An Account of Palmyra and Zenobia, with travels and adventures in Bashan and the desert ... With eighty illustrations and thirty-two full-page engravings

Front matter

THE GRAND COLONNADE, PALMYRA P-ALAV/Rfl n-N d Z6NOBIA ZE N O B I A. {Enlarged from a Coin.) gfMbg^gg^d^g^gc^^^vLSoi^g TPfOMflS NELSON <5fSONS AN A C C O U N T OK PALMYRA and ZENOBIA WITH TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES I N BASHAN AND THE DESERT 13 Y S)r. Mt Ut am TlflULHU Author of The Empire of the Hittites," " The Brontes i\t Ireland, &.c. &c. WITH EIGHTY ILLUSTRATIONS AND THIRTY-TWO FULL-PAGE ENGRAVINGS T II O .M A S N K L S O N A XI) SONS I. (initial, Edinburgh, am/ Xv;,' York

Preface

This Book was -written partly in the saddle and partly in the tent, and almost wholly amid the scenes and adven tures which it describes. It should therefore not be lacking in local colour. The explorations and events recorded were incidents of a residence in Syria during nine stirring years, and com panions in the dangers and enjoyments are still with us. The work — some chapters of which have already appeared — has been edited in the fresh light of new inscriptions and fuller investigations, and aims at giving a picture, in outline only, of the living past and the living present under con sideration. The East moves slowly, and few changes in light or shadow call for alteration in tone or setting con sequent on delay in publication. I am indebted to Dr. Mackinnon of Damascus, and Dr. Macphail of Edinburgh, for the use of recently taken photographs in Bashan ; and I am under special obligations to the publishers for the creditable manner in which they have produced the Book on both sides of the Atlantic. WILLIAM WRIGHT. WOOLSTHOKPE, NORWOOD. CONTENTS

Chapter I

The Bible regarding Solomon and Tadmor — Classic history and Zenobia — The great king and great queen — The glory and obscurity — Chronioles in stone — Two visits to Palmyra — Dangers— Companions 1-4

Chapter II

Leaving Damascus — The Lebanons — City suburbs — Early fruit — King Abraham — Turkish road-making — Party separated — The fortress convent — Miraculous picture — Christian refuge — Syrian handcuffs — Maloula convent — Wonderful town — The scene — Syriac spoken 5-16

Chapter VI

Searching for 'Ain el-Wu'ul— Rickety escort— "Brandy Bob" and "Gipsy" — Gazelle traps — Wild stampede — Drunk and incapable — Encamping in the dark — The "princess" and her gift— Revolution in hair— The captive maiden — The captive mother's lullaby — Wa'al hunting — Desert Quakers — The fountain— Suleib children supremely beautiful 40-53

Chapter VII

Coursing hares on our way— Castle of Palmyra — Cyclopean horse— Strange birds — Arab camping-ground — Wonderful lizard— Approaching Palmyra- First sight of the ruins 54-62 CONTENTS.

Chapter VIII

Among the ruins — Encampment — Temple of the King's Mother — Hadrian and Palmyra — Temple of the Sun — Temple described — Holy of Holies — Zenobia in her splendour — City of columns — Public edifices — Palace of Zenobia — Palmyra statues — Statues to Zenobia and her husband — Zenobia's name — Splendid city 63-73

Chapter IX

Sir Richard Burton's advice — Scaling implements — Waggish mule and ladders —Tomb towers — Dreadful dilemma — Facing the difficulty — Selecting diggers— Eighty chosen — Attacking the towers — Digging and climbing — Sculptures — A tower described — Skulls and remains — Scarab of Tirhakah — An African romance — Entrapped in a tomb — Among the bones — Sheol — Struggle to escape — Rescued 74-04

Chapter X

The tepid river — A swim in the sulphurous fount — Penetrating the cavern — Fount Ephca and altar — Bedawi bathers drowned — Water supply of the city — Various sources — Climb to the castle — View from the castle — Name Tadmor — Building of Tadmor — Growth of Palmyra — Roman influence — Meeting-place of merchants — Trade routes — Origin of columns and statues — Cost of adornments 95-108

