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A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN

LITERATURE

of the city of Jerusalem as he himself saw it. He " writes : In the town of Jerusalem there are some streets that are vaulted over, and in some of these shopkeepers, Christians, Jews, and Turks, in others tradesmen such as shoemakers and weavers, and yet in others cooks have vaulted stalls, just like the booths in the old town of Prague. . . . The houses in the town are mostly tolerably solid ; the greater part are without roof, and have only terraces ; others have vaulted roofs. A third part of the houses in the town are deserted and in ruins. There are many open spaces, and they occupy a third Of wood there is very little in the part of the city. buildings, indeed there is less in the whole town than in some houses at Prague ; the town is therefore very safe from fires. Its size is about that of Kuttenberg (Kutnd Hora) here in the Bohemian land." Harant's account of the different Christian communities, the members of which then visited Palestine, and who had religious foundations there, are still of the greatest interest. He enumerates, "besides the Latin, that is to say, Roman Catholic Christians, many other sects, Christians belonging to various nationalities, such as Greeks, Armenians, Georgians, Syrians, Nestorians, In the Jacobites, Abyssinians, Maronites, and others." Greeks, Harant, as a lover of classical antiquity, naturally took far greater interest than in the adherents of the Harant's chapter other churches which he enumerates. on the Greeks is written with interesting and very evident enthusiasm. " The Greek nation," he tells us, " was in former days far superior to all others in matters of government and politics. Among them first arose lawgivers, from whom others took and acquired the true rules of government. Among them (the Greeks) were