Fain would we have descended into the inclosure on which we had thus been looking down. Fain would we have trod these once sacred courts. Fain would we have entered that jealouslyguarded mosque, and have seen, railed in beneath the mighty dome, the native unhewn rock still projecting upwards from the floor, rough and rugged as it was when it overshadowed, 3000 years ago, the Jebusite's threshing floor. But it could not be. There were now no stairs, as in the days of Paul, leading down from the castle into the temple area; and even had there been, we durst not have descended them. The old and somewhat liberal-minded pasha, who of late years had more than once granted permission to travellers to visit the great mosque, had been recently removed from his post, and his successor had not arrived. There was therefore, at that moment, no official in Jerusalem, as the British consul subsequently told us, competent to issue an order for our admission, even had he been willing to do so. At length, slowly and reluctantly, we left this intensely interesting spot, and again threading our way through the labyrinth of crooked passages, empty rooms, and imperfectly lighted stairs, we regained the street, remounted our horses, and rode on towards the house in which we had been recommended to take up our abode during our stay in Jerusalem. To reach it we returned to the street that leads from St. Stephen's gate right across the city, in a westerly direction, towards the Damascus gate. About 200 yards from this latter gate we turned to the left, up a narrow, dirty lane, such as in this country we might stumble on in the back settlements of some broken-down country village of last century, where paviors, and police regulations, and sanitary commissioners were entirely unknown. half-way up this wretched lane, into which scarce one solitary window opened, we came to a rude outside stair, at the top of which was a clumsy door in a blind wall. was the entrance into Max's private hotel. About This, we were told, a most unpromising look, and yet we found it to contain, at least MAX'S HOTEL. 191 for Syria, a very reasonable amount of comfort within. The door, instead of standing invitingly open, was carefully bolted. Passing through it, we found ourselves upon a sort of corridor, paved with coarse flagstones, and looking down upon a lower court that occupied the centre of the building. A stair from the corridor descended into this lower court, the apartments around which were those occupied by the family of the owner of the hotel, and by the servants. The better apartments, appropriated to travellers, opened into the corridor above. These apartments consisted of four or five bed-rooms, and one good-sized public room, the floor of the inner part of which was raised about a foot higher than the floor of that part which was next the door. This lower end of the apartment formed the dining-room, while the inner, higher, and larger end formed the drawing-room, and was furnished accordingly. It had a vaulted stone roof, and was therefore, even in a very hot day, wonderfully cool. The owner of the house, Mr. Max, a very respectable person, is a Hungarian, who devotes himself to his shop and his trade, as a tailor and clothier, near the Jaffa gate. The management of the hotel is left altogether in the hands of his wife, who is a German, and who proved to be a most kind, obliging, and intelligent woman, familiar with the English language, and a mem ber of the English Protestant church. It is not easy for travellers in this country to understand the delight with which we found ourselves surrounded once more with something like the cleanliness and the comforts of our own western world. Plain and unpretending as were the accommodations of Max's hotel, they appeared luxurious and magnificent in contrast with our up-putting of the previous night upon the Mount of Olives. From the open corridor a ladder and some corbel-steps enabled us at all times to mount to the flat roof of the house. Nor could anything be more enjoyable than to sit there, after the heat of the day was gone, when the long shadows were falling from the tall and slender minarets of the surrounding mosques, from the lofty campaniles of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and from the massive dome of the Kubbet-esSukkrah; when the heights of Olivet, towering up in front of us, were glowing with the golden rays of the setting sun, and the far off but majestic mountains of Moab, robed in the purple glories of evening, were fading away into the coming night. It was, if possible, a greater luxury still, to sit there when night had already fallen, and when the rising moon had begun to peer over the dark shoulder of Olivet, and to ruminate on the impressive scene