Page:Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894.djvu/136

112 reconcile with it the rough western wall. But this wall was very thick:: I have drawn it at 5 feet, but it may have been 8, or even 10. The inside of the wall was plastered, hence a smoothly dressed surface was not of importance there. We would, however, expect a well-dressed outer facing, and such an one may exist under the rough wall built on the ancient one.

The question arises: who built this church? The only indications of date lie in the dressing that resembles crusading work noticed by Major Conder on the well-stone, which I also recognised on the newly excavated stone work outside the crypt, with the pointed arches of the vault which support the same date. We know that a church existed here before 383. In 700 Arculf, Bishop of Gavil, describes a cruciform church with a well in the centre of the cross. This was seen by St. Willibald in 722. In 1322 Sir John Maundeville finds a church here beaten down.

The following theory I would advance somewhat tentatively. At or after the time of Constantine a large basilica, as figured in my plan, was built here with a cruciform crypt over the well. This church was destroyed by Omar, but the crypt preserved. It was this crypt that was seen by Arculf. In his plan (see Statement for 1877, p. 73) the arms of his cross are in different proportion to each other from those in the present crypt, but we must remember that Arculf was not a very critical observer. More serious is the objection that in his plan the well comes at the intersection of the arms of the cross, whereas in the present crypt, while it is in the centre of the crypt, it is at the end of the eastern arm. It may be that the crypt was rebuilt by the first Crusaders (whose stone cutting seems recognisable), and that the form of the cross was altered, while the general idea was preserved. While rebuilding the crypt they may have not attempted to restore the surrounding church. It may be that Jaladin made breaches in this repaired vault, so that Sir John Maundeville in 1322, seeing the damaged crypt and the ruined church, would naturally write of Jacob's Well as having a "church beaten down" around it.

We may well congratulate ourselves upon the fact that the crypt, whoever may have built it, has now not only been cleared out, but is carefully guarded. The custodian, under the Abbot, is an obliging Moslem called Daûd, living in the village of Belata, seven minutes' off. The breaches in the vault have been repaired, and the approach is now by steps, at first from the present level of the ground by steps constructed by the Abbot, and then by the ancient excavated stairway. The Abbot has placed an altar in the vault with a double purpose: first, out of reverence for the sacred spot; and second, to secure it against molestation, as all sects respect a place consecrated by an altar. It was interesting to find on my visit to the Abbot after my measurements had been made at the well, that he also had seen a likeness between the ruined church and the basilica of St. Mary at Bethlehem.

While at Nâblus I was pleasantly received by the Samaritan High Priest, a man in middle life. As males so preponderate in this small