ASCENT OF MOUNT TABOR.--AROUND AND ON THE SEA OF GALILEE.
On Monday morning the party made a good start in the direction of Mount
Tabor and the Sea of Galilee. The tents were sent direct to the
camping-ground which had been selected for the night, while the
travellers made a detour to the summit of the historic mountain.
They looked back from the crest of a ridge on the road, and had a fine
view of Nazareth. An hour's ride from this point through a wooded valley
brought them to the foot of Mount Tabor, the _Jebel-et-Tur_ of the
Arabs, and a famous name in biblical history. Unlike many of the
mountains of Palestine it is covered with trees to the summit, and the
ruins scattered about its sides show that it has been the home of many
people through numerous generations.
"We had a zigzag ride up the side of Mount Tabor," said the youths, in
their journal, "and made frequent stoppages for our horses to take
breath. When we reached the top we found it was not a peak, but a sort
of rounded ridge, half a mile long and a quarter of a mile wide. All the
space on the summit is covered with ruins, and there have evidently been
towns, temples, fortresses, and other buildings on this commanding spot.
We learn from the Bible (Joshua xix. 22) that Tabor was occupied when
the Israelites first came into the country, and it is probable that
there was a town here at that time. In another place (Judges iv.) we
learn that Deborah ordered Barak to gather an army here; and it was from
Tabor that the Israelites marched when they defeated Sisera. From that
time down to the Christian era Tabor continued to be an important point,
and was the scene of several battles. In the fourth century it was
regarded as the scene of the Transfiguration, and many pilgrimages were
made to it by the early Christians. Hermits formerly dwelt here in
caves, and subsisted on the charity of visitors.
[Illustration: HOME OF A CAVE-HERMIT IN PALESTINE.]
"Several convents and churches were established on Mount Tabor, and the
Crusaders built a monastery on the summit, which was afterward destroyed
by the infidels. There are two monasteries here now, but they are not
of much consequence; one belongs to the Latins and the other to the
Greeks, and, as we did not wish to show any partiality, we visited both
of them. There is great hostility between the monks of the two
establishments, and those who visit one are generally excluded from the
other. Each party claims that the scene of the Transfiguration was on
the spot where its own church stands. Both these statements are
generally disbelieved; and it is the opinion of the majority of those
who have investigated the matter that the great event occurred elsewhere
than on Mount Tabor.
[Illustration: MOUNT TABOR.]
"Our ride from Nazareth had given us a good appetite, and we were quite
ready for the lunch which Ali brought for us in his saddle-bags. While
engaged in satisfying our hunger we enjoyed the view from the summit of
the mountain; it includes Hermon and Carmel--the latter almost hiding
the thin strip of the Mediterranean, and itself partly concealed by the
nearer ranges of hills. Looking to the east we saw a part of the Lake of
Tiberias, and beyond it the chain of the Hauran Mountains; and, as we
turned toward the southern horizon, the guide pointed out the mountains
of Gilead. Apparently at our feet was the Plain of Esdraelon, with its
ancient battle-fields, and on the hills around us were Endor, Nain, and
half a dozen other villages of less importance. The deep Valley of the
Jordan was revealed for a considerable distance, and we realized more
than ever before how great is the depression where the river flows. The
top of Tabor is more than two thousand feet above the level of the
Mediterranean, while the surface of the lake is six hundred and forty
feet below it. Consequently, we looked down nearly two thousand seven
hundred feet to the waters on whose banks we were to pass the night.
"While descending Mount Tabor we disturbed several partridges and other
birds, and one of us thought we had a glimpse of a fox darting among the
trees. The guide said there were several kinds of game here, but nobody
paid much attention to it, since it was not easy to get at. The Arabs
sometimes catch hares and partridges in traps, but the foxes are too
cunning to be taken in that way.
"Down and down we went, and from Tabor to Tiberias it was a descending
road the most of the way. We passed the _Khan el-Tujar_, or Caravansary
of the Merchants, which is very much in ruins, but was evidently a
strong place at the time of its erection, three hundred years ago. It
was built by the Pacha of Damascus for the protection of the merchants
from the robbers, who frequently plundered the caravans and made the
road dangerous. A market is held here once a week, and the people from
Tiberias, Nazareth, and other places in the neighborhood come to sell
their wares, but we could not learn that they had much to sell.
[Illustration: DISTANT VIEW OF KEFR KENNA.]
"Cana of Galilee, where the water was turned into wine, is off our road,
and we had to be satisfied with the indication of its position. It is
now called Kefr Kenna, and has a population of five or six hundred, half
of whom are Moslems and the rest Greek Christians. The Greeks have a
church in which they show one of the jars or water-pots in which the
miracle was performed. There is another Kenna or Cana between Nazareth
and Mount Carmel, and some authorities think it was the scene of the
miracle, and not the one we have been talking about.
