JERUSALEM. 
361 
sects hate the others because of their power and repeated ag¬ 
gressions ; the so-called Frank Catholics hate the Copts and 
Armenians, whom they regard as mere interlopers, without 
any right to enjoy the Christian mode of worship ; all hate 
each other for some real or imaginary cause, and each in¬ 
dulges in the self-glorification of believing itself to be the only 
sect that can find favor in the eyes of the Creator. Such is 
the bitterness of this sectional hostility that for many years 
past it has been impossible to keep the building in a state 
of repair. The roof is dilapidated, and the rain pours in 
through the windows; yet so it remains. The Latins will 
not permit the Greeks to undertake the necessary repairs, lest 
the mere act should give an implied ascendency of power; 
the Greeks refuse to give the Latins permission for the same 
reason; the Copts and Armenians are too feeble to contend 
with the more powerful sects ; and the more powerful sects re¬ 
fuse to grant them any liberty which they do not already hold 
in despite of them through the Turkish Government. During 
the ceremony of the Holy Fire, w T hich takes place once a 
year, the scenes of ferocity and violence that occur are inde¬ 
scribable. Religious insanity, and all the horrors of blood¬ 
thirsty fanaticism, destroy many of the devotees. Crimes of 
the darkest character are committed with impunity. Half- 
naked men and frantic women struggle madly through the 
crowd with live coals of fire pressed to their breasts; bodies 
of the stabbed and maimed are dragged out dead ; the chant¬ 
ing of priests, the howling of the burnt, the groaning of the 
crushed, fill the thick and suffocating air ; and from the sway¬ 
ing mass arise dying shrieks of Immanuel ! Immanuel! Glory 
to God ! Sickened with the disgusting and humiliating spec¬ 
tacle, the beholder turns away with the startling words of 
Ferdinand upon his lips— 
Hell is empty and all the devils are here. 
We were not long installed in our quarters at Signor Stc- 
phano’s hotel, when we were beset by dealers in all sorts of 
relics; crosses of pearl and olive-wood, fruit-beads from Mecca, 
ear-rings of asphaltum. from the Dead Sea, polished hint $nd 
petrified olives from the Mount of Olives and the Garden of 
a 
