ists, and considered the palladium of the country. During this feast Kandy has no peer. "The brilliant pageantry, elegant decorations of the temporary build-❘ ings, picturesque dresses of the chiefs, the majestic elephants, and the dense mass of people, throw an air of imposing grandeur over the spectacle, to which the old temple, sacred trees, and wild, beautiful scenery around the Kandian capital form a fitting landscape."

Buddha has a multitude of followers among the Cingalese. But mild and moral as his doctrines are, they have failed "to arrest man in his career of passion and pursuit," and many of his so-called disciples have a stolid indifference for religion of any form. "Yet, strange to say, under this coldness there are superstitious fires whose flames overtop the icy summits of Buddhist philosophy," and excite a deeper awe in the mind of the Cingalese. Hence, demon-worship, their earliest form of religion, is still extant. Devil-priests, on every domestic occurrence and in their calamities, are called in and their barbarous ceremonies performed. Devil-dancers are implicitly relied upon in times of sickness, and before the patient they personate the demon which is afflicting him, and spend the night in performing fiendish rites, and in the morning exorcise the demon and go away with the rich offering, praying that the life of the sufferer be spared. Buddhist priests connive at this worship, and even practice it, because they cannot suppress it. But Ceylon, the "gem of the ocean," is one of the isles "waiting for His law," and on her mountain-tops there are many feet bearing the "good tidings," and her spicy vales have heard and learned of Him who in His own good time will cast out the demons and fill the Buddhist temples with praises to the triune God-Christian Weekly.

The Palaces of Persia.

Teheran abounds in palaces, some of which are occupied or visited by the Shah, while others are entirely deserted except by the keepers. One of the most interesting palaces of Teheran is called Negaristân. It was built by Feth Ali Shah, grandfather of the present king. He was a monarch of great ability, famous as a poet and for his handsome person and magnificent beard; also for the number of his children. The walls of the upper half of the audience chamber of this palace are decorated with an immense panoramic painting by a Persian artist, representing the king on his golden throne, surrounded by his sons and the chief men of his realm. The figures are life size and the portraits excellent, while as a study of costume this painting is invaluable. It is one of the most interesting historical paintings in existence. In this palace a prime minister of Persia was strangled by order of Feth Ali Shah, who had become jealous of his power.

Nothing more poetical and artistic could be imagined than Negaristân. After passing the grand gateway we enter a vast avenue of palm trees interspersed with

rosebushes. rosebushes. Then we come to a pavilion, which is reflected in the still waters of a marble tank and decorated in the exterior with stucco work of exquisite delicacy and beauty. The interior is shaped like a cross, with an arched ceiling gilded and supported by twisted columns, tinted green, scarlet and gold. The stained glass windows are draped with sumptuous curtains, embroidered by hand in gold thread and scarlet. Another walk up the avenue takes us to the central building which surrounds an octagonal court, the greater part of which is occupied by a deep pool inclosed with marble.

Another walk leads us to the anderoon, where lived the royal wives. A curious feature of this anderoon is the bath of marble, to which one descends by an inclined plane leading to a subterranean hall, supported by a row of pillars around a central tank; the bath where the woman bathed adjoins this hall. Opposite the pool is a steep, narrow slide of polished marble. When the king wished to amuse himself on a warm day he ordered his wives to slide down this marble slope into his arms. Now all are gone, the king and his wives and their children.

The reigning king lives in the center of Teheran, in a palace called the Ark or Citadel. It stands in the midst of a garden planted with superb shade trees. The palace is approached through magnificent gates, faced in elegant designs in colored bricks, a style of decoration which might be well adopted in the United States.

At sunset musicians with horns and kettledrums collect on the lofty gallery of the principal gate, fifty feet from the ground, and send forth a curious medley of sound over the city at the same moment that the melodious voice of the muezzin summons the faithful to prayer, singing, "There is but one God and Mahomet is his prophet." Then one may see the muleteer or the porter or the soldier, who is piously inclined, kneeling wherever he happens to be in the street and saying his prayers with many obeisances. Then, too, the great gates are closed, and no one can pass without a special order until the muezzin again summons the faithful to morning prayers.

A special chamber in the Ark, of which the key is kept by the king, is devoted to the crown jewels and treasury. This collection is unsurpassed in splendor and value by the famous treasures of Dresden or the Tower of London. It includes the numerous presents given to the kings of Persia by foreign sovereigns. But more than all there is here the astonishing wealth of gems gathered by the conquerors who in former times laid a large part of Asia at the feet of Persia. Neither civil wars, invasions, nor the wastefulness of Oriental royalty, have sufficed to materially diminish the collection of the crown jewels of Persia. Many of them were brought from India by the famous Nadir Shah, who, besides what he distributed to his army, brought back from Delhi upward of one hundred millions in rubies, diamonds and other inestimable treasures.-S. G. W. Benjamin.

