A sketch of the inhabitants of Syria and Palestine could not be regarded as complete without a notice of the Jews. They are in one sense the most interesting people in the land. For 18 centuries have they been driven forth from the home of their fathers, and yet they cling to its "holy places” still. They moisten the stones of Jerusalem with their tears; “her very dust to them is dear,” and their most earnest wish on earth is that their bodies should mingle with it. The tombs that whiten the side of Olivet tell a tale of mournful bereavement and undying affection unparalleled in the world’s history.

The Jews of Palestine are all foreigners. They have come from almost every country on earth to visit the graves of their forefathers, and to lay their dust by their side. They live almost exclusively in the four holy cities, Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberias, and Safet, and their whole number does not exceed 9000.

Altogether different from these are the Jews of Damascus and Aleppo, who have as good a right to the title of natives as any other of the inhabitants of Syria. They are Arabs in language, habits, and occupations, in so far at least as religion will permit. Some of them are men of great wealth and corresponding influence. For generations they have been the bankers of the local authorities, and have often fearfully realized all the strange fluctuations of Eastern life—now ruling a province, now gracing a pillory— at one time the all-powerful favourites, at another the disgraced and mutilated outcasts. The head of the chief Jewish family in Damascus was, in the beginning of the present century, the banker and prime minister of the notorious Jezzar, Pasha of Acre. He was for a time the actual ruler of a large section of Syria; but the scene soon changed. He first lost an eye because he was proud, then the nose because he was handsome, and lastly the head because he did not please his master! The Jews of Syria number about 15,000 souls.