tico, or narthex, before the entrance into the actual building of the mosque. In the recess on the right is the shrine of Abraham, in tlie recess on the left tiiat of Sarah, each guarded by silver gates. The shrine of Sarah we were requested not to enter, as being that of a woman. A pall lay over it. The shrine of Abraham, after a momentary liesitation, was thrown open. The chamber is cased in marble. The so-caUed tomb con- sists of a cofiin-hke structure, about six feet high, built up of plastered stone or marble, and hung witli three carpets — green embroidered with gold. Within the area of the church or mosque were shown the tombs of Isaac and Rebekah. They are placed under separate chapels, in the AvaUs of which are windows, and of which the gates are grated, not with silver, but iron bars. Their situation, planted as they are in the body of the mosque, may indicate their Christian origin. In almost all Mussulman sanctuaries, the tombs of distinguislied persons are placed, not in the centre of the building, but in the corners. To Rebekah's tomb the same decorous rule of the exclusion of male visitors naturally applied as in the case of Sarah's. But on requesting to see the tomb of Isaac, we were entreated not to enter. . . . The chapel, in fact, contains nothing of interest ; but I men- tion this story both for the sake of the singidar senti- ment which it expresses, and also because it well illus- trates the peculiar feeUng which has tended to preserve the sanctity of the place — an awe, amounting to terror, of the great personages v.dio lay beneath, and who woidd, it was supposed, be sensitive to any disrespect shown to their graves, and revenge it accordingly. The shrines of Jacob and Leah were sho\\ni in recesses, cor- respondmg to those of Abraham and Sarah, but in a separate cloister opposite the entrance of the mosque. . . . It will be seen that up to this point no mention has been made of the subject of the greatest interest, namely, the sacred cave itself, in which one at least of the patriarchal family may possibly still repose intact — the embalmed body of Jacob. It may well be siipi^osed that to this object our inquiries throughout were direct- ed. One indication alone of the cavern beneath was visible. In the interior of the mosque, at the corner of the shrine of Abraham, -was a small circidar hole, about eight inches across, of which one foot above the pave- ment was built of strong masonrj', but of which the lower part, as far as v;e coidd see and feel, was of the living rock. This cavity appeared to open mto a dark space beneath, and that space (which the guardians of the mosque believed to extend under the whole plat- form) can hardly be anything else than the ancient cav- ern of IMachpelah. This was the only aperture which the guarcUans recognised. Once, they said, 2500 years ago, a servant of a great king had penetrated through some other entrance. He descended in full possession of his faculties and of remarkable corpidence ; he return- ed bUnd, deaf, withered, and crippled. Since then the entrance was closed, and this aperture alone was left, partly for the sake of suffering the holy air of the cave to escape into the mosque, and be scented by the faith- fid; partly for the sake of allowing a lamp to be let down by a chain, which we saw suspended at the mouth, to burn upon the sacred cave. We asked whether it coidd not be Ughted now. ' Xo,' they said ; ' the sauit likes to have a lamp at night, but not in the full day- light.' With that glimpse into the dark void we and the world without must for the present be .satisfied. Whether any other entrance is known to the :Miissid- mans themselves must be a matter of doubt. The orig- inal entrance to the cave if it is now to he found at all, must probably be on the southern face of the hiU, be- tween the mosque and the gallerj' containing the shrine of Joseph, and entu-ely obstructed by the ancient Jew- ish waU, probably built across it for this verj' piupose." This accomit is somewhat at variance -(dth the results of the researches of M. Pierotti, who states, in a letter to the London Times, April 30, 1862, "The true entrance to the patriarchs' tomb is to be seen close to the v.-estem
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wall of the enclosure, and near the north-west comer ; it is guarded by a very thick iron railing, and I was not allowed to go near it. I observed that the Mussulmans themselves did not go very near it. In the court oppo- site the entrance-gate of the mosque there is an open- ing, through which I was allowed to go down for three steps, and I was able to ascertain by sight and touch that the rock exists there, and to conclude it to be about live feet thick. From the short observations I coidd make during vr.y brief descent, as also from the consid- eration of the east wall of the mosque, and the little in- formation I extracted from the chief santon, ^vho jeal- ously guards the sanctuary, I consider that a part of the grotto exists under the mosque, and that the other part is under the coiu-t, but at a lower level than that lying under the mosque." See JMachpelait.