556

SUPPOSED SITE OF THE NATIVITY.

ing; the walls are ornamented with blue satin and brocade, which are now in rather a faded and torn condition, but patched with tawdry furniture-calico.

Can this be, in reality, the stable in which the infant Jesus was brought forth—and this the manger in which he was laid? I am constrained to say, that I do not think they are for the places shown as such are neither in accordance with the simple narrative of Scripture, nor at all analagous to the appearance that inns or public karavansaries at present exhibit throughout the East; and it must be remembered, that in the never-changing manners and customs of this country, we have at this very day the same usages and habits that existed from the very earliest period that history records. The opinions set forth and the statements for and against its identity are easily disposed of; nor would I have introduced the subject, except for the arguments brought forward by Dr. E. D. Clarke, who by the way has written most learnedly upon the place, though he acknowledges that he did not visit it; and whose arguments, if they were valid, would do away with all those that he had previously urged against the Holy Sepulchre-nay, they complete the only evidence upon that subject that he seems to ridicule. The passage runs thus :"The tradition respecting the Cave of the Nativity seems so well authenticated, as hardly to admit of dispute. Having been always held in veneration, the oratory established there by the first Christians attracted the notice and indignation of the Heathens so early as the time of Adrian, who ordered it to be demolished, and the place to be set apart for the rites of Adonis. This happened in the second century, and at a period in Adrian's life when the Cave of the Nativity was as well known in Bethlehem as the circumstance to which it owed its celebrity." He then appeals to the authority of St. Jerome, and says that "upon this subject there does not seem to be the slightest ground for scepticism."* This is strange language from a writer who, but a few pages farther back, totally overlooks the fact of this same Adrian erecting statues of Venus and Jupiter over the sepulchre of Calvary; and which likewise prove that they were subjects of

* Travels in Greece, Egypt, and the Holy Land. By E. D. Clarke, LL.D. vol. iv. 8vo. edition, p. 415, 6.

interest, if not of adoration, to the Christians of Jerusalem in the second century; and also in one who styles the Empress Helena "an infatuated old woman," and the Holy Sepulchre "a dusty fabric, standing like a huge pepper-box in the centre of the present modern church."

It is stated by the monks, and all previous travellers have given insertion to the legend, that the whole of this grotto is hewn out of the solid rock. This, from actual inspection, I can positively deny, for part of the tapestry having fallen from the roof I was enabled, much to the annoyance of the attendant friar, to examine it, and found it arched with masonry. The chief objection to this place is its total dissimilarity to all other inns or resting places. The answer to this objection, that "it is by no means uncommon in these countries to use similar souterrains as habitations for both man and beast,"* cannot have any weight, or be taken as a proof of the identity of the manger at Bethlehem; for the places that are thus alluded to were never formed for inns, but were originally tombs, which, having been rifled of their contents, became in turn resting places for occasional travellers, and their sarcophagi or stone troughs were converted into mangers. The catacombs of Alexandria, the tombs of Sackara, and numberless other excavations could be adduced to prove this position, and no traveller has yet recorded a single instance in any country of a stable having been formed by excavating the rock beneath the surface; this one, in particular, is so small that it could barely have held a donkey, which, in order to reach it, must have been led down a steep descent under ground.

In order to determine this point I paid particular attention to the karavansaries of the different eastern towns we visited, These places usually consist of a large square enclosure, surrounded by a range of buildings, the upper stories of which are appropriated to the accommodation of travellers, and the lower, and the court-yard itself for their beasts. It was in the latter of these, in all probability, the holy family had to take up their abode, the former being already so completely occupied as to afford them no room. To suppose that the place called the

* Three Weeks in Palestine, p. 58.

558

RELIC OF THE INNOCENTS.

grotto of the nativity bears any similitude to the stable of an eastern khan, as Pococke and others would lead us to believe, is truly preposterous.*

From the grotto we were led through a long winding passage to visit the tombs and shrines of sundry saints and saintesses, all good people in their way, no doubt, but too numerous to mention. On our return to the sacristy of the Latins we were shown a relic of priceless worth, encased in a splendid frame and decorated with gold and jewels. This is a relic the very oldest that superstition has yet pawned upon the world, and one that dates its origin from the nativity itself. It is the hand of one of the innocents who were slain by order of the tetrarch, and whose bodies were all thrown into a deep pit which was pointed out to us beside the chapel that contains the manger! This musty looking little article is considered of great value. There is, however, one slight objection to it. It is quite true that, owing to certain diseases, or to the effect of embalming, or any other drying process, a hand would keep for a much longer period than tradition assigns to this; but this unfortunately preserves that plumpness peculiar to infancy which such means could not possibly retain. This fact may prevent the scientific at least from enumerating it among the wonders of Bethlehem for the future. It is, however, an exceedingly good representation, and does considerable credit to the artist who made it.

