shown, that at least those waters apparently have no outflow either towards the Haram or the valley. The likeness of taste, therefore, is probably to be ascribed rather to the like soil and rock through which the waters of both fountains percolate.

Whether any communication whatever exists with the Haram above, is a matter yet to be determined. The present popular report of such a connection, like that respecting running water at the Damascus gate, is too indefinite and legendary to be of any weight. Yet the writers of the Talmud have recorded the tradition of their day, that the blood from the great altar was drained off by a subterranean channel into the valley of the Kidron; where it was sold to the gardeners for manure.1

In respect to the suggestion formerly made by me, as to the possible identity of this intermitting fountain with the pool of Bethesda, I may now venture a somewhat more definite statement." The irregular flow certainly corresponds perfectly well with the "troubling" of the water. When it is said, that "an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water," probably there is no one who would hold, that on every such occasion there was the visible form and appearance of an angel. This mysterious motion of the waters, of which none could comprehend the cause, the people ascribed to the direct supernatural agency of an angel; and this in accordance with the general principle, that God administers the laws of the universe through the agency of the angels, his messengers. Again, when it is said, that "whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in, was made whole of whatsoever disease he had," it is evident that the healing power was held to lie, not in the water itself, but in the circumstance of first stepping in. This of course is contrary to the analogy of all medical waters; as is also the other circumstance, that the power extended to the healing of all kinds of diseases. In these particulars we have the unerring marks of a current popular belief; which the Evangelist has chosen to make the basis of his representation. The same was sometimes done by an authority higher than John.'

3

CANALS OR SEWERS, ETC.-Of the channel for water on Zion, scend into the canal, etc." Comp. Holy City II. p. 342.

1 Joma, fol. 58. 2; see Lightfoot Hor. Heb. Opp. II. p. 20. ed. Leusd. In the tract Middoth, 3. 2, 3, it is also related, that "at the southeast corner of the altar were two openings, through which the blood was collected into the canal, and so carried off into the Kidron ;" and further, that "in the floor at the same corner was a place a cubit square, covered by a marble slab with a ring, where one could de

John 5, 2-7. See in Vol. I. p. 342. [i. 507.]

3

Comp. Heb. 1, 7. 14.

See especially our Lord's parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, founded on the Jewish popular belief as to Hades and the state of the dead; Luke 16, 19 sq. comp. Luke 23, 39 sq.

and the sewer along the bazar, as also those reported to exist in connection with the causeway, I have already spoken.' It remains only to add a few words respecting two other subterranean passages.

One is outside of the Bâb el-Mughâribeh or Dung gate, near the bed of the Tyropoon. This I have formerly mentioned." A low arch here forms the present outlet of a large sewer from the city. This was pointed out to us in 1838, as the sewer by which some of the leaders of the Fellâhîn, in their siege of Jerusalem in 1834, passed in and got possession of the city. Dr Barclay informs me, that he recently attempted to explore this deep channel, in the hope of finding some communication between it and the causeway or the sewers above; but having approached within twenty or thirty yards of the causeway, the passage became so low and choked with mud, that he was compelled to return." Tobler also appears to have had no better

success.5

The mouth of another subterranean passage is seen on the declivity above the upper fountain, a little southwestwards from the same. This canal is mentioned by Schultz; but appears to have been first explored and described by Tobler. According to him, so far as he could follow it, the passage runs up first N. 20° W. for 480 feet; and then west, 142 feet. The greater part is walled with small stones laid in mortar; and the bottom is flagged with square stones. For 113 feet, the canal is cut through the limestone rock. The width is about 24 feet; the height variable, sometimes low and sometimes rising to eight feet. The whole is now entirely dry, and the air pure.

The same canal was again explored in 1853 by Dr Barclay. Taking with them lights, tape-line, and compass, they penetrated more than six hundred feet; when it became too much choked to proceed further. On plotting their measurements upon the map, Dr Barclay found that the passage had taken them to the path within a few yards of the Bâb el-Mughâribeh or Dung gate; where they distinctly heard the peculiar tread of donkeys overhead. From this point it runs farther due west.

