Vol. XXXVII, No. 1 WASHINGTON 



January, 1920 



Ti 



ATflOMAL 



AGAZH 



COPYRIGHT. 1919. BY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY 



GTON. D C. 



THE LAST ISRAELITISH BLOOD SACRIFICE 



How the Vanishing Samaritans Celebrate the Passover 

 on Sacred Mount Gerizim 



By John D. Whiting 



Author op "From Jerusalem to Aleppo," "Village Life in the Holy Land," and 

 "Jerusalem's Locust Plague," in the National Geographic Magazine 



Illustrated with the only set of night photographs ever taken of tliis ancient cere- 

 mony, and numerous other unique pictures, by the American 

 Colony Photographers, Jerusalem, Palestine 



SHECHEM, Samaria, and Neapolis 

 were once great cities of the ancient 

 civilized world. Today their glory 

 and importance are no more, save in his- 

 tory. Here alone we find a dying and al- 

 most extinct community of Samaritans, 

 the remnant of a once numerous sect, 

 whose persistent continuation and literal 

 performance of the Passover Sacrifice 

 have attracted the attention of students 

 for more than three centuries. 



Nablus, the modern Shechem, the only 

 home of the Samaritans of today, is a 

 town of about 27,000 inhabitants, lying 

 some forty miles north of Jerusalem. The 

 population is chiefly Moslem, the remain- 

 der being composed of various Christian 

 sects, together with a mere handful of 

 Samaritans. But as yet no Jew has set- 

 tled there, the Biblical axiom still holding 

 good, "for the Jews have no dealings with 

 the Samaritans." 



Besides being a center of trade, Nablus 

 has gained a little fame for its soap, made 

 of pure olive oil, a variety which, though 

 crudely manufactured, is used almost ex- 

 clusively by the people of the city, and is 



much prized by the natives of Syria and 

 Egypt. 



The town nests in a confined valley run- 

 ning east and west, between twin moun- 

 tains — Ebal, some 3,000 feet above sea- 

 level, which looms up on the north, and 

 the lesser Gerizim, about 150 feet lower, 

 which closes in on the south, with its base 

 in places only a few hundred yards from 

 that of its mate. 



From the lower slopes of Gerizim issue 

 numerous and copious springs. The mod- 

 ern town has therefore crept up in their 

 direction. These waters, after filling the 

 demand made upon them by the city, find 

 their way into extensive gardens to the 

 west, where flourish fig trees, laden with 

 delicious fruit, pomegranates hung with 

 scarlet bloom and fruit, yellow quinces, 

 walnuts, mulberries, olives, and occasional 

 bitter-orange trees raised for the perfume 

 extracted from the flowers. Among the 

 trees many varieties of vegetables grow in 

 abundance. 



The houses of the town are dome- 

 roofed and lattice-windowed, constructed 

 from the soft, white limestone of Mount 



