Show FROM PALESTINE in company with birther F P F hintze and brother G grau gran of haifa I 1 left this little place situated at the foot of mount carmel cannel on the of february the object of our excursion was jerusalem and other historically tori cally celebrated places the little littie company consisted besides the two already mentioned elders of myself two arabs three horses and one donkey it was a lovely day neither too hot nor too cold but the roads in this part of the world are ina in a wretched condition the previous rain had so softened the road in places that the horses sank down to their knees and could only with the greatest difficulty work themselves through the mud and while the animals were doing this the riders had to display considerable acrobatic skill in order to keep themselves in a dignified sort of position or else try the softness of the mud holes by personal experience in other places the road was studded with rocks and pebbles of all sizes making it a very complicated matter to move forward over the rivers our horses waded their bodies half buried in the water otherwise the journey from haifa to nazareth was a most pleasant one the ven erable oaks on the roadside were sprouting forth their leaves preparing their best shrouds for the coming summer the flowers were in full bloom and gave to the landscape an appearance of abundant richness while the flowers that grow wild here are of such luxurious colors that having seen them you no longer wonder that our savior could say solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these on our way we passed several chr caravans avans and these were all very large proving that a considerable transport of goods is being made between the coast and the interior for here where no steam horses enliven the routes of traffic everything is transported on the backs of horses camels or donkeys and the camels are particularly useful I 1 counted in one caravan not less than thirty six camels or rather dromedaries dro eleven donkeys and four horses it was curious to see the large animals I 1 the ships of the desert go rolling along slowly but steadily carrying immense loads on their backs and linked together and towed as it were by a little donkey which runs in front of them among other curiosities seen on the way I 1 would mention the women carrying water whenever you approach a village or town in the morning or evening you will see a number of women of all ages hastening to or from the wells with their water pots these whether full or empty they carry upon their heads generally without the support of their hands it is really wonderful how they balance these water pots on their heads but they do and that thai well no matter whether running at full speed walking slowly standing still or picking up a piece of wood from the ground with their toes there is 18 the as if glued to their head and not a drop of the water spilt what practice it must take in order to attain such skill and some of thew these burdens are not very light I 1 once lifted one of these water pots full of water and judge the weight to have been between forty and fifty pounds a considerable burden to hold on your head for a quarter of a mile or more it is not always considered safe to travel in this country as it is swarmed in every direction by bedouins Bedou ins genuine sons of ishmael whose hand is against every marand every mans hand against them the name beaud plural sl el badu really means mades no it is applied chiefly to those arabs who have no settlements but wander from place to place they live in tents and have kept themselves pretty free from mixing with other people their religion is professedly the mohammedan but they are very ignorant and have only lm imperfect berfect ideas of islam they are am therefore not considered fanatic bute but are always represented as lazy cunning unreliable greedy thievish and without conscience generally they kill strangers who do them no harm but sometimes it happens that an inoffensive traveler is killed and robbed of everything such deeds however they usually execute in the dark as though they could not muster courage enough in the daytime the government have not been able to gain much supremacy over this people although probably they do not amount to more than souls so that they stand here as living witnesses to tho the truth of the prophecy of daniel when he speaks of the conquest of the turks and says but these shall escape out of his hands even edom and moab and the chief of the children of ammon daniel xi 41 on our road we met several of these dark sons of the desert and it was not always with a feeling of pleasure that we viewed their long guns or spears y thing came off well and to one friendly freeti greeting ng saba el khair or marhaba mar mw haba we always received a 8 friendly answer it was about 5 pm when we arrived in nazareth As we oame on one of the surrounding heights we obtained a fine view of the city and its vicinity A flock of children just out from school came cam running down a hill and our minds were naturally carried back to the tn time when our savior a happy child used to play upon these hilte hills vivid the whole scene became so go that I 1 was almost led to ask 10 3 f is jews jesus which of those boys son of nazareth for little while we stopped our and enjoyed the scenery and WY soul was