Early Travels in Palestine Part 36

Near this monument is a little piece of ground, in which are picked up a little sort of small, round stones, exactly resembling peas, concerning which they have a tradition here that they were once truly what they now seem to be; but that the blessed Virgin petrified them by a miracle, in punishment to a surly rustic, who denied her the charity of a handful of them to relieve her hunger.

Being arrived at Bethlehem, we immediately made a circular visit to all the holy places belonging to it, as namely, the place where it is said our blessed Lord was born; the manger in which it is said he was laid; the chapel of St. Joseph, his supposed father; that of the Innocents; those of St. Jerom, of St. Paula and Eustochium, and of Eusebius of Cremona; and lastly, the school of St. Jerom; all which places it shall suffice just to name.

From the top of the church we had a large prospect of the adjacent country. The most remarkable places in view were Tekoah, situate on the side of a hill about nine miles distant to the southward; Engedi, distant about three miles eastward; and somewhat farther off, the same way, a high, sharp hill called the mountain of the Franks, because defended by a party of the crusaders forty years after the loss of Jerusalem.

_April 1._-This morning we went to see some remarkable places in the neighbourhood of Bethlehem. The first place that we directed our course to was those famous fountains, pools, and gardens, about one hour and a quarter distant from Bethlehem southward, said to have been the contrivance and delight of king Solomon. To these works and places of pleasure that great prince is supposed to allude[582] where, amongst the other instances of his magnificence, he reckons up his gardens, and vineyards, and pools.

As for the pools, they are three in number, lying in a row above each other, being so disposed that the waters of the uppermost may descend into the second, and those of the second into the third. Their figure is quadrangular. The breadth is the same in all, amounting to about ninety paces. In their length there is some difference between them, the first being about one hundred and sixty paces long, the second two hundred, the third two hundred and twenty. They are all lined with wall, and plastered, and contain a great depth of water.

Close by the pools is a pleasant castle of a modern structure; and at about the distance of one hundred and forty paces from them is the fountain from which, princ.i.p.ally, they derive their waters. This the friars will have to be that "sealed fountain" to which the holy spouse is compared[583]; and, in confirmation of this opinion, they pretend a tradition that king Solomon shut up these springs, and kept the door of them sealed with his signet, to the end that he might preserve the waters for his own drinking in their natural freshness and purity. Nor was it difficult thus to secure them, they rising under ground, and having no avenue to them but by a little hole like to the mouth of a narrow well. Through this hole you descend directly down, but not without some difficulty, for about four yards, and then arrive in a vaulted room fifteen paces long and eight broad. Joining to this is another room of the same fas.h.i.+on, but somewhat less. Both these rooms are covered with handsome stone arches, very ancient, and perhaps the work of Solomon himself.

You find here four places at which the water rises. From those separate sources it is conveyed, by little rivulets, into a kind of basin; and from thence is carried, by a large subterraneous pa.s.sage, down into the pools. In the way, before it arrives at the pools, there is an aqueduct of brick pipes, which receives part of the stream, and carries it, by many turnings and windings about the mountains, to Jerusalem.

Below the pools there runs down a narrow, rocky valley, inclosed on both sides with high mountains. This the friars will have to be the inclosed garden alluded to in the same place of the Canticles before cited: "A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed." What truth there may be in this conjecture I cannot absolutely p.r.o.nounce. As to the pools, it is probable enough they may be the same with Solomon's, there not being the like store of excellent spring water to be met with any where else throughout all Palestine; but for the gardens, one may safely affirm that, if Solomon made them in the rocky ground which is now a.s.signed for them, he demonstrated greater power and wealth in finis.h.i.+ng his design than he did wisdom in choosing the place for it.

From these memorials of Solomon we returned towards Bethlehem again, in order to visit some places nearer home. The places we saw were, the field where it is said the shepherds were watching their flocks when they received the glad tidings of the birth of Christ; and, not far from the field, the village where they dwelt; and a little on the right hand of the village, an old desolate nunnery built by St. Paula, and made the more memorable by her dying in it. These places are all within about half a mile of the convent, eastward; and with these we finished this morning's work.

Having seen what is usually visited on the south and east of Bethlehem, we walked out after dinner to the westward, to see what was remarkable on that side. The first place we were guided to was the well of David, so called because held to be the same that David so pa.s.sionately thirsted after[584]. It is a well (or rather a cistern) supplied only with rain, without any natural excellency in its waters to make them desirable; but it seems David's spirit had a farther aim.

