out of the Temple to escape the fury of the Jews.  There can be no doubt that the marks on the rock are prehistoric, and belong to the primitive worship of Mount Moriah, long before the august associations of Biblical history gathered around it.  To this spot the Jews used to come in the fourth century and wail over the rock, and anoint it with oil, as if carrying out some dim tradition of former primitive libations.

In the Octagon Chapel of the Church of the Ascension on the top of the Mount of Olives, so well known for the magnificent view which it commands of Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, is shown the native rock which forms the summit of the hill from which our Lord ascended into heaven.  On this rock, it is said by tradition, He left the mark of His footsteps.  Arculf, who visited Palestine about the year 700, says:  “On the ground in the midst of the church are to be seen the last prints in the dust of our Lord’s feet, and the roof appears above where He ascended; and although the earth is daily carried away by believers, yet still it remains as before, and retains the same impression of the feet.”  Jerome mentions that in his time the same custom was observed, followed by the same singular result.  Later writers, however, asserted that the impressions were made, not in the ground, or in the dust, but on the solid rock; and that originally there were two, one of them having been stolen long ago by the Mohammedans, who broke off the fragment of stone on which it was stamped.  Sir John Mandeville describes the appearance of the surviving footmark as it looked in his day, 1322:  “From that mount our Lord Jesus Christ ascended to heaven on Ascension Day, and yet there appears the impress of His left foot in the stone.”  What is now seen in the place is a simple rude cavity in the natural rock, which bears but the slightest resemblance to the human foot.  It may have been artificially sculptured, or it may be only one of those curious hollows into which limestone rocks are frequently weathered.  In either case it naturally lent itself to the sacred legend that has gathered around it.

In the Kaaba, the most ancient and remarkable building of the great Mosque at Mecca, is preserved a miraculous stone with the print of Abraham’s feet impressed upon it.  It is said, by Mohammedan tradition, to be the identical stone which served the patriarch as a scaffold when he helped Ishmael to rebuild the Kaaba, which had been originally constructed by Seth, and was afterwards destroyed by the Deluge.  While Abraham stood upon this stone, it rose and sank with him as he built the walls of the sacred edifice.  The relic is said to be a fragment of the same gray Mecca stone of which the whole building is constructed,—­in this respect differing from the famous black stone brought to Abraham and Ishmael by the angel Gabriel, and built into the north-east corner of the exterior wall of the Kaaba, which is said by scientific men to be either a meteorite or fragment of volcanic basalt.