with pious men who worship the same God, because they include in their devotions the names of other men whom they regard with an excessive veneration. But man is an animal little governed by reason.

A day's journey brings one from Cairo to Port Said, half-way by railway to Ismailia and halfway by small steamer up the Suez Canal. From Port Said four lines of steamers go to Palestine -the Austrian Lloyd, the Messageries, a Russian company, and the Egyptian Khedivieh mailsteamers. I believe, though I do not personally know, that the last named are a rather inferior class of ships; the French, Austrian, and Russian are equally good, though at some seasons, especially a short time before Easter, they are most inconveniently crowded. We ourselves had to give up all hopes of the Austrian Lloyd, and thought ourselves lucky to secure sleeping-room in the saloon of the Russian steamer which started a day later. I cannot wish my worst enemy a harder fate than to spend two days at Port Said, though it was certainly comfortable to have a bed-and even a bedroom-for the second night. The first had to be got through

on chairs or tables, or in cupboards or anything that offered. Some people say that Egypt is so delightful a place that one feels it difficult to leave it. We certainly found the process of leaving a most troublesome one.

The journey to Jaffa only takes one night, but there is always the pleasing prospect, during bad weather, that it may be found impossible to land passengers at Jaffa: all may consequently have to be taken on to Beyrout. I never heard of an instance myself, but it is said to happen occasionally; those who are afraid of such consequences had better decide at once to go on to Beyrout, which is an excellent starting-place for the journey through Palestine, though not in Palestine itself. To us the difficulties of the landing at Jaffa appeared to have been exaggerated. There are certainly some very nasty reefs close to the shore; but the channel of entrance to the harbour is fairly wide, and easily managed in all but really stormy weather. is said to have been here that Perseus turned the sea monster, who was about to devour Andromeda, into stone, and the reefs may well be supposed to be some portions of his petrified

It

carcass. Considering the trouble they have caused since his time, one is inclined to doubt whether Perseus was justified in treating a harmless necessary monster in such a manner.

Once on shore, after a little troublesome waiting in the custom-house till the authorities have settled the amount of bribe required for letting you pass freely, the traveller will probably stumble through the dirty streets of Jaffa till he reaches Mr Hardeck's hotel on the outskirts of the town. It may not be out of place here to mention what kind of hotel accommodation is to be found in the country we are speaking of. There are excellent hotels at Jerusalem, Damascus, and Beyrout; my own. experience at the last-named place was not a favourable one, but that was the result of arriving late at night in a crowded season. We had to be packed off to a sort of succursale, which, though a fine old Syrian house, was otherwise undesirable, the cookery being wretched and the wine atrocious. But I believe the first-class hotels are good. The Grand New Hotel at Jerusalem, and the Victoria at Damascus, I can heartily recommend from personal experience.

There are also hotels of a sort at Jaffa, Ramleh, Jericho, Haifa, Nazareth, Storah, and, I believe, Baalbek. Those at Jaffa, Haifa, and Ramleh are kept by members of the German Society of the Temple, which fact is in itself-as every one who knows Palestine will agree-a guarantee for cleanliness, honesty, and an eager desire to do everything that is possible for strangers of all kinds, whether guests staying in the hotel or not. That at Jericho is a nice little place, well conducted, though perhaps a little primitive in its arrangements. One does not expect much more than a bivouac at Jericho, and from that point of view the hotel is luxurious.1 Storah, in the great plain of the Bukeia, between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon ranges, there is now, I believe, a good hotel: though when we were there, the accommodation was of a very primitive nature.

At

Where there are no regular houses of entertainment, it is always possible to put up at

1 Since I was in Palestine, I believe some progress has been made in regard to hotel accommodation; but as this has chiefly consisted in starting opposition establishments where there was already a hotel existing, I have not thought it necessary to alter what I had written.

a monastery; but most travellers in the more rural parts of Palestine will prefer to live in their own tents: this can be made a most luxurious form of life. The places I have mentioned are chiefly on the outskirts of the country in which the greatest points of interest lie. Some visitors prefer to take to tent-life at once from their first landing at Jaffa; but the greater number keep to the more civilised habits as far as Jerusalem at least, and only begin their camping life when they make their first move northwards. There is at least no trouble with the weather in well-built stone houses. For a couple of days at Jericho the hotel there is a great convenience, and most travellers will be content to give up their tents at Damascus and return to ordinary life. The hotels, in fact, are to be found in the parts of Palestine where it is possible without extreme discomfort to travel in carriages of some kind, as well as in the seacoast towns where the great steamers call.

Carriages as means of conveyance can only be used in a few localities. There is an excellent carriage-road from Beyrout to Damascus, and there are passable specimens between Jaffa and