Syria and the Holy Land : their scenery and their people : incidents of travel, &c. from the best and most recent authorities

Front matter

Vi ctor i an 915.691 K299s )8kk

Arlington

Collection of 19th Century Americana

Contents

CHAPTER I. page

Arrival in Syria — First impressions — General remarks — Beyroot — Bazaars — Costume— Creeds — Arab bargaining— Sumptuous attire — Usury; a cat load of merchandise — Scenes and incidents in the winter of 1840-1 — Albanian or Arnaout soldiery — Syrian females — Bedouins — Horse-jockeying — A Pasha's cavalcade— Signal fires on Lebanon — A saintly beard — St. George and the dragon — Moslem saints ...*.. 1 — 20

Chapter II

Syrian Dwelling-houses. — Their form and arrangement intimately connected with the social and moral peculiarities of the land — Flat roofs ; love passages ; the Englishman in Damascus — Vermin . . . 21 — 27

Chapter III

Environs of Beyroot — Lebanon — Domestic groups — White mulberry — Fakr-ed-Deen's Grove — Mohammedan Cemetery — The Ras-el-Beyroot — Hill of San Dimitri — A monastery — Koordish tribe .... 28 — 43

Chapter IV

Koords and Yezidis— Original Country of the Koords — Wandering habits — Amazing firmness and intrepidity of a Koordish warrior — Propensity to robbery ; curious instance of this — Koordish women — Doubtful origin and tenets of the Yezidis — Mutual hatred between them and the Mohammedans — Their reputed doctrines and practices — Their respect for Christianity — Sacerdotal and lay castes — The Being without name ; the Great Peacock of the Angels — Costume of the Grand Pontiff — Nocturnal festival on the 10th of August — Perrier's personal experience among the Yezidis — Ainsworth's — Kinneir, Rush, and Grant ..... 43 — 52

Chapter V

Quarantine — The Antonine Way — The Nahr-el-Kelb— Cavern — Subterraneous

rivers — The Syrian herdsman and the Shah of Persia . . . 53— 60

Chapter VI

Peculiarities of Eastern Travel — Syrian horses — Crossing a river — A traveller's baggage — Chance hospitality — Modes of salutation — Khans —Inconveniences and pleasures ...... . 61 — 76

Chapter VII

Lebanon — Physical character — Scenery — Waters — Transparency of the air —

Optical effects — Climate of Syria— Inhabitants — The Tantour . . . 76—91 vi CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VIII. page

The Maronites — Tombs of Noah and of Moses — The Kesrouan — History of the

infamous Hendye ........ 91 — 100

Chapter IX

Route to Tripoli and the Cedars of Lebanon — Worship of Adonis — Treatment of lunatics — Kalaat Meszabeh — Tripoli —Sacred fish — The Treasure Cave — Djins and Djiniyehs — Story of the Midwife — Ascent of the mountains to Eden — Ceremonious reception by the sheikh — Banquet, toasts, festive songs, &c. — -The Cedars — Convents of Kanobin and Kasheya — Valley of Saints — Maronite wedding . .... 101 — 121

Chapter X

Route from Tripoli to Latakiah — Story of Aboulias — Ancient monuments — Serpents, charms, superstitions, strange remedies — Tartous — Markab — Spongefishery — Gebilee — Latakiah ....... 122 — 131

Chapter XI

From the Cedars southwards along the Heights of Lebanon— Inhospitality of the Akourans— Temple of Venus at Aphaca — Some account of the Metualis — Obscurity of their origin — Their wars with Djezzar — Siege of Belad Beshara ; stratagem; treacherous massacre — Numbers ; customs ; prejudices, &c. — Metuali women — Religious tenets — Legends ; Huohr ; Zain-el-Abedin — Practice of selling their children — Distinguished families — Emir Canjar — The brigand Hussein-el-Shibib — Watty-el-Bordj . . 132 — 143

