The road through the gardens is very pleasant; it runs beneath majestic chestnut trees, poplars, plantains, and sycamores, on both sides bordering the gardens, and forming a dense forest of beautiful fruit trees. Here and there some richly painted kiosks, country houses or mosques with soaring minarets, peep out from among the thickets. We passed the Burrada several times on stone bridges, and after an hour's ride we suddenly lighted upon a low mud-wall with a low entrance, crossing the road. This was the gate of Damascus ! Turkish sentinels of regular infantry were on guard. As they took no notice of us, our long cavalcade proceeded slowly along the principal street to the great bazar. undiminished, though they dared not manifest their feelings except in sullen looks and stifled words. A terrible instance of this was the deplorable persecutions against the unhappy Jews in 1838. But the subsequent defeat and expulsion of the Egyptian army in 1840, by the united British and Austrian troops, the establishment of different European consulates, and the continual visits of numerous parties of travellers from Europe and America, soon produced the same effect here in Damascus as in other parts of the Levant, and the Christians may now visit every part of the city and its environs with perfect safety Even English ladies now walk or ride through the bazars as freely as if they were in Europe, and our party met with the same good will and attention here as in Jerusalem or Beirut. Travellers were formerly obliged to demand hospitality i the Franciscan convent, which is small, dark, and uncomfortable. But lately a hotel in European style had been estab lished, which was recommended to us is Beirut. Mustapha, therefore, led on ou caravan to a mud-walled house, situated in a narrow lane near the eastern gate The exterior looked bad enough, but bo great was our astonishment, on entering through a narrow passage, to find our selves all at once, as with the stroke of a enchanter's wand, transported to an Ories Damascus is now a more agreeable residence to European travellers than formerly. During the time before the Egyptian conquest, its fanatic inhabitants would not permit Christians to enter the city on horseback. The Frank travellers were insulted by the insolent military or tumultuous mob, torn down from their horses, beat and wounded, while their European dress everywhere exposed them to the derision and taunts of the Muslims.* Such insolence was even offered to M. de Lamartine and other travellers on their visit to Damascus, so late as 1832. It was principally during the passage and return of the great caravan of the Mecca pilgrims, that Christians and Jews would suffer ill-tal palace, more romantic and beautfa treatment by the fanatic hadjies; but the severe government of Ibrahim-Pasha soon put a stop to all these disorders. When the Damascene Muslims complained to Ibrahim-Pasha, that the Giaurs, or Christian Infidels, dared to mount on horseback in the sacred city, a right conceded only to orthodox Mohammedans, the Egyptian commander scornfully replied: "If you consider it a privilege for the Muslims to sit higher and bestride taller animals than the Christians, well, then, you may mount the camels and leave the horses to the Christians!" He even gave the command of the unruly city to a Christian general, the prudent and brave Bakary-Beï, who with vigor and justice kept up the most perfect order in Damascus. Yet the bigotry and intolerance of the people remained than my fancy ever had realized befor In the afternoon we all assembled a *The Arabs have the proverb, "Shami, shoumi," and splendidly decorated apartment is 1. e. The man of Damascus is wicked. house. Ceilings and walls were laid out | the muezzins from all the minarets are in mirrors, above, below, and all around, calling the faithful to prayer, we mounted with gildings and marbles. Rich ottomans our horses and took a ride through the and cushions covered the estrades, or ele- city. It is indeed totally different from vated stages running along the walls, while any the traveller has seen in the Levant. in the middle of the marble floor stood a According to all I had heard and read beautiful fountain, forming a jet d'eau, about Damascus, I expected to find the whose waters, murmuring softly day and outside of the houses extremely mean and night, gave a delicious coolness to the at- shabby, the streets dirty, narrow, and even mosphere. By a flight of stairs we as- dangerous to pass on account of the numcended to the glittering eka'a, or dining- ber of wild dogs, barking and snapping at room, where an elegant dinner was served. the European travellers. But in all this Our attentive host had embellished the I found a great exaggeration. The houses table not only with a variety of flowers of Damascus are indeed low and flat-roofed; and fragrant shrubs, but with a most cu- they are overcast with a light yellow clay, rious exhibition of those fanciful composi- which has a certain gloss resembling stucco, tions of confectionery, for which Damascus and can in no wise be compared with the enjoys so great a reputation throughout ornamented stone buildings of Italy, or the the Orient. elegant red brick houses of England and America. But they look less sombre and tarnished than the huge and gloomy stonebuilt structures of Jerusalem and