On the way to Bethany I was shown the site of the fig tree which was cursed by the Saviour and thereafter never bore fruit. There are many fig trees about, and orchards of them are to be found in most parts of the Holy Land. It was on the road to Bethany that Christ is said to have mounted the colt which carried him on his triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
Shortly after I left Bethany I saw a curious sight by the roadside. This was a man leaning backward over a great gray boulder and rubbing himself violently upon it. There were some stones on top of the rock and I observed that the man added another stone to the pile and that he kissed the rock as he left. I asked my guide the secret of his actions. He replied: “That stone is called the Father of Rocks, and it is said to be a sure cure for backache. The people here think that any one so afflicted will be cured if he can rub his sore back against it.”
Tradition says that by a miracle the prophet Elisha purified the waters of this fountain. Excavations on the hillside above have uncovered the foundations of the old city walls of Jericho, over which Rahab let down the two spies of Joshua
At the Tomb of Lazarus there are always natives waiting to be photographed—for backsheesh
His back hurts him, and he is rubbing it against the healing stone on the way to Jordan, believing this will work a cure
A little farther on I stopped for a bottle of ginger pop and a cracker at the Good Samaritan Inn, which stands on the traditional site where lay the man who fell among thieves when the priest and the Levite passed him by on the other side. It is right on the road about half way between Jerusalem and Jericho. There was a crowd in the inn while I waited, among them a Syrian peasant who had been robbed by a party of Bedouins. The man was covered with wounds, and was crying and sobbing as he told how he had been attacked and robbed of the money which he had just received from the sale of some sheep. Much of this country is unsafe, and no one who has money dares travel alone. All the way to the Jordan I met little caravans on their way to Jerusalem. In every party there were some men with guns on their backs. The guns were often old-fashioned flintlock muskets. I passed some donkey trains taking bags of charcoal from beyond the Jordan, and a caravan of camels each of which bore two great bags of wheat slung over his back. The drivers of both donkeys and camels were armed. They had come from the land of Moab, and were now going up through Judea.
Before starting on my way to the Jordan I spent several hours on the Mount of Olives. This mountain is two hundred feet higher than the hills upon which Jerusalem stands. It is directly opposite the city, being separated from it by the Valley of Jehoshaphat or Kedron, and it can be easily reached. There are good roads up the Mount of Olives, and one can now ride to most of the holy places.