ΕΤΟΥϹΙΦ—Ι[ΟΥ]Λ.ΦΙ[ΛΙΙΟΥΛ . ΔΗΜΗΙΟΥΛ . ΑΡΤΕΠ] ΠΙΚΟΣΤΡΙΟΣ ΚΑ[Ι]Α[ΡΙ]ΩΙΔΙΡΟΣ ΚΑΙ[Κ]ΑΙ ΔΟΜΝϹΙΝΑΑΔΝΗ ΓΥ[ΝΗ]ΠΡΕΙΓΚΥ ΓΥΝΗΓΥΝΗΠΑΝΤΑΣ ΕΠΟΙΟΥ [Ν]Under the first niche.Under the second.Under the third.
A gentleman in our company, and myself, have reason to remember this place, for an escape we had in it. A drunken janissary, passing under the window where we were, chanced to have a drop of wine thrown out upon his vest, upon which innocent provocation he presented his pistol at us in at the window; had it gone off, it must have been fatal to one or both of us, who sat next the place. But it pleased God to restrain his fury. This evening we returned again to Damascus.
May 3.—This morning we went to see the street called Straight[630]. It is about half a mile in length, running from east to west through the city. It being narrow, and the houses jutting out in several places on both sides, you cannot have a clear prospect of its length and straightness. In this street is shown the house of Judas, with whom St. Paul lodged; and in the same house is an old tomb, said to be Ananias's, but how he should come to be buried here they could not tell us, nor could we guess; his own house being shown us in another place. However, the Turks have a reverence for his tomb, and maintain a lamp always burning over it.
In the afternoon, having presented the convent with ten per man for our kind reception, we took our leaves of Damascus, and shaped our course for Tripoli; designing in the way to see Balbec, and the cedars of Libanus. In order to this, we returned the same way by which we came, and, crossing the river Barrady again at the bridge of Dummar, came to a village of the same name a little farther,and there lodged this night. We travelled this afternoon three hours.
May 4.—This morning we left our old road, and took another more northerly. In an hour and a half we came to a small village called Sinie; just by which is an ancient structure on the top of a high hill, supposed to be the tomb of Abel, and to have given the adjacent country in old times the name of Abilene. The fratricide also is said by some to have been committed in this place. The tomb is thirty yards long, and yet it is here believed to have been but just proportioned to the stature of him who was buried in it. Here we entered into a narrow gut, between two steep rocky mountains, the river Barrady running at the bottom. On the other side of the river were several tall pillars, which excited our curiosity to go and take a nearer view of them. We found them part of the front of some ancient and very magnificent edifice, but of what kind we could not conjecture.
We continued upon the banks of Barrady, and came in three hours to a village called Maday; and in two hours more to a fountain called Ain-il-Hawra, where we lodged. Our whole stage was somewhat less than seven hours; our course nearly north-west.
May 5.—This morning we passed by the fountain of Barrady, and came in an hour and two-thirds to a village called Surgawich. At this place we left the narrow valley, in which we had travelled ever since the morning before, and ascended the mountain on the left hand. Having spent in crossing it two hours, we arrived a second time in the valley of Bocat; here, steering northerly, directly up the valley, we arrived in three hours at Balbec. Our stage this day was near seven hours, and our course near about west.
At Balbec we pitched at a place less than half a mile distant from the town, eastward, near a plentiful and delicious fountain, which grows immediately into a brook; and running down to Balbec, adds no small pleasure and convenience to the place.
In the afternoon we walked out to see the city. But we thought fit before we entered to get licence of the governor, and to proceed with all caution; being taught this necessary care by the example of some worthy English gentlemen of our factory, who, visiting this place in the year 1689, in their return from Jerusalem, and suspecting no mischief, werebasely intrigued by the people here, and forced to redeem their lives at a great sum of money.
Balbec is supposed to be the ancient Heliopolis, or City of the Sun; for that the word imports. Its present Arab, which is perhaps its most ancient name, inclines to the same importance. For Baal, though it imports all idols in general, of whatsoever sex or condition, yet it is very often appropriated to the sun, the sovereign idol of this country.
The city enjoys a most delightful and commodious situation, on the east side of the valley of Bocat. It is of a square figure, compassed with a tolerable good wall, in which are towers all round at equal distances. It extends, as far as I could guess by the eye, about two furlongs on a side. Its houses within are all of the meanest structure, such as are usually seen in Turkish villages.
At the south-west side of this city is a noble ruin, being the only curiosity for which this place is wont to be visited. It was anciently a heathen temple, together with some other edifices belonging to it, all truly magnificent; but in latter times these ancient structures have been patched and pieced up with several other buildings, converting the whole into a castle, under which name it goes at this day. The adjectitious buildings are of no mean architecture, but yet easily distinguishable from what is more ancient.
Coming near these ruins, the first thing you meet with is a little round pile of building, all of marble. It is encircled with columns of the Corinthian order, very beautiful, which support a cornice that runs all round the structure, of no ordinary state and beauty. The part of it that remains is at present in a very tottering condition, but yet the Greeks use it for a church; and it were well if the danger of its falling, which perpetually threatens, would excite those people to use a little more fervour in their prayers than they generally do, the Greeks being, seemingly, the most undevout and negligent at their divine service of any sort of people in the Christian world.
From this ruin you come to a large firm pile of building, which, though very lofty and composed of huge square stones, yet, I take to be part of the adjectitious work; for one sees in the inside some fragments of images in the walls and stones, with Roman letters upon them, set the wrong way.In one stone we found gravenDIVIS, and in another line,MOSC. Through this pile, you pass in a stately arched walk or portico, one hundred and fifty paces long, which leads you to the temple.
