TRAVELS IN THE ORIENT.
An account of one's travels in lands far from the scene of one's
life-work, has no proper place in biography, unless such travels reveal
or develop characteristics of the traveler. No matter how wide-spread
may be the interest in the countries traversed, the biographer has no
right to convey his reader from land to land, simply because the feet of
his subject have gone on before. We would, therefore, pass over the
oriental experiences of Mr. and Mrs. Carr with but a word, if we did not
have before us extensive notes on the journey, in Mrs. Carr's own hand.
The fact that she wrote of her experiences, makes them at once of
biographical value, for we are enabled to observe the reaction of
peoples and countries upon her own mind. While it is true that these
notes were made that she might tell others what she had seen, it must be
remembered that they were not intended for publication.
"On a beautiful May morning, the pet steamer of the Peninsular and
Oriental Line, with all canvas spread, was skimming the smooth waters
of the Indian Ocean. No albatross of ill-omen hovered round our ship.
The passengers, light-hearted and joyous, were chatting under the
awning,--when the man at the wheel shouted, 'Fire! fire!'
"At that awful word, every man of the crew was at his post, while pale
passengers stared at each other, fainting women fell into trembling
arms, and the children caught the contagion of fear. Suddenly our
Captain turned his wide-mouthed trumpet upon us and shouted:
"'Ladies and gentlemen, I beg your pardon; the crew is on a fire drill!'
Those who had fainted, never forgave him for his failure to notify them
of what was to happen.
"A night of excitement succeeded. About ten o'clock, while we were on
deck, enjoying the balmy air of the tropics, the sharp report of a
pistol was heard, its flash gleamed for an instant on the waters,--and a
suicide had cast a gloom over all. A night of watching by the dead
passed, and at the rising of the sun we witnessed a burial at sea. The
body, enclosed in a canvas sack and weighted with iron, was laid upon a
latticed bier close to the opened gangway. It was held in place by two
guards lest, even in that calm sea, a sudden tilt of the ship send it
into its grave before the time. The service of the Church of England was
read; then the body fell heavily into the waters, there to remain until
the coming of that sound which is to penetrate even the depths of old
ocean.
"A few days sail brought us to the luxuriant shores of Ceylon. We spent
several days driving over the beautiful island, through cocoanut and
banana groves and cinnamon gardens, inhaling the spicy breezes, and
sorrowing over the degradation of the people.
"From this beautiful but sin-cursed isle, our ship soon brought us
through the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, and anchored at Aden, on the
barren shores of Arabia. Near Aden are situated the immense tanks
holding millions of gallons of water, without which the land would be
uninhabitable. Continuing our voyage up the Red Sea, we passed Mocha,
renowned for its coffee, and in due time arrived at the gate-entrance of
the great Sinaitic Peninsula,--Suez.
"Suez, washed upon one side by the sea, is encircled upon the others by
the barren wastes of the desert. No tree, shrub, or blade of grass,
relieves the gloomy sterility of the landscape. We hasten on by rail.
Soon a long, low line of water appears, just beside the railroad track.
Behold, it is the Nile--that river cradled in the depths of mysterious
caverns, forcing its way through granite ledges and mountain barriers,
rushing over cataracts, foaming through narrows, then flowing gently
onward, singing amid perpetual sunshine, until it empties by its seven
mouths into the great blue sea. A river which has a place in history by
the side of the Euphrates and the Jordan; a river which the Egyptians
worshiped, and the miracle of whose waters made a Pharaoh tremble; a
river on whose banks perished Thebes with her hundred gates, and Memphis
with her monuments; a river that has seen the coming of Ethiopian and
Persian, Macedonian and Roman, Saracen and Turk, in fulfillment of the
curse God spoke through Ezekiel.
"After stopping at numerous stations where we were greeted by sights,
sounds, and odors peculiar to the coarse civilization of the Orient, the
minarets of Cairo and the pyramids of Gizeh looked down upon us. After a
minute examination of the pyramids" (I omit a thoughtful and logical
disquisition on the various problems presented by these monuments) "we
drove back to Cairo under the grateful shade of the lebbekh trees, over
a fine macadamized road, built in 1868 in honor of the Prince and
Princess of Wales. After a pleasant and profitable talk with the
American consul, who kindly came to bring us our passports, and to
invite us to dine with him, we reviewed, as usual, the scenes of the
day, and rested as only weary sight-seers can rest.