[Illustration: THE CITY AND LAKE OF TIBERIAS.]
"As we rode down the hills we had a full view of the sea or lake of
Tiberias, which is also called the Sea of Galilee, and the sea or lake
of Gennesaret, and known to the Arabs as _Bahr Tabariyeh_. It is smaller
than you might suppose from its importance in history; it is thirteen
miles long and less than seven in width, and in the midst of a region
with very few inhabitants. As we looked at it, it seemed little more
than a pond, and the hills beyond it were bare and desolate. The
fertility of the region must be far less now than it was in the time of
our Saviour, and it is the general opinion that the country has
undergone many changes. We passed the ruins of several villages and
towns, and for nearly all the time of our journey the evidences were all
around us that a great many people once lived here.
"The most populous town on the banks of the lake is Tiberias, but it has
not more than two thousand inhabitants, and the majority of them have a
poverty-stricken appearance. Like all the people of Palestine, they
begged persistently for backsheesh, and would not leave us till we
threatened to appeal to the Governor and ask for a guard to protect us.
We noticed that a great number of them were Jews, and several spoke to
us in German; this roused our curiosity, and we asked the Doctor what it
all meant. He explained it to us in this way:
"'Tiberias is like Jerusalem in one respect--it is a sacred place with
the Jews, many of whom believe that the Messiah will rise from the
waters of the lake and establish his throne on one of the hills back of
the little town. For this reason many Jews of Poland and Germany make
pilgrimages to Tiberias, and some of them remain to pass their lives in
the sacred spot. They are generally a worthless and lazy lot, and are
supported by the charity of visitors and by money sent by wealthy Jews
of Europe.'
"More than half the inhabitants of Tiberias are Jews; the rest are
Moslems and Christians in about equal proportions. The Latins and Greeks
have churches here; one of them is dedicated to St. Peter, and the
miracle of the draught of the fishes is said to have taken place in
front of the town. There was a terrible earthquake here in 1837, which
threw down large parts of the walls and killed great numbers of the
people. There has been no attempt to repair the damages, and it would be
easy to ride into Tiberias without taking the trouble to enter by the
gates.
"Our tents were pitched on a little cleared space outside the walls and
close to the lake, and after it became dark we indulged in a swim in the
waters of Galilee. The next morning we went to the warm baths for which
Tiberias was once celebrated, and tried them for a little while; but the
smell of sulphur was so strong that we did not much enjoy our visit.
These baths were famous among the Romans, and were believed to possess
many curative qualities; the water is very salt and bitter to the taste,
and is certainly disagreeable enough to be good for invalids, provided
they can stand it. We put a thermometer into the water, and found its
temperature 144° Fahrenheit. There are four springs altogether, and
there is a building over the largest of them. The baths are taken almost
entirely by strangers, as the residents of Tiberias have an antipathy
for water except for drinking purposes: they never bathe except when
they tumble into the lake accidentally, or are thrown there by the
visitors whom they annoy.
"We spent an hour among the ruins of the ancient Tiberias, which covered
a much larger area than its modern successor. The city was founded by
Herod near the beginning of the Christian era, and he called it Tiberias
in honor of the Roman emperor of that name. It had a palace and a
race-course, and, if we may judge by the extent of its ruins, it was a
place of no ordinary importance. It was captured several times in the
wars that devastated the country, but has never ceased to be regarded
with special veneration by the Jews. Many pious Jews come here to die:
the location is unhealthy on account of fevers and other diseases, and
consequently the mortality is great, and the town is exactly suited to
their wants."
Of course the whole party was desirous of taking a voyage on the lake,
and they sent Ali to engage a boat with that object in view. According
to the biblical account there were many vessels there during our
Saviour's time, but at present there are only three boats, and rarely
more than two of these are afloat at once. The lake abounds in fish,
and, if there was a sufficient population to buy and pay for the
proceeds of the work, a dozen or a hundred fishermen could do a good
business. But with nobody to eat them it would be idle to catch the
fish; and as the natives do not understand sport for its own sake, the
finny inhabitants are not seriously disturbed.
Ali secured a boat for the excursion, and it was arranged that the rest
of the day should be spent on the lake. The saddle-horses were to go
with the baggage-animals to Tell Hum, where the camp would be formed for
the night. Everybody was delighted with this arrangement, and the youths
could hardly restrain their impatience to be off on the voyage over the
Sea of Galilee.
