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THE HOLY SEPULCHRE.

between the moments around the dying bed, where affection conquers for the present, and those spent at the tomb, which, through Christ's resurrection, is to the Christian the certain pledge of immortality. Mary had a faint heart, which allowed her to complain even of Jesus. It is with a similar spirit that many go to the tomb to weep there. But Jesus, though he wept at the announcement of the death of Lazarus, gave thanks at the tomb that even it should be made subservient to his glory (1 John xi.) On entering the city, we met several little girls with a nurse, all dressed in Frank costume, and, on inquiring, found they were of English families and from Smyrna. No one can tell but those who have travelled so much among foreigners as we, and almost alone for the last eight months, how pleasant is the simple sight of a few prettily-dressed children like these, who speak our native tongue.

During a visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is about one hundred yards south-east of the convent, we noticed, under the dome and in one of two little rooms, a pillar about three feet high. At the top of this is set a piece of marble, which has been worn smooth by the kisses it has received from believers. It is said that the little fragment of marble on the top was a piece of the stone which the angel rolled away from the tomb of the Saviour on the morning of the resurrection. It is a white-and-grey crystalline marble, and foreign from the stone of the country. The adjoining room contains the sarcophagus in which it is said the body of our Saviour was laid. It also is of foreign marble, and polished by the constant touches of lips and foreheads, and really looks as though wearing away. The room is twice the width of the sarcophagus, and of the same length-probably eight feet. From the ceiling are hung forty-four lamps like those in the Grotto of the Nativity. Our guide said there should be forty-five-an equal number for each of the churches using the building, the Latin, Greek, and Armenian. While standing here, a priest came with a little tin vessel, like an engineer's oil-can, and offered,

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as I supposed, to anoint me according to some method of no particular importance to me. Not believing in the efficacy of the process, I should have declined, had I not been desirous for once of becoming experimentally acquainted with the contents of the can. I permitted him to proceed; when, lo! out came simply rose-water, and that most fragrant.

On return to our cell at the convent, we felt cold and wet. Parts of the plaster of the arching roof were visibly damp, so that I requested Nicolo to send up his sheet-iron kitchen with the coals in it. This little iron brazier, three and a half feet in length, was brought up, and in about half an hour after its entrance I began to feel the effects of the charcoal; and so rapidly was I brought to experience the danger from the gas that I was glad to get to the door. It is a hazardous comfort in a room; and I have learned of another death-making two from this cause in this building.

This morning we have been surprised by the noise of a wedding going on next door. From our house-top we can look down upon the party. One female is engaged beating upon a kind of double drum placed before her, while others accompany her by clapping their hands in time with the beating. Some very droll singing forms a part of the entertainment, ending in a general trilling of the voices as a chorus. The old lady is in the yard, preparing the vegetables for dinner; and she, too, occasionally joins in the shrieking chorus. The "tumtum" is kept up all day, until we heartily wish that the girl may get married immediately. But our wishes are in vain; for we understand that the girl is to marry a sheik, and that the music begins before and continues after the wedding. The bridegroom is to come to-night with his party from the Jordan, and the neighbourhood has to be forewarned of the honour. Men seldom marry the object of their warmest attachment, if it has been one of former years; and women still more rarely. But this young sheik has not seen his bride since they were

children; and to-morrow, we understand from the neighbours, he takes her to his tribe, having bought her, according to the custom, for about £25.

During our stay in Jerusalem, we were frequently entertained in the pleasant family of Dr. J. T. Barclay, whose work on Jerusalem has brought before the public so many points of interest not hitherto noticed. Dr. Barclay's residence in Jerusalem promises great aid to the cause of geographical and scientific knowledge of the country. We were informed that as many as sixty patients have visited his house at one time, all Mohammedans, to whom he has given advice and medicine freely. His natural urbanity and Christian kindness, exercised toward the natives, together with a working and available scientific knowledge, must result in further important discoveries.

We always return at night to our lodgings with a lantern, however brightly the moon may be shining. This is the law; and some Franks were taken up not long since and lodged in the seraglio for disobedience. Every street seems quiet soon after dusk. In Western cities the night is scarcely distinguishable from the day, because of the noise and bustle in the streets. But, soon after the last call of the muezzin to evening prayer is heard, every Mussulman soberly and quietly retires from public notice, and the streets, crowded with hundreds during the long day, become silent and untrodden, the gates to the city are shut, and entrance strictly forbidden.

CHAPTER XXV.

FERTILITY OF THE SOIL OF PALESTINE IN PAST DAYSPROOFS THAT THE SOIL IS STILL CAPABLE OF THE SAME PRODUCTIVENESS.

No observant traveller passes leisurely through Palestine without being constantly impressed with the idea of the past populousness of this country. This impression will result from the ruins which constantly present themselves in his course. Closely connected with this impression will be that of its pristine richness and fertility. But there are hills and fields, of unnumbered acres of land, which scarcely deserve the name of soil, and where almost nothing is seen but the grey foundation-rock, or thousands of fragments of this rock so thickly crowded upon the land that you might ride over it with the idea that some fearful explosion once broke massive rocks into these sharp-edged, cragged pieces, and scattered them in wonderful profusion over the face of the country. I have stood on the top of a peak and looked in vain for miles around for a hill where my eye might light with joy upon some noble forest rising upon and crowning the summits with verdure and softness; but not one solitary tree could be seen, even with my glass. I have ridden fifteen and twenty miles through paths where it appeared to me that the foot of my horse had for all that length never once touched the soft soil, and where the pathway was often so narrow in the solid rock that for a short distance the passage for his feet did not measure eight inches in width, and in some cases he must step down seventeen or eighteen inches abruptly to gain his next footing. I have passed

over what my Arab guide called a path, but which I should have pronounced utterly impassable, and should not have attempted, had not my guide preceded me upon the sharp cutting points which pointed upward and through the wedgelike crevices into which my horse for some distance continued to step. Often our horses would have slipped if they had not been prevented by the six large-headed nails which, protruding a half-inch from the surface of the plates with which they are shod, act as inserting points.

We have already been thus travelling some two hundred miles on horseback and on foot, and probably much farther, and have always noticed the land and soil with a view to answer in our own minds the question in reference to its fertility. Despite the desolation and barrenness of the parts described above, we find evidences that Palestine, as a whole country, was one of former excellent culture and of the richest produce. In answer to the assertion of barrenness so often made by travellers, one thing is worthy of constant recognition,—which is the fact that, from the nature of travel here, visitors to the Holy Land must find their route along water-courses and in valleys where there is a nakedness greatly due to the attrition of the wintertorrents. In many places the rocky land is chosen, being preferable to soil because of the lightness and exceeding softness of the latter, which in some places renders it almost, if not quite, impassable in the rainy season. These facts make the country appear to travellers more barren than it really is.

But, notwithstanding the surface of the country is generally hilly and rocky, no one can visit many of the districts of Palestine without occasionally crossing plains of such exceeding extent and richness as to form great contrasts to all that we have spoken of. Many plains, however, are beyond the ordinary route of travel.

There appear to be four varieties of soil in Palestine, the poorest being a white and rather heavy soil, partaking much of the nature of the surrounding rock, and containing pro