SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

TRAVELS,

Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai, and Arabia Petrrea: a Journal of Travels in the year IRIS, by E. Robinson and E. Smith; undertaken in reference to Biblical Geography. Drawn up from the original Diaries, with Historical Illustrations, by Edward Robinson, D.D.. Professor of Biblical Literature in the Uniuu Theological Semaiary, New York. Author of a Greek and English Lexicon of the New Testament, &c. With new maps and plans, in five sheets. In three

volumes Murray. ABM'S/LOGY, Medii:Evi Kalendarium ; or Dates, Charters, and Customs of the Middle Ages; with /Calendars from the Tenth to the Fifteenth Century, and an alphabetical Digest of obsolete Names of Days: forming a Glossary of the Dates of the Middle Ages. with Tables. and other aids for ascertaining Dates. By R. P. Hampson. In two volumes Canston and Co. FICTION, The Ancient Regime; a Tale. By 0. P. R. James, Esq., Author of " The Gipsy " The Rubber." Kr. &c. Re. Iu three volumes Longman and Co. POLITICS,

Evils and Remedies of the Present System of Popular Elections ; with a Sketch of the Qualifications and Duties of Representatives and Constituents: to which is added, an Address on the proposed Reforms in the Commerce and Pittance of the Country. By James S. Buckingham, Esq., late M.P. for Sheffield.

Sbnpkin and Marshall.

BIBLICAL RESEARCHES IN PALESTINE.

THESE three elaborate and very bulky volumes are the result of a journey made in Palestine and part of Arabia during five or six months of 1838, by Dr. ROBINSON and Mr. Eel SMITH. Dr. ROBINSON is well known to scholars for his Greek and English Lexicon of the New Testament ; as the Professor of Biblical Literature in the Theological Seminary of New York he has trained up many of the American clergy, both pastors and missionaries ; and from his earliest years he has regarded Palestine as the object of his hopes, and,. fed his mind with the idea of perchance seeing it. Mr. SMITH was his pupil; and subsequently, as a missionary to the East, travelled through Asia Minor and Persia, acquiring a thorough acquaintance with Arabic, and much knowledge of the Oriental character. Circumstances in 1837 having enabled the friends to perform a journey together in the Promised Land, Dr. ROBINSON left New York, passed rapidly through England, made some stay in Germany to consult her scholars upon certain points in his intended researches, then went on to Trieste, and reached Egypt by the steamers. In Egypt Dr. ROBINSON met his friend, and they pro- ceeded together to Mount Sinai ; reached Jerusalem by Hebron through a route rarely traversed, passing midway as it were through the Desert from the head of the Red Sea, leaving Edom on the right hand and the Mediterranean more distantly on the left. At Jeru- salem they remained some time, making many investigations in its neighbourhood, and many excursions throughout Palestine ; till, having exhausted their subject as far as time permitted, the tra- vellers reached Vienna, by Constantinople and the Danube.

Their mode of proceeding was this. To make notes of every object as they journeyed along ; to digest these notes at the end of the day's journey, and write out the results, each party selecting such objects as struck him ; but Mr. SMITH alone attending to names of places, which depended upon accurate verbal com- munication with the natives. From these journals Dr. ROBINSON has composed the present work ; using his own or his fellow-tra- veller's diary indiscriminately, excepting such remarks of Mr. Shirrs relating to points dependent upon language as he could not venture to alter, and the most elaborate of which are printed separately. The Biblical Researches consist of narrative, disquisition, and history, varied according to the nature of the subject, with some- times one predominating, sometimes another ; but Dr. ROBINSON'S general plan is to give an account of his journey, an inquiry into the identity of the places mentioned in Scripture, with a precis of their history since that period. To follow him through all his ex- cursions at Jerusalem, Nazareth, Tiberias, the Dead Sea, and a long list of etceteras, would be unprofitably diffuse. A notion of the work will be conveyed by a skeleton of the section from Suez to Sinai : it contains—first, an account of the journey and the in- cidents of the way, with the occurrences during their sojourn in the convent, and a description of their visits to the holy places; second, a critical inquiry whether the popular opinion is correct respecting the identity of Sinai, and if so, whether it has correctly assigned the localities ; third, a history of the convent ; fourth, a sketch of the Arab tribes in the vicinity.

