longing, seem rather to have implied the first showers of autumn, which revived the parched and thirsty earth and prepared it for the seed; and the later showers of spring, which continued to refresh and forward both the ripening crops and the vernal products of the fields.1 During the whole winter the roads, or rather tracks, in Palestine, are muddy, deep and slippery; so that the traveller at this season is subjected to the utmost discomfort and inconvenience. When the rains cease, the mud soon disappears, and the roads become hard, though never smooth. Whoever therefore wishes to profit most by a journey in Palestine, will take care not to arrive at Jerusalem earlier than the latter part of March. During the months of April and May, the sky is usually serene, the air mild and balmy, and the face of nature, after seasons of ordinary rain, still green and pleasant to the eye. Showers occur occasionally; but they are mild and refreshing. On the 1st of May we experienced showers in the city; and at evening there was thunder and lightning, (which are frequent in winter,) with pleasant and reviving rain. The 6th of May was also remarkable for thunder and for sev eral showers, some of which were quite heavy. The rains of both these days extended far to the North; and overtook our missionary friends who were returning from Jerusalem to Beirût. But the occurrence of rain so late in the season, was regarded as a very unusual circumstance. Morning mists however are occasionally seen at a still later period. In ordinary seasons, from the cessation of the showers in spring until their commencement in October or November, rain never falls, and the sky is usually If during the winter there has been a suf serene. 1) James v. 7. Prov. xvi. 15. ficiency of rain, the husbandman is certain of his crop; and is also perfectly sure of fine weather for the ingathering of the harvest.' The high elevation of Jerusalem secures it the privilege of a pure atmosphere; nor does the heat of summer ever become oppressive, except during the occasional prevalence of the South wind, or Sirocco. During our sojourn from April 14th to May 6th, the thermometer ranged at sunrise from 44° to 64° F., and at 2 P. M. from 60° to 79° F. This last degree of heat was felt during a Sirocco, April 30th. From the 10th to the 13th of June at Jerusalem, we had at sunrise a range from 56° to 74°; and at 2 P. M. once 86°, with a strong N. W. wind. Yet the air was fine, and the heat not burdensome. The nights are uniformly cool, often with a heavy dew; and our friends had never had occasion to dispense with a coverlet upon their beds during summer. Yet the total absence of rain soon destroys the verdure of the fields; and gives to the whole landscape the aspect of drought and barrenness. The only green thing which remains is the foliage of the scattered fruit-trees, and occasional vineyards and fields of millet. The deep green of the broad fig-leaves and of the millet, is delightful to the eye in the midst of the general aridness; while the foliage of the olive, with its dull grayish hue, scarcely deserves the name of verdure. The harvest upon the mountains ripens of course later than in the plains of the Jordan and the seacoast. The barley-harvest precedes the wheat-harvest by a week or fortnight. On the 4th and 5th of June the people of Hebron were just beginning to gather their wheat; on the 11th and 12th the threshing-floors on the Mount of Olives were in full operation. We had already seen the harvest in the same stage of progress on the plains of Gaza on the 19th of May; while at Jericho, on the 12th of May, the threshing-floors had nearly completed their work. The first grapes ripen in July; and from that time until November, Jerusalem is abundantly supplied with this delicious fruit. The general vintage takes place in September. We found ripe apricots at Gaza in May; and they are probably brought to Jerusalem, though I do not recollect to have seen any there. The fine oranges of Yâfa were found in abundance both at Jerusalem and Hebron. In autumn the whole land has become dry and parched; the cisterns are nearly empty; the few streams and fountains fail; and all nature, physical and animal, looks forward with longing to the return of the rainy season. Mists and clouds begin to make their appearance, and showers occasionally to fall; the husbandman sows his seed; and the thirsty earth is soon drenched with an abundance of rain. V. BETHANY. It was on one of the last days of our stay at Jerusalem, (June 11th,) that mounting the spirited mules we had engaged for our journey northwards, and accompanied by our friend Mr. Lanneau, we rode out to Bethany. Passing along the wall from the Damascus Gate to that of St. Stephen's, we then descended and crossed the bridge in the valley, and followed the camel road which ascends obliquely the side of the Mount of Olives back of the village of Siloam, and crosses the ridge at a lower spot some distance South of the summit. It then winds N. around the head of a Wady running off S. E. and after crossing another lower ridge, passes on towards Jericho. Here, on the eastern slope, (strictly of the Mount of Olives,) in a shallow Wady, lies the village of Bethany; in a direction about E. S. E. from Jerusalem. We reached it in three quarters of an hour from the Damascus Gate. This gives a distance of a little less than two Roman miles from the eastern part of the city; corresponding well to the fifteen furlongs of the Evangelist. On the W. N. W. is a hill partially separated from the higher ridge of the Mount of Olives by a deep valley; the head of which we went round in returning over the summit of the mount. Just South of the village is a very deep and narrow Wady or ravine running down. towards the East; and on its further side on higher ground, S. E. from Bethany, about one third of a mile distant, is seen the deserted village of Abu Dîs. Bethany is a poor village of some twenty families; its inhabitants apparently are without thrift or industry. In the walls of a few of the houses there are marks of antiquity,-large hewn stones, some of them bevelled; but they have all obviously belonged to more ancient edifices, and been employed again and again in the construction of successive dwellings or other buildings. The monks, as a matter of course, show the house of Mary and Martha, that of Simon the leper, and the Sepulchre of Lazarus. The latter is a deep vault, like a cellar, excavated in the limestone rock in the middle of the village; to which there is a descent by twenty-six steps.2 It is hardly necessary to remark, that there is not the slightest probability of its ever having been the tomb of Lazarus. The form is not that of the ancient sepulchres; nor does its position accord with the narrative of the New 1) John xi. 18. there were twenty-two steps; Itin. p. 276. Testament, which implies that the tomb was not in the town.1 The Arab name of the village is el-'Âzirîyeh, from el-'Âzir, the Arabic form of Lazarus. The name Bethany is unknown among the native inhabitants. Yet there is no reason to question the identity of the place. The distance from Jerusalem and the situation on the road to Jericho are sufficiently decisive. The Itin. Hieros. in A. D. 333, already mentions here the crypt of Lazarus; and Jerome some seventy years later speaks of a church as having been built over it.2 In the seventh century it is further mentioned by both Antoninus Martyr and Arculfus; at that time the church Basilica) was standing over the supposed sepulchre, and a large monastery had been established.3 About A. D. 1132, Melisinda, the queen of king Fulco of Jerusalem, wishing to found a nunnery over which her younger sister Iveta might preside as abbess, selected Bethany as the site, and obtained it from the canons of the Holy Sepulchre in exchange for Tekoa. She then established here a convent of Black nuns professing the rule and institutes of St. Benedict,—the same order of which her sister was already a member in the nunnery of St. Anna in Jerusalem. The new convent was more richly endowed than any other in Syria; and for its protection, the queen caused a strong tower of hewn stones to be erected at a great expense. The buildings were not completed until near the death of king Fulco in A. D. 1143. An aged matron of approved piety was made the first abbess; who was soon succeeded by the high-born Iveta. Two centuries 1) John xi. 31, 38. 2) Itin. Hieros. ed. Wesseling, p. 596. Hieron. Onomasticon, art. Bethania. Eusebius does not mention it. 3) Adamnanus I. 24. 4) See above, Vol. I. p. 344. 5) Will. Tyr. XV. 26. Jac. de Vitriaco 58. Wilken Gesch. der Kreuzz. II. pp. 616, 617. |