The temple is an oblong square, in breadth thirty-two yards, and in length sixty-four, of which eighteen were taken up by theπρόναοςor ante-temple, which is now tumbled down, the pillars being broke that sustained it. The body of the temple, which now stands, is encompassed with a noble portico, supported by pillars of the Corinthian order, measuring six feet and three inches in diameter, and about forty-five feet in height, consisting all of three stones apiece. The distance of the pillars from each other, and from the wall of the temple, is nine feet. Of these pillars there are fourteen on each side of the temple, and eight at the end, counting the corner pillars in both numbers.
On the capitals of the pillars there runs all round a stately architrave and cornice, rarely carved. The portico is covered with large stones hollowed archwise, extending between the columns and the wall of the temple. In the centre of each stone is carved the figure of some one or other of the heathen gods or goddesses, or heroes. I remember amongst the rest a Ganymede, and the eagle flying away with him, so lively done that it excellently represented the sense of that verse in Martial,
"Illæsum timidis unguibus hæsit onus."
"Illæsum timidis unguibus hæsit onus."
The gate of the temple is twenty-one feet wide, but how high could not be measured, it being in part filled up with rubbish. It is moulded and beautified all round with exquisite sculpture. On the nethermost side of the portal is carved a Fame hovering over the head, as you enter, and extending its wings two-thirds of the breadth of the gate; and on each side of the eagle is described a Fame, likewise upon the wing. The eagle carries in its pounces a caduceus, and in his beak the strings or ribbons coming from the ends of two festoons, whose other ends are held and supported on each side by the two Fames. The whole seemed to be a piece of admirable sculpture.
The measure of the temple within is forty yards in length, and twenty in breadth. In its walls all round are two rows of pilasters, one above the other; and between the pilasters are niches, which seem to have been designed for the receptionof idols. Of these pilasters there are eight in a row on each side; and of the niches, nine.
About eight yards' distance from the upper end of the temple stands part of two fine channelled pillars, which seem to have made a partition in that place, and to have supported a canopy over the throne of the chief idol, whose station appears to have been in a large niche at this end. On that part of the partition which remains are to be seen carvings in rilievo representing Neptune, Tritons, Fishes, Sea-gods, Arion and his dolphin, and other marine figures. The covering of the whole fabric is totally broken down; but yet this I must say of the whole as it now stands, that it strikes the mind with an air of greatness beyond any thing that I ever saw before, and is an eminent proof of the magnificence of the ancient architecture.
About fifty yards distant from the temple is a row of Corinthian pillars, very great and lofty, with a most stately architrave and cornice at top. This speaks itself to have been part of some very august pile; but what one now sees of it is but just enough to give a regret that there should be no more of it remaining.
Here is another curiosity of this place, which a man had need be well assured of his credit before he ventures to relate, lest he should be thought to strain the privilege of a traveller too far. That which I mean is a large piece of the old wall, orπερίβολος, which encompassed all these structures last described. A wall made of such monstrous great stones, that the natives hereabouts (as it is usual in things of this strange nature) ascribe it to the architecture of the devil. Three of the stones, which were larger than the rest, we took the pains to measure, and found them to extend sixty-one yards in length; one twenty-one, the other two each twenty yards. In deepness they were four yards each, and in breadth of the same dimension. These three stones lay in one and the same row, end to end. The rest of the wall was made also of great stones, but none, I think, so great as these. That which added to the wonder was, that these stones were lifted up into the wall more than twenty feet from the ground.
In the side of a small ascent, on the east part of the town, stood an old single column, of the Tuscan order, about eighteen or nineteen yards high, and one yard and a half in diameter. It had a channel cut in its side from the bottomto the top, from which we judged it might have been erected for the sake of raising water.
At our return to our tents we were a little perplexed by the servants of the mosolem, about our caphar. We were contented at last to judge it at ten per Frank, and five per servant, rather than we would engage in a long dispute at such a place as this.
Near the place where we lodged was an old mosque, and (as I said before) a fine fountain. This latter had been anciently beautified with some handsome stone-work round it, which was now almost ruined; however, it afforded us this imperfect inscription.
ΤΩΝΧΕΙΜΕΡΕΙΩΝ Π..ΟΝΕΩΚΤΙϹΤΟϹΠΑΝΝΒΛΕΠΕΙΝΔΕΔΩΚΕΝ ΩΡΡΕϹΤΕΚΛΙΝΕΟΝΧΡΥϹΟΝΠΑΡΑϹΧϹ ... ϹΩϹΙΒΙΟϹΤΕΜΕΓΑϹ.ΥΔΩΡΤΕΝΥΝ-ΡΕΚΤΙΠΗΓΑΙΟΝΠΟΛΥΕΥΧΑΙϹΘΕΟΔΟΤΟΥΤΟΥ ΟϹΙΟΥΕΠΙϹΚΟΠΟΥ.
ΤΩΝΧΕΙΜΕΡΕΙΩΝ Π..ΟΝΕΩΚΤΙϹΤΟϹΠΑΝΝΒΛΕΠΕΙΝΔΕΔΩΚΕΝ ΩΡΡΕϹΤΕΚΛΙΝΕΟΝΧΡΥϹΟΝΠΑΡΑϹΧϹ ... ϹΩϹΙΒΙΟϹΤΕΜΕΓΑϹ.ΥΔΩΡΤΕΝΥΝ-ΡΕΚΤΙΠΗΓΑΙΟΝΠΟΛΥΕΥΧΑΙϹΘΕΟΔΟΤΟΥΤΟΥ ΟϹΙΟΥΕΠΙϹΚΟΠΟΥ.
