Once more our faces were turned toward the Holy City. On leaving Joppa, our path for half an hour lay between enormous hedges of the cactus plant, inclosing orange and lemon groves, which cover an area of many miles in extent. The air was surcharged with the fragrance of those delicious fruits, and beneath the ladened trees lay heaps of lemons and oranges,like apples in an American orchard. Charmed with a ride so delightful, we were soon upon the Plain of Sharon, stretching far to the northeastward, to the white and purple Hills of Benjamin. Passing the hamlet of Yasûr on our left, in thirty minutes we entered the pine-groves of Beit Dejân. The declining sun forewarning us of approaching night, we gave loose rein to our horses, and bounded over that glorious plain. As far as the eye could reach, crimson anemones, tufts of lily leaves, and white and yellow daisies covered the ground like a carpet of many colors, while here and there stood the shepherd’s black tent, with herds and flocks around it, and on the evening air came the soft notes of his flute. In the starlight away to the east, like a dark column standing out against the sky of night, appeared the solitary tower of Ramleh. At seven P.M. we were knocking at the iron gate of the Latin Monastery, and, with a courtesy for which others have not given them credit, the Franciscan brothers received us to their retreat, whiletheir tall and graceful superior entertained us with an ease and dignity worthy a Christian gentleman. After an excellent dinner in the refectory, a quiet-looking friar led us, by the light of a single wax taper, across a dark court-yard to a small chamber containing four beds, neat and clean, as if the work of a woman’s hand.
Ramleh is nine miles to the southeast from Joppa, and is one of the best-built towns on the Plain of Sharon. It is environed for miles with fig-orchards and orange-groves. Containing a population of 3000 inhabitants, the majority of whom are Greek Christians, tradition identities Ramleh with the Ramah of Samuel, the birthplace of Nicodemus, and the native city of Joseph of Arimathea. Chosen by the Crusaders to be their southern rendezvous, it became the head-quarters of Richard of England in 1191 A.D. Its chief architectural attraction is a noble square tower 120 feet high, built of hewn stone, and standing a mile to the west from the town, amid the ruins of a large quadrangular inclosure. There is nothing, either in its construction or in history, to indicate whether it it is the campanile of a Christian church or the minaret of a mosque. A flight of stone steps, narrow and spiral, leads to the top, from which is obtained a view of surpassing beauty. In all its amplitude and richness, the Plain of Sharon spreads out before the eye, extending from the roots of Carmel on the north, to the promontory of Joppa on the south, and from the hills of Samaria and Judea on the east, to the Mediterranean on the west; while on every hand appear fields of grain, groves of fruit-trees, and towns, whose white domes shine in the sunlight like diamonds in a circlet of emeralds.
RAMLEH, OR THE “LOOK-OUT.”
A ride of forty minutes through an embowered avenue brought us to Ludd, the Lod of the Old Testament,[417] and the Lydda of the New.[418] It is an Arab town of 2000 inhabitants, and, though unsurpassed by the beauty of its environs, it is neither remarkable for the elegance of its buildings nor the regularity of its streets. To the Christian, Lydda is interesting as the place where Peter cured Eneas of palsy, and where he was stopping when he was informed of Tabitha’s death. To Englishmen it is memorable as the birthplace of St. George, England’s patron saint, and as containing his tomb, in which he was interred near the close of the third century,after his martyrdom in Nicomedia, under the relentless Diocletian. According to William of Tyre, the Emperor Justinian reared a noble church over the ashes of the saint and martyr, which, at a later period, was destroyed by the revengeful Moslems. Rebuilt by Richard Cœur de Lion, it was partially destroyed again by the troops of Saladin. The walls and a part of the vault of the eastern niche of this monumental structure remain, adorned with pilasters, capitals, and cornice. On the south side of the grand aisle is a pointed arch of great elegance, supported by massive clustered columns with marble Corinthian capitals, forming one of the most picturesque ruins in Palestine.
CHURCH OF SAINT GEORGE.
