Early Travels in Palestine Part 39

Christopher; seventh, to St. Joseph; eighth, to St. Lazarus; ninth, to the blessed Virgin; tenth, to St. Demetrius; eleventh, to St. Saba; twelfth, to St. Peter; thirteenth, to St. George; fourteenth, to All Saints; fifteenth, to the Ascension; sixteenth, to the Transfiguration of our Lord; from all which, we may well conclude this place was held anciently in no small repute for sanct.i.ty. Many of these churches I actually visited, but found them so ruined and desolate, that I had not courage to go to all.

In the chapel made use of by the convent for their daily services, they pretend to show a great miracle, done here some years since, of which take this account, as I received it from them. They had once in the church a little picture of the blessed Virgin, very much resorted to by supplicants, and famous for the many cures and blessings granted in return to their prayers. It happened that a certain sacrilegious rogue took an opportunity to steal away this miraculous picture; but he had not kept it long in his custody, when he found it metamorphosed into a real body of flesh. Being struck with wonder and remorse at so prodigious an event, he carried back the prize to its true owners, confessing and imploring forgiveness for his crime. The monks having recovered so great a jewel, and being willing to prevent such another disaster for the future, thought fit to deposit it in a small chest of stone, and placing it in a little cavity in the wall behind the high altar, fixed an iron gate before it, in order to secure it from any fraudulent attempts for the future. Upon the gates there are hanged abundance of little toys and trinkets, being the offerings of many votaries in return for the success given to their prayers at this shrine. Under the same chest in which the incarnate picture was deposited they always place a small silver basin, in order to receive the distillation of a holy oil, which they pretend issues out from the inclosed image, and does wonderful cures in many distempers, especially those affecting the eyes.

On the east side of the rock is an ancient sepulchre hollowed in the firm stone. The room is about eight yards square, and contains in its sides (as I remember) twelve chests for corpses. Over the entrance there are carved six statues as big as the life, standing in three niches, two in each niche. At the pedestals of the statues may be observed a few Greek words, which, as far as I was able to discern them in their present obscurity, are as follows:-

??????F-- ?[??]?.F?[?? ???? . ????

???? . ???? ?] ????S ????S ??[?]?[??]

O?????S ??? [?]?? ???????? ???? G?[??]

????G?? G??? G??? ?????S ?????? [?]

_Under the first niche._ _Under the second._ _Under the third._

A gentleman in our company, and myself, have reason to remember this place, for an escape we had in it. A drunken janissary, pa.s.sing under the window where we were, chanced to have a drop of wine thrown out upon his vest, upon which innocent provocation he presented his pistol at us in at the window; had it gone off, it must have been fatal to one or both of us, who sat next the place. But it pleased G.o.d to restrain his fury. This evening we returned again to Damascus.

_May 3._-This morning we went to see the street called Straight[630].

It is about half a mile in length, running from east to west through the city. It being narrow, and the houses jutting out in several places on both sides, you cannot have a clear prospect of its length and straightness. In this street is shown the house of Judas, with whom St.

Paul lodged; and in the same house is an old tomb, said to be Ananias's, but how he should come to be buried here they could not tell us, nor could we guess; his own house being shown us in another place. However, the Turks have a reverence for his tomb, and maintain a lamp always burning over it.

In the afternoon, having presented the convent with ten per man for our kind reception, we took our leaves of Damascus, and shaped our course for Tripoli; designing in the way to see Balbec, and the cedars of Liba.n.u.s. In order to this, we returned the same way by which we came, and, crossing the river Barrady again at the bridge of Dummar, came to a village of the same name a little farther, and there lodged this night.

We travelled this afternoon three hours.

_May 4._-This morning we left our old road, and took another more northerly. In an hour and a half we came to a small village called Sinie; just by which is an ancient structure on the top of a high hill, supposed to be the tomb of Abel, and to have given the adjacent country in old times the name of Abilene. The fratricide also is said by some to have been committed in this place. The tomb is thirty yards long, and yet it is here believed to have been but just proportioned to the stature of him who was buried in it. Here we entered into a narrow gut, between two steep rocky mountains, the river Barrady running at the bottom. On the other side of the river were several tall pillars, which excited our curiosity to go and take a nearer view of them. We found them part of the front of some ancient and very magnificent edifice, but of what kind we could not conjecture.

