DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5504#0036
130 Travels in Greece, Turkey, and the Holy Land,
loon furnished in the turkish style: his wife and children*
seated on a very low and wide divan, or ottoman, were dressed
in the turkish costume, with fillets, ornamented with sequins,
hound round the head. They wore velvet robes embroidered
with gold; and their hair, in tresses and perfumed, hung
on the shoulders. Two of the young ladies were pretty, but
listless, and motionless as statues, insomuch that at first sight
one would scarcely have suspected them to be animated
beings.
M. Malagamba, the English consul, resides in the same kan
with M. Pillavoine and the missionaries, who have a small
church in this vast edifice, gradually falling into decay.
The officers of the Dalmatian and Bosniac militia gave me
pressing invitations to take coffee with them at their quarters,
when I made my sketches on the ramparts : several of them
accompanied me in my rural excursions, and offered me their
horses. The Pacha's first black eunuch, a young Ethiopian
admirably skilled in all the military exercises, afforded me
the spectacle of the djeryd, in the vast plain which surrounds
the remains of the French redoubt. His Arabian horses, of
the breed of Guelfe, were selected from the haras of Solyman,
whose confident and particular favourite he was.
His admiration, his astonishment, on seeing a sketch, set all
comparison at defiance. He enquired of me, through an in-
terpreter, whether the secrets of my art did not go the length
of enabling me to divine what was passing in the interior of
the edifices the external form of which he could trace on the
paper. It was not without some difficulty that I quieted his
apprehensions on this head; but still I cannot help fancying
that he was not fully convinced of my innocence.
On the 12th of November I quitted Saint-Jcan-d'Acre with
a pretty numerous caravan, which, was joined by several offi-
cers belonging to the brig. At this time the Abbe Janson left
us, to visit Mount Libanon, and the religious establishments of
Sidon and Damascus. After having traversed Ca'ifa, and
passed beneath Mount Carmel, we came to a sandy beach, and
to a range of barren hills stretching along the sea shore, from
which they are distant about a league. The ruins of an ex-
tensive city, and those of the last fortress built by the crusa-
ders, rise above tufts of mastics and carob trees. Athmatha
displays her long deserted towers; her port choked with sand ;
her ramparts, once the noble refuge of the Christians of Pales-
tine; and her gardens, now become impassable morasses which
breathe an infected air.
We were overtaken by the night near the most wretched
hamlet in Syria : the kan of Tantoura was occupied by a cara-
loon furnished in the turkish style: his wife and children*
seated on a very low and wide divan, or ottoman, were dressed
in the turkish costume, with fillets, ornamented with sequins,
hound round the head. They wore velvet robes embroidered
with gold; and their hair, in tresses and perfumed, hung
on the shoulders. Two of the young ladies were pretty, but
listless, and motionless as statues, insomuch that at first sight
one would scarcely have suspected them to be animated
beings.
M. Malagamba, the English consul, resides in the same kan
with M. Pillavoine and the missionaries, who have a small
church in this vast edifice, gradually falling into decay.
The officers of the Dalmatian and Bosniac militia gave me
pressing invitations to take coffee with them at their quarters,
when I made my sketches on the ramparts : several of them
accompanied me in my rural excursions, and offered me their
horses. The Pacha's first black eunuch, a young Ethiopian
admirably skilled in all the military exercises, afforded me
the spectacle of the djeryd, in the vast plain which surrounds
the remains of the French redoubt. His Arabian horses, of
the breed of Guelfe, were selected from the haras of Solyman,
whose confident and particular favourite he was.
His admiration, his astonishment, on seeing a sketch, set all
comparison at defiance. He enquired of me, through an in-
terpreter, whether the secrets of my art did not go the length
of enabling me to divine what was passing in the interior of
the edifices the external form of which he could trace on the
paper. It was not without some difficulty that I quieted his
apprehensions on this head; but still I cannot help fancying
that he was not fully convinced of my innocence.
On the 12th of November I quitted Saint-Jcan-d'Acre with
a pretty numerous caravan, which, was joined by several offi-
cers belonging to the brig. At this time the Abbe Janson left
us, to visit Mount Libanon, and the religious establishments of
Sidon and Damascus. After having traversed Ca'ifa, and
passed beneath Mount Carmel, we came to a sandy beach, and
to a range of barren hills stretching along the sea shore, from
which they are distant about a league. The ruins of an ex-
tensive city, and those of the last fortress built by the crusa-
ders, rise above tufts of mastics and carob trees. Athmatha
displays her long deserted towers; her port choked with sand ;
her ramparts, once the noble refuge of the Christians of Pales-
tine; and her gardens, now become impassable morasses which
breathe an infected air.
We were overtaken by the night near the most wretched
hamlet in Syria : the kan of Tantoura was occupied by a cara-