of lighting their torches and tapers at the flame itself; hut those who were not fortunate 
enough to reach it, took it from others, and, in a few minutes, the whole area was a blaze 
of thousands of lights. The two priests again made their appearance, each waving a torch of 
“ celestial flame,” and with those in their hands, they were hoisted on the shoulders of the 
devotees, and carried in triumph out of the Church. 
When the display has been thus gone through, the crowd slowly retire, preserving the 
remainder of their tapers to melt them on strips of linen, which they intend to be sewed into 
their winding-sheets, as sure passports to Paradise. The whole performance, monstrous as 
it is, has been authenticated by every European writer who has been present during the 
Easter celebrations. To us, even its extravagances may furnish the important lesson of the 
general and dangerous tendency of human nature to superstition; of the strange facility 
with which minds, even acute and intelligent on other subjects, may abandon themselves to 
the grossest follies in religion; and of the wisdom of limiting our zeal to the simplicity of 
Scripture. 
THE FOUNTAIN OF JOB. 
Tins is an ancient well, situated just below the junction of the Valley of Hinnom with 
that of Jehoshaphat. Tradition has been busy with its name, and the legend tells us, that 
this was the especial spot in which the sacred fire of the Temple was preserved during the 
captivity, until the restoration of the Temple by Nehemiah; the European monks, therefore, 
call it the Well of Nehemiah. The natives name it Byr Eyub, the Well of Job; but until 
the sixteenth century it was called En-Rogel. 1 
It is a very deep excavation, of an irregular quadrilateral form, walled up with large 
square stones, terminating above in an arch on one side, and apparently of great antiquity. 
There is a small rude building over it, furnished with one or two large reservoirs of stone. 
The well measures 125 feet in depth, and, in the rainy season, the water rises to the full 
height and overflows from the summit. 
This well has perhaps the most distinct connexion with remote history of any relic of 
the city of David. It is mentioned in the Book of Joshua, 2 in describing the border between 
the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. And when Adonijah was to be proclaimed king, he 
made a feast at En-Rogel, or in the phrase of Josephus, “ outside the city, at the fount 
which is in the king’s garden.” 3 It is not mentioned by the historians of the crusades; it 
was then probably filled up. 4 
' Cotovicus, in 1598, calls it Puteus Ignis. 
3 1 Kings, i. 9. Joseph. Antiq. vii. 14. 4. 
2 Josh. xv. 7, 8 ; xviii. 16, 17. 
4 Biblical Researches, v. i. 492. 
