The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1885-03-27
Life in Modern Palestine.

N correspondent " Juc NtW OTk
SIN thus writes of the Interesting dis.
coveries made near Capernaum, Beth
saida and Gennesareth
Our way took us due north across
the fertile plain of Buiaiha, which
is somewhat like the plain of Genpes-
ar,th. Both are well watered and ex-
tremrly fertile. Butaiha has the lar.
gest and most prominent brooks, Gen
nesareth the most numerous and abun
dant springs. The old traveller, Burck-
hardt, says that the Arabs of the Bu-
taiha have the earliest cucumbers and
melons in all this region. 1t was on
this plain, at the foot of the hill or
'rell' we were now approaching, that
Josephus fought the Romans under
| Sylla, concerning which battle ne says:
IL would have performed great things
that day If a certain fate had not been
my hindrance, for the horse on which
| rode and upon whose back | fought
fell into a quagmire and threw me to
the ground, and | was bruised on my
wrist and was carried into certain
villag- called Cuphernome or Caper-
naun."
The tell which rises from this plain
about mile and half from the lake,
is thickly s,rewn with ruins, consisting
of hewn blocks of black basalt, with
which in the ancient times all the
houses in this region were constructed /;
but as yet no traces of any large build
ing have been discovered. 1t has. in.
deed, been very rarely visited, but it is
considered by many to he the site of
B'thsaida-Julas and the scene of the
miracle of the loaves and fishes. At
present all we know for certain is that
| Bethsaida was somewhere in the Buta.
iha; that Jnserhus in his descriptions
advanced il to the dignity of city,
both by reason of the number Of inhab
itants it. contained and its other grand
eur; and that inasmuch as the plain OF
the Butaiha contains many heaps OF
ruins, none of any very great extent,
any of them may be Bethssida. while
if it was a large city in our modern ac-
ceptation of the term, the whole plain
would not be large euough to contain
it.
Indeed, one is much struck in ex-
ploring the ruins of the country by the
limited areas which they cover. am
afraid to say how many sites of ruined
towns have visited, certainly not less
than forty; and | think one could
crowd them all into the area occupied
by the ruins of one large Egyptian
city-Arsinoe in the Fayoum, r in
stance; but then the ruins of an Egyp-
tian city are composed mainly of
mounds of postherds, while these con
siSt of large blocks of building stone,
either limestone or basalt, measuring
generally two feet or two feet six one
way, aud a foot or eighteen inches the
other. Then they are usually compar-
atively near together; all around the
Lake of Tiberias. for,instance, and in
the country in its vicinity, they
are generally not more than from one
t" three miles apart so that this sec
ton of country must have been very
thickly peoped. The ruins of Et Tell
are now built over by the Arabs, who
live in squallid village among the ba-
salt blocks which formed the mansions
inhabit' d by the more highly civilized
race which occupied the country in the
days when all this region was the ia.
voritr haunt of Christ AMI His dlsc-
pies.
Leaving Et TIL on our left, We fol
lowed the east bank of The Jordan for
more than mile. This river is here
very rapid, and, splitting into numer-
ous streams, whrls past the small isl,t t.
they form. IL is the very ideal of a
trout stream, on which on some more
proritious occasion propose to cast a
fly. NJ aniime, even had | been pro
vided with the requisite tackle, l
should have been obliged to fnrego the
temptation. 1t was on the steep rise
of a hill, about hundred yards from
the river, that my guide suddenly stop.
ped. Here was a small collection of
Arab novels, recently constructed, and
it was in their search for stone, last
summer, that the natives had for the
first time uncovered the ruin which
now met my delighted gaza.
| found myself in the presence of a
building the character of which / had
yet to determine, the walls 'of which
were still standing to height Of eight
feet. The area they enclosed was
thickly strewn with building stones
fral ments of columns, pedestals, capi
tails. and corpioes Two at least of the
columns were IN situ, while the base.
of others were TOO much concealed by
piles Of stone to enable me to deter
mine their original positions. Ny frs
! impression, from the character of The
, architecture which was strewn about
was that this was formerly Roman
temple; bnt further and more care
iul examination convinced M that il
had originally heen Jewish syna
gogue, which at a later period haC
been converted TO another nse prob
ably it had been appropriated by tn,
Byzantnes as basilicia or Christian
church This was the more probable
as the existing walls had evidpntl,
been built upon the foundations of
former structure. The massive stone
were set in mortar, which is not tn
case with the svnagogues hitherto dis
covered; and should doubtless hav,
been completely at fault in classin,
this building had my attention no
,, been already directed to the remains o
the synagogues brought to light recent
ly bv the exertions of the Palestine
Exploration Fund.
! was now fortunately in position
to compare the dimensions, grounC
, plan, and architectural fragment
which were strewn about with thos
> which distinguish the synagogues a
ready discovered, in regard to who's
t, original character there can be N
doubt, as the Hebrew inscriptions an,
I sacred Jewish symbols carved on tn
lintrls prove il. The building meas
= ured As fert by 33, which is exactl
the measurement of the small syna
gogue at Kefr Birim. The column
We're exactly Of the same diameter
$ The floor was depressed, and reache
| lN, Il s1 -