“How many holes you make 'em there?”
“Thirteen.”
“How many got nails?”
“Four.”
“Not so many. Only three and a half nails. Used to be thirteen nails. Now only three and a half. When these gone, then the world come to an end. I t'ink it not berry long.”
“I should think the Moslems would watch this stone very carefully.”
“What difference? You not t'ink it come when de time come?”
We noticed some pieces of money on the stone, and asked why that was.
“Whoever he lay backsheesh on this stone, he certain to go into Paradise, and be took by our prophet in his bosom.”
We wandered for some time about the green esplanade, dotted with cypress-trees, and admired the little domes: the Dome of the Spirits, the dome that marks the spot where David sat in judgment, etc.; some of them cover cisterns and reservoirs in the rock, as old as the foundations of the Temple.