Chapter XI

Zenobia in history and romance — Roman influence — Relationship of Rome to Tadmor — Roman policy — Odainathus — Roman blunder — Meditated revenge—Capture of Valerian — Sapor defeated by Odainathus — Odainathus murdered 109-122

Chapter XII

Zenobia's beauty and splendour — Claims kinship with Cleopatra — Supposed to be a Jewess— Statues to Zenobia and Odainathus — Zenobia's generals — The head of Zenobia — Zenobia's descent — Her appearance — Cassius Longinus — Zenobia's opportunity — Roman disasters— Zenobia's call to arms.... 123-138

Chapter XIII

Zenobia prepares to meet the Romans — Her levies — Her camps — Drilling and discipline— Her armies march by three routes — Water — The great battle of Immae — The heroic queen — Roman strategy — The Romans victorious — Flight of the Orientals to Palmyra 139-150

Chapter XIV

The dogged West and the chivalrous East — The water question — The siege of Palmyra — Incidents of the siege — The city in straits — Aurelian's letter to Zenobia, and her reply —Zenobia looking for succour 151-158 CONTENTS. XIII

Chapter XV

Zenobia fleeing for help— Desperate ride — Pursued— Seized at the Euphrates- Brought back a prisoner— In the presence of Aurelian — Palmyra capitulates — Execution of Longinus — Revolt at Palmyra — Return of Aurelian — His vengeance — Restoration of the temple — Aurelian's triumph — The captive queen— Zenobia in Italy— Decadence of Palmyra 159-170

Chapter XVI

Last day at Palmyra— Bedawi charge— An awkward reception— Interview with the spearmen — Return — Followed by the Bedawin — Encamped beside the enemy — Guards asleep — Arms removed — Uproar — Giving the Bedawin the slip — Escape .and pursuit — Caravan attacked — Battle — Defeat of the peasants and plunder of the caravan — Turkish official sharing in the loot — Turkish justice 171-188

Chapter XVII

Fox-hunting— Turkish misrule— Blackmail— The Turkish caterpillar and the Bedawi locust — Marriage of the sheikh's daughter — Housebreaking — Disturbed night — Orientals and Damascus 189-193

Chapter XVIII

Incident in my first visit to Palmyra — Collecting curios — Mummies and skulls — Archæological fever — The'Greek image and umbrella handle— Fever cured — Long ride projected — Leaving the ruins — Way blocked — We charge — Very irregular army — Judgment on prudence — Desperate ride — Blood-mare and plebeian — Evading a camp — Discovered and pursued — Race for life — Successful ruse — Escape from pursuers 194-204

Chapter XIX

The delightful dawn — A new danger — Unpleasant company — Fired on and slightly wounded — Retiring salute — Marvellous escape — Short halt at Karyetein — Pressing onward alone — People by the way — Vultures to the prey — Ladies and naked soldier — Samaritanism 205-214

Chapter XX

Two horsemen — Challenge and counter-challenge — The dabbous and the shillelah — Peace and interview — Enemies become friends — Home in Damascus 215-221

Chapter XXI. Adventures Among The Ruins Of Bashan

Starting for Bashan — Companions — The ways of dragomans — Camel panic — The street called Straight — Crusaders — Cemeteries— Massacre — Graves — Colporteur's spurt and the result — Scenery — The plain— The Awaj not the Pharpar — Rivers of Damascus — Naaman's choice justified 223-239 CONTENTS.

