order from that elevation to discover the quarter in which the fire has made its appearance. Very frequently, the cry Fire!' startles the sleeping inhabitants of a town from their slumbers, and gives a practical illustration to the scriptural language, Why art thou wholly gone up to the house-tops?""-HARTLEY'S Researches in Greece, p. 27.

PSALM CXXix. 6.

"Let them be as the grass upon the house-tops, which withereth afore it groweth up.'

"October 8th.

This evening the season broke. Thunder, and lightning, and rain, came from the west. ... The whole prospect became dreary and cheerless. In the morning of this day-not an hour too soonthe master of the house had laid in a stock of earth; which was carried up, and spread evenly upon the roof of the house, which is flat. The whole roof is thus formed of mere earth, laid on and rolled hard and flat,

not, as in Malta, of a composition which is smooth and impenetrable, and thus receives the rain-water, and carries it off into the tanks under the house. There is no want of flowing water in this mountainous country, as there is in Malta. On the top of every house is a large stone roller, for the purpose of hardening and flattening this layer of rude soil, so that the rain may not penetrate but upon this surface, as may be supposed, grass and weeds grow freely. It is to such grass that the Psalmist alludes, as useless and bad, Let them be as the grass upon the house-tops, which withereth afore it groweth up.' REV. W. JOWETT's Christian Researches in Syria and the Holy Land, p. 89.

Many of them were drawing rollers over the roofs of their houses, which are flat, like terraces, and covered with a mixture of mud and small stones, as this operation is best performed during a fall of rain, after which the composition is consolidated and made hard by the heat of the sun... Rotted grass may be seen on the top of several houses, bleached by the sun."-RAE WILSON'S Travels, vol. ii. pp. 158, 159.

PROVERBS XXvii. 15.

"A continual dropping in a very rainy day, and a contentious woman, are alike."

The following is a passage from the Rev. J. Hartley's Journals; he was then visiting the Apocalyptic churches:

"April 21.-Last night we retired to rest in what appeared one of the best rooms which we have occupied during the journey; but at midnight, we were roused by the rain pouring through the roof, and I found it necessary to rise and dress. In flat-roofed houses, this is a frequent occurrence. I discover in this adventure an illustration of Prov. xxvii. 15. The Septuagint has it, 'Drops of rain in a wintery day drive a man out of

his house; and just so a railing woman.' The Vulgate speaks expressly of the roof through which the water passeth. I was literally driven out of the house by the rain descending through the roof, and sought for shelter in the corridor, which was better protected."-HARTLEY'S Researches, pp. 283, 284.

CARAVANSERAI, KHAN, OR INN.

GENESIS xlii. 27.

"And as one of them opened his sack to give his ass provender in the inn, he espied his money."

JEREMIAH ix. 2.

"O that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men, that I might leave my people, and go from them!"

LUKE ii. 7.

"And she brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”

LUKE X. 34.

"And he brought him to an inn, and took care of him."

The places of accommodation for travellers in the East are properly three,―caravanserais, khans, and menzils. The first are buildings designed to afford shelter to travellers in deserts, and other remote situations; khans are similar buildings in a town; and menzil is a word of rather indefinite application, but seems generally to denote the house of the persons who are accustomed to accommodate travellers in places where there is no khan or caravanserai. The superior class of caravanserais appear very striking objects to the stranger, who takes them for palaces, fortresses, or castles; but this first impression wears off on a nearer approach, when it is seen that no enclosed buildings rise above the level of

the enclosing wall. This wall is generally upwards of twenty feet high; and it sometimes extends one hundred yards on each side of the square which it encloses. It is strongly built of fine brick-work, commonly bases on stone, and is ornamented at the top. In the centre of the front walls is the entrance, a tall and spacious archway, over which are sometimes chambers crowned with superb domes. These form the places of honour. On each side, under the arched roof of the portico, are

the keeper's rooms, and shops, where the commodities most required by travellers are sold. Passing through this archway, the spectator perceives a sort of piazza extending on every side of the interior of the quadrangle, leaving a spacious area in the middle. Arched recesses in the wall now appear to be apartments, divided from each other by walls, open in front, neatly paved, and sometimes possessing a fire-place, while compartments cut out in the thick wall serve as cupboards. A small

door conducts to an inner room, seldom resorted to, of an oblong shape, receiving its only light from a chimney opposite the door, and having also a range of cupboards, about three feet from the floor. In the middle of each of the three sides of the building is an apartment much more spacious and lofty than any other, and not divided into two rooms. These are used as places where the different inmates resort, to smoke, converse, or tell tales. The stables of the caravanserai extend along a covered lane, between the back wall of the apartments and the outermost wall of the building; and along this wall there extends, within the stable, another series of celllike apartments, for servants and poor people. But the spacious central court-yard is always used as a stable when the weather is fair. In the centre of the court is an elevated platform of masonry, the roof of a subterraneous chamber, a most refreshing retreat during the great midday heats. Sometimes the place of this platform is occupied by the parapet of the deep well or reservoir from which the caravanserai is supplied with water. At the angles of the square, flights of steps conduct to the flat roof of the building, resorted to in the cool of the evening. The traveller brings his bedding, culinary utensils, and some articles of provision, with him. Few caravanserais, however, are thus complete, and many are suffered to fall into decay.

The largest number of them in Persia have been built by wealthy individuals wishing to perpetuate their names, or as acts of charity designed to purchase future rewards. Many are of royal origin, and very ancient.See Penny Magazine, No. 166.

Mr. Arundel being taken ill during one of his journeys in Asia Minor, was detained in a khan at Denizli, where he writes: "The day passed gloomily enough in bed; and the peculiarity of my situation, on a sick bed. in a khan, would have given rise to many a distressing thought, if I had not endeavoured to divert them by the following and similar reflections :—