Volume 2

138
Life of Jesus Christ
before reaching a crossing place. There was no ferryman,
but only a raft of beams, something like a gridiron, which
lay on the shore for the accommodation of travellers.
Toward noon the little troop reached Adama, which was
hemmed in on all sides by water. On the eastern side of
the city lay Lake Merom. The city was surrounded by a
stream, which was at five different points crossed by
bridges. At the bathing gardens, the stream again united
with the lake. The steep shores of the low lake were
covered with thick reeds and undergrowth, and its waters
were muddy except in the middle where those of the Jordan
flowed. The country around was infested by wild
beasts.
As Jesus, with the disciples, approached the bathing
garden near the city, several distinguished men of the
place came forward to meet Him. They had been awaiting
His coming in the garden. They conducted Him into the
city and to a large open square, in the center of which
stood the governor's palace. It had a spacious forecourt,
on both sides of which and in the rear ran rows of low
buildings. The court was cut off from the street by a railing
of shining metal lllade into various colored plates.
Here they washed the feet both of Jesus and the disciples,
brushed and shook their mantles, and presented them with
a luncheon of small fruits and herbs. It was an old custom
of the people of Adama to conduct all that visited their
city to this castle, where they interrogated them. If they
were pleased with them, they treated them hospitably in
the hope of attracting blessings upon themselves; but if
they were not favorably impressed by their guests, they
did not hesitate to cast them into prison. Adama, with
about twenty little districts, belonged to a province under
the jurisdiction of one of the Herods. The inhabitants of
the city were Samaritan Jews who, in consequence of their
schism, had embraced sundry perverse notions. Still, there
was no idolatry practiced among them, and heathens liv­