IN THE WAKE OF THE RISING SUN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 11, 14 March 1901, Page 3

IN THE WAKE OF THE RISING SUN.

(By ' VIATOK.')

Damascus, December 12, 1900. Since Thursday morning, December 6, we tread the sacred, historic sou of Canaan— a land redolent of the earliest memories, the theatre of God s active, visible dealings with man, the scene of the most tragic and thrilling events in history, sacred and profane, the Promised Land of the chosen people, a land flowing with milk and honey. From the time God blessed Moan after the Deluge therein no rr-ord that the Divine Voice was heard by man till He appeared to Abraham when he dwelt in Mesopotamia. Four hundred years after the covenant with Noah and his seed the word of the Lord came unto the son of Thare, descendant of Sem • 'Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father a house into a land that I will thow thee ; and I will make of thee a great nation and I will bless tbee. . . and in thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. 1 ' And Abraham departed as the Lord hath spoken to him. Abraham went forth, therefore, to \ a v n t Canaan - And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the Lord appeared to Abraham and said • " Unto thy seed will I give this land " (Gen. xii). And then Abraham built an altar to the Lord. This, then, is the consecrated soil ou which we at length stood in wonder and thankfulness. Critics of the finical school may take exception to the headioe I continue to use in these hasty notes put together at odd momenta of rest and leisure from tras-el and sightseeing ; but I would forestall the possible objection by stating that on proceeding south from Egypt we shall, still, in wending our way east through Syria and I alestine, travel towards the dawn, and ho justify our title 'In the Wake of the Rising Sun.' I would also prescind against too high expectation on the part of your readers who- may follow these jottings. Learned works there are of critical and historic worth bearing on the places made sacred in the Holy Land by the footprints of the Man God, by His prototypes in times past, by His heralds in apostolic days. Disability apart, nor time, nor opportunity is available for much work. My aim and object are to set down, from a pilgrim's standpoint, tbe impressions made as we visit scenes of the highest interest to Catholics, and to try to make your readers share in some meaßure the privileges and delight of our journey. This is my objective.

BEYBOUT After two days of quarantine, and due and jealous scrutiny of our passports we are given pratique and laud on December 6 in high spirits in Bey rout at the fcot of the Lebanon hills. The day we turn to account in true disciplinary energy by a visit to the city, the bazaars, the churches and other centres of interest in the headquarters of the Canaanite. Here we found French second only to the Arabic language, with a thin smattering of English. The big majority of the inhabitants— some 90,000— are ChristiansLatins, Greeks, Maronites, Syrians, Armenians; while there are only about 3(3,000 Moslem-. AH honor to the Jesuit Fathers, the Lazansts, the Sinters of Charity, the Sisters of Xazareth and other communities for the excellent work they do in the up-bringing of the youth of this place There in a Latin Archbishop with title of Papal Delegate of Syria. The city, elegantly perched on the slopes of Raa Beirut facing the sea, rises tier above tier to the plateau above. By evening light the crimson and purple tints of the mountain settling on the deep blue of the sea, glinting off the red roofs of the nestling hou«e~s dying away in the haze of gathering shadows, make the picture of the prettiest. In full bloom are the anemone, convolvulus, crocus, cyclamen and other rich tinted flowers, and orange groves bending low under their weight of golden fruit stretch away over thp plain. The University of St. Joseph at Beyrout conducted by the Jesuits is an institution connoting the characteristic energy and ability and enterprise that mark the works of the great Company of Jesus. We were kindly shown over this vast establishment— the result of years of assiduous toil. Primary schools, secondary college, ecclesiastical seminary, medical school, chemical laboratory each separate and distinct, cluster round the University, which thus throws its protecting aegid over some 1.500 pupils. Attached to the University is a printing press which, we saw, turning out printed matter in French, English and Arabic in quite new and modern style The morning of the sixth saw us off by train en route to Baalbek and Damascus. The climb up the ranges reminded us of the Rimutuka railway, and gave us over the bay in the brilliant morning light the loveliest glimpses of scenery. Some barren reaches of rock and sand were passed as we climbed Mount Lebanon and then we take to the high road for Baalbek. Our Moslem Jehu whipped his willing roadsters into a lively pace and rattled through the villaee, mid a bewildering crowd of camels and asses and dusk forms relieved in kaleidoscope by crimson fezzes and white turbans and many colored flowing robes of black and blue and red and yellow. Little Mohammedan hamlets of mud-built huts, flatroofed and unchimneyed looked down from the gentle rise or peeped out from the lee of the hills further away where droves of cattle, and yellow goats, and fat-tailed sheep browzed undisturbed under the watch of much-mantled Ehepherds. It was cold between the hills, and the 30 miles posting to Baalbek has little of interest to show, leastways in winter time. The ruins of a watch tower off the road, rising in gross monoliths are warning ua that we 'are coming near to the ruined city of BAALBEK. A good two hours is still in hand, and keen as pointers for frame, we pull ourselves together, and under the guidance of a local archaeologist we make for the ruins now standing out giant and gaunt in clear silhouette against the heavens. If all the ruinß of ancient and modern Rome, it is authoritatively stated, were

