the scale of happiness and ease. They have here, as on the banks of the Nile, a very fertile and productive country; and though the one is a flat plain of alluvial soil, and the other is mountain and valley interspersed, yet each would, with proper cultivation, produce abundantly all the fruits of the earth, for which the climate is favourable. In Egypt, however, they are most severely taxed, which might account for their general poverty; but at Assalt they are free of all burdens, and the slow progress made by them in the acquisition of wealth and improvement must be attributed mainly to their ignorance, and their excessive love of idleness and gossiping from house to house, to hear the news and acquaint themselves with every man's business, at the same time that they neglect their own. This is indeed more or less the case among all the Turks and Arabs that I have ever yet seen, and materially assists, conjointly with the destroying influence of despotic governments, to keep them in the low state of civilization in which they remain. The Christians in Syria, who are really oppressed by heavy burdens and odious distinctions, however much they may be inclined to indolence, do not generally indulge it, but lead a very active and busy life. The Christians of Assalt, however, being free of all such hardships, instead of profiting by that freedom to increase their strength, wealth, and respectability, waste more than half their time in idleness, and instead of advancing beyond, seem really to recede behind, their Christian brethren on the coast.

pieces with axes, as pieces of stone out of a soft rock; and so, loading the bulrush boat, they row back. If any fall into the water through the deficiency of the boat, yet he never sinks as in other waters, though he knows not how to swim, but lies upon the water as if he were the best swimmer in the world. For the lake naturally bears any thing that has either a vegetative or an animal life, except such things as are solid, and seem to be without pores, as silver, gold, lead, or the like; and even these are much longer and slower in sinking than when they are cast into other waters. And this profit and advantage the barbarians reap from it: they transport this pitch into Egypt, and there sell it for the use of embalming of the dead; for if they do not mix this with other aromatic spices, the bodies cannot be preserved long from putrefaction. Diodorus Siculus, Book xix. c. 6.

The people here rise early, and after prayers at home sally forth as if in quest of society, often halting at the door of the first house before which they may happen to find others assembled. Here they remain to smoke and drink coffee sometimes till eleven or twelve o'clock, when perhaps they go home to dinner. After this they must have tobacco and coffee again; and then an hour's sleep, or even two, is a common indulgence. By the time they awake they feel disposed to take another stroll from home to hear the news; and this ramble from house to house continues until sunset, when they return home to supper, and even after that often go out to join some assembly, at whatever house they may have met to pass away the evening. Except the mere cultivators of the soil, and men who live by the work of their own hands, no one seems to labour; and with the small traders and shopkeepers, as well as those who are proprietors of land or animals, however inconsiderable the amount of their rent or produce, they scarcely apply an hour a day to the transaction of business: all the rest is given up to going about from house to house, or indulging in the most unprofitable indolence, leaving the females of the family at home to do all the drudgery of the household work, while they either sleep or smoke away their lazy existence. Not a single interval is filled up by reading, either on religious or any other subjects; and of writing they do as little as possible, it being thought troublesome to pen even a common letter of business when really necessary. Their information on all subjects of general knowledge is extremely confined, and their enquiries, when prompted by curiosity to make any, are so ill-directed, that it will be long before these alone extend their knowledge to any good or useful purpose.

The Christians of this place being all of the Greek church, are great admirers of the Russians, who are the only people of any great nation that are of the same faith. They constantly speak of their prowess, and consider them the first people in the world. The sovereigns of Europe they consider bound to unite together

I

for the purpose of rescuing the Holy Land from the infidel grasp of the Turks; and they understand the Holy Alliance to have no other aim in view. Buonaparte is their favourite hero; and not even by his warmest admirers in Europe was he ever so extravagantly eulogized as he is here. They all believe that his only object was to rescue the holy sepulchre from infidel hands, and give to the Christians of the East a complete deliverance. The French army, and the battles fought by them in Syria, are therefore frequent themes of conversation, and are never spoken of without the greatest exaggeration; though it must be admitted that a mere handful of the French often defeated and dispersed thousands of Turks and Arabs combined. Facts, indeed, and those too notorious to be controverted, would furnish them sufficient food for admiration; but not satisfied with this, they relate events which none but those who believed in the existence of modern miracles could for a moment credit.

Assalt, Wednesday, February 28. - My Nazarene guide, Mallim Georgis, not being so well acquainted with the road from hence to Karak as with the first part of our journey, it became advisable to procure a person who not only knew the way, but was acquainted with the Bedouins of the country through which we had to pass. The man who was deemed best qualified for this journey was soon brought to me; and Abu Fārah, for that was his name, pleased me much at our first interview. From his general appearance and manner I had taken him for a Mohammedan; but I had occasion to learn soon afterwards that he was quite as much a Christian as a Moslem; his faith and practice being so equally balanced, that he might be taken for a connecting link between the two. He had all the manners of a Mohammedan, though his profession was that of a Christian; but he was by nature so constituted, that his feelings would be always on the side of whichever religion afforded him the greatest privileges; as, in the present instance, he regarded his confinement to one wife as a very painful sacrifice, though

enjoined by his faith, and consoled himself, as well as he could, for this restriction, by rejoicing that he was at least permitted to eat pork and drink wine whenever he could obtain them, a pleasure denied to those who could exceed him in the number of the females of his harem.

As the morning appeared to promise us a favourable day, I was determined to set out in prosecution of my journey; but, as usual, new difficulties were started, and new objections moved. So common is it, however, to be interrupted in the most reasonable designs and ordinary occupations of life, by the busy idlers who throng round every one setting out on a journey of any distance, that I conceived their objections less worthy of attention than perhaps they deserved. Some were of opinion, that, if we should get to Karak in safety, it would be difficult at any time, but quite impossible at the present, to make a journey from thence to Baghdad, from the hostile operations of the Wahabi Arabs extending over the intervening country. A still greater number thought we should not even reach Karak, in consequence of the Beni-Szakher Arabs often coming in upon the borders of that town, and making the road dangerous to all passengers, but particularly to strangers. Abu Farah, my new companion, was well known, however, to all the Bedouins, whose small encampments lay between the places on the road, and we hoped by this means to make our journey good. An objection was next raised by my guide himself, as to our setting out to-day, he insisting on it that Youm-el-Arbaah, or the fourth day, was the most inauspicious day of the week on which to commence a journey. It was a long while before he would be prevailed on to start until to-morrow; but the threat of procuring another guide, if he declined, removed his scruples, and our departure was accordingly determined.

On

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 28.- It was about ten o'clock in the morning when we mounted our horses to set out on our journey. leaving Assalt, we passed down by the foot of the hill, on the side of which the town stands, and watered our horses there at a large trough and well, at which the women of the place were washing garments. From hence we passed on through a narrow valley, which runs eastward of the town; and, after continuing about a quarter of a mile in that direction, turns off to the south-east, and grows wider and wider till its termination. Near the town, on this its eastern side, the hills that enclose the valley are laid out in vine-beds. In the rocks are grottoes, which particularly abound on the northern side of the valley, and many of these are, even