the prince's mind the difference between the athletic games of our own northern land, and those which were now exhibited for his amusement; and perhaps also the traditional contest between his illustrious ancestor Richard, and the greatest of the Saracenic sultans.

From Egypt the next visit was to Palestine; the party landed at Jaffa, and proceeded to Jerusalem; and this was by far the most deeply interesting portion of the tour. How thickly must the most solemn recollections crowd on the mind of him who, for the first time, treads the sacred soil of Sion! Not only are its associations infinitely greater in interest, but they are inconceivably more numerous. All the history of the patriarchs, prophets, kings, and priests of the Bible narrative, all the acts of martyrs and apostles are indissolubly connected with the royal city of David. And to those who now see it, ruined and melancholy, the lesson is yet more instructive than it could have been, even in the days of its palmiest splendour. Seventeen sieges have left it each time more hopelessly desolate, but each time it has risen again a stern, sad, monumental city, the prey of the stranger, the sport of the infidel, while the banished Israelites on their appointed days of national mourning exclaim, beating their breasts and rending their garments, "For the desolation of Jerusalem we sit silent and weep!"

No inhabited city of modern times is at once so venerable and so dilapidated as Jerusalem. For thirty, and even forty feet below the present level, lie the fragments, the pavements, columns, and walls of the successive cities, which have in their turn clustered around Mount Sion; deepest and lowest of all are the remains of the metropolis of David, once the joy of the whole earth.

The prince was taken to see all the doubtful antiquities, and to hear all the fabulous legends, which here abound; but it matters little what may be related in a place where every stone tells its own tale, and where the overwhelming fact that here the SON OF MAN dwelt and taught, suffered and died, must be continually recurring to the mind. Even the very fables bespeak a kind of reverence for the spots concerning which they are related, and probabilities become awful when contemplated so near.

The royal party visited the world-celebrated Mosque of Omar, the interior of which few Europeans have been allowed to penetrate. It occupies the site of Solomon's temple, and in the eye of a Moslem is one of the most holy places. Jews and Christians have been carefully excluded, and till very lately, any attempt to evade this proscription, would have been in the highest degree dangerous. The late Mehemet Ali, when governor of Jerusalem, was requested by a distinguished English traveller to give permission to see the interior. "I will,” replied the Turkish Pacha, "willingly give you my permission, but I will not answer for your life if you go." It is scarcely necessary to add

that the traveller took the pacha's caution, and stayed away. The interior presents few remarkable features, and the illustration-which we are enabled to present through the kindness of James Fergusson, Esq., author of "An Essay on the Ancient Topography of Jerusalem” -gives a view which so many have endeavoured to behold in reality, and endeavoured in vain.

But if it were a great concession that the prince and his friends should enter the Mosque of Omar, far more difficulty was made about that of Hebron. This stands next in rank to Mecca, in the catalogue of "Holy Places;" some even place it before that sacred city, and it is believed that for seven centuries no unbeliever-that is, no Jew or Christian-has been permitted to enter its sacred precincts. To us its interest is unspeakably great, for unlike many other so-called holy places, there can be no doubt that this is really what it professes to be. The Mosque covers the sepulchre of Machpelah, and here were really buried, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah.

It is probable that next to Damascus, Hebron is the most ancient of existing cities; the name signifies "society," and it is the first place mentioned in holy writ as a town having gates. Now the old name Hebron is disused, and the place is known only by the appellation, EL KHALIL, the title given to Abraham, "the friend of God."

There can be no doubt that from the earliest period of the Hebrew settlement in Palestine, Hebron was considered as invested with no common sanctity. Josephus speaks of the massy walls by which it had been surrounded, etc., which remained to his day. Here did David establish his kingdom; and it appears probable that the removal of the seat of royalty to Jerusalem was far from popular among his subjects.

