The Wedding Feast Of A Man Who Has About Fifty Pounds A
Year, And No Jew Can Live With His Family On Less, Will Often Cost More
Than Sixty Pounds.
They marry at a very early age, it being not uncommon
to see mothers of eleven and fathers of thirteen years.
The Rabbin of
Tiberias is under the great Rabbin of Szaffad, who pronounces final
judgment on all contested points of law and religion.
I found amongst the Polish Jews, one from Bohemia, an honest
[p.328] German, who was overjoyed on hearing me speak his own language,
and who carried me through the quarter, introducing me to all his
acquaintance. In every house I was offered brandy, and the women
appeared to be much less shy than they are in other parts of Syria. It
may easily be supposed that many of these Jews are discontented with
their lot. Led by the stories of the missionaries to conceive the most
exalted ideas of the land of promise, as they still call it, several of
them have absconded from their parents, to beg their way to Palestine,
but no sooner do they arrive in one or other of the four holy cities,
than they find by the aspect of all around them, that they have been
deceived. A few find their way back to their native country, but the
greater number remain, and look forward to the inestimable advantage of
having their bones laid in the holy land. The cemetery of the Jews of
Tiberias is on the declivity of the mountain, about half an hour from
the town; where the tombs of their most renowed persons are visited much
in the same manner as are the sepulchres of Mussulman saints.
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