At the Sepulchre

       As our caravan moved on at seven o'clock in the morning, through a village, we saw about fifty women, dressed mostly in black, on their way out of a graveyard; others were still seated by the graves and were crying, "Oh my mother! Oh my husband! Oh my child! Oh my father!" Our dragoman informed us that this was the continuance of a very old custom. The bereft women go at day-dawn to the grave, three mornings after a burial, and after that every week for a year. "There it is," I said. "Turn over and read in Luke and John, "Very early in the morning they came unto the sepulchre.'"

       To-day at noon, I said to our dragoman, "What is that?" pointing to an old square building in the distance. He replied, "That is a khan." Delighted was I to have an opportunity of seeing the kind of building in which Christ was born. We rode in under the arched entrance and dismounted. We found the building of stone, and around an open square, without roof. The building is more than two thousand years old. It is two stories high. In the centre are camels, horses and mules. Caravans halt here for the night or during a long storm. The open square is large enough to accommodate a whole herd of cattle, a flock of sheep or caravan of camels. The neighboring Bedouins here find market for their hay, straw and meats. Off from this centre, occupied by beasts of burden, there are twelve rooms for human habitation. The only light is from the door. I went into one of these rooms and found a woman cooking the evening meal. There were six cows in the same room. On a little elevation there was some straw, where the people sat and slept when they wished to rest. It was in such a room as that our Lord was born.

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