over, with the decrease of cultivation marshes have been multiplied, which render the climate peculiarly unwholesome and generate fevers that carry off the existing inhabitants, while they deter others from settling there.

The island is likewise subject to another dreadful scourge, namely locusts, swarms of which visit it occasionally, destroying every green thing. The natives sometimes succeed in killing these destructive insects when very young and unable to fly, by laying on the ground white cloths whose color attracts them. Animals feeding on them in Cyprus generally suffer; though it is well known that they are eaten with impunity by the Arabs of Syria and the desert. The Cyprian tarantula is of a dark brown tinge and covered with long hair: the bite, like the sting of a scorpion, seldom proves fatal, but is attended with exquisite pain. It is said that no wild animals exist in the island except foxes and hares; and that the flesh of the latter derives a peculiarly grateful flavor from the number of odoriferous herbs with which the soil abounds.

The Cypriotes have one superstitious feeling (if to superstition it be attributable,) in common with the Egyptians and Indians. They abstain from beef and the milk of the cow;

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DEPARTURE FROM CYPRUS.

urging, in behalf of their practice, that the animal which draws the plough and is the com•panion of man in the labors that procure him sustenance ought not itself to be made an article of food. Living is unusually cheap. The finest fowls that England could produce would here scarcely fetch a shilling apiece: and a fat lamb may be bought for three shillings. A quartern loaf costs three halfpence; and servants' wages vary from three to five pounds sterling per annum.

After enjoying a little intercourse with some Franks at Larnica, almost the only ones we had seen since leaving Smyrna, and experiencing the luxury of a bed on shore, we embarked once again on the Panagia, and encountering a fifth storm, during which, happily, the wind was not directly adverse to us, descried the shore of Syria on the second day. The distance from Cyprus is little more than a hundred geographical miles; but the gales and calms which a voyager in these seas encounters, especially in winter and the early spring, sometimes extend the passage to a fortnight.

CHAPTER XXIII

SYRIA. BEYROOT.

First sight of the " Holy Land." Present condition of country.-Land at Beyroot.-Perilous adventure.-Modern town. Population.-Houses.-Style of building.-Dibash. Quarantine accommodations.-St. George and Dragon. -Jackals. Palm. Phoenix. Judæa capta.— Cactus. -Mulberry.-Scriptural allusion.-History of a converted Jew. Persecution of a Druse. - Origin of Druses. · Their government, habits, doctrines, and moral character. - Maronites.. -American missionaries.

Persecution.

-

Their origin, tenets, and clergy.-History of a converted Maronite.-Creeds professed in Syria.-Jacobite Syrians. -Their tenets and peculiarities.-Remarkable Protestant congregation.

THE first town on the shores of Syria of which we obtained a distinct view was Saide, the ancient Sidon, south of which is the hilly line of coast extending to Acre and Mount Carmel while on the north are seen the

snow-clad summits of Lebanon.

It were difficult, if not impossible, to describe the sensations experienced when the eye

216

VIEW OF THE HOLY LAND.

first rests on that land emphatically called by Christians "The Holy Land," of which Sidon is the northern boundary. These will vary with the character, temperament, and state of mind of the spectator; but in most cases they probably partake more of sadness than of joy. There is something in the present condition of the country, groaning under the tyranny of a rebel pasha, which contrasts painfully with the glory that invested it in the days of David and Solomon; and something in the moral degradation of the people, sunk in the darkest errors of the Greek and Romish heresies, which contrasts yet more sorrowfully with that divine light once enjoyed by its favored inhabi

tants.

Since Mohammed Ali, the viceroy of Syria, has instituted a quarantine at Beyroot for all vessels arriving from the sultan's dominions, no alternative is left to the traveller who would visit Palestine: he must land at that port between Saide and Tripoli, and there submit to a measure, half political, half sanitary. Unfortunately, there is only a roadstead; and this is so bad that vessels are obliged to

* From Josh. xix. 28, it appears that "Great Zidon" was the northern boundary of the tribe of Asher, who occupied the northern post on the sea-side.

PROVIDENTIAL ESCAPE.

217

anchor more than a mile from a shore on which many are stranded, as was the case with three a short time before our arrival.

Our passengers, anxious to land after a long and tempestuous voyage, were rendered still more so by an incipient storm. The sea was already high and the distance considerable; yet the risk of going on shore appeared less than that of waiting till the elements should spend their violence and again subside into tranquillity. With a quarantine-officer, four sailors, myself, servant and baggage, in the boat, she sank so low in the water that the waves broke in upon her fearfully; and being leaky withal, she filled rapidly from above and below, while every billow threatened to swamp her. In this perilous condition and while anticipating the worst result, our alarm was enhanced by one of the two rowers losing his balance and being suddenly precipitated into the sea: the other Greeks, caring for themselves only, and heedless of my remonstrances, raised not a voice nor a hand to their drowning comrade, who, however, succeeded in catching hold of the boat; and, at length, with great difficulty we reached the shore.

The mind is sometimes directed to an overruling providence in a manner which arouses