A Modern Pilgrimage [A tour in Palestine.] By H. M. M. K

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Owrat i7&n///&. &'■&■ L /V £ £ c t-^Z: L , UJ . *f£Z 4C*C* oc Jg^ A Modern Pilgrimage, BY mi? » » m 7- LONDON: PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY. "APOLOGIA." Pray pass not over this. " A preface is oft a key to unlock the understanding of that which follows." Old MS. It has " come to this," that I have written a book ! Yes, a book after a fashion ; but it professes to be nothing more than a simple narration of what we saw and did duting our tour of last year, in the form of a Journal which has been written since entirely from memory, as it was found almost impossible at the close of a long day's march, when one was perhaps half asleep, to be writing a full account of all that we had seen. Years ago it was suggested to me that I should very likely take to writing some day, but I rejected the idea as being a very improbable one, and yet somehow that idea has formed itself into a fact, and I herein venture to tell of my travels and adventures to my friends, not wishing to risk the criti cism ofthe public generally by addressing them.

I feel that this account is too personal to be likely to prove interesting to those who are not acquainted with any of the Quintette party, whose own particular adventures this pro fesses only to speak of; and yet, in another sense, I fear that I have avoided making even this personal enough, by merging all individualities into the comprehensive but non-descriptive pronoun " we," (except where the inevitable " I " must be brought in.) " APOLOGIA." IV There are very many amusing incidents occurring in the course of a journey of this kind, and laughable things are constantly being said or done, but these lose all their fun and piquancy when written down long afterwards, so they are best omitted altogether, I think. It must be believed that the prevailing tone of mind of Pilgrims would be that of gravity and religious feeling and sentiment, but there were also many touches of the comic element amongst us ; indeed, it almost superabounded at times !

We all have two sides to our nature, the grave and gay, in some increased to the actual comic and sentimental ; and these two sides are developed a good deal according to cir cumstances and those with whom we are associated. Many friends even know but one side of us, and they do not always find out the depth and shade, and the way to unfold many hidden quiet thoughts which are in the mind, as well as those which are on the surface. Perhaps in writing we feel more inclined to reveal the graver side of our characters. That " Our eyes see all around in gloom or glow, Hues of their own, fresh borrow'd from the heart," is very true of the traveller ; and it is often rather difficult for those who may be sitting quietly at home to believe in the enthusiasm which certain places, either from their beauty or the interest with which they are invested, call forth from the beholder.

Chapter I. Milan To Venice

It was upon the morning of the 10th of February, 1870, that I met C. and E. B., with Mr. C. and his party of travellers, at the station at Milan, and proceeded with them that day to Venice. I had come the day before from Genoa, and was to have joined them at Turin that same evening, but meeting some pleasant English ladies in the train, who were going direct to Milan, I changed my ticket, as they persuaded me that it would' save both time and fatigue to go on with them. I spent a pleasant evening with these ladies at the Grand Hotel de la Ville, where we talked over my intended journey ; and I described its probable charms in such glow ing terms, that one of them very nearly decided then and there, without any preparation, to go off with me the next day. Certainly I needed some talking about it and encouragement to keep up my own spirits, for I felt some misgivings as to how I should really manage so long and distant a journey, but still I did not dream of giving in ; although I think that in all great undertakings the heart must have some alternations of fears and doubts, and unless B you have the decision not to look too much at objections, you will always stick fast in a little slough of despond at the foot of some imaginary mountain of difficulty.

The next morning I was at the station soon after ten o'clock, and rushed out directly on the platform to look for the train that was due from Turin, and with many palpitations of heart I watched the crowd of people getting down from it on the opposite side. At last I caught sight of the B.s ; and, oh, what joy it was to see E.'s welcoming, beaming face, and C. B/s too, looking so kind and friendly. How warmly E. and I embraced, and how fast and eagerly we talked — making the time pass so quickly, during the remainder of the day spent in journeying to Venice. A momentary introduction of myself to Mr. C, as the Miss K. who was to join his party there, sufficed ; and he said, " I leave you to your friends," in a sort of easy way, with a pleasant, good-natured smile, which, I may as well here remark, generally dwelt on the benign countenance of our greatly-renowned tourist conductor.

