Coming out of these ruins, we saw the foundation of a very strong wall, running across the neck of land, and serving as a barrier to secure the city on this side. From this place we were one-third of an hour in passing the sandy isthmus, before we came to the ground which we apprehended to be the natural shore. From hence, passing over part of a very fertile plain, which extends itself to a vast compass before Tyre, we arrived, in three quarters of an hour, at Ras-el-ayn. Our whole stage, from Sidon hither, was about eight hours.
Sunday, March 21.—Ras-el-ayn is a place where are the cisterns called Solomon's, supposed, according to the common tradition hereabouts, to have been made by that great king, as a part of his recompense to king Hiram for the supplies of materials sent by him toward the building of the temple.They are doubtless very ancient, but yet of a much later date than what this tradition ascribes to them. That they could not be built till since Alexander's time may be conjectured from this, amongst other arguments: because the aqueduct, which conveys the water from hence to Tyre, is carried over the neck of land by which Alexander, in his famous siege of this place, joined the city to the continent; and, as the cisterns cannot well be imagined to be more ancient than the aqueduct, so one may be sure the aqueduct cannot be older than the ground it stands upon. Of these cisterns there are three entire at this day, one about a furlong and a half distant from the sea, the other two a little farther up.
The former is of an octagonal figure, twenty-two yards in diameter. It is elevated above the ground, nine yards on the south side and six on the north; and, within, is said to be of an unfathomable deepness; but ten yards of line confuted that opinion. Its wall is of no better a material than gravel and small pebbles; but consolidated with so strong and tenacious a cement, that it seems to be all one entire vessel of rock. Upon the brink of it you have a walk round, eight feet broad, from which, descending by one step on the south side, and by two on the north, you have another walk twenty-one feet broad. All this structure, though so broad at top, is yet made hollow, so that the water comes in underneath the walks, insomuch that I could not, with a long rod, reach the extremity of the cavity. The whole vessel contains a vast body of excellent water, and is so well supplied from its fountain that, though there issues from it a stream like a brook, driving four mills between this place and the sea, yet it is always brim full. On the east side of this cistern was the ancient outlet of the water, by an aqueduct raised about six yards from the ground, and containing a channel one yard wide; but this is now stopped up and dry, the Turks having broke an outlet on the other side, deriving thence a stream for grinding their corn.
The aqueduct (now dry) is carried eastward about one hundred and twenty paces, and then approaches the two other cisterns, of which one is twelve, the other twenty yards square. These have each a little channel, by which they anciently rendered their waters into the aqueduct; and so the united streams of all the three cisterns were carried together to Tyre. You may trace out the aqueduct all along by theremaining fragments of it. It goes about one hour northward; and then, turning to the west at a small mount, where anciently stood a fort, but now a mosque, it proceeds over the isthmus into the city. As we passed by the aqueduct we observed in several places, on its sides and under its arches, rugged heaps of matter resembling rocks. These were produced by the leakage of the water, which petrified as it distilled from above, and, by the continual adherence of new matter, were grown to a large bulk. That which was most remarkable in them was the frame and configuration of their parts. They were composed of innumerable tubes of stone, of different sizes, cleaving to one another like icicles. Each tube had a small cavity in its centre, from which its parts were projected, in form of rays, to the circumference, after the manner of the stones vulgarly called thunder-stones.
The fountain of these waters is as unknown as the contriver of them. It is certain, from their rising so high, they must be brought from some part of the mountains, which are about a league distant; and it is as certain that the work was well done at first, seeing it performs its office so well at so great a distance of time.
Leaving this pleasant quarter we came, in an hour and a half, to the white promontory, so called from the aspect it yields toward the sea. Over this you pass by a way about two yards broad, cut along its side, from which the prospect down is very dreadful, by reason of the extreme depth and steepness of the mountain, and the raging of the waves at bottom. This way is about one-third of an hour over, and is said to have been the work of Alexander the Great. About one-third of an hour farther you pass by a heap of rubbish, close by the sea-side, being the ruins of the castle Scandalium, taking its name from its founder, the same Alexander, whom the Turks call Scander. The ruin is one hundred and twenty paces square, having a dry ditch encompassing it; and from under it, on the side next the sea, there issues a fountain of very fair water. In an hour from hence you come to the sixth caphar, called Nachera; and in another hour to the plain of Acra, over a very deep and rugged mountain, supposed to be part of Mount Saron. All the way from the white promontory to this plain is exceeding rocky; but here the pleasantness of the road makes you amends for the former labour.
The plain of Acra (Acre) extends itself, in length, from MountSaron as far as Carmel, which is at least six good hours; and in breadth, between the sea and the mountains, it is in most places two hours over. It enjoys good streams of water at convenient distances, and every thing else that might render it both pleasant and fruitful; but this delicious plain is now almost desolate, being suffered, for want of culture, to run up to rank weeds, which were, at the time when we passed it, as high as our horses' backs.
Having travelled about one hour in the plain of Acra, we passed by an old town called Zib, situate on an ascent close by the sea-side. This may probably be the old Achzib[546], called afterwards Ecdippa; for St. Jerome places Achzib nine miles distant from Ptolemais toward Tyre, to which account we found the situation of Zib exactly agreeing. This is one of the places out of which the Ashurites could not expel the Canaanitish natives. Two hours farther we came to a fountain of very good water, called by the French merchants, at Acra, the fountain of the blessed Virgin. In one hour more we arrived at Acra. Our whole stage, from Ras-el-ayn hither, was about eight hours and a half.
Acra had anciently the name of Accho, and is another of the places out of which the children of Israel could not drive the primitive inhabitants[547]. Being in after times enlarged by Ptolemy the First, it was called by him, from his own name, Ptolemais; but now, since it has been in the possession of the Turks, it has, according to the example of many other cities in Turkey, cast off its Greek[548], and recovered some semblance of its old Hebrew name again, being called Acca, or Acra.
This city was for a long time the theatre of contention between the Christians and infidels, till at last, after having divers times changed its masters, it was, by a long siege, finally taken by the Turks, and ruined by them in such a manner as if they had thought they could never take a full revenge upon it for the blood it had cost them, or sufficiently prevent such slaughters for the future. As to its situation, it enjoys all possible advantages both of sea and land. On its north and east sides it is compassed with a spacious and fertileplain; on the west it is washed by the Mediterranean Sea; and on the south by a large bay, extending from the city as far as Mount Carmel.
