when they left there their tools and baskets, intending to return in the morning. But about the first hour of the night the wind blew up a storm of thunder and lightning, and so heavy a rain fell, that before dawn the aqueducts were filled, and the torrents were streaming in all directions. The deep pit overflowing with water swallowed up not only the scaffolding, tools, and baskets, but the heap of soil that had been dug out from it, at such cost of time and toil, and the place was so levelled as not to be recognized." It is not improbable that the soil, weakened on this occasion, may afford a vent to the swelling waters even to this day 1.

There remains one more pool to be noticed, in the Valley of Hinnom, proceeding up which we pass under Aceldama, or "the Field of Blood," on the left; a spot which was likely to be preserved in memory by its distinctive name and use, the tradition of which reaches back as far as S. Jerome, now authenticated as the Potter's Field by a bed of white clay, still worked3. In its neighbourhood are many other tombs excavated in the rocky wall, in some of which may be seen traces of painting, and inscriptions in Greek and Hebrew, too much effaced by time to be clearly deciphered. This hill, which Dr. Clarke supposed was Mount Sion', is commonly marked as "the Hill of Evil Counsel," so designated from the iniquitous bargain of the traitor Judas, said to have been concluded in the countryhouse of Caiaphas, the ruins of which are still shewn on its summit; and it is a very singular fact that Josephus, in his account of the wall of circumvallation, notices the monument of Ananus the high priest in this neighbourhood, which Ananus is none other than "Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas," and his assessor and adviser in the transactions here referred to. The coincidence is very curious; and Dr. Schultz's identification of the ancient rock-grave, of a higher class, still existing in ruins, with the Monument of Ananus, is a happy confirmation of the accuracy of Josephus and of the authority of the tradition3.

Proceeding now up the Valley of Hinnom, we arrive at the large pool, commonly called "Birket es-Sultan,” marked in modern plans as "the Lower Pool of Gihon," without any warrant whatever. It is beyond all doubt an ancient pool, as is proved by a comparison with the Pools of Solomon, South of Bethlehem; being formed, as are they, "by the erection of stone barriers across the valley, squaring the rocky sides, and clearing out the soil 4;" and in this it differs materially from the Pool of Mamilla, "the sides of which are built up with hewn stones laid in cement," as is also the Pool of the Bath within the City; a fact strongly opposed to their great antiquity. The Pool of the Sultan is said by William of Tyre to have been celebrated in the times of the kings of Judah; but as he does not refer to any passages in Holy Scripture, it is impossible to determine what was the Christian tradition at that period relating to the Pool. The earliest distinct notice which we have of it is in the account of the rebuilding of the walls after the Babylonish captivity, in a passage which also assigns the "Sepulchres of David" to the part of Mount Sion above the pool, where they are still found". It has there no proper name given it, being described merely as "the pool that was made." The modern tradition which would make this the bath of Bathsheba, is worthy of no consideration; nor has any satisfactory reason been assigned for its present native appellation, which, however, would probably be found in an inscription on the Saracenic fountain at the South of the pool. This fountain, which is now dry, appears to have been formerly supplied by a branch of the aqueduct which has already been frequently alluded to, but which here demands a fuller notice.

It formerly conveyed the waters of three fountains from the neighbourhood of Solomon's Pools to the Holy

* Bartlett's Walks, p. 59. Compare Bib. Res. 1. 485.

* Bib. Res. 1. p. 484, &c.

VIII. ii. p. 747.

7 Nehem. iii. 16.

VOL. II.

8 Reported to have been built by Sultan Suliman Ibn Selim, A. D. 1520-66, from whom the pool may derive its name. It was he who built the present walls

32

City. It is now in ruins, but the water still runs as far as Bethlehem, and the aqueduct may be traced along the steep mountain-sides, throughout the whole of its winding course. The level is preserved almost entirely by following the natural formation of the ground, not by artificial contrivance; nor is the construction of the aqueduct at all remarkable for the solidity of its masonry. It is in some parts composed of earthen pipes, roughly covered with stones, but elsewhere the channel is formed by casing the stones with cement. On reaching the Valley of Hinnom, its waters were divided into two courses, one of which, as has been observed, crossed the valley below the Birket es-Sultan, while the other, after skirting that pool on its west side, was carried over nine low arches, which still remain in a state of decent repair1.

There is on this part of the aqueduct an Arabic inscription, which may well introduce an inquiry into its history, hitherto much involved in obscurity. It is to the following effect: "In the name of the most merciful God, our Lord the Sultan, el-Melik en-Nassir, the Lord of the Faith and of the Faithful, Mohammed, son of the Sultan el-Melik el-Mansûr Kelaûn, ordered this blessed aqueduct to be built." Unfortunately, where the date was, the stone is broken, but Sultan Mohammed, Ibn Kelaûn, one of the Baharite dynasty in Egypt, reigned between 693 and 741 of the Hegira,

(A.D. 1294-1340)2. The first direct allusion to it in Christian writers occurs about this time3, and it is most improbable that, had it existed at an earlier period, it would have been passed over by the Chroniclers of the Crusades, who are so particular in their account of all that relates to the waters of Jerusalem. Yet there is a much earlier notice, which might be taken to refer to this part of the aqueducts, and which, independently of an ancient and well-authenticated Jewish tradition, would dispose me to believe that the Sultan here named did not originally build, but only restore the aqueduct after it had continued some centuries in ruins.

The Jewish writers, in their records of the second temple, with one voice relate that "in the way betwixt Hebron and Jerusalem is the Fountain of Etam, from whence the waters are conveyed by pipes into the great pool at Jerusalem" for the uses of the temple. There was too, towards the South of the temple-area, a place called "the coming down of the water," corresponding to the situation of the causeway, by which the present aqueduct is carried to the Haram. Now Etam or Etham, Josephus tells us, was the name of that place where the pleasure-gardens of the great king Solomon were situated; and it is reasonable to look for the gardens in the neighbourhood of the pools, since the latter