duce can be had,-stuffs, velvets, Cashmere shawls, Damascus silks, and every description of fresh and preserved fruits. Then the bustle of the caravans arriving from all parts of the east, the turbans, the noble families, the wealth of the place, the caravanseras, and especially that of Assaad Pasha. . ."— Voice from Lebanon.

The bazaars are among the greatest curiosities of Damascus. "They are generally covered or uncovered arcades, with a row of shops on each side, separated from one another by wooden partitions, open in front, and capable of being closed with wooden panniers. There is a separate bazaar for almost every commodity exposed for sale,-for all kinds of eatables and drinkables, chewables, blastables, and smellables; for all sorts of apparel; and for personal, domestic, professional, civil, and military instruments, and implements of convenience, amusement, offence, defence, and destruction; for accoutrements for asses, horses, and camels; and for fittings and furniture for doors, windows, and apartments of houses, khans, and cafés. Their possessors sit more than stand in their shops, making a long stretch of hand to help their customers. These bazaars are patrolled by multitudes of confectioners, and dealers in ice and cooled sherbet.

"The costume of the men on the streets is rich and varied. Great numbers of pleasure-hunters are at all times found lounging in the cafés, drawing their pipes and hubble-bubbles, sipping coffee, swallowing sherbet, sucking sweetmeats, bolting fruits, and, above all, talking scandal. Some of these cafés are in the most frequented streets; and some of them, tolerably good imitations of rustic bowers, are in the gardens, where abundance of shade and verdure, and artificial waterfalls, and playing fountains, conspire to enhance the luxuries which they afford. Some of them are connected with the baths of the town."-Lands of the Bible.

"On entering the church at Damascus, I could not help reflecting, that the many hundred years of persecution

had not been able to extirpate the followers of the cross. The Christians have endured all kind of persecution, rather than give up their holy religion, for God has sustained them. I was much struck with the devotion of some of the Christians; and with double interest I here read the history of St. Paul, and beheld the descendants of those very Christians who had been converted to the faith by that Apostle. I was shown the spot where our Lord appeared to St. Paul, and its geographical position confirms the fact, as it is near the Jerusalem gate. The street called 'Straight' is peculiar, being two miles in length. (It is the most important and capacious street in Damascus, running from east to west, and at present one of the busiest scenes of Eastern commerce within the city.)

"Damascus has a population of 110,000 souls: of these, about five thousand are Christians, five thousand Jews, and the remainder Mohammedans. It is divided into different quarters, and each has its name.

“The chief manufactures of Damascus, which are held in great esteem, are silks, leather, soap, biscuits, and steel. The city and environs abound in delicious grapes, and certainly in all my travels I never tasted anything like the grapes of Dariah, a village near Damascus.

"This book is too small to admit of my mentioning all the varieties of fruits which abound there; but I must name apricots and peaches, apples and pears, plums and cherries, all sorts of beautiful flowers, such as the Damascus rose, jessamine, &c.; and the finest vegetables. Many of the Mohammedan nobles, called Sadats and Beys, reside at Damascus. These nobles possess the land, live in great state, and spend their money freely. Their houses are beautiful outside; and nothing can exceed the splendour within, and the richness of the furniture. The guests are often seated on silk-velvet cushions, and divans of gold stuff, and Persian and Turkey carpets. They are regaled with Mocha coffee and perfumes, musk and amber, and they burn fragrant

wood in their long pipes and narqulees, a kind of hooka.-Voice from Lebanon.

"Damascus is the principal rendezvous of the Bedawin of the Syrian desert, to which they resort for the supply of many of their wants, and for entering into engagements for the conveyance of merchandise and the conducting of pilgrims to Medina and Mecca, the holy cities of the Muslims. It is much to be desired, on this account, that it were indeed a centre from which the light of Divine truth might radiate far and near among the long-benighted children of the wilderness."-Lands of the Bible.

"ARE not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them and be clean ?"-2 Kings v. 12.

"We kept winding along the banks of the Barada, sometimes on one side and sometimes on the other, amidst interesting scenery, as the ravine through which the river flows is shaded by poplar, mulberry, and other trees, and the outline of the hills on each side of it is very picturesque. Wherever cultivation is practicable, in any little valley or gentle slope, it is sure to be exhibited. We passed several villages inhabited by Musalmáns. Near Fíjah, a stream comes down from the left hand, and joins the Barada, which, I much regret, our arrangements did not permit us to trace to its source, as many are of opinion, I believe warrantably so, that it is the Abana of Scripture. The river of Damascus,' says an old writer, rises under a Christian church ... It then runs through a vale, from which issue many fountains. It then unites with the river which is called Barada, and, joined with it, forms one river.'

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"A friend from India has kindly favoured me with her memoranda of the Fíjah, which she visited in the summer of 1846. Our encampment,' she writes, ‘at the village of Fíjah was pleasantly situated in a grove of walnut-trees, on a bank slightly rising above the Barada, which rushed past in a most rapid stream. The Fíjah river had its junction with the Barada a few hundred yards above our encampment. They are distinguished by the white and black rivers-which is clearly marked in their waters, the Barada being of a whitish hue, said to be sulphureous. The Fíjah gushes from the foundations of what has evidently been a temple. My eldest boy bathed in it, entering the water from this spot, but found the stream so rapid that he could not attempt to swim. The ruins struck us as a temple which might have been in its splendour in the days of Palmyra and Baalbec. It is quite a spot to strike the imagination, and where a heathen would delight to honour his gods. The river is probably the shortest in the world, since it only runs in a rapid stream a few hundred yards, when

it is lost in the Barada. Its water is delicious, like iced water in the hottest day.'"-WILSON's Lands of the Bible.

Richardson describes the same river thus. "It issues from the limestone rock on the left hand side of the road, a deep, rapid stream, of about thirty feet wide; it is pure and cold as iced water, and after coursing down a strong and rugged channel for about a hundred yards, falls into the Barada, where it loses both its name and its beauty."

"After crossing the Barada upon a bridge with a Saracenic arch, and going through a narrow and most romantic pass, with precipitous rocks on each side of us, marked by cuttings and excavations, we entered the Wadi Barada, properly so called. A little previous to this, we had come to a fine cascade, the waters of which were dashing over the rocks with great fury, and raising the vapour and spray like smoke. This spot Russeger

makes 3,346 feet above the level of the sea, so that the Barada has to fall a thousand feet from this before it gets to the level of Damascus. This may give one an idea of the velocity with which it must proceed. Lord Lindsay says, 'At five hours and three quarters from Damascus, we entered a wild mountain pass, through which the Barada comes foaming down like a maniac.' The Barada is generally admitted to be the Pharpar of Scripture."-WILSON's Lands of the Bible.

"After about an hour's ride (from Damascus) we reached the ancient Pharpar, now called Barada. It flows rapidly over a bed of rock. We followed its course a long time, amidst plantations of figs, pomegranates, vines, and olives. Numerous little streams gushed from the rocks, and ran at our feet, eager to reach the channel of the river. About middle day we entered a wild mountain pass, the Barada foaming down from its side with raging fury. From this romantic scenery we emerged into the upper valley, as it is called, where this celebrated river seems to have lost all its impetuosity,