The Holy Land and Syria

by Frank G. Carpenter

From Beirut and its vicinity come nearly all of the Syrian immigrants to the United States. Most of them are Christians and many of them have felt the influence of the American University, the centre of advanced thought in the Near East

We could see Bedouin camps everywhere. These nomads live in brown tents so low that the people have to stoop to get in. Outside each little group of tents was an inclosure for the stock, and on the lands near by cattle and camels were grazing. As we travelled we could see great flocks of black goats feeding on the sides of the Lebanon Mountains. They hung to the cliffs, looking much like flies on the wall. There were also droves of black cattle and many flocks of fat-tailed white sheep.

The cars were crowded with Turks, Syrians, and Bedouins, but on the advice of a friend I gave the conductor a dollar, and in return had a compartment all to myself. Baksheesh will do anything in Syria. As Shammas, my guide, puts it: “The franc is the wheel upon which the world goes round.”

This road to Damascus, beginning with the branch line to Haifa, skirts the edge of Mount Carmel, where Elijah lived in a cave and where he contended with the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and caused their destruction. It goes up the plain of Esdraelon, where the fair Jezebel lived and over which Jehu galloped to Jezreel on his race for the throne. It takes you in plain sight of Mount Tabor and under the hills of Nazareth where the Saviour’s boyhood and young manhood were spent. It crosses the spot where Jael was camping when Sisera came and she lulled him to sleep to drive the tent peg into his forehead. Then it goes on up to Damascus over a route which was probably travelled by Abraham, David, and Solomon, and by St. Paul when he was blinded by the great light.

The road to Jerusalem goes over the plains where the Israelites fought with the Philistines, through the country of Samson, which I have already described, and near the place where David with his little stone slew the great Goliath.

The railway from Damascus to Beirut shows you Mount Hermon, so famed in the Psalms, and passes numerous places, which, according to the Mohammedans, were the homes and tombs of the prophets. Take, for instance, Suk Wady Baroda, a little valley oasis on the way to Baalbek made up of flat-roofed mud houses surrounded by orchards and vineyards. It is mentioned by Josephus and is referred to in St. Luke as the home of the tetrarch Lysanias. The Mohammedans say that Adam lived in the mountain which looks down upon it, and that it was near the oasis itself that Cain became jealous of Abel and slew him. I have always thought that Abel was killed with a club, although I see now that the Bible does not mention the weapon used in the murder. The Moslem legend says it was a stone. The story is that Adam had divided the world into two sections and had given one of them to each of his boys. They had marked out their respective sections with stones, when a dispute arose concerning the boundary line. Cain claimed that Abel was inching on him, whereupon hot words passed, and Cain threw a rock and struck Abel in the temple and killed him.

According to the Moslem tradition, Cain was filled with remorse. He did not know what to do with his dead brother, so he took the body on his back and carried it with him over the world for five hundred years. At the end of that time he returned to this mountain, where he saw two birds fighting. At last one killed the other and then washed and buried the one slain. Cain did likewise with Abel, and straightway there sprang up seven oak trees, which are pointed out to this day.

According to the same authorities, Seth, Adam’s son, who took the place of Abel, lived on the western slope of the Lebanon range, and his tomb is still there. A mosque is built over it and the tomb may be seen through an iron grating. It is eighty feet long, but the people living in the village say that it was too short and that Seth’s legs had to be doubled up in order to fit. Not far away is the tomb of Noah, which is forty feet longer. It also has a mosque connected with it.

The distance from Damascus to Beirut is ninety-one miles. Travellers are advised not to take the third class, and women should always go first class. The third class has compartments eight feet wide running across the cars at right angles with the engine. Each compartment has two cushioned benches facing each other, its sides are walled with windows, and there is a door at each end. The conductor does not go through the cars, but collects the tickets from the outside, walking along a running board which extends the full length of the car and holding on to an iron rail fastened to the outside some distance above the step.