loud talking
ceased at once."

The party of Americans came laughing and chatting toward the Sepulchre
and entered the tomb without any appearance of reverence in their
manner,--a striking contrast to the devout Russian pilgrims. Other
Americans, however, following, entered the tomb silently, and came out
with a look of awe upon their faces. One of these told us that he had
placed some postal cards and letters on the tomb to be blessed by
contact with it before mailing them to his friends. Another had taken
some bunches of flowers and laid them on the tomb for the same purpose
before pressing them for souvenirs. A party of Germans stood near us for
awhile, apparently arguing in low tones over some statement of the
guide, and then quietly and with uncovered heads advanced and entered
the Sepulchre. Some Italians knelt for a long time before the door, and
Africans, Greeks, and natives of countries unknown to us, bowed or
crossed their foreheads or breasts before the entrance. No other
nationality, however, showed such zeal and intensity of feeling as did
the Russian peasants.

On Saturday afternoon we visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to be
present at the special service held on that day. We found that the
number of guards at the door had been doubled, and that companies of
armed Turkish soldiers had been stationed within to preserve order in
the assembled throng of sight-seers and worshipers and to keep a
passage-way open through which the expected processions might pass.
Pushing our way through the crowd we obtained a good position behind
some Syrian women and children who, attired in gala costumes, held
unlighted candles in their hands. At the Place of Sepulchre the oriental
lamps above the door and the candles in the huge candlesticks had been
lighted for the special service, brilliantly illuminating the marble
front of that small building and bringing into clear relief every detail
of the carved ornamentation. In the Greek Chapel the golden lamps and
the candles at the altar were burning, and the chapel was ablaze with
reflected glory.

"They are coming," whispered some one as the tramping of feet on the
stone floor was heard.

A procession of Greek priests in gorgeous garments, swinging censers of
smoking incense and bearing aloft a golden cross, marched to the
Sepulchre, made obeisance there, then proceeded slowly around the
building several times and entered the Greek Chapel where a short
service was h