How I Spent My Five Weeks' Leave.

" Kombeeong ? " " Quanto ? " as they guess us to be English , French , or Italians . They have picked up from travellers a few words in all sorts of languages . These people always ask five or six times as much as they will take . We

are glad to escape from them , and take refuge in the convent , where we sit ancl rest awhile before going to see the sights of this hallowed spot , which , though " little among the thousands of Judah , " is equalled by none in sacred interest .

It is prettily situated on a narrow ridge , and below the village are steep terraced slopes , covered with olives , vines , figs , and other trees to the bottom of the valley .

The most conspicuous building is the Church of the Nativity , with the Latin , Greek , and Armenian convents round it . Below , in the fields of Boaz , was it that Ruth gleaned : close by did David tend the sheep of his father , "Jesse the

Bethlehemite , " and it musthave been in these fields that the shepherds were abiding with their flocks by night ( as they still do ) when " the glory of the Lord shone round about them , " and an angel proclaimed the " good tidings of great joy , "

( Luke ii . 8-18 . ) Here was David anointed by Samuel , and , more than all , this was the birthplace of David ' s greater son . Few , if any , of the traditional holy places are so probably true as the cave and stone trough , shown as tho stable in

which our Saviour . was born , and the manger in which he was cradled , and which have been honoured as such since the second century . The grotto is to my mind , however , completely spoilt

by the gold , silver , silk , tapestry , absurd pictures , and other follies , with which the place is filled , which prevent our seeing the natural rock ; the overpowering smell of lamps and incense soon drives us out of the place . We visit the study

of S . Jerome , where that celebrated man passed most of his life , aucl the noble basilica erected by the Empress Helena , A . D , 327 . AVe then proceed to the Milk Grotto , said to be the cave where tho Virgin and Child were hidden during the massacre

of the Innocents by Herod . The whiteness of the rock is attributed to some drops of the Virgin ' s milk on it , ancl women who are nursing make pilgrimages in order to possess a little bit of the stone , which they believe miraculously increases

the supply of milk ! There is a small chapel in the grotto , and I saw several , women with babies kneeling before the altar . We now push on to Mar-Saba , where we are to

How I Spent My Five Weeks' Leave.

encamp . This is a wild extraordinary place , the convent buildings being perched on the very edge of a precipitous ravine , and extending down the sides of it , wherever a ledge can be found to which bricks and mortar can be made to cling .

These cliffs are in some parts about 250 feet high , and both sides of the ravine are honeycombed with grottos made by the hermits , who once swarmed here to the number ( it is said ) often thousand . At present their cells are infested with centipedes ; I never saw them so numerous elsewhere . The

whole aspect of the place is that of barren desolation . The monks belong to the Greek Church , aud look a dirty , lazy set ; they sleep all day , and towards evening turn out like rabbits from a warren . They never eat any flesh , but live pretty

well , as far as it is possible to do so on vegatable diet . They look wretched and unhealthy . One old fellow came up and listened to us talking for some time . Again and again he seemed as if going to speak , but did not . At last , like Enoch Arden , " His long bounden tongue

"Was loosen'd , till he made us understand . " And he began to speak very fair English . He told us that he had been for thirty years a sailor , and hacl served for five years in one of Green ' s ships ; had been in England " plenty ; " had

afterwards been captain of a small Greek vessel ; but he would not tell us why he became a monk , and I could not divest myself of the idea that he had committed some horrid crime , and was working off his remorse in this melancholy spot . The

monks present us with some excellent lemonade and coffee , but gives us to understand that we have to pay a bakshish of two francs a piece ! which I thought rather extortionate on the part of the reverend brethren , as we were twelve in number . ( To be continued . )

Uniformity Of Ritual.

UNIFORMITY OF RITUAL .

By 15 ro . HENRY MELVILLE . The Grand Loclge , on the recommendation of Bro . J . Stevens , has ordered a committee of Past Masters to inquire into the merits of the respective systems of working now in practice ; and to

report , with such recommendations as they may think necessary to prevent deviation from the established mode , such variation being improperaccording to the Constitutions of Masonry .