We arrived at Venice in the most intense cold, and passed over the long railway-bridge which connects this wondrous city of the sea with the mainland. Broad sheets of ice were on either side. The city looked like an outspread iceberg, anchored and bound in the midst of the water. Snow rested upon most ofthe roofs and pinnacles, and there was a magic sort of frozen silence fallen upon the city which I had seen only the year before sparkling and shining in all the brilliance of a summer sun. On entering it, we found the larger canals were free from ice, and we soon made our way in a gondola MILAN TO VENICE. 11 to the Hotel Victoria, and found allotted for us, according to our numbers, three very comfortable rooms, which, however, we had some difficulty to warm up with the china stoves in the corners.

The cold of the large marble-floored rooms and passages was most penetrating ; peculiar to the watery foundation of Venice I should think. At dinner this evening I had my first sight of the whole party together, destined to be our companions for many weeks to come. They numbered about twenty-five at this time, and, of course, gentlemen were in preponderance, as this sort of journey was one to which many ladies would not feel equal ; and I must say, that I was very much surprised at the strength and endurance which all the ladies of the party showed they possessed in the course of the fatigues to which we were exposed, and how well they always kept up to the mark. I think that all were generally interested in reconnoitring the assembled group, and wondering who might prove to be their especial companions amongst them.

Our fate was most happily sealed a day or two afterwards, as will be seen. The next day (Friday) we spent in seeing all we could of Venice, and, as it was an unknown place to C. and E. B., I undertook to be their guide as far as I could ; but we felt frozen ; and going about in a gondola in snow is not so dreamy and romantic as the atmosphere of Venice ought to make one feel. We were obliged to give in to the cold rather earlier in the day than we should otherwise have done ; but we went to the church of San Marco, and over the palace of the Doges, and to the " Bridge of Sighs," and round the beautiful Piazza. A visit to the Academy, with its beautiful gem b of Titian's,* and the remarkable church of the Frari, com pleted our sight-seeing. It snowed very heavily, and we had to sit crouched under the sheltered end of the gondola.

In the evening, a good many of the tourists went on with Mr. C. to Trieste, so that they might gain a day there ; but we preferred remaining in our beds that cold night, and went on with the rest of the party at nine o'clock the next morning. There was a great crowd at the station, and much confusion about luggage, and another train was going off at the same time as ours. The scrimmage ended in eight of our party being left behind ; but we did not know of their unfortunate condition until we had been two or three hours on our way, and were stopping at a station, when some one appeared at the window of our carriage, looking for the lost ones, and exclaimed, " Then they are all left behind, for this is the last carriage ! " It quite startled us, and we felt very sorry and vexed for them, but I am afraid could not help laughing a little at their misfortunes, for it seemed so absurd their being left in the lurch ; and we wondered what they could do, but supposed they might be able to catch us up at Trieste, by taking a special train at once, and so get on board before the steamer started.

We quieted our minds about them with this supposition, and we were rather glad to have some exciting topic of con versation to beguile the long journey of twelve hours. But the time was also very agreeably passed in our making acquaintance with two of the party in the same carriage with us, and who will henceforth be spoken of as P. and Z. * See Appendix for some lines written on the occasion. MILAN TO VENICE. 13 They proved to be the pleasantest friends throughout the whole course of our tour, and the most congenial fellow pilgrims to Jerusalem whom we could have wished to meet. Somehow we all took to each other at once, and we became quite friendly during the course of this first day of meeting, in anticipation, as it were, of the many happy hours that we were afterwards to spend together.

We arrived at Trieste some hours after the train had been due, having been impeded by the snow. It was perfectly dark, and after we had joined the others at an hotel, and been refreshed by a solid tea, we went on board at once, and tried to settle into the cabins that we found allotted to us for the five days we expected to be at sea. This voyage was a new epoch in my life, and by degrees it realised to me the many accounts I had read of all that goes on in the life on board these large steamers, fitted up as a sort of hotel. The Aurora was a perfectly new vessel, and everything was very fresh and clean in her fittings ; but a storm that we encountered for the first two days drove nearly every one of the passengers into private life in their berths, unable to move ; and it was not until Tuesday that any of us hardly were fit to appear in the saloon, or were able to go on deck.

It was a fierce, warm wind — a sirocco. Let it not be imagined though that I was perfectly incapable of moving all this time. I got up and dressed the next morning, and struggled into the breakfast-room, where about half-a-dozen were collected, all looking very miserable, I thought. I remained the greater part of that day and the next in our cabin, where we were not at all comfortable, and very much crowded, there being no place to put away our clothes — and there were four of us. We existed on in a sort of confused heap, that was not by any means agreeable, but which seemed to be unavoidable. What numbers of apples we ate during our seclusion ! almost the only food we could fancy then, with a little bread, although the funny old " Cameriera " would try to make us take all sorts of dishes from the dejeuners and diners that go on just the same, and are spread out pro bono publico, even if there are so few to partake of them.

