Which Of The Builders Was It That Had The Grace
To Leave That Under The High Protection Of Heaven, And Not Confine
It Under The Mouldering Old Domes And Roofs, Which Cover So Much
Selfishness, And Uncharitableness, And Imposture?
We went to Bethlehem, too; and saw the apocryphal wonders there.
Five miles' ride brings you from Jerusalem to it, over naked wavy
hills; the aspect of which, however, grows more cheerful as you
approach the famous village. We passed the Convent of Mar Elyas on
the road, walled and barred like a fort. In spite of its strength,
however, it has more than once been stormed by the Arabs, and the
luckless fathers within put to death. Hard by was Rebecca's Well:
a dead body was lying there, and crowds of male and female mourners
dancing and howling round it. Now and then a little troop of
savage scowling horsemen - a shepherd driving his black sheep, his
gun over his shoulder - a troop of camels - or of women, with long
blue robes and white veils, bearing pitchers, and staring at the
strangers with their great solemn eyes - or a company of labourers,
with their donkeys, bearing grain or grapes to the city, - met us
and enlivened the little ride. It was a busy and cheerful scene.
The Church of the Nativity, with the adjoining convents, forms a
vast and noble Christian structure. A party of travellers were
going to the Jordan that day, and scores of their followers - of the
robbing Arabs, who profess to protect them (magnificent figures
some of them, with flowing haicks and turbans, with long guns and
scimitars, and wretched horses, covered with gaudy trappings), were
standing on the broad pavement before the little convent gate.
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