in such a hurry to get some of the holy fire, that in a moment more than 2000 bundles of candles flamed in the church:  and the people, crying out like persons possessed began greater follies than before.  A man carrying a drum on his back began to run with all his might round the holy Sepulchre, and another running in the same manner struck it with two sticks; and when he was tired, another immediately took his place. “Il semble qu’ on soit dans un enfer, et que ce soient tout autant de diables dechaines.”—­But enough of this unedifying scene, of which the Abbe Geramb gives a similar account.  If we contrast with it the majestic and edifying ceremonies of the Roman church, we shall feel grateful to God for having preserved us from such disorders.  I shall merely add from Thevenot, that the Christians are called to office at the holy Sepulchre by boards struck with iron, as we are for two days in holy-week:  but drums and other instruments are also played there, which make, he (adds), “une musique enragee”.

The distinguished missionary and pilgrim D. Casto Gonzalez recounts other disorders of the Greeks during Holy Week, and profanations of the most holy sanctuaries of Palestine.  In the year 1833 he exposed, but not without great risk, the fraud of the “holy fire”.  On the holy-Saturday of the Greeks the officiating Bishop accompanied by an Armenian and a Coptic Bishop and their respective clergy had already walked thrice round the holy Sepulchre, when the missionary ignited a match with phosphorus, and holding it up exclaimed “Look, the heavenly fire has fallen into my hands”:  he then extinguished it and lighted it again several times to the great astonishment of the assembled multitude.  He was protected by the Turks from the dangers which surrounded him.  So manifest was the fraud of the pretended “holy fire” that even the schismatical Armenian patriarch issued a circular letter forbidding his spiritual subjects to be present at the disgraceful exhibition.

The Pere Abbe de Geramb gives a glowing account of the Catholic service and mass on holy saturday; and we most warmly recommend to our readers the perusal of the 34th Lettre of his Pelerinage, in which he describes all the ceremonies of holy week at Jerusalem, where they are invested with the peculiar charm arising from spots so sacred, where Christ suffered, and died, and rose again.  Though in other respects the Roman ceremonies are of a more exalted nature, yet here must we be contented to transport ourselves in imagination to those beloved sanctuaries, and to see the representation of the holy Sepulchre at S. Maria Egiziaca.  We shall conclude with the words of the distinguished writer:  “Jamais douleur n’affecta plus vivement mon ame, que celle qui s’en empara au moment ou je m’arrachai pour jamais de l’eglise du saint Sepulcre.  Taut que je vivrai elle sera aussi presente a mon esprit que profondement gravee dans mon coeur; toujours