May 6.—Early this morning we departed from Balbec, directing our course straight across the valley. As we passed by the walls of the city, we observed many stones inscribed with Roman letters and names, but all confused, and some placed upside down, which demonstrates that the materials of the wall were the ruins of the ancient city. In one place we found these letters,RMIPTITVEPR; in others these,VARI–––; in another,NERIS; in others,LVCIL–––, andSEVERI, andCELNAE, andFIRMI; all which serve only to denote the resort which the Romans had to this place in ancient times.
In one hour we passed by a village called Ye-ad; and in an hour more went to see an old monumental pillar, a little on the right hand of the road. It was nineteen yards high, and five feet in diameter, of the Corinthian order. It had a table for an inscription on its north side, but the letters are now perfectly erased. In one hour more we reached the other side of the valley, at the foot of Mount Anti-Libanus.
We immediately ascended the mountain, and in two hours came to a large cavity between the hills, at the bottom of which was a lake called by its old Greek name, Limone. It is about three furlongs over, and derives its waters from the melting of the snow. By this lake our guides would havehad us stay all night, assuring us that if we went up higher in the mountains we should be forced to lie amongst the snow; but we ventured that, preferring a cold lodging before an unwholesome one. Having ascended one hour, we arrived at the snow, and proceeding amongst it for one hour and a half more, we then chose out as warm a place as we could in so high a region; and there we lodged this night upon the very top of Libanus. Our whole stage this day was seven hours and a half.
Libanus is in this part free from rocks, and only rises and falls with small, easy unevennesses, for several hours' riding; but is perfectly barren and desolate. The ground, where not concealed by the snow, appeared to be covered with a sort of white slates, thin and smooth. The chief benefit it serves for is, that by its exceeding height it proves a conservatory for abundance of snow, which, thawing in the heat of summer, affords supplies of water to the rivers and fountains in the valleys below. We saw in the snow prints of the feet of several wild beasts, which are the sole proprietors of these upper parts of the mountains.
May 7.—The next morning we went four hours almost perpetually upon deep snow, which, being frozen, bore us and our horses; and then descending for about one hour, came to a fountain called, from the name of an adjacent village, Ain-il-Hadede. By this time we were got into a milder and better region.
Here was the place where we were to strike out of the way, in order to go to Canobine and the cedars. And some of us went upon this design, whilst the rest chose rather to go directly for Tripoli, to which we had not now above four hours. We took with us a guide, who pretended to be well acquainted with the way to Canobine, but he proved an ignorant director; and after he had led us about for several hours in intricate and untrodden mazes amongst the mountains, finding him perfectly at a loss, we were forced to forsake our intended visit for the present, and to steer directly for Tripoli, where we arrived late at night, and were again entertained by our worthy friends, Mr. Consul Hastings and Mr. Fisher, with their wonted friendship and generosity.
May 8.—In the afternoon Mr. Consul Hastings carried us to see the castle of Tripoli. It is pleasantly situated on ahill, commanding the city, but has neither arms nor ammunition in it, and serves rather for a prison than a garrison. There was shut up in it at this time a poor Christian prisoner, called Sheikh Eunice, a Maronite. He was one that had formerly renounced his faith, and lived for many years in the Mohammedan religion, but in his declining age he both retracted his apostacy and died to atone for it, for he was impaled by the order of the pasha two days after we left Tripoli. This punishment of impaling is commonly executed amongst the Turks for crimes of the greatest degree, and is certainly one of the greatest indignities and barbarities that can be offered to human nature. The execution is done in this manner. They take a post of about the bigness of a man's leg, and eight or nine feet long, and make it very sharp at one end. This they lay upon the back of the criminal, and force him to carry it to the place of execution, imitating herein the old Roman custom of compelling malefactors to bear their cross. Being arrived at the fatal place, they thrust in the stake at the fundament of the person who is the miserable subject of this doom, and then taking him by the legs, draw on his body upon it, till the point of the stake appears at his shoulders. After this they erect the stake, and fasten it in a hole dug in the ground. The criminal, sitting in this manner upon it, remains not only still alive, but also drinks, smokes, and talks, as one perfectly sensible, and thus some have continued for twenty-four hours; but generally, after the tortured wretch has remained in this deplorable and ignominious posture an hour or two, some one of the standers by is permitted to give him a gracious stab to the heart, so putting an end to his inexpressible misery.
Sunday, May 9.—Despairing of any other opportunity, I made another attempt this day to see the cedars and Canobine. Having gone for three hours across the plain of Tripoli, I arrived at the foot of Libanus, and from thence, continually ascending, not without great fatigue, came in four hours and a half to a small village called Eden, and in two hours and a half more to the cedars. These noble trees grow amongst the snow near the highest part of Lebanon, and are remarkable as well for their own age and largeness as for those frequent allusions made to them in the word of God. Here are some of them very old, and of a prodigious bulk, and others younger, of a smaller size. Of the formerI could reckon up only sixteen, and the latter are very numerous. I measured one of the largest, and found it twelve yards six inches in girth, and yet sound, and thirty-seven yards in the spread of its boughs. At about five or six yards from the ground it was divided into five limbs, each of which was equal to a great tree.
After about half an hour spent in surveying this place, the clouds began to thicken, and to fly along upon the ground, which so obscured the road that my guide was very much at a loss to find our way back again. We rambled about for seven hours thus bewildered, which gave me no small fear of being forced one night more at Libanus; but at last, after a long exercise of pains and patience, we arrived at the way that goes down to Canobine, where I arrived by the time it was dark, and found a kind reception, answerable to the great need I had of it, after so long fatigue.
