CHAP. XIV.

THE

PLAGUE.

CHURCH

EPHESUS. JOURNEY.

-

DEPARTURE FOR OF ST. JOHN. VILLAGE. AQUEDUCT. RUINS. THEATRE.- TEMPLE OF DIANA.- STATUE OF THE GODDESS. APOSTLE PAUL. SOIL. -- PLOUGH. -COINS.- RETURN TO SMYRNA.-PHILADELPHIA AND LAODICEA. PERGAMUS, SARDIS, AND THYATIRA.

THE

HE extreme danger and horror occasioned by the peştilence having embittered every moment of my stay at Smyrna, where the angel of death shot in rapid succession his unerring darts on every side of me, I resolved to take the first opportunity of making my escape from the "city of the plague," and proceed to some distance, in the expectation that this frightful disease might soon abate. soon abate. I accordingly directed my course to Ephesus; and, leaving Smyrna, rode along the front of well-cultivated mountains interspersed with villas; but this prospect speedily changed to a wilderness. In the course of the journey I observed several tents pitched in the fields, covered with black cloth; which colour, and the dark, bronzed appearance of the inmates, afforded a striking commentary on the description of the wise man and it also reminded me of the observation of the prophet.† In passing some cottages, prodigious flocks of storks were flying about, having very large outstretched wings.‡ Their beaks and legs were of considerable length, and they flew together in a circular figure. Although ranked among unclean birds §, they are supposed to be unrivalled among ‡Zech. v. 9.

* Song of Sol. i. 5. † Isaiah, 1. 3.
§ Levit. xi. 19. Deut. xiv. 18.

*

the feathered tribes for an affectionate and amiable disposition; they are exceedingly tame, and may be considered as domestic birds, and they are further described as an emblem of true piety,

Because when age has seized, and made his dam
Unfit for flight, the grateful young one takes
His mother on his back, provides her food,
Repaying thus her tender care of him
Ere he was fit to fly.

The Hebrew name is Hasida, signifying benign or pious; and in Egypt the stork was held as the hieroglyphic emblem of a dutiful child.

Storks feed on vermin, and are useful in destroying locusts, which often visit this country in such numerous swarms that the grain is frequently cut down in an unripened state to preserve it from their ravages. They build their nests upon the tops of houses in the country, and are under no kind of fear, or apprehensive of being dislodged. No such act, indeed, is contemplated by the inmates of any dwelling to which they resort. Their nests are formed of dry twigs of trees, and are so large as to appear like small faggots. It is alleged, that if the egg of any other bird be placed with their own, when the young are hatched, the male stork, on perceiving them of a different form from his own species, makes a hideous noise, which brings together a number of the tribe, when, in revenge for the affront, they peck the female to death. The note of these birds is a sort of chatter * ; and when they join in chorus, the sound is similar to that of a watchman's rattle. They never multiply so as to become a nuisance. If their flight is high, and they are silent, and in regular order, it is a sign of approaching fine weather; if, on the contrary, they proceed in disorder, or return with cries, it announces wind. They perch not only on the roofs of houses, but on the tops of the highest trees †, Isaiah, xxxviii. 14. + Psalm civ. 17.

and shun the noise and bustle of towns; are familiar like sparrows, and their annual migration is similar to that of swallows, which has not escaped the observation of the prophet.* They pay a visit about March, and arrive during night; and in October they depart again, when they assemble together, and set out in a body.

Oh, joyous birds!

Through the wastes of the trackless air
Ye have a guide— and shall we despair?
Ye over desert and deep have passed

So shall we reach our bright home at last!

When in Denmark, I found that they appeared there in May, and emigrated in August. This bird is an object of great veneration in Egypt, and it is held a breach of order or policy to kill them. I also observed that it was protected in Holland, and is taken special care of in other countries at advanced age, asylums being built and endowed for that purpose. At Fez there is an hospital, to which funds have been bequeathed for the nursing of sick cranes and storks, and for burying them when dead. By the Jews, on the contrary, the latter are held in abhorrence.+ Some of the Mahomedans actually believe in the transmigration of the human soul into these birds, and many suppose that they are men from some distant island, who, at certain seasons, take the shape of birds to come there, and return at a particular time to their own country, where they resume their human form till next season; on which account they consider it therefore a high crime to destroy them.

I arrived by a very circuitous route at the plain of Ephesus, about fifty miles distant from Smyrna, and was accommodated for the night in a hovel; on entering which, I was accosted by mine host with the expression I have so often

* Jer. viii. 7. During the time of William the Conqueror these birds were considered a sumptuous dish at the tables of the great.

Levit. xi. 13. 20. Deut. xiv. 12-18.