was spent in quiet reading
and meditation, with visits at one time from the rabbis, and at another
from the missionary.

4_th_.--An excursion to _Meroon_ to visit the sepulchres of several
eminent canonized rabbis. The Jews believe this place to be the
Shimron-Meron of Joshua xii. 20. An odd party we formed: there were the
missionary and his lady, Polish rabbis with very broad beaver hats and
curled ringlets on each side of the face, a crowd of Jewish idlers
walking, the Moslem attendants, and a peasant of the village we were
going to. Certainly the rabbinical riding was not of a very dashing
character: their reverences were all mounted on asses with mean
accoutrements, for the adjustment of which they often had to dismount.
Our place of destination lies at the foot of the great hill Jarmuk, and
the road to it is very rough, with broken rocks fallen from the summit;
but the place commands a grand prospect of Safed and the Lake of Galilee.

The first object of interest was of course the sepulchre of Rabbi Simeon
bar Jochai, the patron saint of this region, and of regions beyond. He
lived a miraculous life in the second Christian century; wrote the famous
book (Zohar), by which, if I mistake not, the Cabbalists still work
miracles; and miracles are performed in answer to prayers at his tomb--so
it is believed; and his commemoration festival, in the month Iyar (see
_ante_) is attended by Jewish votaries from all parts of the world, many
of whom practise the heathen rite of burning precious objects, such as
gold lace, Cashmere shawls, etc., upon the tomb, to propitiate his
favour. On these occasions scenes of scandalous licence and riot are
witnessed, and sometimes lives are lost in conflicts with Moslems begun
in drunkenness. The rabbis, however, procure great gains from the annual
festival or fair.

(In the town of Safed there is at least one (perhaps more) _Beth
ha-Midrash_, a sort of synagogue, with perpetual endowment, for reading
of the Zohar day and night for ever.)

First we entered a court-yard with a walnut-tree in the midst. At a
farther corner of this court is a small clean apartment, with a lighted
lamp in a frame suspended from the ceiling, which is capable of holding
more lamps. In a corner of this apartment is a recess with a lamp
burning before it; in this a roll of the law is kept; it is the shrine
itself of the author of Zohar. One of our rabbis retired behind us for
prayer. In another part