Forty minutes from Ludd we passed the town of Jimzu,[419] and just beyond the road branched, one path diverging to the right, running through Wady Suleimân, and the other ascendingthe steep acclivities of Bethhoron the Nether. Though it is exceedingly rugged, yet, as it passes over one of the grandest battle-fields in sacred history, we chose the latter. Now began the toil of the journey. The verdure had disappeared, and the white limestone rocks protruded above the scanty soil, leaving only intervening patches of tillable land, which was being plowed as we passed.Disobeying the divine command, and disregarding the fitness of nature, a peasant was plowing with an ox and an ass,[420] and another with an ass and a camel. Passing Um Rush in two hours from Jimzu, we toiled up a mountain path, and at noon reached Lower Bethhoron. Memorable in Bible history as the second stage of the flight of the five kings of the Amorites, the roughness of the scene is in harmony with the horrors of war. The surface of the land is broken into circular rocky hills, around the base of which equally stony valleys wind. From the hill-sides the rocks protrude like terraces, rising with much regularity one above the other. The modern town is perched on a rocky ridge, and called by the Arabs Beit ’Ur et-Tahta. Amid its sterility a few half-naked peasants lay basking in the genial sunshine of spring, who greeted us as we passed with a lazy smile. Though located on the northwest border of Benjamin, the city belonged to Ephraim,and from that tribe it was taken and allotted to the Levites.[421] Passing over the roughest tract of land above the sea, in less than an hour we reached Upper Bethhoron. Bearing the Arabic name of Beit Ur el-Fôka, it is a small village, the huts of which are composed of large hewn stones once belonging to more pretentious buildings. Sturdy men sat smoking on the rocks, and near them women were playing with their children. Among the maidens were the sheikh’s daughters, who wore about the head a circlet of silver coins. These ornaments are a maiden’s dowry.
Surveying the surrounding country from the roof of the sheikh’s house, the famous battle-field of Gibeon lay before me. Seven miles to the southeast is Gibeon, whose conical summit is just hidden by the loftier peaks of Benjamin. Less than three miles to the northwest is Lower Bethhoron, and five miles to the south, on the summit of a long, low ridge, is the small hamlet of Yâlo, the traditional site of Ajalon. Between the two hills is the green valley of Ajalon, now calledMerj Ibn ’Omeir, expanding, as it opens, into the Plain of Philistia. Having formed a powerful coalition, the chiefs of the Amorites, with the King of Jerusalem at their head, had besieged the city of Gibeon. On the eve of the battle the Gibeonites sent to Joshua for relief, whom they had previously deceived into an alliance, and found him on the Plain of Jericho. Though despising a treaty founded in craft, yet appreciating the obligations of an oath above a temporary inconvenience, and guided by the faint light of the stars, the Israelitish chieftain passed up the Plain of Jericho to Wady Fârah, and, turning westward, he reached the scene of the conflict, after a forced march by night, in the early dawn of the next morning. Falling with irresistible surprise and power upon the confederate kings, “he slew them with great slaughter at Gibeon.” Flying before his victorious arms, the remnant went “along the way that goeth up to Bethhoron.” Outstripping their pursuers, the Amorites continued their flight “in the going down to Bethhoron.” Reaching the ridge on which we stand with all his “mighty men” around him, Joshua beheld the valley through which the fugitives were escaping, and, despairing of overtaking them if the day was not prolonged, he invoked the divine interposition in his behalf. Moved by a sublime faith, he stretched forth the arm that bore the conqueror’s spear, and, in the presence of all Israel, said, “Sun, stand thou still on Gibeon, and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.” Respecting the faith of his servant and answering his prayer, Jehovah interposed; “and the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies; and there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man; for the Lord fought for Israel.” Receiving more than he had asked for, a hail-storm came to his assistance, and after it had accomplished its terrible work, killing foes but sparing friends, Joshua and his warriors descended the declivities of Bethlehem, and pressed the remnant of a once proud foe so hard as to compel the five kings to take refuge in the great cave of Makkedah,around which he encamped for the night, and on the morrow hung the royal fugitives.[422]
“God’s testimony is in the rocks.” The correspondence between the inspired account and the facts as they now appear,after the lapse of twenty-three centuries, illustrates the accuracy of sacred history. The night’s march from Gilgal to Gibeon, a distance of less than twenty-five miles, was not only possible, but can now be accomplished by any ordinary pedestrian. The going up to Bethhoron the Upper, and the going down to Bethhoron the Nether, correspond with the altitude of the former from Gibeon, and the depression of the latter from Beit el-Fôka. The relative locations of Gibeon and Ajalon to Upper Bethhoron, and the probable position of the sun and moon in the heavens at that time, agree with the statement as to where Joshua was when he invoked the prolongation of the day; and his subsequent pursuit of the foe in the direction of Azekah, Makkedah, and Jarmuth is confirmed by the identification of those places.