CHAPTER XIV.

DAMASCUS.

THE muleteer having joined us, and the baggage being stowed in our room, we obtained the luxury of a good wash and change of clothes, and realized that we had left the wilderness for the city.

The hotel is built about the four sides of a quadrangle, the centre of which is occupied by a tank of gold and silver fish, into which several almost perennial fountains discharge themselves.*

The level of the streets of Damascus being somewhat lower than that of the river, a constant supply of water exists for these fountains without the intervention of pumping appliances. All that I had opportunity to notice of the waters of Syria during my brief stay, impressed me that it would be most natural for any of the inhabitants to hold in high esteem "Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus." (2 Kings v. 12.)

About 9 a.m. we were taking our roll and

*This is the tank in which John McGregor, Esq. placed his canoe "Rob Roy" at the time of his visit to Damascus. Vide "The Rob Roy on the Jordan," p. 127.

coffee beside the fountain, under orange, lemon, and mishmish (Damascus apricot) trees, loaded with ripe fruit, after which we sallied forth into the city.

Our first business was at the Telegraph Office, whence we sent messages to Nablus, and to Brading in the Isle of Wight, at which latter place my family spent the period of my absence.

We were here joined by the muleteer and escort who, having received payment for their services, took our hands, kissed them, placed them to their breasts and foreheads, and left.

The rest of the day we spent at the hotel, and in rambles through the city. Three or four diplomatic representatives of other countries and one young English traveller were among the inmates of the hotel, and our host, who is, if I remember rightly, of Greek nationality, made every provision for our comfort, and was always ready to expatiate on the doings of the British fleet at St. Jean d'Acre, and the valour of Sir Charles Napier, of which he was an eye-witness.

The water we drank here was cooled with snow from Mount Hermon, for fetching which several mules are constantly employed during the summer, and to a similar practice reference is no doubt

made in the words "As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to them that sent him, for he refresheth the soul of his master." (Prov. xxv. 13.)

As a whole, Damascus impressed me with ideas of past and present magnificence, and the moving spectacles in its streets and bazaars seemed to bring back in one heterogeneous living crowd, all that I had ever heard or read in Eastern tale or fable about princes, merchants, fortune-tellers, asses, Cadis, camels, and beggars.

Lord's Day 25th. This morning, contrary to arrangements made the night before, we found the young Englishman still in the hotel; such are the delays continually happening to travellers in the East. A misunderstanding existed between his dragoman and the proprietor of horses from whom they had hired a mount to take them to Baalbec. Then, when a compromise had been agreed to and the animals produced, one could but notice the amount of opinion and advice gratis which was given with all imaginable volubility by the Easterns upon the quality of the horses, and the entire unfitness of the ass to carry the luggage, the young fellow all the time waiting for matters to be settled somehow, with an expression which, if I

mistook not, meant "I should prefer half the talk and twice the performance."

At length they started, with the understanding that we should probably meet them again in Beyrout, which, however, did not take place, although when there we heard of their safe arrival.

We left the hotel, passing by the Grand Mosque, which is an adaptation to their own purposes by the Mahometans, of the structure known to be the Crusaders' church of St. John the Baptist; and made our way to the christian quarter, which still bears evident marks of the massacre of 1860, when about twelve hundred of the known inhabitants of the city were put to death. I noticed many new houses occupying the sites of those which had been destroyed, and many others, their blackened basements still exhibiting the effect of the fires, which appearance is the more striking in contrast with the superstructures of new masonry.

At the American Mission we listened to an address by the missionary based on the words in Titus ii. 11-15, "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world: looking for that blessed hope,