About two furlongs beyond this well are to be seen some remains of an old aqueduct, which anciently conveyed the waters from Solomon's pools to Jerusalem. This is said to be the genuine work of Solomon, and may well be allowed to be in reality what it is pretended for. It is carried all along upon the surface of the ground, and is composed of stones ...

feet square, and ... thick, perforated with a cavity of ... inches diameter, to make the channel. These stones are let into each other, with a fillet framed round about the cavity to prevent leakage, and united to each other with so firm a cement that they will sometimes sooner break (though a kind of coa.r.s.e marble) than endure a separation.

This train of stones was covered, for its greater security, with a case of smaller stones, laid over it in a very strong mortar. The whole work seems to be endued with such absolute firmness as if it had been designed for eternity; but the Turks have demonstrated, in this instance, that nothing can be so well wrought but they are able to destroy it; for of this strong aqueduct, which was carried formerly five or six leagues, with so vast expense and labour, you see now only here and there a fragment, remaining.

Returning from this place, we went to see the Greek and Armenian convents, which are contiguous to that of the Latins, and have each their several doors opening into the chapel of the holy manger. The next place we went to see was the grotto of the blessed Virgin. It is within thirty or forty yards of the convent, and is reverenced upon the account of a tradition that the blessed Virgin here hid herself and her divine babe from the fury of Herod for some time before their departure into Egypt. The grot is hollowed into a chalky rock; but this whiteness they will have to be not natural, but to have been occasioned by some miraculous drops of the blessed Virgin's milk, which fell from her breast while she was suckling the holy infant; and so much are they possessed with this opinion, that they believe the chalk of this grotto has a miraculous virtue for increasing women's milk; and I was a.s.sured, from many hands, that it is very frequently taken by the women hereabouts, as well Turks and Arabs as Christians, for that purpose, and that with very good effect; which perhaps may be true enough, it being well known how much fancy is wont to do in things of this nature.

_April 2._-The next morning, presenting the guardian with two chequeens apiece for his civilities to us, we took our leave of Bethlehem, designing just to visit the wilderness and convent of St. John the Baptist, and so return to Jerusalem.

In this stage we first crossed part of that famous valley in which it is said that the angel, in one night, did such prodigious execution in the army of Sennacherib. Having travelled about half an hour, we came to a village called Bootesh.e.l.lah, concerning which they relate this remarkable property, that no Turk can live in it above two years. By virtue of this report, whether true or false, the Christians keep the village to themselves without molestation, no Turk being willing to stake his life in experimenting the truth of it. In somewhat less than an hour more we came to the fountain where they told us, but falsely, that Philip baptized the Ethiopian eunuch. The pa.s.sage here is so rocky and uneven that pilgrims, finding how difficult the road is for a single horseman, are ready to think it impossible that a chariot, such as the eunuch rode in[585], should ever have been able to go this way; but it must not be judged what the road was in ancient times by what the negligence of the Turks have now reduced it to; for I observed, not far from the fountain, a place where the rock had been cut away in old time, in order to lay open a good road, by which it may be supposed that the same care was used all along this pa.s.sage, though now time and negligence have obliterated both the fruit and almost the signs of such labour.

A little beyond this fountain we came to that which they call the village of St. Philip, at which, ascending a very steep hill, we arrived at the wilderness of St. John. A wilderness it is called, as being very rocky and mountainous: but is well cultivated, and produces plenty of corn, and vines, and olive trees. After a good hour's travel in this wilderness, we came to the cave and fountain where, as they say, the Baptist exercised those severe austerities related of him[586]. Near this cell there still grow some old locust trees, the monuments of the ignorance of the middle times[587]. These the friars aver to be the very same that yielded sustenance to the Baptist; and the Popish pilgrims, who dare not be wiser than such blind guides, gather the fruit of them, and carry it away with great devotion.

Having done with this place, we directed our course towards the convent of St. John, which is about a league distant eastward. In our way we pa.s.sed along one side of the valley of Elah, where David slew the giant, that defier of the army of Israel[588]. We had likewise in sight Modon, a village on the top of a high hill, the burying-place of those heroical defenders of their country, the Maccabees.

