Remounting, we rode up to Sychar, no doubt by the same path taken by the woman with her waterpots. Its modern name is Nabulous, one of the most important towns of Palestine, having a Turkish garrison and numerous manufactories of soap, which is made from the fruit of the olives. It is seated near the west-end of the narrow valley lying between the mountains of Gerizim and Ebal, called in Scripture respectively the mount of blessing and the mount of cursing. This city was the most crowded we saw in Palestine—the houses are piled up in a confused fashion over dark arches, and the narrow streets looked dirty, although well whited externally. The people seemed to be fierce and fanatical sons of the Prophet. Here we encamped for the night in an open space beyond the city, beside a pretty stream of water flowing down from Gerizim, but not of good quality. There is along its course a show of verdure and small trees pleasant to behold, and all around are fields partially, but for Palestine well cultivated.
Next morning we were visited by the Patriarch or Chief of the Samaritans—now a very small body—I think he said 120 in all, and fast dying out. They have a small tabernacle in the city, which we visited, and saw the celebrated manuscript of the Samaritan Pentateuch, which he stated was the oldest MS. in the world. It is preserved upon two rollers, in a brass case, and watched with great and jealous care. He seemed poor, and had a book for visitors’ names, with the small money gifts of each. He sat in the door of our tent for an hour, and seemed anxious for English news, being pretty well acquainted with our leading men in English ecclesiastical matters. He was attended by his “purse-bearer!” a lad who carried his Nargile pipe, which he smoked at intervals, and sipped a glass of our claret. On leaving he gave an invitation to sup with him, which, however, we found it not convenient to accept.
Gerizim contains on its summit remains of temples connected with the religious worship of Israel after the days of Jeroboam. There the small body of Samaritans now remaining perform sacrifices and other religious ceremonies in imitation of those instituted by Moses connected with the Passover. Those of our party who climbed the mountain, stated that the view from its summit was very extensive.
Next day we rode on to the City of Samaria, generally called “Sabaste,” which stands upon a fine rising ground north-eastward, with a very fertile-looking soil. Southward along the coast lies the Valley of Sharon, bounded on the west by the Mediterranean. The city now consists of a few houses of modern appearance, and some rows of ancient stone columns and other ruins, evidently of Roman erection, probably of the days of Herod. It seems to have been a royal residence, and once the capital of the kingdom of Samaria. It commands a fine and extensive view; on the north but distant horizon the range of Mount Carmel, north and east the great plains of Esdraelon, the battlefields of most of the great wars of Judah and Israel with their foreign invaders, and under its surface lie the bones of countless combatants with their weapons of war; beyond, Galilee in the distance with Mount Tabor; and eastward the hills of Samaria.
Camels and dromedaries are not now used in Palestine for travelling, but as beasts of burden. We occasionally met them carrying large building stones and heavy goods generally. As the path or track was too narrow for our passing them, I noticed that the camels, heavily laden as they were, always stepped aside, giving place to the far less noble quadrupeds—no doubt from habit. Indeed everything native must give precedence to the superior Turk and his friends, whether English or American. We oftener than once saw the skeletons of the dead camels picked clean by the vultures, and bleaching in the sun, exactly as shown in pictures. This noble-looking animal, sorely oppressed as he is, works on till he dies at his post—a picture of loyal endurance; but I think he does so under protest—expressed in his looks although not in word. One day I saw in Samaria a man and boy striking with a stick two camels, which they had just unmercifully overloaded. One of them seemed unable to rise, and when the blow was repeated the dumb creature turned round his head to look at his load, and then he looked his master in the face! The look struck me as almost human—a dignified rebuke and appeal as it were of instinct to reason—against a monstrous injustice! I thought of Balaam’s ass, and that if this poor camel could have spoken he would have been equally eloquent. The East has many great wants, and one of them is the want of an Eastern Baroness Burdett Coutts and her Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
In our wanderings through the land we saw many of the “High Places” of Scripture, where, amidst the groves and oaks, the idolatrous kings of both Judah and Israel again and again erected altars to the gods of the heathen around them. It seems very natural to believe that the first idolatrous religion had been the worship of the Sun, and it is certainly possible to conceive that to the great architect of the Tower of Babel and the advanced thinkers of that age among the proud and intelligent descendants of Ham, the worship of the heavenly bodies would not only appear consonant with the highest reason and true natural science, but such a religion may originally have been celebrated by them in a manner at once sensuous, æsthetic, and refined. However, like every evil and falsehood, this idolatry appears to have gradually become more and more senseless, absurd, and cruel as the centuries rolled on, and as it spread over the face of the earth, so true it is that “that which is born of error ever begets evil.”
Pre-eminent amongst idolaters were the Canaanites, who seem to have reached its very lowest depth. Greece had not yet fully concealed this Baal or Sun worship under its absurd although beautiful poetical mythology. Egypt had debased it to the worship of golden calves, “four-footed beasts and creeping things,” but the Canaanites had developed the evil into the worship of gods, the very personification of cruelty and abomination beyond expression. And so the decree went forth to Joshua that they had filled up their cup, and must now be rooted out of the land.
And yet the remnant of these spared peoples not only proved thorns in the side of the Hebrews in their every time of weakness, but gradually corrupted their worship, even seducing them from their allegiance to their King Jehovah, to Baal and Ashtaroth, and Dagon and Moloch! Surely nothing is more unaccountable amongst the many perversities of these Israelites than this hankering after the gods of their enemies—and such gods too!
Of the exact nature of the various ancient idolatrous worship there is much uncertainty, but it must have been very ensnaring when even so perfect a man as Job alludes to the possibility of his falling into this sin. “If,” said he, “I beheld the sun when it shined or the moon walking in brightness, and my heart had been secretly enticed, or my mouth had kissed my hand: This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge; for I should have denied the God that is above.” And it certainly contained much of the æsthetic and sensuous when so wise a man as Solomon fell under its enticements. For the Jews indeed it, must have had some peculiar and powerful temptation that they were beguiled into it so willingly, notwithstanding the heavy punishments it brought upon them again and again, and the awful warnings and denunciations of their Prophets. From Moses downwards they were continually being reminded that their King was a “jealous God”—and both by awful threatening and gracious promises that on their true allegiance to Him depended their prosperity, and even their existence as a nation. And yet nothing seemed sufficient to eradicate this plague spot until after nearly a thousand years of alternate temporary punishments and repentings—all unavailing. The doom long foretold fell—the dispersion of the Israelites as a nation and the seventy years’ captivity of the Jews. These calamities certainly completely cured them, and ever since idolatry has, I believe, been held by the Jews in great detestation.
It is a somewhat curious coincidence that the Arabs, the descendants of Ishmael, who also fell into gross idolatry, now hold it in the same detestation. This at least was one good work Mahomet did—Moslems and Jews, hating each other, agree in this and in believing that they alone of all the world—not excepting the “Christians”—are free of idolatry. This detestation of idolatry I believe to be the chief ground of the Moslem’s contempt and dislike to the religion of the “Christians.” Of Protestant Christianity indeed they are wholly ignorant, nor do they anywhere, so far as I observed, come into contact with it.