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column, rising some way above the water, a book wrapped in a cloth, which proved to be the Gospel of St John. He does not appear to have explored further.

The frequent religious ablutions of the Moslems demand a large supply of water in the neighbourhood of their Mosks, and the numerous handsome fountains of the best ages of Saracenic architecture, not only within the sacred enclosure, but in the neighbouring streets of the city, all which are now dry, still bear witness to the fact, that during their occupation there was an abundance of water in Jerusalem. Again, when the Crusaders, who had suffered so dreadfully from thirst during the siege, had taken the city, they found within the precincts of the Mosk a very copious supply of waters, although an infinite number of men and cattle had been shut up in the city; which cattle we learn were brought to the Mosk to be watered; and we further read of large cisterns beneath and about the area, supplied in part with rain-water it is true, but no doubt mainly dependent on the perpetual fountains of which we have read above. In addition to this chain of evidence, we have at the present day a local tradition extending back it is impossible to say how far,

"Reperiebantur et aquæ, cujus maximam in obsidione passi fuerant penuriam, ingentes copia." William of Tyre, vIII. xxiv. p. 761.

Albert. Aquen. Hist. Hierosol. VI. xxi. Gesta Franc. p. 280.

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7 So William of Tyre, vIII. iv. 749. Qui autem intus erant præter aquarum pluvialium, quam habebant, uberitatem maximam, fontes etiam a partibus deductos exterioribus et aqueductis invectos, in piscinas duas maxi

mæ quantitatis quæ circa Templi ambitum exterius tamen sed infra urbem continentur recipiebant, quarum altera usque hodie probatica piscina reputatur," &c. Albert of Aix 1. c. speaks of "cisternam regiam, quæ ante fores ejusdem Palatii, in modum lacus amplitudinem et magnitudinem cavatione continet," &c. This he says was covered over; it contained rain-water, and many fugitives were drowned in it.

describing these cisterns in language which might appear to be borrowed from the book of Ecclesiasticus, or from the narrative of Aristeas above cited, but which in the mouths of Moslems reminds one rather of the Arabian Nights. The man in the employment of the bath has been already quoted; we find another at the Fountain of the Virgin, declaring that this water also comes down from the fountain beneath the Mosk'; and these individuals do but represent the current opinion of the natives.

The

All accounts of the Haram speak of a large number of enormous reservoirs beneath the area; more than sufficient to collect and preserve the rain-water: and, besides these, we read of fountains and wells. excavated chamber, called the Noble Cave, in the Sakhrah, has been already noticed, "in the centre of whose rocky pavement is a circular slab of marble, which being struck returns a hollow sound, clearly shewing that there is a well or excavation beneath;" and this has been identified with the cesspool of the Jewish Altar, the entrance to the sewer that still debouches into the Kedron, above the Fountain of the Virgin. But besides this cavity, there is in the western porch of the Mosk a well, which Mr Catherwood conjectures may communicate with the fountain from which the bath is supplied 3. This may possibly be the reservoir of which Dr Robinson heard at Siloam, and of which the man at the Healing Bath testified; perhaps identical with the Cavern mentioned by Philostorgius in connexion with the proceedings of Julian. Again;

1 Bib. Res. 1. 507.

2 Mr. Catherwood, in Walks, &c.

p. 167.

3 Walks, 166, note.

a handsome fountain of white marble stands about the middle of the raised walk that leads from the platform to El-Aksa, apparently over the royal cistern mentioned by Albert of Aix ; and within the Mosk El-Aksa is a deep well, (connected by Mohammedan traditions with mysterious tales of Paradise,) apparently opening into a subterranean cistern, of large extent, for there is another opening to it at some distance 5. All these appearances serve to corroborate the statements just noticed, which would further seem to derive a strong and striking confirmation from the language of Holy Scripture itself, where the Prophet Ezekiel in his allegorical vision was shewn a stream of water issuing forth from under the threshold of the Temple, which is apparently alluded to by the prophet Zechariah, and in the Revelation of S. John".

From all these testimonies I think we are forced to conclude there is under the Haram an abundant fountain of living water; but whether the main spring is there, it is more difficult to determine. I am disposed to believe that it is not, but that the water is brought to the reservoirs by an aqueduct, the tradition of which was early lost, as the effects within the Temple were exactly such as if the fountain-head had been there. Let us now endeavour to find some traces of the aqueduct. I presume then that the water in the well near the Haram has escaped from this aqueduct that the fountain near the Church of the Flagellation may be, if not

See page 467, note 7. The fountain is called "the Orange Fountain."