But notwithstanding all these advantages, it has never been able to recover itself since its last fatal overthrow; for, besides a large khan, in which the French factors have taken up their quarters, and a mosque, and a few poor cottages, you see nothing here but a vast and spacious ruin. It is such a ruin, however, as sufficiently demonstrates the strength of the place in former times. It appears to have been encompassed, on the land side, by a double wall, defended with towers at small distances; and without the walls are ditches, ramparts, and a kind of bastions faced with hewn stone. In the fields without these works we saw, scattered up and down upon the ground, several large balls of stone, of at least thirteen or fourteen inches diameter, which were part of the ammunition used in battering the city, guns being then unknown. Within the walls there still appear several ruins, which seem to distinguish themselves from the general heaps by some marks of a greater strength and magnificence, as, first, those of the cathedral church, dedicated to St. Andrew, which stands not far from the sea-side, more high and conspicuous than the other ruins; secondly, the church of St. John, the tutelar saint of this city; thirdly, the convent of the Knights Hospitallers, a place whose remaining walls sufficiently testify its ancient strength; and, not far from the convent, the palace of the grand master of that order, the magnificence of which may be guessed from a large staircase and part of a church, still remaining in it; fourthly, some remains of a large church formerly belonging to a nunnery, of which they tell this memorable story. The Turks, having pressed this city with a long and furious siege, at last entered it by storm, May 19, 1291; in which great extremity the abbess of the nunnery, fearing lest she, and those under her care, might be forced to submit to such bestialities as are usual in cases of that deplorable nature, used this cruel but generous means for securing both herself and them. She summoned all her flock together, and exhorted them to cut and mangle their faces as the only way to preserve their virgin purity; and, to show how much she was in earnest, she immediately began, before them all, to make herself an example of her own counsel. The nuns were so animated by this heroical resolution and pattern of theabbess, that they began instantly to follow her example, cutting off their noses, and disfiguring their faces with such terrible gashes as might excite horror, rather than lustful desires, in the beholders, the consequence of which was, that the soldiers, breaking into the nunnery, and seeing, instead of those beautiful ladies they expected, such tragical spectacles, took a revenge for their disappointed lusts by putting them all to the sword, thus restoring them, as in charity we may suppose, to a new and inviolable beauty. But, to go on, many other ruins here are of churches, palaces, monasteries, forts, &c., extending for more than half a mile in length, in all which you may discern marks of so much strength as if every building in the city had been contrived for war and defence[549].
But that which pleased us most at Acra was to find the French consul, Monsieur l'Empereur, there, who had been so generous as to make a halt of two days, in expectation of our arrival. But he had stayed to the utmost extent of his time, and therefore resolved to set forward again the next morning. Our greatest difficulty was to determine which road to take; whether that upon the coast by Cæsarea and Joppa, or that by Nazareth; or a middle way between both the other, over the plain of Esdraelon.
The cause of this uncertainty was the embroilments and factions that were then amongst the Arabs, which made us desirous to keep as far as possible out of the way. It is the policy of the Turks always to sow divisions amongst these wild people, by setting up several heads over their tribes, often deposing the old and placing new ones in their stead, by which art they create contrary interests and parties amongst them, preventing them from ever uniting under any one prince; which, if they should have the sense to do (being so numerous and almost the sole inhabitants thereabouts), they might shake off the Turkish yoke, and make themselves supreme lords of the country.
But, however useful these discords may be to the Turks in this respect, yet a stranger is sure to suffer by them, beingmade a prey to each party according as he happens to come in their way; avoiding which abuses, we resolved to take the middle way, as the most secure at this time.
March 22.—According to which purpose we set out early the next morning from Acra, having with us a band of Turkish soldiers for our securer convoy. Our road lay, for about half an hour, along by the side of the Bay of Acra; and then, arriving at the bottom of the bay, we turned southward. Here we passed a small river which we took to be Belus, famous for its sand, which is said to be an excellent material for making glass, as also to have ministered the first occasion and hint of that invention.
Here we began to decline from the sea-coast, upon which we had travelled so many days before, and to draw off more easterly, crossing obliquely over the plain, and in two good hours we arrived at its farthest side, where it is bounded by Mount Carmel. Here you find a narrow valley letting you out of the Plain of Acra into that of Esdraelon. Hereabouts is the end of the tribe of Asher, and the beginning of that of Zabulon; the borders of these two tribes being thus described in Joshua, xix. 26.
Passing through the narrow valley which makes a communication between the two plains, we arrived in two hours at that ancient river, the river Kishon; which cuts its way down the middle of the Plain of Esdraelon, and then, continuing its course close by the side of Mount Carmel, falls into the sea at a place called Caypha. In the condition we saw it, its waters were low and inconsiderable; but, in passing along the side of the plain, we discerned the tracks of many lesser torrents falling down into it from the mountains, which must needs make it swell exceedingly upon sudden rains, as doubtless it actually did at the destruction of Sisera's host[550]. In three hours and a half from Kishon we came to a small brook, near which was an old village and a good khan called Legune, not far from which we took up our quarters this night. From this place we had a large prospect of the Plain of Esdraelon, which is of a vast extent and very fertile, but uncultivated; only serving the Arabs for pasturage. At about six or seven hours' distance eastward stood within view Nazareth, and the two mounts, Tabor and Hermon. We were sufficiently instructed by experience, what the holy psalmistmeans by the dew of Hermon, our tents being as wet with it, as if it had rained all night. At about a mile's distance from us was encamped Chibly, emir of the Arabs, with his people and cattle; and below, upon the brook Kishon, lay encamped another clan of the Arabs, being the adverse party to Chibly. We had much the less satisfaction in this place, for being seated in the midst between two such bad neighbours. Our stage this day was in all eight hours; our course south-east by south, or thereabout.
March 23.—Leaving this lodging, we arrived in one-third of an hour at the emir's tents, who came out in person to take his duties of us. We paid him two caphars[551], viz., one of Lagune, and another of Jeneen, and besides the caphars, whatever else he was pleased to demand. He eased us in a very courteous manner of some of our coats, which now (the heat both of the climate and season increasing upon us) began to grow not only superfluous, but burdensome.
Getting quit of Chibly we turned out of the plain of Esdraelon, and entered into the precincts of the half-tribe of Manasses. From hence our road lay for about four hours through narrow valleys, pleasantly wooded on both sides. After which, crossing another small fruitful plain, we came in half an hour to Caphar Arab, where we lodged. Our whole stage exceeded not five hours; our course being nearly as the day before.
March 24.—Having paid our caphar, we set out very early the next morning; and leaving first Arab, and then Rama (two mountain villages), on the right hand, we arrived in one hour at a fair fountain called Selee, taking its name from an adjacent village. In one hour more we came to Sebasta. Here you leave the borders of the half-tribe of Manasses, and enter into those of the tribe of Ephraim.
