Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1879-12-18
EHE HOLY LAND.
Cor d nsed Reporf o. Fourth Lecture
by Rev. r. T.. sturgis.
[stenographicaIly Reported and Revised. ]

Site of the Crucifxion-Burial and Res
urrection-Easter Incidents.
My last lecture was on the topographv
and general scenery of Jerusalem, with 8
description of its interior arrangement
and construction, ancient and modern. To-
night purpose taking you on an excur-
sion to some of the scenes and places about
the CITY forever hallowed and dear to the
Christian heart from their intimate associa
ton with the closing days of our Savior's
life upon earth.
There is very little danger in going any
where about the sacred city. We were
never in any any place OR tour molested
the least. The natives are everywhere too
anxious for backshish to threaten or drive
you, away. They think foreigners are
made of money, and in fact they are to
some extent, for it costs on an average
about eight dollars a day TO go through
Egypt and Palestine And they wait upon
you by inches, b set you behind and before,
almost dog your every step, if perhaps. q
plaster may touch the palm of their hand.
A golden key will open almost any door
of the OrientaPs heart, or home, or Mosque
or Temple
But still, six years ago: the city itself.
within the walls, was considered the safest
place of any by night, and the residents
and farmer all come in as far as possible
at sunset. From all about Jerusa EN- you
would see the people vending their way
from neighboring valley and village. to
spend the night within the walls. Into
the city's enclosure they also to large
extent drive the sheep and goats for safe
nightly shelter, from their grazing grounds
outside. They are housed under the
homes, or kept till the morning in pens
riding at shutdown in the deep, dark,
lonely gorges about the city, / encoun-
tered large hocks of sheep and goats,
mingled together, winding their way to
wards the gate of the city. Once especially
| met vast drove of them being driven
up the valley of Hinnon, just below Mount
Zion, and how weird looked those Arab
shepherds, one in front of the flock, lead
ing it On, and the other behind to see that
no dog or robber moslested theml Turbans
on their heads. leather sandals On their feet,
and their loose, picturesque, pastoral gar
ments around them. They had over their
shoulders literally sleeps clothing for
cloaRs. There must have been two or
three hundred in the flock. The shephert
| ahead was continually calling them, and
| quickly they pricked up their ears, needed
| his voice, and troited on after him. said
''Salaam," Peace. the usual Oriental saluta-
ton, or as we say IN English, Good l.
morning, or "Good-evening," or How do
you do" and he replied in the broad gut
teral Arabic ''Salam." When the herd had
half passed, [ initiated the shepherds cry,
and the whole flock at once instantly
stopped He saw l was foreigner, and
doing it pleasantly, he repeated his call,
and the flock went on. | cried the shep-
herds call again, and again they stopped.
he repeated his, and they darted off after
and again, they would not heed me- but
Loyalty and obediently fastened after their
good shepherd. illustrating the 10th chap
ter of John, where Christ says, MY sheep
know my voice, and follow me, but the
voice of a stranger they do not know"
had read before / went to Palestine of
the immense tails of the Syrian sheep,
weighing 10. Is, or 20 pounds, and l
thought it must be exaggeration. But in
this flock some sheep had tails hugely en-
larged at the extremity to 10 or Is pounds,
have no doubt, vast mass of fat flesh,
which the Arabs use instead of butter. It
is said by some writer's that the tails of
the Syrian sheep often grow so large that
they have to be artifcially supported on
kind of wheel contrivance attached to the
animal. We saw and heard nothing to
corroborate such statements.
One of the most interesting and freqently
visited things about Jerusalem are the
cemeteries and rock hewn sepulchres.
Almost every hill and valley and dell
within and about the city is covered over
with these habitations and memorials of
the dead. The valleys of Hinnon and
Jehosaphat, the sides and SUBMITS of
Oiivet, Zion, Moriah, Akra and Bezeths,
and the rocky, ridgey plateau on the
with them. Every nationality repr' scented
there has its own-the American, English,
Greek, Latin, Armenian, Moslem and
Jew. The Mob smedans bury their dead
without eoffins, bringing the body to the
grave on q kind of bier. They seem to /
deposit them in white winding sheets in the
naked earth itself Their cemeteries are,
for the most part, unfenced and shockingly
neglected. and are almost always sprinkIed
here and there with the cypress. which
seems to be the Moslem's favorite funeral
tree. Over their graves they build little.
low limestone houses, two or three
feet high, surrounded at the head by
little square, white stone, generally
carved in the fashion of the turban that
characterizes the f4nli1y or tribe to which
the dead being l don't recall any in
scriptIons on them.
The Jews to-day bury their dead in the
western slopes of Olivet, and the whole
hillside, especially southwark and oppo-
site NJ oriah, is literally paved with lime
stone slabs To them this soil is holy, and
the Jews come from all parts of the earth
to be buried here. They believe the 81 J
ley of Jehosaphat just under their grave
yards, is 10 be the special scene of the
Messiah's Advent and the final judge
ment On Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath,
the western slope of Olivet was filled with
Jews-fathers, mothers visiting the places
where lay their loved ones. They so
there to weep as Mary and Martha went to
weep at the grave of Lazarus There were
many of them, doubtless mothers, whose
little ones were buried beneath the low
lying slabs, on their knees, with their
faces IN their hands bending over the
tombs, sobbing and wailing as though
their hearts would break. There was s0r-
row there, sincere and heartfelt, as real
and true as any of yours, whose dear ones
sleep in yonder Gray's Cemetery. The
women were covered from head to foot in
a kind of immense sheet wrapped about
them, and walking amid the white sepul-
chres like very ghosts.
But the ancient rock -hewn sepulchres
claim our special attention. They are
everywhere among the slopes and ridges
about the city. They are cut in the pre-
cipitous or steep faces Ct the limestone
ROCKS of every size and shape, single
tombs, four or five together, family and
tribal vaults, From earliest times the
poor Hebrews were buried in the earth, but
the kings, rulers, princes and the wealthy
were generally embalmed and placed in
rock-hewn excavations in the hill-sides of
the city. The tomb of Joseph of Arima-
thea was of this kind, cut into the solid
face Of rock terrace, with a low stone
door on stone hinges and shutting close to,
perhaps secured by massive stone rolled
against it. On this door, being low. the
angel sat. The most remarkable of these
rock-hewn sepulches are the tombs of the
judges and the kings, mile or so to the
northwest of the city. a large, deep and
open court or vestibule is excavated like
i1fo ba g. - ~