New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1856-01-09
oatacouba n tha rgoans Il o1iyas.


catacembsi In The enGouns Of Olives.
aAnd his feet shall stand In that sy upon tbs Mount
Of Olives which IL before Jarnsae the east and the
Mount Of Olives shall cesve n the midst thereof toward
great valley .Is shall be day which shall bs
known 70 g, the Lord And the Lord shall bs hing
and bis name one, s--Zech. xiv: A, Y, -
II is impossible for the student of Holy Scrip
turs to visit Palestine without being struck
with the forcib1a it furnishes,
st almost every step, Of Gods Wristsn word:
and among the many passages thus brought
home to the imagination with all the power Of
realitysis that which hes been quotad above.
# On q fine bright day during that season Of
the year which ID Jeruse1an ID most favorable
for xploring (viz: the winter Or rsiny season.
4 vas invited, early in 1876, by d friend well
acquainted with the enyirons, 10 visit the cata-
combs in the Mount of Oliveg. a So few travel
ers mention them, that my curiosity was excit-
ed; and accompanied by q party OF young peo-
pie.l started in search Of these almost unknown
caTerns We were each provided with twisted
English tspers, and our friend who acted as
guide, with small ball Of twina.
The dignifed beauty Of the scenery, the
abundance Of association which it supplied, and
the glorious antieipations Of its coming destiny,
seemed to inspire come Of us with emotions Of
deep and mysterious pleasure, while the freah-
ness Of the atmosphere, and the rich dispIaysof
Wild flowers, impaired elasticity and giadness
to the junior members Of the party, who, some
mounted, and some on foot, hurried forward
with joyous laugh as they ritalled each other
II the pursuit or possession Of some new plant
When we had ascended the mount about haIg
way, cur guide requested us 10 help him ii his
search for hole in the ground, Do such WA tie
entrance to the mysterious caverns While
thus employed, he amused himself iii exciting
our alarm by saying that come time previously.
three Jews had entered tho eataeombs, and
having been watched By q Mussulman, their
egress had been rendered impossible BY his
placing . large stone to exclude the daylight,
so that only after many days was their horribIe
position discovered, when they were found dead
not far within the entrance.
This narrative being true, produced sudden
change Of feeling in the party The younger
ones turned pale, and declined the undertaking,
preferring to remain with the armed native
servant, who, as . guard, Waa to wait outside
with the animals. Thus, when the aperture
Was found, only our guide and two others ven
turea in. This aperture is d natural opening
formed by the decay and falling in Of q part Of
the roof, and is just large enough 70 easily ad-
NIT one adEanturer at o time, while the crum-
bled wall and large stones formed d rude kind
Of staircase by which, clinging with hands and
fest, We descended into the darkness below.
Feeling ourselves on firm ground, we LII cur
tapers and looked around we were in q circu-
lar chamber. out Of which there appesred at
first no means Of egress except the roof again,
but as our sight adapted itself to the obssurity.
we observed that all around the floor Of this
chamber were low erched passages, % low and
90 narrow as only just to admit us singIy az
one after the other we crept through the one
selected on hands and knees, holding our tapers
as well astwe could. Happily the passage was
only . few feet long. and soon emerging fhence,
we stood upright in o long marrow winding cor
ridor, the low ceiling Of which We could mark
with the smoke Of our tapsrs. Old dates and
strange characters were there i'd great variety,
but the only smoke written autograph which /
can now recall to mind was that Of n JoIn
Clarke, 1894 -
On either wall Of this corridor, on the door,
we're low arched reeesses, quite near together,
which once had contained the dead, long since
returned to dust. From this corridor branch
ed others; We selected one, and from it again
branched others, all apparently alike, appre-
priated to the long g-forgotten dead Thus on
we went till our tWine failed, then remember
ing the sad stories told of the catacombs at
Rome, we did mot proceed \ but silent and
thoughtful, through this wilderness Of sepul-
ahres we retraeed our steps 90 the round cham
ber. e
Here for o few moments we paused to think
ion the mysteries of this remarkable mountain.
We had only explored one path, and that not to
o great distance where did the Others lead -
all perhaps to similar scenes, and through
groves of sleeping dust, sWaiting that day when
He shall appear again in like manner as he as
cended from the said Mount Olives {Acts, i. III.
~, who shall cleave the Mount asunder and
reveal to its awakened inmates the dawn Of the
resurrection. Imagination attempts to picture
these corridors suddenly filled to overhoWing
| with mortals who have put on Immortality The
mountain breaks with its burden (zach. xiv Al,
groans and bursts asunder, while, myrigds rise
to meet their Lord!
| But then by what age or people have these
caverns been filed 5 The answer may produce
asad reverse to the solemn picture. Alas, that
question cannot be satisfactorily answered, for
| most travellers have assigned them originally TO
| the worship of Ashtaroth in the days Of Solo
mon, while they were probably after wards used
by repentant Israel, and converted into bury
ing place for their dead* Whatever may be
their history, they furnish much profitable re-
Election, and much illustration OF Scripture;
and to my own mind, as have limited, they fur
nish literal Interpretation to the passage
quoted above, standing as it does in connexion
with the events of the latter days 5.
September 8, 1852. q. s. J. D. .5=s
-* This Of course was in order to dssecrste the
place in the eyes of the Jews n 5S7 %