Jerusalem. The muleteers took the place of the cameleers, and soon made themselves at home, camping beside us, to be ready for the morning march.
The sun was now sinking in the west, and the missionary joined us for a quiet walk out of the city, to meditate at eventide. Passing between the cactus hedges, we made our way through the deep drifted sand, and sat down by the sea, where perhaps Samson had once stretched himself upon the warm beach, displaying his Herculean limbs, which were the wonder and the terror of the Philistines. Gaza, still retains the memory of the deliverer of Israel, and to this day they point out the hilltop to which he bore the gates of the city, and the site of the Temple of Dagon, the pillars of which, they tell us, are buried under ground, divided in the middle, where they were broken by his giant arms.
Dr. Post had met here a young physician, who had been his pupil at the Medical College in Beirut, and who had just brought a wife from the Lebanon to his new home. They desired us, as we were to leave on the morrow, to come and spend our last evening with them. As we left the missionary's house, I offered my arm to his wife, who declined it with a smile, saying that it would attract such attention as to make us unpleasantly conspicuous. Mr. Schapira said that he never took his wife's arm in the streets of Gaza, as it would be regarded by the Moslems as an exhibition of the freedom of Christian manners! So much for the difference of customs in different countries, and among peoples of different religions.
As we came into the streets, a servant led the way with a lantern, which is quite necessary through streets that are not only narrow and winding, but generally pitch dark: for gas and even ordinary street lamps are little known in Eastern cities. But there was another reason for having a
