372 SKETCHES OF PALESTINE. 



tion, and are then fit for use. In like manner, beads and crosses 

 purchased at Loretto, are placed in a wooden bowl belonging to 

 the house of the Virgin, to be consecrated for the purpose of being 

 worn as amulets. The beads are manufactured either from date 

 stones, or from a very hard kind of wood called Mecca fruit ; when 

 first wrought, it appears of the color of box ; it is then dyed yel- 

 low, black, or red. They are of various sizes; the smaller are the 

 most esteemed, on account of the greater number used to fill a string ; 

 and rosaiies sell at higher prices when they have been long worn, 

 because the beads acquire a polish by friction. Strings of beads are 

 in request equally among the Moslems and the Christians. The 

 custom of carrying them appears to have been in use long before 

 the Christian era, and still prevails in the East. This is but one 

 instance among many, of the Heathen origin of the Romish cus- 

 toms. The shell worn as a badge by pilgrims, had probably a sim- 

 ilar origin : it was an ancient symbol of Astarte, the Syrian Venus. 

 Rosaries and amulets are made also of the black fetid lime-stone of 

 the Dead Sea, to be worn as a charm against the plague. Amulets 

 of the same mineral substance have been found in the chambers 

 below the pyramids of Sakhara, in Upper Egypt; the effluvia is 

 owing to the presence of Sulphuretted hydrogen. The Armenians 

 and the Jews are the chief traders in these sacred wares. 



MOUNT SIGN. The Armenian convent, with its church and gar- 

 dens, occupies the whole of that part of Mount Sion which is now 

 within the walls; the greater part is now excluded from the city; 

 and for the best description of this interesting site, we must avail 

 onrselves of Dr. Richardson's Travels. 



* Passing out by Zion's gate, or as it is more frequently denomin- 

 ated, the gate of David, the first object that meets the eye of the 

 traveller, is a long, dingy looking Turkish mosque, situated on the 

 middle of Mount Zion. It is called the mosque of the prophet 

 David, and is said to be built over his tomb, which is still exhibited 

 in the interior, and is held in the greatest possible veneration by the 

 Mussulmans. The Sautones, belonging to the mosque in Mount 

 Zion, are the most powerful in Jerusalem. Part of this building 

 was anciently the church of the Coenaculum, where our Saviour 

 ate the last supper with his disciples ; and I was shewn into an up- 

 per room in the front of the building, which both the Santon and 

 the Ciceroni affirmed to be the identical room in which this memo- 

 rable event to which the Christian world owes the institution of the 

 Holy Sacrament of the Supper took place, I should probably have 

 believed them, had I not learnt from higher authority, that thirty- 

 nine years thereafter, not only the walls, but every house in Jeru- 

 salem, had been rased from its foundation, and the ground plough- 

 ed up by the Roman soldiers, in order that they might discover the 

 treasures which they supposed the unfortunate Jews had hidden 

 under their feet. 



' To the right of the mosque, and between it and the gate of the 

 city, there is a small Armenian chapel, built on the spot where for- 



