THE SAMARITAN PASSOVER OF THE YEAK 1861. 



213 



they would l)e exti-emely likely to remove any difficulty they could, 

 and the groat prohahility is that while it was in the hands of the 

 Israelitish scholars, they removed whatever they thought not to be 

 quite grammatical. 



The Chairmax. — That is interesting. I am sure I may thank 

 Canon Garratt in all your names for his address this evening. 



I will now ask Canon Hammond if he will he so kind as to read 

 his interesting narrative concerning the Samaritan Passover of the 

 year 1861. 



The Chair having been vacated bv Canon Girdlestone and taken by 

 Rev. John Tuckwell, the following paper, entitled "The Samaritan 

 Passover of the year 1861," by Eev. Canon Hanimord, LL.B., was then 

 read by the Author : — 



^^-Q. II. 



THE SA3IARITAN PASSOVER OF THE YEAR 186L 

 By Eev. Canon Hammond, LL.B. 



WHEX I was in Jerusalem in the Spring of 1861 — forty- 

 three years ago — I came into close contact with two 

 German scholars, who were busy on the text of that Samaritan 

 Pentateuch of which you have just heard. I think, but I am 

 not sure, that it was then that I realized for the first time that 

 there were Samaritans still in the world, as well as Jews — 

 lineal descendants of those same Samaritans of whom w^e read 

 in the Gospels. Anyhow, I soon became deeply interested, 

 both in them and in their institutions, and when, a few weeks 

 afterwards, I reached their ancient and only home, ]Sral)lus, and 

 found that their Passover — a rite which very few Europeans 

 had then seen — was to be celebrated in a week's time, I had no 

 difficulty in persuading my travelling companions to iill up 

 that week with an expedition to Cctsarea and Carmel, and to 

 return with me to Xablus to " Keep the feast," wdiich is held 

 on the summit of ]\Iount Gerizim, where once their schismati- 

 cal temple stood. After some hard riding, we pitched our 

 tents in the Vale of Shechem, at about 3 o'clock in the after- 

 noon of the appointed day, and as the Passover is killed " at 

 the going down of the sun," we lost no time in ascending the 



