Zabulon,) is situated on a rising ground, about two hours' distance, or not quite six miles from Jerusalem. Here the traveller meets with a repetition of the same puerilities and disgusting mummery which he has witnessed at the church of the sepulchre. "The

stable, to use the words of Pococke, "in which our Lord was born, is a grotto cut out of the rock, according to the eastern custom." It is astonishing to find so intelligent a writer as Dr. Clarke, gravely citing St. Jerome, who wrote in the fifth century, as an authority for the truth of the absurd legend by which the "Cave of the Nativity" is supposed to be identified. The ancient tombs and excavations are occasionally used by the Arabs as places of shelter; but the Gospel narrative affords no countenance to the notion that the Virgin took refuge in any cave of this description. On the contrary, it was evidently a manger belonging to the inn or khan: in other words, the upper rooms being wholly occupied, the holy family were compelled to take up their abode in the court allotted to the mules and horses, or other animals. To suppose that the inn, or the stable, whether attached to the inn or not, was a grotto, is to outrage common sense. But the New Testament was not the guide which was followed by the mother of Constantine, to whom the original church owed its foundation. The present edifice is represented by Chateaubriand as of undoubtedly high antiquity; yet Doubdan, an old traveller, says that the monastery was destroyed in the year 1263 by the Moslems; and in its present state, at all events, it cannot lay claim to a higher date. The convent is divided among the Greek, Roman, and Armenian Christians, to each of whom separate parts are assigned as places of worship and habitations for the monks; but, on certain days, all may perform

their devotions at the altars erected over the consecrated spots. The church is built in the form of a cross; the nave being adorned with forty-eight Corinthian columns in four rows, each column being two feet six inches in diameter, and eighteen feet high, including the base and the capital. "As the roof of the nave is wanting, the columns support nothing but a frieze of wood, which occupies the place of the architrave and the whole entablature. Open timberwork rests on the walls, and rises into the form of a dome to support a roof that no longer exists, or that perhaps was never finished."* The remains of some paintings on wood and in mosaic, are here and there to be seen, exhibiting figures " in full face, upright and stiff, but having a majestic effect." The nave, which is in possession of the Armenians, is separated from the three other branches of the cross by a wall, so that the unity of the edifice is destroyed. The top of the cross is occupied by the choir, which belongs to the Greeks. Here is "an altar dedicated to the Wise Men of the East," at the foot of which is a marble star, corresponding, as the monks say, to the point of the heavens where the miraculous meteor became stationary, and directly over the spot where the Saviour was born in the subterranean church below! A flight of fifteen steps, and a long narrow passage, conduct to the sacred crypt or grotto of the Nativity, which is thirty-seven feet six inches long, by eleven feet three inches in breadth, and nine feet high. It is lined and floored with marble, and provided on each side with five oratories," answering precisely to the ten cribs or stalls for horses that the stable in which our Saviour was born contained." The precise spot of the birth is

* Chateaubriand's Travels, vol. i. p. 393.

marked by a glory in the floor, composed of marble and jasper encircled with silver, around which are inscribed the words, Hic de Virgine Maria Jesus Christus natus est. Over it is a marble table or altar, which rests against the side of the rock, here cut into an arcade. The manger is at the distance of seven paces from the altar; it is in a low recess hewn out of the rock, to which you descend by two steps, and consists of a block of marble, raised about a foot and a half above the floor, and hollowed out in the form of a manger. Before it is the altar of the Magi. The chapel is illuminated by thirty-two lamps, presented by different princes of Christendom. Chateaubriand has described the scene in his usual florid and imaginative style.

"Nothing can be more pleasing, or better calculated to excite devotional sentiments, than this subterraneous church. It is adorned with pictures of the Italian and Spanish schools, which represent the mysteries of the place. The usual ornaments of the manger

are of blue satin, embroidered with silver. Incense is continually burning before the cradle of our Saviour. I have heard an organ, touched by no ordinary hand, play during mass, the sweetest and most tender tunes of the best Italian composers. These concerts charm the Christian Arab, who, leaving his camels to feed, repairs, like the shepherds of old, to Bethlehem, to adore the King of kings in the manger. I have seen this inhabitant of the Desert communicate at the altar of the Magi, with a fervour, a piety, a devotion, unknown among the Christians of the West. The continual arrival of caravans from all the nations of Christendom; the public prayers; the prostrations; nay, even the richness of the presents sent here by the Christian princes, altogether produce feelings in

the soul, which it is much easier to conceive than to describe."*

Such are the illusions which the Roman superstition casts over this extraordinary scene. But this is not the whole of the pious show. In another subterraneous chapel, tradition places the sepulchre of "the Innocents." From this, the pilgrim is conducted to the grotto of St. Jerome, where they shew the tomb of that father, (although his relics were translated to Rome,) that of Eusebius, and those of Santa Paula and her son, St. Eustachius. This pious Roman lady owes the high distinction of having her tomb in this consecrated place, to having built and endowed several monasteries in the neighbourhood, all of which are now in ruins. St. Jerome passed great part of his life in this place; and in the grotto shewn as his oratory, is said to have translated that version of the Bible which has been adopted by the Church of Rome, and is called the Vulgate. He died at the advanced age of 91, A.D. 422.

The village of Bethlehem contains about 300 inhabitants, the greater part of whom gain their livelihood by making beads, carving mother-of-pearl shells with sacred subjects, and manufacturing small tables and crucifixes, all which are eagerly purchased by the pilgrims. The monks of Bethlehem claim also the exclusive privilege of marking the limbs and bodies of the devotees with crosses, stars, and monograms, by means of gunpowder; a practice borrowed from the customs of heathenism, and noticed by Virgil and Pomponius Mela.+ Pococke says: "It is remarkable

*Travels in Greece, Palestine, &c. vol. i. p. 396.

+ Chateaubriand says, "St. Paula and St. Eustochium, two illustrious Roman ladies." The latter was the son.

Encid. lib. iv. ver. 146.

Pomp. Mela, lib. xxi.

that the Christians at Jerusalem, Bethlehem, St. John's, and Nazareth, are worse than any other Christians. I was informed that the women of Bethlehem are very good; whereas those at Jerusalem are worse than the men, who are generally better there than at the other places. This may be occasioned by the great converse which the women have there with those of their own sex who go thither as pilgrims; and I will not venture to say, whether too great a familiarity with those places in which the sacred mysteries of our Redemption were acted, may not be a cause to take off from the reverence and awe which they should have for them, and lessen the influence they ought to have on their conduct."

At about an hour's distance to the south of Bethlehem, are the pools of Solomon. They are three in number, of an oblong figure, and are supported by abutments. The antiquity of their appearance entitles them, Dr. Richardson thinks, to be considered as the work of the Jewish monarch: "like every thing Jewish," he says, "they are more remarkable for strength than for beauty." They are situated at the south end of a small valley, and are so disposed on the sloping ground, that the waters of the uppermost may descend into the second, and those of the second into the third. That on the west is nearest the source of the spring, and is about 480 feet long; the second is about 600 feet in length, and the third about 660; the breadth of all three being nearly the same, about 270 feet. They are lined with a thick coat of plaster, and are capable of containing a great quantity of water, which they discharge into a small aqueduct that conveys it to Jerusalem. This aqueduct is built

* Maundrell says, ninety paces broad; their length 160, 200, nd 220 paces.