little way towards the dervish, and stopped again. Quick as thought the dervish stretched out his hand, and, seizing the scorpion, placed it in his bosom, in the loose folds of his dress. I expected he would be stung, for these scorpions are irritable little creatures, and sting quickly, though the cool weather might have made it somewhat torpid, as they like the very hottest weather. But the scorpion lay very quietly; he may have gone to sleep there, for aught I know, for it was lying in his bosom when we parted from him.

Is not all this very wonderful? I could scarcely have believed it if I had not seen it. Father says these charmers have been exercising their wonderful powers for hundreds of years, and he mentioned several passages in the Bible which refer to them. There are some serpents that these charmers seem to have no power over. The adder is one; the Arabs say the adder puts its tail in its ears, so that it cannot hear the charmer. This is a curious story, but it agrees with the text, which is familiar to us:- -"Like the deaf adder, which stoppeth her ears, and will not hear the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely."

I think this serpent-charming trick would be a good thing for our wizards in America. I

wonder they don't come over here and get the secret. I have no doubt it could be bought with money, for these dervishes are as fond of that article as our own magicians could pos sibly be.

Your affectionate friend,

PHILIP.

18

MY DEAR HARRY:

XIII.

JERUSALEM, March 23, 18-.

I have allowed a longer time than usual to pass without writing to you, but I have had very little that was interesting to write about. I think I have described already all the places of interest, in and around Jerusalem. I have visited them over and over again; the Mount of Olives and Church of the Holy Sepulchre have been my favorite places of resort.

I am writing this letter on Sunday night, because I wish to send it in the mail which goes to Beirut to-morrow; that is to say, a gentleman who leaves for that place in the morning, has offered to carry letters for us, so that they can reach Europe sooner. We expect to be off by daybreak for the Jordan, therefore you must not expect a long letter to-night.

Lent is over; to-day closed the religious services for holy week. The city has been crowded all during Lent;

nation under heaven come

people from every here at that time.

During the past week the crowd has been

greater than it was before; the khans and convents are overflowing, and so are most of the private houses; and the streets have been packed with people. In a few days I expect they will all have melted away, and the streets be as quiet and deserted as they were before Lent commenced.

On Palm Sunday I was in the court in front of the Holy Sepulchre early in the morning, in order to secure a palm branch. I thought it likely it was the only time in my life that I could carry a real palm branch on Palm Sunday. There are always an immense number of palm branches piled up near the entrance to distribute. Early as it was, there was quite a crowd there, which increased to such numbers, that I was somewhat frightened. However, I got my palm branch. and when the door was opened the crowd went in in tolerable order, so I was not crushed, as I feared I would be. Inside of the church we formed in a long, solemn procession, and walked three times around the Sepulchre, holding our palm branches aloft. After this I made the best of my way out of the church, but it took me some time, for the crowd was increasing every minute. I intend always to keep my palm branch. I left the congregation celebrating high mass.

In the afternoon of Wednesday we all went

to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, to see the foot-washing. The church was even more crowded than on Sunday. The priests were most magnificently dressed; they fairly glittered with silver and gold. Twelve monks, plainly dressed, represent the twelve apostles. A priest goes around and washes their feet from a silver basin, which is carried by a deacon; he wipes them, makes the sign of a cross on them, kisses them, and then gives to each monk a crucifix. This is in imitation of our Saviour's washing the disciples' feet. What an imitation!

On Good Friday we attended services in the English church, and heard a very good sermon from the bishop.

But yesterday, Easter eve, was the great day of the Greeks. Early in the morning we took our seats in the Frank gallery in the great Rotunda of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Below us, on the floor of the building, was the greatest crowd I ever saw in my life. The pilgrims were wedged together in one dense mass, or rather two dense masses, one round the sepulchre, another near the walls of the church. Between the two was a lane, formed by two circles of Turkish soldiers; I was surprised to see these, but was told they were needed to keep order, to prevent any one being crushed,