the conversation sometimes took a political and sometimes a religious turn, they readily joined in it, and expressed their opinions with great freedom; neither party, however, seeming to be offended at the remarks of the other. In this agreeable manner, the time passed away so rapidly, that it was midnight before we were aware of it, and still later before our party broke up.

Wednesday, March 14.-One of the first duties of the morning was to pay a visit to Sheikh Shibley, whom we found, as early as sunrise, surrounded by a party of his followers, in a large room in which he generally received strangers, and heard such complaints as it fell within his power to attend to and remedy. On being presented to him, I was invited to come and seat myself by his side, and we soon entered into a familiar conversation on general matters, which afterwards turned to those of a more local and particular nature. He was in person of the middle stature, and of an open countenance and agreeable manners; his age could not have exceeded forty-five; his dress was plain, and his whole demeanour entirely free from ostentation. He asked me many questions respecting Mr. Burckhardt, whom he had known under the name of Ibrahim, in a short stay which he had made here : and in the course of this conversation, having once or twice intimated to me, that from the number of persons present our intercourse could not be so free as he desired, he asked me for a small scrap of paper, which I fortunately possessed, and on this he wrote an Arabic line, which he handed to me without showing it to any one else, the purport of which was, " It may be, between us, another time, as it was with Ibrahim." I inferred from this, that though a chief of the Druses, the sheikh might be disposed to communicate much when alone that he felt it due to his station to repress when others were present, and regretted that circumstances would not admit of my staying a day or two with him, for the purpose more confidential and familiar intercourse. Under existing circumstances our conversation was confined to topics of the most

of a

general nature, in which every one could join. Before we took leave, an excellent breakfast was brought in, consisting of the usual dishes of the Turks, who live much more expensively and luxuriously than the Arabs, to which were added walnuts and dipse or the sweet syrup made from dry raisins; and after a hearty meal we arose to depart.

In passing through the town, on our way to the house of Abu Farah's friend, at which we had slept, I observed the fragments of old buildings, wrought up into more modern ones, shewing that this had been the site of some ancient town now destroyed, and that many of the present edifices had been constructed out of the ruins of earlier ones. One of these fragments was the sculptured architrave of a doorway, the upper compartment containing a device of pointed leaves overlapping each other, and going from the left end to the right and the right to the left till they met in the centre; the under compartment was a series of more rounded leaves or scales, the inner one deeply cut, and the outer in slight relief. There were also several plain columns seen in different parts of the town, and some buildings with pointed arches in them, which seemed to be original works, and not repairs, though having the appearance of considerable antiquity.

Being determined not to delay my progress, whenever it was in my power to prevent it, I resisted all solicitations to halt for a day or two at this place, and left Aehrrah, much against the inclination of my guides, as early as nine o'clock. Our road now went nearly south, that being the direction of Bosra, from which we hoped to find a small caravan for Damascus ; and near the town we passed a small stream called Wadi-Darah. In half an hour beyond this, we passed on our left the village of El-Mejeamer, on the side of a hill. This village was inhabited principally by Druses; and in the short space between it and the town we had quitted, the industry of these people was apparent, in the superior order and neatness every where conspicuous, as well as in the more cultivated state of the land. In this instance, as in a thousand

others I had witnessed, it was easy to be perceived how much the whole country might be benefited by a change of government. Wherever the despotism of the Turk extends, every motive to improvement is taken away, and every exertion paralysed; but where the influence of his tyranny is not felt, human industry makes the gifts of nature subservient to the happiness of man.

In half an hour after passing the Druse village of El-Mejeamer, we came to a ruined town called Walter, seated on the top of a hill, from which, as it afforded a commanding view of the surrounding country, I took the following bearings:

At Walter, the place from which the foregoing bearings were taken by compass, and the distances computed by the eye, there are remains of Roman masonry in rustic work, particularly in a

large reservoir for water and cistern there; but the place is now entirely in ruins, and has not, probably been inhabited for many years past.

In half an hour from leaving this, we passed on our right the ruined town called Deer-el-Zebear, and soon afterwards, on our left, the town of Krift, on a hill, both now deserted. In a quarter of an hour more we passed through the bed of the Wadi-Zeady, which in the rainy season is filled by a brook, the stones now left bare by the absence of the stream being of a deep jet or coal black; and in another quarter of an hour passed on our right, the deserted town of Jemereen, much larger in size than the two preceding it. At the northern extremity of this town I observed a square tower, with five successive cornices or mouldings, at different distances from each other, resembling the stages of a Chinese pagoda, and in the centre of the town, appeared the southern front of a large building, seeming to be in the ancient stile of the principal edifices of this country. In the second story were two broad projecting cornices, not extending the whole length of the front, but a little way only beyond the centre, and between these were three windows, two of a square form and a circular one between them; the lower part of the building was hidden by what appeared to me at this distance to be the wall of an inclosed court. On the whole there was more to excite curiosity than to gratify it, and I passed this place, as I had done many others, with a regret that the nature of my circumstances did not admit of my devoting a day or two to their examination.

We pursued our way without interruption; being impatient to ascertain the state of things at Bosra, and in half an hour from our last position, passed a stream called Abu Hamāgha, and in another half hour entered Bosra in safety.

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HAVING alighted at the house of a person well known to both my guides, our first enquiry was as to the state of the roads, and the probable safety of a journey from thence to Damascus. In answer to our questions we received only vague assertions of what was already known to us, namely, that there was no assurance of safety in any part of the Haurān, without being well armed and in a party. The communication between this place and Damascus had not been so frequent of late as formerly, though there were occasionally parties of fifteen or twenty persons on horseback who assembled for the purpose of mutual protection on the road. We