DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5073#0312
DAMASCUS.
301
lustre, bathing- the mountains in a flood of peach-
blossom that really made the whole view one of quite
nearthly beauty. It lasted but a few minutes: the
glorious dream passed away, the plain dimmed in
shadow, and we descended the hill as quickly as we
could to reach the gate before it should be closed for the
night. It was just dark when we entered the city, and
our first introduction to its long, narrow, winding streets,
perfectly and entirety dark, save where a cafe or some
miserable lantern made the rest of the darkness seem
still darker, was not of the pleasantest, certainly the last
appellation any one would give them now is the word
" straight," unless it meant a passage too narrow or
strait to turn in; a succession of horrible yells and
howls announced, every now and then, that some one had
gone over a wretched dog, as we went stumbling on over
the dust-heaps in the way. At last we reached a very
small door, where our dragoman was waiting for us, and
we dismounted at the hotel, which seemed to our tired
eyes and after our six weeks of tent-life, like an en-
chanted place, with its brilliant colours, latticed
windows, and lamps hanging between oleander and
citron trees, loaded with blossom, and filling the cool
mght air with fragrance; we went to sleep in good,
clean beds to the music of the falling fountain, which
splashed gently over the marble basin in the centre
°f our apartment; with a satisfactory feeling even in
our dreams that, at last, we were in Damascxis.
301
lustre, bathing- the mountains in a flood of peach-
blossom that really made the whole view one of quite
nearthly beauty. It lasted but a few minutes: the
glorious dream passed away, the plain dimmed in
shadow, and we descended the hill as quickly as we
could to reach the gate before it should be closed for the
night. It was just dark when we entered the city, and
our first introduction to its long, narrow, winding streets,
perfectly and entirety dark, save where a cafe or some
miserable lantern made the rest of the darkness seem
still darker, was not of the pleasantest, certainly the last
appellation any one would give them now is the word
" straight," unless it meant a passage too narrow or
strait to turn in; a succession of horrible yells and
howls announced, every now and then, that some one had
gone over a wretched dog, as we went stumbling on over
the dust-heaps in the way. At last we reached a very
small door, where our dragoman was waiting for us, and
we dismounted at the hotel, which seemed to our tired
eyes and after our six weeks of tent-life, like an en-
chanted place, with its brilliant colours, latticed
windows, and lamps hanging between oleander and
citron trees, loaded with blossom, and filling the cool
mght air with fragrance; we went to sleep in good,
clean beds to the music of the falling fountain, which
splashed gently over the marble basin in the centre
°f our apartment; with a satisfactory feeling even in
our dreams that, at last, we were in Damascxis.