413 THE HOLY LAND. 
CHAP, earth, after conductino^ the Mas^i to the Cave of 
IX . 
' the Nativity. A Hst of fifty other things of this 
nature might be added, if either the patience of 
the reader or of the author were equal to the 
detail: and if to these were added the in- 
scriptions and observations contained in the 
bulky volumes of Quaresmius upon this subject 
alone ', the Guide to Bethlehem, as a work con- 
centrating the quintessence of mental darkness, 
would leave us lost in wonder that such a 
place was once enlightened by the precepts of 
a scholar whom Erasmus so eloquentl}^ eulo- 
gized". They still pretend to shew the tomb 
of St. Jerom^ (although his relics were trans- 
lated to Rome), and also that of Eusehius"^. The 
same manufacture of crucifixes and heads which 
supports so many of the inhabitants of Jeru- 
scdem, also maintains those of Bethlehem; but 
the latter claim, almost exclusively, the privilege 
of marking the limbs and bodies of pilgrims, 
by means of gunpowder, with crosses, stars, 
(0 Elucid. T. S. lib. vi. p. 614 ad p. G95. torn. II. 
(2) St.Jerom passed great part of his life in this retirement. Erasmus 
says of hira, " Quis tlocet apertius? qnis delectat uibanius' quis movet 
efficacius? \ quis laudat cnndidius? quis suadet gravius? quis hortatur 
ardentius ?" . 
(3) He died at the age of 91, in the beginning of the fifth centurj-, 
A.D. 422. 
(4) Quaresmius, torn. II. p. 676, et seq. 
