1S35.] Notes of a Tour tlirough Fulestlne, 443 



festival of the Greek Easter, (the old style,) when the Armenians, 

 Greeks, and Copts perform the miracle of the Holy Fire, the grossest 

 delusion ever practised hy the priesthood on a superstitious laity. 

 All Saturday evening and night, the church was full of Greek and 

 Armenian pilgrims, running about the Holy Sepulchre in the most 

 indecent manner, shouting, carrying each other on their shoulders, and 

 every species of sky-larking. Two or three processions and some other 

 mummery occurred at intervals during the night ; and on Sunday 

 forenoon, the Greek Patriarch and Armenian Bishop entered the 

 Sepulchre, and very coolly poked a lighted candle through a little 

 hole, declaring it to be the Holy Fire, just sent down from Heaven. 

 All the pilgrims rushed to light their candles at it, the Armenians 

 succeeding in doing so first. The crush was tremendous, and was 

 followed by a melancholy catastrophe ; for either the Greeks, jealous at 

 the Armenians' getting away first, or from some other cause not 

 known, a rush took place to the door, which had been locked since 

 the preceding evening, and in the struggle numbers were trodden 

 down and suffocated. We were trying to get out, unconscious of 

 what was going on, and were nearly involved in the press, I cannot 

 express the horror I felt when I found myself hurried on to a heap 

 of dead and dying, from which I rushed back into the church. They 

 reported to the Pasha 133 bodies carried out for burial ; but there 

 were many more not reported : the number must have exceeded 200. 

 The number of pilgrims was greater this year than had ever been 

 known ; the Greek war and the conquest of Syria by the Egyptians 

 having prevented the concourse of devotees for several years. Their 

 number was estimated at 16,000. What made the circumstance more 

 singular was, that on the Friday the Armenian Bishop, through the 

 exertions, and indeed express stipulations of the principal people of 

 the Armenian race, who are rapidly rising in intelligence, had inti- 

 mated to the pilgrims, that the whole was a trick, and that it was to 

 be discontinued after the present occasion. 



There are however many interesting localities about Jerusalem, of 

 which no one can doubt. Mount Sion and Moriah, the Temple Olivet, 

 Valley of Hinnom, Bethany, all of which are very striking, particular- 

 ly the very road by which our Saviour came triumphantly from 

 Bethany to Jerusalem, where he wept over the city, and which can 

 never be mistaken. I was deeply interested with this. The Mount of 

 Olives is beautiful : you have a grand view of the city and of the Dead 

 Sea from the summit. 



We saw the Jewish Passover, andvisited manyof the principal Jewish 

 families. They are an interesting race ; many of them, fine venerable- 



