EASTERN STREETS.

JEREMIAH Xxxvii. 21.

"Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah into the court of the prison, and that they should give him daily a piece of bread out of the bakers' street."

ACTS ix. 11.

"And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus."

"The bazaars or streets (of Damascus), where the stores and shops are placed, are generally covered over,

so as to exclude the sun, The streets not being more than ten or fifteen feet wide on an average, a roof is thrown across, at ten, fifteen, or twenty feet above,—not a very close roof, but one that keeps out the sun, but lets the air have more or less circulation. All through these countries there is great care to procure a shade from the scorching rays of the sun for this purpose the streets are made narrow, and in many places are covered, so that those who pass may have shade. This narrowness of the streets, and the covering of them, does, it is true, give a closeness to them, and operates against a free circulation of the air; but this is supposed to be compensated, in part at least, by the protection they give from the direct action of the sun."- PAXTON'S Let

ters.

"The great thoroughfare streets of Cairo generally have a row of shops along each side; commonly a portion of a street, or a whole street, contains chiefly, or solely, shops appropriated to one particular trade, and is called the market' of that trade. Thus a part of the principal street of the city is called the market of the sellers of copper wares; another part is called the market of the jewellers," &c. &c.-LANE'S Modern Egyptians, vol. ii. p. 9.

“The eastern gate" of Shohba "6, seems to have been the principal one, and the street into which it opens leads in a straight line through the town: like the other streets facing the gates, it is paved with oblong flat stones, laid obliquely across it with great regularity."-BURCKHARDT'S Syria, &c., p. 70.

"This morning we went to see the street called Straight. It is about half a mile in length, running from east to west through the city. It being narrow, and the houses jutting out in several places on both sides, you cannot have a clear prospect of its length and straightness."— MAUNDRELL'S Journey, p. 133.

STREET IN SMYRNA.

Ps. xlvi. 4. REV. xxii. 1, 2.

"We used to enter (Smyrna) by a street which is watered by a branch of the (river) Meles, or an artificial canal supplied from it. In this street the water occupies the place of the causeway; trees grow on each side of it; and the houses are behind the trees. Coolness is thus secured to the inhabitants at all hours of the day. We thought of the street, river, and trees mentioned in Revelations; and of the words of David, 'There is a river, the stream whereof shall make glad the city of God.' The constant peace and refreshment afforded by God's love and favour are faintly shadowed forth by these images, which an Eastern could fully appreciate."-Narrative of Mission to the Jews, p. 341.

"The sea-coast shall be dwellings and cottages for shepherds, and folds for flocks."

"In the plain between Ramlah and Gaza, the houses are so many huts, sometimes detached, at others ranged in the form of cells around a court-yard, enclosed by a

mud wall. In winter they and their cattle may be said to live together, the part of the dwelling allotted to themselves being only raised two feet above that in which they lodge their beasts."-VOLNEY's Travels, vol. 335.

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Many large flocks of sheep and goats were coming into the village, and we followed the footsteps of the flocks,' in order to see where they were lodged all night. We found the dwellings to be merely cottages of mud, with a door, and sometimes also a window, into a courtyard. In this yard the flocks were lying down, while the villagers were spreading their mats to rest on within. Small mud-walls formed frail partitions to keep separate the larger and smaller cattle; for oxen, horses, and camels, were in some of these enclosures. We could not look upon these folds for flocks,' so closely adjoining the dwellings and cottages for shepherds,' and this in the very region anciently called the sea-coast,' without expressing to one another our admiration at the manner in which God had brought about the fulfilment of the prophecy,-The sea-coast shall be dwellings and cottages for shepherds, and folds for flocks.'"-Narrative of a Mission of Enquiry to the Jews, &c., p. 112.

Niebuhr thus describes the Arab huts in Arabia :"The walls are of mud, mixed with dung; and the roof is thatched with a sort of grass which is very common here. Around the walls within, are a range of beds made of straw, on which, notwithstanding their simplicity, a person may either sit or lie commodiously enough. Such a house is not large enough to be divided into separate apartments. It has seldom windows; and its door is only a straw mat. When an Arab has a family and cattle, he builds, for their accommodation, several such huts, and encloses the whole with a strong wooden fence."-NIEBUHR's Travels, vol. i. p. 255.

"There are about one hundred and forty huts at Howash (in Syria), the walls of which are built of mud ; the roofs are composed of the reeds which grow on the

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banks of the (river) Orontes. The huts in which these people live in the mountain during the summer are formed also of reeds, which are tied together in bundles, and thus transported to the mountain, where they are put up so as to form a line of huts, in which the families within are separated from each other only by a thin partition of reeds."-BURCKHARDT's Syria, &c., p. 135.

"The houses of Assalt are very small; each dwelling, with few exceptions, consisting of only one floor, and this having only one room, subdivided into recesses, rather than separate apartments. They are mostly built of stone; and, where necessary, a few pointed arches are thrown up on the inside, to support a flat roof of branches of trees and reeds plastered over with clay. The interior of the dwelling is generally divided into a lower portion for the cattle and poultry, and