Two Years in Syria

Preface

. Stria has afforded a fertile theme for the pens of many travellers ; but, although its beauties have been repeatedly described, it is still a subject very far from being exhausted. Few, it is true, could hope to rival the poetic prose of Warburton, the brilliant language of Eothen, the faithful description of Lord Lyndsay, or the solid and careful researches of Robinson ; yet I trust that the humble efforts made in the following pages will be of some utility, and not without interest to the general reader. The statistics in reference to the trade and com merce of Beyrout will, I hope, be found of impor tance to the mercantile community ; the chapters on climate will, I doubt not, be interesting to the invalid ; while the descriptions of the few excursions

PREFACE.

. I have been able to point out, together with the incidental expenses, will, I trust, be of utility to the tourist. It will be seen that nearly the entire work is in the form of letters addressed from Beyrout to friends at home ; they contain my first impressions of the country, but even now, had I leisure to revise them, I do not think there is anything of importance which I could alter. 16, Uppetk Southwick Stp.eet, C.UIBIUDGE SQUAKE, HTDE PaKK, 2nd October, 155S. CONTENTS.

Chapter I

Beyrout.— Damascus — St. Jean d' Acre — Aleppo — Approach to Beyrout — Plain of Beyrout — Ancient Berytus pp. 1-9

Chapter II

Syria under the dominion of the Arabs. — Inroads of adventurers — The caliphs — The Circassian tribes — Mohammed — Omar — Herachus — Battle of the Yarmuk — The Seljoukidæ — Pathimites — Osmanlis — Decline of Ottoman power— Return of civilization— Fertility of Syria pp. 10-20

Chapter III

Ancient commerce op Syria. — Tyre — Commerce under the Seleucidæ — Under the Romans — Exports from Berytus — Invasions of Islam — The caliphs — Haroun-al- Raschid — Charlemagne — Othman — The products of Syria — Increasing prosperity pp. 21-2G

Chapter IV

Commerce of Beyrout. — Increase of buildings — Trade — Steam vessels — Bazaars — Goods imported — Internal communication — India and Egypt — The Ganges and the Nile — The Jordan and Orontes— Returns of imports and exports —Apathy of the Turks — European enterprise pp. 27-32 X CONTENTS.

Chapter V

Banking in Beyrout. — Road from Beyrout to Damascus — Arabic newspaper — English banking companies — Damascus — Aleppo — Beyrout — Rate of discount — Modes of investment — The harem — Property of married women — Confidence in English institutions — Mode of conducting a bank in Syria pp. 33-41

Chapter VI

Climate of Beyrout. — Cyprus — Tyre — 'Akka — Carmel — Nazareth — Gennesareth — Zabulon — Mount Tabor — Lebanon — Syria as a winter's residence — Climate of Beyrout — Hyeres — Nice — Naples — Madeira — Beyrout — Opinion of Dr. Wilde — Climate in October, November, December — January and February — March, April, May, June — July, August, September — The Lebanon — Beit-Miry — Brumanah — Shemlin . pp. 42-19

Chapter VII

Hotels, rents, society, &c, in Betrout.— Security of life and property — Society — Book-club — Hotels — Rents — Servants' wages — Horses — Necessaries of life pp. 50-5 S

Chapter VIII

Travelling in Syria.— Jaffa — Ramleh — Jerusalem — Nazareth — Tiberias — Damascus — Baalbek — Routes — Mode of travelling — Dragoman — Contract — Luggage expenses — Excursions from Beyrout .*-• . pp. 59-65

Chapter IX

Advice to invalids. — Medicine chest useless —Dr. Suquct — Dr. Smith — Physicians — Prescriptions — Medical experience — Dr. J. Johnson — Abemethy — Nature restores health — Change of scene and climate — General rules pp. 66-75 CONTENTS. XI

Chapter X

Route from London to Syria. — Southampton ,'to Alexandria — Vienna to Trieste — Paris, Lyons, Marseilles — Fares — Messageries imperiales — Malta — Alexandria — Jaffa — Beyrout — Passports — Luggage — Steamers from Liverpool — Travelling costume — To ladies . pp. 76-80

CHAPTER XL

From Paris to Marseilles. — Hotel du Louvre — Hotel Mcurice — Lyons — Hotels — Public buildings — Squares — Silk manufacture — The Rhone — Marseilles — Hotels pp. 81-S4

