Sheikh, through the interest of Mr. Farren with Ibrahim Pasha, has lately been invested with a pelisse, and appointed to collect the tribute from the different Arab tribes who in summer pasture their herds in the desert adjoining Damascus, and between Damascus and Palmyra.

After his appointment he came to thank Mr. Farren for the service he had done him, and requested, that if ever he could be of the slightest use to him or to his friends, he hoped he would command his services. Consequently, on our arrival, a messenger was dispatched to his camp in the desert, requesting him to guarantee us a safe passage to Palmyra, which he answered by presenting himself and a portion of his tribe, with dromedaries and horses to carry us thither and to bring us back; announcing that he would himself accompany us and guarantee our safety; and when once the stranger has accepted the hospitality of the Bedouin, or the Bedouin that of the stranger by, in the simple expression of their language, eating bread and salt with him, he is equally protected by his host and by the whole

CHAPTER VII.

DEPARTURE FOR PALMYRA.-MOUNTING DROMEDARIES.BEDOUIN ENCAMPMENTS.-SHAM COMBAT.-BEDOUIN WAR

LA GERUSALEMME LIBERATA.

OCT. 24th. At three o'clock in the afternoon, under the shade of the trees outside the house, we found the dromedaries ready arranged for the journey; they were lying on their bellies, twisting their heads from side to side, and grunting when any one approached them. The Bedouin Arabs were busily engaged with ropes and packing apparatus; and the great beasts made strange noises

as our slight provision of food and baggage was placed on their backs, and the water-skins, which had been just purchased new at Damascus, to carry our water across the desert.

Soon after three o'clock we all mounted on horseback, and were highly amused at the fright of the Maltese servant preparing to vault into the saddle, stuck on the hump of a dromedary, the Bedouin Arabs pressing all the time with their whole weight upon the legs of the animal to prevent his rising, and recommending the poor Maltese, who was a very fat man, to be quick, and hold fast to the saddle before and behind; as unless great care is taken, when the huge animal springs up with his forelegs, he will inevitably tumble you off over his rump, which if you escape, you have the same chance of being pitched over his head when he afterwards brings up his hind legs to gain his proper erect position.

Away went the hat of the poor Maltese, down he came upon his back, and the instant after, was pitched over on his stomach; but clinging fast, he saved himself from falling. The other servant, who was an Arab, managed better. Our long procession, with the Sheikh at its head riding an Arab mare, and the different Bedouins, excited

quite a sensation as we passed through the village of Salahieh.

The afternoon was lovely, and we skirted along the edge of the luxuriant orchard and gardens, and admired the light, elegant minarets and domes rising above the dense waving line of green foliage.

No horses can be got at Damascus, even for a day's journey into the desert, without a deposit of the full value of the animal, from the great risk that is run of their being seized by the Bedouins; and the only way of making the journey is under their protection, and with their own horses.

It was wonderful to see the agility of the Arabs, in leaping onto the dromedaries; they merely placed the ball of the foot upon the projecting bone of the dromedary's hind leg, and leaped on to his back as he was walking. They sat with their legs doubled under them, as they would upon a divan; two or three leaping on to the same dromedary, one behind the other.

After passing through a grove of very fine olive trees, and crossing a fine stream of water, we arrived for the night at a small village on the outskirts of the cultivated land that surrounds Damascus, having made a short journey of

three hours only, and were immediately taken to a friend of our Sheikh's living in the village, in whose house we were allotted mattresses; but being located in a dark, confined room, with no windows to it, we passed rather an uncomfortable night.

Oct. 25th. We departed at sunrise.

After leaving the environs of the village, we no longer feasted our eyes on a verdant green, and a riant cultivation, but a flat arid plain covered with clumps of withered grass extended around us, bounded on the left by a line of mountains.

We were leaving the Ghouta or Merdj or Meadow, as it is called, of Damascus. Above the level flat in front, rose several blue mountain peaks, and beyond lay extended the continuous blue outline of the desert of El Hammad. Further on the right, was the waving ridge of the Djebel Haouran; and from the plain rose numerous spiral columns of smoke from different Bedouin encampments, driven in from the interior of the desert by the aridity and drought of summer, being then always obliged to encamp near pools and wells, to procure water for their large flocks and herds, who pasture for several hours round the encampment under the care of shepherds. In