 * Robinson's " Biblical Researches," vol. ui. p. 66, Notes 1, 2. 
 
 t Tasso's ''Jerusalem Delivered," Cant, ii. 56. 
 
 :j: Latrun derives its Arabic name from the tradition that here was the do- 
 mus boni latronis, the home of the malefactor pardoned on the cross. (Luke 
 xxiii. 43.) 
 
260 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 beautiful, and there appeared to be an abundant supply of 
 water in almost every direction. I do not know when I have 
 noticed a more pleasing contrast than on this occasion, be- 
 tween the verdant, well-watered valleys, rich in the manifold 
 productions of the ground, and the rocky sides and sterile 
 summits of the high hills which encompass them : indeed 
 such features in the scenery of the Holy Land are so obvious, 
 that they must impress the mind of every one who is priv- 
 ileged to visit its sacred localities. 
 
 During the day before, and the early part of the present 
 day, we had been traversing the portion of country allotted 
 to the tribes of Simeon and Dan, and had been journeying 
 in a north-easterly Jirection. At Latrun we entered upon 
 the main road wh ch connects Jerusalem with Ramleh and 
 Jaffa, or Joppa, on the sea coast. Our course was now 
 rather to the south of east, into the land of Benjamin, and 
 through a region so unlike everything which I had imagined, 
 that the impressions there made upon my mind can never be 
 effaced. At a quarter before ten, we came to what is called 
 the Bab el Wady, or " Gate of the Valley ;" near to which 
 is a rural coffee-shop under a fig-tree, where it is customary 
 for travellers to refresh themselves with a cup of this deli- 
 cious beverage, and if they choose, to smoke a pipe under 
 the shade of the trees. Here we entered upon a most dreary, 
 uncomfortable, and, as I felt it, most terrible road, leading 
 from the lovely valleys which we had just left, through the 
 gorges and up the sides of barren mountains, with hardly a 
 pleasant thing to relieve the prospect, and with everything to 
 depress the spirits of the traveller. Let me beg you to im- 
 agine our position : the path or road, though a great thorough- 
 fare, and in constant use, is not only narrow and steep, but 
 also exceedingly rough and stony. At one time, we were 
 winding our way slowly along, looking down over a precipice 
 into some deep and trackless ravine ; at another, we were 
 making our way, always in single file, with overhanging 
 
ROAD THROUGH THE HILL COUNTRY. 261 
 
 rooks and trees on either hand ; seldom, indeed, was there a 
 smooth or level spot of road, and rarely was there aught to 
 dispel the deep gloom which seemed to hang over every sur- 
 rounding object. Frequently we met horsemen, usually in 
 companies of two or three, but sometimes alone, all armed to 
 the teeth, and eyeing the passers-by with suspicion or looks of 
 insult ; and every little while we came upon persons with 
 donkeys, or women and children on foot, but each was equipped 
 in some way and carried some weapon or other, as if it were 
 unsafe to traverse this road without means of defence. The 
 slow and toilsome pace of the horses, the slipping and stum- 
 bling of our steeds, as they went plash, plash, through the 
 wet and mud, and the fatigue of riding up or down steep 
 hills, were trying beyond description. The rain, too, fell in 
 profusion ; the cold wind swept through the mountain passes 
 with great force ; dark and heavy clouds hung over the sum- 
 mits and sides of the hills ; and the damp, raw air seemed 
 to penetrate through everything, and to chill and dishearten 
 me at every step. I can safely say, that I have never passed 
 over a road equal to this, and I am sure you will pity me, 
 when I inform you, that with little variation, or little relief, 
 we were nearly seven hours in ascending from the " Gate of 
 the Valley" to the hills on the west of Jerusalem. 
 
 About eleven, we halted near a well of rain water, by the 
 road-side, for the purpose of taking some refreshment. From 
 this point, and on one or two other occasions, on looking back, 
 we were gratified with several fine views of the plain, to the 
 west and north, and we could clearly make out Ramleh and 
 Jaffa, with the blue Mediterranean beyond, forming a most 
 refreshing and inviting picture, when contrasted with the 
 stern and harsh character of immediately surrounding objects. 
 After our lunch we remounted, and continued the gradual 
 ascent, passing a village near by, where the drums were beat- 
 ing, the castanets jingling, the women making that indescrib- 
 able noise not unlike an ullaloo, the yellow and red flags fly- 
 
•^ EGYPT AND THE HOLY I AND. ^ 
 
 ing, and the people in a state of some excitement. The cause 
 of all this, we learned, was the departure of pilgrims to Neby 
 Musa, or the tomb of the Prophet Moses, which, for conven- 
 ience' sake, the Mohammedans have located on the west side 
 of the Jordan, about two hours from the Dead Sea. We 
 were rather glad not to have come in contact with these pil- 
 grims, for they are full of fanaticism, and on such occasions 
 seem to consider it a merit to insult and abuse Christians. 
 Between twelve and one, P.M., we arrived at a rather noted 
 locality, and one which affords a rather striking commentary 
 on the wretched condition of Syria, under the feeble govern- 
 ment of the Turks. Descending a steep hill into a valley, 
 not wanting in fruitfulness and beauty, we were surprised to 
 see on our right, and on the side of another hill, several large 
 stone edifices, built evidently as towers of strength, and for 
 military occupation. Besides these, there were a number of 
 smaller stone houses, forming a large village, and, altogether, 
 admirably adapted for the uses to which they were devoted. 
 There was also, by the road-side, in good preservation, a solidly 
 built stone church, of considerable size, with the small win- 
 dows of the early style, and a handsomely Gothic-arched 
 doorway : — alas, that I should say it, it is now used for a 
 stable ' It appears that in this locality, the noted robber 
 sheikh, Abu Gosh, had his stronghold in former years. This 
 being the great highway between Jaffa and the Holy City, 
 as well for caravans as for travellers, he made it a profitable 
 business to levy contributions on all who passed this way ; 
 and as he had some two hundred mounted men under his 
 command, and had entrenched himself in a position from 
 which it was not very easy to drive him, he succeeded in 
 carrying on his robberies on a large scale, and almost with 
 impunity. The pasha of Jerusalem signally failed in every 
 attempt to put him down by force. When Ibrahim Pasha 
 was in Syria, Abu Gosh was quite submissive to the power 
 of that extraordinary man; and during the period of the 
 
FIRST VIEW OF JERUSALEMr 263 
 
 Egyptian rule in Syria, this, as well as all the roads, were 
 quite safe for travellers and caravans. When, through the 
 ill-timed intervention of England, Ibrahim Pasha was com- 
 pelled to return to Egypt, and Syria once more came under 
 Turkish domination, the robber sheikh, like many others, 
 resumed his former vocation, and the road again became un- 
 safe. It was certainly an object to break up this nest of 
 thieves ; but as the force at his command was not sufficient, 
 the Turkish governor resorted to means, in which his country- 
 men are very expert. By some inducement or other, they 
 prevailed upon Abu Gosh to be present at a friendly enter- 
 tainment, when, having him within their grasp,, they coolly 
 put him in chains, and sent him to Constantinople. There 
 he is kept in confinement, while his stronghold in the moun- 
 tains has been despoiled of its importance, and his band dis- 
 persed. This is as the story was told to us, though I do not 
 vouch for the accuracy of the details.* 
 •^-I need not dwell upon unimportant matters connected with 
 our toilsome progress onward toward Jerusalem : it was the 
 same hard, tedious, up and down pathway, amid rocks and 
 stones, and wet and mud, unmitigated, save by the exciting 
 thought, that each moment we were drawing nearer the goal 
 of all our hopes, and should soon be permitted to look upon 
 Jerusalem in very truth. At last we came to the top of the 
 hills immediately to the west of the city, and each member 
 of our party pressed forward to catch a first glimpse of its 
 walls and towers. It was late in the afternoon, about four, 
 P.M., when, from an elevation not differing much from that 
 on which the city itself is situate, we beheld its sacred and 
 holy precincts for the first time. I was so excessively fa- 
 tigued, and felt so unwell, that I seemed to myself not to 
 have one spark of enthusiasm left. The view was disap- 
 
 * Lamartine (in 1832) gives an interesting account of his interview with thia 
 Arab chief of organized banditti. See " Pilgrimage to the Holy Land/' vol. i. 
 pp. 237-240. Am. Ed. 1835. 
 
264 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 pointing, at best, being from a point where you see little else 
 than a long line of wall, and can distinguish but few of the 
 localities which must ever be dear to the heart of the Chris- 
 tian : the Mount of Olives, Gethsemane, and the holy spots 
 about Kedron, the Valley of Jehoshaphat, Siloa's brook, the 
 lovely vale of Hinnom, were none of them visible ; and the Holy 
 City appeared to have few of the charms with which imagi- 
 nation had invested it, and which had become familiar to our 
 eyes by the skill and genius of the artist. Yet it was the 
 city of the Great King on which we were gazing ; it was 
 here our Divine Lord and Master had walked in the days of 
 His flesh, and here He had suffered as an atonement for the 
 sins of the whole world : it was here the Holy Ghost had 
 descended, in his life-giving power, and fitted the Apostles for 
 the great mission which they had accomplished : it was here 
 the proto-martyr died ; here the disciples bore testimony to the 
 truth, through evil report and through good report: here 
 the persecuting Saul burned with intemperate zeal against 
 the followers of the cross : here he returned years afterwards* 
 as Paul the Apostle, and servant of Jesus, whom he loved 
 and served. Yes, it was the city over which our Lord wept, 
 He who came to His own, and His own received Him not : it 
 was the city which, by its horrible guilt in rejecting the Mes- 
 siah, brought upon itself the dread destruction and misery 
 which befel it, when the Roman eagle lighted upon its prey. 
 Weak as I was, my heart was full of deep emotions, and I 
 kept uttering to myself, in a low voice, "Jerusalem, O Jeru- 
 salem !" I could not say more ; it was neither a scene nor a 
 time for words ; it was not an occasion where speech could 
 image forth the unutterable, unfathomable feelings of one, 
 who counts it his highest glory to be a soldier and servant of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ. , j 
 
 Descending the hill over which we had just been riding, 
 and crossing a valley of no great depth, we came to the Jaffa 
 * Compare Acts ix. with Gal. i. 16-18. , 
 
ENTRANCE INTO THE HOLY CITY. 265 
 
 or Bethlehem gate. We were stopped, for a few moments, 
 by the guard, with reference to the bill of health, after which, 
 we were allowed to enter ; and then it was, that we could, 
 and did exclaim with the Psalmist : — 
 
 " Our feet . . . stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem ! 
 
 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem : 
 They shall prosper that love thee. 
 Peace be within thy walls, 
 And prosperity within thy palaces ! 
 For my brethren and companions' sakes, 
 I will now say, Peace be within thee '. 
 Because of the house of the Lord our God 
 I will seek thy good."* 
 
 We found the streets narrow, often very steep, and just at 
 present, very wet and dirty ; after traversing a considerable 
 portion of the city, we arrived at Meshullam's Hotel, which 
 is not far from the Damascus gate, and is said to be the bet- 
 ter of the two inns in the city. I was completely tired out 
 and almost ready to fall off my horse, and, I regret to say, 
 was compelled to go to bed immediately, and call for the ser- 
 vices of a physician. I have before said, that for several 
 days, I was unable to go out at all, or even to leave my room, 
 which was the more trying, because I had particularly longed 
 to be in Jerusalem during the Holy Week, and to take a 
 part in the touching services of our Church at this sacred sea- 
 son ; but it did not please Him, in whose hands are the issues 
 of life and death, that thus it should be. 
 
 Good Friday, the day commemorative of our Lord's aton- 
 ing sacrifice on the cross; Easter-Even, during which His 
 sacred body lay in the sepulchre ; and bright and glorious 
 Easter, when He burst the bands of death and rose trium- 
 phant from the grave, — all were spent in my room, where for 
 hour after hour, solitary and alone, I lay and meditated upon 
 the precious records of our Lord and our Master's infinite 
 
 * Ps. cxxii. 2, 6-9. 
 
 12 
 
266 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 compassion, love and tenderness toward our guilty race. O 
 may it please Him, that the aspirations of a penitent and be- 
 lieving, though unworthy, servant of His, may be answered 
 according to that which He shall deem best for us all ! My 
 friends and fellow-voyagers saw many of the sights in the 
 church of the Holy Sepulchre, which I rejoice that I did not 
 see ; and they were very busy in examining localities, which I 
 have, as yet, hardly had time to look at : since, however, it has 
 pleased God to give me strength again, and to suffer me to 
 walk about Zion, to see " how doth the city sit solitary, that 
 was full of people ;" how " the ways of Zion do mourn, because 
 none come to the solemn feasts ;" and how " from the daugh- 
 ter of Zion all her beauty is departed,"^ I have most thank- 
 fully embraced the opportunity of seeing, what we have trav- 
 elled thousands of miles to behold ; and I trust, that I may 
 be able to speak of the Holy City in such wise as will inter- 
 est you in everything relating to it, and its most sacred as- 
 sociations. 
 
 * Lam. i. 1,4,6. 
 
LETTER XIV. 
 
 2r!)c ?^ol2 ©Its. 
 
 Extent of the Topics Involved. — A Few Points only Attempted. — ^The Streets, General Ap- 
 pearance, First Impressions, &c. — Houses. — Stone and well Built. — Peculiarity. — Population 
 of Jerusalem. — Probable Amount of. — Character and Condition. — Jews. — Depressed Condi- 
 tion.— Jewish Quarter. — Visit to it. — Scenes there. — English Mission to the Jews. — Its Foun- 
 dation and Objects.— Converts. — Jews' Place of Wailing.— Massive Masonry. — Ruined Arch. 
 — Lepers' Huts. — Scene of Misery and Woe. — Mohammedan Population. — Their Character. — 
 The Christians in Jerusalem.— Deplorable and Disgraceful Hatred and Dissensions. — Social 
 State and Condition on the Whole.— Hope for the Future. 
 
 Jerusalem, April 11th, 1849. 
 My Dear S., 
 
 The Holy City is, in many respects, unlike every other 
 city in the world : there is no period in its history which is not 
 full of interest ; there is not a locality in or about it, which 
 has not some connection with events of moment, or with the 
 sad story of its degradation and ruin, or with its renown and 
 glory in other days. I find it very difficult, in. consequence, 
 to make choice of the few points en which my limits will 
 allow me to dwell : to speak of all, would require volumes ;* 
 for it would embrace nearly the whole history of the chosen 
 people, and would need that every stone, every spot of ground, 
 every tower and building, every single one of the thousand 
 places which are enshrined in the memory of Christians, be 
 spoken of with fulness and carefulness of detail. I should 
 hardly dare, under any circumstances, to undertake a task 
 
 ♦ As an illustration of this remark, see " The Holy City : Historical, Topo- 
 graphical, and Antiquarian Notices of Jerusalem. By George Williams, B.D. 
 Second Ed. 2 vols. Stjo." There are here nearly thirteen hundred pages devot- 
 ed to the Holy City alone, and yet the subject is by no means exhausted I 
 
268 
 
 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
THE STREETS IN JERUSALEM. 
 
 m 
 
 of so great magnitude ; much less may I venture at this 
 time, when I must write rapidly, and in measure without 
 books to consult, to enter upon aught, except such matters 
 as would naturally strike a devout pilgrim to the Holy City, 
 and would be likely to interest those at home, who, though 
 their feet may not stand within the gates of Jerusalem, may, 
 and do pray for her peace and prosperity. Let me have your 
 indulgence, then, my dear S., while I attempt to describe a 
 few of the many things in and about Jerusalem, which give 
 it a charm, even in its present degraded state, above all that 
 mere words can ever express. 
 
 To a European or American, accustomed to the broad 
 avenues, and clean, paved and well-lighted streets, of most 
 of our cities and towns, Jerusalem, like all oriental cities, 
 must, at first, appear unpleasant and disagreeably dirty. 
 Its streets are very narrow, extremely uneven, and by no 
 means free from filth ; the nature of the ground on which 
 the city stands, renders it a constant succession of up and 
 
 On the opposite page is a Plan op Jerusalem, reduced from the Large Plan 
 constructed by Dr. Schultz, late Prussian Consul at Jerusalem. 
 The numbers on the Plan indicate the following sites : 
 
 1. Mosk of Omar. 
 
 2. Site of Solomon's Temple. 
 
 3. Mosk el Aksa. 
 
 4. Church of the Holy Sepulchre. 
 
 5. The Citadel : Tower of David : Hippicus. 
 
 6. The English Church and Consulate. 
 
 7. Upper Pool of Gihon. 
 
 8. Lower Pool of Gihon. 
 
 9. Tomb of David : Mosk 
 
 10. Ruins of the Country House of Caiaphas. 
 
 11. King's Gardens. 
 
 12. En Rogel: Well of Job (Joab). 
 
 13. Tomb of Absalom. 
 
 14. Ruins of the Church of the Ascension. 
 
 15. Garden of Gethsemane. 
 
 Below the map is a section of Jerusalem from W.S.W. to E.N.E., on the line 
 marked A. B. on the Plan. 
 
270 EGyPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 down, the street being in many places paved in the form of 
 stairs ; the evident state of ruin, and almost desolation, which 
 characterizes some portions of the town, not only annoy the 
 traveller, who has to make his way as best he can, amid loose 
 stones, dirt and nastiness, but fill his mind with sadness and 
 regret, that the Holy City should be thus degraded and 
 brought low. I certainly thought, when first we rode through 
 the streets of Jerusalem, on our arrival, that I had never seen 
 so dirty and uncomfortable, so ill kept and so unpleasant a 
 city, as this ; and I find that most of travellers receive much 
 the same impressions ; but you must not suppose that it is, 
 in reality, worse than other oriental towns ; it would be un- 
 fair and unjust, to single it out for censure, when in fact, 
 while it has many things in common with most eastern cities, 
 it has several features of interest peculiar to itself, and which 
 render it more than ordinarily attractive to the Christian pil- 
 grim.*" After the rain had subsided, I was surprised to notice 
 the difference ; the streets soon became comparatively dry 
 and clean, and though they are very narrow, and very crook- 
 ed sometimes, though by the custom of building over them, 
 you pass under arches and dark passages, not the most pleas- 
 ant, and certainly not the cleanest in the world, yet after all, 
 one soon becomes accustomed to such things. The necessity 
 of having narrow streets becomes most sensibly evident, after 
 one has been exposed to the scorching sun for an hour or so, 
 
 * Dr. Robinson, who is not certainly to be accused of being carried away by 
 poetic fancy or fervor, expresses himself as agreeably disappointed with Jerusa- 
 lem ; he thus speaks : " From the descriptions of Chateaubriand and other 
 travellers, I had expected to find the houses of the city miserable, the streets 
 filthy, and the population squalid. Yet the first impression made upon my 
 mind was of a different character; nor did I afterwards see any reason to 
 doubt the correctness of this first impression. The houses are in general better 
 built, and the streets cleaner, than those of Alexandria, Smyrna, or even Con- 
 stantinople. Indeed, of all the oriental cities which it was my lot to visit, Je- 
 rusalem, after Cairo, is the cleanest and most solidly built. The streets, indeed, 
 are narrow, and very rudely paved, like those of all cities of the East. The 
 houses are of hewn stone, often large," &c. — " Biblical Researches," vol i. p. 328 
 
GENERAL IMPRESSIONS. «99^ 
 
 and the shade of the high stone walls of the houses is never 
 felt to be more cool and agreeable, than under such circum- 
 stances. While it is true, that one cannot forget the frequent 
 annoyances alluded to above, and while he feels that the ro- 
 mance with which his imagination had invested the Holy- 
 City, particularly as he called to mind the glowing and pa- 
 thetic language of the "sweet singer of Israel," is almost 
 entirely without foundation in fact, he learns to look on Je- 
 rusalem, with other and more sober eyes, and he strives to 
 forget what she now is, in meditating upon the glory which 
 she once possessed. 
 
 I fear that I do not express myself with any great clear- 
 ness, in my anxiety to utter the truth, and the truth pnly, in 
 regard to this matter. I am extremely desirous not to mislead 
 you by giving you the impression that the Holy City is, in its 
 present condition, either better or worse, than as I actually 
 found it. In general, it disappoints the traveller, it must be 
 confessed ; but withal, it grows upon his affections, if he have 
 any true love for its sacred localities ; and notwithstanding 
 all its defects and all those things which he might, and does 
 wish otherwise, he is deeply pained to leave it, and deeply 
 grieves that he cannot give months instead of days to the city 
 of the Great King. His interest in the questions which have 
 been so ably discussed of late years ; his recollections of the 
 vast multitude of wonderful and grand events which have 
 here been enacted ; and his ever present desire to profit, as a 
 Christian ought, by the holy privileges placed within his reach ; 
 cause him to think little of, yes, even to forget, all minor 
 things, in view of the great fact, that this is the Holy City, 
 of which he has so often read, and from a child, so constantly 
 longed to see. Its narrow and crooked streets beer me endear- 
 ed to him, by the thoughts to which they have given rise ; 
 its elevated and hilly portions, as well as its valleys and 
 recesses, shut out, as it were, from the busy mart, or the 
 thron«:ins: thoroughfare, have a charm of association which 
 
B9S EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 no words can adequately set forth ; and its various quarters, 
 and its many traditionary sacred spots, excite in him the most 
 lively emotions, even though he feel convinced, that most of 
 these traditions have no foundation in fact, and are only the 
 result of that unwise effort to give local habitation to every 
 event and circumstance of the Gospel history. Hence, if I 
 mistake not, the general impression which a traveller carries 
 away with him, is one of pleasure rather than of pain ; and 
 whenever his thoughts recur to Jerasalem, in after days, he 
 forgets all minor trials and troubles, in the glowing and spirit- 
 stirring memories of the city of our Lord and our King. 
 
 The houses in Jerusalem are usually built of stone, and 
 the outer walls are laid with care and, in some cases, with 
 much attention to architectural beauty and design. The 
 windows, which look out upon the streets, are mostly plain, 
 not large, and almost exclusively confined to the upper stories ; 
 only in few instances did I chance to see the lattice work, 
 which adds so much ornament to the windows and houses in 
 Cairo, and which is so essentially necessary to the strict se- 
 clusion of the Turkish harim. The first floor or story, as is 
 almost universal in the East, is occupied for various purposes, 
 but more as a receptacle of multifarious articles than as a 
 place of abode : the family of the occupant always seek the 
 upper floors, which, except in the hottest part of the season, 
 are more pleasant, and furnished with everything which can 
 minister to the enjoyment of an oriental's life : it is a safe 
 rule too, not to judge of what a house is, or what it contains, 
 by the appearance of the first or ground floor. The entrance, 
 as I should have mentioned before, is through a large, some- 
 times rather small door, of strong materials, and kept care- 
 fully closed ; in Jerusalem, I think every door which I saw 
 had an iron ring on it, which served the purposes of a 
 knocker. One peculiarity in the rooms is well worth record- 
 ing : there is not a house in the city, so far as I was able to 
 learn or could observe, but what has several of its upper 
 
THE INHABITANTS OP JERUSALEM. 273 
 
 apartments with dome-shaped ceilings, which are ornamented 
 ofttimes with tasteful mouldings and other pretty things, to 
 set them off to advantage. These project above, generally in 
 the midst of the flat roof or terrace, and form one of the very 
 singular and really picturesque features about the Holy City. 
 The terrace is, of course, open to the sky, and at certain 
 seasons of the day, particularly in the cool of the twilight 
 and evening, or in the morning hours, before the sun has 
 arisen in his strength, it is not only the pleasantest spot in 
 the whole house, but is resorted to by all ages and classes. 
 Of course, as I have been in . but few houses in Jerusalem, 
 I am not able to say much of the style of furnishing or the 
 points in which in these respects they difler from our habi- 
 tations. To one of our habits, if I may judge by my own 
 feelings, oriental houses have not many attractions ; but I 
 am told, and I can well believe it, that use soon accustoms 
 one to the style of living and the arrangements for comfort and 
 convenience, which are common in this country, and after a 
 time, it is said, foreigners become more attached to eastern 
 than to western habits and customs ; — but this is a matter on 
 which I need not dwell. 
 
 The Holy City is, as you know, inhabited by a mixed 
 population, consisting of Christians, Jews and Mohamme- 
 dans. Of their numbers it is by no means easy to obtain 
 any accurate estimate. I made many inquiries of those 
 who had resided long in Jerusalem as well as of some who 
 claimed this a» their birth-place, and I was rather surprised 
 at the singular variety of answers which were given to my 
 questions. Every one spoke vaguely; there were about so 
 many, or so many, people in the city ; and not an individ- 
 ual, not even those in authority, pretended to know with any 
 precision the number of the inhabitants. One person esti- 
 mated the population at twenty thousand, in round numbers, 
 of which five thousand were Jews ; another thought that 
 there were certainly more people than this resident in Jeru- 
 
 12* 
 
274 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 salem ; while a third and a fourth, were clearly convinced 
 that the number was much less than twenty thousand, esti- 
 mating it at the extent as not more than fifteen thousand, of 
 which less than four thousand were Jews. The truth is, no 
 one knows much about the matter any way ; and at best, we 
 can only approximate to the actual result. The streets are 
 never thronged, except during the season when the pilgrims 
 visit Jerusalem, and not even then does the city become 
 very much crowded ; the bazaars have something of a bus- 
 tling air, but in them also, you never find the crowds of peo- 
 ple which make it so difficult to thread your way in a city 
 like Cairo ; and it is undoubtedly and strikingly true, that, in 
 general, the streets of the Holy City are solitary, and that 
 you may often walk a long distance without meeting or see- 
 ing a single individual. Hence, I am led to infer, that the 
 population of Jerusalem cannot be, by any means, as large 
 as the city is capable of containing ; and, perhaps, we shall 
 not be far out of the way if we suppose that there are five 
 thousand Christians, four thousand Jews, and six thousand 
 Mohammedans, making in all fifteen thousand. Dr. Robin- 
 son, in 1838, deriving his estimate from a calculation made 
 from the taxable males of the city, gives the population as 
 follows : Mohammedans, four thousand five hundred ; Jews, 
 three thousand ; Christians, three thousand and five hundred ; 
 that is, allowing for possible omissions, inmates of the con- 
 vents, &c., a total of not more than eleven thousand five 
 hundred.^ In a matter of this kind, where so much is mere 
 guess-work, it becomes no one to be very positive; but, with 
 due deference, I feel tolerably sure that the learned Doctor 
 has given a number as much too low as others have in an 
 opposite direction.! 
 
 The character and condition of the people depend consider- 
 
 * " Biblical Researches,^' vol. ii. p. 85, o 
 
 f Mr. Williams, in a valuable note, has collected the various estimates of the 
 population of modern Jerusalem: 
 
POPULATION OF THE HOLY CITY. 
 
 275 
 
 ably upon the fact whether they are Jews, Mohammedans, 
 or Christians. The Jews occupy the vicinity of Mount Zion, 
 or the southern part of the city, and are, to a very great ex- 
 tent, a degraded race, depending on charity for support : they 
 are despised and hated by both Mohammedans and Christians: 
 they live in the very narrowest lanes, and most filthy and 
 disagreeable quarter of the Holy City ; and they endure scorn 
 and contempt with a hardihood which no other nation or peo- 
 ple ever manifested. Most of them are very poor, and nearly 
 all are supported by contributions from abroad, a fact which 
 has an important bearing upon the question of their becoming 
 Christians ; for the mission to the Jews has not only got to 
 convince them of their guilt and perversity in rejecting the 
 Messiah, but, on their professing Christianity, is obliged to 
 undertake their temporal support also, as a necessary conse- 
 quence. Few persons ever do more than walk or ride through 
 
 " Anthimus, Secretary of the Patriarchate (A 
 Mohammedans .... 
 Jews (about) 
 
 S Orthodox Greek 
 Roman CathoHc 
 Other Christians (about) 
 
 " Dr. Schultz, in 1845 : 
 Mohammedans 
 Jews 
 
 f Greek 
 
 D. 1838) 
 
 Christians ^ 
 
 Roman Catholic 
 Armenian . 
 
 Copts 
 ( Syrians 
 I Abyssinians 
 
 " The Jewish amount is the largest : 
 Mohammedans 
 
 Jews 
 
 Christians .... 
 
 5,000 
 
 5,000 
 
 600 
 
 200 
 
 120 
 
 10,990 
 
 5,000 
 
 7,120 
 
 2,000 
 
 900 
 
 350 
 
 100 
 
 20 
 
 20 
 
 15,510 
 
 15,000 
 
 5,000 
 
 10,000 
 
 30,000 
 
3fi^ EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 the Jews' quarter ; both because it is far from pleasant to 
 make one's way through narrow and dirty streets, and be- 
 cause rarely is it possible to penetrate the cold reserve of the 
 degraded Israelite, and be on such terms of familiar inter- 
 course as will enable a Christian to appreciate a Jew, or a 
 Jew really to understand a Christian. In general, he has an 
 instinctive dislike to the believer in Christ Jesus ; and, to our 
 shame be it confessed, the dislike and hatred are far too often 
 mutual. To one like myself, interested deeply in the welfare 
 of the chosen race, there is hardly a more instructive task 
 than to visit the Jewish quarter in the Holy City, and to 
 notice some peculiarities of that race, a remnant of which 
 has been so miraculously preserved for ages, in order to illus- 
 trate the truth of Holy Scripture, and carry out the designs 
 of God, as declared in His prophetic word. As often as oc- 
 casion permitted, I have gone, sometimes on my horse, more 
 frequently on foot, and with a heart full of emotions of pity 
 and earnest desire that the veil may soon be taken away 
 which is on their hearts, have spent hours in the midst of the 
 Jews' quarter : now, accosted by some aged, hoary mendi- 
 cant, asking alms of one whom, in his soul, he scorns or 
 hates ; now, urged to buy some trinkets of gold or silver ; now, 
 meeting a Jewish maiden or two, who, casting a glance of 
 mingled dislike and contempt upon the stranger, turned and 
 hastened away ; now, surveying with astonishment the wretch- 
 ed exteriors of their dwellings, the many offensive things 
 which have been placed in their midst to annoy and insult 
 them, as the shambles and the mosk in the very heart of 
 their quarter, and the air of negligence, misery, degradation, 
 and destitution all around; and now, again, wondering at 
 the sturdy demeanor, the unconquerable powers of endurance 
 of the Jew, and the steadfastness of his adherence to those 
 dogmas which he has inherited from his fathers, and which 
 he is ready to die to maintain. I do assure you, my dear S., 
 that this portion of the Holy City has affected me always 
 
ENGLISH MISSION TO THE JEWS. 277 
 
 very much ; and I am quite unequal to the task of describing 
 the many striking characteristics, of those who occupy, at 
 the present day, a portion of that illustrious city, in which 
 their ancestors dwelt in power and glory. Poor, aged, care- 
 worn, shrinking from the approach of strangers, fearful of 
 insult, dreading oppression and outrage, living in penury and 
 degradation, outcasts, bywords to their neighbors, and de- 
 sirous only to lay their bones within the precincts of the city 
 of the Great King, — O, how do they and their deplorable 
 condition touch the sympathies of the Christian heart ! hov 
 do they appear before our eyes as the living witnesses of the 
 truth and exactness of God's Holy Word ! and how earnestly 
 does the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only and true 
 Messiah, pray for their conversion, and labor to his utmost 
 that they may soon be brought to the knowledge of the truth 
 as it is in Jesus ! 
 
 With such feelings as these, you will readily understand 
 the deep interest which I have in the success of the English 
 mission, now established and in operation at Jerusalem. I 
 have had the pleasure of much intercourse with the Rt. Rev. 
 Bishop Gobat, the Rev. Mr. Nicolayson, and the Rev. Mr. 
 Ewald ; and am much indebted to these brethren for answers 
 to my numerous inquiries, as to the present prospects of their 
 labors. On the whole, they spoke encouragingly, but not to 
 the extent which I had hoped, or which, I think, the friends 
 of the mission have had a right to expect. The establish- 
 ment of the English bishopric in Jerusalem, at the very focus, 
 and in the midst of every Ibrm of bitter sectarianism and 
 hostility to all new-comers, promised at first to produce a 
 good effect, and, like oil on the raging sea, to calm the waters 
 of discontent, hatred, and actual warfare ; and it was hoped 
 that the name and influence of England would not be with- 
 out result, upon the Turkish and Mohammedan population 
 in the Holy City. But I regret to «ay, that, so far as it ap- 
 pears, even from the representations of those who have sup- 
 
278 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 ported the project from the beginning, there has not been 
 produced the good which was expected, and there have been 
 stirred up feelings and objections, which might have been 
 looked for, but which are deeply to be deplored in all questions 
 of this kind. The Lutheran clergy are indignant, as a body, 
 that they should be excluded from ministering in a church, 
 founded and supported, in great measure, by a Lutheran 
 king ; and, as an intelligent layman from Berlin warmly de- 
 clared to me one day, they look upon the king of Prussia as 
 jiaving betrayed and insulted their church, and they seem 
 disposed to visit no little of their censure upon the Church of 
 England, for her share in the matter. Similar sentiments 
 are avowed by Tischendorff, in his remarks on the "Anglican 
 bishopric at Jerusalem ;" and they appear to me to be well 
 worth the consideration of all interested in this question.* 
 In the opposite direction, we know that a large number of the 
 clergy and laity in England, highly disapproved and refused 
 to sanction the amalgamation between the English Church 
 and the established form of religion in Prussia, a fact which 
 has tended to draw off the interest of many, not only from 
 this particular matter, but from the question of the Jewish 
 mission itself I am not going to venture upon a discussion 
 upon the merits of this subject, looked at in all its bearings: 
 my feelings are decidedly against all attempts to form a union 
 with those who differ from our Church on points of so much 
 importance as the constitution of the Church and its ministry, 
 for I believe, in every case, such attempts have been produc- 
 tive of no permanent good results. But, as the bishopric is 
 established, and the present occupant of the Episcopal chair 
 is laboring diligently to carry out the object of his appoint- 
 ment, I hope and trust that God may send His choicest 
 blessings upon both bishop and clergy, and that they may see 
 and rejoice in the fruits of their self-denying labors in His 
 cause. Just at present, the number of converts is small, and 
 
 * " Travels in the East," p. 158—166. 
 
PLACE OF WAILING. 279 
 
 the temptations to embrace Christianity from motives other 
 than those of honest conviction, are so peculiar, that unusual 
 watchfulness is needed, and a long course of disciplinary in- 
 struction absolutely demanded. Consequently, the mission 
 does not number many who have been brought to a knowledge 
 of their guilt and error ; but those who are catechunaens, and 
 those who have been baptized, are, I believe, really and truly 
 turned from the error of their ways, and earnestly desirous to 
 know and believe the truths of the Gospel. I am sure, then, 
 that though you may not participate in my doubts or hesita- 
 tion on this topic, you will join me heartily in wishing God 
 speed to this and every effort, to restore the Jew to the privi- 
 leges and blessings, of which, by his obstinacy and perverse 
 continuance in sin and rebellion, he has so long been deprived. 
 The Jews' place of wailing is not the least interesting 
 spot in Jerusalem, and, to a Christian traveller, is very sug- 
 gestive of lessons of warning and instruction. I may, not 
 improperly, I hope, here speak of this and one or two other 
 matters connected with the Jews in Jerusalem. It is a 
 place comprising about a hundred feet of the west wall of 
 the Haram, not far from its southern boundary, and one 
 which, concealed in great measure from observation, in a part 
 o^ the deep valley between Mount Zion and Mount Moriah, 
 must be very touching to the feelings of the despised and 
 down-+rodden remnant of Israel, who here weekly assemble 
 to wail and mourn over the desolation and downfallof Judah. 
 I preferred not to go on a Friday, deeming it too much of an 
 intrusion upon their grief, which deserves respect, at least, at 
 our hands ; so, taking another day, I went to look at this 
 spot, and to gaze upon the remains of the wall which Dr. Rob- 
 inson and others attribute to the era of Solomon ; and if I 
 may venture an opinion, not without reason. The massive 
 stones, of themselves alone, point back to a period of great 
 antiquity, and unless we refer the erection of so grand a 
 work to the time of Solomon, I know not when, or by whom, 
 
EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAiqil. 
 
 it could have been accomplished ; for there has never been, 
 since his days, an era of wealth and prosperity sufficient to 
 enable the Jews to devote time and labor to such undertak- 
 ings as these. The few Israelites, whom I chanced to see 
 here on this occasion, did not appear to be much affected with 
 grief or depression ; they were quite willing to act as guides 
 and always ready to beg, even though they knew that I was 
 a Christian. After measuring some of the stones and satis- 
 fying myself of the very great size of many of them, I went 
 a short distance further, and at the south-west angle of the 
 temple area, beheld the evident remains of an ancient arch, 
 forming part of a large bridge. Dr. Robinson identifies this 
 with the bridge mentioned incidentally by Josephus, as lead- 
 ing from this part of the temple across the valley of the 
 Tyropoeon to the Xystus on Mount Zion ; and, in his opinion, 
 '' it proves incontestably the antiquity of that portion of the 
 wall from which it springs." Though century after century 
 has rolled away since this massive masonry was here erected 
 by that great monarch, who built the glorious and splendid 
 temple of Jehovah ; and though ruin and desolation have vis- 
 ited the Holy City and laid it low in the dust, its temple de- 
 stroyed, and its people scattered over the face of the wide 
 world ; "yet these foundations still endure, and are unmova- 
 ble as at the beginning. Nor is there aught in the present 
 physical condition of these remains, to prevent them from 
 continuing as long as the world shall last. It was the tem- 
 ple of the living God ; and like the everlasting hills on which 
 it stood, its foundations were laid ' for all time.' "* 
 
 Leaving this interesting locality, I rode up the easterly as- 
 cent of Zion, through a number of crooked lanes, and proceed- 
 ing for some distance in a south-westerly direction, I came 
 to a manufactory of pottery- ware, made from clay found in 
 the adjacent valley of Hinnom. It is but a little way from 
 the Zion gate. " Just south of the pottery" — I use the words 
 
 ♦ " Biblical Researches," vol. i. pp. 425, 427. 
 
.♦J/. VHUTS OF THE LEPERS. 28J 
 
 of Mr. Williams — "and hard by the city gate are the Lepers^ 
 Huts^ a set of miserable low clay hovels, the habitations of 
 these unfortunates, who are now found only at Jerusalem and 
 Nablous. Dr. Schultz had occasion to visit them, and ascer- 
 tained their numbers to be twenty-seven, men, women and 
 children ; Mohammedans. They are allowed to intermarry, 
 and thus propagate this loathsome malady, which is heredi- 
 tary. They receive a miserable pittance for their mainte- 
 nance, from the government, which they are fain to eke out 
 by begging. And a most pitiable and disgusting sight it is 
 to see the poor wretches, laid at the entrance of the gates 
 of the city, asking alms of the passengers, with outstretched 
 hands or stumps, in various stages of decay, under the influ- 
 ence of this devouring disease, for which, I believe, no effec- 
 tual remedy is known. I saw no case of that whiteness 
 w^hich is mentioned in Scripture, as the symptom of this 
 disorder ; but I own that my eyes shrunk with horror from 
 the contemplation of such misery, and I avoided contact with 
 them as I would with one plague-stricken."* You may be 
 sure that I was not less struck with the scene than the au- 
 thor just quoted. It was a deplorable and almost disgusting 
 sight, and the importunity of their cries for alms was, to me, 
 distressing. About a dozen were squatted down in the dirt, 
 men, women and children, a fair little child, in whom the 
 loathsome disease was not yet developed, playing in the midst; 
 and the moment they saw a stranger approaching they started 
 up, most hideous objects, some of the older women, particu- 
 larly, and began to beg very piteously. For the sake of that 
 pretty child, whom I looked upon with the deepest compas- 
 sion, I gave them an amount which excited among them 
 cries of pleasure, and turned away from the sad sight, with 
 a heart, more than ever, deeply impressed with the goodness 
 and mercy of God toward me and mine. 
 
 The Turkish or Mohammedan population of Jerusalem, 
 
 * Williams's " Holy Ctty,^' vol. i., Supplement, p. 24. 
 
EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 occupy the north-eastern portion of the city, which is, on the 
 whole, the most airy and pleasant. By their position as 
 rulers and in authority, as well as by natural temperament, 
 they are haughty, insolent and tyrannical. The higher of- 
 ficers vary their life of indolence by listening to the wretched 
 bickerings and complaints of one Christian sect or commu- 
 nity against another ; by receiving bribes from both sides, to 
 favor their respective projects ; and by treating with scorn 
 and contempt, the quarrelsome, jealous, and vindictive Greek 
 and Latin, whose mutual hatred knows no bounds. The 
 underlings pursue the same course on a more limited scale ; 
 the soldiery do not forget themselves in the discharge of their 
 duties as guards, and from the dreadful scenes enacted in the 
 church of the Holy Sepulchre, of which they are specta- 
 tors, they are not likely to derive much edification, or see 
 much reason for abandoning Mohammedanism, and adopting 
 this caricature of Christianity ; and as for the Turks, in 
 general, and others of that race, who believe in the Arabian 
 impostor, they do not scruple to carry their heads higher than 
 anybody else in the Holy City ; they bestow their curses, not 
 to say their blows, upon both Christian and Jewish dogs, 
 when they dare ; and thus feel, or affect to feel, the most su- 
 preme contempt for all but themselves, and they would, had 
 they the power, not hesitate to crush them under foot. Pro]> 
 ably they are the more bitter in their dislike from the con- 
 viction, which is well nigh universal in the East, that the 
 power of Mohammedanism is fading away, and that ere long 
 it must sink into utter ruin and oblivion : truly, this is a 
 consummation most devoutly to be wished for. 
 
 Of the Christians in the Holy City — I mean those who 
 bear the name — it is difficult to speak in terms which shall 
 convey the truth, without, on the one hand, indulging in too 
 great acerbity of expression, or, on the other, neglecting to 
 utter the words of indignation and deep grief, which every 
 serious-minded traveller must feel, when he looks upon the 
 
THE CHRISTIANS AND THEIR aUARRELS. 283 
 
 deceit, dissension, and evil passion of every sort, prevalent 
 among them. I dare hardly trust myself to say, what per- 
 haps as one jealous for the honor and purity of the truth, I 
 ought to say, on these points ; I can find no terms sufficiently 
 strong, and yet not extravagant, in which to characterize 
 many, many things here done and sanctioned ; you must 
 allow me, therefore, to use the languagv^^, of a divine, whose 
 long residence in the Holy City, and whose spirit of modera- 
 tion and fairness towards Christian bodies in the East, fit him 
 admirably to speak with prudence and judgment : " Among 
 all the exhibitions of the Christians in the Holy City, that 
 which must most scandalize the infidels, is their shameful di- 
 visions, accompanied with jealousies and heart-burnings, and 
 not unfrequently attended with sanguinary quarrels and acts 
 of violence, which call for the interference of the civil powers. A 
 colored plan of the church of the Holy Sepulchre, is a picture of 
 the religious dissensions which afflict the Holy City, and present 
 a perpetual stumbling block to Jews and Mohammedans — one 
 might almost say, a standing argument against the truth of 
 the religion which we profess ; for if the unity and harmony 
 of the Church be a note of the heavenly origin of the doctrine 
 which it holds, the absence of these must obscure the evi- 
 dence and hinder the progress of the Gospel. The supersti- 
 tious practices which have been mentioned, are only obtruded 
 on the notice of the Mohammedans occasionally, at stated 
 seasons, but the dissensions of the various sects, fill the Holy 
 City with jarring discord throughout the year. These dis- 
 putes are carried to Constantinople, and submitted to the de- 
 cision of the Ottoman Porte, to be ruled, not according to the 
 principles of justice and equity, but as bribery, or private in- 
 fluence, or political interests may chance to prevail. One or 
 two examples shall be given, which will serve better than 
 words, to manifest the feeling that exists between the rival 
 communions. The Greeks and Latins, both enjoy the coun- 
 tenance of powerful European monarchs, whence they derive 
 
284 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 an importance at Constantinople, which, independently of 
 this, they would not possess ; the Armenians make up by 
 their wealth what they lack in this respect, and are thus able 
 to sway the decisions of the Porte. The Syrians and Copts, 
 are too poor and too insignificant, to contend with these pow- 
 erful rivals ; but being in communion with the Armenians 
 they are, for the most part, identified with their interests and 
 enjoy their protection ; in return for which, they are expected 
 to submit to such spoliations as their protectors think right to 
 inflict I would even avow a con- 
 viction, forced upon me by such facts as these, and only con- 
 firmed by time, that the Turks are, for the present, the best 
 and safest guardians of the Holy places ; and that until the 
 Christians have laid aside their animosities, the control of an 
 infidel, and therefore indifferent arbiter, will be necessary to 
 restrain within some bounds, those vindictive feuds which, 
 even though kept in check, break out occasionally into acts 
 of open and even fatal violence. It were frightful to contem- 
 plate the consequences of power being given into the hands 
 of any one of the Christian bodies who now divide the sacred 
 city."* The social state and condition of the Christians in 
 Jerusalem is, on the whole, calculated to excite our commis- 
 eration ; their principal occupation is the making of crosses, 
 beads, boxes, crucifixes, &c., for which they find a ready sale 
 at the time of the annual influx of pilgrims ; but in general, 
 the mass is very poor, very ignorant and very superstitious. 
 The Holy City has no trade or commerce, and nothing to ex- 
 cite emulation among its population on topics calculated to 
 improve or meliorate their temporal position ; and so far as I 
 am able to judge from personal inspection in a few cases, they 
 are for the most part, listless, indolent, and thoughtless, and 
 live on from year to year, in discontented poverty. You will 
 understand, however, and make allowance for it, that excep- 
 tions to this remark do exist ; for it is a fact not to be denied, 
 
 ♦ Williams's " Holy City;' vol. ii. p. 534—538. 
 
HOPE FOR THE FUTURE. 285 
 
 that there is considerable wealth hoarded up in Jerusalem, 
 and in private, and unseen by the jealous Turks, some fami- 
 lies live in the enjoyment of luxuries and comforts far beyond 
 what might be supposed to belong to them, judging from their 
 personal appearance or the exterior of their habitations. 
 
 Here it may be well to pause awhile before turning our 
 attention to other matters : let us pray for the peace of Jeru- 
 salem ; as she now is, torn by dissension and trodden down 
 by the scorner, her case is pitiable indeed; but let. us hope 
 that God may soon arise and have mercy upon her, for His 
 compassions fail not, and in the midst of wrath He remem- 
 bers mercy. I know that you will join me, more fervently, 
 if possible, than ever, in the petition taught us by our Divine 
 Lord Himself: — " Thy kingdom come ; Thy will be done on 
 earth as it is in Heaven." 
 
LETTER XV. 
 
 €&et|)»emane~2rte i^ount of (i^Ubes. 
 
 Necessity of Omitting many Things for Want of Room.— A Walk Outside of the City.— Via 
 Dolorosa.— Pass out of St. Stephen's Gate.— Scene from this Point.— Descend into the Valley 
 of Jehoshaphat.— Cross the Kedron.— Garden of Gethsemane.— Deep and Solemn Feelings. 
 — Our Lord's Agony.— Thoughts respecting the Last Days of His Passion.— Ascent of the 
 Mount of Olives.— An Incident.— Desolateness of the Scene.— Ruins on the Summit.— The 
 Foot-print in the Roclv.— Pilgrim Devotion.— Question as to the Place of our Lord's Ascen- 
 sion. — View Adopted. — Panorama from the Minaret near by. — Musings on the Mount of 
 Olives.— David and his Rebellious Son.— Our Lord Jksds Christ.— Wept over Jerusalem. 
 —His Solemn Words.— Return to the City.— Talk v^ith Tom maso.— Sadness of the Scene at 
 Evening.— A Walk around the Walls Outside,— The Citadel, Pool of Gihon, Mount Zion, 
 Valley of Hinnom.--The Pool of Siloam, Fountain of the Virgin.— Some General Remarks 
 in Conclusion.— Striking Natural Features of Jerusalem Anciently.— Cluestion as to the 
 Population it was Capable of Containing.— Probable Result. 
 
 Jerusalem, April 13th, 1849. 
 My Dear S., 
 
 I HAD hoped that my limits would admit of entering 
 upon a description of several prominent objects in the Holy 
 City ; I had thought, that I might be able to give something 
 of a connected account of the interior of the city, and the 
 buildings and localities of importance, such as the mosk of 
 Omar, the Temple-area, the Armenian, Latin, Greek and 
 other convents, the Tower of Hippicus, etc. ; but I find that 
 it will be quite out of my power, and I shall be compelled to 
 pass over in silence, several points which require large space 
 fairly to examine, and to confine myself to a few of the topics 
 of interest, which it would be unpardonable to omit entirely. 
 Probably, you will see little cause to regret this present ne- 
 cessity on my part, for the excellent work of Mr. W. H 
 
VIA DOLOROSA. 287 
 
 Bartlett, entitled " Walks about Jerusalem," the elaborate 
 volumes of Mr. Williams, and Dr. Robinson, on the same 
 subject, the striking and ingenious, but not convincing, trea- 
 tise of Mr. Fergusson on the " Ancient Topography of Jeru- 
 salem," and other volumes, easily accessible, supply — as you 
 know — the fullest information, as well on those matters which I 
 shall pass over, as on those upon which I shall venture to speak. 
 In the present letter, I must beg you to accompany me to 
 some of the sacred spots outside of the walls of the Holy 
 City, where there are attractions, I think, not inferior to any 
 within the city itself 
 
 Imagine yourself, then, my dear S., on a bright sunny 
 spring morning, to be with me at our Hotel, ready for a walk 
 about Zion, and a visit to some of its touching localities. We 
 are not far from the Damascus Gate, but we will not pass 
 through it at this time. Let us rather proceed through the 
 narrow street or lane, leading towards the heart of the city. 
 In a few minutes we come to the Via Dolorosa, and turning 
 off towards the East, we traverse this steep and rugged way, 
 filled with thoughts of Him, whose sufferings and death were 
 for our sins, and who, for our sakes, endured the cross, de- 
 spising the shame. Tommaso, our guide and attendant, points 
 out to us the various spots which tradition has fixed upon in 
 connection with our Lord's bearing the cross, sinking under 
 it with fatigue and exhaustion, the offices of love shown Him 
 by some of His disciples, &c. ; we may not, it is true, believe 
 all that he has learned and tells us on these points ; but we 
 may remember to advantage, that our Divine Lord did un- 
 dergo all the pain and torture so touchingly related of Him 
 in the Gospels, and probably did pass somewhere near here 
 when He was led out to be crucified. We soon reach, after 
 a turning or two, the gate in the Eastern wall, commonly, 
 but I believe wrongly, called " St. Stephen's Gate," passing 
 first under an archway where, according to tradition, Pontius 
 Pilate showed to the people our Saviour, wearing the crown of 
 
288^ EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 thorns and the purple robe, and exclaimed, " Behold the 
 man I" Hence the name, the '< Arch of Ecce Homo." This 
 Gate, called by the natives, both Christian and Mohamme- 
 dan, Bab Sitty Miryam^ or " St. Mary Gate," is ornament- 
 ed by four lions, sculptured in relief, over the gateway, prob- 
 ably, as Mr. Williams thinks, the work of the Christians. 
 As you will observe, decoration of this kind is pecuhar in 
 an oriental city ; and hardly accords with the character and 
 appearance of the Turkish guards who are lounging about, 
 and who look at us with no friendly eyes. 
 
 Let us pause for a moment and look around, for here we 
 are gazing upon holy ground. Directly before us is the steep 
 and stony descent into the Valley of Jehoshaphat ; a little 
 way further, the Brook Kedron ; then G^thsemane ; and then, 
 the sides and steeps of the Mount of Olives, crowned by the 
 ruined Church of the Ascension. Towards the north and 
 east, the valley lies in all its beauty and richness of cultiva- 
 tion ; on our right, close by the wall, is the Mohammedan 
 Cemetery, and the hillside, very precipitous, and reaching 
 down into the depths of the valley ; and on the rise of the Mount 
 opposite, and at some distance to the southeast, are the tombs 
 of Jehoshaphat, Absalom, and others, and the burial-ground 
 of the Jews. O what busy thoughts here come thick and 
 fast upon the mind of the devout pilgrim ! and how incompe- 
 tent does he feel to take in the pathos and power of what is 
 spread out before him ! 
 
 Let us go on ; the pathway is steep, and the bare rocks 
 in many places are under our feet ; we meet but few persons, 
 and there is a stillness and quiet well suited to the tone of 
 our feelings. Ere long, we come to the dry bed of Kedron's 
 Brook, and crossing it by a small arched bridge, we reach the 
 foot of the Mount of Olives : near by is the supposed tomb 
 of the Blessed Virgin, an edifice rather imposing in appear- 
 ance, but possessing no claims on our sympathies, when we 
 are close to undoubted sacred localities spoken of in Holy 
 
GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE. 
 
 289 
 
 Writ Yes, it is indeed true, that our feet are treading holy 
 ground, for here, within a few yards, is the Garden of Geth- 
 semane. Gethsemane ! O what emotions does this one 
 word excite in our souls ! Let us enter the hallowed pre- 
 cincts of that garden where " Jesus oft-times resorted with 
 His disciples:" the high stone wall prevents intruders, and 
 when once we are admitted we are alone, alone in a partially 
 cultivated but unfruitful spot, with only eight aged and ven- 
 erable olive trees to relieve the sadness of the scene.* We 
 seat ourselves at the foot of one of these gnarled and time 
 worn trees, and with emotions too deep for utterance, we 
 open the record of the Gospels, and in the very words of the 
 Apostles and Evangelists, read the pathetic history of our 
 Lord's last hours of pain and anguish unutterable. Ah, will 
 those words ever fade from my memory ; and shall not I, 
 even I, have gi*ace to "do well and take it patiently" when 
 called upon to '* suffer for it ;" shall not I, too, be enabled to 
 ''follow His steps" whose life is our ensample, " who did no 
 sin, neither was guile found in His mouth : who, when He 
 was reviled, reviled not again ; when He suffered. He threat- 
 ened not ; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth 
 righteously ; who His own self bare our sins in His own body 
 on the tree, that we being dead to sins, should live unto right- 
 eousness ; by whose stripes we are healed ?"t Here, with 
 tearful eyes, with bowed head, and bended knees, let us med- 
 itate upon His agony, of whom we have just read in the 
 Gospels : let us call to mind, with the deepest contrition and 
 self-abasement, the ineffable sufferings, in our behalf, of the 
 
 * " Near the same bridge and church, on the right, is the place fixed on by 
 eariy tradition as the site of the garden of Gethsemane. It is a plat of ground 
 nearly square, enclosed by an ordinary stone wall; [a high, plastered one has 
 been recently erected]. The N. W. corner is 145 feeC distant from the bridge. 
 The W. side, measures 160 feet in length; and the N. side, 150 feet. Within 
 this enclosure are eight very old olive trees, with stones thrown together around 
 their trunks." — Robinson's " Biblical Researches,^' vol. i. p. 34G. 
 
 1 1 Pet. u. 20-24. 
 
 13 
 
290 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 " Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief," of Him who 
 so plaintively uttered the fearful words, '* my soul is exceed- 
 ing sorrowful, even unto death."* 
 
 " Dear sacred haunts of glory and of woe, 
 Help us, one hour, to trace His musings high and low: 
 One heart-ennobling hour ! It may not be 
 
 Th' unearthly thoughts have passed from earth away, 
 And fast as evening sunbeams from the sea 
 
 Thy footsteps all in Sion's deep decay 
 Were blotted from the holy ground : yet dear 
 Is every stone of hers ; for Thou wast surely here. 
 
 There is a spot within this sacred dale 
 That felt Thee kneeling— touch'd Thy prostrate brow : 
 
 One angel knows it. O might prayer avail 
 To win that knowledge ! sure each holy vow 
 
 Less quickly from the unstable soul would fade, 
 
 Offer'd where Christ in agony was laid,"f 
 
 Meet is the place, fitting is the hour, for sinners, like our- 
 selves, to learn something of the enormity of sin which de- 
 manded such a sacrifice as that of the precious Lamb of God, 
 without spot or blemish ; and too deep for utterance are our 
 thoughts, and our devout supplications and prayers to Him, 
 who, not many steps distant, "kneeled down and prayed, say- 
 ing. Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from Me : 
 nevertheless, not My will but Thine be done:" and who, "be- 
 ing in an agony, prayed more earnestly ; and His sweat was 
 as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground."! 
 Do you not remember reading with me, on one occasion, out 
 of one of the noblest works of an age great in divines, what 
 is there so well and so truly said ? let me repeat it for our 
 edification: "The Evangelists have in such language ex- 
 pressed. His agony as cannot but raise in us the highest ad 
 miration at the bitterness of that passion. • He began to 
 
 ♦ Is. liii. 3 ; Matt. xxvi. 38. f Keble's " Christian Year," p. 99. 
 
 4: St. Luke, xxii. 41-44. 
 
LAST DAYS OF THE HOLY WEEK. W^' 
 
 be sorrowful,' saith St. Matthew (xxvi. 37). * He began to be 
 sore amazed,' saith St. Mark (xiv. 33), * and to be very heavy^' 
 say both (ibid) : and yet these words in our translation, come 
 far short of the original expressions, which render Him sud- 
 denly, upon a present and immediate apprehension, possessed 
 with fear, horror and amazement, encompassed with grief, and 
 overwhelmed with sorrow, pressed down with consternation 
 and dejection of mind, tormented with anxiety and disquie- 
 tude of spirit." And again : ''If the true contrition of one 
 single sinner, bleeding under the sting of the Law only for 
 his own iniquities, all which notwithstanding, he knoweth 
 not, cannot be performed without great bitterness of sorrow 
 and remorse ; what bounds can we set unto that grief, what 
 measures to that anguish, which proceedeth from a full ap- 
 prehension of all the transgressions of so many millions of 
 sinners ?"* 
 
 While standing or kneeling here, how vividly do the events 
 of the Holy Week seem to present themselves before us ! It 
 will hc> profitable to our souls' health, to call to mind, and to 
 go over, step by step, the last days of His passion in our be- 
 half. On the evening of Wednesday, the first day of un- 
 leavened bread began, t and it would seem that it was mainly 
 spent with His disciples on the Mount of Olives, or in this 
 garden, where he was accustomed to meet and discourse with 
 them, and whither he returned ofttimes for solitary medita- 
 tion and prayer. The next morning, " Thursday before 
 Easter," in the Church's calendar. He sent Peter and John to 
 
 *Bp. Pearson's '= Exposition of the Creed" p. 281-283. 
 
 tit is necessary to bear in mind, that the day among the Jews began at sun- 
 set of the day previous; thus, after six o'clock, or sunset, on Wednesday, it was 
 the next day, or Thursday; after the same hour on Thursday, it was Friday, or 
 the day of our Lord's crucifixion, on which day He instituted the Lord's Supper, 
 was betrayed by Judas, was condemned to death, was crucified, dead and buried ; 
 the Sabbath began at sunset on Friday. Hence our Lord's body was in the 
 Sepulchre, part of Friday, all of Saturday, and a part of Sunday, which was 
 he third day, and the one on which His glorious resurrection took place. 
 
