Moslems. I may not have given it precisely, but it was something not less ridiculous. The Bible account was well enough in its day, but the Moslems have "changed all that," and now they have the body of Moses just where they want it for their own purposes, and what those purposes are is quite evident — it is to make a shrine that should excite Moslem devotion. They saw how the pilgrimages to Jerusalem reanimated the spirit of Christian believers; how it strengthened their faith and kindled their zeal. As a counterpoise to this influence, which they knew not how to resist, some wise old Mollahs, who lived here six hundred years ago, hit upon the happy expedient of setting up a shrine of their own, which should have equal attractions with that of the Holy Sepulchre. For this it was only necessary to have the potent name of a prophet as a spell to conjure by, and who so great as "My Lord Moses," whose name was held in reverence alike by Moslems, Jews, and Christians? To make the opposition more effective, they fixed the time of pilgrimage in the Holy Week, when the Christians should be thronging the streets of Jerusalem; so that at the very moment that they were coming in at the Jaffa gate on one side, the Moslems should be coming out at St. Stephen's gate on the other. We shall meet crowds of them on our way this morning.
Leaving the tomb of Moses, we turn up the mountain side. The air of the hills stirs our blood, and we quicken our horses' steps. But whoever comes up this road should not ride so fast as not to pause now and then, and turn back to take one more look at a landscape, which he will remember for a life-time.
We are now on one of the great roads of Palestine, which in ancient times, as it led directly to the heart of the country, often resounded with the tramp of armed men.
