and bolster, a very dingy table, with two
chairs, a small bench, and a cupboard, all of deal, composed the
whole furniture. These chattels, and also the windows, some panes
of which were broken, may once, in very ancient times, have been
clean. The walls were of plaster, and the floor was paved with
large slabs of stone. Chimneys are no more to be found in this
country. I did not see any until my return to Sicily.

I now laid myself down for a couple of hours to get a little rest;
for during my journey hither from Constantinople I had scarcely
slept at all.

At eleven o'clock the German priest, Father Paul, visited me, in
order to explain the domestic arrangements to me. Dinner is eaten
at twelve o'clock, and supper at seven. At breakfast we get coffee
without sugar or milk; for dinner, mutton-broth, a piece of roast
kid, pastry prepared with oil or a dish of cucumbers, and, as a
concluding course, roast or spiced mutton. Twice in the week,
namely on Fridays and Saturdays, we have fast-day fare; but if the
feast of a particular saint falls during the week, a thing that
frequently occurs, we hold three fast-days, the one of the saint's
day being kept as a time of abstinence. The fare on fast-days
consists of a dish of lentils, an omelette, and two dishes of salt
fish, one hot and the other cold. Bread and wine, as also these
provisions, are doled out in sufficient quantities. But every thing
is very indifferently cooked, and it takes a long time for a
stranger to accustom himself to the ever-recurring dishes of mutton.
In Syria oxen and calves are not killed during the summer season; so
that from the 19th of May until my journey to Egypt in the beginning
of September, I could get neither beef-soup nor beef.

In this convent no charge is made either for board or lodging, and
every visitor may stay there for a whole month. At most it is
customary to give a voluntary subscription towards the masses; but
no one asks if a traveller has given much, little, or nothing at
all, or whether he is a Roman Catholic, a Protestant, or a votary of
any other religion. In this respect the Franciscan order is much to
be commended. The priests are mostly Spaniards and Italians; very
few of them belong to other nations.

Father Paul was kind enough to offer his services as my guide, and
to-day I visited several of the holy places in company with him.

We began with the Via Dolorosa, the road which our Lord is said to
hav