Chapter XXII

The potters' caravan — Brag and cringe — The field of forays — Father of a tree, and Abu Muraj — Desert tactics — First sight of the Lejah — Billows of basalt — Reception at Burak — Water famine — Gloom of the Lejah — Bashan architecture — People of Burak — Caves and inscriptions — Shooting partridges—Cookery in the desert 240-257

Chapter XXIII

Coasting the shore of the Lejah — Resemblance to a coast-line — Churning and butter — Coursing and capturing a Bedawi — Stalking bustards — The katha migration — Grouse eggs — Entering Musmeih — Ruins and inscriptions — Character of the ruins — Our following — The use of a joke — Losing our way — Mazes of lava — Cruising round promontories and headlands — People of Khubab waiting for a lord — An old acquaintance 258-273

Chapter XXIV

Position of Khubab — Agricultural village — Industries — Opposition of the priest — Sunday at Khubab — General description — Hermon — Hauran towers — Deserted villages — Reception at Tibny — The widow and her son — Villages on the plain — Ezra and Adra'at — Identification of Edrei, the city of Og — Og's kingdom— Underground Edrei — Conquest of Bashan and defeat of Og — Bible narrative and the topography — Limits of Og's kingdom — Ashtaroth — Argument of identification 274-292

Chapter XXV

Ezri and its ancient church — Ruins described — Inhabitants of Ezra — Leaving by a slippery path — More coast-lines — Busr el-Hariry and its inhabitants — Battle of Nejran — Druzes and Christians — A strange lady — Her dwelling and influence and treasure — Her coin with Og's effigy — A diplomatic sheikh 293-301

Chapter XXVI

Druze courtesy and hospitality— Bedawi women— Druze women with horns — Christian women — Tell Sheehan open-mouthed — Druze women by the water — Kanawat and scenery — Identification and history — Gideon's expedition — The Bashan sanitarium — Rambles among the ruins — The people — "Our lord, King Herod the Great" — Atil and scenery — A discovery at Atil— Roman road 302-323

Chapter XXVII

Horses at Suweideh — Our old guide — Character of hospitality — Druze politics — Identification — Loading a donkey— Jebel Kuleib— Druze towns and people — St. George — Extinct volcanoes — The use of the towers — A splendid sheikh— Excitement among the Druzes — Preparing coffee — Cause of the excitement — Warlike speech — Another acquaintance — New ground — Remarkable ruins 324-340 CONTENTS. XV

Chapter XXVIII

Melah es-Sarrar and its towers and people — Agriculture — Other ruins beyond — Arab carriers of salt from the Jowf — The Salchah of the Bible and Castle of Sulkhad — Castle on a crater — Bedawi battle — Feasting the victors — A wild scene — Men feeding — The women's share — Separated party — Bosra and ruins — Christian inscription — Signs of magnificence — Stormy night and sand-drift — The Turkish garrison and officers — Preparing for an attack — An officer's dormitory — State of siege — Christian spies — Attack and escape — Departure from Bosra — A furious Druze — Battle of Mezareeb — The city that gave Rome an emperor and the Druzes a prince 341-364

