Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1847-11-02
THE HOLY LAND,
BY HARRIET MARTINEAU,
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.,


As sat on tomb in the Turkish Gem.
etery the next morning March 3Oth)
watching the preparations for our depar-
ture, almost dreaded the interest which
every day would now bring, after the calm
'and quiet weeks which we had spent ia
the desert. Our encampment looked
much the same as it had done every NOR.
ding for month past the Arab servants
busy in taking down and packing the
tents, and noisy quarrel going on in the
midst--(this morning about pistol hav-
ing been stolen from one of the tents ~
and the differences were only that there
we're spectators standing by, and that our
camels had given place to horses and as
ses. But instead of the rocks and sands
of the desert, Hebron was before our eyes,
and the hills where Abraham spread his
aocks, and the spot where he and his fam
lily lay buried. And before night, sho' I'd
see the place where David was born and
lived his shepherd life, and where Jesus
was born. We had only twenty miles to
travel this day to Bethlehem; but it was
quite enough, for we were eager about
every old tree, and we'll and hill top. The
shrubs grew finer, and the wild flowers
more abundant, the whole way though
the hills of Judah were wild and stoney in
parts, and no longer fit for pasturing such
aocks as covered them when Abraham
lived among them, or when the Hebrews
drove in their cattle from the desert, or
when David in his boybood amused him.
self in singing smooth stones from the
brook while his fathers sheep were feed
ing on the slopes. We sat down to rest
and eat under the shade of g rock and
spreading tree; and for the hundredth
time since we left Egypt, it occurred to me
how little we in England can enter into
this meaning of David, when, in his Di-
vine songs, he speaks of the shade of
rocks, and of the beauty OF "a tree plant
ed by the rivers of water" and all such
cool images. When one has been slowly
pacing on, hour after hour, over glaring
sands or heated rocks, under sun which
makes every bit of leather or metal, and
even ones outer clothing, feel scorching
hot, and expressing ones breathing, the
sight of patch of dark shade is welcome
beyond belief; and when one has dis.
mounted and felt the GOODNESS fthe rocky
wall and the ground beneath it, and gath
ering the fresh weeds which cluster in its
crevices, phrase after phrase of the psalms
and prophecies come over ones mind,
with life and freshness as sweet as the
blossoms in ones lap.
Our sight of Bethlehem was beautiful.
We came upon it suddenly, just when the
yellow sunset light was richest. Bethle-
hem was on the rising ground on our right;
massive looking Gas all the villages of
Palestine are,) and shadowy, as the last
sun rays passed over it to gid the wes-
tern hills, and another village which there
lay high up, embosomed in fig and olive
orchards, The valley between, one OF
which we were rising, lay in shadow
Before us, perched upon a LOFTY ridge
which rose between us and Jerusalem,
was the convent of st. Elias, which we
were to pass to morrow. / was sorry to
turn away from this view; but we had to
take the right hand road, and ride through
the narrow streets of the village to the
great convent, built over the spot where
Jesus is believed by the friars to have
been born.
II was too late in the evening TO see
any of the sacred localities but it was
quite enoughto have the moonlightstream.
ing in during the whole night through the