Sheichs consisted of Druses, known by their broad-striped dress, yet there were many Christians who joined in the funeral procession. The house of mourning seems, in every country, to be in some measure consecrated to the spirit of amity: there, religious antipathies are at least suspended, if not extinguished; and persons, who would not have thought of meeting in the same church, willingly assemble around the same grave." TARSUS. : : The stranger seeks in vain for any impressive remains of the ancient magnificence of Tarsus the modern town does not occupy a fourth part of the area of the Roman city, although it bears a respectable rank in the Turkish dominions in Asia Minor;-it is an ill-built, straggling, and comfortless-looking place: the houses seldom exceed one story in height, part are of wood, and part of hewn stone, furnished by the more ancient edifices there are two or three well-built mosques, and caravansaries, and bazaars. A good coffee-house does not exist here. In the evening the foreign merchants, &c. who lodge in the Khans, sometimes assemble in the narrow alley at its gate, which is transformed into a dim and cool coffee-room, with no covering save the sky, or lamps save the stars. Two consuls, one for the English, and the other for the French and Austrian nations, have recently been appointed, and their residences are the only resource of the traveller: the commercial importance of the place is expected to increase the trade of its merchants is principally with Cyprus and the Syrian coast: imperial ships arrive there from time to time, to load grain: the land trade is of little consequence, as the caravans from Smyrna arrive very seldom. The houses have all flat roofs, on which, in warm weather, the inhabitants are accustomed to sleep under awnings there are several lofty minarets, which can be seen at a great distance over the plain, as they rise with a fine effect above the gardens and the walls at the north-west extremity of the town, there are the remains of an old Roman gateway, almost entire : most of the monuments of antiquity have been destroyed, or converted into modern buildings, save a theatre, which lies near the river, buried in rubbish and bushes. The population amounts to about 30,000 souls; among these there are 200 Armenian and 100 Greek families; the rest are mostly Turks, &c. In passing through the streets of Tarsus, tenanted by an uncivil and insolent population--the memory flies to the infancy of the gospel, when Paul, yet a youth, dwelt here: amidst those groves, on the banks of that river how often he wandered! After his conversion, and when he had testified to the truth in Damascus and Jerusalem, he returned for a while to Tarsus; but it is not said whether he was received there with honour, or that he ministered of the gospel to his countrymen: assuredly he could not have held his peace in the scenes of his early life, among his relatives and associates: after "Barnabas came to Tarsus to seek him, and : |