"Early the next morning, we drove through the Esbekeeyah, the Corso of
Cairo, on our way to Heliopolis. It is easily identified from a distance
by the oldest obelisk in Egypt, bearing the name of the founder of the
XXII. dynasty. In Scripture, Heliopolis is called On. Moses is said to
have studied here, and Joseph's father-in-law was a priest of its
renowned temple. Here Plato lived for thirteen years. It seems to have
been literally a city of obelisks, for it furnished all that have been
transported to Europe. Its destruction was prophesied by Ezekiel.
"The way to the magnificent palace of Shoobra lies along a beautiful
avenue of sycamore, fig, and acacia. The Shoobra road is the 'Rotten
Row' of Cairo. It is perhaps the most republican promenade in the world.
No vehicle or animal is excluded. The Khedive and his outriders are
jostled in most unseemly fashion by bare-boned donkeys whipped along by
ragged urchins. Ministers, consuls, bankers, money-changers,
speculators, singers, actors, ballet-dancers, adventurers, and not least
conspicuous, English-speaking tourists, form a curious medley. After a
drive to the tombs of the Caliphs through sand that buried our carriage
wheels almost to the hub, we spent a pleasant evening with the American
consul and his accomplished wife in their beautiful oriental home, then
slept the dreamless sleep of the weary traveler.
"In the early morning we mounted our donkeys which were ornamented
gorgeously in oriental style. These donkeys, in honor of our nativity,
had been christened Uncle Sam and Yankee Doodle. We expressed our
appreciation of such patriotic names, when, lo! almost every donkey in
Cairo, in the neighborhood of our hotel was suddenly transformed into an
Uncle Sam or a Yankee Doodle. But Mr. Carr and I would not desert the
first of the name.
"I wish you could have seen us flying along the Nile at the rate of the
Western Lightning Express, Eli, without either bridle or mane to
cling to, our English tongues crying, 'Stop! stop!'--which the Arab ears
of our muleteers interpreted into, 'Faster! faster!' Our muleteers were
very accommodating fellows, and their interpretation encouraged them to
renewed efforts to increase the speed of our donkeys, by applying, every
thirty seconds, a sharp-pointed steel instrument. Our English-speaking
dragoman was too far ahead to hear our cries of distress as we rocked in
the cradle of (on) the donkey.
[Illustration: A New Year's Reception]
"After an hour's most exciting ride, we dismounted at the Museum of
Egyptian Antiquities. Here is a mummy coffin, whose hieroglyphics
demonstrate that the ancient Egyptians had a conception of hell and
heaven, and a belief in the immortality of the soul. There is an
inscription proving that the Sphinx existed before the time of Cheops;
and that even then, the people were rich and civilized. Here are ancient
knives, scissors, needles, etc., but nothing is made of iron, which they
thought a bone of their evil genius. Here on exhibition are the
magnificent jewels found on the mummy of Queen Aoh-Hotep, the mother of
the first king of the XVIII. dynasty.
"Here can be found the confirmation of many narratives of the Old
Testament. The first great event in the Kingdom of Judah, after its
separation, was the invasion of Shishak, king of Egypt. According to the
sacred record, Shishak came against Jerusalem with 1,200 chariots and
60,000 horsemen, took the fenced cities, and was about to invest the
capital, when Rehoboam made his submission.
"On the outside of the great temple at Karnak, hieroglyphics commemorate
the success of Shishak against Judah, and records a long list of
captured towns--the fenced cities of Scripture. The picture Moses gives
of a Pharaoh ruling over an absolute monarchy, finds confirmation in the
ancient Egyptian tombs. From vast numbers of papyri, we learn in detail
of that old civilization--records which even Herodotus was not able to
read.
"In these we find a counterpart of the picture of that country presented
by Moses. After a slumber of 3,000 years, these records present the
people prostrating themselves, the laborers storing away grain, the
baker with his three baskets upon his head, the brickyards with Jewish
laborers supervised by Egyptian taskmasters, etc.
