Book Description

Excerpt from Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Vol. 2 of 2: Comprising Recollections, Sketches, and Reflections, Made During a Tour in the East I passed the evening and night in the Desert of St. John, to take leave of our excellent Monks, whose remembrance will always accompany us. The recollection of virtues, humble, but perfect, remains in the soul like the perfumed odors of a temple. We left, with these good fathers, an alms, barely sufficient to indemnify them for the expenses we had occasioned them: the risks they had to run for us they reckoned as nothing: they entreated me to recommend them to the protection of the terrible Abougosh, whom I was to sec again at Jeremy. We set oft' before daybreak to avoid the importunities of the Bedouins of Bethlehem, of the Desert, and of St. John, who ceased not to follow, and even began to menace me. At eight in the morning we had crossed the high mountains crowned by the tombs of the Maccabees, and were seated under the fig trees of Jeremy, smoking our pipes, and taking coffee with Abougosh, his uncle, and his brothers. Abougosh lavished new marks of respect and kindness on me. He offered me a horse, which I refused, as I determined not to make him a present of any sort, lest it should be construed an acknowledgment of the tribute he commonly imposed on pilgrims-a tribute from which Ibrahim had released them. I placed the monks of St. John, of Bethlehem, and of Jerusalem, under his protection. I have since found that he really went and delivered them from the annoyances of the Bedouins of the Desert. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.