FROM ACRE TO NAZARETH. 
243 
other, lay, covered with dust and cobwebs, upon the altar. 
From its appearance, it was evident that it had been found 
near the spot, the dirt not having been removed ; and that the 
same piety, which had been shown in collecting together the 
oilier scraps, had also induced some person to place it upon the 
altar, as a relique. How long it had remained there could 
not be ascertained; but in all probability it had lately been 
deposited, because the cattle, coming into this place, might 
have disturbed it; and the Moslems, from their detestation of 
every pictured representation of the human form, would have 
destroyed it, the instant it was perceived by them. We there¬ 
fore inquired for the person to whom this place principally be¬ 
longed. An Arab came, who told us the picture had been 
found in moving a heap of rubbish belonging to the church ; 
and that there were others like it, which were discovered its 
clearing some stones and mortar out of an old vaulted lumber- 
room belonging to the building, where certain of the villagers 
had since been accustomed to keep their plaster bee-hives* and 
^working utensils. To this place he conducted us. It was 
near the altar. The Arab opened it for us; and there, in the 
midst of bee-hives, implements of husbandry, aud other lum¬ 
ber, we found two pictures upon wood, of the same kind, al¬ 
most entire, but in the condition which might be expected from 
the manner of their discovery. Of these curious reliqucs, 
highly interesting, from the circumstances of their origin, and 
their great antiquity, as specimens of the art of painting, a 
more particular description will now be given. 
The first, namely, that which was found in two pieces upon 
the altarf represents the interior of an apartment, with a man 
Rasselquist was at this place upon the fifth of May, 1751. The monks who were 
with him alighted to honour the ruins of the church. “ The inhabitants,” says he, 
° breed a great number of bees. They make their hives of clay , four feet long, and 
half a foot in diameter, as in Egypt.” This sort of bee-hive is also used in Cyprus. 
See p. 209. 
-j Having presented this picture to the Rev. T. Kerrich, principal librarian of the^ 
University of Cambridge, exactly as it was found upon the altar of the church of 
Sephoury, that gent'eman, well known for the attention he has paid to the history of 
ancient painting, has, at the author’s request, kindly communicated the following re¬ 
sult of his observations upon the subject. 
“ This ancient picture is on cloth, pasted upon wood, and appears to be painted 
in water colours upon a priming of chalk, and then varnished, in the manner taught 
by Theophilus,(!) an author who is supposed to have lived as early as the tenth 
century .(2) 
“■ It i- a fragment, and nearly one fourth part of it seems to be lost. > Three per¬ 
sons, who by the nimbus or glory about the head of each, roust be all saints, are at a 
table., on which are radishes, or some other roots, bread, 81c. Two of the figures are 
sitting, and one of them holds a gold vessel, of a particular form, with an ear; th€> 
(\) See Raspe’s Essay on Oil-Painting, p. 68, and 87^.4to. Land. 1731. 
(j£) Page 46., of the same hook. 
