BETHLEHEM ("house of bread"; modern Beitlahm), the birthplace of Jesus Christ and of King David, and the Ephratah of the history of Jacob, is now a small, unwalled village of white stone houses. The population, about 8,000, is wholly Christian—Latin, Greek, and Ar menian. The Convent of the Nativity, a large, square building, was built by the Empress Helena, in 327 A. D., but de stroyed by the Moslems in 1236, and, it is supposed, restored by the crusaders. Within it is the Church of the Nativity, which is subdivided among the Latins, Greeks, and Armenians, for devotional purposes. The church is built in the form of a cross; the nave, belongs to the Armenians, and is supported by 48 beautiful Corinthian columns of solid granite. The other portions of the church, forming the arms of the cross, are walled up. At the farther end of that section, which forms the head of the cross, and on the threshold, h a sculp tured marble star, which the Bethle hemites say covers the central point of the earth. Here a long intri
cate passage descends to the crypt be low, where the blessed Virgin is said to have been delivered. The walls of the chamber are hung with draperies of the gayest colors; and a silver star, with the words, "Hic de Virgine Maria Jesus Christus natus est" (here Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary), marks the spot of the Nativity. The manger stands in a low recess cut in the rock. The site appears to have been venerated since the 2d century, A. 4. To the N. W. stands a square domed building, marking the reputed site of Rachel's tomb. The Beth lehemites chiefly gain their subsistence by the manufacture and sale of crucifixes, beads, boxes, shells, etc.