The Prussian mission possesses a house near the Judgement Gate, occupied by the Pastor who has the spiritual charge of the mission, and another, near the English church, inhabited by deaconesses, who are engaged in the instruction of girls (as I shall presently explain), and in rendering charitable aid to the sick.
The Coptic convent is on the north of and near to the Pool of Hezekiah; it is a plain Arab house. Its inmates are far from clean, and the visitor generally carries away unpleasant reminiscences of their dwelling; they also possess another house near the north-east corner of the Church of the Resurrection, of which I have already spoken[531]; as well as of the miserable dens that shelter the Abyssinians.
The convent of the Kusbeck Dervishes stands against the south end of the arch of the Ecce Homo. With the exception of their chief, they are engaged in work in Jerusalem, and spend the money thus earned in pilgrimages to the Mohammedan sanctuaries. They are sober, prayerful, peaceable men, free from the vice of fanaticism. When I was superintending the buildings of the Daughters of Sion I had good opportunity of learning their character. Even at the time of the massacres of Lebanon I never saw them shewing signs of joy. Their chief is an intelligent and very moderate man.
The convent of the Dancing Dervishes is on the summit of Bezetha (as I call it), next to the ancient Church of S. Peter, which I have already mentioned. Inside and outside, especially in the lower part, we see remains of the Crusaders' work. At the present time there are only two inmates, who are more disposed to good than evil. Its minaret commands a view of Jerusalem, and of the whole length of the Tyropœon valley, from which the topography of the ancient city is far more readily understood than from any description or plan.
The Howling or Lancer Dervishes, as I call them, do not live in a community, but very frequently assemble in a house opposite to the Hospital of S. Helena, which may be considered as their convent. Many of the principal Effendis of the city belong to this order. The badge of membership is a necklace of wooden beads round the neck, and a long staff with an iron lance-head in the hand. They were founded by an old Mohammedan santon, an inhabitant of the neighbourhood of S. Jean d'Acre, who came to Jerusalem in 1856 to preach a course of sermons. When these dervishes hold their meetings, or are coming from them, they sing at the top of their voices in the streets, from which practice I have given them their name. Their distinctive marks might lead us to mistrust them, but in difficult circumstances they have proved themselves worthy of confidence; so perhaps I did wrong when I was hard-hearted enough to break the lance-handle of a country dervish, who met me on the Jaffa road, and demanded a bakshish rather in the tone of a soldier than of a monk. I made him amends by repairing his lance, and gave it back to him, comforting him with the assurance that it would be as good as ever for the next traveller he met.
The Jews have no establishments where the Doctors and Rabbins live in common, so that I pass over in silence their dwellings, which are destitute of everything except neatness.
I believe that I have now gone through all the buildings in the interior of Jerusalem without exception, and have only to speak of the waters; but these I shall leave for another chapter, and consider them after I have described the neighbourhood.
FOOTNOTES:
[460] Plate II.