* ♦ . » , * *• * *. «' * • '• * *~^*. '-*- -"^ *■ *-■ ♦..'• * •/« •♦ •* M i 11 i i 1 : 1 LETTERS FROM THE HOLY LAND AGENTS America . . . Thic Macmillan Company 64 & 66 Fifth Avenuf, New Yokk Australasia . . The Oxford University Press 205 Flinders Lane, Melbourne Canada . The Macmillan Company of Canada, Ltd. St. Martin's House, 70 Bond Street, Toronto India .... Macmillan & Company, Ltd. Macmillan Building, Bombay 2,og Bow Bazaar Street, Calcutta / THE START (frontispiece) LETTEES FKOM THE HOLY LAND BY ELIZABETH BUTLER WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY THE AUTHOR LONDON ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK 1912 -r Published March 1903 Reprinted July 1906, June 1912 TO MY MOTHER CHRISTIANA THOMPSON -^ f> '•^ .-" ! J "T PREFACE These letters, written to my mother, and published chiefly at her request, can lay no claim to literary worth ; their only possible value lies in their being descriptive of impressions received on the spot of that Land which stands alone in its character upon the map of the world. But the reader will more easily excuse the shortcomings of my pen than, I hope, he will ever do those of my pencil ! I will make no apologies for the sketches, save to remind the reader that most of them had to be done in haste. They are necessarily considerably reduced in size in the reproduction, so as to suit them to the book form. It was a happy circumstance for me that my husband's appointment to the Command at Alex- andria should have enabled us to realize this journey. A four-weeks' leave just allowed of our vii viii LETTERS FROM THE HOLY LAND accomplishing the wliole tour. The wider round that includes Damascus and Pahiiyra would, of course, necessitate a much more extended holiday. The time of year chosen by my husband for our visit was one in which no religious festivals were bemg celebrated, so that we should be spared the sight of that distressing warring of creeds that one regrets at Jerusalem more than anywhere else. Also the spring season is the healthiest and most agreeable, and we timed our journey so as to begin and end it with the moon which beautified all our nights. We are chiefly indebted to Mr. Aquilina, the very capable and courteous agent for Messrs. Cook and Son at Alexandria, for the perfect way in which the machinery of the expedition was managed for us. Without such good transport and camps one does not travel as smoothly as we did. To the Archbishop of Alexandria we owe a debt of gratitude for his kind offices in helping to render our way so pleasant. ELIZABETH BUTLER. Government House, Devonport, Christmas Day, 1902. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1. Frontispiece FACING PAGE 2. Jaffa 8 3. The " Cenaculum." Site of the House of the Last Supper ........ 26 4. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Noonday. Looking towards Valley of Jehoshaphat .... 30 5. Bethany 32 6. "Ain Kareem," reputed birthplace of John the Baptist, from roof of Convent of the Visitation . . 36 7. Solomon's Pools, near Jerusalem, looking towards Dead Sea 38 8. Bethlehem from the Sheepfold, Field of Boaz . . 42 9. The Plain of the Jordan, looking from " New Jericho " towards Mount Pisgah ..... 48 10. The Plain of Esdraelon, from foot of Tabor, with the village of Nairn in distance . . . . 60 n. Our First Sight of Lake Galilee .... 62 12. Galilee, looking towards Hcrinon , , , . 64 ix X LETTERS FROM THE HOLY LAND FACING PACK 13. Galilee, looking from near the mouth of the Jordan towards the " Mount of Beatitudes " and Tabor . 66 1 4. Nazareth at Sunrise ....... 68 15. St. Jean d' Acre 72 16. Ruins of the Crusaders' Banqueting Hall, Athleet 78 LETTERS FROM THE HOLY LAND In the Adriatic, 28/A February 189- INIy . . . . — I am out on the dark waters of the Adriatic. It is late, and the people on board are little by little subsiding into their cabins, and I shall write you my first letter en route for the Holy Land. If all is well I shall join W. at Alexandria, and we shall have our long -looked -forward -to expedition from thence. Venice has given me a memorable "send -off," looking her loveliest this radiant day of spring, and were I not going where I am going my thoughts would linger regretfully amongst those lagoons already left so far behind. I watched to the very last the lovely city gradually fading from view in a faint rosy fliLsh, backed by a blue -grey mist, and as we 2 LETl^ERS FROM THE HOLY LAND stood out to sea all land had sunk away and the sun set in a crimson cloud, sending a column of gold down to us on the perfectly unruffled waters. Later on the moon, high overhead, shining through the mist, made the sea look like blue air, and quite undistinguishable from the sky. The horizon being lost we seemed to be floating through space, and the only solid things to be seen were the moon and our fellow planets and the stars, so that I felt as though I had passed out of this world altogether. Indeed one does leave the ordinary world when shaping one's course for Palestine ! Port Said, Sunday, 5th April 189-. My . . . . — We are moored at Port Said on board the large Messageries steamer, having left Alexandria at 5,30 p.m. yesterday on our w^ay to Jaffa. AVhat a hideous place is this ! And this is the Venice that modern commerce has conjured u]) out of the sea. Truly typical ! As I look at the deep ranks of steamers lining the Canal mouth, begrimed with coal-dust and besmirched with brown smoke, I might be at the Liverpool Docks, so nuich is the light of this Land of LKITERS FROM THE HOLY LAND 3 Light obscured by their fumes. On the banks are dumped down quantities of tin houses witli cast-iron supports to their verandahs. When my mind reverts to the merchant city of the Adriatic and compares it with this flower of modern commerce I don't feel impressed with, or in the least thankful for, our modern *' Progress." Last night, when we arrived, a barge of Acheron came alongside full of negroes in sooty robes, one gnawing a raw beef bone by the light of the torch in the bows. They were coming to coal us. And, being coaled, we shall draw light out of darkness, loveliness out of hideousness, and this evening we shall be taking our course to the Long-promised Land ! Wliere shall I finish this ? Is it possible that my life-long wish is now so soon to be accom- plished ? No two people, I suppose, receive the same hupression of the Holy Land. None of the books I have read tally as to the feelings it awakens in travellers. How will it be with me ? 