epth, is unknown." Such was the
"Green Sea of Darkness" as it was called by the Arabs. Massoudy is
more at home when he journeys towards the rising sun to the East, but
his descriptions of China, the "Flowery Land," the "Celestial
Country," were to be excelled by others.

We must pass over Edrisi, who in 1153 wrote on "The going abroad of
a curious Man to explore all the Wonders of the World," which wonders
he explored very imperfectly, though he has left us a map of the world,
which may be seen to-day at the Bodleian Library at Oxford.

But we cannot pass over Benjamin of Tudela in so few words. "Our
Benjamin" he is called by Pinkerton, who in the eighteenth century
made a wonderful collection of voyages and travels of all ages. "Our
Benjamin" was a Jew hailing from Tudela in Spain, and he started forth
on his travels with a view to ascertaining the condition and numbers
of Jews living in the midst of the great Mohammedan Empire. Benjamin
made his way in the year 1160 to the "exceeding great city" of
Constantinople, which "hath none to compare with it except Bagdad--the
mighty city of the Arabs." With the great temple of St. Sophia and
its pillars of gold and silver, he was immensely struck. In wrapt
admiration he gazed at the Emperor's palace with its walls of beaten
gold, its hanging crown suspended over the Imperial throne, blazing
with precious stones, so splendid that the hall needed no other light.
No less striking were the crimson embroidered garments worn by the
Greeks, who rode to and from the city like princes on horseback.
Benjamin turns sadly to the Jewish quarter. No Jew might ride on
horseback here. All were treated as objects of contempt; they were
herded together, often beaten in the streets.

[Illustration: JERUSALEM AND THE PILGRIMS' WAYS TO IT IN THE TWELFTH
CENTURY. From a map of the twelfth century at Brussels.]

From the wealth and luxury of Constantinople Benjamin makes his way
to Syria. At Jerusalem he finds some two hundred Jews commanding the
dyeing trade. And here we must remind ourselves that the second crusade
was over and the third had not yet taken place, that Jerusalem, the
City of Peace, had been in the hands of the Mohammedans or Saracens
till 1099, when it fell into the hands of the Crusaders. From Jerusalem,
by way of Damascus, Benjamin entered Persia, and he gives us an
interesting account of Bagdad and its Khalifs. The Khalif was the head
of the Mohammedans in the same way that