the Hill of Offense; the nest of huts is the Village of Siloam; here,

yonder, every where, is the King's Garden; under this great tree

Zacharias, the high priest, was murdered; yonder is Mount Moriah and the

Temple wall; the tomb of Absalom; the tomb of St. James; the tomb of

Zacharias; beyond, are the Garden of Gethsemane and the tomb of the

Virgin Mary; here is the Pool of Siloam, and----"

We said we would dismount, and quench our thirst, and rest. We were

burning up with the heat. We were failing under the accumulated fatigue

of days and days of ceaseless marching. All were willing.

The Pool is a deep, walled ditch, through which a clear stream of water

runs, that comes from under Jerusalem somewhere, and passing through

the

Fountain of the Virgin, or being supplied from it, reaches this place by

way of a tunnel of heavy masonry. The famous pool looked exactly as it

looked in Solomon's time, no doubt, and the same dusky, Oriental women,

came down in their old Oriental way, and carried off jars of the water on

their heads, just as they did three thousand years ago, and just as they

will do fifty thousand years hence if any of them are still left on

earth.

We went away from there and stopped at the Fountain of the Virgin. But

the water was not good, and there was no comfort or peace any where, on

account of the regiment of boys and girls and beggars that persecuted us

all the time for bucksheesh. The guide wanted us to give them some

664

The Innocents Abroad