392^ EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND, 
 
 make preparations for the paschal supper, to be eaten that 
 evening, after sunset, when Good Friday had begun. Early 
 in the evening they all assembled in the " large upper room, 
 furnished and prepared," and Jesus and the twelve sat down, 
 or rather reclined on the couches, to eat the supper. As they 
 were eating, our Saviour uttered those most touching words : 
 *' Verily I say unto you, one of you which eateth with me 
 shall betray me." What sorrow, what astonishment, what 
 horror was depicted in the countenances of those chosen few, 
 as one by one they asked the question, " Lord, is it I ?" 
 What shame and guilty confusion did Judas Iscariot mani- 
 fest, when, last of all, in a low voice, knowing the foul pur- 
 pose he was about to execute, he, too, having asked, " Is it 
 J ?" the Saviour pointed^ replied, it is — you are the traitor-^, 
 "that thou doest do quickly." It was now that He uttered 
 that long, touching, and consolatory discourse, so fully re- 
 corded by St. John : it was now that He instituted the holy 
 Sacrament, by which His death is to be commemorated until 
 His coming again in power and great glory : it was now, after 
 having sung a hymn, that He left the chamber, accompanied 
 by the eleven, trod the lonely street, passed out of the gate, 
 reproved the unseemly wrangling of his disciples ; and, while 
 the silvery moon shed its soft rays on the hillside, descended 
 the stony path, and entered, for the last time, the Garden of 
 Gethsemane. The hour, we may suppose, to have been be- 
 tween eight and nine ; and now began, indeed, the bitter 
 aQd intense agony, of which words can give no idea. Eight 
 of the disciples were not far off; Peter, and James, and John 
 were nearer to Him : He himself suffering the anguish of a 
 w^orld's sins, laid upon Him, when in His agony He cried out, 
 '* O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." 
 Prostrate on the ground, " His sweat, as it were, great drops 
 of blood," the w^ath of God against sin, all heaped on His 
 head — well might He have expected the sympathizing conso- 
 lations of thos"- chosen three, whom He had taken aside to 
 
GOOD FRIDAY EVE. 
 
 m 
 
 watch with Him. But they were asleep ; their sorrow had 
 overcome them, and, forgetful of His warnings, they neglected 
 the needful preparation of watchfulness and prayer, to fit 
 them for the trials even now at hand. Twice He came to 
 them and rebuked them for their conduct : Why sleep ye ? 
 Simon, sleepeth thou ? could ye not watch with me one 
 hour ? The third time, after He had drunk the cup of agony 
 to its very dregs, He came to them and saith unto them, sleep 
 on now, and take your rest ; it matters not now ; it is 
 enough ; the hour is come ; behold the Son of Man is betrayed 
 into the hands of sinners. 
 
 And while He is yet speaking, see, the hillside is alive with 
 atmed men, torches gleaming, and a band of soldiers coming 
 on. See them as they approach ; they descend into the valley, 
 they cross the brook, they advance to the garden where Jesus 
 is ; and O, see, the traitor is at their head : the traitor comes 
 forward ; the traitor dares to meet his innocent Master, and 
 to salute that sacred cheek with a kiss : to the traitor was 
 addressed the severe rebuke, which should have stricken him 
 to the earth — " Judas, betrayest thou the Son of Man with a 
 kiss ?" What confusion follows ! The soldiers, on our Lord's 
 naming Himself, go backward and fall to the ground ; the 
 itnpetuous Peter draws a sword, and smites off the ear of the 
 Jfligh Priest's servant : the Lord Jesus suffers Himself to be 
 apprehended and led away by the band ; and all the disciples, 
 ttie self-confident Peter among the rest, forsake the Saviour, 
 and take to flight. Alone, and abandoned to His mortal enemies, 
 lie is taken in the dead of night, in bonds and suffering contu- 
 mely and insult, to the house ef Annas first, thence to the palace 
 of Caiaphas, the high priest, and thence to the Praetorium of 
 Pilate. The mockings and insults which He endured for our 
 sake ; the detestable hypocrisy of the Jewish authorities ; the 
 heartless reviling and abuse of Herod and his men ; the 
 fcbol, unblushing injustice and wrong inflicted by the vacil- 
 lating Roman : the foul indignities heaped upon Him by the 
 
^^ EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 brutal soldiery ; all He suffered with a calmness and heavenly 
 serenity, which He alone ever manifested. Yes, He endured 
 all things for the sake of us sinners — he endured the scorn 
 and contempt of those who sought to glut their revenge with 
 His blood, crying out in their blind and awful hatred, " His 
 blood be on us and on our children." He endured the deser- 
 tion of His disciples, the shameful denial of Peter, the crown 
 of thorns, the bearing of His cross, the fainting anguish of 
 body and soul, the nailing to the cross, and the agony of that 
 death on the cross, all, all for us, whom He died to save, and 
 without whose sacrifice we were lost forever. ,; 
 
 As with full hearts, we leave this sacred spot, let our 
 thoughts and aspirations be those of the penitent, believing 
 and obedient ; for " there should be no greater comfort to 
 Christian persons, than to be made like unto Clirist, by suf- 
 fering patiently, adversities, troubles, and sicknesses. For 
 He Himself, went not up to joy, but first He suffered pain ; 
 He entered not into His glory, before He was crucified. So 
 truly our way to eternal joy is to suffer here with Christ ; 
 and our door to enter into eternal life is gladly to die with 
 Christ; that we may rise again from death and dwell with 
 Him in everlasting life."=^ 
 
 Let us continue our walk up the side of the Mount of 
 Olives; the ascent is not steep, except here and there, and 
 as we go on you will see how many points of view there are 
 from which Jerusalem, even now, is not deficient in beauty 
 and sublimity. As you perceive, the number of trees is not 
 large, much less so, doubtless, than in early days, when this 
 lofty hill received its name from the abundance of trees 
 which flourished on its slopes and steeps. Here and there, 
 in some retired spot or enclosure, a little way from the path, 
 are parties of women and children, who have come out of 
 the dull, hot city, to sit under the trees and on the green- 
 sward, and to enjoy the delight of chatting one with another, 
 
 ♦ Exhortation in the " Order for the Visitation of the Sick." 
 
ASCENT TO MOUNT OP OLIVES. 519^5 
 
 in unrestrained freedom. But see ; there is a little girl who 
 is throwing stones at us ; and why ? do you suppose : let us 
 ask the reason, if' reason there be, "What do you mean by 
 throwing stones at us?" the answer comes quickly and 
 pertly ;--^" what do you want by looking at us as you did? 
 and if you don't go away and not look where we are, we 
 will throw more stones at you, you Christian dogs." Such 
 is the .spirit breathed into the young by the bigotted and fa- 
 natical Mohammedans. Tommaso is excessively indignant, 
 and returns their abuse in kind if not in amount; but we 
 can well afford to pass it by, and continue our upward walk. 
 We meet but very few persons, and were we to judge by these 
 evidences of life and activity round about the Holy City, we 
 should see and feel, most deeply, how true it is, that she is 
 trodden down and desolate. Instead of the busy hundreds 
 and thousands moving to and fro, engaged in their daily oc- 
 cupations, we see only single individuals, or occasional small 
 parties ; instead of the distant hum and noise of a populous 
 city, not a sound is heard, and stillness like that of the grave 
 broods over everything ; — 
 
 " No martial myriads muster in thy gate ; 
 No suppliant nations in thy Temple wait ; 
 No prophet bards, thy glittering courts among, 
 Wake the full lyre, and swell the tide of song ; 
 But lawless force, and meagre want are there, 
 And the quick darting eye of restless fear, 
 While cold oblivion, 'mid the ruins laid, 
 Folds his dank wing beneath the ivy shade :"* — 
 
 And when we stand still for a few moments, and look around 
 us, how dreary seems the scene, and how true and exact the 
 words of prophetic denunciations against the wickedness and 
 rebellion of the people. 
 
 We here find the ruins of a large edifice, the scant re- 
 mains of what tradition informs us was the church built by the 
 
 * Bishop Heber's " Palestine." 
 
EGlnPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 empress Helena, to mark the place of our Lord's ascension. We 
 enter a small portal, which admits us into a paved court o( 
 considerable extent, and open to the sky. Various altars, 
 belonging to the Christian bodies in Jerusalem, are ranged 
 around, and in the centre of tiie court is a small circular 
 building surmounted by a cupola, and once, judging from the 
 finished marble columns half hid by the rough plaster, beauti- 
 ful and striking, but now, presenting but few attractions. 
 The keeper of the deserted mosk near by, has the key of this 
 building also ; after some search Tommaso finds him ; he un- 
 locks the door and we go in : the room is empty, having on 
 one side the Mohammedan kebleh, or niche of prayer, in the 
 direction of Mecca, and close by, a portion of the rock, en- 
 closed with marble side-pieces, and sunk a little below the 
 level of the floor. Tommaso, our attendant, pointed out to 
 us very earnestly, the supposed foot-print, which a worthless 
 tradition teaches the simple and credulous pilgrim to be- 
 lieve to have been that made by our Lord, when He last 
 stood upon the earth. Several women, Mohammedans mostly, 
 have entered with us, and whatever we may think of the 
 thing itself, we cannot but be struck with the deep devotion 
 with which they prostrate themselves here, and kiss the rock 
 which they have been told marks so sacred a spot. We may 
 not do as they and many thousand Christian pilgrims have 
 done, for there must be something on which to base our faith in 
 such matters, beyond the monkish story, telling of a miracle 
 well nigh puerile, and wholly unlike aught that our Saviour 
 ever did. Let us not, however, because we reject what has 
 no foundation, and is not in accordance with the dignity and 
 elevation of Holy Scripture, therefore cast away the tradi- 
 tion, ancient and clear, and not opposed to, but in harmony 
 with the Evangelists' statements, on which rests the belief 
 that here, from the summit of the Mount of Olives, our Lord 
 and Master ascended into heaven. Let us recur to the j)as- 
 sages giving an account of this glorious event : "And He led 
 
PtAC^ OP THE ASCENSION. 297 
 
 them out as far as to Bethany, and He lifted up His hands 
 and blessed them. And it came to pass, while He blessed 
 them. He was parted from them, and carried up into hea- 
 ven." '' And when He had spoken these things, while they 
 beheld. He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of 
 
 their sight Then returned they unto Jerusalem from 
 
 the Mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath 
 day's journey."* Now, in the first place, it is plain that 
 these passages must be in harmony one with the other, and it 
 will be wrong to press either so as to do away with the force of 
 the other. No doubt, our Lord led His disciples out as far as 
 to Bethany ; equally certain is it, that when He was taken 
 up. His disciples returned from the Mount of Olives to the 
 Holy City, from which they were distant only a Sabbath 
 day's journey. Hence, we are reduced to this point, either 
 to suppose that by the word " Bethany" is not meant the vil- 
 lage on the eastern slope of the Mount, and fifteen stadia 
 from Jerusalem, but the district or vicinity of the village, 
 which it is thought by good authorities extended even to the 
 summit of the Mount, where the Holy City is in full view ;t 
 or, to suppose that a Sabbath day's journey was not, what 
 the best writers agree that it was, seven or eight furlongs, 
 but fifteen, and that there is no force or pertinency in the 
 expressions in the Acts, " then returned they unto Jerusalem 
 from the Mount called Olivet,''^ — from that part of it which 
 was a mile distant from the cily, and not nearly two miles, 
 as the village of Bethany is. The former supposition ap- 
 pears to me, the only one by which the apparent discrepancy 
 can be reconciled ; and when we add to this view the consid- 
 
 ♦ Luke xxiv. 50, 51 ; Acts i. 9, 12. 
 
 fThe passages in St. Mark (xi. 1), and St. Luke (xix. 29), deserve especial 
 notice in this connection ; " and when they came nigh to Jerusalem, unto 
 Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, He sendeth forth" &c., im- 
 plying clearly, as it seems to me, that Bethphage and Bethany are names ap* 
 plied to districts, or portions of some extent, on the sides of the Mount of Olives, 
 
 13* 
 
298 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 eration that, as Dr. Robinson says, '' one of the very earliest 
 traditions on record" points out this portion of the Mount of 
 Olives as the place of the ascension, we shall, I am quite 
 sure, have no doubt of the trustworthiness of the tradition, 
 though pronounced by Robinson to be " obviously false," and 
 of the verity of our Lord's ascension from this spot.=^ 
 
 While here, let us, by all means, mount the ruined mina- 
 ret, attached to the deserted mosk close at hand ; for from its 
 summit is one of the finest views, as well of the Holy City, 
 as of the vicinity of Jerusalem, which can anywhere be ob- 
 tained. Long may we gaze at the prospect at this genial 
 hour, when the bright sun is declining in the west; and as. 
 filled with varied emotions, we look upon the Holy City, in 
 all its beauty and sublimity, which caused the psalmist to 
 style it "the perfection of beauty," we may catch something 
 of the poetic enthusiasm of the host under the noble Godfrey, 
 on first beholding Zioxi's consecrated heights : — 
 
 " Lo, tower'd Jerusalem salutes the eye ! 
 A thousand pointing fingers tell the tale ; 
 'Jerusalem !' a thousand voices cry, 
 'All hail, Jerusalem !' hill, down and dale, 
 Catch the glad sounds, and shout, ' Jerusalem, all hail !' "f 
 
 Behold and see what a scene is this ! " Immediately be- 
 low, even to the opposite brink of the Valley Kedron, Jeru- 
 salem lies spread out before us. The strong outlines of the 
 Castle of David are seen on the western horizon. The cupo- 
 las of the convents of the church of the Holy Sepulchre, the 
 slender minaret on the northeast hill of the city, one after 
 
 ♦ I am happy to find that TischendorfF accords with this view, in opposition, as 
 he declares, to that of Dr. Robinson : after quoting the passages from St. Luke, 
 he says, " In my opinion, these words are to be understood no otherwise than 
 that Christ ascended into heaven at the point whence the Apostles returned into 
 the city. The position of this chapel admirably harmonizes with this view." — 
 «' Travels in the East," p. 173 ; see also Williams's " Holy City," vol. ii. p. 439- 
 446 ; and Robinson's " Biblical Researches" vol. 1. p. 375, 405. 
 
 f Tasso's " Jerusalem Delivered," Cant. iii. 3. 
 
VIEW FROM MOUNT OLIVET. (^ 
 
 another, stand out to view in the maze of the many roofs of 
 houses, some with low vaults, some flat, and surrounded by 
 distinct, perforated walls, which again we pursue, until we 
 cast a calm look into the great court of the Haram, inacces- 
 sible to us, and contemplate the beauty of the mosks, of the 
 octagonal Sakhrah, covered with the most beautiful cupola 
 imaginable^ ^nd of the Aksa, reminding one of the Basilica 
 form of the Christian churches, surrounded in solemn silence 
 and almost melancholy, by the lively verdure and flourishing 
 trees, such scarcities in these parts. If we turn our eyes tow- 
 ards the south, a lofty range of the mountains of Judah 
 limits the horizon in a wide sweep, commencing at the moun- 
 tains of Tekoa, and running westward. The Frank Moun- 
 tain (Jebel Furdeis), and the environs of Bethlehem, are also 
 visible. Nearer to us, and in the same direction, lies a ridge, 
 whereupon stands the Greek monastery of Mar Elias: on 
 this side lies the plain, supposed to be the plain of 'Rephaim,' 
 contracting itself towards the southwest, into the Rose Val- 
 ley (Wady el-Ward), which conveys to the environs of Jeru- 
 salem from the sea, damp fogs or cooling sea-breezes, accord- 
 ing to the season. Towards the west lies the nearest parallel 
 slope of the mountain ridge, which bears the Holy City itself, 
 and over which lies the Jafla road. If we turn further to the 
 north, there the height of Neby Samwil rises up steeply with 
 its mosk, from whence one can see the Mediterranean : fur- 
 ther in the background, the mountains of Samaria ; and 
 lastly, towards the east, we have the valley of the Jordan 
 beneath us, where a green streak on a whitish ground marks 
 the course of the river towards the Dead Sea, into the mirror 
 of which we here and there look, between the undulating 
 hills on this side, and see how it reflects the rocky shores be- 
 yond. And if we follow the eastern boundary of the plain 
 of the Jordan from north to south, there is a continuous chain 
 of mountains, as far as the steep cliffs of the Dead Sea, above 
 which rises, deeper in the country, Jebel Shihan, with its 
 
EGYPT AND THE HOL^ LAN6. 
 
 compressed and gently rising summit, which is in the winter 
 time frequently covered with snow ; while close to the sea 
 the valley-clefts of the Zerka river and the Arnon, (Wady 
 Mojeb) are plainly to be distinguished ; and during cleat 
 weather, the old fortress Kerak also appears like a rock-nest. 
 Where the sea has long since disappeared from our eyes, 
 which, after a complete circle, again rest on the place 
 whence we set out." * 
 
 This graphic description of the view from the summit of 
 the mount of Olives, is from the pen of the amiable and ex- 
 cellent i)r. Schultz, formerly Prussian consul at Jerusalem, 
 and probably more intimately acquainted with the Holy 
 City and its environs than any man living.=^ Having been 
 privileged to gaze upon the magnificent panorama of which 
 he speaks, we can testify to its accuracy and fidelity ; and 
 We can well be content to adopt his words instead of any 
 feebler ones which I myself might write. We may not, how- 
 ever, leave this sacred mountain-top without reflecting for a 
 few moments upon the deeply instructive past, and calling to 
 mind some of the scenes to which this mount has been 
 witness. 
 
 More than a thousand years before the advent of our Lord, 
 the sacred historian tells us of the trials and sufferings of the 
 royal psalmist on this very mountain-side. An ungrateful, 
 unnatural son, with artful hypocrisy, had corrupted the 
 hearts and minds of his father's subjects, and drawn them 
 into actual rebellion. His own crimes that loving father had 
 forgiven freely, and yet Absalom conspired against him to 
 deprive him of his kingdom and life. When David ascer- 
 tained the strength and extent of the conspiracy, and found 
 that ''the hearts of the men of Israel were after Absalom," 
 he said to the faithful few with him at Jerusalem, " Arise, 
 and let us flee ; for we shall not else escape from Absalom ; 
 make speed to depart, lest he overtake us suddenly, and bring 
 
 ♦ I quote from Mr. William's " Holy City," vol. ii. p. 438. 
 
301 
 
 evil upon us, and smite the city with the edge of the sword." 
 With eager haste they make their preparations ; they pass 
 out of the gate ; they descend the steep and stony path into 
 the valley of Jehoshaphat ; all weep with a loud voice ; and 
 the king and people pass over the Brook Kedron, towards the 
 way of the wilderness. The afflicted king refuses to allow 
 the ark of God to be carrieel away from the city, and in his 
 humiliation exclaims, if the Lord say, " I have no delight 
 in thee ; behold, here am I, let Him do to me as seemeth 
 good unto Him." " And David went up by the ascent of 
 mount Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his head 
 covered, and he went barefoot; and all the people that wa§ 
 with him covered every man his head, and they went up, 
 weeping as they went up." It was an hour of bitterness 
 8,iid woe ; it was followed by days of hardship and suffering ; 
 and at the last the cup of his affliction ran over, when the 
 vindictive Joab slew his son, and the king went up to his 
 chamber and wept; "and as he went, thus he said, O my son 
 Absalom, my son, my son Absalom ! would God I had died 
 for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son I"^'^ As we think of 
 these affecting events, and call to mind the adultery and 
 wickedness of the king, great and good as he was, how truly 
 do we feel the prophet's words beginning to have their ac- 
 complishment in one who had given great occasion to the 
 enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, — " now, therefore, the 
 sword shall never depart from thine house." May God keep 
 us from presumptuous sins, lest they get the dominion 
 over us ! 
 
 In the lapse of ages this same mount was trodden by One 
 who was David's Lord as well as David's Son. In the days 
 of His flesh. He ofttimes spent hours and hours in the shady 
 groves of Olivet ; and when His ministry was drawing to a 
 close, He was wont to leave the city, at the approach of 
 night, and to resort to the Mount of Olives to pray and raed- 
 
 ^- ♦ 2 Sam. XV. 30 j xviii. 33. 
 
EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 itate against the time of his agony and death. It was on His 
 last visit to the Holy City, that as He drew nigh and had 
 passed through Bethphage and Bethany, that He sent two of 
 His disciples for the ass and the colt in order that He might 
 make His entry into the city of His own, though His own 
 received him not. They spread their garments upon the an- 
 imal ; they placed the Redeemer thereupon, and as they went 
 by that same path over which we, too, have passed in reach- 
 ing the mountain-top, they acknowledged Him as their King ; 
 '' a very great multitade spread their garments in the way ; 
 others cut down branches from the trees and strewed them in 
 the way ; and the multitudes that went before and that fol- 
 lowed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David ; Blessed 
 is He that cometh in the name of the Lord : Blessed be the 
 kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the 
 Lord : Hosanna in the highest ; peace in heaven, and glory 
 in the highest." Pharisaic pride and ignorance asked for a 
 reproof on these rejoicing thousands ; but *' He answered and 
 said unto them, I tell you that if these should hold their 
 peace, the stones would immediately cry out." From this 
 point, as He was now descending the hill-side on which we 
 are standing. He beheld the city, the glorious city, as she lay 
 spread out in her magnificence and strength before Him ; and 
 from those sacred eyes flowed tears of infinite love and com- 
 passion. He, who knew the end from the beginning, He 
 who knew the emptiness and nothingness of all human 
 power, might and splendor. He wept over Jerusalem, and 
 exclaimed from the depths of His mercy and goodness, " If 
 thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the 
 things which belong unto thy peace ! — but now they are hid 
 from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that 
 thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass 
 thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee 
 even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and 
 they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another ; because 
 
A TALK WITH TOMMASO. 303 
 
 thou knewest not the time of thy visitation."* Yes, it was 
 even so ; and we who are privileged to be here, where our 
 Lord was in the days of His suffering and humiliation, can 
 now begin to comprehend better than we ever did, the touch- 
 ing pathos of those words of His, '' O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 
 thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are 
 sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children 
 together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her 
 wings, and ye would not !" Ah, thou ruined and degraded 
 city, thy house is left unto thee desolate ; Zion is ploughed 
 as a field ; Jerusalem has become heaps, and the mountain 
 of the house as the high places of the forest ;t and our eyes 
 look upon the scene this day. Shall it be without effect ? 
 shall not our tears, too, be poured forth for our own sins ? 
 shall not our supplications go up for the suffering and deso- 
 late city of the Great King ? shall we not pray that God our 
 Saviour, who ascended into heaven from this mount, will 
 hasten on the day of His coming again to save His elect from 
 every nation that is under heaven ? 
 
 But we may not linger here : the hour is getting late ; the 
 sun will soon sink to his nightly couch ; and we must, would 
 we repose in the Holy City to-night, make our entrance 
 before sunset. Let us go, then ; leaving all thoughts of the 
 avenging Roman, who brought destruction upon Jerusalem, 
 as our Lord had predicted, and the many reminiscences of 
 the Crusaders and their host, who once stood and gazed as 
 we now gaze upon the fairest city for situation of the whole 
 earth, let us descend the slope of Olivet on our way to our 
 home. As you observe, by his looks, Tommaso appears to 
 have somewhat upon his mind to ask us about ; let us hear 
 him: "Well, my master," he says, addressing me, '' you no 
 believe what you see in the rock up there ?" pointing back- 
 ward by a gesture. "No, Tommaso, do you?" "Yes, 
 
 * St Luke, xix. 29, 35-44 ; St. Matt, xxi 8, 9; St. Mark, xi. 9, 10. 
 t Micah, iu. 12. 
 
^^ EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 yes, I believe it ; what for you no believe it ?" " I will tell 
 you, Tommaso, presently ; but first, let me know why you 
 think that our Saviour left the mark of His foot upon the 
 1:00k before His ascension into heaven." " O, my priest tell 
 me so; and he know more than I do ; I am ignorant and 
 can't read ; but my priest and the bishop too, tell me so, and 
 everybody here believe it ; what for you no believe it !" '' Tom- 
 maso, suppose your priest were to tell you that this piece of stone 
 was not stone, but bread ? would you believe it because he knows 
 more than you do ?" " No, no, my master, but my priest never 
 tell me such thing." " I dare say not ; that would be running 
 too great a risk ; your credulity would not take in quite that ; 
 but did the priest ever tell you how he knew that this mark on 
 the rock was what he says it is ? did he tell you that he found 
 it in the Bible ? did he tell you that any of the first Christians 
 ever heard of this story ? No ; I am sure he did not. Now, 
 Tommaso, you ask me why I do not believe this to be our 
 Saviour's foot-print ; I will tell you. This volume in my 
 hand contains the Holy Gospels, which give us an account of 
 all that the Apostles and Evangelists wrote concerning our 
 Baviour ; I have read it through and through a good many 
 times, and there is not a word in it about this story. I have 
 read, too, a great many other books, some written by Christiana 
 a thousand, and fifteen, sixteen, seventeen hundred years ago, 
 and some by those in later times, and I tell you, Tommaso, 
 that there was no such thing as this ever heard of in old 
 times. Remember, that I am a priest, too, and can read as 
 well as your priest, who tells you this and a good many other 
 stories which are not true. Besides, Tommaso, I want ^ou 
 to think a little about another thing. Our Saviour did a 
 great many miracles ; He healed the sick ; He cleansed the 
 lepers ; He cured the lame and the blind and the lunatic ; He 
 raised the dead ; and hundreds and thousands of such things 
 as these : all of them we understand why He did them ; there 
 was reason and fitness in such miracles ; there was love and 
 
LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS. ^ 305 
 
 mercy in all that He did ; there was dignity and proj^riety in 
 every word and act of His : but if you can see any reason, 
 or anything profitable to soul or body in such a childish thing 
 as making the mark of His foot on the rock, I cannot; and I 
 should be sorry to believe that any sensible man, any one 
 who loves and adores his Saviour, can really credit a story 
 like this. Do you understand, Tommaso, what I have been 
 saying ?" " No, my master, not much ; but I know that 
 the English who come here only laugh, and don't believe 
 anything which I tell them." '^ There you're wrong ; they 
 don't believe everything, that is true, as I have been telling 
 you; but they know that in this city our Saviour once was; 
 they know that this is the Mount of Olives, that there is 
 Gethsemane, there the temple stood, there is Zion ; and in 
 the city they well know is the spot where our Lord suffered 
 on the cross, was dead and buried for our sakes ; this is what 
 I believe and know, Tommaso ; but Protestants like the Eng- 
 lish, must have some grounds better than you tell me aboutj 
 to credit the absurd stories which I have heard from you, 
 and which your priests teach you, expecting you to believe 
 them whether they have any sense in them or not." Tom- 
 maso shakes his head, as though he did not know exactly 
 what to think ; and I suspect that very few have taken the 
 trouble which we have to let in an idea into his contracted 
 mind. Perhaps — though I am by no means sanguine — he 
 will try to understand matters better in future ; it is, how- 
 ever, too much to be hoped for that he will ever be able to 
 discriminate between the false and true, and thus become an 
 intelligent, active, useful guide to the traveller and Christian 
 pilgrim. 
 
 We may not now stop to examine those monuments of other 
 days, not far to our left, said to be the tomb of Absalom, the 
 tomb of Jehoshaphat, the cave of St. James, &c. ; neither 
 can we linger here in the valley of Jehoshaphat, beautiful as 
 it is, with its fig, olive, and pomegranate trees, and its gar- 
 
306 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 dens of melons and cucumbers ; and full of solemn interest, 
 as it must always be in connection with the glowing lan- 
 guage of the prophet Joel (ch. iii. 1, &o.). We mount, slowly 
 and thoughtfully, the steep and stony path to St. Stephen's 
 gate, whence hours ago we came out ; and as we traverse the 
 lonely streets once more, at this hour of the day, we are mora 
 than ever struck with their deserted appearance, and with 
 the sad and mournful condition of the Holy City : do not the 
 words of lamentation and sorrow seem, as it were, to force 
 themselves on our minds ; and can we refrain from uttering, 
 to ourselves, at least, the language of that holy man whose 
 eyes ran down " with rivers of waters for the destruction of 
 the daughter of his people ?" 
 
 " How (loth the city sit solitary, that was full of people ! 
 How is she become a widow ! she that was great among the nations ! 
 And princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary ! 
 
 All that pass by clap their hands at thee ; 
 
 They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, 
 " Is this the city that men call ' The perfection of beauty,' ' The joy of the 
 whole earth V "* 
 
 It may be well, my dear S., before sending the present let- 
 ter, that I should include in it a brief account of what I have 
 several times seen in walking or riding round the exterior of 
 the city. If you will be so good as to look at the map or 
 plan of Jerusalem, given a while ago, you will readily, and I 
 doubt not, intelligibly, follow me in this interesting walk. 
 We pass out of the Damascus gate, which is the nearest to 
 the hotel, and turning to the left, we proceed to make the en- 
 tire circuit of the city walls. You notice here, that though 
 there are hills close by, they are not so high or commanding 
 as in other parts, and that towards the north, is quite a broad, 
 cultivated plain or valley, which, it appears, Agrippa intended 
 to include in the city, when he projected enlarging its limits 
 
 * Lam. i- 1 : ii. 15. 
 
EXTERIOR OF JERUSALEM. 307 
 
 on the north, and fortifying it in such wise as would have ren- 
 dered it impregnable. As we advance, it is worth while to 
 observe that the present walls are built, to some extent, upon 
 the solid rock, which rises here and there considerably above 
 the surface, and that the rocks have been scarped — I believe 
 that is the term — and the fosse, or regularly constructed ditch, 
 for the most part wholly neglected. In a military point of 
 view, of course, I am unable to speak of the walls ; but I 
 have heard the sentiment expressed, that they would prove of 
 little service against an invading army well supplied with ar- 
 tillery.^ The side on which we now are has always been the 
 most vulnerable, and from the time of the Romans down- 
 ward, Jerusalem has been attacked and taken from the north- 
 erly approach ; there seems no reason to doubt that the walls 
 could easily be breached, and the city entered, even by a 
 small, well-appointed force. After a little while we come to 
 the northwestern angle of the wall, which, as shown on the 
 plan, appears to project a considerable distance, as if for the 
 purpose of including some spot useful in a military point of 
 view. We shall see, by and by, what bearing this part of the 
 wall has on the question of the verity of the site generally 
 believed to be that of the Holy Sepulchre. Following the 
 course of the wall, we soon after reach the Bethlehem or 
 Jaffa gate, and have in full view the large, massive fortress or 
 citadel, which, doubtless, properly manned, would be a place 
 of very great strength. The foundations seem to be of very 
 early date, and at one corner you notice the square, solidly 
 
 * Mr, Williams quotes the opinion of Lieutenant-Colonel Alderson of the 
 Corps of Royal Engineers, to whom we are indebted for the Ordnance Survey, 
 made in 1841. Speaking of the Tower of David, he says, " It would require 
 heavy artillery to breach it. The walls too of the city are sufficiently strong to 
 require something more than field artillery to effect a breach in them ; whilst 
 their position, surrounded on every side by mountains, and difficult of approach 
 for heavy artillery, gives to the fortifications which surround the Holy City an 
 importance which their first appearance would not seem to justify." — " Holy 
 City" vol. i. p. 444. 
 
308 
 
 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 built tower, which Dr. Robinson supposes to be the tower of 
 Hippicus ; but Mr. Williams controverts this view, and I 
 think successfully. On our right, you see the valley of Gi- 
 hon, as it has been termed, and not far off the remarkable 
 excavation, marked on the maps as the lower pool of Gihon ; 
 it is now quite dry and useless, but in the earlier days of 
 Jerusalem's prosperity, it, and the one farther up the valley, 
 must have been important to the comfort and refreshment of 
 the city. The view here is like what may be seen, -^las, 
 nearly everywhere in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, produ- 
 cing upon the mind a deep feeling of sadness and sorrow, for 
 the degraded and unhappy condition of the city of David. 
 The soil appears barren and unfruitful ; here and there are a 
 few trees and some terraced spots under cultivation; but 
 mostly all is stony, dry, and yielding little or no increase. 
 In a few minutes we come to the corner of the wall which 
 turns towards the east, crossing the crown of Mount Zion. 
 Here in this vicinity are the cemeteries of the Christians in 
 Jerusalem, as well as that not long ago purchased by the 
 American mission, as the resting place of their dead. From 
 this point, we will diverge from the wall, and include in our 
 walk the valley of Hinnom, and some points of interest near 
 at hand. 
 
 You will notice, as we proceed, what is not very clear on 
 the map, how rugged and steep are the southerly sides and 
 slopes of Mount Zion ; and when, after a while, we find our- 
 selves in the gorge of the hills, the Hill of Evil Counsel on 
 the one hand, and Zion on the other, with the lovely vale of 
 Hinnom stretching out before us, we cannot but give ourselves 
 to the recollections of bygone days, and the sober and chast- 
 ening reflections which these localities must ever produce. 
 The idolatrous monarchs of Judah here dishonored and de- 
 spised the Lord in worshipping stocks and stones, and here 
 caused His fierce anger to burn against the wickedness of His 
 people. Ahaz '* made molten images for Baalim : moreover he 
 
SCENES IN THE VALE OF HINNOM. 
 
 burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt 
 his children in the fire, after the abomination of the heathen, 
 whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel." 
 Manasseh, the wicked son of the good Hezekiah, did evil in 
 the sight of the Lord ; " and he caused his children to pass 
 through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom ;" but his 
 grandson, the noble young Josiah, walked in all the way of 
 David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to 
 the left; '^ and he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the 
 children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his 
 daughter to pass through the fire to Moloch." He made it a 
 receptacle for the burnt carcasses and bones, and the filth and 
 refuse of the city, keeping fires there continually, in order to 
 consume what was thrown into it, and to render it ever after 
 odious in the eyes of the idolatrously inclined people. 
 "Hence," as says the learned Joseph Mede, ''this place 
 being so many ways execrable, it came to be translated to 
 signify the place of the damned, as the most accursed, exe- 
 crable, and abominable of all places." What a striking figure 
 must it have been to a Jew, this of Gehenna, where the un- 
 quenchable fires of eternal torment await the guilty and con- 
 demned soul ! And ought not we, remembering our Lord's 
 most solemn and awful words, to take good heed lest we also 
 come into that place of horrors, of which language can give 
 no idea, and from which there is no release 1^ ^' There is 
 
 * " First, Moloch, horrid king, besraear'd with blood 
 Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears ; 
 Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud, 
 Their children's cries unheard, that pass'd through fire 
 To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite 
 Worshipped in Rabba and her watery plain. 
 In Argob and in Basan, to the stream 
 Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such 
 Audacious neighborhood, the wisest heart 
 Of Solomon he led by fraud to build 
 His temple right against the temple of God, 
 On that opprobrious hill ; and made his grove 
 
310 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. ». 
 
 something," says Mr. Bartlett, " in the scenery of this valley 
 and the hill above, its tombs hewn in the rock, long since 
 tenantless ; the gray gloom of its old fig and olive trees, 
 starting from the fissures of the crags ; the overhanging wall 
 of Zion, desolate almost as in the time of her captivity, that 
 forcibly recalls the wild and mournful grandeur of the pro- 
 phetic writings. Within it, too, is the traditionary ' Aceldama,' 
 or Field of Blood, of the traitor Judas ; a small plot of 
 ground, overhung with one precipice, and looking down ano- 
 ther into the glen below, on which is a deep charnel-house, 
 into which it was formerly the custom to throw the bodies of 
 the dead, as the earth was supposed to have the power of rap- 
 idly consuming them. This place was selected as the burial- 
 place for pilgrims who died at Jerusalem in the middle ages. 
 Such are the scenes that have passed in Hinnom ; it is like 
 the scroll of the prophet, ' written within and without with 
 mourning, and lamentation, and woe.' "* 
 
 At this time we will not dwell upon the more minute points 
 in the prospect before us ; as a w4iole, this deep valley has an 
 air of beauty unsurpassed by aught in the vicinity of Jeru- 
 salem ; and the terraced sides of the mount, the gardens of 
 olive, fig, and other trees, the verdant plots of grain and grass, 
 the few features of life and activity in the rustic cultivators 
 of the soil, and such like, give to it attractions of no ordinary 
 kind ; but it requires more space than I can now devote to it, 
 to do it justice. "We must hasten on : passing by the Foun- 
 tain of Nehemiah, or well of Job (Joab), which is probably 
 identical with En-Rogel, we spent a little while in gazing 
 upon the Pool of Siloam, where are '• the waters of Shiloah 
 that go softly."! It is picturesquely situate on the steep of 
 Mount Zion, with the lofty hill rising up grandly above it, 
 
 The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence 
 And black Gehenna call'd, the type of hell." 
 
 " Parodist Lost," Bk. 1. 
 • " Walks about Jerusalem," p. 62. t Is. viii. 6. 
 
THE POOL OF SILOAM. 311 
 
 to a great height, and is a favorite place of resort to the pil- 
 grim who loves to meditate upon sacred things, and our Lord's 
 love and mercy to body as well as soul. We here turn to 
 the northward again. On our right, perched on the shelving 
 cliffs which overhang the valley of Jehoshaphat, is the petty 
 village of Selwan, or Siloam, with its scanty population, 
 and its dwellings in the excavated rock, and some dis- 
 tance up the valley, pursuing the dry bed of the Kedron, we 
 come to the Fountain of the Virgin, which, it was ascertained 
 by Dr. Robinson, is connected by means of a subterranean chan- 
 nel cut in a serpentine course (1750 feet long), with the Pool of 
 Siloam. This fountain is well worth examination, and deeply in- 
 terests the visitor,who descends a flight of well-worn steps, cut 
 through the rock, and very irregular, into a chamber, or cave in 
 the rock, roughly hewn, and well (though not steadily,) sup- 
 plied with water. Mr. Williams informs us that there are 
 twenty-six steps, making the depth about twenty-five feet, for 
 the steps are deep. On the present occasion we may not go 
 down into the fountain, for a number of girls and women are 
 there, paddling in the cooling stream, and lingering to enjoy 
 its luxuries before they fill their jars for the supply of their 
 homes, in the village of Siloam, opposite. I regret this, be- 
 cause it would be pleasant to drink some of that water, the 
 taste of which, we are told, '' is very peculiar, and never to be 
 mistaken when once known. ... It is scarcely * brackish ;' 
 it is best described by an old writer, as ' insipid ;' but the 
 villagers of Siloam drink thereof, and their flocks, and do not 
 find it unwholesome, but the contrary." Mounting the hillside 
 once more, by a rugged and toilsome path, we follow again 
 the course of the wall on the side of the Haram : all around 
 are the tombs and graves of the Mohammedan dead ; on our 
 left is the long line of lofty wall, looking down from this side, 
 into the great depth of which Josephus speaks, in giving an 
 account of the temple edifice ; and far away on the right is the 
 picturesque scene to which J have before alluded, in our walk 
 
Wi5 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 about the Mount of Olives and its neighborhood. We pass 
 the Golden Gate, now closed, and cannot but admire the re- 
 mains, even yet visible, of this noble city entrance. We see 
 stuck out of the top of the wall, a part of a round stone pil- 
 lar, on which, says the story, Mohammed is to sit when the 
 nations are gathered together for judgment, in the valley of 
 Jehoshaphat. We soon reach St. Stephen's gate, and after 
 a while pass entirely round the north-easterly corner of the 
 wall, arriving in due time at the Damascus gate, whence we 
 set out. The whole circuit of the modern walls is 12,978 
 feet, or nearly two miles and a half. I may also here state, 
 that Suliman I., the son of Selim L, erected the walls nearly 
 as they now are, A.H. 948 (=A.D. 1542). 
 
 Allow me, in conclusion, to make one or two remarks of a 
 general nature, in connection with points of some interest- 
 A most obvious one, as it appears to me, is this, that from the 
 marked features, in general, of the topography of the Holy 
 City, there is less probability of error or mistake in respect to 
 them than usually attaches to ancient places. Whatever differ- 
 ences of opinion there may be in matters of detail, it is well 
 nigh impbssible to go wrong in regard to the prominent, essen- 
 tial points; and I believe that no one can visit Jerusalem, and 
 candidly and fairly use his Bible, without attaining a moral 
 certainty, that this is Mount Zion, this Mount Moriah, this the 
 Tyropoeon, this the valley of Jehoshaphat, this the Mount of 
 Olives, etc. ; for, though such men as Dr. Clarke may, not- 
 withstanding the privilege of having seen Jerusalem, venture 
 to say, that in their opinion, Mount Zion, as we see it now, 
 was the Hill Acra, the valley of Hinnom was the Tyropoeon, 
 and the Hill of Evil Counsel was the true Zion ; and though 
 an author of the reputation, aouteness and good sense of Mr. 
 Fergusson, may attempt to unsettle all the received views 
 ©f the ablest scholars, travellers and divines, by placing Zion — 
 % " mere monticule of rook"' — north of, and near to Mount 
 Moriah, by giving a new — 1 will not, though I might say^ 
 
POPVLATION OF THE ANCIENT CITY. 313 
 
 impossible course to the ancient walls, and so on ; yet, I am 
 persuaded, that had not Dr. Clarke been excessively fond of 
 theorizing, and had he not written at so late a date, as prob- 
 ably to have forgotten all that he learned during his few days' 
 sojourn in Jerusalem ; and had Mr. Fergusson ever seen the 
 Holy City with his own eyes, instead of through the imper- 
 fect glasses of travellers, neither the one nor the other would 
 have published to the world the results of his labors and re- 
 searches. 
 
 The statement made above, in regard to the extent of the 
 ijnodern city, suggests another remark. We found the Holy 
 City to be two miles and a half in circuit, and the popu- 
 lation is variously estimated from 12,000 up to 30,000. 
 Anciently, no doubt, the area within the walls was very 
 much greater, including a large part of the slope of Mount 
 Zion, and the hill Ophel to the east between it and the Val- 
 ley of Jehoshaphat ; the present city, too, is capable of con- 
 taining a population considerably larger than it now has; 
 but, even supposing the widest extent, and giving the num- 
 ber of inhabitants the greatest possible, for the space within 
 the walls, how shall we account for the immense numbers 
 of which Josephus speaks, when he tells us that 1,100,000 
 perished during the siege under Titus, and that at a pass- 
 over some years previous there were assembled nearly 
 8,000,000 of people? I profess to you, I do not very clearly 
 see how we are to excuse the historian or his copyists from 
 some strange error, since I can hardly imagine it possible, by 
 any means whatever, to crowd so many hundreds of thousands 
 into a city of the size of ancient Jerusalem. Mr. Fergusson 
 roundly rejects the entire statement of Josephus, accuses 
 him of wilful falsehood, and does not believe the city capable 
 of holding over fifty to sixty thousand inhabitants, under any 
 circumstances; Dr. Robinson thinks the estimate "doubtless 
 greatly exaggerated ;" Mr. Bartlett, remarking that the cir- 
 cumference of the Holy City never at best exceeded a space 
 
 14 
 
■mt. 
 
 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 of about four miles, finds it difficult to believe that Jerusa- 
 lem at any time contained more than 150,000 inhabitants, 
 if indeed so many ; while Mr. Williams, for reasons which 
 he assigns, is not prepared to reject the authority of Jose- 
 phus, preferring to be counted credulous rather than to set 
 aside, on his own motion, the testimony of an eye-witness. 
 lie supposes, too, and in this, I think, justly, that the awful 
 punishment brought upon the guilty nation at that period, 
 as related by the historian, was no more than what our 
 Saviour's fearful words would lead us to expect ; and that 
 war, pestilence, and famine, speedily swept off tens and 
 hundreds of thousands. Perhaps, on the whole, it may be 
 the wiser and more judicious to accord substantially with 
 the view last expressed. 
 
LETTEE XYI. 
 
 ©albars anU tte ?Qol5 ScpulctJte. 
 
 Avowal of Preference for the Opinions of Antiquity. — Bearing on the (Questions Proposed.—" 
 Is the Holy Sepulchre rightly placed by Tradition, or not ?— Description of the Present 
 Church.— Where Situate.— The Court.— The Interior— Traditionary Localities.— Effect pro- 
 duced on the Mind. — The Sepulchre. — Present Appearance. — Mount Calvary. — Tombs un- 
 derneath.— Examination of the Question at Issue.— Scriptural Statement.— What is Certain. 
 —Present Church is within the Walls, Calvary was without.— Difficulty in Consequence- 
 Topographical Argument.— Josephus's Statements.- Points to be determined .—Tower of 
 Hippicus, where situate.— Position of the Gate Gennath.— Course of the Second Wall.— 
 Akra and the Tyropoeon.— Result of the Examination.— Argument from History and Tra- 
 dition. — Its Value. — Knowledge, Sentiments, Position, Character, etc., of the first Christians. 
 —Reign of Hadrian.— What was done in Jerusalem.— Constantino and the Bishop of Jeru-. 
 salem. — Recoveiy of the Holy Sepulchre. — Invention of the Cross. — Basilica of Constan- 
 tine.— Why should we not believe in the Verity of the Holy Sepulchre?— Evil Characteris- 
 tics of the present Age. — Claims of the early Christians upon our Sympathy and Candor. — 
 Dr. Robinson's Strictures on Macarius and his Clergy censured.— Conclusion.— Passages 
 quoted from Bartlett, Fergusson and Wilson. 
 
 Jerusalem, April 14th, 1849. 
 My Dear S., 
 
 " I have an unfashionable partiality for the opinions of 
 antiquity," said the learned and acute Bishop Horsley,* on 
 one occasion, when he had the courage to adopt the patristic 
 interpretation of a certain prophecy instead of that of some 
 modern scholars and divines. Vast as is the distance between 
 so great a man as he was and myself, and deservedly of little 
 account as may be any expression of opinion on my part, 
 yet I trust that it may not be deemed presumptuous in me 
 to avow a decided partiality of the same kind, even though 
 it be more unfashionable than it was half a century ago to 
 yield deference to the opinions and statements of early 
 
 ♦ ''Biblical Criticis7n,'' vol, ii. p. 181. 
 
316 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 Christian writers. I am very well aware that this frank 
 avowal may lay me open to suspicion in certain quarters ; 
 and it may be surmised, if not said, that because of such in- 
 clinations on my part, I am not altogether a trustworthy 
 witness ; that my vision has been warped ; and that my 
 wishes have biassed me in a particular direction or perverted 
 the evidence on disputed points, — all the time forgetting that 
 remarks of this kind are as applicable in one direction as 
 another. The detestable odium theologicum^ which so con- 
 stantly interferes with the calm, dispassionate, and candid 
 discussion of what is the truth, may, I fear, influence more 
 than one mind against the opinions which I shall venture to 
 avow, and, to the best of my ability, to defend ; but, as you 
 at least, ray dear S., will credit me, I have too deep a love 
 and reverence for truth to hesitate one moment about follow- 
 ing it, wherever it may lead, and however contrary it may 
 be to the fashionable theology of the age in which we live ; 
 and I protest, very earnestly, against the gross injustice of 
 being supposed capable of tampering with truth because my 
 views of the meaning and import of certain portions of 
 Holy Writ do not agree with those of others.* If I seem to 
 you to speak strongly, believe me it is not without cause ; 
 for, unhappil}^, in questions relating simply to topographical 
 details, to the value of tradition in general, and to the verity 
 or falsity of localities in the Holy Land, traditionally held to 
 be sacred, it has, to some extent at least, become the fashion 
 not merely to examine the evidence and to decide solely in 
 accordance with it, but rather to inquire into the theological 
 opinions of the witness, and according as they may be, either 
 to throw doubt upon, or add force to, the value of his testi- 
 mony. If a man have a love and reverence for the ancients, 
 as notwithstanding all their faults and failings, his fathers in 
 the Church, is he therefore to be held accountable for all that 
 
 * Mr. Williams complains of the unfairness of such insinuations, in the Pref* 
 ace to the second edition of his " Holy City," p. xiii. 
 
VALUE OP ANCIENT OPINIONS. 317 
 
 they said or thought, and is he to reject their testimony on 
 points where they were as competent to judge as any one 
 of us? I trow not. If, on the other hand, a man is deeply 
 and thoroughly imbued with feelings almost of contempt for 
 the fathers as a whole, and with actual positive dislike of 
 everything connected with mc-nks and monkish tradition, is 
 he on that account to be esteemed more capable, more 
 honest, and more judicious than his neighbors? or shall we 
 venture to say that he, more than others, will seek to pervert 
 the truth to suit his views of what ought to be, rather than 
 what appears to be, the result of a fair and candid investiga- 
 tion ? I repudiate each and every such sentiment as un- 
 worthy the lovers of truth in its integrity and completeness ; 
 and simply ask, that the honesty and sincerity of purpose^ 
 which I freely and fully accord to others may not be denied 
 to myself If, moreover, I know my own heart at all, it is 
 that truth should triumph, though every cherished opinion 
 of my own should thereby be trampled in the dust. 
 
 These remarks, my dear S., would be very much out of 
 place, and would demand an apology on my part, did it not 
 seem to me necessary, while here in the Holy Land, to tell 
 you plainly what are my convictions in regard to certain 
 Ixjalities, always, up to the last and present century, held to 
 be sacred ; and to give you the reasons why I prefer '' the 
 opinions of antiquity" respecting these points, to those more 
 or less prevalent in our day, and which have grown out of 
 very modern scholarship and research. It will be my effort, 
 as it certainly is my desire, to speak of all such matters in 
 the most straightforward and candid manner, begging you to 
 believe, that, whatever deficiency there may seem to you to 
 be in the presentation of the questions, or the arguments 
 adduced on either hand, that belongs to me, and is not to be 
 charged upon the questions themselves. With this under- 
 standing, I shall take occasion to set before you the reasons 
 why I am satisfied of the genuineness and verity of the sites 
 
318 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 pointed out for Calvary and the Holy Sepulchre, notwith- 
 standing the great learning and acuteness displayed by Dr. 
 Robinson in endeavoring to show that they are not and can- 
 not be the true sites of those important events in our Lord's 
 life and ministry. On a subsequent occasion, too, I may be 
 able to lay before you the reasons which induce me to believe 
 in the correctness of the tradition respecting the place of our 
 Lord's nativity at Bethlehem : and, perchance, of some other 
 traditionary sacred spots in the Holy Land. 
 
 The Church . f the Holy Sepulchre, as it is now termed, 
 is situate not far from the north-west corner of the city, 
 and, as might be expected, has gathered round itself most of 
 the convents and the principal portion of the Christian resi- 
 dences. Before entering upon the question in relation to its 
 covering the very site of the sepulchre of our Lord, permit 
 me to give a brief description of the present church, bearing 
 in mind, that this is not the edifice spoken of in such glowing 
 terms by Chateaubriand and earlier travellers, the former 
 church having been, in great measure, destroyed by fire in 
 October, 1808 ; and that it was rebuilt in a style quite in- 
 ferior to that of its predecessor.^'^ Passing down the street, 
 marked on the large map of the Ordnance Survey, " St. Ste- 
 phen's Street," we follow nearly the line supposed to be that 
 where the second wall stood in the time of our Saviour, and 
 
 ♦ "The first edifices that were erected to do honor to this place, were those of 
 Constantine, which were dedicated in the year 335. These were ruined in the 
 Persian invasion of Chosroes, in G14, and restored by Modestus fifteen years 
 afterwards. Jerusalem was taken by the Mohammedans in 637; but the sa- 
 cred buildings in question were not injured by them at that time. In 1010, they 
 were, however utterly and purposely destroyed by order of the Khalif Hakem. 
 Thirty years afterwards, permission was obtained by the Emperor Constantine 
 Monomachus, to rebuild them, which was effected under the Patriarch Nice- 
 phorus about fifty years before the entry of the Crusaders. They, during theii 
 reign in Jerusalem, greatly increased the buildings; and, after their expulsion, 
 no important changes took place until the unhappy fire, which, in 1808, so 
 greatly damaged the church as to necessitate the entire reconstruction of it* 
 central portions."— Prof Willis's " Architectural History of the Holy Sepulchre,'* 
 in WilHams's '• Holy City,^' vol. ii. p. 135. 
 
CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE. 319 
 
 in a few minutes, come to " Palmer Street." We make our 
 way through the crooks and turns, and over the frequent 
 irregularities, for a short distance, till we reach the open 
 paved court in front of the entrance to the church. The 
 scene here presented is unique : the court is filled with the 
 venders of beads, crosses, crucifixes, mother-of-pearl shells, 
 etc. ; with numbers of pilgrims from remote districts, gazing 
 at everything with the deepest wonder and most profound 
 credulity ; with some lounging soldiers and Turkish guards ; 
 and with here and there a Frank or two looking on with 
 emotions of surprise, unbelief, and contempt.* On either 
 hand are the walls of the Greek conventual buildings, bear- 
 ing still the traces of Byzantine architecture in the portions 
 of columns built in and half covered by the walls ; directly 
 before us is a part of the southern wall of the church, which, 
 though evidently, even to our unscientific eyes, of a mixed 
 and corrupt style of architecture, still wears a venerable and 
 not unmajestic look : near by, too, on the left, you notice a 
 portion of the ancient campanile or bell tower, which has 
 been suffered to fall gradually, and in great measure, into 
 ruin and disuse. The entrance is through the large, stout 
 folding doors, which are kept closed a great part of the time. 
 There is a hole, as you see, in one of them, by which offer- 
 ings are handed in, and bribes given to the guards just inside 
 the church. Tommaso makes a great fuss and noise, and 
 parades forth our dignity and importance, and after a short 
 time, principally by the aid of some half-dozen piastres, gets 
 the door opened for our admission. The crowd of poor pil- 
 grims, who are striving to get in at the same time, are rudely 
 
 * The Hon. Mr. Curaon gives a graphic account of the deplorable and dread- 
 ful scenes which he witnessed in the church of the Holy Sepulchre, in May, 
 1834, when Ibrahim Pasha was present, when the foul imposture of the holy- 
 fire was played off as usual, when several hundred (probably about five 
 hundred) persons were trampled under foot, suffocated, run through by the sol- 
 diers, &c., and when the court in front of the church was filled with dead 
 bodies!—" Monasteries in the Levant." p. 182-197. 
 
320 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 thrust back by the muskets of Turkish soldiers : — think of 
 it, the foul indignity, Mohammedan guards in a Christian 
 church ! Turkish soldiers quartered in the consecrated edi- 
 fice, to keep the peace between the followers and worshippers 
 of the Prince of Peace ! Do you not feel a thrill of indigna- 
 tion that such things should be ? Ah, and does not the blusfa 
 of shame tinge our cheek, when we see and know that too 
 often these infidel guards are necessary to put a stop to out* 
 rage and murder in the church covering the site of our Lord's 
 crucifixion and resurrection ? 
 
 After entering the vestibule, the first object pointed out to 
 us is a large marble slab, with massive candlesticks and sus- 
 pended lamps surrounding it. Tommaso tells us, but not 
 quite with his usual air of confidence, that it is the stone of 
 unction on which our Lord's body was laid after His cruci- 
 fixion, and when it was being prepared for the sepulchre. 
 It is somewhat painful to see the extravagance of devotion 
 of the kneeling and prostrate pilgrims over this palpable im- 
 posture, though it need not be at all surprising to one who 
 recollects with what entire and perfect submission they re- 
 ceive every ecclesiastical and monkish tradition which is told 
 them. Perhaps, too, it may please God to bless the ignorant 
 worshipper who here pours out his tears and sighs of contri- 
 tion, more highly than falls to the lot of some of us who think 
 that we know too much to be imposed upon by superstition 
 and folly, and who are always more ready to doubt than to 
 believe. Of course, if we follow our guide and the monks 
 whom he summons to his aid, we shall see all the marvellous 
 sacred spots included within the walls of this irregularly 
 shaped church ; as, the place of the nailing to the cross; the 
 pillar of flagellation (or rather the piece of it, as Tommaso 
 whispers to us) ; the place where the soldiers divided the 
 vestments ; the prison in which tlie Saviour was detained 
 previous to the nailing to the cross ; the spot where the friends 
 of our Lord stood during the crucifixion ; the place where He 
 
'S'IjAE ow the chtuikcm 
 
 OP 
 
 THE HOLY SEPULCHRE. 
 
 The Holy J| Sepulchre. 
 
 ) . Kntrance to the Church, 
 
 2. The Stone of Unction. 
 
 3. Where our Saviour was nailed to the Cross. 
 
 4. Mount Calvary t++ 
 
 5. Chapel of the Sacrifice of Isaac. 
 
 6. Chapel of the Altar of Melchisedec. 
 
 7. Stairs up to Mount Calvary. 
 
 8. Stairs down to the Chapel of St. Helena. 
 
 9. Stairs down to the Chapel of the Invention of the Cross . 
 
 10. Place where the three Crosses were discovered. 
 
 11. Chapel of the Division of the Garments. 
 
 12. Priaon of our Lord. 
 
 13. Greek Choir, in it 0, the centre of the world ; 
 
 each side are the Stalls for tlie Monks. 
 
 14. Latin Choir. 
 
 15. Where Mary Magdalene stood. 
 
 16. Where our Lord appeared to Mary Magdalene. 
 
 17. The Pillar of Flagellation. 
 
 18. Rooms of the Latin Convent. 
 
 19. Chapel of the Maronites. 
 20 Chapel of the Georgians. 
 
 21. Sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea. 
 
 22. Chapel of the Copts. 
 
 23. Chapel of the Jacobites. 
 24. ^Chapel, of the Abyssinians, over which is the 
 
 Chapel of the Armenians. 
 25. The spot where the Blessed Virgin and St. John 
 
 stood during the Crucifixion. 
 86. Steps before the entrance of the Holy Sepulchre. 
 
