The innocents abroad; . han thirty centuries ago. I found myself gazing atany straggling scion of this strange race with a riveted fasci-nation, just as one would stare at a living mastodon, or a meg-atherium that had moved in the grey dawn of creation andseen the wonders of that mysterious world that was before theflood. Carefully preserved among the sacred archives of this curious community isa MSS. copyof the ancientJewish law,which is saidto be the old-est documenton earth. Itis written onvellum, and issome four orfive thousandyears ^othing butbucksheeshcan purchase a sight. Its fame
The innocents abroad; . han thirty centuries ago. I found myself gazing atany straggling scion of this strange race with a riveted fasci-nation, just as one would stare at a living mastodon, or a meg-atherium that had moved in the grey dawn of creation andseen the wonders of that mysterious world that was before theflood. Carefully preserved among the sacred archives of this curious community isa MSS. copyof the ancientJewish law,which is saidto be the old-est documenton earth. Itis written onvellum, and issome four orfive thousandyears ^othing butbucksheeshcan purchase a sight. Its fame is somewhat dimmed in theselatter days, because of the doubts so many authors of Palestinetravels have felt themselves privileged to cast upon it. Speak-ing of this MSS. reminds me that I procured from the high-priest of this ancient Samaritan community, at great expense, asecret document of still higher antiquity and far more extraor-dinary interest, which I propose to publish as soon as I havefinished translatinir JOSEPHS TOMB—JACOBS WELL. 553 Joshua gave his dying injunction to the children of Israel atShechem, and buried a valuable treasure secretly under an oaktree there about the same time. The superstitious Samaritanshave always been afraid to hunt for it. They believe it isguarded by fierce spirits invisible to men. About a mile and a half from Shechem we halted at thebase of Mount Ebal, before a little square area, inclosed by ahigh stone wall, neatly whitewashed. Across one end of thisinclosure is a tomb built after the manner of the Moslems. Itis the tomb of Joseph, No truth is better authenticated thanthis. When Joseph was dying he prophesied that exodus of theIsraelites from Egypt which occurred four hundred years after-wards. At the same time he exacted of his people an oaththat when they journeyed to the land of Canaan, they wouldbear his bones with them and bury them in the ancient inher-itance of his fathers. The oath was kept. And the bones of Joseph, w
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectvoyagesandtravels
