DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11448#0405
CHAP. X.j
BETHLEHEM.
97
of Hebron. Then, looking up, she said something about night
and robbers, and, shaking her head as I smiled in reply, she
put up her second hand to steady the water-vessel, and resumed
her path.
We now pushed forward at a gallop over a wild and rocky
tract, where the pathway was scarcely visible among the fragments
with which it was thickly strewn; yet this has been a highway
from the days of Abraham, and we read of the constant use of
chariots along these roads. Now the way lay over a smooth and
slippery rocky surface ; now, narrowed between blocks of stone,
it was covered with tangled roots, or seamed by wide fissures.
All the same to my bold Arab courser seemed smooth turf, or
rugged rock : eagerly she swept along over hill and hollow, as if
it was a pastime ; bounding from rock to rock with the ease of a
gazelle and the mettle of a bloodhound. The evening was sultry
warm, but no stain darkened her silken skin, not a pant escaped
from her deep chest, not a spot of foam flecked the Mameluke bit.
The sun was just setting in Eastern glory as we reached a vast
embattled Saracenic castle, on which ruin has made but slight
impression: beneath it lie the Pools of Solomon, from which
water was once conveyed to Jerusalem.*
I returned more slowly and pensively to Bethlehem, by the light
of as brilliant a moon as ever shone over this hallowed land in
its proudest hour. On the fields through which I was passing
the glory of the Lord once shone around, and the announcement
of " Peace on earth, good-will toward man," was heard through
this calm air from angel voices. In the distance, clear against
the sky, stood "the city of David," from out whose gloomy walls
arose the Light of the world.
As I rode thoughtfully along, I did not observe that my servant
was missing : I had heard a shot, but such sounds are too fa-
miliar to excite attention in a country where every man goes
armed. I rode back to the valley where I had seen him last, but
* These are in good repair, but quite dry, and indeed it would take all the
water I have yet seen in Judea to fill them. They aro three in number, at
three different levels, and measure respectively about 600, 500 and 300 feet
In length.
part ii. 8
BETHLEHEM.
97
of Hebron. Then, looking up, she said something about night
and robbers, and, shaking her head as I smiled in reply, she
put up her second hand to steady the water-vessel, and resumed
her path.
We now pushed forward at a gallop over a wild and rocky
tract, where the pathway was scarcely visible among the fragments
with which it was thickly strewn; yet this has been a highway
from the days of Abraham, and we read of the constant use of
chariots along these roads. Now the way lay over a smooth and
slippery rocky surface ; now, narrowed between blocks of stone,
it was covered with tangled roots, or seamed by wide fissures.
All the same to my bold Arab courser seemed smooth turf, or
rugged rock : eagerly she swept along over hill and hollow, as if
it was a pastime ; bounding from rock to rock with the ease of a
gazelle and the mettle of a bloodhound. The evening was sultry
warm, but no stain darkened her silken skin, not a pant escaped
from her deep chest, not a spot of foam flecked the Mameluke bit.
The sun was just setting in Eastern glory as we reached a vast
embattled Saracenic castle, on which ruin has made but slight
impression: beneath it lie the Pools of Solomon, from which
water was once conveyed to Jerusalem.*
I returned more slowly and pensively to Bethlehem, by the light
of as brilliant a moon as ever shone over this hallowed land in
its proudest hour. On the fields through which I was passing
the glory of the Lord once shone around, and the announcement
of " Peace on earth, good-will toward man," was heard through
this calm air from angel voices. In the distance, clear against
the sky, stood "the city of David," from out whose gloomy walls
arose the Light of the world.
As I rode thoughtfully along, I did not observe that my servant
was missing : I had heard a shot, but such sounds are too fa-
miliar to excite attention in a country where every man goes
armed. I rode back to the valley where I had seen him last, but
* These are in good repair, but quite dry, and indeed it would take all the
water I have yet seen in Judea to fill them. They aro three in number, at
three different levels, and measure respectively about 600, 500 and 300 feet
In length.
part ii. 8