| Show LETTER FROM PALESTINE AbnlRuLab Humbuj A Storm In a labtubTe Mysterious Jloncjbaj Miraculous inter posltlon rrajlnr for Itaic Titus and the MoMjnilo JFRLSAIEM November 27 1S59 Special Correspondence of the Dosomr NowIn answer t kind Inquiries as to why I have not written anything t you lately allow al-low me to state that I have one r son and one consolation My rca eon I Unilrtilab my consolation I I that even II the Orient produces very little of a spiritual nature I certainly has proven itself capable of producing newspaper correspondence correspon-dence of more or less merit and different grades of reliability So It may b fairly presumed that i one or two correspondents are rpulcnl a through siekncf checked for awhile a-while In their phjsical aud mental activity the loss to the public I not too great Abulrulalj is a kind of fever Tho name means literally The Father of the Knee and seems to b given to tills fever only as a matter mat-ter of fun The people here claim that UIO fever was leer known to have visited this region before But I this Is a fact I can only ny that the flr > t appearance was rather Impudent Im-pudent considering the unpleasant character of the 1 ltr for I believe lieve speaking broadly he entered every house In town At lest I have heard it stated that there was hardly I one family In Jaffa width thero was not one or more members atlllted with The Father of the 1nc Moreover it 3 not confined con-fined t Jaffa From Constantinople Damascus Beyrouth and from Jerusalem reports re-ports reached here that the Father of the Knees was busily at work However a no deaths have occurred oc-curred from the finer it has caused more fun than dread IrI I was walking one afternoon by the seashore In order to watch thu sunset and inhale tin air Having enjoyed the fresh breezes of the mild zejhjr mixed with the aromi mu dead r dogs donkeys and ° uau le rt ting i on the shore I returned home A Her a little while I felt a headache but paid no attention atten-tion to the matter I thought a nights rest would settle It But the night came ithout t The headache head-ache continued the pain grew more and more intense The nightly night-ly I hours crept slowly by only Inching along1 I appeared tome to-me that the night must have had 24 instead of 12 houl Finally mom lug came I found however that bfuf l l I was unable to lift my head and keep I creel even for a few minutes at a tme I experIenced neither hunger nor thirst the whole day In my head hero 3 n sensation uf its having been Illerted betuetn a couple of nillMoiH grinding moderately fat The following night was again spent in re tlesne = sand s-and without sleep But the headache head-ache abated somewhat and in the morning what still was left of the pain hardly deserved the name The sensation was like a though somebody had taken my head and held it fast between two giant hands pressing from side to side The eflect of thi pressure was a kind of partial paralysis of the extremities tremities I stood up and commenced com-menced walking though with some difficulty and was 8 weak that even the light weight of a fnmll loaf of bread seemed a burdm tome However I was on the road to recovery covery again but Ihceflects of the r it fever were felt in the form of weak nevsin the knee particularly for three weeks or more This sketch will give an idea of Abulrukab The Father of the Knees In Europe people have an Idea that mot strange things happen In America But tome strange thing certainly occur In Palestine Bead and judge On my way from JallU to Jerusalem iu the sta e coach in l1 which 1 I happened to ride I formed the acquaintance ofa young gentleman gentle-man from Sweden Like 5 many cultivated Sweden he pre to lie an Infidel one of the coarsest tribes eomelhlnj Ingerolian Vc visited together several of the lmholyee places In Jerusalem among other time hurb or the Spulchr and Th Walng llc or the Jews Swedes I am to Swwc sorry say are the greatest swearers in time whole of Chritcndom aud this Chriemlom particular par-ticular individual was I an thiug a little worse thin the worst And dear me how ho swore in the church and on tie Walling Place He swore at the priest who chanted the monotonous masses at the pilgrims pil-grims who humbly bowed on the floor at the Jews who wept on the ruins of their defiled sanctuary I could not restrain myself from severely sev-erely rebuking him at the last men UUU ImL lUL le ulanu UU1 he must swear ct the Ignorance the hypocrisy and humbug of the representatives repre-sentatives and followers of religion A few days liter I met this same gentleman in Jaffa I learned that in order t save hotel expenses he had crept Into aLaUn liospltium h E Ig Ltfh t where lie bad to go orI all the ceTemonles which lion few days before had been swearing like a madman What a pity that there va not somebody t swear