From the bed of the Kidron Valley to the Bethany Road on the crest of the hill, and from the “Pillar of Absalom” to the village of Siloam, is the cemetery of the Jews. Each grave is marked with a plain slab imbedded in the earth, and bears a Hebrew inscription. National love and religious superstition induce the descendants of Abraham to seek a place of sepulture within this vale. Expecting the restoration of their kingdom, they desire to sleep in death beneath the sceptre of their posterity. Believing that the final judgment will take place here, and that to have a part in the resurrection of the just they must here be interred, in their old age many come from distant lands to be entombed beside their countrymen. If so unfortunate as to expire in a strange land, they die in the faith that their bodies will burrow their way through the earth to this consecrated spot. Here, morning and evening, venerable men prostrate themselves upon the ground in anticipation of death, and hither Jewish women come to weep over buried affection.
Illustration: TOMBS IN THE VALLEY OF JEHOSHAPHAT.
On the opposite side of the valley, covering all that portion of Mount Moriah not included within the Haram wall, is a Moslem cemetery of great age. The graves are covered with two layers of hewn stone, with an open space between them in the centre, and ornamented with two upright shafts, one at either end. The material is limestone, and, according to a custom prevalent in Eastern countries, the tombs are whitewashed, illustrating the appropriateness of the Savior’s comparison when he likened the Scribes and Pharisees unto “whited sepulchres.”[142]
While standing here a funeral procession came out of St. Stephen’s Gate. The bier was borne upon the shoulders of men, and, in marching to the grave, the procession rushed on tumultuously, chanting, in a low monotone, “God is God, and Mohammed is his prophet.” Believing there is virtue in bearing the dead to the tomb, each man in rapid succession became a pall-bearer. Being persons of different height, the corpse rose and fell according to the altitude of the bearer. On reaching the grave a confused circle was formed, a funeral hymn was chanted, and, after the interment of the dead, an almoner, who had been appointed by the deceased, distributed paras to the throng of beggars who always attend funerals.