MOUNT GERIZIM.

Few will turn aside from the ancient Shechem without making a pilgrimage to the shrine of the Samaritans — Gerizim, the “ Mountain of Blessing.”” A Samaritan guide is the best, but a Jew or a Christian will serve the purpose. The way is steep and so long that a horse or donkey is a comfort, especially on a hot day. It winds up the beautiful glen immediately on the S. side of the town; and here we get some charming views—rich in many-tinted foliage, picturesquely grouped houses, graceful palm-trees, and rugged cliffs — all alive with the song of birds and the murmuring of waters. One is reminded of some of the finest glens around Sorento and Vico Equense. But the trees and waters are soon left behind, and a turn to the l. shuts them out from view. There is now a stiff climb for 1/4 of an hour up the mountain side. On gaining the top we have before us a broad irregular plateau, or rather close succession of mountain summits, thickly covered with stones, but still cultivated in little patches and terraces, between which the stones have been heaped together. The prospect is wild and dreary in the extreme. We now proceed along the top, due E., towards a conspicuous wely that crowns a rocky knoll, and in 15 min. reach the base of the latter. Here we observe a few perches of tolerably level ground where the Samaritans encamp at the feast of Passover. On its eastern side is a small rectangular area, surrounded by stones something like the foundations of an old building. In its centre is a trough about a foot deep and 4 ft. long, filled with ashes and calcined bones, the remains of the Passover lambs which are burned with fire according to the command in the Law (Ex. Xii. 10). Beside the enclosure is a circular pit 3 ft. in diameter and some 8 or 10 deep, in which the Paschal lambs are roasted—* Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire.” The way in which this is done is as follows. The animals are killed and properly prepared on the little area, While this is in progress the pit is heated with wood like an oven, and then the lambs are suspended to a stick laid across the mouth, and so arranged that no part touches sides or bottom. The pit is covered up, and remains so till they are roasted. The whole Samaritan community, men, women, and children, except such as are ceremonially unclean, eat the flesh “in haste,” “with their loins girded, their shoes on their feet, and their staves in their hands” (Ex. Xii. 11).

From hence we ascend by what appears to be an old road to the summit of the rocky knoll, a distance of about 200 yds. “The first object which here presents itself to our view is an immense ruinous structure of hewn stones, bearing every appearance of having once been a large and strong fortress. It consisted of two adjacent parts, each measuring about 250 ft. from E. to W., and 200 ft. from N. to S., giving a length in all of about 400 ft. in the latter direction. The stones are the common limestone of the region, tolerably large, and bevelled at the edges, though rough in the middle (Roman “rustic”’), The walls in some places are 9 ft. thick. At the four corners of the southern division were square towers, and one in the middle of the eastern side. In the northern part is now the Muslem wely, and also a cemetery.” There are several deep cisterns and wells among the ruins. Under the western wall of the castle are a number of flat stones—some say ten, others twelve, but most people will see that the number may be increased or diminished at pleasure. Under these, some guides will tell us, are placed the “twelve stones” brought out of the bed of the Jordan; while others will affirm that these are the identical stones themselves; and others again respond to the eager inquiries of the antiquary with a tantalizing Ullah-byâref. In truth, when Arabs are puzzled by such questions, they find it easier, and more satisfactory, to invent answers than to confess ignorance ; and be it known unto all men, that if we have many antiquarian travellers of the De Saulcy school, we will soon have the land as full of archæological as of monkish inventions.

Our first thought on seeing these massive ruins is, that we have before us the remains of the Samaritan Temple. De Saulcy is, as usual, quite positive on the point; and enlightens us with plans and specifications, measurements and descriptions of “The Temple of Mount Gerizim.” But more sober-minded scholars have pronounced the form, the style, and the masonry, to be all characteristic of a Roman fortress. The tradition of the Samaritans themselves is also in favour-of this view, for they call the place el-Kul'ah, “The Castle.” There is every reason to believe that these are indeed the remains of the fortress built by Justinian for the protection of the Church of the Virgin, as mentioned above.

