to wail over the desolation of Judah, and implore the mercy and forgiveness of their God.* We repaired to this place on Friday, when a considerable number usually assemble. In the shadow of the wall, on the right, were seated many venerable men, reading the book of the law, wearing out their declining days in the city of their fathers, soon to be gathered to them in the mournful Valley of Jehoshaphat. There were also many women in their long white robes, who, as they entered the small area, walked along the sacred wall, kissing its ancient masonry with every appearance of deep devotion. I saw no weeping or outward signs of sorrow-the scene is sufficiently expressive without such manifestations; nor was it rendered less so by the demands for charity, urged with all the eagerness of deep poverty, which were pressed on us as we left the spot. The Jew begging of the stranger, beneath the memorials of his once proud and contemptuous superiority to the rest of mankind! Well may they say

*This touching custom of the Jews is not of modern origin. Benjamin of Tudela mentions it, as connected apparently with the same spot, in the twelfth century. After the capture of Jerusalem by Adrian, the Jews were excluded from the city, and it was not till the age of Constantine that they were permitted to approach, so as to behold Jerusalem from the neighbouring hills. At length they were allowed to enter the city once a year, on the day on which it was taken by Titus, in order to wail over the ruins of the temple; but this privilege they had to purchase of the Roman soldiers.— ROBINSON.