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REV. CANON HAMMOND, LL.B., ON 



holy mount. When there, I jotted down some particulars of 

 what I saw and heard, and these particulais I have now the 

 honour to lay before you. 



There are eighteen tents in all. They stand on a level 

 plateau a few hundred feet below the summit. The oven where 

 the Passover lambs are to be presently roasted, and from which 

 the flames are even now leaping forth, is a circular pit, dug in 

 the ground, but also banked up to a height of about three feet 

 above the surface of the soil. I notice sic lambs peacefully 

 grazing near at hand ; they are straying at will among the 

 people. These are the lambs for the sacrifice, and they are 

 now eating their last supper," whilst, as in our Lord's case, 

 the arrangements are being made for their death. I had 

 understood that the Samaritans always sacrificed seven lambs 

 as, in fact, they frequently do, and I had concluded that they 

 do so, because seven, as the Bible abundantly shows, is the 

 sacred or covenant number. I ask Shellabi how it is there are 

 only six. He tells me that this year the Samaritans are too 

 poor to offer more. There were only six, however, the next 

 year, when our present King, then Prince of Wales, was a 

 spectator of the ceremony under the escort of Dean Stanley. 

 As I am watching them, a bonny Samaritan boy approaches 

 a lamb, catches it, clasps it round the neck and kisses it. It 

 did not remind me, but it might have done, of the kiss of 

 Judas. 



And now, the little band of 7nen — for the women are merely 

 spectators, and take no part in the rite, though they will 

 presently partake of the supper, Dean Stanley tells us that in 

 1862 they were shut up in their tents — the men stand in a 

 group with their faces toward the KiUali, or " Holy Place " of 

 their religion, at the opposite end of the summit. It is time to 

 begin the long ceremonial, for it is about half an hour before 

 sunset, and the Mosaic law was this, " Thou shalt sacrifice the 

 Passover at evening, at the going dotvn of the sun." At first they 

 kneel or crouch, and then the}' stand and chant with prodigious 

 energy — Stanley called it ''vehemence " — and in the monotonous 

 tones of the East — those tones from which our Gregorian 

 music is derived. They are all in holiday attire ; some of them 

 — Dr. Stanley counted fifteen in 1862 — in long white robes. 

 I notice among them a few aged men, with venerable white 

 beards. Each holds in his hand a MS. Prayer Hook, in Hebrew 

 and Arabic. The priest (or really Levite), however, standing 

 on a rough stone, in front of the congregation, recites his 

 prayers hy heart — this fact escaped me, or did not impress me. 