Christianity in Jerusalem.

BY REV. J. N. CUSHING, d.d.

In Jerusalem, the chief city and capital of Palestine, the ratio of the non-Moslem population is much greater than it is throughout the country. Christians and Jews together nearly, if not quite, equal the followers of the false prophet in number. We might naturally expect that this would produce a feeling of tolerance toward Christianity in the city, and indirectly in the country, especially as much of the wealth, energy and intelligence of the city is found in the Christian element of its population.

Unfortunately, however, the moral and political influence of Christianity is almost entirely neutralized by the divided front which it presents. The principal sections of the Christian church are represented by rival establishments. The Greek church is numerically the strongest, has a Patriarch, a good number of churches, monasteries and schools, and is much fostered by Russian money and influence. The Latin church, more or less backed by French assistance, has a smaller number of adherents, but is more earnest and aggressive in its efforts. In 1847 the Latin Patriarchate, which had been in abeyance since 1291, was filled by the appointment of Valerga, and the Franciscans began zealous proselyting efforts. These monks and two orders of sisters have established very efficient schools in which youth of all races and religions are thoroughly instructed in Romish doctrine.

The practical character of the education given is seen in the course pursued at the girls' school belonging to the Convent of the Sisters of Zion. As I was conducted from one class-room to another in my visit to the convent, I found that the knowledge of the three R's and of two or three of the languages of this polyglot city and a familiarity with house-keeping, together with a controlling faith in Romanism, were systematically aimed at, "to make them good wives and good Catholics," as the gentle-voiced sister, who was my guide, expressed herself. The smaller Eastern churches are represented by the Armenians, who have a Patriarch, and a large monastery on Mt. Zion, and by a few Abyssinians, Copts and Greek Catholics.

Protestantism has a very small following. There is a bishopric founded through the efforts of Frederick William IV. of Prussia, which has been jointly supported by England and Germany. A good church stands on Mt. Zion and some good schools have been established. The Society for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews is represented by several workers who seek to lead the descendants of Abraham to accept the true Messiah. An Arabic church and school outside the city wall is cared for by the Church Missionary Society. The deaconesses of Kaiserwerth have a hospital and a girls' orphanage, called the Talitha Kumi. There is also a hospital for ophthalmic cases, under the charge of a Scotch physician. These agencies are doing a quiet

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work for good, which must tell in the future, but thus far the results have been meagre.

The Anglican Church has lately appointed a Bishop of Jerusalem, Bishop Blyth.

In speaking of Protestant Christianity, I have not mentioned two small bodies of Western Christians who have made their home in Jerusalem, and call themselves

respectively The German Temple and The Bride. The

Temple has colonies at Jaffa, Sarona and Haifa also. The members of its communities are very intelligent, industrious, prosperous and excellent people. Their distinctive doctrine, founded on a peculiar interpretation of some of the prophecies, is that Christians ought to settle in Palestine, and particularly in Jerusalem, and lay the foundation, or rather, form the nucleus, of that divine kingdom which the prophets foretold should have an earthly, visible embodiment. They believe that the mission of restoring the Holy Land and Holy City has been transferred from the Jews, the natural children of Abraham, to Christians who are his true spiritual seed, and although they accept the essential doctrines of evangelical churches, they have separated from those churches in order that they may be unfettered in their efforts to establish a visible spiritual Israel, of which the ancient Israelite nation was an imperfect type.

The Bride is a small community, composed princi. pally of Americans, who believe that Christ has come to them, although he is not visible to others, and that they are his Spiritual Bride. This community has its headquarters on Mt. Bezetha. Its members profess to have all things in common and look to God by faith for their support, without any personal effort to obtain funds. They do not hold to marriage, and those who are married live as though they were not. They also profess to receive divine revelations in regard to daily duties and concerning the signs which declare the time of the manifestation of Christ's veritable kingdom. Erratic as are the views of these people, their life is very simple, pious and blameless. Much time is given to prayer and an unselfish service of the poor, the unfortunate and the sick, by which they have gained the respect and sympathy of not a few Moslems. Neither of these peculiar bodies of Christians makes any effort for the evangelization of the people of the land. Their object is not missionary and hence they are not direct factors in the conversion of the people to Christ.

Such are the forms of Christianity and the general character of its present condition as found in Jerusalem. The great body of it must become permeated by the spirit of the Gospel through a heart knowledge of Christ before it can begin to neutralize the influence of the past, and be a source of divine life and blessing to Moslems and Jews, or else a very much larger force of earnest and godly men from the spiritual missionary churches of the West must be the messengers of a Gospel which compels respect and belief.-The Standard.

