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The lower Rhine and its picturesque scenery : Rotterdam to Mayence
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TUR DOJI-IUKCHE.

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1164)—and ultimately lianded over, as his share of thc booty, toBeinah! de Dassel, who was Archbishop of Cologne at the time,and liad accompanied Barbarossa on liis warlike expedition.

But how the Empress Helena became possessed of therelics in the first instance—and how she got to know that thebones she carried to Constantinople were really those of theMagi who were the first to adore the new-born Saviour—andhow, moreover, slie aseertained, after more than three cen-turies had elapsed, and Titus in the interval had rased theHoly City to the ground, that the names of the sages were, aswe are told nowadays, " Gaspar," " Melchioü," and " Bal-tkazak" —the tradition, though particularly circumstantial, isnot sufficiently so to inform us.

Nevertheless, even if the story be one of those " piousfrauds," or holy taradiddles, that the Roinish Church delightsto indulge in—as a means, perhaps, of giving a greater realityto the faitli it teaehes, by vivifying every niinute incident inconnexion with the Saviour's life — even if it helong, we say,to one of these priestly tricks, the shrine itself is antique andcurious enough to make it an object of interest even to theintellectual, and of reverence to the credulous.

The tomb in which the shrine is enclosed reminds onestrongly of the vault of the Capulets; and here, on Sundaysand festivals, you ean see through an open window in the front(the brass lattice, which usually screens the interior from view,being then thrown back, and two long candles placed uponthe sill to burn in the day-light for the glorification of theblessed saints within) through this little window, we say, youcan see, shining in the dark and Stellated vault, the gable-likeend of what appears to be a massive-gold and richly-chasedcoffin, with a little grating let into it, through the gilt barsof which you can just make out the three brown gutta-percha-like skulls of the pretended " Magi," tricked out in

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