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seen.

TOMBS OF THE PATRIARCHS.

a church, and must have windows, to which he replied, "Then they must have been shut up, for there are none there now." Within the mosque were four rooms (marked 4, 5, 6, 7), built up in solid granite masonry, very high, but not covered, each having an iron door and iron grated window, through which the interior tomb could be The four included tombs are similar, being rectangular, about seven feet long, four wide, and six high, and covered down to the richly-carpeted floor with rich green silks, on which passages of the Koran are embroidered in gold. A fifth tomb, adorned as the other four, and assigned to Abraham, stands in the middle, enclosed by open iron-work, finished with a lofty canopy, from which many antique glass lamps, with Latin inscriptions in gold, hang suspended over the tomb. I strongly objected to the Latin inscriptions on the lamps, and Said as strongly insisted on his accuracy, saying he knew they were Latin, because he had purchased two such lamps from the old Coptic church in Cairo for an English gentleman. The material, form, and inscriptions suggest that they may have been brought to Hebron by the Crusaders for the adornment of the church, now converted into a mosque.

Between the tombs of Abraham and Sarah (3, 4) is the entrance into the grotto below (8), which is reasonably held to be the "Cave of Machpelah." It is covered with the beautiful mosaic which forms the floor of the mosque. Said said that they told him, when he desired entrance and offered money, that no one was now permitted to descend into the cave, not even the holiest Moslem. The open spaces within the mosque are for prayer, particularly before the tomb of Abraham. Of this consecrated place Jacob said, when giving charge to his sons where to bury him, "There they buried Abra

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APPEARANCE OF THE CITY.

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ham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebecca his wife; and there I buried Leah.”—(Gen., xlix., 31.)

After dinner we strolled through the town. The streets are narrow, dirty, and dark, and the buildings much dilapidated. Many stalls, and even whole passages in the bazars, were unoccupied. The mutton, grapes, and bread were abundant and good. The population is variously estimated by travellers from 5000 to 10,000; perhaps there may be 7000, of which several hundred are miserably poor Jews, who linger around the home of their great progenitor, and drag out a wretched life, shut up in a dark, pestilential quarter of the town, where they have two small synagogues. We heard not of a single Christian inhabitant. The appearance of the streets and buildings suggests that population, trade, and wealth are decreasing. The city has not recovered from the terrible stroke inflicted upon it in 1834 by Ibrahim Pacha, when he took it by storm and gave it up to pillage, simply because the inhabitants resisted the Egyptian conscription, and wished to throw off the galling yoke of Mohammed Ali. As seen from a distance, the town is beautiful. The solid stone edifices, covered with white, flat roofs, each surmounted by a low, white dome, make an agreeable impression, but the illusion is dispelled the moment the traveller enters within the walls.

Upon our return to the tents, we observed a group of women, shrouded in white muslin, and sitting on the ground in silence around a new-made grave in the populous cemetery hard by. As the sun went down they slowly retired to the town, and at dark were replaced by a pack of jackals, that barked all night as if disappointed of their prey. Early in the morning the wom

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PARTING WITH THE ALOUINS.

en returned, and resumed their seats in silence. It was a living commentary on the words, "She goeth unto the grave to weep there."

For three days we had been in the pastoral country of the Patriarchs, the scene of most of their good and great deeds; where, also, much of the romantic and perilous life of the youthful David had been spent up to the end of his seven years' reign in Hebron, before he reigned in Jerusalem. We were about to set our faces towards the Holy City. But there was a group of dusky men who lingered around us, and assisted to strike the tents and load the camels for the last time. Their own were standing near, haltered and harnessed. They seemed as if they could not part with us, yet they had no farther expectations; they had received their buksheesh, and were satisfied. They were our Alouins. For twelve days they had been our only companions-had served us by day and guarded us by night. We never expressed a wish they did not endeavour to gratify, and we were not conscious of having lost the value of a pin while under their protection. A friendship had grown up between them and us which made both parties somewhat sad at parting.* They mounted their camels and we our donkeys, and taking leave on the green hillside before Hebron, they disappeared in the valley southward, bound for their homes in the Desert, and we swept round the town to

* I am aware all this is at variance with the experience of most travellers. One might hope the Alouins have improved, certainly I think we succeeded in winning their confidence and esteem; but perhaps the great cause of our good fortune was, that owing to some ill treatment of an English nobleman and his party about eight months before, no Franks had passed through Wady Mousa during that time. The sheikhs held a congress, and agreed to treat all travellers well. We were the first under the new arrangement, and therefore were treated with great kindness and care, that our report to the consuls at Cairo might operate in their favour, and send them more travellers

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the north, and entered the valley of Eshcol, in which the spies cut the cluster of grapes under which two of them staggered as, on their shoulders suspended from a staff, they bore it away to the camp in Kadesh.— (Num.. xiii., 23.)

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DESOLATE REGION.

CHAPTER XXII.

HEBRON TO JERUSALEM.

Route from Hebron.-Desolate Region.-Pools of Solomon.-The great Aqueduct.-Bethlehem.-Dilapidated Appearance of the Place.-Trade in pious Toys.-The Convent.-Roman Catholic Service.-Greek Service.Tomb of Jerome.-Pretended Birthplace of Christ.-Tomb of Rachel.— First View of Jerusalem.--Disappointment.-Quarantine.-Kindness of Friends.-Carnival.-Negotiation

For three quarters of an nour after leaving Hebron our road lay up the valley of Eshcol, between stone walls enclosing olive-groves and vineyards on either hand, extending up to the summits of the terraced hills. Emerging from this cultivated district, in an hour from Hebron we were in the midst of a rocky, desolate district, the hills covered with prickly oak so gnarled and crooked that I could not cut a good stick, and the ravines, rather than valleys, so uneven and rocky that our camels and donkeys had to walk all the time. Every few minutes appeared the ruins of a town, or a tower, or cisterns, while the steeps still retained traces of terrace walls. Doubtless this had once been a fertile and populous district. During five hours from Hebron we did not fall in with a single traveller; a shepherd now and then was seen on the hills, and as we approached Bethlehem, women were gathering sticks and binding them up in bundles, which they bore on their backs to Bethlehem and Jerusalem for fuel. Occasionally a huge Syrian camel was seen laden with a cord or more of wood, on the way to market.

Nearly five hours out from Hebron we came to three pools, in all respects similar to the great pool in Hebron,

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