While we were taking the bearings given in the note below,' the men of the village flocked around us, and seemed much interested in our proceedings. This indeed was the case in most of the villages. The people in general, in this part of the country, were ready to give us information, so far as they could; and seemed not to distrust us. Here too we found the same general impression, that our object was to collect information and survey the country, preparatory to the arrival of the Franks; and here too we were addressed in the usual phrase: "Do not be long." Indeed, the inhabitants everywhere appeared, for the most part, to desire that the Franks should send a force among them. They were formerly tired of the Turks; they were now still more heartily tired of the Egyptians; and were ready to welcome any Frank nation which should come, not to subdue, (for that would not be necessary,) but to take possession of the land. After a delay of three quarters of an hour we left Summeil at 7.35. In about half an hour we passed Juseir on the left, the first village we had yet seen in Palestine not built of stone. The materials of the houses are here unburnt bricks; and such continued to be the case all the way to Gaza, and is so elsewhere throughout the plain. The bricks are formed from the common loam of the soil, with straw intermixed to bind the mass together, as in Egypt; they are of very large size, and are merely dried in the sun. Many of them, newly made, were laid in rows along the ground, in the process of drying. At 8.35, the similar village of Hatta was on our right. In Kurâtîyeh, a village to which we came at 8.55, is a ruined tower of modern date, built partly of similar bricks; and we saw also a few ancient columns lying about. Here quite a number of places were in sight. The country now became more undulating; low ridges or swells ran from south to north, but the general character of the soil did not change. Our general course was S. W. by W. The white sand-hills which here skirt the shore of the Mediterranean Ibn Ferath in Reinaud's Extraits, etc. p. 525. Wilk. Gesch. der Kr. VII. p. 586. At Summeil we obtained the following bearings: Tell es-Sâfieh N. 50° E. Berkûsieh N. 70° E. Tell et-Turmus N. 7° W. Esdûd N. 40° W. (?) Beit Dârâs N. 53° W. (?) Beit 'Affa N. 85° W. Hatta S. 84° W. Juseir S. 80° W. Kurâtiyeh S. 80° W. el-Fâlûjy S. 51° W. 'Arak el-Menshiyeh S. the borders of Askelon towards the east; Onomast. art. Asor. This accords well with the position of Yâsûr as above; but if it be the same, we have here the very unusual change from the Hebrew guttural Heth (n) to the Arabic Ye with a long vowel. The Onomast. incorrectly takes this village for one of the Hazors of Josh. 15, 25, in the south of Judah.-Sawâfir seems to be a plural form for the Saphir (Heb. These places bore from Kurâtiyeh as follows: Tell es-Safieh N. 65° E. el-Mes-) of Mic. 1, 11; which Eusebius and mîyeh N. 7° W. Yasûr N. 12° W. elKustineh N. 16° W. es-Sawafir N. 32 W. 'Eddis N. 38° W. el-Fâlûjy S. 38° E.-Eusebius and Jerome mention a Hazor ('Aoup Asor) belonging to Judah in Jerome place between Eleutheropolis and Askelon; Onomast. art. Saphir. Comp. Gesenius Lex. Heb. art. . There are three villages of this name, near each other. began soon to appear. At 10 o'clock, upon one of the said swells, Tell es-Safieh bore N. 61° E. while the village of Bureir lay before us S. 48° W. We reached the latter place at 11.10; and rested for more than an hour and a half under the shade of a spreading tree. This is a flourishing village, forming a sort of central point in the plain. There is a large public well, at which camels were drawing water by means of a Sâkieh, or water-wheel with jars, as in Egypt; the first machinery we had yet seen in Palestine. Flocks and herds were collected around the well; the troughs for which were partly laid up in front with ancient marble columns. Here were also several palm trees; and the whole scene was animated and pleasing. Setting off from Bureir at three quarters past noon, we at first took a wrong road, which led us too far south towards the village of Huj. The direct road keeps along on the north side of the broad Wady Simsim already mentioned, near which Bureir lies, on a general course W. by S. passing the village of Simsim on the northern edge of the Wady, about three quarters of an hour from Bureir. We crossed this Wady on the wrong road; and were then compelled to pick our way through the fields to the Gaza road, leaving the village of Simsim at a distance on the right. At 2.10, we passed the little village Nijid on the south of the Wady; here the peasants were winnowing barley