fty-eight halts."

Here the guide-book ends abruptly with a brief summary of distances.
Thither then flocked the pilgrims, some by land and some by sea, men
and women from all parts of the world.

"Even the Briton, separated from our world, leaves the setting sun
and seeks a place known to him only by fame and the narrative of the
Scriptures."

One of the earliest was Paula of Rome--a weak, fragile woman accustomed
to a life of luxury and ease, but, fired with the enthusiasm of her
religion, she resolved to brave the dangers and hardships of a journey
to the East. Her travels were written by St. Jerome.

"When the winter was spent and the sea was open," he writes, "she longed
and prayed to sail.... She went down to the harbour, accompanied by
her brother, her relatives, her connections and, more than these, by
her children, who strove to surpass the affection of the kindest of
mothers. Soon the sails were swelling in the breeze, and the ship,
guided by the oars, gained the open sea. Little Lexotinus piteously
stretched forth his hands from the shore. Rufina, a grown-up girl,
by her tears silently besought her mother to stay until she was married.
Yet she herself, without a tear, turned her eyes heavenward,
overcoming her love for her children by her love for God.... Meanwhile
the ship was ploughing the sea--the winds were sluggish and all speed
slow." But the ship passed between Scylla and Charybdis and reached
Antioch in safety. From this spot she followed the guide-book
directions until she arrived at Jerusalem. How Paula and one of her
young daughters walked over the rough ground, endured the hardships
of desert-life, and finally lived twenty years at Bethlehem, would
take too long to tell. And she was but one of many.

[Illustration: JERUSALEM AND THE EAST. From Matthew of Paris's
_Itinerary_, thirteenth century.]

Sylvia of Aquitaine, travelling at the same time, wrote a strangely
interesting account of her travels. The early part of her manuscript
is lost, and we find her first in Arabia. All was new and strange.

"Meanwhile as we walked we arrived at a certain place, where the
mountains between which we were passing opened themselves out and
formed a great valley, very flat and extremely beautiful; and beyond
the valley appeared Sinai, the holy mount of God.... This is the same
great and flat valley in which the children of Israel waited during
the days when holy Moses went up into the Mount of God.... It