them; and every individual, whether old or young, was seen standing. When we got near the altar we were presented with crutches; and as the service is extremely long, and all are required to stand during its performance, we found them very acceptable. Being a stranger, and this being my first visit to the church, all eyes were directed towards me, to see how I crossed myself, so as to determine, by the mode of my making that sign, whether I was Greek, Catholic, or Infidel. The service appeared to me nearly the same as I had before witnessed in the Greek churches of Asia Minor; and differed only in being performed in the Arabic instead of the Greek language. The priest wore a coat of many colours, a garment apparently as much esteemed throughout these parts in the present day, as it was in the days of the patriarch Jacob, who had one made for his favourite son Joseph; or in the time of Sisera, when a coat of divers colours was enumerated among the rich trophies and spoils of the battle of Tabor or Kishon. In the exercise of his functions, the priest remained mostly at the altar, while young boys, bearing censors of incense, were constantly waving them around his sacred person.

On the outside of the screen were two side-altars, at each of which a person repeated certain passages of the Psalms to another near him, who sung them. The individuals of the congregation criticised the faults of these singers as they proceeded, without scruple or reserve, sufficiently loud to be heard by every one in the room; and the noise and confusion arising from this general conversation was such as to take away from the scene all appearance of an assembly met to worship. When the priest came to the door of the screen to read aloud some portion of the service, a number of men, who had bared their heads and shoulders, pressed around him, and bowed down their necks to make of them a resting place for the large book from which he read the service of the day. When this ceremony was ended, the priest walked through the body of the church with the sacramental cup elevated, and a silk covering on his head: those of the congregation who were nearest to him

falling on the earth, and kissing his feet and the hem of his garment; while those who were not near enough to pay him this mark of homage, stretched forth their hands to touch some part of his robes, kissing their own fingers afterwards with great reverence, and even communicating the benefit of this holy touch to those who were behind them, and could not come in direct contact with the priest's person.

On our quitting the church, all the men of the congregation saluted each other by kissing on the cheek and forehead; and I came in for a large share of this, being saluted by upwards of twenty of my guide's friends, some of whom were smooth-faced boys, and others bearded elders.

As

Though the snow was still so deep upon the earth, as to render many of the narrow streets of the town impassable, yet the two hours following the church service were given up to visiting, and going from house to house, often by the most circuitous routes, to get at some dwellings that were otherwise inaccessible. we ate something at each, we may be said to have dined at several houses in succession: but the mode of feeding was so offensive to an European taste, and the nature of the messes prepared was so contrary to our notions, that it required a great effort to overcome the disgust excited even by their appearance, and to preserve a show of being satisfied. Among other novelties, I observed that large lumps of solid butter were eaten by the people of this place, without the addition of bread, vegetables, or flesh meat; and this is accounted so wholesome that it is frequently given to infants in arms, by ounces at a time, as nurses in England would give bread only. At all the dinners there was an abundance of boiled rice, and generally a goat or kid served up with it, though often so tough as to require to be literally torn in pieces before it could be eaten. Raisins and olive oil, both produced from the surrounding country, were also in abundance, with bowls of butter and sugar melted and mixed together, and a kind of pudding about the shape

and size of a large lemon, made of barley paste stuffed with onions and pepper.

In the course of the conversation that passed over our meals, I learnt that during the present year, all the necessaries of life had experienced an unusual advance in price. Corn, which during the last year had been sold at six gallons for a piastre, was now at a piastre and a half per gallon. Butter is first melted, and then sold while it is liquid, by a measure called a mudd. This article was now selling at twelve piastres, or about two Spanish dollars the gallon. The wages of a labourer, if hired for a day, would be now about two piastres: but wages are seldom paid in money, the people undertaking their labours jointly, and dividing the profits of it in shares. Rich individuals who have lands, maintain the husbandmen in their own houses on the farm, and in addition to their food, give them one-fourth of the produce of the soil to be divided equally among them, reserving the other three-fourths for the landlord or occupier. This ratio of division is always observed, whether the produce of the farm consist of corn, fruit, and oil, raised from the land, or cattle born on the soil since the commencement of the husbandmen's servitude. The same regulation prevails also between shopkeepers and mechanics and their servants, who are all fed by their respective masters, and in addition to this, receive from them one-fourth of the profits on all works produced by their labour, in lieu of fixed wages. By this arrangement, the servants and labourers become in a manner incorporated with the family, and seldom or never change their masters, both parties being interested in the long continuance of their servitude.