4 LE'lTERS FllOM THE HOLY LAND RamleHj on the Plain of Sharon, 6ih April. At sunrise this morning the throbbing of the screw suddenly ceased, and as I went to the port-hole of our cabin I beheld the lovely coast of the Land of Christ, about a mile distant, with the exquisite town of Jaffa, typically Eastern, grouped on a rock by the sea, and appearing above huge, heaving waves, whose grey-blue tones were mixed with rosy reflections from the clouds. Here was no modern harbour with piers and jetties, no modern warehouses, none of the characteristics of a seaport of our time. Jaffa is much as it must have looked to the Crusaders ; and we approached it, after leaving the steamer, much as pilgrims must have done in the Middle Ages. The JNlessageries ship could approach no nearer on account of the rocks, and we had to be rowed ashore in open boats — very large, stout craft, fit to resist the tremendous waves that thunder against the rocky ramparts of Jaffa. How often 1 have imagined this landing, and have gone through it in delicious anticipation 1 Everything was made as pleasant as possible to us, Mr. coming on board to direct the 1 LEITERS FROM TlIK IIOLV LAxND 6 proceedings, and a Franciscan monk also board- ing the steamer with greetings from Jerusalem, at the request of the Archbishop of Alexandria. As our boat was the last to leave the steamer I had time to watch the disconcerting process of trans-shipping the other tourists who all went off in the first boats, and nothing I have ever seen of the sort could compare with what I beheld during those breathless moments. The effect produced by brawny Syrian boatmen tussling with elderly British and American females in sun- helmets and blue spectacles, and at the right moment, when the steamer heaved to starboard and met the boat rising on the crest of a par- ticular wave, pushing them by the shoulders from above, and pulling them into the boat from below, was a thing to remember. (To go down the ladder was quite impossible, so violent was the bumping of boat against ship.) To miss the right moment was to have to wait till the steamer which then rolled to port, and the boat which then sank into the trougli of the sea, met again with the next lurch. The poor tourists said notliing ; they hadn't time given them for the feeblest protest, but they looked (juite dazed 6 LE'lTEHS FROM THi: HOLY LAND wlieii stuck down in their seats. Thanks to our kind friends we liad a boat to ourselves and we were not worked off so expeditiously, being thus able to submit with something more approaching grace. We had a large crew of rowers, and being only ourselves, the monk, and JNIr. , we went lii^lit. Three or four times the helmsman had to be extra vigilant as a huge roller, whicli hid everything behind it, came racing in our wake, and lifting us as though we were so much seaweed, carried us forward with dizzy swiftness. Woe betide that boat which such a wave should strike broadside on ! At each crisis the " stroke oar" sang out a warning, and redoubled his work, the perspiration coursing down his face. The whole crew sang an answer to his wild signal in a barbaric minor. Nothing could be more invigorating than this experience ; one moment when hoisted on the crest of a wave one saw Jaffa, the Plain of Sharon, and the hills of Judea ahead, and astern the JNIessageries steamer and small craft riding at anchor, and the next moment nothing between one and the sky but jagged and curlinjj crests of wild billows ! On landinix at tlie rocks we were hoisted u]) slippery steps LETTERS FROM THE HOLY LAND 7 in more iron grips. On such occasions it is use- less to liesitiite — indeed they don't let you — and as you don't know what is best for you, you had much better at once surrender your individuality and become a passive piece of goods if you don't want a broken limb. We immediately found ourselves in such a picturesque crowd as even my Egypt -saturated eyes took new delight in, and we passed through the Custom-house with the agent obligingly clearing all before us, and got into a little carriage after climbing on foot the steep part of the town. What a town ! No description I have yet read does full justice to its tumble- down picturesqueness. Those black archways like caverns, those crooked streets filled wdth people, camels, and donkeys — all this to me is fascinating. I am too hurried to pause liere long enough to try and define the diflbrence between life here and life in Egypt. There is not here the barbarism of the latter's picturesque- ness, and one feels here more the beauty of the true East. I don't see the abject squalor of Egypt, and the people's dresses are more varied. All this stone masonry is very acceptable after the brick 8 LETTERS FROM THE HOLY LAND and mud of Egyptian hovels. Here is the essence of Asia — there, of Africa. I am afraid these remarks are crude, but I think the definition is a just one. As we drove to the little German inn in the outskirts of the town, we noticed the air getting richer with the scent of orange-flowers, and soon we passed into the region of the orange-orchards. The trees were creamy white with dense blossom, and the ripe fruit was dotted about in the masses of white. The honey they gave us at breakfast was from these orange-flowers. Here our drago- man, Isaac, met us. I made my first sketch — the first, I trust, of a series I marked down before leaving Alexandria. It was of Jaffa, seen over the orange-trees from the inn garden, and charm- ing it was to sit there in the cool shade, with birds singing overhead as never one hears them in Egypt. Fragments of classical pillars stood about and served as seats under the chequered shade of flowering fruit-trees along the garden paths. The JMediterranean appeared to my right, and overhead sailed great pearly clouds in the vibrating blue of the fresh spring sky. I must say I felt very happy at the reality of my presence on the soil of Palestine ! JAFFA The upper part of" the town is seen over the tops of orange orchards. Time, morning. LETTERS FROM THE HOLY LAM) 9 At 2 P.M. we started in a carriage like our dear old friend, the " Vetturino," for Ranileh, our halting -place for the night. How can I put before you the scenes of loveliness we passed through ? The country was a vast plain of rolling wheat, bordered in the blue distance with the tender hills of Judea. This land of the Philis- tines far surpassed my expectations in its extent, its grand sweep of line, its breadth of colour and light and shade. It was some time before we came out on the Plain of Sharon, and we drove first a long way between orange-orchards bordered along the road by gigantic hedges of prickly pear. Our Vetturino was drawn by three horses abreast, all with bells, and it was exhilarating to set out at a fast trot along the easy road in company with other jingling and whip -cracking vehicles, and escorted by horsemen in brilliant Syrian costumes dashing along on tlieir little Arabs, and carrying their long ornamental guns slung across their backs. I had just one horrible glimpse (of which I said nothing, as of some guilty thing), just as we started, of a railway engine under some palm - trees. It is waiting there the completion of the line to Jerusalem to 10 LETTERS FROM THE HOLY Lx\ND pufF and whistle its beauty-marring career to the Holy City. I am thankful my good luck has brought me here just in time to escape the sight of a railway and its attendant eyesores in this sacred land. ^Vhy rush through this little country, every yard of which is precious ? An express train could run in two hours " from Dan to 15eersheba " — and what then ? Before emerging on the Plain we passed a white mosque-like building placed between two cypresses by the roadside, which is supposed to stand on the site of the place where Peter raised Dorcas to life. Be that as it may, the white dome and the black-green