"'2 h'd CLARKE*S TRAVELS. 
for the first time condescended to unveil herself before him 
only there was this difference, to heighten the effect of such a 
disclosure, that Hyche , with all the characteristic decorations 
of an Arabian female, was moreover a negress. 
About half way between Sephoury and Nazareth, as we as- 
eended a hill, two very singular figures met us on horseback, 
exciting no inconsiderable mirth among the English members 
of our caravan, in spite of all their endeavours to suppress it 
These were, the worthy superiors of the Franciscan -Monaste¬ 
ry in Nazareth : two meagre little men, in long black cassocks,, 
having hats upon their heads of the size of an ordinary urn* 
brella. It is impossible to give an idea of the ludicrous ap¬ 
pearance they made, sitting beneath these enormous hats, with 
their knees quite up to iheir chins, as they descended the hill 
toward us. They had been informed of our approach by a 
party of Arabs, who had proceeded, by a different road, with 
our carfiels of burthen, and were, therefore, kindly coming to 
meet us. They soon converted our mirth into gravity, by in¬ 
forming us, that the plague raged, with considerable fury, both 
in their convent, and in the town; but as the principal danger 
was said to be in the convent, our curiosity superceded ail ap¬ 
prehension, and we resolved to pass the night in one of the 
liouses of the place. These monks informed us, that, provided 
we were cautions in avoiding contact with suspected persons, 
we might safely venture; we therefore began, By keeping them 
at such a distance as might prevent any communication of the 
disorder from their persons. The younger of the two, perceiv¬ 
ing this, observed, that when we had been longer in the coun¬ 
try, we should lay aside our fears, and perhaps fall into the op¬ 
posite extreme, by becoming too indifferent as to the chance of 
contagion. They said they visited the sick from the moment 
of their being attacked : received them into their convent; and 
administered to their necessities; always carefully abstaining 
from the touch of their diseased patients.* The force of imagi¬ 
nation is said to have great influence, either in avoiding or in 
contracting this disorder ; those who give way to any great de- 
gree of alarm being the most liable to its attack; while predes- 
tinarian Moslems, armed with a powerful faith that nothing can 
accelerate or retard the fixed decrees of Providence, pass un¬ 
gears the strongest internal evidence of truth. The particular circumstance to 
T^hich allusion is here made is related in the 26th page ol the edition cited. 
* We afterward found a very different line of conduct observed by the Monks o? 
the Holy Sepulchre, who refused, and doubtless with very good reason, to admit any 
ef our party after a visit to Bethlehem? where the plague was vehement. 