 27. Ante-room to the Holy Sepulchre. In the centre is 
 the stone where the Angel sat ; 00 either side 
 the two windows from whence the Holy Fire is 
 delivered to the multitude. 
 
 28. The Iconostasis, or Screen before the Greek Altar, 
 which, "as in English Churches, is called the 
 
 Holy Table-a^/a rpcfri^ci. 
 
 UILDINGS OF THK 
 GREEK CONVENT. 
 
 ::^^^^^^,\H^i-^il::¥'m^^^S\^v^MAS«;vmv^v^vMvmmvM^^^^ 
 
THE DOME OVER THE HOLY SEPULCHRE. 321 
 
 appeared to Mary Magdalene ; also, where He appeared to 
 the Virgin Mary ; the place where the crosses were discov- 
 ered by Helena; the exact spot marking the centre of the 
 world ; etc. etc, : but as these are manifestly without founda- 
 tion, save in that desire — here, I fear, not disinterested — of 
 fixing every event and circumstance to a local habitation, we 
 can well dispense with putting on record what will excite, 
 in some, sneers of contempt, and in all, stir up feelings of 
 sorrow mingled with indignation. Let us look with some 
 care at the few things here of real importance to us and to 
 all who love to look upon the sites of memorable portions of 
 our Blessed Redeemer's mission on earth. 
 
 Turning to the left, we pass the vestibule, and find our- 
 selves under the large central dome of the church, and close 
 to the smaller edifice, which is believed to cover the Holy 
 Sepulchre itself. This rotunda, or large dome, is about sev- 
 enty feet in diameter, and nearly the same in height; and 
 the surrounding walls are divided, as you see, in the usual 
 manner, into three stories, ground-floor, triforium, and clere- 
 story : there are eighteen piers, some of which are round pil- 
 lars with capitals, bases, and pedestals, and the others simple 
 square piers : the large and lofty piers towards the east, or 
 right hand, sustain a wide arch that rises into the triforium 
 of the church, and now serves as an arch of passage between 
 the rotunda and the choir, which is in possession of the Greeks. 
 As we walk slowly round this part of the church, you per- 
 ceive, in the intervals between the piers, chapels of very con- 
 siderable depth, each intended to commemorate some one of 
 the mysteries of our Lord's passion, and all having in them 
 some highly valued relics or supposed testimonies of Christian 
 verity. Let us glance a moment at the edifice, or house of 
 stone, standing here over the spot where the Holy Sepulchre 
 is thought to have been. Lamartine describes it as *' an 
 oblong square, adorned with pilasters, a cornice, and cupola, 
 all of marble ; the whole of a labored and eccentric design, 
 
 14* 
 
322 
 
 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 and executed in bad taste." The former, or original edifice, 
 was in the Gothic style, and, so far as one can judge, must 
 have been much more impressive than the present building. 
 We mount a few low steps to the marble platform before the 
 entrance ; and, unattended, we enter a small, dimly-lighted 
 room, which serves as an ante-chapel to the sepulchre itself. 
 Here is shown the stone on which the angels sat who an- 
 nounced to the women the wondrous news of the resurrection 
 of that Lord and Saviour whose body they had come to anoint 
 with sweet spices. A few steps further, stooping somewhat, 
 and passing through a low narrow portal, and we are alone 
 in the inner sanctuary, where thousands and tens of thou- 
 sands have knelt, and wept, and prostrated themselves, in full 
 faith that this is the very site of our Master's burial-place. 
 Lamps of gold and silver, ever burning, afford light to the 
 narrow chapel where we are, and the air is kept redolent 
 with perfumes night and day. We see not the sepulchre as 
 it was originally, for then it was hewn out of a rock, and the 
 Apostles, when they came to see, on the report of Mary Mag- 
 dalene that the body was taken away, stooped down and 
 looked into the low door of entrance before they went in. 
 Now, however, the spot which is shown us as that of the holy 
 resting-place, is a sort of sarcophagus of white marble, which 
 surrounds and conceals from the eye everything in relation to 
 the tomb, and is about two feet above the level of the floor ; 
 thus depriving this sacred spot of the evidence which properly 
 belongs to it, and throwing an air of doubt and suspicion over 
 the whole subject. How often do we find occasion, in visit- 
 ing sacred localities, to deplore the steps taken by the piety 
 and zeal of other ages, when it was sought to dignify holy 
 spots by heaping upon them ornaments and decorations ut- 
 terly out of place, and in the worst possible taste ! How 
 truly do we join in the poet's touching plaint : 
 
 " Oh ! for that garden in its simpler guise. 
 Where she the earliest of His mourners came, — 
 
MUSINGS OVER THE SEPULCHRE. 323 
 
 Came ere the stars of Syria's cloudless skies 
 Grew pale before their morning burst of flame. 
 
 Oh ! if the lichen now were free to twine 
 
 O'er the dark entrance of that rock-hewn cell, 
 
 Say, should we miss the gold-encrusted shrine 
 
 Or incense fumes' intoxicating spell 1 
 
 Would not the whispering breeze, as evening fell, 
 
 Make deeper music in the palm-trees' shade 
 
 Than choral prayer or chanted ritual's swelH 
 
 Can the proud shafts of Helena's colonnade 
 
 Match thy time-hallowed stems, Gethsemane's holy glade V* 
 
 How easy is it here, too, to object and disbelieve, when the 
 architects of Constantine, and later nursing fathers of the 
 Church, saw fit to level down the rock in which the tomb 
 was, and thus to make it as unlike the original as was in 
 their power ! What wonder is it that the mind of man, re- 
 volting at imposture and deception in so many instances un. 
 der, the roof of this very edifice, termed the Church of the 
 Holy Sepulchre, should indignantly cast away everything 
 relating to it as unworthy his attention, and fit only for the 
 ignorant and credulous pilgrim ! 
 
 In deep and solemn silence let us muse awhile in this holy 
 place ; and with hearts full of faith in that gracious Lord 
 who triumphed over death, and by his glorious resurrection 
 opened unto us the gates of everlasting life, let us pour out 
 our devout prayers and supplications for the enlightening, 
 strengthening, and purifying graces of the Holy Ghost, the 
 Comforter. Lord, I believe ; help Thou mine unbelief. God 
 be merciful to me a sinner. Thou art our Redeemer ; Thou 
 art our all : make no long tarrying, O my God ! O death^ 
 where is thy sting ? O grave, where is thy victory ? Thanks 
 be to God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. Shall our hearts be untouched, and cold, and 
 hard, in such a place as this? Shall we not hope and believe 
 
 * Lord Ellesmere's " PUgrimage," quoted by Mr. Williams, " Holy City," vol 
 ii. p. 75. 
 
324 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 that God will answer the prayers of us, penitent sinners, 
 who cry unto Him for pardon and grace, kneeling, as we do, 
 near the very tomb in which His body lay, and from which 
 He rose on the third day? And shall we not, as we leave 
 this deeply interesting spot, resolve, in the fear of God, to 
 strive ever hereafter to lay aside everything which hinders our 
 onward and upward progress toward heaven, where our Master 
 ever liveth and reigneth in power and great glory, world 
 without end ? 
 
 Mount Calvary is about a hundred and twenty feet distant, 
 as nearly as I could measure it, from the site of the sepul- 
 chre, in a south-easterly direction, and is reached by a flight 
 of eighteen steps cut in the rock : the elevation is about 
 twenty feet above the floor of the church. We here find 
 the same excess of decoration, and the addition of things 
 which mar sadly the very spots intended to be honored and 
 adorned. The old monk points out to us the place where, he 
 says, the Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross, over which is 
 an altar : near by he shows us the hole made in the rock in 
 which the cross was set up ; and a little behind, on either 
 hand, the holes dug for the crosses of the two malefactors : 
 the altar here erected is adorned profusely and gaudily. We 
 are also shown, at a few feet distance from the place where 
 the cross stood, a cleft or fissure in the rock, reported to have 
 been made by the earthquake at the time when oar Lord 
 yielded up the ghost, and the earth did quake, and the rocks 
 were rent, and the graves were opened. Some writers, like 
 Mr. Bartlett, stigmatize this, and indeed everything about this 
 locality, as " contrivances which tend to produce disgust ;" 
 I see no improbability, however, in the thing itself, but rather 
 considerable reason to credit the received tradition ; and I 
 prefer to adopt the language and sentiments of the sagacious 
 and acute Maundrell on this point ; he says : " This cleft, as 
 to what now appears of it, is about a span wide at its upper 
 part, and two deep, after which it closes : but it opens again 
 
MOUNT CALVARY. 5fe 
 
 below, as you may see in another chapel contiguous to the 
 side of Calvary, and runs down to an unknown depth in the 
 earth. That this rent was made by the earthquake that hap- 
 pened at our Lord's passion, there is only tradition to prove ; 
 but tliat it is a natural and genuine breach, and not counter- 
 feited by any art, the sense and reason of every one that sees 
 it may convince him : for the sides of it fit like two tallies to 
 each other, and yet it runs in such intricate windings as could 
 not well be counterfeited by art, nor arrived at by any in- 
 struments."* 
 
 As we gaze upon these mementoes of the past, and feeling 
 how little, after all, we realize the momentous importance of 
 the awful events and circumstances connected with our Lord's 
 cross and passion, may we not take upon our lips the self-ac- 
 cusing words which the poet puts into the mouth of the Cru- 
 saders when they beheld Jerusalem ? 
 
 *' Here, Lord, where currents from thy wounded side 
 
 Stain'd the besprinkled ground with sanguine red, 
 
 Should not these two quick springs at least, their tide 
 
 In bitter memory of Thy passion shed ! 
 
 And melt'st thou not. my icy heart, where bled 
 
 Thy dear Redeemer 1 still must pity sleep 1 
 
 My flinty bosom, why so cold and dead 1 
 
 Break, and with tears the hallow'd region steep ! 
 If that thou weep'st not now, forever shouldst thou weep t"f 
 
 Descending again into the church, we enter a chapel un- 
 derneath the hill of Calvary : here are pointed out to us the 
 tombs of the noble Godfrey de Bouillon and his brother Bald- 
 win ; the inscriptions on their tombs are not very legible, but i 
 you may think them worth copying. 
 
 HiC JACET INCLYTUS DUX GODEFRIDUS DE 
 BULION, aVl TOTAM ISTAM TERRAM AC- 
 Q.UISIV1T CULTUl ChRISTIANO, CUJUS ANIMA 
 
 Regnet cum CHRisto. Amen. 
 
 * Maundrell's *' Journey," &c., March 26th. 
 f Tasso's " Jerusalem Delivered," Cant. iii. 8. 
 
326 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 Rex Balduinus, Judas alter Machabeus, 
 
 Spes patri^, vigor ecclesi^, virtus utriusglub, 
 
 q,uem formidabant, gui dona tributa ferebant 
 
 C^DAR ET iEOYPTUS, DaN AC HOMICIDA DAMASCUS, 
 PrOH dolor ! IN MODICO CLAUDITUR HOC TUMULO. 
 
 The limits of the present letter do not admit of dwelling 
 upon these things ; neither will it now be practicable to visit 
 and speak in detail of several other parts of the church not 
 devoid of interest and importance.*' I must leave all these 
 for the present, and beg your attention to the topic proposed 
 at the commencement of this letter. I trust that a calm and 
 dispassionate examination of the question at issue will prove 
 this much, at least, that it is not without reason that I pre- 
 sume to believe in the verity of Calvary and the Holy Sep- 
 ulchre. 
 
 If we examine the accounts contained in the Gospels of 
 the last events connected with our Lord's death and resurrec- 
 tion, we find certain facts recorded. Jesus, after the mock- 
 ery of a trial, was condemned, scourged, insulted, crowned 
 with thorns, and taken by the soldiery to be led to the place 
 of crucifixion. This was about eight o'clock on the morning 
 of Friday : as He passed through the streets of the city, 
 He was followed by large numbers of weeping and mourning 
 disciples, and sympathizing friends ; fainting under His cross, 
 
 * " The church of the Holy Sepulchre, composed of several churches, erected 
 upon an unequal surface, illumined by a multitude of lamps, is singularly mys- 
 terious; a sombre light pervades it, favorable to piety and profound devotion. 
 Christian priests, of various sects, inhabit diflferent parts of the edifice. From the 
 arches above where they nestle like pigeons, from the chapels below, and sub- 
 terraneous vaults, their songs are heard at all hours both of the day and night. 
 The organ of the Latin monks, the cymbals of the Abyssinian priest, the voice 
 of the Greek caloyer, the prayer of the solitary Armenian, the plaintive accents 
 of the Coptic friar, alternately, or all at once assail your ear; you know not 
 whence these concerts proceed ; you inhale the perfume of incense, without 
 perceiving the hand that burns it ; you merely perceive the pontiff, who is going 
 to celebrate the most awful of mysteries on the very spot where they were ac- 
 complished, pass quickly by, glide behind the columns, and vanish in the gloom 
 of the temple."— Chateaubriand's " TVareZs tn Greece, Palestine,'' &c., p. *290. 
 
OUR lord's crucifixion. 987 
 
 which they had cruelly forced Him to bear on His shoulder, 
 he was relieved from carrying it by Simon of Cyrene, who 
 chanced to be passing by, and was compelled to take it ; ere 
 long they came to the wall, on the western side of the city ; 
 they emerged through the gate, and shortly after came to the 
 hilly spot or eminence, apparently used for executions,^ and 
 named Calvary or Golgotha ; the Saviour was nailed to the 
 cross, which was here set up, and on either hand the two 
 malefactors were placed : this was the third hour, answering 
 to our nine o'clock, or thereabouts ; during the following three 
 hours, the Saviour endured the agony of the cross, and the 
 horrid mockings and insults of the infuriate Jews, and was 
 looked upon by multitudes, as well from the walls of the city 
 near by, as from the vicinity of the cross ; from noon until 
 three o'clock, the whole land was enveloped in darkness and 
 terrifying gloom ; about the ninth hour our Redeemer, having 
 performed the last acts of His sacrificial passion, yielded up 
 the ghost and expired ; various significant wonders and mi- 
 raculous signs occurred, the veil of the temple was rent in 
 two, the earth trembled, the tombs of holy men were opened, 
 &c. ; the multitude, not long after, in deep sorrow and appre- 
 hension, returned into the city and went their way ; a guard 
 was left around the cross ; Joseph of Arimathea went to Pi- 
 late to beg the Lord's body, when a soldier was sent to see 
 if He were really dead ; the body was delivered to Joseph ; 
 this, judging from the events related, must have been nearly 
 or about five in the afternoon ; Joseph, assisted by Nicode- 
 mus, wrapped the body in linen with spices, intending after- 
 
 * Tischendorff expresses himself as decidedly opposed to the opinion which 
 holds the Place of Skulls, as the ordinary place of execution. He contends 
 that the word Golgotha does not indicate a place where skulls fall or lie, but is 
 derived from the form of the rocky hill, i. e., from its resemblance to a skull. I 
 confess to you, that I should be glad to believe him correct in this view; for it 
 has always struck me as a difficulty not easily explained, that the wealthy Jo- 
 seph should have a garden in immediate proximity to the ordinary place of ex- 
 ecution. The majority of scholars and divines, however, take the opposiU 
 view. 
 
328 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 wards, probably, to embalm it properly ; Joseph owned a gar- 
 den near to Calvary, and in it was a new tomb, hewn out of 
 the rock ; into this, because of the lateness of the hour, they 
 laid the sacred body, and placing a great stone against the 
 portal of the sepulchre, they, and the pious women who had 
 been looking on, went to their homes, and rested, according to 
 the commandment, on the Sabbath-day, which began at six 
 o'clock, now near at hand. Very early on Sunday morning, 
 the third day, the women set out with the spices and oint- 
 ments, intending to go and anoint the body of Jesus ; when 
 they reached the sepulchre, about sunrise, they found the 
 stone rolled away, the guards fled in terror into the cily, th« 
 angels, who told them that the Lord was risen ; and they re- 
 turned in wonder and profound astonishment into the city, 
 and told the disciples ; Peter and John ran to see the true 
 state of the case, and discovered that the body was indeed 
 gone, and the sepulchre empty, and they too returned into the 
 city ; Jesus Himself appeared to them the same day, and thus 
 verified the reality of His glorious resurrection. 
 
 Thus much is certain, then, that Jesus, " bearing His cross, 
 went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is 
 called, in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Him ;" a 
 title, in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, was put on the cross ; it 
 was read by many of the Jews, because Calvary, the place 
 where Jesus was crucified, was 7iigh to the city ; and further, 
 it is certain, that " in the place where He was crucified, there 
 was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein 
 was man never yet laid. There laid they Jesus, because of 
 the Jews' preparation-day, for the sepulchre was nigh at 
 hand.''''^ 
 
 Now, we are here met, at once, with a very serious diffi- 
 culty. Both Calvary and the sepulchre were undoubtedly 
 outside of the city walls, though at no great distance ; but 
 the church of the Holy Sepulchre is inside the city, and sur- 
 
 ♦ John xix. 17, 18, 20, 41, 42. 
 
THE aUESTION STATED. 339 
 
 rounded by dwellings and buildings to a considerable extent. 
 It is plain, then, that if the present be coincident with the an- 
 cient wall, this could not be the site of the crucifixion, and 
 the place of entombment ; and on the settlement of this point 
 depends, virtually, the whole question. If it be true, that 
 this locality was anciently within the city wall, then of course 
 not a word more can be said in its defence ; but if it can be shown 
 that it was outside the wall, in the time of our Saviour, then 
 even the most strenuous opponents of its genuineness are willing 
 to yield without further discussion. Dr. Robinson's efforts 
 are directed with great force to the proving, that the ancient 
 wall so ran as to include the traditionary site of the Holy 
 Sepulchre ; Mr. "Williams's labors are specially devoted to a 
 defence of the present site, and an elaborate and luminous 
 display of the arguments of a topographical character, which, 
 in his opinion, clearly settle the matter in favor of the an- 
 cient tradition on this subject. Mr. Fergusson agrees with 
 neither of these learned writers, and advocates a theory pe- 
 culiar to himself, a theory which, despite his learning, acute- 
 ness, and capacity for argumentation, is so really extravagant, 
 so completely unsettles all the received and certain views of au- 
 thors and travellers, in regard to the topography of Jerusalem, 
 and has so small foundation in fact, that it can never obtain 
 general approbation, but rather the reverse. As you perceive, 
 then, it becomes necessary to examine the topographical ar- 
 gument first of all ; we will, subsequently, consider the value 
 to be attached to the tradition, which has been handed down 
 to us from the first ages, in respect to the places of our Sa- 
 viour's death and burial. 
 
 Josephus gives a description of the walls of Jerusalem, 
 stating that there were three which protected the city in those 
 parts, where the deep valleys rendered this precaution un- 
 necessary. The first wall commenced at the Tower of Hip- 
 picus, ran along the northerly brow of Mount Zion, to the 
 Xystus, and ended at the west cloister, or portico of the tem« 
 
330 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 pie. The second wall began at the gate Gennath, which be- 
 longed to the first wall ; encompassed, or circled round the 
 northern quarter of the city, and reached as far as the castle 
 of Antonia, on the north part of the temple-area. The third 
 wall, that of Agrippa, taking its beginning at the tower of 
 Hippicus, included the large suburb on the north, which had 
 in process of time become inhabited.^ The second wall is 
 the one in which we are now principally interested ; and the 
 points needful to be determined are these : the position of the 
 tower of Hippicus ; the place where the gate Gennath was ; 
 the line of the second wall ; the situation of Akra ; and the 
 course of the valley of the Tyropoeon. 
 
 Dr. Robinson assumes that the Tower of David, at the 
 north-east angle of the present citadel, corresponded with the 
 Hippie Tower, and he gives his reasons at length. Mr. Wil- 
 liams controverts this view, and adduces his arguments to 
 show that it was at the north-west, instead of the north-east 
 angle. As it is not material to the question under considera- 
 tion, I shall not detain you with an abstract of the learned 
 authors' arguments in favor of their respective views. It is 
 of more importance to determine where the gate Gennath 
 was situate. If we adopt Dr. Robinson's opinion, that this 
 gate was near, or close to the tower of Hippicus, you per- 
 ceive that it renders it somewhat improbable, that the second 
 wall excluded the church of the Holy Sepulchre. If, on the 
 other hand, we agree with Mr. Williams, that this gate was 
 at some distance to the east of the tower, it becomes far more 
 easy to believe, that the wall ran in such direction as to leave 
 outside, but yet near at hand, the site claimed to be that of 
 Calvary and the tomb of our Lord. Dr. R. says in one 
 place, that the gate was " apparently near Hippicus ;" in 
 another he uses stronger language, and affirms, that "this 
 gate of Gennath in the first wall, doubtless was near the 
 tower of Hippicus ;" and moreover, that *' it could not have 
 
 * Joseph. " Bell. Jud^ lib. v. c. 4. 
 
COURSE OF THE SECOND WALL. 331 
 
 been far distant, because that part of Zion was then high and 
 steep." Mr. W. devotes a number of pages to the consider- 
 ation of Dr. R.'s statements, and by a skilful induction of 
 circumstances, shows clearly, to my mind, that the learned 
 professor is in error, in assuming the close proximity of the 
 gate to the Hippie Tower; but even "admitting the gate 
 Gennath to have been absolutely close to Hippicus, which,'- 
 as Mr. Bartlett confesses, "is far from probable," still it is 
 not of very special moment ; for, as the same writer candidly 
 acknowledges, notwithstanding he agrees with Dr. Robinson 
 in disbelieving in the genuineness of the Holy Sepulchre, 
 " the utmost sweep that the second wall could even then have 
 made, embraces a very limited space, little more than the 
 other ; and unacquainted as we are with the motive which 
 may have decided the builders on a particular course, it is, 
 perhaps, too much to say, that the wall never could liave ex- 
 cluded the present sepulchre, and that on this ground alone, 
 its site is mistaken."''^ According to Dr. R., then, " the second 
 wall ran first from near Hippicus northwards, across the 
 higher and more level part of Akra ; and then sweeping round 
 to the valley between Akra and Bezetha, somewhere in the 
 vicinity of the present Damascus gate, either followed," &o. 
 Again he says, that unless it took this direction, the large 
 pool, called by him, the pool of Hezekiah, must have been 
 excluded. Let us examine these statements a little more 
 closely. As respects the pool, termed by Dr. R., the pool of 
 Hezekiah, there is no sort of authority for attributing it to 
 that monarch ; all that can be urged in its favor, is a recent 
 tradition drawn from an Italian monk, in the seventeenth 
 century, and confessedly of little or no value ; and as the 
 Christians and Mohammedans, even now, only know it 
 by the name of the Pool of the Holy Sepulchre, or the 
 Pool of the Bath, and as the earlier writers and travel- 
 lers held no such view, or had ever heard of this opinion, 
 
 * " Walks about Jerusalem,'' p. 91, 92. 
 
332 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 we may, I think, not improperly, dismiss it without further 
 notice. 
 
 Dr. R. supposes the Tyropoeon to have extended along the 
 street which leads down directly east from the Jaffa gate till 
 it joins the deeper wady, which runs in a southern direction 
 quite to the Pool of Siloam and the Valley of Jehoshaphat. He 
 also supposes Akra to have been north of Zion, and separated 
 from it by theValley of the Cheesemakers just spoken of. Both 
 these hypotheses are ably met, and, in my judgment, refuted 
 by Mr. Williams. Tisohendorff, too, advocates the same view 
 with so much force and precision, that I beg to quote his 
 words, which are the more worthy of notice because he wa? 
 at first a believer in Dr. R.'s theory on the subject of the 
 topography of Jerusalem, but afterwards gave it up entirely 
 as untenable, on examining the results of Dr. Schultz's and 
 Mr. Williams's labors: — it is an '' erroneous opinion," he says, 
 "to assume that Akra, or the Lower City, lay adjacent, 
 northerly, to Mount Zion. This supposition of Robinson, and 
 of many others, could only be rendered possible by not taking 
 the text of the description of Josephus literally, and by not 
 sufficiently elucidating it to themselves by its comparison with 
 the existing localities. Akra could not lie to the north of 
 Mount Zion, as Robinson asserts ; because, in the first place, 
 Josephus says, since the filling up of an intervening valley 
 under the Asmonaeans, it formed one whole with Moriah, the 
 Mount of the Temple ; but to the present day, Robinson's 
 Akra is distinctly separated, and must ever have been soj 
 from the Mount of the Temple, by the Valley of the Cheese- 
 makers: secondly, because Josephus states that Akra was 
 separated from Zion, or the Upper City, by the Valley of the 
 Cheesemakers ; but the Valley of the Cheesemakers runs, as 
 is distinctly perceptible, from north to south, and has abso- 
 lutely no arm which from the west, in justification of the ex* 
 pression of Josephus, separated Akra from Zion : thirdly, 
 because Josephus says that both the Upper City and Lower 
 
ARGUMENT FROM TRADITION. 333 
 
 City fell externally into deep valleys ; now, this would be 
 positively incorrect with respect to the Lower City, had that 
 lain where Robinson assumes."* We may conclude, then, 
 1. That the Tower of Hippicus occupied the site of the north- 
 west (or perhaps the north-east) tower of the modern citadel ; 2. 
 That the place of the Gennath was some distance to the east of 
 that tower, near, probably, the south extremity of the present 
 bazaars ; 3. That the second wall ran hence in a northerly direc- 
 tion, excluding the Holy Sepulchre, and, bending to the west, 
 curved round by the Damascus Gate, and so on to the Tower 
 of Antonia ; 4. That Akra is the hill to the north-west of the 
 Temple Mount ; 5. That the Tyropoeon is the Mill Valley, 
 extending from the Damascus Gate to the Pool of Siloam.t 
 
 If you have had the patience to follow me through this dry, 
 but necessary abstract of the topographical argument relative 
 to the site of the Holy Sepulchre, you will, I trust, agree 
 with me in opinion that there is no need to abandon this lo- 
 cality, so far as appears from anything yet urged against it ; 
 that the probabilities rather favor than otherwise, the view 
 that this spot was outside the city wall in the time of our 
 Saviour ; and that, as Mr. Bartlett acknowledges, " on topo- 
 graphical grounds we can see no sufficient objection to oppose 
 to its" genuineness, and the credibility of the ancient tradition 
 in its support. 
 
 We now come to the strong and convincing argument de- 
 rived from history and very early and uniform tradition. 
 This is the more necessary to examine, and the more impor- 
 tant in its bearing, because, as you will perceive, even though 
 the church of the Holy Sepulchre may be so situate as not 
 to have been included within the second wall, still, after all, 
 it might not be the true site of the crucifixion and entomb- 
 ment ; and it is possible that Dr. Robinson might be wrong 
 on topographical grounds, and still this locality also not be 
 
 * " Travels in the East," p. 148. 
 
 •f Williams's " Holy City," vol, ii, p. 64. 
 
EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 entitled to our notice for the reasons which we believe it is: 
 yes, it is possible that the wall might have so run as to ex- 
 clude the Holy Sepulchre, and yet Mr. Fergusson's bold the- 
 ory be true, that tradition has wrongly fixed it where it is, 
 notwithstanding the clear tradition of the first three centu- 
 ries, and the building of the church by Constantine to mark 
 it ever after, he alone having been reserved to the glory of 
 identifying it with a spot on Mount Moriah under the edifice 
 now known as the Mosk of Omar. I say that these things 
 are quite possible, and I allude to them in order to call your 
 attention the more completely to the value of the argument 
 from tradition in favor of the Holy Sepulchre, since on this 
 argument must depend, in reality, the settlement of the 
 whole question. Let me then state to you just what has 
 been handed down to us with respect to the Holy Sepulchre, 
 and you will readily understand that it approaches as near 
 to a demonstration as the nature of the case will admit. 
 
 No candid man can doubt for a moment that the first 
 Christians were accurately acquainted with the place of the 
 crucifixion and burial of our Lord. The Apostles certainly 
 knew the spot well ; the large number of converts, including 
 very many among the Jewish priests, must also have known 
 where Calvary was; the bishops, beginning with James, our 
 Lord's brother (A.D. 35), and the clergy must have been 
 well informed on these points; and it is contrary to every 
 principle of human nature to suppose, that they either did or 
 could forget or lose sight of places consecrated in their eyes by 
 the agony and passion, the death and resurrection, of the 
 divine Saviour. Less than forty years after Christ's death, 
 the Holy City was invested, taken, and destroyed by the 
 Romans, though there is no reason to suppose that the unim- 
 portant localities of Calvary and the tomb in the rock 
 received material injury ; most of the disciples had fled pre- 
 viously, and taken refuge in Pella, beyond the Jordan ; but 
 after the mournful overthrow of Jerusalem, they returned to 
 
PROBABILITIES OF THE CASE. 335 
 
 dwell amid its ruins. Surely, within a year or two, or less, 
 they could not have forgotten Calvary and the Lord's tomb, 
 especially when they saw His words so fearfully verified in the 
 downfall of the guilty nation ; ana as they assembled once 
 more to worship God, glorifying His holy Name for all the 
 wonderful works which He had done, is it at all probable that 
 they would not look with special interest upon the site of His 
 death, whose blood the maddened people had invoked upon 
 themselves, to their utter ruin ? At no time was the Church 
 in Jerusalem without its bishop and clergy, the teachers of 
 truth. Will it be believed that they did not know, and if 
 they knew, that they did not point out, the sacred localities 
 to the people, as inciting them to renewed diligence in follow- 
 ing in the footsteps of the Lord who purchased them with His 
 blood ? Will it be believed that, called upon, as they were, 
 to endure persecution and martyrdom for the name of Christ, 
 and accustomed, as we know they were, to look with rever- 
 ence upon places dear in their eyes, on account of the death 
 of some holy man, they would not regard at all, and would 
 even lose the knowledge of so sacred a place as that where the 
 Redeemer of the world died and was buried ? To my mind, 
 the thing seems impossible. 
 
 Passing down the stream of time, we come to the reign of 
 Hadrian (A.D. 117-138), who was- so exasperated against 
 Judea and its people, in consequence of the tremendous and 
 bloody outbreak of the infatuated Jews, under Bar Cochebas 
 (Son of a Star), that he set no bounds to the rigor of the 
 punishment imposed. They were forbidden to visit or even 
 come near the Holy City ; thousands and tens of thousands 
 were sold into slavery ; Jerusalem was desecrated by pagan 
 temples, and the impure rites of heathenism ; and to complete 
 its misery, it was named after the conqueror, jElia Capitolu 
 na. With characteristic arrogance, the emperor took no pains 
 to discriminate between the Jew and the Christian in Jerusa- 
 lem ; he trampled upon the former, by erecting a temple to 
 
336 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 the Capitoline Jove, on the holy mount where the Lord^s 
 house once stood, and the latter he permitted, if he did not 
 direct, to he insulted and rendered contemptible, striving to 
 blot out the memory of Calvary and the tomb of Christ, by 
 placing over them the idol fanes of Venus and Jupiter* — a 
 singularly unwise and unsuccessful effort ; for not only were 
 these localities well known to the Christians in Jerusalem, as 
 is evidenced by this act on the part of the Roman tyrants, but 
 so gross and outrageous profanation of sites revered by them 
 on account of what had there transpired, naturally and neces- 
 sarily served to deepen and perpetuate the memorial of the 
 place where the Lord poured out His blood, and where He tri- 
 umphed over death and the grave. It cannot, therefore, be 
 doubted, that the very means taken by the persecutors and 
 enemies of the cross to trample under foot the faith of Christ, 
 tended materially to preserve the recollection of places such as 
 these ; and though Hadrian appears to have relented some- 
 what, and to have forbidden the prosecution of Christians in 
 Palestine, without just cause, it does not appear that any 
 change was made in respect to the shrines of Jupiter and Venus, 
 or that Calvary and the tomb were ever relieved from the 
 odious connection with heathen folly and impurity ; nay, 
 rather, it seems not improbable that the peculiar species of 
 insult which forced those who came to pray near the place 
 of crucifixion to be apparently devotees of idols, afforded great 
 gratification to the dominant party : may we not well believe, 
 that under such circumstances, our elder brethren in the faith 
 never could forget what those fanes were meant to lord it 
 over and to destroy utterly ? 
 
 It is not necessary for our present purpose to enlarge upon 
 the trials and persecutions of the Christians under succeeding 
 
 ♦ Mr. Milraan, in his " History of Christianity" (p. 308), thinks it improbable 
 that the emperor wished to insult the Christians by this step ; as it is a matter 
 of opinion, merely, on his part, it needs little consideration in this place; 
 I prefer to follow the generally received historical statement. 
 
337 
 
 emperors. The city of ^lia appears to have continued 
 much the same as under the emperor from whom it took its 
 name, and men in general seem to have forgotten almost en- 
 tirely its former designation. Church history has preserved 
 many interesting matters in connection with the bishops and 
 the Christian body in ^lia or New Jerusalem : for the most 
 part they appear to have lived in peace and freedom from 
 severe persecution, and to have been occupied in contending 
 for the faith against heresy within, and pagan assaults with- 
 out ; but during the reign of the dark and gloomy Diocletian, 
 they, too, were called upon to endure the fiery trial of their 
 faith in Christ : this was in the be^innins^ of the fourth cent- 
 ury. We pass over the details, and turn our attention to 
 what was done when Constantine the Great became sole 
 emperor and ruler of the civilized world. Among the earli- 
 est steps which he took in favor of Christianity, were those 
 in relation to the holy sites in Jerusalem. He wrote to 
 Macarius, the bishop of that see, with reference to the puri- 
 fying the places desecrated by pagan snperstition, and was 
 especially desirous that the Holy Sepulchre of our Lord 
 should not only be relieved from everything impure and 
 offensive, but also adorned and rendered sacred by a magnifi- 
 cent temple to be erected over it. There does not appear, as 
 Dr. Robinson and others represent it, any doubt either on 
 the part of the bishop and clergy, or of the emperor, that this 
 spot, covered by a large mound of earth, on the top of which 
 was Venus's shrine, marked really and undoubtedly the Holy 
 Sepulchre of our Lord. " The emperor's orders were — not 
 that any inquiry should be instituted, not that any search 
 should be made, but simply that the temple (of Venus) should 
 be levelled with the ground, and the earth carried away. 
 This was done, and the Sepulchre came to light." So far as I 
 can perceive, there is no contradiction between this statement 
 and that of Eusebius ; he represents the emperor to be moved 
 ** by divine inspiration, and prompted by the Saviour Him- 
 
 15 
 
338 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 self," when he desired to purify and adorn the place of our 
 Lord's resurrection, '' already," as he says, " exposed to en- 
 tire oblivion and misapprehension," — exposed to such a result 
 because it had been covered up ever since Hadrian's time by 
 a large heap of earth, and dedicated to the worship of a hea- 
 then deity. And though the emperor, in his epistle to Ma* 
 carius, does use strong language, styling the recovery of " the 
 sign of the holy passion of the Saviour," so long concealed 
 beneath the earth, " a miracle, or wonder, sub.ime beyond 
 conception," still it is not beyond what we might expect on 
 the occasion, considering the character of the age ; and, as 
 Mr. Williams says, *' was it not a reasonable cause of amaze- 
 ment to those who witnessed it, that the pagans, when they 
 sought to obliterate the memory of the spot, should have left 
 the cave entire ; and that, notwithstanding so long conceal- 
 ment, it should come forth unharmed, presenting, as it were, 
 a figure of the resurrection, in its own recovery ? and will 
 not this satisfy the strong language of the emperor's letter ?"* 
 We may admit, as I certainly do, that there is much of ex- 
 aggeration, and much that is untrue, in the account relative 
 to the finding of the " true cross ;" yet, surely, that does not 
 bind' me to set aside the historical evidence in favor of the 
 sites of Calvary and the Tomb of Christ ; surely it is going 
 too far to say that, because unauthorized marvels in the 
 course of time were heaped upon the alleged discovery of the 
 " true cross," therefore all the testimony of history, tradition, 
 and the common, well-understood principles of human nature, 
 is nugatory and valueless ; surely, there is no logical or nec- 
 essary connection between the suspiciousness or the '' work 
 of pious fraud," as Dr. R. terms the invention of the cross, 
 and the genuineness of the Holy Sepulchre : the one has every 
 improbability in the world against it ; no one had heard of 
 
 * ^^ Holy City,^' vol. i. p. 239. — Tischendorff understands the words above 
 quoted from Eusebius, to refer to the discovery of the cross, and it may be Cor- 
 rectly. It does not matter much, either way. 
 
THE CHURCH BUILT OVER THE SEPULCHRE. 339 
 
 its existence till now ; no one had imagined before that it and 
 the crosses of the two malefactors had been formally and 
 carefully buried ; no one could have guessed that now, after 
 nearly three centuries, they would be brought to light in per- 
 fect preservation ; no one had pretended that the Christians 
 had all along kept the material cross in view, and looked 
 upon it with reverence ; not at all : it was quite a new thing, 
 and is to be judged of on far different grounds from those on 
 which the other point at issue stands. This has every prob- 
 ability in its favor, independently of positive evidence ; the 
 precise locality could not well be lost ;. the natural features 
 of Calvary, and the rock tomb in the garden, could not easily 
 be erased ; the natural feelings of every Christian man could 
 not let him forget the place of our Lord's death and burial. 
 
 Constantino, whether right or wrong in his belief, that he 
 was moved by a Divine impulse, did not slacken in the work 
 he had taken in hand ; nor was the zeal of the bishop and 
 clergy in Jerusalem a whit behind his own. " A magnificent 
 church, called at first the Church of the Resurrection (Anas- 
 tasis), afterwards that of the Holy Sepulchre, rose on the 
 sacred spot hallowed by this discovery ; in which a large 
 part of the Christian world has addressed its unquestioning 
 orisons. It stood in a large open court, with porticoes on 
 each side, with the usual porch, nave, and choir. The nave 
 was inlaid with precious marbles ; and the roof, overlaid with 
 gold, showered down a flood of light over the whole building ; 
 the roofs of the aisles were likewise overlaid with gold. At 
 the farther end rose a dome, supported by twelve pillars, in 
 commemoration of the twelve Apostles ; the capitals of these 
 were silver vases. Within the church was another court, at 
 the extremity of which stood the chapel of the Holy Sepul- 
 chre, lavishly adorned with gold and precious stones, as it 
 were to perpetuate the angelic glory which streamed forth on 
 the day of the resurrection.''*' 
 
 * Maman'8 ''History of Christianity,'' p. 309. 
 
340 iEGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 There appears to be no occasion to pursue the subject 
 further in a historical point of view : no one has ever 
 doubted — I except, of course, Mr. Fergusson — that the site 
 fixed upon by Constantine is the same as that now seen in the 
 Holy City ;* and therefore it is quite unnecessary to quote 
 the uniform testimony of travellers to prove the fact which 
 is admitted on all hands. They who oppose the view which 
 I have endeavored — feebly enough, I fear — to advocate, do it 
 on the grounds that the topography of the Holy City will 
 not allow of this being the true site of the Sepulchre ; and 
 that the tradition urged in its favor is weak, uncertain, and 
 inconclusive. Of the former, I leave you to judge, hoping 
 that what I have been compelled to treat briefly, and it may 
 be is obscure, will be further examined, if you are so dis- 
 posed, in the two principal treatises on these topics. Dr. 
 Robinson's and Mr. WilHams's works relative to Jerusalem. 
 But with respect to the latter, that of tradition, I beg to say 
 a word or two more in conclusion. 
 
 Why should we not believe in the verity of the Holy 
 Sepulchre ? Is there anything improbable in the thing it- 
 iself? anything not worthy of credit in a tradition of this 
 sort ? anything more unphilosophical in belief than in un- 
 belief? or is it true that we should receive nothing for 
 which we cannot find demonstrative evidence ? Who is wil- 
 ling to take such ground as this, when the fact is, that the 
 great majority of places held to be those whose names they 
 bear have no evidence whatever to support their claims but 
 common tradition ? For my own part, I hold it to be one 
 of the worst features of the age in which we live, that men 
 are so prone to doubt and disbelieve ; so impressed with a 
 settled conviction of their superiority to their fathers ; so 
 bent upon displaying their ingenuity in throwing discredit 
 upon the past ; and so unwilling to look with reverence upon, 
 
 * Dr. Robinson ()uts the question, " Who has ever doubted the identity of th© 
 present site with that selected under Constantine 1" vol. ii. p. 71. 
 
NOTIONS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 341 
 
 or to receive in trusting faith, any of those things which are 
 not susceptible of mathematical proof. I know not how it is, 
 or why it is, but some men seem to think that they who pre» 
 ceded us on the stage of being were not persons of like capa- 
 bilities and like feelings with ourselves ; there is abroad a 
 vague, but in general fixed notion that the ancient Christians 
 knew little or nothing ; that they were on the whole very 
 ignorant, and very corrupt, and very willing, for a small 
 price, to practise fraud and deception ; to shut their eyes to 
 manifest absurdities, and to submit to anything and every- 
 thing which their teachers chose to say or do, right or 
 wrong, sensible or foolisb; It is the custom, too, to deal in 
 much declamation against the darkness of the past ages of 
 the Church — and I for one shall be the last to attempt to 
 deny the truth on this point/ — and there is an offhand, incon- 
 siderate way of charging motives upon those who are gone 
 to their account and cannot answer for themselves, which 
 does not reflect much credit upon the candor and fairness of 
 the present age. In truth we are in the enjoyment of won- 
 drous and inestimable privileges of every kind ; but instead 
 of being humble and more faithful in consequence, we are 
 filled to the full with conceit, and our boasting is beyond 
 measure ; doubtless, is the language of our speeches and our 
 actions, " doubtless, we are the people, and wisdom will die 
 with us !" Now, it would be well occasionally to ask our- 
 selves why the Christians at the beginning of the fourth 
 century and during the centuries preceding, were not as good, 
 as learned in the Scriptures, as sensible, as honest, as capable 
 of feeling, seeing, acting, and speaking, as their brethren of 
 the nineteenth century ?* it would be a wholesome thing for 
 
 * Both Mosheira and Gieseler, whose prejudices are entirely against admitting 
 any very great purity or honesty in the third and fourth centuries, concede all 
 that I wish on this point. Mosheim tells us of " the inherent energy of heavenly 
 truth, and the piety and constancy of the Christian teachers," " the translation 
 of the Scriptures into various lauguages," 'the beneficence of Christians, their 
 great sympathy for the poor, kindness to enemies, care of the sick, readiness to 
 
342 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 US to inquire, on what grounds we think that they would lie 
 and deceive, or why they would not scorn such things with 
 as much indignation as the very best among us ? it would 
 prove very profitable to us all at the present day to look 
 around and see if there be not now as much, or nearly as 
 much corruption, dissension, quarrelling, superstition, and 
 things of that sort, among those called Christians, as can 
 fairly be charged upon the early professors of the truth as it 
 is in Jesus ? It would take down our conceit a little to look 
 forward into the future, and imagine how readily the coming 
 generations will fling words of contempt upon us and impute 
 evil motives to our actions, because a thousand years hence 
 they will think themselves wiser than we in those very mat- 
 ters of which we think that we know everything, and which 
 we do know far better than they ever can. And, remem- 
 bering these things, let me ask, why should any man, when 
 more than fifteen centuries have rolled away, and when we 
 know little more than the name of one out of many of the 
 
 redeem captives, and numerous other kind offices, proving them to be deserving 
 of the love and gratitude of mankind." This is of the third century: of the 
 next he relates, " the untiring zeal of the bishops and other holy men, the pure 
 and devout lives which many of the Christians exhibited, the translations of the 
 Sacred Volume," &c. (vol. i. p. 188, 274.) Gieseler having pointed out various 
 corruptions of the truth during the period from A.D. 193-324, which are admit- 
 ted by every one to have had more or less sway, says, nevertheless, " While we 
 cannot overlook these moral defects, we still find in the Church a living Christi- 
 anity prevailing, and in consequence thereof, fine moral phenomena which are 
 sought for in vain out of its pale at this period." (vol. i. p. 265.) For a more 
 favorable, and I believe more just, view of the characters and lives of the early 
 followers of Christ Jesus, let me refer you to the learned Dr. Cave's " Primitive 
 Christianity." Dr. Burton, also, in his " Lectures upon the Ecclesiastical His- 
 tory of the First Three Centuries" — a very valuable work— gives more credit to 
 the early Christians for their knowledge, goodness, honesty, &c., than the Ger- 
 man school are ever willing to allow ; one sentence I beg to quote : " The fiery 
 trial of ten years (the Diocletian persecution) would naturally purify the Church 
 from corrupt or useless members ; and if we were to fix upon any time since the 
 days of the Apostles, when the lives of Christians were likely to win the hearts 
 of the heathen, it would probably be the time when the death of Maximinu 
 placed the whole of the empire at the disposal of Constantine." (p. 652.) 
 
CHRISTIANS OP THE FOURTH CENTURY. 343 
 
 teachers of Christian truth in the Holy City, put on record 
 such words as these respecting the bishop and clergy of Jeru- 
 salem in the early part of the fourth century? — "It would 
 perhaps not be doing injustice to the bishop Macarius and 
 his clergy, if we regard the whole as a well-laid and success- 
 ful plan for restoring to Jerusalem its former consideration, 
 and elevating his see to a higher degree of influence and 
 dignity."^ O deplorable and unheard of condition of a 
 Church ! not one, from the bishop downward, through the 
 hundred or more clergy and the thousands of the laity, not 
 one to lift up his voice against a lie ! O wonder of wonders, 
 that the bishop and all his clergy should be fools as well as 
 liars ! for not only do they falsely declare that here is the 
 site of Calvary and the Tomb, but they must needs locate 
 their falsehood in such a position as to make it evident to 
 the simplest reader of the Scriptures that it is a falsehood, 
 for it is inside the city walls ! who can believe that the 
 Gospels were lost ; or if not lost, that the bishop and his 
 clergy knew not how to read ; or if they knew how to read, 
 that they did not read, and when they tried their hands at 
 imposture, did not put their supposititious sepulchre outside 
 the walls beyond any doubt ? who can believe that the 
 learned author of the " Biblical Researches," erudite as be 
 is, knows more about Jerusalem and its localities in the 
 fourth century than Macarius, the bishop who presided more 
 than twenty years over the Church in the Holy City ?t and 
 who, unless it may be himself, is unaware how easily his 
 words might be retorted upon him, and some ignorant 
 and prejudiced person might charge him with all the evil he 
 has heaped upon the memory of the bishop and clergy of 
 Jerusalem? as something in this wise: "it would not 
 
 ♦ " Biblical Researches," vol. ii. p. 80. 
 
 t Macarius died (A.D. 327) in the first year of the building of Constantine'i 
 splendid Basilica ; the edifice was completed in about ten years, and the dedica- 
 tion was kept on the tricennalia of the emperor, in the year 336. 
 
.YSr.- EGYPT AND THE HOXY LAND. HID 
 
 perhaps be doing injustice to the" very learned author of 
 the Biblical Researches, "if we regard the whole" of his 
 book, *' as a well-laid and successful plan for restoring to 
 
 its former consideration, and elevating his . . . . to a 
 
 higher degree of influence and dignity ;" — the blanks to be 
 filled up according to the temper and wishes of the person 
 casting evil imputations upon the acute and deeply-read 
 professor."* 
 
 Why, then, I ask again, should we not believe in the ver- 
 ity of the Holy Sepulchre ? we rrtay be sure that the iirst 
 Christians knew well the sites of the passion, death, and res- 
 urrection of our Lord ; we may be equally sure that succeed- 
 ing generations were quite as well informed as their fathers 
 and brethren on these points ; and unless we choose to believe 
 everything evil of the third and fourth centuries, and deter- 
 mine to find no good in those who suffered persecution, tor- 
 ture, and death for the truth as it is in Jesus, we may be 
 certain that they knew and that they testified truly respect- 
 ing Calvary, the tomb in the rock, and other revered spots in 
 and about the Holy City.t I know not how it may strike 
 your mind, but I profess to you that the more I think upon 
 
 * Of course, you will understand that I disclaim everything like personalities 
 in a discussion of this kind ; and am perfectly free to accord to those who differ 
 from me, an equal sincerity, honesty, and thoroughness of conviction, with that 
 which I claim for myself I take the more pleasure in speaking thus, because 
 it has fallen to my lot to have the honor of personal acquaintance with the dis- 
 tinguished champions, both for and against the genuineness of the Holy Sepul- 
 chre, as also with the learned and ingenious originator of the novel theory 
 which owns him alone as its supporter (I mean Mr. Fergusson). Here, as every- 
 where, I pray that truth only may prevail. 
 
 f " When," asks Dr. OUn, in his very able summary of the argument for the 
 genuineness of the Holy Sepulchre, " would be the period, or what the possibh 
 circumstances in which it would be practicable to begin to practise imposition or 
 impose ignorance upon the thousands of Christians born and reared in sight of 
 Calvary, who would naturally and irresistibly be led to venerate and visit the 
 consecrated spot at every recital of the Redeemer's sufferings by parent or priest, 
 and by every impulse of faith or gratitude in their own bosoms V — '^Travels in 
 Egypt," &c", vol. u. p. 287.^ 
 
the matter and the more closely I examine the subject, the 
 more thoroughly am I convinced, notwithstanding 1 was in 
 great doubt when 1 went to Jerusalem, that, take the argument 
 as a whole, it approaches almost to a demonstration : less 
 than this I should hardly dare to deem sufficient; more than 
 this, I should be ashamed to presume to ask. 
 
 And now, my dear S., I do rrfost sincerely beg pardon for 
 this unconscionably long discussion : 'take it for what it is 
 worth ; and though that may be little, yet believe me that 
 truth only is my end and aim. If truth be at all promoted 
 by what I have said or written, I shall esteem myself happy 
 and honored : pray for me and with me, that it be not sullied 
 or undervalued by aught which I may attempt to do to pro- 
 mote its spread among men. 
 
 P. S. I cannot forbear adding two or three quotations from 
 the works of living writers bearing on the discussion in the 
 present letter: they are worth perusing, and are not wanting 
 in significancy, coming, as they do, from the decided oppo- 
 nents of the view which I have ventured to adopt. 
 
 "We cannot doubt that the Apostles and first Christian con- 
 verts at Jerusalem, must not only have known the spot, but 
 that this knowledge must have descended to the next genera- 
 tion, even though no peculiar sanctity were by them attributed 
 to it. Soon after the destruction of the city, it is generally 
 supposed that some among them returned to re-establish them- 
 selves among its ruins ; and it seems almost incredible that they 
 should not have sought for the spot again, and pointed it out 
 to their descendants, as worthy of pious remembrance. Making 
 every allowance for the fact that the first converts were 
 rather absorbed in the spiritual influences of Christianity, 
 than careful about the different sites of its history, we think 
 
 15* 
 
346 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 it must be still conceded, that it is very improbable that the 
 knowledge of those lying immediately around them should 
 entirely die out. The presumption, then, would seem rea- 
 sonable that the Christians at Jerusalem must have been ac- 
 quainted with the real Calvary, when Constantine erected 
 the original church of the Holy Sepulchre upon the same site 
 occupied by that now standing." — ^^ Walks about Jerusalem,''^ 
 p. 169, 170. 
 
 '' I believe that the boundaries of property were well de- 
 fined, and registers kept, describing every field and house, 
 and more especially everything in the immediate proximity 
 of the capital of a Roman colony, as ^Elia Capitolina was in 
 the time of Constantine ; so that I do think it more than 
 probable that he (the emperor) possessed the means of ascer- 
 taining the fact beyond all doubt ; indeed, the narrative of 
 Eusebius seems to presuppose that such information did exist, 
 for there is no doubt or hesitation apparent, either in the mind 
 of the emperor or the historian, as to where the place was. . . . 
 Golgotha .... must have been at all times one of the best 
 known spots about Jerusalem, and one as likely to have re- 
 tained its name, in the time of Constantine, as any other ;— 
 so much so that it appears to me almost a work of superero- 
 gation to go to the register, or any remote argument, for its 
 fixation ; and even supposing all Christian tradition to have 
 been silent, and no registers to have existed, I cannot but 
 think that Constantine might easily have ascertained the 
 knowledge he sought, of the exact position of that spot, and 
 from that at least known whereabouts the sepulchre stood, — 
 if he could not point out exactly the identical cave in which 
 the body was laid. My own belief is, that he had the means 
 of ascertaining both, but most certainly that of Golgotha." — 
 Fergusson's ^^ Essap on the Ancient Topography of Jerusa^ 
 lem;' p. 85, 86. 
 
 *' Is the alleged site of the Tomb of Christ, over which the, 
 Church of the Holy Sepulchre is built, really beyond the line 
 
347 
 
 of this (the second) wall, .... and consequently entitled to 
 the presumption of genuineness ; or within its course, and 
 therefore altogether apocryphal and erroneous ? This ques- 
 tion, owing to its connection with alleged ecclesiastical mira- 
 cles and ancient and modern exhibitions both of devotion and 
 superstition, is now admitted on all hands to be highly im. 
 portant. Dr. Robinson, after a laborious and calm discus- 
 sion, has answered it in the negative, as others had done 
 before his day ; but his conclusions^ though they have ob- 
 tained the acquiescence of multitudes of his readers^ both in 
 Europe and America^ have been assented to but by few of 
 the travellers who have visited Jerusalem, and favored the 
 world with the result of their observations, since the publi- 
 cation of his most important Biblical Researches." 
 
 " To what is called the historical argument, I shall now refer. 
 I do not know that anything of consequence remains to be 
 added to what he has advanced on the subject, though, after 
 a careful perusal of his authorities, I am inclined to say 
 that he has perhaps pressed them somewhat beyond their 
 legitimate bounds."*^ — Dr. Wilson's " Lands of the Bible^^ 
 vol i. p. 433, 434, 438. 
 
m 
 
 LETTEE XVII. 
 
 a8et!)Ie!)em anti fts TJfcfntts. 
 
 Environs of Jerusalem.— Attractions.— Excursion to Bethlehem, Frank Mountain, &c.— Pros- 
 pect from near the City.— Plain of Rephaim.— View of a Part of the Dead Sea.— Character- 
 istics of the Hills and Vales seen on our Way.— Illustrations of Holy Scripture.— Musings 
 upon David's Eventful Career.— Picturesque Situation of Bethlehem.— Arrival at the Frank 
 Mountain.— Herodium.— Ascent of the Hill.— View from the Summit.— Ruins there.— 
 Thence to Solomon's Pools.— Value of Water in the East.— The Pools.— Massi-ve Masonrj'. — 
 Position.— Route to Bethlehem.— Convent and Church.— Place of the Nativity.— Is the Tra- 
 dition Reliable ?— The Town.— Reflections upon the History and Events connected with 
 Bethlehem.— Jacob, Rachel, Naomi, Ruth.— The Blessed Virgin, the Holy Child, the 
 Shepherds, the Magi, &c.— Rachel's Tomb.— Reach Jerusalem at Sunset.— Extract from 
 Mr. Pratt's Journal, relative to Hebron and its Vicinity. 
 
 Jerusalem, April 16th, 1849. 
 My Dear S., 
 
 The Holy City is so full of attractions to the Christian 
 pilgrim, and he finds his time so fully occupied in meditating 
 upon its past history, its present degraded state, and its pros- 
 pective position, when God shall have mercy upon Israel, and 
 the veil which is upon their hearts shall be taken away, that 
 other objects in the vicinity of Jerusalem seem to have less 
 than their due importance in his eyes, and he can hardly bear 
 to lose the time — as he feels it — to visit them as they deserve. 
 Yet it is not to be supposed, that the environs of the city of 
 the Great King are deficient in interest, or unworthy by 
 comparison with the Holy City ; for it is not so, in reality. 
 The hills and mountains, as well as the towns and villages 
 about Jerusalem, abound in recollections of the part, and have 
 each and all borne their part in the wonderful story of other 
 and brighter days ; and it is quite true, that one cannot ride 
 
EXCURSION TO THE FRANK MOUNTAIN. 349 
 
 or walk in any direction outside of the walls, without meet- 
 ing with something to remind him of the Scriptures of truth, 
 and the history of the chosen people. I was rather struck 
 with this fact, after some days spent in visiting and wander- 
 ing amid the touching, as well as sad, localities about Beth- 
 lehem, the Jordan, the Dead Sea, etc. It will, perhaps, be a 
 relief to the long story which I have been telling you, in some 
 previous letters, about Jerusalem, if you will go with me for 
 a while in an excursion to the points alluded to above. I can 
 hardly dare hope for it, but I should be delighted if I were 
 able to convey to you the same pleasure which it was my lot 
 to enjoy in a visit to Bethlehem and its vicinity. 
 
 In company with two other gentlemen from England, 1 
 left Jerusalem early, one clear and bright morning, for an ex- 
 cursion to the " Frank Mountain," as it is termed, intending, 
 on our return, to take in Bethlehem and some points between 
 it and Jerusalem. We passed out of the Jaffa or Bethle- 
 hem gate, and descending the hill, and leaving the extensive 
 pool of Gihonon our left, between us and the wall, we turned 
 toward the south. We had a fine glimpse of the deep valley 
 of Hinnom, with its fertile spots and pretty garden enclosures, 
 as we rode along the hill-side, on the west, and gradually 
 came upon the high table-land toward the south, as one looks 
 in the direction of Bethlehem. Though not particularly 
 striking, the scene was by no means deficient in interest and 
 attractiveness : looking back, we had the Holy City spread 
 out before our eyes, in part only. Mount Zion rearing its lofty 
 head, and shutting out from view much that otherwise would 
 have been visible. On our left, the hill-sides, terraced, and 
 thus made serviceable for cultivation, suggested many a 
 thought of the rural life of Judea. The ''Mount of Offence," 
 on the opposite side of the valley, and the " Hill of Evil 
 Counsel," nearer, and to the south of the vale of Hinnom, 
 gave rise to reflections not more sad than painful ; for we 
 thought of the wisest of monarchs, who is said here to have 
 
350 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 defiled the glory of his name, and done dishonor to the one 
 only true God, by sacrificing to idols and those which be no 
 gods ',^ and our minds dwelt for a while upon the plots and 
 evil counsel of the chief priests and elders, against the holy 
 and harmless, and undefiled One, and upon the unutterable 
 guilt of the traitor Judas, who betrayed the innoceiit blood 
 of his Lord and Master. In general, as I think I have be- 
 fore stated, the face of the country about Jerusalem has a hard 
 and almost barren appearance ; the rocks in many places are 
 bare, and the soil is for the most part thin and scanty ; on 
 the level surface over which we were slowly riding, there was 
 indeed deeper earth, but it abounded in loose stones, and was 
 deeply tinged with a reddish brown color, indicating the pres- 
 ence of a large proportion of clay ; nevertheless, the ground 
 is far from unfruitful, and the waving fields of grain and 
 grass, the groves of olive, the fig-trees, the pomegranates, the 
 pear, and other fruits, not only gave token of what the land 
 is capable of producing, but added greatly to the interest and 
 beauty of the scene, as beheld under the morning sun of 
 April's lovely month. 
 