cypresses are charming. The soil of the country, now being ploughed in all directions between the green wheat -fields, is of a rich golden colour, like that I noticed with such pleasure around Sienna, and makes a pleasing harmony with tlie vivid green. The dear olive- tree, beloved of my childhood, is here in its very home. I hailed its pinky-grey foliage and its hoary old gnarled trunk. And now for those wildflowers that all travellers who are so well advised as to come here in spring have told us of. Well may they speak of them with rapture ! LETIERS VnOM THE IIOLV LAND 11 As we proceeded they increased in variety, and so abundant were they that they made tracts and wide regions of colour over the hind. Come here in spring, O traveller ! and not in the arid, dusty, burnt- up autumn. On entering the Plain of Sharon we saw to our left the town of I^ydda, with St. George's Church gleaming in the sun- shine. Never have I seen, even in Ireland, fresher effects of cloud shadow and sunlight over rolling spaces of waving green corn, and even the sky was typically West of Ireland. Yet lo ! in the foreground strings of camels, mules, and wild Bedouins and caracoling Bashi-Bazouks I The ploughing was done by tiny oxen, two abreast, and sometimes a tall camel stalked as leader. On arriving at Ramleh we walked to the great tower, some distance out of the town, from the top of which I had my long-looked-for view of the whole of Philistia — northward to Carmel, westward to the sea, eastward to the mountains of Judah. As the sun sank the tints deepened on that lovely plain, and nothing on earth could be more beautiful than that immense view. I made a hasty water-colour sketch up there, but what can one do in a few minutes witli such a V2 LE'lTERS FROM THE HOLY LAND scene ? A sad spectacle awaited us as we reached the German inn. As we walked I had become absorbed in the contemplation of the limpid sky, where the last lark was carolling to the sinking sun, and of the mountains whose rosy flush was fading into the cool greys that already veiled the plain, when my eyes sinking lower, I beheld in the cold grey of the narrov/ street, ranged along a stone wall, a row of lepers waiting for alms. Life has no sadder detail than the leper. As I approached them with a coin the nearest of these poor creatures put out a fingerless palm on which I placed the money, and having only hollow sockets in the place of eyes it handed it to its neighbour, who, being also eyeless, passed it on to one in whose fleshless face there lingered the remnant of an eye. This one's hand lifted tlie coin to its fragment of eye to see its value, and dei)osited it in the recesses of its fluttering rags that only half veiled the decaying body. A low wail passed along the line, and bony arms were stretched out in gratitude. And then we go to our table d'hote and comfortable beds, and they — where do they sleep ? Do they lie down on those bare bones ? LEriEUS FROM THE HOLY LAND 13 Jerusalem, 1th April 18{j- JNIy . . . . — We left Rainleh early this brisk, fresh morning, the air full of scent from the wild- flowers. Fr^re Benoit, the Flemish Franciscan who met us on board the steamer, came with us, and an PLnglish lady who had all but broken down the day before through the jolting of a shandry- dan that had been palmed off on her and her husband at Jaffa. So with the friar and Mrs. G inside, W. on the box, and Mr. G following in the aforesaid shandrydan with Isaac, we set off in the usual whip-cracking, shouting, and prancing manner for JERUSALEM I The first point of interest I was looking for was Ajalon. As we dipped down from one of the hills traversed by the road in steep zigzags it unfolded its fresh loveliness on our left, but we could not see the actual site of Joshua's battle, as it was too deep in the folds of the hills. This view was, perhaps, the loveliest of all, and nothing could be fresher than those corn- fields and rich spaces of ploughed eartli in the 14. LEITERS FROM THE HOLY LAND liglit that streamed down from so pure a sky. Now and then a single horseman with the well- known long gun inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and with his Arab all over tassels, dashed past us, doing "fantasia" to impress us strangers. The proceeding was never without success as far as I was concerned. At 9.30 we left the plain and at once entered the hills of Judea, which are much more uniformly stony than one would suppose them to be from a distance. We soon stopped at a wayside khan, about half-a-dozen Vetturinos being assembled in the yard, and all the horses were rested. We then began the ascent of the dear Hill Country, fragrant with memories of Mary on her journey made in haste from Nazareth. I did not expect such a long and high ascent, having failed to realise from description the immense altitude of the height of land that holds Jerusalem. " Things seen are mightier than things heard." The w^ildflowers increased in beauty and variety, chief, I think, amongst them being the crimson anemones with black centre which tossed their gay heads every- where in the mountain breeze. Olives and stones, stones and olives on all sides. Here and there a LETTERS FROM THE HOLY LAND 15 carob tree or a clump of tamarisk at a tomb. As we crested the first pass and looked back we saw the plaitis of Philistia, with Ramleh white in the sunshine and the sea beyond sinning in a long flash of silver. Before us to the right soon loomed against the clouds the great tombs of the IMaccabees, and away to our left on a high cone appeared, remote and awful, the " Tomb of Samuel," a dominating feature over all the land. As we descended on the other side of the pass we came in sight of Ain Kareem, the reputed birthplace of John the Baptist, on the side of a high hill. The words of the ^Lagnificat sounded in one's mind's ear. It is a grand situation and most striking as seen from the road. At the bottom of the valley formed by the hill we were descending and the hill of Ain Kareem runs the dry bed of the brook from which David chose his smooth stone for Goliath. W. went down and selected just such a smooth white stone as a memento. At the bottom of the valley we halted at a Russian khan and I took a little sketch of a bit of hillside and a pear-tree in blossom. Vou must have seen this land with " second sight," for you have always seen a flowering fruit-tree in your 16 LETTERS FROM THE HOLY LAM) mental pictures of it at Eastertide and Lady Day. Palestine is essentially the land of little fruit- trees. On leaving the Russian khan, where we beheld chromo-lithographs of the late and the present Czars on the walls, and were interested in the hih riding all day leave one little time for quiet thought, and at our mid-day halts, when circum- stances permit, I sketch with concentrated intensity against time. Saturday, 18th April. To-day was breezy and the country less stony. Waving corn as in Philistia refreshes the eye. LETTERS FROM THE HOLY LAND 55 We are now in the goodly land of Epliraim, which deepens in richness as we advance. We passed through Shiloh, where the Ark of the Covenant rested so long, and the little Samuel heard the call of God. The place is marked