The enthusiasm that had glowed, or seemed to glow, within me for
one blessed moment when I knelt by the shrine of the Virgin at
Nazareth, was not rekindled at Jerusalem.
In the stead of the
solemn gloom and the deep stillness that of right belonged to the
Holy City, there was the hum and the bustle of active life. It was
the "height of the season." The Easter ceremonies drew near. The
pilgrims were flocking in from all quarters; and although their
objects were partly at least of a religious character, yet their
"arrivals" brought as much stir and liveliness to the city as if
they had come up to marry their daughters.
The votaries who every year crowd to the Holy Sepulchre are chiefly
of the Greek and Armenian Churches. They are not drawn into
Palestine by a mere sentimental longing to stand upon the ground
trodden by our Saviour, but rather they perform the pilgrimage as a
plain duty strongly inculcated by their religion. A very great
proportion of those who belong to the Greek Church contrive at some
time or other in the course of their lives to achieve the
enterprise. Many in their infancy and childhood are brought to the
holy sites by their parents, but those who have not had this
advantage will often make it the main object of their lives to save
money enough for this holy undertaking.
The pilgrims begin to arrive in Palestine some weeks before the
Easter festival of the Greek Church. They come from Egypt, from
all parts of Syria, from Armenia and Asia Minor, from Stamboul,
from Roumelia, from the provinces of the Danube, and from all the
Russias. Most of these people bring with them some articles of
merchandise, but I myself believe (notwithstanding the common taunt
against pilgrims) that they do this rather as a mode of paying the
expenses of their journey, than from a spirit of mercenary
speculation. They generally travel in families, for the women are
of course more ardent than their husbands in undertaking these
pious enterprises, and they take care to bring with them all their
children, however young; for the efficacy of the rites does not
depend upon the age of the votary, so that people whose careful
mothers have obtained for them the benefit of the pilgrimage in
early life, are saved from the expense and trouble of undertaking
the journey at a later age. The superior veneration so often
excited by objects that are distant and unknown shows not perhaps
the wrongheadedness of a man, but rather the transcendent power of
his imagination. However this may be, and whether it is by mere
obstinacy that they poke their way through intervening distance, or
whether they come by the winged strength of fancy, quite certainly
the pilgrims who flock to Palestine from the most remote homes are
the people most eager in the enterprise, and in number too they
bear a very high proportion to the whole mass.
The great bulk of the pilgrims make their way by sea to the port of
Jaffa. A number of families will charter a vessel amongst them,
all bringing their own provisions, which are of the simplest and
cheapest kind. On board every vessel thus freighted there is, I
believe, a priest, who helps the people in their religious
exercises, and tries (and fails) to maintain something like order
and harmony. The vessels employed in this service are usually
Greek brigs or brigantines and schooners, and the number of
passengers stowed in them is almost always horribly excessive. The
voyages are sadly protracted, not only by the land-seeking, storm-
flying habits of the Greek seamen, but also by their endless
schemes and speculations, which are for ever tempting them to touch
at the nearest port. The voyage too must be made in winter, in
order that Jerusalem may be reached some weeks before the Greek
Easter, and thus by the time they attain to the holy shrines the
pilgrims have really and truly undergone a very respectable
quantity of suffering. I once saw one of these pious cargoes put
ashore on the coast of Cyprus, where they had touched for the
purpose of visiting (not Paphos, but) some Christian sanctuary. I
never saw (no, never even in the most horridly stuffy ballroom)
such a discomfortable collection of human beings. Long huddled
together in a pitching and rolling prison, fed on beans, exposed to
some real danger and to terrors without end, they had been tumbled
about for many wintry weeks in the chopping seas of the
Mediterranean. As soon as they landed they stood upon the beach
and chanted a hymn of thanks; the chant was morne and doleful, but
really the poor people were looking so miserable, that one could
not fairly expect from them any lively outpouring of gratitude.
When the pilgrims have landed at Jaffa they hire camels, horses,
mules, or donkeys, and make their way as well as they can to the
Holy City. The space fronting the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
soon becomes a kind of bazaar, or rather, perhaps, reminds you of
an English fair. On this spot the pilgrims display their
merchandise, and there too the trading residents of the place offer
their goods for sale. I have never, I think, seen elsewhere in
Asia so much commercial animation as upon this square of ground by
the church door; the "money-changers" seemed to be almost as brisk
and lively as if they had been WITHIN the temple.
When I entered the church I found a babel of worshippers. Greek,
Roman, and Armenian priests were performing their different rites
in various nooks and corners, and crowds of disciples were rushing
about in all directions, some laughing and talking, some begging,
but most of them going round in a regular and methodical way to
kiss the sanctified spots, and speak the appointed syllables, and
lay down the accustomed coin.
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