grouped together, they would not in volume or extent equal the ruins of Baalbek. Been at first in all their colossal grandeur, these ruins are magnificent, stupendous, awe-inspiring, unique, desolate. ' No, not in Egypfß ruined land, Nor 'mid the Grecian Isles, Tower monuments so vast, so grand, As Baalbek's early piles.' On the watershed, dividing the rivers Litany and Orontes, nearly 4000 ft above the sea rise the rniis of Baalbek. The Baalpod of Joßhua, the City of the Sun, or Heliopolis of the Greeks, was once a magnificent and flourishing city. ' All aro gone one by one, Save the temples of our sires. 1 Though poverty, lethargy, decay are written big on the brows of those who eke out life round about the fallen city, still the Cyclopean masonry, the mammoth columns, the fluted pillars, the tracery of pediment and capital, the bold and noble arches— all tell in no halting language the magnificence and competency of those who in days gone by ruled and lived in Baalbek— Persian, Greek, Roman, Arab, Tartar— all have passed here in turn — all have left footprints on the sand. For centuries the Temple of the Sun, the Temple of Jupiter, and the Circular Temple have been the wonder of the world, and even now — at the end, in the last and dying hours, of a century of seething energy and mechanical and scientific progress — these fallen columns, and lonely pillars, keen cut against the sky, the ghosts and shadows of departed greatness, rising still in mute ambition on the slope of the Anti-Lebanon Hills, extort from the traveller the ungrudged tribute of awe and reverence. 'Baalbek is included among the most ancient citieß of the world. All the nations that in turn took possession have dated its foundation from time immemorial. According to the legends passed down in the ages, Adam and the Patriarchs inhabited the conntry round about Baalbek. Adam lived in Damascus and died at Zebe"dani. quite near ; Abylene, as the name shows, was the scene of the murder of Abel ; Nebi Schitt was the residence of Seth ; Noah was buried at Karak-Neuh and his son Shem at Ham ; Cain, in consequence of the curse fallen on him. constructed the tower and fortress of Baalbek to serve him an a place of refuge.' ' While Moslem tradition as-erts that Abraham reigned at Damascus, and that Baalbek was his residence ; that Solomon too had a magnificent castle built at Baalbek, the Christians of the Levant recognise in Baalbek the forest of Libanus where Solomon had a magnificent edifice constructed.' — (Alouf). From the above it will be gathered that for its ancestral claims the ruined city of Baalbek has a proud pedigree to boast of. 4 The huge blocks of these primeval constructions ( Baalbek), without' any claim to architectural style and capable of defying the onslaught of every century, carry us back to the remotest era of time. Such marvellous edifices in question only teach that here at Baalbek a race of giants worshipped the Sun God. Hidden at the foot of mountains, protected by Libanus against pirates from the sea, and by Anti-Libanus against the surprises of buccaneers from the East, Baalbek was a city and eanctuary for the worship of Baal, whose mysteiieH must ever remain hidden by an impenetrable veil. Baalbek was ever a great religious centre, a renowned sanctuary of Baal, the capital of a priestly *Ute. Reluctant to surrender its position of grandeur and activity to the neighbouring towns, it profited by the religious veneration with which it inspired them, and by their gifts and their resources, whereby were erected these gigantic, enduring monuments, the ruins of which are to all generations a source of admiration and wonder.' (Alouf). Baalbek has long been, and as I surmise, will long continue to be the favourite tilting ground of archaeologist and antiquarian, and while their researches have shed so far no fierce white light of historic truth on the origin of the ruined city, still much gain has accrued to our store of ancient knowledge from the untiring efforts of those whope leisure and ta«te lea-l them to devote to a fascinating subject their undoubted industry and ability. As Horace wrote :—: — ' Grammatici certant et adhuc sub judioe lis est ! The acropolis, commonly called Kalaat, composed of a series of of temples, showing five terraces of deft and splendid sculpture, is a masterpiece of Greek architecture. The perfection of art and proof of prodigious strength are here seen at their best. Running underneath is a subterrauean passage 28 feet in height. Several keystones of vaults bear inscriptions and figures of deities ; and niches without end testify to the numbers of gods set up here for minor adoration and cult. BOME OF THE RUINS. ' The great Temple of the Sun, the largest and most celebrated of antiquity, and magnificient still in its rninß is the structure that gave its name to the town of Baalbek or Heliopolis. Measuring 310 ft in length from east to west by 1 48 ft in breadth, it was enclosed by 54 unfluted columns in Corinthian etyle, 8 columns in front and 19 on each side. Of these, however, only six are standing. The others are lying on the ground h) attered and broken. Each column is composed of three enormous blocks, resting on a huge base, and is surmounted by a Corinthian capital of entablature, frieze, and cornice glistening with sculpture in which acanthuß leaves, miniature lions and bulls, and tiny roses are well in evidence. To describe the great court or Pantheon, the small Temple of Jupiter, the Arabic Citudel, the Temple of Venus, the Necropolis, is beyond the purpose of these notes. Let me only add, as showing beyond yea or nay, the stupendous proportions of these structures, that the Cyclopean Wall of the Temple of Baal is a " trilithon," composed, as its name indicates, of three blocks of hewn stone of phenomenal eize, laid on a bans of six blocks, nearly as large, at the height of 28 feet above the level of the ground. The first of the three, on the right, meipures (>sft in length ; the second, 64ft 10m ; the third 63ft 2in, all 13It 6in in height and doubtless the Baine in depth.