Sebasta is the ancient Samaria, the imperial city of the ten tribes, after their revolt from the house of David. It lost its former name in the time of Herod the Great, who raised it from a ruined to a most magnificent state, and called it, in honour of Augustus Cæsar, Sebasta. It is situate upon a long mount of an oval figure, having first a fruitful valley, and then a ring of hills running round about it. This great city is now wholly converted into gardens, and all the tokensthat remain to testify that there has ever been such a place, are only, on the north side, a large square piazza encompassed with pillars[552]; and on the east some poor remains of a great church, said to have been built by the empress Helena, over the place where St. John the Baptist was both imprisoned and beheaded. In the body of the church you go down a staircase, into the very dungeon where that holy blood was shed. The Turks (of whom here are a few poor families) hold this prison in great veneration, and over it have erected a small mosque; but for a little piece of money they suffer you to go in and satisfy your curiosity at pleasure.
Leaving Sebasta, we passed in half an hour by Sherack, and in another half hour by Barseba, two villages on the right hand; and then entering into a narrow valley lying east and west, and watered with a fine rivulet, we arrived in one hour at Naplosa.
Naplosa is the ancient Sychem, or Sychar, as it is termed in the New Testament. It stands in a narrow valley between Mount Gerizim on the south and Ebal on the north, being built at the foot of the former; for so the situation both of the city and mountains is laid down by Josephus[553]. "Gerizim," says he, "hangeth over Sychem;" and "Moses commanded to erect an altar toward the east, not far from Sychem, between Mount Gerizim on the right hand (that is to one looking eastward, on the south), and Hebal on the left[554]" (that is on the north); which so plainly assigns the position of these two mountains, that it may be wondered, how geographers should come to differ so much about it, or for what reason Adrichomius should place them both on the same side of the valley of Sychem. From Mount Gerizim it was that God commanded the blessings to be pronounced upon the children of Israel, and from Mount Ebal the curses[555]. Upon the former, the Samaritans, whose chief residence is here at Sychem, have a small temple or place of worship, to which they are still wont to repair at certain seasons, for performance of the rites of their religion. What these rites are, I could not certainly learn; but that their religion consists in the adoration of acalf, as the Jews give out, seems to have more of spite than of truth in it.
Upon one of these mountains also it was that God commanded the children of Israel to set up great stones, plastered over and inscribed with the body of their law; and to erect an altar and to offer sacrifices, feasting and rejoicing before the Lord[556]. But now, whether Gerizim or Ebal was the place appointed for this solemnity, there is some cause to doubt. The Hebrew Pentateuch, and ours from it, assigns Mount Ebal for the use, but the Samaritan asserts it to be Gerizim.
Our company halting a little while at Naplosa, I had an opportunity to go and visit the chief priest of the Samaritans, in order to discourse with him, about this and some other difficulties occurring in the Pentateuch, which were recommended to me to be inquired about, by the learned Monsieur Job Ludolphus, author of the Æthiopic History, when I visited him at Frankford, in my passage through Germany.
As for the difference between the Hebrew and Samaritan copy, before cited, the priest pretended the Jews had maliciously altered their text, out of odium to the Samaritans; putting for Gerizim Ebal, upon no other account, but only because the Samaritans worshipped in the former mountain, which they would have, for that reason, not to be the true place appointed by God for his worship and sacrifice. To confirm this, he pleaded that Ebal was the mountain of cursing[557], and in its own nature an unpleasant place; but on the contrary Gerizim was the mountain of blessing by God's own appointment, and also in itself fertile and delightful, from whence he inferred a probability that this latter must have been the true mountain, appointed for those religious festivals, and not (as the Jews have corruptly written it) Ebal. We observed that to be in some measure true which he pleaded concerning the nature of both mountains; for, though neither of the mountains has much to boast of as to their pleasantness, yet, as one passes between them, Gerizim seems to discover a somewhat more verdant fruitful aspect than Ebal. The reason of which may be, because, fronting towards the north, it is sheltered from the heat of the sun by its own shade; whereas, Ebal looking southward, and receiving the sun that comes directly upon it, must, by consequence, be rendered more scorched and unfruitful. The Samaritan priestcould not say that any of those great stones which God directed Joshua to set up were now to be seen in Mount Gerizim, which, were they now extant, would determine the question clearly on his side.
I inquired of him next what sort of animal he thought those selavæ might be, which the children of Israel were so long fed with in the wilderness[558]. He answered they were a sort of fowls; and, by the description which he gave of them, I perceived he meant the same kind with our quails. I asked him what he thought of locusts[559], and whether the history might not be better accounted for, supposing them to be the winged creatures that fell so thick about the camp of Israel? But by his answer it appeared he had never heard of any such hypothesis. Then I demanded of him what sort of plant or fruit the dudaim or (as we translate it) mandrakes[560]were, which Leah gave to Rachel for the purchase of her husband's embraces? He said they were plants of a large leaf, bearing a certain sort of fruit, in shape resembling an apple growing ripe in harvest, but of an ill savour, and not wholesome. But the virtue of them was to help conception, being laid under the genial bed. That the women were often wont so to apply it at this day, out of an opinion of its prolific virtue. Of these plants I saw several afterwards in the way to Jerusalem; and, if they were so common in Mesopotamia as we saw them hereabout, one must either conclude that these could not be the true mandrakes (dudaim), or else it would puzzle a good critic to give a reason why Rachel should purchase such vulgar things at so beloved and contested a price.
This priest showed me a copy of the Samaritan Pentateuch, but would not be persuaded to part with it upon any consideration. He had likewise the first volume of the English Polyglot, which he seemed to esteem equally with his own manuscript.
Naplosa is at present in a very mean condition, in comparison of what it is represented to have been anciently. It consists chiefly of two streets, lying parallel, under Mount Gerizim; but it is full of people, and the seat of a pasha.
Having paid our caphar here, we set forward again in the evening, and, proceeding in the same narrow valley between Gerizim and Ebal (not above a furlong broad), we saw on our right hand, just without the city, a small mosque, said to have been built over the sepulchre purchased by Jacob of Emmor, the father of Shechem[561]. It goes by the name of Joseph's Sepulchre, his bones having been here interred after their transportation out of Egypt[562].
At about one third of an hour from Naplosa, we came to Jacob's Well, famous not only upon account of its author, but much more for that memorable conference which our blessed Saviour here had with the woman of Samaria[563]. If it should be questioned whether this be the very well that it is pretended for, or no, seeing it may be suspected to stand too remote from Sychar for women to come so far to draw water, it is answered, that probably the city extended farther this way in former times than it does now, as may be conjectured from some pieces of a very thick wall, still to be seen not far from hence. Over the well there stood formerly a large church, erected by that great and devout patroness of the Holy Land, the empress Helena. But of this the voracity of time, assisted by the hands of the Turks, has left nothing but a few foundations remaining. The well is covered at present with an old stone vault, into which you are let down through a very straight hole: and, then, removing a broad flat stone, you discover the mouth of the well itself. It is dug in a firm rock, and contains about three yards in diameter, and thirty-five in depth, five of which we found full of water. This confutes a story commonly told to travellers who do not take the pains to examine the well, viz., that it is dry all the year round, except on the anniversary of that day on which our blessed Saviour sat upon it, but then bubbles up with abundance of water.
