impossible now to satisfy. "With regard to the garments," said they," the case is quite different. It is evident, from their being safe in your keeping, that it was the will of God to have them restored to their proper owners: why, therefore, should you, by withholding them, oppose the destinies of heaven? Give us back our robes," said they, "and let us again break bread together in friendship." Absurd as this distinction may appear, there was an earnestness of natural eloquence in the pleadings of these Arabs which made them all-powerful; and though they were avowed robbers, as well as men of a different faith, the Greek Christians unanimously agreed, that though the musket could not be recovered, the garments should be restored, exclaiming, "Allah kereem !" "God is bountiful!" and inferring from thence that his creatures should follow the dictates of liberality and benevolence, rather than those of retaliation and revenge.

or

Assalt, Sunday, February 25.-The weather had not yet become settled, though there were short intervals which admitted of our going out of doors, and this was of itself a great relief, as my confinement of the preceding day had been very irksome and painful to me. I had not suffered it to pass, however, more unprofitably than I could help; and as the observations which occurred to my notice or experience were committed to writing at broken periods, as I could find time between the almost incessant coming and going of visitors, I shall follow them in the order in which they were noted down, and if deficient in arrangement and connection, they may at least be relied on for their accuracy.

The town of Assalt* is seated on the slope of so steep a hill

* In writing this name I have followed the exact pronunciation of the present inhabitants, although if the word were written "Salt," they would pronounce it in exactly the same manner, from their almost constantly placing an aspirate before the s in words beginning with that letter. There is reason to believe that this is the city of "Salt" mentioned in the book of Joshua, chap. xv. ver. 60., and enumerated among the towns and villages which formed the portion of the tribe of Judah in the southernmost part of their possessions towards Edom, Salt being classed with the cities in the mountains and the wilderness, or near the Desert, where it may be said to lie. It is men

that the houses rise one above another like a succession of steps or terraces, the buildings themselves facing chiefly towards the east and the south. On the summit of the hill is a large castle, which looks down upon the houses, and completely commands the town. At the foot of the hill is a narrow ravine, in which stands a small square tower, not unlike some of the country church steeples in England, and probably once belonging to a Christian place of worship, but no traditions of its history are preserved. There appeared to be on the whole about a hundred separate dwellings in this small town of Assalt; and the computation, by taking an average of twenty ordinary houses, made the population from five to six hundred souls only.

The Sheikh el Belled, or chief of the town, is a Mohammedan; but holds himself independent of all the Syrian pashas. pashas. He does not receive tax or tribute, however, from any of the inhabitants, either in money or in produce; and differs only from the rest of the community in the influence he possesses, from having more houses, lands, and property than any of his fellow-townsmen. lives in the castle, of which he occupies the largest portion; but several other families reside in other apartments of this large building; and the only source of his power is his superior wealth, as he is not vested, either hereditarily or by election, with any

He

tioned as this city in Adrichomius, Theatrum Sanctæ, folio ed. p. 54., and was a place well known to the historians of the Crusades. In an article published in the "Mines de l'Orient, tom. v. p. 145., it is mentioned among the "Extraits historiques relatifs au Temps des Croisades du Livre, Insol. djelil fit tarikhi Khods el Khaleel," thus; "In 626 (A. H.) Jerusalem was delivered up to the Franks, in consequence, as the Mohammedan writers say, of the divisions among the reigning princes, who, though all of one family, made as many parties as they were brothers in number. Some of the conditions were, that the walls should not be repaired from their present ruined state; that the domes of the mosques of Sakhra and Aksa should not be touched, and these temples be equally open to Christians and Moslems, while those villages only which lay on the road between Acre and Jerusalem should belong to the Franks. Kamel having made these conditions, and having still his troops at his own disposition, pursued his original plan of marching against Damascus; when Nassir, the governor of that city, made it over to his brother, Eshrif Moise, and received in exchange for it the castles of Karak, Shaubeck, Belkah, and Salt."

* See the Vignette at the head of this chapter.

direct authority, either from the governments around him, or the people, over whom he nevertheless exercises an influence nearly equal to that of a regularly appointed governor in any of the provincial towns of the Syrian territory.

There are conceived to be about a hundred male Christians in Assalt, most of whom came here to seek refuge from the persecutions of Jezzar, or the "Butcher," the late Pasha of Acre, during the expedition of the French against Egypt and Syria; and these refugees were chiefly Nazarenes: they continue to be related to or acquainted with the people of Nazareth, with whom they generally live on friendly terms.

On their first flight to this place for protection against the persecutions of Jezzar, they found only Mohammedan inhabitants ; but these were independent of the Syrian pashas, and seldom visited the larger cities, while the Arabs of the Desert mixed with them on friendly terms, for the sake of securing their supplies. There was, therefore, little or no bigotry among these isolated Moslems, so that the Christians, who came to them for protection, were permitted freely to reside among them and enjoy all the privileges and immunities common to themselves, without an enforcement of those odious distinctions of dress, tribute, and name, observed in the more civilized parts of Syria, where the power of the pashas extends. From these circumstances, coupled with their greater activity in matters of trade, the Christians have gradually increased in numbers and in wealth; and they may be said at present to enjoy at least an equal degree of influence with the Mohammedans, though these are still superior to them in numbers.