by some old ruins — Roman or Crusader ? and a forlorn dead tree lies athwart them. A glorious cultivated plain opened out before we reached our halting -place, Jacob's Well. How I had longed to see this well, where Our Lord conversed with the Samaritan woman. But I was dis- appointed at being unable to make the sketch of it I hoped for so much. The well is about five feet below the surface of a mass of ruins. An early Christian chapel once enclosed it, but this has fallen in and all but buried the well. But you can imagine one's feelings as one rests one's hand on its edge and realises that Our Saviour sat there as He spoke to the woman who had come to draw water. You remember that it was at this well that He told His disciples to look up at tlie fields " already white unto harvest." There they are, those fields, filling the valley of Sychar. But you cannot see them from the well now, in the pit enclosed by ruins, nor the town 56 LEITERS FROM THE HOLY LAND to which the disciples went "to buy meats," nor even the two great mountains of Ebal and Gerizim that rise so high quite close by. This well is like the Cave of Machpelah, — accepted by all as authentic beyond question. I cantered my horse all the way up to our camp, high up in an olive-wood on the other side of the town, for I must say I was longing to get the ride over and have a good rest. But Society duties awaited me ! The ministers of various denominations came to call on us, and when later on the Catholic priest (an Italian) honoured us with a visit I was called upon to take over Isaac's duties as interpreter. We went, W. and I, for a pleasant stroll towards sundown, and had a perfectly exquisite view of Nablous, the ancient Shechem, lying between those two mountains whose names rang so sonorously to us all in childhood — the terrible Ebal and the smiling Gerizim. A most perfect, typical Eastern town, this, embowered in orange and pomegranate trees — the home of the night- ingale, whose music blends with that of the multitudinous cascades echoing from the over- hanging cliffs. A Turkish sentry came and lit I.KITEKS FROM THE HOLY ExVNl) 57 his fire close to our tents, and was suffered to mount his quite unnecessary guard over us all night, with an eye to backsheesh at sunrise. SiDulm/, 19th April. The Day of Rest. No travel to-day. Exquisite Nablous, what a Paradise to rest in ! But all was not perfection. We went to Church too early, by mistake, and had to wait an hour before Mass began, passing the time in French small-talk (indeed reduced to a minimum of smallness on my part, for it dwindled away almost to nothing) with the courteous ecclesiastics and the nuns in the garden of the little presbytery. As I was fasting I was not fortified against the subsequent perform- ance on the harmonium during Mass, by a Syrian. On nearing our tent, cheered by the prospect of breakfast, I had another set - back by Isaac's announcing the imminent arrival of what sounded like "the Rev. Vulture," the Lutheran minister. Had that individual really been on the swoop I must have fled, but happily that morning call never took place. It is all very well to laugh, but I felt " in the Pit of Tophet." I have spent tlie rest of the day in sleep, and in writing to you, and in 58 I.F/rTERS FROM THE HOLY LAND fascinating strolls through the town with W., and in returning calls. I am nicely burnt by the sun and wind, for nothing could induce me to let a veil blur or dim one single glimpse of the Holy Land. Monday, 20th April. Glorious breezy weather with flying cloud shadows. Again eight hours in the saddle, but the Sunday rest has made me quite fresh again. We passed to-day through the hill country of JNIanasseh. After riding a mile or two out of Nablous our "flying column" came running up on foot to the dragoman in front to ask what was to be done with a poor little stowaway who had begged him to let him ride the baggage horse to escape from his unhappy home. " His mother was dead and his stepmother beat him." He looked so piteous perched up on the bags, but, of course, we could not kidnap him, and after receiving some money he was put gently down on the roadside. As we rode on we got a last siglit of him on the green bank swaying to and fro in his desolate grief, his gown making a little pink dot in the vast landscape. Our mid- day halt was at a fountain in a fig country, LEITERS FROM THE HOLY LAND 59 and there we talked to the women and girls who were filling their pitchers. One showed me by signs how the figs were a failure this year, the young figs all falling off their stalks before ripen- ing. Her patient acceptance of the inevitable reminded me of the Italian peasants and their ** Pazienza, e la volonta di Diof" Then we deflected to the left on our journey to visit Sebaste, where St. John is supposed to have been beheaded, and with great probability. The Crusaders built a magnificent Church to his memory there, the ruins of which are very grand, We rode to the site of the gates of the city, along a path lined with classic pillars, and at the end of this avenue we saw the sea, and where Csesarea, the harbour of Sebaste, once stood. Our camp that evening was at Ain Jenin, an ideal Eastern town. I was not prepared for anytliing so beautiful as it looked in the evening light, when we emerged in sight of it from a defile between hills. We were well in the Plain of Jezreel, and lo 1 Hermon at last ! In the light of the after-glow we beheld his hoary head from our tents, to the north. Tender moonlight suc- ceeded the after-glow. All the mosques and 60 LETTERS FROM THE HOLY LAND minarets were lighted up witli delicate golden lamps at sunset (for it is Ramadan), as at Jeru- salem and Nablous. This place is full of pome- granate trees, with their scarlet blossoms, and of flowerino; tamarisk. *o Tuesday, 21 st April. Off at sinn'ise, the larks singing over the face of the land. We had a glorious ride through the Plain of Jezreel or Esdraelon, often coming upon the brook Kishon and its little trickling tributaries in their multitudinous windings, and fording the same. What a vast space is here, how Biblical in its majesty, and how troubled too with recollec- tions of battle from remotest ages of Israelitish history down to Napoleon's time. Deflecting to the right we climbed up to Naim for our halt, memorable for the raising of the widow's son. There was an immense view from this little bunch of mud houses towards Tabor and Galilee, with a foreground of purple iris. Then descending again into the plain we rode to the foot of Mount Tabor, where, in an olive-wood, and on ploughed land, our camp was pitched. How refreshing it is never to be told we are trespassing in this country. TH5 PLAIN OF ESDRAELON, FROM FOOT OF TABOR, WITH THE VILLAGE OF NAIM IN DISTANCE Plain full of green wheat. Mountain to left is " Little Hermon," on which the village of Nairn stands. Towards sunset. I.E1TERS FROM THE HOLY LAND 61 On arriving I chose to remain and make a sunset sketch of distant Nairn on its hill, whilst W. rode up to the top of Tabor. Wednesday, 22nd April. Off again at sunrise over the saddle of Mount Tabor, ^^ery rough riding through dells of oak, where the honeysuckle