Star.
London, England, 1824-04-19 00:00:00

CONJUGAL LIFE IN JERUSALEM.

In no country, perhaps, is a greater degree of jealousy
entertained than in the East, with respect to the wives
of the Mahomedans. I saw several of them walking
about the streets, in company with each other, who
were sad figures. Their faces are covered sometimes
with cloth of a black, and at others of a white colour,
having holes cut for the eyes to look through. Boots
are worn only as high as the ancle, and cased in slip-
pers. These females are strongly built, some of them
almost gigantic, and wrapped up in large coats, not un•
like those used by the wives of shewmen in England.
They are complete slaves to their husbands, whose word
is a law, and infidelity is rarely known among them.
- Should, however, am act of adultery take place on the
part of the wife, four witnesses are required to the fact,
and on conviction she may be stoned to death or drowned.
I fell an with a kind of quack, a nat;ve of Italy, who
had been an inmate a short time in the convent, and
was pretty successful in picking up money, there being
no medical person in Jerusalem, notwithstanding its
great population; he made a boast of the distinguished
privilege he had enjoyed from his profession, in being
allowed to walk through the streets with a hat on his
head, unmolested by the Mahomedans.
This man informed me that lie had been called to at-

tend one of the three wives of the Governor, when I
asked him if he had been gratified with a view of her
countenance? He replied, that all the interviews had
taken place in presence of another, when he found it
quite impossible to see her face, though in that view he
had a lopted every expedient, such as informing the Go-
vernor he could not judge of the nature of the com-
plaint unless she was completely unveiled, and he exa-
mined her eyes and face. This was, however, most
strongly opposed, and the Governor only per mitted
him to feel her pulse, and exercise his own ingenuity to
discover the nature of the indisposition. He also added,
that on occasion of being required by a Turk to visit
his wife, who had been taken with the pains of child-
birth, he was solicited to afford her relief by adminis-
tering medicine! He found the woman in bed, and
when about to proceed with that occult examination
which was indispensable, the Turk raised a poniard,
and caused him to desist, under a threat of pluni;ing it
into him ! On this, r. hen he told the Turk relief could
not be afforded her, and death might ensue unless he
was allowed to act ac the nature of the caseaiemanded,
the barbarian replied—" Then let her die ;" and the dis-
solution of this unfortunate woman actually Ai take
place the following day. I ant led to suppose that in
such a state Oriental women in general suffer less than
those in Europe, and probably require little or no as-
sistance from medical persons, as appears from Holy
Writ was anciently the case*. No person, however, it
may be observed, is held in greater estimation in the
East than a medical man, or any one whohas the slightest
knowledge of a remedy or mode of cure for any malady.
Throels in Egypt, the Holy Land,Sfc by Rae Wilson,esq.
• " And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew
women are not as the Egyptian, fur they arclirely,and ate delivered
ere the midwives come unto thcm."—Esod. i. 19.
" The Gentoo women, at their labour, seldom call midwir,s : it
is a prules,Mn only among the rich and lazy : the 'morel-, while
they are labouring or planting, go aside, deliver themselves, wa:it
the child, lay it in a cloth, and return to wuth again."—Forbe:.'s
Oriental Memoirs.

At Ripley Castle, in Yorkshire, the seat of Sirs. WIL•
LIA:11 INGI LBY, the; e is in the great staircase an elegant
Venetian window, in the diviaons of Is hich, on stained
glass, are a series of escutcheons, displaying the prin.
cipal quarterings and intermarriages of the INGILBY
-family since their settling at Ripley, during a course of
430 years. In one of the chambers of the tower is the
following sentence, carved on the fiieze of the wain-
scot : In the yeile of owre Lb. M.D.L.V. was this
horse huyldyed, by Sir Wyllyani Ingilby, Knight;
Philip 'and Marie reigning that time." JOHN PALLISEIi,
of Birsthwaite, formerly held his lands of the manor of
Wiley, by the payment of a red rose at Midsummer,
and by carrying the boar's head to the Lord's table all
the twelve days of Christmas.
A fatal accident occurred at Storge-hill Colliery, in
1-lorbury. By some neglect, the air-roads had uot been
kept open : the consequence was the accumulation of
explosive gas. In this state of the works, Thomas Kit-
then, one of the workmen, incautiously permitted his
three children to go into the wot kings w ith a lighted
candle, which exploded the gas. The unhappy parent
heard the ex plosien, and rushed to the assistance of his
children, but it was only to share their fate; he was suf-
focated, and was found lying on the body of hi, lifeless
child. The other two children, though considerably
scorched, have been declared out of danger.
• Wednesday night last, about eleven o'clock, a most
alarming fire broke out in the extensive oil and ware
bills of Mr. JCSEPH MEDLEY, at Cross n Point, Leeds,
. and notwithstanding the prompt attendance of the en-
gives, and the great exertions of the men, the building in
which the fire originated was burnt to a shell. All the
machinery, and from three to four hundred quarters of
rape and linseed, and a considerable quantity of dye-
wares, were destroyed; but the principal oil-mill, the
steam engine, and a large range of warehouses, nearly
contiguous, were by great exei dons pi eorved from the
effects of the conflagration. It is a very singular coin-
cidence, that nine years before ( Nithip a single day) the
same premises were destroyed in a similar manner. In
the same evening, a dreadful fire broke out in the ex-
tensive woollen-manufactory belonging to Messrs.
GANDY and SON, at Kendal; the progress oldie flarnes
vas not to be arrested by any exertion which could be
made, and in three hours this immense pile of buildings
resented the appearance of a mass of ruins. The da-
mile is said to exceed £1.5,000.
1 we very fine Arabian horses, which had been pur-
chased at Dongola, arrived lately in London, as pre-
sents to the Earl of filottrou. They were escorted bT
a Maltese groom, accompanied by a native of Don-
gola. The various novelties of Europe completely ri-
vetted the attention of the African ; and after visiting
. Paris and London, his veneration for Grand Cairo,
which had hitherto been excessive, was so decreased,
that he expressed himself in no measured terms of con-
tempt for that metropolis of Egypt, the once-famed
residence of the Saracenic Caliphs; and declared, that
rt single shop in Regent-street would purchase all Cairo.
• lie was particularly pleased with the facilities in Euro-
pean travelling,. and enjoyed his nap in a close car-
*Thepoor fellow was somewhat disappointed in
the reward attendant upon his trouble: he had antici-
pated a doiscAur of fifty dollars (ten pounds)—no very
unreasonable expectation; but he stated at Paris to air
EngliAmo, that five pounds was the remuneration.

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