Canobine is a convent of the Maronites, and the seat of the patriarch, who is at present F. Stephanus Edenensis, a person of great learning and humanity. It is a very mean structure; but its situation is admirably adapted for retirement and devotion, for there is a very deep rupture in the side of Libanus, running at least seven hours' travel directly up into the mountain. It is on both sides exceeding steep and high, clothed with fragrant greens from top to bottom, and everywhere refreshed with fountains, falling down from the rocks in pleasant cascades, the ingenious work of nature. These streams, all uniting at the bottom, make a full and rapid torrent, whose agreeable murmuring is heard all over the place, and adds no small pleasure to it. Canobine is seated on the north side of this chasm, on the steep of the mountain, at about the midway between the top and the bottom. It stands at the mouth of a great cave, having a few small rooms fronting outward that enjoy the light of the sun, the rest are all under ground. It had for its founder the emperor Theodosius the Great; and though it has been several times rebuilt, yet the patriarch assured me the church was of the primitive foundation; but, whoever built it, it is a mean fabric, and no great credit to its founder. It stands in the grotto, but fronting outwards receives a little light from that side. In the same side there were also hung in the wall two small bells to call the monks to their devotions; a privilege allowed nowhere else in this country, nor would they be sufferedhere, but that the Turks are far enough off from the hearing of them.
The valley of Canobine was anciently, as it well deserves, very much resorted to for religious retirement. You see here still hermitages, cells, monasteries, almost without number. There is not any little part of rock that jets out upon the side of the mountain, but you generally see some little structure upon it for the reception of monks and hermits, though few or none of them are now inhabited.
May 10.—After dinner I took my leave of the patriarch, and returned to Tripoli. I steered my course down by a narrow oblique path cut in the side of the rupture, and found it three hours before I got clear of the mountains, and three more afterwards before I came to Tripoli.
May 11.—This day we took our leaves of our worthy Tripoli friends, in order to return for Aleppo. We had some debate with ourselves, whether we should take the same way by which we came when outward bound, or a new one by Emissa, Hempse, and Hamal. But we had notice of some disturbances upon this latter road, so we contented ourselves to return by the same way we came; for having had enough by this time both of the pleasure and of the fatigue of travelling, we were willing to put an end to both the nearest and speediest way. All that occurred to us new in these days' travel was a particular way used by the country people in gathering their corn, it being now harvest time. They plucked it up by handfuls from the roots, leaving the most fruitful fields as naked as if nothing had ever grown on them. This was their practice in all places of the east that I have seen; and the reason is that they may lose none of their straw, which is generally very short, and necessary for the sustenance of their cattle, no hay being here made. I mention this, because it seems to give light to that expression of the Psalmist, "which withereth before it be plucked up,"[631]where there seems to be a manifest allusion to this custom. Our new translation renders this place otherwise; but in so doing it differs from most or all other copies, and here we may truly say the old is the better. There is indeed mention of a mower in the next verse, but then it is such a mower as fills not his hand, which confirms rather than weakens the preceding interpretation.
Returning, therefore, by our former stages without any notable alteration or occurrence, we came in eight days to the Honey Khan, at which place we found many of our Aleppine friends, who, having heard of our drawing homeward, were come out to meet us and welcome us home. Having dined together, and congratulated each other upon our happy reunion, we went onward the same evening to Aleppo.
Thus, by God's infinite mercy and protection, we were restored all in safety to our respective habitations. And here, before I conclude, I cannot but take notice of one thing more, which I should earnestly recommend to the devout and grateful remembrance of every person engaged in this pilgrimage, viz., that amongst so great a company as we were, amidst such a multiplicity of dangers and casualties, such variety of food, airs, and lodgings (very often none of the best), there was no one of us that came to any ill accident throughout our whole travels, and only one that fell sick by the consequences of the journey after our return, which I esteem the less diminution to so singular a mercy, in regard that, amongst so many of my dear friends and fellow-travellers, it fell to my own share to be the sufferer.Δόξα Θεῷ.
Since the book was printed off, the two following letters, relating to the same subject, were communicated by the Rev. Mr. Osborn, Fellow of Exeter College; to whom they were sent by the author, in answer to some questions proposed by him.
Since the book was printed off, the two following letters, relating to the same subject, were communicated by the Rev. Mr. Osborn, Fellow of Exeter College; to whom they were sent by the author, in answer to some questions proposed by him.
Sir,IRECEIVEDyours of June 27, 1698, and returned you an answer to it in brief, about three months since, promising to supply what was then wanting at some other opportunity, which promise I shall now make good. You desired an account of the Turks, and of our way of living amongst them. As to the former, it would fill a volume to write my whole thoughts about them. I shall only tell you at present that I think they are very far from agreeing with that character which is given of them in Christendom, especially for their exact justice, veracity, and other moral virtues, upon account of which I have sometimes heard them mentioned with very extravagant commendations, as though they far exceed Christian nations. But I must profess myself of another opinion; for the Christian religion, how much soever we live below the true spirit and excellency of it, must still be allowed to discover so much power upon the minds of its professors as to raise them far above the level of a Turkish virtue. It is a maxim that I have often heard from our merchants, that a Turk will always cheat whenhe can find an opportunity. Friendship, generosity, and wit (in the English notion), and delightful converse, and all the qualities of a refined and ingenuous spirit, are perfect strangers to their minds, though in traffic and worldly negotiations they are acute enough, and are able to carry the accounts of a large commerce in their heads without the help of books, by a natural arithmetic, improved by custom and necessity. Their religion is framed to keep up great outward gravity and solemnity, without begetting the least good tincture of wisdom or virtue in the mind. You shall have them at their hours of prayer, which are four a day always, addressing themselves to their devotions with the most solemn and critical washings, always in the most public places, where most people are passing, with most lowly and most regular protestations, and a hollow tone, which are amongst them the great excellencies of prayer. I have seen them, in an affected charity, give money to bird-catchers (who make a trade of it), to restore the poor captives to their natural liberty, and at the same time hold their own slaves in the heaviest bondage; and at other times they will buy flesh to relieve indigent dogs and cats, and yet curse you with famine and pestilence, and all the most hideous execrations, in which way these eastern nations have certainly the most exquisite rhetoric of any people upon earth. They know hardly any pleasure but that of the sixth sense. And yet with all this, they are incredibly conceited of their own religion, and contemptuous of that of others, which I take to be the great artifice of the devil, in order to keep them his own. They are a perfect visible comment upon our blessed Lord's description of the Jewish Pharisees. In a word, lust, arrogance, covetousness, and the most exquisite hypocrisy, complete their character. The only thing that ever I could observe to commend in them is the outward decency of their carriage, the profound respect they pay to religion and to every thing relating to it, and their great temperance and frugality. The dearness of any thing is no motive in Turkey, though it be in England, to bring it into fashion.As for our living amongst them, it is with all possible quiet and safety; and that is all we desire, their conversation being not in the least entertaining. Our delights are among ourselves; and here being more than forty of us, we never want a most friendly and pleasant conversation. Our way of life resembles in some measure the academical. We live in separate squares, shut up every night after the manner of colleges. We begin the day constantly, as you do, with prayers, and have our set times for business, meals, and recreations. In the winter we hunt in the most delightful champaign twice a week; and in the summer go as often to divert ourselves under our tents, with bowling and other exercises; so that you see we want not divertisements, and these all innocent and manly. In short, it is my real opinion, that there is not a society out of England that for all good and desirable qualities may be compared to this. But enough of this confusion, which I would have shortened, and put in better order, if I had had time.March 10, 1698.