Having procured some refreshments, not the least valuable part of which was some excellent wine,t we remounted our

The Modern Traveller contains many sensible remarks in confirmation of this view, and Mr. Buckingham was also of this opinion. Pococke gives a description of the ovens at Bethlehem that really appears so very like this grotto of the nativity that I cannot forbear quoting the passage. "In Bethlehem," says he, "I took particular notice of their ovens, which are sunk down in the ground, and have an arch turned over them; there is a descent of some steps to the door by which they enter into them."

The wine of Bethlehem is the very finest that we tasted in this part of the Mediterranean. It is not unlike Marsala; and the monks, who were mostly Italians, had too good a taste to spoil it with anise-seed or resin. No doubt can exist but that the grape would grow in great luxuriance in Palestine; and the side of the hill on which Bethlehem stands is a fine situation for it.

horses, and proceeded to visit Solomon's cisterns. On leaving the town we passed the well that is supposed to be that to which the mighty men of old fought their way through the camp of the Philistines in order to procure some of its water to assuage the thirst of their shepherd king.-(2 Sam. xxxiii. 14—16.) It is a spot of considerable interest, as no doubt can exist as to its identity. It is covered overhead by an ancient groined archway; but the crowd of Bedawees and Bethlemites around it prevented our dismounting to examine it more particularly.

From this place our road lay over very uneven ground; in some places so rough, craggy, and precipitous as to compel several of our party to alight and lead their horses. The road conducted us into a narrow but exceedingly fertile valley winding towards the Dead Sea, which exhibited the appearance of the bed of a dried-up river. At the upper end of this wild ravine there are the remains of an old town with some ruined forts and towers. This place is watered by a branch of the neighbouring aqueduct, which spreading into numerous little rills, produces most luxuriant crops of grass and corn, in the fields among which they meander.

This ruined village is supposed to be the Etam that was built by Rehoboam, (2 Chron. xi. 6,) and which is noticed by Josephus. "There was," says he, when speaking of Solomon, “a certain place about fifty furlongs distant from Jerusalem, which is called Etham; very pleasant it is in fine gardens, and abounding in rivulets of water; thither did he use to go out in the morning, sitting on high in his chariot."* And this may be the place referred to in Ecclesiastes as one of the gardens† formed by the king of wisdom.

At the extremity of this valley we arrived at the three enormous tanks, sunk in the side of a sloping ground, and which, from time immemorial, have been considered to be the workmanship of Solomon; and, certainly they are well worthy the man to

*Josephus's Antiquities, b. viii. c. 7.

The original word garden is here supposed to be derived from the Persian Ferdoos, and signifies a pleasant place-a place full of delightshence our own word paradise.

560

THE CISTERNS OF SOLOMON.

whom tradition has assigned their construction. These reservoirs are each upon a distinct level, one above the other; and are capable of holding an immense body of water. They are so constructed, both by conduits leading directly from one to another, and by what may be termed anastamosing branches, that when the water in the upper one has reached to a certain height, the surplus flows off into the one below it, and so on into the third. These passages were obstructed, and the whole of the cisterns were out of repair when we visited them, so that there was hardly any water in the lowest, while the upper one was nearly full of good pure water. Small aqueducts lead from each of these cisterns to a main one that conducts the water to Jerusalem. They are all lined with a thick layer of hard whitish cement, and a flight of steps leads to the bottom of each, similar to some of those in the Holy City. Where the lowest cistern joins the valley of Etam, it is formed by an embankment of earth, and has a sluice to draw off the water occasionally. A short distance from the upper pool, I descended into a narrow stone chamber, through which the water passes from the neighbouring spring on its course to the cisterns. This, likewise has a traditionary tale to tell. It is said to be the sealed fountain to which allusion is made in the fourth and fifth chapters of the Canticles. From an examination of this place, it appeared to me that several springs empty themselves into these reservoirs, which are partly cut out of the solid rock, and partly built with

masonry.

Nigh to the upper pool there is a large square castle apparently of an order of architecture belonging to the Christian era; and so placed, in all probability, to guard these waterworks during the period of the holy war; for we know to what extremities some of the early Crusaders were reduced from the different wells being poisoned by the enemy upon their approach to Jerusalem.

These fountains having been already described with great accuracy by Maundrell, Pococke, and others, I shall not dwell longer upon them, except to mention two circumstances, that it appears extraordinary have not been adverted to by former travellers. The first is, their great similarity to the fountains assigned to Solomon at Ras-el-Ain, near Tyre; and the fact of both being natural springs, that were pent up so as to raise the