a tesselated pavement of marble leads to the doors of the chambers on each
side. Beyond this is a raised floor covered with matting, and along the
farther end a divan, whose piled cushions are the most tempting trap ever
set to catch a lazy man. Although not naturally indolent, I find it
impossible to resist the fascination of this lounge. Leaning back,
cross-legged, against the cushions, with the inseparable pipe in one's
hand, the view of the court, the water-basin, the flowers and lemon trees,
the servants and dragomen going back and forth, or smoking their
narghilehs in the shade--all framed in the beautiful arched entrance, is
so perfectly Oriental, so true a tableau from the times of good old Haroun
Al-Raschid, that one is surprised to find how many hours have slipped away
while he has been silently enjoying it.

Opposite the _liwan_ is a large room paved with marble, with a handsome
fountain in the centre. It is the finest in the hotel, and now occupied
by Lord Dalkeith and his friends. Our own room is on the upper floor, and
is so rich in decorations that I have not yet finished the study of them.
Along the side, looking down on the court, we have a mosaic floor of
white, red, black and yellow marble. Above this is raised a second floor,
carpeted and furnished in European style. The walls, for a height of ten
feet, are covered with wooden panelling, painted with arabesque devices in
the gayest colors, and along the top there is a series of Arabic
inscriptions in gold. There are a number of niches or open closets in the
walls, whose arched tops are adorned with pendent wooden ornaments,
resembling stalactites, and at the corners of the room the heavy gilded
and painted cornice drops into similar grotesque incrustations. A space of
bare white wall intervenes between this cornice and the ceiling, which is
formed of slim poplar logs, laid side by side, and so covered with paint
and with scales and stripes and network devices in gold and silver, that
one would take them to be clothed with the skins of the magic serpents