Ruins, indeed, we found every where in plenty.  Whole side-walls, which appeared to have belonged to private houses, but not to splendid palaces or temples, stood erect and almost unscathed.  Fragments of pillars lay scattered about in great abundance, but without capitals, pedestals, or friezes.

It was with a feeling of awe hitherto unknown to me that I trod the ground where my Redeemer had walked.  Every spot, every building became invested with a double interest.  “Perchance,” I thought, “I may be lingering within the very house where Jesus once sojourned.”  More than satisfied with my excursion, I returned to our bark.

By three o’clock in the afternoon we were close under the walls of Joppa.  To enter this harbour, partially choked up as it is with sand, is described as a difficult feat.  We were assured that we should see many wrecks of stranded ships and boats; accordingly I strained my eyes to the utmost, and could discover nothing.  We ran safely in; and thus ended a little journey in the course of which I had seen many new and interesting objects, besides gaining some insight into the mode of life among the sailors.  Frequently, when it fell calm, our Arabs would recline on the ground in a circle, singing songs of an inconceivably inharmonious and lugubrious character, while they clapped their hands in cadence, and burst at intervals into a barking laugh.  I could not find any thing very amusing in this entertainment; on the contrary, it had the effect of making me feel very melancholy, as displaying these good people in a very idiotic and degrading light.

The costume of the sailors was simple in the extreme.  A shirt covered them in rather an imperfect manner, and a handkerchief bound round their heads protected them from a coup de soleil.  The captain was distinguished from the rest only by his turban, which looked ridiculous enough, surmounting his half-clad form.  Their diet consisted of a single warm meal of pilau or beans, eaten in the evening.  During the day they stayed their appetites with bread.  Their drink was water.

The town of Joppa, extending from the sea-shore to the summit of a rather considerable and completely isolated hill, has a most peculiar appearance.  The lower street is surrounded by a wall, and appears sufficiently broad; the remaining streets run up the face of the hills, and seem at a distance to be resting on the houses below.  Viewing the town from our boat, I could have sworn that people were walking about on flat house-tops.

As Joppa boasts neither an inn nor a convent which might shelter a traveller, I waited upon the Consul of the Austrian Empire, Herr D—–­, who received me very kindly and introduced me to his family, which comprised his lady, three sons, and three daughters.  They wore the Turkish costume.  The daughters, two of whom were exceedingly beautiful, wore wide trousers, a caftan, and a sash round the waist.  On their heads they had little fez-caps, and their hair was divided into fifteen or twenty narrow plaits, interwoven with little gold coins, and a larger one at the end of each plait.  A necklace of gold coins encircled their necks.  The mother was dressed in exactly the same way.  When elderly women have little or no hair left, they make up with artificial silk plaits for the deficiencies of nature.