Byeways in Palestine Part 3

The people informed me of a place, a little nearer than Kerak, called _Rabbah_. This latter may be a _Rabbath-Moab_.

I have no further notes to transcribe respecting the architectural remains; but they are so numerous and so important that a week would not suffice for their thorough investigation. All our party were highly gratified at having visited this Rabbath-Ammon--_alias_ Philadelphia--_alias_, at present, 'Amman. We were not, however, so fortunate as Lord Lindsay in finding a fulfilment of the prophecy (Ezek.

xxv. 5) with respect to camels, either alive or dead. Probably, when he was there, it was soon after an Egyptian military expedition to Kerak.

The prodigious number of dead camels that he saw there would seem to indicate that a great Arab battle had been fought at that place shortly before. It is only in this way that we could account for a cannonball (about a six-pounder) which one of the boys carried about, in following us, all the afternoon, wishing us to buy it of him as a curiosity.

On returning to the tents, I found an old Jerusalem acquaintance--a Moslem named 'Abderrahhman Bek el 'Asali--and with him several people from Es-Salt; among these a Christian named Abbas.

From conversation with them I got some fresh information on Arab affairs.

These people took the opportunity of glorifying their native town; related how they are frequently at war, and that successfully, with the 'Adwan; and when acting in concert with the Abbad, or much more so when in alliance with the Beni Sukh'r, can always repel them; only it happens that sometimes the 'Adwan get help from the more distant 'Anezeh; and this is much more than enough to turn the balance again. But even now the 'Adwan cannot come near the town; neither can they quite forget that the Saltiyeh people, during a former war, killed both the father and grandfather of Deab, and sent the head of the former to the tribe in a dish, with a pilaff of rice.

All the strength of the 'Adwan now lies in Shaikh Deab, with his son 'Ali, (who came to welcome us near the Jordan,) and Gublan the nephew.

Old 'Abdu'l 'Azeez is considered childish, and unfit to lead them.

For us travellers, however, the 'Adwan are sufficient. The territory is theirs over which we are pa.s.sing, and they do all they can to please us; only, of course, like all Arab guides, they take every opportunity of insinuating themselves into being fed by us, which is a condition "not in the bond."

Then came a visit of three men with good-natured countenances. These were Bedawi minstrels from Tadmor, (Palmyra,) who wander about from tribe to tribe, singing heroic poems to the accompaniment of their rebabeh, (a very primitive sort of fiddle.) No warfare interferes with the immunity of their persons or property. They are never injured or insulted, but are always and everywhere welcome, and liberally rewarded. Of course it is for their interest to gratify the pride of their auditors by fervid appeals to their ancestral renown, or to individual prowess and generosity.

The Arabic of their chants is unintelligible to towns-people; it is the high cla.s.sic language of Antar.

I had made acquaintance with these same men before at Tibneen Castle, near the Lebanon, during a season of Bairam. Being Sunday, we requested them to visit our tents in the morning. Our Arabs, however, and the dragomans kept them singing till a late hour round the fires lighted among the tents. It was a cheerful scene, in the clear starlight, and the l.u.s.trous planet Venus reflected in the running stream.

_Monday_, 14_th_.--After breakfast, and an entertainment of music from our troubadours, and the bestowing of our guerdon, these left us on their way to the other camp at Na'oor; and our packing up commenced.

Strange medley of costumes and languages among the grand colonnades. Our Arabs left us, having the luggage in charge, and indicating to us the camping-ground where we were to meet again at night--thus leaving us in care of the Saltiyeh friends of ours, who were to escort us to their town and its neighbourhood, as the 'Adwan might not go there themselves.

Both the Christian and Moslem shaikhs of the town came to meet us on the way. The former was a very old man; and he could with difficulty be persuaded to mount his donkey in presence of a train so majestic, in his eyes, coming from the holy city of Jerusalem.

We pa.s.sed an encampment of _Beni Hhasan_. These people are few in number, and exist under the shadow of the 'Adwan.

There were plenty of locusts about the country; but we soon came to a vast s.p.a.ce of land covered with storks, so numerous as completely to hide the face of the earth, all of them busily employed in feeding--of course devouring the locusts. So great is the blessing derived from the visits of storks, that the natives of these countries regard it as a sin to destroy the birds. On our riding among them they rose in the air, entirely obscuring he sky and the sun from our view. One of our party attempted to fire among them with his revolver, but, by some heedlessness or accident, the bunch of barrels, being not well screwed down flew off the stock and was lost for a time; it took more than half an hour's search by all of us to find it again, and the Arabs considered this a just punishment for wishing to kill such useful creatures.

