and Mediterranean. Here the ground begins to descend N. W. towards the great valley usually (though falsely) called by Franks the Valley of Turpentine or of the Terebinth; but for which the natives have here no other name than Wady Beit Hanîna. At this point we were in full view of Neby Samwîl, bearing N. 40° W. on the high hill beyond that valley; and could also see Kustůl bearing W.

After examining the sepulchres, we returned over the eastern hill, striking the great northern road near the brow of the ascent by which it rises after crossing the valley. This is doubtless the Scopus of the ancients; it affords one of the most pleasing views of the city; though less distinct than one from a point further S. E. Passing again the Tombs of the Kings, we directed our course towards the N. W. corner of Jerusalem, in order to trace out, if possible, some foundations we had before seen, apparently belonging to the third wall of the ancient city, as described by Josephus. In this we were partially successful.

We came at length to the Yâfa Gate, shortly after 12 o'clock, and found it shut. It was Friday, the Muhammedan Sabbath; on which day the gates of Jerusalem are closed for an hour at noon, as the principal season of Muhammedan prayer. Passing around the city on the West, we spent the hour in wandering over Mount Zion. We looked here also for traces of the ancient wall along the western and southern brow; followed out the aqueduct from Solomon's Pools, which winds around the S. E. slope; and then returned up towards the Zion Gate. It was not yet opened, and we went to call on the Sheikh of the Muslim Tomb of David, with whom Mr. Lanneau was acquainted. He was out; but we visited the room over the tomb, where legendary tradition relates that the Lord's Supper was instituted. It is a large dreary

"upper room" of stone, fifty or sixty feet long by some thirty feet in width. At the East end is a small niche in the wall, which the Christians use at certain seasons as an altar to celebrate mass. On the South side is a similar but larger recess, which serves the Muhammedans as a Mihrâb towards which to direct their prayers.1 Thus the two superstitions stand here side by side in singular juxtaposition! The pretended tomb itself no one is permitted to enter.

This building was formerly a Christian church; and as such the site at least is of high antiquity. It is apparently the same spot, and perhaps the same building, referred to by Cyrill in the fourth century, as the church of the Apostles, where they were said to be assembled on the day of Pentecost. This implies that it was then regarded as at least older than the age of Constantine. About the same time Epiphanius speaks of it distinctly under the same name; and about A. D. 697, Adamnanus mentions it in like manner. It was then held to be the Coenaculum, and to contain also the column to which Christ was bound in order to be scourged. The same column is mentioned in the Jerusalem Itinerary (A. D. 333), and by Jerome near the close of the same century. The latter writer describes this column in his day as sustaining the portico of a church on Mount Zion, and as still stained with the Saviour's blood; but neither he nor any of the earlier writers speak of any tradition relating to the Lord's Supper.3 Writers of the times of the cru

1) As the Muhammedans always turn their faces towards Mecca during their prayers and prostrations, every mosk has a niche in the wall to show the proper direction. This niche is the Mihrab; and the place or direction towards which the face is turned, is the Kibleh. Mecca lies nearly south of Syria; and hence the word Kibleh is also in common use

among the Syrian Arabs to denote the South.

2) Cyrill. Cat. XVI. 2, p. 225. Oxon. 1703. Epiphan. de Mensur. et Pond. no. 14. Comp. le Quien Oriens Christ. III. p. 105.-Adamnan. ex Arculfo, I. 13. St. Willibald, A. D. 765, calls it the Church of Zion; Hodoepor. 18.

3) Epitaph. Paulae, ad Eustoch.

sades often allude to this church as the Church of Zion; and regard it as the place where the protomartyr Stephen was buried.' According to Sir J. Maundeville and also R. de Suchem, it would seem to have been still in the hands of the Latins so late as about A. D. 1350; and at that time it was one of the many churches which tradition began to ascribe to the empress Helena.2 More than a century later, A. D. 1479, Tucher of Nürnberg found the building converted into a mosk, or at least the lower part of it, and already containing the tombs of David, Solomon, and other kings. The adjacent buildings were formerly a convent of the Minorites or Franciscans, who retained possession of them for a century or more after the church had been partially at least wrested from their hands. In these buildings Ibrahim Pasha resides when he visits Jerusalem.

Further North, nearer to the gate, stands an Armenian convent, enclosing a small church, which according to a similar tradition marks the spot where once stood the house of Caiphas. We entered and were conducted through it. Here the Armenian Patriarchs of Jerusalem lie buried; their monuments are

1) Will. Tyr. VIII. 5. Jac. de Vitr. Hist. Hieros. 61. Phocas de Locis Sanct. 14.

