BURIAL OF A MISSIONARY. 227 service, a messenger came in to tell them that the grave had been filled up. They protracted the service till the delay excited the attention of his unhappy widow, and they were obliged to tell her that they had no place where they could lay the head of her young husband. A reluctant permission was at length granted, and they buried him by the light of torches; and although there had been no graves in that part of the ground before, the Greeks had buried all around, to prevent any application for permission to lay by his side the body of another heretic. CHAPTER XVII. Pilgrimage to the Jordan.-Pilgrim's Certificate.-The Tomb of Samuel. -Departure from Jerusalem.-Last View of the Dead Sea-Village of Einbroot.- Departure from Judea.-Mounts Gerizim and Ebal.An Antique Manuscript.-Paas in Samaria. THE next day I left Jerusalem; but, before leaving it, I was witness to another striking scene, which I shall never forget; the departure of the pilgrims, fifteen or twenty thousand in number, for the Jordan. At an early hour I was on horseback, outside St. Stephen's Gate. It was such a morning as that on which I started for the Dead Sea, clear, bright, and beautiful; the streets of the city were deserted, and the whole population were outside the walls, sitting under the shadow of the temple, among the tombs of the Turkish burying-ground; the women in their long white dresses, with their faces covered, and the men in large flowing robes, of gay and varied colours, and turbans of every fashion, many of them green, the proud token of the pilgrimage to Mecca, with pipes, and swords, and glittering arms; the whole Valley of Jehoshaphat was filled with moving beings, in every variety of gay apparel, as if the great day of resurrection had already come, and the tenants of the dreary tombs had burst the fetters of the grave, and come forth into new life and beauty. I had received an invitation from the governor to ride in his suite; and, while waiting for him at the gate, the terrible Abougos, with his retainers, came out and beckoned me to join him. I followed him over the Brook Kedron and the Valley of Jehoshaphat to the Garden of Gethsemane, where I stopped, and, giving my horse to an Arab boy, I stepped PILGRIMAGE TO THE JORDAN. 229 over the low fence, and, seating myself on the jutting root of the tree marked by the knives of pilgrims as that under which our Saviour was betrayed, looking over the heads of the Turkish women seated on the fence below, I saw the whole procession streaming from the gate, crossing the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and filing along the foot of the garden. They were on foot and on horseback, on donkeys, mules, dromedaries, and camels, and here and there were well-equipped caravans, with tents and provisions for the monks of the different convents. It would be impossible to give any idea of this strange and extraordinary procession; here might be seen a woman on horseback, with a child on each arm; there a large pannier on each side of a mule, with a man in one and a woman in the other; or a large frame on the high back of a camel, like a diminutive ark, carrying a whole family, with all their quilts, coverlets, cooking utensils, &c. Among them, riding alone on a raw-boned horse, was a beggarly Italian, in a worn and shabby European dress, with a fowling-piece and a gamebag, and everybody made way for him; and there was a general laugh wherever he came. And now a body of Turkish horsemen, with drawn cimeters in their hands, rushed out of the gate, dashed down the valley and up the sides of the mountains at full gallop, clearing the way for the governor; and then came the governor himself, under a salute from the fortress, on a horse of the best blood of Arabia, riding as if he were part of the noble animal, preceded by the music of the Turkish drum, and bowing with a nobility and dignity of manner known only in the East, and which I marked the more particularly, as he stopped opposite to me and beckoned to me to join him. Then came the pilgrims again, and I sat there till the last had gone by. Galloping back to the gate, I turned to look at them for the last time, a living, moving mass of thousands, thousands of miles from their homes, bound for the sacred Jordan, and strong VOL. II.-U in the faith that, bathing in its hallowed waters, they should wash away their sins. In a few moments I was at the convent; and, sending Paul before me to the Damascus Gate, I went to take my leave of the superior. He told me that, though I was an American (the only Americans he had seen were missionaries, and he did not like them), he liked me; and, bidding me a kind and affectionate farewell, he put into my hands a pilgrim's certificate, which follows in these words- PILGRIM'S CERTIFICATE. 231 FR. FRANCISCUS XAVERIUS A MELITA. ORDINIS MINORUM REGULARIS OBSERVANTIÆ S. P. N. FRANCISCI; CusTODIE MELITENSIS LECTOR THEOLOGUS; EX-DEFINITO; SACRA CONGREGATIONIS PROPAGANDE FIDEI RESPONSALIS; MISSIONUM ÆGYPTI ET CYPRI PRÆFECTUS; IN PARTIBUS ORIENTIS COMMISSARIUS APOSTOLICUS SACRI MONTIS SION, ET SANCTISSIMI SEPULCRI D. N. JESU CHRISTI GUARDIANUS; TOTIUS TERRA SANCTE CUSTOS, VISITATOR, ET HUMILIS IN DOMINO SERVUS: Illustrissimo Domino **** * ********, Americano libenter hoc presens testimonium, damus, et omnibus, ac singulis hos præsentes nostras litteras lecturis, vel inspecturis notum, fidemque facimus, Laudatum Illustrissimum Dominum Jerusalem pervenisse, et omnia principaliora loca, quæ in tota Palestina visitari solent, presertim Ssm Sepulchrum Dom. N. Jesu Christi, Calvaria Montem, Præsepium Betlehemiticum., etc., visitasse. Et quod ita sit, attestationem manu nostra subscribimus, et sigillo majori officii nostri munitam expediri mandamus. Datis Jerusalem, ex hoc Venerabili Conventu Sancti Salvatoris die. 3 Aprilis, Anno Domini 18 trigesimo-sexto. Fr. Franciscus Xaverius a Melita, Custs Terræ Sanctæ. De Mandato Rendmi in Xpto Patris, FR. PERPETUUS A SOLERIO |