Beirut, with their dark vaults and latticed terraces. The windows towards the streets are few, narrow, and closed with Turkish blinds, having small wooden balconies with flower pots. It is the interior of the houses in Damascus, with their courts, fountains, open corridors, rose-bowers, and orange trees, which unite good taste, splendor and comfort. From the Pasha and Bey of the highest standing down to the shopkeeper and mechanic, all their habitations are constructed after the same manner. This true old Saracenic style of architecture is still used in Southern Spain, and the interiors of the houses in Seville are said to resemble those of Damascus. The streets there are generally irregular, as in all Oriental countries, but well shaded, and wider than those of Cairo or Smyrna. They conveniently admit two foot passengers to move with safety on each side of a loaded camel. In others two or even more camels may go abreast. I have given these particulars, in order to testify to the accuracy of other travellers, who, like ourselves, have felt delighted with the beautiful mansion and attentive politeness of Signor Persiani, and after the fatigue of their rides through the mountains of Syria, have acknowledged their satisfaction at the sudden transition from the discomforts and dangers of their encampments in the desert to this pleasant residence at Damascus, combining all the comforts of a European hotel, with the picturesque beauty and romance of an Oriental palace. I must therefore wonder and smile at the morbid fastidiousness of the well-known English authoress, Miss Harriet Martineau, who appears to have carried her skeptical censoriousness from the United States along with her to the fairy lands of the East. "The Italian hotel," says she, "has been vaunted by some visitors to Damascus, and it was ludicrous to read on the spot the descriptions with which English readers have been supplied of the courtyard and apartments of this hotel. As or the apartments, that which was given o us was so perilously damp and infested vith beetles, that we refused to stop there , second night; and five snails were found n their slime under my bed!" What a orror! Poor Miss Harriet, even after thy scapade in the wilderness, to be tormented with whizzing beetles and slimy snails in he paradise of Damascus ! At the delightful hour of sunset, when Several of the larger streets of Damascus are exceedingly picturesque, and present to the painter an inexhaustible source of beautiful and striking specimens of architecture, as well as of groups and costumes. In Damascus we see the Eastern world in its full purity, variety and beauty, without any unpleasant mixture of the insipid and colorless every-day life of Eu rope. In the Tarick-el-Mustakim, or Straigh street, a continuation of the great bazar, | Moawiah, the Ommiade, made Damascus the capital of the Arabic empire in the year 661. The following rulers of that dynasty, and their successors, the Abbasides, down to Elmansor in the ninth century, who removed his residence to Bagdad on the banks of the Tigris, continued to embellish Damascus with monuments which, though all in ruins, still to this day show the exquisite taste and excellent workmanship of the Saracens. and terminating at the eastern gate-the Bab-Sherkeh-is a never-ceasing movement of caravans, arriving or departing. At the fine fountain on the bazar, gushing forth from a marble font, St. Paul according to tradition, was baptized by Ananias, and the Arabs believe that the latter lies buried beneath the pavement. Nearer towards Bab-Sherkeh, we visited the house of Judas, the residence of St. Paul during his sojourn in Damascus.* It is a subterranean chamber with an altar at the upper end, where mass is performed by the Catholics. This dark and damp abode, with its iron-grated door, resembles more a prison than an apartment of a private dwelling-house. Outside the old gate Bab-Sherkeh the immense burial grounds extend southward to the Bab-Giazur, the gate of St. Paul, now walled up, where the apostle is said to have been let down in a basket, during the night. The ancient city walls on this side are in good preservation, and defended by round towers of considerable strength. During the siege of the Crusaders in 1148, the kings of France and Germany here in vain attempted to storm the city. Near the gate I remarked, on a square tower, an armorial ensign with two lions, some fleurs-de-lis and palm branches, and an Arabic inscription on a marble slab; no doubt some relic from the middle ages. Yet far more interesting is the broad Harat-el-Derwishich or Street of the Derwishes, a well-paved avenue, running for nearly three miles north and south, through the full length of the city towards the Hauran. I consider it, without comparison, the finest street in the Levant. It begins south of the great Bazar. An immense Saracenic vault, highly ornamented and occupied by stores, where horse-trappings, saddles, and lances are sold, opens upon the ancient mosque es-Zabumeh, built by Sultan Daher. This splendid building, with its two large cupolas and fanciful minaret, stands at the beginning of the Harat, which on both sides is lined with highly picturesque chapels, palaces, and mosques, of the times of the Khalifs. "Arise and go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one alled Saul of Tarsus."