which, towards the east, overlooks the sea. Its
western prospect ranges over fruit-gardens
covered with rich and tufted vegetation; the
orange, the lemon, and the pomegranate, planted
without order or regularity, intertwine their
branches, at once laden with fruit and flowers.
The town is surrounded with an embattled wall,
on which a few small bronze cannon bask in the
sunshine. On the highest part of the hill
stands a circular fortress, surmounted by the
Ottoman flag. The streets are narrow, and
singularly dirty. The bazaars are in no wise
remarkable, except for the inexperienced traveller
who has no idea what the East really is. Jaffa
is supposed to derive its name from Japhet,
which would give it a very respectable
antiquity. But that is nothing; according to
tradition, it was founded before the Flood; the ark
was built there; and Noah lies buried in a tomb
in the rock. With Jaffa are connected the
names of Judas Maccabæus, St. Peter, Vespasian,
Jonas, and other memorable personages.
A Protestant minister, residing at Jaffa, affirmed
that the house called Tabitha's was really that
of Simon the tanner. The site of Tabitha's house
is in the gardens of the modern town. The
minister presented his Roman Catholic visitor
with a Bible.

The road from Jaffa to Jerusalem has the
repute of being the habitual resort of cut-throats
and bandits; so our traveller was armed with a
double-barrelled gun and a brace of excellent
pistols, in spite of which defensive weapons he
was curious to learn from his moucre the real
state of the case. As you have only seven or
eight different languages to speak, if you make
a tour in Syria, Europeans have invented, for
variety's sake, a conventional language, full of
hybrid terms. Moucre is one of these, meaning
a hirer of horses; it is the illegitimate child of
the Arabic mékiari, from which the Italians
derived their muccheri when Venice was preponderant
in the Levant.

"Inshallah!" said the horse-letter, "we shall
arrive safely enough. I have travelled this road
for the last ten years, and never had the
slightest unpleasantness. Nevertheless, for
precaution's sake, I have recruited three or
four companions, who are waiting for us at the
fountain."

The new escort turned out to be, a couple of
Jews, old acquaintances, who were returning to
Jerusalem after collecting in India and Egypt
the alms of their dispersed brethren; and an old
white-bearded white-turbaned Mussulman, armed
with a black coral rosary. The cunning guide
had granted them the favour of taking them
under European protection.

On the way from Jaffa to Jerusalem, European
travellers usually halt and repose at the
Franciscan convent at Ramleh. Before arriving
there, a road to the left leads to Lydda, the
Diospolis of the Greeks, whose ancient name
survives amongst the Arabs under the form of
Lud. The two Jews, feeling no curiosity, went
straight to Ramleh with the moucre and the
baggage; but Hadji Moustapha, the old
Mussulman, declared his intention of passing the
night at Lud and rejoining the party next day.
It was natural to inquire why he went so far out
of his way, instead of following the usual track
of people going to Jerusalem?

"We sons of Arabs," he said, "still retain
the traditions of our Bedouin life. Because our
tents are now made of stone, because our
encampments are no longer shifted from the spots
we have selected, have we ceased to be children
of the desert, and ought we to disavow our
ancestors? When they arrived in this country,
blessed by God and dear to all the prophets,
they had long been divided into two great
fractions, the Kayssi, the sons of Kays-Ibn-Shaylan,
and the Yemeni, who came from Yemen. We,
their descendants, inhabitants of towns and
villages, are still Kayssi or Yemeni, according
as the chain of our ancestry or the
connexion of our alliances attaches us to one or
other of the two parties. Young people may
despise old notions if they will, it is of no use;
there will always be Kayssi and Yemeni. In
vain are the lips of the old wound closed, the
scar will never disappear. I, a Kayssi, greatly
prefer to lodge with my own people at Lud, than
to receive the hospitality of the men of Ramleh,
who are Yemeni."

"Is it, then, an implacable hatred which
divides the two branches of the Arab family?"

"No, it is not hatred; in the presence of
foreigners, we do not forget that we are
brethren. But in all our internal quarrels,
from canton to canton, from village to village,
there is always, at bottom, the trace of the
original separation. It is the order of God.
He wills that it should be eternally maintained,
since he has stamped with it our most pacific
customs. When a daughter of Lud, who is a
Kayssi, espouses a son of Ramleh, who is a
Yemeni, she is conducted by her relations as far
as the limit of the territory, covered with a red
veil, which is the favourite colour of Kays.
There, the cortége is met by the friends of the
bridegroom, who drag away the bride with
pretended violence over the frontier of Ramleh,
after throwing a white veil over her head, the
symbol of her adoption by the Yemeni. This
custom is as ancient as our race; and in spite
of the levity of young people now-a-days, I
hope that it will yet last as long as it has
already lasted. Are we better than our fathers,
that we should act differently to them?"

Here is displayed, in all its simplicity, the
sentiment which keeps the Oriental races
stationary. The East in some degree resembles
those Indian fakirs, whom a long-continued
motionless state has rendered paralytic.
Christianity alone is able to rouse the East from her
lethargy. But she will not accept Christianity;
she cuts Christianity's throat instead.

Ramleh—whose Arabic name means sand, and
whose soil is in fact sand, although fertile—is
called Rama by religious persons in the Holy
Land. It is the ancient Arimathea, the home
of the disciple Joseph, who deposited the body
of Jesus in his tomb. In the time of the