Chapter XII

From Marseilles to Malta. — Chateau d'H — Straits 01 Bonifaccio — Corsica — Sardinia — Maretimo — Fariana — Sicily — Marsala — Mazara — Malta . . pp. 85-S9

Chapter XIII

From Malta to Beyrout. — The Indus — Captain Trollier — Rachel — Music — Alexandria — Jaffa — Jonah — Andromeda — The Lebanon — Beyrout . . pp. 90-96

Chapter XIV

Syrian houses. — Flat roofs — Gardens — Gazelles — Wild boar — Apartments — The deewan — View from terrace — Amusements — Early rising — Visiting — Opening of the first bank in Syria — Officers of the bank . pp. 97-106

Chapter XV

The Ras-el-Beyrout. — Costumes — Bazaars — Climate — The sun — Promenade — Dockyard — Arab superstition — View — Hotel de Belle Vue — The potteries — Sea anemones — Cuttle fish — Bathing — Pigeon Island — The sands pp. 107-113 CONTENTS.

Chapter XVI

Lebanon. — St. George and the Dragon — Beyrout river — The Nahr-el-Kelb — Juneh — Horsemanship — View — Ascent of Lebanon — Monastery of Beit-Cash-Bow — View over the sea — Sunset — Dinner — Costumes — Church of the Convent — Hazir — Village doctor — Maronite princess — The tantoor — Costume of the men pp. 114-122

Chapter XVII

Lebanon — continued. — TheKesrawan — Scenery — Distances deceptive — Clearness of the atmosphere — Natural gardens — Route — Rocks — The convent bell — Mules — Sagacity of Arab horses — Harisa — Antoura — Arab salutation — Salutation iu different countries — Deir- Beshiira — Convent of nuns — Zook — The Nahr-el-Kelb by moonlight pp. 123-143

Chapter XXI

The Druses.— Religion of the Arabs — Different sects — Origin of the Druse religion — Fakhr-ed-Din — The Caliph Hakem-Bi-Amr-AUah — His ferocity — The veiled prophet of Khorassan — The Druse women — Marriage — Divorce — Infidelity — Punishment pp. 169-177 CONTENTS. XIII

Chapter XXIX

Syrian rivers. — The Nahr-el-Kelb — Nahr-Ibrahim — Nahr-el_'Asy — Nahr-Yarmuk — Shatt-el-Arab — Esh-Sheriah — Fishing on the coast — Modes of fishing in several countries — The Cydnus — Pinarus — Dangerous position — Narrow escape pp. 250-263

Chapter XXXIII

From Beyrout to Nazareth. — Sidon and Tyre — Haifa — Yajoor — The Kishon — El-Hartie — The forest — Plains of Esdraclon — Jeidah — Semunieh — Picturesque groups — Nazareth — Convent of Terra Santa . . pp. 2S6-290

Chapter XXXIV

Nazareth. — Church of the Annunciation — Grotto of the Blessed Virgin — Greek church — The fountain Procession of the Cross — Women of Nazareth — Costume — Travellers robbed — Visit to the president — St. Joseph's workshop — The Mensa Christi — View from the hills — The American party — Lynch law — The Cadi — Arab proclamation — The sacred places . .pp. 291-303 CONTENTS. XV

Chapter XXXV

From Nazareth to Tiberlis.— .Associations — Kefr-Kenna — Mount of Beatitudes — Miracle of the loaves and fishes — Lake of Gennesareth — Church of Tiberias — Our Lord walking on .the waters — Accommodation for travellers — Hotel — King of the fleas — Er-Reinch — El-Meshad — Lubieh — Mount Tabor — Lonely hermit — Church of the Transfiguration — View from Mount Tabor — Plains of Esdraelon — Hattin — Fuleh — Mount Hermon — Endor — Nain pp. 304-313

Chapter XXXVI

From Nazareth to Carmel. — Fountain of Seffurieh — Houses of Joachim and Anna — A fight — Plains of Zabu lon — Abilin — Bedouin encampment — Bedouin wedding — Festivities and ceremonies — Fight for the bouquet — Plain of 'Akka — 'Akka — Hospitality — Fortifications — Heroic conduct of nuns — Nahr-el-Mukutta — Haifa — Marriage procession by night — Mount Carmel — Convent of Elias — Hospitality — Visitors' book — Curious entry pp. 314-33S

Appendix

Ho. I. Imports and exports at the Port of Beyrout during the years 1853,1856, and 1857 — Particulars of the imports and exports during the year 1857— Observations pp. 369-376

APPENDIX.

