Page:Travels from Aleppo, to the city of Jerusalem, and through the most remarkable parts of the Holy Land, in 1776.pdf/9

 the road, is old Simeon’s and Elias’s house; and a quarter of a mile further is the well, where the wise men first saw the star. A little further is the ground where the reapers were at work, when Habbakkuk coming to bring them meat, the angel took him up by the hair of the head, and carried him into Babylon, to Daniel in the lion’s den: Afterwards we saw Jacob’s house, and a hill like a sugar loaf, where the Franks remained forty years after they were driven out of Jerusalem; Next is a monastery of monks of the order of St. Tavola Paula Romana, who, when they die, are buried at a convent in Bethlehem. A mile further, is the place where the angel appeared to the shepherds, and cried, ‘Gloria in Excelsis, &c.’ when our Saviour was born, where there hath been a convent, but here only is an arched vault; we paid money to the Arabs, who, when they espy any Franks going thither, ride post before to take possession of the place, and get something from them. A quarter of a mile hence, in the way to Solomon’s cisterns, is the village of the shepherds, on the back part whereof is a well, of which the Virgin Mary desired to drink; but the inhabitants denying to draw her any water, it presently overflowed for her to drink. A little way from this village is Joseph’s house, and a while after we came to Solomon's gardens, lying shelving. At the bottom of them is the road from Grand Cairo, and round the top passes an acqueduct which feeds Jerusalem with water, (from thence we saw Tekoa standing on a high hill) the waters come from the fountains which feed Solomon’s cisterns. Passing a mile along by the acqueduct, we came to Solomon’s cisterns, which are three; the first had no water in it, and might be about 150 yards long, 60 broad, and of a great depth; the second had a little water, something less in compass; the third was full, and as big as the first; They run one into another, and are fed by the springs that feed the city. The fathers say that they were made to swim in, being built with steps for a man to go down; but seem rather intended for a reserve of water for the city or gardens, having a passage to both. Near the garden is an ill-contrived castle, where a few villains inhabit, to whom we paid one livre per man, for leave to go into the grot where the springs are that feed the city and the cisterns; it is large, and hath three springs, and a large passage cut through the rock towards the cisterns, passable by a man, but we went not to the end of it.

We mounted our horses, leaving the cattle on the right-hand; at a distance we saw St. George’s church, where the fathers say the chains remain wherewith St. George was bound, which will presently cure a madman, if bound therewith. After an hour and a half’s riding we came near Bethlehem, where passing through a narrow lane, the guard, consisting of four or five musqueteers, received five livres of every one of us, and the druggermen that went with us received three; when