 We did not take the usual road in our excursion, but 
 branched off, soon after leaving the city, rather to the left, 
 and followed the sheep or goat-paths along the sides of the 
 hills or over the level spots, till we arrived at the " Frank 
 Mountain." On our right, we passed the plain or valley of 
 Rephaim, so celebrated in Scripture history as the place 
 where the Philistines " came up and spread themselves" 
 against David, after he had been anointed king over Israel.1 
 I could well imagine, as from a slight elevation we looked 
 abroad over this extensive valley or plain, what a grand bat- 
 tle-field it must have formed, when on the one side were the 
 Philistines, with their chariots and horsemen, " and people 
 
 * See 1 Kings, xi. 1-7. 
 
 t See 2 Sam. v. 18, 22; 1 Chron. xi. 15 ; Isa. xvii. b; in Joshua, xv. 8, and 
 xviii. 16, the same locality is termed " the valley of the giants." 
 
VICINITY OF JERUSALEM. 351 
 
 as the sand which is on the sea-shore in multitude." and -on 
 the other were David and the host of the Lord, who went 
 out before him to smite the armies of the uncircumcised 
 Philistines. How peaceful seemed now the face of nature, 
 in places where, many a time, hand to hand, has been the 
 struggle of death ; and what a picture did imagination shad- 
 ow forth of the fierce and unholy passions of man — those 
 " lusts," whence, as the Apostle has taught us, arise " wars 
 and fightings !" Alas, it was a sad and humiliating reflec- 
 tion, which almost forced itself upon my mind, that even in 
 our days, when the blessed Gospel of the Prince of Peace is 
 proclaimed throughout the civilized world, the same root of 
 bitterness springs up to trouble us, the same unholy desires 
 operate, the same detestable spirit of war and conquest still 
 exists. It may be too much to hope for the prevalence of 
 peace, while so great evil finds place in the hearts of men ; 
 yet we must not neglect to pray for it unceasingly ; we must 
 not forget the sublime and glorious import of the petition, 
 " Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in 
 heaven ." 
 
 From a point near the eastern boundary of the valley of 
 Rephaim, we had a view of a portion of the Dead Sea, with 
 the mountains of Moab beyond : the atmosphere was rather 
 deficient in clearness at this moment, and gave a sombre hue 
 as well to objects nearer by as to those more in the distance ; 
 but, so far from detracting from the scene, it appeared as 
 only fit and becoming, since rarely could we look upon a sight 
 more full of solemnizing reflections than this, which brought 
 the awful punishment of the cities of the plain distinctly, as 
 it were, before our eyes. 
 
 Proceeding at a slow pace, we rode along in a southerly 
 direction, at one time passing down the steep and rocky sides 
 of a high hill, at another, shut out from the surrounding world, 
 we beheld the smiling and lovely fields of grain and grass in 
 the deep recesses of some quiet valley : now, we would come 
 
352 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 upon flocks of sheep and goats, and would be struck with the 
 singular circumstance that they are almost always thus kept 
 together under a shepherd's care ; and we felt, as never we 
 had felt before, the force of our Lord's words when speaking 
 of the last judgment ; — '' when the Son of Man shall come ia 
 His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit 
 upon the throne of His glory, and before Him shall be gathered 
 all nations ; and He shall separate them one from another, as 
 a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats ; and He shall 
 set the sheep on His right hand and the goats on His left."''*' 
 You will believe me that our thoughts were turned to this 
 dread event with something more than an ordinary sense of 
 its near approach, and our aspirations went up before God 
 our Saviour, that in the last day when He shall come again 
 in power and great glory to judge the world, we may be found 
 acceptable in His sight, and may hear those life-giving words, 
 " Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom pre- 
 pared for you from the foundation of the world." At another 
 time, our eyes were greeted with vineyards and enclosed gar- 
 dens, protected by a round tower built in or just by it : and 
 immediately our minds were impressed with the passages of 
 Holy Writ, which were here again illustrated and confirmed : 
 " Now will I sing to my well beloved a song of my beloved, 
 touching his vineyard. My well beloved hath a vineyard in 
 a very fruitful hill ; and he fenced it, and gathered out the 
 stones thereof and planted it with the choicest vine, and built 
 a tower in the midst of it, and also made a wine-press therein ; 
 and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought 
 forth wild grapes."! So, too, our blessed Lord in one of His 
 parables alhides to the same striking point in illustration of 
 his Divine teaching : " A certain man planted a vineyard, 
 and set an hedge about it and digged a place for the wine- 
 fat, and built a tower and let it out to husbandmen, and 
 went into a far country ."t In every direction we beheld these 
 
 ♦Matt. XXV. 31-33. f Isa. v. I, 2. | Mark, xu. L 
 
SCRIPTURAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 353 
 
 towers, which are usually very solid and secure, and being 
 built of stone to the height of about twenty feet, serve admi- 
 rably for the purposes of defence against an enemy, or for 
 protection against the sudden storms of the country. We 
 had them in sight during the greater part of the day, and 
 could not but think of the deep meaning couched under 
 figures, so well known and so easy of application by those to 
 whom the language of Holy Scripture was addressed. How 
 touching the expostulation, '^ What could have been done 
 more to my vineyard that I have not done in it ?" How true 
 is it that " the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts, the house of 
 Israel, and the men of Judah" is laid waste, its hedge taken 
 away, its wall broken down, its tower in ruins ; for ^' he 
 looked for judgment, but behold oppression, for righteousness, 
 but behold a cry!" How true, too, is it that the guilty 
 husbandmen in our Lord and Master's vineyard, not only 
 shamefully entreated His servants, killed His prophets, and 
 stoned them that were sent unto them, but consummated 
 their long and dreadful career of wickedness, by taking away 
 the life of the well-beloved son of the lord of the vineyard ; 
 and thus brought upon themselves destruction and misery unut- 
 terable ! While we rejoice that the branches which have 
 been broken off' from the good olive tree, " if they abide not 
 in unbelief, shall be grafted in, for God is able to graff them 
 in again," let us not be highminded but fear ; *' for if God 
 spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare 
 not us."* 
 
 You will not doubt that the reflections inspired by these 
 and similar passages of God's Holy Word were of a whole- 
 some and profitable character : few, I imagine, can visit the 
 Holy Land without learning much in respect to the meaning 
 of Scripture, even if it do not touch their hearts with its 
 solemn and awful, as well as joyful and glorious truths, as 
 forcibly as it ought ; while to those who read it and study it, 
 
 *Rom. li. 20, 21,23. 
 
3^4 
 
 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 Hot as the word of man, but as it is in truth the word of 
 God, it comes home, here on the spot, with a power and in^ 
 tensity far beyond any efforts of mine to express. I was 
 deeply impressed with this idea, more particularly, while we 
 were in the neighborhood of Bethlehem, and wandering over 
 the very hills and dales so renowned in ancient Scripture 
 story. The past seemed to rise before me with a distinct- 
 ness quite surprising, and I could almost fancy that the 
 scenes and events of several thousands of years long gone 
 by, were enacted but yesterday, so truthful and so graphic 
 appeared everything about me. Here, on these very hills, 
 methought, that fair and lovely boy once kept his father's 
 sheep, he whose fame has spread through all lands, and 
 whose name is dear to every Christian heart. Here, in these 
 valleys, and on the mountain sides round about Bethlehem, 
 he led the sheep and the goats to pasture, and in the quiet 
 stillness of each passing day gave his thoughts and his 
 wishes to the praising and meditating upon the Lord his 
 God. It was near this very spot, over which we now were 
 treading, that the great and good Samuel, mourning for the 
 rejected Saul with a great mourning, passed on his way to 
 Bethlehem, in order to sanctify Jesse and his sons, and call 
 them to the sacrifice : the youthful David was, at first, it 
 would seem, forgotten ; but at the prophet's express requi- 
 sition, he was sent for. Leaving his flock for a season, and 
 doubtless full of wonder and guileless expectation, he came 
 to join the festal assemblage ; and there the aged Samuel 
 first beheld the manly boy, who was " ruddy and of a fair 
 countenance," and whom God, who looks not on the outward 
 appearance but on the heart, had chosen to feed His people 
 Israel. What a change, we may well suppose, came over 
 David, when having been anointed in the midst of his 
 brethren, ''the Spirit of the Lord came upon him from that 
 day forward ;" how his mind expanded, his thoughts were 
 set upon great and holy things, his purposes and plans only 
 
355 
 
 for the glory of the Lord God of Hosts: how wise, and 
 prudent, and valiant, and surpassingly skilful in playing 
 upon the harp, did the noble youth become, so much so that 
 Saul loved him greatly and made him his armor-bearer, and 
 the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David with 
 a love surpassing that of women. I could easily fancy him, 
 returning from the novel and wearisome splendor of a court, 
 to the peaceful and happy occupation of once more feeding 
 his father's sheep on these hill-sides of Bethlehem : I could 
 see him, methought, when there came a lion and a bear and 
 took a lamb out of his flock, how he arose and girded him- 
 self with the strength from on high, how he pursued after 
 the lion and the bear, how he delivered the tender lamb out 
 of their jaws, and how he slew both the lion and the bear ;* 
 and when in consequence of his victory over the uncircum- 
 cised Philistine, who had dared to defy the armies of the 
 Lord of Hosts, he was called to leave forever these familiar 
 scenes, to take part in the wars and contests of the king, 
 and subsequently to struggle for very existence against the 
 jealous power and vindiotiveness of his own father-in-law, I 
 oould, as I fancied, see him look back, with unavailing re- 
 grets, upon the quiet haunts of his early days, and utter 
 many a sigh foi' the peaceful hours when his soul had been 
 wrapt into communion with Him whose praises he has 
 dung, in strains of such marvellous sweetness and beauty. 
 
 It needs not that I dwell upon the various points of inter- 
 est which we met with upon the road : at one time we had 
 Bethlehem itself on our right, and gazed upon it in its pic- 
 turesque position on the side of a hill near the top ; at another 
 we passed, at intervals, near several small villages, situate in 
 retired spots among the mountains, and not infrequently in 
 some deep dell, shut out, as it were, from the neighboring 
 world : in general, we rode for hours amid scenery of the 
 most varied as well as most interesting kind ; now making 
 
 ♦ 2 Sam. xvii. 34-36. 
 
356 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 our way through romantic passes, with frowning precipices 
 on either hand ; now riding down or up the sides of high hills, 
 each moment opening some new point of view ; and now fol- 
 lowing the path through lovely vineyards, olive groves, and 
 fields of grain, and beholding " the sycamore trees that are in 
 the low plains in abundance."* We had like to have lost our 
 way at one time, and deemed it safest to call for a guide 
 who professed to know the road : it was a ploughman, whom 
 we addressed, and without hesitation, for a few piastres, he 
 left his plough to the care of a friend wnom he had near him, 
 and set off at a brisk walk for the mountain. Under his 
 guidance we soon arrived in the vicinity of the lofty conical 
 hill, which has received the name of Jebel el-Fureidis, Hill 
 of Paradise, or the Frank Mountain, and which, though not 
 very often visited, deserves some notice, at least, on account 
 of the remains near its base and on its summit. 
 
 The ruins near the foot of the mountain are supposed by 
 Dr. Robinson to indicate the site of the Herodium, a large 
 city erected by Herod the Great, of which the hill and fort- 
 ress constituted the Acropolis.t The learned author quotes 
 the account of Josephus in respect to this city, and makes it 
 appear from various particulars, such as the situation, which 
 is about seven miles south of Jerusalem, and not far from 
 Tekoa, the mountain answering to the one of which Josephus 
 speaks, the round towers, the large reservoirs of water, and 
 the city below, — that the Frank Mountain and its vicinity 
 were originally occupied by this splendid city and strong 
 fortress. Perhaps it was here, too, that the body of Herod 
 was brought for burial, two hundred stadia from Jericho, 
 where he died.t Certainly, even a cursory look at the ruins 
 near the base of the mountain, and the remains on the sum- 
 mit, must strike the attention of every traveller, and force 
 
 * 2 Chron. ix. 27. 
 
 t On Capt. Corry's map of Syria, Herodium is placed considerably to the east 
 of the Frank Mountain; Berghaus's map agrees with Robinson's. 
 :^ See Robinson's '• Biblical Jiesearches," vol. ii. p. 173. 
 
THE FRANK MOUNTAIN. 357 
 
 him to the conclusion, that this locality was once deenned of 
 great importance, both as a place of strength, and as a fitting 
 site for a large and beautiful city.* Irby and Mangles men- 
 tion the tradition, apparently of recent date, that the Frank 
 Mountain was " maintained by the Franks forty years after 
 the fall of Jerusalem," and the expulsion of the crusaders. 
 They go on, however, to say, that " the place is too small 
 ever to have contained one half the number of men which 
 would have been requisite to make any stand in such a coun- 
 try ; and the ruins, though they may be those of a place 
 once defended by Franks, appear to have had an earlier ori- 
 gin, as the architecture seems to be Roman."! Maundrell, 
 also, speaks of "a high, sharp hill, called the Mountain of 
 the Franks, because defended by a party of the crusaders 
 forty years after the loss of Jerusalem."^ 
 
 We found the ascent rather toilsome, though not difficult. 
 The mountain is lofty, and rises from its base in the shape of 
 almost a perfect cone, truncated, however, at about three 
 fourths of its height. Our horses carried us a part of the way 
 up ; but before reaching the top, we were obliged to dis- 
 mount, and proceed on foot the remainder of the way. In 
 many respects, the view is fine from the summit of this higli 
 hill ; but on the whole, it did not equal the expectations I had 
 
 * Josephus thus speaks of the Herodium: "An artificial mound, shaped like 
 a woman's breast, distant sixty furlongs from Jerusalem, Herod named »5imi- 
 larly and adorned in a more ambitious style. The summit he embraced with 
 circular towers occupying the enclosure with the most sumptuous structures ; 
 and not only did the interior of these present an air of magnificence, but on 
 the outer walls also, with the battlements and roofs, was lavished a profusion 
 of costly ornaments. He moreover, conveyed to it, from a great distance, and 
 at an immense expense, an am^ple supply of water, and rendered the ascent 
 easy, by two hundred steps of the whitest marble, the mound being of consid- 
 erable elevation and entirely artificial. He erected also, at the base, other 
 palaces for the reception of his furniture and friends : so that the fort, in the 
 diversity of its accommodation, resembled a town — in its circumscribed limits, a 
 royal residence."— Joseph. '' Bell. Jud." lib. i. cap. xx. 10. 
 
 t Irby and Mangles's " Travels," &c., chap, vii., May 7th. 
 
 X Maundrell's "Journey," &c., March 31st 
 
358 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 been led to form. To the south and west, the prospect 
 is very limited, though I had been told, that Hebron and its 
 vicinity could be seen from this elevation, which is quite the 
 reverse of the truth. Looking eastwardly, however, our eyes 
 were greeted with the sight of a considerable portion of the 
 Dead Sea, which lay spread out in all its silent gloom and 
 irapressiveness, and seemed to harmonize well with the barren, 
 sterile, and as it were tenantless region round about. Long 
 and earnestly did we gaze upon this scene — a scene calculated 
 to fill the mind with sad and solemn thoughts, and tending to 
 fasten in the memory the fearful story of the awful wicked- 
 ness, and the no less awful punishment, of the cities of the 
 plain. Surely, in Palestine, if nowhere else, it is impossible 
 not to see the hand of God in the judgments and vengeance 
 He has denounced against all manner of iniquity. The view 
 to the north is extensive, but offers few points on which it is 
 worth while to dwell. We found it more interesting to ex- 
 amine, with no great minuteness it is true, the ruins of the 
 fortress which at one time occupied the summit of this moun- 
 tain. Dr. Robinson says, that the top of the hill constitutes 
 a circle of about seven hundred and fifty feet in circumfer- 
 ence, and that the whole of this is enclosed by the ruined walls 
 of a circular fortress, built of hewn stones of good size, with 
 four massive round towers, standing one at each of the car- 
 dinal points. Without pretending to any knowledge of 
 military science, I was much impressed with the fact that 
 this post must have been impregnable, and that the persons 
 who originally built the fortifications must have looked upon 
 it as of prime importance, and worthy the care, labor, and ex- 
 pense bestowed upon it. One of the towers — that on the 
 east — is partially remaining, and gives one a good idea of the 
 solidity of the structure in its palmy days. Inside of the 
 walls, or ruins, the ground descends rapidly to a considerable 
 depth, not unlike the crater of a volcano. At present it is 
 difficult to tell whether there was formerly an excavation in 
 
VALUE OP WATER IN THE EAST. 359 
 
 the enclosure, or whether, in the lapse of time, the ruins may 
 have formed a mound or slight elevation around the former 
 level of the summit ; but, either way, it is of no great conse- 
 quence. 
 
 After spending an hour or more in this interesting occupa- 
 tion, we descended the mountain and turned off to the west. 
 For some distance our course was along the hill-sides and 
 through the valleys which abound in this region : a part of 
 our way was through a very deep and very lovely ravine, 
 which was rendered all the more attractive because of the 
 care and skill bestowed upon its cultivation, and the sweet, 
 clear, and babbling brook which flowed through its midst. 
 At all times, water is refreshing to the eye as well as to the 
 body, but nowhere does it appear more delightful, nowhere 
 is one more deeply impressed with the value of this greatest 
 of blessings, than here in the East, when suddenly the trav- 
 eller comes upon the sparkling fountain, or a stream of pure 
 water, gliding along fraught with countless mercies to the 
 sons of men. We saw, at no great distance from the point 
 where we first met with this beautiful rivulet, the remains 
 of a large reservoir ; and a number of women were occupied 
 in washing of clothes by the water's edge.* I was much 
 gratified by the kind and cheerful manner with which they 
 brought and offered to us water to drink out of their earthen 
 jars, an offering the most acceptable which just then we could 
 have received, since we had not tasted a drop from the time 
 that we had left Jerusalem unto the present moment, owing to 
 the carelessness of our dragoman, who had forgotten to bring 
 it with him for our expedition. I may take occasion here, as 
 not inappropriate, and certainly deeply fixed in my memory 
 
 ♦ Dr. Robinson's suggestion is most probably correct ; he says : '' If we are 
 to look anywhere in this quarter for Etam, which was decorated by Solomon, 
 with gardens and streams of water, and fortified by Rehoboam, along with 
 Bethlehem and Tckoa; and whence, too, according to the Rabbins, water was 
 carried by an aqueduct to Jerusalem ; I know of no site so probable as this 
 spot." (See 2 Chr. xi. G.) — " Biblical Researches," vol. ii. p. 168. 
 
360 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 in consequence of a want of a draught of wat^r for several 
 hours, to warn the traveller in these hot climates, especially 
 to make provision for a supply of water wherever he goes, 
 that he may not imprudently drink, when he is heated, the 
 cold water out of the deep cisterns sometimes found by the 
 road-side, and may not be compelled to ride or walk for hours 
 exposed to the hot sun without a supply of this necessary and 
 refreshing element. 
 
 About half past two, having traversed a narrow, stony 
 valley,* we came to those vast receptacles for water, com- 
 monly known as " Solomon's Pools." We had been riding 
 for some little time by the side of, and over the aqueduct 
 which carries the water from the pools to Bethlehem, and so 
 on to the great mosk built on the site of the temple in Je- 
 rusalem. There were evident traces of antiquity about the 
 aqueduct, and in several places it was much out of repair; 
 nevertheless, it was not difficult to see and feel its importance 
 not only to Bethlehem, but to the Holy City itself The pools 
 of Solomon are really grand and striking from their extent 
 and their great antiquity, and they are worthy his distin- 
 guished wisdom and the glory of his reign. Fancy to your- 
 self three immense reservoirs, built with great care, of solid 
 masonry, and in close proximity to one another.t Being con- 
 
 * Speaking of this locality Maundrell remarks : " Below the pools there runs 
 down a narrow, rocky valley, enclosed on both sides with high mountains. This 
 the friars will have to be the enclosed garden, alluded to in the same place of 
 the Canticles before cited (ch. iv, 12) : ' a garden enclosed is my sister, my 
 spouse ; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.' What truth there may be in this 
 conjecture, I cannot absolutely pronounce. As to the pools, it is probable 
 enough they might be the same with Solomon's, there being not the like store 
 of excellent spring water to be met with anywhere else throughout all Palestine : 
 but, for the gardens, one may safely affirm, that, if Solomon made tiiem in the 
 rocky ground which is now assigned for them, he demonstrated greater power 
 and wealth in finishing his design, than he did wisdom in choosing the place 
 for it." — Maundrell's "JburTiey," <f«c., April 1st. 
 
 f I was not able to measure the pools myself, as I had intended ; Dr. Rob- 
 inson's measurements are as follows : Lower pool ; length, 582 ft,, breadth, E. 
 end, 207 ft., W, end, 148 ft,, depth, 50 feet ; middle pool, length, 423 ft., breadth, 
 
Solomon's pools. 361 
 
 fitructed on the steep sides of the valley, they rise one above 
 the other, but not in a direct line, toward the top of the hill, 
 so that in fact the bottom of the middle is higher than the 
 top of the lower pool, and the bottom of the upper higher than 
 the top of the middle pool ; there is, too, between them a dis- 
 tance of from about two hundred to two hundred and fifty 
 feet. At the time we were there, the lower and middle pools 
 had not much water in them, in the case of the former, hardly 
 sufficient to cover one half of the broad bottom ; the upper 
 pool seemed to be about one third full, and the water was 
 probably about ten feet deep. It was certainly a peculiarity 
 worth noticing, that the sides of the reservoirs were covered 
 and made smooth with cement ; the bottom was partly of the 
 rocks in their natural state ; and in several places there were 
 flights of steps which led down into the pools when the water 
 chanced to be low. The source whence these reservoirs were 
 supplied, is a sunken fountain situate in the high ground, 
 about three hundred feet to the north-west of the pools. Maun- 
 drell, in 1697, visited this fountain, and took some pains to 
 examine it; perhaps I cannot do better than quote his judi- 
 cious and accurate remarks, which will serve as a fitting con- 
 clusion to all that need here be said of Solomon's Pools. He 
 informs us that the waters " rise under ground, and have no 
 avenue to them but by a little hole like to the mouth of a 
 narrow well. Through this hole yon descend directly down, 
 but not without some difficulty, for about four yards, and 
 then arrive in a vaulted room fifteen paces long and eight 
 broad. Joining to this is another room of the same fashion, 
 but somewhat less. Both these rooms are covered with hand- 
 some stone arches, very ancient, and perhaps the work of 
 Solomon himself. You find here four places at which the 
 water rises. From those separate sources it is conveyed by 
 little rivulets into a kind of basin ; and from thence is carried 
 
 E. end, 250 ft., W. end, 160 ft., depth, 39 ft. ; upper pool, length, 380 ft., breadth, 
 E. end, 236 ft., W. end, 229 ft., depth, 25 ft. 
 
 16 
 
362 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 by a large subterraneous passage down into the pools. In the 
 way, bef(3re it arrives at the pools, there is an aqueduct of 
 brick pipes, which receives part of the stream, and carries it 
 by many turnings and windings about the mountains, to Je- 
 rusalem-''^*^ 
 
 It was getting late in the afternoon when we arrived in the 
 vicinity of Bethlehem, on our road homeward to the Holy 
 City ; and as it was necessary to reach Jerusalem before sun- 
 set, at which time the gates are closed, and no strangers per- 
 mitted to enter, we gave little heed to most of the merely 
 traditionary localities in and about the town, and devoted our 
 time and attention principally to those which have strong 
 claims on the confidence and sympathies of the Christian. 
 We rode through a part of the town, and proceeded at once 
 to the large and rather imposing church built over the place 
 of our Lord's nativity : it is directly by the side of and con- 
 nected with the extensive convent at Bethlehem, which is 
 occupied by the Greeks, Latins, and Armenians, who, so far 
 as I know, live together in greater harmony than unhappily 
 is the case in Jerusalem. Passing through a very low and 
 narrow portal, we entered the spacious church, walked slowly 
 forwards towards the eastern end, where mass was being per- 
 formed, and followed our guide to the spot where tradition 
 attests that our blessed Saviour was born. To one unac- 
 customed to the singularly ill-judged and tasteless manner in 
 which holy places have been overladen with ornaments, the 
 grotto of the nativity would appear to have small claims on 
 the attention. I confess, that not only here, but almost every- 
 where in the Holy Land, there is much, far too much, which 
 annoys the traveller, and sometimes urges him to the convic- 
 tion that none of the traditions in favor of particular localities 
 have any great value or importance. The strong desire — in 
 former days amounting almost to a passion — for building 
 churches and erecting altars over sacred and revered spots, as 
 
 * Maundrell's " Journey,'^ &c., April 1st. 
 
THE GROTTO OP THE NATIVITY. 363 
 
 well as for encasing in marble and precious metals, and load- 
 ing with profuse decorations, some holy grotto or some sacred 
 tomb of saint or martyr, has done injury in more wayJ^ 
 than one to the cause of truth, but principally by tending to 
 confound, one with another, those places which are probably, 
 or almost certainly, the localities which they profess to be, 
 and those for which naught can be urged, except very recent, 
 contradictory and baseless traditions. This is deeply to be 
 regretted, and not a little adds to the perplexities of the en- 
 lightened pilgrim who desires to discriminate rightly, and is 
 laudably anxious, while rejecting those stories which have 
 manifestly no foundation, and have arisen out of the fond de- 
 sire of the human mind to fix a visible site to every Scripture 
 event, not to run into the dangerous extreme of doubting 
 everything or believing nothing which ancient tradition has 
 handed down even to our own days. You, who know that 
 my desire is only for truth in these matters, will credit me 
 that it was almost painful for me to descend a number of 
 marble steps into a small dimly lighted chapel; to see the 
 spot pointed out as the place of the nativity, covered with all 
 kinds of ornaments, and resorted to by devotees from all 
 quarters, with prostrations, kissings, and adoration, amount- 
 ing, it would appear, very near to absolute idolatry ; to look 
 upon a marble manger in which, it is said, the Holy Babe 
 was laid, but which has the evident marks of modern origin, 
 and to stand with bowed head in or near a place which I dare 
 hardly doubt to be the place where the Virgin Mother brought 
 forth her first-born son, wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, 
 and laid Him in a manger. I could not throw myself upon 
 these cold stones, and press my lips to these false mementoes 
 of the incarnation of our Divine Lord and Master; I had none 
 of that feeling which induces the credulous and ignorant pil- 
 grim to receive all that is told him, whether true or false; and 
 yet I would fain believe that my thoughts and emotions were, 
 in measure at least, akin to the great and glorious truth that 
 
364 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 " God was manifest in the flesh," ** that our Lord sprang out 
 of Judah," and that great David's greater Son was born ia 
 the city of David, a Saviour, even Christ the Lord.* May 
 God forgive me if I was wanting in aught, whether here or 
 elsewhere, which it became one of the meanest of His servants 
 to think or do ! 
 
 You will infer, my dear S., from the tone of what I have 
 above said, that I do not see any sufficient reason for doubting 
 that this grotto really marks the place of our Lord's nativity. 
 Dr. Robinson objects to this locality, on several grounds, but 
 mainly on account of its being a cave, or grotto, which cir- 
 cumstance, he thinks, '' it is natural to suppose, that the sa- 
 cred writer would not have passed over in silence."t With- 
 out stopping to enlarge upon the danger of arguing from the 
 silence of Holy Scripture, a process which involves the inter- 
 preter in inextricable difficulties, and which, like a two-edged 
 sword, generally cuts both ways, I think it sufficient to state, 
 that the tradition in favor of this spot is too ancient and too 
 clear, to be set aside by anything which has yet been urged 
 against it. If '' a love of simple historic truth" is to lead us 
 to reject what has been handed down to us from a period not 
 more than fifty years after the death of St. John, and as I 
 believe from even an earlier period, then there is nothing of 
 the sort in the Holy Land, of which we can be sure ; there 
 is no locality at which we dare look with any great confidence : 
 there is no question relating to ancient topography, which does 
 not become almost entirely a mere matter of opinion between one 
 scholar and another ; and the novel and remarkable theories of a 
 Clarke or a Fergusson have as much right to be considered prob- 
 able as those of any one else. Dr. Robinson himself included 
 I doubt not but that your convictions will agree with mine on 
 this point, when I inform you, that even by the showing of 
 the learned author of the " Biblical Researches," the tradi- 
 
 ♦ 1 Tim. iii. 16; Heb. vii. 14; Luke, ii. 11. 
 t See '• Biblical Researches,'^ vol. ii. p. 78, 79. 
 
THE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM. 
 
 365 
 
 tbn in respect to the Grotto of the Nativity reaches back at 
 least to the middle of the second century, — that Justin Mar- 
 tyr speaks of it distinctly, and that Origen and Eusebius 
 mention it in terms which leave no question as to the judg- 
 ment of the early Christians on this matter, to say nothing 
 of the testimony of later writers. But the subject branches 
 out too widely for further consideration here : I have, too, 
 said sufficient on the general topic of the value of tradition 
 in another place ; and it little needs that I weary you with a 
 repetition of the views there expressed. 
 
 My companions visited several spots which, as I had lo 
 confidence in their genuineness, so I had no particular desire 
 to see them ; and while waiting for them, I strolled out a lit- 
 tle way into the town. I was surprised to see the solidity, 
 size and apparent comfort of the houses, as well as to notice 
 several new buildings in course of erection, and a busy activ- 
 ity and industry, which spoke well for the prosperity of the 
 inhabitants. An extensive manufacture of objects of curi- 
 osity is here carried on, and you can hardly get away — we 
 certainly did not — from Bethlehem without buying some 
 mother-of-pearl shells, curiously wrought and illustrated with 
 quaint devices, a pearl-box or two, some crosses or crucifixes, 
 beads, articles made from olive-wood, or the fruit of the dom- 
 palm, &c., &c. The population of the town is probably 
 about four thousand, and they are all, with hardly an excep- 
 tion. Christians ; Dr. Robinson gives them a rather bad char- 
 acter, representing them as " a restless race, prone to tumult 
 and rebellion, and formerly living in frequent strifes with their 
 neighbors of Jerusalem and Hebron." Others — particularly 
 Kinglake, in his Eothen — indulge in a great deal of poetic 
 enthusiasm in regard to the beauty and liveliness of the girls 
 of Bethlehem. I will not pretend to deny but what his 
 notions may be well founded ; I can only say, that I was not 
 struck with any superior beauty or intelligence in those whom 
 it was my privilege to meet. In truth, as you will probably 
 
366 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 divine, my thoughts were more intent upon the past than the 
 present, and as I slowly rode away from the busy town, into 
 the more quiet fields and groves of olive, figs, etc., I gave full 
 play to the busy imaginings which Bethlehem is so well cal- 
 culated to inspire. 
 
 How many ages back does its history extend, and with 
 what a multitude of illustrious characters and events has it 
 been connected ! It was here that Jacob came, with all his 
 wealth, which God had given him, with his wives and chil- 
 dren, strangers in the land which was promised to them and 
 their seed as a sure possession. It was here that his beloved 
 wife, for whom he had served fourteen years, which " seemed 
 anto him but a few days for the love he had to her," was 
 taken away from him, leaving with the mourning father the 
 infant Benjamin as a precious pledge of her last hour : here, 
 too, not far from the town, she was buried, and the place of 
 her sepulture remains even unto this day. More than four 
 hundred years afterwards, " it came to pass that all the cit)^ 
 was moved" by the arrival of Naomi and the gentle, lovely, 
 and most affectionate Ruth. Here was the scene of those 
 events, so touchingly related in the book of Ruth ; and here 
 did it happen that the poor and widowed Moabitess became 
 the wife of the wealthy and honored Boaz, and the great-grand- 
 mother of Israel's second and worthiest king. This was the 
 city of David the servant of the Lord, whom He ^' chose and 
 took from the sheepfolds ; from following the ewes great with 
 young, He brought him to feed Jacob His people and Israel 
 His inheritance. And David fed them according to the in- 
 tegrity of his heart, and guided them by the skilfalness of 
 his hands."* A thousand years and more passed away, and 
 Bethlehem was visited by one of Ruth's descendants, and one 
 more highly favored and honored than an}'- of her sex. The 
 blessed Virgin Mary, " being great with child," came from 
 Nazareth to her own city, the city of David, to be taxed ao* 
 
 * Ps. Ixxviii. 70-72. 
 
REMINISCENCES OF BETHLEHEM. 367 
 
 cording to the decree of the Emperor Augustus ; and here 
 she dwelt till " the days were accomplished that she should 
 be delivered." Here Christ Jesus was born, the Saviour of 
 the world, the Desire of all nations, the long-expected Mes- 
 siah : here our Lord and our God " took not on Him the na- 
 ture of angels, but He took on Him the seed of Abraham,"* 
 and was " a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of 
 the people Israel."t Not far from this highly honored city, 
 abiding in the field, were shepherds keeping watch over their 
 flock by night; and perhaps near the very spot where we 
 were now passing, that scene of glory occurred, of which the 
 Evangelist speaks. Bright were the stars v/hich in their 
 courses roll ; brilliant were the heavens as these simple shep- 
 herds gazed upon them ; but surpassingly magnificent was 
 that glory of the Lord which shone round about them, as 
 with fear and trembling they prostrated themselves in adora- 
 tion before the throne of God. And what a message of love 
 and mercy was that which they heard ! " Fear not, said the 
 angel, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which 
 shall be to all people. For unto you is bom this day in the 
 city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this 
 shall be a sign unto you : ye shall find the Babe wrapped in 
 swaddling clothes, lying in a manger."! What celestial har- 
 mony was that which their ears were permitted to listen to! 
 for "suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the 
 heavenly host, praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the 
 highest, on earth peace, good- will towards men." Ah, with 
 what alacrity did they go even unto Bethlehem, to see that 
 thing which was come to pass, which the Lord had made 
 known unto them ; and when they had seen the Holy Child 
 and the virgin mother, as it had been told them by the angel, 
 with what joy and confiding faith did they spread abroad the 
 good news of God's infinite compassion to our race in sending 
 His Son, His only Son, into the world ! Here, too, did the 
 
 ♦ Heb. ii. 16. f Luke, ii. 32. ± Luke, ii. 10-12. 
 
368 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 star of Bethlehem shine with a lustre all its own, that star 
 which had been the guide for so many days and on so long a 
 journey of the illustrious sages of the East : and these wise 
 men followed its guidance till it came and stood over where 
 the young Child was : with what exceeding great joy did they 
 enter the house ; w^ith what unhesitating faith did they wor- 
 ship the infant Saviour, and with what gladness did they 
 open their treasures, and as kings unto the King of kings did 
 they present unto Him gifts, gold, and frankincense, and 
 myrrh ! And when they had gone away, rejoicing, unto their 
 own homes, alas, what a terrible blow fell upon Bethlehem ! 
 God had sent away into Egypt both Joseph and the young 
 Child and his mother, when the bloody tyrant Herod, even 
 now on the brink of the grave, frustrated in his designs upon 
 the life of the Holy Child, sent his ruffian band to slaughter 
 the innocent babes of Bethlehem, and of all the coasts thereof. 
 It was a deed of horror, unsurpassed by aught of sanguinary 
 ferocity in that despot's latter years ; and might well lead the 
 Evangelist to adopt the striking figure of the prophet Jere- 
 miah ; "in Ramah was there a voice heard, lamentation and 
 weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her chil- 
 dren, and would not be comforted, because they are not."* 
 
 I fear that you will think me needlessly prolix upon this 
 topic, and in truth I ought to apologize for the length to 
 which this letter has already extended. My excuse must be 
 sought in the fact, that such thoughts are, as it were, forced 
 upon the mind, while riding or walking in or near Bethlehem, 
 and the expression of them cannot well be restrained. I 
 have, however, but little more to say which will interest you 
 in the present excursion. In company with Mrs. Gobat and 
 children, and afterwards with the bishop himself, who had 
 walked out to meet his family, we rode slowly onward, meet- 
 ing many a pleasant, smiling face, and saluted with courtesy 
 by the Christian, but scowled at by the Mohammedan. We 
 
 ♦ Matt. ii. 18 ; Jer. xxxi. 1.5. 
 
TOMB OF RACHEL. 369 
 
 passed very near the Torab of Rachel, which is doubtless the 
 true site where the beloved wife of the patriarch was buried ; 
 but we did not stop to examine it, both because it was get- 
 ting late, and because in itself the present edifice offers noth- 
 ing specially worthy of notice :* it is like hundreds of tombs 
 of Mohammedan saints in various parts of the country ; but 
 is picturesquely situate in a retired garden, or field, at a little 
 distance from the road. Hurrying onward we came to Deir 
 Mar Elyas, the convent of St. Elias, which has a noble posi- 
 tion in a gorge of the hills, and from which Jerusalem pre- 
 sents a grand appearance. We arrived at the gate of the 
 city, just as the sun was setting behind the hills in the west, 
 not sorry, at least on my part, to find a place of repose, and 
 deeply impressed with what we had been privileged to be- 
 hold. 
 
 As I did not have the pleasure of visiting Hebron and its 
 vicinity, Mr. Pratt has kindly allowed me to make an extract 
 from his Journal in relation to this locality. I am sure you 
 will be glad to read what I have copied out : — 
 
 "After leaving the pools of Solomon, the road became 
 steeper and harder for the horses, but in no place did I find 
 it a very difficult one for the country. At Ed-Dirweh are a 
 fountain and ruins, which our guide informed us were those 
 
 * Dr. Robinson, who will not be charged with credulity in regard to tradition- 
 ary localities, thinks, that " the tradition which has fixed upon this spot for the 
 tomb of Rachel, cannot well be drawn in question." Speaking of the tomb, he 
 says. " This is merely an ordinary wely, or tomb of a holy person ; a small, 
 square building, with a dome, and within it a tomb in the ordinary Mohammedan 
 form; the whole plastered over with mortar. Of course the building is not an- 
 cient. In the 7th century there was here only a pyramid of stones. It is now 
 neglected and falling to decay, though pilgrimages are still made to it by the 
 Jews. The naked walls are covered with names in several languages, many 
 of them in Hebrew," — " Biblical Researches," vol. i. p. 3'22. 
 
 16* 
 
370 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 of an ancient khan. Several ruined towns or villages were 
 very near our road, but I could not learn the names very 
 satisfactorily. The hills now begin to be covered with bushes, 
 and the fields of the fellahin are more common. On an ele- 
 vated position, some distance to the left, is the ruined mosk 
 of Neby Yunes, where there are other remains of perhaps an 
 older town. This is supposed to be the site of Halhul, men- 
 tioned in Joshua, xv. 58, in describing the borders of the 
 tribes. 
 
 " In a plain near by, a battle was fought in 1192, between 
 Richard Coeur de Lion and Salah ed-Din, in which the for- 
 mer cut his way to the sea-side through the forces of the 
 Sultan. A mile at least from the great road is Kamel el 
 Khalil, or the House of Abraham. Here are remains of a 
 sufficiently solid character to warrant the belief that they 
 were erected at the same time as those around the Sepulchre, 
 or the enclosure of the Haram es-Sherif at Hebron. The 
 road now descends through narrow valleys in which the vine 
 is growing, w^hile the hill-side is also covered with terraced 
 plantations. From the top of a hill, just before commencing 
 the general descent toward Hebron, you catch a glimpse of 
 the plain of the land of the Philistines, with the sea beyond. 
 The towers about Hebron are occupied by the men who 
 watch the vineyards and also the flocks round about. 
 
 " Passing along over a rudely-paved road between the high 
 walls of the vineyards, we came to the outer buildings of 
 Hebron at half-past twelve o'clock, having occupied just five 
 hours in our trip from Jerusalem. The valley we have just 
 descended 4s generally assumed to be the Eshcol (Numb. xiii. 
 23) of the Old Testament, whence the spies brought back the 
 cluster of grapes to Kadesh ; and apparently not without 
 reason. The character of its fruit still corresponds to its an- 
 cient celebrity ; pomegranates and figs, as well as apricots, 
 quinces, and the like, still grow in abundance.'* 
 
 * Robinson's '•'Biblical Researches," vol. i. p. 316. 
 
HEBRON AND ITS VICINITY. 371 
 
 " The town is situated partly on the sides of the valley and 
 partly in the valley itself, being divided into three distinct 
 parts. The valley here is quite small, but cultivated with 
 great care. The antiquities of Hebron are the pools between 
 the hills, and the tomb of Abraham on the opposite side of 
 the city. It is the highest part of the city, though only at 
 the foot of the hill surrounding the valley. It is guarded 
 with great care, and woe be to the Christian or Jew who 
 should be detected within its sacred walls. The edifice is 
 rather longer than broad, above whose lofty walls rise the 
 roofs of the mosk where is the tomb of the patriarch. The 
 lower wall bears the same marks of antiquity as those about 
 the temple area in Jerusalem. There are eight courses of 
 stone, and, what is peculiar, there are sixteen pilasters on 
 each side, and eight on each end, with a kind of buttress, 
 as we see in the ditch of the tower of Hippicus, at Jerusalem. 
 On the top of this the Mohammedans have built up a coarse, 
 whitewashed wall, that it may not be commanded from the 
 hill above. 
 
 " Hebron is one of the most ancient cities known. It is 
 mentioned in Genesis, xiii. 18 : ' Then Abraham removed 
 his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which 
 is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord.' In 
 the thirteenth chapter of Numbers it is stated, ' Now Hebron 
 was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.' Its most an- 
 cient name appears to have been Kirjath-arba ; * and Sarah 
 died in Kirjath-arba ; the same is Hebron in the land of 
 Canaan ; and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to 
 weep for her' (Gen. xxiii. 2). It was a famous city of the 
 patriarchs ; the royal residence of king David ; and figured 
 largely in the history of the Crusades. The inhabitants of 
 Hebron were sullen, and scowled upon us as we rode about 
 its streets. It is now one of the quarantine stations for 
 travellers coming from Egypt, and a lazaretto has been built 
 on the hill-side to the south of the city. This being the 
 
372 EGYtT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 season for Mohammedan pilgrimages, we met great numbers 
 of persons going and returning from Jerusalem. They uni- 
 formly regarded us with savage looks, while all the Jews 
 and Christians whom we saw saluted us warmly. 
 
 " We left Hebron between two and three o'clock, and ia 
 about half an hour arrived at the Tree of Abraham, a mag- 
 nificent oak, certainly one of the finest trees I have ever 
 seen. According to Dr. Robinson, the trunk measures twenty- 
 two and a half feet around its lower part. It is called in 
 Arabic, Sindian. Leaving the tree, we made the best of our 
 way over the same road back to the Pools of Solomon, 
 which we reached just at nightfall. We met a great number 
 of persons during the day, almost all of whom were armed ; 
 indeed every peasant at his plough wore at least a sword, or 
 carried a war-club. From the Pools our road was direct to 
 Bethlehem. We arrived at the gate of the Latin Convent 
 about half-past seven in the evening. The principal gate 
 was closed, but after some parleying, we were admitted by a 
 side door, and assigned a very clean and comfortable room 
 in that part of the convent generally occupied by travellers. 
 We were served at our evening meal by an Italian monk ; 
 and, thanks to the good accommodations allotted us, we 
 passed a very comfortable night." 
 
LETTER XVIII. 
 
 start for the Dead Sea.— Path or Road over the Mount of Olives.— Bethany.— Its Pre* 
 ent Position. — Traditionary Site8.~Our Saviour's Divine Compassion.— Fountain of the 
 Apostles.— C!ontrast.— Gloomy and Cheerless Road.— Character of the Scenery.— Road by 
 Neby Musa.— Our Sheikh and his Men.— Picturesque Costume.— Parable of the Good 
 Samaritan.— Truthfulness and Force.— First View of the Dead Sea.— Reputed Tomb of the 
 Prophet Moses.— Sanctity in the Eyes of the Mohammedans.— An Incident.— Approach tp 
 the Dead Sea. -Saltish Plain.— The Water.— Took a Bath in it.— Character of the Water.— 
 The Plain or Valley of the Jordan.— Banks of the River.— Bathing-place of the Pilgrims.— 
 Strong Current.- A Bath in the Jordan.— Ride to Jericho.— Wretched Village.— Ain ea-SW- 
 tan.— liovely Fountain.- Return to Jerusalem.— The English Church and Services.- Prep- 
 arations for Departure. 
 
 Jerusalem, April 17th, 1849. 
 My Dear S., 
 
 If I have not wearied you beyond what you can pardon, 
 I hope that you will give me your attention still further to 
 another and considerably longer excursion than that to Beth- 
 lehem and its vicinity. I had hoped to have been able to 
 include in my letter dated yesterday an account of a visit to 
 the Dead Sea, the Jordan, Jericho, etc., but so many busy 
 thoughts were stirred up in my rnind by being actually in 
 the city of David, where our Lord and Saviour was born, 
 aud so attractive were the themes suggested by these sacred 
 localities, that I was induced to dwell more at length than 
 was perhaps desirable upon such things as must touch every 
 Christian heart : there was no alternative, therefore, but for 
 me to throw myself upon your indulgence, as I now do, and 
 to beg that you will go with me, in spirit at least, to regions 
 hardly less interesting than those around Bethlehem. 
 
374 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 Following the usual and almost necessary custom in this 
 climate, we made a very early start for the Dead Sea ; and 
 as we were compelled to encamp out one night, at the least 
 we provided ourselves with tent, canteens, and the multifa- 
 rious apparatus of the cook's establishment ; all these, how- 
 ever, were sent on under charge of the maitre de cuisine, 
 and two Bedawin, as guards or attendants, to wait our ar- 
 rival at Jericho ; we, ourselves, taking a different and more 
 circuitous route to the same place. Passing out of St 
 Stephen's or rather St. Mary's gate, we descended the steep 
 hill into the valley of Jehoshaphat, crossed the dry bed of 
 the Kedron, and winding round the southern slope of the 
 Mount of Olives, with the little village of Siloam on our 
 right and the higher portion of Olivet on our left, took the 
 road to Bethany. 
 
 I have before spoken of the view from the Mount of Olives, 
 as decidedly the finest which can anywhere be obtained : it 
 needs not, therefore, that I dwell upon it here again, though 
 I assure you that we could not resist the desire to halt on the 
 mountain-side, and gaze long and earnestly at the city of the 
 Great King. May it please God soon to arise and have 
 mercy upon her ! It took us about an hour to reach the in- 
 teresting localities in and about Bethany, which is, as you rec- 
 ollect, fifteen furlongs, or nearly two miles, distant from Jeru- 
 salem. The village is very small, and notwithstanding the 
 many olive, pomegranate, almond and fig trees scattered 
 around, and the apparently not bad soil, which is under mis- 
 erable cultivation, it bears evident marks of poverty and des- 
 titution ; and were it not that the traditionary sites of the 
 Scripture events, relating to Lazarus and his sisters, are still 
 shown, and still visited with unhesitating faith, by large 
 numbers of pilgrims every year, it seems not unlikely that it, 
 like Bethphage, might be lost entirely, and not even a trace 
 of its existence remain. But we trust that this will never be 
 the case ; for, whatever we may think of the particular spots 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS. Jfl 
 
 pointed out as Lazarus's tornb, the houses of Martha and 
 Mary, and of Simon the Leper, to say nothing of other places, 
 it must ever be profitable to the Christian to visit a town so 
 noted in our Lord's life and ministry, and so suggestive of 
 devout reflections upon His power, wisdom and goodness. I 
 am not disposed to place any very great reliance upon the 
 tradition relative to the Sepulchre of Lazarus, which is here 
 shown ; it may be false, and yet it is possible that it may be 
 well founded. I did not, on the present occasion, having a 
 longer excursion before me, stop and go down into the tomb, 
 which is commonly done by travellers ; I did not care par- 
 ticularly to search out the dwelling-place of Mary Magdalen, 
 or of the sisters whom Jesus loved ; nor was I very much in- 
 terested in several of the reputed sacred spots in this ancient 
 village : but, gazing with feelings of no common concern upon 
 the few poor and wretched inhabitants who now dwell amid 
 its ruins, and looking abroad over the picturesque scenery in 
 the direction of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, I did strive to 
 comprehend more clearly, and to remember more devoutly, 
 what has been recorded in Holy Scripture, for our learning. 
 O how touch ingly true to nature appeared the narrative of 
 the Beloved Disciple, in the eleventh chapter of his Gospel ! 
 and with what force and power did the words of our Lord 
 seem to come home to me, as they have done to myriads of 
 mourners in all ages, " I am the resurrection and the life: he 
 that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live : 
 and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." 
 Surely, it can never be, that we forget the love and compas- 
 sion of Him who wept for the sorrows of His friends, and 
 mourned with the bereaved sisters of Lazarus ; surely we 
 can never doubt the depth and height, the length and breadth 
 of that divine compassion which He ever manifested, and 
 never more fully and wonderfully than when He stood before 
 the sepulchre and '* cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come 
 
df6 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and 
 foot with grave-clothes." 
 
 " Such the tones of love, which break 
 
 The stillness of that hour, 
 Quelling th' embittered spirit's strife — 
 " The Resurrection and the Life 
 
 Am I : belie "e, and die no more." 
 
 Unchanged that voice — and though not yet 
 
 The dead sit up and speak, 
 Answering its call ; we gladlier rest 
 Our darlings on earth's quiet breast, 
 
 And our hearts feel they must not break. 
 
 Far better they should sleep awhile 
 
 Within the church's shade, 
 Nor wake, until new heaven, new earth, 
 Meet for their new immortal birth, 
 
 For their abiding place be made, 
 
 Than wander back to life, and lean 
 
 On our frail love once more. 
 'Tis sweet, as year by year we lose 
 Friends out of sight, to muse 
 
 How grows in Paradise our store."* 
 
 It was not without hope and comfort that we turned away 
 from Bethany, and resumed our onward progi-ess towards the 
 east. As we were descending a steep hill into one of the 
 ravines through which the Jericho road passes, in a part of its 
 way, we came to a fountain of water, termed by tradition, 
 the '* Fountain of the Apostles," because, as it is said, they were 
 here accustomed to refresh themselves as they journeyed to 
 and fro between Jerusalem and Jericho. " And indeed," as 
 says Maundrell, '' it is a thing very probable, and no more than 
 I believe is done by all that travel this way, the fountain 
 being close by the roadside, and very inviting to the thirsty 
 passenger." Some Arabs were there, taking copious draughts 
 of the water themselves, and pouring out for their camels and 
 
 * Keble's ''Christian Year," p. 294. 
 
THE ROAD TOWARDS THr JORDAN. 377 
 
 horses. They looked at us with curiosity, but said not a 
 word, either good or bad ; a remarkable change from former 
 days, when it was really unsafe to venture far away from the 
 Holy City in this direction, and when Christian travellers re- 
 sorted to disguises in order to pass this road and visit the val- 
 ley of the Jordan and the Dead Sea. The unevenness of the 
 road prevented our proceeding at a rapid rate, and I believe 
 made me notice more carefully than I should have done other- 
 wise, the force of contrast. Near Jerusalem and all around the 
 Mount of Olives, the hill- sides are terraced up for the purposes 
 of cultivation, and though one does not see the fruitfulness 
 and beauty which might be expected or of which the country 
 is capable, still, there are evidences of life and industry, to 
 some extent, in the gardens and fields under culture ; but 
 when the traveller passes over or around the Mount of Olives, 
 descends its eastern or southern slope, and finds himself 
 among the hills and deep ravines beyond, he cannot but be 
 struck with the contrast presented by what is before him. 
 Here and there is a small patch of ground on the hill-side, or 
 in a deep valley, which has some thin and scanty herbage 
 upon it, or some grain springing up with promise of future 
 harvest; but in general, and almost entirely, on every side, 
 there is one dreary, desolate, barren look ; the rugged preci- 
 pices, the stony road, the rocky beds of the mountain torrents, 
 the very few and dead-looking trees now and then visible, 
 the white and almost glaring clayey soil and dust, and such 
 like features of the scene, are different from everything which 
 I have ever seen elsewhere in the Holy Land ; and the change 
 from even partial cultivation of the ground, and from the life 
 and beauty of many spots about Jerusalem to such an entire 
 cutting off from the world, such unfruitful and sterile regions, 
 such unmitigated solitude, is calculated to produce, as it cer- 
 tainly has upon my mind, an ineffaceable impression.* At 
 
 * " From this place (the Fountain of the Apostles), you proceed in an intricate 
 way amongst hills and valleys interchangeably, all of a very barren aspect at 
 
378 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 one period, I cannot doubt that these hills and mountain-sides 
 yielded fruits of increase, . and the valleys stood so thick with 
 corn, that they laughed and sang for joy ; and it would ap- 
 pear that all around the Holy City, and for some distance to 
 the east of it, the land was fertile and productive to a high 
 degree ; but it is not so now ; it is the very reverse. Most true 
 and forceful appeared to me now the words of the Psalmist, 
 and I thought of them and repeated them more than once 
 while traversing the road from Jerusalem toward the Dead 
 Sea: 
 
 " He turneth rivers into a wilderness, 
 And the water- springs into dry ground ; 
 A fruitful land into barrenness, 
 For the wickedness of them that dwell therein."* 
 
 Yes, for the wickedness of the people of God has sent lean- 
 ness and barrenness upon the face of all this region : may we 
 not take warning by it, and believe and know that as He 
 has done here. He may and loill do again, where the re- 
 bellion and disobedience of the people provoke His anger, and 
 bring down His judgments upon them ! 
 
 At eight o'clock, we left the road which goes on direct to 
 Jericho ; and branching off to the right, we took the route to 
 the Dead Sea, by way of Neby Musa. It was here that we 
 came upon the Bedawy encampment, of which our sheikh is 
 the head, — I say " our sheikh," forgetting that this is the first 
 
 present, but discovering evident signs of the labor of the husbandman in an- 
 cient times. After some hours' travel in this sort of road, you arrive at the 
 mountainous desert, into which our blessed Saviour was led by the Spirit, to be 
 tempted by the devil. A most miserable, dry, barren place it is. consisting of 
 high, rocky mountains, so torn and disordered, as if the earth had here suffered 
 some great convulsion, in which its very bowels had been turned outwards. On 
 the left hand, looking down into a deep valley, as we passed along, we saw 
 some ruins of small cells and cottages, which they told us were formerly the 
 habitations of hermits, retiring thither for penance and mortification ; and cer- 
 tainly there could not be found in the whole earth a more comfortless and 
 abandoned place for that purpose." — Maundrell's ^^ Journey" &c., March 29th. 
 * Ps. evil. 33, 34 ; see also Micah, vii, 13, 
 
OUR SHEIKH AND HIS MARE. 379 
 
 time I have mentioned the very respectable person so named, 
 and the noble Arab mare which he bestrides as only a Beda- 
 wy can. Let me remedy this oversight without delay- 
 You may recollect, that this part of Palestine is usually 
 counted unsafe to travel in without an escort ; and the Beda- 
 win find it to their advantage to keep up this idea, as it 
 brings them into notice, as guards or attendants, on the 
 principle, I suppose, " set a thief to catch a thief," since they 
 themselves are the very enemies against whom they offer to 
 protect you, if you pay them a good round sura. For some 
 time, we doubted whether we would not go at our own risk, 
 deeminof ourselves — such is the vain self-confidence of our 
 countrymen — abundantly able to protect ourselves, and quite 
 a match for five times our number, provided we were not 
 taken by surprise ; but more prudent counsels prevailed. Our 
 dragoman, who is a keen fellow, and makes money out of both 
 his master and the Arabs at the same time, was specially ur- 
 gent that we should have some guards and this particular 
 sheikh ; and on reflection, as it was possible certainly that they 
 might be needed, we concluded to take them for this purpose. 
 Accordingly, two savage-looking fellows, armed with long 
 Arab muskets, having flint locks, and capable of going off 
 about one time in five, joined us just outside Jerusalem ; and 
 when we came to the encampment just now alluded to, our 
 friend the sheikh, mounted on a beautiful animal, all at once 
 dashed out, with the speed of the wind, and saluting us with 
 oriental courtesy, took the lead for the rest of the journey. I 
 assure you that he was a picturesque and striking object, and 
 attracted a good deal of our attention. His mare was of the 
 best breed, and full of life and fire, and yet docile and gentle as 
 a lamb. He himself, clad in the usual Bedawy dress, had on a 
 brilliant crimson mantle, and a silken covering for the head^ 
 fastened and arranged in that peculiar manner which half 
 covers the face, and permits you to see underneath only the 
 glittering black eye, casting forth its quick, sparkling glances, 
 
380 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 and the bronzed, haggard cheek and expressive mouth of the 
 wild son of the desert. He seemed to delight in setting forth 
 the excellences of his mare ; and as his crimson mantle floated 
 in the wind, when he rushed by at lightning speed, or lay in 
 graceful folds around him, as instantaneously he stopped hi^ 
 milk-white steed by a slight touch of the bridle, he was cer^ 
 tainly an object worth looking at, and helped very much to 
 relieve the tediousness and dreariness of the way. I may as 
 well mention here, while it occurs to me, that so far a^s Icould 
 judge from appearances, we had no need whatever of the sheikh 
 and his men ; but I will not be too sure, that if we had re- 
 jected his services, he would not have given us serious trouble, 
 if not in person, yet by means of some of his brethren lurking 
 about. Perhaps, in our case, discretion was the better part 
 of valor. 
 
 I fear that the few sentences above, in which I have tried 
 to tell you something of the character of the road from Jeru- 
 salem towards Jericho, will convey but a very inadequate 
 idea of it ; and this is another of the frequent occasions when 
 I have to deplore my inability to describe things as they really 
 are. I would that I could give you a picture of the steep 
 hills and deep ravines ; the rocky heights and summits of the 
 mountains on every hand, and the dry sandy beds of the nar- 
 row wadys ; the tortuous road, at one time skirting the pre- 
 cipitous sides of the hills, with frightful steeps only a step 
 distant, at another winding over the bare, stony summit, and 
 at another, down into the lowest deep of some desolate valley ; 
 the hot dusty path, without life, and still and silent as the 
 grave ; — I would I could paint you a picture such as this 
 would make, and you might catch something more of an 
 idea of this region of wonderful desolateness and sadness; 
 but I cannot, and I must throw myself upon your indulgence, 
 and beg you to imagine what it must be, and is, in reality. 
 
