itself; but as they wanted a bribe of some fifty dollars in their own pockets, they professed to entertain scruples, whether it was fitting that Christian corpses should be buried so near the sacred tomb of David. The matter had not at that time been brought to a close; and until this was done, the Missionaries did not choose to transfer thither the relics of their friends. I have since learned, that during the last year (1840) the Mission caused a permanent wall to be erected around the plat, with a door under lock and key; and shortly afterwards, on the death of a child of Mr. Nicolayson, the body was interred with all due formalities within the precincts. All this was done without opposition on the part of the authorities; and as such matters are here usually settled by full possession and prescription, no further difficulty is apprehended.

From the cemeteries we proceeded eastward along the southern wall of the city; passing by the Zion gate, and then descending along the slope towards the valley of the Tyropoeon or Cheesemakers. A path soon leaves the wall and leads obliquely down the slope S. E. in the direction of Siloam. In this part it becomes steep; and the Tyropoeon, as it comes down from the wall near the great mosk, is also steep, and forms a deep ravine with banks almost precipitous. At its lower end it turns East and issues into the vale of the Kidron.

Here, still within the Tyropoeon, is the Pool of Siloam, a small deep reservoir in the form of a parallelogram, into which the water flows from under the rocks, out of a smaller basin hewn in the solid rock a few feet further up; to which is a descent by a few steps. This is wholly an artificial work; and the water comes to it through a subterraneous channel from the Fountain of Mary, higher up in the valley of Jehoshaphat. The hill or ridge Ophel lying between

the Tyropoeon and the Valley of Jehoshaphat, ends here, just over the Pool of Siloam, in a steep point of rock forty or fifty feet high. Along the base of this the water is conducted from the pool in a small channel hewn in the rocky bottom; and is then led off to irrigate gardens of fig and other fruit trees and plants, lying in terraces quite down to the bottom of the Valley of Jehoshaphat; a descent still of some forty or fifty feet. The waters of Siloam, as we saw them, were lost in these gardens. On the right, just below the pool, and opposite the point of Ophel, is a large mulberry-tree, with a terrace of stones surrounding its trunk, where they say Isaiah was sawn asunder.

We now passed along up the Valley of Jehoshaphat, which is here narrow and the sides high and steep. On our right, clinging to the rocky side of the Mount of Offence, so called, are the stone hovels of the straggling village of Siloam, Kefr Selwân, many of which are built before caves or rather excavated sepulchres; while in various places the sepulchres themselves, without addition, are used as dwellings. A little further up the valley, under the western hill, is the Fountain of the Virgin,' a deep excavation in the solid rock, evidently artificial, into which one descends by two successive flights of steps. The water is apparently brought hither by some unknown and perhaps artificial channel; and flows off through a subterraneous passage under the hill Ophel to the Pool of Siloam. At a later period we crawled through the whole length of this passage. We drank of the water, and remarked a peculiar though not unpleasant taste. We had been told that the people did not use it for drinking; but we found here, as at Siloam, women filling their water-skins, which like Hagar

1) Called by some travellers the Fountain of Siloam in distinc

tion from the Pool of Siloam below; but without any good reason.

they bore off on their shoulders. They said they used it now for drinking; but when in summer the water becomes lower, it is then not good and has a brackish taste.

Above this fountain the valley becomes very narrow. It is everywhere only a water-course between high hills; and the brook Kidron now never flows, and probably never flowed along its bottom, except in the season of rain.

From the fountain a path ascends obliquely, but steeply, to the S. E. corner of the area of the great mosk. This forms at the same time the extreme S. E. corner of the city-wall, and stands directly on the brow of the almost precipitous side of the valley, here about one hundred and fifty feet deep. Further North the brow juts out a little more, leaving a narrow strip of level ground outside of the wall, which is occupied as a Muhammedan cemetery. The tombs are here thickly crowded together; and frequently, as we passed this way afterwards, there was a stench arising apparently from corpses mouldering in their shallow graves. The Muhammedans prefer this cemetery to all the others, as being very near to the great mosk.'

