The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1920-12-16

at a common shrine. That ancient
city has furnished q setting for much of the
cred history and legend of each.
Going up to the Holy City for devotional or
other purposes once fraught with grave diff
fculties. In the middle ages the expression "a
pilgrimage Gods sepulcher" became proverbial
to indicate the desperate character of any peril
Gus journey. Since then things have changed for
the better, writes J. F. Scheltema in Asia. The
modern pilgrim to Jerusalem takes a steamer
to Jaffa and, on landing there, has himself and
baggage conveyed to the railway station in time
for the daily passenger train. When under way,
it requires some maginatOn-especiaIly if one is
q member of a specially conducted tourist party,
piloted to the Holy Land a return ticket in
Guiding accommodation and often inaptly over
done attendance-to realize that traverses
the Plain of Sharon and the Valley OF Rephaim;
that the stopping places, Akir and Sar't Ekron
Judges 1, - e.. a. and Zorah, where Samson
was born Judges Is, 24), with Samsons
ern farther down the line; that one is a pilgrim
in the land where David slew the Philistines
with a great slaughter, where Joshua and Judas
Maccabeus and Saladin and Richard of the Lion
Heart fought their famous battles.
Not nook or corner in old Jerusalem but has
legend Of some kind attached to it. Indeed, the
whole of Palestine is rich in legendary lore.
Saints of three religions and no particular re-
ngion at all, invoked throughout its length
and breadth There is, for instance. al-Khudr,
the evergreen one, the prolOnger OF life and pOr-
tai to the fountain of youth the confluence
of two seas, believed to be the Euxne and Aegean,
whose waters mingle in the PropOntis-a ira
dition which implies that Ponce de Leon sought
the rejuvenating spring in the wrong place On
the eastern bank of the Jordan the exact spot
is shown where the Antichrist will make his last
stand and, excluded from the Holy City, will
alright the faithful assembled on the western
bank. But then the Angel Gabriel will hasten
to their rescue and hurl three stones at the
arch-enemy, the first in the of the God of
Abraham, the second in the name of the God OF
Isaac, the third in the name of the God of Jacob
And fleeing, the impOstOr will be slain at the
Biz az-Zaybaq, the quicksilver well.
OF the Christian sanctuaries the Church of the
Nativity at Bethlehem and the Church of the
Holy Sepulcher the most important. The so
called Cave of the Sepulcher revealed to
the Empress Helena when she dug for and found
the Holy Cross. Some five centuries later, the
keys of the basilica, built the sacred spot
to replace Roman temple dedicated to Venus
sent by Harun- al Raschid to Charlemagne
a token OF friendship and esteem. Again two
centuries later, less tolerant Fatimid Caliph.
Hakim bi amr'Allah, ordered its destruction $50
that its earth should become its heaven" for
reports William of Tyre, the devil had spread
calumnieS concerning the servants of the true
religion.
In 1149, when new additions to the Church of
the Holy Sepulcher were consecrated, the cere-
mony was attended by King Louis VII of France
and his queen, Eleanor. who, two years earlier,
had left their royal domain to take part in the
second crusade As their majesties walked in
at the head of their gorgeously arrayed cortege.
composed OF the flower of French chivalry, and
were met Oy Ihe FdIridrcIi anu the oHclaIlng
clergy, a spectral figure stepped forth from
dark vaulted passage. Its sunken cheeks and
emaciated limbs were like those of a resurrected
corpse; with gfaring eyes and wild gestures, it
began TO reproach the queen with her criminal
amours and generally scaidalous conduct. Swords
were drawn to stop those insulting remarks but
fell back Into their scabbards when the outspoken
stranger was recognized the nlustrious lady's
father William. count of Poitou and duke of
Guyenne or, rather. his ghost. for he had
died in 1877 as a hermit the shrine of st.
James OF Ccmpostella, where he was doing pen
ance for his sins Vanishing unaccount-
ably as ne had appeared, he is supposed to have
returned to his grave in Spain after fulfilling his
mission which interrupted the brilliant function
in such q painful way. Some time afterward,
on the pretext of kinship, King Louis obtained
divorce fram his erratfc spouse. And the Rose
OF Aquitaiae" resuming the bonds OF matrimony
In second nuptaIa with Henry Plantagenet, be-