Page:Folk-lore of the Holy Land.djvu/156
pressed his opinion that the place was too small to accommodate two lodgers, the king of beasts courteously took the hint, and found a dwelling elsewhere; while in the Chapel of St Mary the Egyptian, close to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, pilgrims admire a painting showing how a certain hermit, when on his way to visit the saint, found her dead, and a lion engaged in the pious task of burial.
P. 85. One kirât.—“It is customary in the East to measure everything by a standard of twenty-four kirâts. The kirât literally means an inch, or the twenty-fourth part of the dra’a or Arabic ell. The English expression “eighteen carats fine” for gold, is a survival of this usage. It signifies that the metal contains eighteen parts of gold in twenty-four of the alloy. Everything in the East is supposed to be made up of twenty-four kirâts or carats. Thus a patient or his friends will ask a physician how many kirdts of hope there are in his case. A man will say there are twenty-three kirdéts of probability that such an occurrence will take place. A company divides its shares into kirâts, ete. (See Dr Post on “ Land Tenure, Agriculture, etc.,” in the Pal. Exp. Q. Statement for 1891, p. 100, foot-note.)
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P. 89. En Nebi Daûd.—Although it is only since the twelfth century that Jewish and Christian traditions[1] have located the
- ↑ The following is the well-known story first told by Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela who visited Jerusalem soon after a.p. 1160: “On Mount Sion are the sepulchres of the house of David, and those of the kings who reigned after him. In consequence of the following circumstance, however, this place is hardly to be recognised at present. Fifteen years ago one of the walls of the place of worship on Mount Sion fell down, which the Patriarch ordered the priest to repair. He commanded to take stones from the orginal wall of Sion, and to employ them for that purpose, which command was obeyed. Two labourers, who were engaged in digging stones from the very foundation of the walls of Sion, happened to meet with one which formed the mouth of the cavern. They agreed to enter the cave and to search for treasure; and in pursuit of this object they penetrated to a large hall, supported by pillars of marble, encrusted with gold and silver before which stood a table with a golden sceptre and crown. This was the sepulchre of David, king of Israel, to the left of which they saw that of Solomon, and of all the kings of Judah who were buried there. They further saw locked chests, and desired to enter the hall to examine them, but a blast of wind, like a storm, issued forth from the mouth of the cavern, and prostrated them almost lifeless on the ground. They lay in this state until evening, when they heard a voice commanding them to rise up and go forth from the place. They