We traversed a meadow where Shaikh Faisel, with a detachment of the 'Anezeh, had encamped for pasture, and only left it thirty-five days before. His flocks and herds were described to us as impossible to be counted; but our friends were unanimous in stating that his camels were 1500 in number.

Came to _Khirbet es Sar_, (_Jazer_?) whence the Dead Sea was again visible. Our Arabs declared that they could distinguish the Frank mountain, and see into the streets of Bethlehem. Here there is a mere heap of ruin, with cisterns, and fragments of arches, large columns, and capitals; also a very rough cyclopean square building of brown striped flint in huge ma.s.ses.

This site is three hours due north of Na'oor, in a straight line, not turning aside to Deab's camp or 'Amman. Northwards hence are the well-wooded hills of _'Ajloon_. To my inquiries for any site with a name resembling Nebo, I was referred to the _Neba_, half an hour south of Heshbon, which is given in the list taken down by me at Heshbon.

Proceeding northwards, we had the hills of _Jebel Mahas_ parallel on our right hand; and to our left, in a deep glen below, was the source of the stream Se'eer, which had flowed past us at _Cuferain_, our first encampment after crossing the Jordan.

Arrived at the ruined town (modern in appearance) of _Dabook_, from whence they say the _Dabookeh_ grapes at Hebron {39} had their origin; but there are none to be seen here now (see Jer. xlviii. 32, 33)--"O vine of Sibmah, I will weep for thee with the weeping of Jazer: thy plants are gone over the sea, they reach even to the sea of Jazer: the spoiler is fallen upon thy summer fruits and upon thy vintage. And joy and gladness is taken from the plentiful field, and from the land of Moab; and I have caused wine to fail from the wine-presses," etc.: with nearly the same words in Isa. xvi. 8-10.

At a short distance upon our right was a ruined village called _Khuldah_.

This was at the entrance of woods of the evergreen oak, with hawthorn, many trees of each kind twined round with honeysuckle. There Shaikh Yusuf, (the Moslem of Es-Salt,) who is a fine singer, entertained us with his performances, often bursting into extemporaneous verses suitable to the occasion and company.

On reaching an exceedingly stony and desolate place, he related the original story of Lokman the miser, connected with it:--"Formerly this was a fertile and lovely spot, abounding in gardens of fruit; and as the Apostle Mohammed (peace and blessings be upon him!) was pa.s.sing by, he asked for some of the delicious produce for his refreshment on the weary way, but the churlish owner Lokman denied him the proper hospitality, and even used insulting language to the unknown traveller, (far be it from us!) Whereupon the latter, who was aware beforehand of the man's character, and knew that he was hopelessly beyond the reach of exhortation and of wise instruction, invoked upon him, by the spirit of prophecy, the curse of G.o.d, (the almighty and glorious.) And so his gardens were converted into these barren rocks before us, and the fruit into mere stones."

Such was the tale. But similar miraculous punishments for inhospitality are told at Mount Carmel, as inflicted by the Prophet Elijah; and near Bethlehem by the Virgin Mary.

From a distance we caught a distant view of the _Beka' el Basha_, or Pasha's meadow, where we were to encamp at night, but turned aside westwards in order to visit the town of Es-Salt. Upon a wide level tract we came to a small patch of ground enclosed by a low wall, to which a s.p.a.ce was left for entrance, with a lintel thrown across it, but still not above four feet from ground. On this were bits of gla.s.s and beads and pebbles deposited, as votive offerings, or tokens of remembrance or respect. The place is called the Weli, or tomb, of a Persian Moslem saint named _Sardoni_. But it should be recollected that in Arabic the name _'Ajam_, or Persia, is often used to signify any unknown distant country to the east.

At _'Ain el Jadoor_ we found water springing out of the rocks, among vineyards and fig and walnut trees, olives also, and pomegranates--a beautiful oasis, redeemed from the devastation of Bedaween by the strong hand of the town population. Near this the Christian Shaikh Abbas, being in our company, was met by his venerable mother and his son Bakhi.

In every direction the town of Es-Salt is environed by fruitful gardens, the produce of which finds a market in Nabloos and Jerusalem. The scenery reminded me of the Lebanon in its green aspect of industry and wealth.

Entering the town we dismounted at the house of Shaikh Yusuf, and took our refreshment on the open terrace, on the shady side of a wall.