Being come near the convent, we were led a little out of the way to visit a place which they call the house of Elizabeth, the mother of the Baptist. This was formerly a convent also, but it is now a heap of ruins, and the only remarkable place left in it is a grotto, in which (you are told) it was that the blessed Virgin saluted Elizabeth, and p.r.o.nounced her divine magnificat[589].

The present convent of St. John, which is now inhabited, stands about three furlongs distance from this house of Elizabeth, and is supposed to be built at the place where St. John was born. If you chance to ask how it came to pa.s.s that Elizabeth lived in one house when she was big with the Baptist, and in another when she brought him forth, the answer you are like to receive is, that the former was her country, the latter her city habitation, and that it is no wonder for a wife of one of the priests of better rank, such as she was[590], to be provided with such variety.

The convent of St. John has been, within these four years, rebuilt from the ground. It is at present a large square building, uniform and neat all over; but that which is most eminently beautiful in it is its church. It consists of three aisles, and has in the middle a handsome cupola, under which is a pavement of mosaic, equal to, if not exceeding, the finest works of the ancients of that kind. At the upper end of the north aisle you go down seven marble steps, to a very splendid altar, erected over the very place where they say the holy Baptist was born.

Here are artificers still employed in adding farther beauty and ornament to this convent, and yet it has been so expensive a work already, that the friars themselves give out that there is not a stone laid in it but has cost them a dollar; which, considering the large sums exacted by the Turks for licence to begin fabrics of this nature, and also their perpetual extortion and avarrias afterwards, besides the necessary charge of building, may be allowed to pa.s.s for no extravagant hyperbole.

Returning from St. John's toward Jerusalem, we came in about three quarters of an hour to a convent of the Greeks, taking its name from the holy cross. This convent is very neat in its structure, and in its situation delightful. But that which most deserves to be noted in it, is the reason of its name and foundation. It is because there is the earth that nourished the root, that bore the tree, that yielded the timber, that made the cross. Under the high altar you are shown a hole in the ground where the stump of the tree stood, and it meets with not a few visitants so much more very stocks than itself as to fall down and wors.h.i.+p it. This convent is not above half an hour from Jerusalem; to which place we returned this evening, being the fifth day from our departure hence.

After our return, we were invited into the convent to have our feet washed, a ceremony performed to each pilgrim by the father guardian himself. The whole society stands around, singing some Latin hymns, all the while the father guardian is doing his office; and when he has done, every friar comes in order, and kisses the feet of the pilgrim. All this was performed with great order and solemnity; and if it served either to testify a sincere humility and charity in them, or to improve those excellent graces in others, it might pa.s.s for no unuseful ceremony.

_April 3._-We went about mid-day to see the function of the Holy Fire[591]. This is a ceremony kept up by the Greeks and Armenians, upon a persuasion that every Easter-Eve there is miraculous flame descends from heaven into the holy sepulchre, and kindles all the lamps and candles there, as the sacrifice was burnt at the prayers of Elijah[592].

Coming to the church of the Holy Sepulchre, we found it crowded with a numerous and distracted mob, making a hideous clamour very unfit for that sacred place, and better becoming Baccha.n.a.ls than Christians.

Getting with some struggle through the crowd, we went up into the gallery on that side of the church next the Latin convent, whence we could discern all that pa.s.sed in this religious frenzy.

They began their disorders by running round the holy sepulchre with all their might and swiftness, crying out, as they went, "Huia!" which signifies "this is he," or "this is it," an expression by which they a.s.sert the verity of the Christian religion. After they had, by these vertiginous circulations and clamours, turned their heads and inflamed their madness, they began to act the most antic tricks and postures, in a thousand shapes of distraction. Sometimes they dragged one another along the floor all round the sepulchre; sometimes they set one man upright on another's shoulders, and in this posture marched round; sometimes they took men with their heels upward, and hurried them about in such an indecent manner as to expose their nudities; sometimes they tumbled round the sepulchre after the manner of tumblers on the stage.

In a word, nothing can be imagined more rude or extravagant than what was acted upon this occasion.

In this tumultuous frantic humour they continued from twelve till four o'clock: the reason of which delay was, because of a suit that was then in debate before the cadi, betwixt the Greeks and Armenians, the former endeavouring to exclude the latter from having any share in this miracle. Both parties having expended, as I was informed, five thousand dollars between them in this foolish controversy, the cadi at last gave sentence that they should enter the holy sepulchre together, as had been usual at former times. Sentence being thus given, at four o'clock both nations went on with their ceremony. The Greeks first set out, in a procession round the holy sepulchre, and immediately at their heels followed the Armenians. In this order they compa.s.sed the holy sepulchre thrice, having produced all their gallantry of standards, streamers, crucifixes, and embroidered habits upon this occasion.

