says:

On the ground in the midst of the church are to be seen the last prints in the dust of our Lord's feet, and the roof appears above where He ascended; and although the earth is daily carried away by believers, yet still it remains as before, and retains the same impression of

the feet.

view which it commands of Jerusalem and | ally supposed to be either a meteorite or the Dead Sea, is shown the native rock fragment of volcanic basalt. It is supwhich forms the summit of the hill from posed to have been originally a jacinth of which our Lord ascended into heaven. dazzling whiteness, but to have been On this rock, it is said by tradition, he made black as ink by the touch of sinful left the mark of his footsteps. Arculf, man, and that it can only recover its orig who visited Palestine about the year 700, inal purity and brilliancy at the day of judgment. The millions of kisses and touches impressed by the faithful have worn the surface considerably; but in addition to this, traces of cup-shaped hollows have been observed on it. There can be no doubt that both the relics associated with Abraham are of high antiquity, and may possibly have belonged to the prehistoric worship which marked Mecca as a sacred site, long before the followers of the Prophet had set up their shrine there. On Jebel Mûsa, at a short distance from the convent of Mar Elias, a mark is shown in the rock, somewhat resembling the print of the forepart of the foot, which is said to be either that of the prophet himself or of his camel, and is devoutly kissed by all Mohammedans. The monks of St. Catherine say, however, that this mark was made by their own brethren in former days, to secure the sanctity of the place, and preserve themselves from the attacks of the Bedouins.

Jerome mentions that in his time the same custom was observed, followed by the same singular result. Later writers, however, asserted that the impressions were made, not in the ground, or in the dust, but on the solid rock; and that originally there were two, one of them having been stolen long ago by the Mohammedans, who broke off the fragment of stone on which it was stamped. Sir John Mandeville describes the appearance of the solitary surviving footmark as it looked in his day, 1322: "From that mount our Lord Jesus Christ ascended to heaven on Ascension Day, and yet there appears the impress of his left foot in the stone." What is now seen in the place is a simple rude cavity in the natural rock, which bears but the slightest resemblance to the human foot. It may have been artificially sculptured, or it may be only one of those curious hollows into which limestone rocks are frequently weathered. In either case, it naturally lent itself to the sacred legend that has gathered around it.

In the Kaaba, the most ancient and remarkable building of the great mosque at Mecca, is preserved a miraculous stone, with the print of Abraham's feet impressed upon it. It is said, by Mohammedan tradition, to be the identical stone which served the patriarch as a scaffold when he helped Ishmael to rebuild the Kaaba, which had been originally constructed by Seth, and was afterwards destroyed by the deluge. While Abraham stood upon this stone, it rose and sank with him as he built the walls of the sacred edifice. The relic is said to be a fragment of the same grey Mecca stone of which the whole building is constructed, -in this respect differing from the famous black stone brought to Abraham and Ishmael by the angel Gabriel, and built into the north-east corner of the exterior wall of the Kaaba, which is gener

On the top of Gerizim, one of the most ancient of the holy places in Palastine, and probably the site of a prehistoric sanctuary, is pointed out a curious flight of steps, variously called "the seven steps of Adam out of Paradise," or "the seven steps of Abraham's altar." And it is interesting to notice, in connection with these steps, the recent discovery of a cupshaped hollow, about a foot in diameter and nine inches deep, on the same rock, exactly like numerous other artificial hollows found on flat rocks beside dolmens in Palestine, and in our own and other countries. The Samaritans say that this hollow marked the spot where the laver in the court of their tabernacle stood. It was intended, in all probability, to retain libations poured on the sacred rock, and was connected with the primitive worship of the locality, before the Samaritans came to the neighborhood. In the sacred Mosque of Hebron, built over the cave of Machpelah, is pointed out a footprint of the ordinary size on a slab of stone, variously called that of Adam or of Mohamined. It is said to have been brought from Mecca some six hundred years ago, and is enclosed in a recess at the back of the shrine of Abraham, where it is placed on a sort of shelf about three feet above the floor. On the margin of the tank, in

