Sichem

“ On the choice of Sichem as the place for doing homage Kimchi has quite correctly observed, that “they sought an opportunity for transferring the government to Jeroboam, and therefore were unwilling to come to Jerusalem, but came to Sichem, which belonged to Ephraim, whilst Jeroboam was an Ephraimite.” ”

“ That Israel may believe that the mercy of God is with us, to deliver us in his days.
50:27. There are two nations which my soul abhorreth: and the third is no nation: which I hate:
Abhorreth. . .Viz., with a holy indignation, as enemies of God and persecutors of his people. Such were then the Edomites who abode in mount Seir, the Philistines, and the Samaritans who dwelt in Sichem, and had their schismatical temple in that neighbourhood.
50:28. They that sit on mount Seir, and the Philistines, and the foolish people that dwell in Sichem. ”

“ For apart from the fact that the tribes had no right to choose at their pleasure a different king from the one who was the lawful heir to the throne of David, the very circumstance that the tribes who were discontented with Solomon's government did not come to Jerusalem to do homage to Rehoboam, but chose Sichem as the place of meeting, and had also sent for Jeroboam out of Egypt, showed clearly enough that it was their intention to sever themselves from the royal house of David ”

“ Nablus, the ancient Sichem, the chief town of Samaria, contains four thousand inhabitants, and is reputed to be one of the most ancient towns in Palestine. It is surrounded by a strong wall, and consists of a long and very dirty street. We rode through the town from one end to the other, and past the poor-looking bazaar, where nothing struck me but the sight of some fresh figs, which were at this early season already exposed for sale. ”

“ When I was in the Holy Land I saw several that laboured under Gehazi's distemper, but none that could pretend to derive his [506] pedigree from that person. Some of them were poor enough to be his relations; particularly at Sichem (now Naplosu) there were no less than ten (the same number that were cleansed by our Saviour not far from the same place) that came begging to us at one time. Their manner is to come with small buckets in their hands, to receive the alms of the charitable, their touch being still held infectious, or at least unclean. ”

“ And what is Sichem, that we serue hym? Whether he is not the sone of Jerobaal, and made Zebul his seruaunt prince on the men of Emor, fadir of Sichem? Whi therfor schulen we serue hym?
29 `Y wolde, that sum man yaf this puple vndur myn hond, that Y schulde take awei Abimelech fro the myddis. And it was seid to Abymelech, Gadere thou the multitude of oost, and come thou.
30 For whanne the wordis of Gaal, sone of Obed, weren herd, Zebul, the prynce of the citee, was ful wrooth ”

“ And sent messengers privately to Abimelech, saying: Behold, Gaal, the son of Obed, is come into Sichem with his brethren, and endeavoureth to set the city against thee.
9:32. Arise, therefore, in the night, with the people that is with thee, and lie hid in the field:
9:33. And betimes in the morning, at sun rising, set upon the city, and when he shall come out against thee, with his people, do to him what thou shalt be able. ”

“ The Dhimal bring us to Sikkim. The dominant nation of Sikkim are—
The Lepchas.—Their language also is monosyllabic; but it is Tibetan rather than Burmese. They are a Sikkim rather than a British Indian population. [130]
When we have passed the rajahship of Sikkim, we reach that of Nepâl. This, again, is independent. Such being the case, the line of frontier between the Hindú populations and the populations of the Bodo and Garo character lies beyond the pale of the British dependencies. ”

“ The next race to enter Sikhim, probably long before the time of the accession of the Sikhim Rajas, were the Bhuteas who are of Tibetan origin and who spread at the same time into Bhutan. In Sikhim they number a little over 6000 and are more traders and herdsmen than agriculturists, although they cultivate small areas round their houses. They are for the most part of good physique, big and sturdy with a Mongolian type of features, and are not so reserved or so fond of isolation as the Lepchas. ”