This excavation is held to have been a sewer; and if so, it was not improbably a branch of that coming down from the city near the same gate, as above described. There is nothing to identify it with the "canal" mentioned by Benjamin of Tudela,

near which the sacrifices were slaughtered in ancient times, and where all Jews inscribed their names on an adjacent wall.' This latter was obviously within the temple enclosure; which in Benjamin's day was in possession of the Christians, and to which the Jews then had access.

VIII. SEPULCHRES.

I have here only to present a few additional remarks upon the Tomb of Helena and the Tombs of the Prophets, so called ; both of which are treated of in my former work.3

TOMB OF HELENA. This remarkable excavation, commonly known to travellers as the tombs of the Kings, we examined in 1838, as Irby and Mangles had done before us, to ascertain whether there might not exist an entrance at the north end of the portico, similar to that now open at the southern end. We however found nothing. The attempt was renewed by Messrs Wolcott and Tipping in 1842. Yûsuf, who had been with us, was employed, and two other men. They reached the block of stone described by Irby and Mangles; it was three or four feet square, and seemed to have been broken away from the front of the portico. They removed it, but found no opening beneath; and laid bare the rock for several feet, without discovering any trace of a passage. None probably ever existed. Indeed the rock on that side is less firm and compact, and less suited for excavation,5

In a former volume I have likewise brought forward the evidence, which goes to show, that this sepulchre was that of Helena, queen of Adiabene; as suggested by Pococke. This is mentioned as on the north of Jerusalem by Josephus and Jerome; and also generally by Eusebius and Pausanias. The evidence may be reduced to three heads:

First. According to Josephus, the sepulchre was constructed with three pyramids at the distance of three stadia from the city, overagainst a gate of the third wall; which wall is also said to have passed overagainst the sepulchre. These pyramids Eusebius calls stela or cippi; and speaks of them as extant and famous in his day."

Second. Jerome, in describing the journey of Paula from the way, the passage turns due west;" Letter of Dec. 6th, 1853.

Benj. of Tud. by Asher, I. p. 36. 2, Heb. and. p. 71, Transl.

2 The author of the Holy City has no doubt, that the canal above described, is "the termination of the drain of the great altar;" II. p. 453. Dr Barclay remarks: "In this supposition he is entirely mistaken; for at the terminus of our peregrination, which was already too far out of

539.]

p.

Vol. I. pp. 356 sq. 364. [i. 528 sq.

See Vol. I. p. 360. [i. 533.]

5 See Wolcott in Biblioth. Sacra, 1843,

35 sq.

6 Antt. 20. 4. 3. B. J. 5. 2. 2. ib. 5. 4. 2.

1 Η. Ε. 2. 12, στῆλαι διαφανεῖς.

Lydda to Jerusalem, says she ascended by Beth-horon and Gibeon, passed near Ramah, and stopped a little at Gibeah; she then entered Jerusalem, leaving the mausoleum of Helena on the left hand. Since the appearance of my former work, the site of Gibeah of Saul has been definitely identified with the Tuleil el-Fûl, which rises some distance south of Ramah, and close on the east of the great northern road. This road is at present unquestionably the same that it ever was; and Paula proceeding from Gibeah to Jerusalem would have, as now, this sepulchre on her left."

Third. The testimony of Pausanias establishes the remarkable character of the sepulchre of Helena; which he names, along with that of king Mausolus in Caria, as being particularly worthy of admiration. He makes allusion, exaggerated and legendary indeed, to the singular doors; and these, as also the splendid marble sarcophagi, are found in no other sepulchre around Jerusalem. All the circumstances of elaborateness and splendour, which mark this sepulchre, and this alone, made it famous in the days of Pausanias and Eusebius; and still distinguish it above all others.