The work is by an American, and it was composed in Berlin. We state this because it exhibits a curious mixture of German zeal in minute questions of scholarship with American enthusiasm and freshness respecting things not altogether new to Europeans. With many pleasant pictures of scenery and manners, rendered agreeable by an amiable and tolerant spirit when not very striking by intrinsic novelty, with much learning and much Christian zeal, tempered by sense and a discriminating Protestant spirit applied to Scriptural antiquities, frequently productive of interesting discove- ries—with a great deal of reading in the Christian archaeology of the primitive and middle ages, and a critical acumen brought to bear upon the exposure of monkish traditions—the publication is upon the whole rather a storehouse of materials than a finished work. The narrative of the journey is often too minute in detailing uninteresting particulars : the disquisitions would have been better if recast and compressed ; and, if the subject of monkish his- tory and tradition in Palestine has interest enough to support itself, it has not sufficient to impart variety and relief to the other sections. The defects we speak of would not, perhaps, have been so perceptible had each part stood alone, with unity of subject and a much greater brevity. As it is, the book consists of various

topics requiring various frames of mind to attend to, and rarely having an equal degree of attraction for the reader. Neither do they always stand so entirely alone as to be easily separated with- out an examination. It must not be denied either, that the size of the book will be somewhat appalling to the general reader. For the religious world and the Biblical scholar the work will be one of high interest ; but even for them, we think, it would have had greater attraction had the topography been separated from the travels, and more value compressed into less bulk. In presenting quotations, we shall have an eye to what may be called the distinguishing features of the book, rather than to those which it possesses in common with everyday travels. Here is an example of mingled criticism and description, in an account of the pilgrim's disappointments at the place which monkish tradition has assigned as the actual Mount Sinai.

" My first and predominant feeling while upon this summit, was that of dis- appointment. Although from our examination of the plain er-Rahaii below, and its correspondence to the Scriptural narrative, we had arrived at the general conviction that the people of Israel must have been collected on it to receive the law, yet we still had cherished a lingering hope or feeling, that there might after all be some foundation for the long series of monkiilx tra- dition, which for at least fifteen centuries has pointed out the summit on which we now stood as the spot where the Ten Commandments were so awfully pro- claimed. But Scriptural narrative and monkish tradition are very different things ; and while the former has a distinctness and definiteness, which through all our journeyings rendered the Bible our best guide-book, we found the latter not less usually and almost regularly to be but a baseless fabric. In the pre- sent case, there is not the slightest reason for supposing that Moses had any thing to do with the summit which now bears his name. It is three miles distant from the plain on which the Israelites must have stood, and hidden from it by the intervening peaks of the modern Horeb. No part of the plain is visible from the summit ; nor are the bottoms of the adjacent vallies; nor is any spot to be seen around it where the people could have been assembled. The only point in which it is not immediately surrounded by high mountains, is towards the S. E. where it sinks down precipitously to a tract of naked gravelly hills."

In the course of the day's excursion, however, the pilgrims stumbled upon a promising place, and made the discovery of

THE TRUE MOUNT SINAI.

While the monks were here employed in lighting tapers and burning incense, we determined to scale the almost inaccessible peak of es-Safsafeh before us, in order to look out upon the plain, and judge for ourselves as to the adapted- mess of this part of the mount to the circumstance of the Scriptural history. This cliff rises some five hundred feet above the basin ; and the distance to the summit is more tban half a mile. We first attempted to climb the side in a direct course ; but found the rock so smooth and precipitous, that after some falls and a few exposures, we were obliged to give it up, and clamber upwards along a steep ravine by a more northern and circuitous course. From the head of this ravine we were able to climb around the face of the northern precipice and reach the top, along the deep hollows worn in the granite by the weather during the lapse of ages, which give to this part, as seen from below, the ap- pearance of architectural ornament. The extreme difficulty and even danger of the ascent, was well rewarded by the prospect that now opened before us. The whole plain er-Raliali lay spread out beneath our feet, with the adjacent Wadys and mountains ; while Wady esh-Sheikh on the right, and the recess on the left, both connected with and opening broadly from er-Rabah, presented an area which serves nearly to double that of the plain. Our conviction was strengthened, that here or on some one of the adjacent cliffs was the spot where the Lord "descended in fire" and proclaimed the law. Here lay the plain where the whole congrega- tion might be assembled; here was the mount that could be approached and touched, if not forbidden; and here the mountain-brow, where alone the light- nings and the thick cloud would be visible, and the thunders and the voice of the tromp be beard, when the Lord " came down iu the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai." We gave ourselves up to the impressions of the awful scene, and read with a feeling that will never be forgotten, the sublime account of the transaction and the commandments there promulgated, in the original words as recorded by the great Hebrew legislator.