Sir,
IRECEIVEDyours of June 27, 1698, and returned you an answer to it in brief, about three months since, promising to supply what was then wanting at some other opportunity, which promise I shall now make good. You desired an account of the Turks, and of our way of living amongst them. As to the former, it would fill a volume to write my whole thoughts about them. I shall only tell you at present that I think they are very far from agreeing with that character which is given of them in Christendom, especially for their exact justice, veracity, and other moral virtues, upon account of which I have sometimes heard them mentioned with very extravagant commendations, as though they far exceed Christian nations. But I must profess myself of another opinion; for the Christian religion, how much soever we live below the true spirit and excellency of it, must still be allowed to discover so much power upon the minds of its professors as to raise them far above the level of a Turkish virtue. It is a maxim that I have often heard from our merchants, that a Turk will always cheat whenhe can find an opportunity. Friendship, generosity, and wit (in the English notion), and delightful converse, and all the qualities of a refined and ingenuous spirit, are perfect strangers to their minds, though in traffic and worldly negotiations they are acute enough, and are able to carry the accounts of a large commerce in their heads without the help of books, by a natural arithmetic, improved by custom and necessity. Their religion is framed to keep up great outward gravity and solemnity, without begetting the least good tincture of wisdom or virtue in the mind. You shall have them at their hours of prayer, which are four a day always, addressing themselves to their devotions with the most solemn and critical washings, always in the most public places, where most people are passing, with most lowly and most regular protestations, and a hollow tone, which are amongst them the great excellencies of prayer. I have seen them, in an affected charity, give money to bird-catchers (who make a trade of it), to restore the poor captives to their natural liberty, and at the same time hold their own slaves in the heaviest bondage; and at other times they will buy flesh to relieve indigent dogs and cats, and yet curse you with famine and pestilence, and all the most hideous execrations, in which way these eastern nations have certainly the most exquisite rhetoric of any people upon earth. They know hardly any pleasure but that of the sixth sense. And yet with all this, they are incredibly conceited of their own religion, and contemptuous of that of others, which I take to be the great artifice of the devil, in order to keep them his own. They are a perfect visible comment upon our blessed Lord's description of the Jewish Pharisees. In a word, lust, arrogance, covetousness, and the most exquisite hypocrisy, complete their character. The only thing that ever I could observe to commend in them is the outward decency of their carriage, the profound respect they pay to religion and to every thing relating to it, and their great temperance and frugality. The dearness of any thing is no motive in Turkey, though it be in England, to bring it into fashion.
As for our living amongst them, it is with all possible quiet and safety; and that is all we desire, their conversation being not in the least entertaining. Our delights are among ourselves; and here being more than forty of us, we never want a most friendly and pleasant conversation. Our way of life resembles in some measure the academical. We live in separate squares, shut up every night after the manner of colleges. We begin the day constantly, as you do, with prayers, and have our set times for business, meals, and recreations. In the winter we hunt in the most delightful champaign twice a week; and in the summer go as often to divert ourselves under our tents, with bowling and other exercises; so that you see we want not divertisements, and these all innocent and manly. In short, it is my real opinion, that there is not a society out of England that for all good and desirable qualities may be compared to this. But enough of this confusion, which I would have shortened, and put in better order, if I had had time.
March 10, 1698.