The houses of Assalt are very small; each dwelling, with few exceptions, consisting of only one floor, and this having only one room, subdivided into recesses, rather than separate apartments. They are mostly built of stone; and, where necessary, a few pointed arches are thrown up on the inside, to support a flat roof of branches of trees and reeds plastered over with clay. The interior

F

of the dwelling is generally divided into a lower portion for the cattle and poultry, and an upper part raised as a terrace, about two feet above the ground floor, for the use of the family. In this raised part the fire-place for cooking is generally placed, but in no instance that I observed was there a chimney for carrying off the smoke; and as wood and turf are the fuel generally used, it becomes painful to those not accustomed to it, to sit in any house for more than an hour, where a fire is burning. In the upper division are the beds, clothes-chests, and provisions; and for the better security of these, there are again other subdivisions made in the upper part of the house by walls, shelves, and recesses, all formed of dry mud or sun-baked clay, without being white-washed or ornamented in any manner. manner. There is seldom any aperture for light, except the door, which must be shut when storms of rain or snow occur, and are always closed at night, so that those within are then enveloped in darkness and smoke. I remarked that all the modern wooden doors of these houses, were hung in the same manner as the ancient stone doors seen in the tombs of the kings at Jerusalem and in the sepulchres at Gamala, a wooden post forming the inner edge of the door itself, and terminating in a pivot at each end, the upper pivot traversing in a hole in the beam above, and the lower pivot traversing in the sill or threshold of the door below.

The house of the merchant Aioobe, which was the best and most comfortable dwelling in the town, consisted in this manner of one room only, about twenty feet square, divided into a lower portion for the cattle, and an upper part or terrace, about two feet above the former, for the family. In the first of these was contained also a large supply of fire-wood and provisions for the winter; and in the last his whole stock of merchandise, consisting of cotton cloths from Nablous, Bedouin garments, and various articles, chiefly for sale among the tribes of Arabs, that come to the market of Assalt from the surrounding country. This chief of the merchants of Assalt was estimated to be worth about 5000 piastres, or 2501. sterling; and by most of his fellow-townsmen he was considered to

be as rich as any merchant could hope or desire to be. In comparison with his neighbours he might be called wealthy indeed; for many of those who were considered traders, had never more than 107. sterling invested in stock, and the average of the town might be safely taken at 201., as rather beyond than below the state of their trading property.

After a day passed in visits to all the principal Christian inhabitants of the place, and eating, contrary to my inclination, at almost every house, we assembled in a large evening party at the dwelling of the widow in which Georgis and myself had taken up our temporary abode. Though the dimensions of this building were very small, not exceeding fifteen feet by twelve, it had a chimney in the wall, and an apartment of the same size above, the ascent to which was by a flight of narrow steps made of dried clay, with a carved wooden balustrade; the only instance I had met with in all the town, of so much convenience and ornament.

Although this was the evening of Sunday, cards were introduced, and I was pressed to take a part in the game against my will. Fortune was adverse to me: and in playing for garments, I lost my booza, a sort of thick woollen cloak, which I had bought at Nazareth for four piastres. There was no remedy: and though all exclaimed Allah kereem! "God is bountiful!" yet I felt that this was neither the season nor the country in which to gamble away warm garments, particularly as it would have been imprudent, at the present moment, to show that my finances were so good as to admit of my purchasing it back again from the winner.

The conversation of the evening was such as I should gladly have retained, had it been practicable to have stored my memory with all the geographical and topographical facts mentioned respecting the positions of ancient and modern places in the neighbourhood, the very names of which are unknown in England, as the whole of this tract is little better than a blank in our best maps. But amidst so many loud and discordant voices, and the innumerable questions that were incessantly asked me on every