The Tomb Of Hiram.

were used in breaking the joints iu which some artistic skill is manifest . The third layer ( above ground ) forms a sort of cornice to the structure by jutting out on every side about Sin . It is composed of four large stones , nearly

symmetrical with each other , each 9 ft . Sin . in length ( from 1 ST . to S ) , about 4 ft . wide , and oft . Sin . high ; the area covered by this tier is 15 ft . lin . by Oft . Sin . These stones are very large , and from their relation to those below seem even larger than they

are . Likewise , they give an appearance of height to the monument which adds to the grandeur of the tout ensemble .

The fourth layer is the sarcophagus , consisting of a single stone about 13 ft . by 7 , and nearly 6 feet high . I am not sufficiently conversant with architectural science to explain . it , but the artist who designed this vast stone coffin has contrived

to give an air of vastness to it that is in admirable keeping with his subject . He has chiselled a rude bevel upon it and to some extent shaped it , but the general idea it conveys is that of rude grandeur . The coffin , or cavity cut exactly in

the top of this stone , is about 6 ft . Gin . long , 2 ft . 2 in . deep , ancl 1 ft . Sin . wide . Through the hole knocked out of the coffin , at its north-east corner I crept with some difficulty , and with solemn emotions superadded to considerable physical

incovenience , lay at length on the floor of Hiram ' s last receptacle , long since rifled of its contents . The fifth layer is the lid of the sarcophagus , about 2 ft . Gin . thick , and fitting by a shoulder

into the cavity below . My associate , Mr . Thomson , climbed upon the top of this , and describes it as much grooved by the weather , and presenting no appearance of inscription or chiselling of any kind . A large piece of it was broken off at the

north-east corner to come at the opening in the sarcophagus below . The general condition of the block forming this Kebr Hiiran is good some of them , however , are cracked in two , and many of them have their

corners defaced ; one of them on the north side is badly shattered . The material is the hard limestone ofthe country j no doubt each block was taken for some of the numerous stone-cuttings so plainly visible on the east ancl west of the

monument . All around are strewn fragments of pillars , squared stones , stone sarcophagi , and other relics of the most ancient date . A lai-o-e patch of Mosaic pavement was latel y discovered about twenty rods south of the monument , and I

The Tomb Of Hiram.

found two considerable patches of the same lying in good preservation within a couple of miles west of it . Nowhere have I discovered a relic of antiquity at all resembling this , save at a point some nine

miles south of Jibnin , on the road from that romantic eyry to Safir , and quite near the village of Yaron . Here is " a very large sarcophagus lying in utter loneliness , " as Dr . Robinson describes it in " Biblical Researches , " " the lid two

feet thick , the upper side slanted like a double roof , the ends resembling a pediment . " But there is another object two hundred yards west of that which Robinson did not see , and which was better calculated to remind him of Hiram ' s tomb

than this . It is a sarcophagus cut from a rock never removed from its natural position . It is as if the artist , in a spirit of sublime boldness , selected a large commanding stone rooted at the earth ' s very centre , ancl , squaring off its top , chiselled out

a coffin , placed his dead therein , shaped a fitting lid , and left his hero " alone in his glory , " confident that through all time the living would respect the dead .

The Knights Templars.

THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS .

By ANTHONY ONEAL HATE . ( Continued from page 485 ) . BOOK III . —CHAPTER IY .

GEAND MASTEE—WILLIAM DE CAENOTA . Letter hj tlie Grand Master to the Pope . The Crusaders attach Bamietta . Talca Taphnis . The Cardinal Pelagius . The Nile overflows and inundates the Crusaders camp . An epidemic rages A . D . 1217 , 1218 . A chapter general of the Order was

immediately held upon the death of de Plessis , when William de Carnota was elected Grand Master . * Upon his elevation de Carnota wrote to the Pope the following letter : " To the very reverend father in Christ the Lord

Honorius , by the providence of God , chief Pontiff of the Holy Roman Church , Brother William de Chartres , humble Master of the poor Chivalry of the Temple , proffereth all due obedience and reverence , with the kiss of the foot . " By these our letters we hasten to inform your paternity of the state of the Holy Laud , which