This was a smaller building than the other, and is nearly entire, except
that the roof is fallen in. It is in a square form: at each corner is a
solid square of masonry thirty feet high, and these are connected with
each other by semi-circular arches, two of which are fallen, and the
other two have their keystones dangling almost in the air, so slight is
the hold of their voussoirs to keep them from falling. The walls rise
half way up these abutments; the doorway is to the south, and has the
ports and lintel richly decorated. Of the use of this erection I could
form no judgment.
Between the two edifices was a mass of solid masonry, supporting a
sarcophagus nearly ten feet long, with a double sarcophagus of the same
dimensions at each side of it: not only the middle single one, but each
double sarcophagus, was formed of one stone each. Can we doubt of the
relation which the persons buried in the double ones bore to each other?
The sides of these stone coffins are highly adorned with floral garlands,
and the lids are lying broken across beside them.
Oh! vain expectation, to preserve the human frame from violation, by
elaborate and durable monuments! There is but one safe repository for
the decaying part of man, and that is what the Almighty Maker at first
decreed--namely, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, and dust to dust. The
poorest slave, buried in a hole within the ground, is safer from man's
greed and violence than the mightiest conqueror; for the massive porphyry
sarcophagus of Alexander was rifled by Caligula, and after that by
others, in Egypt. And the same fate has befallen the tombs of Cyrus and
Darius in Persia, for the sake of the riches entombed with them.
Some copper coins were brought to us, but of no particular value: they
were either corroded or broken, and of no remarkable antiquity.
As twilight faded away we returned to the tents, and had the evening
meal. The wind rose considerably, so that we lighted a fire on the lee
side of my tent, and gazed round upon the strange and noble scene around.
There was Hermon just before us, seen indistinctly by starlight; and
there was sufficient novelty and non-security in the place to keep
attention awake.
The shaikh of the village came and assured us that in the Lebanon (not
far distant) the Druses were up; that the convent at Maaluleh had been
sacked, and twenty-two Emirs had been seized by the beastly Turks (as he
denominated them); that Abu Neked was up in arms, and even the villages
in the south, about Nazareth, were fighting. Of course there was
considerable exaggeration in all this, but our muleteer began to pray
that he might be soon safe again in Jerusalem.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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