Material Progress in Syria. Evidence of progress is seen on every side. The towns are increasing in size and population, imports and exports are steadily rising, trade is passing from the hands of Europeans into those of the native merchants, and the fellahin are beginning to invest money in cattlerearing. In the larger seaports the signs of material growth are especially striking.

Beirut, for example, would hardly be known for the same place by travelers of the last generation were they to revisit it now. It has quadrupled in extent and population within the last five-and-twenty years, and is practically a new city, built partly in the Western style, under the supervision of a German architect. The European quarter, as it is called, is positively palatial. It is well paved, lighted, and-incredible enough-has a corps of street scavengers. There is water laid on, supplied by an English waterworks company; a public carriage service to Tripoli and Homs, organized in 1882 by a company having a capital of £20,000; and it can further boast a successful paper-mill, costing upward of £20,000, erected in 1883, and capable of supplying the whole of Syria with paper of first-class quality.

From a squalid and unsavory Eastern port, with about fifteen or twenty thousand residents, Beirut has grown in a quarter of a century to a thriving European entrepot, having a population of over eighty thousand, and this in spite of the fact that there is no harbor, and vessels have to anchor in the open roadstead. The shipping touching at Beirut has grown, in the same fiveand-twenty years, from 100 vessels, of 30,000 tons, to nearly 400 steamers and 3500 sailing vessels, with a tonnage of 400,000 gross.

No less marked is the progress made of late years in and about Jaffa, the most southerly seaport of Syria. The changes in this ancient and interesting little town are eminently striking. The old wall that surrounded it, after the primitive Eastern fashion, has been pulled down; the moat filled up to admit of an extension of the area available for building; and numbers of new houses have been erected, many of imposing style and size, to say nothing of depots and magazines. North and south. of the town is quite a series of suburbs, substantially built by Arab immigrants from Upper Egypt, who are settling in Syria and Palestine. And it is noted, too, that the houses have glass windows, a thing unheard of twenty years ago. The country round about Jaffa is even more changed than the port itself. It is being converted into quite an earthly paradise, one vast orangegrove, a region of orchards and fruit-gardens.

Haifa, the little port at the foot of Mount Carmel, has roused from its torpor, and gone in for building and rebuilding, on a small scale, of course. It is so changed that Herr Schick, the government surveyor of buildings, declares he did not recognize the place when he revisited it in 1880.

Cæsarea, once famous, but wholly deserted for centuries, is on the high-road to become once again a center

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for trade. There is the nucleus of a new town rising, inhabited by Moslem immigrants from Boznia and Herzegovina; a custom house is built, and a line of steamers will call there regularly. In the larger towns of the interior, the note of progress has been struck, and all are in a state of transition.

Bethlehem has been almost entirely rebuilt, and improved out of all knowledge. The streets were formely impassable in winter; now they are paved and tolerably clean, passable at any time. The same may be said of Tiberias and Nazareth.

Nablous-the ancient Shechem where Joseph was sold is become one vast soap-boiling establishment. Its product is in general demand throughout Syria, and it may yet become the Northampton of Palestine for boots. The most satisfactory sign of progress in the interior is, in our opinion, the advance in agriculture, and the steady increase in the number of those who appear to devote themselves to agricultural pursuits.

The order of things in Jerusalem, too, is very different from what it was only a few years ago, and the change the Holy City is gradually undergoing strikes every traveler who has revisited the place after an interval of eight or ten seasons. Whole quarters have been rebuilt, sanitation is cared for, the streets are well lighted, clocks are placed on many public buildings, and the gates are no longer closed at sun-down, to the inconvenience of residents and the hindrance of tradespeople. The tanneries and slaughter-houses have been removed to a distance, and outside the walls of the ancient enclosure a "new Jerusalem " is slowly rising, that at the present rate of growth will in a few years quite overshadow the old city, exceeding it both in area and population. Suburbs are springing up round about and extending, notably on the western side. And as Herr Schick, the government surveyor, estimates the number of dwellings to have "probably trebled" in five-and-twenty years, some idea may be formed of the rate at which Syria is making progress, notwithstanding many and serious disadvantages.-Spectator.

A Siamese Ceremony.

One year in April, we went up to the "Mountain of the Highest Heaven" to see the governor and other noblemen of Petchaburie drink "The Water of Allegiance" to their king. It was a very pretty ceremony, and one that we had never seen before.

