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scribable splendour. Under the dome is the holy rock, of native limestone, surrounded by a screen of carved wood. Under that rock is a passage where is shown a place said to be that upon which Isaac was offered. The company then passed out and beyond to Mosque El Aksa, to the south. This was once a Christian church, and was evidently originally built after the Byzantine style of the seventh century, in the shape of a cross, with a dome at the intersection of nave and transept. The usual mosaics and stained glass were found here, but the church did not exhibit the richness of the Mosque of Omar.

On reaching the convent, we found our room prepared for us. There were iron bedsteads, stone floors and ceilings, and very scanty furniture, leaving the impression that at all events there was little risk of fire, notwithstanding our hot furnace of coals was placed on the floor. The disengagement of carbonic acid gas from these furnaces we should think would cause frequent disease and loss of life; and we are not surprised to hear of the melancholy death of one man who had occupied the room in which we are now sitting. Not being aware of the nature of the exhalations, he closed his door at night, and in the morning was found dead.

CHAPTER XVI.

VISIT TO BETHLEHEM-THE FEAST OF NATIVITY-BEAUTY OF THE BETHLEHEMITES.

AT four o'clock P.M. we left the Jaffa gate, and, crossing the Valley of Hinnom, took a south course to Bethlehem. The road was thronged with people hastening to the festival like ourselves. The way, though at times rocky, is generally good, and the plains permit rapid riding. About four miles and a half from the city we passed Rachel's tomb on our right; but, intending to examine it on our return, we hastened on, and after riding three-quarters of a mile farther approached the city of the Saviour's nativity. The sun had just set. The air was pleasant, the atmosphere clear, and the evening star brightly shining through the yellow sky of the west and considerably above the horizon. All was serenely beautiful; and, having allowed my companions to pass on, I commenced singing that beautiful hymn,

"Brightest and best of the Sons of the morning,

Dawn on our darkness and lend us thine aid," &c.

The hills answered to my voice; and, on looking behind, I found that I had been unconsciously at the head of a procession, an Armenian bishop being one of my followers, together with a number of natives in Arab costumes, quietly permitting me to lead the way into the arched entrance to the village.

We arrived at the convent at thirty minutes after five o'clock. The place was crowded. Hundreds were there from all parts; and, after waiting a short time, we were

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THE PRINCIPAL STREET IN BETHLEHEM

(With the Gate that leads to the Church of the Holy Manger, which is seen in the distance'.

THIEF IN THE CONVENT.

197

shown up-stairs into a plain room with a stone floor, containing five beds,—a few planks on iron trestles serving for bedsteads. After waiting a short time, we were invited down to a convent-dinner, which, like the one at Nazareth, consisted principally of macaroni or vermicelli soup; but the vermicelli was, as one of our half-educated servants said, "biled" in "ile," and was indescribably unpalatable, because, being fast-day, the monks were not allowed to let us have any "butter, milk, or meat.” We made a pitiful repast, however, upon a few fish from Jaffa and some bread. After a short rest on our trestle-bedsteads, we were roused to attend service, when I found that some thief had made away with a little silver compass I had purchased in Sheffield, to use when on horseback. It was irrecoverably gone, with the guard-chain to which it was attached; and no one knew anything about it.

At ten o'clock we descended to the church, which is enclosed by the convent-walls. The larger room of the convent is ornamented with high but somewhat disproportionate Corinthian columns; and adjoining is the smaller chapel, where the services had already commenced. The interior presents a singular scene of drapery, lighted candles, canopies, old paintings, columns, and frescoes; and a perfect floor of turbans and little red Syrian Fez caps is before us, and more turbans are moving in through the doors. Among the crowd a European dress is occasionally seen; but the spectators in a very great majority are Syrians. And now the music on the organ becomes rather cheerful than sacred, and the priests are assembling and the “ performances" in progress. If it were not for the fact that every impression which legitimately follows all we hear and see is in diametrical opposition to every idea of devotion, an intelligent worshipper would be so pained by incongruities that he would be driven away from the place by his own sense of the irreverence of the scene. This is the vicinity of the spot where the Saviour was born. near to the place where the angels sang the first heavenly

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