MODERN WINE-PRESS.
"It didn't take long for us to examine the machinery used for making wine. There was a wooden box, about ten feet square and four feet deep, standing on short posts, and having a ladder against the side. The box is filled with grapes, which are brought in baskets, and then half a dozen men climb up the ladder, steady themselves by means of cords hanging from the ceiling, and tread out the juice with their naked feet. The juice runs from a spout in one side-end of the box, and is caught in a tub, whence it is put into casks or jars and left to ferment. The ancient Egyptians used almost identically the same sort of press, and the mode of preparing the wine has not been varied at all since the days of the Bible.
BRIDGE OVER THE LITANY.
"Our route was quite near the river Litany, and once we crossed it on a bridge of a single arch, which was said to have been built long ago—how long ago we could not ascertain. The last three or four miles of our ride was along a carriage-road, and just at dusk we reached Shtora, where we were to pass the night.
"The hotel at Shtora was kept by a Greek with an Italian wife, and they made us quite comfortable in a rough way. We had cots for beds and plenty of covering, and they gave us an excellent supper and an equallyexcellent breakfast. Doctor Bronson had arranged at Damascus for a special carriage to be ready at Shtora to carry us over the Lebanon to Beyroot; the carriage came while we were at supper, and the hotel-keeper, who was also agent of the road company, told us we could start at seven o'clock in the morning, and be in Beyroot by two in the afternoon.
"We were off at the hour named, and soon were climbing the eastern slope of the Lebanon. Up and up we went, the air growing colder as we ascended, and calling into use all the overcoats and wraps we could muster. From the zigzags of the road we looked down on the plain we had left: at times it seemed as though we could toss a pebble into the Litany, which was reduced to a winding thread in the green carpet of Buka. The mountain grew more and more desolate with every mile of our ascent, and when we stopped to change horses at the station we walked a long way in advance in an effort to get warm.
"We had said good-bye to Ali and his horses at Shtora, and our only guide now was the Arab driver, whose knowledge of French was confined to a few words. We tried in vain to learn the names of the places we were passing. We especially wanted to know if we were near the famous grove of the cedars of Lebanon, but our efforts were unrewarded.
THE CEDARS OF LEBANON.
"At the first station where we changed horses the manager, a Frenchman, said the cedars were several miles to the north, over a rough and difficult road which was inaccessible to carriages. He said the grove was less than half a mile square, and contained about four hundred trees of all sizes. Most of the trees are young, and not more than a dozen are of any great antiquity. The largest is about forty feet in circumference, and it is supposed to be the oldest; and there are thirty or forty which are each from three to five feet in diameter.
"This is the grove from which the timber for Solomon's Temple is supposed to have been taken. There were formerly many cedar groves in Syria, but the most of them have been cut down, or have disappeared from climatic causes. No care is taken of the few cedars that remain; visitors cut and hack them as much as they please. The Arabs take the branches for fuel, and the goats nibble the young shoots so that no new trees can grow. In a hundred years, or perhaps less, the famous cedars of Lebanon will have ceased to exist.
"Now we are on the summit of Lebanon, five thousand six hundred feet above the level of the Mediterranean! The sea is far below us, its dark-blue surface filling the western horizon, and between us and the water is the slope of Lebanon and the belt of coast. The driver gathers his reins, turns down the brake a little—just enough to steady the carriage, but not sufficient to impede the progress of the horses. Away they go at a rapid trot, and occasionally at a gallop. The ride was tedious as we slowly ascended the other side of Lebanon, and this exhilarating speed is an admirable contrast.
VIEW OF BEYROOT, LOOKING TOWARD THE HARBOR.
"Down, and down, and down! The air grows warmer, the clouds that were hovering about the mountain-top are breaking, and the sunlight comes pouring through the rifts, warming our shivering frames and gilding the rocks with a tint of gold. The spots of green on the ground below us grow every minute till they develop into villages and orchards, and one, clinging at the edge of the sea, is larger than any of the others. The driver waves his hand toward this spot and pronounces the word 'Beyroot.' There lies the city where our wanderings in Palestine and Syria will come to an end.
"The Mediterranean sparkled in the sunlight, its blue surface stippled with white sails or darkened by the trail of smoke from the funnels of a steamer. An irregular streak of foam marked where the waves broke along the beach and separated land from sea. In one hour of our descent the chill of winter was exchanged for the genial air of spring, and in another hour spring was turned to summer. Oranges and citrons were on the trees, olives and figs abounded, the fields were luxuriant, and it seemed a dream that we had come so quickly from one climate to another.