Chapter XII

The Druses — Their territory — Physical and moral characteristics — Fidelity to their guests — Their moral influence in the mountains — Etiquette — Factions ; war ; gathering of the clans — Matrimony — Divorce — Punishment of conjugal infidelity — No music — Religious instruction — Apparent indifference as to creed — Druses in Scotland, and in China — Supposed French descent of the Druses — Caliph Hakem, founder of the Druse religion — Kindred sects — Extracts from the Druse books — The purse of the faith — Secret tokens — Amulets ......... 143 — 155

Chapter XIII

The Palace of Bteddin — Eastern etiquette — Common stone hand-mill ; ludicrous mistakes of Bible illustrators— Arab horses — Character of the Emir Beshir — Falconry in Lebanon ...... 155 — 165

Chapter XIV

Route from Beyrout to Damascus — Passage over Lebanon and Antilebanon 165 — 180

Chapter XV

Damascus — First view of the city — History and traditions— Rough treatment of an English traveller — Blindness — The baths — Antenuptial procession to the bath — Description of Damascus — Biblical scenes— The Bazaars; visiters; dealers ; artisans, &c. — Khan of Assaad Pasha — Mode of doing business — Grievances of the Monks — Father Tommaso, and the persecution of the Jews —Coffee-houses ; story tellers ; music — The mosques — Devotional feelings of the Moslems — The Muezzin's call — Private houses . . . 181 — 212

CONTENTS. vii

CHAPTER XVI. page

Damascus continued — The Pashas Assaad and Abdallah-el-Satidji — Promenades in the environs — Friday without the walls — Ladies of Damascus — Beggars — Franks in Damascus ....... 212 — 223

Chapter XVII

Palmyra — Bedouin knavery — Camel riding — Bedouin surgery — Astonishing the

natives — Arab camp — General appearance of Palmyra — Its probable anti-

. quity — A thunderstorm — General character of the Great Syrian Desert —

Chapter XVIII

Damascus — Glimpses of the domestic habits of the Damascenes — Armenian wedding — Turkish dinner — Ladies of Damascus — Social condition of women in the East — Turks and Arabs compared ..... 239 — 256

Chapter XX

Route from Latakiah to Antakiah— Suadeah — Kepse — The Turkmans ; their manners and customs, &c. — Cruel treatment of a Turkman girl by her brothers — Turkman horses — Antakiah or Antioch — Beilan — Scanderoon — Payass— Cuchuk Ali ....... 266—280

Chapter XXI

Grove of Daphne — Gesr-el-Hadeed, or the Iron Bridge — Tumuli — Aleppo ; fantastic etymology of the name — Description of the city — The Aleppo button — Almshouse for cats — Sunk Village — Field sports . . .281—293

Chapter XXII

Turkman horse-dealing — Marrah : sufferings and barbarity of the Crusaders — Hamah — Eruption of fetid mud at Restoun — Horns — A bastinado — The Anzeyrys or Ansairians — The Ismeylis .... 294 — 301

Chapter XXIII

From Beyroot Southwards — The prophet Jonah — Seyde — Lady Hester Stanhope—General Loustannau — Tyre — Consular protections— Ancient water-works of Tyre— The Tyrian dye ...... 301—315

Chapter XXIV

From Tyre to the Sea of Tiberias — The Plain of Zabulon — Sefurieh — Scene by a fountain — Nazareth ; church of the Annunciation— Mount of Precipitation— The Terra Santa monks — Mount Tabor — Kefr Kenna — Lake of Gennesareth — Tabariah, effect of the earthquake of 1837 — Jews of Tabariah ; singular custom in praying ; fear of forcible conversion — Church on the site of Saint Peter's house — Hot-baths of Emmaus . . 316—334

Chapter XXV

From Tabariah to Safed, and thence to Damascus— Kelaat Ibn Maan, or Kelaat Hamaam ; robbers' fastness — Bethsaida, Chorazin, Capernaum — Joseph's Well — Acbala ; bee husbandry — Safed — The earthquake of 1837 — Route across the Jordan — Scenes of decay and wretchedness — Sanatory precaution — An adventure — Kuneitrah — Armenian pilgrims — Sasa — Plain of Damascus ........ 334 — 345