At this well the narrow valley of Sychem ends, opening itself into a wide field, which is probably part of that parcel of ground given by Jacob to his son Joseph. It is watered with a fresh stream rising between it and Sychem, which makes it so exceeding verdant and fruitful, that it may well be looked upon as a standing token of the tender affection of that good patriarch to the best of sons[564].
From Jacob's well our road went southward, along a very spacious and fertile valley. Having passed by two villages on the right hand, one called Howar, the other Sawee, we arrived in four hours at Khan Leban, and lodged there. Our whole stage to-day was about eight hours; our course variable between east and south.
Khan Leban stands on the east side of a delicious vale, having a village of the same name standing opposite to it on the other side of the vale. One of these places, either the khan or the village, is supposed to have been the Lebonah mentioned in Judges, xi. 19, to which both the name and situation seem to agree.
March 25.—From Khan Leban our road lay through a more mountainous and rocky country, of which we had a specimen as soon as we were mounted the next morning, our first task being to climb a very craggy and difficult mountain. In three quarters of an hour we left, at some distance on the right hand, a village called Cinga, and in one hour more, we entered into a very narrow valley, between two high rocky hills, at the farther end of which we found the ruins of a village and of a monastery. In this very place, or hereabouts, Jacob's Bethel is supposed to have been, where he had his stony couch made easy by that beatifying vision of God, and of the angels ascending and descending, on a ladder reaching from earth to heaven[565]. Near this place are the limits separating between Ephraim and Benjamin[566].
From hence we passed through large olive-yards, and having left first Geeb and then Selwid (two Arab villages) on the right hand, we came in an hour and a half to an old way cut with great labour over a rocky precipice, and in one hour more we arrived at Beer. This is the place to which Jonathan fled from the revenge of his brother Abimelech[567]. It is supposed also to be the same with Michmas[568].
Beer enjoys a very pleasant situation, on an easy declivity fronting southward. At the bottom of the hill it has a plentiful fountain of excellent water, from which it has its name. At its upper side are the remains of an old church built by the empress Helena in memory of the Blessed Virgin, who, when she was in search of the child Jesus, as it is related[569],came (as tradition adds) to this city, and not finding him whom her soul loved in the company, she sat down weary and pensive at so sad a disappointment, in the very place where the church now stands; but afterwards returning to Jerusalem, she had her maternal fears turned into joy, when "she found him sitting in the Temple amongst the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions."
All along this day's travel from Khan Leban to Beer, and also as far as we could see around, the country discovered a quite different face from what it had before, presenting nothing to the view, in most places, but naked rocks, mountains, and precipices; at sight of which pilgrims are apt to be much astonished and baulked in their expectations, finding that country in such an inhospitable condition, concerning whose pleasantness and plenty they had before formed in their minds such high ideas from the description given of it in the Word of God, insomuch that it almost startles their faith, when they reflect how it could be possible for a land like this to supply food for so prodigious a number of inhabitants as are said to have been polled in the twelve tribes at one time, the number given in by Joab[570]amounting to no less than thirteen hundred thousand fighting men, besides women and children. But it is certain that any man who is not a little biassed to infidelity before, may see, as he passes along, arguments enough to support his faith against such scruples. For it is obvious for any one to observe, that these rocks and hills must have been anciently covered with earth and cultivated, and made to contribute to the maintenance of the inhabitants, no less than if the country had been all plain; nay, perhaps much more, forasmuch as such a mountainous and uneven surface affords a larger space of ground for cultivation than this country would amount to if it were all reduced to a perfect level.
For the husbanding of these mountains, their manner was to gather up the stones, and place them in several lines along the sides of the hills in form of a wall. By such borders they supported the mould from tumbling, or being washed down, and formed many beds of excellent soil rising gradually one above another, from the bottom to the top of the mountains.
Of this form of culture you see evident footsteps, whereeveryou go, in all the mountains of Palestine. Thus the very rocks were made fruitful. And perhaps there is no spot of ground in this whole land that was not formerly improved, to the production of something or other administering to the sustenance of human life; for, than the plain countries, nothing can be more fruitful, whether for the production of corn, or cattle and consequently of milk. The hills, though improper for all cattle except goats, yet being disposed into such beds as aforesaid described, served very well to bear corn, melons, gourds, cucumbers, and such like garden stuff, which makes the principal food of these countries for several months in the year. The most rocky parts of all, which could not well be adjusted in that manner for the production of corn, might yet serve for the plantation of vines and olive trees, which delight to extract, the one its fatness, the other its sprightly juice, chiefly out of such dry and flinty places. And the great plain joining to the Dead Sea, which, by reason of its saltness, might be thought unserviceable both for cattle, corn, olives, and vines, had yet its proper usefulness for the nourishment of bees and for the fabric of honey, of which Josephus gives us his testimony[571]. And I have reason to believe it, because, when I was there, I perceived in many places a smell of honey and wax as strong as if one had been in an apiary. Why, then, might not this country very well maintain the vast number of its inhabitants, being in every part so productive of either milk, corn, wine, oil, or honey, which are the principal food of these eastern nations, the constitution of their bodies, and the nature of their clime, inclining them to a more abstemious diet than we use in England and other colder regions? But I hasten to Jerusalem.
Leaving Beer, we proceeded as before, in a rude stony country, which yet yielded us the sight of several old ruined villages. In two hours and one-third we came to the top of a hill, from whence we had the first prospect of Jerusalem, Rama, anciently called Gibeah of Saul, being within view on the right hand, and the plain of Jericho and the mountains of Gilead on the left. In one hour more we approached the walls of the holy city; but we could not enter immediately, it being necessary first to send a messenger to acquaint the governor of our arrival, and to desire liberty of entrance,without which preceding ceremony no Frank dares come within the walls. We therefore passed along by the west side of the city, and coming to the corner above Bethlehem gate, made a stop there, in order to expect the return of our messenger. We had not waited above half an hour, when he brought us our permission, and we entered accordingly at Bethlehem gate. It is required of all Franks, unless they happen to come in with some public minister, to dismount at the gate, to deliver their arms, and enter on foot; but we, coming in company with the French consul, had the privilege to enter mounted and armed. Just within the gate, we turned up a street on the left hand, and were conducted by the consul to his own house, with most friendly and generous invitations to make that our home as long as we should continue at Jerusalem. Having taken a little refreshment, we went to the Latin convent, at which all Frank pilgrims are wont to be entertained. The guardian and friars received us with many kind welcomes, and kept us with them at supper, after which we returned to the French consul's to bed. And thus we continued to take our lodging at the consul's, and our board with the friars, during our whole stay at Jerusalem.
