Byeways in Palestine Part 12

The view in every direction is most imposing. This rough plan will give a tolerably good idea of the Vale of 'Elah. Across the valley, opposite to Shocoh, stands a very fine terebinth-tree. Possibly in ancient days there were many such in the district, and so the valley and the village of 'Elah may have acquired this name.

_'Ajoor_ commands a view of the great plain and the sea. From that hill, looking eastwards, the vale has a magnificent appearance as a ground for manoeuvres of an army.

[Picture: Plan of Vale of 'Elah]

Near _Zacariah_ the Wadi es Sunt contains but few of those trees. We pa.s.sed close under that prosperous-looking village with its palm-tree, mounted a rocky path, and went along a valley "covered over with corn,"

(Ps. cxv. 13;) here the very paths were concealed by the exuberant grain, so that we had to trample for ourselves a way through it.

Emerging on the great plain, we had to wade monotonously through an ocean of wheat. How I longed to have with me some of the blasphemers of the Holy Land, who tell us that it is now a blighted and cursed land, and who quote Scripture amiss to show that this is a fulfilment of prophecy.

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In many places, however, we saw how the rich produce had been trampled down and rolled upon by camels, or by Bashi-bozuk soldiers on their travels, after their horses were gorged to the full with gratuitous feeding. We met a black slave of 'Othman el Lehham of Bait 'Atab, a fine fellow, well mounted and armed, and he told us that a large part of this wheat was his master's property. He had been travelling from village to village upon business. His n.o.ble bearing, and his being thus confidentially employed, reminded me of the Arabic proverb, that "Even a Shaikh's slave is a Shaikh."

In one place I remarked some hundred yards square of fine oats. This was surprising, as I knew that oats are not cultivated in Palestine. The people a.s.sured me that they were of wild growth, but they were of excellent quality; and as the name (Khafeer) seemed to be well known, it seems difficult to understand that oats have not been at some time cultivated in that part of the country. With respect to its Arabic name, it is worth notice how near it is to the German name (Hafer) for oats.

Wetzstein has since found wild oats growing on the N.E. of the Hauran.

Arrived at _'Ain Shems_, the Beth Shemesh of the Bible, (I Sam. vi. 9, _pa.s.sim_,) where, instead of the large population of ancient times, we found nothing but a weli and some fragments of peasant houses.

Due north from us as we rested, lay on the summit of a hill, _Sora'a_, which is Zorah, the birthplace of Samson, where the angel appeared to Manoah and his wife. The people told us of _Amooriah_ to the left, but we could not quite see it, and the same with respect to _Tibneh_, or _Dibneh_, the Timnath of Samson's history.

All the plain and the low hills formed one waving sheet of corn, without divisions or trees; and often, as we had no tracks for guidance, we had to take sight of some object on the horizon, and work straight forward towards it. It was amid such a wonderful profusion that Samson let loose the foxes or jackals with firebrands, taking revenge on the Philistines, and he called it "doing them a displeasure!" I have seen from Jerusalem the smoke of corn burning, which had accidentally taken fire in that very district.

On the summit of a hill, where were good square stones of old masonry, I got into a sheepfold of stone walls, looking for antiquities; but, alas!

came out with my light-coloured clothes covered with fleas; fortunately the clothes were not woollen.

Further on we had _Bait Ziz_, or _Jiz_, on the right, with _Dejajeh_, or _Edjajeh_, and _Na'ana_, or _Ra'ana_, on the left; _Khulda_ in the distance at N.W.; a vast expanse of growing grain in every direction.

The population hereabouts are a fine race for stature, and paler in complexion than our peasantry on the hills; and it ought to be the reverse, unless, as is certainly the case, they are a distinct people.

We traversed the plain to _'Akir_, which is Ekron of Scripture, one of the five princ.i.p.al cities of the Philistines, and chief place of the worship of Baal-zebub, (2 Kings i. 3.) All our inquiries had been in vain for any name that could possibly have been Gath. The utter extinction of that city is remarkable--the very name disappearing from the Bible after Micah, B.C. 730. Amos, B.C. 787, and Zephaniah, B.C.

630, mention the four other cities of the Philistines, omitting Gath.

The name never occurs in the Apocrypha or the New Testament.

'Akir is now a very miserable village of unburnt brick; indeed, all the villages of this district are of that material, owing to the extreme rarity of stone. We saw women cutting bricks out of the viscous alluvial soil, and boys swimming luxuriously in the pool of rain water settled during winter in the excavation for bricks--quarry we might style it, if the material were stone. There was plenty of ploughing in progress for the summer crops of sesame, durrah, etc., and the people seemed rich in horned cattle.

