The Well of Samaria. 315 ble freedom from stones. A few miles brought us into the long, wide, and smiling valley, on one side of which the ancient Lebonah (El Lebben) is situated on a commanding height. It was very pleasant, after so long and rough a ride up and down bleak mountains, to get into fields and meadows, where wide expanses of barley refreshed our eyes, weary with dazzling stones and gray sterility. An hour and a half farther, just at the opening between Gerizim and Ebal, where the road turns up to Nablous, we found what is called Jacob's well, which claims to be the place where Jesus sat at noontide, weary and athirst, and had his memorable conversation with the Samaritan woman. Robinson confirms the authenticity of the tradition. No fitter place for such an important conversation could have offered itself in all Palestine. Gerizim, the holy place of the Samaritans, lifted its head just over the spot; one of the most fertile of the plains of the promised land lay in full view; while the old and sacred city of Sichem -the finest in its situation of all her towns-was within a half-hour's walk through the architectural rocks that overhang the division between the Mountain of Blessing and of Cursing. Joseph's tomb was a quarter of a mile to the north of Jacob's well, and is as well attested as the well itself. It is now held in great veneration by Jews and Samaritans and Mussulmans. The monument is not very ancient, but the tomb itself may well be as old as when the ashes of Joseph were brought from Egypt and laid in this neighborhood. See Genesis 1. 25; Joshua xxiv. 12. We did not ascend Gerizim that night, as the darkness came on before we reached Nablous. The top of this stony mountain, about a thousand feet high, contains the ruins of two extensive enclosures, built of large blocks of stone. The southern quadrangle is flanked with four towers at its angles, and in the middle may be traced the remains of an octagonal structure. A Moslem cemetery, with a fine pool, occupies the northern quadrangle. Robinson thinks these the ruins of a fortress built by Justinian to protect a church of the Virgin. M. de Saulcy maintains that they are not military, but are the remains of the Samaritan temple built by Sanballat. The Samaritans at Nablous place their temple-at the foot of the mountain. This is their sacred place, which they visit with naked feet. NABLOUS. We reached Nablous, the ancient Sichem, too late to see the city, which we passed through in the dark, expecting at every step that our tired horses would fall and break our limbs or necks on the slippery stones of its narrow streets. Thanks to their better eyes, our careful beasts carried us safely through the city to our camp just out of the northern . gate. It is not a very pleasant thing after eight or nine hours in the saddle, to arrive just before the baggage train, and wait while the tents are pitched, and then two hours more for dinner. But it has its compensations. In the dark, moonless night, without lanterns, the faithful moukers, who have been ten hours driving their loaded mules on foot over the stony hills, proceed with uncomplaining alacrity to unload the cumbrous baggage, to set up the tents, arrange the beds, and distribute his bags and belongings to each of the company; to feed and water the animals, and either late in the night or by daylight, to curry and rub down the horses. Not for three hours after they come into camp do they have a chance to eat a morsel, and when they do sit down by the light of their nargilehs to refresh themselves, a bit of bread and a few dates or a piece of dried meat seems to satisfy them. To-night I watched our Greek cook, who had ridden all day on the top of some luggage on a hard mule, and who economized his time by picking chickens as he rode, getting his cuisine a-going. On an iron brazier of three feet long and eight inches broad, filled with charcoal (not a half-peck in all), which he carries on his mule from station to station, he kindled his fire with a feather fan, over it he placed his pots, one for the soup, another a tea-kettle, and another for his stew-pan. Out of the great wooden chest, which was half the load of a strong baggage-mule, he took his leg of mutton, his chickens, his soup-meat, vermicelli, cauliflower, and all necessary condiments, and in two hours had a most excellent dinner for nine persons smoking in successive courses upon the table-soup, boiled beef, stewed chickens, roast mutton, potatoes, cauliflower, stewed apricots - enough and very savory all. It is true that I could not recommend those with less appetite than travelers a-horseback in Syria to watch the • preparation of their dinner. The dishes served too many purposes, ditto the dishcloths; the cook's hands were not of lily whiteness; he larded the lean earth with the scraps he flung around him, treating all creation, one yard around his cuisine excepted, as a place for slops and offal. But his admirable industry and cheerfulness after his hard day's work shared with us, and then his special service only to begin, excited my respect and sympathy. By ten o'clock he sat down with the two dragomen and one upper servant to their own dinner, a simple dish of boiled rice and gravy, with which they seemed perfectly content. If this is the fare of the principals in our service, what must be the meagre living of their servants, the rest of our escort? LV. SICHEM TO NAZARETH. March 14. SICHEM is a truly patriarchal city. "And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh" (Gen. xii. 6). Jacob bought a field in the neighborhood (Gen. xxxiii. 20). Simeon and Levi slaughtered all the males of Sichem to avenge their sister Dinah (Gen. xxxiii. 18-20). Jacob sent Joseph here in search of his brothers (Gen. xxxvii. 12-14). Four hundred years later Joshua led . the tribes of Israel here, and they built on Mount Ebal an altar, whereon were written the words of the law. Sichem was afterward given to the Levites, and became one of thethree cities of refuge on the western side of the Jordan. Abimelech caused himself to be proclaimed chief of Israel here, and here Jotham's oldest of fables, touching the choice of a king by the trees, was uttered from the top of Gerizim, against him (Judges ix. 8-10). After Solomon's death, Rehoboam went to Sichem and proclaimed himself king, and there David's empire was divided into two kingdoms; Jeroboam, being placed at the head of the new kingdom of the ten revolted tribes, of which Sichem became the capital. After the destruction of the kingdom of Israel, Salmanezer led all the people in captivity, and replaced them by idolaters from Babylon, Cuth, Hamath, and elsewhere. These people, who soon adopted, and mingled with the worship of false gods, the worship of Jehovah, took the name of Samaritans. Modern Samaritans. 319 After the return from the Captivity, they sent embassadors to Jerusalem, and demanded to be allowed to contribute to the rebuilding of the walls of the Temple. They were indignantly repulsed by the Jews, who would not recognize them as children of Abraham. Thus originated the hatred between these two peoples. They built, in the time of Nehemiah, who resisted all their efforts to amalgamate with the Jews, a temple of their own, on Gerizim, as like as possible to that at Jerusalem. This temple was destroyed 132 years B.C. The Gospels contain abundant proofs of the jealousy of Jews and Samaritans, which all New Testament readers will at once recall. Jesus passed some days at Sichem (John iv. 1), and Philip preached here successfully. Simon Magus, one of the arch-enemies of the Gospel, worked his wicked magic here, and here Justin Martyr was born. The Romans called Sichem Neapolis when they overran Palestine; hence the modern name Nablous. Struggles between the early Christians and the Samaritans were common and bitter. In 487 the Samaritans rose against the Christians, and the Christians drove them from Mount Gerizim and built there a church in honor of the Virgin, which Justinian surrounded with a fortress to protect it. Since then Sichem and Gerizim have been at one time in Moslem, at another in Crusading hands; but the sect of the Samaritans has never quite ceased to exist, and has a few disciples here to-day, men, women, children, all told, only one hundred and thirty-five, all of that name in the world! The Samaritans receive the Pentateuch, of which they claim to possess the only authentic copy. They sacrifice the Paschal Lamb upon Mount Gerizim-a privilege which Moslem malice or bigotry interrupted for twenty-five years at the beginning of this century. They believe in the resurrection, but only for the just. They await the coming of a prophet who will restore |