March 26.—The next day, being Good-Friday in the Latin style, the consul was obliged to go into the Church of the Sepulchre, in order to keep his feast, whither we accompanied him, although our own Easter was not till a week after theirs. We found the church doors guarded by several Janizaries, and other Turkish officers, who are placed here to watch that none enter in but such as have first paid their appointed caphar. This is more or less according to the country or the character of the persons that enter. For Franks it is ordinarily fourteen dollars per head, unless they are ecclesiastics, for in that case it is but half so much.
Having once paid this caphar, you may go in and out gratis as often as you please during the whole feast, provided you take the ordinary opportunities in which it is customary to open the doors; but if you would have them opened at any time out of the common course, purposely for your own private occasion, then the first expense must be paid again.
The pilgrims being all admitted this day, the church doors were locked in the evening, and opened no more till Easter-day, by which we were kept in a close, but very happy confinement, for three days. We spent our time in viewing theceremonies practised by the Latins at this festival, and in visiting the several holy places, all which we had opportunity to survey, with as much freedom and deliberation as we pleased.
And now, being got under the sacred roof, and having the advantage of so much leisure and freedom, I might expatiate in a large description of the several holy places which this church (as a cabinet) contains in it; but this would be a superfluous prolixity, so many pilgrims having discharged this office with so much exactness already, and especially our learned sagacious countryman Mr. Sandys, whose descriptions and draughts, both of this church and also of the other remarkable places in and about Jerusalem, must be acknowledged so faithful and perfect, that they leave very little to be added by aftercomers, and nothing to be corrected. I shall content myself, therefore, to relate only what passed in the church during this festival, saying no more of the church itself than just what is necessary to make my account intelligible.
The church of the Holy Sepulchre is founded upon Mount Calvary, which is a small eminence or hill upon the greater Mount Moriah. It was anciently appropriated to the execution of malefactors, and therefore shut out of the walls of the city as an execrable and polluted place; but since it was made the altar on which was offered up the precious and all sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, it has recovered itself from that infamy, and has been always reverenced and resorted to with such devotion by all Christians, that it has attracted the city around about it, and stands now in the midst of Jerusalem, a great part of the hill of Sion being shut out of the walls to make room for the admission of Calvary.
In order to the fitting of this hill for the foundation of a church, the first founders were obliged to reduce it to a plain area, which they did by cutting down several parts of the rock, and by elevating others; but, in this work, care was taken that none of those parts of the hill which were reckoned to be more immediately concerned in our blessed Lord's passion should be altered or diminished. Thus that very part of Calvary where they say Christ was fastened to, and lifted upon, his cross, is left entire, being about ten or twelve yards square, and standing, at this day, so high above the common floor of the church, that you have twenty-one steps or stairs to go up to its top; and the holy sepulchre itself, which wasat first a cave hewn into the rock under ground, having had the rock cut away from it all round, is now, as it were, a grotto above ground.
The church is less than one hundred paces long, and not more than sixty wide; and yet is so contrived that it is supposed to contain under its roof twelve or thirteen sanctuaries, or places consecrated to a more than ordinary veneration, by being reputed to have some particular actions done in them relating to the death and resurrection of Christ. As, first, the place where he was derided by the soldiers; secondly, where the soldiers divided his garments; thirdly, where he was shut up whilst they digged the hole to set the foot of the cross in, and made all ready for his crucifixion; fourthly, where he was nailed to the cross; fifthly, where the cross was erected; sixthly, where the soldier stood that pierced his side; seventhly, where his body was anointed in order to his burial; eighthly, where his body was deposited in the sepulchre; ninthly, where the angels appeared to the women after his resurrection; tenthly, where Christ himself appeared to Mary Magdalen, &c. The places where these and many other things relating to our blessed Lord are said to have been done, are all supposed to be contained within the narrow precincts of this church, and are all distinguished and adorned with so many several altars.
In galleries round about the church, and also in little buildings annexed to it on the outside, are certain apartments for the reception of friars and pilgrims; and in these places almost every Christian nation anciently maintained a small society of monks, each society having its proper quarter assigned to it by the appointment of the Turks, such as the Latins, Greeks, Syrians, Armenians, Abyssinians, Georgians, Nestorians, Cophtites, Maronites, &c., all which had anciently their several apartments in the church; but these have all, except four, forsaken their quarters, not being able to sustain the severe rents and extortions which their Turkish landlords impose upon them. The Latins, Greeks, Armenians, and Cophtites keep their footing still; but of these four the Cophtites have now only one poor representative of their nation left; and the Armenians are run so much in debt that it is supposed they are hastening apace to follow the examples of their brethren, who have deserted before them.
Besides their several apartments, each fraternity have theiraltars and sanctuary, properly and distinctly allotted to their own use, at which places they have a peculiar right to perform their own divine service, and to exclude other nations from them.
But that which has always been the great prize contended for by the several sects is the command and appropriation of the holy sepulchre, a privilege contested with so much unchristian fury and animosity, especially between the Greeks and Latins, that, in disputing which party should go into it to celebrate their mass, they have sometimes proceeded to blows and wounds even at the very door of the sepulchre, mingling their own blood with their sacrifices, an evidence of which fury the father guardian showed us in a great scar upon his arm, which he told us was the mark of a wound given him by a sturdy Greek priest in one of these unholy wars. Who can expect ever to see these holy places rescued from the hands of infidels? Or, if they should be recovered, what deplorable contests might be expected to follow about them, seeing, even in their present state of captivity, they are made the occasion of such unchristian rage and animosity.
For putting an end to these infamous quarrels, the French king interposed, by a letter to the grand vizer, about twelve years since, requesting him to order the holy sepulchre to be put into the hands of the Latins, according to the tenor of the capitulation made in the year 1673, the consequence of which letter, and of other instances made by the French king, was that the holy sepulchre was appropriated to the Latins. This was not accomplished till the year 1690, they alone having the privilege to say mass in it; and though it be permitted to Christians of all nations to go into it for their private devotions, yet none may solemnize any public office of religion there but the Latins.
The daily employment of these recluses is to trim the lamps, and to make devotional visits and processions to the several sanctuaries in the church. Thus they spend their time, many of them for four or six years together; nay, so far are some transported with the pleasing contemplations in which they here entertain themselves, that they will never come out to their dying day, burying themselves (as it were) alive in our Lord's grave.
