Page:Traditions of Palestine (microform) (IA traditionsofpale00martrich).pdf/112

 with the Hebrews, and knew aught of their superstitions.

The centurion replied, that their superstitions were so little like any others that he had known, that he had inquired carefully concerning them.

“I have been in Egypt,” he said, “and seen what a stranger may see of the mysteries of their temples; I have beheld the worship of the nations round Judæa; and in Persia I have seen the priests feed the sacred fire, and heard the music which hails the rising of the sun: but none of these—no, nor the rites of Jupiter Olympus, are so grand as the worship of the Hebrews. When I have been on duty at the fort, I have listened to melodies so heart-thrilling, that I can almost believe what their teachers tell of the walls of a great city falling down at the blast of their trumpets. And their temple,—what a sight is there!”

“I have entered,” said Lucius, “as far as their law allows, and I am never weary of looking on it from a distance. When its golden roof blazes at sunrise, no one can tell which is the greatest, Apollo or the Hebrew God.”

“Before I left Rome,” said the centurion,