DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10358#0073
50
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
buildings to Beirut. There is, however, a little wely called El Khidr, the Arabic name for
St. George, who is reverenced as a Muslim as well as a Christian saint ; and the wely is
reasonably believed to be the successor of the Christian chapel which the Crusaders built over
the traditional site of the house of Elijah's hostess. A double interest attaches to this spot,
from the tradition (for which we must confess there is no absolute historical ground, but surely
much probability) that Sarepta was also blessed by the presence of a greater than Elijah, and that
here our Lord showed mercy on the daughter of the Syrophcenician woman. We know that
the village He visited was somewhere in the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. The context seems to
imply it was beyond Tyre, and this is almost the only village which would meet these
requirements. What more natural than that He should visit the place where His great
forerunner sojourned so long ? The modern inhabitants of Surafend have moved the sacred
localities to their new home, and point out in the present village the house of the widow and
the spot where our Lord met the Syrophcenician widow. But nothing is more certain than that
until after the times of the Crusades the place was close to the shore.
Along the lonely strand skirting the fertile but scarcely cultivated plain we proceed
towards Tyre. Strange that such desolation should have overtaken one of the chief cradles of
early civilisation ! Now lawlessness and barbarism have driven Phoenicia back into the rocky
hills, and the weary peasant, with his tools on his shoulder, spends half his time in journeying
from security to his field, and in toiling back at sunset to his rocky home.
The route to Tyre continues near the shore. Not a village is to be seen: — here and there
ancient tombs and a few piles of stones. Several little streams have to be forded, till at length
we reach the banks of the Kasimiyeh, the ancient Leontes, still known higher up as the Litany,
when we turn inland by the traces of a Roman road towards one of the few bridges which
remain unbroken in the country. Here the plain and the valley of the river (see page 53) are
well cultivated. There is a khan, not in ruins, for the convenience of travellers, and several
villages on either side of the river's course, one just to the south of the bridge. The stream is
far too deep and rapid to be forded, and hence the bridge has been of necessity rebuilt (see
page 52), a rare, perhaps unique exception to the ordinary system of the country. Hence we
might in a short hour ride to the historic capital of Phoenicia. But a day is well spent in an
expedition up the tortuous course of the Leontes. For several miles inland the river winds
through a rich corn plain of some extent, into which it suddenly emerges from a deep fissure in
the long range of the wall of Galilee. The plain is for the most part treeless, though the banks
of the stream are richly fringed with oleanders. The country is best understood by riding
through the corn-fields on the north bank. Under the foot of the hills is a charming piece of
olive ground, with grateful shade, and a village behind it, nestled at the foot of the cliff. It is
more than half an hour's very rough scrambling for the horses to reach the crest, when we find
ourselves, not on the top of the hill, but on the brow of an upland down studded with villages,
and with a noble view seawards, which well repays the climb- The villages are generally three
or four miles apart and have names evidently derived from the Hebrew, as Rezieh, Zerayiyeh,
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
buildings to Beirut. There is, however, a little wely called El Khidr, the Arabic name for
St. George, who is reverenced as a Muslim as well as a Christian saint ; and the wely is
reasonably believed to be the successor of the Christian chapel which the Crusaders built over
the traditional site of the house of Elijah's hostess. A double interest attaches to this spot,
from the tradition (for which we must confess there is no absolute historical ground, but surely
much probability) that Sarepta was also blessed by the presence of a greater than Elijah, and that
here our Lord showed mercy on the daughter of the Syrophcenician woman. We know that
the village He visited was somewhere in the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. The context seems to
imply it was beyond Tyre, and this is almost the only village which would meet these
requirements. What more natural than that He should visit the place where His great
forerunner sojourned so long ? The modern inhabitants of Surafend have moved the sacred
localities to their new home, and point out in the present village the house of the widow and
the spot where our Lord met the Syrophcenician widow. But nothing is more certain than that
until after the times of the Crusades the place was close to the shore.
Along the lonely strand skirting the fertile but scarcely cultivated plain we proceed
towards Tyre. Strange that such desolation should have overtaken one of the chief cradles of
early civilisation ! Now lawlessness and barbarism have driven Phoenicia back into the rocky
hills, and the weary peasant, with his tools on his shoulder, spends half his time in journeying
from security to his field, and in toiling back at sunset to his rocky home.
The route to Tyre continues near the shore. Not a village is to be seen: — here and there
ancient tombs and a few piles of stones. Several little streams have to be forded, till at length
we reach the banks of the Kasimiyeh, the ancient Leontes, still known higher up as the Litany,
when we turn inland by the traces of a Roman road towards one of the few bridges which
remain unbroken in the country. Here the plain and the valley of the river (see page 53) are
well cultivated. There is a khan, not in ruins, for the convenience of travellers, and several
villages on either side of the river's course, one just to the south of the bridge. The stream is
far too deep and rapid to be forded, and hence the bridge has been of necessity rebuilt (see
page 52), a rare, perhaps unique exception to the ordinary system of the country. Hence we
might in a short hour ride to the historic capital of Phoenicia. But a day is well spent in an
expedition up the tortuous course of the Leontes. For several miles inland the river winds
through a rich corn plain of some extent, into which it suddenly emerges from a deep fissure in
the long range of the wall of Galilee. The plain is for the most part treeless, though the banks
of the stream are richly fringed with oleanders. The country is best understood by riding
through the corn-fields on the north bank. Under the foot of the hills is a charming piece of
olive ground, with grateful shade, and a village behind it, nestled at the foot of the cliff. It is
more than half an hour's very rough scrambling for the horses to reach the crest, when we find
ourselves, not on the top of the hill, but on the brow of an upland down studded with villages,
and with a noble view seawards, which well repays the climb- The villages are generally three
or four miles apart and have names evidently derived from the Hebrew, as Rezieh, Zerayiyeh,