Chapter XXIX

Druzes in conclave — Questioned by Druze women — Sudden descent through a roof — Family at supper — The feast and foods — Druze religion — An uncanny old sheikh — Abrupt departure — Crossing the Lejah — Druze head-dress — Dama and its reported wonders — Resolved to know the worst — Amazon women and savage-looking men — Exploring in safety — Dangerous Arabs — Arable land in the Lejah — Remarkable Arab shepherds — Business and talk — Wandering in a maze — Steering by fixed points — Out on the level plain — Enormous flock of gazelles — Curiosity of the Christians at Buseir — Local industry — Vultures following the Mekka pilgrims — Cruelty to animals — Filthy and ferocious pilgrims — Loveless return home — Light on the sacred record— Our duty to the Druzes— The end 365-387 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Grand Colonnade, Palmyra.. Frontispiece Maps — Empire of Zenobia; Routes to Palmyra xx Fountain, Damascus 1 Soffit Ornament of Temple Cell Door 4 Pilaster Ornament, Temple of Sun... 5 Straight Street, Damascus 7 Saidenaya 11 Frieze Ornament, Temple of Sun 17 Yabroud. 18 Yabroud Family 19 Entablature of Grand Entrance, Temple of Sun 24 Sudud's Vaulting Ambition 27 Palmyra Tesserae 30 Entablature of Grand Entrance Portico, Temple of Sun 31 Soffit of Cornice, Little Temple 40 Soffit supported by Four Columns.... 53 Basso Relievo on Pilaster, Temple of Sun 54 Triumphal Arch, with Castle in the distance 57 Palmyra Ruins 59 Temple of the Sun 61 Fragment of a Temple 02 Fallen Capital 63 Temple of the King's Mother 64 Upright of Side Door of Great Temple C5 Ceiling of Holy of Holies, Temple of Sun 67 Temple of the Sun, Eastern Side 69 Triumphal Arch 71 Side Archway of Triumphal Arch. . 72 Ceiling of Tomb Tower 74 The Father of Ladders 75 Tomb Towers 81, 85 Palmyrene Figure 88 Seal of Tirhakah 88 Baalatga and 'AUiasha 90 Mortuary Vault 92 Palmyrene Figure 94 Soffit in Temple of Sun 95 Castle end of Great Colonnade 99 Central part of Great Colonnade. 104-5 Palmyrene Figure 108 Zenobia 109 The Triumphal Arch 113 Coin of Valerian 122 Projecting Entablature, Temple of Sun 123 Doorway of Zenobia's Palace 125 Supposed Heads of Zenobia.... 129, 130 Coin of Zenobia 139 Grand Colonnade 143 Palmyrene Inscription 150 Entablature, Temple of Sun 151 Roman Lamp 158 Frieze in Temple of Sun 159 Colonnade of Temple of Sun 165 Scroll and Capital of Pilaster, Temple of Sun 170 Frieze, Great Door of Temple Court. 171 Granite Monoliths 173 Palmyra Terra-Cotta Head LIST OF ILLUSTRATLONS.

Cornice Soffit of Tomb Tower 189 Bedawi Robbers 190-191 Ceiling of Holy of Holies, Temple of Sun 193 Palmyrene Inscriptions 194 Tesseræ from Palmyra 204 Ceiling of Tomb Tower 205 Soffit of Side Door of Temple 214 Square Entablature, Great Temple 215 Damascus 218-219 Solitary Column 221 Bab es-Shurki, Damascus 222 Map— Sketch Route of Bashan. 224-225 Runaway Camels in Desert 227 Villa on the Barada 236 The Barada and Merj 237 Coin of Aretas 240 Basalt Bed of the Lejah 245 Lejah Partridges 256 Stone Window (Hauran) 258 Bedawin of the Hauran 261 Temple at Musmeih 265 Interior of Temple 266 Coin of Philip the Tetrarch 274 Hermon 276-277 Hauran Watch Tower 279 Palmyra Mortuary Tower 279 Coin of Herod the Great 293 Coin of Edrei 300 Folding Stone Door (Hauran) 302 TellSheehan 303 Druze Tantur 305 Temple at Suleim 306-307 Temple of Kanawat 308 Druze Ladies of Lebanon ..309 Ruin at Kanawat 311 Coin of Kanawat 314 Gateway, Kanawat 316 Peripteral Temple at Kanawat 319 Ruins at Kanawat 321 Carved Head, Kanawat 323 Doorway at Kanawat 324 Temple at Es-Suweideh 326-327 Stone Door (Hauran) 340 Coin of Bosra 341 Lebanon Druzes 345 Castle of Salchah 346-347 Bosra 350 Columns at Bosra 351 Ruins of Bosra, Theatre and Castle 354-5 Ruins of Bosra 357 Bab el-Howa, Gate of the Wind 360 Shuhba, Roman Bath 364 Coin of Philip 365 Druze Sheikhs at 'Ahiry 367 The Ha' j leaving Damascus j^Xoo

Chapter I

■^HE Bible tells us that Solomon built Tadmor in the wilderness, and classic authors inform us that Zenobia had her home there. History, sacred and secular, links the city inseparably with that magnificent Kins: of Israel, unrivalled in wisdom and barbaric splendour, and with that desert queen and peerless woman, whose regal atfocn-tain, Damascus. tributes and personal accomplish ments were as remarkable as the brilliance of her reign. The city comes on the stage of history in the blaze of glory that surrounded the most wondrous of Oriental kings, and after many centuries of splendid obscurity, quits the stage of history in the meteoric glare that accompanied the most wondrous of Oriental queens. And yet history, careful to preserve the remembrance of cities of which no vestige remains, has been so reticent about Tadmor, that the wonderful ruins, lately discovered, almost alone perpetuate her glory.

