Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub
[graphic][ocr errors]

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF ALL
NATIONS.

WAYSIDE MONUMENTS.

buried here: it is not consecrated earth; the monuments are merely memorials, and no doubt originated at a period when a OUR illustration represents a curious custom Roman Catholic was, according to the prowhich still prevails in the neighbourhood of visions of a law equally foolish and cruel, Cong, near Oughterard, in Ireland. It is interred, without form or ceremony, in well described in the following account of church ground-the ground that had been her tour by Mrs. S. C. Hall (conductor of the property of their ancestors. None of the St. James's Magazine) :these stone cairns have any mason-work,

"On the way to Joyce's Country we saw and they are generally of the rudest forms, heaps of piled-up stones on either side of or rather without any form, the stones the road; these heaps continuing for above having been carelessly cast one upon another. a mile, after their commencement a short Upon one of them only could we discover distance from the western entrance to the any inscription-this one is introduced into town. The artist may convey a better notion the print; it is built with far more than the of their peculiar character than any written usual care; it contained an inscription: description can do. We left our car to ex-"Pray for ye soule of John Joyce, & Mary amine them minutely, and learned they Joyce, his wife, died 1712." Some of them, were monuments to the memory of "de- however, seem to have been constructed ceased" persons, "erected" by their sur- with greater care than others, and many of viving friends. Upon death occurring, the them were topped with a small wooden primitive tumulus is built,-if that may be cross. We estimated that there were at called building which consists in placing least 500 of these primitive monuments, of a few large stones upon a spot previously all shapes and sizes, along the road. In unoccupied. Each relative of the dead adds each of them we observed a small hollow, to the heap; and in time it becomes a which the peasants call a "window;" most "mountain" of tolerable size. Each family of these were full of pebbles, and upon inknows its own particular monument; and a quiry we learned that when one of the race member of, or a descendant from it, prays to whom the deceased belonged kneels by the and leaves his offering only at that especial side of this record to his memory, and offers one. The custom has endured for many up a prayer for the repose of his soul, it is generations; some of the heaps bore tokens customary to fling a little stone into this of great age; and one was pointed out to us" cupboard;" the belief being, that gradually of which there were records, in the trans- as it fills, so, gradually, the soul is relieved ferred memories of the people, for at least from punishment in purgatory; when com500 years. The bodies are in no instance pletely full, the soul has entered paradise.

[graphic][subsumed][merged small]

A RESIDENCE in Jerusalem has something very peculiar in its associations-it is so different from other cities, so motionless, so gloomy and dispiriting, so silent and forsaken, that it appears more like a city of the dead than one having such a vast population.

Every spot has its tale-each rock its tradition. This pool, or that tomb, are both rendered memorable by some historical event, and the very trees share in the veneration with which everything connected with the Holy City is held.

RAMBLE THE SEVENTEENTH. If you want amusement, it is not to be found-unless a little more bustle than JERUSALEM, ITS PECULIAR ASSOCIATIONS-DESERTION OF THE STREETS usual in the bazaars, which are generally -HOUSES-POPULATION-THE JEWS; crowded, will satisfy you. Perhaps a THE MOHAMMEDANS; THE CHRIST- ramble to Bethlehem, or a lounge in the IANS; AND PARTIAL RESIDENTS GLORY OF JERUSALEM HAS DEPARTED cafés, may please you; but, despite all LATIN CONVENT - TOWER OF HIP- your endeavours, there is no possibility PICUS, OR CASTLE OF DAVID-ARME of being amused in the city. When any NIAN CONVENT-GATE OF ZION-MOUNT ZION, AND TOMB OF DAVID. travellers arrive they are weary, and seem to partake of the spirit of the place, so that you are obliged to retreat to your hotel, and dream away the hours of evening amid clouds of tobacco-smoke and dismal domestics. If you rise from your divan and take a turn upon the roof of the house, you have not grand mountains

"But to Mount Zion we are come, The city of the living God."

MONTGOMERY.

"Now shall thy house be desolate,

Thy glory now shall close;
Nor leave one trace of ruined state,
To tell where Salem rose."

DALE.

A A

to gaze upon, such as Gaspar Poussin loved to paint, nor glorious sunsets, with the golden vistas of Claude, that are to be seen elsewhere-as on the coast of Syria, or even Palestine. There are no Ostade-looking interiors, or Teniers-like hovels, to gaze upon in this city. Pleasing recollections of the paintings of Rembrandt, Murillo, Guido, Leonardi da Vinci, Michael Angelo, and Raffaelle, come crowding into the mind, associated with the poetical effusions of Heber, Tasso, Dale, Millman, Montgomery, Roscoe, and Knox; and as your eyes wander from dome to minaret, and from vale to mount, and from ruined wall to stunted tree, the Queen of Night casts her placid light on yon rugged hills and castled steep, and

[ocr errors]

All height, depth, wildness, grandeur, gloom belo v, Touched by the smile, lone moon! in one wild splendour grow."

The morning mists are fast scattered by the fierce sun that pours his scorching rays upon this unhappy city; the air you breathe is as suffocating as that of an iron foundry; no eddying wind refreshes your parching skin as it sweeps along the streets; the inhabitants walk with listless step to pursue their daily labours, and salute each other only by gesture, for their very nature seems crushed, and their affections dried up.

