A Ride Across Palestine | Page 7

but it seemed to me that he did not quite
like my interference. "Never mind," said he, twitching his leg away, "I
have ridden in this way before."
"Then you must have suffered the very mischief?"
"Only a little, and I shall be used to it now. You will not hear me
complain."
"By heavens, you might have heard me complain a mile off when I
came to the end of a journey I once took. I roared like a bull when I
began to cool. Joseph, could you not get a European saddle for Mr.
Smith?" But Joseph did not seem to like Mr. Smith, and declared such a
thing to be impossible. No European in Jerusalem would think of
lending so precious an article, except to a very dear friend. Joseph
himself was on an English saddle, and I made up my mind that after the
first stage, we would bribe him to make an exchange. And then we
started.
The Bedouins were not with us, but we were to meet them, as I have
said before, outside St. Stephen's gate. "And if they are not there," said
Joseph, "we shall be sure to come across them on the road."
"Not there!" said I. "How about the consul's tariff, if they don't keep
their part of the engagement?" But Joseph explained to me that their
part of the engagement really amounted to this,--that we should ride
into their country without molestation, provided that such and such

payments were made.
It was the period of Easter, and Jerusalem was full of pilgrims. Even at
that early hour of the morning we could hardly make our way through
the narrow streets. It must be understood that there is no
accommodation in the town for the fourteen or fifteen thousand
strangers who flock to the Holy Sepulchre at this period of the year.
Many of them sleep out in the open air, lying on low benches which
run along the outside walls of the houses, or even on the ground,
wrapped in their thick hoods and cloaks. Slumberers such as these are
easily disturbed, nor are they detained long at their toilets. They shake
themselves like dogs, and growl and stretch themselves, and then they
are ready for the day.
We rode out of the town in a long file. First went the groom-boy; I
forget his proper Syrian appellation, but we used to call him Mucherry,
that sound being in some sort like the name. Then followed the horse
with the forage and blankets, and next to him my friend Smith in the
Turkish saddle. I was behind him, and Joseph brought up the rear. We
moved slowly down the Via Dolorosa, noting the spot at which our
Saviour is said to have fallen while bearing his cross; we passed by
Pilate's house, and paused at the gate of the Temple,--the gate which
once was beautiful,--looking down into the hole of the pool in which
the maimed and halt were healed whenever the waters moved. What
names they are! And yet there at Jerusalem they are bandied to and fro
with as little reverence as are the fanciful appellations given by guides
to rocks and stones and little lakes in all countries overrun by tourists.
"For those who would still fain believe,--let them stay at home," said
my friend Smith.
"For those who cannot divide the wheat from the chaff, let THEM stay
at home," I answered. And then we rode out through St. Stephen's gate,
having the mountain of the men of Galilee directly before us, and the
Mount of Olives a little to our right, and the Valley of Jehoshaphat
lying between us and it. "Of course you know all these places now?"
said Smith. I answered that I did know them well.
"And was it not better for you when you knew them only in Holy
Writ?" he asked.
"No, by Jove," said I. "The mountains stand where they ever stood. The
same valleys are still green with the morning dew, and the

water-courses are unchanged. The children of Mahomet may build their
tawdry temple on the threshing-floor which David bought that there
might stand the Lord's house. Man may undo what man did, even
though the doer was Solomon. But here we have God's handiwork and
His own evidences."
At the bottom of the steep descent from the city gate we came to the
tomb of the Virgin; and by special agreement made with Joseph we left
our horses here for a few moments, in order that we might descend into
the subterranean chapel under the tomb, in which mass was at this
moment being said. There is something awful in that chapel, when, as
at the present moment, it is crowded with Eastern worshippers from the
very