This good old body kept telling us that it was very soon going to be calm, and that we should be in "paradise" when in the harbour at Corfu ; but it seemed to us that it was a long trial of purgatorio before ! On Sunday night the vessel pitched and creaked in every board, so dreadfully that I thought we must go to pieces, and almost made up my mind for such an event ; but E. B. and I managed to cheer up ourselves by faintly singing two or three well-known hymns, which I believe also greatly cheered and delighted those of our fellow-passengers who heard us. However, by degrees the storm calmed, and on Tuesday night, to our great comfort and quietness of mind and body, we were in the harbour of Corfu, exactly twenty-four hours late though, owing to the storm. We did not see anything of the island, and had left it again before daybreak ; but in the course of the day we all revived and came out into public life, and went up on the deck and enjoyed most beautiful views of the Ionian Islands which we were then passing ; delighting in everything around us, the more, I think, from the contrast to the long weary hours of sickness from which we had just escaped.

We inhaled with much delight the soft warm air of the MILAN TO VENICE. 15 Southern climes we were fast passing into, upon the surface of the bluest and most beautiful of seas, this treacherous, but now smiling, Mediterranean; and we sketched and sang, and read and talked, feeling full of happiness and praise for being permitted to enjoy so much that was pleasant. The Quintette was here gradually forming itself. There was a brilliant moon, which kept us up until nearly midnight wandering up and down the deck, and not knowing when to leave it and retreat into our little prison-room again. I somehow always look back upon these three days of sea-life as amongst the happiest of the whole tour, and as I write of them, even now, it seems as if I felt a waft of fresh sea-air brought back to me in remembrance.

We went close to Ithaca, Cephalonia, and Zante. The latter is poetically and musically called the " Fior di Levanti." There were some amusing varieties of character amongst those on board, which developed in the course of the voyage. Some were always pacing up and down the deck vigorously for exercise, rather like wild animals going ceaselessly to and fro in their dens, feeling cramped by the narrow bounds of the portion allotted to them for walking ; others generally stood or sat in small circles, talking and busily discussing all manner of topics. The dry, quaint humour, and native shrewdness of a certain Yorkshireman, amused us greatly, and he was drawn out occasionally for our special benefit, by his being set off upon certain subjects, about which he laid down the law and expressed his opinions in no measured terms.

He had a friend with him, ofthe Boswell character, who evidently admired all that he said, and agreed with him not only in sentiment but in language, repeating after him the last words of every sentence. One of the Italian officers of the Aurora could speak English very fairly, and joined our little party sometimes on deck, when we were singing and talking. He gave me a few lessons in reading his musical language, from a book I had with me. He took us down into the machinery department ofthe ship one day, and showed us the burning furnaces, in a most dreadful kind of place, which we looked at with much wonder and surprise that they had not set fire to the vessel long ago, so dan gerous they looked to our eyes. But I must not write so much of sea-life ; all the charm of it «vas compressed into these last two or three days, which brought us to Alexandria on Friday night, or rather to within sight of the renowned Pharos.

We could not enter the harbour at night, and so we remained at anchor a few miles distant from the shore — the coast of Africa; a new and unknown quarter ofthe globe to most of us. We en joyed one more calm, dreamy evening, on deck, singing and watching the silvery play of the moonbeams on the sea, which, with all its horrors, past and forgotten even so soon, we were actually regretting to leave, although Egypt and the Pyramids were before us.

Chapter II. Egypt

At daybreak we went into the harbour, and at 7.30, after a hasty cup of coffee, we bade farewell to the Aurora, and, amidst the noisiest crowd of Arabs screaming broken English at us, pulling us this way and that to enter their particular boats, and fighting over our boxes and bags amongst themselves as if to carry them off for good, in their eagerness to get hold of them, we landed on the shores of the most ancient kingdom in the world, bewildered and be-bothered with all this scrimmage around us. Some few matters of form at the custom house were gone through, and we then packed into a large omnibus on our way to the Hotel d'Europe. What a new phase of life was revealed to us as we went even this short distance ! The dark figures that we passed, in varied and marvellously coloured cos tumes, so unfamiliar to English eyes, constantly made us exclaim with wonder.