A little to the S. of these ruins is a smooth surface of natural rock, of an irregular oval shape, 45 ft. in diameter; declining gently towards a rough, rock-hewn pit on its W. side. This is the shrine of the Samaritans —their “Holy of Holies”—on approaching which they always take off their shoes, and toward which they turn in prayer. (Ex. iii. 5.) On this rock, according to the present tradition, Abraham sacrificed the ram instead of his son; on it Jacob had his heavenly vision, and, therefore, named it the “House of God,” Bethel; and on it the ark was placed, and the Tabernacle set up. Round the rock are traces of old walls, composed of massive stones, far more ancient-looking than those in the castle; and it is highly probable they may ‘have belonged to the Temple. Farther southward, and indeed all round the knoll, are extensive ruins, apparently of a large ancient village. De Saulcy supposes this to be the true site of Shechem; but the descriptions.in the Bible and of Theodotus show-this to be impossible. (Jud. ix. 36, 37; and Euseb. Praep. Evang. ix. 22.)

Mr. Stanley states “that there is every probability that Gerizim, and not Jerusalem, is the scene of two of the most remarkable events in the history of Abraham "—namely ; First, the meeting with Melchizedek; and second, the sacrifice of Isaac. But the arguments in favour of the first are far from being conclusive; and the second seems to me to be simply impossible. Abraham was at Beersheba when he received the command to offer Isaac for a burnt-offering “upon one of the mountains ” in the “land of Moriah.” (Compare Gen. Xxi. 33, and xxii. 1-3, 19.) “He rose early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt-offering, and rose up, and went into the place which the Lord had told him.” On the third day they came in sight of the place appointed; and though it is said to have been “afar off,” we must estimate this rather indefinite expression by the whole incidents of the story. The distance could not have been very great—not certainly more than a mile or two, as Isaac carried the wood on his back, and Abraham the fire in his hand to the spot; after he had said to the servants, “ Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.” It appears from the narrative that they went to the place, offered the sacrifice, and returned to the men again on that same day. Mr. Stanley supposes they travelled up the plain of Philistia, and on the morning of the third day got a view of Gerizim from the plain of Sharon; here the young men remained, and Abraham and his son set out for the far distant mountains. Now this theory would give them a journey of 30 geog. m. a day—as the crow flies—for the first two days; a distance which assuredly no modern ass could accomplish, not to speak of men carrying burdens of wood. And there would remain besides nearly 20 m. of mountain road up which Isaac toiled with the wood, and his father with the fire. On the other hand the distance of Jerusalem from Beersheba agrees well with the account of Abraham’s journey; and the old road, as we have seen, instead of running along the plain of Rephaim, crossed the ridge on the E. of it, commanding a full view of Mount Moriah and the whole site of Jerusalem from a point 1  1/2 m. distant.

The ruins, as has been stated, occupy a rocky knoll which rises like a crest from the broad summit of Gerizim. This knoll is on the eastern brow of the mountain, almost overhanging the plain. The view from it is glorious, deserving to be ranked with those obtained from Neby Samwîl and Olivet. The rich plain of Mukhna is at our feet; it sends out a broad green arm among the dark hills on the E., just opposite the vale of Nâbulus. The arm is called Sâlim, and takes its name from a little village that is made conspicuous by a group of olive-trees, on the rocky acclivity to the N.—doubtless occupying the site, as it retains the name, of that ancient “SHALEM, a city of Shechem,” near which Jacob pitched his tent on his return from Padan-aram, (Gen, xxxiii. 18.) On the BE. the view embraces the great wall of the transjordanic mountains. On the N. the eye wanders over a succession of dark ridges and rounded peaks till it rests on the pale blue and white peak of Hermon, far away on the horizon. On the W. we get peeps at the plain of Sharon through openings in the hills, and the Mediterranean stretching out beyond. The mountains of Ephraim are all round us—the great stronghold of the powerful house of Joseph. The rich plains and valleys are seen winding like a green net-work among them—waving with corn, and fat with the olive and the vine. “Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful ‘bough by the spring, whose branches run over the wall..... The Almighty shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breast and of the womb.” The practical wisdom of the shepherd prince who crossed the Jordan with his staff, and came back two great bands, was never more signally displayed than in securing a possession in this the garden of Canaan; and in afterwards prospectively bestowing it on his favourite son. “The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of thy progenitors, unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills; they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.” (Gen. xlix, 22-26.)