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erected at Jerusalem, more particularly as it is said, “ And as to the several parts of the city, he adorned them with decorations of all sorts." *

In the walls of the humble dwellings now forming the modern village of Sebasta, portions of sculptured blocks of stone are perceived, and even fragments of granite pillars have been worked into the masonry, while other vestiges of former edifices are occasionally seen scattered widely about. †

The most conspicuous object of all the remains of Sebasta, as seen from the road below in approaching it, is, however, the ruins of the most modern structure erected in it, except the habitations of the poor villagers themselves, namely, a large cathedral church, attributed to the piety of St. Helena. Sebasta, or Samaria, as it is more generally called in the New Testament, was among the earliest of those cities whose inhabitants embraced Christianity through the preaching and miracles of Philip; and among the number of his converts was Simon the sorcerer, or Simon Magus, as he is called, who from practising sorcery and bewitching the people of Samaria, became a Christian, in order, as it would seem, to purchase from the apostles by money the power of communicating to others the gift of the Holy Ghost. ‡ St. Jerome says, that it is thought Obadiah was buried at Samaria; and tradition fixes the sepulchres both of Elisha and of John the Baptist on this spot. Some bishops of this city are found to have subscribed to the ancient councils of the church, and probably Christianity flourished in it till the conquest of Palestine by the Saracens ; but whether it ever reverted again to the possession of the original race of the

* Ant. of the Jews, b. xv. c. 9. s. 5.

+ Benjamin of Tudela, who visited Sebasta, and knew it to be the ancient Samaria, thought these vestiges to be the remains of the palace of Achab, king of Israel. He notices its situation on a high mountain, and speaks of it as a delicious spot, from its fountains and gardens, and the beauty of the surrounding country. See Bergeron's Collection.

Acts of the Apostles, viii. 5-20.

Samaritans, whose chief residence had been established at the Shechem near their temple on Mount Gerizim, I am not aware. In the days of St. Helena, it was however honoured with a stately edifice, of the same kind as the many other cathedrals and religious buildings erected by this devout old lady over every part of the Holy Land, and whose remains are now very considerable. This pile was reared over the supposed prison in which St. John the Baptist was confined, and from whence his head was brought in a charger to gratify the revenge of an angry woman, living in reputed incest with her husband's brother, and to fulfil an oath made to her daughter, whose dancing pleased Herod and his captains, when probably heated with wine, at his birthday-supper.

This large church, whose remains still exist, stands east and west, and is about one hundred feet in length, by fifty in breadth. In the court at the west end are two apertures, leading down to a large subterranean reservoir for water, well stuccoed on the inside, and now nearly dry; though during the rains it often becomes filled to the brim. On the south side are high slender buttresses, and on a piece of building without this is a sloping pyramidal mole, constructed of exceedingly large stones. The northern wall is quite plain; the eastern front is semicircular, with three open and two closed windows,. each contained in arches divided from each other by three Corinthian columns.

The interior of the eastern front has a pointed arch, and columns of no known order, though the capitals approach nearer to the Corinthian than to any other.. The eight small arches which go round the tops of the windows within, are semicircular, and have each at their spring the capital of a column, but no shaft attached to it; the great arch of the recess is pointed, and the moulding that passes round it is fantastic in the extreme. Among other things seen there, are the representations of scaly armour, an owl,

St. Mark, vi. 21.

an eagle, a human figure, and an angel, all occupying separate compartments, and all distinct from each other.

The exterior of the eastern front presents a still more singular mixture of style, as the pointed and the round arch are both used in the same range, and the ornaments of each are varied. In the lower cornice are human heads, perhaps in allusion to the severed head of the Baptist; and there are here as fantastic figures as on the inside, the whole presenting a strange assemblage of incongruous ornaments in the most wretched taste.

The masonry appears in some parts to have been exceedingly solid, in others only moderately good; and in some places, weak and paltry; and at the west end, in a piece of building apparently added since the original construction of the church itself, are seen several blocks of sculptured stone, apparently taken from the ruins, and worked into the present masonry there.

On the inside of this ruined edifice, is a small mosque, erected over the supposed dungeon in which St. John was executed; and an Arab family, who claim the guardianship of this sanctuary, have pitched their dwelling on the south-west angle of the great church, where it has the appearance of a pigeon-house. On learning that I was a Moslem, we were all admitted into this mosque, which we entered with becoming reverence. They have collected here the white marble slabs, found amid the ruins of the church, to form a pavement; and in one part we noticed three large pieces with sculptured circles and bands on them, which were set up in the wall as tablets.

The mosque itself is a small oblong room, with steps ascending to an oratory, and its only furniture is a few simple lamps and some clean straw mats for prayer, the recess of the Caaba being in the southern wall. From the mosque, we descended by a narrow flight of steps to the subterranean chamber or dungeon of St. John, which had all the appearance of having been an ancient sepulchre. It was not more than ten feet square, and had niches as if for the

reception of corpses, in arched recesses on each side. There was here, too, one of those remarkable stone doors, which seem to have been exclusively appropriated to tombs, resembling exactly in form and size those described in the Roman sepulchres at Oom Kais. The panneling, the lower pivot, and the sill in the ledge for receiving the bolt, were all still perfect; but the door was now unhung, and lay on its side against the wall.

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SHECHEM, OR NEAPOLIS, MOUNT EBAL AND GERIZIM, AND THE WELLS OF SAMARIA.

AFTER taking some bread and olive-oil, as a meal of hospitality with the Sheikh of Subusta, we quitted it about eleven o'clock, and from hence our road lay for half an hour over hills of siliceous stone, going constantly to the southward until we opened upon the long valley of Nablous, running nearly east and west.

We turned off to the eastward, leaving on our right the village of Beit Eiba, on the side of the hill; Beit Oozan, a smaller one, just above it; and on the summit of the range, an enclosed town with

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