At a corner in one of the streets, we were hailed by one of our lost companions from Venice, who appeared dressed in his best to greet us, mounted on a remarkably fine donkey, and careering along, with his donkey-boy clearing the way before him, in true Egyptian style. O, Dr. B. ! it was a fuss we left you in at Venice ; but after all, you and your seven companions have reached Alexandria before us, and we, the first off, have come in last ; but still by the direct and proper route as pre-arranged. We found all the party from Venice eagerly awaiting our arrival at the hotel ; they had gone by train to Brindisi, and taken the steamer from thence to Alexandria. P. and Z. proposed our going on to Cairo that same after noon, as there was much more of interest to be seen there, so that we rather hurried through the sights of Alexandria.

Soon after breakfast we started forth in a large, comfortable carriage, with a dragoman, riding on a donkey by our side, to see all that we could. We drove first to the Pasha's palace, but it was too modern and Frenchified in furniture and detail to interest us much, so we soon left it ; and we preferred driving through the streets and roadways of the city, watching the busy crowds of people, who interested us far more. We went to see " Pompey's Pillar" of course, and admired it, rising up in its solitary majesty to the height of ninety-five feet. It is of red granite, and, standing on a slight eminence isolated from any surrounding buildings, is the more remarkable and impressive. There are many traditions regarding its origin, but none seem to be quite authenticated. After sketching it, and meditating on its beauty for a while, we drove off to some gardens of the Sultan's, by a canal branch of the Nile.

From thence we returned into the town, and went to gaze at "Cleopatra's Needle," fancifully so called. It stood in a stonemason's yard, as if one of the latest cuttings there, for sale ; although it, and its fellow needle, disgracefully buried in rubbish close by, came from the palaces of the Ptolemies. One of the Cæsars is supposed to have brought them to Alexandria from Heliopolis. They are about seventy feet in height. EGYPT, 19 By three o'clock in the afternoon we five were in the train for Cairo, charmed and delighted to be off by ourselves ; and a most pleasant journey we had, although we expected it to be rather monotonous, from the well-known flatness of the country. But, tame as the actual country of Egypt is, and dry and barren, except when moistened into the most soft and brilliant verdure wherever the fructifying Nile has overflowed, the monotonous outline is almost compensated by the extraordinary interest of everything living and moving upon its surface ; the people, the camels, the active little donkeys, the strange villages of mud huts, and all the varied life that passed by the side of a stream, which we kept alongside of for some hours, appeared like figures moving in a diorama.

Cairo we reached at 8.30 ; and, seated in a sort of open omnibus, we were taken to the renowned Shepherd's Hotel, and soon portioned out into three large, comfortable rooms. The absence of bells struck us for the first time ; but we soon learned to clap our hands instead, at the opened door, to summon the slaves or waiters, who were stationed at intervals round the long corridor of. the house. How de lighted E. B. and I were to be in a room again, after the week spent in a small cabin ! We shook out our dresses, and strewed garments about the floor in reckless confusion, for the very pleasure of having sufficient space to spread them out in ! We soon, though, tidied down one half of our room into a sort of salon, where all our little party often assembled, and wrote and read together. Sunday, the 20th. — We all went to morning service in a building set apart for the English Church, and in the afternoon we went for a ramble through the native quarter of the city, where we wandered amongst crowds, the half of whom appeared to have lost the sight of one eye, a sad peculiarity of the place we learned it to be.

They never jostled us I was surprised to find ; and we had only to keep a look-out for any carriage or horse passing quickly by, and be warned by the man running before to clear the way. Sometimes we had to get out of a line of camels stepping along in solemn single file. We threaded our way through the most narrow, crooked and winding streets, bye-ways and passages, following our guide from the hotel. We went into one very old mosque, and saw the tomb of some Caliph of ancient times. Some went to afternoon service at the Scotch church ; but I went to the hotel and read quietly until dinner-time, after which we went to a room in another large hotel, where P., by special request, conducted the service, and gave us a most interesting sermon on the appropriate subject of " Israel in bondage in Egypt ;" bringing it home to those who were yet in the bondage-land of sin.

E. and I helped in the singing. Monday, February 2nr.— We had made arrangements with a dragoman to start early for an expedition to the Pyramids, and by seven o'clock we were off. We crossed the Nile in a rough sort of boat, excited to be on its broad bosom for the first time, but we had not many minutes to gaze upon it then, for we hurried on, fearing we were late for the train that was to take us to Memphis. But no, there was plenty of time — all is calmness and deliberation with Eastern officials — and we arrived duly at our destina- EGYPT 21 tion in about an hour's time. Then there was a great bargaining for donkeys, and, after waiting some minutes for these quadrupeds to be saddled and made ready, we started in high glee, careering along through a perfect forest of palm trees, until we came to the few remains which are to be seen of the city that once stood there.

