s grounds that I am about to speak, for there I resided
with my family for some weeks in 1860, and through the summer of 1862.

There is no village close at hand, the nearest one being _El Khud'r_, (or
St George, so named from a small Greek convent in its midst,) which,
however, is only visible from the highway for a few minutes at a
particular bend of the road before reaching the Pools; the next nearest,
but in the opposite or eastern direction, is Urtas, with its profitable
cultivation, nestled in a well-watered valley.

After these, in other directions again, are _Bait Jala_, near Rachel's
sepulchre, and Bethlehem, the sacred town whose name is echoed wherever
Christ is mentioned throughout the whole world, and will continue to do
so till the consummation of all things,--"there is no speech or language
where its name is not heard."

Adjoining the Pools is the shell of a dilapidated khan, of old Saracenic
period, the outer enclosure alone being now entire. Two or three
Bashi-bozuk soldiers used to be stationed there, living in wretched
hovels inside the enclosure, made of fallen building stones, put together
with mud. On account of this being a government post, the peasantry of
the country, ignorant of all the world but themselves, denominate this
old square wall, "The Castle," and that name is repeated by dragomans to
their European employers.

These were our nearest neighbours.

Close to the khan-gate and to the Pools is a perennial spring of
excellent water, which, of course, is of great value, and considering how
several roads meet at that point, and what a diversity of character there
is continually passing or halting there, it would seem to form the
perfection of an opening scene to some romantic tale.

Thus the Hebron highway lay between the Pools, with the khan on one side,
and the Bakoosh hill on the other, and no person or quadruped could pass
along it unobserved from our window.

From the cottage, the more extended prospect comprised the stony,
treeless hills in every direction, the Pools forming the head of the
valley leading to Urtas, and the outskirt beginning of green cultivation
there; then the streets and houses of Bethlehem; also the Frank mountain;
and at the back of all the Moab range of mountains.

[Picture: Ancient Sepulchre on the Bakoosh]

Within the wall enclosing the property of the cottage, with its fruit
trees already mentioned, there is one of the little round tow