e another altar has been erected to the memory of the
innocents slaughtered and buried here. Proceeding along the passage
we come upon the grave of St. Paula and her daughter Eustachia on
one side, and that of St. Hieronymus on the other. The body of the
latter is, however, deposited at Rome.

Like the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, this great
church at Bethlehem belongs at once to the Catholics, the Armenians,
and the Greeks. Each of these sects has built for itself a little
convent adjoining the church.

After spending at least a couple of hours here, we rode two miles
farther, towards Mount Hebron. At the foot of this mountain we
turned off to the left towards the three cisterns of Solomon. These
reservoirs are very wide and deep, hewn out of the rock, and still
partially covered with a kind of cement resembling marble in its
consistency and polish. We descended into the third of these
cisterns; it was about five hundred paces long, four hundred broad,
and a hundred deep.

Not one of these cisterns now contains water; the aqueducts which
once communicated with them have entirely vanished. A single
rivulet, across which one may easily step, flows beside these giant
reservoirs. The region around is barren in the extreme.

On returning to our convent at about two o'clock to partake of our
frugal but welcome meal, we were surprised to find that another
party of travellers, Franks like ourselves, had arrived. The new-
comers proved to be Count Zichy and Count Wratislaw, who had
travelled from Vienna to Cairo in company with Counts Berchtold and
Salm Reifferscheit. At the last-mentioned place the voyagers parted
company, one party proceeding to Jerusalem by way of Alexandria,
Damietta, and Joppa, while the other bent their course across the
burning sands of Africa towards Mount Sinai, and thence continued
their journey to Jerusalem by land. Here at length they had the
pleasure of meeting once more. A great and general rejoicing, in
which we all joined, was the consequence of this event.

After dinner we once more visited all the holy places in company of
the new-comers; we afterwards went to the so-called "Milk Grotto,"
distant about half a mile from our convent. In this grotto there is
nothing to be seen but a simple altar, before which lights are
continually burning. It is not locked, and every passer-by is at
liberty to enter. This place is held sacred not only by the
Christians, but al