This last feature const.i.tutes another difference between them and the hill country. In the mountains, where the Bedaween forays are almost unknown, the cattle bred are princ.i.p.ally sheep and goats. On the plains, flocks of sheep might be easily swept off by those marauders, oxen not so easily; the people, therefore, princ.i.p.ally breed this species of cattle, and instead of idle shepherd boys amusing themselves with little flutes, and guiding the sheep by throwing stones at them, the herds here are driven by mounted hors.e.m.e.n with long poles. The flatness of the country and the frequency of oxen will serve to ill.u.s.trate the exactness of Bible narratives, particularly in the matter of the wheeled carriage and the kine used for conveying the ark of G.o.d from this place, Ekron, to Bethshemesh (I Sam. vi.)

Forward we went to _Yabneh_, (Jabneel of Josh. xv. II, and Jabneh of 2 Chron. xxvi. 6,) where it is mentioned in connexion with Gath and Ashkelon. It was a border city of Judah, where the _Wadi Surar_, (called here the river _Rubin_,) forms the boundary between Judah and Dan. I think we may identify it as the "Me-Jarkon and the border that is over against j.a.pho," of Josh. xix. 46. It is the Jamnia, where, for a long time after the Roman overthrow of Jerusalem, was a celebrated college of the Talmudists, before, however, the traditions and speculations of the rabbis were collected into volumes of Mishna and Gemara. It is believed that the truly great and venerable Gamaliel is buried here.

[Picture: Ancient church, now mosque, Yabneh]

Yabneh stands on a rising ground, and although a village of sun-baked bricks, it has remains of a Christian church, now used as a mosque, with a tower of stone.

While resting under a tree, awaiting the coming up of our baggage, 'Abd'errahhman Bek el 'Asali, a companion of ours from Jerusalem, threw a stone at a young filly and cursed her, because the colours of her legs were of unlucky omen. On such matters the native Moslems entertain strong prejudices, which are based upon precise and well-known rules.

On the arrival of our mules, we pitched the tents upon a pretty green common with a row of trees; the verdure consisted of wild clover, and leaves remaining of wild flowers--chiefly of the wild pink. It is an Arab proverb that "Green is a portion of paradise."

The villages in sight were _Besheet_ to the S.E., and _El Kubeibeh_ to the N.E. Our day's journey from Bait Nateef had been one of only seven hours, viz., from 8 A.M. to 3 P.M.

The population seemed very industrious: they have cheerful _bayarahs_, or enclosed orchards, and the open fields were exceedingly well cultivated.

The evening scene was most pleasing, comprising the return of flocks and herds from pasture, and the barley-harvest coming home upon a.s.ses and camels with bells on their necks--all enlivened by the singing or chattering of women and children.

As the day advanced I was happily employed at my tent door reading the Arabic New Testament; it should have been in Hebrew at Yamnia, as being more profitable than all the Pirke Avoth of the Talmud. At sunset our party walked out in the fields to shoot the pretty bee-eaters.

Of this village there is a tale current among the peasantry over the country, which conveys an important lesson for the conduct of human life.

An old Shaikh of Yabneh had five sons. When very old, a complaint was brought to him that some one had stolen a c.o.c.k; so he called together his sons and ordered them all to search for the c.o.c.k; but it was not found.

Some time afterwards it was represented to him that a sheep was stolen; he then commanded his sons to go and search for the c.o.c.k. They replied, "O our father, it is not a c.o.c.k but a sheep that is stolen;" but he persisted in his command, and they did what they well could, but without success. After that he was told that a cow was missing; he again commanded his sons to look after the c.o.c.k. They thinking he had lost his senses, cried, "_Sallem 'akalak ya Abuna_, (May G.o.d perfect thy understanding, O our father,) it is not a c.o.c.k but a cow that is missing." "Go look for the c.o.c.k," persevered the old man; they obeyed, but this time again without success. People wondered and thought him in a state of mere dotage. Next came the news that a man was killed. The father pertinaciously adhered to his first injunctions, and ordered his sons to look for the c.o.c.k. Again they returned without finding it, and in the end it came to pa.s.s that the killing of the man brought on a blood feud with his relations--the factions of several villages took up the case for revenge, and the whole town was destroyed, and lay long in a state of desolation, for want of sufficient zeal in discovering and punishing the first offence, the stealing of the c.o.c.k, which thus became a root of all the rest. There is a good deal of wisdom contained in this narrative or allegory, whichever it may be considered. Offenders become emboldened by impunity, and the first beginnings should be checked.

_Thursday_ 3_d_.--Early dew around the tents upon the green. We mounted at half-past six. I rode up to the village and got to the top of the tower in the village.

After an hour and a half of level riding southwards, we arrived at a broad old sycamore in the middle of the road.

