Early on the first of April,[55] Lady Hester, Derwish Mustafa Aga, and Mohammed Aga, accompanied by the interpreters and myself, rode over the ruins, seeking for the indications given in the Italian document. The mosque was immediately recognized by the mahreb, or niche, looking towards which the imám stands to direct, as fugleman, the kneeling and prostrations of Mahometans in prayer. This was still standing, but, in other respects, no more than a stone or two of the foundations remained above ground. Although there was little doubt that this was the spot meant, still it was difficult to know at which side or end, in a building fifty-five paces long and forty-three in breadth, to begin. At the north-west corner of the ruins was a santon’s tomb, covered with a small building. Here dwelt a shaykh,[56] the only inhabitant of the place; and, seeing his solitary reign thus molested by horsemen, tents, soldiers, and corvées of peasants, he very soon became acquainted with the motive, and readily mixed with the spectators. He was consulted as to what he knew of the building. He said that formerly a Barbaresque had visited the shrine, and had lived with him eleven months, always lurking about, doing he knew not what: but that, in conversation, he had assigned to two different spots hidden treasures, both within the circuit of the mosque. It was finally resolved to begin on the south side.
The tents were then fixed in the following manner. On the east side, close to the mosque, were planted Signor Catafago’s, Mâlem Musa’s, M. Beaudin’s and my own, each as large as an English marquee: and, close to them, a sewán, or open tent, for meals. The meals were to be served three times a day, consisting of two services at noon and sunset, and of a light breakfast at sunrise. No where in Syria did I fare better than here. At the south side of the mosque, on an eminence or mound, was fixed a large tent of observation, in which Mohammed Aga, when present, sat. But the tents of Mohammed Aga and the Zäym were without the city walls, close by the Eastern gate, in a sandy bottom. And here, too, were the tents of the cavalry, the kitchens, the water-carriers, the horses, &c.; presenting a scene of showy gaiety almost as lively as a race-course. All the tents were either green or blue: and the principal ones were conspicuous for flamings swords, flowers, stars, and other ornaments, worked upon them. Couriers were coming and going every day from and to Jaffa.
It has been said that to the north of the ruins there was a small village, called El Jura, two hundred yards from the walls. Here two cottages were swept out, matted, and carpeted for Lady Hester and her female attendants: for to have encamped in the midst of the men would, by Mahometans, so far as related to women, have been thought improper, and her ladyship now required the strictest decorum of behaviour in her women, and on all occasions consonant to Mahometan usages: so that, not even Mrs. Fry, her English maid, was suffered to open the door of the courtyard of the cottage without veiling her face. Between the village and the ruins was fixed a tent, and here Lady Hester sat in the day-time, and received visits from the agas, the mâlems, &c. At two she generally mounted her ass, and rode to see the workmen. On these occasions they would shout, and renew their digging with fresh activity.
I have mentioned that, for this purpose, the neighbouring peasantry had been put in requisition. These poor men were pressed by government, and received no pay, but they were treated well; for two meals were served up to them in the day-time, and no severity was used towards them. They generally came about one hundred a day, many, where they could, alleging causes of exemption, and worked until about an hour before sunset. Signor Catafago, Signor Damiani, M. Beaudin, Giorgio, the governor, and myself, superintended them, with overseers immediately among them: and it was no small exertion to sit or walk six or eight hours, sometimes in the rain, and sometimes under a burning sun. The peasants, who laboured and perspired, suffered less. It would seem impossible to an Englishman that they could have worked hard, when told that these men drank nothing but water.
The very day of our arrival, a gang was immediately set to work: and I shall now proceed to detail, day by day, what the excavations brought to light. As a beginning, nothing more was done than just to remove the surface of the ground.
April 2nd. After digging down three or four feet, some foundations were laid open, running east and west. On removing the earth between them nothing was found but mould and loose stones, with two or three human bones. Three fragments of marble shafts of pillars were bared and a Corinthian capital. There were appearances showing that the ground had been disturbed at some former period, particularly in the south-east corner, where there was a ditch of a very recent date, which (it was whispered by the peasants) had been made by Mohammed Aga himself. Two small earthen phials, about three inches long, some fragments of vases, and a bottle of lapis specularis, or talc, were dug up: shards of pottery were found here and there, but none of them of fine workmanship.
On the 3rd day, the excavations were continued along the south wall. The men worked with great animation. The idea of discovering immense heaps of gold seemed to have an effect upon them, although they could not hope for a share in it. On this day there was a great fall of rain and hail, and the weather was so tempestuous as much to impede the labourers. A pipe and tabor were therefore brought, to the tune of which they worked, sung, and danced. Cross foundations were met with, running east and west, seeming to have served for the support of rows of pedestals. About fifteen feet from the centre of the south wall were discovered several large fragments of granite columns, which lay one on another in such a manner as to render it probable that they were placed there.
On the 4th day the work was continued nearly in the same direction. At three in the afternoon, the workmen struck upon a mutilated statue. I was immediately called, and felt exultation at the sight of a relic of antiquity, which I thought might give celebrity to our labours. The soil around it being removed, it was drawn up by ropes, without damage. There were at the same spot some imperfect remains of the pedestal on which it had stood. The depth of the mould and rubbish which lay over the statue was six or eight feet.
On examination, it proved to be a marble statue of colossal dimensions and of good execution. It was headless, and had lost an arm and a leg; but was not otherwise disfigured. It seemed to have represented a deified king:[57] for the shoulders were ornamented with the insignia of the thunderbolt, and the breast with the Medusa’s head. There was every reason to believe that, in the changes of masters which Ascalon had undergone, the place in which we were now digging had originally been a heathen temple, afterwards a church, and then a mosque. The statue probably belonged to the age of the successors of Alexander, or it might be that of Herod himself. At the depth where the statue lay was a marble pavement and also a tympanum of a porch of the Corinthian order. To the East, close to the South wall, was found the trunk of another statue. As the mould was cleared away, a modius was discovered, which probably had surmounted the head of one of the two statues. It was chipped off at the top, and evidently, at the bottom, had been forcibly separated from the head to which it had belonged: it was nine and a half inches long. The statue, from the acromion to the heel, was six feet nine inches.
