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JUNE, 1908.] THE TRAVELS OF RICHARD BELL (AND JOHN CAMPBELL).
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Magy,32 4. The place wheere y Prophett Habbakkuke was taken vp by the heare of the heade & Carried to Bubbilon 3a 5. The Convent of the Greekes where yo Prophett Elias dwelt ; neare it is a stone wheere they say he lay, & theirs seemeingly a print of a Boddy in yo stone,32 6. The howse where Jacob Lodged when he caime from Mesopotamia to Hebron.33 7. We came to Rama Ephrata where is ye ruins of yo sepulchre of Rachell.32 8. Bethlem, a mile from it, is seuerall systeras belonging to K. David, weh in his tyme weere kept lockt, now open, but the springs that fed them most stopt. 9. Att Bethlem is A monastrey of yo ffranciscans, & by it is a Large Church built by Q. Hellen, & afterwards by St Paula Romana,83 in woh are 44 large Marble pillers in the boddy of yo Church, such Rs are rarely Dow in anie other place to be seene for lenth & bignesse. We weere showne tymber at Joppa, wch they gd was to repaire the roff of it; pitty its it should lie as it now does. 10. Att yo vpp (upper] end of this church is (downe 6 steps) yo place where stood ye Manger, & ye Virgen Mary was delivered of of Savio. 12. On the right side of yo place ye virgin was delivered in, is a great Marble Stone in wch Marble they show, & its lik yo picture I genlly see drawne for St Jerrom in the naturall stone Naturally theire. 13. Next is the Chappell of ye virgin Marter St Katherine, whose heade & Chappell the[y] haue showne me in Spainest in the Dukd (lukedom] of Tuskany. 14. The Alter of Joseph. 15. The Sepulchres of the Innocents. 16. The Sepulchre of S Eusebius,35 all in the same grote, & round woh we went in prestion (procession] wth Kandells in or hands, singing according to yo bookes then in of hands, & kneeling soe often ye ptestant protestant] knees weere not a litle weary. 17. The place where St Jerrom Translated ye bible out of hebrew into lattia, & St Jerroms Sepulchre. 18. The Sepulchre of S. Paula & Etochix36 hir daughter. 19. Goeing out of the Church on the left hand is the scholes of St Jerom. 20. A bow shot south from this Church, is ye grote yo virgin Mary fled to wth of Savior for feare of Herrod and as she past into the Grote, wch is in a rock, some of hir Milk spurtleil agat yo side of ye groate, weh, by its vertue, hath Chainged them into Milkey earth, wch they make into Cakes & sell to pilgrims for yo virgins Milke, & being palveratod, they give to Catle or nuras 3s Woh want Milk, & it increases theire Milk, or if lost, recovers it,37
15th day July. We went to the fountaines of Sollomon, cald the sealed fountaines, 3 Miles from Bethlem west, & by them are 3 large fish ponds of gr depth, And below them are, in ye valley, y Gardens of Sullonon. The sealad fountaine we went downe into, ye spring some 10 yards lower then the surface of y' earth & a large valt ia wch is a great Cisterna, fro:n whence by aquaducts its carried throw daile & over rock to Jerusalern, being about 8 english miles from it.39 Neare these are ye village of the shepherds. Next to them tha howse of Joseph. Next thing showne vs the place wheere the Angell appeared to the sheperds, now a ruined Church there in memory first built. A place on a hill wheere St Paula Dyed. 39
16 July 1669. We returned back to Jerasalem by yo Mountaines of Judea ; in ye way we rid over y place wheere Senacbaribbs army was incamped & yo Angell slew 1,000,000 in a night; yo place is verry litle, & in reson vnlikly to containe halfe yo nomber; its about 5 Mile fro Jerusalem.
32 See Pococko, Travels in the East, p. 435, for all these places. 33 S. Paola Romana was abbess of the convent of Bethlehem in the fifth century.
# The author is confusing Saint Catherine of Alexandria with Saint Catherine of Siena. The former, martyred in the fourth century, was said to have been transported to the monastery founded by St. Helena on Mt, Sinai; the latter was buried in Spain in the fourteenth century.
36 St. Eusebius, a bishop of the fourth oantury, was killed by an Arian woman with a stone, and was afterwards canonized.
36 St. Eustochia was superior of a monastery at Bethlemen and was martyred in A. D. 410.
87 Maundrell gives this legend, and adds, A Journey from Alopro to Jerusalem, p. 122," the virtae ascribed to the chalk perhaps may be true enough, it being well-known how much fanoy is wont to do in things of this nature. »
* See Maandeell, A Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalen, pp. 118-120, for a description of Solomon's Pools.
39 "An old desolate uponery, built by St. Paula, and made the more mercorable by her dying in it. Maundrell, op. cit., p. 120.
