Pillars  and  obelisks  are  often  called  "  needles  " — for  example,  "  Cleo-
patra's Needle  " — and  perhaps  this  is  the  reference  of  the  warning
that  it  is  ''  easier  for  a  camel  to  go  through  the  eye  of  a  needle  than
for  a  rich  man  to  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  In  the  ciypt
of  the  cathedral  at  Bipon  there  is  the  remnant  of  a  Saxon  church,
built  by  St.  Wilfrid  in  the  seventh  century,  and  a  hole  in  the  wall
is  called  "  the  needle's  eye."  The  verger  told  me  that  in  olden  days
penitent  women  used  to  kneel  ^efore  this  aperture  for  confession,
and  if  the  priest  suspected  any^  one  of  withholding  the  truth  he
commanded  her  to  ^*  thread  the  needle  " — i.e.  to  come  through  the
aperture — and  if  she  was  guilty  iahe  stuck  fast !  I  was  the  guest
of  Dean    Fremantle    (the  former^   Dean  Fremantle),  and   when   I


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1900-  Jachin  and  Boaz,  425

mentioned  this  matter  at  dinner  that  day  he  said,  ^'  Oh  yee^  excnr-
sionists  come  to  ns  now,  and  we  sometimes  have  fifty  or  sixty  young
women  in  a  day  pulled  through  by  the  verger.  If  they  get  through
they  think  they  are  all  right  (are  certified  innocent)  and  will  get
married."  Colonel  Conder,  in  his  volume  on  Palestine^  refers  to
these  same  things,  and  adds  that ''  children  were  also  passed  through
oak  and  ash  trees,  and  through  hoops,  or  dragged  through  holes  in
the  ground  and  under  door- sills."  The  door-sill  brings  us  back  again
to  the  gate  and  the  gate-posts,  or  two  pillars.
