Syria from the saddle . n, was theMount of Olives. At the foot of Olivet I saw an enclosed garden; hereis the generally accepted site of Gethsemane. On theother side of the mountain I could see a small part ofthe village of Bethany. We cantered our horses down the rough slope ofScopus into the plain beneath, toward Jerusalem andcivilization. A short ride brought us to the Jaffa , catching sight of some passing tourists, I realizedfor the first time that my clothes were torn by briars,rain-soaked and stained with mud, that my face wastanned like a natives, and my beard was long and un-
Syria from the saddle . n, was theMount of Olives. At the foot of Olivet I saw an enclosed garden; hereis the generally accepted site of Gethsemane. On theother side of the mountain I could see a small part ofthe village of Bethany. We cantered our horses down the rough slope ofScopus into the plain beneath, toward Jerusalem andcivilization. A short ride brought us to the Jaffa , catching sight of some passing tourists, I realizedfor the first time that my clothes were torn by briars,rain-soaked and stained with mud, that my face wastanned like a natives, and my beard was long and un-trimmed; also that a kafieh is perhaps not the mostnatural head-dress for an American to wear. In thisguise, however, I was forced to ride into the Holy City,— hoping devoutly that any passers-by would be chari-table enough to mistake me for nothing worse than anArab tramp, — and came to the New Grand Hotel,which was henceforth to be my headquarters, andwhere my luggage containing more presentable clothesawaited Jaffa Gate: Entrance to Jerusalem. CHAPTER XXIII. JERUSALEM CRANKS — JEWISH WAILING PLACE —HOLY CITY BY MOONLIGHT. SHOULD like, were such a thingpossible in an account of Palestine,to avoid writing of Jerusalem. The Holy City is to a Bible stu-dent the most interesting place onearth, and a separate volume wouldbe required if I should attempt toenter fully into all descriptions andimpressions. Thomson, Geikie, Merrill, and anumber of lesser lights, have writtenon the subject with far deeper knowl-edge than I possess; and as everyreader who is at all interested in such things has nodoubt already studied one or more of these writers, Ishall content myself with simply touching here andthere on such points as seemed most interesting to me,an unlearned outsider. In the first place, Jerusalem is the Mecca of all sortsand conditions of cranks. When a man (or more often awoman) starts to ride some religious hobby, that hobbyshead is almost invariably turned toward J
Size: 1268px × 1972px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidsyriafromsad, bookyear1896