over his hypocrisy He was very pleased to have made myacquaintance He flattered him tnt ilr om r self that I would not forget him in my letter to the > 1S and as to this be ought not now to feel disappointed disap-pointed The person whomi have referred I Mr Hallgren fromKarls kn He i a provisor and an infidel in-fidel entitled to all the honor that can be derived from hypocrisy and humbug I hope this will be satisfactory satis-factory enough Among the difficulties to be overcome over-come by a traveler in the Orient Is as everybody knows the inquiai tlvenessof those officials who want to examine time passports The following fol-lowing incident is Illustrative of the business I copy from my diary Saturuay Nov 9Left Jerusalem Jerusa-lem at 7 oclock p m in one of the many stagecoaches that r daily running from Jerusalem to Jaffa There were two passengers besides Brother Locandcr aud myself On our arrival at the 1 place where the passports are usually examined a poldler and a policeman stepped up to the coach and asked the driver who his passengers were Two Englishmen a German and a gentleman L gen-tleman from Jerusalem wia tho answer Tho foldler ten demanded demand-ed oiirpspjports ilhattdedqvermy Turkish one With thb trpnhlw tl thus gathered the soldier rcltfed into the watchroom A few minutes min-utes later wo were all ordered t descend from our seats In the coach nnd to appear before the Judgment Judg-ment seat fOf the august renro fUT of Turkish law This rooster tried t look a If there n something awfully wrong somewhere He held my passport in his hand unopened and glanced around as If to find somebody some-body to sit down on LM dfwl Whose is this l passport he finally asked ppr It I mine sir I replied with a little more emphasis perhaps than was actually necessary I I mine What I the matter There Is no vita on It ho raid read aO jeS there Ie Can you not readWhat What is your name I cave It Th namehe said j not in your passport Indeed Look again He Joke The name here t Yane Well my full name i Janne Malison Sjodahl Will that suit you2 What I your fathers name I give It A pause followed after g I insisted upon ha Ing uiy paper returned and to bo allowed toP to-P on my Journey Oh the officer saidthat would not do You I have to leftvo your passport hero or with the Consul to haTe I fixed I will do no such thing I an iwered I want my paper right away I belongs t mo and there i nothing wrong In It Now the policeman turned to the driver Are you willing to L responsible for this man pointing to me The driver seemed frightened at the len I do not know hID ho T hastened t the relict of the driver declaring I do not want cither tills driver or anybody else to b responsible for me I am no I criminal My papers a In order I want to L allowed to pass on A lengthy and noisy consultation now ensued between policeman Uie solditrand the driver I grew monotonous although quite interesting inter-esting for a little while I Interrupted Inter-rupted the conference with What lo you want me t do Jo Io Well said the driver give thetoldleraucAfU I did so antI l i tUII the whole difficulty was settled all parties concerned feeling happy and smiling sDin16ILr represents 15 cents Just think of I All this fuss for such a trifle As my papers were iu good shape in every particular I can think of no other reason for the fuss than Uie la cents Yet it was a terrible fuss although quite harmless I was a furious storm Ina wa htubbueh as independent Oriental tourists are llkeljr to meet with where government official haven word to tay I have spent sortie time among the Jews lately and it has afforded me much plersuro to listen to what they lease to talk about A few of their anecdotes or traditions I have presened In outline at let Hire are two or three of them I TIIKJnSTEIUOUS UONEVJIAO Tho Jews lit Hebron were formerly former-ly subjected 1 t various kinds ot persecutions per-secutions from Mohaninicdan < kDur > ing that time almost any cruelty could be committed agiiust tho Jews unchecked Atone period the Pasha had a notion to demand from the Jews In Hebron tho sum of 200000 as an extra tribute The Iaslia knew r well that the poor people could not raise that sum among them even If they exerted thcmsehcs t the uttermost Yet his I conditions wire that Hit 3 should nl pay t1vc required amount In thr days with the alternative al-ternative of lehlig l expelled or killed Three were cruel persecutions indeed in-deed The Rabbi remonstrated with the Pnshi in behalf of the Jews hut in vain The Pasha was Immovable In this distress the Immoblo 1n I tt jews pieau to 0 willS lasiing anu prayer And beltold In tii last night time angel of the Lord op l00red i to the 1allil and told him to riseand go Into the synagogue The Rabbi followed this junction j and when he came into the synagogue synogue he found on the floor a