the Bedouins; they will tell you that were they even to kill one of Saoud's family, and that I should pronounce their security, they would trust my word.'"*

All individuals in the East who have had extensive dealings with the Bedouins bear universal testimony to the possession of the above qualities by the bulk of the tribes, and no people have better opportunities of judging and forming an opinion than the merchants of Damascus who are engaged in the Bagdad trade.

Now I ask those who have the word civilization always on their lips, and who would inquire if Ibrahim Pasha is not collecting some of the Bedouins of the Haouran into villages and civilizing them, in what respect do they consider the great bulk of the lower orders of people in England to be more advanced in civilization than the poor Bedouin of the desert? and in what way is their discharge of the private and social duties of life superior to his? Does their intercourse with each other display a purer spirit of charity, of brotherly love and affection, a more scrupulous exercise of the private duties of social life? Are they more ready to shield the oppressed, to feed the hungry? Do they possess more good nature, more cheerfulness and

*Letter to Toussoun Pasha.-Burckhardt.

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softness of temper? Are they truer in friendship and more valuable and pleasing as companions? Do they possess more equanimity of temper and peacefulness of demeanour? Do they live in a more brotherly manner together, and do they cherish in their breasts purer sentiments of mercy and compassion than those people they are so apt to term uncivilized and barbarous? Does their conduct towards each other display more guarded forbearance than that of the Bedouins,—are they still more careful than he is not to use opprobrious language and abusive epithets?

Are they disgraced among each other if on slight occasions they stigmatize their fellow man of the same tribe, "of the same village," with whom they are constantly meeting in social intercourse, as "a traitor," "a liar," an " inhospitable wretch," and is the society of a man who has been known to use such expressions groundlessly and without sufficient cause ever after avoided, as a person whose society ought to be shunned among the bulk of the English nation? And lastly, is intoxication so utterly unknown among the British people, as it is among the Bedouins of the desert?

What then is the criterion of civilization in Eng

land, the nation which assumes to be the most civilized of the whole world, as well as the most wealthy?

Is the beating of children as I have seen them often and often beaten by the lower orders of people in England, a criterion of civilization?

Are the assaults, the black eyes, the brutal treatment of defenceless females, the cases of drunkenness, debauchery, villainy and crime, which we see figuring in the columns of the police reports every morning on our breakfast table, and which disgust us with the very sight of a newspaper, criterions of civilization?

Is that edifying exhibition to which we are sometimes treated of a woman exposed for sale by her husband in a fair with a halter round her neck, a criterion of civilization?

Are the boxing matches with which we are so frequently entertained in our streets, when the combatants are surrounded by an applauding circle of spectators, who seem to take delight in the sight of bloody noses, and broken heads, criterions of civilization?

Are the scenes of drunkenness and vice exhibited within the purlieus of the spirit-shops of London, and of all our great towns, and the disorderly state

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of our streets after dark; such in fact as is nowhere else to be met with in the world, criterions of civilization?

Is the treatment the little children have been proved to experience in our factories, a criterion of civilization?

Are the prisons which everywhere deck the land in sombre majesty, the most imposing buildings after the cathedrals, criterions of civilization?

Are the cases that are constantly brought before the petty sessions in England, women binding their husbands over in recognizances to keep the peace towards them, &c., &c., criterions of civilization?

Let us not be too hasty in calling the Bedouins uncivilized, because they are poor, live in tents, eat coarse food, and are not so learned as ourselves; and instead of restlessly inquiring whether the governor of Syria is adopting measures to civilize them, let us rather direct our inquiries nearer home, and ascertain whether reformation and improvement is not more urgently required there than in distant regions.

CHAPTER XIII.

DAMASCUS.—THE

GARDENS.-THE FRUITS.—THE BAZAARS.

A DAMASCENE TAILOR. THE GATE BAH GIRUN.-BEDOUIN SHEIKH.-SILKS AND MANUFACTURES.-JEWELlers.

SABRES, LADIES' COSTUME.

DAMASCENE GRANDEES,

DAMASCENE GIRL. DAMASCENE LADIES.

EYE. THE SADDLE BAZAAR.-THE

CASTLE.

WEDDING.

-

THE EVIL NARGILLA. THE OLD

PROCESSION TO THE BATH.-PRO

CESSION TO THE BRIDEGROOM'S HOUSE. THE WALLS OF DAMASCUS.-THE GATE-WAYS.-- THE POPULATION OF THE

TOWN.

Ἔτι δὲ καὶ ἡ Δαμασκος πολις αξιολογος σχεδόν τε καὶ ἐπιφανεστάτη των ταῦτη κατὰ τὰ Περσικά.

STRABO, LIB. XVI.

Nov. 9th. Since the rains, the weather has completely changed, and the mornings and evenings are very cold.

From the delight I experienced in walking down to Damascus after breakfast through the rich gardens, I can well comprehend the lavish praises that have been bestowed on this delicious spot.