arriving at the convent we paid one for our entrance. After being welcomed by the fathers we took our repose till five in the evening, and then prepared to go in procession to the holy places, in the same manner as we did at the temple in Jerusalem. The places we visited were these:
I. The place where our Saviour was born. 2. The tomb of St. Joseph, to whom the Virgin Mary was espoused. 3. St. Innocent’s tomb. 4 The place where St. Jerom lived, when he translated the Bible into Latin. 5. St. Jerom’s praying place. 6. St. Jerom’s tomb. 7. St. Paul’s tomb. 8. St. Eustachias her daughters. 9. The Sepulchre of St. Eusebius, Abbot of Bethlehem, 10. We return to the chappel of St. Catharina, built by St. Peula, Next is the great church without the convent, which hath forty-eight pillars of marble, about three yards long, all in one piece. At evening we went to visit the place of our Saviour’s birth, formerly belonging to the Latines, till the Greeks bought it out of their hands; so that now the Latins, when they go to their procession, pray at that door by which they formerly entered. The precipio has two doors, one over against the other, well lined with carved iron,and strengthened with iron spikes: we went in barefoot. On the right-hand, in the entrance, is the place they say where our Saviour was born, which is lined with marble; and in the middle of the room there is a plate covered with silver, by which they set a dish to receive your charity: On the left-hand is the manger where the Virgin Mary laid our Saviour, lined with marble; and at the end of the manger on the right-hand, is the picture of St. Jerom naturally in the marble, which the fathers esteem as a miracle; over against this manger is the place where the three wise men stood when they came to worship our Saviour. At the end of this place, in a corner, is a hole made up with marble, wherein they say the Virgin Mary put the water when she had washed her hands; over which a lamp burns continually, and a great many in other places. Over this precipio, in the great church, is the altar of circumcision, where our Saviour was circumcised.
Having seen what was rare at Bethlehem, May 31. early in the morning we proceeded in our journey, in which we saw these places following:--I. The grot where the Virgin Mary hid herself when she was warned to flee into Egypt. In this time of her fear, say they, the milk left her blessed breasts, so that the babe was almost like to be starved; but she praying to the Almighty, there came forthwith abundance, which overflowing her breast, and falling to the ground, left ever since, as they alledge, this consequent virtue to this cave. The earth of the cave is as white as snow, and hath this miraculous operation, that a little of it, drunk in any liquor, to a woman that after her child-Birth is barren of milk, shall forthwith give her abundance, which is not only available to Christians,
