EASTER WEEK.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17077, 14 April 1927, Page 3

EASTER WEEK.

THE SAMARITAN PASSOVER WORSHIP ON MOUNT GERIZIIW. AN ANCIENT RACE. (By 11. C. Luke.) Picture a valley flanked on the north by a mountain covered with prickiy pear, on the south by one of a most equal height with occasional- Patches of cultivation struggling through 11 c stones, a valley containing at us straightcst part, where the ovver slopes of the two mountains almost, meet, a town of tall stone houses o great age. The town is compressed by the walls of the valley into a shape peculiarly long and narrow, and on y to the south-west does it hurst Jis geographical bonds by throwing a feeler into a cleft of the southern mountain. This feeler, the poorest and remotest quarter of the town, lias a significance which owes nothing to material considerations, for it contains in the black tunnels that do service as its streets, in its crabbed and tortuous little alleys, all that is left of the oldest and the smallest sect in the world. Here, in a few houses huddled around a plain little synagogue, 132 Samaritans preserve a flicker of life in a people once numerous and powerful, a people whose separate history goes back to the days of the Babylonian captivity. And the Samaritans' antiquity as a people, impressive though it be, is as nothing'compared with that of the city they live in. Although their ancient stronghold now bears a name which means "New Town" —for Nablus is but an Arabic corruption of Ncapolis, the title bestowed upon Shechcm more than IS centuries ago—Shcchcrn was already known when Abraham and his household, having departed out of Haram, went forth into the land of Canaan "unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh." It was an inhabited place when Jacob spread his tent in its fields and there set up his altar. Here the children of Israel buried the bones of Joseph "in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechcm for a hundred pieces of silver," the reputed tomb being shown to this day in the outskirts of Nablus; here Joshua assembled all the congregation of Israel to hoar the law of Moses, making of the northern mountain, Ebal, the mountain of curses, of the southern, Gerizim, the mountain of blessings. And, later, it was in Shechcm that Itohoboam forfeited by his folly the allegiance of the northern tribes and brought about the division of his people between the kingdoms of Israel and Judali.

The Holy Mountain. It is amid surroundings preserving a continuity with some of the earliest incidents of recorded history that the Samaritans have struggled doggedly to maintain, in the face of many obstacles and tribulations, their sad and precarious existence. Ever at enmity with the Jews, since these, on their return from captivity, rejected their advances, they have adhered to Mount Gerizim as the one true site for {'he temple of Jehovah, as the only lawful qibleh. To the Samaritans Moriah is not Zion but their own .Moreh, and they have never ceased to regard Jerusalem and its temple as the shrine of a heretical people. With the exception of a dozen souls dwelling in the neighbouring I own of Till Keram and of a similar number in Jaffa, they have not bc(jn heard of outside Nablus

for several centuries, yet time was when they were many and truculent withal. In the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Zeno they fell upon the Christians, being punished for this act by their expulsion from Mount Gerizim; in the reign of Justinian they killed the Bishop of Ncapoiis, massacred all priests and monks who fell into their hands, and burned the churches between Bethlehem and Beisan. Justinian's reprisals drove the Samaritan army across Jordan, where it was annihilated, 20,000 Samaritan prisoners being sold into Persia and India, while others embraced Christianity. When Rabbi Benjamin of Tudeia travelled in Palestine and Syria In the 12th century he found only 1000 Samaritans in all, scattered between Nablus and Ascaion, Caesarea and Damascus; and. after the battle of Hattln, tile sect fell on yet more evil clays. From that time onward the survivors have scarcely ventures beyond Nablus, where they have clung to life for the pursuit of two ideals: to perpetuate the existence of their race, and to maintain their worship on Mount Gerizim. On three- occasions in the year do the Samaritans repair In pilgrimage to their holy mountain, a mountain so sacred that, according to their belief, the waters of the Flood refrained from covering it. The Feasts of Weeks and of Tabernacles arc celebrated on its slopes, but the most solemn occasion is the Passover, when the entire community, men, women, and children, sound and sick, walk, ride, or are carried, to their camping place on a ridge below I lie summit. Hero some 40 tents have, been spread around, a piece of ievei ground that lias been cleared as far as possible of the stones that abound on Gerizim, and here, for the ensuing week nil that Is left of Ibis little people takes up its habitation, a religious encampment that suggests those of the Exodus or the book of Numbers, For the Samaritans' dress Is probably not dissimilar from that worn by the Israelites in tho days of Iho Patriarchs, and they have preserved, by (heir jeajous refusal to intermarry with strangers, a Biblical physiognomy that accords well with the only blood saeriflco still offered to Jehovah.

