Haifa; or, Life in modern PalestineOliphant, Laurence
History
Haifa; or, Life in modern Palestine
Oliphant, Laurence
Palestine -- Description and travel
the banker had arranged his turban so as almost to hide the lost eye,
and he then, without a moment's hesitation, had his nose cut off. The
poor Jew finally lost his head. The family of this man are still among
the chief bankers of Damascus.
This butcher also employed his own leisure moments in unexpectedly
drawing his sword and cutting off the ears and noses of his favourites
and the people about him, and sometimes their heads, with his own hand.
This was the man whom Napoleon besieged in Acre, and with whom British
troops were unfortunately compelled to ally themselves to prevent the
fortress from falling into French hands. My informant told me that
during the latter years of Jezzar Pacha's life his character again
changed for the better, and he gradually gave up his cruel practices. In
fact, he described his cruelty as a monomania produced by a fit of
jealousy, which it took him some years to get over.
THE BABS AND THEIR PROPHET.
Haifa, Nov. 7.—The Nahr N'aman, called by the ancients the river Belus,
rises in a large marsh at the base of a mound in the plain of Acre
called the Tell Kurdany, and, after a short course of four miles, fed by
the swampy ground through which it passes, it attains considerable
dimensions. Before falling into the sea it winds through an extensive
date-grove, and then, twisting its way between banks of fine sand, falls
into the ocean scarcely two miles from the walls of Acre. Pliny tells us
that glass was first made by the ancients from the sands of this river,
and the numerous specimens of old glass which I found in grubbing bear
testimony to the extensive usage of this material in the neighbourhood.
The beach at its mouth was also celebrated as a locality where the
shells which yielded the Tyrian purple were to be found in great
abundance, and I have succeeded in extracting the dye from some of those
I have collected here. It was also renowned for a colossal statue of
Memnon, which, according to Pliny, was upon its banks, but the site of
this has not been accurately identified. The only point of attraction
now upon its waters is a garden belonging to an eminent Persian, whose
residence at Acre is invested with such peculiar interest that I made an
expedition to his pleasure-ground on the chance of discovering something
more in regard to him than it was possible to do at Haifa.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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