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXVI. page

From Acre to Jerusalem — Acre ; historical reminiscences — Dangerous coast — Arab fishermen — Mount Carmel; Scriptural reminiscences; holy petrifactions ; monastery — Ruins of Athlete — Semi-nomade Arabs — Crocodiles in Syria — Csesarea — Jaffa, or Yaffa — Plain of Sharon — Ramlah — Incident in the history of the Crusades— Lydda — Hill country of Judea — Valley of Jeremiah — Abougosh — First view of Jerusalem .... 345 — 360

Chapter XXVII

Jerusalem— Idle traditions — General aspect of the city — Church of the Holy Sepulchre — Identity of Calvary discussed — Ceremony of the Crucifixion on Good Friday — The Holy Fire — Palm Sunday — Gethsemane — Mount of Olives — Mosque of Omar — Valley of Jehoshaphat — Village of Siloam — Fountain of the Virgin -Pool of Siloam .... .361—384

Chapter XXVIII

Excursion to Bethlehem and Hebron, to the Plain of Jericho and the Dead Sea — Shepherds of Palestine — Tomb of Rachel — Bethlehem — Fertility and Desolation — Pools of Solomon — Hebron — Difficult descent by night to Santa Saba — Greek picture of the Day of Judgment — Apples of Sodom — The Dead Sea — Riha, the ancient Jericho — Fountain of Elisha — The Jordan — Pilgrims bathing — Conflict with a gang of Bedouins— Equestrian sports — Anecdotes of horses — Forest of Jericho — Night journey through the hills of Judea — Bivouac — Bedouin frolics — Fountain of the Apostles — Bethany — Legend of the choice of the Temple site .... .385 — 410

Chapter XXIX

Population of Jerusalem — The Jews — Tomb of Helena, commonly called Tombs of the Kings — The Aceldama — Serpents in charcoal — Route to Nablous — Neby Samwil — Gibeon— Ram Allah — Christian brotherhood — El Bur ; curious scene in a khan — Betein, the ancient Bethel — Samaria — Jacob's Well — Sepulchre of Joseph — Nablous, the ancient Shechem . . . 410—422

Chapter XXX

Turbulence of the Naplousians— Appearance of the town — Ascent of Mount Gerizim — Samaritan Guide — Joshua's Altar — The Modern Samaritans — Affecting appeal— History of this people — Their synagogue ; MSS. ; priests — Superstitions — Traditions — Djezzar Pasha — Samaritans in England — Their belief and expectations — Their opinion of our Saviour — Ruins of Sebaste— Church of St. John — Sanur — View over the plain of Esdraelon — Jenin — Zerin the ancient Jezreel — Beisan, the Bethshan of Scripture — Bedouin horsemanship — Depredation and summary punishment — Mode of Corn threshing in Syria — Utility of the dung beetle — The soil of Palestine 422 — 435

Chapter XXXI

Countries east op the Jordan — Little frequented by travellers — Ruins, tombs, stone doors — The Haouran — Roman mansion of Nedjraun — Architectural magnificence — The Szaffa — Population of the Haouran — Habits of life — Hospitality — Agriculture — Serving for a wife — Christian wedding — The Druses — Female frailty ; shocking anecdote — Depopulation of the countries east of Jordan — Horses — Gilead and Bashan — Ruins of Gerash . 436 — 450

I.'eyroot from the South.

SYRIA AND THE HOLY LAND.

