The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1845-07-14
Syria and the Holy Land.
EASTERN OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES.

There is something exceedingly touching in the
little artless contrvances by which the people of the
East endeavor to tighten the gloom of the grave and
10 connect it with all that is beautiful and life
like in nature. They plant it myrlles, roses and
other fragrant shrubs and deck it day by day with
Gresh-culled flowers they hang it cages of sing
ing-birds, which fed morning and evening with
religious care; they make recepacles for in the
tombstone, that the fowls Of the air may drink thence
and thus something living acknowledge the charity Of
him who sleeps below; and they take TO leave
square opening in the side Of the sonry that the
narrow house may not be utterly shut up from the
light and The breath Of heaven The women, who
are the most regular requeners rthe burial ground
often carry their food with them; the tombstone is
their table; they leave a place for the dead to sit
with them, putting the best morse before IL and
they talk with him as if he was living by their side.
THE SYRIAN ATMOSPHERE.
Tho reader accustomed only 10 the deuser air of
Europe, scarcely form just idea of the ETHEREAL
subtety and transparency of the Syrian atmosphere
II is this which gives the prospect from the mouu-
ains amplitude and distinctness unparalleled in 9TH
erlands When Moses went up to Psgah, he gnzed
over the whole inheritance Of his people from north
10 south, and to the utmost This he might have
done without having had miraculous power Of vis-
ION impaired to him; ard so nigh: any man at this
day. if he he attained sufficient elevation. Four OBJ
servers might command the whole of Syria and from
the top of Casires, Lebanon and Tabor let nothing
of certain magnitude escape them within that vast
horizon. Standing the top of the summit, the
spectator has side the indefinite expanse orthe
desert, stretching far away towards the Persian gulf
on the opposite side. the sea melting afar into the fir
mament, suggests to the mind the idea Of infinite
space; hardly can he at first distinguish between sea
and sky at their line of junction, but is tempted to
fancy that the solid earth floats in an immense double
ocean
1t is not till he looks more narrowly and sees the
little white sails speaking the blue expanse of the
tors, that he can get the better orthe illusion. Land
warashe dIscens every sinuosity and ndentation of
the coasts every cape, promontory and creek; every
mountain with its rocks, woods, torrents, hill
sides, villages and town-an Eterminable extent, and
all as distinctly traced as though he looking
a huge map or model stretched before him on a Level
floor.
FABULOUS ORIGIN OF THE ANZEYRS, A
MOUNTAIN TRIBE.
Tho Anzeyrs pretend they derive their name from
Nassar, prophet who preached the holy religion of
an h-oh-Npou- L He uCCouut uey give VI the
infusion of the Deity into the person of this latter is
curious enough.
The God who created the universe, thoy say, after
having completed his work, took delight in flying
through the lofes regions of the air TO contemplate
his magnificent performance He had equipped him
self with splendid glisening wings, made of the azure
feathers Of the jay; but one day he scared so high
that the winds carried away his feathers The winds
did not recognize their Maker, but, obeying the laws
he had himself given them, they whirled him away
and destroyed him in their fierce contention. But
his spirit returned in the person of Ali Ebn-Abou
Thaeb, from whom descended the twelve imams, 'em
anatons of the breath of God,' whose holy prophet
was Nassair.
JERUSALEAl--TTIE DESOLATE
Tho road becomes rocky, the scene more
wild and cheerless and no object presents itself to
arrest the travellers attention, to beguilc for
ment his Impotence for the first sight of the Holy
City. At length it opens upon him at the issue from
a defe. The view of it from this appre lch is sud-
den and near and for that reason. perhaps more inn
pessve than if the mind had been prepared for it by
a more distant vision. The first involuntary exca-
nation that bursts FORTH is that which prophecy has
said shall be in the mouth of aIl that pass SIS this
the city that men call the perfection of beauty, the
ioy of the whole earh?' 1t is impossible that any
deineation can be more just, or any image more WV