384 THE kOLY LAND. 
<^^HAP. contrived, that the door of the sepulchre, luhkh loas 
' ^ ' of stone, and similar in all respects to the sepulchre 
itself could never be opened, except upon the return 
of the same day and hour in each succeeding year: 
it then opened of itself, by means of the mechanism 
alone; and after a short interval, closed again. 
Such was the case at the time stated : had you tried 
to open it at any other time, you would not have 
succeeded, but have broken it first, in the attempt^ 
Pausanias here evidently alludes to the art 
thus possessed, and to a door like that which 
Maundrell has described as belonging to this 
Sepulchre. When doors of this kind were once 
closed, it is not very probable that any one 
would attempt to open them by violence; 
although some instances may be adduced of the 
plunder of tombs, as in the example mentioned 
by Josephus in the history of Herod'. But such 
conduct was always considered to be, in a very 
high degree, impious % and the superstition 
alluded to by Quaresmius, as recorded by Livy\ 
which considered a ruined sepulchre an ill omen, 
must have tended, together with the veneration 
(1) Josephus, lib. xvi. Antiq. c. 11. Cdon. 1691. 
(2) Ibid. 
(3) " Quod si apud priscos, sepulchrum dirutum fuisset, res fuit habita 
mali ominis, ut testatur Livius, et Alexander conciso sermone retulit j 
Hannihali, inquit, cum ex Italia Africam peltret, sepulchrum diruplum 
auspicium ferale.^' Qnaresm, Elucid. T. S, lib- iv, c. 8. Aiitv. 1639. 