hung in masses and scented the air. Tabor itself is scarcely beautiful in outline, and like the magnified mounds that the old masters intended for mountains. In their pictures of the Transfiguration their Tabors are very like the original. This was our most glorious day's journey, for it took us to the shores of the Lake of Galilee. Hermon in distant Lebanon was visible ahead of us throughout. We rode up to near the top of the " INIount of Beatitudes," and then on foot reached the very top, and had our first view of the Sacred Sea from that immense height. Here Christ preached the Sermon on the Mount, and down there, intensely blue, lay that dear lake w^hose shores w^ere so often trodden by His feet. Hermon rose above the majestic landscape, and a warm, palpitating light vibrated over all. In a scrap of shade from 62 LETl^ERS FROM THE HOLY LAND a rock we made our halt, and I had an hour and a half for a sketch. Then we rode down to Tiberias, descending into a furnace, though when once on the shore the breeze was sweet off the water. Tiberias is a dreadful little town, and we were glad to thread its alleys as quickly as pos- sible. Our camp was on a pebbly strand about half a mile south of this, the only, town on these shores that once held such brilliant cities. I made an evening sketch, and before retiring for the night we strolled a long time by those sacred waters in the light of the full moon. The waves were strong, and sounded loud in that great stillness. At such times as this the sense of Our Lord's Presence is almost more than one's mortal heart can hold. We picked up hundreds of shells, which will make appropriate rosaries, mounted in silver, the cross made out of olive wood which I have brought from Gethsemane. I will send you one. Thursday, 23rd April. We went by boat three hours' row to near the mouth of the Jordan, at the north end of the lake, where the grassy slopes are supposed to OUR FIRST SIGHT OF LAKE GALILEE The snowy mountain is Mount Hermon. Northern edge of the lake shown. Tall fennel plants amongst rocks in foreground. Early afternoon. ^WP' ¥ LETTERS FROM THE HOLY EANI) 63 be the scene of the miracle of the Loaves and Fishes. It is very difficult to describe to you my enchantment at seeing one after another these places I have longed to see from early childhood, when our beloved father used to read us the Bible every Sunday. The lake was pale and calm, delicately tinted, and there was a heat-haze over everything in the early part of the day. We disembarked under some thorny acacias which gave a deep shade, and I had the delight of making a sketch there of the coast, looking west- ward, whilst W. went on by boat to the Jordan. Rosy oleanders fringe the water as far as the eye can reach ; the " INIount of Beatitudes " and top of Tabor are in the distance, and the site of Capernaum in the middle distance. God has trodden these scenes with human feet ; the feelinir of sketching them is scarcely to be put before you in words. The boatmen were very angry at being kept, whilst I finished the sketch, from returning at the right time, for they told us that if the west wind sprang up we should never be able to get home that night. Surely enough we were only able to get as far as Capernaum with hard pulling 64 LETTERS FROM THE HOLY LAND against a strong west wind, which suddenly changed the whole face of the lake. Its pale blue was now dirty green and the choppy waves lashed with foam, and so wild did the waves become that the progress of the boat was almost impossible. These sudden and violent gusts that come through the gullies between the mountains are dreaded by the fishermen of to-day as they were in Peter's time. Fortunately W. had in the morninir ordered that our horses should be sent round to meet us here in case the wind arose, and we gladly got on them at this point, having an enchanting ride back and being able at many places to canter our horses. We heard after- wards that the boatmen did not get in till one in the morning. At Capernaum are seen some rich Roman ruins lying tumbled about as though by an earthquake. We rode through the supposed site of Bethsaida, and passed through a portion of the old Roman roadway for chariots, cut throusrh the rock. No accumulation of earth has buried the original surface as elsewhere, so that this lane, with its polished floor of rock, must have undoubtedly been trodden by Our Lord as He passed from city to city. Here are the remains GALILEE, LOOKING TOWARDS HERMON Mount Hermon snow-capped in distance. Town of Tiberias on shore in middle distance to left. LETTERS FROiNI THE HOLY LAND 65 of a Roman aqueduct, in one place pouring a huge volume of clearest water over a ledge where, no doubt, in the city's time, a fountain stood. Now the flood from the northern hills disperses itself in abundant streams that rush through dense herbaoe to the lake. We counted six of these little rivers on our way to JNIagdala, the birth- place of the Magdalen. We looked down from our mountain lanes to the milk-white strands of the little inlets that border the northern end of Gennesaret, and I wondered at which of them the various episodes of the Gospel took place — Our Lord preaching from the ship pushed out a little way to be free from the jostling crowd on shore — the embarkation for the miraculous draught of fishes . Besides oleanders the pomegranates grow all along this shore in dense masses half embedded in teeming vegetation. iNIagdala is a tiny mud hamlet with a single palm. There are splendid fig-trees here. Herds of oxen and goats and flocks of sheep browse knee- deep in the rich grass. Our dragoman took us this time through the whole length of the town of Tiberias. It happened to be a great Jewish festival, and the men had all 9 66 LETTERS FROM THE HOLY LAND freshly oiled and curled their side locks, which dangled from under immense round fur caps, and the women wore artificial flowers in their haii and were clothed in velvets of splendid hue. It was strange to see them thus attired, coming upon them so suddenly when entering the town from the wilderness. The lanes were stifling and un- wholesome, the children pale and sickly, and all had that same blighted look I noticed at Jerusalem. None of them were tanned, but remained white under such a sun ! It was a relief to come out at the other end and canter back along the margin of the "Sea" to our camp, for that ride through Tiberias had oppressed and saddened me. Friday, 24-lh Apiil. An early start as the sun rose over those dark cliff's of the country of the Gadarenes down which the possessed swine careered to the abyss. Good- bye, blessed Sea of Galilee ! AVe had our last look from the immense height near tlie "ISIount of Beatitudes," and thence we turned south-west on our way to Nazareth over the hills of Zebulon. Young shepherds were piping on little fifes on tlie hills. The country became uninteresting GALILEE, LOOKING FROM NEAR THE MOUTH OF THE JORDAN TOWARDS THE "MOUNT OF BEATITUDES" AND TABOR Oleanders in flower skirting shore in foreground. Top of Mount Tabor showing over nearer mountains in distance. LETTERS FROIM THE HOLY LAND 61 (comparatively !) after we left the immediate