SKETCHES OF PALESTINE. 371 



'The Jewesses in Jerusalem speak in a decided and firm tone, 

 unlike the hesitating and timid voice of the Arab and Turkish 

 females ; and claim the European privilege of differing from their 

 husbands, and maintaining their own opinions. They are fair and 

 good looking; red and auburn hair are by no means uncommon in 

 either of the sexes, I never saw any of them with veils ; and was 

 informed that it is the general practice of the Jewesses in Jerusa- 

 lem to go with their faces uncovered : they are the only females 

 there who do so. 



'In passing up the synagogue, I was particularly struck with the 

 mean and wretched appearance of the houses on both sides of the 

 streets as well as with the poverty of their inhabitants. Some of 

 the old men and old women had more withered and hungry 

 aspects than any of our race 1 ever saw, with the exception of the 

 caverned dames at Gornou, in Egyptian Thebes, who might have 

 sat in a stony field as a picture of famine the year after the flood. 

 The sight of a poor Jew in Jerusalem has in it something pecu- 

 liarly affecting. The heart of this wonderful people, in whatever 

 clime they roam, still turns to it as the city of their promised rest. 

 They take pleasure in her ruins, and would lick the very dust for 

 her sake. Jerusalem is the centre around which the exiled sons of 

 Judah build, in airy dreams, the mansions of their future greatness. 

 In whatever part of the world he may live, the heart's desire of a 

 Jew, when gathered to his fathers, is to be buried in Jerusalem. 

 Thither they return from Spain and Portugal, from Egypt and 

 Barbary, and other countries among which they have been scat- 

 tered ; and when, after all their longings, and all their struggles up 

 the steeps of life, we see them poor, and blind, and naked in the 

 streets of their once happy Zion, he must have a cold heart that 

 can remain untouched by their sufferings, without uttering a 

 prayer that the light of a reconciled countenance would shine on 

 the darkness of Judah, and the day-star of Bethlehem arise in 

 their hearts. 



1 The Jews are the best cicerones in Jerusalem, because they 

 generally give the ancient names of places, which the guides and 

 interpreters belonging to the different convents do not. They are 

 not forward in presenting themselves, and must generally be 

 sought for.' 



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 car- 

 goes 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 larg- 

 est size, and the most perfect, are formed into clasps for the zones 

 of the Greek women. Such clasps are worn by the ladies of Cy- 

 prus, Crete, Rhodes, and other islands of the Archipelago. All 

 these, after being purchased, are taken to the church of St. Sepul- 

 chre, where they undergo the process of benediction or conseera- 



