In The Levant

Оглавление

Warner Charles Dudley. In The Levant

PREFACE

I.—FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM

II.—JERUSALEM

III.—HOLY PLACES OP THE HOLY CITY

IV.—NEIGHBORHOODS OF JERUSALEM

V.—GOING DOWN TO JERICHO

VI.—BETHLEHEM AND MAR SABA

VII.—THE FAIR OF MOSES; THE ARMENIAN PATRIARCH

VIII.—DEPARTURE FROM JERUSALEM

IX.—ALONG THE SYRIAN COAST

X.—BEYROUT.—OVER THE LEBANON

XI.—BA’ALBEK

XII.—ON THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS

XIII.—THE OLDEST OF CITIES

XIV.—OTHER SIGHTS IN DAMASCUS

XV.—SOME PRIVATE HOUSES

XVI.—SOME SPECIMEN TRAVELLERS

XVII.—INTO DAYLIGHT AGAIN.—AN EPISODE OF TURKISH JUSTICE

XVIII.—CYPRUS

XIX.—THROUGH SUMMER SEAS.—RHODES

XX.—AMONG THE ÆGEAN ISLANDS

XXI.—SMYRNA AND EPHESUS

XII.—THE ADVENTURERS

XXIII.—THROUGH THE DARDANELLES

XIV.—CONSTANTINOPLE

XXV.—THE SERAGLIO AND ST. SOPHIA, HIPPODROME, etc

XXVI.—SAUNTERINGS ABOUT CONSTANTINOPLE

XXVII.—FROM THE GOLDEN HORN TO THE ACROPOLIS

XXVIII.—ATHENS

XXIX.—ELEUSIS, PLATO’S ACADEME, ETC

XXX.—THROUGH THE GULF OF CORINTH

Отрывок из книги

SINCE Jonah made his short and ignominious voyage along the Syrian coast, mariners have had the same difficulty in getting ashore that the sailors experienced who attempted to land the prophet; his tedious though safe method of disembarking was not followed by later navigators, and the landing at Jaffa has remained a vexatious and half the time an impossible achievement.

The town lies upon the open sea and has no harbor. It is only in favorable weather that vessels can anchor within a mile or so from shore, and the Mediterranean steamboats often pass the port without being able to land either freight or passengers, In the usual condition of the sea the big fish would have found it difficult to discharge Jonah without stranding itself, and it seems that it waited three days for the favorable moment. The best chance for landing nowadays is in the early morning, in that calm period when the winds and the waves alike await the movements of the sun. It was at that hour, on the 5th of April, 1875, that we arrived from Port Said on the French steamboat Erymanthe. The night had been pleasant and the sea tolerably smooth, but not to the apprehensions of some of the passengers, who always declare that they prefer, now, a real tempest to a deceitful groundswell. On a recent trip a party had been prevented from landing, owing to the deliberation of the ladies in making their toilet; by the time they had attired themselves in a proper manner to appear in Southern Palestine, the golden hour had slipped away, and they were able only to look upon the land which their beauty and clothes would have adorned. None of us were caught in a like delinquency. At the moment the anchor went down we were bargaining with a villain to take us ashore, a bargain in which the yeasty and waxingly uneasy sea gave the boatman all the advantage.

.....

“Oh, I tell him my gentleman general American, but ‘stinguish; mebbe he done gone wrote ‘em that you ‘stinguish American general. Very nice man, the superior, speak Italian beautiful; when I give him the letter, he say he do all he can for the general and his suite; he sorry I not let him know ‘forehand.”

The dinner was served in the long refectory, and there were some twenty-five persons at table, mostly pilgrims to Jerusalem, and most of them of the poorer class. One bright Italian had travelled alone with her little boy all the way from Verona, only to see the Holy Sepulchre. The monks waited at table and served a very good dinner. Travellers are not permitted to enter the portion of the large convent which contains the cells of the monks, nor to visit any part of the old building except the chapel. I fancied that the jolly brothers who waited at table were rather glad to come into contact with the world, even in this capacity.

.....