sur- roundings of the lake till we came to Cana of Galilee, where we halted, and where I made my only " failure " sketch. It was a dear, holy, lovable landscape, but hillocky and green and impossible in that flat noontide light. At Cana is the fountain from which undoubtedly was drawn the water for the marriage feast, since there is absolutely no other spring in the place. It was a long journey to Nazareth. That holy town is very lovely, and so much superior in its buildings to the others — quite well-to-do and exquisitely situated on the slope of a cypress-topped hill, in terraces, like a tiny Genoa. Here culminated my disappointment in the faces of the women of Palestine, for the tattooing is simply outrageous, worse than anywhere else in the East. How can they be beautiful with blue li))s and the mouth surrounded with blue trees, animals and birds ? This spoilt my pleasure in coming upon the " Fountain of the Virgin," where these maids and matrons were filling their pitchers amid a great chattering, at the entrance to the town. We walked, after arriving, to the Church of tlie Annunciation. There, in the " Holy House " 68 LETTERS FROM THE HOLY LAND (the front of which is at Loretto), far below the present surftice of the earth, on the very spot where the angel saluted INIary, one can say the Angel LIS. This is the portion of the house which (as is the custom here) is excavated out of the rock ; the fronts only are of masonry. We visited the '' Mensa Christi," which interested us but little, as it savours too much of the " pious fraud," and then the site of Joseph's workshop. We were disappointed in the position of our camp, as other travellers had forestalled us in getting better places, and the best of all was be- spoken for the great French pilgrimage expected on the morrow. On this account we settled not to tarry at Nazareth and to send the heavy column back to Jerusalem in the morning. We are only one day's journey from Caifa, our place of embarkation. As I was looking at the town from our tent door at the time of the Angelus, the bells of the Church over Mary's house suddenly rang out a carillon, and the tune was that very one we used to hear when A. and I were five and six years old on our dear Genoese Riviera I I had not heard that tune since those days. Later on I watched the full NAZARETH AT SUNRISE The church with spire to the left stands over the site of Joseph's workshop, and near Mary's house. LEITERS FROM THE HOLY LAND 69 moon rising over those mountain outlines wliich Our Lord looked on every day of His hidden life at Nazareth, and then turned and saw the town white in the moonbeams on its dark hillside. Satiirdatj, 9,5 Ih April. We started later than usual, as W. had to close accounts with the " heavy column " and send a telegram to Alexandria to warn them of our impending return. There was a heavy dew. I made a sunrise sketch of the town. A glorious ride we had to Carmel, steeped in the poetry of the Old Testament. Carmel is one mass of oak- trees. There we met the vast host of the French pilgrims coming from Caifa and beginning their experiences of Palestine. We met amicably at the shady halting-place and exchanged a few words of camaraderie, and we watched them depart towards Nazareth, each company headed by a banner. On our way to Caifa we crossed the Kishon again, now near its mouth, flowing through a lovely plain, bordered, near the sandhills that skirt the sea, with date - palms. Over the hills to our right towered Lebanon against the blue. As we came in sight of the bay the town of St. Jean d'Acre 70 LEITERS FROM THE HOLY LAND looked beautiful on the opposite side, and Caifa appeared a bright little town at the foot of Carmel. There we put up at the German inn, and I parted with my dear little horse " Shiloh," and W. with his nimble " Kishon," our good little steeds that brought us so well through the Holy Land. Suvdaij, 261/1 April. A great rest and much letter -writing. The congregation at Mass was large, for there is a considerable Christian colony here. We shall make this our headquarters till Friday, when we must leave for Egypt. Caifa, Mondai/, 27/// April 189-. INIy . . . . — We had a very enjoyable expedi- tion to Acre, driving the whole way there and back in the sea. Where the waves break the sand is hard, whereas higher up the beach no wheeled vehicle could get through in the soft sand. We were often covered with spray, and the lean horses splashed along knee-deep in the surf. At the ferry across the Kishon, where it flows into the sea, our horses were unharnessed and swam alongside our punt, together with a string of camels that looked LETTERS FROM THE HOLY LAND 71 very comical swimming. The shivering horses were reharnessed on the farther shore, and away we went tearing through the waves. Tlie poor beasts seemed to enjoy their oats at the end, if enjoyment is possible to such wretched, ill-treated creatures. I made a sketch as well as I could with the sun in my eyes from our shandrydan, about a quarter of a mile outside the one gate of Acre, on the white sandy strand, whilst AV. went exploring all over the town. The military author- ities molested us not at all, and the commandant only asked W. for backsheesh, although I was con- spicuously sketching the fortifications and W. was scanning everything in a place so saturated with Napoleonic reminiscences. The same amphibious drive in the gloaming back to Caifa. Tnesdatj, 2Sth April 18.9-. To-day we drove to remote Athlit, a long way down the coast to the south, and spent quiet hours amid the Gothic Crusader ruins on the wave- lashed rocks beyond Carmel. Acre and Athlit steep one's mind in Crusader sentiment, which feels almost modern after so long a sojourn in the regions of the Bible. The majestic fragments of 72 LETTERS FROM THE HOLY LAND Northern Gothic we saw to-day seem strange to the eye in this Oriental land, but to the intellect they are full of touching meaning, for this was the point of departure for most of the Crusaders. Baffled, haggard, heart-broken, they took ship attain from here. Wednesday we spent in visiting the Carmelite Monastery, a perfect place to stay at instead of the rather dubious German inn. It is a fortress-like building commanding a sweeping view of the sea, south and west and north, and of the grand land- scape eastward and south again. The whitewashed rooms are filled with the reflection from the light off the water and the land. The Abbot and monks, in the well-known white cloak and brown habit, are, as everywhere, kindly and hospitable, and glad to see you. What a place for study and for paint- ing ; what a j)lace for a Retreat, where everything reminds you of Religion and not one single mundane, worrying, or ugly object comes within your ken ! By " ugly " I always mean some modern eyesore ; it is not a word applicable to the poor and the diseased who humbly mount the steep path for the daily alms and food the monastery has ready for them. Somewhere amongst this series of oak-clad liills ST. JEAN D'ACRK The roadstead is seen to the left. A sandy shore. Citv surrounded bv walls and fortifications. I.EITERS FROM THE HOLY LAND 73 that forms JMount Carmel, Elijah built his altar to the True God, whereon the burnt -offering was consumed by fire from heaven in sight of the prophets of Baal. " Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the holocaust, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench," III Kings xviii. 