Towards the end of this procession, there was a pigeon came fluttering into the cupola over the sepulchre, at sight of which there was a greater shout and clamour than before. This bird, the Latins told us, was purposely let fly by the Greeks, to deceive the people into an opinion that it was a visible descent of the Holy Ghost.

The procession being over, the suffragan of the Greek patriarch (he being himself at Constantinople), and the princ.i.p.al Armenian bishop, approached to the door of the sepulchre, and, cutting the string with which it is fastened and sealed, entered in, shutting the door after them, all the candles and lamps within having been before extinguished, in the presence of the Turks and other witnesses. The exclamations were doubled as the miracle drew nearer to its accomplishment, and the people pressed with such vehemence towards the door of the sepulchre, that it was not in the power of the Turks set to guard it, with the severest drubs, to keep them off. The cause of their pressing in this manner is the great desire they have to light their candles at the holy flame as soon as it is first brought out of the sepulchre, it being esteemed the most sacred and pure, as coming immediately from heaven.

The two miracle-mongers had not been above a minute in the holy sepulchre, when the glimmering of the holy fire was seen, or imagined to appear, through some c.h.i.n.ks of the door; and certainly Bedlam itself never saw such an unruly transport as was produced in the mob at this sight. Immediately after, out came the two priests with blazing torches in their hands, which they held up at the door of the sepulchre, while the people thronged about with inexpressible ardour, every one striving to obtain a part of the first and purest flame. The Turks, in the meantime, with huge clubs, laid on them without mercy; but all this could not repel them, the excess of their transport making them insensible of pain. Those that got the fire applied it immediately to their beards, faces, and bosoms, pretending that it would not burn like an earthly flame. But I plainly saw none of them could endure this experiment long enough to make good that pretension.

So many hands being employed, you may be sure it could not be long before innumerable tapers were lighted. The whole church, galleries, and every place, seemed instantly to be in a flame, and with this illumination the ceremony ended.

It must be owned, that those two within the sepulchre performed their part with great quickness and dexterity; but the behaviour of the rabble without very much discredited the miracle. The Latins take a great deal of pains to expose this ceremony, as a most shameful imposture, and a scandal to the Christian religion; perhaps out of envy that others should be masters of so gainful a business. But the Greeks and Armenians pin their faith upon it, and make their pilgrimages chiefly upon this motive. And it is the deplorable unhappiness of their priests, that having acted the cheat so long already, they are forced now to stand to it, for fear of endangering the apostasy of their people.

Going out of the church after the rout was over, we saw several people gathered about the stone of unction, who, having got a good store of candles lighted with the holy fire, were employed in daubing pieces of linen with the wicks of them and the melting wax, which pieces of linen were designed for winding sheets; and it is the opinion of these poor people, that if they can but have the happiness to be buried in a shroud s.m.u.tted with this celestial fire, it will certainly secure them from the flames of h.e.l.l.

_Sunday, April 4._-This day being our Easter, we did not go abroad to visit any places, the time requiring an employment of another nature.

_April 5._-This morning we went to see some more of the curiosities which had been yet unvisited by us. The first place we came to was that which they call St. Peter's prison, from which he was delivered by the angel[593]. It is close to the church of the Holy Sepulchre, and still serves its primitive use. About the s.p.a.ce of a furlong from thence, we came to an old church, held to have been built by Helena, in the place where stood the house of Zebedee. This is in the hands of the Greeks, who tell you, that Zebedee, being a fisherman, was wont to bring fish from Joppa thither, and to vend it at this place. Not far from hence we came to the place where, they say, stood anciently the iron gate, which opened to Peter of its own accord. A few steps farther is the small church built over the house of Mark, to which the apostle directed his course after his miraculous gaol-delivery. The Syrians, who have this place in their custody, pretend to show you the very window at which Rhoda looked out, while Peter knocked at the door. In the church they show a Syriac ma.n.u.script of the New Testament in folio, pretended to be eight hundred and fifty-two years old, and a little stone font used by the Apostles themselves in baptizing. About one hundred and fifty paces farther in the same street, is that which they call the house of St.

