THE SYMPTOMS OF AGUE. 83 good, for experience teaches that they create intermittent and gastric fevers, besides various other inflammatory disorders. Hence a degree of dread is felt at the approach of a season which is proverbially unhealthy. These fevers, it is generally known, are the pest of the Levant, and of all the circumjacent country and islands as far as the Morea and the Cyrenaica, or the shores of Tripoli. The human system cannot fail to suffer under too frequent attacks, and the ague must tend in the long run to undermine the constitution. The symptoms of this distemper, which I can describe, from experience, commence with a cold fit, which usually lasts for a few hours. This is followed by excessive heat of longer duration, sometimes even days; and delirium is a very common accompaniment, which ought not to alarm the sufferer, although the disorder may be more formidable than in Europe, and thirst is unquenchable. After one of these attacks, with all the prostration of strength attendant upon it, so rapid appears to be the motion of the reactive powers while struggling for ascendancy, that the appetite returns speedily and with a vigorous craving for a hearty meal. I can also vouch that there is no want of punctuality as regards the intermission, and as certain a return of the attack, even to the very hour, I might almost say minute, when expected. Of this class of disease perhaps the tertian kind is the most prevalent, as it may also be the most accurate in the hours of attack and remission. Whether the proximity of those vapours which are seen constantly to lower on the horizon above the Dead Sea may have any connexion with the prevalence of these fevers, notwithstanding the salubrity of those shores, is a question I am not prepared to answer. The ague in general is supposed to delight in marshy districts. Now Palestine is anything but marshy; nor does its soil, which in general may be considered dry, denote, in appearance, those peculiarities which are inimical to animal life. Indeed I must attest that Palestine on the whole enjoys a benign climate, and the absence of those diseases which are prevalent in other climates. But I must not CLIMATE OF PALESTINE. 85 be too bold in discussing questions, the solution of which can only be attained by those who are qualified by professional acquirements. CHAPTER VI. The Population of Jerusalem-The Jews strangers there -Isolation of the Jewish People-The Effects of Persecution-Talmudical Doctrines-The Jewish Cemetery-The Tomb of Zachariah-Absolom's Pillar. THE population of Jerusalem has been variously estimated by travellers. Indeed it is essentially a fluctuating population, owing to the ingress and egress of pilgrims-Moslems as well as Christians, besides Jews. The average amount of fixed residents, however, does not exceed thirty-thousand, and many of these can scarcely be considered as permanent residents. THE JEWS IN JERUSALEM. 87 The Moslems are unquestionably the most numerous class, or are only exceeded in numbers at the great festivals of Christmas and Easter, when the assemblage of Christian pilgrims from all parts of the world, renders this metropolis of many rival faiths, a crowded fair: when Christians outnumber for a time the lords of the soil. The Moslems consist principally of equal portions of Osmanlies, Arabians, Syrians, Egyptians, and other Africans. The Christian portion of the population consists of Greeks, Latins, and Armenians. Of these the Greeks are the most numerous, the Latins the least of all, if we except the Copts, Abyssinians, and Protestants. The Armenians rank next to the Greeks as to numbers, but far exceed them in wealth and influence. The fixed Jewish population is upwards of five thousand, but this number is occasionally raised to seven. They are not, as many may reasonably suppose, natives of the soil, but strangers to it like other residents. It is in Europe only that the Jew is intelligible to the Christian while talking of "his nation." If he were to say the same to a Moslem, the answer |