38. This was the scene of that mighty episode which is one of the most salient and im])ressive in one's memory of the Old Testament, and look ! down below rushes that same Kishon on whose banks Elijah, after the great drama on the mountain, slew the prophets of Baal in sight of all the children of Israel. A thrill runs through one when recalling sucli scenes as one stands on the very spot where they took place. After seeing specimens of the ancient tombs in this country one can fully understand the words of St. Luke and St. John alluding to the new sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea "wherein no man had yet been laid." These tombs contain triple receptacles for the dead, as I showed you in the sketch plan at Jerusalem, and some I believe have more than tlu'ce. Had the sepulchre at the foot of Calvary contained but one, the words of the 74 LETTERS FROM THE HOLY LAND Evangelists would be puzzling. This is an instance of the illumination that dispels certani obscurities in one's mind as one journeys across the theatre of Bible history. It seems a strange paradox, but it is a very weighty fact, that the possession of the Holy Land by the conservative Turk preserves all such tokens of the past for the elucidation of the Christian's Bible. Were this land in possession of a "Christian " Power, I fear that the service of INIammon would soon necessitate the obliteration of these tokens so precious to our Faith. Railways, factories, mines and new towns " run " by greedy syndicates, would very soon make an end of them all. There was a Christian proposal a little while ago, I believe, to flood the whole of Palestine for commercial purposes. My ideal would be (oh, vain dream !) that some great confederation of earnest people whose God is not the Dollar, belonging to the various European Powers and America, should purchase the little Holy Land as a possession " for ever " for Christendom — real Christendom. To-day, Thursday, we saw the " School of the Prophets," a curious and awesome cavern in the side of the mountain. These have been quiet LEITEKS FROM THE HOLY EAND 75 days, wherein I have been able to write much and assimilate the events of our glorious journey. Looking back along these days of travel, many flitting thoughts that came and went as we journeyed on, return to one's mind in the stillness of repose. One of the facts that have struck us most in this ancient land which is yet so fresh — so fresh in its surprises and in its stirrings of the heart — is the fact that no book of human authorship dealing with the subject is readable on the spot. You may take with you Dean Stanley, Dr. Thomson {TJie Land and the Book), Miss IMartineau, or any of the delightful works on Palestine that have fascinated you in times gone by : you will open them once but not again. The Bible is the oidy book you can i^ead here ! All the others are inadequate : no man can measure him- self with the Infinite. (Such books as Pere Didon's sublime Jesus Christ or Father Galhvey's Watches of the Passion I do not consider as being of human authorship, because they are illustrative accompaniments of the Scriptures.) Tlie feeling I have when on the point of leaving the Holy Land is one difficult to describe worthily. \Ve seem to have been allowed a glimpse into the 7G LETTERS FROM THE HOLY LAND other world through this sacred portal. To have stood on the summit of Olivet whence Our Redeemer ascended into heaven in the form He reigns in now at the right hand of the Father, is as though one had touched heaven itself. And then the force with which one realises certain episodes of His revealed life on earth makes one see the Incarnation so vividly that the human mind bends beneath the might of the revelation. When I saw our boatmen the other day on Galilee pulling with all their might, but in vain, against the sudden west wind, so peculiar to that particular lake, I saw before me the fishermen of Peter's type, dressed in the same loose garments, going through the same dangerous work that he and his fellows had to face habitually. How easy it was, with that living illustration before me, to see the struggling boat's crew on the night that Jesus, remaining to pray alone on the mountain on the eastern shore, sent them forward to Capernaum without Him, and how easy to see them trying to make their way as described in Matthew xiv. 24. "But the boat in the midst of the sea was tossed with the waves : for the wind was contrary." And then the divine Figure following them, moving LEITERS FROM THE HOLY LAND 77 over those tossing waves, can be imagined, approach- ing, full of calm reassurance, to still their fears at His apparition — " It is I, be not afraid." The direction in which the boat was steered, the mountain whence the divine Figure came forward and overtook the boat — all now appears to the mind's eye in powerful vividness, in the setting of land and water that one has seen. Again, the poor demoniacs that lived in the tombs that are cut out of the sides of those same mountains " over against Galilee " (there are out- cast maniacs like them to-day in the deserts, if not " possessed " as these men were), — I fancy I can see the look of the wild animal in their faces as they met our Lord, and hear the quick, wild cry of one of them : " What have I to do with thee, Jesus, Son of the most high God ? " — and the hoarse answer to Christ's question, " My name is Legion ! " I have before me the recollection of a strange creature I saw running out of a sepulchral chamber in a ruined temple on the Upper Nile, like the incarnation of Satan in some of the Old Masters' pictures : tlie head bald, and of the same cinder-coloured hue as the evil face, with its large pointed ears, and tlie muscular body. I do not 78 LEITERS FROM THE HOLY LAND mean that the possessed man of the Gospel might have been like this dweller in tombs, but one sees strange beings in the deserts whose shelters are tlie resting-])laces of the dead. I continue to be haunted by the feeling that the sight of the Holy Places is too easily and too unceremoniously obtained nowadays. I hope we do not feel less devoutly with regard to them than in the "Ages of Faith," and that it is only our modern way to take these things as we do. Do you remember how history tells us that Richard Cceur de Lion, after his defeat by the Saracens some distance short of Jerusalem, falling back towards the coast, baffled in his heroic efforts to redeem the Holy Sepulchre from the Infidel, refused to look on the city which came in sight in the rear of his line of march as he and his knights crested a high hill near Emmaiis ? He would not look ; he had failed ; his eyes were too unworthy to rest upon the City of the Lord. And to-day, with the Infidel still in possession, the Christian tourist, nothing doubting, takes a good look through his binocular on sighting the same Jerusalem. I remember hearing that as some friends of ours, forming