ter
which the stones had lain there ever since. This was the part of the
land inhabited by the Philistines, against whom the Israelites had so
many and such bitter fights. It is quite likely that Goliath of Gath,
whom David fought, once strode among the fields; and we know that the
great Israelitish hero, Samson, the strong man, lived about here and
wandered in among the valleys. Most people are disappointed with the
country unless they come in the spring, but when you get used to it you
find it has a wonderful charm.

It takes nearly four hours in the train to reach Jerusalem station. It
seems quite odd to think of Jerusalem having a station. We have heard
the Bible stories so long that we forget that they are real, and that
they actually happened just as truly as the stories in our own history.
Jerusalem is a real town, just as real as York, though it is not like
it, except for the fact that it has city walls. The station is a good
way from the town, and a mob of eager men are waiting there to catch any
tourists and drive them up. They are quite ready to fight each other or
to clutch us to gain this privilege, and if it were not for our guide we
might be torn in pieces.

Our dragoman is a clever man; he chooses his driver at once and helps us
into the ramshackle old conveyance and off we go over the hillside. Soon
we see ahead of us the encircling wall of the city on a height above,
and we wind up to it by gradually inclined roads till we come to the
great gate. We cannot have the satisfaction of saying to ourselves,
"Jesus actually looked at these walls with His human eyes," because the
walls were built long after His death. The town was utterly destroyed
about sixty years after the crucifixion, and nothing was left but piles
of stones, and when the rebuilding began no one remembered where the
streets had run or where the holy places had been. All we can say with
certainty is that the present city must be very much the same kind of
city as that Jesus knew.

The hotel is just inside the gateway, and here we can rest and get
something to eat, and then we can go out; but we must have the guide
with us, for any well-dressed European walking alone in the city would
be pestered to death by beggars and touts trying to get money out of
him.

It is not long before we sally forth and are led into a curious long
dark alley or passage where the houses almost meet overhead; it slopes
down steeply and there are shallow steps