The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-10-16

4
herded by boys, and now and then pass
a village of white-walled houses with
thick roofs of thatch on which the grass
J grows Nearly every house has roof OF
sod about foot deep, and as we neal
the hills the towns on their sides rise
= up in green terraces
4 The landscape here is far different from
] that of the United States. There are nc
4 houses nor barns standing alone In the
fields. There are no outbuidings of any
i description, and no haystacks or straw
stacks. The people live in villages and
1 go out to work in the fields. The only
fences are hedges of cactus, and the
most of the holdings are not fenced at
A all
Climbing the Judean Mountains
! The land remains fertile clear to the
mountains, a distance of perhaps ~
miles. In the foothills are patches of
green, and higher on up fields cut mere
and there out of the rocks, which are
4 built up to hold in the earth. l have
4 never seen a country more rocky. The
4 rough lands of the Blue Ridge are Nile
farms compared to the hills through
/ which we go on our way to Jerusalem.
In many places there is nothing but
rocks, which are laid up in such ways as
to make one think they were constructed
by man. The limestone strata are piled
|
monuments rising the hills. In some
places whole mountains are steps, form
ing pyramids of white limestone, sparseiy
sprinkled with patches of grass and red
peoples.
In the Footsteps of Samson
The railway winds its way in and
out 1t crawls along the sides OF the
mountains with horseshoe curves here
and there The whole journey Is over
historic ground Much of it is in the root
steps of Samson. We cross the plains
where he fought with the Pnilsuhes'
Staying a thousand of them with the Jaw
hone of an ass. We see the place where
4 he tied the frebrands to the tails OF
900 foxes and let them loose to burn up
the harvest A little farther on we enter
the valley of Sorek, where the wicked
Delilah cut off the hair of the strong man
as he lay asleep in her lap. and away up
on the side of the hill we can see the
town of Zorah, where Samson was porn
, At the station of DER Aban, where sam
uel raised his Ebeneaer, crowd of chill
dren come to the trains with bouquets of
wild flowers. The boys whine for bak-
sheesh and we wonder whether there
NAV not be an infant Samson among
them.
II was In Zorah that Samson was
hurled. and the guides here Will snow
YOU his tomb. Farther along the road
we pass through a great gorge In the
cliffs. on the north side of which. near
the top. is cave, in which Samson
lived And I verify believe that II we
should offer our guides sufficient reward
they would find us his bones or some
pieces of brass from the gates of the
CITY of GAIA, which, you remember, ne
I carried away on his shoulders.
The Excavations of Gexer
I In our ride up to Jerusalem we go by
4 the ancient city of Gezer. 1t is marked
by a mound which has several build
ings upon it. including the dome of a
1 Mohammedan mosque. The ground
about 1t has been dug over and over
and the ruins discovered have excited
the religious and scientific world.
The excavations which have been
\ made by the Palestine exploration fund
I show Gezer to be one of the Oldest
4 II not the oldest, city of history. The
scientists have gone down into the
earth finding one city built upon the
] ruins of another, down to the seventh
city or settlement, which seems to have
been occupied by the cave jewellers OF
the flint or stone ago. period before
| history began to be written. In these
/ cave dwellings pottery and flint in
] struments were discovered. A burial
/ place of that ancient race was opened
up and remains found which show that
the cave jewellers practiced cremation
In one of the six other cities, higher
! up, bronze. tools were dug out, and
higher still the remains of the ancient
q Egyptians In one of the caves were
i found large Jars containing the skele-
4 tons of infants who had been sacrificed
as a matter of worship, probably dur
4 ing the Canaanite period, and in an
n other was a cistern, the mouth OF
which was guarded by the skulls OF
Il two young girls, and inside which were
IA skeletons, one being that. of a CIR
of 16 who had been sawn asunder.
Belonged to Solomon
The King of Gezer was defeated by
n joshua and later the city was cap
i tured by king of Egypt VIII was one
of Solomons 800 odd fathers-i in law
4 The story is that Pharaoh gave Gezel
\ to Solomon as dowry with his daugh
4 ter, and that Solomon rebuilt the city
4 At the time of the crusades Richard
Occur de Lion and Saladin fought oyel
4 it, and 1t was an important fortress a
d the time of the Maccabees.
The Psychologists of the Palestine ex
a ploraton fund have been excavating here
Il for five years, and, they say there is much
yet to be found. They are about to pub
4 fish a book giving a full statement o.
pots, ivory tablets, statues, jewels anc
other treasures of a half dozen different
periods of history. In one of the cities {
& complete olive tree made of stone wa.
Il unearthed and In another an Egyptian
j statuet about 1000 years old. The statute
was that of man with beard and {
wig. Bronze tweezers were found anc
also many articles of Greek and Roman
Il times One of the most interesting dis
coveries wasa reservoir of capacity O.
q 100000 gallons, and another was a pal
ace supposed to belong to one of thu
n Maccabees.
New Light ON Palestine
This is only one Of a number of cite!
which now being excavated betweef
Jericho and Mediterranean sea, in ad
dition to those which have lately beer
dug up east of the Jordan. The Germans
4 Russians and Austrians are excavatins
in different places, but the most of tn