All these points of evidence, taken together, seem to me to prove, beyond all reasonable question, the identity of this sepulchre with that of Helena. The three pyramids were probably slender cippi of a pyramidal form, erected on the level ground above the portal, not unlike to those surmounting one of the rock-hewn tombs at Petra.*

Es

In view of the preceding considerations, the attempt of Schultz and De Saulcy to transfer the tomb of Helena to a sepulchre far in the northwest of the city, and north of the Birket Mamilla, can only be regarded as against all the evidence.5 pecially so, since the latter writer admits of his own accord, that the tomb proposed "is of such coarse workmanship, as to present a striking contrast with the magnificent carvings of the tombs of the Kings."

Hieron. Epitaph. Paula: "In Gabaa urbe usque ad solum diruta paululum substitit... Ad lævam mausoleo Helenæ derelicto, ingressa est Jerusolymam urbem." Opp. T. IV. ii. p. 673, ed. Martianay.

M. De Sauley asserts, that Paula came "from the direction of Jaffa." II. p. 199. Pausan, Græc. Descr. 8. 16 fin. See Vol. II. p. 129, comp. p. 126 sq. [ii. 515, comp. p. 510.-It is objected, that according to Josephus the bones of Helena were to be buried in the pyramids (θάψαι ἐν ταῖς πυραμίσιν) which she had erected; Antt. 20. 4. 3. Hence it is inferred, that her tomb was not an excavated

one; Wilson Lands of the Bible, I p. 429. But these very pyramids are called by Eusebius σrλai, and could not therefore have been large. The whole work is called by Pausanias rapos, and by Jerome a mausoleum; neither of which terms is well applicable to three separate cippi or even three pyramids. Indeed the very expression of Josephus implies the same thing. We can hardly suppose that the bones of Helena would literally be deposited in three pyramids; but rather in a sepulchre constructed with three cippi.

Schultz p. 65. De Sauley II. p. 160. M. De Sauley has a long and elaborate argument, covering more than fifty

SEC. V.]

TOMB OF HELENA. TOMBS OF THE PROPHETS.

253

TOMBS OF THE PROPHETS.-These are near the top of the mount of Olives, not far south-southwest of the village. They are mentioned in my former work; but we did not ourselves then visit them; nor had they at that time been described by others. This deficiency has since been abundantly supplied; and I give here a plan and brief description."

1

The entrance is through a hole in the rock, with a blind stair, which leads down into a circular apartment about ten feet high, and twenty-one feet in diameter. This is excavated in the rock. From this chamber, two parallel galleries, ten feet high and five wide, are carried southwards through the rock for about sixty feet. A third gallery, on the left, diverges southeast, and extends for about forty feet. These

pages (II. pp. 162-215), by which he attempts to prove that the tombs of the Kings, so called, are the veritable sepulchres of David and his successors. So sanguine is he, indeed, that he actually assigns the several chambers and niches to the bodies of the individual kings; ib. p. 183 sq. The argument will probably convince no one, who has regard to such passages of Scripture as 1 K. 2, 10. 11, 43. 2 Chr. 28, 27. 32, 33. Acts 2, 29; see also, Vol. I. p. 361 sq. [i. 535.] With these passages the statements of Josephus are in perfect accordance; even upon M. De Sauley's own showing.-The argument is very similar to that by which Dr E. D. VOL. III.-22

Clarke persuaded himself, that the sarcophagus brought home by him had been the veritable resting-place of Alexander the Great; see his Tomb of Alexander, 4to. Camb. 1805.

1 Vol. I. p. 364. [i. 539.]

2 The account in the text is drawn chiefly from Wolcott, Bibliotheca Sacra, 1843, p. 36; and from Tobler, Siloah u. Oelberg, p. 250 sq. The plan is that of Tobler.-These tombs are also described by Lord Nugent, II. p 73 sq.; by Schultz p. 42; by Krafft p. 202; by the author of the Holy City, II. p. 447; and by De Sauley, II. p. 215 sq. Comp. Ritter Erdk. XVI. i. p. 473.