Inner Courts of the Houses.

365

in other Oriental cities, and almost all having overhanging stories, which are shored up rudely by timbers terminating in the walls fifteen or twenty feet above the ground. The streets are considerably wider than those of Cairo ; but as they are almost all covered or arched over with light roofs, they are not visible from above. The chief feature, always excepting the numerous domes and minarets, not so abundant as in Cairo, is the large court-yards, full of orange, lemon, and citron-trees, laden with fruit, and always with a large fountain of water in the middle. These courts, paved with marble, are found, on visiting a half-dozen private houses, to be even more extensive and more attractive within than they looked from above. But the eye does not long rest on the houses or courts, although hundreds of women, dressed like sheeted ghosts, were visible in these enclosures; for the girdle of orchards (gardens they are commonly called) which encircles the city, begins to be too attractive, specially just now that every one of its myriad of apricot-trees is in full bloom. It seems to make a broad, violet-colored, plumy wall of flowery fragrance around the whole city. Outside of this springs another larger circle of chalky hillsmountains, indeed-enclosing the plain on three sides, leaving it open only toward the desert, which, though unseen, suggests its portentous presence by a vague horizon at the eastern quarter. Altogether Damascus, with its plain, in which it is said fifty villages may be counted, seems a soft, verdant, fruity region, shut in from the rest of the world, perfect in itself-a jewel in a rough setting, an oasis with a mountain rim.

We visited the great mosque. It used to be a difficult, and then only an expensive thing to do. Now a party by paying a single pound may have the privilege of entering in stocking-feet or slippers this shabby yet impressively large

and venerable building. There is a long, double row of columns dividing it into three naves. The roof is rude and ugly; the walls, once beautifully covered with mosaic, are now disfigured by staring whitewash. There are the usual places of Moslem instruction-a few pulpits; a well of holy water; some raised enclosures where old men, learned in the Koran, sit reading aloud to themselves. A few others are rolled in mats, and lie sleeping soundly on the floor. They are devotees, who, having vowed to spend a certain unbroken period of time in the holy place, must needs sleep there when weary nature gives out under their monotonous prayers. A great many children and a considerable number of ragged men, and a good many others of fair appearance · and respectable demeanor, are moving about or prostrating themselves toward Mecca. Some boys are running through the mosque with very careless levity, without attracting any attention from the rest; for one of the principal doors opens upon the chief bazaar, and the passage across is a kind of thoroughfare. In spite of all, there is in the vast dimensions of this mosque an unmistakable dignity. The great court on the south side of it, paved with marble, is a grand open square, in which a small pavilion, raised fifteen feet on pillars, is said to be the library. About this square are various chambers-some devoted to the reception of the poor, others to rooms where learned Moslems receive their pupils and give instruction. There are three commanding minarets of the ordinary style belonging to this mosque, from which glorious views of the city and plain are to be enjoyed. We were sent down from the principal one just before noon as the priest was about to sound the muezzin, and our presence apparently was deemed incompatible with the solemnity of that call to prayer.

THE CITY OF DAMASCUS.

March 24.

DAMASCUS is mentioned in the Scriptures (Gen. xiv. 15 and xv. 2) as existing in Abraham's day. It was the capital of Syria in the time of the Jewish kings. Often in their hands, it finally fell, 740 B.C., under the dominion of the Assyrians, and followed the fortune of their empire. It was taken by Pompey 64 B.C., but was allowed to have its own king under the Romans. The conversion and first preaching of St. Paul in this city (Acts ix. and 11 Corinthians xi. 32) have given it a special interest to all Christian believers. In 633 A.D. it fell under Arab power, and was greatly embellished and strengthened by the Ommiades dynasty. The Crusaders, in spite of Baldwin's efforts, were never able to take the city, and it boasts now that the Crescent has never sunk below the Cross within its walls. The great Mongolian conqueror, Timour, or Tamerlane, took Damascus in 1401, and put its inhabitants to the sword, and the city to the flames. He destroyed its famous workshops of steel and wool, so that it is said most of the articles of wool sold as Damascene are really Belgian or English, while it is affirmed that not a single Damascus blade has been wrought since Tamerlane's day.

I went with a military friend to hunt up a Damascus sword of true metal, as a gift for a great general at home. We went to a Jew's shop, known in Damascus as "the Fa

ther of Antiquities," where we found a cunning and repulsive, but handsome and hospitable Oriental, who, having given us seats of honor and served us with coffee, brought out his stores of arms, beginning with the worst, and gradually, by a skillful crescendo, ending in a stunning cimeter, of watery lines, stamped with the name of a sultan of the fourteenth century, and with the mark of the maker and the year of the hegira. It was in a gorgeous scabbard, and at £50 was not dear. Just as my companion was about closing the bargain for this Damascus blade, the faithful cawass of the American Vice-consul (a native) whispered that it was a very fine sword, but Persian. That would not do, and the sword was not bought. I found that I had been all my life mistaken in regard to the shape of the Damascus blades, which I had supposed slender, straight, and wondrously thin and flexible. All the swords of our Jew were crescent-like, and often wider `by a half inch in the last third (toward the point) than at the hilt. They had very commonly a rounded angle at the place where they widened, and were fearful-looking. They were also evidently sabres for striking-not mere ornamental or official badges, but designed for practical hewing and hacking. Their temper seemed admirable, but they were too stout for much flexibility. The famous Toledo blade, which is, I suppose, more of the rapier order, was introduced into Spain by Moorish workmen, who got their instruction at

Damascus.

We found no end of curiosities at our Jew's bazaar-old china, gold and silver fancy-work, brass and copper vessels, inlaid boxes, embroidered table-covers; but it was clearly the sweepings of a general trade with people from all nations, West and East; and I found a great deal of European finery and gewgaws not worth carrying away at any price. The bazaars in Damascus are larger, cleaner, better supplied, and

etc.

Interview with Abd el Kader.

369

more attractive in appearance than those in Cairo. The shops are classified, so that one whole neighborhood is given up to shoes, another to wooden-ware, another to fancy goods, The streets we found considerably wider and cleaner than in Cairo. I did not think them, all things considered, so picturesque; nor was there any such aggregation of colors and costumes. Damascus, as the Consul's intelligent and obliging son told us, has one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, and forty resident Europeans. It is therefore a purely Oriental city, and strictly Asiatic not like Cairo, African and Asiatic, with a strong dash of Europe in it.

We made a short visit to Abd el Kader, the famous Algerian sheik and king, who fought France so boldly, and was for seven years a prisoner in Paris. A few years since he was released on his parole, with a pension of £4,000 from France in requital of his lost dominions, and established himself in Damascus. In the terrible massacre of the Christians at Damascus in 1860, thirteen thousand Christians fled for protection into the castle (now in ruins) where Abd el Kader was able to throw over them his powerful Moslem protection and to save their lives. France, in honor of his humanity, raised his pension to £6,000. He lives in a fine Damascus house, after the uniform pattern of all the best private houses here. He was dressed with unusual simplicity for an Oriental, and received us, after we had crossed the inner court, at the door of the pavilion, a high room of twenty-five feet long and fifteen broad, richly decorated with Saracenic ornaments, with a raised platform occupying at least half of it, and a divan on one side of the wall. After taking off our shoes (following his own example) we were lead by him to seats on the divan, and began a pleasant Oriental exchange of national and personal compliments through our interpreter; for, to my surprise, Abd el Kader did not or would