FREEMASONRY
IN THE
HOLY LAND
Or,
Handmarks
of
Hiram's Builders
By Rob Morris
FOREWORD (2005)
By Ralph Omholt, PM
Most know Morris’ name as the founder of the Order of the Eastern Star, however, Morris contributed radically more to the “Blue Lodge;” as Grand Master of Kentucky and as a Masonic lecturer – add an impressive list of books.
“Freemasonry in the Holy Land” is a Masonic Saga which deserves preservation and renewal as a great piece of Masonic literature. Among other matters, Rob Morris makes valuable observations on history which deserve to be made available for ‘cut-‘n-paste’ research access.
Until recently, many of Freemasonry's finest books were approaching the ‘extinct” list. One of those was “Freemasonry in the Holy Land;” not just a book, but a true Masonic saga! Time had, unfortunately, rendered it amongst the ‘rare’ titles.
Given the ‘mysterious’ declining state of Freemasonry (as of 2005), Morris also serves as an important icon of the Craft; as in his time, great men did great things and received appropriate credit – in their own lifetime. Thus, Morris reminds the craft to pay ALL due wages.
Morris’ 1868 adventure and consequent book are not just an interesting collection of travel, history, geography, culture, archaeology and adventure; but also a sample of the thought processes and attitudes of the mid-1800s. Among other details, Morris’ book was supplemented by artists - not photography - given the budding science of photography – then a new technology and art.
Now, the wonders of computer technology have restored a great book to modern times. Again, this work was also produced as a page-by-page ‘photograph’ of the original book.
Thus, the reader may read from a computer screen, print the content, or manipulate the files, with a ‘text-to-speech’ conversion program.
By way of comment, Morris'“Poetry of Freemasonry” (400 pages) has been comparably restored, as was the 1878 biography of Morris, “The Well Spent Life.”
TO
HIS EXCELLENCY MOHAMMED RASCHID,
PASHA - GENERAL OF SYRIA
HONORED SIR AND BROTHER:
IN my first interview with the zealous band of Freemasons, lovingly at labor in their foyer maconnique at Smyrna, it was reported to me that the Governor‑General of Syria and Palestine, the brave, wise, and learned Mohammed Raschid, is one who delights to wear the Masonic apron, having shared joyfully in the mystic confidences of their fraternal group. And the brethren at Smyrna rejoiced to speak of the intelligence, urbanity, and Masonic skill of their renowned brother at Damascus, and favored me with letters of credence and introduction.
Early upon my arrival in Damascus, therefore, I hastened to pay my respects to your Excellency, and to present you the greetings of a half‑million American Masons, who are working (in more than six thousand lodges) the same principles of Divine truth, justice, and fraternity in which you, yourself, were inducted in your Masonic initiation at Smyrna. At the same time I laid before your Excellency the peculiar mission upon which I had embarked, and solicited your valued approval and patronage.
I have now to acknowledge the very hearty manner in which your Excellency responded to my request; you afforded me the wisest counsel, and extended to me such aid as none can give so effectually as yourself.
Finally, when the plan of the present volume was matured, and I solicited, by letter, the honor of dedicating it to him to whom I am so much indebted, your Excellency granted me the favor, with an urbanity which is in keeping with all I had previously known and enjoyed of your character.
4 DEDICATION.
Since my return home, I have spoken in more than six hundred lodges, and reported to them the results of my Oriental study and labor. Everywhere I have made grateful mention of our distinguished Brother, the Vali of Syria; of his bravery in war, his wisdom in council, the respect and love of his people, and particularly his kindness to the American brother who had journeyed so far in pursuit of Masonic light. Should you, at any period, honor our country with a visit, your Excellency will find that this story of your kindness to the strange brother has come here before you; that the lineaments of your countenance are well known to us, and that a welcome awaits you, such as but few visitors have ever received from the Masonic fraternity. Would that your Excellency might so favor us! Would that the mother‑land of Freemasonry might send such a representative to this great asylum of freedom, where the principles of the ancient Order have unrestricted sway, and every man feels that in his birth Ye is the equal of every other! May it please your Excellency: Our earthly lot differs most widely. Your name is spread afar as one to whom God has intrusted the government of a people. Our forms of faith are diverse. In language, customs, and modes of thought, we are cast in different moulds; but in Masonic UNITY we are one, and one in Masonic FAITH. As our hopes, and aims, and labors are one, we, trusting in one God, and doing, each of us, what we believe to be His expressed will, do humbly expect a common reward when we have passed that common lot which none can escape. To the Divine power, therefore, I tenderly commend your Excellency, both for this world and for that which is to come.
TO H. E. MOHAMMED RASCHID
This book, Freemasonry in the Holy Land, is, by permission, most respectfully and most fraternally
DEDICATED
PREFACE
I OFFER this book to the Masonic public, in redemption of my pledges to the generous friends who furnished me the means both for my expedition of 1868, and for publishing the book itself. That I have been more than three years getting it up, speaks, I think, for the thorough manner of its preparation.
Agreeably to original promise, "the book is adapted to the plainest reader; one that the owner will take home and read in his domestic circle, and afterwards lend to his neighbors to read; equally a reference‑book to the student, and a hand‑book to the traveller; large enough to embrace so great a subject, yet no effort has been spared to compress the information. The Common Gavel has been used remorselessly in striking off excrescences. Written in the spirit of the Holy Writings, French and German infidelity has not made sufficient inroads into American Masonry, that less than nineteen‑twentieths will welcome additional light upon the Divine authenticity of the Bible, and such light I have attempted freely to diffuse through this volume.
Let every subscriber, after reading the book, bear me testimony that I have kept the faith with him.
I have avoided the mysterious and romantic style so common amongst writers upon Palestine, and have cultivated the colloquial. One would think, to read standard accounts of the trees and birds in the Holy Land, that they are different from birds and trees in
6 PREFACE.
other countries. Not so. Making allowance for difference in climate, nature is the same everywhere, and so I have used every-day words in describing them. I have embodied as much practical information as possible; comparing things Oriental with things Occidental; things in the experience of patriarchs and prophets with things in the experience of an American observer. And yet I have endeavored to preserve the gravity and dignity due to a theme around which cluster all our hopes in life, in death, and in the world to come.
In the abundance of my preparations, and the acreage of my readings-up for this book, I have not unfrequently mingled others' thoughts with my own, and have entered them here often without special credit. In defence of this I can only say that such is the general usage of writers. If the reader, then, finds passages the property of other persons, he is at liberty to say so; I will not deny it; but, with the historian Rollin, I confess "that I do not scruple, nor am ashamed, to borrow that I may adorn and enrich my own history." My own credit, if any, shall consist in the skill with which I bind the beads of the chain together. In the thousands of notes and memorandums I have taken, it would be strange, indeed, if I could preserve the ear-marks of each.
In this book I have desired to popularize the study of the Scriptures, by removing some of the difficulties which the unlearned have found in reading them; by smoothing the way to obscure passages, so as to enable all to peruse the Sacred Book understandingly, and better to enjoy sermons and commentaries. Had the hundreds of thou-sands who make up the membership of our lodges this practical knowledge, how easy the teacher's task, in the coming generation, to diffuse the store of useful knowledge there is for mankind in this world!
If any object to the allusions and comparisons to American matters, so freely introduced through these pages, let me confess, old and
PREFACE. 7
cosmopolitan as I am, that patrics fumes igne alieno luculentior - the very smoke of my own native land seems brighter to me than the fire of any other. I trust, however, I have not exhibited this sentiment anywhere offensively.
As the narrative of Arculf's Pilgrimage to Palestine, in the eighth century, led to that passion for pilgrimage which has not yet died out, but has made the nineteenth the most illustrious century of all, so I earnestly hope the publication of this book, the first of its class, will inspire many a zealous tourist to visit those countries on Masonic errands, and many a penman in his closet to enlarge the literature of which I now make the commencement. To show that the web and woof of Masonic tradition are true, is, by an easy transition, to prove the figures of the pattern real and genuine.
In writing Arabic words I have endeavored, in general, to give such English letters as will express them to the ear rather than the eye For instance: instead of harem I write hareem, &c. Yet this rule is but imperfectly carried out, after all; for were I to adopt it rigidly Sultan would be Sooltarn; Koran, Korarn; Hassan, Hassarn, &c If the reader would learn the exact sound of Arabic words (a thing I never did), he must get an Arabic dictionary (and then he can't do it!) As so large a proportion of American Masons are professing Christians - the demonstration at Baltimore, Maryland, September, 1871, proving that our wisest and best members in very large numbers rejoice to bear the symbolical emblem of the MAN OF GOLGOTHA - I have not hesitated frequently "to name the name of Jesus" in this volume, although no one has so often and publicly demonstrated that Freemasonry was ten centuries old when the Star of Bethlehem arose. Nor can our Jewish brethren, many of whom have received a welcome into the American lodges, complain that I neglected the interests
8 PREFACE.
of their long‑persecuted but now emerging society while I was in the East. At the same time I have fully expressed my admiration for much of the character and many of the precepts of Mohammed, as embodied in the Koran. Avoiding the doctrinal points, and read in the spirit of fraternal love, as illustrated in the lectures of Freemasonry, that remarkable book, the Koran, might justly be taken as a comment upon the much older, far wiser, and most remarkable book ever written, THE OLD TESTAMENT of the Hebrew dispensation. To those who are accustomed, without the slightest examination, to denounce the Koran (as well as its author), I will simply say, with Isaiah (viii. 20), "To the law and to the testimony; if it speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in it." An unprejudiced mind will admit, not only that the Koran contains far more quotations from and references to the Bible, but is absolutely imbued more with the spirit of the inspired word than a dozen of the best "Saints' Books" found on the counter of any Catholic bookstore in New York. "To the testimony!"
In affixing the names of my Masonic countrymen freely to places renowned in history, I acknowledge, ubique patriam reminisci, that I remembered my native country in all places, and have attempted thus to join the West to the East by a new and more affecting tie. The Masons who raised nine thousand dollars and upwards to send me to Palestine, and enough, three years afterwards, to publish this volume, have earned the right to Masonic homes among the homes of the first Masons, and the allotment I have made may be yet very much more largely extended. Even though the idea be one strictly in the region of romance, I shall be greatly mistaken if it does not lead to larger explorations, freer offerings, and greater exertions in this direction on the part of generations yet to come.
To Professor A. L. Rawson, of New York, so well known as "The
PREFACE. 8
Oriental Artist," who has given his pencil exclusively, for a number of years, to Biblical illustration, I am indebted, not only for the maps and engravings in my volume, but for many practical and useful suggestions in the preparation of the work itself. Himself a thorough explorer in Eastern fields, he is giving his mature and experienced judgment to such works as Beecher's, Deems's, Crosby's, and other first‑class writers on Biblical themes; his own excellent "Hand‑Book of Bible Knowledge" meanwhile comparing favorably with the best of them.
Finally, if any one with dyspeptic tendencies feels to object to the attempt at humor that may possibly be detected in some of these pages, I bare my back to the lash. I did laugh while going, without guard or guide, through the once inspiring but now depressing lands of the tribes - laughed often and freely, and, even at the end of four years, my cachinations are renewed when I think of certain experiences connected with my journey. The ghost of old laughs thus haunting me so long and persistently, and giving its spirit to my ink, She reader is at liberty, without further dispensation, to laugh too.
THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY.
"A good land and a large . . . a land flowing with milk and honey." (Dent. vi. 3, xi. 9, etc.)
O land of wondrous story, old Canaan bright and fair,
Thou type of home celestial, where the saints and angels are!
In heartfelt admiration we address thy hills divine,
And gather consolation on the fields of Palestine.
In all our lamentations, in the hour of deepest ill,
When sorrow wraps the spirit as the storm‑clouds wrap the hill,
Some name comes up before us from thy bright immortal band,
As the shadow of a great rock falls upon a weary land.
The dew of Hermon falling yet, revives the golden days;
Sweet Sharon lends her roses still, to win the poet's lays;
In every vale the lily bends, while o'er them wing the birds
Whose cheerful notes so marvellously recall the Saviour's words.
From Bethlehem awake the songs of Rachel and of Ruth,
From Mizpah's mountain‑fastness mournful notes of filial truth;
Magdala gives narration of the Penitent thrice‑blest,
And Bethany of sister‑hosts who loved the gentle Guest.
Would we retrace the pilgrimage of Jesus Christ our Lord,
Behold his footsteps everywhere, on rocky knoll and sward;
From Bethlehem to Golgotha, his cradle and his tomb,
He sanctified old Canaan and accepted it his home.
He prayed upon thy mountain‑side, he rested in thy grove,
He walked upon thy Galilee, when winds with billows strove:
Thy land was full of happy homes, that loving hearts did own,
E'en foxes and the birds of air - but Jesus Christ had none.
Thou land of milk and honey, land of corn and oil and wine,
How longs my hungry spirit to enjoy thy food divine!
I hunger and I thirst afar, the Jordan rolls between,
I faintly see thy paradise all clothed in living green.
My day of life declineth, and my sun is sinking low;
I near the banks of Jordan, through whose waters I must go:
Oh, let me wake beyond the stream, in land celestial blest,
To be forever with the Lord in Canaan's promised rest.
DIVISION FIRST ‑ FACING THE EAST
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou gout. - Eccles. ix. 10.
Examine the condition of the Masonic institution, in the land of its nativity. Observe those unaltered customs of the Orientals, whose types are preserved in the rituals of our lodges.
Inspect the traditional sites of Tyre, Gebal, Lebanon, Joppa, Succoth, Jerusalem, etc.
Collect relics of ancient days and specimens of the natural productions cf the land. - Numbers, xiii. 21
CHAPTER I
CONCEPTION AND PREPARATIONS
EVERY one who has undertaken to instruct Freemasons, must many times have yearned to visit Palestine, the mother‑land of ancient affiliations, - the Orient, the home of Abraham and David, - of Solomon and Zerubbabel, - of Jesus and Mohammed, - the School of the Sacred Writings. So many references to that country are contained in the Masonic rituals, it is a marvel that no one of us had made explorations there prior to 1868.
In common with my fellows in Masonic work, I had keenly experienced the Crusader's impulse "to precipitate myself upon the Syrian shore;" and often cast about me for the means to gratify the yearning. In the autumn of 1854, I came so near accomplishing this wish, that, by the favor of a loan of $1,000 from the Grand Lodge of Kentucky, joined to the liberality of other friends, I reached New York, having my face earnestly "set towards Jerusalem." But here an unlucky accident frustrated my hopes, and turned me back to the Occident. Fire, which has so often proved my foe, consumed the Judson House, in which I was a lodger, and by destroying my papers and clothing, etc., so disarranged the scheme, that I could not carry it out successfully at that time.
Yet, for all that, though advancing years, and the res angustœ in domi, the hard realities of life, interposed with a purpose almost in‑exorable, I never once resigned my determination to go to Palestine, but always in my Masonic descriptions spoke of "those traditional localities which some day I am resolved to visit." In the mean‑time, I continued the practice, established long before, of reading whatever publications promised to shed light upon the Lands of the East; and in church, Sunday‑school, and elsewhere, lectured on the subject with a minuteness of detail that compelled me to study the theme in its various historical and scientific associations. This, in fact, served to educate me against the time when it might please the
CONCEPTION AND PREPARATIONS. 13
G. A. O. T. U. to grant me a furlough for the Oriental tour. In purchases of books for my Masonic collections, I gave prominence to those upon Oriental matters, as my old library, now in the keeping of the Grand Lodge of New York, will show. In brief, I sought to emulate the spirit of old Thomas a Kempis in his saying, homo fer vidus et diligens ad omnia paratur - the earnest and diligent man is prepared for all things - and in the meantime found comfort in the promise of Virgil:
Forsan et hæc olim meminisse juvabit;
Durate et vosmet rebus servate secundis;
It may possibly be joyful some day to recall these trials; bear up against them, therefore, and be ready for better times when they come.
In 1867, circumstances proved somewhat encouraging to the fulfillment of my purpose. The opening of various lines of steamships from Europe to the Syrian coast was a favorable incident. The enlarged privileges granted by the Turkish government to foreigners sojourning in the Holy Land enabled a person in 1868 to explore twenty-fold more than he could have done in 1858, and forty-fold more than in 1848: The publication of scores and hundreds of books of travel in Palestine obviates the necessity of a man's wasting time in merely playing the tourist, and justifies me in beginning, the moment of arrival, the work of exploration. The invaluable aids afforded the Bible student by such publications as Robinson's, Barclay's, Thomson's, etc., are so much more than mere books of travel, that the reader may in effect transport himself, by their assistance, to the Land of the Bible, being enabled to see with their eyes and hear with their ears whatever is needed to illuminate the sacred pages. In my domestic circle, the growing up of the younger members of my family, and the marriage of the elder, rendered father's presence at home less a matter of necessity than heretofore.
One thing more: my labors in the various departments of Masonic history, rituals, poetry, etc., seemed measurably terminated. Having .no money‑capital of my own for purposes of publication, and the fields of Masonic literature affording little profit to authorship, I felt that in the issuance of seventy‑four Masonic publications I had given sufficient evidence of my devotion to the old institution, and might justly claim exemption from further labors and losses in that direction, and enter upon a new field. Finally, a reasonably vigorous constitution, never impaired by excessive living or intemperance,
14 CONCEPTION AND PREPARATIONS.
some knowledge of the Scriptures in their original and translated forms, a large course of reading in matters relating to Oriental countries, a circle of Masonic friends reaching round the globe, and a strong will to execute whatever I undertook - these formed the encouragements that bore me out, at the age of fifty, to begin the service of Masonic exploration of the Holy Land, conceived so many years ago, of which the present volume is the record.
But how a Masonic exploration? What has the Masonic institution to do with the Holy Land? These are no questions for Freemasons to ask; but as my work will fall into the hands of, and perhaps be read by, those who are not of the "mystic tie," the query may properly be answered here. I respond, then, that the Holy Scriptures are the instruction books of the Lodge; and that a perfect knowledge of the Holy Land is needful to a perfect knowledge of the Holy Scriptures.
In 1867, then, I set upon the following plan to secure the necessary funds for my enterprise; I made up a list of Holy Land specimens, such as the fraternity were most likely to value - such as I should most value, in the way of Biblical and Masonic illustrations, a catalogue embracing specimens of the woods, waters, earths, coins, fossils, etc., from Palestine, and proposed to supply them, at a specified rate, to those who would advance me money for the pilgrimage. The following extracts from my published proposals belong to the history of this enterprise: "Those contributors who advance ten dollars, each shall be supplied with one hundred and fifty objects from the Holy Land, including specimens of the ancient building‑stone of Jerusalem, Joppa, and Tyre; shells from the Sea of Galilee and Joppa; agates from the Arabian deserts; ancient coins; rock‑salt from Usdum; an herbarium of ten plants; the traditional corn, wine, and oil of Masonry; earth from the clay‑grounds near Succoth, etc., etc." Contributors of five dollars, three dollars, and two dollars, respectively, were promised smaller cabinets composed of similar objects; those of one dollar, the Journal of the Expedition. A map of the Holy Land, arranged for Masonic purposes, was also a portion of the premiums promised.
Having decided upon the plan of appeal, l visited one hundred and thirty lodges in Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Illinois, West Virginia, Nebraska, and New York, and addressed the fraternity. I began by occupying an hour or two with recitations of Masonic poems, such
CONCEPTION AND PREPARATIONS. 15
as the Level and the Square, the Letter G., the Holy Bible, Our Vows, the Drunkard's Grave, the Five Points of Fellowship, the Emblems of the Craft, etc., and then laid before them my propositions for a Masonic mission to the Holy Land. In general, the offer was favorably responded to. The season, unfortunately, was one of extreme closeness in the money market, and portions of the country visited were suffering from scanty harvests. Some of my hearers probably deemed my proposals Quixotic; many others contributed the lowest amount asked for, viz., one dollar; yet nearly four hundred of them gave me ten dollars each, trusting, as' they said, to my pluck to accomplish the end proposed, or willing to show their respect for an old and industrious laborer, who came before them with an appeal so reasonable and practical.
The whole number of contributors was 3,782; the aggregate of contributions was $9,631. Out of this, according to my proposals, provision was made for two years' support of my family; my own expenses, and those of my agent, Mr. G. W. Bartlett, while collecting the money; the expenses of the Oriental tour, for myself and Mr. Thomson; freights upon shipments of specimens; printing six issues of the Holy Land Journal for 3,782 contributors; printing catalogues, etc.; and preparing, labelling, packing, and forwarding nearly 70,000 specimens. It can readily be seen that the amount advanced me was short of my needs; the deficit, in fact, exceeded $1,200, and this I was compelled to make up out of the proceeds of lectures on my return home.
It is in evidence of the practicability of the plan upon which this money was collected, that a noted traveller is now (1872) before the public with proposals, borrowed from my programme, to furnish objects of natural history on South America " to those who will advance him the necessary outfit for the journey to that country." By way of encouragement, I commend to him the adage of Periander of Corinth, one of " the Seven Wise Men " of antiquity; industries nil impossibile, anything can be accomplished by an industrious man! In my addresses to the Lodges I proposed
1. To explore that remarkable plain - once the centre of intellectual light and the school of the seven liberal arts and sciences, also of commerce, religion, and letters - the Plain of Phoenicia.
2. To visit the secluded recesses, high among he Lebanons, where the remaining groves of cedar are found.
3. To search for those caves and bays at the base of Lebanon where the "flotes" of timber were made up for shipment to Joppa.
16 CONCEPTION AND PREPARATIONS.
4. To sail down the coast to Joppa, in the track of Hiram's mariners.
5. To examine the ancient port of Joppa with systematic care.
6. To follow diligently upon the tracks of the Syrian architects, journeying from Joppa to Jerusalem; and to seek for the highway by which they penetrated the precipitous cliffs and bore upward their ponderous burdens.
7. To make thorough inspection of everything relating to Solomonic times, in and about Jerusalem.
8. To visit the plain of Jordan, especially the clay‑ground between Succoth and Zarthan, where the brazen pillars and other holy vessels appertaining to the Temple were cast.
9. To explore the places named in Masonic lectures, such as Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Sodom, Jericho, Bethel, Hattin, Damascus, Bethany, Joppa, Tyre, Gebal, Lebanon, and others.
10. To make full collections of objects illustrating Masonic traditions and Biblical customs, these to be distributed generously to contributors on my return, upon plans previously arranged.
The following cuts of my Masonic flag are appropriate here:
The idea of this was suggested by the flag used in Dr. Kane's Arctic Explorations of 1853. His banner, the square and compass, still extant in the archives of Kane Lodge, No. 454, New York City, was displayed at his masthead while passing down New York Bay, and, at the extreme northern termination of his journey, it was set up in the snow‑drifts.
This little flag of mine accompanied me through all my wanderings.* The breeze that sighs across the granite reefs of Tyre blew out its silken folds, showing upon one side the initial‑symbol of him
* The emblem of The Broken Column is my "Mark‑Master's Mark," adopted at my exaltation in Lexington Chapter, No. 17, Lexington, Mississippi, in 1848.
CONCEPTION AND PREPARATIONS. 17
whose name was adored equally in Phœnician - and Jewish Lodges; on the other, the architect‑symbol of him whose noble end dignifies the purpose and the work of every Mason's Lodge. Fastened upon the boughs of one of Lebanon's grandest cedars, it suggested a mysterious meaning to the sturdy limbs and evergreen foliage of the tree. Waved before the entrance of a rock‑hewn tomb at Gebal, it seemed to call around me the spirits of those who, three thousand years ago, well understood its symbolical lessons. Fluttered in the gale that lifts the waters over the rocky ledge at Joppa, it recalled the days when the great fleets of Tyre came, "like doves to the windows," deep‑laden, into this harbor, the square and compass on their foresails. Fluttered over the walls of Jerusalem, and in the deep quarry that underlies the city, it spoke in prophetic tones of the good time coming, when the Mason‑craft shall yet build up Jerusalem, and the God we worship be worshipped there and everywhere.
The course pursued by the various Masonic journals in regard to this enterprise was almost uniformly generous in the extreme. Their columns were freely thrown open to my propositions; their editorial pens shaped words of encouragement and good counsel. It will not be deemed invidious if I mention by name the Evergreen (Dubuque, Iowa); the Masonic Review (Cincinnati, O.); the Voice of Masonry (Chicago, Illinois); the National Freemason (New York); the Masonic Monthly (Boston, Mass.); the Dispatch (New York), and the Freemason's Monthly Magazine (London, England), as taking the lead in brotherly encouragement and approval. Even Brother Findel, the German Masonic historian, whose theory of a modern origin of Freemasonry "does not recognize the importance of light from the East," still gave me "the brotherly word," and pledged me a cordial greeting in his own country. How truly has Sallust said: idem velle et idem nolle ea demum firma amicitia est; to possess the same likes and dislikes is, in point of fact, the foundation of lasting friendship. No words of mine can express my sense of all this kindness, and the friends of the Masonic Holy Land Mission of 1868 should bear in mind, what my own experience warned me of at the time, that an active opposition from either of those influential organs of Masonic sentiment might greatly have retarded the entire scheme.
No official expression was asked for from Grand Lodges, or other Masonic organizations; but it is proper to say that among the most generous supporters of my explorations were the Grand Masters of Iowa (Reuben Mickle); Nebraska (
O. H. Irish); Minnesota (C: W
2
18 CONCEPTION AND PREPARATIONS.
Nash); New York (S. H. Johnson); Canada (Wm. M. Wilson), and a large number of present and past Grand Lodge officers, of the first eminence, who forwarded me good words and material aid.
