ing of the oxen collected for sacrifice, the bleating of the innumerable sheep that wander the pastures of the suburbs, and the guttural cry of camels, as they kneel at the Pool of Siloam to receive the huge skin vessels which are used to convey water to the city.

This spirit of eager preparation and joyous activity is by no means confined to the metropolis. The whole land heaves with emergent life. The populous hive of Palestine began to swarm at an early hour. Large numbers, in consequence of their distance from the "city of solemnities," were accustomed to commence their pilgrimage a few days before the approaching festival, regulating their journey according to the proximity or remoteness of their residence; for it was deemed incompatible with the pomp and solemnity of the occasion to degrade the march by toiling and excessive physical exertion. They travelled slowly and musingly, and only in the cooler hours of morning and even-tide, encamping during the sultriness of noon under the canopy of trees whose branches bend with fruitfulness, and beside those gushing fountains or pellucid streams that bless and aggrandize the land. They thus were enabled to hold rational intercourse with God through the medium of his works; whilst the scenes of historic interest which they hourly passed, sanctified and sublimated by the thrilling reminiscences that haunted them, awoke sentiments of strange diversity in their minds, yet all harmoniously tending to produce and foster the noblest emotions of love, veneration, and confidence towards the Holy One of Israel, whose visible agency had left the sanctity of its impress on the very dust they trod.

Another reason for gentle journeying and easy stages of progression exists in the encumbered condition of the companies. Many of the Jews, although not commanded by the law, would permit their wives and unmarried sisters to accompany them to these national conventions, thereby adding an exquisite climax to the delights of their cloistered life—familiarizing their minds with the inspiring ceremonials of their unique worship—and, at the same time, promoting a refreshing intercourse with distant kindred, and often securing the betrothment of their daughters to the young nobles of the land. Besides these fair attendants, some of the bands were preceded by a little flock of sheep and oxen; whilst others were impeded by a retinue of caravans and

asses, or, among the more wealthy, by camels, laden with their first-fruits for presentation to the Lord, and large quantities of multifarious merchandize, which they were accustomed to expose for sale on these anniversary gatherings. For the great periodical festivals of this people were by no means exclusively devoted to religious exercises, but were subordinately made to administer to the gratification, recreation and profit of that vast agricultural community; who, by the first principles of their theocratic constitution, were prohibited all commercial intercourse with the uncircumcised nations that environed them, and who were thus virtually shut up to mutual interchanges among themselves, and to an almost exclusive dependance on the prodigious resources of their own dew-watered land, for a supply of the necessities, and also of many of the luxuries of life. Hence, on these glorious occasions, Jerusalem shone with the constellated beauties of the Hebrew race-her marble palaces and lowly mansions alike rung with choral harmonies—a tide of soul-exciting music, the outburst of an exuberance of joy, rolled down her many streets-her altar groaned beneath the oppression of vast sacrifices her priests were robed in their richest and holiest vestments her myriad guests were emblazed with jewelry and decorated with every badge of oriental splendour and pageantry: she was at once a mart of traffic-an exchange of wealth-a court of pleasure-a rendezvous of piety-a mansion of splendid hospitality—a sanctuary of devotion—a temple resounding with Jehovah's praise. Such was Jerusalem, "the perfection of beauty," in the purer days of Israel's history.

Immense swarms of these pilgrim worshippers continued to arrive, from all quarters, till late on the preceding evening, at the chief cities of the districts surrounding the national altar. At these periods they seldom imposed upon the hospitality of the citizens where they thus rendezvoused, but were accustomed to encamp during the short, clear night of this season in the streets; the reason assigned for which was, that they might not, by lodging in any dwelling, contract ceremonial defilement. These stationary cities, as they were styled, thus became, on the eve of the great festivals, surcharged with a condensed volume of free glad life, which was destined, on the first approaches of morning, to roll forth its leaping and melodious streams onwards towards Jerusalem, the confluence of that scattered people.

Hence, as soon as the first blushes of light suffused the eastern sky, the president or chief of each company awoke them by this thrilling proclamation: "Arise! and let us go up to Zion, to the Lord our God." This welcome summons operated upon them as powerfully as the priests' trumpets upon the tenants of the imperial city; it everywhere smote the dull ear of slumber, and instantaneously roused the startled host into an attitude for departure. The reason, say the Rabbinical writers, for their trooping up to the metropolis in such congregated yet orderly masses, arose from their interpretation of this passage in their sacred rolls: "In the multitude of people is the king's honor;" whence they drew the inference, that the regality of the king of Zion was honored and aggrandized by the procession and imposing majesty of a consolidated marching multitude.

