against the
victorious army of Saladin; and when at nightfall their bugles sounded
the retreat, the Holy Land was given over to the unbeliever for
centuries:--who is prophet enough to say for how many? As we first saw
the lake that afternoon, with the sunlight on it, and the low Moabite
hills rising lonely and sad against the blue sky, and Hermon, cold and
regal, far away to the north, and yet standing out so prominently as to
be the most striking feature in the scene, we felt that Gennesaret had
been ruthlessly robbed of her rights by certain well-known critics who,
professing to be her best friends, have denied her all claim to beauty
except by association. Tiberias ranks with Jerusalem and Hebron and
Safed as one of the four holy cities of the Jews, but its houses are
filthy huts and its streets muddy lanes. Here we saw the Jew,
down-trodden, oppressed, wretched, but still proud, the unhappiest
creature, this Tiberian descendant of David, in all the Holy Land, with
his long yellow cloak, his hair hanging upon his shoulders in corkscrew
curls, and an expression on his wan, sallow face that would force tears
from your eyes if you did not know that his life is ordinarily as
contemptible as his condition is pitiable. We spent an hour or more in
one of the two boats that to-day make up the entire fishing-fleet of
Galilee, and then found hospitable shelter under the roof of the Latin
monastery, the last that was to open its doors to us in Palestine; and
when we rode away on Monday morning we made a vow in our hearts never to
speak ill of that part of the Romish Church which presides over the
convents of the Holy Land. As our muleteer confessed he was as ignorant
as any dog of a European Christian of the route we wished to take from
Tiberias to Banias and Deir Mimas, the monks advised us, to save time,
and perhaps our purses, perhaps our lives, by taking a Turkish soldier
as a combined guide and guard. We sent to the proper official, and two
savage-looking fellows came to the monastery. They swore by the beard of
Mohammed that our lives would be worth less than that of a Tiberian flea
if we went alone, or even with one soldier; they talked our few
remaining powers of resistance to death, and we took them at their own
price, less one-half, which was conceded to be very liberal on our part.
We felt we had a new lease of life, and spent the rest of the afternoon
in sweet unconcern and content; but late that evening word was sent