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DAMASCUS.

dark cool chamber, in which are men smoking, lounging,
chatting, and lemonade drinking; or into a court shaded
by delicious trees, with a bubbling fountain or a large
tank of running water; or into a larger, airier, lighted
hall, gaily painted "within and without, where men are
resting after the delightful fatigues of the bath, wrapped
in white garments, sipping coffee, and smoking nargi-
lehs ; the noise that proceeds from both cafe and bath
duly announcing their neighbourhood. Near the out-
skirts of the town they are still prettier, at least in the
evening, when they are brilliantly lighted up with lamps
hung in the trees, and always full of people; one, by
the Castle, is particularly pretty, with rude wooden plat-
forms hanging over the rushing river, seeming as if
slung, like a suspension bridge, by the wreaths of
creepers that have flung themselves everywhere, and
shaded by innumerable bending trees, another, near
the Bab Tuma, where the river is more foaming and its
voice louder, — very rickety and wretched, but all the
more picturesque for that, — hidden under weeping
willows and poplars, pomegranates, and planes, presented
an endless variety of costumes by night and by day in
the various groups enjoying kief. Near the Castle, too,
is another sight, a plane tree of which the trunk measures
forty feet in circumference, and within which several
hermits have lived, acquiring a green old age in a soli-
tude they would not find there now (although the little
door is yet unremoved in case of another occupant), since
it is in the centre of a busy suburb, and always sur-
rounded by crowds of laden mules, donkeys and camels,
with their noisy drivers.

Except for the cafes and baths, the streets of Damas-
cus are duller than those of any other Oriental town,
and people say they look poor because they expect so