DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11448#0466
THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS.
[chap, t?
freshment of any kind for twenty. Finding there was still a
gallop in my steed's elastic limbs, I pushed on for Damascus,
leaving my people to follow more slowly. After a couple of
hours' hard riding, I came to another range of mountains, from
beyond which opened the view of Damascus, that the Prophet
abstained from as too delightful for this probationary world.
It is said that after many days of toilsome travel, beholding the
city thus lying at his feet, he exclaimed, " Only one Paradise is
allowed to man; I will not take mine in this world ;" and so he
turned away his horse's head from Damascus, and pitched his
tent in the desert.
1 reined up my steed with difficulty on the side of the moun-
tain ; he had already, perhaps, heard the murmur of the distant
waters, or instinct told him that Nature's life-streams flowed be-
neath that bright green foliage. For miles around us lay the
dead desert, whose sands appeared to quiver under the shower of.
sunbeams j* far away to the south and east it spread like a bound-
less ocean; but there, beneath our feet, lay such an island of
verdure as no where else perhaps exists. Mass upon mass of
dark, delicious foliage rolled like waves among garden tracts of
brilliant emerald green. Here and there, the clustering bios-
soms of the orange or the nectarine lay like foam upon that ver-
dant sea. Minarets, white as ivory, shot up their fairy towers
among the groves; and purple mosque-domes, tipped with the
golden crescent, gave the only sign that a city lay bowered be-
neath those rich plantations.
One hour's gallop brought me to the suburban gates of Mezze,
and thenceforth I rode on through streets, or rather lanes, of pleas-
ant shadow. For many an hour we had seen no water: now it
gushed, and gleamed, and sparkled all around us; from aque-
duct above, and rivulet below, and marble fountain in the walls
•—everywhere it poured forth its rich abundance ; and my horse
and I soon quenched our burning thirst in Abana and Pharphar.
On we went, among gardens, and fountains, and odours, and
* I do not know whether this is the effect of any possible evaporation, or of
the refraction of the rays of light; but all within the horizon seemed sometime*
of a stir, which was very trying to the sight.
[chap, t?
freshment of any kind for twenty. Finding there was still a
gallop in my steed's elastic limbs, I pushed on for Damascus,
leaving my people to follow more slowly. After a couple of
hours' hard riding, I came to another range of mountains, from
beyond which opened the view of Damascus, that the Prophet
abstained from as too delightful for this probationary world.
It is said that after many days of toilsome travel, beholding the
city thus lying at his feet, he exclaimed, " Only one Paradise is
allowed to man; I will not take mine in this world ;" and so he
turned away his horse's head from Damascus, and pitched his
tent in the desert.
1 reined up my steed with difficulty on the side of the moun-
tain ; he had already, perhaps, heard the murmur of the distant
waters, or instinct told him that Nature's life-streams flowed be-
neath that bright green foliage. For miles around us lay the
dead desert, whose sands appeared to quiver under the shower of.
sunbeams j* far away to the south and east it spread like a bound-
less ocean; but there, beneath our feet, lay such an island of
verdure as no where else perhaps exists. Mass upon mass of
dark, delicious foliage rolled like waves among garden tracts of
brilliant emerald green. Here and there, the clustering bios-
soms of the orange or the nectarine lay like foam upon that ver-
dant sea. Minarets, white as ivory, shot up their fairy towers
among the groves; and purple mosque-domes, tipped with the
golden crescent, gave the only sign that a city lay bowered be-
neath those rich plantations.
One hour's gallop brought me to the suburban gates of Mezze,
and thenceforth I rode on through streets, or rather lanes, of pleas-
ant shadow. For many an hour we had seen no water: now it
gushed, and gleamed, and sparkled all around us; from aque-
duct above, and rivulet below, and marble fountain in the walls
•—everywhere it poured forth its rich abundance ; and my horse
and I soon quenched our burning thirst in Abana and Pharphar.
On we went, among gardens, and fountains, and odours, and
* I do not know whether this is the effect of any possible evaporation, or of
the refraction of the rays of light; but all within the horizon seemed sometime*
of a stir, which was very trying to the sight.