Sir,As for your questions about Gehazi's posterity and the Greek excommunications, I have little to answer; but yet, I hope, enough to give you and your friend satisfaction. When I was in the Holy Land I saw several that laboured under Gehazi's distemper, but none that could pretend to derive hispedigree from that person. Some of them were poor enough to be his relations; particularly at Sichem (now Naplosu) there were no less than ten (the same number that were cleansed by our Saviour not far from the same place) that came begging to us at one time. Their manner is to come with small buckets in their hands, to receive the alms of the charitable, their touch being still held infectious, or at least unclean. The distemper, as I saw it in them, was very different from what I have seen it in England; for it not only defiles the whole surface of the body with a foul scurf, but also deforms the joints of the body, particularly those of the wrists and ankles, making them swell with a gouty, scrofulous substance, very loathsome to look upon. I thought their legs resembled those of old, battered horses, such as are often seen in drays in England. The whole distemper, indeed, as it there appeared, was so noisome that it might well pass for the utmost corruption of the human body on this side the grave; and certainly the inspired penmen could not have found out a fitter emblem whereby to express the uncleanness and odiousness of vice. But to return to Gehazi, it is no wonder if the descent from him be by time obscured, seeing the best of the Jews, at this time of day, are at a loss to make out their genealogies. But, besides, I see no necessity in Scripture for his line being perpetuated. The term "for ever" is, you know, often taken in a limited sense in holy writ, of which the designation of Phineas's family to the priesthood[632]may serve for an instance. His posterity was, you know, cut entirely off from the priesthood, and that transferred to Eli (who was one of another line) about three hundred years after.I have inquired of a Greek priest, a man not destitute either of sense or probity, about your other question. He positively affirmed it, and produced an instance of his own knowledge in confirmation of it. He said that, about fifteen years ago, a certain Greek departed this life without absolution, being under the guilt of a crime which involved him in the sentence of excommunication, but unknown to the church. He had Christian burial given him; and, about ten years after, a son of his dying, they had occasion to open the ground near where his body was laid, in order to bury his son by him, by which means they discovered his body as entire as when it was first laid in the grave. The shroud was rotted away, and the body naked and black, but perfectly sound. Report of this being brought to the bishop, he immediately suspected the cause of it, and sent several priests (of whom the relator was one) to pray for the soul of the departed, and to absolve him at his grave; which they had no sooner done, but (as the relator goes on) the body instantly dissolved and fell into dust, like slacked lime; and so, well satisfied with the effect of their absolution, they departed. This was delivered to meverbo sacerdotis. The man had hard fortune not to die in the Romish communion; for then his body being found so entire would have entitled him to saintship; for the Romanists, as I have both heard and seen, are wont to find out and maintain the relics of saints by this token; and the same sign which proves ananathema maranathaamongst the Greeks, demonstrates a saint amongst the Papists. Perhaps both are equally in the right.April 12, 1700.
Sir,
As for your questions about Gehazi's posterity and the Greek excommunications, I have little to answer; but yet, I hope, enough to give you and your friend satisfaction. When I was in the Holy Land I saw several that laboured under Gehazi's distemper, but none that could pretend to derive hispedigree from that person. Some of them were poor enough to be his relations; particularly at Sichem (now Naplosu) there were no less than ten (the same number that were cleansed by our Saviour not far from the same place) that came begging to us at one time. Their manner is to come with small buckets in their hands, to receive the alms of the charitable, their touch being still held infectious, or at least unclean. The distemper, as I saw it in them, was very different from what I have seen it in England; for it not only defiles the whole surface of the body with a foul scurf, but also deforms the joints of the body, particularly those of the wrists and ankles, making them swell with a gouty, scrofulous substance, very loathsome to look upon. I thought their legs resembled those of old, battered horses, such as are often seen in drays in England. The whole distemper, indeed, as it there appeared, was so noisome that it might well pass for the utmost corruption of the human body on this side the grave; and certainly the inspired penmen could not have found out a fitter emblem whereby to express the uncleanness and odiousness of vice. But to return to Gehazi, it is no wonder if the descent from him be by time obscured, seeing the best of the Jews, at this time of day, are at a loss to make out their genealogies. But, besides, I see no necessity in Scripture for his line being perpetuated. The term "for ever" is, you know, often taken in a limited sense in holy writ, of which the designation of Phineas's family to the priesthood[632]may serve for an instance. His posterity was, you know, cut entirely off from the priesthood, and that transferred to Eli (who was one of another line) about three hundred years after.
I have inquired of a Greek priest, a man not destitute either of sense or probity, about your other question. He positively affirmed it, and produced an instance of his own knowledge in confirmation of it. He said that, about fifteen years ago, a certain Greek departed this life without absolution, being under the guilt of a crime which involved him in the sentence of excommunication, but unknown to the church. He had Christian burial given him; and, about ten years after, a son of his dying, they had occasion to open the ground near where his body was laid, in order to bury his son by him, by which means they discovered his body as entire as when it was first laid in the grave. The shroud was rotted away, and the body naked and black, but perfectly sound. Report of this being brought to the bishop, he immediately suspected the cause of it, and sent several priests (of whom the relator was one) to pray for the soul of the departed, and to absolve him at his grave; which they had no sooner done, but (as the relator goes on) the body instantly dissolved and fell into dust, like slacked lime; and so, well satisfied with the effect of their absolution, they departed. This was delivered to meverbo sacerdotis. The man had hard fortune not to die in the Romish communion; for then his body being found so entire would have entitled him to saintship; for the Romanists, as I have both heard and seen, are wont to find out and maintain the relics of saints by this token; and the same sign which proves ananathema maranathaamongst the Greeks, demonstrates a saint amongst the Papists. Perhaps both are equally in the right.
April 12, 1700.
We set out from Aleppo, April 17th, 1699, and steering east-north-east, somewhat less, we came in three hours and a half to Surbass.
April 18.—We came in three hours and a half to Bezay, passing by Bab, where is a good aqueduct, Dyn il Daab[633], to which you descend by about thirty steps; and Lediff, a pleasant village. Our course thus far was east and by north. In the afternoon we advanced three hours further, course north-east, to an old ruined place, formerly of some consideration, called Acamy. It is situated in the wilderness, on a hill encompassed by a valley; it was large, and had the footsteps of some symmetry, good walls and buildings.
April 19.—We went east and by north, and in four hours arrived at Bambych. This place has no remnants of its ancient greatness[634]but its walls, which may be traced all round, and cannot be less than three miles in compass. Several fragments of them remain on the east side, especially at the east gate; and another piece of eighty yards long, with towers of large square stone extremely well built. On the north side I found a stone with the busts of a man and woman, large as the life; and, under, two eagles carved on it. Not far from it, on the side of a large well, was fixed a stone with three figures carved on it, in basso relievo. They were two syrens, which, twining their fishy tails together, made a seat, on which was placed, sitting, a naked woman, her arms and the syrens' on each side mutually entwined.