Chapter I

Arrival in Syria— Remarks on the country Beyroot. — Its inhabitants. — Life in the streets. —

Turning an honest penny. — Scenes and incidents witnessed in the winter of 1840-1. — Christian and Moslem monks and saints.

rpHE traveller, whose good fortune it has been to make his first approach -*- to Syria by sea, and to land at Beyroot, must always esteem it a happy coincidence that the most frequented port on all the coast is likewise precisely the point where a man of taste and quick feeling would choose to receive his first impressions of the country. Long before the vessel nears the shore, the sunlit peaks and wavy ridges of Lebanon are seen marking the blue sky, while its sides are hid from sight by the haze upon the waters ; by and by the craggy masses of the mountain come forth like airy promontories ; the eye gradually distinguishes the deep and dark valleys that cleave its flanks ; the rocky crests assume a bolder outline ; and you half discern villages scattered on the mountain sides, and monasteries like feudal fortresses crowning their summits. Each object caught sight of is hailed with delight ; all hands are on deck ; every eye is strained, and each gazer has continually some new discovery to impart to his companions. It is always an exciting thing to have a mountain land in view as the termination of a sea voyage ; but here the charm is felt with tenfold strength, for the land before you is endeared by a host of associations linked with your earliest and most hallowed recollections.

Meanwhile, the vessel holds on its course ; the land grows beneath the eye ; the white walls of the country houses, spread all along the plain at the foot of the mountain, peep out with a look of welcome from between their clustering trees, and the air is loaded with the perfumed breath of orange and lemon blossoms. At last the anchor is dropped, and you are riding in the bay of Beyroot, in front of a long promontory, rising gradually from the wrater, above which are seen the minarets and towers of the town, and beyond them the summits of the Jebel Sunnin, and the Jebel Kneese, and the long lines of the Jebel el Drus.

If you have the good fortune to escape being condemned to quarantine (supposing that any is still enforced), a boat conveys you a distance of about a mile to the marina, or quay, thronged with Arabs in all the gay diversity of their picturesque costumes and bristling weapons. The scene exhibits all the lively bustle of a European sea-port. Boats are continually plying between the shore and the trading vessels from Europe anchored in the roads ; porters are carrying bales of merchandise to and fro ; you hear the shrill cries of the Arabs wrangling on the quay, and the uncouth and dismal sounds uttered by the camels as they are made to kneel down to be loaded. Before you can step out of your boat on the wet sands, you are caught up by some bare-legged Arabs, who carry you in their arms to the entrance of a narrow, gloomy street, built on the side of a rapid slope. Everything about you gives you indisputable assurance that you are treading on Eastern ground.

Your officious friends now beset you with a clamorous demand for bucksheesh^buckskeesh ! perhaps at the same time significantly rubbing together the tips of their thumbs and fore-fingers. You gather from this pantomime, that bucJcsheesh is Arabic for those familiar sounds of Frangistan, " summat to drink," " pourboire," " trinkgeld ;" and having thus learned the first word of a new vocabulary, you need not fear that you will be allowed to let it slip very soon from your memory.

And now that we are fairly landed, it will be expedient that we call to mind some general facts respecting the country in which we are about to sojourn, before we begin to explore it in detail.

The name of Syria is, in modern times, applied to the country bounded by the Mediterranean on the west, by the Euphrates and the Desert on the east, and extending from the confines of Mount Taurus on the north, to about the thirty-first parallel of northern latitude, where it meets Arabia Petrsea, and the Syro-Egyptain Desert. Thus defined, it of course includes ancient Phoenicia and the Holy Land within its limits. On turning to the map, we observe that this space consists essentially of little more than a range of mountains, a long narrow isthmus between a watery and an arid

SYRIA IN ANCIENT TIMES. 3

sea. The great central ridge, the back-bone as it were of the land, may be followed almost without an interruption, from its entry by the north, quite into Arabia. It first runs close to the sea, from the borders of ancient Cilicia to the Orontes; and after opening a passage to that river, recedes a little from the shore, and stretches in a continuous chain of summits as far as the sources of the Jordan, where it divides and encloses the valley of that river, and the basins of its three lakes. In its course it detaches from this line, as from a main trunk, numerous ramifications, some of which vanish in the Desert, where they form various enclosed hollows, such as those of Damascus and the Haouran ; while others, advancing to the sea, frequently end in steep declivities, as at Carmel, Nakoura, Ras-el-Abiad, or the White Cape, and along much of the extent from Beyroot to Tripoli ; but in general they gently terminate in plains, such as those of Antioch, Tripoli, Tyre, and Acre.