An assistant being deemed desirable, D. W. Thomson, of Illinois, formerly Grand Lecturer of that State, and a singularly zealous advocate of Ancient Craft Masonry, was accepted in that capacity. In the matter of collecting specimens, his services were of great utility; while his travelling experience, industry, and uniform good‑nature and honesty rendered him an agreeable companion upon the journey.
Prior to my departure for New York, the following lines were composed and extensively disseminated, as a farewell, by correspondence and through the press:
MIZPEH.
They took stones and made an heap. And Laban said: This heap is a witness between me and thee. Therefore was the name of it called Mizpeh: for he said, The Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another. - Genesis xxxi. 46.
MIZPEH! well named the patriarchal stone,
Once fondly reared in Gilead's mountain‑pass;
Doubtless the EYE ALL‑SEEING did look down
Upon that token of fraternal grace:
And doubtless HE who reconciled those men,
Between them watched, until they met again.
So, looking eastward o'er the angry sea,
The wintry blast, inhospitably stern, -
Counting the scanty moments left to me
Till I go hence, - and haply not return, -
I would, oh! Brethren, rear a MIZPEH too,
Beseeching GOD to watch 'twixt me and you.
It was HIS providence that made us one,
Who otherwise " perpetual strangers " were:
HE joined our hands in amity alone,
And caused our hearts each other's woes to bear:
HE kindled in our souls fraternal fire,
Befitting children of a common SIRE.
In mutual labors we have spent our life;
In mutual joys sported at labor's close;
With mutual strength waned against human strife;
And soothed with mutual charity its woes:
So, sharing mutually what GOD hath given,
With common faith we seek a kindred Heaven.
CONCEPTION AND PREPARATIONS. 19
Bring stones, bring stones, and build the heap with me!
Rear up a MIZPEH, though with many tears: -
Before I trust me to you stormy sea,
Hither with memories of many years!
Come round me, mystic Laborers, once more,
With loving gifts, upon this wintry shore.
Bring Prayer: the WATCHER in the heavens will heed;
Bring Types significant of deathless hope:
Bring Words in whispers only to be said:
Bring Hand‑grasps strong to lift the helpless up:
Bring all those Reminiscences of light
That have inspired us many a wintry night.
Lay them on Mizpeh! and the names revered
Of those who've vanished from our mystic Band:
Are we not taught that, with the faithful dead,
In Lodge Celestial, we shall surely stand?
Oh, crown the pile with names of good and blest,
Whose memories linger, though they be at rest
Finished: and so I hope whate'er betide,
Though wandering far toward Oriental sun,
He who watched kindly on that mountain‑side
Will watch between us till the work is done:
LORD GOD ALMIGHTY! whence all blessings are,
Behold our 3/Wpm and regard our prayer!
Be my defender while in foreign lands;
Ward off the shafts of calumny accurst;
My labors vindicate, while MIZPEH stands,
And hold my family in sacred trust;
Should I no more behold them, fond and dear,
I leave them, Brethren, to Masonic care.
Finally, if in haste, or careless mood,
Forgetting pledge sealed in WORD DIVINE,
I've wounded any of the Brotherhood,
Impute it not, this parting hour, a sin:
Forgive: to! HE by whom all creatures live
Grants us forgiveness, e'en as we forgive!
One of the journals alluded to (the National Freemason) said of these lines: " The sentiments are touching and appropriate, and strictly in accordance with the conciliatory character of their author. How‑
20 CONCEPTION AND PREPARATIONS.
ever much some of the Brotherhood may have differed with Brother Morris in regard to his plan for Uniformity of Work, none who know him but will accord to him a pure and disinterested purpose. The confidential friend of such men as William B. Hubbard, Philip C. Tucker, Charles Scott, Salem Town, Henry Wingate, and other choice spirits of the generation that is fast dropping into the grave; the man who has published seventy-four different volumes of a Ma-sonic character ; the admitted good fellow, ' genial, witty, and wise,' of Masonic circles, everywhere, and withal the man who, at the age of fifty, has yet to find anything in his pocket to compensate him for labors given to the best interests of Freemasonry,—he cannot leave our shores for a long and laborious tour into Oriental countries without bearing with him, the ' God bless the old enthusiast! may his return be blest !' "
So far as baggage, books, and introductions are concerned, I found it unnecessary to encumber myself inconveniently. Two suits of clothes and half a dozen books were quite sufficient. As to reading, a man going to Palestine must go carrying his reading in his head; he will get but little time to accumulate it there. Thomson's Land and Book; Osborne's Past and Present of Palestine, and a few others, amply sufficed me for reading on the journey. So far as clothing is concerned, the tailors in Beyrout will make you up suits quite as good and one half cheaper than New York tradesmen. I had written a few leading Brethren, B. B. French, J. W. B. McLeod Moore, and others, soliciting letters of general introduction, and the request was cordially granted; but I never found occasion to use them. Cosmopolitan Consistory, New York city, kindly presented me an elegant diploma of the thirty-second degree. My own diploma as a Master Mason and member of Fortitude Lodge, No. 47, LaGrange, Kentucky, was, however, the only document I ever found occasion to use. Even my passport, which I had taken the precaution to procure from Washington, with some trouble and expense, was of not the slightest service to me, although I would recommend every traveller to take one.
After these preliminaries, it suffices to say that I took passage from New York, Sunday morning, February 2, 1868, having some-thing in common with those of whom the poet long ago sang -
Bound for holy Palestine,
Nimbly we brushed the level brine,
21 CONCEPTION AND PREPARATIONS.
All in azure steel arrayed:
O'er the waves our banners played,
And made the dancing billows glow;
High upon the trophied prow
Many a warrior‑minstrel swung
His sounding harp, and boldly sung. - T. Wharton.
CHAPTER II CROSSING THE ATLANTIC
ELABORATE this chapter for the benefit of that large class of readers to whom " the ocean wave " is a romance, and who peruse the smaller incidents of travel with a relish. The critic may sneer at my title, " Crossing the Atlantic," ill‑naturedly affirming that a thousand voyagers have al‑ready described the occurrences of ocean‑life, and that nothing new can be said upon the subject. Very likely; yet to many of those who will peruse these "Hand‑marks," the pennings of other East‑ern travellers are as though they were never written. I have discovered, since my return, that nothing in a traveller's recollection is too trivial to interest those who do not travel, and that the most interesting facts in the tourist's journal are those which personally he may deem too trifling for publication. Hence I make this chapter of daily life upon the sea.
It was on the second day of February, 1868, and, of all the days in the year, a bright, cloudless "Lord's day," that I mounted the steps of the steamship "France," Captain Grace, to witness the casting‑off of lines and her departure from Pier No. 47, North River, New York. The ferruginous mass moved reluctantly from her bed, seemingly regretful of the necessity of leaving the cosy seat on which she had reposed for two weeks. If, as the feminine pronoun implies, our ship has the tastes of a woman, she may well prefer her quiet berth, and the praises of the admiring crowds who have been so loud in their approval of her fine bust, figure‑head, and form, to the icy waves of ocean, and the cold criticisms of sea monsters who await her coming yonder, during a winter‑voyage of twelve days.
The moment of departure is a solemn one to me; the act of ‑ severing the last tie that binds me to my native land makes me sad. I cannot join in the parting words exchanged between ship and shore, but withdraw myself to a solitary place and consider, in a spirit of
GOING DOWN THE BAY. 23
prayerful inquiry the questions, Shall I again tread those streets? Am I really justified in making this pilgrimage; or is it mere romance that is taking me, at my years, upon so long a journey? And may I expect the blessing of the GRAND MASTER upon an enterprise so much out of the accustomed routine of my profession? In that hour of self‑examination, I solemnly declare it, I stood self‑vindicated and supported by the feeling that something more than mere curiosity had moved me to the work I had undertaken, and that I could rely upon the same HAND which had untiringly led me up and down through an itinerancy of fifty years.
For myself, I can honestly aver that I look to nothing but hard labor, economical fare, and dhigent study, during the months before me. In my traielling bags I have a judicious selection of works upon Oriental themes, with an ample supply of paper to fix my own observations. Members of the Masonic fraternity and others have forwarded me letters and credentials in generous supply. The moral and material encouragement of nearly four thousand friends is the basis 'of my mission, and I feel that the Godspeed of half a million more is wafted on the breezes behind me. And so in that mood, in a solitary corner of the busy ship, my thoughts review the situation.
In going down the bay I occupied the hours in writing parting letters to the members of my family, the wife of twenty‑seven years, and the seven children who call me father; also to a number of devoted friends whose words and deeds clung to me in parting moments with a tenacity that nothing can loosen; and so I swung out upon that ocean which in Bible times no sailor dared even cross, but which now is underlaid by telegraphic wires, connecting my home at La Grange with the City of Jerusalem itself.
Out of three steamers announced to sail from New York across the Atlantic, February 1st, I chose this of the "National Line" of Liverpool boats. For one hundred dollars, American currency, a first‑class passage was given, while the same accommodations in the " Cunard" line would cost one hundred and sixty‑five dollars. Both are English lines, as all the American steamships were driven from the sea during the civil war. There is also a German line which stops at Havre, France, going, and at Southampton, England, coming. It was on this line that I returned in July, but I cannot recommend it to the reader.
The France is a fine new vessel, this being her fourth voyage. Her tonnage is 2,428 tons. In length she is 405 feet; in breadth of
34 DESCRIPTION OF THE STEAMER.
beam, 42 feet; in depth, from the upper deck to the keel, 30 feet. Like all the vessels of this line, she is a screw‑propeller, that is, her instrument of propulsion is a screw set up at the stern, which, in the most mysterious manner and "in solemn silence," moves these five thousand tons of boat, and freight, and passengers, at the rate of ten miles an hour. As I could never see the screw, nor the machinery that moved it, I was fain to compare the whole apparatus to the silent, mysterious power that keeps in motion a well‑disciplined Lodge of Masons. The analogy would be perfect were it not that a steamship is of the feminine gender, while a Masonic Lodge is usually the reverse!* The steering apparatus of the France is, British‑fashion, at the stern, placed in a small, cramped‑up crypt, which holds a half‑dozen sailors, who turn the spokes of the wheel in the same inartistic style that the Phoenicians practised in the days of Sesostris. When an order is sent from the foreship to the stern, it takes as many messengers to pass it from one to the other as for a general of division to move Company C of the 53d Regiment into line of battle, or as the W. M. requires to get his will and pleasure known to the Lodge. But it would never do for an Englishman to adopt a Yankee invention, and so steering‑lines to their steamers and check‑ropes to their railroad trains are postponed until after the millennium.
Our fine steamer is built of rolled iron plates, thirty inches wide and one inch thick, riveted together in the manner of steam‑boilers, stanch and tight. There is not the least danger of these seams ripping; indeed, if the sewing‑machine man who calls quarterly at my house to sell me a machine, will only invent such a lock‑stitch as this, his fortune is made. We have three masts, and when the wind is fair, as it was the greater part of my voyage, the sails afford considerable assistance in propulsion. A reasonable supply of long‑boats, and life‑boats, and jolly‑boats are stowed along the sides of the vessel, suggesting that ocean‑life is uncertain, and it is best to provide in fair weather for foul. The speed of the vessel may be seen from the following table of distances run for the first eight days, computed every day at HIGH XII:
* In all our Masonic communications on board the France we were never unmindful of the fact that a lady was present, even the good woman France herself, and we governed ourselves accordingly!
25
OFFICERS AND CREW.
Monday, February 3, 260 miles.
Tuesday, " 4,260 "
Wednesday, " 5, 268 "
Thursday, " 6, 259 "
Friday, " 7, 265 "
Saturday, " 8, 272 "
Sunday, " 9, 272 "
Monday, " 10, 271 "
The remarkable uniformity of these daily footings‑up will strike the reader; steamship travel, under a settled condition of weather, being almost as regular as life upon the rail.
Our ship is officered by a captain and four mates, or ship's officers, as they are termed; the latter being hearty, well‑educated men, kept in training for promotion in due time: for as no man can be Master who has not served in training as Warden, so no man can be captain who has not served as mate. All the working charges of the ship are apportioned among these four, according to fixed rules of naval service. Besides these, there is a purser, who acts as quartermaster of the ship; a surgeon, six engineers, and assistants in abundance. The whole crew, from captain to chambermaid, numbers 104. Of course everything is intensely British, officers, crew, slush‑buckets, &c., even down to the acceptable sirloins of beef served daily to the passengers. The only thing on board that I can name American is the coal, and if the captain's expressed (and profane) opinion may be relied upon, even that were better British too. Every passenger on board, except three, talks about " going home " whenever Great Britain is named. Money is reckoned in " tuppences," and I had not been a week aboard before I could compute a considerable sum in ú., s., and d., a thing which, it is said, none but a born Briton ever could do before me! That mythic animal, the British unicorn, I is marked on all the ship's linen and furniture; in fact, Commodore Wilkes himself couldn't mistake the nationality of this steamer. Captain Grace is a rough‑featured, rough‑mannered sailor of thirty, taciturn and gruff, and most ridiculously misnamed; but, it is claimed, a thorough sailor. At all hours, by day and night, he is on the alert, and wet‑nurses the ship, in nursery language, like a mother hovering over her babe. His pay is £600 per annum, a short $3,000. The only time I ever spoke to him was one Sunday morning, when I asked him if he would conduct the service of prayers, as is customary on ocean steamers. He declined in a single word, an extremely short one, and then the conversation flagged.
26 A PHENICIAN BARQUE.
Nowhere will this portion of the grand Psalm cvii. read with such vividness, as when you are lying, of a quiet Sunday hour, in your state‑room at sea: They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in the great waters; These see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep.
For he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
They mount up to the heaven; they go down to the depths; their soul is melted because of trouble.
They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit's end.
Then they cry to the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth they to their desired haven.
After this description of a first‑class Atlantic steamer in the year of grace 1868, the following picture of a Phcenician vessel of B. C. 1000 will afford a forcible contrast. In one of my chapters I will describe the size, construction, and capacity of this old Tyrian barque, such as those invincible mariners sailed in, when they gathered up the treasures of the Roman world, passing through the Straits of Gibraltar, turning to the right as far as Scotland and the Baltic Sea, and to the left as far as the African coast trended south‑wards, and bringing from all quarters the gold, the tin, the copper, the marble, the ivory, the spices needed in the erection, adornment, and worship, of Solomon's Temple.
REFRESHMENTS ON BOARD. 27
The size and tonnage of one of these Phoenician vessels would scarcely compare now with a Lake Erie sloop. But hearts of oak controlled them, and coastiLg all the way round the northern shores of the Mediterranean they came out into the ocean between their own "Pillars of Hercules," and following the sinuous lines of Portugal, Spain, and France, struck finally into the mouth of the broad Channel, and reached the place of their destination. The importance of in in hardening the copper, of which their cutting tools and war‑like implements were made, justified all these pains, risks, and the twelve 1 months' journeys necessary to procure it.
The particular matter upon which my pen was engaged, through the four weeks' journey from New York to Beyrout, was that of making an alphabetical agenda of places to be visited, and things to be done at each place. This, written out in a blank‑book, was made o full, by the time I reached Palestine, as to afford me all the assistance that a company of guides could have rendered. Under the head of "Tyre," for instance, I had more than one hundred distinct facts and suggestions in alphabetical form, by which, when I visited that city, my researches were very greatly expedited.
Of Cabin, or first‑class passengers, we have twenty‑four, with room for nearly one hundred; of steerage, or second‑class passengers, there are sixty‑four. The latter pay only twenty‑five dollars each, for which they receive good, wholesome victuals, and the services of the ship's surgeon. To us of the cabin every possible convenience is, of course, afforded. An experienced surgeon is one of the regular officers of the ship, and his skill is ever at our command. Chambermaids are in attendance upon the ladies, and state‑room stewards upon the gen‑ tlemen, all without extra charge. Three regular meals per diem are spread, besides a luncheon, which in itself is a meal.* Let me recall the eating arrangements: Breakfast is announced at 8 A. M., a sub‑ stantial British meal, accompanied by the best of tea and tolerable coffee. Luncheon is at High XII, presenting soups, cold meats in large variety, bread, cheese, and pickles. Dinner appears at 4 P. M., Supper at 71/2, the latter being made up of coffee, toast, bread, and cheese.
Besides these, a passenger who, for any reason, fails to report him‑ self at the regular hours, can be accommodated through the steward with a special supply of provisions, at any hour. The bar (fluid, not forensic) is stocked with wines, ales, and spirits, of a character rarely
* On the Bill of Fare of Feb. 5, prairie chickens appeared among the items of dinner.
28 SEASICKNESS.
matched on the American side of the "great drink," and these are charged topassengers who order them, at moderate prices. With such arrangements for table comforts, a man must be harder to please than I am, who can discover grounds of complaint.
Does the reader inquire whether I was seasick? I was. I never go upon water without being seasick. Even a slight swell on Lake Erie has sent me to the dead‑level, incontinently. Was I not obliged to go ashore, on that little Cleveland fishing excursion which Peter Thatcher provided for me in 1863, and there, amidst the sneers of men and the laughter of women, settle my accounts in the most disgraceful manner? Yes; and in a sea voyage, therefore, I always make my calculations to give up ‑the first few days to the tergiversations of my stomach. This reconciles me in some degree to the motion of the vessel, and, by the assistance of four or five spells of vomiting per diem, I come, in the course of time, to a mariner's status. As to remedies, all that a seasick person wants is something to assist him through his unpleasant paroxysms. Brandy and other spirits make a good toddy to stay his stomach after nausea, but will not prevent it. Citrate of magnesia may be recommended as a good thing to neutralize the acidity produced in the earlier stages of seasickness, and 1 advise you to provide yourself with some bottles of it; also some Brandreth pills; a flask of pure cordial gin; a quart‑bottle of strong coffee, ready made; a few lemons, with white sugar, and some good sour apples. Dress warm; wear thick overshoes; walk a good deal in the fresh air; be regular in your habits; be sociable; rise with the sea‑gull, and go to bed with the cook. When seasickness passes off, then follows an appetite, accompanied with elasticity of spirits and digestion, such as go with my best reminiscences of childhood.
The worst sufferers from the mal de mer, as the French call it, are those who cannot vomit, or who vomit with great difficulty and pain. Some of this class have scarcely a moment's ease during the voyage. Nausea, want of appetite, indigestion, and costiveness, produce low sprits, ill‑temper, and a very hatred of existence. Such an one is reported to have said that the first day he went to sea he was afraid he should die; the third day he was afraid he should not! Ladies suffer more from seasickness than gentlemen. Pale, staggering, and wobegone, the gay and rosy damsels of our company were so transmogrified by the ungallant sea‑god, that their best friends could scarcely recognize them. That class of persons who boast that they are never seasick (and there are always some bores of the sort), suffer,
AMUSEMENTS AT BEA. 29
upon the whole, quite as much as the rest. For if they are never seasick, they are never seawell, but mope around during the voyage, the dullest of the company.
There is a piece of advice that I will offer you here: Don't suppose that anybody else cares a straw who you are, or where you are going. Travellers, like Freemasons, meet upon the level and part upon the square; and no one is valued a bawbee, except as he possesses powers of pleasing, .for the hour. Fine manners, dignity, genteel breeding and the like will pine in the corner, while a cheerful readiness of song and anecdote brings its possessor into social prominence, enabling him both to receive and impart pleasure during the tedium of the way.
The time of ocean travellers is variously and generally uselessly employed. Industrious persons play checkers and cards; the rest walk the deck, eat, smoke, and sleep. How about myself? I give 80 many hours a day to the study of Thomson (" Land and Book;") Barclay (" City of the Great King"); Osborne ( "Palestine, Past and Present"); the Holy Writings and other tomes bearing upon Oriental matters; so many to the composition of letters and memoranda; so many to checkers (my favorite vanity); and so many to refreshment and sleep. Everything on board conduces to regularity. The ship's bell at 122 strikes one, at 1 strikes two, at 1i strikes three, at 2 strikes four, at 22 strikes five, at 3 strikes six, at 3$ strikes seven, at 4 strikes eight, which being the extent of its striking powers, a second series begins at 4Q and extends to 8. Each of these periods of four hours is termed a watch - of which there are six in the twenty‑four. One of these intervals I am told is termed the Dog watch; but, although I listened attentively for canine indications, I could never detect them, and don't believe there was a dog on board. The traveller, when rendered sleepless by nausea and ennui, marks these solemn chimes of the ship's bell with feelings that he cannot analyze, but can never forget. How often they re‑called to me the lines I have sung in so many a lodge‑room and by so many a grave:
Solemn strikes the funeral chime,
Notes of our departing time;
While we journey here below,
Through a pilgrimage of wo.
I venture to say that the genus loci, the spirit that inhabits my old state‑room (No. 13) on board the ship France, will testify to
30 DINNER UNDER DIFFICULTIES.
having heard me sing it three score times and ten, as I lay there and mused upon the lessons of the ship's bell.
There was almost nothing visible to the eye during our voyage. Not a vessel, not an iceberg, not a whale. One traveller, indeed, declares he saw a whale; but it is finally conceded that he only saw the spout. Not a fragment of a wreck appeared in sight; in fact, nothing at all but a large following of sea‑gulls that took up with us at Sandy Hook, nor left us a moment until we sighted the Irish coast. How or when they rest, if indeed they ever do rest upon these long flights of twelve days, is a mystery more than Masonic. The sailors believe that when night comes on, the gulls settle down upon the water to ride and sleep. But this can scarcely be, for keen‑eyed and strong‑winged as they are, they could not see and overtake the ship again after twelve hours' sail. Their motive in pursuing us so closely is strictly mercenary, viz., to gather the fragments from the steward's pantry, which are being constantly thrown into the water. These the sea‑birds seize with great expertness. Cast anything overboard, a pill‑box, a cracker, a piece of soap, or even a bit of a Masonic Monitor, and fifty pairs of eyes detect it; fifty pairs of iron‑gray wings "go in" for it; then one strong fowl rises from the sea with it in his bill - all with a velocity that makes you giddy to observe. Among the various theories concerning the origin of sea‑gulls, I will venture my own, viz., that they are the ghosts of newspaper reporters, condemned, for a season, to follow in the wake of outward‑bound vessels, as an expiation for the innumerable lies they told during their earthly career 1 A cheerful mind will derive amusement from almost any combination of circumstances; and I gathered a fund of it in watching our family of twenty‑four passengers at their meals, during a three‑days' storm that came down on us about the middle of the trip. The reader shall have his share of the fun. Imagine everything fastened to the floor, tables, chair, etc., and the ladies and gentlemen fastened as tightly to their seats as human muscle can do it. The ship is swaying from side to side like a five‑second pendulum. Now she keels over to starboard to an angle of forty‑five degrees. Soup‑plate in the right hand, a convulsive grip upon the table with the left. Raise perpendiculars; the hot soup slops over upon your hand. Away goes the ship on the other side, forty‑five degrees to larboard. Lay levels; the soup spurts up your sleeve, in spite of all you can do. Bang goes the ship again to starboard. Try horizontals; now
FREEMASONRY AT SEA. 31
soup, plate and all are swashed into your bosom with a freedom, fervency, and zeal rarely equalled and never surpassed. And so for an hour the dinner is a running accompaniment of china, glasses, cut‑ lery, and spoons, laughable to witness.
At 2 F.M. on the 13th of February, 1868, " we of the mystic level," as poor Burns used to call the Masonic fraternity, stole quietly away from the crowd to the Purser's room, and there, having previously tested each other, by ancient and approved methods, we opened a moot lodge upon the First Degree, " for Special Purposes." The names of our temporary dignitaries were these:
1. Robert Morris, late Grand Master of Masons in Kentucky, as W. M.
2. David W. Thomson, late Grand Lecturer of Illinois, as S. W.
3. George Catchpole, Senior Warden of Rose Lodge No. 590, Rose, Wayne Co., New York, as J. W.
4. William Thomas, of St. John's Lodge, New Brunswick (first officer of the Steamship France), as Treasurer.
5. George Campbell, of British Oak Lodge No. 831, Stratford, En‑gland (fourth officer of the Steamship France), as Secretary.
6. W. G. Barrett, of Piatt Lodge No. 194, New York city (Purser of the Steamship France), as S. D.
7. James Wilson, of Mariners' Lodge, Liverpool, England (Chief‑Engineer of the Steamship France), as J. D.
8. Thomas Hughes, of Amity Lodge No. 323, of New York city (Chief Steward of the Steamship France), as 1st Master of Cer.
9. William Carroll, of Varick Lodge No. 31, Jersey City, N. J. (Chief Baker of the Steamship France), as 2d Master of Cer.
10. William Dempster, of Commonwealth Lodge No. 409, Brooklyn, N. Y., as Tyler.
This symposium was, in all respects, a notable one, and proceedings of a particularly pleasant character were had. Remarks were volunteered concerning the practical nature of a fraternity that, uniting the best elements of all societies, avoids the offensive peculiarities of any. The poem entitled The Checkered Pavement was recited by Mr. Thomson as the sequel to an address delivered by him in good style. My own share in the proceedings was made up of the following lines, composed the evening before, upon first beholding Skellig Revolving Light on the coast of Ireland:
32 FREEMAS0NRY AT BEA.
THE SKELLIG LIGHT.
When hastening eastward o'er the waste,
By ocean‑breakers rudely chased,
Our eager eye seeks for the smile
That marks the dangerous Skellig Isle,
We joy to catch the flashing ray
That guides, unerringly, our way.
What though in momentary gloom
Night may resume her sable plume,
What though the clouds may settle down,
And threaten ocean's stormiest frown,
Lo! flashing far across the main,
The Skellig Light beams out again!
So, wandering on life's stormy sea,
Oh, Craftsmen, by God's grace, may we
The tempest‑tost and weary find,
In gloomiest hour, in saddest mind,
Our Skellig Light, from heavenly sun,
To draw us safely, smoothly on.