The boat was of the Oriental pattern, and without any deck or awning to
protect the travellers from the sun, which generally beats down on the
waters with a good deal of energy. Umbrellas were brought into
requisition, and thus equipped, and with provisions to satisfy their
hunger when the hour came for the mid-day meal, the six strangers and
their dragoman took seats in the stern of the boat and pushed away from
land.
[Illustration: MAP OF THE SEA OF GALILEE.]
It was the plan of the party to make the circuit of the lake, and visit
points of interest whenever the wind favored and it was safe to do so.
Ali told them that as they had no escort, and had no arrangements for
paying backsheesh, for the plain reason that there was no one at
Tiberias with whom they could negotiate, it would not be judicious to
land on the eastern shore. The country is in possession of the Bedouins,
who have no hesitation at plundering the traveller of all that he has
about him, and then demanding a heavy backsheesh to let him go. On this
statement of affairs it was unanimously agreed that nobody cared to land
on the eastern shore.
The boat followed the coast to the vicinity of Kerak, which is close to
the exit of the Jordan, and then turned to the north and east in the
direction of Kalat el-Hosn. On the maps this place is generally laid
down as Gamala; it is a heap of ruins, and has been without inhabitants
since the city of Gamala was destroyed by Vespasian, and the surrounding
region of Gamalatis passed under his control.
Then they went northward past the ruins of Kersa, or Kheusa, situated in
a narrow valley. A steep bank comes down to the lake close by Kersa, and
some authorities have endeavored to identify it as the place where the
herd of swine ran down to the sea. There is no other point where there
is so steep a bank as this coming down to the water. The theory of its
identity is based entirely on its being the most convenient spot for a
herd of swine to commit suicide.
[Illustration: MAGDALA AND PLAIN OF GENNESARET.]
From Kersa they crossed the lake to Magdala, or Mejdel, whose chief
claim to distinction arises from its having been the birthplace of Mary
Magdalene. The town is principally in ruins, and there are only a few
huts there occupied by miserable Arabs, whose chief occupation is to beg
for backsheesh. The region around is, or might be, fertile, but Magdala
is the only inhabited spot in the Plain of Gennesaret, and nobody cares
to engage in agriculture of any sort. That the ground is fertile is
proven by the abundance of thistles, weeds, and bushes with which it is
covered, and the thickets of oleander and other trees, together with
occasional clusters of palms. One of the boys said it seemed as though a
curse rested on the land. Doctor Bronson assented to this view, and
added that the Turkish Government had a great deal to do with the
matter, as its exorbitant taxes on all kinds of industry was an
effectual barrier to anything like honest work.
As they sailed northward from Magdala, Doctor Bronson pointed out a
valley leading from the Plain of Gennesaret, and asked the guide what it
was.
Ali replied that it was called Wady Haman.
"I thought so," answered the Doctor. "By going up that valley we might
visit the caverns which are mentioned by Josephus and other writers."
Frank asked for what these caverns were celebrated, and how large they
were.
"They are partly natural and partly artificial," was the reply, "and are
large enough to shelter five or six hundred persons. The openings are
protected by walls, and at every exposed point there is a bastion or
something of the kind, so that the occupants could defend themselves
with great ease.
"They are mentioned in the Bible, but more fully in the works of
Josephus, who calls them fortified caverns. They have been occupied at
different times as resorts of robbers, or as strongholds of regular
soldiers, and in either case it was a matter of great difficulty to take
them. In the time of Herod the Great they were held by robbers, who
plundered all the surrounding country, and made themselves so
troublesome that the king determined to get rid of them.
[Illustration: HEROD'S PLAN OF ATTACK.]
"He sent his soldiers to attack them, but the position of the robbers
was so strong that they repelled every assault. Finally he ordered some
strong boxes to be made, and suspended over the face of the cliff by
means of iron chains, and when all was ready he filled the boxes with
soldiers, and lowered them down in front of the caves.
[Illustration: BATTLE WITH THE ROBBERS.]
"The robbers were taken by surprise, but they quickly came to their
senses, and made a desperate resistance. The soldiers were victorious;
and the robbers that escaped death by the spear, or being thrown over
the cliff, were soon made prisoners, and their business was broken up.
At the present time the caves are unoccupied, except by a few beggars,
who live upon what they get from visitors.
"Back of the caverns are the ruins of the ancient city of Arbela, which
is doubtless the Beth-Arbel mentioned in Hosea x. 14. The ruins are
overgrown with reeds and vines, and are not worth the time and trouble
of visiting them."
