170 THE HOLY LAND. 
^Y^P- Having entered the church, the friars put 
V -' burning wax tapers into our hands ; and, 
charging us on no account to touch any thing, 
led the way, muttering their prayers. We 
descended, by a flight of steps, into the cave 
before mentioned ; entering, by means of a small 
door, behind an altar laden with pictures, wax 
candles, and all sorts of superstitious trumpery. 
They pointed out to us what they called the 
kitchen and the Jire-place of the Virgin Mary. 
As all these sanctified places, in the Holy Land, 
contain some supposed miracle for exhibition, 
the monks of Nazareth have taken care not to 
be without their share in supernatural rarities ; 
Mirade.^ accordingly, the first things they shew to stran- 
gers who descend into this cave, are two stone 
pillars in the front of it; one of which, separated 
from its base, is said to sustain its capital and 
a part of its shaft miraculously in the air. The 
fact is, that the capital and a piece of the shaft 
of a pillar of grey granite have been fastened on 
to the roof of the cave ; and so clumsily is the 
rest of the hocus pocus contrived, that what is 
shewn for the lower fragment of the same pillar 
resting upon the earth, is not of the same 
substance, but of Cipolino marble. About this 
pillar a diflferent story has been related to 