Should He withdraw His smiling face,
'Tis but to try our faithfulness:
Should He our pilgrimage enshroud,
He stands behind the threatening cloud:
And though He smite us with a blow,
It is His gentle chastening too!
Craftsmen, draw nigh and learn with me
These lessons from Freemasonry!
Each implement in mystic hand
Bids us this precept understand:
They who would serve the Master's state,
Must work in Faith, in Patience wait!
We sighted the Irish coast at 3 P.M., Wednesday, February 12, ‑ and while I am writing this paragraph I see that on the Irish Grand Lodge Registry, 1872, are 327 lodges, landed passengers at Queens‑town the next morning; * were sailing up the Irish Channel all day
* This was in the middle of a Fenian scare, and every one of them, as I learned afterwards, was arrested, vigorously examined, and detained for twenty‑four hours, under the apprehension tl it they had come tt invade the land.
GRATEFUL MEMORIES. 33
Thursday, and finally reached the docks of Liverpool by daylight of Friday, the 14th, after a pleasant voyage of twelve days, grateful to God, who had brought me thus far not only in safety, but with a degree of contentment and satisfaction that I had not anticipated. I shall ever remember the period of my passage from New York to Liverpool as halcyonii dies, days of peaceful enjoyment.
3
CHAPTER III.
CROSSING ENGLAND AND THE CONTINENT.
I LANDED at Liverpool Friday morning, February 14, 1868, and proceeded to London, so as to arrive at 5 P.M. of the same day. Of course I could observe little or nothing of Liverpool during a morning's stay. An edifice designated as "Masonic Hall," stands, however, not far from the railway station, and naturally enough I saw that. I regretted the necessity of passing a city so noted for its attention to Masonic interests as Liverpool; but the Marseilles steamer for Beyrout was advertised for Tuesday, February 18, and the failure to secure a passage in her would entail the loss of ten days' time. Every hour's delay would abridge my stay in Palestine by so much.
Travellers' tales had led me to expect a severe examination of baggage in Liverpool; but I found John Bull much more complaisant than I had hoped for. The modus operandi of Custom‑House search was simple enough. The six travelling bags containing the effects of myself and assistant lying in a corner by themselves, a burly‑looking officer came up and asked: " Have you any tobacco?"
"A little for my own use," responded my friend, "only enough for my own use." The package being exhibited (two pounds of niggerhead), the officer continued, with this non sequitur: "Then I suppose you can give me a shilling to drink your health?"
At this unexpected suggestion - obstupui, tacitus sustinuique pedem - I stood astonished, and silently kept my feet. Recovering, however, in a moment, I passed the coin of the realm known by that denomination into his itching palm - without thinking of the violation of my vows as a Good Templar - and so covered the cost of the proposed imbibition. He may possibly have intended his remark as a joke, but it did not turn out so. This was my only examination. Not one of the five travelling‑bags was opened, although capacious enough to contain cigars to supply even the Prince of Wales for a
HASTY RIDE THROUGH ENGLAND. 35
twelvemonth. No other questions were asked, and I confess to have departed from Liverpool with most agreeable impressions.
The journey through England, in an express train making forty‑five miles an hour, affords but scanty opportunities for observation. The railway fare, first‑class, Liverpool to London, 210 miles, foots up about $9. Compare this with the Erie Railway, New York to Elmira, 270 miles, $8. The motion of cars on the Erie is smooth as oil; the English cars run like tin pans on wheel‑barrows. Reason is, they have but four wheels to a car, while the Erie has twelve. I do much of my reading and writing while travelling in American oars, but you can do no writing here; and reading and talking are performed under difficulties.
The swiftness and safety of railway‑travel in Great Britain, how‑ever, are proverbial. Accidents almost never occur. The carriages are awkwardly separated into small closets, transversely cut off from the main structure, each containing room for six passengers, three facing the front, three the rear. Into these little rooms you are locked by the conductor (styled the guard), and have no means of exit except through his key. Sleeping‑cars, water‑closets, fountains of drinking‑water, and means of, warming the vehicles, were alike unknown to railway travellers in England and Europe in the year of grace 1868. The weather seemed to me warm for the season; there was so little appearance of snow and ice that the plowmen were busy in hundreds of fields near the roadside.
Swiftly as we were drawn across this "right little, tight little" island of England, I gave thought to the subject alluded to in the last chapter - the voyages of the Phoenicians to these islands in the most ancient days.
Even before the Trojan war (B. C. 1184), and of course two centuries before Solomon's day, the sailors of Tyre came to the Isles of Tin (Cassiterides), lying between England and Ireland, to barter Oriental products for this metal, and to the Baltic for amber. The copper found abundantly in Asia Minor and Cyprus was alloyed at Tyre with tin, and so bronze was made, the proper material for arms, medals, statues, &c. All manner of tools were made of this alloy, bronze; the plowshare of the farmer, the pick of the miner, the hammer and compass of the architect, the burin of the engraver, arrowheads, lanceheads and javelins, swords, bucklers, helmets, cuirasses, &c. If tin is the Pythias, copper is the Dayton of this compound.
36 HOTEL IN LONDON.
Seeing so large a portion of the island covered by noblemen's parks reminds a man of his Horace: jam pauca aratro jugera regica, moles relinquent - the palaces of the great suffer scanty acreage to the plowman; and it does really puzzle the observer to set where the farms or the farmers are. Castles are distinct enough, and in numbers, but farm‑houses, few and far between.
Arriving in London 5 P. M., I drove to Anderton's Hotel, No. 162 Fleet‑street, a house which I had seen advertised, under a Masonic emblem, in a publication on board ship. It is an old establishment, and the rooms are dark and misty, but kept scrupulously clean. The waiters are attentive, and the "eating department" all that can be desired. The upper story of this hotel has long been used for Masonic meetings. Observing quite a pile of Wardens' stations lumbering up the stairs, it was explained that the lodge‑rooms up‑stairs are undergoing a course of cleansing and restoration, and the furniture removed for the purpose. At this hotel, I first remarked that on this side the Atlantic a traveller's name is not asked for. His entity is simply that of the number of his bedroom, and his bills are made out accordingly. I have no idea that " the gentlemanly clerk " of Anderton's Hotel knows my name even to this day.
I need not say that I felt it to be a real deprivation to pass through' London without calling upon the Masonic brethren there; but on my return I hoped to take more time, and give at least a sketch of Free Masonry as it exists in London, as well as in the three Grand Lodges of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
Saturday was spent in active pursuits. I visited St. Paul's Cathedral, to the top of which I climbed, only to look out through a fog so dense that the secretary of my lodge might write with it. It re‑minded me for all the world of ‑‑ 's oration before the Grand Lodge of . Disgusted with the fog, I descended, making a vow that I would never go up there again. And I never have. In the Whispering Gallery I tried a Masonic communication with a friend, and found it went through intact. Visited the tomb c." the honored builder of the cathedral, Christopher Wren, and read its appropriate epitaph, " Circumspice," &c., &c., so ridiculously applied on the seal of the State of Michigan.
Thence by the Thames river to Westminster; inspected the Parliament buildings, which I find already crumbling to dust as rapidly as the Court‑House in Louisville, Kentucky; then spent a glorion two hours in Westminster Abbey.
FREEMASONRY IN ENGLAND. 3
The rest of the day was occupied in making preparations for departure, and at 8.30 r.M. I took the Southeastern Railway, at Cannon‑street station, for Dover, which was reached at 10.30 r.M.
A visitor to Jerusalem is shown a spot, beneath the lantern in the Greek Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre, styled the geographical centre of the earth. In a circle of pavement stands a short marble column to designate so remarkable a punctum! Traditions of various kinds cluster around the spot, one, particularly, that from here was taken the clay of which Adam was made! In the same light I view Lon‑don, the centre of Ancient York Masonry. From hence, in 1733, was sent the holy spark to our Western fields that has kindled into so goodly a blaze, one American lodge swelling (in 139 years) to nearly 9,000, and the four original lodges of London increasing, through England, Scotland, Ireland, the European nations, and the colonies in all quarters of the earth, to 4,000. Even the lodges of Mark Masters here (lodges whose rituals are based upon a mere allusion in the degree of fellow‑craft) number in 1872 about 100, governed by a Mark Grand Lodge of England, whose officers are the princes of the land. This, then, is the true Masonic Centre of the world; from this dust was our Masonic Adam moulded! The Grand Lodge of England' is composed substantially of the same officers as our own, adding a few not usually nominated on our side of the water, such as Grand Superintendent of Works, Grand Director of Ceremonies, Grand Organist, &c. But what is peculiar to this country, and plainly grows out of the autocratic character of Freemasonry in monarchical countries, is the fact that all or nearly all the officers of the Grand Lodge are appointed by the Grand Master. This is particularly the case with the Grand Secretary, who, in England, is simply clerk of the Grand Lodge, wielding and assuming none of the despotic powers often so offensively assumed and wielded in the American Grand Lodges by that functionary.
Apropos of this absolute subordination of the Grand Secretary to the Grand Master, this anecdote is related of the Grand Lodge of England in 1868: Complaints had been made against the Grand Secretary for his want of communicativeness and courtesy to those who call upon him, &c., &c. This was producing considerable ill feeling in the Grand Lodge; and as the Earl of Zetland, the Grand Master, declined to interfere, or perhaps was unable to apply a remedy, and as there was no way to reach the Grand Secretary ex‑
38 FREEMASONRY IN ENGLAND.
cept by displacing the Grand Master, a distinguished London brother arose in open Grand Lodge, and nominated himself for Grand Master, expressly stating that the reason for this unprecedented and apparently immodest act was that a Grand Secretary ought to be appointed who would attend to the business of the office and pay a decent respect to the feelings of his brethren! Of course the nomination failed; indeed, it was not even seconded; yet it may, for all that, have some of the intended effect.
In addressing the Grand Master of England, Masonic etiquette demands that all communications %hall pass through the hands of the Deputy Grand Master, the Grand Registrar, or the Grand Secretary; otherwise they will scarcely have attention. It is not likely, in point of fact, that such men as the Duke of Sussex, the Earl of Zetland, the Duke of Leinster, and noblemen of those high grades, give other consideration to the details of the Masonic institution than to preside at the ordinary and extraordinary communications of Grand Lodges, and the festivals that constitute the sequelce of those occasions. No questions upon Masonic Law are submitted to the Grand Master. No vexata questiones of usage, of lodge altercations, of irregularities in Masonic proceedings, and the like, are pushed into his lord‑ship's pocket to disturb the smooth digestion of his dinner. Ali these matters have a common direction here, that of the Board of General Purposes, as it is styled, a sort of imperium in imperio, happily unknown in the United States. This Board, I am told, so thoroughly digests the greater part of the business submitted to its charge, that it is never heard of again.
Neither does the Grand Master of England ever deliver formal addresses to his Grand Lodge. By this, it will be seen how easy is his berth, compared with that of an American Grand Master, who is often crowded with correspondence, sometimes tyrannized over by his own Grand Secretary, and scarcely ever allowed his little bill of "stationery and postage‑money" for his trouble. It is social position alone that qualifies a gentleman here for the high office of Grand Master. The most exalted nobleman who will accept it has it, of right. Quoting from an article from the pen of my old coadjutor, Bro. E. D. Cooke, " The election of Grand Master in this country is not due to any knowledge a man may possess of the institution, or any ability on his part to perform the duties of that exalted position, but simply to the social position he may occupy." All this, It cannot be denied, sounds queerly to those who are accustomed to
AMERICAN MASONS TRAVELLING. 39
view the Masonic fraternity as a band of men who "meet upon the level and who part upon the square." Americans visiting Europe are scarcely ever able to tell us any‑thing of Freemasonry in that country, when they come home, even though they may themselves be members of the craft. This used to strike me strangely. On being questioned, they would reply that they could not find out the time of lodge‑meetings; or that nobody could tell them where the lodge‑room was. These replies are based upon ignorance of the peculiarities of the Order in England. Most Lodges here have no halls; but few of them have even a room of their own. They meet for the greater part in the upper rooms of taverns rented by the season. Their Masonic furniture and paraphernalia, which are extremely scanty, are brought out of chests and wardrobes and arranged for the single occasion. The meeting being over, these sacred objects are again concealed from public sight, and the room restored to travellers' uses. Of course, then, when you inquire of your landlord, your banker, or your general correspondent, "where is the lodge‑hall?" he confesses his ignorance, and, if himself a non‑Mason, most likely volunteers the opinion that there is no Freemason's Lodge in the place! Again, nearly all travellers from our own country to Europe go abroad in the summer. But at that season the Masonic Lodges do not meet at all. From about the middle of June to October there is no life in European Masonry whatever. No wonder then that our countrymen come back to us as ignorant upon peculiarities of the Order in foreign countries as they left. The remedies. are twofold: First, to provide one's self with a Masonic Register of the foreign Lodges; Second, to go abroad in the fall or winter, when Freemasonry in all the Masonic countries of Europe is active.
Crossing the channel between Dover and Calais in a ferry‑boat, compared with which the one that connects Snooksborough with Pumpkinville, on the Tennessee river, is a gorgeous palace, I left Calais at 1.30 A. M., Sunday, February 16, and reached the capital of France in six hours. Just as I hand this page to the printer (February 1, 1872), I notice that "the project of a steam‑ferry across the Straits of Dover is approved by a commission of the French Assembly," and the editor of one of the New York papers comment‑mg upon the fact justly says, had the estuary of the Delaware been as broad as the English Channel at Dover, it would long ago have been bridged by magnificent ferry‑boats such as ply between New York I A ‑2 ~p0~ Consranr,no,(e 4 as a, Q ‑.As _‑ 1 , DI m a WI Wæ s * - t r. q k rt~drasi``~ == Ye A GIA us9 na '4. Q~V,FI ~ .> ~je~eca Ci l4i..
Co"~y,!'S S Yi' ~5 ~ '.~` oQ~ ~tffoc7r lCOn .1.░ = ‑ `LJ ‑ t i ?a,~eq ~ - ac Y/ S M4 - `~`l ^ ap, + P h a ░ 9ipns .
Lr‑ 1 m1~ Z1 ‑ = ‑‑. ‑ice ‑‑ ‑‑._ .‑‑‑ ~~~_~~'‑~r‑'‑‑~‑‑~ - ‑‑‑~_ SHD a ~_ äs - s _ OF THE ..''w era Yqh d ' ‑ ‑ f ~ ~ UA,y╡ ~ M ,c ~sert 7, i o Av.,, A.BRAHAI_I'S OAK AT ITEBRON.
ear STREET SCENES AT JERUSALEM. SEE PAGES 402, ETC.
CHAPTER IV.
COASTING THE MEDITERRANEAN.
passed too rapidly through Liverpool, London, Paris, and 8' '' Marseilles, as I have said, spending but a day in each. It r t was a temptation hardly to be resisted to devote at least a kk.
month to revive old friendships, and form new ones among the Masons of those cities. But I had a higher work before me - Moneys had been entrusted to me, a sacred deposit, to be expended in Syrian Explorations, so I listened not to the voice of the tempter, but turning my face sternly to The Orient I passed on.
I left Marseilles February 18th, on the French steamship L'Amerique (America), bound for Beyrout, via Palermo, Messina, Syra, Smyrna, Rhodes, Mersina, Alexandrette, Latakia, and Tripoli, and due at Beyrout March 3d. On L'Amerique, only one Masonic passenger was at first visible, Capt. E. H. Currey, of the brig C. F. Eaton, of New York, his membership being in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and one officer, Brother Le Maitre, first officer of the steamer L'Ameripe. He is a resident of Marseilles, and particularly well informed in the details of French Masonry. Before we reached Smyrna another Mason, a fellow‑passenger, came on board.
Passing southeastwardly, the Straits of Gibraltar, guarded by the Pillars of Hercules, were far on my right hand, and of course invisible. These pillars, named respectively Calpe and Abylo, stood, in the days when giants might be imagined, the twin, prodigious monoliths similar in purpose to the artificial pyramids.
They must have struck the gaze of the astonished and awed discoverers navigating this silent Mediterranean as the colossal pillars on which burned the double lights of Baal. So to the Phoenician sailors who first descried and then stemmed boldly through these peaked and majestic straits, - so to those men of Tyre, whose devices were the fire‑white horns of the globed Ashtaroth, appeared these monster rocks, pillar‑portals, fire‑topped as the last world‑beacon closing in that classic sea. - Jennings' Rosicrucians.
4l CORSICA AND NAPOLEON.
e 2 Z - COIN WITH PILLARS OF HERCULES, AND MAP OF CORSICA.
50 ms Passing the island of Corsica, I gave some hours of contemplation to that great man, our Masonic brother, born on this mountainous isle, Napoleon Bonaparte. It is about a century since his boyish eyes ooked forth from those snowy crags over the beautiful and memo‑table sea before me. We need not indorse all his actions to acknowledge him as a brother. A Masonic fraternity was founded at Paris in 1816, by the adherents of the then exiled Napoleon. Its ritual comprised three degrees: 1. Knight; 2. Commander; 3. Grand Elect. The third degree was divided into three classes: 1. Secret Judge; 2. Perfect Initiate; 3. Knight of the Oaken Crown, all having reference to Napoleon. Bertrand, then a voluntary exile with his imperial master at St. Helena, was chosen Grand Master, the single aim of the whole being the restoration of Napoleon. - Afacoy's Ma‑sonic Cyclopedia. (How perfect the parallel between this and the various Scotch and chapitral rites established to advance the restoration of the Pretender to the English crown.) Among the medals struck during the brilliant career of Napoleon, there are several that commemorate his Masonic affiliation; one, dated December 31, 1807, has for motto, Nova lux oculis effulsit et ingens - new and great light bursts upon our vision. On the obverse is a cabinet of Masonic emblems, below a star with five radiating cusps, and the words Lodge Ecossaise Napoleon (Scottish Napoleon Lodge). On the reverse we have in French the words Silence, Friendship, Beneficence, with the square and compass grouped in an oak crown, and the words (in French) Orient of Leghorn, 1807.
In memory of this wonderful man, whose patronage of the Masonic institution gave it an impetus in France and Europe which it never hcua lost, I begin at Corsica, marked " A " on the map, to locate the
TRACK OF ST. PAUL. 45
names of American Masons, and write here ten eminent in military as well as Masonic fame, viz.: - General Hancock, General Herron, General McClellan, General Hurlbut, General Wash‑burn, General Butler, General Manson, General Woodruff, General Zollicoffer, General Anderson. [The announcement of the death of this excellent man reaches me while, in 1871, I am conning over this chapter.] An excellent book upon Corsica is that of Hon. S. S. Cox, published in 1870, called, A Search for Winter Sunbeams. Before this, the island had been terra incognita, an unknown country. But Mr. Cox shows that it is the connecting link between the two continents, in the centre of the basin of the Western Mediterranean. Its mountains are midway between the Atlas range and the Alps, and unite the fruitful vigor of the former with the rugged grandeur of the latter, and the vegetable growth of each. Like the Holy Land, this broken region produces everything, from the lemon, orange, and date, to the pine, ilex, and oak.
Between Italy and Sicily I first struck the track, figuratively speaking, of the great Christian itinerant and martyr, St. Paul, of whom I shall have more to say in this work. Here I began to realize that I was entering upon Scriptural scenes and events. To the left, yonder, almost in sight, was Rome, then and now, for many hundred years, closed to Freemasonry,* the scene of Paul's martyrdom, the place from which his most wonderful epistles were dated. Nearer was the Island of Caprera, on which the Grand Master of Italian Masons, Garibaldi, was then a political prisoner. He might have been in his doorway looking out upon our steamer as we passed. On the right, as I sailed, lay in the distance Malta, the scene of chivalric exploits, the place of Paul's shipwreck. Before me were the straits, on the right and left of which stood those ancient terrors, Scylla and Charybdis.
Sailing near Crotona, on the eastern coast of Italy, I recalled the name and labors of Pythagoras, commemorated in the Freemason's Monitor in these words: " Our ancient friend and brother, the great Pythagoras, who, in his travels through Asia, Africa, and Europe, was initiated into several orders of priesthood and raised to - Since this page was written the Grand Lodge of Italy has been transferred to Rome, the Pope having lost all political power, and only remaining in Rome )n sufferance. Verily the whirligig of time makes wondrous changes!
0 46 PYTHAGORAS.
the sublime degree of a Master Mason." Here, at Crotona, his celebrated school of philosophy was established, about B.C. 539, in which the sciences enumerated in the Fellow‑Crafts Lecture were inculcated, viz., grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. From Pythagoras (often erroneously accented on the penult) many of our Masonic lodges are named, as for instance Crotona Lodge No. 339, Ky.; and any number of Pythagoras lodges.
Masonic honors are paid to Pythagoras as the reputed discoverer of the forty‑seventh problem of Euclid, thus acknowledged in the Monitor: " This wise philosopher enriched his mind abundantly in a general knowledge of things, and more especially in Geometry or Masonry; on this subject he drew out many problems and theorems, and among the most distinguished he erected this, which, in the joy of his heart, he called Eureka, in the Grecian language signifying 'I have found it! and upon the discovery of which he is said to have sacrificed a hecatomb. It teaches Masons to be general lovers of the arts and sciences." In the degree of Eureka Hiatus, however, this discovery is attributed to an aged brother, Iluramen, who lived four hundred years earlier. Damon and Pythias, whose friendship was modelled after that of David and Jonathan, were pupils of the Pythagorean school, and lived about B.C. 38'7. Out of their story some ingenious Americans have recently modelled a " secret order," surnamed Knights of Pythias.
In memory of this wonderful man, who perhaps did more to shape the philosophy and cultus of the ancient world than any other, not inspired author, I have located here, at Crotona, marked " B " upon the map, the names of ten Masonic authors of modern times whose labors run parallel with those of the sublime Pythagoras, viz., George W. Chase, James B. Taylor, Giles F. Yates, Wilkins Tannehill, George Gray, J. W. S. Mitchell, A. T. C. Pearson, G. W. Steinbrenner, William S. Rockwell, and Sidney Hayden.
Passing the island of Paros, I reflected upon that famous fabric "which was supported by fourteen hundred and fifty‑three columns and two thousand nine hundred and six pilasters, all hewn from the finest Parian marble." If this calculation is correct, the traffic between Joppa, the seaport of Jerusalem, and the quarries upon this island of Paros, must have been very extensive. With the small vessels employed in Phoenician commerce, it was a stupendous labor to convey such, and so many, columns and pilasters over the seas. 1 had no opportunity to see the quarries. The island itself is about
PAROS AND ATHENS. 47
thirty miles in length. The following outline cut will give an idea of it.
In memory of a place perpetuated in Masonic tradition, marked "C" upon the map, I locate the names of ten such " shafts of Parian marble" as King Solomon would have approved, viz., John Sheville, Jerome B. Borden, George W. Fleming, W. J. Millard, James Cruikshank, Elisha D. Cooke, James L. Enos, George D. Norris, Stillman Blanchard, and James Crooks.
It was a trial to my feelings to skirt thus rapidly the coasts of Greece; debarred for want of time from visiting scenes with which my studies have familiarized me from boyhood. Toward the Acropolis, at Athens, I directed a longing gaze. The pilot guided me in pointing my finger toward it. He says that, like the hill on which Solomon's Temple stood, it is most accessible from the northwest Robinson says that on the oblong area of its levelled surface were collected the noblest monuments of Grecian taste. It was the very sanctuary of the arts, the glory and the religion of ancient Athens. Here stood the sixth of the seven ancient wonders of the world, the ivory and gold statue of Jupiter Olympus, erected by Phidias, B.C. 440, which measured thirty‑nine feet in height.
To commemorate this ancient wonder, traditionally associated with Ancient Operative Masonry, at Athens, marked "D" on the map, I locate the names of ten Masonic characters as beautifully proportioned in their moral members as the statue of Jupiter was in the physical, viz., Daniel Sickels, J. L. Gould, George Babcock, John Robin McDaniel, Frank Darrow, Robert N. Brown, William Hacker, J. J. Rubottom, I. N. Stackhouse, and William S. Combs.
In conversation with our Greek pilot, when I told him that Solon, B.c. 600, laid it down, as the first essential condition of happiness, that a man should live in a well‑ordered country, he shrugged his shoulders Greek fashion, and replied: " Lucky for Solon he does not live here now I" At Syra we had taken in as a passenger Bro. R. Westfield, a member
MAP OF PAROS.
rty‑Bro.
- of - of nary I an can inrepwen - y S. r as for oyal for per‑that but and this pure oyal 1'ALMYRA: rAliuor. 4 Ma‑my . set ‑five ma. - lish;fish 'and The thor s are f the Tar‑ FREEMASONRY AT SMYRNA. 51 rituals are in the Greek language, but, as I understand, translated literally from the English. The Greek population of Smyrna is very large and respectable.
5. Decran Lodge No. 1,014. - Warranted by the Grand Lodge of England in 1864. This lodge has about sixty members. The rituals are the same as those of St. George, but the membership, is Armenian - a class here embracing many of the wealthiest people of the city., F. Stella Ionia Lodge No. - . - Warranted by the Grand Lodge of [tal^ in 1864. This lodge has about seventy‑five members. The rituals are Italian. I was unable to get much information concerning this lodge.
7. Jleusinian Lodge No. 987. - This was intended as a summer lodge at Ephesus, but its officers and members resided in Smyrna.
