SKETCHES OF PALESTINE. 383 



spacious and commodious building, which was thoroughly repair- 

 ed and considerably enlarged in 1730. The remains of the more 

 ancient edifice, ascribed to the mother of Constantine, may be ob- 

 served in the form of subverted columns, with fragments of capitals 

 and bases of pillars, lying near the modern building. Pococke 

 noticed, over a door, an old alto-relief of Judith cutting off the head 

 of Holofernes. Within the convent is the Church of the Annun- 

 ciation, containing the house of Joseph and Mary, the length of 

 which is not quite the breadth of the church, but it forms the prin- 

 cipal part of it. The columns and all the interior of the church are 

 hung round with darnask silk, which gives it a warm and rich ap- 

 pearance. Behind the great aliar, is a subterranean cavern, divided 

 into small grottoes, where the Virgin is said to have lived. Her 

 kitchen, parlor, and bed-room are shown, and also a narrow hole 

 in the rock, in which the child Jesus once hid himself from his 

 persecutors. The pilgrims who visit these holy spots, are in the 

 habit of knocking oft' small pieces of stone from the walls, which 

 are thus considerably enlarging. In the church a miracle is still 

 exhibited to the faithful. In front of the altar are two granite col- 

 umns, each two feet one inch in .diameter, and about three feet 

 apart. They are supposed to occupy the very places where the 

 angel and the Virgin stood at the precise moment of the annunci- 

 ation. The innermost of these, that of the Virgin, has been broken 

 away, some say by the Turks, in expectation of fin ding treasure un- 

 der it ; 'so that,' as Mauudrell states, 'eighteen inches' length of it 

 is clean gone between the pillar and the pedestal.' Nevertheless it 

 remains erect, suspended from the roof; as if attracted by a load- 

 etone. It has evidently no support below ; and, though it touchts 

 the roof, the hierophant protests that it has none above. 'All tho 

 Christiana of Nazareth,' says Burckhardt, 'with the friars of course 

 at their head, affect to believe in this miracle, though it is perfectly 

 evident that the upper part of the columns is connected with the 

 roof.' 'The fact is,' says Dr. Clarke, ' that the capital and a piece 

 of a shaft of a pillar of grey granite have been fastened on to the 

 roof of the cave ; and so clumsily is the rest of the hocus pocus con- 

 trived, that what is shown for the lower fragment of the same pillar 

 resting upon the earth, is not of the same substance, but of Cipolino 

 marble. About this pillar, a different story has been related by al- 

 most every traveller since the trick was devised. Mauudrell and 

 Egmont and Heyman were told, that it was broken, in search of 

 hidden treasure, by a pasha who was struck with blindness for his 

 impiety. We were assured that it separated in this maimer, when 

 the angel announced to the Virgin the tidings of her conception. 

 The monks had placed a rail, to prevent persons infected with the 

 plague from coming to rub against these pillars ; this had been for 

 many years their constant practice, whenever afflicted with any 

 sickness. The reputation of the broken pillar, for healing every 

 kind of disease, prevails all over Galilee.' 



Burckhardt says, that this church, next to that of the Holy Sep- 