The people were gathered in the king's large audience hall, which had been prepared for the occasion. The doors had all been thrown wide open, and as we ascended the stone steps the governor saw us and invited us to sit on his mat. It was the place of greatest honor in the hall, and there being no chairs we accepted the invitation and sat down in real Oriental fashion on a lovely Turkish mat. To our left was the governor's son, and beyond him other nobles and officers according to rank. The governor had two of his

little daughters with him. They were dressed in foreign style, and one of them even had shoes and stock. ings on, but the elder one had bare limbs and golden anklets. He was very kind and polite to us, explaining the different parts of the ceremony and answering questions.

Before him was an elegant array of costly vessels and trays, such as the king presents to those who are entitled to the honor. They are sure tokens of rank and royal favor. I think there were eleven pieces and all pure gold. There was a tea pot, a water-goblet and plate, betel trays, tobacco-boxes, and cigar-cases. All were of the most curious workmanship. The teapot was specially beautiful. It was covered with figures of Chinamen and their curious little houses and pagodas, intermingled with trees, flowers and birds, showing plainly that if the work was not done in China, the style at least was borrowed from the Celestials.

The governor's son had a set of black ware, with flowers in gold-leaf; and the Pra Palaht, or lieutenantgovernor, next to him, but ranking higher, had a golden set that rivaled those of the governor himself. I was surprised to see that there were no gold cups for tea. The Pra Palaht had an an ordinary China teacup, with a handle on one side and his monogram on the other, while the governor had a little blue china dish. They gave us tea to drink, and would willingly have supplied us with betel and cigarettes had they not known we would decline the generous offer.

The governor wore his regular court suit, consisting of a purple silk waist-cloth, a white shirt and coat, a golden girdle or belt, white stockings extending above his knees, and black shoes. It is a very simple and comfortable dress. He had the king's portrait in a golden locket tied about his neck with a pink ribbon, a golden star set with jewels on his right breast, and a silver medal on his left. The silver medal he received at Calcutta when Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India. It has her likeness and new title on one side, and an Indian inscription on the other, which we could not read, and the English date "Jan. 1st, 1877." He had a white round-crowned hat, surmounted by a gold pagoda, of which he seemed specially proud, judging by the way he lifted it and tenderly turned it round and round, and finally placed it directly in front of us.

What the very beginning of the ceremony was we do not know, for we arrived too late to see. But the first thing we noticed was the feeding of priests. There were six of them in their sacred yellow robes sitting opposite us, with great trays piled with food, from which they were helping themselves, in a not very dainty way, with their fingers. And although they consider it a sin for a Buddhist priest to look at a woman, they watched us a great deal more, I think, than we did them.

The king's throne at one end of the hall was occupied by a large idol, a golden image of Buddha. Be

fore it were arranged flowers, offerings, lighted candles, and smoking incense-sticks, while in the very front was a large brazen urn, holding four or five gallons of water, and by its side a gun, a spear and three swords. When the priests had finished their breakfast, for all this was in the early morning, a ball of unspun cotton string was attached to the idol and then carried to the priests, who, allowing the cords to pass through both their hands, sat holding it thus while they prayed at intervals.

A young man stepped to the center of the hall, and kneeling before the idol, opened one of those strange folding books and began to read the oaths of allegiance. They were truly fearful, and I whispered to my nearest neighbor that if we believed the evil spirits, to which they appealed, had the power attributed to them, we would never dare take such an oath. After the reading of each part the priests would pray, the nobles bow their heads in assent, and with clasped hands worship the idol.

When all had taken the oath three men came forward, and as they bowed to the idol two others who sat near an open door began to blow large conch-shells. I had not noticed these men before, and the strange, weird sound they produced with the shells startled me. They were fine-looking young men, without the least shadow of beard or mustache. They were both dressed in white robes, and had their long, heavy black hair twisted up like a woman's. One of the three men bowing to the idol belonged to the same race. They are what the Siamese call "Mons." I have since been told that these "Mons" always take part in the religious ceremonies connected with the king, although they themselves are Brahmins. There are numerous settlements of them in Siam now, and the French Jesuits claim many of them as converts to their faith.

The three men before the idol now arose. Two of them were Siamese, and they stood one on either side of the brazen vessel filled with water. The man at the right unsheathed the swords one by one, and handed them to the "Mon," who dipped each one into the water three times, and then passed it to the Siamese on the left, who wiped the blades and put them back into their scabbards. The spear and the gun were likewise dipped into the water. This dipping of these weapons into the water has a peculiar significance. It implies that those who have taken the oath will die by these tokens of the king's power if they rebel against him.

All this time the shells were sounding, the priests chanting, and the people clasping their hands to the idol. Then the "Mon" took a golden basin from the governor's mat and brought him some of the water. He also gave to the son and two or three others. Beginning with the governor, they all stood up, bowed to the idol and then to the king, in the direction of Bangkok. They drank a mouthful of water, and with the rest they sprinkled their heads and washed their hands. After the higher nobles were served the brazen