the East, hewn a chamber in the face of the mountainwhich he could as easily have done as to have sunk a well nine feet in diameter and one hundred feet deep into the solid rock-rather than to have dug in the mouth of the valley a grave, which must necessarily have been much exposed, because situated in the great highway to the city. I could not look with confidence, therefore, on this modern Moslem tomb, as covering the grave of the Patriarch Joseph, the most favoured, most generous, most continent of men.

As we rode directly westward up the narrow pass, from five hundred to seven hundred yards wide, the mural precipices of Mount Ebal were on our right, and those of Mount Gerizim on our left; the first pierced with tomb-chambers, whose doors now stand wide open. Some of them are large, having several apartments, in which are still seen the stone sarcophagi; but the very dust of their tenants is gone. There are no tombs in the base of Mount Gerizim, because, perhaps, it was held to be holy. The mountains are of nearly equal height, perhaps nine hundred or one thousand feet.

20

ENTRANCE INTO NABLOUS.

CHAPTER III.

NABLOUS TO NAZARETH.

Entrance into Nablous.-The Convent.-Service of the Greek Church.School.-Antiquity of the Town.-Population.-Sebaste.-The Mountain of Samaria.-Terraces and Colonnades.-Ruined Church.-Reputed Tomb of John the Baptist.-View from the top of the Mountain.-Plan of the City.-Plain of Esdraelon.-Jenin.-Jezreel.-The Battle-field of Nations.-Mount Tabor.-Nain.-Approach to Nazareth.-The Convent.The Virgin's Fountain.-Mount of Transfiguration.-View.-Evening Meal of the Arabs.-Church of the Annunciation.-Sacred Places.-Spurious Traditions.-The Superior of the Convent.-School.-Chapel where Christ Taught.-Population of the Town.

As we ascended the valley and drew near the city, we passed through extensive olive-groves, many of whose trees were so large, and their trunks so rifted and gnarled, as to remind me of those of Gethsemane, and even to make me think of the first visit of Abraham to Canaan. Just without the gate there were many persons warping long pieces of cotton and woollen for the loom. The walls and gates were in a ruinous condition; and on either side of us, for some time after we entered the city, were ruined houses, broken arches, and dilapidated bazars. The Egyptian spoiler had been there, and left his seal of withering desolation, as at Hebron, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem. The evening twilight had set in when we stopped in a narrow, dirty street, at the low, unadorned portal of the convent, and were admitted to rest.

The convent is situated in the southwest portion of the city, adjacent to the Samaritan Quarter. The streetfront is a blank wall, pierced by a low, strong portal; the interior a small quadrangle, irregularly built up on

SERVICE OF THE GREEK CHURCH.

21

all sides, yet affording apartments for cells, schools, kitchens, stables, and the accommodation of travellers. There is also a small building, two stories high, the upper one of which is a chapel with a rude portico, to which a rough flight of stone steps leads. They are all and every part of them of the rudest masonry, and in a ruinous state. Supper over, our quilts were spread on the stone floor, and, very much fatigued with the travel and excitement of the day, we sunk quickly into profound sleep.

Very early in the morning I was awakened by a low, careless chant, and being quickly dressed, ascended to the rude portico of the little church, and found that our Moslem muleteers had bivouacked in it for the night, and were just opening their eyes. Four priests had commenced the morning service of the Greek Church, and as it advanced, the little chapel filled up with perhaps fifty men, while a solitary woman worshipped in the porch. The service was performed in the most wild and fanatical manner, and at the conclusion a little, sinister-looking priest, arrayed in a soiled vestment of cloth of gold, struck each worshipper on the forehead with a small bunch of hyssop which he dipped in a basin of water, presenting, at the same time, a small gilded cross to be kissed. As he approached me and raised his hyssop, I lent my forehead to the stroke, but declined to kiss the cross. The first movement excited a burst of applause, which subsided suddenly into wonder and confusion upon beholding the second.

When I descended from the service, I perceived the little school of some twenty or thirty boys had assembled, and my boyhood days were forcibly brought to my mind again by the confused clatter of young voices

22

APPEARANCE OF THE CITY.

in hot competition which should get first to the end of the lesson. I entered, and all was quiet. Upon inquiry, I found that the books were Arabic; the reading lessons printed at Beyrout by the American missionaries, and the New Testament by the British and Foreign Bible Society. The same was the case at Nazareth. I saw no girls at school anywhere in Palestine, except in the Protestant mission schools. The women, donkeys, and camels bear the burdens throughout the East.

After breakfast I sallied out to see the city more particularly. There are no antiquities to attract the attention of the traveller, except the remains of a fine church, now a Moslem mosque, in a decayed condition, which we had passed on the evening before. I was struck with the resemblance of the town to Jerusalem and Hebron in its architecture, the narrowness, crookedness, and roughness of its streets, and the number of arches which overshadow them, but particularly with the general air of antiquity, and the evidence of violence everywhere exhibited by the fine pieces of hewn stone, fragments of columns, cornices, friezes, &c., built into the walls of the principal houses. I observed fountains of running water in various places, and several streets were flooded with it. It flows off westward to the Mediterranean, while the fountains of the eastern mouth of the valley, by which we had entered, send their waters to the Jordan. Hence it is obvious that the town is situated on the summit-level of the valley, which declines from it east and west. There is no well in the town or its vicinity except Jacob's Well. There is the appearance of much more trade and wealth in the place than I had yet seen anywhere in Palestine. It exports some cotton, and a considerable

quantity of soap of a good quality, manufactured from olive oil. The population is generally estimated at from eight thousand to nine thousand, five hundred of whom are Christians of the Greek Church, one hundred and fifty Samaritans, and perhaps as many Jews. The remainder are Moslems.

Two other objects of great interest remained to be visited the Samaritans and their synagogue, and the summit of Mount Gerizim, known to be covered with ruins, among which travellers have long looked for the ancient temple, which was the rival of that on Mount Moriah. I was in a strait betwixt two; for I wished very much to cross the Lebanons and visit Damascus, and yet to depart with the next Austrian steamer from Beyrout to Smyrna. In order to accomplish this, I had not a day to lose; and as Dr. Olin has said from personal observation all that the reader can wish to know about the summit of Gerizim, and Dr. Robinson all that can be collected with respect to the origin, history, and present condition of the Samaritans, I must refer the reader to their excellent pages, which are much more full than my plan would admit of, even had I made personal observation and inquiry.

Our next point was Sebaste, the ancient Samaria, the capital of the kingdom of Israel, two hours' distant northwest from Nablous. Issuing from the town on the west, we descended the valley for three quarters of an hour, passing through luxuriant gardens, rich grain-fields, and fine groves of olives and figs, all irrigated by many small aqueducts and canals. The sides of the mountains, which subside as they advance westward, are terraced to their summits, and studded with villages imbosomed in olive-groves and vineyards. Mount Ebal sinks down rapidly, and disappears in low,