 You will readily believe me, that our Saviour's touching and 
 truthful parable, which has the scene laid on this very road, lost 
 
PARABLE OP THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 381 
 
 none of its force, by remembering that He had often traversed 
 this very path, and that His words are no less faithful to the 
 natural features of the country, than impressive and beautiful for 
 the truth which they enforce. A certain lawyer, we are told, on 
 one occasion stood up for the purpose of making trial of our 
 Lord's knowledge and principles, hoping, it would appear, that 
 he might in some way entangle Him and take hold of His 
 words before the people, to His injury : our Saviour's answer 
 gave him no such opportunity, for the very passage of Scrip- 
 ture which the lawyer was forced to recite, and which was 
 read every day, morning and evening, in the synagogues, fur- 
 nished of itself a full and complete reply to his question ; 
 *' Thou hast answered right : this do and thou shalt live." 
 But he, not satisfied with his ill success, and imagining that 
 he could involve our Saviour in a difficulty by asking a ques- 
 tion which touched upon tender points at that day, " said unto 
 Jesus, And who is my neighbor ?" Mark well the reply of our 
 Lord : He enters into no definition of the term neighbor, to 
 which great objections would at once have been made : He 
 does not give a bare statement of the relationship existing be- 
 tween all the human family, which would probably have made 
 little impression ; nay, He adopts the more direct, simple and 
 effective course, of teaching by example, and by means of a 
 parable conveys a lesson of truth which no man that heard 
 it could ever forget. A certain man of our nation. He says, 
 had occasion to journey by the road from Jerusalem to Jeri- 
 cho, a road which, as you know, is very dangerous, and very 
 much infested with robbers. As he was passing along through 
 the desert and lonely region, he was set upon by a band of 
 thieves, and unable to protect himself, he was plundered of 
 his substance, stripped of his garments, wounded in a very 
 dreadful and dangerous manner, and, bound with cords, and 
 half dead with the injuries he had received, was deserted and 
 left to his fate. Not long after, it happened that a certain 
 priest came near the place ; he was going down from tJie 
 
382 ''^^^^GYVT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 Holy City to that well-known residence of the priesthood. 
 Jericho, and in accordance with his sacred office, ought t-o 
 have been glad of the opportunity of doing good in a case 
 like this ; but so far from acting in the manner which it i? 
 reasonable to suppose that he would have acted to a poor 
 brother in distress, he saw him lying at some little distance 
 off, and without stopping to make any inquiry, turned away, 
 crossed to the other side of the road, and went on his way. 
 The poor Jew might shift for himself, so far as the priest was 
 concerned. In like manner, another resident of the priestly 
 city, chanced to come along a short time afterwards ; he was 
 a Levite, and knew well what was the duty incumbent on 
 him in respect to his office and character. When he arrived 
 at the place where the half-dead and unhappy Jew lay, he 
 stopped a moment or two t9 look at him ; his heart was 
 touched with, it may be, one spark of compassion ; and for 
 an instant he thouo^ht of afTordinsr relief to the sufferinsr man : 
 but his good resolutions faded away almost as soon as made ; 
 he, too, crossed the road, passed quickly on his way, and did 
 nothing for the relief of a brother in distress. Thus the un- 
 happy man appeared to be abandoned to death and misery, 
 since his own countrymen refused to give him assistance : 
 but, by-and-by a citizen of that nation which is at enmity 
 with us Jews, and with whom we have no dealings or friendly 
 intercourse, came to the place where the wounded man lay : 
 he stopped, dismounted, and hastened to the relief of the 
 wounded fellow-creature lying before him. Thoug^.i he was 
 a Jew, and though on that account the Good Samaritan might 
 have scrupled, and might have found a plausible excuse, and 
 might have left him to his fate, yet he did no such thing ; he 
 was moved with compassion toward him ; he thought not of 
 the trouble, or expense, or risk, or of anything of the sort : 
 he went to him ; he bound up his wounds in the best manner 
 he was able ; he poured in a mixture of oil and wine ; he set 
 him on his own beast ; he manifested the most tender care > 
 
NEBY MUSA OF THE ARABS. 383 
 
 he carried him to an inn ; and not content with all this, both 
 took care of him and gave the host money to discharge the 
 expenses of his cure and restoration. Now, says our Lord, 
 with these facts before you, and with these instances of what 
 men have done under the circumstances just narrated, let me 
 ask you, which of these three persons, the priest, the Levite, 
 or the Samaritan, dost thou think was the neighbor of this 
 poor man that fell among the thieves ? He could not but an- 
 swer as he did ; undoubtedly, it was he that showed mercy 
 and compassion upon the man. '* Then," said Jesus unto 
 him, "go, and do thou likewise;" and even though it be a 
 Samaritan, an enemy whom thou hatest or who hates thee, deal 
 mercifully and tenderly with him, and no longer confine thy 
 sympathies or thy kindnesses to thy friends, or relatives, or 
 countrymen, or fellow-believers in the Law and the Prophets. 
 The lesson was perfect, and conveyed in a manner which He 
 only knew how to do. The lawyer, we may well believe, 
 went away a humbled, if not a better man. 
 
 But I must hasten on : at ten o'clock, from the top of one 
 of the hills over which the road winds, we caught sight, for 
 the first time, of the Dead Sea. Apparently it was very 
 near, and in a direct line the journey would not have been 
 long ; but so deceptive are all calculations of distance in a 
 region like this, where the road bends and turns with in- 
 numerable windings, and so slow is necessarily the progress 
 of the traveller, that we were still nearly three hours distant 
 from the sea ; a circumstance which we had occasion to feel 
 very acutely, while making our toilsome progress under a 
 scorching mid-day sun. The road which we had chosen, 
 passed by the far-famed tomb of the great lawgiver of Israel: 
 it is a large and very sacred edifice, surrounded by high, solid 
 walls, and adorned with a minaret, and is entitled by the 
 Arabs, Neby Musa ; here, as they say, in contradiction to 
 the Scripture, the prophet Moses was buried. It is certainly 
 much more convenient to have his tomb on this side of the 
 
384 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 Jordan, and for the purposes of the Mohammedan pilgrims, 
 it answers just as well as if it were in its true place, which, 
 though he died and was buried in the land of Moab, over 
 against Beth-peor, " no man knoweth of unto this day.'' 
 We stopped a few minutes at Neby Musa, principally to get 
 a drink of water, which is reputed here to be full of virtues. 
 Without reflecting at the time, and seeing no one about the 
 place, I jumped off my horse, and, the door or gate being 
 wide open, was just going to enter the sacred precincts, when 
 the dragoman caught me by the arm in a sort of terror at 
 the risk I was running, assuring me that it was almost death 
 for a Christian to dare to cross the threshold. A moment 
 after, a gaunt, black-eyed, fanatical-looking fellow came out, 
 and glancing at me with no friendly greeting, gave me to 
 understand how readily he would have defended the sanctu- 
 ary of which he was the keeper, had he caught a "Christian 
 dog" anywhere within the walls. As to the water, it may 
 have many occult virtues, but for the purpose of drinking it 
 was detestable, and I had no wish to dispute the possession 
 of it with the Mohammedan owners. 
 
 About noon we descended the last of the range of hills over 
 which the road passes, and riding over the saltish plain near 
 the sea, we reached the northerly end of it in about half an 
 hour. Independently of the many recollections connected 
 with the eventful history of the cities of the plain, and the 
 awful punishment sent upon them, of which this lake is a 
 perpetual witness, the sea itself is very remarkable. It is 
 situate in a deep valley, four thousand feet below the Holy 
 City,* surrounded by mountains and sterile, desolate hills, 
 
 * " We found the difference of level, in other words, the depression of the sur- 
 face of the Dead Sea, below that of the Mediterranean, to be a little over 1300 
 feet. The height of Jerusalem above the former Sea, is very nearly three times 
 that of this difference of level ; while, at the same time, it is almost the exact 
 multiple of the depth of that sea, of the height of its banks, and of the de- 
 pression of its surface." — Lieutenant Lynch's " Expedition to the Dead Sea," 
 p. 440. 
 
THE. DEAD SEA. 
 
 386 
 
 without a living creature in its waters, and answering most 
 truly to its name, the Dead Sea. At the time of our visit, 
 
 31 'lOV. 
 
 17 
 
386 
 
 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 the water appeared to be of a greenish blue color, and its 
 surface mostly still, yet at times slightly rippled by a light 
 southerly breeze. Here and there were a few clouds, which 
 afforded us a little relief from the intense glare and heat of 
 the sun ; but there were no trees, no shrubbery, nothing, in 
 short, to ward off the rays of the sun, and we had no alterna 
 tive but to endure it the best way we could. The map 
 which I have subjoined from Lieutenant Lynch's interesting 
 " Expedition to the Dead Sea," (from April 18th to May 
 10th, 1848, they were on the sea,) will aid you very much 
 in forming a clear idea of the geograpliical position, size, and 
 shape of this sea ; and as it is undoubtedly accurate in all 
 its details, you may rely upon it with entire confidence. Ac- 
 cording to the scale of miles, the sea is between thirty-five 
 and forty miles in length, and from six to eight miles in 
 breadth. For the details I cannot but beg you to refer to 
 the large and interesting volume published by the accom- 
 plished commander of the U. S. Expedition to the Dead 
 Sea, who, though I do not know him personally, I know 
 nevertheless is an honor to the service and the country to 
 which he belongs, and is always remembered and spoken of 
 in Syria in the highest terms of respect and esteem. 
 
 Crossing the " Saltish Plain," marked on the map, we rode 
 along the water's edge, and occasionally had some drops of it 
 splashed on our clothes ; it was curious to notice how it dis- 
 colored them, and how very difficult it was to get the stain 
 out or remove the traces of the acrid liquid. It was also in- 
 teresting to mark the intense efforts put forth by the poor, 
 suffering and dreadfully heated and thirsty horses, in order to 
 quench their thirst in the water of the Dead Sea. When 
 they came near the water and beheld il spread out so invi- 
 tingly before them, they were very eager to get near and into 
 it; they dashed their mouths into the liquid brine, hoping to 
 imbibe the cooling and refreshing draught ; and for a moment 
 they seemed to have swallowed, as it were unconsciously, the 
 
DENSITY AND BITTERNESS OF THE WATER. 387 
 
 pungent water ; but it was only for a moment ; disappointed 
 and angry, they threw back their heads, and more dispirited 
 than ever, pursued the way which their masters wished. As 
 you may see by the map, there is something like a small island 
 or peninsula marked, before one reaches the mouth of the 
 Jordan ; it is a collection of sand and stones, mingled with 
 drift wood, brush, &c., encrusted with salt, probably brought 
 down by the river and gradually here collected ; it is about 
 two hundred and fifty feet from the shore. We here un- 
 dressed and determined to take a bath. I had often heard 
 that persons would not sink, so dense is the water of the 
 Dead Sea ;* but I had thought that there might be a little 
 exaggeration in the statement, and I was curious to test 
 the matter in my own person. It was literally and exactly 
 true, all that T had heard : I went into the water ; I lay down 
 on my back flat and powerless ; I used not an effort to keep 
 myself from sinking; and there I lay, about two thirds under 
 water, and buoyed up in a manner wholly unlike any other 
 case I had ever met with. In truth I could not sink except 
 by forcing myself under the water, and in a moment I would 
 rise rapidly up again and lay there, a floating object of life on 
 the surface of a sea containing naught that lives. Two or 
 three times I got some drops of the water on my lips, and I can 
 assure you I never felt anything so bitter, nauseous and 
 stinging as this was ;t and afterwards when I came out, my 
 body was covered with a liquid which left a disagreeable, 
 greasy feeling, impossible to get rid of by the aid of towels 
 alone. 
 
 * "Tried the relative density of the water of this sea and of the Atlantic, the 
 latter from 25° N. Lat. and 52^ VV. Lon. : distilled water being as 1. The water 
 of the Atlantic was 1.0-2. and of this sea 1.13. The last dissolved 1-11, the 
 water of the Atlantic 1-G, and distilled water 5-17 of its weight of salt. The 
 salt used was a little damp. On leaving the Jordan, we carefully noted the 
 draught of the boats ; with the same loads they drew one inch less water when 
 afloat upon this sea than in the river," — Lieutenant Lynch's " Expedition to 
 the Dead Sea," p. 377. 
 
 t Dr. Marcet's Analysis of the wuter of the Dead Sea, is as follows: the 
 
388 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 A' iY a lunch and some little time spent in gathering a 
 few mementoes of the Dead Sea, such as some pebbles, pieces 
 of the black sulphureous stone which here abounds, and filling 
 a tin case with the water, we mounted again and rode onward. 
 For some distance we followed the water's edge, proceeding 
 toward the mouth of the Jordan, and riding over the saltish 
 plain above spoken of; and about three quarters of a mile 
 east of us we could distinctly perceive the volume of water 
 which the river constantly brings down, and which is so dif- 
 ferent in color, quality, &c. from that of the sea. We had 
 not forgotten the many deeply interesting points which this 
 sea and its history may well fasten in the memory ; we had 
 mused over what we saw, and we could not forget that once 
 this plain and valley, where now is all desolation and where 
 there is no life, were fertile and beautiful like "the garden of 
 the Lord."* The Scripture account we had read over with 
 a deep and solemn sense of its awful importance, and with a 
 realization that there are limits to the Divine mercy ; there 
 are times and seasons when the cup of iniquity becomes full, 
 and wrath and vengeance go out to fulfil their mission ; and 
 those dread warnings of the man of God seemed to acquire 
 new force as we looked upon the very scene to which they 
 were applied: — "The whole land thereof is brimstone and 
 salt, and burning, that is not sown nor beareth, nor any 
 
 specific gravity he determines to be as 1211 to 1000 of fresh water, and the sub- 
 stances held in solution by it, to be to 100 grains — 
 
 Muriate of Lime, 3.930 
 
 " Magnesia, . . . 10.246 
 
 '■' Soda, 10.360 
 
 Sulphate of Lime, ..... 0.054 
 
 24.580 
 Compare the note from Lieut. Lynch, on p. 387. 
 
 * "And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it wai 
 well watered everywhere, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even 
 as the Garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou coraest unto Zoar.''-— 
 Gen. xiii. 10. 
 
THlp VALLEY OF THE JORDAN. 
 
 grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom an<», Go- 
 morrah, Admah and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in 
 His anger, and in His wrath."^ We had read the statements 
 and opinions of travellers, and beheld much to confirm, much 
 to refute their various speculations; and at the time, we in- 
 dulged in some of our own, which are not — me judice — worth 
 recording. But, in truth, as a pious traveller a few years ago 
 has well said, " notwithstanding all our examinations, and 
 all our speculations, a veil of awful mystery overhangs this 
 dread locality. It is at once a grave and a monument ; a grave 
 in which slumbers the thousands whose daring ungodliness 
 cut them off from mercy — a grave whose chambers lead down 
 to hell. It is a monument, on every hair-breadth of which is 
 recorded in characters of fiery desolation, the irresistible ter- 
 rors of a just — a t^empted — an avenging God. How astound^ 
 ing will be the blast of the archangel's trump, when clanging 
 amidst those bleak and barren rocks, and borne like a spell 
 over the surface of those stagnant waters ! when the resur- 
 rection power of the Lord Jesus shall call up into second life 
 for final judgment, those objects of Almighty wrath, and lay 
 bare the gloomy secret at which we surmise and shudder !"t 
 At two o'clock we left the Dead Sea, and rode as briskly as 
 we could over the salt-encrusted and sandy plain, intersected 
 with slimy bogs. On either hand of the valley of the Jordan, 
 were ranges of high hills or mountains ; the one a continuation 
 of the mountains of Moab, which rise aloft on the east of the sea, 
 and the other a part of the cluster or collection of hills which 
 bound the valley on the west, and stretch away northward as 
 far as the eye can reach. Our point of destination was the usual 
 bathing-place of the pilgrims who come every year in great num- 
 bers and from all countries, to wash themselves in that river 
 where our Lord was baptized by John the Baptist. Two or 
 three times we came near the banks of the Jordan, which are 
 
 * Deut. xxix, 23, 
 
 t Rev. George Fisk's " Memorial of the Holy Land" p. 311. 
 
390 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 not easily seen, on account of the thick bushes which grow 
 there ; and were witness to the fact of its very tortuous 
 course and its rapid stream.* Maundrell says tliat in his 
 time the bank of the Jordan was set thick with trees, such 
 as tamarisks, willows, oleanders, (kc, and that in this thicket 
 it was reported that wild beasts of several sorts used to har- 
 bor themselves, " whose being washed out of the covert by 
 the overflowings of the river, gave rise to that allusion, ^ He 
 shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan.' " I 
 could readily imagine that even now the same thing might be 
 true, though it is stated by good authorities that lions have 
 always been very rare in Syria ; for so impervious is the thick 
 shrubbery, and so abundant the foliage, that wild animals 
 might well find coverts here, and spring out upon the travel- 
 ler without a moment's warning. I believe, however, that 
 the only dangerous creature to be feared in these spots now, 
 is the wild and lawless Bedawy, who, if he have committed 
 murder, has but to cross the Jordan and join his brethren on 
 the east side of the river, the government being too weak and 
 contemptible to search out the oflender and bring him to jus- 
 tice. We did not meet with any actual, tangible danger 
 while traversing the valley of the Jordan ; yet our sheikh ap- 
 peared to be more than ordinarily active, and on the look-out, 
 
 * Just a year ago, Lieutenant Lynch was on the Jordan ; under date of 
 April 18th, 1848, he made a report to the Secretary of the Navy, from which I 
 beg to extract a few sentences: "To my consternation, I soon found that the 
 Jordan was interrupted in its course by frequent and most fearful rapids. . . . 
 We had to clear out old channels, to make new ones, and sometimes, placing 
 our sole trust in Providence, plunged with headlong velocity dowA appalling 
 
 descents The great secret of the depression between Lake Tiberias 
 
 and the Dead Sea, is solved by the tortuous course of the Jordan. In a space 
 of sixty miles of latitude and four or five miles of longitude, the Jordan trav- 
 erses at least 200 miles. The river is in the latter stage of a freshet— a few 
 weeks earlier or later, and passage would have been impracticable. As it is, we 
 have plunged down twenty-seven threatening rapids, besides a great many of 
 
 lesser magnitude The course of the river is more sinuous than even that 
 
 of the Mississippi." — Lieutenant Lynch's ^^ Expedition to the Dead Sea," p, 264, 
 865. 
 
SIZE OF THE JORDAN. 
 
 as we were riding forward, especially when we came near or 
 were passing bunches of tall grass and reeds, or were skirting 
 the thickets by the river's side; possibly it may have been 
 that without his aid we should have been fired upon, and 
 even worse. Let us be thankful that we were preserved 
 from any trial of the kind. 
 
 In the course of an hour and a half, we reached the place 
 marked out by tradition as the locality where John baptized 
 the Holy and Blessed Saviour, who ever deemed it right to 
 *' fulfill all righteousness." I was somewhat surprised to find 
 the Jordan so much narrower than I had supposed ; I had 
 expected to see a broad stream, not unlike many of the rivers 
 of less note in our own country ; but it is not so ; between 
 the steep and often high banks, where the river flows during 
 most of the year, it appeared to me not to be more than 
 sixty or seventy feet wide. It is but a guess and judging by 
 the eye, for I had no means of measurement with me, and 
 therefore is not to be relied upon at all for any accuracy ; all 
 that I would affirm positively is that the Jordan is by no 
 means a wide river, and is narrower between its banks than 
 many of the creeks in our part of the world.* The current 
 is extremely rapid in this part of its course, running I should 
 think from three to four miles an hour ; and so strong is it 
 that very rarely can the most muscular swimmer make head 
 against it : instances happen once in a while of persons being 
 carried away and drowned in consequence of having braved 
 it too far. 1 think myself a pretty good swimmer, and in 
 ordinary cases would mind nothing launching forth to reach 
 a point a mile or more distant ; but when I stood and looked 
 upon the Jordan for a while and tried to estimate the force 
 of that powerful current, I knew that it would not be safe 
 for me to venture out beyond my depth ; and I did not, 
 
 * Dr. Wilson gives the width of the Jordan at this place as exactly forty 
 yards; he estimates the current as at lefist three miles per hour. — ^^ Lands qf 
 the Bible," vol. ii. p. 17. 
 
392 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 The color of the water is nearly that of gray slate ; and the 
 river appears to gather much sediment in its course from the 
 north ; but I cannot express to you how sweet and delightful 
 the water is. Notwithstanding its turbidness and mixture of 
 earthy matter, coming from the Dead Sea only two hours 
 before, the contrast was very striking, for that is nauseous 
 and pungent to a degree inexpressible ; this is delicious and 
 refreshing to the taste, almost as much so as the water of 
 the Nile. Of course, I could not leave the Jordan without 
 bathing iu its most honored stream : my companion declined 
 going in, fearing the chilliness of the water ; so all alone, in 
 a woody and retired spot, protected by the shade of the syca- 
 more, the ilex, and the willow, I disrobed and advanced 
 into the river : the bank is very declivitous, and in a few 
 moments I was nearly out of my depth. I found it difficult 
 to stand against the current which rushed by me with con- 
 siderable force, and the water was decidedly cooler than that 
 of the Dead Sea. You will believe me that the associations 
 of the place and the time were not without effect upon my 
 mind: from the depth of my soul I blessed God for the 
 privileges of His covenant sealed to us by the holy sacra- 
 ment of baptism ; and I seemed to myself to be looking 
 upon the solemn and touching scene of our Lord's baptism 
 by His messenger whom He sent to prepare the way before 
 Him. Earnestly did I supplicate that God of His mercy 
 would wash and purify my soul, body and spirit, by the 
 blood of Christ Jesus our Lord ; and with the deepest rever- 
 ence, remembermg whom I was worshipping, I bowed my 
 head beneath the waters of the Jordan three times, and pro- 
 nounced each time the name of the Father, the Son, and 
 the Holy Ghost, the Triune God of our salvation. 
 
 We lingered in this lovely and secluded spot as long as 
 we dared ; penetrating into the dense thicket, I tried hard to 
 find me a good stick for a pilgrim's staff; but met with 
 very indifferent success : filling a bottle or two with the 
 
PLAIN NEAR JERICHO. 
 
 393 
 
 water, and remounting our horses, we bade adieu to this 
 deeply interesting place. Our faces were turned towards Jeri- 
 cho, a city belonging to that broad plain, or 
 
 " neighboring land, whose palmy shore 
 The silver Jordan laves ;" 
 
 and as, late in the afternoon, we spurred our horses onward 
 to reach the place of encampment, we were fully alive to the 
 beauty of this region as it once was in the days of its glory. 
 Even now, desolate and degraded, it wears some marks of 
 its former excellence, but they are few indeed, and only serve 
 to remind one very painfully of what it was and what it 
 might be again. May that day soon come when it will 
 please God to have mercy upon the chosen land, and the 
 people to whom He promised it as a perpetual possession ! 
 While we were riding onward, we saw only a little way off, 
 several of that beautiful animal, the gazelle, and for a few 
 minutes we gave chase, hoping to get a shot at one ; but 
 they were too fleet for us and were ere long out of sight ; 
 we saw, too, numbers of quails and some other birds, but 
 did not shoot at any of them. As we approached Jericho, 
 we saw a large old castle near by, at present in ruins, but 
 evidently at one time of great strength and importance. I 
 could get no information worth having as to what it was or 
 when it was built; for the Arabs are very stupid and care- 
 less in respect to all the questions which interest strangers 
 so much ;* and in general their stories are very little worth. 
 If they hear any one guess or imagine that an old ruin be- 
 longs to a particular town, or some old tower might bear 
 such and such a name, their usual plan is to repeat all this 
 for fact to the next party they meet, and by repeating it a 
 number of times they get to believe it themselves and 
 
 * Dr. Robinson (vol. ii. p. 295) attributes the castle to the Saracenic times, 
 about the twelfth century, when all this region was renowned for its high state 
 of cultivation and its fields, gardens, fruits, &c. 
 
 17# 
 
394 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 strenuously to maintain it against all objectors. I am quite 
 convinced that the common Arab stories are worthless on 
 any question of importance ;'^ and few travellers can venture 
 to trust them at all. But this by the way. 
 
 About half-past six, 'We came to the few scattered huts, 
 which, to qfy astonishment, I was told was all that remained 
 to mark the site of the City of Palm Trees.t A few miser^ 
 able fellahin were lounging under the shade of some trees, and 
 smoking the shibuk and shisheh, as is their custom ; and here 
 and there were some rude dwellings of the inhabitants, having 
 nothing to indicate the possession of aught but the simplest 
 and commonest means of life : and this was all.t What a 
 contrast, when we looked back upon its past history, and thought 
 of its strength, power, magnificence, and beauty, in early 
 days ! Who that had not seen the utter desolation which has 
 come upon the renowned cities and kingdoms of the world, in 
 time past, would believe that the massive structures, the ia- 
 exhaustible resources, the uncounted wealth, of a great city 
 like Jericho could pass away forever, and leave not a trace of 
 their existence behind ? When the king of this strong city 
 and the people, in the days of Joshua, stood upon the walls, 
 and beheld that great host of God's people approaching, after 
 their miraculous passage across the Jordan, how did their 
 hearts rejoice in their towers of might and grandeur, and how 
 did they trust in their walls of solid masonry, and their capa- 
 biUty of keeping out all invaders ! Vain and futile hope, this 
 of theirs ! God Himself, without one blow being struck, ©ne 
 
 * Sir Gardner Wilkinson, speaking of the slight value of " Arab tradition" 
 in Egypt, says, " But little faith is to be placed in the tales of the modern in- 
 habitants." The remark is as applicable to Syria as to Egypt. 
 
 t Deut. xxxiv. 3 ; 2 Chron. xxviii. 15. 
 
 4: "Jericho," says Maundrell, 'is at present only a poor, nasty village of the 
 Arabs." Lord Lindsay found only one palm tree at Riha, the village above 
 spoken of; he is inclined to think the ruins of Jericho not in this place, but some 
 little distance to the virest. Dr. Robinson (vol. ii. p. 299) is disposed to place 
 the ancient site at the opening of the Wady Kelt, half an hour south of Ain es- 
 Sultan. 
 
RUINS OF JERICHO. 395 
 
 aim raised to assault those walls, brought down their confi- 
 dence in a monient, and the walls fell fiat to the earth, and 
 the city and people were captives in the hands of Joshua. 
 Subsequently, its importance was to some extent revived ; 
 and in our Saviour's days, it was a large and noted city of 
 the priesthood. Here He lodged with Zaccheus, the rich and 
 honest tax-gatherer ; and here He healed the blind man. It 
 figured, too, in the later history of Palestine. But in the 
 lapse of ages, it fell into utter ruin, and now has nothing to 
 tell where it once stood, or to evidence its former wealth, 
 power, and greatness. It will be well if other cities, now so 
 proud, so strong, so confident of perpetual existence, lay to 
 heart the lessons which the desolation and entire ruin of cities 
 and empires in the East so forcibly and so constantly teach. 
 
 It was with solemnized feelings that I rode through this 
 petty village, and crossing a woody and very fertile plain be- 
 yond, sought the appointed place of encampment, where our 
 party was to meet and pass the night. After considerable 
 search, we found the Bedawin and oar servant. They had 
 pitched the tent on the bank of a babbling, smiling brook, 
 which comes from Ain es-Sultan, or the Fountain of Elisha, 
 and furnishes the neighboring village and plain with an abun- 
 dant supply of pure and sweet water.=^ It was a lovely spot, 
 and particularly inviting to us at this time ; because we 
 were not a little fatigued and worn down with the length of 
 our excursion, and the intense heat of the sun during the day. 
 I do not suppose that we are more fond than others of eating 
 and drinking, but on the present occasion, we were not sorry 
 
 * Mr. Buckingham, (" TraveU" &c. p. 292) gives an account of the Fountain 
 of Elisha, which is worth quoting : " The head of this water is enclosed in a 
 basin of a triangular shape, of which each side is about three fathoms in length. 
 It is lined with wrought stone, and is even paved in parts. There are two 
 niches in one of its sides, which is higher than the others, and an orifice by 
 which the water issues, in a stream sufficient to turn a mill. It is said that 
 several sources discharge themselves into the same basin ; but their depth pre- 
 vents them from be'ng explored." See. also, Robinson's " Bib. Res." vol. ii. p, 
 283, 284. 
 
396 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 to find our dinner all ready to be served, and to be able, with 
 thankful hearts, to refresh our jaded bodies with food con- 
 venient. The water of the fountain, too, was especially 
 grateful to our feelings ; and we thought much of that 
 Prophet who exerted the power God had bestowed upon him, 
 to make the spring, which was salt and unfit to drink, a 
 source of pure and sweet water, the most invaluable blessing 
 for man in all ages and all countries. The evening was very 
 warm, a sirocco having sprung up, which, despite our cool 
 and pleasant situation under the trees and near the brook and 
 fountain, oppressed us very much, and prevented our sleep- 
 ing, as we had desired and hoped.=^ We sat up late, and for 
 a long time were gazing at the starry heavens in their un- 
 equalled magnificence and grandeur : for the skies, in Syria, 
 are very brilliant and very beautiful at night. Toward mid- 
 night, as we were hoping to sleep in peace, the sharp and 
 disagreeable cries and yells of the jackals saluted our ears ; 
 and we were regaled with their music, with little intermission, 
 until the next morning. 
 
 Before breaking up the next day, we took another walk to 
 the Fountain of Elisha, and could well appreciate the poet's 
 skill and acuteness in choosing this, if he had any actual spot 
 in view, as his " Diamond in the Desert," in the delightful 
 story where Sir Kenneth, Richard the Lion-hearted, and 
 Saladin figure so pleasantly and enticingly .t We got off, 
 
 * The climate here is always excessively hot, and at certain seasons this local- 
 ity is very sickly for strangers. Dr. Robinson compares it to the sultry heat o^ 
 Egypt. This need not be wondered at when it is recollected that the plain of 
 the Jordan is more than 1200 feet below the Mediterranean, and nearly 4000 
 below Jerusalem. 
 
 t " Ere they remounted to resume their journey, the Christian knight again 
 moistened his lips and dipt his hands in the living fountain, and said to his 
 pagan associate of the journey, ' I would I knew the name of this delicious 
 fountain, that I might hold it in my grateful remembrance ; for never did water 
 slake more deliciously a more oppressive thirst than I have this day expe- 
 rienced.' 
 
 "• It is called in the Arabic language,' answered the Saracen, 'by a name 
 which signifies the Diamond of the Desert.' 
 
THE ROAD FROi\I JERICHO. 397 
 
 however, as early as we could — about half-past six — and 
 leaving this interesting locality with many regrets, we pre- 
 pared to mount the hills, which must be crossed ere we could 
 reach the Holy City. Even at this hour the sun shone hot, 
 and the air was still and oppressive. I do not suppose that 
 you will care to have me tell you again of a road so uninvit- 
 ing, so dreary, and so desolate as this from Jericho up to 
 Jerusalem is : barrenness and deadness are indeed every- 
 where, and no man can traverse a path like this without 
 being depressed, and without feeling that a curse does indeed 
 rest upon the face of the land. " One must be amid these 
 wild an^ gloomy solitudes, surrounded by an armed band, 
 and feel the impatience of the traveller, who rushes on to 
 catch a new view at every pass and turn ; one must be 
 alarmed at the very stamp of the horses' hoofs, resounding 
 through the caverned rocks, and at the savage shouts of the 
 footmen, scarcely less loud than the echoing thunder, pro- 
 duced by the discharge of their pieces in the valleys ; one 
 must witness all this upon the spot," ere he can appreciate 
 the nature and character of this gloomy road. Believe me, 
 I was not sorry when we drew near to the Holy City again, 
 and seemed once more to be amid the habitations of life, and 
 witnessing the still poured out blessings of Almighty God. 
 
 About ten o'clock we came to the encampment of our 
 sheikh, who was very urgent with us to stop a while and 
 take coffee, pipes, etc., with him ; but we declined, being 
 eager to reach Jerusalem once more, and we parted with the 
 sheikh with many pretty speeches on his part, and fewer but 
 
 " ' And well is it so named/ replied the Christian. ' My native valley hath a 
 thousand springs, but not to one of them shall I attach, hereafter, such pre- 
 cious recollection as to this solitary fount, which bestows its liquid treasures 
 where they are not only delightful, but nearly indispensable.' 
 
 " ' You say truth,' said the Saracen ; ' for the curse is still on yonder sea of 
 death, and neither man nor beast drink of its waves, nor of the river which 
 feeds without filling it, until this inhospitable desert be passed.' " — " T%e Tal- 
 isman," ch. iii. 
 
398 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 more sincere words of courtesy on ours. Passing Bethany 
 without stopping at this time, we rode on, and were soon 
 greeted with a view of the city of the Great King, which, as 
 it lay before us, now looked more lovely than ever, and seemed 
 to have new attractions in our eyes, because of its being for 
 the time our home. Passing down the southerly slope of the 
 mount, we were saluted by some women at a small fountain 
 near the road side as Hadji, a title of honor, and not unde- 
 served certainly, since we were just returning from the pil- 
 grimage to the Jordan, and were full of the thoughts which 
 such a pilgrimage must ever inspire. We entered the city 
 at noon precisely, much fatigued, and glad to rest our weary 
 limbs ; but nevertheless very- thankful that it had pleased 
 God to preserve us amid the danger to which we had been 
 exposed, and to bring us in safety to the Holy City again. 
 
 r- Many mere personal matters I must pass over in silence ; 
 f might tell you a long story about the pleasant social inter- 
 course which I have enjoyed with the bishop, clergy, and 
 others connected with the mission to the Jews ; about some 
 dear English and German friends, whose many kindnesses 
 will ever remair enshrined in my memory ; about the num- 
 erous walks in and about the city for the purpose of forming 
 an intelligent opinion on disputed points ; and such like ; but 
 I will forbear ; and with only a line or two on a matter of 
 deep and touching interest to me, I will close this long letter. 
 '- - The English church is a very good specimen of its kind, 
 what I should call the mixed Gothic ; it is built of light-col- 
 ored hewn stone, and arranged internally in the most con- 
 venient manner. One long aisTe, with open benches on each 
 side, runs through the body of the church, or the nave, as I 
 suppose I may call it. The transepts are not long, and also 
 
CHURCH SERVICES IN JERUSALEM. 399 
 
 filled with seats, the Avindows at either end shedding a clear 
 light npon the interior. The chancel recess is somewhat 
 spacious, and the altar rather prominent, and a noble Gothic 
 window, with its stained glass, lets in a very attractive light, 
 especially when the sun strikes it with its brilliant rays in 
 the latter part of the day. The reading-desk and pulpit are 
 at the right hand of the chancel ; the vestry is on the oppo- 
 site side. The church would seat, I presume, about four 
 hundred, perhaps more. Alas, that I should say it, the at- 
 tendance is small, and never, if I may judge from the occa- 
 sions on which I have been present, equals one half what the 
 church could easily accommodate. The services are in He- 
 brew, German, and English. I was very much interested 
 in the early six o'clock service in Hebrew every day, and was 
 very glad to have the opportunity to join in the Liturgy in a 
 language so appropriate to Jerusalem and the children of 
 Israel. What, however, has made a deeper impression than 
 all upon my feelings individually, has been the fact that I was 
 privileged, on the invitation of Mr. Nicolayson, to read 
 Evening Prayer on Sunday last, the First after Easter. It 
 was a very lovely afternoon, and was an occasion which I can 
 never forget. I, an invalid from a land many thousand miles 
 off, — I, a poor, unworthy ministering servant of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, was permitted to stand and in His name read 
 the Holy Gospels in the ears of the congregation, and offer up 
 the prayers and praises of His people in the very city where 
 He once walked the earth, and where He died to atone for our 
 sins. You will believe me that my heart was full of emo- 
 tion, and you will not wonder that tears of mingled thanks- 
 giving and mourning bedewed my eyes. O may the aspira- 
 tions of that hour be sanctified to my soul's eternal welfare I 
 O may He, without whom we can do nothing, strengthen 
 me for the work which he has given me to do ! 
 
 And now, my dear S., let me say adieu for the present : 
 aJi our preparations are made to leave Jerusalem : my Pil- 
 
400 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 grim's Certificate has been duly obtained ; our horses and 
 mules are engaged ; our friends, Dr. W. and Mr. M., have 
 already gone ; and in a few hours we hope to set off for the 
 north, and to visit other parts of the Holy Land. Be sure 
 that I shall address you again at the first opportunity. 
 
LETTER XIX. 
 
 5>ut!ea— Samar fa— Jacob's a?^ell— Habulu*. 
 
 Preparations for Departure.— Leave the City.— Last View of Jerusalem.— Character of the 
 Rond as we proceed Northwardly. — Ruins by Roadside. — Anathoth. — Er-Ram or Ramah 
 of Benjamin.— Gibeon, Beth-horon, &c.— The Miracle wrought by Joshua.— Bacroth, Place 
 of Encampment.— Pleasantness of the Scene.— Tradition relating to the Virgin and Child* 
 — Next Morning's Experience.— Delays.— Beitin or Bethel.— Hilly Road.— Picturesqueness.— 
 Yebrud,— Mountains of Ephraim.— Khan Lubban.—Shiloh.— Plain of El-Mukhna.— Ex- 
 tent and Fertility.— A Gallop.— Jacob's Well.— Its Touching Interest.— Our Lord and the 
 Woman of Samaria.— Arrival at Nablus.- Adventure.— Were Stoned.— Beauty of the Val- 
 ley between Mount Ceiizim and Mount Ebal.— Musings on the Past.— Visit to the Syna- 
 gogue of the Samaritans.— Had a Sight of the Pentateuch.— Its Age and Value.— Tischen- 
 dorfifs Opinion. — The Lepers. — Population, Name, &c., of the City. 
 
 Nablus, April 19th, 1849. 
 My Dear S., 
 
 On Tuesday afternoon last, we made our final arrange- 
 ments for leaving the Holy City. After seeing our mules 
 well packed and sent on ahead to meet us at a certain point, 
 and after paying our respects to the few friends and brethren 
 whom we were leaving behind, we mounted our horses, and 
 rode out of the Jaffa Gate, with feelings which you can imag- 
 ine, but which I find myself wholly unable to express. Jeru- 
 salem grows upon one so much, it has so many points of at- 
 traction, and is so full of everything to interest and move the 
 heart, and to stir up the deepest sympathies of the soul, that 
 every pilgrim who has been privileged to sojourn a few weeks 
 within its hallowed precincts, is filled with regret and sorrow 
 when the hour arrives at which he must bid it adieu forever. 
 We passed out of the gate slowly and sadly ; cast one linger- 
 ing look down the narrow ravine, with the heights of Zion 
 on the one hand, and a part of the vale of Hinnom beyond; 
 
402 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 looked our last upon the Tower of David ; skirted the western 
 wall ; turned to the right at the north-west angle, and after 
 another survey of this portion of the wall and ground, joined 
 the main road, which leads almost directly to the north of 
 Palestine. We did not now stop to examine the various 
 localities near the road ; we had before visited the Grotto of 
 Jeremiah, the broad plain beyond the Damascus Gate, the 
 ruins in the neighborhood, the tomb of Helena, Queen of 
 Adiabene, the tombs of the Kings, &c., and now we were 
 leaving them all, and our feet were no more to tread the hills 
 and valleys about Jerusalem. Crossing the olive grove, 
 where the green grain gave tokens of life and industry, we 
 passed the supposed tombs of the Kings, and entered upon 
 the rocky path beyoAd. Ere long we reached the heights of 
 Scopas, and under the brilliant light which even the declining 
 sun affords in Syria, we gazed upon the Holy City for the 
 last time. It was a long and an earnest gaze ; for only about 
 a mile distant was the city of the Lord our God, silent, sad, 
 and desolate. We looked upon the scene with mingled emo- 
 tions, and as each object, — O how well known, short as had 
 been our stay I — struck upon our sight ; we remembered what 
 we had beheld and enjoyed, and we thought with sorrow, 
 that we should see them again no more forever. The dome 
 of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Tower of David, 
 the Mosk of Omar, the minarets here and there, were prom- 
 inent objects in the view, within the walls ; while outside the 
 city, the valley of Jehoshaphat stretching away in the distance, 
 the heights and slopes of the Mount of Olives, and the sombre- 
 hued mountains of Moab, from this spot just visible, served 
 to add as well to the beauty as the interest of the scene. We 
 could not look upon all these things without deep feeling, and 
 we halted for some little time before we could bring ourselves 
 to turn away and look no more. I will not attempt either to 
 describe or to analyze my emotions ; I will only tell you what 
 I did, and how apt and meet seemed the Psalmist's words, 
 
DEPARTURE FROM JERUSALEM. 403 
 
 when God's people were mourning over the desolation and 
 captivity of Jerusalem. I lifted my hat from my head, and 
 with a devout gesture, becoming the sacredness of the time, 
 and the words of Holy Writ, I exclaimed, from the very 
 depth of my heart, 
 
 "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, 
 Let my right hand forget her cunning. 
 If I do not remember thee, 
 Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth ; 
 If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy."* 
 
 May God of His mercy listen to the supplications of those 
 who pray for the peace of Jerusalem ! and may the day soon 
 eome when " the Lord shall inherit Judah his portion in the 
 Holy Land, and shall choose Jerusalem again !"t 
 
 The road, for some miles, we found to be very stony, un- 
 even, and uninteresting ; and though I doubt not that once 
 this land, in every part of it, was very fertile, and yielded 
 abundantly, yet now from the barren and rocky soil it would 
 seem but little could be obtained. Very little, certainly, 4s 
 the increase of the ground, as it is now managed by the 
 careless, oppressed, and unambitious population ; though there 
 is good reason to believe, that under proper culture, the 
 ground would produce fairly and well, if not abundantly. 
 Once it was indeed " a good land, a land of brooks of water, 
 of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills ; 
 a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and 
 pomegranates ; a land of oil olive, and honey ;" a land where 
 there was bread without scarceness; whose stones were iron, 
 and out of whose hills one might dig brass.t But the wicked- 
 nesses of the people have brought upon it the curses de- 
 nounced against the rebellions of Israel, and the Lord has 
 " rooted them out of their land, in anger and in wrath, and in 
 great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is 
 
 * Ps. cxxxvii. 5, 6. f Zech. ii. 12. 
 
 ■^ Deut. viii. 7-9. 
 
404 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 this day."^ Here and there we find traces of the ancient, 
 widely-extended cultivation. Waste and unreclaimed districts 
 are frequently met with; and, "except immediately round 
 the villages, the hills, once terraced and crowned with olive- 
 trees and vines, are uniformly bare or overgrown with wild 
 shrubs and flowers — proofs far more than sufficient that the 
 land still enjoys her Sabbaths, and only waits the return of 
 her banished children, and the application of industry com- 
 mensurate with her agricultural capabilities, to burst once 
 more into universal luxuriance, and be all that she ever was 
 in the days of Solomon."! 
 
 Meditating upon such topics as these, we passed Shafat on 
 our left, and about three o'clock, came to some curious 
 remains of arches, large stones, and other things indicative 
 of a town or city which stood here in former days. Possibly, 
 as has been suggested by a recent traveller, this may be 
 the place alluded to in Joshua, in speaking of the lot of the 
 tribe of Benjamin : — " Ataroth-adar, near the hill that lieth 
 on the south side of the nether Beth-horon."| Dr. Robinson 
 makes Atara, the Ataroth of Scripture, to be situate some 
 distance to the north of Ramah. On our right, not very far 
 from the road, we saw Anata, or Anathoth, where the Prophet 
 Jeremiah was born, and which was one of the oitijes of refuge. 
 Soon after, passing over the same stony and uneven road, at the 
 usual rate of a horse's walk, we came to Er-Ram, or Ramah 
 of Benjamin (Josh, xviii. 25),^ which is situate on a hill, and is 
 a rather striking object, as seen from the road. To the west, 
 we could just catch a glimpse of the site of what Dr. Robinson 
 considers to be Gibeon ; and still farther off, and to the north 
 of west, was Beth-horon, as placed on his map. From the 
 position of Beth-horon, it would appear that there were two 
 
 * Deut. xxix. 28. 
 
 t Lord Lindsay's ^'Letters on Egypt," &c., p. 251. | Josh, xviii. 13. 
 
 ^ The Ramah of Mount Ephraim, where Samuel was born, is supposed by 
 Dr. Robinson to be the present Soba, lying to the west of Jerusalem. — " Bib. 
 Res.," vol. ii. p. 330-331. 
 
GIBEON AND THE VALLEY OF AJALON. 405 
 
 towns of the name, Upper and Lower, or perhaps one city 
 called by these names, according to the part of it on the hill- 
 top or further down into the deep pass or valley. Josephus 
 speaks of there being here a narrow, steep, and rocky hollow 
 way or pass, exceedingly dangerous to an army, which would 
 seem to favor this view.* In the book of Joshua (ch. x. 10, 
 11) we are told of '^ the going down to Beth-horon," and of 
 the way from Gibeon " that goeth up to Beth-horon.'' It was 
 on the occasion of which the sacred writer speaks, that the 
 captain of the host of the Lord commanded the sun and the 
 moon, and they obeyed him : — '' Then spake Joshua to the 
 Lord, in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites 
 before the children of Israel, and he said, in the sight of Israel, 
 Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon ; and thou. Moon, in the 
 valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon 
 obeyed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their 
 enemies. Is not this written in the Book of Jasher ? So the 
 sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go 
 down about a whole day. And there was no day like that, 
 before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of 
 a man : for the Lord fought for Israel."t It was a stupend- 
 ous miracle indeed, and one which magnified the power of 
 Him who created and sustains the universe. Without per- 
 plexing ourselves as to the speculations and doubts of philos- 
 ophers and wise men, it was enough for us to know that thus 
 it is written; and believing in God's almighty power, we were 
 in no wise troubled with hesitancy as to His ability to do what 
 seemeth good in His sight ; so that we looked toward Beth- 
 horon and the Valley of Ajalon, with the deepest awe, and 
 bowed our souls in adoration before the throne of Jehovah. 
 Descending into a low plain or valley, pleasant and green 
 
 * Dr. Robinson says, that " it appears that in ancient times, as at the pres- 
 ent day, the great road of communication between Jerusalem and the sea-coast, 
 was by the pass of Beth-horon." — " Bib. JRes.," vol. iii. p. 61. 
 
 t Josh. X. 12-14. 
 
406 " ■'•^<> "EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 in comparison with most of the road over which we had been 
 journeying, at a little past four P.M., we arrived at El Bireh, 
 the Beer or Beeroth of Scripture. It is a very pretty spot, 
 and ofiered so many attractions in our eyes, as a resting 
 place, that we determined to encamp here for the night. We 
 pitched our tent near a ruined wely, or Mohammedan saint's 
 tomb, to the west of the village, and were regaled with the 
 gushing streams and fountains of water which were close by 
 and all around in every direction : most truly does the pres- 
 ent locality answer to the name of the Well or Wells, for 
 water is in abundance, and what is more, is very sweet and 
 good. I was much interested in rambling about a while 
 before evening, and looking upon the varied scenes offered to 
 the inspection of the traveller. On the gentle slope near to 
 our tent, I came upon a large flock of goats and sheep, ia 
 charge of a lad about twelve years of age, who looked at me 
 with wondering eyes, and tried to enter into conversation; 
 but our stock of words and sentences was too small to give 
 much satisfaction for this purpose. I saw also several other 
 flocks, generally in charge of men, and sometimes of women. 
 Here and there the fields of grain were abundant, and ap- 
 peared to promise a rich harvest, which was matter of no 
 surprise to one who beheld the supply of water in every di- 
 rection. How truly might such a land become again rich 
 and fruitful to a degree equal to anything in its former his- 
 tory ! Walking down by the ruined wely, I found there 
 several women and girls with their jars for water, and was 
 rather struck with the prettiness, amounting almost to 
 beauty, of the girls, and the haggard, disagreeable faces of 
 the oHer women ; — for here, as you may recollect, the people 
 in the country districts do not make it a point to cover their 
 faces with the odious veil, which forms the essential element 
 in a female's dress out of doors in Egypt. They looked at me 
 with considerable interest, quite as much so as I did at them ; 
 and placing their jars on their shoulder or head, they smiled 
 
TRIALS OF TRAVEL. ., 407 
 
 an adieu, and went to their homes. Besides these trifling 
 incidents, I was not a little interested in the traditionary re- 
 lation, which sets forth that it was here that the Virgin Mother, 
 not finding her Son, as she had hoped, somewhere in the com- 
 pany which was journeying like ourselves towards Nazareth, 
 turned back to the Holy City, and with Joseph went in sor- 
 row and apprehension to search for Him. It was a meet and 
 fitting subject of meditation for us that evening, to call to mind 
 the incidents related in Holy Scripture of our Most Blessed 
 Lord and Saviour during the days that He was subject untq 
 His earthly parent, and His reputed father, Joseph the carpen- 
 ter of Nazareth. But I will not weary you with a recital of 
 our musings on this occasion : I will only hope and trust that 
 they were profitable to us in more ways than one.* 
 
 We rose the next morning at daybreak, having passed a 
 quiet night, and though rather longer than usual in getting 
 ofl", we were, nevertheless, in the saddle about half-past six. 
 The first morning after leaving a city, has always more or 
 less of delay and vexation connected with it : the mules are 
 not yet well broken in ; their loads are not clearly portioned 
 out ; the mukri, or drivers and attendants of the mules and 
 horses, are not yet perfectly familiar with their new charge; 
 something is sure to be mislaid ; too much load to be got on 
 to one, too little on to another ; the tent apparatus and the 
 kitchen affairs do not pack as well as they ought ; the saddles 
 or bridles or stirrups of the horses do not altogether suit the 
 gentlemen ; and withal -there is a bustle and confusion which 
 never helps work forward, but the reverse. We having six 
 mules and four horses, experienced a number of these trials 
 on the morning of Wednesday last ; but, after all, as our 
 
 * Dr. Robinson's notice of El-Bireh is interesting; he rates the population at 
 700, all Mohammedans, and points out some traces of the antiquity of the place, 
 particularly the remains of a fine old church with pointed arches, which wa$ 
 probably built by the Knights Templars, who at one time owned this village. 
 The houses in the town are mostly low, and in some cases, half under ground. 
 — " Bib. Res.,'' vol. ii. p. 130, 131. 
 
408 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 muleteers were tolerably good-natured and willing, and as 
 Antonio was a very thorough-going fellow, we succeeded in 
 getting under way in pretty fair season ; and after the first 
 morning, had no reason to complain of needless delays on the 
 road. In less than an hour we passed Beitin, or Bethel, on 
 our right, but did not turn off to examine it at all, our object 
 being to reach Nablus before night, if possible. The air was 
 warm, but not to be termed hot, and, excepting occasional 
 clouds, the weather was clear and delightful. In general, the 
 country was very hilly, and ofttimes very picturesque and 
 beautiful. The road, which, as you understand, is only a 
 bridle path for horses, camels, &c., no vehicles ever bring 
 used, passes along the hill-sides or through the deep ravines 
 and valleys ; at one time there are lofty but sterile mountain- 
 tops, towering up at your very side ; at another you find 
 yourself in a deep and lovely valley, rich with the products 
 of the ground, the grain, the fruits, the vines, the groves of 
 olives, figs, (fee. ; and at another again you ride slowly over 
 the pathway which is cut in the rocks, and from which you 
 look down precipices of no mean height, and full of danger in 
 case of misstep or slipping. The soil, too, as we approach 
 the vicinity of Samaria, seems to be more fertile and produc- 
 tive, and the people, though here, as ever3^wliere, far too care- 
 less and indolent, find good harvest and good return, indeed, 
 for the scanty labor they bestow in tilling the ground. 
 
 Leaving on our right Ain Yebrud, which stands on a 
 conical hill in a narrow valley, and Gophna on our left, we 
 skirted the precipitous sides of a deep ravine, and arrived at 
 Yebrud at half-past eight. We were now entering the por- 
 tion of country belonging to the tribe of Ephraim, and were 
 continually reminded of the change from the generally barren 
 and sterile regions about Jerusalem to the more fruitful and 
 better watered country to the north. The hill-sides are ter- 
 raced up and brought under cultivation ; and the villages, as 
 seen at this season of the year, surrounded by their gardens 
 
RUINS AT SHILOH. 409 
 
 and fields of grain, and rich with the vine, the fig, the pome- 
 granate, the olive, and other productions of nature's bounty, 
 appeared very attractive, and not unlike what we may 
 imagine them to have been in the days when Moses wrote 
 of the promised land : — " The land whither thou goest in to 
 possess it, is not as the land of Egypt from whence ye came 
 out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy 
 foot, as a garden of herbs; but the land whither ye goto 
 possess it is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water 
 of the rain of heaven ; a land which the Lord thy God car- 
 eth for ; the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, 
 from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the 
 year."''^ Continuing our onward progress, almost due north, 
 we had the mountains of Ephraim a little way to the left, 
 and reached Sinjil at eleven. Traversing a fine broad valley 
 between hills of stony, barren summits, at a quarter past 
 twelve we arrived at Khan Lubban. The Khan itself is in 
 ruins ; but in the vicinity is a fine fountain of water ; and 
 to the north-west on a hilly slope is the village of Lubban. 
 A little to the right is the deserted site of Shiloh, which, as 
 says a recent traveller, is "marked by a ruinous mosk, 
 overhung by a lofty and noble tree. The utter desolation of 
 the scene was startling. A rocky hill, strewn with prostrate 
 walls and foundations, seemed a burrow for jackals and a 
 nest for scorpions ; in a wild and sterile valley below yawned 
 the orifices of a few vacant tombs ; and at a short distance 
 were the fast mouldering vestiges of a Byzantine church, 
 its wall and gate overrun with foliage and a few prostrate 
 columns half buried in herbage. Not a human dwelling was 
 in sight." A most sad scene of desolation indeed, when 
 one remembers the many incidents connected with Shiloh in 
 the Old Testament history ; for here the ark and the taber- 
 nacle were ; near to this place the daughters of Shiloh came 
 out to dance in dances, and were many of them carried oiT 
 
 ♦ Deut. xi. 10-13. 
 
 18 
 
410 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 by the children of Benjamin who had escaped the slaughter 
 of their tribe ; here Eli the high priest ministered before the 
 Lord ; here the little Samuel was called, and spent his child- 
 hood's days in the services of the sanctuary ; and many such 
 interesting recollections were associated with Shiloh. Alas, 
 that the wickedness of the people called down upon it the 
 just vengeance of God : — 
 
 " So that He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, 
 The tent which He placed among men :" 
 — " Go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh ; 
 Where I set my Name at the first, 
 And see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel."* 
 
 After leaving Khan Lubban, the road passed at intervals 
 over rocky hills, through cultivated valleys, and across 
 plains of no great extent, with several small villages or 
 towns here and there, which I believe are not marked on any 
 map of the country. About two o'clock, we reached the 
 descent of the last of those hills on this route before coming 
 to the broad valley or plain of El Mukhna, which extends 
 with little interruption northward even to the vicinity of 
 Nablus, where I am now writing. It was a lovely sight to 
 look down upon this plain, so extensive and so rich with the * 
 products of the ground, wanting nothing but the thriving 
 village and the busy hum of people happy, free and con- 
 tented, to make it a terrestrial paradise. It may appear 
 rather childish,rl fear, but under the excitement of a broad 
 course over which to spur our horses, we yielded to its in- 
 fluence, and in high glee, dashing past Hawara, a large vil- 
 lage on a side hill, we put our steeds upon their mettle and 
 soon left dragoman, muleteers, and everything out of sight, 
 much to the astonishment of the peaceful husbandmen along 
 the roadside. I have not had so good an opportunity to test 
 the value of Syrian horses before ; and from my experience 
 
I 
 
 Jacob's well. 411 
 
 of their qualities, I assure you I am delighted with them ; 
 their paces are just to my taste ; they are trained to walk at 
 a rapid pace and to keep this up for hours ; they know naught 
 about that horrible gait termed a trot, which almost kills me 
 when I attempt to ride at home ; and they gallop or canter 
 most swiftly and pleasantly indeed, being always tractable 
 under the management of the bit and bridle. I hope to have 
 many a delightful ride before our journey is ended. 
 
 Soon after, Mount Gerizim rose distinctly before us, with 
 Mount Ebal beyond, a deep gorge or valley lying between ;* 
 and when we had been rejoined by our dragoman and a 
 Nubian muleteer, and had proceeded for an hour or so, 
 still over the plain, we came to a spot of the deepest interest, 
 and one which excited all our sympathies ; — I mean Jacob's 
 Well. It is some distance from the city, and at present is 
 deserted and desolate, without water. I had hardly expected 
 such a scene as met the eye ; climbing over a low wall of 
 stone, and making our way through the brush and brambles, 
 which are quite thick here, we came to the mouth of the 
 ancient well ; at present the opening is only about a foot wide, 
 and it looked to me as though the stones forming the mouth 
 had fallen or been pushed togetfier and made it much smaller 
 than it once was. Maundrell's account is interesting, and 
 well worth quoting, since there is little doubt that the well, 
 and everything about it, is very nearly precisely the same as 
 it was in his day, a hundred and fifty years ago. " Over the 
 well there stood formerly a large church, erected by that 
 great and devout patroness of the Holy Land, the empress 
 Helena. But of this the voracity of time, assisted by the 
 hands of the Turks, has left nothing but a few foundations re- 
 maining. The well is covered at present with an old stone 
 vault, into which you are let down through a very straight 
 hole ; and then removing a broad, flat stone, you discover the 
 
 * These mountains are between 800 and 1000 feet above the valley, and some 
 2700 above the Mediterranean. 
 
