DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0225
CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE. 209
driven like a herd of wild animals into the body of
the church. I do not mean to exaggerate a pic-
ture, the lightest of whose shades is already too
dark. I describe only what I saw, and with this
assurance the reader must believe me when I say,
that I frequently considered it putting life and limb
in peril to mingle in that crowd. Probably it is
not always so ; but there were at that time within
the walls of Jerusalem from ten to twenty thou-
sand pilgrims, and all had come to visit the holy
sepulchre.
Supposing, then, the rush to be over, and the
traveller to have recovered from its effects, he will
find himself in a large apartment, forming a sort of
vestibule ; on the left, in a recess of the wall, is a
large divan, cushioned and carpeted, where the
Turkish doorkeeper is usually sitting, with half a
dozen of his friends, smoking the long pipe and
drinking coffee, and always conducting himself
with great dignity and propriety. Directly in
front, surmounted by an iron railing, having at
each end three enormous wax candles more than
twenty feet high, and suspended above it a number
of silver lamps of different sizes and fashions, gifts
from the Catholic, Greek, and Armenian convents,
is a long flat stone, called the '• stone of unction ;"
and on this, it is said, the body of our Lord was
laid when taken down from the cross, and washed
and anointed in preparation for sepulture. This is
the first object that arrests the pilgrims on their
entrance; and here they prostrate themselves in
driven like a herd of wild animals into the body of
the church. I do not mean to exaggerate a pic-
ture, the lightest of whose shades is already too
dark. I describe only what I saw, and with this
assurance the reader must believe me when I say,
that I frequently considered it putting life and limb
in peril to mingle in that crowd. Probably it is
not always so ; but there were at that time within
the walls of Jerusalem from ten to twenty thou-
sand pilgrims, and all had come to visit the holy
sepulchre.
Supposing, then, the rush to be over, and the
traveller to have recovered from its effects, he will
find himself in a large apartment, forming a sort of
vestibule ; on the left, in a recess of the wall, is a
large divan, cushioned and carpeted, where the
Turkish doorkeeper is usually sitting, with half a
dozen of his friends, smoking the long pipe and
drinking coffee, and always conducting himself
with great dignity and propriety. Directly in
front, surmounted by an iron railing, having at
each end three enormous wax candles more than
twenty feet high, and suspended above it a number
of silver lamps of different sizes and fashions, gifts
from the Catholic, Greek, and Armenian convents,
is a long flat stone, called the '• stone of unction ;"
and on this, it is said, the body of our Lord was
laid when taken down from the cross, and washed
and anointed in preparation for sepulture. This is
the first object that arrests the pilgrims on their
entrance; and here they prostrate themselves in