The Real Palestine of ToDay Author:Lewis Gaston Leary General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1911 Original Publisher: John C. Winston Subjects: Palestine History / Middle East / Israel History / Jewish History / Middle East / General Travel / Middle East / General Travel / Middle East / Israel Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. ... more »It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: V THE MYSTERY OF MACHPELAH WHILE I do not retract what was said in an earlier chapter about the safety of travel in Palestine, it should be added that, when visiting the city of Hebron, the tourist should be accompanied by a dragoman (courier), and should exercise more than usual care to avoid offending the sensibilities of the Moslem inhabitants, who are notorious for their fanaticism and insolence. My friend and I had some extra seats in our carriage, so we invited two young Jerusalem acquaintances to accompany us on our trip to Hebron; and we were surprised to find that these boys, though born in Palestine and speaking fluent Arabic, did not want to walk through the city streets until they had found a friendly Moslem to accompany our party. Even then we met with black looks and muttered curses. No traveler should think for a moment of omitting this ancient city from his itinerary: even ladies journeying without male escorts must surely go to Hebron. But the stranger must walk somewhat circumspectly, and must avoid any appearance of irreverence or levity, when visiting the holy places. Indeed, it would be a very light-minded person who could be guilty of irreverence in face of the vast antiquity and sacred history of Hebron. Both Jews and Moslems count it as one of the four sacred cities of the world, which, according to the Jews, are Safed, Tiberias, Jerusalem, Hebron; according to the Moslems, Me...« less