4l2 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 mouth of the well itself. It is dug in a firm rock, and con- 
 tains about three yards in diameter and thirty-five in depth, 
 five of which we found full of water. This confutes a story 
 commonly told to travellers who do not take pains to examine 
 the well, viz. : that it is dry all the year round, except on 
 the anniversary of that day on which our blessed Saviour 
 sat upon it, but then bubbles up with abundance of water."* 
 Among the deeply touching localities of the Holy Land, 
 Jacob's Well holds a prominent place; and we lingered her© 
 in this now desolate spot, and strived to realize the eventful 
 story recorded by St. John. It was a day — now nearly two 
 thousand years ago — fraught with the tenderest compassion 
 and love on the part of the Divine Saviour towards the souls 
 of men, when wearied with journeying under the hot sun of 
 Syria, at the hour of noon He reached the well of the great 
 patriarch. Faint and fatigued with exertion, and desiring 
 rest, He sat down on the side of the well's mouth to rest; His 
 disciples had gone away into the city to buy food and provide 
 things needful for their journey : as He sat thus alone by the 
 well-side, a Samaritan woman, most probably not from the 
 city of Shechem or Sychar, but a hamlet nearer by, came to 
 draw water for her domestic needs. She saw that He was 
 a Jew, and knowing that fact, and remembering the enmity 
 subsisting between her countrymen and the Jews, she did not 
 address Him, nor would she have extended to Him any of the 
 civilities and courtesies so common in the East, and so cheer- 
 ing to the weary and way-worn traveller. She was well 
 aware too of the inveterate hatred and scorn of the Jews for 
 the Samaritans, and she thought that He who now was rest- 
 ing His wearied person by the well-side would only look at 
 her with dislike if not disgust; but she was ignorant who He 
 was that she was now privileged to meet. Jesus, therefore, 
 perceiving that the woman had not offered the water to His 
 parched and thirsty lips, said unto her, " Give Me to drink." 
 
 ♦ Maundrell's "JoMnicy," &c., March 24th. 
 
OUR lord's gracious words. 4elB 
 
 The woman, in her astonishnnent at the request, asks Him the 
 question, how it was that He would do thus, and demand 
 drink of a woman of Samaria. The blessed Saviour conde- 
 scends to continue the conversation thus begun, and by His 
 heavenly discourse both manifests His compassion to her igno- 
 rance, reveals His heavenly doctrine, and proclaims to her His 
 true character as the Messiah of God. When she, with all 
 the zeal of one who had taken part in the bitter controversy 
 which raged between Samaritan and Jew ever since Sanbal- 
 lat, by permission of Alexander the Great, had built on Mount 
 Gerizim a temple for his son-in-law, Manasseh, in opposition 
 to the temple of Jehovah at Jerusalem, was eager to know 
 from one who was possessed of prophetic and Divine knowl- 
 edge, the truth on the question at issue; Jesus replied, 
 " Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither 
 in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. 
 Ye worship ye know not what ; we know what we worship; 
 for salvation is of the Jews; but the hour cometh, and now 
 is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in 
 spirit and in truth ; for the Father seeketh such to worship 
 Him. God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must wor- 
 ship Him in spirit and in truth." It may be that neither the 
 woman nor yet His disciples, who enjoyed His daily teaching, 
 understood the full import of these momentous words ; but to 
 us, who live in these days of Christian light and blessing, 
 they are clear, most impressive, and full of comfort ; for God 
 our Saviour, in His love and compassion, requires of us now 
 the service and obedience of faithful hearts and lives, and not 
 that we should three times a year, as of old, go up to His 
 temple at Jerusalem. Let us bless and praise His holy name 
 that His Church is no longer confined to one people, one 
 country, one language, but is now catholic, for all ages, all 
 climes, all people of the earth ! 
 
 We did not venture to linger here very long, for the after- 
 noon's sun warned us to fix upon our place of encampment 
 
414 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 ere night set in ; and the knowledge of the fact that these 
 mountain-sides are infested with petty thieves and vagabonds, 
 induced us to hasten away towards the city. Turning to the 
 west, we entered the lovely valley between Gerizim andEbal 
 on either hand. Gradually ascending the slope towards the 
 city, we w^ere gratified with the view of the profusion of 
 fields, and gardens, and groves of olive, the enclosures of cit- 
 rons, pomegranates, mulberry, vines, etc., which seem to 
 surround the whited walls of Sychar, or Nablus, as it is now 
 called ; and we promised ourselves a delightful repose, either 
 in or near the town, after the fatigues of the day. But our 
 anticipations were not to be realized, and we met with an 
 adventure w^hich was more vexatious and dangerous than 
 pleasant. I have not yet been able to find out how or why 
 it was that we did not follow the more usual plan, and pass 
 outside of the walls to our proposed place of encampment be- 
 yond ; but we did not, that is certain, as I have had too much 
 occasion to remember ever since. When we came near the 
 city, at the eastern entrance, an officious young scamp was 
 very ready to show us the way, and as Antonio was in ad- 
 vance, he ought to have known better than to have followed 
 him ; however, in our simplicity, in we went after the boy, 
 and at a slow pace proceeded through the main street, where 
 most of the shops are, towards the gate at the opposite end 
 of the city. Perhaps it was mere fancy, but I think now 
 that I saw a twinkle of the eye, as though our extemporary 
 guide had succeeded in getting us into a scrape from which 
 we could 3xtricate ourselves no better by turning backward 
 than by going forward. The street w^as full of people, and 
 just wide enough for us to advance in single file : at first, 
 they looked at us rather spitefully, which we did not mind a 
 rush; then they began to use abusive language, which we 
 did not particularly care about, and could have endured; 
 next, the children and half-grown boys and girls began to 
 shout words and songs of insult against " Christian dogs," 
 
'' ' -A STONING IN NABLUS. 415 
 
 which was very vexatious and annoying, but of no great con- 
 sequence : the result of all this, as you may suppose, was, 
 that very soon a considerable excitement was got up against 
 us in this fanatical city. The old people, and parents in gen- 
 eral, began to come out to the doors to see what it was all 
 about, and as, by their smiles and laughs of encouragement, 
 they pushed the younger ones on to extreme steps, so it hap- 
 pened, and matters did indeed proceed to extremities. You 
 will recollect that we were advancing at a walk, one behind 
 the other, and, as ill fortune would have it, we were alone, 
 except the dragoman and a Nubian slave, who had one of the 
 horses in charge: the muleteers were some miles distant, 
 coming on at a slow pace : Antonio was ahead, Mr. P. next, 
 the Nubian next, and poor I last of all : I mention this par- 
 ticularly to show you that the severest trial by far came upon 
 me, in consequence of my situation behind. Well, then ; the 
 noise, and confusion, and insult, and contumely, did not seem 
 to satisfy the Nablus people ; so, as we were a small party, 
 they ventured upon another step, which was more serious ; 
 some boy or other took up a stone or two, shook it at us, and 
 emboldened by nearness to his own door, had the audacity to 
 throw it ; this time no one was struck ; but the evil was be- 
 gun ; other boys picked up stones and in a moment or two a 
 whole volley of these was fired ; several struck me with much 
 force, but as they came from behind I could not tell who 
 threw them ; and as the odds were too much against us, a 
 whole city against three or four persons, I knew that we 
 must get out of it the best way we could; so I shouted to 
 Antonio to push on, feeling, I must confess, a strong desire to 
 punish the young vagabonds for their outrage against quiet 
 travellers like ourselves, and grasping my stout stick with an 
 energy that would have been dangerous to any one of them 
 had I caught him within my reach. On we pushed, every 
 now and then struck by a stone or two, but happily all the 
 time getting nearer to the end of our sore trial ; at last we 
 
416 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 reached the gate, when the uproar ceased and we passed out 
 in comparative safety, on the whole glad that it was no worse, 
 and rather rejoiced that we had not given way to our indig- 
 nation to such a degree as to use fire-arms in our defence : in 
 that event, the Nablus folks are not a whit too good to mur- 
 der a man outright, which considering our small party they 
 might have done with certainty had they got their passions 
 sufficiently roused. I do not recollect the exact time that we 
 were walking, not running, the gauntlet : but it seemed to 
 me an hour at the least; and had I had it in my power, I 
 w^ould have administered a little wholesome discipline upon 
 this city, which should have taught it hereafter to respect the 
 rights of the traveller and the stranger, no matter of what re- 
 ligion or nation he might chance to be.=^' 
 
 We halted outside the city, under some olive trees, and on a 
 pleasant knoll looking down into the valley at our feet, and hav- 
 ing in full view Mount Ebal, opposite, and Mount Gerizim 
 rising up immediately behind us. In about an hour the rest 
 of our train arrived, and we were very glad to have our tent 
 pitched, and to get some refreshments and repose after the 
 exciting scene through which we had recently passed. Except- 
 ing some disturbance, caused by the firing of guns, in the even- 
 ing, and the frequent visits which we had paid to us by those 
 who came to spy out what they could lay hands on, and were 
 rather summarily repulsed on our part, we met with nothing 
 of consequence to interfere with our quiet repose at night. 
 
 The next morning, that is the present one on which I am 
 writing, we rose very early for the purpose of visiting such 
 objects as we had time for, and in order to get off in good 
 
 * Tischendorff gives the Nablusians a very bad character ; they " are a 
 riotous, overbearing and fanatical people. The day before our arrival they had 
 slaughtered the sheikh of a neighboring village, in the heart of the city, out of 
 malicious caprice, and this, without even the shadow of a punishment having 
 visited them ; for when the circumstance was related to the pasha, he exclaimed, 
 ' Why did he enter the city V and he took charge of the investigation." — 
 ■'Travels in the East," p. 221. 
 
THE ACTS OP JOSHUA ON THE MOUNT. 417 
 
 season if possible. We rambled about somewhat before break- 
 fast, and climbed up nearly to the top of Mount Gerizim. 
 We were very much gratified with the view spread out before 
 us at different points in our walk ; for, though the mountain 
 summits of both Gerizim and Ebal are, in great measure, 
 sterile and harsh to the eye, the picture is softened, and ren- 
 dered indeed lovely by the fertile valley, rich in fruits, and 
 gardens, and flowers, and by the picturesque minarets and 
 flat roofs of the houses, with central domes (as in Jerusalem), 
 of the city of Nablus ; we could not, too, but call to mind 
 the impressive account in the Holy Scripture, of the signifi- 
 cant ceremony here performed by the twelve tribes of Israel, 
 God being pleased to take this and every means to set before 
 His people the blessings of obedience and the curses of disobedi- 
 ence to His holy will and commandments. While Moses lived 
 God had enjoined upon him this striking service, and after- 
 wards, under the noble Joshua, when the armies of the children 
 of Israel had subdued Jericho and Ai, an altar was built unto 
 the Lord God in Mount Ebal. '^ As Moses, the servant of the 
 Lord, commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the 
 book of the Law of Moses, Joshua built an altar of whole stones, 
 over which no man hath lift up any iron ; and they offered there- 
 on burnt-offerings unto the Lord, and sacrificed peace-offer- 
 ings. And he wrote there upon the stones, a copy of the law of 
 Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel. 
 And all Israel, and their elders, and officers,. and their judges, 
 stood on this side the ark, and on that side, before the priests, 
 the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, as 
 well the stranger as he that was born among them ; half of 
 them over against Mount Gerizim, and half of them over 
 against Mount Ebal; as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had 
 commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel. 
 And afterwards he read all the words of the law, the blessings 
 and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of 
 the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded 
 
 18* 
 
418 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, 
 with the women, and the little ones, and the strangers that 
 were conversant among them."*' O it must have been a 
 most solemn sight, and one which we might imagine would 
 never fade away from the memory of the chosen people ; six 
 tribes on the one mount, and six on the other, the one utter- 
 ing the words of blessing, the other denouncing the curses 
 upon rebellion and disobedience, and the thousands, and tens 
 of thousands, and hundreds of thousands, shouting with one 
 voice, the expressive Amen ! And what, think you, it was to 
 us, to stand here so many ages afterwards, and to see and 
 know that the blessing has been despised, and the curse in all 
 its force had come upon the chosen people ? What wonder 
 if our eyes filled with tears, and our hearts were sad and 
 heavy with the thought, that even as He haa done to the 
 perverse and wicked people, called by His name, so will He 
 do to us who liear His words, have entered into His covenant, 
 and promised to obey Him, if we fall away into sloth or forget- 
 fulness, and do not as He has commanded. " Heaven and earth 
 shall pass away, but My words shall never pass away." Let 
 us not be high-minded, but fear Him whose justice is infinite, 
 and who will not spare the impenitent and the disobedient. 
 
 We made it a point this morning, to see the city and to visit 
 the Samaritan Synagogue, in hope of having an opportunity 
 to inspect the Samaritan Pentateuch, which, as you know, is 
 of great importance in the estimation of Biblical scholars. 
 Accordingly, after breakfast we went into Nablus, which, 
 though it looks well outside, has not many attractions inter- 
 nally. The houses are generally of stone, the bazaars are 
 well supplied, the population large, and apparently industrious, 
 but the streets and lanes are like those in all oriental towns 
 which I have seen, narrow, crooked, and filthy. We got 
 along pretty well, as respects the clamor and abuse, which 
 this time was unaccompanied by a repetition of yesterday's 
 
 * Josh. viii. 30-35, 
 
THE SAMARITAN PENTATEUCH. 4^^ 
 
 outrages ; and, save being called bad names by some children, 
 who ran after us, we escaped unharmed or unmolested. 
 
 In a little while, we reached the entrance to the old priest's 
 house, who lives close by the synagogue ; and we found him 
 and a few other persons, sitting cross-legged, and smoking, in 
 the court or vestibule before the door of their house of worship. 
 After some little conversation with reference to our object, and 
 after settling the important matter of keeping on our boots 
 while within the synagogue, we were admitted into a moder- 
 ate-sized room,- covered with straw mats on the floor, and 
 offering nothing worthy of mention in regard to its arrange- 
 ment or its contents. The venerable rabbi, who was present, 
 showed us at first a number of old books and manuscripts 
 which he had, keeping back the only one that we really cared 
 to see, as if to enhance its value and consequence in our eyes. 
 As we were a little impatient, having no time to lose, we 
 prevailed upon the old gentleman to bring out the great 
 treasure for our inspection. It proved to be a large roll, kept 
 in a brass case, and adorned with various costly coverings of 
 crimson silk, and letters embroidered in gold. We examined 
 the manuscript with all the care we could, and noticed, be- 
 sides its evident air of antiquity, that it is written in columns 
 of about five by fourteen inches, and three of these to what 
 may be termed a page. We were permitted to touch the 
 valuaible manuscript, to look as closely as we chose at the 
 various peculiarities which it possesses, the color of the ink, 
 the size, shape, and character of the alphabet, the arrange- 
 ment of the words and sentences, &o., and, in short, to enter 
 upon any exaniination which our time or our wishes allowed. 
 The old rabbi was very obliging in every way, and in answer 
 to our inquiries as to the probable age of the manuscript be- 
 fore us, did not scruple to declare that it belonged to the 
 period of Moses ! This was rather more than we could credit, 
 though we entertained no sort of doubt that the Samaritan 
 Pentateuch is of an age which entitles it to very great consid- 
 
420 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 eration in Biblical questions. I was very sorry that our time 
 was so limited, and so little opportunity was afforded us for 
 making some research into the interesting questions connected 
 with this manuscript ; but we had no alternative, and were 
 compelled to bid our old friend adieu, much gratified on the 
 whole, and yet regretting the lack of those things which we 
 had not in our power.=^ Tischendorff visited Nablus five 
 years ago, and gives an interesting account of what he saw 
 and experienced. As his name is distinguished in matters 
 relating to ancient manuscripts, I may be allowed to quote a 
 sentence or two from his " Travels in the East," with regard 
 to this relic of other days : — '' I was chiefly occupied with the 
 alleged exceedingly ancient manuscript, which is said to con- 
 tain a statement to the effect that it was written thirteen 
 years after the death of Moses, by Abischua, the son of 
 Phineas, who was grandson of Aaron. The rabbi brought us 
 a tin case, within which lay the manuscript, like a large 
 synagogue roll of parchment, enveloped in a costly covering 
 of crimson silk, with embroidered golden letters. It bears 
 undeniable traces of antiquity. I examined the parchment, 
 the color of the ink, the system of the lines, the punctuation, 
 the divisions (none of which have initials), and the characters, 
 as well as they could be examined without a knowledge of 
 the Samaritan. All combine to convey the idea of a manu- 
 script of the sixth century. Even under this supposition, it 
 necessarily holds a very distinguished rank among all the 
 ancient parchment codices of both the East and West 
 With respect to the alleged statement, it may not, if in fact 
 it exist, be considered otherwise than as a transcript, careless- 
 ly copied from former documents, and incorporated in it as a 
 note founded on a remote tradition. Perhaps this Abischua 
 took some share in writing the original Pentateuch."t 
 
 * I must beg to refer you to Dr. Robinson for an interesting account of the 
 correspondence with the Samaritans by occidental scholars, and of the litera- 
 ture of this small community. See the " Biblical Researches/' vol. iii. p. 129-134. 
 
 t " Travels in the East," p. 219. 
 
NABLUS IN ANCIENT DAYS. 421 
 
 While I am writing, the dragoman is bustling about, and 
 making preparations for our departure. Standing not far off 
 are some of that wretched class of persons, lepers, holding out 
 their boxes for alms, and begging most piteously for aid. 
 Poor creatures ! how deeply do your sufferings move the sym- 
 pathies of Christian hearts, and how earnestly do they make 
 one long for the Divine power and compassion of Him who 
 heard the cry of the leper, and said, "I will; be thou clean!" 
 Despite the ill-treatment we have met with in this an- 
 cient city, we cannot but acknowledge its beauty of situ- 
 ation, and its consequence as the chief town in Samaria. It 
 is said to contain about seven thousand inhabitants, among 
 whom are a hundred and fifty Samaritans, and if we may 
 judge from appearances, possesses considerable wealth and 
 resources. Its present name is derived from the title which 
 it received in honor of Vespasian, viz. Flavia Neapolis, 
 whence the Arabic Nabulus, or Nablus. Anciently, it was 
 called Shechem, Sychem, or Sychar, and calls up the recol- 
 lection of events which transpired ages ago. Abraham 
 dwelt here. Jacob pitched his tent before this city, and 
 bought a parcel of a field, which afterwards he gave to his 
 son Joseph. Here Joseph's brethren came, to feed their 
 father's flock ; and not far hence, they consummated their 
 wickedness, by selling their brother into slavery. Here Jotham 
 uttered that beautiful parable to the men of Shechem, respect* 
 ing the trees which went forth to choose a king. And here 
 our blessed Lord came, at the urgent prayer of the people, 
 and abode two days in their midst, proclaiming unto them 
 the life-giving words of His Gospel. But I need not enlarge 
 upon these topics ; and my time is very short. In a little 
 while, we shall be all ready, and in the saddle again. May 
 God bless you, and permit me to reach the haven of restj 
 whence I will write you again ! 
 
LETTER XX. 
 
 Departure from Nablua.— Lovely Valley between Gerizim and Ebal.— Well-watered.— Law- 
 less Character of the People.— Arrival at Sebaste.— Beautiful Situation on a Conical Hill.— 
 Remains of a Grand Colonnade.— Church of St. John the Baptist.— Difficulty of getting 
 Admission. — Insulta offered to Travellers. — Road after leaving Sebaste. — Sanuro a Strong 
 Place naturally.— Reached Jenin.— Story of our Dragoman's Adventure here.— The Town. 
 — The Great Plain of Esdraelon. — Its Fertility, Extent, and Beauty. — Zerin, or An- 
 cient Jezreel.— Solam, or Shunem.— Nain.— Kleber's Battle.— Little Herraon.— Arrival at 
 Mount Tabor.— Make the Ascent.- Ruins on the Summit.— Magnificent View from the Sum- 
 mit.— Question as to the Place of our Lord's Transfiguration.— Reflections on the History 
 and Associations of Tabor.— Leave for Sea of Tiberias.- The Route.— Jebel Hattin.— Tuba- 
 rieh.- Its present Degraded Condition. — Beauty of the Lake.— Our Lord's Frequent Pres- 
 ence here.— Desolation of the Cities and Towns around it.— Departure for Nazareth. — 
 Lubieh.— Kefr Kenna. — Beautiful Situation of Nazareth.— Its Traditionary Localities.— The 
 Mount of Precipitation.— The Panorama from the Summit of the Hill on which Nazareth 
 stands.— Reflections on our Lord's Early Days, and the Years spent in NazareUi. 
 
 Nazareth, April 22d, 1849. 
 My Dear S., 
 
 My last letter was finished in a very great hurry, as 1 
 fear you have discovered ere this ; but there was no alterna- 
 tive. I must write when I can, and, though I am am sensi- 
 ble that I do it under great disadvantages, still as I have 
 promised to let you hear from me at certain intervals, and 
 as, perhaps, the necessity of writing rapidly and in great 
 measure without books to consult, may be more than com- 
 pensated for by the fact that I give you just what I see, and 
 hear, and feel, without reference to the speculations and 
 theories of the learned or the critical, you will, I am sure, 
 take what I send you for what it is worth, and give me your 
 attention still further even to the end of my lucubrations. 
 
THE VALLEY NEAR NABLUS. 423 
 
 Just at present I am seated in the comfortable apartment 
 furnished by the good monks of the Latin convent at Naza- 
 reth, for the refreshment of travellers and pilgrims; and hav- 
 ing now some few hours' leisure and repose after the fatigues 
 of several days past, I purpose devoting them to your grati- 
 fication — so far as I am able to minister to that — in giving 
 you an account of our journeyings since the date of our 
 leaving Nabius and its neighborhood. 
 
 It was a bright and beautiful morning, that of the 19th, 
 when we turned our faces westwardly, and rode through the 
 lovely valley between Mount Gerizim on the south and 
 Mount Ebal on the north. Perhaps nowhere in Palestine is 
 there a spot w^hich surpasses this vale in attractiveness and 
 beauty. It abounds in springs, and fountains, and rivulets 
 of pure and sweet water, which gushes forth in every direc- 
 tion, and invigorates and clothes everything in the mantle of 
 loveliness. The hill-sides are covered with gardens, and 
 groves, and verdant, flowery meads; the melon and the 
 cucumber, the pomegranate and citron, the almond and the 
 fig, the orange and the apple, the vine and the olive, all 
 grow in abundance near Nabius; amid the foliage of the 
 trees, the feathered songsters pour forth their cheering 
 notes of gratitude and praise ; and everywhere nature wears 
 her garb of beauty, more vivid and striking here because of 
 the sterile mountain-tops on either hand and the rough and 
 stony region not far distant to the north-west."^ As we rode 
 along, we noticed several villages near our line of road which 
 were apparently thriving and populous ; and we saw evi- 
 dences of the industry and comforts of the people in various 
 little things which attracted our attention : occasionally, we 
 
 * " Here a scene of luxuriant and almost unparalleled verdure, burst upon 
 our view. The whole valley was filled with gardens of vegetables and orchards 
 of all kinds of fruits, watered by several Ibuntains, which burst forth in various 
 parts and flowed westwards in refreshing streams. It came upon us suddenly 
 like a scene of fairy enchantment. We saw nothing to compare with it in all 
 Palestine."—" Bib. Res.," vol. iii. p. 95. 
 
4^ EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 met a party of horsemen or pedestrians who looked at tta 
 with no very friendly eye, and I suspect would not have 
 hesitated to try what they could get out of us had we not 
 appeared to be rather too strong to make it safe to meddle 
 with the Franks. Some English friends that followed us a 
 day or two later were rather shabbily used by some of these 
 vagabonds prowling about Nablus, and would have got into 
 very serious trouble had not their firmness overawed the 
 Arabs, and thus prevented a resort to extremities. With the 
 experience which we had had in respect to the temper and 
 conduct of the people of Nablus, and knowing the reputa- 
 tion of all this district since the stern sway of Ibrahim 
 Pasha has been removed, we neither felt very complaisant to 
 those whom we met at intervals, nor did we relax our vigil- 
 ance against surprise, or the attacks of robbers and vaga- 
 bonds. Believe me, travellers must not depend too much 
 tipon the general impression that it is safe in any part of the 
 Holy Land ; for that is only partly true, and does not apply- 
 to the region of Samaria any more than to that east of Jeru- 
 salem toward the Dead Sea. And I am convinced that the 
 main security of travellers consists in their being firm, reso- 
 lute, prudent, and (in show at least) well armed, together 
 with the absence of any specially exciting cause of the 
 fanatical and turbulent spirit of the Mohammedan popu- 
 lation in this portion of Palestine. Some circumstances 
 which I wiU mention by and by, may serve to illustrate these 
 statements. 
 
 Passing out of this beautiful valley and continuing our 
 course to the north-west, we began gradually to ascend again, 
 and after a ride of some two hours over hill and dale, we arrived 
 at Sebustieh, or ancient Samaria. Before reaching the city, 
 we had a fine view of its commanding and noble position from 
 the southern valley, from whence rises the hill on which it 
 stands; and we were much struck with the figure used by 
 the prophet Isaiah, when he terms Samaria " the crown of 
 
THE DESOLATION OF SAMARIA. 425 
 
 pride of Ephraim," and declares that " the glorious beauty 
 which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, 
 and as the hasty fruit before the summer ;"=^ for not unlike 
 a crown is this round and picturesque mount, girted about 
 with a circlet of hills and beautified with fruitful fields, and 
 gardens, and flowers. It required but little imagination to 
 induce us to believe that in its pahny days it was one of the 
 most beautiful and noble-looking cities in the world: it was 
 founded, as you will recollect, by Omri, king of Israel, who 
 was contemporaneous with Asa, king of Judah, and Elijah, 
 the great prophet of the Lord, between nine hundred and a 
 thousand years before Christ ;t but now, alas for the pride of 
 man, it is like the faded flower, and its wealth, beauty and 
 power are all gone ; the hill has been ploughed as a field, and 
 where once the lofty palace and the gorgeous structure stood 
 in all their magnificence, where the populous streets and 
 the thousands of inhabitants gave token of life, energy and 
 power, now naught is found but the few broken columns half 
 covered with earth, and the scanty remains of other days amid 
 the trees, and fields, and gardens, and peasants' huts. We 
 rode up the hill by a steep and winding path, with consider- 
 able expectations, and passing the lowering villagers without 
 stopping to parley with them, we hastened to the top of the 
 mount to gaze awhile at the splendid scene which there grati- 
 fies the traveller. " We stood in the very centre of a mag- 
 nificent panorama. To the north-east and south our horizon 
 was bounded by mountains, enriched with cultivation and 
 villages ; towards the west our eye admitted of the eye rang- 
 ing even to the Mediterranean. The valleys which girted 
 the mountain, as well as the mountain itself, are luxuriantly 
 overgrown with trees, especially olives and fig-trees. Around 
 
 * Is. xxviii. 1, 4. 
 
 f "And Omri bought the hill Samaria of Shemer for two talents of silver, 
 and built on the hill, and called the name of the city which he built, after the 
 name of Shemer, owner of the hill, Samaria." 1 Kings, xvi. 24. 
 
426 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LANl>. 
 
 the mountain run, like a coronet, the traces of a terrace, 
 which was probably formed as a decoration to the royal resi- 
 dence." We spent some little time in visiting and examining 
 the remains of the colonnade, which is situate some distance 
 below the summit of the hill, and on its south-west side or 
 slope. A large number of the pillars are still standing, and 
 most of them are in very good preservation : they are of lime- 
 stone, about eighteen feet in height and nearly two in diam- 
 eter ; the width of the colonnade Dr. Robinson gives as fifty 
 feet. We followed its course a long way, and were quite 
 satisfied that it extended around the base of the hill for con- 
 siderably more than half a mile from the point of beginning. 
 It w&s a sad sight, however, to look upon ; for though as 
 many, probably, as a hundred columns are still standing, and 
 the course and splendor of the colonnade as a whole may 
 readily be imagined ; still here they stand in the midst of 
 ploughed fields, and utter loneliness and desertion, and in 
 every direction portions of their companions form part of the 
 rude walls for terracing up the slopes, or are half buried in 
 the ground, or carried off to aid in building the houses in the 
 modern town. Truly, a termination to the labors and v/ealth 
 of the sanguinary tyrant Herod the Great, which he never 
 anticipated; and we who come from a far-off land and gaze 
 upon the pillars, neither know when they were erected or to 
 what edifice they belonged. We do know that he rebuilt the 
 city of Samaria, adorned it with magnificent structures, and 
 named it, after the emperor Augustus, Sebaste ;* but we 
 know little more than this. His wealth and magnificence, 
 his power and glory have all faded away, and naught remains 
 but the memory of his evil deeds, his murders, his jealousies, 
 his awful wickednesses. O, as we turned away and left this 
 colonnade to its unbroken solitude, how loathsome appeared 
 
 * LeSauTos is the Greek for Augustus ; HePatrrfi is the feminine of the same 
 adjective, agreeing with rroXtj, city ; and hence " Sebaste," the name from which 
 we have the present Arabic title, " Sebustieh." 
 
CHURCH OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST. 427 
 
 the sins and crimes of which the city of Samaria had been 
 the witness, the idolatries and abominations of Omri, Ahab 
 and Jezebel ; how just the judgments denounced against it 
 by Elijah, Ezekiel and the other prophets; how fearful the 
 retribution which came upon it about two hundred years after 
 its foundation, when Shalmanesar besieged and took it, and 
 carried away the people into captivity : how horrible .the mur- 
 ders and other crimes committed here by Herod, the blood- 
 thirsty and jealous tyrant ; and how exact and true the pun- 
 ishment which was come upon it for all the evil which it has 
 committed on the earth ! 
 
 Before leaving this interesting locality we made an attempt 
 to see the interior of the ruins on the east brow of the hill ; 
 they are those of a church erected in honor of St. John, the 
 Baptist, and are among the most prominent and striking 
 which can anywhere be met with in the Holy Land. On 
 various accounts we hoped to be able to look closely at these 
 remains of other days ; but like many travellers before us, we 
 were not permitted so to do, and rather esteemed ourselves 
 well-oif that the fanatical guards and peasantry did not assault 
 us for our presumption. As we approached the ruined church 
 from the west side, we could not but admire no less the beauty 
 of situation than the still remaining evidences of a magnificent 
 edifice on this noble mountain-side.* Even at a distance we 
 could distinguish clearly the general features of the architec- 
 ture, which appears to have been the Byzantine ; the small 
 windows, high up from the ground, the beautiful and impo- 
 
 * The reputed sepulchre of Neby Yehya (St. John the Baptist) is under a 
 wely in the enclosure of the church ; it is a little chamber excavated deep in 
 the rock, to which the descent is by twenty-one steps. There is a tradition, but 
 of little value, that the holy Baptist was cast into prison and executed here; 
 whereas, Josephus and after him Eusebius relate that he was beheaded in the 
 castle of Machaerus, on the east of the Dead Sea. Tischendorff relates that 
 though the firman of the Sultan failed to obtain admittance for him, he succeeded 
 in getting in through a window, and beheld the art and skill of the Crusaders 
 in adorning the church, the mutilated crosses of St. John upon marble tab- 
 lets, &fC. 
 
428 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 sing battresses, the graceful circling chancel recess, and other 
 points attracted our notice and made us wish for time and 
 opportunity to examine in detail these interesting ruins ; but 
 on approaching nearer by, we saw that the court of the church 
 was full of armed peasants lounging about, and it was ne- 
 cessary to pass through their mosk situate within the enclo- 
 sure, before we could attain our purpose, we felt at once that 
 we must forego all attempts of a nature which would embroil 
 us with the people. And I may mention here, that it was 
 well that we acted as judiciously as we did ; for had we drawn 
 up in front of the church, and sought to obtain admission un- 
 der the present state of things, we should certainly have been 
 grossly insulted and abused, if not treated in a far worse man- 
 ner ; I say, certainly, because a party of English friends who 
 followed us, and had the same desires with ourselves to visit 
 the interior of this ancient church, were set upon by these 
 lawless fellows, their bags and portmanteaus were rudely 
 hauled over and rifled, themselves called all manner of names, 
 and most outrageously pushed about and jeered at, and at 
 last suffered to escape only by submitting with admirable pa- 
 tience and presence of mind to the importunities of these 
 scoundrels for bakhshish, and to their unscrupulous thefts 
 before our friends' eyes. 
 
 In our own case, I am quite confident, that from the stir 
 in the midst of the fellows in the large court, they were Con- 
 sulting about an attack, and nothing but our slowly, and yet 
 steadily riding onward, neither courting nor fleeing from dan- 
 ger, saved us from a disagreeable, and I fear it would have 
 proved dangerous rencontre, with the inhabitants of this law- 
 less district. We did not, at the time, understand why it 
 was, that so many persons were in arms, since it was evident 
 that they were not regular troops, belonging to the govern- 
 ment ; and it was not till we arrived here at Nazareth, and 
 heard various particulars more in detail, that we became 
 aware of the true state of things in the central part of Pales- 
 
DISTURBED STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 429 
 
 tine. The fact is, that the government is weak, and well nigh 
 contemptible, and the villages are continually engaged in 
 feuds, and broils, and disturbances : only the day after we 
 passed, two villages along the line of road were at open war- 
 fare, one with the other, and a clerical friend and his com- 
 panion fell into that very uncomfortable position, viz., between 
 two tires, and managed to escape only by abruptly turning off 
 and leaving the field of action to the mutually infuriated com- 
 batants. Providentially they soon got out of the range of the 
 fire-arms, and after a day's wanderings, they knew not where, 
 they lighted upon the road once more, and pursued their jour- 
 ney in peace. Such facts as these go far to confirm the 
 views expressed a little while ago respecting this portion of the 
 Holy Land, where Turkish weakness in the governors, and 
 Mohammedan bigotry and quarrelsomeness in the governed, 
 keep the country in a state of continual agitation, and mate- 
 rially interfere with the safety and comfort of travellers. 
 -•f I need not dwell upon the particular features of the road 
 from Sebustieh northwards, neither is it important to men- 
 tion specially the numerous villages which we passed, but 
 which we did not stop to examine, except in rare oases. At 
 ten o'clock we were under way again, and riding over a va- 
 ried section of country, marked occasionally by steep and high 
 hills, but more generally by plains and valleys rich in the 
 fruits of the earth, we left the territory of Ephraim, and en- 
 tered that belonging to the half-tribe of Manasseh. Passing 
 Burka, with its olive groves, we traversed a broad plain, saw 
 the village of Fendekumieh, having several fountains near it, 
 ascended the hills again, passed Jeba (between which village 
 and the one last named there was a fierce dispute, and the 
 day following a battle), lunched under the olive trees, and at 
 half-past twelve reached Sanur, situate on a high conical 
 hill. It is a striking object, and even to an unscientific eye, 
 wears the appearance of great natural strength, which art 
 could easily render impregnable. It is now only a petty vil- 
 
430 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 lage, the fortifications being in ruins ; but at one time it was 
 so strong, as to resist all the force of the notorious Jezzar 
 Pasha, with five thousand men, for two months, when he re- 
 tired without accomplishing his object. Abdallah Pasha, in 
 1830, succeeded in taking the place, after a siege of several 
 months, and in order to prevent its being a stronghold in fu- 
 ture for rebels, razed the fortress, cut down all the olive trees, 
 and left it, as we now saw it, a shapeless heap of ruins. 
 Continuing our route over the plain beyond Sanur, which is 
 not only very beautiful, encircled as it is by numerous hills, 
 but is very fertile and productive, we noticed here and there 
 the shallow ponds of water, alluded to by Dr. Robinson, as a 
 peculiarity of this plain, or valley, and ascending again the 
 hill-sides as we advanced, we were gratified, about two 
 o'clock, with a noble view of the region of country towards 
 which we were journeying, the mountains, or heights about 
 Nazareth forming not the least interesting feature in the 
 scene. We rode through the large village of Kubatieh, sur- 
 rounded by its extensive and fruitful olive groves, and wind- 
 ing our way through a deep, stony valley, we arrived at 
 Jenin at four o'clock. Here we determined to halt for the 
 day, and selecting a gentle rise west of the town, we pitched 
 our tent, and prepared to make ourselves comfortable for the 
 night. But we were not allowed to do so without remon- 
 strance : first some of the town's-people came and annoyed us 
 very much by staring into the tent, putting their hands upon 
 things, trying to frighten us with horrible tales of robbers 
 &c., and warning us of the necessity of having additional 
 guards ; we, however, paid no attention to them, leavin'g An- 
 tonio to settle the matter in his own way. Now it so hap- 
 pened, that this worthy, a year ago, had met with an adven- 
 ture here, which he is not likely soon to forget. It appears 
 that he was induced to take guards at Jenin, as it is the usual 
 plan ; they were furnished by the governor, and of course, 
 supposed to be trustworthy ; but during the night they man- 
 
ANTONIO AND THE JENTN PEOPLE. 431 
 
 aged to steal — not of his master — but of Antonio himself, to 
 the amount of about a hundred dollars : the next day, on 
 complaint being made, the governor had the thieves arrested, 
 promised redress, talked round and round, and ended by doing 
 nothing ; and so Antonio was compelled to leave Jenin, be- 
 lieving in his heart (and I confess I am not a v^hit more 
 charitable), that the rascally governor had pocketed the prin- 
 cipal share of his hundred dollars ! Of course our dragoman 
 did not feel very amiable when he reached Jenin again ; nay, 
 so far from this, he sent off very summarily, the applicants 
 for posts as guards, and had the audacity to give the governor 
 a piece of his mind, as to the rascality of Jenin and its people 
 in general, and its chief officer in particular. He absolutely 
 refused to have any one about, and announced his determina- 
 tion to watch all night himself, a plan to which we had no 
 sort of objection, believing ourselves as safe without as with 
 the so-called guards. A large caravan came up before even- 
 ing, and placed itself in our vicinity ; and saving a shot or two, 
 fired most probably to frighten us, during the night, and the 
 unusually loud croaking of frogs in a pond near by, every- 
 thing passed off quietly and satisfactorily, and the people of 
 Jenin got nothing out of us of any kind, except Antonio's 
 pointed and well-deserved objurgations. 
 
 The town of Jenin, answering to the Ginaea of Joseph us, 
 is pleasantly and picturesquely situated on a side hill, and 
 from the road looks very well ; there are several domes, 
 minarets, &c., quite prominent and really pretty in the dis- 
 tance ; clos^ to the walls, too, are numerous gardens, en- 
 closed with the thorny cactus, and abounding in fruits and 
 flowers. But probably its greatest attraction in our eyes, is 
 the fact, that from its elevated site, you can look abroad over 
 that noble and farr famed plain of Esdraelon, stretching away 
 to a very great distance, and lying spread out, in all its ver- 
 dant beauty and richness, to the delighted and wondering 
 gaze of the traveller. I can but feebly express to you my 
 
432 
 
 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND.-^^ 
 
 emotions, as the next morning, bright and early, we bade 
 adieu to Jenin, the ill-favored and inhospitable town, and 
 entered upon the plain of Esdraelon : it was not merely the 
 marvellous change from a hilly region, ofttimes sterile, sad, 
 and gloomy, to the widely- extended, fertile and magnificent 
 plain over which lay our route ; it was something more ; for, 
 around this plain are situate some of the most interesting 
 places noticed in Holy Writ, and on Esdraelon have been 
 fought the battles of century after century. Gilboa, Jezreel, 
 Shunem, Nain, Endor, Tabor, Nazareth, Carmel, the Kishon, 
 Megiddo, — what deep and stirring thoughts do they excite in 
 the mind ? Deborah and Barak, Gideon the mighty man of 
 valor, Saul and Jonathan, the Maccabees, the Romans, the 
 Saracens, the Crusaders, the gallant Kleber, Napoleon, — 
 what memories of other days do these names call up ;^ and 
 who that crosses this great battle-ground of ages, can do it 
 without emotions, or without a fervent prayer for the speedy 
 and entire sway of the Prince of Peace ? 
 
 Our course was nearly north after leaving Jenin ; and 
 though we rode at a tolerably good pace, we were between 
 three and a half and four hours in crossing the plain ; a fact 
 which may help to give you some idea of its vast extent. I 
 shall fail, however, in attempting to convey to you anything 
 of a clear conception of the fertility and beauty of the plain 
 of Esdraelon, as we have seen it under its present aspect; 
 when the waving fields of grain, giving promise of a rich har- 
 vest, are around and about you at every step ; when you be- 
 
 * " Tt has been a chosen place for encampment in every contest carried on in 
 this country, from the days of Nabuchodonosor, king of the Assyrians (in the 
 history of whose war with Arphaxad it is mentioned as the great plain of 
 Esdrelom), until the disastrous march of Napoleon Bonaparte from Egypt into 
 Syria. Jews, Gentiles, Saracens, Christian Crusaders, and anti-Christian 
 Prenchmrn, Egyptians, Persians, Druses, Turks, and Arabs, warriors out of 
 every nation that is under heaven, have pitched their tents upon the plain of 
 Esdraelon, and have beheld the various banners of their nations wet with the 
 dews of Tabor and of Hermon." — Dr. Clarke's " Travels in Greece, Egypt" &c. 
 ch. XV. 
 
THE GREAT PLAIN OF ESDRAELON. 433 
 
 hold the plantations of cotton here and there, the patches or 
 fields of (lurah or millet,=^the banks and beds of streams and 
 of rivulets which go to fill up, at certain seasons, ^' that an- 
 cient river, the river Kishon ;" and when you look around you 
 at the hills and mountains which everywhere greet the eye, 
 and seem as it were to be keeping watch and ward over this 
 great valley. Bear with me, then, if I do not attempt t^ de- 
 scribe in detail, but simply to tell you of our progress across 
 the plain, even to the resting-place where I am now writing. 
 On our left we had a glimpse of the village which Dr. Robin- 
 son thinks is identical with the Taanach of Scripture, and to 
 the north-west of this we could distinguish the site of El 
 Lejjun, Legio or Megiddo of Holy Writ; while still farther 
 in the same direction the blue outline of Carmel's range 
 bounded the view. On our right, the heights of Gilboa were 
 plainly visible ; and passing several small villages, we arrived 
 at Zerin at a quarter before nine. This, there is little doubt, 
 is the ancient Jezreel, and is a very interesting and not un- 
 lovely spot, situate, as it is, on a small and slightly elevated 
 conical hill, only a short distance from our road. Its con- 
 nection with Gideon, the mighty warrior, on whom the 
 Spirit of tlie Lord came and who fought so successfully 
 against the Midianites and Amalekites, and the children of 
 tiie East ; with Ahab and Jezebel, his wicked wife,, whose 
 horrible end is related in the Word of God; with Jehu, the 
 zealous avenger of God's truth ; with Elijah, the holy 
 prophet of Jehovah ; and in later days with the Christian 
 
 * " The great valley of Esdraelon is certainly the plain most remarkable, both 
 
 physically and historically, in the Holy Land We observed far 
 
 more culture in the great valley, in general, than the accounts of travellers had 
 led us to expect. We were rather surprised at this, when we adverted to the 
 paucity of agricultural villages in our view. The crops which are raised in it 
 are of barley, wheat, millet, beans, chick-peas, sesamum, lentiles, flax and 
 cotton. Wild oats, too, are found growing among the fields of grass, or rather 
 herbs, of which very little care is taken. The valley through the whole of its 
 extent, as far as it appeared to our view, is nearly destitute of trees of every 
 kind."— Wilson's " Lands of the Bible." vol. ii. p. 84, 85. 
 
 19 
 
434 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 and Saracen hosts ; — its connection with these I need not 
 enlarge upon, much as I should desire to tell you of the 
 many reflections and musings to which this famous city 
 gave rise in our minds, while we were journeying over the 
 plain. Neither may I now stop to dwell upon Solam, the 
 ancient Shunem, near to which on our right we passed, at a 
 quarter past ten o'clock ; though the prophet's miraculous 
 power here displayed might well induce us to pause; nor 
 even upon Nain, the city where our Blessed Lord was moved 
 with divine compassion and raised the widow's son to life j 
 much and deeply as we felt the fulness of His never-failing 
 compassion and mercy, and much as we were affected by 
 gazing upon the very site of that event so touchingly related 
 by the Evangelist.* when He said to the bereaved mother, 
 " Weep not ;" and when, having called back the dead again 
 to life. He delivered him to his mother, and caused all who 
 saw or heard of what He did to be filled with fear and rever- 
 ence towards God. Our path led us over a part of this 
 plain celebrated for a far different scene ; for, about fifty 
 years ago, between the two villages, Fuleh and Afuleh, close to 
 which we just now rode, was fought a famous battle between 
 Kleber, with his little band of fifteen hundred men, and the 
 whole force of the Turkish army, amounting to at least 
 twenty-five thousand. To those who admire such things it 
 must have been a grand sight to witness the brave French- 
 men, drawn up into a square, fighting from sunrise to mid- 
 day, against such fearful odds ; to see the idol of the army, 
 Napoleon, dashing over the plain with a few hundred men to 
 his aid ; to mark the panic, precipitate flight and total rout 
 of the Turks ; to trace the rapid steps of that great warrior 
 who, after this exploit, dined at Nazareth, and returned the 
 same day to Akka ; and such like ; but I love not to dwell 
 upon these things, especially when so near the very spot 
 
 * Luke vii. 11, &c. 
 
ASCENT OF MOUNT TABOR. 436 
 
 where He, our Lord, restored the dead to life, and left the 
 impress of peace and good-will upon the hearts of men. 
 
 Continuing our course over the plain, we skirted the 
 western base of Jebel ed-Duhy, or the Little Hermon, and 
 bending towards the east, had in full view Jebel et-Tor, or 
 Mount Tabor. It is one of the most striking objects in 
 Palestine, and rises up to a great height above the plain : its 
 shape is conical, and being clothed with verdure, shrubbery, 
 and trees, even to the very top, it presents itself to the eye 
 as remarkable for its beauty as its commanding importance 
 in a military point of view. We arrived at the foot of Tabor 
 at half-past twelve, and choosing a convenient place under 
 the shady trees near its base, we lunched and enjoyed the 
 delightful prospect spread out before us. We concluded that 
 we would pass the rest of the day here, in examining the 
 mountain and its vicinity, and antiquities : so, after reposing 
 awhile and leaving our muleteers to pitch the tent, we set 
 off at two o'clock to make the ascent. For a time we could 
 not find the road, but wandered about amid the trees and 
 bushes, and stumbled over the rooks and stones ; but our 
 guide, who was ashamed at our discovering his ignorance, 
 bustled about and soon succeeded in getting into the right 
 path : it is very winding, necessarily so, on account of the 
 steepness of the mountain-side; but it is all the better and 
 pleasanter to the traveller, since it opens to him so many 
 charming views as he gets higher and higher. We were 
 little more than an hour in riding up the side of Tabor over 
 a road, sometimes paved and constructed with care, on the 
 slope of the mountains, but more generally very uneven, 
 rocky, and not devoid of danger to the unwary traveller : we 
 did not see any of the wild boars or leopards which are said 
 by some writers to be occasionally found here ; all was still 
 and silent and deserted; and had it not been for the groves 
 of oak, the pistacio or turpentine trees, the laurel and thick 
 bushes and waving grass, all along the pathway and sur- 
 
EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 rounding the whole mount, it would have been a gloomy and 
 a dreary ride indeed. As we came near the top, we looked 
 with much interest upon the numerous remains of fortifica- 
 tions which formerly existed here, and our thoughts were 
 carried back to the period when Mount Tabor was one of 
 the very strongest fortresses in all Palestine. Unscientific 
 as I am in everything relative to military matters, I could 
 not but perceive that naturally Tabor possessed all the ele- 
 ments of strength, and I could well understand bow the 
 hand of art was enabled to render it impregnable : in such 
 point of view it was, no doubt, regarded in early times ; for 
 here we now see the strong foundation walls of a fortress, 
 and the remains of towers, trenches, vaults, cisterns, gate- 
 ways, &c. Even more remarkable did these ruins appear 
 when we had actually gained the summit and had gone over 
 it slowly and carefully ; for, somewhat to our surprise, we 
 found the top of Mount Tabor to be much more extensive 
 than we had been led to expect, and in every direction we 
 beheld the evidences of the care, skill, and labor, bestowed 
 upon fortifying this remarkable mount. At present, how- 
 ever, it is desolate and abandoned by man ; the wild oats are 
 growing in abundance, the bushes and shrubbery are fast 
 covering up the rubbish and ruins scattered about, the grass, 
 with its green mantle, has almost obliterated the evidences 
 of human skill and human ingenuity ; and now no more is 
 heard, the shrill trump of war, the martial tread of thou- 
 sands and tens of thousands, the shouting for battle, and 
 such like things : the chirping of the birds, and the mourn- 
 ful whispering of the winds amid the trees, are all that now 
 greet the traveller on Tabor's summit. 
 
 And yet we enjoyed our visit more than I can adequately 
 express ; for notwithstanding the desolation of Tabor, com- 
 pared with its glory once, in other days, we beheld there 
 what man has neither given nor can take away — the glorious 
 view of the surrounding country, which is unsurpassed in all 
 
THE VIEW FROM TABOR. 437 
 
 Palestine. I would that I possessed the power of graphic de- 
 scription, that I might tell you of what we saw from the suni- 
 mit of this noble mount, and how deeply the beauty and 
 splendor of the scene are written in our choicest recollec- 
 tions. How grandly loomed up in the far distance, to the 
 north, the snow-crowned Jebel es-Sheikh, the Hermon of 
 Scripture ! How picturesque appeared the hills and moun- 
 tains to the north-east and the east, beyond and on this side 
 the silvery Jordan, which springs out of their very bosom ! 
 How lovely seemed that lake, of all others most interesting 
 to the Christian's heart, the Lake of Tiberias, a part of which 
 we could plainly see ! How noble, toward the south, looked 
 the valley of the Jordan, Gilead, Gilboa, the Little Hermon, 
 and the charming vales between! But how surpassingly 
 beautiful, which I cannot find words rightly to express, was 
 the scene in the west, as, at this commanding elevation, some 
 fifteen hundred feet above the plain,* we looked down upon 
 Esdraelon, in all its glory and magnificent verdure, its extent, 
 its fertility, its loveliness, its surrounding hills, its streams 
 and rivulets, its river, the Kishon, and its many, many points 
 of attractiveness ! Believe me, 1 stood as it were entranced 
 on the steep brow of Tabor, and beheld this scene with emo- 
 tions too deep for utterance. 
 
 It was a deeply-interesting hour which we spent on the 
 summit of Tabor, in reflecting upon the scene of our Lord's 
 transfiguration, occurring, as it did, according to early tradi- 
 tion, on this very mountain. We felt all the force of the ob- 
 jections urged by Dr. Robinson and others against this 
 locality, on the score of its having been fortified, and more or 
 less covered with buildings and dwellings of various sorts; 
 and yet, though by no means strenuous on the point, 1 felt 
 that the transfiguration might have taken place on one of the 
 
 * Some authorities give the height of Tabor as 3000 ft. ; Dr. Wilson thinks 
 it less than 1000 ft., in which he agrees with Dr. Robinson : the height given in 
 the text agrees nearlv with Schubert's barometrical measurement of Tabor, 
 
438 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 retired and woody slopes of Tabor, somewhere near its sum- 
 mitj even though it was in general devoted to the purposes of 
 a town and fortress. I would by no means insist upon the 
 correctness of the view entertained for centuries past, that 
 this is the mountain, xat' idiap^ referred to by the Evangelist, 
 when he tells us that " after six days, Jesus taketh with Him 
 Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into a high 
 mountain apart by themselves,"^ and that there He was 
 transfigured before them ; since it is not certainly correct, and 
 the tradition is not so ancient and clear as to warrant our re- 
 ceiving it without hesitation, when the strong reasons urged 
 by Dr. Robinson against it are duly considered. Still, 
 musing upon that great event in our Lord's life and ministry, 
 and remembering the gracious words which were then utter- 
 ed "in the holy mount," ''when there came such a voice to 
 Him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in 
 whom I am well pleased;" "hear ye Him;"t I could not but 
 wish that the tradition might be correct, and that I too might 
 be worshipping my Lord and my God from the very mountain 
 consecrated by His presence, and the glory of His transfigur- 
 ation. On the whole, you will let me, I trust, adopt the 
 sentiments of a recent German traveller : " Even were the 
 tradition in error, it would be difficult to renounce it ; for 
 the mountain to which it clings stands like a moment of 
 inspiration, transformed into an earthly form, and deposited 
 as a memorial-stone by God, in the creation, as the altar of 
 the land, which itself is a temple of God. He who sees it at 
 the present day, believes, as firmly as if an angel had told 
 him, that the beautiful mountain, whose brothers stand at a 
 distance, as if in admiration, bears a sacred mystery within 
 it, and has been sacredly endowed by Him who made it so 
 splendid. But it has displayed its mystery, it has fulfilled 
 its object, if it indeed was the scene of the transfiguration of 
 the Son of God. Fifteen centuries have celebrated the mem- 
 
 * Mark ix. 2. t 2 Pet. i. 17, 18 ; Matt. xvii. 5. 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OP TABOR. ^ftSP 
 
 ory of this transfiguration upon Mount Tabor. How many 
 a sword, since gray antiquity, has glittered upon it, and 
 aroused the bloody contest ! How many an eye has beamed 
 from it aloft to heaven, and supplicated the peace of God !"* 
 
 Late in the afternoon, we reached our tent again, after a 
 toilsome and unpleasant descent ; and reposing under the 
 shade of a large oak-tree, we strove to take in the reality of 
 the things with which we had been brought into close con- 
 nection. For myself, I found it a very interesting occupa- 
 tion, to show our dragoman the very passages of Scripture in 
 relation to Mount Tabor, and to witness his astonishment, 
 Christian though he is nominally, at finding in the Bible 
 what is there written. I do not recollect ever to have had a 
 more attentive listener than Antonio proved to be, while I read 
 to him and told him about Barak and his ten thousand men, 
 marching down from the heights of Tabor into the plain ; about 
 Deborah the Prophetess, in whose days the highways were 
 unoccupied, and the travellers walked through byways ; about 
 Sisera and his nine hundred chariots of iron, and the multi- 
 tude of his host; and about the great battle on the plain be- 
 fore our eyes, when the Lord discomfited Sisera and all his 
 array, when " the stars in their courses fought against Sise- 
 ra," and when '' the river Kishon swept them away — that 
 ancient river, the river Kishon."t Oh, it was a time not to 
 be forgotten, when, on Tabor's slope, perhaps in the very path 
 pursued by Barak and Deborah, on this memorable occasion, 
 we sat and read aloud the song of victory, which, ages ago, 
 was chanted to the honor and glory of Jehovah ! — " So let all 
 thine enemies peiish, O Lord ; but let them that love Him 
 be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might." 
 
 The next morning, at half-past five o'clock, we left our 
 encampment, and set out for the Sea of Gennesareth. Pass- 
 ing round the northerly base of Tabor, through a lovely and 
 fertile vale, at half-past six we reached two strongly fortified 
 
 ♦ TischendorflTs ''Travels in the East," p. 235. t Judges, v. 20, 21. 
 
EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 khans, one on each side of the road. They are mostly in 
 ruins now, but were formerly, beyond a doubt, posts of import- 
 ance, and commanded this portion of the great caravan route 
 between Egypt and Damascus. Passing the khans, we rode 
 over a broad fertile plain, for two hours, passing some few 
 villages, and being struck with the appearance of the wild 
 Artichoke, called khob, with its thorny, violet-colored flower 
 in the shape of an artichoke, upon a stem five feet in height. 
 Very possibly, this may have been the flower alluded to by 
 our Lord, when He spoke of '' the lilies of the field," as sc glo- 
 rious and beautiful. On the road, we met with wells, oc- 
 casionally, having large, thick stones over their mouths. We 
 found the water very cold, too much so to permit us to drink 
 of it under the intensely hot sun of this season in Syria. At 
 eight, we had on our left, not far off, that peculiar-looking, 
 horn-shaped hill or mountain, Jebel Hattin, renowned for the 
 battle fought there in 1187, when the Crescent triumphed 
 over the Cross, and the power of the Crusaders was broken 
 and destroyed in Palestine. For a graphic description of this 
 disastrous battle, let me refer you to Dr. Robinson's " Bibli- 
 cal Researches," vol. iii. p. 241—249; it is related with more 
 than the usual power of the learned author's historical sum- 
 maries, and will well repay perusal. Soon after, we reached 
 the brow of that chain of hills which enclose, on this side, the 
 beautiful Lake of Tiberias ; and winding down their slopes 
 and steeps, at half-past nine we arrived at the town of Tibe- 
 rias, situate a little to the south of the centre of the lake's 
 western shore, and on the water's edge. Tubarieh is certainly 
 a miserable anc^ lifeless place, offering little to interest the 
 traveller, except it be that here several hundred Jews reside, 
 and — most marvellous of all — here is a new hotel, for the ac- 
 commodation of visitors ! From what we saw of the town 
 internally, and from what we had heard, we felt no disposi- 
 tion to test the goodness of the new hotel, notwithstanding 
 the proprietor's son, a black-eyed Jewish boy, beset us, and plead 
 
THE SEA OF TIBERIAS. 441 
 
 long and earnestly with us to enter the grand dwelling, assuring 
 us that the whole house was at our command — a fact which 
 we had no reason to doubt, seeing how dreary and desolate 
 the whole town appeared. In truth, never since the earth- 
 quake, in 1837, has Tiberias recovered its former condition; 
 and not only do the walls plainly show, in their rents and 
 breaches, the effects of that visitation, but the surviving in- 
 habitants wear still the marks of a grievous calamity, in their 
 poverty-stricken and woe-begone appearance, and their listless 
 habits and manners. It may well be doubted whether, con- 
 sidering their present depressed condition and the half-ruinous 
 state of the walls of the town, the citizens and the few sol- 
 diers here stationed could make much head against an attack 
 of the Arabs.* 
 
 You will readily enter into our feelings as we stood on the 
 shore of the beautiful lake of Tiberias, tasted its sweet water, 
 gazed upon its clear expanse, and called to mind its frequent 
 connection with the history of our Lord and Saviour. Inde- 
 pendently of its great natural beauty, embosomed amid the 
 hills, it has recollections of a kind and character which make 
 the deepest impression upon the Christian heart. How often 
 was He, the Redeemer, a dweller upon the shores of the lake 
 of Gennesareth : how often was He upon its waters, crossing 
 and recrossing its placid bosom : how frequently He taught 
 the people on its banks ; and on how many occasions did He 
 exert His divine power on its shores, in healing the sick, 
 cleansing the leper, and making the blind to see and the 
 deaf to hear. From its vicinity, He chose His Apostles ; 
 those honest and simple-minded fishermen, whose memories 
 we reverence : here. He walked on the water, and saved from 
 sinking into its deeps the sanguine Peter ; here. He lay down 
 in ihe boat and slept when the storm came down on the lake, 
 
 * For an interesting account of Tiberias and its history, including that of its 
 celebrated schools of Jewish learning, allow me to refer you to Dr. Wilson's 
 *' Lands of the Bible," vol. ii. p. 115-1-22. 
 