"In the Museum of Antiquities are statues of kings and queens who lived
in the era between Moses and Abraham. In front of them is an immense
glass case in which is deposited their crown jewels, artistically
executed. Among them is a massive gold chain, more exquisitely beautiful
than anything I saw in the Tower, among Victoria's crown jewels, unless
I except the Kohinoor. It was more beautiful than the jeweled swordhilt,
breast plate or crown of the Shah of Persia, worn at his reception at
Milan, though they represented nearly half the wealth of his kingdom.
"Thus it is proved that in the era in which Joseph received the chain of
gold from Pharaoh, such chains, of rare workmanship, were already in
vogue. Less than a century ago, critics were hurling their shafts of
contempt against the so-called blunders of Moses; but monumental history
substantiates his credibility. Truly, Egypt is one of God's historic
books. His handwriting is on temple and tablet and tomb. Here dead men
speak, and stones rise up to testify. Bricks of unburnt clay, torn up
from the ruins of centuries, tell of Israel's bondage and labor.
"Of course we went to the bazaars and parks, cathedrals and mosques,
the missionary schools, and the College of Cairo--the principal
University of the East. And then to Alexandria--to which the ancient
city has, indeed, bequeathed nothing but its name. Though earth and sea
have remained unchanged, imagination can scarcely find a place for the
ancient walls. Little vestige remains of the magnificent days of the
Ptolomies and the Caesars.
"One-fourth of the population is foreign; the city seethes with the scum
of all the cities of the Mediterranean. Here luxury and literature, the
Epicurean and the Christian, dwelt together; but now, in the Oriental
part, one finds only dirty, narrow, tortuous streets, mud-colored
buildings with terraced roofs, varied by fat mosques with lean minarets.
"Here once stood the renowned library of antiquity. Here the Hebrew
Scriptures expanded into Greek under the hands of the Septuagint. Here
Cleopatra, '_Vainquer des vainquer du monde_' reveled with the Roman
conqueror; here Mark preached the truth upon which Origen attempted to
refine; here Athenasius held warlike controversy; here Amer conquered,
and here Abercrombie fell.
"In company with our intelligent dragoman, we sailed from Alexandria on
a Russian steamship, and, after a voyage of a day and a half, beheld the
queer stone city of Joppa, with its fort-like houses rising tier above
tier on the hillside.
"I cannot describe the enthusiasm we felt at the thought that we were at
last to walk upon the soil hallowed by the feet of patriarchs, prophets
and apostles and to visit the scenes where they lived, labored, and
communed with God. We walked through the winding, slanting streets of
Joppa, and called at the house of Simon the tanner.
"So well preserved were the vats of his tannery that one would hardly
have been surprised to find the distinguished guest of Simon walking on
the housetop in the twilight. But we must confess that we could not
identify this house by the description given in the tenth chapter of
Acts.
"Leaving Joppa early in the afternoon, in a German spring-wagon, and
passing through the only gate on the land side, we set our faces toward
the Holy City. Gardens and orchards, groves of orange, fig, and
pomegranate, made the country delightful. Our road lay directly across
the plain of Sharon.
"Isaiah prophesied that Sharon should be a wilderness, and the black
huts of the Bedouin tell the fulfillment of that prediction. We look in
vain for the beautiful flower to which Solomon likened his beloved. But
although man is no longer regaled by its fragrance, the true Rose of
Sharon still unfolds its charms to every believer, whether he be a child
of the plain, or the mountain.
"We passed by Ludd, and refreshed ourselves at the Arimathea of Joseph.
We approached the hillside village of Kirjath-jearim, with its terraces
of olives and fig trees. Leaving the valley of Ajalon, the rough
macadamized road led us up the rocky sides of Judea's hills. We traveled
nearly all night; and, just as we reached the highest point in the road,
between the sea and the river, the rising sun unveiled to us the
minarets and domes and massive walls of Jerusalem. I cannot tell you
how inspiring, how deep, were the emotions that came crowding upon
brain and heart.
"When we were about five miles from the city, a young man, mounted upon
a beautiful Arab steed, brought us to a halt, with a courteous wave of
his hand, and, in broken English, presented us with the card of the
Mediterranean Hotel. We learned that the proprietor was a convert of Dr.
Barclay, and decided to make his house our home during our stay. In a
little while we entered the Joppa gate amid cries of squalid beggars,
and, a few yards from that entrance, dismounted before our hotel. It
stands on Mt. Zion, in the shadow of the Tower of David, and here we
received that cordial welcome accorded to those willing to pay $3 a day.