“ Sikkim is included in a section of the Himalaya, about sixty miles broad from east to west, where it is bounded respectively by the mountain states of Bhotan and Nepal. Its southern limits are easily defined, for the mountains rise abruptly from the plains of Bengal, as spurs of 6000 to 10,000 feet high, densely clothed with forest to their summits. The northern and north-eastern frontier of Sikkim is beyond the region of much rain, and is not a natural, but a political line, drawn between that country and Tibet. ”

“ That this (Sychar) cannot be the large, ancient Sikhem, which, at the time when the Gospel was written, was probably already generally called Neapolis in Greek writings, has been already stated; it is the place still called with an altered Arabic name Al 'Askar, east of Naplûs. It is indeed difficult to prove that Sychar could stand for Sikhem, either through change of pronunciation, or for any other reason, and the addition [Greek: legomenê] does not indicate, here any more than in xi. 54, so large and generally known a town as Sikhem. ”

“ Their religion is Buddhism or Lamaism, and their language is a dialect of Tibetan.
By far the greater number of the inhabitants of Sikhim, however, are the Paharias, who number nearly 50,000. They have migrated from the neighbouring densely populated State of Nepal, and are slowly but surely pushing their way eastward. They are almost all Hindus by religion, with innumerable castes, the few exceptions being the tribes coming from the north-east of Nepal, who still profess Buddhism. ”

“ At the lower end was a great flat area, on which are burnt the bodies of Sikkim people of consequence: the poorer people are buried, the richer burned, and their ashes scattered or interred, but not in graves proper, of which there are none. Nor are there any signs of Lepcha interment throughout Sikkim; though chaits are erected to the memory of the departed, they have no necessary connection with the remains, and generally none at all. Corpses in Sikkim are never cut to pieces and thrown into lakes, or exposed on hills for the kites and crows to devour, as is the case in Tibet. ”

“ The monasteries and the lamas were a great power in the land, but in their case also certain settlements and arrangements had to be made with the assistance of the Phodong Lama, Chief Priest in Sikhim, and Lari Pema of the Pemiongtchi Monastery. Many of the head lamas were men to be liked, and although they were not given entirely their own way, their just rights were carefully observed, and I have always been supported by them throughout my time in Sikhim. ”

“ Sikhim is not so priest-ridden as Bhutan and Tibet. As a class the lamas are disliked, but also feared by the people, on account of the belief that the lamas have the power to do them harm.
As a rule the lamas are ignorant, idle and useless, living at the expense of the country, which they are surely dragging down. ”

“ The Sikhs are the bravest and the most warlike sect of the whole Punjab. The word sikh means disciple. Founded in the fifteenth century by the wealthy and noble Brahman Nanak, the new teaching spread so successfully amongst the northern soldiers, that in 1539 A.D., when the founder died, it counted one hundred thousand followers. At the present time, this sect, harmonizing closely with the fiery natural mysticism, and the warlike tendencies of the natives, is the reigning creed of the whole Punjab. ”

“ The time was critical for Sikhim in several ways: the industries I had introduced, apple growing, cloth weaving, carpet manufacture, still required careful fostering, while the mining industry was barely in its infancy. The Maharaja and Maharani had at last been aroused and were keen to improve their country, but perhaps the most serious matter was the approaching return of the Maharaj Kumar, who had spent a couple of years in England and part of the time at Pembroke CoUege, Oxford. ”

“ The only plainsmen from India to be found in Sikhim are a few Marwaris and men of the Bunia or shopkeeper class, who have come for trading purposes and settled under the protection of the British Raj since the expedition of 1888. ”

“ He appears to have believed that after the departure of Korybut some of the utraquist nobles wished to recall Sigismund to Bohemia. Zizka, on whom, as on most Bohemians of his time, the Old Testament had great influence, appears to have considered himself as an instrument chosen by providence to avenge on Sigismund the murder of master John Hus, and he always pursued the King of Hungary with relentless hatred. Having the greatest general of the time at their head, the Taborites no longer hesitated to wage open warfare against the moderate or Calixtine party. ”

