Page:Traditions of Palestine (microform) (IA traditionsofpale00martrich).pdf/59



last day of the feast of Tabernacles drew to a close. At the ninth hour, the evening sacrifice had been offered, while the courts of the temple were filled with the multitude of worshipers who had assembled to keep holy day. Those courts, ever beautiful, now appeared to the eye in unwonted beauty. Verdure waved from the walls, and branches of myrtle, palm, and pomegranate, overshadowed the throng beneath. The golden vine which surmounted the entrance of the sanctuary, glittered in the slanting rays of the sun, while the curling smoke of the censer yet wreathed around the holy place, and issued forth, in an odorous cloud, through the parted curtains which overhung the sacred threshold. While the eyes of some sought the holiest entrance, which no foot must pass save that of the