Her chronicles are written in stone — in graceful villa and spacious palace, in massive mausoleum and mighty temple, in vistas of airy colonnades and crescents seen through triumphal arches, and in a thousand monuments of genius and taste, battered and hurled about as playthings of time, but con serving in every feature the blush and freshness of youth. Like a shrinking beauty, Tadmor sits in solitary gran deur behind her own desert mountains ; and those who would see her in her calm retreat must leave the beaten tracks of tourists, and cross " the great and terrible desert." During ten years, I had seen many tourists arrive at Damascus, eager as devotees to gaze on this queen of ruins ; but owing to the expense, danger, and general hardships of the journey, few of the multitude had been permitted to look upon her beauty.

Of these few, fewer still had free leisure to become acquainted with all her charms. I may consider myself the most fortunate of tourists, in that I twice succeeded in visiting Palmyra under the most favourable circumstances, and without stepping far out of the circle of my professional duties. I shall take my readers by my latest route, through a region seldom explored, and by an easy path, with water at regular intervals. As my first trip to Palmyra was made in the ordinary prescribed manner, I shall get it out of the way as quickly as possible, and only refer to it again to illustrate or supplement my second. It consisted of long, weary marches, day and night, along the middle of an uninterest ing plain, extending in an eastern direction, with moun tains like walls running most of the way on either side.

I left Damascus on the 20th March, 1872, and reached Pal myra in four days ; but as the road was monotony itself, 1 came back to Damascus at one stretch, and my mare trotted into Damascus almost as fresh as she had trotted out of Palmyra. This long ride, which was beset with adventures, I shall describe further on. From the time of my first trip to Palmyra, the people of Kar3Tetein, where I spent a night, never ceased to urge me to establish a school among them, and I had promised to revisit them in the spring of 1874. During that spring the Bedawin plundered the whole eastern borders of Syria. Caravan after caravan with Bagdad merchandise was swept off into the desert. The British Bagdad post, sacred in the most troublous circumstances, had been seven times plundered, ' the letters had been torn open and strewed over the plain, and the postman, without camel or clothes, left to perish, or find his way as he best could to human habitation.

Spearmen, like swarms of locusts from the east, spread over Jebel Kalamoun, and having slain the shepherds, and stripped any men or women who fell in their way, drove before them all the flocks and herds of the region. Feeble fanaticism held sway in the city, and absolute anarchy reigned in the rural districts ; and so great was the terror of the peasantry, that, though they were actually starving, they could not move from their villages, except in large armed bodies, and even thus they sometimes fell a prey to the Ishmaelites. In this state of the country, I had almost given up my promised visit, when two daring explorers, the Hon ourable C. F. P. Berkeley and wife, arrived in Damascus. Coolness and courage had carried them safely through Petra and Karak, and all the trans-Jordanic regions, where they were sometimes beset with savage and furious mobs.

Their faces were set towards Tadmor, and the prospect of danger only gave a keener zest to the projected tour. A common interest drew us together, and I was able to avail myself of their escort and pleasant society, in return for topographical knowledge, and an acquaintance with the people and their ways. The season was already far advanced for making the journey to Pal myra, and so we resolved to start at once. SOFFIT ORNAMENT OF TEMPLE CELL DOOR. riLASTER ORNAMENT, TEMPLE OF THE SUN.

