CHAPTER IV

OF ACHELDEMACH, AND THE PLACE WHERE JUDAS HANGED HIMSELF

AFTER passing out through David’s gate, we come to a fountain which runs through the valley towards the south. Half-way down the stream on the western side, Judas is said to have hanged himself. For there is there a large and very ancient fig-tree, according as Juvencus writes:—

“Informem rapuit ficus de vertice mortem.”

“And met grim Death from off the Fig-tree’s bough.”

Moreover, Acheldemach, on the south side of Mount Sion, is still famed for the bodies of foreigners and ignoble people that are brought there, some to be buried in the ground, others to rot upon its surface.