SPltlNGS. 



267 



" Siloa's brook that flow'd 

 Fast by the oracle of God." 



The pool of Siloam is a reservoir of artificial construction, fifty-three feet long by 

 eighteen broad, into which a small stream flows, and is led off to irrigate the gardens of 



& i-*^ ^ anc ^ ^ ru * t trees tnat ^ e a l n g the slope of the 



[& *% ^ Valley of Jehoshaphat. The stream enters the 



pool through a subterranean channel cut in the 

 solid rock, and comes from the fountain of the 

 Virgin, higher up in the valley. The irregular 

 flow of the water is first distinctly mentioned by 

 Jerome in one of his Commentaries, towards the 

 close of the fourth century, who remarks: - 

 " Siloam is a fountain at the foot of Mount Zion, 

 whose waters do not flow regularly, but on certain 

 days and hours, and issue with a great noise from 

 hollows and caverns in the hardest rock." An 

 earlier record in the same century that of a still 

 extant Itinerary from Bourdeaux to Jerusalem 

 magnifies this circumstance into a flowing for six 

 days and nights, and a resting on the seventh 

 day ; an ancient popular legend, which might 

 originate the statement of the elder Pliny, of there 

 being a river in Judea that dries up on the sabbath 

 day. The popular belief is still firm among the 

 inhabitants of Jerusalem, respecting the flow and 

 ebb of the water ; but most modern travellers 



seem to have regarded it as an idle stpry, till Dr. Robinson was enabled to establish its 

 truth. From him we have recently had the following account: "Having been, very 

 unexpectedly, witnesses of the phenomenon in question, we are enabled to rescue 

 another ancient historical fact from the long oblivion, or rather discredit, into which 

 it has fallen for so many centuries. As we were preparing to measure the basin of the 

 upper fountain (in the afternoon of April 30th), and explore the passage leading from 

 it, my companion was standing on the lower step near the water, with one foot on 

 the step and the other on a loose stone lying in the basin. All at once he perceived the 

 water coming into his shoe ; and, supposing the stone had rolled, he withdrew his foot to 

 the step, which, however, was also now covered with water. This instantly excited our 

 curiosity ; and we now perceived the water rapidly bubbling up from under the lower 

 step. In less than five minutes it had risen in the basin nearly or quite a foot ; and we 

 could hear it gurgling off through the interior passage. In ten minutes more it had 

 ceased to flow ; and the water in the basin was again reduced to its former level. Thrust- 

 ing my staff in under the lower step, whence the water appeared to come, I found that 

 there was here a large hollow space ; but no further examination could be made without 

 removing the steps. Meanwhile a woman of Kefr Selwan came to wash at the fountain. 

 She was accustomed to frequent the place every day ; and from her we learned that the 

 flowing of the water occurs at irregular intervals ; sometimes two or three times a day, 

 and sometimes, in summer, once in two or three days. She said, she had seen the foun- 

 tain dry, and men and flocks, dependent upon it, gathered around and suffering from 

 thirst ; when all at once the water would begin to boil up from under the steps, and (as 

 she said) from the bottom in the interior part, and flow off in a copious stream. In order 

 to account for this irregularity, the common people say " ' that a great dragon lies within 



Pool of Siloam. 