No. II. A letter to the shareholders of the Ottoman Bank — Correspondence with A. H. Layard, Esq., Chairman of the Court of Directors of the Ottoman Bank — Correspondence with the Court of Directors of the Ottoman Bank, pp. 377-444

Chapter I. Beyrout

Every one has heard or read of Damascus, that city of majestic loveliness and surpassing beauty, with its picturesque minarets, its ample domes and glittering crescents, so imposing that Mohammed, when he beheld it from the summit of the western hills, suddenly halted, struck with wonder at the sublimity of the scene, and passing from amidst its luxuriant gardens and sparkling waters, exclaimed to his followers — "There is but one paradise destined for man ; as for me, I am resolved not to choose mine on earth." Everyone, too, has heard or read of St. Jean d'Acre, made memorable by so many glorious achievements, from the days of Richard Cceur-de-Lion to those of Sir Charles Napier ; and of Aleppo, associated as it is in our memories with B one of the finest and most pathetic of Shake speare's creations : — "And say, besides, that in Aleppo once, When a malignant and a turban' d Turk Beat a Venetian, and traduced the state, I took by the threat the circumcised dog And smote him thus."

Othello. But few persons, comparatively speaking, know anything of Beyrout, a place which, while it yields in picturesque beauty to none in Syria, surpasses every other in commercial importance. " Beautiful Beyrout \" exclaims the enraptured traveller who cherishes the recollection of thy pleasant places — " beautiful Beyrout ! It is not only when seen through the kaleidoscope of memory, enhanced by a thousand fond associations and radiant with the brightest hues of fancy, that I prefer thee to the fairest regions of the earth, but, duelling within thy walls, the reality equals the ideal image." It is not only the magnificent scenery, the mountain with its velvet-like folds, its cascades like silver threads, the snowy peaks, nor the golden shores, the rich gardens that stretch beyond the towered walls, the airy and romantic villages with their silkworm sheds, nor the purple sea and the rose coloured sky — it is not this alone which invests the old Berytus with such glory.

Even on the spot the traveller of taste cannot be said to view the scene merely with the naked organs of corpo real vision, he sees it through the ' mind's eye' as well, invested with a gorgeous halo of ideal splendour. Kindling associations start up at every view ; the departed fame of ancient Phœnicia, the successive dominion of the Greek, the Roman, the Christian; the memory of the Crusaders, of the mighty argosies once borne on the bosom of those bright seas whose waves now break upon the srolden sands at our feet, the breeze that murmurs through the myrtle-groves, and seems to whisper of the banners which it once spread wide in flaunt ing triumph over victorious hosts, and the rich tresses that it toyed with in the Paphian bowers, all tend to awaken in the mind a host of grand and tender emotions.

Cyprus is almost in sight. Yon distant promontory alone shuts out the view of Tripoli. Those waters glittering and dancing before us have rolled their billows over the pro strate turrets of Tyre." b2 Nowhere can there be found a more exquisite view than that which meets the eye as we approach Beyrout. While still far out at sea, the peaks of Mount Lebanon are seen high in mid-air, shining in the sunlight, surrounded by the bold outline of its undulating ridges, Like a fairy island floating in the sky, for the vapours rising from the sea hang like a vast aerial ocean about the base half-way up the heights of the mountain. As we get closer the outline becomes more and more distinct. Huge masses loom forth like sudden creations out of chaos. Vast ravines and abysses are seen between the chasms and valleys which divide rock from rock.

At length specks appear on the mountain sides that by and bye expand into towns and vil lages, while on the higher points are seen the battlements and towers of monasteries standing aloft like the eagle on its eyrie. On approaching most countries from the sea there is little to be seen but the outline of the shore or the cliffs that frown upon the breakers thundering at their base. But here the moun tainous surface of the interior spreads out like a diorama before you, and when at a distance sufficiently near to distinguish the scenery, a more splendid landscape it is impossible to find else where or to imagine. Still, as the ship holds her way the scene seems to expand and unfold itself as if by enchantment. The houses scattered over the plain that stretches between the sea and the mountain, gleam in the sunlight from amidst the sur rounding foliage, and the breeze from the shore eomes laden with sweets from the orange-groves. o ***■> You are now in the Bay of Beyrout.

