DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5295#0216
HOLY LAND, AND CYPRUS. 183
main constantly there, and are supplied with food from their
convents. The Copts are so very poor, that they scarcely
have any competition; and I could not learn what number
of monks they kept for the service of their chapel.
There are few or no European Roman Catholic pilgrims.
Those coming from the East are chiefly Maronites, who ac-
knowledge the pope. The other sects have numerous bands
of pilgrims, whose morals are not benefitted by their visiting-
Jerusalem. Such has been the effect, I fear, of pilgrimages, ,
in all times and countries. The towns of Italy were said
formerly to abound with prostitutes from France and Eng-
land ; and chiefly the latter, on their return from the shrine
of St. Peter.
The ceremonies of Easter Sunday, described by Maun-
drell*, continue to take place with equal indecency; they do
not tend to the respect of the religion. The holy fire is still
lighted by the Greeks, and is still the cause of disputes and
blows; which the Turkish soldiers, sent to preserve order, in
vain endeavour to prevent. My dragoman, in mentioning
the holy fire, endeavoured to depreciate the respectability of
the Greeks, by saying they were obliged to light it in secret;
" whilst we," added he, with an air of superiority, " can do
so in the face of the whole world."
* Page 94.
main constantly there, and are supplied with food from their
convents. The Copts are so very poor, that they scarcely
have any competition; and I could not learn what number
of monks they kept for the service of their chapel.
There are few or no European Roman Catholic pilgrims.
Those coming from the East are chiefly Maronites, who ac-
knowledge the pope. The other sects have numerous bands
of pilgrims, whose morals are not benefitted by their visiting-
Jerusalem. Such has been the effect, I fear, of pilgrimages, ,
in all times and countries. The towns of Italy were said
formerly to abound with prostitutes from France and Eng-
land ; and chiefly the latter, on their return from the shrine
of St. Peter.
The ceremonies of Easter Sunday, described by Maun-
drell*, continue to take place with equal indecency; they do
not tend to the respect of the religion. The holy fire is still
lighted by the Greeks, and is still the cause of disputes and
blows; which the Turkish soldiers, sent to preserve order, in
vain endeavour to prevent. My dragoman, in mentioning
the holy fire, endeavoured to depreciate the respectability of
the Greeks, by saying they were obliged to light it in secret;
" whilst we," added he, with an air of superiority, " can do
so in the face of the whole world."
* Page 94.