the court of the ruined mosque at Baalbec, there are shown four giant footmarks, which are supposed to have been impressed by some patriarch or prophet, but are more likely to have been connected with the ancient religion of Canaan, which lingered here to the latest days of Roman paganism. In Damascus there was at one time a sacred building called the Mosque of the Holy Foot, in which there was a stone having upon it the print of the feet of Moses. Ibn Batuta saw this curious relic early in the fourteenth century; but both the mosque and the stone have since disappeared. On the eastern side of the Jordan a Bedouin tribe, called the Adwân, worship the print left on a stone by the roadside by a prophetess while mounting her camel, in order to proceed on a pilgrimage to Mecca. The Kadriyeh dervishes of Egypt adore a gigantic shoe, as an emblem of the sacred foot of the founder of their sect; and near Madura, a large leather shoe is offered in worship to a deity that, like Diana, presides over the chase.

ony, which has been gradually forgotten or perverted by succeeding ages to the purposes of a ridiculous superstition. It is elaborately carved and painted with numerous symbols, each of which has a profound significance. The liturgy of the Siamese connected with it consists of fifty measured lines of eight syllables each, and contains the names of a hundred and eight distinct symbolical objects, such as the lion, the elephant, the sun and moon in their cars drawn by oxen, the horse, the serpents, the spiral building, the tree, the six spheres, the five lakes, and the altar-all of which are represented on the foot. This list of symbolical allusions is recited by the priests, and forms an essential part of the ritual of worship. The Siamese priests say that any mortal about to arrive at the threshold of Niván has his feet emblazoned spontaneously with all the symbols to be seen on the phrabat. I have seen a slab from Thibet differing materially from this. Impressions of two feet were carved upon it, each footsole being orna. It may be mentioned in this connection, mented in the centre with a representathat on the figures carved on all the Hit- tion of the sun surrounded by a halo and tite monuments the shoes resemble the by three concentric rings, and having one Canadian moccasins, with a long bandage fylfot cross on the large toe, two fylfot wound round the foot and ankle, which is crosses on the heel, and immediately bethe best possible covering for the foot in low the toes a fylfot cross with a looped a country where the cold in winter is in- tau cross on either side. The tau cross, tense and the snow lingers long on the crux ansata, St. Anthony's cross, or the ground. These sandals are exactly like Swastica, is the commonest of all primithose worn by the Kurdish tribes at the tive symbols, being found almost everypresent day, and show that the Hittites where. The Egyptian form of it has a of Palestine did not belong to a Semitic loop or handle, exactly like our astronom. race, but were a migrating people, who ical sign of Venus, and is called the came originally from a cold, northern re-key of the Nile," or the "emblem of gion.

To the student of comparative religion the phrabat, or sacred foot of Buddha, opens up a most interesting field of investigation. In the East, impressions of the feet of this wonderful person are as common as those of Christ and the Virgin Mary in the West. Buddhists are continually increasing the number by copies of the originals; and native painters of Siam who are ambitious of distinction, often present these sacred objects to the king, adorned with the highest skill of their art, as the most acceptable gift they can offer. The sacred footprint enters into the very essence of the Buddhist religion; it claims from the Indo-Chinese nations a degree of veneration scarcely yielding to that which they pay to Buddha himself. It is very ancient, and was framed to embody in one grand symbol a complete system of theology and theog

life." This is identical with the pattern incised on the footprints of Buddha in the East; and taken in connection with the representation of the sun on the same footprints, it must be held to symbolize the origin of life, and is always borne in the hands of the gods, or impressed upon objects connected with them.

The Siamese acknowledge only five genuine phrabats made by the actual feet of Buddha. They are called the five impressions of the divine foot. The first is on a rock on the coast of the peninsula of Malacca, where, beside the mark of Buddha's foot, there is also one of a dog's foot, which is much venerated by the natives. The second phrabat is on the Golden Mountain, the hill with the holy footstep of Buddha, in Siam, which Buddha visited on one occasion. The impression is that of the right foot, and is covered with a maradop, a pyramidal

is seven inches long and three inches broad, and is divided into a hundred and eight compartments, each of which contains a different mystical mark.

