Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/352

 322 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud^a. to the iron ring at the top of the well, which served to tie the rope to the bucket to let it down (Fig. 217). 1 But this was in after days found insufficient to supply the city, notably in troublous times when the outside springs became un- available to the inhabitants. It was of the utmost importance, moreover, to deprive the enemy of this essential element. Hence Hezekiah, taught by severe experience, stopped all the water- courses without the city and brought the water into the pool which bears his name, and which already received the overflow from the Virgin's Fountain, through a channel cut across the hill 1700 feet long. The pool was surrounded on three sides by the outer wall, and thus was as secure for the people as though it were inside (Figs. 218 and 221). 2 The passage which connects the fountain with the lower reservoir is roughly hewn, low, and narrow, but here and there it widens out into recesses, which may have served as sidings allowing two workmen to pass one another, which would have been impossible without them. It was in one of these niches that the discovery of the now famous inscription was accidentally made. A Jewish boy was playing here with other lads, and whilst wading up the channel which leads into the pool, slipped and fell into the water. On rising he noticed the upper line of the inscription, which alone was above water-mark. He told Mr. Schick, a German architect, long settled in Jerusalem, and the latter accordingly lost no time in visiting the spot and deciphering the tablet. The lines that are generally under water are damaged ; many have disappeared, making the reading of some parts un- certain. The translation is as follows : " This is the history of the tunnel. When . . . the picks directed one towards the other, there remained only three cubits to cut, then they heard each crying to the other that the . . . was in the rock from right to left. And on the day of the boring the excavators struck each towards his comrade, pick to pick. And the waters flowed from their outgoings to the pool, for a distance of 1000 cubits, and 100 cubits was the height of the rock above the heads of the excava- tors." 3 The incidents that attended the piercing of the channel, 1 A shows a shaft left unfinished. In the first sloping passage are toe holes in the hard soil, so that by pressing the back against the roof the ascent of some 50 feet is easily managed. B C, passage choked up with huge stones. D, beginning of shaft (Recovery, pp. 243-252). 2 2 Chron. xxxii. 4. 8 The inscription has 1200 cubits ; this, if we take the cubit at o m. 525 c, would