The lower part of this wall in several places is composed of very large hewn stones, which at once strike the eye of the beholder as ancient; as being at least as old as the time of Herod, if not of Solomon. The upper part of the wall is everywhere obviously modern; as is the whole wall in many places. The Golden Gate, which once led out from the area of the mosk upon this side, is now walled up. Near the N. E. corner of this area, towards St. Stephen's Gate, we measured one of the large stones in the wall, and

1) Hist. of Jerus. in Fundgr. des Or. II. p. 134.

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found it twenty-four feet long, by six feet broad and three feet high. Just North of the same gate is a small tank or reservoir on the outside; and within the gate, on the left hand, is the very large and deep reservoir, to which the name of Bethesda is commonly given, though probably without good reason. It is entirely dry; and large trees grow at the bottom, the tops of which do not reach the level of the street. North of this, a little to the right of the street, is the dilapidated church of St. Anne, over the grotto which is shown as the birth-place of the Virgin. The church has pointed arches; and was obviously the work of the crusaders.'

We now returned home along the Via dolorosa; in which monkish tradition has brought together the scenes of all the events, historical or legendary, connected with the crucifixion. Along this way, they say, our Saviour bore his cross. Here one may see, if he pleases, the place where the Saviour, fainting under his burden, leaned against the wall of a house; and the impression of his shoulder remains unto this day. Near by are also pointed out the houses of the Rich Man and Lazarus in the parable. To judge from present appearances, the beggar was quite as well lodged as his opulent neighbour. But enough of these absurdities!

1) William of Tyre mentions on this spot the House of Anna, as a place where three or four poor women had consecrated themselves to a monastic life. About A. D. 1113, King Baldwin I. compelled his Armenian wife to take the veil in this convent; which at the same time he richly endowed. Will. Tyr. XI. 1. Wilken Gesch. der Kreuzz. II. p. 397. According to Jac. de Vitriaco, this was called

the Abbey of St. Anne, and was inhabited by an Abbess and Black Nuns, i. e. of the Benedictine order; Hist. Hieros. 58. p. 1078.Saewulf in 1102-3 already speaks of a church here; p. 264.

2) The earliest allusion I have been able to find to the Via dolo rosa, is in Marinus Sanutus in the fourteenth century; de Secret. fid. Cruc. III. 14. 10.

GETHSEMANE, THE MOUNT OF OLIVES, ETC.

The forenoon of the next day, Wednesday, April 18th, taking our servant Ibrahim, I went alone with him out of the Yâfa gate, and keeping to the right passed around the N. W. corner of the city wall, where stands a terebinth or Butm-tree of considerable size; and then descended to the Damascus gate. Here I struck out to the left through the open field to the Grotto of Jeremiah, so called by the monks. It lies under a round isolated rocky hill, the S. side of which has apparently been cut away to an irregular face, under which is the entrance to the grotto. In front is a small garden walled in; but the door was closed, so that I could not gain access to the cavern itself; nor were we more successful at a subsequent visit. The top of the hill is occupied as a Muslim cemetery.! The southern front of this hill stands overagainst the precipitous northern side of Bezetha, crowned by the city wall; and one might almost imagine that the two hills once formed one ridge, of which the intervening portion had been cut away by art.

Returning to the path, I kept along the city wall towards the East. Before reaching the N. E. corner of the city, there is near the wall, or indeed in the trench, what seems to have been a small reservoir for water, communicating perhaps along the trench with that which we had seen the day before near St. Stephen's gate. Passing down the steep hill from this gate into the valley of the Kidron, and crossing the bridge over the dry water-course, one has on the left

1) Prokesch describes the interior of this grotto as nearly round, some forty paces in diameter, perhaps 30 feet high in the middle, and supported by two massive pillars. It is inhabited by a Muslim saint, who sells places for graves in VOL. I.

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the grotto and in the garden before it, while above are also graves; Reise ins heil. Land, p. 95. The place was in much the same state early in the sixteenth century; see Hist. of Jerusalem in Fundgr. des Orients, II. p. 133.