On the west side is a deep pit of about one hundred yards diameter. It was low, and had no water in it, and seemed to have had great buildings all round it, with the pillars and ruins of which it is now in part filled up, but not so much but that there was still water in it. Here are a multitude of subterraneous aqueducts brought to this city, the people attested no fewer than fifty. You can ride nowhere about the city without seeing them.We pitched by one about a quarter of a mile east of the city, which yields a fine stream, and, emptying itself into a valley, waters it, and makes it extremely fruitful. Here perhaps were the pastures of the beasts designed for sacrifices. Here are now only a few poor inhabitants, though anciently all the north side was well inhabited by Saracens, as may be seen by the remains of a noble mosque and a bagnio, a little without the walls. We were here visited by a company of Begdelies, who were encamped some hours further towards Euphrates, having about a thousand horse there.
April 20.—For avoiding the Begdelies we hired a guide, who conducted us a by-way. We travelled north-north-east, over a desert ground, and came in three hours to a small rivulet called Sejour (Sajur), which falls into the Euphrates about three hours below Jerabolus. In about two hours more we came to a fine fruitful plain, covered with extraordinary corn, lying between the hills and the river Euphrates. In about an hour and a half's travelling through this plain on the banks of the river, we came to Jerabolus. This place is of a semicircular figure. Its flat side lying on the banks of Euphrates, on that side it has a high long mount, close by the water, very steep. It was anciently built upon (and at one end of it I saw fragments of) very large pillars, a yard and a half diameter, and capitals and cornices well carved. At the foot of the mount was carved on a large stone a beast resembling a lion, with a bridle in his mouth, and I believe anciently a person sitting on it, but the stone is in that part now broke away; the tail of the beast was couped[635].
Round about this place are high banks cast up, and there is the traces of walls on them. The gates seem to have been well built. The whole was two thousand two hundred and fifty paces, that is, yards, in circumference. The river is here as large as the Thames in London; a long bullet-gun could not shoot a ball over it, but it dropped into the water. Here is found a large serpent, which has legs and claws, called Woralla[636]. I was told by a Turk that a little below this place, when the river is low, may be seen the ruins of a stone bridge over the river; for my own part I saw it not, nor do I much rely on the Turk's veracity. The river seemed to be lately fallen very suddenly, for the banks were freshly wet two yards and more above the water. It was here north and south.
April 21.—We kept close on the banks of the Euphrates, and in two hours and a half crossed a fine rivulet called Towzad; and in two hours more arrived over against Beer (Bir, or Birijik), andpitched on a flat, close by the river side. Observing the latitude of the place by my quadrant, I found the angle between the sun and the zenith to be twenty-two degrees; and the declination this day being fifteen degrees ten minutes, the whole is thirty-seven degrees ten minutes.
April 22.—We continued at our station, not daring to cross the river for fear of falling into the hands of the Kaiyah of the Pasha of Urfa, who was then at Beer, ordering many boats of corn down to Bagdal. We were supplied in the same time with provisions by Sheikh Assyne, to whom we made returns.
Sunday, April 23.—The Kaiyah being now departed, Sheikh Assyne invited us over to Beer; we crossed in a boat of the country, of which they have a great many, this being the great pass into Mesopotamia. The boats are of a miserable fabric, flat and open in the fore part for horses to enter; they are large enough to carry about four horses each. Their way to cross is by drawing up the boat as high as they know to be necessary; and then with wretched oars striking over, she falls a good way down by the force of the stream before they arrive at the further side.
Having saluted Assyne, we were conducted to see the castle, which is a large old building on the top of a great long rock, separated by a great gulf, or natural bottom, from the land. At first coming within the gates, which are of iron, we saw several large globes of stone, about twenty inches diameter; and great axles of iron, with wheels, which were entire blocks of wood two feet thick in the nave, and cut somewhat to an edge toward the periphery; and screws to bend bows or engines; as also several brass field pieces.
Ascending up the sides of the rock by a way cut obliquely, you come to the castle. At first entrance, you find a way cut under ground down to the river. In the castle, the principal things we saw were, first, a large room full of old arms; I saw there glass bottles to be shot at the end of arrows; one of them was stuck at the end of an arrow, with four pieces of tin by its sides, to keep it firm. Vast large cross-bows and beams, seemingly designed for battering-rams; and Roman saddles and head-pieces of a large size, some of which were painted; and some large thongs for bow-strings, and bags for slinging stones. But the jealousy of the Turks would not permit us to stay so long as would have been requisite for a perfect examination of these antiquities.
From the castle we returned to Assyne, and were civilly treated. In the evening we went up into the country of Mesopotamia. The hills are chalky and steep, and come close to the water side without a plain intervening, as it is upon the side of Syria; so that Beer stands on the side of a hill. However, it has a couple of fine streams that run over the top of the hill, one of which drives two mills, and so runs down to the city, which is well walled.In the side of the hill there is a khan under ground cut into the rock, with fifteen large pillars left to support its roof.
April 24.—We left Beer, and, travelling west, came in three hours to Nizib, a place well situated at the head of the Towzad. Here is an old small church, very strong and entire, only the cupola in the middle of the cross is broken down, and its space covered with leaves, to fit the place of a mosque. I believe the Turks made the places to which they turn in prayers empty niches, to show that they worshipped one invisible God, not to be represented by images. In two hours we came from Nizib to a Christian village called Uwur; and in an hour and a half more to a well in the desert.