by throwing it up into the air across the wind, with a wooden fork. Ten minutes later (at 2.20), we came again into the Gaza road, having lost half an hour by our detour. This road had here crossed the broad Wady very obliquely, and now left it to pass over low swelling hills. The valley bends more to the right; and passing by Deir Esneid, empties into the sea at 'Askŭlân. At 2.35, the village of Dimreh was on our right near the bend of the valley. Our course still continued W. by S. At 3.20 we came to the village Beit Hunûn on our right in a low rich tract of the plain. Here as elsewhere all were busy with the wheat harvest; the reapers were in the fields; donkeys and camels were moving homewards with their high loads of sheaves; while on the threshing-floors near the village I counted not less than thirty gangs of cattle, occupied in treading out the grain, with many camels and donkeys standing idle around. The whole village seemed at work, and presented a busy scene. Not far beyond this village, we came upon the immense olive groves which stretch far to the north of Gaza. At 4 o'clock we fell into the Yâfa road, at the line of hills which bounds the plain west, towards the coast. The road here crosses 1 See Note II, at the end of Vol. I. these hills at a low spot or gap, and continues along their western side, on a course southwest, having on the right a tract of drifts and hills of white sand, extending to the sea, here an hour distant. These sands seem only to need water in order to become fertile; even now they are studded with trees and bushes like hedges; apparently from the effect of the rains alone. For the whole distance from the gap of the hills to Gaza, the road passes through a vast grove of olive trees, not only very numerous, but also large and productive. Many of them are upon the sands. It is said to be the largest olive grove in Palestine. We saw but a single one more extensive, and that was near Beirût. At 4 o'clock we pitched our tent among these trees, ten minutes from the entrance of Gaza, just at the edge of the gardens on the north of the city. We found a quarantine guard stationed near by, to prevent the approach of persons coming from Yâfa, where the plague was now raging. As however we came from Jerusalem, where its prevalence was less known, no objection was made to our passing. Our servants said to them: "Suppose a party from Yâfa tell you they come from Jerusalem; what then?" reply was: "That is no concern of ours." The The next day, being Sunday, we remained encamped; and enjoyed a quiet day of rest. Monday, May 21st. Our Jerusalem friend, Abu Selâmeh, had furnished us with a letter to an Arab Greek Christian in Gaza, named Suleimân el-Hashwy, a merchant who acts in some sort as a Frank agent. We called upon him this morning, and found him in his shop, one of the open stalls of the bazar; where, like his neighbours, he was sitting cross-legged upon the sort of low counter in front. He received us with great kindness; ordered coffee; and introduced us to his neighbours, many of whom soon gathered around. One of these was a very intelligent Mussulman, who seemed quite interested in seeing strangers from the new world, and made many inquiries respecting America. After the conversation had been carried on for some time, our new Mussulman friend, to our great surprise, proposed to. take us into the neighbouring mosk, the oldest and most important one of the city, anciently a Christian church. Tradition, as a matter of course, ascribes it to Helena, and regards it as having been dedicated to St. John the Baptist. We were not slow to accept the invitation, and went with him; pulling off our shoes at the door, and walking in our stockings over the mats with which the stone floor is covered. The three parallel It possibly dates from the beginning of the fifth century, as we shall afterwards have occasion to see; p. 42. aisles of the ancient church remain, as well as the columns with Corinthian capitals which divide them. The middle one is higher than the other two, and has a second row of columns on each side above. The length of the building is about one hundred and ten feet; not including the recess of the altar on the south, which is about twenty feet more. On the west side, the Muslims have added another low aisle in an inferior style of architecture. We returned to the shop of Suleimân, who now took charge of my letters, in order to forward them by the Pasha's post to Cairo and Alexandria. This he punctually accomplished. We thought it best also to take here a Tezkirah (passport) for Hebron, in order to be able to show that we had come from Gaza and not from