-Acts ix. 11. The traveller must not expect to find uniformity of style and character in the appearance of the Eastern cities. In Damascus, stores, work-shops, or coffeehouses often stand in the same front with the most gorgeous palaces of the Ommiades. But this variety, instead of lessening the effect of the whole, seemed to me rather to heighten it, because it everywhere exhibits so many pleasant pictures of the occupations and manners of the people. On the Harat, all the work-shops are open. and the manufacturers of cotton, silk, and leather carry on their work in the open air on each side of the street. The construction of the mosques at Damascus differs essentially from those of the Ottoman Turks at Brusa and Constantinople. Their walls are formed of red, white, and blue or black marble. The minarets in Constantinople stand separately from the Dshami; they are very slender, of a white color, and shoot towards the sky in the form of lances; while here in Syria they are square or octagon towers, enamelled with richly-colored tiles, united to the main body of the mosque, and ascending in twe stories with large battlemented galleries. from which the muezzins, five times a day. announce the hour of prayer. The gallenes have projecting roofs, and the top of the minaret is formed by a small oval cupek... Nearly all the minarets and cupolas of the mosques and chapels are laid out with blue, green, red, or yellow tiles of porcelin which glitter in the sun and have the most beautiful effect. The high vaulted Sarscenic gates, the fanciful battlements, the slender columns, pointed arches, and orixi windows are the prototypes of that interesting architecture which the Greeks, and, at a later period, the pilgrims and Crusaders brought with them to Europe, and the imitation of which we call Byzantine and Gothic. The monuments in Damascus are all over covered with arabesque sculptures, concave niches radiated at the top, tasteful carvings, rich filigree work, and numerous inscriptions from the Koran, generally in gold on an azure ground. A characteristic feature of this architecture is the ogive or pointed arch, which was supposed to have been an invention of the Arabs. But it has lately been ascertained that the genuine ogive had existed several centuries before Mohammed, and is found in different parts of Persia, among ruins of the times of the dynasty of the Sassanidæ, (A. D. 226-651.) is surrounded by arcades, and has a large tank in the middle shaded by funereal cypresses. The entrance being shut by a chain, we could not visit the interior. The monument of his still more distinguished successor Saladin or Sala-heddin, the Eiubide, the noble-minded and chivalrous antagonist of Richard Coeur-de-Lion, forms a large irregular building of white and black marble, with several cupolas and high windows covered with inscriptions. It is one of the most prominent objects on the Derwish street. But though it is still devoutly visited by the Muslim pilgrims, The finest and best preserved mosques it is rapidly falling to ruins. I entered a are Dshami-Esmanieh, Sultan-Teneb, with coffee-house opposite the sepulchre of Satri-colored marbles and an azure porcelain ladin, where I met some well-dressed old roof, and the still more splendid Nebbi- Arab gentlemen, whose large green turChatun, which, with its immense marble bans indicated that they belonged to the cupola and its grove of magnificent cy-order of the imams or priests. I then orpresses and plane trees, forms a noble picture. But unhappily nearly all these proud monuments of the devout and brave Khalifs, who, with the Koran and the scimitar, extended the Saracen sway from the Indus to the Atlantic, are now fast verging to decay, as indeed are the religions and nations of the East. The sanctuaries and the tombs of the companions and disciples of Mohammed, Abu-Obeida and KhaledSefallah, the conquerors of Damascus, and of many other holy sheiks and mystical philosophers, are now lying in ruins-ruins perhaps as old as the bloody sway of Timour-Khan the Mongol, who in the year 1401 burnt and destroyed the greatest part of the city, and piled his horrible pyramids with the heads of its slain in habitants. Two historical monuments in Damascus particularly excited my curiosity-the ombs or tyrbés of Nurredin and Saladin. The first was the great Athabek (chief) of Halep, whose praise filled the East, and still e-echoes in the chronicles of the crusades. He was considered the beau ideal of Orintal princes, whose austere virtues served s a model to the Mohammedan rulers. laving united all the countries between he Tigris and the Euphrates into one owerful kingdom, he conquered Damasus in 1154. From his new capital he ontinually attacked the Christians in Palstine, and after his death in 1174, he was uried in an extensive sepulchre on the reat bazar. The court of his sanctuary dered my dragoman to ask them some questions about Saladin. They politely invited me to sit down near them, and offered me a pipe and coffee, but answered that they knew nothing about the great sultan, and that we Franks were better acquainted with those old stories than themselves. The street of the Derwishes is seen to the best advantage in the morning, when crowds of Bedouins on their spirited steeds, leading their strings of camels, are pouring in from the Hauran. There is then a regular