The Lands of the Saracen: Pictures of Palestine, Asia Minor, Sicily, and SpainTaylor, Bayard
History
The Lands of the Saracen: Pictures of Palestine, Asia Minor, Sicily, and Spain
Taylor, Bayard
Middle East -- Description and travel; Spain -- Description and travel
three chambers in the rock, which served as habitations for the family of
the Virgin.
A young Christian Nazarene afterwards conducted me to the House of Joseph,
the Carpenter, which is now inclosed in a little chapel. It is merely a
fragment of wall, undoubtedly as old as the time of Christ, and I felt
willing to consider it a genuine relic. There was an honest roughness
about the large stones, inclosing a small room called the carpenter's
shop, which I could not find it in my heart to doubt. Besides, in a quiet
country town like Nazareth, which has never knows such vicissitudes as
Jerusalem, much more dependence can be placed on popular tradition. For
the same reason, I looked with reverence on the Table of Christ, also
inclosed within a chapel. This is a large, natural rock, about nine feet
by twelve, nearly square, and quite flat on the top. It is said that it
once served as a table for Christ and his Disciples. The building called
the School of Christ, where he went with other children of his age, is now
a church of the Syrian Christians, who were performing a doleful mass, in
Arabic, at the time of my visit. It is a vaulted apartment, about forty
feet long, and only the lower part of the wall is ancient. At each of
these places, the Nazarene put into my hand a piece of pasteboard, on
which was printed a prayer in Latin, Italian, and Arabic, with the
information that whoever visited the place, and made the prayer, would be
entitled to seven years' indulgence. I duly read all the prayers, and,
accordingly, my conscience ought to be at rest for twenty-one years.
Chapter VII.
The Country of Galilee.
Departure from Nazareth--A Christian Guide--Ascent of Mount
Tabor--Wallachian Hermits--The Panorama of Tabor--Ride to Tiberias--A
Bath in Genesareth--The Flowers of Galilee--The Mount of
Beatitude--Magdala--Joseph's Well--Meeting with a Turk--The Fountain of
the Salt-Works--The Upper Valley of the Jordan--Summer Scenery--The
Rivers of Lebanon--Tell el-Kadi--An Arcadian Region--The Fountains of
Banias.
"Beyond are Bethulia's mountains of green,
And the desolate hills of the wild Gadarene;
And I pause on the goat-crags of Tabor to see
The gleam of thy waters, O dark Galilee!"--Whittier.
Banias (Cæsarea Philippi), _May_ 10, 1852.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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