ritual. At one point in the
exercises those participating came down close to where I was standing,
passed around the spot designated "the center of the world," and went
back again to the farther end of the richly ornamented room. One of the
priests, with hair reaching down on his shoulders, bore a silver vessel,
which I suppose contained burning incense. The long hair, beautiful
robes, the singing, praying, and such things, made up a service that
reminded me of the days of Solomon and the old priesthood.

The demonstration of the "holy fire" takes place in this church once a
year, and there are thousands who believe that the fire passed out from
the Chapel of the Angels really comes from heaven. This occurs on the
Saturday afternoon preceding Easter, and the eager, waiting throng, a
part of which has been in the building since the day before, soon has
its hundreds of little candles lighted. As the time for the appearance
of the fire approaches the confusion becomes greater. Near the entrance
to the sepulcher a group of men is repeating the words: "This is the
tomb of Jesus Christ;" not far from them others are saying: "This is
the day the Jew mourns and the Christian rejoices;" others express
themselves in the language: "Jesus Christ has redeemed us;" and
occasionally "God save the Sultan" can be heard.

Mr. Wallace, from whose book the foregoing items are gleaned, in telling
of a fight which took place at one stage of the service, describes it as
"a mass of wriggling, struggling, shrieking priests and soldiers, each
apparently endeavoring to do all the possible injury to whomever he
could reach. * * * But the fight went on. Greek trampled on Armenian,
and Armenian on Greek, and Turk on both. Though doing his very best, the
commanding officer seemed unable to separate the combatants. The bugle
rang out time after time, and detachment after detachment of soldiers
plunged into the melee. * * * This went on for fifteen minutes. Just
how much damage was done nobody will ever know. There were a number
of bruised faces and broken heads, and a report was current that two
pilgrims had died from injuries received." This disgraceful and wicked
disturbance is said to have been brought about by the Armenians wanting
two of their priests to go with the Greek Patriarch as far as the
Chapel of the Angels. And it is furthermore said that the defeat of the
Armenians was brought about, to some extent at least, by the muscular
strength o