From Magdala the boat made a straight course for the mouth of the
Jordan, and was carried rapidly forward by a strong breeze from the
south. The dragoman said that the lake was liable to be swept by sudden
winds, like the majority of inland waters surrounded by mountains, and
he predicted that the favoring breeze they had just caught might leave
them altogether by the time they reached the point for which they were
heading. Sure enough it did so; and as they entered the mouth of the
river there was not enough to carry them against the current. The
boatmen took to their oars, and in a little while they were a couple of
miles from the lake and in front of the ruins of Bethsaida.
The ground for quite a distance is covered with the remains of
dwellings, the most of them so overgrown with weeds and bushes that
they must be sought for in order to be found. Bethsaida means "house of
fish," or "fish-marke;" and there was another village of the same name
near Capernaum, so that much confusion has arisen concerning them. It
was probably near the Bethsaida on the Jordan, where we now are, that
the miracle of feeding the multitude was performed, as described in the
ninth chapter of Luke, while it was to the other Bethsaida that Christ
sent away his disciples, and went up into the mountain to pray.
As the boat descended the river to reach the lake again Doctor Bronson
read from the Bible the account of the stilling of the tempest, and the
events connected with it. All were agreed that the miracle must have
been performed near the western shore, and close by Capernaum, and the
scriptural description seemed to tally exactly with the configuration of
the land and lake. It was easy to imagine the scene, especially as the
wind by which they had been blown from Magdala had ceased entirely, and
"there was a great calm." By steady rowing the boat was brought to Tell
Hum a little before sunset, and the voyage around the Sea of Galilee was
at an end.
Near Tell Hum the guide called the attention of the youths to a man on
the shore standing motionless as a statue, and holding a scoop-net with
a long handle.
While they watched him he brought the net to the water with a rapid
sweep, and then lifted it almost in the same motion. As he swung it to
land a fish was seen vainly struggling to escape from the meshes of the
net.
[Illustration: A GALILEE FISHING-BOAT.]
Ali explained that they had witnessed one of the modes of fishing
practised by the natives. They watch along the shore, and when a fish
comes near enough he is secured by a rapid motion of the net, and it
must be very rapid too. Another plan of catching fish is to render them
insensible by poison, and then gather them as they float on the surface
of the water. Europeans have some hesitation at eating fish caught in
this way, but the natives are not so fastidious. Sometimes fish are
caught in traps in the mouths of the little streams flowing into the
lake or along the shore, but nobody troubles himself about seeking in
deep water.
Frank wanted to know what kinds of fish were taken in the lake, but the
information he obtained was not very clear. Ali questioned the boatmen,
and, as near as he could make out, the fishes of the Lake of Tiberias
are the _binni_, or carp, and the _mesht_, or _coracinus_, which belongs
to the cat-fish family. The latter are the most abundant, and sufficient
for the wants of a population much larger than exists at present near
the lake.
[Illustration: RUINS AT TELL HUM.]
They landed at Tell Hum, where they paid and dismissed the boatmen, and
then strolled a short time among the ruins before going to their tents.
A large town or city once stood here, and that it was an important place
with the Jews is shown by the ruins of their synagogue, which must have
been an edifice of considerable extent and excellent proportions. One
writer says it was among the finest buildings in Palestine, and the
fragments now on the ground reveal some admirable specimens of
sculpture. Frank and Fred tried to take the measurements of a part of
the wall of the building, but were unable to do so on account of the
great number of weeds and vines that covered the ground. They found
several blocks nine or ten feet long, and broad in proportion, that
evidently formed a part of the foundations.
Doctor Bronson told them that Tell Hum was thought by some to be the
Capernaum of the New Testament; others believe Capernaum was farther to
the south, and make Tell Hum identical with Chorazin. The latter theory
is sustained by its proximity to Bethsaida. The words of Christ, "Woe
unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida!" would seem to indicate
that they were near each other. Tell Hum is about two miles from
Bethsaida, while nearly the same distance farther on is Khan Minyeh,
which is claimed by several authorities to have been the Capernaum of
the New Testament.
As they sat in front of their tents while the sun was dipping below the
horizon, our friends naturally talked of the country around them, and
compared it with what it probably was two thousand years ago. The
reflection was not a cheering one, and they were not at all sorry to
change to a more agreeable topic.
The full-moon rose over the eastern mountains. As it ascended, and threw
its light on the lake, the ruggedness of the hills was softened, the
placid waters became like a sheet of silver, the stars were reflected as
in a mirror, and the sky was without a cloud. The picture was one to be
long remembered, and each one of that little party regretted that the
time was near for them to bid it farewell.
[Illustration: VIEW OF THE LAKE FROM THE WESTERN SHORE.]