2) First mentioned as one of Helena's churches by Nicephorus Callistus, VIII. 30; a writer of the fourteenth century.

3) Adrichomius Theatr. Terrae Sanct. p. 150. Quaresmius Terrae Sanct. Elucid. II. pp. 51, 122. It appears that the Franciscans or Minorites had their chief seat here from A. D. 1313 to A. D. 1561. They were then driven out by the Muhammedans; and having purchased the present Latin convent of St. Salvator in the city, which had formerly belonged to the Georgian Greeks, they removed to

it. Quaresmius, 1. c. Comp. Wadding. Annal. Minor. Ed. 2. III. p. 485, seq. Belon about 1547 lodged in their convent on Zion, and speaks of it as the only Latin convent; Observations, etc. Paris 1588. p. 313; also in Paulus' Sammlung, Th. I. p. 259. So Baumgar ten in 1512, lib. II. 5; and other travellers. Belon likewise remarks, that the monks had in his day regained possession of the Coenaculum; 1. c. p. 315.-This convent was erected for the Franciscans by Sancia, queen of Robert of Sicily; who also repaired or rebuilt the Coenaculum; see Quaresmius, 1. c. p. 122, and Tom. I. p. 176. Wadding, 1. c.

in the small court. Under the altar of the church they still profess to show the stone which closed the Holy Sepulchre. They point out also what they call the prison of our Lord; as well as the spot where Peter denied his Master, and the court where the cock crew. This church cannot well be very ancient;' nor have I been able to find any mention of it before the fourteenth century. It was then called, as now, the Church of St. Salvator, and was already ascribed to Helena.2 The Armenians appear to have had it in possession very early after the crusades.3

We reached the Zion Gate just as it was opened at one o'clock. Within the gate, a little towards the right, are some miserable hovels, inhabited by persons called leprous. Whether their disease is or is not the leprosy of Scripture, I am unable to affirm; the symptoms described to us were similar to those of elephantiasis. At any rate they are pitiable objects, and miserable outcasts from society. They all live here together, and intermarry only with each other. The children are said to be healthy until the age of puberty or later; when the disease makes its appearance in a finger, on the nose, or in some like part of the body, and gradually increases so long as the victim survives. They were said often to live to the age of forty or fifty years.

Our way home led us through the Jews' quarter; and we looked in for a moment upon their prepara

1) Benjamin of Tudela says, that in his day, soon after A. D. 1160, there was no building on Zion save one Christian church, doubtless the Coenaculum; I. p. 93. ed. Baratier.

2) Marin. Sanut. Secr. fidel. Crucis, III. 14. 8. Rudolph de Suchem in Reissb. p. 844. Niceph. Call. VIII. 30.-The Jerusalem

Itinerary, (A. D. 333,) speaks of the house of Caiphas as having stood on Mount Zion, "ubi fuit domus Caiphae;" but says nothing of any building then existing. Comp. Cyrill. Cat. XIII. 19.

3) Tucher of Nürnberg found it in their hands in A. D. 1479. See Reissb. des heil. Landes, p. 659.

tions for building a new synagogue. In digging for its foundations they had uncovered several small houses and rooms, which had before been completely buried beneath the accumulated rubbish. These presented nothing of interest. It was also reported, that they had found pieces of marble, and even columns; but we were able to learn nothing definite on the subject.

We made no attempt to obtain admission to the Haram esh-Sherif, or great mosk. This has been visited and described by others, and did not form in itself any part of the object of our journey. Could there have been a hope of penetrating into the vaults and subterranean passages which are known to exist beneath its area, so as to explore them, we would have spared no effort to have obtained the requisite permission. But as it was, we thought it more prudent to pursue our researches in silence, rather than by illtimed or ill-advised application to the authorities, to run the risk of exciting on their part suspicion or jealousy. We found no difficulty at any time in approaching the entrances, and looking in upon the area, as long as we pleased.

Wishing however to obtain a better view of the Haram, and also to visit the citadel near the Yâfa Gate, Mr. Smith with our friends waited on the Kâim Makâm, the military commander of the city, to obtain an order for this purpose. This officer received them with great courtesy; immediately granted their request; and even sent his secretary to accompany them and introduce them at each place. They now came back for me; and we went first to the building on the N. W. corner of the area of the Haram. This