JERUSALEM. 305 
<shelis were of the kind we call mother-of-hearl, f'HAP. 
^ VII. 
ingeniously, although coarsely, sculptured, and ' — , — - 
formed 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 the islands of the Archipelago. 
All these, after being purchased, are taken to 
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where they 
receive a sort of benediction : after the same 
manner, heads and crosses, purchased at Loretto 
in Italy, are placed in a wooden bowl belonging 
to the house of the Virgin Mary, to be conse- 
crated and worn as amulets. The heads are 
here manufactured, either from date-stones, or 
from a very hard kind of wood whose natural 
history we could not learn : it was called 
'' Mecca fruitj' and when first wrought, ap- Mecca 
peared of the colour of box : it is then dyed, 
yellow, black, or red. The heads are of various 
sizes ; and they are all strung as rosaries ; the 
smaller being the most esteemed, on account of 
the greater numbei' requisite to fill a string, 
and the greater labour necessarily required in 
making them. They sell at higher prices when 
they have been long worn, because they have 
then acquired, by friction, a higher polish. 
This sort of trumpery is ridiculed by all 
U 2 
