I caught a glorious glimpse of
splendid courts, and light aify gates of Saracenic triumph, flights of
noble steps, long arcades, and interior gardens, where silver fountains
spouted their tall streams amid the taller cypresses.]
[Footnote 36: page 91.--_Entered Jerusalem by the gate of Zion_. The
gate of Zion still remains, and from it you descend into the valley of
Siloah.]
[Footnote 37: page 94.-_ King Pirgandicus._ According to a Talmudical
story, however, of which I find a note, this monarch was not a Hebrew
but a Gentile, and a very wicked one. He once invited eleven famous
doctors of the holy nation to supper. They were received in the most
magnificent style, and were then invited, under pain of death, either
to eat pork, to accept a pagan mistress, or to drink wine consecrated
to idols. After long consultation, the doctors, in great tribulation,
agreed to save their heads by accepting the last alternative, since
the first and second were forbidden by Moses, and the last only by the
Rabbins. The King assented, the doctors drank the impure wine, and,
as it was exceedingly good, drank freely. The wine, as will sometimes
happen, created a terrible appetite; the table was covered with dishes,
and the doctors, heated by the grape, were not sufficiently careful of
what they partook.
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