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powerful support; and on all hands, even in other than the learned circles, I sought to excite or to augment friendly feelings towards it.

I need not attempt in this place to describe to you how great was the interest, the favour, the countenance, which I found for my journey and its objects; at Paris, where I became the grateful debtor of the celebrated Letronne, Raoul Rochette, Hase, as well as the generous Emmanuel Lascases, and Guizot; at Cambridge, where, at the recommendation of the duke of Sussex, in the most liberal manner the library of Trinity College was thrown open to me; from the learned Dutch, or from De Witte's genuine cordiality, and other pleasing reminiscences in Switzerland. Nor need I repeat to you, that in Italy I found also many patrons and friends, nor dare I begin to speak of my German fatherland.

That I traversed the East for my special object admits, I think, of an easy justification, even if the richest produce I obtained there served for other purposes. For besides what I really found there, it has helped to clear up my doubts as to how far the latest acquisitions, which in Europe form the groundwork of a critical examination of the New Testament text, may thereby undergo further modification.

Your

I need now only add an excuse for the length of my letter. interest in the cause must be great to induce you to overlook its dryness. But I know that it is great; the Gospel possesses so large a share of your heart, that I can readily comprehend how much it concerns you to obtain a valid text of the New Testament Scriptures, the bulwark of theology against the attacks of doubting science and the sacred and indestructible foundation of our faith.

FROM JERUSALEM TO NAZARETH.

(BY WAY OF SAMARIA AND SHECHEM.)

When I perceived the walls of Jerusalem recede behind the hills, thoughts full of sadness came over me. I was returning from a festival, but it was a festival of death. The solemn sounds were still reverberating through my soul: I was lost in the dream of a fair by-gone day; but at the same time I felt an oppression like sorrow for a dead one, whom I fondly loved. I asked myself shall "I again see Jerusalem ? Should I ever see it again, God grant that I may behold it in the springtide of a new era, which will convert the holy into a happy city!"

The society in which I went to Nazareth was new and entertain

NEBY SAMWIL.

215 ing. Our caravan consisted of four horses, three mules, and one ass. The muleteer, or horse-leader, cut a most interesting figure. He sat upon his mule with the perfect air of a lord, a boy ran by his side, as servant, and carried his long pipe. The muleteer of the second rank rode the ass, and busied himself chiefly with the command of the two laden mules. The Frenchman who travelled with me, had long sojourned in the East, as well as in Spain, and he was now conveying the entire Holy Land home with him in Daguerreotype. His dragoman was the same Arab who had been plundered on the road to Nazareth, in the service of the Englishmen. He had consequently become half-Turk and half-Englishman in his costume; for he wore, over his wide trousers, a short close coat, a present from his master, which looked very ridiculous.

Our present road retained no longer exactly the character of the desert districts and naked heights around Jerusalem. Before us and around us, in every direction, hills and valleys lay stretched, whose soil, although frequently rocky, was not unfruitful. We be held groups of fruit trees, and among them apples and pears; also verdant meadows, pastured by herds and flocks. Here and there we perceived a village nodding upon an eminence; and still more fre→ quently the ruins of a fortress or of a monastery.

In the course of a couple of hours we had close on our left in the west, and surrounded by a few huts, that mosque of Samuel, which I had already greeted from the summit of the minaret of the mount of Olives. The Prophet himself is said to lie buried there. (1 Sam. xxv. 1.) His sepulchre is not contemplated without devotion by Jews, Mahomedans, or Christians. The doubts of the learned strongly contest its right to this celebrity, although so prominent a locality must have been of importance in high antiquity. Robinson supposes the Biblical Mizpeh to have been situated here, where Samuel (1 Sam. vii. 9), by the sacrifice of a sucking lamb, did not in vain solicit divine aid against the Philistines, and where he subsequently annointed Saul (1 Sam. x. 1), who had become filled with the Spirit of the Lord. (1 Sam. x. 6.)

"

"the

Half a league to the north of Neby Samwil, seated upon great high place" (1 Kings iii. 4) is El Gib, the ancient Gibeon, where Joshua's appeal was made, 66 Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon." (Joshua x. 12.) It was chiefly celebrated as being the city of the priests of the tabernacle. It was here where Solomon, as youthful monarch, made the sacrifice (1 Kings iii. 4) a thousand burnt offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar, and the following night offered up his child-like prayer (1 Kings iii. 7, 8, 9), which was so pleasing to the Lord. (10.)

We had travelled four leagues, having previously made a short

halt when we reached Bir, to take our mid-day rest. The village itself we kept at a little distance before us, upon the hill, and remained in the valley near a spring, behind the walls of a deserted monastery. The subterraneous vaults of this structure, which I roamed through, may have had their ecclesiastical uses superseded by temporal ones, and it is probable that the monastery itself had been subsequently transformed into a khan. In the afternoon we inspected in the village the beautiful ruins of a church, exhibiting the architectural style of the crusades.

Bir enjoys distinction in Christian tradition. It formed the first day's journey of Joseph and Mary (St. Luke, ii. 43) upon their return from the passover: and it was here they sought Jesus, when twelve years old, among their friends, and missed him. There is nothing inconsistent in this tradition; as from ancient custom even at the present day the Easter pilgrims extend their first day's journey homeward only as far as Bir; the pilgrims from Galilee may also long since have practised the same custom. Our road to Nazareth was certainly the same which our Lord and his disciples repeatedly took when he went to the festival. These reminiscences were the dearest company. In our fequent descent from the precipitous mountain declivities of this district, I clearly comprehended how correctly the sacred text, speaking of the paschal journey of Jesus, usually says (John, vii. 10), "went he also UP unto the feast."