Chapter II

/^\N the 25th May, 1874, we left Straight Street, Damascus, at nine o'clock a.m. As we passed out of the city, we saw green vegetables beginning to make their appearance in the markets, and jaundiced-looking apricots, ripened in the baths, were being eagerly purchased and greedily devoured by the famine-stricken people. A little beyond Bab Tiima, Thomas' Gate, where once stood St. Thomas' Church, the site of which is now unknown, we turned out of the straight road to Palmyra, into a shady lane to the left. We had planned our route through the highlands of Jebel Kalamoun, that we might visit the interesting towns and mission schools of that region, while escaping the great heat of the plains. On most maps of Syria, the Anti-lebanon appears as a huge caterpillar, laid side by side and parallel with Mount Lebanon ; but the Anti-lebanon consists of a series of mountain ranges, some of which run parallel with Lebanon and sink into the great Hums plain, while some twist off in a more eastern direction, and shoot out into the desert.

The most eastward and desert ward of these ranges rises into Hermon at the one end, and sinks into Palmyra at the other ; and the part of this latter range which lies north-east of Damascus is generally known as Jebel Kalamoun. Our shady lane, through the orchards of Damascus, was overhung with great spreading walnuts, trellised with vines, and on either side were apricots beaded with new fruit, and thickets of pomegranate with scarlet blossoms bursting forth like handfuls of crumpled silk. Half an hour from the city we crossed the Taura (Pharpar), a river of Damascus, a little below where a cotton manufactory was established with English machin ery, and under English superintendence. The English workmen, however, found great difficulty in getting their wages, and they were kept in unhealthy lodgings, until three out of four died, and the survivor returned home broken in heart and constitution, and with experi ences sufficient to deter others from being allured into similar service by the prospect of high wages.

Beyond the bridge, we met a party with a few sacks of new barley, artificially ripened, and carried on the backs of donkeys into the city ; and we saw fields of barley pulled and left on its side to ripen, that it might be in time for the famine prices. An hour from Damascus we passed through Burzeh, a Moslem village, where there is the sanctuary of STRAIGHT STREKT, DAMASCUS. {Xo. 21 on the left.) Abraham, and where the people still talk familiarly of "good King Ibrahim," though the names of Sultan Selim and Salah ed-Din (Saladin) have already almost passed from local tradition. Here we struck into the mountains to the left by a pass up a gorge, parallel to the sublime gorge of the Barada, by which tourists enter Damascus, and much resembling it, but on a smaller scale. Our road lay up a fine mountain torrent, through which our horses splashed and stumbled.

Once a Damascus Moslem was riding up the same gorge, and he had his leg broken by the falling of his horse. When dying he left a sum of money to make a road through the pass, to prevent the repetition of such accidents as cost him his life. The money, after lying many years in the wrong place, was unearthed by an English engineer; but it found its way into Moslem hands once more, and in summer, when the pass was bone dry, a road was made along the bottom of the ravine. The fact of the Turks having made a road themselves was published in the papers, and people wondered. The road was made chiefly of dry dust, pressed down by the palms of the hands and the bare feet of the workmen and workwomen ; and though it had been only one jea,v made when we passed through, not a vestige of it remained. In less than half an hour we issued from the gorge at Maraba, a Moslem village, clinging to a bare rock overhanging the water.

We turned up the western side of the ridge through which we had come, by a narrow valley full of fragrant walnuts, and white stemmed poplars, and green corn as high up as the soil was watered, and no higher, calling to mind the words of the prophet, " And everything shall live whither the river cometh " (Ezek. xlvii. 9). We lunched in a lovely green meadow, under the trees, near the village Et-Tell, and then continued our course in the track of the water past Menin, a village which, like Et-Tell, contains many remains of ancient buildings. This part of our route was charming. We had left the steaming city behind, and we were con tinually getting up out of the heated plain. Here and there we had pleasant shade, and everywhere the sparkling water murmured past us, and every vista and every eminence supplied pictures of blending land scapes, such as are rarely seen even in Syria.

Here our party was temporarily broken up. We had agreed to spend the first night at Maloula, but my com panions' guide had directed the tents to Saidenaya, and so I had to ride on alone, as I had arranged to visit the mission schools of Yabroud and Nebk on the following day. I passed the fortress convent of Saidenaya, perched on a high rock, up which hewn steps lead to a small door, the only entrance. This convent contains a crowd of ignorant, idle women, and is famous for a picture painted by St. Luke, which distils a fluid very effica cious for eye complaints, and for replenishing the coffers of the convent. The picture was once stolen, but in the hands of the thief it became changed into flesh, and continues so to this day. I once tried hard to see this miraculous picture. I urged the cruelty of keeping a tiling of flesh and blood so closely confined, and the advantages that might be expected from a little fresh air.

