No less potent enchantment could avail to work this miracle.
In the huge Church of the Nativity, in Bethlehem, built fifteen hundred years ago by the inveterate St.Helena, they took us below ground, and into a grotto cut in the living rock.

This was the "manger" where Christ was born.

A silver star set in the floor bears a Latin inscription to that effect.

It is polished with the kisses of many generations of worshiping pilgrims.

The grotto was tricked out in the usual tasteless style observable in all the holy places of Palestine.