can exceed the lightness and elegance of its texture; its shape is not unlike the ancient pallium, one extremity being usually thrown over the left shoulder. The turban is extremely simple, consisting of a red cap, decorated in the crown with a tassel of blue silk, and having a shawl wound round the circumference. The shawl may be of any colour except green; plain white is generally preferred; but pink and light blue are occasionally worn." The expense of a handsome suit, and the usual accoutrements, exclusive of pistols, &c., is about fifty pounds sterling.

NATURAL HISTORY, CLIMATE, &c.

THE geographical aspect of Palestine is not less diversified than the appearance of its motley population. Its prevailing character but imperfectly corresponds to its ancient fertility; but this is chiefly owing to the miserable state of vassalage in which its inhabitants are held, together with the devastating effects of perpetual wars, and probably some physical changes. Those writers, ancient and modern, who have represented it as barren, must be understood, however, as referring only to the mountainous districts round Jerusalem. Abulfeda describes Palestine as the most fertile part of Syria, and the neighbourhood of Jerusalem as one of the most fruitful parts of Palestine. An Oriental's ideas of fertility differ sufficiently from ours, to explain in part this assertion; for to him, plantations of figs, vines, and olives, with which the limestone rocks of Judea were once covered, would suggest the same associations of plenty and opulence that are called up in the mind of an Englishman by rich tracts of corn-land. The land of Canaan is characterised as flowing with milk and honey, and it still answers to this description; for it contains extensive pasture-lands of the richest quality, and the rocky country is covered with aromatic plants, yielding to the wild bees, who hive in the hollow of the rocks, such abundance of honey, as to supply the poorer classes with an article of food. Wild honey and locusts were the usual diet of the forerunner of our Lord, during his seclusion in the desert country of Judea; from which we may conclude that it was the ordinary fare of the common people. The latter are expressly mentioned by Moses as lawful and wholesome food; * and Pliny states that they made a considerable part of the food of the Parthians and Ethiopians. They are still eaten in many parts of the East: when sprinkled with salt and fried, they are said to taste much like the river crayfish. Honey from the rocks is repeatedly referred to in the Scriptures, as a delicious food, and an emblem of plenty. Dates are another important article of consumption, and the neighbourhood of Judea was famous for its numerous palm-trees, which are found springing up from chance-sown kernels in the midst of the most arid districts. When to these wild productions we add the oil extracted from the olive, so essential an article to an oriental, we shall be at no loss to account for the ancient fertility of the most barren districts of Judea, or for the adequacy of the soil to the support of so numerous a population, notwithstanding the comparatively small proportion of arable land. There is no reason to doubt, however,

• Leviticus xi. 22.

+ 1 Sam. xiv. 25. Psalm lxxxi. 16.

They are mentioned in particular by Strabo, (lib. xvi.) by Pliny, (Hist. Nat. lib. xiii. cap. 6.) and by Josephus. (De Bell. Jud. lib. i. cap. 6. § 6. lib. iv. cap. 8. § 3.)

that corn and rice would be imported by the Tyrian merchants, which the Israelites would have no difficulty in exchanging for the produce of the oliveground and the vineyard, or for their flocks and herds. * Delicious wine is still produced in some districts, and the valleys bear plentiful crops of tobacco, wheat, barley, and millet. Tacitus compares both the climate and the soil, indeed, to those of Italy, and he particularly specifies the palm-tree and balsamtree as productions which gave the country an advantage over his own. Among other indigenous productions may be enumerated, the cedar and other varieties of the pine, the cypress, the oak, the sycamore, the mulberry-tree, the fig-tree, the willow, the turpentine-tree, the acacia, the aspen, the arbutus, the myrtle, the almond-tree, the tamarisk, the oleander, the peach-tree, the chaste-tree, the carob or locust-tree, the oskar, the doom, the mustard-plant, the aloe, the citron, the apple, the pomegranate, and many flowering shrubs. The country about Jericho was celebrated for its balsam, as well as for its palmtrees; and two plantations of it existed during the last war between the Jews and the Romans, for

• In the time of Solomon, indeed, the king of Tyre obtained wheat and oil in exchange for the timber he furnished for the building of the temple. 1 Kings v. 11. And in the apostolic age, Tyre and Sidon seem to have depended principally on Galilee for the means of subsistence. Acts xii. 20. But all the rice is imported from Egypt.

† "Rari imbres, uber solum: exuberant fruges nostrum ad morem, præterque eas, balsamum et palmæ." - TACITUS, Hist. lib. v. cap. 6. The palm-tree was the symbol of Palestine. Many coins of Vespasian and other emperors are extant, in which Judea is personified as a disconsolate female, sitting under a palm-tree.

‡ See Appendix.

which both parties fought desperately. But Gilead appears to have been the country in which it chiefly abounded: hence the name, balm of Gilead. Since the country has fallen under the Turkish dominion, it has ceased to be cultivated in Palestine, but is still found in Arabia. Other indigenous productions have either disappeared, or are now confined to circumscribed districts. Iron is found in the mountain range of Libanus, and silk is produced in abundance in the plains of Samaria.

Generally speaking, the climate is mild and salubrious. During the months of May, June, July, and August, the sky is for the most part cloudless, but during the night, the earth is moistened with a copious dew. As in Persia, sultry days are not unfrequently succeeded by intensely cold nights. To these sudden vicissitudes references are made in the Old Testament.* During the other parts of the year, there is no deficiency of rain; and to this circumstance the fertility of Palestine is chiefly attributable, in the absence of springs. The streams with which it is watered, with the exception of the river Jordan, are all brooks or torrents fed by the copious periodical rains. In the dry season, the only resource of the natives is, the wells or the water collected in the rainy season. Hence the high importance attaching to the possession of a well in this country, and the value set upon a cup of cold water. Throughout Syria, the traveller perceives at stated distances on the road, small reservoirs or large vases filled with water, having beside them a pot for the use of passengers when thirsty. These monuments are owing to pious foundations in favour of travellers; but the greater part are falling into ruin. * It is remarkable that in Arabia, most of the inhabited places are situated in valleys or hollows: in Palestine, on the contrary, the towns and villages are almost uniformly built upon hills or heights. The scarcity of the rains in Arabia, and their abundance in Palestine, has been with some plausibility assigned as the reason for this difference. The floods in the rainy season sometimes pour down from the hills with such violence as to sweep every thing before them. The Jordan, from this cause, formerly rose periodically above its banks. Whether it has worn for itself a deeper channel, or discharges its superfluous waters by some other means, is not ascertained, but the rise is now insufficient to produce inundation.

We have but imperfect notices of the zoology and ornithology of Palestine. The Scriptures contain familiar references to the lion, the wolf, the fox, the leopard, the hart, the jackal, and the wild boar, which lead one to suppose that they were native animals. The wilder animals, however, have mostly disappeared. Hasselquist, a pupil of Linnæus, who visited the Holy Land in 1750, mentions, as the only animals he saw, the porcupine, the jackal, the fox, the rockgoat, and the fallow-deer. Captain Mangles describes an animal of the goat species as large as the ass, with long, knotty, upright horns; some bearded, and their colour resembled that of the gazelle. The Arabs called them meddn or beddn. The horse does not appear to have been generally adopted, till after the return of the Jews from Babylon. Solomon was the first monarch who collected a numerous stud of the finest horses that Egypt or Arabia could furnish. In the earlier times, the wild ass was deemed worthy of * Travels of Ali Bey, vol. ii. p. 210.