Testimonies to the fertility of ancient Palestine ... with incidental remarks upon the aspersions of the character of its inhabitants, and of the Jews / [Anon].

  • Peppercorne, James W. (James Watts)
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Testimonies to the fertility of ancient Palestine ... with incidental remarks upon the aspersions of the character of its inhabitants, and of the Jews / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    47/96 (page 41)
    He, very sedately observes, that the parts about Jerusalem ‘‘being described as rocky, and mountainous, have therefore been supposed to be barren : but this is far from “ being the case.” And he pro¬ ceeds to observe that corn, wine, and oil, together with milk, and honey, were the food of the early ages : that the plenty of wine is alone wanting even now, (and wanting it will be as long as Mussul- men abstain from wine;) and that judging from the goodness of the little yet made at Jerusalem and Hebron, it is evident that the mon- tagues pelees, might still be as valuable as formerly. Although little wine is now made in the country, on account of the religious anti¬ pathies of the Mahomedans, Rosenmuller remarks that there yet exist numbers of vineyards. He says, that besides the large quan¬ tities of grapes and raisins, which are daily sent to the markets of Jerusalem and to neighbouring places, Hebron alone in the first half of the 18th Century, annually sent to Egypt three hundred camel¬ loads (i. e. nearly three hundred thousand pounds) of grape-juice, (or honey of raisins.) Frequent mention is made in the Hebrew Writings, of the abun¬ dance of Honey produced in the Holy-Land : and no one denies that it was honey of some sort, which mainly contributed to the subsis¬ tence of the Baptist in the desert. Besides the honey of raisins, above mentioned, there was also the honey of bees, and the honey of the locust-tree, and especially that of the Palm-tree. In speaking of the “ Locust,” (Note 17.) the remarks of Rauwolff are cited, in con¬ firmation of the notion that the Baptist, in all probability, subsisted both on the Honey of Bees, and the Honey of trees. There is the “ Charnubi,” as it is called by the natives, the “ Carob,” or “ St. John’s Bread,”(Ceratonia,) which produces a great quantity of sweet pulpy pods, commonly eaten by the people; and the Hymencea, or “ Honey-Locust,” a fine spreading tree, producing fleshy pods, con¬ taining a sweet farinaceous pulp, which might be termed a honey. St. John might have had, and in all probability did have, recourse to these for food : and the latter tree is still found near the cave and fountain where the Baptist exercised his austerities. The friars there, say, that some of those old Locust-trees are the identical trees which yielded him sustenance: the fruit continues to this day to be gathered by the pilgrims, as a sacred memorial of the murdered as- G