Jerusalem rather exceeded the expectations of our travellers : they did not find it so dirty or so sordid as previous descriptions led them to expect. Nor did they experience any interruption in their examination and surveys—less, in fact, than they would have done at home. The degradation of the Christian ceremonies at Jerusalem, however, answered all that they had read of,—that is, of the Catholic church, for the Greek they did not go to see.

EASTER AT JERUSALEM.

The different sects of Christians who have possession of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre had of course been compelled to alternate in their occupancy of it, and in the performance of their religious ceremonies. On this last "high day" of the festival, the Greeks held their grand mass at the Sepulchre before break of day ; and the Latins followed at nine o'clock. I looked in for a few moments, with my friend Mr. Homes, upon this latter ceremonial. Few persons were present except those engaged in the service. These few were all below in the body of the church ; in the galleries there were no spectators. The reputed sepulchre, as is well known, stands in the middle of the spacious rotunda, directly beneath the centre of the great dome, which is open to the sky. The high altar was placed directly before the door of the sepulchre ; so that we could not enter the latter. The ceremonies we saw consisted only in a procession of the monks and others marching around the sepulchre; stopping occasionally to read a portion of the Gospel ; and then again advancing with chanting and singing. I was struck with the splendour of their robes, stiff with embroidery of silver and gold, the well-meant offerings probably of Ca- tholics out of every country of Europe; but I was not less struck with the vulgar and unmeaning visages that peered out from these costly vestments. The wearers looked more like ordinary ruffians than like ministers of the cross of Christ. indeed, there is reason to believe that the Latin monks in Palestine are actually, for the most part, ignorant and often illiterate men, chiefly from Spain, the refuse of her monks and clergy, who come or are sent hither as into a sort of exile; where they serve to excite the sympathies and the misplaced charities of the Catholics of Europe. There was hardly a face among all those before us that could be called intelligent. A few fine-looking French naval officers, and one or two Irish Catholics, had joined the procession, but seemed quite out of place, and as if ashamed of their companions. I make these remarks merely as relating a matter of fact, and not, I trust, out of any spirit of prejudice against the Romish Church or her clergy. I had once spent the Holy Week in Rome itself; and there admired the intelligent and noble countenances of many of the clergy and monks congregated in that city. For this very reason, the present contrast struck me the more forcibly and disagreeably. The whole scene indeed was, to a Protestant, painful said revolting. It might perhaps have been less so had there been manifested the slightest degree of faith in the genuineness of the surrounding objects; but even the monks themselves do not pretend that the present sepulchre is any thing more than an imitation of the original. But to be in the ancient city of the Most High, and to see these venerated places, and the very name of our holy religion profaned by idle and lying mummeries, while the .proud Bans- sulman looks on with haughty scorn—all this excited in my mind a feeling too painful to be borne, and I never visited the place again.

PROTESTANT WORSHIP AND MISSIONS AT JERUSALEM.

We now repaired to the house of Mr. Whiting, where, in a large upper room, our friends had long established regular Divine service in English every Sunday; in which they were assisted by Mr. Nicolsyson, the able missionary of the English Church, sent out hither by the London Missionary Society for the Jews. We found a very respectable congregation, composed of all the mis- sionary families, besides several European travellers of rank and name. It was, I presume, the largest Protestant congregation ever collected within the walls of the Holy City ; and it was gratifying to see Protestants of various names here laying aside all distinctions, and uniting with one heart to declare by their example, in Jerusalem itself, that " God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." The simplicity and spi- rituality of the Protestant worship was to me affecting and doubly pleasing, in contrast with the pageant of which we had just been spectators.

Early in the afternoon, we were also present at the service iu Arabic, which the same missionaries had established in the house of Mr. Lanneau, and which was then regularly attended by some twenty or thirty Arab Christians of the Greek rite. These were men of respectable appearance, merchants and others, and seemed to yield attention to the things which they heard. It may not be out of place here to remark, that the object of the American missions to Syria and other parts of the Levant is not to draw off members of the Oriental churches to Protestantism, but to awaken them to a knowledge and belief of the Gospel-truth in the purity and simplicity of its original Scrip- tural form. To this end all the efforts of the missionaries are directed, in the hope that individuals thus enlightened, and remaining, if they choose, within the pale of their own churches, may by degrees become instrumental in infusing into the latter life and vigour, and a love of the truth, before which the various forms of error and superstition will of themselves vanish away. The mission- aries would seem thus to have taken the proper course, in going forward simply as preachers of the Gospel, and not as the direct assailants of specific errors; striving to overcome darkness by diffusing light, and not by denouncing it as gross darkness. True, in this way they make less noise ; for the mere pre- sentation of truth excites less opposition than the calling in question of long- cherished error; but, with the blessing of God, they are likely to reap a more abundant harvest, and exert a larger and more lasting influence in the moral regeneration of the East.