If we enter the streets they are narrow, wretched, frequently unpaved, and almost deserted.

Alas, Jerusalem! each spacious street

Was once so filled, the numerous throng Was forced to jostle as they pass'd along, And thousands did with thousands meet.'

The houses are dirty, irregularly-built square masses, some with domes, and some with flat roofs; and the shops are gloomylooking squalid places, where ugly and ferocious-looking men smoke away the tedious hours. Silence reigns almost supreme, unless it be during the time the city is inundated by pilgrims.

The population of Jerusalem is very Aluctuating, owing to the presence of pilgrims at certain periods of the year, and travellers, who only remain a short time, hundreds arriving and departing in a day. The estimate given by various authors

exhibits a wide difference. Thus, we find it is calculated by Wilde to be 30,000; by Turner, 26.000; by Salzbacher, 25,000; Richardson and Joliffe, 20,000; Scholz and Mr. Robinson, 18,000; Jowett, 15,000; Warburton, 12,000; Dr. Robinson, 11,500; and Buckingham, 10,000. My own impression is, that it is about 12,000, as a resident population.

If it is asked how such accounts vary, I would merely remark that it is because there are not any official documents accessible to travellers; that the required in'ormation must be obtained from resi dents, who may or may not be inclined to exaggerate; that the casual population is liable to large additions at certain seasons; that epidemics have reduced the numbers at other periods; that the informants themselves are frequently prejudiced; and finally, that some have included the garrison and foreigners. Mr. Wilde's information was obtained from the Latins and Jewish rabbis; Dr. Richardson's from a Turk; Mr. Joliffe's from a Christian; and Mr. Buckingham's from a Jew.

It is better to consider the population as two classes:-1, The residents; and 2, The partial residents, or foreigners.

The resident population consists of-1, Jews; 2, Mohammedans; and 3, Christians. The last class is again sub livided into Greeks, Latins, and Armenians.

The Jews have been variously estimated from 3,000 to 10,000. Dr. Richardson gives their supposed numbers as 10,000; Wilde, 8,000; Mr. Nicolayson, 6,000 or 7,000; Mr. Young, late British consul at J rusalem, 5,000 or 6,000; Lord Nugent, 4,000; Joliffe, 3,000 to 4 000; Warburton, 3,500; and Dr. Robinson, 3,000. It is well known, by those who have taken any trouble about the matter, that the Jews do not like to give their true numbers, which may arise from a Turkish law forbidding more than 2,000 Jews to reside within the walls; and, therefore, as Mr. Nicolayson and Mr. Young have both had excellent opportunities of investigating the subject, we may fix the number at about 6,000.

The Mohammedans consist of Turks from Asia Minor; descendants of Turks by blood, but Arabians by birth; a mixed race of Turkish and Arabian blood; and

pure Syrian Arabs. They are computed by Joliffe at 13,000; Lord Nugent at 12,000; Wilde at 10,000; Dr. Richardson at 5,000; Dr. Robinson at 4,500; and Warburton at 4,000. My own opinion is that they average, in round numbers, about 5,000.

The Christians exhibit a very medley group of creeds, for we find Greeks amounting, according to Joliffe, to 2,000, while Dr. Robinson only makes their number 460; Latins, estimated by Joliffe at 800, and Dr. Robinson at 260; and Armenians reckoned by Joliffe at 400, and Dr. Robinson at 130. To these we may add Copts, Abyssinians, Maronites, native Christian Arabs, Druses, Metawelis, and Syrian Christians.

The partial residents, or foreigners, consist of people from nearly every country, and may be calculated, in round numbers, at from 4,000 to 9,000. The fluctuation of the partial residents is very considerable, on account of the great numbers of pilgrims that are annually shipped to Jaffa, and travel thence to the Holy City. It is affirmed that upwards of 30,000 pilgrims visit Jerusalem every Easter.

upon thy hallowed soil! and let not the remembrance of the associations connected with thee be blotted from my memory! for "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord; our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem."

The next place we visited was the Latin convent of St. Salvador, in the north-west corner of the city, on the edge of what is said to be Mount Gihon. There is not anything peculiar in this convent, except that it is the place where the pilgrims obtain a certificate of having visited the Holy City, and, perhaps, its irregular form girded by strong walls. From this we passed on to the city castle, which is built on the ruins of the Turris Psephina of old Jerusalem, and is now called the Castle of David, and sometimes the Tower of Hippicus. It is situated near the vale of Gihon, which it overhangs, and tradition affirms that it is one of the three towers built by Herod, and spared by Titus when the temple and city were destroyed. The lower part of one of the towers is evidently very ancient, and composed of large stones bevelled at the edges. The guide pointed to a spot north of the tower, which, he remarked, was the site of the house of Uriah; and near to it is what is now called

The glory of Jerusalem has, indeed, departed; for when Titus besieged the city, the number of the Jews was 1,300,000, and the Arabians state that the popula-"Beth-sheba's Bath," a broken tank amid tion of the city when attacked and taken A.D. 1099, exceeded 200,000.

