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Damascus. We crossed the Sibarâny, the stream that passes Kefr-Howar, immediately beneath the village, and beyond it entered on a naked, dreary, moorish, scrubby, undulating country, which it took us three tedious hours to traverse. On its farther side we passed all at once from a wilderness into a garden. At first patches of verdure are seen here and there, watered by little rivulets issuing from a tributary of the Sibarâny. Very soon, on gaining a little rising ground, the rich and magnificent plain of Damascus opens into view, the white minarets of the city shining out brightly at a distance of eleven or twelve miles above the dark sea of foliage which covers the whole country around it. A little farther on, we found our path traversed by a strong stream, drawn off from the Awaj, or Pharpar, to irrigate the plain. Here, a little to the right or south, near some low hills, is a detached conical hill or tell, on which stands the half-ruinous village of Jûneh-or Jauneh, as our muleteers called it and which is noticeable as marking the line by which the direct caravan road from Jerusalem enters the plain of Damascus. It is beside that tell, on coming out through a pass in a range of low hills, that the traveller by that road gets his earliest view of Damascus. For this reason it is that the spot has been singled out by a not improbable tradition as the scene of the conversion of St. Paul.

From the point at which we had now arrived, it was determined to send forward Mr. Brown, accompanied by Gaetano and two of the muleteers, with the baggage, in advance of our party, to secure apartments and to make other necessary arrangements for our accommodation at Damascus. The rest of us sat down accordingly on the banks of the stream close to the village of Artûz, many of whose inhabitants came out to look at us. The females were especially anxious to examine the dress of the ladies, and were not unwilling to exhibit their own ornaments, which consisted chiefly of massive silver bracelets, armlets, and strings of coins fastened round their heads. Gloves seemed especially

ARRIVE AT DAMASCUS.

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to astonish and interest them. They were all perfectly goodnatured and civil.

At half-past eleven A.M. we moved on, and immediately after crossing the stream at which we had halted, found ourselves amid a network of canals and rivulets that water the entire plain onwards to Damascus. Nothing can exceed its fertility. It is covered all over with rich crops of grain, and interspersed with groves and gardens of fruit trees, which became more and more numerous as we advanced, until at length they gathered into one continuous mass of foliage, encircling the city for miles round and round. About two o'clock we entered Damascus, the oldest of inhabited cities, by the gate of God—the Buwâbet Ullah—and rode down the Meidan, a broad and straight street of two miles in length, at the end of which we entered the winding and narrow street of the bazaars, for the most part roofed over, and finally, at a little before three P.M., arrived at the door of the Locanda, where Gaetano was waiting to receive us.

CHAPTER X.

Damascus-Its antiquity-Its present condition-Its houses, streets, and bazaars-The Great Mosque-The khans-The rivers Abana and Pharpar-The surrounding country-Leave the city-Ascend the course of the Barada — Abila — Zebedâny-The mountain ranges of Anti-Libanus-Baalbek-Remains of the ancient temples, their origin and history-Cross Cole-Syria-Ain-Ata-Mount Lebanon - The cedars-Bsherreh-Ehden-Tripoli-Re-embark in the St. Ursula— Visit Beyrout-Sail for Malta.

THE Locanda was reported to be full; but we made our way in notwithstanding. It had an unpromising look about it. Without and within, its courts and its chambers had all the same faded, dingy, back-going appearance; indicating either poverty or mismanagement. While we were examining the only apartments which, as we were told, "mine host" had to offer us-apartments whose tawdry ornaments and crazy furniture, and dirty carpets, were anything but inviting we were suddenly relieved from our perplexities by the entrance of the Rev. Mr. Robson, the wellknown missionary of Damascus, whom Mr. Brown had informed of our coming, and who had already, with true Irish heartiness and hospitality, made arrangements elsewhere for the accommodation of us all. The two other ladies of the party, my wife, and myself, were kindly received under Mr. Robson's own roof. Mr. Brown and Mr. Stevenson were consigned to the care of some of the other gentlemen connected with the mission. It is impossible to imagine a greater contrast than between the outside and the inside of the houses of Damascus. Outside you have a blind wall built up with stone to the height of eight, ten, or twelve feet, and above this a frame of wood plastered with clay. Passing through this wall by a small strong door, you find yourself in an outer court, around which usually are the apartments of the servants. Beyond this you enter the inner court, paved with