We continued upon the banks of Barrady, and came in three hours to a village called Maday; and in two hours more to a fountain called Ain-il-Hawra, where we lodged. Our whole stage was somewhat less than seven hours; our course nearly north-west.

_May 5._-This morning we pa.s.sed by the fountain of Barrady, and came in an hour and two-thirds to a village called Surgawich. At this place we left the narrow valley, in which we had travelled ever since the morning before, and ascended the mountain on the left hand. Having spent in crossing it two hours, we arrived a second time in the valley of Bocat; here, steering northerly, directly up the valley, we arrived in three hours at Balbec. Our stage this day was near seven hours, and our course near about west.

At Balbec we pitched at a place less than half a mile distant from the town, eastward, near a plentiful and delicious fountain, which grows immediately into a brook; and running down to Balbec, adds no small pleasure and convenience to the place.

In the afternoon we walked out to see the city. But we thought fit before we entered to get licence of the governor, and to proceed with all caution; being taught this necessary care by the example of some worthy English gentlemen of our factory, who, visiting this place in the year 1689, in their return from Jerusalem, and suspecting no mischief, were basely intrigued by the people here, and forced to redeem their lives at a great sum of money.

Balbec is supposed to be the ancient Heliopolis, or City of the Sun; for that the word imports. Its present Arab, which is perhaps its most ancient name, inclines to the same importance. For Baal, though it imports all idols in general, of whatsoever s.e.x or condition, yet it is very often appropriated to the sun, the sovereign idol of this country.

The city enjoys a most delightful and commodious situation, on the east side of the valley of Bocat. It is of a square figure, compa.s.sed with a tolerable good wall, in which are towers all round at equal distances.

It extends, as far as I could guess by the eye, about two furlongs on a side. Its houses within are all of the meanest structure, such as are usually seen in Turkish villages.

At the south-west side of this city is a n.o.ble ruin, being the only curiosity for which this place is wont to be visited. It was anciently a heathen temple, together with some other edifices belonging to it, all truly magnificent; but in latter times these ancient structures have been patched and pieced up with several other buildings, converting the whole into a castle, under which name it goes at this day. The adject.i.tious buildings are of no mean architecture, but yet easily distinguishable from what is more ancient.

Coming near these ruins, the first thing you meet with is a little round pile of building, all of marble. It is encircled with columns of the Corinthian order, very beautiful, which support a cornice that runs all round the structure, of no ordinary state and beauty. The part of it that remains is at present in a very tottering condition, but yet the Greeks use it for a church; and it were well if the danger of its falling, which perpetually threatens, would excite those people to use a little more fervour in their prayers than they generally do, the Greeks being, seemingly, the most undevout and negligent at their divine service of any sort of people in the Christian world.

From this ruin you come to a large firm pile of building, which, though very lofty and composed of huge square stones, yet, I take to be part of the adject.i.tious work; for one sees in the inside some fragments of images in the walls and stones, with Roman letters upon them, set the wrong way. In one stone we found graven DIVIS, and in another line, MOSC. Through this pile, you pa.s.s in a stately arched walk or portico, one hundred and fifty paces long, which leads you to the temple.

The temple is an oblong square, in breadth thirty-two yards, and in length sixty-four, of which eighteen were taken up by the p???a?? or ante-temple, which is now tumbled down, the pillars being broke that sustained it. The body of the temple, which now stands, is encompa.s.sed with a n.o.ble portico, supported by pillars of the Corinthian order, measuring six feet and three inches in diameter, and about forty-five feet in height, consisting all of three stones apiece. The distance of the pillars from each other, and from the wall of the temple, is nine feet. Of these pillars there are fourteen on each side of the temple, and eight at the end, counting the corner pillars in both numbers.

