IV.

CHAP. principally ascending, until we entered a narrow defile between the hills. This suddenly opening towards our right, presented us with a view of the small town or village1 of Nazareth. NAZARETH, situate upon the side of a barren rocky elevation, facing the east, and commanding a long valley. Throughout the dominion of Djezzar Pasha, there was no place that suffered more from his tyrannical government than Nazareth. Its inhabitants, unable to sustain the burdens imposed upon them, were continually emigrating to other territories. The few who remained were soon to be stripped of their possessions; and when no longer able to pay the tribute exacted from them, no alternative remained, but that of going to Acre, either to work in his fortifications, or to Condition flee their country. The town was in the most habitants. wretched state of indigence and misery; the soil around might bid defiance to agriculture; and to the prospect of starvation were added

of the In

(1) "Našaper, scribit Epiphanius, olim oppidum erat, nunc vicus, Kwan. Lib. i. adversus Hæreses, p. 122, notaque p. 136, ante tempore Josephi (usque ad imperium Constantini Senioris) nullis præter Judæos illic habitare licuisse." Relandi Palæstina, in verb. Nazareth.

Phocas appellat eam κωμόπολιν, sic ut κώμης et πόλεως, vici et urbis, certo respectu nomen mereatur." Ibid. See also William of Tyre, lib. xxiii. c. 26.

1

the horrors of the plague. Thus it seemed destined to maintain its ancient reputation;

CHAP.
IV.

of the

for the Nathanael of his day might have inquired of a native of Bethsaida, whether "any good thing could come out of Nazareth?" A party of Djezzar's troops, encamped in tents about the place, were waiting to seize even the semblance of a harvest which could be collected from all the neighbouring district. In the valley Fountain appeared one of those fountains which, from Virgin. time immemorial, have been the halting-place of caravans, and sometimes the scene of contention and bloodshed. The women of Nazareth were passing to and from the town, with pitchers upon their heads. We stopped to view the group of camels, with their drivers, who were there reposing; and, calling to mind the manners of the most remote ages, we renewed the solicitation of Abraham's servant unto Rebecca, by the Well of Nahor3. In the writings of early pilgrims and travellers, this spring is denominated "THE FOUNTAIN OF THE VIRGIN MARY;" and certainly, if there be a spot, throughout the Holy Land, that was undoubtedly honoured by her presence, we may

(2) John, ch. i.

(3) Gen. ch. xxiv. 17.

CHAP.

IV.

consider this to have been the place; because the situation of a copious spring is not liable to change; and because the custom of repairing thither to draw water has been continued, among the female inhabitants of Nazareth, from the earliest period of its history. Marinus Sanutus, who accurately describes its situation, has nevertheless confounded it with the fountain of Sephoury. He relates the antient traditions concerning it, but mingles with his narrative the legendary stories characteristic of the age in which he lived1.

After leaving this fountain, we ascended to the town, and were conducted to the house of the principal Christian inhabitant of Nazareth. The tremendous name of Djezzar had succeeded in providing for us, in the midst of poverty, more sumptuous fare than is often found in wealthier cities: the Convent had largely contributed; but we had reason to fear, that many poor families had been pinched to supply

(1) He often copies Jacobus de Vitriaco, word for word. Marinus Sanutus began the SECRETA FIDELIUM CRUCIS in 1306. Jac. de Vitriaco was bishop of Ptolemaïs, and died in May 1250. "De fonte Sephoritano dilectæ matri (Jesus) portaret aquan; fons autem in fine civitatis est: ibi dicitur puer JESUS semel, vase fictili fracto, aquam portasse in gremio matri suæ." Marin. Sanut. Secret. Fidel. Cruc. lib. iii. pars vii. cap. 2.

IV.

our board. All we could do, therefore, as it CHAP. was brought with cheerfulness, was to receive

it thankfully; and we took especial care that those from whom we obtained it should notgo unrewarded.

illustrating

of our

Scarcely had we reached the apartment prepared for our reception, when, looking from the window into the court-yard belonging Custom to the house, we beheld two women grinding a Saying at the mill, in a manner most forcibly illus- SAVIOUR. trating the saying of of our SAVIOUR before alluded to. They were preparing flour to make our bread, as it is always customary in the country when strangers arrive. The two women, seated upon the ground, opposite to each other, held between them two round flat stones such as are seen in Lapland, and such as in Scotland are called Querns. This was also mentioned in describing the mode of grinding corn in the villages of Cyprus; but the circumstance is so interesting, (our SAVIOUR'S allusion actually referring to an existing custom in the place of his earliest residence,) that a little repetition may perhaps be pardoned. In the centre of the upper stone was a cavity for

(2) See Chap. II. pp. 56, 57, of this volume.

IV.

CHAP. pouring in the corn; and, by the side of this, an upright wooden handle, for moving the stone. As the operation began, one of the women. with her right hand, pushed this handle to the woman opposite, who again sent it to her companion, thus communicating a rotatory and very rapid motion to the upper stone; their left hands being all the while employed in supplying fresh corn, as fast as the bran and flour escaped from the sides of the machine.

Franciscan
Convent.

The Convent of Nazareth, situate in the lower part of the village, contains about fourteen friars, of the Franciscan order. Its church (erected, as they relate, over the cave in which the Virgin Mary is supposed to have resided) is a handsome edifice; but it is degraded, as a sanctuary, by absurdities too contemptible for notice, if the description of them did not offer an instructive lesson, by shewing the abject state to which the human mind may be reduced by superstition. So powerful is still its influence in this country, that, at the time of our visit, the Franciscan friars belonging to the Convent had been compelled to surround their altars with an additional fencing, in order to prevent persons infected with the plague from seeking a mira culous cure, by rubbing their bodies with the