There is not, perhaps, in the world a country so remarkable as Syria for the lustre of its early glories, the vicissitudes of its fortunes, and the blood that has drenched its soil. Its admirable fertility, the variety and beauty of its climate, and its advantageous position in the very heart of the ancient world, rendered it the chosen abode of early commerce and civilisation ; but these very advantages excited the ambition of conquerors, and many a time brought down on Syria the desolating ravages of war.

The traveller treads at every step on the remains of perished cities, and of monuments of art and industry that testify the vast population, the wealth, energy, and grandeur of the land in days gone by. To Syria we owe the origin of our written characters ; here commerce and navigation began their humanising career, and a multitude of useful arts and discoveries had birth, or were carried to the highest degree of perfection ; and — infinitely more momentous thought to the Christian — here was prepared, developed, and consummated, that stupendous series of events on which he rests his hopes for eternity.

Formerly one of the earliest abodes of almost all religions, Syria still teems with their mute memorials or their living representatives. On the eastern side of the hills of Jordan, and over the plains of Manasseh and Gad, are found monuments apparently of Buddhist origin. They resemble those of the Druid age in England, and carry us back in imagination to the times when the adventurous ships of Tyre and Sidon transplanted into that remote island the elements of civilisation and a hierarchical polity.* It would be erroneous to suppose that Christianity, Judaism, and Mohammedanism monopolise the land between them ; the Anzary Mountains still shelter in their fastnesses the rites and the descendants of ancient Paganism ; there still subsist in Syria the mysterious initiations of the Druse, the infamous rites of the Ismeylee, the adoration of the devil by the Yezeedee, and the practical pantheism of the Koord; whilst, in a part of Sechem,

* " The languages of antiquity," says Mr. Farren, (Letter to Lord Lindsay) " are the living tongues of Syria, and in their compounds is still familiar the name of Britain, derived from Phoenician origin." Beret anic, he says, would imply in Arabic, " the land of tin," tantamount to the Cassiterides of Herodotus ; and he is inclined to think that the name Nyvoi BreravyiKat is derived from it.

b2 or the modern Naplous, three-and-twenty families, descended from the revolted tribes, preserve their ancient Pentateuch, and still offer upon Gerizim the rites and sacrifices of the Samaritan worship.

It would seem, as though by a perpetual law, Syria were peculiarly marked out as an arena whereon to determine mighty issues, such as involve the destinies of mankind at large. How often has the lot of empires and nations been decided there, from the gray dawn of time down to our own days ! Jews, Assyrians, Chaldaeans, Macedonians, Romans, Saracens, Western Christians, Tatars, Turks, and Egyptians, have all left their bones to bleach upon this common battle-ground of the nations. It was the resistance offered to Napoleon, by the petty fortress of Acre, which rolled back on Europe the tide of conquest that otherwise had swept over Asia.

Syria is estimated to contain about 50,000 square miles. It is a country whose population bears no proportion to its superficies ; and the inhabitants may be considered, on the most moderate calculation, as reduced to a tithe of what the soil could abundantly maintain under a wiser system of administration. Their numbers are probably much below two millions ; and they form an assemblage of tribes rather than a people ; for they are not only destitute of every principle of national association, but denaturalised from such a relation by the reciprocal antipathies of their respective castes. The Jew loathes the Samaritan, though of his own lineage, and has no sympathy in common with any other class. The Greeks and Maronites, and the Syrian, Latin, and schismatic churches, though of one origin in Christianity, and equally oppressed, hate their rulers less than they do each other. The Metowali and the Sonnite alike acknowledge the mission of Mohammed, but are reciprocally regarded as heretics and infidels ; and they, the Druse and Anzary, the Arab, Turk, and European, all seem to vie in perpetuating the virulence of their ancestral schisms, and each class lives in distinct and recognised habits of separation from all others. This is the fatal weakness of the land ; this it is that renders it the ready dupe and victim of the conqueror's policy, — " divide and govern" — and that keeps down within such narrow limits the suffering population of one of the regions of the earth the most favoured by nature.