part of a mixed company, RUINS OF THE CRUSADERS' BANQUETING HALL, ATHLEET The springs of the Gothic arches can be traced on the high brick wall. The hills to the right form the lower western slopes of Mount Carmel, covered with oak woods. I 3- LETl^ERS FROM THE HOLY LAND 79 came in sight of the city, one of their number dropped on his knees in as unobtrusive a manner as was possible under the circumstances. " I did not know your brother was a fanatic^' whispered an American to his sister. As regards certain details of life in this country that so much embarrass and disappoint some travellers, do not imagine that I affectedly ignore their existence ; but I do feel grateful that in my view of the whole scene they have everywhere kept their proper place. I know how disappointed some people are on their account, and I should be sorry if I was thought intolerant in my self- satisfaction at being so fortunate. One lady, in a little book I once read, describing her journey, takes for her text : " He is not here, bi . is risen." In bitter chagrin she acknowledges tl " fact that nowhere in Jerusalem could she see Oi r Lord through her surroundings. I asked a fri nd once if she would like to see the Holy Land: " Certainly not ! " she exclaimed ; " I have read JNLirk Twain's book." I inquired of an English tra eller at Jaffa the other day, who was on his way home, how the Holy Places had impressed him. His answers were dispirited : the dirt, the 80 LETTERS FROM THE HOLY LAND flies, etc., etc., had annoyed liim. His ears were still ringing with the iibi(j[uitous " J3aksheesh !" ; the lepers had s})oilt some of the best views — and so on. How much better it would have been for him not to come here, like the ISLirk Twain lady, and to have preserved his Oxford impressions of the Bible uncontaminated ! In Our Lord's time, although the cities were splendid, the poor and the diseased were just as much en evidence as now, and where He was His poor clustered thickest. Yet who thinks of the merely squalid details of those crowds when reading the Gospel narrative ? Why, then, dwell on them so much here to-day as we follow His footsteps on the very soil He trod ? I must say any danger of distractions I may have felt has not come from what I have seen of the native element here. Not long ago a party of Christian (?) European trippers (I will not define their nation- ality) reaching the .Tews' Wailing Place at Jeru- salem, charged with their donkeys all along the line of those preoccupied figures standing praying with their faces buried in their Testaments or pressed against the stones of the great wall, and knocked them over. LEITERS FROM THE HOLY LAND 81 But "Many men many minds," and as no country stirs the sincere heart as this one does, one must accept eacli thoughtful traveller's account of his experiences as being genuinely felt. I would warn intending tourists who are earnest and sensitive about this sacred land against forming large parties for the journey. Amongst the group of fellow - travellers there is sure to be at least one discordant unit. Facetious remarks, ignorant questions, thoughtless exclamations, are harder to bear here than elsewhere. Of course, if the party forms a religious pilgrimage these warnings do not apply ; but even a pilgrimage in company has drawbacks, if the time is limited, and many in- evitable distractions. Select as few companions as is practicable — one only, if possible, entirely one with you in faith and feeling. Also, any one in delicate health should not attempt the entire journey. I have seen more than one sad pro- cession of returning tourists escorting a litter containing some poor collapsed lady, depending on the fore-and-aft mules that carried her for a smooth transit back to Jerusalem and the carriage road. AVoe betide her if either of the beasts came down or even stumbled 1 82 LETTERS FROM THE HOLY LAND Wlieii I wrote to you from Jerusalem I told you how convincing one feels the traditional sites of Calvary and the Holy Sepulchre to be in spite of modern scepticism. But more modern still is the verification of their authenticity. It has lately been proved, by that " research " which we seem to require nowadays, that they stand outside the line of the city walls of our Lord's time. The great stumbling-block to those who could not accept the word of Tradition consisted in the idea that those sites had always been within the city as now, for it is known that the Jewish law forbade places of execution and of burial within the walls. To show you how the shape of Jerusalem, marked out by its fortifications, has changed during its long history, I may mention that, whereas the house of the Last Supper stood within the lines in Our Lord's time, it stands far outside the walls of to-day. And now the last sunset we shall see from the Land of Promise is steeping Lebanon in rose and violet, and the slender shadows of the palms are lengthening across the sandy spaces of the plain. The sea has not a sail upon it, and the sky not LEITERS FROM THE HOLY LAND 83 even a cloud " the size of a man's hand," such as Elijah's servant saw from the top of this Carmel which overshadows us. Undisturbed by wind or cloud, the mind can dwell upon thoughts which the approaching hour of leave-taking renders more poignant. The afterglow is now kindling its fires, and transfiguring a scene one had thought could not be rendered more beautiful. Of all the splendours of Nature the afterglow is the most surprising. I think in the East it comes more swiftly after sunset than in Italy, and it is more astonishing in its display of light. I have often, in Egypt, tried to paint it, but it is no easy matter, for, although the light seems so powerful it is really too low to allow one to see one's work. The sky becomes a low -toned grey -green -blue . . . what shall I call it ? — a tone of the greatest subtlety, against which the illuminated objects on the earth shine with the colours of flame rather than of the sun. There follows this last effort of the dying day what I may call the last sigh, — a few moments of delicate greys of infinite tenderness, and then night, — absolute night. They are ringing the xVngelus 84 LEITERS FROM THE HOLY LxVND up at the Carmelite Monastery on tlie wooded heights. Those monks live a lonely life on the mountain whence their Order takes its name. The author of JVie Land and the Book speaks of this lonely monastery with its monks " chanting Latin to nobody." Only to the great God Who chose this little country wherein to testify His love for man ; AVho has trodden with weary feet those hills we have traversed in the journey that ends to-day I Fr'ulay, \st Mai/. At 1.30 this morning we left these blessed shores, deeply grateful for the privilege of treading the soil of Palestine which had been accorded us. We put off in boats for the Austrian I^loyd steamer lying in the offing by the light of a waning moon. By 8 a.m. we anchored off Jaffa, where we lay all day, and at sunset stood out to sea, soon losing sight of the Holy Land in the shades of night. The letttrpre%i kai been fr'mted by Messrs. R. & R. Clark, Limited, EJitihurgh. 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