Thomas, converted formerly into a church, but now a mosque. Not many paces farther is another street crossing the former, which leads you, on the right hand, to the place where they say our Lord appeared, after his Resurrection, to the three Marys[594]. Three Marys, the friars tell you, though in that place of St. Matthew mention is made but of two. The same street carries you, on the left hand, to the Armenian convent. The Armenians have here a very large and delightful s.p.a.ce of ground, their convent and gardens taking up all that part of Mount Sion which is within the walls of the city. Their church is built over the place where they say St. James, the brother of John, was beheaded[595]. In a small chapel, on the north side of the church, is shown the very place of his decollation. In this church are two altars set out with extraordinary splendour, being decked with rich mitres, embroidered copes, crosses, both silver and gold, crowns, chalices, and other church utensils, without number. In the middle of the church is a pulpit made of tortoise-sh.e.l.l and mother of pearl, with a beautiful canopy, or cupola over it, of the same fabric. The tortoise-sh.e.l.l and mother of pearl are so exquisitely mingled and inlaid in each other, that the work far exceeds the materials. In a kind of anti-chapel to this church, there are laid up, on one side of the altar, three large rough stones, esteemed very precious, as being, one of them, the stone upon which Moses cast the two Tables, when he broke them, in indignation at the idolatry of the Israelites; the other two being brought, one from the place of our Lord's Baptism, the other from that of his Transfiguration.

Leaving this convent we went a little farther to another small church, which was likewise in the hands of the Armenians. This is supposed to be founded in the place where Annas's house stood. Within the church, not far from the door, is shown a hole in the wall, denoting the place where one of the officers of the high priest smote our blessed Saviour[596].

The officer, by whose impious hand that buffet was given, the friars will have to be the same Malchus whose ear our Lord had healed. In the court before this chapel is an olive tree, of which it is reported, that Christ was chained to it for some time, by order of Annas, to secure him from escaping.

From the house of Annas we were conducted out of Sion Gate, which is near adjoining to that which they call the house of Caiaphas, which is another small chapel belonging also to the Armenians. Here, under the altar, they tell us is deposited that very stone which was laid to secure the door of our Saviour's sepulchre[597]. It was a long time kept in the church of the sepulchre; but the Armenians, not many years since, stole it from thence by a stratagem, and conveyed it to this place. The stone is two yards and a quarter long, high one yard, and broad as much.

It is plastered all over, except in five or six little places, where it is left bare to receive the immediate kisses and other devotions of pilgrims. Here is likewise shown a little cell, said to have been our Lord's prison till the morning when he was carried from hence before Pilate; and also the place where Peter was frightened into a denial of his Master.

A little farther without the gate is the church of the Cnaculum, where they say Christ inst.i.tuted his Last Supper. It is now a mosque, and not to be seen by Christians. Near this is a well, which is said to mark out the place at which the Apostles divided from each other, in order to go every man to his several charge; and close by the well are the ruins of a house in which the blessed Virgin is supposed to have breathed her last. Going eastward, a little way down the hill, we were shown the place where a Jew arrested the corpse of the blessed Virgin, as she was carried to her interment, for which impious presumption he had his hand withered wherewith he had seized the bier. About as much lower in the middle of the hill, they show you the grotto in which St. Peter wept so bitterly for his inconstancy to his Lord.

We extended our circuit no farther at this time, but entered the city again at Sion Gate. Turning down as soon as we had entered, on the right hand, and going about two furlongs close by the city wall, we were taken into a garden lying at the foot of Mount Moriah, on the south side. Here we were shown several large vaults annexed to the mountain on this side, and running at least fifty yards under ground. They were built in two isles, arched at top with huge firm stone, and sustained with tall pillars consisting each of one single stone, and two yards in diameter.

This might possibly be some under-ground work made to enlarge the area of the temple, for Josephus seems to describe some such work as this, erected over the valley on this side of the temple[598].

From these vaults we returned towards the convent. In our way we pa.s.sed through the Turkish bazaars, and took a view of the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. But we could but just view it in pa.s.sing, it not being safe to stay here long, by reason of the superst.i.tion of the Turks.

_April 6._-The next morning we took another progress about the city. We made our exit at Bethlehem Gate, and turning down on the left hand under the castle of the Pisans, came about a furlong and a half to that which they call Bathsheba's Pool. It lies at the bottom of Mount Sion, and is supposed to be the same in which Bathsheba was was.h.i.+ng herself, when David spied her from the terrace of his palace. But others refer this accident to another lesser pool in a garden just within Bethlehem Gate; and perhaps both opinions are equally right.