“ Beyond this the view of black, rugged precipices with snowy mountains towering above them, is one of the finest in Sikkim. There is a pass in that direction, from Bah over the Tckonglah to the Thlonok valley, and thence to the province of Jigatzi in Tibet, but it is almost impracticable.
A race of wild men, called “Harrum-mo,” are said to inhabit the head of the valley, living in the woods of a district called Mund-po, beyond Bah; tbey shun habitations, speak an unintelligible tongue, have more hair on the face than Lepchas, and do not plait that of their heads, but wear it in a knot ”

“ If the water cannot benefit my crops, which are in this world, how can it benefit your dead in another?"
Nanak's followers were called Sikhs, from sicsha, a Sanscrit word signifying disciple or devoted follower, corrupted into Sikh, pronounced Sick, and he was called by them Baba Nanak or Guru Nanak—Father Nanak or the Spiritual guide. When he felt that his end was approaching he appointed as his successor in the Guruship one of his most faithful followers, passing over his two sons despite their remonstrances, one of them being an ascetic and the other a man of the world. ”

“ The Sikh army—the weapon which Ranjit Singh had so well forged—turned against his best friends, the British, who met in it the hardest fighting enemy they had encountered in the East, and whose gallantry and steadiness in action excited the admiration of their opponents just as that of their remote ancestors the Getæ or Indo-Scythic warriors at Arbela, twenty-two centuries before, when fighting under Darius against the Macedonian phalanx, drew forth the praise of the great Alexander. ”

“ Lepcha Man, Sikhim Nepal itself, for an extremely mountainous country, is very thickly populated. So much is this the case, that at least 40,000 Goorkhas have overflowed from the eastern provinces into our district of Darjeeling and into semi-independent Sikhim, and immigrants continue to come into the latter district. In Sikhim, in the western portion, the Goorkhas completely outnumber the original Lepcha inhabitants as well as the now dominant Thibetans, although they really take little, if any, part in the governing of the country. ”

“ I have hitherto believed the Christians to be the most superstitious of men; but I am now convinced that they approach much nearer to the true religion than the Turks.”
Ebn Sihoud is on the whole a well-informed and very eloquent man, but fanatical in his religious opinions: he has a legitimate wife and a concubine; two sons, both married, and a daughter still young. He eats nothing but what is prepared by his wives, for fear of being poisoned. The guard of his palace is committed to a troop of a thousand well-armed negroes. ”

“ At his interview with Rampini in 1874 the Deb Raja declared that relations with Nepal were friendly, and it appears that there has always been some intercourse of a friendly character between the two countries. In recent years a large number of Nepalese have migrated to Bhutan and colonised there, along the foot hills.
Deb Jeedhur, of whom previous mention has been made, invaded Sikhim somewhere about 1770, and held possession of the country for six or seven years. The minor Raja of Sikhim fled to Lhasa, and was educated there. ”

“ Of all the many peoples of India none possesses for us greater or more varied historical interest than the Sikhs, a people who four hundred years ago as a reformed religious sect sprang from the ranks of the Jats, a numerous as well as the most important agricultural tribe in the Punjab, descended from the ancient Scythian Getæ. They stand out prominently as men of action, who have preserved inherited racial characteristics foreign to Orientals, and evolved themselves by the strength of their own arms into one of the finest military types to be found anywhere. ”

“ A Public House, Sikhim Colonists always want quick returns with little labour, but why is a country, from which fine agricultural results might have been expected, allowed to be so ruined? Putting aside this consideration, travelling in Sikhim, when the weather is at all propitious, is delightful. To the mountaineer, no district offers so many chances, not only of really good mountain exploration, but also of obtaining that most irritating and annoying thing, a record. It is an expensive district, and supplies are supposed to be difficult to obtain. ”

“ That six or seven different tribes, without any feudal system or coercive head, with different languages and customs, should dwell in close proximity and in peace and unity, within the confined territory of Sikkim, even for a limited period, is an anomaly; the more especially when it is considered that except for a tincture of the Boodhist religion among some few of the people, they are all but savages, as low in the scale of intellect as the New Zealander or the Tahitian, and beneath those races in ingenuity and skill as craftsmen. ”