8. Sion's Lodge. - T his was organized at the close of the year 1870, if Jewish brethren.
9. St. John's Lodge No. 952. - Working under English authority.
All these Smyrna lodges hold their meetings in the same room; a commodious, well‑ventilated apartment, with handsome cornices, abundant ante‑chambers, etc., etc. The arrangements of an English lodge will doubtless be novel to many of my readers. There is no Altar, but a pedestal directly in front of the Worshipful Master serves the purpose of one. The emblems usually delineated on the Master's carpet, such as the Ashlars, Globes, Tokens of Service, and the like, are presented here in the form of tangible objects grouped around and in front of the Master's station, and form very attractive images to the eye; more so, indeed, than merely painted emblems. The stations of the officers are substantially the same as ours.
The form of notification sent out by the Worshipful Master waA this: "An Emergency General Meeting of Masons will be held to‑day, Tuesday, the 25th of February, at 81 P.M., which all members are requested punctually to attend. The business of the evening will b* to receive two American Masonic Brethren." Some of the names minuted for the Tyler's use on this Summons are: Thomas Janson, Secretary; F. Stano, F. W. Spiegelthal, W. Shotton, A. F. Raboly, James Rees, G. Perrin, T. Papworth, S. Papps, E. Parodis, J. O'Connor, N. Nubarian, G. Mollhausen, Louis Meyer, Arthur Lawson, Dr. Kossonis, Issigonis, St. Joly, Fres. Joly, Ed. Joly, Jo. Hadgi, C. R. Hefter, T. Hatton, L. Haco, E. Georganspula, J. Ganon, G. Fyfe, J. Fraser, Th. Franghia, F. Franghia, A. Fontrier, St. Dirutzuyan, J i, P The ibly red:en‑was ve" cried e of lip," 5.) nds, Jute the med ccuir C. efuler is the hose how what neriit in 'tine, sort tiga rand .rney .oved after Ely‑de pprot. I e reed be xi in THE KISS OF PEACE. 53 their hands. I told them that in my literary labors I had composed a number of poems, a few of which I would proceed to recite.
Then I gave them The Level and Square; Our Vows; One Hour with You; and The Gavel Song; all of which seemed to give them pleasure.
Responses were made by Bro. Carrere, Bro. Staab, and others in English, and one at considerable length in Greek by Bro..Dr. S. Karacoussis, a Greek physician of eminence here. This was interpreted to me by Bro. Carrere. The learned doctor takes the same view of the Oriental origin and antiquity of Freemasonry that we do. His theory of Masonic patriotism and benevolence is very lofty and grand. He encouraged me greatly in my Eastern researches, as indeed did they all. An invitation was tendered to me to spend some time here next summer, which I accepted, and we arranged for a Masonic Picnic to be held June 24th, 1868, at ancient Ephesus, about twenty‑five miles south of Smyrna. This plan, however, failed, owing to my adopting a different route on my return home in June.
A call was then made upon me to close the lodge strictly upon the American system, which I did. Then we adjourned to refreshments, from which I managed to withdraw so as to be on board the steamer by midnight. As I had spent the day mostly in visiting bazaars, climbing to the great castle in the rear of the city, and per‑ambulating it in all directions, it may readily be imagined that I was in a condition demanding repose.
As one evidence of the national variety that made up this meeting, I mention the names of Bro. Landon, an American; Westfield, a German; Franghia, Cassimarti, Dirutzuyan, Fontrier, Georganspula, Staab, Karacoussis, Hadji, Issigonis, Nubarian, Raboly, Stepham, Jedeschi, Jimoni, Thukides, and Venezeans, of the Greek, French, Armenian, and English. The only American brother resident here, whose acquaintance I formed, was Brother Landon, originally from Boston, Worshipful Master of the Lodge at Ephesus; more than forty years a Mason, and in whom the sacred fire was burning unimpaired. His death in 1870 left a wide hiatus in that Masonic and social circle.
I cannot leave the subject of my visit to Smyrna without recalling the truly Masonic earnestness manifested by all. The Oriental usage of meeting and parting with a kiss of peace (Romans xvi. 16), while it seems strange in others, appears strangely appropriate among these Levant Masons. When I mentioned casually, in the reception‑
64 HISTORY OF SMYRN ..
room, that the first money which, as a little boy, I ever possessed, I gave, in 1826, to the cause of suffering Greece, the Greek brethren present almost smothered me with kisses. And when I said farewell to the party who accompanied me to the ship on the 26th, the same salutations were exchanged. I confess that I never before felt the universality of Freemasonry as now, and never estimated so highly its mighty powers for good.
One ceremony they perform in these Smyrna lodges I may relate without a violation of confidence. Whenever in my remarks to the Lodge I used the name of Deity, all my auditors arose and stood before that " shadowed image " to which the sweet bard of Scottish Freemasonry refers, as "That hieroglyphic bright Which none but Craftsmen ever saw." As every reader can learn what he wants to know by looking for " Smyrna" in the Cyclopedia, I occupy but short space with a description. This city, styled the ornament of Asia (agalma tees Asias), was celebrated by the ancients as one of the fairest and noblest cities of Ionia. It was founded, probably, by a woman of the same name, an Amazon, of the Cuma/ans, about B.c. 1015, the period when King David was "preparing with all his might, for the house of his God, gold, silver, brass, iron, wood, onyx‑stones and all manner of precious stones and marble stones in abundance." (1 Chr. xxix. 2.) Although ten times destroyed by fierce throes of nature and fiercer men, Smyrna has ten times risen from her ruins, and is still the largest commercial city of Asia Minor, promising even to eclipse Constantinople. Herodotus, B.C. 444, says, "it has the finest sky and climate in the world, and a soil extremely productive." Great names are associated with Smyrna. Pythagoras was born about B.C. 570 at Samos, only a few miles south of Smyrna, and must have spent much of his early life here. Homer, about B.C. 962, was perhaps born here. St. Paul unquestionably had one of his preaching stations at Smyrna, and here was that one of the seven churches of Asia to which "the beloved Disciple," the good St. John the Evangelist, he who bare record of the word of God and the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw (Rev. i. 2), and whom all loving Masons claim as a brother, wrote this thrilling epistle: " These things saith the first and last, which was dead and is alive. I know thy works and tribulation and poverty
ANTIQUITIES OF ASIA MINOR. 55
(but thou art rich), and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer; behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days; be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life." (Rev. ii. 8‑10.) And here that grand old evangelist Polycarp (what an appropriate name, the seed‑abounding!) preached and labored for seventy‑four years, making good testimony of his faith by suffering death at the stake A.D. 167, under the reign of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. His tomb is still shown, designated by a fine old cypress‑tree.
Along the east side of the city is a beautiful plain full of villages. Two lines of railway run out in that direction; one finished to Aidin (Tralles) by way of Ephesus, eighty miles; the other to Magnesia and Kassaba, sixty miles. Trains run daily over these lines at the rate of twenty‑five miles an hour.
An account of the sieges this city has suffered, and the terrible disasters consequent upon its numerous captures and destruction, would fill a volume. Operative Masons will be interested to know that when Timour the Tartar (Taimour‑lang) captured Smyrna, A.D. 1402, after a blockade of fourteen days, he slew all the inhabitants and demolished the houses. In rebuilding a portion for military purposes, he ordered all the heads of the slain to be built into the walls with mortar and stone. History fails to say what sort of materials these proved to be.
Smyrna and the country around it abound in antiquities, the best description of which I have seen being that in "The Seven Churches of Asia," by A. Svoboda, 1869, with an introduction by our good Mason brother Prof. H. B. Tristam, of England. A copy of this, with twenty photographs pasted on the corresponding leaves, is in the possession of Col. H. J. Goodrich, Chicago, Illinois. Amongst these ruins the most remarkable is the sculpture made by Sesostris at Kara‑Bell, not long after those cut on the rocks near Beyrout, which I shall minutely describe in their place. These were only discovered in 1839, although described by Herodotus more than 2,300 years ago. It is sculptured in relief, sunk in a panel cut into the perpendicular surface of a massive, calcareous hard rock, in height about seven feet. The image is represented in profile, looking to the east. The inscription, as described by Herodotus, although now obliterated by the tooth of time in thirty‑four centuries, read thus: " I conquered this country by the might of my arms." 66
LEAVES FROM A DIARY.
In the vicinity of Smyrna, six miles from Sardis, are the remains of the largest tomb in the world, that of Algattes, father of the opulent Orcesus, to whom the adage " rich as Creesus" applies. This im mense monument is 3,800 feet in circumference and very lofty. The base is of very large stones, the rest earth. Herodotus says it was erected by tradesmen, mechanics, and strumpets, and rather oddly adds that the latter did the most of it! The far‑famed mausoleum of Mausolus, King of Caria, erected by Artemisia, his queen, and the second of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, was at Halicarnassus, not far from Smyrna. It was built B.C. 350. Artemisia invited all the literary men of the age to compete for the best elegiac panegyric upon the deceased, and ad‑judged the prize to Theopompus, B.C. 357. The statue of Mausolus, taken from these ruins, is now in the British Museum at London.
To commemorate this model of all funeral piles, I locate at this place, marked on the map "I," the names of ten eminent Masons, Grand Masters, and Past Grand Masters, viz.: Theodore S. Parvin, Samuel M. Todd, D. H. Wheeler, Hiram Bassett, J. M. S. McCorkle, John Scott, D. C. Cregier, Wm. M. Wilson, Thomas A. Doyle, William E. Pine, Philip C. Tucker, Jr.
In passing through Smyrna, the first Oriental city I had ever visited, I was struck, as all travellers are, with the unexpected variety of scenes, the people of so many colors and creeds, and the customs, so novel to an American. A few pages from my note‑book will serve to show how my mind was affected, and will exhibit my method of jotting down information during my whole journey through the East: Greek boatmen in pantalettes; they face the way they row; oars fastened to rowlocks, and weighted to accommodate feeble wrists; prices of labor, low; handkerchiefs around head; talk in strident tones as if quarreling; gesticulate like St. Vitus; merchandise; piles of madder on docks; cotton bales hooped with five iron bands; through whole day's ramble felt as if in lanes and by‑ways, and that I should presently come out into a broad street, but never did; streets only eight to twelve feet wide; Camel, solemn, stately‑stepping, silent, serious ship of the desert, clipper‑rigged, his spongy feet sprawling all over the wide paving‑stones, as though to grasp them and secure a footing; each wears a nose‑bag like a huge mouchoir; always five camels in a row, following a little donkey who carries a bigger one on his back: the procession of six is coupled by cords six feet, tying then neck to neck; number six wears a large cow‑bell, having inside of it a small bell with a clapper; un‑
LEAVES FROM A DIARY. 57
musical sounds; camels loaded with madder in bales; also with cot‑ton; each carryii_g two large round bags of cotton of about 300 lbs. each, not well compressed; these loads do not shorten the three‑feet steps or reduce the stately stepping, as regular as Mrs. M - 's clock that hangs over the fireplace at home; his long, snaky neck level as the Level of the Senior Warden; caravan of 500 of them just in from Persia, and whole city full of them scattered in followings of five; Turkish Carrier with wooden frame on his back supports a great load; a barrel of flour being strapped on it, he leans forward, nearly horizontal, grasps tightly a stick fastened by a string to his neck, and walks off with a long, quick stride as silently and solemnly as the camel himself; such a rheumatism as he will have when he gets to be sixty; the markets called bazaars; no sign‑boards; numbered in Arabic and English; every man's stock is open in front, with no counter or railing; you just sit down on the shop‑floor, in front of the merchant, and trade; each stock worth from $50 to $500 all told; nobody sells more than one line of goods; first is a tobacco‑store, then drygoods, thread, tobacco again, fruits, brass vessels (very bright and tasty too); jewelry, mostly of the cheap and nasty sort; fruits, tobacco, calico, woolen caps with silk tassels; small stock of drugs; hardware from Birmingham, England (such scissors! to cut your nails will take the edge off!,); tobacco, matches, confectionery, four in a row; - and so on with tobacco as a staple; only one butcher‑shop an hour; bread in loaves and rings, nice, and of good quality; confectioneries particularly well got up; no cakes nor pison things, as in American shops; every hundred yards or so an open court, mostly paved, with fountain in centre, and trees of orange, palm, etc.; in Armenian quarters, front doors open, display hall with settees, paved elaborately with pebbles; set mosaically in cement; Armenian Graveyard, with drawings on gravestones, to show dead men's business on earth, - barbers' tools, tools of carpenters, stone‑mason, blacksmith, etc., etc.; Turkish Mosque; at high twelve people pray; first washing feet, hands, arms, neck and head, and scouring mouth, ears, etc.; my servant Joseph, being a Jew, debarred admission, stayed outside and watched my boots while I went in; had to o in stocking feet (stockings had holes in them); worshipers bare‑footed; no furniture nor seats; matted with ragged mats; galleries, but nobody there; regular barn of a place; no preaching; no singing, no nothing; those who spoke to one another whispered; kept my hat on according to orders; the door was a quilted leather affair that hung tapestry‑fashion; no arrangements for warming or lighting; heard no muezzin; crescent on top of the church; Turkish School, all boys, no girls; noise startling, gesticulations marvellous, scholars all leave their shoes outside, perfectly safe, the fifty pairs not worth a .dime for the lot; sight of my fur cap delighted the boys; Women; Turkish women wear cloth over face, other women not; Armenian women expose breasts indecorously; Old Fort on hill; built by Genoese magnificent view from summit; Mt. Cybele with its snowy cap and
58 THE SHIP OF THE DESERT.
Many traditions; the fort a grand piece of labor and skill, but now entirely in ruins; looking southeast, imagine St. Paul coming to the top of the hill, to take a first view of Smyrna preparatory to preaching here; Turkish Graveyard; turban on gravestones of men; rose‑buds on women; inscriptions written from right to left, and slope upwards, a modern innovation, I am told; many epitaphs in gilt; none handsome; graveyard full of broken columns, once doubt‑less forming parts of ancient temples, etc.; six enormous ones lately exhumed by Exploration Society, curiously carved work upon them; had stones thrown at me here by schoolboys, but only because my guide was a Jew; Fountains; a Turkish hobby founding fountains, and one that excited my gratitude; the city is full of them; all free; Streets cleaner than I expected, and well paved, but the boulders are rude, and hurt the feet; Fruits, etc., figs, seedless raisins, pomegranates, carob pods, garlic, cauliflowers, shelled almonds, oranges, lemons, dates, fig‑paste, English walnuts, hazelnuts, dates, delicious prunes, and very many others; Costumes; everybody's nationality and religion recognized by his dress, handsomest race is the Armenian; but few beggars; group negroes playing cards; soldiers with French muskets, percussion locks, carried at half‑shoulder shift; but little importunity among merchants to get my custom; street‑brokers everywhere with a peck or two of money ready for exchange; in changing a twenty‑franc piece they only charged two cents premium; gave me a pint of native money in copper and alloyed silver, very base; only two tipsy men, and they "but just a drappy in the ee'," as poor Burns used to say.
Over the old Greek church, in which Polycarp is said to have preached, are the words (in ancient Greek), Polycarp the Divine Shepherd. * * * * * * And so on for a dozen pages for quantity.
The streets of Smyrna are ludicrous parodies on the word! More crooked than those of Boston, more filthy than those of Cairc (Illinois), they are so narrow that a loaded camel fills one up even Shakespeare must have had a description of them before penning that laughable thing in the Merchant of Venice (Act ii., Scene 2), where one of his characters gives these directions to a sorely‑puzzled traveller: " Turn upon your right hand at the next turning; but at the next turning of all, on your left. Marry, at the very next turning, turn of no hand, but turn down indirectly to the Jew's house!" No marvel at the answer: ░'Twill be a hard way to hit!" Seeing here the first caravan of camels I had ever beheld (some five hundred of them, just in from Persia, loaded with cotton), I am reminded of the Eastern legend commemorating the extreme homeliness of this beast. The first man who beheld a camel fainted with
FU &D PASHA, THE MASON. 59
dismay; the second one drew tremblingly near; the third roped him and put him to work!" In good sooth, he is a failure in animal architecture, reminding us, as compared with the other beasts, of the lodge‑tyler compared with the other officers.
To commemorate the Masonic spirit manifested in this ancient Masonic and ecclesiastical city of Smyrna, marked on the map "E," nine honored names of British craftsmen, whose names will survive them, are located here, viz., Hyde Clark, Stephen Barton Wilson, W. J. Hughan, D. Murray Lyon, Charles Purton Cooper, Matthew Cooke, Charles Warren, E. T. Rogers, and V. W. Bate.
It was not in my route to visit Constantinople; but I was assured by well‑informed gentlemen at Smyrna that some of the highest officials of the empire are acknowledged members of the Masonic fraternity there. Amongst these I name that distinguished officer, Fuad Pasha, who deceased the following year. The Sultan himself is an avowed friend to this society. A few years since he directed one of his secretaries to become a Mason, and the secretary's report upon the aims and principles of the institution was so favorable as to secure the imperial favor. Of this the great officers of the empire are well aware.
Constantinople is intimately associated in our minds with terrible conflagrations, especially that of 1870, which was one of a series that have devastated this devoted city for many generations. A traveller in 1610, referring to the sad fire of October 14, 1607, remarked that he did not know to what fate or misfortune this city was subject in suffering so much. At that time three thousand houses were burned to their foundations.
I left Smyrna, on Wednesday, the 26th February, still one week's journey from Holy Land. Passing the island of Samos, I again re‑call the history and labors of the sublime Pythagoras, born here B.c. 570.
Samos, says Anthon in his Classical Dictionary, is an island of the Egean, lying off the lower part of the coast of Ionia, and nearly opposite the Trogilian promontory. The intervening strait was about seven stadia in its narrowest part. (A stadium was the eighth of an English mile.) The first inhabitants were Carians and Leleges. The temple and worship of Juno contributed much to its fame and affiuence. A tunnel was carried through the mountain seven stadia, to convey water from a distant fountain to the city. A mole, twenty fathoms deep and two stadia long, defended the harbor.
60 SAMOS.
The circuit of Samos was 600 stadia, equal to 75 English miles. It yielded almost every kind of Levantine produce, except wine. The city of Samos was exactly opposite the Trogilian promontory and Mount Mycale. The port was secure and convenient for ships. The town stood chiefly in a plain rising gradually from the sea. The island, sailing north from Patmos, is very conspicuous, so much so that the ancients styled any very lofty place Samos. It is the most conspicuous object, not only in the Ionian Sea but the lEgean also. The following cut will give an idea of its shape.
At so appropriate a locality as Samos, marked " F " on the map, I place the names of Thomas J. Corson, Daniel B.
Bruen, W. B. Langridge, A. H. Cope‑ land, P. H. Taylor, John Leach, J. McCormick, Cornelius Moore, A. J. Wheeler, and John A. Morris.
MAP OF SAMOS.
Passing off the coast, a little ways west of Ephesus, I note the fact that Eleusi‑ nian Lodge No. 987, of which the vener‑ able Brother Landon is W. M., holds its sessions here, although the city at present is but a poor place. I had promised the Smyrna Masons to return to them in June next and spend the 24th, the anniversary of our patron‑saint John the Baptist, in a Masonic pie‑ate among the ruins of Ephesus. It would have been a rare experience indeed. Here at Ephesus were many of the most celebrated structures of antiquity, including that third " Won‑der of the World," the Temple of Diana. This noted edifice was erected B.C. 552, at the common charge of all the Asiatic States, its chief architect being Ctesiphon; two hundred and twenty years were expended in the work. The Temple was 425 feet by 225. It was supported by 127 marble columns 60 feet high, and thick in pro‑portion, each weighing 150 tons. Each column was a present from a separate king. This building was set on fire by Eratostratus the same night Alexander was born, viz., B.C. 356. It was rebuilt, but finally destroyed by the Goths A.D. 256 to 262.
The foundations of this Temple, like those of King Solomon's, were artificial, although for a very different reason. The soil being marshy, deep beds of charcoal and fleeces of wool were laid in trenches, and so a substantial base was formed. Pliny describes the difficulty en‑,;ountered in moving and raising the enormous blocks of stone EPHESUS. 61 wrought into this Temple, a problem which 'exercises the wits of all who traverse Egypt and the East, and to which I shall give attention further on. In the present instance he says: " The architect contrived to raise the architraves by means of' bags of sand piled upon an inchned plane to the height of the columns (60 feet) and by gradually emptying them the blocks fell to their assigned places." The roof of this Temple was of cedar, like Solomon's, the doors of cypress (Solomon's were of olive), and the stairway of vine‑wood. As the grapevines in the East are often twelve to' fifteen inches in diameter, this is credible. All the wood before using was glued together and left four years to season. So well was this seasoning executed that the wood of the Second Temple was found by Mucianus, B.C. 75, to be as good as new, although then 400 years old. So the wood in the old church at Bethlehem seems now as good as new, although more than 1,500 years old. Upon the whole, this Temple was so beautiful that Philon burst out in rapture concerning it, saying, " it is the only house of the gods; you will think when you see it that the gods have left heaven and come to live here!" Its position was at the head of the port facing me, as I sail past, and it shone there like a meteor. But now the sea has receded three miles eastward and left a reedy, miasmatic marsh between us. The very site of the Temple of Diana is in dispute, and the city itself is a vast and almost indistinguishable ruin.
The supply of marble for these works was of course immense. Three ancient quarries were open, those of Ctesiphon and Paros, to which reference has been made on preceding pages, and Proconessus. But the question of freight was the puzzle; the transport of so much stone would demand whole fleets of vessels, although the distance, as compared with that traversed by the fleets of Hiram, was insignificant. The difficulty was solved in the nick of time, by the discovery of a quarry of fine marble on Mount Prion, in the vicinity of Ephesus, brought to light by the butting off of a piece by the horns of a ram! At this ancient Queen City of the Levant Ephesus, marked on the map " H," I locate the following Masonic names: Charles W. Moore, H. G. Reynolds, David Clark, F. G. Tisdall, G. F. Gouley, Henry D. Palmer, James Fenton, S. D. Bayless, Joseph B. Hough, and E. S. Fitch.
And there the people believe our good December‑Saint John lies buried behind the high altar. But his tomb, when opened, was found to have lost its body; the pure flesh of the apostle of peace had
62 THE GOLDEN SABBATH AT PATMOS.
turned to manna, or the body itself had been translated to heaven, leaving that Celestial bread of the Royal Arch in its place. This grave had been made under his own instructions, while alive, and in his death‑day he walked there voluntarily and laid himself down in it.
Here, too, he led his adopted mother, Mary (John xix. 26, 27), who, at the age of seventy‑two years, followed Jesus to the celestial courts.
Passing along, on the 26th, by the island of Patmos, I read with uncommon interest that collection of imagery, thrilling and inimitable, which makes up the Apocalypse or Revelation of St. John, in which the Apostle saw " the spiritual city and all her spires and gateways in a glory like one pearl," and where on that celebrated Lord's day he was "in the spirit," his raptured soul dwelling in the midst of opal and amethyst and chalcedony and sardonyx and gold.
Much of these figures is embodied in various degrees of the Scotch Rite. Entering into the spirit of this strange book, it reads as though a woman were peeping into a lodge‑room, witnessing the ceremonies of Freemasonry, and trying, with raptured pen, to record them! How I should like to spend a week here and read it through. The aspect of the island is peculiarly rugged and bare, which explains why it was selected as a place of exile for St. John, as the practice was to choose rocky and desolate islands for such purposes. Only one palm‑tree remains upon it, although so numerous were they 1,000 years ago, that the name Palmosa was given to the island. So Jericho, anciently called "the city of palm‑trees" (Dent. xxxiv. 3), has now only one palm remaining. This island, now called Patino, in which God opened the pearly gates of paradise, is divided equally by a very narrow isthmus, making the whole something in the shape of an hour‑glass. The following engraving gives a correct idea of its appearance.
Here dwelt St. John the Evangelist, a prisoner "for the Ward of God and for the Testimony of Jesus Christ (Rev. i. 9), during part of the reign of Domitian, probably from A.D. 95 to 97, when he was nearly a hundred years old.
To commemorate a place so sacred in Masonic and Biblical, I locate at Patmos, ''" marked "G" on the map, the names of
MAP OF PATMOS.
ten clergymen, eminent both in Masonic and religious relations, viz., J. H. Fitch, r RHI)DES. 63 Hiram A. Hunter, D. H. Knickerbacker, Robert Collier, Charles Loshier, C. G. Bowdish, John Trimble, Jr., Robert McMurdy, J. S. Dennis, William S. Burney.
I arrived at Rhodes Feb. 27, and remained a few hours off the city, but not long enough to go on shore. I recalled some facts which commend the island particularly to the attention of Knights Templars. It was the refuge of the Christian Knights when they were finally driven from the Holy Land in the fifteenth century. Those gallant warriors fortified it so strongly and defended it so gallantly as to resist for a considerable period the utmost power of the Otto‑man Empire; and when at last, overborne with numbers, and weakened by famine and the unintermitting assaults of their enemies, they were compelled to surrender, they capitulated upon the most honorable conditions, being allowed to withdraw from the island with all their possessions, and to go to Malta.
Rhodes is specially worthy of Masonic study, as being the site of the fifth of the seven ancient wonders of the world, the vast brazen image of the sun, styled the Colossus of Rhodes. This was seventy cubits high (about sixty‑five feet). It was erected by Chores of Lindus, about B.C. 290, but only stood about sixty years, being thrown down by an earthquake, about B.C. 224. St. John doubtless saw this remarkable piece of art, and it may have suggested to his mind the allegory in the tenth chapter of his Revelation: " And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire; and he had in his hand a little book open; and he set his right foot upon the sea and his left foot upon the earth." The following engraving will give a clear idea of this island.
