bers of the Greek church seem to have the itch of controversy more strongly than any other sect which I have seen, whether infidels or believers.

We had been suffered to visit the ruins here perfectly free from interruption; but while we remained in the house, all the Christian women and children came to see us, exercising quite as much curiosity in that particular as one would find in Nubia, or in the Arabian Deserts.

There were many inferior vestiges of antiquity within the town and in its vicinity, as well as the quarries to the S.W. of the town, which we did not see, from want of time, besides the ruins of eight or ten smaller mosques, whose minarets still remain. *

Sunday, April 28, 1816.-— We were detained by the service of the church for about two hours in the morning, after which we took coffee with the priest, and prepared to depart. I had given to the head servant, for our stay there, a Spanish dollar, besides some paras to each of the inferior ones, and having paid for our corn, &c. had thought this sufficient; but the priest himself, who

* Balbeck is described by Benjamin of Tudela under the name of Bagh-el-Beik, in the valley below Mount Lebanon. He says it was built by Solomon in favour of the daughter of Pharaoh, on his marriage with whom the Canticles were composed. The palace, as he calls it, was then ruined; but he noticed the large stones, twenty palms long and twelve broad, and connected without cement, as well as the common opinion of its being the work of genii: he speaks also of the beautiful fountain which still continues to embellish this agreeable spot.

Tadmor in the Desert, or Palmyra, was also known to this early traveller (although the general impression is, that its ruins were unknown from the time of the Romans till they were discovered by some merchants from Aleppo at the beginning of the last century). He speaks of Tadmor as having been built by Solomon upon the same plan as Balbeck, and with stones of equal grandeur. He says, that in his time there were 400 Jews at Tadmor (so that it must have been then well-peopled, as these were doubtless not the only inhabitants), who were courageous and expert in war, and who committed hostilities against the Christians as well as against the Arabs; these last were then under the dominion of Noraldin (Nour-al-deen, the Light of Day), the king of the Turks, and who came to the succour of the Ismaelites, or Bedouin Arabs, their neighbours. The chief of these Jews was Isaac, surnamed the Greek, and Nathan and Uzziel.

knew all this, did not scruple to ask for a bakshish when we mounted our horses. To set such a demand in its proper light, I desired him to enumerate the actual expence we had occasioned him in bread, milk, and eggs, and reckoned a piastre per night for the use of an empty room, without even a mat; when he found it did not amount to more than half the sum distributed among the servants, and was forced to acknowledge, by my pressing the question hard upon him, that the dollar given to the principal one would be claimed by himself, and a few paras given to the holder of it as his sufficient reward.

This affair being adjusted, we left Balbeck about eight o'clock, and going out over a pass in the ruined wall of the town, kept along the foot of Anti-Libanus, over barren eminences covered with a light clayey soil. From thence we turned round occasionally to enjoy a view of Balbeck, the splendid ruins of which, surrounded with trees and cultivated ground, presented the most picturesque appearance from hence.

By keeping on the summits of these rounded hills, and a little to the left of the beaten road, we passed several sepulchral grottoes, all plain, as well as some large stone sarcophagi, with pent-roof covers, raised at the corners like those of Jerash. We had seen a sarcophagus of white marble, sculptured with the usual devices of wreaths, among the ruins of the town; the ruins of the town; but these were of a coarse dark stone, and quite plain. Soon afterwards, and within an hour from the time of our setting out, we came to a valley with steep rocky banks on each side, which appeared to have been the necropolis of the ancient city, as we saw both grottoes and sarcophagi there, and a large square isolated mass at the head of the valley, which looked like a tomb constructed of masonry, and resembling, both in form and size, the one seen near Gherbt-elSookh in Belkah, on the road from Amman to Oom-el-Russās.

This little vale, which looked like a rupture in the side of the mountain, was watered by a fine clear stream descending from above, and its narrow bed well cultivated, but we could not learn its name.

From hence our track was barren and uninteresting for nearly three hours, until we reached a small village half in ruins, called Loobby, when we again saw cultivation and trees. This village is seated also in a valley, and is well watered by a clear stream running down from the side of Anti-Libanus into the middle of the plain, and forming there a river called Nahr-el-Hanny. We could trace its winding course to the N. E. by the poplars growing along. its banks, and it is said to run in that direction for about two hours, when it joins the Nahr-el-Assy (the Rebel River), or the Orontes, to the northward of it.

