severely beaten; and in the preceding season the privilege of saying mass at the altar on that particular day had been fought for at the door of the sanctuary itself with drawn swords.

Dr. Clarke, whose skepticism in regard to the holy places in the capital has been already mentioned, grants that the tradition respecting the Cave of the Nativity is so well authenticated as hardly to admit of dispute. Having been always held in veneration, the oratory established there by the first Christians attracted the notice and indignation of the heathens so early as the time of Adrian, who, as is elsewhere stated, ordered it to be demolished, and the place to be set apart for the rites of Adonis. This happened in the second century, and at a period in the emperor's life when the Grotto of the Nativity was as well known in Bethlehem as the circumstance to which it owed its celebrity. In the fourth age, accordingly, we find this fact appealed to by St. Jerome as an indisputable testimony by which the cave itself had been ide itified. Upon this subject there does not seem to be the slightest ground for skepticism; and the evidence afforded by such a writer will be deemed sufficient for believing that the monastery erected over the spot, and where he himself resided, does at this day point out the place of our Saviour's birth.*

Nothing, observes a late traveller, can be more pleasing, or better calculated to excite sentiments of devotion, than this subterranean church. It is adorned with pictures of the Italian and Spanish schools, representing the mysteries peculiar to the place, the Virgin and Child, after Raphael; the Annunciation; the Adoration of the Wise Men; the Coming of the Shepherds; and all those miracles of mingled grandeur and innocence. The usual ornaments of the manger are of blue satin, embroidered with silver. Incense is continually smoking before the cradle of the Saviour. "I have heard an organ, touched by no ordinary hand, playing during mass the sweetest and most tender tunes of the best Italian composers. These concerts charm the Christian Arab, who, leaving his camels to feed, repairs, like the shep

* Bethleem nunc nostram, et augustissimum urbis locum de quo Psalmista canit (Ps. Ixxxiv. 12). Veritas de terra orta est, lucus inumbrabat Thamus, id est, Adonidis; et in specu ubi quondam Christus parvulus vagiit, Veneris Amasius plangebatur.-Epis. ad Paul.

his manger.

herds of old, to Bethlehem, to adore the King of Kings in I have seen this inhabitant of the desert communicate at the altar of the Magi with a fervour, a piety, a devotion unknown among the Christians, of the West." No place in the world, says Father Neret, excites more profound devotion. The continual arrival of caravans from all the nations of Christendom-the public prayers--the prostrations-nay, even the richness of the presents sent thither by the Christian princes-altogether produce feelings in the soul which it is much easier to conceive than to describe.*

It may be added, that, the effect of all this is heightened by an extraordinary contrast; for, on quitting the grotto where you have met with the riches, the arts, the religion of civilized nations, you find yourself in a profound solitude, amid wretched Arab huts, among half-naked savages and faithless Mussulmans. This place is nevertheless the same where so many miracles were displayed; but this sacred land dares no more express its joy, and locks within its bosom the recollections of its glory.

Bethlehem has usually shared the vicissitudes of Jerusalem, being, both from its situation and the nature of the relics which it contains, exposed to the rage or cupidity of barbarian conquerors. It fell under the power of the Saracens when led by their victorious calif; but for seven centuries it has been guarded by a succession of religious persons who, it has been said, suffer a perpetual martyrdom. In the time of Volney, they reckoned about six hundred men

** Pour ce qui est des ornemens de ce saint Temple, il n'en reste que fort peu en comparaison de ce qui y estoit. Car tous les murs estoient autrefois magnifiquement reuestus et couuertes de belles tables de marbre gris ondé, comme on en voit encore en quelques endroits que les Infidelles n'ont pû avoir. Comme ils ont emporté tout le reste pour en orner leurs Mosquées, et est une chose pitoyable de voir que tous les murs sont remplis de gros clous et crampons de fer qui les tenoient attachez. Au-dessus des colomnes de la nef est un mur tout couvert, et peint de la plus belle et fine Mosaïque qu'il est possible de voir, n'estant composée que de petites pierres fines et transparentes comme cristal de toutes les couleurs, qui representent grandes figures et histoires de la Vie, Miracles, Mort, et Passion de Nostre Seigneur, si naïument faites des couleurs si vives et éclatantes, et le fonds d'un or si luysant, qu'il semble qu'elles sont faites depuis peu, encore qu'il y ait plus de treize cens ans. Entre ces figures sont treize fenestres de chacun costé, qui rendent un grand jour par toute l'eglise derrière la troisième et quatrième colomne de la main droite est un tres-beau et riche base de marbre blanc de forme ronde à six pans de quelques trois pieds de diametre, qui sert de fonds baptismaux.-Doubdan, p. 133.

in this village capable of bearing arms, of whom about one hundred were Latin Christians. The necessity of uniting for their common defence against the Bedouins, and the still more relentless agents of despotism, has in many instances prevailed over points of faith, and induced the monks to live on good terms with the Mohammedans. Mr. Buckingham assures us, that at present the town is equal to Nazareth in extent, and contains from 1000 to 1500 inhabitants, who are almost wholly Christians. Dr. Richardson gives the number at 300,-an estimate, we should imagine, considerably below the actual population. The men are robust and well made, and the women are among the fairest and most handsome that are to be seen in Palestine.