market held all along the street, where the endless variety of costumes, Turks, Egyptians, Persians, Bedouins, Armenians, Druzes, Maronites, Jews, and Christians mingling together, is brought in the most charming relief against the Saracenic monuments, the dark cypresses, the pale olive groves, and the dazzling snows of the majestic Mount Hermon overlooking and completing the admirable picture. The Harat-el-Derwishieh terminates on the south by a low gate in the city wall, Bab-el-Allah or the Gate of God, so called from its leading to Jerusalem and Mecca, the holy places for Christian and Muslim pilgrimages. Outside the gate is a large open space, where the Arabs perform their equestrian exercises. The caravan road then continues through the orchards, gardens, and extensive olive groves for twelve miles, to the village of Kokab, where tradition has placed the vision of the apostle Paul. On our return to the hotel late in the evening, we found the court-yard and | apartments illuminated by numerous lamps, and two gentlemen in the Arab costume taking their supper in the divan; yet though their dress was Oriental, their physiognomy betrayed the Anglo-Saxon descent, and I soon recognized in the fierce Mamelukes, the peaceable and intelligent Messrs. Morrill from Baltimore, and John Spencer from London, who had arrived directly from Jerusalem. Among the celebrated luxuries of Damascus, are the public baths and the coffeehouses on the banks of the river. Early next morning, accompanied by Mustapha, I went to one of the most fashionable baths, Hamam-Hussein, which, compared with those of Constantinople and Smyrna, is very splendid with its polished marbles, its spouting fountains, and its beautiful cupola with colored glasses throwing a fantastical light on the dim figures flitting through the vapors. On my return I found our party at breakfast. We then walked through the bazars, and took a look at the famous mosque of the Ommiades. From the immense vaulted bazar built by Murad-Pasha, we approached the eastern gate, from which we had a full view to the magnificent interior hall of the mosque. It was the ancient cathedral of St. John the Baptist, whose head is supposed to have been buried beneath the high altar. On the surrender of the city in 636 to Abu-Obeida, it was divided between the | Christians and Muslims, who thus, for nearly a century, entered by the same gate into the same sanctuary, to worship the Supreme Being with different rites. But in 715, Abdul-Melek broke the capitulation, expelled the Christians from the church, and gave them that of St. Thomas, situated outside the gates of the city. This Khalif transformed the church of St. John into the greatest miracle of Saracenic architecture, which in beauty and magnificence surpassed the Ka'aba in Mecca, the es-Sukhra in Jerusalem, and the wonderful mosque of Cordova in Spain. The Arab historians and poets celebrate the splendor of its immense columns, the number of its cupolas and soaring minarets, the elegance of its altars, chapels, inscriptions, and gilt and painted ornaments. Five millions of ducats were expended in its construction, d the daily expenses to the imams, sex | tons, the Koran readers, and professors of the numerous academies attached to the mosque, were five hundred ducats, but having suffered dreadfully during the wars of the middle ages, and the burning of Damascus by Timour-Khan in 1401, it has lost the greatest part of its treasures, and been but indifferently restored. The principal body of the mosque forms a square occupying the aisles and the centre of the Christian church, beneath the great cupola. The three aisles are divided by two rows of elegant Corinthian columns, evidently of Roman workmanship. No Chris tian is permitted to cross the threshold, but seen from the gate it appeared to me as if the lower part of the nave and the wings of the ancient cross have been built up by high walls, and are perhaps now used as chapels. Numberless glittering lamps in all direc tions, crossing from one column to another and hanging down from the cupolas, must certainly present a striking picture during the illuminations of the Rhamazan. Fre the gate Bab-el-Burid, a passage lead: across the temple to a smaller gate on the west, opening on a spacious court sur rounded by a fine colonnade with pointes arches, the residence of the sixteen imans and fifteen muezzins employed in the da service of the mosque. The court is pave with white and black marble slabs, and be several elegant fountains (tchesmes) for uablutions of the faithful. In the great bazar, not far from th mosque, stands the modern caravanserai Hassad-Pasha, one of the noblest sper mens of Saracenic architecture; wh proves that the Arabs, possessing are tects capable of building such a monume cannot be considered as unworthy of ther great forefathers or indifferent to the arts. This khan or hotel for the mercasm of the East was built by the beneråt. governor of Damascus, Hassad-Pasha, wards the close of the last century. highly ornamented gate leads from the be zar into a large rotunda which exits af immense cupola, whose boldly-constra vault is supported by eight pillars pointed arches. Columns, are hes, walls are composed of white and ta marble in regular layers, which contras to the exceedingly picturesque effect whole. Flights of stairs lead to the |