GRAVEYARD OF THE JEWS.-SILOAM.

239

belonged to the persons whose names they bear. Their architectural character, blending the Greek, Roman, and Egyptian styles, indicates an origin later than the Christian era; perhaps about the same date as those of Petra, to some of which they bear a striking resemblance. Even Chateaubriand gives up their genuineness on these grounds.

Just below these monuments is the graveyard of the Jews. With heartfelt sadness I cast my eye over this chosen resting-place of God's forsaken people. It is an unenclosed space, literally strewn with short, rough stones, each covering an humble grave: they lie as if a storm had prostrated and pressed them to the earth. Many of them have short inscriptions in Hebrew, some of which are almost obliterated, while others are recent and legible. To this resting-place the heart of the Jew in every quarter of the world turns with longing: here lie his fathers, and here, on the declivity of Olivet, over against his beloved Temple, he too desires to lie when his pilgrimage is ended.

We followed the ravine southward to the village of Siloam, a miserable abode of miserable Arabs, in the cliff on the left side. A number of rude huts appear to hang on the face of the rock: behind them are sepulchral chambers, which now form the abodes of many of these wretched beings. The living have cast out the dead, and taken up their residence among the tombs; but, indeed, such wretched specimens of humanity were they, that a miracle like a resurrection would be necessary to raise them to the dignity of man. Along the west side of the valley there are no ancient cemeteries, neither Jews nor Christians having ever thus approached the Temple; but close under the walls of the temple area, on a small level space on the brow of the hill, there are many Moslem tombs.

240

POTTER'S FIELD OF SCRIPTURE.

A quarter of a mile south of the Temple wall, the Valley of Hinnom, the prolongation of that of Gihon, having swept round the base of Zion, descends rapidly to the Kedron. On its south side, near its junction with the latter valley, there is a high plot of rocky ground running along the base of the still higher cliffs which ascend gradually to the summit of the Hill of Evil Counsel. On this plateau, some 40 or 50 feet above the bed of the Gihon, is the Aceldama, or Potter's Field of Scripture. The spot is tolerably well ascertained. A charnel-house, partly of masonry, and partly excavated from the rock, remains here in ruins: it was formerly used for the burial of strangers and pilgrims, but it has long since been abandoned. Groups of people were amusing themselves on the hillside: the strains of their rude music were re-echoed from the ruined tombs that yawned around on every side.

DAMASCUS GATE.-GROTTO OF JEREMIAH. 241

CHAPTER XXV.

JERUSALEM.-WALK III.

EXCURSION TO BETHANY.

Damascus Gate.-Turkish Soldiers.-Grotto of Jeremiah.-Road to Bethany.-Tombs of the Prophets.-Various Chambers and Excavations.— Path trodden by the Feet of Christ.-Scenes of his Walks.-Of his Entry into Jerusalem.-Of his Weeping over Jerusalem.-Of the Ascension.Convent of Black Nuns.-Friendship of Jesus and Lazarus.-Remains of the Church of the Ascension.

AFTER an early breakfast, we set out under the guidance of Mustapha, whom we always found very intelligent and useful, for an excursion to Bethany. It was the last day of our quarantine, and the restrictions under which we had been placed were very much relaxed, so that we were allowed to thread our way through the by-streets of the city to the Damascus Gate, from which we issued in the wake of a troop of soldiers, who marched out, in no very elegant style, to very indifferent music. When we had passed through the massive portal, they turned to the left, and we to the right in order to visit the Grotto of Jeremiah, which lies just without the city wall on the north, in a high cliff, evidently formed by cutting through the northern portion of the ridge of Bezetha. A wall, badly built of hewn stones and fragments of a former superior building, enclosed the entrance to the cave. We knocked at the low portal, closed by a rude door, and were admitted A small space of ground within contains a little hut and a garden with a few trees; a man and two or three women and children were the inhabitants. The VOL. I.-X

242

TOMBS OF THE PROPHETS.

cave was so excavated as to leave a large natural pillar in the middle to support the roof: the area within is divided by coarse walls into two or three separate sections. We found nothing of interest, except the obvious fragments of an extensive and superior structure once existing here. The legend is, that Jeremiah once resided in this grotto, and his couch is shown-a ledge cut out of the rock, six or eight feet from the ground. The grotto is much venerated by Jews, Moslems, and Romanists. To the south, near the city wall, a deep, dirty pond, with some broken arches, is shown as the prison in which the prophet was detained by Zedekiah: a few Turks were watering their horses from it as we passed.

Turning the northeast corner of the city, we passed along the brow of Jehoshaphat, by the wall, to St. Stephen's Gate, and there descending into the valley, struck into the road to Bethany, which crosses the Kedron by a small bridge of one arch, just below the Tomb of the Virgin, and winds southeastwardly around the southern base of the Mount of Olives, between it and the Hill of Offence. We turned from this road, a little above the Tomb of Absalom, into a footpath which leads over the mount to Bethany, in order to visit the Tombs of the Prophets, which lie a few paces south of the path, about half way up the declivity of Olivet. As they are rarely visited by travellers, and have never been very accurately described, I determined to see and make a plan of them, if possible. In a field of wheat I found two circles of loose stones, rudely piled up, enclosing two approaches to the tombs, which lie entirely under ground. You descend the principal entrance (marked 1 in the Plan) by a flight of six or eight steps, very much encumbered with rubbish, and first enter an ante