Tho Sacrifice. By sunset of tho cvo of tho Passover preparations for tho sacrifice aro complete, Reside tho camping placo is a small, obic-ng plot of ground, marked out with a Jow rubblo wall os a prayer enclosure; here a trench has been dug, while on a rough altar of unhewn stone water is being boiled in copper cauldrons. A few yards away, excavated in a piece of higher ground, is a round pit or kiln, some (> feet in deptii and lined with stones, where the sheep are to bo roasted after having been slaughtered on the altar, and this is being brought to the requisite state of heat by the burning of brushwood inside it. Tho animals, each one /'a lamb without blemish, a male of tho first year," which up to this time has been browsing unconoernedly about tho camp, are now being collected by tho young men and brought to the altar, and the worshippers proceed to tho first part of the service, consisting of the "sacrificial prayers." Clothed for this occasion in robes of white linen ,lhey face the rock on the summit of (Jerizim which marks tho site of the Holy of Holies of the Samaritan temple, the High Priest taking his place at tho head of the congregation'. It is to be noted thai each man, before praying, performs ablutions similar to the ritual ablutions of Moslems, that he stands on a prayer-rug or cloth, and Ibat he prostrates himself at certain parts of (he services with his forehead touching tho ground in precisely the same manner as does the Moslem. These practices, together with several Samaritan liturgical for-

mulae which have curiously exact counterparts in the Ooran, suggest that the Samaritans have made substantial contributions to the ceremonies and devotions of Islam. As the sun drops to the horizon the High Priest turns to face the congregation and begins to read the twelfth chapter of Exodus, so timing himself that the passage "and the whole congregation or Israel shall kill it" is reached as the sun disappears. At the word "kill" each of the three ritual slaughterers, who have been standing over the lambs, swiftly cuts one throat and then jumps to tfae next animal for the same purpose. To the spectator unaccustomed to such sights this process, and the animals' ensuing deathstruggles, can hardly be said to afford a pretty spectacle, but to the assembled Samaritans the cutting of each throat is the signal for an outburst of joy, the people shouting, singing, and clapping their hands. A young priest now collects some of the paschal blood in a basin, stirs it with a bunch of wild thyme, and daubs with it the lintel of every tent, in accordance with the injunction of Exodus xii., 22. Next, boiling water is poured over the lambs, so that the wool can be plucked off; for the skin is left intact in order to protect the flesh in the oven. As soon as the animals have been fleeced they undergo a rigorous ritual inspection, and any that are found to be not absolutely flawless are rejected. Now comes the actual sacrifice to the Almighty. The viscera, fat, and kidneys of the animals are collected and placed upon the altar, beneath which the fire is kindled anew, and here the burnt offering remains until it is entirely consumed. Meanwhile the carcases have been prepared for the oven. From the hind quarters one particular sinew has been removed, in accordance witli Genesis xxxii., 32 (for the Samaritans claim to know the very tendon which was touched by the angel in the hollow of Jacob's thigh), and much salt is rubbed into the flesh in obedience jto Leviticus ii., 13. The animals arc then spitted and lowered into the kiln, by this time red hot, the top being sealed with a wickcrwork lid covered with earth. While this is being done the worshippers shout aloud: "There is no God but one," a phrase significant as the prototype, in all probability,,of the Moslem profession of faith: "la illaha ilia 'llah."

More prayers and readings now occupy the time until the meat is cooked, and in the course of these the High Priest raises aloft before the people one of their scrolls of the Pentateuch, all of the Scriptures that the Samaritans accept. Then, when the lambs have been sufficiently roasted, the oven is opened, the meat is distributed

and eaten "in haste . . . with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs"; and the ancient rite is brought to its dose.