Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/112

84 1849 destroyed about 25 per cent, of the olive-trees, since which time the exportation has not exceeded 40,000 quintals, or 2,160 tons.

, September 30, 1852.

have lost the eternal chirping of the summer insects, whizzing through the air all day, and spoiling their brilliant wings at night in the flame of my lamp. The great host of locusts has vanished with the summer; it is now some weeks since the long brown fringe of their dead bodies lay on the edge of the sea, forming a border two or three inches wide to the indented shore, which used to frizzle daily in the sim like a pen when you put the end of it into a candle.

Since I have been cut off from all English society, I amuse myself by going on board the steamers which call here, for the chance of exchanging a word with some passing traveller. The other day I saw a curious collection of Polish Jews going down from Constantinople to Jerusalem. They all stood in a row on the deck, with their faces to the east, and said their prayers while the vessel was anchored off Mytilene. One of the Greek boatmen who had taken me on board opened his eyes very wide at the new phenomenon. He had seen all manner of Christian and heathen folk congregated in these great floating Noah's arks, but never a row of Polish Jews.