The land and the Book; or, Biblical illustrations drawn from the manners and customs, the scenes and scenery of the Holy Land . after hour by bad roads, doubtfulguides, and the dismal notes of owls and jackals. Themoon, rising over the brown hills of Moab, flashed andtrembled on the Dead Sea, giving just light enough to makethe crags appear more stern, and the chasms more the convent, two towers, one on either brow of the gorge,loomed up through the misty moonbeams, like grim oldgiants, to guard the access. We entered through a low irondoor, went down, turned round through a second
The land and the Book; or, Biblical illustrations drawn from the manners and customs, the scenes and scenery of the Holy Land . after hour by bad roads, doubtfulguides, and the dismal notes of owls and jackals. Themoon, rising over the brown hills of Moab, flashed andtrembled on the Dead Sea, giving just light enough to makethe crags appear more stern, and the chasms more the convent, two towers, one on either brow of the gorge,loomed up through the misty moonbeams, like grim oldgiants, to guard the access. We entered through a low irondoor, went down, turned round through a second door, thendown again by winding stairs, across queer courts, and alongdark passages, until we reached at length our rooms, hang-ing between cliffs that towered to the stars, or seemed to,and yawning gulfs which darkness made bottomless anddreadful. I was struck dumb with astonishment. It was atransition sudden and unexpected, from the wild mountainto the yet wilder, more vague and mysterious scenes of Ori-ental enchantment. Lights gleamed out fitfully from hang-ing rocks and doubtful caverns. Winding stairs, with balus-. MAB SABA—VALLEY OF URTAS. 431 trade and iron rail, ran right up the perpendicular cliffs intorock chambers, where the solitary monk was drowsily mut-tering his midnight prayers. It was long after that hourbefore sleep visited my eyes, and then my dreams were ofArabs, and frightful chasms, and enchanted castles. Daylight next morning stripped off much of the wild andfearful from the midnight view through the pale beams ofthe waning moon, but even then Mar Saba is the strangestconvent that I have ever seen. We, of course, visited thecuriosities of the place: St. Sabas sepulchre, beneath an oc-tagon mausoleum; the numerous chapels, covered with pic-tures and Greek inscriptions; the really splendid church,blazing with silver and gold; the vault, filled with fourteenthousand skulls of martyred monks! and I know not whatbesides, with which this convent-castle is c
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbible, bookyear1874