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different coloured marbles; a large marble fountain in the centre, with fresh water gushing into it; an alcove on one side with Persian carpets on the floor, and handsome divans round the walls; flowers, and shrubs, and orange trees growing in the angles of the court, and filling it with fragrance and beauty. The house itself occupies the sides of the court, into which all its apartments are so arranged as to look; and frequently the house has a broad viranda, supported on pillars, running along two or three sides of the court; the pillars which support it wreathed with flowering creepers. Into this viranda, the family apartments open at the height of one storey from the ground; and here, shaded from the sun by the projecting viranda-roof, sitting in the open air, looking down on the cool, clear waters of the fountain, and regaled with the sweet odour of the flowers, the members of the family pass many of their hours.

But I must not attempt to describe Damascus, either in general or in detail. The subject is too large, and these "Notes" have already extended so far, that for the present, at least, I must abandon the attempt. A few brief and random particulars are all for which I have now either time or room. When, or by whom the city was founded, cannot be certainly known, though Josephus says it was founded by Uz, one of the four sons of Aram, who was the grandson of Noah.* It was already a well-known city, at least as early as the days of Abraham, for the steward of his house was "Eliezer of Damascus ;" and now, after the lapse of nearly 4000 years, it is still full of life and vigour—a great mart of commerce, a seat of extensive manufactures, the chief Asiatic city of the Turkish empire, and possessing a population of 150,000 souls. The plain in which it stands is 2200 feet above the level of the sea. Along the northwestern side of the plain runs, like a wall, for thirty-five miles, the easternmost range of Anti-Libanus. The average

* Antiquities, book i. chap. vi. § 4.

height of this range is not more than 600 or 800 feet above the plain, though immediately opposite Damascus it rises to about 1500 feet. The plain is thirty miles in length, and eight or ten in breadth. A line of low hills all but shuts it in on the west, and sweeps away round it on the south; while on the east it passes on unimpeded till it is gradually lost in the desert. Damascus lies on the north-eastern side of the plain, within two miles of the Anti-Libanus chain of hills. The perfect forest of gardens, in the midst of which the city lies, yields almost all kinds of fruits-the quince, apple, apricot, almond, peach, plum, fig, mulberry, pear, pomegranate, olive, walnut, orange, lemon, citron, vine, and hazel and pistachio nuts. Vegetables of all sorts are equally abundant. Farther out from the city, rich crops of grain cover the whole face of the country. For this amazing fertility the plain is indebted not only to its fine deep clayey soil, but especially to its complete irrigation by the incient Abana and Pharpar, those "rivers of Damascus" which Naaman the Syrian not without reason pronounced to be “better than all the rivers of Israel." The Abana, being first named, is supposed to have been the chief of the two, and is identified accordingly with the Barada, which, taking its rise far away in the heart of the mountain-ranges of Anti-Libanus, bursts out through a tremendous gorge in the hills, about two miles to the north-west of Damascus, and rushes down into the plain. The Pharpar, which is identified with the modern Awaj, enters the plain, as formerly stated, at its western extremity, and pursuing its course eastward and to the south of the city, sends what remains of it, after watering the country through which it passes, into the Bahret-Hijaneh-the southernmost of the three lakes that lie to the east of Damascus. That part of the plain, therefore, in which Damascus lies, and the city itself, are indebted for the ample supply of water they enjoy entirely to the Barada, whose endlessly subdivided streams not only find their way into every field and garden around the city, but into every street and every court of a house within the city itself. Beyond

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