The most remarkable object is a great figure of Rameses, which has fallen with its face to the ground, half buried in a muddy pool. This, and a gigantic arm of another statue in a field near, alone testify of the departed grandeur of this great capital of the proud Pharaohs. We all sketched, and then rode on again some little dis tance to a branch of the Nile, where, in the shadow of a bridge, we sat down to lunch, and let our little animals be refreshed with heaps of green clover-grass that had been gathered from the wayside. We were still in the verdant part of the country, although up to within one hundred yards of the desert of Libya, which we were then making for, with eagerness to be in such a strange country. How hot the sun and wind were from this point until quite late in the evening !

Everything looked in a sort of mysterious haze of heat and sand-dust. The sun was not clear, although so powerful, and a gust of wind almost blew me off my little donkey at one point; but we floundered on somehow, although nearly blinded by the dust, and, after another hour's riding, which seemed very long to us then, and passing over heaps of sand, bones, mummy cloths, and broken pottery, we came to the wonderful tombs of the bulls Apis. We went down into long cavernous passages which seemed to be endless, and saw about thirty enormous blocks of porphyry, which were formerly the actual tombs of these sacred animals, worshipped as gods, by the deluded Egyptians of old. They were most remarkable for their size, and were of one block, squared and hollowed out, so that one, into which people can descend by a ladder, seemed like a small room in the massive stone.

There are no remains of the animals in them ; but these tombs outlive everything, and look as if they would stand on in their darkness and mysterious silence for ages yet to come. The hot air of these passages underground made us very thankful for some of the dirtiest water I ever drank in my life, brought by the Sheik who accompanied us. We were obliged to hurry on, as the sun was waning in the heavens ; right glad we were for the cooling atmosphere; yet it was all important that the fifteen miles which lay between us and our night's destination — the great Pyramids — should be accomplished ere darkness overtook us, out in the wilds. We hurried on our little steeds after dismounting once more to see a very remarkable temple by the way, on whose walls were frescoes as bright as could be ; and, leaving the smaller Pyramids of Sakkara on the left, we ran and cantered as fast as we could make our animals go.

How much we laughed, and shouted " riglak," as we found that word had a magic effect on the pace of the donkeys, either from us, or from the boys running breathlessly along by us, and when we lagged every now and then for a few minutes, how vigorously we all united again for a great " riglak," to send us on another spurt. Thus laughing and talking and gazing with wonder at the remarkable scene around us, we rode along the border-land of cultivation and desert, where the EGYPT, 23 struggle for life of vegetation amidst the sand is going on. Now and then we were on a few blades of grass ; then all was sand, and what a mighty power the multiplication of grains of the latter have, we learned well in the course of our short stay in Egypt. It seems to be an overwhelming force which nothing can resist, and it swallows up by degrees all that stands against it, and enfolds them in its dry coverlet.

It reminds one in its power of the sea, encroaching upon and fretting away the rocks that forbid its progress ; but we must say in its favour that sand often preserves where it does overwhelm, whilst the sea injures wherever it touches and lingers. We passed some wild-looking Bedouin en campments ; but gradually, as we neared the Pyramids, all signs of life faded away in the gloom of coming night, and we were perfectly alone, in our little detachment, as we rode up to these most wonderful and mysterious of all buildings on the face ofthe earth. " The Great Pyramid of Cheops is 460 feet in height ; it covers 570,000 square feet; each base is 756 feet long, and it is about 4,000 years old." A sense of their grandeur and awfulness fell upon us as we slowly wound up the way by the Sphinx to a small house which we found on the side of the largest one.

It was most im pressive coming upon them in this way, and they quite appalled us by their majesty. We felt very small and like ants creeping up to look at a mountain ; yet, with all this, glad we were to be housed for a time, and to take some more food from the basket of provisons, carried for us by the dra goman, Mohammed by name. He was such an ugly man — with such a nose ! I always mistrusted him from the first from his having an organ of such very irregular shape and size ; and we had reason not to think too well of him afterwards. It was now quite dark, and we could see nothing outside, so we resolved to explore the interior, and we went into the Great Pyramid. Never can I "forget the clambering, sliding kind of proceeding that it was — first down a steep incline, then up again and round a corner, with a step of some feet in height.