ng it. Mohammedans enter
barefoot, but we fastened large yellow slippers over our shoes, and that
was regarded as filling all requirements. Storrs pointed out to me that it
was quite unnecessary to remove our hats, for that is not a sign of
respect with Moslems, and they keep on their red fezzes. The mosque was
built by the Caliph Abd el Melek, about fifty years after Omar had
captured Jerusalem in 636 A.D. Many of the stones used in building it came
from the temple of Jupiter. In the centre lies the famous rock, some sixty
feet in diameter, and rising six or seven feet above the floor of the
mosque. To Mohammedans it is more sacred than anything else in the world
save the Black Stone at Mecca. Tradition says that it was here that
Abraham and Melchizedek sacrificed to Jehovah, and Abraham brought Isaac
as an offering. Scientists find grounds for the belief that it was the
altar of the temple in the traces of a channel for carrying off the blood
of the victims. The Crusaders believed the mosque to be the original
temple of Solomon, and, according to their own reports, rededicated it
with the massacre of more than ten thousand Moslems who had fled thither
for refuge. The wrought-iron screen that they placed around the rock still
remains. The cavern below is the traditional place of worship of many of
the great characters of the Old Testament, such as David and Solomon and
Elijah. From it Mohammed made his night journey to heaven, borne on his
steed El Burak. In the floor of the cavern is an opening covered with a
slab of stone, and said to go down to the centre of the world and be a
medium for communicating with the souls of the departed.

The military governor has been at work to better the sanitary conditions
in Jerusalem. Hitherto the only water used by the townsfolk had been the
rain-water which they gathered in tanks. Some years ago it was proposed to
bring water to the city in pipes, some of which were already laid before
the inhabitants decided that such an innovation could not be tolerated.
The British have put in a pipe-line, and oddly enough it runs to the same
reservoir whence Pontius Pilate started to bring water by means of an
aqueduct. They have also built some excellent roads through the
surrounding hills. Here, as in Mesopotamia, one was struck by the
permanent nature of the improvements that are being made. Even to people
absorbed in their own jealousies and rivalries the advantages that they
were deriving