The Latins, of whom there are always about ten or twelve residing at the church, with a president over them, makeevery day a solemn procession, with tapers and crucifixes, and other processionary solemnities, to the several sanctuaries, singing at every one of them a Latin hymn relating to the subject of each place. These Latins being more polite and exact in their functions than the other monks here residing, and also our conversation being chiefly with them, I will only describe their ceremonies, without taking notice of what was done by others, which did not so much come under our observation.
Their ceremony begins on Good Friday night, which is called by them thenox tenebrosa, and is observed with such an extraordinary solemnity that I cannot omit to give a particular description of it.
As soon as it grew dusk, all the friars and pilgrims were convened in the chapel of the apparition (which is a small oratory on the north side of the holy grave, adjoining to the apartments of the Latins), in order to go in a procession round the church; but, before they set out, one of the friars preached a sermon in Italian in that chapel. He began his discourse thus: "In questa notte tenebrosa," &c., at which words all the candles were instantly put out, to yield a livelier image of the occasion; and so we were held by the preacher for near half an hour, very much in the dark. Sermon being ended, every person present had a large lighted taper put into his hand, as if it were to make amends for the former darkness; and the crucifixes and other utensils were disposed in order for beginning the procession. Amongst the other crucifixes there was one of a very large size, which bore upon it the image of our Lord, as big as the life. The image was fastened to it with great nails, crowned with thorns, besmeared with blood; and so exquisitely was it formed, that it represented in a very lively manner the lamentable spectacle of our Lord's body as it hung upon the cross. This figure was carried all along in the head of the procession, after which the company followed to all the sanctuaries in the church, singing their appointed hymn at every one.
The first place they visited was that of the pillar of flagellation, a large piece of which is kept in a little cell just at the door of the chapel of the apparition. There they sung their proper hymn; and another friar entertained the company with a sermon in Spanish, touching the scourging of our Lord.
From hence they proceeded in solemn order to the prisonof Christ, where they pretend he was secured whilst the soldiers made things ready for his crucifixion. Here, likewise, they sung their hymn, and a third friar preached in French. From the prison they went to the altar of the division of Christ's garments, where they only sung their hymn, without adding any sermon. Having done here, they advanced to the chapel of the derision, at which, after their hymn, they had a fourth sermon (as I remember) in French.
From this place they went up to Calvary, leaving their shoes at the bottom of the stairs. Here are two altars to be visited, one where our Lord is supposed to have been nailed to his cross, another where his cross was erected. At the former of these they laid down the great crucifix (which I but now described) upon the floor, and acted a kind of a resemblance of Christ's being nailed to the cross; and after the hymn one of the friars preached another sermon, in Spanish, upon the crucifixion.
From hence they removed to the adjoining altar, where the cross is supposed to have been erected, bearing the image of our Lord's body. At this altar is a hole in the natural rock, said to be the very same individual one in which the foot of our Lord's cross stood. Here they set up their cross, with the bloody crucified image upon it; and, leaving it in that posture, they first sung their hymn, and then the father guardian, sitting in a chair before it, preached a passion-sermon in Italian.
At about one yard and a half distance from the hole in which the foot of the cross was fixed, is seen that memorable cleft in the rock, said to have been made by the earthquake which happened at the suffering of the God of Nature, when (as St. Matthew witnesseth[572]) "the rocks rent, and the very graves were opened." This cleft, as to what now appears of it, is about a span wide at its upper part, and two deep, after which it closes; but it opens again below, as you may see in another chapel contiguous to the side of Calvary, and runs down to an unknown depth in the earth. That this rent was made by the earthquake that happened at our Lord's passion, there is only tradition to prove; but that it is a natural and genuine breach, and not counterfeited by any art, the sense and reason of every one that sees it may convincehim; for the sides of it fit like two tallies to each other, and yet it runs in such intricate windings as could not well be counterfeited by art, nor arrived at by any instruments.
The ceremony of the passion being over, and the guardian's sermon ended, two friars, personating the one Joseph of Arimathea, the other Nicodemus, approached the cross, and, with a most solemn and concerned air, both of aspect and behaviour, drew out the great nails, and took down the feigned body from the cross. It was an effigy so contrived that its limbs were soft and flexible, as if they had been real flesh; and nothing could be more surprising than to see the two pretended mourners bend down the arms, which were before extended, and dispose them upon the trunk in such a manner as is usual in corpses.
The body, being taken down from the cross, was received in a fair, large winding sheet, and carried down from Calvary, the whole company attending as before, to the stone of unction. This is taken for the very place where the precious body of our Lord was anointed and prepared for the burial[573]. Here they laid down their imaginary corpse, and casting over it several sweet powders and spices, wrapped it up in the winding sheet. Whilst this was doing they sung their proper hymn; and afterwards one of the friars preached, in Arabic, a funeral sermon.
These obsequies being finished, they carried off their fancied corpse and laid it in the sepulchre, shutting up the door till Easter morning; and now, after so many sermons and so long, not to say tedious, a ceremony, it may well be imagined that the weariness of the congregation, as well as the hour of the night, made it needful to go to rest.
March 27.—The next morning nothing extraordinary passed, which gave many of the pilgrims leisure to have their arms marked with the usual ensigns of Jerusalem. The artists who undertake the operation do it in this manner. They have stamps in wood of any figure that you desire, which they first print off upon your arm with powder of charcoal; then, taking two very fine needles tied close together, and dipping them often, like a pen, in certain ink, compounded, as I was informed, of gunpowder and ox-gall, they make with them small punctures all along the lines of the figure which they haveprinted, and then, washing the part in wine, conclude the work. These punctures they make with great quickness and dexterity, and with scarce any smart, seldom piercing so deep as to draw blood.
In the afternoon of this day, the congregation was assembled in the area before the holy grave, where the friars spent some hours in singing over the lamentations of Jeremiah, which function, with the usual procession to the holy places, was all the ceremony of this day.
Sunday, March 28.—On Easter morning the sepulchre was again set open very early. The clouds of the former morning were cleared up, and the friars put on a face of joy and serenity, as if it had been the real juncture of our Lord's resurrection; nor doubtless was this joy feigned, whatever their mourning might be, this being the day in which their Lenten discipline expired, and they were come to a full belly again.
The mass was celebrated this morning just before the holy sepulchre, being the most eminent place in the church, where the father guardian had a throne erected, and being arrayed in episcopal robes, with a mitre on his head, in the sight of the Turks, he gave the host to all that were disposed to receive it, not refusing children of seven or eight years of age. This office being ended, we made our exit out of the sepulchre, and returning to the convent, dined with the friars.
After dinner, we took an opportunity to go and visit some of the remarkable places without the city walls; we began with those on the north side.