[ocr errors]

'Alas, Jerusalem! alas! where's now
Thy pristine glory, thy unmatch'd renown,
To which the heathen monarchies did bow?"
She is "as a city which is compact to-
gether," even now, but yet not a vestige
is to be seen of the Jerusalem of David or
of Solomon; the course of the walls has
been changed, and little remains but the
valleys, the hills and the pools, to identify
its original site with the present one. But
still, as we wander amid its ruined edifices,
or gaze from the Mount of Olives upon its
embattled walls and towering minarets,
we feel that this is the spot where David's
harp sounded; where our Saviour bore the
cross upon which he atoned for our sins;
where Israel went up to worship; where
Solomon erected his brazen platform, and
the glory of the Lord shone in his temple.
Oh! let not the sceptic place his foot

a heap of loose stones and weeds.

Passing on towards the south we reached the Armenian Convent of St. James, which stands upon Mount Zion, immediately within the city walls. It is, certainly, a fine convent, and so spacious that it is said the priests frequently lodge nearly 800 pilgrims at a time; attached to it is a large garden with a high wall. The church, which is the best attended, is the largest and richest of the Christian churches, and is said to have been built by the Empress Helena, on the spot where St. James the elder was beheaded. It was a strange sight to behold the priests scattered about the church engaged in devotional exercisessome in their dark blue dresses, and others in their sumptuous robes, mingled with pilgrims of all ages and complexions, and foreigners with quaint costumes; all forming a strong contrast to the beautiful mosaic pavement, which here and there was

left uncovered by the carpet thrown over it, to preserve it from injury, and the pulpit in the centre of the church, with a cupola over it, both inlaid with mother of pearl and tortoise-shell; while the pillars, which are covered with porcelain tiles with blue crosses and other designs | on them, up to a certain height, and the altars covered with rich embroidery, and church vessels, filled up the back ground. On the left, in a small recess, is what the priests term the sanctuary of St. James, sculptured in white marble, and adorned with painting and gilding; this is said to be the precise spot on which he was beheaded. Passing on, we came to the vestibule, where we were shown two large stones; it is said that one of them was taken from that part of the river Jordan where our Saviour stood when St. John baptized him; and that the other is part of the rock against which Moses broke the tables of the law at Mount Sinai!

Near to the convent is a small Armenian chapel, which is stated to be built on the spot where the house of the High Priest Annas formerly stood. Leaving this, we passed the lazar-houses on the left, where the lepers reside apart from the rest of the population, and went out of the Zion gate, which is the southern gate of the city, and leads to the summit of that part of Mount Zion which is without the walls.

Near to the Zion gate is an Armenian chapel, very ill-shaped and remarkably gloomy in its appearance, which is built upon the site of the palace of Caiaphas, the High Priest; within it is an altar enclosing a block of compact limestone, about seven feet long, three broad, and a foot thick, which is exposed in some places for the devout pilgrims to kiss it. This is affirmed to be the stone which closed the mouth of the sepulchre of our Saviour!

and crowed when Peter denied his Master!

We are now fairly upon Mount Zion, one of the four hills upon which Jerusalem formerly stood; viz., Mount Zion on the south-east; Mount Moriah on the southwest; Acra on the north-west; and Bezetha on the north-east of the present city. Zion, which was highest, was formerly occupied by the upper city, "the City of David;" here was the residence of the ark, the palace of the kings of Judah; here our Saviour celebrated his last passover, and here the disciples assembled on the day of Pentecost. Desolate as Zion now is, deprived of her bulwarks of former days, and "ploughed as a field," yet it is doubly interesting for that very desolation, because, as we walk about Zion, and go round about her, "tell the towers thereof," and gaze upon the valleys below, we feel that the words of prophecy are fulfilled, for where her palaces once stood barley now waves, and the goats now browse on the scanty herbage on its terraced and sloping ridges. At its foot, about 150 feet below us, is the Valley of Hinnom, called Wady Jehennam, a narrow, steep, and rocky place, where the Jews sacrificed to Baal and Moloch, causing their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire; and before us is the Hill of Evil Counsel.

A gloomy mosque, said to cover the site of the Tomb of David, stands upon the summit of Zion, and, as the last resting. place of the "man according to God's own heart," it is highly interesting, because it also bears some probability of truth with respect to its site, as we know that "David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David ;" and, moreover, St. Peter says (Acts ii. 29), that “ his sepul chre is with us unto this day."

Part of the building was formerly called the Church of the Conaculum, where our A few paces to the right of this chapel Saviour celebrated his Holy Supper with is the Christian burying-place, with its his Apostles, washed their feet, and inflat tombstones marking the last resting-stituted the Holy Sacrament. The guide place of many a Greek and Latin.

pointed out a window in the upper part of the building, which he said belonged to the room where this event took place! From this spot the Apostles departed without purse and without scrip," to teach the religion of our blessed Saviour.

A short distance from the cemetery is the place where the Virgin Mary expired, and that pillar on the north side of the gate of Zion, or David, as it is sometimes" called, is the spot where the cock stood

« FöregåendeFortsätt »