A long pro montory stretches into the sea, rising inland; in the distance are the turrets and minarets of the eity, and beyond is the snow-capped summit of the Jebel- Sunnin. Beyrout is a place of great antiquity, and became of considerable importance under the Roman em perors. Justinian called it the Nurse of the Law, and conferred on it, as well as on Rome and Con stantinople, the exclusive privilege of having pro fessors to teach in its seminaries the Roman juris prudence. Some faint traces of the magnificent baths and theatre, erected by Agrippa, the grand son of Herod the Great, were to be seen, some few years since, on the north of the town ; and even now some portions of tesselated pavement and shafts of columns are found in the gardens and along the sea-shore,* as well as many fragments of pillars, which appear from the shattered remains to have been among those of the greatest length erected, and of the most perfect finish.

Beyrout is situated in the pachalie of Acre, which is bounded on the north by the Nahr-el-Kelb (the Dog River), then extending eastward the length of the Anti-Lebanon (without, however, com prising Baalbek), follows the plain ofthe Bekaa to the sources of the Jordan, continuing along the right bank of this stream until it falls into the Lake of Tiberias, the ancient Sea of Galilee. On the west its shores are washed by the Mediterranean as far as Cæsarea, which is its extreme binit on the south. The pachalie of Acre is approached through the pass of Nahr-el-Kelb, the depth and extent of which, and its bad roads, render it all but impass able. It resembles a vast railway cutting through * In the street leading from the French to the English consulate are still to be seen portions of this tesselated pavement.

TWO YEARS IN STRIA. solid rock, the sides of which stand everywhere almost perpendicular, and whereon are engraven a great number of inscriptions. Here is the ancient carving ascribed to Sesostris, representing a soldier sacrificing to the gods of the country; and the excavations made by Trajan are still to be seen. Beyond this pass lies the glorious plain of Beyrout. And then comes that intermingling of vegetable productions for which the soil of this region is so famous, which leave ravished the eye of every beholder ; which dwell in the memory of all who .have visited the spot, and in praise of whose gorgeous beauties so many pens have been eloquent. Here is the orange-tree, whose flowers have been likened to silver and its fruit to gold ; the fig, with its foliage of glossy velvet ; the plane, with its rich and brilliant bark ; the luxuriant growth of the pine ; the graceful flexibility of the palm ; the rich verdure of the humbler plants ; gay prairies, bright with the colours and fragrant with the scent of hyacinths, anemones, and gilliflowers.

Beyond are the hills, with their varying tints, their contrasts of light and shade; afar off is the sea, with its glittering wave-crests and its deep azure, reflecting from its mirror-like surface every hue that fleets over the sky; and standing out in bold relief against the clear horizon are the frowning masses of the mountain which bound the prospect in the extreme distance. Beyrout, the ancient Berytus, is well worthy of being the capital of this beautiful country. Stretch ing downwards towards the shore, descending along the gentle slope of a charming hill, her head in the clouds, her feet bathed by the sea, she resembles — to employ an Oriental simile — a charming sultana leaning gracefully upon a cushion of green velvet, and watching the waves in listless and dreamy indolence. Her terraces filled with flowers; her houses with their slender arches and flat roofs, surmounted with embrasures of stone or balustrades of wood; the picturesque rocks which surround her shores; the harbour, well protected by its long projecting promontory; the groves of white mulberry-trees spreading round her sides; the palms towering towards the sky ; the lively colours of her walls, painted red or blue; the minarets of her mosques; her atmosphere, always bright and serene ; her sky, ever clear and open ; — all blend together into one grand and ravishing tableau.

Well might the Romans give the name of Felix to this happy town, whose soil is alive with fertility, whose origin is lost in fable; whose foundation is attri buted to Saturn, and its destruction to Typhon; well might Augustus rebuild it, and think it worthy to bear the name of his favourite daughter Julia. Favoured by situation, adorned with all the trophies of art, her commodious harbour received the commerce ofthe world.

Chapter II. Syria Under The Dominion Of The Arabs

In this country which nature has done her utmost at once to beautify and render fruitful, the ravages of man are everywhere to be read in the traces they have left behind. Nowhere have conquerors desolated with a wilder havoc or extorted with a more grasping avarice ; nowhere have the cruelties and fury of the savage soldier wrought more dis astrous effects. Within the last thousand years, at least a hundred total changes have come over this beautiful land. Government has succeeded government, tyrant has followed tyrant, each more despotic than the last. Inroads of spoilers have wasted the country on all sides. Fierce bands of adventurers from both hemispheres, from the sandy deserts of the south and from the snowy regions of the north, have in turns made her their prey ; passing over her surface like a torrent of desolation, leaving behind nothing but ashes and ruins.