Another hour brought us to _Asdood_ (_Ashdod_) of the Philistines, with _Atna_ and _Bait Duras_ on our left. I do not know where in all the Holy Land I have seen such excellent agriculture of grain, olive-trees, and orchards of fruit, as here at Ashdod. The fields would do credit to English farming--the tall, healthy, and cleanly population wore perfectly white though coa.r.s.e dresses, and carried no guns, only the short sword called the Khanjar. We rested in an orchard beneath a large mulberry-tree, the fruit of which was just setting, and the adjacent pomegranate-trees shone in their glazed foliage and bright scarlet blossoms, the hedges of p.r.i.c.kly pear were bursting into yellow fruit, palm-trees rising beyond, the sky was of deep sapphire brilliancy, and the sun delightfully hot.

Here then had been the princ.i.p.al temple of the fish-G.o.d Dagon, which fell nightly in presence of the Israelitish ark. Not the only temple, however, for there is still a village near Jaffa with the name of _Bait Dajan_, and another still further north, in the same plain, but in the Nabloos district. Strange that this temple of Dagon at Ashdod should have survived and preserved its worship so late as nearly to the Christian era, when it was burnt by Jonathan the Jerusalem high priest, (Josephus Ant., xiii. 4, 4; Macc. x. 84.)

Ought not Gath to be sought between this, and Ekron, according to 1 Sam.

v.? See also 2 Chron. xxvi. 6.

Soon after remounting we arrived at the ruin of a fine old _Khan_, one of the numerous establishments of the kind upon the camel road from Damascus to Egypt, but now every one of them is broken and unfit for use. There was a n.o.ble column of granite lying across the gateway, and two Welies close adjoining.

Reached _Hhamameh_ at 11 A.M., from which we turned aside through lanes of gardens, and over deep sand towards _'Ascalon_, leaving _Mejdal_ on our left, with its lofty tower rising over an extensive plantation of olive-trees. This tower is believed to be of Moslem erection. Pa.s.sing another village on our left, we at length came to _Jurah_, a wretched brick hamlet, stuck as it were against the ancient walls of 'Ascalon.

We were on the sea-beach at noon. Upon this beach lie stupendous ma.s.ses of overthrown city wall, and numerous columns of blue-gray granite of no very imposing dimensions. A great number of these have been at some time built horizontally into those walls, from which their ends protrude like muzzles of cannon from a modern fortification. This arrangement, with the same effect, is also found at Tyre, Caesarea, and other places along the coast.

The site or lie of the city is princ.i.p.ally in two hollow basins, in which the detrition of houses forms now a soil for grain, for fruit gardens and good tobacco.

We were shown the ruins of what the people call "the Church," where there are several very large columns of polished granite lying prostrate, but neither there nor elsewhere could any capitals be found belonging to the columns. All over the East such objects are appropriated by townspeople as ornaments inside the houses, especially at the mouths of wells.

The people pointed out to us from a distance the spot where H. E. Zareef Pasha had lately obtained the marble slab of bas-relief, which he sent to the museum at Constantinople.

The walls of 'Ascalan are clearly distinguishable in all their circuit, and have been of great thickness.

The position of this "Bride of Syria," as the Saracens designated it, is very fine, and the prospect around must have been beautiful; but of this prize of so many sieges and neighbouring battles, the joy of Richard Coeur de Lion, where he laboured with his own hands in repairing the broken walls, only its name with the scriptural and later romantic history remain to claim our attention, and verify the prediction of the prophet Zephaniah, ii. 4-6.

I found no coins there, and none were brought to me; only some were brought to me in an after-journey at Mejdal; I therefore pa.s.s by for this time the cla.s.sical allusions to the fish G.o.ddess, Deceto. A beautiful head of a female statue, but blackened by fire, brought from Ascalon, has since been sold to me, which I delivered to our museum.

We remained there an hour, then rode to _Naaleea_. The fine plain over which we galloped must have had many an English rider upon it in the Crusading times--many a man who never saw "merrie England" again, even in company with King Richard.

_Naaleea_, though built of brick, bears an appearance of real cleanliness; the olive plantation from Mejdal reaches thus far.

The barley reaped at _Berberah_ was, I believe, the finest I have ever seen; and there were pretty roads winding among olive groves, orchards well enclosed by p.r.i.c.kly-pear hedges, with bee-eaters skimming and twittering before us.

_Bait Jirja_ on the left; then after a good while _Bait Hhanoon_ also on the left.

Reached _Ghuzzeh_ (Gaza) at 5 P.M. The very remarkable approach is by an avenue of at least a mile long, very wide like a boulevard, through an immense park of olive grounds, with the city for an object of vista at the end.