readily conceive the importance of such an acquisition. The exhausted traveller, reduced by continual fever, and worn by incessant toil, without a hope of any comfortable repose, experiences in this infusion the most cooling and balsamic virtues': the heat of his blood abates; his spirits revive; his parched skin relaxes; his strength is renovated. As almost all the disorders of the country, and particularly those to which a traveller is most liable, originate in obstructed perspiration, the medical properties of tea in this country may perhaps explain the cause of its long celebrity in CHINA. Jerusalem is in the same latitude with Nankin, and it is eight degrees farther to the south than Pekin; the influence of climate and of medicine, in disorders of the body, may therefore, perhaps, be similar. Certain it is, that travellers in China, so long ago as the ninth century, mention an infusion made from the leaves of a certain CHAP. VII. (1)" If, in the course of our travelling, "We chanced to find A new repast, or an untasted spring, We bless'd our stars, and thought it luxury. "This is the mode of travelling in these countries; and these are its pleasures and amusements. Few, indeed, in comparison with the many toils and fatigues: fewer still, with regard to the greater perils and dangers that either continually alarm, or actually beset us." Shaw's Travels, Pref. p. xvii. Lond. 1757. VII. CHAP. herb, named Sah, as a cure for all diseases; which is proved to be the same now called Tea by European nations1. Library. In the commotions and changes that have taken place in Jerusalem, the Convent of St. Salvador has been often plundered and stripped of its effects. Still, however, the riches of the treasury are said to be considerable; but the principal part of its wealth is very properly concealed from all chance of observation. At present, it has a small library, full of books of little value, the writings of polemical divines, and stale dissertations upon peculiar points of faith. We examined them carefully, but found (1) "Le Roy se reserve aussi le revenu qui provient des mines de sel, et d'une herbe qu'ils boivent avec de l'eau chaude, dont il se vend une grande quantité dans toutes les villes, ce qui produit de grandes sommes. On l'appelle Sah; et c'est un arbrisseau qui a plus de feuilles que le gre nadier, et dont l'odeur est un peu plus agréable, mais qui a quelque amertume. On fait bouillir de l'eau, on la verse sur cette feuille; et cette boissson les guérit des toutes sortes de maux." (Anciennes Relations de deux Voyageurs Mahometans, &c. p. 31. Paris, 1718.) Eusebius Renaudot, the learned French translator of the original Arabic manuscript of these Travels, in the Notes which he added to the Work, proves the plant here mentioned to have been the Tea Tree, called Chah by the Chinese, and by other Oriental nations Teha Cataïi, or Sini; the Tcha of Cataï, or of China. (Ibid. p. 222.) “Notre auteur," says he, "est le plus ancien, et presque le seul des Arabes qui ait parlé de la boisson Chinoise, si commune présentement dans toute l'Europe, et connue sous le nom de Thé." VII. nothing so much worth notice as the Oxford CHAP. edition of Maundrell's Journey. This volume some traveller had left: the worthy monks were very proud of it, although unable to read a syllable it contained. In the church, as well as in the chambers of the monastery, we noticed several pictures; all of which were bad, although some of them appeared to have been copied from originals that possessed greater merit. In the Pilgrim's chamber, a printed advertisement, pasted upon a board, is suspended from the wall, giving notice, that "NO PILGRIM SHALL BE ALLOWED ΤΟ REMAIN IN THE CONVENT of the certainly, for all purposes of devotion, rest, or curiosity. The Franciscans complain heavily of the exactions of the Turks, who make frequent Exactions and large demands upon them for money; but Turks. the fact of their being able to answer these demands affords a proof of the wealth of the convent. Sir Sidney Smith, during his visit to Jerusalem, rendered them essential service, by remonstrating with the Turkish Governor against one of these Avanias, as they are called, and finally compelling them to withdraw the charge. The monks assured us, that the English, although Protestants, are the best friends the Catholics have in Jerusalem, and the most VII. CHAP. effectual guardians of the Holy Sepulchre. This served, indeed, as a prelude to a request that we would also intercede for them with the Governor, by representing to him, that any ill usage offered to Christians would be resented by the British nation'. We rendered them all the service in our power, and they were very thankful. Manufactures of Friday, July 10.-This morning, our room Jerusalem. was filled with Armenians and Jews, bringing for sale the only produce of the Jerusalem manufactures; beads, crosses, shells, &c. The (1) They have since made a similar application to Mons. De Châteaubriand; and it appears, from his narrative, that they hold nearly the same language to all comers. "They thought themselves saved,” says he, "by the presence of one single Frenchman." (See Travels, vol. I. p. 387. Lond. 1811.) They had paid the Turkish Governor, the preceding year, 60,000 piastres; nor has there ever yet been an instance of their having refused to comply with his demands. Still Mons. de Châteaubriand maintains that they are very poor." Admitting the injustice of the robberies committed upon them by the Turks, the mere fact of the booty so often obtained affords proof to the contrary. We believed them to be very rich. The attention and hospitality we experienced in this Convent demand the fullest acknowledgment. Whether their situation with regard to Djezzar Pasha, or the services we rendered them by our remonstrances with the Governor, was the cause of their refusing any remuneration from us, we did not learn. We could not prevail upon them to accept of payment for our board and lodging. Yet while we acknowledge this bounty, we should deem a statement of their poverty unjustifiable, knowing it to be false. VII. shells were of the kind we call mother-of-pearl, CHAP. ingeniously, although coarsely, sculptured, and formed into various shapes. Those of the largest size, and the most perfect, are formed into clasps for the zones of the Greek women. Such clasps are worn by the ladies of Cyprus, Crete, Rhodes, and the islands of the Archipelago. All these after being purchased, are taken to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where they receive a sort of benediction: after the same manner, beads and crosses, purchased at Loretto, in Italy, are placed in a wooden bowl belonging to the house of the Virgin Mary, to be consecrated and worn as amulets. The beads are here manufactured, either from date-stones, or from a very hard kind of wood whose natural history we could not learn: it was called "Mecca fruit," and when first wrought, ap- Mecca peared of the colour of box: it is then dyed, yellow, black, or red. The beads are of various sizes; and they are all strung as rosaries; the smaller being the most esteemed, on account of the greater number requisite to fill a string, and the greater labour necessarily required in making them. They sell at higher prices when they have been long worn, because they have then acquired, by friction, a higher polish. This sort of trumpery is ridiculed by all Fruit. |