All that could by human power be done, all that human ingenuity could accomplish for the prosperity and adornment of her cities, was effected by the caliphs. A rich nomenclature grew up, an architecture of the highest order lent its charm to the buildings ; all the amenities of civilization, all the refinements and luxuries of affluence and power as yet not enervated by sloth or corrupted by vice, were here combined; add to these the Greek and Roman literature and the models of Greek and Roman art, accumulated together for a period of seven centuries, and associated with native produc tions in philosophy, in science, in eloquence, in poetry and the useful arts. But it was all to no purpose. All this disappeared like the illusions of a mirage. Damascus tempered its swords in vain to arm the soldier; Aleppo's famous silks disappeared as if a whole branch of commerce were as short-lived as the single generations those robes adorned ; the face of the country was clad in vain with its accustomed verdure under the zealous til lage of its sons.

A fresh desolation was at hand. The Caucasian tribes, more fierce and fell in their savage instincts, more greedy in their thirst for plunder, than even former invaders had shown themselves, rushed like tigers upon their prey. They laid waste far and near with fire and sword, destroying utterly whatever they could not appropriate. They set fire to whatever would burn, they razed to the ground whatever could be thrown down. Statues, buildings, books, pictures, all shared in one common destruction ; every work of art and every useful contrivance, the appliances of science, the implements of trade, all disappeared together as a crop of vegetation after a visit of locusts. They found a garden and left a desert. Of course man, woman, and child shared the one fate — indiscriminate slaughter. The ruins of no less than fifty-two cities scattered over the plain and on the sides of the mountains, are sad and certain evidence of the devastations that swept over the country.

The conflicts that have occurred from time immemorial all bear the same character. The religion of Mohammed made little difference in the instincts and ferocity of the Arab tribes, except perhaps to add the force of mad fanaticism to mere savage barbarity, and impel them to con quest or massacre as a duty which before was only followed from cupidity or want. A wild love of daring enterprise, an insatiable appetite for spoil and bloodshed, a thirst for warlike glory, were all amalgamated with and quickened by the fire of religious zeal. Wild bands of marauders, armies of brigands, troops of predatory soldiers, making war and amass ing booty on their own account, moved with all the rapidity of flying squadrons from one province to another, attacking towns with eager lust for spoil before the ashes of the last they had burnt were cool, or the blood of its slaughtered inhabitants had sunk into the earth.

These jarring elements would of course come into collision among them selves, just as two storm clouds charged with electric fire, after laying waste whole tracts j of country, meet in mid air and jostle one another. Their common pursuits made them natural enemies. There is a proverb about the discord likely to prevail between those of the same calling. Each fraternity of bandits felt that its inheritance of plunder and its share of power and renown would be made less by the existence of its fellows. No wonder, then, that, when opportunity offered, they should turn their swords against their rivals, and often succeed in exterminating each other. Nor was it only a jealous ferocity, a savage ambition that prompted them; they well knew that one successful battle of this sort placed in the victor's hands the plundered wealth of half-a-dozen towns.

Thus their course realized the destructive fury of the simoon. Solitude and desolation followed in their track as in that of the plague. The face of nature was left scorched with fire and sodden with blood. When the sands of the desert raised by the whirlwind are piled mountains high above some village they have overwhelmed, all traces of life and of man were not more thoroughly obliterated. But the Mohammedan invasions were not less ruinous than the inroads of marauding barbarians. Death or conversion, that was their watchword, and pretences were never wanting to get rid of the troublesome owners of coveted riches. The con verts were little better than slaves. The wealth of the slain found its way of course into the coffers of the conqueror. At this rate the absence of the in fidel dogs was preferable, in the eyes of the faithful, to their presence.

In the one case there was an accession of valuable property, in the other the addition of a doubtful proselyte. Every man who possessed anything may be said to have held forth an actual premium for his own destruction. As for those who had nothing but life to lose, they were not worth converting ; they were butchered at once or reserved for slavery, according to the taste of the victors, who left nothing unrifled but the inaccessible fastnesses of the mountain heights. The hunting down of the timid natives by their savage assailants is well typified by the attack of the panther on a herd of timorous gazelles. The most that the victim could be brought to do for his safety was to beg his life kneeling and crouching at the feet of the victor. And yet in the later invasions, these willing victims held the same faith which in the Crusades kindled an enthusiastic valour that swept before it, like a torrent, all the chivalry of Islam.

