Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1891-02-03
a SHORT VISIT TO JoPPA.
Int .sstlng sketch of What Ir"V''''
saw I'm That Scriptnrd Town.

Int ..stlnE NkHNth ~
saw In That Scriptur'd Town.
Landing at Joppa, DIR Geikie begins ms
observations at once Joppa Is one oi the
oldest cities in the world ana the hIs'
possible landing place rs one sails noIt ~
ward from Egypt Yet there Is diihculty
in landing Reefs of rocks deIehu tho
shore, the bay is shallow, sharks are n1'
unknown. and the coast is much eAPoseu
Your vessel anchors halt niue OUT az
sea. and a throng OF tattlsh oottoiieu
coolies soon surround the snip 10 carry
passengers through the opening Ill Tue
reefs TO land. .--4
A babel of cries, unintelliglble TO "esV,
ern ears. fills the air, but by degrees the
motley crowd Of deck passengers OF the
most varied nationaities, yelled women
shawl covered Arabs. black Nubians with
their red foxes. brown Levantines' .ut-
baued Syrians. or Egyptians with their
flowing robes of all shades, all drift by
degrees into the boats, and for time, at
Ieast Won see the last of their red or yell
low slippers, and hear their noisy largon
no more Then YOU, who have shrunk
nossiblv from this crushing crowd OF
Orientals, have your turn, and the Skill
ful and strong armed oarsmen wh1sk you
through LIlt pptAllis, III wv tNN-N
the shallow harbor, and then suddenly,
when YOU ore twenty or thirty yards off
shore, Won are seized, and carried in the
bare arms or on the back of boatman
through the shallow water to the tumble
down old quay built of stone from the
ruins of C@sarea, and at last you find
yourself treading on the soil of the holy
land.
Not very dignifed entrance, perhaps;
but the boats could not approach closer,
and YOU have Jared no worse than the
bead eyed Greeks or the hook nosed
Romans did thousands of years ago. At
one period Venice organized spring and
autumn packet service chow strangely
modern that soundsD to Joppa and built
mole to protect the shipping; but since
the reign of the "unspcakable Turk,
everything has relapsed into state OF
nature And so from earliest times
Phnncan and Egyptian, Roman and
Crusader, English and American, all have
to acknowledge the power of the Preacher
Gus waters
Pursuing our way through the street,
we find it rough enough. Once paved,
the stones have long since risen or sunk
above or below their proper level Dust
bins and sewers being apparently alike
unknown to the idle Oriental every kind
of foulness bestrews the way The build
ings are of stone, with little or no wood
anywhere, timber being scarce in Pales
tine. The arch is hence universal; as
you ramble on you see that no light en-
tiers the shops except from the front
that they are in fact something like
miniatures of the gloomy holes sometimes
made out of railway arches in England
Tables of cakes or sweetmeats line the
narrow streets Rough awnings of mats
often sorely dilapidated, or tent cloths,
or loose boards res ing on rickety struc-
ture Of poles, partly shade the roadway
Now we meet a turbaned water carrier
with huge skin bottle on his back. The
bottle is in fact a defunct calf, with water
instead of veal within, and without legs,
head or tail, and Offering most forcible
illustration of the reference to the plac-
ing of new wine in old bottles.
Farther on we see a bare armed and
bare legged individual in ragged skull
cap, cotton jacket, ana cotton knicker-
bockers, chatfering with a roadside buck.
ster for some delicacy, costing farthing
or two, from some of the mat baskets on
the table; be bearded vender, also bare
armed and bare legged, sits as he tries to
sell, his head swathed in white and red
turban, and bis body in pink and white
cotton. OF course there is lounger at
his side looking on.
Then again we see an Arab in "kefyeh"
or head shawl with ii band of camels
hair rope, very soft, around his head to
keep t he flowing gear in its place, and
brown and white striped abba" for his
outer dress; he is bargaining for bride
at saddler's, and trying to cheaper it;
and the saddler sits cross legged on a
counter and under a shady projection of
wood and reeds, which gives him much
needed shade. And thus we see glimpses
of ordinary every day life in the old town
of Joppa.-The Culver