216 OUTDOOR STUDIES 
to endure, there would have been no need of 
a Second,” he resolved to build for his part 
something which should possess permanence 
at least. And there still remains on that high 
hillside the small beginning that he made. 
There are four low stone walls, three feet 
thick, built solidly together without cement, 
and without the trace of tools. The end walls 
are nine feet high (the sides being lower), and 
are firmly united by a strong iron ridgepole, 
perhaps fifteen feet long, which is embedded at 
each end in the stone. Other masses of iron 
lie around unused, in sheets, bars, and coils, 
brought with slow labor by the builder from far 
below. The whole building was designed to 
be made of stone and iron. It is now covered 
with creeping vines and the débris of the hill- 
side; but though its construction had been 
long discontinued when I saw it, the interior 
was still kept scrupulously clean through the 
care of this modern Solomon, who often visited 
his shrine. 
An arch in the terminal wall admits the 
visitor to the small roofless temple, and he sees 
before him, embedded in the centre of the floor, 
a large smooth block of white marble, where 
the deed of this spot of land was to be recorded, 
in the hope to preserve it even after the globe 
should have been burned and renewed. But 