"We drove to the principal hotel, and our ride was at an end. After arranging our toilets, for which we found ample materials in the welcome trunks that had been sent from Jaffa, we went out for a view of Beyroot.
"We found the streets were not unlike those of Jaffa, Jerusalem, or Damascus in their general features, so far as the old part of the city is concerned. We had expected this, and therefore were not disappointed;but we had not expected to find the streets in the new part of Beyroot as wide and handsome as they are. The place has an appearance of prosperity and activity more than any other we have seen since leaving Alexandria; it has a large European population, and a good many factories, business houses of various kinds, and kindred establishments, all conducted by foreigners. The entire population is said to be more than eighty thousand, and some authorities declare it to be little, if any, short of one hundred thousand. About a third of the inhabitants are Moslems; the remaining two-thirds include native Christians, Jews, Druses, and a good many foreign nationalities.
"Beyroot is the ancient Berytus, and some authorities identify it with Berothah or Berothai of the Bible. It is a very old city, as we have no distinct record of the time when it was founded, and it is known to have been destroyed and rebuilt one hundred and forty years before the Christian era. It has always been a fairly prosperous city, but the period of its greatest advance has been within the past twenty years.
"We hired a carriage for a drive along the coast to Nahr el-Kelb—Dog River—passing the spot where St. George killed the dragon. If you have any doubt about the truth of the story, you can be convinced byborrowing an English twenty-shilling piece and studying the picture of the performance represented on one side of the coin. Dog River runs through a rocky ravine, and on its sides there are Greek, Roman, Assyrian, and Egyptian inscriptions. They are supposed to commemorate the occupation of the country by the armies of the various nations represented: the Assyrian sculptures are estimated to date back at least twenty-five centuries, while the Egyptian are of a period at least six hundred years older.
MISSION SCHOOL IN SYRIA.
"We returned from Dog River the way we came, and then drove to one of the mission schools of the city. Beyroot is an important field of missionary enterprise, and one result is that the proportion of persons who cannot read and write is smaller than in any other city of Syria. The American Protestant Mission has a fine array of buildings, and, in addition to the ordinary schools of instruction, it has a theological seminary and a literary and medical college; then it has a printing-office, where a great deal of useful matter is printed, including a weekly newspaper, and it has established schools in the villages of the Lebanon and through other parts of the country. Many famous men have been connected with this mission in the past fifty years, and their labors have been warmly appreciated by the supporters of the enterprise.
"Then there are the British Syrian schools, supported by English donations, and there is a school maintained by the Church of Scotland. The French have several schools, orphan asylums, convents, and churches; the Germans have a good representation in the same way; and the Russians, Italians, and Greeks have not been behind the other nationalitiesof Beyroot in providing educational advantages. It is probable that more money has been expended in Beyroot in missionary enterprises than in any other city of its size in the entire East.
FOUNTAIN AT BEYROOT.
"I must not forget the beautiful bay on which the city stands. It is a fine body of water of semicircular shape, opening to the north; as you look from the anchorage the city seems to rise in a series of terraces till it reaches the enclosing hills backed by lofty Lebanon. From any of the hills back of the town, or from the front of the old sea-wall, there is a splendid view over the water. Our hotel veranda fronts on the bay, and we have greatly enjoyed the charming panorama it affords.
"But here I must stop. Frank has just come in to say that the steamer is smoking furiously at her anchorage, and we must go on board in half an hour. So, good-bye for the present.
"And good-bye to Egypt and the Holy Land.
"We have enjoyed our journey ever and ever so much. We have seen many things of biblical, historical, and present interest, and we trust that the lessons they teach have not fallen on inattentive ears.
"And, so trusting and believing, it is sad for us to write
"The End."
LEBANON.
