The Passover was now begun. The day of preparation was past; every master of a house had killed his paschal lamb on Moriah, attaining for this day an equal dignity with the highest order in the state, and exercising a sacerdotal function. The festival was called in Hebrew _Pesach_, or according to the Chaldee pronunciation, which was then become universal, _Pascha_, the deliverance, or the passing through. The companies who were to eat the paschal lamb were already assembled, and the lambs were roasting in the deep ovens in the women’s apartments. These ovens were excavations in the ground, about two feet and a half broad, and five to six feet deep. The sides were covered with stones, which were heated by a fire kindled at the bottom, and then the lamb was suspended within, on a piece of wood running lengthwise, and crossed by another between the forefeet. It was expressly commanded by Jehovah, “Ye shall not eat of it raw, nor sodden with water, but roast it with fire.”[112] The fifteenth day of the month Nisan, or Abib (our April) the first of the sacred year, was now arrived. The Jewish day began with sunset, an emblem that primeval darkness had preceded the birth of light, and that all life has its origin in a period of darkness. Footnote 112: Exod. xii. 9. When all the preparations were ended, and the Passover just about to begin, Helon hastened to the roof of the house. He looked down on the open place and up to Moriah and Zion, to the mount of Olives, and on the vallies of Gihon and Kedron. “Wherever I look,” thought he, “hundreds of thousands of the children of Israel and the seed of Abraham reassembled to commemorate their deliverance from Egypt. They have come up to the hill where Jehovah hath made his name to dwell, and their minds are filled with the thought of their fathers, and the mighty works which the God of their fathers had done in their behalf. Well is it said, Israel is Israel only in the Holy Land.” He entered the Alijah, and remained long in fervent prayer. When he came again upon the roof, the last glow of evening over Zion was illuminating the city, and the lamps which were kindled in every house and tent shone through the thin veil of vapour which was spread over the prospect. He lingered on the roof till the golden margin of the western clouds had disappeared and the stars had begun to twinkle in the firmament.