No sooner are the brooding mists and exhalations of a Syrian morn absorbed by the fervid sun, and a clearer light diffused over the face of nature, than myriads of moving forms are to be detected within the range of vision, converging, as by one common impulse, towards a focus of universal attraction. We turn, and gaze successively in all directions, and as the limpid air increases in transparency, there seem to spring from the bosom of the earth a surprising and garnished multitude of the children of men. There, there they come—like a living inundationtoiling up the steep ascents, glittering on a hundred hills, rushing with impetuosity down the dark ravines; now for a moment lost amid the black shadows of frowning rocks, then emerging to the broad glance of day; again, half-concealed by the umbrageous foliage of romantic groves of fig, of olive, and of palm ;-now tarrying awhile to shake the delicious fruit from the spreading mulberry-trees that overhang their path; and anon, marching with augmenting amplitude across the yellow plains. As the foremost concourse approach, the distant valleys and declivities are perceived to be as densely covered as at first. Every eminence in the magnificent amphitheatre formed by the vine-clad mountains of Ephraim and Judah is thickly studded with animated beings. On, on they come, as if fed by an exhaustless well of life. O glorious spectacle! O, sublime convention! The holy tribes all flocking to a convocation within the gorgeous pavilions of their great Father's earthly palace! Beautiful and comely are they seen to be in their

holiday attire as they draw near. Loud and mighty is the confused thunder of their united tread. Look! what majesty of mien is throned upon their brow; what nobility is stamped on every lineament of their fine countenances;-their look and bearing bespeak them the lineage of a royal race. What enthusiastic joy flashes from behind the fringes of their dark, expressive eyes, and plays upon their sunburnt visages like the beams of noon upon the pontiff's breastplate. And, moreover, what a thrill of sympathetic ecstacy seems to have reached the very heart of creation. Her groans are hushed at the music of her children's gladness. Her sighs are tuned to symphonies of the most ravishing sweetness. The land basks in the sunshine of Divine benignity, whilst the vast heart of its people beats, and swells, and overflows with the few drops of beatitude distilled from the great fountain of blessedness.

At length, the more advanced of this glowing pilgrim host have reached the eastern base of the Mount of Olives, and the rich cadences of their consentaneous voices, alternately swelling and dying away, regale the ear of the auditor. As they have now arrived close enough to be distinctly surveyed, they are seen to be leagued together, in most cases, in small organized companies of twenty-four persons. The most orderly decorum and ceremonial pomp solemnize their march. The procession of each small confederacy is headed by a musician, who leads the sacred songs and choruses of the group with a flute, whose soft and mellifluous tones harmonize exquisitely with the modulations of the human voice, as they exultingly rehearse the ancient pilgrim-song of their fathers. "I was glad when they said unto me, let us go up to the house of the Lord," &c. The musician is preceded by an ox, destined to be immolated as a vicarious oblation, wearing also the symbols of religious pageantry-his horns being gilded, and his head surmounted with a coronet of fresh-gathered flowers. Each man in the companies carries in his hand a basket, laden with his first-fruits, tastefully and temptingly displayed-its sides garlanded with the floral produce of the earth, interspersed with turtles and young pigeons, intended as offerings to their great benefactor. The baskets of the poor are neatly fabricated with wicker-work, whilst those of the more affluent are of gold or silver, elegantly enchased with filagree work. The fruits cheerfully appropriated

to religious purposes consist chiefly of wheat, barley, grapes, figs, olives, dates, and pomegranates, the proportion of which thus voluntarily relinquished fluctuates between a fortieth and sixtieth part of the crops garnered.

Several of the most frequented roads leading to Jerusalem, in the eastern and north-eastern direction, lay directly over the elevated ridge of Olivet, whilst others, forming a more circuitous route, wound round the base of the mountain. The majority of the Hebrew devotees, preferring the shorter approaches, are now toiling with accelerated speed up the steep ascents—a variety of overmastering emotions, evoked by circumstances peculiar to these imposing festivals, struggling for ascendancy in their souls, and gathering intensity at every step. On arriving at the summit of this commanding eminence, and catching the first enrapturing glance of their holy and beautiful temple, and of that princely city which in many senses is the wonder and glory of the earth -it is startling to an uninterested spectator to behold the abrupt burst of joyous enthusiasm that ensues-to hear the invocations of a passionate devotion stirred to its lowest depths-to see them sink instinctively upon their knees in attitudes of awe, whilst the hands of men of all grades, the fair snowy arms of women of all ranks, and the roseate hands of children of almost all ages, are simultaneously and from an inward impulse flung upwards towards the bright fields of heaven-then to watch, and perceive the kindling flames of religious excitement spread from company to company, with electric swiftness, as they successively gain the spot where the delectable palaces of Zion and the enshrinements of the Unutterable Name break upon their eager vision—and at length to hear the rushing and swelling multitudes spontaneously commence one of those beautiful eulogistic odes, composed by the elder poets of their nation; singing with energetic fervour and an utter abandonment to the inspirations of the moment, whilst their concentrated gaze is rivetted admiringly upon her glittering structures :-“Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. God is known in her palaces for a refuge," &c.; and concluding; "Walk about Zion, and go round about her; tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following. For this God"—and here their voices assume an