It is about forty miles long, and one‑third the same in breadth. Its population is about 25,000, largely Greeks and Jews. The modern city only covers one‑fourth the area of the ancient city, whose majestic ruins fill the vista as I gaze upon them from the deck of the ship; but few traces of the glory of ancient Rhodes are visible. Instead of the in‑
MAP OF RHODES.
numerable galleys that once swarmed out of yonder port, like pigeons from their cotes, and commanded all
64 TARSUS.
these seas by their numbers and daring, nothing has come forth during the four hours I have lain off this harbor, save a few skiffs seeking to take passengers ashore, a flat‑bottomed barge for our freight, and a custom‑house boat manned by ten red‑capped sailors, and commanded by an indolent Turk, which rows round and round us during our stay here to see that we do no smuggling. Probably his " fidelity to his trust" equals that of the custom‑house officer on the wharf at Smyrna, who lazily examined my box of figs and the roll of stationery which I had purchased in the bazaars, and compromised all informalities concerning them by accepting two piastres (eight cents) for his own pocket). I venture to say that that fat gentleman yonder would " pass " a whole cargo for a moderate compensation without a blush. The name of the island, Rhodes, was probably derived from Res, a rose, referring to the multitude and variety of that sweet blossom here.
Waiting upon the slow movements of the customs officers, I find time to read Acts xxi., where Paul, having parted the day before with the Christian brethren of Miletus and Ephesus, "came with a straight course unto Coos, and the day following Rhodes," and so on through his subsequent journey to Jerusalem, Cmesarea, Malta, and Rome! To commemorate a place so intimately associated with the glory of Christian Knighthood, I locate here at Rhodes, marked "K" upon the map, the names of ten Masons, eminent in the Christian Orders of Knighthood, viz.: J. Q. A. Fellows, William S. Gardner, William E. Lathrop, John A. Lefferts, G. Fred Wiltsie, Orrin Welch, A. V. H. Carpenter, E. D. B. Porter, Alfred E. Ames, and George L. Otis.
Remaining twelve hours at Mersina, February 29 (this being leap‑year), I am told that this town lies at the mouth of the river Cydnus, and is only six miles from ancient Tarsus, the birthplace of the great Paul, the man who was set to be a light to the Gentiles, that he should be for salvation unto the ends of the earth (Acts xiii. 47.) From childhood I have been accustomed to consider the Apostle Paul the man who, next to Moses, has exercised the greatest influence upon the minds of his race. Being thus within six miles of his birthplace, I cannot but follow, in imagination, his footsteps hence, to the theological school of Gamaliel at Jerusalem; thence on a fanatical errand to Damascus; thence miraculously confounded and
SAINT PAUL 65
converted to the Christian faith; thence on journeys hither and thither, establishing churches, bearing painful testimonials "in labors more abundant; in stripes above measure; in prisons more frequent; in deaths oft; of the Jews, five times, receiving forty stripes save one thrice beaten with rods; once stoned; thrice suffering shipwreck; a night and a day in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by his own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness; in watchings often; in hunger and thirst; in fastings often, in cold and nakedness." (2 Cor. xi.) Whatever one may think of the particular cause to which this man gave his learning, labor, and life, no one can help respecting him for the fidelity he evinced in the performance of duty. And surely no Mason who has dropped the tear over the martyred Hiram can refuse the sympathetic drop to the memory of Paul; or to share the triumphant glow which inspired him when he wrote in his old age to Timothy: "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give in that day." (2 Tim. iv.) Mighty soul! hast thou not satisfied those immortal longings ere this! Gathered with the saints at the River of Life, is not thy weariness refreshed and thy thirst satisfied? I don't fancy Renan's views upon religious subjects, whatever he may know in science and literature, but I must say that his conception of St. Paul's character is fine and just. He describes his soul as growing great and expanding without ceasing; a man of boundless vigor, unlimited capacity, will, and action. His Life of St. Paul might be expurgated, and so made a,valuable book.
We sighted the Syrian shores on the first day of March, the opening hours,of spring, the day being but a few hours old. At Alexandrette, or Scandaroon, I was permitted to go on shore and remain for some hours. My first act was to fall upon my knees and praise T. G. A. O. T. U. that now at length, near the going down of my earthly sun, I am permitted to stand upon a portion of earth so hallowed by Biblical and classical recollections as this. At last my desires are gratified. One of the fixed purposes of my whole life, to visit the Holy Land, is fulfilled. Since I began to read with understanding the Sacred Writings, that purpose has been kindled into a longing desire.
66 THE NORTHEAST CORNER.
Upon my entrance into Freemasonry (March, 1846), I formed a resolution that, if the Grand Architect of the Universe would spare my life, and open a way for me, I would as surely set foot upon the sacred soil before my Masonic career should be closed.
Alexandrette is a good place at which to enter the Holy Land, being the "northeast corner" of the Mediterranean Sea, and contiguous to several localities of thrilling memory. Around yonder point, to the northwest, a short two days' journey, is Tarsus, the birth‑place of Paul. A little nearer is the battle‑field of Issus, wherein, B.C. 333, Alexander achieved that victory which, in effect, was the conquest of the world. South of this, and only thirty miles from me, is Antioch, " where the disciples were first called Christians." East of me, and about the same distance, is the purely Oriental city of Aleppo; beyond which is Baalbec, and beyond that, Damascus. The road over those mountains, now heavily banked in snow, has been trodden again and again by the conquerors of the earth, and by the Evangelists of Jesus. It is in every respect a good beginning point for my survey of the Holy Land.
There was once a pigeon‑express maintained between this place and Bagdad.
The literary history of the world - Masonic, scientific, religious, - moves toward the Orient, as the march of empires to the Occident. Unplowed lands are the search and prize of nations; destroyed lands, of scholars. In the spread and conquests of Grecian heroes,‑ He‑brew conception found fresh expression; the thoughts of the East were wedded to the words of the West.
To commemorate this northeast corner of the Mediterranean, marked "M" upon the map, I have placed the ten following names, all well‑known in the Masonic records as Past Grand Masters, viz.: Charles W. Nash, O. H. Irish, Jno. Adams Allen, Charles Scott, S. H. Johnson, John H. Brown, Thomas R. Austin, Reuben Mickel, James M. Howry, and John B. Fravel.
On Monday, the 2d March, we called successively at Latakia, the ancient Laodicea, the seaport of Antioch, a few miles in the interior, famous now, like Gebal, only for its tobacco, and Tripoli, where at this time (1872) is stationed, as Kamiakam, our good brother Noureddin Effendi, whose portrait adorns a subsequent page of this volume.
The terraced houses of Tripoli, bathed in bright Oriental sunshine, and viewed through the clear ethereal atmosphere peculiar to this classical and Biblical clime, are beautiful.
REFLECTIONS AT APPROACHING SYRIA. 67
The only available passage for a railroad eastward from this coast is said to lead out of Tripoli, and from here the line has been engineered to the East Indies by an English company. The highest point to be surmounted is only 1,500 feet, and the ascent is without very heavy grades.
Going southward here the Lebanon mountains rise higher and higher as we advance. We pass ancient Gebal, marked "0" on the map, from whence some of the most experienced Masons went, at the call of King Solomon, to build the Temple at Jerusalem. Going south I begin to wonder at the narrowness of the little shelf of level land, the vast and lofty Lebanon behind, the illimitable Mediterranean before it, which, under the name of Phcenicia, exercised such influence upon the minds and fortunes of the human race. This nation was here when Abram came down from Mesopotamia, B.C. 1921, and even at that early period was far advanced in the knowledge of the arts and sciences. This narrow shelf was then crowded with towns and cities.
The sky so pure and bright, the moon and stars shining with such celestial beauty, the morning air peculiarly bracing and tonic - this whole journey from Marseilles has been a delicious recreation.
My reflections on approaching the coast of Syria were colored by the expectations upon which my mission was founded. To trace up to their sources ancient habits, modes of thought, forms of speech, emblems whose original meaning is obscured in the lapse of thirty centuries; to tread upon the sites of ancient cities, from whence sprung all science and art, and even the knowledge of letters itself; to descend into rock‑hewn sepulchres, whose tenants 3,000 years ago were laid in their everlasting rest with the same symbolical rites that will some day accompany my own interment; and, above all, to read the Bible, the whole Bible, in the land of the Bible, and having and wanting no other Guide; to travel through the length and breadth of this country with this Guide in my hand; such was the work for which I girded up my loins on the 1st day of March, and invoked the blessing of the Most High that I might accomplish it, all of it, as I had proposed.
The night‑scenes on the Mediterranean are delightful to contemplate. One of them, in which I walked the steamer's deck till mid‑night, can never be forgotten. It is best described in the words of another: "Above a vast hemicircle of clouds shone a little crescent moon fading into her last quarter, and like a luminous summit to an it
68 ITINERARY
immense pyramid of shade. Over the waves she traced a path of trembling light." Early on Tuesday morning, the 3d of March, we cast anchor in the Bay of Beyrout (St. George's Bay), and so this first division of my volume ends. It only remains to add a sketch of the whole route, the chapters following not being arranged in chronological order.
ITINERARY.
Left New York February 2d.
Arrived at Liverpool " 14th.
London " 14th.
" Paris " 16th.
Marseilles " 17th.
Left " 18th.
Arrived at Palermo " 20th.
Messina " 21st.
- Syra " 23d.
Smyrna " 24th.
Left " 26th.
Arrived at Rhodes " 27th.
" Mersina " 28th.
Alexandrette March 1st.
- Latakia " 2d.
Tripoli " 2d.
Beyrout " 3d.
Whole distance from Marseilles to Beyrout, 2,093 miles. Reached Gebal March 17th.
" Damascus " 26th.
" Tyre April 14th.
" The Cedars " 26th.
" Joppa May 1st.
" Jerusalem " 3d.
" Nazareth " 17th.
" Tibnin " 21st.
" Alexandria June 15th.
- Cairo " 16th.
- Brindisi " 25th.
" Paris " 28th.
- London July 2d.
Southampton " 7th.
i EXPENSE AOCOIINT. 61
Reached New York July 18th.
La Grange, Kentucky.... " 21st.
A note of passage‑money paid for one passenger, New York to Beyrout, may be interesting to close the chapter: Steamer, New York to Liverpool, 1st class passage $100 00 Railway, Liverpool to London, 2d " 9 00 " London to Marseilles, 1st " 47 00 Steamer, Marseilles to Beyrout, 2d ‑ 125 00 $281 00 These fares being paid in gold, I have added such a premium ae makes the amounts equal to Federal currency, February, 1868.
,tiL.ciL3 THE ARABIC ALPHABET.
(Read/ro╗ right to le.) c ~~~~~A~~ ‑"\~ - O GJ ~A ~,~A ~~~~ c a> o f ~7, ai a _ .Q o VA ~~ A f a - ' F~ bird ~+ a m c3 O LiA~ - ~\~yO~ ' - +o ‑ O i O f O +o 132‑ ‑4s !‑ yOvy~~~yy~~~ y~ - P, O a) ░.~ a) ~░ o m~ m - cJ .‑r !':‑.' ...!!+= S.; : : '‑g o 14,fah"N:uSs''\11t' AI░ IOOEi ; 2 ‑4 ä., E, ; m4mæv ,:t yvgym a DIVISION SECOND.‑TYRE.
MI actum eredens, dum quid superesset agendum. - LucAx: Nothing is dons while anything is left undone.
Thus saith the Lord God, I am against thee, oh Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up.
And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her and make her like the top of a rock.
It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea. Ezekiel mii. 3 - 5.) Patriots were here in freedom's battle slain; Priests, whose long lives were closed without a stain; Bards, worthy him who breathed the poet's mind; Founders of arts that dignify mankind; And lovers of our race whose labors gave Their names a memory that defies the grave.
MOSLEM FORMS OF PRAYER.
CHAPTER V.
FROM BEYROUT TO TYRE.
y, N Deuteronomy, xxxiv., Moses is described as taking his panoramic view of the Land of Canaan,. from the southeast.
The sacred record affirms that he "went to the top of Pisgah, and the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead unto Dan, and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah unto the utmost sea." In a map lacing a subsequent chapter may be found this stand‑point of Moses, nearly east of the northeast corner of the Dead Sea, and about fifty miles east of Jerusalem.
My stand point for a first view of Palestine is in the extreme northwest of the Holy Land, at Beyrout, diagonally opposite that of Moses. Between the two lies the whole land of Canaan, our respective stand‑points being about one hundred and fifty miles apart.
This city of Beyrout, which constituted headquarters during my Oriental explorations, has no place in ancient Masonic history, al‑though it is now (1872) the site of the only lodges in this country. It is indeed scarcely mentioned, if at all, in the Bible. It is interesting to Freemasons, however, as lying on the south side of the beautiful sheet of water which I shall style the Bay of the Rafts. It is called here St. George's Bay, from the fabulous encounter of that hero with the dragon, said to have occurred at this place. In Spenser's Faerie Queen, the long‑drawn battle is graphically described. My name of "The Bay of Freemasonry, or Bay of the Rafts," is derived from its ancient use for making up the rafts or "Rotes" of cedars provided by King Hiram for Solomon's Temple. They were sent out from this place, as I shall show in subsequent pages, to the port of Tyre, one hundred miles south. My headquarters at Beyrout were in the hospitable mansion of Brother Samuel Hallock, a member of Lodge No. 9, Philadelphia, Pa., and as thorough and genuine a Mason as ever old Number Nine turned out from its busy Atelier. He accommodates me with a room, for which I supply myself with a few pieces of furniture; and so in all my sojourning threugh Holy
HEADQUARTER& ;5
Land I have an abode to which I can turn as home. Many a profit‑able hour did we two stranger Masons enjoy in mutual confidences and the interchange of useful thoughts. Brother Hallock is the electrotypist of the printing‑house connected with the American Protestant Mission, and a contributor to the New York Journal of Commerce. The condition of Freemasonry in Beyrout, and the elder lodge (Palestine Lodge No. 415), will be fully detailed in a subsequent chapter.
I commence this second division, therefore, at Beyrout, where I landed, March 3d, 1868. The place, as remarked above, has no particular mention in Biblical or Masonic history, yet its traditions imply that it is one of the oldest of Phoenician cities. Having the best harbor that exists along the coast (although at the best it is only third‑rate), Beyrout has been adopted as the seat of the general consulates of all the great powers. Being connected by a turnpike road eighty‑four miles long with Damascus, and by telegraph with points north, south, and east, it enjoys the best business of the coast, and has risen rapidly from a population of 10,000 to 60,00C. This growth more resembles one of our Western railroad towns than any‑thing in this old‑fogy land. Beyrout has outgrown gates and walls, and is spreading abroad into the suburbs on all sides. Spelled in the geography "Beirut," it is properly pronounced Bay‑root. Its latitude is 33░ 54' north, longitude 35░ 29' east of Greenwich. On the east runs the river Beyrout, called by Pliny, eighteen hundred years ago, the Mayoras - in dry seasons, however, a mere creek. The town stands, like Joppa, upon a head‑land, called in Arabic Ras, (meaning head), which projects about five miles into the sea from the foot of Mt. Lebanon.
This head‑land, with the mountains behind it, is that which would first strike the eye of Phcenician sailors coming, as I did, from the westward. For here the mighty Lebanons exhibit their vast proportions, five to ten thousand feet high, in the most impressive grandeur. I deubt whether all Syria affords another such view as these white‑capped heights, striking the clouds with their hoary tops and planting their roots deep at the earth's very centre.
My first work, upon landing at Beyrout, was to forward by mail, to each of several hundreds of old correspondents, a specimen of the "productions of the land" in the form of an Olive Leaf. I learned that it was gratifying to them, both as a veritable token from the Holy Land and anN appropriate tessera of brotherly remembrance. TT‑non my g. he;er he de a es th re
STARTING DOWN TO TYRE.
All this and more I fain would teach From this bright ancient verdant text; Take it with all the words annexed; Be yours the sermon that they preach! The " words annexed," in the last stanza, were quotations from Deut. viii. 8; 1 K. v. 11; Ps. lii. 8; cxxviii. 3, etc. A space was left in the printed copy to fasten the olive leaf upon, that so it might be framed and preserved.
At the conclusion of the last chapter I gave an itinerary of my entire trpvels while in Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. In the making up of this volume, however, I follow the natural order of a Masonic narrative thus: DIVISION FIRST. - Tyre, the royal seat of King Hiram.
DrVIs ox SECOND. - Gebal, the home and school of Hiram the Architect, DIVISION THIRD. - Lebanon, the source of the cedars.
DIVISION FouRTH. - The Bay of the Rafts where the cedars were floated.
DIVISION FIFTH. - Joppa, the port of trans‑shipment.
DIVISION SIxTH. - The clay‑grounds, the site of Hiram's furnaces and foundries.
DIVISION SEVENTH. - Jerusalem, the site of the Temple. * * * Tyre and its surroundings therefore come foremost.
On the morning of April 13th, at 7 o'clock, I started, on horseback with an Arab servant, one Hassan Mardby, riding a second horse and carrying my impedimenta of blankets, overcoats, books, provisions, working tools, etc., etc., to visit the city of Tyre, now called Soor (or Tsoor). Having been nearly six weeks in the country, during which I had made four excursions, I felt posted upon the best method of travel, and the quantity of baggage, etc., essential to it. My plan, which I recommend to all travellers who do not fancy making them‑selves slaves to dragomans, is to hire two horses and their owner for a certain number of days (in this case, six); he to subsist himself and his horses and be his own quartermaster. The stipulated price with Hassan was twelve francs a day for the whole, equal at the then rates of gold to $3.25 per day. Besides this, my own board and lodging cost me about $2.00 per day.. So, for $5.00 per day, or thereabouts, I go as an independent traveller, stopping when I please and where I please, and as long as I please, with none to molest me or
JONAH'S TAVERN. 79
make me afraid. Hassan stipulates to collect specimens for me, do my interpreting, and serve me in every way that he is ordered.
The road from Beyrout to Sidon runs for five miles over singular red sand-hills, the only deposits of the sort on the coast. It is sug Bested by some that this sand is blown into the sea, near the mouth of the Nile, in Egypt, brought by the prevailing currents to this shore, where the wind seizes it when dry, and drifts it westward like snow, threatening some day to submerge the whole city of Beyrout. I took considerable quantities of this desert-sand, the only link now connecting Egypt and Phoenicia, once so nearly related in religion, symbology, and all the details of ancient Freemasonry.
This road over the sand-hills was described six centuries ago, as a good, deep road, and never was one better named. For miles the horses stepped fetlock deep in the sand.
I had already inaugurated the practice of naming the best-marked hays on this coast after Masonic emblems, and dedicating them to American lodges. There is one such at the distance of five hours (about fifteen miles) from Beyrout, shaped much like a Trowel. This, therefore, I dubbed The Bay of the Trowel, and dedicated to the genial and generous brethren of Manchester, Iowa; Indianapolis, Indiana; and La Grange, Kentucky, between whom there runs a line of Masonic similarity, closer than blood-relationship. This bay will be identified by travellers by the circumstance that, just south of it, as you rise the hill on the old Roman road, there is an ancient watch-tower of squared stone, by some attributed to Queen Helena, but probably Phoenician in its make. Here a great battle was fought, B.C. 218, between the Syrians under Antiochus the Great, and the Egyptians under Ptolemy. Coins of these two kings will be found figured in this book. The latter was defeated with fearful slaughter. The Bay of the Trowel is a charming little nook of water, its shores abounding in shells and sponges, and in every way worthy its dedication.
Not far from it is a Moslem tomb, called Neby Younas, the tomb of Jonah; and here, in a little bay close in front of the tomb, is the traditional disgorging place of the disobedient prophet, who went southwest when ordered to go northeast. Close by the tomb is a Khan, or tavern, more strictly a cafe, or coffee-house, where several times in passing I spent a quiet hour, sipping the native coffee, and writing up my notes. Shall I record the memorandums made of "what I resolved to do every day while in this country?" For four months, I acted upon the plan following, and fortes fortuna adjuvat,as Pliny Senior said, just before he was gobbled up by Mount Vesuvius: "A person visiting any strange country should possess practised powers of observation, or his travels can present no useful results. The ordinary grade of tourists' observations upon Holy Land is scarcely above an infant's. He should be skilled in trees, plants, rocks, customs, costumes, peoples; but those who have written upon this country seem to have known nothing of such things when they landed, and but little more when they sailed away. What drivel makes up their books! I have hundreds of them in my library, and it is enough to give one the dyspepsia to look through them. For my part, I am resolved to-day, and for my coming four months, to bring forty years of reading, study, and travel to bear on the scenes before me. I will examine the earth and rocks, and see what they are made of. I will consider this ancient country as a naturalist's museum, and get my money's worth out of it. As a French savant said, when congratulated upon his vast discoveries, I will simply look and see things as they are made, and tell the story as it is. But this Neby Younas' Khan (literally Jonah House) is vox prceterea nihil, only a sound. It is a local liquoring place. All it has is coffee and smoke, the coffee coming to you in Turkish cups, Liliputian indeed, the smoke through the great water-pipe styled . narghileh (nargeely), and the tomb itself recalls the old Barnum story of Captain Cook's war-club. Finding that every other museum had the club that. killed Captain Cooke, Barnum procured it also! For there are already five tombs where Jonah is buried, besides this one, viz.: at Sephoris, Hebron, Tyre, Alexandrette, and the one near Babylon, described by Layard. Were I opening a coffee-house, near the Dead Sea, for instance, I should build a Jonah's tomb too. It would pay. I forgot, after all, to mention Jonah's tomb at Raphiah, near Egypt, where the Mohammedans report a visit from this celebrated traveller.
At Neby Younas I saw the first truly sick person I had come in contact with in the Holy Land. His broken cough, sunken eye, hollow cheek, fetid breath, and despairing face, were so many indications of rapid approach to the grave, that recalled a thousand sad memories of dying friends. These people have a perfect passion for medicine, and he insisted on having some of me. I gave him half of the ginger-root I always carry in my pocket.
The hard, smooth beach around Jonah's Bay by Neby Younas tempts me for the first time to-day into a gallop. How invigorating
A NATIVE 1 EPAETEE. 81
the Western breeze, the solemn awash of the wave, the shriek of the gull, the flight of my sinewy horse. I am twenty years younger again. But no, my hat blows off. In dismounting to get it I turn my ankle. In remounting I break my pocket‑comb, and so the rest of the day's journey is done in a slow walk.
As I sat imbibing the coffee of Jonah's Tavern in a steady draught, for nothing less than the Fellow‑Craft's number will suffice a drinker from these cups in an Oriental cafe, I quietly asked the land‑lord: "ghanjee, where along this coast did the great fish discharge the prophet Jonah?" The Khanjee had learned this part of his lesson well. His fishy eyes brightened up. He took his hands, figuratively speaking, out of his pockets, scratched himself, and then pointing the dirtiest finger in the direction of a little bay a hundred yards in the southwest, answered, "Howadji, yonder is the spot." It was a suitable place, and showed a good taste of selection either in the whale or the Khanjee. So, after looking pleasingly towards it, and emptying a few more cups, I abandoned the examination in chief and began the cross‑examination: " But, Khanjee, how do you know that is the place? Here was a puzzler. The query had never before been propounded the stupid fellow. Dropping his head and returning his hands, figuratively speaking, into his pockets, he sat for a moment a monument of inanity. Then, with a spirit of repartee that I had not supposed was in him, he raised his head, and answered: "But, Howadji, if that is not the place, where is the place?" And so the subject dropped.
Continuing my journey, sometimes along the hard beach of this sea without tides, sometimes in the deep sands a little ways back, sometimes across the rocky points of the hills, I came, about 4 P.M., in sight of the crenulated battlements of the Gothic chateau of St. Lois, and then of the city of Sidon itself, surrounded on the land‑side by groves of fruit‑trees. Sidon abounded, of old, in citrons, oranges, pomegranates, saffron, figs, almonds, sugar‑cane, coriander, and other rare objects of desire. It was called of the Phoenicians Sidon, in regard to the abundance of fish. The neroli, or oil distilled from orange blossoms, made so abundantly here, is so far superior to that extracted from orange‑peel, that thousands of trees are stripped of blossoms every season, which never go to maturity of fruit, to supply the wants of the perfume‑makers.
The orange groves surrounding this ancient city are so charming
6
82 THE FRUITS OF SIDON.
as to make the poor old place look by contrast worse than it should. The fruit is abundant, large, and delicious. For four months they hang on the trees ripening, and the germ, the bud, the blossom, the green fruit and the ripe fruit cluster, side by side, as I have seen an old New‑England family on Thanksgiving‑day grouped together in the third and fourth generation; or, more graphically, as I have seen in an old and lively lodge of Masons, working on the First Degree, the bud, the flower, and the ripened fruit in the three classes of Craftsmen there assembled. An old author, Sandys, translates from the Odyssey (ii. 1) an appropriate passage, which I transcribe as follows:
These at no time do their rare fruits forego,
Still, breathing Zephyrus maketh some to grow,
Others to ripen; growing fruits supply
The gathered, and succeed so orderly.
Here, too, " the acacia waves her golden hair," large trees, ten w twelve inches in diameter, lining the avenues of' the city on the east. In a subsequent chapter I will describe this tree, famous in Masonic uses.
I reached Sidon about 4 P.I., and spent the night, by invitation, with Rev. Wm. M. Eddy, one of the American missionaries stationed here. The father of this hospitable gentleman was made a Mason, in company with Pliny Fisk, about the year 1824, preparatory to embarking for the Holy Land as a missionary. They united with our ancient Order under the hope that through its cosmopolitan character and influence their holy work might be expedited. The present Mr. Eddy is not a Mason, although possessing the general spirit of one. He made my stay at his house, both going and returning, home‑like and sweet.
In the bazaar may be seen oranges by the cargo, piled in huge heaps, figs, grapes, olives, pomegranates, dates, almonds, raisins, peaches, apricots, limes, lemons, plums, quinces, the most luxuriant bananas, and other fruits in variety and abundance.
