as she passed. There is neither grace nor taste in her appearance. It is only an accumulation of riches in every kind, but each so genuine and magnificent, that the eye is satisfied.

She is not handsome, but her daughters are. They are tall and willowy, and stand among the oranges and oleanders, looking gravely at us. They have wreaths of pearls and embroidered vests, and thick skirts, heavy with richness, and they all walk upon pattens four or five inches high, of ebony inlaid with pearl, so that in moving, they stalk about the court like giraffes imperfectly humanised. Their hair is densely black, and is braided in massive folds, studded with gems. Their eyebrows are shaved, and a smooth black arch of kohl supplies their place, and helps to unhumanise them. They are beautiful without the effect of beauty. The dark eyes are soft and curious, but have no lambent light of sympathy or intelligence. I should as soon undertake conversation with the black marble Venus, as with these silent and stately figures; and it is hard to bring my mind to the conception of their total ignorance and inexperience.

The scene was like a Sultan's slave-market, and on the whole, rather sadder than my remembrance of a slave-merchant's house in Cairo. He had just received several Abyssinian girls for sale. They

stood, coarsely clad, and clustering together, in the darkest corner of the court-a group of oliveskinned children, who laughed at the strangers, and chatted among themselves, evidently hoping to be bought, and to taste the incomprehensible life of Christian Howadji.

The Damascene ladies withdrew after we had exchanged some words with the placid mamma, and presently we saw them hurrying along the gallery above, chattering and laughing, like the Abyssinians, and looking down upon us as we retired, with the curiosity of children.

And, as we retired, the painful impression of their utterly vacant life, was relieved by that girlish laughter.

CHAPTER V.

CHRISTIANS

BAZAARS.

"Black spirits and white,
Blue spirits and grey,

Mingle, mingle, mingle."

and Saracens agree in reprobating the black hat. But the Damascenes declare open war against it. In 1432, Bertrandon de la Brocquière entered the city with a "broad beaver hat," which was incontinently knocked off his head. Naturally his first movement was "to lift my fist," but wisdom held his hand, and he desisted, centent to revenge himself by the questionable inference that it was "a wicked race."

But if it be "wicked" to malign the black hat, who shall be justified?

This was only a gentle illustration of the bitter hatred of Christians and all infidels, cherished by the Damascenes, who are the most orthodox of Muslim. Indeed, it is only within twenty years that an accredited English representative could

reside in Damascus, and he maintains an imposing state. At present, some hundred European tourists visit the city yearly, and the devout faithful find reasons for toleration in infidel gold, which they never found in argument.

Here, too, as everywhere in Syria, Ibrahim Pacha has been our ally. He permitted infidels to ride horses through the streets.

66

"O Allah!" exclaimed the religious Damascenes, who are termed by the Turks Shami-Shoumi, cursed rascals. "Your Highness suffers Christians to sit as high as the faithful."

"No, my friends," responded Ibrahim, "you shall ride dromedaries, which will put you much above them."

We went into the bazaars to encounter these enemies of the black hat, and ex-officio riders of dromedaries. We had a glimpse of their beauty as we entered the city. But Eastern life is delightful in detail. It is a mosaic to be closely studied.

You enter, and the murmurous silence blends pleasantly with the luminous dimness of the place. The matting overhead, torn and hanging in strips along which, gilding them in passing, the sun slides into the interior, is a heavy tapestry. The scene is a perpetual fair, not precisely like Greenwich Fair, or that of the American Institute, but such as you frequent in Arabian stories.

Bedoueen glide spectrally along, with wild, roving eyes, like startled deer. Insane Dervishes and Santons meditate the propriety of braining the infidel Howadji. Shekhs from distant Asia, pompous Effendi from Constantinople, Bagdad traders, cunning-eyed Armenian merchants meet and mingle, and many of our old friends, the grizzly-bearded, red-eyed fire-worshippers, somnolently curled among their goods, eye us, through the smoke they emit, as perfect specimens of the proper sacrifice they owe their Deity. All strange forms jostle and crowd in passing, except those which are familiar; and children more beautiful than any in the East, play in the living mazes of the crowd.

Shopping goes actively on. The merchant without uncrossing his legs, exhibits his silks and coarse cottons to the long draped and veiled figures that group picturesquely about his niche. Your eye seizes the bright effect of all the gay goods as you saunter on. Here a merchant lays by his chibouque and drinks from a carved glass, sweet liquorice water, cooled with snow from Lebanon. Here one closes his niche and shuffles off to the mosque, followed by his boy slave with the chibouque. Here another rises and bows, and falls, kissing the floor, and muttering the noon prayer. Everywhere there is intense but languid life.