DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11448#0358
THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS.
muddy water, and night came on as dark as Erebus. There waa
no compass on board, and we only knew of our course when the
roar of surf against the rocks announced to our ears that it was
time to tack.
The second morning dawned on a long, low, sandy shore, ter-
minated by a small promontory on which stood Jaffa among its
green gardens—looking cool, pleasant, and welcoming, contrasted
with the surrounding desert, and the foaming sea. Its harbour is
a miserable little enclosure of rocks, which breaks the force of
the Mediterraaean waves, and just enables one to disembark.
My horse was lifted out, and lay motionless on the sands, with
the spray beating over him; it was an hour before he was able
to stand and follow me, which he did like a dog, up the steep
streets of this dreary town.
Joppa was so called, says the Abbe Geramb, from Japhet, the
son of Noah, who, it seems, contracted a taste for maritime pur-
suits during his long cruise in the Ark. He built a seaport here,
from whence Jonah took shipping, when " he fled from the presence
of the Lord." " Near here," says St. Jerome, " I saw the re-
mains of the chain wherewith Andromeda was bound to the rock,
until delivered by Perseus from the sea-monster [!]" Hither Hi-
ram sent cedar of Lebanon, for the building of the Temple: here
St. Peter saw the vision of things common and unclean; and
here Tabitha was raised from the dead.
The town is a labyrinth of khans, convents, narrow lanes, de-
serted ruins, and waste places, with a few dingy streets leading
from one wretched quarter to another. There are no such things
as stables in these parts, so I was forced to put up my horse in a
vaulted passage half blocked up by the ruins of a castle. The
Franciscan convent is spacious enough to shelter 1,000 men, and
at Easter, and other seasons of pilgrimage, is often quite full: it
contains an immense number of courts, house-tops, galleries, ter-
races, and corridors, with narrow, dirty, whitewashed cells for us
—pilgrims.
In the evening I went out, like all the Joppaites of ancient and
modern times, to enjoy the cool breeze upon the house-top ; and,
looking over the flat-roofed city, saw its various surfaces all alive,
and sprinkled with gaily-dressed Syrians, for here even the
muddy water, and night came on as dark as Erebus. There waa
no compass on board, and we only knew of our course when the
roar of surf against the rocks announced to our ears that it was
time to tack.
The second morning dawned on a long, low, sandy shore, ter-
minated by a small promontory on which stood Jaffa among its
green gardens—looking cool, pleasant, and welcoming, contrasted
with the surrounding desert, and the foaming sea. Its harbour is
a miserable little enclosure of rocks, which breaks the force of
the Mediterraaean waves, and just enables one to disembark.
My horse was lifted out, and lay motionless on the sands, with
the spray beating over him; it was an hour before he was able
to stand and follow me, which he did like a dog, up the steep
streets of this dreary town.
Joppa was so called, says the Abbe Geramb, from Japhet, the
son of Noah, who, it seems, contracted a taste for maritime pur-
suits during his long cruise in the Ark. He built a seaport here,
from whence Jonah took shipping, when " he fled from the presence
of the Lord." " Near here," says St. Jerome, " I saw the re-
mains of the chain wherewith Andromeda was bound to the rock,
until delivered by Perseus from the sea-monster [!]" Hither Hi-
ram sent cedar of Lebanon, for the building of the Temple: here
St. Peter saw the vision of things common and unclean; and
here Tabitha was raised from the dead.
The town is a labyrinth of khans, convents, narrow lanes, de-
serted ruins, and waste places, with a few dingy streets leading
from one wretched quarter to another. There are no such things
as stables in these parts, so I was forced to put up my horse in a
vaulted passage half blocked up by the ruins of a castle. The
Franciscan convent is spacious enough to shelter 1,000 men, and
at Easter, and other seasons of pilgrimage, is often quite full: it
contains an immense number of courts, house-tops, galleries, ter-
races, and corridors, with narrow, dirty, whitewashed cells for us
—pilgrims.
In the evening I went out, like all the Joppaites of ancient and
modern times, to enjoy the cool breeze upon the house-top ; and,
looking over the flat-roofed city, saw its various surfaces all alive,
and sprinkled with gaily-dressed Syrians, for here even the