bag apjar cnUy containing money Hecounted tie content and found I to b e actly 200000 not one cent more nor less Full of urouderand of Joy he oF the nioniy home and early in tIme morning he appeared before the 1aslia with time mysterious mysteri-ous bag The Pasha ras aston Ihed when he saw the money s unexpectedly presented to him from the oppressed IIpll He demanded demand-ed to know where lie money had come from The tl bro toll the story truthfully The Pasha on hearing the story became to frightened fright-ened IOt71 he told the Rabbi to remove re-move the money as soon as possible He would lint keep such money In hb house The Rabbi consequently carried the money home intending to distribute it among his people asa as-a direct iit = God l1 the 1 next day I was gne Nobody could say where it had gone or how it had disappeared Its disappearance disappear-ance was as mysterious as its ane wa n mysterous a It appearance ap-pearance JHIUCLTjOLi IXTEIirOEmON When the Jews first commenced t congregate nt the Wailing Place it very often happened that er happno tat the Mohammedans drove them away with rock and sticks Many of the i > oor Jews were severely beaten and sustained injuries of various kinds They were not even allowed the poor privilege of weep JIIR at the ruins of their once glorious I ous temple On one particular oo caoion quite a number of Moham medanshad landed together In cr tier t drive some Jews away from the place of weeping Among time latter was a venerable Rabbi The people were engiged In theIr devotions devo-tions The tears flowed freely as Iflt 3 e were read relating the ancient structure and its desolation Suddenly he Mohammedans came upon them with their usual violence Hut as Uie old Rabbi lifted up his voice and cried unto the Lord I hdpjened that the arms of the enemy ene-my became withered Not one of them could move his arm from his side and those who till to bad lifted lift-ed their arm to strike were unable to let them fall Tills WIts au unmistakable Divine interposition Time Mohammedans humbly asked the Jews t pray for them ThC did e and the paralyzed para-lyzed limbs became Bound as before III IRAIIM Volt KA1N One year there had come no rain at the wanted season The sufferings suffer-ings rI great particularly In Hebron In theIr dbtreks the Mo hammedans asked the Jews to pray to God for rain We have been praying they said but God does not hear us 3ow you try to pray to your God The Jews promised to comply with the t request provided pro-vided they were allowed 1 to e f the cave of Macpelah and hold thciFpraj meeting there at the tomb of father Abraham After some negotiatonsthis was granted Next diy some of tie mot prominent promi-nent Jews having performed pm ablutions and put prore best clothes fine white linen robes entered the sacred J duct and commenced to pray cnc commenc p1y Aa soon as they commenced to pray the sky became cloudy and by time lime Ihe meeting was ended enll a genUe rain fell But I Increased more and more and finally became f abundant that the Jews were requested quested to ask God to stop It Even Jews this Jod did at the request of the 1nn AXD vim JIOSQC1TO Titus was the General who destroyed de-stroyed Jerus Jlem Xo wonder that strange stories should L circulated about him among the Jews I have been seriously told that this Roman once challenged Jehovah Jeho-vah to war with him upon which t God Kent a storm tliat almost annihilated anni-hilated his proud fleet On seeIng Uiis Titus exclaimed that he did I not mean to fight Jehovah en the se but I God would meet him on land he would b trilling t fight Him anywhere To this blaspha mona challenge God answered In dream I t What need I flght with the 7 One of my meanest creatures can do that I will end a fly to fl1It 111 the A snort Jinie after this a yet undeveloped un-developed mosquito crept Into the Imperial note and found It ray Into the brains Here grew noW It became r large causing a te rible night and day The rble pain nJht Te em percr could find no rest anywhere Only when somebody was hammerIng hammer-Ing on a anvil close by the Imperial Im-perial car was the monstrous paruit ni keep Hill But it seen bccamo accustomed to the nobean after that nothing conld keep It quct Finally Titus dIed from the pain caused by the moequiloin ha brain And no wonder for at the opening of the head the parasite was found to be as large as a pigeon and fth 3 Rims a mouth of brass and claws of iron This Is a true story my In ormant added for It i t be read In he Bible This last anecdote is I of rxurtelb poorest cite of the lot But I liav given It ana the first ones a I had It Reflections I think mast b left t the imagination of thercfder To those who care to look into the conditions of the modern Jews their traditions are of great interest only second in Importance I presume to their Imyrnc J CS |
