Another of our gratifications should not be omitted, namely, the hearing of the large church bell of the Latins in Bethlehem on certain occasions, and always on Sunday mornings; at the moment of the sun peering over the eastern horizon that great bell struck, and was followed by a gush of the sweetest irregular music from smaller bells, probably belonging to the Greeks, and then by the nakoos (plank) of the Armenians, a relic of their primitive customs, serving for a bell, {440}--all these acting with one consent and with one intention, that of celebrating "the Lord's day," as the early Christians delighted to call the first day of the week. From our window we had the city of David and of David's Lord before us, and over the window on the inside I had inscribed in large Arabic inscription-characters, "O Son of David, have mercy upon us!" we had therefore the writing and the town at the same glance of view. We were not without visitors: sometimes a friend or two or three would arrive from Jerusalem--travellers along the road would mount the hill to see us--rabbis of Hebron on the way to Jerusalem, or Jews from the distance of Tiberias passing to Hebron, would turn aside to pay their respects--Arab chiefs, such as Ismaeen Hhamdan of the Ta'amra--Turkish officers, or even the Pasha himself, found the way to the cottage--also officers of the British navy, when visiting the sacred localities from Jaffa. Among these I would not forget the chaplain of one of our men-of-war, who brought up ten of his best men, namely, the Bible and temperance class under his charge, to see the venerated places, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and the Mount of Olives. On one occasion we had a surveying party with their instruments from H.M.S. _Firefly_, who passed some nights with us. On the higher boundary the land was still in its natural condition of stones, fossil shells, and green shrubs with fragrant herbs. There might be seen occasionally starting up before the intruding wanderer, partridges, hares, quails, the wild pigeon, the fox, or even "The wild gazelle on Judah's hills Exultingly would bound," and escape also, for I carried no gun with me. Mounting still higher we came upon the _Dahar-es-Salahh_, a mountain whence the prospect of all Philistia and the coast from almost Gaza to Carmel expands like a map--no, rather like a thing of still life before the eye, with the two seas, namely, the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea, visible at once, with likewise the mountains of Samaria and Gerizim, besides the Moab country eastward, and Jerusalem and Bethlehem nearer home. Close at hand upon the mountain on which we thus stand, are vestiges of a monastic house and chapel called "Khirbet el Kasees," (the priest's ruins,) and even more interesting objects still, the remains of older edifices, distinguished by ponderous rabbeted stones.