The Innocents Abroad

Chapter 52

The narrow canon in which Nablous, or Shechem, is situated, is under high

cultivation, and the soil is exceedingly black and fertile. It is well

watered, and its affluent vegetation gains effect by contrast with the

barren hills that tower on either side. One of these hills is the

ancient Mount of Blessings and the other the Mount of Curses and wise men

who seek for fulfillments of prophecy think they find here a wonder of

this kind--to wit, that the Mount of Blessings is strangely fertile and

its mate as strangely unproductive. We could not see that there was

really much difference between them in this respect, however.

Shechem is distinguished as one of the residences of the patriarch Jacob,

and as the seat of those tribes that cut themselves loose from their

brethren of Israe