The neighbourhood of Bethlehem presents a variety of objects too important to be passed over without a slight notice. The Pools of Solomon, connected, it is probable, with a scheme for supplying Jerusalem with water, are usually visited by the more enlightened class of travellers, who combine in their researches a regard to the arts as well as to the religion of Judea. These reservoirs are four in number, being so disposed, says Maundrell, that the water of the uppermost may descend into the second, and that of the second into the third. Their figure is quadrangular; the breadth is the same in all, amounting to about ninety paces. In their length there is some difference; the first being one hundred and sixty paces long, the second two hundred, and the third two hundred and twenty. They are all lined with masonry and plastered. The springs whence the pools are supplied seem to have been secured with great care, having, says the author of the Journey from Aleppo, "no avenue to them but by a little hole like to the mouth of a narrow well." Through this hole you descend directly about four yards, when you come to a chamber forty-five feet long and twenty-four broad, adjoining to which there is another apartment of the same kind, but not quite so large. Both these rooms are neatly arched, and have an air of great antiquity. The water, which rises from four separate sources, is partly conveyed by a subterranean passage into the ponds; the remainder being received into an aqueduct of brick pipes, and carried by many turnings and windings among the mountains to the walls of Jerusalem. The monks of Bethlehem are perfectly convinced that it was in allusion

to this guarded treasure, so valuable in Palestine, that Solomon called his beloved spouse a "sealed fountain."

Of the aqueduct here mentioned some traces are still to be detected in the intermediate space, and denote an acquaintance with the principles of hydraulics which we could not It was conhave expected among Hebrew architects. structed all along upon the surface of the ground, and framed of perforated stones let into one another, with a fillet round the cavity, so contrived as to prevent leakage, and united together with so firm a cement that they will sometimes sooner break than endure a separation. These pipes were covered with an arch, or layer of flags, strengthened by the application of a peculiarly strong mortar; the whole "being endued with such absolute firmness as if it had been designed for eternity. But the Turks have demonstrated in this instance, that nothing can be so well wrought but they are able to destroy it; for of this strong aqueduct, which was carried formerly five or six leagues with so vast expense and labour, you see now only here and there a fragment remaining..

In a valley contiguous to Bethlehem are the remains of a church and convent which were erected by the pious empress over the place where the angels appeared to the shepherds. Nothing has survived the desolation to which every edifice in Palestine has been repeatedly subjected but a small grotto wherein the heavenly communication was vouchsafed to the simple keepers of the flock.

On the way back to Jerusalem the traveller is induced to leave the more direct route, that he may visit the Convent of St. John in the Desert. This monastery is built over the dwelling where the Baptist is supposed to have first seen the light; and accordingly, under the altar, the spot on which he was brought forth is marked by a star of marble bearing this inscription :—

"Hic precursor Domini Christi natus est."

Here the forerunner of the Lord Christ was born.

The church belonging to this establishment has been described as one of the best in the Holy Land, having an elegant cupola and a pavement of Mosaic, with some paintings.

* Maundrell, p. 90.

But the appearance, nevertheless, is poor and deserted, as if its votaries were few, and but little concerned in preserving its ancient grandeur. The account given of it by Sandys will amuse the reader by the simplicity of the narrative as well as by the deep interest the good man felt in the various scenes which passed before him :-"Having travelled about a mile and a halfe farther, we came to the cave where the Baptist is said to have lived from the age of seven until such time as he went into the wilderness by Jordan, sequestred from the abode of men, and feeding on such wilde nourishment as these uninhabited places affoorded. This cave is seated on the northern side of a desart mountaine,— only beholden to the locust-tree,-hewne out of the precipitating rock, so as difficultly to be ascended or descended to, entered at the east corner, and receiving light from a window in the side. At the upper end there is a bench of the selfesame, whereon, they say, he accustomed to sleepe; of which whoso breaks a piece off stands forthwith excommunicate. Over this, on a little flat, stand the ruins of a monastery, on the south side, naturally walled with the steepe of a mountain; from whence there gusheth a living spring which entereth the rock, and again bursteth forth beneathe the mouth of the cave,-a place that would make solitarinesse delightful, and stand in comparison with the turbulent pompe of cities. This overlooketh a profound valley, on the far side hemmed with aspiring mountains, whereof some are cut (or naturally so) in degrees like allies, which would be else unaccessibly fruitlesse; whose levels yet bear the stumps of decayed vines, shadowed not rarely with olives and locusts. And surely I think that all or most of those mountains have bin so husbanded, else could this little countrey have never sustained such a multitude of people. After we had fed of such provision as was brought us from the city by other of the fraternitie that there met us, we turned towards Jerusalem, leaving the way of Bethlehem on the right-hand, and that of Emmaus on the left. The first place of note that we met with was there where once stood the dwelling of Zachary, seated on the side of a fruitful hill, well stored with olives and vineyards. Hither came the blessed Virgin to visit her cousin Elisabeth. Here died Elisabeth, and here, in a grot, on the side of a vault or chapell, lies buried; over which a goodly church was erected, together