370 SKETCHES OF PALESTINE. 



by Dr. Richardson. He reports their number to be 10,000 ; an 

 amazing increase, if correct, within the past thirty years. 



Many of the Jews are rich and in comfortable circumstances; 

 and possess a good deal of property in Jerusalem ; but they are 

 careful to conceal their wealth, and even their comfort, from the 

 jealous eye of their rulers, lest, by awakening their cupidity, some 

 vile, indefensible plot should be devised to their prejudice. In 

 going to visit a respectable Jew in the holy city, it is a common 

 thing to pass to his house over a ruined foreground and up an 

 awkward outside stair, constructed of rough unpolished stones, that 

 totter under the foot ; but it improves as you ascend, and at the 

 top has a respectable appearance, as it ends in an agreeable plat- 

 form in front of the house. On entering the house itself, it ia 

 found to be clean and well furnished ; the sofas are covered with 

 Persian carpets, and the people seem happy to receive you. The 

 visiter is entertained with coffee and tobacco, as is the custom in 

 the houses of the Turks and Christians. The ladies presented 

 themselves with an ease and address that surprised me, and called 

 to my memory the pleasing society of Europe. This difference of 

 manner arises from many of the Jewish Yamilies in Jerusalem 

 having resided in Spain or Portugal, when the females had rid 

 themselves of the cruel domestic fetters of the East, and, on return- 

 ing to their beloved land, had very properly maintained their justly 

 acquired freedom and rank in society. They almost all speak a 

 broken Italian, so that conversation goes on without the clumsy 

 aid of an interpreter. 



'It was the feast of the Passover, and they were all eating 

 unleavened bread ; some of which was presented to me as a curi- 

 osity, and I partook of it merely that I might have the gratification 

 of eating unleavened bread, with the sons and daughters of Jacob, 

 in Jerusalem ; it is very insipid fare, and no one would eat it from 

 choice. For the same reason I went to the synagogue, of which 

 there are two in Jerusalem, although I visited only one. The 

 form of worship is the same as in this country, and I believe in 

 every country which the Jews inhabit. The females have a sepa- 

 rate part of the synagogue assigned to them, as in the synagogues 

 in Europe, and in the Christian churches all over the Levant. 

 They are not however, expected to be frequent or regular in their 

 attendance on public worship. The ladies generally make a point 

 of going on the Sunday, that is the Friday night or Saturday 

 morning, after they are married ; and being thus introduced in 

 their new capacity, once a year is considered as sufficient compli- 

 ance, on their part, with the ancient injunction to assemble thenv 

 selves together in the house of prayer. Like the votaries of some 

 Christian establishments, the Jewesses trust more to the prayers of 

 their priests than to their own. 



'The synagogues in Jerusalem are both poor and small, not 

 owing to the poverty of their possessors, but to the prudential 

 motives above mentioned.' 