I was also very liberal, and tried to bribe my SAIDENAYA hostess, who was not fair, but it was all in vain. I could not see it and live, and so I was spared the sight. This miracle has attained to an antiquity respectable in these days. Nearly two hundred years ago, Henry Maundrell found the fame of the picture,1 and the 1 At a very early period the picture was supposed to represent the Virgin Mary. There is a Latin MS. in the Library of Trinity College, reputation of the establishment, about the same as they are now. But they have a new miracle to boast of in the convent of Saidenaya. In 1860, many Christians took refuge in the con vent, and they were there for a time in a state of siege. There is no well in the convent, and only a cistern in which the rain-water from the roof is preserved.

But, wonderful as it may seem, the water in the cistern swelled up to the brim, and overflowed in a stream all the time that the wicked Druzes hovered about the convent. Could I disbelieve the miracle when I was told of it by a lady who actually saw it take place, and pointed out to me the very spot? It is much to be regretted that this miracle took place in such an out of-the-way convent ; but even thus, I have no doubt, it will yet receive the fame it merits. My path lay along the eastern side of the mountain range on which Saidenaya stands. The range has a sea-washed crest, showing in its length a clear tide-line. Though the mountains were bare and without vegetation, there were in several places little flocks of goats and sheep, attended by very small, half-naked shepherds, burnt Dublin, consisting o£ a Guide Book to Palestine, written about 1350 a.d. The picture is thus referred to : " Ten miles from Damascus is the city of Saidenaya, in which is the venerate image of the glorious Virgin Mary, which was brought from Jerusalem.

This blessed image was entirely converted into a fleshy substance, so that it ceases not night and day to emit a sacred oil, which the pilgrims who come there from every quarter carry away in little glass jars. No Saracen can live in this city ; they always die within a year." brown. The red plain had been scratched in several places, but the " thin ears blasted with the east wind " showed that, as on the six previous years, the crop of the region was about to be a complete failure. In this solitary ride I met only one party of men. They were village recruits, who had been taken by con scription. Handcuffs in Syria are of a most primitive kind. A piece of a tree, eighteen inches long and eight inches in diameter, is split up ; a place is hollowed out across the split, and the two wrists being placed in the groove, the two pieces are nailed together with large spikes.

Each recruit had his hands nailed up, and the party was being driven into Damascus by one mounted dragoon. The sticks had been so unskilfully fitted that some of their wrists were bleeding, and the poor fel lows were all lame and hungry. He would be a real benefactor who would supply Turkey with a few thou sand pairs of civilized handcuffs. In less than three hours I turned to the left, through a narrow cleft in the mountain, and then wound up and down its western side, till I reached the Greek Catholic convent of Maloula. About eight o'clock I reached the small iron portal, which opened to my first tap, and I found myself in a quadrangle with a two-storied range of rooms running all round it. Instead of nuns, as at Saidenaya, a great drove of mountain cows were housed in the court at night, and the place was kept by two agricultural monks and two " stout daughters of the plough."

My servant, who had preceded me, had my bed erected in an aerial cell, and the kindly old priest brought me a bottle of native wine, and what was better still, fresh eggs and milk. It is only fair to state that the priest who honoured me with his company seemed to value more highly than I did this "wine of Helbon," which maintains in its neighbourhood the pre-eminence it held in the days of Ezekiel. In exact ratio as the contents of the bottle went down, the spirits of my entertainer rose, and till a very late hour he poured out stories of the place, natural and supernatural, until I was fairly driven into the land of dreams. Next morning I was on the roof of the convent when the first shafts of rosy light shot over the eastern mountains. The upper convent stands near the edge of a fearful precipice, on a ledge of rock which seems driven wedge-like into a deep break in the mountain.