On returning to Beyrout some days afterwards, I was conducted by a smart little son of Mr. Eddy, since sent to America to be educated, to the establishment of a potter, outside the gate. A view of this ancient art, esteemed honorable in 1 Chron. iv. 23, and made by Jeremiah (xviii.) and other Bible writers a subject of imagery, cleared up to my mind a number of Scriptural allusions. The work‑
THE HARD FORTUNES OF SIDON. 83
men, however, were an unsightly set; three Arabs with only four good eyes among them. I observed here that every man you meet is wearing the dress in which "he lieth down at night " - a fact that explains various things, entomological and otherwise, that at first glance puzzles you in the East. As I sat there watching the chief potter, I read Romans ix. 21: " Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor?" and my answer was in the affirmative.
There is no lodge of Masons at Sidon, but quite a number of the craft live here, whom I met the following June at Beyrout. It is a city well adapted for a lodge, high and ample chambers being found in abundance, and a resident population that would afford an abundance of good " timbers " (materials) for Masonic work. I hope to learn that a lodge ere long will be established here. In the hope of such a desirable consummation, I locate here the following names of worthy and eminent Masons: O. H. Main, G. B. Van Saun, Henry Hitt, George W. Chaytor, A. R. Whitney, Jesse B. Anthony, Washington Galland, B. F. Simmons, Luke E. Barber, Elwood Evans.
Spending a Sabbath‑day here in the following June, I had some genial hours in that Christian family, remembering the days of old, meditating on all his works, musing on the work of God's hands, (Pa. cxliii. 5), and heard a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument (Ez. xxxiii. 32).
Sidon has been four times taken, plundered, and dismantled. On one occasion (most memorable) it was absolutely reduced to ashes and cinders, and the privilege of sifting out the debris for the precious metals found in them was sold to an enterprising pedlar for a considerable sum. One of these fearful conflagrations of Sidon may be compared in several points with that unparalleled fire which reduced Chicago, Oct. 8‑11, 1871, to dust and ashes, turned sandstone into sand and limestone into gas, and melting the most obdurate metals as wax. Alas, when I made notes of Sidon, I little thought that the city which Miss Bremer had styled in her admiration "the home of Loki and Thor, the supernatural powers," could become in any way a parallel in desolation. At 8 o'clock, Tuesday morning, April 14, I left Sidon for Tyre. In three hours I arrived at Sarepta, named in 2 Kings viii., and believed to be the city alluded to in Matthew xv., and Mark vii., where Jesus cast out a demon from the widow's child. This is the first ground sacred to Jesus upon which I had trodden, and
84 A BEDOUIN AND HIS HORSE.
I spent several hours at Sarepta, collecting specimens, and exploring the ruins. In my chapter on the Itinerary of Jesus I will refer to it again. There is not a house now standing at Sarepta, where was once a large city. I cut the Square and Compass with my chisel upon a huge ashlar belonging to some ancient temple, in the shadow of a tamarisk‑tree, and loaded my servant with a hundred weight of marble and granite fragments, shells, bits of glass, etc., representing this once famed city.
I took occasion while here to examine the spear of an Arab sheikh, one of the Bedouin persuasion, who stopped to drink water at Ain Kanterah. It was fourteen feet long, ornamented near the top with two large black tufts feathered. It was armed with a sharp iron ferule at the lower end, so as to enable its holder to strike it into the ground at an easy blow. This is truly a formidable weapon, but its owner handled it as gracefully as a Charleston dandy handles his cane. The Bedouin himself was of low stature, raw‑boned, tawny, having a feminine voice, and a swift and noiseless pace, like one of our moccasin‑shod Indians of the West.
His horse was a genuine specimen of the Arab stock. He was larger than ordinary American horses, had an eye full of fire and intelligence, head well set on, forehead rather straight, fine at the withers, quarters well turned, body round and good, legs clean, pas‑terns long; a serviceable‑looking animal. The following conversation gives a good idea of the rider: Howadji. Where would you rather live? Bedouin. In the desert.
Howadji. Why in the desert? Bedouin. Because I am the son of the desert, and not the son of the city.
He said the race of horses he was riding had been four hundred years in his family, and that no money could buy this one. He was broken to travel only at the walk and gallop, the unnatural and ungraceful movement of a trot being deemed unworthy of an Arab courser.
The life of this Arab is one of danger and distress from his youth. He wears upon his face the features of his ancestors, "wild men," who in the days of Moses, and of Mohammed, twenty‑one hundred years later, dwelt in tents and conducted their flocks to the same springs and pastures as their fathers of the earliest times.
At Sarepta I oaught a view of Jebel, old Jebel‑es‑Sheikh, Mount
HERMON, MOUNT OF DEWS. 86
Hermon, fifty miles in the southeast. His snowy cap gives him prominence in the clear blue sky. The mountain seems from this point like a pale blue snow‑capped peak peering over the intervening ranges of Lebanon. How often in Masonic lectures have I quoted the passage from David: "Like the dew of Hermon and like the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion; for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore." How often have I sung the paraphrase of the good Giles F. Yates, whom I knew so well in 1855û7: " Like Hermon's dew, so richly shed On Zion's sacred hills!" In a future chapter I will give a full description of this mountain, Freemasonry's grandest type of brotherly love. But here I remark that the amount of moisture the earth receives from this great water‑cooler and atmospheric regulator must be immense, when we consider the acknowledged fact that a single inch of water spread level over one acre of ground weighs one hundred tons! To this dewy thought the poet alludes: When the West Opens his golden bowers of rest, And a moist radiance from the skies Shoots trembling down.
I am loth to lay aside the theme. Hermon is the mountain that passeth into the clouds and joins to the upper air; one of "the eternal hills" raised to an elevation that cools, condenses, and returns the moisture ascending from the parched earth, sending it back in grateful dews, rains, and springs.
Sarepta, now without a winepress, a grapevine, or a winedrinker, was once celebrated for the quantity and quality of its wine. But a man hunting his morning dram in 1868 would be as badly off as at Grinnell, Iowa, where the " drummers " are said to carry full flasks with them, or do worse.
Along this dreary waste, where once there rung
The festal lay which smiling virgins sung;
Where rapture echoed from the warbling lute,
And the gay dance resounded - all is mute.
Macaulay.
My noontide at Sarepta did not pass without an appeal to the
BETWEEN BAREPTA AND TYRE. 87
No longer to restrain my tears,
Such gratitude these drops recount:
'Tis surely worth my fifty years,
This noontide at Sarepta's .fount!
Sing, murmuring waters, lulling streams;
Roar, foamy breakers, on the shore;
Broken Sarepta's fleeting dreams,
The vision will return no more.
Far o'er the western sea my heart
Wanders from lone Sarepta's shrine;
I rise, and on my way depart,
Never to view these scenes again.
( But I shall meet Him! yes, I know,
My inmost being this assures,
Where founts celestial smoothly flow,
And perfect blessedness allures.
Onward and onward moments fly,
My sands of life make haste to run;
Lord, grant me favor ere I die,
To leave no appointed task undone!
Leaving the sight of that mountain, along by whose base passed the man, 4,000 years ago, in'whom the whole Church was contained, and the sweet spring that to the latest hour of my life will be associated with romantic memories, I passed on southwards over Phcnnicia, a narrow strip of plain rarely extending more than a mile or two in width from the shore, backed by ranges of mountains, piled tier upon tier to the snow‑covered crests of Lebanon; remembering that between Sidon and Tyre, where there is now not only no city nor village, but not even a house, there were once sixteen prosperous towns! As the distance is a scant twenty‑five miles, the suburbs of these contiguous towns must have been very much restricted, the wall of one city almost meeting that of the next.
The sight of fishermen standing naked in the hot sunshine, waiting to cast their hand‑nets at the approach of schools of fish, interested me greatly. A basket of the Mediterranean fish had been shown me at Khan Younas. When I saw what severe labor the poor fellows undergo, I sung my favorite lines: God bless the laboring man, I pray; Make sure his wages every day;
88 ARRIVAL AT TYRE.
Afield, afloat, Afloat, afield, Make honest work its wages yield.
I think there is always a group of gazelles feeding in the meadow‑lands a few miles north of Tyre - meadows so rich that one of the old pilgrims declared that those bad roads were fully recompensed to him by the fragrant savors of rosemary, bay, hyssop, marjorum, and other perfumed plants. Altogether, I passed here three times, and always found gazelles. They are the Gazella Arabica, two feet high at the shoulder. The Scriptural names are Ariel, Dorcas, Tabitha, etc. Their airy and graceful forms are very attractive. The first group of them that I saw stood motionless, sharply defined against the background of the sky and hills. After a moment they threw their heads up, and bounded away like the flight of birds.
A few miles north of Tyre I crossed the "willful headlong river," called now Nahr‑el‑Kasimiyeh (but you will not pronounce it as the Arabs do in fifty times trying! I got a sore throat and wasted two miles trying to catch it from Hassan.) The words mean, " the Dividing River." It is, no doubt, the old Leontes, and a beautiful stream it is, closely resembling the Jordan, as I afterwards saw, and about thirty feet wide. The bridge is a single arch, very neat and strong. The current is so swift that, seeing a dead duck floating under the bridge, I ran to the other side, but the duck had got past me on its way to the sea.
The heavy load I had imposed upon Hassan necessitated the poor fellow's walking all the way from Sarepta to Tyre, some eighteen miles' distance. I named a charming little bay, distant about six miles south of Sidon, the Bay of the Square, from its peculiar form, and dedicated it to the Freemasons of Wheeling, Western Virginia; Omaha, Nebraska; and Waterloo, Iowa. This bay may be known from an ancient watch‑tower standing directly on the edge of the bay at its southwestern extremity.
Arrived at Tyre about six o'clock. Found accommodations in the house of a native family, who were extremely attentive to my wants, for a moderate price. In my visit to Damascus, two weeks before, I had procured from the Governor‑General, Mohammed Raschid, a document directed to all governors of towns and villages throughout Syria, commanding them to see that I was furnished with suitable accommodations for myself and servants, together with guards in going from place to place, etc.. and all at reasonable prices. This document, A. BIIYURIILDL 89 called a Buyuruldi, which was secured strictly through Masonic influence, was of service to me in every place I visited. I have also a Firman from the Sultan himself, at Constantinople, Abdul Axis, sent me through the kind influence of Brother John P. Brown, Secretary of the American Embassy there. The two together never failed to secure for me all the attentions I needed) for a reasonable considera‑ tion.
The following is a translation of the Firman referred to. It is written upon a thick and substantial sheet of paper, about twentyfqur by thirty inches in dimensions, at the top of which is the name of the Sultan, Abd‑ul‑Aziz, in a peculiarly complicated anagram, called a Toogra: "Imperial Travelling Firman of Sultan Abdul Aziz Khan, granted in favor, of Robert Morris, addressed to H. E. Mohammed Raschid, Pasha, Governor‑General of the Vilayet of Syria.
"To my Minister and very glorious Councillor, the model of the world; the regulator of the regulations of the universe; he who directs the public interests with rare wisdom, and settles all important affairs with singular judgment; he who strengthens the edifice of the Empire and secures its prosperity; who invigorates the columns of felicity and magnificence; in fine, who is the especial recipient of the power and favor of the Most High Sovereign of the universe; the Governor‑General of the Vilayet of Syria; wearer of the First Class of the Decoration of the Mejidiah, Mohammed Raschid, Pasha and Vizier; may the Most High prolong his grandeur! " When the present sublime Imperial Document reaches you, know that the American Legation at the Capital of my Empire, has re‑ported that an American citizen, Robert Morris, a traveller, is desirous of travelling from Constantinople to Syria, via Beyrout, Sham Shereef (Damascus), Khuds Shereef (Jerusalem), Yaffa (Joppa), and their vicinity, and asks that while on his way, or residing in any place, he be protected and aided. In earth point of view, I have therefore is‑sued the present Noble Order. You, therefore, the Governor‑General before mentioned, will see that the aforesaid traveller, wherever he may go or desire to stay on his journey, be treated with respect and regard; that he be provided with horses, according to the regulations, and receive guards to enable him to pass through all dangerous places. Be careful to provide for the execution of my present Sublime Command. Written on the 7th of moon of Zil, etc., etc., A. H. 1284." CHURNING BUTTER.
DANCING DERVISHES.
CHAPTER VI.
TEE CITY OF KING HIRAM.
RRIVED at the city of Tyre about sundown, I entered 4 through the opening where until recently a thick and tit strongly guarded gate stood, and I felt the force of the expression of Isaiah: "Her gates lament and mourn" (iii. 26). Many of her houses are desolate, even great and fair, 'without inhabitants (v. 9). Her fleets of richly burdened ships 'and ranges of strong forts were but so many incentives to the Grecian conqueror, Alexander, who, flushed with his conquest over Darius, came down here, B.C. 332, with that army well styled "Invincible," the rich and powerful city of Sidon surrendering to him without a struggle, and even joining her fleets to his to aid in the subjugation of sister cities, and these massive buttresses of Tyre and the hosts of gallant men behind them could not preserve her from her predicted doom. As Isaiah had written nearly four centuries before, "The day of the Lord was upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, and upon all the ships of Tarshish" (H. 15). Gravis ira regum semper - the wrath of kings is always dreadful; and so this magnificent city proved under the hand of Alexander. She had been a stronghold, in which silver was heaped up as the dust and fine gold as the mire of streets; but the Lord cast her out and smote her power in the sea, and she was devoured with fire (Zech. ix. 2).
I was lodged, after vacillating between the military barracks, the room over the blacksmith's shop, and somebody's convent of male sisters, in the house of a very clever man, a Christian, who lived in his second story, to which you go up by stone steps on the out‑side, and divided the ground‑floor between stables for his asses and a drinking saloon, in which his oldest son sells arrack and brandy to the soldiers. It was a private house, but for a very moderate price he took me in and provided well for my wants.
Tyre is practically a city under ground. It lies, like Jerusalem, twenty to fifty feet beneath a debris of many centuries. Formerly as filled in 32', and so hat fearful md patri‑Dined by a 3░ 18' N., 1 " Tzur " a founded s planted, he ancient ie time of iufactures d by King ring Solo‑ e to Jeru‑ they have riving the to crowd m,nd v. 11; Amos i. id xxvii; .al lamps, vicinity. Ir. Jacob, Captain Lich I was facts and markable;he Foun‑The local )rk which of " corn,;itude for tilding, at;t, to con‑
THE GREAT GRANITE COLUMN. 93
vey the water in to the city. Sufficient portions of the aqueduct remain to prove that it was a magnificent structure. Amongst the rest, there is a fragment comprising three perfect arches, beautifully devised, and finely preserved, which stand at the eastern point of the isthmus that connects Tyre with the mainland, and attract the eye of every traveller approaching Tyre, either from the north or south. These three arches, erected according to tradition by the Masonic Pillar of Wisdom, King Solomon, for the Masonic Pillar of Strength, King Hiram, I have ventured to dedicate as follows: I. The Eastern Arch to De Witt Clinton, first G. G. High‑Priest of the G. G. Royal Arch Chapter of the United States.
II. The Middle Arch to Albert G. Mackey, in 1859û65 G. G. High‑Priest of the same body.
HL .The Western Arch to John L. Lewis, in 1865û8 G. G. High‑!riest of the same body.
The present population of this renowned city is between 3,000 and 4,000; about one‑half being Arabs of the Metawileh tribe, the other half Christians of various Roman Catholic sects, and a sprinkling of Protestants. The old wall is built across the isthmus, and its gate is still in use, more as a convenient military post than anything else, for the town is in no sense protected by it. Among the ruins is a block of stone bearing the unmistakable mark of the Phoenician architects (the bevel or rebate), which measures seventeen feet in length. A double column of red granite lies among the ruins of the ancient cathedral at Tyre, six feet in diameter and twenty‑six feet long! This is the largest single piece of stone, artificially wrought, that I saw in the Holy Land. One of the former governors of Acre, twenty‑five miles below here, about seventy years ago, undertook to have it removed there, but all the skill and machinery his engineers could apply to it failed to stir the monument. Don't let the visitor to Tyre fail to visit this pillar. .
Never, surely, was a country where money is worshipped as here. It is the true idol that Mohammed left after destroying the others. The poet Virgil, had he known it, would have located his auri sacra fames, the accursed greed of gold, in these Oriental parts; and we may well propound Virgil's inquiry, Quid non mortalia pectora cogis 9 - to what crimes dost thou not impel a mortal's breast? Propertius justly embodies the thought in the words, Auro pulsa fides, auro venalia jura, Aurum lex sequitur; for such is the condition of Syrian morals, as all writers, native and foreign, admit. Those who
THE AMERICAN VICE‑CONSUL 95
preach to S. B. Tristam's most readable work, " The Land of Israel," not tunciations republished in this country. It is full of allusions to birds, beasts, The dui‑ flowers, and reptiles. He has also published a " Natural History of rible, while Palestine," which I bought in Jerusalem.
Ali by the About a century ago, Tyre was destroyed, with its inhabitants, by tsonry. an earthquake. In the rebuilding, the houses are mean, both in ished here style and composition; low, built of rough stones, arched within, flat r; and the on the roof, and inclosing a quadrangle. The walls surmounting or so much the roof for battlements are wrought through with pottery tubes to Christian catch and strike down the refreshing winds, at the same time they conceal the persons on the roof from neighboring eyes. Often the ipsides are roofs are covered with mats and hurdles. Since the awful convul‑ Viltiana of lion of the last century, the houses are built smaller and lower than iated with formerly, recalling forcibly the passage relative to Zacynthus, "The ore worthy streets unpaved, the buildings low, by reason of the often earthquakes aebius, and whereunto the town is miserably subject." is like the S Somebody had presented an Arab here with a phrenological bust I myself (or may‑be he stole it), indorsed on the back, "Description of charac‑ ter, with advice as to best pursuit, self‑improvement," etc., and had 7e moulder told him it was a likeness of Jeff. Davis, leader in the American 'did career rebellion, and it was pleasant to see the fellow's awe as he pointed it .ent. The out to me. But it was useless to explain the "sell" to him, although arsus, past I, who have known Mr. Davis ever since 1848, could enjoy it.
rust have Esculapius was associated with the city of Tyre, and so every .er funeral barber's pole in the universe is in some sense a Masonic,emblem referring to this place. The god of medicine and patron of the med eyes, barber's pole had listened to the rustling of leaves, the tones of he sharp, water‑fall and wave, the songs of birds, and the hum of insects, in;ing from this then beautiful land, until he learned to make music for himself.
Lt are dug I thought of him as I sat on the rocks one twilight evening, the sea than I see and sky of such even and utter blueness that any visible horizon is out of the question.
of Tyre: Among my pleasant memories of the days spent in Tyre was a ounds of visit to the good Jacob Akkad, for very many years United States Vice‑Consul of Tyre. He signalized my call upon him by,raising filled tern the flag of our country upon the staff that dominates the roof of his nd in its two‑story house. As in all these dwellings, his family reside in the - iatic gull second story, the lower being used for stables, etc. In a neighboring?,rceptible house a woman was having that sorrow in travail because her time I Brother had come (John xv. 21), which so moves the sensibility of every
A PRACTICAL JOKE. 97
In times of old, Tyre was the metropolis, the New York of the Alediterraneau coast. Everything to be shipped was shipped from this poet, and what they could not purchase they made. Commerce, tor ages, could only be done by these people; they were truly what the British for some centuries claimed to be, lords of the seas. The perusal of the 27th chapter of Ezekiel illustrates this point thor‑ oughly. Written about B.C. 590, it is as minute as a Philadelphia merchant's invoice of goods shipped, and, had I space here, I would insert it entire. It was from Tyre that the ilinera nzercatorum - the roads of the traders, all diverged, and in the oldest atlas they are marked in red ink. They ran from Tyre into the heart of Africa, skirted the Mediterranean coast, wound through the Straits of Gibraltar along by Portugal and France, penetrated Arabia; in short, searched. out every place in the world where products could be exchanged for products, and profits made.
As a fitting group of American Craftsmen to associate with this illustrious locality, I `enroll the ten following: John J. Crane, Robert D. Holmes (deceased), Robert Macoy, C. M. Hatch, H: J: Goodrich, H. D. Hosmer, Albert G. Hodges, James R. Hartsock, Rev. C. F. Deems, R. F. Bower.
I ought to be sorry to record that I gave utter and irreconcilable offence to a Roman priest here, a man with both feet bare, a cable‑tow four times round his unwashed body, and his head shaved, by asking him why it was that he was called Father' when he had no children. The disgust with which he contemplated my question prevented him from waiting for the backsheesh which I was about to give him.
A story more modern and better established than that I have just given, illustrates the biography of a former governor of this district, whose name, I am sorry to say, I have forgotten. He had orders from the Vali (Pasha) at Damascus, to secure a certain number of con‑scripts for the army, but could contrive no ordinary way to catch them. So he gave out that he was opening the old water‑channels that connect the city with Ras‑el‑Ain, and offered large wages to all who would cone and dig. In this way the unsuspecting and hard‑fisted fanners of the locality were deluded. They came in a hundred strong, and just as they got fairly into the trenches digging, a detachment of troops surrounded them, seized, bound, and brought them before the Regimental Surgeon for inspection. To his credit, it is said, he passed them all except two, who had but one leg each, and .y; the latter;ed into the a joke, was column, six ent Basilica. roken Shaft ther to those and equally n the Great thought of unite. The aereafter.
yunj ih, near on which is fishes, a man ess.
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A PAGE FROM A DIARY. 9$
Durmg my stay here, I experienced a touch of the Kliamseen, that celebrated desert‑wind known in its perfection as the Simoom and Sirocco. Afterwards, at Beyrout, I felt its effects more severely. It excited nervous irritation, made me dyspeptic, shortened my sleep, and gave me slow fever. Its name, denoting fifty, implies the length of time it usually traverses the desert. The amount of dust carried before it is suggested by a storm December 24, 1870, in Clinton County, Indiana, in which 600 tons of dust fell within a radius of twenty miles; so says Prof. J. Twigley, before the American Association for Advancement of Science, at its session in 1871.
The custom of keeping a lamp burning all night in the house is universal throughout the East, and to me quite disagreeable; so I - blew mine out at Tyre every time. Stevens describes a man living in a tomb on the banks of the Nile, who keeps his night‑lamp going as steadily as the one in the lighthouse on the Skellig rock. An irreverent friend has suggested, in view of the buggy condition of the native houses, that may‑be this lamp is burned to deceive the insects as to the time. If so, it was a failure.
An hour's nooning, seated upon the tradition‑stone I have named, in the shade of the fountain outside the town, was spent in making notes, some of which I group together here for want of space.
. An old man coming for water, so very ancient that, in Tennyson's words: " The man was no more than a voice in the white winter of his age." The sight of the prostrate columns yonder covered with nets placed there to dry, recalls the lines: Like the stained web that whitens in the sun, And purer grows by being shone upon.
The extremely fine work I see upon the ancient gems exhumed here every day, cornelian, jasper, emerald, chalcedony, etc., remind me that recent researches at Konyunjih show the use of the microscope in ancient times. Minute lens and specula of magnifying lens have been found. A cone engraved with a table of cubes, too small to be visible by the naked eye, is now in the British Museum, found in Persia, and attributed to a very ancient date. Some of the lodges in America are named after those Oriental gems, viz., Cornelian, 40, ‑ Minn., etc., far more appropriate than that of High Log Lodge, Grass‑hopper Falls Lodge, Bear Wallow Lodge, and the like. Maundeville, A.D. 1322, wrote that here, at Tyre, was once a great and good city of the Christians; on the sea‑side many rubies were found, and the well is here of which Solomon wrote, "a fountain of gardens and a well of living waters." (Song iv. 15). The great use made of blue dye in this country, in coloring the cotton and woolen fabrics so
ST. PAUL'S VISIT. 101
" landed at Tyre, for there the ship was to unlade her burden." He remained here seven days, and as he departed all the Christian people followed him out of the city with their wives and children, and kneeled down on the shore and prayed. To peruse the account on the spot gives it a reality.
In closing this chapter, I would say that, while there are no members of the Masonic society resident here, quite a number of native gentlemen, civil and military, and some foreigners, " have long entertained" the necessary "opinion," and were a lodge opened, either in Sidon, twenty‑five miles north, or Acre (or Caifa), the same distance south, these would become petitioners. And while Tyre is scarcely adapted, by the character of its population, for a permanent lodge, those who, like myself, feel that the home of Hiram should not be entirely overlooked, could unite in the plan in regard to Ephesus, which resembles Tyre in the same particular. There, while the lodge is nominally located at Ephesus, the members all live at Smyrna, twenty‑five miles north, and go together, by day, on the regular occasions, to open the lodge at Ephesus and do its regular work. SO the brethren at Sidon, Acre or Caifa, might have a lodge at Tyre without being residents here.
COIN OF ALEXANDER. STRUCK AT 'PYRE.
CHAPTER VII.
THE TOMB OF HIRAM.
On Tuesday, April 14th, as I have said, I arrived at Tyre, after two days' hard horseback exercise from Beyrout, and early next morning, April 15th, went out five miles east, to view the celebrated monument of antiquity, called by the natives Habr Hairan, meaning Iliram's Tomb. In the survey of this old relic I spent the day, returning late in the afternoon to Tyre, and made a second visit to it a month later.
The way thither is through the only gate of Tyre now in use. There all day long a group of men sit smoking, chatting and enjoying their dolce .far nzenle, as the Italians have it. Nobody reads newspapers in Tyre; this group of observant idlers is so thoroughly posted in all Tyrian news, that what they.don't know isn't worth knowing. They discussed me for several days in, all my bearings, and I hope came to favorable conclusions. A splendidly carved marble sarcophagus, once of large cost and rare beauty, lies a hundred yards in front of the gate, degraded now to the uses of a horse‑trough! On its four corners are rams' heads beautifully carved. It much resembles a sarcophagus that I saw at Gebal a few weeks since.
