The stream flowed naturally to the south, therefore I carefully probed all the western wall on the inside of the gallery to see if the water passed along by it; but I found no signs, and so perceived that the conduit from the spring had turned away in another direction. Though the gallery was almost free from water in August, and quite dry in September and October, the stream still flowed abundantly; so that had it run along the gallery, it could not have escaped my observation. Still it might have been objected, that possibly the stream was absorbed and its course concealed by the earth at the bottom of the gallery, so I dammed up the waters until a kind of pool was formed, and then set them free on a sudden; but not a drop appeared in the gallery; so that I thought that they must go into the _Hammam es-Shefa_. I consider the water in this well to be the same as that which supplies the Fountain of the Virgin, for the following reasons. The quality of the water is the same; and though that in the well is rather turbid and that in the Fountain is clear, I attribute this solely to the presence of rubbish in the well, the waters of which are afterwards filtered during their course. The water in the well has for a long time supplied a bath built over it, as it still does. Traditions point it out as ancient, and the Talmud[890] appears to confirm them, saying, that "the well was excavated by the children of the captivity, and the priests drew water from it by means of a pulley." We may therefore suppose that the Jews used to purify themselves here, before entering the Temple, as the Mohammedans still do on their festival days, before they go into the _Haram es-Sherîf_. This bath is the cause of the intermittence of the stream in the Fountain of the Virgin, for at certain periods of the day its keepers use the water for the purposes of the establishment, and consequently not only prevent it from rising high enough to reach the level of the conduit carrying it off to the Kidron Valley, but also empty the well, so that it requires some time to fill again. As this is done twice in every twenty-four hours, the phenomenon of intermittence occurs just as often. This I have proved by repeated observations and trials, and I recommend any one who seeks for a more marvellous cause to follow my example. The quantity of water in the well is hardly affected by the rains. The dirty water from the bath is carried by a conduit into the sewer in the Tyropoeon valley, and aids in transporting the filth therein outside the city.