The first place we were conducted to was a large grotto, a little without the Damascus gate, said to have been some time the residence of Jeremiah. On the left side of it is shown the prophet's bed, being a shelf on the rock, about eight feet from the ground; and not far from this is the place where they say he wrote his Lamentations. This place is at present a college of dervises, and is held in great veneration by the Turks and Jews, as well as Christians.
The next place we came to was those famous grottoes called the Sepulchres of the Kings, but for what reason they go by that name is hard to resolve; for it is certain none of the kings, either of Israel or Judah, were buried there, the Holy Scriptures assigning other places for their sepulchres, unless it may be thought, perhaps, that Hezekiah was here interred,and that these were the sepulchres of the sons of David, mentioned in 2 Chron. xxx. 33. Whoever was buried here, this is certain, that the place itself discovers so great an expense, both of labour and treasure, that we may well suppose it to have been the work of kings. You approach to it at the east side, through an entrance cut out of the natural rock, which admits you into an open court of about forty paces square, cut down into the rock with which it is encompassed instead of walls. On the south side of the court is a portico nine paces long and four broad, hewn likewise out of the natural rock. This has a kind of architrave running along its front, adorned with sculpture of fruits and flowers, still discernible, but by time much defaced. At the end of the portico on the left hand you descend to the passage into the sepulchres. The door is now so obstructed with stones and rubbish, that it is a thing of some difficulty to creep through it. But within, you arrive in a large fair room, about seven or eight yards square, cut out of the natural rock. Its sides and ceiling are so exactly square, and its angles so just, that no architect with levels and plummets could build a room more regular; and the whole is so firm and entire, that it may be called a chamber hollowed out of one piece of marble. From this room you pass into (I think) six more, one within another, all of the same fabric with the first. Of these the two innermost are deeper than the rest, having a second descent of about six or seven steps into them.
In every one of these rooms, except the first, were coffins of stone placed in niches in the sides of the chambers. They had been at first covered with handsome lids, and carved with garlands, but now most of them were broke to pieces by sacrilegious hands. The sides and ceiling of the room were always dropping with the moist damps condensing upon them; to remedy which nuisance, and to preserve these chambers of the dead dry and clean, there was in each room a small channel cut in the floor, which served to drain the drops that fall constantly into it.
But the most surprising thing belonging to these subterraneous chambers was their doors, of which there is only one that remains hanging, being left, as it were, on purpose to puzzle the beholders. It consisted of a plank of stone of about six inches in thickness, and in its other dimensions equalling the size of an ordinary door, or somewhat less. Itwas carved in such a manner as to resemble a piece of wainscot. The stone of which it was made was visibly of the same kind with the whole rock, and it turned upon two hinges in the nature of axles. These hinges were of the same entire piece of stone with the door, and were contained in two holes of the immoveable rock, one at the top, the other at the bottom.
From this description it is obvious to start a question,—how such doors as these were made, whether they were cut out of the rock in the same place and manner as they now hang, or whether they were brought and fixed in their station like other doors? One of these must be supposed to have been done; and which soever part we choose as most probable, it seems at first glance to be not without its difficulty. But thus much I have to say, for the resolving of this riddle (which is wont to create no small dispute amongst pilgrims), viz., that the door which was left hanging did not touch its lintel by at least two inches, so that I believe it might easily have been lifted up and unhinged; and the doors which had been thrown down had their hinges at the upper end twice as long as those at the bottom, which seems to intimate pretty plainly by what method this work was accomplished.
From these sepulchres we returned toward the city again, and, just by Herod's gate, were shown a grotto full of filthy water and mire. This passes for the dungeon in which Jeremiah was kept by Zedekiah, till enlarged by the charity of Ebed Melech[574]. At this place we concluded our visits for that evening.
March 29.—The next day being Easter-Monday, the mosolem, or governor of the city, set out, according to custom, with several bands of soldiers to convey the pilgrims to Jordan. Without this guard there is no going thither, by reason of the multitude and insolence of the Arabs in these parts. The fee to the mosolem for his company and soldiers upon this occasion is twelve dollars for each Frank pilgrim, but if they be ecclesiastics, six, which you must pay whether you are disposed to go the journey or stay in the city. We went out at St. Stephen's gate, being in all, of every nation and sex, about two thousand pilgrims. Having crossed the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and part of Mount Olivet, we came in half anhour to Bethany, at present only a small village. At the first entrance into it is an old ruin which they call Lazarus's Castle, supposed to have been the mansion-house of that favourite of our Lord. At the bottom of a small descent, not far from the castle, is shown the sepulchre out of which he was raised to a second mortality, by that enlivening voice of Christ, "Lazarus, come forth." You descend into the sepulchre by twenty-five steep stairs, at the bottom of which you arrive first in a small square room, and from thence you creep down into another lesser room, about a yard and a half deeper, in which the body is said to have been laid. This place is held in great veneration by the Turks, who use it for an oratory, and demand of all Christians a small caphar for their admission into it.
About a bow-shot from thence, you pass by the place which they say was Mary Magdalen's habitation, and then, descending a steep hill, you come to the fountain of the Apostles; so called because, as the tradition goes, those holy persons were wont to refresh themselves here in their frequent travels between Jerusalem and Jericho. And indeed it is a thing very probable, and no more than I believe is done by all that travel this way, the fountain being close by the road-side, and very inviting to the thirsty passenger.
From this place you proceed in an intricate way amongst hills and valleys interchangeably, all of a very barren aspect at present, but discovering evident signs of the labour of the husbandman in ancient times. After some hours' travel in this sort of road, you arrive at the mountainous desert into which our blessed Saviour was led by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil. A most miserable, dry, barren place it is, consisting of high rocky mountains, so torn and disordered, as if the earth had here suffered some great convulsion, in which its very bowels had been turned outwards. On the left hand, looking down in a deep valley as we passed along, we saw some ruins of small cells and cottages, which they told us were formerly the habitations of hermits retiring thither for penance and mortification; and certainly there could not be found in the whole earth a more comfortless and abandoned place for that purpose. From the top of these hills of desolation, we had, however, a delightful prospect of the mountains of Arabia, the Dead Sea, and the Plain of Jericho, into which last place we descended, after about five hours' marchfrom Jerusalem. As soon as we entered the plain, we turned up on the left hand, and going about one hour that way, came to the foot of the Quarantania, which they say is the mountain into which the devil took our blessed Saviour, when he tempted him with that visionary scene of all the kingdoms and glories of the world. It is, as St. Matthew styles it, an exceeding high mountain, and in its ascent not only difficult, but dangerous. It has a small chapel at the top, and another about half way up, founded upon a prominent part of the rock. Near this latter are several caves and holes in the side of the mountain, made use of anciently by hermits, and by some at this day, for places to keep their Lent in, in imitation of that of our blessed Saviour. In most of these grottoes we found certain Arabs quartered, with fire-arms, who obstructed our ascent, demanding two hundred dollars for leave to go up the mountain. So we departed without farther trouble, not a little glad to have so good an excuse for not climbing so dangerous a precipice.