Frequent applications have been made, and even by royal personages, to obtain admission into this sanctuary, but hitherto without success, and it was reserved for the Prince of Wales to be the first Christian who has avowedly been permitted to stand by the tombs of the patriarchs. It was not without some difficulty that the restriction was broken through even for him; and so fanatical are the inhabitants of El Khalil, that it would have required but little to induce them to make an assault on their illustrious visitor.

The reason for the extreme sanctity attributed to the Mosque which covers the cave of Machpelah, will be evident when we recollect that Abraham is "the Father of the Faithful" both among Mohammedans and Jews, the one tracing their descent from him through Ishmael, the other through Isaac. Some accounts have, it is true, reached the world of the interior of the mosque at Hebron from travellers who have, as they stated, surreptitiously visited it; but little credence has been generally awarded to their assertions. The mystery is now cleared up.

The mosque appears to have been a church of the Byzantine period,

and probably not more modern than that of Santa Sophia. Many such instances are found in various parts of the Turkish empire, and independently of the peculiarities of the Byzantine architecture, there is one distinguishing mark by which they may always be known. As churches are built due east and west, so mosques are built in the direction of Mecca. In the wall of the mosque, which lies towards the holy city, and frequently in a kind of apse, is placed what is called the mihrab, or point of view. Near this stands the pulpit, and towards the mihrab worshippers prostrate themselves in their devotions. From this arrangement it generally happens that in a church converted into a mosque, the mihrab is in some oblique position, and the matting on the floor takes a transverse direction; this is always a sufficient proof that the mosque in which it is observed had a Christian origin.

We have a very minute account of the mosque of Hebron from the pen of Canon Stanley. The shrines of Abraham and Sarah stand opposite to one another, in the innermost of two porticoes, which extend along the front of the mosque. They are closed in with silver gates, and the tombs, like those of the sultans in Constantinople, are shaped like coffins, with the heads much raised. That of Abraham is covered with richly embroidered carpets of green and gold, of which the last was presented by the late Sultan Abdul Medjid. That of Sarah, and those of Isaac and Rebecca, which are within the mosque, were not exhibited, nor was that of Leah. The tombs of women are considered to be profaned if any man not of their own family enter them; but the reason given against opening that of Isaac is remarkable. That patriarch is, say the Moslem doctors, of so jealous and suspicious a nature, that he will not allow his shrine to be opened at all; and they add that, when Ibraham Pacha endeavoured to enter, Isaac arose and drove him out! The cave of Machpelah appears to extend under the whole mosque, but no one of whatever creed is allowed to enter it. Here may possibly be even yet the embalmed body of Jacob, and the dust of his father and grandfather. A light is let down through a hole in the stone flooring of the mosque to burn on the grave, or what is imagined to be the grave of Abraham, in the cave below. It need hardly be said that the tombs in the shrines are empty.

From Jerusalem, across Lebanon, the Prince proceeded to the most ancient city of the known world, Damascus, equally celebrated for the exquisite beauty of its situation and the unequalled luxuriance of its soil. The way to this city is not only most interesting and romantic for its scenery, but it takes the traveller among those wild tribes once ruled so ably by the Emir Bechir, but scarcely amenable to the power of any other chief. The Druses are but little understood even yet, and it does not appear that the Prince had time to penetrate their fastnesses.

At Damascus he came on the ground of the old Syrian kings, of Benhadad and Hazael, saw the clear and sparkling streams of Abana and Pharpar, and wandered among the rose and almond gardens of that most luxurious region. But Damascus too is one of the "holy places," not, indeed, equal to El Khalil or Mecca, but scarcely second to Jerusalem, and the population of Damascus have obtained a most unenviable reputation for ferocious bigotry.

The great mosque of Damascus has three minarets, on one of which, as Moslem tradition states, Jesus will descend when He comes to judge the world. Mohammedans believe Jesus, or, as they call Him, Issa, to be, next to Mohammed himself, the greatest of prophets. They say that he dwells by Himself in a heaven of divine light, and that, in the celebrated journey to heaven, whereas all other prophets recommended themselves to the prayers of Mohammed, Mohammed recommended himself to those of Issa.