Namely from a large magazine called the Joiners', a store-house on the South-east of the Mosk el-Aksa. See

Mejr-ed-din, Tome 11. p. 85.

6 Ezek. xlvii. 1-11; Zech. xiii. 1 ; xiv. 8; Rev. xxii. 1. I am indebted for this suggestion to Raumer's Palästine, p. 333.

the main channel, yet an offshoot from it, which furnished a supply of water to the fortress Antonia, and its predecessors; for the garrison in the original Acra, though often besieged, and at length reduced by famine, are never said to have been inconvenienced by thirst; and so with Baris and Antonia. It would even appear that we may hear something of this aqueduct still higher up. Among the native traditions of Jerusalem is one to this effect, "that there is a spot near the Damascus Gate, without the city, where, in a still time, by putting the ear near to the ground, the trickling or murmur of a subterranean water-course can be heard1.” Now the Damascus Gate is at the upper part of the Tyropoon; and two of the fountains which have been mentioned are on the left side of this valley, so that the communication is highly probable. I find too a confirmation of this hypothesis in a fact of which I was not aware when I first propounded it; viz. that the peculiar water of Siloam is actually found outside the Damascus Gate, on the right, in a large tank, immediately beneath the northern walls, called by the natives the "Cotton Grotto," which they believe to have a

1 Dr Robinson mentions having heard this common report himself at Jerusalem, which was afterwards confirmed by Mr. Wolcott. Biblioth. Sacra, Part I. 28. There is an extraordinary coincidence between this tradition and the proof given to Aristeas of the truth of the water-story above related; he writes, Пeweloμévos dè καὶ αὐτος τὴν τῶν ὑποδοχείων κατασκυὴν δηλώσω, καθὼς ἐπιστώτην, προς ήγαγον γὰρ πλέον σταδίων τεσσάρων ἐκ τῆς πόλεως· καὶ πρός τινα τόπου ἐκέλευσέ τις κατακύψαντα, συνακοῦσαι

τοῦ γινομένου ψόφου τῆς ἀπαντήσεως τῶν ὑδάτων· ὥστε συμφανές μοι γεγονέναι τὸ μέγεθος τῶν ἀγγείων, καθώς dedλwraι. Aristeas, 1. c.

2 My voucher for this is Herr Krafft. Topographie, p. 131. I may be allowed to borrow one notice from a writer who has borrowed so many from me without acknowledgment.

3 It is marked 'Quarry' in the Plan. Its entrance and position is well shewn in Mr. Tipping's drawing. Traill's Josephus, p. 193.

communication in one direction with the Haram, and in the other with the Cave of Jeremiah1, where is another ancient cistern, hereafter to be described, but whether supplied with the same water is not yet ascertained. Now it would be a matter of considerable interest to discover any early historical notices of a fountain, or aqueduct, or cistern, in this quarter, with which to identify these waters; and I think Scripture will furnish us with both; or, at any rate, with a conduit and a well or pool, with which we may be able to connect a fountain..

Josephus mentions the "Serpents' Pool5" adjoining the monuments of Herod, which were evidently without the third wall, on the northern quarter of the City; thus the Pool would be without the Damascus Gate, between it and the head of the Valley of Jehoshaphat, where we shall find that the monuments in question were situated".

But where can we find an aqueduct to connect this water with the fountains about the Temple? In two of the sacred books we read, that when the three Assyrian captains were sent by Sennacherib against Jerusalem,

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they came and stood by the conduit of the Upper Pool, which is in the highway of the Fuller's Field 7." Again, the position of the Fuller's Field, it is true, is nowhere determined by Scripture, but Josephus will

See Mejr-ed-din, in Mines d'Orient, 11. p. 134. And Dr Schultz's Jerusalem, pp. 36 and 118.

Joseph. J. W. v. iii. 2. Τῶν Ηρώδου μνημείων, ἅ προσεῖχε τῇ τῶν Ὀφέων ἐπικαλουμένῃ κολυμβηθρα.

Compare with the passage last

referred to, v. xii. 2, and see Bib. Res. Vol. 1. p. 535, note 6, in the former part of which Dr R. fixes it to this vicinity. The latter part I do not understand.

72 Kings xviii. 17, and Isa. xxxvi. 2. Compare Isa. vii. 3.

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