A few remarks about the general tenure of land in Palestine may be interesting. It is somewhat similar to the ancient land settlement of England before the days of feudal tenure. Each village has so much pasture, tillage or woodland belonging to it as common property; this is year by year allotted to individual heads of families, in quantity according to the number of the family. The allotments are divided from each other only by rows or heaps of stones, which, as they can be easily moved, explains the reason of the Levitical curse against him who removed his neighbour’s land mark. The land is not of course highly cultivated, as the tenure of it is so uncertain, no tenant being absolutely sure of the same land the next year. Tithes are taken by the government, the tax gatherers come down at harvest time, when the grain is heaped upon the threshing floor, and seize what they consider their share of the produce. A similar summary procedure is adopted with the flocks and herds of sheep, camels and goats. A communistic land tenure is not here at least an unmixed blessing; but it is not altogether unsuitable for a primitive and not very settled people.
MAHOMETANS.
And now a word for the followers of the prophet. We can learn at least one lesson from the Mahometan, he is not ashamed of his religious faith; he is not ashamed to be seen reading his Bible or saying his prayers, even during business hours in his bureau—like alas! too many good Christians are. Mahomet is better obeyed by a Mahometan, even the most ragged one, than Christ is by many a highly respectable Christian. We may mention here that Christ is venerated by the Mahometans, who believe as we do that He will judge the world at the last day. This judgment according to them is to take place outside Jerusalem. A thin rope will be stretched from the minaret of the Temple Mosque on Mount Moriah to the Mount of Olives opposite. All will have to cross on this tight rope. The righteous will accomplish the journey in safety; but the wicked will fall off into the Valley of Hinnom below. Mahomet, originally a heathen idolater, made up his religion from the Christian and Jewish sacred books, grafting it upon the old heathen customs, in the same way as did many of the Roman church missionaries in the dark ages, when they mixed up Christianity with Paganism, and allowed their converts to retain their idol images, only re-christening Jupiter St. Peter, Juno and Luna Diana, Lady Mary, &c., throwing in the Saints as minor deities.
We now conclude the account of our “Ride through Syria.” We have shown, we think, that it is not a very difficult matter now-a-days to make a pilgrimage to the once distant Holy Land and be back again to work in a few weeks within the compass, in fact, of an ordinary vacation. Taken as a temporary change of scene only, it is a glorious one, but looked at in a more serious light, it is a tour never to be forgotten, and affords food for reflection for the whole of an after lifetime. The Bible henceforth becomes a more and more interesting book as we learn better to understand it. We can follow the footsteps of Christ with rather more than the eye of faith after we have trod the very paths He trod, sailed on the lake waters over which He walked, and climbed up the mountain from which He ascended into Heaven. We journeyed alone with a dragoman without tents, putting up at the peasants’ huts and monasteries, and so saw the inner life of the country, but anyone wanting to travel luxuriously in the Holy Land had better take tents and avoid all trouble or risk by confiding himself to the fatherly care of tourist agents like Cook and Gaze, whose arrangements appear to be as perfect as possible. We hope in a future volume to give an account of our travels in Asia Minor to the sites of “The Seven Churches of Asia.”
Finis.