We will close with a few extracts of a miscellaneous character, as specimens of the narrative of the travels.

ARAB SALE OF PROVISIONS.

The poor kid was now let loose, and ran bleating into our tent as if aware of its coming fate. All was activity and bustle to prepare the coming feast ; the kid was killed and dressed with great dexterity and despatch; and its still quivering members were laid upon the fire, and began to emit savoury odours, particularly gratifying to Arab nostrils. But now a change came over the fais scene. The Arabs of whom we had bought the kid had m sonic way learned that we were to encamp near ; and naturally enough concluding that the kid was bought in order to be eaten, they thought good to honour our Arabs with a visit, to the number of five or six persons. Now the stern law of Bedawin hospitality demands, that whenever a guest is present at a meal, whether there be much or little, the first and best portion must be laid before the stranger. In this instance, the five or six guests attained their object, and had not only the selling of the kid, but also the eating of it ; while our poor Arabs, whose mouths had long been watering with expectation, were forced to take up with the fragments. Besharah, who played the host, fared worst of all ; and came afterwards to beg for a biscuit, saying he had lost the whule of his dinner.

ARAB TOPOGRAPHERS.

We found that our guides of today and yesterday, both old and young, knew very little of distant mountains and objects ; while they were familiarly ac- quainted with those near at hand. It was only after long and repeated exami- nation and cross-questioning, that my companion could be sure of any correct- ness as to more remote objects ; since at first they often gave answers at ran- dom, which they afterwards modified or took back. The young man Salim was the most intelligent of the whole. After all our pains, many of the names we obtained were different from those which Burckhardt heard; although his guides apparently were of the same tribe. A tolerably certain method of find- ing any place at will is to ask an Aral) if its name exists. He is sure to answer yes, and to point out some spot at hand as its location. In this way, I have no doubt, we might have found Rcphidim or Marab, or any other place we chose; and such is probably the mode in which many ancient names and places have been discovered by travellers, which no one has ever been able to find after them.

BEDAWIN LAW.

The following are some of the peculiarities of the Bedawin law—a law not of statute but of prescription, and as binding as the common law of England. If a Bedawy owes another, and refuses to pay, the creditor takes two or three men as witnesses of the refusal. He then seizes or steals, if he can, a camel or something else belonging, to the debtor, and deposits it with a third person. This brings the case to trial before the judge ; and the debtor forfeits the article seized. The Bedawin in their quarrels avoid beating each other with a stick or with the fist, as disreputable ; this being the punishment of slaves and chil- dren, and a great indignity to a man. If it takes place, the sufferer is entitled to very high damages. Their code of honour allows blows to be given only with the sword or with a gun ; and by these the sufferer feels himself far less aggrieved. In a quarrel of this kind where swords have been used, if the case be brought to trial, a fine is imposed on the party least wounded large enough to counterbalance the excess of blows or injury received by the other party. The degree of offence, or provocation, or claim, is of no account ; it being taken for granted that nothing can justify a quarrel, and that all such occurrences

must be tried on their own simple merits. -

BEDAWIN RELIGION.

The Muhammedanism of all these sons of the desert sits very loosely upon them. They bear the name of followers of the False Prophet ; and the few re- ligious ideas which they possess are moulded after his precepts. Their nominal religion is a matter of habit, of inheritance, of national prescription ; but they seemed to manifest little attachment to it in itself, and hve in the habitual ne- glect of' most of its external forms. We never saw any among them repeat the usual Muhammedan prayers, in which other Muslims are commonly eo punctual ; and were told, indeed, that many never attempt it, and that very few among them even know the proper words and forms of prayer. The men generally observe the fast of Ramadan, though some do not ; nor do the fe- males keep it. Nor is the duty of pilgrimage more regarded; for, according to Tuweiled, not more than two or three of all the Tawarah had ever made the journey to Mecca. The profaneness of the Bedawin is excessive, and almost incredible. " Their mouth is full of cursing," and we were hardly able $o obtain a single answer that did not contalu 111

We asked the Superior of the convent, whether the Bedawl would feel any objection to professing Christianity? His reply was, " None at all: they would do it tomorrow, if they could get fed by it."