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334 base of Mount Zion, Hadj Ali gathered a beautiful branch of a pomegranate-tree, covered with bright blossoms, the first I had seen that year.

We remembered that Ramadan, the month when the followers of Mohammed fast by day and feast by night, had commenced on the previous Sunday; so we hastened on, that Hadj Ali might prepare his evening meal, and be ready to eat it at the moment of the firing of the "mogarib," the signal gun at sunset—the sound so welcome to hungering and thirsty Moslems. Poor Hadj Ali had not taken food or even smoked a pipe since sunrise. This fast, which lasts for thirty days, is observed with extra ordinary fidelity by people of all classes.

On Thursday, May 28th, I was invited to visit the new schools for young Jewesses, established by Sir Moses Montefiore. The morning was bright and dazzling. We passed the barracks, and entered the street leading to the Armenian convent. The sun was almost vertical, and the polished stone pavement reflected back the heat and light. The high walls of the houses on each side scarcely cast a line of shadow: only the little casement windows jutting out here and there, and the bright flowers which climbed through the trellis-work, or hung from the roofs, traced fantastic and delicate shadows on the ground. Not a breath of air was stirring. It was midday, and no one was to be seen in the broad, unsheltered, silent street,