 19 
 
442 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LANQ 
 
 and when, on being awaked by His terrified disciples, Hf 
 arose and rebuked the wind and the sea, and there was a 
 great calm ; here. He gave the miraculous draught of fishes ; 
 and here, after His resurrection. He showed Himself on the 
 shore, ate and drank with His disciples, and delivered those 
 touching charges unto Peter, and through him to the rest of 
 the Apostles, and to the ministry of His Church in all ages. 
 Ah, how different now the scene ! the villages and towns on 
 the borders of this lake, the activity and bustle on its shores, 
 the numerous boats and vessels on its waters, are no more ; 
 and now silence and deadness brood over everything : not a 
 solitary sail, not a boat of any description did we see ; and 
 all business, all trade and commerce, have ceased utterly. 
 Most solemn seemed the words of our Lord, as we looked 
 upon the present aspect of this beautiful lake and the few, 
 scant ruins of the flourishing villages and cities which once 
 here existed : — '' Then began He to upbraid the cities wherein 
 most of His mighty works were done, because they repented 
 not: woe unto thee, Chorazin ! woe unto thee, Bethsaida ! 
 for if the mighty works which were done in you had been 
 done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago 
 in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you. It shall be more 
 tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for 
 you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, 
 shalt be brought down to hell : for if the mighty works which 
 have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would 
 have remained until this day."''^ Is it not a startling consid- 
 eration for Christian nations and people that the privileges 
 which they enjoy, and which they despise and use not, shall 
 at the day of judgment, stand in array against them ; and 
 because they have not repented and turned away from their 
 sins, when God has called them by His Holy Word and 
 His ministering servants, their lot and condition in the last 
 day shall be more terrible than that of the guilty cities of 
 
 ♦ Matt. xi. 20-24. 
 
APPEARANCE OF THE LAKE. 443 
 
 the plain, on whom the Lord rained down fire and brimstone 
 in the day of His wrath ? 
 
 As we were desirous to reach Nazareth before night, so as 
 to be able to rest there on the morrow, or Lord's Day, we did 
 not undertake to explore the shores of the lake for the few 
 remnants of the villages mentioned in the New Testament : 
 after resting awhile under the shadow of the northern wall — 
 and, by the way, being satisfied by the evidence of two senses 
 at least, that the king of the fleas does indeed hold his court 
 at Tubarieh — we remounted at eleven o'clock, and turned our 
 faces towards the west. The day was intensely hot, and as 
 there was not a particle of wind to mitigate the force of the 
 sun's rays, we had the full benefit of a temperature more try- 
 ing than anything which I have ever experienced, not except- 
 ing on the borders of Nubia, or in the deep caldron of the 
 Dead Sea and its vicinity. In the course of half an hour, 
 we had reached the hills again, and looking back upon the 
 lovely lake once more, could not but stop a few minutes to 
 admire its beauty. In several respects it is not unlike some 
 of the Swiss and Italian lakes, but it has besides features of 
 its own ; though situate among the hills and mountains, and 
 though most picturesquely beautiful on this very account, 
 there is a peculiarity about the scene unlike what we behold 
 in Europe ; there, we see life, industry, and a busy population 
 rejoicing in the good gifts of Almighty God ; but here, where 
 shall we find the people ? Where shall we look for the thou- 
 sands and tens of thousands which once lived and labored on 
 the banks and on the waters of this quiet lake ? In Swit- 
 zerland, as well as in our own highly favored land, the 
 lakes and inland seas are surrounded by hills and fields 
 of verdant beauty and fertility ; but here, as we now look 
 upon it, the eastern shore of the lake has nothing of verdure, 
 and presents only a bright red, naked precipice, which con- 
 trasts strangely, and almost solemnly with the blue mirror 
 beneath ; while the western bank, though in many jspots fer- 
 
444 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 tile, and lovely to the eye, is still neglected as a whole, and 
 like a land keeping her sabbaths for the wickedness of the 
 people that dwelt tlierein. With one long and steadfast gaze, 
 and with one more supplication to Him, who once trod its 
 banks, and sailed over its waters, for grace and strength, I 
 bade adieu to the Sea of Tiberias, and hastened onward tow- 
 ard our proposed haven at Nazareth. 
 
 I shall not attempt, on the present occasion, to de- 
 scribe, with any particularity, the road over which we 
 travelled, but shall simply say, that at half-past twelve we 
 passed Lubieh ; at three we reached Kefr Kenna, the Cana of 
 tradition, though rejected by Dr. Robinson ; rested a little 
 while under a fig-tree ; ascended the high hills on the road, 
 from whence we saw the Mediterranean in the distance ; and 
 at half-past four descended the last of the hills, into the val- 
 ley where this retired town is situate. The village looks 
 well as approached from this direction, and being on a side- 
 hill, about half-way from the top to the lowest point in th« 
 valley, and looking towards the east, it lay spread out before 
 us in its most attractive garb. We particularly noticed the 
 tall minaret which rises out of the centre of the town, the 
 large monastery of the Latins, the few palms and cypresses in 
 close proximity, the solidly built houses, &c. Perhaps there 
 may be something of fancy in the idea, but we could not 
 help thinking that there was a different air about this 
 Christian town and region from that which prevails in the 
 neighborhood of Samaria : the people seemed to us to be 
 more humanized ; they did not give us such lowering looks as 
 we had met with in the central portion of Palestine ; and 
 they appeared to us to smile and bid us welcome, as Christians, 
 to a Christian city. A little way out of the town, properly 
 speaking, is a large and abundantly supplied well, termed the 
 Well of Mary, because it is said — and that truly, I believe — 
 that the Blessed Virgin here came for water during the many 
 years that she lived with her husband in Nazareth: it lay 
 
TRADITIONS OF NAZARETH. 
 
 directly in oar road, and when we came near to it, a pictur- 
 esque scene met our eyes. The young maidens of the village? 
 clad in gay attire, and laughing merrily, had come out to the 
 fount for water ; they filled their jars, placed them on 
 their heads, and looking pleasantly at the strangers, walked 
 away , erect, of fine forms, and some of them possessing beau- 
 tiful features. In justice to ourselves, I must mention, that 
 the same idea respecting the people of this region, had occur- 
 red to others of our friends, whom we have met at the Casa 
 Nuova of the Latin convent ; and they quite agree with us, 
 that the Christian village, or city of Nazareth, is vastly more 
 agreeable than any into which they have been since they left 
 the Holy City :^ if it be a delusion, it is at least a harmless 
 and pleasant one, and it served to render more tolerable the 
 excessive fatigues of this long and hot day's journeyings. 
 
 I shall not weary you, my dear S., with dwelling upon 
 many of the mere idle traditions in and about Nazareth : it 
 needs not that I tell you of the reputed work-shop of Joseph, 
 the carpenter, where our Saviour is supposed to have wrought 
 at the same trade ; of the large block of stone, which report 
 says was the table on which He ate with His disciples ; of 
 the garden in which He is said to have taken special delight 
 when a boy ; and many more : I shall pass them all over ; 
 and as my letter has already reached to a great length, I 
 shall simply speak of one or two matters of real interest, and 
 then close the present epistle. We have been privileged to 
 spend the Lord's Day here in this interesting town, and as 
 there was an English clergyman present, we had the services 
 of the church quietly to ourselves, in the large room appro- 
 priated to the uses of strangers and travellers. Later in the 
 day, we visited the Church of the Annunciation, built over 
 the supposed grottot where the angel was sent to announce 
 
 ♦ The population of Nazareth is about three thousand, perhaps more ; of 
 these three-fourths are Christians, 
 f The judicious Maundreil, to whose accuracy and fideUty I am happy to add 
 
446 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 the tidings with which he was charged, to the trusting and 
 faithful handmaiden of the Lord, even Mary, of the house and 
 lineage of David. We were struck more with the evident 
 fervor and depth of devotion manifested by many of the con- 
 gregation, during the mass, than with the grotto itself ; for, 
 though it is possible that this cave may be the scene of that 
 event which it is said to commemorate, I am not disposed to 
 place much reliance upon the tradition respecting it ; and am 
 vastly more interested in the Christian state and condition of 
 the people who here worship God, and here call upon His 
 name. The excessive devotion of those who went down the 
 steps into the cave, and prostrate, kissed the bare stones, with 
 tears of emotion in their eyes, was rather painful than other- 
 wise to my feelings ; but I was, I confess, touched with sym- 
 pathy, when I saw how well the young joined in the service, 
 and how, notwithstanding the manifest errors and supersti- 
 tions of the Romish creed, they seemed to me to be influenced 
 by the spirit of that Gospel, of which, indeed, they know lit- 
 tle or nothing, compared with the privileges of this kind which 
 
 my feeble testimony, has some pertinent remarks in connection with the frequent 
 attributing of holy events and scenes to caves and the like, which I beg to 
 quote: he is speaking of some grottoes on Tabor, and says, "I cannot forbear 
 to mention, in this place, an observation which is very obvious to all that visit 
 the Holy Land, viz., that almost all passages and histories related in the Gos- 
 pel are represented by them that undertake to show where everything was done, 
 as having been done most of them in grottoes, and that even in such cases where 
 the condition and the circumstances of the actions themselves seem to require 
 places of another nature. Thus, if you would see the place where St. Anne 
 was delivered of the blessed Virgin, you are carried to a grotto ; if the place of 
 the Annunciation, it is also a grotto ; if the place where the blessed Virgin 
 saluted Elisabeth; if that of the Baptist's, or that of our blessed Saviour's na- 
 tivity; if that of the Agony, or that of St. Peter's repentance, or that where the 
 Apostles made the Creed, or this of the Transfiguration, all these places are also 
 grottoes; and, in a word, wherever you go, you find almost everything repre- 
 sented as done under ground. Certainly, grottoes were anciently held in great 
 esteem, or else they could never have been assigned, in spite of all probability, 
 for the places in which were done so many various actions. Perhaps it was 
 the hermits' way of living in grottoes from the fifth or sixth century downward, 
 that has brought them ever since to be in so great reputation," — Maundrell'i 
 " Journey,'' «fcc., April 19th. 
 
VIEW PROM THE HILL OP NAZARETH. 447 
 
 we enjoy. It is charity, I trust, to hope that God may bless 
 them even in their ignorance, — not for their ignorance, but for 
 the docile and humble spirit, which, even in their ignorance, 
 they manifest. 
 
 Late in the afternoon of the Lord's Day, we rode up the 
 lofty hill, on the side of which Nazareth is situate. We no« 
 ticed more than one place, as we ascended, where the precip- 
 itous rocks are striking, and fearful enough to have been the 
 very spot spoken of by the Evangelist, on that memorable 
 occasion, when our Lord's words of truth and power so exas- 
 perated the people of Nazareth, that they " were filled with 
 wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city, and led 
 Him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, 
 that they might cast Him down headlong."^ In a country 
 like this, where the passions of the people are very quick, 
 fierce and vindictive, it is not difficult to imagine a scene 
 such as that was, when their rage was disappointed and the 
 blessed Saviour passed through their midst and went His 
 way, leaving the ungrateful citizens of Nazareth to the just 
 deprivation of the inestimable privilege of having Him in their 
 midst. After a circuitous but pleasant ride, we reached the 
 summit of the hill, and were more than repaid for any fatigue 
 in the ascent by the beautiful panoramic view which we 
 there enjoyed. Toward the north and east lay the hill country 
 of Syria and Galilee, with the snow- clad Hermon towering 
 up grandly over all, and the lovely valley of the Jordan, Mount 
 Tabor in the distance, and the lesser hills and heights which 
 bound the plain of Esdraelon ; to the south the magnificent 
 plain itself stretchen away in the distance, incomparably 
 beautiful as it layencirclea amid the distant hills and mounts 
 which bound it on every side : in the west were plainly visible 
 Carmel's lofty range, and the Mediterranean's bright deep 
 blue mirror ; while almost at our very feet the picturesque 
 village of Nazareth formed, as it were, our home, on which 
 
 * Luke, iv. 28, 29. 
 
$19 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 we loved to gaze with a fondness that home only can inspire. 
 It was near sunset when we first looked upon this splendid 
 panorama, and wo could not forbear standing in silence near 
 the neglected wely of Neby Ismail and watching the glorious 
 orb of day as gradually it sank behind CarmePs Mount and 
 kissed the blue waters of the Great Sea. Nay, so attractive 
 was this spot, and this hour, when the heavens were illu- 
 mined with gorgeous magnificence, changing too at every 
 few moments ; and so full of thought was the place where we 
 may not doubt our l^ord Himself often came to meditate and 
 to pray, during the days and years when He was subject unto 
 His parents ; that I could not for a long time tear myself away. 
 How full of inspiring thoughts is every spot in and about 
 Nazareth ; for here our Lord passed the days of His childhood 
 and youth, and manhood, even until He was thirty years old. 
 How often must He have wandered about these hills, and 
 rambled over these plains; how frequently must He have 
 trodden the streets of Nazareth, drunk of the sweet water at 
 the well-known fountain, eaten of the fruits of the garden and 
 the field, rested under the palms, and looked upon the glori- 
 ous sunsets from off this lofty hill; how sweetly submissive 
 and tender His obedience; how entire His yielding to the 
 authority of His mother and reputed father ; how lovely and 
 of good report His every word and act! Ah, most blessed 
 Saviour of my soul, on my bended knees I adore Thee ; pros- 
 trate on the earth I supplicate Thee, that I may be enabled to 
 follow in the steps of Thy most holy life, and may ever seek 
 to do Thy will only, even as it was Thy good pleasure ever 
 to do the will of Him who sent Thee; unto whom, with Thee 
 and the Holy Ghost, one eternal Jehovah, both now and 
 ever, be all honor and glory, world without end. Amen. 
 
 It is enough ; words cannot image forth the deep and fervent 
 emotions of a penitent sinner's soul, when he is permitted to 
 tread the very sacred spots where his Redeemer's holy feet 
 once touched the earth: speech cannot convey the longing 
 
MUSINGS AND ASPIRATIONS. 449 
 
 desires of the devout pilgrim to know, in all its richness, the 
 love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, as he kneels and 
 prays near the very places hallowed by our Lord's presence 
 in the days of His flesh : O how weak and very nothingness 
 is mortal man ! how inexpressibly great and glorious the Lord 
 our God ! Yes, most true is it, 
 
 " I lose 
 
 Myself in Hira, in Light Ineffable ! 
 Come, then, expressive silence, mus 
 
 -" I lose 
 I 
 muse His praiae," 
 
LETTER XXI. 
 
 ifttouttt €atmel — St. Scan Tr' aicre—STgre. 
 
 The Value of the Hospices at Nazareth and other Points in the Holy Land.— Country between 
 Nazareth and Carmel.— Cross the Kishon.— Not Large River.— Haifa.— In Depressed Con- 
 dition,— Ascent of Mount Carmel.— Two Days Sojourn at the Hospice.— Excellence of the Ac- 
 commodations.— Brother Clement.— Brief Notice of Giovanni Battista, the Architect and 
 Founder of the Present Edifice.- His Labors and Success.— Exploration of the Building.— 
 The Chapel, Library, &c.— Scriptural Recollections of Carmel.— Departure on the 25th inst. 
 —Cross the Kishon.— Amusing Scene.— The River Belus. — Akka as it now is.— Excursion 
 through the Town.— Mosk of the Butcher P^ha.— Recollections of the Past connected with 
 Akka.— Departure.— Ez-Zib.— Plain to the North.— Ras en-Nakura.— Encamp on the Hill. — 
 Ruins of Scandalium.— Promontoriura Album.— The "Ladder of Tyre."— Picturesque 
 View.— Ras el-Ain.— Description of the Reservoirs from Maundrell.— Approach to Sur or 
 Tyre.— Its Desolate Appearance.— Striking Fulfilment of Prophecy.— Present Condition of 
 the Town.— The Ruins of the Cathedral of Paulinus.— Ichnography of the Ancient Church. 
 —Description.- Abstract of the History of Tyre.— The Certainty of Retribution. 
 
 Tyre, April 26th, 1849. 
 My Dear S., 
 
 It would be equally unjust and unbecoming not to ex- 
 press the kindly feelings which we, in common with all 
 travellers in Palestine, entertain towards the hospitable 
 monks of the convent at Nazareth ; and while I am deeply 
 sensible of the errors and corruptions of that Church which 
 claims supremacy over the Christian world, I have a settled 
 conviction that there are many noble illustrations of the 
 power of Divine grace in its midst ; there are many beauti- 
 ful examples within its pale of the brotherly love, the kind- 
 ness, the hospitality, and other virtues of our holy religion. 
 The monks at Nazareth, as at Bethlehem and Mount Car- 
 mel, make it a duty to entertain strangers and traveller?, if 
 
THE HOSPITABLE MONKS. AS^ 
 
 poor, without money and without price ; if rich, leaving it to, 
 them to bestow what they choose in furtherance of the 
 charity which they are enjoying. No one, except he has. 
 been in the East, and experienced the entire absence of alL 
 public accommodations for the traveller, and been thrown, 
 entirely upon his own resources, especially in the hours of 
 sickness and pain, can fully comprehend, not only the great 
 value, but the peculiarly grateful and cheering character of 
 the hospitality thus extended to all alike, the rich, the poor, . 
 the noble, the peasant, the protestant, the infidel, — in short,, 
 to men of all religions and all classes. Be assured that we 
 shall ever entertain the most kindly recollections towards the 
 good fathers of the Latin convent at Nazareth, for we en- 
 joyed their hospitality and witnessed their charitable atten- 
 tion to the sick and distressed, during the two days and 
 nights that we spent under their roof. 
 
 Very early on the morning of the 23d inst., we bade adieu., 
 to the venerable monk who had at that time the Casa Nuova 
 in charge, and turning our faces westwardly set off in the 
 direction of Mount Carmel. For some considerable time, 
 we rode over the hills and through the valleys and meadows 
 which lie in the neighborhood of Nazareth : at six o'clock, 
 just as the sun began to illumine with its glory the sur- 
 rounding scenery, and came into full view over the hills 
 which were between us and the village we had just left, we 
 entered again upon the north-westerly portion of the great 
 plain of Esdraelon, which reaches even to the base of Car- 
 mel's range. The prospect was very beautiful at this early 
 hour of the morning, when the dews and mists which en^ 
 veloped the summits of the hills and mounts gradually dis- 
 appeared, and settling in the gorges and ravines, brought out 
 into bold relief the mountain-tops which were in sight on 
 either hand. As we advanced, we frequently crossed rivu- 
 lets and streams of some little size and depths, showing the 
 abundance of water in this part of the plain, and adding 
 
452 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 very greatly to the fertility and attractiveness of the scene. 
 Occasionally we passed a village or tw^o, but they were 
 small and of no account, so that I did not note their names ; 
 and every little while we would mount some low hills and 
 come to some lovely spot, where almost involuntarily we 
 would pause a few moments and gaze in silence at what was 
 spread out before us. By and by, we reached a portion of 
 that long plain which stretches away far to the north, and 
 reaches from the sea-shore backward for some distance till it 
 meets the hills again. Between nine and ten o clock we 
 crossed the river Kishon, that ancient river, whose waters at 
 this season were quite deep, so much so as to prevent our 
 fording it on horseback, without getting our feet and legs 
 wet : we were nearly an hour riding, not far from the base of 
 Carmel, through the high grass and weeds, and making our 
 way as best we could through the marshy, wet, soft ground 
 which is met with at present about a mile from the mouth 
 of the river : in the wet season, the Kishon becomes a stream- 
 of size and force, being supplied from so many tributary 
 rills in every direction ; and it is very easy to perceive how 
 that the slaughter of Sisera's host might have taken place 
 at this season of the year, and that the river being full and 
 strong might well have done all that the song of victory 
 attributes to it ; — " The river of Kishon swept them away, 
 that ancient river, the river Kishon." 
 
 At half-past ten o'clock we reached Haifa, the ancient 
 Sycaminum, a town situate on the deep indentation of the 
 shore of the Mediterranean north-east of Carmel, but of no 
 great size or importance. The walls and castle are in a 
 very bad condition, having been seriously injured during 
 those troublous times when England saw fit to interfere in 
 Eastern affairs, and to help the imbecile Turk to regain his 
 provinces from the ambitious pasha of Egypt. Haifa as 
 well as Akka was bombarded and nearly destroyed, and it 
 has never recovered from the shock, notwithstanding the 
 
THE HOSPICE ON MOUNT CARMEL. 46$ 
 
 consular flags and some other indications of activity in tho 
 town seem to point to a revival of its former commercial 
 importance. Passing directly through the town, we rode 
 over the beautifully verdant and fertile plain between it and 
 Mount Carmel, with the sea as its north-eastern border. 
 A steep pathway leads to the summit where the convent is 
 situate, and it took us fully twenty minutes to make the 
 ascent :* as you approach the lofty stone hospice, it looks 
 grandly and imposingly down upon the hill-sides and the 
 blue Mediterranean ; and when you draw near to it, and 
 when actually you are on the platform of CarmePs north- 
 easterly foreland, on which it is built, you are both astonished 
 at the size, extent, and architectural beauty of the edifice, 
 and at the patient labor and skill which succeeded against 
 all obstacles in erecting a house for the wayfarer, the sick, 
 and the weary traveller. We spent two days here, enjoying 
 the hospitality of the good brother Clement, whose attentions 
 were marked by courtesy and consideration which we can 
 never forget, especially as one of our party was quite ill 
 with an attack of fever. We felt, as all who have been 
 here must feel, that there is no more delightful place in the 
 world than this elevated, airy, and picturesque spot. The 
 building devoted to the uses of travellers is very large ; it is 
 most admirably furnished with all that can cheer or gratify, as 
 sofas, French bedsteads, bureaus, soft beds, &c., &c. ; the 
 pharmacy is of good size and well supplied with medicines, 
 one of the l^rothers being instructed in medical science so as 
 to minister in all ordinary cases ; the walks about the 
 mountain-top are very pleasant ; one always has a fresh 
 breeze from the sea, and from every point there is always a 
 lovely view of the surrounding country, or of the broad, 
 deep sea whose waters ever wash the base of Carmel's Mount. 
 I fear that I shall appear to be making too much of such 
 
 ♦ Dr. Wilson, following Schubert, gives the height of Carmel as rather mow 
 tfaan 1200 ft. above the sea. 
 
454 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LANB^r^ 
 
 things, if I tell you of the excellent fare which brother Cle- 
 ment provides, the coffee, the eggs, the fish, the meat of dif- 
 ferent sorts, the vegetables, &c. ; or if I tell you particularly 
 of the delicious wine which the good monk regularly invites 
 the traveller to partake of, both morning and evening, at the 
 same time not forgetting to join you in the cheerful glass : I 
 may not dwell upon matters of which I am almost entirely 
 ignorant ; but I can assure you, that I have never tasted of 
 anything so perfectly superb in the way of wine as that wine 
 of Mount Lebanon in which brother Clement regularly pledged 
 us, and in the drinking of which we most heartily wished pros- 
 perity to both him and the noble establishment on Mount 
 Carmel. Believe me, we are not likely soon to forget the 
 hospitalities of these two days, and we shall cherish the 
 recollections of all whom we met there, at the hospice, as 
 among the brightest in our whole oriental experience. 
 
 There is something so honorable to a venerable monk 
 (whom we are sorry to say we did not see, he being ab- 
 sent at the time) in connection with this edifice, that I cannot 
 but occupy your attention a few moments in recording the 
 main facts respecting the Hospice on Mount Carmel. At the 
 time of the French occupancy of the Holy Land, now a little 
 more than fifty years ago, the Carmelite monks kindly at- 
 tended to the sick and wounded who were brought here ; but 
 when Bonaparte was repulsed at St. Jean d'Acre, the Turks, 
 exasperated against the monks, and all connected with it, 
 massacred the wounded French, drove away the monks, broke 
 up tne convent, and left it in almost entire ruin. In 1819, 
 Giovanni Battista, the monk whose name will ever be associ- 
 ated with the present edifice, made a visit to the mountain, 
 by order of his superior, for the purpose of seeing if it were 
 not possible to restore it to its former use. Unfortunately the 
 notorious Abdallah Pasha interfered, and being full of hatred 
 to the Christians, and just at that time full of angry desires on 
 account of a revolt of the Greeks under his dominion, he easily 
 
GIOVATfNI BATTISTA's DOINGS. tff 
 
 got permission from the Sultan to undermine and blow up the 
 remnants of the previous building. This was in 1821, and as 
 nothing could then be done, Giovanni returned to Rome. But 
 he did not forget the desolation of Carmel, nor relinquish his 
 desires to rebuild the monastery and hospice. In 1826, he 
 went to Constantinople, and through the French ambassador 
 obtained a firman authorizing him to rebuild the monastery. 
 Gn reaching Haifa he found the last monk dead ; so alone he 
 -went to the mount, and there laid the plan for erecting a new 
 edifice on its summit ; yet, he had no means, and his plaa 
 contemplated an outlay of 350,000 to 500,000 francs : this 
 he was determined to get together, and as is well related in a 
 paper given us by brother Clement, he did, in the course of 
 time, obtain. For year after year, he went hither and thithet 
 to beg for Mount Carmel. Though at an advanced age, he 
 set out and returned to the mount eleven times ; now extend- 
 ing his journeyings to Jerusalem, Cairo, Alexandria, Algiers, 
 Gibraltar ; now visiting Beirut, Damascus, Mount Leba- 
 non, Smyrna, Constantinople; and now going through the 
 whole of Italy, Sardinia, Spain, part of England, and finally 
 France; and he did succeed, he did gather together his 
 $100,000 ; and here are the evidences of it to the whole 
 world. Honor be to his name, monk though he be ; honor be 
 to the good old man, though he be in subjection to Rome and 
 her corrupt creed ! The sick and the wounded, the weary and 
 the way-worn, the poor and distressed, all find here a resting- 
 place ; and here meet with the sympathies and kindnesses of 
 a home. May it ever be thus ! 
 
 We went over the entire hospice in the course of our visit. 
 From the flat roof we enjoyed a magnificent view ; and in the 
 chapel or church, built over the cave of Elijah,*" we were at 
 
 * " Besides Elijah, his disciple Elisha had also his cavern upon Carmel ; it is 
 believed to be still recognizable. The number of caves and caverns, however, 
 upon Mount Carmel approximates closely to 2000 ; this labyrinth of cavities 
 would seem the passage to the spirits of the lower region. It may thence bd 
 
456. EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 full liberty to muse over the eventful history of the great 
 prophet and his intimate connection with Carmel. We looked 
 into various chambers or cells of the monks (the number of 
 whom at present is very small) and made a visit to the 
 library, which the attendant brother took a good deal of pride 
 in showing to us. It is a good-sized loom, well arranged 
 with cases for the books, and very tolerably filled with theo- 
 logical works. I noticed in the collection a Greek Testament ; 
 a Hebrew Bible ; the Vulgate, with commentaries of Maldo- 
 natus, Bossuet, &c. in twenty-eight vols. ; most of the Fathers, 
 as Irenseus, Chrysostom, Gregory Nazianzen, Basil, Cyril 
 of Jerusalem, Lactantius, Tertullian, Jerome, Augustine, 
 &c. ; Bellarmine's works ; Baronius's Annals ; Pallavinci's 
 Council of Trent; Labbe and Cossart's General Councils: 
 controversial works ; Jesuits' Bodies of Divinity ; Lives of 
 the Saints; &c., &c. I fear, however, that the library is 
 more of a show-room than anything else, and that the books 
 are not kept for use or study, so much as to be able to say 
 that they have such and such volumes. I may be wrong, 
 but I believe that the present race of monks everywhere do 
 not trouble books much anyway. In the dining-room, we 
 amused ourselves with looking over the '' Travellers' Book," 
 which contains some very odd, some very silly, some very 
 proper things, and which lets one into the real characters of 
 visitors more perfectly than by any other process. During the 
 evening, we had a pleasant party of friends, who unexpectedly 
 came in upon us ; and we kept up an animated conversation 
 with Brother Clement, on various matters of public interest, 
 which even in a monastery stir up the curiosity of the occu- 
 pants. 
 
 It was a source of much pleasure, and we trust profit also, 
 to read over the various portions of Holy Writ relative to 
 
 understood how this mountain became a favorite place of resort for anchorites, 
 and of refuge for the persecuted." — Tischendorif s " Ti-avds in the East," p. 
 845. 
 
CARMEL IN ANCIENT DAYS. 457 
 
 Carniel ; and we hope that the impressions made upon our 
 minds by this exercise will never fade away. We read about 
 David, and that churlish person Nabal, whose possessions 
 were in Carmel ; about the sheep-shearing, and the uncivil 
 answer which Nabal sent to David's respectful message ; about 
 the anger which was roused up in him, and the judicious in- 
 tervention of Abigail, who prevented David from shedding 
 blood in his wrath ; about Elijah, the prophet of Jehovah, 
 as narrated in the eighteenth and nineteenth chapters of the 
 first book of Kings ; and such like. O, it must have been a 
 grand and imposing sight when all Israel were gathered unto 
 Mount Carmel ; on the one side, the zealous servant of the 
 Lord ; on the other the eight hundred and fifty mocking 
 prophets of the idol Baal and of the groves. With what 
 power did Elijah lift up his voice and cry unto the people, 
 " How long halt ye between two opinions ? if the Lord be 
 God, follow Him; but. if Baal, then follow him;" and what 
 dread silence was there amid that mighty mass when tho 
 people answered him not a word. What a day was that when 
 the votaries of Baal were so signally disgraced in the eyes ol 
 the children of Israel ; when at the prayer of Elijah the Lord 
 manifested His power ; when the people fell on their faces and 
 exclaimed, " The Lord, He is the God; the Lord, He is the 
 God ;" and when, at the command of the zealous avenger of 
 God's truth, the prophets of Baal were seized every one of 
 them, and their blood mingled with the waters of the Kishon, 
 that ancient river, which some four hundred years before had 
 been sanguine with the overthrow of Sisera's host. 
 
 Yesterday morning, the 25th inst., we bade adieu to oui 
 friends in Carmel, and took our departure for Tyre. The 
 day was cloudy and windy, and when we had descended the 
 hill-side, crossed the fertile plain, and reached the sea-shore, 
 the white-capped surges beat upon the bank with a ceaseless, 
 and, to my ear, not unmusical roar. At half-past eight, we 
 reached the mouth of the river Kishon, which enters the Med- 
 
 20 
 
458 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 iterranoan at no great distaaoe from Carmel. At present it 
 is not a large stream, although the water is rather deep : our 
 luggage and our various articles and equipments were carried 
 over in a large scow-boat; the horses, mules, and donkeys, 
 were expected to swim across ; but they seemed to have no 
 disposition to do so : the horses and mules snorted and plunged 
 about, and refusing to enter the water, dashed off in a regular 
 stampede over the plain ; the donkeys brayed, and, with the 
 peculiar obstinacy of the brute, even when they were pushed 
 into the water, they would not swim to the other side. 
 It was an amusing, though vexatious scene, to witness the 
 efforts made by the noisy Arabs, and the singular want of 
 tact and skill in getting the animals over a petty stream of 
 water. After an hour's delay, we all, men and donkeys, suc- 
 ceeded in getting across, just in time to be caught in a tre- 
 mendous shower, and to gallop over the sandy beach in a, 
 storm. Saving the unpleasantness of a wet ride, it was 
 rather grand to see the heavy, black clouds hanging over the 
 hills and mountains in the distance, and the Mediterranean 
 surging up with more and more violence, and dashing its 
 white foam far up on the beach. We followed the line of 
 the shore, and at half-past eleven, arrived at the river Belus, 
 which enters the Mediterranean near St. Jean d' Acre : on its 
 banks, according to Pliny, glass was first found -."^ we man- 
 aged to ford it on horseback, though not without dipping our 
 feet in the water, and in a few minutes rode into the city. 
 
 The present city of Akka bears evident marks of what it 
 has suffered in past years ; for on riding into the city and 
 going through it somewhat in detail, we found that consider- 
 able portions of it is in ruins; the terrible bombardment 
 which it underwent in November, 1840, knocked down all 
 the minarets, the entire ranges of houses near the sea on the 
 west, and pretty much all the massive wall ; nothing could 
 stand against the iron hail which fell thick and fast upon the 
 
 * Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. xxxvi. 26. 
 
AKKA AT THE PRESENT TIME. 459 
 
 city of Akka ; nothing could be more frightful than the ex- 
 plosion of the powder magazine, when not less than two thou- 
 sand of Mohammed All's soldiers were almost instantaneously 
 destroyed : and though since the peace, the citizens and gov- 
 ernment have been endeavoring to repair the breaches and 
 make good the damages which the city sustained, they have 
 only partially succeeded, and it is still a shattered and not 
 pleasant-looking town.* It is very true, however, that its 
 importance in a commercial point of view has not been ma- 
 terially injured, and under a better government, when Syria 
 shall be under the sway of some Christian power, Akka will 
 necessarily assume a high rank commensurate with its natu- 
 ral advantages and facilities for trade. We trust that the 
 day may not be far distant, when the crescent shall no longer 
 wave over a solitary post in the Holy Land ; until then, we 
 need look for no prosperity, no life, no activity, no energy in 
 Palestine. The domination of Mohammedanism over Chris- 
 tianity must be regarded as a judgment sent, by God for the 
 punishment of the corrupt and wicked churches of the East ; 
 when the days of vengeance are fulfilled, it will sink into noth- 
 ingness and oblivion, and the cross will once more resume its 
 victories and its rightful supremacy in the East. 
 
 As our time was somewhat limited, we did not spend more 
 of it than we could help in the city of Akka, contenting our- 
 selves with observing such things as fell under our notice 
 during the brief visit of a couple of hours.t Most of the pub- 
 
 * '• Akka is the most regularly and strongly fortified town in Syria, the key to 
 which it has been long esteemed ; and its appearance is formidable both at a dis- 
 tance and in its immediate vicinity. It stands upon an angular promontory jut- 
 ting into the sea. The walls are in many places double, and those on the land- 
 side are protected by strong out-works of mounds with facings of stone, which we 
 observed were undergoing a process of repair or completion. We entered the 
 town by the land-port, which is at its south-east corner, passing the soldiery on 
 watch, and various guard-houses and public buildings." — Dr. Wilson's " Lands 
 of the BibU" vol. ii. p. 233. 
 
 t I have seen the population of Akka rated by some as high as 20,000 : prob- 
 ably, at the extent it does not exceed 10,000. Of these, Dr. Wilson (in 1843) 
 
460 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 . lie buildings we passed by without examination, as the cas- 
 tle, the mosks, the hospitals, storehouses, &o. ; and on one or 
 two occasions, when we purposed looking at matters a little 
 more closely, we were very unceremoniously ordered away 
 by the Turkish officers in command. As we were walking 
 through one of the streets, we came upon the monument of 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Walker, who served in the defence of 
 Akka, in 1840, and lost his life in consequence of his great 
 zeal and excessive devotion to the cause of the unworthy 
 allies of England on that occasion : we felt indignant to no- 
 tice the defilement and insult which had been heaped upon 
 this marble cenotaph, by the bigoted and fanatical soldiery 
 and others, who could thus forget and treat with indignity 
 the monument of one who fought in their behalf. Among 
 the mosks, the most curious one, in our eyes, was that of 
 th« notorious Jezzar Pasha ; it contains the tomb of the pasha, 
 and Dr. Wilson has copied and translated the inscription on 
 it, as follows : — 
 
 "He is the Living One the Immortal. 
 
 This is the tomb of him who requires mercy, who is needful of 
 the forgiveness of the one forgiver, the Haji Ahmad Basha, the 
 Butcher (Jezzar), On him be the mercy of the dear forgiver. 
 A, H. 1219 (=:A.D. 1804), on the 17th Muharram." 
 
 It was a strange fancy, but from this it appears that the 
 wretch, whose cold-blooded cruelties obtained for him the 
 name, actually rejoiced and gloried in the title of " Butcher." 
 What a singular ambition was his ! 
 
 Early in the afternoon, we took our departure from Akka, 
 leaving it, and all its reminiscences of the past, with consider- 
 able regret. We should have liked to have gone over in de- 
 was informed that some thirty families, or about 150 persons, were Jews: one of 
 their number told him that they were " merchants, oil-men, dressers of cotton, 
 pedlars, pipe- head manufacturers, fishermen, and confectioners." The number 
 <»f the Christians of all sects is about 1000 or 1500. 
 
THE ROAD NORTH FROM AKKA. 461 
 
 tail its history, and on the spot called up the events to which 
 its name points ; we should have been glad to have looked 
 away back to the period when it was called Accho, and when 
 the tribe of Asher did not succeed in expelling its inhabitants ; 
 to have mused over its history under the Roman sway, after it 
 had received the new title, Ptolemais, and was visited by the 
 great Apostle to the Gentiles ; to have given play to the en- 
 thusiasm which the Crusaders' chivalrous deeds excite, when 
 the possession of Acre was esteemed so all-important, and con- 
 tended for so many years : but the present was not the fitting 
 time for these things, and so we turned away from Akka and 
 resumed our journey. As we rode over the fertile plain 
 v/hicli extends back some distance from the sea, we noticed a 
 pretty country palace of the pasha, situate amid the trees, 
 and very attractive in appearance, as well as many other 
 rural residences, gardens, &c. The well-built and extensive 
 aqueduct which supplies Akka with water was a very inter- 
 esting object, and occupied our attention for some time ; as 
 much so, at least, as the rain would permit. With occasional 
 sunshine, and noticing here and there villages in the distance, 
 we rode along not far from the sea-shore ; passed Ez-Zib, sit- 
 uate on an ascent by the water's side, and probably identical 
 in site with the Achzib mentioned in Joshua, xix. 29, and the 
 Book of Judges, i. 31, and called afterwards Ecdippa ; had a 
 good view of the village of Bussah, a little to the right, at 
 the base of the hills, and in the midst of fertile fields and 
 abundance of trees ; were struck with the lone appearance of 
 a large column on the hill-side, but too far off for us to dis- 
 tinguish its object or character ; and arrived at Ras en-Nakura, 
 about four o'clock, where the plain of Akka may be said to 
 terminate, and the hills almost to touch the very sea-sido. 
 We mounted the lofty and rugged hill, and though it was 
 early, determined to pitch our tent, and pass the night in this 
 airy position. The prospect was very fine from the point we 
 had chosen, and it afforded us no little pleasure to look back 
 
462 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND^' 
 
 toward Carmel, Akka, the plain, the hill-sides, the sea, and 
 other points which lay spead out before ns. 
 
 The next morning, that is, the present one on which I am 
 writing, we were in the saddle by six o'clock, the weather 
 being cloudy, damp, and showery. In about an hour's time, 
 we came to a small stream, gaily rushing toward the sea, 
 and having its banks covered with oleanders and other shrubs 
 and plants. Soon after crossing it, the rain came down in tor- 
 rents, and gave us a thorough drenching. We stopped a little 
 while at Khan en-Nakura, to get a cup of coffee, and were 
 well stared at by some Turkish soldiers lounging about. In 
 less than an hour, we came to a heap of rubbish, near the sea, 
 which Maundrell thinks indicates " the ruins of the castle of 
 Scandalium. taking its name from its founder, Alexander (the 
 Great), whom the Turks call Scander. The ruin is one hun- 
 dred and twenty paces square, having a dry ditch encompass- 
 ing it; and from under it, on the side next the sea, there 
 issues a fountain of very fair water." A little while after this, 
 noticing as we advanced the evident remains of a Roman road and 
 aqueduct, we came to the Promontorium Album, a high, rocky 
 mount, jutting out into the sea, and very conspicuous to the 
 eye, even at a distance. Its name is derived from "the color 
 of its cretaceous slopes and strata, the rock here, as in other 
 promontories, jutting into the Mediterranean on the south, 
 being the upper white chalk." We rode up the lofty hill, 
 and were gratified with a very fine view towards the north, 
 where a part of the long, narrow plain of Phoenicia, and its 
 proudest cities, greet the eye of the beholder, and excite his 
 imagination with thoughts of the antiquity and greatness of 
 that remarkable people, who once here exercised dominion. 
 We had found the ascent rugged and difficult, but not danger- 
 ous ; and we supposed that the descent, or passage down into 
 the plain beyond, would be no more difficult, to say the least; 
 but in this we were decidedly wrong ; for after a little space, 
 we reached the edge of a precipice, looking down some hun- 
 
THE LADDER OP TYRE. 463 
 
 dred feet into the sea, dashing against its base, and almost 
 necessarily cutting off the further progress of the traveller. 
 Were it not that the patient labor of man had here been put 
 forth to surmount obstacles apparently too great for removal, 
 there could be no roadway over this striking promontory ; but 
 if the tradition be correct, Alexander the Great caused to be 
 cut in the solid rock a broad way for horses and camels, 
 which has become known and renowned by the title of the 
 '* Ladder of Tyre," and by which, though on the very edge of > 
 the precipitous rocks, he descends the long and winding line 
 of steps made in their sides, as well without fear as in perfect 
 safety. You will believe me, that the road over this famous 
 rock-hewn way was not without its excitement ; and we felt 
 all the force of that sublimity which attaches to positions such 
 as this in which we were placed. " The shrieking of the sea- 
 birds, that wing their way in mid air between the brow of 
 this mountain and the deep sea it overhangs, whose waves 
 are heard moaning faintly in the depths below, and whose 
 high horizon blends itself with the sky, adds vastly to the be- 
 wildering grandeur of the scene ;" and when, besides, you rec- 
 ollect that the dark clouds were hanging over our heads, and 
 occasionally pouring out their contents upon us, you will not 
 wonder that the scene is vividly impressed upon our memories* 
 Crossing Wady Ain-Tineh, which, at this season is usually 
 dry in most of its course, and riding over the level tract by 
 the sea-side, we arrived, at a quarter past ten o'clock, at 
 Ras el-Ain, one of the most interesting spots in this part of 
 Syria. The size and extent of the reservoirs, the abundant 
 supply of .water, the vicinity to Tyre, the remains of a large 
 aqueduct, and other matters of this sort, render them well 
 worthy a visit. We dismounted, and spent some little time 
 here ; and while looking about, were surrounded by a troop 
 of children and beggars, who were utterly unable to give us 
 any information, or answer any, even the simplest questions. 
 I have just been reading over Maundrell's account of this 
 
464 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 locality, and though it may appear to you rather long, yet as 
 it is much better and more accurate than any description 
 which 1 could furnish, I shall beg your permission to quote it 
 at length. " Ras el- Ain is a place where are the cisterns called 
 Solomon's, supposed, according to the common tradition here- 
 abouts, to have been made by that great king, as a part of 
 his recompense to King Hiram for the supplies of materials 
 sent by him toward the building of the Temple. They are, 
 doubtless, very ancient, but yet of a much later date than what 
 this tradition ascribes to them. That they could not be built 
 till since Alexander's time, may be conjectured from this, 
 amongst other arguments : because the aqueduct, which con- 
 veys the water from hence to Tyre, is carried over the neck of 
 land by which Alexander, in his famous siege of this place, 
 joined the city t-o the continent ; and as the cisterns cannot 
 well be imagined to be more ancient than the aqueduct, so 
 one may be sure that the aqueduct cannot be older than the 
 ground it stands upon. Of these cisterns there are three en- 
 tire at this day, one about a furlong and a half distant from 
 the sea, the other two a little farther up. The former is an 
 octagonal figure, twenty-two yards in diameter. It is eleva- 
 ted above the ground nine yards on the south side, and six on 
 the north ; and within, is said to be of an unfathomable 
 deepness, but ten yards of line confuted that opinion. Its 
 wall is of no better a material than gravel and small peb- 
 bles ; but consolidated with so strong and tenacious a cement, 
 that it seems to be all one entire vessel of rock. Upon the 
 brink of it you have a walk round, eight feet broad, from 
 which, descending by one step on the south side, ajrid by two 
 on the north, you have another walk twenty-one feet broad 
 All this structure, though so broad at top, is yet made hollow, 
 so that the water comes in underneath the walks, insomuch, 
 that I could not, with a long rod, reach the extremity of the 
 cavity. The whole vessel contains a vast body of excellent 
 water, and is so well supplied from its fountain, that, though 
 
RAS EL AIN. 465 
 
 there issues from it a stream like a brook, driving four mills, 
 between this place and the sea, yet it is always brim-full. 
 On the east side of this cistern, was the ancient outlet of the 
 water, by an aqueduct raised about six yards from the ground, 
 and containing a channel one yard wide, but this is now stop- 
 ped up and dry, the Turks having broken an outlet on the 
 other side, deriving thence a stream for grinding their corn. 
 The aqueduct now dry is carried eastward about one hundred 
 and twenty paces, and then approaches the two ether cisterns, 
 of which one is twelve, the other twenty yards square. 
 These have each a little channel, by which they anciently 
 rendered their waters into the aqueduct ; and so the united 
 streams of all the three cisterns were carried together to Tyre. 
 You may trace out the aqueduct all along by the remaining 
 fragments of it. It goes about one hour northward, and then, 
 turning to the west, at a small mount, where anciently stood 
 a fort, but now a mosk, it proceeds over the isthmus, into the 
 city. As we passed by the aqueduct, we observed in several 
 places, on its sides and under its arches, rugged heaps of mat- 
 ter, resembling rocks. These were produced by the leakage 
 of the water, which petrified as it distilled from above, and 
 by the continual adherence of new matter, were grown to a 
 large bulk. That which was most remarkable in them, was 
 the frame and configuration of their parts. They were com- 
 posed of innumerable tubes of stone, of different sizes, cleav- 
 ing to one another like icicles. Each tube had a small cavity 
 in its centre, from which its parts were projected, in form of 
 rays, to the circumferences, after the manner of the stones, 
 vulgarly called, thunder-stones. The fountain of these waters 
 is as unknown as the contriver of them. It is certain, from 
 their rising so high, that they must be brought from some 
 part of the mountains, which are about a league distant, and 
 it is as certain that the work was well done at first, seeing it 
 performs its office so w^ell at so great a distance of time."* 
 
 * Maundrell's '' Journev,'' March 2l8t. 
 
 20* 
 
466 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 As we draw near to Siir, or all that remains of once proud 
 Tyre, we could not but be struck with the remarkable fulfill- 
 ment of prophecy, which declared so plainly its coming ruin 
 and desolation ; and as we thought upon its past history, and 
 contrasted with it its present degraded position, we felt again, 
 as often indeed one must feel in tlie East, the truth, power, 
 and exactness of the Word of God. Tyre, at one period, was 
 unrivalled throughout the world ; its commerce, its resources, 
 its wealth, its power, its glory, its magnificence, its splendor, 
 its luxury, — ah ! where are they ? and is this which our 
 eyes look upon, this mean and petty village of Sur all that 
 remains of Tyre the renowned ? It is even so ; and the just 
 judgments of Almighty God have fallen heavily upon it 
 indeed. During the whole time that we have been here, the 
 thought has pressed upon our minds of the past and the pres- 
 ent, and we cannot resist the conviction that Tyre is one of 
 the most startling as well as most striking monuments of Di- 
 vine vengeance which the world anywhere presents. We 
 have ridden over the sandy beach, as we drew nigh to it, in 
 wonder at its silence and desolation ; we have looked at the 
 supposed causeway made by Alexander the Great ; the old 
 castle deserted and falling into decay, near the entrance of 
 the town ; the heaps of ruins in every direction ; and we have 
 wandered, by the hour, amid scenes which my feeble pen can 
 not at all adequately describe. We have thought, that so far 
 as appears at the present day, Tyre might always have been 
 joined to the main land ; but doubtless, the small island on 
 which it was built was at some distance from the shore in an- 
 cient times ; and the glorious city reached out far beyond 
 what we now see, and enclosed a space where now the waves 
 of the deep blue Mediterranean dash over the remnants of broken 
 columns and fallen palaces. While thus engaged, and while 
 thus receiving fresh evidences of the truth of prophecy, we 
 have seen the dark, threatening clouds hanging over our heads, 
 the winds rising and lashing into foam the waves of the soa. 
 
THE VILLAGE OF SUR. 467 
 
 and the whole aspect of nature lowering and gloomy ; and 
 though it be fanciful to associate such things with the ruin of 
 ancient cities, we have felt at least that they were no unmeet 
 accompaniments to a scene of unmitigated desolation. 
 
 It is quite impossible in the brief space which I have allot- 
 ted to me in the present letter, to pretend to enter at all at 
 large into the many deeply interesting questions respecting 
 Tyre and its history, which are suggested by its name and 
 importance in past ages. At present I can only speak of 
 two or three matters, hoping at some future period that I may 
 be able to take up the subject again, and treat it more fully 
 and satisfactorily. The present town is small, lying on the 
 north-east side of the peninsula, and evidently in a depressed 
 and miserable condition : the south portion of the island (as it 
 once was) is literally a mass of ruins ; and the western and 
 southern sides are occupied by a few hovels amid the rocks, 
 and used, in accordance with prophetic language, as places to 
 spread nets upon. We walked through many of the narrow, 
 crooked lanes, and thought that we had never in any oriental 
 town witnessed greater filth, misery and degradation; not- 
 withstanding, here and there is a palm tree, and occasionally 
 the dreariness of surrounding objects is relieved by some of 
 the beautiful Pride of India trees in retired portions of the vil- 
 lage. A few boats of fishermen were lying listlessly in what 
 is now the harbor on the north-east, near the causeway which 
 joins the island to the main land ; and as is evident, there is 
 little or no commerce or trade, and no sort of activity or life 
 in the town of Sur.^ While exploring the portion of the ruins 
 near the present southern wall, we came unexpectedly upon 
 the remains of an ancient church, which was all the more in- 
 teresting to us, from our recollections of Eusebius's statements 
 in regard to the famous cathedral erected or existing here in 
 
 * Recent travellers estimate the population of Sur as high as 3000 or 4000, of 
 whom about half are Christians. If I may venture to guess, having no data on 
 which to base an opinion, I should say that the population did not exceed 1500 
 in all. 
 
463 
 
 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 i ••*♦ 
 
 EXPLANATION OF THE FIGURES USED IN THE FLAN. 
 
 1. 'Ayia Tpaire^a, the Holy Table or Altar. 
 
 2. The Bishop's Throne or seat ; on either hand are the seats of the Pres- 
 
 byters. 
 
 3. 'Ayiat TTiiXat, or gate of entrance to the Chancel. 
 
 4. Cancelli or Railings. 
 
 5. Prothesi% or closet for keeping the offerings of the people, and the bread 
 
 and wine for the elements. 
 C. Diaconicum, or recess for the Vessels for the Altar, Vestments of the Ckr- 
 
RUINS OF THE ANCIENT CATHEDRAL. 469 
 
 the fourth century. Unhappily, it is now one mass of 
 ruins, having only a small portion of the eastern end, or oir-^ 
 oular chancel recess remaining, and having besides, within 
 the enclosure once covered by the church, some huts and 
 «heds of peasantry and pieces of broken columns and stones^ 
 mixed up with trees, shrubs and piles of rubbish. I spent 
 some little time in examining these ruins, and was much im- 
 pressed with the change which time has wrought in everything 
 connected with Tyre, even in the church devoted to the worship 
 ^nd service of God our Saviour : it was curious too, to see 
 lying prostrate amid the ruins two immense columns of Sye- 
 nite granite, and to speculate upon their possible connection 
 with either the grand temple or church near by, or with some 
 one of the gorgeous edifices which once adorned this great 
 city. I dare not pretend to affirm positively that the ruins 
 of a church which we visited are of so early a date as the 
 fourth century ; yet as there is nothing impossible or improb- 
 able in the supposition that they may date thus early, I 
 prefer to think that they are indeed *he remains of that splen- 
 did cathedral which was built by Paulinus, bishop of Tyre, 
 and honored by the presence of Eusebius, who preached the 
 consecration sermon. If you will turn to the tenth book of 
 the author's Ecclesiastical History, you will find in the fourth 
 chapter the " Panegyric on the Splendor of our Affairs," 
 
 7. The Naos or Nave of the Church. 
 
 8. Porticoes for the men, with Galleries above for the women. 
 
 9. Ambo or Reading Desk, where the Holy Gospels were read. 
 
 10. Place of the Faithful and the Consistentes. 
 
 11. Place for the Prostrators (un-oTrtnToiTEf), or those who knelt or prostrated 
 
 themselves to receive the Bishop's blessing. 
 
 12. Railings, with the oipalai nvXat, or Gate of Entrance into the Nave: near by 
 
 was the place of the hearers, 
 
 13. KoXvfiiOpa, the baptisterium or font 
 
 14. Narthex, pronaos or ante-temple. 
 
 15. Place of the Catechumens. 
 
 16. Place of the Mourners. 
 
 17. Great Porch or Vestibule in front of the Church proper, and open to the sky. 
 
470 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 addressed by Eusebius, on the occasion above alluded to, "to 
 one who was the best and most pious of bishops, and by whose 
 zeal, principally, the temple in Tyre, by far the most noble in 
 Phoenicia, was built." It is well worth perusing. I have 
 thought, also, that you might like to have the Ichnography 
 of the ancient temple or church of Tyre, which, if it answers 
 no other purpose, will serve to illustrate the arrangements of 
 the church in the fourth century, and to make more plain 
 some points in Christian antiquities, not always clearly under- 
 stood by the readers of ecclesiastical history. 
 
 It was a deeply interesting occupation to sit down, as we 
 did, near the gate of the city, under a sliady tree, and read 
 the various portions of Holy Writ respecting Tyre, particu- 
 larly the passages out of Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah; not 
 less interesting was it to call to mind the history of the past, 
 and to note how exactly the judgments denounced against it 
 have been fulfilled. Perhaps you will give me your attention 
 to a brief abstract of the history of Tyre. It was a very an- 
 cient city, undoubtedly, being mentioned in the book of 
 Joshua (xix. 29) as "the strong city Tyre;" and Josephus 
 says that it was built two hundred and forty years before the 
 temple of Solomon. The best authorities are not agreed 
 whether it stood originally on the island or on the main land, 
 though the latter is the more common opinion. Bishop New- 
 ton supposes — and I think not unreasonably — that while old 
 Tyre stood on the main land, the island at the same time was 
 occupied, and formed in fact an integral portion of the city as 
 a whole. It is termed by the prophet Isaiah (xxiii. 12) the 
 ^^ daughter of Sidon," in allusion to the fact that it was 
 founded by a colony from that city, though ere long it out- 
 rivalled that very ancient home of the Phoenicians, and be- 
 came the most celebrated place in the world for trade, com- 
 merce, and wealth: hence it is termed "a mart of nations, 
 the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traf- 
 fickers are the honorable of the earth." In consequence of 
 
THE HISTORY OF TYRE. ^^ 
 
 its pride, arrogance, luxury, and vices of various descriptions, 
 and because of its insults and injuries towards God's people, it 
 was denounced by the prophets of Jehovah, and its destruction 
 foretold in the plainest terms. More than a hundred years after 
 Isaiah wrote his prophecy, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, 
 laid siege to Tyre, and after a long, toilsome, and excessively 
 fatiguing siege of thirteen years, took it and laid it in ruins. 
 This, as is probable, was the city on the main land, the Tyri- 
 ans having mostly withdrawn to the island while the siege 
 was going on, and thus in measure escaped the severity of 
 the enraged conqueror, who does not appear to have captured 
 the island likewise : this was in the year B.C. 573 ; and after 
 this date Palae Tyrus does not seem to have held any rank 
 or importance in history. After the fall of the Babylonian 
 monarchy, about seventy years from the date of its capture, 
 the city resumed its pristine power and greatness ; but con- 
 tinued on the island, and is the Tyre spoken of in the early 
 writers; the former city was never rebuilt. Its destruction 
 was foretold again by Ezekiel and the other prophets: and 
 accordingly Alexander the G reat laid siege to it, and after in- 
 credible labor and enterprise, constructing a causeway out of 
 the ruins of Palae Tyrus and assaulting the city with engines, 
 in seven or eight months he succeeded in taking the proud 
 metropolis of commerce. Most bitter was the punishment 
 inflicted on it for resisting the great conqueror ; he burnt it 
 down to the ground, destroyed or enslaved all the inhabitants, 
 and barbarously crucified two thousand of the captives : this 
 was about B.C. 332. Notwithstanding this terrible blow. 
 Tyre gradually rose again from its ruins, and after Alexan- 
 der's death, was a strong fortress in possession of the Seleu- 
 cidae : subsequently it fell under the dominion of the Romans, 
 and appears to have been a place of some note and iniport- 
 ance. Our Lord visited this section of country ; and at a 
 later date St. Paul landed here, and finding some disciples, 
 tarried in Tyre seven days. Though not what it once was, 
 
472 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 the city seems to have enjoyed a large commerce under the 
 empire, and St. Jerome speaks of it as the noble and beauti- 
 ful city of Phenicia. It was taken by the Saracens about 
 A.D. 639, during the khalifate of Omar, and is said to have 
 possessed a considerable trade under the Mohammedan rule. 
 It was taken by the Crusaders, A.D. 1124, and continued in 
 the hands of Christians a city of importance and strength, 
 until A.D. 1291, when the Mamelukes seized upon it, plun- 
 dered it of everything valuable, and left it in a dreadful state 
 of misery and degradation. In 1516 it fell into the hands of 
 the Turks under Selim ; and ever since that date it has been 
 sunk in ruin and deprived of all its wealth, grandeur, and 
 importance. So that, though the vengeance of God is some- 
 times long delayed, it is none the less certain ; and His word 
 is exactly and literally true, and has been for hundreds of 
 years, when He said of Tyre, " They shall destroy the walls 
 of Tyrus, and break down her towers ; I will also scrape her 
 dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. It shall 
 be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea : 
 for 1 have spoken it, saith the Lord God :" — " I will bring 
 forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and 
 I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all 
 them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the 
 people shall be astonished at thee : thou shalt be a terror, and 
 never shait thou be any more."* 
 
 As we finished reading the prophetic word, and noting its 
 precise fulfilment, we turned away from the scanty remains 
 of haughty Tyre with mingled emotions of sadness, sorrow, 
 and self-abasement ; and we breathed an earnest aspiration 
 that our beloved city and country may take warning, and 
 remember always that " righteousness exalteth a nation ; 
 but sin is a reproach to any pecple."t 
 
 ♦ Ejsek. xxvi. 4, 5 ; xxviii. 18, 19. f Prov. xiv. 34. 
 
