Note C, [page 37].—Snake Charmers.
Snake charmers are frequently to be seen, especially at Cairo. They carry the snake in a common cloth bag, and whenever an audience can be got, turn it out on the ground, and go through the usual performance. Serpents generally are said not to have a quick sense of hearing, and yet music exercises an extraordinary effect upon them. The mode of charming seems to consist in playing a pipe, the performer sitting very near to the reptile. Apparently asleep, it gradually erects itself, revolving slowly into a peculiar beautiful convolute or shell spiral form; gradually assuming an offensive appearance, its neck and head swell greatly, its eyes assume a fierce glare, and altogether it acquires the very personification of malignity. Just when ready to spring on its keeper, with open mouth and projecting fang, the music stops, and the charmer disarms it of its evil intent by a sudden touch. Instantly it falls prostrate, apparently deprived of all fighting power, and is quietly returned to its bag, of enmity disarmed. It is said the bite of these snakes is highly poisonous, but it is supposed their poison sac has been previously extracted.
Note D, [page 89].—The Barren Fig Tree—Tree Fruits.
Fig trees are now rarely seen in Palestine, but there are a few. Their time of ripe fruit, judging from the appearance of those I noticed, would be about June; but I remember of seeing two full-sized figs upon a tree at Alexandria in the month of February. This tree was richly clad with large leaves, which no other fig tree I met with in our tour was, so far as I observed. Orange, lemon, and citron trees, on the other hand, we saw in South Italy, Egypt, and Palestine and Syria, loaded with ripe fruit in the months of January, February, and March respectively.
We did not see green figs at any of the hotels on our route; they were not then in season, but there was plenty of fruit generally. The most luscious green fruit was, I think, the dates with which, and especially at Beyrout, the table was daily supplied. It seems too rich a fruit unless eaten in great moderation; the safest fruit eaten from the tree I found to be the orange, if fully ripe, and of these we ate several daily throughout the journey, and freely also of old, or half-dried dates. Of all the trees the foliage of the fig is the largest and finest; its colour a deep rich green. Of trees in the East, the palm in certain of its varieties is the most graceful, but in Palestine handsome palms I did not see. It differs in appearance from other trees, as the Scotch larch does at home, and the two are somehow always associated in my mind.
Note E, [page 110].—Cross Bearers—Pilgrimages—Sensuous Worship.
Here the poet, in these fine lines, speaks only of the “unknown,” but not less has persecution dragged down, or tried to drag down, some of the greatest men from fame to infamy; both alike, however, it “chased up to Heaven.” Thomas Carlyle, as usual, has discovered the true secret of the Martyrs’ strength. Thus he writes:—
“To such readers as have reflected, what can be called reflecting, on man’s life, and happily discovered, in contradiction to much Profit-and-Loss Philosophy, speculative and practical, that Soul is not synonymous with stomach; who understand, therefore, ‘that, for man’s well-being, Faith is properly the one thing needful; how, with it, Martyrs, otherwise weak, can cheerfully endure the shame and cross; and without it, Worldlings puke-up their sick existence, by suicide, in the midst of luxury:’ to such it will be clear that, for a pure moral nature, the loss of his religious Belief was the loss of everything.”
Several names will occur to the reader of eminent and great men in our own country whom persecution has dragged into higher fame. Take two contemporaries: Milton, who died of studied insult and neglect; and the Marquis of Argyle, who was beheaded. The creatures of Charles II. thus “chased them up to Heaven,” and tried to make their great names infamous, but in vain. They succeeded instead in driving their Master’s family for ever from the throne of England, giving us—happy day!—Victoria the Beloved (with Albert the Wise) in exchange for James the Tyrant. Milton was a peaceable subject, and Argyle in heart a truer and safer friend of the king by far than were his unprincipled persecutors.
One great cause of the unfortunate position of Christianity in the East is the idea cherished by each sect that they are “Cross Bearers,” witnessing and suffering persecution for the truth. Each of them claims protection for itself only, and several of the greater ones are protected by some one of the Great Powers; the Greek Church by the whole power of Russia, the Roman Catholic by that of France, the Protestant Episcopal Church by Prussia. By some understanding the Jews and the small Christian sects look to England. The Armenians and Maronites are separate native races, powerful by their numbers, and the Druses are too much feared to be seriously injured. The Turkish Government, therefore, do not persecute these churches; the chief ones are watched over with jealous care by their own head or patriarch, who is officially recognised. But it seems evident that the Turks “persecute” by encouraging their mutual strife and jealousy. This evinces itself chiefly in what we would consider trifles, but to which these ritualistic churches attach a ludicrous importance generally connected with “Holy Places” and pilgrimages and sensuous public display. Blood has frequently been shed in the struggle as to precedence, and especially in obtaining some advantage over the others by the exhibition of the symbols and imposing ceremonial of their own church. The small sects who have no recognised head in Turkey are persecuted by the petty pachas in many ways. But Christians of all names are bitterly hated by the Moslems, and persecuted beyond endurance, not as churches, but individually as subjects, and mainly through the Government tax-collectors. This practice of pilgrimage, whether amongst Mahomedans, Jews, or Christians of the various sects, is deserving of more attention than it seems to have received, not only from its almost universal prevalence, but also from its effects. Obviously it leads to an important distribution of wealth and circulation of gold coin; it greatly promotes commerce and manufactures by spreading the knowledge of trade articles and wares as between different countries, and it supports numerous systems of transport for general use which otherwise would not be kept up.