DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11448#0322
16
THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS.
[chap, l
ous party, made us think that the monks might have pleasant times
of it, after all, notwithstanding that this Eden of theirs was Eve-
less.
This was the site of the ancient Lycopolis, or Wolf-city : there
are few or no remains of it except the aqueduct; and the name,
degenerated as it is, into its canine appellation. On the rocks,
however, that line the steep pathway, are some verv curious
figures and inscriptions, purporting that the warlike array of
Egyptians, Persians, and Romans, had in their turn passed by:
Sesostris, Cambyses, and Aurelian, had been before us.
Another day, I went to dine at some distance from Beyrout,
with a British officer of distinguished birth and gallantry, who has
married a Maronite lady of great beauty, and settled in her coun-
try. After an hour's gallop over the rocky promontory on which
Beyrout is situated, through lanes of cactus and gardens, alter-
nating with sandy tracts, and groups of pine-trees, I arrived at a
picturesque cottage, commanding a noble view of the Lebanon. I
was sitting on the divan with my courteous host, smoking our
chibouques and talking about England, when his bride entered,
dressed in her beautiful Arabian costume and still more beautiful
smiles : I no longer wondered that he had abandoned his career,
fame, fortune—every thing—in such cause. After a dinner,
dressed and served in Arab style, we adjourned to take our pipe
and coffee on the house-top, where we passed a most pleasan*
hour. The sun was setting in great glory on the sea, bathing the
Lebaaon in a flood of golden light like that of Raphael's Trans-
figuration. On each side of the peninsula on which we stood;
two fine bays swept gracefully away to the right and left, till the
eye reached Tripoli on the North, and Tyre on the South. What
a wide range of associations did every glance flung over that
sacred region give birth to! But the beautiful present absorbed
the past, and we had then no thought but for what fell upon the
eye or ear. The soft evening hour had brought out each Syrian
family to their house-tops, and the gardens round were thickly
inhabited : from every terraced roof rose the faint clouds of the
chibouque ; blue, red, and purple dresses glittered on every group
that was gathered round us, with the veil-enfolded horns of the
THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS.
[chap, l
ous party, made us think that the monks might have pleasant times
of it, after all, notwithstanding that this Eden of theirs was Eve-
less.
This was the site of the ancient Lycopolis, or Wolf-city : there
are few or no remains of it except the aqueduct; and the name,
degenerated as it is, into its canine appellation. On the rocks,
however, that line the steep pathway, are some verv curious
figures and inscriptions, purporting that the warlike array of
Egyptians, Persians, and Romans, had in their turn passed by:
Sesostris, Cambyses, and Aurelian, had been before us.
Another day, I went to dine at some distance from Beyrout,
with a British officer of distinguished birth and gallantry, who has
married a Maronite lady of great beauty, and settled in her coun-
try. After an hour's gallop over the rocky promontory on which
Beyrout is situated, through lanes of cactus and gardens, alter-
nating with sandy tracts, and groups of pine-trees, I arrived at a
picturesque cottage, commanding a noble view of the Lebanon. I
was sitting on the divan with my courteous host, smoking our
chibouques and talking about England, when his bride entered,
dressed in her beautiful Arabian costume and still more beautiful
smiles : I no longer wondered that he had abandoned his career,
fame, fortune—every thing—in such cause. After a dinner,
dressed and served in Arab style, we adjourned to take our pipe
and coffee on the house-top, where we passed a most pleasan*
hour. The sun was setting in great glory on the sea, bathing the
Lebaaon in a flood of golden light like that of Raphael's Trans-
figuration. On each side of the peninsula on which we stood;
two fine bays swept gracefully away to the right and left, till the
eye reached Tripoli on the North, and Tyre on the South. What
a wide range of associations did every glance flung over that
sacred region give birth to! But the beautiful present absorbed
the past, and we had then no thought but for what fell upon the
eye or ear. The soft evening hour had brought out each Syrian
family to their house-tops, and the gardens round were thickly
inhabited : from every terraced roof rose the faint clouds of the
chibouque ; blue, red, and purple dresses glittered on every group
that was gathered round us, with the veil-enfolded horns of the