filled with one thought alone 1 f I thank god for having permitted me to see this land nazareth the spot where our savior spent most of his child childhood hood is now a place of about inba stants of these 2000 are 1000 0 madans 2500 orthodox greeks roman catholics Cat holies united greeks greek protestants and the rest maron ites at the time of our savior it must have been bee very small and insignificant phew s judging fudging from the question of the ie jews a can anything good come from fi om nazareth john 1 76 at present it looks very nice and respectable spec table from the outside but like a oriental cities as soon as you enter the narrow dirty streets the charm is over in nazareth the streets greets are particularly narrow the awn ain street a long winding lane consists of two narrow sidewalks pa rated from each other by a ditch that is as near as I 1 can describe it tile the most important building at the liue present time is a monastery belonging to the franciscans this building dates its existence from the ray y part of the eighteenth century is surrounded by high walls like a fOr Afi cation and has as its great at tracton action the so called church of the he annunciation this edifice is wenty twenty one metres long and fifteen wide de its walls are hung with embroideries broide ries es representing episodes in roe e childhood lahood of jesus the high tar is dedicated to the angel gariel briel under this is the place where the angel is supposed to have found uaria aria and announced the glad tid NO gs thou hast found favor with toa and beholds thou conceive in a thy womb and bring forth a son bon and shall call his name jesus he hall ball be great and shall be called the F 1074 of the highest and the lord ww shall give unto him the throne of RIS his father david and he shall sn over the house of jacob for t and of his kingdom there be no end the guide still shows the place where the que stood when he spoke these eee words as well as the spot where here maria maitla sat wondering at this announcement over the entrance opposite the altar is the following abse nerbum oaro aaro fao 44 fal ad in this place once stood ta toe house in which maria lived the ue tradition says that it was dis ered by the queen helena but etten the edans destroyed 4 grything thing rY in the country the an 9 took the house in 1291 and oed it to a mountain near minme fab A 68 years later set to recanati and fl 11 UY y to lobeto where it is still show jovn under tinder the name of cam a in connection with the te ave of annunciation is another cabes which velch is shown as the kitchen of the he virgin maria the chimney 18 U smoky as a proof of the bauh atla of the tradition A 2 has several wonderful i ap to attract the tourist there i the vae place where josephs home ae K stood and also workshop hia in good condition eon con L si side dering its pretended age ag e in this place a piece of a stone pillar is shown as a real remnant of the house of the parents of jesus farther on is to be seen the synagogue in which jesus preached his remarkable sermon luke 1 1619 1649 16 19 and also mensa chrissi Chris fi 11 1 a large stone tabled table which if the catholic monks are to be credited was once used by christ and his disciples near the maroni tish church is a high precipice pointed out as the place from which the people once intended to precipitate our lord when his speech did not suit them luke 4 2830 28 30 the genuineness of all these places and things is of course supported only by tradition which is by no means always supported by facts on the contrary some of the suppositions on which they rest are nothing but absurdities yet as it always costs something to see all these things a large business is maintained here and after all modem religion and business are pretty good synonyms so what is the difference south of the greek mon monastery astry is a spring known as the maria well 11 As this is the only one in nazareth it is certainly no mere supposition that the mother of jesus often visited it in arder to supply her household with waler the well is still frequented every day by the women who are here to be seen from morning till night filling their water pots chatting with each other washing their feet and so on in nazareth we had the pleasure of forming the acquaintance of two german gentlemen who appeared to be much interested in religious questions and we spent a very agreeable evening in conversation upon matters pertaining to life and salvation A short anecdote may wind up my letter for this time in a certain congregation when the sermon was finished the preacher asked if any one of those dr present ese ut was sure of eternal salvation there appeared to be considerable hesitation about the matter but finally a dusky fellow held up his hand and said he was well replied the preacher on what ground are you sure of eternal salvation because came the answer 1 I was born in nazareth and how can that make you sure of eternal salvation why was the explanation do you think the lord could act so shabbily as to turn a fellow townsman out when he has come traveling all the way to heaven now this was very loose ground upon which to build the hope of salvation but have the majority of mankind today any more durable foundation for their hopes when the matter is fully investigated this is a question by J M S february 1889 |