, 1868-07-31
A VISIT TO NAZARETH.
NAzAnrrn, March u, lses.

NAEARErn, March IL, 1868.
APPEARANCE OF THE TOWN.
The scenery around the town Of Nazareth
is very much like that to be found in Ver-
mont-rounded hills, narrow valleys, lime
stone rocks, sunny slopes, patches Of green
fields and verdant pastures You do not see
the sugar maple crowning the hill tops, nor
the graceful elm In the hollows, but the dark
green of the olive and the spreading leaves
ofthe fig tree instead. You travel on horse>
back along winding paths, instead of rolling
in buggies over country carriage roads.
There are no cottages or farmhouses, with
great barns and hay.stacks, along the way ;
no busting towns, no click aud clatter Of
factory machinery. Travelling from the plain
of Esdraelon, climbing the hills just as we
might 90 up from the meadows along the
Connecticut, ride Of four miles brings us
TO hollow among the hills. We look down
into it and have a view of the town West of
us, on the sunny slope of hill, which rises
four or five hundred feet above the town.
The fat rooted stone houses are nestled on
the hillside Just as the dwellings are in
many New England village. Danish from
your mind any other resemblance. There
are no wide streets, no front yards, filed with
roses and lilacs, no trim cottages with green
blinds, but stone walls, with holes for win
dows, heaps of mud and manure around the
doors. At the bottom of the hollow are old
olive trees, garden walls and hedges of prick
ly pear. East of the town, at the foot Of
the hill is fountain, pouring out copious
streams of water through marble slab. We
pitch our tents within stones throw of the
fountain, close by the grove of old olives,
the limestone lodges cropping out along the
hillside behind US, giving shelter from the
cold winds sweeping down from the North.
THE FOUNTAIN.
The fountain is the only public resort of
the town. Here the women and girls fill
their water jars, chat together, talk over the
news, balance the jars upon the crown of the
head, and walk back to their homes. Here
they pound the dirt from their clothes upon
the rocks; they have no scrubbing boards,
no patent washing machines, or clothes
wringers, neither wash tubs. The brook
below the fountain is the public washing
place-the place, also, whore the horses,
donkeys, sheep aud goats of the town slake
their thirst. There is no pleasauter village
in Palestine, none where the people are more
kind and courteous, none where the maidens
are more beautiful not such beauty as you
would find in the West, but widely separated
from the common type among the Arabs, as
the Madonna of Raphael is from our concep-
ton of the witches of Midsummer Nights
Dream. The population is Christian. Very
pleasant it is to hear the tolling of the church
bell for vespers falling on the evening air.
And now let me ask your readers to climb
the hillside with me, the hill North of town,
that we may have an hour for quiet refec
tion.
VIEW BY MOONLIGHT.
1t is evening, and the sights and sounds
of the day are fading on the eye and ear.
The moon is approaching full and throws
a flood Of light upon the hills. There are
drifting clouds in the sky over head. In the
North there is dark thunder cloud-yiyid
flashes of lightning playing round Lebanon
and Hermon. East of us is the rounded
light of Tabor, and beyond, over the Jordan
Valley, light, heecy clouds, lined with silver
and edged with gold, lowering in mid air as
the cherubim and seraphim once hoyered
over the bills of Bethlehem. We look across
the plain of Esdraelon, in the South, and
behold Little Hermon and Gilboa, while far
away through the haze we trace dimly the
outlines of Ebal and Gerizim Westward,
clearer and more distinct, is Mount Carmel.
We hear the tinkling OF bells in the sheep
folds, the barking of dogs, the howl of lack.
ails on the hills, and the deep thunder far
away. From the vale below us ascend the
voices Of our own muleteers singing around
their camp fires. We behold our own white
tents and those of an English party lust arriy.
ed. The place, the scene, the hour, alike are
soothing to body and soul, and we feel the
appropriateness of the words:
Here in the body peut,
Absent, sfar roam,
But nightly pitch my moving tent.
A days march nearer home"
With such calming influences around us.
we forget the present and go back 1868 wears
to behold Nazareth as it was at that time
a vale as peaceful then as now-an insienif-
cant town, SO small that the people of other
towns spoke of it contemptuously, Just as
we often speak of Slab City and Hard Scrab.
BILE. No great public thoroughare led
through the place. There was a Roman
road down the sea cost, and another from
the sea coast through Sepharis, FIVE or six
miles North, extending Eastward 10 the sea
of Galilee; SO the tides of travel and com.
merce flowed past Nazareth, leaving it a
small village among the hills, without his.
tory.
THE PARENTS OF JESUS.
Among the inhabitants we see the carmen,
ter Joseph, using the ak, the saw, the plane
and ehisel, laying wooden beams for the
roofs of houses, making tables and stools
and among the maidens who fill their lars
at the fountain is one named Mary, betrothed
to the carpenter. She is low in station
though she has royal blood in her veins.
Through all the centuries since painters
have thought of her as an ideal of perfect
loveliness, purity, and truth. It is not
fancy or fiction. Such girl lived here,
walked among these paths, breathed the
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