Chapter XL: Letter XXXVIII

NAZARETH. _November 9, 1845._

My last letter of the 26th of October from Jerusalem, I am sorry to say, you will not receive, as the courier (of Dr. Schulz, our consul), to whom I had given it, with five others, was attacked by robbers on the road to Berut, near Cesarea, much ill-used, and robbed of all his despatches, together with the little money he had with him. The want of order in this country is very great. The Turkish authorities, to whom the country has been again given up by Christian bravery, are lazy, malicious, and weak at the same time, whilst Ibrahim Pasha at least knew how to maintain order and security as far as his government extended.

In Jerusalem we remained nearly three weeks, which I passed in obtaining a knowledge of the religious circumstances of the present time, every day becoming more important, and partly in some antiquarian, topographical researches. The great affability and communicativeness of the Bishop Alexander, who overtook us, with Abeken of Jaffa, and the learned industry of Dr. Schulz, with whom I had been intimate since our mutual stay in Paris, in the years 1834 and 1835, have greatly assisted me in rendering these delightful days both important and instructive. An excursion to Jericho, to Jordan, and the Dead Sea, and back over San Saba formed an interesting episode. My copious diary of the whole time was, however, contained in the lost letter, which will never appear again, and which I can now but imperfectly replace.

On the 4th November we left the Holy City. On account of the war, now becoming serious, which the Pasha of Jerusalem was carrying on with Hebron, we had same difficulty in procuring mules and horses. The first night beyond Jerusalem we passed under the tents in Bîreh. On the second day we went through Bethin (Bethel), ’Ain el Haramîeh (the Robbers’ Well), Selûn (Silo), to Nablûs (Sichem, Neapolis), and ascended the same evening the Garizim, the holy mountain of the Samaritans, the small remains of whom (about seventy men or 150 souls) we made ourselves acquainted with the next day. They are still abhorred by the Jews, and have also as little in common with the Christians and the Mahommedans.

We saw from the Garizim the naked rocky level, surrounded by some old walls, where these Sámari still offer yearly, as in former times, their sheep to their God. The next morning, after we had visited the house of prayer of the Samaritans, in which we were shown the ancient Samaritan handwriting of the Pentateuch, as well as Jacob’s well and the vine-covered grave of Joseph, we rode on, accompanied by an armed servant of Soliman Bey, in whose house we had lodged, to Sebastîeh (Sebaste, the ancient Samaria) where we saw the ruins of a beautiful old church, of the time of the crusaders, which is said to be built over the grave of John the Baptist. The night we passed in the well-wooded Gennîn (Egennin). From thence our road led through the wide fertile yet nevertheless deserted plain of Jesreel (Esdraelon), across the great battle-field of Palestine, to Zerîn, and to the beautiful Ain Gulût (Goliath’s spring), where Naboth’s vineyard lay, and Ahab’s whole family were murdered, then over the Gebel Dah’i, the little Herman, behind which arose Tabor (Gebel e’ Tûr) which, on account of its magnificent cupola form and its open situation, distinguished itself, and enchained our eyes, till we road again into the mountains to the lovely Nazareth, amphi-theatrically situated in a mountain-hollow. Early yesterday we made an excursion from here over Mount Tabor, to Tiberias, to the Lake of Genezaret, and have just returned. There also we were obliged, against my will, to take with us armed Arabs as bodyguards, and, in fact, we met, particularly in the neighbourhood of the woody beautiful Tabor, many vagabond Bedouins, in their picturesque gay costume, watching on the roads or riding across the fields right up to us, whom I should not have liked to have met alone.