DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11448#0315
CHAP. I.]
DR. WILSON.
3
in presence of their mutual friends ; or a priest perhaps pays a
friendly visit, with his dark robes and black turban, and the sim-
ple and social people continue in animated talk until the muezzin's
call from the minarets announces the hour of prayer to the Mos-
lem, and of retirement to these Christians.
While time thus passes with our hosts, we are rigidly confined
our upper-story, except when, once a-day, we take a short
walk, accompanied by our guardiano, who announces to every
one he meets that we are unclean ! This calumniation only
means that we are in quarantine, and people shun us accordingly,
vet never seem to think it unreasonable that such dirty fellows
should be allowed to go so much at large.
Our terraces commanded a splendid view—all city, or garden,
or grove, or sea, except where the Lebanon mountains started up
in every variety of form and beauty that mountains can assume:
here broken by deep glens, there mantled with vivid verdure ;
here a precipice was crowned by a Maronite village, or a convent,
there a stream gushed in silver cataract from among dark wood ;
beneath ran a line of golden sands fringed with foam, and, above,
the snow lay in streaks, flecking the broken summits. Our cot-
tage was near the water's edge ; and, when my companions were
asleep, and the household beneath us was still, even to the watch-
dog, it was pleasant to sit in the moonlight looking out upon the
quiet groves and the calm sea. Now and then tne silence was
broken by the fishermen who spread their nets along the shore, or
the lingering steps of some white-veiled girl and her turbaner
lover, whispering in all languages the nonsense that is eloquent,
when uttered by the lips we love.
One day 1 was agreeably surprised by a visit from the Rev. Dr.
Wilson, President of the Bombay Branch of the Asiatic Society.
I had had the pleasure of making his valuable acquaintance at
Cairo, and I now listened, with great interest, to the account of
his journey to Petra and Jerusalem, which I had been prevented
from sharing, to my great regret. He said that his Arabs, the
Towara, had behaved very ill and extortionately, during his jour-
ney from Mount Sinai to Wady Mousa ; while the calumniated
people of the latter place, in which lies Petra, had quite redeemed
their character in his estimation. He had made considerable ef
DR. WILSON.
3
in presence of their mutual friends ; or a priest perhaps pays a
friendly visit, with his dark robes and black turban, and the sim-
ple and social people continue in animated talk until the muezzin's
call from the minarets announces the hour of prayer to the Mos-
lem, and of retirement to these Christians.
While time thus passes with our hosts, we are rigidly confined
our upper-story, except when, once a-day, we take a short
walk, accompanied by our guardiano, who announces to every
one he meets that we are unclean ! This calumniation only
means that we are in quarantine, and people shun us accordingly,
vet never seem to think it unreasonable that such dirty fellows
should be allowed to go so much at large.
Our terraces commanded a splendid view—all city, or garden,
or grove, or sea, except where the Lebanon mountains started up
in every variety of form and beauty that mountains can assume:
here broken by deep glens, there mantled with vivid verdure ;
here a precipice was crowned by a Maronite village, or a convent,
there a stream gushed in silver cataract from among dark wood ;
beneath ran a line of golden sands fringed with foam, and, above,
the snow lay in streaks, flecking the broken summits. Our cot-
tage was near the water's edge ; and, when my companions were
asleep, and the household beneath us was still, even to the watch-
dog, it was pleasant to sit in the moonlight looking out upon the
quiet groves and the calm sea. Now and then tne silence was
broken by the fishermen who spread their nets along the shore, or
the lingering steps of some white-veiled girl and her turbaner
lover, whispering in all languages the nonsense that is eloquent,
when uttered by the lips we love.
One day 1 was agreeably surprised by a visit from the Rev. Dr.
Wilson, President of the Bombay Branch of the Asiatic Society.
I had had the pleasure of making his valuable acquaintance at
Cairo, and I now listened, with great interest, to the account of
his journey to Petra and Jerusalem, which I had been prevented
from sharing, to my great regret. He said that his Arabs, the
Towara, had behaved very ill and extortionately, during his jour-
ney from Mount Sinai to Wady Mousa ; while the calumniated
people of the latter place, in which lies Petra, had quite redeemed
their character in his estimation. He had made considerable ef