Eliza Roxcy Snow

“ We passed through many winding valleys with landscape beautiful and pic- turesque, the hills terraced from base to summit, supporting vines, fig and olive trees, the scenery enlivened by wild flowers, bright and gay, springing up from the green, luxuriant herbage. The Arab is seen with his primitive plow and diminutive oxen, breaking up his ground ”

“ The Turkish government is obliged to keep a guard constantly watch- ing at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, to prevent these contentions and fightings between the rival Christian churches.
These contradictions, contentions and impositions by the rival Christian sects, in Jerusalem, render the Christian religion a subject of scorn and contempt, both to the Jews and Mohammedans, and it is certainly a matter of serious regret that, in this enlightened age of Christianity, such things should exist in this sacred locality where our holy religion was established, and our Savior martyred . ”

“ An opposition one has recently been established by the Greek Church. As soon as the trees have sufficiently grown, and other fixtures remained long enough to impart an ancient and venerable appear- ance, it will then be exhibited to devout pilgrims as the real, genuine Gar- den of Gethsemane. ”

“ Religious enthusiasts of opposite sects vied with each other in search- ing out relics, and places to be reverenced and adored by people of their respective persuasions, performing pilgrimages to the Holy Land, their zeal, in some instances, carrying them beyond the bounds of honesty, to prac- tising deceit and imposition. ”

“ It is long-lived one thousand years and upwards. The older ones have a remarkably venerable appearance, with their great gnarled and furrowed stems, especially when representing the last stages of life's decline. Usually the fruit ripens in November and December, and is beaten off with long sticks, and gathered by women and children, who carry it away in baskets on their heads to the press, where the oil is extracted by an apparatus quite rude and primitive. ”

“ We pass several towns perched among the gray rocks, on the mountain slopes, or crowning the summits of high hills, also several sites of ancient towns overspread with ruins. Sterility and barrenness form the general features of the country. ”

“ They look daring and ferocious, ready to commence hostilities on the slightest provo- cation. Armed cap-a-pie with a flintlock shot-gun, a huge dagger sticking in front of their girdle, pistols and a large knobheaded club, they seem pleased in displaying these arms, and, judging from their sturdy, athletic appearance, I have no doubt they could employ them to great advantage. We frequently met these fellows armed in this manner, driving along a miserable looking, half-starved donkey, loaded probably with all they pos- sessed, except arms and shabby clothing. ”

“ A bloody feud, most likely, exists between one family and some other family, which was commenced hundreds of years ago by their ancestors. Some person was killed, and one of that person's family killed another in return ”

“ When order was restored, the dead were lying in heaps around, and even upon the Stone of Unction the bodies of the dead were piled up, and in some places the wounded and dead were thrown together promiscuously, one upon another, five feet high or more. ”

“ It has a dome roof sustained by short marble columns. The place where the Savior's body is said to have lain, is covered by a marble slab, considerably worn at the edges by the continued kissing of pilgrims. A large number of gold and silver lamps are suspended OTer it, and kept constantly burning. ”

“ The hole in which the Cross was planted. House of Pilate. "Behold the Man!" The true Cross. A terrible Massacre. Turkish Guards. Christianity despised by Jews and Mohammedans. Farewell to Jerusalem. -- Gala day. Arab Agriculture. Shechem. Ferocious People.
The Olive. ^amaria. PALESTINE, MARCH STH, 1873. Editor Deseret News:
Among the variety of objects which claimed our attention while at Jerusalem, was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It is an extensive building, with a host of sacred relics and holy places, grouped together within a few yards of one another ”