drinking, some fighting, some sleeping, and again, others, particularly children, running about and making a tremendous noise; whilst a grave-looking person, with a white turban, which marked him at once as a follower of the false prophet, was walking up and down to keep order. After having witnessed these scenes, which I did not expect on this hallowed spot, I returned to my quiet room in the Armenian Convent. It is worthy of notice, that the Greeks, the Copts, and the Syrians celebrate Christmas at the same time; whilst the Armenians have their's twelve days later; and I was informed, that, till about 400 years ago, the Armenians celebrated it with them at the same time. Jan. 6.-This morning we left the hospitable roof of the Armenian Convent to proceed to Hebron. The wind was very high-in this country, and at this season, always a sign that rain is near at hand-we were, therefore, not quite decided whether we should go on or return to Jerusalem; but finally, we resolved to continue our journey. Mrs. Alexander, however,

returned home.

THE POOLS OF SOLOMON.

After we had left Bethlehem, our way wound through rocky ground for about a quarter of an hour, and we proceeded but slowly. We then ascended a steep hill, from the top of which we enjoyed an extensive view; and, descending on the opposite side, we came to the far-famed Pools of Solomon. We could not but admire that stupendous work of antiquity. The water flows from one pool into the other, and was formerly conveyed from thence to Jerusalem, by way of Bethlehem; it is now, however, only brought to the latter place, the conduit from thence to Jerusalem being out of repair. In the neighbourhood of the pools there are several wells, which supply them with water. Those who have measured the pools state, that the upper one is 380 feet long, 236 feet broad, and 25 feet

deep; the middle pool is 423 feet long, 250 broad, and 39 feet deep; the lower pool 552 feet long, 207 broad, and 50 deep. In ancient times there were fine gardens in their environs, but now we found only the ruins of a Turkish Castle, in which, previous to the country being conquered by the Pasha of Egypt, there used to be a garrison stationed, who had to conduct the travellers to Hebron, on account of the robbers who then infested the country. We would willingly have spent some hours in this neighbourhood to examine the country around more minutely, but the boisterous weather admonished us to proceed.

The country which we were now traversing had quite the appearance of a desert; cultivation ceased,— no tree, no hut, no human being, was seen for several hours. The land does indeed enjoy its Sabbath, and is waiting until the Lord, in mercy, shall again return to Zion, and to the cities of Judah. The country is even more desolate than on the coast of Africa. There you still see the wild Arab pitching his mean tent upon the ruins of destroyed cities, and feeding his flocks in its vicinity; but here all is still, lifeless, and quiet.

The rain, which had long threatened, now overtook us, and the wind blew as cold as ever it does in England.

THE EUNUCH'S WELL.

"And the angel of the Lord spoke unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.

"And he arose and went: and, behold a man of Ethiopia, an Eunuch of great authority under Candace Queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, was returning, and sitting in his chariot reading Esaias the prophet.

"Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.

"And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?

"And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.

"The place of the Scripture which he read was this: -He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth:

"In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.

"And the Eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of himself, or of some other man?

"Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same Scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.

"And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the Eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?

"And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

"And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the Eunuch; and he baptized him.

"And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the Eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.

"But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Cæsarea."

This interesting circumstance, by which the Gospel was introduced into Ethiopia, is said to have taken place at this well, which by the Arabs is called

“Eddineh,” and by the native Christians the Eunuch's Well.

Close to the well are the ruins of ancient buildings, from which it is difficult to judge whether a church or a convent formerly stood on this spot. Some maintain that it could not have been here that the eunuch was baptized, because he came in a chariot from Jerusalem, and this road is not passable for carriages, but they forget that ancient chariots were very different from our present stage-coaches,—the wheels were lower and much broader and stronger than ours; and besides, we did, in fact, perceive vestiges of an ancient carriageroad all along from Jerusalem to Hebron.

Mr. Blackburn and myself had gone in advance of the rest of our party, and were all at once cheered by signs of cultivation, from which we drew the conclusion that we were approaching the end of our journey; but suddenly we heard some one calling behind us, and turning round we found it was our guide whom the Bishop had kindly sent after us. We had lost our way, and were obliged to return to the Eunuch's Well. The rain was coming down in torrents; yet we had the gratification of having been at Halhul, mentioned Joshua xv. 58.

The Bishop and Mr. Rowlands had by this time nearly arrived at Hebron, which is about half-an-hour's distance from the well above-mentioned.

THE VALLEY OF ESHCOL.

We passed many ruined villages formerly inhabited by Christians, and the name by which they are still known testifies to this fact, viz., Churbatta en Nazarani, i. e., destroyed villages of Christians. A little beyond these ruins the Valley of Eshcol opened before us. The weather and the season of the year prevented our seeing this valley in all its beauty, but we could see enough to enable us to judge of the fertility of the place. Vineyards, olive-trees, and fig-trees, in abund

M

ance, covered the country; but orange-trees do not grow here, the mountains are too high, being 3,000 feet above the level of the Mediterranean. Hebron itself is situate at a height of 2,664 feet, or, according to others, 2,842 feet. We now rode down the hill to the hollow in which Hebron is situated.

THE JEWS OF HEBRON.

One of the principal Jews of Jerusalem had furnished the Bishop with a letter of introduction to one of the chief Jews of Hebron, for whose house we now inquired. And glad we were when finally the house was shown to us, and we were ushered into the room, where we found the Bishop and Mr. Rowlands sitting at a coal fire. Thus we found ourselves in the city where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob dwelt, sojourning under the hospitable roof of a son of Abraham. Our kind hostess, a native of Poland, soon brought us some supper; after which we lay down to rest.

Early in the morning on the following day, being Saturday, we saw the Jews going to their synagogues. The Bishop, Mr. Rowlands, and myself, soon joined them. Mr. Blackburn being indisposed, was obliged to keep in the house. The first synagogue we visited belonged to the Sephardim. It bore marks of antiquity, but we could not discover the date when it was built. It has two shrines containing the law of Moses, handsomely decorated, the gift of pious Jews of other countries. The name of the giver is engraven on a silver or gold plate hanging on each roll. There were also various curtains before the shrines embroidered in gold, where also the name of the giver is visible. Over the reading-desk is the following inscription in Hebrew, "Oh man, why continuest thou in sin, and dost not reflect that the day of death will certainly appear, when the angel of death will approach thee, and take thy soul from thee. I do not ask whether thou art old or young; thou livest after thine heart's