that lay around us. The countless little tomb-like domes upon the house-tops, rising above the darkness, and touched by the moon's pale light, gave to the city, at such a moment, the aspect of a vast Oriental churchyard, a city of the dead. And dead it truly is, as to all that once made it so unspeakably grand and glorious as the city of David—the place of the tabernacles of the Most High. How unmeet is it now to be the emblem of that other city, infinitely grander and more glorious still, of which an ancient and unknown minstrel so sweetly sung; as that city which No candle needs, no moon to shine, No glistering stars to light; For Christ, the King of righteousness, The Lamb unspotted, white and pure, Of light, so great the glory is There love and charity doth reign, Whom they most perfectly behold In glory spiritual. They love, they praise; they praise, they love; They "Holy, Holy," cry: They neither toil, nor faint, nor end, But laud continually. CHAPTER V. Visit the excavations beneath the city and the tombs of the kings-A Sabbath in Jerusalem - The English church on Mount Zion-Bishop Gobat-His mission and schools, and the recent controversies regarding him-The Jews in Jerusalem-Their synagogues-Their social and religious condition - Their place of wailing beneath the wall of the temple court-Ancient remains in that neighbourhood-An excursion to Bethlehem-Places on the way-Valley of Rephaim-Well of the Magi-Convent of Mar-Elias-Rachel's tomb-Zelzah-Bethlehem— Church of the Nativity The town itself-Its mission-school-The field of the Shepherds - David's Well-The Hebron road to the pools of Solomon-Antiquity and extent of these works-Return to Jerusalem by Urtas, the gardens of Solomon-Trace the course of the conduit from the pools to Jerusalem. IN describing the struggles of that desperate remnant of the Jews who continued to hold out against the Romans, even after Titus had gained complete possession both of the temple and the city, Josephus tells us, in his well-known history of that memorable siege, that the last hope of the survivors "was in the caves and caverns under ground." Secreted there beneath the foundations of Jerusalem, "they did not expect to be searched for, but endeavoured that, after the whole city should be destroyed, and the Romans gone away, they might come out again and escape from them." He adds that "this was no better than a dream of theirs, for they were not able to lie hid, either from God or from the Romans." The caverns, he informs us, were discovered, and "there were also found slain there above 2000 persons, partly by their own hands, and partly by one another but chiefly by the famine."* * Wars, book vi. chap. vii. 3; chap. ix. 4. Vague traditions as to these caverns had come down to modern times, but little or nothing was known regarding them, till within the last few years. In 1853, Dr. J. T. Barclay, a medical gentleman connected with the American mission in Jerusalem, was made aware, by the Nazir Effendi, a Moslem dignitary in Jerusalem, "of the existence of an entrance to a very extensive cave near the Damascus gate, entirely unknown to the Franks." This hint was enough. A party was immediately formed to find out and explore the cave. It was necessary to proceed with the utmost caution, in order to avoid exciting the suspicion of the natives. Provided with lucifer matches, candles, a mariner's compass, tape-line, &c., those who had undertaken the task left the city singly and by different gates, towards the close of the day. Having met at their appointed rendezvous outside the walls, they waited till the night fell. Under cover of the darkness, they then proceeded in search of the cave. The enterprise was crowned with complete success. After groping for some time along the bottom of the wall, the entrance was discovered. The loose stones and earth which blocked it up were removed. One after another they struggled through the narrow aperture, struck their lights, and advanced onwards and downwards, along the numerous galleries and vast cavernous chambers, till they had penetrated far beneath the city. Several travellers had, since that time, visited these excavations, and not more than two hours after entering Jerusalem we sallied forth to attempt the same exploit. Mr. Hefter was again our guide. Issuing by the Damascus gate, and turning to the right we strolled along the path that leads round the outside of the city, at a short distance from the wall. On coming near the place we looked eagerly round to see that no one was in sight. It may seem strange, indeed, that it should ever be possible, during day-light, to escape observation in the immediate vincinity of a large city. But nothing is more remarkable about Jeru * Barclay's City of the Great King, page 459. |