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FOOTNOTES:[1]"The Boy Travellers in the Far East." Parts I., II., and III. Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to Japan, China, Siam, Java, Cambodia, Sumatra, the Malay Archipelago, Ceylon, Burmah, Borneo, the Philippine Islands, and India. By Thomas W. Knox. Published by Harper & Brothers, New York.[2]In 1881 the receipts were 51,080,355 fr., which is 11,239,866 fr. in excess of the receipts for 1880. The number of English vessels that passed through the Canal was not only larger than the total for all other nations, it was nearly four times as large as that total, and the English percentage also showed an increase over the former year. The number of English ships was 2256. France ranked next, but she had only 109 ships—about one-twentieth what England had. Then came Holland, with 70 ships; Austria, with 65; Italy, with 51; Spain, with 46; and Germany, with 40. Egypt had only 11—the same number that Turkey had; Norway had 10 and China 4. Ten years ago the amount of coal supplied at Port Said was 126,000 tons; in 1881 it was 506,000 tons, or four times as much; and while the British proportion of the tonnage in 1871 was 64 per cent. of the total, it was 82 in 1881. Of share prices some equally interesting figures may be given. With a nominal value of 500 fr., they had fallen in 1863 to 220 fr. In 1869, the year the Canal was opened, they rose to 663 fr.; in 1880 they had reached 715 fr., and before the year closed had touched 1327 fr. They advanced to 1700 fr. in June of the following year, and between that month and January, 1882, went rapidly on to 3500 fr., but fell ere the middle of the month to 2100 fr. In 1881 the dividend on the shares was 9 per cent.; for 1882 it will probably be 12, so that 2100 fr., a point to which the shares were forced in a time of panic, even with dividends of 12 per cent., would still be far higher than the actual value of the shares.[3]It is said that this injunction was made by Mohammed in order to prevent his converts lapsing again into the idolatry from which he had converted them. He enjoined them against making a representation of any living thing, as they might be confronted with it at the Day of Judgment, and required, under penalty of perpetual banishment from Paradise, to endow it with life.[4]"The Boy Travellers in Ceylon and India," pp. 447, 448.[5]It was the good fortune of the author of this volume to form the acquaintance of Mariette Bey in Egypt, in 1874, and to meet him again in Paris a few years later. The death of this eminent archæologist is greatly regretted by all students of the history of ancient Egypt.[6]The above is the contract, with some slight change of phrases, that was made by the party of six of which the author was a member when he visited the Holy Land. It should be remarked that it was not in the height of the travelling season, and consequently the terms were lower than usual. A party of six or more can generally secure everything as above stated for twenty-five francs (twenty shillings) each person daily. The tourist agencies charge thirty shillings per day, and require the whole amount to be paid in advance, and they generally manage to bring in a large bill for "extras" at the end of the journey. An excellent form of contract can be found in Baedeker's "Hand-book for Palestine and Syria."[7]Matt. xxvi. 30-56; Mark xiv. 26-52; Luke xxii. 39-53; John xviii. 1-14.[8]The author begs to inform the reader that the incident of the storm between Jericho and Jerusalem was his own experience in a visit to the Holy Land. He did not make the overland journey between Jerusalem and Damascus, and consequently the description of the route followed by Frank and Fred is not given from personal observation.
[1]"The Boy Travellers in the Far East." Parts I., II., and III. Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to Japan, China, Siam, Java, Cambodia, Sumatra, the Malay Archipelago, Ceylon, Burmah, Borneo, the Philippine Islands, and India. By Thomas W. Knox. Published by Harper & Brothers, New York.
[1]"The Boy Travellers in the Far East." Parts I., II., and III. Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to Japan, China, Siam, Java, Cambodia, Sumatra, the Malay Archipelago, Ceylon, Burmah, Borneo, the Philippine Islands, and India. By Thomas W. Knox. Published by Harper & Brothers, New York.
[2]In 1881 the receipts were 51,080,355 fr., which is 11,239,866 fr. in excess of the receipts for 1880. The number of English vessels that passed through the Canal was not only larger than the total for all other nations, it was nearly four times as large as that total, and the English percentage also showed an increase over the former year. The number of English ships was 2256. France ranked next, but she had only 109 ships—about one-twentieth what England had. Then came Holland, with 70 ships; Austria, with 65; Italy, with 51; Spain, with 46; and Germany, with 40. Egypt had only 11—the same number that Turkey had; Norway had 10 and China 4. Ten years ago the amount of coal supplied at Port Said was 126,000 tons; in 1881 it was 506,000 tons, or four times as much; and while the British proportion of the tonnage in 1871 was 64 per cent. of the total, it was 82 in 1881. Of share prices some equally interesting figures may be given. With a nominal value of 500 fr., they had fallen in 1863 to 220 fr. In 1869, the year the Canal was opened, they rose to 663 fr.; in 1880 they had reached 715 fr., and before the year closed had touched 1327 fr. They advanced to 1700 fr. in June of the following year, and between that month and January, 1882, went rapidly on to 3500 fr., but fell ere the middle of the month to 2100 fr. In 1881 the dividend on the shares was 9 per cent.; for 1882 it will probably be 12, so that 2100 fr., a point to which the shares were forced in a time of panic, even with dividends of 12 per cent., would still be far higher than the actual value of the shares.
