A Trip to the Orient: The Story of a Mediterranean Cruise

by Robert Urie Jacob

WITH FACE TURNED TO THE WALL, KISSING IT AND MUTTERING PRAYERS.

The Abbess deserved and received more than spoken thanks for her courtesy. We realized then the truth of her last words.

During our walk we visited an old Armenian church, which was gaudily decorated with red brocade hangings and very antiquated paintings quaintly representing scenes from Bible history. In the court-yard of the church a young Armenian kindly offered us a pitcher of water, which he said had been brought from a spring outside the city for the use of the monks in the adjoining convent. We received it most gratefully, for the drinking water of Jerusalem is noted for impurity, and, as we had been cautioned against it, we had abstained from drinking water for three days.

"Will it be difficult for the tourists to find their way through the narrow crooked streets of the city without a guide?" inquired one of the ladies of the dragoman at the noon hour.

"Oh no!" he replied. "Please open your map. I notice you have one. You see that the city is divided into four marked sections by the two principal streets which cross each other at right angles: David street extending from the Jaffa Gate at the west, through the center of the city, to the Temple Area at the east; and Damascus street extending from the Damascus Gate on the north, through the center of the city, to the Zion Gate on the south. The bazaars and little stores that tourists visit are on these two streets, on Christian street near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and in the vicinity of the Jaffa Gate. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is in the north-west section of the city, known as the Christian Quarter; the Via Dolorosa passes through the north-east section, called the Moslem Quarter; the Temple Area is on the east side; the Wailing Place of the Jews is near the south-west corner of the Temple Area, in the south-east or Jewish Quarter; and the Citadel is in the south-west of Armenian Quarter. Jerusalem is not a large city. David Street is only half a mile in length, and Damascus Street from the gate on the north to the gate on the south is but three-fourths of a mile long."

"This afternoon," said the guide at the noon hour on Friday, "those of you who desire to do so may go with me to the Wailing Place of the Jews. The Turkish authorities do not permit Jews to enter the Temple Area so the Jews, on Friday afternoons, congregate in a narrow court, outside and adjoining the western wall which encloses the Temple Area, to mourn over the downfall of their beloved Zion and pray for the return of Jewish dominion over the land of their fathers, and for the renewal of the ancient glory of the City of David."

When we arrived at the Wailing Place, we found about a hundred Jewish men, women, and children assembled in the court, with faces turned to the wall, the men at one end of the court, the women at the other. Some of the mourners pressed their faces against the wall, kissing it and muttering prayers; some, as the guide explained to us, were reading the Talmud; some reciting verses from the Lamentations of Jeremiah; and some chanting the penitential Psalms of David. Others we saw weeping, the tears running down their faces, while one or two looked around with curious gaze at the strangers.

PITIED THOSE MISERABLE LEPERS AT THE GATE.

Thence we returned through portions of the Mohammedan and Jewish quarters of the city. The narrow streets through which we passed,—if passage-ways ten feet wide may be called streets,—are lined with little stores. The stocks of provisions, groceries, bread, vegetables, and general merchandise for native consumption are displayed in the open fronts of the shallow store-rooms and the proprietors sit or stand outside waiting for customers, like huge spiders waiting for their prey, or with loud voices and many gesticulations bargain with the buyers.