scription, looks considerably larger than it really is. The walls are every where covered with pictures executed in the worst taste; yet, from the mere profusion of their numbers, and the gayety of their colouring, they produce on the whole an agreeable effect. The pillars both of the church and the offices of the sacristy, as well as the portals of the door leading to it, and the inner walls, are all cased with porcelain tiles, painted in blue with crosses and other sacred devices. The mosaic pavement is the most beautiful of its kind. The whole is carefully covered with rich Turkey carpets, excepting only a small space before the great altar. In a small recess on the left is shewn the sanctuary of St. James, thought to be on the spot on which he was beheaded; and this is ornamented with sculpture in white marble, with massy silver lamps, and gilding, and painting, producing altogether a surprising richness of effect. The door which leads to this, is still more beautiful, and is composed entirely of tortoise-shell, mother-of-pearl, gold, and silver, all exquisitely inlaid."* Hasselquist dwells on the ornaments of this church as "well worth seeing, being, past all doubt, the richest and most valuable that any church in the East can boast of, and perhaps equal to the ornaments of the largest and richest Christian churches in Europe. The ornaments of the Latins," he says, 66 are magnificent, and perhaps in a better taste; but they themselves own that the Armenians are richer. The Greeks in this respect are not to be compared with either of them." He tells us that the Armenian convent had 1000 chambers for pilgrims, besides those of the monks; and that not a year passed, but more

* Travels, vol. i. pp. 370, 371.

than that number arrived from Armenia, Persia, and Turkey, who never leave it without considerable alms."* The disposition of the worthy Naturalist to deal in round numbers, however, is shewn by his stating Jerusalem to contain among its inhabitants about 20,000 Jews. Pilgrims of the above persuasion come in great numbers from Constantinople, Armenia, Egypt, and all parts of the Levant, to keep the feast of Easter, and dip their shirts in the Jordan.

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The Armenians are described by Dr. R. as strong, good-looking race of people, highly dignified in their deportment, civil and industrious. There are many of them settled at Jerusalem in comfortable circumstances. Their houses are well kept and well furnished. On visiting them, the stranger is received with a warmth unusual even among the Greeks, and it is the more agreeable for being sincere. He is treated with coffee and a pipe of tobacco, a glass of liquor, cakes, biscuits, and different kinds of sweetmeats, which are handed to him by the mistress of the family, her daughter, or servant; all being usually in attendance, although there should be only one guest to be served. They take the cup or glass from him when he has done with it, and kiss his hand as they receive it. They pour water on his hands for him to wash after he has done eating, and give him a towel to dry them; on receiving which, they again lay hold of the hand and kiss it, and then retire to their station with the servant near the door. Mother, daughter, and man-servant, are all alike candidates to take the

"Three years ago," says Hasselquist (in 1751), " an Armenian from Persia paid for the first fire, (that is, the first to receive the sacred fire on Easter eve from the bishop) 30,000 sequins; a sum which perhaps never was given for an answer from the Delphian Oracle."-Travels, p. 138.

PART I.

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cup and kiss the hand; and, in point of etiquette, it matters not to which of them the guest delivers it. They seldom sit down in his presence, and never without much entreaty, even though the state of their health should be such as to render it improper for them to stand; afraid that by so doing they should be thought deficient in respect to their visiter. The Armenian ladies have a sedate and pleasant manner, with much of the Madonna countenance; their eyes are generally dark, their complexion florid, but they are rarely enriched with that soft intelligent expression which characterises the eye of the Greek or Jewish female."

The present population has been variously estimated from 20,000 to 30,000 souls, and can only be conjectured: in fact, the numbers are continually fluctuating. Dr. Richardson classes the inhabitants thus: 5,000 Mussulmans, 5,000 Christians, and 10,000 Jews. Mr. Buckingham says, the Mahommedans are the most numerous; but he must have been mis-informed respecting the number of Jews. He was told, he says, by Moallim Zacharias, the banker of the governor, and chief of the Jews at Jerusalem, that there were not one thousand male Jews within the city, but at least three thousand females. "No male Jews," he said, came hither, but such as were contented to live poorly, or had money to let out at interest for their subsistence, as there was no commerce practised in the place; and all, therefore, were either rabbies, or students, or devout persons. Widows, however, from all countries, if they could get to Jerusalem, were sure of being maintained by the community of their own religion; and accordingly, as many as could get together the means of doing so, flocked here for that purpose.

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The great happiness of the people," he added, was to die at Jerusalem, and to be buried in the valley of Jehoshaphat."* There might be motives for concealing the real number of the Jewish population. If, however, the fixed Jewish population be taken at this low estimate of about 5,000, the number may very probably be raised by occasional inhabitants to 10,000. The Mahommedans consist of nearly equal portions of Osmanli Turks from Asia Minor; descendants of pure Turks by blood, but Arabians by birth; a mixture of Turkish and Arab blood by intermarriages; and pure Syrian Arabs. Of Christians, the proportions are as follow: the Roman Catholics consist of the few monks of the Franciscan convent, who are chiefly Spaniards, and the still fewer Latin pilgrims who occasionally repair thither; the Greeks are the most numerous; the Armenians rank next to the Greeks as to numbers, but far exceed them in wealth and influence; the Copts are reduced almost to nothing; and the other sects, Abyssinians, Maronites, &c. are lost in the crowd.+ The period during

* Buckingham's Travels, second edition, 8vo. vol. i. p. 399. + Mr. Jolliffe gives the supposed numbers as follow:

Jews.... from 3,000 to 4,000

In this calculation the Jews and the Armenians are certainly under-rated; the Latins and Mussulmen are over-estimated. Mr. Jolliffe's information was confessedly drawn from very imperfect sources; probably the Christians; Mr. Buckingham's informant was a Jew; Dr. Richardson's was Turkish authority. This may partly explain the variations.

which the city is most populous, is from Christmas to Easter at the latter festival, it is crowded, and the spectacle of the motley population is such as can scarcely be paralleled.

BEAD AND RELIC TRADE.

IN Jerusalem, there is scarcely any trade, and but few manufactures: the only flourishing one is that of crucifixes, chaplets, beads, shells, and relics, of which whole cargoes are shipped from Jaffa, for Italy, Spain, and Portugal.* The shells are of the kind called mother-of-pearl, ingeniously, though coarsely sculptured into various shapes. Those of the largest size, and the most perfect, are formed into clasps for the zones of the Greek women. Such clasps are worn by the ladies of Cyprus, Crete, Rhodes, and other islands of the Archipelago. All these, after being purchased, are taken to the church of St. Sepulchre, where they undergo the process of benediction or consecration, and are then fit for use. In like manner, beads and crosses purchased at Loretto, are placed in a wooden bowl belonging to the house of the Virgin, to be consecrated for the purpose of being worn as amulets.† The beads are manufactured either from date stones, or from a very hard kind of wood called Mecca fruit: when first wrought, it appears of the colour of box; it is then dyed yellow, black, or red. They are of various sizes; the smaller are the most esteemed, on account of the greater number used to fill a string; and rosaries sell at higher prices when they have been long worn, because the beads acquire a polish by

Buckingham's Travels, vol. ii. p. 6. Clarke's Travels, vol. iv. p. 306.

Clarke's Travels, vol. iv. 8vo. p. 30k.