Everybody I meet here has a welcome word and sign for me, except those ill‑conditioned brutes, the Afelawelies. They are on a par with the publicans, of whom the Great Teacher said, " if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? " (Matt. v. 47), for they pay no sort of attention to my most graceful of salaams, or my cheeriest of " how are ye, my bully boys? " with which I greet them day after day, with unwearying patience.
I crossed the isthmus connecting the island, on which Tyre was originally built, with the mainland, now only a dreary waste of white sand, drift upon drift. This isthmus seems to have been crowded as
L04 CAMELS AND CHARCOAL.
far into the water as it can be. I do not think that even the display of fishers' nets spread over the costly marble and granite ruins of Tyre ‑fl'ect me so much as this cheerless waste of sand. If a man would lave a lesson of the mutuability of earthly things, let him stand ‑pen the eminence where the sand‑billows have drifted the highest, .nd read from the twenty‑seventh and twenty‑eighth chapters of Ezekiel such passages as these: "Thou sealest up the sum, full of risdom and perfect beauty. Thy borders are in the midst of the eas, thy builders have perfected thy beauty," and other paragraphs f this nature; then cast his eye over yonder poor crumbling ruins ailed Tyre, its magnificent church reduced to fragments of walls those inclosures are used for the vilest purposes, its triple walls bro‑:en down, its incalculable traffic comprised now in a few small boats. lilt the theme is too painful to contemplate this charming April ay, so I turn my back upon it and ride eastward, cheerily whistling Over the hills and far away." I have nowhere seen such a number of camels as throng this road. ley are loaded chiefly with charcoal from the mountains, each of he huge beasts carrying two immense hampers filled with it. Fuel 5 so scarce in this country that no one thinks of making a fire for ny purpose save cooking, and for that charcoal is the cheapest. It 3 shipped from here, up and down the coast in considerable quantifies by the small coasting‑boats. Many of these camels, however, are Jaded with millstones, made of the hard, black, indestructible basalt hat lies heaped 'in petrified billows east of the Sea of Galilee. These re also shipped in different directions, and form one of the leading artiles of Tyrian traffic. As the daily " Prices‑Current" of Tyre are not ublished, I could not find out the ruling prices of millstones.
The plain of Tyre, after I passed the sand‑drifts, is extremely beauiful. The barley, the principal grain raised upon it at the present ay, is at this time about a foot high, and looks promising. Doubtss a good system of farming would develop immense crops here; but ae native plows only tickle the ground; no manure is used, the seed I scantily sown, and everything is done in a barbarous way. Many roves of mulberry‑trees attract the eye, and I learn upon inquiry at an attempt is making to raise silk here. I apprehend, however, rat the unhealthiness of the neighborhood will always make against lat. They have the "chills and fever" around Tyre as bad as in the lrabash swamps of Indiana.
In about one hour's ride I begin to ascend the hills, the snow
MOSAIC PAVEMENT. 105
capped Lebanons seeming to rise just before me, though I know very well that a day's hard riding will not more than reach them. This is one of the most charming days I have seen in Palestine, and my very soul and lungs expand as I draw in this invigorating breeze from Lebanon. The mountain‑sides are black with goats, the valleys are white with sheep; the voices of their keepers, calling to each other, reach my ears, mellowed in the distance; and as I observe the little lambs tenderly cared for by their rude Arab keepers, I feel involuntarily to burst forth, as the shepherd‑poet at Bethlehem: "The Lord is MY shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh ME to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth ME beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul." May I never be less submissive to HIM than these poor creatures are to their shepherd.
Seeing a large upright stone on the top of a high hill on the left, I leave my horse with Hassan, and scramble up to it through a field of barley. It is an immense block, having a chiselled groove down the side, and, as I afterwards learned from the well‑posted missionary, Dr. W. M. Thomson, at Beyrout, author of Land and Book, it is part of an olive press. But the very olive‑trees that supplied the fruit for this press have disappeared; even their stumps are gone, and the press has been, perhaps, a thousand years out of use. Near it is a large cistern cut in the solid rock, well cemented on the sides and bottom. A few steps lower down are the remains of a house in which, to my delight, I found large patches of a Mosaic pavement, so interesting to a Freemason. This led me to call for my chisel and hammer, and I soon collected enough of the lessens from this checker‑work to fill my carpet‑bag. I afterwards collected stores of similar objects from Mount Zion at Jerusalem, Mount Olivet, and other places. There are no remains of Hebrew, Greek and Roman periods so numerous as patches of the Mosaic pavement.
Going on eastward I open my eyes widely to catch the first view of Hiram's Tomb. I make my two servants fall behind me in the road. No one shall point it out to me. I press on, having two eagles a mile or so overhead, leaving on my right and left great fragments of pillars, and chapiters, and sarcophagi, and deep pits cat in the solid rock for the reception of water for Hiram's men in the older times. I pass by groves of olives and figs, my kingly birds watch ing me keenly. I see, upon a steep hill to the right, the town of Hanaweigh, built, as Dr. Thomson informs me, out of the ruins of the country seats and summer residences of Tyre's merchant‑prince.
06 FIRST VIEW OF THE BABE. DESCRIPTION OF THE TOMB. 107
that once crowned these hills. I meet caravan after caravan of rmels, with their loads of charcoal, so suggestive of that Masonic?rvency on which I have so often expatiated. But I have no eyes t these things; I am watching out for Kabr Hairan, the sepulchre Hiram.
Yonder it is! It is worth coming all the way from the United tates to see it. There is no mistaking it. Nowhere in all the orld have my eyes beheld anything like it. A little to the right the hill I have been ascending, and a little beyond its apex, the gal fowls looking down upon it so knowingly, it stands out clear id sharp against the mountains beyond; its grand sepulchral stone .owning the structure with a massiveness proportioned to the whole. t last I see the burial‑place of the great lluram, who was ever a ver of David (1 Kings v. 1), and who rejoiced greatly when he and the words of Solomon, and who wrote generously in acknowllgment of the royal missive announcing Solomon's intention to nid an house unto the name of the Lord his God: " Because the Ord hath loved his people, he bath made thee king over them. lessed be the Lord God of Israel that made the Heaven and the rth, who bath given to David the king a wise son, endued with ‑udence and understanding, that might build an house for the )rd, and an house for his kingdom" (2 Chronicles ii. 11, 12). Here s the Master of the Widow's Son, whose tragic history seasons ery instruction of the Freemason's lodge.
Riding more slowly towards the resting‑place of " this friend of domon," my legionary birds drawing still nearer to me, I love to ink that the Phoenician monarch selected his burial‑spot in his rn lifetime, in accordance with the customs of his country; that e plan of the structure itself was drawn by the pencil of Hiram, e Widow's Son; and that the munificence of King Solomon bore e expense of its erection. Thus our first three Grand Masters re united in this as in other matters interesting to all Masons.
Kabr Hairan bears about it unmistakable marks of extreme tiquity! So says Dr. Thomson, and so say I. It is impossible disprove the local tradition which assigns this tomb to the great Tian King. So says Prof. H. B. Tristam, and so say I. Much )re will be felt than uttered by a Masonic visitor. Standing on the - thest point eastward, from which a clear view of the sea‑coast is tained, and at a spot where the brightest Orient rays come down ^m the Lebanon ranges, it is the place of all others for the Tomb of Hiram. The genus loci, the spirit of the locality, is worth a hundred cold arguments based upon tape‑lines and parchment recorda This is the monument of Hiram; yonder eagles know it, and I know it.
This remarkable structure consists of fifteen stones arranged in five layers of the ordinary hard cretaceous limestone, solid, firm, and durable, without any marked lines of stratification, and inclining to a crystalline structure. As I know very well from having cut into it with my chisel, it is very hard, the outer surface blunting the edge of the chisel much like glass.
I. There is a layer of stones, about fifteen feet by ten, resting upon a bed of grout (that is, small pebbles intermixed with mortar) six or eight inches deep. There is only one stone (near the northwest corner) belonging to this foundation exposed; but I take it for granted that this layer extends equally under the whole monument. This one stone is thirty‑four inches in height, and four feet long. No one would have supposed that this underground layer existed but for the fact of there being a deep‑arched well. or cistern on the north side of the monument, in digging which a part of the sub‑structure was exposed, together with the bed of grout on which that first tier of stones rested. Not finding any accurate measurements of Hiram's Tomb in the books, I took them myself, and verified them on my second visit here.
II. The first layer of the monument aboveground consists of four stones, numbered in my plan A, B, C, D. This tier is four feet high.
III. The second tier consists of five stones. These exactly cover the lower tier, breaking the joints, as will be seen in the plan, in an artistic manner. They are numbered in my plan E, F, G, H, I. This tier is two feet ten inches high.
IV. The third tier consists of four stones. These extend in every direction several inches outside the tier below, forming a pleasing sort of ledge or cornice. These are numbered K, L, M, N, in my plan. This tier is two feet eleven inches high.
V. The fourth tier is monolithal, consisting of one great block of stone. It is numbered 0 in my plan. Out of the centre of this, in the top, was hewn a huge cavity for the reception of the corpse, Elevated as this sarcophagus is - more than ten feet from the ground - it presents a majestic appearance. I climbed up to it by the help of an Arab, who mounted before me, gave me his'
[08 DESCRIPTION OF THE TOMB.
109 DIMENSIONS.
hand, and by nature's own grip assisted me to rise, my two eagles looking curiously down upon the effort. Walking round to the?astern end of it, upon the cornice already described, I found that he burial‑place had been burst open and was empty.
VI. The fifth tier aboveground is also monolithal, making the lid )f the sarcophagus. This lid was made with a tenon on the under;ide, which fitted into the cavity or coffin of the sarcophagus. I;ould not tell whether cement was used in fastening down the lid, but )resume that it was. The dead body was reached by those who rifled t by going to the top of this lid, bursting down a large piece at the iortheast corner, then breaking out the end of the sarcophagus mmediately below it; so an entrance was effected. By this hole I ooked immediately into the place where once lay the body of King 3iram, empty, no doubt, more than two thousand years. Afterwards crept into the coffin itself, and measured it.
The great stones of this monument being considerably shattered, )robably by earthquakes, I found it easy to procure pieces of them, and did so abundantly. I cut the Square and Compass deeply on the nonument, on the second tier, eastern end, near the northeast corner. try Arab servant, Ilassan, having seen me do this at other places, abors under the impression that it is my name, and tells everybody o. I also exposed my Masonic flag there. I sum up in the followng tables all my measurements of this curious relic of antiquity:
SIZES OF THE FIFTEEN ASHLARS IN KABR HAIRAN.
[See Drawings.] Fnox FROM HEIGHT.
EAST TO WEST. NORTH TO SOUTH. HEIGHT.
First Tier. A 3 ft. 0 in. 8 ft. 8 in. 4 ft. 0 in.
B 7 ft. 1 in. 4 ft. 4 in. 4 ft. 0 in.
C 3 ft. 11 in. 8 ft. 8 in. 4 ft. 0 in.
D 7 ft. 1 in. 4 ft. 4 in. 4 ft. 0 in.
Second Tier. E 5 ft. 0 in. 6 ft. 0 in. 2 ft. 10 in.
F 6 ft. 4 in. 2 ft. 10 in. 2 ft. 10 in.
G 7 ft. 8 in. 2 ft. 11 in. 2 ft. 10 in.
II 4 ft. 1 in. 5 ft. 9 in. 2 ft. 10 in.
I 4 ft. 9 in. 5 ft. 9 in. 2 ft. 10 in.
Third Tier K 3 ft. 9 in. 9 ft. 11 in. 2 ft. 11 in.
L 4 ft. 0 in. 9 ft. 11 in. 2 ft. 11 in.Fnox FRox EAST TO WEST. NORTH TO SOUTH. HEIGHT.
M 3 ft. 9 in. 9 ft. 11 in. 2 ft. 11 in.
N 3 ft. 7 in. 9 ft. 11 in. 2 ft. 11 in.
Sarcophagus. 0 ‑ 12 ft. 11 in. 7 ft. 8 in. 6 ft. 0 in.
Lid. P ‑ 12 ft. 11 in. 7 ft. 8 in. 3 ft. 6 in.
DIMENSIONS OF THE RESPECTIVE TIERS. Fnox Fnox EAST TO WEST. NORTH TO SOUTH. HEIGHT.
First Tier. 14 ft. 0 in. 8 ft. 8 in. 4 ft. 0 In.
Second Tier. 14 ft. 0 in. 8 ft. 8 in. 2 ft. 10 in.
Third Tier. 15 ft. 1 in. 9 ft. 11 in. 2 ft. 11 in.
Fourth Tier. 12 ft. 11 in. 7 ft. 8 in. 6 ft. 5 in.
Fifth Tier. 12 ft. 11 in. 7 ft. 8 in. 3 ft. 6 in.
Total height 19 ft. 8 in.
CONDITION OF THE RESPECTIVE BLOCKS.
A, considerable piece out of the upper and northeast corner. B, piece out of upper and southwest corner. C, piece out of the upper and southwest corner, and lower and northeast corner. D, in good condition. E, northeast and southwest corners much shattered. F, cracked through by earthquake. G, broken at upper and northwest corner. II, best condition of all. I, cracked 'by earthquake. K, very large piece gone at north end under side. L and M, in good condition. N, shattered at south end. 0, broken open at east end. P, large piece burst off northeast corner. My chiselling of the Square and Compass was done on block E, on the east face.
The coffin or cavity in the great sepulchral stone is in length 6 ft.
8 in.; width, 1 ft.' 10 in.; depth, 2 ft. 2 in.
DEDICATIONS OF THE FIFTEEN ASHLARS.
A William Preston, of England, Masonic Ritualist.
B William Hutchinson, of England, Masonic Moralist. C Thaddeus Mason Harris, of United States, Masonic Moralist.
D Thomas Smith Webb, of United States, Masonic Ritualist.
E George Washington.
11) MASONIC PICNIC.
F Benjamin Franklin.
G The Duke of Sussex, long Grand Master of England. II Pliny Fisk, first (Masonic) Protestant Missionary to Palestine. I Wellins Calcott, of England, Masonic Moralist.
K Edward A. Guilbert, of United States, Masonic Journalist.
L John W. Simons, of United States, Masonic Jurist.
M D. Murray Lyon, of Scotland, Masonic Journalist.
N The Earl of Zetland, long Grand Master of England.
^ The Illustrious Dead of the Masonic Craft.
P The Zealous Living Workers of the Masonic Craft.
The honor of these dedications has, I think, been fairly earned y their respective recipients, as the history of Freemasonry, in arlier and later times, abundantly proves. The workmen themilves are such as the Royal Grand Master would have hailed 'orthy associates, and "their works do follow them." Will it not ring many Masonic pilgrims to this sacred locality, when there fay be grouped together around the great pile so many of the .chest associations in our history? I am confident of having the approving sentiment of every Mason f intelligence in adopting Kabr Hairan as the best remaining ionument of the most ancient Masonic period. Here, I think, was,id the body of our Grand Master, Hiram, King of Tyre. The sting=place of Solomon is lost; that of the Widow's Son (like that 'Moses) "no man knoweth;" but here, in these fifteen huge stones, we we the burial‑place of the Pillar of Strength! Surely it was good r me that I came here; and I cannot but approve the enthusiasm that thoroughly good Mason, Brother E. T. Rogers, Master (in iCS) of the Palestine Lodge, No. 415, at Beyrout, who projected, urs ago, a Masonic visit and pic‑nic to this memorable fane.
I lump together a number of notes of measurements and descripins made on the spot. The accumulations of earth and debris from e field on the north have been walled up around the monument a w feet distant, leaving an alley on the three sides of it. Otherwise e tomb would be concealed (as the great wall of Mount Moriah is) Le‑half its height. The object of this extraordinary care, so differ‑t from what we generally observe in this country, was to preserve e water‑cistern for use. This cistern is six feet north of the monu‑3nt, and reached by stone steps from the northwest corner of the nib. Go down eastward by four narrow steps to a platform, six by
VIEW FROM THE SUMMIT. 111
four feet; continue eastward by four broad steps, six feet long; then turn northward and go down five narrow steps to the water, two feet deep. Arched entrance to the cistern is four by ten feet. Cistern itself is nearly hemispherical in shape, fifteen feet from north to south, by ten feet. It is plastered with gravel‑stones, set in cement and sherds of old pottery. Water cool and good, much liked by the villagers of Hanaweigh. No signs of tools can be seen where the break was made into the sepulchre. The sides of the coffin or cavity have three notches on the north side and one on the south, but none overhead. I readily crept in there, through the break made by the robbers, perhaps of Sennacherib, B.C. 715, or thereabouts. No hieroglyphics of any kind are on the monument, so far as I could discover. From the top of the monument there is a fine view of Tyre, the plain of Phcenicia almost to Sidon, and the Great Sea beyond. A steamer was passing southward, bound for Egypt, and quite a number of sail‑vessels. Lizards abound in the tomb, and Brother II. B. Tristam (in Land of Israel) killed a large adder that lay asleep, with its head exposed, at the joinings of the tiers. But I saw no snakes around here. Hyssop grows abundantly in the cracks, and makes quite a green and tufted appearance for old Hiram.
Khbr Hairan is usually described as standing due east and west, but by the aid of the compass furnished me by my olcl friend, Brother Edward Jewell, of Louisville, Ky., I conclude, either that the variation here is fifteen or twenty degrees from the true meridian, or that the monument is not oriented to face the four points of the com‑ pass.
While taking measurements and making notes, an old man, head of a party of camel‑drivers, stopped and looking on for a few minutes, asked, through my servant, " what for all my writing? " I told him [ had come six thousand miles over yonder blue sea, pointing to the Mediterranean, which stretched out majestically at our feet, and that when I return home I shall tell my friends all about the great and curious Kabr Hairan. This pleased him, and he cried out, with the accompanying gesticulation, " Tyeeb, Tyeeb" (good), and went on his way to tell his companions of the Melican Howadji who had come so far over the sea to look at Kabr Hairan.
In the hot hour, at high twelve, I sat in the shadow of the tomb and wrote these lines:
ll2 POEM AT HIGH XIL POEM AT HIGH %IL 1I;‑t KABR HAIRAN.
(Written April 15th, 1868, at the Tomb of Hiram.) Eastward from Tyre, where the sun First gleams above gray Hernion's side, They brought thee, when thy work was done, And laid thee here in royal pride: They brought thee with the noblest rites The wisest of our Craft enjoined; (1) Before thee soared the mountain heights, And thy loved ocean‑isle behind.
The Cedars bowed their kingly tops As Hiram, Chief of Masons, passed: (2) O'er Lebanon's all‑snowy slopes The eagle screamed upon the blast: (3) Westward the foaming sea was crowned With snow‑white sails returning home: Their Sea‑Queen (4) glorious they found, Where thou, their King, should no more come. .
'Where in thy lifetime thou hadst reared This Tomb, befitting one so great, (5) They bore thee, Monarch loved and feared, And'l,id thee in thy bed of state: (G) (1) See note 10 for an explanation of this. King Hiram was traditionally buried with the Masonic Honors, as prepared by the pen of King Solomon.
(2) Formerly all these offshoots and spurs of the Lebanon Mountains were probably covered with cedars, though now the nearest grove of which I have any knowledge is thirty or forty miles north of Hiram's Tomb.
(3) As I write these lines, two of those noble birds are soaring in the clear sky above me.
(4) For many centuries the City of Tyre was the commercial metropolis of the world. The title " Sea‑Queen " is therefore highly appropriate.
(5) It was the custom of the princes and rulers of Phoenicia to prepare for them‑selves great and costly sepulchres, even while living; the hills around Kenn Mutsu are full of these, but all shattered and empty.
(6) To comprehend the splendor of Hiram's burial procession, read that of Alexan ier the Great, as detailed in Rollin's Ancient History.
They closed thee in with cunning art And left thee to thy well‑earned fame: 'Twas all the living can impart, A tomb, a pageant, and a name.
Loud was the wail on Zidon's hill, Her Sages mourned thee as their own: (7) Loud the lament on far Jebale Her wisest Son of Light was gone: (8) The ships of Tyre bore the word On every wind across the main, And white‑robed craftsmen wept their lord And strewed the mystic leaves again. (9) Nor these alone; - on Zion too A Brother joins his tears with theirs: King Solomon, to friendship true, The grief of Tyre fitly shares: His matchless pen such words indites Of true report and sacred woe, That to this hour, Freemasons' rites Within his wise direction go. (10) The centuries wore apace; and changed The kingdom of each royal Sire: Ephraim from Judah was estranged, And Zidon separate from Tyre: (11) (7) At the period of IIiram's reign, the city of Zidon, which lies about twenty‑five miles north of Tyre, was under his ride.
(8) Jebale (styled in the Scriptures Gebal) is about seventy‑five miles north of Tyre, and once marked the boundary of IIiram's possessions. It was the seat of the Architectural and Philosophical Schools of early ages.
(9) The various colonies of Tyre were established at all the prominent points on the Mediterranean Sea.
(10) According to Masonic tradition, the funeral rites under which King Hiram was untied were composed by King Solomon: they were substantially the same as those in use at the present day.
(I1) It was but a few years after Hiram's death that his own kingdom, as well as bat of his royal friend Solomon, was rent in twain by internal convulsions. 8 Then swept the deluge over all; And from each pilgrim this be heard, The Conqueror came with sword and flame, As from one humble voice to‑day: And templed shrine and kingly hall " Honor to Hiram, - Masons' lord, Are but the shadow of a name. (12) " Honor and gratitude we pay!" Yet here thy burial‑place is kept, - Sitting on the north side of this old structure, " the place of dark‑ Still this MEMORIAL appears, rcess," and what is better just now, of coolness, my eye is again attract‑ Though shadows of old time have crept ed by that pair of mountain eagles who started across the isthmus Along these stones three thousand years. of Tyre with me this morning, and have been watching me with un‑ The frost and rain have gently seared; wearying patience, while I examined olive‑presses, collected mosaic tes‑ The Orient‑sun bath kindly blest: seree, culled anemones and poppies, and browsed generally along the And earthquakes shattering have spared way. Grand old fellows! how they hang up there in the sky on Our habl - Ifziran, IIiram's rest. their broad wings, extended sail‑like six or eight feet horizontally! Whatever their intentions in thus following me, their patience is Still warm thine eastern front the rays most praiseworthy; and I feel it to be a good omen that King Hi‑ That call the Craftsmen to the wall: ram's Lebanon has sent down two of its aquilce aura', its gold‑ Here let me chisel this device, en eagles, to guard my way by old Hiram's sarcophagus, And The oldest, holiest of all! (13) now is my best time to embody Scriptural references to the Eagle And as the western sun goes down in these pages. Come, ye inspired prophets, around me, and let us To give the wearied Craft release, study the bird of,Jove together. Roman cohorts and Roman le‑ His latest gleam, in smile or frown, gions have often enough displayed their eagles along this rocky road, These time‑stained ashlars still doth kiss. running eastward from Tyre, and the Germans, a thousand years later, exhibited theirs, the double‑headed one, as they came down from The lizard darts within thy walls, Antioch, A.D. 1099, to the capture of Jerusalem. But what use did The Arab stalks indifferent by, you prophets make of the eagle when "inquiring and searching dili‑ Vast relics once of lordly halls gently, and prophesying of the grace that should come" to fallen Around in mute suggestion lie: men? The hyssop springs between the stones, Who of you all have made the " unclean bird" (Lev. xi. 18) your The daisy blossoms at the foot, emblem? The olive its peace lessons owns, Moses: I used it in threatenings against my people, in case they Best moral where all else is mute. should refuse to hearken unto the voice of the LORD their God. Ob‑ serving its swiftness'of flight, I declared that the nation whom God Stand thou, till time shall be no more, should send against Israel, from the end of the earth, should come Great type of Masonry divine! "as swift as the eagle flieth." (Debt. xxviii. 49.) From eastern height, from western shore, Habakkuk: I took up the figure of Moses 885 years afterward, Let Craftsmen seek this ancient shrine and compared that bitter and hasty nation, the Chaldeans, to yonder (12) Referring to the Chaldean monarch Nebuchadnezzar, who conquered the king bird, saying "{;hey shall fly (against Israel) as the eagle hasteth to dams of Phoenicia, Israel, and Judah, about four hundred years after Iliram's death. eat." (i. 8.) This prophet had doubtless seen the swoop by which (I31 I chiselled the Square and Compass deeply on the tomb near the nonneas - the eagle descends upon its prey, so graphically described by W. M.
uorne‑ Thomson. " They poise themselves for a moment, then, like a bolt
114 POEM AT HIGH %II. THE EAGLES OF LEBANON. 11 116 THE EAGLES OF LEBANON.
from the clear sky, down they come, head foremost, with wings collapsed," and snatch the defenceless Iamb from under the very eye of the shepherd.
Jeremiah: I denounced the pride and self‑confidence of the Edomites at Mt. Seir, and declared that, though they should make their nest on high, as the eagle that has established his eyrie in yonder inaccessible crag of Lebanon, yet the Lord will bring him down. (xlix. 16.) David: I sung of God's bounty, declaring that he renews the youth of his saints as the moulting eagle renews his glorious pinions. (Ps. ciii. 5.) Noses: In promising the tender mercies of God to an obedient race, I reminded them of the eagle's care for her young: "As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings, so the Lord alone did lead him." (Dent. xxxii. 11.) EAGLE AND P1tEY.