On the capitals of the pillars there runs all round a stately architrave and cornice, rarely carved. The portico is covered with large stones hollowed archwise, extending between the columns and the wall of the temple. In the centre of each stone is carved the figure of some one or other of the heathen G.o.ds or G.o.ddesses, or heroes. I remember amongst the rest a Ganymede, and the eagle flying away with him, so lively done that it excellently represented the sense of that verse in Martial,

"Illaesum timidis unguibus haesit onus."

The gate of the temple is twenty-one feet wide, but how high could not be measured, it being in part filled up with rubbish. It is moulded and beautified all round with exquisite sculpture. On the nethermost side of the portal is carved a Fame hovering over the head, as you enter, and extending its wings two-thirds of the breadth of the gate; and on each side of the eagle is described a Fame, likewise upon the wing. The eagle carries in its pounces a caduceus, and in his beak the strings or ribbons coming from the ends of two festoons, whose other ends are held and supported on each side by the two Fames. The whole seemed to be a piece of admirable sculpture.

The measure of the temple within is forty yards in length, and twenty in breadth. In its walls all round are two rows of pilasters, one above the other; and between the pilasters are niches, which seem to have been designed for the reception of idols. Of these pilasters there are eight in a row on each side; and of the niches, nine.

About eight yards' distance from the upper end of the temple stands part of two fine channelled pillars, which seem to have made a part.i.tion in that place, and to have supported a canopy over the throne of the chief idol, whose station appears to have been in a large niche at this end.

On that part of the part.i.tion which remains are to be seen carvings in rilievo representing Neptune, Tritons, Fishes, Sea-G.o.ds, Arion and his dolphin, and other marine figures. The covering of the whole fabric is totally broken down; but yet this I must say of the whole as it now stands, that it strikes the mind with an air of greatness beyond any thing that I ever saw before, and is an eminent proof of the magnificence of the ancient architecture.

About fifty yards distant from the temple is a row of Corinthian pillars, very great and lofty, with a most stately architrave and cornice at top. This speaks itself to have been part of some very august pile; but what one now sees of it is but just enough to give a regret that there should be no more of it remaining.

Here is another curiosity of this place, which a man had need be well a.s.sured of his credit before he ventures to relate, lest he should be thought to strain the privilege of a traveller too far. That which I mean is a large piece of the old wall, or pe??????, which encompa.s.sed all these structures last described. A wall made of such monstrous great stones, that the natives hereabouts (as it is usual in things of this strange nature) ascribe it to the architecture of the devil. Three of the stones, which were larger than the rest, we took the pains to measure, and found them to extend sixty-one yards in length; one twenty-one, the other two each twenty yards. In deepness they were four yards each, and in breadth of the same dimension. These three stones lay in one and the same row, end to end. The rest of the wall was made also of great stones, but none, I think, so great as these. That which added to the wonder was, that these stones were lifted up into the wall more than twenty feet from the ground.

In the side of a small ascent, on the east part of the town, stood an old single column, of the Tuscan order, about eighteen or nineteen yards high, and one yard and a half in diameter. It had a channel cut in its side from the bottom to the top, from which we judged it might have been erected for the sake of raising water.

At our return to our tents we were a little perplexed by the servants of the mosolem, about our caphar. We were contented at last to judge it at ten per Frank, and five per servant, rather than we would engage in a long dispute at such a place as this.

Near the place where we lodged was an old mosque, and (as I said before) a fine fountain. This latter had been anciently beautified with some handsome stone-work round it, which was now almost ruined; however, it afforded us this imperfect inscription.

?O?????????O? ?..???O???????????

??????????O??? O?????????????

????????????? ... ?O??????????G??.

??O??????-???????G????????

??????T?????????? ??????????????.

_May 6._-Early this morning we departed from Balbec, directing our course straight across the valley. As we pa.s.sed by the walls of the city, we observed many stones inscribed with Roman letters and names, but all confused, and some placed upside down, which demonstrates that the materials of the wall were the ruins of the ancient city. In one place we found these letters, RMIPt.i.tVEPR; in others these, VARI---; in another, NERIS; in others, LVCIL---, and SEVERI, and CELNAE, and FIRMI; all which serve only to denote the resort which the Romans had to this place in ancient times.