From Damascus, His Royal Highness returned by way of Beyrout to the ordinary channels of travel, and sailed along the coast of Asia Minor to Ayasalouk, a village near the site of the ancient Ephesus. Here he had an opportunity of observing the magnificent ruins of what was once the gorgeous capital of the lesser Asia. There can be no doubt as to the position and dimensions of the world-famed temple of Diana; its site can be clearly traced, the sockets of its gigantic columns are visible, the columns themselves removed, some to Venice and some to Constantinople, and some doubtless broken in pieces by the destroying hands of the Turkish conquerors. Above it rise the heights of Mount Prion, and before it, seen over a vista of palaces, baths, and theatres, rolled the blue waters of the Levant. Now the whole is desolate, Ayasalouk is only inhabited for a part of the year by a few shepherds, while the deadly climate, the frequency of earthquakes, and the general misrule to which the whole country is subjected, forbid all hopes of any restoration for this once glorious city. One of the most interesting relics in the neighbourhood is the mosque attributed to Saladin.

From Ephesus to Smyrna, along the coast, is but a few hours' sail, and here the "Paris of the Levant " spreads its attractions before the travellers. "Smyrna," say geographical writers, "is a handsome and well-built city," etc. Nonsense! there are no well-built cities in the East; many are wonderfully picturesque, still more are beautifully situated, and Smyrna is one of these; there are a few decent rows of houses, and at least one good hotel, but beyond this it would be very unsafe to praise the "well-building" of the Levantine Paris. Barracks and palaces are generally well-built in their way, and the increasing European society of Smyrna will perhaps, in due course of time, make a portion of the city a little more fit for themselves and their visitors; but even this can hardly be said to be accomplished as yet.

GREECE AND THE IONIAN ISLANDS.

47

Then the Plains of Troy were visited, the sad relics of old Priam's pride, sites as dear to the classical scholar as the meadows of Runnymede to the English patriot.

There still remained Constantinople to be visited, Athens, the Ionian Islands, Albania, as well as the islands of the Greek seas. Of all these we shall speak only of Corfu, now called by its inhabitants by its ancient name, Corcyra. It is by far the most important, though not the largest of those which form the Septinsular Republic. Nominally under the protection, but really under the government of England, these islands are occupied by a most refractory, ill-conducted, and turbulent population. A well known writer relates that he was shown, at Constantinople, "the place where they cut the heads off," but, added the informant, to render the horror of the announcement more bearable, "only British subjects," that is, Ionians and Maltese. It seems probable that the recent changes in Greece will lead to still greater disaffection among the Ionians than has yet prevailed, and as they all, save Corfu, are valuelesss to us, it would be perhaps a good opportunity of letting the other six join independent Greece, and to reorganize the government of Corfu as a British possession like Malta. Separated from the rest, the Corfuotes would be peaceable enough. The greater part of the natives are of Italian, not of Greek origin, and the Greek agitators among them look for their chief support to Argostoli and Zante.

From this point the tour ceases to be an Eastern one; it lies among European interests and merely modern politics. But how wide and how important a space has it comprehended! how many sacred cities, mountains, plains, and rivers! The Prince was baptized in water brought from the river Jordan. With what feelings must he have remembered, when he gazed on its rapid stream, ONE who there received, at the same moment, the baptism of water and of the Spirit. HE whose feet had sanctified these plains, poured out his blood on yonder mountains for our salvation.

But to pass to scenes of secondary moment, how rarely has any European the opportunity of seeing so much of the East as such a course of travel implies! In lands where there are few roads, scarcely any that we should think worthy the name, no public carriages, no horses for hire, no hotels, and where every one who travels at all must either provide himself with all that he may deem necessary, and carry it with him, or go without,-in lands such as these men learn personal independence; they have to act for themselves, and yet so to act as not to interfere with the equal independence of others. There is a curious semi-republican feeling all over the East, arising out of the unmitigated despotism of the government. That which the Emperor Paul declared of his Russian subjects, is literally true