April 25.—We travelled west near two hours, and came through a fine country diversified into small hills and valleys, to a village called Adjia, having left Silam and two other villages on the right hand. At Adjia rises the river of Aleppo, from a large fountain, at once; and just above it runs the Sejour, which might be let into it by a short cut of ten yards. From Adjia our course was west-north-west. The banks of the Sejour are well planted with trees and villages. In two little hours we came to Antab (Aïn-tab), having crossed the Sejour at a bridge about three quarters of an hour before. Leaving the city on the right hand, we passed under its walls, and pitched about three quarters of an hour from it, on a plain field on the banks of the Sejour.
Antab stands mostly on a hill, having a castle on a round mount at its north side, exactly resembling that of Aleppo, though much less. It has a very deep ditch round it; and at the foot of the mount, within the ditch, is a gallery cut through the rock all round the castle, with portals for shot; and it is faced with stone walls where the rock was not strong enough. The houses have generally no upper rooms; the bazaars are large. I saw here a fine stone, very much resembling porphyry, being of a red ground, with yellow specks and veins, very glossy. It is dug just by Antab.
Antab is doubtless Antiochia penes Taurum, in the skirts of which it stands; and is not far distant from the highest ridge. It is about two thirds as big as Aleppo.
April 26.—We passed through a fruitful, mountainous country, and came in seven hours and a quarter to Rowant Castle. It stands on the top of a round, steep hill, and has been strong for the times it was built in. It is probably a Saracen fabric, and is now in ruins. At the foot of the hill, westward, runs the river Ephreen: its course is south-south-west. Our course from Antab to Rowant was north-west and by north.
April 27.—We continued travelling through the mountains, which were now somewhat more uneven and precipitous, but watered every where with fine springs and rivulets. In about six hours we came to Corus. Our course was south-west, havingcrossed the Ephreen about two-thirds of an hour before. Just by Corus is the river Sabon, that is Chor or Char, which encompasses most part of the city.
Corus stands on a hill, consisting of the city and castle. The city stands northerly; and from its north end, ascending, you come at last to a higher hill to the southward, on which stands the castle. The whole is now in ruins, which seems to have been very large, walled very strongly with huge square stones. Within are observable the ruins, pillars, &c., of many noble buildings. On the west side there is a square inclosure of great capacity, compassed with good walls and five gates, which admitted into it, as one may discern by the ruins of them. I conjectured they might be the cathedral. Over the castle gate were written three inscriptions, the middle inscription being over the middle of the portal, the other two on the top of the pilasters on the right and left-hand.
Below the castle hill, to the southward, stands a noble old monument. It is six square, and opens at six windows above, and is covered with a pyramidical cupola. In each angle within is a pillar of the Corinthian order, of one stone; and there is a fine architrave all round just under the cupola, having had heads of oxen carved on it. And it ends a top with a large capital of the Corinthian order. Near this are several sepulchral altars, of which only one has a legible inscription.
April 28.—We left Corus; and without the town, about half a mile south-east, we descended through a way cut obliquely on the side of a precipice, which leads to a bridge of seven arches, of a very old structure, over the river Sabon; and about a quarter of a mile further we came to another bridge of three very large arches, over the river Ephreen. These bridges are very ancient, and well built of square stone. Three pillars have an acute angle on the side against the stream, and a round buttress on the other side; and on both sides are niches for statues. They were well paved on the top with large stones; and are doubtless, as well as that on the other side of the town, the work of the excellent and magnificent Theodorit[637].
From this bridge, in about three hours, with a course south-south-east, or south-east and by south, we arrived at Fan-Bolads. From Fan-Bolads to Chillis is one hour and two-thirds, course north-north-east. Chillis is a large, populous town, and has fifteen mosques that may be counted without the town; and it has large bazaars. Many medals are found here, which seem to argue it to be ancient; but under what name I know not.
Aleppo bears from Fan-Bolads south and by east; Seck-Berukel south-south-west. An hour from Fan-Bolads is Azass; and twohours further we lodged in the plain, which, about Chillis and Azass, is very wide and no less fruitful. This country is always given to the Validea, or Grand Signor's mother.
April 28.—We arrived, by God's blessing, safe in Aleppo, having travelled about five hours with a course south and by east.Δόξα Θεῷ.
This valley is of two or three hours extent. We were three quarters of an hour in crossing one corner of it. It is of an exact level, and appears at a distance like a lake of water. There is a kind of dry crust of salt all over the top of it, which sounds, when the horses go upon it, like frozen snow when it is walked upon. There are three or four small rivulets which empty themselves into this place, and wash it all over, about autumn, or when the rains fall.
In the heat of the summer the water is dried off; and, when the sun has scorched the ground, there is found remaining the crust of salt aforesaid, which they gather and separate into several heaps, according to the degrees of fineness, some being exquisitely white, others alloyed with dirt. It being soft in some places, our horses' hoofs struck in deep; and there I found, in one part, a soft, brown clay; in another a very black one; which to the taste was very salt, though deep in the earth. Along, on one side of the valley, viz. that towards Gibul, there is a small precipice, about two men's lengths, occasioned by the continual taking away the salt; and in this you may see how the veins of it lie. I broke a piece of it, of which that part of it that was exposed to the rain, sun, and air, though it had the sparks and particles of salt, yet it had perfectly lost its savour, as in St. Matthew, chap. v. The inner part, which was connected to the rock, retained its savour, as I found by proof.
In several places of the valley we found that the thin crust of salt upon the surface bulged up, as if some insect working under it had raised it; and, taking off the part, we found under it efflorescences of pure salt, shot out according to its proper figure.
At the neighbouring village of Gibul are kept the magazines of salt, where you find great mountains, as I may say, of that mineral ready for sale. The valley is farmed of the Grand Signor at twelve hundred dollars per annum.