Travels in Turkey, Asia Minor, Syria, and across the desert into Egypt ...

SYRIA, EGYPT, GERMANY, &C. I I 9
defs as might facilitate our views. After having taken the refresh-
ments which were presented to us, we returned to the convent,
where the General gave us notice to be in readiness to set forward
on the following morning at day-break.
We accordingly left Ramla at five in the morning of the 16th,
and after a ride of three hours over the plain, came to an Arab
village, named Caissa, where St. James was decapitated. In this
village we saw the method employed by the Arabsio preserve theil'
corn from pillage and fire. It consists in digging deep pits, similar
to wells, in which the corn is stored up, as in a granary. Having
breakfasted, we again set forward on our journey about nine
o'clock, passing through a plain, near to which was a village, bal-
led Latrun, said to have been once the residence of the kings of
the Jews* To the left of the village the ruins of a building were
pointed out to us, which we were told was anciently a palace. We
shortly after entered on a rocky and almost impenetrable road, over
a mountainous territory, which continued, with little variation, ununtil
our arrival at Jerusalem, a distance of twenty-five miles. The
safety and comparative facility with which the horses made good
their way through this difficult road, filled with rocks and precipices,
were truly surprising; not the smallest accident occurred. At one
o'clock we came to an Arab village, named St. Jerom, distant
from Jerusalem three hours journey. We there made a halt of an
hour and a half, and saw a
lofty building, supported bv beautiful
pillars, formerly a Christian church, said to have been built by the
Empress Helena, but now converted into a receptacle for cattle;
We traced on the walls the vestiges of several fine paintings of
scriptural subjects; and afterwards entered an arched cavity underneath,
in which, according to every probability,
the dead had
been WT
deposited e left the
village
at half past two, and were met
soon after by a party of priests belonging to the Greek convent at
Jerusalem who were on their way to Ramla, in obedience to a
mandate of Mahomed Pacha, but on what occasion we were not
informed.
On our approaching Jerusalem, we were met by the Mussclman
or Turkish governor, and by the superior of the Latin convent,
in which we were to take up our abode. They had come out with
their attendants, to compliment us on our arrival, and conduct us to
the city, which we reached at about half past five o'clock. For
a considerable distance the road was occupied by great numbers of
•ho inhabitants, who had come out to meet us; and the streets