In the earliest historic times of which mention is made in the Bible, each canton of Syria had its kings, a sort of chieftains ruling over a small district and a certain number of families, just as the sheykhs or heads of tribes do at this day. The system of government was patriarchal, resembling the authority of the head of a family. This is one instance out of a host that might be adduced to show how little change the march of ages has made in the manners, customs, and usages of the East. The Bible presents us with a multitude of social and domestic traits, and even with names of places, provinces, and families that have never varied during thousands of years. In its venerable pages we have the clearest, fullest, and most vivid of all exponents of the springs and action of Eastern life ; and he who has not carefully studied its records need never hope to read aright any other book treating of these matters.

" The dress of the people of Syria," says Mr. Farren, " the customs of

BEYROOT.

society, the idiom of thought, the salutations of courtesy — all are living records of remote ages ; nor can a more striking illustration be adduced than that which presented itself to me, when on approaching Bethlehem, the aged inhabitants, with tears and lamentations, came out and met me, to beseech my intercession on the cruel oppression then inflicted on them ; and, 1800 years after the memorable record of that custom, they strewed their abayes (cloaks) and garments in my path, which, with my suite, I literally rode over ; while my heart beat, and my eyes were bathed with tears, at such a memorial of past ages, amidst such a scene of present wretchedness."

Beyroot is a place of great antiquity, having given its name to Baal Berith, a Phoenician deity, to whom there was a temple here ; Augustus made it a Roman colony, and called it after his daughter, Colonia Felix Julia. It still asserts, by the beauty of its scenery, its admirable climate, and the fertility of its environs, its ancient claim to the epithet of Happy ; but it presents few architectural remains of the greatness it attained to under the emperors, one of whom, Justinian, styled it " the nurse of the law,1' and conferred on it, in conjunction with Rome and Constantinople, the exclusive right to have professors, who should expound the Roman jurisprudence. Some faint trace of the magnificent baths and theatre, erected by Agrippa, the grandson of Herod the Great, may still be seen on the north of the town : portions of tessellated pavements and shafts of columns are found in the gardens and along the sea-shore ; and a great part of the quay facing the harbour is constructed of fragments of pillars, some of which appear to have been of the largest kind, and highly finished. Though these remains are of little value in the eyes of the antiquary, they may, as old Sandys has it, " instruct the pensive beholder with their exemplary frailtie."

The modern town is built on the ancient site, and is of an irregular square form, open towards the sea, and enclosed on three sides towards the land by walls of considerable height and thickness, which, with their square towers, constitute a picturesque framework for the town ; but as the latter is commanded by the neighbouring heights, the soft sandstone walls would prove but a feeble defence against artillery. So exceedingly massive, however, is the construction of the houses within the town, that, in the opinion of Colonel Napier, it would be no easy matter to do the latter any very serious damage. The old castle by the sea-side, and the consular buildings facing the marina, he admits were " touched up" a little, but otherwise no injury

Fountain near Bc}'rcot.

was done by the late bombardment, for the allies were careful to direct their fire only against the positions occupied by the Egyptian forces.

On some of the towers there are a few paltry iron cannons, most of them without carriages. They are now and then used for the purpose of saluting pashas, and other high personages, on their entry into the city, and to announce to the true believers the return of the great annual fast and festival, the Ramadan and Beiram. The walls have five gates, which are closed after sunset, and no one is allowed to appear in the streets after dark without a lantern. Europeans, at least, will not feel tempted to infringe against this judicious regulation; for even, with his lantern in his hand, the stranger finds it anything but pleasant to grope his way through the rayless and dirty mazes. The streets are of little width ; projections overhang the narrow irregular way, which sometimes runs for a considerable distance through tunnels, as it were, formed by the junctions of the opposite dwellings over head, and looking as if cut out of the solid masonry. On each side there is a raised causeway for foot-passengers, badly paved, or rather laid with large stones, and a deep channel in the middle for animals, in which water often runs. Unfortunately, even running water is not always pure ; that which runs through these channels is generally very filthy. After all, a sewer of any kind, even though it be above ground, is a distinction of which few Turkish towns can boast, and should be respected accordingly.