[2]In 1881 the receipts were 51,080,355 fr., which is 11,239,866 fr. in excess of the receipts for 1880. The number of English vessels that passed through the Canal was not only larger than the total for all other nations, it was nearly four times as large as that total, and the English percentage also showed an increase over the former year. The number of English ships was 2256. France ranked next, but she had only 109 ships—about one-twentieth what England had. Then came Holland, with 70 ships; Austria, with 65; Italy, with 51; Spain, with 46; and Germany, with 40. Egypt had only 11—the same number that Turkey had; Norway had 10 and China 4. Ten years ago the amount of coal supplied at Port Said was 126,000 tons; in 1881 it was 506,000 tons, or four times as much; and while the British proportion of the tonnage in 1871 was 64 per cent. of the total, it was 82 in 1881. Of share prices some equally interesting figures may be given. With a nominal value of 500 fr., they had fallen in 1863 to 220 fr. In 1869, the year the Canal was opened, they rose to 663 fr.; in 1880 they had reached 715 fr., and before the year closed had touched 1327 fr. They advanced to 1700 fr. in June of the following year, and between that month and January, 1882, went rapidly on to 3500 fr., but fell ere the middle of the month to 2100 fr. In 1881 the dividend on the shares was 9 per cent.; for 1882 it will probably be 12, so that 2100 fr., a point to which the shares were forced in a time of panic, even with dividends of 12 per cent., would still be far higher than the actual value of the shares.
[3]It is said that this injunction was made by Mohammed in order to prevent his converts lapsing again into the idolatry from which he had converted them. He enjoined them against making a representation of any living thing, as they might be confronted with it at the Day of Judgment, and required, under penalty of perpetual banishment from Paradise, to endow it with life.
[3]It is said that this injunction was made by Mohammed in order to prevent his converts lapsing again into the idolatry from which he had converted them. He enjoined them against making a representation of any living thing, as they might be confronted with it at the Day of Judgment, and required, under penalty of perpetual banishment from Paradise, to endow it with life.
[4]"The Boy Travellers in Ceylon and India," pp. 447, 448.
[4]"The Boy Travellers in Ceylon and India," pp. 447, 448.
[5]It was the good fortune of the author of this volume to form the acquaintance of Mariette Bey in Egypt, in 1874, and to meet him again in Paris a few years later. The death of this eminent archæologist is greatly regretted by all students of the history of ancient Egypt.
[5]It was the good fortune of the author of this volume to form the acquaintance of Mariette Bey in Egypt, in 1874, and to meet him again in Paris a few years later. The death of this eminent archæologist is greatly regretted by all students of the history of ancient Egypt.
[6]The above is the contract, with some slight change of phrases, that was made by the party of six of which the author was a member when he visited the Holy Land. It should be remarked that it was not in the height of the travelling season, and consequently the terms were lower than usual. A party of six or more can generally secure everything as above stated for twenty-five francs (twenty shillings) each person daily. The tourist agencies charge thirty shillings per day, and require the whole amount to be paid in advance, and they generally manage to bring in a large bill for "extras" at the end of the journey. An excellent form of contract can be found in Baedeker's "Hand-book for Palestine and Syria."
[6]The above is the contract, with some slight change of phrases, that was made by the party of six of which the author was a member when he visited the Holy Land. It should be remarked that it was not in the height of the travelling season, and consequently the terms were lower than usual. A party of six or more can generally secure everything as above stated for twenty-five francs (twenty shillings) each person daily. The tourist agencies charge thirty shillings per day, and require the whole amount to be paid in advance, and they generally manage to bring in a large bill for "extras" at the end of the journey. An excellent form of contract can be found in Baedeker's "Hand-book for Palestine and Syria."
[7]Matt. xxvi. 30-56; Mark xiv. 26-52; Luke xxii. 39-53; John xviii. 1-14.
[7]Matt. xxvi. 30-56; Mark xiv. 26-52; Luke xxii. 39-53; John xviii. 1-14.
[8]The author begs to inform the reader that the incident of the storm between Jericho and Jerusalem was his own experience in a visit to the Holy Land. He did not make the overland journey between Jerusalem and Damascus, and consequently the description of the route followed by Frank and Fred is not given from personal observation.
[8]The author begs to inform the reader that the incident of the storm between Jericho and Jerusalem was his own experience in a visit to the Holy Land. He did not make the overland journey between Jerusalem and Damascus, and consequently the description of the route followed by Frank and Fred is not given from personal observation.