From Bir all the way to our night quarters the mountain range of Ephraim extended at our side: it is far richer in trees and shrubs than the mountain chain of Judah, and yet it also exhibits desert heights and rocky valleys, with many abysses and ravines. The further we advanced the more cheerful became the landscape; it is extremely luxuriant in olives and fig-trees. About half an hour before we reached the termination of this day's journey, we beheld in the twilight towards the north-east the neighbouring heights, which bear the ruins of Shiloh, that place of peace which, like Gibeon, long retained the ark, and then also witnessed the pious juvenile years of Samuel. There the fiery sons of Benjamin once engaged in an adventure similar to the rape of the Sabines by the Romans. At the yearly feast of the Lord, as it is said in the Book of Judges (xxi. 20,21.23): "Go and lie in wait in the vineyards; and see, and, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances, then come ye out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin." "The children of Benjamin did go, and took them wives, according to their number, of them that danced, whom they caught." We now descended so steep and precipitous a declivity, that it would have been dangerous to have remained on horseback. At the foot of the precipice we

found in an extensive verdant meadow a large well, enclosed within an oblong quadrangle of walls, where our cattle refreshed themselves. Three females, but by no means graces, were fetching water for the village which lay at a distance of a mile. It began to grow dark as we diverged to Leban on the left of our road, to pass the night there. This very ancient village lies upon a stony shruboy height. Close to our encampment we perceived ancient sepulchral cavities; not far beneath lay fields clothed in splendid luxuriance. We were speedily saluted by many of the inhabitants of Leban; they helped to pile up a large fire, and seated themselves at it to enjoy, with our muleteers, a pipe and a cup of coffee. They kept up their conversation almost beyond the bounds of what was desirable. One of the guests offered to sell us a good English telescope, which without doubt he had stolen from some former traveller. It was thence evident that their respect for Europeans might not be very great. As we necessarily feared we might be robbed during the night by these people, who stood in the very worst repute with our guides, we hired four guards out of their own number. bivouac I found here less agreeable than in the sand of the desert. I lay upon a lamb-skin wrapped in my woollen blanket, but the night dew fell so heavily that I could have bathed myself in it.

Our

Early next morning, about eight, we entered the surprisingly luxuriant valley between Mounts Gerizim and Ebal. About half a league before reaching Naplus, at the entrance of the valley at the foot of Mount Gerizim, lies the deep well, which may probably be justly considered as Jacob's well, where Jesus sat during his conversation with the woman of Samaria. (John, iv. 7.) The sepulchre of the patriarch Joseph, a little beyond the wall which lay close upon our right, is nothing but a Turkish saint's monument, to which the Mahometans pay great devotion. Whether tradition is right or wrong with respect to the locality no one doubtlessly can say.

The view of Naplus, the ancient Shechem is delightful and grand. It peers forth, with its numerous white minarets and flat cupola roofs from beneath olive-trees and fig-trees, out of the narrow valley. The two neighbouring mountains add grandeur to the sweetness of the picture; they encompass the city and the valley with their bare rocky precipices, which are on here and there clothed with olives. What a spectacle must it have been when Joshua, by command of the Lord, solemnly sealed his entry into the promised land from these mountains. (Deut. xxvii. 2, 3.) Six tribes stood upon Gerizim and six upon Ebal. (Joshua viii. 33.) From Gerizim pealed down the blessing, and from Ebal was denounced the curse. (Deut. xxvii, 12, 13.) To the blessing as well as to the curse uttered by the

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NAPLUS AND THE SAMARITANS.

mouths of the Levites, the people shouted, Amen, with their thousands of voices. He who has seen these mountains and called to mind that spectacle will ever have them present to his soul like two incontestable witnesses of the solemnity of the law.

Beneath the gate of the city we had a melancholy rencontre; several lepers sat there begging. I know nothing that could have made a more disagreeable impression than this first entrance to the city.

Immediately after passing the gate we rode through the long ba zaar which presented the richest variety of all that is beautiful or costly; it was, however, so confined, and so thronged, that we could only labour through it step by step. We took up our quarters, upon the recommendation of the French consul at Jerusalem, in the Samaritan school. Before we could enter our saloon the children were obliged to be dismissed.

We soon received a visit from the chief rabbin of the Samaritans, an estimable man of more than sixty, with a long white beard and delicate features. He wore a crimson silk garment and a white turban. When we told him that we immediately purposed visiting the pasha of Naplus, he obligingly offered to accompany us. The pasha, a very stout middle-aged man, we found in the midst of a circle of friends upon the beautiful terrace of his house. To my surprise he walked barefooted; yet he remained as he was and immediately sat himself down with us upon the cushions and carpets spread about. We smoked a pipe and drank a cup of coffee. We solicited him to grant us a military escort for our further journey; he was willing to accede to it, but he assured us that the severity of his police regulations made the roads perfectly safe. We naturally complimented him upon this state of things. When leaving him we were astonished at finding ourselves followed by two of his servants, who begged for their backshish for the coffee. It was impossible to get rid of them with empty hands. I thus became acquainted with another feature of Turkish courtesy. But I was wrong in feeling surprised at it; for a year previously, when at Rome, and shortly before the moment of my departure at six in the morning, the servant of a cardinal presented himself at my abode to remind me of a similar backshish.

I was now anxious to visit the Samaritan synagogue, being exceedingly curious to inspect the celebrated manuscripts which it contains. There was no difficulty in obtaining access. A rabbin, but not the chief who had remained engaged with the pasha, led us to a small oratory which was covered with straw mats, and not to be trodden except bare footed. Upon a book-shelf I observed about twenty manuscripts, chiefly upon parchment. To several I unhesitatingly. accord an age of many hundred years. One exhibited by many pecu