CHAPTER L. 
CHRISTMAS NIGHT IN BETHLEHEM. 
On our return to Jerusalem, we devoted the few days in¬ 
tervening before the 25th of December to a more thorough 
exploration of the neighborhood. So familiar now to every 
reader of Oriental travels are the Tombs of the Judges, the 
Mount of Olives, the Grotto of Jeremiah, the Mount of Zion, 
and all the places famed in sacred and classical history, that 
it would be a difficult task to add any thing new to what has 
been written on these subjects. 
I had heard much in regard to the ruinous aspect of modern 
Jerusalem ; and, strange as it may appear, was rather disap¬ 
pointed in not finding it so dilapidated a city as I had sup¬ 
posed it to be. Indeed, it seemed to me in quite as good 
condition as most of the cities which I had seen in Turkey 
and Syria. The first view on the approach by the Damascus 
road, is strangely beautiful and impressive. The white 
mosques, and minarets, and rounded domes, and the fine old 
gateways, are strikingly Oriental. The houses and bazaars 
in the upper and middle parts of the town, toward the Jaffa 
gate, are as good as any in Beirut, and not at all like what 
one might expect in Jerusalem. 
On Christmas afternoon, having made up our minds to 
spend the night in Bethlehem, we set out with a crowd of 
Frank pilgrims, and in due time arrived at the convent. 
This building is very large and of irregular form ; and is said 
by the monks to be built over the Grotto of the Manger. The 
most reliable authorities deny that there is any reasonable 
ground for the assumption. We found the whole village of 
Bethlehem filled to overflowing with pilgrims from all conn- 
