Besides the sacred seasons already mentioned, they have two others of less important character. The first is Reosh-ashena, Rosh-haskanah of the Jews, the begin- ning of the year. It is held, not on the first day of Tishri, the beginning of the civil year, but on the first day of Nisan, the commencement of their ecclesiastical year. The day is not kept sacred, for they all follow their usual vocations; they simply attend a short ser- vice in the svnagogue both morning and evening. The next is Punm, not, like that of the Jews, held in the month Adar to commemorate the national deliverance through queen Esther, but held in the preceding month, Shebat, in commemoration of the mission of Moses to deliver the Israelites out of Egypt.
4. Sacred Places. — The religious rites of Palestine, whether performed in honor of the true God or that of idols, were celebrated from the earliest ages on the top of the highest mountains. The Hebrew lawgiver felt it necessary to enjoin on the Israelites the duty of de- stroying all these sacred high places on their coming into possession of the land (Deut. xii, 2-6); but so deeply rooted was this form of worship in the religious feelings of Israel, as of the surrounding nations, that it proved a snare to them for many ages. It Avas these early sympathies that made jMount Gerizim so sacred to the children of Ephraim ever since the conquest, and in the same spirit have the Samaritans regarded it through all ages even to this day. Their great holy place is Gerizim. This mountain they hold to be the earth's centre, the house of God, the highest moinitain on earth, the onlj' one not covered by the flood, the site of altars raised by Adam, Seth, and Noah, the Momit Moriah of Abraham's sacrifice, the Bethel or Luz of Ja- cob's vision, and the place where Joshua erected first an altar, next the tabernacle, and finally a temple. On its slope the cave of Makkedah is also shown, though now closed up. Just as the Jew in all parts of the world turns his face in prayer towards the Temple mount at Jerusalem, so does the Samaritan to Gerizim, his temple mount. To him it is "the house of God," "the house of Jehovah," " the moimtain of the world," " God's moun- tain," "the Sanctuary," "the mountain of the Divine Presence," and other such like titles — all flowing from their extravagant notions of its sacredness. They rarely write its name without the addition "the house of God." It was this same spirit that moved the woman of Samaria to answer the Saviour with such an air of pride — "Ourfathersworshipped in this mountain" (John iv, 20). See (JiiHiziM.
But Samaritanism has other holy places. These are the tombs of their early prophets and holy men — viz.
SAMARITANS, MODERN 307 SAMARITANS, MODERN
Joseph, Eleazar, Ithamar, Phinehas, Joshua, Calel), the seventy elders, and Eldad and Medad. All these, ac- cording to their tradition, are buried in the neighbor- hood of Sliechem, and on certain occasions the congre- gation visit them, when portions of the law and prayers are repeated. This is especially the case with the tombs of Phinehas and Eleazar, but even more so with that of Joseph, which they visit frequently.
III. Local Literature. — Before giving a summarj'^ of tlie books of the modern Samaritans, it is necessary to remark that they are, to a certain extent, a trilingual people. Of these languages the first is Hebrew. 'I'lie fact of its being the language of the Law of Moses makes it to them, as to the Jews, the leshon hak-kodesh, or holy tongue. All their sacred books and their religious ser- vices are therefore in Hebrew, although it is to them, with few exceptions, a dead language. The second is the Samaritan. Its basis was the Hebrew, and it was thoroughly Shemitic in framework; but its superstruct- ure contained many anomalies, some of which were harsh and foreign. See Samaritan Language. From what now remains of it, its general construction seems very simple, and not unfrequently lucid and forcible; and, as pronounced by the Samaritans, it is much more euphonious than the Arabic. Soon after the Moham- medan conquest of Palestine, it gradually lapsed into a dead language. The only literature now remaining in it consists of the forms of the Pentateuch and a few other works, above noticed. The third tongue is the Arabic, the language of their conquerors. This soon supplanted the Samaritan, and has ever since remained their vernacular, and most of their works have been translated into Arabic for the sake of such of their peo- ple as understand no other.
It is difficult, at this time, to determine to what ex- tent the ancient Samaritan literature was developed, though there is enough evidence to show that much
^ Z fft'^ :t<(>t^Z '*j/?r^2/<- -rm'^n- •a'*' ■tft^-i<^"^k -A- ^
Specimen of an Ancient Samaritan Pentateuch. (From a Photograph.)
This is part of tlie sn-called " Fire-tried Manuscript," belonging to a poor widow in Jerusa- lem named Mrs. Ducat. She lent it to a German savant named Dr. Jacob Frederick Kraus, and his essay on the manuscript is kept with it. The whole consists of 217 leaves, containing the Torah, or law, from Gen. i, 29 tn the blessing of Moses in Deuteronomy. Six leaves are added in a smaller hand on parchment at the beginning, the first being a!- nost illegible. The real manuscript only begins at Gen. xi,H ; three leaves are added at one for the PaSSOVer; OllC for the day S of