et Eliseus. It was not the same then as at the time of our
Lord's Crucifixion, but was a hill, with many walls and caverns,
resembling tombs, upon it. I saw the Prophet Eliseus descend into these
caverns, I cannot say whether in reality or only in a vision, and I saw
him take out a skull from a stone sepulchre in which bones were
resting. Someone who was by his side--I think an angel--said to him, 'This is
the skull of Adam.' The prophet was desirous to take it away, but his
companion forbade him. I saw upon the skull some few hairs of a fair
colour.

I learned also that the prophet having related what had happened to
him, the spot received the name of Calvary. Finally, I saw that the
Cross of Jesus was placed vertically over the skull of Adam. I was
informed that this spot was the exact centre of the earth; and at the
same time I was shown the numbers and measures proper to every country,
but I have forgotten them, individually as well as in general. Yet I
have seen this centre from above, and as it were from a bird's-eye view.
In that way a person sees far more clearly than on a map all the
different countries, mountains, deserts, seas, rivers, towns, and even
the smallest places, whether distant or near at hand.

CHAPTER LV.

The Cross and the Winepress.

As I was meditating upon these words or thoughts of Jesus when
hanging on the Cross: 'I am pressed like wine placed here under the press
for the first time; my blood must continue to flow until water comes,
but wine shall no more be made here,' an explanation was given me by
means of another vision relating to Calvary.

I saw this rocky country at a period anterior to the Deluge; it was
then less wild and less barren than it afterwards became, and was laid
out in vineyards and fields. I saw there the Patriarch Japhet, a
majestic dark-complexioned old man, surrounded by immense flocks and
herds and a numerous posterity: his children as well as himself had
dwellings excavated in the ground, and covered with turf roofs, on
which herbs and flowers were growing. There were vines all around, and
a new method of making wine was being tried on Calvary, in the presence
of Japhet. I saw also the ancient method of preparing wine, but I can
give only the following description of it. At first men were satisfied
with only eating the grapes; then they pressed them with pestles in
hollow stones, and finally in large wooden trenches. Upon this occasion
a new wine-press