I'll 
 
 LETTER XXII. 
 
 SftJon— aSefrut antJ its Vlclnit^^ 
 
 Uncertainty of our Future Plans. — Route from Sur.— Leontes Flumen.— Adlan or Ornithon- 
 polis.— St. George's Khan.— Mound and Ruins of Zarephath.— Village of Surafend.— Passed the 
 Night on the Mound.— Scriptural Recollections.— Heavy Rain Storm.— Cloudy, Damp, Wet 
 Weather.— Columns and Roman Mile-stones.- Syrian Sheep.— Saida as one approaches it.— 
 Its Situation.— Place of raiher more Consequence than Tyre.— Excursion through the 
 Town.— Its History,— Vicinity.— Road Northwardly not of muoh Interest.— Cross the Bos- 
 trenus.— Khan Neby Yunas.- The River Tamyras.— Mountains and Villages.- Sandy Cape 
 of Beimt.— Enter it Late in the Afternoon.— Pleasant Environs. — What we have been 
 Doing.— The Mission of Americans here for Syria.— Their Press.— Sentiments as to their 
 OC'Xrse and probable Success.— Avowal of Opinion on this Point.— Who only can meet 
 Tvith Success among Eastern Christians. — Concluding Remarks on the Holy Land in Gen- 
 era;,. --Hope for the Future.— A Word or two to the Reader. 
 
 Beirut, May 5th, 1849. 
 My Dear S., 
 
 It is now more than a week since I addressed you in a pre- 
 vious letter, written while we were musing over the fallen 
 greatness of Tyre, the proud metropolis of the commercial 
 world in ancient times. Since then, we have extended our 
 journey northwardly, even to the point where I am now writ- 
 ing, and whence, probably, we shall embark again for Europe. 
 Our plans are uot perfectly matured, and sickness has inter- 
 fered materially with our wishes and hopes. Mr. P., as well 
 as myself, is very anxious to visit Damascus, which, indepen- 
 dently of its being the oldest city in the world, has attractions 
 to the lover of oriental things not surpassed, if equalled, by 
 any city in the East. We should be delighted, also, to visit 
 the cedars of Lebanon, and go over the monumental wonders 
 of Baalbeck : but it may be, that circumstances over which 
 
474 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 we have no contrDl, may prevent our accomplishing our pur- 
 poses in these particulars. I will, however, advise you of 
 the result at as early a date as possible. Meanwhile, allow 
 me to tell you of what has transpired since we left the vicinity 
 of Tyre. 
 
 We took our departure from Sur on the afternoon of the 
 26th of April, and following the road not far from the shore, 
 in a north-easterly direction, and leaving the high, broken 
 arches of the ancient aqueduct on our right, we reached the 
 Nahr el-Kasimieh in the course of an hour and a half. We had 
 been riding through the rain, which at times fell very copious- 
 ly ; and we were not surprised to find the river swollen and 
 turbid. We crossed this stream, identical with the ancient 
 Leontes Flumen, over a bridge of one arch, apparently con- 
 structed on the remains of a more ancient bridge, the river 
 being some seventy or eighty feet in width near the sea, 
 and quite unfordable. Dr. Robinson says, that "it is the same 
 stream which, under the name of el-Litany, drains the great 
 valley of el-Buka'a, between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, and 
 then breaks down through the sea, by a mountain gorge at 
 the south end of Lebanon."* The learned author notices also 
 the baseless tradition, that it wa« in this river that the Em- 
 peror Frederick Barbarossa was drowned, in June, 1190 ; the 
 fact being, that this distinguished warrior lost his life in a 
 river in Cilicia, at the date above mentioned. We met with 
 numerous wadys or beds of rivulets, which just at present 
 were swollen by the rain, but all of them were shallow anu 
 easy to ford. About an hour and a half from the Leontes, 
 brought us to the site of Adlan, which is now a confused mass 
 of ruins on the sea-shore, and several old walls. It is marked, 
 on Robinson's map, as identical with the Ornithonpolis of 
 Strabo; but that is merely conjectural. As we rode along 
 close by the water's edge, we were much interested in watch- 
 ing an Arab, wading out among the rocks, and searching for 
 
 * " Biblical Researches" vol. iii. p. 409. 
 
ZAREPHAl H OR SAREPTA. 4i 5 
 
 sponge, if I mistake not. The fishery of this article, I may 
 mention, according to Bowring's report, extends along the 
 Syrian coast to the north, from Tripoli to the Latakia juris- 
 diction, and is a branch of commerce not unworthy attention. 
 Passing the villages in sight on the heights above the road, 
 which here runs near the base of the hills, and noticing a num- 
 ber of grottoes cut in the rocks, which, however, we did not 
 stop to examine, we came, in less than half an hour, to Khan 
 el-Khudr, or St. George's Khan, a saint, by the way, whom 
 we find very often in the East, and who is revered nearly as 
 much by the Mohammedans as by the Christians. A few 
 minutes later, we reached a spot more interesting, though of- 
 fering but few traces of antiquity on which to build the 
 opinion usually entertained by travellers respecting its name 
 and character ; and as it was already very late, we determin- 
 ed to pitch our tent here for the night. We accordingly 
 ascended a large mound, which is about midway between the 
 shore and the hills on our right, and which has some remains 
 '-f foundations and walls, indicating the site of an ancient 
 town. On the southern slope of the adjacent hill is a village 
 of good size, with two or three welys, and termed by the 
 Arabs Surafend, which seems to point to the ancient Zare- 
 phath or Sarepta of the Bible. Maundrell, speaking of this lo- 
 cality, says, " The place shown us for this city (Sarepta) 
 consisted of only a few houses on the tops of the mountains, 
 within about a half a mile of the sea ; but it is more proba- 
 ble the principal part of the city stood below, in the space 
 between the hills and the sea, there being ruins still to be 
 seen in that place, of considerable extent." In the lapse of 
 time, it is not unlikely that the cultivation of the ground, and 
 the gradual accumulation of soil, may have covered up some 
 of the remains which Maundrell saw in his day — about a hun- 
 dred and fifty years ago. While here, we carefully perused 
 the portions of Holy Scripture relative to Zarephath, particu- 
 larly that interesting chapter which tells us about Elijah, tne 
 
476 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 great prophet, the widow of Zarephath, the barrel of meal and 
 the cruse of oil, the sickness and death of the widow's son^ 
 the raising him again to life, &c. We read also, in this con- 
 nection, of our Lord's visit to this section of country, and the 
 miracle which He graciously performed upon the Syro-Phe- 
 nician woman's daughter. Our tent was pitched in the 
 middle of a large ploughed field, and, saving occasional ruins 
 of other days, and the knowledge of the fact that Zarephath 
 was certainly somewhere near this spot, we should have pass- 
 ed over all these remains as not needing examination. During 
 the evening and night, it rained in torrents ; and had not our 
 tent been a very excellent one, we should have suffered severely 
 from the superabundance of wet and damps. As it was, the rain 
 came in a little, and the ground under foot was rendered soft, 
 very adhesive, and very disagreeable. I hardly know how the 
 poor Arabs stood it ; but excepting some additional streaks of 
 dirt, and a rather more than usual cadaverous expression of 
 face, they seemed, the next morning, to be as well as ever, and 
 bustled about with uncommon activity. Probably, the pros- 
 pect of bakhshish, which they hoped soon to receive, had a 
 soothing effect upon their tempers and feelings. 
 
 We did not wait for our luggage on the morning of the 27th, 
 but at a very early hour, before sunrise, were in the saddle, 
 intending, if possible, to reach Beirut that day. The weather 
 was cloudy, damp, and rather unpleasant, and the roads were 
 wet and muddy. Our course lay principally over the plain 
 between the sea and the hills, and for several hours before ar- 
 riving, we had the city of Saida in full view ; at a distance, 
 it looks very picturesque and beautiful, in the midst of a thick 
 grove of trees. Passing the fountains noticed by Dr. Robin- 
 son, and a number of small wadys fringed by oleanders in 
 bloom, at half-past seven we came to the Nahr ez-Zaherany, 
 a stream just now quite deep and turbid, but not difficult to 
 ford. We saw here the remnants of a bridge, and not far off 
 lay a Roman mile-stone. Between this and Saida we met 
 
THE PRESENT TOWN OF SAID A. 477 
 
 with a number of ancient pillars and Roman )Tiile-stones at in- 
 tervals. Maundrell has copied the inscriptioije on two of them, 
 which fix the date to the time of Septimius Severus andPer- 
 tinax. I had half a mind to see what I could make out of 
 the inscriptions, being something of a dabbler in that sort of 
 VexatiDus literature ; but I spare you any account of what I 
 undertook, which is by far the wisest course, since I need not 
 confess, that I utterly failed in doing anything worth men- 
 tioning. As we approached Saida, we rode through a very 
 pleasant avenue of large acacias and tamarisks ; saw a number 
 of gardens and pretty rural residences ; and were much inter- 
 ested in looking at some Syrian sheep, with their immense 
 broad tails ; since they served to call up most forcibly recol- 
 lections of our school-boy days, when we used to read out of 
 old Herodotus, that passage which speaks of these same sheep 
 of Syria. Little did I think, then, that I should ever behold 
 them in reality, on their native plains ! 
 
 The city of Sidon is situate on a small promontory, which 
 stretches out rather to the north-west, for a little way into 
 the sea. As I have said, its appearance is rather striking at 
 a distance, and the venerable castle of ancient days, and the 
 square tower, or citadel, with several mosks and public build- 
 ings, give it an air of importance perhaps beyond what it 
 really deserves. We entered the town by the gate near the 
 north-east corner, where the guard of soldiers for the quaran- 
 tine is stationed, and near to which are some rude cafes for 
 the troops and others who wish to smoke or lounge away their 
 time in the listless idleness of an oriental life. The streets 
 are narrow and crooked of course, but the houses are better 
 built, and the lanes better attended to, in most respects, than 
 in Tyre. The port is small, and contains only some boats ; 
 though a little farther out, were some two or three vessels of 
 larger size, riding at anchor. Many of the best houses in the 
 town are built immediately over or on the wall which is on 
 the eastern side of the promontory, on which Saida stands. 
 
478 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 We found the bazaars very fairly supplied with the usual 
 commodities ; and on the whole, considerable bustle and ac- 
 tivity seemed to pervade them. In the course of our explora- 
 tion, we visited several khans, or wekalehs, as the Arabs 
 termed them. Dr. Robinson says, that there are six of these 
 in Saida, for the use of merchants and travellers. We went 
 into the court of the largest khan, and looked about us with 
 much interest : it formerly belonged to T:he French factory 
 and consulate, and still goes by the name of its former own- 
 ers. It is a large square building, about a hundred and fifty 
 feet in length on its sides, and has within the quadrangle a 
 fountain and basin in very good taste, and covered galleries 
 all around. It owes its erection to the celebrated emir, Fakhr 
 ed-Din, the prince of the Druses, about the beginning of ths 
 seventeenth century ; he was the patron of European com- 
 merce, and particularly well-disposed towards the French ; 
 but instead of going into details, I must refer you to old 
 D'Arvieux's Memoires for full particulars. The result of our 
 examination of Saida led us to the conviction, that it is a 
 place of more consequence than at first appears; though 
 Beirut will probably prevent its ever assuming any position 
 of consequence in a commercial point of view. Its popula- 
 tion is probably about five thousand ; two-thirds of these be- 
 ing Mohammedans, the remainder made up of Christians and 
 Jews. 
 
 Sidon undoubtedly ranks among the most ancient cities of 
 the world, and is mentioned in the Pentateuch, as well as in 
 the Iliad and Odyssey.=^ Its history is marked by the usual 
 incidents of times of peace, prosperity, luxury, vice, indolence, 
 war, and subjugation. About B.C. 350, it was taken and 
 sacked by Oohus, King of Persia : subsequently, when it had 
 
 ♦ Gen. X. 10; xlix, 13; II. vi. 289; xxiii. 743; Odyss. xv. 415; xvii. 424 
 Justin (xviii. 3) gives the Hebrew name the signification, "fishery" or " fish« 
 lown;" Josephus (Antiq. Jud. i. 6. 2) derives its name from Sidon, the eldei< 
 «on of Canaan (Gen. x. 15). 
 
ANTIQUITY OF SIDON. 479 
 
 regained some of its former glory and wealth, it opened its 
 gates to Alexander the Great, and thereby escaped the fate 
 which fell so heavily upon its daughter, Tyre. Under the 
 Romans it was an opulent city ; and it enjoyed large trade 
 and commerce in the time of our Sav.our, who visited the 
 regions of Tyre and Sidon (Matt. xv. 21; Mark, vii. 24). 
 St. Paul also found some brethren here, on his way to Rome 
 (Acts, xxvii. 3). Early Christian writers speak of it as an 
 important city. During the times of the Crusaders it fared 
 variously, being sometimes in the hands of the Saracens, and 
 sometimes in those of the Christians. Since the end of the 
 thirteenth century it has been mostly in ruins, and of little 
 consequence, notwithstanding Fakhr ed-Din gave a new im- 
 pulse to its trade, and in some degree revived its ancient im- 
 portance. Jezzar Pasha drove out the French in 1791 ; 
 since which date the Arabs have managed its trade in their 
 own way, — and that, from what you know of their characters 
 and habits, is a wretched way, indeed. 
 
 We left Saida between nine and ten o'clock, and bent our 
 steps towards Beirut : I have already alluded to its pleas- 
 antness of appearance and the character of its environs ; 
 but Dr. Robinson expresses all that need be said on this 
 subject so well in the following passage, that I beg to quote 
 it for your gratification : *' The beauty of Saida," he says, 
 "consists in its gardens and orchards of fruit trees, which 
 fill the plain and extend to the foot of the mountains. The 
 city and tract around are abundantly supplied with water, 
 by aqueducts and channels which conduct it from the Auly 
 and other smaller streams as they issue from the mountains. 
 The environs exhibit everywhere a luxuriant verdure, and 
 the fruits of Saida are reckoned among the finest of the 
 country. Hasselquist enumerates pomegranates, apricots, 
 figs, almonds, oranges, lemons and plums, as growing here 
 in such abundance as to furnish annually several ship-loads 
 for export; to which D'Arvieux adds also pears, peaches 
 
480 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 cherries, and bananas, as at the present day. At the foot 
 of the mountains are many ancient excavated sepulchres."* 
 
 The road between Saida and Beirut does not offer many 
 points of interest : I shall, therefore, pass it over with a 
 brief notice of the few things needful to record. In less than 
 an hour's time we reached the Nahr el-Auly, identified by 
 Dr. Robinson with the ancient Bostrenus : like the other 
 streams we had met with, it was considerably swollen with 
 rain and brought down a large volume of water to the sea. 
 Its vicinity is full of oleanders, lilacs, fig-trees, &c., which 
 add very much to the interest and beauty of this "graceful" 
 river. Soon after this, the lofty peaks of Lebanon began to 
 loom up very grandly as we advanced, and the Phoenician 
 plain may be said here to terminate, inasmuch as the hills 
 now draw close to the sea-side, and the road beyond passes 
 over a sandy beach and rocky points jutting out into the 
 Mediterranean. For several hours we skirted along the 
 sea-shore ; passing over some remains of an ancient Roman 
 road ; stopping a little while at the Khan Neby Yunas, near 
 to which is the white-domed wely of the prophet Jonah, 
 who, say the Arabs, was here cast out of the fish's belly 
 upon the dry land ; crossing the Nahr ed-Damur, the an- 
 cient Tamyras or D amour as ; and about three o'clock ar- 
 riving at the broad sandy cape of Beirut. On our right, we 
 saw a large Maronite Convent on a lofty hill, which in the 
 distance appeared well; indeed, the range of hills which 
 extend along this region some few miles from the sea is 
 not wanting in picturesqueness, so far as the view is con- 
 cerned, and many a village on the slopes or heights of the 
 hills attracted our notice, inducing us to believe that they 
 must be superior to those which we had seen and entered in 
 other parts of the country: the facts of the case would not 
 warrant this opinion, since these towns and villages are neat, 
 pretty, and thriving, only as seen in the distance, and not in 
 
 * " Biblical Researches," vol, iii. p. 420. 
 
IMPORTANCE OP BEIRUT. 481 
 
 reality. "While traversing the cape of Beirut, we were 
 struck with the contrast between the hills and heaps of sand, 
 driven up by the winds and waves, and the vast olive grove 
 not far to the right between us and the mountains beyond. 
 Beirut itself appeared in sight, between four and five o'clock ; 
 and together with the very numerous villages on the plain 
 and the neighboring mountain-sides, the suburban residences, 
 villas, and gardens, the groves of mulberry trees, etc., pre- 
 sented a scene of no little beauty and interest. We entered 
 the city, and passing through several streets, we took up our 
 quarters at the Hotel D'Europe, on the sea-shore, and not far 
 from the American Consulate. 
 
 The next day we paid off and discharged our muleteers, 
 having been on the whole satisfied with their deportment 
 and fidelity, and not having met with any losses, so far as 
 we know, from any fault of theirs. Since then we have 
 been occupied in various ways, making excursions in the 
 vicinity of Beirut, visiting some friends and countrymen, 
 and making preparations towards our ultimate departure for 
 Europe. Of Beirut itself I need not say much ; we have 
 found it a pleasant place in many respects, though rather hot 
 and sultry ; the environs are particularly agreeable, and most 
 of the Franks have their dwellings outside the walls of the 
 city ; and it is a thriving and bustling city of some twelve 
 to fifteen thousand inhabitants. One or two matters in con- 
 clusion are all that I shall venture to trouble you with. 
 
 Beirut is the central point of operations for the AmericaQ 
 missionaries in Syria. They form a band of active, acute, 
 energetic men, and by many years' labor and care have 
 acquired an influence which seems destined to tell with great 
 force upon the future prospects of this land. On various 
 accounts, I have taken some pains to cultivate the acquaint- 
 ance of such members of the mission as are resident in Bei- 
 rut ; have visited their press and mission-house here ; and 
 have made many inquiries respecting their success and their 
 
 21 
 
482 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 hopes for the future. Most of my intercourse has been with 
 the Rev. Mr. Thompson, whom I have found to be an open, 
 straightforward man, well acquainted with Eastern life and 
 character, and capable of judging in points of difficulty with 
 clearness and decision. I have attended one of their reli- 
 gious services, and am informed that the congregation, com 
 posed of natives converted to Protestantism, is flourishing 
 and gives promise of abundant harvest. The press estab- 
 lishment is very interesting, and it afforded me no little 
 pleasure to go over it in detail, under the pilotage of Mr. 
 Thompson. It is quite large, has a very excellent supply 
 of Arabic type of different sizes, which are made by the 
 head-workman in the office ; and all their printing and bind- 
 ing are done under the same roof Mr. Thompson very kindly 
 presented me with a few specimens of their workmanship, 
 which, I assure you, is far superior to anything done else- 
 where in the East, and quite equal to the books issued in 
 Paris and London. The press has been in operation about 
 ten years, and there have been printed, besides portions of the 
 Bible, a number of controversial works translated from the 
 English into Arabic, several native and other grammars, 
 arithmetics, &o. &c. Just at present, Mr. T. assured me 
 that, as one of the fruits of their long and severe labors, 
 there is an active spirit of inquiry afloat among the young 
 men of the city, who are determined to submit no longer to 
 the dictation of ignorant priests and a corrupt Church ; and 
 not only do they mean to throw off all allegiance to the 
 Church itself, but they intend to carry the war into the 
 enemy's country by getting up a newspaper, which shall bo 
 the organ of their sentiments and the means of breaking 
 down the influence of the clergy in general over the people. 
 You will readily understand what a powerful means this 
 may prove in the hands of competent persons to attain the 
 end desired. It is a further question whether this be really 
 
AMERICAN MISSIONS IN SYRIA. 483 
 
 desirable, or whether the influence of the mission can m this 
 way best be exerted. 
 
 For my own part, I frankly avow my opinion that missions 
 from the various religious bodies who contribute to the sup- 
 port of the gentlemen laboring in Syria can never be produc- 
 tive of permanent results. I was astonished to learn how 
 little had, after all, been done, notwithstanding the efforts of 
 wise and learned and faithful men in Syria ; and when to 
 this I added the conviction that the system which denies the 
 constitution of the ministry to be in three orders, bishops, 
 priests and deacons, must labor under immense disadvantages 
 among persons devoted to this dogma as an essential of faith, 
 and must effect a radical change in a people whose every 
 author and every institution points to this threefold constitu- 
 tion of the ministry, as much as to the most important doc- 
 trine in the Creed, I felt that the labors of my countrymen 
 were in considerable measure without effect, and would 
 never accomplish the end on which their hearts are set. I 
 believe, most honestly, that no laborers in that field can be 
 successful, permanently and effectively, who are not to some 
 extent agreed with the Eastern Christians, and more particu- 
 larly in this very matter of the organization of the Church ; 
 for being myself convinced that the Eastern branch of the 
 Catholic Church is, notwithstanding its many corruptions and 
 its schisms and dissensions, right in this one article, viz. : the 
 constitution of the Church, I am confident that they who 
 begin with a denial of this, and seek to convert the Orientals 
 to Protestantism, in its very simplest form, cannot ultimately 
 succeed ; to seek to remove the corruptions, to wipe away 
 the stains, to cut off" the diseased parts, to breathe soundness 
 and vigor into the whole body, is indeed a noble work ; and I 
 doubt not the Oriental Churches are open to labors for this end, 
 as much so as could be wished or expected. Yet, if there be 
 not an agreement with them as to the foundation on which 
 the Church rests, and as to what it is, immense will be the 
 
484 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 difficulty, and almost nothing the result in the end. And it 
 deserves to be well weighed by Protestants at home, that no 
 mission of theirs to the Oriental Christians has succeeded to 
 any extent commensurate with the means, the men, the time 
 devoted to their conversion or restoration to the purity and sim- 
 plicity of Gospel truth : may it not properly be asked, — are 
 we ever likely to succeed any better ? are our efforts be- 
 stowed upon a field of labor from which we shall reap any 
 harvest ? are we really and truly doing God's work in thus 
 seeking to effect a change in the corrupt Churches of the 
 East, from their ancient Apostolic constitution to the system 
 known only among us Protestants ? and shall we not have to 
 abandon the field to those who, agreeing with the Orientals 
 in their views of the ministry, are ready to carry to them the 
 words of exhortation, the truths of Holy Scripture in all their 
 depth and fulness ? 
 
 I venture to throw out these remarks for your considera- 
 tion, my dear S., as well as for the benefit of some of our 
 Presbyterian and Congregationalist friends, who have desired 
 my opinion, being willing to trust to my candor : they are 
 penned in no spirit of unkindness, nor with any of that nar- 
 rowness of bigotry which refuses to acknowledge good any- 
 where but among ourselves. I repudiate and abhor such a 
 spirit. I acknowledge, and beg particularly to state, that 
 much good has been done in Syria by the American mission ; 
 Beirut and all this district feel and know how much has been 
 done for the cause of education, and for the benefit of the poor 
 both bodily and spiritually ; and the community in general 
 are deeply indebted to the quiet but firm influence for good 
 order, sobriety and religious truth, exerted by our countrymen 
 in the city and neighboring mountainous districts. For these 
 things I rejoice, yea, and will rejoice ; but I hold it to be no 
 more than my privilege to say frankly, and yet decidedly, that 
 I am apprehensive that with the good they have done are 
 mingled the seeds of evil, which will spring up yet to trouble 
 
PROBABLE RESULTS IN THE EAST. 485 
 
 the peace of the Church and produce harm instead of good. 
 The unsettUng of the minds of a body of people ; the insen- 
 sibly leading them to undervalue and despise the authority 
 and office of the priesthood ; the setting them afloat on the 
 sea of private judgment, exposed to shoals, rocks and quick- 
 sands ; the exciting of hatred on the part of the constituted 
 ministers of the Church ; the giving Orientals our learning 
 "without their having naturally or by education our checks 
 and balances : the rendering them prone to doubt, if not dis- 
 believe, because they find so many points which others regard 
 as settled and sure, utterly baseless, as they now think ; and 
 such like ; appear to me to be grave and serious things, and 
 almost necessarily resulting out of the attempts to convert 
 the Orientals to Protestantism, instead of striving to purify and 
 remove the corruptions of the Eastern churches, on the basis 
 of the Episcopal constitution of the body of Christ. Time 
 "will at least show whether these sentiments be wrong or not ; 
 meanwhile I trust that our own Church will not be negligent 
 of her duty in these matters ; for I am thoroughly persuaded 
 that it must be mainly through her agency and that of the 
 Church of England, that error shall be removed and corrup- 
 tion taken away from the Eastern Churches ; and the Scrip- 
 tures be brought to light, studied, read, understood, acted 
 upon ; and the clergy be rendered duly alive to their sacred 
 office and duly fitted for their sacred functions, in this inter- 
 esting portion of the one body of Christ Jesus our Lord. God 
 grant that the day of renewal may not be far distant ! 
 
 I shall not, at this time, undertake to tell you of our ex- 
 cursion to the Nahr el-Kelb, or Dog River, the Lycus of the 
 
 * ancients, with its mteresting mementoes of other days — ^its 
 inscriptions, caves, sculptures, &c. ; neither shall I enlarge 
 upon general matters connected with our stay in Beirut; but 
 with a word or two as to the impressions left upon our mind 
 by our visit to Palestine, I shall close the present letter. 
 
 • Whether it shall be my privilege to write any more after this 
 
486 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 date, is quite uncertain, and depends upon some contingencies 
 over which I have no control. One thing, however, is certain, 
 that I can never forget the profound and solemn interest of the 
 last few months, during which we have looked upon so many- 
 scenes, and beheld so many things, which must ever move the 
 sympathies and deepest emotions of the Christian's heart. The 
 Holy Land will be to me, henceforth, like a thing of life, a 
 real, veritable experience of God's justice, long-suffering, and 
 compassion, and a perfect demonstration of the truth and ex» 
 actness of His Holy Word. The lights and shades of our pil- 
 grimage, the aspirations of our souls, the many, many recol- 
 lections of the past — our dangers, our preservation, our enjoy, 
 ments — all will now be sacred in our estimation; and we 
 shall cherish the memory of the weeks and months thus spent 
 as among the choicest and best of our whole lives. The sug» 
 gestive intimations of the "sure word of prophecy ," like a light 
 shining in a dark place, will henceforth be clearer than ever 
 to my mind, and have a greater significancy in my eyes than 
 they have heretofore assumed ; and I verily believe, that God 
 is intending, in His wise Providence, to effect the return of 
 His people to the Holy Land, to pour out again upon it His 
 choicest blessings, and to make it once more the glory of all 
 lands, when the chosen descendants of Abraham shall ac* 
 knowledge their guilt, turn and cling to the Messiah, the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and become the preachers of His Gospel unto 
 the ends of the earth. The way — if we may venture to speak 
 thus of the future — is preparing for such a result. The im- 
 posture of Mohammed is fast sinking into ruin and disgrace ; the 
 Turks are losing their power and influence ; and the Christian 
 nations of the West, as they are but agents in the hands of 
 the Supreme Ruler of the universe, so they are, .unconsciously 
 it is true, yet only waiting the time when He shall see fit to 
 sweep away every vestige of Mohammedanism, and plant 
 anew the banner of the cross on every hill- top and tower of the 
 Holy Land. The door has been opened, too, for labor among . 
 
HOPE FOR THE PI5TURE. 487 
 
 the decayed and corrupt Churches of the East ; and I doubt 
 not that the influence of intercourse with the pure branch of 
 the Church in the West, education, science, the diffusion of 
 the Holy Scriptures, the elevation of the people in a political, 
 social, and moral point of view, the training of the clergy in 
 the sound doctrines'of the Church in its best days, will produce 
 the effect so much to be desired ; and God, in His mercy, will 
 revive these long-decayed and almost lifeless branches ; will 
 pour out His Spirit anew, and will render His Church in the 
 East as glorious for its soundness, obedience, purity, and 
 power of godliness, as it ever was in the days of its Apostles, 
 martyrs, and holy men of old. O, that I might live to see 
 such results as these ! and that I might be permitted to be- 
 hold the contrast between the trodden-down and well-nigh de- 
 stroyed inheritance of the father of the faithful, as it is now, 
 and the once more glorious and restored land and people of 
 God! 
 
 But let us not be '' ignorant of this one thing, that one day 
 is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years 
 as one day." Our eyes may never see the change which we 
 daily pray for, but it will, nevertheless, certainly take place ; 
 for every word of Holy Scripture is true, and cannot fall to the 
 ground ; every promise therein contained will and must have 
 its exact fulfilment. Whether it please God to hear the cry of 
 His people now and send deliverance, or whether it be ages hence, 
 it is none the less sure and steadfast that deliverance will be sent, 
 retribution will come upon the enemies of God's truth, and the 
 whole world will see and know that it is the Lord who rules 
 in the affairs of men, and that He is the same yesterday, to- 
 day, and forever. Wherefore, let us comfort one another with 
 these words, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in our 
 hearts. Let us hope in God, who never faileth them that put 
 their trust in Him; and let us commit our souls to Him, in 
 well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator. Amen. 
 
488 EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 Such, gentle reader, were the concluding words of the last 
 letter written in the Holy Land. Our wanderings extended 
 no further than to the neighborhood of Beirut ; Damascus, 
 Lebanon, Baalbeck, and other points of interest which lie 
 along the shore of Palestine, we were compelled to omit. 
 Imperative circumstances called Mr. P. and myself home- 
 ward, and within a day or two after the above was written 
 we left Beirut in the French steamer for Alexandria. For 
 six days, we lay in the harbor of that city waiting for the 
 Overland mail ; and on the evening of May 16th, we arrived 
 at Malta, in company with our friends. Dr. Wainwright and 
 Mr. Minturn ; here we performed five days' quarantine in 
 the pleasant and well-provided lazaretto attached to this 
 important naval station. On the 22d ult., we embarked 
 again, and parting with our friends at Civita Vecchia, we 
 visited Rome, crossed the Alps, went through Switzerland, 
 down the Rhine, and so to England. Mr. P. took the 
 steamer and reached home sooner than I did. On the 2d of 
 July, I embarked from London, in the packet ship Westmin- 
 ster, and after a rather long passage, on Friday, the 10th of 
 August, I was restored in safety, and with renewed health 
 and vigor, to my family and friends. To God's Holy Name 
 be ascribed all the praise and glory for this and all other in- 
 stances of His compassion and goodness. 
 
~ocn 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 It may be convenient to have, in a concise shape, the views of the 
 ablest chronologers, on the points involved in the discussion on page 
 60, and the following pages ; it will be useful also for various portions 
 of the preceding volume. 
 
 Creation, . . . 
 Deluge, . . . . 
 Call of Abraham, . 
 Exodus, . . . . 
 Founding of the ) 
 temple of Sol'n. \ 
 Destruction of do. 
 Birth of Christ, . 
 
 Hebrew, Vul- 
 gar Account. 
 
 A. M. B. C. Inter 
 
 13760 
 1656 2104 1656 
 2018 17421 362 
 2448 1312 430 
 
 2928 
 
 3338 
 3760 
 
 Hebrew, Uss- 
 her's Acc't. 
 
 A. M, 
 
 832 480 
 
 422 410 
 — 422 
 
 1 
 1656 
 2083 
 2513 
 
 2992 
 
 3396 
 4004 
 
 4004 — 
 •2348 1056 
 
 Samaritan. 
 
 A. M. B.C.' Inter 
 
 1922 
 1491 
 
 1012 
 
 588 
 
 114305 
 
 2384 1921 1077 
 2814; 1491 430 
 
 32941011 
 
 13718, 587 
 14305 
 
 Septuagint, Josephus,a8 
 Alexandrine, cor. by Hales. 
 
 A. M.B. C, 
 
 ];5508 
 2262.3246 
 3469,2039 
 3894 1614 
 
 4495 
 
 4919 
 5508 
 
 1013 
 ^9 
 
 Inter A. M.lB. cllnter 
 
 — I 1 (.5411 — 
 22622256 31552256 
 120733182093 
 
 425^3764.1648 
 
 60141841027 
 
 424'4825 586 
 589|5411 — 
 
 NOTE TO PAGE 61. 
 
 " It is hardly credible, that Josephus meant seriously to maintain 
 that the Jews are the Hyksos, for not only is he altogether silent on 
 this subject in his Jewish history, but the supposition itself is iiTecon- 
 cileable with the historical truth of the books of Moses. It is not im- 
 possible, however, that he may have surmised a certain connection be- 
 tween the Hyksos and the Jews, and their wanderings, — a connection 
 which we believe capable of being now so clearly demonstrated, that we 
 may anticipate the probability of there being not a few persons who will 
 be disposed to return to the opinion of Josephus. In our judgment, 
 there is no better grounded hypothesis, than that of the affinity of race 
 between the Hyksos and the Jews — ^but none more inadmissible than 
 that of an identity between the expulsion of the one, and the Exodus 
 of the other." — ^Bunsen's " Egypt^ Place in Universal History ^^ voL 
 i. p. 193. 
 
 21* 
 
490 APPENDIX. 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER lY., p. 71, «fec. 
 
 During our voyage up and down the Nile, I made regular thermo- 
 metrical observations every day ; as they are of some interest, I have 
 copied them off, and insert them in the Appendix. 
 
 Tuesday, December, 26^A, 1848. 
 On board the " Ibis," at Bulak, 9 p. m., 65° Fahrenheit. 
 
 Wednesday, December 27iA. 
 
 - 8 A. M. 52^ weather partly clear. 
 
 12 M. 60° cloudy. 
 
 4 p. M. 59° do. 
 
 8 p. M. SYi" do. 
 
 No wind to-day, — made only six miles from Cairo. 
 
 Thursday, December IQth. 
 
 8 A. M. 55° . clear and pleasant. 
 
 12 M. 69° cloudy. 
 
 4 p. M. 68° rainy. 
 
 8 p. M. 60^° cloudy. 
 
 No wind, — made seven or eight miles. 
 
 Friday, December 2Qth, 
 
 8 A. M. 48° a little cloudy. 
 
 12 M. 58° showery. 
 
 4 p. M. 58° do. 
 
 8 p. M. 55° cloudy. 
 
 Head wind ; ll-J-, met an American boat ; afternoon, a side wind foi 
 two hours. 
 
 
 Saturda 
 
 ?/, December SOth, 
 
 8 A.M. 
 
 44° 
 
 mostly clear. 
 
 12 m. 
 
 57° 
 
 do. do. 
 
 4 p. M. 
 
 56° 
 
 cloudy. 
 
 8 p. M. 
 
 48° 
 
 do. 
 
 Strong head wind all day. 
 

 APPENDIX. 
 
 
 Sunday^ 
 
 December ^\st. 
 
 8 A. M. 
 
 12 m. 
 
 4 P.M. 
 8 P.M. 
 
 52° 
 68° 
 62° 
 68° 
 
 slightly cloudy, 
 clear. 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 
 491 
 
 Head wind again to-day. 
 
 Monday^ January \st^ 1849 
 
 8 A. M. 52i° cloudy. 
 
 12 M. 61° do. 
 
 4 p. M. 68° clear 
 
 8 p. M. 53° do. 
 
 Head wind in general ; met an English boat at 1 p. m. ; passed the 
 false pyramid. 
 
 Tuesday^ January 2d. 
 
 8 A.M. 
 
 45° 
 
 clear nearly all day. 
 
 12 m. 
 
 61° 
 
 do. do. 
 
 4 p. M. 
 
 65° 
 
 do. do. 
 
 8 p. M. 
 
 69F 
 
 do. do. 
 
 No wind in general. 
 
 
 
 
 Wednesday^ January Sd. 
 
 8 A.M. 
 
 47° 
 
 clear weather. 
 
 12 m. 
 
 62° 
 
 do. do. 
 
 4 p. M. 
 
 66i° 
 
 do. do. 
 
 8 p. M. 
 
 56° 
 
 do. do. 
 
 Light head wind all 
 
 day ; at Yi p. 
 
 , M., ai'rived at Benisooef, 77 miles 
 
 from Cairo. 
 
 
 
 
 Thursday, January Uh. 
 
 8 A. M. 
 
 48i° 
 
 clear, light wind. 
 
 12 M. 
 
 66° 
 
 do. do. 
 
 4 p. M. 
 
 78° 
 
 do. and very warm. 
 
 8 p. M. 
 
 69° 
 
 do. 
 
 Made about 12 miles; stopped at sunset at the village of Mala- 
 hieh. 
 
492 APPENDIX. 
 
 Friday^ January 5 th. 
 
 8 A. M. 48^° clear, no wind. 
 
 12 M. 68° do. side do. 
 
 4 p. M. 70° do. fair do. 
 
 8 p. M. 56° do. wind died away. 
 
 Made about 25 miles to-day ; laid up at Meghaga on W. bank 
 wind sprung up in the night; after two hours* sail, brought up on 
 H sand bank, and were enveloped in thick fog. 
 
 Saturday, January 6 th. 
 
 8 a.m. 
 
 42° 
 
 dense fog, no wii 
 
 12 m. 
 
 67° 
 
 clear, do. 
 
 4 p. M. 
 
 71° 
 
 do. hght wind. 
 
 8 p. M. 
 
 58° 
 
 do. do. 
 
 Fog rose at 9 a. m. 
 
 
 
 
 Sunday, January *Jth. 
 
 8 A. m. 
 
 45° 
 
 clear, no wind. 
 
 12 m. 
 
 58F 
 
 do. head do. 
 
 4 p. M. 
 
 69° 
 
 do. no do. 
 
 8 p. M. 
 
 56° 
 
 do. do. 
 
 Laid up at a village 10 miles N. of Minieh. 
 
 Monday, January 8 th. 
 
 8 A. M. 55° clear, no wind. 
 
 12 m. 66° do. hght.head wind. 
 
 4 p.m. 67° do. lo. 
 
 8 p. m. 58i° do. do. 
 
 Arrived at Minieh at evening, 160 miles from Cairo. 
 
 Tuesday, January 9 th. 
 8 A. M. 47° clear, no wind. 
 
 12 m. 63° do. head do. 
 
 4 p. M. 69° do. westerly wind. 
 
 8 p. M. 57° do. do. 
 
 Left Minieh at 11 a. m. ; passed Beni Hassan at 4-J- p. m. 
 

 APPENDIX. 
 
 
 Wednesday/, January 10th, 
 
 8 A. M. 
 
 52° 
 
 clear, head wind. 
 
 12 m. 
 
 66° 
 
 do. do. 
 
 4 p. M. 
 
 68° 
 
 do. westerly wind. 
 
 8 P.M. 
 
 49^ 
 
 do. light do. 
 
 493 
 
 Made only about 6 miles to-day. 
 
 Thursday, January 11th. 
 
 8 A. M. 49° cloudy and misty, no wind. 
 
 12 m. 69° clear, head wind. 
 
 4 p. M. 69i° do. do. 
 
 8 p. M. 60° do. do. 
 
 Rain during night and this morning ; laid by several hours because of 
 head winds. 
 
 Friday, January 12th. 
 
 8 A.M. 
 
 49^ 
 
 clear, no wind. 
 
 12 M. 
 
 66i^ 
 
 do. do. 
 
 4 p. M. 
 
 69° 
 
 do. do. 
 
 8 p. M. 
 
 59° 
 
 do. do. 
 
 Nights damp and rather chilly. 
 
 Saturday, January l^th. 
 
 8 A.M. 
 
 50° 
 
 clear, 1 
 
 lead ^ 
 
 12 m. 
 
 64° 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 
 4 p. M. 
 
 66° 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 
 8 p. M. 
 
 61° 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 
 Progress very slow against head wind and current. 
 
 Sunday, January lUh. 
 
 8 A. M. 62*^ clear, head wind. 
 
 12 m. 68° do. westerly do. 
 
 4 P.M. 70° do. do. 
 
 8 p. m. 58° do. do. 
 
 Passed Manfalut at 2 p. m. ; arrived atEs-Siout at 5 p.m., 254 miles 
 from Cairo. 
 
4M APPENDIX. 
 
 Monday^ January l^tli. 
 
 8 A. M. 47-^° misty, and westerly wind. 
 
 12 M. 64° do. do. 
 
 4 p. M. 65® do. do. 
 
 8 p. M. 68° clear, do. 
 
 The Reis chose this as his day for baking bread ; so remained all-daj 
 at Es-Sioiit. 
 
 
 Tuesday^ January^ 16<A. 
 
 8 A. M. 
 
 bb"^ cloudy, light wind. 
 
 12 M. 
 
 61° do. do. 
 
 4 p. M. 
 
 63° do. do. 
 
 8 P.M. 
 
 61i° do. do. 
 
 Left Es-Siout at 1 0-^ a. m. ; made about 1 5 miles. 
 
 Wednesday^ January 11th, 
 
 8 A. M. 57° cloudy and misty. 
 
 12 M. 64° clear, a little wind. 
 
 4 p.m. 68° do. do. 
 
 8 p.m. 48° do. do. 
 
 Made about 24 miles to day ; evening very raw and chilly. 
 
 Thursday, January 18 th. 
 
 8 A. m. 
 
 41° 
 
 clear, good wind. 
 
 12 m. 
 
 57° 
 
 do. strong do. 
 
 4 p. M. 
 
 63° 
 
 do. do. 
 
 8 p. M. 
 
 51i® 
 
 do. no wind. 
 
 Girgeh at 4 
 
 p. M. 
 
 
 
 Friday, January 19 th. 
 
 8 A. M. 
 
 49° 
 
 clear, no -wind. 
 
 12 m. 
 
 64° 
 
 do. do. 
 
 4 p. M. 
 
 68° 
 
 do. fair wind. 
 
 8 p. M. 
 
 50° 
 
 do. light do. 
 
 River veiy winding to-day ; saw the first crocodile at 3 p. m. ; ex. 
 changed salutes with an English boat. 
 
APPENDIX. 495 
 
 Saturday^ January 20th, 
 
 8 A. M. 48° clear, light wind. 
 
 12 M. 69° do. no do. 
 
 4 p. M. 67° • do. light do. 
 
 8 p. M. 57° do. no do. 
 
 Made about 10 miles to-day. 
 
 
 Sunday, January 2\st 
 
 8 A. M. 
 
 48i° clear, fair wind. 
 
 12 M. 
 
 73° do. do. 
 
 4 p.m. 
 
 71° do. do. 
 
 8 p.m. 
 
 58° do. do. 
 
 8 A. M. 
 
 49° 
 
 12 M. 
 
 62° 
 
 4 p. M. 
 
 61° 
 
 8 p.m. 
 
 51° 
 
 Arrived at Ejneh at 10 a. m., 416 miles from Cairo ; left at 2 p. m. 
 
 Monday, January 22c?. 
 
 clear, no wind, 
 cloudy, wind S. W. 
 do. head wind, 
 clear, do. 
 
 Lay aground from 12 till 6 p. m.; strong head wind blowing. 
 
 Tuesday, January 23c? 
 
 clear, N. W. wind, 
 do. do. 
 do. do. 
 do. no wind. 
 
 Arrived at Luxor at 10 a. m., 464 miles from Cairo; stopped only 
 two hours. 
 
 Wednesday, January 24:th. 
 
 8 A. M. 48° clear, light wind. 
 
 12 M. 64° do. no wind. 
 
 4 pm. 74° do. do. 
 
 8 F. M. 56° do. fair wind. 
 
 Amved at Esneh at 4 p. m., 496 miles from Cairo. 
 
 8 a.m. 
 
 50° 
 
 12 m. 
 
 69° 
 
 4 p. M. 
 
 66° 
 
 8 p. M. 
 
 56° 
 
496 APPENDIX. 
 
 Thursday^ January 2bth. 
 
 8 A. M. 68° clear, fair wind. 
 
 12 M. 73° do. do. 
 
 4 p.m. 66° . do. do. 
 
 8 p.m. 57° do. do. 
 
 Passed Edfoo at 5 p. m., 526 miles from Cairo. 
 
 Friday^ January^ 2Qth, 
 
 8 A. M. 51° cloudy, light wind. 
 
 12 M. 70° clear, strong do. 
 
 4 p. M. 66° cloudy, do. do. 
 
 8 p. M. 56° clear, light do. 
 
 Passed Hagar Silsilis at 1^ p. m., 548 miles from Cairo ; showery 
 
 during the day ; laid up some time at Kom Ombo and visited the 
 ruins. 
 
 Saturday, Jarouary, 21 th. 
 
 8 A. M. 48° clear, no wind. 
 
 12 M. 70° do. good do. 
 
 4 P.M. 80° do. do. 
 
 8 p. M. 64° do. do. 
 
 Aground from 8 A. m. to 12 m. ; arrived at Aswan at 10 p. m., 590 
 miles from Cairo. 
 
 Sunday, January 2B)th. 
 
 8 A. M. 50° clear, very hot day. 
 
 12 M. 78° do. (105° in the sun). 
 
 4 p.m. 76° do. do. 
 
 8 p. m. 65° do. do. 
 
 Laid up at Aswan to-day ; no boats at the place. 
 
 Monday, January 2^th. 
 
 8 A. m. 50° clear and hot. 
 
 12 m. — do. do. 
 
 4 p. m. — do. do. 
 
 8 p. m. 58" do. do. 
 
 Spent the day at Philae and the Cataracts. 
 
APPENDIX. 497 
 
 Tuesday^ January 30^A. 
 
 8 a.m. 51° clear, light N. wind. 
 
 12 m. 69° do. do. 
 
 4 p. M. Y5° do. do. 
 
 8 p.m. 62° do. do. 
 
 Left Aswan at 1 1 a. m., on the way downward ; got aground in the 
 night. 
 
 Wednesday^ January 31s^. 
 
 8 A. M. 60° clear, no wind. 
 
 12 M. 75° do. do. 
 
 4 p. M. 76° do. head wind. 
 
 8 p. M. 62° do. do. 
 
 Hagar Silsilis at 10 a. m. ; spent two hours there; Edfoo at 7 p. m. ^ 
 fisit to the temple by moonlight. 
 
 Thursday^ February 1st. 
 
 8 A. M. 54° clear, no wind. 
 
 12 M. 77° do. strong ahead. 
 
 4 p.m. 76° do. do. 
 
 8 p. M. 64° do. do. 
 
 Esneh at 11 a. m. ; spent the day there. 
 
 Friday, February 2d. 
 8 A. M. 55° clear, strong head wind. 
 
 12 M. 68° do. do. 
 
 4 P.M. 66° do. do. 
 
 8 p. M. 58° do. do. 
 
 Lay up by the shore all day, on account of the strong head wind ; got 
 oif at evening, and amved at Luxor at 2 a. m. next day. 
 
 Saturday, February 3d. 
 
 8 A. M. 52° clear and hot. 
 
 12 M. 70° do. 
 
 4 p. M. 67° do. 
 
 8 p. M. 60° do. 
 
 West bank, Medinet Habu, &c., to-dav. 
 
498 APPENDIX. 
 
 Sunday^ February Uh. 
 
 8 a.m. 
 
 50° 
 
 clear, westerly wind. 
 
 12 m. 
 
 69° 
 
 do. do. 
 
 4 p. M. 
 
 Y0° 
 
 do. do. 
 
 8 p. M. 
 
 62° 
 
 do. do. 
 
 Col. Outram and Mr. R. S. Poole took tea witli us this evening 
 Monday^ February 5th. 
 
 8 A. M. 
 
 48° partially overcast. 
 
 12 m. 
 
 — do. 
 
 4 p. M. 
 
 V2° do. 
 
 8 p. M. 
 
 60° do. 
 
 the tombs, <fec., on west bank. 
 
 
 Tuesday, February 6 th. 
 
 8 A. M. 
 
 49° clear and hot, N. W. wind. 
 
 12 M. 
 
 — do. do. 
 
 4 p. M. 
 
 63° do. do. 
 
 8 p. M. 
 
 50° do. do. 
 
 Tlu'ee American and four English boats now at Luxor. 
 Wednesday y February ^th. 
 
 8 A. M. 
 
 48° 
 
 clear, pleasant, <fec. 
 
 12 M. 
 
 — 
 
 do. do. 
 
 4 p. M. 
 
 67° 
 
 do. do. 
 
 8 p. M. 
 
 50° 
 
 do. do. 
 
 Spent the day at Karnak. 
 
 Thursday, February 8th. 
 
 8 A. M. 51° clear, N. W. wind. 
 
 12 M. 64° do. do. 
 
 4 p. M. 61° cloudy, do. 
 
 8 p. M. 57° clear, do. 
 
 Again at Kaniak ; i^ot off at 9 p. m., down the river. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 499 
 
 Friday^ February 9th, 
 
 8 A. M. 53° cloudy, head wind. 
 
 12 M. 57° do. do. 
 
 4 p. M. 54° do. do. 
 
 8 p. M. 51° clear, do. 
 
 Made very little to-day, on account of the head wind ; Kineh at 2 
 A. M., next morning. 
 
 
 Saturday^ February 10th. 
 
 8 A. M. 
 
 42° 
 
 clear, no wind. 
 
 12 m. 
 
 — 
 
 do. do. 
 
 4 p. M. 
 
 62° 
 
 do. do. 
 
 8 p. M. 
 
 53° 
 
 do. do. 
 
 Visited Dendera to-day ; got off at 9-^ p. m. 
 Sunday, February 11th, 
 
 8 a.m. 
 
 43° 
 
 clear, head wind. 
 
 12 m. 
 
 63° 
 
 do. do. 
 
 4 p. m. 
 
 65° 
 
 do. do. 
 
 8 p. M. 
 
 48° 
 
 do. do. 
 
 Monday, February 12th. 
 
 8 A. M. 48° cloudy, head wind. 
 
 12 M. 63° rainy, do. 
 
 • 4 p. M. 60° cloudy, do. 
 
 8 p. M. 51° clear, do. 
 
 Severe blow between 9 and 12 m. ; lay up by the bank all day, and 
 got off at 6 p. M. ; passed Girgeh at 7 p. m. 
 
 
 Tuesday, February 13 th. 
 
 8 a.m. 
 
 44° 
 
 clear, no wind. 
 
 12 m. 
 
 62° 
 
 do. head wind. 
 
 4 p. M. 
 
 64° 
 
 do. do. 
 
 8 p. M. 
 
 54° 
 
 do. do. 
 
 Aground frequently. 
 
 
 
500 APPENDIX. 
 
 Wednesday^ February lith. 
 
 8 A. M. 44° clear, head wind. 
 
 12 m. 64° do. do. 
 
 4 p. M. 60° do. do. 
 
 8 p. M. 49° do. do. 
 
 Passed Es-Siout at 9 a. m. ; much impeded by head wind all day i 
 passed Manfalut in the night. 
 
 Thursday, February 15 th. 
 
 8 A. M. 45° clear, strong N. wind. 
 
 12 M. 58° do. do. 
 
 4 p. M. 61° do. do. 
 
 8 p. M. 50° do. do. 
 
 Severe blow all day ; made but little progress. 
 
 
 Friday, Fi 
 
 3bruary 16 th. 
 
 8 a.m. 
 
 46° 
 
 cloudy, no wind. 
 
 12 m. 
 
 64° 
 
 do. do. 
 
 4 p. M. 
 
 62° 
 
 clear, do. 
 
 8 P.M. 
 
 54° 
 
 do. do. 
 
 10 A. M., Beni Hassan ; Minieh at 3 p. m. 
 
 Saturday, February 1*1 th. 
 
 8 a.m. 
 
 44° 
 
 clear, no wind. 
 
 12 M. 
 
 ' 67° 
 
 do. light wind. 
 
 4 p. M. 
 
 68° 
 
 do. do. 
 
 8 P.M. 
 
 52° 
 
 do. do. 
 
 Benisooef, about 1 in the night. 
 
 Sunday, February lB>th. 
 
 8 A. M. 48° clear, light wind. 
 
 12 M. 63° cloudy, do. 
 
 4 p. M. 62° rainy, do. 
 
 8 P. M. 50° cloudy, do. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 501 
 
 Met Dr. Wainwright's and Mr. Minturn's boat going up to Thebes ; 
 also, another American boat ; head wind all day ; rained considerably 
 between 4 and 6 p. m. 
 
 Monday^ February 19 tk. 
 
 8 A. M. 46° cloudy and disagrec/able. 
 
 12 M. 50° do. do. 
 
 4 p. M. 49° do. and strong N. w:nd. 
 
 8 p. M. 48° do. do. 
 
 Wind came up about 9 a. m. and blew us up against the bank ; 
 could not move at all ; very uncomfortable day ; got off at evening, and 
 some time early on the next morning, February 20th, we arrived at 
 Bulak, after nearly two months' absence. 
 
 Note. — ^The thermometer hung in the open air, in the alcove in 
 front of the cabin, exposed to the ^vinds which blow more or less 
 all the time on the Nile. On shore, the temperature was much 
 warmer (as a general thing), and some days the mercury rose to 110° 
 and 115° in the sun, during our excursions. The evenings, on the 
 whole, were damp and chilly ; and sometimes even when the mercury 
 indicated 65° to 70°, the air was raw and disagreeable on the water. 
 But, with these exceptions, the trip is one of the most dehghtful and 
 instructive which can be imagined. The total expense, including bakh- 
 shish (an indefinable but important portion), amounted, for our pai*ty 
 of three persons, to a little over $500. 
 
 NOTE TO PAGE 399, 400. 
 
 A Pilgrim's Certificate. 
 
 I subjoin the original, more as a curiosity than for any value belong- 
 ing to it. The Latinity is rather crabbed, though on the whole quite 
 respectable for the monks of Terra Santa. 
 
 IN DEI NOMINE AMEN. 
 
 Omnibus, et sini>*ulis pi-resentes litteras inspecturis, lecturis, vel legi 
 audituris fidem, notumque facimus Nos Terrse Sanctae Gustos, R. Jes^e- 
 tTM Ames Spencer, Presbyterum Ecclesi.e Catholic^e Ameri- 
 
502 APPENDIX. 
 
 CANJs, Jerusalem feliciter pervenisse die 5 Aprilis Mensis, 1849, inde 
 subsequentibus diebus prsecipua Sanctuaria, in quibus Mimdi Salvator 
 dilectum populum simm, imo et totius humani generis perditam conge- 
 riem ab inferi servitute misercorditer liberavit, utpote Calvarium, ubi 
 Cruci affixus, devicta morte, Coeli januas nobis aperuit ; SS. Sepulchrum, 
 ubi Sacrosanctum ejus corpus reconditum, triduo ante suam gloriosissi- 
 mam Resurrectionern quievit, ac tandem ea omnia Sacra Palestine 
 Loca gressibus Domini, ac Beatissimae ejus Matris Marise consecrata, a 
 Religiosis Nostris, et Peregrinis Visitari solita, visitasse. 
 
 In quorum fidem has scripturas officii nostri sigillo munitas per Sec- 
 retarium expediri manda^^mus. 
 
 Datis apud S. Civitatem Jerusalem ex Venerabili nostro Conventu 
 SS. Salvatoris. 
 
 Die 12 Mensis Aprilis, Anno D. 1849. 
 
 {'"'■' — De Mandato Reverendiss. in Christo Patris^ 
 sSjS I ^^* ^NTONIUS A TrANSFIGURATIONE, 
 
 — , — Terrae S'tae Pro-Sec's. 
 
 NOTE TO PAGE 405. 
 
 I subjoin a,n interesting passage, from a distinguished oriental scholar, 
 respecting the miracle wrought by Joshua, which, if it serve no other 
 purpose, will show how the Jews interpret the passages of Holy Writ, 
 relative to this wonderful display of Divine power. 
 
 " We will now proceed to investigate another most important point 
 of this period of Jewish philosophy ; one which, through the ignorance 
 of translators and commentators, has bid fair to eclipse its whole sys- 
 tem, and to throw all the science of the ancient Hebrews into shade : 
 it is no less than the sun, according to our translators, standing still at 
 the command of Joshua. I shall proceed to show you, that the text 
 of this important passage says no such thing ; and that the error has 
 crept in through the unphilosophical conceptions which its translators 
 have formed of their original." 
 
 After quoting the original words, the author goes on to say : 
 
 "Our translators have expressed this, — 'Then spake Joshua to the 
 Lord, in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the 
 Children of Israel ; and he said, in the sight of Israel, " Sun^ stand thou 
 still upon Gibeon ; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon." And the 
 sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged 
 
APPENDIX. 603 
 
 themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of 
 Jasher ? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not 
 to go down about a whole day.' 
 
 " Now, it is essential to our rightly understanding this passage, to 
 examine both the Hebrew and the English word for sun. The Hebrew 
 language, in accordance with strict philosophical principles, has three 
 names for sun. The English has also three, but they are compound 
 terms, thus — solar orb, solar flame, solar light ; yet we unphilosophically 
 use the word sun in all these senses : we say the sun is round, the sun 
 is powerful, the sun is obscured, though we mean the solar orb is round, 
 the solar flame is powerful, the solar liffht is obscured. This philosoph- 
 ical accuracy exists, however, primarily in Hebrew. The solar orb is 
 expressed by no compound term : the word &in expresses this significa- 
 tion ; so nan the solar flame or fire ; so hkewise, 'O'Q^, the word used 
 by Joshua, the solar light. This is also extended, as far as philosophi- 
 cal propriety demands, to the moon. We find, in Hebrew, two names 
 applied to this planet, ninb the ' disc' orb ' or,' and nn"* the Hght reflected 
 from it : heat not being one of its qualities, we find no word expressive 
 of the lunar flame or fire. That the sense of ^^'U and mi is solar and 
 lunar light, is not only evident fi-om a multitude of places in Scripture^ 
 where these words occur, but also from the passage of Joshua itself: 
 for, if we translate t3a^, ' solar orb,' ' solar flame,' or ' sun,' or nn"', ' lu- 
 nar orb' or ' moon,' the one must have rested upon Gibeon, the other in 
 the valley of Ajalon. This indeed would be an extraordinary system 
 of philosophy — the sun resting upon a mountain, and the moon in a 
 valley. All this, however, is fully explained by following the philo- 
 sophical idea of the original, in which the solar and lunar light is stayed 
 from advancing and receding upon the opposite hemispheres of the 
 globe, not by the agency of the sun, but by that of the earth itself." — 
 " Lecture on the Philosophy of the Jews" by Arthur Lumley Davids. 
 Lond. 1833, p. 9. 
 
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