Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

peared from the land, and carriages with them. Nor will they ever reappear till some other race than the Arab predominates, and a better than the Turk governs. Even the Christian inhabitants of Lebanon, where good roads are most needed, have no adequate appreciation of them, and take no pains to make them. They drive their loaded camels, mules, and donkeys along frightful paths, and endanger their own necks by riding over the same, from generation to generation, without dreaming of any improvement. You must educate your nerves into indifference in this matter, and get ready as fast as possible to flounder over all sorts of break-neck places in the course of our pilgrimage. "What man has done, man can do." I have all

my life

[graphic][merged small]
[blocks in formation]

been accustomed to the saddle, and like it; and a little danger now and then will impart additional charms to the tour. -What tree is this which overshadows our path? It is more bushy and thick-set than the apple-tree, for which I at first mistook it, and, as we near it, I see that the leaves are longer and of a much darker green.

[graphic][merged small]

That is the kharûb-the tree that bore the husks which the swine did eat, and with which the poor prodigal would

have filled his belly.' The "husks"-a mistranslation-are fleshy pods somewhat like those of the honey-locust-tree, from six to ten inches long and one broad, lined inside with a gelatinous substance not wholly unpleasant to the taste when thoroughly ripe. I have seen large orchards of this kharûb in Cyprus, where it is still the food which the swine do eat. In Syria, where we have no swine, or next to none, the pods are ground up, and a species of molasses expressed, which is much used in making certain kinds of sweetmeats. The tree is an evergreen, and casts a most delightful and refreshing shade to the weary traveler. In this country they do not yield large crops, but in Cyprus, Asia Minor, and the Grecian Islands, you will see fullgrown trees bending under half a ton of green pods. The kharûb is often called St. John's Bread, and also Locust-tree, from a mistaken idea about the food of the Baptist in the wilderness. It is the Ceratonia siliqua of Linnæus.

That noble tree before us, with giant arms low down and wide open, must be the Syrian sycamore. I once heard an itinerant preacher in the "back woods" puzzle himself and his hearers with an elaborate criticism about the tree into which Zaccheus climbed to see the Saviour.2 He and his audience were familiar only with the sycamores of our flat river bottoms, tall as a steeple, and smooth as hypocrisy. "Why," said the orator, "a squirrel can't climb them." The conclusion reached was that the sycamore must have been a mulberry-tree. But nothing is easier than to climb into these sycamores; and, in fact, here is a score of boys and girls in this one; and as its giant arms stretch quite. across the road, those on them can look directly down upon any crowd passing beneath. It is admirably adapted to the purpose for which Zaccheus selected it.

True; and, moreover, it is generally planted by the wayside, and in the open spaces where several paths meet, just where Zaccheus found it. This sycamore is a remarkable tree. It not only bears several crops of figs during the but those figs grow on short stems along the trunk

year,
1 Luke xv. 16.

2 Luke xix. 4.

[merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small]
[graphic]

and large branches, and not at the
end of twigs, as in other fruit-bearing
trees. The figs are small, and of a
At Gaza and
greenish-yellow color.
Askelon, I saw them of a purple
tinge, and much larger than they are
in this part of the country. They
were carried to market in large quan-
tities, and appeared to be more valued
there than with us. Still, they are, at

best, very insipid, and none but the poorer classes eat them. This agrees with, and explains an allusion in Amos. He had aroused the wrath of Jeroboam by the severity of his rebukes, and, being advised to flee for his life, excuses himself by a statement which implies that he belonged to the humblest class of the community. I am no prophet, neither am I a prophet's son; but I am a herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit.1 None but the very poor consent to be herdmen, and only such, at this day, gather sycamore fruit or use it.

The natives say that the sycamore bears seven crops a year. I think it is irregular in this matter. Some bear oftener than others, and the same tree yields more crops one year than another. It is easily propagated merely by planting a stout branch in the ground, and watering it until it has struck out roots into the soil. This it does with great rapidity, and to a vast depth. It was with reference to this latter fact that our blessed Lord selected it to illustrate the power of faith. If ye had faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye might say unto this sycamine-tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea, and it should obey you. Now look at this tree-its ample girth, its widespread arms branching off from the parent trunk only a few feet from the ground; then examine its enormous roots, as thick, as numerous, and as wide spread into the deep soil below as the branches extend into the air above -the very best type of invincible steadfastness. What power on earth can pluck up such a tree? Heaven's thunder-bolt may strike it down, the wild tornado may tear it to fragments, but nothing short of miraculous power can fairly pluck it up by the roots.

I have but faint ideas of a faith that could pluck up and plant in the sea such a tree as that; and these facts certainly add great emphasis to the "parable." You are doubtless aware, however, that other critics besides our orator of the back-woods maintain that the sycamore of the New Testament is actually the mulberry-tree, and others that the 1 Amos vii. 14. 2 Luke xvii. 6.

« AnteriorContinua »