SKETCHES OF PALESTINE. 375 



take an impression of the foot- print in wax or plaster, to carry 

 home. 'Twice,' says Dr. Richardson, 'I visited this memorable 

 spot, and each time it was crowded with devout pilgrims, taking 

 casts of the holy vestige. They had to purchase permission of the 

 Turks; but, had it not been in the possession of the Turks, they 

 would have had to purchase it from the more mercenary and not 

 less merciless Romans or Greeks,' On Ascension eve, the Chris- 

 tians come and encamp in the court, and that night they 'perform 

 the offices of the Ascension.' Here, however, as with regard to 

 Calvary, and almost all the supposed sacred places, superstition has 

 blindly followed the blind. That this isnot the place of the Ascen- 

 sion, is certain from the words of St. Luke, who says that our Lord 

 led out his disciples * as far as Bethany, and lifted up his hands, 

 and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, 

 he was parted from them, and carried up to heaven.' (Acts i.) 



Bethany is a small village to the east of the Mount of Olives, on 

 the road to Jericho, not further from Jerusalem than the pinnacle of 

 the hill. There are two roads to it ; one passes over the Mount of 

 Olives ; the other, which is the shorter and easier, winds round the 

 eastern end, having the greater part of the hill on the north or left 

 hand, and on the right the elevation called by some writers the 

 Mount of Offence, which is, however, very little above the level of 

 the valley of Jehoshaphat. The village of Bethany is small and 

 poor, and the cultivation of the soil is much neglected ; but it is a 

 pleasant and somewhat romantic spot, sheltered by Mount Olivet 

 on the north, and abounding with trees and long grass. The in- 

 habitants are Arabs. Here they show the ruins of a sort of castle 

 as the house of Lazarus, and a grotto as his tomb, which, of course 

 is much frequented by pilgrims. On the eminence above is a small 

 Turkish mosque. The house of Simon the leper, of Mary Mag- 

 dalene, and of Martha, who, it seems, did not reside with her 

 brother, and the identical fig-tree which our Lord cursed, are 

 among the monkish curiosities of the place. 



The third summit of the hill is further towards the south. Here 

 Pococke noticed two heaps of ruins, one of which, the Arabs told 

 him, had been a convent of Armenians. The fourth summit, still 

 further south, had also an Armenian convent : it was called, he 

 says, by the Arabs, Gorek-Nertebet. 



Dr. Clarke has described some subterranean chambers on the 

 highest summit of Mount Olivet, which are not noticed by any 

 preceding traveller. One of them, he says, has the shape of a cone 

 of immense size, the vertex alone appearing level with the soil, and 

 exhibiting a small circular aperture like the mouth of a well ; the 

 sides extending below to a great depth. These were lined with a 

 hard, red stucco, like the substance covering the walls of the sub- 

 terranean galleries in the Isle of Aboukir. Dr. Clarke calls this 

 place a crypt and a subterranean pyramid, and supposes it may 

 Slave been appropriated to the idolatrous worship of Ashtaroth at 