Some of us walked about and visited the two Christian churches: they are both named "St George," and are very poor in furniture. Of course they have over the door the universal picture in these countries of St George on his prancing gray horse. This obtains for them some respect from the Mohammedans, who also revere that martial and religious hero. Inside the churches we found some pictures with Russian writing upon the frames; the people informed us that these were presents from the Emperor Nicholas, which is worthy of notice.

The ignorance of the priests here is proverbial all over Palestine. I have heard it told of them as a common practice, that they recite the Lord's Prayer and the _Fathhah_, or opening chapter of the Koran, alternately, on the ground that these are both very sublime and beautiful; and it is said that they baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and the Virgin Mary. There is reason to believe them very grossly ignorant; but it may be that some of these reports about them emanate from the Roman Catholic authorities in Jerusalem, who never hesitate at propagating slanders to the detriment of non-Romanists.

In a church porch I found a school of dirty ragged children reading the Psalms from the small English printed edition; not, however, learning to read by means of the alphabet or spelling, but learning to know the forms of words by rote; boys and girls together, all very slightly dressed, and one of the boys stark naked.

People came to me to be cured of ophthalmia. I got out of my portmanteau for them some sugar of lead; but it is inconceivable the difficulty I had to get a vessel for making it into a lotion--bottles or phials were totally unknown, not even cups were to be procured. At one time I thought of a gourd-sh.e.l.l, but there was not one _dried_ in the town; so they told me. I might have lent them my drinking-cup, but then I wanted to prepare a large quant.i.ty to be left behind and to be used occasionally. I forget now what was the expedient adopted, but I think it was the last named-one, but of course only making sufficient for immediate use. I left a quant.i.ty behind me in powder, with directions to dilute it considerably whenever any vessel could be found; warning the people, however, of its poisonous nature if taken by mouth.

One man came imploring me to cure him of deafness, but I could not undertake his case. In any of those countries a medical missionary would be of incalculable benefit to the people.

There are ancient remains about the town, but not considerable in any respect. It is often taken for granted that this is the Ramoth-Gilead of Scripture, but I believe without any other reason than that, from the copious springs of water, there must always have been an important city there. The old name, however, would rather lead us north-eastwards to the hills of _Jela'ad_, where there are also springs and ruins.

On leaving the town we experienced a good deal of annoyance from the Moslem population, one of whom stole a gun from a gentleman of the party, and when detected, for a long time refused to give it up. Of course, in the end it was returned; but I was told afterwards that the people had a notion that we ought to pay them something for visiting their town, just as we pay the wild Arabs for visiting Jerash. What a difference from the time of the strong Egyptian Government when Lord Lindsay was there!

At a distance of perhaps half or three-quarters of an hour there is a _Weli_ called _Nebi Osha_; that is to say, a sepulchre, or commemorative station of the Prophet Joshua, celebrated all over the country for the exceeding magnificence of the prospect it commands in every direction.

In order to reach this, we had to pa.s.s over hills and plains newly taken into cultivation for vineyards, mile after mile, in order to supply a recent call for the peculiar grapes of the district at Jerusalem to be sent to London as raisins.

Arrived at the Weli, we found no language sufficient to express the astonishment elicited by the view before us; and here it will be safest only to indicate the salient points of the extensive landscape, without indulging in the use of epithets vainly striving to portray our feelings.

We were looking over the Ghor, with the Jordan sparkling in the sunshine upon its winding course below. In direct front was _Nabloos_, lying between Ebal and Gerizim; while at the same time we could distinguish Neby Samwil near Jerusalem, the Mount Tabor, Mount Carmel, and part of the Lebanon all at once! On our own side of Jordan we saw the extensive remains of _Kala'at Rubbad_, and ruins of a town called _Maisera_. On such a spot what could we do but lie in the shade of the whitewashed Weli, under gigantic oak-trees, and gaze and ponder and wish in silence,--ay, and pray and praise too,--looking back through the vista of thirty-three centuries to the time of the longing of Moses, the "man of G.o.d," expressed in these words "O Lord G.o.d, Thou hast begun to show Thy servant Thy greatness and Thy mighty hand: . . . I pray Thee let me go over and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon." The honoured leader of His people--the long-tried man "through good report and evil report," who, during his second forty years which he spent as a shepherd in Midian, had been accustomed to the abstemious habits and keen eyesight of the desert; and, at the end of another forty years as the ruler of a whole nation, living in the desert, "his eye was not dim,"--added to which natural advantage, we are told that "the Lord showed him all the land," highly cultivated as it was then by seven nations greater and mightier than Israel,--Moses must have beheld a spectacle from Pisgah and Nebo, surpa.s.sing even the glories of this landscape viewed by us from Nebi Osha.