Among other confined notions entertained here on geographical points, is the singular one of there being but four seas in the world, which they thus enumerate:

Bahr-el-Tabareeah The Sea of Tiberias.

Bahr-el-Loot -The Sea of Lot.

Bahr-el-Melhhé-The Salt Sea.

Bahr-el-Hheloo-The Fresh Sea.

They ask, too, if there are houses in Europe, like those of Assalt; and think there is no single building in the whole world so large as the castle that overlooks their town.

Karak, which is three days' journey in an E.N.E. direction from this, is said to be about as large as Assalt; and the Christians are reported to be more numerous there than the Mohammedans. The duties of the Greek church at Karak are performed by two Arab priests from Jerusalem. It is asserted, in the most positive manner, that between Karak and the convent of Santa Catharina on Mount Sinai there are Bedouin Arabs dwelling in tents, who are Greek Christians, and live in the regular exercise of their religion. This fact was attested by many persons in the party in which I first heard it mentioned; but no one could say any thing about their history, or tell whether they were originally Christians from a long Christian descent, or whether they had been converted from Mohammedanism to Christianity at any recent period. *

In the article from the Mines de l'Orient, before mentioned, there are the following passages alluding to Karak, which may be worth inserting in a note here: "After the death of Salah-ed-din, his brother, Melek-el-Aadel, or the Just Prince, possessed Karak, Shaubeck, and the eastern countries beyond the Dead Sea. He posted himself at Talel-Adjoul, or the Hill of Adjoul, near to Gaza, and received succours from Egypt, under the protection of Sancor, governor of Jerusalem, and Main-oun-el-Kasri, governor of Balbeis. He afterwards took Yafa by the sword, this being the third conquest of that place. Aziz, one of the sons of Salah-ed-din, was his nephew, and reigned in Egypt at the same time, afterwards joining him in his Syrian war, which led him as far as Maredin on the north-east, and into Nubia, the country of the Blacks, on the south-west. He pillaged all the country between Beisan and Balbeis, and killed and made many prisoners. He first possessed the country of Karak, Shaubeck, &c. about the year of the Hejira 590; and died at the village of Aalkain near Damascus in 615, aged 75 years. He is described as a prudent and circumspect prince; a man of extensive knowledge, sound judgment, mild temper, patient, and favoured by fortune. He was succeeded in his government of Egypt by his son Melek-el-Kamel Aböu-el-Mali Mohammed; and in Syria by the brother of Kamel, Melek-el-Maazem Jesus, who possessed all the country from Homs to El-Arish, with the sea-coast, Colo-Syria, Palestine, Jerusalem, Karak, Shaubeck, Sackhad or Salkhad, and the countries east of the Jordan and the Dead Sea. In 618 the Franks were in possession of Damietta, and contemplated the conquest of Egypt, which they began with the capture of Mansoura. Kamel engaged six princes of his family, who governed at Damascus, Aleppo, Hamah, Balbeck, Homs, &c., to join him in an expedition against these Christians, and

The church of Assalt being open to-day, as it was the Sabbath, I accompanied a party there at an early hour. We found it situated among the dwellings of the town, about half way between the foot and the summit of the hill. The entrance was through a small court, which led to a vaulted room about thirty feet by fifteen, and from twelve to fifteen feet high, resembling in form and size the "House of Peter," at Tiberias. It differed from it only in one particular, by having a part cut off from the body of the room for the altar. This stands at the east end of the building, and is separated by a screen with two arched doorways; from these are suspended two sliding curtains, which are drawn when the mysterious parts of the service are performing, and are again withdrawn when it is permitted to the congregation to behold what is passing. The only furniture of the church consisted in a large wooden cross, and two wooden birds carved in the act of flying these were placed on the top of the screen that divided the altar from the body of the church. Empty ostrich eggs suspended from the roof by cords, and a few common glass tumblers hung as lamps, were also counted among the ornaments; while three small pictures, containing more gilding than painting, and presenting the most grotesque figures of certain Greek saints, were as much objects of devotion as of admiration.

At our first entrance, we found the room so crowded that it was difficult for us to make our way in. There were assembled at least a hundred persons, which was a large congregation for so small a church: the men were placed in front, with the women behind

marched to Mansoura, where they attacked them. At the same time they proposed to them to deliver up Jerusalem, Ascalon, Tiberias, Laodicea, Gebela, and all the conquests that Salah-ed-din had made upon the coasts of Syria, reserving to themselves only Karak and Shaubeck, which were fortresses of the interior, east of the Dead Sea, on condition only of the Franks evacuating Damietta. These offers, the Christian warriors, however, refused, and demanded in their turn three hundred thousand ducats as an indemnity for the demolition of the walls of Jerusalem, and insisted upon the restitution of Karak and Shaubeck."-Extraits Historiques, relatifs au Temps des Croisades du Livre Insol. djelil-fit-tarikhi Khods-el-Khaleel.- Mines de l'Orient, tom. v. p. 145.