The flat-roofed houses are all of equal height, and have hardly any external windows ; they are all uniform likewise in colour, being built of a foxy yellow stone, and the house is scarcely distinguishable in hue from the rock on which it stands. The three or four minarets of the town are scarcely a third so high as those of Constantinople, but they are quite as thick, which gives them a clumsy, stumpy appearance. One could fancy that the Arab masons had found their work too warm for them, and so instead of continuing to build twice as much higher, and then setting up a slender spire at the top of the shaft, they had all at once cut short the job, and finished it with a heavy and nearly flat roof. Altogether, the solid aspect of the whole town reminds us that its last founders were men w^ho had need of making every building in it a fortress, whilst the Christian galleys were cruising in the Levant, ever on the watch to pounce upon any vulnerable point exposed by Islam.

Beyroot, including the suburbs, contains from 12,000 to 15,000 inhabitants, of whom fully two-thirds are Christians, many of them Franks, missionaries, and merchants. The round hats and short coats of these gentry seem very much out of place in an Oriental city. Probably one-third of the population live without the walls, in what are called the -Gardens : these are suburbs extending for several miles round the town, and consisting of detached houses, pleasantly encompassed with plantations of the mulberry, the almond, and the olive.

The harbour is a bad one, and ships generally anchor in the bay about a mile from the town; but Beyroot is the port of Damascus and of the Druses and Maronites of Lebanon, the most industrious inhabitants of Syria ; indeed it is the only port of any security between Alexandria and the pestilential Gulf of Scanderoon ; its trade has therefore increased very considerably within the last twelve or fifteen years, and improvements have

LIFE IN THE STREETS.

been begun in it that are rarely seen in any other towns of the country, Old houses have been pulled down, and new and more commodious dwellings erected in their places ; streets have been widened by the removal of old buildings ; a considerable portion of the town has been paved ; dwelling-houses and stores, built on speculation, have quickly found occupiers ; and rents have rapidly increased.

In every Eastern town, the stranger desirous of seeing M life in the streets," turns his steps to the bazaars, where all the retail trade is carried on, and where all who have business, and all who have none, are continually congregated. If the visitor looks in Beyroot for bazaars answering to the description of those of Constantinople, Cairo, or Damascus, he will of course be disappointed ; but if his expectations are more moderate, he will derive much pleasure from the animated and picturesque scenes

exhibited in the thronged marts even of this little city. People of all ranks and conditions, clad in all the costumes of the country, are incessantly coming and going ; priests, dervishes, Maronites, Druses, Turks and Arabs, Armenians and Jews ; women like sheeted ghosts, and slaves of both sexes, black, brown, and white, pass in review before him. He finds an endless fund of amusement in watching the occupations, attitudes, and gestures of the ever-changing groups that mingle and cross each other in every direction : the most trivial circumstances of their every- day habits are full of novelty for him. He will not fail, for instance, to be struck with their extraordinary attachment to the sitting, or rather squatting posture, with their heels tucked under them. With them almost every occupation is sedentary ; you may see the blacksmith sitting and hammering his iron ; the carpenter sitting and hewing his wood, or planing his plank ; and the women sitting and washing their clothes. It is for the sake of being able to reach every article of their stock without standing up, that the merchants carry on their business in little shops not more than five or six feet square. You are not surprised to see the tailor sitting crosslegged ; he does so all the world over ; but the Eastern tailor does not even quit his shopboard to measure you, but, stretching out his arm, takes your dimensions with a plummet and line.*