SCENE IN JERUSALEM.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3252, 3 December 1881, Page 4

SCENE IN JERUSALEM.

Soon the town awoke, and the morning hubbub began. Long trains of camels came in, and the swarthy Bedouin wrangled with the soldiers at the gate. The market-girls from Bethlehem appeared under David's Tower, and as the crowd thickened, black priests in saucepan-like hats jostled sickly Jews, with fur caps, long lovelocks, and dirty garbardines. The heavily-shod unkempt .Russian pilgrims mingled with sleek rabbis, with Europeans, and German residents 5 Armenians with apple-cheeks and broad red sashes, and fierce Curds with long moustaehios and swords, were also numerous. So motly a scene as that which is presented daily in David-street, and in the market place under David's Tower, is perhaps to be found nowhere else. The chatter of the market people, the shouting of the camel drivers, the tinkling of bells, mingle with the long cry of the naked dervish, as he wanders, holding out his tin pan for alms, and praising unceasingly ' the Eternal God.' The scene is most remarkable in the morning, before the glare of the sun, beating down on the stone city, has driven its inhabitants into the shadow ; for, later on, the white houses, white chalk hills, and dull grey domes, present a truly unattractive prospect; but about eight a.m. the market still lies in cool shadow, under the huge ochre-coloured tower, with a background of cypresses, and of white walls belonging to the Bible Warehouse. The foreground is composed of a tawny group of camels lying down, donkeys bringing in vegetables or carrying out rubbish, and women in blue and red dresses slashed with yellow, their dark faces and long eyes (tinged with blue) shrouded in white veils, which, are fringed perhaps with black or red. Soldiers in black, and Softas in spotless robes, are haggling about their change, or praying in public undisturbed by the din. Horsemen ride by in red boots with red saddles, and spears fifteen feet long. The Greek Patriarch walks past on a visit, preceded by his macebearers and attended by his secretary. Up the narrow street comes the hearse of a famous Moslem, followed by a long procession of women in white 'izars,' which envelop the whole figure, swelling out like balloons, and leaving only the black mask of the face-veil visible ; their voices are raised in the high-pitched tremulous ulultation which is alike their cry for the dead and their note of joy for the living. Next, perhaps, follows a regiment of sturdy infantry marching back to the castle, with a colonel on a prancing grey —men who have shown their mettle since then, and fat, unwieldy ofiicers, who have broken down under the strain of campaigning. Their bugles blow a monotonous tune, to which the drums keep time, and the men tread, not in step, but in good cadence to the music. If it be Easter, the native crowd is mingled with the hosts of Armenia and Russian pilgrims, the first ruddy and stalwart, their women handsome and blackeyed, the men fierce and dark ; the Russians, yet stronger in build, and more barbarian in ail , , distinguished from every other nationality by their unkempt beards, their long locks, their great fur caps, and boots. Not less distinct are Spanish, Mnghrabee, Russian and German Jew 3, each marked by a peculiar and characteristic physiognomy.— ' Palestine Explored.'