204 ORPHEUS AND DAVID. unusual power, a divine influence, attended him: "The LORD is with him" (1 Sam. xvi. 18). Next to the Saviour, David is the most interesting character historically connected with Bethlehem. Perhaps the fact that Jesse did not seem to prize David's beautiful appearance, was an evidence that the youth generally were comely; and this has already been used by one writer in an argument in favour of the handsome appearance of the young men of Bethlehem at that day. The interests of Bethlehem and its fields are heightened when associated with recollections of the early life and accomplishments of David. Though a shepherd boy, "taken from the sheepfold" (Ps. lxxviii. 70), not only is his name prominent in Biblical history, but the influences of his character and times are supposed by many of the learned to have extended to Greece and to have moulded some characters of its mythology.* His musical talent, from many intimations, must have been more remarkable than we have been accustomed to attribute to one whose character was so pre-eminent in other respects. This talent first brought him to the palace of Saul. From the It appears from Sir Isaac Newton's chronology, that Homer flourished about one hundred and fifty years after David. From another author it seems that some Phoenicians fled from Zidon and from David, under Cadmus, Phoenix, &c., and carried letters, music, and poetry into Greece. If so, they undoubtedly knew the character of David, and probably left some tradition of him to their descendants. There is, at any rate, a remarkable coincidence between the Greek history of that mythic character Orpheus and the life of the Psalmist David. Aristotle thinks there never was such a person as Orpheus, and, hence, that he represented some other character. Vossius is of the same opinion, and says the word means a wise or learned man, and is Phoenician. He was the most skilful on the harp so was David. Photius says he was a king: so was David. The general notion has been that he was a Thracian; but Pausanias says that the ancient Greek pictures represented him in a Greek dress, and that he had nothing Thracian about him, and, in another place, that an Egyptian, whose name is not given, declared he was an Egyptian. And the fact that Orpheus was represented as wearing the tiara on his head shows that he was an Asiatic prince. Tiara is probably of Hebrew origin, and in the Scriptures it will be found to signify just such a crown as David (Psalm xii. 30) took from the Ammonite : MUSICAL REMEDIES. 205 Scriptures, David seems to have remained at court only as long as his music was needed to calm Saul's nerves and restore him to his "right mind"-when he appeared no longer to desire David's presence. This use of David's skill in music is not so singular as some may suppose; for music as a remedy was known and used by many with success since the time of Saul. Pythagoras, 550 B.C., used to compose his spirits with the music of a harp; and even madness was said to be cured by the harmony of verse in the time of Xenocrates, who practised it successfully himself, B.C. 406. And, still later, Charles IX. was wont to have his sleep disturbed by nightly horrors, and singing-boys were called into his room, who sang him to rest. The spirit which seized upon Saul was certainly mysterious. His physicians felt incapable of driving it off by ordinary means, and therefore they recommended music. Josephus says that he became like a demoniac: the physicians advised him to get a man to "stand over his head" as he lay in bed, and play and sing to him. And this probably explains the words, which in the original read, king's head, 'tara, and placed on his own at one of the most celebrated battles during his reign with the nations beyond the Jordan. [Here I may be permitted to say this crown was valued at (not weighed," as in the English translation) a talent of gold. The weight, according to Dr. Prideaux and Dr. Adam Clarke, would have been eighteen hundred ounces Troy (one hundred and fifty pounds!) but "the value with the jewels" (see the text) would have been about £7000. The talent (according to Drs. Prideaux and Clarke) in gold, being twenty-two carats fine, was eighteen hundred times 78 1394s. (or £3, 18s. 1 d. sterling), equal to £7082, the value of the crown and jewels. Great as this seems, it is not comparable with the value of the diamonds in the crown of England at present in the Tower of London.] The tradition of the Arabs is that stones and birds were dedicated to him, but he could not reclaim the Arabs. So Orpheus made the rocks, woods, and animals follow him, but could not civilize the Thracians. Orpheus charmed Pluto, the king of the infernal regions; and thereby obtained his wife. David pleased Saul, whose name in Hebrew, when pointed differently (though radically the same), means king of the infernal regions, and he too detained David's wife and afterward gave her to him. Other parallelisms may be