Sheikh Abreik stands on the site of an unknown town of no little importance. To the west the hillside is completely undermined by extensive excavations and systems of tombs which required many days to examine. Under the town is one called “the Cave of Gehenna,” and on the hill is another consisting of chamber within chamber, the first entered being painted with palm-branches, ivy-leaves, and other mortuary emblems in red; in one tomb the inscription “Parthene” is written in Greek, in another we found graves unopened, and the entrances most carefully closed; but unfortunately the roof had fallen in, and all that our excavation brought us was a delicate little tear-bottle, the glass oxidised by age, and covered with a prismatic crust which scaled off easily.
Into every entrance I could find I forced a way, sometimes opening up the door with a spade just enough to force my shoulders through, and creeping into the dark chamber, where the taper revealed ghastly creeping insects, and in one case a scorpion, which stung me pretty sharply. This inspection laid the foundation of a systematic comparison of many hundred tombs throughout the country, which has led to conclusions of some value with regard to the comparative antiquity of various kinds of sepulchres. It is pretty clear, for instance, that the tomb with a loculus parallel to the side of the central chamber is a later arrangement, used by the Jews about the Christian era, instead of the Kokim tomb, in which the body was placed in a sort of pigeon-hole, with its feet nearest the chamber; and further, that the rolling stone was also a later contrivance, being found almost exclusively with the loculi or later tombs. These conclusions fully accord with the description of the Holy Sepulchre as a tomb with a rolling stone to its door, for our Lord’s tomb must have been one with a loculus or grave parallel to the side of the chamber, because two angels are described as sitting, “the one at the head, the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain” (John xx. 12), which would have been clearly impossible in the more primitive form of Jewish tomb with Kokim.
Sheikh Abreik was a great place for game; a flight of woodcock arrived on the 7th of November, and, in spite of the constant massacre which they underwent at our hands (Drake being a very good shot), they stayed a week, during which time we killed and eat about fifty, sending some as presents to Nazareth. Quail and red-legged partridge were also to be found near the camp. One day we had an exciting hunt, over the cotton-fields, after gazelles. The dogs chased a huge wild-cat, over the hill and down a chimney cut in the rock, so that it alighted on the heads of our astonished grooms, in a cave which formed our stable beneath. They also unearthed some fine specimens of the ichneumon, almost as large as themselves, and speedily put them to death. There were large flocks of lapwings recently arrived, but very shy, and in the marshy ground the small bustard was to be found, and occasionally a snipe near the river.
The first really serious attack on the party—though not the last nor the worst—was made near this camp. Sergeant Black was quietly surveying near the village of El-Harithîyeh, where, as it appeared afterwards in evidence, a fête or “fantasia” was being held. The young men were firing at a mark, and one or more turning at right angles, deliberately fired at the sergeant on the neighbouring hill. He must have been in no little danger, as he brought home two bullets which had fallen near him. Our soldier (Husein) behaved with great pluck, and charged up the hill at the crowd to disperse them. We at once wrote to the Governor of Acre, and I lost no time in telegraphing to the Consul-general, Mr. Eldridge, at Beirut. The governor sent a party to the village and took fifteen prisoners, though the inhabitants were at first inclined to make resistance.
The Lieutenant-Governor of Nazareth, of whose conduct we had much cause to complain, appears to have been reprimanded, for he came down to our camp to make friends. He was a most extraordinary character—Faris Effendi by name. His personal appearance was not improved by the affectation of European costume, a purple flannel shirt, a bright brown jacket, trousers of greenish hue, with broad black stripes; on his head a cotton pocket-handkerchief with purple border, put on to guard from sunstroke, under a shabby old red fezz; on his eyes huge blue goggles. For an hour and a half he stayed, showering protestations of love and friendship upon us, and, even to the last, he continued his chatter, and disappeared still talking in an excited manner.
Of this official and his predecessors I was told many curious stories by Mr. Zeller, the Protestant clergyman. Faris Effendi had one passion—his slûkîs or hunting-dogs, which he petted almost like children. He had curious ways also of increasing his income, his salary being a mere pittance on which he could not live; one was to levy a tax on his subjects of all the white hens in the villages; wherever on his travels through the Nazareth district he saw a white hen, it is said he sent to claim it as his own. Mr. Zeller related that another official offered to give his good services, in some difficulties about a schoolhouse, in consideration of the present of a pair of white trousers. A colonel in the Jordan valley, in command of a camp of 3000 men, held a review in honour of some passing travellers, and afterwards demanded a “bakshîsh” of ten francs. Another dignitary was entertained with a game of chess, at Mr. Zeller’s house, in presence of his admiring circle of followers; finding himself, however, in danger of being beaten, he waited till Mr. Zeller’s attention was for the moment diverted, and then quietly removed his opponent’s queen. It is said he expressed much satisfaction at his own ability in winning the game, after having taken this rather unusual method of retrieving his fortunes.
One curious fact, as showing the infamous condition of the administration, we here also ascertained. A Greek banker named Sursuk, to whom the Government was under obligations, was allowed to buy the northern half of the Great Plain and some of the Nazareth villages for the ridiculously small sum of £20,000 for an extent of seventy square miles; the taxes of the twenty villages amounted to £4000, so that the average income could not be stated at less than £12,000, taking good and bad years together. The cultivation was materially improved under his care, and the property would have been immensely valuable if the title had been secure; but the Government subsequently seized the land when it became worth while to do so.
The peasantry attributed the purchase to Russian intrigue, being convinced that their hated enemy has his eyes greedily turned to Palestine and to Jerusalem as a religious capital, and is ever busy in gaining a footing in the country.
The preceding pages give but a sketch of the labours of our first autumn. The information collected cannot be condensed into a few pages, and it forms a very considerable section of the memoir to the map. The main points of interest have been touched upon, but the discoveries of aqueducts, tombs, a hermitage, etc., the exploration of Crusading churches, Roman sepulchral buildings, and other ruins, must be at present passed over in silence.
On the 10th of December the weather threatened to break up, and we marched down to the neat little house which we had hired for the winter, in the German colony at Haifa.