The Mount of Precipitation, as it is now called, is, according to Mr. Buckingham, about two miles distant from Nazareth; is almost inaccessible, from the steep and rocky nature of the road; and is decidedly not upon the hill where the town could ever have been built. Dr. Clarke, on the other hand, maintains that the words of the evangelist are most explicit, and prove the situation of the ancient city to have been precisely that which is now occupied by the modern town. In a recess there is an altar hewn out of the rock, said to be the very spot where Christ dined with his disciples. Close by are two large cisterns for preserving rain-water, and several portions of buildings, all described as the remains of a religious establishment founded by the pious and indefatigable Helena. Immediately over this scene, and on the edge of a precipice about thirty feet in height, are two flat stones set up on their edges. In the centre, and scattered over different parts of one of them, are several round marks like the deep imprint of fingers on wax; and it is insisted that these are the impression of our Saviour's hand when he clung to the stone, and thereby escaped being thrown headlong down.[156] One celebrated relic still remains to be noticed, which, although it is not alluded to in the New Testament, is regularly authenticated by the pope; who, besides, grants a plenary indulgence to every pilgrim visiting the place where it is exhibited. This is nothing more than a large stone, on which it is affirmed that Christ did eat with his disciples both before and after his resurrection from the dead. A chapel has been built over it, on the walls of which are several copies of a printed certificate, stating the grounds of its claim to veneration. Dr. Clarke transcribed this curious document, which we give in a note below, accompanied with a translation for the use of such readers as have not formed an acquaintance with the Latin tongue.[157] There is not an object in all Nazareth so much the resort of pilgrims,--Greeks, Catholics, Arabs, and even Turks,--as this stone: the former classes on account of the seven years' indulgence granted to those who visit it; the two latter, because they believe some virtue must reside in a slab before which all comers are so eager to prostrate themselves. In a valley near the town is a fountain which bears the name of the Virgin, and where the women are seen passing to and fro with pitchers on their heads, as in the days of old. It is justly remarked, that, if there be a spot throughout the Holy Land which was more particularly honoured by the presence of Mary, we may consider this to be the place; because the situation of a copious spring is not liable to change, and because the custom of repairing thither to draw water has been continued among the female inhabitants of Nazareth from the earliest period of its history.