In one hour we pa.s.sed by a village called Ye-ad; and in an hour more went to see an old monumental pillar, a little on the right hand of the road. It was nineteen yards high, and five feet in diameter, of the Corinthian order. It had a table for an inscription on its north side, but the letters are now perfectly erased. In one hour more we reached the other side of the valley, at the foot of Mount Anti-Liba.n.u.s.

We immediately ascended the mountain, and in two hours came to a large cavity between the hills, at the bottom of which was a lake called by its old Greek name, Limone. It is about three furlongs over, and derives its waters from the melting of the snow. By this lake our guides would have had us stay all night, a.s.suring us that if we went up higher in the mountains we should be forced to lie amongst the snow; but we ventured that, preferring a cold lodging before an unwholesome one.

Having ascended one hour, we arrived at the snow, and proceeding amongst it for one hour and a half more, we then chose out as warm a place as we could in so high a region; and there we lodged this night upon the very top of Liba.n.u.s. Our whole stage this day was seven hours and a half.

Liba.n.u.s is in this part free from rocks, and only rises and falls with small, easy unevennesses, for several hours' riding; but is perfectly barren and desolate. The ground, where not concealed by the snow, appeared to be covered with a sort of white slates, thin and smooth. The chief benefit it serves for is, that by its exceeding height it proves a conservatory for abundance of snow, which, thawing in the heat of summer, affords supplies of water to the rivers and fountains in the valleys below. We saw in the snow prints of the feet of several wild beasts, which are the sole proprietors of these upper parts of the mountains.

_May 7._-The next morning we went four hours almost perpetually upon deep snow, which, being frozen, bore us and our horses; and then descending for about one hour, came to a fountain called, from the name of an adjacent village, Ain-il-Hadede. By this time we were got into a milder and better region.

Here was the place where we were to strike out of the way, in order to go to Can.o.bine and the cedars. And some of us went upon this design, whilst the rest chose rather to go directly for Tripoli, to which we had not now above four hours. We took with us a guide, who pretended to be well acquainted with the way to Can.o.bine, but he proved an ignorant director; and after he had led us about for several hours in intricate and untrodden mazes amongst the mountains, finding him perfectly at a loss, we were forced to forsake our intended visit for the present, and to steer directly for Tripoli, where we arrived late at night, and were again entertained by our worthy friends, Mr. Consul Hastings and Mr.

Fisher, with their wonted friendship and generosity.

_May 8._-In the afternoon Mr. Consul Hastings carried us to see the castle of Tripoli. It is pleasantly situated on a hill, commanding the city, but has neither arms nor ammunition in it, and serves rather for a prison than a garrison. There was shut up in it at this time a poor Christian prisoner, called Sheikh Eunice, a Maronite. He was one that had formerly renounced his faith, and lived for many years in the Mohammedan religion, but in his declining age he both retracted his apostacy and died to atone for it, for he was impaled by the order of the pasha two days after we left Tripoli. This punishment of impaling is commonly executed amongst the Turks for crimes of the greatest degree, and is certainly one of the greatest indignities and barbarities that can be offered to human nature. The execution is done in this manner.

They take a post of about the bigness of a man's leg, and eight or nine feet long, and make it very sharp at one end. This they lay upon the back of the criminal, and force him to carry it to the place of execution, imitating herein the old Roman custom of compelling malefactors to bear their cross. Being arrived at the fatal place, they thrust in the stake at the fundament of the person who is the miserable subject of this doom, and then taking him by the legs, draw on his body upon it, till the point of the stake appears at his shoulders. After this they erect the stake, and fasten it in a hole dug in the ground.

The criminal, sitting in this manner upon it, remains not only still alive, but also drinks, smokes, and talks, as one perfectly sensible, and thus some have continued for twenty-four hours; but generally, after the tortured wretch has remained in this deplorable and ignominious posture an hour or two, some one of the standers by is permitted to give him a gracious stab to the heart, so putting an end to his inexpressible misery.