Turning down from thence into the plain, we passed by a ruined aqueduct, and a convent in the same condition, and in about a mile's riding came to the fountain of Elisha, so called because miraculously purged from its brackishness by the prophet, at the request of the men of Jericho[575]. Its waters are at present received in a basin about nine or ten paces long and five or six broad, and from thence, issuing out in great plenty, divide themselves into several small streams, dispersing their refreshment to all the field between this and Jericho, and rendering it exceedingly fruitful. Close by the fountain grows a large tree spreading into boughs over the water, and here, in the shade, we took a collation with the father guardian, and about thirty or forty friars more, who went this journey with us.
At about one-third of an hour's distance from hence is Jericho, at present only a poor nasty village of the Arabs. We were here carried to see a place where Zaccheus's house is said to have stood, which is only an old square stone building, on the south side of Jericho. About two furlongs from hence, the mosolem, with his people, had encamped; and not far from them we took up our quarters this night.
March 30.—The next morning we set out very early forJordan, where we arrived in two hours. We found the plain very barren as we passed along it, producing nothing but a kind of samphire, and other such marine plants. I observed in many places of the road, where puddles of water had stood, a whiteness upon the surface of the ground, which upon trial I found to be a crust of salt, caused by the water to rise out of the earth, in the same manner as it does every year in the valley of salt near Aleppo, after the winter's inundation. These saline efflorescences I found at some leagues distance from the Dead Sea, which demonstrates that the whole valley must be all over plentifully impregnated with that mineral.
Within about a furlong of the river, at that place where we visited it, there was an old ruined church and convent, dedicated to St. John, in memory of the baptizing of our blessed Lord. It is founded as near as could be conjectured to the very place where he had the honour to perform that sacred office, and to wash Him who was infinitely purer than the water itself. On the farther side of the aforementioned convent there runs along a small descent, which you may fitly call the first and outermost bank of Jordan; as far as which it may be supposed the river does, or at least did anciently, overflow at some seasons of the year, viz., at the time of harvest[576]; or, as it is expressed, Chron. xii. 1., in the first month, that is in March. But at present (whether it be because the river has, by its rapidity of current, worn its channel deeper than it was formerly, or whether because its waters are diverted some other way,) it seems to have forgot its ancient greatness; for we could discern no sign or probability of such overflowings when we were there, which was the thirtieth of March, being the proper time for these inundations. Nay, so far was the river from overflowing, that it ran at least two yards below the brink of its channel.
After having descended the outermost bank, you go about a furlong upon a level strand before you come to the immediate bank of the river. This second bank is so beset with bushes and trees, such as tamarisk, willows, oleanders, &c., that you can see no water till you have made your way through them. In this thicket anciently (and the same is reported of it at this day) several sorts of wild beasts are wont to harbour themselves; whose being washed out of the covert by theoverflowings of the river, gave rise to that allusion, "He shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan."[577]
No sooner were we arrived at the river, and dismounted, in order to satisfy that curiosity and devotion which brought us hither, but we were alarmed by some troops of Arabs appearing on the other side and firing at us, but at too great a distance to do any execution. This intervening disturbance hindered the friars from performing their service prescribed for this place, and seemed to put them in a terrible fear of their lives, beyond what appeared in the rest of the company; though, considering the sordidness of their present condition, and the extraordinary rewards which they boast to be their due in the world to come, one would think, in reason, they of all men should have the least cause to discover so great a fear of death, and so much fondness of a life like theirs.
But this alarm was soon over, and every one returned to his former purpose; some stripped and bathed themselves in the river, others cut down boughs from the trees, every man was employed one way or other to take a memorial of this famous stream. The water was very turbid, and too rapid to be swam against. For its breadth, it might be about twenty yards over; and in depth it far exceeded my height. On the other side there seemed to be a much larger thicket than on that where we were, but we durst not swim over to take any certain account of that region for fear of the Arabs, there being three guns fired just over against us, and (as we might guess by their reports) very near the river.
Having finished our design here, we were summoned to return by the mosolem, who carried us back to the middle of the plain; and there, sitting under his tent, made us pass before him, man by man, to the end he might take the more exact account of us, and lose nothing of his caphar. We seemed at this place to be near the Dead Sea, and some of us had a great desire to go nearer, and take a view of those prodigious waters. But this could not be attempted without the licence of our commander-in-chief. We therefore sent to request his permission for our going, and a guard to attend us, both which he readily granted, and we immediately prosecuted our purpose.
Coming within about half an hour of the sea, we found theground uneven, and varied into hillocks, much resembling those places in England where there have been anciently lime-kilns. Whether these might be the pits at which the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown by the four kings[578], I will not determine.
Coming near the sea, we passed through a kind of coppice, of bushes and reeds; in the midst of which our guide, who was an Arab, showed us a fountain of fresh water, rising not above a furlong from the sea; fresh water he called it, but we found it brackish.
The Dead Sea is inclosed on the east and west with exceeding high mountains; on the north it is bounded by the plain of Jericho, on which side also it receives the waters of Jordan. On the south it is open, and extends beyond the reach of the eye. It is said to be twenty-four leagues long, and six or seven broad.
On the shore of the lake we found a black sort of pebble, which being held in the flame of a candle soon burns, and yields a smoke of an intolerable stench. It has this property, that it loses only of its weight, but not of its bulk by burning. The hills bordering upon the lake are said to abound with this sort of sulphureous stone. I saw pieces of it at the convent of St. John, in the wilderness, two feet square. They were carved in basso relievo, and polished to as great a lustre as black marble is capable of, and were designed for the ornament of the new church at the convent.
It is a common tradition, that birds attempting to fly over this sea drop down dead into it; and that no fish, nor other sort of animal, can endure these deadly waters. The former report I saw actually confuted, by several birds flying about and over the sea without any visible harm; the latter also I have some reason to suspect as false, having observed amongst the pebbles on the shore two or three shells of fish resembling oyster-shells. These were cast up by the waves, at two hours' distance from the mouth of Jordan; which I mention, lest it should be suspected that they might be brought into the sea that way.
As for the bitumen, for which the sea had been so famous, there was none at the place where we were. But it is gathered near the mountains on both sides in great plenty. I had several lumps of it brought me from Jerusalem. Itexactly resembles pitch, and cannot readily be distinguished from it, but by the sulphureousness of its smell and taste.