found. See Hist. Account of David, 2 vols., London, 1759. "David [was] going and returning from above Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem" (1 Sam. xvii. 15). These hills, therefore, often echoed to the wonderful music of David, the unassuming, unappreciated boy, but in the hidden purpose of God the future monarch of Israel. Yet what desertion, disgrace, agony, and exile he experienced before established upon the throne ! After leaving the village, we arrived at Rachel's tomb, in about half-an-hour's walk from the convent. It is simply an oblong building, with a dome at one end, and a broad arch opening near the other, but on the side. Entering this, we pass through a door into another arched part which is under the dome. There we met nine Jews reading and responding whilst they sat around a mass of plastered stone in the centre of the room, about nine feet high, and four feet in diameter. The length of the building is fifty-four feet, by twenty-two for the width, and contains numerous Hebrew inscriptions. The air is rather chilly; and we ride on and enter Jerusalem, and make preparations for a survey of the walls. CHAPTER XVII. VISIT TO DEAD SEA-PLAIN OF JERICHO. SOME days after our arrival, we determined on a visit to the Jordan. We were informed that two tribes were exhibiting their enmity by skirmishing, and that, if we intended to stay any length of time, or visit the Dead Sea, we had better go prepared. A messenger was despatched to a sheik, who, with his men, was hired to accompany us to the Sea. He promised to be at the rendezvous, on the east of Mount Olives, at nine o'clock the following morning, but refused to come within the city-as is generally the case with the Arabs, who have, from various causes, a fear and a dislike for stone walls. This antipathy to settlement has existed among them from the time of Herodotus, if not from a period long before.* Passing out of the gate of St. Stephen on the east of the city, we descend into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and, at a distance of two hundred and fifty yards, reach the entrance of the tomb or *There is something singularly unchangeable in the habits of the Bedouins, and of the class of Arabs called “Fellahin," who are the inhabitants of houses, and in this respect principally distinguished from the Bedouin. It is generally supposed that abstinence from wine among the Arabs was first suggested by the rule of Mohammed; but a Greek historian in the fourth century says it was "a law amongst them neither to sow, plant, build houses, nor drink wine; and he who was discovered acting in violation of the law was sure to die for it" (Diod. Siculus, b. xix. cap. 6). The description of them, then, would be equally correct in almost every particular now: they are the same in spirit now as they were when the angel foretold their history to Hagar nearly four thousand years earlier in their existence. church of the Virgin Mary. It is a small building, half buried in the valley. There are forty-seven steps, each of seven inches, descending to the floor of a room like the nave of a church, and an elevated recess on the right appears like the extension of a transept. The room is hung with lamps; and, at the utmost extremity of the nave, there is an ascent which is seen immediately after our descent. Here is the reputed tomb of the Virgin. Some priests were chanting; and, not discovering much to interest us, we soon ascended, and found Hanna outside enjoying his narghileh. Winding around the southern slope of Mount Olives, we found the Arabs one by one coming out suddenly from rock, crevice, and corner, until the whole troop, true to their word, were assembled, with their brass-banded, longbarrelled, unwieldy guns, and their swords in their sashes. The sheik was first to be seen; and the rest appeared so quickly as to suggest to my thoughts that just as quickly might our company be surprised by a band appearing from ambush against us. These are the wandering, half-gentlemanly, half-barbarous, good-natured Bedouins, who form a lazy compound of the strangest traits that ever economist, missionary, or traveller had to deal with. They are not the fierce, untameable Bedouins of the desert, but a class between them and the every-day inhabitant and tiller of the soil found in the hamlets and towns. The latter are seen everywhere, and at all times, and are the respectable lazzaroni of Palestine. Their chief end of life is to live with the smallest imaginable exertion beyond what a changing, restless life requires. They occupy a position between the roving, untamed outlaws of Arabian societythe Bedouins of the desert-on the one hand, and the Turkish rulers of the land, on the other. Even these are divided into classes also, while they themselves are a class peculiar to the land. They are the residents of the villages, of the towns, of houses, but not of the country nor of tents. Though not the rulers of the land, save by suf |