Page:Folk-lore of the Holy Land.djvu/129

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LEGENDS AND ANECDOTES

105

VI

SCRAPS OF UNWRITTEN HISTORY

About a quarter of a mile below the “Bìr Ayûb” near Jerusalem, on the right hand side as one goes down the valley, there is a recess in the bank which, if noticed in dry weather, might be taken for a gravel pit. Here, however, in the rainy season water comes to the surface in considerable quantities. The place is called “’Aïn el Lozeh,” or the Almond Fountain. Many years ago Sir Charles Warren was told by a peasant that, according to tradition, there was a subterranean passage here approached by a stairway cut in the rock, whose lowest steps were of precious metal, and that the staircase and tunnel had been closed by order of the Egyptian Government, because the Egyptian soldiers had often hidden in the tunnel to waylay women who descended in order to fetch water.^[1]

From ’Aïn el Lozeh a pathway runs up the hillside towards the ruins of the village of Beit Sahur, the inhabitants of which fled one night, about eighty years ago, in order to escape the conscription. Since then their descendants have lived as Bedû in the wilderness on the western shores of the Dead Sea.

↑ This is indeed not the exact tradition as related by Sir Charles Warren, but it is what the fellahìn told J. E. Hanauer, and the latter, who was at the time interpreter on Sir C. Warren’s staff, related to him. For a description of the wonderful tunnel which Sir Charles discovered at ’Aïn el Lozeh, see “The Recovery of Jerusalem,” p. 257 ff.

[1] This is indeed not the exact tradition as related by Sir Charles Warren, but it is what the fellahìn told J. E. Hanauer, and the latter, who was at the time interpreter on Sir C. Warren’s staff, related to him. For a description of the wonderful tunnel which Sir Charles discovered at ’Aïn el Lozeh, see “The Recovery of Jerusalem,” p. 257 ff.

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