"Standing on the heights of Mt. Zion with your face to the east, you
have before you the Tyropeon Valley, now so full of debris as scarcely
to appear as a valley. Looking a little to the north you behold Mt.
Moriah where now stand the Dome of the Rock and the Mosque of El Akra.
Beyond these to the east, is the deep Valley of Jehosaphat with the
brook Kedron and the supposed Garden of Gethsemane, and beyond rises the
beautiful summit of the Mount of Olives. Northward is Akra, and east of
it Bezetha, two of the hills on which the city originally stood, and a
part of which it still covers.
"We have lingered at Bethesda, whence the angel has departed; at
Siloam's fountain; at the Wailing Place where the Jews, every Friday
afternoon, lament in the language of their poets, the misfortunes of
their people; at the Dome of the Rock with its marvelous Moslem wonders;
at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, that centre of enslaving
superstition, whose annual triumphs cast a ray of hope adown the narrow
halls of the Vatican. Through a hole in the wall of the Chapel of
Angelo, a torch is annually passed out, supposedly lighted by fire from
heaven. The pilgrims wait in the darkness with wax tapers, to be lighted
from celestial fire. The devotees bathe their hands in the flame, to
secure a special blessing; and the extinguished tapers are carried to
20,000 distant homes, to be as devoutly reverenced as the pilgrims who
carry them.
"There is nothing in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre that is not
saddening to the heart of the enlightened. Through our visit to this
building we had the honor of making the acquaintance of the Bishop of
Jerusalem, and receiving from him diplomas testifying to our Oriental
travel. I fear I should forfeit mine could he know my unorthodox
opinions of the 'sacred spots' of the Church.
[Illustration: Woman of Bethlehem]
"I loved to walk along the Via Dolorosa, to visit the home of Mary and
Martha. I wept under the shade of Gethsemane's gnarled olive trees; I
climbed to the summit of Olivet, and listened to the French prattle of
the Countess de Bouillon; I took a donkey ride over the hills of Judea;
I lunched in the shadow of the rock where the man who went down from
Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among thieves; I tented in the valley of the
Jordan with the Stars and Stripes and the Crescent and the Star waving
above; I stood on the whitened shores of the Salt Sea, and gathered dead
sea apples along the shady banks of the Sacred River; I had a cooling
draught from Elisha's Fountain at the foot of the Mount of Temptation;
and in the shadow of Mount Tabor, I thought I heard the angel of death
calling me to another Canaan. The flowered slopes of cedared Lebanon,
the snowy top of Hermon, the clear waters of Abana, the ivy of old
Damascus, Tyre and Sidon, Mt. Carmel and Nazareth--in short, from Dan to
Beersheba, we saw all.
"And for all the Holy Land, the most accurate guide-book the traveler
can have, even to this day, is the Old Testament. So perfect is the
agreement of the land and the Book, that frequently when standing upon
some elevated spot in Palestine one could read the story of Joshua,
Judges and Samuel, and follow accurately with the eye the movements from
place to place, as readily as on a modern map.
[Illustration: Mrs. Carr in Jerusalem]
[Illustration: O. A. Carr, Arab Gentleman's Garb]
"Since the first siege of Jerusalem by Joshua thirty-three centuries
ago, it has undergone twenty-six sieges, and in almost one-third of
these, the city was utterly devastated. The great explorer, Captain
Warren, has sunk shafts through the immense mass of debris accumulated
at the wall penetrating stratum after stratum of debris of successive
devastations.
"Descending eighty feet, he found the road that used to lead from the
gate, in the time of Herod. Sixty feet farther down, was discovered the
road of the time of Solomon. In the foundation-stones were found the
marks of the quarries of Tyre. They came upon the arches of the viaduct,
that, in the days of Solomon, connected the palace with the temple.
"There is no discord between the voice of the ruins, and the voice of
inspiration. These wonderful voices of the dead, coming not alone from
Egypt and Palestine, but from the exhumed capitals of Assyria and
Babylonia, awakened after a score and a quarter centuries of silence,
bear testimony in unmistakable tones that 'Jehovah is God, Jehovah is
God alone.'"