FROM NAPOLOSE TO JERUSALEM'* 323 
Copying, like another Cotovic,* the whole of the hymns sung 
by the pilgrims at every station. Possessing as much enthu¬ 
siasm as might be necessary in travellers viewing this -hallow? 
ed city, we still retained the power of our understandings 
sufficiently to admire the credulity for which no degree of 
preposterousness seemed too mighty; which converted even 
the parables of our Saviour into existing realities; exhibit¬ 
ing, as holy reliques, the house of Bives.f and the dwelling 
place of the good Samaritan . There is much to be seen at 
Jerusalem, independently of its monks and monasteries; 
much to repay pilgrims of a very different description from 
those who usually resort thither, for all the fatigue and danger 
they must encounter. At the same time, to men interested in 
tracing, within the walls, antiquities referred to by the docu¬ 
ments of Sacred History, no spectacle can be more mortify¬ 
ing than the city in its present state. The mistaken piety of 
the early Christians, in attempting to preserve, either confused 
or annihilated the memorials it endeavoured to perpetuate. 
On viewing the havoc they have made, it may now be regret¬ 
ted that the Holy Land was ever rescued from the dominion 
of Saracens, far less barbarous than their conquerors. The 
absurdity of hewing the rocks of Judiea, fwhetlier of Mount 
Calvary or any other mount, into gilded chapels, and of dis¬ 
guising the face of nature with painted domes and marble co¬ 
verings, by way of commemorating the scenes of our Saviours 
life and death, is so evident and so lamentable, that even San- 
dys, with all his credulity, could not avoid a happy applica¬ 
tion of the reproof directed by the Roman Satyrist against a 
similar violation of the Egerian Fountain J 
We were conducted to the house of the governor, who re¬ 
ceived us in very great state ; offering his protection, and ex¬ 
hibiting the ordinary pomp of Turkish hospitality, in the 
number of slaves richly dressed, who brought fuming incense, 
coffee, conserved fruit, and pipes, to all the party, profusely 
sprinkling us, as usual, with rose and orange flower water. 
Being then informed of all our projects, he ordered his inter¬ 
preter to go with us to the Franciscan convent of St. Salva¬ 
dor, a large building like a fortress, the gates of which were 
# See De Chataubriand’s Travels, vol. II. p. 3. note 2, Lond. 181L 
f See the Preface to Part II. 
Juven. Sat. 3. Canlab , 1763. 
“ In vallem JEgeriae descendimus, et speluncas 
Dissimiles veris. Quanto praestantius esset 
Numen aquae, viridi si niargine clauderet undas 
Herba,nec ingenauin violarent marmora tophum !'’ 
Set Sandys* Travels , p. 161, Lotid. 1637. 
