The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-05-25
HOMIE OF A PROPHET.
.o,xT CARMEL AN ORIENTAL GAR
DEN SPOT.

,utstdes Produce Large Harvests
Are brilliant With Flowers.
~,orshiping Place for Ages-CIaiIn-
ID by Followers of Baal and of Je-
Yah. 1t Has Been the Scene of
n f,I Conflicts Growing Out of
religion.
,,,,,,am E. Curtis, in Chicago Record
Herald.
tJ,ifa. Syria, March S1.-Mount Car
- is one of the most beautiful of
NJ Its slopes are always covered
-,+b verdure, flowers and sweet herbs,
. ..t,,rad bv the dew which was famous
= scrinturaI times. The original name.
T,orr-el means 1.-The garden" or vine
+ - of God" In Bible times, as now,it
',os not only prominent land mark,
,,tsbe up and down the coast from
1.ra on the south to Tyre and Sidon
edward. but produced fat harvests
If olives and grapes, and profusion
II towers. plants and shrubs. The odor-
ans THYME grows in great masses, wild
-oses climb over every rock, and the
oortb is covered with a variety of
grolndorchids. No other part of the
country yields such olives and grapes
and nowhere else are the sheep and
81 cattle so we'll fed.
In bible times, as now, Carmel was
the abode of hermits and the asylum
nj fugitfves from justice who dWelt
IN caves and grottoes which are numer-
n,s ON both slopes among the limestone
lodges. Amos says though they hide
n themselves in the top of Carmel, will
q, search and take them out thence" The
4 mountain was a sanctuary and place
Il of worship from the earliest times. 1t
was claimed both for Baal and for Je-
bovah. Both had affairs near the crest
where the priests of the rival religions,
as told in the vivid language in the
n hook of Kings, fought out an awful
debate to determine which was SUI
nreme. The struggle took place in one
of the sublimest landscapes conce1v-
q able A charming vision of earth and
sea and SKY.
carmel is rather ridge than
maintain as it extends at about an
II even hight of LOO feet for a distance
N of eighteen miles, being out at inter-
walls with abrupt ravines and deep
gorges the entire distance. 1t runs at
right angles from the coast and the
+ western end is a bold promontory $50
4 feet in hight, which projects into the
sea At the other end is a series of
rocky terraces leading down into the
n famous plain of Esdraelon, where Ale
great miracle of Elijah took place.
Carmel separates this famous plain
on the north from the equally cele-
IA brated plain of Sharon on the south,
and at the eastern end sinks gradually
+ into the wooded hills of Samaria. There
are ten or twelve villages upon its
NJ slopes. occupied by Moslems and
a Druses most of them shepherds. One
of these villages was the retreat of
II Lawrence Oliphant, an eccentric Eng
shman, who wrote novels and en-
deavOred to benefit his fellowman
without much success. He once started
a colony in California, but it was
q failure owing to the unwillingness of
the beneiciaries to work for their
board, or some similar reason, and,
attracted by the success of the Temple
Society, he came to Palestine, hoping
TO revive the languishing fortunes of
the Jews. Oiphants' experience is
told in his story, entitled THE Land
a Of Gilead." He failed to obtain con-
cession from the Turkish government
n hoping against hope from 1882 to 1888,
while he resided in the German colo
n ny of Eaifa and wrote novels.
He built a villa on Mount Carmel
and bought a Druse village called Ell
dalyet- el-Kermel He tried to learn
from this secret sect the articles of
their faith. but did not succeed. He
did them much good, however, by CIV
ing them schools and better houses
and farming implements, and they re-
member him as a benefactor, but he
finally abandoned his purpose after
his wife, Alice Lestrange, died on
Mount Carmel after a distressing ILL
ness. Her sufferings seem to have
4 turned his hpaH he x4yac
a himself again. He went to England,
and there fell in with a Mrs. Temple
3 ton, spiritualist medium, and a
daughter of Robert Dale Owen of In
n diana. She married him upon his
q deathbed with a good deal of mystery
q inherited his property, came here, sold
out everything that was marketable
returned to London, and has not been
seen or heard of in Haifa since.
Almost every spot on Carmel is as
ISOLATED with Bible history. Upon the
promontory toward the SEA is the DER
a Ell Mar Elyas, an enormous Carmelite
4 monastery, erected over the cave in
4 which the Prophet Elijah is said to
A have made his home There is very
4 little doubt about the historical accu-
raCy of the traditions Of Carmel It
Is enc of the few places in Palestine
Where you can be confident of seeing
Il the real thing. Thece is no humbug
4 there, and, although Elijah may rot
nave lived in that particular cave, he
certainly occupied for many years a
cave in the immediate neighborhood.
Inc accounts of events that occurred
on Carmel are related with such detail
IN the Bible and the topography is so
explicitly described that there can be
no mistake. Any one who has Travelled
IN the Holy Land can appreciate the
satisfaction.
question. however, the assertion of
brother Felix, a consumptive Amer
Can monk, who showed us around, that
4 ElJah was the founder of the Order
OF Carmelite Friars. Perhaps Brother
A FellX was 'joshing" a heretical fellow
Countryman. He had a keen sense of
Hunor' but said it with a sober face.
NOBODY knows definitely who founded
lAe Carmelites. except that the found
eIS We're hermits. who lived in E,iijah's
gaIe Tor centuries. They were here
oeIore 11S0. when the first monastery
was built, and probably came in the
CIusades. 1t is claimed by some that
lHs Empress Helena put up the first
guiding while others attribute it to
g. LOUIS, the crusader king of France.
GIeek Inscriptions in the cave are evl-
TeHlY older than the Christian era;
Idcltus tells us that in his time there
mdS an altar to the 'god of Carmel"
MHeIe the monastery now stands; Ply
uIasoras' the great Greek philosopher,
oH Journey from Athens to Egypt,
spent some time there, and the E.mper-
VI espasian consulted an oracle, which
occupied the spot
me Carmelite order was officially