Jerusalem, in case of any quarantine regulations at Hebron against the latter city. The governor of Gaza, Sheikh Sa'id, we learned, was absent at or near Hebron, (where we afterwards met him,) collecting arms from the peasantry; who, although once disarmed, had been fighting among themselves. We therefore waited upon his secretary, accompanied by a man sent by Suleimân; and found him in a dirty room with bare stone walls, surrounded by six writers. He was an elderly man with a good face and bright eye. On learning that we likewise thought of visiting Wady Musa, he asked if we would have the Tezkirah made out for that place also ? Not supposing that this could be of the slightest importance, we said that one for Hebron would be sufficient; and he ordered it to be made out accordingly. We afterwards had occasion to regret our decision, or rather the want of information which led to it; for we found at a later period, that the region of Wady Musa was under the immediate jurisdiction of Sheikh Sa'id; and his Tezkirah would have commanded a more implicit obedience from the Arabs of that quarter, than the Firmân of Muhammed Aly himself. While the Tezkirah was making out, we walked around the city, and spent in all several hours in examining its various parts. The results of our observation and inquiries may be summarily given as follows. Gaza, in Arabic Ghuzzeh, is situated on a low round hill of considerable extent, not elevated more than fifty or sixty feet above the plain around. This hill may be regarded as the nucleus of the city; although only the southern half is now covered with houses. Most of these are of stone, and especially all such as belong to the government. But the greater part of the modern city has sprung up on the plain below, a sort of suburbs, stretching far out on the eastern and northern sides. These suburbs appear to be thickly populated; the houses are numerous and wholly built of mud or unburnt bricks, like the villages we had passed on the great plain.' The ancient city of Gaza, renowned as 'the strong,' lay obviously chiefly on the hill. The present town has no gates, being like an open village; yet the places of the former ones remain, and are pointed out around the hill. One of these, at the foot of the slope on the southeast, is shown as the gate whose doors and bars were carried off by Samson; and just by it is a Mukâm in his honour, which the Muslims pretend is also his tomb. Towards the south is another spot called Bâb ed-Dârôn, a name probably derived from the fortress Dârôn celebrated in the time of the crusades. Indeed, all vestiges of the ancient walls and ancient strength of Gaza have disappeared; and nothing remains to mark its former extent, except the bounds of the hill itself on which it stood. Even the traces of its former existence, its vestiges of antiquity, are very rare; consisting of occasional columns of marble or gray granite, scattered in the streets and gardens, or used as thresholds at the gates and doors of houses, or laid upon the front of watering-troughs. One fine Corinthian capital of white marble, lies inverted in the middle of a street running from north to south along the eastern foot of the hill. Gaza is said to be an hour distant from the sea; which is not here visible. Between the city and the shore, are the hills and tracts of sand already mentioned, on which are scattered a few trees and hedges. Around the city on the south, east, and north, are numerous gardens hedged with prickly pear, which forms an impenetrable barrier. The soil of these gardens is ex 1 So far as I know, the geographical position of Gaza has never been determined by astronomical observation; nor indeed in any way, except by Jacotin during the march of the French army in 1799. The relative position of Gaza in respect to Yâfa on his map, is the best, and indeed the only approximation which we have. The position of Yafa being corrected according to the more accurate observations of Gauttier and Hell, gives therefore for that of Gaza, Lat. 81° 27′ 30′′ N. Long. 34° 27' 24" E. from Greenwich. See Berghaus' Memoir zu seiner Karte von Syrien, pp. 25, 26. 2 The fortress Dârôn, Lat. Darum, was built by king Amalrich on the ruins of a Greek convent of the same name, described as four (Italian) miles south of Gaza, and five furlongs from the sea; Will. Tyr. 20. 20. Marinus Sanutus gives the distance from Gaza at fifteen miles; pp. 86, 246. It was stormed by Saladin with King out success in A. D. 1170; though it fell Arrian gives the distance from the sea at 20 stadia; Exped. Alex. 2. 26. Abulfeda describes the sandhills in the same manner; Tab. Syr. p. 77. ed. Köhler. |