The voice of Jehovah, showing his almighty power to Job, condescends to introduce this bird into the lesson. in these grand words
EARTHQUAKE OF 1837. 117 K
Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high? She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place. From thence she seeketh the prey, and her eyes behold afar off. Her young ones also suck up blood, and where the slain are, there is she." (Job xxxix. 27.) But my hour is exhausted, and I must to my measurements, al‑though my Scriptural references to the eagle are not half exhausted. I have left out " mounting up on wings as eagles " (Is. xl. 31), and a score of passages. I imagine the imperial bird descending from these heights upon the sceptre in the left hand of the statue of Jupiter Olympus, on the Acropolis, far in the northwest.
And I must not forget what Mrs. Ellet says: "Imperial wanderer I the storms that shake Earth's towers, and bid her rooted mountains quake, Are never felt by thee I" Gould I question the mighty bird, it would be an interesting tn‑ - quiry with what sentiments he viewed the dreadful earthquake that racked all this country, on New Year's day, 1837; when Sated was shaken together as a heap; when El dish was totally destroyed; Tiberias cracked and shattered; and the death‑cries of three thousand souls went up to heal/en from yonder eastern range; when every hand was faint and every heart melted, and pangs and sorrows took hold of them, and they were amazed one at another (Isaiah xiii. 8); when the earth reeled to and fro as a drunkard, and was removed like a cottage (xxiv. 20); when the great house was smitten with breaches and the little house with clefts (Joel vi. 11). A number of our American lodges are named Eagle Loelge.
To compare my measurements and descriptions with those of other writers, I have looked up Van der Velde's, and copy what he says: "h iram's tomb stands on an oblong, four‑sided pedestal, of two layers of huge stones, 14 feet long, 8 feet 9 inches broad, 6 feet high. The third layer is 15 feet long, 10 broad, 3 feet 9 inches high. Above this is a truncated pyramid, hewn out of a single rock, 12 feet 1 inch long, 8 feet 6 inches wide, 6 feet high. This is surmounted by an oblong stone of the same dimensions, 5 feet high. The entire tomb is about 21 feet high. There is nothing to prevent passengers from approaching the monument, no peculiar sanctity being ascribed to it, as in the numerous welies (tombs) of the Moslems." Van der Velde admits the tradition that claims this as the monu‑
118 PAGES FROM MY DIARY.
went of Hiram, Solomon's friend and ally, and thinks the popular belief well founded. No heathen king, he says, was ever in such close relationship with Israel as the King of Tyre, and nowhere else in this country, except at Jerusalem, is there so large a monument as this, or one so appropriate to such a king. IIe sees in this remembrance of Tyre's great monarch, thus visibly preserved in this monument, a confirmation of the Lord's words, in 1 Sam. xi. 30, "Them that honor me, I will honor." Brother Capt. Charles Warren, so long in charge of the Jerusalem Explorations, makes a note of Iliram's Tomb, under date July, 1869, as follows: " We passed out of our way to visit Iliram's Tomb, as I was anxious to see if there were any masons' marks on the stone. I could only see two, - one is a Christian Cross, of the Byzantine type, at the western end; it appears to be ancient. The other consists of a square and compass, very recently cut." As I saw nothing of this " Christian Cross," I fancy it must have been put there since May, 1868.
Some sort of a fair, I think, was going on at Tyre the day I first visited Kabr Mairan, something like the one at Bint Jebale, which I shall describe in another chapter, and the number and variety of travellers was no doubt beyond the ordinary. I took down a score or two of notes, sitting in my stocking‑feet on the cornice at the east end of the monument, and here are specimens of them: A party of Arab charcoal‑dealers, all mounted 'on camels, eighteen in all. As the wind blew in their faces they had all turned them‑selves to the rear, except the leader, and so avoided the draft. These Arab saddles are just like a sawhorse, an old‑fashioned Vii, on which you can face either way, and suffer, I should think, excruciating pain, no matter which way you sit. I was never on a camel in my life, but I have sat for ten minutes at a time on a sharp‑edged fence‑rail, and I remember it. The sheikh of the little village has come over to ask Hassan what I am doing up there. I told Hassan (sarcastically) to say that I had bought this tomb from the Pasha, and was going to ship it to America, but he evidently told him something else. The sheikh is a short man, with the darkest shade of bronze; eyes keen, roving, and unsettled; teeth white; skin so dried and withered it seems cleaving from the bones. Here passes a man in, or just out of, an ague fit. Ilow well I know how he feels. He may say as the prophet of Anathoth did: All my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, a man whom wine overcometh (Jer. xxiii. 9). And the word wine reminds me to offer him some arrack from my leather bottle. But he loathes it, and (1 judge by the sound) curses me inwardly (Ps. Ixii. 4). Truth is, all Moslems are R,echabmtes Oer.
PAGES FROM MY DIARY. 119 xxxv. 2).
Some cows pass by from the pastures of Kanah, just over the hill yonder. One is what Jeremiah calls (xl. 20) a very fair heifer. Some are fat as heifers at grass, and bellow as bulls (Jer. L 11). The long line of telegraph poles between me and Tyre yonder, suggests how differently certain passages of Scripture would read had Morse only appeared 3,000 years sooner. Jonah need never have gone personally to Nineveh; Joseph need not have come to Palestine before finding that Archelaus did reign in place of his father Herod; the movements of invading armies would have been telegraphed, and time given the natives to prepare for defence; and so all through the sacred pages. And here, on a certain day l lessed in all the history of this country. if the miserable people only knew it, there passed one who, though rich, vet for our sakes became poor.. On his way to Sarepta, as I will show in a corning chapter, Jesus and his disciples passed this monument, doubtless looking up to it and passing comments upon it, even as travellers do now. It is easy to recognize a Christian village, both by the unveiled faces and black, sparkling eyes of the females, and the neater houses and cleaner streets. How truly that city of Tyre, live miles yonder in the west, was said tc have been planted in a pleasant place! (llos. ix. 13.) A sheikh is passing by, gorgeously apparelled, as the Scripture expresses it, and doubtless as "full of all subtlety" (Acts xiii. 10) as his progenitor in the days of Peter. The purity of the atmosphere and gentle freshness of the air, as it. conies down from the hills in the east. high, broken, and rugged, makes everything delightful up here. That old camel‑sheikh, with his eye like a hawk's, can see ten miles off. But he cannot reverse the telescope; the pencil‑marks on my note‑book are invisible to him; the copy of my Arabic newspaper, El!lade/chat, is a sheet of white paper. A chap climbed up side of' me for purposes of instruction. Ile told me a great deal; and when I had paid him for his information and dismissed him with thanks, he remembered a great deal more and came back again. Like the eccentric Wors. Master, L. O. B., - who, having told the candidate " all he knew" and closed the lodge, summoned them together again " in called communication " a few minutes afterwards, explaining that he had just then remembered something else, and was afraid he would forget it if not promptly disbursed! As the body of King Cheops is probably resting, not in the King's Chamber, nor Queen's Chamber, nor Chamber of Projection '(subterranean), but in a vault far below the last, so I suggested the theory to Capt. Warren that the body of the great_ Hiram was never laid in this sarcophagus, but underneath, perhaps far underneath, and when the time for great explorations in this locality arrives, it may be found there. To bring to light the remains of Abraham from Hebron, David and Solomon from Sion, Hiram from this hill, and Cheops from that subterranean chamber "forever flowed about by water," are among the works reserved for Masonic explorers. An ungainly, wabbling creature, with a withered hand, as in the story of the miracle at Capernauni. The next is 'a party of Ii
120 PAGES FROM MY DIARY.
Swedes, judging from dress, eyes, and hair. One of them recalls the portrait of Gustavus Adolphus, tall, vigorous, graceful, yellow hair flowing thick and plentiful, expression mild, manners singularly engaging. I was sorry he knew so little English, for what little he did know did him good. Now come two men with silver beards, walking staff in hand, who do not even deign me a nod. The next is a grave, patient‑looking Rabbi, whose philosophy is good enough for Socrates. Replying to my remark, that the oppression the Jews had received from the world would naturally sour them against their tyrants, he said, "Hakeem, but it is noble and god‑like to bear with calmness and observe with pity the failings of others." Whereupon I (figuratively) gave him my hat. Next there comes a fine, comely girl, in the beautiful costume of the Lebanons, with bracelets round her arms and ankles. The trees that I observed this morning are the olive, palm, orange, lemon, cypress, oleander, tamarisk, etc.; the flowers (as I gather the class‑names from other authors), Ranun‑;ulus myriophyllus, Draba verne, Reseda su f ruticosa, Zizyphus suigaris, /'eaecie vernalis, Ancleusa Hallett, Parietaria ojficinalis, end the like. The little Scops owl, called here 111aroof, stares it me from an olive‑tree close by. in his own inquisitive style; and he lazy people, by a stare equally persistent, but not half so wise, Drove that, however they may value money, they have no real appre‑;iation of that which money only represents - time. And now a whole party, of divers ages and sexes, gather on the bank in front, dmost level with my face, and take a long stare at me. Klan‑Der can't make a photograph of me half so accurate as they will. ['he old man, with "childish treble," leads off in the hated dissyllable iackslaeesh.. He is followed in coarser tones by another and another )f the crowd, until every gullet is croaking with that abhorrent rassword of beggary. In this vicinity this morning, looking up the almost illegible carvings on old stones, I stirred up a number of )artridges, larger than ours at home, and of different color. Their xaks and feet are red, and plumes ashy gray, like the color of he dust. The country around is rocky and inrluacticable, and much rvergrown with thorn. The caravans that go by kick up a dreadful lust. The dust of these roads, powdering the thee, irritating the yes, and leaving a taste of hyd. cum Greta in the mouth, recalls a host If Scripture passages, showing that Holy Land was always Dusty Land. [''hat we were made of " dust," according to the expression (Genesis i. 7), " And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground,",nd other passages, seems plain enough this morning, and that " unto lust" all the generations of this country have, literally, returned, ierhaps explains the peculiarly acrid and unpleasant flavor to which have referred. Jesus told his disciples to shake the dust off their set at the doors of inhospitable men as a testimony against them. t may be that explains the dust‑heaps I have seen at so many hresholdsi In the fourteenth century the English government nstituted a court styled The Court of Dusty Feet (pie‑poudre), to
THE CHURCH BELL. 121
be held at markets, to settle difficulties between buyers and sellers on the spot. I should think Raschid Pasha might introduce it here with equal regularity and propriety. A fakir, or native beggar‑priest, of the class that subsists on charity. A wild‑looking man, naked to the waist, having in fact no clothing save a sheepskin tied around his hips, long, matted hair, shading a wild, haggard face; he is, in al the uses, that occur of to the me in my survey of old Kabr Ila ran? wrote these lines As if time had been to it all sunlight and soft dew, As if upon its freshness the cold rime Of decay should never fall.
Gathering up my effects at 4 n.M., I started to return to Tyre, taking upon my way the celebrated fountains called Ras‑el‑Ain, or "Head of the Spring," four miles from Tyre, and said, in the native traditions, to have been erected at the expense of King Solomon, as a present to his royal friend Hiram. These fountains are the finest I saw in Syria. Originally there was a large spring broke out here. This was inclosed by immense stone walls until the water rose about twenty feet, in one great reservoir, from which it was carried off by aqueducts towards the city. This abundance of sweet water makes everything around a mass of vegetation, recalling the beautiful expression, " Whereupon there grow roses and lilies, flowers of unchangeable color, from which are emitted odors of wonderful smell." (2 Esdras vi. 44.) At the top of this fountain, I was accosted by one of the officers of the Protestant Church at Kanah, six miles east, with a subscription paper, asking aid towards purchasing a church‑bell. I was glad to give my mejeedia (ninety‑four cents) to this desirable end, and I hope the echoes of Lebanon have, ere this, been stirred by the suggestive sound. It is but a late thing that the Turkish government has permitted the use of bells in churches; a timber of heavy, porous wood, struck with a setting‑maul, having heretofore answered the purpose of a bell in calling God's people together. In all Asia Minor there is only one Christian church supplied with a bell, viz., the old city of Philadelphia. The Turks themselves employ men with loud voices, styled muezzins, who station themselves in the minarets (steeples) of the mosques and roar out the holy news with incredible force. The last association, therefore, connected in my mind with these abounding waters of Ras‑el‑Ain, is the presenting that man with a Turkish dollar for the purpose of buying that church‑bell at K.anah. And so I quietly go back to Tyre, to dinner and to bed.
DIVISION THIRD.‑GERAL.
Loud wind, strong wind, blowing from the mountains. Fresh wind, free wind, sweeping o'er the sea, Pour forth thy vials like torrents from air‑fountains, Draughts of life to me.
A field of ruins, a scene of unutterable desolation.
Thorns coming up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses theto of, a habitation of dragons and a court of owls.
There is a tongue in every rock, a voice from every leaf, which witnesses, to all who visit here, of the eternal truth and majesty of _Him who is working, here the melancholy penalty of sin, in the sorrow and degradation which surround aim.
Sacred land by blood and tears of God, Instinct with thrills of consecrated life.
The quaint, enamelled eyes That on the green turf suck the honeyed showers, The ground all purpled with the vernal flowers: These bells and flowerets of a thousand hues.
Here rest the great and good; here they repose, After their generous toil; a sacred band, They take their sleep together, while the year Comes with its early flowers to deck their graves, And gather them again as winter frowns; Theirs is no vulgar sepulchre; green sods Are all their monument; and yet it tells A nobler history than pillared piles Or the eternal pyramids. They need No statue nor inspiration to reveal Their greatness .
CHAPTER VIII.
GOING UP TO GEBAI..
'HE Second of the Seven Grand Masonic Localities that my rW visit to the Holy Land enables me to identify and describe, is Gebal (pronounced Jebale, accent on the last syllable) I went there from Beyrout, a distance of about twenty‑four miles, March 17, and remained three days, returning on the 21st. My expeditionary force consisted of one )nhn. Hassan, a stout, good‑natured Arab, described in Chapter V., who knows considerable English of the hassauic quality (the joke here consists in the fact that the word hassan means a horse); one boy, Yasoof (meaning Joseph, I am told), two horses and a donkey; the latter (whom I had named Boanerges, because I don't remember the singular form of the word), addicted to lying down without the slightest warning, and to making the most excruciating noises that organized nostrils ever projected. These three persons and animals bore with them all needful supplies of blankets, overcoats, working‑tools, such as chisel, mallet, etc., and a good quantity of provisions for my personal use, for five days.
In view of this five days' trip I had consulted a professional dragoman, who generously offered to convey me to Gebal, reed, lodge, and find me for five days, and all for the insignificant sum of $125! When I asked him what sort of accommodation he could afford for that trifling remuneration, he replied that he should take nine horses and mules, twelve servants, a cook, three tents, one for me, one for himself and servants, and one for the kitchen, and that my dinner should consist of five courses. I asked him if he thought I had come all the way from Kentucky to eat dinners of five courses. The conundrum remains unanswered to this day.
This was the third visit I had made up the coast from Beyrout, as;ter as the mouth of Nahr‑el‑Kelb (Dog River), a place all travellers visit, to inspect the ancient inscriptions on the rocks there. These wilt be fully described in my account of the Masonic Bay, or Bay of
THUNDER‑STORM IN LEBANON. 12'1
the Rafts, in Division Fourth. But I shall not find so good a place as this to describe a thunder‑storm in which I was caught, the first visit I made to the place. It was on the 5th of March, 1868 (the twenty‑second anniversary of my Masonic Initiation), and my purpose was to inspect those ancient proofs of human pride and grandeur. I had scarcely got out of Beyrout. on the sea‑shore, when the bay became lashed into fury by a gale. A tremendous thunder‑storm swept grandly a little way before, and as I was congratulating myself on escaping its fury, I was startled by the roar of thunder in the rear. Looking back, I saw myself pursued by one of Mount Lebanon's blackest clouds, that bellowed a thousand times worse than Spenser makes the dragon bellow who was killed right at this spot, if report is true, by St. George. I was riding a donkey a trifle larger than the conventional goat of the Masonic lodge, and my prospects of escaping a drenching and a pelting were solely based on his speed. Capricornus did his utmost, and I reached a native khan, or tavern (like the one described at Neby Younas), and entered, thanks to my goat and a gum‑coat, not all wet. A dozen people with their beasts were in there before me, the old khan proving to them, as to me, a place of refuge and covert from storm and from rain (Isa. v. 6). The storm being over, I went on to the inscriptions, a mile or more further north, and while making notes there a second cloud swept through the passes of old Lebanon and poured its contents, true as the plumb‑line, on me, as I cowered under shelter of the overhanging rocks. This convulsion of nature was inconceivably grand and awful. I have nothing parallel to it in all my memory. The gorge through which Dog River runs separates two mountains, a thousand feet in height, by an interval of about 300 feet. The sides of these tremendous heights gave back the awful thunder‑peals in countless reverberations. The lightnings flashed across the defile with a vividness blasting to the eyeballs. I could conceive that the spirits of 'the mighty dead were revisiting these scenes of their earthly grandeur, and speaking, as they once addressed the world, in tempest and fire. In these terrific passages of sound I learned the propriety of the Hebrew name for echo, "the daughter of the voice." I was so impressed with the unparalleled sublimity of this scene, that, on my return that night to the shelter of Hallock's hospitable (flat) roof, I was unable to sleep, but spent the hours composing the folic wing verses, together with music to them: 128 THE ROAD TO GEBAL.
THE GLORY OF LEBANON.
That goodly mountain, Lebanon (Deut. iii. 25). He maketh Lebanon to skip like a calf (Ps. xxix. 6). The fruit shall shake like Lebanon (Ps. lxxii. 16). The righteous shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon (Ps. xcii. 12). Like the smell of Lebanon (Cant. iv. 11). Lebanon shall fall like a mighty one (Is. x. 34). The glory of Lebanon (Is. xxxv. 2 and lx. 13). The head of Lebanon (Jer. xxii. 6). His smell as Lebanon; the wine of Lebanon (Hosea xiv. 6 and 7). The flower of Lebanon (Nahum i. 4). The violence of Lebanon (Hal]. ii. 17). Open thy doors, 0 Lebanon ('Lech. i. 10).
Oh charming Mount! thy flowery sides, Thy heights with cedars crowned, Thy gushing springs, and painted wings, And birds of sweetest sound! Oh Lebanon! oh roseate throne, The church of God shall be, In days to come, a flowery home, A roseate mount like thee! Oh fearful Mount! thy stormy Crown, Thy echofng tongues of flame, Whose awful word proclaims its God, And bids adore His name! Oh Lebanon! oh darkened throne, The church of God shall be, In days to come, an anchored home, A solid mount like thee! Oh mighty Mount! thy stony gates, Thy heights in walls secure, Thy dizzy hills, and sheltered dales, And guardians tried and sure! Oh Lebanon! oh guarded throne, The church of God shall be, In days to come, a castled home, A forted mount like thee! The road to Gebal is fearfully bad. You go a few miles pain‑fully through deep sand, strewed with boulders, until you look longingly up the mountain‑slopes on your right, and wish you were ascending the steepest of them. Then you come to a spur of the stony hills, so rough and difficult that the heaviest sand‑banks appear as green meadows in the comparison. One of these rocky passes, about six miles from Beyrout, occurred to me as a capital place to work the Royal Arch degree! It presents a regular sue‑
THE BROKEN COLUMN. 129,
cession of difficult passages, increasing in roughness every step, and ending in a frightful climax, delicious to the heart of a Principal Sojourner. The Chapter room at Akron, Ohio, reminds me of it.
Yet this is one of the most noted highways in the world. It has passed great men along this way, north or south, going to conquest, or going to defeat. I cannot even sum up those great names; but Rameses came here from the south about B.c. 1500, and Sennacherib from the north, 700 years latter. It was equally the turnpike‑, way of Alexander, B.C. 332, and of Vespasian, 400 years later; of Sesostris, and Saladin. It was the apostolical highway, all the missionary apostles traversing it again and again, as they went to and from Antioch, and up and down, preaching to a sinful world. By this highway, about A.D. 320, came the venerable mother of Constantine the Great, Hellena, at an extremely old age, yearning to behold the places that Christ had sanctified by His corporal presence. By this route had come the Assyrian with his shadowy shroud and high stature (Ez. xxxi.), and along this road, in the summer of A.D. 1099, the armies of the Cross slowly worked their way southward towards Jerusalem, yet 200 miles in the distance.
About‑half way between Beyrout and Gebal, and close to the road, there is a beautiful sheet of water styled Junia Bay (the word Junia meaning a plain). Near the middle of the curve of this bay stands a large Stone Column, broken in the midst, the lower part about ten feet long, yet standing erect, originally erected probably as a Roman milestone. Upon this I engraved with my chisel the memorial Square and Compass, cutting it in the sea‑ward side, so that ordinary travelers may not observe it, and dedicated it to the lodges at Dea Moines, Iowa, who gave me such a royal reception, Thanksgiving night, 1867; Elizabethtown, Kentucky, and Dubuque, Iowa. If even those members come along this way, as I hope some of them will let them stop and see how upon the face of the everlasting rock here I imprinted this mark of loving remembrance. I also locate, at this fitting place, the following names of Masons who have emulated the fortitude of him whose emblem was the Broken Column: W. W. Goodwin, Charles Marsh, Solon Thornton, George R. Fearn, B. Perley Poore, N. P. Langford, R. W. Furnas, Alex. H. Newcomb, Richard Vaux, and J. P. Almond.
Walking aside from this great milestone, I see something fluttering among the rocks, and on strict examination discover, nor lizard nor make, but a wounded dove, its sweet love‑notes changed to piteous 9
130 TUBAL CAIN.
moans, a regular Jonath elem‑verhobim, as the ancient Hebrew would have called it, " a dumb dove in distant places." The best I can do for this poor Noah's messenger, with its great flutter of wings, is to put it out of its misery; a broken side and a useless wing being very far above my powers of surgery. Am I mistaken in thinking there is a passage in David's life recalling this incident? No; here it is, in the caption of the 56th Psalm, " When the Philistines took him in Gath." At the distance of about three miles south of Gebal, I crossed the Nahr Ibrahim, or River of Abraham, famous in mythology as "the River of Adonis," which, according to tradition, annually ran blood, in commemoration of the death of Adonis, which occurred on the heights near the head‑waters of this stream. I will refer to the subject again. The waters of Nahr Ibrahim were unquestionably tinged with red the day I crossed it, as I presume they always are after such a severe rain‑storm as we had had the night before. The river was quite full, about one hundred and fifty feet wide, ten or twelve deep, and fringed with the usual willow, cane, and oleander‑growth of the country. Just beyond the bridge, and on the right hand side of the road, I observed a handsome piece of Mosaic Pavement, part of a splendid edifice once standing there. This is the first I had seen. Travellers also describe the remains of an ancient aqueduct, running from this river towards Gebal, by which the old city was supplied with water; but I did not observe this.
On my way I stopped frequently to rest and refresh myself, studying human nature, of which there is a great deal existing in this country. At a blacksmith‑shop I had a good time. To say it was the dirtiest house I had ever seen before, but imperfectly describes the loathsome squalor in which that Tubal‑Cain, with Mrs. Cain, and a number of juvenile Cains, existed. (They raised cain at the rate of seven every ten years!) To say that this atelier was more infested with fleas and lice than other places in Holy Land, might be considered invidious; but I am sure I counted five species of lice on my coat‑sleeve as I came out, and of each species, varieties. They asked me questions and questions. I answered through Hassan. I showed them my pistol, eighteen‑bladed jack‑knife, the portrait of my wife, my India‑rubber bottle full of coffee, my self‑folding measuring tape (a startling piece of ingenuity to them; they never wearied of it), and Bien pulled out my Firman, a dreadful piece of Arabic writing, large as a table‑cloth, of which I gave a translation in a preceding chapter. A Syrian gentleman, who sat with us, amused at my efforts
BLACKSMITH‑SHOP. 131
to please the blacksmith and his family, recalls the description of such, with which I am familiar: manner, alert, easy, graceful, cordial, insinuating; smile, ready and sultry as the Syrian sunlight; quite a young man, but life comes early under the sun which fondles the fig, olive, vine, and palm.
Another of the company was a tall, thin man, with dark face, almost covered with a black beard. He went barefoot usually. He had really a fine beard, and an expression of earnestness and simplicity of character. But his ignorance was startling. He actually seemed to know less than the blacksmith, and but little more than the blacksmith's wife.
In this blacksmith's shop, the exceedingly loquacious natives all talked at once. Either they possess the faculty of talking and hearing at the same time (a thing I cannot do), or they are so disposed to garrulity as to talk without caring to be heard. I had noticed this same peculiarity among the French officers of my steamer, L'Amerique, in Marseilles. As we came out, Hassan stigmatized the whole crowd to me in an undertone as Slaaitan, meaning devils.
Everybody who visits this country notices the dogs, so often and so much in the way. The blacksmith had nine of them. Strange that the Bible‑writers, from first to last, have made the dog the image of scorn and contempt. Moses in the Pentateuch; Job in his noble allegory; David in his matchless psalms; our Saviour in His parables; Paul in his Epistles; John in his Apocalypse, uniformly agree in this; and the Koran of Mohammed fully confirms the Oriental idea of the dog. And yet, if the tradition is true, it was a dog that discovered the use of the celebrated Tyrian dye that be‑came so world‑renowned. And Dr. Barclay gives to his dog the credit of discovering the great quarry under Jerusalem. However, I mustn't say too much in favor of the dog, as the Masonic word Cowan is probably derived from it; and what is worse than a .rowan! At parting I gave the good fellow several paras (a para is one‑fourth of a cent), and promised to call again. He has some fine fig‑trees around his house;
