The Holy Land and SyriaCarpenter, Frank G. (Frank George)
Religion
The Holy Land and Syria
Carpenter, Frank G. (Frank George)
Palestine -- Description and travel; Syria -- Description and travel
The road to Jerusalem goes over the plains where the Israelites fought
with the Philistines, through the country of Samson, which I have already
described, and near the place where David with his little stone slew the
great Goliath.
The railway from Damascus to Beirut shows you Mount Hermon, so famed
in the Psalms, and passes numerous places, which, according to the
Mohammedans, were the homes and tombs of the prophets. Take, for
instance, Suk Wady Baroda, a little valley oasis on the way to Baalbek
made up of flat-roofed mud houses surrounded by orchards and vineyards.
It is mentioned by Josephus and is referred to in St. Luke as the home
of the tetrarch Lysanias. The Mohammedans say that Adam lived in the
mountain which looks down upon it, and that it was near the oasis itself
that Cain became jealous of Abel and slew him. I have always thought that
Abel was killed with a club, although I see now that the Bible does not
mention the weapon used in the murder. The Moslem legend says it was a
stone. The story is that Adam had divided the world into two sections
and had given one of them to each of his boys. They had marked out their
respective sections with stones, when a dispute arose concerning the
boundary line. Cain claimed that Abel was inching on him, whereupon hot
words passed, and Cain threw a rock and struck Abel in the temple and
killed him.
According to the Moslem tradition, Cain was filled with remorse. He did
not know what to do with his dead brother, so he took the body on his
back and carried it with him over the world for five hundred years. At
the end of that time he returned to this mountain, where he saw two birds
fighting. At last one killed the other and then washed and buried the one
slain. Cain did likewise with Abel, and straightway there sprang up seven
oak trees, which are pointed out to this day.
According to the same authorities, Seth, Adam’s son, who took the place
of Abel, lived on the western slope of the Lebanon range, and his tomb is
still there. A mosque is built over it and the tomb may be seen through
an iron grating. It is eighty feet long, but the people living in the
village say that it was too short and that Seth’s legs had to be doubled
up in order to fit. Not far away is the tomb of Noah, which is forty feet
longer. It also has a mosque connected with it.
The distance from Damascus to Beirut is ninety-one miles. Travellers are
advised not to take the third class, and women should always go first
class. The third class has compartments eight feet wide running across
the cars at right angles with the engine. Each compartment has two
cushioned benches facing each other, its sides are walled with windows,
and there is a door at each end. The conductor does not go through the
cars, but collects the tickets from the outside, walking along a running
board which extends the full length of the car and holding on to an iron
rail fastened to the outside some distance above the step.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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