DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10357#0194
166 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
pilgrims was said to number hundreds of thousands ; and even now they amount to several
thousands. The day fixed is Easter Monday, and the Turkish Government have for many
ages guaranteed the safe conduct of the convoy. It starts from the neighbourhood of the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in front of which the pilgrims generally assemble, preceded by
a white flag and noisy instruments ; the rearguard being composed of Turkish troops with the
green flag of the Prophet. The number of pilgrims at the Greek Easter now rarely reaches
five thousand, though it is said that formerly ten thousand joined the procession. A merry
joyous crowd they seem, the roar of voices often drowning the incessant clatter of the tom-
toms in front and rear. Few of them are on foot except the Russian peasants. Every kind
of quadruped, camel, horse, mule, and ass, has been impressed for the occasion, and the hapless
camels flounder down the steep descent to Jericho with huge baskets full of women and
children on either side. The Bedouin of the neighbourhood hangs about the desert cliffs
and dells ready to cut off any incautious straggler, and to send him to rejoin the convoy
prematurely stripped for his bathe. Against these marauders was formed the company of
nine knights who became the founders of the historic order of the Templars. Arrived long
before sunset at Er Riha, the modern Jericho, but really near the ancient Gilgal, the motley
crowd bivouacs for the night.
A stroll among the tented and untented groups will afford one of the most varied and
picturesque scenes which even in that land of the picturesque the traveller can encounter.
Every costume, from the sheepskin-clad and odoriferous Russian to the bright dresses
of the Bulgarians, the quaint robes of the Georgians, the brilliant colours of the Greek,
and the solid richness of the Armenian, is collected from all Eastern Europe and
Western Asia. But soon all is hushed, and the camp fires are smouldering embers, and
the long straggling camp, stretching some three miles across the plain, is buried in sleep,
recalling the encampment of Israel first pitched at Gilgal, this very spot. Long before
sunrise, about three o'clock, there is a sudden roll of kettledrums, and lights are struck all
over the plain. There is none of the merriment of the preceding day, but by torchlight, in
solemn silence, with the paschal moon hanging forward out of the deep black sky and
dimming the glare of the torches, the mixed multitude presses on to the bank of the sacred
river. Just after daybreak the head of the procession reaches the open space on the river's
bank, and before the sun has well overtopped the hills of Moab the first-comers are plunging
in the whirling eddies of the turbid stream. Some dash in naked and exhibit their prowess,
acquired perhaps in the distant Nile or its Abyssinian feeders, as they strike or seem to
strike across with their arms backwards and forwards. Most, however, of those who have
come in families bathe in a long white garment, which after this Jordan baptism is carefully
preserved till it serves as the winding-sheet of its owner. I have noticed devout families
joining hand-in-hand in a circle in the water, the women having their babes slung round their
neck, and reciting the creed, ducking at each sentence, while they hold on to the overhanging
boughs. One remarkable feature is the number of little children and infants ; but the age of
the pilgrim matters not, and the Jordan baptism never needs to be repeated. Primitive and
pilgrims was said to number hundreds of thousands ; and even now they amount to several
thousands. The day fixed is Easter Monday, and the Turkish Government have for many
ages guaranteed the safe conduct of the convoy. It starts from the neighbourhood of the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in front of which the pilgrims generally assemble, preceded by
a white flag and noisy instruments ; the rearguard being composed of Turkish troops with the
green flag of the Prophet. The number of pilgrims at the Greek Easter now rarely reaches
five thousand, though it is said that formerly ten thousand joined the procession. A merry
joyous crowd they seem, the roar of voices often drowning the incessant clatter of the tom-
toms in front and rear. Few of them are on foot except the Russian peasants. Every kind
of quadruped, camel, horse, mule, and ass, has been impressed for the occasion, and the hapless
camels flounder down the steep descent to Jericho with huge baskets full of women and
children on either side. The Bedouin of the neighbourhood hangs about the desert cliffs
and dells ready to cut off any incautious straggler, and to send him to rejoin the convoy
prematurely stripped for his bathe. Against these marauders was formed the company of
nine knights who became the founders of the historic order of the Templars. Arrived long
before sunset at Er Riha, the modern Jericho, but really near the ancient Gilgal, the motley
crowd bivouacs for the night.
A stroll among the tented and untented groups will afford one of the most varied and
picturesque scenes which even in that land of the picturesque the traveller can encounter.
Every costume, from the sheepskin-clad and odoriferous Russian to the bright dresses
of the Bulgarians, the quaint robes of the Georgians, the brilliant colours of the Greek,
and the solid richness of the Armenian, is collected from all Eastern Europe and
Western Asia. But soon all is hushed, and the camp fires are smouldering embers, and
the long straggling camp, stretching some three miles across the plain, is buried in sleep,
recalling the encampment of Israel first pitched at Gilgal, this very spot. Long before
sunrise, about three o'clock, there is a sudden roll of kettledrums, and lights are struck all
over the plain. There is none of the merriment of the preceding day, but by torchlight, in
solemn silence, with the paschal moon hanging forward out of the deep black sky and
dimming the glare of the torches, the mixed multitude presses on to the bank of the sacred
river. Just after daybreak the head of the procession reaches the open space on the river's
bank, and before the sun has well overtopped the hills of Moab the first-comers are plunging
in the whirling eddies of the turbid stream. Some dash in naked and exhibit their prowess,
acquired perhaps in the distant Nile or its Abyssinian feeders, as they strike or seem to
strike across with their arms backwards and forwards. Most, however, of those who have
come in families bathe in a long white garment, which after this Jordan baptism is carefully
preserved till it serves as the winding-sheet of its owner. I have noticed devout families
joining hand-in-hand in a circle in the water, the women having their babes slung round their
neck, and reciting the creed, ducking at each sentence, while they hold on to the overhanging
boughs. One remarkable feature is the number of little children and infants ; but the age of
the pilgrim matters not, and the Jordan baptism never needs to be repeated. Primitive and