At Gangautri, on the banks of the Gan

there is a phrabat near Prome which is supposed to be a type of the creation. Another is seen in the same country on a large rock lying amidst the hills a day's journey west of Meinbu. Dr. Leyden says that it is in the country of the Langes, is a wooden temple containing a footthat all the celebrated founders of the religion of Buddha are reported to have left their most remarkable vestiges. The traces of the sacred foot are sparingly scattered over Pegu, Ava, and Arracan. But among the Lan they are concentrated; and thither devotees repair to worship at the sacred steps of Pra Kukuson, Pra Konnakan, Pra Puttakatsop, and Pra Samutacadam.

print of Ganga on a black stone. In a strange subterranean temple, inside the great fort at Allahabad, there are two footprints of Vishnu, along with footprints of Rama, and of his wife Sita. In India the kaddam rassul, or supposed impression of Mohammed's foot in clay, which is kept moist, and enclosed in a sort of cage, is not infrequently placed at the head of the gravestones of the followers of Islam. On The footsteps of Vishnu are also fre- the summit of a mountain one hundred quent in India. Sir William Jones tells and thirty-six miles south of Bhagalpur us that in the Puranas mention is made of is one of the principal places of Jain wor a white mountain on which King Sravana ship in India. On the table-land are sat meditating on the divine foot of Vishnu twenty small Jain temples on different at the station Trevirana. When the Hin- craggy heights, which resemble an extindoos entered into posesssion of Gayá-guisher in shape. In each of them is to one of the four most sacred places of Bud- be found the vasu padukas - a sacred dhism they found the popular feeling in foot similar to that which is seen in the favor of the sacred footprint there so Jain temple at Champanagar. The sect strong, that they were obliged to incorpo. of the Jain in South Bihar has two places rate the relic into their own religious sys- of pilgrimage. One is a tank choked tem, and to attribute it to Vishnu. Thou- with weeds and lotus flowers, which has sands of Hindoo pilgrims from all parts of a small island in the centre containing a India now visit the shrine every year. temple with two stones in the interior, on Indeed to the worshippers of Vishnu the one of which is an inscription and the imTemple of Vishnupad at Gayá is one of pression of the two feet of Gautama - the the most holy in all India; and, as we are most common object of worship of the informed in the great work of Dr. Mitra, Jains in this district. The other is the the later religious books earnestly enjoin place in the same part of the country that no one should fail, at least once in where the body of Mahavira, one of the bis lifetime, to visit the spot. They com- twenty four lawgivers, was burnt about six mend the wish for numerous offspring on centuries before Christ. It resembles the the ground that, out of the many, one son other temple, and is situated in an island might visit Gayá, and by performing the in a tank. The island is terraced round, rites prescribed in connection with the and in the cavity of the beehive-like top holy footstep, rescue his father from there is the representation of Mahavira's eternal destruction. The stone is a large, feet, to which crowds of pilgrims are conhemispherical block of granite, with an tinually flocking. In the centre of the uneven top, bearing the carvings of two Jain temple at Puri, where this most rehuman feet. The frequent washings markable man died, there are also three which it daily undergoes have worn out representations of his feet, and one imthe peculiar sectorial marks which the feet pression of the feet of each of his eleven contain, and even the outlines of the feet disciples. themselves are but dimly perceptible. English architects are now engaged in preserving the ruins of the splendid temple associated with this footprint, where the ministry of India's great teacher the "Light of Asia"-began. In the Indian Museum at Calcutta there is a large slab of white marble bearing the figure of a human foot surrounded by two dragons. It was brought from a temple in Burmah, where it used to be worshipped as a representation of Buddha's foot. It

We have thus seen that footprints. carved on rocks and stones are found in almost every part of the world. Many of them belong to a class of prehistoric sculptures equally ubiquitous, which have only recently been brought before the notice of the antiquarian world, and which as yet are involved in almost impenetrable mystery. The connection of prehistoric footprints with sacred sites and places of sepulture would indicate that they had a religious significance, -an idea still fur

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