We went from this village along the banks of an artificial canal, the stream of which was so slow that it was called Moyah-t-elMejerrh, or the tardy waters, in contradistinction to the Nahr-elAssy, or the rebellious river, from the rapidity of its course. The stream of this canal falls at last into the Orontes; but its use at this moment was not apparent, though it might formerly have assisted cultivation, and conveyed water to some town.

In about an hour from hence we reached the village of Ain, seated in a narrow valley, and having many gardens and mulberry trees near it. In another hour we came to Feeky, a larger village, enjoying a similar situation; and in an hour more to Ras, a smaller settlement, mostly in ruins. The whole of these are inhabited by Christians at present, and do not now contain more than from 200 to 300 inhabitants each. They are governed by their own peculiar sheiks, subject to the Aga of Balbeck, and live in a sort of enmity, amounting almost to war, with the Metoualis, at the foot of Libanus, on the other side of the plain.

Our course had been thus far about N. E. by E., the direction of the great valley between the two ranges of mountains being about N. E. It is not called the Bukhāh by the natives from Bālbeck, northward, but by the name of the nearest town, or the government which it happens to be under. The range of inferior hills to the east of Libanus, or, as it may be called, the base of Libanus itself, approaches in some places so near to the foot of

Anti-Libanus, that the valley between them varies from ten to two miles in breadth. Libenein continues to preserve its name throughout; but the eastern range, called, to the southward of Balbeck, Jebel-el-Wast, is here known only by the name of Jebelel-Shurk, or the eastern mountain.

From the hill above the village of Ras we could see a large lake formed by the Orontes, bearing north of us from fifteen to twenty miles, and the hills of Hamah to the N. N. E., distant at least fifty. Both Libanus and Anti-Libanus taper away here to low hills, and receding equally from each other, leave between them a wide plain, extending for an indefinite distance to the northward, interrupted only by the hills of Hamah to the N. N. E., and having an unbounded horizon to the N. E. and E. N. E., where the level gradually rises in that direction towards the great Desert of Palmyra.

From Ras we made a little bend for half an hour to the northward, and then went again N. E., over a stony and arid plain, for nearly three hours, passing by a ruined khan, with loop-holes in its walls, and arriving just before sunset at a small ruined village called El-Ghāh. We drank at the only well here, about a furlong to the south of the town, and, alighting, sought out the sheik. We were at first very coolly received, and told that we might sleep among the ruined huts; until assuming a high tone and military air, we were treated as Turks generally are when they visit such of their Arab subjects as dare not defy them: for my servant, who was himself a green-turbaned Hadjee, had insinuated that I was from the governor of Damascus, going to Aleppo.

The place in which we were received was an old Mohammedan castle with round towers in its walls, and a range of small chambers around an open court on the inside, like a khan. We were served with a supper of rice, kid's flesh, and some milk, but were obliged to sleep on the terrace in the open air, as we found most of the people themselves did. After sunset the cattle and flocks were driven in, and all the village took shelter on the inside

of the walls, the houses on the outside being ruined, and the neighbourhood infested by robbers. They live, too, in a sort of war with the Metoualees, to the west of them; so that this retirement within a small space, is necessary to their security.

The inhabitants of El-Ghab are all Christians, and have a priest among them, their whole number amounting to about 100. Many of the women and children are handsome, and they wear the blue gown and narrow red apron, as in the villages N. W. of Damascus. They go with their faces unveiled, and wear over their head a coarse muslin cloth of blue, with red border and large red flowers in the centre, which hangs down the back, and is sometimes folded round the neck.

Monday, April 29. The noise of a hundred animals, combined with a storm of wind from the S. W., and several showers of rain, prevented our obtaining any sleep, and occasioned us to be stirring before the dawn. From the conversation of the preceding evening, as well as the information we had received at Balbeck, the road from hence to Hhoms seemed unsafe to be travelled without an escort. We were content to desire one horseman only from the sheik, and this chiefly as a guide, since the many cross paths over the plain rendered that absolutely necessary. No one among

them, however, could be found content to go alone; and when we consented to take two, these would not go under ten piasters each, as it required a long day to reach that place, and another day to make the journey of return.

While this affair was in suspense, I made some enquiries respecting the source of the Nahr-el-Ahssy, or Orontes, which rises in the neighbourhood of this place. It was pointed out to me near a small hill at the foot of Lebanon, and bore, by this direction, W. N. W. about four hours' journey for a man on foot. On the hill itself is a high and large tower, seen at a great distance, and called Koormee, bearing N. W. by W. three hours distant; and behind it, in the hollow between the hill and the mountain, is a large village,