of the Prophet, and wore the privileged green garb,* 'Alfi, come with me a moment, let us view the interior of the great temple.' Signora!' cried Alfi, violently catching my light muslin dress, for I had begun to act while speaking; Lady Signora, you know not what you say; you will be cut in pieces, though they had broken bread and salt with you.† Bismillah! ge!'‡ 'Amaun, amaun,|| Alfi; I forgot that I was in danger: thank you.""

After a season of the "richest delight" at Constantinople, they embarked for Smyrna. As they sailed down the Dardanelles, Leila cast a longing, lingering look towards the city, with its magnificent domes and

* Green is the significant colour of the Prophet's descendants, and if we are to believe all who assume it, he has left a very numerous family. Faith is reckoned as their direct and unchangeable family inheritance; and as it supersedes the necessity of good works, their characters are in general very indifferent; indeed, they are the worst of the followers of their father Mahomet.

† For a Mussulman to partake food with you, to break bread and salt with you, insures your safety as his guest. Even though you were his enemy, from that moment your person is sacred. And so far is this characteristic carried among most of the Mahometan tribes, that if a captured haramy or robber have a piece of bread given to him by a child (the child of the person who took him prisoner only excepted), he may demand the privilege attached to having partaken food with his captor, and must be directly set at liberty. From that time he is the friend of all that tribe, and of all others in amity with it.

"Bismillah," in the name of God. This is the commencement of all the chapters in the Koran, with the exception of one: likewise of thanksgiving and prayer. "Ge," come.

"Amaun," pardon, mercy, quarter.

minarets, and then turned away to enjoy fresh and not less lovely scenes. Their course lay among some of the most beautiful islands which stud the blue Ægean. Their wild and sunny grandeur, their sublime rocks, their deep inlets, were favourite contemplations for Leila

CHAPTER VI.

THE JOURNEY CONTINUED ANTIOCH JERUSALEM-ACCOUNT OF THE HOLY LAND-THE RETURN HOME-ALEXANDRIA-MALTA-A

TEMPEST.

AFTER a stay at Smyrna, which did not exceed many hours, they proceeded in the same ship to Cyprus, and thence they went on to Antioch.

On each side passengers, and

"The present city of Antioch," says Leila, "although superior in size to any other of the towns upon the coast, is not beautiful, scarcely handsome, for it is not well built. There is not one of the public buildings which strikes the observer as being worthy of particular notice, but the view of the town and valley from an eminence is picturesque, even pretty. The streets are very narrow, and not particularly clean. of them is a raised pavement for foot in the middle a deep defile for the horses, but it is seldom that this is sufficiently wide to admit of two horses passing each other. The river Orontes winds through the valley, at about three miles an hour. It is here about a hundred and thirty feet wide, and crossed by an old but really romantic and picturesque bridge of four arches. The bazaars are very numerous, and in them may be purchased all the usual articles of demand. Here are several fountains, all rather ordinary ones. One is called the Ain-el-Omra, or fountain of life.

The water which it supplies is very beautiful, and being supposed to possess medicinal virtues, is a great resort of the afflicted. Between the stones are great quantities of nails driven in by these persons, either as a propitiatory or a thank-offering to the imaginary genius of the spring. The Jews here are quite unmolested in the exercise of their peculiar observances. There are twenty-one families of them, and they meet in a small room in the rabbi's house. The mosques are fourteen in number. Six of these, in the purely Turkish style of architecture, have tall white minarets, close galleries, and blue pointed tops, surmounted by the crescent. The men wear cloth kaooks, long robes, red trousers, and yellow boots. The women wear white muslin, and veil their faces with black gauze. Indeed, both men and women are Turkish in their dress, taste, and language."

They were now approaching the ancient land of Canaan; and let us by no language of our own trespass upon Leila's most touching account of the sacred and holy feelings and associations awakened in her bosom, as she first saw it stretched before her in all its goodly beauty:—

"How languid is this land which once throbbed with animation and warm delight! How silent those groves and valleys which were wont to echo the notes of softened and joyous music! How desolate and solitary those plains which were the garden of the Lord !— a land of fountains, springs, and murmuring streams, of wheat, and barley, and grapes, and olives, and figtrees, and pomegranates, of oil, and milk, and honey. These hills and dales which even still repose in placid and sunny beauty, are the Jewish father-land; those

T

smiling plains their home-alas! how could I say
home? Poor

· Tribes of the wandering foot and weary breast,
How shall ye flee away and be at rest?

The wild dove has her nest, the fox his cave,
Mankind their country, Israel but the grave.'

their

"They are homeless wanderers-exiles. Jerusalem, although so dear, is not now theirs.

They are permitted to remain on this their ancient soil only by tolerance. Not an inch can be claimed as their own.

A Turk may

A

scare them from the tomb of their father Abraham. look upon the hallowed spot which contains the ashes of their fathers must be obtained by stealth. Their land has been

'Trodden down

By all in turn, Pagan, and Frank, and Tartar

So runs the dread anathema-trodden down
Beneath the oppressor; darkness shrouding thee
From every blessed influence of heaven;

Thus hast thou lain for ages iron bound

As with a curse.'

-'Iron-bound as with a curse.' May that be true? O! if I will believe the truth, I fear it is. How else am I to explain the position of our people through the past eighteen centuries? What adequate cause can be assigned for our long protracted and unexampled chastisement? Our fathers, who were guilty of idolatry, the greatest crime they could possibly commit against God as their king and lawgiver, were only punished with a captivity in Babylon of seventy years' continuance; but though we have ever since entertained the utmost abhorrence of idols, and have not, as a people, been chargeable with greater vices than other nations,