FROM ACRE TO NAZARETH. 147 
upper part of the picture, consists only of these chap. 
words : ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^ - — , — ' 
The ^/«Vc? picture is, perhaps, of more modern 
origin than either of the others, because it is 
painted upon paper made of cotton, or silk 
rags, which has been also attached to a tablet 
of sycamore wood. This is evidently a repre- 
sentation of the Virgin Mary and the Child 
Jesus, although the words " %\ii * ibol?," in 
Arabic, are all that can be read for its illus- 
tration; what followed having been effaced. 
Three lilies are painted above the head of the 
Infant Messiah; and where the paint has wholly 
disappeared, in consequence of the injuries it 
has sustained, an Arabic manuscript is disclosed, 
upon which the picture was painted. This 
manuscript is nothing more than a leaf torn 
from an old copy-book : the same line occurs 
repeatedly from the top of the page to the 
bottom ; and contains this aphorism ; 
%%t ZinMxmx IjatI) toalRjD in t%i S2X32 of %\n* 
Whatsoever may have been the antiquity of 
these early specimens of the art of painting, it 
is probable that they existed long prior to its 
introduction into Italy; since they seem evi- 
dently of an earlier date than the destruction 
of the church, beneath whose ruins they were 
buried, and among which they were recently 