Turning eastwards to our evening home, we pa.s.sed a ruined site called _Berga'an_, where we had one more view of the Dead Sea, and traversed large plains of ripe corn, belonging, of course, to the people of Es-Salt. The people requested me to pray to G.o.d that the locusts might not come there, since all that harvest was destined for Jerusalem.

We met some of the _'Abbad Kattaleen_ Arabs, but we were safe under the escort of the Saltiyeh instead of the 'Adwan. These 'Abbad are the people who a.s.saulted and plundered some seamen of H.M.S. "Spartan" in 1847, on the Jordan; for which offence they have never yet been chastised, notwithstanding the urgent applications made to the Turkish Pashas of Jerusalem, Bayroot, and Damascus. We did not arrive at the encampment till long after dark, and there was no moonlight.

The site is on a plain encircled by hills, with plenty of water intersecting the ground; the small streams are bordered by reeds and long gra.s.s. A khan, now in ruin, is situated in the midst--a locality certainly deserving its name, _Beka' el Basha_, and is said to have been a favourite camping-station for the Pashas of Damascus in former times.

Much to our vexation, the Arabs and the muleteers had pitched our tents in a slovenly manner among the winding water-courses, so that we had wet reeds, thistles, and long gra.s.s, beetles and gra.s.shoppers inside the tents, which again were wetted outside with heavy dew. They had done this in order to keep the cattle immediately close to us, and therefore as free from forayers as possible during the night. Such was the reason a.s.signed, and we were all too hungry and tired to argue the matter further.

My people complained to me of the insolence of the Saltiyeh guides that were with us; so I sent for the two shaikhs and scolded them. They persisted in it that they did not deserve the rebuke, that the complaints ought to be laid against a certain farrier who had come over from Jerusalem, etc., etc. My servant ended the affair by shouting at them, "Take my last word with you and feed upon it--'G.o.d send you a strong government.'" This at least they deserved, for they are often in arms against the Turkish government: and although so prosperous in trade and agriculture, are many years in arrear with their taxes.

_Tuesday_, 15_th_.--Early in the morning there were Saltiyeh people reaping harvest near us, chiefly in the Christian fields; for here the case is not as in Palestine, where Christians generally sow and reap in partnership with Moslems, for their own safety; but the Moslems have their fields, and the Christians have theirs apart, which shows that their influence is more considerable here; indeed, the Christians carry arms, and go out to war against the Bedaween, quite like the Moslems.

Before we left, the day was becoming exceedingly hot, and we had six hours' march before us to Jerash.

The hills abound with springs of water. We pa.s.sed one called _Umm el 'Egher_, another called _Safoot_, also _Abu Mus-hhaf_, and _Tabakra_, and _'Ain Umm ed Dumaneer_, with a ruin named _Khirbet Saleekhi_.

The 'Adwan Arabs were now again our guides, the Saltiyeh having returned home; but for some distance the guides were few and without firearms, only armed with spears, and the common peasant sword called _khanjar_; perhaps this was by compact with the Saltiyeh, as in about an hour's time we were joined by a reinforcement with a few matchlock guns. On we went through corn-fields, which are sown in joint partnership with the Arabs and the Moslems of the town; then doubled round a long and high hill with a ruin on it, called _Jela'ad_. This I have since suspected to be Ramoth-Gilead. We descended a hill called _Tallooz_; forward again between hills and rocks, and neglected evergreen woods, upon narrow paths. A numerous caravan we were, with a hundred animals of burden, bright costumes, and cheerful conversation, till we reached a large terebinth-tree under a hill called _Shebail_; the site is called _Thuggeret el Moghafer_, signifying a "look-out station" between two tribes. There we rested a while, till the above-mentioned reinforcement joined us. From this spot we could just discern _Jerash_, on the summit of a huge hill before us.

We now had one long and continued descent to the river Zerka. Pa.s.sed through a defile, on issuing from which we observed a little stream with oleander, in pink blossom, thirty feet high, and in great abundance.

Halted again at a pretty spring, called _Ruman_, where the water was upon nearly a dead level, and therefore scarcely moving; then another small spring, called _Bursa_, and also _'Ain el Merubb'a'_.

Evergreen oak in all directions, but with broader leaf than in Palestine; also some terebinth-trees and wild holly-oaks. All the scenery now expanded before us in width and height and depth.