and gaze upon the picture spread before me, so that, when back in my quiet home, I could close my eyes and again see it as it then was. May it also bring back the sweet emotions felt in that quiet hour!

When again together, we received a visit from Mr. Standish, who came to wish us "good-by," as he and his friend proposed to start the day after for Hebron, Mar-Saba, the Dead Sea, and Jordan, desiring to be back for Easter Sunday.

CHAPTER XVI.

TOMB OF THE VIRGIN-TOMBS OF THE PROPHETS- -SILOAM -FOUNTAIN OF THE VIRGIN-POOL OF SILOAM-MOUNT

ZION TOMB OF DAVID- WAILING-PLACE OF THE JEWS

—QUARRIES—JOAB'S WELL-PALESTINE EXPLORATIONS

-THE SPRING OF THE ARCH-TYROPEAN VALLEYANCIENT HALLS AND AQUEDUCTS.

MONDAY, April 6, 1868.

T eight o'clock we were off to visit the Tomb of the Virgin, and as it was the first time since our arrival that the weather was really fine, and the skies without a cloud, we enjoyed our walk exceedingly.

Why did I feel so happy, why so light, so full of life, that it seemed as if my feet scarcely touched the ground, as I walked quietly near my companions? Are Jerusalem and its surroundings so grand, so beautiful? As I have already said, the city itself is far from being handsome; the streets are narrow, irregular, badly paved, and the part where the Jews live is so dirty, nay, more than dirty, filthy, and the odor so abominable, that when passing through we would even accelerate the gait of our horses.

The surroundings I can describe in a few words :hills without shade, valleys without water, a stony

earth with here and there a patch of green, a clump of olive-trees, throwing a little shade on the steep hillside, and, that is all: all for the traveller who looks unimpassioned on these things; but for one like myself, possessing an enthusiastic temperament, there was much poetry in all I beheld. The walls of Jerusalem that we were following are very picturesque, and along the roadside are many Mussulman cemeteries, strewn with bright wild-flowers, bathed with the morning dew and sparkling in the sunshine, where we could see veiled women, dressed in white, engaged in prayer and talking with the spirits of their dead; men sitting on tombs, surrounded by women and children, were singing some pious verses; then suddenly a cavalcade would start up before us, going on their pilgrimage to the Dead Sea and Jordan; and in approaching Gethsemane we saw the hillocks crowded with the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who had come to witness a procession, starting for the Tomb of Moses. As the sun lightens all this, observe the deep blue sky above; enjoy the light breeze which flutters the ends of our white turbans, and say, was it not more than delightful; was it not grand and glorious ?

1

We found so great a crowd of pilgrims at the Virgin's Tomb, that it was with much trouble we could force an entrance. Soon I lost sight of all my companions except Henry Beadel, whose arm I had taken, and we advanced only, it seemed to us, by inches. A wide staircase of an hundred steps leads to the church below, but the difficulty was to force a way through the dense and suffocating crowd. For a few moments.

our eyesight failed us, as we had not yet become accustomed to the sudden transition from bright daylight to the deep gloom of this subterranean hall; but soon our eyes grew familiar with it, and the spectacle that greeted the view was indeed strange and grand. Beneath us were thousands of people, and away on the altar, far below, hundreds of lights, making a scene fit for the pencil of Rembrandt.

It took us more than an hour to go down, and in fact we were about giving it up, when we saw Mr. Rogers returning, who assisted in clearing the way for us. We followed him closely, and soon stood before the tomb, where a priest offered what appeared to me to be a Bible, to kiss: a book which he said was from the time of Christ. We visited also two other chapels, said to contain the tombs of the Virgin's parents, St. Joachim and St. Anne, and thence forced our way from the sacred cavern through the filthiest crowd that it was ever my lot to form part of.

Having enjoyed a substantial meal, we took horses and went again on the Mount of Olives; then visited some sepulchres called the Tombs of the Prophets, and going down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, stopped before the so-called tombs of Absalom, Jehoshaphat, and Zachariah, which are cut in the hill-side, near Siloam, and are certainly antique.

The bed of the torrent Kedron, on our left, is entirely dry; and all the ground, as far as the village of Siloam, is but a large Jewish cemetery, covering the side of the valley. Siloam is picturesquely situated, being a mass of houses built in terraces on the sides and peak of