_Sunday, May 9._-Despairing of any other opportunity, I made another attempt this day to see the cedars and Can.o.bine. Having gone for three hours across the plain of Tripoli, I arrived at the foot of Liba.n.u.s, and from thence, continually ascending, not without great fatigue, came in four hours and a half to a small village called Eden, and in two hours and a half more to the cedars. These n.o.ble trees grow amongst the snow near the highest part of Lebanon, and are remarkable as well for their own age and largeness as for those frequent allusions made to them in the word of G.o.d. Here are some of them very old, and of a prodigious bulk, and others younger, of a smaller size. Of the former I could reckon up only sixteen, and the latter are very numerous. I measured one of the largest, and found it twelve yards six inches in girth, and yet sound, and thirty-seven yards in the spread of its boughs. At about five or six yards from the ground it was divided into five limbs, each of which was equal to a great tree.

After about half an hour spent in surveying this place, the clouds began to thicken, and to fly along upon the ground, which so obscured the road that my guide was very much at a loss to find our way back again. We rambled about for seven hours thus bewildered, which gave me no small fear of being forced one night more at Liba.n.u.s; but at last, after a long exercise of pains and patience, we arrived at the way that goes down to Can.o.bine, where I arrived by the time it was dark, and found a kind reception, answerable to the great need I had of it, after so long fatigue.

Can.o.bine is a convent of the Maronites, and the seat of the patriarch, who is at present F. Stepha.n.u.s Edenensis, a person of great learning and humanity. It is a very mean structure; but its situation is admirably adapted for retirement and devotion, for there is a very deep rupture in the side of Liba.n.u.s, running at least seven hours' travel directly up into the mountain. It is on both sides exceeding steep and high, clothed with fragrant greens from top to bottom, and everywhere refreshed with fountains, falling down from the rocks in pleasant cascades, the ingenious work of nature. These streams, all uniting at the bottom, make a full and rapid torrent, whose agreeable murmuring is heard all over the place, and adds no small pleasure to it. Can.o.bine is seated on the north side of this chasm, on the steep of the mountain, at about the midway between the top and the bottom. It stands at the mouth of a great cave, having a few small rooms fronting outward that enjoy the light of the sun, the rest are all under ground. It had for its founder the emperor Theodosius the Great; and though it has been several times rebuilt, yet the patriarch a.s.sured me the church was of the primitive foundation; but, whoever built it, it is a mean fabric, and no great credit to its founder. It stands in the grotto, but fronting outwards receives a little light from that side. In the same side there were also hung in the wall two small bells to call the monks to their devotions; a privilege allowed nowhere else in this country, nor would they be suffered here, but that the Turks are far enough off from the hearing of them.

The valley of Can.o.bine was anciently, as it well deserves, very much resorted to for religious retirement. You see here still hermitages, cells, monasteries, almost without number. There is not any little part of rock that jets out upon the side of the mountain, but you generally see some little structure upon it for the reception of monks and hermits, though few or none of them are now inhabited.

_May 10._-After dinner I took my leave of the patriarch, and returned to Tripoli. I steered my course down by a narrow oblique path cut in the side of the rupture, and found it three hours before I got clear of the mountains, and three more afterwards before I came to Tripoli.

_May 11._-This day we took our leaves of our worthy Tripoli friends, in order to return for Aleppo. We had some debate with ourselves, whether we should take the same way by which we came when outward bound, or a new one by Emissa, Hempse, and Hamal. But we had notice of some disturbances upon this latter road, so we contented ourselves to return by the same way we came; for having had enough by this time both of the pleasure and of the fatigue of travelling, we were willing to put an end to both the nearest and speediest way. All that occurred to us new in these days' travel was a particular way used by the country people in gathering their corn, it being now harvest time. They plucked it up by handfuls from the roots, leaving the most fruitful fields as naked as if nothing had ever grown on them. This was their practice in all places of the east that I have seen; and the reason is that they may lose none of their straw, which is generally very short, and necessary for the sustenance of their cattle, no hay being here made. I mention this, because it seems to give light to that expression of the Psalmist, "which withereth before it be plucked up,"[631] where there seems to be a manifest allusion to this custom. Our new translation renders this place otherwise; but in so doing it differs from most or all other copies, and here we may truly say the old is the better. There is indeed mention of a mower in the next verse, but then it is such a mower as fills not his hand, which confirms rather than weakens the preceding interpretation.