From Dan to Beersheba: A Description of the Wonderful Land, with Maps and Engravings and a Prologue by the Author Containing the Latest Explorations and DiscoveriesNewman, John Philip
Religion
From Dan to Beersheba: A Description of the Wonderful Land, with Maps and Engravings and a Prologue by the Author Containing the Latest Explorations and Discoveries
Newman, John Philip
Palestine -- Description and travel
From the bed of the Kidron Valley to the Bethany Road on the crest of
the hill, and from the “Pillar of Absalom” to the village of Siloam,
is the cemetery of the Jews. Each grave is marked with a plain slab
imbedded in the earth, and bears a Hebrew inscription. National love
and religious superstition induce the descendants of Abraham to seek a
place of sepulture within this vale. Expecting the restoration of their
kingdom, they desire to sleep in death beneath the sceptre of their
posterity. Believing that the final judgment will take place here, and
that to have a part in the resurrection of the just they must here be
interred, in their old age many come from distant lands to be entombed
beside their countrymen. If so unfortunate as to expire in a strange
land, they die in the faith that their bodies will burrow their way
through the earth to this consecrated spot. Here, morning and evening,
venerable men prostrate themselves upon the ground in anticipation of
death, and hither Jewish women come to weep over buried affection.
Illustration: TOMBS IN THE VALLEY OF JEHOSHAPHAT.
On the opposite side of the valley, covering all that portion of Mount
Moriah not included within the Haram wall, is a Moslem cemetery of
great age. The graves are covered with two layers of hewn stone, with
an open space between them in the centre, and ornamented with two
upright shafts, one at either end. The material is limestone, and,
according to a custom prevalent in Eastern countries, the tombs
are whitewashed, illustrating the appropriateness of the Savior’s
comparison when he likened the Scribes and Pharisees unto “whited
sepulchres.”[142]
While standing here a funeral procession came out of St. Stephen’s
Gate. The bier was borne upon the shoulders of men, and, in marching
to the grave, the procession rushed on tumultuously, chanting, in a low
monotone, “God is God, and Mohammed is his prophet.” Believing there
is virtue in bearing the dead to the tomb, each man in rapid succession
became a pall-bearer. Being persons of different height, the corpse
rose and fell according to the altitude of the bearer. On reaching the
grave a confused circle was formed, a funeral hymn was chanted, and,
after the interment of the dead, an almoner, who had been appointed
by the deceased, distributed paras to the throng of beggars who always
attend funerals.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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