372 
A CRUSADE IN THE EAST. 
these estimates (I have forgotten the exact measurement, but . 
believe it is about ten or fifteen feet), may it not be that 
there is a mistake in the instruments ? that by a little more 
measuring it may be discovered that the Dead Sea is rather 
higher, if any thing, than the Mediterranean ? 
If a difference of five, ten, twenty, or fifty feet can be made 
by half a dozen corps of learned explorers, the only question 
that remains is, how many will it take to bring it up to its 
proper level, so that the water may flow out naturally, with¬ 
out subjecting the unlearned traveler to perplexing and un¬ 
profitable conjectures. 
Turning off a little from the highway, we took a walled 
road on the right, to Deir Mar Saba, and were soon in front 
of the convent gate. We had a letter of introduction from 
the patriarch of the Greek convent in Jerusalem to his brother 
of St. Saba, for which we paid about a dollar. This pre¬ 
caution of an introduction is deemed necessary in order to 
provide against any secret attack upon the monks. The gate 
is always kept closed, and a guard is stationed on the watch- 
tower who gives notice of the approach of strangers. Re¬ 
peated depredations committed upon the monks by the Be¬ 
douins and others, and the isolated position of the convent, 
have given rise to these precautions. Our letter was pulled 
up in a little box to a high window, and read by the patriarch; 
after which we were let in. through a small door, and led 
down a great many stone steps into the little building set 
apart for the accommodation of travelers. 
We found our quarters very clean and comfortable ; the 
fare good and the Greek patriarch very friendly and obliging. 
He showed us all the curiosities of the convent, including the 
room-full of skulls, the date-tree planted by St. Saba, the 
skull of St. Saba himself, the pictorial temple in which the 
works of that distinguished saint are duly represented on the 
walls, and numerous strange grottoes and chapels dug into 
the solid rocks. A very queer, picturesque old place is the 
Convent of St. Saba ; and any traveler who has the time can 
not better employ it than by spending a few days there, 
rambling through its vaults and chapels, and studying the 