Henoe each block has a volume of from 323 to 328 cubic metres, and a weight of about 707 tons. Putting seventy of these stones end to end they would extend olose on a mile in length. In spite of their immense size these stones are so aacurately put in position and so carefully joined that it would be almost impossible to insert a sheet of paper between them. No description can oonvey a shadow of the over-weighting effect produced by their stupendous size, or a tithe of the veneration felt for the hands which in the long, long ago adjusted them in permanent position. Though shaken by earthquakes, uotably in 175<t. many ot the pillars still remain in position monuments of power energy and mechanical force, rive uiiuutta' walk trom the village in Htiil ueei ttie quarry from which these stones for the temple were hewn. Still seeu there are blocks vertically hewn, which were intended for the temple and ramparts. At the entrance to the quarry, not far from the road, is the enormous stone Hagar-el-Houbla, never lifted from its resting place, though hewn and squared. It measures 69ft in length, 15ft lOln in breadth, and 13ft lOin in height, making a solid weight of 915 tons. How and by what mechanical means these stones were moved to the city and accurately and elegantly put in position is a problem that atill exercises and defeats the ingenuity of scientist and expert. To move the last-mentioned stone, it has been oaloulated, would need the united efforts of 40,000 men. Our astonishment still grows when we look at the high position these miniature mountains were moved to, and the accuracy with which they were laid in position. In the silence of the evening, when darkness was faintly dispelled by the struggling gleams of pale moonlight, fascination prevailed, and we gravitated towards the pile of ruins that, like giant spectres, gaunt and towering, stood out across the hill. The picture and the effect were intensified in the shadows of night : • For the gay beams of lightsome day Gild but to flout the ruins grey.' Pillar and column and arch and broken wall, dismantled, crumbling, defiant withal of the ravages of ages, wrought an impresssion not soon to be blotted out. As under a spell we gazed ' and still the wonder grew,' as though the flickering shadows mantled betimes in sable pall of night, lintel and frieze land architrave, and peristyle and entablature and grinning gargoyle looked down from the fixity of ages in gloomy triumph over the havoc of time, ' majestic tho' in ruins.' In fancy we peopled the courts with the busy forms and busy brains and deft hands and brawny arms that away in the dawn of ages left to feebler generations monuments that stand out M imperishable memories to heroes of toil. On our way to our hotel, we called on the local Maronite priest to make arrangements for morning Mass, for was not the morrow to be the feast bo dear to us, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Our Blessed Lady ? With Syrian courtesy he received us in his humble room, made us welcome, passed us the cigarette of peaoe and conversed with us for a time in broken French. The churoh was at our disposal. Early next morning, while the dim dawn had hardly broken, we were at the church and satisfied our devotions bef' re resuming our three houra' drive to Muallaiiu.