A little below this pool begins the valley of Hinnom, on the west side of which is the place called anciently the Potter's Field, and afterwards the Field of Blood, from its being purchased with the pieces of silver which were the price of the blood of Christ; but at present, from that veneration which it has obtained among Christians, it is called Campo Sancto. It is a small plot of ground not above thirty yards long, and about half as much broad. One moiety of it is taken up by a square fabric twelve yards high, built for a charnel-house. The corpses are let down into it from the top, there being five holes left open for that purpose. Looking down through these holes we could see many bodies under several degrees of decay, from which it may be conjectured that this grave does not make that quick despatch with the corpses committed to it, which is commonly reported. The Armenians have the command of this burying place, for which they pay the Turks a rent of one seuin a day. The earth is of a chalky substance hereabouts.

A little below the Campo Sancto is shown an intricate cave or sepulchre consisting of several rooms, one within another, in which the apostles are said to have hid themselves, when they forsook their Master, and fled. The entrance of the cave discovers signs of its having been adorned with painting in ancient times.

A little farther, the valley of Hinnom terminates, that of Jehoshaphat running across the mouth of it. Along the bottom of this latter valley runs the brook Cedron; a brook in wintertime, but without the least drop of water in it all the time we were at Jerusalem.

In the valley of Jehoshaphat, the first thing you are carried to is the well of Nehemiah; so called because reputed to be the same place from which the restorer of Israel recovered the fire of the altar, after the Babylonish captivity[599]. A little higher in the valley, on the left hand, you come to a tree supposed to mark out the place where the Evangelical Prophet was sawn asunder. About one hundred paces higher, on the same side, is the pool of Siloam. It was anciently dignified with a church built over it; but, when we were there, a tanner made no scruple to dress his hides in it. Going about a furlong farther on the same side, you come to the fountain of the blessed Virgin, so called, because she was wont (as is reported) to resort hither for water; but at what time and upon what occasions is not yet agreed. Over against this fountain, on the other side of the valley, is a village called Siloe, in which Solomon is said to have kept his strange wives; and above the village is a hill called the Mountain of Offence, because there Solomon built the high places mentioned in 1 Kings xi. 7, his wives having perverted his wise heart to follow their idolatrous abominations in his declining years. On the same side, and not far distant from Siloe, they show another Aceldama, or Field of Blood; so called because there it was that Judas, by the just judgment of G.o.d, met with his compounded death[600]. A little farther on the same side of the valley, they showed us several Jewish monuments. Amongst the rest there are two n.o.ble antiquities, which they call the sepulchre of Zachary and the pillar of Absolom. Close by the latter is the sepulchre of Jehoshaphat, from which the whole valley takes its name.

Upon the edge of the hill, on the opposite side of the valley, there runs along, in a direct line, the wall of the city, near the corner of which there is a short end of a pillar jutting out of the wall. Upon this pillar, the Turks have a tradition that Mohammed shall sit in judgment at the last day; and that all the world shall be gathered together in the valley below, to receive their doom from his mouth. A little farther northward is the gate of the Temple. It is at present walled up, because the Turks here have a prophecy that their destruction shall enter at that gate, the completion of which prediction they endeavour by this means to prevent. Below this gate, in the bottom of the valley, is a broad hard stone, discovering several impressions on it, which you may fancy to be footsteps. These, the friars tell you, are prints made by our blessed Saviour's feet, when, after his apprehension, he was hurried violently away to the tribunal of his blood-thirsty persecutors.

From hence, keeping still in the bottom of the valley, you come in a few paces to a place which they call the sepulchre of the blessed Virgin. It has a magnificent descent down into it of forty-seven stairs; on the right hand as you go down is the sepulchre of St. Anna, the mother, and on the left that of St. Joseph, the husband of the blessed Virgin.

Having finished our visit to this place, we went up the hill toward the city. In the side of the ascent we were shown a broad stone on which they say St. Stephen suffered martyrdom; and not far from it is a grotto, into which they tell you the outrageous Jewish zealots cast his body, when they had satiated their fury upon him. From hence we went immediately to St. Stephen's Gate, so called from its vicinity to this place of the protomartyr's suffering, and so returned to our lodging.