The one made the religion of peace dominant by force of the sword, the other held forth his neck to the smiter's blade, and died a selfdevoted sacrifice without the crown of martyrdom. The power of the emperors remained paralysed in Constantinople, while the spirit of Mohammed stalked over the land, inspiring the Mussulmans with the same fiery zeal and contempt of death as had been evoked by the lips of the living prophet : — " To the soldier of Allah, will Allah reckon for each of his steps seven hundred good deeds, will pardon seven hundred sins, will account unto him seven hundred-fold of merit." The enervated troops of the Empire could not hold their ground for an instant without the aid of hardier auxiliaries. They melted before their fierce and confident adversaries like snow on the caps of the mountain before the sun.

The fervid ardour of the new faith consumed like a tempest of fire, and swept away with its very momentum what it did not at once annihilate. When the fury of conquest and the thirst of plunder were satiated, however, the natives were much the same off under either master, and cared little for the change. They had been ruled with a rod of iron and robbed with unrelenting greed by their former garrisons. Thus those who were not the first attacked, and were removed farther off from the earlier onslaught, received the yoke with stolid indifference, if not with willing submission, not expecting worse treatment from the caliphs than they had experienced from the emperors. Then came the struggle between Omar and Heraclius. A chosen army of Christians, composed of picked troops, and led by the best generals of the empire, after two days of victory was totally routed on the third, and fell ingloriously on the banks of the Yarmuk.

Passing over the remarkable reign of the caliphs, the contests of the Seljoukides and the Fathimites, and the splendid despotism of the Crusaders, we see suddenly spring up, amidst these various and discordant races that had invaded the East, another power still more formidable, at the head of which were chiefs more aspiring, ambitious, and energetic than their rivals. The Osmanlis, whose descendants still rule over this fair garden-laud, came upon the scene, and thus, at last, this sacred region, the scene of a Saviour's miracles, endeared and hallowed by a Saviour's death, sank permanently under the stagnant rule of the deadliest enemies of the Cross. Empires, however, like individuals, have their appointed time, and the power of the Osmanlis is waning fast. The Crescent, so long triumphant, at c length stoops beneath the Cross, fanaticism and ignorance are giving way before civilization, and the eyes of Europe are eagerly turned towards the land for whose deliverance the proud chivalry of Christendom once shed its blood and won its vic tories in vain.

This land, endeared by so many hallowed recollections, made famous by the super human prowess of a Richard Cœur-de-Lion and a Saladin ; this land, teeming with untold wealth, and whose soil bursts spontaneously with pro ductiveness, is now being quietly and gradually occupied by the descendants of those who, nearly eight hundred years ago, fought and fell upon its plains; and civilization — which here had its birth, but which fled in terror before rude and ignorant barbarians, finding a refuge in the West — is now coming back again upon the wings of peace, seeking for its ancient but still remembered home. And truly Syria is well worthy to be the home of civilization, possessing as she does lands fertile even under complete abandonment ; fields pro ducing spontaneously cereals for food and silks and cottons for clothing; timber of every description, and of the best quality, from the cedar to the oak, from the plane to the pine, and which may be had for the selling; while sycamores of enormous size spread their branches wide enough to cover a whole caravan with their grateful shade.

Here are valleys rich and luxuriant; groves of citron, and olive, and apple-trees of the finest sorts ; whatever in the vegetable kingdom is useful or beautiful, is here found in the natural unforced produce of the soil, spread out in rich and prodigal abundance. Here are gardens where the rose, the orange flowers, the jasmine, mingle their perfumes into one delicious odour, almost too powerful for the senses. Avenues of fig-trees shade the roads, growths of oleander follow the course of the rivers, red-flowered grass blends its hues with a thousand gay flowers that enamel the meadows ; above is the blue vault of heaven, and between stretches the ocean of clear pellucid atmosphere. The loveliness of this favoured region has deserved and obtained the praises of Oriental poets. In the poetry of the Turks it has been called " the odour of paradise ;" in that of the Hebrews, " a garden planted by God for the first man ;" in that of the c2 Arabs, it is described as a country "where the mountains bear winter on their heads, spring upon their shoulders, autumn around their bosoms, while summer is ever at their feet."